[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:06] School board has been in a special call meeting for
[0:13] food matters and personnel matters, so we're now going to move into our regular meeting. Do I have a motion to come back into open session? Make a motion. We come back into open session, discussing only the items listed on the closed session. I second.
[0:39] All right, these are pursuant to Virginia Code 2.2-3711.
[0:44] Is there any discussion?
[0:47] Roll call.
[0:49] Mr. Johnson?
[0:51] Yes.
[0:51] Mr. Taylor?
[0:52] Yes.
[0:53] Mrs. Andrews?
[0:54] Yes.
[0:54] Mr. Smith?
[0:55] Yes.
[0:56] We are an open session.
[0:59] Maybe we have the recommendations.
[1:01] Thank you.
[1:02] In personnel matter, P-16-23-24, the recommendation is to approve the open stipend for volleyball
[1:08] All to be split between the coach and the assistant for this year only.
[1:15] Members, is there a motion?
[1:17] I make a motion, we accept the recommendation.
[1:20] A second.
[1:21] Any further discussion?
[1:25] Roll call.
[1:26] Ms. Taylor?
[1:27] Yes, Mr. Johnson.
[1:28] Yes.
[1:28] Mrs. Andrews?
[1:29] Yes.
[1:30] Mr. Smith?
[1:31] Yes.
[1:33] Motion is carried.
[1:35] The personal matter P17 23-24.
[1:39] Information only, the request has been for more information which will be provided to the Board in an upcoming meeting.
[1:47] All right,
[1:51] so we are about to open our regular meeting in our regular circumstances.
[1:56] That's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by our invocation.
[1:59] I
[2:02] believe to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands
[2:09] one nation under God in the visible liberty and justice for all.
[2:19] Our dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful for the rich blessings that we enjoy.
[2:23] We're grateful for this day that we have to come together and meet as a board and discuss
[2:27] the matters of the division.
[2:29] We're grateful for the direction and insight and inspiration that we receive and we're
[2:35] grateful for the guidance and and the ability that we have to discern that which is best.
[2:42] Father, we pray for thy continued blessings to be upon our school division that we might
[2:47] have safety and peace and that all within the schools will be protected from harm and evil
[2:53] and these things we ask humbly and the name of our son Jesus Christ. Amen.
[2:57] Amen.
[3:10] Lord, members, you have a series of minutes before you.
[3:18] So we have approval of agenda before we get to the minutes.
[3:24] So board members, do you have the agenda in front of you?
[3:26] Are there any additions, movements, et cetera, about the agenda?
[3:31] I'd like to move action item A, the donation of the mislodge to print short-class school
[3:37] athletics to follow special recognitions.
[3:44] Anything else?
[3:45] I
[3:49] believe that will help facilitate additional means by others a little bit later.
[3:53] Do I have a motion to approve the agenda with the bottom of the change?
[3:56] Do you want a second? I'll second it.
[3:59] All right.
[4:02] Ms. Taylor, you mentioned.
[4:05] She made a motion second.
[4:10] Any further discussion?
[4:13] Roll call.
[4:14] Mrs. Andrews.
[4:15] Yes.
[4:16] Ms. Taylor?
[4:17] Yes.
[4:18] Mr. Johnson?
[4:18] Yes.
[4:19] Mr. Smith?
[4:19] Yes, all right, that has been approved.
[4:23] All right, now you have several minutes before you.
[4:27] You've had a chance to review them, I assume.
[4:30] Now, where's how I say you?
[4:37] I approve the minutes for August 31st, September 11th,
[4:44] September 14th and September 25th,
[4:47] with the adjustments or amended minutes
[4:49] for August 31st on September 11th and September 27th.
[5:00] Second.
[5:01] All right.
[5:02] Any further discussion?
[5:04] Roll call.
[5:05] Mr. Johnson.
[5:06] Yes.
[5:07] Mrs. Andrews.
[5:08] Yes, and I want it to be noted that I did not misunderstand or my memory lapse for the
[5:15] 31st minutes.
[5:22] Ms. Taylor?
[5:24] Yes.
[5:24] Mr. Smith.
[5:25] Yes.
[5:25] Yes.
[5:27] All right.
[5:27] We're going to do special recognition VSBA Academy Awards.
[5:32] Dr. Pentecost is that you?
[5:34] Thank you.
[5:34] Yes.
[5:35] So this evening, we have several members who will be receiving their VSBA Academy Awards.
[5:43] These awards are for attending the Virginia School Board Association training sessions and
[5:50] the amount of credits that they have earned.
[5:52] This year, Ms. Stephanie Eastap will earn the award of recognition.
[5:56] These awards of recognition are for 15 credits earned during the year.
[6:02] And our award of recognition recipients will be Ms. Eastap, Ms. Kirk, and Ms. Taylor.
[6:09] Additionally, Ms. Jill Andrews will earn the award of achievement for 24 credits, which is the bronze pin.
[6:16] Mr. Rob Ealy will earn the award of excellence for 48 credits over the course of two years.
[6:24] Mr. Chris Johnson, Mr. Cecil Smith, and myself will earn the award of distinction for 84 credits in two years.
[6:32] And that is a starfish pen.
[6:34] So I'll ask that you come down for a picture and I will give you all your pens and awards.
[8:53] of course.
[8:56] Please come up this
[9:07] evening.
[9:07] We have the great good fortune of accepting a donation from the Moose Lodge for $10,000 to
[9:15] print George High School athletics, specifically for use in the following projects, improving
[9:22] the softball batting cage, the softball press box and shed, and the softball bull pit area.
[9:29] And we'd like to ask that Coach Carroll share with us how this came to be, and then we'd
[9:35] I'd like to hear a few words from our Moose Lodge representatives.
[9:39] We have Ms. Alwinger and Mr. Mrs. Kelly here with us tonight.
[9:44] Moose Lodge representative reached out.
[9:45] They've always been extremely supportive of Prince George and athletics and
[9:50] reached out and asked what they could do to help.
[9:53] And of course, we all know, with financial burdens, easy responses.
[9:58] You can make a donation and we'll make sure it goes somewhere and she says we're kind of looking more big picture.
[10:03] What are you working on?
[10:04] and I said, well, we just received a wish list from a softball coach that's going to take us
[10:08] two or three years to fulfill. And she asked me to go over with her. And then ended up having
[10:15] the privilege of going to Hopewell and going through the new lodge, which is beautiful, by the way,
[10:20] and sitting down and kind of sharing the vision. Like I said, it would take two or three years.
[10:26] They offered that it may be a possibility and then called back with the $10,000 donation.
[10:31] It's now going to take what would have been to a three-year project we're going to want to two things at the time
[10:36] We'll be able to do it between now and softball season. So, you know, very grateful for their generosity and
[10:42] The organization that they are and serving the community and being so supportive. So we appreciate it
[10:48] I've got coach back here. We know that her and the girls will be
[10:52] Extremely excited. So it will give them a great facility. Thank you all. Thank you
[10:56] If
[11:02] we could invite some representatives from the moustache to speak to us also.
[12:37] What's your name?
[12:41] The fear in your eyes is that
[12:46] Oh my goodness
[13:41] Good
[13:51] evening all. My name is Cheryl Simmers and I'm the principal of Rwani Technical Center.
[13:57] I always appreciate the opportunity to speak to the Prince George School Board to
[14:02] to give you a recap of what Rowanie has been up to in the last year.
[14:07] Well, 22, 23 had its moments of struggle.
[14:12] There have been many success stories as well.
[14:14] One of our biggest success stories was through our skills USA,
[14:17] auto body and auto technology programs.
[14:20] Both programs won first place in our region's district program.
[14:24] Both students went on to the state competition where our auto technology student
[14:28] won first place in the state program.
[14:30] Our student, Nicholas Walford, from Sussex County traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to represent
[14:35] the state of Virginia in the national competition and auto technology, and as a junior he came
[14:40] in 13th out of 31.
[14:43] While he did not win the national competition, we were so happy to provide him with his first
[14:48] airline trip and other activities away from Virginia.
[14:52] Since Nick is a junior and he's experienced this competition firsthand, we are looking
[14:56] forward to more opportunities in the future.
[14:58] and just to let you know.
[15:00] Both Nick had an opportunity to invite a fellow classmate to compete with him at the State Fair Competition last week, and a student from Denver and Nick, one first prize at the State Fair and Auto Services as well. So we're anticipating that they're going to do great things at the Skills USA Competition this year, which we will be hosting. It rotates.
[15:26] Another area in which we excelled was our certification testing. We have developed a training session
[15:32] for our students immediately following our workplace readiness skills testing.
[15:36] We feel we have cracked the code to the test through vocabulary instruction and role playing.
[15:42] Two of our students had perfect scores and many were in the upper 90s and 80s.
[15:46] We're contacting this training for our teachers so all of them will be able to assist their students
[15:51] in doing the best they can do. Overall our students passed 80% of the certification testing they
[15:58] completed. The most positive statistics is when we look at our lowest percentage of
[16:02] passing and it was 71 percent which is nothing to be ashamed of. We are extremely proud
[16:09] of our students for their hard work. They took this testing seriously and it can be seen
[16:13] through these pass rates and other assessments that our teachers took the challenges that
[16:17] may have been presented to them and still made hard ones.
