001[Music] thank you good evening I would like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News school board Tuesday October 18 2022. on behalf of the members of the school board and Mr Rashard Wright Chief of Staff who is sitting in for Dr Parker this evening I welcome each of you present this evening and for those of you watching online Quorum is present to transact the business of the school division we will begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and pledge the flag here to do the honors is Nigel waiters a senior at Heritage High School Mr waders please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself hey everyone my name is Nigel waiters a senior Heritage High School After High School I plan to attend a four-year college major in sports
002medicine at Heritage I am a student ambassador I am in the community captains group partnered with Christopher Newport University I am a part of men in the making mentoring group I am a student athlete and leader on the football and track team and for the invocation I would like to do a quote that I stumbled across um don't change yourself so that other people will like you be yourself so that the right people will love you and I would like to ask all of you to stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much for joining us this evening you're welcome uh our members of
003your family and the Heritage High School family would you please be recognized and be recognized thank you so much I'm sure that we ride along with you all are proud okay the next item on our agenda is School Board recognitions Mr Wright please join me at the podium please so this evening the school board has the pleasure of welcoming and introducing Lieutenant General retired Daryl Williams the 13th president of Hampton University thank you [Applause] president and Mrs Williams if you would come and join us up here president Williams is a native of West Palm Beach Florida and brings to Hampton University over four decades of success in leading military government civilian academic and business organizations he served over 37 years in the United States military so that also means Miss Myra did too president Williams
004we thank you for that service and it he is a proud graduate of Hampton University which there are several of us in the room today [Applause] and during his time there he was named Mr freshman and he served as student leader for three years a three-year Reserve officer training a scholarship Cadet a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated and was senior class president how prophetic his lovely wife Byron Williams is also a hamptonian and a very respected educator as we discovered today thank you so much for your service to education president Williams joins Hampton after serving as vice president and managing director of a fortune 250 information technology company where he was responsible for providing Global Logistics support to the UK military forces thank you for that president Williams was commissioned into the army
005in 1983 as a distinguished military graduate of Hampton University Reserve officer training Corps program over the course of his career he served throughout the continental U.S Europe the Pacific and the Middle East president Williams is a member of numerous professional organizations and he has earned a long list of honors and recognitions please join me in welcoming Hampton University president Daryl Williams [Applause] that you leave without a few uh swag from Newport News public schools and we'd love if you take a moment to share share a couple words so first of all I have I have to tell you that I believe like I've been set up because uh how do you follow such a phenomenal young man like Nigel yes let's give him a round of applause [Applause] and so in the meeting before this
006we talked about some scholarships that Hampton will be offering to the Newport News and the Hampton Roads Community full ride scholarships to Hampton University and I believe we have a candidate sitting right in the audience before us huh yeah well that said uh uh I am my my wife Myra are so delighted to be back in the Hampton Roads area as was stated earlier we are both graduates of Hampton Institute in 1983 and it feels so delightful to be back in what all hamptonians call our home by the sea we look forward to the relationship that Hampton has historically had with Newport News public schools and in fact we look forward to strengthening that relationship even further so thank you in advance for the cooperation thank you for the welcome back to this great area
007and we can't wait to see you back on Hampton University's campus at our home by the Sea thank you and as we say at Hampton University the standard remains excellence and go pirates thank you yeah [Applause] thank you so much okay I believe you are up I'll turn the page for you thank you so much we have another recognition this evening um and that is that of for our school board training and development are top priorities for the Newport News school board as part of its Collective effort to maintain effective leadership the board has participated in numerous development programs conferences and workshops through the Virginia school boards Association and the national school boards Association this evening our school board members our superintendent and our school board clerk are receiving their own awards for their dedication
008to 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 vsba recognizes board members for their dedication to improving their skills through conferences on Leadership School laws strategic planning and legislative issues each of the persons being recognized this evening has received a certificate from the Virginia school boards Association these Awards honor their participation in the Academy's programs for the past two years School board chairman Lisa surle's law Vice chairman Dr Terry best and School Board member Douglas Brown earned the award of Distinction and they have those certificates right at their seat so congratulations [Applause] board member Rebecca Aman and our superintendent Dr George Parker earned the award of Honor board members Marvin Harris and Gary Hunter earned
009the Award of Excellence and board members John Ely and Marvin Harris earned the award of achievement board member John Eley and our school board clerk Tiffany Moore Buffalo received certificates of recognition the award of Distinction honorees that's the highest award School board chairman Lisa surle's law Vice chairman Dr best and School Board member Mr Brown will be recognized during a special session during the Virginia school board's associate association annual convention and again each of them has this award at their seat and a distinctive lapel pin to symbolize their commitment to effective School governance through participation in the academy so board members on behalf of the students staffed and citizens of Newport News thank you for your dedication and Leadership to the school Division and we congratulate you on your earned Awards [Applause] again we thank
010president Williams and Mrs Williams thank you so much for joining us at this time we'll take about a six minute break so that our honorees and their guests may leave if they choose to do so you know you're welcome to stay for the rest of the board meeting during this time our TV audience will have opportunity to view this month's School Board Spotlight so we'll stand in recess for about six minutes thank you [Music] for over three decades high school students have honed their artistic Musical and Performing talents through summer Institute for the Arts after submitting auditions and being accepted over 70 Rising 8th through 12th grade students participated in the Intensive program focused on Dance drama music and visual arts hosted at Woodside High School students spent three weeks this past summer learning new
011techniques Styles and methods to perfect their artistic skills highly talented instructors in each discipline motivated and challenged the students while allowing them to grow in a safe and creative educational environment during a faculty recital music students were amazed at the level of talent each of their instructors displayed while also modeling proper performance etiquette to the budding musicians during their own recitals dance and music students continued to sharpen their performance skills students also took field trips across Hampton Roads including Chrysler Museum of Art hurray players Incorporated and cnu's torgler Fine Arts Center off-site experiences invited students to explore opportunities Beyond High School in post-secondary education and future careers in the Arts on the final day all of the students put their artistic talents on display for family and friends dance music and theater students combine their
012gifts during an impressive final performance showcase and after completing a variety of projects Visual Arts students placed their Works in an art gallery for all to browse by successfully completing summer Institute for the Arts students received half an honors weighted credit towards High School graduation while also gaining a wealth of knowledge and motivation to excel in the Arts students and families let their imagination soar to new heights during a weekend stem event Newport News Public Schools partnered with Atlantic Aviation phf and Captain Barrington Irving to host a flying classroom experience for the whole family over 500 students and their families from 16 Newport News elementary and middle schools were invited to attend based on their past participation in the virtual flying classroom Extended Learning Program inside Atlantic aviation's massive hangar at Newport News Williamsburg International
013Airport families toured aircraft and were engaged in stem exploration and fun simulators they even met Captain Irving in person who was happy to sign books and take photos with the Starstruck students each activity allowed students to use critical thinking problem solving and Engineering skills while exploring the world of Aviation Educators from Denby High School's Aviation Academy showed younger students some of the amazing learning options available at the aviation magnet program in High School nnps Employees from federal programs and the family and Community engagement team helped set up the event coordinated transportation for families and made sure everyone enjoyed the unique learning experiences Bright Futures begin with good School attendance too many absences whether excused or unexcused can keep students from succeeding in schools starting in preschool and Elementary School good attendance and arriving on time
014helps build the foundation for continued academic achievement and increasing students self-worth missing just a day or two every few weeks can cause children to fall behind the rest of their class and make it harder to learn to read in middle and high school consistent attendance keep students on track to graduate while reinforcing an important life skill that will help your child graduate from college and keep a job parents help your children attend school by setting a regular bedtime maintaining daily routines to finish homework and getting a good night's sleep also encourage your student to participate in meaningful after school activities including Sports and clubs going to school on time every day is important for students to succeed in school and in life students at MacIntosh Elementary started the school year with encouragement from a prominent
015Community leader Newport News police chief Steve Drew took time to visit with first and second grade students and talked to them about how much he cared for the young Scotties Chief true focused on the importance of not bullying but instead being respectful kind and helpful so these young people can grow into strong Future Leaders ever since Chief Drew was in second grade himself he knew he wanted to be a police officer because he loves helping people which still motivates him every day as he serves our city the students were able to ask insightful questions to learn more about careers in law enforcement one student even expressed her desire to One Day become a police officer through their own creative writings students personally thanked Chief Drew for his time and wished him to stay safe protecting
016others as Macintosh students went back to class took with them the powerful message that the police chief of Newport News and cares about each and every one of them at Riverside Elementary the Bears team up to make learning fun and engaging bear buddies takes place every other week between Melody Simpkins kindergartners and Colleen budlov's fifth grade classroom this collaboration has taken place for years initially focusing on reading now the teachers adapt their shared time to match what both groups of students are currently learning in class making it timely and beneficial for everyone involved the fifth graders are able to take on a mentorship role while learning important leadership behaviors they enjoy the interaction with The Kindergartners getting to know their personalities through different activities and helping them grow as budding readers and just imagine how
017these young kindergartners feel getting to spend quality time with the biggest kids in school while learning and sharing together and when they aren't focused on academic growth they spend intentional time playing during recess with the hope of eating lunch together some of the days whether they're reading exploring science Making art or just chatting bear buddies enjoy spending time with each other and the teachers couldn't be more thrilled to see their students growing and learning together [Music] 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 meeting as advertised citizens May submit comments via email or web form up until 30 minutes prior to
