Please stand by for realtime captions.
reconvene this february 13th, 2024 meeting of the goochland county school board. To the best of each member's
knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted by virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting
to which the certification resolution applies and two, only such public business matters as were identified in
the motion convening the closed meeting were considered by the
goochland county school board . Each member will respond when
called by the clerk. >> I so certify.
>> iso certified. >> iso certify. I so certify.
>> thank you. Will you please join me in a moment of silence.
thank you. Amaya, will you lead us in the pledge?
>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of
america and to the republic , for which it stands, one nation
under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> I will entertain a motion for adoptions of the proposed
agenda. >> madam chair, I have two
additions that I would like to put under new business. I would like to add one that deals with school board dues and a second
one that will deal with legal counsel. >> thank you, madam vice chair. >> I second that motion.
>> it has been moved and properly seconded to add two
items to new business. One related to school board dues and the other related to legal counsel. Is there any discussion or are you ready for the question? Hearing none, all
those in favor of the motion say I. All those opposed, say
no. Very well, the motion is adopted. I understand we have
some recognitions this evening. >> thank you, madam chair. We have a wealth of recognitions. At this time I would like to
bring to the podium, mr. Brutes -- mr. Bruce watson . He will
be celebrating the achievements of a lot of our students. Mr.
watson. >>
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with the ct appreciation month, one of our commanders who has
taken the courage to enlist in the united states marine corps and his job will be airframe mechanic. This time next year
this young man will be part of the less than 1.1% of the
population that will stand and represent our constitution and our freedom along -- around the world. I have known this young
man for about four years. Goochland is sending one of our
best and brightest to united states drink or. If it wasn't for the wonderful teachers and the support that we have with
the administration is going to elevate him where he is going
to be able to do wonderful things with the marine corps.
it is with immense pride that I want to recognize him here. Two things are happening with the enlistment and the
commissioning process. There are two ways to serve our
nation. It is one of the most noble things that any young person can possibly do today. I just wanted to say thank you
for taking on the mantle of freedom and taking the choice
to serve our nation. I know you are going to do us proud and
goochland is going to be on the map because of you. I just wanted to tell everybody that. >>
people are taking the other truck to serve our nation. This is cadet captain, aubrey strong . Megan reid is our cadet first
sergeant . And landon schroder, he is smart. He is
our executive officer. They represent our command team .
they are our top cadets. They all put in for the very prestigious and hard to get rotc scholarship. Landon and megan put in and received the marine option navy scholarship
and aubrey recently was awarded, the navy rotc
scholarship. All three of these young people will go to school for free. That is going to separate them from their peers
right away. Above and beyond that, they will be paid a tax
free living stipend every month that they are at school. Each
summer paid internships will begin this summer before they
even get to school. That separates them from their
peers, they will graduate without debt. Most college
graduates have close to $30,000 of debt. When they complete
their rotc curriculum and they earned her undergraduate
degree, they will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the marine corps. This very prestigious
and lucrative position, they are not going to be underemployed. They will be serving this nation. People
like kayden are going to look to them to get the job done. It is a big deal. If they choose to stay in the military for 20
years or 30 years, they will be paid for the rest of their lives. If they choose to get out after four years, hordes of
dissent hunters will get after them like plagues of locusts. At 17 and 18 years old, these young people have made a
decision that will put them on the trajectory of success, I
say their peers, they have no peers. They are peerless as
they are on this trajectory of success for the rest of their lives. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for what to --
they are going to do . They are going to do what others are
unwilling to do, it is remarkable. Congratulations for what you've done, thank you for what you are going to do, I
am proud to have the opportunity to know you, to lead through your stories. >> before these two fine
gentlemen take a seat, I need to say that this is the 10th
year of this program. One of the first things I was asked to
do when I came to goochland county was to start an rotc
unit . You saw three young people appear recognized for their scholarships. Each of those scholarships is worth at
least $175,000 or more. It is highly unusual for a unit to
get one scholarship a year. It is extraordinary for a unit to
get two scholarships a year. Absolutely unheard of for an rotc unit to get three scholarships per year. It is
due to the hard work and dedication of these two fine
gentlemen that not only these three cadets are receiving these scholarships but the ones who have gone before them and
received the scholarships are due to the work of these fine
gentlemen. >>
>> next, I would like to ask malachi montgomery to join me
appear . >> each year 32 school
divisions have the opportunity to nominate three students.
there are 40 slots given to 32 different school divisions. Students have to apply to that. Rising juniors and seniors can
apply to the academy and develop their workforce readiness and entrepreneurial skills. Malachi is a junior, he
has a 4.77 gpa as of when I checked this morning, I hope
that is correct >> I hope it is too.
>> he is ranked 40th in a class of 148. He is a second
lieutenant in a platoon commander. He has taken the
video and media production classes, he was a fine
representative for goochland high school last summer when he attended the regional governor school. Congratulations and thank you . >>
>> every year the students in the econ and personal-finance class take the wise test . We are privileged to do the hard
work of the three teachers to be awarded the coveted blue
star award and to earn this award, the students have to
achieve, we had to have 80% of the students passed the test.
again through their hard work and dedication, we were able to
achieve the blue star award and it's the first time in several years, I don't know how many, that we have received this
award. Thinks for them working with our students to earn this
recognition for the school and for their students. Thank you.
the blue star award, miss eyp and miss g were awarded the
gold star award. To earn this award, 92%, 93% of their students had to pass this test on the first round . Again,
congratulations to both of these teachers for achieving the gold star award given by the wise testing foundation. A
congratulations. >>
>> with that, I thank you so much.
>> thank you mr. Watson, bravo to all of our recognized
students tonight. At this time I would like to introduce dr. Jennifer wagner and miss demetrius harris who are going
to share about our eccho award recipients.
>> good evening, matter chair -- madam chair. This may be the
first meeting that all of you have attended where we have had eccho awards. Core values of excellence, creativity, honor
and optimism. We try to recognize some employees and students who have demonstrated those values based on nominees
for their colleagues. If miss hannah jones, goochland high
school senior could join me up front . So, hannah was
nominated by dr. Beth fowler. I'm going to read everything that she wrote because I feel like if I leave some sentences
out it won't tell the complete story. At one of the first base meetings of the school year, hannah had the opportunity to
hear from a board member about the adult advisory group , ace,
including the room for base representatives on the group. She took it upon herself to seek a conversation with the
board member immediately and expressed immediately being a part of this important work. Since joining ace, hannah has
exhibited courage and what can be seen too many students like an intimidating group of adults. Her optimism and desire
to help achieve excellence for all students shine through and
every comment. She has most recently contributed many creative ideas of how to involve other students in these important conversations by incentivizing their
participation at an upcoming community conversation event.
or student perspective paired with the maturity to engage
alongside adults on the ace committee have proven invaluable to the work of the school board advisory committee. We're super proud of hannah and can't wait to
see what she pushes -- accomplishes in the future. And there is your award. >> thank you so much. Thank
you. >>
>> is mr. Braggs, goochland high school senior year so,
mr. Braggs was nominated by his spanish teacher recently resigns, but nevertheless we want to tell you what mr. Reyes
lopez said about you. It is pretty special. His commitment
to academic excellence has not gone unnoticed. I want to
acknowledge the positive changes I have observed in his manners and milling this -- willingness to be a respectful
member of our school committee -- community. His overall
character development. His growth and progress have not
only impressed me, but they have also had a positive impact
on our environment. We're super proud of him and can't wait to see what he accomplishes in the future.
>>
school teacher here? So, potter is an english teacher at
the middle school. She was nominated by two colleagues,
ashby pond and christina whitfield. They write, as a
colleague, danielle has the biggest heart. Is always willing to collaborate, encourage open and honest
medication, lead plcs and join various school committees. Through her meticulous planning and delivery of instruction,
she is consistently able to meet the ever-changing needs of her students. She models our core values up -- of courage
for our students. Danielle is the epitome of optimism and we are so happy to have her here at goochland middle school.
congratulations. >>
>> mr. Sykes, is mr. Sykes here? So, mr. Sykes was
nominated by multiple teachers and administrators and a
parent. So, lauren simmons of the high school, and a parent,
all nominated mr. Sykes. I'm going to tell you about why.
mr. Sykes continuously demonstrates the qualities of an excellent creative, optimistic, passionate
educator. Always lifting up and encouraging his students. Many
staff members, parents and students have all spoken about how mr. Sykes revived the band program. When you watch the
students perform, you can tell they are excited to be a part of it. His love for music shows up in the quality of
performance his students produce when they are engaged in their band activities. I enjoy watching the students sing the schools fight song while mr. Sykes encourages high
energy for students. They ensure they master their craft.
he supports the administrative staff by holding his students
to high standards and expectations. We're super grateful to have him as a part of our team. Congratulations,
mr. Sykes. >> I saw mr. Josh roque in the
crowd mr. Roque was nominated he is an incredibly brave
honorable and optimistic in the way that he is caring and everything that he does. He has continued to offer mindfulness
with his students . They meet once a week and students bring
up what is on their minds, they have discussed topics from stress management to personal and family issues to academic
plans and more. They share with other students strengthening their empathy, listening skills, and peer to peer
relationships. Learning to mansion -- manage their own
stress. He does a lot of planning and follow-up for
this. He also incorporates these techniques into his regular classes. All of us care about our students and colleagues but josh goes many extra mile to show that and to
help everyone care about each other. Congratulations. >>
that is getting ready to,. Mr. Turner, miss jenkins, ms.
timberlake, I think that is the whole crew. This lovely team
was nominated by a host of people including mr. Hahn, ms.
hudak as well as renee farrell, the director of counseling at goochland high school we have summarized all
of the comments together because there are so many lovely things that were said. Ms. Parker and her instructional assistants have been such a positive light. On
a daily basis they maximize the potential of all of their learners in the classroom. The compassion and love for their
students is noticeable in their daily work. Our administrative team cannot be more proud of the work that they do for all
of their students. That was one set of comments. There are more. All that students -- all the students are doing amazing
in ms. Parker's crap -- class . It is not only a delight to
staff, but valuable opportunities for workplace
learning coupled with the genuine care that they exhibit
toward their students further solidify the contributions for
both the classroom and the broader school community.
congratulations. >> congratulations ms. Parker.
least, miss donna dickerson. Could you please come forward?
>>
absolutely loves the spotlight was nominated by ms. Patricia harris and miss margaret joyner . I have also attempted to
summarize these comments as well because there were so many lovely things to say about you. Miss joyner said, I am absolutely thrilled to nominate ms. Dickerson for the echo
award. She is not only an amazing preschool special education teacher, she is a superhero to the little ones in
our school. Miss dickerson is a marvel at what she does. Her dedication to each child's growth and development is
unparalleled . She doesn't just teach, she inspires and
empowers these young minds to help them succeed every step of the way. What makes her exceptional is her unwavering
commitment. Miss dickerson never settles, she is always exploring new techniques and methods tailored to each
child's unique needs. Her passion for helping kids reach their full potential is evident . In the classroom, her energy
is infectious, she creates an environment where kids feel safe, supported, and excited to learn. Miss dickerson's ability to connect on a personal level sets the stage
for remarkable progress. Her tireless efforts in genuine
care for the success of each child are truly extraordinary and deserve to be celebrated. Thank you for considering ms.
dickerson for this well-deserved recognition. It would mean the world to her and the children whose lives she touches every single day. She is constantly amazing me with
her dedication, determination, innovation, empathy, and abundant kindness and optimism. She is truly remarkable and
highly deserving of the echo award. Having a profound
positive impact on her students. Congratulations.