[16:21] This past year, Roani added a CTE coordinator to its staff. She has most recently finished
[16:27] her doctoral degree and I would like to recognize her as such.
[16:31] Dr. Erica Hale is taking the 2324 schools year by storm.
[16:35] She will be leading our efforts in work-based learning as well as youth registered apprenticeships
[16:39] through the Department of Labor.
[16:41] This is for 16-year-olds.
[16:43] We have meeting schedules that we have had meetings with the state representatives with
[16:48] both programs.
[16:49] So our staff had an opportunity to understand the programs and ask a lot of questions.
[16:54] Dr. Hale will continue to grow these programs so any student that is eligible and needs
[16:58] this type of opportunity will have a chance to complete them for graduation requirements
[17:03] as well as pre-workforce opportunities.
[17:06] In addition to these programs, we have also done a lot of research with Job Corps.
[17:11] This is proving to be an extremely interesting opportunity for students that need alternative
[17:16] options.
[17:17] We will continue to grow our workforce opportunities as we move through the school year.
[17:21] We are continuing our growth in our programs.
[17:26] This will be the first year, Roani will be hosting a one-year program plumbing course.
[17:31] Mr. Marshall Tooms, many of you may know and may have worked at your house, is a third
[17:36] generation plumber and he is our teacher.
[17:39] He is jumping in with both feet and has already secured partnerships with supply houses and
[17:46] other plumbing businesses.
[17:47] We look forward to his addition to our staff, and as a first-year program, we have had a wonderful start to the registration.
[17:57] At the end of the year, our school year, we were granted a tour of Culpepper Technical Center, only two to three years old.
[18:04] The building had brilliant natural light, bright colors, and modular furniture that was up to date, and all of it was own wheels.
[18:11] That was a big win for us, the teachers that went in myself.
[18:15] We did find that our shops are outfitted very similarly with the equipment itself, but we did identify ways to spruce up
[18:23] Rowante. We're in the process of cleaning up and updating the landscaping. We're also adding more color and
[18:29] Branding into the building. Our school colors are navy silver and white. We are trimming everything out in navy instead of the
[18:35] Current Brown and it looks so much brighter in the building already. And we'll be painting all the walls white. Also our
[18:43] Our masonry students are in the process of continuing to cover all the light blue
[18:47] tile that is in the building, and it really has lightened up the hallways as well.
[18:52] The teachers lounge will receive an update to its day core.
[18:55] Other projects are in the works, but these are just a couple we have already started.
[19:01] Our enrollment this year, we have 292 students at Rowante, which is the most number we have
[19:08] had in the building since I have been there.
[19:11] Many of the programs are at their maximum level, which is 20 students per course.
[19:17] We also are blessed to have a large percentage of exceptional education students in our population.
[19:24] We have over 20% of our students that are exceptional education students.
[19:28] And we have a larger number of non-traditional students in some of our courses, which for
[19:33] those of you that don't know for traditionally male classes, those would be ones that have
[19:37] females in them and we have a large number this year compared to what we've
[19:42] had in the past it's almost across the board this year whereas before it would
[19:46] only be one or two programs so we are beginning to start the continuous
[19:51] improvement process and for the school and we're just making great strides already
[19:57] I mean it feels like we've been in school for a semester already although we
[20:01] forgot we started in August this year so it's like we have been in school for a
[20:05] But we do welcome you all to come visit any time that you would like.
[20:10] Also just to let you know, our open house for Rwanty is October 25th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
[20:18] This is open to the public. Our teachers will be there. Usually our students are there so you can see them in the shops.
[20:26] But you'll be able to see the projects that we have underway and be able to meet our staff and some of our students.
[20:31] We always welcome people for visits, feel free to come by and see what we're doing.
[20:38] We've got some exciting things on the horizons that we're going to be proposing to our Board of Control.
[20:44] And I think in the next few years you're going to see some big moves.
[20:49] So thank you very much for allowing me to come and speak.
[20:54] Thank you, Miss Emmer's.
[21:02] Very good, thank you, Miss Emmer's.
[21:09] Prince George High School reports to the end of the month, Mr. Galister.
[21:17] JRTC focused to come up as well.
[21:24] I'm excited, these are always great opportunities for us to be able to share all the wonderful things going on in the school.
[21:30] So thank you, Dr. Pinnickoff, Dr. Martin, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Andrews, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Taylor, really appreciate this opportunity to share the great things.
[21:39] I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking myself.
[21:42] So, I could have taken any of the items that we have here on this list and
[21:47] chosen the presentation for any one of these areas because there are so many great things going on.
[21:53] But I would be remiss if I didn't first give significant amount of credit to Dr. Martin.
[21:58] Because many of these great things that we have going on at Prinshawage High School started last year and are continuing into this year.
[22:06] So, I definitely need to give credit where credit is due to Dr. Martin's.
[22:09] Thank you very much for that.
[22:10] So we have many, many things as you see here going on, you've heard the reports from the state superintendant about where scores are down across the board.
[22:19] Our scores are continuing to climb, you really see that with our writing scores, so they're continuing to move up.
[22:27] As Miss Simmers alluded to earlier, we have more Rwani students and more programs than we've ever had before.
[22:32] Our band, our choir, nationally ranking band choir, they came in third in a national competition.
[22:41] And a lot of those were in compared to other schools that were for the vocal arts specifically.
[22:47] So we blue ribbon ward went in there, 25 juniors and our first ever in house, Richard Blan program, that's exciting.
[22:55] Again, Dr. Martin got the ball rolling on that, looking to grow that into next year.
[23:00] Athletic speaking, we have first ever state champion, the first ever female champion
[23:05] awarded was last year, and that was actually for one of our freshmen last year.
[23:11] Growth of the social media program, student activities that we have going on, that again
[23:16] Dr. Martin got the ball rolling with that.
[23:19] We're excited that we're Dr. Wyatt and Mr. Bowman, or we were just planning today one of
[23:25] of our first opportunities for students
[23:27] who have exhibited the great behavior,
[23:29] who have exhibited that they're in school
[23:32] that they have great attendance,
[23:35] like a staff versus student dodgeball game,
[23:38] something to entice the students
[23:40] to participate a little bit more.
[23:42] We have the new swim team starting up this winter
[23:45] and continued resurgence, new clubs, new activities.
[23:50] But perhaps one of the things that we're most excited about
[23:52] is the continued growth of our JROTC program.
[23:57] So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Lieutenant Colonel Pape and
[24:01] specifically to Sergeant Major Artis because it's these gentlemen in
[24:06] our cadets that they really need to speak to the fantastic things that we have available for our students.
[24:14] All right, good evening.
[24:15] I'm Sergeant Major Artis, I'm one of the Army instructors at Prince George High School.
[24:21] But before I continue, I want to introduce you to some of our cadets.
[24:26] All right, first I have major academia been in the program three years and he's in charge
[24:34] of a response before our operation, plans and training.
[24:39] Next, I want to introduce Major Moses, another one of our senior cadets.
[24:46] She's been in the program three years also.
[24:48] So she's equivalent to a chief of staff, all right.
[24:52] And lastly, well not lastly but next is our senior enlisted cadet, he is the senior enlisted
[25:00] advisor to our battalion commander and he's also been in the program for three years
[25:05] and he is the top enlisted cadet in our program and that is our major more.
[25:10] And then lastly of course you know our senior army instructor, Colonel Pate.
[25:17] As you see up there on the screen, our growth has been incredible over the past two years,
[25:24] since I've been assigned to Prince George High School as an Army instructor, but we
[25:29] attributed that to these individuals right here.
[25:32] I tell them all the time, we don't keep secrets.
[25:35] You pass on that knowledge to the next cadets so we can grow this program and we can continue
[25:40] on.
[25:41] So, and lastly, we also attribute that to word-of-mouth and also them showcasing their abilities.
[25:49] All right, next I'll be followed by Major Academia.
[26:00] Good evening, I'm Cadet Major Academia.
[26:03] Today I'm just going to talk about what we do in our Judicy program on a regular basis.
[26:08] Throughout the year, we do many things to support and our school and community events.
[26:14] One of the major events that we supported was the little fee track meet.
[26:19] In addition to helping run the event and providing a color guard.
[26:24] One of our own cadets volunteered to be the mascot for the Chili Peppers baseball team, one of the nearby baseball teams.
[26:34] We also do in our program something called the service learning project.
[26:38] Service learning project is what we do to help promote and build leaders in our program.
[26:43] One of the major event service learning projects that we do is the American Red Cross blood
[26:48] dry.
[26:50] We do it twice, twice a year, and the person that usually runs it from the American Red
[26:56] Cross says we are probably the best school that she's ever had run the event.
[27:01] So next I'll be followed by major Moses.
[27:07] Good evening all.
[27:08] My name is Cadet Major Moses, and I'd like to talk to you about all the different teams
[27:11] that we have here to offer at our Jersey program.
[27:13] So the first team I'd like to talk about is a drill team and color guard.
[27:18] So this team we're participating in competing and marching in different types of formations,
[27:22] small and big, unarmed and armed, meaning with rifles and without rifles.
[27:26] We also compete in competitions academically, so we're getting graded on our knowledge while
[27:31] in formation.
[27:33] This is a highly competitive team that compete against all different teams in Virginia.
[27:38] And for the past two years, we've been able to get top three overall.