018our 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 so as your name is called please come forward I have Alex Fuentes good evening members of the board um all right so as a mother to a five-year-old nonverbal special needs child that has been affected by The Faculty shortage I'd like to comment on this matter my child was assigned to an achievable dream Academy right um and
019right from the start I noted there was some issues during open house we were greeted by a teacher whose first response to us myself and my husband was I'm not going to be here long there's no permanent teacher yet for this class I'm only filling in as a parent you can imagine the concern right off the bat at the end of the first two weeks in school I received a text message on a Monday morning from his teacher saying I just wanted to let you know that I have resigned and I will no longer be at this school when I asked her what her when her last day was she said it was this past Friday remember this was a Monday morning the school was left to scramble that morning to figure out what to
020do with my non-verbal child along with his other classmates I was so worried and I was sad I was disheartened that this has this had happened and the impact it would have on the children that's when I had to do something about it so I called the office and I also visited the office in person to figure out what was going to happen with the children from then on it was a bit of a mess to be honest with you there was no communication from any administrators or teachers to parents and I was completely unaware of my child's progress or lack thereof I was in the dark about who was with my child for eight hours a day for the for the two weeks from then I had to work tirelessly to have my child
021reassigned to a school where there was a place for him and a teacher who was permanent within the first week the teacher reported progress with communication using picture cards that is the power of teachers who are consistent with a burden for our special needs children as we all know special needs children are not as resilient as a child without any developmental or physical or cognitive delays all children need consistency to learn however special needs children require consistency like no other not having an adequate and specifically qualified faculty for these children along with the lack of consistency is detrimental to their Learning and Development I'm aware of schools particularly those with moderate intellectual delay classes also known as moyd lacking faculty and a need to pull teachers from central office to rotate in order to fill
022the gap for this reason it is very important that special attention be paid to this area of Newport News Public Schools Staffing there needs to be a special focus on not only attaining but most importantly retaining qualified faculty to serve the special needs children of Newport News this will enable them to be as successful as possible so that they will have the maximum opportunity to learn and meet their IEP goals if not already sorry I lost my place if not already there should be some form of incentive for these teachers to be attracted to and motivated to serve these children wholeheartedly because with the special needs child to be with them for up to eight hours a day is not an easy task so please take this into consideration as you continue to serve the
023children of Newport News thank you for your time thank you for your comments now we will move on to section three the consent agenda which includes 3.01 minutes from the closed meaning on September 20th 2022 3.02 minutes from the work session on September 2022 and 3.03 minutes from the regular meeting on September 2022. also 3.04 Financial reports including the revenue report for September 22. the expense report for September 2022 Child Nutrition reports from September 2022 3.05 the Personnel report 3.06 State School construction Grant and 3.07 a budget transfer at this time can we have a motion to approve this consent agenda Madam chair I moved to approve the consent agenda as presented second any questions roll ER four four thank you and now at this time may I have a motion to approve the superintendent's
024Personnel recommendations for this evening having to approve this is Personnel recommendations for Ryan Daniels assistant principal Diddy High School black Johnson Jones supervisor for special education pre-k through 12 Michelle Jones supervisor of special education student supports eligibility and regulations Scarlet Minto Chief Financial Officer and Dr Maya Sherwin supervisor of special education do we have a second second any questions please call the roll Mr Ely four Mr Harris four Mr hunter or Mrs angry Dr best or Mr Brown for Mr [Applause] he's introduced the administrative appointments said good evening when I call your name please stand it's always a pleasure to welcome new people to team nnps I will start by introducing Miss Ryan Daniels as the new assistant principal at Debbie High School these things is currently working on her Doctorate of education and educational
025leadership at North Carolina State University she has an education specialist certification in education Administration is supervision from the George Washington University she has a master's of education and curriculum instruction from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science in biology for Elizabeth City State University this dance currently works as an Extended Learning Program specialist at Petersburg City Public Schools she has worked as an interventionist with KIPP eastern North Carolina NC schools and Halifax North Carolina she has worked as a sixth to eighth grade academic support specialist in K-12 stem coordinator for White Oak academic enrichment program in Wilson North Carolina she has also worked as a science teacher for Nash County public schools in Nashville North Carolina the snails welcome to Newport News Public Schools Welcome to our family and please I introduce any
026family members and friends that you have with me this evening as well as my mother came to um next I'd like to introduce Mrs Blythe Jones Johnson as a new supervisor of special education Pre-K as well it's Johnson Jones has a graduate certificate in educational leadership from long Longwood University and a graduate certificate in applied Behavior Analysis from St Joseph's University Miss Johnson Jones is a master of arts in special education a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science of Psychology from Hampton University he currently works right here with us as an instructional Behavior specialist she has also worked as a special education teacher and instructional Lead Teacher for Newport News Public Schools congratulations to you and please introduce any family or friends you have with you this evening tonight I have
027a host of Family and Friends my mother-in-law my daughter my mother and father a cousin who traveled from Richmond um my great-grandmother-in-law colleagues that have groomed me for this position and my daughter Hyacinth and my husband who is Newport News Maine from Marshall Elementary all the way to Mitchell foreign congratulations again to you and the family next I'd like to introduce Miss Michelle Jones as the new supervisor of special education student supports eligibility and regulations congratulations Miss Jones has a master of science in education from Old Dominion University she has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Hampton University Ms Jones currently works as a special education coordinator right here for us in the nnps she has worked as a program administrator and a secondary special education teacher here in Newport News congratulations again
028to you introduce your family and friends please my dad my nephew my mom my daughters my daughters my brother-in-law my sister and also my friend Carlos and also a host of you know the Independence Public Schools family as well thank you time I'm gonna introduce a familiar face Miss Scarlet Minto is our new Chief Financial Officer this Mento has a bachelor in Bachelor business administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in Internet working technology and an advanced diploma in accounting from Strayer University this Mentor currently works as our acting Chief Financial Officer she has worked as a directive budget Erp and analytics director of Information Technology and supervisor of payroll and Erp operations congratulations again Scarlett thank you if you want to shout anybody out you're harder listening [Laughter] to HR for working 24x7 to
029give me all the angels I need in five seconds and then you know I got all my cheerleaders here and um and uh I wanted I would be remiss if I didn't mention uh Mary Lou Rousseau's a message to me for 18 years and made sure that we were ready for anything I want to thank him for holding down with work because I never come home he just keeps things going I'm very honored to continue this song Thank you congratulations I want to introduce Dr Maya Sharon is a new supervisor of special education Dr Sharon has a doctorate of Education from North North Central University Dr Sharon has a special education certification from St Joseph University a master of arts in teaching from Towson University and a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Georgia State
030University Dr Sharon currently works as a special education instructional specialist right here for us she's working as a special education director and RTI specialist executive director of specialized services and academic coach for the school district of Philadelphia in Philadelphia Philadelphia Pennsylvania Dr Sharon has also worked as a national board certified educator for Howard County Public Schools in Ellicott City Maryland she has also worked as a teacher for Lusher Charter School in New Orleans Louisiana and a special education teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools congratulations Dr Sharon thank you for staying with us and would you like to introduce family and friends this evening ... he retired from Newport News public schools from Greenwood Elementary School thank you for being here that concludes our board appointments this evening we want to congratulate all of our new
031Newport News family members thank you very much let's give them one last time and at this time so you you have time to have dinner and celebrate it's a good time for everyone to transition and we can move on with the rest of our board meeting unless you want to stay with us so we'll give you a moment to do that congratulations again board members do we have any questions for Mr bearhart at this time well thank you for your presence this evening and all your hard work I guess you've done your due diligence all right do we have a motion for this um for this agenda item I moved to approve the FY 2024 FY 2028 proposed Capital plan in the amount of 240.4 million dollars okay second any questions there's a lot of
032things about this capital budget that I love and one more thing that I think would that it needs to be as effective as we need it to be which is I'd like to make a motion to amend the Denbigh renovation in the capital budget to move to FY 2024 and FY 2025 alongside the Warwick renovation and I feel that that's very important for our budget because I I think that lessons learned we've seen I've seen this type of configuration in the past we saw the same thing happen with Huntington over the years it was constantly in the second or the third year and then it was not funded and then we were faced with a situation closing the school I think that Warwick and Denby we've acknowledged through our long-range study that both those schools
033are in a similar shape so I see no reason to treat them differently in the budget and so that's why I'd like to make that that amendment I think that we made tremendous progress and we've come together with a great capital budget I can recall a time when I was on the board and we were only doing 100 million dollars for our capital budget and we now have 240 million dollar capital budget I believe the budget truly reflects our needs it's a lot of uh great things of the security and safety enhancements that are in here uh indoor athletic spaces Etc but this is the one piece that I think is is missing uh from the budget is moving Demby to the proper area of prioritization that it should be so I'd like to make
034that motion to amend to move Denby renovation to FY 2022-25. a second you have a second yes okay um is there a discussion on moving this uh additional Amendment are there any questions that we would like to ask Mr fairhart at this time I see I kind of agree with what Douglas saying um we want to be proactive because we what we don't want to be is the same same situation we are with Huntington Middle School I think putting it at the Forefront of our budget and letting the city council know that this is a main priority and how we need to fund this nail and start having that that same conversation because what we don't want to happen is we have to do we did the Huntington to work high school so I think
