001[Music] we will begin with a moment of silence led by Prayer by one of our board members and then if you're capable to uh stand with us for the [Music] pledge let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for tonight for this aboard meeting we thank you tonight for the members of the board that are here our Deputy Clerk and our superintendent that are here the students that are here the community support the uh staff and the principes that are here the teachers thank you that we are able to come together tonight to continue to strive to do the best that we can for our nway students we thank you for your grace and for your mercy guide this meeting guide the board the superintendent guide the speaker and keep us in your keeping care
002in the mighty name of Jesus we pray amen [Music] amen I PL Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] I have a motion to approve the agenda for March 13th so move second any discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I Awards and recognition nway High School Dr Martin [Music] good evening Mr chairman members of the board and Dr GES this evening I'm really excited about the highlights that you're going to see this evening it's from the high school's cougar Cafe um they started back in the fall and it's just hit the ground running and so I'm actually going to turn it over to Mr Wilson and his team
003for their presentation this evening and I even think they have some treats for [Music] y'all right good evening board members Dr Grimes and Miss Meer um we going wait for them to come on in and bring [Music] treat here do you want to join us all right [Music] well make them now or yeah make them now okay all right well while they making some drinks I can start with the presentation all right the cougar Cafe all right uh they launched this Cafe October 21st 2024 and fill and to date they have filled over 900 orders of coffee tea and hot chocolate yes um they participated in different Comm community events we had a 908 County Public Schools fall festival where they set up um they work with the youth record Association the basketball and they've
004also visited Kon far school and and made coffee [Music] deliveries I fundraising educational opportunities they have donated to the animal shelter and they went and visited animals and they had it was a nice little field trip uh they have helped a family in need and they also purchase books for students at the N NIS book fair and they've had a couple different celebrations where I think we talk about that where they included the par as some meals that they have been able to fund with some of the proceeds from their coffee sales and and I just mentioned that Thanksgiving holiday meals they did a Thanksgiving meal it was held here in our uh Library they furnished all the food that all the families were invited and had a right nice meal um the students developed
005the recipes they created a shopping list and they actually went to Black on Walmart and purchased stuff together and like I said they PR prepared a full meal for the families ham mashed potatoes green beans macaron and cheese rolls desserts here at the school and they in the library um and they had a classroom secret Santa and again the student shop with their classmates using personalized list and exchange gifts for holiday party slow down a little bit I don't I don't want to be finish and and fast but there's a few few pictures here of from the Thanksgiving dinner as well as the Christmas um gift exchange they had and I like the one in the Middle where they actually in Walmart and they took a selfie where they was doing [Music] shopping and through
006this program theyve developed a lot of skills and a lot of learning opportunities um writing they had to write the Thanksgiving notes and letters uh they mail them they to go to the Post Office and then they ordered things when they went to Mitchell's Restaurant um they obtained individual library cards for their Library visit they visit the Citizen Bank and Trust and learn more about checking and savings also visit the Blackstone fire department and police department to learn about community helpers and then they visited herish Hall and created some cards and coloring sheets for the residents which was went over and all of the visit went over very well I was about to say Heritage Hall but everybody was very happy to see them and they have enjoyed going out and interacting with the different
007uh organizations as well few more pictures here [Music] and have a short video they've been CBS News uh uh not always own uh Miss curn came out she came out twice and and did a nice interview and a nice piece on which I really appreciate and we going to play and some of you may have seen it on the news but we're going to play a short clip for you whoa H very funny Liu doesn't even look like me at Wayfair we're game for every every style let's play chair eights I'll act out my favorite chair welcome do we have to put on this apron here to the cougar Cafe you're going to be my pump girl wear sugar syrup one two milk half and half medium pore half and half medium por and Ice
008help make a mean cup of joe going to get y some coffee hot coffee tea yeah make your day feel better sophomore niasia Merit is quite the saleswoman this is like a c you can actually eat this with C she and her 12 classmates and not always life skills program are serving up special Sweater Weather coffees it's giv fall while also practicing math a little bit more there reading we have first and social skills he Miss Stacy we got your coffee we incorporate that into everything that we do meline Duffy is not away's exceptional education teacher and I love it it was her idea to trans form this tiny Corner classroom into a cafe so here we are and we're growing every day honestly I got tired the room looking lonely like it need need
