School Board Meeting: June 18, 2024

001[Music] good evening I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News school board for Tuesday June 18th 2024 on behalf of the members of the school board and Dr Mitchell I welcome each of you present this evening and those who are watching on TV and online a quorum is present to transact the business of the school division we will begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and pledge to the flag here to do the honors is Nina fish our director of Human Resources I am honored to share the invocation and lead the Pledge of Allegiance for the invocation I am reading a poem titled believe in yourself believe in yourself in all you want to be do not let what other people say or do make you frown laugh as much as

002possible possible let in the good times and get through the bad the longer you practice the habit of working toward your dreams the easier the journey will become you were meant for great things always follow your dreams please join me in standing for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you I want to make an acknowledgement I think we have one of our councilmen here in the building with us hello John elely don't you wish you were still up here with us we miss you but we're proud of the work that you're doing for the city thank you very much for that okay well Dr Mitchell I think

003uh we have some school board recognitions to go to will you join me at the podium even I have the honor of presenting our recognition this evening and it is an acknowledgement of service for Aaron Lynn the student representative to the school [Applause] board in honor of his of his distinguished service to the school board and Newport News Public Schools he's receiving a resolution an award and a gift the resolution reads in part Newport News Schoolboard resolution of recognition presented to Aaron Lynn the 2023 2024 student representative to the Newport News school board whereas the Newport News school board approved in 2004 the creation of the position of student representative to the school board to increase board awareness of The View of students and to provide a peer with whom students could share ideas for

004improving education and whereas Aaron Lim a senior at Woodside High School was elected according to the approved procedures by the members of the student Advisory Group on education whereas Mr Lynn served in this capacity from July 2023 through June 2024 Faithfully attending meetings of the school board and whereas Mr Lynn served as facilit Ator to the superintendent's High School Advisory Group on education meetings and whereas Mr Lynn sought student ideas on educational issues and pursued information and experiences that would assist his efforts to provide valuable insights during the discussion of Schoolboard meeting agenda items and whereas Mr Lynn diligently fulfilled all the duties of the position of student representative while also continuing to excel in his advanced coursework and being named as a Gates scholar serving as the co-founder of student say a club dedicated

005to developing Future Leaders a member of the math and music honor societies the archery club and the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra and volunteering for several Community organizations now therefore be it resolved by the Newport News school board that Aaron Lynn is to be highly commended for exemplary service dedication and commitment during his te tenure as a student representative to the school board and it says in witness thereof we are here to set our hands and it is signed on the 18th day of June 2024 by each member of the school board and the superintendent congratulations and thank you for your service [Applause] and joining him tonight is his principal Dr Mary Hardesty from Woodside thank you for joining us and the family and Friends watching and I did want to mention too that Mr Lynn has

006been accepted to Yale University in the fall [Applause] and and he plans to study economics and statistics he's interested he says in financial analysis and how nonprofit organizations in communities help underresourced students so again thank you one more time for your service to Newport News Public School [Applause] all right our agenda will continue some Personnel appointments to do and so do we have a motion for those uh appointments yes Madam chair I move to approve the superintendent's Personnel recommendations for Dr Kelly Mason secondary leadership administrator coach Tara har Tera Tara chomas Harris Elementary leadership coach and Tiffany Thompson principal Bor High School great do I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion please call the role for four four four four four four for great thank you Dr Mitchell thank you very

007much it um gives me great pleasure to introduce our new appointees I would like to introduce Miss Tara Charmers Harris and if she is in the room she's all the way in the back um as an elementary leadership administrator coach Miss Charmers Harris has a post-graduate degree in educational Administration from Old Dominion University she currently works as the prin principal of an achievable dream Academy she has worked as an assistant principal as well as an instructional coach both here in Newport News Public Schools congratulations Miss charers Harris Miss tral Harris do you have anyone with you here tonight and if you would like to introduce your husband congratulations next I would like to introduce Dr Kelly Mason as the secondary leadership administrator coach uh Dr Mason has a PHD in educational leadership from Old Dominion

008University she currently works as the principal of War high school she has worked as a principal uh High School assistant principal an instructional specialist High School teacher Middle School teacher Allin Virginia Beach congratulations Dr Mas Dr Mason do you have someone with you tonight that you would like to introduce I have my husband Dr Richard Mason and most of you on the board already know who he is yes we were actually GNA say welcome to the boardroom here Dr Mason he is the chair of the Hampton City School [Applause] Board and next I would like to introduce Miss Tiffany Thompson as the new principal of Warwick High [Applause] School Miss Thompson has her master of education leadership from Regent University she currently works as an assistant principal of instruction at Heritage High School she has

009also worked as an assistant principal at Denby High School a spark summer school administrator a science Lead Teacher at Woodside High School and a science teacher in Charlottesville congratulations Miss Thompson Miss Thompson do you have someone with you tonight that you would like to introduce I do I have my son with me Aaron Michael I have my uncle my parents are watching via live stream in Kentucky okay and then I have my extended family Jimmy and T and Mary so thank you congratulations [Applause] thank you madam chair absolutely let us be the first to welcome you we're glad to have you and our Newport News Public Schools family we are going to take a short break for the school board Spotlight and it also gives those um who are here visiting and getting uh their

010uh recognitions for personnel appointments get their celebration started a little early so thank you all we'll take a moment of [Music] break for the first year ever Newport News public schools provided football for middle school student athletes after a month of practices through March boys and girls from all eight middle schools competed against one another during Saturday games held at various High School Fields across the city the teams looked sharp in their brand new uniforms as coaches work diligently on building fundamental skills knowledge and techniques for the many athletes taking their first strides into organized football Middle School football took place in the spring instead of the traditional fall season so it wouldn't interfere with the high school football schedule after a six- week regular season the four top teams from the northern and southern

011divisions competed in two semifinal games held at Todd Stadium the winning teams that advanced to the city championship game were the ell Fitzgerald Jazz against the Huntington Vikings at halftime the Vikings were up 8 to6 as the teams prepared preped for a rain soaked second half the Jazz controlled the ball for most of the second half scoring the go-ahead touchdown until the Vikings made a spectacular passing touchdown to take the lead back quarterback zier white EPS connected with wide out rodick Perry for a 60yd touchdown Huntington's defense held strong keeping the Jazz out of the end zone to secure a 16 to2 victory for the mighty Vikings who will will forever be the first nnps Middle School football champions head coach Ray Malone and his coaching staff encouraged the young student athletes to believe in

012themselves give it their all and number one rule just have fun Viking are you ready what Huntington started together three months ago with their first practice they finished in style earning the mighty Vikings the Citywide trophy while our classroom teachers are at the Forefront of educating our students daily they're is an army of talented and caring professionals who support the learning process with their unique skills and dedication at the Newport News Marriot at City Center deserving employees were recognized for their service at the exemplary support staff of the Year awards banquet representing every nnps school and seven admin administrative departments 49 employees were recognized by school leaders the school board and elected officials for their efforts in keeping our schools operating smoothly creating safe learning environments and assisting teachers and students with classroom learning while

013many of these jobs happened behind the scenes this evening was an opportunity to recognize their unwavering support those being honored included instructional assistance security officers administrative secretaries custodians Technology support Specialists and a range of other positions that are crucial to ensuring that over 25,000 students receive the attention and Care needed so that all students graduate college career and citizen ready many times in science and in life mistakes and failures lead to amazing breakthroughs and discoveries that's why Menchville High School's lead science teacher Ashley chassard empowers her students to learn from their mistakes problem solve and embrace the scientific Quest For answers this school year minville students enrolled in honors molecular cell biology spent the first semester learning about biochemistry various lab techniques and the inquiry nature of the scientific process after harnessing these college level

014Concepts the students moved on to honors research and applications in cellular processes which focuses on Research design applied math and statistics and a culminating student-led research project in groups students were free to pick their own topic for their research project as long as the answers weren't readily available through a quick online search engine meaning these students had 12 weeks to form a question about molecular cells that hadn't been answered before research their topic with related literature create their own procedures to gather results and then present their findings formally the four student groups decided to use zebra fish to conduct four different studies including the implications of steroids on the health of the heart the effect of alcohol on the neurological development of embryos how motor functions are affected by common substances consumed by teenagers including

015nicotine red Die 3 and caffeine and if certain antihistamines could improve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease zebra fish are widely used for biomedical research and neurological observations since they share genetic similarities with humans also their embryos and larv are transparent allowing direct observation of brain development and they grow quickly enabling efficient and timely studies with their topic chosen the teams had to design plan budget and then run their experiments 2 to 3 days after the zebra fish embryos were fertilized the student scientists introduced foreign substances such as ethanol caffeine growth hormones and neurotoxins to create drug induced symptoms of Parkinson's disease with no lab sheet or discussion questions to guide their exploration students relied on trial and error learn from mistakes and miscalculations and dealt with time and budget constraints chard gave the students complete

016ownership of their projects as they experienced the highs and lows of lab work but these dedicated focused and driven students were undur in their quest to complete the challenge placed before them even when high amounts of caffeine killed the zebra fish or the timing of the administered substances had to be recalculated these students Rose to the occasion 5 days after the zebra fish hatched the teams recorded observations collected data and began analyzing their findings they carefully transported each larvae into multiwell plates to examine them individually using a dissecting microscope the teams recorded data that was particular to their topic such as heart rate deformities and speed of movement the final hurdle was writing a research paper and presenting their conclusion students to an audience of school leaders science Educators and family members allowing the skills

017learned in these courses to move Beyond The Sciences as students learn the value of communication collaboration and public speaking unfortunately lab research of this type is not cheap since these courses began in 2017 primary funding has come through grants and donations this year nnps superintendent Dr Michelle Mitchell helped secure the additional funding to offer students a rich and beneficial learning experience through this intensive lab based research project these Menchville students gained far more than content knowledge instead they acquired real world science skills and a higher level of critical thinking to prepare them for immediate success in college and a variety of careers in STEM related fields every week Newport News Public Schools Educators and staff are invited to participate in Afterschool activities to build physical and mental Wellness as part of the schoolwide nnps wellness

018program every school encourages employees and their families to move eat think and be well to make this happen Wellness leads are selected at each school to motivate and engage staff through coordinated events and to share helpful information about healthy living for all their efforts and extra work after hours these Wellness leads earn a stipend and each school is allotted limited funds to make these activities fun engaging and meaningful for all employees at Gildersleeve Middle School history teacher Kristen Stallard invites the Seahawk staff to create and paint their own pottery this creative Outlet is a wonderful experience for educators to share their hidden artistic talents while bonding as a team professional school counselor Karen steel organized a week-long Biggest Loser challenge at Henwood Elementary staff were welcomed to stay late on certain days to work out

019together and burn some extra calories while motivating one another on their Quest To Get Fit richneck Elementary's student support specialist Sanja Tatum worked with archery coach Lindsay sessions to offer after school archery lessons for their school schol staff this offered a fun and challenging Fitness activity that brought the staff closer together as they worked to hit the bullseye Mitsy image music teacher at Riverside Elementary offers a variety of fun activities with the purpose of offering staff a mental refresher whether it's painting beautiful landscapes or cuddling with therapy dogs the Riverside staff love to end their day relaxing and unwinding and at Warwick high school administrative secretary Rose Baker invites extreme hip hop step on select Mondays to get the Copeland Crew moving stepping and dancing during a high-intensity and fun workout session either through engaging

020physical fitness options or relaxing creative activities Wellness leads across Newport News public schools are encouraging their co-workers to grow physically and mentally as they work daily to educate all students [Music] I hope everyone enjoyed this month's School Board Spotlight during our regular meetings we provide time for the public to address the school board these opportunities are scheduled in the early part of our agenda and towards the end of the meeting and I will make a comment this even evening that the first section of comments to the school board will last just 30 minutes and they are it's it's strictly for Newport News residents everyone who is here who has turned in a card this evening will get the opportunity to speak we just need to take care of school business while we have the attention

