[4:05] Good evening. We appreciate you being here this evening. This
[4:09] is our Tuesday, September 8th School Board meeting. We welcome
[4:13] all of you that are here this evening as well
[4:15] as those that are watching from home. And with that,
[4:20] we have been in recess, and I don't remember the
[4:23] time, but we came out, we were coming out of
[4:25] resource, so we are now going into open meetings. So
[4:29] Ms. Salman. I beat the board reconvening to open session
[4:34] and certify that the Gloucester County School Board, while in
[4:37] closed session, discussed only public matters lawfully exempted from open
[4:41] meeting requirements provided in subsection A of section 2. 2
[4:46] - 3711, and that only public business matters that were
[4:51] identified in the motion conveying the closed session were heard.
[4:55] Discussed or considered. Okay, do we have a second? Motion
[5:00] in a second. All in favor, say aye. Oh, no,
[5:05] I'm sorry, Jen. You've got to do this for me.
[5:08] Would you call role, please? You bet. Mr. Sinevek. Yes.
[5:11] Ms. McPherson. Yes. Mr. Drew. Ms. Salmon? Yes. Ms. Scruggs?
[5:16] Yes. Mr. Anderson? Yes. Ms. Parker? Yes, thank you. Okay.
[5:24] We have our personnel items that we went over this
[5:27] evening. I need a motion to approve. Personnel appointments, resignations.
[5:32] I make a mention that we improve, that we approve.
[5:36] For my whole person appointments. Okay, do we have a
[5:42] second? Did I get to hear a second? I couldn't
[5:48] hear, I'm sorry. You called him. Okay. All right. All
[5:53] in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Okay. We
[5:59] have one night. Okay, we're now at our point where
[6:07] we have our moment of silence and pledge of allegiance.
[6:10] We'll do our moment of silence, and then we'll have
[6:12] our pledge leader. Come up. And that is... That will
[6:18] be Monica and Veronica Childs. Okay, Monica and Veronica, you
[6:22] will be coming up very shortly then. We'll have a
[6:25] moment of silence.
[6:45] Okay, thank you. Would our pledge leaders please come forward?
[6:56] Everyone stand that can, please? I pledge allegiance to the
[7:04] flag of the United States of America, and to the
[7:08] republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible
[7:14] with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, ladies. Okay.
[7:25] Right. Dr. Bledou, are there any changes. To the agenda
[7:30] this evening? Well, evening, Ms. Parker, Ms. Salmon, members of
[7:34] the board, the public. It's good to see our students
[7:36] back in the house. Outstanding, and those watching at home,
[7:40] they have one minor adjustment. So we would want to
[7:42] introduce a new member of the GCPS family. And so
[7:47] if we could add that to the agenda as item
[7:51] 6A, that would be the request. Alright,
[7:59] everyone... Anyone not in favor of adding 6A. To the
[8:06] agenda. For clarity, that would be 7A. Excuse me. 7A,
[8:12] we're on 6 now. Okay. 7A. Alright. I'm gonna be
[8:20] D. Okay. So we're gonna put it above. The middle
[8:27] schooler of the month. Is that what you mean? Affirmative
[8:30] at the top of 7. Okay. Alright. Alright. All in
[8:37] favor to that change, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Alright,
[8:41] Dr. Vladish. Your sale. Thank you. I think of our
[8:45] members and the audience here, they couldn't come into this
[8:47] building by seeing an adorable black lab. As you'll remember,
[8:52] just a little bit of context. Officer Lutz is always
[8:54] here to assist as the School Board meetings. And last
[8:59] spring during the budget process as we enhance school security
[9:03] and create more presence. Um, we did receive a train,
[9:08] canine. His name is Casper. He was born on Halloween,
[9:12] October 31st, 2025. So, we could compute the mat almost
[9:18] to. But he's out there, um, Casper's role is he's
[9:22] a friendly little guy. He goes in schools, Bill's positive
[9:26] relationships, and brightens up everybody's day. He's also going to
[9:30] training to be a therapy dog. So without further ado,
[9:34] if we could have Officer Lutz and Casper come up
[9:36] here for recognitions and a picture with the school board.
[9:42] And while he's coming down here, we also want to
[9:45] thank Ms. Carina for this wonderful depiction of Casper.
[10:00] Casper. What are we doing? I know we're taking a
[10:05] picture with him. I think so. I'm going to get
[10:07] up in front of them. Are we getting in front.
[10:11] Are we squee. Yeah. Look, he probably sleeps with Officer
[10:19] Lutz. I've spent many years with Officer Lutz, and he
[10:26] loves dogs. Hi, Casper, turn around. Oh. This way? Okay.
[10:51] Oh my. Gosh. Oh my gosh. So he's already done
[10:59] a much better job than I would ever do sitting
[11:01] for pictures. So let's give him a hand of applause.
[11:11] I think he's already been to visit some of the
[11:13] schools, too, if I understand that. Well, he began to
[11:16] work last week, if I'm not mistaken. And, uh, yep,
[11:19] he's hard at work. All right. Now we are middle
[11:29] schooler of the month. Yep. Thank you, Ms. Parker. So
[11:31] we have a number of student recognitions. We'll begin with
[11:34] the middle schooler of the month. And we have two.
[11:39] So excited to have two Monica and Veronica childs. Um,
[11:42] and Ms. Cindy Salmon is going to read the bio,
[11:47] but I know mismanning and the family are also here
[11:50] as well as Monica and Veronica come up here, please.
[11:55] If we could also have the family stand up to
[11:57] be recognized. And we have the principlen, Miss Kelly Stewart
[12:01] there. So anyone who's accompanying them, please stand up. I
[12:10] would like to recognize eighth grade students. Who are twins,
[12:15] Monica and Veronica Childs. Monica and Veronica Childs are child,
[12:22] our model students. They are actively involved in the Peasley
[12:26] School community. They are the flag team daily both raising
[12:30] and lowering our school flag, even in inclement weather. They
[12:34] do not need to be reminded as they come in.
[12:37] Report to their class. And then the office for flag
[12:40] duty. They are responsible and engage students who are both
[12:43] on the honor roll, every marking period. They are actively
[12:48] involved in school clubs and athletics. And even though they
[12:52] are twins, the both represent Peasley in different ways, which
[12:56] makes them such special students. I am proud to recognize
[13:00] both Monica and Veronica Childs as Peasley's middle schooler of
[13:06] the month, Schoolers.
[13:19] Next recognition is our high schooler of the month. Catherine
[13:23] King, I know Catherine had band practice and it was
[13:26] going to be close. Catherine, you're here. Outstanding. We thank
[13:30] Mr. Vanderbilt for letting you out a little early. So
[13:32] Catherine, if you could come up here and then Ms.
[13:36] Cary Scruggs is going to read your bio. I am
[13:40] pleased to present Catherine King as the Gloucester High School
[13:43] September, 2026, senior of the month. The staff member who
[13:46] nominated Catherine shared. Catherine is an outstanding student who serves
[13:50] as one of the drum majors for the marching band.
[13:53] She also accompanies many ensembles on piano and is a
[13:56] multiple year district band member. Catherine King is a driven
[14:00] scholar and accomplished musician whose impact spans across the arts,
[14:04] academics, and community service. Throughout her time at Gloucester High
[14:08] School, she has a balanced a rigorous academic schedule taking
[14:13] seven advanced placement courses while maintaining deep involvement in the
[14:16] numerous school leadership roles. A vital force in the GHS
[14:20] music department, Catherine has played percussion in the band for
[14:23] four years, stepping up to lead as drum major during
[14:26] her senior year. Her vocal talents are equally impressive, having
[14:30] participated in choir for seven years. She sings in the
[14:33] select ensemble and serves as the assistant director. She is
[14:37] also an active member of the tri - M Music
[14:39] Honor Society. Outside the auditorium, Catherine serves as the vice
[14:43] president of the National Honor Society and acts as the
[14:46] media relations officer for both the beta club and mute
[14:49] alpha theta. Despite her busy school schedule, Catherine remains deeply
[14:54] committed to her community. She works at Wawa and regularly
[14:57] volunteers her time at the local Humane Society and her
[15:00] church. In her personal time, she enjoys playing the piano
[15:04] and percussion singing and immersing herself in classical music. Looking
[15:08] toward the future, Catherine plans to pursue a degree in
[15:11] music therapy, aiming to combine her love of music with
[15:14] her desire to help others. She is considering Shenandoah University
[15:17] where she gained firsthand experience during their music major for
[15:21] a day program, as well as Radford University, where she
[15:24] previously attended the governor's school for the arts. Wherever her
[15:27] journey takes her, Catherine's leadership, talent and compassion will undoubtedly
[15:31] continued to make a meaningful difference. It is a privilege
[15:34] to recognize Catherine King as the September senior of the
[15:37] month.
[15:48] Next, the volunteer the month is, um. I don't have
[15:52] any graces from Peasley and Miss McColl McPherson will read
[15:57] the bias. So Ms. Grace says, would you please come
[15:59] up here?
[16:11] Miss Anita Gar says is Peaceley's PTA president for this
[16:15] school year. She has always been an active member of
[16:17] the PTA, but in this new role she has coordinated
[16:20] monthly activities geared at connecting home to school for all
[16:24] peasley families. She works collaboratively with school staff and provides
[16:29] treats and supports for teachers and students. She's easy to
[16:33] work with and always willing to try new things. Her
[16:37] strong organizational and communication skills has helped the principal with
[16:43] welcoming back students and staff as well as supporting the
[16:46] instructional programs at Peasley.
[17:01] Now lesson, our recognition, we have accent on academics and
[17:06] this month's action on academics going to be summer school
[17:09] 2026. And I'm going to turn it over to Miss
[17:14] Raden and Ms. Thompson for the presentation. Good.
[17:24] Evening. I am Crystal Thompson. I'm one of the assistant
[17:26] principals at Gloucester High School and I was also one
[17:28] of the summer school coordinators this year. I'm Sarah Rad
[17:32] and I'm also assassin principal at the high school and
[17:36] helped assist and coordinating so much focus past summer. Okay.
[17:43] So summer school was held this year at page middle
[17:46] school for three weeks from July 6th through the 23rd
[17:49] students were there from 8. 30 to 11. 30. The
[17:52] program serve students entering grades three through eight. And we
[17:56] had students represented across seven schools in the division. So
[18:00] Abington, Achilles, Bethel, Batatot, Pettsworth and Paige and Peasley Middle
[18:04] Schools. We had 58 students attend summer school in grades
[18:11] three through eight, 252 high school students attend. We had
[18:16] seven bus drivers for the three through eight group one
[18:20] band driver, 11 teachers, eight of those being to support
[18:23] our three through eight group and three for high school
[18:27] two coordinators. Ms. Radden and myself. And then to cafeteria
[18:30] staff. So. Our primary goal for our focus for summer
[18:38] school this year was to reinforce those foundational skills helping
[18:42] to ensure that the students were prepared for the upcoming
[18:44] school year. Um, we did this through, we looked at
[18:49] most missed SOL scores, some of the standards and created
[18:52] IXL quizzes to give to the students when they entered.
[18:55] So teachers would have a baseline and know where they
[18:57] were starting. And then teachers created lessons that targeted those
[19:00] foundational skills and helped fill gaps. And we use supplemental
[19:04] programs like Lexia and IXL to help with that. Um,
[19:08] summer school also utilized two teachers for math and reading
[19:12] intervention that we're providing either one - on - one
[19:14] or small group instruction. They were pushing in and pulling
[19:17] kids out that needed that additional assistance. So we mostly
[19:23] worked with the rising third through eighth graders, but we
[19:26] did want to touch base just on our high schoolers
[19:28] were doing during this presentation. So you can see that
[19:31] we had 252 students participate in the high school virtual
[19:34] courses. Um, most of them participate at fully virtual, but
[19:38] we did have teachers in the building that if a
[19:41] student needed assistance, they could come in and get someone
[19:43] - on - one help from those teachers for their
[19:45] specific courses if they got stuck in an assignment or
[19:49] weren't sure about something. We broke it up into two
[19:52] different parts. Students that were taking initial credit. So it
[19:56] was 158 students that took initial credits, mostly the big
[20:01] majority were from our economial finance class, followed by health
[20:05] and PE9 and healthy PE 10 is where those initial
[20:08] credits came from. And then 94 students took credit recovery
[20:13] credits. So where they might have not passed on class
[20:15] at the high school in person and were able to
[20:17] recover that credit virtually. And again, the biggest majority for
[20:20] that was for our economial finance classes. In order to
[20:27] run a summer school program, the collaboration that needs to
[20:32] happen, especially for the in - person one that we
[20:34] coordinated, um, this summer, we have to work with food
[20:37] services, um, especially working with the summer meal pickup for
[20:41] students because the regulations. So we have to identify who
[20:46] in our program is getting the summer meal pickups. And
[20:49] then they get kind of alternative weekend ones for when
[20:53] they're not with us. So they're not getting double meals.
[20:56] Um, so we work with that. We need helped look
[20:58] at lunch menus and breakfast menus and made sure that
[21:01] food was coming in on time and on hot for
[21:05] students and looking at allergies for students as well. We
[21:08] had to work with transportation, um, and communicating with parents.
[21:12] They were going to be picking up their students and
[21:13] how that was going to work working with our transportation
[21:17] departments to identify any needs for specific students. If they
[21:20] need a special transportation, how many buses we would need,
[21:22] how long students would be on buses on a lot
[21:25] of back and forth between us for that. Special education,
[21:29] making sure all of our teachers that were there had
[21:31] students IEPs are 504s if they needed them. We also,
[21:36] not, we didn't, we didn't work with DARS and bloom
[21:39] camp, but they were also housed at page. So coordinating
[21:43] with them to make sure that rooms weren't double booked
[21:46] and that everybody was getting the services. Um, we do
[21:48] offer some students might have had OTPT or speech. And
[21:52] so making sure that we were able to get all
[21:54] that coordinated. And then the ESY students as well. We
[21:59] did, um, had the opportunity to have a military family
[22:02] and life counselor available to our students, which works with
[22:05] students specifically in active duty with active duty parents and
[22:11] are able to have some counseling and things like that.
[22:15] So we would coordinate with her to get that information
[22:18] to her so she could talk to students. We had
[22:21] a coordinating with all the other schools in the district,
[22:23] um, to identify students. So we reached out to the
[22:26] elementary schools and middle schools and asked them to give
[22:28] us names. We sent out interest, um, surveys to parents.
[22:32] They had to bring them back in. We had a
[22:34] thing to coordinate with the schools again to make sure
[22:36] they knew who was coming. We still get emails asking
[22:39] who attended for purposes that they're, you know. If they,
[22:46] some schools still need to know who attended so they
[22:48] can document that on their side. Um, we had a
[22:52] miss Thompson did lots of mapping out rooms and rebuilding
[22:55] that. And every time a new teacher, a new service
[22:59] need to be put in. She worked through those making
[23:01] sure teachers had badges to get access in and that
[23:04] the AC in the building and we had security scanners
[23:06] and all of those things. Technology was fantastic. They were
[23:10] able to give us Chromebooks for all of our students
[23:12] and we had carbs for the students. They came in
[23:15] and make sure teachers were connected to printers and had
[23:17] the screen beans and document cameras and things like that.
[23:20] Um, we did all of our HR action forms and
[23:23] pay sheets and ordering supplies for student or for students
[23:27] to be able to use. And then of course coordinating
[23:30] with families, making sure that we were giving them all
[23:32] the information that they needed answering the questions that they
[23:34] had trying to be proactive and sending out reminders. And
[23:38] if a student missed the day, we would try to
[23:40] reach out and say, Hey, by the way, don't forget
[23:42] summer schools going on. Is there something we can do?
[23:45] Making sure all they had all their accommodations and the
[23:48] supports that they needed. So there's a lot of collaboration
[23:51] that goes along with this. And then of course we
[23:54] try to keep it fun. Our teachers came to us,
[23:56] um, during summer school and said, Hey, what about a
[24:01] spirit week? And we said, okay, let's figure out how
[24:03] we can do it. So, um, we, that last week
[24:06] of school, we did a spirit week, um, students were
[24:09] able to come in and dress. We had a sports
[24:11] day at tie today. Wacky Wednesday and then a bright
[24:14] future gave the students opportunities to talk to each other,
[24:17] see similar interests, talk about what their future goals might
[24:20] be and just have some fun with it. We did
[24:25] do, um, a survey of our teachers afterwards, um, to
[24:30] see how everything went and what we can improve on.
[24:34] They are all pretty happy with how everything went. We
[24:39] said first time we might ever say, could we invite
[24:41] a few more? And so, um, and wanted to teach
[24:45] again next year. Yes. All of them wanted to come
[24:47] back and teach again next year. So I would call
[24:49] it a very successful summer school program. Mr. Drew.
[25:00] No, go ahead. Thank you. So first off, thank you.
[25:06] I think that with everything you just said, when do
[25:08] you start planning for this. Early. It takes a lot.
[25:14] You want to identify students. We want to be able
[25:16] to get them in as much as possible. And break
[25:19] down any barriers that are there. So we this probably
[25:23] end of last school year is when we started playing
[25:25] conversations typically started happening around February March time and then
[25:30] it just kind of builds and it all, the front
[25:33] loading on, do you have a lot of kids that
[25:35] volunteer or parents that reach out to you to volunteer
[25:38] their kids to go at all. More, um. Other. Elementary
[25:46] school, parents that are interested in getting their kids in.
[25:51] I wouldn't say it's a huge majority. A lot of
[25:54] them do go off the recommendation of their teachers though.
[25:58] So if a teacher recommends that typically, that's how it
[26:01] happens. But some T even through this process, even though
[26:04] we had sent our letters to their parents, anybody that
[26:09] asked if they could attend, we did give them the
[26:12] sign up for. Right, right. So back in my day,
[26:16] summer school had a bad. Uh, reputation. But I think
[26:20] with the success, obviously we're seeing success with these kids
[26:23] that attended. And they enjoyed it. Hopefully that, uh, reputation
[26:30] goes away. And it becomes a good one. Thank you
[26:33] for everything you guys do. Thank you. Of course. Yes.
[26:38] And I want to echo. I appreciate. I know, you
[26:41] know, the logistics of summer school were pretty daunting. And
[26:43] you seem to have carried it off very well. But
[26:45] one thing missing though, I do wish there was a
[26:47] little bit more data on how the students did. So
[26:49] like, what would you say the attendance was kind of
[26:52] on average. I would. Say the majority of our. Kids
[26:58] attended daily. We had a few students that were no
[27:01] shows, um, and we did reach out to them several
[27:04] times in that first week reminders and, you know, trying
[27:07] to see what was going on and weren't able to
[27:11] get ahold of everybody that didn't show up. But for
[27:14] the most part, every student that said that they were
[27:16] coming where they are and where they are pretty regularly
[27:19] outside of any insinuating circumstances. Sure. Yeah, we had some
[27:22] students that they would attend two weeks, but not one
[27:25] week because of a vacation or something that does happen.
[27:28] We try to encourage them. We try to let them
[27:30] know what the dates are as well in advance as
[27:32] we can so they can plan around, but it doesn't
[27:34] always work. Right. And so, because these students are recommended
[27:37] by their teacher, obviously, because there were some gaps in
[27:40] there. And, you know, you were trying to maintain skills
[27:42] or build skills. So if you looked at the pre
[27:45] and post data, I mean, you were collecting pre and
[27:47] post data. Did you see growth? Part of our goal
[27:53] for next year and things is to make sure that
[27:55] we are. Cause right now we did a lot of
[27:58] grouping, looking at what they were before they came to
[28:01] us, um, looking at their star data, looking, we didn't
[28:04] just group by, um, graved. We kind of looked at
[28:09] bands to see who would work best with skill levels.
