School Board Meeting: May 18, 2021

001[Music] well good evening I would like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News school board for tuesday may 18 2021 on behalf of the school board and superintendent I welcome each of you present and watching a quorum is present to transact the business of the school division the covid 19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on all of us we have adapted to this new way of conducting business and the school board has as well personal barriers are installed between the members of the board and our visitors and staff are masked and socially distant in the auditorium in compliance with the governor's order for school board property during this evening's meeting some of our participants will join us in person and others will join us virtually we are taking these steps

002to ensure the health and well-being of our staff and the public we value and appreciate your partnership we'll begin tonight's meeting with an invocation and pledge of allegiance here to do the honors is miss bethany hafer pta president at saunders elementary school and miss lisa berg pta treasurer at saunders who will lead us in the pledge to the flag ms hafer Dr. Parker members of the school board in our Newport News community thank you for attending tonight's meeting as we begin to see the light at the end of the covid tunnel of darkness we cannot help but to be thankful that we are still standing strong through these difficult and challenging times our objective has remained to provide a high quality education for the children while never jeopardizing their health and safety we are emerging

003from these challenging days both better and stronger than we were before learning from the trials and tribulations we endured it is through the tight bond of parents educators and students that we achieve success but it is our enduring commitment passion and dedication that keeps us moving forward we are thankful for this opportunity to gather in peace tonight we are thankful for the good health and safety of each and every one who is here with us today we are surrounded with support of people who seek the best care and welfare for our children may we continue to serve in excellence and seek positive results and decisions that are in the best interest of all our children please stand and join me for our pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

004of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all well thank you miss hafer and miss berg the next item on tonight's agenda is school board recognitions Dr. Parker thank you Mr. Chairman now we will move to the floor we have several recognitions this evening which mrs price will acknowledge and we'll start with the no kids hungry virginia school meals heroes am I correct okay good evening I have the honor of presenting this month's school board recognitions the 2021 no kid hungry virginia lunch hero program recognizes leaders who work to provide meal service to students during the pandemic kathy alexander executive director of child nutrition services and wellness earned this award in honor of her commitment to our students mrs alexander was unable to

005join us this evening but she asked her leadership team to accept this award on her behalf and again this is the no kid hungry virginia lunch hero award please join us in congratulating supervisor debbie pascal [Applause] area cafeteria supervisor christine [Applause] delgrosso and area cafeteria supervisor christine lemaster [Applause] this team and accompanied by the entire child nutrition services team has worked tirelessly and creatively throughout the pandemic to make meals available to all students at schools and locations throughout our city when we started the school year virtually this year the child nutrition services team stepped up to ensure that meal service could continue for all students since that time the team has continued to ensure that students receive a healthy breakfast snack lunch and supper they began by serving meals at schools and then they added

006mobile meals to go sites to ensure that families who didn't live near neighborhood could still be served in cooperation with transportation and school security they serve thousands of students from our familiar yellow buses in seven neighborhoods throughout Newport News the cns leadership team has served families consistently and has maintained meal service during spring break thanksgiving and winter break today nnps salutes the nearly 400 members of the child nutrition services team who have dedicated themselves to ensure that our students do not go hungry during the pandemic we're proud of the team and we wish them congratulations on this honor and we thank you for all that you do getting a picture thank you the skills of our next honorees were put to the test recently at the state health occupation students association leadership conference hosa is

007an international student organization that provides a unique program of leadership development motivation and recognition exclusively for students enrolled in health science education and biomedical science programs several weeks ago our honorees participated in the state leadership conference virtually this evening we're proud to recognize five students in the warwick high school governor's health sciences academy who earned top honors capturing first place in the biomedical debate um in the biomedical debate please join us in congratulating we I am we am we am ahmadi [Applause] we am okay please also congratulate erin greathouse [Applause] and I believe hayley miller was unable to join us tonight but we'd like to congratulate her as well and penelope sanchez juarez and notice they have their medals on this evening this team was challenged to debate on the topic designer babies parents should

008be allowed to genetically engineer their offspring and they captured top honors a first for warwick high school our next honoree also performed well during this event gavin matagla did I pronounce that correctly please please help me gavin give me your last name matt laga thank you gavin matlaga gavin earned a top placement in prepared speaking gavin's topic was unlock your potential these award-winning students before you are advancing to compete in the international hosa leadership conference and we wish them best wishes we know that you will do warwick high school and Newport News public schools very proud while they're up here we want to get their pictures and while they're up here i'd like to acknowledge the family members joining them tonight um and their school administrators as well would you all please stand to be

009recognized thank you and in the rear we have um i think I saw dr mason earlier um miss amanda snyder mr jason holler and their teacher dr marjorie wallace thank you [Applause] would you like to get a picture um repeats [Applause] each year the virginia school boards association invites school boards to nominate up to three organizations to the vsba business honor roll with the number of outstanding partners helping our students in Newport News it's always difficult to narrow the list to just three to select the 2021 business honor roll nominees the school board looked at organizations that have distinguished themselves in an extra special way over this year or over the course of many years last year's honorees included virginia educators credit union ferguson and the food bank of the virginia peninsula this year's honorees

010are bayport credit union life enrichment center and lifehouse church in addition to tonight's recognition these businesses will receive a certificate of appreciation from the vsba which they'll receive this evening and they'll be listed on the vsba business honor roll please join us in recognizing these outstanding partners bayport credit union represented by whitney hendricks youth financial educator [Applause] bayport credit union offers Newport News students lessons in financial literacy and work-based learning opportunities exploring finance careers the partnership also provide hands-on experiences including work in the student-run credit unions mentoring summer programs and volunteering bayport teams with Newport News public schools to offer financial services to students and their teachers at school in addition the program gives its students staff a hands-on chance to learn marketable career skills in student staff credit unions heritage denby and woodside high

011schools have bayport credit union sites along with crittenden dozier and heinz middle schools in carver kiln creek lee hall and saunders elementary schools these activities support the objectives of a career and technical education course in personal finance and are important part of the school system's efforts to prepare students who are college career and citizen ready in addition bayport regularly supports schools and programs through donations and sponsorships bayport's efforts have also been recognized by the virginia department of education which presented the 2020 creating excellent business partnership award to bayport credit union and Newport News public schools thank you and congratulations thank you for all you did brother okay thank you our next honoree is life enrichment center represented by mr kevin turpin president and founder would you please come forward [Applause] the life enrichment center is

012a norfolk based non-profit organization whose mission is to enrich the lives of children youth and adults from underserved communities through various educational programs and initiatives in pursuit of that goal the lec has established two technology literacy computer labs free of charge in Newport News public schools and is in the midst of creating a third macintosh elementary school and hidenwood elementary school currently house a literacy lab and carver elementary will be outfitted next the program provides new computers furniture and decorations for the labs trained tutors and a paid site coordinator students reading below their grade level receive literacy-based computer lessons tutors are also matched with one student for the academic year the tutors and coordinator are in this are in the school one hour per week on a one-on-one basis with students work working with students

013on literacy during the past year tutoring was conducted online due to covet restrictions tutors are volunteers who receive training and come from sponsoring companies and local law enforcement departments within the Newport News sheriff department providing extensive support so thank you very much we appreciate all that the life enrichment center offers Newport News public schools students okay and finally lifehouse church newport news represented by pastor john ware and community coordinator carrie jones would you please come forward [Applause] when the covet 19 pandemic hit lifehouse lifehouse church Newport News organized a campaign to make and buy protective face masks for students in Newport News through the for our city program lifehouse church rallied several organizations to join in the project resulting in more than 22 000 face masks being provided to our students that's just one example

014of the partnership projects that lifehouse has organized for students and families in newport news after adopting denbigh high school in church members provided pregame meals and leadership mentoring to student athletes with up to 100 students participating weekly at its peak to support denbigh high staff lighthouse renovated the teachers lounge the church also supported efforts to make schools more visually appealing with landscaping and outdoor cleanup projects at elementary middle and high schools members also organize an annual angel tree collections to provide gift baskets to our students in a conservative estimate life house members have volunteered more than 2 000 hours of service and forty thousand dollars worth of donations to the nnps community since 2016. thank you very much for your contributions to our students and staff as you're making your way up there i'd also

015like to acknowledge co-pastor kristen ware who's joining us and co-community organized our co-community coordinator julia jones water to close us out on behalf of newport news public schools thank you to the leadership and staff of bayport credit union life enrichment center and lifehouse church for your partnership services to our students and staff with that this concludes this month's school board recognitions we will stand in recess for about five minutes thank you [Music] during a year of virtual instruction adapting to changes in restrictions and transitioning to a hybrid form of in-person learning educators in Newport News public schools have been nothing short of spectacular to honor our amazing teachers and wonderful support staff social media has been jam-packed with photos and videos recognizing our educators excellence in education this time of year schools select the teachers

016of the year who will represent each site at the district level a range of classroom teachers instructional technology coaches resource teachers and professional school counselors have gone above and beyond this school year to ensure learning continues for all of their students without these dedicated and highly trained educators working through the unpredictable circumstances of a global pandemic the transition to virtual and hybrid learning would have been impossible schools are also celebrating their wonderful employees by selecting the school's support staff of the year these professionals represent more than 5 000 devoted employees who serve and support our students including front office staff custodians cafeteria workers security officers bus drivers and instructional assistants many of these hardworking individuals shine behind the scenes and are essential for schools to provide a range of services and options to each and

017every student every year elementary students enjoy a live performance by the virginia symphony orchestra but with current statewide restrictions limiting live concerts this year's musical extravaganza became an interactive virtual experience where the students played along music teachers at discovery stem academy palmer and riverside elementary schools collaborated to create a fun and engaging online event for their fourth and fifth grade students including newcomers enrolled in the english as a second language program at palmer for months music teachers jessica backer mitzi emblidge and christine hood helped their students learn the virginia symphony selections by singing dancing and playing the recorder on a wednesday morning students from all three schools were invited to an online zoom meeting the virginia symphony orchestra produced and recorded a special virtual performance for students across the commonwealth to enjoy the professional musicians

018presented a range of musical styles showcase the different sounds each instrument makes and performed amazing musical and vocal selections all the while our elementary students were invited to sing along and play their recorders safely at home it made the students feel like part of the orchestra as they learned how much fun music can be when you're playing together whether it's in a concert hall or online with your classmates mad science of hampton roads inspired fifth graders at carver elementary to view science in a whole new way through a virtual field trip with over 150 locations across 20 countries mad science is the world leader in science education for children and during this global pandemic they've adjusted their engaging presentations to be viewed and enjoyed virtually using grant money carver elementary invited mad science of hampton