[27:43] Next thing I'd like to talk about is our radar team.
[27:46] So our radar team at a different pace is more physically challenging.
[27:49] It's all about physical fitness, PT, at a normal radar competition.
[27:53] We compete in five cases, logistics relays, obstacle courses, anything, it's various at
[28:00] different schools, also building up rope bridges like that.
[28:04] We also get the opportunity to go to Bedford is one of our biggest competitions, it's really
[28:09] fun for everybody.
[28:10] and this is a big team building.
[28:13] The last thing I like to talk about is our Marksmanship team.
[28:17] We have the opportunity to learn how to shoot air rifles with lead pellets at shorter
[28:22] distances that most people are used to at really tiny targets, but this team really involves
[28:27] attention to detail, concentration, and it teaches cadets how to get those qualities.
[28:33] We also are very competitive in this and the ready team, like I said, and win a lot of trophies.
[28:39] With all these teams, I feel like they're just great opportunities for people to learn different things and get in different leadership qualities.
[28:47] And I'd like to pass it on to Commissioner Major Morris.
[28:53] Good evening. I'm Kadeck Commissioner Major Morris.
[28:56] I'll be talking about JCLC.
[28:58] So JCLC stands for Junior ROTC Kadeck Leadership Camp.
[29:02] So it's a camp where we set our best cadets to locations such as Virginia Tech or as most recently for APHO.
[29:09] It's an event where they compete with other schools in Virginia, they compete in events
[29:14] such as or they participate in events such as Repel Tower, Drown Proofing, marksmanship
[29:21] events such as with Air Rifles and Archery, just in a few.
[29:28] The main purpose of JCLC is to improve cadets to be better citizens and better leaders
[29:35] as they move up in JRTC.
[29:38] Now over the summer, one of our cadets, as you can see on the screen,
[29:42] our name is Trinity Green.
[29:44] It came in first, overall, cadet at this previous JCLC,
[29:48] out of 400 cadets that attended over the summer.
[29:53] I would like to pass it on to our senior Army instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Clay.
[30:00] A lot of folks still think of GRTC as something that high school students should do only if they are interested in joining the military. And we're continuing to work against that perception. Interestingly, this year is not going to help us much with that because we have so many of our superstars and our seniors that are actually going in the military for the past couple of years. And in general, most of our highest achieving cadets do not actually go into the military.
[30:27] But they do go on to do great things, and JRTC gives them a huge leg up in competing for scholarships,
[30:35] getting into prestigious schools, joining special programs within those universities, and doing very well on those.
[30:43] So on the slide in front of you, you see kind of a sampling of our cadets.
[30:48] And even though the cadet on the left looks definitely like she's in the military, and she actually was in Dion Morris' role last year as our senior
[30:56] your enlisted advisor to the battalion commander.
[30:59] She is not in the military now.
[31:01] And again, most of our senior ranking cadets do not go into the military.
[31:05] For those who do choose to enlist, like cadets Sanchez, now private Sanchez in the United States Marine Corps.
[31:11] On the right, JROTC helps them by giving them extra rank and pay as they join the military.
[31:17] And then of course, they've learned so much already that they have a much easier time with their initial entry training.
[31:22] So, Sanchez just came back this past week to visit us so proud to be wearing her Marine
[31:27] Corps uniform.
[31:28] She worked so hard to get it and she is an amazing, amazing person and we were so happy to
[31:36] see her.
[31:39] The other thing for folks joining the military is, again, most people when they think about
[31:44] joining the military, they think about enlisting.
[31:46] And so, Cadet Academia, who you saw up in front of you, is the guy in the middle there.
[31:50] That's him at a academy orientation day where they talk about what it means to go to one of the service academies and what it takes to go to one of the service academies.
[32:00] Academia just found out yesterday, yesterday that he has an appointment to West Point, the United States Military Academy.
[32:13] So his hard work is paid off.
[32:15] He's the first from Prince George in several years certainly since before COVID.
[32:20] And so that's a neat trend that we've got going.
[32:23] We're going to have several cadets undoubtedly that end up with ROTC scholarships
[32:27] this year, and then for folks like Cadet Morris, he's going to enlist,
[32:34] following his father's footsteps, but he'll do so with a lot more say in what he does
[32:38] and a lot more certainty of his success.
[32:42] And then just one last thing to highlight, you might have noticed that you might not have.
[32:46] But Michaela Moses, those teams that she was talking about, she is the one
[32:50] in cadet in our program that is actually on all three teams.
[32:54] So in addition to our role as the Chief of Staff, probably one of the toughest roles
[32:57] in the JRTC program for cadet in terms of leadership, she's also on all three of those
[33:02] teams going to all of those practice every week and all of those competitions throughout
[33:07] the school year.
[33:08] So what you see here in front of you is just a sample of our program but a really good
[33:12] one and we're super proud of all of them and with that I'll turn it back over to our
[33:17] principal.
[33:18] Thank
[33:21] you.
[33:22] We're amazing.
[33:24] Again, you can see why I didn't want to speak, because these students, not only the achievements
[33:28] that they have, but how eloquently they speak, how well they're prepared for not just military
[33:34] life, but life beyond whichever path they choose to take.
[33:39] We're excited about what growth they will continue to have.
[33:42] We're excited about the potential growth of the archery program within the program.
[33:47] There's an obstacle course in the work, so a lot of growth there's, but not just there, but across the board at Pronshire High School.
[33:55] We're excited about the direction that we're heading to in this year.
[34:00] So thank you very much.
[34:01] Thank you.
[34:02] Thank you.
[34:11] And we are also excited to present our first student of the month this year.
[34:16] I'm going to get Raquel Thompson and her moms.
[34:18] Come on up.
[34:20] Mom, you got to come up to.
[34:22] So Raquel, when we first started talking about the student of the month, this one, this
[34:31] first one was pretty much a no-brainer.
[34:32] And that was a lot because of what has occurred over these first few months of school year.
[34:37] Raquel is in addition to being a fantastic student academically.
[34:43] She is our student body president, she is in everything when it comes to SGA, and you'll
[34:49] see her out and about not just in the building, but also within the community with that.
[34:53] If it wasn't for some rules, she would also be the president of the 4-H organization,
[34:58] but she's the VP of that because she's already the student body president.
[35:02] She's in beta, and what really helps to have Rakel stand out in our minds over these last
[35:10] few months, as we were considering, is about a month ago or so, Rakel came to me and she
[35:16] Ms. McAllister, we have all of these great clubs, all of these great activities that we have going on.
[35:21] But wouldn't it be a great idea to bring the leaders of all of these groups together?
[35:25] And I said, Raquel, you just recommended that we create an advisory board.
[35:30] So she actually organized and
[35:32] chaired our first advisory board of all of our clubs recently.
[35:37] And we're excited about the direction that will continue to take all of our student leaders in the building.
[35:42] I mean, so again, I'd like to congratulate Raquel Thompson
[35:46] is our student of the month.
[35:48] Thank you for your all.
[35:55] Mr. McKelcer, if we could invite Raquel to say a few words?
[36:00] Yes, of course, I tell people all the time, school is fun but I really do love the like extracurriculars that I do.
[36:09] That's really what pushes me.
[36:11] And I realize that we're all kind of just students that are just trying to get through high school.
[36:15] Nobody absolutely loves high school.
[36:16] but these things are kind of what makes it worth it, you know, obviously, thank you so much to Mr. McAllister and Dr. Martin for just being very involved administrators and really it is the adults at school that are going to make or break our community.
[36:29] So involved adults please.
[36:33] It's nice to have adults that recognize children as people too that are just developing and their leadership styles and their academic lives and just trying to, you know, get their life.
[36:41] So I really appreciate that from everyone, but yeah, that's why I'm here.
[36:47] No,
[36:55] please go up there with her.
[36:57] Oh, yeah.
[38:03] So we have some people that will motivate us.
[38:06] Thank you.
[38:07] Thank you.
[38:08] Thank
[38:26] you.
[38:26] The comprehensive plan review team.
[38:49] Well, good evening, members of the board, Dr. Pennycuff, Mr. Smith.
[38:54] I am here tonight with our team, Wade Clevenstein, Mr. Monos, Mr. Chandler, and we are here tonight
[39:04] to share with you some of the great accomplishments of this past school year and the outcomes of our
[39:11] schools. And so I'd like to start off with a slide of celebration. And that is we are pleased to
[39:20] report that all of our schools are fully accredited and we want to really
[39:26] thank all of our teachers, our administrators and support staff for their
[39:33] dedication to the achievement of all students. This takes a lot of work. It is
[39:39] difficult and we value all of the hard work that they've put in to make this
[39:46] a possibility. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Clebenstein to talk
[39:52] you through some of that data.
[39:58] So there are quite a few indicators that go into the accreditation process. We're going
[40:05] to try to give you kind of a broad overview of some of those indicators to kind of give
[40:08] you an idea of these green boxes that say fully accredited, where did that come from and
[40:13] how did that happen. So first of all, if we look at the pass rates
[40:17] students of all students who took an SOL test in Prince George across all of the five core
[40:24] content areas, the reading, the writing, social studies, and math and science.
[40:29] That composes all students grades three through 12.