[28:12] Small groups that way. Right. Um, and so looking at
[28:14] that, looking at the IX test that they were given
[28:19] to be able to look at some of those skills,
[28:22] but collecting some of that data, um, again, for the,
[28:25] is our goal for next year. Okay. I apologize for
[28:28] that ring. I thought he had it off. But thank
[28:30] you. I appreciate that. That's always helpful information to know
[28:34] what to tweak next year and how to build on
[28:37] the instructional delivery and all that. Right. I know. And
[28:41] three weeks isn't very long. I know. So you'd like
[28:44] to double that, wouldn't you? But thank you very much.
[28:46] Appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions? I did have
[28:50] one comment, Ms. Parker. So I want to thank you
[28:55] and the team at Gloucester High School because as a
[28:57] result of the work, we have 14 students that earned
[29:00] their diploma this summer. They work diligently. They work hard.
[29:03] And we're all able to participate in that. So that
[29:06] project graduation, the funding is extremely critical in supporting the
[29:10] good work. So again, thank you. And on behalf of
[29:13] our school board and everyone at TC Walker, we couldn't
[29:16] be more proud of the work that you've done. Thank
[29:18] you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.
[29:29] We are at our community presentations. And WHR presentation, Mr.
[29:34] Birch Schmidt. WHR president, CEO. And Mr. Elmoed Stewart. Vice
[29:42] President of Education and Information. I'm going to ask you
[29:46] a question that I didn't prepare you to answer, but
[29:48] how many years, because I've seen you a lot of
[29:50] years, how many years have you been coming here to
[29:53] present to us? Okay. This will be my last one.
[29:59] By the way. I'm retired. You're retiring? Okay. Well, congratulations
[30:03] on that, but we're grateful to have had you all
[30:05] this time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Gladyan members of
[30:09] the board. My name is Bert Schmidt. I'm the presidency
[30:12] of WHRO with me is my vice president of education,
[30:15] Elmar Seward. So you got a hard question. So I
[30:19] got my backup. Each year we provide you with an
[30:23] impact statement. For those of you who might be new
[30:25] to the board, I come to you because you're one
[30:27] of the 21 school divisions that literally own the broadcast
[30:30] license. To WHRO. We're the only media company in the
[30:34] entire country. Owned by collaboration of school divisions where we
[30:38] bring the 21 school divisions together to do it one
[30:41] time. Save taxpayers'money and improve the educational experience for everybody
[30:46] regardless of zip code. It's a wonderful model. And we're
[30:49] just thrilled with the relationship. Um, I'm not going to
[30:52] go through this report with you because instead we've prepared
[30:56] a video for you to summarizes what you'll find. Again,
[30:59] this report is customized to the division. So the results
[31:01] and how much you use the services you're in here.
[31:04] This video kind of summarizes the services we offer. WHRO
[31:11] stands out as a nation's sole public media station owned
[31:14] by a collaboration of 21 school divisions. This distinctive ownership
[31:19] model places education at the heart of our mission, influencing
[31:23] every aspect of our work. Our team of indicators is
[31:27] committed to offering students, teachers, and families, innovative free, high
[31:33] quality programs and services. One key service that WHRO offers
[31:38] is e - media VA, Virginia, the leading digital content
[31:42] repository with nearly 100, 000 free top quality constructional resources
[31:49] e - media VA provides educators and students with videos
[31:53] and drive a tools, gains, lesson plans, images, and more.
[31:58] This platform is designed to enhance personalized learning and make
[32:02] classroom experience. It's more engaging. For our youngest learners, WHRO
[32:07] offers exciting educational activities to spark their imagination. Our three
[32:13] education bans is an elementary schools with programs tailored to
[32:16] Virginia's standards of learning. Covering literacy, numeracy, scientific investigation, and
[32:22] technology. We also support parents and caregivers, ensuring children are
[32:28] prepared for kindergarten and set up for success in their
[32:31] early school years. For secondary educators, WHRO provides a catalog
[32:37] of 30 award - winning customizable online courses and digital
[32:41] resources. These media - rich SOL - aligned courses are
[32:46] designed to integrate seamlessly with various learning management systems. They
[32:51] offer flexibility for face - to - face, flipped, blended,
[32:55] and fully online teaching environments, enriching lessons with engaging content.
[33:01] At WHRI, we celebrate students achievement through competitions that showcase
[33:06] their talents. The great computer challenge, for example gather school
[33:11] teams from across the region at Old Dominion University to
[33:15] tackle real - world technology problems. Another highlight is the
[33:20] Tao Bank Regional Celebi, where middle school champions compete at
[33:24] WHRA Studio for a chance to advance to the Squirt's
[33:28] National Spelling Bee, the local competition is recorded and aired
[33:32] on WHRO EJ Rome. Elementary students also have an opportunity
[33:38] to shine through our PBS kids writers contests. This competition
[33:43] invites young writers to craft and illustrate their original stories.
[33:48] Fostering creativity and critical thinking. Our student advisory board reflects
[33:54] our commitment to student engagement. This group of high school
[33:58] students offers feedback on WHRO's content and has opportunities to
[34:03] create their own, influencing our online courses and e -
[34:08] media VA resources. We're equally devoted to supporting educators through
[34:13] our professional development programs. Our workshops and training sessions provide
[34:18] for teachers with cutting - edge strategies and tools, empowering
[34:22] them to inspire and guide their students effectively. Visit WHRO's
[34:27] education webpage to learn more about how these amazing, free
[34:31] materials programs and resources can benefit you. At WHRO Public
[34:37] Media. We're proud of the partner with our local School
[34:40] Divisions and the Virginia Department of Education to shape the
[34:43] future of education one student at a time. As School
[34:49] Board members, you care about the money, of course. Within
[34:51] this report on page 13 is a financial summary. You
[34:55] spend a little over three dollars per student. With WHRO
[34:59] last year translates a little over 17, 000 dollars. And
[35:02] you receive savings and value of almost 1. 5 million
[35:06] dollars. That's an 87 to one return on your investment.
[35:11] Uh, with that. I'm happy taking your questions. Any questions?
[35:19] I have one. The literacy van. How is that chosen
[35:25] as to what? Because I know you can't do but
[35:27] so much. So I don't know how many times you've
[35:30] come to Gloucester last year with the literacy banner report.
[35:34] I have to look that up. Okay. Um, but how
[35:37] is that chosen? Just a phone? Just call us. Okay.
[35:40] Just call us and we'll send folks. Up here. They
[35:44] do their thing. We'll coordinate obviously with literacy folks, but
[35:48] we've got the four different bands. So whatever you need,
[35:52] this call will be up here. Because I think that's
[35:54] a phenomenal program for our younger kids for sure. And
[35:59] I know there was interest in the science. You that
[36:02] dome, science dome. And I know Ms. Pearson was in
[36:05] contact. I might as well mulk and explain. The dome
[36:09] was a pretty new thing. Right, right, right. I'm working
[36:12] explain it. Um, I haven't got my speech down for
[36:15] the don't quite yet. Yeah. The dome is a new
[36:19] project for us. It's for middle school students. Uh, and
[36:23] we have lessons that are designed to meet the SOLs
[36:27] at six and seventh grade. That goes out to schools.
[36:31] Um, invitation. So schools invite us. We'll take it out.
[36:36] Generally, if you have seven or eight classes and a
[36:40] grade level, it might take us two days to get
[36:42] all of those classes through. Um, but we have pre
[36:45] and post lessons for teachers. And then instruction that happens
[36:48] when the dome comes in. It's pretty cool. And, uh,
[36:52] the people who have seen it so far have been
[36:55] leadership in the school divisions. They've been pretty excited about
[36:57] it. And so we're starting to get requests. We've been
[37:00] working with P's lead to try to get the ban
[37:02] out for sequence. Think of a planetarium. Effectively, that you
[37:06] can bring into like a gymnasium and blow it up.
[37:09] You can go in and experience all sorts of environmental.
[37:13] Topics. Well, we're fortunate to be a part of all
[37:16] that you have to offer. So thank you. Anyone? Anything
[37:21] else? Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate you and
[37:25] congratulations on your retirement. Okay. Um, next student advisory
[37:34] committee, Ms. Dudley is not here this evening. So we
[37:38] will move on. Did you, are you wanting to have
[37:43] a recess now to be good? Okay. All right. We're
[37:47] going to have a brief reset for student parent board
[37:49] members meet and greet. So move around. Thank you.
[47:37] Okay, we're ready to get back to our meeting. Thank
[47:40] you all for being here this evening. The first thing
[47:44] on our agenda at this point is School Board Members
[47:47] Items. And the first discussion is going to be a
[47:51] meeting that we have scheduled tentatively for September 17. For
[47:56] School Board Work Session. I asking if anyone feels like
[48:01] we need to keep that on the calendar. If there's
[48:05] something that you really feel like that we need to
[48:08] discuss, but I believe Dr. Washington wait. We're still waiting
[48:15] on a couple of items. For instance, our School Accreditation
[48:19] status and also afford a discussion on career and technical
[48:22] education. So I would recommend that the board meets sometime
[48:26] in November to discuss the strategic plan and our next
[48:29] steps. But at this time, I don't see another reason
[48:31] for us to meet on the 17th. To be here
[48:40] on the 17th. No. Okay. All right, we will cancel
[48:48] that meeting. All right, the next thing is the VDOT
[48:54] Road Improvement Project Resolution. And that is discussion as well
[48:59] as action this evening. And who is handling that. Mr.
[49:05] Hartley. Yes, ma'am. The resolution should be in front of
[49:12] you. I feel like I'm echoing. I'm back up a
[49:16] little bit. The resolution should be in front of board
[49:19] members for consideration. This is the final signature. I know
[49:24] some things have been signed before, but y'all remember back
[49:27] in the spring, we had Vita at Mr. Gordon was
[49:29] with us to talk about the Roar in Springs sidewalk
[49:32] project. It still slated for the spring of 2027. A
[49:38] lot of pieces really had to come together. You know
[49:40] that obviously it's a beat out project, Dominion Energy had
[49:43] a piece for utilities. There's some easements and things that
[49:46] Mr. Gordon shared with us back in the spring. This
[49:49] is really the final piece of paperwork so we can
[49:52] get this to them and they can start getting the
[49:56] planning straight for the work that should happen about six,
[49:59] eight months. Okay, should the resolution be read? Is that
[50:06] the necessary. It certainly can be. I don't have a
[50:10] copy in front of me. Dr. Vladi, do you feel
[50:14] like it should be rad in public? It's available public
[50:18] to view the board notes. What's in the resolution? Certainly,
[50:21] I don't think reading it is necessary, but passing it
[50:24] and the information and it would be, or considering passing
[50:27] it. Everyone's read it over. Is there anyone that has
[50:34] any concerns with anything that's within it. I moved
[50:43] it. Just the reiterate, sorry, to cut you off. Just
[50:46] to reiterate, we've had multiple meetings with VDOT over the
[50:49] last, what, 12 or 18 months. We've talked about scheduling
[50:53] what times road can be closed down. Stay in the
[50:55] way from any work that wouldn't pack the bus loop,
[50:58] make sure that scheduled around school schedule. So the moving
[51:02] pieces. They are aware of all the restrictions that would
[51:05] be in place for this project to occur when it's
[51:09] do missed the tree on the corner. Yeah. That was
[51:12] a beautiful treat there. And that, well, this is BDOTS
[51:16] project. I know. Okay. Chewing nothing, no discussion or anything.
[51:26] All in favor. Well, we had different motion. To approve.
[51:29] Yeah, we need a motion. I moved that we approved
[51:32] the resolution as written. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[51:39] Any opposed. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's the next
[51:45] one is MOU between scouting America troop 111 and Gloucester
[51:49] County School Board. Regarding the stewardship of GH11 Scout Cabin.
[51:57] Do we... Is that you two, Mr. Hartley? Sure. As
[52:05] some members may be aware. We've had a longstanding relationship
[52:09] with the scouts and that cabin on that corner is
[52:13] actually Lost County Public School's property. You know, there's also
[52:19] been, you know, Fairfield Foundations has been involved. We've had
[52:23] members in front of the board before to discuss improvements
[52:27] to that cabin. They do take responsibility for all those.
[52:31] Um, but they reached out to us more recently to
[52:33] say, Hey, we're trying to get additional grants, um, to
[52:37] make more improvements and to fix some things that this
[52:40] log cabin. If you've inspected it closely by walking by
[52:43] it or anything, you can tell there is some work
[52:46] that needs to be done. It's a rather old structure,
[52:49] but they are seeking to get some grant dollars to
[52:52] put towards it. They're really doing the legwork for this
[52:58] to seek out these grants and to obtain these grants.
[53:02] And then they will seek out the contractor once they
[53:04] are awarded. Hopefully we'll be awarded. And then they will
[53:08] manage to work. Um, but this is just a new
[53:11] copy of our MOA. That was suggested we did run
[53:15] this by our county attorney and his suggestion was to
[53:18] go back to this form, which would cover all this
[53:22] proposed, um, improvements to that law cab. Okay. I did
[53:29] have a question and I'll have to admit, I've been
[53:32] involved in that cabin for 20, 30 years, I guess.
[53:36] Right. Um. The one thing that the county attorney said
[53:41] was so, um. The word was. That they would be
[53:49] able to use the cabin solely, I think. And we
[53:55] had already always said as members of Trup 111 that
[54:00] the county, of course, the school board, could at any
[54:02] time utilize it for something we would need, which has
[54:05] not happened in all the years that I've been involved.
[54:08] Right. But I did have a problem with if it,
[54:11] if it's opens up the door by taking out that
[54:15] word, for other entities to be able to use the
[54:20] cabin. I have concerns about that because there are things
[54:25] in there that are really, really old. And right. And
[54:28] I think our agreement, what the scouts is really, really
[54:31] old as well. Um, but we can certainly follow back
[54:36] up on that wording, but that again, we had a,
[54:41] that was the wording that was presented by the county
[54:44] attorney. Yes, ma'am. Is that I haven't had a chance
[54:47] to go through all of this. Is that wording put
[54:51] in here or did the wording revert to his recommendations.
[54:57] The wording in the newly proposed what the reverted back
[55:01] to his recommendations. Okay. And it's in here. Yeah. They,
[55:04] they actually, um, trying to be helpful. They presented us
[55:08] a template from MOA to would encompass what they're trying
[55:11] to do with obtaining these grants and spending this money
[55:14] for improvements. We actually sent that copy to the county
[55:18] attorney and his response was we should use this MOA.
[55:27] I just, uh, I do have concerns myself personally with
[55:32] the cabin, of course, could be used by the school
[55:35] board. If we decided we wanted to have a meeting
[55:37] there, I can't imagine why. But if we wanted to
[55:39] have a meeting there, we could do so. But with
[55:42] the cabins use, if you take out solely, um, use
[55:49] by troop 111, I'm concerned that that would open the
[55:52] door for other entities to try to use the cabin.
[55:56] And that's where I have a problem. Right. And it's,
[55:59] um, I understand that concern. I think there was some
[56:02] change in verbiage to just address scouts in general. Cause
[56:06] I think the changes on that side and not be
[56:09] specific. But I think to understand is that it is
[56:12] just troop 111. We've not entered an agreement with any
[56:15] other users. I mean, I'm not picking on 4 -
[56:20] H or anything else. But say if another entity wanted
[56:23] to utilize the cabin, that has been around since I
[56:27] don't even know. 1956, I believe. The agreement reaches all
[56:30] the way back to the 50s. Yeah. So, um, I
[56:34] don't know what anybody else feels like. But I'm good
[56:37] as long as we keep on track of that because
[56:40] I will be the one that stands up and says
[56:42] this should be the use of the cabinet. Yes, ma'am.
[56:44] Yes. Certainly that's, that's our intent is for this, this
[56:49] troop to be able to use it solely. Okay. Especially
[56:52] if they're going to obtain grant dollars and make them
[56:54] prove. And you can also terminate the MOU for any
[56:58] reason upon 30 days. So if the concerns, you have
[57:01] that. All right. So is this an MOU or an
[57:04] MOA? Cause there is a difference. I think it's actually
[57:11] MOU. Okay. Cause you said MOA. All right. Sometimes I
[57:15] mix them up. I just want to make sure. Yes.
[57:17] Yeah. Okay. Cool. Okay. Um, you're ready to
[57:28] get a motion. I'm making motion that we approve the
[57:33] MOU between truth 111 and Gloucester County School Board. Regarding
[57:40] that billboard. Second. We have a motion in a second.
[57:45] All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Okay. Thank
[57:49] you. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Um, the
[57:54] VSBA annual convention is November 18th through 20th in Williamsburg.
[57:59] Please notify Ms. Brazil. By October 15th, if you would
[58:03] like to be registered to attend. And now we're at
[58:06] the committee's boards and commissions updates. Are there any board
[58:10] members that have any updates that they would like to
[58:12] present this evening. Beyond, did you have any. No. Oh,
[58:19] I did attend the special ed, uh, regional, um, meeting.
[58:24] And our classes are pretty full at this point, you
[58:28] know, which is a good problem to have. Um, but
[58:31] there wasn't any, uh, news at this point. But it's
[58:35] all gotten off to a good start. Great. Okay. All
[58:38] right. We are now at the citizen comment period. We'll
[58:41] now begin the public comment period. The board welcomes comments
[58:45] from Gloucester Citizens, parents, students on matters related to the
[58:49] Gloucester County Public Schools comments should focus on programs, not
[58:53] personnel. This is a time for the board to listen,
[58:56] not engage in discussion. Their follow - up questions for
[58:59] board members are allowed. Speakers are asked to state their
[59:02] name. The district in which they reside and limit their
[59:05] remarks to four minutes per citizen. And if you would
[59:09] also sign in, is there a paper up there? Okay.
[59:13] Sign in, please. Okay. Anyone that would like to speak,
[59:16] please come up now. Yes, sir. Hi. How are you
[59:22] doing? Good. I'm Christopher Pi. I am in the wear.
[59:26] District. And the chairperson of the Siak board. And I
[59:33] just had a proposal that I was interested in. And
[59:37] I got it as, um, building community through peer connection.
[59:42] A peer membership mentorship proposal. Good evening, members of the
[59:46] board, administration, teachers and fellow parents. Thank you for giving
[59:50] me the opportunity to speak with you tonight about an
[59:53] idea that has been potentially to transform the social and
[59:57] academic culture of our county schools. I want to start
[1:00:00] with a personal observation, like any parent, I pay close
[1:00:03] attention to my child's learning environment. My son, Jacob, is
[1:00:07] in special education class here in the county of body
[1:00:10] taught school. I can tell you without hesitation his classroom
[1:00:14] is easily the funnest, most enjoyful room in the entire
[1:00:17] building. And watching my son, I have seen firsthand how
[1:00:21] powerful peer influence is. As we know that children naturally
[1:00:25] learn to behave from those around them, through memory, Hey,
[1:00:30] since entering special education, my son has picked up various
[1:00:34] traits behaviors and ticks from his classmates. Hey, it reminds
[1:00:38] me of a simple truth. If the kids learn how
[1:00:40] to navigate the world by watching other kids, that realization
[1:00:44] led me to the question. What would happen if we
[1:00:48] regularly introduced neurotypical students into a special education classroom as
[1:00:53] peer mentors and learning partners. There's, if children naturally mirror
[1:00:57] their peers, bringing neurotypical students into these classrooms is. Creates
[1:01:04] an environment where all students can model positive social skills
[1:01:08] communication and emotional regulation for one another. But this is
[1:01:12] far from a one - way street. And educational psychology,
[1:01:15] there is a well - known documented concept known as
[1:01:18] the prestige effect. Simply put true mastery of a subject
[1:01:21] comes when you can explain it in the simplest form
[1:01:24] to someone else when a neurotypical student steps in to
[1:01:27] help appear understand a lesson. They aren't just helping. Hey,
[1:01:31] they are solidifying their own academic understanding. They're sharpening their
[1:01:35] own mind while discovering their genuine empathy looks like in
[1:01:39] practice. For our special education students receiving guidance and is
[1:01:43] from a peer offers a level of connection and communication
[1:01:46] that no adult, no matter how dedicated can replicate, there
[1:01:50] is a unique comfort and motivation that comes from learning
[1:01:53] alongside a classmate. Sorry. Neuroscientists have shown
[1:02:04] known that this exact type of meaningful social connection triggers
[1:02:07] positive neural activity lowering stress and enhancing learning. And if
[1:02:12] we're both participants, beyond the immediate classroom benefits, this program
[1:02:17] creates a powerful career and technological education or a CTE
[1:02:22] pipeline. And for our county, School divisions everywhere are facing
[1:02:27] critical shortages and special education teachers. Speech therapists and paraprofessionals.
