Good evening. At this time, I'd like to call to order the january 7th, 2026
organizational meeting of the warren county school board. Please stand with me for the pledge
of allegiance. 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.
please join me for a moment of silence.
thank you.
at this time, we will receive nominations for chairman for the
warren county school board. Um, I have,
we will open nominations at this point. Do I have any nominations? Dr. Wright? I
nominate dr. Kristen chairman.
do we have any other nominations?
I have a motion to close nominations for chair.
move close. Salans move to close.
uh, we'll do a roll call. Vote mr. Valentine.
mr. Klein? Aye. Mrs. Jones? Aye. Mr. Mcfadden?
aye. Dr. Pence? Aye. Mr. Salan?
aye. Thank you. We'll now do nominations
for the vice chair. Do uh,
we have any nominations for vice chair dr. Ray? I'd like to
nominate mr. Comics mcfadden jr. For vice chair.
do we have any other nominations for vice chair?
do we have a motion to close nominations for vice chair? I close.
uh, can we do a roll call? Vote for vice chair valentine.
mrs. Alans aye. Madam chair? Aye. Mr. Mcfadden?
aye. Mrs. Jones? Aye. Mr. Klein? Aye.
okay. At this time I'll turn the gavel over to dr. Pence
and you guys can get organized.
okay? Okay. At this time I'd
like to ask, is there a motion to accept or modify the agenda? I'd like
move to modify the agenda to be, uh, make
three main changes. The first is under the consent agenda
to remove, uh, six a and six b, which are the minutes from the november 13th
and november 19th meeting. And to add it to the
action, um, agenda. Secondly,
to add as a new item for the action agenda, the creation of
a policy review committee, to have a discussion about that.
and then a new item would be if we approve
that, uh, having that policy meeting policy committee discussion to
appoint two members from our board to be members of that committee.
is there a second? A second. Any discussion on that?
all those, all those in favor of that modification? Aye. Aye,
aye. All those opposed? No. Thank you. Mr. Valentine, do you have those
modifications? I do. And I will add them to the agenda as we work through
here. And they will pop up on the screen as they become available. Yes. And we'll just each
need to refresh our screens as he's doing that. Okay.
next up this evening we have presentations. First up, we have an instruction spotlight,
and that's gonna be ms. Bragg.
good evening. As part of our instructional
spotlight, this will be a new presentation to the board at each,
uh, of the meetings, of the first meetings of the month, where we're gonna highlight some
of the instruction that's taking place in our classrooms and have you participate
in some of that instruction alongside, uh, our students.
so we tonight will be featuring mrs. Goode's second
grade classroom at as roads. Um,
tonight's lesson is gonna be a math based lesson where the students learn
to use math nets, which are 2d representations of
3d objects. I was not familiar with math nets until this
became part of the new standards for math, and they used
those nets to help build paper robots. So, um,
mrs. Layman from as roads principal will have a few words to say, and then we'll
turn it over to mrs. Good and the students to be part of the
instructional spotlight on math, elementary math.
all right. So, um, thank you very much for having us here this
evening. Um, it's exciting to share the things that are happening in our school.
um, stephanie has obviously always been a great teacher.
she's started teaching at e wilson in 2009 when I was actually at e wilson.
so I've seen her from a brand new teacher through today,
and she taught second grade for about 15 years.
then she was an instructional coach, um, at e wilson. And then she decided
she wanted to go back in the classroom and we were lucky enough to have a second grade
position for her. So it worked perfectly for us. She's just
very engaging, creative, collaborative. Um,
and her students really enjoy these projects. Every advisory,
she has at least one theme today. So
like, the day is based all around a specific theme
and it's all educational and they just, she takes their interest
and incorporates it into what she's doing in the classroom. And
you'll see that here shortly. Um, her students really love minecraft,
so it was just natural for her to relate this to minecraft,
um, so that they would be even more engaged. So,
without any other delay, mrs. Good. And students,
and also thank you to, um, I'm sure mrs. Good may be saying
this, but to darcy cup for coming out and helping. Um,
she does collaborate usually with mrs. Cup. Um, with mr. Michael,
our technology integration coach. Um, they did balloons over broadway
in november, so some robotic coating as one of their days.
so, um, they really enjoy all kind of working together and
getting out into the classroom. Alright, thank
you for having me. Um, you're lucky enough that your first lesson
is a second grade lesson, so it shouldn't make you feel too bad that, you know, ease your way into
this if this is an every month thing. But, um, in our class we have 15 boys.
so tinley here is representing our girls for our class, but
that's why we're a little boy heavy on this. Um, but first, oh, there's our clicker.
so, um, the rectangular prism and cube are
what we focused on. We related minecraft more to that. We also teach the sphere, but
that one's easy for them to understand, but they have the nets in the
bag right now. Um, you can see if you are unfamiliar with minecraft
that it is all block based. So they were able this year to create,
um, they could do more of a person character or they could do an animal
character, uh, ms cup. And I decided after doing it with
them that the animal character is much smoother. The person had very skinny
ones, so I was more involved with that. But this is one of the stations they would have that day.
they also got fun minecraft glasses and things that just make them pretend that
they're not learning, but they actually are. So here's some pictures of
their finished products. You can see the, the little skinny arms were
more intense to fold there. And then obviously
that was right at christmas time, but now it's your turn to build so they
know what to do. They've been practicing in class, they're going to help you fold them, and
then you get to make sort of a pig creature here that, uh, that
we're going to put together. And then I have some questions to see if you guys can answer second
grade questions afterwards. .
okay. So kids, as you're finishing up here, I'm gonna start to ask the question so you
can finish taping it while I do. Now remember, this is for our school board members
to see if they know the vocabulary, but you are welcome to help point so that
you can help them count and figure out the answers. Okay? All right. First one,
what solid figures did you use to build your minecraft character?
so think about it first, and then have your school board member whisper it to you.
you know what? Solid figures. All right, raise your hand. Who's got it?
what solid figures did we use here? Austin.
perfect. Look at you. All right, next one.
what plain shapes are in the body? So find your body piece.
so we're looking for what plain shapes are on that.
see if your member knows first. Do they know what you're asking? You?
all right, jack, what plain shapes.
yeah, usually the, usually it has a square on it too. I think these rectangles
may only have rec, like smaller rectangles and bigger rectangles. But the rectangular prisms
we learned about in class did have a square as one of the faces and then the rectangle.
good. All right. How many vertices are on your character's head?
so find your head. Think about where the vertices are.
. All right. Raise your hand after you count 'em. Yep. You
can use your figures to count 'em. Okay, on count of three,
you're going to say your answer. Ready? 1, 2, 3. Oh, you got it.
all right, last question. What do the nets that you use to create
your character have in common? So we use different shape nets here. Your
head was a cube net, and then your body was rectangular. Prism net. What
do they have in common? Meaning how are they the same?
all right, jameson, I heard a good answer. Do you wanna say it a little louder for everyone?
they don't have six faces, even when they're next. Oh, you all passed second
grade. Good job. Thank you for allowing us to come today.
and you guys are
dr. Martin. Dr. Uh, costner. Can we get a picture of all of
them down front? Come over, mr. Drag. You
do you have it? Okay.
is good.
alright. Thank you guys. Thank you.
thank you guys.
so just a quick thank you to, uh, mrs. Good, mrs. Lehman,
mrs. Cup, the math, uh, curriculum coordinator that helps support your
building of your minecraft figure. And, um, I think it really
raises what second graders have to be able
to know vocabulary wise, like vertices and how many planes are on
the, on the figures and those sorts of things. So just thank you to them for
participating tonight and being the first of our instructional spotlights. Thank you. That was great.
