001[Music] good evening I would like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News school board for Tuesday March 19th 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 are two students from Palmer Elementary School Cali Brinkley and Lucas Marquez Salgado first cie will come forward and deliver the invocation he will be followed by Lucas who will come forward and deliver the pledge so Callie will you please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself and it's just she go ahead
002um some things about myself is I love pink I do too I love dogs my favorite meal is probably [Laughter] fries my my favorite subject is math and science and I love to be kind to others thank you ready to do the invocation go ahead this is a piece from Change Sings by Amanda Gorman I'm bright as the light each day brings there is love where my chain sings I show others tolerance though it might take some courage I don't build a taller fence but fight to build a better bridge I talk not only of distances from where and how we came I also walk our differences to show we are the same I'm a movement that Roars and springs there's a wave where my change sings change sings where there and side of me
003because I'm the change I want to see as I grow it grows like seeds I'm just what the world needs I'm a voice where freedom rings you're the love your bright heart brings we are the waves starting to spring for we are change we sing we're what the world is becoming and we know it won't be long we all hear change drumming won't you sing along [Applause] thank you Callie Lucas will you please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself before you give us or lead us through the pledge a little bit of stuff about myself is my favorite food is pasta my favorite color is blue I love the dogs that's pretty much all great thank you would you like for us to stand please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance
004I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you [Applause] Lucas we want to thank both of you for um joining us at tonight's meeting it means a lot to have you come and read for us and lead us through the pledge and do you have some family or School family with you today okay would you guys stand thank you thank you for supporting them and bringing them uh to tonight's meeting the next item on tonight's agenda is Schoolboard recognition so Dr Mitchell will you please join me at the podium good evening I have the honor and privilege of recognizing some outstanding student athletes this evening and it's going to be sort
005of hard to follow both Kaye and Lucas she did a fantastic job our first honores this evening earn back to back state championships on March 9th the Woodside High School boys basketball team earned the 2024 Virginia High School league class 5 state championship with the 5333 victory over LC Bird high school at the Virginia Commonwealth University seagull Center in Richmond tonight we're honored to recognize these talented athletes please join me in congratulating them as we call each team member's name Silas barkdale would you please come [Applause] [Laughter] forward Jaden Dietrich Germaine Dietrich Travis Hamilton sorry unable to join us Terrence [Applause] Hayes Jordan Houston Donell Jarrett congratulations Michael Jenkins Michael make it Marlon [Applause] montigue Callen [Applause] Morrison jacobe [Applause] Reid Avon Tucker and rounding out the team Messiah well [Applause] Stevens we also want
006to recognize uh the coaches uh head coach Stefan Welsh but I understand he might not be able to join us cuz his son's playing tonight right he's congratulations to him and our assistant coaches Nishan [Applause] Chandler coach James [Applause] dicks assistant coach Jeff Hall and assistant coach Tay [Applause] Langford and assistant coach Maron [Applause] montigue we also have a um the school board and superintendent have prepared a special resolution for these student athletes and I'd like to read it in part yes well ask the principal to come forward and accept their resolution Dr Mary [Applause] Hardesty the resolution reads in part resolution of recognition honoring Woodside High School boys basketball team as the Virginia High School league class 5 state champions whereas the Woodside High School Board basketball team earned the 2024 Virginia High School
007Class 5 state championship with the 5333 victory over LC Bird high schools team on March 9th 2024 at the Virginia Commonwealth University seagull Center in Richmond Virginia and whereas with this Victory the Woodside Wolverines earned back-to-back state championships in 2023 and 2024 a feat that was repeated after almost two decades when the Wolverine earned back-to-back State basketball titles in 20 2004 and 2005 and whereas the boys basketball team finished their season with an outstanding record of 27 wins and one loss and whereas this team you see in front of you captured the State title and whereas the athletic Talent displayed by this team is due in part to the efforts of head coach Stefan Welsh who was the first former basketball player from Hampton Roads to win back-to-back state titles as both a player and
008a coach and assistant coaches Nishan Chandler James Stick Jeff Hall Tay lford and Marlon montue the support of the team's family and friends and a host of other fans and supporters and whereas the Hallmarks of the Wolverines from the opening game of the season to participation in the championship were a testament to athletic ability good sportsmanship honor and scholarship demonstrating that the team is determined and focused and now therefore be it resolved that the Newport News school board congratulates the Woodside High School boys basketball team on their second consecutive state championship and outstanding team record bringing honor and pride to Newport News public schools and the City of Newport News and the resolution is of course signed by every member of the school board and the superintendent congratulations I also want to take a moment
009to congratulate Silas barkdale in honor of his outstanding season he was named the peninsula District boys basketball player of the year he averaged 18 points 14 rebounds five blocks and six assists in the regular season in addition Michael Jenkins was named to the first team um and uh Germaine Detroit and Travis Hamilton were named to the second team and Messiah Stevens earned an honorable mention gentlemen again congratulations on a great season let's give them one more round of [Applause] [Music] applause assistant princip okay I'd like for you gather we want to try to take a picture in the front here we can do that you want to take it up okay all right we will do that then thank you gentlemen congratulations yeah don't don't leave don't leave this evening we also have the honor
010and privilege of recognizing another outstanding student athlete who has achieved great success last school year the Virginia High School league voted to sanction girls wrestling as an emerging sport our next Honore Jordan Anderson has excelled and earned a state championship in her weight class Miss Anderson would you please come [Applause] forward during the State Wrestling Championships on February 24th Miss Jordan a senior at Woodside High School won the State title in her weight class she's also receiving a resolution of recognition from the school board which reads in summary resolution honoring Jordan Anderson of Woodside High School as a Virginia High School lead State wrestling champion whereas Jordan Anderson earned the 2024 Virginia High School league class 5 126 pound girls State wrestling championship in February on February 24th and whereas with this Victory Jordan Anderson
011distinguished herself as an elite wrestler and one of the top wrestlers in the state and whereas Jordan finished the wrestling season with an outstanding record of 22 to2 and whereas Jordan Anderson is the first wrestler in Woodside School Woodside High School's history to capture a State title and whereas the athletic Talent displayed by Jordan Anderson from The Opening match of the season to the state championships is a testament to her dedication good sportsmanship honor and scholarship now therefore be it resolved that the Newport News school board congratulates Jordan Anderson on her state championship title and her outstanding record bringing honor and pride to Newport News public schools and the City of Newport News and again it is signed by all members of the board and the superintendent I also like to note that Miss Anderson
012is a USA Wrestling All-American and is the 20th best 126 PB wrestler in the nation wow [Applause] and I understand she's preparing for World qualifiers to be held in April congratulations okay we're gonna take a quick picture here okay we we all get picture they said take picture tonight's state championship recognitions are just the beginning in the coming weeks we know there'll be other celebratory events to commemorate these talented student athletes we do want to take a moment though to acknowledge their family members um that are present this evening would you stand to be recognized the family members of our thank you very much thank you for joining us I'd also like to thank uh the Woodside principal Dr Mary harsey for joining us and assistant principal Michael Bellamy thank you the Woodside Athletic Director
013coach Paul backin in the back there and our director of Athletics Lee martink thank you for your presence and support this evening again congratulations to all of tonight's honores we'll take a short break and during this time our viewing audience will have opportunity to view this month's Schoolboard Spotlight and during that time we're going to take the team picture as well so we'll stand in recess for about 9 minutes thank [Applause] [Music] you [Music] get ready to fuel your future with science introducing cyac starting the week of March 25th Fifth and eighth graders in Newport News public schools are invited on a science and engineering adventure and the journey starts at home build and experiment and Tackle challenges headon from constructing circuits to designing catapults or conducting scientific investigations this is not homework it's a
014step towards a future as Limitless as your own creative potential cpacs are imaginative engaging inventive and best of all absolutely free Newport News Public Schools brings the Journey of Discovery home through cypac delivering an educational experience for the whole family students from Heritage High School are helping Nome Park Elementary students make the grade as part of their community service Outreach Cadets and heritage's navy Junior Reserve officer training Corps visit Nome park each month to tutor select students in jrc Cadets work with third grade students to reinforce classroom instruction in reading and liter y as they prepare for their first year of so testing along with helping students towards academic success the Heritage Cadets hope to encourage the young Navigators to become mentors themselves when they reach high school the academic partnership began in November and
015students are already showing improvements in the classroom Cadets take turns volunteering each visit to give them all an opportunity to grow as productive citizens and acquire valuable volunteer hours to earn the Community Service ribbon award and for Cadets that are also enrolled in heritage's University magnet program these service hours help them fulfill their necessary graduation requirements by partnering together students at Nome Park and Heritage are building valuable relationships and gaining skills that will last a lifetime Love is in the air at Rich Neck Elementary but it's also covering the doors with hearts decorating every classroom entryway this February the Rich Neck family was invited to cover our doors with love early in the month every raccoon was sent home with a paper heart students were encouraged to decorate the hearts and write kind messages to
016their teachers friends or any staff member parents also participated by writing messages of support to their student teachers thanking them for all their heart work and dedic teachers wrote many inspiring and encouraging messages to their students and staff members also encouraged one another by placing hearts on their co-workers doors to lift them up and boost School morale as the hearts poured in classes decorated their doors with some even placing hearts on their desks as a reminder of how much they are cared for and loved by their teachers and Friends cover our doors with love was a simple activity to complete but small gestures can leave meaningful lasting memories together the Rich Neck family made kindness and love a priority which will long be remembered student teams from across Newport News Public Schools competed in an
017elementary engineering design challenge to build a working Lighthouse organized by the instructional stem team each Elementary School selected four person teams from fourth and fifth grade raised to participate at Newsome Park Elementary home of the science technology and math magnet program after receiving the criteria and goals for the Sea of light themed challenge the student teams split up their workload two students worked as civil engineers to construct a lighthouse with specific height requirements meanwhile the other two members learned about electrical engineering to properly construct a battery powered light to assemble inside their school's lighthouse since the US Coast Guard maintains certain lighthouses they were the community partner for this specific challenge at any point during the challenge students could ask for help from the US Coast Guard members in attendance there were also high school
018students from heritage's Governor's STEM Academy who assisted the young Engineers as they safely constructed their lighthouses at the end of the allotted time the team's Creations were judged and scored General Stanford earned third place Yates came in second and Rich Neck shown brightly as the top winner among all Newport News elementary schools Discovery STEM Academy hosted an evening event to make healthy choices fun for the whole family while celebrating National family engagement month and American Education week over 100 students and their families attended Family Fitness night as families moved throughout the school they were invited to particip ipate in a dozen activity stations hosted by Educators and Community Partners each station promoted movement while reinforcing academic Concepts many of which can be replicated at home for families to grow and learn together families combined ingredients
019to create their own healthy trail mix played games with an athletic twist and completed math problems to see how many exercises they needed to complete a Family Fitness passport helped students keep track of their progress and the completed sheet could be turned in to receive some fun prizes thanks to Family Fitness night families are learning the value of making healthy choices during the month of February your favorite neighborhood historian brings you valuable and interesting facts about local black history for the past few years Shonda tab a seventh grade social studies teacher at Washington Middle School has produced informative video shorts about some of the influential people historical landmarks and black history events that happened right here in Hampton Roads each week she produces multiple videos sometimes traveling beyond the walls of Washington Middle School to
020share a wealth of cultural and historical knowledge this year her videos have focused primarily on the school's namesake Booker T Washington and his impact on our community and the nation Washington students help her with many of the videos either working behind the scenes recording and editing or starring in the videos that are shared on social media by getting students involved Shonda tab makes history exciting and relevant for her Scholars and by sharing these videos for all to enjoy our favorite neighborhood historian helps us realize that black history is American history in addition to ensuring a safe ride for all students Newport News Public School transportation department aims to create a cleaner healthier and more costeffective ride for students and staff in NPS was awarded $525,000 through the Environmental Protection agency's ongoing clean School Bus Grant
021this money will be used to continue upgrading the bus fleet by replacing 15 older diesel buses with new propane school buses 153 propane buses already Drive students to and from school daily in Newport News with these additional buses propane fueled school buses will represent over 50% of the 318 buses in Newport News compared to diesel propane is a cleaner burning fuel reducing harmful pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in addition to the environmental benefits there are many advantages for our students the reduced emissions mean healthier air for students and staff to breathe while on and around buses while the quieter ride helps students arrive at School calmer and ready to learn studies show that schools experience improved student attendance and academic achievement thanks to a more comfortable bus ride the reduced noise of the propane powered
