001[Music] good morning and welcome to the official start of the 2021-22 school year I now uh call to order the organizational meeting of the newport news school board for thursday july 1 2021. on behalf of the members of the school board I welcome each of you to present and those joining us electronically a quorum is present to transact the business of the school division the purpose of this meeting is to approve organizational matters as required by the code of virginia I am opening the meeting because the term of the school board chairman expired on midnight of june 30th as customary the superintendent opens the meeting and leads the first organizational meeting until the board appoints a chairman we will begin the meeting with an invocation and pledge here uh to do the honors is our
0022021-2022 division wide teacher of the year mitzi emblidge mrs emblidge is a music teacher at riverside elementary school with 19 years of experience during virtual learning she worked tirelessly to ensure all of her students received a music music instruction she made sure that every fourth and fifth grader had every quarter to play at home and her elementary drum line rehearsed remotely using practice pads and sticks she provided thank you for joining us mrs emblidge and we'll turn it over to you thank you good morning dr parker school board members and attendees as newport news public schools continues on their journey 2025 to ensure that all students graduate career college and citizen ready I will offer you a poem titled the miracle of morning by wordsmith change maker and poet amanda gorman it is my hope
003that these words will convey my feelings of this past year and bring hope kindness and it will emerge even stronger the miracle of morning I thought I'd awaken to a world in mourning heavy clouds crowding a society storming but there's something different on this golden morning something magical in the sunlight wide and warming I see a dad with a stroller taking a jog across the street a bright-eyed girl chases her dog a grandma on a porch fingers her rosaries she grins as her young neighbor brings her groceries while we might feel small separate and all alone our people have never been more closely tethered the question isn't if we can weather this unknown but how we will weather this unknown together so on this meaningful mourn we mourn and we mend like light we can't
004be broken even when we bend as one we will defeat both despair and disease we stand with healthcare heroes and all employees with families libraries waiters schools artists businesses restaurants and hospitals hit hardest we ignite not in the light but in lack thereof for it is in loss that we truly learn to love in this chaos we will discover clarity and suffering we must find solidarity for its our grief that gives us our gratitude shows us how to find hope if we ever lose it so ensure that this ache wasn't endured in vain do not ignore the pain give it purpose use it read children's books dance alone to dj music know that this distance will make our hearts grow fonder from these waves of woes our world will emerge stronger we'll observe how the
005burdens braved by humankind are also the moments that make us humans kind let us each morning find us courageous brought closer heeding the light before us before the fight is over when this ends we'll smile sweetly finally seeing in testing times we became the best of beings please stand for the pledge of allegiance 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 for those powerful words this morning thank you so much for that and congratulations again on your recognition as newport news teacher of the year I know you will represent newport news well next year as we move forward into our new school year our first item on the agenda is
006the board organized board organization at this time the school board will elect a chairman for the 2021-2022 school year are there any nominations at this time mr superintendent I recommend that uh I nominate mr douglas brown as the chair for this upcoming year I second the motion I have a motion in a second are there any further nominations or any additional nominations hearing no further nominations uh nominations for the office of chairman mr brown do you accept that nomination I accept okay mr brown has been nominated to serve as the 2021-2022 school board chairman is there any discussion regarding the nomination okay hearing none please call the role mrs buffalo Mrs. Aman? For. Dr. Best? For. mr eley for mr harris for mr brown for mr hunter for Mrs. Surles-Law? For. motion carry seven zero
007and mr brown congratulations let's give him a round of applause weight of ... chairman ... is a is a is a heavy gavel and I now relinquish this gavel to mr brown congratulations sir and i will turn the uh meeting over to your uh to your charge thank you dr parker and it's a great honor and I look forward to serving with all of you and and look forward to a 2021-22 school year that's going to be even better than what we had last year at this time we're going to now elect a vice chair for the 2021-22 school year are there any nominations yes mr hunter mr chairman I would uh nominate mrs Lisa Surles-Law as the vice chair for this upcoming year thank you mr hunter uh mrs Surles-Law has been nominated is
008there a a second all right here's a second from dr best any uh any other nominations any discussion there being none madam clerk would you please call the roll let's step around and close the nomination for vice chairman we will now then we will now uh take a moment to close the nomination okay mrs aman for dr best for mr eley for mr harris for mr hunter for Surles-Law for. mr brown for motion carry seven zero [Applause] well this congratulations Mrs. Surles-Law has been selected as the 2021-22 school board vice chair congratulations and we look forward to continuing our work together and serving in this year that will now move us on to section two which is the consent agenda that includes 2.01 minutes from the joint meeting with city council on may 25th 2021