035the more we have that at the Forefront of city council those funds could be appropriated because we don't want what happened before we didn't know anything about it when we actually had those funds and requested in the budget for Huntington middle school so instead of playing those games with the city of we didn't know yes you do know we mentioned this as a priority any other comments as we move forward um can I come back to the so that's going to change our budget proposals to what we're going to prove now just so so we all clear I don't know if I heard if I heard the amended motion correctly that would be moving the 2.8 million from FY 26 to the fy24 budget correct and the 48 million from that point 25. to give
036us a total of The Five-Year total Remains the Same probably you told them it's a sequencing so does that require that we have the building of Denby in what year does that does that affect where we have it currently we currently have a proposed for FY 27 with design work and FY 26. so sequenced Warwick next year construction year that follows Denby then Construction as it's proposed okay and how will that affect those other items that we have on this CIP you know we were just going to keep those the same that that would be my recommendation and and we see can sequence that some this way somewhat intentionally because the design work uh we felt like the design work was important you know I talked to Mr Brown about this it's design build you
037know you know so we get the design done and then we put the project to bid if we get the design done both designs done say philosophically next year we're not going to get both projects probably bid and funded next year so we're going to have a design that's going to be two three four years potentially out of date and then pricing that project is going to be difficult as well so there are some challenges there at the right if we have if we have the right people to answer but just throwing this out there if we were to do both at the same time I know I'm pretty sure this is not construction that's going to happen over summer they're pretty big projects so we'd be putting kids in uh Portables or be a
038fair amount of disruption at a particular School while this is going on so I guess it does raise the question if we're doing both at the same time what does that do as far as additional costs I mean we have been able to reuse some Portables at Warwick then shift them over to Denby when Denby starts undergoing construction if there's conversely other economies and scale to doing them at the same time correct and that's currently our plan with the modular unit at Heritage just to repurpose that once it's uh the new little osteos maximum is done possible once Huntington Middle School's up we will be able in the same position to do that with portable monitor units that would be necessary at Warwick could be transitioned to Denby and I lost our cost of the
039school division and I definitely understand what you're saying a hundred percent and if it was working if we was working with the council who's had that same vision that would be fine but when we this is like deja vu with the 100th situation where he didn't put it in your first year of priority that's what that was the conversation that was happening with us and we still don't even have a Huntington middle school so it concerns me if we push this to that year that's going to turn into probably 20 30. if we don't have a council that understands the value and to know that this is the plan we're working together I'm just I'm just so afraid of the situation we are and with Huntington happening with work and Denby High School not so
040much as David especially Ward just visiting that school in our kids deserve a better environment I think the sooner we can put them in a safer environment the better it is the way schools were built in the 60s and the 50s is totally we wasn't dealing with mass shootings as I visited that school it's so many different interest ways it's just I'm like the walkie-talkies don't work at my part of the building so if God forbid they have a crisis situation that long as they got to fix when I visited it was still a walkie-talkie issue but just that same infrastructure and stuff that concerns me as far as safety so I think the further we prolong these matters I just don't want what happened with Huntington with no kids where a middle school to
041say I feel like I've been cheated out of my middle school year happening again in other schools so if we can come up with the um have a serious conversation with our Council hey this this is what we're planning to do hopefully we can get defunded that we need to move ahead then that's a different story I just don't want the same situation where you didn't put it in your first year so we didn't know that you needed that year so that's just one of the things that concerns me about prologue and event but I definitely understand what you're saying we have other questions or comments yeah sure I mean the bottom line is I think both sides have some legitimate points it just depends on what's the priorities and and the priority you know
042safety you got to also understand you can design 10 projects in a year I mean those designs are designs they forward the money you go into design when it gets into constructing a project then that's when you get into the time to layer where we're going to move students at so you still can actually have two designs done and completed and you know hopefully the council will be thinking the same way we've been thinking for years you know put us down as priority in your CIP that has not been done so I don't know how many of the times we have to continue to capitulate to them the bottom line is we've seen this show before uh we've seen over the last five or six years and [Music] the only sticking point will be the
043construction part because you know you can't you got to move kids around but I would I think I would rather deal with that problem versus uh them giving us another reason not to fund it okay Mr fairhart um when are we projecting what would be your recommendation to put Denby High School in rcip for it's before you now yeah okay yeah okay I just I think that I'm not asking the question that I want because yes I do know it's before um what do you think what do you think that the repercussions would be if we don't do it at what's before us if we do it uh sooner rather than later and that's kind of some of the challenges that I spoke to in regards to design and then construction moving kids um cost
044savings when we relocate children um I also think you know uh to Mr earliest point we're also going to ask the city council a potentially new city council for a pretty big ask and put them probably in a position to say no right um and do we want to start our new relationship that way yeah okay are there are there comments I thought a couple little hands here yeah and I and I do agree because any way you're looking at there's going to be a new city council okay there's there's going to be a new city council and to we don't want to go into such a big ass and if you saw overseas hey debate that overseas but you saw what's happening over in Europe when they put their new prime minister in and
045she went to too many cuts and too many so fast um we've we have the experts here and you know kind of understand this what we didn't know two or three or four years ago that the only thing that city council was doing was financing the first year okay those other years we didn't we were putting them in there we didn't know they were not even putting up now that we know they're processed now that we know their process you know we take it from those experts so like I said again no need to go get it and design to design a building of of such to throw those designs back out and then go back and revisit those designs again cost us more money you know I I think you know we have a
046plan for in front of us I think that we're a lot more educated now as how the city does business I said we just again next year when we we know where to put the money in next year for these following years we didn't we thought we put it in five years and then you know we just they was automatic adding to their budget but they did not do that so again um a lot of work has been put in forth to get us to this point today and I just want us to really consider you know let's not jump in the deep end when we're going to have a brand new city council just be you know let's you know take something again as I said months ago you know these are the experts
047these are experts there's nothing that prevents us from if we were to approve this and say they didn't approve some of the 2024 numbers it's going to start getting compressed you know we've got our plan you didn't fund this well all of a sudden you are going to have a big ass because we mean we really need this by this time so um you know amount of care I think the big ask is has always been there uh you know we went through uh doing a lot of work this summer to come up with that 700 what 50 million dollars right to if we if we had to get the school division to shape modern 21st century right it was called 750 million bucks and so we did that hard work up front to be
048honest with the citizens that said this is the shape that we're in and the reason we're in that shape is because we never was supported by the city council it's just that simple so not 750 million versus what 15 20 30 million so whatever the case may be the bottom line is this city has not invested in the school division so when you ask for crimes you get crimes or you get nothing so it is probably best that we as a School Division actually when we say we're serious about something right we have to show them uh the bottom I think they're going to support it I think the new Council will support it I really truly do um but you know we did a lot of work and I I'm it really gets to
049me where we're both leadership bodies we're both endowed by the Constitution to make decisions for our constituents I am governed by the Constitution of Virginia right I could be held accountable right for not providing for these children but anyway necessary I can be held accountable this board can be held accountable legally for not putting uh our best foot forward and it's a good foot to put forward you did a lot of work um it's not on the work that's been done but I just think as far as the leadership of this school board we are charged to do that we are charged to give them the big number we are charged to say hey this is 750 million bucks that's what happened we don't support a scooter Vision over the last 20 years or whatever
050the case may be this is what you get uh so I think we have to just stick with it uh there's room for conversations um or whatever case may be but um you know I support that change and I'm sure some other board members do it some other board members may not but I think it's a good conversation to have so thank you the conditions of Warwick and Denby how long do you think is safe for keeping the kids in the building with the conditions just looking at the study we had years ago about we should have been addressed these issues how much time do you think will happen I think I would be remiss to make a projection along those lines but I think we all know that they both are in dire need
051to prepare oh it's just it's just a unknown you know situation because you look at the safety of the builders and you want to just make sure we don't have three schools closed at one time and then the other the average age on scoopers were 50 years old when it's going to be time for I just don't want to reach a point where we are like six or seven schools than a dire knee and we're not addressing them and I know the school board you know we put into the budget we're passionate about making sure our kids are safe and have new school buildings it's just I guess like the rest of the board said Gary and everybody just having that relationship with city council that knows that look this is what we need let's
052come up with the plan so there's no guessing let's just do what's best for children because when people move to cities they move to cities for one of the good reasons for the school education and the the school building so I think we'll do a good do a good work and it's just one of those situations where you just gotta have people in place that care about education um I'll just add I had the opportunity to sit as part of the committee as did Mr Harris and one of one of my takeaways as we were going through it was the Consultants did say we've done a good job um one way or the other of keeping our schools you know warm cool safe and dry um you know not like mobile conditions or things like
053that so I mean we've done a good job with what we have yes these things do need to be done but I didn't take away from the steering committee um I didn't take away that there was an imminent danger okay okay and if you sequence the priorities from the committee Safety and Security was first and then it was deferred maintenance and then major Renovations at Denver yeah so they didn't really lump the two together but your concerned as far as entry points Etc is understandable and there's some parts in the budget for that for you okay thank you all for the discussion on this thank you madam chair for the yeah for the discussion and uh thank you for for hearing the motion um like as was stated I do think that we've got a
054we've got a really great budget um and I know that we've uh this has been at least a couple years or at least 18 months in the making through the through the committee and I appreciate all the hard work that has been done I think we've got we've identified the needs um but now it's time just to make sure that we have the prioritization that takes place and I'll just Echo what Mr Ely said because he was on the board when we had the joint meeting with city council and they told us to our faces if you don't put it in the first year then you did not want it correct that is what that is what the mayor and the city manager said to us during our joint meeting if you don't put it