thank you all. Yes, thank you. Next
up this evening, we have the december, 2025 attendance awards, dr. Wright
and dr. Kosner,
madam chair board members. This is, doesn't be quite as exciting now following
this group. So again, congratulations to them and this outstanding
and, um, uh, but, but it is very nice to stand up and recognize our,
um, schools that have won the attendance award. And for our
top attendance for the elementary level, it goes to
as roads.
sorry, I was trying to catch some of them before they left. I wasn't,
um, I didn't realize they'd be leaving so quickly. Um, so thank you,
uh, madam chair and board for recognizing us for attendance.
um, we actually just did our second advisory awards assemblies today.
our first day back, kind of figured we'd start off on, um,
a good foot and recognize the accomplishments. We actually had
about 125 students out of 255
ish. Um, that had outstanding attendance for second
advisory. So that's a combined total of three or less absences,
tardies, early dismissals. So mid-october to the end
of december. That was a pretty great, um, number of students to have
with that. Mrs. O wade does our attendance board every week, so
we're always tracking what is each class, um, attendance
for the week. And then we also added towards the
end of last year for each of the advisory celebrations,
we give one class in k through second grade, and one in third through
fifth grade, an attendance trophy to house for the
advisory. So this, this advisory mr. Cider's
class one for kindergarten through second grade with highest attendance. And
mrs. Gutierrez for third through fifth. Um, also for
january we will be doing a drawing. We had a donation from horace mann and
a private donor of some bikes and scooters. So every
student who has perfect attendance during a week will be entered
each week. They can earn their entry and then we'll draw at the end
of the month. So just some ways to kind of keep us going, but also
recognizing that if we're sick, we want you to stay home and not spread your germs
with everybody. Um, but also for those students that are there every day, we want to
recognize, um, that as well. So thank you
so much. And I have some friends that stayed to help
me accept the banner. So we'll go.
there we go. Uh, good looking group. Excellent looking
group. I just slide over so I make sure I get everybody. There we go.
excellent. Thank you. Thank you, your honor. Thank you.
good job again.
at this time, I would like to recognize the top attendance for december for our secondary,
and it goes to warren county middle school.
uh, thank you again for, uh, being recognized for the december uh, attendance
award. Uh, sometimes it's said that showing up is half the battle. I think we know at
middle school that sometimes it's more than that. And I wanna thank all of our students who come
to school every day, uh, because they feel like they belong. Thank all of our teachers who try
to have engaging, exciting instruction and thank all the parents, uh, who are prior prioritized
getting to school on time. So it's, uh, a big help. Uh, we are also actually
tomorrow have all the perfect attendance.
good evening. Thank you for recognizing us. And we really want to, um,
pay it forward to our staff who encourage our students, um,
to come to school, motivate them and to our families for supporting
education and making school a priority. I did not prepare
speech .
thank.
okay. Next up this evening we have the appointment of a school
board representative on the mountain vista governor school ing board, school
board. Um, is there a motion
I move that dr. Pence be appointed as the warren county school board representative
on the mountain vista governor's school, school board for calendar year
list says 2019, but I, I know that it's, I'll do this year. 2026
. Is there a second? I second it.
any discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye. Aye.
aye. Opposed? No. Thank you very much.
next up this evening, we have the appointment of two building committee members.
is there a motion
I move that ms. Melanie salans and
mr. George klein, um, be appointed as a 2026 warren county
school board representatives on the building committee? Is there a second?
I second it. Any discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye.
aye. Opposed? No. Thank you.
next up this evening we have the appointment of clerk of the warren county school board.
dr. Wright, do you have a recommendation? I do. Madam chair, I move that
mr. Robert ballantine be nominated as the clerk of the warren county school
board. Okay. Can I get a motion from one of our school board
members? I move that mr. Valentine be appointed
as the clerk of the warren county school board for a term beginning january 1st, 2026
and ending december 31st, 2026. Is there a second?
second? Any discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye.
opposed? No. Thank you. And thank you mr. Valentine for hopefully
agreeing before we just voted you back in.
next of this evening. Dr. Wright, do you have recommendation for deputy clerk
of the warren county school board? Yes. Madam chair. I move that, uh, ms.
crea breeden be nominated as the deputy clerk for
warren county school board. Okay. Can I have a motion?
I move that krista breeden be appointed as deputy clerk of the warren county school board for attorney
mccain january 1st, 2026 and ending december 31st, 2026. Is
there a second? I'll second. Any discussion on that?
all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you.
next up this evening, we have, oh, and I assume thank you
. I didn't see you there. .
next up this evening. Um, we have the consent agenda. Is there a
motion? Oh, I didn't refresh yet. Yeah, I just wanna make sure.
took me all the way out.
okay. Everybody's refreshed. Okay. Is
there a motion on the consent agenda this evening? Madam chair?
I move that we accept the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second?
second? Any discussion on that?
all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank
you. Next up this evening, we have community participation.
we'll have three minutes. If at the beginning, you could please state your name
and whether you are a county resident, parent of warren county public
school student or an employee of the school division. Um, and then mr. Valentine
will start a timer for three minutes. Did anyone sign up ahead of time? Okay. Is
there anyone here from the public who would like to speak this evening?
okay,
next up this evening. We have reports. Dr. Wright.
sorry, I just lost my internet, but I do have paper. So
thank you madam chair. I have a few comments. Uh, I just wanna welcome everyone back. This, this was our first day
back, uh, for our second semester. Uh, also, I wanna thank our, uh,
students that were here today, ms. Bragg, ms. Layman, ms. Good, their teacher, and, um,
uh, ms. Cup for, for assisting our students from as roads. Uh, it
was a really, really good kickoff for our instructional highlight. Uh, and
I really enjoyed working with tinley, uh, and I learned a lot
this evening. So they, those kids, uh, did a great job. So, uh,
thankful for that. Um, I wanted to
share that ms. Poe and I were able to attend the vast fabo conference in richmond on monday
and tuesday, which is for virginia superintendents as well as virginia school
business officers. Uh, we received some training as well as some
information and a little bit of information from what to expect in terms of funding
for, uh, fiscal year 27. And
we'll go into more details about that later. But it wasn't great. So I'll
leave it at that. Um, a little bit of a down note. Uh, I am looking forward to
starting my individual meetings with, uh, board members beginning this month. I appreciate
the coordination of that. I know ms. Holloway is working with you, and you're all very
busy. Uh, but I think finding that time will hopefully be, uh,
valuable, uh, for, for each of us. So, uh, so again, thank you for,
uh, coordinating with that, and I look forward to those meetings. Uh,
I'm also meeting with mr. Gacha tomorrow, which we were finally able to connect officially,
um, even though, um, you know, we had the three weeks in
december, but, uh, uh, we, we were able to finally coordinate a meeting tomorrow. So I'm
looking forward to that and hope to schedule a regular meeting with our county administrator.
uh, but the first one will be tomorrow, uh, beginning january. I'll be hosting,
uh, town hall connection meetings, uh, with staff, students and
community members. I'll be working with principals. We have a meeting monday, so I'm
gonna ask for lean on them a little bit to help coordinate a good time where I could meet
with staff. It would be convenient for them. Um, and also when I can
meet with the community and maybe use some of our larger schools to have community
meetings. Just an opportunity to get out, listen to the public as we're moving into budget season,
uh, where the folks can come in here for our, our public meetings. And
we'll have a, another, uh, few work sessions. And we'll
also have an opportunity for a public comment on the, on the,
um, the budget. But I'll also wanna get out and have sort of a town hall
atmosphere. So, uh, look for those, uh, dates. And again, I'll be working
with principals to coordinate some, some times in the evening for parents and
community members. Um, also beginning in january, be
on the lookout for opportunities to participate in the student advi or superintendent's
advisory committees, of which there will be a student advisory, there
will be a parent advisory, and there will be a staff advisory. And we may have a few student
advisories, because for those I usually go to the building. So it's hard,
it's harder for the students to come out in the evening. So, uh, so look for those opportunities.