021of our of our audience so as advertise 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 the board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments please understand that we will consider your concerns we ask that you comply with our three minute time limit as you begin your comments a green light will come on a yellow light signals you have 30 seconds remaining and a red light and beep indicates your time is up as your name is called please come forward the first one is Reverend Dr traine Johnson I would ask that our pastors join us tonight to everybody else good evening good evening Madam chair and all that are gathered tonight

022um I'm going to also ask that if the principal of Heritage is here um and also the band director if they would join us as well tonight uh we stand together um I want to quote um William Butler Yates says that education is not the filling of a pale but the lighting of a fire and so tonight we come to just put more oil on the fire we've heard of Heritage High School's opportunity to attend uh the parade in Rome Italy and we wanted to make this a possibility for them um after hearing it we've come together with our member churches organizations uh that have helped us to raise the amount of money of our goal to make sure that they get to Rome Italy and so tonight we want to present this check to

023Heritage Heritage High School in the amount of $50,000 [Applause] that's the community coming together that's the [Applause] community so on behalf of the Coalition of concerned clergy and those who' have joined together to make this happen we want to make sure that you receive the amount of money so that you can live the dream that you all have been talking about and you can get there and represent Newport News in a great way [Applause] thank you for supporting our children want to make sure we get this ma thank you thank you guys thank you thank you we appreciate you we appreciate you guys thank you God bless you thank you thanks for helping our kids thank you thank you he want to get one more picture one more one more get your picture get in

024picture picture right there yes I'm going to call uh three cards at once and then that way we can kind of load the queue Reverend Natalie Chamberlain will come first Michelle nordine and then Jonathan Waldren good evening I'm Reverend Natalie Chamberlain my pronouns are she and her and I'm the pastor of Hilton Christian Church as a congregation we strive to be radically welcoming and inclusive our denomination the Christian Church Disciples of Christ strives to be a movement for wholeness in our fragmented world we choose to welcome all as God has welcomed us and I want to begin by letting you know that the flowers are a gift from the Tidewater DSA each one is a beautiful book okay but each one is different and we wanted to let you know that that is the way

025we look at the people of this world each one beautiful and each one different I am here to address the policy concerning trans rights at least part of the issue is in the board's lack of process and will to do what is best for children in your care put in place the mechanism to monitor policies that directly affect at risk students then use that authority to protect trans kids with full human rights equivalent to that of their peers it would be easy to address you tonight on theological terms but the issue before us is not religious or theological this community as represented by this board has a responsibility to care for every student no matter what we might think of any individual's race Creed color gender or gender identity and no matter what your religious

026affiliation may or may not be if you need a judeo-christian foundation for doing the right thing Let It Be Jesus words summing up Jewish laws he was asked of The Commandments which is the most important the most important one answer Jesus is this here o Israel the Lord Our God the mo the Lord is one love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all of your strength the second is this love your neighbor as yourself there is no commandment greater than these there's nothing that supersedes this law not any verse taken out of context not any denominational individual teachings and not individual dislike since Christians beginning in Paul's time have done harm and called it love Paul defines love love is patient

027love is kind love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth it bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things Love Never Ends but as for prophecies they will come to an end as for tongues they will cease as for knowledge it will come to an end for we know only in part we prophesy only in part but when the complete comes the partial will come to an end tonight I hope you will do the right thing and protect the vulnerable students who should be able to depend on you please approve and use the authority in policy CH Michelle nordine good evening chairman law Dr

028Mitchell and school board members um for those who don't know me my name is Michelle nordine and I am the Newport News council pta's president I would like to share some PTA highlights from this school year I am thrilled to inform you that we finish the year with 3,12 3,125 PTA members this is a huge increase from last year where we finished the year with 1750 PTA members based on electronic records thank you that um that go back to 209 to the 2019 2020 school year we set a new record for PTA membership congratulations to all our ptas for working hard to recruit PTA members um seven of our local ptas had um 100% teacher membership with Yates PTA and Gildersleeve PTSA winning the councils put the tea in PTA membership challenge in September Hilton

029PTA Huntington PTSA and War PTSA won the council's called a membership challenge by having the largest percentage of PTA members based on total members of total number of students crit in PTSA met the student voice award CH membership challenge sponsored by V virginny PTA by having student members comprise 30% or more of their total membership by December 31st so congratulations crit in PTSA we started two two brand new ptas this year and restarted 11 PT to give us a grand total of 35 ptas active ptas across the district this year council's hoping to add two more next year um we had 15 reflection entries submitted to council with numerous Visual Arts and literature entries across all grade levels Council submitted eight of these entries to Virginia PTA one entry in literature from Hilton PTA in

030the pre- through second grade division was awarded an honorable mention at the state level Council secretary has challenged our PTA to double our submissions to council for next year for those who are interested next year's reflection theme is accepting imperfection Council awarded one scholarship to a Menchville graduating senior we are hoping to receive more applications next year we had four volunteer of the Year submissions from our local ptas and we forwarded three of them to Virginia PTA Council handed out our handed out Awards to our four volunteers of the year at our May meeting also at our May meeting a full board was elected to the council PTA and I was elected for my second two-year term thank you I would like to conclude this year interiew by thanking everyone who volunteered during the school

031year at a PTA event stepped up to be a PTA board member and everyone who became a PTA member this year we could not accomplish our mission without your financial support and your gift of time thank you for your support and making every child's potential a reality by engaging and Empowering Families and communities to advocate for all children thank you to thank you for all of your dedication to the entire Division and getting the parents and families and teachers and students connected so thank you for that you're welcome I thank you I look forward to working with you guys for another two years and hopefully we can increase our continue to increase our membership indeed thank you Jackie Batterson is next after that will be Adam marrow and Larry Elliott oh after uh this one

032is uh Jackie Batterson and then after that will be Adam marrow and Larry Elliott excuse me W already oh I apologize I apologize Mr Waldren where is he Jonathan Waldren sorry about that that's okay uh good evening my name is Jonathan and I'm here to speak in support of superintendent Dr Mitchell and the new policies revised by the Virginia Department of Education since September of last year until today I've heard some of the most outrageous claims made about these policies and about members of the community that support these policies to name a few we're religious zealots uh we're just one church trying to force God on our kids we promote hate bullying and bigotry basically one major generalization mischaracterization and complete lie after another read the policy and you'll find that it protects the students

033rights to be a student the teacher's right to be a teacher and the parents right to be a parent and that's what this whole argument boils down to at its lowest common denominator we have one group of people who want to ensure the involvement of the parent in the lives of their children and one group which wants to pave the road to have the parents escorted out of the room now mind you when a child is sick we call the parents when a child's grades slip up we call the parents when a child is hurt or bullied we call the parents when a child wants to go on a school trip permission is getting from the parents but when it's time to take the child behind a closed door and help them sort out their

034sexual orientation gender identity and who they are as a person one group thinks we got to keep that Hush Hush just in case the parent has an opinion on the matter the true Spirit behind this whole group's agenda was not more perfectly highlighted than the outrage brought against Schoolboard member Douglas Brown recently for communicating with a local and thriving church that they can make their premises a place of biblical learning for kids during the week without going into strenuous detail LifeWise Academy is a Community Driven opportunity that wait for it parents actually get to opt into if they and their child so desire imagine that they attacked a good man whose heart is to see the children in this community learn grow and Thrive all things that LifeWise supports all things that these policies support

035for all the talk I have heard from this group of love compassion empathy and tolerance I have heard more derogatory comments hateful social media posts mischaracterizations and slander from them of other members of this community and this school board simply because they might have a different Viewpoint perspective or idea on how best to serve the kids in our schools in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi they have become the very thing they swore to destroy I would seriously question the motives of anyone advocating for the separation of a child from their parents influence and I seriously question the motives of those opposing these policies here tonight lastly know this no matter what they bring against you standing with parents' rights is the right choice to make and those that will before you are more than those

036that will stand against [Applause] you now Jackie Batterson thank you my apologies for that not a problem as you know Madame chairman chairwoman members of the school board my name is is Jackie Batterson and I am a resident of Newport News I have spent time studying the mission statement of the school system and in the school systems Journey 2025 strategic plan it states under student and staff Wellness create an environment that promotes social emotional and physical well-being for students and employees I will take that to mean all students I am going to use the words of federal judge Robert Hinkle in his 105 page decision ruling against the State of Florida some transgender opponents invoke religion to support their position just as they once used it to support racist and misogynistic beliefs he States further

037gender identity is real he continues whether based on moral religious or unored hatred you cannot impede a person from conforming to their gender identity you may be free to be opposed to trans issues but you are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender please reject Governor Youngkin's discriminatory policy which Target our trans youth in this school system and follow your own Journey 20 25 guidelines to nourish physical mental and emotional health of all students thank you for your [Applause] time Adam marrow good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board I'd say it's a pleasure to be here today but uh we've been hammering these points for about 9 months now and it's I'm beginning to get a little frustrated with refusal to acknowledge what what is demonstrably the popular position of

038support for transgender students and um one of my fellows made a point that I'd like to address this was this happened to someone I met they came out as gay in their high school and but their parents were um not necessarily supportive shall we say and so they had asked the teachers to keep it quiet they were willing to be public about it in school but not necessarily at home because they did not feel safe someone in the school district disrespected their wishes um I won't go into to too much detail but there were I there were a lot of injuries involved before the student in question was removed from their parents' care and taken into foster care for the brief period of time before they graduated and became 18 and legally independent so frankly

039yes if a student doesn't feel safe if they're feel that they are in danger of being abused then yes it is absolutely the students right that certain information information that is of no bearing to the parent such as who the student is romantically attracted to or their gender identity is kept secret the same way you would keep um if a student was interested in a book or say Harry Potter that the parents approved of you might keep that secret if the student feared they were in danger and furthermore if a student was felt unsafe at home the Virginia state and federal law obliges this the school to protect the student not the parent and lastly um I've mentioned the number of signatures on a petition opposing Youngkin model policies uh as of today last I

040checked a few hours ago it's at 554 signatures including both the mayor and the vice mayor of Newport News thank you Larry Elliott and after that will be Ronda will Williams let's go a little higher evening my name is Larry Elliot um I am now a resident here at newport news I was born and raised here in uh Hampton newport news in this peninsula I was educated in newport news before and after the military service and uh I just want to stress right now that uh I'm here to express my gratitude to the dup new school board for you standing firm and supporting the families in our community and improving the young king model policies these policies are crucial for our safeguarding parents rights and they're actively involved in our children's education which I believe

041should have never been challenged in the first place parental rights are god-given not federal or state but we are here because those who wish to push against this uh god-given right have pretty much pushed too far and I thank you for doing the right thing and we I urge the school district to remain steadfast and upholding these parent friendly policies and uh by implementing these measures you have been vital in restoring the trust again between the school and the families in this community and it would be a setback to see the progress undone and as long as you are protecting every child and keeping a strong academic and safe environment there is still a big remnant of people who have your back and I thank you for your effort and time that you have put

042into the future generation of leaders in this in this community I thank you Ronda Williams Ronda William and then uh Dr Raymond Johnson good evening how are you all good my name is Ronda Williams and I am a resident of Newport News and I'm the mother of two children that attend Newport News Public Schools I'm here tonight to Simply say thank you thank you for all your hard work thank you for what you do thank you for listening to us parents and listening to the community thank you for imp imp menting policies that protect our rights thank you for trusting parents protecting our children and restoring our trust back in the newer News Public School Systems thank you for taking the necessary steps to restore the relationship between parent child and school we the public

043school and parents are connected through our children parental involvement in a child's education is essential and schools need to connect and have a responsibility to connect with the families communication should be regular ongoing and two-way communication and Trust are key factors to any successful relationship it requires what I like to call Hot communication honest open and transparent we communicated and you listened and by supporting these parent friendly policies our trust is being restored so I just want to say thank you to the school board for standing strong for the families in our community and for proven policies that protect parents rights to be involved in their kids' lives at school thank you for communicating that you understand the importance of supporting parent child relationships it is dangerous to put a wall between between kids and