009a need people preparing students like niasia for the future is Miss Duffy's job giving them these life skills I mean they work on money skills they work on communication skills which is a huge thing for our students and making 20 ice orders a day has become kenyons it's good like you got a Focus concentrate and serious the senior who's also studying culinary arts hopes his experience in the beastro I love it will help him become a chef I know that he'll accomplish that and he's learning all those skills and he's adapting and he's doing exactly what he needs to do both Kenyan and niasia smells of anomal take their roles as coffee creators and deliverers seriously we deliver his coffee he's like oh yeah coffee where is this located in thank loated was located in
010the uh the school store right there as you come in the door but when we had that snow it has a leak in the roof there so they've actually moved all the equipment into their classrooms oh okay and then when they uh prepare the coffee they put it on a cart like this and and we go door to door and deliver the coffee to the teachers and they they've been to every school head the complex crew primary Blackstone Kon Forest so they they've been getting out and all right can we come by and get a cup of coffee in the morning yes yes the cafe is not open every day okay so um what we need to do is is next time we open we reach out and just one last thing you all know
011that you started something right and we'll expect this from now yes sir yes indeed thank you very much thank you very good [Music] you at 2:00 in the morning up all night NAA would like to maybe say something all right before we go one one of the students want to say something all right okay yes all the time you need I like it okay guys so y me as a student my name is I really like school I really like dealing with the coffee and thank you for having you guys here cuz if you guys want to come get a coffee no we at in this stuff's room but we do a really good job and I'm really glad that you guys like it so yeah I think I'm to you are [Music] yeah you're
012a teacher of this group raise your hand all right thank you good job guys be up on we next time they show up you'll have to have cash I need to ask a question though is are there any delegations thank you we'll move to the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move for a second second any discussion hearing done all in favor signify by saying I I the action items uh budget adoption sm all right um so it's changed since you all got your budget books last week um I did look into something Mr Abbot had asked which I know Miss um Dr gries to you all earlier today with some figures of um potentially a dusting teacher pay or the teacher pay scale um and while it's
013is something I still want to do we just don't have the funds to do it now doesn't mean that that's a no for the rest you know for next year it just means we may have to wait until the state actually formally passes their budget to make any more adjustments to you know anything in the budget and I'll show you some of um what that is here in a minute um so I'm just going to go over the state budget um go over some of the things that we did with the budget and then what request of the Board of Supervisors is going to be um and this is this is a budget comparison for two things um so the budget books that you all have are based solely on the banal budget that was
014passed and signed last May because that is what is currently law for the 26 uh 25 26 school year what I have put in here is the update on the budget bill that was passed by the general assembly now as my understanding the governor is going to propose amendment so we won't have a signed budget until probably sometime in April um but this is just to show you the difference between the banial budget and what the general assembly has um and there is there is a difference not a huge amount but I mean enough that we could be able to do a little bit with um so you'll see you know if you know the general assembly budget is passed as is which I mean I know that it's not going to be um we
015would see an influx of $639,000 $835 just in state revenue um so that would be able to potentially you know fund one some of the things that I had to cut from the budget um that we would like to add back to the budget um or two be able to fund you know potentially addressing the teacher pay scale um which is something you know I had mentioned that I wanted to do and I was hoping to do we just we did not have the additional funding to be able to do so um at the point in time with using the banial budget um so one of the things that I did talk to you about during the work session is the fact that we had to cut um a million dollars out of the budget
016um this had nothing to do with any request from the Board of Supervisors it was just the fact that we did not have the revenue coming in to be able to um cover all the expenditures that were budgeted on the Forefront that means we had to look for cuts in several places um so you know we cut vacancies that we deemed not needed um you we cut you know a lot of materials and suppli and purchase service lines um where we felt like we could cut um some got cut that I did not want to and those I have a list of of priorities of where we need to place funding back if we get additional funds from the state or if we have any funds left over at the end of the year that
