Good evening. We're happy that you're here this evening. It's
lovely to see these smiling faces up here instead of
in the back. We appreciate you being here for our
Tuesday, August 11th meeting. We have been in closed session
and we just came out of closed session and we
have been in recess. So we are coming back into
open meeting. Thank you again for being here this evening.
And now I'll ask for return to open meeting, please.
I move the board to reconvene and to open session
and certify that the Gloucester County School Board while enclosed
session discussed only public matters lawfully exempted from open meeting
requirements, provided in subsection A of section 2. 2 -
3711. That only public business matters that were identified in
the motion conveying the closed session were heard, discussed or
considered. Second. All right, we have a motion in a
second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Oh,
I'm sorry. Jen, would you call roll? I'm sorry. Mr.
Anderson? Ms. McPherson? Yes. Mr. Drew. Mr. Sinevic. Ms. Salman.
Yes. Miss Scruggs, Ms. Parker. Yes. All right, personnel items.
Do I have a motion to approve the personnel items?
Madam Chair, I moved to approve the monthly personnel appointments
and resignations as discussed in closed session. Okay. Do we
have a second. We have a motion and a second.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Okay. Madam
chair, I also moved that we approve the student personnel
items as discussed in closed session. Okay, we have a
motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a
second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay,
thank you very much. We're now at our time for
a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Before
we get started though, I want to welcome Mr. Steven
Kresevich. Okay. And Carrie, I believe you have something that
you have about. She reads. It. Am I going now?
Okay. Steven is a rising senior at GHS. This year,
Stephen was selected to serve as Gloucesters NJROTC Battalion Master
Chief. Just last week he planned and led over 50
rising freshmen through a series of NJROTC training topics. And
high school familiarization to become our newest student cadets. Steven
has taken a variety of AP and dual enrollment classes
and maintains a 4. 3 grade point average. He is
active in scouting America and in the final stages of
completing his Eagle Scout achievement. Steven was recently recognized as
the youth of the year for the boys and girls
clubs of the Virginia Peninsula. During the ceremony, Steven reflected
on the importance of maintaining a sense of childhood while
preparing for adulthood. Drawing from his experiences and scouting, JROJROTC,
excuse me, and the boys and girls club. He spoke
highly about the value of community mentorship and service. Okay,
thank you. We're going to have a moment of silence
and then you can lead us.
Okay, sir. Well, Rise that can, please. Please join me
in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance. Goodify, I'll
be nice, safe America. And to the Republic for which
it stands. One nation, under God. Indivisible with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.
All right. Uh, Dr. Vladieu, are there any changes or
additions to the agenda of the evening? Well, good evening,
Madam Chair Parker. Ms. Salman, members of the board, those
here in audience tonight. Good to see you all. Great
to be back in those watching at home. I do
have two recommended changes for the board to consider. Number
one, uh, we would like to recognize the varsity softball
team led by Coach Red, Lindsay Red. And then number
two, that would be as item 8b. And to add
item AC, we have a number of new staff here.
Uh, in the audience. And I would like to introduce
them to the public. So those are the two recommended
updates. Okay. A, B will be the softball and the
C will be your staff presentation. Okay. All right.
Yeah. Um. We have a motion to approve Dr. Vlao's
changes to the agenda. I moved it. We approved, um,
changes that Dr. Motion second. All in favor say aye.
Aye. Any opposed. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, the
next thing on the agenda, I actually brought up, um,
policy JECB - E enrollment of non - resident students
discussion and action. We have in the past offered employees,
um, of our school division to bring their children here
to be in school. In our schools here, even if
they live across the water or wherever they live. And
what my recommendation is, is that we have the opportunity
to let the county employees and the sheriff's office also
bring their students over here if they so desire. And
I kind of ask Dr. Vladu to look into that
to see if that was a possibility. So I'm going
to now turn it over to you. With the information
that you have. So thank you, Madam Chair. As the
members of the public know, enrollment is how we fund
our schools. Uh, we funded on an ADM basis. So
when, um, staff member who may live in another district
and wants to bring their students to our school or
we benefit from that enrollment, which allow us to hire
teachers, support our schools. And because education caused money. Now
currently, if you want to bring your child here from
one of the, let's say you live in our own
name, but you know, let's say you live across the
water and you bring your child to, um, our district
in Gloucester, that is pending the availability of space. So
for instance, if a class is at 24, we are
not going to exceed the SOQ and have a financial
impact. The answer for that would be no, because we
do not have space at that school. So pending the
availability of space, which we already do, um, in looking
at other districts, they're opening up these opportunities to county
employees. As well as sheriff's department to assist with enrollment.
And it's a great benefit. We know that families don't
spend a lot of time at home sometimes for a
mom and dad to know that the child is in
the same school or for county employee to know that
they're on their way to work as they cross the
bridge or they come from the northern neck that the
child comes with them. So my recommendation is to extend
that. I don't anticipate a big impact, but we may
again 10 to 15 students across the district. Can I
ask you a question about that? Um, I think it's
a great idea in welcoming students from employees who in
both departments, but we would get money from the state,
but the local fund, we would be picking up. Because
are they tuition painting? They're not tuition pain. It's coming
at no cost to them. That is correct. So the
state funding portion of that, um, it's a little north
of 10, 000 dollars per ADM per student enrollment. So
the local funding, uh, again, that would not change. But
the state funding more than cover the cost of educating
those students. They're share of it. Their chairman, correct. Well,
that's what I'm saying. Okay. So I just want to
put that out there. That we would be absorbing that
cost. Because there are students who come to the county
who are tuition pain. I mean, because they're not as
children of employees, which is fine. I mean, which is
great. We would encourage many students to come here and
pay tuition. We would welcome them if we have the
room. Is there any other questions discussion. Mr. Drew. So
the document that we were given. JECB Echo is a
form. It's just a form. It's not talking about the
policy. That must be an error. That is a company.
There is an application form, but we do have a
policy on GLOGRO non - residenced students, which covers our
teachers and staff. So we will check that and make
sure we upload the correct information. So with everything that
you guys just said about allowing people from the county
come in, correct? That's going to be listed in this
policy. Well, here's what happens tonight is just to get
the board to give consensus and moving forward. If there's
more consensus, what we would like to do is to
turn this over to the policy committee to discuss it.
Um, evaluate the issue. And, um, you know, bring it
back for discussion and possible approval. So tonight we're not
asking for approval. We're just asking for is there a
boar consensus and proceeding with drafting something to bring back
to the board. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. But
we are you're asking us to approve. It is an
approval of students of county employees to have the option
to come here tuition free. So we have to vote
on that. Right. Well, we still, you may take a
vote, but we still need to drive policy to bring
before you. And so at this point there wouldn't be
approving that. You would just allow us to draft policy
to bring back before you at the next meeting. But
the board has that option. Right now if you all
are in consensus and you decide, Hey, we don't have
any issue with this. You could direct again, allow that
change to be made. But I will bring you back
an update policy regardless. So the board has an option
of approving it tonight or bringing directing me to use
the policy committee to make changes and bring back to
you. Do we need to make a motion. I don't
know what the board's pleasure is to whether or not
they would like to go ahead and vote on this
this evening. And let them. For him to just go
ahead. And create the policy. Just have a consensus that
it's okay with all of us. So we don't want
to have to vote. For it. Right. Okay. Anyone else
have any comments. Or concerns? I would be curious from
an athletics perspective. If that were to change any eligibility
for moving districts and how we can combat people potentially
moving students because of program is doing, let's say better
like our softball team here in this county, then the
current county or district that they are in. That would
be one of the concerns that I would like to
see kind of spelled out. Absolutely. We talk about VHSL
eligibility. But if you're moving or coming to a school
and your intent is not academics. It's just to compete
with that team VH subprohibit stat. So anyone moving here
for the purpose of just playing, um, that would be
a violation of some VHSL rule. But we could provide
again, that could be the work of the committee, um,
to look at that. But I provide those updates to
our coaches. We're actually to the AD and the coaches
regularly when I attend my meetings. So that's pretty much
common knowledge that you cannot move here to play. Yeah.
A great point. We have people that try to do
that. Has there been a, um, kind of any kind
of informal polling of county staff and their interest. Those
who live out of town. And so, um, I mean,
I ran this by a couple of county officials, uh,
letting them know that I am bringing it tonight. Now
I have not done anything more formal than that. But
if the board would like for us to pull the
county employees, uh, we certainly could work with the county
government and do that. If we're going to do this,
I would like to be able to have it in
place for school. For September. So that families that may
be interested can go ahead and get, get that rolling
so that they can be. For one, we've got to
make sure that we have room in our school that
they would like to attend. Depending on where they work.
I would assume whether it would be closer to their
works. And in that case, the boar would need to
entertain a motion tonight to approve a county employees and
the sheriff's department, um, children to attend GLOUSTA County public
schools, non - resident pending the availability of space and
staffing. I would put those two conditions on it. Is
there anyone that would like to make that motion.
Obviously. I think there needs to be. More discussion. Okay.
We'll come back then. With discussion for the next meeting.
Do we have a work session? We do not, do
we? So far September meeting. We will be back here,
um, on Tuesday, September 8th, which is going to get
here before we know it. And then that time our
policy committee will meet and develop policy for the board's
review in the next meeting. I would prefer we meet
and create the policy and therefore extend out to have
the regulation written. That way when school starts. We'll have
it in place. Okay. If there are any students that
are waiting to find out and they're planning to pay
that are here in the county, can that be held
in obeyance for a time until all of this has
worked out. Well, the next meeting the board can make
a retroactive. So we'll use our processes. There's no change
to policies. It would be a tuition. Penn would absent
the board approval. They would have to follow the rules
in the processes. However, at the next meeting, the board
can make a retroactive to August 24th. Okay. Cachool does
start very soon. Okay. All right. Is that OK with
everyone? We'll bring it back in September. Okay. All right.
Moving forward. Um, BSBA legislative advocacy conference, September 17th. Please
let Ms. Brazil know by September 1. If you would
like to be registered to attend the VSBA annual convention
is November 18th through the 20th in Waymsburg. Please notify
Ms. Brazil by October 15th. If you'd like to be
registered to attend. And now we're at committee sports and
commissions and updates from board members. Is there any board
member that has an update from any committee that they
are serving on. Mr. Jo. I believe we have a
looking forward to have a notification when our next CTE
meeting is going to be. There's a lot of information
going to be coming out. About. Our expansion, I believe.
Um. That's about it. A report back that I did
make the presentation, um, of that legislative proposal for adoption
to the VSBA committee. And we'll hear back on whether
they are going to accept it. We won't know until
the September meeting. And so we'll find out, uh, I
guess I could report back on October meeting. Okay. All
right. Anyone else have any. Anything. The only thing I
would like to say here, it's not an update for
committee, but, um, yesterday, um, we had the new teachers
here. And I know you're going to introduce some, but,
um, it was quite an opening, quite a grand opening
for our new teachers. And I think everyone that was
there was very uplifted on how they were, um, treated
when from the time they walked in the door. And
it was a really great morning. I didn't stay past
morning. And I know you guys had to stay a
lot longer, but we appreciate you. We hope you know
that. And we hope we showed you that by a
little bit. And as, um, I'm just hoping that you
have a wonderful year. And I guess we'll see them
a little bit later. And if we could bottle up,
Dr. Stams energy, excitement. Yeah. I could use a little.
That would be helpful. She doesn't even drink coffee. Okay.
All right. Community presentations. BCUeded outreach presentation. And that is
Mr. Derek Jones. Thank you for having us. Dr. Do.
Ms. Salmon. And the team at Gloucester County Public Schools.
We want to thank you for allowing us to be
a partner with you in helping our students in Gulfster
County. BCU United. If you guys don't know about us,
we are a 501c3 nonprofit here in Gloffsta County. The
focus of our nonprofit is our K through 12 students.
And our seniors in the community. Uh, this past Saturday
that you can let our roll this past Saturday. We
had our annual back to school block party here at
the high school. Well, at the high school, not here,
but at the high school where we were able to
bless over 200 students with school supplies and backpacks. We
fed all of the students that came out whether or
not they were in Gloucester Middlesex Matthews or some that
struggled in from new pernus. All the kids were fed.