044their parents thank you for eliminating policies that encourage teachers to hide information from parents about their kids especially when it comes to issues relating to gender and sexuality thank you for making it clear that parents must be notified and given notice and given an opportunity to object before counseling regarding gender is giv to their children stay encouraged be strong strong and of good courage and keep these parental friendly policies in place we will continue to pray for you all we pray that God will give you wisdom and guidance to do the job that he has set before you and that you serve the community in a way that is pleasing to him thank you Dr Raymond Johnson and then the last in the set will be Jasmine Thomas great afternoon Madam chairwoman Dr best my

045South representative School Board member if I may allow the other clergy to stand with me as I make my comments in regards to the model policies from Governor Yan gentlemen if you all would join me real quickly for those of you who will stand uh I'll continue speaking while they're coming my name is Dr Raymond Johnson I'm a local Pastor in the City of Newport News I'm here today with clergy representative of all over the peninsula I currently serve on the Hampton Roads ecumenical council of Bishops as the peninsula representative and also as a superintendent in the second jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ of Virginia Which stretches all the way from Virginia Beach to the western part of the state and so as other members of the clergy were already here we

046want to stand and show our support and solidarity to the school board and Dr Mitchell on these issues in regards to children and the idea of transitioning we want to thank you for approving policies um that continue to involve the rights of parents to be involved in the lives of their children we want you to please stay encouraged in regards to these policies and continue to support those policies which are familyfriendly that continue to allow children to be engaged with their parents thank you so much for listening to the recommendations of Dr Mitchell our superintendent which reflect the concerns of thousands of taxpaying parents families in students in the community many of these parents and children are members of our congregation and attend public schools here in Newport News on these issues I took a

047few minutes to speak with several noted Mental Health Specialists uh one in particular that holds two doctorates one in Psychology the other in counseling uh these noted Specialists referred to me three main references one was the National Institute of Mental Health the second the Australian government analysis of children psychological development and third the United States National Library of Medicine all confirmed that brain development in teens and children are not fully formed until they reach full capacity somewhere in their mid 20s I take this research to mean that this is why both children and Adolescent teens are in need of guidance and supervision which comes from parents as this guidance is in the form of their parents who have the responsibility of raising their children into well-rounded healthy rounded individuals and adults in our society I

048believe our school board understands that young people can't even get a driver's license without their parents permission they cannot miss school without parents' consent uh they also are not able to be out of school without parents consent and so we want the school board to continue to approve and support these policies while all of us stand in solidarity with you we firmly believe that we want Newport news to be continue to be a great place place to live work raise a family and also continue to educate our children thank [Applause] you Jasmine Thomas Jasmine Thomas good evening my name is Jasmine Thomas and I am a Newport News resident while I am not a parent I am considered a God Mom to three children who attend Newport News schools I am also actively involved in

049many children's lives who attend various schools in Newport News tonight my message is brief and I would like to thank the Newport News school board members for protecting parents' rights to be involved in their children's lives at school I request that the Newport News school board members stand firm on the V a Department of Education updated policies approved by the superintendent because they keep parents involved I would also like to share that the CDC promotes parental engagement and links it to academic achievement better student Behavior enhanced social skills and much more again I request that the Newport News school board members stand firm on the policies approved by our superintendent because it keeps parents involved thank you I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and thoughts this evening and as I mentioned there will

050be a second set of um remarks uh at the end of our meeting 4.02 new and revised polies revised polies 4. there we go we got it it picked up my [Laughter] voice we will now move on to section three the consent agenda which includes 3.01 minutes from the work session May 2024 3.02 minutes from the special meeting May 21 2024 3.03 minutes from the regular meeting May 21 2024 also 3.04 Financial reports including the revenue report for May 2024 the expense report for May 2024 and the Child Nutrition reports for May 3.05 the Personnel report 3.06 vdoe authorization of signature in absence of division superintendent and three .07 the budget transfer at this time can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda Madam chair I move to approve the consent agenda as

051presented do I have a second second thank you Mr Harris any discussion Madame clerk please call the roll it on Aman for best for Brown for Harris for Hunter for alger for Surles law for motion passes 7-0 thank you the next item on our agenda is 4.02 new and revised policies may have a motion to approve the new and revised policies do the way did okay Madam chair I move at this time to approve the policies under the student admission policies that is jfab admission of students experiencing homelessness JFC students withdrawal from school dropouts and number three jfca student re-entry to school we are taking since it's a large number of policies we will be taking them in blocks so this first block that is our motion do I have a second second Mr Hunter

052thank you any discussion Madame clerk please call the roll aan for best for brown against Harris for Hunter for alger for surles law for motion carries 6-1 thank you next set Madam chair I move to approve the policies under student attendance policies that's JH student attendance jba attendance services within the division jhbb attendance monitoring SL accounting JH CB excuse absence for religious observance and jhd exemption from compulsary School attendance do I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion Madame clerk please call the roll Aman for best for Brown for Harris for Hunter for alger for sir law for motion passes 7-0 thank you the next set is student conduct Student Activity related policies Madam chair I move to approve policies JJ student rights and responsibilities that's I'm sorry ji students rights and

053responsibilities j a student due process rights jib student involvement in decision making jic student conduct J IA student address J I AB uniforms for students jic drug and alcohol possession use sell or distribution by students jig married students pregnant students students with children jih student interviews inter inter where am I I'm sorry interrog inter oh inter interrogations I'm sorry searches and arrest ji student concerns complaints and Grievances and JK student Discipline Do I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion please call the role amen against Beth oh sorry best for brown against Harris four Hunter four aler for S law four motion carries 52 the next set is student services and coun in related policies Madam chair I move to approve policy jld School counseling jld da school psychologist jld daab referral

054of students to other agencies jld daac psychological evaluations jld DBC substance abuse education JJ student Social Services jlf child abuse SL Child Protection jlh missing students jli student safety jli student seclusion and restraint and jli I protective order notification do I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion please call the role amen for best four Brown against Harris four Hunter four aler four sir's law four motion passes 61 thank you the last set are administrative related policies Madam chair I move to approve policy CH policy implementation CHD Administration in the absence of policy and BG adoption of a policy manual do I have a second second thank you Mr Harris any discussion madam clerk please call the roll Aon for best for Brown for Harris for Hunter for alger for surles law

055for motion carries 7-0 thank you so much I want to also thank our policy committee that was a feat and I know that you have graciously worked with the board to get those policies as close to consensus as we possibly could so thank you so much for that we really do appreciate so you deserve a [Applause] hand the next item on our agenda is 4.03 federal funding applications may I have a motion to approve the federal funding applications Madam chair I move to approve the title one two three and four grants in the total amount of 14 14,766 n3594 do I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion I can just say I'm thankful for these this opportunity to apply for these funds yes please call the roll aman for best for

056Brown for Harris for Hunter for alger for surles law for motion passes 7-0 great the next item on the agenda is 4.04 vdoe division literacy plan may I have a motion to approve the division literacy plan Madam chair I move to approve the division literacy plan as presented do I have a second second thank you miss aler any discussion Madame clerk please call the roll best for I'm sorry back up Miss Buffaloe aan for best for Brown for Harris for Hunter for aler for surles law for motion passes 7-0 thank you the next item on the agenda is 4.05 amend the fy2 operating budget may I have a motion actually I think we should do we want to do a comment on this one before yes yes thank you madam chair Miss Scarlet MTO is

057going to come before you tonight to share the amended recommended amended fy2 operating budget she's put a lot of energy a lot of work into this since the last time she was here and I think you will be pleased good evening Madam chair Madam co-chair members of the board and Dr Mitchell it is my pleasure this evening to present the fiscal year 2025 operating budget update this spending plan supports the goals and Visions set by the school district plan Journey 2025 and the priorities we have identified as we stay the course as you may recall the school board fiscal year 2025 operating budget approved in March was based primarily on the governor's proposed budget in May the governor approved the general assembly's 2024 through 2026 banal budget recommendations this gives us an opportunity to update

058our state revenue projection and amend the approved fiscal year 2025 operating budget State direct Aid funding formulas are based primarily on student enrollment the current approved fiscal year 25 operating budget was based on a student enrollment number of 2,290 students this was a snapshot in time however we now have the final March student enrollment numbers referred to as March ADM which is the exact number that would be used for the state to calculate future funding therefore the new student enrollment projection of 2485 students has been used here to provide this updated state revenue projection for fiscal year 25 as noted on this slide student enrollment is down 2.7% over fiscal year 24 enrollment projection of 2,480 students for fiscal year 2025 the majority of State direct funding changes for nnps are associated with technical updates

059to direct Aid programs for example the at risk program funding has now been combined with prevention intervention and Remediation as one program funding losses for lower student enrollment will be offset by the increase in this program about s additional million dollar as you may recall the increase in state revenue projected approved in 2025 operating budget was only 1.7 million the new state revenue projected provides for another 13.3 million for a total projected increase in state revenue of million the city funding increase Remains the Same at 3.5 million with federal revenue and other Revenue remaining stable for a total funding sources for fiscal year 2025 of 18.5 million in new funding your approved fiscal year 2025 operating budget was 386.3 Million with this increased funding it is projected to be 399.99 increase over fiscal year 24

060funding so what can we accomplish with the additional 13.3 million in new funds since your budget was approved in March we will be able to provide an additional 1% increase for support staff for a total raise of 3% as well as provide some experience adjustments I identified during the approved budget cycle teacher raises will increase from 2 to 5% and we will continue our work to maintain a 1.5% between steps we can also increase teacher starting pay from 53,000 to 55,00 if these salary increase recommendations are approved they will take effect July 1st and salary change notifications will take place by the end of July with the additional 13.3 million in funding from the state I show here how we rebalance the school budget with final total of 18.5 million in new Revenue instead of

0612% for all staff the additional funding will provide for a 3% increase for support staff salary and benefits and some experience adjustments for a total of 8.7 million 5% increase for teachers salary and benefits for a total of 14.5 million which includes additional cost for increasing the teacher starting pay pay and the M maintenance of the teacher scale changing and Staffing Nets to an additional 900,000 increases in Health Plan costs 2.4 million which is offset by health plan changes of 400,000 increase in City pension cost of 1.5 million offset by a decrease of 1.2 million for a post Ben OPB post benefit claims and Virginia retirement employer cost total Personnel cost is 28.5 million in increase offset by 3.9 million in decreases which Nets a $24.6 million increase in Personnel cost non-personnel decreases in Contract

062Services of 700,000 anticipated increase in New Horizons fuel utilities and educational materials is 1 million which is offset by 7.1 million and anticipated savings associated with turnover and attrition and elimination of onetime whoops elimination of onetime expenditures total increase of 29.5 million total decreases of 11 million Nets to our new Revenue amount of 18.5 million questions I'm gonna ask the question that I asked when we got to hear this news uh in our time with you over the past 3 to four years mhm what have been our total amount of increases that we've been able to do so since 23 we have provided about 21.6 if we uh approve this uh budget recommendation we will have provided teachers a 21.6% increase and staff support staff a 133% increase okay and that's over three years three

063years okay thank you any other comments or questions get some payment thank you and it's good news I have a question um the reduction in teaching positions could you share a little bit about that because there's always the concern reduced teaching positions okay yes this was approved in your budget in March it's not new um we actually have some program changes that didn't require filling these positions so it was not a burden on any current programs um these were never not even being posted to be filled so this is not anything new there's no positions in danger or current teaching staff so no teacher lost their position that's correct reduction no these are positions that haven't been filled for some time years actually okay Mr Brown and my question along the same lines is in