[1:02:33] By offering our high schoolers a structured hands - on
[1:02:36] opportunity to mentor peers with diverse learning needs is we
[1:02:40] are planting the seeds for our county's future educators and
[1:02:44] specialists giving them real world leadership experience while still in
[1:02:48] high school. Well, now as parents and board members, the
[1:02:52] first question might be, how do we implement this without
[1:02:55] disrupting normal class time or overburgering our teachers. The answer
[1:03:01] really isn't flexibility and structure to create a zero core
[1:03:04] or instruction disruption participants and it can take place during
[1:03:09] existing non - core blocks such as homerooms, interim periods.
[1:03:15] And or structure elective credits, ensuring no student misses essential,
[1:03:19] little academic instruction. Set up a mandatory orientation. Every participating
[1:03:27] peer mentor would be able to complete a one to
[1:03:30] two hour training, any session co - led by district
[1:03:33] staff on communication wait time patients and privacy etiquette before
[1:03:39] stepping into a classroom. This program can create can operate
[1:03:43] on a voluntary opt - in basis for families, starting
[1:03:47] as a small lobris pilot program in just one to
[1:03:51] two classrooms together data before expanding. Hey, you might hear
[1:03:54] that people say, Hey, students today don't want to step
[1:03:57] out of their comfort zone, uh, but learning to connect
[1:04:00] with people who think or communicate differently isn't just a
[1:04:04] nice to have skill. It's an essential life skill. That
[1:04:07] has put me before you today. So your time is
[1:04:11] up. I'm sorry. Your time is off. Oh, I am
[1:04:14] so far. That's okay. Do you have that where you
[1:04:19] could send a copy to Ms. Brazil. That I. Put
[1:04:25] together. Some things. That he's there? Yeah. Uh, together. Okay.
[1:04:32] All right. We'll get, we'll get copies to all of
[1:04:34] us then. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right.
[1:04:39] Anyone else.
[1:04:54] I'm Diane Jones. I'm from the where district. I'm very
[1:04:58] happy to come back to a school system that is
[1:05:02] so far superior to the one that I had to
[1:05:06] deal with when I first started coming to the school
[1:05:09] board. To address the school board. So. As I usually
[1:05:19] do, I have a scripture that, since it's the start
[1:05:22] of the school year, that we started every day with
[1:05:26] when I was in high school. And it is in
[1:05:30] home room, a scripture that we said every day. And.
[1:05:37] It's found in Matthew. And it's our father who art
[1:05:41] in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy
[1:05:45] will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[1:05:48] Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us
[1:05:52] our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[1:05:57] Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
[1:06:00] For thine is the kingdom and the power and the
[1:06:02] glory forever. Amen. And another one says, if he who
[1:06:08] runs the race, should run it according to the rules.
[1:06:13] Or he doesn't win. And, um. As far as literacy
[1:06:22] goes. There are some school systems in the country that
[1:06:28] have completely returned to phonics. Have eliminated screens and have
[1:06:36] expected the children who learn cursive to utilize it. When
[1:06:42] they send write papers, et cetera. And they are the
[1:06:47] ones who are excelling. So my hope is that as
[1:06:53] you continue to improve and get to be the best
[1:06:58] school around what you have. That that would be part
[1:07:03] of your program. Start out with phonics. Teach them cursive
[1:07:10] as you do in the fourth grade. And allow them
[1:07:14] and require them to utilize it as they continue their
[1:07:18] studies. And get rid of the screens. I mean, you
[1:07:24] had your educational director a while back admit that screens
[1:07:31] were harmful to the children. I don't know how you,
[1:07:36] how you would do that. But it would be a
[1:07:41] really good idea. I have to sign this thing.
[1:07:57] Thank you. Thank you. Right. Anyone else.
[1:08:15] Either way, fine. Okay. I'll do it after. Uh, my
[1:08:17] name is Steve Bilidu from the WHERE district. I wanted
[1:08:21] to come today and talk to you all about the
[1:08:25] football program and player safety. We've had a few incidents
[1:08:30] this year. Um, and I just think it's time that
[1:08:32] it's brought up, uh, to this level. Um, in preseason
[1:08:36] football at the first scrimmage of the game, we had
[1:08:39] a player hit so hard that his ACL, MCL were
[1:08:43] both torn. The player was carted off the field. When
[1:08:48] I turned to one of the coaches. Looking around. I
[1:08:52] asked where the ambulance was in case something more severe
[1:08:55] had happened. And I was told according to VHSL standards
[1:08:58] and ambulance is not required. Therefore, the school will not
[1:09:00] pay for it. Um, a scrimmage. Really is a game
[1:09:05] where kids are trying to make the team. That seems
[1:09:07] completely unacceptable. That money is a reason why we're not
[1:09:10] going to put an ambulance there when kids are going
[1:09:12] to play harder than they would during a game. The
[1:09:17] fields are not irrigated at this point. There's holes all
[1:09:20] over the field. They're making them right for injury. This
[1:09:24] school is paying for a robot to put lines. Across
[1:09:27] the field. But yet there's holes where the robot is
[1:09:30] going over to put these lines. Seems like we need
[1:09:35] to fix the field before we put a robot in
[1:09:38] to make these lines. On obvious 31st, we had a
[1:09:42] JV game. No medical personnel were assigned to be on
[1:09:46] the field. Coach Baker was the person that was supposed
[1:09:50] to be on the field. He was up in the
[1:09:53] box, uh, overseeing the game. At one point a kid
[1:09:57] was hit so hard. He was down on the field
[1:09:59] for about 45 seconds. Part of the delay was him
[1:10:02] getting from the box to the field. At that point
[1:10:06] I started to look around. The med kit wasn't even
[1:10:08] on the field. As a parent, I know what the
[1:10:10] med kit looks like. I'd been there numerous games practices
[1:10:13] everything else. This just didn't seem right to me. Uh.
[1:10:23] September 1st, I sent an email. To the coaches, the
[1:10:28] principal and Dr. Volidu. I asked a few questions about
[1:10:32] that. Um, I was told that a response would come
[1:10:35] within 48 hours. Uh, September 3rd after receiving no response
[1:10:40] at that 48 hour period. Uh, sent a follow -
[1:10:45] up email and I said, is 48 hours his past.
[1:10:49] Can I just see where are we? Um. I received
[1:10:54] another email from Mr. Brayboy. And just to doctor of
[1:10:59] Lido, uh, there's been other issues with the, uh, football
[1:11:03] booster club that my wife's been involved with. Um, I've
[1:11:05] been trying to stay out of that. Because I don't
[1:11:09] deal with money. I hate money. Um, so, uh, there
[1:11:13] was some condescending remarks in the email about unresolved issues
[1:11:17] with that. I have no idea what that's about. Um,
[1:11:20] that wasn't what my intention was. My intention was the
[1:11:23] safety of these kids. Um, and another, another comment in
[1:11:28] there about, um. Safety cannot be hinder on information requests,
[1:11:34] um, so I made sure to make it clear that
[1:11:36] the information requests and the timeline wasn't put by me.
[1:11:40] Dr. actually was the one that put that timeline and
[1:11:43] place. Um, since then, I have noticed the ambulances in
[1:11:47] place. The med kit is not coming out to practices
[1:11:50] at every practice still. We had a kid tonight. I
[1:11:53] just found out that went down on the field. Um,
[1:11:56] we had the coach there. Uh, we still don't have
[1:11:59] medical personnel at these practices. This is really becoming an
[1:12:04] issue. These kids are going to get hurt. Someone's going
[1:12:07] to get seriously hurt. We need that this is not,
[1:12:12] this isn't field hockey. This isn't soccer. Those are contact
[1:12:16] sports. Yes. But this is a sport where we're asking
[1:12:19] kids to get into a car accident every single play.
[1:12:23] They're coming at each other full speed full scale and
[1:12:26] crashing into each other. We're taking head trauma seriously, but
[1:12:30] the rest of their bodies are still getting wrecked every
[1:12:33] single play. And we don't have anyone out there to
[1:12:36] take care of them. We've got to get this better.
[1:12:41] Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else.
[1:12:58] Time anyone else would like to speak tonight.
[1:13:08] Ms. Brazil, do we have anyone. That called in. There
[1:13:12] are no calls. Okay. We're going to close public comment.
[1:13:17] Thank you for everything you had to say. All right.
[1:13:21] Um, student and staff presentations, Dr. Bledou. Thank you, Madam
[1:13:29] Chair. We have a number of strategic plan presentations, schedule
[1:13:33] for tonight. And we will begin with school safety updates.
[1:13:38] So Mr. Bryan Hartley, Deputy Superintendent will come up to
[1:13:42] the podium and present this update. Mr. Hartley. All right.
[1:13:49] Thank you, Dr. Get all my stuff out. I do
[1:13:54] have school safety updates. And I should have included them
[1:13:58] on opening slide, but we do have strategic goal four
[1:14:02] to increase safety measures at all schools. And also goal
[1:14:05] three a little bit, um, for attendance and behavior because
[1:14:08] we know when our schools are safe and orderly, we
[1:14:11] see improvements with attendance and behavior. So to see evening,
[1:14:17] I will quickly touch base on our universal screening. Um,
[1:14:20] we do have a september 23rd active shooter exercise. I'll
[1:14:26] provide some detail on, um, I have a little bit
[1:14:29] of detail and stop arm cameras. Talk about our after
[1:14:33] action review process and trying to expand that quickly touch
[1:14:37] base on safety drills and safety audits. Um, and I
[1:14:41] think you've got some of the highlight for this evening.
[1:14:43] Earlier, uh, we do have a strong partnership with Gloucester
[1:14:47] County and what their Gloucester County Sheriff's office. So those
[1:14:51] will be the topics that I covered this evening. And
[1:14:55] starting with Universal Screeners, um, this is our second full
[1:15:00] year of implementation of OpenGate systems. Uh, we are working
[1:15:05] with staff, uh, to make some adjustments to our sensitivity
[1:15:10] on our settings, sometimes mix things up and maybe use
[1:15:13] the old school metal detectors, um, just to kind of
[1:15:17] switch things up. Um, we do have at least two
[1:15:21] sets at every building. So we can cover the parent
[1:15:24] loop and we cover the bus loop as well. Um,
[1:15:27] and then we, uh, continue to expand our event usage.
[1:15:31] If you go to anything's associated after school, you should
[1:15:35] see these in use, um, for screening. All right. Uh,
[1:15:44] if you were recalled last September, we did this active
[1:15:48] shooter exercise and partnership with Gloucester Community Sheriff's office, but
[1:15:53] we did our secondary staff. Um, all instructional or licensed
[1:15:57] instructional staff is expected to participate this year. It is
[1:16:01] for our elementary staff, uh, as I mentioned, it is
[1:16:04] a partnership, Gloucester Sheriff's office comes in and does a
[1:16:08] dynamic job presenting what staff can expect during this exercise.
[1:16:13] Um, and they want to make it as real as
[1:16:15] possible. It's a training opportunity for them just like it's
[1:16:18] a trained opportunity for us. Um, and they want to
[1:16:21] know how our staff are going to respond in this
[1:16:24] type of scenario. So they make it as real as
[1:16:26] possible, uh, staff members either play the role of a
[1:16:29] teacher or a role of a student. They will actually
[1:16:31] be placed in classrooms and such roles after initial presentation,
[1:16:37] um, at the beginning, the training will last about 30
[1:16:39] minutes. Um, and they will have some sound effects and
[1:16:44] they'll come in with their actual weapons tagged out. So
[1:16:47] they are safe. And they will clear our building just
[1:16:50] like they would clear in a real event. Um, and
[1:16:53] then afterwards, um, they will come back and bring staff
[1:16:57] in for kind of a debriefing. Like I talked earlier
[1:17:00] after action kind of summary. We had a lot of
[1:17:04] positive feedback last year. Certainly it's, uh, it's an emotional
[1:17:08] exercise that we've gotten to the point that we have
[1:17:10] to do this. But it's important that we train our
[1:17:13] staff that they can react appropriately and respond quickly. And
[1:17:18] these kind of settings. So I know that's a big
[1:17:20] item. I'll stop and see if the questions about our
[1:17:23] active shooter exercise. And that is a designated professional development
[1:17:27] day. It is an early out. And again, September 23rd
[1:17:31] is the date. Do you have a question? Go ahead.
[1:17:35] Does the exercise include trauma. Does it include trauma in?
[1:17:43] Yeah. Like for instance, uh, are the teachers taught to.
[1:17:47] Take care of somebody that's been hurt. Or I mean,
[1:17:50] how is, how is that? Is that going to be
[1:17:51] a part of it? We have exposed, uh, some of
[1:17:54] our staff members primarily administrators to, uh, civilian response and
[1:17:58] critical care that's put on for, um, by DCJS. And
[1:18:04] really, and they will cover this, um, law enforcement cover
[1:18:08] before this exercise, but they say our job is to
[1:18:11] stop the killing and stop to dying afterwards. And, um,
[1:18:14] I hate to use that terminology, but that's what they
[1:18:17] use. Um, and that's part of it is you get
[1:18:19] that building as safe as possible as quick as possible.
[1:18:24] And they will tell our staff members, you know, you
[1:18:26] might be in this room for an extended amount of
[1:18:28] time. Even after we come in and check it, we're
[1:18:30] not letting you out. We need to clear the hallways.
[1:18:33] Um, we need to make sure we get medical personnel
[1:18:35] on site. Um, and provide care where we can provide
[1:18:38] care. Um, so it will be very real. And again,
[1:18:44] they want us to act as roles possible, law enforcement
[1:18:46] is going to treat it like an actual training exercise
[1:18:49] like they would any other thing that they train for.
[1:18:53] So that include medical as well. We did not have
[1:18:57] medical there. I think they will cover the medical care
[1:19:01] and the need. If the need to get medical care
[1:19:04] in there in the presentation prior to the exercise, they'll
[1:19:07] say, Hey, you might be in the room for extended
[1:19:09] period of time because we have to do this or
[1:19:12] we have to block this off or we might have
[1:19:14] to evacuate the building at some point. So in order
[1:19:18] to do that, they need to make sure things are
[1:19:19] safe. Well, I guess my, uh, be a little more
[1:19:22] clear on my question. I mean, we're going to make
[1:19:24] this real, um, shouldn't we include medical personnel like first
[1:19:28] responders, uh, EMT, that kind of thing. To, to at
[1:19:35] least show up. It'd be something we can talk about
[1:19:37] incorporating. We've not had actors in these roles. You're not
[1:19:41] going to have that during the active shooter situation. I
[1:19:46] mean, as a deputy sheriff, when I was a deputy
[1:19:51] sheriff and gone through this training, I'm going to step
[1:19:55] over, unfortunately, as bad as it sounds. I can't focus.
[1:20:01] No, no, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm smell
[1:20:03] what I'm talking about. I have to focus after it's
[1:20:04] all over. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking
[1:20:06] about, let's say for instance, you're doing that you step
[1:20:10] over someone. Then the communication goes back for first responders
[1:20:14] to come in. Like EMT and stuff like that. Most
[1:20:17] responders in a, in a scene. I'm talking about the
[1:20:19] communication part. Yeah. But you can't have first responders in
[1:20:25] there till that scene is safe. You don't practice it.
[1:20:29] The whole idea is to neutralize the part of this
[1:20:35] part of the scenario should include your ambulances and EMT
[1:20:40] showing up after everything is done. So they'll know what
[1:20:43] to do. I'm sure I'm positive that if that type
[1:20:48] of a situation happened in this county, not only are
[1:20:52] the dispatchers sending out our people, but they're also going
[1:20:58] on and send out your rescue units. And they stage
[1:21:02] themselves X amount of, you know, whether it's a mile
[1:21:06] away or two miles, but their staged. And when the
[1:21:10] scene, when we get the scene safe, we'll call those
[1:21:13] rescue people on. Yes. Yes, you will stay. They know,
[1:21:19] yes, it is part of the training. And if I
[1:21:21] could provide an update on that. So this summer we
[1:21:23] did have a, um, uh, want to thank Ms. Weiner.
[1:21:27] Mr. Hartley and I and our team had attended incident
[1:21:30] command. There's a lot in coordinating resources. But that happens
[1:21:35] as something that, um, the coordination of resources, that training
[1:21:39] is separate from this training. I think they would overlap
[1:21:42] at some point in the real world, but again, I
[1:21:45] want to thank emergency management. Um, and the trainer, we
[1:21:49] ask somebody that came all the way from Chesapeake who
[1:21:51] does this for all the school districts in coordinating services
[1:21:55] with multiple agencies, uh, during a crisis. You can speak
[1:21:59] a little bit more about that training. I'd be happy
[1:22:01] to. Thank you. Um, this, uh, training we attended over
[1:22:04] the summer, when medical personnel would come in, um, and
[1:22:10] to make it safe. The actual event, the tabletop exercises
[1:22:13] this summer was for a tornado. Um, but there are
[1:22:16] some similarities in this and how we approach it and
[1:22:20] bring those first responders in because the fire department would
[1:22:23] have to get there and make sure the building's safe
[1:22:26] to even enter and make sure to build in safe
[1:22:28] where we can evacuate people, um, if there's injuries, where
[1:22:31] do we put those people if we can move them
[1:22:34] or we bring in medical personnel to treat them right
[1:22:36] where they are. So to answer your question right now
[1:22:40] having medical personnel on scene wasn't part of the previous
[1:22:43] exercise. Certainly talk to Sergeant Holt and see if he
[1:22:47] can't cover and say, yes sir. I think they want
[1:22:53] to do proverbial. Hole, but I was just asking the
[1:22:57] question. Right. So yeah, it's just when I say first
[1:23:01] responders for this, it'll be law enforcement. This is primarily
[1:23:07] for law enforcement to, I mean, we're a part of
[1:23:10] it, but law enforcement, this is their training time. I
[1:23:14] have been involved in the past in a exercise that
[1:23:17] was at the water treatment plant years ago where I,
[1:23:21] and others were injured and had multiple injuries because we
[1:23:26] were trying to get out of the building. And for
[1:23:28] whatever reason, you're basically told what injuries you have. And
[1:23:32] that point, the ambulances were coming in. And they did
[1:23:36] pick, you know, they triage and then they take us
[1:23:40] in an ambulance to the hospital. And we had to
[1:23:42] go through hazmat at that point. Right. But the way,
[1:23:46] and I've been through one at the hospital where it
[1:23:47] was an active shooter at the hospital. But I understand
[1:23:51] basically they come up in the past. They've always, the
[1:23:54] sheriff's office comes up with the scenario. And we just
[1:23:58] go along with whatever their scenario is at the time.