019roads to spend the day reviewing important science topics with all of their fifth graders for the 40 hybrid students learning in person at school mad science offered an online hands-on learning experience for them to enjoy in their classroom later in the day mad science offered two online sessions for the 80 students learning virtually at home teachers even made time before the online sessions for their english language learners to review important vocabulary words using an inquiry-based discovery method the mad science instructor explored themes of force and motion fifth graders had covered these topics earlier in the school year but with their science sol test fast approaching mag science was able to review and expand these topics in fun new ways carver provided materials to every student so they could follow along in class or at home

020through hands-on stem-based activities this type of interaction made the science lessons come alive right before their eyes fully preparing them for academic success and a lifelong love of learning while nasa's ongoing perseverance to explore the planet mars is making headlines students at crittenden middle school are using their ingenuity to design a functional rover for their own mission to mars for the first time ever Newport News public schools hosted a fully virtual engineering design challenge for all three grade levels at crittenden middle school kevin nelhubel secondary stem instructional specialists worked with crittenden's educators and instructional technology coaches to design and present an online challenge where students could use their stem knowledge to solve real-world problems facing nasa engineers during two separate zoo meetings students in crittenden's stem magnet program had the chance to design build and

021test different components of a rover that could theoretically explore the red planet sixth grade students worked on the rover design seventh graders built the parachute system to safely deliver the rover to mars and eighth grade students designed a functioning robotic arm for the rover to collect samples students used jamboard an interactive whiteboard to share ideas during a collaborative brainstorming session they organized their plans using a digital design notebook through canvas and submitted videos of their final build and testing trials through flipgrid if students got stuck on a problem or needed technical assistance they could join a breakout room in the zoo meeting where technology instructors quickly got them back on track volunteers from jefferson lab newport news shipbuilding and students from virginia tech offered their time and expertise to judge the middle schoolers impressive work

022with the top three winners at each grade receiving a 14-1 solar robot kit as their prize okay we 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 to the early part of our agenda and also towards the end of the meeting the school board recognizes that during the pandemic some members of the public may not be able to join us in person as advertised citizens may submit comments via a 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 first and foremost please understand that we will

023consider 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 have 30 seconds remaining and a red light indicates that your time is is up and it's time for you to end your comments as your name is called please come forward at this time I believe I do have three cards and the first card I have is miss bertha thompson and lou maynor good evening chairman brown Dr. Parker and school board members my name is bertha thompson and I am the treasurer for the Newport News council of ptas this lovely lady beside me is our president mrs liu maynard thank you for the opportunity for us

024to be here this evening as we would like to present the 2021 scholarship winners you would give me a moment I will call these young people forward and we will present to them their 500 scholarship award as well as a token of our appreciation for their heart efforts in school may I have miss haley wagon fur forward please she attends menchville high school and she will be going to christopher you christopher newport university mr colby miller is from denby high school however he was not available to attend this evening so his mother miss francis miller will be attending on his behalf to collect his uh his scholarship and he will be attending tuskegee university [Applause] our next awardee is miss morgan moore she currently attends heritage high school and she has been accepted to and

025will attend north carolina agricultural and technical state university our fourth awardee um was not aware that he had won so I would like to ask mr jordan moody to come forward mr moody currently attends woodside high school and he will be going to norfolk state university [Applause] i thank you again for this opportunity to present to our awardees we're going to take a quick picture and we'll be out of your hair thank you so much to knock it on amt and catherine not from here i couldn't well I tried for hawaii thank you Newport News council pta our our next speaker is miss kim anderson hasty greetings Dr. Parker chairman brown and the scuba school board chair the school board members my name is mrs anderson hasty i'm the president of the nnea the Newport

026News education association allow me to introduce myself i've been a member since 2012 and I participate in on the special education committee for the state the budget committee for Newport News the policy committee for Newport News and many other professional development programs on weekends and weeknights to help provide knowledge to give to my members I just wanted to let you know as an advocate I have been working with the administration for Newport News and chairman brown and I just want to take this time to let everyone know that they have done a phenomenal job and mr wright i'm here to let you know that myself and dr melvin the vice president are the spokespeople for the nnea so if there are any issues or concerns you can come to us our goal is continue to

027continue transparency and keep developing relationships at the table we want to continue to work as partners and I just want to let you know some things that we do as the union as a union we surveyed our members to see what their concerns and their issues are and then we brought it back to an administration we keep our members informed with via email telephone calls and word of mouth we conduct monthly meetings and we support our retirees of the nnea we also give self-care meetings and we give lead building rep meetings and we try to inform our members of their rights we've had lawyers come in we have representatives from the vea the virginia education association coming into collective bargaining we're building relationships with the executive board team and that is very important to us

028so overall with the nnea what we want to accomplish is to improve the learning of our students their learning conditions and to improve the working conditions for our employees our educators by bringing our professional expertise and ideas to the table again I want to thank you all for taking the time to listen to me to just give this comment these comments thank you thank you thank you madam president and we have one additional card miss pam hall wait for miss hall to come forward do we have any additional cards okay all right the effects of social distancing greetings how y'all doing well hello um I just want to say thank you to dr bass and to the school board for the signage up at huntington middle school and i hope that this time the city

029will follow through thank you all right thank you are there any additional cards are there any additional cards there being no additional cards and we will move to the next item on our agenda which is section three the consent agenda that includes 3.01 minutes from the regular session on april 20th 2021 3.02 minutes from the work session on april 20 2021 3.03 minutes from the joint meeting with city council on april 27 2021 3.04 financial reports including the revenue report the expense report and the child nutrition services report for april 2021 3.05 the personnel report 3.06 the vsba legislative proposal 3.07 authorization of signature in absence of the superintendent and so at this time I mean we have a can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda Mr. Chairman I make a motion

030to approve the consent agenda as presented thank you madam vice chairs there's a second second all right thank you mr harris for the second now time for discussion i believe miss seaman do you have something you want to add I did just want to add something thank you chairman brown while I am fine with all the elements of the consent agenda except for I wanted to just highlight the legislative proposal i have concerns with it what it does is it just recommends to the sba to recommend or to propose for the legislature to allow all cities and counties if they want to and it's voted in to impose a one percent tax for school facilities and just with the way newport news has higher restaurant taxes than others surrounding localities i'm concerned giving that latitude

031might lead to a greater tax burden on the community versus working with the city with existing revenues to get done what we need to get done so I just wanted to express that i'm not in favor of that but the rest of the consent agenda i am so i'll be voting for it but just wanted to express that exception thank you miss amen any other comments all right there being no further discussion madam clark would you please call mr ely mr harris mr hunter mrs searle's law or mrs amon or dr bess for mr brown four motion carry 7-0 thank you the next item on our agenda is our action items yeah um yes we have one preliminary thing to do Mr. Chairman which is to acknowledge our employ appointees who were as part of

032the consent agenda and always the always the funnest part of the day uh it's always a pleasure to acknowledge individuals in our school division who are taking on bigger roles larger roles and opportunities and tonight we have a few appointments that were recently approved on the through consent i would first like to introduce dr eleanor blow the new direct as the new director of secondary school leadership dr blow began her career in Newport News public schools in 1996 as a cte teacher she has served newport news in a numerous roles through her 25 year career in addition to teaching dr blow also served as a professional school counselor instructional supervisor assistant principal of instruction and currently serves as the principal of denby high school dr blow holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from hampton university

033a master's degree in community agency counseling from hampton university an education specialist degree in educational leadership and administration from the george washington university and holds a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from virginia tech her experiences have prepared her for to take on this this new role of supervising secondary principals in Newport News public schools for the past six years dr blow has served as the leader of denbigh high school denby has been fully accredited for all of those years and earned the 2020 board of education continuous improvement award for increasing the sol pass rate by 10 points for english language learners and special education students in mathematics and reading across three years as the leader of one of the most diverse high schools in the city with a proven record of student achievement

034dr blow is well prepared to serve as in a mentorship and supervisory role in secondary leadership and tonight we would like to thank her for her leadership at demby and over the course of the pandemic and welcome her to the department of school leadership so thank you dr blow for joining us this evening and we would be remiss if we didn't ask if you had any family members or friends close ones who came this evening to share this moment with you thank you as well and congratulations looking forward to great things I also would like to introduce at this time kimberly powell as the new supervisor of accounting ms powell has been employed with Newport News public schools for seven years and previously served as the accounting analyst in the accounting department prior to coming

035to Newport News public schools ms powell worked for the city of newport news finance department in various roles including grants accountant and accountant 1 and two she also served as the newport news employees retired she also serves on the Newport News employees retirement fund board of trustees ms powell has a bachelor of degree in accounting and a master's degree in public administration from old dominion university and we'd like to thank you and welcome uh welcome you in your new role congratulations and did you bring anyone with you as power that you'd like to introduce this evening who's supporting well thank you congratulations uh i'd like to introduce katherine westfall I think I have to pronounce that right as the new employee supervisor of human resources uh miss westfall i'm not pronouncing that correctly yeah okay

036this westfall started with Newport News in 2019 as the employment coordinator for secondary instruction prior to joining the Newport News team she served the city of hampton as a human resources generalist she also held human resources positions and and I want to say this is in price distributing okay kingsmill resorts and university instructors ms westfall has a bachelor's degree in business administration from james madison university she has been active in the junior league of hampton roads and the hampton history museum foundation for many years ms westfall is proud to lead a strong human resources employment team and we look forward to your leadership and congratulations and did you have anyone this evening you liked who's supporting you this evening thank you congratulations in your new role our next uh appointee is uh miss sharita holland

037the new administrative assistant at sedgefield elementary school miss holland started her teaching career in Newport News public schools in 2012 and has served in the role of special education teacher special education lead teacher and most recently as a response to intervention specialist ms holland holds a bachelor degree in business administration from old dominion university a master's degree in early childhood education from norfolk state university and a postmasters certificate in educational leadership from george washington university ms holland is excited to continue her work at sedgefield in this new role congratulations and thank you for taking on a big role and ms holland do you have anyone to introduce um with you this evening well thank you for joining us and congratulations another administrative assistant role ms tanisha williams the new administrative assistant at carver elementary school

038ms williams started her teaching career at Newport News public schools in and she served for 17 years in the classroom as classroom teacher a 21st century school coordinator and is a member of the clinical faculty of old dominion university all right miss williams holds a bachelor degree in governmental administration from christopher newport university a master's degree in education from regent university and a master's in from regent and ms williams was named the 2021 elementary teacher of the year for Newport News public schools she is excited to start her administrative career at carver elementary congratulations well sir so mrs williams do you have anyone with you this evening demetrius and I have been signing willis and uh all right congratulations looking for great things from you guys and our final appointee this evening is uh heather

039cobbs the new administrative assistant at hidenwood elementary school dr cobb started her teaching career in in gastonia north carolina after moving to the peninsula dr cobbs worked in hampton city schools for a few years and then joined the Newport News team the right team in 2015. she left the classroom in 2019 to take on a role as a response to intervention specialist at hidenwood elementary school and dr cobbs has a bachelors degree in education from western michigan university a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from garner webb university an education specialist degree in educational administration from liberty university and a doctorate of education and of education in educational leadership also from liberty university dr cobb is excited to begin her career new career at hidenwood in this current role so thank you and congratulations and