022engines also benefits bus drivers who are more aware of important situations both inside and outside the bus propane fueled buses are also cost effective through through reduced fuel prices and less maintenance by embracing alternative fuel options for our school buses Newport News Public Schools continues to make Forward Thinking changes that benefit our students staff and [Music] community I mean was okay years ago I hope you 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 as advertised citizens May submit comments via email up to 30 minutes prior to our meeting time to be included in the official meeting record for those of you joining us in
023person the board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments please understand that we will consider your concerns we ask that you comply with our three minute time limit as you begin your comments a green light will come on a yellow light signals that you have 30 seconds remaining and a red light and a beep indicates your time is up and this evening we do have a pretty hefty stack of of cards we will go for 30 minutes and then we will pick up with the our agenda and then we will complete the the cards near the end of our meeting so as your name is called please come forward first card I have is Reverend Natalie Chamberlain good evening I'm pleased to be able to address you again this evening I'm Reverend Natalie
024Chamberlain pastor of Hilton Christian Church a congregation who welcomes and Embraces people of all genders and gender identities I'm a citizen and a resident of Newport News I've been addressing this board as pastor but I have not asked you to hear to my faith perspective since this is a secular body or should be there are truths in Scripture that are more Universal than any faith tradition and tonight I would like to share one of those with you I recently heard someone say that they would rather their child died than be trans I did not hear it here but the negating of a trans child identity is akin to such thinking I offer to you wisdom as articulated by Solomon in First Kings two women came to the king and stood before him one woman said
025please my Lord this woman and I live in the same house and I gave birth while she was in the house then on the third day after I gave birth this woman also gave birth we were together and there was no one else in the house and only the two of us were in the house then this woman's son died in the night because she lay on him she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept she laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast when I arose in the morning to nurse my son I saw that he was dead but when I looked at him closely in the morning clearly it was not the son I had borne
026but the other woman said no the living son is mine and the dead son is yours and the first said no the dead son is yours and the living son is mine so they argued before the king then the king said one says this is my son that is alive and your son is dead while the other says not so your son is dead and my son is a living one so the king said bring me a sword and they brought a sword before the king the king said divide the Living Boy in two then give half to one and half to the other but the woman whose son was alive said to the king because compassion for her son burned within her please my Lord give her the Living Boy certainly do not kill
027him the other said it shall be neither mine nor yours divide it then the king responded give the first woman The Living Boy do not kill him she is his mother does it not seem wise that one who loves another would willingly give up control of that one for the sake of their life may you have the wisdom to choose life for The transgender Who Look to You for their well-being I ask that you vote to regain the power to vote on procedures written by the superintendent when needed and I ask that you return the policy to protect protect trans youth to the policy that truly does protect trans youth thank you Michelle nordine Michelle nordine good evening chairman Surles-Law Dr Mitchell and school board members for those who don't know me my name is
028Michelle nordine and I'm the Newport News council pta's president I would like to give everyone an update on the state of our ptas in our school district this year Council was focusing on PTA increasing our PTA membership Council held a called to membership challenge that ended on February 29th 2024 the PTA at each level with the highest percentage of PTA members based on their student population received a monetary award at council's General me General membership meeting last night um I would like to inform you that Hilton PTA won the elementary division with 48.6% Huntington PTSA won the Middle School Division with 45.4 and War PTSA won the high school division with 9% W just left I mean no that was Woodside sorry I'm confused even though gild Le PTSA didn't win I would like to
029give a shout out to them for having the most PTA members in the district with 257 congratulations to all our ptas for working hard to recruit PTA members I'm thrilled to inform you that we have currently we currently have 3,29 PTA members in the school district if you haven't joined a PTA this school year there is still time to support your local PTA you can join now through the end of the school year an electronic link to take you to our join a PTA website is located on our Facebook page or you can Google Newport News Council PTA and our website is the third result either one will take you to our web page where you can find a PTA to join I am delighted to inform you that we that we have 30 out
030of 35 active units have submitted all the required documents to Virginia P to be in compliance these are requirements from Virginia PTA that local ptas must meet to keep their nonprofit status I would like to let everyone know that Council scholarship application is ready each year Council gives graduating seniors from each of our high schools the opportunity to apply for Council scholarship the requirements are listed at the top of the application since this is a PTA scholarship the applicant must be a PTA member last night council Council handed out 15 um reflection Awards eight of our entries were forwarded to the state level a student from Hilton Elementary won honorable mention at the state level um thank you for this opportunity and thank you for your support in making every child's potential a reality Eric
031Burton good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the school board my name is Eric Burton I'm a bus driver for no school system I'm also a treat driver for one of our schools I'm also on our student well I'm also on our rights and responsibility committee along with a union representative in the upcoming conference and also State Delegate I have over 10 years years of Transportation experience ranging from school system theme parks Transit and truck driving we need your help on fixing our transportation system we have every day students that get on these buses and we are expected to watch them Mentor them make sure they get their home and to school safely but this is very hard we're losing drivers faster than what we can recruit them part of the reason is we don't have
032access to Synergy we are one of the few departments that still do a paper referral due to that when they are turned in sometimes in order to keep students in our school systems and not to suspend them or do anything with them we take them we throw them in the trash can and then never gets put in we also are still expecting our drivers to drive over 50% of the buses without AC we expect our students to also get on these same buses even when it's 95 or degrees or more outside it's illegal to even put a dog or pets in vehicles like that but we expect our children we also expect these drivers to manage and make sure that there's no fights no bullying pick and harassing between these students while their backs are
033towards them make sure they are not distracted by traffic or other distractions on the road we have parents calling up to our drivers yelling and cursing at them at the bus stops we have to do all this without security or assistance we're by ourselves out there I am willing to help fix our transportation we're asking for yall's help as well thank you very [Applause] much l I think it's lysel Jones lisel Jones my name is lisel Jones I am an English teacher currently at Gildersleeve Middle School um good evening to the good people of Virginia Newport News and apologies due to parents in or Guardians the people that pay taxes at the federal state and local level those tax dollars are in part used to pay the salaries of the superintendent of Newport News schools
034on down and apologies is owed to you because those funds your tax dollars are used for multiple resources our es like the HCS or Hampton City Schools curriculum an apology is due because your notification did not fully Express how radical the curriculum would be an apology is due to you because you were not at the negotiation table to decide whether it would be wise to implement this curriculum change three months into the school year an apology is due because Newport News English Middle School teachers have not been formally trained by an expert from Hampton City Schools who could take us through and model what we need to do in order to actually complete a day's lesson in one day as a result we have pretty we pretty much as teachers have been winging it in
035the classroom yesterday I sat through introduction by Dr Rogers he stated in so many words that it can be hard for teachers to adapt or Embrace Embrace change you deserve an apology because at no time did he speak about parents and our Guardians and how this radical change in curriculum would impact [Applause] you Sabin Rogers good evening thank you my name is Sabine Rogers I'm a parent of an eth grader here at Gilder slave Middle School I'm here today to express my concerns over the change in literary Arts cre ulum and its negative impact on my child's education as a parent we want the best for our children and we want them to be afforded with every opportunity to grow and to learn that's being stripped from her and I need to understand why since
036the beginning of school year she's been enjoying the instruction provided by her English teacher she's being challenged to think outside of the box think critically take initiative encouraged to collaborate with her peers and to listen to others perspectives that came to a halt last week when her teacher was told that she needed to stop differentiating stop adapting stop supplementing the curriculum and follow the script after several phone calls meetings and some research I discovered the curriculum was changed last year and as you just heard October 23 schools are notified November implemented I was also told that this is completely um unusual for normal curriculum changes um although the new curriculum was implemented in November 23 my daughter's teacher continue to differentiate adapt and supplement to meet the needs of the students in our class tag
037teacher with tag students my daughter's teacher was augmenting the curriculum based on guidance provided by Newport News public school gifted Services Program guidance and the administrative code of Virginia in regulations governing Education Services for gifted students which applies to all local St School divisions in the Commonwealth gifted education programs are required by Virginia law as specified in the Virginia administrative codee the code defines appropriately differentiated curriculum and instruction as curriculum that is an instruction that is adapted or modified to accommodate the accelerated learning aptitudes and uh sorry of identified students in their areas of strength it further states that such curriculum instruction be offered continuously and sequentially to support the achievement of student outcomes and provide support necessary for these students to work at increasing levels of complexity that differ significantly from those in their
038ag- level peers first and and foremost I'm here for my daughter I want to encourage the district to adhere the administrative code set forth by the Commonwealth and Empower teachers like Miss Connell she's having a positive impact on the students in her class the lives of those students and it allow her to continue doing what Newport News public school says is its Mission every day to ensure that students are college career and citizen ready in addition I'm here for all students impacted by this change I've seen the curriculum it lacks consideration for the fact just like each individual in this room we take in information differently we process differently and learn differently I implore you to vet the instructional material that has been implemented engage teachers in that conversation allow the teachers in the district
039the professionals to do what they do best thank you heather westimer hello good evening hello I'm here on behalf of countless co-workers staff and friends who currently feel overwhelmed as we've been embarking on new territory to those who might feel discouraged as division-wide initiatives fall upon many teachers backs I come here as a Newport News Public School alumni a parent and a teacher my learning Target is to persuade our School Division Vision to work toward retaining more teachers for the subsequent school year by sharing some possible changes that can be considered for implementation and that would fall under English so strands 5.1 and 5.7 for PLC purposes over the past few years it's become apparent that our division required some new trajectory after the shootings last year and evident gaps in our elementary literacy curriculum
040attempts had to be made to help our division however after teaching the division for over 15 years I don't believe I've had the opportunity to teach the same literacy curriculum more than two years in a row my issue is not solely with the new curriculum because any curriculum can have advantages or disadvantages but at least this is consistent and it contains many resources in my experience my struggle been with the abrupt implementation and contradictory messages provided once the curriculum was initiated with the roll out being in October teachers were provided excuse me teachers were at the High of routines being established and cemented since adoption of the new curriculum many teachers are experiencing limited unencumbered planning trusting the expertise of our staff almost all planning periods contain administrators and related staff documenting our time collaborating
041in addition nnps has started so many committees committees in an attempt to help that co-workers are often on two some staying after school multiple days a week all this in addition to adhering to new unit plans and lessons has been overwhelming for many Educators I believe our new curriculum would overall be better embraced with less rigidity inflicted on pacing and data from the start of the newly adopted curriculum contradictory messages about our ability to adjust the lessons have been presented at least four times we've been told from academic advisers and the detto team to either personalize and supplement or teach the lessons as is with the most recent request last week from our chief academic officer off requesting staff compliance with teaching the curriculum and the associated assessments on the topic of Assessments students take
042numerous weekly common assessments and at the close of the quarter there might be days where all students do is test online that day teachers are expected to have at least 95% test participation and these scores are St shared at our staff meetings compared comparing our grade level assessments to division-wide scores the idity and data collection doesn't encourage us working at PACE with our students doesn't allow us to differentiate and enrich this hyperfocus on data is not encouraging for students and teachers who are still adapting to new Norms I'm thank you thank you and may I pass along a persuasive writing from one of my fifth graders sure thank you thank you Cindy Connell good evening my name is Cindy Connell I teach 8th grade tag English at Gildersleeve Middle School I'd like to share with
043you some facts and opinions about the new mandated Middle School English curriculum facts three years ago I was tasked by my principal to adjust the e8th grade English curriculum so the tag students were being taught at the level of rigor that the division wanted no one in nnps during the course of the last three years has questioned m not using the provided curriculum because I'm teaching the same skills and standards as the curriculum during the first nine weeks of this school year Middle School English teachers were told we had adopted the Hampton City School's curriculum and would be using it beginning in the 2 N weeks as I was still teaching tag I did not begin using the Hampton City Schools curriculum my students have taken every Hampton City School's assessment since this curricular adoption