0092.02 minutes from the special meeting on june 1st 2021 2.03 appointment of the clerk and deputy clerks of the school board 2.04 appointment of the agents and deputy agents of the school board 2.05 appointment of person to serve in the absence of the superintendent 2.06 reimburse a resolution for virginia public school authority funding technology purchases 2.07 impact 8 authorization 2.08 21 22 out of division student tuition at 5 and 0 cents 2021 2.09 20 21 222 tuition rate for non-virginia resident students at ten thousand four hundred seventy two dollars and zero cents and 2.10 authorization of signature in the absence of the division superintendent for enterprise academy at this time we have a motion to approve the consent agenda mr chairman I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented thank you
010madam vice chair is there a second I second the motion all right thank you miss amen any discussion all right madam clerk would you please call the roll okay I just want to make a clarification for the uh 21 22 out of division school tuition five thousand four hundred sixty one dollars okay okay so uh ... share the uh motion is uh is is your motion for five thousand four hundred and sixty one sixty one sixty yes for 2.08 all right thank you all right thank you um then madam clerk would you please call the roll mrs aman for dr best for mr eley mr harris for mr hunter for mrs Surles-Law for mr brown for motion carry 7-0 all right thank you then the next item on our agenda is section 3 our action
011item that's going to be 3.01 rights responsibilities handbook revisions and dr parker do you have a few words on that uh yes mr chairman uh I received one comment from the board regarding a line item in the uh in the handbook on page 30. um and I have I will be reviewing that item with staff it is in reference to um the comparison of vulgar language or hate speech and dispositions associated with um anything uh that would be derogatory towards another student such as a slur we're talking about their weight uh and there's concern about consistency of the those two items and how we how we handle those I will be happy to take that back to our discipline team to discuss and review what I would ask the board to do is that this
012should not um slow down the work we could if there's an adjustment needed we can make that over the summer as we prepare the handbook for distribution um but that on page 30 that was the only concern I received that from mrs aman um ma'am if you have any comments regarding that I hope you have uh for sure um and I um I don't have it right in front of me uh but on page 30 there were two sort of two categories of students saying something that had different categories for intervention for k through five so my thought was we would want to make those consistent in fact the vulgarity and profanity had a lower level than the other so my recommendation would be that we consider making both level two as kids mature they
013learn more about the import of what they say so we may want two and then three for the upper grades for both and I would be happy to bring that back to the discipline committee for discussion um as we finalized the document uh mr chairman I believe uh the the the corrections to the document from comparison between last year this year have been provided to the board and I would ask that the board still consider today to to move forward with the student handbook for preparation in the fall so then at this time we would entertain a motion to approve the rights responsibilities handbook with additional review from the superintendent mr chairman I make a motion that we approve the rights and responsibilities handbook revisions as presented with updates thank you is there a second
014to that motion I'll second that thank you miss aman any further discussion mr chairman oh yes yes I just wanted to thank the team um for the revisions in the handbook and being able to provide for us an opportunity to see laying them side by side showed up on our doorstep in beautiful colors red and green so we were able to see and that um that really does show for us as a board the direction that we're moving in it shows where we've been and where we're trying to go and I I really am very very excited about the way our handbook reads now I feel like it is very very inclusive and um and thank you for for page 30. thank you any further comments all right there being none and uh madam clerk
015would you please call the roll ms aman for dr best for mr eley for Mr. Harris? For. mr hunter For Mrs. Surles-Law? For. mr brown for motion carry 7-0 thank you so now we'll move on to section 4 reports and information 4.01 is an annual notice regarding the availability school board policies and procedures manual this announcement will serve as the required annual public notice that copies of the school board policies and procedures manual are available to the public and employees in the library of each school in newport news public in each newport news public library and online on the policies and procedures website at www.nnschools.org forward slash policies and on the nnps intranet next on our agenda is 4.02 which will be comments by the superintendent so dr parker please take it away oh thank