017we can carry over to offset next year's budget um so you there's there's a lot of things that we still want to do it's just we do not have any additional funding at this point in time to do now that's not to say we won't um you know this is really the first school year that we've had without um any type of extra Esra funding so really and truly come June we'll see just how well we have budgeted and we could then look to see okay well we know this is what we budgeted this year maybe we over budgeted so maybe we can look at those lines for offsetting next school year as we kind of really truly know where we're at um so you know it's just one of those things that it's kind
018of a tiered approach for for you know had a budget for years going forward um so what is our current request to the Board of Supervisors well it is you know their required local contribution which is the required local effort and the required local match that is 6 um 6,1 161,000 now depending upon the state budget that gets passed there is the potential for that to increase um solely based off of just what the general assembly passed passed and said if that gets passed as is which I highly doubt there could be a potential increase of an additional 155,000 um on the part of the county I will not know that until we have a state budget signed um anticipated entc funding um which is you know we finalized that budget this week um it's
019$ 38,7 128 for those of you who are on the joint board you will get to see entc budget at the March 27th meeting um for you all to approve that meeting um so that's where we're at with the budget um definitely probably one of the hardest budgets I've had to put together since I've been here um but we are where we are and we will keep on moving forward and determining what other ways that we can save in the process questions this evening I just ask if you enough to adopt The Bu it um because we do have to have it to the county prior to April 1 well I'll ask for a motion to uh adopt the budget as presented no moved there a second second any discussion I just like to ask
020is the board aware of what my request was I was yes I know it was sent to them this afternoon I don't know if everybody got to read their email so just I can go through it if you'd like for me my request was to see if we couldn't increase what I'll call the zero line because some of the concern that we have heard in trying to uh recruit is that our starting pay is lower than many of the other districts in our general vicinity so I was hopeful if we could figure out a way a math way to increase that zero line and somehow spread the pain across the other 39 steps uh which I think would be a good idea too as soon as we can find a way to do be able
021to do that I think that would do a great job of attracting teachers and if funding comes in I would hope that we would be able to do something like that so that we have uh a little more in our arsenal when it comes to uh recruiting [Music] mhm but I like many of you I did not have an opportunity to look at the computer today cuz I I was home for maybe 30 minutes uh during the day uh but having said that are there any other questions hearing none all in favor signify by saying I opposed by the same sign hearing none we look forward to any adjustments that may be necessary due to our uh friends in Richmond information items The Substitute update Dr [Music] Greger good evening everyone hopefully everyone's enjoying their
022coffee and such so U Mr ABT presented three questions um regarding some data regarding substitutes that's on the three question questions for how much how many were asked to work of the 67 substitutes how many actually worked how many positions required a sub three simple straightforward questions historically as you know working with education and stuff like that simple questions sometimes don't have simple answers so hopefully I'm going to work through this so that the the questions can have responses with that so we use a system an absent management system called Frontline so to answer the first question how many substitutes were asked to work it would be 100% of those folks that are listed because the system if you're listed the system calls every single substitute in that Cate in that list that's active so
023answer that question would be 100% now the tangent where it gets less simple is the fact that the one the schools have ability to individually and teachers have the ability to individually call substitutes directly without that and sometimes that information isn't relayed back into front line to get the accurate data but to answer the question specifically every substitute that's listed is called and reached out so in the month of January there's 1,957 calls from the system for substitute requests as you can see February as of the 25th of February 1371 I want to be clear calls from the system because you're going to have another outlier where it could be where this like I said earlier the school could be calling or this the teachers could be calling directly if that makes [Music] sense here's
024hopefully to clarify some of the the outliers and the things that could could garble up the the simple questions so like I said substitutes are able to and we what we found prefer to go into the system log in select the jobs that they want ahead of time and independently so they don't get that 4:30 in the morning phone call you know in that category they can just they're already preset so that job is taken care of second point the data that's provided that I have that you'll see next is just from the Frontline data because we don't have the anecdotal information from the schools or the tracking mechanisms that the schools or the specific teachers would call so whenever a teacher or a school would set something up independently we would hope that they