[1:24:01] Right. They do. And they again, they have a very
[1:24:05] strong presentation at the beginning. No cover more than just
[1:24:09] that. But they'll, the focus will be on our staff
[1:24:12] response to an event going down. And what they need
[1:24:16] to do and what they need to do for students.
[1:24:18] So, I mean, lockdown is doors locked. Windows covered lights
[1:24:22] out. Everybody's quiet. Those are expectations for staff during this.
[1:24:29] Quick question. Um, I know when, um, I was teaching
[1:24:32] we did have part of our, um, training, you know,
[1:24:36] our modules that we had to do before the year
[1:24:37] started was on how to address trauma. I don't know
[1:24:40] if that's still part of the training. Like how to
[1:24:44] do, I don't know if it was ever, you know,
[1:24:47] how did you severely wounded in referring to like the
[1:24:50] safe school stream? Right, right. And then we had to
[1:24:53] go. I mean, we really have an act of mental
[1:24:56] health support team that becomes together. They meet regularly. I
[1:25:00] mean, several staff members from here are part of it.
[1:25:03] We have school psychologists. No, it's not. I'm afraid physical
[1:25:06] trauma. Not sorry. I misunderstood it. I wasn't clear. My
[1:25:12] fault. No, I don't think it's a specific module, but,
[1:25:16] uh, we're trying to get, again, we follow DCJS on
[1:25:21] every step that we possibly can, whether it's a standard
[1:25:24] response protocol or a reunification method. They're the ones that
[1:25:27] put on the civilian response and critical care training. And
[1:25:31] in that training is what they do to address wounds.
[1:25:34] Okay. So teachers get something. We were working on getting
[1:25:39] more and more staff exposed to it. We've actually brought
[1:25:42] DCGS here before, um, Mrs. Winters brought them in to
[1:25:47] the, um, to her office several times. And we've attended
[1:25:51] several times. Thank you. Okay. Okay.
[1:26:02] There are, uh, some stop arm data, uh, that I
[1:26:06] just want to share with you, uh, quickly. And this
[1:26:11] is from September 25 to July of 26. Um, and
[1:26:16] you can kind of see where the peak activity rates
[1:26:20] are, you know, obviously it gets a little more frequent
[1:26:25] in the middle months. Um, so that's the data by
[1:26:28] Bont. Ness is the high violation areas. And it doesn't
[1:26:38] matter where these occur. We don't want these two occur.
[1:26:41] But just to kind of put a point of reference,
[1:26:43] um, number one is close to Ab and then. Number
[1:26:47] two is close to body tight. George Washington, that's worth
[1:26:51] elementary school short lanes. Obviously Gloucester High School. And then,
[1:26:56] um, the last one, we're out 17 is close to
[1:26:59] Abeden. Again, true. That's all in your area, man. Better
[1:27:03] do something about that. But it's, uh, again, it's, it's
[1:27:08] a good program. We are not into the stop arm
[1:27:14] camera business for any sort of profit. We want the
[1:27:17] behavior to stop. How much is the ticket again? It's
[1:27:21] 250 dollars. Needs to be 400. Yeah. So, um, and
[1:27:27] again, days of the week, not a lot of variants.
[1:27:29] Um, but we do have buses running on Saturdays, not
[1:27:32] on Sundays. So we do see some violations on Saturdays.
[1:27:36] And then, um, as you can imagine the time of
[1:27:40] day, obviously in the morning and an afternoon when we're
[1:27:43] transporting students, we're going to have more violations. We have
[1:27:45] more stops. Um, so that, that, uh, makes sense. And
[1:27:50] I think that's all the data on stop arm cameras.
[1:27:54] Um, I did mention early after review, uh, process at
[1:28:00] start at doing this after any event, um, had occurred
[1:28:04] in a building like significant event that we had to
[1:28:07] lock down or go into a secure mode or things
[1:28:10] like that. Um, really what we want our people doing
[1:28:13] to kind of put it quite simply is we need
[1:28:15] to talk about what went well and what didn't go
[1:28:18] well, where areas we can improve. This year we were
[1:28:22] trying to expand to our safety drills as well. Um,
[1:28:24] so I think it's an important process for reflection and
[1:28:28] improvement, but this is just an example. Of what might
[1:28:31] drive the conversation, um, again, we're starting to have lockdown
[1:28:35] drills now. Obviously we had fire drills the first couple
[1:28:39] of weeks of school. We still have a couple to
[1:28:41] come before we slow down to once a month. Um,
[1:28:43] so that's all that's intended to do. Safety drills. I
[1:28:48] just tried to summarize real quick. We do have a
[1:28:52] pretty complex sheet that talks about all our safety drills
[1:28:55] and all our meetings and all. But this kind of
[1:28:57] summarizes that, um, to talk about the number of fire
[1:29:00] drills, um, the number of lockdown drills. We are above
[1:29:04] what's required for lockdowns, but we feel like that's important.
[1:29:07] Um, we do have earthquake drills, tornado drills, cardiac, arrest
[1:29:11] drills and response teams. That's fairly new from last year,
[1:29:15] uh, but we need to do two of those. So
[1:29:18] you can imagine having a minimum of 22 drills during
[1:29:22] the school year takes up some time and the, some
[1:29:24] need for preparation. Um, but again, we're trying to push
[1:29:28] the after action on these. And we're trying to make
[1:29:31] a point to be and buildings and observe some of
[1:29:33] these drills ourselves. Mr. Hartley. Yes, ma'am. For all of
[1:29:40] these drills, um, does anybody in the school know that
[1:29:45] they're going to take place other than administration? I mean,
[1:29:49] our teachers made aware that they're going to have droles
[1:29:51] or some of these are not done that way. Some
[1:29:54] of them should not be done that way. Um, I'll
[1:29:57] take a lock ground. Well, fire drills. We don't really
[1:30:00] need advance warning for fire drill. Um, we need to
[1:30:04] know what people are going to do. Um, we do
[1:30:06] have some discussions. We try to provide minimal disruptions to
[1:30:09] things like lunch, but we ask them to talk to
[1:30:12] their staff about what would you do if there was
[1:30:14] a fire drill during lunch? Like what are the steps?
[1:30:16] Because your behaviors and your responses would be a little
[1:30:19] different during lunch than would be why you're in class.
[1:30:22] Um, lockdown drills were required to provide at least 24
[1:30:26] hours to notice to families, um, before we do a
[1:30:29] lockdown drill. It doesn't mean we can't provide more than
[1:30:32] 24 hours, but that kind of gives people an idea
[1:30:34] that once coming because, you know, word kind of gets
[1:30:38] out. But we want them to be, um, is responsive
[1:30:42] as possible if we provide too much information ahead of
[1:30:45] time and planning out ahead of time, then we're not
[1:30:48] getting a real response that we want. That's what I
[1:30:50] was, I guess that's what I was getting at is
[1:30:53] if you, if they have prior knowledge of it, they're
[1:30:55] going to be prepared for it. So are sometimes they
[1:30:59] don't know what time it's going to take place. They
[1:31:01] may know it's going to be during the day at
[1:31:03] some point, but not necessarily time. They might not. It's
[1:31:06] like during the week before, you know, secondary schools might
[1:31:09] do an all call on a Sunday and say, we
[1:31:11] do have a lockdown drill this week. Okay. So they
[1:31:13] have some idea there this week, but we're not saying,
[1:31:16] Hey, it's going to be Tuesday at nine o'clock. Okay.
[1:31:20] Good. Um, we did last year when we started, um,
[1:31:27] we need to make sure we have a strong response
[1:31:29] to answer your question a little bit deeper. The cardiac,
[1:31:32] um, response drills. Those were kind of scheduled because we
[1:31:35] needed all our team members to be part of it.
[1:31:38] Um, so it's a really a practice and learn kind
[1:31:41] of thing. So this is our second year doing it.
[1:31:43] So is that the AED. At part of it is
[1:31:46] the AD. We have to have people that are first
[1:31:50] aid in CPR certified. Okay.
[1:32:01] I'm going to work backwards for a moment on this
[1:32:03] one. Um, just to talk about some of the things
[1:32:06] that we have in place. I talked about our partnership
[1:32:07] with the county. Really, that's when we apply for SORO
[1:32:14] grant. And that's where we push to have SROs in
[1:32:18] every building. Um, if you remember several years ago, it
[1:32:22] was just middle school and high school. Now we do
[1:32:24] have them in every building. Um, we kind of work
[1:32:28] independently with filling them in for our SSO grant, um,
[1:32:32] so we have school security also. Um, really it's an
[1:32:37] initiative of the sheriff's office. We were involved with the
[1:32:39] school zone speed cameras. Um, currently they do have schools
[1:32:43] on speed cameras and the pets worth area and the
[1:32:46] Achilles area. Those citations are a little bit less. They're
[1:32:50] a hundred dollars. But again, we can only run our
[1:32:53] lights 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in
[1:32:56] the afternoon. Um, and I don't have data available to
[1:32:59] me to share with the number of violations for those.
[1:33:03] Um, and you did have a chance to meet Casper
[1:33:06] earlier, um, Casper was born on Halloween thus the name.
[1:33:11] He has obviously arrived. He arrived, I think on August
[1:33:14] the 31st, um, cabinet got to meet him on the
[1:33:17] day he got here the day after. And they're going
[1:33:20] through the handler selection process now. Um, again, uh, master
[1:33:27] Deputy Lutz is the trainer. He is not the handler
[1:33:30] for Casper. Casper will be assigned to one of our
[1:33:33] SOROs. I think they're in the final steps of that.
[1:33:37] And then there's some certification and things where Master Deppie
[1:33:40] Lutz will be with handler, um, and, and Casper in
[1:33:44] her buildings doing some initial things. Um, but really right
[1:33:49] now is anticipated by the end of the month, this
[1:33:51] process will be done certification. We've done. And he'll be
[1:33:54] with his handler in our buildings, um, and I want
[1:33:58] to rotating bases by the end of the September. So
[1:34:02] things are happening quickly. And I believe Dr. Ledu mentioned
[1:34:06] a dual purpose integration. He's actually also been trained as
[1:34:09] a therapy dog and we'll get the certification for the
[1:34:12] therapy dog. Um, I think everybody in the rooms had
[1:34:14] a chance to meet Casper. They don't get much friendlier
[1:34:18] than, than that. So, um, he's certainly a welcome addition.
[1:34:22] Um, and he's really very good at his job and
[1:34:25] his job is to snip out weapons, um, or anything
[1:34:28] associated with weapons. Yes. Uh, well,
[1:34:39] yes. I mean, he will stay with law enforcement. Technically,
[1:34:41] I guess he's ours. We did purchase them, but we
[1:34:45] need law enforcement to support us. Um, but he's already
[1:34:49] been in our buildings like Dr. Validu said, um, he's
[1:34:52] observed the weapon detection systems that we talked about in
[1:34:56] the middle or beginning, sorry. So we believe he's going
[1:35:00] to do, uh, good work in the special when we
[1:35:03] have larger events. So like maybe some football games that
[1:35:06] I don't come and things like that. So we look
[1:35:08] forward to working with the sheriff's office and maybe potentially
[1:35:11] even expand at some point in time. How are we
[1:35:14] compensating Casper. Belly rubs or treats? Treats. Well, I don't
[1:35:20] know if the allow treats, but belly rubs certainly he,
[1:35:24] he knows how to get those, um, he got several
[1:35:26] of those before the meeting started. Um, but I, I
[1:35:30] can see, I mean, it kind of relieves some fears
[1:35:32] that people might have had and said that you're going
[1:35:34] to have a police canine in your buildings. You see
[1:35:37] what we have. And he is, he's got a very
[1:35:40] good, strong training background. And, um, he's going to do
[1:35:43] good things. Um. I did mention safety audits. This is
[1:35:52] an annual requirement for us. Um, the code cite it,
[1:35:58] uh, you know, all of that information is collected. I
[1:35:59] just want to report out that all our schools have
[1:36:02] submitted their safety surveys and the division surveys been completed
[1:36:05] as well. So that criteria has been met. And then,
[1:36:10] uh, next step, we are always working to add to
[1:36:14] our safety, um, we are exploring some options for safety
[1:36:18] apps. Um, the several products out there. So we're trying
[1:36:21] to find what works best. Um, our first step in
[1:36:24] that is to just secure the safety app. Um, after
[1:36:28] that, I think people have heard more and more about
[1:36:31] wearables. I know some legislation that really simply says they're
[1:36:34] allowed to have wearables. I think we were before, um,
[1:36:39] but it's just a little more clear. So we do
[1:36:41] want to at some point in time obtain wearables that
[1:36:45] really cut down on law enforcement's response time. If the
[1:36:49] need to call 911, but also gives us the ability
[1:36:52] to lock down buildings, um, from anywhere, um, by any
[1:36:56] staff member. And that's a practice we put in place
[1:36:58] a couple years ago. Um, it's very important that everybody
[1:37:02] knows that anybody can call a lockdown. You see something,
[1:37:04] say something. Um, and then we will start next week.
[1:37:09] What the division wide safety committees, the expectations been stated
[1:37:12] and made clear to schools that they need to meet
[1:37:15] at a minimum on a monthly basis, um, at the
[1:37:17] school level. So we have division and school level safety
[1:37:19] team meetings. Um, they try to meet ahead of the
[1:37:22] division team so they can bring concerns back to us.
[1:37:25] Uh, and it won't be long before we have parents
[1:37:27] safety advisory meetings starting back up. And then the last
[1:37:31] thing that I'll cover this evening is the school safety
[1:37:34] equipment grant. This is something that we apply for and
[1:37:39] been fortunate every year for the last at least five
[1:37:41] years of getting awarded something, um, sometimes we get a
[1:37:45] little bit more than others, but we used this grant
[1:37:48] to do things like the Achilles security festival. But now
[1:37:52] we're really focusing on door access controls. Um, focusing on
[1:37:56] cameras because they've made a lot of improvements on cameras.
[1:37:59] Um, and we're working in incorporating some vape detectors where
[1:38:02] that's appropriate. Again, we do look at some servers and
[1:38:05] things like that. But those are the big things that
[1:38:08] are really covered for safety. So with that, I will
[1:38:13] stop and see if there's any questions. Or more information
[1:38:17] I can provide. Just a quick question about the cameras.
[1:38:19] Where is the thought to put them? The new cameras.
[1:38:26] Really don't have a lot of new locations. Our technology
[1:38:29] staff goes around with like security staff at different buildings
[1:38:33] and administrators, different buildings and say is an area that
[1:38:36] you can't see or you feel like it's a problematic
[1:38:38] area. If they identify those and then we might put
[1:38:41] a new camera there, um, we're really, we're, we got
[1:38:44] a lot of cameras in our buildings already, but these
[1:38:46] there's better cameras out there. The technology's better. Um, you
[1:38:50] get cameras that, you know, go from a single view
[1:38:53] to almost a 360 degree view. Cause I got several
[1:38:56] lenses on them. Um, and just the clarity on them
[1:38:59] is better. And, you know, after a while they just,
[1:39:02] they're just not as good. To Mr.
[1:39:12] Harley and his team for working on this. We, we
[1:39:15] don't restore the summer as well as sheriff Warren and
[1:39:19] emergency management because we were there half a day. Having
[1:39:23] very detailed discussions about how all this works. And again,
[1:39:27] sheriff Warren with a program which was so helpful in
[1:39:31] identifying and adding another layer to weapons detection. So again,
[1:39:34] we can't do this work for our community partners. So
[1:39:37] kudos to Sheriff Warren, his team as well as emergency
[1:39:40] management. Yep. Thank you. I would like to say something
[1:39:44] real quick. Uh, Mr. Hartley, thank you for making that
[1:39:48] slide about the, uh, cameras from the buses. I don't
[1:39:52] think people really. Understand how important it is to stop
[1:39:56] at a school bus. When the lights come on. Stop.
[1:40:00] It's not a race car to pass. As fast as
[1:40:03] you can. As soon as you see the yellow lights
[1:40:04] flashing, um, because it's Kid's life at stake. So thank
[1:40:08] you for giving us that. And we can't emphasize that
[1:40:11] enough. And you, you can see after a couple of
[1:40:14] years of implementation, we still have a significant number of
[1:40:19] violations that we're citing. Um, I will say, and I'd
[1:40:23] have to go back to proved his data point. But
[1:40:25] when, you know, we started this, they said rarely do
[1:40:27] you have somebody to get a second offense. Cause you
[1:40:31] know, 250 dollars things a little bit, that number that
[1:40:35] we're dealing with. We really wish to bring it down.
[1:40:38] Again, our goal is not for money is to stop
[1:40:41] the behavior. Like I said, I thank you for putting
[1:40:43] that because that's when one of my biggest questions is
[1:40:47] how effective is it? What are we looking at? Is
[1:40:49] the community responding? Are they still being a knuckleheads behind
[1:40:53] the wheel. Right. Okay. Um, academic
[1:41:02] achievement state and federal targets, Dr. Freeze and Dr. Migas.
[1:41:10] Good evening, Ms. Parker. Board members, Dr. V'Adou. Dr. Mickesen,
[1:41:14] I have the pleasure this evening of sharing with you
[1:41:15] some division assessment results from last school year. So from
[1:41:19] 2025, 26. So these are directly related to goal 1
[1:41:24] in the strategic plan, which is that all of our
[1:41:26] students meet are exceed all annual state and federal performance
[1:41:29] benchmarks. We recognize that those are just benchmarks, but they
[1:41:31] serve as a foundation for a grade level readiness. And
[1:41:35] then beyond. So for collagen career preparation, um, and then
[1:41:38] excellence in citizenship and academic achievement as well. So I'm
[1:41:42] pleased to report this evening, um, that Gloucester County public
[1:41:45] schools has ranked 18th in the state of Virginia at
[1:41:48] the end of last year. That's based on state ranking
[1:41:51] reports from our comprehensive instructional program. They consolidate pass rates
[1:41:56] for all 131 school divisions in the state and then
[1:41:58] provide that ranking. So you'll notice steady improvement over the
[1:42:01] past four school years from 30 second in the year
[1:42:04] ending in 2023. Um, all the way up to 18th
[1:42:07] at the end of last school year. We also always
[1:42:11] want to compare ourselves to the 17 school divisions that
[1:42:14] are in region three. You'll see that we again rank
[1:42:17] at the top. That is for the second consecutive year.
[1:42:20] Um, so proud of the work that our students and
[1:42:22] teachers and administrators have performed in making this rankings possible.
[1:42:25] So we're not only performing well statewide, but also here
[1:42:28] within our region right at the top. And our success
[1:42:33] in region three actually spans all three core content areas.