055in the first year then you did not want it so we have to I think the question before us is do we want Denby High School and from from you know for me I want it all right so it's just what I heard Instagram to add the CIP to the budget plan to add Denby High School renovation aside with Warwick High School but there was a specific correct Denby High School renovation to uh to assign 2.8 million dollars from FY 26 to fy24 and 48 million dollars from FY 2027 to FY 2025. who was the second dollar amount and second by Mr Harris the music the second dollar amount oh second dollar amount 48 48 million dollars [Applause] are we ready all clear what we're about what you all are voting on yeah yes okay
056please call the roll and I have Mr Brown make the motion to amend Mr Harris second Mr Italy for Mr Harris or Mr Hunter against Mrs amen against Dr best four Mr Brown four Searles law against motion carries 5-2 I think it was 14. I'm sorry four three four three for the record 4-3 thank you okay thank you our agenda is 4.02 revised policies from the instruction chapter of the policy manual so Mr Wright yes thank you madam Madam chairwoman do we need to vote on the overall CIP since that's right because that's right so yeah on the actual CIP on the actual TI about the amendment the current one on the floor right yeah but now we have to vote on the whole CIP don't we no yeah Amendment a motion for Amendment to
057the proposed motion to approve the CIP to amend the correct the proposal I'm sorry that sounds so confusing but no it's not um so my understanding was that you voted to approve the CIP in an amended form that was my understanding but I could be wrong that's why I didn't call the rule again because that's with the um Amendment with adding the Denby High School um to the motion to the original motion to the original motion yes correct because the dollar amount didn't change it's still 400.4 right yeah it just added the Demby High School component to this movie all right Madam chairman I I understand that but do we want to go on record now that it's moved so if there's a different a stronger number for the amended the CIP that presents a
058stronger front to city council um I would think that that vote that we took really is I'm getting a yes yeah whether it's failed or passed I mean passport for three so that does put us on policies now uh Mr Right thank you madam chair uh Mrs Brooks is available to answer any questions or may have regards to the new revised policies that were presented and that are on the action item now also we have Mr wallet to assist if necessary Mrs Brooks yes we shared uh we've been grouping the instructional policies to bring before you for action and tonight we have five policies on board dots for Action the first is IFC multiculturalism the second is ihcda dual enrollment the third is IJ I'm sorry i j n d technology acceptable use policy the
059fourth is ijnda Newport News Public Schools internet sites and the fifth is Ika evaluation of student learning thank you does the board have any questions at this time so we're going to take these individually so do I have a motion to adopt Ika evaluation of student learning yes Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to adopt policy Ika evaluation of student learning second manager I just wanted to point out that I appreciate all the hard work by the board members and the policy committee on putting together what I think is a very strong policy for Ika I appreciate that we are recognizing parents and Guardians explicitly in this policy as partners in education and I think that speaks highly speaks well of the board and appreciate the um making sure that we're doing that
060acknowledgment through our evaluation of student learning thank you any other comments questions hey please call the roll ing four Harris four Hunter four Eamon for best four Brown four so real small four motion carry seven zero next up is i j n d a Newport News internet sites do I have a motion to approve this volunteer I make a motion and we approve ijnda second any discussion okay please call the roll really four Harris four Hunter fourth amen for best four Brown four Cyril small four motion carry seven zero i j in D technology acceptable use policy do I have a motion my material make a motion that we accept policy I jnd second Madam chair I just want to make the the comment that I think we're doing some important work here by acknowledging
061cyber security and its importance I believe the previous policy did not cover adequately cyber security and our procedures for ensuring that our systems are well protected and we know that this is hacking is a big problem currently facing government institutions so I appreciate the uh the work that's gone into making sure that we have adequate coverage there any other comments the link for Harris for Hunter for amen for best four round four surro's law four motion carry seven zero okay next up is ihcda regarding dual enrollment do I have a motion for this policy I'm Madam chair I make a motion to approve ihcda dual enrollment second okay well manager I'll comment on this one as well just because I'm very excited I'm really excited about dual enrollment and what it offers our students that
062we've codified now that they can be dual enrolled both at the high school and at a second year post-secondary institution where I believe previously we had not codified that as a part of our policy so um I'm very excited about what this offers students and the opportunities that it's going to open up for more than just our governor school students yes I want to thank the administration for um because I mean everyone first brought it up so I just want to thank you all for I guess looking into it and making it possible really appreciate it thank you any other comment okay please call the roll Ellie for Harris for hunter or amen for best four Brown four surro's law four motion carry seven zero and then our final policy up for Action this evening
063do I have a motion to adopt this policy could you say the letters of the answers I make a motion to accept policy IFC multiculturalism second and discussion on this one sure Madam chairman I will I will just make a comment um I do appreciate all the work that's gone on to this into this policy and a lot of it was the same that we've had for a long time there is an addition on some additional licensed employee training and about a year ago when it came up I'd asked the administration to you know share sort of the curriculum that was going to be picked for this and I understand um that has been but I haven't seen it and I've asked for it I know there have been some concerns at the University level
064for some of the curricula that have been rolled out um I understand the vdoe has provided some but I I don't yet have the full information to feel comfortable supporting this policy but I know Others May but that's just my one concern but a lot of it is still the same that it has been for our division okay any other comments regarding this policy good okay please call the roll probably for Harris or Hunter for amen against best for brown four 's law four motion carry six one thank you so much I want to thank the board for their tireless more on approving these policies working on them getting the language right and asking the right questions this is the work of the board and I really appreciate you answering all the emails that have
065been flying your way uh let's see so see where we are now we'll move on to section three um I think I did uh we'll move on to section five because you don't want to go all the way back to three do you section five reports and information 5.01 monthly School update and Mr Wright Take it Away thank you madam chair and we are starting off this month's school report with good news regarding graduation rates I want to introduce Dr Eleanor blow director of secondary school leadership to kick off the first portion of our monthly school report Dr blow ing Madam chair Madame Vice chair best school board members member director of secondary school leadership and I am pleased to be here to share exciting news about the work of our students and staff here
066at Newport News public schools Newport News Public Schools continues to prepare students to graduate career college career and citizen ready we are pleased to share the good news regarding our 2022 graduates the graduating graduation rate for the class of 2022 increased to 95.8 and the dropout rate decreased to less than one percent [Applause] this performance is especially significant given the obstacles that many of that many of these members of this class face during their time in high school the class of 2022 faced unexpected closure during their sophomore year they successfully adapted to Virtual and hybrid learning in their junior year and persevere to complete graduation requirements in four years the on-time graduation rate monitors a cohort of high school students entering 9th grade and assesses the graduation and Dropout rates of these students in four
067years the school division's on-time graduation rate has continued to increase since 2008. as indicated in the chart in 2008 the on-time four-year graduation rate was 72.9 and in 2022 it has progressed to an all-time high of 95.8 it is also noteworthy that the school divisions overall completion rate which includes students who have completed their GED or earned a diploma is 97.5 by keeping the focus on College and Career citizen Readiness Newport News public schools graduation rate has consistently remained above the state average Newport News Public Schools efforts to increase on-time graduation rates resulted in averages higher than the state average in most student Gap groups which includes black students white students Hispanic students students with disabilities economically disadvantaged students and English language learners also the dropout rate for these subgroups are lower than the state
068average as well graduation rates in each of our high schools remains high with achievable dream maintaining a 100 graduation rate for seven consecutive years each of our high schools had increases in graduation rates from last year with some increasing nearly three percentage points through the dedicated efforts of our graduation coaches attendance officers school counselors and administrators our students have been successful in on-time graduation our graduation coaches who are assigned to most of our high schools assist with early intervention with our students identifying those who have fewer than six standards of learning tests identifying freshmen who need additional supports during the school year by providing resources and developing relationships I would like to recognize Miss Vanessa Stevens our graduation coach supervisor she has helped to lead the work with our graduation coaches in each of our
069schools lastly the achievement of our high schools regarding graduation rates is a team effort everyone in Newport News plays an important part in developing our students and getting them prepared to be college career and citizen ready and achieving the Milestone of graduation I'm pleased to share this good news thank you thank you [Applause] and next we have Mrs Buckingham and some wonderful young people to give our youth development update uh good evening Madam chair Mrs Searles law Vice chair Dr best and members of the school board and Mr Wright thank you for the opportunity to share an update on all of the great Stan month activities that have been taking place the last few weeks in Newport News public schools schools across the division have placed an intentional focus on bullying prevention and activities that
070promote positive School culture to include creating a sense of belonging and membership helping students get connected to various school-based clubs and activities and giving students extraordinary opportunities to lead and serve in the interest of keeping with that Trend I would like to introduce you to some very special guests last year the office of Youth Development launched the emerging leader Institute students in this program have been exposed to various professional development opportunities over the last few months that will help them grow in their leadership abilities all Eli students were given the opportunity to apply for a Youth Development internship while the decision wasn't easy we narrowed it down to the five amazing students that you see on the screen in front of you they're a great looking group of kids aren't they and I promise you
071they are very impressive with that being said tonight you were in for a special treat I would like to introduce to you two of Our Youth Development interns who will be providing tonight's stand month update Max Bell is a junior at Warwick High School and is involved in numerous clubs and activities in addition to being an emerging leader he is also a member of the Warwick High School Marching Band the principal's advisory committee and youth volunteer Corps he is a karate brown belt and enjoys playing rec league soccer in his spare time he is also an active volunteer at his church and in the future he hopes to attend the University of Virginia with a possible focus on law Carson Jarman is a senior at an achievable dream middle and high school and is a