[40:34] So we're looking at every student in Prince George County who took an SOL test, the averages
[40:39] of those content areas, and to kind of give you a little bit of context and a little bit
[40:44] of perspective were showing you how Prince George students performed last year alongside
[40:51] the averages of the state of Virginia.
[40:55] And you can see that Prince George ranks above or very near the state averages in all five
[41:02] core content areas.
[41:04] If we take this and try to give a little more context for each of the core content areas,
[41:10] Because the next five slides will kind of take you through each content area and try to
[41:16] put Prince George in perspective with Virginia but also with all of the 15 or 14 other districts
[41:24] that compose the Region 1, the DOE Region 1.
[41:29] So if we're looking at the reading pass rates, again you can see Prince George at a 76% pass
[41:34] rate with Virginia at 73.
[41:36] three, but you can kind of get a better idea of where those numbers stand in relation
[41:41] to all of the other schools and district in region one.
[41:47] The writing pass rates, again, you can see Virginia slightly above Prince George, but
[41:54] Prince George is right there in the top third of all of the school districts in region
[41:59] one.
[42:01] The same story for the math pass rates, again, Prince George in the top third of all of
[42:06] of the school districts in Region 1.
[42:09] And then if we look at social studies,
[42:12] Prince George again outpacing the state by 3 percentage points,
[42:16] and we're right there in the middle of Region 1,
[42:18] along with science, right there with the state average,
[42:23] and right there in the middle of all of the schools in Region 1.
[42:27] So that kind of gives you some context, not only about where
[42:31] Prince George stands compared to the state,
[42:34] but within the schools that make up Region 1.
[42:38] All of those numbers really come from SOL scores,
[42:43] but if we start to talk about Prince George High School specifically
[42:47] and the Prince George High School graduating class of 2023,
[42:52] the state uses what's called a graduation and completion index.
[42:57] You might hear it referred to as the GCI at some point in time,
[43:01] But the GCI is really just a composite number that is used to denote the performance of the Prince George High School graduating class.
[43:10] You can see that this slide shows the GCI for Prince George High School in the 2021,
[43:17] 21, 22, and 22, 23 school year.
[43:22] And you can see that the 22, 23 school year at a 93.6, the highest it's been in the past three years.
[43:29] And it's well above the 88% benchmark that the state requires to be considered a level
[43:36] one indicator status.
[43:40] So the previous slides that I just showed you kind of talk about some of the SOL scores
[43:45] that make up the academic indicators, the GCI which kind of shows the Prince George High
[43:49] School graduating class.
[43:51] We know that there's still work to be done so I'm going to pass it over to Mr. Monos and
[43:56] Mr. Chandler, and they'll kind of start to walk you through some of the next steps that we're going to look forward to.
[44:04] Good evening, board members, good evening, Dr. Pinnickoff.
[44:07] So I wanted to talk to you about some of the things that we're doing for
[44:10] next steps to improve some of the instructional programming that we have.
[44:15] One of the things that we did over the summer was join a consortium called CIP,
[44:19] which stands for the Comprehensive Instructional Program.
[44:22] It's a consortium of 57 school districts across the state.
[44:26] This provided us with some very valuable resources for our teachers.
[44:31] It is produced by mainly teachers for other teachers across the state of Virginia,
[44:36] specifically for Virginia SOLs.
[44:39] They have classroom lessons, they have common assessments, they have benchmarks
[44:43] that teachers share with one another that are aligned to our SOL curriculum here in Virginia.
[44:49] We use those common assessments in benchmark data
[44:52] so that we can gauge how our students are doing compared to districts across the state, as well as being able to provide.
[45:05] We also looked over the summer at our curriculum maps throughout the division and made some updates and changes to those based on teacher and administrator feedback. We also aligned those with the resources that we got from CIP. We included them on there so that teachers have very easy access to all of those materials, whether they're at home or at school during their planning.
[45:27] We also made different adjustments to master schedules, to increase some of the time at
[45:33] the elementary level that we were dedicating to science and social studies.
[45:37] And then at eighth grade, we have doubled some of the instructional time for students
[45:42] in the areas of reading, writing, and math.
[45:47] Our schools right now are working on their school improvement plans, so they're looking
[45:51] through their specific school data and creating goals and action steps so that we can increase
[45:58] our achievement, they're looking at specifically what their school struggled with, or might
[46:02] need some additional support, or just want to increase a little bit.
[46:07] They are working with teams to come up with those action steps and planning so that
[46:11] we can make our schools and our students as successful as we can possibly be.
[46:16] And then at the end term and quarterly reviews, we go out and meet with the teams and discuss
[46:20] their progress and what we can do to support them.
[46:28] Thank you, Mr. Monos, good evening.
[46:31] part of also what we do is really being proactive in providing our teachers and our staff with professional development.
[46:37] And this helps us to build capacity with the needs that we saw from last year and throughout the summer.
[46:43] We really wanted to focus on our students' behavior and mental health and their mental first aid.
[46:50] So one thing that we were able to do was to bring in Jessica Minahan,
[46:54] who is the world-renowned author of the behavior code to provide us some really rich professional development and help teachers to build a skill set on how to really focus on behavior in terms of prevention and then reaction to certain types of behavior.
[47:14] We also had child savers come in and they helped us with some mental health first aid at the beginning of the school year for all of our students or for all of our teachers and staff.
[47:24] And then also, I know that you've heard about it, but Ignite PG, this was the first year, the inaugural year of our in-house professional development conference.
[47:35] We are super proud that we were able to provide differentiated, timely, and relevant professional development to our teachers from our teachers.
[47:45] It was an amazing event.
[47:48] It really focused on reading math, small group remediation, the Virginia tiered system of supports, behavior regulation, and just much more.
[47:57] It was a phenomenal event.
[47:59] We're super excited to continue.
[48:01] Wait.
[48:03] So kind of jumping from the academic side to something that's honestly been a hot topic across Virginia, I would assume across the nation as well is Chronic absenteeism, Chronic absenteeism being another indicator in the process like we showed with the academic outcomes, you can see the last three years of Chronic absentee rates in Prince George County.
[48:27] There was a spike in the 21-22 school year, but through our efforts last year,
[48:33] that did come down to 22.4% chronic absenteeism rate.
[48:38] You can see that we're still above that benchmark.
[48:41] Our districts and our schools are considered level 2, which still allows us to maintain full
[48:47] accreditation.
[48:48] But there is some work to be done.
[48:51] You can kind of see Prince George and Asylum right there, but again, the next slide where
[48:55] where we try to provide a little more context as to where Prince George falls relative to the state's chronic absenteeism rate overall,
[49:03] and where it stands in relation to the other 14 school districts in the VDOE region one.
[49:11] So again, a little bit above Virginia, and right there in the middle of region one, we know there's work to be done.
[49:18] I would beg to say that all districts in Virginia have a lot of work to do when it comes
[49:24] to chronic absenteeism.
[49:25] So as I pass it over to Dr. Martin, she'll kind of speak to some of the initiatives
[49:29] and some of the campaigns that we're undertaking in Prince George to bring these chronic absenteeism
[49:35] numbers down.
[49:40] And so as we took a look at this data over the summer, we predicted that some of this would
[49:47] be a concern.
[49:48] And so the school-based mental health grant that you've heard about previously is one in which we have chosen to put some supports in the area of chronic absenteeism through some training for our staff and through some supports that we can provide to our school psychologist, school counselors and school social workers regarding the risk factors and how to support students who are becoming chronically absent so they can get the right resources.
[50:17] We have also initiated a community awareness campaign and are working towards ways to become
[50:26] engaged with our students and our community about attendance through some more awards and incentives.
[50:36] And so we'll talk a little bit about that. The first thing that we've done Mr. Campbell has done an amazing job
[50:41] of really working to form this B here PG campaign.
[50:48] And you can see here in late August,
[50:50] we launched this new logo,
[50:53] and our schools have all begun to brand their newsletters
[50:58] with new information and little snippets about absenteeism.
[51:05] They've included this in their flyers
[51:08] and information that's going out to families
[51:10] about what it means and really educating families about what it means to be absent.
[51:16] What we know is that student achievement and absenteeism are correlated.
[51:21] The more you are absent from school, the more likely you are to not achieve at high levels.
[51:28] And so we need students in the classroom in order to be able to teach them and provide them with an appropriate education.
[51:37] And so we've also launched this website, and on this website there's resources there including detailed information about what to do when your child is absent information about the from the attendance works from the state's attendance campaign as well as our own resources about attendance.
[51:57] And there's some flyers there about what it means with you miss two days a month or four days a month.
[52:03] What does that really add up to and helping to educate and provide a little bit more information and tips to help foster those good attendance habits from the very start.
[52:15] What we know is that if we have students in class and it becomes a habit and a pattern becomes much easier all along.
[52:24] So,
[52:28] a few things are, as you heard from Mr. McAllister, all of our schools are working on
[52:33] school-wide attendance positive rewards, and so whether that be an incentive to attend
[52:42] a particular event or a perfect attendance award that gets handed out at their honor
[52:48] role assemblies, those things are coming back and are really being worked on by each school
[52:55] team to make sure attendance is a part of the package when it comes to celebrating
[53:01] behavior as well as achievement.