044and to date we have scored significantly higher than eighth graders across the school system on every single assessment and this is without using the curriculum materials provided by the division gifted students in Hampton City Schools don't even use the curriculum that I'm now being forced to use with my tag students I have tried to voice my concerns using the established channels that Dr Rogers spoke of in his March 13th email one of those channels was a meeting in my school called by one of my colleagues to discuss discuss ongoing concerns teachers have with this curriculum I received an email invite to this meeting but was refused entry to the meeting by Dr Barett now on to the opinion piece I began using the curricular materials two weeks ago I currently feel pushback for advocating for
045what's right for the students I teach this curriculum is not meeting the needs of my students with this curriculum my students are disengaged disheartened and angry I don't blame them I am too I love my job it's not just a paycheck to me it's what I'm meant to do and I'm good at it I put my heart and soul into it being forced to now bore my students with a redundant disjointed slides based curriculum makes me not want to go to work I'm now failing the students I teach I feel as though my hands are being tied and I don't understand why my message is to parents who have a middle school student in the tag program the tag program is dead tag English teachers are now forced to use the same curriculum as every
046other English class in Newport News a curriculum that only has them stare at screens and read excerpts no novel studies no book projects no independent reading no creative writing just slides meant to help them pass a test they don't need any help passing in the first place thank you Adam marrow good evening ladies and good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board um on a completely different note from the important issues that have been raised before I just want to bring something up you've all probably received emails recently at least one uh probably more about the school's policy on trans rights and I just want to point out everyone who sent that email signed a petition but not everyone who signed the petition did there's about 200 people who live in Newport News who signed
047the petition and I out of curiosity a couple days ago I looked up the margins for some of your recent elections some of them were thinner than 200 votes a lot thinner that's all I wanted to point out thank you have a good [Applause] evening Gabriel Marquez uh yes good evening to the ladies and gentlemen in the audience and I wish good evening to the board as well my name is Gabriel Marquez I'm speaking as co-chair of the Tidewater DSA and I'm speaking as a father as well of a young daughter uh I didn't prepare any eloquent words tonight I didn't have time I apologize to my fellows for that so I just like to say um one second yes I like to say that I'm here once again again because you probably seen before
048to ask that the school board amend the policies preventing their taking of the vote to revoke Governor Young's model policies that were undemocratically adopted last year by the superintendent each day that we delay this vote and retain these policies we prolong the psychological harm and Trauma that these students must endure and we increase the odds of physical harm possibly be fallowing them as was a c case in uh for nex Benedict who um tragically passed I have nothing else to say really I'm this um still shocked that no actions have been taken on this and I again Ask the board that actions be taken post haste and until actions are taken I will be here others will be here and we'll continue our campaign thank [Applause] you okay we will now move on to section
049three the consent agenda which includes 3.01 minutes from the regular meeting from February 20th 2024 3.02 minutes from the work session February 20th 2024 3.03 minutes from the special meeting February 2024 3.04 Financial reports including the revenue report for February 2024 the expense report for February 2024 the Child Nutrition reports for February 2024 3.05 the Personnel report 3.06 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 presented do I have a second second thank you Mr Harris any discussion Madam clerk please call the rooll Dr best Mr Brown for Mr Harris for Mr Mr Hunter four Mrs aler four Mrs aan four Mrs stles law four motion carries 70 thank you and the next item on our agenda
050is section four action items on the agenda this evening is 4.01 the proposed 2024 2025 operating budget Dr Mitchell thank you madam chair as you know Scarlet MTO has shared the superintendent's proposed budget at our previous meeting and tonight tonight we will be asking you to vote on it but prior to that Miss MTO will come forward um to give an additional overview thank you miss m thank you good evening Madam chair Madam co-chair members of the board and Dr Mitchell tonight we will bring to you the superintendent's proposed fiscal year 2025 operating budget for board's consideration and approval this spending plan will support the goals and Visions set by the school district strategic plan Journey 2025 okay and the priorities we have identified during this budget cycle as we stay the course I just
051want to mention it does take a village um at this time I'd like to personally thank our executive and Senior leadership teams department heads my budget staff and human resources for all the support and hard work that it has made it possible to bring a balanced budget for approval tonight I also want to give a shout out to the city manager and City Finance for their support during this process for the superintendent's proposed fiscal year 2025 budget we are projecting total revenue of$ 3866 million this projection includes an increase of State funding of 1.7 million a city request of 3.5 million and no change expected in federal or other revenue for a total increase over fiscal year 24 of 5.2 million we continue to make compensation a priority to ensure we can attract and retain
052the most qualified staff the superintendent's proposed budget includes a general staff increase of 2% maintaining the division teacher scale with 1.5% between steps between 1 and 30 increasing teacher pay starting pay to 53,000 and funding as funding permits Provide support staff compression adjustments during our budget planning process we have identified 18 positions funded by Grant that we need to fund now and operating as this grant support is ending this year eight family engagement Specialists to ensure we have supported all elementary and middle schools and 10 technical support Specialists to ensure we are able to properly support the classroom onet toone technology the intent is to repurpose vacant positions on the associated funding to have a net increase to the operating Bud budget of zero taking into consideration public and Schoolboard feedback on the super superintendent's
053proposed operating budget we went back to the drawing board on the health plan recommendation after reviewing our options we have determined the health care cost increase of 133% and Associated increase to the school board premiums can best be offset by healthc care plan changes and therefore we are no longer recommending an increase to employees health insurance premiums for Health Plan year 2025 so all employee Healthcare premiums will remain unchanged for the plan year 2025 balancing this superintendent's budget was a combination of decreasing operating expenses and pulling out Capital items to be considered by the city for cash support beginning with Personnel a 2% salary increase for all staff is an increase of 5.6 million eight family engagement Specialists and 10 Technology support Specialists is an increase of 1.4 million reduction in 27 teaching position is
054a savings of 2.3 million an increase in Health Plan cost to the school board is estimated to be 2.4 million and a Health Plan design change assumption is a decrease of 400,000 City pension increase of 1.5 million other post benefits a decrease of 300,000 Virginia retirement premium reduction of savings of 900,000 for non-person Contract Services Savings of 1.6 million New Horizons increase estimate 200,000 Fuel and utilities increase 300,000 educational materials increase 500,000 turnover and attrition a decrease of 5.3 million a one-time savings cost of 1.1 million in addition uh City cash request for operations and maintenance of 5.8 million a city cash request for safety of 3.6 million a city cash request for technology of 600,000 for non one:1 technology and a city CIP cash um change of 2 million for student computer refresh and
055includes keeping the bus replacements for 2 million a total budget to approve tonight includes the general fund 386 million 59625 workers comp 2,328 486 textbook fund 6, 13,526 Child Nutrition Services 2,777 529 and for a total of $420 m755 at this time I can take any additional questions you may have regarding the superintendent's proposed fiscal year budget board members do you have questions okay may I please have a motion to approve the proposed 2024 2025 operating budget Madam chair I move to approve the fy2 proposed budget in the amount of 420 milon 7 $7 5,566 do I have a second I second great and any discussion U Mr Brown Madam chair just a I guess a point of question in terms of where the state is where their budget um so should we pass this
056budget tonight this is not necessarily the end um do we have any ideas of just a general idea of the timeline when we'll have a final budget from the state we have to pass a budget because we have to have a budget by the end of the month and then when the governor approves his budget we will be back for an update and um a recommendation to how to manage the change okay great okay so this is round one of round one round way put it that's right other other questions at this time miss m I just really want to thank you for all the hard work this was a budget I was dreading because it's at the point that we are done with car's act funding and as much as we want to say
057we didn't rely heavily on it because we knew it would go away it was hard not to for the adjustments and changes that we needed to do during a tough time so hats off to you and uh the superintendent I know I called several times and you all were meeting and I knew you were doing the hard work of the division so thank you for that you're welcome Madam clerk please call the role my pleasure Dr best four Mr Brown four Mr Harris four Mr Hunter four Mrs aler four Mrs Aman for Mrs Sur law for motion carry 70 thank you the next item on our agenda is 4.02 the 2425 proposed school calendar Dr Mitchell thank you again Madam chair as you know uh Miss Tracy Brooks has come before you previously to um
058present the proposed calendar just as a reminder Miss Brooks does work with a committee that has people various stakeholders on it um you've had an opportunity as you continue to have one but you've had an opportunity to ask questions it was posted uh Miss Brooks did respond to each person that had any inquiries any questions about it and at this time we would ask that the board consider adopting the proposed um calendar for next school year okay may have a motion to approve the proposed school calendar Madam chair I move to approve the 2425 school year proposed school calendar thank you do I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion Madam clerk please call the roll Dr best Mr Brown Mr Harris Mr Hunter Mrs algeron for Mrs Aman for Mrs Surles
059law for motion carries 70 thank you for that vote we will move on to section five reports and information 5.01 special education annual plan Dr Mitchell who do we have before us this evening we have before us Miss Vivian vulo who is the director of special education she will share the proposed spending plan for funds that are allocated for special education as you are aware this special education plan is an annual plan and it is is Guided by specific requirements that are embedded in the presentation so thank you Miss vulo and weing we anxiously await your presentation good evening chairman Sirles law Vice chairman best board members and Dr Mitchell tonight's presentation is an annual requirement to inform the board of the proposed spending plan for funds allocated by the federal government based on the
060requirements outlined in the application local education agencies are required to submit this application each year pursuant to the federal provisions of the individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 as well as the state regulations governing special education and related services for students with disabilities prior to the submission of the plan the Virginia Department of Education requires that the local division present its plan to the local school board for approval and for review by their local special education advisory committee we are required to assure that we are providing a free appropriate public education that each students program is designed for them and is documented on an IEP and that students are educated in an inclusive environment to the extent extent that their educational programming permits finally we must maintain a structure that prevents the overidentification of students
061in special education in general or in specific categories we currently serve students in each of the 13 disability categories our federal funding is based on the number of students with disabilities receiving services on December 1 on December 1 2023 we were serving a total of 3,676 students with disabilities currently we are serving 3,796 students which reflects an increase of 120 students since December in addition to the assurances the annual plan requires that the division submit information on expenditures and some selected programs for maintenance of effort eligibility we make sure we are budgeting at least the same amount on special education supports as was spent in the year maintenance of effort was most recently met included in the selected programs is the local jail program where services are provided by licensed special education teachers to students
062with disabilities who are currently incarcerated another component of the plan is the supports for students with disabilities parentally placed in private schools including homeschooled students for which we offer special education services it is important to note that the administrators from the private schools collaborate with our staff to identify the provisions of special education services to be made available to the parentally placed student in previous years the decision has been to offer speech language services to those students who are found eligible in addition we collaborate with these programs to offer professional development and to and assist families with child find the last component is the funding expenditures it is separated into two sections 611 for prek through 12th grade and 619 for preschool special education only state and federal state federal and local funding support the
063special education program in its entirety the individuals with disabilities Education Act 611 and 619 combined represent nearly 7.3 million of the overall funding we are proposing to continue to utilize this funding for personnel including a parent resource coordinator which is required by the state and extended school year services for those qualifying students approximately 126 positions are supported by this grant I would like to close out this presentation by sharing some of the highlights from the office of special education and student Support Services during the 2023 2024 school year professional development opportunities included in-person and On Demand options for special education teachers instructional assistance and long-term substitutes in-person professional development focused on strengthening skills in the identification and implementation of specially designed instruction we are working with our fifth cohort of special education teachers and residency
064which includes five pre-service special education teachers I also want to highlight Our Community Partnerships through project search and in partnership with Canta and Fort Eustace we continue to provide our students with authentic experiences to develop workplace skills interns participating in these programs boast a success rate of nearly 90% in gaining competitive employment upon completion of their internship our partnership with the Department of Aging and rehabilitative services enables us to provide our students with both virtual and in-person participation in career exploration programs through which students explore career interests develop Independent Living skills and complete a vocational assessment the special education training and technical assistance center at the College of williiam and Mary partners with us to provide our staff with targeted professional development focused on specially designed instruction during the next board meeting on April 16th
065we will be seeking your approval for the of the proposed plan and will submit it to the Virginia Department of Education no later than May 10th this concludes my presentation and I am happy to provide additional information of needed thank you very much board members do we have questions at this time thank you very much for your [Applause] report the next item that we will cover is the 5.02 new and revised policies so Dr Mitchell thank you very much Miss Tracy Brooks is going to come forward at this time to uh share with you some reviewed and revised policies and procedures thank you Miss B great good evening Madame chairman Madam Vice chairman members of the board and Dr Mitchell of the 37 policies procedures and Exhibits that the school divisions policy committee reviewed and