>>
>> thank you to dr. Wagner, miss harris for celebrating all
the excellent things happening for our student and our staff.
there someone else we want to celebrate tonight. Someone else was kind of in the background. You may not be aware of all of
the things that she does for us. This well oiled machine is
not by accident. Diane bennett is our school board clerk.
this week is school board clerk appreciation week. We want to
take this opportunity to publicly recognize her for her thoughtful, diligent, and professional partnership to make what we do look easy to you. So to you miss bennett, we
said thank you.
feels good about themselves, it's time to get down to the business of the evening . >> thank you, madam chair.
several announcements this evening. First, we are in the middle of february which as we all know is black history month. I'm very proud of the instructional activities and
events that are going on in our school as our student celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of
african-americans to the development of our country. As we learned earlier, in celebration of all of our wonderful students who are receiving accolades, february
is also career and technical education. National school counseling week was february 9th, february 5th through the
ninth, excuse me. We enjoyed celebrating all of our school counselors. School resource officer appreciation day is on
february 15th. February is a busy month. The goochland county planning county commission will meet to discuss
digital signing for the new elementary school on february
the 15th at 6:30 at the goochland administration building right here in this hall . As we just found out,
and most recently knowledge, this is also school board clerk
appreciation week. We will have textbook resource materials on
display for public viewing from february 20th through march the first. That will be at our school administration building.
conundrum day for students in grades pre-k through eighth
will be february 24th from 8:45 to 11:30 at goochland middle school. We will have a budget approval meeting on february
the 27th right here at 5:30. And a host of town halls in the month of march, district 4 will be on march the fourth at salem
baptist church. District 5 town hall will be march the seventh at 6:00 . District one town hall will be on march the 11th
at six -- 6:00 p.m.. We're going to hold a regular school board meeting here at 5:30. District 2 and 3 will have a
combined townhall at march the 18th at 6:00 right here in this building. Early announcement for graduation, we plan to
celebrate our class of 2024 on june the eighth at 7:30 at the goochland high school stadium . Madam chair, that concludes our
announcements . >> there is certainly never a dull moment, is there? At this time, we have our owners
representatives mr. Ryan to give us an update on the construction of our new goochland elementary school .
good evening. >> madam chair, board members,
as we mentioned, my name is ryan waldrop they will be
going over some of the key stakeholders updating you guys who is involved in the team and moving on to the program
timelines, some of the stuff that is happened, we will move into the construction status. Discuss some of the layout,
starting construction. Upcoming construction to actually
opening the building. For the project team, we first have to start with a project owner. The school board, you are the
project owner for the new school itself. With that, you have a construction manager construction manager for the
project to help the system with the construction management portion. With that, you also have to have an architect to design the site and the building and put out the plans
for the general contractor. To rounded out, the fourth team
member, the general contractor for construction that is actually building the new school. Moving on to the
program timeline, we consider this a program, it is not just a project. Starting off with the design phase, that is when
we are brought on for june 2021. That led all the way to
december of 2022 through the actual pre-design and design
phase of the project. Moving into the construction phase which we are currently in now, that started right around 400
days ago, january 2023. We are getting to the end. That will
be closing up of may of 2024. The substantial completion of
the building. That is all of your technology equipment. We
are all excited for and hoping for the opening this is
pertaining just to the contract. On the left, you have your time status. As you can see in bold, our completion
date is may 21st, 2024. Time completed, right now we are at
78% for the project . Moving on to the right-hand side, we are
currently at pay application number 12, that shows where we are at the finance portion of it. He usually doesn't line up
with each other. Today's present we pay for works that
are completed, we don't forecast the work
>> starting with the site itself, the entire property is around 19 acres. The elementary school is going to be located
on. 176 cars can park on the facility and you have more area
that's kind of ties into your drop off and pick up lane, it's over 2000 feet for double stacking. You won't have cars
backing up on bulldog lane. Some of you may know the gross
volume is 104,000 square feet. Your max capacity will be at
700 students, that is broken out into 650, kindergarten
through fifth grade and then pre-k is another 50 students
within that . Within the building itself, your 44 different classrooms, some of the modern features you have
and there are security and energy features.
>> will go over some of the key features, purses -- first is
the faculty parking lot located on the northwest side. Moving
on to playgrounds and fields, it's broken out into a couple different areas. The first one being the multipurpose field in
the back, that will be the green area for kids to play. Sucker, you have your playground, you have a port in
place rubber as well as a mulch area as well. Your secondary two playgrounds, you will have one playground for the middle
education and then your secondary playground will be for your area that goes directly out to their classrooms. Parking lot located up front. That is also, around
the parking lot you have your student drop off, coming up double lane making a loop and exiting through the site. A
work in progress that we are trying to get grant for, that is being considered. Your bus loop is located on the
right-hand sight. That backs up to some of your mechanical kitchen area. Moving on to site progression. We will go through
a couple of photos starting back in february 2023. This is
right where we were breaking ground for the actual
construction site . Moving in to april, only a couple of months, the site is completely cleared. That is the building
pad that we are establishing for the building. Next slide we
move on to july 2023. Now you can start to see the gymnasium
coming up. You also start to see the perimeter of the building for the foundations. On the right, it's going into
the academic area that is two-story construction with
structural steal. Moving onto the next one coming you can start to see the crane in the back, the decking for the
second floor is going on. This is right around a month or two
right before the ceremony that we had for the building. This
is taken late january . You have a couple of things
finished, asphalt, sidewalk and everything it is pretty much established for the building and its watertight. We will go
over to the drone flyover so right now we are about over
bulldog way, you have the bus loop that has its own entrance
. Visitor parking lot is coming to the center right. Right now
in the bottom section of the screen there finishing all of
the veneer . Within the playfield area, you also have a
stone track that will go around the perimeter. You start to see
the high school and the middle school top right and then over
on the left to start to get to your kitchen delivery area that
is where we are doing our port in place concrete . And then
rounding out middle of the screen lower portion, that is your main entrance. We talked about the exterior of the
building getting into the interior talking about the first floor building layout, the first for we break it into
multiple different sectors it will transfer over to owner
with owner numbers as well. Sector eight is primarily
consisting of your gymnasium, your cafeteria, and then your back of house establishments for the mechanical room,
electrical room, that's where your main receiving area is.
this is where we start to get into the two story
construction. You have your kindergarten on your southside. Hector c1, you have first grade on either side and the left you
have the music area in the center. Second floor, only
sector b and sector c, that's when you get to your second,
third, fourth and fifth grade. Some of your shoeboxes that
will make up some of your specialized programs. This is
an interior photo that was taken last week right now you
can see the skylights, this is very minimal lighting within the building. A couple of staff walk through during a power
shutdown and everything, you can see a lot of lighting that you will have in case something does happen. For finished
product and everything, you will have wall panels. That will dampen a bit of the soundproofing within the room.
you will have your scoreboard on two sides of the wall. The volleyball structure for the four. Moving in the cafeteria,
in two separate halves, you have construction progress on
the left. And then your rendering on the right, you can kind of see how construction is taking place, where the final
product is going to be for the cafeteria area, on the top left you have your overhang that is looking into the academic area.
on the right, you have part of your casework and you also have your security grill in case of emergency services. Moving on
to the performance large group area . The construction
progress is looking down from the second floor. You have your shoebox, your center pod area. It's not connecting to the exterior of the building. You have your performance area,
your gifted resource area above, that will create the area. Moving on to your library area. The left is construction
photos with your rendering on the right for the center, some of the center sections we have a tree house that actually
overhangs over the first floor from the second floor with
structural poles underneath that will have glass around two perimeters of it you can actually look down in the
library section . Upcoming construction we broke the cell
in two different sections for the building. A lot of what's happening on the interior now with 108 days remaining, is going to be a lot of finishes for the plumbing. Hallway
flooring, we actually had our flooring contractor here today doing a site walk and everything. We're working on
final paint, it's actually taking place in admin. We're
actually getting ready, we have weekly meetings with technology from goochland county public schools get ready for summer .
we're going to finalize top soil was seated and everything. Moving on to your concrete sidewalks, your asphalt drive
lanes. Your lighting and security for the interior and
exterior of the building. Also playground prep that is going to take place by another vendor. That is it for the
update, thank you . >> you have any questions for
him about the construction project? So, I ask you this
each time you present, we are currently under budget and on
schedule . Other than weather because that was the answer he gave me before, what are any risk to our timeline in the
next eight months? >> right now we are tracking
procurement. It hasn't been an issue, but scheduling
appropriately for the first day of school. >> we are very excited . >> I do have a question, so,
when will you be done? Blake okay, you can walk in?
>> right now we are going through all the pre-final
inspections for all of the traits that we have with the county and everything . Once we get the majority of the
building done, we will transfer over to final inspections. That's what we're doing pre-final inspections for the entire building. That will be based on county approval.
>> will you have time for people to give it a run through before the students actually get there? Like break things
that can be broken? >> we're working on a summer
schedule of how things are going to lay out where she can come in for the next day , also the ribbon-cutting for the
school and transitioning to an owner period. We will go through owner training with her staff on how to operate. If
anything does break, it goes to the contractor
>> let's say the plumbing just goes you don't envision
anything like that? >> that's why we have so many checks and balances. We're doing checks for each level one
and two. >> we look forward to seeing
you in two weeks. >> we are now going to share
and update on the fiscal year 2025 budget. Is >> thank you. >> again, good evening to the
citizens of goochland county, those who are in attendance as well as those who are watching and/or listening . Madam chair,
madam vice chair, members of the school board, I'm very proud tonight for presentation of public hearing for fiscal
year 2025. Tonight will be a celebration of our successes. A
couple of the challenges ahead, we will also take a
comprehensive look of our financial outlay for the fiscal
year 2025. Again, I would like to take the opportunity to thank our division and school-based leaders and budget members, I'm sorry, budget managers for their committed
work for this process. As a formality, it is called the superintendent's proposed budget. It could not happen
without a dedicated team. For them I say bravo, and thank
you. You saw a lot of this night represented through the
recipients of the echo awards and the students that we
celebrated. Creativity, courage, honor and optimism. And our kohler -- core goals. We aim to maximize each of our
students potential. We aim to maximize resources for instruction. We aim to improve the climate of our
organization. Our vision is to inspire the next generation to make a positive impact, it is supported by our mission to
maximize the potential of every learner. I want to give an
overview of what tonight is going to look like in terms of
our presentation. We're going to celebrate division successes and talk about our needs relative to engage 2026, our
strategic plan. Goal one is instruction in lifelong learning. Goal two is inclusive and engaging culture. Goal three is facilities, resources, and technology. We are going to
talk about strategic abandonment and finally we are going to be talking about funding resources. I want to
talk about alignment. Our financial resources are aligned
to our strategic plan, our vision, mission and values and our budget allocation. Get ready for their careers in
professional development of our staff. A business operations aligned for our purpose to maintain safe and orderly
schools. As always, we make every decision with the best
interest of our students in mind. I am confident that that will be reflected here this evening. I want to start by
talking to you about enrollment. The table that is
displayed on the screen gives you a look at our enrollment over the last four academic years, by school. As important
is a summary of our september enrollment for this academic year. If you will look on september the 30th, we had 2572
students on our roles. It runs pretty consistent with two
years ago consecutively. Last year was a little bit of an
anomaly. I am proud to share some of our successes. All five
of our schools have been designated distinguished
schools. Apple distinguish schools or centers of leadership in educational excellence. It demonstrates
applevision of technology. For context, there are 362 apple
distinguished schools in the united states. For greater context, they are about 116,000 k-12 schools in the
united states. 362 apple distinguished schools. Five of them right here in goochland county . We received the
virginia board of academic exemplary award. Implementing
virtual reality into teaching and learning. As you all well know, for the 16th year in the row -- a row, our teachers have
been rated number two of the best teachers in the richmond
area. We are going to have to talk to them about the metric for that. We are a nationally recognized special olympics
unified champion school. And for many years running, we have
received a distinguished budget achievement award from the
government finance officers association. Goochland is one
of 10 school divisions with 100% of its schools accredited
for over a decade. We should applaud that. One of 10.