[53:05] We are also launching this week, our first home visits, and as district administrators,
[53:12] our team has committed to go out in teams of two once a week, two homes of those students
[53:19] to our exhibiting chronic absenteeism and those behaviors so that we can identify them early
[53:27] and hopefully to make a little impression on and let them know that we want to engage with them
[53:34] within their home and make sure they know that we care about them and that we want them back in
[53:40] school. And those contacts will hopefully lead to more discussion and conversation about how we can
[53:46] support them and get them back where they need to be in the classrooms.
[53:51] We are working as well when we talk about engagement.
[53:56] Part of that is making sure that our counseling team is working hard to make sure students
[54:02] have a graduation plan that they have an effective plan for increasing student engagement post
[54:10] graduation, and that they have many opportunities, whether it be through Rwantee or through
[54:18] dual enrollment or through a career pathway, that they have access to those.
[54:24] And so our team works very closely together to make sure that we have a variety of options
[54:29] for students, and increasing awareness of those options is one of our goals this school year
[54:36] so that students know all of the different wonderful opportunities that we have available.
[54:46] So tonight we are proud of the hard work and dedication that our teachers, administrators,
[54:52] and staff have had to produce the final achievement for our students and our outcomes for every school.
[55:02] This is an exciting time, but we know we have much work to do.
[55:06] So, and we look forward to continuing to show improvement as we move forward this coming school year.
[55:14] Thank you.
[55:15] Very good.
[55:16] Thank you.
[55:17] Thank you very much.
[55:19] Let
[55:24] me see.
[55:25] Mr. Brewerbaker.
[55:29] Ms. Christopher is going to do his presentation.
[55:44] Thank you for allowing me to present our technology update this evening.
[55:48] We have, for the goal, the operational excellence and effectiveness, one of our goals this year,
[55:56] we've increased our, created our security plan for our cybersecurity to address the cyber threats
[56:02] and everything that we face daily from phishing scams and cyber attacks on how we would manage
[56:08] that and handle that going forward.
[56:10] We will review that every year.
[56:12] In addition, our ITRTs every year bring our staff together and go over internet safety and
[56:19] different things, we're going to be adding to the vector program, the safe schools,
[56:23] one specifically on cyber security so that all of our staff can be up to date on that.
[56:28] One of the biggest things we face is the fishing scams.
[56:30] How to identify them?
[56:31] Is this real?
[56:32] I get emails all the time.
[56:33] Is this legit?
[56:34] And that will help all of our staff get better on that.
[56:38] We will be doing third-party intrusion testing for our network to make sure that everything
[56:41] is secure on an annual basis.
[56:44] Our next will be in July of next year.
[56:47] And over the summer, we also create, increase the security of our wireless networks so that we lock down devices so that they can only connect to the network if they're by specific address if they're on the domain so that we can increase the risk of internal attacks and other people getting on the network and using up all of our bandwidth.
[57:09] with.
[57:11] We put other systems in place for student chromebooks.
[57:14] We have a system that manages how we assign them.
[57:17] We track the damages that are on them.
[57:20] We can invoice anybody, students for specific accidental damage or intentional damages.
[57:26] We have another one in place for all of our other computers and inventory that we track and
[57:30] who's assigned to it.
[57:31] Everything has an asset tag on it so we know who has it and where it's been and who's
[57:36] had it in the past.
[57:37] We've added the funds that have been added to the budget for the hardware replacement will allow us to get on track for the scheduled blow to end up replacing all of the equipment in the four to six year plan.
[57:53] All of our network is monitored by our system that we have that if anything goes down, if we lose connectivity, if we lose power, we get immediate alerts so that we can jump right on it and make sure that we can take care of it before most people know that it's been down.
[58:07] We've also, in addition to improving the security for our wireless, we've also improved the
[58:12] coverage area for the school, so we've increased the number of access points placed out.
[58:17] The reliability for the systems, all of our data closets in each of the schools have battery
[58:22] backup systems, so if there is a power blip, it keeps the equipment up and running so they
[58:27] don't hard crash and recover from that.
[58:31] All of the addages are documented and we make sure that we hold our internet providers
[58:35] to their service level agreements.
[58:37] Over the summer, we were fortunate to be able to increase the bandwidth to the schools
[58:42] so that all of the schools have a greater pipe coming into the school board office.
[58:46] And then we've also increased the internet by 400% so that we don't have that bottleneck with the school board office.
[58:53] So it's greatly improved functionality so far this year.
[58:59] All that we have?
[59:00] Thank you.
[59:00] Any questions?
[59:01] Very good.
[59:02] Thank you.
[59:03] Thank you very much.
[59:09] We're now going to enter our public comment section, Ms. Kirk.
[59:14] You have our, Mr. Rules.
[59:16] Yes, the information I'm about to read is on the back of the public comment form and also attached to the agenda.
[59:23] The public comment period is an opportunity for citizens to address the Prince George School Board.
[59:29] Citizens wishing to address the board must complete a sign-up sheet located at the podium and give it to the clerk before speaking.
[59:36] Each speaker will be allowed at three minutes to make his or her comments.
[59:41] The board chairman may grant an additional two minutes of deemed necessary.
[59:46] The time limits have been created so that as many members of the public as possible who wish to speak may do so while still allowing sufficient time for the board to conduct necessary business.
[59:59] at the end of the-
[1:00:00] The public comment period, the board will return to addressing the remaining items on the meeting agenda. We are now going to move into the public comment period of our meeting. Although Virginia law does not require us to hold a public comment period, we choose to do so because we believe it is important for us to hear from our community members about their concerns. Having said that, please remember that the public comment period isn't intended for board members to hear from the public. It is not designed to be a discussion.
[1:00:29] Accordingly, please do not expect the Board to respond to your comments and questions
[1:00:34] at this meeting.
[1:00:35] We take your questions and concerns seriously and want to have sufficient time to process
[1:00:39] your comments and perform any necessary research to provide you with a thorough response.
[1:00:46] We will respond to your questions and concerns either at a future meeting or have a staff member
[1:00:51] get back to you with the information you are looking for.
[1:00:56] We recognize that our community is polarized on a number of issues.
[1:01:00] That said, we want our school board meetings to serve as an example to our students that
[1:01:06] members of the school board and members of our community can deal with controversial
[1:01:10] issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect for one another.
[1:01:16] We ask that speakers address their comments to the board directly.
[1:01:19] The guidelines for citizen participation include, speakers should state their full legal
[1:01:26] name and address prior to addressing the school board.
[1:01:29] Speakers will not be permitted to address or question staff members directly.
[1:01:34] Questions should be directed to the chairperson who may at his or her discretion solicit a response.
[1:01:42] Speakers must apply the clerk when scheduling an appearance with a description of their topic
[1:01:46] and must confirm their comments to the subject only.
[1:01:50] Excuse me, must confine their comments to that subject only.
[1:01:54] Speakers of hearing before the board will not be allowed to campaign for public office,
[1:01:59] promote private business ventures, engage in personal attacks on anyone,
[1:02:04] or use profanity or vulgar language.
[1:02:07] A clause is permitted during their awards and presentations period only.
[1:02:11] Citizens may express their views in writing in lieu of any oral presentation.
[1:02:16] hearing impaired persons may contact the board clerk in advance to make arrangements for an interpreter.
[1:02:23] And I do have one person who has supplied me with her request form and that and that Starling Heiser.
[1:02:31] All right,
[1:02:34] Ms. Heiser.
[1:02:38] I want to first apologize for my attire, Dr. Pinnick, for members.
[1:02:43] Apparently middle school soccer games are at five o'clock on Monday afternoon, so I came from there to here.
[1:02:49] For those of you who do not know me, I'm Darlene Heiser.
[1:02:52] I taught in print storage 30 plus years.
[1:02:55] I taught for 47 years, I retired three years ago and have been substituting ever since except
[1:03:01] for the year of COVID.
[1:03:03] And I became concerned last year as I was subbing and I meant to come speak to you and so I'm just
[1:03:07] doing this preemptively for budget meetings and is coming up.
[1:03:13] That substitute salaries and I don't know everybody wants more money.
[1:03:17] But substitute salaries have not increased as far as I know for quite a few years.
[1:03:24] And then when I arrived at school this year, I found out that you actually decreased the salary for long term subs
[1:03:29] and increased the number of days that you have to be a long term sub for that.
[1:03:34] And so I became, I went on the internet this weekend and looked up.
[1:03:39] We are competitive indeed with Hopewell and mostly competitive with Dinwitty, which are neighboring counties.
[1:03:45] counties. We fall way behind other counties in what I consider way behind. On long-term
[1:03:52] sub-salaries, we're competitive with the day salary, with HOPO and DINWITY around the
[1:03:57] $90, but everyone else is higher than we are. I also decreased the number of building
[1:04:05] subs this year, and I know you got your reasons for that. Having taught for 30 years, I always
[1:04:11] I thought the building sub that came up during COVID was a really good idea rather than
[1:04:16] teachers calling in at 6 o'clock in the morning and everybody trying to find substitutes.
[1:04:21] There actually was somebody coming in that can be used.
[1:04:23] And I've noticed that on the front line, the substitute that they put out openings for,
[1:04:30] I'm probably going to run over time.
[1:04:33] That the number of subrequest have increased with this decreasing of the building sub.
[1:04:39] So, Testerfield County pays extra for Fridays in high demand days, something that might
[1:04:48] be considered.
