School Board Meeting: November 14, 2023

001[Music] good evening I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News school board for Tuesday November 14th 2023 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 the board's thoughts and prayers are with Marissa Alger and her family as they are processing the departure of a family member Ms Alger will be joining the board as our most recently elected official from the south District to the school board at our next meeting we will begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and pledge to the flag here to do the honors are two students from richneck elementary school Isabella Norman and I

002believe it is Jala did I pronounce that right Jalia J Leah Austin first Isabella will come forward and deliver the invocation yes good evening my name is Isabella Norman SCA president of richneck elementary school I'm a fifth grade student and I'm happy to be here great I'm going to read a quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr if you can't fly then run if you can't run then walk but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward we the students and staff of Rich Neck Elementary are moving forward Richneck strong thank you Isabella Julia if you would come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself before you get started with the pledge good evening my name is Julia Austin SCA vice president of richneck elementary school I am a fourth grade student

003and I'm glad to be here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance 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 thank you so we want to thank you both for participating in tonight's meeting you did a wonderful job and supporting uh both of our students tonight are their family members and School family so let's give you all a hand as well the board really does appreciate um the encouragement that you give to the students and we thank you for bringing them uh to share with us tonight appreciate that so the next item on tonight's agenda is Schoolboard recognitions Dr Mitchell would you please join me at the podium [Music] absolutely

004good evening evening we have the honor of presenting this month's Schoolboard recognitions the Virginia mathematics and science Coalition is a nonprofit organization that supports school systems teachers parents and students in achieving and sustaining excellence in mathematics science engineering and Technology education or stem each year the Coalition recognizes effective student and teacher educational programs through its programs that work Awards the Coalition solicits reviews and recognizes exemplary programs that have a positive impact on student and teacher learning for the fourth time in recent years Newport News public schools has earned a programs that work award the year the this year's award recognizes our Steam summer camps this evening we invited the team that conceptualized planned and hosted the summer program please join us in congratulating our talented stem team beginning with Tammy Byron our stem instructional supervisor

005Jennifer Barker stem specialist and Kevin newo stem [Applause] specialist our steam camps were held during the summer at Hines Middle School school and served students in grades 3 through 12 10 unique camps offered Hands-On learning experiences in computer science emerging Technologies and engineering design engineered to spark creativity promote teamwork and teach Real World problemsolving skills the program paired a robust curriculum with diverse mentorship opportunities students were able to explore robotics City Planning and Ai and Design pockets and experience Hands-On learning with drone technology the camps were supported by pre-service teachers from William and Mary and our Newport News high school interns thanks to the collaborative efforts of this team and our partners the Steam summer camps are not only getting noticed throughout our city but across the state and as I mentioned this was a

006collaborative effort with William and Mary so joining us this evening um is a person from William and Mary who came right in as a partner and help support this team um Dr Meredith Kier distinguished associate professor of Science Education would you please stand and be recognized and we'd also like to acknowledge School of Education faculty member Dr Lindy Johnson who couldn't be present she's the associate professor and chair of curriculum instruction but we'd like to thank her as well please we'd also like to acknowledge the presence of our summer program co-principals Denisha basemore STEM Magnet director at critton Middle School would you please stand an Candace Foster principal at Riverside Elementary School and a former stem lead please stand also present with us are Dr Joanne Jones executive director of curriculum in development Dr Jones

007and all the way in the back but I see him Dr Kip Rogers our chief academic officer thank you Dr again we wish this team um and our partners congratulations on bringing home program that works award to Newport News Public Schools congratulations and keep up the great work with our state [Music] just to our next award the school division's business office is responsible for providing sound financial management of the division's resources one of the most important duties is financial and man agement reporting as a public body the school division's financial reporting must be understandable transparent and concise this evening we're pleased to acknowledge that the accounting team has earned two prestigious awards for the annual comprehensive financial report the government Finance Officers Association certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting and the association of

008school business officials international certificate of excellence in fin financial reporting accepting this recognition on behalf of the business team is Kimberly Powell acting director of accounting and finance Miss pal would you please come forward and Jennifer Lon Lofton interim accounting supervisor please come [Applause] forward both the government Finance Officers Association certificate of a achievement and the association of school business officials international certificate of excellence represent the highest form of recognition from each organization to earn the award the division's comprehensive financial report was judged by an impartial panel and met the program's high standards by demonstrating a constructive Spirit of full disclosure to communicate the financial history these awards are awarded to school divisions that have met or exceeded each program's High Accounting Standards award-winning reports go beyond the requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to

009provide a variety of information including financial statements supporting schedule statistics and narrative explanations the award programs are designed to encourage districts to provide the public with a fair representation of all the funds and financial transactions so we congratulate miss poell and miss Lofton and would you please share this acknowledgement with the other members of your team and congratulations again a picture but while we're taking the picture I'd like to acknowledge our Chief Financial Officer who sliding in here Scarlet Mento and again congratulations this week also marks the annual observance of American Education week when school districts across the country celebrate and showcase public education our school district is commemorating American Education week by showcasing teaching and learning every day schools this week will be posting promotional messages and using social media to publicize how our

010students are becoming college career and citizen ready through social media and at this time we'll take about a 7 minute break so that our honores may leave if they choose to do so you're certainly welcome to stay during this time our viewing audience will have an opportunity to view this month's Schoolboard Spotlight so we'll stand in recess for about seven minutes thank you [Music] students at Marshall Early Learning Center spent time with students from a slightly different type of school recruits with the Newport News police department's basic Law Enforcement Training Academy visited Marshall during their Community week this is a time when recruits learn How Deep The Police Department's commitment to community is woven into the fabric of this nationally accredited law enforcement agency at Marshall police recruit class 33 was warmly welcomed by school

011leaders before meeting the Young Mariners in each classroom recruits assisted preschool and kindergarten students with their daily learning tasks together they learned new letters read books explored technology and wrapped up their morning routines for students of all ages this was a special time while also giving the younger Marshall students a chance to ask the recruits about their future careers in law enforcement by strengthening relationships among students Educators and police these Newport News police department recruits are already showing a genuine commitment to serving our community families at Palmer Elementary enjoyed a special treat during back toschool night in late September in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month Palmer hosted an engaging and educational Hispanic heritage celebration Hispanic students make up almost half of the entire student population at Palmer and the school is home to three newcomer

012classes for students who speak English as a second language during the celebration all families were welcome to tour several learning stations that showcased the scientific artistic athletic and historical impacts Hispanics have contributed worldwide Educators assisted students at each station with Hands-On learning experiences literacy connections and an in-depth exploration of the rich Hispanic heritage our community came together to celebrate the diversity of music education in Newport News public schools held at Todd Stadium the second annual nnps marching band Expo showcased the talents of almost 500 elementary middle and high school student musicians the evening kicked off with middle and high school students forming a mega band to perform the national anthem vice mayor Curtis bethony enthusiastically directed this impressive Ensemble which also gave Middle School students an opportunity to learn alongside the more experienced High School

013musicians eighth graders came together as an all Middle School band to perform Seven Nation Army for weeks each band rehearsed the same Sheep music at their home schools before rehearsing collectively for the first time right before the performance and two of our City's youngest but super talented drum lines showcased their budding skills with Katherine Johnson Crimson Thunder and Riverside's boom and bears performing all five high school marching bands were invited to perform their current themed halftime shows which they've been perfecting since the summer it was a chance for the bands to encourage one another while appreciating the range of styles and musical selections at each High School throughout the evening schools hosted tables to promote support through ptas and band boosters and families were eager to support their students by filling out airrs which school

014and city leaders kindly read over the loudspeakers to encourage our student musicians to continue working hard as they develop their musical [Music] talents for the first time ever Newport News high school students went head-to-head in a chalk art battle historic Hilton Village Incorporated partnered with Newport News public schools to host the art challenge during the fourth annual Hilton art walk and Busker Festival in late September leading up to the competition student teams brainstormed ideas agreed on a final design and practiced their chalk art skills at their schools on the Saturday morning of the Hilton Art Walk teens came prepared with pop-up tents to protect their art from being ruined by the Misty Rain by shading blending and creating depth on a flat surface these student artists transformed a blank asphalt parking lot into a masterpiece

015just by using sticks of chalk event goers were welcomed to watch the students in action as their works of art came to life once the chalk dust settled Warwick High School was selected as the winning team and if that wasn't enough creativity for one day Student Art was on display for everyone to enjoy thanks to the Community Partnership the Hilton artwalk and Busker Festival was a wonderful event to showcase the artistic talents of the students in Newport News public schools in early October thousands of schools Across the Nation celebrated Walk and Roll to school day an annual event to ensure safe routes to school for all students and Newport News Public Schools joined the Celebration by moving and staying active students and staff at Newsome Park Elementary started their day less than a mile down

016the road at Heritage High School here students and staff were joined by a kind police escort to ensure a safe trip to school on Wheels and on foot the Navigator family had a fun safe Trek to school together at Riverside Elementary every class spent their resource time walking in front of the school to encourage physical activity the energetic resource team handed out three pedometers so students could continue counting their steps at home with music playing students walked danced and skipped their way to forming healthy habits and at Stony Run Elementary students staff and Newport News police officers created a walking school bus with friends joining the procession as they made their way to school and school buses intentionally dropped students off right outside the school parking lot so everyone could join in the movement the

017last week of October is celebrated as Red Ribbon Week to emphasize the full potential of Youth living healthy drug-free lives all across Newport News Public Schools students staff and families committed to be kind to your mind and live drug- free the week kicked off with a red ribbon Community walk in the Southeast Community multiple schools came together for this annual event at the monitor marac Overlook Park cabine Johnson a supervisor with the community criminal justice agency talked to the students about the importance of staying drug-free to be successful in school and in life The Talented Crimson thunder drum line from Katherine Johnson Elementary then led a onm community walk along the banks of the James River to celebrate living drug- free Hilton Elementary brought their positive message of healthy choices to the streets as they

018paraded through historic Hilton Village weeks before the parade Hilton held a t-shirt design contest for third through fifth graders this year's winning design was from third grader Joel Todd and every third grade student wore his unique and Creative Design during the Red Ribbon parade after the parade the students were treated to a personal performance from Warwick High School's talented drum line at nolwood Meadows third fourth and fifth grade classes spent weeks working with music teacher Tamara Cox to write and choreograph their own just say no RS in front of the entire school and families each class performed their energetic wraps to spread their drug-free message and at richneck elementary the raccoons were joined by d's marching band for an upbeat Red Ribbon parade the Denby Soul regiment led the way through rich neck's neighborhood with