016you mr chairman and before I begin my comments mrs hawks could you approach the bench I'm gonna make sure I'm in order today so we approve the consent agenda we're gonna go back all right well I'm in order I just want to make sure I'm straight this morning okay so uh mr chairman thank you for the opportunity for comments um I'm looking forward to a new school year and I want to welcome our um uh thank our teacher of the year for being here uh so proud of your accomplishments and and look forward to working with you in the upcoming year um we're looking forward to welcoming more students back in september and we're rapidly moving forward with that summer school starts next week and uh thank you for a dedicated school board as we
017prepare our students to be college career and citizen ready uh fair share menchville high school's lead lead for change team is one of six national grand prize winners recognized for their service to their school and community so we want to congratulate our menchville team for their recognitions the lead for change student leadership program was awarded ten thousand dollars and they will donate half of the prize to thrive peninsula which offers food financial support and other services to local families the remaining prize money will pro will support menchville's garden food pantry and other projects in the last six years menchville's lead for change team has received sixty two thousand dollars in award money that is shared with local non-profits that is phenomenal congratulations to Menchville high school's lead for change team some other congratulatory notes this
018morning the biggest one is our community relations team our community relations team was not was not awarded one or two or three awards which some of the locals our local school divisions were awarded they were awarded eight national awards this past for this past year's work so they earned eight awards in the um in the 2021 uh national school public relations association's communications awards contest so to award be awarded we submitted several entries of the work that our school communications team was doing and here are those items that were awarded a national prize the returned learn weekly report that the school division generate generated weekly during the pandemic journey 2025 branding and packaging the newport news public schools heroes column published in the oyster pointer the return to learn plan handbook our website was also
019nationally recognized and three social media campaigns including our facebook live sessions our community relations team earned more awards this year than any other school division in our region I'd like to congratulate to the entire team who worked tirelessly many nights seven eight nine o'clock uh we uh to for these awards and their hard work and uh let's give them a round of [Applause] applause last week we also held our annual summer leadership retreat at todd stadium all of our school administrators were in attendance uh we were fortunate to have dr john gordon the superintendent of suffolk public schools and president and president of schools that um uh to to to be the keynote speaker and for the for the occasion employees in the administration building also joined us for a picnic lunch and had some
020fun playing some games and activities it was a very nice day the weather was great and our administrators and deserve that treat thank you for our leadership team our school leadership team for coordinating that event um in honor of her retirement the teaching and learning team hosted a reception yesterday for mrs mary keeling our supervisor of library media services and she is an institution in the school division and very well respected around the state for her work in life library media services mrs keeling has over 25 years of dedicated service to newport news public schools during her tenure she expanded our library collections and mostly recently she launched a partnership with the newport news publix newport news public library system to ensure that every student has a library card and we'd like to wish mrs
021keeling a happy retirement as a reminder all schools and offices will be closed on monday july 5th in observance of independence of the independence day holiday and we will kick off our summer spark program the following day on july 6 where nearly 2 000 elementary and middle school students will join us for the first day of spark at schools around the city the high school summer session start uh started on monday this summer this summer we are serving nearly 4 000 students in various spark programs and finally we are now in our summer schedule so all schools and offices are closed on fridays through august 20th I wish everyone a relaxing and rejuven rejuvenating summer and I encourage everyone to take a well-deserved break and enjoy some summer activities mr chairman that concludes my remarks
022thank you dr parker all right well we will now then move on to item five which is an opportunity to hear from the public the school board recognizes that some members of the public may not be able to join us in person as advertised citizens may submit comments via web form email or voicemail up to 30 minutes prior to our meeting time to be included in the official meeting record for those of you joining us in person the board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments not to respond please understand that we will consider your concerns and get back to you at a later time 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
023have 30 seconds remaining and a red light indicates that your time is up as your name is called please come forward and I do have one card at this time all right mr uh matthew thegrave good morning everybody good morning morning it's a great day today um so I wanted to talk to you about a um thing that is coming up that uh is becoming embroiled in a lot of controversy uh critical race theory um uh I believe it's imperative that we teach students uh about the difficulties that people of color have faced in the us in the past and today um racism is not always easily identified uh boogeyman that everybody can see um or hang on to like the obvious racists from the charlottesville fame neo-nazis and neo-confederates um but the really sinister