066posted on board docs it is a pleasure to share highlights from eight of the revised policies and procedures with you this evening all of the documents were reviewed or reved advised by the policy committee which includes two school board members principales teachers administrators and our school board and School Division attorneys now the policies and procedures that I will share with you this evening are a part of the fiveyear review of our 11 policy chapters that contain over 400 policies many of which also have implementing procedures and Exhibits we are excited to begin the review of the second policy chapter in the fourth year of our timeline which will be the chapter on students and now I would like to highlight five of the policies and the the procedures that the committee reviewed or revised they
067range in subject area from administrative transfers to student admissions to student fees and charges and I'll take just a moment to speak briefly to each of them our first policy addresses the goals and priority objectives in the student chapter that were updated to align them with the goals in the school division strategic plan the students rights and responsibilities handbook and Our Youth Development initiatives the goals and objectives promote rigorous and relevant learning experiences support safe School environments and establish clear expectations for student Behavior next is a procedure that addresses the administrative transfers of students from one school to another another to ensure that the procedure adequately reflects the administrative transfer process currently in place we added four transfer approval categories to the procedure so transfers may be considered as space allows for one students residing
068on a military installation or a military housing which we are required to do by federal law two for the sibling of a student already attending the requested school three for fifth eighth or 12th grade students who are currently enrolled in a school but have moved outside of the school zone during the year and four for a program not offered at the students Zone School such as Roc Latin or dual language immersion we also added that families are responsible for providing transportation to and from school for students on an administrative transfer this next procedure addresses the health require ments for students enrolling in the school division we updated the procedure to add the state copr provision that a physical examination is not required for a student whose parent or Guardian objects on religious ground and the
069student shows no visible evidence of sickness we also added a provision for students experiencing homelessness who cannot furnish the required medical records these students will be referred to the school division's homeless liaison who will assist them in meeting the physical examination and medical records requirements and in keeping with the St state code home instructed students must comply with the same imization requirements as students who are enrolled in the school division in our admission of non-resident students policy we added language regarding children of full-time School Division employees who do not live in Newport News but are seeking enrollment in the school division as our practice has been for several years the School Division will wave tuition annually for the children of non-resident employees for initial and continue enrollment if specific conditions are met which are outlined
070in the procedures of the policy such as requiring students to remain in good standing regarding attendance and behavior and as space allows in the requested school now currently students who have been suspended or spell from another School Division are not permitted to enroll in Newport News schools during the period of their suspension or expulsion we expanded the admission of suspended and expelled students policy to prohibit students who are facing Community charges and other school divisions from enrolling in Newport News schools these students will be referred to our school divisions program administrator for student conduct and discipline who will investigate their situations and render a decision on when the the students may be eligible for enrollment next for students excuse me for students who are enrolling who are entering Newport News schools from other school divisions
071at the high school level this policy addresses the placement of those students in classes and the course requirements that are required for each specific grade classification Additionally the revised policy removes the requirement for students to be enrolled in or have pre previously passed the English course associated with the students's current grade level as a consideration in assigning the students grade classification this next policy addresses administering medications to students and was revised to align it with a standing order from the Peninsula Health District so in addition to authorize and train School nurses and public Heth Health Department employees now are licensed athletic trainers under contract with Newport News schools may also possess and administer albuterol epinephrine and the lock Zone to any student believed to be having an anaphylactic respiratory or overdose reaction on school premises
072during the school day now under this last procedure state law authorizes the school board to charge student fees to recover funds for loss or damage to school division property such as textbooks and Equipment the procedure was revised to allow the school board to charge fees for electronic devices such as student Chromebooks when lost or damaged so in terms of our next steps the revised policies will come before the school board for Action at your April 16th meeting and once approved the revised 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 and I will be happy to respond to your questions or to note your suggestions thank you thank you MERS we have comments at this time any questions yes
073Mr Brown yes so I have a comments about u in regards to jca and JQ uh so in regards to jca it does say that the the assignments will be made in accordance with the uh approved plan by the school board but one of the things that I think the board we should consider is how often we review the plan and or approve the plan so it's one thing to say that we will um have a plan and we'll vote on it but how often will we review and vote on the plan for assignments of children to school yeah fair so I think that's something that we should consider um and then in terms of JQ um recovery fees uh I think the recovery fees that language potentially is too narrow because we do have
074activity fees or cost sharing fees that we include as well in the rights of responsibilities handbook so I think to bring the policy in congruence with all the umbrella fees that we do charge that we should consider adding the cost sharing language to the policy as well so it covers those fees and or or revise our rights and responsibilities handbook to be in congruence with with the policy okay thank you I appreciate that I think we when we initially developed the procedure we based it on the state code requirements so we can definitely reflect our practices in the school division so thank you very much okay other comments or questions at this time so can I um ask um the policies involving student student admissions to school is that um is that something I can
075ask questions about uh at this time am I okay in doing that is that okay um just a question about the uh physical exam is not required uh of any child whose parent or Guardian uh May object I I thought a requirement religious reasons I'm sorry for religious reasons right I I thought it was a requirement for kindergarten entrance is that uh an exception or or does that apply so you mean state law that's it's state law right state law right that's what I was wondering something that we can wave I'll have to check on that Mrs aler I'm just going to say we can we can look that up and get you an answer on that yeah because for kindergarten I thought that was required upon entering school and I wasn't sure if that
076was um this is regarding the waiver for religious reasons you're talking about so I need to look at that and then can weigh in as well so we will check on that kindergarten I was just wondering about that um also the um admissions to school um I would was thinking in terms of uh and I don't know if I'm just um questions I have about individuals who may not have proof of address uh such as individuals who are undocumented when they move into the area I I believe they have to provide um two pieces of evidence uh as far as where they live and I'm wondering if we can look at that um that practice or or um procedure internally and see if we can adjust that um so that uh there's more flexibility such
077as students coming refugees right whether refugees immigrants right un yes or undocumented thank you yes we will do that okay Miss yeah I just wanted to get back to because I and I and the back to the admission to school I know there are except there exemptions like there's medical and that sort of thing because I've practice personally seen that um explain a bit more about the child being home or excused from School attendance are we talking students who are enrolled in like in Newport News Public Schools but they're at home or is this my concern is that's going beyond our scope if we're talking about students who aren't attending our school which specific this is jfp It's the second paragraph it's tited yellow under immunization record okay and I do not have that in
078my spec so I will have to get back with you on that it's the home um instructed student so just making sure we're not going beyond our scope on that okay I will check on that procedure thank you thank you thank you you any others thank you for the briefing we appreciate it obviously we will be in touch yes indeed thank you we'll move on to 5.03 curriculum implementation update Dr Mitchell thank you madam chair this is our final presentation of the night and as you are aware we did make a curriculum shift this year we do feel it is very important to share where we are in the implementation process tonight you will see some areas needing growth you will also see some areas where there has been growth and at this time Dr
079Rogers will provide a curriculum implementation update thank you Dr Rogers thank you Dr Mitchell good evening chairwoman s law Vice chair Dr best school board members and Dr Mitchell again this evening I will provide you with a high level academic update on our progress with curriculum instu instruction and assessment in the presentation I'll share briefly about our progress with curriculum instruction and assessment writing with our streamlining the curriculum project I'll also give you a highlevel overview of how our implementation of the Hampton City Schools and the Newport News Public Schools curriculum implementation implementation and student progress is going lastly I'll share how these elements support our instructional program and Ure ongoing Student Success in our school district what you see in front of you if you remember at your October meeting we shared so accreditation
080data and targeted intervention to address literacy and numeracy at the elementary middle and high school levels and especially in English and science at all grade levels those areas still remain a focus for us and we are paying special attention to our progress at the middle school level in science as well as in English and also as a reminder in the fall we did review the extensive curriculum audit and longitudinal so data and determine that we would make a shift in our curriculum to use the Hampton City Schools curriculum in all content areas in grades K through five as well as in English classes and we still maintain our focus at the middle school level I do think it's important to note that in Virginia our educational system does operate under the guidance of the standards
081of learning and these standards serve as a Cornerstone of our academic expectations outlining what our students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level or course however it's also important to note and understand that while the S so's establish the what of Education the standards themselves our local division holds the Reign when it comes to crafting the how and that is where our curriculum comes into play the curriculum does encompass the instructional materials the resources and the strategies that our dedicated teachers utilize to deliver the content that's outlined in the SS and it's the dynamic framework through which we bring the standards of Life excuse me standards of learning to life in our classrooms so our teachers of students with disabilities our English language Learners and our gifted Learners
082are expected to work collaboratively with teachers and instructional staff in order to differentiate curriculum in order to meet the needs of the Learners that they teach so I do want to focus also on our work with Allison zuda and streamlining our curriculum we've spent a lot of time focusing on the vision of literacy in Newport News as well as with curriculum writing and our team has done a fantastic job with that we're excited to share our progress with our principles on the 12th of April so I want to speak about Fidelity of implementation of the curriculum one of the findings in the curriculum audit was a lack of fidelity of implementation across the School Division across grade levels and across schools at the heart of our educational mission is the commitment to consistency and excellence
083in C curriculum implementation across all of our schools and in order to achieve this all teachers are expected to adhere to either the Hampton City Schools or the Newport News Public Schools curriculum ensuring alignment and coherence in supporting both students and staff throughout our district and it doesn't matter whether they have an IEP whether they're an English language learner or whether they're A Gifted learner teachers are expected to differentiate the curriculum in order to meet the needs for those students that they teach in order to ensure Fidelity of the implementation of the curriculum we maintain a robust system of monitoring and supporting schools to uphold those expectations and this does include monitoring through lesson plans and classroom observations both coupled with actionable feedback and tailored professional development to support teachers that may be having difficulty
084with implementation of the curriculum so by leveraging that feedback loop we can capture the strengths and identify areas of growth in the curriculum implementation and our principles play a key role in that process so for example during our student support team meetings we are diligently adhering to the state's requirements by aligning our curriculum with the standards of learning and we do recognize the importance of this alignment and ensuring that our students receive a rigorous and comprehensive education that prepares them for Success so now I'll share some data with you so as you know we are poting the vows of the Virginia language and literacy screener in place of the Pal's phonological awareness and literacy screener uh this assessment is our midyear assessment what's shown on the screen above data that shows promising increases in and
085key literacy skills to include encoding letter names letter sounds and real world recognition and to support that growth we've implemented targeted strategies in our January professional development including strategies that show teachers how to include explicit instruction giving corrective feedback as well as scaffolding and during our SST meetings we have a direct line communication with Dr Mitchell myself and many other team members to support our schools in problem solving so I want to share a little bit about the reading inventory progress so the reading in inventory is an assessment that's designed to evaluate our students reading abilities how to monitor student reading progress how to set goals for reading growth and match students to books at appropriate reading levels so across grades 3 through 5 there have been notable increases in both Advanced and proficient levels
086both in reading from the fall to midyear grade three saw a significant 28% increase in advanced and a 177% incre increase in proficient levels grade four demonstrated a 12% increase in advance and 10% increase in proficient levels similarly grade five showed a 22% increase a 22% increase in advance and a 15% increase in proficient level these positive Trends indicate substantial progress and growth in students reading skills over the specified period of time and our detall team our department of teaching and learning team is focused on addressing those areas in which we need to continue growth so these data on the slide in front of you show the progress with the Hampton City Schools curriculum at the elementary level and they show the change in student proficiency on formative assessments since we start using the curriculum