and I look forward to meeting, meeting with each of those groups. It really helps me
get a sense of the needs of our, of our community. So I look forward to that.
and we will start those before, you know, now is very important time to
start those as we enter into this budget season. And, uh, as
speaking of that, um, I do look forward to that, to the board. I do have
dates for organization, well, I'm sorry, dates for, um,
a presentation, a work session that I'll put in the friday memo,
and you guys can look at that and then we'll get those approved. Or if you have any suggestions
for our january meeting. That's all my comments.
thank you dr. Wright. Next up this evening, we have board member reports and
we'll start with ms. Salem.
um, I just wanted to start by saying in this, in this new year with a new board
and a new superintendent, I, I'm genuinely excited to see what,
what we're gonna, what we're gonna do, and how we're gonna come together. Um,
I also wanted to thank, um, as rhodes for coming out
and helping us build these beautiful origamis.
um, jackson helped me tremendously. It's been a while since I've
done second grade stuff. Um, as
for my personal update, um, I had the opportunity right
before christmas to attend the bill of rights day at the white house. We
got to view the actual original documents, and they also gave a presentation
about, um, how important educ the right to an education is.
um, and then I also have completed a training, um,
the school board role oversight versus micromanagement.
so I, in the right frame of mind going into this,
uh, new season, thank you, ms.
sale, mr. Mcpa. Um,
I'm looking forward to what we're gonna do as a new board and new new superintendent. So, looking
forward to the whole, how it goes and however many hundreds of meetings we end up
having. It seems like it's, it's, they're, they're always great. I look forward to it very much. So. I did this
last year, I'm gonna do it this year, which is just an a, a look back on some
of the achievements of the school division from this past year. It's always good to just get it all in
one piece of paper. So, number one, we had a new interim superintendent. Dr. Martin
did a very good job. We all came together and, and, and, you know, very quickly picked him to do it. He
did a great job. New full-time superintendent with dr. Wright. Decision was
unanimous with great collaboration. That was a very big move on our part. And on the, on
the county's part, we fully implemented the new policy about the cell phone use from bell
to bell, the lack of cell phone use from bell to bell. We created a policy
about social media use for employee and student interactions, which hopefully will be approved tonight.
we created and approved a policy promoting the dignity of every student.
we created and approved a policy about flags, decor, and dis uh, displays.
we contracted with the sbma for policy services. Through the
sbma, we updated and revised almost all of our current policies to meet virginia code
that hadn't been done in a while. We received extra funding above and beyond our
level budgeting for special projects, including the new tile floors and tennis court repair.
we created an updated moa with the sheriff's office. We removed the
easement from our, uh, warren county high, our high school property.
we renewed our contract with ess to allow us to have the best substitute fill rates in
years. And to save money, we hired mr. Jody lee as the new skyline
high school principal, which is seems to be very well received. We updated
the salary scales for our school system employees. We established
a new custodial contract for our buildings at a greatly reduced cost.
we approved the payment of employee retention bonuses last june.
we approved the new liter literacy plan for 20 25, 20 27.
we added much needed middle school cross country coaches. We served
over 258,000 meals to a hundred, 1500 to 1800 students over
the summer. And we began work on the school board governance and operating
protocol handbook and more. So it's pretty neat to go back and look and say, here's
some of the things that went on. Obviously there's a lot of learning, a lot of other things that went on that improved, but
things that we were, the, the board that was here last year specifically helped push forward with
the help of the administration. And I'm looking forward to having even a longer list in in
next year. But happy new year to everybody. Thank you. Next
up, ms. Jones.
I just wanna thank, uh, all the school staff, uh, everybody at central
office for welcoming us, answering all our questions and helping us get
acclimated. I want to thank all the board members for welcoming us as well.
um, and I look forward to working with all of them and see what
we can accomplish together. Um, I also
wanna thank the staff. Uh, december's a very busy month for all
the schools, and I was looking at all the events that each school puts on, whether
it's sporting events, concerts, uh, special christmas events, movies,
crafts, uh, festivals. It's a lot. So
I wanna thank the staff who take that extra time, stay after work,
and work really hard to build those events, decorate the school, um, and
get our kids, you know, some fun time at the holidays. I know my
kids really love it. Um, so I just wanna thank all of our staff for all
that extra time and effort that they put into all of that.
that's all I have. Thank you mr. Klein.
I too, uh, am looking forward to, uh, my new role
here. Um, and looking forward to working with each
one of these fine people up here. And, um,
I'd like to thank as rhodes as well for their, uh, presentation tonight.
absolutely. Love that. Um, I think they would probably be better setting up
here than us, but, um, but anyway,
uh, I did, uh, in the 1st of december, I had the privilege of,
uh, participating in the job interview process at, uh, blue
ridge tech center, which I thought was absolutely awesome. Um,
I learned quite a bit there. And, um,
like I say, it just, um, I'm excited about where we're gonna
hopefully go with this. And, um, the strides we'll make
to make our school system more awesome than what it was.
thank you. Thank you. I don't have much else to add. Uh,
just wanna welcome everybody and welcome our new board members. And I'm looking forward
to a new school year at, or a new school semester, a new board
as well. Um, I usually try to talk a little bit about, about
upcoming events. There is, um, a community wide book fair
that all five elementary schools early act clubs are gonna be putting on,
on january 13th from four to 6:00 pm that's gonna be at hilda j
barber. But, um, all the schools are gonna try to come together as elementary students and, and
run that and have that. So, um, it's a good collaboration between
the schools and the kids. So I'm looking forward to participating in that. And hopefully,
um, everyone will stop by and buy some good deals. And
I think that's it for this evening for me. And next up we have the warren county
public schools accreditation and accountability presentation. And that's gonna be
ms. Bragg and ms. Walton.
alright, good evening. Um, tonight, denise,
the testing coordinator. And I will walk you through the
accreditation and accountability results from
what was the 24 25
assessment year, and then it's our labels,
if you will, for this current school year. So when we talk about
the testing data, when we look at the numbers, we're going to be talking about those
sol tests that were given during the last, during the last school year.
um, this is the new school performance
and support framework that the vdoe has rolled out. So
this is our first year getting the results in this,
in this way, and talking about the numbers in the way that we will be tonight.
denise and I are gonna attempt to keep it kind of high level and not get too far
into the weeds, but if you wanna get into the weeds or have questions,
we're happy to answer 'em. But we wanted to kind of give just an overview and then
like I say, we can take it from there. Good. Mm-hmm . Alright. So turn
it over to denise. Are you passing these out now or no? Second.
okay. Hi everyone. Um, so first we
just wanna talk about what is included in accountability and this umbrella of accountability.
first it'll be accreditation ratings come from that, and we're gonna go over
each of these. Then the school performance and support framework
score, which will lead us then to our performance category.
and finally the federal identification that comes from all that.