040would you introduce your guest this evening awesome well congratulations we're looking for great things free from from all of you uh we uh we always want to look at the opportunities for advancement in our city and we're just so glad to see this evening that so many of you are internally grown and you've been prepared and we've prepared you well for these positions so Mr. Chairman that concludes our appointees for the evening thank you Dr. Parker now that'll move us to uh section four of our agenda which are which is our action items for tonight the first item is 4.01 which is the school renaming recommendations Dr. Parker I believe we have some um recommendations that you'd like to review with the board yes Mr. Chairman uh this evening we have uh everybody in terms

041of action items the first item is 4.01 school renaming recommendations the board received a formal presentation and recommendations at the april meeting and uh this evening we are requesting the board's action on those items consideration in that and action on those items all right board members you do have uh copies of the motion in terms of the superintendent's recommendation in your board packets in front of you and so at this time we're going to take a motion to rename each school separately and I'd like to first entertain a motion regarding the names for the name for epps elementary school so is there a motion for renaming apps elementary school yes Mr. Chairman I'd like to make a motion to rename elementary school or proceed with Mr. Chairman I think for the record you may want

042to have the name of the recommended name in the minutes yes Mr. Chairman I would like to make a motion to move to accept superintendent's recommendation for renaming elementary school to stoney run elementary all right so we have a motion to rename epes elementary school to stoney run elementary is there a second a second there's a second from dr best thank you there's the first and second is there any discussion at this time there being none thank you madam clerk would you please call the roll mr eley for mr harris or mr hunter for mrs Surles-Law for this is eamonn four for okay dr best for mr brown for motion carry seven zero all right thank you that will then we'll move on to lee hall elementary school is there a motion to rename lee

043hall elementary school Mr. Chairman I may I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation for the renaming of lee hall elementary to katherine johnson elementary all right there's a motion to rename lee hall to katherine johnson elementary is there a second for that motion second second from uh mr eley thank you mr eley is there any discussion there being none madam clerk would you please call the roll mr eley for mr harris mr hunter for mrs Surles-Lawfor mrs aman for dr best for mr brown for motion carry 7-0 thank you now we'll move on to nelson elementary school is there a motion to rename nelson elementary school Mr. Chairman I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation for the renaming of nelson elementary to nolwood meadows elementary thank you there's a motion to rename nelson

044elementary to nolwood meadows elementary is there a second second the second by mr harris any discussion there being on madam clerk would you please call the roll mr ely for mr harris or mr hunter for mrs Surles-Law for mrs aman for dr best for mr brown for motion carry 7-0 all right the last item in our school renaming is dozier middle school is there a motion to rename dozier middle school Mr. Chairman I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation for the renaming of dozier middle school to ella fitzgerald middle all right there's a motion to rename dozier middle school to ella fitzgerald middle is there a second second there's a second from dr best any discussion all right there being none madam clerk please call the roll mr eley for mr harris for mr

045hunter for mrs Surles-Law for mrs aman for dr best for mr brown for motion carry 7-0 all right thank you all now we'll move on to item 4.02 which is the virginia association of school and superintendents and there is a superintendent of the year resolution uh Dr. Parker would you like to read that resolution for us oh let me turn to that to resolution sir I did not have it pulled up let me see here minutes I apologize did not have it on my word action 4.01 and 4.02 there we go yes sir this is the recognition of 133 virginia public school division superintendents as superintendents of the year for 20 20 2020 2021 whereas in order to ensure the safe and the health and safety of all virginians schools across the commonwealth closed from

046march from march 13 2020 due to the covid 19 pandemic and most have provided virtual instruction since then as as in-person teaching and learning evolved and whereas individual school divisions retain the autonomy to decide where whether or not new instruction would continue and the format in which the instruction would be presented and whereas stable and consistent leadership by local school division superintendents have been vital in serving children through the pandemic and whereas school division superintendents are responsible for the health safety welfare and education of each child while creating school climates even within a pandemic that serve all children regardless regardless of their circumstances and whereas public school division superintendents utilize guidance from the center for disease control virginia department of health virginia department of education local health departments and local case data to in fulfilling

047leadership responsibilities in their communities like no other time in their careers and whereas local school division superintendents work collect collaboratively with their school boards educators parents and community stakeholders in providing technology resources curriculum content emotional support and meals to children during the pandemic and whereas traditionally vast superintendents of the year have been selected via a diverse panel of education associations after reviewing an individual superintendent's ability to demonstrate leadership for learning communication professionalism and community involvement and whereas all 133 virginia public school division superintendents have extraordinarily exhibited these qualities while leading their school divisions and communities during the 2021 school year and whereas the vast board of directors agreed on january 7 2021 to suspend the traditional selection of of determining a single superintendent of the year and unanimously agreed to recognize and honor all virginia

048public school superintendents as superintendents of the year for the 2020-2021 school year and whereas vass is appreciative of the virginia virginia school boards association supporting this resolution and the honor provided to each division superintendent by having his or her respective school board present this resolution to the superintendent be recognized within the community for which he or she serves and leads now therefore be it resolved that the Newport News school board does hereby recognize me dr george parker III as the virginia's superintendent of the year for 2020 2021 as designated by the virginia association of school superintendents and I thank you very much for that honor and privilege thank you dr parker [Applause] is there a motion to approve the resolution is read second okay there's a motion or mr harris you're uh approving the motion

049as as read yes making motion okay is there a second day second all right second by mr hunter you know uh now time for uh discussion any discussion yes madam vice chair well my discussion is that I'm sure that other superintendents in the state of virginia are very much uh deserving of this resolution and opportunity but I definitely know that ours is so Dr. Parker thank you for your service during these unprecedented times we really have leaned upon your leadership and the things that are listed in that resolution are the things that we saw in your leadership in terms of leading our district so thank you I further discussion well I'll just say as the tidewater regional chair put on my vsba hat I did I voted against this resolution at the vsba level for

050school divisions because I wanted my superintendent to be the superintendent of the year and not to have to share the stage with any of the other 132 other superintendents because I believe that you are deserving of that and and so I wanted that I want to say that on the record that I voted against it at the vsba level but now uh being in front of us and the opportunity to honor you as a superintendent of the year I'm going to vote for I'm going to I'm going to uh support this all right so with that being said madam clerk would you please call the roll mr eley for mr harris or mr hunter or mrs Surles-Law for mrs aman or dr best for mr brown for motion carry 7-0 all right now we'll move

051on to section 5 of our agenda which is reports and information 5.01 is our return to learn update so dr parker I believe you have a presentation yes Mr. Chairman and thank you and and again thank you board uh for that acknowledgement uh but the work continues and uh this evening we bring our our monthly return to learn update to the school board and community and quite a bit has changed since our last meeting so this uh this presentation this evening that we feel is very is very informative for the community and obviously we will be sending out uh updates regarding that um some of the governor's new uh orders that have come out order 72 which took effect last week 79 which will take effect on may 28th and some of those information tonight

052will address some of what we know right now we also have changes in vaccinations uh and we have launched our initial search for students for our virtual learning academy so we'll bring information to the board and the community tonight regarding those we will start with some good news which is which was related for the first time I've been able to say that this year good news related to our community health metrics um I don't think I've said that in the senate since uh I don't think I've ever said that in a sentence so Ms. Roaseau will start us off with going over some safety information and our community metrics as they as they have appeared the last few days mrs rousseau are you with us I am here Dr. Parker yes ma'am thank you uh

053good evening Chairman Brown Vice-chair Surles-Law, members of the board I'd like to start this evening's return to learn update with a look at two maps that I think depict the good news that Dr. Parker's referring to michelle there we go so if you look at the map um these maps show the progress that we've made across the state in reducing the transmission of covid the map on the right was january the second of this year and the map on the left is may the 8th which is the latest date on the vdh site for school metrics the key shows that high transmission is red not where we want it to be a substantial transmission is orange moderate transmission is yellow and low transmission is blue you can see that at the beginning of the year

054january the entire state nearly was red and you can see that now the state is largely in a substantial transmission or moderate transmission with a couple of uh blue localities and still a few that are in the red zone but a much better picture than we showed you in january so things are certainly moving in the right direction the next slide shows um where we are in Newport News um certainly of um most interest to us these graphs focus on the progress that we've made in Newport News over the last 10 days the graph on the left is from the vdh's school metrics site this data lags locality data a little bit I can't explain why but it does may 8th as I mentioned earlier is the latest data that's on the schoolmetrics website you

055can also see that 10 days ago we were still in a substantial range of transmission at 66 cases per 100 000 persons and 6.9 positivity rate but today I pulled the latest data for the locality metrics again from the vdh website that shows where we are as of yesterday you can see that we have now drop down to 36.9 uh cases per hundred thousand and five and a half percent positivity rate this is great news uh we have made a significant um pass and that is we've dropped below cases per hundred thousand which is really important for a couple of reasons and the next five uh we'll show you the threshold rates and then we'll talk a little bit about why that's so significant for us but on the next slide these just to remind

056you the thresholds of community transmission where each of the levels starts so remember that high transmission where we spent much of our first few months of the year was over 100 cases per 100 000 persons and then you know we've been in the orange zone for a bit between 50 and 99 and now we're in moderate both for the number of cases we're at uh 30 I wouldn't say 36 I think yesterday was 39 we're at 36. and we're at five and a half percent positivity which is also in the moderate transmission area so again great news and let's look at why that is an impact for us so first um one change is the fiscal distancing guidance you remember that last month I believe we told you that we were able to lower the

057physical distance for elementary schools from six feet to three feet even in substantial transmission but now that we're in moderate our secondary schools can also go to three feet of physical distancing so while that really isn't an issue right now with the number of students that we have in our secondary schools as we plan for next year it's certainly a welcome news and perhaps we'll even have better news between now and then who knows I would certainly hopefully we will um perhaps though even of more impact is um is it is a change that we'll be able to make on sending students and staff and their close contacts home for isolation performance while our case rates are below 50 100 000 persons as they are now which we learned yesterday uh we could begin this

058change we learned from the health department yesterday we will not need to require students or staff to exhibit covid symptoms and have not had a known exposure to covid to be sent home for a 10-day isolation we will send all children with symptoms to the covid room and call their parents to pick them up if the child resolves their symptoms over that are fever-free for over 24 hours they're able to return to school or if they're if they visit their doctor and get a different diagnosis they're also able to come back to school also of importance is that they're close contacts now these are people who are presumed to have covid because they exhibit symptoms but are not positive for covid their close contacts will not have to quarantine this has caused a lot of