019students wearing red holding signs and chanting just say no to [Music] drugs thank you I hope you enjoyed this month's Schoolboard Spotlight uh in the interest of time since we have quite a few speakers this evening we are going to make a move from item uh 4.01 Personnel actions and include that in as a 1.05 so I would like to take um a motion to approve the superintendent's Personnel recommendations okay um Madam chair I move to approve the recommendation of the superintendent for Lisa Evans for director of School counseling Sherron Pernell for assistant principal nolwood medals Elementary and Angela Angela ciders for executive director of Elementary leadership thank you do I have a second second second oh [Laughter] doubles Mr Brown and Mr Harris hey do we have any discussion Madam clerk please call the

020role haris four Hunter four Aon four Brown four Mo car 6 great thank you Dr Mitchell would you introduce us thank you very much um good evening and again thank you madam chair our first appointee Miss Lisa Evans is unable to be here with us tonight but I would still like to acknowledge and welcome her as our new director of School counseling Miss Evans has a master's of Arts deg degree in urban education guidance and counseling prek through 12 from Nork State University she's currently an employee with the kip forward Academy in Atlanta Georgia she has worked in the past as a student services coordinator in Atlanta additionally she has served as a college and career coach dual enrollment coordinator and a professional school counselor for Hampton City Schools and she's also held the position

021of School counseling director in Picos so even though she's not here tonight we'd like to welcome Miss Evans yes absolutely our next appointee is Miss shyon Pernell as our new assistant principal at no wood medow elementary school and she is here to join us tonight miss Pernell has a master's of science a Master's in science and education in educational leadership and supervision from Old Dominion University she currently works right here in Newport News Public Schools as an administrative assistant at Stony Run Elementary she has pre previously worked as a teacher in Hampton City Schools as well as henrio public schools congratulations Miss Pernell and if you have anyone with you tonight that you would like to acknowledge you have a few moments to do so a evening than you for and foremost I have copy

022and paste my father and my son TJ I have my brothers here ryell Maurice my former assistant principal Ronda Chambers Harmon and my new assistant my new principal Dylan Phil thank you thank you welcome we're excited for you congratulations and our last appointee also is unable to be with us tonight but I would like to acknowledge Miss Angela ciders as the new executive director of Elementary preschool leadership Miss Ciders has a master of arts in education and human development from Washington University George Washington University she currently works as an executive director of secondary teaching and learning for Virginia Beach Public Schools she has experience as a teacher teacher coach principal coach for elementary middle and high school principles and she has held various positions with York County Schools to include director of K12 curriculum and

023instruction an associate director of school administration K12 she also has previously held principal ships in York County and Newport News we would like to welcome Miss Ciders back to Newport News Public Schools thank [Applause] you so thank you for your service to the division we're glad you're with us so 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 also 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 person the board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments please understand that we will consider your concerns we ask

024that you comply with our three minute time limit as you begin your comment a green light will come on a yellow light signals that you have 30 seconds remaining and a red light and beep indicates your time is up and I do ask that um we make sure that uh you stick to that 3 minute time limit because we do have a plethora of cards this evening and before we get started we are going to let our new hire have the moment to tip out if she and her family would like to do so and go celebrate [Applause] okay I will read in groups of two again uh the first one will be Reverend Natalie Chamberlain and Michelle nordine good evening I'm Reverend Natalie Chamberlain a parent grandparent and pastor of Hilton Christian Church a

025congregation who welcomes and Embraces people of all genders and gender identities I'm here to ask you to stop implementation of the procedure on treatment of transgender students and put into place a procedure that actually protects the physical and mental well-being of trans students the current procedure procedure was implemented by this was implemented by the superintendent is flawed and contradictory exceptions for state and federal law in some instances show that the rest of the procedure is in fact not protecting students my congregation makes space for all people but especially those who don't conform to current government standards for what is acceptable gender or gender identity we find that many have been traumatized by the kind of harmful procedure that you're looking to implement the basic premise of this procedure is denying the humanity of Children and

026Youth parental rights do not give those parents the right to harm their children children are not property I would it would be my guess that none of you uses your phone as a suicide hotline I do when you deny the basic Humanity of an individual by refusing to use their name you have denied their existence that leads to mental health issues if that isn't enough you've used this procedure to say that if they are afraid of their parents reaction to their need for counseling you're going to tell their parents anyway who intentionally puts children In Harm's Way I'm a parent of a trans child and the grandparent of a trans granddaughter I have seen the damag school policies denying my loved ones identities have caused thank God they have family who love and support them

027how many more children need to end up on the list for Trans day of remembrance before you consider their right to exist as themselves for the sake of the lives of the trans children in your care remove this procedure and write something Humane thank you Michelle nine Michelle nordine good evening chairman m rules law Dr Mitchell and Schoolboard members for those who haven't heard me speak before my name is Michelle 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 is focusing on increasing our PTA membership council's holding a call to members ship challenge that is running now through February 29th 2024 the PTA at each level with the highest percentage of PTA members based

028on their student population with a minimum of 200 members will receive a monetary award from our council at our March General membership meeting as of this afternoon we have 2,540 PTA members in our school district please consider joining your child's PTA or your neighborhood School PTA if your children have graduated even if you can't volunteer you will still receive information about what the PTA that you join is doing doing each month most ptas send out updates to their PTA members to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing and not just the families after their school being a PTA member is not synonymous with volunteering believe me I understand not having the time to volunteer you can be a PTA member and be a silent or support member this means that by becoming a

029PTA member you are supporting pta's Mission which is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging Empowering Families and Comm communities to advocate for all children if anyone in Newport News would like to support a PTA and its Mission you can find a link to join a PTA pin to the top of the Newport News Council pta's Facebook page or I passed around a flyer for everybody who's here um 28 of our 38 ptas have a link for community members to join on the council's web page as More PT finish the restarting requirements their membership links will be added to this page before I leave I would also like to take this time to welcome Greenwood Elementary PTA to our family they voted in a board a couple weeks ago and will be working

030closely with Council to finish all the required paperwork to become an active PTA with the addition of P of Greenwood PTA Newport News has the possibility of having 38 active ptas this year thank you for your support and making every child's potential a reality thank you thank you our next two speakers Clark DeSaro rainel and Carolyn Mai good evening good evening my name is Clark desera renal I live in Newport News my wife and I have three kids over the last nine years they've been students at Hilton Elementary Hines Middle and War high school I'm the minister of Hilton Presbyterian Church in Hilton Village 34 Main Street I've never asked for the opportunity the citizens opportunity to address this board before but I'm led to do so tonight thank you for listening our school superintendent

031recently ordered a policy that prohibits our schools from honoring a transgender student's right to be addressed by whatever pronouns they choose this board has the power to override this order tonight and I ask that you do it's clear to me the concern for parental rights is not the real motive behind this prohibition rather it is to allow no room in our schools for lgbtq plus students let's say it out loud the order says some of our kids don't matter the order would give gay students would have gay students stop being gay and trans students stop being who they are which simply isn't possible that's like asking a kid with red hair to stop having red hair We Are All God's Children Isaiah 43 And1 God says do not fear for I have redeemed you I

032have called you by name you are mine that's all of us God created each of us just as we are some of us were born gay and that is an amazing and beautiful gift from God a blessed life to live our children understand school is to be a place of Education acceptance inclusion nurture and support our children long for that for lgbtq plus students the newest order from the superintendent is a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction they are dismayed by this rejection of who they are as children of God you have the authority to override this order please do thank you Carolyn good evening hello forgive my nerves my name is Carolyn maius I live in Newport News I retired from the Newport News public school system having taught 35 years then I

033continued to do science shows in the schools in support of the SOS for eight more years as a teacher I was obviously in a classroom to teach the curriculum I taught half of my career in third and the other half in seventh grade life science in order to enable students to learn they need to be in a space where they feel safe because they are seen for the valuable person that they are children will only learn when they know they can trust the teacher who is guiding them in that experience the atmosphere fear of acceptance is essential for that ... trust is essential and a very big deal two brief stories I was teaching seventh at Huntington had a sweet and helpful young girl in my class the following year I was at Newsome Park

034I was the science specialist there had a lab the girl came in the first day bringing her little sister for her first day of third grade she told me that they were now in foster care their father had been abusing them and she thanked me for being the only place she had felt safe when I left Huntington after a really rough year of teaching my home room students wrote in my yearbook which they all signed we disrespected you every day all year long but you loved us anyway any way mutual respect and love and a feeling of safety make teaching possible please do not do anything to make the atmosphere in our public classrooms a place where students feel isolated disrespected or unsafe names and pronouns are actually very important to all of us please

035do not ask teachers to enforce a policy that harms children by making them feel unacceptable as a person or less valued for who they are the next two speakers ask chagan and Mary Voss read from all right hi Ash good evening Madam chairman members of the board I thank you for your time tonight my name is Ash uh I am a proud graduate of a Virginia Public School I came up my whole career from kindergarten through 12th grade in Virginia Public Schools and I'm now a student at a Virginia State University I'm very proud to be a Virginia and I'm very proud to have grown up in a society and a culture in my school that accepted me for who I was when I came out in my junior year of high school I did

036so because I felt ready I did so because I was ready to be truly who I am I would not have done so if I did not feel comfortable I would not have done so if I did not feel safe to speak who the truth about who I am what the policies that our superintendent in Newport News has put into place would do is they would take away the ability of a student like me to be honest about who we are and to take our time with discussing Who We Are One one of the big things that this policy does is it requires teachers not only suggests requires teachers to out queer kids to their parents now I came from a very supporting household my parents were wonderful they love me they accepted me for

037who I am it was still probably a good 6 months before I was comfortable coming out to them I cannot imagine what it would have been like to have been outed to them against my will that would have been a complete Nightmare and to that point my parents my mother's house when she was my age in the 80s and '90s was the safe house for queer kids that got thrown out after coming out to their parents this is something that I hope to never see happen in my lifetime it is something that I hope to never have to do but I fear that the policies being pushed by the Youngkin administration and adopted by our superintendent will put me in the same position that my parents were in 30 years ago I don't want to

038raise kids in the world where I have to tell them the same things that my parents have told me that it's okay to be who you are no matter what anybody says that it's okay to need support from one another and I also want to take a moment to talk about the environment in the school that I grew up in the community that I grew up in was very open and accepting in part because the school was open and accepting what the policies being suggested and implemented are doing is they're putting a target on the backs of queer kids like me and they're saying that it's okay to single us out call us names bully us it's going to exacerbate a problem that people like me already face and it's going to impact everyone in

