School Board Meeting: October 17, 2023

001[Music] good evening I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News school board for Tuesday October 17th 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 aor is present to transact the business of the school division we will begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and pledge to the flag here to do the honors are two students from minville high school Quincy Cordell and Nadia de brous I believe so first we'll have Quincy come forward and deliver the invocation and he will be followed by Nadia who will come forward and deliver the pledge um Quincy if you would come and tell us a little bit about yourself before you get started

002hi how everybody doing good thank you I'm I'm loud I'm sorry you're Fu okay um hi my name is Quincy Cordell I'm a 12th grade student at mvro high school and today I'm just glad to be here um I got a quote from Nelson Mandela when he says education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world and that's what I'm here to do today thank you quency and Nadia would you please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself and then lead us in the pledge I'm Nadia de brow I'm in 12th grade at Menchville High School and yeah can everybody please stand for the punch absolutely aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under

003God indivisible with liy and justice for all so thank you both Quincy and Nadia for uh participating in tonight's meeting do you have any family members or School members who are with you to support you this evening hi Mom hi and another Mom thank you so much for making sure that they were with us tonight oh and the principles thank you very much okay so uh the next item on our agenda our Schoolboard recognition so Dr Mitchell I think you and I are going to go to the podium good evening I have the pleasure of presenting this month's honor e Newport News Public Schools apprenticeship program is a structured professional development and state certification program that combines Hands-On Career Training and practical classroom learning the program is designed to develop highly skilled employees during the

004multi-year process apprentices gain a deeper understanding of their Department's operations and how their work fits into the school division strategic plan and supports our students the program is the only one in Virginia administered by a School Division through the Virginia Department of Labor and industries apprenticeship office the customized courses enhance the apprenticeship the apprentices skills and talents the School Division has four such programs in four areas Child Nutrition Services custodial Services transportation and clerical support tonight we're recognizing our third graduating class of the the transportation apprenticeship program our graduates will receive a certificate of completion of apprenticeship from the state Council these dedicated employees successfully completed a rigorous sequence of program requirements we're so very proud of their accomplishments please join me in congratulating them Jean amus suan Master bus driver Mr amusan and that's

005Master bus driver two I sound corrected cesy Andrews Master bus assistant 2 Tama Gatling Master bus driver too Katherine Grimes Master Bus Driver [Applause] 2 Jesse yinz gillo Master bus driver [Applause] to our next Honore I'm not sure she was able to join us Kimberly mckichan okay we congratulate her as well Master bus driver to and Shir Simpson Master bus driver [Applause] to and also unable to join us this evening is Terry Taylor Master bus driver to congratulate her as well and finishing out this class of apprentices is Lisa Walton Master Bus Driver 2 [Applause] the transportation apprentices completed nearly 300 hours of classroom instruction in customer service effective Communications English math Spanish workplace technology and Leadership skills in addition to 4,000 hours of on the job training in bus routing and dispatch training and

006coursework that makes them eligible to take the test for the National Association for Pupil Transportation certification as a supervisor of transportation again please join me in another round of applause for our transportation apprenticeship program graduates it was a lot of hard work and this gentleman and Ladi started before Co so they started this process in 2019 got interrupted and completed this year so thank you for hanging in there we know it was a lot of hard work right and we do want to take a picture but before we do that I'd like to take an opportunity to acknowledge some of their supporters because we know that they made a lot of sacrifices to complete this so we want to ask if their family and friends join them tonight woulde you would please stand and be

007recognized the family and friends of our of our graduates here thank you need to congratulate you too and I'd also like to acknowledge the transportation team members here this evening to celebrate this graduation Shay coats our executive director of Transportation Sharon Moore our transportation operation supervisor Francis Smith acting Transportation or area supervisor and Ellen Charles our area transportation supervisor as well thank you so very much and before you sit down we'd like to take a picture if you can come to the front of the podium I'm get Shake oats oh I would ask [Applause] want a more recognition for this evening training and development are top priorities for the Newport News school board as part of his Collective effort to maintain effective leadership the board has participated in numerous development programs conferences and workshops through

008the Virginia school boards Association this evening our school board members are receiving their own awards for their dedication to advancing their expertise from the Virginia school boards Association the vsba academy provides training and effective leadership and governance to school board members and support staff each year the vsba recognizes board members for their dedication to improving their skills through conferences on Leadership School laws strategic strategic planning and legislative issues each of the persons being recognized this evening has received a certificate of recognition from the vsba these Awards honored their participation in the Academy's programs for the past two years School board chairman Lisa SOS law and School Board member Douglas Brown earned the award of Distinction Vice chair Terry Dr Terry best earned an award of Honor board member Rebecca aan earned the award of achievement

009and board member Gary Hunter and School Board clerk Tiffany Moore Buffalo earn Awards of recognition our award of Distinction honores Miss s law and Mr Brown will be recognized during a special session during the Virginia school boards association annual convention each of these dedicated public servants have received award certificates and distinctive lapel pens to symbolize their commitment to effective Schoolboard governance and participation in the academy board members on behalf of the student staff and citizens of Newport News thank you for your dedication and Leadership of this School Division and congratulations on your award at this time we'll take about a six-minute break so that our honores and their families may leave if you choose to do so you're welcome to stay the rest of the board meeting you know during this time our viewing audience

010will have opportunity to view this month's Schoolboard Spotlight so we'll stand in recess for about 6 minutes thank you I [Music] really for three weeks this past summer students explored career possibilities through stem while solving real world problems using creative and cuttingedge solutions hosted at Hines Middle School Rising 3rd through 12th grade students participated in summer enrichment steam camps adding an artistic twist to complete engaging and challenging stem activities over 400 students were enrolled and each grade used specific tools Technologies and great appropriate Concepts while exploring computer science and emerging Technologies Lego robotics ozobots Edison programmable robots unruly Splats and flying drones were just a few of the technology students used to tackle real world challenges while sparking creativity encouraging teamwork and equipping students with the Knowledge and Skills to succeed in a highly technological

011World each project also Incorporated an Artistic Touch allowing students to add color design and creativity to their final Works throughout the weekly activities guest speakers classroom visitors and excursions to Community Partners expanded students learning experiences and broadened their understanding of career options enrichment steam camps created the perfect learning environment to inspire creativity and develop critical thinking skills for hundreds of students this summer during the summer high school students gained valuable career Readiness skills by working in Newport News Public Schools normally students gain job experience by finding internships outside the schools but through the Career and Technical education program qualifying high school students became career Pathways interns right here in Newport News Public Schools this past summer 29 interns completed a paid internship while working in seven different departments for 4 to8 weeks interns work with

012Child Nutrition Services driver education English library media Services stem summer Institute for the Arts or Technology support services logging 60 to 100 paid hours this allowed high school students to gain real world job experience in a career field that interests them while also earning employment skills building confidence and shaping their future career goals for the fifth year Educators in Newport News Public Schools were invited to explore the latest trends Technologies and strategies in education to enhance student learning in their own classrooms over a thousand nnps employees attended the innovate conference at Woodside High School in early August organized by the employee expertise department and instructional technology team Educators had over 230 engaging sessions to choose from and attend either in person or virtually in each session teachers administrators instructional technology coaches and business partners LED

013live discussions and offered professional insights on a range of educational topics including Innovative strategies effective technology integration student engagement and creating inclusive learning environments by attending or presenting a session teachers received valuable points towards their teaching license renewal between sessions attendees had the opportunity to explore firsthand the many cuttingedge Technologies found in classrooms across Newport News through the sharing of skills and strategies at innovate conference Educators were able to unlock their potential and drive positive change in Newport News public schools for the 34th year summer Institute for the Arts offered students an intensive program in dance drama music and visual arts hosted at Woodside High School 85 Rising 8th through 12th grade students were accepted into the summer arts program to participate in two overlapping sessions students in the Performing Arts session including dance drama

014and music spent over two weeks sharpening their Musical and performance skills on the last day of their session families were invited to enjoy a Performing Arts showcase where each talented group of students put their artistic skills on display by successfully completing this summer course performing art students received a half credit towards their graduation requirements meanwhile Visual Arts students spent 5 weeks creating an impressive portfolio utilizing a range of media and techniques a rotating team of talented Educators challenge students to stretch their abilities while introducing them to new methods and tools as their session came to a close families enjoyed a final art gallery to tour the impressive collection of student masterpieces by successfully completing their summer arts experience Visual Arts students earned a full high school credit for over three decades summer Institute for the

015Arts has continued to inspire enthusiasm and dedication in the lives of young artists for the ninth summer books on bikes Newport News kept students engaged in reading all summer long every week Teacher volunteers from Greenwood Macintosh Stony run and Yates Elementary Schools delivered brand new books to students and families across Newport News throughout several neighborhoods teachers could be spotted on their iconic tricycles hauling huge containers of books free for any kid no matter what school they attend they also offered bookmarks sweet treats and tasty snacks during every outing phone calls and social media kindly reminded families where and when books on bikes would be stopping in their neighborhoods and when weather didn't cooperate Educators simply adapted by trading in three wheels for their four-wheel vehicles to ensure books made it into eager hands to read

016often principles would join in on the fund keeping families informed and welcoming new students to their school students were Overjoyed to see their teachers throughout the summer sharing stories of their summer Adventures thanks to books on bikes Newport News hundreds of families received new books throughout the summer to keep students engaged in academic growth before the start of a new school year a superior band performance doesn't come together overnight during the waning summer weeks students spent hours learning music practicing marching techniques and repeating formation movements to prepare for a competitive marching season at five Newport News high schools Summer band camps allowed talented band directors and their staff to bring together student musicians with artistic auxiliary units and dance teams to create a harmonious performance by participating in marching band students gain important life skills

017beyond the obvious musical talents such as discipline responsibility teamwork and confidence upper classmen including drum majors and section leaders grow in their leadership skills guiding younger students through their years of experience and the AC of marching sometimes with oversized instruments is a huge physical benefit for students through increased muscle strength improved cardiovascular health and enhanced endurance during halftime performances at football games Community parades and visits to other schools hundreds of marching band students in Newport News Public Schools will entertain thousands this season through the power of [Music] music see how good you are I hope you enjoyed this month's School Board Spotlight during our regular meetings we provide time for the public to address the school board these opportunities are scheduled in the early part of our agenda and also towards the end of the

018meeting 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 that you comply with our three minute time limit as you begin your comments a green light will come on a yellow light signals that you have 30 seconds remaining and a red light and beep indicates your time is up we have an abundance of speaker cards this evening so please um uh pay attention to the to the guidelines as your name is called um please come forward I'm actually going to call you uh in groups of three that way you'll know

019um that you're in the queue and to come up next and then I'll call you one more time to come to the to the mic first person is William hubal um Gabrielle Bivens and Christine Parker colon hi good afternoon uh thanks for providing this opportunity uh my name is Will hubero and some call me Mr H I'm a teacher at War High School um spirituality is not very important to me and I decided this in church um I remember sitting in the pews and my Minister said if this isn't true for you in your heart then it doesn't count and it wasn't so it didn't and after that I was I was out um my Integrity is very important to me um and I wasn't going to pretend that I believed but something very close