[1:42:36] So we are ranked number one overall in the region
[1:42:38] from mathematics. Number two overall for reading. And number three
[1:42:42] overall for science. And those are combined rankings across elementary,
[1:42:46] middle and high school. Um, and we are one of
[1:42:48] only two school divisions out of the 17 in the
[1:42:50] region that are ranked in the top three for all
[1:42:52] of those core content areas. So strong performance across the
[1:42:56] board. Want to share with you a little bit of
[1:42:59] information about our comparison to the state. So you'll see,
[1:43:04] and this is from last school year. So you'll see
[1:43:05] Gloucester County Public Schools rankings in the green bars and
[1:43:08] the state of Virginia in blue. So we are outperforming
[1:43:11] the state by four almost five points in reading, um,
[1:43:16] almost 10 points in mathematics, um, and then seven almost
[1:43:19] eight points in science. And again, that's a combined pass
[1:43:23] rate across elementary, middle and high school. So now we'll
[1:43:26] go into our specific scores by test and by grade
[1:43:30] level for elementary. And then I'll hand it over to
[1:43:32] Dr. Migas to do secondary. You'll notice a pattern. So
[1:43:36] we'll first provide our comparison to the state by each
[1:43:39] grade level and test, um, and then we'll provide a
[1:43:42] three year trend just for Gloucester County. We're going to
[1:43:45] cover the data all the way up front, um, and
[1:43:47] then at the end, we'll conclude with some areas of
[1:43:49] focus for this year, kind of what we attribute our
[1:43:52] success last year, too, and the next steps, um, as
[1:43:55] we move forward into this school year. So for our
[1:43:58] elementary assessment results, we'll start with elementary reading. Um, you
[1:44:02] will see grades three, grade four and grade five reading,
[1:44:05] um, strongly outperforming. The state. So 72, almost 73 percent
[1:44:10] in grade three reading as a pass rate five reading.
[1:44:20] In a three year comparison, you'll see that grades four
[1:44:24] and grades five have had a steady increase over the
[1:44:26] past three school years. Um, we had a little bit
[1:44:28] of a dip in grade three reading last school year,
[1:44:32] which doesn't just attribute to grade three. We know that
[1:44:35] K1 and two are foundational areas for our students as
[1:44:37] well. Um, and we'll talk about again next steps at
[1:44:40] the end on, on where we're focusing our efforts in
[1:44:43] reading this year. Moving on to mathematics, you'll see again
[1:44:48] that we are strongly outperforming the state and all three
[1:44:51] tested grade levels at the elementary level. So performance in
[1:44:54] the mid to high 80s in grade three grade four
[1:44:58] and grade five. So definitely want to celebrate that work
[1:45:01] almost 10 points above the state average or the state
[1:45:04] pass rate more than 10 points. Um, above in a
[1:45:07] couple of grade levels. And then our math performance over
[1:45:11] the past three school years. So a little bit of
[1:45:14] a decline in grade three mathematics from the year before,
[1:45:17] um, little bit of decline in grades four and grade
[1:45:19] five also, but still a very strong pass rates again
[1:45:22] in the mid to high eighties, um, and proud of
[1:45:25] the work again that our teachers and students have done
[1:45:27] in those areas. And then we'll wrap up elementary with
[1:45:30] a comparison of grade five science. You'll recall that we
[1:45:34] only test science in fifth grade at the elementary level,
[1:45:37] um, our pass rate last year was hovering right around
[1:45:39] 80 percent almost 12 points higher than the state pass
[1:45:44] rate. And in a three year trend, you'll see three
[1:45:51] years of very strong science performance, um, big gains from
[1:45:55] 2023, 24 to 24, 25, gave a little bit of
[1:45:58] those gains back last year, uh, but still right at
[1:46:01] that 80 percent threshold. So at this, they're looking for.
[1:46:05] So this time I'll go ahead and hand it over
[1:46:06] to Dr. Migas to share with you our secondary assessment
[1:46:09] results. Thank you. Um, so I'm going to start by,
[1:46:17] uh, sharing with you our middle school reading results. You'll
[1:46:20] see grade six grade seven and grade eight reading. Once
[1:46:24] again, Gloucester is in the green and the statewide pass
[1:46:28] rate is in the blue. And here you can see
[1:46:30] that in all three grade levels, we are a little
[1:46:32] bit above the state at about 76, 77 percent across
[1:46:36] all three grade levels in reading. And this is our
[1:46:42] three year trend. And as you can see here, it's,
[1:46:44] it's been very stable. We've been hovering around the same
[1:46:47] pass rates in those mid to upper 70s for the
[1:46:50] last three years. Um, across the board in our middle
[1:46:52] school reading. This is our end of course reading state
[1:46:59] comparison. So when we say, and of course what, what
[1:47:01] I mean by that is our high school reading test.
[1:47:03] Our students take that, um, in 11th grade when they
[1:47:06] take English 11, um, and you can see there, we
[1:47:09] are a slightly under the statewide pass rate at right
[1:47:13] about 85 percent for our students in the end of
[1:47:17] course reading test. And you can see our three year
[1:47:21] trend. We had experienced a pretty good gain between 23,
[1:47:25] 24 and 24, 25. And we gave a little bit
[1:47:28] of that back. Um, last year. But still ahead of
[1:47:32] where we were a couple of years ago at right
[1:47:34] about 85 percent last year. Moving on to math, um,
[1:47:40] these are grade six, grade seven and grade eight test
[1:47:44] results. I will say, um, when you look at this,
[1:47:48] these are division wide results, but, um, these three tests
[1:47:51] do not represent all of our students in middle school
[1:47:55] in grade six, seven, and eight who take math. So
[1:47:57] in middle school math, some sixth graders are taking the
[1:48:00] sixth grade test. Some are taking the seventh grade tests.
[1:48:02] And then when you get to grade seven and grade
[1:48:04] eight, some of those students are taking algebra one or
[1:48:07] geometry. So they'll be included on the next slide when
[1:48:10] I show you the end of course results for our
[1:48:12] high school level tests. But happy to report that across
[1:48:15] the board in these three tests, um, we are above
[1:48:19] the statewide average significantly above the statewide average in grade
[1:48:23] six. Grade seven and grade eight math in double digits
[1:48:26] in all three. In all three categories. So very happy
[1:48:28] to see that. And you can see our statewide trend
[1:48:32] there. We did see an increase in our grade six
[1:48:35] math. Um, and a little bit of a decrease in
[1:48:37] our grade seven and eight. But again, still also still
[1:48:40] above the statewide average, but we did go down a
[1:48:42] little bit in grade seven and grade eight. These are
[1:48:46] our end of course tests. So these are our tests
[1:48:49] that the students have to pass in order to get
[1:48:50] those, um, high school credits. So algebra one, um, you
[1:48:54] can see that we are about three points above the
[1:48:56] statewide pass rate. We're just under 89 percent there Geometry,
[1:49:01] we saw, um, we saw us outpacing the state by
[1:49:04] about 10 points at just about 92 percent. So very,
[1:49:07] very strong results there. One of the highest, um, across
[1:49:11] the state. And the highest in the state in Algebra
[1:49:13] too. So very happy to report. We had a 100
[1:49:16] percent pass rate. There may have been a couple of
[1:49:19] other school systems that were tied with us for first,
[1:49:21] but we are first. So we can, we can claim
[1:49:23] that for algebra too. So a great job by our
[1:49:26] students and our teachers and algebra too. That's right. Yeah.
[1:49:32] Nobody beat us there. Um, and then you can see
[1:49:35] our three year trend. We did have a high pass
[1:49:38] rate in algebra one, although it did go down a
[1:49:40] few points from the prior school year. And then in
[1:49:43] geometry and algebra two, you can see the trend there
[1:49:45] staying about the same in geometry and seeing that increase
[1:49:48] in algebra two up to a hundred percent. And then
[1:49:53] our middle and high school, um, science results. So, um,
[1:49:56] the first test that you see there on the left
[1:49:58] side of the graph, that's our grade eight science test
[1:50:01] that all of our students take currently in eighth grade.
[1:50:05] And we were well above the statewide average there by
[1:50:07] about nine points at about 75 percent. Uh, the vast
[1:50:12] majority of our students take that in 10th grade. That
[1:50:15] is the one science test that all of our high
[1:50:17] school students do take. And we were above the statewide
[1:50:21] average by about six points there at, uh, 82 and
[1:50:24] a half percent. And here you can see the trend
[1:50:29] for grade eight science and for biology. So happy to
[1:50:32] report. We did see a little bit of an increase
[1:50:34] in our grade eight science by about five point increase
[1:50:37] there. So that was good to see. And a slight
[1:50:39] dip in biology, although we're still a little bit above
[1:50:42] where we were a couple years ago. And so what
[1:50:48] are our areas of focus moving into this upcoming school
[1:50:53] year based on the data? Certainly as Dr. Free said
[1:50:56] grade three reading. We know that that's foundational for our
[1:50:58] students. And that preparation really starts in kindergarten, um, but
[1:51:02] we want all of our students to be reading on
[1:51:04] grade level. Um, by third grade, because that sets them
[1:51:07] up for success moving forward. Grade six through eight readings.
[1:51:10] So you saw those scores. Um, the good news is
[1:51:14] they're stable. But kind of the other side of that
[1:51:16] is that they're stable. We haven't really seen growth. We've
[1:51:19] been kind of in the same spot. So we are
[1:51:21] focused on trying to improve those scores. Um, certainly very
[1:51:25] grateful to the board for investing in those resources in
[1:51:28] grade six through eight reading as well as high school
[1:51:30] reading. Um, with our high quality instructional materials. And then
[1:51:33] you see on there grade 11 English, that's that end
[1:51:36] of course reading test that I mentioned. Algebra 1 and
[1:51:39] biology. Um, and it's not that those scores weren't good,
[1:51:43] but, um, it's really twofold. One is that our students
[1:51:46] have to pass these tests in order to graduate. So
[1:51:48] that reading test, that algebra test, that biology test, that's
[1:51:51] what they have to pass in order to get that
[1:51:53] diploma. So that's always going to be an area of
[1:51:55] focus for us. And also, um, as Dr. Vladiux shared
[1:51:59] at last month's board meeting, that grade 11 reading test
[1:52:02] and that algebra 1 test, they are going to see
[1:52:05] some of the biggest increases in the required cut score
[1:52:08] in order to pass. So we've been very strong historically.
[1:52:11] We've had good scores. We've had high graduation rates, but
[1:52:14] it's not going to be enough anymore. We know our
[1:52:16] performance is going to have to improve. So that is
[1:52:18] why those tests are going to continue to be an
[1:52:20] area of focus. And so what do we attribute our
[1:52:24] growth to in those areas that we had success where
[1:52:26] you saw where we were significantly above the state. You
[1:52:28] saw some increases. First of all, high quality instructional materials
[1:52:32] like I just mentioned. Thank you all for investing in
[1:52:34] those. Um, and we're looking forward to seeing the impact
[1:52:38] this year in math, K12 and in English six through
[1:52:42] 12. Uh, but a couple years ago the board did
[1:52:44] invest over a million and a half dollars. Um, in,
[1:52:49] in HMH to start off with. And then we got
[1:52:50] the, um, the new materials for this year. So we
[1:52:54] are very grateful for that. And I think you did
[1:52:56] see the results in those, in those elementary reading scores
[1:52:59] where we were, uh, well above the state averages. Um,
[1:53:02] instructional and curriculum clarity. We know that being clear in
[1:53:06] the classroom is really the most important thing, uh, for
[1:53:09] student success. All of the research tells us that. We
[1:53:12] do see the example there in parentheses building thinking classrooms.
[1:53:16] That's a program that, um, an instructional method that really
[1:53:21] started with our math teachers and our math coordinators have
[1:53:24] to give a shout out to, um, Melanie Jenkins and
[1:53:27] Kristen Heaney who brought that in a couple of years
[1:53:29] ago and began with our math teachers and really started
[1:53:32] getting teachers to get students more involved. It's, it's where
[1:53:36] kids are getting up. They're having conversations. It's hands on.
[1:53:39] It's real world. It's very engaging. And it was so
[1:53:41] popular with teachers when they were doing that professional development.
[1:53:44] It was so successful that other content areas, other teachers
[1:53:47] wanted to be involved. And so they started expanding it
[1:53:49] to teachers and pretty much every content area. So that's
[1:53:53] the kind of instructional clarity and the kind of engagement
[1:53:56] that really leads to student success. And we know that.
[1:53:59] Um, teacher learning and administrator efficacy. When we say administrator
[1:54:03] efficacy, we want our principles and our system principles and
[1:54:07] buildings, not just to be managers. They're not just there
[1:54:09] to do operations. They're really instructional leaders. And we want
[1:54:13] them to have that efficacy to help lead the learning
[1:54:16] that happens in their buildings to work with teachers on
[1:54:20] a day - to - day basis, looking at standards,
[1:54:22] looking at lesson plans, doing instructional walkthroughs, giving them feedback
[1:54:26] and really helping them to improve their instruction. That's really
[1:54:29] important. And providing those teachers with the feedback to help
[1:54:32] them to improve their instruction. Um, mathematics pathways. A couple
[1:54:37] of years ago, this board approved some new mathematics pathways
[1:54:40] for our middle school students. And you saw some improvements
[1:54:43] there, particularly with, um, grade six was a significant increase
[1:54:47] in our pass rate. So thank you for that. And
[1:54:49] thank you to Ms. Heaney and her team for getting
[1:54:52] those matics pathways. Um, aligned to where they need to
[1:54:56] be. The PLC process, our professional learning communities process and
[1:55:01] feedback cycle, you all have heard us talk a little
[1:55:03] bit about PLCs. Um, last year, it was our first
[1:55:06] year of implementation. And I think we definitely had some
[1:55:09] success as we reflected on the data, not just at
[1:55:13] the division wide level, but even looking at individual grade
[1:55:16] levels and teams at different schools, we could tell where
[1:55:19] the, where the PLC process was really successful, where those
[1:55:22] teachers were really able to come together, work together and
[1:55:26] improve their instruction. They saw really good results. And so
[1:55:29] as we move into year two, we've reflected on how
[1:55:33] we can help to implement that even better. And we've
[1:55:35] been working with our administrators to make sure that that
[1:55:37] PLC process is as tight as possible and as effective
[1:55:40] as possible for our teachers so that they can help
[1:55:43] our students to have success. And feedback. Um, feedback is
[1:55:47] huge. Uh, it's right up there with clarity in terms
[1:55:49] of student success. So our students need, um, regular feedback
[1:55:53] on how they're doing and, you know, are they meeting
[1:55:56] the learning target? What's their progress in getting there? And
[1:55:58] then teachers need feedback. They need assessment data to see
[1:56:02] where are their students. Are they being successful? And they're
[1:56:05] also going to get feedback from the administrators on their
[1:56:07] lesson plans and on their, on their lessons, uh, and
[1:56:10] it's not in a judgmental way, but it's just in
[1:56:12] a way to make sure that everything we're doing is
[1:56:14] really tightly aligned and, uh, really engaging for our students.
[1:56:17] And then again, once again, I do have to say
[1:56:19] thank you to the board, um, for supporting us with
[1:56:22] the schedule change that we made at the middle schools
[1:56:24] last year. We did add 20 instructional hours back in
[1:56:27] middle school science and social studies. And you saw we
[1:56:30] had a pretty significant gain in our pass rate for
[1:56:32] science. And I don't think that that was a coincidence.
[1:56:34] So I do appreciate that. And so what are our
[1:56:39] next steps? Um, it's going to be a lot of
[1:56:41] the things that I kind of talked about last time
[1:56:42] with the continued focus on student engagement and student centered
[1:56:46] instruction, building thinking classrooms, feedback, those things. Those high quality
[1:56:50] instructional materials, um, teachers have them. They have been delivered
[1:56:54] to the schools. They have the online access and they're
[1:56:56] getting into those. Um, so we do really appreciate the
[1:56:59] money that the board is invested. Our MTSS process multi
[1:57:03] - tiered systems of support and systems of intervention. We
[1:57:06] know that not all students are going to get it
[1:57:09] the first time. So after we teach it the first
[1:57:11] time and we have an assessment, we look to see.
[1:57:16] Where are the students? Who's getting it? Who needs more
[1:57:18] help? How are we intervening? Uh, and really having a
[1:57:20] tight process for that, that's data driven. Continued refinement of
[1:57:24] PLCs, as I just mentioned. And then those feedback instructional
[1:57:28] cycles. And you see on their students, teachers and administrators.
[1:57:32] So it really is a team approach. We all need
[1:57:34] feedback. Um, throughout the entire process. And then just that
[1:57:38] standards aligned curriculum standards aligned instruction and standard salon assessment.
[1:57:43] Everything we do is align to those standards of learning.
[1:57:46] The SOL is not just a test. It is, it
[1:57:48] is the benchmark for what we do. It's the foundation.
[1:57:51] So everything is aligned to those standards every day, every
[1:57:54] lesson, every learning objective. Um, and then some continued investment
[1:57:58] in our employee development. I know Dr. Stam has a,
[1:58:01] has a presentation coming up in a moment where she's
[1:58:02] going to talk about some employee development, but it is
[1:58:05] a constant thing for all of us. We invest in
[1:58:07] our teachers. We invest in our administrators and we really
[1:58:10] are trying to help our people to grow and their
[1:58:13] capacity so that they can help our students to be
[1:58:15] successful. And at this time, Dr. Fries and I are
[1:58:21] happy to take any questions that you all may have.
[1:58:25] Anyone have a question. Command. Thank you for that presentation.
[1:58:31] How are teachers adapting to the requirements from the state
[1:58:37] that they just pushed down. Are you referring to the
[1:58:41] increased cut scores? Correct. So really that's, it's not just
[1:58:45] the teachers. It's really all of us. It's kind of
[1:58:47] an all hands on deck approach. And so we are
[1:58:50] implementing these new high quality instructional materials that the state
[1:58:53] has told us are aligned to the standards. And our
[1:58:56] teachers have really dove in and tried to work with
[1:58:59] those materials. It's new. So it's a learning process for
[1:59:01] everybody. We know that first year there's going to be
[1:59:03] a bit of a learning curve, but I, I have
[1:59:05] been in some of those PLC meetings already. I've talked
[1:59:08] with some teachers and I have to say I'm very
[1:59:09] impressed with, um, just kind of the way they've jumped
[1:59:12] in and they've, and they've, um, kind of embraced. And
[1:59:16] they understand like, okay, the standard has been raised. But
[1:59:20] when we talked about it, you know, even though it
[1:59:24] sounds bad when we say, okay, the cut score is
[1:59:26] going to go up and our pass rate would have
[1:59:28] been here, right? 10 points lower, 20 points lower, 30
[1:59:31] points lower. But when you look at the pass rate
[1:59:33] that's needed, the number of questions that are needed, and
[1:59:36] we're not talking about making an A on a test.
[1:59:38] We're talking about getting a C or a D, or
[1:59:40] in some cases, not even quite a D on a
[1:59:43] test. That puts in a little bit of a different
[1:59:45] framework. And so when people started to understand that they
[1:59:48] said, okay, you know what? We, we can get kids
[1:59:50] there. So I have to say that I'm, I'm grateful
[1:59:53] for the response that I've seen from teachers so far.
[1:59:55] Um, yes, it is, it is pressure. Uh, in that
[1:59:59] sense. But I think the fact that we're tackling this
[2:00:02] head on from, from central office level, from principal level
[2:00:05] to teacher level. And we're kind of all in it
[2:00:07] together. I think that's really helped. Thank you so much.
[2:00:11] Thank you. And if I could say, uh, something. So
[2:00:14] we want to do more of the things that are
[2:00:16] working and fewer things that are not. So we will
[2:00:19] be able to tell true ICIP assessment, the benchmark, whether
[2:00:24] strategy ABCD works not at the end of the year.