039our community because it's going to shape our society in an intolerant Direction I don't want to have to raise kids in a world that's less accepting than the one that I'm growing up in thank you for your time Mary boss uh hello uh Mary Voss NNPS graduate teacher and parent I'm speaking as an individual tonight uh this week is transgender awareness week and I wish that I could mention that in a far better context than what's happening to trans kids in NNPS right now I'm disappointed in the Newport News school board's decision to have the superintendent Implement Governor Youngkin's discriminatory model policies without a transparent up or down vote by board members lgbtq plus youth are at much greater risk of suicide compared to their peers to be clear to quote the Trevor Project lgbtq

040plus youth are not inherently prone to Suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society research by the Trevor Project and other groups has found that these vulnerable students outcomes are significantly better when their gender gender identity and preferred pronouns are respected at school and respected by the the adults in their lives and certainly when they're not being outed to unsupportive family members which can be so dangerous and is the reason many trans kids are homeless if they come from unsupportive families uh respecting these kids for who they are is often literally a matter of life and death for them Virginia school boards ignore a Governor's model guidance all the time in 2020 only 10% of Virginia school

041boards implemented northam's model guidance according to the news publication the Virginia Mercury in 2020 the Newport News school board initially voted down former Governor northam's model guidance encouraging protections for Trans students with minimal concerns from the board at the time about not following the then governor's Guidance the board changed their vote after public outcry not to try to please the former Governor yet the action on Friday makes it seem that when Governor Youngkin says jump this board will jump Youngkin poured $9 million into Tuesday's elections in Virginia to try to get a far-right majority in the state legislature he failed miserably his allies are now out of power in both the house of delegates and the state senate his extremist agenda will be blocked for the rest of his term his presidential aspirations are over

042the emperor has no clothes it's a fitting demise for a governor who created a teacher snitch line to target teachers who support diversity and social emotional education and a governor who tried to get AP African-American studies banned in Virginia the list goes on and on why is a large diverse Urban School District like Newport News giving in to this lame duck Governor's hateful demands fascists gained power unnecessarily when our leaders do not have the courage to stand up to their discrimination will you jump again when Youngkin says jump? what if next time it's uh he demands uh Virginia school districts remove references to African-American history items from the curriculum will you jump again? if his administration says ban books how about if his administration demands removal of social emotional learning from the curriculum and if

043you would stand up to our bigoted governor on any of these other issues then why won't you stand up for Trans and lgbtq plus students? please rescind this cruel policy thank you next we have uh speakers Russell Evenson and Jonathan Waldren and then I'll just put the last one in for this section is um Caitlyn O'Brien thank you Newport News school board for once again allowing us to come before you and I just simply want to come here with thanks to you for considering uh the policy that you have adopted uh you know the points I'm sure I am positive you folks have studied it in and out a lot of things have been said here already tonight and when I read the policy that I've gotten right here before me I read that there

044are protection Clauses if you want to call it that if a child is officially really honestly abused by a parent that there is a legal right for that child to appeal and receive help I I see it right here before me and uh I think thank you that you have given parents a a a privilege and a right back into their children's lives they are responsible for their child and so everywhere that uh you know a child needs the support I've heard these uh points before and uh we listen to them and they are serious we take the the life of a child very seriously life a threat of suicide very seriously a life of a child's emotional well-being very seriously but uh you know and there are Provisions again I'm repeating myself but there

045are Provisions here that if a child is actually in that kind of Jeopardy then there is things in place to protect that child so I just simply wanted to come tonight and say thank you for giving parents the power to be notified and especially for the counseling that they would be uh their child would be uh counseled unaware totally parents don't need that kind of surprise they already have enough challenges raising their children so I just simply want to say thank you again tonight for your looking at it I do not envy your job I do not envy your position but I do thank you Jonathan walren thank you my name is Jonathan Waldren I'm a Newport News resident and business owner every testimony given tonight will and has highlighted just how important a parent's

046involvement is in their child's life unfortunately some of these testimonies end in bullying abuse neglect and Trauma and the people who lived these tragedies need and deserve the love of a father and mother but unfortunately in some cases they were robbed of it however these stories are not the rule but rather they are the exception in fact these stories highlight in the most tragic of ways just how weighty and impactful it is to have a parents involvement in their child's life these children cannot receive that important support and affirmation if we exclude parents in the first place I want to thank our superintendent our school board for the recent revision of the 2021 North and policies which exclude parents and endangered children teachers and counselors I want to thank and encourage you in that you

047have made the right decision that you're not alone the decision to include parents and to protect all kids teachers and counselors is the right decision it will have lasting positive impacts in the school system and in our children's lives I would challenge anyone here tonight to read the new policy procedures and to point out in any way in which they promote bullying discrimination abuse or harassment if you read them with an open mind and an honest heart you will find none thank you all he Caitlyn thank you I would like to start by reinforcing the documented statistics that have been stated in this room time and again on how astronomically High the rates of abuse are by parents of transgender kids kids and bullying in schools my name is Caitlyn obrien I'm a resident of

048Newport News for well over a decade now and I shared a personal story of trauma last month in opposition to Governor Yan's model policy on trans students one which unlike the previously adopted policy was not passed by the general assembly which would not seem to have a mandate given recent election results I am here to speak again for a vote in opposition to Governor yun's model policy changes ordered by the superintendent which should be overturned by the board rather than allowing it to forcibly out students to abusive parents give a green light for harassment which I think the other side of this issue has frankly been demonstrating the ugly realities of with their own plain hostilities and disgust openly shown to transgender people over the last several months and the policy will also prevent students

049from talking to otherwise safe adults at student when they lack one at home something that was of tremendous consequence to me some will have the courage to talk to parents others will be outed even if not initially and what happens then trauma and victimization by those given a green light by Newport News Public Schools will consequently be revealed and if you think Newport News school board could not receive another cost lawsuit for lack of safety then I can only suggest you look at the results of the Gavin Grim case for the damages to be paid as a result of the irreparable harm done to the most vulnerable students in your schools whom teachers and faculty have already spoken in this room of the bullying of I've spoken to this board of the personal cost of

050my own life of the closet having been used by a molester to silence me when I was 13 I have seen homeless kids transgender kids while at of support group when I was at working in San Diego I will not forgive you if you condone this policy and these consequences on us as a result of this policy and neither will those harmed by it thank you we have additional cards um we are going to go on with the um focus of our of our agenda um regarding um you know the Personnel report and the budget transfer and all that and listen to some of our our presentations this evening for those who are listening but we will get to each and every person who has put a card in uh this evening so we're on

051to uh section three the consent agenda which includes 3.01 minutes from the regular meeting October 17th 20 23 3.02 minutes from the work session October 17th 2023 3.03 minutes from the close session October 17th 2023 we also have 3.04 Financial reports including the revenue report by October 17th 2023 the expense report for October 17th Child Nutrition reports for October 17th 2023 we also have 3.05 Personnel report 3.06 budget transfer 3.07 Todd Stadium maintenance agreement 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 any discussion U Madam chair I do have uh some questions about the turf maintenance agreement uh that I'd like to just give get some confirmation on because in reading

052the agreement there's a lot of parts uh to the agreement that are required of us um by the city and so I just want to just get the confirmation in particular there's a a section three here that talks about having a professional engineer uh on staff to do inspections and then there's another section and the other the AstroTurf maintenance agreement about storm water and drainage and so I just want to um okay get some confirmation on those questions would you like to have Rusty Mr fairart thank you sorry Mr Brown I did not hear the okay totality of your question I I'll read the this section which just it just says the owner um shall cause inspections to be conduct conducted as follows um the inspections of the facilities to be conducted by a professional

053engineer registered in Virginia and approved by the city the engineer shall be retained by the owner at the owner's expense so that essentially means we have to have a professional engineer in our budget right to perform these INSP money to contractually obligate for that service okay so we that is something we can contract out correct and okay it doesn't have to be somebody on staff but certainly we need to provide that service and so and so then there are because there's plenty of of these engineering companies there are ones that we can go out yes and we'll work closely with the city to ensure their approval as well and and then um you know just reading the astr tur maintenance agreement I'm learning a lot about AstroTurf um that I didn't that I did know

054before uh in regards to you know the drainage so if you could just describe what are the do we have storm drain inlets and ditches and channels and other things that are associated with the with the field out there uh doesn't the doesn't the water just essentially you know drop on the ground and absorb into the ground or it there'll be a storm water management plan that'll have to be approved by the city in collaboration with the design and installation of the turf so our our vendor that's going to install the turf will submit a plan that's approved by the city okay and that's going to have the storm water management okay and that plan will will have storm storm drains on correct and uh and management okay and then this is the confirmation of

055um do we have an idea of the cost is the cost of maintaining those storm water drains more or less than what we pay to maintain drainage now that I could not answer I I would say it's it's on par with our current expenses um probably a little bit more runoff given the surface versus natural grass okay thank you madam chair yes um you mentioned for example a storm water maintenance plan having to be drawn up put together and approved by the city timing of this if we approve this now um this is maintenance uh and the manual versus you if we sign on but then they don't approve storm water the storm water management plan are we beholden to paying for these agreements if the rest can't come together what I'll say U Miss

056aan is that the plan will come together just a matter of when and at what expense and how many um iterations the city requires in order for us to meet their needs um but the company that we're working with does does this Nationwide so they're well versed in what the requirements are and they work closely with the city and the municipality in regards to the plans and the engineering um storm water management Etc so would these be signed before we get all of that done this particular agreement it's my understanding needs to be signed in order for us to proceed okay Yeah question yeah no just you know this is one of these typical things that happens uh so in our actuality storm water plan is part of the city's plan uh just so happen

057we about to do some destruction on our property corre so it's already tied in no different in your house versus this water that runs down the street the middle of the street so just basically tie in that's it nothing major other comments or concerns Adam clerk please call the role Harris four hter four Aon four best four Brown four S law four motion carry 6 great thank you the next item and thank you Mr fairheart the next item on our agenda is 4.02 our new policies Dr Mitchell thank you very much if you recall uh Tracy Brooks has presented uh multiple new policies around um Safety and Security and at this time we um have some policies that we would like you to approve and Tracy is here if you have any questions but I