020to spirituality happened to me in college I got the calling to teach um after that brief moment while I was binge watching episodes of lost depressed and then suddenly rejuvenated my identity changed I was a teacher um that's my experience though some people have different experiences and that's a good thing some people's experiences are terrifying While others are put on pedestals we need to protect our children from hate Prejudice and bigotry there are very few moments in the school day where a student might not be able to say a quiet prayer to thems but most waking moments out as a student of the lgbtq community gives no such respit it is they we need to protect not ostracize and expose if we let God into to the schools is that who we're really letting in

021you might get the message I got from my Minister which I don't think most people want or you might even get something unsafe something harmful when we allow God into our schools we can't fool ourselves about who we're really letting in keep the Constitutional standard mandating the separation of church and state protect our children by allowing them all to to be who they are and please reject the governor's guidance on gender identification thank [Applause] you Gabrielle Divens hello um my name is Gabby my pronouns are they them I'm 16 years old and an 11th grader I am a member of the youth group at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the peninsula I am homeschooled you may wonder why someone who is homeschooled cares about what is going on in public schools due to my own

022learning style and neurodiversity it would be challenging for me to attend a public school if you add new rules that would keep me from being who I am that would make things even harder not all people have the flexibility to choose homeschooling I've been lucky do you really want to make things harder for Trans students like me that are going to public school people have been changing their names for centuries using nicknames or other chosen names it does not make sense to limit this now we are very concerned that school counselors and teachers would be required to share with parents information students have given in confidence it is the job of parents to help their kids feel safe and supported if parents want to know what is happening in their children's lives it is up

023to the parents to create an environment at home where the kids feel safe sharing with them many parents of course work hard to do this however sometimes this isn't the case and it takes a great deal of Courage for a student to speak up to another adult if that school staff member is required to share with a parent or anyone else information such as a student questioning their gender identity it could be very dangerous it could lead to that student being shamed punished abused or even pushed to Suicide the school board should not gamble that every students family will be kind and supportive according to the Trevor Project queer students are at a higher risk of suicide not because they are inherently broken but because of being mistreated and stigmatized by family and peers school

024should be a safe place for students to explore and learn about a variety of people and perspectives in order order to be able to get along in a society which of course includes all of us public schools are here to serve the public every student has the right to feel physically and mentally secure at school this allows them to focus on education and not be distracted by people bullying or socially ostracizing those who may be different thank you for your consideration we are looking forward to a vote that promotes respect for all students [Applause] Christine Parker colon good evening my name is Christine Parker cologne and I'm actually a general education teacher for Newport News Public Schools um I'm speaking on behalf of the nnea as an executive board member this is a statement by

025nn president Dr James graves in response to Governor Yan's attacks on LGT lgbtq plus students and minority Educators unfortunately Governor yonan's Administration has released intolerant guidance for Virginia's public schools that attempts to remove the important protections for lgbtq plus students that were implemented implemented under prior Governor noram the nnaa opposes youngin bigoted attacks on lgbtq plus students and reminds School leaders that guidance is optional lgbtq students are a vulnerable population who deserve to be protected by adults in power instead of bullied and harassed for political points Dr James fetman president of the Virginia Education Association released a statement pointing out that Virginia school boards can choose to ignore yonan's administration's guidance all School boards and superintendent should remember that no schools are required to implement this Administration crafted policy and should think twice before considering

026this politically divisive debate and exposing themselves to extensive legal liability if implemented these policies would no doubt threaten the safety and well-being of lgbtq students plus students open a door for bullying and set back their recent civil rights gains in Virginia this policy targets a student group already facing significant barriers and it offers no measure measurable benefit and is simply cruel these students deserve the freedom to express their authentic selves free of harassment in addition the yunan administration previously announced that it would block grants to help provisionally licensed teachers of color in Virginia receive their full teaching licenses despite funding that was already passed by state legislature the grants which totaled 50,000 per year had helped minority provisional teachers achieve full Lure by subsidizing T U tutoring and test fees for the exams that are

027required for a full teacher lure in Virginia many teachers do not achieve full lure because of barriers like cost and time the N condemns these Shameless attacks on Virginia's public schools our Educators Union will continue to stand up for students staff and teachers in Newport News and across Virginia thank you so much for your time the next three are Conor Collins Michelle nordine and Mary Voss hello good evening chairman Cheryl claw the board Dr Mitchell uh my name's Connor Collins I'm an educator and citizen of Newport News and I'm mainly here to talk about the governor rin's model policy from a point Viewpoint of an educator as an educator we want to meet our students mow hierarchies of needs before can meet their educational needs if students do not feel they are safe in the

028school building or in the classroom then they're not going to learn the curriculum that we are required to teach them we will see school scores go down which will result in a lack of accreditation which will then result in funding issues Governor Yan's policy is a threat to one of our most vulnerable populations students that are lgbtq plus are at a higher risk of suicide and Dam uh self harm due to a system that is against them not due to themselves we in the United States believe in a separation of church and state those who are arguing for this policy are trying to impose their religious beliefs on the public Virginia is the birthplace of the separation of church and state so we should live up to that historical record and maintain that separation not

029only for the symbolism but also for the protection of our students and so I implore the board to please not adopt these policies they are not a law and not to be bullied by a governor who threatens to withhold uh funds from a school board because they don't approve of his model policies thank you for your time Michelle nordine good evening chairman SES law Dr Mell and school board members for those of you who haven't heard me speak before my name is Michelle nordine and I am the Newport News Council of pta's President I would like to give everyone an update on the state of our ptas in our school district this year Council was focusing focusing on increasing our PTA membership in order to do that council is hosting membership challenges for our schools

030and ptas our first challenge was held in September and was called put the tea in PTA this challenge was aimed at our teachers and administrators and challenged them to be the first school at the elementary middle and high school level to obtain 100% teacher administ and administrator membership in PTA by September 30th a traveling trophy will be awarded in the coming weeks to the two the winning schools the competition at the elementary school level was fierce but y Richard Tat's Elementary pulled out the win at the middle school level Ethel M Gildersleeve was the winner we have a at at the end of September we had a total of seven schools with 100% teacher and administrator membership those schools were Yates Elementary Gilder sleeve Sanford Huntington Middle School Hilton BC Charles and general uh Stanford

031if your school isn't on the list they have until December 31st to complete a similar challenge run by Virginia PTA Council second membership challenge is called membership and is running through February 29th to 2023 the PTA at each level with the most PTA members with a minimum of 200 members will be receive a monetary award from Council at our March General membership meeting as of this morning we have 2,345 PTA members in the school district this is an increase of over 1,000 PTA members since my PTA update in September's meeting we would we would love to have at least 200 PTA members at each school if anyone in Newport News would like to support a PTA and its Mission you can find a link to join a PTA on Newport News Council pta's Facebook page

032we have a link to every school that has that you can join online thank you for your time thank you Mary Mar Voss hello uh Mary Voss uh nnps graduate teacher and parent um decisions invol involving vulnerable populations um such as trans and other lgbtq plus students uh should be data driven therefore I'd like to share some statistics from the Trevor Project a nonprofit uh focused on suicide prevention among lgbtq plus youth in 2022 they surveyed nearly 34,000 of these youth with questions about their mental health 45% of these youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year nearly one in five transgender and non-binary youth have attempted suicide uh 36% of lgbtq Youth reported that they have been physically threatened or harmed uh due to either their sexual orientation or their gender identity 73%

033of lgbtq Youth reported that they have experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity fewer than one in three transgender and non-binary youth found their home to be gender affirming transgender and non-binary youth who attempted suicide in the past year were likely to have home and school environments that were not gender affirming on a more hopeful note lgbtq youth who found their school to be affirming reported lower rates of attempted suicide uh tolerant school policies that that respect and affirm these children for who they are could literally save their lives these important protections must not be rolled back this is a civil rights issue margin marginalizing these students By ignoring their Pro pronouns by cruy outing them to unsupport a family and by participating in Yan's cruel political attacks against them could literally

034push them to self harm this is a taxpayer funded school system that serves many non-Christian families and that also serves many Christian families who support equality this is our school system too and thank you to all the pro-equality churches in attendance tonight um Governor Yan's model policy is not legally binding and a number of districts in Northern Virginia en Richmond are simply ignoring it n NPS could easily do the same thing and allow the policy that was voted on two years ago after extensive Community input to stand looking at yonan's attacks on trans kids in context this is clearly just one part of a broader effort to undermine and defund public education since being elected yunan has made headlines for his teacher snitch line inviting people to tattle on Educators who teach diversity and social

035emotional learning Yan's Administration attempted to whitewash Virginia's K12 history standards by removing references to Martin Luther King Jr Cesar Chavez slavery juneth and more Yan's Administration short changeed schools by 2011 million because of an accounting error yunan has attacked AP African-American history classes in the state and of course Jan's ultimate goal is to defund public schools and move our taxpayer dollars into lab school schools another name for charter schools so he's not trying to improve our public schools with these demands he's trying to undermine and defund them you can say know thank you for your [Applause] time the next three on our list are Autumn quas Elizabeth Peterson Rose and Caitlyn O'Brien so autumn quas good evening members of the board my name is Autumn quas I am the I a uh history teacher at

036Heritage High School I am the pride Club sponsor at Heritage High School and I'm also our inclusion coordinator uh let me first start off by saying that most teachers want to work with parents we would rather work with them because nine times out of 10 it's better for the kids when we can have that consistency across the board however we also need to remember that children are not possessed possessions adolescents are not possessions they are their own people with their own thoughts their own dreams their own perspectives on the world do they need guidance yes and that's our job it's not our job to impress our opinion over theirs because when we do that we are denying them the same rights that we demand for ourselves as adults some of the people here tonight are

037saying that they want to protect kids they're wearing stickers that say it I would love to know which kids they're talking about because it can't be the 84% of lgbtq Youth that are bullied every day simply for being who they are it can't be the students who are more likely to contemplate suicide simply because of who they are how they feel what they are it can't be the 14% who actually attempt suicide again uh again for something that is intrinsically part of them it can't be the students I walked to the counselor's office last year because the The Bullying had gotten so bad that I had no other resources that I could offer as a teacher that happened three or four times last year and it's already happened another time this year if we're going

038to say that we're here to protect all kids then we need to protect all kids which means contrary to what some would would have and or likely will say we should not be making these decis decisions based on religion Newport News is comprised of a myriad of different people and we shouldn't make decisions based on one group for instance I as a pagan could have come tonight quoting Odin and the haval but I recognize that my religion dictates my worldview and my behavior and no one else's decisions made based on one religious View Place that view by default above others like me who don't fit it and we shouldn't have to because we live in a country where there is a separation of church and state and I will continue to honor the kids that

039I work with by recognizing them for who they are especially during stand week when we are supposed to be celebrating anti and acknowledging anti-bullying measures thank you Elizabeth Peterson Rose hello good evening thank you um I've lived in Newport News for the last six years um I've got a 5-year-old and I'm just here to ask that you guys uphold the protections you guys passed under Governor Northam I'm just going to Echo basically everything before me uh everything everyone before me has said I also just think it's outside of the scope of public education to out children to their families um so I trust you guys to do the right things Mr Hunter Mr rlaw Dr best last time you guys all made the right choice I appreciate that thank you Miss alra I trust you