072very active participant in his school community in addition to being a member of the emerging leader Institute he is also a member of young men of Distinction and the 3.0 Club Carson takes leadership to the next level by also serving as the historian for the National Honor Society and the current vice president for the Newport News police department's young adult police Commissioners he is passionate about art gaming and coding and has aspirations of attending either North Norfolk State University or Virginia Tech to study computer science or graphic design please join me in welcoming Max and Carson to share our Updates this evening thank you as was mentioned in the school board report last month Stan is our Newport News Public Schools division y campaign to discourage bullying and to promote positive School culture our elementary
073schools have been busy putting the stand Mission and into action although school was canceled on the world day of bullying prevention and NPS students and staff didn't miss a beat many of them participated the very next day in blue up to stand together against bullying several schools also coordinated stand Spirit weeks to encourage a scene a sense of belonging while also create creatively taking a stand against bullying school-wide year-round kindness campaigns were served as a preventive strategy that empowers students voice and create a Common Language around behavior and expectation the annual Operation Kindness day which is a preview to the Operation Kindness week in February challenged many students and staff to engage in random acts of kindness to demonstrate how easy it is to just be kind additionally hiding wood Huskies hosted student-led tennis shoes
074to promote kindness and friendship student involvement promotes Student Success outcomes which is one goal of the journey 2025 strategic plan get connected week is youth development's intentional effort to increase student involvement by ramming up ramping up Club activities promotion and recruitment in all schools some examples shared in the pictures here up there include Discovery stem academies Garden Club and hiding wood Elementary's kindness Club bullying prevention is more likely to happen when students lead the work student leadership day raised awareness about opportunities for student-led to lead serve and contribute it also created an opportunity for schools to recognize outstanding student leaders pictured above are images of the first meeting of the principal's advisory committee at Riverside and student council Association election assemblies at richneck students at richnecks also participated in leadership switch day which students got
075to take their turn leading classes as teachers for a day I wish I could do that a new Elementary rise initiative was launched in three elementary schools this month the level up program is a pilot take taking place at Stony Run Sedgefield and Newsome Park in collaboration with Newport News police departments and faith-based organizations this program was created in parallel with rise my brother keeper program which you will hear more about later students in this level up program participate in regularly regularly scheduled sessions which are designed to build positive identity essential skills like decision making and Service Learning [Applause] good evening good evening middle and high school students LED multiple stand activities this month similar to our elementary schools students at Huntington wore blue in solidarity to take a stand against bullying on Blue update
076Booker T Washington held a bullying prevention door decorating contest to raise awareness about bullying prevention while students at Heritage pledged to stick together against bullying with their creative duct tape only free pledge wall Heritage also coordinated a stand week set her completely around bullying prevention and inclusion to promote to promote student involvement several schools hosted get connected Club fairs that inform students of available Club options and activities the staff at Warwick High School created the Copeland connection Corner a unique approach to make students feel connected to the school Community hallway walls were lined with cards for each and every Warwick Raider that were then filled with encouraging words from staff members this was their way of showing students that they are all in when it comes to building positive relationships with students in school culture
077in addition to the many homecoming Spirit weeks that also helped to build School community students at Heritage participate in an additional stand spirit week filled with activities promoting inclusion and school spirit sorry it's school spirit um sorry about that Denver high school extended their Community Building beyond the school walls and planned a school-wide festival which is taking place this Thursday that will welcome not only students and staff to participate but also families and students from neighboring theater middle and elementary schools student leaders have been shining all across Newport News public schools during Stan month as they have led pep rallies and coordinated Spirit weeks activities several schools have taken time to recognize their outstanding champions for leadership and service both in their schools and the community achievable dream students took a stand to raise awareness
078of breast cancer and the Heritage njrotc held its annual adopt-a-spot cleanup on Marshall Avenue to give back to their community My Brother's Keeper and My Sister's Keeper programs were introduced at the last school board meeting as a tier 3 intervention that was piloted last year at Heritage High School as a result of the funding received from the Newport News violence intervention prevention grant that program was able to be expanded in all of our high schools these programs kicked off in collaboration with various Community Partners and faith-based organization in each high school this week for nearly 240 students over the course of the year the students will participate in monthly exercises and experiences that will build decision making communication and other essential skills while connecting them with positive role models who are committed to helping the
079students achieve positive school and life outcomes in closing we would like to share with you the remaining stand activities for the month we're looking forward to Stan night at Todd Stadium on Thursday November 28th at 7 pm please join us for the Warwick versus Menchville football game and help us to finish stand month strong with our annual halftime walk for bullying prevention we hope to see you there we also would like to note a change in the calendar stand together and read day was moved from this week October 18th to Monday October 31st for a full list of Stan month activities by school you can visit the nnps bullying prevention webpage thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to share all of the amazing stand activities that have been taking place so far
080this month in Newport News public schools thank you Max and Carson guys I just have to ask if we can give them one more round of applause congratulations on presenting our report for this month and we welcome any questions or comments that you may have and the great thing about your presentation to the board is you involve the children who's actually experiencing it that makes it more inviting and makes like you a part of it and I just love the passion that y'all have to keep up the great work all that y'all doing in Newport News is definitely something to see young people involved and passionate about what they're doing so thank you um Mr Brown I'm sorry echo my colleagues comments uh just a fantastic wonderful presentation Mr Riot I don't think you're going
081to be able to top that so you might as well we might as well end the meeting right now so highest all-time graduation rate lowest dropout rate and then we hear from some two of our outstanding young men who are very articulate and uh just very showing their educational experience so I really appreciate it a great presentation very encouraging to me as a board member thank you thank you super proud of you they are quite amazing thank you guys nice Madam chair Cyril's law Vice chair not the best members of the board and Mr Wright nnps has programs in place to ensure students have a safe and nurturing environment in which to learn but our Partnership of students parents family members and others are the most important Link in this effort we would like to
082thank community relations for all of the rollout of the speak up campaign schools were provided with posters flyers and a link was placed on the front page of each school's website equipping families and students to report any concerns The Bullying protocol including cyber bullying continues to be in place according to vdoe guidance and as stated in our rights and responsibilities handbook I would like to thank family members and students who have reported concerns so far this year it takes courage to speak up but it keeps everyone safe these reports can always be done anonymously but please remember to identify which school you are referencing safety reports are time sensitive so remember don't delay report that same day that concludes my portion um if there aren't any questions I will turn it over will I make
083it through so at this time I would like to turn everything over to Dr Tina manglemont our chief academic officer thank you all so much good evening Madam chair Madam Vice chair Mr Wright members of the board pleasure to be here this evening I'm here to present to you a couple updates from our leadership team in the department of teaching and learning the first thing that we've all been waiting for is PSAT right I know that we had a lot of questions about that we have PSAT day coming up on October 25th where we are testing all 9th graders 10th graders and 11th graders in the PSAT we have the PSAT the 8th and 9th grade test that we'll give to our 9th grade students and we have the PSAT and the N I always
084get this wrong the nmsqt test to our 10th and 11th grade students we have already tested our middle school students in all middle schools last week on October 12th but three of our middle schools chose to wait until this week to test with their High their high school students which was achievable dream and our prize endpoint option and when we work through the schedule it's a testing day so we also have seniors future day on this particular day where our seniors are then brought in and they have experiences with College and Career so it just depends on the high school and what activities that they're going to have available for their seniors but they have convocations they have their senior breakfast and lunch and there's a partnership with our Workforce Council and Next Generation so
085lots of good stuff planned for our senior students as well to prep our students which is just as important because we want them to be successful on this exam we've adjusted our schedules to make sure that they have plenty of time they don't feel rushed we've also had our school counselors meet with all of our students that are undergoing testing they've um told them what the reviewing the test reviewing those testing requirements they've provided them with actual handouts study guides so they could study for it but then they also showed them how to get online access so they can look at the online study guides but also some practice test questions they've also made sure that our students and we're saying this again just not only for our students but for our parents that are
086listening at home as well is that our students need to bring an approved calculator to the test with them a number two pencil um and let me go back the approved calculator is in the study guide so it gives a list of calculators and then telling them to get a good night's sleep and of course have bring a snack and a drink it's going to be under the the desk during the test but if they need that they can have that as well the next thing we want to update you on is just our plan for instruction to carry on its continuity of instruction right so when the building closes we will still have instruction taking place um the good thing about our pandemic is it has brought all of us into the world of
087virtual learning all students have access to a device and so when our buildings are closed we will continue with instruction and if we're closed for inclement weather if it's an emergency or even if it's a planned closure to provide teacher professional learning or some sort of planning day um just as we did prior during the pandemic all teachers will post assignments through canvas that students can complete but more interactive not just worksheets right videos of instruction interactive simulations those types of things where it's not just practice but it's true learning that is taking place while they are at home teachers will also provide time for synchronous check-ins and to have small group instruction during this time we're also looking at a plan for our littlest Learners our Primary students we know it's not always the
088easiest for our parents to stay at home with them and have them work through things asynchronously so we're looking at how we can record lessons possibly even partnering with channel 47 so we can have our videos broadcast to our littlest Learners on through the television so that concludes our updates um to you this evening are there any questions yes this was closed that day that students log on and continue with instruction on that particular day they did not no okay we are just planning for this now okay we weren't sure who had the Chromebooks home who didn't so just setting that expectation and making sure all Chromebooks go home thank you clarification families that might be watching so the all ninth graders and all the high schools are taking it on the 25th it's just