>>
is one of 10 of 132. Not just this year, 10 years running.
goochland public schools has been a leader in monitoring student growth. For 11 years now, through the math testing,
we have assessed student growth in grades two through an eight.
ahead of you are fruits of that labor. The pink line indicates the national average . Each bar graph by grade,
grades two through 11 represent the percentage of our students who met or exceeded their projected growth goal. As you
can see, our students and our schools well outpace national
averages in student growth for reading. In math, the story is
almost identical . We have work to do with sixth grade
mathematics. I'm confident that when I stand here to present the budget for fiscal year 2026, that line will also be well above the national average. History, we are first,
fourth in science. If you look at longitude of our
achievement versus the state average, you will see that our successes are not new successes. What I really want
to highlight on this graph is the successes are the data from 2022, 2023. This gives a pretty clear indication that we are
almost over learning laws do to covid, do to the pandemic we
should also be very proud of our graduation rates for the
last four years a 97% graduation rate does not
necessarily equate to a 3% dropout rate. So now, I want
to talk about some of our needs. We will take this by
each goal as is outlined in our strategic plan. Goal one instruction in lifelong learning. All students will
experience high levels of growth engagement and personalization of learning, all students will graduate and
prepare for future life goals. To help us advance this, we are
requesting investments. A small personnel change. Five extra days of reading specialists . A .5 teaching equivalent at the
high school for band. Advancing those programs. Moving
positions to federal funding. A total of $45,367. It's less
than one full-time teacher equivalent. We were very
strategic in maneuvering that. We hope to fund this or
allocations and federal dollars. We seek stipends and
other costs for summer school programs and before and after school tutoring at a cost of $109,592. We have a textbook adoptions to advance our literacy for which we had
training this morning and mathematics instruction at an estimated cost of $223,024. We will request additional
classroom investments for supply and software. It's
mentioned previously, new keyboards for our eighth grade students ipads so that they can become more proficient typists
as they move into high school . All of these initiatives come
at a request of $92,112. Additional costs related to
special ed programs, $41,307. We've requested stipends for
wrestling, indoor track, and cheer. A total cost. An
additional cost for tuition charges, and accelerated
mathematics at a requested cost of $81,769. Our requested
investment for instruction in lifelong learning across the county, total $613,781. Inclusive and engaging culture
. Creating engaging and responsive experiences where everyone feels informed, included, valued, and
empowered. Our goal is to support staff and engage our
community in the ongoing work of our school division. You've heard us talk about how salaries in goochland county
public schools rank compared to other schools in our region. We spent a lot of time playing this out. I will say this,
goochland county is represented here in the left corner. It
would be areas in which our salary at that point of service outpaces the average of the region. We'd either be number
one, two, or three in conversation. There is no
green. Yellow indicates that we rest right on the line. Three,
doing better, three doing not as well. The red indicates that
we are in the bottom or below the regional meeting. We rank
either fifth, sixth, or seventh. To give you an idea, teachers that we hire fresh out of a prep program new to the
field would earn, if placed at zero would earn -- at
competing for that same talent and the candidate made a
decision exclusively on compensation, the three school divisions that would have a leg up right out of the gate. That
story becomes more dire after five years, after 15 years, 20
years, and 25 years. When you look at it, you may say that
the numbers indicate that it is very very close. They do indicate that it is very very close. In our times, people are
making decisions on dollars and cents. Every single one counts.
if you look at our salaries based on a seven-year trend, this is very compelling data. In 2017, we ranked third in the
region. We currently slipped three slots to fourth. At five
years we ranked third in the region, we are fifth. At 10
years, we were third in the region. We are fifth. That story goes for 15 years, 20 years, and 25 years. The
challenge there is, that is not to imply that we have not taken
care of our employees annually with annual compensation increases, we certainly have the challenge with closing a
gap of this size is if we are doing a percentage in our surrounding neighbors are doing an equal percentage, then the
disparity remains. I want to be very clear, we've done a good
job. They have done a good job with compensation increases,
the challenge comes that everybody around us is compensating or increasing compensation at similar rates.
our midyear resignations are up 120%. Folks, that is not
because they hate my guts. That is not . Folks are leaving us
to take private sector jobs it increases that we can't argue
nor blame them for taking advantage of. We've had staff
members who have left us to take opportunities at private schools and academies. Historically, that never
happened. Public education always outpace private schools
in terms of teacher compensation and pay. Our
midyear resignations are up 120%. We have been very
blessed. When we lose people we can often backfill those positions or come up with other ways to provide instructional
services to kids so that we don't miss a beat. This is slowly becoming a hemorrhage. My concern is with every
accumulating resignation, the probability of landing on our feet is decreased. We have lots of advantages. I'm going to
imagine that five years ago, the same seesaw with the same
leverages would've tilted in the other direction. People love our average class size in goochland county schools. Our
teachers love that we trust them to practice their craft
and that they have autonomy to do so. Supportive leadership
some of the feedback we are receiving from people , commute
is becoming more and more significantly challenging for
our employees. As we previously shared, 52% of our workforce resides outside of goochland county . We talked about
salary, we talked about instructional calendar, and we've got some proposed amendments tonight that are
going to help us aid that situation, inflation over which
we have no control. Housing opportunities, powering
incentives . These things are combining to tip the scale and cost leading to us have resignations in record numbers.
tonight our proposed budget proposes a 5% pay increase for
all employees. All employees who have met a satisfactory
evaluation. Employees with unsatisfactory or needs improvement will remain at their current scale placement per our policy. Staff at the top of the scale will receive
less than 5%. Here's a summary of our requested
investments. Advancing inclusive engaging culture. It
comes in at an estimated $1,327,683. We've talked about
a potential 9% health insurance increase. That is a projected increase based on the information we have available
to us at this time. If it is 9% or less, this budget includes funding to absorb increases for our staff. A cost of $411,000,
I'm sorry 411 $389. We have salary changes since the budget
was adopted. Specifically decreases , this will, at a
savings of $392,762. We are proposing to increase our
substitute pay conversation to make it easier so that we can secure subs when our teachers are away and can perform their
duties. This investment comes at an ask of $50,278. We have
hr initiatives. Bonuses, stipends, and other trainings for which we seek an investment of $59,340 . And communication
initiatives so that we can keep our families well-connected to our schools and well informed of what we had going on in the
division. This comes at a requested investment of $20,870. Our total requested investment for inclusive
culture . Strategic goal three. To enhance and support
the instructional learning needs of all students and staff. All of our environments are inviting . Student staff
and visitors with a safe environment at all times. They
will use appropriate technology and network services. All
resources are allocated with transparency, equity, efficiency and compliance. Our summary of investments to
advance our goal for facilities resources and technology. It
requires extra manpower to keep the facility as pristine as is
the standard of our schools. To do that, we are requesting for
custodians, all of these things total when you take into account insurances, when you take into account extra
manpower . Fuel costs are going up and our other facilities as
well. Projecting increases. Facilities and transportation,
$122,873. To include $50,000 for classroom equipment. This
will require an investment. When you adjust for inflation
and staff increases. Reserving contingency for private
schools. $55,448. In other words, if there are matters or
dollars that private schools are entitled to be portioned,
this takes into account for those items. A total investment for goal three. >> we have taken on strategic
abandonment. It has been a long-standing tradition here. That's when we take a critical look at those things that we
are currently investing and decide which of those things either provide replicable service or provide services
that we might be able to get through other perhaps cheaper
means . Some of the things that we decided would be adequate reductions under strategic abandonment. Staffing changes.
a .5 fte for high school spanish. Secondary extra
sessions. Costs or savings. We've taken a look at some of
our software programs and abandon those that we can
function without. They had a savings of $44,500 . We have
eliminated or removed any unused staff stipends at a
savings of $5500. We have removed classroom and maintenance trailers for which we were paying rent and reduce the numbers of device leases and given up a lease that we
have on a bus parking lot. That comes out of savings of
$104,328 . We have had a reduction in services for uniforms, testing, printing, third-party support systems out
of savings estimated to be $55,530 and a reduction in
specific I.t. Equipment savings is projected to be $13,000. We
were able to reduce by 1.8 full-time teaching equipments
and a total savings of all of these initiatives totaling
$278,000 $620 -- 278 $620 . I would like to offer a summary
of our total investments under goals. The total additional investment for all three goals indicates a need -- this takes
into account, $2,000,630 in state and local funding.
regrettably a reduction of $303,017 from our federal
budget allocation. A 5.7 increase, our new total
investments equal $43,497,804. A celebration to be had over
that . When we take a look at how our proposed dollars in budget investments by state categories are allocated, I'm
very proud to share with our board and our public that over 77% of our funding is dedicated to instruction and technology
and instructional goals. That is outstanding . We also have a
6.6 or 7% contribution to technology. And 9% contribution
to maintenance, about 7% goes to keeping our buses well-maintained. 7% goes to administration and health.
when you look at our investments by type of expense,
83% of our budget supports salary and benefits for our
staff . An additional 8% goes to supply and textbook. 5% for
miscellaneous charges, about 24% obviously and for benefits.
so, how do we pay for it all? We base our budget on a
projected adm now the numbers that I shared with you a bit
ago, we based our average daily membership on the end of march.
it reflects the december 2023 governor's budget. Doesn't include any house proposed budget changes. There are a few
remaining. Several I'd say. Federal funding is the same as
october 2023. Plus and anticipated carryover for our
title funds. The final year of our covid related monies. For
those of you who do not know, the covid related dollars have
exhausted . We have pretty much got until september to reconcile all of those costs and funds. Here is where the
dollars come in. Sales tax projected at 97 1/2% of state
numbers. $4,181,735 which is a 2.6% reduction over the prior
fiscal year. All other state aid I am proud to share has
grown a little bit over half percent. And our federal aid
is mentioned because of the exhaustion of covid dollars or
the expiration of covid dollars down 11.3%. It's down from
$2,666,584 in the previous budget. If you take a look at
this graph, and the graphs that I'm going to show you subsequent to this one, it tells a story. If you take out
2023 which is an outlier, for the purchases of this example,
it even still works. Folks will say, well this illustrates that every year there has been record investments in public
education. Folks, that is true and undeniable. We should be
able to say that, every single year. Next year, we should be
able to say, not as a point of pride but a point of
expectation that this is a record year in funding our
public schools. This is where the revenue comes. We would
like to thank our board of supervisors and county administrator for a county transfer recommended in crease
of $2.122 million over fiscal year 2024 allocations. This
represents an increase of our total budget. 3% of our budget
will be accounted for in the category of other, this
includes facility rentals, students who pass tuition 4%
of our budget to support at the federal grants, about 14% of
our budget is funded through state grants. About 10% funded
through state sale proceeds. Again, this is a 10 year trend
of all revenue sources. And again, this number trends northward as it should. Additional revenue matches for
additional expenses. This is what you call a balanced budget. Our total additional investments come in at -- pay
through these revenue sources, additional county transfer
funding, $150 . Less state funding, that is a deficit of
$71,830, additional local funding at $502,492 , and less
federal revenue at a deficit of $303,017 . Combined with our
cafeteria fundings and for those of you who don't know, our cafeteria is a standalone operation that operates at that
prophet, $79,335. When you add the positives and subtract the
negatives, we are flush it $2,329,130 . Our total school
budget has grown by 5.65%. We make sacrifices as do all
school divisions when preparing a budget. I like to talk about in no particular order some of the things that if we could
would be really wonderful for us to have been able to include in this budget. We talked about a market adjustment tool for
our teachers so that we would be in the top half of the
region. We talked about three additional interventionists or specialist to help us advance literacy. One per elementary
school. Special education's teachers to reduce caseloads.
assistant principals at every elementary school to share the duty of school leadership in 2024. Instructional technology
coaches at every school. Advance from a work based
learning coordinator. More discretionary funding for our
schools. We would love for that number to be seven, 10%.
third-party afternoon programs for summer school. Permanent substitutes, one per school. Five allocations. Clerical
support for facilities. A driver trainer . The middle
school have their athletic coaches paid on a percentage based on their salary. Similar to what we do at the upper
secondary school. Less than conventional needs. In by less
than conventional, I mean that there are folks who are degreed
but didn't trained to be teachers, didn't study to be teachers. They come to us with degrees in their particular content area but while there actually teaching, they are
enrolled gaining the educational courses for certification. A leave coordinator.
>> we like to have this budget included, and additional
funding for transportation operations. Especially for
costs and unknown increases. These are things that are
essential fun parts of our function. An ideal budget that
reflected our needs, all of these things would've been
included . There are other unfunded items that we will potentially use end of your funding from this current
fiscal to address. Heavy equipment purchase, rubber tire
loader, and estimate cost of $60,000. We start our middle
schoolers in competitive wrestling. They need a man to
be able to do that. That cost $15,000. Vehicle replacements which we so desperately need. Four maintenance mechanics
trucks, estimated cost, $220,000. Randolph elementary
school , these digital display boards, five of those to help
advance their student citizenship and information programs, $2500. School bus seat repairs, $10,000 . I want
to say this about school bus seat repairs so that everybody is clear. These repairs pertain to wear and tear on school
boards, school bus seats. Not vandalism. That's wildly uncommon for us. Your standard wear and tear that happens when
vinyl has lots of buds sitting on it for lots of years.
security camera replacements at $15,000. Classroom boards at an
estimated cost of $40,000. These items were not funded from the current fiscal year 2024 school board request .
we're hopeful that we can discuss some of these issues if not all of them with surplus funds at the end of this year.
we are in the business of building brighter futures. Parts of me wish that it were cheaper to do it. It is not,
these are modest asks and I would like to thank our board
of supervisors. I would like to thank you all for our faith in
us to get this job done and I'm very proud of the budget
that we brought forth tonight for public comment. Thank you
all. >> thank you.