040to do the right thing um thank you Caitlyn O'Brien hello um I am here today to speak in opposition to adoption of Governor yonan's 2023 model policy regarding trans and gender non-conforming students I have heard it said by the policy's proponents that parents must be informed of their children's expressing gender non-conformity but I know from my own personal traumatic experiences of my childhood where this may lead they still remember the screaming of my older sibling Lings as I was thrashed with a belt at the age of six because of uh feminine expression which destroyed my trust in adults regarding this inherent part of myself if you can't realize being transgender it was not something that could be beaten out of me but that experience at 6 years old was not the end of my trauma

041related to having a sense of no one whom I could speak to about it when I was 13 I bought clothing at a local store I was seen by an older person involved in my Scout Troop who then intimidated me with a threat of being outed on a camping trip used it to silence me and molested me I did not feel that I could safely discuss feelings about my gender with any adults and that was used to victimize me further parents are human they can make mistakes they can be abusive whether through ignorance or malice people like me face a high rate of abuse from unsupportive parents growing up my experience demonstrates the importance that if young people cannot speak to parents they should have an adult whom they can safely talk to like a

042guidance counselor or teacher which this policy would deny them the safety of many people frankly do not care about the safety of trans or gender non-conforming children who they constantly imply as children will use feminine expression to pray on girls it is not in keeping with Statistics yet transgender children are prayed upon all the time by an adult population which not only lacks understanding of them but constantly spreads fear and hatred through regular vilification in the media not everyone who says I've done my research quote unquote as a subject matter expert when contradicting why consensuses from psychologists sociologists neurobiologists endocrinologists and pediatricians regarding ethical and safe policy in relation to transgender people in this country and no one outside of any association with our community has any clue the AA that I went through or

043that other transgender non-conforming children will continue to be exposed to due to harmful measures like the ones of Yan's policy against these children who have been continuously maligned with these false scenarios constantly conjured up to attack them for being [Applause] different I'm going to take two more I have uh Darren Pitman and I think this might be Matthew Del singi I can't quite make up the handwriting I apologize are you Darren yes ma'am okay we'll go from there all right thank you good afternoon I think we've been here before well first and foremost I thank everybody for showing up everybody even those that are in opposition to Governor yin's uh policy you know we were here a few years ago and there was a lawyer that actually represented the school board and he actually said

044that the model policy was law remember that I still have the video I'm like wow okay all right the question is is why haven't we adopted the policy in its entirety I I've heard a few people talking here about data I think actually we had some data that was coming from the public which was pretty good A lot of hatred going on in the room but nevertheless I believe there is a lot of bullying that is taking place in the schools and the bullying has increased that bullying has increased since the northern policy actually went in in place I had a mom who was in in route here couldn't come here because something happened with with her child so she had to go actually pick the child up from the school and she had somebody

045else to pick it up but anyway this this mother she conveyed to me she says I'm in a school and I'm and and I have children who are looking at an individual and and and they're and they're telling the individual hey you're you're you're not a man you I mean you're not a woman and the individual is saying oh I am a woman you know I don't think any of us here is trying to cause any craziness or Ruckus or anything like that I think the the the issue that we have right now is just confusion we're causing a lot of confusion with our young people these are middle schoolers she she's telling me about middle schoolers that that are going back and forth with a teacher to whether this teacher is is a man

046or a woman it's a lot of confusion I think we can fix this we can resolve this if if we just adopt the model policy that's already been presented all right is already approved by the state let's just do the right thing and adopt a policy thank you for your time [Applause] [Music] are you Matthew is that you that's me okay sorry I look forward to hearing your last name degrave okay um good evening everybody um hold please um so my name is Matthew degrave I am a father uh of students in the Newport New City Public Schools uh I'm obviously a resident of Newport News as well the yunan policies would be fine in a perfect world if we can ensure that all students that were reported back to their parents would get the

047help that they need the counseling that they deserve without being bullied by other students in the school which to the gentleman over here who was just talking the middle schoolers are jerks I have one it's just it's just what it is um it it would be it would be fine everybody would be okay we'd be helping these students along we wouldn't have the problems that we have with suicide with these kids feeling like they're on the outside being rejected by everybody by Society but that's not the real world that we live in the world that we live in is a world where some of the people in this audience would probably beat their kids like somebody who spoke earlier if they came out and they said that they were transgendered or lgbtqia or a member

048of that Community um as a Newport News resident I'm asking you not to adopt these new policies keep Governor yonan's policies in place as they are um and I I specifically point out as a Newport News resident because I've noticed that a lot of people here are not Newport News residents they are coming from other churches from other areas who shouldn't necessarily have a say in this proceeding they are families here I'm sure on this side who have kids in the Newport News City Public Schools but we really need to focus on what's going on here and protect our kids and in this case I honestly think that that is rejecting these new policies keeping Governor Yan's policies and places and and moving forward as they are um I'd also like to rec just real

049quick say that the parent organization that's supporting the um protect the kids Foundation looks a lot like a religious hate group all of their whole website is dedicated to ensuring that they pass their religious policies which again somebody mentioned earlier is not okay because not everybody believes what they believe please do the right thing keep the current policies in place and thank you for your [Applause] time okay board members I am requesting if we can go an additional 15 minutes and then we'll get on with uh a little bit more of our agenda and then get back to public comment so do I have a motion to extend for 15 minutes yes Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to extend proceedings for another 15 minutes second thank you any discussion okay please call

050the rooll brown four Harris four Hunter Al motion car 7 okay thank you the next three three individuals Nate Peterson Jonathan walren and Russell Evenson Nate Peterson yes hello thank you for this opportunity um I don't honestly have anything prepared um I'm just here as a parent as a father um a loving parent and father I believe as a parent and father who has nurtured my children to the point to where they could enter a Newport News public school deserves a voice in their lives opposite of what this gentleman just said I don't beat my children I wouldn't approve if they were lgbtq however I would not beat them because of it I am a parent that would in fact seek counseling one of my children are already in counseling why is it that I

051as a parent a loving father should have to suffer because of the potential of some other parents every single day of my children's lives they have seen me when they leave Newport News Public Schools they will see me as a parent I will be parent for marriage for therapy for surgery whatever the case may be it won't be Newport News public school they're only here for a period of time at the end of the day everything that I love and that I care about is wrapped up in my children I hate it for these people that have suffered at the hand of other people or bad parents and or whatever the case may be but that's not my children's situation my children do not deserve to suffer because of other people's parents I'm in my

052children's lives every day doing what I have to do for my children I care about my children and that's who I'm here for representing today if they need to speak to me they can if they don't feel like they can I will offer them opportunities to speak to someone else and they know that legally that has nothing to do with Newport News public schools and that's respectfully I appreciate all Educators I'm here because of Educators I matriculated through the public school system as well I suffered bullying as well I'm not lgbtq but I also suffer bullying everybody is vulnerable at some point during their matriculation through public schools everybody that's just not specific to them just this last week I'm sure you guys know about the situation at Woodside High School to where a child

053threaten to shoot up the school the word that he used was the nword not lgbtq thank you so he was not shooting up the school for them it was race so please forgive me I'm passionate about my children but again I need my voice in my children's lives CU it's been here and it will be after they leave Newport News thank you thank [Music] [Applause] you Jonathan Waldren Jonathan Waldren um if you're here to adopt to support the adoption of the yunan administration policies would you stand for a minute thank you so I'm uh Jonathan I'm a Newport News resident and I would like to read from you to you some of the hateful bigotry that we find in Governor Yan's policy um all students have the right to attend school in an environment free

054from discrimination harassment and bullying schools shall respect all students parents have the right to make decisions with respect to their children schools shall respect parents' values and beliefs the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution recognizes that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing and the education of their children the US Supreme Court has also repeatedly explained this Virginia law also recognizes this fundamental right as well schools shall defer to parents to make the best decisions with respect to their children schools shall keep parents informed about their children's well-being schools Shall Serve the needs of all students schools shall partner with parents that's some of the hate hateful bigotry that we find in his policies uh but this is not about hate it's not about bigotry the wording of the Northam policies were

055potentially harmful to students and they were they excluded parents uh but when a child is not doing well in school we call the parents when a child getss sick we call the parents when a child gets hurt or bullied we call the parents but when a child is struggling with what the opposition to this new policy would consider to be one of the most significant decisions of a child's or adult's life and Social Development the Northam policy is written in such a way that excludes parents and exacerbates an already extremely difficult situation to navigate I noticed that a lot of the members tonight had shirts on that said side with love and I would state that there's no greater love than that of a father and mother for their child I pray that every student

056in our system would experience this and that we would move to adopt these new model policies in their entirety which Empower our teachers to partner with our parents for the good of our students stand with parents side with [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] love Russell Evon Pastor Russell Evenson been here before a few times thank you for the opportunity to address y'all tonight um and thank you for your continued work to try to find a resolution to this very difficult uh situation that we have I've heard tonight and wasn't prepared really to speak on it but I've heard tonight several uh comments about separation between church and state and if you go back and you honestly study that a little bit more in depth Thomas Jefferson and the founders of this nation were trying to protect

057all of the American citizens as a new colony from a one religion being pushed on the colonist therefore he was saying that entire America would have the right to freedom of choice of a religious faith that they have it was not a separation that the government uh that that the church would not be mixed with the government it's that the government would not infringe upon the citizens to push a one religion for the entire nation that's the history folks we need to go back and look at the real history so I just wanted to comment on that and my heart as a as a human being as a Christian as a pastor I go out to those that have expressed tonight their hurt their offense what's happened to them as children or even now bullying

058that is not right for anybody as Mr Waldren just said that is not correct you know it's really it's I'm not trying to oversimplify it but and I know those that may not believe in the Bible but it says that we're to love each other as we love oursel and when you have that proper self love and respect for yourself you will love other people and I think it's probably time that schools in the education system got back to some of that real basic stuff instead of fighting about pronouns and all of the other things that we're fighting and disagreeing about let's go back to the basics and teach our kids and our young people how to get along with each other how to love how to respect each other I agree God says in

059his word God says it he gives us a free will will created after his his image to choose any kind of a lifestyle we want God gives us that he doesn't violate that he doesn't Force his will Upon Us neither is the Christian faith trying to violate our will on another set of people people are free to choose any lifestyle they want but when it comes to boys going into girls' bathrooms such happened in the northern part of the state and the young girl got raped and then the boys transferred to another school and the same incident happens with another student you know those are facts and those are things that need to be dealt with that are realities and that are laws I realize that could happen either way and I want to clarify

060something that I've heard this is not a one church thing this is not our congregation there are at least five to seven pastors here tonight that are representing multiple congregations multiple citizens in Newport duw so it's not just one it's several of us together thank thank you again for listening to all of us God [Applause] bless the last the last three speakers for our time right now will be Dwayne Swanson I believe this is Angela Harris and Chris from Kil Creek wanting to discuss or share about school bus safety no last name Dwayne Swanson good evening my name is Dwayne Swanson I Pastor all generations church here in Newport News uh it's my first time being up in front of you so excuse me for a little bit of my nervousness I I want to