[2:00:27] But in October. How is the work against similar classes
[2:00:33] and other districts? Also looking our students with disabilities and
[2:00:36] subgroups. You didn't see a lot of that tonight, but
[2:00:38] I want our public to know we disaggregated that by
[2:00:42] that. So that's the beauty of these assessments that you
[2:00:45] think you're working hard. But then when it's working, then
[2:00:48] that's going to be hope, give hope and optimism. And
[2:00:50] so we're asking our teachers, our staff, but also we
[2:00:54] haven't talked much about the parents. Their children will come
[2:00:57] home and talk a little bit more about the increased
[2:00:59] rigor. They'll come home and talk a little bit more
[2:01:01] about, you know, their classmate experience. We're asking them to
[2:01:05] trust us to lead them there, um, again, because the
[2:01:09] standards are here. And we believe we have the right
[2:01:12] leadership in place. And the right staff in place to
[2:01:15] make difference for our children and staff and staff. I
[2:01:19] think that's the message that I think parents need to
[2:01:22] hear. Is that. We're committed. To bringing them to where
[2:01:27] they need to be. Anyone else? The question? Um, I
[2:01:35] just want to make fun of if I could. Um,
[2:01:37] thanks again for this presentation. The scores are really very
[2:01:40] impressive. So, you know, kudos to the whole team and
[2:01:44] to our families. I am worried. I mean, the teachers
[2:01:47] have had to deal with so much change, whether it's
[2:01:50] division enforce change or statewide change. And it really is
[2:01:55] stressing them. And can take a toll. So I really
[2:01:58] am concerned about teacher stress levels and worry about burnout.
[2:02:04] So, I mean, I know that they can work hard.
[2:02:07] And I know they rise to the occasion, but there's
[2:02:09] a level. So I just think that we need to
[2:02:12] be aware of, you know, when we ask them to
[2:02:14] do yet one more different thing task or how we
[2:02:18] ask it and that we're listening carefully to them, um,
[2:02:24] because they, you know, they, they're there, as you know,
[2:02:28] you're watching them in the trenches doing it. So we
[2:02:30] really need to listen to our teachers. Well, and I
[2:02:34] appreciate that. And thank you for saying that. And, and
[2:02:36] I would just say, you know, I'll say publicly our
[2:02:39] teachers work super hard. And I, and I don't think
[2:02:41] any of us can go to our teachers and say,
[2:02:44] you know, please work harder. The cut scores have gone
[2:02:46] up. So now you need to do more. And so
[2:02:48] what I've shared with folks, when I've talked with them
[2:02:50] is it's really not about doing more. It is about
[2:02:52] being more focused. And it's about like Dr. Vladidoux said,
[2:02:55] maybe we're going to stop doing certain things that we
[2:02:57] had done and focus more on doing the things that
[2:03:00] we think are going to really help us. But we
[2:03:01] can't ask our teachers to do more. We are going
[2:03:04] to ask them to do some different things because things
[2:03:05] are, they have changed. But it's, it's not about doing
[2:03:09] more. It's just about being more focused. I don't. I
[2:03:17] don't. I. Have had educators reach out to me. A
[2:03:25] lot more on the elementary school level in reference to
[2:03:29] lesson plans. Um, I mean, one educator shared that she
[2:03:34] had spent not only all day Saturday, but all day
[2:03:38] Sunday and still had Monday left to go. And, but
[2:03:43] explain to me that it's not just lesson plans. She
[2:03:48] now has to do 17 lesson plans for just one
[2:03:53] day because she's elementary level. I heard her stress. I
[2:03:59] heard her frustration. It was put to
[2:04:07] me, who are these lesson plans for. But just the
[2:04:14] frustration alone coming out more out of that elementary school
[2:04:18] level. I just think we need to definitely recognize that
[2:04:25] we have educators that are going to, of course, do
[2:04:30] what they're supposed to do and put that time in.
[2:04:34] But I have had educators say, I'm looking. To get
[2:04:38] out at another job. And that stresses me, that worries
[2:04:42] me because we have good educators in these buildings. I
[2:04:47] know because I've been with them. I've watched them. Um,
[2:04:51] but we have some stressed out. Elementary school level educators.
[2:04:57] And. I don't know what the answer is, but I
[2:05:03] think it's important that you as well as, you know,
[2:05:07] Dr. Vladi was aware of the stress that's out there
[2:05:11] right now. And. They know the scores are going up
[2:05:14] or, you know, have gone up. But we got to
[2:05:17] take care of our educators. Absolutely. And you know, I
[2:05:20] think you, you asked the question of who are these
[2:05:22] four. And, you know, ultimately lesson plan is for a
[2:05:25] student because they're the ones that are receiving instruction, um,
[2:05:28] obviously they'll have more historical knowledge in the division than
[2:05:31] I do, but lesson plans are not, not a new
[2:05:34] expectation, um, four teachers. Um, I think we've really tried
[2:05:39] to focus in with our administrators on providing quality feedback
[2:05:43] on, um, a select number of, you know, criteria or
[2:05:46] things that need to be included in the lesson plan,
[2:05:49] just so that we can make sure that our students
[2:05:51] are receiving that quality instructional delivery. Um, we never want
[2:05:54] a teacher spending so much time planning that it's, you
[2:05:58] know, impacting personal life impacting their delivery, um, or, you
[2:06:01] know, missed our Zenivec mention that change piece. And I
[2:06:04] think a big part of change management is making sure
[2:06:06] that the stress doesn't trickle down to students, right? And
[2:06:11] so I think, you know, to Dr. Mickey's point earlier
[2:06:14] about that standards aligned curriculum instruction and assessment. It's really
[2:06:19] working smarter, not harder. I think as part of the
[2:06:23] MTSS process, it's deselecting things that, that aren't working. Um,
[2:06:28] but making sure that our team and the instruction department
[2:06:31] is there in PLCs is there in planning to support,
[2:06:34] um, because I certainly recognize, you know, for elementary, especially
[2:06:38] in our primary grades, you know, they're not departmentalizing. They're
[2:06:41] planning for reading math, science, social studies, whole group, and
[2:06:45] then reading and math small group on top of that.
[2:06:48] Um, so we've asked our administrators to make sure that,
[2:06:50] you know, they're reviewing some plans each week, but reviewing
[2:06:53] plans without feedback that's actionable and make sense and that
[2:06:57] doesn't translate to students success is not what it's about.
[2:07:00] Um, it's not about checking a box for Dr. Vlidou
[2:07:03] or for us or for the principal. It's really making
[2:07:05] sure, um, that instruction is aligned for our students. But
[2:07:10] we certainly, we have teacher council coming up next week.
[2:07:14] Certainly want to get teacher feedback on that, on that
[2:07:18] planning piece, um, because again, it's, it's not trying to
[2:07:20] create a burden that's trying to make sure that all
[2:07:23] of our instruction is aligned. So that our students are
[2:07:25] getting, continuing to get, um, the best instruction that they
[2:07:29] can. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you very
[2:07:38] much. Both of you. Great presentation. All right.
[2:07:48] Dr. Stam. No. Yeah. Dr. Stam. Yes. Thank you. Good
[2:07:56] evening members of the board. Madam chair, Madam Vice Chair.
[2:08:00] Dr. Vo, our community members. Um, I'm so excited to
[2:08:04] bring to you our employee development programs this evening. I
[2:08:07] have some friends that are going to help share about
[2:08:09] their experiences in our programs. And I think you're going
[2:08:12] to be in for a real treat. You know, the
[2:08:14] investment in our people is the investment in our kids.
[2:08:17] And we try really, really hard to provide as much
[2:08:20] job embedded professional developments that people can learn from each
[2:08:23] other. Our experts are in our buildings. And we want
[2:08:26] to make sure we continue to develop that talent. And
[2:08:29] some of that talent is developed by developing others. And
[2:08:32] so you'll see some of that in presentation. So our
[2:08:37] strategic goal that we follow in HR is around enhancing
[2:08:40] operation deficiency goal number three. You know, our theory of
[2:08:44] action is to attract retained compensate and grow highly qualified
[2:08:48] employees. We work really hard to grow our own. We
[2:08:51] develop our people. We build leadership from within. And that
[2:08:56] all goes to strength in our retention. Two of our
[2:09:01] leadership pathways that just bring so much joy to my
[2:09:05] life is our lead program and our aspiring leaders. Our
[2:09:09] lead program takes on, um, the impact of our current
[2:09:13] administrators or central office staff and works to develop their
[2:09:17] leadership from where they are. So this year I was
[2:09:20] very, very fortunate to work with two assistant principals in
[2:09:23] our division. Um, each of them had some different ways
[2:09:27] of meeting the lead expectations because it was tailored to
[2:09:31] them. We took a different approach this year because we
[2:09:33] had two, um, and our impact was to build strong
[2:09:36] fusion ready leaders who guide schools effectively. So I'm going
[2:09:39] to bring up a manda gum and Nicole Lance, two
[2:09:42] of our lead participants.
[2:09:53] Good evening. I'm Nicole Lance, assistant principal at Achilles. Um,
[2:09:57] I was very grateful for the opportunity to, um, participate
[2:10:02] in the lead program. So I'm going to share a
[2:10:03] little bit about my experience and how that went for
[2:10:06] me. Um, so one of the most valuable parts that
[2:10:10] I found of the experience was having the opportunity to
[2:10:12] step out side of my own building, um, I was
[2:10:15] able to observe administration and staff at Achilles elementary as
[2:10:20] well as secondary at page. Um, so that allowed me
[2:10:23] to see different leadership styles, different routines in the buildings,
[2:10:27] different systems, as well as how those leaders approach supporting
[2:10:31] students and staff within their building. Um, what did stand
[2:10:35] out to me was that leadership is not all the
[2:10:37] same. Right. So it looks very different in each building.
[2:10:40] Every building has its own culture, its own needs, its
[2:10:43] own challenges. Um, and each administrator in our buildings, they
[2:10:47] all have their own strengths with working with those and
[2:10:49] their own approaches. Being able to observe those differences gave
[2:10:53] me an opportunity to reflect on my own leadership practices
[2:10:56] and consider strategies that I'm able to bring back to
[2:10:59] my own, to my own school. As you've heard tonight,
[2:11:06] um, our MTSS process, um, so what I specifically looked
[2:11:11] at was our advanced tiers of MTSS, particularly how and
[2:11:16] what we were doing to respond to students that are
[2:11:19] struggling with academics or behaviorally. Um, so through that process,
[2:11:24] Ideally, what we would do was is identify students that
[2:11:27] have a need. We would provide targeted interventions for those
[2:11:30] individual kids, monitor their progress, use that data to determine
[2:11:35] what are we going to do next? What are our
[2:11:37] next steps going to be? And as you can imagine,
[2:11:39] that looks different for every single student. Um, a student
[2:11:42] may respond successfully to intervention. And then they no longer
[2:11:45] need that support. And that's what we want, right? We
[2:11:48] want them all to succeed. Another student, however, they may
[2:11:52] require intervention. We may have to adjust that intervention multiple
[2:11:55] times. We may have to increase the frequency and intensity
[2:11:58] of which they receive that intervention. And then in some
[2:12:01] cases, we do reach the point as a MTSS committee
[2:12:06] where we feel as though there may be something a
[2:12:08] little more going on with the student that we need
[2:12:10] support with. And we do refer them for special education
[2:12:13] and potentially evaluations throughout that process. Um, looking at this,
[2:12:18] the research really encouraged me to think more deeply about
[2:12:20] how we are making those decisions. As you've heard tonight,
[2:12:24] being very targeted with that, treating this as truly as
[2:12:28] an intervention process. And like I said, with the goal
[2:12:30] being that kids are moving out of that process and
[2:12:34] getting what they need. As leaders in our building, it
[2:12:38] is my responsibility to continue to evaluate those systems. Ask
[2:12:43] whether or not those outcomes are working. Is that what
[2:12:46] we intended? Was that our plan? Um, when a student,
[2:12:50] a staffed, we want to make sure that we are
[2:12:52] clearly identifying the concern. Um, monitoring what the intervention was,
[2:12:58] how it was implemented and what the data tells us
[2:13:00] throughout our progress monitoring so that we're ensuring the next
[2:13:04] step for the student is what they need. My participation
[2:13:09] and lead gave me the opportunity to look beyond the
[2:13:11] daily responsibilities of my own building and to think more
[2:13:14] broadly about leadership systems and decision making. I do appreciate
[2:13:18] the administrators that open their schools and allowed me to
[2:13:21] learn alongside them. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to
[2:13:24] have participated in the lead program. I look forward to
[2:13:27] applying what I learned through that to continuing to grow
[2:13:31] as a leader and support the success of our student
[2:13:33] staff and all of our schools here in Gloucester for
[2:13:37] a little bit of data purposes, because I know that's
[2:13:40] what we're all kind of driven by. Um, so this
[2:13:42] year at Petsworth staffing students to the level of which
[2:13:46] I just went through, um, was a new process for
[2:13:49] PETS worth. Um, so we did form a committee. And
[2:13:52] so that was all new roles to them. So I
[2:13:55] implemented that. Um, we staffed 11 students throughout last school
[2:14:00] year, um, two of those students. We did continue over
[2:14:04] to this school year and we'll be meeting on next
[2:14:06] month to kind of pick up where we left off
[2:14:08] and see what baseline data we have from this year.
[2:14:10] And if those interventions are still needed and what that
[2:14:13] might look like, um, and we had three students who
[2:14:17] the intervention worked degrade and they were dismissed and we
[2:14:20] reconvened last year and everyone was comfortable that the kiddo
[2:14:23] was on the right track. Um, we did end up
[2:14:26] referring six of those children to special education. Um, in
[2:14:29] which case 67 percent of those six were eligible and
[2:14:33] found to have a specific learning disability, which all of
[2:14:37] that information throughout that testing then gets that student a
[2:14:41] case manager in an individualized education plan, which will provide
[2:14:44] more targeted intervention specific to their needs. Does anybody have
[2:14:49] any questions? Thank you.
[2:15:00] Hi, my name's Amanda Gumm. I'm one of the assistant
[2:15:02] principals over at page middle school. During my time in
[2:15:06] the lead program, I was actually able to shadow Mr.
[2:15:08] Bray Boy at the high school. Um, I found this
[2:15:11] opportunity beneficial as it made me realize kind of the
[2:15:14] weight of a principal's decisions. As an AP, our decisions
[2:15:18] do have considerable impact, but typically to a smaller population,
[2:15:21] which in my case is approximately half of page middle
[2:15:24] school. But as the principal, Mr. Brave Boy's decisions affect
[2:15:28] every single person in that building and their families. And
[2:15:31] that's quite the heavy burden to bear. Um, my personal
[2:15:35] project for the lead program was a 100 plus page
[2:15:39] assistant principal's handbook. Um, being an AP is a difficult
[2:15:42] job, but that first year can feel downright insurmountable. Uh,
[2:15:48] you get the degree that says that you're qualified and
[2:15:50] you've gotten your internship hours, but it's a very different
[2:15:53] thing when you're the decision maker. One of the goals
[2:15:57] of the AP handbook was to bridge kind of the
[2:15:59] theory of that program with application in the school. It
[2:16:04] started from a list of obstacles that APs from last
[2:16:07] year who were new faced and in the questions that
[2:16:11] they had and the help that they needed. Um, using
[2:16:14] that list as the starting point, the handbook goes through
[2:16:17] the various programs and responsibilities in AP deals with on
[2:16:21] a daily basis. A personal benefit of my project is
[2:16:24] that it forced me to stop and notice all of
[2:16:27] the things that I did on a daily basis that
[2:16:30] just kind of flew by without attention. It gave me
[2:16:35] the macro view of my place both within the school
[2:16:40] and then within the school district. Um, it also gave
[2:16:42] me the confidence to offer my assistance to this year's
[2:16:46] new APs because I want to make their first year
[2:16:49] feel just hard, not insurmountable. Um, so that was a
[2:16:55] great benefit to me to kind of use my knowledge
[2:16:58] and provide it to these people in a quick reference
[2:17:00] guide. If some of you have seen it, it is
[2:17:03] quite a hefty document. Um, any questions from anybody on
[2:17:07] the staff. School board. Thank you. Both of them took
[2:17:17] on projects that were meaningful to them. And I will
[2:17:20] say, um, they each had different outlooks because of them.
[2:17:24] But Amanda's AP handbook has been used for multiple people
[2:17:28] in our division, not just APs, because it's that robust.
[2:17:33] And we are really appreciative of the work that she
[2:17:34] put into that. Um, the next program that we have
[2:17:37] is aspiring leaders program. Have you heard about this? But
[2:17:40] one of the things that I think has been really
[2:17:43] exciting, the energy that comes from the people in that
[2:17:46] room. And then that spreads out into our schools is
[2:17:49] actually amazing. Um, it's one of the things I love
[2:17:52] going to these sessions each month because they bring so
[2:17:56] much energy and so many great ideas. And what we're
[2:17:58] doing in this is we're preparing teachers and staff for
[2:18:01] administrator roles, not necessarily principle. It can be curriculum, um,
[2:18:05] but they go through mentoring workshops and shadowing to make
[2:18:09] sure that we're creating that pipeline that supports teacher leaders.
[2:18:13] Um, some may want to remain a teacher leader, but
[2:18:15] they get some really good experience from each other as
[2:18:20] well as our sessions together. So I have four of
[2:18:23] our participants out of the 13 that we had this
[2:18:25] year that want to share just a little bit.
[2:18:39] Um, my name is Jessica Chavez. I am a math
[2:18:42] teacher at Peasley Middle School. You may remember me when
[2:18:46] I came here to teach you how to use algebra
[2:18:49] tiles maybe. So, um, but I had the privilege to
[2:18:54] be accepted into the aspiring leaders program. Um, it wasn't
[2:18:59] really sure what to expect from the program, but I
[2:19:01] was definitely interested in it because I want to continue
[2:19:04] to grow as a person. So I'm always continuing to
[2:19:08] learn about myself. Just gather more information. I'm an information
[2:19:12] seeker. So the aspiring leaders program gave me the opportunity
[2:19:18] to learn more about myself as a leader. It helped
[2:19:20] me identify what my leadership strengths are. Um, the areas
[2:19:25] that I can grow in. And what my leadership style
[2:19:30] is, I guess I never really understood the dynamics before
[2:19:33] that go into a school. And how those different parts
[2:19:37] of leadership styles and personalities really can make a school
[2:19:41] great. And how important that is. Um, I also had
[2:19:46] a lot of tools that we used in each session
[2:19:51] that I brought back to my school. So I led
[2:19:54] the School mentoring program at our school. I'm the School
[2:19:57] Level Mentor. This year and last year. And I was
[2:20:00] able to take some of the tools and bring it
[2:20:02] back to help our new teachers. Um, feel more comfortable,
[2:20:06] help the mentors. Help their mentees. So I used that
[2:20:11] tool. Um, but I feel like I discovered more about
[2:20:15] myself through these sessions than I have in a long
[2:20:17] time. I feel like I know myself pretty well. But
[2:20:21] we went through learning about different leadership styles, um, the
[2:20:26] things that are important to us. And I guess I
[2:20:28] just never understood that about myself before now. Um, so
[2:20:33] that was really important to me. I also enjoyed having
[2:20:36] people from the district come and share their struggles in
[2:20:39] leadership and their pathways. Uh, their experience helped and their
[2:20:44] advice. Moving forward. It's sort of eye - opening. Um,
[2:20:48] I walked into each session. Very excited. To learn something
[2:20:53] new. And every time it was over, I wanted there
[2:20:56] to be another one. And I'm really hoping that there's
[2:20:58] a 2. 0 coming. But I really did enjoy it.
[2:21:03] I felt like every time I left, I felt so
[2:21:07] motivated to just continue my leadership pathway. And just to
[2:21:12] go bring this great information back to the school and
[2:21:15] back to my colleagues and to my students. Um, so
[2:21:18] one of the biggest impacts that the program had on
[2:21:21] me was addressing my fears about moving to administration. I.
[2:21:27] See some of what the leadership deals with in our
[2:21:30] school. And I see them running around and handling business
[2:21:33] and taking care of things and keeping it all together.