024form of racisms are the constant changing systems of racism uh that are just out of view for example the gi bill of world war II uh veterans were une uh the funds for that were unequally distributed to veterans um people that served in the us um black americans who served in the us were shut out of systems that were put into place for uh supposedly everybody that served our country white people actively thwarted these attempts for black veterans to benefits from these programs to many this may seem like forever ago but this act prevented black families from building the generational wealth that we see today I don't mean that all white world war II veterans are rich but they certainly had access to many more resources in their black counterparts because of this access it
025allowed their offspring to attend better schools while systems of racism continue for people of color there may be many probably mostly white parents that are angry about this education uh you may get threats of being removed or parents that say that they're going to run against you this outburst of anger is a reaction that I recently found out is termed white fragility and the term comes from the book by uh from robin d'angelo um by the uh the same name um I'd like to read a short passage if I have time uh it says given how seldom we experience racial discomfort and by we white people is is most often what's referred to uh we uh experience racial discomfort in society we dominate we haven't had to build our racial stamina socialized into deep internalized
026sense of superiority that we are either unaware of or can never admit to ourselves we become highly fragile in conversations about race we consider our challenge to our racial worldview as a challenge to our very identity as good moral people thus we perceive any attempt to connect us with the systems of racism as un unsettling and unfair moral offense we need to break the cycle and start building our children's racial stamina this will allow our children to become better caring people nothing in this curriculum that I have seen teaches the current generation of white people are bad racism is everywhere biases are everywhere but we need to understand that we need to face these um biases and and to be able to talk about this openly with people and until we get over white fragility
027that will never happen and I believe that will happen in the next generation if we teach thank you thank you mr grave are there any other cards okay there being no no for the cards then we will um move on uh thank you for your comments and thoughts this morning we'll now move to matters by the school board and we will begin with dr best okay good morning everyone just a few comments again a special thank you to all of the teachers and the staff for a just fantastic school year and we are appreciative of your hard work and I just want you all to know that if you have an opportunity take a minute take a break catch your breath and get recharged because we're looking for great things for the upcoming um school
028year and I think dr parker mentioned that the summer session um has begun actually had a child that was supposed to begin the summer session but for whatever reason she didn't but everything appeared to be going well and I'd like to also give a special thanks to those teachers that took on the task of working for the summer session for teachers boys and girls parents anyone out there listening just find you something good to read this summer reading can take you places that you've never been it can give you ideas you've never had it can motivate it can encourage it can uplift so I have probably about 10 books I'm excited about reading this summer and I just encourage you um to do the same and then finally a congratulations to our chair and vice
029chair on your re-election we thank you for your leadership and we're looking forward to even greater things this school year thank you thank you dr best all right mr eley thank you I'd like to thank everybody for the presentations we got today congratulations to the teacher of the year um I know you're going to continue to do wonderful things for newport news and congratulations to our chief vice chair y'all did a very great um time did a very great job doing lead next to the pandemic and I think continue to do a great job leading us to the rest of the year thank you mr eley all right mr harris thank you mr chairman uh first I would like to congratulate tk of the year looking forward to working with you also uh thank you
030to all the hard work from staff and especially the last year students I think they set a model moving forward and also administration also congratulations again to madam vice chair mr chair for your re-election or reappointment or however you want to put it you know I've always said that you know doing tough times is when you find out who people really are uh you know when everything is nice and and this storm is calm as they say you know I guess we all can shine but you know during last year and I don't want to reflect too much but during uh last year we had a lot of decisions to make for the school division and I like to use my famous word is coa courses of action and I you know I stress that