087and it's important to not I did not share the specific percentages because these are formative data that are designed to use for adjusting instruction to meet student needs so what I've shown is a change in proficiency so for example in analyzing the elementary Reading Common Assessment data we see varying Trends across grades three through five grade three experienced a decrease of 12% in the percentage of students meeting The Benchmark from the last two unit assessments unit 6 and 7 and a notable decline in of 29% since the first unit four back in October when we began using the curriculum conversely grade four saw a significant increase of 26% in meeting of the Benchmark from the last two unit assessments unit six and seven with a corresponding rise of 14% since the first unit four that
088was given when we started grade five demonstrated more modest change with a 3% increase from the last two unit assessment six and seven since the first and 6% increase since the first unit 4 assessment to address the areas of needing support several action steps have been implement it so for example a recent Hampton City School site visit was conducted on March 6 and allowed our team to review the opportunity to see it in action and whole group and they brought that information back so I want to share some information relative to math Common Assessment data at the elementary level and we've noted significant progress in grades three four and five with notable increases in the percentage of students meeting benchmarks from the first to the most read unit assessments the positive trends that we see
089in grades 3 four and five are indicative of effective instructional strategies that are being implemented with Fidelity as well as with student learning so in response to these findings we've implemented a series of targeted initiatives to further support student achievement and enhance instructional practices for our teachers and those include providing administrators with tools such as the math class observation tool and offering weekly office hours for guidance and support for our teachers and our administrators direct and actionable feedback is being shared with administrators and teachers in order to promote those best practices as well as disc course in math instruction which comes as a direct result of the curriculum audit that we receive additionally we're allocate reallocating resources to provide tier one support at select schools and facilitating ongoing collaboration through bi-weekly Zoom check-ins with our
090math interventionist our elementary science com common assessments and analyzing science data we've observed positive Trends and science performances of across grade three and five grade three exhibited a significant 15% increase in the percentage of students meeting The Benchmark from the first to the last common unit assessment while grade three saw a little more modest increase of 3% over the same period of time for units 6 and 10 in response to those findings we've implemented a series of targeted initiatives to further support student achievement and enhance instructional practices in science so review book review booklets questions and activities have been deployed developed and distributed providing students with valuable resources to reinforce Concepts administrators are also using the science classroom observation or we call it the Scott well State calls it the Scott tool from the Virginia
091Department of Education and Anne Peterson has visited us a few times to lead those trainings with our staff and administrators in order to provide a more focused support our Specialists are actively engaging in those trainings as well and part of the challenge that well I'm G say challenge but as the board back in the fall you all ask us to think about a way in which we can engage our families and community and Science and you should have gotten a little gift bag that promotes our side pack that will go out next week for students to use in grades five and eight so I want to transition to the middle school English common assessments from Hampton City Schools and reviewing the middle school English Common Assessment data used in the Hampton City Schools curriculum significant
092improvements have been noted across all grades in the school division from the first to the most recent common unit assessment that we have access to oops we have access to um grade six demonstrated a substantial 28% increase in meeting The Benchmark while grades seven and 8 showed increases of 177% and 23% respectively to support these positive Trends and reading comprehensive reading comprehension collaborative efforts with reading Specialists are underway to provide targeted support for our grade 6 through eight teachers and this does include modeling planning and inclass support so I want to direct your attention uh to a couple things one for instance when we examine division rankings based on so Pass rates considering all s so's Newport News Public Schools saw an overall pass rate of 54.1% in 2023 which is an improvement from 5142
093per in 2022 and while there's room for growth the upward trajectory reflects our dedication to academic excellence and student achievement in Newport News Public Schools comparatively Hampton City Schools has experienced pass rate of 68.89% in 2023 so showcasing their continuous Improvement efforts and effective curriculum implementation while the challenges remain we are steadfast in our commitment to continuous Improvement by leveraging datadriven decisionmaking and prioritizing student achievement we will continue to enhance the curriculum that we are using and supporting system and support systems for our English language Learners our students with disabilities and certainly our gifted Learners to ensure that every student in Newport News receives a high quality education part of the work that we're doing with Allison zamura is focusing on how do we revise our curriculum k12 and all content areas across all grade
094levels and that work has started that work started back in October uh shortly after we made uh The Adjustment and and the team has done a phenomenal job in making those changes and preparation to all of our curriculum and we anticipate it being a wonderful addition to Newport News public schools so as we work to elevate our educational practices and support our team's capacity in curriculum writing and assessment writing we've embro we embro we've embraced the approach of being what Allison zuda calls wildly consistent and what that means is maintaining a steadfast commitment to consistency and reliability in our efforts ensuring that our actions and support systems remain unwavering and dependable to support our teachers and our students one aspect of being wildly consistent does involve regularly reviewing data and promptly promptly responding to the
095needs of our schools our students and especially our teachers we prioritize just in time deployment of resources during those SST meetings ensuring that assistance is available precisely when and where it's needed most and that's presentent company included and I stand ready to meet with any teacher or principal who has a question about the implementation of the curriculum while we acknowledge that there are areas for growth we are proud of the progress we've made as you can see from the data that I've shared and reviewing and responding to the needs of both teachers and students so with that I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have and I also have members of the team the supervisors who have been just on top of things in terms of making sure that they are prepared to
096write curriculum and assessment in the manner in which it should be done in Newport News Public Schools okay thank you for your very timely report sure uh board board members do you have questions at this time go ahead Dr Dr back okay thank you for your report of course I'm going to start I think about your third slide you talking about um f Fidelity and can you go can you go back to that one yeah the one about Fidelity this one bullet bullet number four um sharing curriculum implementation concerns directly with superintendent Chief academic officer and other departments how is that kind of working I'm I'm just wondering that's powerful it's an extremely powerful so what we've done is we meet with all schools we've been meeting with all schools and we've done at least
097one cycle we're about finished with the second one if we not we finished the second cycle meeting with every school and what every school's been asked to do is bring your data English Math Science Social Studies and let's talk about the consistency let's talk about the assessment what are the strengths what are the opportunities for improvement and more importantly what's been most powerful from those conversations is I think the end we ask them um two things to what degree is the curriculum being implemented in your school and they're quite honest you know 100% 90% And we talk about the 90% what are the barriers associated with the 10% that aren't implementing the curriculum and how can we help and they're very very candid and honest with sharing that and sometimes that means I have new
098teachers I have guest teachers I have substitute teachers I need some support immediate and we're able to because we meet all together to immediately deploy support so sometimes happens that same day we're out sending instruction Specialists or coaches or sometimes supervisors actually into the building to provide some support at least have a touch point with that teacher to say hey let's schedule some time and I can come in and help you with planning um another powerful piece of that is at the end one of the last things that we ask them to do is tell us what you need and and in those instances they're very specific and very candidate candidate about sharing what their needs are and it you know sometimes it's asking for additional staff and we you know put that in our
099parking lot um and sometimes we're able to provide them with some additional uh staff support in terms of tutor or uh some additional support in the classroom uh so those conversations have been extremely powerful in addressing some of the um pieces of information that they see based on the data in terms of support at that point in time so we again we meet with elementary middle and high school we certainly start with our schools that have the greatest level of need first and then work backward and Dr Rogers if I can also add there are multiple principles in the room at a time so they sometimes are learning from each other so while I might have a certain thing on my list that I need and then I hear you after me then I may
100come back and say oh that sounds like a great strategy or that sounds like something that I could use that I hadn't thought about corre and I think it's important as Dr Rogers said there are many people in the room there are supervisors there are there are there's someone from Human Resources right there so that if a school says I need X Y and Z HR is in the room to be able to say let's figure out how we might be able to make this happen Okay I M Mrs aler and I we go and visit the schools and one of the things that we ask teachers is how is it going and for the most part um with the exception of the implementation they all have something to say about the implementation pretty much
101but they're kind of over that now they say it's going pretty well um but we've seen a little um I'm trying to think of the word well differentiation um because we have seen some things such as anchor charts and things like that not not everywhere but some places so it's overall though it they they struggled initially I'm just giveing you the honest feedback but they they kind of turned the corner and and making it work and that's the kind of feedback that we're kind of getting so miss aler you can share maybe something um yes because that's something that we look at I I mean we look at some of the instructional work or looking around uh in the classrooms um but I I'm also curious in terms of so I'm going to switch a
102little bit uh in terms of the uh common assessments and its relationship with the reading inventory so my assumption is that the Common Assessment is on grade level uh that it's written for for example the third graders to read a third grade uh have third grade basically readability yes so if they're um not reading and the reading's not too strong and I'm assuming these are the third graders that uh I think kindergarten correct were uh stayed home right and stayed home for a year and a half I would suspect there's a level of struggle so miss Al I see exactly where you're going and I've raised the same similar question relative to where students are with the Hampton City School's curriculum and the common assessments you see a disproportionate relationship between third grade and fourth
103and fifth grade conversly to what the reading inventory shares we attribute that to a couple of things one to what you just shared two to Fidelity of implementation and being able to navigate whole group instruction and a small group instruction and having 95% of the students actually take the assessment so that it's reflective of what um of is reflective of the actual cohort of students that took the assessment so for example uh sometimes it's challenging to if you if you have a class of I use middle school as an example if a class of um 100 students in total you have four classes of 25 in each student in each uh class if you only assess 80 students get to assess for that particular assessment and you have 20 students that didn't get a chance
104to take the assessment uh for whatever reason absences or what have you if uh by the time you get your data back and you only have uh 60% of your students meeting The Benchmark that was set you still don't know how the 20 students who uh didn't get a chance to to assess uh in terms of how to meet their needs so that also may be true for the third grade students because of just where they are in terms of those students the number of students who completed the assessment okay early on so they may have shown growth based on the reading inventory which is a positive thing but they're not reading on level yet uh uh I don't want to say that I would say that it it's attribute to Fidelity of implementation and
105and navigating the change because the mostly uh for third grade in the um the earlier unit assessments unit four if I'm not mistaken in five there were some challenges because it was a new curriculum and getting used to um the assessments that were associated with it okay okay okay additional questions one other question terms of the 95% completion on the local assessments if you could just talk to how why is that important uh you know especially for any teachers that are watching and and how it's important what it compares to previously because I recall previously I asked this question yeah um last year about our local assessment then the completion rate was not 95% it was much lower and how did that affect us and our ability to assess the division Mr Brown that's a
106really great question and it's one that you know if any of the principles could probably share you know what would Dr Roger share um it's we got to know what kids are knowing and what they're able to do in order to be able to help them and if we don't know what they know and are able to do then it's hard for us to help them uh the 95% complete rate is not anything that we made up it's an expectation it's a national expectation for any national assessment you're expected to have 95% participation and rational behind that is if you only have 80% of the students completing any assessment then how do you know whether the 20% are relative to what they know and are able to demonstrate that they're able to do um it's
107an expectation that's National same thing holds true here um if we don't know where our students are with the assessments common assessments that were given based on what should have been taught then it's hard for us to deploy our resources our coaches our instruction Specialists Based on data if you've got 20 students that don't know how to add and subtract fractions how do you know you don't have 20 students you you have students that don't know how to add and subtraction add and subtract uh if you don't have data to support what you're doing otherwise you can still provide remediation and support um but it's so much better if you're able to have some data uh where students are able to demonstrate the first time that they understand um what should be taught so that's
108the rationale behind the 95% now um there's a date by which we extract data at the district level so we can have the SST conversations about um you know you have 70% of your algebra students understand the skills that were taught in unit five what about the other 30% we may not have those data right now at that point in time and the bonuses on the school to make sure that they understand where the 30% that did not have the assessment completed for whatever reason absenteeism or uh whatever other conflicts that school is responsible for finding out what skills those 30% of the students that didn't get to take that assessment need so that they can offer support at the school and then communicate with us the support that they need to help the 30%