059a turmoil for our parents we understand that our nurses have had to tell many parents bad news about their kids having to stay home for quarantine and it's been difficult for families we certainly understand that that's the guidance that we've been given by the health department and that's what we needed to do but now where we are with our covered data that will no longer be necessary so we need to make sure that we do all everything we can to stay below that 50 uh cases for a hundred thousand uh and then for students and staff who do test positive for prove it and we have had some even today that we learned of they will still be required to isolate for 10 days their close contacts will have to if they're fully vaccinated will

060not have to quarantine but if their close contacts have not been fully vaccinated they will have to foreign now this has also been um vaccinations have been a big help for our staff who have chosen to be vaccinated so many of our staff have been identified as close contact but because they were fully vaccinated have not had to quarantine so they've been able to stay at work so that's been really good for them and as um when I'm finished stephanie's going to talk with you about vaccination opportunities for our students and something that parents may want to just consider is the impact that would have on their children being identified as close contacts as we go back to school in the fall they wouldn't have to quarantine so um anyway that's excellent news um we

061do expect that this lower case rate is going to greatly ease our contact tracing and and result in fewer folks missing school or work so um again if we go back to above 50 cases per 100 000 we'll need to revert back to the rules that we've been using previous to yesterday you don't want to do that so I'm hoping we're in this downward direction until cove it's kind of beating back so then um I also want to look at the latest cdc guide so I've taken this straight from the cdc's website for you this is their latest update came out the end of last week um they are recommending that we continue to use the same mitigation strategies that we have in place for the remainder of this school year their basis for that

062is shown very few students will be fully vaccinated before the end of this school year children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible of course for vaccination and our youth that are between the ages of 12 and 15 just became eligible for the vaccination on may 12th and just last week and because people are not fully vaccinated until two weeks after their second dose and the dose that's available too our youth is the pfizer vaccine which requires a three week interval from the first to second shot so it's going to take at least a five week period for these these kids to be fully vaccinated uh and you know we're we're about that close to the end of the school year so cdc has said in recognition of that we need to continue

063with our current mitigation strategies they also note that schools need some time to adjust policies and practices to get in in concert with the cc guys as well as whatever state guidance and Dr. Parker mentioned that the governor northam put out executive orders 72 and and in 72 he did require that students teachers staff and visitors must wear a mask while on school property the cdc does expect to issue additional guidance in the coming weeks so we're certainly very anxious to see that as we begin to plan for our next school year so just one more slide to remind you of what the prevention strategy strategies are that we've been using these are the same things that we now will continue to use uh universal and correct use of mask has been important and as

064well as fiscal distancing and the cdc continues to say that those two strategies are the most important of the strategies hand washing and respiratory etiquette of course we've provided instruction and signs for our kids to make sure that they're continuing to do that and we've had sanitation stations throughout the schools with um hand sanitizer and classrooms so we've tried to make that uh very doable and easy for kids to do as well as staff our custodial staff has been doing a ambush job of cleaning our facilities and our nursing staff I just can't say enough about the job they've done on contact tracing it's been difficult for them as well as for our parents and we understand that I really do appreciate the work that they've done under the direction of nancy carlson so appreciate

065their work um not on this list but another important part of our strategy of course is the self-assessment and health screening that we require each day for all of our students and staff before they report to school or work we want everyone to continue to do that we all have to do our part to make sure that we all stay safe so at this point stephanie hotz our director of hr is going to give you an update on vaccinations stephanie good evening um usually I'm up here talking to you about vaccinations for our staff today or this evening we're actually going to change gears a little bit because we've done quite a bit in that area and have seen wonderful results as mary lou talked about with not having to have staff quarantine very often

066so we're very pleased with that it's time to talk about our students and so as many of you have heard the pfizer covid vaccine has now been approved for administration to students ages 12 to 17. that is exciting news to allow us to start providing some options for our families in regard to vaccinating our students especially in preparation for next school year we are as we did with our our staff partnering with the city of Newport News along with other organizations to really to do two things to try to provide as much information as we can to families about the availability of the vaccine for their children as well as to facilitate the actual vaccination where we can in terms of making access available to our having access for all of our families in the

067community in terms of vaccinating their children we did send out a covid vaccine interest survey to the families of our students ages 12 and above on friday this was not intended to try to set up appointments or anything like this this was purely a way of trying to get some information or some feedback on the interest level that parents had and their comfort level you know what kinds of scenarios would they be comfortable with in terms of their students or their children rather receiving the vaccine either on the property of Newport News public schools or possibly us helping with transportation to some vaccine clinics and so that survey was sent out to families who had you know children at ages 12 or above we're asking for them to complete that by this evening at midnight

068it is a fast turnaround and we do apologize for that but we want to move as quickly as we can in terms of providing opportunities before school closes in june I do want to say very clearly to everyone that there is no requirement whatsoever for any of our students it certainly was not a requirement for our staff and it will not be a requirement for our students in any way it is a family decision as to whether or not students or our children receive the vaccination that are eligible for we're just going to try to help with the process okay we will after we get the survey results tomorrow immediately be working with our partners to put some plans together some opportunities and then to immediately start communicating that to our families so that information

069will be coming out very quickly in the next couple of weeks because we truly would like to try to get as many of our students vaccinated who want to or whose families want them to before we close in june for the end of the school year is of course with the pfizer vaccine that is a two-dose vaccine and so we'll need to work through the summer for that second dose as well the johnson johnson vaccine as some of you may be aware is the one dose vaccine at this point it has not been approved for children yet however if it does become available then certainly we'll explore that option as well in terms of availability so if families would like to do just the one dose then that will be an option for them okay

070do want to tell families that you don't have to wait for us if you don't want to if you want to take your children to go now and get your child vaccinated who's ages 12 and above you can do that and in fact we've included the website here as well as in multiple communications from the school division in terms of this is the virginia department of health website where you could actually go and search for vaccine clinics and actually make appointments immediately from this site so we'd encourage anyone who's who has made the decision that they want to do this to go ahead and feel free to take your child yourself or of course know that we're going to provide some opportunities to assist with that in the coming weeks and that is what I

071have in terms of an update and we'll provide more information as we go through the next five or six weeks okay all right back to Dr. Manglicmot Dr. Manglicmot I had a question mr haley yes real quick um thank you for the presentation with doing your vaccination setups will it be throughout the entire school district yes sir we we're what our plan to do and that's why we wanted some of the survey information was to find out what the needs are but what we imagine doing is to providing multiple options for instance there are mobile trucks vaccine trucks the fire department has one as well as some other organizations so we would be able to have that mobile vaccine clinic to actually go to the different school locations and so if parents are able to

072do a consent form and again we're working on all those details we can actually give it during the school day like we do the flu shots now we'll also have the available availability should possibly transport students again who have parent consent to the sherwood vaccine clinic in denbigh um you know and help with the transportation piece that way as well as then to try to work with our community partners to you know if a parent wants to take their child themselves what are the options for evenings and weekends um for them to be able to access that if they want to take their their students so yes we're working with that's why we're working with the city because they have very much an interest as well in making sure that we serve the needs of

073all of our our community and so we'll hit one into town to the other and which way are we getting the method getting this information out to their parents I'm sorry how are we getting this information out to the parents well michelle price will work with us our community ex communication expert to make sure that we we make sure that we through our schools through communication through the website through other venues the city will assist us as well through their websites to assist us in any communication that we want to do as well thank you so much good evening chairman brown vice chair searles law members of the board dr parker it's great to be here this evening I'm going to give you a quick update on the work that we've been doing um for

074the past couple of weeks actually much longer than that actually um on behalf of teaching and learning and our department of technology I think it's really important for us before we move into any real updates is to take a moment to like give thanks and to celebrate that we are going back in fall of 2021 five days a week to in-person instruction yes I mean I think it's wonderful and I think it's long overdue we've waited 14 long months I know our students are excited our teachers are excited but more importantly I bet our parents are really excited right um so next year for fall though we are still going to continue using our canvas learning management system um and it's going to be a way to deliver content to our students instructionally and our

075we're going to have flexibility for our pre-k through one to not only use canvas but to use a technology tool that is more built for our early learners and it's called seesaw so we're going to integrate both of those in our early childhood years we are going to be employing throughout the division what's called a blended learning model and it's really designed to provide our students pace place and time in their learning and I'm going to talk about that in in a second but for all our teachers at home who are listening I want us to all recognize that blended learning is not concurrent learning so I don't want anyone to misinterpret what the two are we are obviously if families have questions and they have any concerns about going back to in-person instruction five

076days a week we encourage them to reach out to their building principal to have a conversation about what it's going to look like in school what our instructional model is going to look like and they have until june 15th of this year to contact the principal and have that discussion we will hold a facebook live session for all families on wednesday may 26th at 6 30 pm so look for that and we welcome all encourage all of you to come to that so having said that we know that covet has really provided us with a challenge right but it also has catapulted education into what we call the era transformation or edu the era of educational transformation is what we're listening to and lots of articles and lots of journals out there and because we're

077moving into this era we know that we gave our students a lot of student age agency and ownership of their learning this past year and some were very successful and some had a very very difficult time with it and so we know that technology is affording us this opportunity to really look at data and personalize instruction for every single student and that's where our canvas learning management system comes in but there's also something called the blended learning model where you build in that canvas support and other digital tools to deliver content to students but the teacher is there in person with kids facilitating that learning activating knowledge helping them apply their learning and make meaning of it so again reiterating blended learning model is not concurrent teaching it is different all teachers and students will

078be in the building in one location right in the classroom it's our high school you know how that works the content delivery is through the lms but again the teacher is facilitating learning and this is where we give our students some element of control over the pace they're learning how fast they want to learn it do they want to slow down over the time in which they learn am I going to do I have to do it during math can I do it during science and options like that and of course the place that in which they're going to learn an example of the model that we are going to employ these are just two examples there are many but the station rotation blended learning model is really what we want to really focus on

079in the k12 space in Newport News and you can see on the left hand side you rotate so one group is offline doing a discussion if you look on the left and other are getting real-time feedback from their teacher and another group is doing some offline collaborative project or challenge and another group is doing personalized practice online video lesson such as an example and they rotate through with time on the right it's the same concept we have some sort of offline drive inquiry you're peaking their interest you're doing a project you're getting an engage and then online they're going in and they're getting the content from the computer whether it's a video a teacher videoed lesson some sort of activity that um is through like you see k-12 or explore learning gizmos and then of

080course offline they extend and they apply their learning giving the teacher a lot of flexibility and personalizing instruction and doing individual coaching because our students are no longer whole group they are now working on different tasks in small groups and then teachers use the data from the lms to then personalize and do that individual coaching so we talked about blended learning which is really the merger of what we're used to and what we all grew up with and the fully online model and blended learning is the merger of the two but I wanted to take a second to let you know that that green space that virtual space we have some kids that are excelling and because of that we don't want to lose that student agency and that ownership of learning we want to