We had over 30 vendors out there. And we didn't
count the number of, uh, attendees that we had because
the most important thing was our students. So, uh, Dr.
Doo and his team was out there feeding the students.
We had a great time. It was a big success.
And we want to thank you once again for allowing
us to use the GLOSTA high school. Practice field area
for this event. This was our fourth annual event. And
we're looking to many more years. We are now able
to bless the school system with over a hundred more
backpacks, uh, that are stuffed and ready for your students.
We have elementary, middle and high school backpacks sitting right
here for you guys to distribute. Our supporters, our sponsors
range from Centera, Riverside, Gloucester County Community Foundation, Gloucester Toyota.
Bayport, Langley, and a host of smaller donations that allow
us to do the work that we do. We just
let it run. Let's go right on through. We have
some pictures up there. Um, also BCU and I also
goes into the nursing homes. We go into Riverside four
times a year and do a spa day for the
ladies and gentlemen that are there. Um, we do two
financial seminars for seniors in the community talking about their
social security, Medicaid, uh, trust, wills, deeds and all those
type of things. Um, we also put on I am
enough for young girls. Grade six through 12 where we
mentor them, give them different avenues. Viewing themselves as they
stand in front of us. They are enough. We bring
in speakers from the community. And also some from outside
the community. We've had people from the vice president's office.
To entrepreneurs, to educators, um, to even one of our
local teachers that was there. Um, and then we do
what's called, uh, Boys Demand. I think we have. A
slide for that. Boys demand is the same program, but
it's for young men from six to 12th grade. And
that we do the same things. The mentoring program. We've
had, uh, educators there. We've had, well, we're going to
have, let me rephrase that last year's event had the
postponed. This year's event for the I Am Enough and
boys demand it's going to be in September. September 19th.
So we need registration. We need our teachers involved. And
our Glocial County administrators involved to get the word out
there, get the registrations going. It is a free event
for all students. They'll be fed breakfast, lunch and a
snack before they go home. Um, we'll have speakers. I
think this year's speakers come from the Air Force come
from, I think a doctor. Dr. Jones. Um, we have,
uh, a Navy pilot that is now a lawyer. Um,
that will be coming. Um. Can't remember all the names,
but, but we have a great group of young men
and ladies that will be presenting and supporting this event.
Do you have any questions. Anyone have any questions. I
just want to thank you so much for the impact
that you have on our students. I mean, the block
party is a huge event. I know it takes a
good deal of effort and time to put it together.
And we want to thank you so very much for
all that you do with all these fabulous events to
reach the students, our seniors. So we're blessed to have
you. So thank you. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. I
was able to be out there that day. It was
very hot, very humid, but it was very nice. And
the kids seemed happy and everything that was going on.
It was a really good site to see so many
children out there and getting their backpacks and picking them
out, whether they wanted a dinosaur or they wanted a
truck or whatever. Um, that was kind of neat to
stand back and watch the children trying to decide what
special bag they wanted. So I appreciate all that you
do. I know I've been able to come the last
few years and I hope to continue to come in
the future years. So. Thank you. Thank you so much.
I also want to thank you for all the work
you're done. I said when I write a Glossar, it
was a first year. So here are four years later
doing some great work. I don't know if anybody's been
to Walmart. That's a lot of school supplies. We're talking
about thousands of dollars of school supplies. So what we'll
do is we'll inventory it. And we'll get involved in
actually, um, putting a value on it and actually we'll
accept that as a donation from you. The most important
thing is that we'll have hundreds of students. We can't
afford a pencil. They can't afford a notebook. That because
of your work, they'll go there and they'll have a
pencil, a notebook, a backpack. And that speaks to love
and commitment and our partnership. And I want to say
the better way to invest in this community than investing
our children in this group, BCUnited is a perfect example.
That's what thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
We'll see you back next year. Thank you. Okay. Now
we have softball. All right. Our other main event. I
see a lot of very excited young ladies. I'll just
start was by saying this and, uh, coached red. Their
lessons that you learned on the field that you cannot
learn in the classroom, how to compete, how to give
feedback, how to win together, how to excel together how
to just be excellent. And the better example than this
team. So that's before I get to my statement. I
thought about you all a lot because, um, when we
opened up with our new teachers, we actually showed a
picture of you all when you were winning. And what
did you do? Well, you worked together. And you excelled.
And you showed us adults that when you work hard,
great things happen and your passion and some of the
pictures I've seen posted and on social media, Aedjist speaks
volume. So I'm telling you as an adult, you all
inspired me, but not just me. I think every staff
member in this district, cause that's what we want to
do, what we do is educate. So enough about that.
I do have a prepared statement. So tonight we're proud
to recognize the Gloucester High School. Before we do that,
I want you all to come up here. Let's not
sit down. You guys are doers. Come up here with
your coach. Let's give my hand. All right. Dr. Stan,
maybe they could face the audience face their parents and
their coach. They come up here. We're going to take
a nice picture and then I'll read the statement. So.
We're going to. Turn.
All right. Now I'm ready to read this. All right.
You also, please don't go anywhere. You guys got to
have to, you have the limelight right now. So, uh,
we're proud to recognize the Gloucester High School varsity softball
team for now standing season and for finishing, um, as
the Virginia high school league class four, one of the
most competitive runner ups. The lady Duke's earned their place
in the state championship game. And I travel there. You
all traveled there. It was three and a half hours
over the mountains and through the hills. Um, and, um,
and you played a very competitive team last week, state
champs. And you all held your own. I mean, it
was down to the wire. And so, um, the championship
game and the banada way, um, that we wanted it
to end, uh, the lessons you learned, do not diminish
your achievements. Reaching a state final is an extraordinary achievement.
These young women represented Gloucester High School in our entire
community with tremendous pride as they have given all of
us something worth celebrating. I also want to recognize coach
David, Lindsay, affectionately known as red. And I'm not sure
if you guys are allowed to call them that, but
after you graduate, he can't, you know, he can't give
you directions anymore. So, um, coach read, um, the passion
and the commitment you put into these programs and these
sports go a long way. And these young ladies will
remember these experience for their life, the rest of their
life success at this level, takes countless hours of preparation,
sacrifice, encouragement and commitment. Tonight was especially celebrate our graduating
seniors. And thank you all for coming. That's why we're
doing this tonight as they begin the next chapter. So
I'm going to, um, read some of your names. So
panorsely will attend random making savanna shot hand. Did I
say that right. All right. Thank you. Um, I totally
get it. We'll attend long with university. Alexis Tishman will
attend Methodist University Cameron Palace. We'll attend the University of
Virginia Brianna Tatement. We'll attend Bridgewater College and Lily Logan
will attend the region university. So to our seniors, congratulations
on everything you accomplished here at Gloucester High. You represent
the best in us. We hope you carried the lessons
of friendship, confidence, uh, memories and also the competitive spirit
that will carry well not just in sports, but in
academics, life and everything that you will do. And I
hope you remember this for the rest of your life
to the entire lady Duke's team. Congratulations on an exceptional
season and are earning the title of class for state
runner up. You can represent the Gloucester with excellence. And
we are incredibly proud of you. Congratulations. Let's give them
a hand. Does anybody that wants to speak. On
three.
Coach Red, did you want to say anything. What I
like to watch. Would you like to say anything? Like
you do the girls. First of all, I would like
thank the young ladies who could come tonight. We have
a lot of people who are still on vacation. Um,
however, we have a wonderful group of young ladies. And
this was our 30 second year here at Gloucester teaching
and coaching softball. And we have had wonderful parents over
the years and we have wonderful parents this year. And
it's just been a family atmosphere for 32 years. And
we would like to thank Dr. Vladiu because he does
come out to the games. And, um, and everyone who
does come out to the games, we do appreciate all
of their support. So. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Nice. Thank you ladies. All right. Dr. Will I do.
Have some staff to introduce. Yes. A lot of people
wonder what are these all administrators do during the summer?
What are they doing with TC Walker? Right. I mean,
we see their cars there, um, you know, all we
do. We plan for the year. And just like our
teachers have every lesson plan, every detail, every learning target,
every activity. This is where the planning happens. A lot
of state reporting, but, um, the funnest part of this
is hiring our new staff, our new leaders. So tonight
I would like to introduce some of our leaders to
you. Uh, so here we go. We have many of
them right here. They're excited. They probably already feel like
they've been on job for under job for a couple
of months, but we're going to go ahead and, um,
introduce them to you. So we'll start. If I could
figure out this mouse, Dr. Freeze, it feels like you've
been here forever, but we hired you. I think back
in March, we board approved you back then. Uh, he's
been, um, meeting administrators, teachers, schools, um, visiting everywhere. I
think sometimes you make feel like you've been here for
a long time, but sometimes you're just learning things. If
you stand up to be recognized, let's give my hand.
So Dr. Freeze is going to continue the success at
the elementary level. And again, we wish him a success
in that role. So, uh, Mr. Libo Brian, we have
a lot of Bryans to go through. Right. So we're
going to start calling these brines by last names. I
do apologize in advance. Uh, Brian Lebold, um, he's already
been busy. He was helping with our new teacher, breakfast.
He's been helping with our staff development. He's around. He
is a calm demeanor, but he could keep a kitchen
in order, right? You know how they have discerned about
too many cooks in the kitchen. He could keep that
in line. And he just steps in and picked up
right where we needed to be. During his interview, he
actually shared that, uh, at ODU where you did this,
that you could do sushi for four dollars serving. I
don't know how you could do that here. I don't
know for a lot to do sushi here, but, um,
you could make this happen. And again, let's give him
a hand. Please stand to be welcome. So Raven Carlton,
um, you probably help serve thousands of sunmeal, right? Every
Thursday and Friday when I drove by, and please stand
up, Raven, where then I think you have your husband
with you. Please. Thank you again for coming tonight, but
I want to say something very, um, from a place
of gratitude every single Thursday or Friday, I would drive
by the high school going to some schools or going
to some appointment. I would see you there. Uh, with
your staff delivering sun meals. I know that this community
counts on those. I know it's in the thousands. We're
going to get a number, but you ran all of
that. You were in all of the summer reporting. All
of the financial aspects. And so I want to again,
thank you on behalf of all Gloisso families for running
that program. And Raven serves as the financial manager and
food service. But she does a lot more, um, than
that she rolls up her sleeves and serves meal. So
let's give her a hand. So Linieda, if you would
stand up from, um, being a phenomenal teacher to be
in a phenomenal leader. I got to watch you in
PLC meetings. Look at that data help teachers. I asked
the right questions, but we're so excited for you to
join us at the district level. We know, um, you
have big shoes to fill when Melanie's depart, but there
is no one better in this district to take the
lead and continue the math achievement that this district is
proud of. So again, welcome on board and congratulations. So
Tammy, welcome to, uh, to Gloucester, uh, we're excited for
you to join the Barata Bulldog community. You've already walked
that building several times. I believe you're already planning to
make sure that we don't back up on Main Street
and we don't keep anybody from showing up to, or
being late for work because we just have to blame
you. Just kidding. Um, but welcome on board. And you
know, Tammy has a passion for teaching and learning. She
wears sneakers to work and she gets into classroom. She
still teaches a lesson every once in a while helps
teachers with, you know, sometimes you have one or two
students and even adult to talk to, that's Tammy. She's
going to help out with that again. Welcome to the
Bulldog community. Mr. Cassis, you've done it all. You don't
elementary. That's where you started. I believe you have a
stint in the middle school. And then I think you
were at a high school comprehensive high school. So you
really understand that K12, Riley K12 vision. It all starts
as a little kid having the vision working hard. And
you get all of that. So the Abington community. I
want to thank them for the hiring process. Um, they
are so excited to welcome you and to lead that
community in a direction that, um, takes us to new
height. So appreciate your leadership and welcome on board. Let's
give them a head. All right, nay from a star
math teacher to a star assistant principal stand up there.