064terms of rank where does this salary increased rank amongst the highest um raises that we've given is this is this tied or is this last year we actually have a are you talking about teachers talk uh yeah teachers uhuh so last year average teacher raise was between 9.6 and 10% so that was a really nice jump there and the previous year was 6.6% and the previous years was 6% so we've been really hammering it um in addition to eliminating their teacher compression on our skills to keep everyone step 1.5% apart um and then this year uh for next year we're recommending 5% even though the governor is only recommending 3% okay great any other questions or comments I'm gonna make one other comment which is you know um because I've been very critical historically of

065our city council and the level of support that we have received I want to be equally commendable this evening on where I believe that we've truly turned a serious Corner U this is not the first year but it's an additional year in a row where we have seen an increase in funding increase in support from our city council and so I want to make that publicly known uh that uh it is great to be working with the city council that sees the importance of Education in our city and uh CES um I had my own council member contact me and and say hey they were concerned to make sure that we were giving competitive raises that we were able to retain our teachers so it's great to have a partner um working with us like

066that and I just want to make I want to highlight that that that is critically important to our success so in a in a year where we were only supposed to do 2% we're actually doing 5% if we pass this budget tonight which I think it's a really big deal um that we've been able over these years to do as many raises as we have done um with flat funding but now we actually have funding increases and we're able to continue to do these raises and it's a really big deal I think for for us and we should take this moment to really just reflect on we've come very a very much a long way in terms of compression is no longer a serious problem for us sorry salary compression in our division so yeah

067and then also thanks to the and they're not here but the general assembly um being able to can since our enrollment was is down that would have meant we would have gotten less funding and so we're at this point today being able to approve this adjustment to the budget so yes uh thank you madam chairman I mean chairwoman I mean uh I think it's more important also that we congratulate or I congratulate uh my peers here on this school board uh because you know three or four years ago uh we decided or five years ago we decided that no matter what happens or who sits in the seat in this city it is our job to continue to try to communicate uh effectively uh we we had a lot of emails unanswered a lot of

068doors may have been closed but I just want to thank you all for the continued support and US sticking together and ensuring that we make this happen so commend each each of you thank you you as well all right well let's not hold this off any longer hold on you got to go through the process you oh you have to this one okay so at this time I am going to ask the school board to approve a new total for the school board adopted funds that includes a general fund $399 million 7,391 one workers comp 2,328 486 textbook fund 6, 13,526 Child Nutrition Services 27 m276 462 this is an increase of 1.5 million for the CNS from the CNS fund balance to ensure coverage of additional raises and increase in cost and cap capital

069associated with cafeteria improvements for a total School Board adopted funds of 43 3 5,485 1865 okay may I have a motion to approve the amended FY 25 operating budget Madam chair I move to approve the FY amended operating budget in the total amount of m485 1865 do I have a second second thank you Mr Harris any discussion Madam clerk please call the roll aman for best for Brown for Harris Hunter for alger for surles law for motion passes 7-0 yay thank we will move on to section five reports and information 5.01 is a 2024 2025 student fees Dr Mitchell thank you madam chair tonight Dr Felicia Barnett will come before you to share the student fees for the upcoming school year thank you Dr Barnett thank you good evening chairwoman s's law Vice chairwoman Dr

070best members of the school board and Dr Mitchell this evening I will share a summary of our student fees for the 2024 25 school year student instructor fees cover essential costs associated with delivering Educational Services these fees often support expenses such as classroom materials and resources and Technology resource support that directly enhance the learning experiences for students within our School Division the student fee process in Newport News Public Schools begins with schools and departments submitting fee requests these these requests are reviewed collaboratively by the department of school leadership curriculum and development and finance where options and implications are discussed input from content supervisors and principles is sought to ensure a comprehensive consideration once finalized the fee schedule is revised and published on the Newport News public schools website and incorporated into the student rights and

071responsibilities handbook for accessibility to students and families we prioritize working to ensure Equitable practices for our students students are not denied access to resources if they cannot pay the fees payment arrangements can be made to accommodate students in need of financial support to cover these costs the following fees are set for Visual and Performing Arts such as band Orchestra and Chorus for our middle school students these fees cover student resources instrumental rental charges and band chorus or orchestra uniforms Visual and Performing Arts fees are also required of students participating in Art Theater band chorus and Orchestra in our high schools and like in Middle School these cost support instructional instrumental resources or rental charges as well as uniforms for band chorus and Orchestra fees for students participating in Career and Technical education in middle and

072high schools are listed on either a yearly or semester basis these fees range from $5 to $10 based on the level and cover materials and supplies for courses such as family and consumer science technology and engineering education and health and medical Sciences additionally middle school students participating in I stem courses are also responsible for a small fee on a semester basis of $5 or yearly cost of $10 in the event a student's Chromebook or technology device or accessories need to be replaced due to damage specific fees are listed to cover these costs lost or stolen devices or devices that are damaged Beyond repair carry replacement costs of up to $125 for the first occurrence and have a gradual increase based on the number of occurrences on our high school level Newport News public school students

073participating in our driver education course pay a fee of $225 and students outside of our district who choose to take the behind the wheel course pay a fee of $250 additionally students who are students are not charged to rent materials such as heart rate monitors and locks for lockers for health and PE classes but there are replacement costs associated if these supplies are lost or damaged the replacement costs for lost or damaged textbooks library books and calculators are based upon the pro-rated cost of the item over time out of division and non Virginia residents have the opportunity to attend schools within our district by paying tuition cost for the 20 2425 school year tuition rates are specified alongside comparisons from previous years historically the number of out of District students paying tuition has varied between

074two to nine students annually additionally waivers are available to out of District students who are dependence of Newport News public school employees subject to review and our approval process this concludes my presentation on student feed and I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have oh yes thank you I think most of these are fairly intuitive could you explain a bit about uh the sports medicine what that fee would be for well specifically that fee would cost any materials or supplies that may be uh required in that course so the fee is small but it might be any additional resources or small supplies required for students who take courses under Sports Medicine thank you Dr okay I have two for devices and let's just say a child does not pay if if

075is damaged a third or whatever they are given a device to use while in school is that correct correct we do have uh loaners within our schools that students can access if they are at a point where they've damaged it Beyond repair and have had several opportunities to receive devices um at that time after several occurrences uh we certainly try to work with the family but we always provide an opportunity for students to use a device within the school through our loners okay and then my second question is in reference to the band uniforms um the slide had that it varies by school are the band uniforms do we have some type of rotation where a high schools are replaced every five years seven years is that are we using it and can you elaborate

076a little on that and if you can't can you get it and then maybe get back us CU I've had some discussion with parents and teachers regarding that so I was just it was good you brought up certainly I know that our Band program we do use uniforms and after several years we do look at replenishing those or getting newer uniforms but I can get the specific information on that exact time period of a cycle and what happens with that back to you okay thank you you're welcome can that's all right good evening chair woman s law hello Vice chair Dr best school board members and Dr Bell I just had the same conversation with uh Mr shehan Smith uh just yesterday about the rotation and she is absolutely working on a rotation we have

077not had one prior to um this year so she's working on that so we can look at Equity Equity across the schools okay thank you all right you're very welcome thank you thank you more um because I saw some of the emails going out student um the backpacks we're getting sturdier ones but are we looking at if if one breaks it's that parents would be responsible for additional ones if they can't find them or as sturdy would there are we considering any cost for for replacement backpacks would that be going into this where are we on that we will we will purchase the initial backpack and then we will provide parents with the criteria in the event that they need to replace it however Scarlet Minto has worked with a vendor um they have designed

078a backpack that has a cloth bottom and the seams are sturdier so our hope is that it will last but we will provide parents with we went through three yes students so we will certainly start the year off by the school division will purchase that with the help from the city any other questions well I'll I'll save my questions to when we do have a report from technology I'm real Curious of how many computers get broken and how frequently we're having to replace those but we can save that for another day thank you yes absolutely thank you any other questions board we appreciate you thank you thank you we'll move on to section uh five uh nope I'm sorry where' that come from yep I'm one more up there we go 5.02 uh the 2024

0792025 rights and responsibilities handbook and I think we have several here to support us for this one yes yes good evening Madame chair sir's law Vice chair Dr Bess members of the board and Dr Mitchell as you know EGR come before you to present proposed changes and revisions to the rights and and responsibilities handbook our as a reminder is this me clicking oh thank you as a reminder our rights and responsibilities handbook is a tool that helps us in our mission to ensure all students graduate citizen ready it provides guidance to our students our families and our staff and details the many options we have available to us as we address student conduct there are several revisions to the process excuse me there are several phases to our revision process after reviewing guidelines and recommendations

080we have a longstanding practice of gathering stakeholder input from multiple groups finally our proposals are reviewed by senior staff as you know each year we form a committee to review the handbook this committee is comprised of students parents teachers staff members and community members with the expertise and vested interest in Student Success who extend their thinking to this important work based on a review of the data over the past two years which showed an increase in the number of incidents in shoving pushing hitting and biting another student with no visible injuries the advisory committee is recommending a change from a a level two administrative response to a level three administrative response currently a level two response ranges from a student conference and depending on the severity can go up to an in school suspension of

081one to two days The Advisory committee's recommendation is to move to a level three response which ranges from an administrative conference and could possibly lead to a short-term out of school system suspension of one to 3 days additionally a level three response will provide administrators with more Behavior interventions options and instructional Support options compared to that of level two as part of our next steps the student dress code and cell phone policies were reviewed this review was in collaboration with our Sage students the student dress code Garner a great deal of discussion but in the end the committee put forward minor changes such as an update to old language after re a review of data and a lengthy discussion the committee determined that no recommended changes to the cell phone policy would be brought forward

082at this time do process procedures were reviewed an update to language was done to better align with departmental names and roles additionally revised wording in student in suspension and expulsion of students with disabilities was added to better align with special education regulations the members of the rights and responsibilities handbook advisory committee is a group of parents teachers administrators community members and students who have become experts in the rights and responsibilities of nmps students using a datadriven decision model the committee reviewed each Behavior code its usage assessed and nnps practices were aligned to state code I would like to give special recognition to the members of the rights and responsibilities handbook advisory committee the commitment and long hours well into the evenings spent Shifting the Paradigm around Behavior and student discipline will greatly benefit generations of

083nnps students to come having a group of parents teachers administrators community members and students who are willing to become experts in the rights and responsibilities of nnps students listen to each other and make datadriven decision merits praise I would like for any of our members of the committee who are here this evening to please stand thank you all so much for your [Applause] work as a reminder we will seek your approval of the proposed revisions to the rights and responsibilities handbook at the July school board meeting draft copies of the 2425 rights and responsibilities handbook have been provided to you electronically for your review prior to your approval thank you at this time I will answer any questions that you may have and be nice love it Schoolboard members you I have one you you

084have been asked to be nice Dr best you can go first can you go back to the slide with um DSC 17 with the oh that's the level two the level two to three mhm thank you there it is okay I'm sh pushing stri body full of stuff yeah yes ma'am can you just talk a little bit more about it because this is the one I know I'm going to get some phone calls about yes ma' absolutely um as far as of course shoving pushing striking it's not a good behavior but developmentally we know some agents do those things more than others so is that going to be considered and how you all may have discussed and how you kind of came to why level three would be better just a little bit more yes

085ma'am absolutely so level three was it was discussed first we looked at the data and we saw that there was an increase um from between 22 23 23 24 year to date and so from that we looked at what the responses to the behavior were in level two and what the team realized um was that there were more options to respond to the behavior um as far as a discipline sanction as well as um um behavioral interventions there were just more options uh in that category as well and level three happens to also include the um the suspension of one to three days for students in elementary okay so Dr Ransom it's the expectation however that staff utilize those Behavior interventions and not necessarily go right to suspension correct yes so um and that's what