[1:04:50] I know that a lot of people are doing something for money I'm not and so that's not my interest
[1:04:55] but I'm speaking up for them that they indeed are depending on this money for their household
[1:05:03] goods and it's a part time job at best but I think it's important.
[1:05:08] and it gives some continuity to the schools.
[1:05:11] I walk in, I do exactly what the teachers want me to do.
[1:05:15] They're not noticing whether, you know,
[1:05:17] in a decrease in services for the students.
[1:05:21] So I just like to have you consider doing something
[1:05:25] with the salaries rather than decreasing them
[1:05:28] in the next budget year.
[1:05:29] I know money's tight, but I'm just speaking for the subs.
[1:05:33] Thank you very much.
[1:05:34] Thank you.
[1:05:43] The next person is Gene Chanks.
[1:05:45] I'm
[1:05:55] Gene Shanks, Madras 9673, Black Water Farm Lane Dispietanum.
[1:06:01] I'll read an email, I'll read out the name and the position that they held here at the school.
[1:06:10] Thanks, Blank.
[1:06:11] We were made aware of the allegations early this morning on the current Blank.
[1:06:18] Thanks for the heads up.
[1:06:20] I will reach out.
[1:06:21] So
[1:06:24] this was a message from a prominent reporter in our community, it was in
[1:06:28] relations to the topic I'm here to discuss. It has come to my attention by
[1:06:33] several in our community and they asked me obviously to come here, I'm the
[1:06:37] guy carrying the torch on this pretty horrible situation, to make the board aware
[1:06:42] and the public aware of a long-term employee here at Crenshaw School who is now
[1:06:49] under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse.
[1:06:53] That message from the prominent reporter acknowledged our superintendent was aware of these allegations
[1:06:58] and the investigation that is ongoing sometime this summer.
[1:07:04] At the time of the message, several victims had already come forward and had given statements.
[1:07:09] The community would like answers, why this person was still employed and around children
[1:07:14] and at the start of this school year, or at minimum,
[1:07:17] not put on some type of administrative leave.
[1:07:20] Also, it is alleged our superintendent offered
[1:07:23] this person a contract position as a consultant
[1:07:25] prior to the start of our school year.
[1:07:28] The community has asked, once answers on,
[1:07:32] obviously, this gross negligence,
[1:07:33] and they're planning a future community meeting
[1:07:36] on the matter.
[1:07:38] That is in the works, and they would like answers
[1:07:40] from the superintendent.
[1:07:41] She can attend in person or by writing if possible, so look forward for an invite.
[1:07:47] Thank you.
[1:08:03] Hi.
[1:08:04] My name is Ford Pew.
[1:08:05] 13305 College Road.
[1:08:07] The two topics that I want to talk about tonight are recess time and then to go back to Miss
[1:08:11] Heiser's discussion about the substitutes.
[1:08:14] Much out in the audience.
[1:08:15] I don't know how she's held it together tonight, but has a rough time sitting in class all day
[1:08:20] long with only 10 minutes of recess time.
[1:08:23] So in a future comprehensive plan update or maybe a specific information on recess, can
[1:08:30] we see a review of why instructional time was added back in favor versus recess time.
[1:08:36] And then at that deduction and recess time has had any impact on disciplinary issues or behavior
[1:08:41] or anything like that.
[1:08:43] The second one is to the substitutes because of the pay issues teachers are having rough
[1:08:48] time in front line getting substitutes to pick up roles.
[1:08:51] My wife works at South, she has 25 students in her class.
[1:08:55] And if substitutes fail to pick up a job because of the pay,
[1:09:00] they're going to split other classrooms, give them an additional 10 to 15 students.
[1:09:05] So just ask that you look into that issue and take care of it.
[1:09:08] Thank you.
[1:09:26] I do not have anybody else unless there's somebody else in the audience.
[1:09:31] And if not, Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a comment to address an issue that occurred during
[1:09:36] on the recording of the September 11th, 2023 school board meeting.
[1:09:41] It has been alleged that during the September 11 meeting, the Deputy Clerk, Chief,
[1:09:46] Technology Officer, and or the superintendent, intentionally had something to do with the missing video content from that meeting.
[1:09:53] I was on vacation that week, and while I was not able to watch the live video that Monday evening,
[1:09:58] I was up early the next morning and decided to take a look at some of the items that were discussed that evening.
[1:10:04] I contacted Mr. Brew Baker and Dr. Pinnickoff immediately to let them know that the video
[1:10:09] footage between going into closed session through the middle of the last presentation was
[1:10:14] missing from the Swagget video.
[1:10:17] Mr. Brew Baker immediately contacted Swagget to find out where the missing video footage was
[1:10:23] and if it was recoverable.
[1:10:27] These meetings are produced totally by Swaggett remotely.
[1:10:30] They have someone starting the stream in and recording, controlling the cameras and
[1:10:36] terminating the streaming when the meeting is over.
[1:10:39] Once the meeting ends, the recording is sent to another department at Swaggett that reviews
[1:10:45] the recording, creates the bookmarks on the agenda and verifies the closed captioning.
[1:10:52] The completed video with the closed captioning is usually available within 24 hours.
[1:10:57] The Swagged Quality Assurance Department quickly investigated the problem on their end,
[1:11:04] and they were able to retrieve the missing video and repost the video.
[1:11:11] Repost the video in its full content.
[1:11:14] We received the following statement from the Swagged IT Quality Assurance Department.
[1:11:20] quote, during the processing of the Prince George County Public School meeting on 9-11,
[1:11:26] an indexor that was assigned this meeting had mistakenly skimmed past the portion where
[1:11:32] they came from the executive session the first time.
[1:11:36] This happened before our quality assurance team was able to review and check the contents
[1:11:41] of this meeting.
[1:11:42] We will take the corrective steps to make sure this doesn't happen again, and we apologize
[1:11:47] us for the inconvenience to this as cost, and this was by, in quote, and this was by Richard
[1:11:54] Gyingh, he was the quality insurance.
[1:11:58] So I want to make Swaggett's statement of record to tonight's minutes because of the misconception
[1:12:05] that the public perceives school board staff intentionally removed this video footage
[1:12:11] from the September 11th, 2023 meeting recording.
[1:12:17] Thank you, Ms. Kirk.
[1:12:22] All right, school board members, it's time for us to make a comment, if you like, if
[1:12:30] you want to go first.
[1:12:38] No comments from me tonight, thank you.
[1:12:41] All right, Ms. Andrews.
[1:12:47] I'm going to read my comments because I don't want to miss anything that I wanted to say.
[1:12:55] First, I want to thank Rowani in the high school for their presentations.
[1:12:58] It's always nice to see that Roani is doing great things and our high school, of course,
[1:13:05] is always improving.
[1:13:07] Our JORTC is exceptional.
[1:13:10] It's nice to see that they're getting larger with our military background here.
[1:13:16] And I want to address a couple of the statements that were made yesterday, because if I don't
[1:13:24] make it here, I can't make sure everyone knows.
[1:13:28] Concerning the football field, a question before the football field started,
[1:13:36] were we the
[1:13:37] board going to vote to approve it?
[1:13:40] I was told it did not need to be brought up before this board because the previous board
[1:13:45] had voted on it.
[1:13:48] I was new to the school board and did not realize we did not have to follow items the previous
[1:13:54] board had voted on.
[1:13:56] I have found out from previous Board members they voted to add it to the CIP but not complete to complete it.
[1:14:07] I talked to a Board of Supervisors. He said he found out about the field when the work started.
[1:14:13] The Board of Supervisors have to approve CIP items if county funds are used.
[1:14:22] The school board used ARPA, SR-2, and local offset technology salaries fund.
[1:14:32] The SR funds are through from the COVID times whenever we got all the money.
[1:14:42] And the suggestion that I found online for use of SR funds is after school and enrichment programs.
[1:14:50] Social and emotional support for students, software for student learning, hardware is such as laptops for students.
[1:15:00] I do know some of the money was for construction also, and that's apparently where the football field was supposed to be put in that.
[1:15:09] Bottom line, I want it to be known. I never voted for the football field. I never got asked to vote for the football field.
[1:15:21] We also had grant money. We also used grant money on much-needed maintenance work and repairs on the schools.
[1:15:29] and continue to have plenty of items to fix when the money is available. We did do a lot of good
[1:15:36] things with our money. And I want to say I've been on this board three and a half years. This is
[1:15:43] the first year I am vice chair. Ms. Taylor nominated me previously two years for chair or vice chair,
[1:15:50] but this decision had already been made before the organization meeting in January. Mr. Johnson would
[1:15:56] be chair or vice chair. I have been very frustrated because I felt I really do not have a voice
[1:16:03] on this board. We finally have parents come into the meeting and I want to thank y'all for coming
[1:16:08] and I want to thank the parents that I have gotten to know that I was told don't trust you,
[1:16:17] don't talk to you, you're controversial. I want to thank y'all for allowing me to be your friend
[1:16:23] and allowing me to listen to what you have to say because I wouldn't have
[1:16:30] known you otherwise. I take this job very important. I am voted on by the
[1:16:37] residents of this county. That's the only people I have to answer to. The
[1:16:42] comment was made that my memory is lapsing. My memory is not lapsing. I make
[1:16:47] notes, so I know what said. If people's names are mentioned, that's fine. And also for the record,
[1:16:56] I had it added to minutes. I wanted to make sure everyone knew I never thought that the athletic
[1:17:02] director did anything malicious. I think he was just trying to get money for our children and our
[1:17:13] our sports.