061say first of all thank you for all that you do for all of us here and I know your job uh is difficult at many many different levels um tonight as I've listened to a lot of the stories and a lot of the situations as I tell my congregation I wish everybody could have grown up in the home that I did it was a home of love it was a home of acceptance it was a home where we talked about a lot of different things and I know that that isn't a situation but I do know in my 40 years of working with children and working with youth uh it's always been a priority in my Ministry and in my time with people of sharing everything that I knew with my parents because I wanted

062the parents to be a part of what was going on in my life without parents and my life and parents probably in a lot of yours sitting right here on the council uh you wouldn't be where you were today because of the council and I I I feel as if it would be it would be a major mistake not to include parents in the process of of their children's lives and allowing them to speak into it and know what's going on and for those of you that have been abused and mistreated I want to say on behalf of myself and others we we apologize to you tonight because we do love you and we as a church love you and uh I know the churches that are represented tonight that anybody is welcome and will

063be loved and cared for so thank you Angela Harris oh boy so in 2002 our elders ran right in cany they ran Abdul balal hakima Muhammad for mayor Bernard Robinson for school board and Angela Harris and that's me 2002 right in cace and I'm not understanding why we have already October 13 children suspended from school I'm not understanding why the children couldn't get on the bus and they were jumped by four adults I'm not understanding why we have one resource officer I'm not understanding why my elders wasn't invited to the hunson high school celebration that was in the street not even two blocks away from their cribs I'm just not understanding right now this is America we are in Ward County some call it Dei now it's Newport News Incorporated nothing else but a consolidation

064plan where we just pushing paper I'm happy to see Miss Mitchell take that seat in that role CU I know what kind of work we're going to do I'm happy to see Mr Harris I'm happy to see Mr Hunter and some of you guys I don't even know and you know Dr best I'm happy to see you here to represent and Ross hay we talking about Roots I met you miss law when you were running for office I'm happy to see you there but we got to get some things done it's 21 years later Huntington is being knocked down my elders are crying my community is in a gtif foration project all I see is mar Court rley from the top of the city to the bottom I see we got a Deni planing a

065lehall plan a Southeast plan a three City plan it's not one city whole bunch of division and a whole bunch of children being sacrificed and no one is listening and we should never have to come to a school board meeting to talk about our sexuality that's just sinful unlawful it's against the Civil Rights everything we stand for I stand Here black Negro colored African Aman my Thomas family built that first house of prayer for all people with that gold on that building my Harris family still operates the Smith dairy farm on the Colonial Parkway in Williamsburg we're getting ready to put a statute of Life foot Solomon MW on Jon Avenue and we still can't communicate with the parents it's a shame I'm 51 I'm born and raised in Newport News my name Angela Harris

066my mother is the William her mother was the hill her mother was the Thomas her mother was the gray and her mother was the brown we should not be just a number my ancestors are buried right across the street in that Cemetery where they have move First Baptist Mars up the road we haven't forgot about our ancestors across the street come on y'all we got to do better I need everyone to listen to these parents I should never have to come here never pick the phone up communicate with the parents let them know that y'all work for them please listen to the parents and your resource officer need help officer great house I don't know where you are but they need you they need you they need you thank you Chris from Kil Creek hi

067hello um Chris Fryman I'm sorry my last name is fan I thought I'd put it down there so um just go ahead and go okay all right happy national school bus safety week I actually planned to come here a while back um just to line up this date with the school board meeting um I did not anticipate such a large crowd um I addressed this board on in June of 2022 meeting and I also address address the city council on February 28th of 2023 um it has to this has to do with making our buses safer on the road but it has to do with the way that our legislate has set up laws to disenfranchise the citizens and I'll go ahead and lay out what I have um we have school bus stop arm

068cameras on the side of our buses um some of the conflictions with law it it would be 46.2 844 that's the law to put the cameras on the buses however 46.2 d1090 that gets into the signals of the of the bus and to give you an example if a bus is going 35 miles or less than 35 miles it only has to give 100 feet of amber light notice if it's going more than 35 it gives us 200 fet of amber light notice um that law hasn't been changed since the 80s now what happen since then well 46.2 871 increased the maximum speed limit a bus could go and then 2020 uh VT got in line with the legislate and did 46.2 d880 that shows reactionary perception and breaking times of what's actually needed to

069come to a safe stop now it might be e easy to stop the cars behind the bus but on the approach you're probably going to get about half of that because you've got two points converging onto one another but to give you an idea if you're going 30 m an hour just according to 46.2 d880 you're going to need 109 ft but that bustle only give you 100 ft of amber light notice now I went through a lot of the numbers here and as of August we've had a total of $ 5.76 million in this system that that's been our penalty numbers um 1.72 million of that is just the technology fees alone the company has taken 2.46 million and the local area has retained about 1.6 4 million I rounded the numbers the best

070I could so what that means is the company has taken $ 4.18 million of these funds and it won't show on your budget books because it's a zero it's it's no cost to the school board or the city but Newport News public schools has about $1.64 million on this so it's it's about a 72% retention for the company on this equipment and this was under Dr Parker I believe but it did did not go through lowest bid procurement it went through um a no was it co a co-op agreement Okay one minute left so I'm going to go ahead here and do some school bus safety No actually that's the end of oh that's the end oh okay yes would you um send an email to the board for the remainder of your comments that

071would be well I've tried and I don't get responses back well let you're you're talking to us now and you have our attention we would be happy to receive an email from you you would okay all right thank you appreciate it thank you okay I'm going to petition the board just one more time just for another 10 minutes because as I look through the cards this would allow our our local individuals who live in Newport News to have a say this evening and then we'll go on to additional business and then we will pick pick back up with comments so uh board members do I have a motion for an additional 10 minutes so moved okay and a second second thank you any discussion please call the rooll four Harris four hter four aler aan

072best s for motion carries 7 Z thank you the last three cards I have are uh yent jua and Kevin Crowder and David rackman okay I'm going to go to uh Kevin Crowder good evening Dr best board members my name is Kevin Crowder my oldest two children attend Woodside higho school and last week we were informed of a school of a potential School Potential Threat by the school unfortunately it took a Facebook post to find out the specific nature of that threat which should not be acceptable along those lines the school did not Inspire confidence in communicating their response to the threat by limiting inspections to the school building it would have been helpful to know the school in conjunction with law enforcement would search the wooded areas surrounding the campus as well as Vehicles

073entering the grounds with respect to the threat itself I believe administrators faculty and staff have an obligation to address bullying when it's happening correct students inappropriate language and enforce environment of acceptable behavior and respect due to the security measures in instituted and this is just one more topic uh due to the security measures instituted this year I understand the reason for long lines entering the school building and I would say that it would be it's inappropriate and unfair to the students who are already standing in line sometimes 30 to 40 minutes before the first Bell Rings to be charged as tardy because they're waiting to get through the security line if there are any standards that should be enforced on a regular basis it should be correcting students inappropriate use of language some of them

074talk nastier than any adult the dress code should be followed and really enforce and correcting students when bullying behavior is being presented um again that takes parents it takes faculty and it takes everybody to encourage our children from kindergarten through 12th grade to actually learn and practice respecting one another thank you for your [Applause] time Mr Crowder if you would some of those um concerns that you have about safety are are ones that we need to get on this evening it sounds some of the information sounds a little different than what we were told had actually occurred so uh we have our chief of staff Rashard Wright who um will also talk with you with a security our security director thank you for coming and talking to us we do appreciate that thank you for

075absolutely David I think it's Brockman might be Breakman David Breakman thank you um Yan's 2023 model policies are flimsy ill-conceived and illegal it begins with lip service to respecting kids stopping bullying and abiding by state and federal law and then proceeds to throw all that away its first amendment justification it's fasile the right to self-expression ends where the rights of others begin it recommends that we enact discrimination on the basis of gender identity denying bathroom and Locker access and denying recognition of a student's name and identity so that teachers are free to disrespect and Bully if they feel so moved it asks us to be the GU pigs and violate settled case law of grim versus Glouster so that yunen can challenge it on our behalf know that you will be taken to court either

076way regardless of your decision by the fundamentalists or by the Americans for civil civil liberties union attorney general mi's non-b Biden guidance means that we don't have to do squat about what he wants accepting trans students and treating them with respect costs nothing and saves lives the model guidance Begins by saying that every effort should be made to accept and respect trans students except by using their names under any circumstances to a public servant who cares about doing their job accepting trans students is all the reason one need for costing nothing and saving lives is all the reason one needs for a policy on the contrary the personal interpretation of a God who wants what I want said so is not a justification for a policy the idea that people with differently colored skin had

077to not be treated as equal human beings was a mainstream sincerely held religious belief as of only our parents or grandparents Generations I have it on reputable Spiritual Authority um from someone who still Bears the the name of a university that God is the author of segregation so are you are you g to do it do you have to do that can the nanny State not compel an individual to speak and act in a way contrary to that sincerely held religious belief reject theocracy and reject Yan's model policies thank you I'll give H yent Yura another opportunity otherwise we're going to go on with further business and circle back all right thank you all we appreciate you coming and sharing your thoughts with us we will now move on to section three the consent agenda

078which includes 3.01 minutes from the regular meeting September 19 3.02 minutes from the work session September 19th 2023 3.03 minutes from the close session from September 19th 2023 3.04 Financial reports including the revenue report for September 2023 the expense report for September 2023 and Child Nutrition reports for September 2023 excuse me 35 okay we'll Circle back in a little bit we're going to continue with our our um proceedings right now 3.05 the Personnel report 3.06 Newport New School Board code of conduct 3.07 budget transfer at this time can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda um Madame chair I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented do I have a second second is there any discussion um Madam chair one question in regards to 3.07 budget transfer looking at the agenda

079agenda don't see a budget transfer in the item so if there could be a comment to is that is that item vacated or is there a budget transfer for us to approve there I thought I saw one in board dos yes I'm looking in okay board dos I thought I saw one in there St before yesterday let's double check other board members do you recall seeing a budget transfer yeah for it's on your screen you see it on your screen okay I thought I saw it let's make sure that um Mr Brown gets that I'm looking at your screen there's nothing there on your screen either on my screen yes I mean on board and also maybe we could just get um a print copy for you I don't know um let's make sure that

080Mr Brown gets a print copy of that okay okay great thank you so much Mr Brown thank you for uh letting us know that you did not have that twice okay yeah okay all right any other discussion on the consent agenda all right Madame clerk would you please call the role Brown four Harris four Hunter four aler four four best S four motion carries 70 thank you the next item on our agenda is section four some action items on the agenda this evening is 4.01 our proposed Capital Improvement plan adoption Dr Mitchell thank you madam chair at this time Mr Donald fairheart um our chief operations officer is here to provide an update on the capital Improvement plan Mr fairheart good evening chairman Charles law Vice chairman best members of the board Dr Mitchell um