086we absolutely coach around thank you for that on Dr Mitchell so that I so it's basically Progressive discipline is what I'm hearing ex that is exactly right and so um I'm also wondering in terms of how how would this impact and I imagine this was a discussion uh in terms of attendance so if you have students who are at risk of retention due to the number of days that they are out does this imp impact our students that you know perhaps need more intervention but uh May uh be at risk of being suspended more because of behaviors so it may imp but one thing that we are doing currently is we're meeting around students who have some more challenging behaviors in elementary and we do that on a regular basis so we work collaboratively with

087school leadership as well as um with our experts in um uh what's our new Department uh I want to say student advancement but uh I know I can't think of it um but we work collaborate with our um uh psychologists as well as our Behavior specialists um on those teams to Pro to basically troubleshoot what the issues are and come up with some best next steps and the the removal from from school is always a last resort um we also have our base program um that want students uh administrators go through that process as we staff the issues and we are able to refer students to that program uh that's pre- through third grade for our fourth and fifth graders um we have we do have our um up and running um student support program

088that where students who are suspended um from school short term are able to participate in that program as well so we do have options to keep the students in school and when they're doing that we're also able to um not impact chronic absenteeism and and of course please understand that it's important to keep the classroom environment safe but at the same time with support uh and that's you know something that I feel it's important yes um let's see could you uh could you run a scenario Little Marvin thums up I push little Douglas right okay Douglas tells his parents the teachers what's the process to uh level three me so and does that process from beginning through the process and closure deal with the parent so backwards to forward yes so the parent is involved

089in that process because they are going to receive a phone call of what the situation is sometimes the parents receive multiple phone calls throughout the investigative process that the administrator will take they will give the students their due process by having the students to give their side of the story um and then from that any miror of things could actually take place where the discipline sanction is is given where it could be the sanction is a behavior intervention which we've already included the parent which is part of our Behavior interventions as well as meeting with the counselor um it could be an lunch detention so it goes it's just a variety of things because no two pushings or shoving are the same so it always takes that um a lot of extra steps um from

090the on the administrator's part in collaboration with the other team members to kind of get to the bottom um of the the matter to have the best possible outcome for the student my question uh along similar lines but this may uh it may go into another presentation you let me know about our short-term suspension site so you mentioned um I guess Bas program and I think we had another name for it last year but my question is generally around um what grade levels are we able to support for out of school short-term suspension um at the Alternative School site so for the base program it serve students um in fourth grade through 12th grade okay so first through third don't have a site at this time correct so right now students between in kindergarten through

091third grade we go through our staffing process to to work on interventions um and possibly other um steps such as um um evaluation um for special education or 504 or whatever um comes out of that so there is a process for kindergarten through third grade yes now is that is that space or is that staff uh what's the limitation there for kindergarten through third grade in in terms of that alternative site that we're that we're not able to place them immediately next next year in September um can you clarify I need can you is that is that a is it a space issue not enough space at our alternative site at our short-term suspension site for K through three or is it a staffing so for K through three there is not a a short-term

092suspension option um for kindergarten through third grade students currently and that's state regulatory right or no um so generally students in kindergarten through third grade are not suspended more than three days out of school unless they have an aggravating circumstance where intervention didn't work or um someone was injured or something in that in that case Okay so our anticipation is that it's so infrequent that we don't have a need for that site for K through third grade is that students is that is that the that is that the analysis that that we don't have a need for an alternative short-term suspension site for kindergarten through third grade because the rate of incident and the length of suspension is so short and rare and um Dr Ransom I know that you know what the state code

093says in terms of the number of days that a a younger child can be suspended so part of it is is predicated on that but the other part is developmentally we are really trying to keep them in school um to really teach them how to interact with each other so you won't typically find a lot of students that are suspended that are in that age group or School Al schol in the public school for them okay so then when we're talking about elementary school here this level three and this is what this is what I'm clarifying level three does not apply for kindergarten through third grade it only applies for fourth grade and up fourth and fifth grade So currently level three would apply and and the way this um proposal is is that it

094would apply all elementary school students kindergarten through fifth grade and that and that's just where and this may take some take some additional time so I won't you know eat up more time just in terms of trying to wrap my mind around if it applies for kindergart all all the way through fifth grade then why don't we have the site and the space available different for different ages and I understand about interventions that we do ages but still if level if it's level three then level three is supposed to be applied and if level three is not applied then it's not level three there levels in level three I think um in terms of how I read into it is that the number of days that are issued in terms of a suspension are are

095the same uh in terms of moving and location that's different so the wraparound Services I'm assuming is happening in the building versus outside of the building which is less intrusive for younger children that's that's how I'm looking at it and there's such a there's a range of with three there's a range of other things that build on for those younger students where we don't go straight to to suspension and because suspension is the highest response or okay and there's different responses of course for different ages so you wouldn't do the same thing for a kindergartner and a fourth grader kind even though it might be the same offense I you said be nice so I will read I'm going to read the electronic report and I'm going to be reading level three that definition very

096closely com I did have one question um regarding um students who repeat the offense I'm not calling them the you know repeat offender but students who repeat the same behavior um was there data that you noticed um with level two being the response and did we have students who were continually coming back and needing the level two intervention mention again did you see that that so there was there were repeat offenders in that category and that and bc7 encompasses so much of the behavior that we see in the lower grades um so we did tend to see that and our administrators do a really good job of and our counselors and you know all the other support teams are really working with them around uh addressing the skills needed to not um act out those

097particular behaviors okay great thank you yes ma'am other questions yes Miss thank you um and I do you know the rights and responsibilities handbook is not short so that was a t that's a tall order every year to go through so thank you guys for all of your work um um just kind of to build on this and maybe it is worth another conversation but you know I have received feedback you know sometimes there are situations where behaviors are repeated so it it's a detriment to the entire class so we have to look for other options and sometimes the timeout for lack of a better sup might be impactful my concern with there not being an alternate location and maybe the location is within the same school as the students going to if you're out

098for three days and you're already having challenging behaviors then you come back at a disadvantage of the three days that was taught you might need to be in a different environment from if you need that sort of short term suspension but what are they at home so they're not leav you almost you build um you compound the problem sometimes if they're coming back with with nothing after so I guess my question would be you know do we have do we have a means if we do need short term time away from the environment but if it's possible to ensure that they're not losing too much learning in that time frame so they come back not too far behind you want it I'll let you have it B what do you mean back and forth we

099do have what is called administrative homebound so if a student is a second grader is out for three days and the teacher indicates that they they really need to keep up then we can do administrative homebound where a teacher will either go to the home or now that we have such good technology they will Zoom with the student so some parents will accept it and others may not okay and we do offer that option quite a bit okay board members are we done being nice teas you for a while I know I know oh we really do appreciate you answering our questions oh absolutely thank you very very much all right thank you we're going to now move on to section five reports and information uh 5.03 revised policies Dr Mitchell thank you very much

100Madam chair again miss Tracy Brooks will come before you to U share some revised policies great thank you good evening Madame chairman Madame Vice chairman members of the board and Dr Mitchell in closing out the school year the policy committee reviewed 18 policies and procedures so it is a pleasure to share highlights from just five of the revised policies and procedures with you this evening the policy committee which facilitated the review process during the school year included to school board members principals teachers administrators and our school board and School Division attorneys tonight I will share a few of the remaining policies from the general School administration chapter and the students chapter both of which are in the fourth year of our policy review timeline the policy committee also got a jump start into next school

101year with the revision of a policy in the school community and home relations chapter on the use of Todd stadium that I will speak speak to later in this presentation the first policy this evening addresses the assignment and transfer of building administrators in our school Division and was revised to state that the school board holds the superintendent responsible for the effective placement and transfer of these administrators and taking such actions the superintendent may consider the needs of the school division the compatibility of the leader administrative Style with the other administrators in the building the opportunity for professional growth in the proposed assignment and specialized training that the leader possesses and the administrator's professional endorsements and previous leadership experience next I would like to share our revisions to the temporary administrative assignments policy in which the

102school board acknowledges that the superintendent May deem it necessary to re assigned staff on a temporary basis to fill building level and other administrative positions we clarify the language that requires the superintendent to notify the school board at its next regularly scheduled meeting of any temporary administrative assignments that were put in place during the preceding weeks this next policy endorses the school division's administrative intern program to encourage qualified employees to further prepare them for leadership positions the program includes administrative internships that provide practical on the job experiences for staff as an essential component of the leadership program we also edit languish that human resources must approve all administrative internships and will work with the Department of school leadership to determine the most appropriate placement locations for participating staff our policy on Sudden Cardiac Arrest prevention

103awareness was mandated by state law a few years ago and required School divisions to inform coaches and parents about the identification and handling of symptoms that may lead to sudden cardiac arrest in student athletes since that time the state developed guidelines to provide information and direction to educate coaches athletes and their parents on the warning signs and risk factors associated with sudden Cardiac Arrest we're proposing to attach those guidelines as procedures to our policy which reinforce the requirement for parents to review the information annually and then to acknowledge receipt our next last policy this evening is on the community use of Todd Stadium now while community members and organizations have often rented Todd stadium and its grounds over the years we revise the policy to state that the facilities and ground should be used primarily

104for youth serving activities especially as the demand increases given the recent installation of the beautiful Turf we also took the opportunity to Grant permission to colleges and universities to rent our facility for activities that benefit students in our school division such as Prospect camps for various Sports so in terms of our next steps the reviewed and revised policies will come before the school board for Action at your July 1st meeting and once approved the updated policies and procedures will be posted on our school division websites and disseminated to schools and public libraries so this concludes my report this evening I would like to say a special thank you to the Department of school leadership and the department of teaching and learning team members for their leadership and working with the policy committee to complete the

105numerous policies and procedures that have come before you this school year and of course a special thank you to our dedicated policy committee members good evening thank you thank you any questions thank you I'm sure they will come thank you we will move to five .04 the attendance report 5.05 the membership report 5.06 the construction report board members you've received a copy of this report are there any questions at this time so hearing none we'll move on to item 5.07 comments by the superintendent thank you madam chair last week we wrapped up another successful school year and I want to take just a few moments to thank our our instructional staff and support staff for their commitment and dedication to our students and families Newport News Public Schools is home to devoted professionals who take

106great care of our student staff and Facilities our staff doesn't just report to work every day they make a difference staff your actions truly have made a positive impact on students and families that we serve the result of our efforts were dis on display earlier this month mon when over 1,500 students walked across the stage and received their well-deserved diploma in front of thousands of guests it was a proud time for all of us I would like to take a moment to share some interesting facts about the class of 2024 The Graduate this year's graduates earned over $45 million in scholarships offers and academic Awards and the the numbers are still coming in so we are still counting the class of 2024 received over 1,700 uh acceptance offers to various colleges universities and Military institutions

107I am proud that our Newport News public schools has laid groundwork for these graduates now these young people are prepared for future success so again congratulations to the class of 2024 and to their families additionally last week Our Youth Development Department hosted the elementary star awards 240 elementary students representing every Elementary School were honored for their leadership and volunteerism congratulations again to the honorees for their initiative service and activism the Newport News education foundation's annual salute to success banquet was held three weeks ago it was a great display of college career and citizen Readiness the event recognized 140 high school high achieving students including our valedictorians our salutatorians students who earned four or more industry or career certifications and the Newport News Education Foundation and Virginia Educators Credit Union Scholars so congratulations to all of

108those honorees last Thursday the Newport News Education Foundation and the School Division hosted its third annual Golf Classic at Kiln Creek Golf Club to benefit the education foundation's programs numerous forums registered and enjoyed the 18 hole championship course we thank the golfers we thank our sponsors and the foundation planning team for another successful tournament congratulations to Menchville High graduate Matthew onoff who won the Virginia High School league class five boys tennis single state championship two uh weeks ago so as you see we continue to have state [Applause] champion Matthew earned the first state tennis crown for a peninsula player since 1992 so kudos to Matthew very well done Newport News Public Schools is proud to offer virtual summer learning activities to keep preschool School through fifth grade students engaged in learning throughout the summer the