oh, I thought you had the clicker. I'm, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's okay. . So
we're gonna start with the easy part first. And that is just the piece that's more
straightforward and that's the accreditation rating. In the past,
the word accreditation was used to are the schools accredited or
not. And that was a reflection of our sol results and that sort
of thing. Under this new system accreditation now
refers to are the schools meeting the standards of quality
and the standards of accreditation, which include things like, are we providing classroom
curriculum that's aligned to the vdoe standards? Do we have high quality instructional
personnel in our classrooms? Are are schools safe and clean? So
there's a whole piece to what those, so qs and standards
of accreditation are asking the schools to, um, basically
say, yes, this is what's happening in our division, and we're plowed to announce that
all nine schools are fully accredited. And then
the accountability piece, which is what denise is gonna start with next,
is sort of the second piece of credibility or,
uh, yeah, accreditation and accountability. I just created a new one. A credibility
, I should let the vdoe know. Yeah, we'll update them. .
okay. So in the framework, there are four components, all three levels.
and by levels, I mean, elementary, middle, and high school have a mastery component.
and that's just your test results in that area. All right?
growth will only be found in the elementary and middle school levels.
and for the 24 25 data, we, the state used something from
vos and we will, they have not renewed their contract with vos. So for
the data from this year, it'll be something different. But the way vas
worked is it looked at the student's entire testing history and then
predicted what their score would be, and then how the student
performed, then determined whether they had above average growth, average growth,
or below average growth. Okay. And that was just, that's just at elementary and middle
school level. All three levels have a readiness component.
um, chronic absenteeism is across all three levels.
there's advanced coursework at the middle school, and then the three e's.
um, employment enlistment, enrollment, thank
you. I always forget one . And then lastly, graduation
is obviously only at the high school level, and it's looking at that cohort
rate. So when a student enters ninth grade, they enter that cohort and then that
you should graduate. Then obviously by the time you're a senior and they're looking for advanced
or standard diplomas. And that graduation rate, I think heather
just gave you this, that you can see broken down the, um,
percentages change at every level. Um, the way were explained to us was
with readiness, we're we're preparing each kid to, we're preparing
students to go to the next level. That's why the readiness at the high school is 35%.
'cause we're preparing them for the next level. Um, mastery then has
to go down. So we start at 65% at the elementary level, and it goes down to 50%.
that's gonna include sol tests, vap step, vap tests, excuse
me. And then english language proficiency tests that our el students take.
and then finally for the readiness at the elementary level, it's just your chronic absenteeism
rate. And then at middle school, we're gonna add advanced coursework. And right
now, that was students who were taking algebra one in the eighth grade.
and you'll see on the chart that you have that both middle schools got the 10 outta 10 points
they could get for that. And then when you get to high school, you're gonna add
the six year, uh, rate that has applied studies diplomas in there for some
of our special ed students. And then that three e framework.
so once you get all those, you determine how many points you have, then you add
it all up. And if you have 90 or above, your school is
determined to be distinguished, 80 to 89, you are on track,
65 to 79, you're off track. And if you have below 65, you
need intensive support from the state.
there are some ways to get additional points. Um,
we actually, if you look, you can go on the vdoe website and look at the different regions and
see, we do have some schools in, in the state that have over a hundred points.
and the way you get extra points is through pass
advanced sol scores or that above average growth that I was talking about.
so the potential of every student had that you could have 1.25 points
per student. Um, so if you have a pass proficient score,
that's the 400 to 4 99 range, it counts as a point. And
average growth is a point. And our fails at the elementary
or grades three through eight, we have a basic fail. And then a ba
a below basic that counts as either a 75 hundreds or
2,500 points that you get. And then in the three
e framework, students can count in multiple categories. So the enrollment
part is if you're enrolled in de courses and, um, higher level courses.
the enlistment sounds like it's if you're going on to the armed services,
but it's what your score on the as a test. And then,
so see, I'm always forget the third one. What did I say? Enlistment
enrollment. No, enlistment employment. Thank you. Employment.
and that's refers to your cte courses and the testing you do through that.
okay. So you have this chart
in front of you and yours. This is just the top half yours.
um, the one up here doesn't have everything that explained down, so I'll
just point out, like, if we look first at as roads, their reading performance
is a 21 and 45 hundreds. And if you look down below at
the weights for their reading performance, it's 22.5%
of it. So you can see how close they are in each of those categories.
so what it'll add up the, all the, to get the framework score, it adds up all those
points. And then there's a performance category based on those points that,
from that slide we showed you. Heather's gonna talk more about the
federal identification and then the accreditation rating. We told you all schools
are fully accredited, so this is a lot of information
. So give you a second maybe to take a look at the numbers.
I could I ask a question? Yeah. I was looking at the,
um, the bottom line where it has each of the scores
for the schools. And when you look at
the, the performance categories with the distinguished ontrack offer, is it the elementary
schools that you're inquiring about that need intensive support? Yeah, I'll explain it just a second. Okay.
okay. You read my mind. Essentially what happens is when you're federally
identified this, you are automatically dropped one performance
category. Oh, so for it's like a double. Yep. It's like sort of like a, yeah, like a double hit
. Um, so our three elementary schools, and I'll talk a little more in detail about it,
but our three elementary schools, eagleson morrison, leslie fox, kaiser, and
rusty jeffries elementary, their points add
up to off track, but because they're federally
identified, it drops their rating to needs intensive support. So
it's an automatic drop of one category. No.
any other questions? We know it's a lot of numbers and we're
gonna give you some highlights and some areas of improvement so that you don't have to digest
all that and determine it, uh, for yourself. But, you know, you have the
numbers there if you want to take a closer look and like, say if you have questions or deeper
dives into them, denise and I are happy to answer, answer those
questions. So celebrations
want to absolutely highlight that five of our schools are on track
as rhodes elementary, hilda j barber, warren county middle school,
skyline high school, and warren county high school all received a performance
category of on track. Warren county high school was only
one point away from being designated in the distinguished
category. So that is a great accomplishment to them
and something to, you know, continue to strive for. But congratulations to
their performance on the, um, sol
tests, their three e readiness, all those factors that go graduation rates that
go into making up those, uh, determinations of those categories.
definitely welcome news. Skyline middle school and warren county middle
school are no longer federally identified for this school year.
skyline middle school has been federally identified since
not the first year because they were had to get baseline data, but they
have been federally identified since 2017 mm-hmm . 2017.
so this is the first year that they are not federally identified. So congratulations
to the work that they have done. Um, with our new state
accountability system, the way we talk about federal
accountability and make that determination did change. So
there's a little bit of apples and oranges going on as far as comparisons
with what's happened in the past. But, uh, both middle schools have come out of federal
identification. And lastly, the three of the schools
that were identified as offtrack or needs intensive support,
um, are within just five points of being in the ontrack performance
category. So it's, it's, it's within reach, so it's, you know, five more points
and they're in that ontrack section. So we thought that that was important to
highlight so that there's an understanding that that goal is absolutely
attainable. The one school that was not within five points was in
the upper, um, 50% of what's needed to be at that next
level.
so in talking about federal identification a little bit,
um, how is federal identification now determined under the new system?
after all, the sol testing in the state is complete,
that all the schools are ranked and the bottom 5%
of title one schools are blocked
out. And that school that is the
highest performing school of the lowest performing
category sets a threshold score. Once that
threshold score is determined, then all the other schools are evaluated
against that threshold. Across the eight subgroups,
which we've talked about before, under essa, five of them are your racial
subgroups, and three of them are those programmatic subgroups, like students
with disabilities, economically disadvantaged, and english learners.