So, um, what I love about an eight is his
ability to engage people through his intellect. He's thoughtful. He's
smart. He waits. And then when he says something, you
just have to listen because it's really, really good. And
so I know that peaceley staff will benefit from your
leadership, from your ability to inspire others, for your calm
demeter. And I'm thinking you'll be a great role model
at that school. So make sure some of us through
middle school that need somebody to look up to, you'll
be that person again. Let's give my hand of applause.
So crystal, if you stand up again, I see you
fight for students for the past three years. Every day
when I come in, you're in that office having a
conversation with somebody about, you know, some intervention, some remediation,
a senior who needs help, first grader who, you know,
need somebody else to talk to. So I seen her
Pfeiffer kids every single day. And I'm sure you'll do
the same thing. A Gloucester High School to help, um,
again, them reach even greater levels of success. Let's give
them my hand. All right. I want to thank you
all for coming out here tonight. Uh, let's give both
of our softball team and our new administrator hand of
applause. All right. Thank you, Dr. V.
Um, we're at the citizen comment period. We will now
begin the comment period. The board welcomes comments from Gloucester
Citizens parents and students on matters related to the Gloucester
County public schools. Comments should focus on the programs and
not personnel. This is a time. For the board to
listen, not engage in discussion. They'll follow up question from
board members, our allow. Speakers are asked to state their
name district in which they reside and limit their remarks
to four minutes per citizen. So is there anyone left.
I think they all left. Okay. Uh, Jen, are there
any call - ins? There are zero columns. Okay. All
right. Well, I looked up from reading and they're gone.
Okay. It's nice to have a full auditorium, though. Um,
okay. Staff presentations, Dr. Vladi. Thank you, Madam Chair. We
have a number of presentation, but most important one is
back to school departmental updates. So we're going to turn
it over to our cabinet members who are going to
share with you what is new in their departments. Good
evening, Madam Chair. Madam Vice Chair, members of the board,
Dr. Vladi and our community. We are so grateful to
be here tonight. We have several topics to present to
you this evening, but one of the things that we're
so excited about is that we get to go back
to school. So we're starting a new year and we
are so grateful for the support that you're giving us.
I'm going to now turn it over to our directors
of secondary elementary, Dr. Freeze and Dr. Magus. Good evening,
Madam Chair, board members, Dr. VLADO. I'm excited to share
with you the instructional updates from this summer. Our team
has been hard at work preparing for new teachers to
join us yesterday for all staff to return tomorrow. And
then most importantly for our students to come back to
us on Monday, August 24th. So this summer, this is
just a few of the projects that our team has
been involved in. Curriculum writing across all four content areas.
We don't do that in isolation here as a coordinator
and director team. We do bring in teachers from all
of our schools to join us in that process. We've
been planning for implementation of high quality instructional materials. You
recall that you adopted a math textbook series K through
12 earlier this year. And we are. Having that textbook
training at the end of this week. Um, we also
were able to host our administrator instructional academy. So spending
a day last week with all of our assistant principals
and principals and our instructional coordinators preparing them, um, two
return for the school year. And then the last update
I'll share before handing it off to Dr. Magis is
a special education administrator academy. So Dr. Tingley and her
team, um, put together a two day special education boot
camp, so to speak for all of our assistant principals
and principles to make sure that they have the most
current updates related to compliance and best practice, um, as
they seek to reach our students with disabilities this year.
So now Dr. Migas will share a couple of secondaries
specific updates with you. All right. Thank you and good
evening. Um, so the first update that I'd like to
share with you all is about our middle school schedule
at page and Peasley. You know, last year we did
have to eliminate our intervention and enrichment block that we
had been a part of the schedule for quite a
while. Um, in order to meet the minimum, uh, requirements
for instructional hours for each content area. But, uh, we,
we've looked at all of the, all of the minutes
we counted every single thing that we could and tried
to squeeze out as much as we could because we
heard very clearly from our teachers and from our students
and from everybody that we do need to try to
carve out some of that time. So we were able
to put it back in for two days a week
and still maintain all of the required, uh, instructional hours.
So we're, we're looking forward to that. Uh, and the
rest of the bell schedule is otherwise unchained. There's no
major disruption there. Uh, and then the other, um, exciting
thing is that we are hoping to be able to
implement, we're planning to be able to implement, um, a
course pilot, which you'll have some more information for you
about very, very soon. Um, we recently received a grant
from, um, exploring the trades, um, work - based learning
coordinator, Mr. Scheck, uh, was able to apply for a
grant to get some free equipment funded by Ferguson to
purchase some HVA equipment. It goes right along with our
goal of trying to expand some of our CTE programs.
So, uh, we, we were awarded that grant. It was
a very competitive grant. And we are looking forward to
being able to get that equipment and hopefully before the
end of the year, implement, um, a small pilot, um,
that we will be, like I said, updating all about
as soon as possible, but we are planning for it.
And it's very exciting. And I will turn it back
over to Dr. Stan. All right. In the world of
human resources, we're really excited to share that we have
looked at our vacancy rate as of last year and
going into this year as compared to Virginia. We are
down in terms of the percentage point. We're lower than
the vacancy rate statewide. So that's really exciting to see
last year at the end of the year, we only
reported three vacancies, which estimated a local vacancy rate of
about 0. 8 percent. Right now, these are the teacher
vacancies that we're looking at across the division for our
teaching staff at Abingdon. We have two teacher vacancies, Achilles.
We have one, um, badati we have one. Pets worth
elementary school. We have a 0. 5. That is a
school counselor. And then at the high school, we have
5. 5. And one of the things that we are
going to get unique with at the high school is
being able to do fourth block. So where other teachers
could pick up a four block for a flat rate
compensation. So we are going to be able to support
their. And then the other, um, vacancies at the elementary
level, what we're looking at is enrollment. And so we
will be looking to monitor those numbers every single day.
And if enrollment is down in one area and up
in another, we will be able to make sure that
we offset that with our FTEs or teachers, um, to
ensure that we're making sure teachers in front of all
of our students. So, um, that's the stuff that we're
working on right now. A teaching staff, as far as
support staff, we have a vacancy and transportation. That's a
bus driver. We have two custodial services. And that's two
of our elementary schools and then five paraprofessionals. And currently
right now we are doing interviews for those. Thinking about
how we're working through this, um, you know, we have
to get very creative. The applicant sometimes just aren't there.
And so we are going to be doing a substitute
hiring event in September. We're also doing our GRO our
own. Um, we have our teacher interns where we support
them through a teacher apprentice. Um, we have paraprofessionals that
are becoming teachers. In fact, we have one at Abington
that will be finished with her degree in December. Um,
we are allowing our substitutes that are, and we have
several substitutes that are actually licensed. We are having, trying
to recruit them and have them come teach for us
full time. And then we have a partnership with Mary
Baldwin right now where we have three special education teacher
apprentices that we're supporting and they will be done at
the end of the year, um, and they will be
fully licensed. We do social media advertising. We use indeed.
And then we do internal advertising. And then of course
we do job fairs in recruiting at locals and universities.
Some things looking at the benefit side of the shop.
We will be having open enrollment, um, that is happening,
August 17th through the 28th. We had our new teachers
yesterday and where our benefits coordinator Gale Corey came and
explained what our benefits are in Glossa County public schools
and more information will be coming to our employees in
the next couple of days about the open enrollment. They'll
be getting open enrollment booklets and things like that. So
I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Hartley in
operations. Okay. Good evening. Um, it's certainly been a busy
summer as far as projects are concerned. So I'll try
to give a brief description and then share some pictures
in the following slides. At GHS, the completion of the
punch list still in progress, um, getting down to the
end of that. Um, let's go emerge the updates. I've
been completed. Those are the generator switches. Um, we're working
on getting the process flowing for repair of the greenhouse.
Um, so it'll be just like brand new once we
get some structural repairs done. Um, and all the automation
taken care of. Um, and then a substantial amount of
paving going on. Um, it's still in progress. There's still
a little bit of work to do, but they, they've
made a great amount of progress at GLOSAR high school.
And again, we've had several million dollars. We're with the
HVAC work going on this summer. Um, uh, particularly at
Achilles and at body tight, preparing for next summer, uh,
for replacements. And they were doing some control work at
Petsworth. Um, and then we had another paving project that
body tot to help, uh, ease with that parent loop
that was mentioned earlier. So, uh, with that, I'll go
to some pictures of paving in particular at, uh, at
Gloucester High School. And these are actual pictures of floating
equipment. Um, on and off, uh, roofs, uh, you can
see the size those HVAC units that we were, were
switching out. You can imagine a work that goes in
with those. And then, uh, more paving, well, the top,
uh, pictures are the parent loop or the end of
the new parent loop of bodytiary school, um, if you've
ever driven that route, it's not an easy turnaround at
the end of that parent loop. Sometimes it's a two
or three point turnaround. We were hoping that this, uh,
solution provides, uh, some assistance, at least for a majority
of our vehicles, uh, we do have some plans to
further address that, um, when we get to our capital,
uh, our long range capital submission later this fall. Um,
and then the bottom pictures, uh, the ones on the
left is actually the parent lupi Gloss of high school,
then the one on the right is the, uh, student
parking lot at GLOSER high school. So plans are still
in the work to have separate parking, um, for buses
at Gloucester High School and really separate that student and
bus traffic, uh, for safety reasons. We are hopeful to
get that done this summer. It looks like it may
be a little further into the fall. But, uh, the
work is still on schedule to get done. So I'll
pause there and see if there are any questions. I
love how you saved the tree and did the turnaround
and botta tot around the tree. No, it looks so
nice. It saves three. Yeah. Love it. Thank you for
doing that. But much needed. Because you couldn't get around
without backing up and pulling forward and backing up. And.
The wonder we'd not had people backing into each other
doing that. Mr. Drew. On our summer projects, are there
any behind schedule. First. Well, I think we have some
punchless stuff with some of our HVAC work that we
were hoping would be done by the first week of,
uh, August. We actually met with honey well today to
talk about their specific issues. Um, there's actually three one
at body type and two at Achilles that have some
part issues that we need to address. Um, really when
the park gets here, what we're told is it's a
pretty easy fix. We just need to get that part
here to fix it. So very hopeful everything will be
taken care of in the next week and a half.
I got it one more question. It doesn't have to
deal with what you guys going on, but it's VDOT.
When are they going to disrupt body tot with the
sidewalk. So that, that work's still scheduled for spring of
27. Okay. Um, again, we have been working with FEDOT,
the gentleman named Thomas Gordon. It came here and presented
to the board and talked about all the right aways
and everything. It's been working on a resolution for us.
Um, we might have found a different solution to bring
all parties and all stakeholders together. Um, again, we kind
of talked about that under the de facto, um, eminent
domain process, um, again, no difference in impact on the
school division, but everything seems like it's still on schedule
for the spring of 27. And to go a step
further, any disruption to that bus loop or whatever we've
met with them, any changes need to happen in summer,
um, we talked about road closer schedules. Been a great
amount of detail to go into the impact of that
project would have on body talk or that they can't
have a body thought, I should say. We do expect
to have cool AR flowing and body taut and Achilles
win school starts. Yes. Okay. I hope so. Was it
just those two. Is it just Achilles and body title.
I'm sorry. Was it just Achilles and body taunt that
had that? Achilles and body tot were to swap out
this summer where he left it to big units off
and put new units on and rewired and everything. They
did some prep work. Abbonin is a full change out
next year, next summer. Um, it's a pretty big project,
but they did some wire. And this year to help
with that, um, that swap out of equipment. And then,
uh, we just really changed Pettsworth to a newer system.
Um, control system that matches the other systems we have
in division. We actually have one more building that we
will have to change controls on that has not made
it to CIP yet just because other things have taken
priority. Um, we anticipate that we'll be on a long
range capital submission this fall. Okay. Abing done is scheduled
for replacement next summer. Yes, ma'am. Pets worth or they,
is that going to be they're actually replaced and I
want to say 14 2014. It was a complete swap
out. They did the roof. They did HVAC system. They
did lighting. They did ceilings. They did, uh, a lot
of work. But the controls had anything care of. So
wiring was updated wiring then that was done. When they
did all that, um, the issue back in 2014, he
still had an old control system on those units. We
need to upgrade to a newer control system that integrates
what we currently have in the majority of our buildings.