>>
it for public hearing, do you have any questions? We have
been over this content in great detail so there shouldn't be any surprises from the side but let me give you the
opportunity. >> I have a question. >> yes ma'am. >> we talked about this
earlier, if you're giving a 5% increase across the board, what
are the other regional schools giving?
>> I would say the medium number -- median number was
4%, we had a conversation that what would've been january meeting where everybody thought we would be doing great if we
could do 3%. I went in a little reserved because I thought a
little outside of what we said, but I'm proud of it and it's good for our people. I want to talk a little bit about how we
got to 5% in the scenario that is unique to goochland . All of
our counties will realize a 5% pay increase. Everybody who
works for the county will realize a high percent pay
increase. It's only right that they receive that equitable bump. A >> it's not going to help keep
the teachers here, 5% there is less than 5% there.
>> the gap that we are offering is going to be insignificant to
address the discrepancies, disparities right now we're
probably going to hold power in the region.
>> and ask related to a market adjustment for our teaching
professionals >> that ball remains in the
court, he and I have a meeting that is going to be coming up next week where I hope to ask specifically about it. For the
benefit of people who might not have heard about that market adjustment increase last month, actually it wasn't last month,
it was a couple weeks back, time is floating by. We essentially took a look at our employees who were classified
as teachers. Of them we have 234, 226 of them are actual classroom teachers, eight of them hold other positions that
are paid on the teachers scale. Nobody but those folks
classified in that category. It will be an investment of about $1.4 million to do that. I suggest we do it now. I suggest
we do it now. It will help us in ways that are almost
indescribable. You see the numbers, 120% job, four or five
years ago you were coasting several years without a single one. Now is the time to make that investment in our schools.
>> thank you. >> for the benefit of our
public at this time, we will hold a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 25 budget. Only comments about the
budget will now be heard. Once the comment has been closed, we will have a separate public comment period on other
matters. The public comment period on the proposed fiscal year 25 budget is now open. >> good evening madame chair,
good evening board. Well down -- it done, sir. It always sees
me proud to see you working every day. The budget reflects the work that goes into the budget reflects an interesting
mind-set that every day the people that celebrated for the
work of this budget, every day they are working to create an
amazing experience. There's also that part of them going, what do I need for next year. A huge mind of work for the
folks that are creating these numbers, creating, recognizing
these needs, I appreciate it so much. There was an item about
moving the ratio of school counselors, if you follow
legislation , those bills were continued to 2025 for
appropriations. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? We know that mental health is huge, a huge need and that school
counselors carry an amazing weight every single day to support our students. It is kind of a win loss thing. For
the budget, we know it is one less hit on our budget. The
legislation for moving teacher compensation to the national average is still moving forward. We do still have more
conversation to take place about that percentage increase. That will be interesting. When we look at the items that were
still on our list of needs, I think it is so interesting that
it's a lot of people. This is a human business serving humans
and it's our people who make such a huge difference. As we move forward and we find additional funding, we
appropriate additional funding the people that are working
today and for tomorrow will continue to make great
decisions , thank you for your time and thank you for the
work.
district 2. I just want to thank for his presentation on
this budget. One thing that is for sure, he used the term investment a lot. That means that our students are our
biggest investment. The things that he has requested in this budget support those students. As a citizen, I do ask this
board to continue to support these efforts as well as when you go before the board supervisor to encourage them to
support the efforts of our students and our teachers.
there are a lot of things that are against us in this county
when it comes to retaining staff. Much of what you don't
have control over, we still need to try to employ and
retain teachers that are going to look out for the best for
our students and staff. I ask again that you support this
budget, you were at my church a couple weeks ago and talk to about 25 citizens who are fully supporting the school budget
so, thank you. >> is there anyone else who
would like to speak on the proposed budget? Seeing none,
the public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 25 budget is now closed. Now, we will welcome public comment on other
matters. As a reminder, speaker comments are limited to three minutes and should be addressed to the chair and the business
of the day. Please understand that there are a number of information items on the agenda, I know that this is a
definite point of interest for several of our speakers tonight and wanted to know that we value your input as it informs
our decision-making. If you would like your school board member to follow up with you, please make sure that you leave
your contact information so that we can reach out to you.
with that said, the public comment period is now open. We
have someone signed up and that is miss samantha from the vs
p.a. >> madame chair, members of the school board, great to see you all in person, it is wonderful
to see the work that you do and you had such a great
representation of your school division here today. I'm glad I got the opportunity to see that and be a part of that with
you. I'm the deputy executive for the virginia school boards
association. One of the recognitions that is also in february, schoolboard appreciation month. My soul
role here is to appreciate you five for the work that you do every single day on behalf of your students in goochland
county I do have recognition that if I can read for you, this is given by governor glenn. I will read this for you
at the end. School board members are elected to
represent the interest of students, teachers and parents
. School boards play a vital role in ensuring that students across the commonwealth have access to high-quality rigorous
education and whereas school boards of the governing bodies responsible for the oversight, success and effectiveness of
school systems across the commonwealth and school board
members work with parents, businesses, educational professionals and other community members to create a shared vision of success for students. Whereas these
decisions affect the present and future lives of children and chart a path for all students to be competitive in a
local state and national economy. Whereas schoolboard
appreciation month acknowledges the contributions dedication and service of virginia's local school board leaders. Now
therefore, I do hereby recognize february 2024 as
schoolboard appreciation month in our commonwealth of virginia and I call this observance to the attention of all of our
students. I want to reiterate, thank you all for your work that you do. We know you are not in it for the long hours,
you're in it for the students and we really appreciate the
work.
who is the new chairperson? All right, good afternoon madame
chair. I am here again and I want everybody to look, I mean
business when I say I am advocating for my grandkids, I
mean I am advocating. I'm not playing any games. I should've got a peer for the budget, I'm not sure that was the time I
should've spoke. Anyway, thank you all for allowing me to
speak you will see a lot of me, I wish I could've been here last month but I'm dealing with a lot of health issues.
cheryl, I would've been here last month, but I'm having major health issues so I really had to get myself together to
get here today. I'm supposed be on the operating table today
but praise god that things have shifted. So, with that being
said, I'm coming first with the word of god. In isaiah
chapter five, they call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness. Put bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter. They are wise in their own
eyes, improving in their own site, with that being said, we
are in the last days. We all got to go to judgment whether we believe it or not. And what we do to the least of them is
what god's verse says that you don't do for him. I am coming to you for two of the least, they are great in my eyes, I
don't know about anybody else's. As everybody can see,
most of you guys know the story. These children have been through more than the average adult would ever go through in
their entire life . They witnessed murder, they been
abused, misuse, they've been taught things that no child should be taught. But I can't get the education system to
teach them. For some he go to what I've written down. First I would like to say there's no such thing as a coincidence. I
have been dealing with some major health issues like I said and I'm here to tell you that there is a law firm out there
called sam's anderson and they have been ripping schools off. Goochland county has paid them over $250,000 and four months
time not to educate my grandchildren . I am filing
every complaint I possibly can and I will continue, $250,000, goochland county could've educated these kids but yet
they are at home regressing and they have no business in the
public school because we tried that and it didn't work so, as
albert einstein says, if you keep doing the same thing you're going to, with the same results . It is the definition
of insanity. Why are we doing that? Why won't we send these children who have been traumatized to the max, some of
the worst case, and the administration said it when I brought the kids here, the staff said it, they said this
is the worst case they've ever seen of children have been
traumatized like these kids, they witnessed their mother dying and they talk about it every day. They talk about it
every day. They are disabled, the disability list goes on for
miles. Goochland is not teaching these kids, educating.
there was an act in place that says no child left behind. I am
almost finished. No child left behind, that was the act, now it is every child succeed. They have been at home for over a
year. There not succeeding, their failing, drowning, and dying. Justice, I'm looking to each one of them I will hold
you accountable and I will put together a petition for the whole community to come together to help me get what I
need for these children, will you help me? I've been begging and pleading with the school system, help these children. They are dying, they are losing weight like crazy, they are
regressing, they need help, help them. I'm done.
>> how are you doing, I'm from over there I am saying the
most important policy by far they're going to have coming up the next four years hopefully, surely you're going
to extend a, little bonus time, maybe have a little pulver who had the best public comment last month, give them a little
extra time. Little things like that, I strongly encourage you to do that. I will say, I think the most important issue that
we are going to face his treating people as individuals. I think the old school board have failed in that regard, who
you hire should not be based upon what group they're in, whether they are left or right handed, the color of their
skin, what they do or don't do, these kind of things. I
think they should be treated as individuals. They are extremely limited to circumstances where you can get to know people. You
only have a few minutes maybe in those extremely rare circumstances things are different. Even in those circumstances, I just don't believe we should ever be
treating people based upon their race certainly at the top of the list. Treat them as individuals. I think the school
board has failed in that regard in the past. Similarly, our
students . People have what they call equity. Equity as far
as kindergarten class would go would mean that they would look at me and fred who failed and they would say 100% of the
american guys failed, they are going to get one treatment and
most of the young children pastor vietnamese they're going to get treated differently. I think all of us
who fail the vietnamese class last year deserve to be treated
as individuals. When students are having difficulty in class, don't treat them as members of groups. I want to wish you all
a good day and you guys work on that public comment lens, you
have a great night. >> good afternoon, I can see
without my reading glasses on. District 3, madam chair, board
members, thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is jennifer, oil bill district 3. I am a member of the
goochland naacp. I appreciate all the teachers and staff do
to celebrate people who work so hard and contributed so much
and waited so long to be recognized as citizens. Just across the river, the father of black history month was born in
1875. In two weeks, we will celebrate the black students who integrated goochland schools a little over 50 years
ago I'm also a board member of glisson. We envision a
world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity,
or expression. Historically, gcps works on a case-by-case
basis. You are taking time to work on a policy that
marginalizes a handful of students and potentially opens our county up to lawsuits. This is time and money for all
students . I listened today to the school board work shopping
the exact same policy. It was painful, over an hour was spent on policies regarding a tiny handful of students. At one
point they decided that pronouns would not be recognized and later that counselors must call parents immediately if any child discusses their gender or
sexuality . Please be mindful that you are discussing real
human beings today. Young children were sensitive and need to know that they are loved, respected, and wanted in our community. They hear you, if not on the live stream, they
will hear the echo of how you speak of them. Be kind, be sure
that everything you say here today is something you would want to be heard by the youngest most vulnerable years.
it is the single best that can lead to suicide, leave room for
the idea that interracial and marriage shunned and villains in the courts. Someday soon trent people will likewise be
embraced in our laws. You can be on the right or the wrong
side of that. They continue the tradition of respecting every
child, meeting them where they are and helping them through their public school years with dignity and respect and love.
our county can afford it. Thank you so much.
>> I am in district two, I just wanted to make a couple of
comments and that is that you all were elected and everyone
didn't vote for you, but you are charged with looking out
for the best interest of every citizen in the county. You took
an oath of office that says that I will do my due diligence
to represent every citizen in the county. I can stand here
and say I didn't vote for either one of you but I do respect you for stepping up and running these physicians, if
you know anything about me you know that I don't have any
problem with who holds office in terms of reaching out and calling on you for support and assistance I charge you today
to keep that in mind that you are here to represent every
student regardless of whether they vote for you, regardless
of what their sexual preference or identities are, what their race is, whatever gender they or we think they are, you are
here to support those students. The other thing that is black
history, and let me step back for a minute . I would say
congratulations because I was not here to say congratulations to each of you for being on this board. Black history month
is this month, we know black history, 365 days regardless
of who you are . I will say that I am a little bit
disappointed that we didn't see our program here as we have in
the past that acknowledge black history month, I hope that you all will address that and do better next year. Think you.