so you have to hit that threshold in all of those subgroups
as you work your way out of the pool of potentially being federally
identified. Three of our elementary schools, again, e wilson, lfk
andres e were identified as targeted support and improvement
for the students with disability subgroup. So that means that
they hit those, uh, threshold targets in the other subcategories
in the way that they needed to. But our students with disabilities are not performing
at that threshold limit. So we will be,
um, working with those three schools to focus on how we
can help support our students with disabilities, both in the general
ed classroom, which they're very much a part of that inclusive classroom setting, and also
making sure that we're meeting their ieps in those sorts of things in order to try to help improve
their academic performance.
so the needs that we wanted to highlight, things that are kind
of standing out, most of this is coming from the numbers where we see that
basically a lot of points were kind of left on the table and that we could have,
we could use some, um, improvement in order to pick up some additional points at skyline
middle school, which was designated as off track, uh, math performance
and growth in both reading and math sort of stand out the way
that, um, we are already looking to address that. And some of the
initiatives that skyline middle school was taking, they have established professional
learning communities in both subject and grade levels to look at data.
and those are very much student centered and data driven to really drill down
on the needs of the students. We, um, purchased
iready math, uh, for the di diagnostic tests to
allow us to help fill gaps and understand where, um, our students may be
in order to increase their, uh, performance as far as what
they need to sort of fill their bucket to be able to move to that next step in math.
and we have, um, begun professional development on implementing
student-centered math workshop models, which is, um, highly
engaging more choice for the students and kind of helps to facilitate small
group instruction as we work to improve our math scores at skyline
middle school. Um, with the needs intensive
support students with disabilities at the three, uh, elementary
schools. The academic performance, again,
students with disabilities as the subcategory professional development, using
our high quality instructional materials to develop specially
design lessons to implement in our co-taught classrooms has been a, is
a focus this year. Um, there's working continually with our principals
to ensure that our special education staff and the schedules are meeting
the students' needs within the buildings. And, um, there
has been increased collaboration over probably the last year with
between special services and the instructional resource team at the division level
to make sure that we're working together and, um, braiding
our resources to address those challenges and make sure that we're aligned
with what's going on in the classrooms as well. Um, and then
the, the last piece is a, a, a notice of math growth
at lfk and ssi, again, kind of leaving some points
on the table and el progress at e wilson morrison and lfk.
and again, working to address those issues already. Although
this data was just released from the state december 9th,
third december 3rd, and then public december 9th,
we have had the ability to anticipate some of this. We couldn't anticipate categories
and we talked about this at the, you know, beginning of the school year, you know, um,
so we've been able to put some things in place. What will come out of now
having the federal identification is the application to the state
for school improvement grants and things like that to hopefully get some money to help
support some of the initiatives that are already underway in our classrooms.
I think that's it. So are there any questions
from the board? I have a question. Yes. Um, when it comes to these scores
for reading performance, math, performance, science, performance,
what are the max, is there a maximum of points
just so I can kind of judge where, how low
we are in those points? So if you look down at, in, in the bottom half of your
chart, it tells you the percentages. Mm-hmm . So like for the reading performance,
like just look at as roads, they had 21.45 points mm-hmm . They
could have had 22.5 or more based on how many
kids scored, um, advanced. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah.
so essentially at math and reading for elementary, the,
the target points is 22.5 or 22.5
mm-hmm . But you can get more if you have students pass advance. So
it's a little bit different than the old system where the, you know, the benchmark was always
kind of 70% of 70% of the students pass than you, you know, we're
greenlighted essentially. There isn't that benchmark anymore.
it's, we've talked about it in the summer with our schools as like, it's kind of like a game
of pac-man. You're just trying to gobble up as many points as you can to get the
highest score you can possibly achieve. And then it plays out into
those four performance categories. Science is not what, 10?
yes. Yeah. Science, the total amount for science was 10 points.
and that's what, like at the both middle schools of that advanced coursework, they both have
tens there and it is 10%. And that's the number of students
who, um, qualified to take the advanced class, which is algebra one in
this case. And they all passed the sol.
so nowhere on this does it give us an actual percentage of
this many students at this school passed with a mastery
level. That's, that's essentially the change
from the old accreditation system to this new accountability
framework is that that percentage of
pass rates isn't how they're sort of measuring now.
okay. But do you guys still track that? Mm-hmm. Okay.
remember at the high schools too for, for right now, unless it changes, it's a,
it's based on their cohort. So these scores here come from the cohort.
it's not every student that's taking, say the algebra one test
this year. It's the, the seniors. So for this school year, the class of
2026 will be represented in the numbers at the high schools.
it's like, it, it's supposed to be more transparent, a more
transparent system, but there's so many, if this, then that
situations, and we do anticipate
there's going to be changes that we already know about for this testing
year, for next year's. Um, accountability ratings,
um, we know that there's discussion already happening regarding
the high school cohort as to whether that will continue or if it will become
a yearly measure versus a cohort measure. Uh, we know that pro,
uh, history, his, yeah, there's discussion about history coming back into accountability,
and we already know that growth is gonna be calculated different because we're not using
vos anymore as a state. So more to come
, it's like as soon as you learn it, it changes .
but we, um, like I say, appreciate the support of
the, the board and the things that we're already doing to try to address some of
the issues that we have. And if there's other questions you have, happy to answer them,
if you wanna deeper dive into the numbers, please just reach out to denise
or I and we are happy to do it. Questions, do you, do
you, do you think, so this is sort of your solution, right? This is how we're gonna, how we're gonna achieve the goal mm-hmm
. Is it doable? You think it's based on what we're doing? I think it's doable. And like I say,
in three of those schools, I mean, we just have to, you know, we're five points. We
go, you know, picking up five points, whether that's a couple points with, you know, improvement in
el progress. We see some math growth improvement. You know,
there's options on the board that I do think are absolutely attainable
for our schools. Um, we're seeing improvement in benchmarks
mm-hmm . When we look at benchmarks this year compared to last year.
so we are seeing some good trends in the right direction.
absolutely. I, I mean, I, you know, this, this is all very, you're, you're in the weeds on it
as you said. I, I thought this was very well explained for someone who's not in the weeds
at all, and I kind of, it kinda makes a little more sense to me than what it was before because it
seemed like the first part was more the fact that we're all accredited is more an objective standard of
saying we are doing the things we're supposed to do. It's not based on the performance
of anybody necessarily. And that's actually a good way to, to have it be accredited to
say we we're providing all the things we need to do. Yes. Mm-hmm . Whether they are actually doing it is a,
is a different thing and that's where the rest are ed. Sure. So I actually like that, that concept that it's all mm-hmm
. You know, the objective standards that we're meeting and that's how they do in higher education as well. Yep.
so absolutely. Well, thanks for all your work on this. Mm-hmm . For sure. Thank
you. Thank you so much. The presentation I will share with mr.
ballantine to get onto board docs just with the christmas holiday
and that sort of thing. We were still tweaking a few things as it came in back
to the new year. So the presentation will be posted to the board docs
and the handouts for those at home if they're interested in looking at the presentation are
in. They were just, we knew the numbers would be small from far away. So
thank you so very much. Thank you both.
okay, next up this evening we have our action agenda. The first item
is gonna be the approval of the 2026 school board meeting calendar. Dr. Wright,
would you like to go through that with us? Yes. Thank you madam chair. Uh, for your
consideration this evening, we have two different, uh, school board meeting,
uh, opportunities, uh, or calendars. The first one
that you see there is, uh, the wednesday, if
you wanna look at that one. And then the other one, which would be typically what we have now, which
are meetings on wednesdays at six o'clock. And,
um, the only thing with wednesdays is on occasion
we get bumped and we either meet at an, an alternate location, usually 15th
street, uh, at, um, diversified mines is where we normally meet,
uh, when we are, uh, real this, this displaced.
uh, the other option for the 2026 calendar would be
thursday meetings, which would all be in this site. So it provides
consistency, uh, however, it's just a different night that we're maybe
not used to. So for your consideration, and, um, if you have any
questions, uh, mr. Valentine put both of these together and did verify that the thursdays
were available for us, but, um,
it's really for your discussion. Thank you.