Anyone else, Mr. Drew? I'm a guy all kinds of
questions. Um, we've recently dealt with a piece of equipment
that went down in a lot of food was spoiled.
Uh, do we have any and Achilles ice maker was
down for since March of last year. And the staff
had to actually go buy ice. Do we have a
prevented magnet schedule for all the equipment in each school.
We have a list. Of those that equipment. Do we
have a plan because everything has life expectancy. And so
I'm curious that is the maintenance getting done on it
because it's not just, Oh yeah, it's working. You can't
do that with electrical stuff that has compressors and stuff
like that. I'm concerned that I, you know, it's been
the hottest part of the, uh, the year. And we're
going into the fall. We're going into the winter. I
just want to make sure we're not going to get
hit with something else breaking down when the kids are
in school. So I don't know if you guys have,
if there is a maintenance schedule for them, how they
do it, that kind of thing. So I guess a
simple way to answer your questions. We're needing to make
some adjustments. We obviously have some staff and implications. Um,
that, that impact that, um, and again, I'm going to
be hesitant to speak to a specific piece of equipment,
but some of our equipment, we have to evaluate. It
has some age to it. Um, and you have to
make them determination of whether or not, right. Well, when
you don't have a whole lot of money to replace
it, you do everything you can to fix it. So,
um, we're going through. We've created a priority list of
equipment needs the most attention or TLC, if you will,
and how we might address those, whether it's getting a
repair, um, or replacement, replacement of kitchen equipment. You can
imagine is quite costly. Um, to address your other topic,
we've had two or three occasions where we've not received
the alerts or the alarms on our freezer equipment that
cause they lost a food. That's not connected to the
actual system itself, right? It's separate from the equipment. There
is a monitoring system that will send us an alarm
if it goes above a certain temperature. Okay. Um, so
when we notice the freezers down and we go back
and we notice that we don't have an alarm. Then
we have some investigation. Number one, we got to figure
out how to address the issue at hand, how to
fix the freezer and then why we didn't get an
alarm. Um, so some of that is through our monitoring
company as well. Um, I will say, you know, we
have been told this before. We have to go back
and revisit and do some spot checking just to make
sure that things are up and running. Um, after we
had the page incident last spring, um, what that freezer.
So the most recent was belt, but it's, it's up
and running. It's fixed. The alarm systems are working. We
actually checked them today. Okay. Anyone else have a question.
I would like to ask Dr. Migas a question, if
I may. Sure. All right. Well, I think it's time
to turn to open house. So I'll turn it over
Dr. Freeze and Dr. Meyer. Dr. Migas, we talking about
the, uh, HVAC project there. So. Where in the high
school are we going to put that projected, be taught.
So that's, that's the conversation that we're having right now
is to look at our, um, current electrical wiring and
voltage and see if we can put this either in
one of our existing classrooms, which we would have space
or to put it possibly in like the auto area
or something like that. Cause it's not going to be
multiple classes. It would be, you know, one class relatively
small group. So that's, that's what we're looking at right
now is where are we going to put this? We
did get the list of equipment that we know we're
going to need. And we've met with the representative from
Ferguson. So I think the purchasing process will be pretty
straightforward. It doesn't require any funding from us in terms
of the equipment. We'll just have to figure out how
to implement it and then get somebody to actually teach
a section of it. So when do we wait until
we get the equipment installed and everything before we start
looking for a teacher or what? How are we going
to do that? Um, well, no, I don't think we
have to wait until we get it installed. But we,
we need to probably get on that, you know, sooner
than later. It's kind of a recent development. Like we
got the, we got the grant kind of at the
end of the school year and we've been working with
Ferguson to figure out the details of how to implement
it. But no, I mean, we, we, we know it
may not be the easiest thing in the world to
find somebody quickly, but we've been in touch with, um,
some local folks to see if they may have somebody
that might be willing to come do it part -
time, like even come over for one block, you know,
a professional in the, in the area that might be
able to do that for us. Okay. Thank you. Um,
just what we had summer school, correct? Yes, ma'am. Will
we be getting a report on summer school outcomes and
a number of students attending maybe. Certainly we'll provide that
to you at the next meeting. Just summer school was
in there for the scale down due to the esser
fund. So it's a much smaller scale, but there are
next meeting will provide you with an update as far
as add that one. I know we had a number
of seniors that graduated as a result of somewhere school.
So we'll share some data with you. Appreciate that. Thank
you. And we will conclude our back to school update
with just a couple of reminders to the board in
the community, um, open houses are coming up next week.
So you'll notice that this year, um, elementary, middle and
high school are each have their own separate day, um,
to help our families who may have students at multiple
levels and prevent them from having to go to multiple
schools on the same night. Um, so elementary will be
Tuesday, August 18th. We have suggested times by student last
name just to help with traffic and congestion in the
buildings, but we will certainly accommodate, um, families at whatever
of those two options work best for them regardless of
last name. Um, and then our middle school open house
will be Wednesday the 19th. We've preserved a dedicated time
for sixth grade students recognizing that that elementary to middle
school transition is so critical. We want to have a
dedicated, um, intentional time for our sixth grade students and
then followed by seventh and eighth. And then we'll conclude
open house on Thursday the 20th with our high school
students, um, again, preserving a separate time for our ninth
graders as they have that freshman transition into high school.
Our returning students for open house, um, in that later
time slot. And then we'd just like to encourage everyone
that we have a wealth of back to school information
on our website from registration information, information about school supplies,
open house and orientation, um, bus stop information. We do
have a new bus stop app this year, which is
my ride mist decorator and her transportation team or busy
loading that information in. So encourage our families to, um,
access the my ride app to look at their bus
stops for the school year. Um, and then just one
last reminder, um, regarding power school annual updates for our
families who might not have completed those yet to go
in and make sure that there are students information is
updated as we prepared again, begin the school year. So
that concludes our back to school update for the evening.
And just again, a reminder Monday, August 24th is the
best day as we welcome all of our students back
to school for the first day. The other questions. I
just want to say, I hope that parents do contact
transportation if they have moved over the summer. I've heard
a lot of problems with that. The parents just forget
because they're busy and transportation doesn't know what transportation does
it know. Yes, ma'am. Earlier they can update and also
providing that updated address information in the power school update.
We can get those two systems to talk to each
other and make sure we have the most current information.
Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. All right. Dr. Stam. I
believe we have a cut score presentation. If we have
the departmental updates, but you do have a pay plan
up just very short. I think just one slide. So
Dr. Stan.
Play an updates tonight. Um, so we have really worked
hard on efficiencies in HR. And obviously we have room
to grow. We always will. But one of the things
we've worked on are our supplements. And so with the
help of car, Tyler, we went through, and I also
want to commend our principals for getting in their HR
action forms to help us with this. But we went
through and looked at what supplements are we using, what
is being using used for something and not named correctly.
Um, and so we went through an update that pay
plan thus far to ensure that to be in reflected.
So one of the things that we no longer have
is, um, our cafeteria monitor. So we went ahead and
removed those. We added a FOIA officer supplement because now
we have support for our FOIA officer, Ms. Brazil. And
that is Candace Keeper. And so she's going to be
supporting that. Um, all of your changes are in the
pay plan that was uploaded their in red so that
you can do exactly what I'm talking about. Um, we
remove the instructional lead supplements of pages 30 and 32
because we were seeing that our middle schools were using
that for department and grade level chairs. And so we
just named it exactly what it is. It's a department
in grade level chair. Um, we added the cross country
coach and assistant coach to the middle school supplements because
that was approved by the board. And so we wanted
to make sure that was reflected. We reduced the gifted
program in Richmond activity supplements from 12 to 10 because
every school, um, at the elementary level and then our
two middle schools have gifted program enriched by grade level.
And so we went ahead and did, um, did that
at the elementary in the middle to reflect that. And
then we removed the VTSS division coordinator from page 34
because that has not been in use for the last
three years. And so we're looking at where they're, where
our efficiencies are and we are then going to be,
um, making sure that we support other things that are
in need through the supplement process. Any questions? Any questions.
This may not be dealing with this, but, um, I
ran into this again. I want to say two days
ago. Our teachers give and give and give to the
kids. They go out and they buy supplies. And they
give themselves even when they're not even working. What are
we doing? And I think we touched on this last
couple of years. Uh, how are we going to, uh,
I don't know what the word reimburse. For the money
that these teachers are going out and spending out of
their own pocket for supplies. I'm just wondering how we,
how can we monitor that and or ensure that they
get paid back. Well, we do have a process for
spending funds. And so typically our teachers should be going
through their principal to get approval to spend. And what
that typically looks like is they are requesting for items.
And then if it's something that the school isn't going
to purchase, then they will allow them to purchase it
on their own. But typically all of that should be
going through the principle. They shouldn't be spending out of
pocket right now. A challenge you to go to Dollar
Tree on a Saturday. Or a Sunday. School sponsor. I'm
not saying they're not doing it. I'm just saying there's
a process. No, I'm not. I'm not pointing fingers or
nothing. I just want to, I mean, a lot of
people don't realize how much these teachers give of themselves.
They get for sure. But I also think sometimes it's
more of a hassle to go through the process. Exactly.
You used to go buy it yourself. And that's unfortunate,
but that we really do need to use the process
because all of our schools have a budget to be
to support school supplies for our teachers. And also, I
mean, we are getting so many donations too. We just
had another one do on flow saying we've got all
this stuff to donate to you. Where do we take
it? So I just think there's a little bit of,
you know, I want it right now versus I want
to follow the process to get it right now. And,
um, although we're grateful because our teachers are amazing. They
give of themselves more than we can ever imagine. I
mean, they just have such servant hearts. But at the
same time, I think that some of them don't take
advantage of what they're, what is there so that they
can not have to put their own funds into it.
So would it be easier to, Hey, I need to
go to Dollar Tree and buy a hundred pencils and
then turn in that receipt. Can they do that? Or
do they have to fill it out first and get
permission to spend that hundred dollars kind of thing? Because
if every teacher was doing that, who knows how much
money we've been spending. So we have probably a monitoring.
That's what I'm saying. How do we monitor it? Remember
the peak cards. Remember the peak cards? Yeah. But that's
illegal. No, the current cards are illegal purchase cards or
not. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to say we can't
afford a teacher, every teacher having a peak guard though.
Right. I. Know. I spent a lot of time in
the elementary schools years ago. And if you walk into
the elementary especially, some of the middle school and high
school rooms as well. But especially the elementary level, you
can walk in a classroom and it looks like home.
I know. Um, they make it as welcoming as they
possibly can. So I firmly believe you are not going
to have teachers that are not going to want to
purchase what they see that they like and want to
do. And a lot of these teachers also bring some
one teacher brought a carpet from home so that they,
because it was a nice checkered carpet for the kids
and elementary. And I don't think we're going to stop
that. Um, but and I think it sounds bad that,
you know, they have to go out and buy these
things, but they don't have to go out and buy
a lot of this. It's because they want to buy
some things because they want their classroom to be special
and very welcoming to the students. So. That's what I
wanted as a teacher. I wanted to have my stuff.
I understand completely. I mean, even the low light in
some of the classrooms is so nice. It's the ambiance
in walking in one of the classrooms. So yeah, they're
so creative. They are really good at making those classrooms
feel amazing. Yeah. Okay. Ms. McPherson, I think you are
going to ask me something. Yeah. I just wanted to
ask the removal of the cafeteria monitor, um, could you
talk a little bit more about that? So will there
not be any cafeteria monitors or anyone besides the cape?
Great question. Thank you. So our cafeterias are monitored by
our, um, paraprofessionals and at the middle schools, I know
that they have a rotating schedule of administrators. And at
the high school, they have the same thing. Um, that
was put in there for a short term that actually
we, um, dissolved of that last year. So we didn't
have them last year, but it remained in the paid
plan. So we just needed to clean it up. Um,
cafeterias will continue to be monitored. Perfect. And the last
one, the VTSS Division Coordinator. So you're saying that we
haven't filled that position in the last couple of years.