058know she did a thorough job in the previous meeting yes and I do thank you for putting up with all of our questions and inquiries during that that time so I'm going to take these individual I'm going to take these um individually so uh I'm going to have uh uh Vice chair I'm going to read what the letters of the policy are and she will uh let us know also what the name of the policy is for your awareness so may I have a motion to approve policy ADH Madam chair I move to approve policy ADH possession of weapons and firearms on school board property do I have a second second okay any discussion please call the rooll har four h a four best four Brown against s law four motion carries 51 he I

059have a motion to approve policy adha Madam chair I move to approve policy adha possession of certain weapons on screwed property may I have a second second thank you Mr Hunter any discussion Madame clerk please call the role Harris four Hunter four four four against four for second motion carries 51 may I have a motion to approve policy a dhb Madam chair I move to approve policy adhb gunfree School Board buildings and property may I have a second second thank you uh any discussion please call the roll Paris four Hunter four Aon against best for brown against SS law four motion carries four three I'm sorry 4 two okay we have uh may I have a motion to approve policy a DHC Madam chair I move to approve policy adhc employment of school security officers

060may I have a second second any discussion Please call rooll Paris for Hunter for amen for best for brown against s La for motion cares 51 and finally may I have a motion to approve policy ebb Madam chair I move to approve policy ebb threat assessments do I have a second second any discussion Madam clerk please call the role Harris for hter for a for best four Brown four S law four motion carries 6 Z okay thank you all the next item on our agenda is 4.03 fund balance increase um may I have a motion to approve oh I'm quick oh you're going to do an update for us thank you so I should have said the next item on our agenda is 4.03 fund balance increase Dr Mitchell would you increase introduce was in

061front of us thank you very much Scarlet MTO our chief fincial officer is going to come before you to give you um another brief overview on the fund balance increase and then yes okay good good evening Madame chair Sur law Madam co-chair Dr best members of the board and Dr Mitchell so I come before you this evening to request the use of additional funding from both their Child Nutrition and textbook fund balances um beginning with Child Nutrition Services we are requesting an additional 2.2 million from the child nutrition fund balance to address the following needs 1.2 million for Cafe Renovations five 50,000 for new ovens 186,000 for refrigeration Replacements 591 th000 for serving lines and 177,000 of um falls under the other category that would be like um carpentry shelving Plumbing some small computer devices

062for a total of two 2. 2 million so you can see on the slide there we have a fund balance of 8.2 million for FY 24 you previously approved 22.9 million so moving to textbook funds we are requesting an additional 1.6 million for the new English textbook adoption uh we anticipate the state approving in January we have been anxiously waiting for them to approve all the necessary grades so we can get it all in one contract so the textbook fund balance currently is 9.1 million you have already approved for fy4 2.6 million and we are the additional request is for 1.6 million so in summary the Child Nutrition Services fy2 24 budget would increase 2.2 million going from 22,995 450 to$ 25,141 and the textbook fund increase would of 1.6 million would go from $2,642

06373 to 4 excuse me 4,240 273 and so the total uh general fund just to go ahead and mention that the general fund will not change the workers comp fund balance will not change and the school officially adopted funds would now total 413 m642 board members do you have questions yeah yes uh M I have a just a general question about the use of the funds so these Child Nutrition service fund and the textbook fund uh can't be used and I'm asking the question can't be used for personnel is that true that the okay so that is not exactly true so Child Nutrition Services is federally funded now these the carryover funds we typically use for Capital but we can can use that for salaries if we run short the this is a multi- um

064multi-year fund textbook fund we cannot use for salaries and benefits stuff like that you have to use it for books and materials online uh materials that kind of thing any other questions is there any deadlines on using the funds okay so that's Child Nutrition Services the um we are allowed to keep about 3 months um operating dollars in the fund balance and it's starting to get a little higher than it needs to be for that um and that is in case the federal government shuts down and we can't get funding for lunches so they allow us to keep a balance textbook fund we're sort of following the we keep the funds in there we carry them over year to year waiting for the bdoe to approve adoptions we're a little behind on adoptions because of

065the pandemic in part okay additional questions okay I just think it's important that the public know that there's a cause and effect even at the school level whatever the federal government does whatever the state does uh you know they have deadlines we have deadlines we most likely won't meet none of our deadlines based off of what decision they make um so just keep that in mind um when we when you start seeing things okay so these types of requests yes yes absolutely okay now it's time for me to say may I have a motion to approve the recommendation for the fund balance increase Madam chair I move to approve the requested use of additional Child Nutrition and textbook funds as presented okay do I have a second second thank you Mr Harris any further discussion

066Madame clerk please call B Harris four Hunter four aan four best four Brown four s's law four motion Carri 6 thank you now we'll move on to section five we have some reports for this evening and information 5.01 our whro presentation Dr Mitchell will you introduce who's with us thank you very much this evening we have with us Mr Bert Schmidt who is the president and CEO of whro and he does come before us each year to um bring us a report and share some important information welcome thank you madam chair serles law Dr Mitchell members of the board thank you for allowing me to speak with you my name is ber Schmid I'm the president and CEO of whro with me is my vice president of Education Elmer Seward hidden back there um I

067come to you every other year to talk about the services we provide you um just right I just right clicking throughout here here we go good good you have um if not a hard copy at least in your documents uh the impact statement we provide you each and every year I'm just going to provide you a brief summary of what's in that report and I come to you because you're one of the 21 School divisions that literally own the license to whro we're the only Media company in the entire C country owned by collaboration of uh K12 school divisions We Come Together We do things collaboratively throughout the region save taxpayers money and improve services for teachers and students it's a great model um we start out with emedia VA we've had a contract with

068the state Department of Education for over a decade now where we collect digital learning objects from National organizations like Smithsonian National Archives Library of Congress but more importantly with local organizations Virginia entities from around the state to bring to your teachers to your students to your parents great learning objects all correlated to the Virginia standards of learning all tagged with uh various metadata for it so it's easily searchable K through 12 it last year was used over two million times throughout the Commonwealth and it's free of charge to all of your teachers students and parents field trips are tough lately and we like to do what we call reverse field trips where we have three kids vans that come out and focus on stem literacy and environmental science you can see through the pictures that

069the fans have the characters that the kids are all familiar with all of our PBS Kids characters Elmo and big bird and the rest of them uh our our vans come out our our early childhood learner learner uh staff come out work with your teams to help provide an amazing interactive experience for your kids really K through three uh before Co we used to do a lot of story times in classrooms Co happened we had to stop doing that we started up a series called Miss Martha Reeds Martha Razer who has our children's services uh uh uh Department uh started a series on Facebook where we would read stories written by children uh that series became so popular about 10,000 views per week that we've continued it since Co has uh uh really kind of

070ended we do lots of professional development for your teachers you can see just a sampling there of some of the training we did last year we used to do most of it uh in person at at whro now of course A lot of it is done on Zoom occasionally still the station but a lot is done and more all all the all the trainings listed in your packet one of the big things you all care about are the online courses the schools came to us 15 years ago and started requesting whr to start creating courses for all of you we now are up to 27 courses we're the manufacturer we make the course we give them to you and then you use them however you see fit within your own policies could be fully online

071could be hybrid flipped you can edit the course to meet your needs they're they're meant to be used with your teachers so it doesn't replace a teacher but is a great experience I will tell you because you're an owner you get them for free for schools around the state that want these they pay about $10,000 per School per course for these courses and they're you being used throughout we are in the process of our of finalizing our environmental science course we'll be delivering that next year and then we've got a couple data science courses that are in in the pipeline to come out as well so in that these are conversations we have regularly with the superintendant and your school board Representatives um this video I'm about to show is focus on economics and personal

072finance but it details what a course looks like and feels like like the traits you're going to see in this video could be applied to all 27 courses this one specifically is focused on economics uh and personal finance content used by teachers students families and administrators across Virginia economics and personal finance is a ful year online course that is one example of whro content utilized by school divisions this course has 13 modules filled with videos learning objects content learning activities assessments Reflections and more this digital content is aligned with Virginia standards of learning promotes Virginia's 5c's and provides students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge of materials through real world authentic experiences students begin their studies in the course overview where they discover how to navigate the course they also meet TJ a high

073school student and his peers who are involved in an Afterschool economics and personal finance Club students learn from TJ's financial decisions and mistakes through the comedic videos at the beginning of each module each module has several topics or lessons that allow students to check their knowledge before receiving an assignment at the end of each module students either complete a project test or both related to all of the module topics there's also a module reflection where students can analyze what they have learned and make connections between the content and their everyday life the module summary provides a digest of module information and prepares students for the next module in addition to the Intriguing content a student resources section is filled with tools to help students with assignments and projects we also create an instructor's guide to

074assist the teachers wh's digital learning Team Works diligently to design aesthetically appealing content that represents people from diverse cultures and ethnicities and provides multiple learning Pathways additionally our content is fully accessible and includes options for students like using a keyboard for navigation providing ADA Compliant transcripts principles Clos captioning descriptive alt tags reducing cognitive fatigue and much more fortunately our team can install our digital content into multiple Learning Management Systems this skill set helps us meet the needs of school divisions and provides options to use our content entirely online or in Blended learning environments economics and personal finance is just one example of the breadth and depth of educational content that wh's dig learning Department creates and distributes to school divisions again that that was focused on economics and personal finance but you can extrapolate those

075traits to all the courses that we offer you again they're on your servers within your Learning Management Systems we make them for you but based on the request from our schools you guys set the policies and the priorities of those courses uh and of course you want to make sure the end user of those courses is happy with what we produce so we have a student Advisory board made up of students from from around our 21 School divisions they come in they work with our team to make sure that these courses are engaging at fun they kind of they keep them interested throughout uh taking the course so it's important that we know that the end user enjoys the experience we love to celebrate smart kids we do that a number of ways first off

076is our PBS Kids writers contest we've been doing that for about uh 17 18 years now uh children K through five they write ill and illustrate stories they send them to us we have a judging panel we end up doing a TV show for the winners and these stories are what Miss Martha reads I mentioned earlier uh she's these are the stories that she reads on the Facebook series that we do every every Friday um the spelling be uh we've been this will be the 17th year coming up to your middle school kids 6 through eth um this is the time they should be signing up now for the be I will tell you you have two middle schools right now that have signed up I know there's been a lot of stuff going on

077now I just don't want that fall through the cracks um so okay uh this is the time of the year to sign up you'll do your local bees and your middle schools the champions from all your middle schools come to whro in the in February for the regional bee and then the winner of that bee goes to the National Spelling Bee so we want to see good representation from the division at the regional p e l o i n g b e e great each year middle school students from across the region compete for the opportunity to represent our area in the script National Spelling be the stage is set and the competition is fierce who will take on the title of spelling be Champion watch the whro spelling be watch the spelling be April