089those few middle schoolers that were associated with yes okay so people it's gonna be the 25th and actually when I look back at that slide we also have a couple seventh graders who are taking that exam and I think we had one or two sixth grade students take the PSA yes exposure you can get the better um and the do you know I've seen the Notice come about a calculator and you can't have one that has you can't use a calculator like on a laptop that has keys do you know if phone calculators are allowed um I would have to look on that but I I doubt it highly I know a lot of students tend to use those so they may have to get one or borrow it's really hard because they have access
090to the internet so I doubt that that's it um and let's see I had one more question just a second um it was just for my own clarification so the PSAT to for the PSAT the eight ninth graders is a different test than the National Merit yes it is the eighth ninth grade that's given to our middle school students and ninth graders is a different test only the 10th and 11th graders can qualify for that I'm glad to hear about the asynchronous and running if we have bad weather it's really good it's using what we got so I like that and that was going to be my PSAT the question qualify for National Merit scholar uh could we is there a pathway for us to offer that to ninth graders who their parents want to
091opt into that that uh that test if they I do not know the answer to that question Mr Brown that I think that's a college board question and that would have to be something that I'd have to scour their site and see if that's even possible good question though we'll find out for you all right well thank you it's now my pleasure to introduce Mrs Kathy Alexander she is our executive director of Child Nutrition and Wellness thank you Dr Manila good evening so I just wanted to talk to um just pretend I'm Nancy tonight she couldn't be here tonight so I wanted to talk to you about some of initiatives that she has done and her staff we did flu shots for both students and staff um 1 687 students received flu shots during all
092the clinics they were in every school with health hero and then we did 1150 employees that received flu shots as well and currently the health department is not reporting any flu outbreaks at this time and then covid numbers are still remaining low in our community so not much to report about that so now I'm happy to bring up um Shea coats from director of executive director of Transportation thank you good evening chairwoman uh Searles law Vice chair Dr best school board members and Mr Wright I'm here to give you a quick update on the t-pass student ridership program I'd like to review some key dates and how we got to this point and August of 2021 we had to delay the launch of the program due to manufacturing of RFID readers once the RFID readers
093were installed and in-house testing was conducted and we started a pilot program to from April to June utilizing five schools schools would then be early Jenkins Deer Park Newsome Park and Booker T Washington doing the first person first part of August we delivered student t-pass cards and Associated car printing equipment to all School sites on September 12th we launched student ridership program district-wide so mile schools took the opportunity and had their students use the t-pass during the first week of school to get them ready for the launch day you want to know how's it going overall considering we just started a little bit of a month ago I would say it's going well t-pass has helped us quickly identify students that were getting on the wrong bus and identified locations locations of students for parents
094who were not using here comes the bus app why it's going well we can do much better to do better within transportation drivers and bus bus assistants need to continue to enforce usage usage of the car without denying students transportation from the schools making sure they have multiple users at their schools train and how on how to make cards properly and the Ministries enforcing students having their cards with them if we stay constant in transportation and at the school level we'll see tremendous strides in this program while we have many schools doing well I like to make special kudos to Greenwood Elementary School Denby High School and Woodside High School for a great job there doing with their program moving forward we'll continue to promote the t-pass program through the district's various systems and social
095media platforms within the district and lastly we'll work with the executive directors School administrators to share best practices and figure out how we can make carrying your car with you the new normal as we utilize the t-pass in multiple places throughout the district Brian any questions oh yeah I knew it was always [Laughter] so she's right here Mr chair coach I just want to thank you personally for your assistance yesterday with the Missy Elliot parade our marching bands Denby High School and um Heritage High School participated with Irving media Outlet was out there National local and at first the investors gonna have to leave and come back but Mr [ __ ] coach made it happen the buses were able to stay we were the only um schools on the peninsula that was there so I just
096want to thank you publicly for making those kids life come reality I heard one of the kids say after seeing one of the college bands I want to go to college now so just make him just being open-minded and just making things happen on the Fly and I know that kind of puts you maybe in the tight man but just thank you so much for you know just making things happen that's what's about just adjusting making things happen so I just want to thank you for making it happen with you earlier I'm very happy with Transportation this year I know we've had some little glitches but um I haven't gotten any 5 36 o'clock phone calls in the morning this year so I'm happy about that um and regarding you you're talking about how do
097you make the card second nature for students and I know you may not have the answer to this story I mean to this question but are you aware of any technology being developed where the uh pass could be on students phones just like they tap for um money the one thing with the difference between the past and Miss Alexander is going to talk about the way we're using the cafeteria on the front of the card is the barcode that has the students student ID embedded in it so that's just barcode technology anything that you see at the store that you can scan so you can actually use your phone for that for t-pass on the buses we use RFI detox technology a little bit more complicated okay it's the whole card so if somebody punched
098a hole in that card that which we've seen so far where you can still use this debacle you can use the a piece of paper and had your student ID and use that so um just maybe in the future though because if you if you really want to wait for them to keep up with that card and that's one of the things moving forward that my staff we've talked about too is the r5d technology is it's it's tough It's hard to use and stop you know actually we're going to we talk to the vendor today like hey can we get some RFID readers just to put them on a couple bucks to see the difference we tried it back like four years ago and the readers they had were pretty slow for students getting on
099the bus so that's something we might look at down the road to speed things up for students and be able to you know work well for us thank you yes sir as far as information on both cars I'm assuming it's probably more PID a personal information on the bus card right does it have addresses and no it's just okay when that card is just your yeah I mean within the software itself it has that information but for somebody scanning it it would just scan it would just pull up their student ID number if they were scanned okay all right and one thing we have found is as we lose the cards on the back of Intel's returns we've have gotten calls from the public in the mail okay we're actually returning them back to us
100that's great thanks um this is probably already been thought of but I don't know if it would help make it second nature be it the things you could stick on the back of the phones where they put the credit cards you know you slip that in there so it's always with their phone or sometimes kids with the um you can well employees we all have badges right you know the holders or the things that you pull out the clips when we gave out the Cotswold initially when we the cause of the for the students that we had we gave out lanyards so they have lanyards and they do have plastic packages just a lot of them like the and so you may want to put something on that can stick to the back of the
101phone like you can slip your credit card down that might keep it with their phone if it can't be in their phone I don't know if we can get any of those we probably have them yeah I believe so Dr Bass asked my question which was getting the getting the card on the phone and uh so uh great that you're looking into that and working towards it um and uh sounds like it's a wonderful program I also wanted to say uh Transportation I think is doing a fantastic job and we're off to a really smooth year gotten very few phone calls uh this year so we'll keep knocking on wood that'll it'll continue that way as far as uh the the t-pass um and the longevity of it are we seeing um is it about
10210 or 20 lost cards or are we in the less than five percent lost card at this point uh we we still do haven't developed that data from the schools because a lot of some of the kids went from school to school so we just called where Libby wasn't lost it just wasn't transferred over so we haven't looked at that and some of the schools are you know they we keep the cause of Transportation so we kind of know how many we're giving out to them I can get you a number though okay yeah that's thank you so much for all you and your team do we really do appreciate it you're welcome I'm following my name is Alexander I'm just gonna talk a little bit more about the t-pass so we've implemented um the
103tpass when they come to the lunch line in all of the schools we purchase scanners for each serving line and they can come through and we can scan their card and it pulls up their lunch I remember and then we can ring it up that way and with this year I reported last at our August meeting I guess it was that we had to um children had to bring up their ID numbers put their ID numbers in so that was a big change postcovid for them so we were really excited to get the scanners and be able to do that with the badges it increases the speed of line immensely they're working great um and then as Shea alluded to the students forget that's the biggest challenge is the students not bringing them they have
104them in their book bag and not you know on their lanyard or they forget to bring them down to the cafeteria so but we do have keypad and scanners both hooked up so if they forget you know they still can put in their their number so yeah all it's doing is reading the number and then it pulls up the whole identity of the child just like if they were to put their number in correct thank you for being thank you for willing to incorporate technology in your process yes thank you if there aren't any questions that concludes our monthly report thank you to all of our presenters great job 5.02 new and revised policies Mr Wright yes we will call Mrs Brooks back up to the podium good evening and thank you good evening Madam
105chairman Madam Vice chairman members award Mr right it's a pleasure to share highlights from Southern New and revised policies with you this evening now as you know one of the major roles of the school board is to set the policy direction for the school division so we're fortunate to have two school board members returning to the committee Dr best and Mrs amen along with the principal from each level administrators from the Department of teaching and learning and the office of school leadership a teacher or two attorneys and then myself as the policy administrator now this evening I would like to share seven new and revised policies for reviewing two groups first are those that are required by new state legislation and as most of you know we typically begin each policy year by revising our
106current policies or developing new ones to meet recent State mandates and second are the policies that we develop to support best practices in the school division now there are five policies resulting from recent legislation that I will highlight this evening and they range from revisions to the school board's policy on participating in meetings virtually to a new requirement for instruction regarding gambling prevention to revisions addressing addressing student attendance so I'll take a moment to speak to each of these now A couple of years ago the school board approved a policy to allow it electronic meetings from remote locations when the governor has declared a state of emergency later the state code expanded the provision for board members to attend meetings virtually under certain circumstances now although we've been following the state code requirements since they