109elementary summer learning portal helps our younger students sharpening their sharpen their skills the portal includes eight weeks of Reading Writing math and social emotional activities for preschool students parents have the flexibility to choose when where and how much their children engage in learning participation is optional and it is also self-paced I also encourage families of all grade levels to visit the summer learning portal for suggested reading list the reading Choice boards and required reading for middle and high school students please visit our website for more information and that concludes my remarks for this evening and have a great summer thank you madam chair thank you and I'll just take this moment on behalf of the board to thank you for all of your hard work this school year thank you we really do and we

110know you do not do it alone so for your leadership team absolutely core we appreciate you all as well we'll move on to item six another opportunity to hear from the public I'm not going to ask are there any cards because I think I have every card in the building up here and we will move move on uh and so I will move on in the manner in which we did before I'll call several names and just come in the order that I call so the first one is Ron Lee the one after that will be Russell Evenson and then Jason sletcher so Ron Lee hi hi good afternoon board or evening should I say hello on two prior occasions I urged the board to do what is morally right I asked you all to

111overturn jbp before the federal government steps in and mandates this change I encourage you all to be the heroes instead of being remembered as a type of District that discriminated against the marginalized Community until your hand was forced by the feds the new title 9 was updated and will take effect on one August the new definition of sex based harassment includes protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity on 1 August all students regardless of gender identity will be able to join any club or activity they wish except sports for now on one August refusal to use pronouns as they request will be discriminatory on 1 August outing a child to their parents will subject a person to more than de minimis harm and that will be discriminatory on 1 August jbp will

112qualify as hostile environment harassment on 1 August if the offender commits discrimination title n protections will extend beyond the school regardless of a location even if outside the United States or in a church any student parent employee or person participating in education program or activity may make a complaint about sex based harassment or discrimination buckle up it's going to be a wild right if jpp is still in the books on one August after 31 July the wow church will be another hate group with Doug Brown as a member and any discriminatory policies will be linked to that and that will be enforceable because outside of the school district based on Title 9 you have one more chance before one August and July of course to be the heroes that demand equality and support human rights

113before the federal government holds your hand and makes you do what you have been incapable of doing based on sound moral character I will conclude a s uh song by Sasha Allen a man one day when they find my bones in the ground whoever they are will say look what we found a historical find a relic and time and they'll never attest that I don't know my mind one day when they find my bones in the earth they will not equate who I was to what I'm worth and they find your bones from the same frame of time and they'll treat your bones just as they've treated mine we're the same one day when they come across my remains they won't consider assumptions you've made they will see me not the things you say they

114will put up my bones in his e thank Dr Mitchell and the school board for taking a stand with what we believe is to protect our children kids youth parents and their rights in these in these things in these matters that we're discussing I'm sorry Mr Lee has uh labeled wow Church a hate group that's very far from the truth we have folks that come from all walks of life all cultures we're very receptive very open congregation I'm sorry that he's turning this into what seems like a personal uh issue between us and in Doug Brown and uh so I apologize that he feels like that's what it is but that's not who we are uh we're a church we're congregation we love people you can go on our website you can see uh the

115views that it's a very Multicultural Church young people children were family oriented church but I didn't come here to discuss that tonight but since he made that comment I'd just like to say something in reference to all of our congregation which a number of them are here tonight but it's not just us it's not just one Church you heard from uh Reverend Ray Johnson who is a a leader of a coalition of 800 to 900 U people within the congregations our church is a church of 800 to 900 people that love people I just simply came here tonight to thank the school board for taking a stand and uh for adopting the policy model and hope that you'll have the courage and the face of all of this to continue to stand strong thank you

116thank you Jason Jason you're Jason correct okay thank you uh good evening honored school board members my name is Jason Slicker I'm a retired veteran and resident of Hampton for 15 years uh I'm a husband and a father of two schoolage children um and I've been a pastor at James River Community Church for almost five years uh I wanted to thank you for your public service first of all and also for standing up for what is right even in the face of pressure to compromise and give in to the demands of those who promote the acceptance of destructive ideologies among children within our community the word of the one true and living God is very clear Genesis 1:27 says God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male

117and female he created them Romans 1 calls homosexuality a dishonorable passion and Leviticus 18 calls it an Abomination the facts of biology are also very clear there are only two genders and they are assigned at the moment of conception by the Creator and cannot be changed human beings with y chromosomes are males those without them them are females and it's obviously against nature to live in the practice of sodomy as it's biologically impossible for that kind of Union to result in reproduction Ecclesiastes 12 says fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God will bring every deed into judgment including every secret thing whether good or evil you will be judged by your eternal Mighty Creator not on how your policies aligned with public sentiment but with how

118your policies aligned with God's word and his revealed will you must discourage any policy that promotes the practice of gender dysphoria and promote policies which discourage it public school teachers who promote these things should not only be forced to tell parents what they're doing and I'm glad that you are forcing them to do that but they should be disciplined or fired because they are in Rebellion against God and His created order they are lying to children and teaching them what is harmful and false if a teacher was found teaching their classroom of students that black people are an inferior race or that pedophilia is a good and virtuous practice that teacherfor would most likely be fired and so the problem is that we are doing what's culturally acceptable not what God says is acceptable by

119his word and his law so I implore you in the name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ govern not in the fear of man but in the fear of almighty God thank you for listening Veronica Williams Veronica [Applause] Williams is that I can't Donnie Elmore Donnie Elmore Nick Hall yes you are Connie oh Connie that's okay that's okay thank you thank you I first just want to say thank you all um you alone know what it cost you to serve in this position you could be home relaxing enjoying family and lots of other things so I just want to personally thank you for your service um I'm the grandmother of a newport News student at Yates Elementary um and I'm here um just to share my heart about um the policies um God has

120given mankind the power to create life um it's an honor and a privilege when a a man and a woman come together sperm and egg unite a life is created a child is created and that's an honor and a privilege and with that creation of a child we have have the honor and responsibility to love them protect them instruct them and guide them into their god-given Destinies so I want to thank you superintendent and Schoolboard members for approving policies that keep parents in their rightful place of knowing and being fully you know fully knowing what's going on with their children and aware of all the things related to them so I just want to ask you to uphold those policies don't allow any policies that would hide in information from parents um and just listening

121to the the comments from different um views on this I think that if we put ourselves in each other's shoes and think about well what if it was the opposite thing that we were talking about what if we were talking about something that the transgender um group doesn't agree with they would want to know if their child was being um exposed or experiencing things like that so I just just thank you and ask you to um continue to uphold parents rights thanks Nick Hall good evening good evening I am Nick Hall I'm a Newport News resident I'm a father and a grandfather um and I want to thank you for your support of parental rights the you know my concern is the welfare of our children and not just mine but everybody's um and parents

122need help with helping their children deal with issues that children deal with um everybody goes through that one way or another um and parents need to help their children do that and so you guys are supporting that I appreciate that and I want to encourage you to stay the course I know it's not easy we're not part of the difficulty is the fact that we're not we're not debating ideologies well we're debating implementation of that and and how do you define that it's you know there's a lot of issues that are involved and parents need to be at the Forefront helping their children go through what they have to go through they have to grow up they have to mature and it's just a process of life so thank you very much forgive me but

123we're having trouble reading the next name it looks like it says thea Ross I don't know if it's Ross or Rose Thea Ross Thea sorry my handwriting is terrible appreciate you all giving me some time this evening I have some prepared remarks but first my name is Thea Ross my pronouns are she her um and let's see here my phone's just about to die y'all I apologize my time running here we go good evening everyone my name is the Rose my pronoun are she her and I stand here today as an out and proud trans living in Hampton Roads thank you for Gathering here today to Rally against the ill-advised policies being foisted on our communities all of y'all wonderful people for being present and Shining a light on an urgent and critical issue we

124stand at a crossroads right now where the actions that we take are going to affect our students for the rest of their lives when it comes down to it screw the speech when it comes down to it we got what 1.7 million people in Hampton Roads it's about the right if you have got the economic estimations that means we've got what here 35 6,000 trans kids trans people that live in newport news we're your neighbors we're 1 to 3% of the population when you make policies specifically Mitchell when you put policies forward that supposedly are supposed to enable Mental Health Services and enable us to have those conversations but children aren't feeling safe to actually come out how are they going to actually take advantage of those Mental Health Service how are they going to

125stand up and be present and get the help that you want to provide them if that means and it comes at the cost of outing themselves because outing yourself to a parent that's not supportive it can lead to death the truth of the matter is that other school boards have already implemented policies like this these folks want to say that they protect every child they got buttons right on their shirt there are already children in Hampton Roads who have committed suicide because of these policies our side we don't we're not even allowed to talk about it it's it's too painful for those parents but the most shameful thing of all these people here standing here today is they believe it's your job the state's job the school board's job to be their parents if any

126child does not feel safe coming out to their parents or talking to them that is an issue of conscience one you cannot resolve as administrators when you weigh into that issue when you decide we're going to p a policy that will out these kids you will lead to harm harm that will manifest in legal consequences for this board Financial consequences why would you even bring that upon yourselves you have a choice right now to do nothing and you do no harm you incur the wrath of what a state a state bo that's not even going to come after you but here's what is going to happen a kid will get hurt that parent will sue the school district and all of you will be have blood on your hands because you have the opportunity to

127say let's just wait let's not do something today I know a lot of folks want to thank you they come from a place of religion and God I I don't know I don't have a great relationship with God but I can tell you this much I think God and Jesus if they were here today would love me just as equally they would tell me that I have a space in this community they would say every trans child that you're loved and you're accepted and if you force them to be out to their parents if you force as school teachers and administrators to be gender police you know what's going to happen you you can't walk out of this room you can't make those decisions and not understand we've told you point blank you've seen the

128deaths do the right thing please Reverend Michael berett Madam chair Madame Vice chair members of the board and Dr Mitchell my name is Reverend Michael Dean Bernett my pronouns are he him and I serve multiple congregations in Newport News which include many families with lgbtq students in your school system I didn't bring a $50,000 check with me sorry to say and I certainly didn't stand in the Pulpit of my church and instruct my congregation to come here and give them a script to use because that would be a major IRS violation but I did come before you today with a question and my question is whom or what are you here to serve I've been looking over the literature prepared by the school board that's offered on the website and elsewhere their patterns emerge so

129do you primarily serve the political and business entity known as the corporation of Newport News if so then certainly you must understand what so many of your citizens as well as groups like the ACLU have been trying to make clear for over half a year that these model policies do not conform to federal anti-discrimination laws and especially with the changes to Title 9 awaiting implementation leave the city vulnerable to legal action which could lead to a loss of both credibility and money do you consider your service to be for the Educators and staff under your employ if so you would do well to listen to what your own Educators Union has been telling you all along especially before they achieve the ability to collectively bargain do you serve primarily the parents I'll be honest I

130don't see that a whole lot in your literature except for oblique references to families as they relate to students so do you as is so often said hold yourself primarily accountable to the students in your schools if so this is a no-brainer the people have spoken and the data shows that policies procedures like these have the potential to cause real actual harms to the lives of your real actual students I hope you understand that as long as procedures like jbp remain on the books here at Newport News Public Schools you are leveraging the well-being if not the whole lives of some of the most vulnerable children in your care in exchange for political capital and if that is the case may God have mercy on your souls no matter what or whom you feel like

131you're here to serve whether it's Newport News the Educators or the students and if you do think you're primarily here to serve parents then you might want to consider revising your literature it's very clear this procedure isn't helping so I implore you yet again rescind the revision of procedure jbp which was implemented in November of 23 and for the sake of your students for the sake of your Educators and for the sake of the city and for the sake of Justice do what's right thank you [Applause] Tyler elred Tyler Eldred hello again my name is Tyler Eldred I am Newport News school system alumni an organizer for Tidewater DSA and a proud husband to a non-binary spouse you know I have to admit that the difference between a policy and a procedure in context of