I think I'll just ask first if anybody has strong opinions on one calendar
over the other. I prefer the wednesdays. I, I also
prefer the wednesdays especially, at least for the rest of the school year, just because
I've based my entire children's schooling schedule around
being able to be here for wednesdays. Um, so
I would have serious scheduling conflicts if we switched to a thursday.
any opinions down here? I'll leave more towards the we,
the wednesday being better as well. Okay.
and then I see that the, um, all the start times have been made
to 6:00 pm so that would be our call to order for the public meeting
portion of both the public meeting and the work session would start at
6:00 pm the board could certainly still
discuss or decide do we wanna have our closed session the 30
minutes prior to that at any point?
okay. Could I have a motion?
I move that the proposed 2026 school board meeting calendar with meetings being held on
wednesdays be approved as presented. Is there a second? I'll second.
any discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye.
aye. Aye. Opposed? No, thank you. Looks like we'll be doing the
wednesdays meeting for our 2026 year.
next up we have the appointment of designee to attend meetings of the school board in the
absence of the division superintendent, dr. Wright.
thank you madam chair. I recommend that dr. Costner, uh,
attend meetings in my absence. Is there a
motion I move that dr. Charles
a costner be appointed as the designee of the superintendent to attend meetings of the
school board in the absence or inability of the superintendent to attend
for the period of january 1st, 2026 to december 31st, 2026.
is there a second? I second it. Any discussion on that?
all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you.
thank you dr. Costner.
next up this evening, we have approval of resolution authorizing the superintendent to
reassign staff, and that's mrs. Drake.
all right. Good evening. Happy new year's to everybody. Welcome.
um, so we are looking at our resolution. This is something we do annually,
um, but just kind of wanna take some time to explain why we're doing this. As far as,
I'm sorry. Are we doing employee contracts? I had these out of order. Um, so for
our employee contracts, just in case we are able no, no, I'm sorry. You're
on the reassigned staff. I'm sorry. Reassigned. I did have them in order. All right.
um, the authorization to reassign staff. So when we hire
our employees, they're hired for warren county public schools. Although we do hire
and interview them for specific schools, there will be times, um, where
maybe we have to transfer somebody just because there's a stronger need at a different school.
um, this isn't ideal. We have, um, I guess when I first started,
there were some concerns about being able to do this. We have not
had that. We've had one transfer, um, since I have been here. We've had
a discussion with that employee, but it was needed. Um, we appreciate them
for their willingness to move. It's not a punishment. There was some kind of
negative optics on this. So this resolution does allow the superintendent to reassign
staff as needed per our staffing needs. 'cause you know, we are here for the students.
so just a little bit of background and kind of what we've done, um, so far
to be able to, to do that. Questions for ms. Drake?
I just wanted to say that, um, yes, I had reservations last year because obviously
teachers get very comfortable and enjoy their yeah. Their schools. But, but
yes, as we've seen over the last year, I don't think it's, it's been a problem.
so you have my support on this.
is there a motion I move that the resolution authorizing
the superintendent to reassign staff be adopted as presented? Is there a second?
I second it. Any discussion? All those in
favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you. Thank you ms. Drake.
and now for your superintendent authorization to issue
contracts. Thank you. All right. Um, all right. So we know that
we are hiring, um, as, as the vacancies become
available, we don't always have a board meeting, uh, for us to be able to
have those discussions to be able to appoint somebody. So what we've done,
um, in years past and this year, if we have, um, our principals,
assistant principals, and all of our employees, um, july's a good example.
we just did one in december because we didn't have a board meeting later on,
um, where the superintendent and the board chair could agree to bring that
person a board without actually having a board meeting. So that's really what this
resolution is. Um, unless we have more meetings as we hire people,
you know, I'd prefer not to do that. But it is nice to be able to, to
have that ability when, when needed and necessary.
I'd just like to say for this, for our two new board members, whenever I get
a call or a text about somebody that's in between meetings, like
if there are any question marks at all, and usually, sometimes, even
if there's not, everybody gets an immediate phone call. And if there seems like there's any hesitation,
then it gets just held until our meeting and I would plan
to still do that same thing. Thank you.
any questions for ms. Drake? Is there a motion
I move that the resolution authorizing the superintendent to issue employee contracts be adopted
as presented? Is there a second? Second? Any discussion on that?
all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you. Great.
thank you. Next up we have approval of resolution authorizing
payment of compensation, ms. Drake. All right. Hello? Um, again,
just because we don't always have those board meetings, um, for everything to be
approved for our compensation to issue paychecks, um, this would just give the superintendent
authorization to authorize payment to our employees without
having to hold, without the approval. Um, within our minutes. Um, at
the board meetings. Questions for ms. Drake,
is there a motion I move that the resolution authorizing payment
of compensation be adopted as presented? Is there a second? I second.
any discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
opposed? No. Thank you.
next up we have the salary scale approval to reclassify grade 42
to non-exempt positions, mrs. Drake. All right.
I like how we put this in order, you know. Um, all right, so, um, we did
this last year and unfortunately here we are again. Um, thought we had a
good plan. We kind of elevated a little bit, but the fairly labor standard act, like I said,
the government just doesn't call me and tell me their plans. Um, so however,
we have grade 42. So grade 42, um,
are employees that we put on this scale that are currently act
or just actively working towards their license. So they do get a little bit more,
um, but they're not on the teacher's scale yet because they're not fully licensed.
so this is just a nice way for us to have a little buffer with them. However,
with that, we did increase our salary scales last year from 40,
well, we have two different changes. Um, but we had went from
40,000 to 44,000 and then we did adjust it from
44,000 to 48,000 depending on their degree.
uh, we were within the, the fair labor standard acts. We were able to
make that compensation and keep them as exempt employees. However, january 1st,
that rate did go up for a weekly rate of $1,128,
equivalent to a $58,656 salary.
um, so we are not able to meet that threshold. So by law we're not able to keep
them as exempt employees and we would need to move them to non-exempt
employees. So it's just grade 42. We've looked at all of our other pay scales,
um, for who also falls under the job classification because it
also isn't, um, it's not just supervisors. It can be, you
know, your nurses can be exempt as well. So, um, just meeting the job
description, we're just not able to at this time because of salary,
not the position itself. So just wanting to make that change.
questions for ms. Drake, is there a motion
I move that the super that I move, that the student support grade 42
position be reclassified as non-exempt under the
flsa effective january 1st, 2026, for
compliance with the updated flsa salary requirements? Is there
a second? I second it. Any discussion on that? All those in favor?
aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you
and thank you ms. Drake. Okay, next up this evening, we have
approval of resolution authorizing payment of bills and emergency situations.
and in months when we only have one school board meeting, mr. Valentine,
for many of the same reasons that, uh, mrs. Drake just mentioned on some of
the resolutions she presented, um, we run into the same situation,
uh, on the two months where we only have one school board meeting. Other times
for things like utilities or the credit card statement
where, um, if we do not pay them one time, we may incur a,
um, interest charge or a, uh, uh, a charge of
some sort. So we're asking that you would, again, this year,
um, authorize the superintendent to be able to approve a special
payment of bills during those periods in between board meetings.
should one of these cases arise. They are always presented
to you then in the clerk's report at the very beginning of it. So you'll see
the expenditures, but, uh, this way, uh, when we have
those situations where it's in the best interest of the division to pay
something before the board meeting, we're allowed to do that.