>> thank you. >> good evening, I am a
goochland parent . Both of which would happen if the
proposed policies for discussing tonight , the title
sounds nice but the title is false. It takes them away from
them. Naming it that does not protect it because
unfortunately for the people who made that policy, they can read very well. We can clearly see that it violates the
protection laws of the constitution, violates title ix
it will cause irreparable harm to our student body. It will
waste countless hours in tax dollars just to eventually undo
it anyway. They just come to the same conclusion, forcing a
transgender child, forcibly outing them or repeatedly missed rendering them, all account is based on gender
identity which is unconstitutional. You can look
within virginia in which the supreme court ruled the same amendments being proposed today as unconstitutional. They have
already tried this policy and it failed. You are obligated to
work for the safety and success of all children. Public means on the matter who they are or what they choose. Putting
phrases like all students are all parents does not make it a
policy for all especially when people of a particular identity would be harmed by it. That is definition discrimination. It
is not criminal for the child to want to safely use the
restroom without harassment . It is a crime however to
discriminate against those children based on their
identity . Research evidence has shown that it is. On the
reason someone would look at that evidence and still push for that policy is specifically to harm lgbt kids. They wanted
so badly that they are willing to violate the constitution to do it. If you move forward with it, we will know more about
you. Thank you. >> good evening.
>> I first want to acknowledge, she did respond to my emails
and even return my phone call by afternoon. That is huge.
engaging with and acknowledging us is a huge. I would like to
strongly advocate against pushing through the harmful policy up for discussion tonight I sent you all some
things earlier family conflict is the primary cause of
homelessness for these kids. It is disproportionately do to
lack of acceptance by family members. This is significant
that all students have in our schools. If a child does not feel comfortable coming out to their parents, there's likely
a very good reason that they don't feel safe and secure doing so. Forcibly outing a student to their parents can
usually mean that they will end up homeless or worse. This is
not putting the safety of the students on the forefront. It is even worse to require a parents permission to be --
there is also the language of this policy. We have to adhere
to state and federal laws including time of mind. It
states that we need to keep our students safe . It goes on to
contradict that. Not respecting a student's pronouns, names, or gender identity is a form of bullying and/or harassment.
this policy seems to be school boards . I'd like to finish
with the why, why are you bringing this policy now? There has been no change to the laws. I want to ask you all to
reflect on that. There is no violation of policies for the
rest of the students when students maintain lgbtq policies. They do have the data that it indicates the risk of
harm. I do want to mention that it does not trump them to be
discriminated against. I want to ensure that we are not
executing this, putting every student first, please do not
adopt these harmful or discriminatory policies that will create a hostile environment. Thank you.
I am a resident of goochland county, I am a former college
professor and teacher. We who are privileged in the united states of america enjoy many freedoms. One of which is the
freedom to access information. Most people today use the internet to do so but we still want the old-fashioned methods
of looking up information in books. We deserve and reserve
the right to seek education and enjoyment. Libraries were
created to give access to knowledge. The public library,
before that the 1600s establish the first free public
library. 60 men founded the library company of burlington
new jersey, it is still in operation today. 267 years
later. They assisted benjamin franklin who opened the company
in 1731. Thomas jefferson's vast collection of books on every topic was purchased in 1815 to rebuild the library of
congress after the british burned it down in 1812.
carnegie helped build more than 1700 public libraries in the united states between 1881 and 1919. The whole purpose of
libraries is to foster curiosity, clinical -- critical
thinking and creativity. And of course, to further good
education. In other words, to foster good sense. Remember
that benjamin franklin said census close to sound. Educated
goochland county citizens who intend to fight back against attacks on good sense. I have signed petitions , many others,
particularly grandparents who are raising their voices against banning books and the american way. Thank you. He
met think you for the opportunity to speak with you today, my name is christina page and I live in sandy hook
virginia and have been a resident for 10 years now. As a parent of a rising sixth-grader who attends ges, I want to
express my deep concern and disappointment to adopt model policies on transgender students in goochland county
public schools. According to legal experts and advocates, these policies may not be only unenforceable, those violations
could land them in another unnecessary lawsuit costing the taxpayers and district valuable time and money which would be
better spent on our students and teachers. Has many
educators and community members have pointed out on multiple occasions, the current policies regarding transgender students are already in compliance with both state and federal laws and
do not need to be modified. Suggesting goochland should
implement the model policies continues to push
misinformation that there are ongoing issues with transgender students in goochland schools when there aren't any. Instead, I encourage the board to engage in a more inclusive
and evidence-based approach policy making educator scientists in a diverse assortment with media members will help ensure that all of our policies align with both
the spirit across every issue. The gcps website states the
recognition of each student's individuality. The model
policies are a breach of our mission and values the
individuality and the safety of their school environment. Lacking the sense of safety negatively impacts the quality
of their education opportunities. I strongly urge the school board to reconsider implementing these policies. It is crucial that our schools prioritize the well-being and
rights of all students including transgender students who would be disproportionately affected. No one wants their
child to be targeted. Do not make decisions based on misunderstanding, at best, or prejudice at worst. Unless you
and your loved one find yourself on the receiving end
of unjust and discrimination. The beliefs you carry in your personal lives have no place in your life as a school board
member if they harm the well-being of any student. If you are truly dedicated to providing the best possible education for all students in goochland you must uphold your
ability to maximize every learner. Including our
transgender students, it is a job requirement you are obligated to honor. Thank you.
>> good evening, I am from double brook road, this is kind
this week, I'm going to start with two very nice statements about items on the agenda tonight. Thank you to dr.
faller for working on this program , we have long heard
that our middle school students want more gifted education
programs it shines a really nice light on what is happening
in our classroom and technology use. Thank you to everyone who worked on those. The previous school board did not adopt
northam's policy, but we did revise all the policies to
further our commitment to fostering a safe, supportive, welcoming and inclusive environment for all students
and staff there only in there for four years, when you jump
around like that, are you really paying attention to
your community. It is the community of goochland. Every single child , a majority, I know that some of you think
that ja represents the majority of people, but the true
majority of children, that's the majority sitting at the
table of that parent that has the rights and the
responsibilities for that child. That's the majority that matters every single day to that parent. If we say we
are acknowledging parents rights, we also know there is responsibilities with that. We are acknowledging parent rights
that includes that parent with the transgender child. These
speakers tonight shared many of the legal cases that I was going to also share. I am going to remind you that the grim
decision answered the question of whether schools refusal to
allow a transgender student to use the school bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity violates the u.s. Constitution's equal protection laws and it
discriminates based on sex, a violation in title ix. Lastly, from the judges in those cases, how shallow a promise of equal
protection that would not protect graham from the
fantastical fears and unfounded prejudices of his adult community. It is time to move forward. Discrimination like
that has reared its ugly head throughout american history. For most americans, time has rendered it an embarrassment to
the legacies of the individuals inflicting it. With that
observation, I join in the thorough and well reasoned opinion of my colleague, judge floyd. Thank you. Please do not
support ja. >> I want to say that I have
hate in my heart for a lot of things. But it doesn't include
people it includes the actions of people if those actions go
against god and go against the things of god sin is to be
hated. It is not to be loved. It's not to be coddled, it's not to be celebrated it's not made to be look like it is
good, it is not good to tell somebody that is a boy that
thinks he is a girl that you are a girl, you are lying to
that person you're not helping that person you are not
loving that person the so call experts that say well he is a
girl, they are lying too these things need to be worked out
with a psychiatrist. I'd say a godly psychiatrist, somebody
that is going to tell them the truth. Not coddle them and say
oh, you are okay, and another thing, as far as these
bathrooms, we have a policy here in goochland county in the schools , no bullying. So that child goes into a girls
bathroom or a boys bathroom and goes into the bathroom that
they were born, the gender they were born with, the sex that they were born with, they shouldn't be bullied even if
they think they are a girl and they go into a boys bathroom,
there shouldn't be no bullying going on, that should be reprimanded right there. But if you are a boy that goes into
a girls bathroom, things can happen. That's what I am
concerned about. >> good evening,
congratulations I didn't get a chance to say that to you last
january . I am in support of model policies, I read them, I
consider them reasonable. I am a former educator and I have
had relationships with many children over the years individually, I knew my students and I knew what they
needed. I see you all as people who would work individually with a child, with the parents, and not just as a blanket
policy, it would be individual because you do care about the children. I've seen you care about the children and I want
to thank you again for your service. Monetarily it is not a
lot, but I do want to thank you for your time that you are going to gift to our kids and for your consideration of this
policy, thank you. >> hi, this will be short. I
do approve of governors policy and I'm asking you to vote for
it. I am thinking about the girls, the young girls that go into a bathroom and a boys and their and it is like they are
not even being considered about their feelings for this. I am asking you to support the policy.
>> thank you. Is there anyone else? Seeing none, the public
comment period is now closed. Okay. Now we have a report from
our student representative. Amaya, we look forward to hearing from you. >> hello, everyone. Today I
will be announcing some of the amazing events and achievements that have happened since the last year. Before I discussed
those, I just want to say how grateful and excited I am to work alongside the board members and get a chance to
represent our members at ghs and gms in the cafeteria. They
could ask any questions that they may have had. On the 25th,
ahs took pictures for the school's yearbook . We had a
pep rally to celebrate our winter athletes. During our
very spirited pep rally, the seniors of each sport were
announced and they played a series of entertaining games .
february 5th through the ninth was a counselor appreciation week. Recently counselors have been going into classes and talking to students about next year's courses and will be
meeting with every student to discuss their academic and
career plans. We should recognize all of their hard work and be appreciative because without their guidance and support, our schools would not be the same. February 6th
through the 13th, the dead poets society continued their
tradition where students can purchase roses and cookies and
give to the person of their choosing. Business partners had tables set up to showcase different career options and to
answer any questions that students may have had pertaining to each career. Both ghs students got to visit
these tables. In honor of virginia kindness week, there would be a pet food and supply collection drive to help
support the goochland animal shelter and adoption center.
we encourage students to bring in treats, toys, beds, clorox wipes, litter, canned dog and cat food and more. As our
winter sports season begins to come from in and, we are proud
of all of our students and their many accomplishments that they have made the season. I have some special mentions,
they brought home the first regional title. In addition,
perry belcher, phil belcher and charlie harrington all brought home individual gold medals. That is my update for february
and I look forward to being able to get one next month,
thank you. >> thank you so much, amaya, board members do you have any questions for amaya?
>> first off, that's awesome. Gold medals. Could you tell me
again when the pet drive is? >> the pet food drive, let me
see, it is from february 12th through the 16th.