132the Newport News school system is uh something I am still learning to appreciate shall we say but in my time before various City councils and school boards I'm beginning to pick up some of the lingo like if someone were to say we wouldn't have enough votes that means they would prefer not to take a public stance or if someone were to say now is not the time what they mean is I am just hoping this will blow over so I don't have to address it and if someone says to you I can't almost always it means I'm sorry but no it means please make this someone else's responsibility it means you still you you should still have our back even though we don't have yours because we know the difference between a willingness to support

133and a willingness to seem supportive because we know when there is will there is creativity and resilience and courage well you can see why it might be hard for us to understand because contrary to what the cynics may try to say about us we are not confused about anything but understand matters of Justice with great clarity because when we say hate affects the whole Community we mean hate affects the whole community and when we say Protect trans youth what we mean is protect trans youth and when we say we will remember who stood with us in this pivotal moment of History we mean we will remember who stood with us in this pivotal moment of history and if we hear any of you say you are allies of the queer Community or of the youth

134or of the marginalized we know that what that means to us and our question for you tonight is do you [Applause] candy Cashman or kushman good evening it's candy kushman uh my name is Candy kushman as a vice president of the Family Foundation of Virginia I represent thousands of parents right here in Newport News and also in the peninsula area and before I get started with my comments tonight I just want to bring up the mention that was made of Title Nine which by the way was originally created to protect equal opportunity for girls sports but what hasn't been mentioned tonight is that several States including Virginia have successfully challenged the Biden administration's controversial and hotly debated interpretation of that regulation they have challenged it and they have won with an injunction I'm looking at

135a headline from the Associated Press that came out yesterday reporting quote Biden's Title 9 rule blocked by judge for six more States including Virginia that is a federal court decision so actually it would be irresponsible and possibly against Virginia law illegal under current Virginia law for the school board to follow that title n interpretation which is still still being fleshed out in the court system so I just wanted to clarify that for you um now I just want to thank you as you have heard so much tonight thank you so much Newport News school board member superintendent Dr Mitchell thank you for listening to the heartfelt concerns of families in this community and acting to protect parental rights to be involved with their kids' lives at school we all agree every single child should be

136protected Ed from harm without exception Virginia already has comprehensive bullying anti-bullying laws at the local and state levels as well as mandatory reporting laws requiring Educators to report suspected abuse we all need to follow those laws and Implement them but when schools allow policies that create a wedge between the kids kids and their parents that creates more danger and harm for kids not less it's not a hypothetical concern we've all seen the headlines around the state of these documented cases whether it's a child being sex trafficked after a school hid information from the parents or it's the kids experiencing sexual assault in bathrooms and not notifying parents these are real problems they're not hypothetical that's why I'm glad you've done the opposite of keeping parents out of the picture you have earned parents trust back

137with this move to respect parental rights you've by doing this you have shown true compassion and have respected parents please keep that in place and do not reverse this building of trust in the community thank you so much will you a are and that's about as much as I can I'm sorry my hand ring is not that great either uh good evening members of the board my name is Patrick Warman as a member of the Navy I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic jpp comes out of Christian nationalism and the fascism that spawned it we defeated that fascism 80 years ago and now it's back wrapped in the US flag and and waving across we will defeat it again I would like to remind so many of the

138Christians here of one of the scriptures that so many of them forget Matthew 25:40 and the King shall answer and say unto them verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done unto the least of these Brethren of these my brethren ye have done it unto me I grew up Catholic I understand I turned turned away because of the people like this that claim to follow Christ that have scripture in their mouths and hatred in their heart how dare you be cruel to those weaker than you there are people in this room that remember when they were the ones that are being mistreated when a school board this diverse was Unthinkable let the students be who they are many speakers here mention parental rights I reply to them if the parents don't

139already know then there's a reason the child doesn't trust them I suggest you look within and meditate on why your own behavior prevents your child from trusting you it's not the school that's driving a wedge it's the parents own behavior down the JPB thank [Applause] you um let's see uh Bill Haynes good evening thank you for having us tonight amen I just wanted to throw this away and say I I support wholeheartedly the decision you've made with the uh the model policy Glenn yunan has established I've read it I've scanned through it and read it and I think it's a very well-balanced uh policy which does not dis discriminate against anyone and helps everyone to benefit and also just want to say this to you you don't serve man you serve God you're here to

140serve God and uphold what he wants you to do and down in your conscience you know what's right because it says in Romans one everybody knows what's right and what's wrong so when you uphold the truth of God's word I think you're doing the best thing and I support you for what you're doing so far I thank you so much Dr Mitchell I know you are the bigger player in that than anybody else but I thank you for choosing what you did and I also pray that you just keep standing strong and not bowing down to what you feel sometimes from people that don't agree with what you're doing because it's always going to be that way till the end of time there's always going to be pressure so thank you for standing strong and

141I pray you keep on doing it thank you very much [Applause] Ash chading Jung read I promise uh good evening school board members Dr Mitchell I wish I could say it was a pleasure to be back here but it isn't let's be real it's not fun to be here uh I'm going to do something a little different again tonight uh I've noticed that the other side of this this issue is wearing protect every kid's stickers but I wanted to ask protect kids from what the freedom to be a kid the freedom to explore themselves and their identities safely how about from parents that speak about them like property I can't be the only one that's notied this I can't be the only one that's recognized the chilling similarities and rhetoric between the protect our children

142crowd and the same language we use to defend our property I can't believe I have to be the one to say this but your kids aren not your property they have deserve even the right to explore themselves safely and on their own terms if that offends you if you think your kids might hide something from you ask yourself why that is before pointing fingers at the woke left or whoever today's boogeyman is members of the school board your job is to provide an education for your students nowhere in that are you required to out them to their parents against their will nowhere in that are you required to police names or pronouns or Force students into the wrong bathroom or onto the wrong sports team as Gavin Grim would no doubt be happy to tell

143you you are in fact required to do the opposite your job is to educate kids and part of that is letting kids explore themselves because guess what we are here we are queer and we will not disappear to that end I want to both thank you for adopting policy CH today and urge you to use these powers to overrule jpp today you've come a long way it's now time to finish the job finally I want to mention that there are over 550 members of our community who care deeply about this issue 550 voters who will not support anyone on this board if you continue to remain silent and our monders continue to grow Schoolboard new elections and Newport News are often fairly close decided by fewer than 600 votes keep that in mind while you

144choose to remain silent thank you blaz and Bloom good evening honorable chairwoman and members of the board my name is blazen Buckshot Bloom my pronouns are they them theirs and I've been a proud member of our my of of our queer community and our trans Community since the fifth grade I've known that I was different I knew I wasn't straight I knew I wasn't gay I knew I wasn't a man I knew I wasn't a woman I didn't know what I was there was no term that I knew to describe myself but I knew I was different it took me it has taken me over a decade to find some semblance of identity that looks and sounds and reflects my experiences in life of over 20 years in college I proud to have been part

145one of a few students to actually write policy for old Dominion University on how to be a gender inclusive campus during that time I got to read much on state law federal law Supreme Court rulings past and present and to read into both Governor Northam and Governor Youngkin's model policies and I have to say having read through Youngkin's policies it is incoherent the basis made to justify the policy that you all have adopted is to argue that gender is ideology ideology is speech and that students first member rights mean that ideology cannot be pushed upon and that speech cannot be forced upon them and therefore that gender identity and expression cannot be forced upon them and yet this exact policy forces gender identity and expression by refusing to let students identify Express themselves as the

146way they feel in their hearts the way they know they are the way that their God has made them to be because we know that the first amendment applies to young people and that parents don't make the final decision that young people do that parents have a say to have a role in involvement in their child's education but not at the expense of their child's education as has been established decades ago with Tinker versus De Moine during the Vietnam war we know the harmful impacts these policies have I come from the city of Chesapeake and if you didn't get to come to our pride our wonderful third Annual Pride the rainbow youth Coalition was one of the spons was one of the sponsors high ranking an organization that has started to take the place of

147the Trevor Project based out of Indiana and from Indiana they know about chesapeake Virginia because after passing Youngkin's model policy the amount of calls they get to their crisis hotline has risen exponentially when you factor in our high school population in that 1 to 3% 1 to 2% % of the current population identifies as trans that over a that nearly a third of all high school students who identify his trans experience called in a year within a year after the policy was adopted having Mental Health crisis because of the actions of our school board please do not repeat the same actions our school board has please learn and please fix your past mistakes thank you [Applause] gray lden thank you for the phonetic spelling no problem no problem good evening me members of the board

148as a trans non-binary college student who has been working in the with the local lgbtq plus Community since I was 16 I have having supportive teachers and counselors who encouraged me to run a GSA back when I was in high school helped me to become the hardworking activist I am today having a school counselor who was able to talk about question questioning my identity with me and knowing she wouldn't tell my parents while I was figuring out who I was provided me a sense of safety that yin's model policy would not would take away from takes away from trans students it also allowed me to process my own emotions and feelings before sharing them with my parents once I figured out my identity for myself I was completely comfortable sharing it with my parents and

149my parents were able to trust that I would talk to them when I was ready after coming out I was able to help create a safe environment in my high old high school by showing students and teachers that lgbtq plus students are just like other students who just want to learn in a safe environment I would like to remind you all of Separation in church of church and state religious beliefs should not be influence school policy at all provide the trans kids in Newport News public schools with the same opportunity to flourish and find themselves in a safe environment that I and many other students got to experience Rescind youngkin's transgender model policies in favor of protecting students thank you Heywood Barnes Heywood Barnes good evening my name is haward Barnes Jr and I stress

150that because my belief is we need to put the daddies back in their place I will identify myself as a daddy my daughter was here a few minutes ago she left to go to some something more important but what what I want to share to this evening is 25 years ago as of the 10th of this month one of the Educators saw my passion gave me a book daddy daddy be there and it reads part of it this way daddy daddy be there when I dye my hair green I cut it off I pierce my ears and nose when my music rock the house grab me when I wander too far from home too close to Danger I cannot see daddy daddy be there another Stan daddy daddy be there let me sit with you

151let me hold your spotted hands let my eyes be yours and my ears as well I remember when you were there for me and asked nothing in return now I'm here for you daddy daddy be there I love you I'll leave this because only thing I'm saying in the school system as it is today I have a fourth generation two great grandsons I believe my influence be enough to keep them safe but there some other children may not have that so I'm asking those that love children daddy daddy be there thank you Roseline Leonard Roselyn [Applause] Leonard good evening um again my name is rosn Leonard I hadn't attended upon speaking but um so I didn't have a speech made up but I do want to let you know that I appreciate you I appreciate

152what you have to deal with and put up with I want you to know that I am praying for you I want you to know that I pray that you make wise right decisions based upon truth and based upon um the safety for children families in this in this city I am not a parent I am not even from newer news I'm from new news but I don't live in Newt news but my nieces and nephews do they are a part of the public school system here and I want them to be considered when these things are put in place what I and my family teach them is the truth based upon the word of God and I want that to be reiterated in their life as well I do know that you probably have

153a lot of difficult things that you have to hear whether it be social media things or things that have been said here or things that when people cross your path in public and I'm sorry for that I pray that um I thank you for being leadership and standing for what is right and what is true and Leadership does not always um cater as it said before to to the opinions of man but they have to they have a higher authority and I pray that you just honor that Authority and you live by what you know is true and what is right thank you Ronald [Applause] Lasser greeting uh new school board I am Ronald Lasser and give uh kudos to Chairman Lisa Surles law and Dr best and Dr Mitchell I'm just here to thank