any questions for mr. Valentine? Is there a motion
I move that the resolution authorizing payment of bills and emergency situations
and in months with only one school board meeting be adopted as presented? Is there
a second? I second. Any discussion on that? All
those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank
you very much. Next up we have the sixth
reading of policy I-I-b-e-a dash
r two slash gaab dash r two employee use of social media
and electronic communication. Dr. Costner, madam
chair board members, as you know, this is a very important policy and that we
have been working diligently not only with school board
members, but also, um, we've had input from the, um, our
faculties and staff. We've also had input from our attorneys and presented
to you is, um, what they feel
has come together to, that'll be legal, um, from our legal side
and meets the components of what was, um, discussed and covered throughout our,
um, social media policy. So we do bring this, um, for
approval tonight. Um, the move that warren county school board approved policy
iiba dash r two slash ga b dash
r two employee use of social media and electronic communications as presented.
any questions for dr. Costner or comments? Um,
I just had the, the questions I see where on the attached document
it has the notes from the attorney.
um, have we already, that's already been fixed.
those, those little issues have already been rectified, correct? I just wanna confirm,
correct? Right. Yes, ma'am. Okay. It wa it was sent to on the request
of the board, it was sent. Once we got the input, we went ahead and also sent it to the
attorney so they would have time to review it, um, so that we wouldn't
have to carry it forward to another reading. Okay. So the little tweaks have
been, it's good to go now. So we don't have to worry about these
comments from the no. Okay.
is there a motion, I, I move that the warren county school board approve policy
iib eea dash r two slash gab dash r two
employee use of social media and electronic communication as presented. Is there a second?
second. Thank you. Is there any discussion? All
those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank
you. Six times a charm. Dr. Costner .
next up we have the third reading of the sbma updated policies. Dr.
costner? Uh, yes ma'am. Madam chair, um, school board members, um, one of the things
that, this is the third reading of the policies. As you can see, it's d-j-f-e-b-e-b-a-b-e-b-b
gab slash iiba. One thing I would like to point
out before the board makes the decision on these policies, I know it's the third reading,
um, when talking with our director of technology, we did notice
that policy, g-a-b-I-I-b-e-a acceptable
computer use systems use was also submitted with the second batch,
um, that we received in on december the 19th and is listed under the first
reading. I did remove it because I didn't
see the need in us read, having this reading and then the next reading. Um, so
it is on the third reading for this one. 'cause we've already had two readings. Um,
one of the things that I did wanna point out though, if you, if you can turn
to that policy, and I'll read to you this, our director of
technology felt this was very important that it is added to the policy.
um, and it is, it's on the last page of
policy, g-a-b-I-I-b-e-a. And it's
the internet safety policy was adopted by the school board, um, following
public notice in public, in a public meeting, accordance with the children's
interact protect internet protection act and also
an an authorized individual may disable the technology protection
measures for adults for bonafide research or other lawful
purposes consistent with cipa
requirements. Those were two things that were added to make sure that we
were in compliance with the children's internet protection act.
so I did want to, I did want to point that out before the board made a vote on
all these
questions for dr. Costner and the attorney is good
with that addition. We've got the green light for,
for the, for the change, the change that was submitted from, um,
that, that was, this was not submitted to the attorney for those two sentences. No, ma'am.
we are confident it's legally . I I feel confident
in the, that the information that was presented and asked to be placed on here
does follow the child's internet protection act just to make sure that we are in
accordance with it. Okay. Additional
questions. Is there a motion
I move that the warren county school board approves the sbma updated policies
as presented? Is there a second? I'll second.
any additional discussion? All those in favor? Aye.
aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Costner.
next up is gonna be the first reading of the, I think final set
of s well, um, madam chair there is one of
the things. This is, this is the final set that came in. There will be another
parts, jay, were not added to this component. Um,
uh, due to time constraints. Okay. Um, but we will have j coming,
uh, there are 10 more policies under j but it is the final set, which
will be the next reading. We'll have the first reading of those policy js.
okay. Um, but the others that are listed here are the other policies that are
for, there's 29 listed here that are for the first reading and,
um, that this also was shared with cabinet to
make sure as they go through it, 'cause some of them do deal with instruction and deal with diff different
departments are asked to look at it to make sure, um, that we are
in compliance and can follow what's, what's going on. Anything with this first reading
that we should bring our attention to? Nothing.
nothing that's come up. Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was gonna say
nothing that's come up. They've just, we've just had time. We received it like
december the 18th. December the 19th. We were out cabinet met the, um, and
so they've, they're digesting it now. Um, and that's, again, that's where
it came up with I-I-b-e-a the previous policy. So, um,
but as, as of right now, nothing has jumped out. There were
some changes, um, that were noted
and it's in one of the late in the policies. Um, I know that
it's for you all the color coded, you'll see some of where it's in green writing
such as the, um, policy ikeb acceleration.
there were some recommendations there. So anything in green is
what the, um, sbma did make those recommendations.
the only thing I saw was, um, it was very minor, but on the cross-referencing
section on, uh, kg community
use of school facilities, 'cause they had this, we already, we've made
some updates to some policies about school facilities just that we would add,
and I can hand you this thing just basically kg dash e kg dash e two and
kg dash r just under the cross cross reference area because
they do relate to school facilities and use and things like that. Okay.
anything else else this evening? This is just our first reading, so we'll see it again at our january
work session and then at our february meeting.
okay. Thank you dr. Costner. Alright.
thank you mr. Mcfadden. I'll get that information for you after the meeting if that's okay.
you can get it now. Oh, okay. He approach the bench
you. All right. Next up
this evening we have acceptance of a new scholarship. Ms. Bragg.
the following new scholarship opportunity for the warren county high
school class of 2026 is presented to the board for approval.
the shero nick nicholson memorial scholarship honors the memory
of charo a 1976 graduate of warren county high school who excelled
in girls basketball and softball. The recipient of the $1,000
sch the $1,000 scholarship will be a graduating warren county
high school female athlete pursuing higher education. Warren
county high school is grateful to the benefactors tim and tammy jar for their
kind contribution and support of their graduates.
thank you. Is there a motion
I move that the she nick nicholson memorial scholarship for warren county
high school be accepted with gratitude? Is there a second? Second?
any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?
no. Thank you. And thank you for the generosity
next up this evening. Um, we, we pulled two sets of minutes
the november 13th and november 19th meeting minutes,
um, for no reason other than we had a board member who was missing, um,
during those, those meetings. And so if I could have
a motion to approve at this time, I move that the minutes of the november 13th, 2025
work session be approved as presented. Is there a second? I second.
any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
no, I abstain. Thank you.
and same for the november 19th, 20, 25 minutes. I move that the minutes
of the november 19th, 2025 regular school board meeting be approved as presented.
is there a second? Second? Any discussion? All those in favor?
aye. Aye. Opposed? No, I abstain.
thank you. Next up this
evening, we have the creation of the policy review committee.
um, as you know, we have our standing committees, we have
the, um, a member on the mountain vista governor school governing board, and then
we also have our facilities committee, um,
typically that we do. And then this evening, we would also like to
continue the work that mr. Mcfadden and our previous fort representative
ms. Lowe had been doing as a policy review committee. We'd like to make that
an official committee for our board, or at least that is what's being presented
at this time. So, um, if there's any question or discussion
about that or if there's just a motion, that would be great. I
move that a policy review committee consisting of two school board members be established as
a standing committee of the board with members being appointed annually at the organizational
meeting. Is there a second? A second. Any discussion on that?
all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Thank you.
and then next I would like to ask if there, um, is a motion to
appoint two members of our board to our newly created policy review
committee.