081encourage them to take charge of their learning and so we are developing the newport news virtual learning academy and that is in collaboration with our teaching and learning team and with our technology team so what is the virtual learning academy so it is a Newport News program it is not a school and I think that's really important to identify it's a program that we have for our students that can be full-time or part-time options in an online learning environment the full-time option means they don't step foot in the building they're learning fully online the part-time option is I'm taking one or two classes it could be for enrichment it's because maybe menchville doesn't offer something that warwick does but I'm a menchville student so now I can take that course there are lots of different

082reasons why students would want to take the part-time option we are piloting this fall with all 9th through 12th graders and we're giving priority to our 11th and 12th grade students and the reason why we did that we weren't sure of the numbers but looking at our numbers now we did kind of like a check yesterday and it looks like we have only about 120 some kids who've applied so far they still have time and of those it's equally distributed among all our high schools and it's equally distributed among the grade levels so it's interesting how that's that's coming out and really telling you that our students are really you know it's a wide spectrum of kids and it's equitably distributed we are coordinating our efforts through point option but vla students will still be

083enrolled in their assigned school so I think that's important we want to create a sense of community so you're still a warwick student you're still a heritage student you're still a menchville student but students are learning from home but they can still partake in prom and graduation and football and you know cheerleading and all those clubs and activities that really create that sense of community all courses will have a live teacher and that's the key to a fully a successful fully online program every course has a live teacher it is not a computer go through click through multiple choice questions and get through it it's not a computer assisted program like that but it's going to look different than the online world look this year in the sense that there's no first period there's no

084second period there's no third period students truly have choice over when they learn how fast they learn it and where they're going to learn it so there's a lot of asynchronous self-directed learning but that teacher is utilizing data and pulling people in small groups coaching them maybe sometimes pulling whole whole group maybe sometimes doing one-on-one it's very personalized very individualized and it's important for all parents and students at home that are listening tonight that this is a year-long commitment that you're not just saying you're going to give it a try for first quarter and then go back to your classroom second quarter you're making a year-long commitment but we are committed to our student success so if we have students that aren't succeeding of course we will meet with them and their parents with our

085vla administration of course we will try to give them the things the tools they need to be successful and if that doesn't work of course they can go back to their home school also want to know that magnet and specialty programs are not eligible right now for full-time programs that includes you know the you know new horizons and our dance and arts program and achievable dream academy that those are the things that right now we can't do a full-time program because it's such hands-on it's specialty and we're just not there yet remember we're piloting our virtual learning academy the course is offered we're doing our best to offer as much as we can it was really hard for us to develop a program because we didn't know the numbers of students we know we can

086do all core content some cte world language spanish all electives are offered as well and what we can't offer through newport news we will supplement with virtual virginia and virtual virginia as you know is our state online virtual learning program for the entire state um just going back for a second too um you know if you're interested in the full course available it's online on the vla website there is a registration process we are not doing a criteria like a magnet school you don't need a 3.2 gpa you don't need to have this sort of accomplishment or this kind of certificate all we are asking for is you take the self-assessment and the self-assessment guide students through whether or not they have the learner characteristics to be successful in an online program they can get

087a certain score if they get a score they can automatically apply if they get below a score we ask them to speak with their parents and their school counselor and then make that decision together every student who applies though is going to meet with our school counselor we really think it's important to say why do you want to do this you know what do you think you truly have the characteristics you know you realize you're learning at home you know just to go through all those things and make sure our students understand what this is about because taking seven full seven courses full time online is not necessarily easy and we're really working to make this a rigorous challenging program where we get to deeper learning it's not just about glossing over proficiency in the

088content it's really about digging more deeply because online learning gives you the flexibility to move the standards a lot more quickly than you would in an in-person environment and because of that you have a lot of wiggle room to sit there and build in really great in-depth projects that get our kids really challenged and critically thinking about local problems global problems and all types of challenges that we want them to solve and apply their content cross-discipline there will be part-time registration so if I'm a part-time student I register right there at my school if i'm a full-time student comes to the division we look over their schedule and we try to meet the needs of the students deadlines on the window open may 10th it ends may 26th um june 16th um is a deadline

089to request pandemic virtual learning and july 15th we have virtual virginia registration closes we push the application window closing on may 26 because we do have to get students registered in virtual virginia if we have to supplement and that supplement we would have to get them registered before that deadline other good and great news the last time we talked we gave you some summer updates um we are having a summer institute for the arts we're having mini camps we're really excited about that opportunity it's for rising um 7th through 11th graders or current 7th and 11th graders and it's going to begin july 19th and end on august 5th and it's going to be at heinz middle school it's a full day event you can see it's 7 30 a.m to 2 p.m and there

090is an application deadline which exists june 10 2021 and you can go to the Newport News website to get that application other good news I know that our band students have just been dying to get back into practice and so we are resuming band camps july 26th through august 13th it may vary by school just by a little bit but it's pretty much that's those are the time frames um we are offering we're going to do it safely every single wind instrument will have a bell cover it's like a face cover and then every student has to have a face cover as well we're following all safety precautions um that the cds cdc and vdoe recommend safe distancing face covering even for drumline flag all those events color guard no instruments or materials are are

091to be shared and all instruments and materials will be cleaned and disinfected and we also have some other good news that we are happy to announce is that we are going to waive the instrument rental fees for 2021 2022 school year for all of our middle school and high school students so that's some good news there and lastly I just want to share with you that jrt our jrotc program is going to be up and running as well you can see that our navy jr rotc leadership academy is going to be at heritage in warwick they're doing virtual um but they're still having it it's june 21st through the 24th our air force jrotc leadership academy is in person june 21st through the 24th and june 28th through the 29th and our army jrotc is

092not having any cadet camps this summer they believe that they can get students caught up by fall so that it precludes the um or concludes our my presentation do you have any questions for me all right questions yes miss aman I do have some questions um kind of two groups um the first one because you mentioned uh students could be full-time or part-time virtually could you give maybe sort of a hypothetical what a part-time virtual experience like schedule might look like would they go to school till like 12 and then they might have a class at home after it really will be designed by the school counselor and the student and what's available in the school but an example we've all done this part-time virtual learning has taken place in Newport News through virtual virginia

093for years now so what students might may choose to do is they're going to take english and us government online because they feel like they can learn that a little bit better than maybe calculus and physics and they want to be in that closer to a teacher for those content so they may choose to take those in the morning and they're going to be at home and they're going to come in late and then they're going to take their physics calculus any other classes that they may have and then leave for the day is an example another example is I come in I take ap physics I have second block off I'm going to go to the media center I'm going to go to the designated area in my high school and I'm going to

094work online and work on you know whatever I choose to work on that day it could be english could be us government then I'm going to go to calculus and I go to lunch and then I may leave for the day so the part-time option is really really flexible and we're trying to do that for our students and their individual needs um some students may have to work and so we're going to give them all in person in the morning if we can and then they have the flexibility to work in their part-time classes at night when they get off of work on the weekend it just really is it depends on the student and the schedule so would they be able to in that case watch the teacher-led part of it or the recorded

095part of it at a different time of day than maybe if it was live so you know you all know i've taught online for years and I was a teacher in the classroom when I taught online but I was also administrator right teaching online and so my day wasn't consumed with being with my online kids I could answer questions and just do those types of things so usually what happens is our students are self-directed so I record myself you know doing like a genetics problem and then I would have a video for them to watch and then I would have some like quick like I would do a lot of quizzes that would do quick checks for me I didn't count them but they would grade them immediate feedback for a student to see how

096well he's doing in a quick check for me to see how they're doing then based on that data I may say you know dr best and mr harris you're rocking it you're good to go I don't even need to meet with you you're going to move on to the next activity but mrs Surles-Law you know you need to meet with me you know and mr brown he's not doing his work so I'm going to be calling his mama and talking to him so it really is truly personalized in that way and um and that's what I enjoy most about virtual learning and being an online teacher was I really got to meet the students where they are um every teacher that is applying for this option they will have to go through an online methodology

097blended online methodology course um to ensure that they have the skill set again it's a pilot and we're going to be doing ongoing professional learning with our teachers and giving them the skills they need to help them be successful but to help them help their kids be successful okay um thank you and I guess my other questions center around the blended learning and I guess you know having had the more traditional learning style years and years ago um I was wondering if you could maybe explain a little bit more I guess I'm concerned you know if it's all blended in sort of this round robin of stations how that may impact kids say going on to college and being in lecture classes or after and also I wanted to know what the feedback has been

098from teachers I can imagine being a little concerned having to track say 20 20 students worth of levels and where they are in the different stations versus if I need to teach them these items in geometry go up put it up on the board so they can learn and then we can grow from there I have been across the united states and have seen blended learning models very very successfully done I've learned a lot from those models and um it it's so different like we know that all teachers have to put their content in the learning management system regardless there's a snow day school still goes on if there's a hurricane and we're out of school for you know a week school can still go on so in order to make that happen we have

099to get in the habit of putting our content online and posting announcements for our students to know what they have to accomplish then you come into my classroom and you know this is my biology classroom and I'm going to have maybe station set up maybe I don't maybe I'm like I want you know um if you feel like you want to learn a little bit more on this content I want you to open up your chromebook and I want you to watch the video for those students who are still working on their project I have an area set up over here come over here and work together and collaborate on this but I'm going to pull mr eley up front with me and I'm going to pull mr harris and I'm going to go through

100a coaching kind of scenario to help them so while we see a station rotation model it doesn't always have to be like that the model is fluid and it's flexible and the thing that I like most about it is it's not necessarily the same in every classroom so you're right like how do we prepare our kids for lecture if we're going to be doing this type of learning well I may have a day where it's whole group and we all know there is nothing wrong with a teacher-led instruction right we know that in today's day and age our students kind of bucket that because they're so used to learning and getting their content knowledge from another source they don't necessarily need the teacher for that the teacher has to help them make meaning of what

101they're learning online but there are times you have to do whole group and so that teacher is really our designer they're our architect right they're designing learning experiences for our students and the learning management system is really helping you identify what students need help where and that's where the lms and technology supports you in that and there's lots of different tools it's not just the lms you know there are a lot of different tools that we can utilize to support our teachers um in getting immediate feedback identifying where our kids are and then pulling them as appropriate there are also something called mastery pathways where I can you know have a student like you can't go on and in the learning management system until you master at a certain level an activity then you can

102go on we're really excited about that we're exploring it right now in Newport News our itc's are taking lead on that they're amazing and um they're they're digging in and what does this look like and then we're going to give professional learning this summer on that and has the teacher feedback been good about as we're starting those that we you've talked to in any focus groups or anything um we're having listening tours coming up so we haven't done that yet at all but I will tell you I was going to show it tonight but it was an eight minute long video and I got to find a way to spruce it but it's our teachers that are that are talking about even the concurrent learning model and our teachers are amazing and while they say