[1:17:15] Thank you.
[1:17:19] Mr. Taylor?
[1:17:25] I also would like to thank the community for attending our meetings, to hold us accountable,
[1:17:31] and to partner with us to provide the very best for our students and for our teachers.
[1:17:36] I want to thank Ms. Kim Shanks for planning to see that they needed help for the homecoming dance on Saturday night.
[1:17:42] I enjoy that very much volunteering, thank you for letting me know that.
[1:17:46] It's really nice to see the students outside of the classroom and the administration.
[1:17:49] Thank you, Mr. McAllister, for having me there.
[1:17:52] I enjoyed it very much.
[1:17:54] Again, I thank the Moose Lodge for the blessing that they gave $10,000 to our softball team.
[1:18:00] Money is very tight, and that was definitely well-needed.
[1:18:05] I'd love to hear Mr. Simmer's presentations, because I'm so proud of the trade, sorry, the
[1:18:14] trades that they have at Rewani.
[1:18:15] We are offering amazing careers to young men and young women that do not want to go to college that can start
[1:18:22] off making really good money and not have that college that hang in their heads.
[1:18:27] As for the JRITC, my son was in the JRITC and he was also in the Civil Air Patrol.
[1:18:33] These are great to put on your resumes for college or for your jobs, they're great
[1:18:38] curriculum activities. I begged my son to go in the Air Force, my father was in the Air Force,
[1:18:44] But he would not have that because I had wished I had gone in the Air Force when I graduated from college.
[1:18:50] And finally, I want to also go along with Ms. Andrews about the football field voting just so that we can put this to rust.
[1:18:58] I was not, I did not vote on it if there was a consensus there should be some kind of notes because we do consensus all the time through emails and texts so there should be some kind of documentation for that.
[1:19:10] And also that it's been a pleasure serving the community.
[1:19:14] I'd love to do volunteer work and I feel like this is a calling that I'm and a blessing
[1:19:19] to be on the board.
[1:19:21] Thank you for letting me if I have any.
[1:19:26] You passed, right?
[1:19:28] Okay.
[1:19:29] I think we've had some wonderful presentations tonight.
[1:19:33] You know, every decision I try to make is always based on what is good for students or good
[1:19:38] for kids.
[1:19:41] Every thing that comes up, whether it's budget, which is a difficult subject, or whether
[1:19:47] it's curriculum, or a field, or fixing a baseball dugout, it's all the same, it's
[1:19:54] a good for kids.
[1:19:56] I appreciate everybody in this community, you have my phone number, and those that have
[1:20:01] called me, I appreciate hearing from you, it's always a pleasure to have those conversations.
[1:20:06] I hope that I've helped your children along the way.
[1:20:11] If, how can you continue, that's fine, if it doesn't, it's R-A-T.
[1:20:15] So, we're going to move along now.
[1:20:19] Information students, a superintendent's report.
[1:20:25] Thank you, Mr. Smith.
[1:20:27] I would like to begin by thanking our teachers, our administration, and staff for all that you do to support and educate our children.
[1:20:34] through your tremendous efforts, you help give them the foundation for a life of their own choosing
[1:20:40] whether it's to enter the military, the workforce or college preparation.
[1:20:45] I'm so proud of the progress at Rwantee and that we have been at this team was able to lead
[1:20:52] bringing plumbing to Rwantee and this is the first year that we have students there having
[1:20:58] the opportunity to take those courses because we have a group who are committed to making
[1:21:04] opportunities available for all, no matter what your future holds.
[1:21:10] Additionally, I would like to thank our families and staff for helping us with our attendance.
[1:21:16] For this month, we were at 96% or above attendance for each school.
[1:21:22] That's a big improvement and I want to say thank you for hearing us and knowing that we
[1:21:28] We need your help for our children to be as successful as they can be.
[1:21:32] We need them to be in class.
[1:21:33] We need them to be here to learn.
[1:21:36] So when you look and see that our chronic absenteeism was about 20 percent, if you think about
[1:21:42] a fifth of our children last year, miss 18 or more days, that affects our achievement.
[1:21:48] So anything you can do to help us get them there, we appreciate.
[1:21:52] I also want you to know that when you tell us things, we do go back and look into those,
[1:21:59] whether it's recess or substitutes pay, and those things matter to us.
[1:22:04] We hear and we listen.
[1:22:07] I would also like to be sure that I share that we are transitioning our Halloween trick-or-treat
[1:22:13] event that has been held at the high school for the past few years where we pass out candy
[1:22:18] back to the schools for their harvest festivals.
[1:22:20] So that was born out of COVID and now we want the children to be back in their home schools enjoying it with their families and the events that the schools offer.
[1:22:31] Additionally, I would like to share that we are always hiring for best drivers. We currently have four positions open with two in training.
[1:22:41] So we need two drivers, but the positions in best driving are hard and it seems that we
[1:22:48] always need substitutes or as soon as we have one or two hired that we need one or two
[1:22:53] more work.
[1:22:54] So while we only have two positions that we need now, we'd love to have some substitutes.
[1:22:59] So please consider applying if you are a person who could devote that time and that level of
[1:23:05] patience to our children.
[1:23:07] Thank you for being here this evening and for all that all of you do for our schools.
[1:23:12] Thank you.
[1:23:15] All right, let's move to our consent agenda.
[1:23:20] Board members, what would you like to do with this?
[1:23:38] We can look at each line or we can.
[1:23:40] I'll move that we approve the consent agenda.
[1:23:46] A second.
[1:23:47] All right, we have a motion and a second.
[1:23:50] Is there any further discussion?
[1:23:54] Roll call.
[1:23:55] Ms. Taylor,
[1:23:58] Mr. Johnson.
[1:23:59] Yes.
[1:23:59] Yes.
[1:23:59] Does Andrews?
[1:24:00] Yes.
[1:24:01] Mr. Smith.
[1:24:01] Yes.
[1:24:04] Ms. Barnes, financial report, please.
[1:24:16] So good evening, Mr. Smith, other board members, Dr. Pinnickuff and Dr. Martin.
[1:24:22] So the financial reports for the board ending, for the month ending September 30th, 2023, and
[1:24:28] the preliminary end of fiscal year 23 reports were uploaded into board docs today, and because
[1:24:34] we wait until the county actually closes the month so that any entries that are out there will get
[1:24:40] posted when they do that.
[1:24:43] So let's begin with the September report in fiscal 24. As you're aware,
[1:24:49] this report covers the status for all funds, but we concentrate mainly on the operating fund in
[1:24:54] this because it's a fund that's not self-supported and we can't carry forward any balance after June
[1:25:02] 30th, so this is why we pay the most attention to this one, but of course all reports are
[1:25:07] include, I mean all funds are included in the report.
[1:25:11] So in looking at September for 2024, as of the 30th, we had received $14,729,336 in
[1:25:20] budgetate revenue, which equates to 18.3% of our budgetate revenue in the operating or
[1:25:27] regular fund. And this compares with 20.3% at the same time last year.
[1:25:34] In looking at our
[1:25:35] expenditures for the September 30th, as of we had obligated and spent 19 million, 34,000,
[1:25:45] $239 or 23.6% of the available funds in the general operating fund. So this equates to 23.6%
[1:25:55] and it compares to 16% at the same time.
[1:25:59] And as I mentioned last month and will probably continue to mention, just remind us,
[1:26:03] that our teachers, our 10 month employees, came back to work two weeks earlier.
[1:26:09] So they received their first paycheck of the fiscal year, a month earlier.
[1:26:14] So it's going to be a little higher until we reach May.
[1:26:17] Of course, we won't have as much to accumulate during the summer, during July and August.
[1:26:22] So
[1:26:32] now, as we look at fiscal year 23, depending on audit one, looking at our expenditures,
[1:26:43] I'm sorry, looking at our revenue, we had received $79 million, it's the same as last
[1:26:48] month, $79 million, $181,278. And this was the same as last month, 99.6% of the budget
[1:26:58] it funds and it compares to 98.8% for fiscal year 22.
[1:27:11] There it is.
[1:27:13] So looking at our expenditures,
[1:27:16] we had expanded and obligated $76,974,908.
[1:27:24] So
[1:27:28] that is also the same as last year.
[1:27:31] I mean, as last month as well.
[1:27:33] So I want to get down to the heart of this there.
[1:27:37] This is actually our reconciliation.
[1:27:42] So you take the revenue received and you subtract the actual expenditures.
[1:27:47] And so that left with a fund balance of $2,237,390.
[1:27:54] So what we did last month is we requested to do a roll purchase orders.
[1:28:01] we had $2,180,863 remaining in this state construction dollars.
[1:28:10] So what a deferred revenue is, we have already received that money, and we're obligated by
[1:28:16] the state budget code to expend that in state construction dollars.
[1:28:21] So the Board of Supervisors did approve $31,020 as a road purchase order.
[1:28:28] However, the balance of, you see, $2 million,
[1:28:38] $2 million, $200,000, $40,000 was still in the state construction dollars.
[1:28:49] And that was for the Harrison, I mean, Prince George High School HVAC system.