109of the students Mr Harris I think that last statement um at at what point do we take that responsibility from the principles if need be or probably not if we need 95% of the assessment I mean shouldn't um I guess directors or whatever the case may may be able to make that call and say hey you know what we need 20% you didn't do it uh let's go do the assessment so schools do have that flexibility what we do is um and often times they'll um send an email say hey can you open up the window because we had uh class was on the field trip you know so it's not finite uh that they can't you know assess um and uh because sometimes they have very short window of time before we have conversations
110so that we can help them um then you know they have to do that work um back at the school level and then we end up circling back back and and offering support based on um certain situations where they have to to recapture some of the students that weren't able to assess and I I will just add as you said Mr Harris our directors and executive directors they are in the meetings oh yeah with us and so they are very much aware of which schools are not hitting the 95% and once they leave the meeting with us then they have individual conversations with the principals about what your plan to to assess these students I think a really good example of that is uh our secondary Mass supervisor has had an aha moment at one
111of our last data discussions where she was comparing um the algebra unit assessment during this time of year as compared to last year and what she found was that the there were over 300 students that did not assess last year uh as compared to the number that assessed this year and the um the number of students who met the Benchmark was marketly different between the two years which made her wonder where were those other 300 students in terms of that skill and had we known at that point in time could we have done something earlier rather than waiting to expedite them once uh the so assessment so it's those kind of conversations that are powerful and taking place um because it so you I know it's a little bit of a culture shift in terms
112of you know the assessment piece um an assessment piece is something that we constantly have conversations about and it's intentional um to make sure that we are able to provide support we have a whole lot of people that are super smart that are able to help our teachers and our principls figure out what our students needs are before the end of the school year so we can catch what the needs are uh all along the way and at the end of the school year there is an expectation from the state that at a minimum 95% of students that's an expectation we have expectation and we'll deal dealing with some issues right now as a result of not meeting that expectation previously previously sure other questions up yes Amon um a couple one was I I
113believe there was a timing difference and roll out of different grades the curriculum so I don't know could that help shed some light on the reading Common Assessment changes um and then with so many assessments are there different forms in which they're given you there may be students who aren't strong assessment takers they might need a more one-on-one versus logging on to do it so kind of what's being done to get the real information on how the students doing versus whether they were just having a bad day or just that's not they need maybe additional assistance and sure well it depends on a grade level and it certainly depends on whether a student has accommodations or not to take an assessment uh a different way we certainly follow the law and make sure that we
114are meeting the students needs uh relative to assessment and those the conversations that are held uh at the building level um to have conversations with the principal and other instructional leaders if a student needs a a different um Avenue in which they can take the assessment the expectation still that they assess on the skills that were taught but the manner in which that done is highly independent to the student if needed and then any information you can share on when the curriculum changes were rolled out and how that may have impacted our reading assessments for which grade like three to four so there was a staggered roll out based on where they were in the existing curriculum and I don't have that information directly with me Lori can you I don't I think it was
115just where they were in the curriculum at the time and then we didn't want to push it all at once that was finished one un before they start so sto with the UN before they started a new int did th did third start first or fourth start first third fourth and fifth all started the same time same time in Reading okay so I think it was October 8th right literacy started at the new marking Quarter Two beginning of the marking period new unit so they closed up um the N weeks for first n weeks and have other conversations I'm going to shift gears here for just a second have there been conversations Andor collaboration between gifted services and just General the English curriculum as far as differentiating and being able to roll out Hampton and
116keep some of the additional things that's a really good question so I was that's a really good question to the degree to which those conversations have been held um I'll need to get back with you on that I need to meet with Dr beite I've sent her a couple of um emails uh I know I have offered uh to have a conversation and not been able to hold that conversation just yet with uh some members of of the gifted uh teaching staff at the school level uh to see uh what the um what the level of misunderstanding may be because my expectation was that we differentiate for students with disabilities differentiate for English Learners and differentiate for gifted Learners I'm a former gifted teacher at hind Middle School five six years so I always differentiated
117the curriculum based on what I had so I'm struggling a little bit that I think that would be good go ahead last question just for for context um because I think we did have this discussion at the beginning of the year why why why didn't we just wait until next year right um so we we did feel the need to get this rolled out this year but what's the context for there was a need to roll this out this year as opposed to waitting until next year so the I'll go back to my comment we long before I got here there was an extensive curriculum audit that was conducted uh prior to my getting here one of the recommendations that one of the findings was that there was misalignment between curriculum the manner in which
118the curriculum was being delivered people doing their own things and using Teachers Pay Teachers and not following the curriculum as presented and the manner in which students were being assessed that was a huge issue uh one of the recommendations was for us to take a close look at what we were doing um with curriculum at the elementary level in English and in math and at the middle school level in English and the feedback that was received from teachers was profound in terms of um the focus groups that there was a need to have a a great revision uh in that aspect um the other piece is at the middle school level particularly um has had some challenges in l y uh for quite some time so there was a a cry to do something uh
119different U my understanding before I got here uh that Hampton City Schools curriculum was looked at and considered prior to my getting here so I spent uh the better part of the summer pouring through it and I have some familiarity with the curriculum uh in Hampton City Schools just because of um my wife was a principal in Hampton Hampton City school so I was a little familiar with it so I had an opportunity to take a deep dive in I lost a little bit of sleep uh from making the shift and um one of the things that that another thing that the teachers asked was for ease of use and they found our curriculum a little challenging to navigate and wanted something a little easier uh Hampton City School's curriculum while you know I don't
120know that it's better I think it was implemented differently with more consistency and with more Fidelity uh than Newport News Public Schools was of course I know that now um you know hindsight uh and um there was a need for a shift we have schools that are chronically underperforming and I don't know that it's all associated with uh curricular I do think some of the issues and challenges are associated with adults um and not necessarily being compliant and I I don't know that it's always um doing what's right for students I think sometimes some of the choices were doing what's right for adults um so the decision to shift to Hampton City Schools they had a model that's tested and true you saw the data where they stand of 131 School divisions in the state
121of Virginia holistically um we share the same students so a student can be in Newport News Public Schools today and transfer to Hampton City Schools tomorrow and then the next month they can come back to us so we share the same students so the wonder that I have is well what's the difference the difference is the manner in which we Implement what we have access to um so we have super smart people uh who are uh supervisors and hardworking I don't think I've worked with more hardworking people at the central office level especially given the situation that we're in right now uh we just didn't have the time uh to navigate new curriculum based on the data that we had available to us what we did have was a resource next door and a School
122Division who was willing to partner with us shoulder-to-shoulder recognizing the uh situation that we're faced in and recognizing that we share resources and and people uh so the decision was certainly not taken Wily but it was one that was done in the spirit of doing what's right for all students in Newport News Public Schools thank you yeah and can I let's see U Miss Amon you're next I was goingon to piggy back just off on the the Hampton City and I know there's a shift coming at the state as far as what we have to so we had to anyways at some point and we did just adopt additional resources so like what's the vision for how much change that's to create over the summer or is it going to um kind of weave in
123with what we're doing what can teachers and staff kids expect over the summer and coming back next year so at the elementary level we are uh We've adopted thank you adopted our uh Benchmark advance so the team has already started planning uh for that and actually started preparing for that adjustment and uh we expect to be able to share information with our our our teachers very soon uh soon after we come back from Spring break so is not a Wonder in terms of what we have in store for the summer and that they can begin preparing for um fall at the secondary level with um second Middle School English um our team is very much poised to begin doing their their own thing through our work with Allison Z muda and preparing with our curriculum
124and preparing our assessment writing we still have some work to do in that area but uh I feel confident that my team team uh is uh poised ready to go um as I additionally stated when we started using Hampton City Schools curriculum we still have a little bit to go and we are certainly ready to share what we have to get feed well we've gotten feedback from teachers but again we've invited uh all principles as an optional opportunity to come and take a look at what we have in terms of uh our curriculum template and what we're thinking relative to uh ubd and udl uh which is just a format or a methodology of coaching uh curriculum writing and assessment writing so that'll take place on April 12th so um Full Speed Ahead and um
125you know I don't want to share overshare in this venue I'm happy to have that conversation with you after we have some discussion with our team but um they're choing at the bit to do their own thing and I'm tring at the bit to let them uh do their own thing I say them those who are writing actively writing curriculum um because I think we've done the work and the preparation and the study uh and collaboration with Alison zum so it's not um and she's an expert in the field uh of curriculum writing and uh I could be more proud of the the staff here who is who have definitely risen to the occasion and um probably one of the things that I'm most proud of is uh math at the elementary level because that
126was a substantive change uh for them uh completely and totally and as you can tell by the data uh they are certainly um making improvements and uh seeing the increases that we' like to see from the day-to-day basis okay I just yes yes I just want to add that I I think one of um the important things that I'm hearing is that we're operating with one Voice versus perhaps silos and I think that that's important I also feel that a lot of adults do well with feedback if we continuously give feedback and it's positive I think that that to me seems to move the the needle a whole lot um if we take care of our teachers our teachers will take care of our children and that's uh um you know I I truly do
127believe that and with professional development making sure that they have planning time and all those pieces that are critical and their voices uh embedded we certainly should expect uh an excellent year and ending the year uh really well so I just wanted to thank you for for yes um for your presentation it was great yeah any other comments from board members well yes thank you very much for your um presentation and I do hope those additional conversations occur for you all because um the amount of work that you all have put into this uh that needs to be realized by everyone and everybody being on board is is where we need to be um and understand and as you said the differentiation is important uh so I I know that you all will focus on
128that as well so thank you thank you 5.04 attendance report 5.05 membership report 5.06 construction report board members you've received a copy of this report are there any questions okay hearing none we'll move on to item 5 07 comments by the superintendent Dr Mitchell thank you very much Madam chair I will begin my comments this evening by announcing that the youth development department has been awarded a silver Magna award by the national school boards Association for its innovative infrastructure and programming Our Youth Development Department in izes student empowerment and Leadership inclusivity positive School culture and mentoring while teaching important social and emotional skills we do want to congratulate the youth development leadership team as well as our school-based staff who support engage and Empower our students I want to really give a special thanks um
129to our activities directors Youth Development leads empowerment coaches gun violence intervention prevention site directors Live Well student wellness coaches um our school-based club and activity sponsors and then our athletic directors and coaches please keep up the big the good work this award will be officially presented to our team during the national school boards Association conference in April and again it is a national award and we did win a silver um we are shooting for gold I will be honest and say I was disappointed I I thought we should have gotten a goal but we'll take the so this time um this I'm pretty competitive you know um the and this is two years running that we've gotten silver so we we're due for a gold the program will be featured in the April issue of
130the American School Board Journal so we are quite proud um newort News public schools has again been selected as a system of top schools by the Virginia Living magazine the 2024 list appears in the State education section of the April Edition of the magazine it is now in New stands across the state Newport News public schools has been recognized for our commitment to college career and citizen Readiness um they also noted our AP courses dual enrollment Early College stem CTE and our early college uh early careers program which many school divisions do not have which uh supports our students as they move forward in careers and additional education options this is the third year running that Newport News public schools has earned this [Applause] recognition uh we do always want to acknowledge our students three
131of our Odyssey of Mind teams earn topped honor top honors in the 2024 Tidewater regional tournament held on Saturday March the 16th and they will advance to compete in the state finals April 16th in Northern Virginia those teams are from no wood Meadows uh Booker T Washington they earn first place in their problem um and Division and then the team from war High School earned second place and will also advance to the state so congratulations to those teams and we wish them much success our students continue to dominate congratulations are also in order for several of our archery teams during the 2024 Virginia National archery in schools tournament on March the 9th in Doswell Virginia three teams qualified to advance to the Eastern National Tournament which will be held in Louisville Kentucky in May uh