081I'm before you this evening uh to seek approval of the 2005 or excuse me 2025 2029 um Capital Improvement plan I'd first like to start off by saying um as you recall this the proposal was originally uh presented to the board um on September 19th and I appreciate the feedback in the discussion during that time and also the time that we spent together subsequent to that to discuss the priorties of the school division um if you recall uh during the presentation fy2 is very much reflective of what fy2 24 was and we slid most of our projects to the left because we did not receive funding at the time of The Proposal um I will say that the city council met the 26th of September and they approved $10,000 in capital Improvement funds and2 million

082excuse me $10 million and $2 million for school buses so that's not reflected in in our proposal so um and moving forward what you'll see in the coming years as we build next year's CIP is you'll see those dollars backed out um as I presented at the work session um the $10 million we would like to to utilize $7 million to replace the HVAC unit at Passage Middle School um it's in dire need of repair and then we would like to utilize the $3 million to um Identify some safe and secure entries for our schools so if you can see the totals how they fluctuated um fy2 5 now totals $41.99 if you recall from um the FY 2428 CIP the FY 24 request was for $ 52.4 million so a fairly substantial increase there

083um FY 26 is at $ 84.2 million the big item in fy2 obviously was the um Warick High School renovation it moved from it was in 25 before designed in 24 design was not accomplished so that's the combined design and construction cost um FY 27 is now at 9.7 million FY 28 is at 36.8 million and FY 29 is at 54.9 million for a 5year total of $ 327.5 million and that's an increase of roughly $87 million over last year's proposal which was $ 2404 million um I would also like to point to um Safety and Security upgrades at 1 .2 million and that's across each of the five years and that's going to allow us to um ensure a a safe and secure environment for our students and staff um so with that I'll

084pause for questions discussion okay questions Mr Brown so I'll ask the uh the question and make the comment that uh I appreciate the Safety and Security being broken out in the first year I think that uh it's good transparency for both us the public and for city council to BLC that we were specifically asking the first year for that $ 13.2 million for Safety and Security upgrades that are needed to our facilities uh the Warwick um we have renovation on here and then as well we have Demi renovation if you would um speak to uh what is the full cost of replacement so people can have an understanding of this is a this is a cost to renovate which is to keep the existing buildings going this is not these are not new school buildings

085but what would be the cost for new school buildings correct and thank you for that opportunity Mr Brown that was part of the discussion at the work session um so just as a reminder each of the renovations you'll see an increase cost from 2024 to 2025 because as you recall we included um some an addition at Warwick High School and an addition at Denby High School to eliminate the modular units um it was about 10,000 sare fet at at Warwick and about 8,000 ft at Denby High School um so the total cost um that we projected for brand new construction of War High School uh is we base it on $480 per square F feet um so that's about war High School is about $247,000 ft² with the inclusion of the 10,000 foot addition um

086so the total cost when you include FFN design um site work demolition assuming we're going to build on the same site we project out at about $135 million and and Denby High School Denby High School we projected um I don't know if I have that with me it was slightly below that I think 130 million because it's slightly small and that also would include the additional square footage and if you could just expand on this renovation what is this uh for so the public has an understanding what does this renovation do for both of those School sites so the renovation would be comprehensive uh roof HVAC electrical upgrades Plumbing um interior paint ceiling floor Etc we would also work closely with instruction to ensure that we modernized the facility it's not just um the same

087facility that we left um it would have a new facade a safe and secure entry um we could relocate the entry point and then we would work also closely with instruction for with FFN because a lot of um a lot of the modern instructional spaces depended upon furniture and the space that we can create within the facility so um I would want the public to think it's going to be the same building that they're leaving um I know Miss alra ask if there's an opportunity potentially for the board to maybe visit a recently uh renovated high school so the board has a better understanding of what the potential is um and I'll certainly seek that opportunity for us great thank you thank you yesca um no I just wanted to and maybe you can confirm

088this these are schools that are going to be up for roof hvacs significant repairs and Replacements so if we did that without renovating my understanding is then we'd have to we'd be tearing up what we just put money into so this is acknowledging the reality of where we are correct the ma the major systems were in the in previous cips for both Warick high school and Demby high school they're both over their useful life life limits as far as roof and HVAC um so we've removed them from those Standalone items and they're not included in HVAC or roof Replacements so those would be additional totals if we were unable to renovate and and those are our immediate needs other than passage Warwick and Denby are the two um HVAC systems that are in most dire

089need of repair we actually had to place the replace the HVAC unit at the war high school media center over the summer okay I have one yes while you while you are elaborating so the public would understand can you just briefly share with the public why we are pursuing renovation as opposed to rebuilding certainly that's a decision for the board um I think you know there are some logistical challenges to rebuilding um with the Assumption build would being that we would build on site because that would mean uh Demolition and relocation of of War High School approximately 1500 high school students so unless we were able to secure a separate parcel of land and basically build new there while the while the existing High School could still Ser serve students we would have to um

090identify an opportunity to um reassign approximately 1500 students and we would have to do that again with Demi um so renovation if we can take a phased approach we feel like we can we can complete the additions with kids in the building and then would be phased over Summers as far as the systems and the interior work that would be necessary to bring uh the schools up to the modern times thank you okay yeah all right and you know Madam chair this is one of the one of these things where a lot of people really don't realize when it comes to construction dealing with schools it is not lack constructing your house you know um you're right and this area Rusty you know as some of us know the area cost factors you know has

091been going through the roof the last couple of days so you know you get punished for not executing when when you should or if we have the money next you to be more expensive um just the mere fact us being in this area I think that's a great Point that's certainly these are in today's dollars and and the number I gave you for war High School came from uh a recent bid in Stafford County they had a just had a bid opening for their high school and theirs actually came in at $489 a square foot and I backed a little bit out because prices tend to rise once you get on the other side of the r right any other comments thank you for that uh Mr Fair hot thank you so much because at

092this point this is our what we're giving to the city um as our responsibility is for us to say what our needs are I am thankful to the city however that they didn't stick to giving us zero in the last CIP that that was just not okay and they saw that and so I am confident that um with the Insight that we are going to share with them as to how we built our CIP um recommendation that we will be able to come to some yeah consensus as to some direction for us so thank you to you and your team for helping us through that all right do I have a motion uh to approve the proposed Capital Improvement plan yes Madam chair I move to approve the proposed Capital Improvement plan as presented do

093I have a second second okay any discussion Mr Brown Madam Shar yes Mr Brown before the role is called I'll just explain um to my colleagues why I don't feel like I can support this this particular capital budget and I while I do really appreciate the work that has gone in and the different iterations and different looks that we've had at this um at the same time I have to think about what I think is best for kids is a new school and I think that this um this budget our capital budget is our uh way that we have with the way that we frame discussions that we're going to have with our counterparts and city council and I I think that we should be framing our discussion from the standpoint of this is what

094it cost to get a new school of course if we have to make compromises and move to a renovation that should be discussions that we would have uh with city council as opposed to um negotiating with ourselves by putting forward a a because I think part of a history of how how we how we get here is you go with a you go with this low ball and then well we don't have enough Mone money for the low ball well wait that was our lowest that was our lowest ball um and we end up you know often times with nothing we've ended up with nothing the last um last year also just in in terms of our discussion we've we've talked about this uh multiple times last time I made a motion to amend I'm

095not going to make a motion to amend tonight about Denby High School Denby High School and Warwick Denby is is in no better condition than Warwick so I don't see any reason why Denby was not included in the first year and I know I've I've pounded the table about that about Demi should be in the first year um and as a representative of the North District I can't support something where Demi is not in the first year so those are the reason those are my reasons for not being able to support the budget tonight but I hope that we do get the the funding for this budget okay Mr Brown I'll I'll just comment um on the first um that you said I agree with you we need to let um city council know our

096thought process through here so when we present this to them I think um many of us have mentioned that they need to see what we're seeing so they do need to see what it cost to build a new school and I believe that our hope in that regard will be then they wouldn't walk at doing what needs to be done to have our students in a in building and and learning well so we'll just have to it'll have to remain to be seen what we get but I definitely you know respect your decisions on that all right any other response please call the rooll brown against Harris for Hunter for aler four a four best four S four motion carries 61 thank you thank you for your time Mr fairheart the next item on our

097agenda is 4.02 I apologize we've made these individuals wait this long Personnel actions may I have a motion to approve the superintendent's Personnel recommendations for this evening Madam chair I move to approve the recommendations of the superintendent for Stephanie Bean assistant principal of instruction at B high school and Mary belt s r executive director of student services second any discussion please call the rooll brown four Harris four Hunter four aler a best law four motion carries 7 Z [Applause] great Dr Mitchell please introduce us to your new team thank you very much I'd like to introduce Miss Stephanie Bean is Miss Bean here today like to um welcome you you've been with us but congratulations on your promotion as the new assistant principal of instruction at War high school and just to give our audience

098and our viewers at home a little bit of your background Miss Bean has two master's degrees correct you like school apparently one one is in educational leadership while the other one is in curriculum and instruction she currently works as an assistant principal at Point option and our virtual Learning Academy she also has worked for us as a virtual learning specialist here in Newport News but comes to us with experience from other divisions in the past she's been an instructional Innovation coach as well as a teacher for York County and she also was a teacher in Hampton City Schools and so congratulations to you and if at this time you have any family or friends or um School family that are here to support you uh we'd like to you to acknowledge them yes ma'am thank

099you and the board for the opportunity I have a point option in bla admin team here supporting me and Dr Mason I'm excited to join the Raider family so thank [Music] you next I would like to introduce Miss Mell simra as our new executive director of student services she had is um with us tonight and she comes to us with a certified educational specialist degree as well as a master's degree in school psychology from Georgia State University she currently works as the Director of student support with the Council of Chief state officers in Washington DC she has also worked as the director and an assoc iate director of student services for the Department of Education right here in Virginia she has previously worked here for us as a coordinator of psychological and social work Services

100she has worked as a research coordinator in the University of Miami and she also was a district school psychologist with Miami Dade County Public Schools and I would personally like to say welcome back and at this time if you have any uh colleagues with you or family members with you that you would like to acknowledge yes um I would like to start by saying thank you so much and I am so excited to be back here in Uber news and with me today I have my husband Carl simra um whose loving support has gotten be here thank you so [Applause] [Music] much I would just like to say with to the board that this is a continuation of people coming back home and we are really excited that we've had so many people that want

101to come back to Newport News thank you and let me say on behalf of the bo first on behalf of the board welcome and welcome back thank you we'll move on to section five reports and information we do have one report this evening um 5.01 new policies Dr Mitchell thank you so much at this time Miss Tracy Brooks who is the special assistant to the super super intendent will come to share with you the new safety related policies thank you Miss Brooks great thank you Dr Mitchell good evening Madam chairman Madam Vice chairman members of the board and Dr Mitchell it is a pleasure to share highlights from five new safety related policies that we are proposing for your consideration this evening now the policies were reviewed and revised by the policy committee which includes