103this has been a challenge and it has been really hard that they have really enjoyed the experience and what it's brought them so at the next board meeting i'll splice it a little bit so you don't have to sit through eight minutes of video but we'll pull the pieces that we think are most profound and allow you to listen to our teachers our teachers are rock stars they're dynamic and they are so um they're just they can go with the flow and blended learning isn't necessarily harder than what we've been doing in a high-tech classroom so teachers who have been using technology in their classroom this is kind of the same thing in a lot of respects it's not that different um the reason why we couldn't do a fully blended learning model is we

104didn't have one-to-one technology we didn't have canvas learning management system so if we would have had that your rock stars would have been doing blended learning years ago and we probably had some rock stars that were still doing it and finding ways to do it so um again I don't think it's that different I think they're just going to kind of go I don't have to do concurrent right and I get to see my kids in person yes dr best um thank you for that report um I have two questions but first just so happy to hear about the news for band and rotc and for any parents or students that are listening tonight please take advantage of the free rental for your instruments and if there were any students out there considering quitting don't

105quit our bands need you and and you can get band scholarships so we need your support with the band and rit so really happy to hear about that for the um students in the magnet schools and things like that for part-time I did hear you say that they are eligible possibly to take a class or two but they'll meet with their counselors and then they'll make a decision for for that correct yes okay and then for summer school do you have anything further in your report for summer school like was where there will there be any virtual summer school classes or is that in your report um there will be secondary options for students and at the secondary level options for virtual that's what I'm some forms are absolutely yes but not for our elementary

106we were really prescriptive in really identifying and targeting our elementary school students who are struggling in literacy and we really felt the virtual model wasn't going to work for them however we are offering lots of opportunities I excel and we're going to have a on our website we're going to have all these activities posted on june 1st for our families to to choose what's going to work for them and how they can further enrich their students learning throughout the summer if they opt not to go to summer school if they don't want to do a summer camp we're going to have a plethora of activities for them to choose from and at the secondary level dr jones was masterful I don't know if she's still here but she was masterful in um thinking of how

107we can create a virtual option but just still have teacher support and on tuesdays and thursdays for those kids that are just working virtually in ixl on their own but they will have a live teacher who will have office hours on tuesday and 30 and can pull small groups and can call them encourage them to keep going do all those things that we know students need in order to kind of get them over at the hump of learning on their own all right mr harris yes yeah thank you Mr. Chairman in fact Mr. Chairman I was on the fence with this blended learning thing when I first started hearing about it you know because I was on this still thinking of the old perception of something being taken away from you know other students or

108teachers or whatever the case may be but you know just looking at this program it would have helped me when I was in the third and fourth and fifth and sixth grade because I wanted to do my work so fast so I had time to play obviously but teachers teachers kept me busy and kept me out of trouble but I see how this works and either because you're gonna have that student you know that wants to come in and just get it done but the teacher can keep them busy throughout the whole whole class period and sitting in a class and you know you know you know even though our teachers do a great job but you have those students that attentive spanish is like that so I think this right here is perfect you

109know I think it'll capture those kids that otherwise would have you know may stray adrift so I think it's a pretty good program I think it'll help us catch our struggling learners earlier correct like I think sometimes we wait too long and then they get further and further behind it's like a hole and it's hard to get dig out of that so I think this model is really going to support that as well we'll catch them when they we need to catch them and get them caught up quickly Mrs. Surles-Law so I have a comment and a question I'll go with the question so I don't forget that one um since the students may be part-time or full-time the counselor at this home school will follow them or will the administrators of the um virtual

110learning academy follow them that's a good question so our teachers are our first defense so even part-time or full-time they are the ones who will communicate with our vla administrators and the vla school counselor and our advisor for the vla to talk about this student as not being successful we encourage they're secondary we want to create agency you contact the student first student doesn't reply you contact parents parents just can't get them motivated working then you pull an administration and the school counselor and then you have a team meeting and at that point you're a partnership it's a partnership between home between the administrators and the student themselves to really get them back on track okay and my comment is I am overjoyed to see this primarily because when my daughter was in school here

111in Newport News she graduated last year she took great use of virtual virginia and it did do exactly what you're saying and it really prepared her as an independent learner and I could see where if that had been the case for you know offered to students earlier it would do exactly what you're saying here is give them some individualized attention that a lot of times gets missed um you know as as they're moving along so so we're very I'm very excited uh to hear of this um of this opportunity for students we're excited too all right other questions all right so I'll just make one comment and and a question of my own about the uh summer institute for the arts uh I uh really excited and I'm gonna go home gonna tell my son

112about it this was you know for my own son this was his uh favorite program and I know that there was so hats off to the administration because I know that there was talk last meeting we didn't know if we could we would have this the bandwidth to bring this in and so I'm really very thankful that we were able to bring the summer and suit for the arts back uh I know we we missed what you know one year it's been an ongoing about 20 years it's been going on we missed the one year during kobe but we brought it back as soon as we could and so i'm very excited about that and summer's institute for the arts I can say for my own uh child it was that was what um without

113that program he would not have considered himself for a music major in college so this was the program that really got his foot in the door and let him know that he could actually be successful as a music major and let him know what life would kind of be like as a music major and that the what was offered there was ap so that's my question was offer that was ap music theory and so that was the critical class that he was able to take at that point in time and that's what really put him on the path towards what he decided want to be his career and I think for a lot of other students it's a similar um that's similar fork in the road for them so the question there is just will

114we be able to at some point either if not this summer but in the near future be able to bring that ap music theory back because that's really that critical piece for people who want to go into them into music so here is um well you know I don't know if dr jones wants to say anything but the beauty of virtual learning you know is the fact that we probably don't have it every high school because you don't have enough students taking it to justify a teacher so now we have five high schools the idea of making a class virtually becomes a lot greater and then we can offer those types of opportunities for students when they would not normally have those opportunities and they don't have to go full time and they don't have

115to they can one class i'm going to take ap music theory because that really motivates me and it's not offered at my school so I think that we're really going to see students showing interest and then how do we use virtual learning to make sure that we give our students the choices that they want in in their courses so um as far as back in the school dr jones I don't know if you know anything a little bit more deeply I think we fully come back return for in-person instruction we should be able to offer that um ap during the year as well as with through the institute all right wonderful well thank you so Mr. Chairman I'll just close out a few remarks on the uh uh on the presentation uh just reiterating that

116um to the public and and easing the concerns of any parent I want to clearly state that restrict that vaccinations will not restrict students from activities or enrollment in school so if it's still a family's decision to whether their child is vaccinated we encourage you to have your students vaccinated I think mrs Roaseau made it very clear that when we have an incident where someone is symptomatic people with vaccinations do not have to quarantine and we do not have uh have further concerns in those areas and there will be some lessening of restrictions down the line and it will some of it will tie into whether whether a person is vaccinated or not so we want to still encourage vaccinations but I want to make it very clear that students can still join sports teams

117activities enroll in school there will not be restrictions based on vaccinations um one don't wait on us for vaccinations we uh the city it has plenty of locations we have we actually are publicizing those locations on our website and we'll as we roll out our our scheduled um vaccination efforts we will share that with families in the community but you you can get your student uh your child 12 12 to 17 year old vaccinated sooner but we encourage you to go ahead and do that and use local resources the virtual learning academy is offered for full or part-time students in the virtual learning academy but all of the students will be full-time okay for adm purposes I just want to make sure I make that clear no one's hearing well I can go part time

118next year that is not the case you have to enroll in school full-time and you can supplement your fake in-person instruction with courses through the virtual learning academy or virtual virginia or you can be a fully enrolled student in virtual in the virtual learning academy and I just want to make sure that as parents get become familiar with the governor's um orders order 72 which was uh which was released last week that lighting restrictions for outside venues and rest and uh mask wearing uh and some social distancing and then order 79 which takes in place which will be in place as of may 28th I want to make it very clear that we are we were told by the state superintendent and vdoe that we should plan school for in-person instruction five days a week

119okay and knowing that there will be further governor's mandates lesser restrictions possibly coming out over the summer so we are still not not scheduling or planning with the rules that will be in place once school starts so we have to continue to plan for for five days of instruction in-person instruction students learning in person knowing that we still need to see a few things fall in place at the cdc vdh level for us to be able to accommodate define what safety will will look like in our buildings next year and mitigation strategies we also need to see efforts move forward with vaccinating students under 12. 12 years of age so a lot still needs to be in place we want the parents to understand that flexibility will still need to be there over the summer

120as we continue to plan but you have two deadlines in front of you one is if you would like your child hi your your 9th to 12th grader enrolled in the virtual learning academy or considered that deadline is coming up may 26th and you have until june 15th to speak to your school counselor or designee at your at your child's school if you are considering um a pandemic virtual learning option for next year for the first semester of next year which would be um that deadline is june 15th to have that conversation with uh with your school personnel okay so Mr. Chairman at that at this time I'll conclude our remarks thank you Dr. Parker I believe that now takes us on to uh item 5.02 which is our 2021 2022 federal funding applications good

121evening school board chairman mr brown vice chair Mrs. Surles-Law school board members and Dr. Parker the federal program team appreciates the opportunity to support the division's academic agenda by providing our school communities financial support that is echoed throughout and aligned with journey 2025 strategic plan as well as every student succeeds act excuse me the purpose of our dynamic federal programs team is to secure and manage federal grants and support equitable services for students and complement evidence-based programs currently offered in Newport News public schools I will be sharing the federal funding plans and applications for our title 1 part a title 2 title 3 title 4 and a few supplementary grants at federal program monitors the grants will be for the 2021-22 school year in addition I will share the purpose of each grant the four-year

122trend and the itemization of funding for the new school year the 2021-22 grants were written using last year's allocation or what we call level funding the federal program funding provides provided is roughly 11.3 million for title one 1.2 million for title ii 174 000 for title 3 and hundred and roughly 882 thousand for title four which is a total of about thirteen and a half million dollars across the board title one part a purpose is to improve basic programs for providing fair equal and sufficient opportunities to improve academic achievement and schools with the highest concentration of low-income families in ninth in 2018 19 funds were reduced from the previous year by about 491 000 however in the past three years title 1 funds have been at or above level funding title 1 serves over 8

123300 students in our pre-k centers and 14 identified elementary schools as mentioned earlier the purpose of title 1 funding is to improve the academic achievements and schools with the highest concentration of low-income families additionally support is provided in our 14 identified elementary schools and uh pre-k centers to impact the quality of instruction provided to the title one schools and this is accomplished to the skills of our interventionists and they provide group or targeted instructional support in the areas of reading and mathematics to expand student academic achievement another purpose for title 1 is to provide instructional coaches and they support and provide authentic learning and initiatives and mathematics best practices the coaches also collaborate and conduct professional development by modeling lessons with our teachers our school-based reading specialists implement a comprehensive literacy program and collaborate with