>> great, thank you. >> wonderful, thank you so much
for your report. I really appreciate it and congratulations to our winning students. At this time, we look forward to your comments sir. >> thank you, madam chair.
school board night rings many challenges for a
superintendent. One of my greatest challenges is having to offer remarks after a student representative. She did a wonderful job. I want to bring to the attention of our
publics that march 5th is presidential primary day which you all likely no. What we found out recently is that two
of our schools, randolph elementary and bird elementary
are going to be used as polling places. Being a newbie to the community I've learned that it is a relatively new arrangement
for us . In our preparation figure out what teaching and learning would look like that day, we've considered every possibility to maintain normalcy. We talked about what
it might look like to contain polling in the gymnasium at byrd and maintain instruction throughout the remainder of the
building. Several challenges were presented. The first is
inadequate parking. The second is having a through flow of citizens through our school while we are housing students,
they didn't like the idea of the possibility of some potentials of things to go awry there. Then we considered what
might it look like if we just did something alternative for
elementary age students and kept the secondary kids in
normal session. Clearly that requires young people to be
home during the day, families are going to rely naturally on
older siblings to look after younger children so that didn't fly in the face of being right. What I am
proposing to the board tonight is going to be a calendar amendment to the 2023, 2024 calendar to allow us the
opportunity to offer march the fifth as a virtual asynchronous day for students and staff. The school division has a history
with such days. On that day there be no new instruction .
assignments for that day, projects for that they will be in progress and there will be no grading. Preschoolers to
second graders will be encouraged to work on engaging activities such as choice boards and students in grades three through 12 will be expected to advance their
reading and studying for upcoming tests. This will be
part of our recommendation for the board tonight as a calendar
amendment. Also when we make amendments to the calendar that required folks to potentially -- providing childcare like the
ymca and parks and recreation. I am pleased to report that the
ymca has offered full-day childcare to the families who
subscribe to the service. If your child goes to aftercare in the ymca, there will be opportunities for the child to be covered for the full day. Our partners at parks and rec
are unable to do that with the stuffing that they have. We want to convey that we didn't want to just call it a day.
actions that families have care for that day I think all of
our students and families and staff I am looking forward to
next year's book. I want to talk about a letter, the
superintendent for instruction making what I thought was a
clear and insightful delineation between our measures of academic progress assessments which I talked about earlier during our budget and the virginia department of
education growth assessments. The virginia department of education has released reports that go to students families
based on student performance on their growth assessment which
is still very much -- this is the first year of the
assessment. We feel that because we've got fidelity with measures of academic progress assessment, these
assessments, we've got 10 years that they are reliable.
they can make informed decisions , the response is
overwhelmingly positive. I want to publicly thank him for his insight and I want to thank him and our community for your
trust and your willingness to take two things, one of which
we've got a demonstrated history spanning over a decade with and one which is very new and make good assessments as to
how your children are growing when in our care. There are
couple of organizations that will be celebrating in a couple
of weeks . Agencies such as the fire department, sheriff's
office and county administration and the school celebrate members with exemplary service to goochland
county you. Also the goochland foundation is a long-standing partner of our schools, more information on the gala , it
can be found on the goochland education foundation's website
. Lastly, when I came to goochland, I promised to do a lot of things . One of the things I'm really excited
about is a launching a student advisory council. Next week I
will meet with students to talk about those issues that are of
interest to them. They are our most important clientele.
students and their parents, the families that they represent represent the most important clientele to us. I'm very eager to engage in them. I'm very much looking forward to
that process. We will meet monthly thereafter until april when assessments start. Basically we will take a look
at february. Based on where the dialogue goes we will likely have more when school gets out in june. Madam chair, that
concludes my comments. >> board members, do you have
any questions? >> does that sound good to you?
>> very good, glad to hear it. All right we're moving to the
consent items portion of our agenda. What is your pleasure?
approve items and to discuss, I moved to approve .
>> madam chair, I second. >> great, it is been moved to approve the consent agenda items and properly seconded, is
there any discussion? Hearing none, I will call the question,
all those in favor of approving the slate of consent agenda items, say I. >> I.
>> any opposed? The consent items are approved.
>> would you like to tf our instructional report? >> yes ma'am, I will do that. I think that dr. Beth fowler is
back there and mr. Matthew mason are going to come forth
to talk to us about quest. >> okay, so this only has the
pdf? That means I can't look at my notes, but okay. It's
fine, it's fine.
chair, school board, first I want to tell you thank you, we
wanted to present a new idea at goochland middle school .
whatever it takes, it means every single student, every
person who walks into the building the matter what you believe, who you are, our job is to make sure you are
successful as we prepare you for the high school. I want to present to a class, we will talk a little bit about that in
a minute. It is called quest. It stands for quality use --
at the middle school, the gifted students that we want to improve and giving them the supports that they need, this is what we would like to do here. I am accompanied by an
incredible individual, I say that because six years ago I started at goochland high school as an assistant
principal. I will tell you she is one of the best people to work with, I appreciate her, I enjoy her input. That is dr.
fowler and dr. Fowler is going to speak a little bit .
>> thank you so much, that was so very kind. It is been a long journey and a wonderful one with you. We are so happy to
have you back. Back when matthew and I first started working together as the director of school of
counseling, now I stand before you as the coordinator student advancement. I'm very pleased in that role to support grades
k-12. We have a comprehensive gifted plan for goochland
county public schools that both allows for individuality of our student needs and also aligns to state mandates . That
includes the excerpts that you see here about our philosophy of gifted education within goochland schools. I am so
pleased tonight two present with mr. Mason about this new
course that we are proposing because it is so closely aligning with the philosophy and moves it into practice
which is always the difficult part. It is a class that will
show opportunities for our gifted students to interact with other gifted students throughout the school day. It
will allow them to pursue their areas of particular interest
intensely to share the results of those pursuits with the real audiences and have products of their learning at the end of
this journey critiqued. It will allow them to show that there
are fluent and original thinkers and to set and achieve
long-term goals. As I said, our gifted plan not only includes
our individual philosophy as a district of gifted education, but we are also mandated by the state to provide certain
elements within our gifted service options. Those options
k-12 have to include an opportunity for students to interact with intellectual and academic peers, those were able to achieve at the same level as they are, they also have to
include some instructional time. So, all the sixth-graders with the sixth-graders. There has to be an option for them to
work independently as well. That is kind of philosophy, that is kind of how we get there. We have our gifted
identified students clustered together so that there would likability peers, they are within a larger mix so they are
with other students of various aptitudes and abilities. They get direct instruction in grades three through five, also
grades three through five they are able to participate in what we call grip. It is a gifted research project where the
students pick something they're passionate about, usually something that has been introduced to them within the curriculum and they do a deep dive on it. That is where they
get that independent self-motivated sort of research opportunity. Is skipping over middle for just a second, this
is what it looks like at the end of the road. At the high school, we have time with academic aptitude peers because
we have leveled academic courses. We have elective
opportunities that are not leveled. Just mixed ability
were all students are mixing together. We also have a variety of specialty programs for our students individual
interests so that they can dive deeper whether that is a stem interest, we have many program opportunities. Work-based
learning opportunities and every senior completes a senior
project that is their own design as well. We're hitting
the three mandates of the state in there. We have the time
would likability peers, we have the time with age level peers and we have time for independent study. At the
middle school we are doing a fantastic job, we have academic
leveling. We have mixed ability groups for grade level electives. We're hitting two out of the three levels there.
this course quest is going to be the opportunity for us to bridge a much needed offering for our gifted learners to
indulge in an interest driven research opportunity.
>> so, just kind of getting us toward the end of our presentation, just a little bit more about quest. It is an
elective opportunity for sixth grade students. It starts the sixth grade, we want to begin there. It is optional. We are not forcing a student to be a part of that . It is a part of
the series talked about earlier. It is huge for our students, we want them to have the skills and further the
education. A deeper dive into the curriculum, in-depth
research connecting with adult mentors creating meaningful final product shared with an authentic audience. It also
nurtures academic independence and advanced medications. We
don't want to tell her students what to do, our students have to be able to think on the fly to continue to
advance wherever they are. Who would teach it to, it fits
flexibly into any department. Five current gms teachers, it
would not require -- we do feel like we can make this
happen >> he has done a lot of work
trying to see how this would work. On our curriculum night
he was available for questions. He spoke to about 16 parents.
all of them being offered to their students. Done a lot of
the legwork to see if this is something that students would like to be a part of. What in this comic is the schedule? No,
it would not. You would also have access to other semester
long options. This could be a year-long opportunity for
students. This would give our school counselors the
opportunity to move it around. It would create a pretty
flexible opportunity for our students. If you can see up
there, do you have any questions? Again, I have to
give that to dr. Fowler, I wasn't too quick on the jump
to fix that one. >> thank you, dr. Fowler, board
members, any questions? >> I do have one question: the
last five you are talking about it is a semester long program
for the class, what happens if they don't like it, don't succeed, can they transfer into another class and not be at a
disadvantage? >> kind of like many of our
electives , if they're not, we're going to put them in the
position where they can go, also, this is the type of class where we are looking at failure, the whole goal is to
in some ways, we want you to try, not succeed, learn from it, get better. The whole point is to get you and up vision,
that is life, you're going to fail, can you learn from that and grow from that. The hope and the goal is that a student
is going to want to be in their. How can you do this
better? >> I was going to say
productive struggle is such a part of being the gifted resource teacher and it would be a gifted certified teacher
likely he was teaching this. There designing something that is manageable and achieving this. I will also add that
within the sixth grade curricular options, there are semester long options, art 6 is a semester long elective.
offering this would be that students didn't have to choose. They could still have art and do this or if they just
really love the idea of quest, they could do two quest courses and make it year-long . >> I was just curious as to
when you are going to start this ?
>> it is a course that is proposed for the 25 of 26 school year, just needed a little bit more information and
context around it for you guys.
>> is there an idea of maybe expanding that to seventh and
eighth grade? >> if it works , let me
rephrase that, when it works, we would like to continue that.
alluded to earlier in a public comment , we hear a lot of
concerns from students and parents as they transition from fifth-grade in the gifted program when they bonded really closely with that gifted resource teacher. In many cases
they've had that teacher it seems like the next progression
but also is going with that bridge metaphor, a nice bridge from the elementary to the middle school curriculum as
well. >> we already meet the state criteria because we offer leveling.
>> we offer the opportunity for individual research, this is
just a more robust offering of that. >> thank you. >> how many students are in
this program to begin with? >> I'm so glad you asked that
question, I was well prepared for it. We do universal screening in two grade levels, one of those is fifth-grade.
that screening is taking place in spring. We have 25 or 20
students that are monitored and it will grow exponentially
in the referral window just as an example, we have about 50 sixth-graders who would've been eligible for this class.
>> that was going to be my next question, thank you. >> my questions or maybe a little different. Are there any
weighted classes from hepa point of view? I believe there are that algebra one class , I'm curious about how you're
going to academically compute? >> great question. Weighted gpas only come into play for
high school credit. This would not be offered for high school
credit. >> and how will you assess for grade assignment, the criteria? What does a a look like versus
what is a b look like? >> I think the answer lies in the skills curriculum. The content is not something that
is testable. It is going to be the real-life product that will be largely of the students design. It will show them that
they have mastered these research skills, the
presentation skills coming up with a research question and developing it into a full product, it is absolutely some
curriculum work to be done there. We are excited to have
those five gifted endorsed teachers at the middle school that I talked about. We want to give credit where credit is
due, we have one gifted license teacher at the middle school
prior to the board having endorsed and supported financially those classes being offered to our teachers on site at the secondary complex and it's only because of that
effort, we are able to offer that this year and have such a
robust number to teach it. >> history, science, mathematics are the -- what about students that are gifted
in drama or in language, other subject areas ?
>> that identification beyond the academic areas actually does not start until seventh or eighth grade. It could be built
into future levels of quest added on that way.
>> so, when they do testing in seventh and eighth grade, that is put out to the public as parents are allowed to refer
their child without a teachers referral so that gives opportunity for our whole community.
>> thank you for mentioning that, we advertise that
opportunity. We will take a referral and pound the
pavement for them, if there is anyone watching at home and you
are interested in knowing more about this gifted referral process, feel free to reach out to me or to your school's
gifted adviser . >> I just want to follow-up, it
is your expectation that this will be a part of the course offering for the 25-26 school year, this will come back
around -- 24-25, I apologize if I misspoke. Next fall.
>> to be see that in the course catalog? >> no ma'am. >> the course recommendations
-- >> fantastic, that is why I was still little bit like I hadn't seen it before .
>> this is also a targeted audience so it will be very easy to get that information out.
>> thank you both very much this is very informative and I look forward to seeing what you can do with it.