102board members principles teachers at administrators and our school board and School Division attorneys okay the five new policies that we are proposing reinforce our commitment to maintaining a safe environment for every day for students and staff throughout the School Division and for visitors to our schools and other Schoolboard properties the first four policies govern how we will administratively address the possession of firearms and weapons on Schoolboard property and the fifth policy guides School Division staff in assessing behaviors that may pose a threat to the safety of students or staff now this school board has long considered the safety of our students employees and visitors to be a high priority so in support of that commitment this first policy provides an overview of three subsequent policies that address the possession of weapons and Firearms at our

103schools and on other Schoolboard properties and I'll speak to each of the three policies in the slides that follow but this overview policy also rep references state and federal laws that prohibit students from possessing weapons and firearms on Schoolboard property at school sponsored events and on school buses and the sanctions for Newport News students who violate these laws are included in the rights and responsibilities handbook now I just spoke about the laws prohibiting students from bringing weapons to school so this second policy prohibits persons such as employees and visitors from possessing weapons and firearms in our school buildings at school sponsored events or activities and on our school buses this policy also prohibits students enrolled and other school divisions from bringing weapons to our schools and events now this policy includes 11 exceptions so for

104example the state code allows certain individuals to bring weapons on school property such as current and retired Law Enforcement Officers Commonwealth attorneys or persons with a handgun permit but persons with such a permit must have their firearm unloaded and secured in a container or compartment in a motor vehicle so these are just a few of the 11 exceptions that are cited in the policy as well as in the state code now our third policy prohibits individuals from possessing firearms and buildings or property owned or leased by the school board other than schools such as this administration building the staff support center and Todd Stadium this policy applies to employees visitors and students from other school divisions and like in the previous policy the state code allows a few exceptions for individuals who may bring a

105weapon on Schoolboard properties such as sworn and retired law enforcement officers and individuals with a handc come permit and as I stated before their firearm must be unloaded in a closed container in a vehicle now signage will be installed at our schools and non School locations to reinforce these safety related policies and we realize also Al that the appropriate School Division staff will need to receive training about these new policies to ensure that they are applied properly and consistently so next we are proposing a policy that grants school security officers the authority to carry firearms on School Division properties while performing their duties now I wanted to give a little more clarification to this policy because it came about while we were researching the state code for options in providing security at our bus Lots

106during the evenings at non-school buildings such as the students excess Center forly known as South Morrison and at our other Schoolboard properties so in the past we often used off-duty or retired police officers to perform these duties but given the challenges that police departments are having with hiring officers we've had to look at other options as well now now the state code has numerous specific qualifications for security officers who carry a firearm for example they can be retired or resigned from a law enforcement agency in good standing and they must have completed required training such as active shooter response training and other courses and there are about 10 additional requirements that appear in the state law and also are included in our policy so in addition to hiring School security officers directly this policy will

107allow our superintendent to use an agency to hire security officers who can carry a firearm primarily for covering our buildings and grounds during the evenings if the officers meet all of the state code requirements now this last policy addresses threat assessment teams for our schools the teams are required by the state code and our School Division has had them in place for several years the school-based teams assess and intervene with students whose Behavior May pose a threat to the safety of school staff students or themselves now each school-based team does consist of individuals with expertise and counseling instruction School administration and includes a resource officer now initially we aligned our policy to the training requirements that are specified in the state code and over the years we've enhanced our trainings which include an initial threat

108assessment training for new team members developed by the Virginia Center for school and campus safety and a refresher threat assessment training that team members must complete once every 3 years now the procedure to implement the policy outlines steps for assessing a threat and when appropriate it also includes referring students to the Community Services board or to to health care providers for evaluation and treatment so this concludes our review of the new safety related policies that we are proposing for your consideration this evening and in coming months we will be reviewing two policy chapters in year four of our timeline which will include the chapter on General School administration and the chapter on students so in terms of our next steps the new policies will come before the school board for action at your November 14th

109meeting and once approved the new policies and procedures will be posted on our school division websites and disseminated to schools and public libraries so this concludes my report this evening but joining me amongst the audience um Mr Lynn Wallen our attorney who took the lead in crafting several of the policies for your review Mr Mark Stewart our executive director for crisis planning prevention and envir environmental resource manager who work with us to ensure that we would provide the necessary training for our staff and Dr Jon Ransom the program administrator for student conduct and discipline so we will be happy to answer your questions and to note your suggestions so thank you well I'm just going to start by saying thank you to you and your team uh for preparing these policies for our review then

110I'm going to turn it right back on to our board and I need to say thank you to you all because um you guys asked the hard questions um you all gave us the answers uh some of us needed to look at the state code requirements I appreciate you doing that Mr Brown yes um logistics for disseminating information uh I know Miss Amon was concerned about that um and then bringing awareness for loopholes in the series of the policies I know there were several of us including Dr best who that was um a focus for us so this was definitely a team effort so with that you guys can ask additional questions either for your Clarity or for the uh betterment um or edification for the public going twice we're good all right well thank

111thank you so much for the thorough report well thank you very much and as you said for all of your comments and questions it really helped us to get to this point so we appreciate it very much okay thank you we will continue uh in this section on reports 5.02 attendance report 5.03 the membership report 5.04 the construction report board members you have received a copy of this report are there any questions hearing none we'll move on to item 5.05 comments by the superintendent Dr Mitchell thank you madam chair I want to begin my comments by sharing that we are in the process of finalizing the draft treatment of transgender students procedures which mostly at this time consist of editing and Technical adjustments but before the procedures are implemented we must en uh work to

112ensure that they can be executed with accuracy and Fidelity among our expectations is that our staff should receive information about the procedures first and that a a FAQ document is prepared and revised as necessary special thanks to all of the parents employees and community and Business Leaders who served on our family engagement school safety and student rights and responsibilities advisory committees these committees were launched last spring and were intentionally designed to offer a broad range of community input there was a lot of interest in these ad uh advisory committees if you recall we had well over 500 um community members interested the school board and I are committed to keeping the public informed so beginning with the school board meeting in November we will provide an update to the community on each advisory committee's input

113and recommendations everyone in here and at home is invited to the marching band Expo tomorrow October the 18th it begins at 6:30 right here at Todd Stadium the event is free and it is open to everyone and we'll feature our musicians from each High School band accompanied by eighth grade band students from each of our middle schools Newport news vice mayor Curtis Bethany will serve as a guest conductor not sure if he knows how to conduct um I believe our students are teaching him so hopefully we can turn out here to support him so please join us tomorrow evening as mentioned earlier October is stand month in Newport News public schools and stand is a student Le initiative which challenges students to work together to create and maintain positive School cultures and to discourage harassing

114behaviors among peers on October the 5th Stan night was held at Todd Stadium hundreds of students signed an anti-bullying pledge before participating in the annual bullying prevention walk during halftime of the football game the board members and I enjoyed participating in this event and on Saturday September the 30th hundreds of students participated in the flying classroom stem learning experience at Atlantic Aviation at the airport our students met founder and pilot Captain Irving toured an aircraft carrier um excuse me an aircraft hanger and participated in Hands-On stem activities and design challenges at this year's event as mentioned earlier this is National School Safety school bus safety week and the governor has proclaimed tomorrow school bus transportation Employee Appreciation Day I often say being a bus driver is the hardest job in the school division um so

115we would want to acknowledge and thank the professional dedicated staff of our transportation department for ensuring that our students arrive to and from school safely so we do salute our bus drivers our assistants often times people forget we have mechanics trainers dispatch staff and office staff so we want to thank them for their service and this month is National principal appreciation month so on behalf of Newport News Public Schools I want to thank our principls and our assistant principls for their commitment to our students and staff as a former principal myself I know firsthand how challenging yet rewarding this job can be so special thanks to all of our principles October is disability history and awareness month a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and history of people with disabilities and increase our public

116awareness and the rights of the people with disabilities and finally I would like to remind all students students will be happy all students and families that schools will be closed on for students on Friday October the 20th and Tuesday November the 7th so this concludes my comments thank you okay thank you Dr Mitchell we will now move on item six another opportunity to hear from the public I still have a hefty stack cards here do we have any additional okay um Yoda gent UA there she is sorry we missed you before how y'all doing good um I'm Yoda Jen U I'm a resident on Newport News I'm coming here to speak going um a situation at SFI elementary school so on the third of O um third of October there was a fight on the

117school bus on the 4th of October four adults came to the bus stop to attack um Elementary School student along with two siblings that attended Huntington Middle School who tried to stop the attack on their 9-year-old sibling um so it was a 9-year-old 12-year old 14-year-old on the 10th a teacher um this child Seance um this teacher to this point never asked this child are you okay how you doing how you feeling after the attack instead she takes things from the child and then she tells the child that she's not supposed to have them in school um the child writes on a paper while she was upset a threat a threat assessment was done the child is out of school until October 26th the school never showed real support in a lot of these situations

118and including the resource officer opinion of my attending the city council meeting to speak on the situation to the higher ups I like to follow Michelle Obama quote when they go low you go high so Miss Jones is Not held accountable but Seance is punished waiting for process and procedures and now our family to me are being offered Services I'm a neutral mother when children right they right when they wrong they wrong this morning I was expecting a call from Miss Willard but I got a call from Miss Fitz who used neutral f facts from myself to form an opinion very unacceptable I shared that my children were away from me for a period of time and I had to fight to get them back into my care she insens insensitively formed an opinion to

119call me coarse me not to move forward on physical unwanted touching by Miss Jones battering or harassing Seance to say well you have well you you you didn't have them with you so maybe the child scared to be honest about the school bus fight that doesn't change the fact that the child was attacked by adults teachers showed no compassion and still painting school rules to her law until Seance is back in school Newport News school board is agreeing to provoking improper bending school rules to minors and holding children accountable Miss Jones has done things to sayon such as bending down in Seance face with Seance could smell her breath and Seance turned her head away and Miss Jones turned her face back um telling Seance to look at her other times she set the child

120away from her peers and have the child to Children chant false rules that are not in the rights and responsibility handbook still not contacting parents or staff of behavior issues where together we as a team could have worked together Miss Jones had Miss Jones has done what Miss Jones has done has to be taken into account Miss Jones reason for taking seon belongs away was improper for a child with emotional disabilities she formed emotions that she doesn't know how to process your being done wrong Miss Jones is to be honest with her children on real school rules for a 9-year-old to be attacked by two children four adults going to the school bus stop for a fight that happened the day before do I still got time or I'm done um actually you are done

121but um Miss Willis Miss Willis is actually here understanding as she did try to reach out to you you um so miss miss Willard didn't do anything wrong I wasn't expecting a call from Miss Fitz okay I missed the call if it was from miss miss miss Willard under Miss Linda's voice voice I missed that but I wasn't expecting a call from Miss Fitz and and she's here so why don't you take a moment and spend a little time catching up on the on the issue since she's here and you're here this evening well we already talked about Seance being back in school I want Seance back in school seance should be held accountable for a teacher provoking her okay all right well we will we will have to follow up with you um outside

122of here thank you for allowing me to share we appreciate you coming thank you all right I'm going to call the next three I have Joanne Dingus Shannon Adams and Michelle Foster good good evening uh my name is Joanne dingis and I am the director of religious education at the unarian Universalist Fellowship in Newport News I have had the privilege of working with Children and Youth for 23 years and in that time I have watched hundreds of children wonder and Learn and Grow for many of the children I have been with them from the time they were dedicated as babies to the time they completed their bridging ceremony into adulthood we teach our children and youth that they are unique and unrepeatable we encourage them to show up as their whole selves to each Gathering