Are we doing anything to, I mean, it looks as
though that is just more of a data. So, so
that was a, that was a supplement that was put
in when the previous administration was here. And she was
used to pretty much oversee the process of ETSS and
the data collection. But our directors do that now. So
that's been absorbed in their roles. And they do that
with our coordinators. So that was a division level process.
But our VTSS, MTSS is what it's called. It's still
in full swing and we still have that process. We
just haven't had someone lead it because we have our
directors in place. Okay. So is that role funded by
the VDOE or no GOLD.
Okay. All right. Um, we, you want us to vote
on this this evening. I assume. For the paid land.
Do I have motion to approve. The pay plan that
was presented. Second. All right. We have a motion and
a second. Any more discussion. Jen, would you please pull
the board. Ms. McPherson? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Ms. Salman.
Yes. Mr. Anderson. Miss Scruggs. Yes. Mr. Cinevic. Yes. Ms.
Parker. Yes. Thank you. All right. Um, cut score presentation.
Dr. Vlido. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I know we're
going to shift gears a little bit. Um, and talk
about something that is familiar to you. And hopefully to
the public. I know we don't have many here in
audience. However, this will affect. The work of every single
child, every single teacher and every single parent and Gloucester.
The purpose of school is to graduate, to graduate. We
have an SOL curriculum. At the end of that course,
particularly end of course grades. There is a test. And
that test is used to give you a verified credit
at a high school level. And those verify credits are
used to me graduation requirement. And it's not just teachers.
It's the work of every single bus driver that drives
them to school. And every teacher and every director, our
work is going to look different. My work as a
superintendent is going to look different. I'll quote calling power
before I get started. Leadership is known what's around the
corner. And what's around the corner is our work. Our
work is changing. Why do I say that? I'm probably
making a big deal. If you do something in life
27 times and the 28th time you got to do
it differently, this is the year. I came into education
like many teachers 27 years ago. SOL was a minimum
achievement test. Some of the passing rates of the SOL
are 46 percent to get a 400. And so they're
going to be bumped up a little bit. It's a
done deal. We talked about it now on October 14th
last year, but it's happening and it's here and it's
affecting the work. So that's my spill. But that's our
work. That defines the work. My work are strategic plan,
the board priorities, probably some funding, the budget. We're talking
about a lot of discussions. And this is going to
be driven from that. So you saw these charts, but,
um, for our parents, I'm certainly going to work on
developing a communication plan back to schoolhouse. Probably needs to
have this information letting our parents know that there is
a new cut score. So grade three, for instance, approaching
is not quite proficient. But that is the minimum expectation.
Proficient is what we like folks to go, but that's
a big spread. That is a huge spread, right? To
go from, um, 400, which was last year or this
year we just completed to a 418 to 443 in
order to be able to be, or approaching proficion. So
we see that, um, those changes, particularly in the mustard
color, uh, column in the middle. Um, so I'll move
to the next slide. Grade six at the middle school.
You see it goes to 413 for a minimum approaching
and reading grade 74 13 minimal changes. The middle school,
but those changes are significant. I want to share this.
The majority of our students passed the SOL slightly above
the minimum score. So we do measure advanced score. So
we have a lot of students that score a 401.
So moving this sliding scale just a little bit affects
everything and everyone. So this is the big change. Um,
I want to start with this. If you're graduating senior.
Is still 400. So parents with seniors right now. Right.
Because that's important that you walk across that state. We
want you to do your best. By our ninth graders
are expected. To have a very, very high score on
their English reading in your board packets. You will see
actually the four year implementation plan. I didn't want to
make this presentation too long. They're going to be required
to increase their passing rate. Let's from a 54 give
or take to a 77 percent if you think about
0 to 100 to pass your English reading in order
to graduate. So again, this year's ninth graders, when those
parents walk into the building with their ninth graders, we
all need to know that three years later, when you
take that test, you no longer need a 54. You
need a 77. In English in order to graduate. That
is huge. Cause I share with this for our students
of this abilities. It goes down from having single digits
from heaven dozens me graduation. So that's why I say
this not to scare people. It's here, but we have
a plan and I'm willing to share that tonight because
we have talked about that. And we have provided professional
development all summer long. Let's make this more tangible. Sometimes
the 400 is arbitrary and capricious. We don't know what
it means. Sometimes it means a 64. Sometimes it means
a 48. So here's what it means. In algebra 1
currently to get a 400, you need to get a
43 percent 43. That gets you a pass that gets
you to graduate. That goes for our ninth graders for
leader for graduation. It goes to 69. 93. That's a
26. And I'll share with you what this means because
we did the analysis. What is the impact? EEOC reading
the end of course, not EOC. I'm thinking about something
different. EOC reading 53. 33 to 77. 78. That is
for our ninth graders coming in into the high school.
Now let's look at elementary. So this is the one
year, right? High school seniors. Not affected. Third graders this
year affected. I want to make that distinction. I want
to be very, very clear. So last year's third graders
in math need 56. Reeding, um, in fifth grade is
significant 12. And from 47 and great, um, fifth math
to 64 for a 16 point increase in one year.
There's a four year implementation plan and that's coming. Middle
school again changes not as big. And grave six mat,
almost a six percent. You notice that reading is a
little bit higher than math. There is a focus on
reading. And that's our Achilles heel. That we do need
to unlock reading particularly at the middle school level to
make it interesting to make it fund, to make it
engaging. Now you sow a lot of forties and fifties
moving to 60s. We could get kids. To get a
65 percent on a test. But only when we do
things differently. So we can't pull out last year's plans
because that will get us last year's results. West teachers,
this is not too scare you. This is actually to
inspire you. The grace seven reading. We move from 52
percent to 60 percent. We could do that. But again,
by working together, by taking off what doesn't work. Let
me give you an example. We pull IXL. You all
see it in rooms or kids are answering. Well, we
look at the effective ISL on the SOLs. Anybody want
to wonder what it is? It's not positive. So let's
do a little less. I excel belongs at home as
practice. Maybe belong somewhere as a little bit of a
slice by putting kids on ISL the entire period. If
you see that, that's not going to get us there.
So that is the level of detail where data informed.
We're going to find out what works. What doesn't work.
And we're going to support our teachers. And we're going
to do this together by locking arms. And working together.
Impact. I want to show the board how this will
impact us. So when we look at, um, sped. In
reading currently for the district, these are all the reading
tests. Three through 11. That goes down to 11 percent.
That means that nine out of 10 students with disabilities,
if we don't do things differently, particularly our tier one,
we go from four out of 10 passing to one
out of 10 passing. In one year, and this is
based on a projection on actual scores. Actually, it's not
based on a projection is implementing the new standard, uh,
the new CUS scores to this year's course. About math.
Currently 50 percent of our students with disabilities past math.
If we do nothing, thou will go to 17. So
we'll share with you a couple other forces. I share
special education because that's where, um, you lift up special
education. You lift up everything because the clarity of teaching
and learning works. That's why the focus. But let me
give you some statistics that I memorized. And I want
everybody to memorize these if they, you know, they're just
four numbers. And reading as a district. We go from
78 to 43. In math, we go from 82 to
50. As a district. These are general, all of our
students together. I share with you special education. So those
are in a sum what are the major changes. Algebra,
uh, one English end, of course, reading, um, you see
the difference in percentage increase over the year. I'm going
to stop here because I know I present a lot
of information. I think what comes after this is our
response to this. As a district, we're responding like other
districts and, um, in the region. So what questions were
comments do you all have based on this data before
we go on. How our parents going to be
brought into the loop on these huge changes. When it
directly affects our kids. Back to school, what we're doing
here tonight. If you're an elementary, you just get the
elementary version. We have also, uh, directed our schools to
include the community engagement coordinators in the instructional meeting every
week. What better way to have the person that communicates
who pair and everything is to know about your reading
program to know about the PLC, to know about what
the standard. So those community engagement coordinators are going to
be critical in commuting that. So communicating that. Uh, so
we will have, uh, numerous opportunities to communicate that pay
and reading, I literacy night anytime we get parents together.
We're going to show them this. But I want to
say this. We need to provide hope and optimism. And
I'll go back to those charts about passing rates as
a percentage versus the 400, which means different thing to
different people. So, uh, here's the big, if we remember
anything from tonight, remember this. SOLs go from a minimum
achievement test of 43. 75 in algebra. To an achievement
test over four years. Remember back in the day, where
you wanted to get an A, that's what we're going
to do. Is no longer a minimum achievement test. So
we've done this for 27. In 99 and 2000 NCLB
came here. Another child left behind. And here we are
in 2026, 2027 changing everything, right? And we didn't change
it. However, it is here. Therefore, we must adapt and
overcome. So how do we adapt and overcome one high
quality instructional materials. The board has invested a tremendous amount
of funding in K12. Literacy. And we got that big
grant for almost 800, 000 last year. New material support
these new standards are learning. What does that mean? Don't
go back and use the materials from 20 years ago.
Please don't do that. Use this high quality materials. Let
me give you an example of HMH. What we invested
in that. The teachers that sold the most growth use
the rigorous part of HMH, not the worksheets from HMH.
High engagement and high rigor is when we struggle a
little bit with support and with love when we care.
So we need to use our high quality instructional material.
The board is invested. We invested more than a million
dollar in that. And we need to be all behind
that. Pacing guides. We need a better measuring stick. So
right, if you're going to measure an engine, you might
need to measure use a caliper or dial indicator. So
our measuring is to get more precise. Why? Because we're
going to decide who needs help with a better tool.
So we're going to move to a CIP benchmark, which
tell a student that they missed standard 6. 6B. C,
which means that I need to be able to analyze
and identify the main idea. Versus just teaching without an
objective. We need to focus on those objectives and intervene.
And then, um, MTSS, multi tier system of support, you
know, has been here for a long time. It's one
of the reasons why this district shines will have to
revamp that system as well. Better measurement, more response, more
intervention. School leadership. This is us. Professional learning communities. This
is done together. Um, our administrators need to be able
to, uh, hone up their structural leadership skills. What does
that mean? They need to inspect what they expect. If
you expect engagement, then be willing to put in the
time just like our coaches. You saw coach red. He
pours into his kids. So we got to pour into
those lesson plans because that's key. Um, monitor progress every
quarter, we will know whether we're ahead or we're behind.
Why? So we could intervene in a lot of resources.
And the MTSS coaching is going to be critical. Lastly,
for teachers, what does it mean. Pacing guys slight adjustment.
They're not major by the way. Slight adjustments to match
the new assessment. Use high quality instructional materials. Use evidence.
Teaching is both a science and art. You got to
love your children. Support them. But you all got to
know that when you come into a classroom, you got
to be managed at classroom. You got to have rules,
procedure, discipline, objectives, closure, data, and being forms that you
could adjust the next lesson. And then the MTSS feedback
as a coaching strategy. So I shared a lot of
information. We presented this last year just that it happened
now. So I'll just share with this. We had a
Republican administration that introduced this. And then we have a
democratic administration that approval they increased standards. They were listening
sessions from VDOE. So all of us had our opinions
on this. But the time for that is now it's
time to do. And time to act and time to
change rather than time to argue. Cause we just don't
have that option. If you're in third grade, you're only
in one year. If you're a senior, we need an
SOL. You only dare one year. So as we work
this system out, we need to balance the need of
students. And continue to advocate for good assessment, continue to
advocate for resources, continue to advocate for interventions and literacy
and mass specialists and reading specialists and special educations. So
the work will continue. I presented a lot of information
at this time. I'm going to open it up for
comments. Can you go back a slide, sir. Go back
now. One more. Progress. Is that going to mean more
testing. Actually, there's going to be a reduction in testing.