0781st watch the spelling be April 1st at 2 p.m. on whro I think some of those guys were auditioning to be in my air indeed uh also the great computer challenge some of you may have been young enough to actually participate in this great computer challenge we're going on year number 39 uh teams K through2 come together they compete in various uh computer softwares and languages it's an experience on the campus of ODU for many students it's the first time ever really suspend some time on the campus so it's just an amazing experience you can see some of those trophies are bigger than the kids themselves so it's a really fun fun experience as board members you care about your investment you invest $3 per student with whro last year that equated to $755,000 you

079received savings and value of $926,000 that's a 12 to1 return on your investment it and I'm happy to take any questions board members questions one uh question so if I'm a principal uh watching this presentation right now and I want my school to participate in the spelling be how do I do that Elmer spelling be we have online we have the information how you can enroll your school but if you want to shoot me an email or just call just call the Station we'll take care of you just give us we'll engage the right people yeah or I can give you my card here I'll give you my card right now great and I will ask also ask Miss Barnett tomorrow to talk with the Middle School principal at yeah just don't they're it's busy

080time around here so uh we don't want that slip through the cracks you want good news and spelling Beach Champs are good news indeed thank you thank you so much for your presentation and your dedication to our division thank you very much okay have a good night okay moving further along in section five reports and information we have 5.02 proposed um FY 24 legislative program Dr Mitchell who do we have with us at this time we have Mr Pat theran who will be coming before you to give us a a brief overview of the proposed FYI 24 legislative program thank you so much thank you drel good evening uh chairman stles law Vice chairman Dr best members of the school board and everybody in the audience and watching um it's that time of year when

081we uh take a look at the upcoming General Assembly session and uh and legislative issues of importance to the school board uh it's the board's opportunity to convey what you consider key issues for the 2024 session and the draft that uh you've seen is also posted on board dos to for the community to review as well and during the session of course legislators will introduce hundreds of Education bills as they always do and we'll do our best to keep you up to date and involved as the legislation goes forward on that uh quickly uh General Assembly timeline is up there I'm not going to go over it because it's it's pretty self-evident uh one of the big things tomorrow is uh believe tomorrow two more Thursday the dbba delegate assembly which you will be there

082and I believe uh chairman Ser law is the Delegate for this year so um and also we have do have a u take your legislator to school day in which we'll be highlighting our preschool program and dual and dual immersion program so we're very excited about seeing our legislators and other community members um at that event uh let to wrap up quickly you all know the budget was delayed I think for the longest time in history this year uh it didn't wasn't actually signed in the law until after school started uh so that caused some problems uh and we want to obviously encourage the General Summit to to fix that and and be quicker about their business uh this coming year uh we do want to thank them for the uh uh providing some additional

083funds in a way of some State share of of pay raises midyear uh um and a partial lift on arbitrary funding cap for support staff so we do some good things did come out of last year's general assembly and we do want to recognize those this year's key key priorities there are uh last year there are five uh this year there are uh two more which are the jarch recommendations and R re benchmarking I'll go over all these very very quickly um so I think brevy will be appreciated tonight um first of all the jarch recommendations what's jaar it's the joint legislative audit and review commission it's a uh state agency commission that works to look take a deep deep dive into into different U subjects they looked at K12 funding and bottom line is

084they found that uh K12 funding in Virginia was very underfunded when compared with the other 49 states um about 14% Less in other states they said that it translated into about 19 $100 per pupil which would translate you know just just to give you a rough estimate of how much underfunding for Newport News Public Schools that's about $50 million annually so um they're making some thing a lot of recommendations in here um and to undo some of the things that were uh done during the Great Recession to cut costs for the state for public education um one of the biggest um priority positions is re benchmark and that's really just when the state every two years comes back and says okay we need to update for um enrollment you know increase decline inflation uh some

085other formula changes all technical things uh we were a little worried that the re benchmarking hadn't a number hadn't come out yet um because it usually comes out in later October early November came out today at a house of uh Appropriations Committee meeting they estimated it to be $1.3 billion to update uh public education for this coming two years uh so we'll be working on that to make sure that we can find that money they can find that money in the budget uh to provide it to the schools uh teacher recruitment retention and salaries um you know that's been a perennial issue for really for everybody uh in in the state really everybody around the country uh and though Virginia has made significant Investments uh in teacher pay and programs but inflation and increasing pay

086from other states really have conspired to kind of keep us at the status quo we're still uh about $99,000 below the national average I've seen things 40th nationally some people say 22nd it sort of depends on how how and when you measure it but we're below the way below the national average uh so uh and the and the superintendent Association has called for a pay raise in each of the next two years of minimum of 4% to try to uh increase salaries uh of course that will probably just keep it around inflation so yeah another priority PH school facility funding um the state report says that there's about 25 million billion dollars needed if we were to replace all schools over 50 years old of course that would never be done uh but they did

087dedicate one time funding of1 and A4 billion dollar and you can tell that that's you know that's really not um for across the state that's not enough to really scratch the surface on all the needs of public education schools most of our buildings are more than 50 years old um and need a lot of not a lot of work um so new news schools has put together uh really a nice package of three three positions uh one is calls for referendum on school construction that would allow localities to um increase the tax sales tax by up to 1% for a specified amount of time for a specific School construction program and then that would go away uh right now nine localities in Virginia have that right uh with the change in the general assembly we

088think we might be able to get that through this year and see if we can get the governor to sign that uh the other two are some uh about school facilities C Reserve fund and streamlining public private in infrastructure laws both of those really give more autonomy to school boards to uh chart their own future uh with the money that they have uh for school construction and renovation uh standards of quality I'm not going to really go over this this is um been a perennial perennial issue the State Board of Education several years ago uh recommended about 11 positions 11 standards of quality and standards of quality are what Drive funding for uh public education in Virginia and it recommended about 11 of them be updated significantly right now I think about three or four

089have been been updated in the past few General Assembly sessions and we're just as a school board position is to uh is to um get on with the business of completing all of the updates for the standards of quality uh eliminating the staff support cap this is something that a lot of people have questions about and what it really what it really means is that um in 2010 the state because of the Great Recession um said we're not going to fund as many support positions um and those there I think there's seven or eight different categories of support positions uh and what happened is that that took um like $350 million a year out of the budget uh Statewide for school divisions and support positions so what happened was localities and school boards if they

090wanted to keep support positions uh had to find their own money for this and so a lot of school divisions couldn't do that or if they they did want to do it they had to work with their localities to uh increase funding from the localities so this general assembly is getting close to eliminating that we hope that'll they'll they'll bring it home next year um technology equipment internet access the pandemic of course really highlighted the digital divide uh kids were home for a year or so uh we had to produce uh and U uh not only computers for everybody internet access for everybody the people to help support all that um and right now um there is not a really good State formula for uh funding this technology equipment and internet access in the way

091that we now do it uh what's helped us out a lot is federal funding has been provided for some of that but that will end in fy4 and so we'll have kind of a funding Cliff that school divisions really around the country will have to look at and say how are we going to um keep doing this if we don't have that type of funding and so we're asking the state to look at that we've asked state to look at that for actually a number of years now but it's getting very very timely of course um next step that's really in a nutshell and briefly um the legislative program again I haven't gone over a lot of the continuing uh uh positions because they've been in there before and I just wanted to kind of

092gloss over some of these priority positions uh and see if you have any questions comments uh about that or suggestions okay board members do you have questions for Mr fineran Mr Brown just asked question about um we talked about computers and Technology uh and maintaining our maintaining our technology infrastructure for the students do we have any thoughts or ideas about a legislative proposal for supporting that by any by a formula uh at this point we have not formulated some sort of um position on that uh but it's something we can definitely work on uh actually we probably need to work with our state organizations like vsba and and and Mass on now and so that's part of why I'm mentioning it now because Now's the Time right as we're as we're the annual conference starts

093tomorrow and there's opportunity for us to talk to other school boards around the state that's something that we should probably um Avail ourselves of is that other school boards are all across the state in the same position as us and I believe it was it was the the cost is roughly about $5 million a year to keep our technology um and computers Up For Students yeah if I'm not mistaken I did I think I saw a session on that so yeah yeah it's not our it's not our concern alone that's for sure yes okay other questions from the board okay thank you so much and thank you for all the work that you are doing and will do for uh take your legislators to work day yes we're looking forward to that thank you very

094much thank you good night thank you so finally from section five reports and information we have 5.03 advisory committee updates Dr Mitchell Mitchell we're all tongue tied tonight thank Dr Mitchell thank you very much um if you recall we had um we started three advisory committees last year and we wanted to provide an update so tonight we have coming before you Dr parrot and Dr Ransom and Dr parot will begin and Dr Ransom will be the closer and they will provide us an update on the three committees welcome thank you good evening Madam chair sir's law and vice chair Dr Bess distinguished school board members Dr Mitchell and our viewing public I'm leich parrot director of Elementary School leadership and I had the great opportunity to co- facilitate the family engagement advisory committee along with

095Dr Karen blizzard a member of a professional counseling um Team here in Newport News and on behalf of Dr blizzard and Miss Lynch I would like to thank the 39 participants that gave up their time and their lived experiences to support this committee's work that includes Newport News staff parents and Guardians and community members the diversity of our committee truly reflected the wide range of perspectives and insights that make us Newport News public schools so again I like to thank our 39 participants that served on this committee you always take care of me Mr Price the charge of this committee was to review and provide feedback on current family engagement procedures as indicated by the recent division's audit and to serve as thought Partners on ways to promote Partnerships provide feedback on division priorities as

096it relates to family engagement in our division in the spirit in the words of Nelson Mandela may your choices reflect your hopes not your fears we engaged our committee members in an exercise during our first meeting to gather their attitudes around family engagement in Newport News we LED with the hopes as to ensure we would meet the expectations of what our committee could accomplish together and acknowledged the fears that could possibly get in the way through the work of this committee five considerations are being brought forward which could assist in strengthening our family and communicate our family and Community engagement efforts here in Newport News on this slide you see the meeting formats the meetings took place on March 15th April 19th May 25th and June 12th the meeting goals as you see here highlighted