107were enacted we are clarifying the language in our policy around the four circumstances when board members May participate in meetings virtually and they are one when the board member has a temporary or permanent disability or other medical condition that prevents him or her from attending second the board member has a family member with a medical condition that requires him or her to provide Care Third the board member's principal residence is more than 60 miles from the meeting location or fourth the board member is unable to attend the meeting due to a personal matter which is allowed no more than two times per year and lastly the school board members attending the meeting must vote on each request separately and the votes must be recorded in the meeting minutes now next we are revising our current
108policy on the school year school day to add the requirement as the school board offer in-person instruction to every student enrolled in elementary or secondary school for at least 990 teaching hours per school year we already have the 990 teaching hours in our policy but we the new requirement is that we add the term in person and as you are aware we have well over 990 instructional hours in the board approved calendar now the exceptions to the policy are for emergency situations or student discipline issues that are noted in the state code now currently we have a policy that requires the school division to provide instruction on the use and misuse of Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs now the state is requiring School divisions to provide instruction on gambling abuse and on the potential for
109gambling addiction so we've revised our policy to include that requirement now next is a new policy that mirrors recent State legislation requiring School divisions to establish procedures that one identify all instructional materials with sexually explicit content to ensure parental notification of any instructional materials with sexual explicit content third permit parents to review all instructional materials with that content and fourth to ensure that alternative instructional materials are provided in a non-punitive manner for any students whose parent required requests such materials so in keeping with the state code the approved policy will become effective in January of 2023 and currently our school division's instructional team is working to develop procedures to implement the requirements of the policy and for our last policy in this group we are revising our School Division student attendance policy to add four
110new requirements that allow School absences for the following reasons and I share these with you earlier this evening but we'll review them once more for the viewing audience first for a student's mental or Behavioral Health second one day per school year for middle and high school students to engage in a Civic event third a maximum of five days per year for students to participate in 4-H educational programs or activities and lastly one day per school year for students to attend a powwow Gathering if they are members of a tribal nation that is headquartered in Virginia provided that the students parents provide advance notice to their school and as you are aware we are revising the policies to the attendance procedure to curb excessive absenteeism in support of the school divisions belief that daily attendance contributes
111to a student's academic success now the last two policies that I will be sharing with you this evening are not required by law to be in board policy but work to support best practices in the school division the first is a revision to our policy on salary deductions and the second is a new policy that prohibits employees from recommending certain medications to students so in addition to our current mandatory and voluntary employee payroll deductions that are addressed in our salary deductions policy we are expanding it to a lot of deductions for programs that may be offered and sponsored by the school Division and their future and we also took the opportunity to add medical dental and vision benefits to the policy and to allow for any new School Division sponsor benefit that will be offered
112as a group plan in upcoming years and although this has been a School Division practice for years this last policy is aligned to the state code and prohibiting excluded Vision employees from recommending the use of psychotropic medications for any student the new policy defines psychotrophic medications as medications that are prescribed with the intent of altering mental activity such as antidepressants and medications that treat hyperactivity now however our health services staff classroom teachers or other school provision professionals May recommend that a student be evaluated by an appropriate medical practitioner with the written consent of the child's parents so as I conclude my report this evening I wanted to revisit our timeline for implementing The Five-Year review of our 11 policy chapters that contain over 400 policies many of which also have implementing procedures and Exhibits so
113as we continue to develop or update the policies that may be required by state and federal mandates and that support the school division's best practices we will also initiate the review of our next policy chapter which would be on human resources so in terms of our next steps our new and revised policies will come before the school board for Action at your November 15th meeting and once approved the new and revised policies and procedures will be posted on our school division websites and disseminate it to our schools and to our public libraries so this concludes my report this evening I would be happy to respond to your questions and I'd also like to take the opportunity as Mrs Searles law said to thank you for the input that you've been providing as we do a
114deeper dive into our instructional policies as we continue to move forward with the new policies that are required for this year so thank you so much for your input and the feedback that we've received we really appreciate it thank you thank you I just have a quick question on the benefits because we some benefits are already deducted like some group benefits does this just catch the policy up to what we're doing yes and because for example we used to offer legal services and we had stopped that and we want to re-initiate that okay so this will allow us to do thank you we'll cover that yes comment I just wanted to thank the committee for your hard work and and attentiveness and being a part of that committee it is very time consuming and and
115it's something that you have to take very serious so I just want you all to know that we do appreciate the time and the effort that you put forth in giving us a good product to to work with well thank you so much we appreciate it committee and the team working together thank you thank you very much okay Mr Wright do we have any updates on the attendance policy that we're going to consider this evening well we we provided those updates uh during our Workshop all right thank you so much we hope you found that found that information helpful so we're ready to turn it back over to you sounds good thank you so much so do I have a motion to approve moving that attendance policy that we've had some updates to from a
116report earlier today in our work session to action this evening yes Madam chair I would like to make a motion that we approve moving the attendance policy from reports to action and do I have a second for that is there discussion Madam chair uh comments on the policy um it's I think it has the makings of a of a truly effective policy uh it's definitely needed we we saw the report tonight in our work session on chronic absenteeism and we know the steps that we want to take I still do at this time they'll feel that policy needs some additional work I provided some comments and concerns um minor edits that I believe will improve the policy and I think I would like to allow time for that to that work to take place and
117so at this time I wouldn't uh necessarily I wouldn't support moving forward with adopting policy JH tonight anybody else have comments on that particular policy at this time I would definitely do want to thank the team for preparing that presentation it was very conclusive and allowed us to understand the direction we will go with our absenteeism policy to help us make sure that we're meeting the accreditation requirements of the state so with that would you please call the roll ing yeah there's no there's no rule okay and the fed okay so we don't actually have to call the rule for the no okay his statement of the no is is a is sufficient okay sounds good okay so that leaves us with the 5.03 um the attendance report 5.04 membership report 5.05 construction report board
118members you've received copies of these reports are there any questions at this time okay hearing none we will move on to 5.06 and let's see I think we do have one more comment card so I will call uh Reverend James Brown good evening hello it's always a pleasure to see you tonight and the members of this great board y'all are doing such a great job they recommend the new people in the administration that are coming on to continue the great work that you guys have done the last four years at least especially in your efforts to produce another Huntington Middle School which is very much needed in the Southeast end of town but I came here tonight to get some information pertaining to the closing of the Scott Center uh it's to my understanding that
119it's under the school board but the city supplies its finances we were shocked to find out this past Tuesday that this Scott Center was supposed to have been closed uh no one knew I called the superintendent this afternoon he's going to get back with me on information because no one knew who designated the time frame for it to close uh the Scott Center is very valuable in each then section all of the recreation centers down there are closed the kids have nowhere to go the ones who practice football practice football on the field where the track field is right now and when that Center closes you got a bunch of teenagers and young kids running the streets because there's nothing in Ridley Circle last Accord any of these other places where we had five or
120six different facilities set up for our kids um the sky Center also had a feeding program in which after school kids come to the center and to eat plus they have academics they do their homework and stuff like that in the building I'm afraid that if this facility closed down the kids that are being busted now I guess through the school board what's going to happen to them his kids are at a very vulnerable age and when I look at them a lot of them are promiscuous and I was listening to your report on dropouts but situations like this create dropouts in schools and you know what I'm talking about unattended children a lot of time on their hand no guidance so I'm trying to figure out who all of a sudden close the or
121set the school will be closing I understand construction I understand that if you're going to prepare those grounds for a new facility new buildings that's a lot of underground work that Pilots that may be driven the land has to be cleared off and all that but to have 45 days or so to move out of the building and it didn't even give us another place to go we don't have anywhere to go we're looking right now uh to communicate to churches and different facilities to bring these kids in so we can continue to work with them all kids are important as we saw tonight education is very important it's the key to our city advancement it's the key to All We Do education our kids need to be educated here and have something to come
122back here for so let's give them some let's excite them let's get them uh in the mood to go off and do great and come back to this city of Newport News and help build this city up that's what we need we don't need to run them out of town try to get new people in town we got people here the Justice equipped to keep this city running and so that's my point I'm trying to figure out who uh had the bright idea to say the school was closed and we got at least 50 50 people young people who will not have anywhere to go thank you so so much we really appreciate you coming thank you I know you've a long way to wait to yes ma'am hey we are going to move to
123comments of the chief of staff thank you thank you madam chair on October 6 representatives from the Department of Defense Education activity visits several of our schools and classrooms to see of cyber Steam and action as you may recall the dodea awarded Newport News Public Schools a grant in 2018 to expand cyber steam instruction the representatives were impressed yes student and teacher voices were heard and the work in action spoke they spoke demonstrated a clear focus and a program and we were excited to be granted that money and we will continue to capitalize on our cyber steam program as seen in the pictures here our visitors saw our students demonstrating age-appropriate understanding of the engineering design process and applying the knowledge to solve problems they also witnessed student engagement in the classroom for our youngest
124Pre-K Learners to our Middle School students they also visited cyber-themed Labs which were noted as wonderful spaces for students to innovate and for teachers to check out stem materials special thanks to our stem instructional team for their successful implementation of this grant next up this month is National principles appreciation month on behalf of nnps I think all of our principals we thank all of our principals and assistant principals for their commitment to our students and staff as a former principal like many of us in the room we know firsthand how challenging and rewarding the job can be thank you so much to our principals and to our aspiring principals for what you do October is not not just uh principal's month every every day is principal's mom so we appreciate you right October is disability