>> thank you. >> okay, as part of our
information items they see next up we have -- to speak to us
about our younger learners . I would like to acknowledge ms.
robinson for suggesting that we have him share this content
with both the board and the public. With that, we look
forward to learning from you. >> good evening, I noticed that
I was on the same -- I have the second best thing,
suspense. Pictures of our kids. I know it's weird I am
starting a presentation about technology with a slide of a
graduate. That's because everything that we do, no matter what it is, we filter through this I want you to
look at our knowledgeable strands, we know we have
science sol's but we also have computer science standards that go from kindergarten to eighth grade and then we have computer
science courses and I work with dr. Fowler, on making sure that
we provide great computer science instruction for our
high school students. We also have digital learning standards that go right along -- it is kind of a fancy way think
medication and collaboration this is straight from a
national ed tech plan, there were two groups of students, one group of students that build and explore and
collaborate using technology and then there is another group of students, they just consume media and it's kind of like what you think if you are not in our classrooms. I want to
say that does not happen in gcps. Our students are engaged using technology . Sometimes it looks a little messy,
learning is messy, we wanted to be a little messy it wants to
be something that he is going to share with his family. They
get the message oh, johnny sent this to me, let me listen to it and I can reply with my voice. Students can indicate with
their families regularly. We have almost 90% of our students engaged. That is incredible. We don't force teachers to use
certain programs even though we spend a lot of money on them and we give them a lot of professional development. We
want them to use them but we want them to have autonomy and 90%, that is amazing. I think that 10% is actually preschool
that doesn't use it regularly because it is preschool. Maybe
they are creating a video together and yes we have students creating videos as young as preschool, they're
making green screen videos and doing great stuff. We actually have a third grade student who is the son of our school
library and who is in the broadcasting club at goochland
elementary school and he is an editor, he uses can vote which is what I made this in and he saw his mom using canva. Even
the younger students that will prepare them for the tools they will use in the future . My most favorite pictures coming
up. They communicates, this is the first day of school, he
took a picture of his friend and he is introducing his friend to his family so. It's amazing. This is an app that we
actually saw preschool students using during your visit at ges.
there actually programming and making a computer program using
coding. I think this was in the library at ges with misses
smith, they read a book and they are kind of like retelling the story using coding. I think this is the best picture I've
ever taken. This is amazing. I feel like this was miss robinson's face when she came and visited. And we balance
digital technologies with also unplugged innovation. We don't
only focus on screens. This is my job , but I know that
screens aren't great for us all the time, we need to be outside but also, let's figure out ways to incorporate, this
lesson addressed following directions incredible for
preschool which is also a language arts standard. Following directions, cause and effect, colors and they can
also work on spelling. I'm sure they have played with some
of the stories as well. They have evidence of learning,
artifacts of learning so, that app seaside talked about
creates a journal for them. Third grade is a transition
year to canvas which is our learning management system that we learned from third to 12th grade. When the students leave
third grade they actually leave at the portfolio of all the work that they have done since preschool and it shows their
growth which is pretty amazing. We wouldn't have that ability if we were trying to keep that in crates with paper and
pencil. Don't get me wrong, I love paper and I love pencil. We have to make sure we leverage afforded says. How do
we do that? How do we get teachers to actually make sure that we are focused on the profile of the graduate, where
focus on computer science standards and they've got a
laundry list of things to do, we have an incredible team, we
have four instructional technology coaches and
goochland elementary school, she was at the preschool visit,
next year she is just going to be at goochland elementary
school . We have a new one starting, we actually finished up the second interviews today, I'm very excited to share that
is but I can't do that yet. It's top-secret and that elementary will be at randolph and bird. Maybe one day we will
have fun. Then we have jade miller who also just started with us last week because we had two itc's leave. One is
using her creative technology skills in the private sector,
that is half the team but we are so excited about jade
miller, she is certified in code va. She is a certified
coach, she has led girls who code club. She is exactly what
we need for this robust computer science experience .
catherine richards, all-around rockstar. If you haven't met her yet, you will and you are going to love her, I promise.
they use many things to guide their use integrating with
technology. This is one of my favorite models, it doesn't
put technology on a pedestal, technologies in the goal, the
goal is teaching and learning. How did they integrate, is it
whole group or small group, students communicative are
collaborating and then the content knowledge, the
standards that we have to teach science and social studies but also computer science and the digital learning standards.
so, as he stated, we are an apple distinguished school. All five of our schools are apple distinguished schools which is
a huge deal because there are very few schools in the world
who are apple distinguished schools. It's not official and
we have only been nominated for it but we are the first
district to be nominated for the first apple distinguished
district which is pretty amazing. I hope we get it, hopefully putting it out to the universe lets that happen but
as soon as I know I will definitely be sharing with you that is a huge deal. The first ever in the whole world , it's
not that we chose apple because it's amazing, and I do love it, it's not because of the tool, it's because their egos
aligns with our egos. When you look at their hopes for education in the way that they support education, it aligns so
well with our profile , they want to empower students the
same way we want to empower students. They also have a team, they have three members of the team that's come and
visit with us. We have a consultant to comes, I bug him
all the time. He probably does not love when I email him, he probably does. I bet he does right now I'm all the time and
I am like hey, this is what we are planning on doing. Come and visit and take a look. I would love to bounce some ideas off
of you and he is all about it. And then we have somebody on the operations side. He helps with any issues we are having
but also forecasting five, 10 years into the future and how can we support students even better. That comes along with
our purchase, even though you see the high-priced heavenly talk about computers and ipods, it also comes with a team that
supports us to do amazing things. We don't talk about them that much but I think we should talk about them. I'm
going to leave you with some pictures. This shows the balance of unplugged and plugged in activities, we've
got to really engage kids, but I also want to show you what
teachers look like when they are engaged because it is
amazing. Now I did cheat, that is a top 10 picture that I've
ever taken but they are in elementary school so I kind of
cheated. I promise that the lower elementary school teachers look just like that too when they look at our team.
this is what we want to do with technology. We are trying to
create labs of kids where they just stare at a screen all day,
there -- we want kids to be creating, communicating. They have lots of good ideas, they have so much to share I would
also love, I know this is unconventional, but I would love to assisted our preschool and I know we have another
visit coming up. >> okay. So, he is changing it back to us. Thank you, board members, do you have any
questions? >> first off, the visit was
wonderful. Roughly how many hours a day to your students
from preschool -- who is what we saw.
>> how much time a day average?
>> before I was here, I started my education career as a preschool teacher, not a lot of people know that, and then I
taught third grade for a while I feel like kids need
exposure, they need a tool to create, but they also need
balance. They need to be able to explore in many ways. Not
just screens. It is not all day
>> it is nice to be able to code to build something, who is going to build it? >> do you mean coding like on
the ipad, the computer? >> let's say you wanted to come up with something see design it on the ipad,
whatever, you do everything on the ipad and then well, you can
do that on the ipad but you can't get a job building
anything. >> it seems like I paid you to ask that question. Thank you so much for asking that question.
I agree that there are jobs , I don't remember the number,
tens of thousands of jobs open in virginia right now that involve the coding aspect of computer science. I think it is
important , giving them the opportunity to express themselves in different ways. I don't get is our job to raise
2600 computer scientists . We want people to become doctors
and nurses and teachers. It doesn't just stop there. I
think on the visit that you went with he was the rockstar
in goochland, not first year teaching but first hearing one,
he talked about his shark take idea, what the kids did, they
designed, my favorite use of technology is blending digital and analog together and figuring out ways to put that
together. He had kids design things that our kindergartners
can use with very high scaffolds. It is tricky. Is
kind of like playing with blocks and then you can create a design in the new 3-d print it and have the design. It
might inspire somebody to become an architect. They used 30 printers and it might inspire somebody to be a
teacher. It takes that stuff that is trapped in the digital world and takes it out and put it into our physical world and
I love that. We use things like hummingbirds and honestly you can cut me off at any time, I could talk all night. We have
things like hummingbirds, you have things that you can make with the cardboard in this picture , you can attach your
ipad to it. It has gears and motors and lights. Before I came to goochland , I went to a scratch made up, is like a
computer programming website there is a teacher from
goochland who is now the gifted resource teacher . She was sharing off some project in. One of the students had the
best project I've ever seen in my entire life. It was a unicorn that she made out of cardboard and this was seven,
eight years ago. You had to solve a problem on the ipad and
when you solve it, the unicorn spun around and then opened its
mouth and tons of glitter just came out at you, it was so messy it was amazing and she was so proud. It was one of my
favorite things. It takes that digital and it unites it with
the analog and it kind of opens up the door to more and more
creativity. It starts here because that is where things
start with computer programming. We don't want to
leave it there, we want things to impact the real world. Great
question . >> anyone else?
>> you are so entertaining and we needed that. My tour after
being a teacher and a preschool director and seeing what I
observed on our tour was absolutely amazing and I
don't give a lot of complements, but that, the thing that impressed me the most was all of those children,
someone computers , and I loved where they were actually taking
the robot cars and designing the roads, every child was
engaged. There was absolutely no need for any discipline,
they are children now, anything could burst out but it did not. Because I think they were so engaged. We thank you for that
for making those kinds of things happen and for a
preschool, I couldn't go for first grade, but those kids and
somewhat disability it was just beyond, probably the best tour
I've had, they've got to be great because I am all into the
children. I thank you for that opportunity.
>> thank you so much for saying that. That was definitely the highlight of my year, it was amazing. I can't take all of
the credit for it. This team right here, they make magic happen. And said this is a story that I tell, I told once
before and I promise I'm going to end soon, when I first
started doing this job, the instructional technology coach
job, it was my first day and I went into a fourth grade classroom with the teacher that I just met and she introduced
me to the kids and she said oh your last name is crazy how you
say it, and I said they can call me dr. C. He has a best
job in the world, he helps teachers dreams come true and I
was like oh my gosh I'm putting that on my resume. That is the best job in the whole world. That's what these almost four
people do every single day. That's why every year we ask for a fifth one. I just can't wait to have a full team
because the magic that they make happen is incredible .
>> how did you choose that? >> that was before me, but we
did have it where he came from before, you probably have a little bit of experience with it and I love that app because
it's a predator -- pretty popular app. There saying that
upper grades use it too. I would love to see upgrades use it. I think that would be too expensive. We will stick with
canvas. But it is so popular because of what you can do with
it . There is zero barrier to entry. Kids can open it up and start making they can take pictures, and then they can
take those and share them out . We don't want it just to stay
like we talked about it in the sandbox where nobody can see it, we want to engage with an authentic audience and that's
an app that allows that. It took me forever to figure out why they call that seesaw, I don't know if this is why, but
I imagine a kid that made did you see that app, I thought that's why they call it seesaw, it is a great app, I
love that app. >> I was just going to thank you for the presentation. Is nice to see what they're
working on and I think the thing that I just appreciate the most is balance. As a teacher of young children, I
see so many that don't have the grip strength and the finger strength when they are writing or even just opening up
things were building and so there has to be a balance where they are doing both. Wonderful things with technology they
need to have that play, thank you so much.
>> okay, this was very timely. He's gone, come back. We have
apple device purchase on the action items for later so that was good timing on your part. >> so maybe I was put in the
right meeting . >> I will tell you my
observations and then I would like to hear from amaya because as a student in our schools, I'm curious to know her take
is on the ratio of analog and digital learning and how it has benefited her. I see applied learning, I see interactive
learning icy conceptual learning even in a digital world. I see an investment, we didn't become an apple
distinguished school division. Well, it is division . They can
decide later if they want to give us the award. We didn't
reach that without a significant dollar investment from our citizens. We need to like publicly acknowledged that
this was a shared investment and thank them for that. The
last thing before I get amaya to share her thoughts, your enthusiasm is utterly contagious. I love it, don't
ever let anybody take that from you. The kids are going to love
that. You will relate to them and build bonds. I just want to
applaud you, many years ago someone told me I needed to
temper my enthusiasm and I would like to just go back to
retract those words now, I don't think you should ever temper your enthusiasm. >> I agree, thank you. >> miss amaya, what do you think?
>> I think it's awesome, I think the more into the future
we get, I think that a lot more things are going to be, you
have to use technology so we can't just rely on, I think it is important like you said to have balance between these
things but I also think it's important that we learn these while we are young before we are older and we struggle
learning how to do these certain things and I know you
mentioned canva, when you are making presentations and videos, I think it is a lot of trial and error so I think
when you learn how to use these certain platforms and things, I
think that the younger you start the better that you will be and it will help you later in life.
>> I could not have said that better. I know we talked a little around, we might have a presentation coming up in
another month , but we can't expect kids going into ninth grade to be successful at a place like that without exactly
like you said, starting at day one. Perfect.
>> I understand in the absence of dr. East, you are going to tee up our first reading of policy updates?
>> yes ma'am, I'm going to reiterate what you may have said earlier in the meeting and that is that the policy tonight
is up for discussion under first reading and not a vote for adoption. Just to give a little bit of the brief history
of the policy draft , this is a new policy that is being
proposed. There is no pre-existing or correlating
policy that exists by the virginia school boards association. This policy is proposed in reference to 22.1
dash 23.3 . We present it now for conversation about the policy. >> thank you. Board members, no
action tonight, would welcome any discussion, you've all had an opportunity along with the public to review the policy.