154you for making a stand and adopting the government's Governor's policy uh I know that it took a lot for you to make those decisions and I continue to pray for you I am a pastor in Newport News I have a congregation I have youth in the church and thank you for making the right choice uh not making our school grounds and our school classroom test Labs but let the test Labs happen behind the closed doors in your meetings that you will bring about the best policy possible for our children I love all people I love all children uh as all of us have had people to be in our lives our family members who may be transgender I love them uh in spite of but I must uh adhere to God's word and what God's

155word say and and let's not allow these things that happen uh on social media and around us uh dictate to us how we should uh carry our children or how we should raise our children but let the parents be involved in those decisions and bring them into a place a close place I know there's an answer somewhere but I don't I I know that the right answer you have come to and I I applaud you today in your courage and making those decisions thank you [Applause] Danielle cousins Danielle cousins hello thank you for letting me speak today I used to live in Newport News I'm now our resident of Yorktown I have four children I've been married 20 years to the same wonderful man I'm originally from California I grew up in a very liberal

156family I was abused as a child in witchcraft which is some that going on in this room and I just um have freedom in Jesus Christ and I've seen people healed and delivered and set free um by the power of God uh for his love and in John 3:16 Says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life and God is a holy God we all have a free well I am here by my free will just so you know nobody made me come nobody forced me I'm here by my own free will and we all have that free will to be able to um choose to live for him and accept that love or choose not to and um

157I just wanted to thank you guys for um allowing parents to uh have that god-given right and not have it a law in their schools to have to worry about their kids um not being able to talk to them or people talking to them um behind their back um I personally witnessed uh a friend's uh daughter's name being Chang in the system by the librarian without their consent I personally had um a doctor I was actually under the former Governor um who is a doctor and uh one of the nurses gave my daughter uh a shot to stop her cycle without my permission and they called it some kind of blood thing and her cycle stopped for five months um without my permission and so I know what it's like for someone to try to

158take the your rights and um for your children and you just want to make the best for them so I just wanted to um read Jeremiah 23 and it says that my PO my prophets and my priests are profane they do not speak the word they run but they do not speak for me they cause my people to ER in their ways and they seek their own uh evil desires of their hearts uh calling love unclean and so I just pray um Every curse spoken over you guys and over the school board and over children in the school to be broken in the name of Jesus every um threat I just break it in the name of Jesus I just speak suicide be canceled in the name of Jesus I speak blessing over your family

159I speak blessing of everyone here um I'm an evangelist I preach God's word I love everybody and like I said I personally in the last month seeing a lady set free from being molested by her father and God healed her took her pain away and set her free and only Jesus Christ can do that and he loves everyone in here and some of them it's their last chance to receive him as their lord and savior and I just pray that for everyone in here I pray healing and deliverance for every hurt and every pain it's not God's will thank you you guys have a bless David Breakman David Breakman David Breakman one more time Cheryl Martin Martino Martino Sherl think went to the restroom okay Mary Voss okay I'll just call the last three one

160more time and David Breakman with respect to the jbp the procedure is not helpful despite the opposition's claims it does not Advance a parent ability to be a parent a trans person wants gender affirmation always and will only not come out to a parent if they fear retaliation that if feared often materializes a right to know is subsequent to a responsibility to be trusted telling parents that they can op just pull their kids out of ever using a bathroom on the basis that the same bathroom was once used by a trans person is naked fearmongering and it doesn't make anyone safer in fact two the pro the procedure is harmful a transperson who sincerely and persistently dresses and engages in the manner of a gender other than their sex assigned at Birth is at an

161increased risk of being a victim of violence when forced to use the bathroom of their sex assigned at Birth and has no increased likelihood of being a perpetrator three the procedure is bad at being on the basis of sex assigned at Birth except for in a handful of edge cases in all laws where that's fundamentally not the Criterion fails to both be specific and to be an implementation compliant with the overriding board policy JB and federal Title 9 that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex gender or any combination thereof four the procedure is not a shield lawsuits by yunen against the many districts rejecting his model policies have not materialized if the board is worried about retaliation on other axes know that blackmail does not go away when you do what they want the

162procedure five the procedure is the board's responsibility the law that started this was that school boards must adopt policies consistent with the model policies so the superintendent procedure both is the board's policy when we want cover and is not a policy when we want to say that we can't do anything state law vests the elected school board with the oper with the responsibility to operate the schools the superintendent works for the board and policy CH reaffirms that implementing policies is the responsibility of all administrators which includes the board six board use your authority to overturn Yan's scapegoating of trans youth in jbp please take your courage to the next level and and and take a stand that involves a vote thank you [Applause] is Mary Mary boss okay Mary boss there she is and then

163the last one for the evening would be Cheryl martinov okay great uh hello uh Mary Voss nnps teacher parent and graduate uh first I want to thank the school board for meeting with the n&a about contract negotiations earlier today um contract negotiations also known as collective bargaining rights give teachers and staff a see the table to negotiate things uh for things such as smaller class sizes more planning time more restroom breaks um seniority and job security and much more uh teacher and staff working conditions or student learning conditions so this benefits students as well I also want to point out when nnps becomes the first or one of the first districts in Hampton Roads to give its hardworking teachers and staff collective bargaining rights um watch how candidates flock to this district and watch how

164our teacher and staff turnover rates dramatically decrease um this is good for you guys as well uh nnps employees if you haven't signed your nnaa authorization card yet to help us when collective bargaining rights please visit Newport newseducation association.com and scroll down to authorization cards uh next on to Yan's discriminatory guidance um first I want to thank all the pro-equality church clergy and pro-equality church members who are out in force tonight proving um that a single church or group of churches does not control what God thinks of lgbtq plus children research-based evidence shows and experts agree that discrimination against lgbtq kids is very dangerous to these children and youths um items and youngkin's cruel guidance such as forced outing of children to unsupportive family members not calling students by their preferred name and and not

165calling students by their preferred pronouns are literally associated in study after study with serious negative outcomes such as homelessness self harm and suicide children's safety Trump's far-right talking points about parental rights parents do have a say in our children's education we elect school board members we can call and email our Schoolboard members many of us are here speaking at a Schoolboard meeting um but that doesn't mean that uh kids should have their lives endangered by cruy out them to family members who may kick them out of the house or may emotionally or physically abuse them because of that re Revelation um speaking as an individual I'd like to share an excerpt from the poem on children by khil Jabron your children are not your children they are the sons and daughters of life's longing for

166itself they come through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you you may give them your love but not your thoughts for they have have their own thoughts you may house their bodies but not their souls for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit not even in your dreams you may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you for life goes not backwards nor terries with yesterday you are the bows from which your children uh in short our children don't belong to us they're own they're their own people and they deserve to be loved and respected for who they are thank you for your time [Applause] you your it's fren Canadian it's Martino we I say

167Martino because um thank you for letting me come and speak to you I want to applaud you that you any politician that attains to any level of um helping others is what you do your servants to the people you're brave it's a confusing time that we're in and I would like to applaud you and thank you that you would take this time to listen to us I would like to speak you to you today as someone who endured child abuse as someone who knows what it is that children when they are given um the freedom which we've heard about people want freedom to do foolish things it's going to affect the other children uh which I had that happen too they say boys will be boys but if those boys are bigger than you what

168chance does that little girl have oh when we let Pandora's Box go open what happens to this public I love this country and you do too but what is happening that we have to have electronic what do you call them um that the children have to be scanned to go into the schools what kind of what is happening to our cities to our children that we we it's not your fault if you can't trust them how I don't know how anybody can be a school teacher today with all the things that are happening we had a standard of morality in our country for 20 and almost 50 years that was unquestionable people have flocked to America and still flocked to America because it's a good Nation a righteous Nation that's been falling and failing badly

169and the people who've come up up here in the name of God it doesn't matter what your religion is we don't care what your religion is but there is a Simplicity of the Ten Commandments that we made the Alabama Judge tear down off his wall how much more simple can we get then don't steal don't covet simply have a morality that applies to all if we have no law we are Lawless and if we are Lawless people like me now in my 70s I I feel like I can't be out at night by myself anymore that's a shame it used to be that you know when I was in school that we were safe no we're not I just received a second card from Veronica Williams I thought I called your name but if I

170did not you're welcome to come at this time and that is the last card that I have good evening my name is Veronica Williams I was born and raised in the City of Newport News matriculated through the Newport News public school system and I own a law practice located in the City of Newport News I want to thank the Newport News school board members for taking a valiant stance for the families in our community and I want to encourage you as a board to stay the course regarding the policies that resulted from your Valiant stance specifically thank you for approving policies that protect parents rights to be involved in the lives of their children at school thank you for listening to the recommendations of our superintendent which reflect the concerns of thousands of taxpaying parents

171families and students in this Community the fact is the best way to protect as many children as possible is to involve their parents as much as possible rather than cutting them out thank you to our superintendent and to you as a board for approving policies that honor that principal I've asked the board clerk to provide each School Board member with a copy of CDC doc documentation setting forth facts about the benefits to students of Parental involvement it's dangerous to put a wall between children and their parents that's why I'm glad you've done the opposite by approving policies that amongst other things make it clear that parents must be notified and given an opportunity to object before their children are counseled regarding matters pertaining to gender identity as I've shared with this board previous ly the

172issue of requiring parental notification and consent prior to a school referring a child to counseling is especially crucial considering a Virginia Statute that from a practical perspective prohibits licensed mental health professionals from exercising independent professional judgment when counseling children on gender identity issues your current policies have kept parents involved in the process and empowered them to protect the precious impressionable and vulnerable Hearts minds and bodies of their children while in the public school system thank you again this being our last board meeting for the school year um I'm going to it is late but we need to say goodbye to our school board student representative so if board members if you would like to say your goodbyes uh we'll we'll do that and then we will adjourn so I will start with um Miss alger

173um we're gonna miss you dearly and uh we want to thank you for all that uh you've been and and the time that you've served here here um I know there have been many times that we've ran into each other and and so much has you know I've learned so much from you so thank you and uh and continue to be the leader that you are thank you yes Miss Aman sure um I too thank you Erin for being part of this this board as our student representative this year and I wish you the best at yale it is going to be a great adventure so I look forward to seeing all the wonderful things you do Mr Hunter and Mr Lynn again it's been a pleasure serving with you and uh I know you're

174going to do very very great things again great things are happening Newport News you're leading the way go get them at Dale okay and Dr best we'll just go straight on down okay um congratulations Aaron I wish you the very best I fully expect to see your name on television and a magazine and social media for some groundbreaking or business uh big type of announcement and I will be able to say that I knew you win so I wish you much success Mr Harris well Aaron uh congratulations on all the success uh I know you're going to continue to prosper I can truly say that whatever the kids process has been to select and elect uh students that have sat in that seat since I've been here whatever that process is I would like to

175know uh because they have uh every student that has been there has been clearly topnotch in in the school division so you know like my My grandmother used to say you know kids do get it right so congratulations to you okay all right Aaron I won't I won't embarrass you again I know embarrass your graduation so I just say to you um very you know Echo what everyone is say extremely proud of you and proud to have been able to sit next to you this whole year um I know that Yale is the Midway point of your journey so this has been you know a journey that has started for a long time you've been working towards this goal and I know how hard you have worked um Senor diligence and uh I know that

176you're going to go on to do great things it's the midpoint of your journey I encourage you to continue uh in your education the only thing that I'm going to ask of you is when you finish your freshman year would you come back to Newport school and come to our board meeting and just tell us how your freshman like for you and I know you got some things to say right now so please please go ahead and say what you got to say to the people yeah the only thing I wanted to say was that I'm grateful for being a part of new News public school so the past 13 or 14 years I truly think that I'm truly honored to serve as the student representative and the co-chair of the superintendent student Advisory Group

177on education I have learned a lot about the um efforts about the dedication and amount of effort put in by I News Public School staff and Schoolboard members and to each College each student to make sure that they are college career and citizen ready so I thank you you are welcome the last thing I will say if anybody asks why we do what we do that's why meeting adjourned [Music]