124teachers and administrators analyze data on the school's literacy program and provide feedback for the next steps with our schools administrators and school leadership teams and this is all in order to provide continuous student growth the specialists also assist students on one-on-one instruction as well as small group instruction with building their literacy skills family engagement specialists serve as our key liaison between the student family and community the team fosters an active partnership between the family and school communities by organizing both school and community based programs and activities that support the school family community as well as connecting agencies and resources for our family base as needed title one also supports the Newport News pre-k program in collaboration with the virginia preschool initiative vpi again the dynamic federal program staff is supported by title 1 funding along

125with pre-k administrative positions paraprofessional positions and technology support each grant has miscellaneous expenses as well that help provide for mileage as our professionals go from building to building we also provide printing costs for materials and supplies for a lot of our schools as well as our indirect costs that is a cost that we provide our second grant which is our title ii part a the purpose of our title ii funding is to improve the quality of teaching and leadership through recruitment and professional development the grant program provides supplementary funds and supporting effective instruction improve teacher quality and increase the number of properly licensed and endorsed teachers in our classrooms the grant tends to fluctuate in funding with two years of decrease followed by an increase last year of roughly a hundred and ninety five thousand

126dollars and again this past year we lost about ninety three thousand dollars as you can see title ii funds are utilized to support staff and students in grade k through 12 by providing division level instructional coaches and specialists to support teachers in providing authentic literacy initiatives and mathematics best practices the coaches also research collaborate with school teams and administrators and as well develop model lessons private schools are allocated a portion of these funds in the amount of 62 000 and the funds are used to support their educational programs as well the grant title ii grant also has miscellaneous items uh such as indirect costs and we also provide materials and supplies to support our professional development opportunities title iii part a grant supports our language instruction for english learners and immigrant youth funding is used

127to address english language proficiency and academic achievement of our english learners the team follows the provision of language instruction educational programs and activities that increase the knowledge and skill of teachers who serve ELs title iii funding also provides enhanced instructional opportunities for our immigrant youth and over the past four years title iii funding has increased or has remained at level funding the funding supports family engagement specialists who focus on our english learner population the engagement specialist is a key liaison between the students family and school community the specialists conduct home visits communication provides an additional bridge between the families and the school community while providing connections to community agencies and resources to families as needed the l team is provided professional development through virginia esl supervisor association and they attend the teacher teaching english to

128speakers of other language conferences as well as the vdoe ELs academy funding is also used to provide materials and cultural experiences for our newcomers title iv part a is the student support and academic enrichment program this grant is intended to improve students academic achievement by providing students with access to well-rounded education support the safe and healthy school conditions for student learning and enhance the use of technology to improve the academic achievement and digital literacy of all students the original funding uh for allocation for title four was 261 000 and this was about four years ago and as you can see it has continuously increased under these three categories for title iv well-rounded safe and healthy and technology funds are allocated as follow for well-rounded and this grant again is is separated in three different categories

129so for well-rounded we are we provide support uh with the focus on secondary schools in english learning population as well as evidence-based instruction and stem initiatives and support safe and healthy at the second portion of this grant provides professional development and materials and supplies for mentoring and wellness programs and professional development there is also funding for technology support with professional development and technology materials the value of reserve is provided to identified private schools to support their needs under well-rounded safe and healthy and technology so for title 2 and for title 4 there is a portion of those funds that go to our private schools the federal programs department also works with a few additional specialized grants such as the virginia preschool initiative in conjunction with our first step pre-k program we also work with the

130virginia department of education office of school quality to provide support and evidence-based instruction in reading and math to identified elementary and middle schools title 1 part d is a subgrant of title 1 part a that supports our Newport News behavior health center academy needs in review each grant is written to embrace and support journey 2025 strategies to engage in talents to develop student success create environments for student and staff wellness cultivate employee expertise foster partnerships and manage the stewardship of resources our next step is for the board approval for 2021 to be submit to for to allow us to submit the applications to the virginia department of education in july 2021 and at this time I will be more than happy to address any questions all right are there any questions at this time right

131no questions at this time thank you thank you thank you we'll now move on to to item 5.03 our update from achievable dream good evening good meeting Chairman Brown, and Vice-chair Surles-Law, Dr. Parker and all of our wonderful board members I am purvis blake I am the vice president of academics foreign at achievable dream academies here with me today in the audience is our president and ceo uh dr lee vreeland and I also want to take just a brief second to give a huge shout out to our two dynamic building principals uh ms tara harris um at the academy and ms courtney mompoint at the middle/high school um are unable to be with us here today but we know they are here in spirit so we're going to talk a little bit today about the

132partnership of achievable dream Newport News public schools and as we put this uh presentation together we wanted to uh figure out what would be the best title and so we came a responding and partnering through the pandemic um and so we're just going to talk a little bit and recap out here a little bit I know you all have been sitting for a while so I'll be brief if we put together this brief uh three and a half hour presentation and then we're gonna be done after that so let's talk a little bit achievable dream here we are just to recap and I know you're like mr bake please so mission vision and core it is our mission from day one um to develop independent and productive citizens that's what we do what is our

133vision really and truthfully again we'll be almost where we we will be 30 years in existence this summer in Newport News is to bring equity to education uh by providing opportunities for success and in life there you see some of our core values and you will see hopefully some of that that will come up through this presentation today as well so key program elements first thing first and foremost uh we used to uh pre-covid shake the hands of every single one of our students uh when they came in the building we didn't open the door and say hey y'all have at it and go home after you're done we we greeted our students every single day many of you all all of you all have participated in those morning handshakes and it's multiple reasons that

134we do that also we have the morning program and social rotations which is our character education courses we teach to the holistic child it's what we do we believe that um when you graduate high school there is no sol of life and so how do we prove that you're successful in life and that is our goal and you'll see some of that today uh as well we have uniforms we create the family of environment because we really are a family um from achievable dream in all of our districts we really are a family we are extended day we're considered year-round school we start in the summer so our summer intersession is not remediatory like you're staying in summer school we are that's where we start our years for our students they are with their new

135teachers they're learning their new teachers the new culture the new curriculum and so forth um and so and then we have partnerships with the community military law enforcement and everybody uh infinity and beyond come to see us it's here you see just a few pictures this is fort uses soldiers we have a partnership with fort eustis they come in every single day shake their hands used to elbow bump in foot taps now with our elementary students at the middle in high school we have the sheriff's department with the middle school in the high school we have the Newport News police department this is just a few snapshots of our morning banners every single morning they get together and say these banners things like I can go to college if I work hard achievable dream loves

136me I must learn to earn uh I am somebody we believe the more that they say it the more that they believe that and I know dr bess can probably say this in her sleep [Laughter] she called product mr big please go to the next slide so social rotations this is our character education course it's right here ethics and conflict resolution and one thing that I really want to point out here is as the pandemic came along um and school districts were trying to find the curriculum to address the social and emotional needs of the student seo learning one thing that we are proud about is an achievable dream has always had that built into our curriculum and here you just see some of the things mindfulness and meditation uh stem speaking green etiquette ethics

137and peaceful conflict resolution we call it doing the right thing when no one is looking so we had that already built in it was just now how to maintain uh those things cradle to college one of our uh our another proud moment for us uh we have a program which is called the littlest dreamers and this is really based off we took a trip uh dr really paid for a lot of us to go up to uh harlem children's zone in new york and we we saw a lot of the aspects that they had in the program which really mirrored uh what we do here uh in Newport News with achievable dreams so they had an aspect called baby college and what we did was to build on to that and littlest dreamers is for

138expectant parents up to age three and it doesn't have to be a member or family member of an achievable dream it's community-wide um and we what we do we they come in and we teach courses like early childhood literacy effective discipline uh and we also teach um uh this this time we had bilingual so we taught spanish as well and we did it we were able to do it we had to take a break of course for covid for in-person but at achievable dream you know we're just we just can't sit still we don't do average how did you go dreaming so we found a way to do it virtually and this this um past literacy dreaming session we had as far as florida families as far as florida that was joining us as well

139so here you see my baby picture um this was a little bit I'm just it's not but this is uh an achievable dream the littlest dreamer program and again it's just for us to build a cohort of families for a support system to give them ... because as we all know in education those brains are sponges in those early years and so how can we get them prepared to come to school in first grade uh first grade and kindergarten um and give them the necessary tools as parents has to do and we provide gifts we have baby gates and socket plugs and uh temperature thermometers bathtub thermometers and so forth that we give them dream to korea this is on the opposite end now now we're talking about our alumni that have now graduated or

140in college or going into the workforce of military we have a portal now we have a um director of alumni services that works specifically specifically I promise I can talk with our alumni and so they don't leave us even if we want them to they don't leave us they always call back there and they're coming for us uh come to us how can you how can we help you and so again at achievable dream we have about 800 or so alumni now since our first graduating class and we can tell you what where about 95 percent of those students are because we keep in contact with them um again making sure that they are successful in life but also proven and make sure that we are doing that what we say we are doing as

141an organization here's a little bit of our program results and you look at these first set of bullets and that was from class of 2020 yeah our first graduating class with the school within the school model is from and there you see 90 to 95 percent uh students attend four-year five to eight trade school three to five military and one to two percent join the workforce social justice let's talk a little bit about that and so we an achievable dream as I stated earlier we just don't do average and so we saw the things that were going on not just um globally not just nationally but here in our own communities and we couldn't stand by we we do not want to exist we have a saying we do not want to exist within four

142walls on the city block we want to make sure that we are impacting the community that we run first and then our um our whole district and then ripple will affect out as much as we can and so we developed the dreamers for change task force I'm proud to announce we have representatives on that task force not only from achievable dream but from Newport News public schools we have doctor shamika ... uh miss courtney mompoint and one of our lead math lead teacher uh mr jonathan lister but we also have um corporation owners uh that are there from this from newport news brake king is on uh a representative from u.s foods is on uh chief drew from the police department is on and we really want to make sure that we're doing our part

143to push the needle forward um with diversity equity and inclusion so dream is for change and I'm gonna change that slide uh before I go on a rant about just how important that is for us um and that the work that we are doing here so you asked the question responses and changes during covert thank you for asking that question here it is it caused us to really change as all of us um our operation strategies how do we maintain uh what we are doing uh to make sure our students are successful so day one even before march 13th that day that friday uh we came together as an organization in partnership with schools um and we went there was uh you see there we went uh in all of our districts in Newport News

144virginia beach and henrico county we we filled up and packed those u-hauls and I think that's why my back still hurts because we loaded up those u-hauls and we went and provided two weeks of food for all of our families um to make sure that they knew because at the time we we knew that they were going to be just two weeks that they went home and not only that it was important for us again as we said with systemic impact and so we reached out to dr parker and said we have some additional resources uh can we please uh is there another school and so he said absolutely we appreciate the help newsome park and so we're able to pro provide 50 families at newsome park elementary as well uh with two weeks of