[2:21:37] And that's a little overwhelming when you really pay attention
[2:21:39] to the details. Um, and I was a little worried
[2:21:42] about moving into a leadership role in how that would
[2:21:45] change how I impact the students because I really, um,
[2:21:49] that's why I do this because I really love it.
[2:21:52] Um, but through the program, I realized that leadership gives
[2:21:55] you another way to support the students, the teachers, the
[2:21:58] entire school and the community. Um, and I also discovered,
[2:22:03] I guess what makes me truly happy is serving. I
[2:22:07] never really could put a word to it until I
[2:22:09] went through this program. So I enjoy serving not just
[2:22:13] my school, not just my students, not just the parents,
[2:22:15] but the community as a whole. I really enjoyed the
[2:22:20] value of being challenged. That was great. So we had
[2:22:24] mock interviews. Um, we had our resume critiqued just right
[2:22:28] out there in the open. It was fantastic. Uh, sometimes
[2:22:31] I have a really difficult time seeing these qualities in
[2:22:34] myself that other people see. And it's not because I
[2:22:36] think less of myself. I just kind of, it's my
[2:22:40] normal. And I just do it. Um, so it's really
[2:22:43] difficult for me to point out what makes me maybe
[2:22:45] stand above someone else in a leadership perspective. But this
[2:22:48] program really, um, helped with that because I got to
[2:22:52] work alongside other educators and leaders that were able to
[2:22:55] help me point out that leadership experience. And it helped
[2:23:00] me also see sort of how to take something and
[2:23:03] turn it into leadership experience because that's what it is.
[2:23:06] Um, so with all of this, I finally had the
[2:23:11] realization and the confidence that, um, I don't think I
[2:23:16] would have gained anywhere else. I don't think I would
[2:23:18] have found this reading a book. I don't think I
[2:23:19] would have found this doing research. I don't think I
[2:23:21] would have found this in a PD. But it helped
[2:23:25] me feel much more confident about where I want to
[2:23:27] go in the future. So. That's cool. Thank you. That
[2:23:35] was quite a lot. And I have to say thank
[2:23:37] you. Wow. We're blessed to have you. Now that you've
[2:23:45] gone through that training, you can't go nowhere. I love
[2:23:53] the excitement. Hello. Hi. I'm Sadie monasteri, formerly Malaygo in
[2:23:59] the process of changing my name. I got married in
[2:24:01] August. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Um, I am our
[2:24:05] division's new coordinator of instructional coaching. So thank you for
[2:24:09] having me. Um, I feel that Gloucester has invested in
[2:24:13] me in the last two years. I was a part
[2:24:14] of the aspiring leaders program. And through that, I got
[2:24:17] to learn more of the Gloucester way. How do we
[2:24:20] do things in our division to do what's best for
[2:24:22] our kids, not at the expense of our teachers supporting
[2:24:25] our teachers through the process. Um, so I'm very excited
[2:24:29] in my new role through this division to now invest
[2:24:31] in the teachers in ways that I've been invested in
[2:24:34] through this division. Can I leave? I'm not. Good
[2:24:43] evening. I am Heather Jonas. I recently in May graduated
[2:24:47] with my doctorate and special education. And I apparently can't
[2:24:51] stay away from school because I just started again in
[2:24:54] school in this August to get my leadership endorsement to
[2:24:57] move on to the next step. Um, the aspiring leaders
[2:25:01] was very impactful because you didn't just get to learn
[2:25:04] from Dr. Stan, but you got to learn from each
[2:25:05] other. And I really appreciated how she would hear us
[2:25:08] and what we wanted to learn and that she would
[2:25:10] kind of pivot. Um, to the next meeting. And then
[2:25:13] she would bring that to the meeting. And it was
[2:25:15] very, very powerful. And I'm hoping that we do it
[2:25:17] again. So and then I can join again. Um, but
[2:25:20] my next goal is to move back into leadership once
[2:25:23] my little lady who was born very early. It was
[2:25:26] a little older. But, um, yeah, it was very amazing.
[2:25:30] Um, this school year I'll be admin intern at Achilles
[2:25:33] and hoping to shadow at some of the secondary levels
[2:25:36] as well. Um, and it's just, you learn a lot
[2:25:39] and you learn from your colleagues and like she's intended.
[2:25:41] We all got to look at each other's resumes and
[2:25:44] we got to do mock interviews, which really put she
[2:25:46] outside your comfort zone. Um, but it was fun. And
[2:25:49] it was, it was very amazing. So I appreciate the
[2:25:52] program being offered. All right. Last but not least, I'm
[2:26:00] just going to ditto what they said because they did
[2:26:02] a wonderful job. My name is Tiffany Harding. I am
[2:26:04] a third grade teacher at Petsworth Elementary. This is my
[2:26:07] third year at Gloucester. I've been teaching for 13. When
[2:26:11] I found out about this program, cause it's, this is
[2:26:13] kind of where I'm at in my head. I'm trying
[2:26:15] to figure out what do I want to do? I
[2:26:16] feel like I can be more. I feel like I
[2:26:18] could do more. Um, teaching for 12 years at the
[2:26:21] time. I was like, I need, I need more. So
[2:26:23] when Dr. Stam offered this actually one of my coworkers
[2:26:26] was like, Hey, you should apply for this. I'm like,
[2:26:28] really you think so? So I did and I'm very
[2:26:32] appreciative of being a part of it. Um, like they
[2:26:34] said, I learned a lot about myself. Um, uh, about
[2:26:37] my leadership style. And I love the, um, conversations. Like
[2:26:41] they were saying, like talking, getting ideas. I love that.
[2:26:44] That's like my jam. If we could just all sit
[2:26:46] and just what ideas you have and what works for
[2:26:49] you, what doesn't work for you. I just love that.
[2:26:51] So, um, I'm just appreciative of it. And my next
[2:26:54] steps, I'm actually, um, looking into applying for my leadership
[2:26:59] endorsement. So I already have a master's in elementary education.
[2:27:02] So now I'm looking, um, at different universities to start
[2:27:06] that process. So thank you so much for the opportunity.
[2:27:09] Appreciate it. I hate that talent. That was a breath
[2:27:18] of fresh air that I know I needed on. Yeah.
[2:27:23] The talent is in our, in our buildings. I mean,
[2:27:25] amazing. And this, like I said, this is, these are
[2:27:28] four 13 people that we got to be together every
[2:27:31] month and just feel that from each other. So you
[2:27:34] all go because it's late. And you're going to get
[2:27:37] up for school. So go. Thank you. Um, and I'll
[2:27:40] continue and I'll be quick, I promise. Thank you. Thank
[2:27:42] you to all of you. Yeah. We appreciate very talented
[2:27:45] people. They don't know this. I did tell them, but
[2:27:49] I don't think they realize that they taught me just
[2:27:52] as much as I taught them. I mean, I learned
[2:27:53] so much for them. And then being able to hear
[2:27:56] their stories and what they were looking for kind of
[2:28:00] gave me the insight on what are division needs. So
[2:28:02] it was, it was very impactful all the way around.
[2:28:05] Well, if you got this much of her energy and
[2:28:11] excitement for education, they have it. There we go. We
[2:28:17] need to patent and bottle it and sell it on
[2:28:20] the market. Mr. Drew, I don't know that everybody wants
[2:28:23] all that. Might be much for some, but, but they're
[2:28:28] very talented people and we're very blessed to have them
[2:28:30] in our schools. And if this is what I always
[2:28:33] said, if I couldn't go into a classroom and see
[2:28:35] where the magic was happened where it really is my
[2:28:38] joyous place, it would be going to these meetings with
[2:28:40] these talented people because they're just so inspirational. So thank
[2:28:44] you. All right. So going on, we have teacher development
[2:28:48] pathways. Um, our teacher mentor program professional learning communities. Teacher
[2:28:54] mentor program not only mentors are new teachers, but the
[2:28:57] teachers who are mentoring also play of major role and
[2:29:00] the impact that they have in building capacity. Um, and
[2:29:02] then professional learning communities is similar to what Ms. Harding
[2:29:05] was just sharing is that's where teachers look at it
[2:29:07] and say, Hey, what are you doing? How are you
[2:29:09] getting those students? What more could I do? What are
[2:29:12] some strategies that you have? So that's where all these
[2:29:14] teachers come together and that teacher efficacy comes into place
[2:29:16] and they're learning from each other and working with each
[2:29:19] other at the analyze the data. And then our career
[2:29:23] pathways that we have, I'm so stoked about this because
[2:29:27] the date is amazing. I have data. So teacher apprentice
[2:29:31] program is where we take paraprofessionals and we help them
[2:29:34] earn their licensure while gaining classroom experience. And then the
[2:29:38] substitute to pair a program where substitutes have the opportunity
[2:29:41] to become pares. Um, essentially that's growing our own in
[2:29:45] both capacities. So if you see here, we had a
[2:29:49] total of nine employees advanced through those defined career paths.
[2:29:53] So substituted teacher, we had one employee substitute to teacher
[2:29:56] apprentice to, paired a teacher one teacher apprentice to teacher,
[2:30:01] two and then pair to teach our apprentice. Um, so
[2:30:04] nine total employees are serving our kids in a capacity
[2:30:07] that we're supporting them in. And then additionally we had
[2:30:11] 12 teacher internal promotions where teachers, for example, Nate Peterson,
[2:30:16] he's our new AP at Beasley Middle School. He was
[2:30:19] in our aspiring leaders program. Um, super talented young man.
[2:30:24] And then we also have, um, our teachers became specialist,
[2:30:28] teachers became coordinators. Um, so we're really excited to see
[2:30:32] growing our own within and having that opportunity to support
[2:30:35] them. So total of 21 promotions happened for this school
[2:30:39] year, 26, 27. We had a total of 12 promotions.
[2:30:46] And that's where substitutes go into a role that is
[2:30:51] there. So for example, we had a substitute custodian become
[2:30:54] a custodian. We had a assistant foreman become a foreman.
[2:30:58] And so this opportunities of growing our non - licensed,
[2:31:01] um, internally is also something we're very focused on. We
[2:31:05] had people move in transportation to, um, advance their career.
[2:31:09] So those focuses are our goal, um, when working with
[2:31:14] our. And the other thing that we have, that we
[2:31:17] monitors the transfer process. That's also something that helps give
[2:31:21] us information on what people are looking to do too.
[2:31:23] And so we really encourage our employees to make sure
[2:31:26] they take advantage of that when that comes out in
[2:31:28] February. Another exciting thing that we had this summer was
[2:31:32] our student career readiness pathway. Our workforce development coordinator, which
[2:31:37] is Mr. Eugene Scheck. He worked with our HR department
[2:31:41] to support our students this summer in this program. It's
[2:31:44] to help our students interested in career and technical fields
[2:31:47] get a job placement through mentorship with GCPS staff or
[2:31:51] other outside community organizations. And so that we can grow
[2:31:54] our future workforce. Um, here you'll see we had 12
[2:31:58] students participating. They got to experience over 32 career trade
[2:32:04] experiences. And in fact, one of the apprentices is now
[2:32:07] going to be placed at Millers for the second semester
[2:32:11] as a apprentice intern. So she's, I mean, the, the
[2:32:14] impact this has had on this person's, this student's life
[2:32:16] is pretty impactful. And then you can see the other
[2:32:19] opportunities we had outside of the eight students and the
[2:32:22] skills boot camp, which was June 29th through July 9th.
[2:32:25] We had, um, our GCPS CTE summer internships where we
[2:32:30] had four of them where one of them worked with
[2:32:33] our facilities in plumbing and then three of them work
[2:32:36] with technology. And if you ever saw Noah Hendricks running
[2:32:40] around, he had one of them. I'm going to tell
[2:32:42] you the things that student learned from him, I can't
[2:32:45] even begin to start because he was taking her everywhere
[2:32:48] and showing her everything. Um, so we're very fortunate. Those
[2:32:51] students that were in the technology interns, they were actually
[2:32:54] cybersecurity students. So they were already in the CTE program
[2:32:57] with that. Um, but it's really exciting to see that
[2:33:00] our students have opportunities within our school division that we
[2:33:02] can offer them that they get to grow and have
[2:33:04] that hands on workforce development. And then looking ahead, we're
[2:33:09] going to continue to expand our career paths, especially for
[2:33:13] both license and non - licensed, but really looking at
[2:33:15] how can we continue to give our non - licensed
[2:33:18] staff, professional development and growth opportunities. We did a customer
[2:33:22] service professional development with all of our clerical and cafeteria
[2:33:28] managers in August. It was based on Chick - fil
[2:33:33] - a way. So we had, um, that experience for
[2:33:35] them. And that was new this year. We were excited
[2:33:37] to offer. We're going to continue to invest in our
[2:33:40] employee development programs. I think Dr. Freeze is going to
[2:33:43] sign up for our sparring leaders 2. 0. Maybe we
[2:33:47] can get something ramped up for that. Um, we're going
[2:33:50] to continue to expand teacher leadership, enhance retention through recognition
[2:33:54] and professional growth opportunities. Um, one of the things we're
[2:33:57] working on right now, we're going to bring to the
[2:33:59] board in October. It is an opportunity to provide some
[2:34:03] of our leader, teacher leaders who have already completed their
[2:34:07] endorsement in supervision administration, K12, but they haven't had the
[2:34:11] experiences as a teacher to lead yet. And so we're
[2:34:15] looking for ways to support them as a teacher leader
[2:34:18] in those administrative experiences. And so that's something that's in
[2:34:22] the works. Um, and then we're going to continue to
[2:34:24] make GCPS, the employer of choice. I mean, why wouldn't
[2:34:27] you want to be here? And grow your own and
[2:34:30] brand GCPS is that place that you want to be.
[2:34:33] All right. I sped up for us. Questions, comments, feedback.
[2:34:39] Do you know of any other districts that are doing
[2:34:41] this. I'm sure there are. I haven't researched. But I'm
[2:34:48] sure there are. I don't think they got the energy
[2:34:50] you do. Well, or any of those guys. That's because
[2:34:55] we love it here. That's why. And we have amazing.
[2:34:59] I mean, we have the most amazing people. We will,
[2:35:02] and I can say that I've been to multiple divisions
[2:35:06] and our teachers and staff are top notch. They really
[2:35:09] are. Very, very fortunate. Anyone else? Thank you, Dr. Stan.
[2:35:16] You're welcome. Appreciate it.
[2:35:27] Okay. Special education. Dr. Tingley.
[2:35:41] Good evening. I know it's been a long night. So,
[2:35:43] um, good evening members of the board, Dr. V families
[2:35:48] and community members. Mr. Pittman, thanks for staying as well.
[2:35:51] Um, I was asked tonight to do a presentation about
[2:35:54] kind of our special ed programs that we have. Our
[2:35:57] students, special education students, um, so I put something together
[2:36:00] for y'all. Oh. Okay.
[2:36:10] Yes. I'm good. Okay. Um, to get a snapshot, sometimes
[2:36:15] this is a little bit of a moving target. So
[2:36:17] what I did is I pulled our December 1st, 2025
[2:36:21] child count. This is something we do on an annual
[2:36:23] basis. We'll be doing it again on December 1st, 2026.
[2:36:27] Um, so I could give you just an idea of
[2:36:29] kind of, who are our students with disabilities and where
[2:36:32] are they? So out of our total child count of
[2:36:35] 778 students, 696 of them are in a public school
[2:36:40] program. So they're at one of our eight schools, um,
[2:36:44] which works out to be about 89 percent. 30 of
[2:36:47] our students attend a private day program. Um, that's a
[2:36:50] more restrictive placement. Um, and that is, um, considered a
[2:36:54] more restrictive placement because it's a private school basically that
[2:36:58] we're applying for all of the students within that program
[2:37:01] have disabilities. So they're in a situation where they're only
[2:37:06] around other students with disabilities. They're not around any other
[2:37:09] non - disabled peers. So that's a much more restrictive
[2:37:12] placement. Um, that's about four percent of our students. Then
[2:37:17] we have about 33 students in a regional program that
[2:37:22] includes both new horizons and our middle peninsula regional program.
[2:37:26] Um, in the past, we've also had students in the
[2:37:29] southeastern cooperative education program and CSEP. That is typically for
[2:37:34] students who are more medically fragile. And so we occasionally
[2:37:37] have students there. We don't currently. That's includes 33 students,
[2:37:42] which again is about four percent of our population. And
[2:37:45] then the categorized this last group together that really is
[2:37:49] split out. But because it's so few students, um, put
[2:37:52] them in one category. So non - public school, this
[2:37:55] could be a parental placement in a private school. Um,
[2:37:58] students who are homebound or students who are virtual. We
[2:38:01] had 19 students in that situation, which works out to
[2:38:03] be about two percent of our students. Okay. So, um,
[2:38:10] then to give you a little bit more specific information,
[2:38:13] um, we looked at specific disability categories. I ranked ordered
[2:38:17] them by, um, lease common. So about a third of
[2:38:23] our students, if you're looking there, um, have a specific
[2:38:26] learning disability at 29 percent Again, I put approximate numbers
[2:38:30] of students, um, because again, at any one moment in
[2:38:35] time, you know, today or tomorrow we could have students
[2:38:37] qualifying or students coming out or students referred. So, you
[2:38:42] know, it's a rough estimate that I figured there. Um,
[2:38:44] these will be their primary categories. So some students have
[2:38:48] multiple categories, but this is just a list of what
[2:38:51] their primary category is. Um, the next two that are
[2:38:53] most common are students with other health impairments. That's typically
[2:38:57] involving something like an attention deficit disorder, something along those
[2:39:01] lines. Um, and then the next area of, that's most
[2:39:06] common is our students with speech language impairments. That these
[2:39:09] can be articulation impairments, um, or stuttering or language -
[2:39:14] based disorders, where they're having issues with either receptive or
[2:39:17] expressive language. Then, um, our next most common category is
[2:39:21] autism. Um, that's at 16 percent. That's definitely we've seen
[2:39:25] an increase in that over the past several years since
[2:39:27] I've been in this position. Um, so looking at approximately
[2:39:31] 124 students. Then our next most common category is a
[2:39:35] developmental delay. These are for students. Um, that our youngest
[2:39:39] students, um, this is the only category that has an
[2:39:43] age kind of stipulation. So, um, by the age of
[2:39:46] seven, we need to either find another category for students
[2:39:49] or if they've made the gains that they need to,
[2:39:51] then they may not qualify anymore. This is looking at
[2:39:54] kids in a variety of areas and looking at they're
[2:39:58] just not making the gains as their typical peers. And
[2:40:02] we may not know exactly what's going on because it's
[2:40:05] younger kids. So we're trying to rule out if it's
[2:40:07] just exposure or really a delay in some areas. Um,
[2:40:11] and so those are the students that were typically serving
[2:40:13] in our preschool programs or kindergarten moving into first grade.
[2:40:18] That's, that's our common area there. Then, um, our next,
[2:40:22] um, you may have heard this in the past as
[2:40:26] an emotional disturbance, um, the language has been changed or
[2:40:29] an emotional disability. I would say that category has also
[2:40:32] been on on the rise in the past few years,
[2:40:35] um, especially since COVID, we're seeing more kids with some
[2:40:39] social emotional issues or just mental health concerns there. Um,
[2:40:45] so approximate number of students would be about 39 students.