097on the slide um were um important factors of each of our meetings I would like to take some time to highlight meeting three the day in the life of a family and Community engagement specialist this was a powerful session very powerful session that provided great insight to our committee members and informed the considerations that I will share with you in a few moments as I previously shared the third meeting of of our committee spotlighted the impactful work of family and community community engagement specialist we were joined By Janice Nicks representing Carver Elementary Lauren Hunter representing Marshall Early Learning Center Crystal Round Tree representing sedgfield Elementary I hope I don't destroy her name but Isaiah Isaiah Koger representing Kil Creek and no wood medals elementary schools and Eric battle representing Huntington and critton middle schools they

098shared how instructional materials were solicited the building of Partnerships and the creation of volunteer opportunities on their campuses they also shared how they support School operations and collaboration with school-based ptas to to enhance school and family connections as a result of the four sessions the committee brought forward the following recommendations on this slide which includes to prioritize a family and Community engagement specialist in every High School which would make face which is family and Community engagement face prevalent in all schools prek K12 the committee felt strongly that access to current and potential Partnerships should be centralized in one place for both the public to access as well as participate the committee supported the division audit recommendations that called for the face office to refine the overall vision and goals to be more closely aligned with

099the needs of the school and the community and to create a larger Vision that includes tapping into the talents that exist in Newport News communities Central to the four considerations was to prioritize improved communication among Newport News staff and Community Partners so what's next for the face office so what's next for family and Community engagement led by Karen Lynch and her team we acknowledge Faith Specialists play a C A crucial role with forming positive relationships and connecting the school to the community and each child's family Miss Lynch and her team will continue to work with senior staff to explore the options for possible expansion of the face team to include face specialist at high schools in e in efforts to create a centralized Resource Bank face leadership is partnering with Newport News Education Foundation and

100the communication Department to create a centralized Resource Bank accessible to all schools and Community Partners this will provide valuable education materials volunteer opportunities and a donation point of contact in one central location which was very important to our committee members to strengthen communication a Weekly Newsletter has been created to highlight face events and this is shared with Newport News department leaders the face website has been updated and now includes additional Community Resources each face specialist sets monthly go goals aligned to their schools continuous School Improvement plans this helps our face team align their events and resources not only to empower students but to strengthen our instructional program Miss Lynch will continue to meet with the family engagement advisory committee to increase Community communication the next meeting is set for November 28th and these meetings will

101provide opportunities for collaboration keep members informed of family engagement work and provide opportunities to gather valuable input from members of the community parents and staff and next you will hear from do Dr Ransom who will present on the rights and responsibilities and the school safety advisory committee's work thank you Dr parrot you're welcome thank you Dr parrot good evening Madame chair sir's law Vice chair best members of the board and Dr Mitchell each year I come before you to discuss proposed revisions to the rights and responsibilities handbook this year I presented those changes on June 20th the book was subsequently approved uh at the August meeting as a reminder the rights and responsibilities handbook is a tool that helps us in our mission to ensure all students graduate citizen ready it provides guidance to our

102students our families and our staff and details the many options we have available to us as we address student conduct there are several phases to our revision process after reviewing guidelines and recommendations we have a longstanding practice of gathering stakeholder input from multiple groups finally our proposals are reviewed by senior staff while while each year we form a committee to review the handbook this year the opportunity was opened to all citizens of the City of Newport News so in addition to the students parents teachers and staff members that make up this annual committee we also had community members with the expertise and vested interest in Student Success who extended their thinking to this important work the members of the rights and responsibilities handbook advisory committee are a group of parents teachers administrators community members and

103students who have become experts in the rights and responsibilities responsibilities of nmps students using a datadriven decision model the committee address classroom managed behaviors and finalized changes to the leveled administrative responses to student Behavior each Behavior code was reviewed its usage assessed and nnps practices were aligned to state code I would like to remind you of their renewed commitment this school year now that the expansive and exhaustive work around the code of conduct is complete the committee undaunted has decided to remain a unit and meet monthly to review other systems related to student expectations the next policy under review is the cell phone policy followed by the address code and a revamping of in school suspension the November meeting held this past Thursday the committee reflected on completed work reviewed discipline data from the start

104of school until now and prepped for the upcoming policy work in January this committee will join nmps instructional staff to participate in professional learning with national experts on student behavior and student discipline I'm excited to provide an update to the safety advisory committee work led by Mr Stewart now we have never garnered this level of input from the community before regarding School Safety and Security this Safety and Security advisory committee had 12 recommendations the first recommendation was that clear backpacks be mandatory for all students which nmps has supplied the next five recommendations you see listed here were incorporated into nps's division-wide crisis plan the committee also made several recommendations that were already in motion in the school division they include social emotional supports for students in crisis Anonymous reporting and building level crisis plans the

105last recommendation entailed moving to a mandatory use of student IDs and having all nmps students take pictures each year there are steps we are currently working on to fulfill this recommendation the next meeting will take place on January 10th during this meeting committee members will review the current standard operating procedures for our nmps security officers at this time we will answer any questions you may have any questions from our board members we really appreciate the update and I'm glad we were able to do it publicly so that the community could see the input that they've given to our Comm uh committees so I thank you all for orchestrating and Mining through the information that we got from them um but I also really thank our community for sticking with us and taking on some Heavy

106Hitters in the future so cell phone use dress code those are huge so thank you guys for coming we really do appreciate it thank you question uh Mr Harris yes yeah I encourage the public to please get in touch with Dr Ranson to help support him on this why because cell phones dress code you know a pretty big highlights in the community just let you know so please volunteer help him out so we can get a wide range views all right thanks thank you absolutely finally in this section we have 5.04 the attendance report 5.05 membership report 5.06 the construction report board members you have received a copy of this report are there any questions at this time okay hearing none we'll move on to item 5.0 07 comments by the superintendent Dr Mitchell thank

107you madam chair I just have a few brief comments tonight um want to share with you that Christopher newport's University President William Kelly continues his series of community walks which included a visit to Riverside Elementary School yesterday over 150 people including CNU students and staff community members and police officers participated in the walk from the camp us to Riverside and back principal Tim Edwards and the Riverside blooming Bears drum line greeted the visitors with a performance in front of the school special thanks to our board chair Lisa seros law vice mayor Curtis Bethany acting city manager Alan Archer and police chief Steve Drew for their participation continuing on with good news congratulations to Discovery stem acad Academy's first Lego robotics team thanks to their successful performance during the Virginia DC Reginal Regional competition at Kinton

108middle school on November the 4th the team earned the Innovative project award and is advancing to the state semifinals in December congratulations are also in order for Dutro Elementary and Booker T Washington for earning first place in robot design in their divisions teams representing Carver Deer Park General Stanford no wood Meadows MacIntosh sedgfield hindes and passage also competed and rounding this out the school counseling department is hosting Mega College and Career night tomorrow Wednesday November 15th from 5: to 7:30 p.m. at Menchville High School college and university Representatives will be on site and some are offering on site acceptances with with pre-arranged appointments financial aid support will also be available and an array of businesses and vendors will be on hand to talk with students about entering the workforce after graduation so students and parents

109please contact the school counselor I would like to remind all families that schools will be closed for students Wednesday through Friday November 22nd through the 24th offices will be open on a half day schedule on Wednesday November 22nd please spend some time with your family and friends relax and rejuvenate and enjoy your break and that concludes my remarks thank you so much we will move on to item six another opportunity to hear from the public are there any additional cards that I need to make sure that I have in my stack here okay great the first two speakers speakers John R Wright and Darren Pitman please name is John Wright and I've been a resident of Newport News since 78 put three sons through the Newport News school system uh have uh six grandchildren some

110of which are going to be going to Newport News and two great grandchildren two young men and no telling where they'll go uh I want to thank you all for your decision on Mr on on governor yunan and I want to thank you for your decisions on his policy as they apply to this school district this area what I would like to read is something I brought with me to the last meeting and the Lord Lord's been putting it on my heart that I need to read it out to everybody says uh it's it's called daddy daddy by candy Dawson Boyd and Floyd Cooper says when I be there daddy daddy be there when I dye my hair green or cut it off or pierce my ears and nose when my music rocks the house

111but grab me when I wonder too far from home too close to Danger I cannot see daddy daddy be there let me sit with you let me hold your spotted hand let my eyes be yours my ears as well I will remember when you were there for me and asked for nothing in return now I am here for you Daddy I love you thank you thank you Aaron Pitman good evening good evening first and foremost I just want to thank each of you for the work that you're doing I know it's hard I know you're dealing with a A lot of people and not only that you're also managers of several students um so I just like to just to thank you just for adopting the model policy from our governor yunan um I was

112actually also doing more research just into the bullying you know our school system I mean we're we're doing an amazing job we have been doing an amazing job I think we've just there's a lot of confusion that's trying to enter into our school systems and I and I believe if we continue to focus on you know the Reading Writing arithmetics you know what I mean and educating our students I think we're going to have an amazing amazing citizens walk outside of the school system into Newport News uh to be productive citizens so again I thank you all for all that you're doing to support our students and also our parents and and teachers and staffs as well thank you the next two are Vincent Johnson and Sarah I think this is choxi thank you thanks

113for writing it clearly good evening my name is Vincent Johnson and I'm a grandfather to 117 go to the Newport News school system I just want to thank you for this opportunity to speak up and voice my opinion first I want to thank the Newport News school board for following the the guidance of the new model policies by our governor I truly believe that the school board did the right thing because these policies are in line with the federal and state non-discrimination laws I'm a man of faith and I have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to see how people were being deceived and bullied over these transgender issues brought much pain to my heart God created male and female no inet nothing added and nothing taken away the Lord

114said our bodies are a holy Temple to be used by God for God's glory we know that all School boards in Virginia won't adhere right away way but we truly believe in prayer and fasting you see we fight on our knees about a month or so ago by Church hosted a doc a documentary on gender confusion SL gender transformation this documentary was so sad and disturbing it brought tears to my eyes my heart was in so much pain to see how our young kids were messing up their lives and bodies it was hard and painful to watch after the transformation how much pain and Agony they went through and how it tore families apart I pray all eyes would see this documentary lives were being lost because of all this gender confusion I truly believe

115we took a step forward by this new model policy and I believe we can work together on this and other issues it is so important that parents learn the truth so they can lead and guide their children in the right way again I want to thank you for standing with this this new model policy on transgender issues I really believe that we can work together in the future this demonstrates that we can move forward on more pressing issues I want to thank you for your time and your commitment that you put in on the school board we are a Praying church and we have been praying daily for our school board and our schools I truly believe that you all want to sh share a common goal to provide a positive leader learner environment for