Okay. So we look at, we were taking three whole
days. So we're gaining three days this year from the
reduction and testing. So we had an assessment that told
us nationally for on par below or above. But what
it didn't tell us is the specific standard. So that's
being replaced with a specific CIP benchmark. And that CFP
benchmark is going to let us do it in a
teacher now with standard they're doing well and which standard
they're doing. So one assessment comes off the table. But
great point. We need to be very credible about teaching
and learning. If it's not working, let your principal know,
let your director know. Let's take it off the table.
If it's working and you have proof. And I'll do
this. If you have evidence is working advocate. We do
not need to add more things for our teachers. If
anything, we need to make it more clear and more
actionable. I have a question. Are you ready? No, go
ahead, Nico. I think it's interesting that. Both, uh, both
sides of the fence were agreement upon this. And I
know that we've had a couple of conversations about this.
You know, it is, it is about mastery and it
is about being proficient. As you go on, um, one
of the things that I think a lot of people
have concerns about is. Teachers, our masterful in always finding
a way. And, um, you know, how will there be
a clear communication up and down this chain to ensure
that they're getting the information that they need. And we
are getting the information that we need to be successful
with these new scores. So it's a system. We put
together a playbook, just like remember when we started doing
the, um, this is back in 23 and high dosage
to the ring, the all - in model. We had
a playbook. We knew that if you was, Lexia, that
works. If you did this, that worked. So we did
with our leadership. We had leadership academy for two days.
One of those days was an entire day devoted to
this. I'll go back to the science of teaching and
learning. All of our principles tomorrow will welcome teachers. They're
going to be present them with this information. They're going
to ask for inputs. It's going to be collaborative, we
said. Ask them. If this is the standard, you all
are, they can't content area experts. How does, how does
English at the middle school need to look different. How
this mat need to look different. And as the teachers
and listen to them and then provide the evidence and
implement that into a plan. And so we have a
playbook, um, what we can do is, um, well, we
again, what we don't want to do is fly a
plane without instrumentation. We need to know for moving in
the right direction because our teachers are already busy. So
I think the measurement is going to be the biggest
key to be able to say at the end of
the first quarter, you're ahead. Well, we need some work.
And then to allow coaching and division resources and materials
to, to, um, to be provided. So how will our
teachers know this is our work, our PLC. This is
our work. Tomorrow we're going to visit somebody's schools and
to see how, um, how they're going to respond to
it. But we do have a plan. And we, anyone
that has questions, we ask, come and ask us, ask
your principal, ask me, ask Dr. Stam, as Dr. Freeze,
Dr. Migas, this should be something we do together, not
a part. Um, I know that, uh, to be successful
too, will require, you know, teachers will ask for, um,
the IE bloc was so important because you needed that
intervention time. So time is what they don't have enough
of. Um, because they have so much to do and
always are saying so little time to do it. Um,
so we'll obviously probably have to be doing before and
after school tutoring or our programs as well. Absolutely. I
remember back before Esther that, um, as a department chair,
social studies and science stayed on Tuesdays. And math and,
you know, English may be on another day or vice
versa, whatever works. He asked, um, we're going to have
to support students during the day. I know we have
them, but also after school, some of our schools did
before school with all intuitoring. So we're going to be
looking at resources as well for that, but also I
think, um, we're just all figuring this out along the
way, but student supports are a big key of that.
That was a state funded program, the all in tutoring,
who's very successful. I mean, it really made an impact.
So we are now having to pay for that. If
we implement something like that. It's coming out of our,
obviously out of our budget. Right. So we have to
compensate the teachers for the time, obviously. But it seems
you're going to, we're going to have to do that.
So we'll have to prepare. So we'd like to see
how much that you are absolutely correct. Another way to
look at this, you could technically say this is on,
unfunded mandate. This will cost money. And, um, you know,
the state, unfortunately when the state comes in, because you
didn't meet a standard, then that's when the money comes
in with their coaching cycles. We want to advocate for
money to be given ahead of time before our kids
get behind. I think what gives me the most heartburn
is every year towards the end of the school year,
we have parents that come in upset because their child
is not doing as well as they had thought they
were doing and may or may not graduate because of
it. I have a lot of fears right now about.
The largest of the group of parents that will not
understand how this is going to definitely, in some ways,
work against their child and hopefully we can pick up
that slack and they will be successful. But it does
worry me that we are looking at more unsuccessful issues
than we are successful. Not for the most part, I
think we're going to be fine. But I do worry
about those parents that do not understand. What all of
this actually means. And I don't know how we convey
it as the school district to make sure that everybody
is on board. Is there something we could have at
each school a night where they come in and somebody
comes in and explains it a little bit. To them?
Would that be helpful to parents. There's probably not one
thing that is going to. Communicate is it's a number
of things. It's back to school night several times. Literacy
night, math night, um, pushing out messages, pulling them in
for conferences, student - led conferences. We need a system
because there's no one communication tool that's going to convince
somebody that things have changed. I think, not, I think,
I know our teachers love our kids. And when they
realize that, okay, the standards have increase. Our teachers are
going to do what it takes to respond to that.
But I also want to say this. If I'm going
into an algebra class, I take this meeting, for example.
If I'm already talking to you about things you already
know, we're not going to pay attention. So the teaching
below grade level skills and algebra to talk to kids
about six great skills. I had nauseam. That probably needs
to change. We need to challenge and we need on
gray level standards because we can't teach below the curriculum
anymore. But that does go back to your point. Now
that student may need some after school tutoring before tutoring
because they may not be on grade level. So, um,
the biggest thing we can do is communication and feedback
loops. Before I leave that lesson, I got to be
able to determine if that learning target is actually master
or non - mastered. Um, and if we are able,
and I hope we are, uh, you know, more before
after school, um, I think one way to get students
to participate, because it could be a burden for parents
as ours transportation. So, you know, can we, again, it's
a cost, but it's some necessary causes to provide them
transportation somehow to be able to attend. So we currently
have activities buses, but not enough. We may need before
school after school. So our team will evaluate. We got
our instructional directors working with a principles listening to them
and how we're going to respond. That's going to be
on a table. You may see me come here, us
come here asking for more resources, good teaching takes money.
And that's what makes this an unfunded mandate. I think
parent - teacher conferences are going to be vital. This
coming year. That teachers reach out to their parents in
order to have them understand we need to come in
and talk about this so that we can catch that
child while they can still do the things that are
needed to make them successful. That's absolutely.
English adoption, six through 12. Dr. Magus. I don't know
how you follow that, right? Actually, it's a good lead
in for the next topic, which is our proposal for
high quality instructional material, uh, adoption for English language arts
in grades six through 12.
So this presentation will be very similar to the one
that, uh, Dr. Stan and I gave a few months
ago when we talked about, uh, high quality instructional materials
for K through 12 math. Just as a refresher, as
a background, um, there is a state law that requires
all public schools to adopt high quality instructional materials. Uh,
which builds on the Virginia literacy act, um, which was
passed a couple of years ago. And that's when our
division was required to adopt high quality instructional materials for,
um, elementary K5 reading, which was HMH. And so now
we're looking to expand that into six through 12 English
language arts. Uh, and I just wanted to go back
a few months, um, I gave a presentation about a
middle school literacy audit. I talked about how, um, the
instructional coordinators myself. We went and we visited pretty much
every middle school classroom, English classroom in the division. And
we just took some notes and gathered some data. It
was not, um, you know, there was no names attached
or anything like that. But one of the things we
really looked at is are our students observed behaviors aligned
with the one that is in the curriculum framework. So
if it says that a student is supposed to be
analyzing that they're supposed to be comparing and contrasting are
the students really doing that. Are we reaching the standards?
Because that's what's going to be required to get the
students to that level of proficiency that Dr. Vladi was
just talking about in his presentation. And we found that
many times students were not. Uh, and we did bring
the teachers in a representative group. And, you know, one
of the things that came out of that was the
teacher said, we really need some help in getting the
students to reach that level. You know, help us to
understand what that level is. But then the lesson plans,
the materials, the resources that we need to help the
students to get there. So, um, that is one of
the reasons why we're putting this out there is that
the need for high quality instructional materials goes right along
with that need for the increased cut scores that Dr.
Vladi was just talking about. Um, also the legal requirement
here, uh, in order for our schools to stay accredited,
we do have to continue to adopt these high quality
instructional materials, not just the ones that we already have,
but we actually have to expand and adopt more of
these materials. Eventually, uh, it's going to be across multiple,
all of our content areas. I wanted to put this,
um, money part, uh, up front and just show you
all what the total cost is going to be. I
want to just let you all know this is not
an ask for an increase in funding from the county
or anything like that. This is all going to have
to come from our budget that we do have. But
I wanted to put the dollar sign up there. This
will be the ask for us to be able to
spend this amount of money on these materials. Again, not
a new appropriation of, you know, additional funds from anywhere,
but this is what it's going to cost. Uh, and
so the timing of this is obviously not ideal with
the new, the new school year starting. This is something
that we've known we were going to have to try
to do. But if you recall through our budget process,
it did take the state quite a while to come
up with a budget and give us a final number.
And we had to go back to the county multiple
times and do, uh, revisions with, with the pay raise
and all of that. Um, the good news is we
do have some increased enrollment projections. Those slides of Dr.
Vladiu shared with you all, um, over, uh, the budget
period. We do think our enrollment coming into 26, 27
is going to be higher than what the state had
told us it was going to be. We're monitoring our
numbers every day. But with that higher increase in student
enrollment does come some increased funding. Dr. Vladiu mentioned that,
um, you know, we have a number of instructional programs,
electronic online subscriptions that we use. Some of those have
been paid for over the years by the instructional money,
the, um, textbook money that the state gives us to
buy instructional supplies. And so now that we know we're
going to have to buy these instructional materials. We have
been looking at all of our subscriptions and saying, which
ones are actually being used. Not only the efficacy, the,
the, um, the value of them, but are they even
being used? And so looking at that and making sure
that we are really, um, spending money on the things
that we really have to have, but maybe sunsetting some
things that we don't have to have. Um, from a
personnel standpoint, as you all know, we are reviewing all
of our positions constantly in light of enrollment and just
making sure that we are being as efficient as possible.
And also, um, last year we were able to reduce
the number of early graduates at Gloucester High School by
well over 50 percent. There was a huge drop and
we're hoping to drop that even lower this year. Uh,
so, um, that does help out with the funding as
well. So this is just an overview of the process.
Um, our instructional coordinator for secondary literacy, Mr. Minguez. She
looked at all of the, uh, approved high quality instruction
materials or textbook series that were put out there by
the state. We did not ask our committee to review
every single one of those because there to go ahead
and review that and see which ones were really the
most aligned with the state standards. Same process that we
did for elementary and secondary math textbooks. It's not on
this, uh, slide, but I also asked Ms. Dominguez a
few months ago to actually pull data from the state
and look at who are the highest performing school divisions
across the state in English language arts at the secondary
level. Who has the highest SOL scores? Which school systems?
And then to reach out to those school systems and
find out what materials they're adopting. Because everybody has to
adopt something. So what, what have they adopted and what
have they seen so that we would have a background
and we're making sure we're looking at the best of
the best before we narrow it down. Um, we did
send out sample materials to every school and we had
them up here in the CAFI at TC Walker. We
did get a committee together. Um, and we also collected
data from our, uh, staff and community to review the
materials. And then our committee got back together and made
a final product recommendation. All of this work was going
on while we were still trying to figure out if
we were going to hopefully be able to find the
funds to do this. Because unlike in math, there was
not a grant for this. But I do want to
just say thank you publicly to the teachers who took
the time to come up here, review the materials and
they really, they were very diligent in their work. And
here you can just see, uh, who we had. There's
no names attached to this, but we did have a
representative committee from page, Peasley, Gloucester High School and Division
staff across multiple grade levels. And we also included, um,
special education staff as well. And these are the three,
uh, textbook series that we looked at. So they were
called into literature. My perspectives and study things, studied sync.