[2:40:48] And then we have intellectual disability at four percent for
[2:40:52] an intellectual disability. You need to have both a cognitive
[2:40:56] deficit that's pretty significant as well as adaptive skills that
[2:41:01] are well below average. Um, and so that's kind of
[2:41:04] where we are right now. And then the other categories
[2:41:08] would be considered our low incidence categories. So students with
[2:41:11] hearing impairments, visual impairments, orthopedic impairments, deaf blindness, um, students
[2:41:17] with multiple disabilities or a traumatic brain injury. And all
[2:41:21] of those together taken together, um, are lower than two
[2:41:25] percent. So approximately around 16 students. In order to provide
[2:41:33] you some additional information, um, I wanted to share that
[2:41:42] special education. So, um, and again, that's something else that
[2:41:45] I have seen on the rise since COVID in the
[2:41:48] past five years. So students will have, for example, a
[2:41:51] specific learning disability and in other health impairment or autism
[2:41:56] and speech language impairment, something along those lines. And then
[2:41:59] additional three percent of our students with disabilities have three
[2:42:02] different categories of special education. Um, the reason this is
[2:42:06] important is because for every category of service, you need
[2:42:10] to have goals that address those areas of deficit as
[2:42:14] well as services. So, um, if you think about having
[2:42:18] one student with a disability, um, that has one category
[2:42:21] and that compared to a student that has might have
[2:42:23] multiple categories. Your IEP and service minutes and accommodations and
[2:42:30] needs are going to be more significant. And I would
[2:42:32] say over time, that's another area that we've seen. So
[2:42:35] our special ed numbers have remained fairly constant, but I
[2:42:38] would say the intensity of the needs and the severity
[2:42:41] of our needs have increased over time. I tried to
[2:42:48] pull out as well, um, and this I pulled from
[2:42:51] our indicator data, um, so the numbers, if you're a
[2:42:55] numbers person and you're trying to align everything up, it's
[2:42:59] slightly different data set because we do our indicators in
[2:43:03] the summer. So middle of August. So I pulled out
[2:43:06] our most recent data for that just to show you,
[2:43:09] and this has been pretty consistent over time. So one
[2:43:11] of the things we look at is as well as
[2:43:14] is how many students are in inclusive environment. So we
[2:43:17] have about 81 percent of our students are in a
[2:43:20] regular ed classroom around typical peers So those are students
[2:43:25] that are using an inclusion model. They might have a
[2:43:28] reading disability. So they're most of the time in a
[2:43:31] generalized classroom. They might have some pull - up services
[2:43:34] for reading services or they may be getting their services
[2:43:38] within a general education setting. So that's the vast majority
[2:43:41] of our students fall in that category. Then we have
[2:43:45] the smaller percentages of students included in regular classrooms less
[2:43:49] than 40 percent of the day. Those would be our
[2:43:51] students that are more of a self - contained setting
[2:43:55] that are still considered in public schools, but they might
[2:43:59] have, um, they need a smaller class size. They may
[2:44:02] have behavioral challenges. They may have communication challenges or adaptive
[2:44:06] skill needs that what they're learning is when we have
[2:44:10] the SOL track, we might have a VSAL track. So
[2:44:13] the essentialized standard. So students are taking a VAP at
[2:44:16] the end of the day. Um, and then the last
[2:44:18] category there, private schools. So that would be our regional
[2:44:25] programs have including those students. Our private day students are
[2:44:29] also in this category. Any students who might be in
[2:44:33] a residential setting, um, home - based or a hospital
[2:44:36] facility. Um, and so when you look at these together,
[2:44:39] those last, those bottom two categories, the 40 students in
[2:44:42] the 62 students. So you're talking about, you know, that
[2:44:45] percentage of students, even though it's small, they really need
[2:44:49] specialized programs. They have more intensive needs. That's a lot
[2:44:53] of individual problems solving. It's not, you know, not that
[2:44:56] any students in special education have a one size fits
[2:44:58] all approach. But these students need some particular planning and
[2:45:04] kind of above and beyond, uh, they're usually getting multiple
[2:45:07] related services, uh, maybe getting counseling, meeting with the school
[2:45:10] psychologists, having specialized transportation and equipment, um, augmentative communication devices,
[2:45:17] all of that kind of stuff. So there it's a
[2:45:20] smaller percentage, but the needs are more significant there. Then,
[2:45:26] I wanted to share, we have in the time that
[2:45:30] I've been here, we've really been able to expand our
[2:45:35] continuum of services. Um, so right now, um, this is
[2:45:39] what we have for elementary. So, um, we've got, um,
[2:45:44] in looking at preschool through, through fifth grade at Abingdon,
[2:45:47] we have self - contained classroom for students in K
[2:45:51] through two and then a self - contained classroom for
[2:45:53] grades three through five in terms of preschool. We have
[2:45:56] a specialized preschool classroom that is a kind of a
[2:45:59] self - contained preschool classroom as well as students who
[2:46:03] are served in our VPI classroom for preschool and get
[2:46:07] early childhood special education services. At Achilles, we just opened
[2:46:12] another self - contained classroom for students and grades K
[2:46:15] through two. And we also have the BPI early childhood
[2:46:18] special ed program for our preschool students. At Bethel, we
[2:46:22] have two self - contained classrooms for grade SK through
[2:46:25] two, as well as a self - contained, another self
[2:46:28] - contained preschool program that primarily is serving students with
[2:46:31] autism. And then another VPI early childhood special ed classroom.
[2:46:36] At Bodytot, we have, this is going to be our
[2:46:39] second year of this program. We're calling it an instructional
[2:46:42] support classroom. So these are students who need, needed more
[2:46:47] than an inclusion model, but didn't need totally a self
[2:46:51] - contained model. And their students who are going to
[2:46:53] be taking SOLs. So they need to be exposed to
[2:46:56] the curriculum in our industrial education classroom, but they can't
[2:47:00] really sustain that whole time. They need more specialized instruction
[2:47:04] than our typical students with inclusion. We also have our
[2:47:08] regional, one of our regional autism classrooms there for grades
[2:47:11] two through five. And then, um, we have also at
[2:47:15] Batatop, we have our early learners, pre - K, and
[2:47:18] these are our really, really youngst kiddos. So usually two
[2:47:21] and three year olds who have never been to school
[2:47:24] before, but they have some pretty intensive needs. Um, and
[2:47:27] then we also have a VPI early childhood special education
[2:47:30] classroom. And then finally, at Petsworth, we have our second
[2:47:34] regional autism classroom K through two and our regional multidiscibilities
[2:47:39] classroom K through five. And then we also have another
[2:47:42] VPI early childhood special education classroom there. At the secondary
[2:47:48] level, we are doing this year, um, we've done, we
[2:47:55] typically had had both at page and peace lead to
[2:47:58] self - contained classrooms for students who were on a
[2:48:01] BAP curriculum. Because of our numbers, we were able to
[2:48:05] condense that into one classroom, which is happening at Peasley
[2:48:11] along with our regional autism classroom there for grade six
[2:48:14] through eighth. And then at page, we're taking that same
[2:48:17] model that we had at botta this past year, which
[2:48:20] worked really well. And moving it up to page. So
[2:48:22] we have students in that classroom who, again, kind of
[2:48:26] need more than an inclusion model. But, um, are not
[2:48:30] really, don't need a full self - contained all the
[2:48:32] time. So it gives them some extra support and helps,
[2:48:36] we can still do a lot of work on communication,
[2:48:38] social skills and some intensive educational pieces as well. And
[2:48:43] then at the high school, we have two self -
[2:48:45] contained classrooms grades nine through 12 and post - grad.
[2:48:49] Our regional autism program and our regional multidiscibilities classroom. Anyone
[2:48:59] have a question. Thank you for that presentation. I really
[2:49:04] appreciate it. Um, I do have two questions. The instructional
[2:49:09] support class at page does that serve students from Peaceley
[2:49:12] as well? Yes. That's what I thought. Okay. So the
[2:49:14] same for the elementary level class as well. So that,
[2:49:17] yeah, that class brings in. That's really cool. Yeah. I
[2:49:19] really appreciate that. And the other thing that really caught
[2:49:22] my attention is the total number served that we serve
[2:49:26] 778. So what's our student population? Are we about 14
[2:49:31] something. 1, 400. 4700. I would say that's later my
[2:49:40] report. We have 4, 600 show up. We don't think
[2:49:42] of the high school. Okay. This is a significant number.
[2:49:45] It's, you know, you're serving a huge number. So just
[2:49:50] glad to folks to see that, you know, that it's,
[2:49:53] it's quite, it's quite broad and the needs areas as
[2:49:56] well. So thank you for all you do. Yeah. Thank
[2:49:57] you. And I think the other point, and we've talked
[2:50:00] about this quite a bit, is that our, um, as
[2:50:03] the division wide numbers have, have decreased overall, like our
[2:50:08] overall student numbers, our special ed student numbers really haven't,
[2:50:11] because I think families are less likely to pull kids
[2:50:14] out in homeschool. Then if they've got significant needs, they
[2:50:20] want to be in school. You know, they want their
[2:50:21] kids to be in school and they're getting speech services
[2:50:23] and OT and that kind of thing. So I will
[2:50:26] say, um, from our percentages have increased a little bit,
[2:50:32] not because, um, just because the overall number is going
[2:50:35] down, the denominator is going down. So it ends up
[2:50:39] being more for overall percentage wise. Anyone else have a
[2:50:44] question. I do. Um, the, I noticed the 16 percent
[2:50:51] was with the autistic class. Some years back, there was
[2:50:57] a lot of when I was on the special ed
[2:50:59] board that we were seeing massive increases in that category
[2:51:04] for students. Has it leveled out or we see in
[2:51:07] more diagnosis or less? I would say it's been probably
[2:51:12] slightly increasing, but level for the most part. What I
[2:51:15] would say though is that we definitely have more students
[2:51:20] with very intensive needs, um, with autism. So younger students
[2:51:26] and significant needs. So students that have significant behavioral challenges,
[2:51:31] um, communication challenges adaptive skill needs, um, what the student
[2:51:39] with autism looks like is can be. And again, it's
[2:51:42] a very broad range, but I would say the intensity
[2:51:45] of the needs of some of our really, really young
[2:51:47] students has been much more significant than I've seen more
[2:51:53] recently in the past few years than I'd seen 10
[2:51:56] years ago, I would say. Okay. Thank you very much
[2:51:59] for your presentation. Appreciate it. Right. Um. We're moving on
[2:52:07] to the consent agenda. I need a motion to approve
[2:52:14] the consent agent agenda. Madam chair move that we approve
[2:52:17] items a through k as presented in our board packet.
[2:52:21] Okay. We have a second. We have a motion in
[2:52:25] a second. Right. All in favor say aye. There's
[2:52:35] money. Okay. All right. Would you say miss Salmon. Yes.
[2:52:41] Ms. Gruggs. Yes. Mr. Drew. Mr. Anderson? Yes. Ms. McPherson?
[2:52:50] Yes. Ms. Parker. Yes. Can I just go back for
[2:52:54] one second? I agree, but I just had a couple
[2:52:56] of comments about the study trip. Paige. A, thank you
[2:53:02] for making it all on the same format this year.
[2:53:06] Um, but I just had a question. I was looking
[2:53:08] through it. And it. For the middle schools, it's very
[2:53:13] chorus and band heavy. And I don't see really many,
[2:53:20] many other. Studies. Especially at page. Like the port
[2:53:30] Isabel field trip's not on there. Um, from science, I
[2:53:35] mean, there's only one other. Like. Subject other than Spanish
[2:53:41] or music or band. Is there a reason why have
[2:53:44] we cut back? Is this a final final list. Thank
[2:53:50] you for that question. No, we, we have not called
[2:53:53] back, nor do we want to cut back. Um, it
[2:53:55] does not appear that the traditional trips you're referencing are
[2:53:59] included. So our team will go back and look at
[2:54:01] just for the, uh, I know it's been confusion about
[2:54:03] study trips in the past couple of years. We encourage
[2:54:06] more curricular trips, not less. So there is no decrease
[2:54:11] in that funding. So again, I'll turn it back over,
[2:54:14] um, to Dr. Miygas and Dr. Freeze to get that
[2:54:17] updated and I'll provide it in a Friday notes. Thank
[2:54:19] you. But other than that, it's great. Thank you. We
[2:54:27] still have a, did you have something else to. No,
[2:54:29] that was it. I thank you for the consistent format
[2:54:33] because last year was a little hard to look at.
[2:54:35] But no, I just glancing at it. I just noticed
[2:54:37] that. I just wanted to make sure all subjects were
[2:54:40] being included and encouraged. Okay. We had a motion second.
[2:54:48] And did we finish? Okay. All right. The regulation.
[2:55:00] Let's go ahead. So many this is the time for
[2:55:03] my, uh, opening school report. So, uh, good evening everyone
[2:55:07] again. I will now be long, but I'm excited to
[2:55:10] report that, uh, we complete a two full weeks. For
[2:55:15] some of us, you may feel like we've been a
[2:55:16] school forever. For some of us, it may only feel
[2:55:18] like you're school four two weeks. And we appreciated the
[2:55:21] four days off and it was relaxing for staff as
[2:55:24] well as for our families. So just some stats with
[2:55:27] you coming from a place of gratitude. Just thinking about
[2:55:30] our bus drivers, right? They start the day. Last year
[2:55:33] they travel 1. 114 million miles. If you might think
[2:55:39] how long that is, is going to the moon one
[2:55:41] way five times. If you want to come back is
[2:55:43] two and a half. So you're still stuck on the
[2:55:45] moon. Um, why is that important? Because every day starts
[2:55:49] with a bus ride. And it's important that we recognize
[2:55:53] this folks. We value them and we continue to engage
[2:55:55] them. Um, there are, um, MVP team. So, um, so
[2:56:02] far this year, I want to share some stats. Uh,
[2:56:05] we have already traveled 50, 785 miles in those two
[2:56:10] weeks. So that's again, if you like geography, that's two
[2:56:13] times around the earth. We broke down six times. But
[2:56:19] it was a major. We never didn't lose a transmission.
[2:56:23] It was some bulbs and there was an air on
[2:56:25] a roof catch. And so we didn't hear about that
[2:56:28] because they took care of it. And, uh, we also
[2:56:31] want to say that 259 students have specialized transportation. And
[2:56:36] that's important because we want to make sure that our
[2:56:38] students are taken care of. They gave us some scope
[2:56:41] of the growth in this district. New writers. These are
[2:56:44] folks that are brand new to riding buses, elementary 463,
[2:56:50] middle school 43 new riders, high school 22. And then
[2:56:53] a total of 528 new riders in GCPS, which is
[2:56:58] a little bit more than 10 percent of the district.
[2:57:01] But who's keeping track? Let's move on to attendance and
[2:57:04] enrollment. Are you ready for this? Our average daily attendance
[2:57:09] at the elementary school was 98 percent. Here's the challenge.
[2:57:14] Let's keep that up for the whole year. Parents, students,
[2:57:16] teachers, staff, right? We could do what we did for
[2:57:18] the first two weeks. We got this. And, um. Peacely
[2:57:24] edged page by one point in attendance. And one was
[2:57:29] in 97 and one was a 98. Well, who's counting?
[2:57:33] We're not competitive at all. And I want to share
[2:57:36] with you that, um, the enrollment at Gloucester High School.
[2:57:39] I know folks in the community still tell stories where
[2:57:42] there wasn't enough room. There's plenty of room because we
[2:57:45] have 1, 490. And at what time it was 2,
[2:57:49] 100 students. So, um, again, there's plenty of room there.
[2:57:53] And attendance there, get this 97 percent. So yes, high
[2:57:57] schoolers, middle schoolers and elementary folks. You are 97 and
[2:58:02] 98 percent. Here's the good news from a funding perspective.
[2:58:06] Um, the state funded us at 4454. I'll remember that
[2:58:10] number, you know, for a long, long time. And that
[2:58:13] must be Casper. A beautiful. All right. There we go.
[2:58:18] I think it's, let's send this. Let's close it out.
[2:58:22] So, uh, well, here's the, you must have cried at
[2:58:24] the good news. We have some good news. 44, 54.
[2:58:28] He barked at that. Right. And, um, the reason that's
[2:58:31] important because we get funded based on that number. And
[2:58:35] so far through the 10 day count, we're a 4596.
[2:58:38] So we're, uh, our beating on Roman for, um, for
[2:58:41] approximately 150 students. We're 140 students give or take. That's
[2:58:46] big 4596 40 45 96. Right. And we project to
[2:58:51] have a total of 4665 total students. And, um, that's
[2:58:57] important. So, um, I'll share with you, um, some information
[2:59:00] and advance of this. I know Mr. Hartley's going to
[2:59:02] have a presentation on School Nutrition in October. But so
[2:59:07] far, we have 1, 475 students who qualify for free
[2:59:13] and reduced lunch. I'm sorry. Repeat that, please. 1475. And
[2:59:19] then our cafeteria staff, you can learn on an empty
[2:59:23] stomach. Breakfast 5, 485 that we served and lunches. We
[2:59:28] served 10, 556. That's as of 831. And so, uh,
[2:59:35] we've done more than that. We also recognize that there
[2:59:41] are coda conduct instructors or instruction that it's important when
[2:59:46] we know. And our students know what the expectations are
[2:59:50] for student behavior. And so, uh, Gloucester High School conducted
[2:59:54] four assemblies. And at page, they conducted one assembly for
[2:59:59] great level. Plus teachers had five mini lessons on the
[3:00:03] code of conduct. So same thing for P school. They're
[3:00:06] doing exactly the same thing. Not only are they getting
[3:00:09] the assemblies, but teachers are also doing many lessons to
[3:00:13] assure that students understand the expectation for behavior. That concludes
[3:00:17] my report. Thank you. Thank you. Good news. Uh, did
[3:00:27] we, how many of the last minute students were enrolling
[3:00:32] in elementary for kindergarten? Was that a. Rush toward the
[3:00:37] end? I don't have the numbers for you, but we
[3:00:39] know in the days, uh, right before school, we have
[3:00:42] a flurry of enrollment activities, but we'll provide that to
[3:00:44] the board. Thank you. You walk. All right. Mr. Harley.
[3:00:53] Okay. Let's get to this the hard way. Um. There
[3:01:00] are only two regulations for this evening and they both
[3:01:04] relate back to a topic from last months. Um, or
[3:01:07] do some discussion on the board about including the waiver
[3:01:11] for tuition for county employees. Also, when we met, um,
[3:01:16] as a policy review committee, we looked at those two
[3:01:19] regulations that address that topic for full - time school
[3:01:22] employees wanting to make sure that language was consistent between
[3:01:25] both regulations and then also to be inclusive of county
[3:01:29] employees. So if you, upon quick review, you will see
[3:01:33] that those are only two changes for JCA - R.
[3:01:40] JECBR. So I'll pause and see if there's any questions.
[3:01:45] You should be able to see those changes highlighted in
[3:01:48] green and the scratch and red for the word board.
[3:01:54] Parents that already put their children in school before this
[3:01:58] would be approved. Are they getting notified that they do
[3:02:01] not have to pay. We can certainly follow up with
[3:02:05] them once it is approved. Okay. Do you know how
[3:02:09] many students we have? I do not have that number
[3:02:13] off the top of my head. Any other questions. Which
[3:02:18] passing is this G? J. B. R.
[3:02:36] Okay, do we need a vote on this? Alright. Really
[3:02:41] just kind of a head official since they're both regulations.
[3:02:44] Alright. Any questions or discussion? We move on. Alright, thank
[3:02:50] you. Alright, appreciate it. Public announcements, Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026,
[3:02:58] professional development day. Early dismissal, middle and high school, 1215.
[3:03:03] Elementary schools at 1. 30. Tuesday, October 13th, 2026 School
[3:03:09] Board Monthly Meeting right here at 6 p. m. So
[3:03:12] do I have a motion to adjourn? That we would
[3:03:15] gern. We have a one motion. Do we have a
[3:03:18] second? Okay, we have a motion to second. All in
[3:03:23] favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No.