116our children we know that care for our children and teachers I know that we are living in the last and last days and we know that there are things will get tougher but there are some things we can avoid by prayer and fasting and trusting God again I just want to thank you for giving me this time to speak up May the love of God and peace of God be upon the school board thank you Sarah CH saxi I got it that's okay you did well thank you good evening Dr Mitchell and members of the board I thank you again for letting us come and speak to you again and take your time because I know you're busy I know you work hard I do also want to thank you for approving the the transition

117uh let me get that right the policies that the governor made and thank you for adopting it we have been sitting here listening to everyone everyone has a right to speak and everyone has an opinion but it leaves my heart really heavy really heavy to hear some of these people these young people that have been through more than I ever thought anybody could ever go through and my heart goes out to them and we pray for them we do and we ask that God give them comfort and peace we ask also that God give you people the wisdom and the knowledge to do what you need to do because you do not have an easy job and I don't know how you do it either but I want to thank you again for letting us

118speak and for adopting the policy thank you the next two speakers are Mara Koy and I believe this is James desas good evening um thank you very much for your time for allowing me to speak um I don't know any of you you guys certainly don't know me um so I will give you the opportunity to meet me just a little bit I am a Community member I have six children I am a master's prepared nurse in this community um I don't know any of your beliefs spiritual or otherwise religious or otherwise I won't presume that you believe in a God I won't presume that you don't believe in a god um I don't know if you are gay if you are straight if you identify as bisexual heterosexual I I don't I don't know

119anything about that you don't know anything about that about myself either so why am I here why now my children are all grown my children don't even go to school in this in this County we moved here after our children were were grown and and are now functioning adults in out in various communities some some in this community some not um one of my children however has worked with special needs kids adults with intellectual disabilities and is training to be an online counselor for military personnel dealing with mental health issues he's 26 years old he's dealing with some pretty heavy stuff with some grown adults that are dealing with heavy heavy stuff in this world he left a high school after coming out to me as transgender when he was 15 years old he wasn't

120fitting in he lost his very best friend after coming out that was devastating to him absolutely devastating I hope homeschooled him for a year because that was the best option for us and that was while I worked full-time as a nurse at the time actually I was working as a nurse practitioner so I homeschooled for a year let him work out his Kinks found him the best counselor I could did what I needed to do to come to terms and how it fit in with our family because it affected all of our family my parents uh my sister her children it affected all of us takes a while to learn to use a new pronoun takes a while long while um luckily we found another school that accepted him welcomed him they were happy to

121use a different pronoun they didn't need me to sign anything but I do recall the counselor coming and saying I overheard what you guys were saying when you were signing your papers to to enroll him in school my sister's gay and I thought it's it's a shame that you feel you have to whisper it like cancer in the old days that's a shame we shouldn't have to whisper things like that to be who we are that shouldn't happen thank you J hello board my name is James Des Bress I'm a father of four in the area I'm an active member of the society disappointed is understatement between you guys the communication from our transportation to our schools we are over 30% M underman for our teachers we're over 100 employees short for school bus drivers

122we get messages these are when we're supposed to pick up our kids then we abide by them next thing you know we're getting text messages at 11:00 in in the morning now they have been changed changes like this need to be sent out with notice with understanding we have kids that are in school seven eight nine hours a day by the time they get home off the bus they still have homework to do this is ridiculous we call the school we don't get responses for days we call up here they're not in office they're at lunches it's unacceptable I expect a lot more from the head of the schools I expect a lot more from the administration the staff we don't have crossing guards it's been going on three years where are crossing guards do

123one of these kids have to die before you guys stand up and do something but you're asking for 2.8 million in books but we don't have lockers to put them in we have book bags that fall apart where does this Ridiculousness end I want my children to go to school learn come home and still be children children not have to be worried about where's my bus am I going to get a ride home am I going to be able to do my homework it's ridiculous why don't we let our children be children we not worry about pronouns schools are for learning not what you're called I don't care about your sexual orientation I don't care that you're changing the school pickups or you're worried about when these buses are or why are we not have

124staff pay them more so we can get the drivers we can get the teachers we can have the adequate communication that we all need and that's all I have to say most of you know me and you know how to reach me if you have any questions you guys have my number you have a great day the next two are Valerie fashion and David I think this is Brookman good evening Dr Mitchell school board members and viewing audience audience my name is Valerie fashion and I am an advocate for the children in the school district I would like to thank Dr Mitchell the school board members and the nnps administration for choosing a new curriculum for the newort News Public School District education is the process of acquiring knowledge and information that leads to a

125successful future and hopefully this curriculum along with the dedicated teachers will lead to better test scores Knowledge and Skills that the students will be able to use so that they can become productive citizens I would like to request a training session for all our substitutes so that we'll be able to use the smart bats that's installed in these schools so that we'll be able to continue the daily lesson plans when the teacher is out the substitutes this year were not given any training this school year and everyone should be informed and trained on the new changes for the school year students are still being given spelling tests without being given any spelling words to study this is a disadvantage to the students when they have to take an assessment test and and they have to

126spell words that they have never seen as a sidebar Governor yonan has chosen not to send his children to Virginia Public Schools but rather to National Cathedral School and St Albin School twin private all girls and boys school in DC where the opes under the opes of the Episcopal Church Dei which is diversity equity and inclusion has been a priority at the National Cathedral for many years governor yunan was also a member of the board from 2016 to 2019 this these private schools also teach critical race Theory Governor yunan is a hypocrite and he has introduce a policy that his children won't be following so i s would like the board to reconsider ex adopting his policies that he won't even allow his children to be under thank you for your [Applause] time David Breakman

127bman thank you can you say your last name Forman brakman brakman thank you David I am disappointed in the adoption without a vote of trans student policies even more extreme than what Yen proposed um I campaigned for believe a majority of you sitting here now uh with the expectation that you would not support this and without a vote I would like to see who I have to reconsider doing that for uh can I can I see a show of hands of Who currently supports the new transgender policies nobody nobody Sports them incredible I I don't see why we can't repeal them the rallying Cry of parents rights is made in bad faith rights have limits a child's gender identity is not a parent decision as an analogy plenty of States non-marxist states of Alaska Minnesota

128New Mexico do not have parental notification or consent requirements for seeking an abortion which is similar to coming out in that it is a sensitive medical decision uh in in terms of seeking counseling and telling a parent who is not trusted with this information results in probabilistically um being homelessness and and loss of continuing education I invite further review of the policies if anyone has a a pen and want wants to review some of the line items for a thorough consideration that you've all been lauded for um the FAQ number six says that parents um don't have the right to update their kids pronouns if the say a staff member's right to say whatever they want as far as the first amendment um supersedes a parent right to support their child's choice of pronouns uh

129it goes um official record parental um override and then um staff choice but the 34 has it or sorry the actual policy 3d6 says that 3D 4 supersedes it instead said uh 30 seconds so when people say this doesn't support bullying at all uh you can give all the LI service you want but what results from policies like these is more bullying High teacher can say no uh SP monster says no uh Mr Mr Soul's law I can that constitutes bullying and it emboldens others to bully likewise um I regret that I'm out of time but I look forward to hearing you and speaking again the next two speakers are naticia Elliot and braon Lee good evening um Dr Mitchell um School Board committee how you doing everyone um it's been a long evening um

130I just wanted to start out by um my husband husband and I greatly um we both thank you um for taking the time um to review Yan's revision on a transgender policy I know it was a long and hard decision I know you guys took the time um quality time that it took to get to a point to make that decision we greatly appreciate you listening to all Voices All concerns including the parents um we also are grieved to hear about the testimonies that some people that do not have understanding parents about anything they're going through in life and they can't come to them so our heart do grieve for them um we do some of us do have testimonies of not having understanding parents so you guys are not alone um I do also

131want to share that I do believe that parents um need to be a part of the life decisions that their children are making we need to be there to guide them impart wisdom understanding and most importantly to love them unconditionally the healthiest way possible so we thank you for including the parents into something that's intrical and important and lifechanging and we just we greatly are appreciative to every one of you thank you again have a good night on Lee hi hi good evening my name is Ron Lee and last month I asked you to not adopt the model policies my grandparents would have had something to say about these policies as they are written like grandparents loved America the symbolism of our flag and the hope we give to those living in oppression my grandparents

132grw poor as kids they sell sugar beets for food and coal for heat my told me about a day where she was starving and a Jewish neighbor gave her a caned food to hold her over till the next meal she'd never seen a can before at that time the happiest time for maom and opa was when they were in the league of German girls and the Hitler Youth in these organizations they would get fed sing songs play and learn about their country's propaganda they never understood why the government always demonized Jews their childhood was confusing their state was telling them that there was something wrong with their neighbors yet these neighbors often helped them survive poverty during the war my ended up as a nurse and witnessed thousands of Germans burned to death by Allied

133fire fire bombings while my Opa fought in the SS he was eventually captured at the Battle of the Bulge by the Americans as a p he learned who Americans were and loved playing soccer with the guards later in life Opa would take every chance he could to meet Americans and thank them for their service no one was prouder of me becoming American Airmen than my German Opa I earned a bachelor's degree in German life and culture 200 understand how many how a great man like him could have joined the SS and so many others follow such a fascist party Hitler was elected as a normal candidate for the Nazi party and he then changed the laws and institutions to keep himself and his party in power Nazis did not campaign on killing Jews they campaigned

134on the economy the Greater German State and the erosion of mainstream morality human rights eroded little by little but not for the Catholics and not for the CIS Germans it was the others that were targeted and most people didn't even know the others on September 23rd 1942 the last Jews of my hometown were shipped away and killed before 1935 Berlin was known as the gay capital of the world then the local government the local government closed gay clubs and outlawed same-sex Intimacy in 1936 the federal Nazi government adopted the local laws rounded up homosexuals and hunted those hiding using official records and informants to exterminate gays from the European continent my grandfather felt so betrayed by his country and the Catholic church that he renounced both of them and lived the rest of his life

135in fear Opa raised me to hate Fascism and anyone who tries to trample on human rights the local government sets the tone please do not adopt policy that others some students do not have teachers be informant on others do not document others in official records silence is violence and a struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary Pursuit that should Prevail over laws and [Applause] institutions okay the next uh two are Reverend Michael we think Bernett and Michelle Foster thank you madam chair Madame Vice chair Madam superintendent members of the board thank you so much for giving us chance to speak hi too I'm a man of faith I'm a minister I'm a campus minister at Christopher Newport University and I work with local congregations all over this city I minister to families to children