125and history and disability history and awareness month throughout the School Division we are recognizing and celebrating the contributions and the history of people with disabilities and increasing our public awareness around the rights of people with disabilities this is also national school bus safety week and tomorrow is school bus transportation employees appreciation day let me say that again that's a long one school bus transportation employees appreciation day so if you see a bus driver and the buses stop or if it's riding just wave and say thank you blow a kiss we appreciate them so much we want to acknowledge and thank them for their professionalism their dedication we want to thank our transportation staff for what they do and for ensuring the safety of our students making sure that they're picked up and they arrive back
126home safe we salute also our bus assistance and our mechanics and our trainers and our dispatch staff and office staff thank you for what you do and finally I'd like to remind all of our students and families that schools will be closed for students this Friday October 21st and Tuesday November 8th and I think November 8th is a big day right it's a big day right okay all right I thought it was so Madam Madam chair that concludes my comments and I will turn it back over to you okay okay we will begin tonight's comments from before with Douglas Brown okay so I'll go first tonight okay well I'll just say once again that I'm very I feel very privileged and very proud to be a part of a board where we have approved tonight
127a capital budget that had 240 million dollars in it I'm fairly my recollection is fairly good with numbers so uh I believe our call around my first capital budget it was around 80 million dollars and at the time I voted against it because I said that is not not reflective of the needs of the school division and so I appreciate very much uh over the last uh eight years how much work is and dedication by fellow board members has gone into ensuring that we have a budget to Accurate reflects our needs and actually and accurately reflects uh uh transparency to the community of what our true Capital needs are and I'm very happy that uh we were able tonight to pass a budget that reflects on these because I believe that that's our number one
128job regardless of behavior of city council and what we get our job is to make sure that we've accurately asked for what is needed and I do believe that we have asked for what is needed and I want to highlight once again some of the great safety improvements to our school division that are in the budget we've got 11.4 million dollars for moving having secure front offices for our building so that all visitors will have to go through the main office when they enter into our schools we have um six hundred thousand dollars for Elementary playground replacements we have uh 10 million dollars in here for learning Cottage Replacements which also gets kids back into the school building makes them safer uh provides uh better secure facilities for us for our students so I'm adding
129up a total of more than 21 million dollars in safety improvements that we are pushing forward in this capital budget which shows our priorities are in the right place making sure that our kids are safe and then as well it's very exciting that we've got in here uh almost over 11 million dollars for athletics for ensuring that we have adequate lighting so we can expand our Middle School athletics programs for seven million for expanding athletic spaces so that we can expand again those Middle School athletic programs so that's what I'm really excited about the down payment that that's going to make on continuing to move us forward in terms of accreditation because I believe that getting kids involved in clubs activities and sports giving them something positive to do in our schools is what's really
130going to continue to drive our dropout rate lower and continue to drive our accreditation rates higher so I believe this budget actor Will reflects our needs and very much appreciate the board supporting having our needs reflected in the budget so thank you all tonight and please go out and make sure you vote on November the 8th great our student reps we're doing this for all students so please have your voice thank you um the first stage meeting is actually and it's the first in-person meeting that we've had for I think two years now so I'm really looking forward to be able to actually interact face to face with students across um Newport News schools to actually gauge like what they're thinking because I know when we're virtual most kids didn't like talking on the camera
131so to be able to share that with um the school board and be able to better understand what's going on there thank you thank you Mr Harris no comment Madam chairman coming this way Mr Ely I'm gonna thank Newport News City for the amazing job they did with this stem and they had at Brooks crossing a lot of our students from Newport News all over participated with steam and stem initiatives that was building robots it was just doing so much in NASA was there and Langley was there so many different companies there were doing hands 101 with our children also want to say congratulations to Menchville golf tournament for rental regionals I believe Rebecca Aaron's signed us on the golf team so congratulations to Menchville I'm a monarch as well so congratulations to them also
132um like you said Reverend about the about the closing of the um Scott Center it's definitely saddened and I think as a School Division not just the Scott Center for say work on how we could do a community school Partnerships with a lot of our gyms our mama growing up the gems for the schools that were open they were recreational Magruder was recreational um Noosa Park was recreational so I think we need to have those conversations with our um our city how can we make our schools if we provide the space the gems how can we have that partnership with the city we're providing staff for that because the more children that we have off the street and involved in the positive activities the less crime rates will have when you go into a lot
133of our community centers now there's not too much going on and it's are they not open without you know the staff but I think if we work on some type of partnership with schools and community centers I think we would do a lot it will be a lot of um great things and a lot of things accomplishing that so I think something in the future that's something we can work on is figure out how we can offer those Services because also we want to keep our kids off the street and like was said earlier when kids are busier a lot of times better test scores because a lot of times these coaches and Recreation facilitators their accusments or access mentors or kids and sometimes Role Models so sometimes the only parents they do know um
134so I definitely agree 100 on having alternative motives in it and I was staking it in the back of the head and head even with the Reconstruction of doing the new Huntington Middle School it should have been one done you do Huntington leave Doris Miller open but the plan is kind of like you're not gonna have anything down there so what's going to be playing forest recreation in the East End communities so I guess that's the city slash at the school system can kind of take the lead on and say hey we're going to offer Recreation because we don't want to leave our children out there with no options and basketball is a huge thing I know a lot of the guys at Doris Miller you drive past this pack during the daytime I don't
135know what's going on but they be packed with people playing bad I guess it's their day off but it's it's utilized by adults and children so to take recreational totally out of our city pretty much for who knows how long that's going to be it's something maybe the school system can work with the city or moving that agenda forward so thank you for those comments and I think the school system we've always been kind of community orientated to do what's best for the city and the school system sometimes I feel like we played dual roles of the citizens but I think we could move that forward to give our community something to do um and I think there's there's something percolating here because Mr Brown was talking about and I think it is important especially
136in middle school getting more Sports and clubs and involvement is the students feel ownership of their school their mascot their teams that's more buy-in that keeps them engaged and focused on school and activities and then also for the community to have that I think we saw during covet with everything shutting down it left it left students children and others with nothing to do so you ended up with worse outcomes so we we know that now I think there may be a real opportunity to be with through Parks and Rec I know they do a lot for us but there may be some good synergies here the more we can do to use and offer what we have to get the kids engaged in the community engaged especially when we have some transition while something needs
137to be built I think there could be something really good for the community here Mr Hunter oh great things are happening in Newport News public schools [Laughter] from the graduation rates to the dropout rate and I do want to thank um where I'm employed at at my alma mater Hampton University it was great to see our new president president Williams here and his lovely wife and the things and the Partnerships that we look forward to partnering with Newport News public schools and Hampton University I do want to give another thanks to those who worked on the CIP budget you know I've worked in budget many years you know sometimes you know what I tell folks it's not about what we want it's not about sponsorships that's what we that's what we've been looking for from
138the city is to sponsor the schools support us but it's not about sponsorships it's about Partnerships it's about Partnerships it's about collaborative if we ever want to get them to go to you know you know Revenue sharing things that's what we have brand new city council coming in we don't want to start off on the bad foot it's about Partnerships it's not about sponsorships and so when we have individuals that's sitting here that are at our senior folks this is what they do I said this before this is what they do you know some of their issues that we've had at some of our schools is because this board self-included we have gone against advice what we pay people for and so I'm not passionate passionate that you know we get this right and not
139start off on the wrong foot within your brand new city council that we know we're going to have it goes for these policies that we have that we're putting policies again on delay that will happen in effect that we can't put in place because accreditation part of accreditation you have to be in school so no it may not be everything that we want but we needed to put something in place today where school has started school has started you know don't look at the students look in the mirror like Michael Jackson says look in the mirror at ourselves seriously if we're making lives and decisions for students and their families and one that we can't even persistent to their mothers and fathers and say this is what has to be done and we can start
140this today so we're going to lose another month another month before we can put that into operation we're better than that it's about compromise that's what I do for a living ideal relationships that's what I do I've been doing it all my life am I exceeded into lots of things that I've done because about Partnerships that's what we do so we make decisions even at the Huntington if that school may not be in the same exact place but let me tell you what those kids to go there they were going to a brand new school man you know this brand new school it can't be about what we want we have to say what's best for those students I want us to be passionate and think about and stop thinking about self stop thinking about
141self everything that I do always going to be funneled through the prism what's best for our students and our teachers and our staff and our workers here and for the families but great things are happening in Newport News and we do have a CIP and I hope that you know be able to move ourselves from getting away from what I want or what I want or what we want and what is best for students thank you Mr Hunter Dr best good evening and I would just like to say happy principals months to all of our school administrators we know that you work hard and I like for you to know that we appreciate all that you do thank you so I think my sentiment this evening is we've heard a lot of really good conversation
142that's important for a board to have that conversation we should have it publicly too as we did tonight so I'm sorry we've gone a bit long um I do want us to make sure that we are putting students and Families First with all of the decisions that we're making I am a bit concerned that we will be waiting uh several weeks before we get this attendance policy in the front of our families can we recover from that I believe so because we're Newport News public schools I hope everybody has a good evening [Music]