[1:29:00] I contacted Kent Dickie because what the Board of Supervisors did was they did appropriate
[1:29:04] it to us, however, in one of their funds.
[1:29:08] They transferred it to fund 311, which is the CIP fund, and they allocated it for Prince
[1:29:13] George High School HVAC.
[1:29:16] I did contact Kent Dickie at VDOE because I wanted to know how to report this.
[1:29:22] I have to report the revenue and I have to report how it spent.
[1:29:26] So if it's in the county fund, they would report it to the APA as a transfer from us to them where I need it to be able to report it next year, you know, HVAC expenditure.
[1:29:38] So I contacted him, he suggested that we work with the county and mystery and I are talking about this, how we can resolve this before the end of next year.
[1:29:49] And we'll also talk with the auditors, but we want it to let you know that this was going on.
[1:29:58] That's what I have for you this evening.
[1:30:00] Good morning, unless you have other questions.
[1:30:05] 56,000, something dollars left over to that place, 23. Yes, sir. That will roll back to the county.
[1:30:16] And we can request later to use it as carryover in other other areas. But we do about $115,000 in our health care fund that we're still closing out. Actually, that may be one of the considerations that you make.
[1:30:31] And today we received information from the county.
[1:30:35] It's now down to 111,000.
[1:30:37] We received another credit and we're continuing to receive credits.
[1:30:40] Few invoices, but for the most part, figure at the end of last fiscal year, we were at 1.15.
[1:30:46] And at this fiscal year, we were at 1.13.
[1:30:49] So, I mean, after our payments last fiscal year.
[1:30:51] So, it's gradually coming down.
[1:30:54] Thank you.
[1:30:55] It's really expect many more invoices.
[1:30:58] I have no idea as far as the health care and voices go.
[1:31:02] I don't expect too many.
[1:31:04] I mean, I don't believe it were over the 115 that we were at.
[1:31:09] Okay.
[1:31:09] Thank you.
[1:31:10] You're welcome.
[1:31:11] Thank you.
[1:31:14] All right.
[1:31:14] We're down to action items.
[1:31:16] We have already completed action item A and received a $10,000 contribution from the loose
[1:31:23] lights, which we greatly appreciate.
[1:31:25] So, Dr. Pinnickoff, you want to talk about proclamation for bullying month?
[1:31:30] Yes, thank you.
[1:31:31] October is bullying prevention month, and the VSVA policy manual includes several policies
[1:31:37] that address bullying.
[1:31:38] For example, policy JFC student conduct states, bullying is prohibited, and bullying means any
[1:31:46] aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate, or humiliate the victim,
[1:31:52] It involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressors and victim, and is repeated
[1:32:00] over time or causes severe emotional time.
[1:32:04] Bullying includes cyberbullying.
[1:32:07] Bullying does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument or peer conflict.
[1:32:12] The principal or principal's design is to notify the parent of any student involved in alleged incident of bullying,
[1:32:19] within 24 hours of learning of the allegation of bullying.
[1:32:24] We also have policy IGAI, which talks about character education, that will include instruction
[1:32:30] on the inappropriateness of bullying and how to respond.
[1:32:34] Policy GCL is professional development to educate employees about bullying and the need
[1:32:40] to create bully-free environments.
[1:32:43] So this evening as part of school bullying prevention month, I would like to read the proclamation
[1:32:49] to you and ask that you approve our ability to implement this proclamation.
[1:32:57] Whereas school bullying has become an increasingly significant problem in the United States and
[1:33:03] Virginia, over 20 percent of the youth in the United States are estimated to be involved
[1:33:09] in bullying each year, either as the bully or as the victim, and estimated 160,000 students
[1:33:16] in kindergarten through 12th grade miss school every day due to fear of being bullied.
[1:33:21] And bullying can take many forms, including verbal, physical, and most recently in cyberspace,
[1:33:28] and can happen in many places on and off of school grounds.
[1:33:32] It is important for Virginia parents, students, teachers, and school administrators to be aware
[1:33:37] of bullying, and to encourage discussion of the problem as a school community.
[1:33:41] and the Prince George School Board has developed model policies to encourage positive behaviors
[1:33:47] and to eliminate bullying behaviors. Therefore, the Prince George County School Board recognizes
[1:33:53] the month of October of 2023 as Prince George County Public Schools bullying prevention month
[1:34:00] with the intention that the issue of bullying and its prevention be discussed in its schools and
[1:34:06] classrooms during that time. And tonight we ask that you approve the proclimate
[1:34:11] a proclamation as presented.
[1:34:17] A move that we approve the proclamation.
[1:34:25] A second.
[1:34:28] All right, any discussion?
[1:34:32] Personally, I think that bullying is one of the greatest
[1:34:36] detriment to education.
[1:34:40] It's a distraction from everything that's valuable
[1:34:44] from coming from a teacher to a student.
[1:34:47] A student is non-receptive.
[1:34:53] That's all I have.
[1:34:54] Call for, we're going to call Roe, call please.
[1:34:58] Ms. Taylor?
[1:34:59] Yes.
[1:34:59] Mrs. Andrews?
[1:35:00] Yes.
[1:35:01] Mr. Johnson?
[1:35:03] Yes.
[1:35:03] Mr. Smith?
[1:35:04] Yes.
[1:35:05] Carried.
[1:35:08] Okay.
[1:35:08] The next item is the VSBA May Policy Revisions Part Three.
[1:35:13] The School Division has a contract for policy manual services with the Virginia School Board Association.
[1:35:19] The staff attorney for the VSBA reviews the legislation adopted each year by the General Assembly,
[1:35:25] policy, as well as changes to federal law, and then makes those changes to policy accordingly.
[1:35:30] An explanation of revisions is attached and changes to the policies are designated by
[1:35:35] underlining the new language and striking through the deleted language.
[1:35:39] Tonight, the school board is asked to approve the policies that are listed here.
[1:35:49] Okay, board, we've had these in the comments or motions.
[1:35:54] I move that we approve the May 2023 policy revisions, part three.
[1:36:05] A second.
[1:36:07] To any further discussion?
[1:36:12] Oh, please.
[1:36:13] Ms. Taylor.
[1:36:15] Mr. Johnson?
[1:36:16] Yes.
[1:36:17] Is Andrews?
[1:36:18] Yes.
[1:36:19] Mr. Smith?
[1:36:19] Yes.
[1:36:22] Request for final budget adjustment, categorical transfer from 22 to 23, regular fund of 500 Ms.
[1:36:29] Barnes.
[1:36:29] Good evening again, accounting standards don't allow us a school division to have a deficit in any category.
[1:36:38] So the deficits that you see are actually the results of extraordinary increases in the cost for utilities and fuel.
[1:36:47] We use a three-year rolling average when budgeting, and that's what we did last year.
[1:36:52] And the expenses were much higher than could have been expected.
[1:36:55] So the deficits were in the categories of operations and maintenance and
[1:37:00] people transportation.
[1:37:02] So we're requesting to transfer 185,000 from the category of instruction,
[1:37:09] which those funds are available from attrition savings and also unfilled positions.
[1:37:15] And we're also requesting 500,000 from the technology category,
[1:37:19] which we were able to apply technology salaries and benefits to the
[1:37:23] an ESR-2 and ESR-3 grants in the grant fund,
[1:37:26] which is an acceptable use for the grant.
[1:37:29] So, do you have any questions?
[1:37:36] So, the transfer of these funds
[1:37:37] have to be approved by the board of supervisors?
[1:37:39] No, ma'am, just the school board.
[1:37:42] Because at that time, for fiscal-23,
[1:37:45] they appropriated our funds and the lump sum.
[1:37:49] So, no, it just has to be approved by the school board.
[1:37:57] Any other questions?
[1:37:59] Have a motion.
[1:38:00] I
[1:38:05] move that we approve the final budget adjustments for 2022-23.
[1:38:16] I second,
[1:38:20] but I have a comment.
[1:38:22] Whenever you do that part.
[1:38:25] Any discussion?
[1:38:27] Yes.
[1:38:28] Since we are over in fuel cost, I have asked several times and would like it to be looked at.
[1:38:37] But the bus drivers were have driving outside the county, police officers are only allowed
[1:38:44] to drive five miles outside the county.
[1:38:49] So I know I haven't said it to you.
[1:38:52] I've mentioned it to Dr. Penny Cough, but I would like to look at that.
[1:38:55] I understand that we need bus drivers, but I also understand that they're driving their
[1:39:01] buses to and from home.
[1:39:04] And they're driving them home in the middle of the day.
[1:39:08] So I think we need to look at that because we need to save money any way we can.
[1:39:16] Yes, ma'am.
[1:39:22] All righty, thank you.
[1:39:25] Roll call please.
[1:39:26] Mr. Taylor.
[1:39:28] Yes, Mr. Johnson?
[1:39:30] Yes.
[1:39:30] Is Andrews?
[1:39:31] Yes.
[1:39:32] Mr. Smith?
[1:39:33] Yes.
[1:39:34] Thank you.
[1:39:35] That concludes our action items.
[1:39:37] Do I have a motion for adjournment?
[1:39:41] I'm going to make a speech on a second.
[1:39:44] Thank you.
[1:39:45] In discussion.
[1:39:47] All in favor say aye.
[1:39:49] Aye.
[1:39:49] Aye.
[1:39:50] We are adjourned.