031a lot about having multiple plans for actions and I think the pandemic brought that out that you know we must continue to plan even though uh you know we may not know the answer down the road but mr chairman you was uh you were steady and you're resolving leadership you never know when you might get a call from the chairman but he always wanted you know input and he was ready to give his you know his answer so I want to applaud you for all the leadership that you've shown over the over the last year I really appreciate that um and just want to you know wish the kids coming up the students coming up this year that you know we're looking forward to working with you you have a lot to look forward to
032as far as the leadership and just looking forward to working with the board again I think we've been through a lot and struggled a lot and I think we came out on the other side I would think well so really appreciate all the support and effort and that's it mr chairman thank you thank you mr harris all right ms aman thank you mr brown and I also want to offer my congratulations to mr brown and Mrs. Surles-Law for another year as chairman and vice chair and I think it's only appropriate that after last year you guys have a hopefully much more normal year for your leadership team I look forward to that and congratulations Ms emblidge great music teacher and I think it's wonderful you got a teacher of the year I'm looking forward to
033seeing how all your students grow next year and I'll keep my my comments brief uh likewise I'm looking forward to a much more normal year excited to see what newport news schools do in the coming year just encourage students teachers families to take a break and come back are ready to hit the ground running in september all right thank you Ms aman and uh mr hunter thank you mr chair um as always start off great things are happening in newport news public schools uh again congratulations to you and the vice chair for your appointment I agree um tough time last year so hopefully you'll have a more normal you know chair and vice chair this year with all school all schools open five days a week with all kids attending in-person class again Ms. emblidge
034congratulations to you I know you are a gem at riverside elementary school great job and my wife says hello and she's going to miss you um I'm again dr best as dr best says go out and read a book magazine you know take a trip you know somewhere far doesn't have to be a long book doesn't have to be a deep book fictional or non-fictional but just go out and read and really sit back and relax it's been a tough year all of our students and our teachers and find some time just to do nothing and when I mean do nothing just sit back do nothing read a book take a nap and enjoy uh summer and we look forward to an upcoming and productive and prosperous new year thank you mr chair thank you
035mr hunter all right madame vice chair Mrs. Surles-Law well thank you well I'll start with um a humble thank you to the board for the vote of confidence to serve in this seat for this upcoming school year I must say um mr brown drives a tight ship and I enjoy being on that ship so it's it's an honor to be able to support I cannot tell you how many times I've referred back to the roles of the vice chair that vsba lays out for us so that we could do the best we could do for newport news public schools so so thank you for that um mitzi I am so proud of you uh it's gonna be fun seeing you at the events that we have where teacher of the year shows up so we
036look forward to to that relationship um I think I you know have the same sentiment as everybody on the board that's what we need to do we need to rest recharge restore so that we can remain focused when we come back um but take a break first for our students they have done an amazing job uh through this and our teachers I can't even begin to say what type of job they've done they have just been absolutely phenomenal and so as we move forward I know we're looking for a normal school year but the work is really going to be there because we're coming back to a system that we want to make better than it was when we left taking into account what we went through last year and a little of the year
037before so I am just so honored to be part of the newport news family and I wish everyone a restful restful summer all right thank you madam vice chair well so I promise I won't cry this time yeah like I did in june uh so that was the the end of the year so this is going to be the beginning of the year and I'm just looking forward to again working as hard as I possibly can with all of you and I know last year what we said to each other is every day we challenge each other how can we be better and we'll continue that that work of being better every day we reflect back on this year our communications has received national recognition uh that's that's no accident uh through the work that
038was put in um assemblage congratulations again I know you're hearing being teacher of the year we're for so many of us just like the children are looking forward to the face-to-face interactions we're going to be able to have this year we're going to get back to having our parade our denbigh day parade and having our southeast community day parade the kids will be back in school kids we know that you miss being in school and it was good to hear how much you all miss being in school and know that we missed having you in school and so we're looking forward to having all your faces and seeing you seeing you back in summer school please take advantage of that all right because getting better every day the same thing the board's gonna be doing