So those were the three. Um, and here's the timeline
that we followed. So back in March, um, we started
looking at the materials and getting a committee together, uh,
throughout the spring. We did the work that I just
described about getting the feedback. Um, and we are hoping
now that we, um, have looked at our numbers and
figured out that we can fund this, um, to, to
get school board approval for adoption. Um, and I will
let you know that, you know, there has been a
lot of work going on. Um, in preparation so that
if we do get board approval tonight, we are ready
to pull the trigger and place the order. We do,
we do have that ready to go so that, um,
we can get things in place as soon as possible.
Um, so that we will be able to, to order
the product, get the digital materials immediately and get the
physical resources shortly thereafter. So these are the criteria that,
um, we asked our committee and our teachers to look
at the five criteria were the overall quality of the
materials. The quality of the text that the students, um,
would be reading. The writing instruction involved, how usable the
materials were, both from a print and an online standpoint.
And then our supports for our diverse learners. We know
we have students across the spectrum at all different reading
levels, even at every grade. And some of our students
have disabilities and some of our students are reading at
a 12th grade level in elementary school. So do we
have, you know, something support for all of our students.
And so these were the ratings that we got from
our teachers. And so this one here, um, I think
makes pretty clear why it is the recommendation that we're
bringing to you tonight. So the blue graph fair, the
blue bars on the graph represent study sync, the red
represents my perspectives and the yellowish orange represents into literature.
And you can see, um, we, we ask them to
rate on a scale of, you know, not effective at
all to very highly effective. Um, those five different domains
that I just, uh, described. And across all of the
domains, there was one textbook series that stood out, which
is the my perspectives. Um, uh, series. So that is
the one that we're, um, that I'm bringing for you
tonight for approval as our adopted curriculum. And here's some
quotes that we, um, got from teachers, um, they range
from some practical things like they love the digital features.
Um, how easy it was to integrate with power school
and with canvas, our existing systems. And then also some
things on the instructional side, like the supports for our
students with disabilities, uh, things about the vocabulary instruction, the
high academic standard. So again, I just appreciate our teachers
really took the time to review these materials and give
the best possible recommendation. And so these are our proposed
next steps. Um, we are asking tonight for the board
to approve this. We haven't implementation plan that we have
been working diligently on to get ready and pull the
trigger. So we're ready to hit the ground running. Um,
PD starting as soon as possible. Um, and then monitoring
our support and implementation throughout the year, um, it will
be an ongoing process. As we know from our, our
previous, uh, adoption of HMH, it's going to be an
ongoing process with teachers, professional development and learning as we
go. And so at this time, I am asking for
that approval. And if y'all have any questions or, um,
any comments, I'm happy to take those. Number of hard
copy items included in that price quote approximately. So, um,
here's what we will be getting just because I figured
you would probably want some to know. So we will
have a digital copy for every single student in our
division. Um, however, I will let you know that that,
um, we did as much cost savings as we could.
So like grade six, seven, and eight, we got one
for each student. But like at the high school level,
because the semester based courses were able to kind of
cut that at half a little bit and keep the
cost down. The hard copy books, we have enough to
put a class set in every classroom. So at the,
um, middle schools and the high school. And I don't
know the exact number right here. That is there is
a number somewhere I could, I could certainly send you
that invoice. But it's a class set in grade six,
seven, and eight in both middle schools and then a
class set in nine through 12 at the high school
as well as some additional copies for students who need
to take them home. Where are they? Yeah. Go ahead.
Say the reason I was asking is that shipping and
handling price looked super steep, but without context, I could
be off. It was almost 10 grand and shipping. I
was literally my question is where are they shipping from.
Right. And so that's actually, um, that's less than the
initial quote that they gave us for shipping and handling.
Cause it is, I mean, it's still, even though it's
not, you know, 3000 books. It is still, it's still
a lot. Um, and chipping is a lot these days.
So this was the best negotiated price we could get
even with the discount because it happens to be the
same company that we adopted the, um, MacBooks from. And
do we know where they're shipping from? I don't know
where the, where the warehouse is or where they're produced.
No, man. Yeah, I will gladly drive a vehicle and
pick some of them up. It's a lot of money.
Again, it might not be. I mean, are we talking
a thousand hard copies, 2000 hard copies? In my head,
it was in hundreds. Yeah. That's what I was saying.
Uh, no, it's, it's, it's more than in the hundreds.
I mean, it's, it's a lot of books. And again,
I can get you that exact number. It also includes,
I will add, um, in addition to the actual textbooks,
it includes some physical copies of novels that go with
the textbook series. So you, um, you're reading the book
as you're doing the activities that are in the, um,
that are in the textbook series. Is that in the
digital as well. Yeah. Everything is also in the digital,
yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Go ahead. So the new SOL
thing has been in the works for what two years.
We knew it was coming. The cut scores, you mean?
Right. Yeah. Cut scores. How long have we known that
that's going to be coming down the pipe. Well, they've
been talking about it for a couple of years. Like
you said, but I think, um, we've gotten even in
the last few months alone multiple different updates as far
as the phase implementation. So I know we did this
whole thing last year. We did a book purchase part
of the cycle. So the most recent adoption the board
approved was, um, K through 12 math a few months
ago. And a couple of years we did a couple
two or three years ago. We did HMH for K5
reading. And a regional mask in this is that all
these books that we've already bought going on a line
with these new SOLs and I mean, yes sir. So
we've adopted high quality instructional materials that are aligned to
the standards in K5 reading and K through 12 math.
This will get us to six through 12 reading as
well. The standards didn't change. The cut scores changed. What
we've adopted was to meet the new standards which were
adopted how many years ago. Probably four years ago, five
years ago. Three. Yeah. You know, at the high school
they had some, one of the teachers teaching with a
15 year old history book. And I'm like, you know,
history doesn't change, but. Well, and you bring up a
good point. I'm going to be honest that, you know,
the state has made it clear to us that we
are eventually going to have to adopt textbook resources for
other content areas as well. And so I'll use the
same term that Dr. Vladiu used, which is unfunded mandate.
Um, this is what we're going to try to do
now because we know literacy is the one that we
need to, we need to get to, but that is
the push that is coming from the state. I just
want to make. Sure we didn't spend on something that's
not going to, by teacher may not be able to
use. You know what I'm saying? Or something. Yes, sir.
And so that is, you know, when the state comes
out with the adopted, the approved list, that is the
one that we have to go by. So once they
come out with the new standards, you know, in each
content area, they'll give us an updated list. And certainly
we're not going to purchase something that's going to be
out of date. So those standards that, um, that these
are aligned to, it'll be aligned to that throughout the
life of this textbook series. If I could also share
with the board, if we click no on the standards
of accreditation report because of this purchase, we would not
be accredited as a district. So this is an advocacy
piece. And, you know, I actually went into adminton and
I looked at, I said in the science classroom and
I tried to find, they asked us to report when
is the last science adoption. You ready for this? 2006.
Wow. So many districts are not fun. We checked with
other districts. The money they give us for textbooks is
not enough. I mean, it's not even enough to replace
that where you have. And so we talk about true
on fundamentate. This is, it's almost like pulling your hand
behind your back and say, uncle approved this or we're
not going to accredit you. So I think the advocacy
piece, the VSPA piece, I know I'm going to speak
to VAS. Is it a good thing for our kids?
Yes. Does it make us one extremely tight budget's absolutely?
And that's what we are. Because I require just looked
at the, um, COLC tool and we got like 450,
000 from the state that we then have to match
our funding for. So. You already halfway there. Yes, ma'am.
I don't mean to push back on this shipping expense.
It's not adding up. And even if you look at
international freight, um, or domestically, I'm genuinely curious as to
where these textbooks are coming from. I mean, I just
did a simple Google search asking what it would cost
to ship a thousand textbooks overseas and it's 1, 500
to 3, 500 dollars. Now, if it comes air, that's
a different story. But domestically is even lower. And I,
I mean, I deal with shipping on a daily with
my work and I would absolutely push back on that
shipping expense. So and certainly we, when we place the
order, we can try to see and negotiate a better
price on the shipping and handling. Um, I will just
tell you that the initial number that we got was
significantly higher. And all of those numbers that, that you
see up there, we did as much as we could
to still provide the right resources while keeping the cost
as low as we possibly could. Yeah. It just seems
like they're potentially getting more out of us in a
shipping and handling fee versus the book cost personally. Right.
And I can certainly, um, like I said, you know,
go back and look at the invoice. It is, you
know, I mean, it is probably at least a couple
of thousand textbooks plus some novels. Well, we get, we
get this, I'm surprised. I think it was closer to
50 to bring it down to 10. And so there's
a, there are trucking companies. You could go online, tell
them how many pallets. And they could bid on it.
And so I think what the message we're getting is
to explore other shipping options with that contract because shipping.
So we'll do that research. All right. Line.
Just order them through Amazon. Yeah. Uh, the way to,
I'll rent. I'll go pick them up. If we can
get them on Amazon Prime, we will do so, I
promise. Let me know. Sorry, Dr. Maggis. I know that's
not you. I'll close this by saying we're picking on
you about the shipping and handling, but overall great presentation.
And it seems like the selection was well researched. And
it sounds like you also need an approval. So I
would make a motion to approve the high quality instructional
materials as presented by Dr. Migus. Second. Second. We have
a motion in a second. Um, I've got one comment.
Just if you can do whatever you can do to
get that down. So carry doesn't have to make a
trip down for a joke. We will absolutely look into
getting every, we will say about every penny we can,
I promise you. Okay. All right. Um, we have a
motion and a second. Any more discussion. If not, Jen,
would you pull the board, please? Mr. Sinevic? Yes. Ms.
Scruggs. Mr. Drew. Yes. Ms. Salman. Ms. McPherson? Yes. Mr.
Anderson. Ms. Parker. Yes. Just think of gas. I have
a friend who has a track. Thank you. Okay. Thank
you, Mr. Miss. Appreciate it. Hey, Madam Chair, I'd like
to make a motion that we approve items A through
K of the consent agenda. A through K. Yes, sir.
There's no disciplinary report for you to pull out. They're
not in school.
Do what? Wait, we're not on policy yet. The consent
agenda. Oh, sorry my fault. You want to do what
now? Operations department monthly report.
Maintenance report. I didn't G.
We got 16 maintenance requests overdue. Uh, yes, sir. That's
what it's reading. Are they detrimental to opening. Or to
the kids. Not, not that I'm aware of. Um, I
don't have the specifics on those 16. I'd be glad
to pull those 16 up and provide the board more
information. I'd like to know about that. And the 21
plan maintenance tasks that are overdue. Those are most likely
again, and I'll come back to the board with the
most likely PM stuff that we were discussing earlier. But
I do have to say you guys 187 scheduled requests
completed. So that's my hat's off to you, but I'm
just concerned about these ones that are overdue. What in
operations do they affect. So certainly. If it's not going
to cost too much trouble, I mean, I don't want
to put more on you. But I just think that
that's pretty important to. And I will say, hopefully we
have access to the system's reports from our old system
FMX. And we just switch the incident IQ. Again, there's
just some adjustments and growing pains with that. But we
will provide what we can on this two items. Thank
you. Yes, sir. And I'd like to go ahead and
second your motion. So you're OK with A3K. Yeah. I
just want a little more information on that. All right.
We have a motion. For A through K. We have
two seconded Mr. Drew. Okay. This ma'am. All right. All
in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed in terms of,
I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Ms. Jen, would you
please poll aboard? Mr. Sinevic? Yes. Ms. Scruggs. Yes. Ms.
Salmon. Yes. Ms. McPherson? Yes. Mr. Anderson. Mr. Drew. Ms.
Parker. Yes. All right. Is everyone okay if we take
a three minute break. Except I'm not asking Mr. Dur.
Just a couple minutes. Thank you.
Dr. Vlajeu, you have the strategic plan update for us.
Thank you. Mr. Thank you, Ms. Parker. This will not
be a long update at all. I'm asking the board
to schedule strategic plan meeting, the Code of Virginia requires
us to revisit the strategic plan. We provide a strategic
plan updates all the time. It's almost nonstop, but every
two years we like to sit down, see what the
board would like to see different, look at our goals,
but also this meeting I would like for the board
to consider the strategic direction for CT career and technical
education. Our committee has done a lot of work there.