145food as well again that systemic impact all right and so oh did I hit something wrong all right so transitioning here we are it's transitioning again um we're going back to social rotations we talked about that and so we're going back to live social rotation I think I've skipped something that's my clicker yes please I think my clicker isn't working all right there we are so alumni and student support this is our student from uh graduating class from last year uh again there was a trying year for them a graduation year for them and so we did not want to leave them uh on their own and so we again our director of alumni services worked for them um worked for our alumni kevin contact with them uh made phone calls as we did with

146all of our families each and every um student we make phone calls with them once a month just to check in to see where they are uh as well okay now let's talk a little bit about transitioning as we as we're coming back on to it and really truthfully we the social rotations we are still doing um we're doing those virtually as well as in person for for those so those are the things like the etiquette the speaking green the mindfulness and meditation and so forth it was important for us to make sure that we maintain those both for our in-person students and our virtual students also we have grants that we were able to uh come uh to receive that allowed us to to purchase them materials and so we have things like the

147robots and 3d printers and so forth to make sure that we're at the cutting edge of that as well virtual saturday school as I talked about a little earlier we are extended days then the school year saturday school is also something that we continue to do we did that virtual and we had attendance numbers from 85 to 90 but another good thing about doing saturday school virtual was that we were able to now have a cross-campus science fair and so our uh fifth graders from newport news along with our fifth graders from virginia beach and our fifth graders from henrico county were all able to come together as a family and put on a friendly uh science competition as well virtual field trips are much right I mean for us exposure is is important and

148so we made sure that they still had those opportunities virtually to visit places as far as china um and to date and Newport News we've all gone on almost 60 virtual field trips and lastly uh on this slide is our corporate partners are major for us what it takes is our job readiness program and so we have partners with Newport News shipbuilding and ferguson enterprises and wm jordan and so many other uh places um that come in and they still did our what it takes sessions once a week even though they were all going through their own kind of adjustments they they they knew it was important for them to be in front of our students so once a week they still came virtually and talked to our students making that connection from school to

149the work field and to life so we talked about the students what about the staff of achievable dream and so here you see just a screenshot of something we call dreamer dialogue and weekly we got together and talked as a team we led these uh dreamer uh dialogue sessions we talked to things about things like mental health um we also talked about taking a break backing away from the computer sometimes and when you're offset sometimes saying you often get that mental reset please don't tell dr vreeland I said that um but still it is important to get that that that mental break but I say that but she she was one uh major uh an instrumental in this part of making sure that her staff were well well-rested because as she said if you're not

150100 you can't give anyone else 100 so that was major for us uh for team building as well so finally what what what what got us through what as achievable dream not only family because we believe but relationships drive the results but what what what got us through and so the first thing we understood was we had to be flexible you know no one knew what what was to come you know no one knew how to navigate this um and those that did probably pass away from the last one because they that was 1918 or something so um but then secondly it's big for us you know you hear the terms uh think outside of the box but for us we like to just you know I love kickball so we just kicked that box

151out in the street uh we got rid of the box because we didn't want to be boxing at all so we just tried to find new methods and new ways to engage our students and families positivity I can't say enough about that and then also considering the individual situations now you know we will always use cliche when you go to people with understand the green how are you doing and you know we we they'll say I'm doing fine if they say anything else we keep walking sometimes we really don't want to listen but now in the pandemic you say uh how are you doing you really want to know you really want to know how are you how are you doing talk to me let me really listen to you because now it is it

152is very important um and so the main thing that drove us is really this last bullet as I end um for us how do you want to be remembered in the pandemic that was major for us because believe it or not we are part of history so it was up to us to to make our our ... history and how we want to be remembered as an organization and as a partnership with Newport News public schools and throughout this uh presentation I say we a lot but I do want to say when I say we I don't say we as an achievable dream incorporated I say we as an achievable dream I say we as Dr. Parker and his staff I say we as chairman brown and you are I say we as chief drew

153in the police department I say we as gary morgan and the sheriff's department and so many others because it really is a community effort uh as well and the last thing I would just mention is our schools were able to be uh vaccination spots uh and dr fox was very integral along with partnership with riverside health services uh to make have vaccinations in our elementary and middle schools and we were able to vaccinate 2 700 people uh in the southeast community because it was our goal as an organization that has a family connected to make sure we get the vaccination to those that need it the most and might not be able to to get there so so mr eley thank you for for your hand in the in the vaccinations for for your donations

154and your time with dr best as well for you know helping with the registrations and referrals and so forth um so just again that's my time so I just wanted to thank you all for the opportunity for sharing achievable dream I could talk about it all night but I know you'll have some other things to do any other any questions for me I'll be happy to take them at this time thank you yeah mr eley just a quick comment um I just want to say thank you to you that you've been ... your staff lee y'all did an excellent job with getting citizens in the east end community vaccinated I don't know if it would have been done if y'all didn't step up to the leadership to make that happen and Dr. Parker thank you

155again um for making that happen great partnership I got so many phone calls and emails so so many younger people of my generation wanted to get vaccinated so everybody became ... because I'm saying look I want you vaccinated I want you to be safe and because of so many people in my generations never get vaccinated they have been on the forefront say hey I'm here I'm normal I'm still alive get vaccinated that's right so a lot of my friends now you know I'm that's in the 20s and 30s they're stepping up to the plate to get vaccinated because there's so much misleading information out there where when you see people like me and the rest of school board members and other young millennials get vaccinated it makes like okay they're still here let's get it

156too so I just want to say thank you lee again of your staff for making sure it happened in the eastern community and thank riverside as well because if it wasn't for you all I don't know if it would have been available to so many seniors and so many people who really needed that take advantage of that great opportunity absolutely it was a team effort yes thank you so much yes so the questions or comments all right well I'll just uh make a comment comment and one question regards to uh thank you all for for coming tonight this was one of the things that Dr. Parker said and I sat down back in july we were intentional about let's see let's get let's spend some more time with our community partners in particular achievable dream

157and get them to come in and talk with us so this is the fulfillment of our year-long plan in terms of getting our community partners here with us and so we appreciate you all coming and presenting tonight and then just the question is in regards to we look at the graduation rates being what they are and the the results that you're able to achieve how many more students could we expand this opportunity too so given that we see this kind of success could we um you know double the number of students or increase by you know any kind of uh um measure the number absolutely yes that's that's a great question and we get that a lot you know in all of our district and so with our our school model um based on our

158in person and within our schools we are uh available up to a certain amount of slots um because uh we have donors that donate to the program and so forth and graduating class in space um and so we are um we are limited now in Newport News we we have about our income in sixth grade i'll say we have about a hundred or so students that we accept um and for through attrition that's kind of the last time where we accept our students um and so we are about where we are as far as capacity every year we recruit our students we're on a waiting list for all of our grades um and we start at the same time about january time frame as far as recruitment and so forth so we're on a waiting

159list now just based on size and so we we won't expand a lot as far as in the building the good uh one of the good parts of the panda is that pandemic if there was is that we were able to develop a program uh called achieve same pro and it's an extension of an achievable dream but now it's a different model and so for example if a school or district wants to implement the characteristics of an achievable dream without having the full model they can do so um and we are part of that and so that you can implement those characteristics and aspects of achievable dream within the school without having to take on all of the aspects and so we're proud of that um and so that is probably the way that we'll

160be able to expand to do more as well that was a shameless plug I'm sorry but but no no in all seriousness um we we saw that we got that question a lot and so we again with us not wanting to be average we wanted to how can we impact more uh how can we do more um not just with the the students that we have the 1250 and Newport News that we have but to others and have that same aspect um and so it was just on us you know and we got together and we formed the chiefs and pro to be able to get um all of those aspects of achievable dreams so they have those same uh characteristics and social academic and moral learning as well and so right now that's the

161impact that we will kind of move as as we move forward um because again we are limited in space within our buildings all right thank you any other question all right thank you very much thank you now we'll move on to our item 5.04 the attendance report 5.05 the membership report and 5.06 the construction report board members you've received copies of these reports in your packets are there any questions for Dr. Parker at this time all right hearing none then we will move on to 5.07 comments by the superintendent Dr. Parker the floor is yours thank you Mr. Chairman um as we as we round and I'll stick to the script tonight but I want to first say thank you uh board members so much for the honor of being named one of the VASS

162superintendents of the year um I humbly um accept the the honor but uh also and also understand the the commitment that our staff had to make this year uh many many personal sacrifices as well as professional to make sure that our students were served adequately so I would also say I honor them this evening as well our teachers in the classrooms our custodians our transportation supports and all of our administrators individuals who have really given a lot this year to make sure that we stayed ahead of the curve in terms of serving our students so as we round out this school year we are very excited about our upcoming graduations and celebrations additionally we are excited about our plans for the summer spark program and the launch of our virtual academy in the fall and

163you may some of you may not remember this I stated that while we are dealing with the day-to-day challenges of a pandemic with every challenge that we face eventually there will be an opportunity this evening it's my hope that our board and our community understand that it is now time for us to move forward with many of the opportunities that are being presented before us we are now fully fully functioning and sustainable one device per student school division while we've overcome the challenges that forced us to accelerate this goal the opportunity is now to continue to look at innovative ways to leverage our technology to maximize student opportunities for for learning and I think dr Manglicmot gave you a very good idea of how you would leverage technology in the classroom with the blended learning

164model the virtual learning academy is also another example of how we're planning to do this and I remind you our community the vla virtual learning applications are available in student view and the deadline to apply is wednesday may 26th I'd like to ... put a few congratulations out there congratulations to Denbigh high school's aviation academy for being included in virginia living magazine 2021 list of the top schools in the state okay this the article referenced the team of students at the aviation academy who participated in hunch high school students united with nasa to create hardware to build special lockers used on the international space station only one school in the u.s took part in that program okay and we don't and we have that school wow so uh may is also national mental um health

165awareness month and better hearing and speech month so I want to acknowledge our licensed clinical social workers and student support specialists for supporting the social emotional needs of our students and our hearing-impaired teachers and speech-language pathologists for supporting our students with hearing and communication disabilities Newport News public schools has a wide range of resources to support and advance students and I think all of our dedicated student advancement staff who serve our students this is also national uh education bosses week we celebrate the dedicated work of our academic and support leadership teams across the division and thank you for your vision commitment and service leadership what you do every day makes a difference in our school community so in closing our next week our staff and I will host a facebook live session for interested families

166on the opening of school in the fall this will be a good opportunity to have some of your questions answered and I encourage families to join us on wednesday may 26th at 6 30 on the Newport News public schools facebook page families can also watch on nnps tv so Mr. Chairman that concludes my remarks for this evening thank you all right thank you Dr. Parker so now we'll move on to item six which is another opportunity to hear from the public are there any cards at this time all right there being no cards then we will stand adjourned happy graduation everyone [Music]