025would go back into the system and say job filled or something that it's filled by Joe Smith or whatever in that category so then we would see that information sometimes it doesn't make it so that's why the numbers are going to be two different sets potentially on top of that a nice thing about it for the for the the U employees of it front line is very very customizable you can select like if I was a substitute I can select a specific building I can select a certain day I can select a certain grade level I can select a certain teacher in that so it's very very customizable which in turn would potentially again skew some of the overall numbers with that so even though I'm a number 98 on the sub list I may
026have stuff already pre-arranged in that category so the second question how many were asked to work so from the January Front Line the First Column there was you can see the calls that were made the location of the schools obviously the percent is of the total count of calls so for example Blackstone had 536 calls from the system in the front line for substitutes so of that it was 27% of the calls were from Blackstone for the month of January same thing but for a Target Mark of the 25th of February [Music] so here's how many actually worked so from January you'll can see that the number of positions filled the number of positions unfilled and then the overall fill rate the percentage of filled and then with an overall systemwide fill rate of [Music]
02768% so in the month just example Stone the month of January it filled 28 vacant sub positions however had 17 that were not filled in that category this I think is where we get into the concern the the no fill rate is the part that's troubling and again this is snapshot of February through the [Music] 25th we included entc on this because they they use our pool of substitutes as [Music] well so how many positions required a substitute for January you can see the data [Music] there I'm trying not to read to you because it's quite straightforward again February's data general question of course these absences is there any are there any particular factors that is a reason a teach why yes um going back historically it's personal leave and sick leave those are the
028two dominant categories if you will because again the system when you put in it's certain categories where they put in so it's doctor's appointments it's I got a sick kid it's I need to take a dentist appointment that category um as we talked about before October seems to be a significant Spike um there was another month later on that was another Spike we're still trying to figure out some of the reasons why I mean there's guesses as to aspects of things um for example one of the aspects of you know October is you know we had the start of school September everyone's shiny and new kind of thing and then school starts we get into the thing of things then all of a sudden the appointments start coming in because now we got it kids
029everyone around other and so on so we really don't have any hard data of the wise um but we we do charge the the principles do a pretty good job about they're getting better to filter about what's going on and and because not every absence has to be approved well I say a sick sick leave you have that but if it's like a personal leave and you've accumulated stuff the the supervisor can ask in that category so that's some of the things that they're they're taking a look at just instead of a blanket yes to everything just asking some questions you know does appointment have to be right in the middle of the day or can the appointment be right after work and so on are most of these absences something that is known ahead
030of time so that plans can be made or most of them last minute I would I would say yes I'm going to turn around most of them are kind of to the most part scheduled the ones that you can't feel are the ones that yeah the unfilled ones the night up right the unfilled numbers are usually the ones until are usually the ones are last minute yeah if three of them a delay as minute for the month yeah that's what whole month keep in mind these numbers are for month not like two a day yeah that's a lot still a lot still a lot I know you asked three questions hopefully that kind of covered the three questions to a certain degree there is still work to be done um but in the aspect of
031you know 100% of the substitutes are contacted through that system well I appreciate I appreciate this information cuz that it does help but let of the substitutes over these this two-month period of time do you know how many of them never worked I don't have that off top of my head I don't have that but that's something we could probably grab well the reason that I asked that is is sometimes you have to fish or cut bait true so if if if they are so particular that they only want to take a certain spot and that spot is rarely vacant either that sub substitute needs to expand their horizon or we need to take a second look uh because the numbers here suggest that we need more substitutes true the 67 isn't enough but if
032if there's 10% of the 67 never choose to work then that's a problem in and of itself if we have numbers if we have information any information that comes to us we address it there's a concern of the school it's addressed um if there's a gap in work you know Kristen Heather and myself we all kind of tag team and we'll address those concerns if they pop up so but yes to your to your point that is accurate because one of the thing I believe in my mind the thing that started all of this was a teacher that came and said that their planning time didn't happen because they were always obligated to fill in the space and if my memories correct of the five schools four indicated they didn't have a problem with that