I'm certain the policy advisory committee would like your feedback and input . Feel free if you would like to let
me share. >> madam chair. We feel that, I
feel and I believe that, I'm not going to speak for anyone
else. I feel that the plan is a good plan, I think that we need
to have something in the policy to keep us from getting in
trouble, being sued , to keep all of the students safe, not
99% of them, not 1% of them, but 100% of them, it may need
some tweaking, I don't know about that, we will see and I
have heard some criticisms that you might have a new governor
in a couple of years in which case if they change the policy then we will, I would vote for abiding by the state rules.
>> thank you. >> I believe that when looking
at the policy that it really puts the parents in the driver seat for their child and it gives them the ability to
advocate for their child in the school system. For me it gives
all parents the ability to make decisions and be aware of what is happening to their child. >> miss maxwell?
>> when I was running for office, a lot of people that I
met with in my division were concerned about things and
bottom line they just felt like there needed to be something definitive, definitive policy regarding these issues . I
don't know that they felt necessarily one way or another but they felt like it should be a definitive policy regarding the issues of bathrooms. That was their main concern to be
honest. >> miss moses?
>> one thing that I do like about it that I really like about it is that the, it gives the parents an option to say
yes, I want my students to be treated like this. One of the
requirements is in order for them to have a name change or
pronouns or something like that, they have to have, lack
of a better word, permission slip. The parents need to know what's going on. It's their children. Parental rights is
important here and the parents do need to know what is going
on, thanks. >> thank you, miss moses.
>> okay, my turn. It is no surprise to any of you that
this is been a very close to my heart issue not since last
january, but since july of 2021 . For nearly three years I have
studied this issue, I have followed the legislation, I have followed the attitudes of the day towards divisions and
I want to direct some of the misinformation that has been spoken here tonight. First of all, virginia code, section 22
¿ 23 explicitly states that putting that legal reference in
the 19 nondiscrimination policies that we have at
goochland says we will follow the policies adopted by the
virginia department of education. Last summer, the virginia department of education adopted a governors
policy. Already today we could all just go home and say, we are already following the model policy simply based on the
letter of the law. Now, like miss maxwell, I heard extensive
feedback from community members that they did not like the
vagueness, we should not be asking our parents, students, and staff to try to figure out the web of illegal
cross-references about what the expectations are in our
schools. Putting forth the policy provides clarity around that issue and ensures that everyone is on the same page. Also to miss moses his point, make sure that the staff
understand a procedural and operational practices point of view what the expectations are. It was mentioned during public
comment tonight that you can't deny a student with a gender identity different from -- access to the bathroom of their
choice. Accommodations will be made to support that student.
by the way, from everyone who spoke tonight is consistent with what we are already doing and would not be a change
there has been express concern about you can't out a child and this could be dangerous to them, that is not the role of
the schools, that is the role of social services. If that child is in danger, the school division has a legal obligation
to report that to social services. Why are you doing
this now? This should've been done last august. Six more are
pending adoption in several school divisions have taken pieces of the policy and integrated into other areas of
the policy. Those include hanover, virginia beach schools alike. Even if none of the school divisions had taken
action, I earnestly believe that what governor young can,
the virginia department of education, and the attorney general have determined by legal review to meet the needs
of all students. I don't know how many students identify as
transgender because guess what, that's not relevant to me, that is a private personal matter to their well-being.
what I do know is both transgender students and non-transgender students alike deserve privacy, protection,
and equal opportunities for services from our
administration and our guidance counselors. There is nothing in
this draft policy that says that that would not be provided. I also appreciate that in several sections where
there is superseding authorities for decision-making, the policy clearly states shall provide
reasonable modifications for this policy only to the extent required by law. We are not negating laws that go above and
beyond with our local authority can allow. Those cross-references are also included. From my assessment ,
spending way too much time in the last two and half years examining this issue, I appreciate the work that the
policy advisory committee has done to this point to bring this draft forward. I do not have any technical edits at
this time, but look forward to continued feedback from our public as we take the next month to consult with our
superintendents central administration office and other
staff and best understand, what does this look like for you in
practice? Any final thoughts from any other board members
this evening? Very well, thank you for your input on such a
delicate get important topic for our community. Okay, miss
white, we had training on roberts rules of order so just sit tight there. Believe it or not this works differently than
you might think it does. Board members, we are now moving to
the action items portion of our agenda and I will entertain a
motion, would you like to take them as a slate, or what is
your pleasure? >> I think we should talk about
the apple device divide for the apple device purchase to be
separate -- >> I have a motion and a second
to separate the section of the apple device purchase from the
instructional calendar topics and all of those in favor, any
discussion? Great, all those in favor say I. Any opposed?
debbie, we are learning. Miss white, we look forward to hearing from you on the apple device purchase.
>> thank you. So, this is a request that you will get every
year. Every year we renew our third, sixth, and ninth grade
devices. The ipads last for three years each and are -- our
macbooks last for -- they get a new laptop and it will last for
their high school career . So, as you can see, the current
cost for an ipad is $429, that is a discounted rate for the school division and the laptops are $849 each. We are looking
to buy a 570 devices and what we've done over the last few
years is we have slowly increased the budget so that we no longer have to lease those items, we can outright purchase
them. What happens is at the end of that time, they can
either pass it along to staff, or the ipads to our younger students that don't use them quite as often, don't take
them home so they have a little bit longer of an afterlife. We eventually sell them on got deals. We get fairly decent
money for those devices because we take very good care of them.
is so, what we are asking for you today is, you see a
purchase here for $328,000 which is within our budget, we
use bps a grant money as well as our own operating budget for
that and I also ask that you agreed to let us source apple
and we will post that, and on our website . That is my asked
tonight for you to approve this purchase and to allow us to use
apple as the only place we can by apple device.
>> do we have any questions? >> I'm just curious, so,
third, sixth, and ninth grade you replace them. So, is this typically the same amount every time? The amount of --
>> so, every cohort has slightly different numbers of students but our cohorts are typically 200 students per
grade. We have a smaller than 200 cohort .
>> have you noticed a huge increase in cost? >> no. We have had pretty steady pricing for the ipads
and macbooks over the 12 years that I've been here.
>> they only last you three to four years?
>> yes. There are different generations as you know of
ipads and macbooks. At a certain point, even if the
device itself is in pretty good shape, although think about kids taking this back and forth to school all of the time, they
do get banged up a little bit. The platform that they run on,
at a certain point our technology department doesn't get the support and so everything that they do on
these devices are done remotely so they tried to keep them all about the same level of the platform that they run on so
that they can be feeding information out to these computers and updating them regularly remotely on a common
platform. >> board members, any other
questions for ms. White? All right, board members, we have
an apple device purchase request before us, I will entertain a motion. >> the motion is written there,
it's very specific because it's got the apple sole-source
language. >> madam terry moved to approve the purchase of ipads and macbook errors for 328,530 and
that there is only one source practically available to provide the apple ipads and macbook errors and that source
is apple. >> I have a motion, do I have a
second? >> it has been moved and properly seconded to approve the purchase of the apple
devices. Any further discussion, or are you ready for the question. All those in favor of the motion say I?
those opposed say no. It is approved miss white, thank you
very much. >> our students will be very
happy with shiny new devices this fall . Board members, just
reminding you that your original motion for action items was to deal with the apple device purchase and to deal with the instructional calendar separately. With that
I'm going to turn it over to walk us through one at a time
please. A >> we will start with the calendar for the upcoming academic year, 2024-2025. A
little history, we really work to modify our calendars so that they are better aligned with the rest of our region as
previously presented tonight and over the last several months, that is something that our staff has been very desirous of and it would certainly help us with our
retention efforts. We made some modifications and had this
calendar up for considerations in december, I pulled that's
because I wanted to have the new board have opportunity to weigh in on the calendar. Some of the most, some of the
biggest differences in the draft that is currently adopted
. And the draft that I am proposing this evening would be in august 19th start date as opposed to august the 12th. The
last day of school is being recommended for amendment to may the 30th as opposed to june 6th, this calendar maintains
the integrity of all of our other student holidays and professional development days. This calendar is proposed also
would move our spring break to the first week of april, which
conveys to the remaining schools in our region. Teachers
expressed interest in wanting to have us continue some form of a fall break. That was extremely popular this past
fall when we had our intercessions. Teachers have the opportunity to choose whether to work intercession or
take the time off to recharge their batteries. They expressed to us the importance of maintaining that time. They had
put forth at two days in october which would've been coupled with an optional friday for what could be five
consecutive days for staff to travel if that's what they wanted to do. This particular calendar proposal does not
include the. We have taken the two days from october and moved
them to the monday and tuesday preceding thanksgiving. Traditionally thanksgiving break in goochland has been
inclusive , this would give staff and students the holiday for the entirety for the entire week of thanksgiving. Allowing
our teachers greater extended opportunity to recharge their
batteries. Madam chair, those are the highlights of the newly proposed calendar. >> thank you and correct me if
I am wrong, but I believe that this instructional calendar may
have eight fewer teaching days than our current calendar which gives our hard-working staff some much-needed time back.
>> those days come in as mentioned one week later and
concluding one week early. This does include 176 days as
opposed to the 180 that lots of people are accustomed to. Again I will remind you that the code prescribes 180 days or 990
instructional hours. Our school day is longer than the average school day of the commonwealth by 30 minutes. We are going to
make the hours easily and have room for adverse for implement
weather. >> just recalling our conversations, this also retains to align with the
pre-christmas window. A very natural sequence .
>> these are all things that I would've highlighted but admittedly I am in my 16th hour of work. You are absolutely
correct in that this will maintain our tradition of ending the semester at winter break. The first semester will
start on the first day of school august 19th and conclude on that day. >> board members, do you have,
no, I will entertain a motion.
>> madam chair? >> I move that the 2024, 2025 calendar be approved as written.
>> motion? >> I will second.
>> and a second, is there any discussion about the calendar?
have heard from a number of teachers that the day after the super bowl would be a good day to have off.
>> for the fan of the losing team, it is certainly a good day to have off. And if I didn't have my two by twos
yesterday, I swear I would've taken it. I think I am more
down now than I was then. It never gets easier when you are
a fan. >> okay, board members it has been moved and properly seconded to adopt the proposed
changes to the 24-25 school year calendar as presented by
-- hearing no further discussion, I will call the vote. All those in favor say I. Any opposed say no. You have
your calendar. >> thank you so much, madam chair. This will certainly make our staff and students and
hopefully families very happy.
>> this really just pertains to the fifth
>> board members, I will entertain a motion.
>> I move that it be approved as written.
>> I have a motion and a second to approve the 2024 school year
calendar to make march 5th an asynchronous learning day for
all students across the division. Is there any further
discussion? Hearing on, all of those in favor say aye, any opposed, say no. Dr. Cromartie? Fantastic, moving
right along, we have items for board review, would you like to share anything out of this selection of material? None
other than to say that last year the school board agreed that we would present the to an tactical board plan quarterly.
it is time for us to do that in the month of february. The next time that we come forth, it will be the month of april. The
attendance updates are pretty much standard.
>> board members, no action here for us, do you have any
questions or any comments? >> hearing on, we will move to
any new business. That is just part of items for review but if
you would like to comment on the. Great, there were two
items added to our agenda when you adopted them several hours ago for new business, miss moses.
>> okay, I moved to have ms. Bennett as school board clerk pay dues for personal school board member dues.
>> I second. Payment great, it has been moved and second to
have the school board clerk pay for annual membership. Any
further discussion? Great. Is, if any member has already paid
their dues personally, could you please make that known so that there are not duplicate l.e.a.p. Paid -- paid more than
once. Are there any members that have paid for the year
2024 ? Miss moses has paid the dues see you can take that from
the invoice total please. Okay, any other discussion? Hearing
none, all those in favor of having the annual membership
dues paid, say I. >> I. >> any opposed, say no. Your motion carries miss moses.
>> thank you, I also have another motion that we look
into alternate legal counsel for the school board.
>> do I have a second? >> I second that.
>> it has been moved and properly seconded to explore
legal counsel options for the school board, is there any
discussion? Hearing none, I will call the question, all those in favor say I. All those opposed, say no. And again,
miss moses, your motion carries. Think you. -- thank
you all those in favor say I, any opposed? Wonderful, the
goochland county school board will reconvene at 5:30 p.m. On tuesday, february 27, that is two weeks from today. In the
goochland annex building at 2938 river