I make a motion to add tom mced and jr.
and sarah jones to the, uh, policy
review committee for 2026. For 2026.
is there a second? I'll second. Any discussion on that?
all those in favor? Aye. Aye. A aye. Opposed? No. Thank
you. Okay.
next up this evening, we have board member requests going in the
same order. Ms. Salan? I
do not have any requests. Thank you mr. Mcfadden. I have a couple requests,
um, some I've asked in the past and just wherever they went, they went, but
we're talking about 'em again. First is when, uh, now that we're on this, uh, review committee
for the policies, one of the easy ways to, to evaluate
and for us to collaborate on a, on a document is for having it be in a google doc
where we could red line it, we can talk about it rather than just being a stagnant pdf.
so I'd like to ask, whenever we have a document for the board review, whether it's a policy or
anything that we, we need to edit of some sort that it could be uploaded as a google
doc shared doc, however it is that it's not just a pdf. You can have the pdf as well,
I guess, but mainly as a, as a, some sort of document that you can do redlining,
um, to be able to see what different people add to it. I think that's very, it will work
out for us on the policy committee for sure. And, um, that would be one request.
um, the second one, I brought this up a long time ago, but uh, we're still not listed
anywhere on the county's website. I think the warren county website,
uh, government website should have a link under its government tab that has a place called boards
and commissions where a board, um, seems pretty easy
move. They wouldn't have to create a page about it, just have a link to our own website. But it'd
be nice if someone discovers warren county, they wouldn't know we have a school system,
um, based on our recent approval of the new social media and communications
policy. I think one of the things we, we've talked about at one of the meetings
before was, was talking about updating our, the, uh, trip
guideline. One of the, one of the things we talked about was an official form of communication
that a chaperone uses when they go on a trip with somebody is text messaging with
the, the girls or guys or students they're with. And we made some comment
that, well, that'd be easy enough to fix that by just having it be listed on
the, the parent's signature form, the release form or whatever that to say by
the way, you, that the chaperone has permission to contact my child via text.
I don't know if if we've done that or not, but I think we have to do that and we could theoretically update, there's
a policy on, um, called iica dash
r student trip guidelines that could also be added in there too,
is cross-reference just to, it talks about chaperones responsibility. There could
be something added in there saying that one of the responsibilities chaperone is to make sure they have the,
all the signed parental documents that in access to the kids' text
numbers or whatever. It's, but since we did that, that's another thing that we have to kind
of add to. And then also, this
came up at a, at a meeting, I think, I think ms. Lowe mentioned this in a board request a couple meetings
ago that it'd be good to find out what other school policy school districts do
about board member access to school attorney. I mean,
we know that the, the, the board that we have a school attorney that works for the board. We have a school attorney
that works for the, the administration, but whether their individuals
can call up that person and ask them questions or whether it's something that's universal
or there's a mechanism or whether it's off the limits or whatever, it'd be good just for clarity,
I did look around at different places. It's hard to find a policy that has it, but it seems
easy enough to create a policy that would explain for everybody. Again, coming and
going just I, I was under some impression that well, I, with
a school lawyer works for me. I know, not me, I'm part of the board, but that we could reach out to
it. But it has, there's a, there should be a mechanism that goes through the chair or through the superintendent or
whatever. So just for clarity's sake, I think some discussion and there is a policy
bcg that talks about the school attorney and it's basically one line
saying we have a school attorney. They work for the superintendent, so, and the
school board. So those are my requests. And again, these are po many of
these are policy things that we can of course work on. But this is just something I was thinking
about. And that is it. Thank you, ms. Jones.
I don't have anything mr. Kline. Um,
I know we're getting ready to go into the budget season and looking over the
budget and, um, this might have, uh, be
a part of it, but I'd, I'd like to start the, um, discussion
on a, um, something like a communications director, um,
to, to get all these good things that happen out to the public.
um, just like tonight, the, uh, picture all the pictures taken with
the as road school. Um, those to me are all things that I
think the public should see. Um, not just about hear about the bad stuff,
but we, we need to get all the good stuff out. I know it's an expense, but,
um, I think it would just be really good for the public to know exact
exactly what's, um, what's happening in our school systems. Um,
they're, um, they do a lot of good stuff and
I know the, um, you know, with the ffa, uh, they do
a very good job of getting their information out. Um, I just
think that we ought to talk about how we can, um, how
we can get that out a little better.
thank you. Um, I,
one thing that we failed to put on our agenda this evening,
we didn't officially say we would not have the budget committee anymore
as a standing meeting, so we'll try to carry that over for the work session,
um, later this month. So that would be one thing that I would add.
um, mr. Mcfadden's already, um, brought my attention to the policy
bce, which is, um, our policy that discusses our standing committees.
so that's one that we could have at our work session to bring up, um,
later this month again, to, to add our new committee. And then
assuming we officially dissolve our budget committee subcommittee, we can, um,
take that out of there. Um, and then,
yes, the field trip communication form, actually when I was calling around and talking
to, um, some of our advisors and teachers that would be going on a lot of these overnight
field trips, that was a concern. Like what would this permission slip
look like? How am I not gonna get in trouble by texting students while we are 12 hours
away? And so I do think if we had just
one uniform statement that every school would have access to
that gives that permission when the parent is giving permission for travel,
um, to also just say right there how you're gonna be contacting while you're
away, then that I think would really make everybody a lot more comfortable with the new policy
that we just put in place. And then, um,
maybe when, uh, dr. Wright, when you meet with, um, the county administrator,
you can ask about that website update for us. , my list .
I thought probably it might be , so I think that would be great. Um,
okay. And then, yes, I agree with you mr. Klein. Um,
communications director has been a topic for many years now, so maybe that's
too fancy of a title, but if we could just get a, maybe a cheerleader
of some sort, some sort of pr person that wants to put out,
you know, what we're doing in our schools, that's, that's maybe a
lower pay scale way of saying communications director.
um, it doesn't hurt our budget quite as much perhaps, but I think
I agree that's what we need. Okay. And that's it that I have
for this evening. Um, so if I could get
a motion to go into executive session, please. This motion is made
that this open public meeting of the warren county school board become a closed meeting pursuant to
virginia code section 2.2 dash 3 7 1 1. The school board desires
to discuss the following matter in a closed meeting section 2.2 dash 3 7 1
a one, discussion, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment
assignment, appointment promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining,
or resignation of employees of the school board, specifically the personnel report,
the personnel report, addendum and employee number 2 0 2 6
dash 0 1 0 7 dash zero one.
is there a second? I second it. Mr. Valentine, could you do roll call please?
mr. Klein? Aye. Mrs. Aye madam chair?
aye. Mr. Mcfadden? Aye. Mrs. Salan? Aye. Alright, great. Thank
you.
could you please read us out of closed session?
according to the votes recorded by the clerk, the school board of warren county does hereby
certify that to the best of each member's knowledge one, only public
business matters, lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the virginia freedom
of information act were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification
applies. And two, only such public business matters as were
identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened or heard,
discussed, or considered by the school board. Is there a second? I second it.
mr. Valentine, could you do roll call? Yes.
mrs. Salan? Aye. Mr. Mcfadden? Aye. Madam chair?
aye. Mrs. Jones a mr. Klein? Aye.
thank you. And is there a motion on our personnel report and personnel
report? Addendum, I move that the january 7th, 2026 personnel report
and personnel report addendum be approved as presented. Is there a second?
I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye.
aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Okay. Anything else this
evening adjourned?
I.