033all of their teachers in four School schools got it the high school was the problem area yet when I look at these absences the high school isn't the lead leader when it comes to absences and there are more teachers in the high school than there are in the other schools so there we somehow and I don't I don't have any magic words that will fix it but we have to figure out how to uh better adjust for those circumstances uh the data helps because now we know where the holes are now we have to figure out how to fill those holes and I know that this board wants to help do that we can I mean we we came back with the and I know that you've worked on this the uh the companies that
034will help provide those kinds of things uh and I know we're still looking at that and money's important and it's it's essential to getting some of these things done so we'll have to figure out if we can find that4 some thousand to figure out how to do this if it can help mitigate some of these issues because a not having a teacher in a classroom means [Music] something but I don't know if anybody else has any questions but I I appreciate get where do we stand on Outsourcing it's really funding we have a company that we feel confident um we've done a lot of research on it talked to a lot of our neighbors um so we have a company that is if we were able to do that we have a company that we
035feel comfortable with and may I ask the name of that company that you ESS correct esss of the three ESS was the one that could meet the majority of the expectations I would say yes um any way I can get a copy of course send that to me course any other questions hearing none thank you thank you bertville feasibility update Mrs Meyer all right so last week um Mr Templeton Dr gromt and I met um virtually with the Architecture Firm um the previous day they had sent um Mr Templeton and myself some additional questions that they wanted some answers to um they've also have asked for some additional um building schematics that Mr templon had to to go search through through his massive um amount of blueprints that he has down at his office um
036we have since given them all the additional information they wanted um they also were talking to us about about some of the vdoe um School building requirements and regulations um and just kind of talking through that with us as far as what that entails um asking some additional questions so we've asked them to give us um as many options as they can in the report um to be able to provide you all with as much information as possible um right now the timeline has has been extended out um just because of them doing some additional um information gathering and research so right now they are anticipating getting um us a draft by the end of April um and then hopefully I can get them out here to present to you all in May um and
037that is where we kind of stand right now um just trying to make sure that they can be as comprehensive as possible and providing the different um options they have certain guidelines as far as how many how many square feet are supposed to be in a classroom um and that's all dependent upon you know the grade that's in the classroom the configuration of the school um so they're going to you know give us some options based upon the current square footage um and and potenti and current layout and what may need to be changed in order to make it um you know an an elementary school which is what you all kind of um have kind of spoken about um but then they'll give us some other options to get us you know kind of
038truly up to um virginity Department of education's guidelines on a true Elementary School at um its full potential um as far as spatial so there's a lot of extra moving pieces and parts that we were not aware of um I've learned some things along the way in these conversations now that I've actually read through those building guidelines um it'll actually help us just on our five schools that we do have as we are you know looking at you know upgrading renovating and you know doing sorts of things to to get us um you know refreshed over the next however many years um but it it is definitely it is a much more comprehensive process than what I anticipated it to be but they are being very thorough and I said they're going to provide you
039with multiple options as to what that school could do could be um so you all just have all the information to make any decision on the future use of that school so that's the update for this evening if you have any questions I will be more than happy no thank you I'm I'm good any questions I have a question yes ma'am um two questions did I hear you correctly when you said they contacted you about VOE requirements so they as one of our meeting is that we were asking questions they brought up the Virginia Department of Education building requirements um I knew they were out there I've just never honestly read through them um them having you know constructed many and renovated many schools they're very much more familiar with it um so they kind
040of contacted us with questions about the vision for the school so they kind of knew which direction to go um we told them that the vision for the school was kind of up in the air and at the board's discretion so we would like as many options as possible so that you all can make those decisions as we move forward as to what to do with that building um so there's some different config figuration options they're going to provide to US based upon different levels of requirement within those um building guidelines I appreciate that I I asked that question because I knew the AR the individual we chose they had had prior experience with schools and so that raised a red flag for me if they have prior experience why are they asking you the