123because they matter a few years ago one of my youths was transitioning I had not had a lot of experience with youth and transition but I did have a lot of experience in supporting Youth and caring for them and being an adult they could trust TR and you know what I found that was all the experience I needed I remember chaperoning on a camping trip we all walked over to the restrooms before lights out for the night this one youth stood outside for a moment staring at the doors women's men's and I believe for the first time in a public setting they chose the restroom that best fit their identity I felt so honored to witness their courage and to share in their Joy when I saw the smile on their face they had taken

124one more step along the path of transitioning recently I noticed a step taken by another youth when for the first time that I saw they signed their new name on the poster we made for the food drive event at Patrick Henry Mall I've also had some youth share their wish to use different pronouns and sometimes I mess up and I must apologize for using a past pronoun and because they know how much I care about them they politely correct me and we move on I believe all of you work for the school board because you believe in education and you believe we must support all our children and youth so that they may Thrive and live meaningful lives and contribute to society please support them now by giving them the right to use the name

125pronoun and bathroom that best fits their identity and let them share information about their identity when they are ready with the trusted adults they choose Thank you for your time Shannon Adams good evening board members and Dr Mitchell I'm a 21 year a 21 year veteran Newport News educator a mother to a young adult Who belongs to the lgbtq plus community and a longtime Ally of the LGB lgbtq plus Community I'm here to speak in support of keeping the protections that our district passed two years ago and has in place for our lgbtq plus students especially our students who identify as trans as this group is once again being attacked and stigmatized I've been fortunate enough to work under numerous principles who have been supportive of our trans and LGBT lgbtq plus students this is

126one of the many reasons that I have continued to work in Newport News Public Schools however I believe that removing the the protections that we currently have in place would go against everything our district has stood for removing these protections would put these already vulnerable students at a greater risk for bullying discrimination violence or Worse suicide is already the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24 yet lgbtq plus youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers it is vital that our school district continues to protect all of our students and continues to keep the current Protections in place for our lgbtq plus students at this time when they need it the most according to the CDC when schools Implement lgbtq plus supported policies all

127students experience less emotional distress violence and harassment and suicidal behaviors when students feel connected to a supportive School Community they do better socially emotionally and academically I urge you as an educator mother and Ally to keep our District's current Protections in place for our students often our classrooms are their only safe place acts 10:28 says the God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or inclean so please do not let the people that some of the people have spoken tonight allow yin's policies to have us the teachers and the school board do the same thank you Michelle [Applause] Foster um good evening um can I just ask real quick which where's the the light that I'm looking for right there okay sweet um good evening uh my name is Michelle Foster um

128I'm here as a member of the queer Community um as a proud andout transom and um I'm here to support the existing policy that protects trans students um in the district and in districts all all over the state of Virginia um I guess my focus tonight is going to be about queer queer perseverance because throughout history queer people have continued to exist um from All the Way in Su to Greece to Rome southeast Asia Native Americans um queer people have been present in history and we've been parts of society um that entire time um queerness exists in spite of all of the siset folks that we grow up we grow up with um I can pretty much count on one hand uh the number number of queer friends of mine that are the product of

129a queer relationship it's not very common uh which should tell us that queerness is something that's going to persist with that said um school is one of the only safe places for queer people when they're young it can be a place of a lot of bullying but in a lot of cases where home life is not supportive or parents are not supportive um school can be a sanctuary a trusted instructor or faculty member or counselor can be someone that they can go to and have safety and have Solace I think adopting Governor Yan's policies would absolutely take that away from students and give them no place to go effectively I've heard a lot of other statistics tonight um all some about suicide uh some about Governor yonan's uh anti-education policy and anti-education position specifically um

130but I'm here as evidence that quess persists even if you try to remove it from the equation if you try to take it out of public life you we still exist we still keep propping up we come back again and again and again because as queer people we're going to persevere it's a fact of life it's a part of biology even so in conclusion um I would like to encourage you to please reject Governor Yan's guidelines um regarding trans students it's in the best interest of all the students in the schools thank you okay our next three are Logan laurant um Veronica Williams and Ron Lee hello good evening hi uh thank you for the opportunity to speak uh my name is Logan lant and I am a transgender woman and small business owner who's

131lived in Hampton Roads my entire life I wish we didn't have to have these difficult public conversations but I understand that it's necessary as we are learning and growing together as a community and I'm confident this respected body can and will make the right decision in regards to these model policies it's a scary time to be transgender in America with rhetoric against us becoming increasingly more and more volatile and I'm sure it's an even scarier time for children and adolescents who may be lgbtqia+ I know from experience it can be very scary to come out as trans to your parents and it could be much easier to come out to your friends teachers and counselors before you decide it's safe to come out to your family at home Governor Young policies take away that option

132when I was a trans teenager growing uh going to High School in Hampton roads in the 9s I was fortunate to have parents who loved and accepted me but all of us are not so lucky and the results can be disastrous Governor Yan's policies if implemented do not protect every kid they are irrationally exclusionary and unnecessarily harmful to transgender and intersex children they leave no room for nuance and no room for science forcing a trans child to be outed to their parents so that they are allowed to be called their chosen name and pronouns is absolutely dangerous and can and will lead directly to child abuse inhumane conversion therapy practices child homelessness or worse if their parents aren't accepting let's decide to let kids keep the freedom to be themselves at school without fear of

133these terrible things I am not a sports expert and I don't have all the answers when it comes to letting trans kids play sports along with classmates that share their gender that is for sports medicine professionals and sports regulatory bodies to decide not governor Glen yunan Banning trans kids from Sports is exclusionary and leaves no room to discuss the Nuance of this topic or develop Fair standards for moving forward and in my opinion represent government overreach the governor's model policies are dangerous and cruel and they fail to pass democratic in our state's legislature there is no rational reason for them to be implemented in our state's Public School Systems thank you Veronica Williams good evening hello my name is Veronica Williams and I'm here to respectfully ask that the school board take action promptly in

134line with the 2023 Virginia Department of education Statewide model policies to make it clear that schools in this District cannot refer children to counseling for matters related to gender identity without first obtaining parental consent this is important because children are actively undergoing gender reassignment surgery in our nation upon information and belief in the Commonwealth of Virginia before a child is referred for hormone blockers cross- sex hormones Andor gender reassignment surgery the child must first be referred to a licensed mental health care professional for an assessment of gender dysphoria this is concerning in light of the fact that licensed Mental Health Care Professionals in Virginia according to a 2020 State Statute no longer have the ability to exercise independent professional judgment when it comes to counseling children who are expressing that they are experiencing confusion about

135their gender identity specifically under Virginia law a licensed mental health care professional is at risk of losing his or her license and livelihood for unprofessional conduct if he or she counsels a child with gender dysphoria to even consider embracing his or her gender of birth this means that when a child is referred to counseling whether inside the school system or outside of the school system the child is not being referred to a licensed professional who is free to exercise independent professional judgment to the contrary the child is being referred to a professional who is operating under the risk and threat of losing his or her license and livelihood if he or she even suggest that the child consider embracing his or her gender of birth we do not want to see a precious and extremely

136impressionable child who currently self-identifies as transgender make a decision to undergo very serious and irreversible gender transition surgery while still a minor that they may later regret as a result of pressures that are being brought to bear on their young hearts and Minds from different directions and from adults in positions of authority who are from a practical perspective having their hands tied by Statute for these reasons I respectfully ask the newort new school board to promp L take action to require parental consent before children are referred to counseling about their gender identity I care about this because I was born and raised here went to public school in this District have clients family and friends with children who are in this District thank you for your [Music] attention Ron Lee hi hi good afternoon my

137name is Ron Lee and I watched the last few school board meetings with great disappointment I realized the only people in opposition to to transgender policies are um based in theology instead of evidence-based data to try to sway the school board's policies so I didn't bring any evidence either only an opportunity for us to reflect these following three statements are from an article written in 19 1954 there is certainly no ground for the charge that racial segregation is displeasing to God unjust to man or inherently wrong it would appear that there is no reason for concluding that segregation is in conflict with the spirit and the teachings of Christ and the apostles and is therefore unchristian the Congress of the United States in the face of tremendous pressure from political agitators and minority pressure groups

138has refused to abolish segregation in these public schools did the Christians supporting slavery and segregation really know God's will is it really what God told them during silent prayer or did they weaponize religion to stigmatize minority groups why does God only want you to share your opinions of Oppression when there's a current political agenda why is God so often on the losing side when it comes to stigmatizing others as she did in slavery segregation and women's rights God doesn't lose does she as the oppressor stand up here ask herself are these even real Christians or are they the ones who have coffee bars at their church do they pray to Mary do they speak in tongues do they allow women to preach do they think you are saved simply by acknowledging Jesus died for your

139sins or do you have to repent be baptized or go to confession are they like the Hypocrites who love to pray publicly where everyone can see them as we know that will be their only reward those that evoke God's will are creating a God in their own image that's blasphemy but it's also how we got the Catholic Church the First Baptist Church the Second Baptist Church and 45,000 other Christian denominations all who are following God's will we have secular schools for this very reason some Christians believe transgender individuals are made in God's image we must respect their beliefs or respect no religious beliefs at all remember Tanisha price warned you about not limiting transgender rights and claimed school shootings happen in Newport News because God got mad at your failure to act well my God

140spoke to me this morning and he told me if you don't support LGBT rights that everyone's parents in this room will be gay whether on Earth or in heaven be warned my God declared it school board please stand the right side of History because as history has us the moral Arc swings towards Justice and one day transgender rights will be protected don't let the federal government mandate it the next three are Sarah cadi Jennifer herget and Sharon Hicks good evening everyone Dr Mitchell I don't envy you guys this job at all it is I'm hearing both sides and I want to speak to the lady who unfortunately has left that we wear these because we want to protect all children all children everywhere even though I am not living in this city I yet I

141am a product of this system and the school board and I was born and raised in Newport News and I love this city I think that there needs to be a lot more support for teachers and for you guys and for our people that work in the system because the job is not easy I've been in there I know it is not an easy job and the older these children get if they're not guided in the right direction you have trouble and it's and it's very very very sad I do ask that you in your vote and in your discussions that you move quickly to resolve this situation it I am in favor of course of Governor onan's revision into his uh this issue this transgender issue um all families are to be respected and

142all families are to be loved and these children are to be loved we love them all whether they're mine or not or yours or not we have to love our children if we show them love and they learn this love they can show love and it might change a lot of the bullying bullying is wrong and it should never happen I don't care who you are if I saw it I'd step in and it's just something that should not be done our children are our future they are the ones who are going to be leading this country they need to be educated and they need to be taught what's right they need to learn the basics just like they shoved it down me when I was in school but our children are just so special