We had a community survey. I like to present that
to the school board and ask for direction and for
some goals. We are very lucky to have put on
our calendar some dates, just in case we need this.
And I would recommend that our meeting in November, we
have a work session schedule on the 19th. That used
Air Force strategic plan meeting. It's already on the calendar.
And so that is the ask, the request to schedule
a strategic plan meeting war or on November 19th. What
day did you say? November 19th. And the reason that
is by them will have accreditation scores. I think everything's
going to be unlocked. It'll give us a lot of
information to review and see if our strategies are working.
That's a VSVA conference. All right, in that case, we
will need to find another date. I do think October
is too early because the data may not be out
by then. We may not have school accreditations. So I
would recommend we meet again in November if we, the
19 is off the table because of the VSBA. Can
we go that Thursday the 12th to be a consideration.
Thursday, November. So we would have two meetings that week.
We would have the Tuesday, but then a Thursday. No.
Yeah. No, I thought. It's just 17th. Isn't it? Well,
we have a regular meeting on November 10th on Tuesday
at 6 p. m. So we'll have two meetings that
week. We'll have our regular meeting on Tuesday, but we
would meet again on the 12th. On the Thursday, forest
strategic plan meeting. I'm open. You know, the birthday every
day. And this celebration every day, Mr. Drew, so we
got to pick something. All right. What time. Same time.
Seven. What are you talking about? I would say, I
mean, Borkin considered five, so we could, you know, two
hours, five to seven. You know, it's appropriate. But again,
I'll defer to you all. You guys schedule families times.
I think if we do a six, that's fine too.
Our staff is ready to do either work. But I
prefer a five if we can. But I see that
we may need a six. 5. 30, absolutely. Yep.
Okay. No. 12.
Okay. So you need to get VSBA on your calendar.
Clearly, I plan on being there. So, uh. Okay. It's
really. The 19th is the day. We go. The 18
we have. The dinner. Okay. You're the first. Yeah, I
would recommend we do it here. All right. Operations. Mr.
Harley. All right. Good evening. Once again, it's time for
policy updates. And as you can see from the summary,
a lot of this is driven by legislative updates. And
I, I know we kept a rather slim agenda in
July. So we were bringing these in August. A lot
of them really impact the start of the school year.
Again, I know Mr. Smith is laid out the summary
for the changes. But, um, items, uh, one through seven
in particular, uh, is the request for tonight that we
see if the questions that we can answer this evening
in hopes that we could get a first and second
reading, um, and then below in part two, those are
all regulations. And we're bringing for informational purposes and the
bunch of forms that, uh, are attached to those. So
with that said, I'll see if there's any questions, um,
for part one. And I will advance. Slide. So. Um.
Do students and parents still sign the computer system. Use.
Yeah. And in were some legislative updates and further down
in section one, I think item six and seven, um,
have the same title, different lettering, um, because one section's
in the, uh, employees in the one sections for the
students. But they're exact same policy, but there wasn't legislative
changes that made us address those and certainly would impact
anything into code of conduct as well. Okay. Any questions
of the polished C revisions. No. One through seven. I
like to make a motion to accept. The agenda items.
And their operational department items except. Okay. There needs to
be a change to regulation GOR section 13. It's the
annual renew audit and certification. There's a numbering issue in
there. Number an issue. Yeah. No, it's instead of starting
with one, two, three, four, five. It starts with eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. Just need to change the
numbers. That's all. We'll certainly take care of that. Yep.
That's all. Okay. Are there any other comments items for
is your motion for one through 18? Well, I mean,
we don't have to, cause I would like to pull,
okay, one through seven, that's your motion. Okay. I will
second approving one through seven as a first and second
read. But I have regulation questions. We have a motion
and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any
opposed. Okay. All right. Now in the section two. Uh,
again, these are, our regulations a lot, um, the forms
attached, uh, in. A lot of forms presented this evening.
Excuse me or attached to JR, which the GO dash
R is really a comprehensive regulation to make sure that
we are thorough and complete as possible with sharing information
in our code of conduct with our parents making sure
our staff sharing it with our students, um, and providing
some forms to acknowledge those tasks. Um, and then moving
further down, there is a regulation update on EBDR. A
slight regulation update on our home instruction, um, and then
some associated forms with home instruction where we've kind of
combined some forms and keep things simpler for, for record
checking. So with that, I'll stop and see if there's
any questions I can provide clarification to or questions I
can answer this evening, um, on our regulations that are
presented this evening. Yes, the, uh, I'm looking down at
the last section number 16, JECBE, because we talked about
that in the beginning. Um, same policy. And the one
that's online here looks actually different from one that was
presented to us earlier. So anyway, just we, I guess
we, the policy committee needs to talk about that one
because that's what we decided. Yeah, we certainly can. We
took two forms and combined them together where it was,
uh, I think forgive me home instruction. And non -
resident student enrollment? No, non - resident part - time
students. And part - time suit, right. But the other
one just had non - resident students. So, I mean,
the looked at earlier. Correct. So we're proposing that those
two forms would be combined for, but certainly. So since
we didn't make a determination tonight and it's coming back,
should we pull that one. Well, again, it's just a
form that support time or non - residential students that
would complete that. So, I mean, you need it there
because you still have students who are non - residents
who tend to hear. Right. As tuition pain students. Yes.
Okay. Yeah. I'd like to pull 14 out and take
a look at that. Specifically if you open up the
79 - page document on page 60, section 14. Where
it discusses, um, prohibited memorial activities. It says the following
activities are explicitly prohibited. And there are two that I
would like to remove from that. The first day I'll
look at years. The first bullet that I would like
to remove, or at least leave up for discussion is
the permanent memorials that altered division property. And the second
would be monument statues plaques benches trees, markers or named
facilities. And do not want those in there. Ms. Brooks,
what number page is it in the presentation? Page 60
of 79 in the larger packet where everything is spelled
out. It's at the bottom. 60 page 60? Yes, ma'am.
Yes, ma'am. Which ones did you want to focus the
others? Uh, bullet number three and four permanent memorials at
alter division property. I think it goes in line with
the next one. Because these others would alter division property,
but monument statues plaques benches trees, markers, or named facilities.
Why would you want to pull those. Um, I would
say that in recent events of the summer, there are
very likely going to be some facilities that are going
to come up as potentially naming for people who are
no longer with us. Come up for recommendation. And this
currently reads as they are not. We do not allow
that. But when you look at policy FFA, we do
allow for facilities to be named. And I just believe
it's a little bit of conflicting wording there.
So are you saying that a potential name facility could
be interpreted as a permanent memorial. I mean, in the
way this reads, we as a board or not allowing
that. But in policy FFA, it says the board may
rename a school or school facility upon determination that is
appropriate to do so. So it's somewhat contradicts. It's. Okay.
Can that one go back to the committee. Certainly we
had some discussion earlier about bringing items back to policy
review committee. I'll put a plug in for a third
member. If a board member's willing. It would certainly be
helpful to have another set of eyes. Um, we need
a third member. When do you? Uh, we can certainly
pull that one and take it back to the policy
review committee for further review. So you're pulling 14 and
16, I think was coming back for discussion. And we're
putting an ask in for another volunteer to serve on
the committee. Because right now she's Mr. Drew and myself.
When do y'all meet. Meaning the third Thursday, I think
of the month. Which simply shoot for the third Thursday.
Right. In the afternoon. What it's in the interview. Usually
at three o'clock, we try to keep our meetings to
an hour. Um, certainly as we get into the fall,
we look at some larger reviews. So probably either be
multiple meetings or longer meeting, but, um, we'll try to
do our legwork ahead of time and make sure we're
involved in the employee stakeholders ahead of time for their
input. What day of the week is that? Thursday. Tipley
Thursdays. That's my babysitting.
The committee can talk about that. Under to the board.
So you have to have a third member in order
to do. Have the committee. I don't want to misrepresent
the committee. We've, we've been operating with two members previously.
We had three members on the committee. It would again,
I think it'd be helpful to the committee to have
another set of eyes, but also another board member that
can share with the rest of the board. Yeah. That
this has been looked at, um, that has been discussed.
Not that I can't provide his explanations, but good discussion.
It does. You hear additional viewpoints. And we're able to
in these committee meetings bring stakeholders that might be involved
with different policies in. So it's not just Craig Smith
and I. You could have, um, department heads also. Maybe
able to work around the schedule, but I'm not positive
at this point. So just putting it out there. Hopefully
it started again. We did take a couple meetings off
over the summer. Things were a little less. So I
guess a proposal is to pull that regulation or policy.
14 and 16. Right. Okay. For additional review. Yeah. Okay.
Do I have a motion then to. Adopt the regulations
other than 14 and 16 that will be sent back
to committee. So I moved. I don't think we don't
think we have to adopt. We don't. Okay. We don't
need a vote on regulations. Okay. All right. Just a
point of the clarification. The board policy trumps is superintendent's
regulation. Um, I also want to consider this. If you
were to have a resolution and put a committee together
to name a field, then that's certainly the board has
already has that authority to do that. Um, I would
also caution us in terms of if you allow it
to be NAMA after anyone, it could be at some
point, some were down the line 10 years from now.
So the board can treat it as a standard policy
or as a one - off. Anytime it feels that
they want to name something, then certainly it could pass
a resolution and we run that by the attorneys. What
would they need to do in order to do that?
So I think you have a couple options before you.
I think some people initiate some discussions about name in
whole or in part, whether it be a field or
part of a building or whatever, but back to the
regulation we reference, I believe the person has to be
deceased for a certain amount of time before it can
even be considered. You know, and it's a tough topic
to discuss when we start talking about the death of
a student or an employee in people look at regulations
such as this and might think that they're rather cold
and I can understand that perspective or that lens, um,
if you will, but we also need to make sure
we can control everything that's done and memory of a
lost one, um, so it's certainly a tough topic, one
worthy of discussion. And I will tell you haven't been
involved in at least some of these conversations. They are
committee conversations. There are mental health experts at the table.
Their administrators at the table, um, and it's again, not
an easy conversation. They talk about what we can and
cannot do. Um, and there's some dissension over all of
it. And, you know, we don't want to come across
as cold by any means, but we want to make
sure that what we do is done in the right
way. FFA also does state that a school or facility.
Can be named upon the appropriateness to do so. So
it doesn't necessarily restrict to that timeline. So I just,
I found them conflicting and thought that we should clean
that up a little bit. Absolutely. We can take another
look at it. Anything else. Good. Thanks. We ready. All
right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. We're ready
for public announcements. Wednesday, August 12th, 2026, all staff report.
Thursday, August 13th. Friday, August 14th and Monday, August 17th,
our teacher work days and professional days. Tuesday, August 18th,
Wednesday, August 19th and Thursday, August 20, our open houses.
Um, the specific times. And for those. So please parents
look at those dates with your prospective school. Um, Friday,
August 21st is a teacher work day professional day. And
Monday, August 24th is our first day of school. So
Friday, September 4th and Monday, September 7th, the division is
closed for our Labor Day holiday. And Tuesday, September 8th,
school board monthly meeting at TC Walker at 6 p.
m. As for a motion to adjourn. Ms. Parker, before
we do, could I just give a shout out to
Ms. Carino? Yes. Uh, Ms. Carino is our technology resource
teacher at, um, and when she made the bulldog for
their blue ribbon, um, award celebration. I took it upon
myself to tell her it was the will of the
board that we would like mascots for all of our
schools. Uh, but I picked them up today and just
wanted everyone to kind of acknowledge the fact that they
will be on a rotating basis. We can't fight over
who you get. Did she thank you, Ms. Career? But
she did. She made every single one of these. So
each one of these little stuffies is a representation of
our eight schools in Gloucester County. So. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
And by the way, I do have three schools in
my district. So just so, you know. Jen is the
one with the power of picking. So. But any requests
now for next month. You may all come and talk
to me and bribey possibly. Okay. Now we can adjourn.
I second the motion. Okay. All right. We had a
motion and a second to adjourn. We are adjourned. Thank
you. I'm sorry. All I'm saying.