041requirements when they should already know that yeah they they wanted um some guidance from us as far as what we were looking for they weren't really asking us what the requirements were they were basically asking us if we knew that these were the requirements and then based on that what is it that the board is looking for I appreciate that clarification I was a little confused one other question and this is not pointed or to anything um um this is just to clear the water and some things that have been brought to my attention has the division requested that anybody who's in the building to move no So currently now we haven't been doing any additional new um building use we have not approved any um what we have stated is as long as the
042registar is there um that like with feed more they are allowed to stay currently and their and their pay and they're paying utilities for us um we've allowed them to kind of continue cuz one they are looking for you know another location um they you know holding a key to the building for them is not necessarily the direction we want to go cuz we do have stuff stored over there um we do have it for the registar because we don't go in open and close that building for them um so they are aware that once the registar moves then at that point they will um need to absolutely make a decision on what they want to do but I have been extending them um just as I've been getting information but other than that like
043we have not done any um further additional uses other than there's a church that rents it on the weekend and they do pay for that rental um wintergard currently is using the gym for practice which that's one of our sports teams you know obviously we will allow that um and then there is a um a youth group that once again they rent the gym um to be able to use it one day a week um So currently we don't have any additional people using that building other than the people that um were pay currently paying um we have not given permission to anybody else like State Police hasn't been using it um vcbr hasn't been using it um the county has not been using it other than the voter register office so we've kind of
044pulled back on that while we are in the process of doing this plus you know working with the county um to determine what's the future of the registar out there as well appreciate that thank you what's the timeline for the regist I do not know that answer um I know that there are some extra steps that they had to take for that to happen but I do not have an updated timeline as to when that could potentially um when they could potentially move out is there a way to encourage them um by increasing the cost because as I understand it the registar got a the county got a really good deal and registar has been there temporarily for The Last 5 Years it it is my understanding what's holding them back right now is there
045was additional paperwork that had to be done with the state voter registration office to move them I don't know all the details about that but I know that that's I think that's in motion I just don't have a date as to when they may my understanding the intent is for them to still move to where the um treasure or Revenue are right but I don't think anybody is I don't think anybody here has given direction for them nor are we trying to push them out with the exception of the knowledge that we are considering to use it and that the extent we are not looking to do anything more than that correct I mean we haven't just gone in there and told them you know they they had to get out um you know one
046it is somewhat nice to have someone in the building to at least tell us when there's an issue and a problem and we can get over there and address it um but we we don't we I just don't know at the this point in time you know the County's Direction and a time line for them with regards to the registar office the Virginia Department of Elections has requirements that must be met before the registrar's office can move they don't up and just say okay folks pack it up we're moving they have to meet all these requirements beforehand yeah I think it's like a public notice has to be given on that I have no idea of the details but there are requirements correct and I I I know that the county has started the process
047on all of that I just don't know where they're at any other questions yes sir hearing none thank you thank you our entc report Mr Outlaw uh yes couple of things uh things are moving along really well uh again I would encourage you if you have not uh been by entc and driven up to the uh the front entrance and looked at the uh uh Volkswagen bug that the students in the auto body class have redone that is quite something to see it is impressive so these these guys are learning a lot and they're doing some excellent work second thing uh M uh sledzinski uh asked for and received approval to apply for a CTE competitive Innovative program equipment Grant uh the deadline on that was just last Friday so I'm sure we don't have
048any uh any word on whether we were successful in that but uh that would certainly help uh help us going forward if we get get Grant thank you sir uh the governor school report Miss Duncan um thank you um yes we recently had a meeting we were informed of a variety of things um currently in this school year um one of the highlights is that that they are going on a very nice field trip and I say nice because it is going to be highly educational the tattooist of us swich Morris the Harlem Renaissance and African-American studies and Native American literature um they are going to visit the Virginia Holocaust Museum um and a multitude of Other M Muse off museums [Music] um currently um there will be an increase to the budget but that
049is not going to affect our division um per se um but they are there is going to be a slight increase um all students seem to be doing well they are also going to be having if they haven't had it already a Renaissance Fair which is supposed to be really cool because they dress up and they go all out um but other than that mod way students appear to be doing wonderfully in it thank you Miss Duncan uh the cak report Miss Duncan yes um we held our meeting in my last meeting in February currently our cat I mean excuse me our special education division is going through normal Federal monitoring um went through normal Federal monitoring um within that vdoe has made and requested some adjustments for our cak the VOE would like it