143that it's a gift from God our children and we need to respect them but we need to guide them in the right direction thank you thank [Applause] you next I have Jennifer heret M chair my wife asked if I speak Place she'll in my is that AC uh your your name is oh okay Robert okay you were at the very end because you didn't have have your city um on so U okay if you have a plan go ahead and go first appreciate different angle of the conversations tonight and other conversations the quarterstone of our nation's Constitution is the individuals god-given right of life liberty and pursuit of happiness it appears to have been lost that the Pledge of Allegiance is a pledge by you the citizen to support protect and defend the citizen to

144your left right front and behind you for these god-given rights in these days Marxist ideologies are per perating a me myself and my group mentality dividing our nation and remove the individual's pledge of responsibility to the community and now appears to require the community to conform to the individual group and forgo others own right of life liberty Pursuit of Happiness the following was pinned in 1965 by Paul Harvey If I was a devil if I were the Prince of Darkness I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness I'd have the third of its real real estate four fths of its population but I wouldn't be happy until I seiz the ripest apple on the tree the so I'd said about how however necessary to take over to the United States i' I'd subvert the

145churches first I would begin with a campaign of Whispers with the wisdom of a sa serpent I'd whisper to you as I whispered to Eve do as you please to the young I would whisper the Bible is a myth I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around I would confide that what is bad is good and what is good is square and to the old I would teach them to pray after me Our Father which art in Washington and then I'd get organized I'd educate authors and how to make lured literature exciting so that anything else would appear Ding and uninteresting I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies vice versa I'd pedal narcotics to whom I could I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction and I'd tranquilize the

146rest with pills if I were the devil I'd soon have families at war with each other churches at W with themselves Nations at w with themselves until each in his turn was consumed and with Promises of higher ratings I'd have mesmerizing media Fanning the Flames If I Were the Devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions just let those run wild and before you know it you'll have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors in every Schoolhouse door within a decade I'll have prisons overflowing I'll have judges promoting pornography soon I could evict God from the courthouse the schoolhouse and the houses of Congress and in his own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science I would lure priests and Pastors in the M misusing boys and

147girls and church money if I were the devil I'd make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas AB botle If I Were the Devil I'd take from those who have and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the of the ambitious and what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as a way to get rid rich I would caution against extremes and hard work and patriotism and moral conduct I would convince the young that marriage is oldfashioned that swinging is more fun that you see what what you see on TV is the way it should be and I only got two lines left but thank you I think you got the picture appreciate your time thank [Applause] you Jennifer herget I want

148to say first that my heart goes out to any child that does not have a parent that loves them unconditionally no matter what and also to anyone including myself that had a pastor or a church that they were at that Jesus was not present um fortunately I have one and Jesus is present all the time my husband read to you if I were the devil from 1965 by Paul Harvey it's like he saw what was happening while we were asleep at the wheel living life carefree and here we are today sometimes it does seem that the whole world is engulfed in darkness many have listened to the serpent whisper do as you please the devil has whispered to are young the Bible is a myth and many have been convinced that man created God instead

149of the other way around I saw this in my children when they were going to school especially in middle and high school and the floodgates were open in college we are all surrounded by lurd literature and dirtier movies narcotics alcohol and pills are plenty just there for our children's asking families churches and nations are at war with themselves schools and parents have neglected to discipline emotions and let them run wild and now we do have metal detectors at schools the prisons are overflowing God has been evicted from the courthouse the schoolhouse and the house of Congress morals and values have left the stage my last speech that I said here I um told you that I would be blessed if my child came home from school because her teacher was talking about God and she

150wanted to get baptized but that is not where we are today and everything all of the morals and values that are taught is what we learned in kindergarten I don't know if you remember that um we may not be able to control and stop all of the evil in the world but we can protect the children in our community you are all in a position to make a decision you're all in a position to protect our children they are All God's Children instead of asking yourself if I were the devil ask yourself what would Jesus [Applause] do okay I'm going to petition the board for just another 15 minutes we have five speaker cards remaining so moved second any discussion please call the rooll four haris four thank you I believe uh Sharon Hicks Reverend

151Michael Bernett and Bill Haynes good evening you have a tough job I'm here to appeal to you tonight in reference to the policy that Governor yunin has placed this is my story at the age of 10 my parents divorced but never did I ever feel that I was not loved at one point my stepmother asked me I could give you everything that your mother can't and I thought about it and she actually could she could give me a better home more clothes all the things that would make a teenager happy although tempting I said no my mother gave me life can you to that and there was a holy hush as you can see I too know what it feels like to be different I have a birthmark that my parents told me it was

152a gift of God to other members of society it was a mark But to them it was a gift if it had not been for my parents supporting me I too would have felt like an outsider the education system taught me the ABC of Education my parents taught me the ABCs of life we often ask ourself a question in church where were you and I'd like to ask the school board that from a parents perspective where were you when they cried their first tear where were you when they had their first bruise on their knee where were you with my first encounter enounter with a trans person I tried to embrace her because she was different instead I was beat up when I approached my school teacher and told her she paddled both of us

153but at the same time she told us we were both good people I knew everything through my parents when fats faded my parents were there when the word and the world shunn me my parents applauded me Educators have their place but it is not to replace hide coerced children against their parents you are the bridge that the Unites both of them parents are not perfect they're people you have them a few hours the children the parents have them from a lifetime unfortunately Parenthood does not come with a book you learn as you go we agree and disagree about being homophobic homosexual homos sapiens how about that we argue that we are human beings thank you living in this habitat called Earth this is my story and this was not sponsored thank you thank you Reverend

154Bernett Reverend Bernett my board only gave me 15 more minutes and I do know we need to get you all home so please uh adhere to our to our time thank you much Madam chairman Madam Vice chairman Este team members of the board I'm grateful for the opportunity I'm also grateful for the work that this board did two years ago with the model policy suggested by then Governor Northam and although he's absent now um I will quote Mr Mr Hunter's words by saying that work was uh to vote Yes to protect all students from any discrimination I'm here for for the sake of students rights for children's rights it's a tricky subject because it's a little bit of intention with parents rights I'm a former Child I'm a former student of a public school system

155I was exceedingly grateful for teachers who challenged me if my parents had their way God bless them I love my parents but if my parents had had their way I would have learned a truncated curriculum I was raised in picosen in the 1990s by parents who grew up in picosen in the 1970s raised by parents who grew up in picosen in the 1950s I'm not trying to paint with too broad a brush but you might get an idea of the things that I would have learned and not learned had I not been challenged by my Educators as a parent now of two children who are of preschool age but getting there I recognize that my Parenthood is not my right my Parenthood is a privilege and if I should ever create an environment in my

156home where my children feel unsafe to come to me I have violated the Covenant of Parenthood and that's on me to repent of and to rectify as a pastor working with college students at Christopher Newport University and also at a couple of local churches here with dozens of Newport News students and families I have been unable not to see the Divine image in every person that has come to me cisgender transgender non-binary heterosexual homosexual bisexual pansexual Etc to De theologize my language I understand that every person regardless of any descriptor including age is a human being with certain human rights among them a right to a certain amount of dignity and privacy a lot of folks have said it let me say it again I don't envy the position you're in because you stand in

157the tension between parents rights and students rights but I hope as you deliberate as you best discern how to implement or not Implement these policies you do so with a full view of the full Humanity of our students because they are indeed human beings they are not their parents' possessions thank you I have uh Bill Hayes and then after that Danielle cousins and then Natasha Elliott so Bill Haynes are you still with us Danielle cousins good evening thank you for staying overtime um I just want to say that I used to live in Newport News for five years I'm here on behalf of my friends whose children do go to Newport News school district I've had my kids homeschooled I've had them in public school I've been married 20 years this year to a black

158man we have inter race or beautiful children and I just wanted to say that um my heart goes out to people that were abused I was sexually molested as a child I had extreme fear and anxiety I had severe dyslexia so I would bull it all through school so I understand where they're coming from um I I had health issues because of it and I just want to say that there's Freedom the only Freedom that I found true Freedom true healing True Deliverance was in Jesus Christ and it was in the church and it's through spirit and I want to say that God is in the schools because every believer carries the holy spirit in the schools with him and taking their rights away for their morals and beliefs to have to call someone by

159a name God said I made them male and female I made them and there's a difference between um being looked down upon for the color of your skin versus you being a man or a woman and I just want to say I I pray for healing and deliverance for the people that have been hurt and rejected but parents have a right okay if if a child goes into a school and shoots people and it was the parents gun the parents going to go to pris reason for that because they're responsible for their children and it's the exact same thing as we're responsible for education yunan and his predecessor are not in right now uh not yunan but um sorry yunan is in because the man that was running against him said very loudly that he

160didn't think parents had rights Virginia parents want to have a say in their children's education they want to know if their children are having um having thoughts of being a different gender so they can get them help so they can choose I personally took my child to a neurologist under um oh what is that the uh Governor that was just in and I my daughter had headaches and they asked her if she wanted to stop having her period right there in front of me not knowing not not respecting me as a parent asking me asking my daughter which she doesn't even know what that means by putting her on hormones and stopping stopping her cycle so they don't care and if if if you guys remember and look Governor yunan does not care about our

161children he passed laws that people could have babies have healthy beautiful babies and go talk about if they want to murder them or not he does not care about children so I I really it's it's a law that governor yunan passed it was a law that was before and and I do understand bullying I don't think it should happen I think there should be counseling for these children and their parents but parents should know if their children changes their name one of my daughter's friends the librarian changed her name in the system and her parents had no idea I don't think that's right I don't think that's right thank you for your time Natasha Elliott hello hi everyone my name is naticia Elliott um I have Liv in newprint news since 1988 I went to

162um the high school here I've um went to college in the Hampton Roads I raised my daughter in the new new school system and I witnessed um some of the changes that happened um with the children and expressing themselves and my daughter was able to freely come to me and talk to me about it even though she was not going through it but it was something that you know that was shared um from another student um I'm here um to support Governor yin's um revised policy about transgender issues um our my concern as a parent is that we should know um from creation and Adam and Eve parents have always been here and they should just not be included what's going on with their own children that God's given them to Steward we we are

163here to Steward our parents whe Ste Steward our children whether we like it or not not everyone do it the best way you know the best some can be the worst I pray for them all I pray for God's wisdom healing hand over the hurting children and parents that are hurt themselves but we can't neglect the fact that our voices as parents should be heard we should know of any concern any bullying anything malicious going on with our child or if they're concerned about their identity it is their identity as a human being we should know so we can partner with the school system partner with the parent parents partner with our own children to say how can we help you how can we make you a better you I I am a believer in

164Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior I believe that that God created us we're fearfully and wonderfully made I respect all human beings but please respect parents also I appreciate it thank you so much okay do I have any additional cards right thank you very much the last comment and the last voice we will hear this evening will be from our student representative this is what we're here for right hi I'm the oops those student Advisory Group on education um students have been selected for this school year and I will be meeting with Doc yeah pull your mic down just a little okay this there we go yeah the student Advisory Group by education students have been selected for this school year and I will be meeting with Dr Mitchell and Miss Brooks to plan the

165agenda for this for the first meeting which will be on October 25th we are looking forward to this exciting school year thank you okay thank you Mr L being a journed [Music]