132BC Charles team earned third place fourth um in Bullseye competition fourth place in Bow Hunting 3D competition and will compete at the Nationals in both categories we do have a middle school represented as well elitz Gerald plays fifth in the 3D competition to move on to Nationals and Menchville High School took third place in the bullseye competition and earned fourth place in the 3D competition and they also will compete in the Eastern National Tournament so we wish our archers all the best at National we also have students who advanced from this year's all city um Tidewater science and engineering Fair which was held Mar the 10th at Old Dominion Newport News represented 23 of the 104 projects from the Tidewater region our 28 participating students received a total of 26 awards that is okay and
133at first I thought we we had 20 we represented 23 of the 104 projects and I was like well how do we have 28 students but then I had to remember we have teams we have teams so 28 of our participating participating students received a total 26 Awards so that's pretty amazing that's pretty amazing so congratulations to um all of our student scientists and Engineers please visit our website for the list of our winners because the list is pretty long we also want to acknowledge our students who participated in the artistic versus program in partnership with Christopher Newport University it's the 30th anniversary of artistic verses this year up to 30 students from each High School had the opportunity to view an art exhibition um right here down the street at uh CNU and engage
134in poetry writing with a local poet named um Nathan Richardson students wrote original poems all of the students were invited to read their poetry congratulations to the first place winner Maya pigon from Woodside High School second place winner Ari Frasier from an achievable Dream High School and third place winners there were two there was a TeShanah painter from an achievable Dream High School and Molly weisiger from Menchville High School and lastly just a quick reminder to students families and staff on Friday March the 29th all students dismiss half day and April 1st through the 5th is a spring break all schools and offices will be closed on Monday April the 8th schools are closed for students it is a planning day for teachers so we wish everyone a happy and safe break okay great thank
135you Dr Mitchell we'll move on to item six another opportunity to hear from the public uh there's a lot going on in our school div I am very very proud of the the work we are doing um we have several cards remaining so just a gentle reminder that you'll see the green light at the beginning of your comments uh yellow light at 30 seconds and a red light to please um conclude your remarks so uh Mary boss hello uh Mary vas NNPS teacher uh parent and graduate um thank you to board members for considering a change to board policy in order to require a board vote on controversial procedures as discussed during the February board meeting uh many citizens have contacted the board about nnps's implementation of Governor Youngkin's anti-trans guidance and citizens deserve an
136up or down vote on this procedure and on other controversial procedures to know where their elected officials stand uh please note that we are not calling for all procedural changes to be voted on by the board as this would be time consuming and unnecessary and it is appropriate for the superintendent to implement most procedural changes for nnps independently however when a procedural change leads to Extended public controversy such as in the case of the implementation of Youngkin's discriminatory guidance a board vote is important for public transparency and accountability um also I want to implore the board um to please push back against board or city lawyers who claimed that Youngkin's guidance had to be implemented the numerous Virginia school districts that have ignored or outright rejected Youngkin's guidance proves that this is simply not true
137Richmond Fairfax Prince William Arlington Alexandria Falls Church Hampton Portsmouth Chesterfield henrio and Louden have not implemented Youngkin's discriminatory guidance because it violates federal and state anti-discrimination laws um and none of these districts have faced lawsuits from Youngkin or from Virgin attorney general Jason mayeres however the ACLU of Virginia has filed multiple lawsuits against districts that did Implement Youngkin's guidance um so I would suggest seeking a second legal opinion uh please protect our vulnerable students by making this right uh regardless of questionable legal advice now I'm going to read an excerpt from the March 14th Washington Post article titled in states with laws targeting lgbtq issues School hate crimes quadruple School hate crimes targeting lgbtq plus students have risen sharply in recent years climbing fastest in states that have passed laws and policies restricting lgbtq student
138rights and education a Washington Post analysis of FBI data finds in states with restrictive laws and policies such as Virginia the average number of hate crimes on K-12 campuses has more than quadrupled cardan is a transgender 17-year-old in a conservative Virginia County whose last name was was withheld for safety reasons twice this fall a group of freshman boys at Carden School harassed him for his gender identity uh calling him queer um in a nasty tone he said another time after telling him a pride flag he had tucked into his backpack was pitiful one of the boys suggested suggested cardan should just go die already since his election in 2021 Virginia governor Youngkin uh has encouraged schools I'll stop right there but um Governor Youngkin's policy is causing um uh a anger and uh discomfort for
139Trans students um please uh call on a board vote we deserve to know where our elected officials stand on this issue thank you for your time thank [Applause] .. hi my name is Bentley Manning and I'm an eighth grader at gildersleeve middle school and a tag English student in Miss connell's class I feel there are many issues relating to the curriculum and I feel that Miss connell's tag classes should not be doing the same lessons and content as other standard 8th grade English classes most of my classmates all loved the projects we were doing in Miss connell's class like literature circles fairy tale story writing and first chapter Fridays due to the fact that they are very creative interactive and Hands-On these projects and assignments we were doing I feel as well as many classmates
140and Friends feel they are more beneficial and helpful to our learning rather than doing root words suffixes and affixes in almost every class the rigor of Miss connell's assignments make us think hard while the curriculum makes me not want to think because of how constant and easy it is Miss Connell has grown and enhanced my love for English enormously and I wouldn't give that up I feel that due to her hard work and dedication towards us the students my skills have grown substantially and I will always be grateful I feel that learning the skills are important but what is more important overall is that we know how to apply these skills on so and test day and learning the basics the curriculum is teaching us is simply not enough I want to know and feel
141very confident when going into my English so in high school for that matter that I have the best knowledge of preparedness I can English should not just be about skimming the surface so we know what's on the test we have to pass English is a school I will need to have for the rest of my life and writing essay after essay doesn't help me understand English as a whole but stops me from expanding my knowledge for the future due to the fact an essay doesn't teach me everything I know for a fact that Miss Connell is looking out for her best interest but it seems that you all respectfully are just looking out for whatever will give you the best test results rather than what is truly best for us to students everyone in MC's
142lessons have helped to truly prepare me and my classmates for high school in the future but the curriculum is only trying to prepare me for the next test and for miss connell's classes we all pass those tests that you give us so from my perspective I don't see why if Miss connell's strategies are working well if not better than the curriculum why can't we continue the fun and helpful lessons that she makes the curriculum isn't strengthening my knowledge so why would it be something to continue if it isn't working from students perspectives nobody that I have heard from has taken an interest in the curriculum not only are we constantly doing the same content but some of the content is a bit out of line for example a few days ago we read a part
143of the play teen Mogul and the only word our class could agree on to some of the story was sexual I feel that should not be the type of text displayed to 8th graders I do hope you will consider letting the tag students go back to doing our regular fun activities and still delivering the test results you want as well as eliminating the Cur Factor as a whole thank you so much for your [Applause] time R Harris hello my name is Ryland Harris and I'm an eighth grader at gildersleeve middle school and I am a student in Miss Connell tag English class during the course of starting these new adjustments I have noticed some concerns regarding our new curriculum the context and level of instruction we are receiving seem to be misaligned with the capabilities
144and expectations of a tag English class at our grade level the curriculum seems to be arranged on preparing us for standardized tests and assessments that are not only easygoing but we have also successfully excelled in the repetitiveness of constantly writing essays while an essential skill over overshadows the necessity to engage with new and challenging material that is needed for the growth and Readiness for High School Miss connell's teaching style has been instrumental in enhancing my love for English significantly improving my reading and writing abilities her approach extends Beyond test preparation it inspires creativity critical thinking and a genuine passion for literature and language however the current curriculum constraints limit her ability to fully Implement a more diverse and enriching learning experience which I and many of my peers would greatly benefit from learning the same
145Concepts daily is not beneficial to a thriving educational environment it can lead to a dullness of our learning dampen our enthusiasm for English and potentially cause disengage from the subject itself as bright engaging Learners We crave the opportunity that comes from exploring new ideas and being challenged to stretch our Thinking Beyond the standard Frameworks of English it is important that the curriculum follows Fosters an educational Journey that is not just about excelling and test but nurturing well-rounded individuals who are prepared for the diverse challenges of high school and Beyond we need a curriculum that evolves with us one that recognizes our previous accomplishments and sets a path for new academic achievements if you really cared about our future and success in high school you would prioritize a curriculum that goes beyond the basics and repetitive
146task engaging with diverse and challenging material not only cultivates our learning but ensures that we are well equipped for the demands for higher education in the world outside of school thank you for your [Applause] time my name is Addis jakway I am an eighth grader at goer sleeve middle school and I'm in Miss connell's tag English class recently I have noticed some issues with the curriculum my classmates my classmates and I are in tag English which means we should have more challenging Hands-On and at least different learning activities from the other English classes being stuck doing boring repetitive and repulsive tasks that only focus on a couple skills such as test taking and root wordss do not help me with my future in Miss connell's class we did fun Hands-On creative assignments that helps us
147with a variety of different skills we do different essay writing prompts to prepare us for the irw we learn socializing skills by having partners and working together which is very important especially for jobs in the workplace which our age is very important to practice we are we also watch poetry in a form of March Madness it gets students engaged and excited to learn about something they might not want to that goes for every assignment that she gives us since starting the slides I went back to hating English like I always have Miss Connell had found a way to teach us that doesn't make us make me dress going to school she's an amazing teacher that all of her students are incredibly lucky to have she knows what steps to take to help us grow and
148Miss Connell could easily sit and scroll through the slides it would save her time money and effort but she wasn't she knows that for our good we need to do what she is teaching us she was doing what was better for our future and more advanced classes later in life while we feel the slides are helping us with simple test testing skills and craft we have already excelled in our classes pass all of your state mandated tests with Miss connell's teaching Style isn't that all that you have the drive for us to do pass the tests learn let us learn more about reading passages let us learn more than reading passages and answering questions we are in tag English and need to be prepared for even more challenging English class English classes because most of
149us are not going to be ready for next year honors English doing these slides thank you for your time Karma haer hello my name is kmao and I'm a student in Miss connell's 8th grade tag English class at gild sleeve I'm here today to speak on my behalf of Miss Connell and my peers about the slides the school board wants us to use they are boring and they do not intrigue me and others into learning many and many of my peers for the same this year I have thoroughly enjoyed English and I could say would even be my favorite class because of Miss connel's way of teaching but the school board and the curriculum have taken away the critical thing about this class is that it's intriguing by Miss connell's way of teaching I have
150done my walk kept my grades up and read in her class more than I have read in the last four years the work we have done so far has been repetitive not interesting and rather disturbing what we have learned I have learned in previous grades or could have been taught better by Miss Connell many of the reasons I enjoy Miss Connell CL Miss connell's class is that we are always doing something new or exploring new ways to learn and the slides have been copy and paste making me other making me and others uninterested being uninterested means that we will no longer have the the desire to walk Hard in class and attempt to keep our grades up giving a bad reputation to the school system when we have been getting great grades compared to the
151entire eighth grade district and another reason why the slides are not good for our students is because they do not get changed or checked the disturbing story I read on March 13th 2024 was a play about a 15-year-old girl casually being seduced by an older man using Contex WS such as V my wall I like a woman that eats and talking about going on dates if these slides are going to be used in this material this is inappropriate and not teaching any morals and it's normalizing this Behavior this is gross and unprofessional for the editors to be adding and or not changing this type of walk going forth these slides and their rules take away pure reading time and critical learning SK skills that Miss Connell teaches us such as walking walking in groups with
152people we may or may not like finding other viewpoints using inspiration and the most important thing creative INF factual writing and that actually teaches us life skills the way Miss Connell has been treated for trying to be a good teacher is insane a big problem we have today is kids not attending school for many reasons one being that they are not captivated or engaged because of copy and paste slides like these why would you make um because it's SL of these why would you make things more boring when kids are already bored in closing remarks I would like to say the school system and especially the students would be losing a great teacher sure thank [Applause] you William finker William fer thanks for letting me speak I had something written I don't think it's necessary
153you should listen to the students that have spoken here tonight I do want to read a few things from this the curriculum audit executive summary for key findings and recommendations for English and language arts quote generally the reviewed units had clear evidence that the standards and relative curriculum Frameworks were used to create the units additionally minor and moderate revisions to the number and quality of understandings and essential questions provide an opportunity to increase cognitive engagement for students you have Professionals in this District who know their job please let them do it Lucy Thornton I'm going to present to you a petition formed by Samantha sers signed by 410 of my peers and I will give it to miss sur's law after I make the speech I have prepared good evening my name is Lucy thoron