039that's your chance to get better uh in summer school and get prepared for the this upcoming year we're gonna do a roll up our sleeves and and work hard and start talking about how we can challenge each other and and be better that's going to go with our summer retreat we'll do that in august um challenging each other and and being better and improving on the work that we did from last year so with that I believe we do have a closed motion a motion to go into closed session at this time mountain vice chair do you have a motion to read yes mr chairman a motion for closed meeting the school board may convene a closed session pursuant to section 2.2-3711a of the code of virginia subsection one for the purpose of considering prospective
040candidates for employment assignment appointment or promotion and discussing the performance of a specific public officer all right you heard the motion is there a second second all right second by mr harris any question or discussion there being none of them madam clerk please call the roll for for for mr harris for mr hunter for Mrs. Surles-Law for mr brown for motion carry seven zero all right so at this time then we will uh move over into the uh school board conference room for a short closed session [Music] all right well welcome back at this time I have a motion to approve our personnel recommendations mr chairman I make a motion that we approve our recommendations all right thank you is our second a second second by dr best any discussion there being none madam clerk
041would you please call the roll mrs aman for dr best for mr eley for mr harris mr hunter for Mrs. Surles-Law for and mr brown for motion carry seven zero all right well dr parker would you please introduce our personnel recommendations thank you mr chairman uh it is a pleasure to introduce following appointments uh for this uh upcoming school year and um as in typical fashion newport news uh we see our our faculty and staff and our families as uh as a family and I can see plenty of supporters here in the audience to support uh these appointments today and I thank you for being here and joining us uh I'd like to introduce our first appointee is miss uh miss laniece cowling the new program administrator at heritage high school and if you could
042stand when your name is called thank you ms cowan has a bachelor's degree in business education from norfolk state university go spartans and is working on a master's degree in education from old dominion university ms cowling began her career as a cte teacher in 2013 she spent one year in hampton city schools before moving to newport news public schools the right place she was she served as a business teacher co-op coordinator and lead teacher at heritage high school ms cowling is currently serving as the acting program administrator of the university magnet and governor stem academy uh ms calling as ms cowling is excited to take on this role uh permanently at heritage high school and we thank you for stepping up and taking on a leadership role do you have anyone with you today you'd
043like to recognize as you introduce yourself well thank you thank you and thank you for your leadership we look forward to working with you in a greater capacity at heritage high school our next appointee i'd like to introduce miss mrs mary hardesty the new assistant principal for instruction at menchville high school uh miss hardisty has a bachelor's degree in family and consumer science with concentration in elementary education a master's degree in education from the university of virginia an educational specialist degree in educational leadership from old dominion university and is awaiting the conferral of her phd in education from old dominion university ms hardisty has worked as a middle school math teacher in shenandoah county public schools suffolk public schools and newport news public schools and as a math mathematics specialist in shenandoah county county public
044schools and virginia beach public schools she returned to newport news public schools in 2018 to begin her administrative career as the assistant principal at denbigh high school thank you mrs hardesty take for for this op taking on this opportunity would you like to introduce your supporters today as you um as you address the board look forward to your leadership our next appointee is miss lindsay comfort and she is joining newport news public schools as a secondary assistant principal at woodside high school she currently serves as an administrative assistant at ocean lakes high school in virginia um beach public schools ms comfort previously served as an instructional technology specialist a stem grant specialist and math teacher in virginia beach and as a math math teacher and department chair in henrico county public schools she has a
045bachelor's degree in human services counseling from old dominion university a master's degree in leadership and supervision from the university of virginia we are pleased to welcome ms comfort to the newport news public schools team good morning thank you for joining us ms comfort do you have any uh supporters here today as you do introduce my biggest champion and my husband is here and my youngest of my two kids with me today again thank you i'm excited to have an opportunity with you guys look forward to it in our next appointee I'd like to introduce uh brandi wills the new assistant principal at denbigh high school and ms wills started her career in odessa texas in 1997. she came to the peninsula in 2001 teaching physical education in york county public schools hampton city public schools