050to be restructured some it is guided to be um 51% parental participation VOE is going to meet again to discuss some of those changes I know Dr Lewis and her staff are working hard on trying to make some of those things happen one of the ways that they're trying to make that happen is the cak is now featured on the division's website um Dr Lewis is checking in on having the meeting announcements placed on the school social media Facebook page Pages um and our next meeting will be held April the 8th at 400 p.m. virtually and that c will receive the annual plan to us and then I can bring it to the board at the next meeting but Dr Lewis will bring it but sorry and that's it thank you uh our student liaison
051report good afternoon um not really much to talk about um spring Sports have started softball baseball and track varsity girls played Monday and ended up losing to Kinston fors 15 to3 but ended up coming back that Tuesday over Brunswick baseball boys have a game tonight starting at 6:30 um today we had to take cap and gown pictures so that went pretty well T can coffee visited the school recently with great success it was really good got try it and lastly principal Wilson has launched a student ambassador Group which will play an important role in representing our school and the ambassadors will guest speakers and meet monthly to discuss you know like different ideas andrais and stuff good things excellent thank you thank you Dr rmes our superintendent report thank you Mr Abbott board members last
052night I attended the vba's Southside region spring networking forum and submitted the artwork of three of our students into the vsba art contest we had entries submitted for students from who Primary School uh nway High School and nway Middle School uh and our nway Middle School entr entry was the third winner uh for that Middle School contest awesome uh each of these students will be invited to and recognized at the April board meeting uh and I'd like to remind the board that last year we had a first place winner uh and that student um will receive her framed um artwork back uh in just a little bit and I believe if I'm not mistaken based on information from Miss wood for the last four years we have had a winner from first place to third
053place at this vsba art contest so that is is quite an accomplishment for our students great um also uh the final piece of information to share this month as the executive superintendent for the governor school which I've been for three or four years now uh today I spent the morning in an English class at the Keysville campus watching student presentations of classic British literature Tales uh and I'm an English major and British lip was one of my favorite subjects so I just was choser was was the topic and I was in hog heaven uh the kids dressed uh in Period Garb they um each group created uh a um a meal an entree not every group did everything but one group did an entree a couple groups did dessert one did the sides uh that
054was also true to the period uh and their video presentations were were really interesting in that they did a good job of meshing the Old World stuff with current Day stuff so you know they they uh reimagined the tales that were told uh to uh be a little bit more modern incorporating some modern music and modern dances but it was wonderful to watch the students uh with this and in about two weeks I will visit the Alberta campus for the senior Symposium uh and then I will also attend the whole school um the entire Governor School Gatsby Gaya that will be in Chase City and the Gatsby Gaya uh is um if you think 20s uh they again dress in a period uh we for that uh they do the Charleston but they also do
055presentations related to um their readings and work from there and the renaissance fair was if not last week the week before yeah yeah so that's the um superintendent's report for this month thank you uh matters of school board interest on March 25th the vsba 2025 uh spring super superintendent evaluation Workshop which could be addressed either in Charlottesville or virtually I know I am registered to uh see that virtually because it's an update from the previous program that we once uh attended on the 26th Schoolboard Works session at that work session be prepared to discuss what I will call the all questions yeah if you'd like to be more informed on that talk to me after the meeting on the 27th we have the joint board meeting with the entc uh are there any future agenda
056items Miss [Music] Duncan [Music] um we moved on to the next section Mr Wilson no not right now Mr R nothing to do that Mr Outlaw uh a couple of things uh and I won't go into a great deal of detail here but uh first off cell phones the uh rule that we have is not being enforced across the board and from information that I received just recently there are some pretty serious infractions and I do have a question on that Dr Grimes of you uh on the uh the policy about videoing a fight may result in the phone becoming evidence and being turned into law enforcement the student with the video Also may have to go to court as a witness uh a first offense is an out of school suspension for 3 days