136to students here in Newport News on a regular basis my Ministry has been grounded in the latter part of Matthew 25 when Jesus said says that which you have done or not done to the least of these and he goes on to name a group of marginalized and vulnerable people whatever you have haven't done to them he says you've done to me I'm not here to preach to you but I am here to explain why I'm troubled by the lack of efficacy being offered to those most affected by the adoption of these policies there's a old maximan governance in Latin it reads niil de nois nois in a somewhat poetic English translation it reads nothing about us without us in the last couple months and I know I have a limited scope here I've heard

137trans Youth and parents of trans youth speak none in favor of these policies I've heard Educators speak little to none in favor of these policies the trans youth have tried to warn us about the potential harm these policies can do our Educators have tried to warn us about the damage they could do to the relationships between them and their students and let's call it what it is is the additional stress of being an informant truly for our students and yes there is an escape Clause if a teacher truly believes a student is at Great risk of personal harm they don't have to call the teachers they have to call a social worker that still puts already overstressed and underpaid Educators at even more responsibility those most directly impacted by these policies have been some of

138the most vocal against them yet I fail to see where they've been given much if any consideration in the final product I'm also so troubled by the lack of representative democracy I understand the superintendent was well within her rights to modify existing policy without a vote but given the contention of these policies given the controversial nature of it I understand it's a legal thing I think it's questionably ethical and I ask you does the board have the authority to vote and override that implementation because if so the board has an opportunity to do something beautiful here the opportunity to Stand Up For Those whom you were elected to serve our students and our Educators who voices who've been unheard at best and ignored at worst the opportunity to stand up against the erosion of responsible

139representative democracy and to insist that nothing be put into practice about a population without the intentional inclusion of their input and frankly the opportunity to let the voters of Newport News see which of their duly elected representatives is willing to stand for these things or not if it's within your power I implore you to override the implementation of these policies and continue this conversation with more voices included thank you Michelle [Applause] Foster just need to turn off the battery mode um good evening everyone uh my name is Michelle Foster um I've only been a a Hampton R resident for a short period of time but I come to you as a community member um a older sister to a queer sibling and a transgender woman out and proud um I wanted to question the legality

140um of changing the existing policy rather than actually addressing any kind of emotional or historical perspect perspectives on the issue um first things first I would like you to vote to repeal Governor yonan's policy um again these are guidelines they're not mechanisms they are basically just suggestions um and they're suggestions that counteract um enacted policy by the Virginia house um referencing House Bill 145 section 22.1 and 22.3 um each School Board shall adopt policies that are consistent but may be more comprehensive than model policies developed by the Department of Education in pursuant to subsection a um which is referencing uh any kind any policy standards and best practices um according to uh evidence-based um according to evidence-based organizations um this exist this policy from Governor yunan doesn't represent that at all it doesn't represent the

141spirit of the law which has not been rescinded that's still been on the book since 2020 and other legislation that has been put forward against lgbtq students and against um the queer Community as a whole in schools has has failed completely um the same has been the same has proven true for elections we just recently had um elections not only within Virginia but across the rest of the United States and it proved without a shadow shadow of a doubt that these are not things that the American populace want imposed on their schools or on their society as a whole I think putting these policies into place without any kind of Vote or any kind of further discussion just opens us up to an erosion of democracy for the most part um and I don't think

142that's right I am an active duty service member I don't speak in that capacity today but I put my life on the line for the Democratic process for this country and it really saddens me to see that get eroded away at even the lowest level at a school board uh at a school board right so I also wanted to touch on some uh legislative uh on some legislative decisions that were made particularly the Grim case um that cited transgender issues is protected under Title 9 and this legisl this guidance change would absolutely undermine that you'd open yourself up to a similar kind of legal battle from another student if they so choose to take that up um thank you for your time thank you now the last uh three speakers we have are Jennifer herget

143Tyler Eldred and Effie McMillan I would like to thank this school board for not mandating the co 19 jab to the students several local school boards did mandate the jab another was discussing putting money aside for their athletes for potential heart problems and this breaks my heart knowing our history is important how many times has our government experimented on the American people the Tuskegee experiment in 1932 that went on for years psychedelics in 1947 MK Ultra in the 70s and 80s it was AIDS brought to by a hepatitis B experimental vaccine in the CDC the cure a killed thousands and was brought to you by Anthony fouchi watch the Dallas Buyers Club and read the real Anthony fouchy by Robert F Kennedy in 1990 the CDC inoculated more than 1500 babies in Los Angeles against

144measles later the CDC confessed that the vaccine was experimental I could go on with the experiments in the US but what about India the DTaP vaccine scene brought to you by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where girls got seizures cancer and seven died India kicked the Gates Foundation out of their country what about Africa it was the tetanus vaccine that left women infertile caused spontaneous abortions and bleeding this is happening now out of 76,000 women 52% are having menstrual issues after the co jab go to my cycl story.com the Bible tells us not to fear how many times but the mainstream media was paid by our government to keep us in fear so that we will willingly take an experimental vaccine when you watch TV how many times have you heard brought to you

145by fizer these commercials pay for what you hear in between the commercials it's called propaganda which was made legal in 2012 with the repeal of the Smith Mont act Africa and India are taking icin and hydroxy chloroquin they were also not being given REM Desir fouchy made it the only medication that doctors could treat coid with it was pulled from the Ebola trials in Africa because it has a 53% mortality rate many hospitals are still using it today don't research don't take natural supplements that will boost your immune system on the NIH website you will find the vitamin D insufficiency May account for almost nine of 10 covid 19 deaths published in December of 2020 but our government isn't telling us that pfizer made over $81 billion in 2021 which calculates to over $150,000 a

146minute almost twice as much as what they had profited in previous years know your history and question everything I'm here because I care about the children and if one parent starts questioning that I have done what God told me to do Ephesians 511 take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them I want to thank you again I will send you this on digital tomorrow so you can click links thank you Tyler Eldred my name is Tyler Eldred and we'll be speaking against Glenn Youngkin's model policies I am an organizer with tidewater Democratic socialists of America a founding member of hampon Roads reproductive Justice League and a graduate of Warick High School class of 2007 as a magnet student to Warwick's International Baccalaureate program I had the fortune of a very

147quality education I read Doki on the way to Calculus class and alternated Orchestra and swim team in the evenings my classmate Maria got a perfect score on the SATs and spoke four different languages my buddy Eduardo was raised by a Puerto Rican single mother and he got into MIT expenses paid thanks to the faft sub program slacker that I was, I was ranked only top 30s in my class so I went to the University of Virginia along with 15 of my classmates a banner year at the time we were everything the school system could have hoped for us to be but students face a lot of new challenges now that I didn't. they must study through covid and the fear of school shootings, they must face an increasingly competitive academic and economic environment and now

148they face this gender policing at the hands of demagogues with an agenda of cruelty now I wonder what it would have been like if Maria was told she should act more feminine or if Eduardo was harassed or suspended for wearing a purse or for painting his fingernails I wonder but need only recall the experience of my spouse who tells me of the traumatic humiliation and and degradation they as a queer youth had received at nuk's Tabernacle Baptist over dress code sexuality and supposed ladylike Behavior over 15% of this new generation now id's as queer 46 of queer youth aged 13 to 24 attempted suicide in the past year a figure which is higher in the South where 42% say they live in a hostile or unwelcoming environment you don't need calculus to understand the effect

149that that has on a high school classroom as a graduate of this school system I asking you please don't squander what the Youth of this future have to offer us they deserve a nurturing academic environment not a spiteful surveillance State our youth have so much to teach us if only we would ask. thank you. Effie McMillan hi good evening uh my name is Effie I'm a graduate of the Hampton Roads public school system and a transgender woman I wanted to speak tonight in support of trans non-binary and gender non-conforming students as well as teachers at large while I personally did not start transition until after I had graduated I still found teachers to be an incredible source of comfort and support while I was coming into my own and I personally know multiple people who

150did come out first to their friends at school and yes their teachers because they did not feel comfortable coming out to their family at home. children are not dumb they usually have good reasons to trust someone with informations that they hesitate to share with others um the real re uh the real question we should be asking ourselves is why these children don't feel safe to tell their own parents but unfortunately we already know the answer research has shown time and time again that parental acceptance of LGBT youth is often the the deciding factor between a happy fulfilling life and on the other hand chronic stress homelessness or worse if you are a parent and you are worried your child might be hiding part of their identity from you you can fix that yourself by being

151accepting and letting your child know that you are a safe person you don't need school policy to do that. trans kids are not hiding from parents because they want to blindside them or rebel they are hiding because they are scared or simply not ready. furthermore in this campaign of fearmongering there has been constantly the pitting of counselors and educators at large as some kind of nefarious brainwashers. as someone who is close with and related to several Educators at various levels I can tell you they are already under enough stress without being maligned by those who support Youngkin's policies. chronic understaffing and underfunding have left Educators with more responsibilities and less compensation adding on top of that the impossible choice of either maintaining their students privacy and well-being or their own job security is unconscionable these

152recent policies make it more stressful for supportive teachers to do their jobs I understand that trans people are still a pretty small group and you might not know a trans person in your own life so I stand here before you to tell you how fulfilling it is to live a life authentically and that we are real people thankfully my parents have been supportive but if instead I stood here and told you that I was scared to tell my parents about my identity but could not necessarily prove that they were abusive would you ask a person I trusted to out me to them? would you do that to me now? would you do that to me if I was 18? would you do that to me if I was 9 years old? The point is we

153need space to figure ourselves out as people and if we don't feel safe to do it at home and we don't feel safe to do it at school where are we to do it? I get the feeling that some would rather we not do it at all and that people like me stay closeted at the risk of our physical and mental health so I ask you to simply look at the care guidelines for LGBT youth that have been developed by experts across across the world in contrast with Youngkin's proposed policies and repeal them thank you. [Music] do we have any more cards? okay for the sake of time uh we will just hear from the purpose that we are here for which are students so our student representative Aaron Lynn what do you have for

154us this evening um the first meeting the first meeting of the superintendent student Advisory Group was held last month and we had students representing all of our high schools and new news our goal is their hands the high school experience for all students in preparing them to graduate college career and citizen ready we de we developed meeting norms and discussed the process and activities that we were we are we were going to oh that were going well at school and we also talked about things that we proposed to change we also got student volunteers to serve on the stud on the school division's rights and responsibilities handbook committee we are looking forward to our next meeting which will be on December 12 thank you 02:31:15,279 --> 02:31:18,880 good night [Music]