154and I am here today to talk to you about my English curriculum I am currently enrolled in 8th grade tag English at Gildersleeve Middle School I have been made aware that the school board has decided to implement a new English curriculum apparently the the other English classes have been using this curriculum for 14 weeks my English teacher Miss Connell has been speaking out against it on March 11th we had a test day to explain what is involved in these lessons honestly I find it to be mind- numbing it's just a series of slideshows where we have to write notes then go on our Chromebooks and read an article and write more notes about that I've been told that this curriculum is made for students that aren't in the tag program which leads me to wonder
155why have a tag English class at all if it isn't Advanced my teacher is additionally certified to teach students that are gifted only to be forced to use this incredibly simplistic curriculum this format is not stimulating even a little bit we're children and we need to be challenged to grow this I can't speak for what the regular English classes were doing before they had to start the new curriculum but for my class before the implementation of this new curriculum we got to participate in a variety of engaging activities such as fairel projects literature circles Bento bentobox book projects and mock trials now it's an endless stream of boring slides and articles I can advocate for every single student in my English class by saying this is not acceptable we find this change to be both
156insulting and detrimental to our learning additionally as part of this new curriculum on March 13th we were required to read a scene from a play called teen Mogul the consensus in my class was that this scene was extremely inappropriate for a school environment it consisted of a man who interviewed a woman young a young woman aged 15 at complimenting the way she ate he continue to make multiple comments that many of us found to be creepy and weird I know that you care deeply about both the level of rigor in your curriculum and about allowing your teachers especially gifted certified teachers to have some level of freedom and choice when it comes to implementation of the curriculum please stop subjecting us to this thank [Applause] you Ash Chad gone all right I'm going to change
157subjects a little bit good evening Dr Mitchell members of the school board I'm here to talk about Governor Youngkin's policies on LGBT students again it has now been four months since Dr Mitchell unilaterally implemented Youngkin's model policies four months of pain and suffering for gay and transgender students in your care last month Mr Brown referred to the P powers of the superintendent Newport News unique among Virginia school board districts as the Bugaboo that was causing public confusion over policy jbp let me be clear we are not confused while the superintendent's power to implement unilateral procedure changes you need to go that is not what is at issue here making that change isn't some consolation prize the only outcome that is acceptable is the total reversal of policy gppp there isn't anything on the agenda to
158that effect tonight you've already gone through your action agenda and your consent agenda and you didn't address this this board continues to sit on its hands you continue to remain silent complacent even in the face of children suffering and public outcry you ought to be ashamed the seven members in this room were elected to represent the interest of their constituents and your constituents have spent months making it clear what they want listing statistic after statistic about the harms that your policies are doing and advocating against your continued leaving this District open to lawsuits you stand tonight in dereliction of your duties the least you owe your constituents is a clear vote on policy jpp I Call On The Board to give us a clear yes or no vote on whether or not this policy should
159stay in place do what you need to make that happen but it is your duty to respond to the concerns of your citizens you cannot continue to hide behind silence like this if you don't want to take a clear stance on issues don't run for public office you hold in your hands the well-being of thousands of students and thousands thousand of students are directly affected by policy jpp it has a direct impact on their well-being and you owe it to them to tell them where you stand on it the good people of Newport News deserve the information of where you stand on policy jpp and how you'll respond to the outcry of Citizens Federal Court precedent and the clear evidence that your policy is harmful give us a vote make your position clear thank you
160Valerie fashion good evening Dr Mitchell and the school board members my name is Valerie fashion and I am an advocate for my grandchildren and a thousand of kids in the school district according to web the boys and I quote we want our children trained as intelligent human beings should be they have a right to know to think to Aspire first I'd like to thank you all for implementing the two tutoring programs that at these schools and their children are really um engaged in these programs and I think it's beneficial for them um next education is critically important to society public schools have served to the develop children's ability to participate as active citizens in our nation's democracy in addition to helping them secure personal game prepare for productive work and accomplish individual goals education has
161been expected to create responsible and active participants in American de de democ Democratic Society since removing the textbooks and the site words from your curriculum spelling and the reading results are not favorable for the students we have lots of public school students I in the grades 3 to 12 that are reading their below their prospective grade levels sometimes by two three and four years my grandson is in kindergarten and he's having a problem correctly spelling these words because he's not given any words to study for the test it is not acceptable to give a spelling test without giving students the words to study I'm demanding that these spelling words be given to all students how are the parents supposed to help these children pass and become productive citizens if they're not able to help them
162learn how to spell these words I have a grandson in in sixth grade there's no books they come on these kids come on with empty plastic clear book bags um assessments for these students the students are not doing well on these assessments some of the some of the students are not doing well on the Assessments in 2024 this district is not teaching the students the items that we learned back in the 60s and 70s which was reading math spelling and writing I do not what is the reason again I inquired about the spelling be that wh is having I was informed that a student student was picked from Booker Washington Middle School to compete in the spelling contest I assume that the spelling contest should have been there should have been competition between the eight
163middle schools to select a representative I don't understand why one person was just selected to be in the spelling contest uh thank you for your time thank you Hayden leg Kaden leg good evening my name is kayen leg and I am a student at gildersleve middle school I'm here to address a curriculum that is being enforced upon my and every other English class in Newport News my first issue is that the fact that everything on these slides are the things that we were taught in third grade and to be honest it is Bland and unengaging I feel the urge to Goof Off more in class and not pay attention because I can can still do good on the assignments without listening or participating in class discussion it is not appeeling in the slightest my next
164is issue is that we are not allowed to read anything that we want we have to read precept passages that are picked from the middle of a story with no context given and some stories are inappropriate for the school environment for example the teen Mogul assignment showcased and normalized the sexual harassment of a minor by an employer to add that in these slides that you have mapped out for us we do no fun assignment and no small group activities to me this makes me feel like you are trying to suppress our social skills we are required to sit in front of a computer all day which was bad enough but now you are limiting our ability to socialize my last reason is that my class is a tag class so why the sudden change in
165having us do what everyone else is doing we are different that is why we are in the tag program so what is the point of the tag label if we are learning the same as everyone else I speak for my fellow classmates when I say the way Miss Connell has taught us was far Superior in her class I felt challenged and like my imagination was working every minute the slides you make us do feel to me like you just grab my imag imagination by the wings and stuffed it in a box you make sure that every teacher tells us to think outside the box and not to fit the mold then why are you confining us to it sure you might say it's just one class you'll be fine but how long until all of
166our classes this way are this way imagine being in our shoes think about what it's like to feel like you are being held back from reaching your full potential every day and then maybe you might understand our point of view thank you and have a good evening Ronald [Applause] Lee good evening good evening I have watched dozens of World Outreach Worship Center services online and found Pastor Everson thanking Doug Brown for encouraging him to bring LifeWise Academy to Greenwood or Rich Neck Elementary School LifeWise is an off-campus Bible study during school hours in October Mr Everson also mentioned receiving guarantees from the board that jbp would pass what was amazing though is that as I listened to these Services I learned it was almost as if somebody put an alphabet chart in front of me
167and it said i c g o d so like Saul in Damascus Road God sent a messenger to me I've since had the truth revealed to me please forgive me for those things I said thanks to Doug I listen to God instead to help recognize public education's morality drip I now see why God asked someone on school board to pass a tip to a pastor with a creepy gender-based Power Trip intended to cure the district from our diversity ick Bard you must understand I assumed there was no God at all but now I know it's cynical it's simply that the interests aren't particularly broad he's largely undisturbed by the starving masses or inequality between the various classes mandating strictly binary sexist supported here by elected Christian National fascist tell me what are the odds with
168history's endless parade of gods that the god you happen to be taught to believe in is the actual one and is focus as Schoolboard meetings what but not the malaria ridden African populations or the victims of the plague or the genocidal War mongering Nations instead the focuses healthy children wanting gender affirmations the worship Center's God's intention has but a single explanation he's a homophobic God who demands Schoolboard intervention it couldn't be mistaken attribution of causation born of coincidental tempor correlation exacerbated by General lack of Education confusion in a Church's congregation and it couldn't be that all these Pious people are liars it couldn't be an artifact of persecution bias a product group think Mass delusion or an even greater fear of exclusion no God is more likely to be an all powerful magician more focused
169on a student's sexual condition than the activism of a Christian nationalist commission or even the Worship Center secular opposition exacerbated by right-wing Affliction the only explanation for their God caring it's because they pray to all knowing superbeing to the omnipresent Master of the Universe a God that liked the sound of ever since stigmatizing curse so for a bit of a change from his usual stunt of being a sexist racist murderous Punk he updated jbp with Youngkin junk so thanks to Mr Everson a January 6 sympathizing jerk I Now understand how activism works you only need a particular prayer in a particular Church in a particular style with a particular stuff and for particular problems that aren't particularly tough and for the particular people preferably straight for particularly ideologies preferably right a particular prayer in a
170particular spot to a particular version of a particular God and if you get that right he just might take a break from giving babies malaria and work towards ending gender preferences in Academia why would you ask them to bring that program to a public school [Applause] Reverend Michael berett thank you madam chair Madam Vice chair members of the board Madam superintendent I'd want to commend you on taking initiative with policy CH to limit the unilateral and evidently rather unique authority of the school superintendent to implement procedures without a board vote I understand it's currently being workshopped in the policy committee to work out exactly which procedures are best handled solely by the superintendent and which are to borrow a word bugaboos contentious policies I'm not sure that's going to be technical language I'd love to
171see it in there but we're I'm not going to hold my breath contentious policies that have large public outcry that really do need a public vote I take this for what it is an acknowledgement explicit itly connected to procedure jbp by your own words that that policy should not have been written in to our procedures without a vote and it occurs to me that even if policy CH does get passed it doesn't retroactively affect jbp it's still on the books it also occurs to me that we don't need to pass policy CH to undo procedure jbp and give it the vote that you have explicitly admitted it deserved in the first place so do the Integrity thing put your money where your mouth is put it on the agenda for next month we'll be waiting
172thank you last card Hannah Salsbury hello my name is Hannah salesbury and I'm the founder of the nonprofit organization Bibles in schools and we exist to donate engaging Bibles to public school libraries I was a former special education teacher and my second grade student checked out an Old King James Version Bible that was outdated and well not outdated it was worn and he loved reading it and I saw the need to get engaging Bibles in our Public School School libraries Bibles in which students could read at their reading level and had pictures in them so in 2019 I launched the nonprofit organization Bibles and schools since then we have donated to thousands of public schools across the United States and the Librarians tell us the students love the action Bibles because they resemble graphic novels
173and that's what students love some of the popular comments that we get are they cannot keep the Bibles on the shelves they're waiting list of students wanting to check out the Bibles and they also say that is one of the most popular books checked out in their Library so I come to you today because residents in your community have reached out to our organization wanting us to donate these engaging Bibles to have for all of your public school libraries our donations are free for schools and we are asking that they be made available for students to check out last year the school board at a local School District helped us to get Bibles into all of their schools we um also have provided documents for you you all to see regarding the legalities of having
174the Bible on Library shelves as that is a common question that we get we have seen the positive impact of having Bibles on Library shelves for students to check out and we know that it would be a positive um impact in your school district as well students in your community they want to read and check out the Bible we just need to make it available for them to check out and we want to provide engaging Bibles for all the school libraries in your District thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon thank [Applause] you so this evening uh our hour is late our focus is on our students Aaron Lynn if you would Enlighten us with what's going on with you thank you madam chair since we canceled our February meeting of
175the superintendent student Advisory Group of Education due to numerous scheduling conflicts we will begin to discuss the student dress code and the cell phone policy at our meeting next week there are five of us students who serve on the School Division student rights and responsibilities advisory committee and we plan to share the thoughts of stage students oh we plan to share the thoughts of stage students at the committee's next meeting to help with updating the student rights and responsibilities handbook that will come before the school board in this this spring since we are approaching the time to begin the process of selecting a new student representative to the um School Board I plan to share my experiences with the group at our March meeting and encourage students to apply and run for the position in
176May in closing I would like to I would like to wish my fellow students a very happy and safe spring break with their families and friends thank you and with that on behalf of the board I too wish our students a very happy and safe spring break thank you meeting adjourned [Music]