057second off second offense 5 days and third offense 10 [Music] days past there being an abuse of the basic cell phone rule that they will not be used during school hours and I'm paraphrasing there I don't see the point in this and it seems to be rather restrictive and I would also have the question does one of these uh [Music] uh punishments add on top of the [Music] other I'm I'm not quite sure how to that was a question to Dr Grimes I I appreciate that but I'm not sure how to make it an agenda item well okay uh then just if you could Dr Grimes let me know via email uh the answers uh to this I would certainly appreciate it uh if you take the Courier record and have any knowledge of uh
058what's in the paper uh we continue to have a problem with violence more so in some of our school schools than others and to me and it I think should be a concern to all of us uh we need to do something about that that's all I appreciate that because I know that we have recently received some data from Dr Grimes we all received an email on those things that uh have been recorded uh I will uh work with Dr Grimes on the potential for an agenda item that would provide Clarity to some of those uh things that we received uh more recently uh because it it uh it's good data uh it's about bad things that happen but it's the the kind of data that might allow the board to help in supporting the
059changes necessary so that administrators and especially those teachers can deal with these situations uh more effectively in their classrooms other are there any other items I'll start with Mr row nothing to just time Mr CH Mr Wilson nothing Mr Outlaw no Miss Duncan yes I have a couple things one um I want to say thank you that I do see public here I appreciate that we need that and I thank you for that um another one is that I appreciate nway and the teachers doing what they've done with our self-contained classes because those skills that were brought out they are everyday life skills that you and I take for granted but going to the store and buying a loaf of bread can be complex for some individuals so I applaud them um and thirdly I
060guess I said two I admit three um I'm sure that when it comes to discipline there are no two families that do it the same way and discipline is hard we as adults and professionals have to be flexible and understanding while being firm and consistent sometimes discipline should be a teaching moment rather than a punitive moment our discipline policy and procedures are created from guidance from doe Department of Education and Virginia Department of Education we as a school board and our superintendent use the guidelines from doe and V doe to create policy and then the superintendent enforces that policy via code conduct and handbook now I took this that I'm getting ready to read to you out of the student code of conduct page 65 which states the nway school board establishes expectations for student
061conduct so that public education is conducted in an atmosphere free of disruption and threat to persons or property and supportive of individual rights in addition to the types of conduct prohibited below the superintendent issues standards of code of conduct and lists of possible actions for violations of these standards it next lists when the code of conduct applies to students such as if they're on the bus if they're on school property and then it is followed by and I quote again the school board and the superintendent bial review of the model student code of conduct developed by the Virginia Board of Education to incorporate into policy and the standards of student conduct a conduct a range conduct a range of disciplined options and alternatives to preserve a safe and non-disruptive environment for Effective learning and teaching
062this year we will need to review the student code of conduct now really realizing all of this and also realizing that there are concerns in the community regarding discipline in our schools I would like to offer a motion Mr chairman I motion that we create a committee to review all of the current discipline policies including included in that review a discipline in our handbook and our code of conduct this committee would complete a comprehensive review of everything regarding discipline then a presentation of any recommendations by the committee will be made I would also like to include in this motion that the committee consists of the following individuals two school board members one Administration Administration staff from the central office one Administration staff from each school one mental health individual and three parents preferably not employed
063with a Division I request that of you Mr chairman I second that motion well you've heard the motion and I've heard a second uh is there any discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed by the same sign hearing none uh I will respectfully uh suggest that um March 26th at our work session that we can work out the fine details of that motion so that we can figure out all of the uh steps to be able to uh get uh all of those uh positions or named positions uh to be made available and when if that meets uh with everyone's expectations uh let me finish other uh April 10th everyone should be aware that from 4:30 to 6:30 we will meet with the vsba then April 14th 16 22nd and
064uh Sun can I yes ma'am could we please pause on sharing that information sir say again could we please pause on sharing that information sir okay I mean it's just dates that I would make want everybody to be uh prepared for so we will continue on uh close close meeting resolution oh sorry let me get over there pursuant to section 22- 3711 a of the code of Virginia I move that the board convene a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing the following specific matters a one the consideration of personnel four five appointments one art teacher one two substitute teachers one car driver substitute one assistant baseball coach Coach B informational four resignations one retirement C student discipline and D Personnel matter heard the motion is there a second second any discussion all