046and newport news public schools miss wills has served as a lead teacher at huntington middle school heritage high schools and is currently at woodside high school well-traveled ms wills holds a bachelor's of master's degree in kinesiology from angelo state university and a second master's degree in educational administration from grand canyon university and she is currently working on an additional degree in special education at grand canyon university ms wills is excited to expand her experiences as in this new role in newport news good morning good morning thank you for joining us as well and do you have any supporters here with you this morning yes sir I have my daughter here I have my good friends uh here and I have my mentor dr kathy jacob over there and my ward family I think everybody here
047you've worked everywhere yes so I'm glad to be here and I'm ready to serve thank you congratulations awesome our next appointee is dr karen blizzard the as the new director of school counseling dr blizzard started her career counseling her counseling career in newport news public schools in 2001 um at uh I'm sorry she started her career in newport news public schools in at jackson academy alternative middle school and she had to explain to me what jackson academy she then spent four years in the los angeles unified school district before returning to newport news public schools she has served as a school counselor at jenkins elementary school woodside high school dozier middle school and dozier middle school dr blizzard has a bachelor's degree in government social government and sociology from the university of virginia a master's
048degree in school counseling from old dominion university and a phd in counseling education and supervision from old dominion university dr blizzard also has worked as an adjunct professor at old dominion university and liberty university dr blizzard is excited to continue her journey with the teaching and learning team good morning and thank you for being here and congratulations on your appointment do you have any supporters here um as you introduce yourself I do and I'm so excited to join the team um I have my parents geraline and john coles and one of my mentors from dozier dr kathy banco awesome awesome congratulations and you have big shoes to fill so we look forward to your leadership and uh thank you for joining us this morning our next appointee I'd like to introduce mr jason holler that
049pronounced that correctly holler yes it did as assistant principal for instruction at denbigh high school uh mr holler started his career in 2008 as as a sports medicine teacher and athletic trainer in menchville high school and he uh had served as a lead teacher and on numerous committees while at menchville he then began his administrative career and as a program administrator and this is where you may remember most as the ib coordinator and governor's health sciences administrator at warwick high school mr holler has a bachelor's degree in health sciences from james madison university a master's degree in education with a concentration in athletic training education and research from old dominion university an educational specialist degree in educational leadership and administration from george washington university and is currently a doctoral candidate in education and leadership and
050administration at george washington university and mr holler is excited to start his new role at denbigh high school I didn't know about this one until uh recently now I have some some shoes to fill over at warwick over there um yes we do because he does everything over there good man so I'm surprised and and thrilled this morning as well probably as surprised as you are they didn't tell me I was over now here's here's the thing I was over there a few weeks ago and they didn't mention any of this thank you thank you very much for that so mr holler do you have any supporters here I see I see your your ... principal in front of you but you have another supporters here this morning too so excited about this new opportunity
051I have shane laser right there and I have my my family my work family from work high school they're here also to support me and also my new principal that I'll be working for very excited well you've done great work of work high school and I wouldn't expect any different man in your new dig so thank you so much for taking on the greater leadership role and let's give them a round of applause [Applause] so our next point I'd like to introduce uh william greg hufstetler the new as the new assistant principal for operations at menchville high school mr hufstetler started his career in newport news public schools in 20 2005 as a science teacher at denbigh high school he began his administrative careers and excuse me an assistant principal at denbigh and then moved
052to crittenden middle school where he develops the master schedule along with other duties as an assistant principal so mr huffstetler holds a degree a bachelor's degree in biology from christopher newport university a master's degree in secondary education from old dominion university and an educational specialist degree in educational leadership from old dominion university he is looking forward to joining the menchville team filling some big shoes coming in as the operations administrator good morning and congratulations sir let's give him a round of applause and introduce your point your um supporters this morning good morning um I just want to say thank you to my best friend for being here michael um my wonderful beautiful all the things she told me to say to that daughter michaela and you might know her michelle huffsteller my wife I just
053want to say I love newport news public schools and thank you for picking me congratulations so that that concludes our appointees this morning we had a few administrative transfers that will be included in the minutes to this meeting mr chairman and at this time um I will I will conclude my remarks thank you dr parker well congratulations to all of you and there being no other business we will call this meeting adjourned [Music]