City Council/School Board Budget Work Session   2/2/2022

Check, check one, two.

And we'll be starting our meeting in the next couple of minutes.

Thank you for your patience.

Check one, two, microphone check, test one, two, three.

So I want to be in as myself, right?

Hello, Maxie, this is Juan.

Sena said that she can't get in the meeting.

Can you send her a link?

Yes.

Thanks, Mon, you too.

How are you?

Yes, yes.

You know, the sweater does it, you know, but don't ask me any questions.

I'm like the opposite.

I think we're good on my end if we want to start.

Hello, thank you for your patience, everybody.

We've been working on some IT and technical things on our end.

So welcome everybody.

And it is 5.02 and I would like to call the meeting to order, today being February 2nd.

And this is our work session with city council.

And if you don't mind, if everybody will join us in just a moment of silence, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, so I'll call the City Council meeting to order, and I note that all five of us are here.

I'm good with just acknowledging that we're all here.

This is not a meeting where we will take any votes.

Present.

And Ms.

Yes, thank you.

Appreciate it.

So again, thank you to all the counselors and staff for joining us today.

And now I will turn this over to Dr. Gurley to begin the presentation.

So we will get started with our budget work session this evening.

I will be accompanied by Kim Powell.

I'm going to start off and then she's going to jump in and we'll tag team the presentation.

So first we're going to start with talking about who we are with regards to our enrollment.

It's important that we begin with the most recent enrollment data.

The enrollment data tells the story regarding who it is that we are serving currently here in Charlottesville City Schools.

As you can see from our most recent fall enrollment data, we're serving approximately 4,288 students.

in grades pre-K through 12.

In terms of our demographics, almost 40% of our students are white, 32% of our students are black, 13% are Hispanic, 9.2% are multiple races, and 6% are Asian students.

With regard to our subgroup data, 13% of our students currently are students who are identified as students with disabilities.

45, right at 46% of our students qualify as economically disadvantaged.

And lastly, 15% of our students are English language learners.

And I will tell you that that's a group of students that we are watching daily because that group

of that particular subgroup, we are seeing an influx of students from various regions.

And so all this data is prudent to our budget development process,

because based on these indicators, we know that we have to differentiate our support for these students and that's instructional supports, financial supports.

And so we have to keep that in mind because sometimes we have students who make up multiple of these categories.

So one student can represent a student who is a student with a disability.

That student can also be economically disadvantaged and that student can also be an English language learner.

And so additionally, you should know that with regards to these groups of students, we are prioritizing our instructional goals in terms of reducing the achievement gaps for these students.

And so keeping that in mind, we know that historically, what we know is that the pandemic has impacted our students.

And so that's what I'm going to talk about here.

So what you're seeing is a figure from Curriculum and Associates is some research that was conducted by them.

And so what we learned is that race, income level and location are variables that determine how well students fared in reading and mathematics at the end of the 2020-2021 school year after the pandemic.

This was the first full instructional year after the pandemic.

And so what we know from the research is that students were behind on average at least five months in reading and mathematics by the end of that school year.

But if you look at this chart, what you see is that based on the research, Black and Hispanic students were behind at least six months.

And then if you want to take a deeper dive at this, what you'll see is that students with a household of less than $25,000, those students were behind

at least seven months in mathematics.

And so this is really important when you think about the slide we just looked at, because if you know that students already had deficits and then you couple what happened with the pandemic,

The deficits are the deficits for those particular groups of students are even wider than what's seen there.

So similarly, when you see the gaps and when you see the gaps in reading what you see is that black, you know, the gap between black students and white students doubled.

and so you see six months for six months behind for black students and then you see three months behind for white students and then what we know when you look at again the same thing with the mathematics when you think about the subgroup data from the previous slide that when you have students who it's a student with a disability or the student is an English language learner the deficits were even wider

So as we go through this presentation, you'll see how we are responding to the needs of our students.

And so the first thing, when we talk about responding in the area of reading, we are implementing the science of reading.

And so what we know is that the pandemic created some inconsistencies in our students and their reading abilities.

And we saw how the gaps were widened for students.

And so in Charlottesville City Schools, we are implementing the science of reading.

And so that's really important for you to know, because this is about how we respond to the needs of our students.

And we are using some research.

We're using evidence based practices to respond to the needs of our students.

So through the science of reading, we are strengthening the foundational skills of our students.

We are addressing the fluency needs of our students, and we are also incorporating writing.

I want to make sure we still are okay.

Go back one slide.

Okay.

Sorry, I thought we had some technical difficulties.

And so we are also incorporating writing.

And so what's happening right now is that every teacher in grades K through two, they are receiving professional development on the science of reading.

and then we also have designated, we also have some designated individuals in our schools who are also supporting the science of reading and so this is extremely important for us because we talk about what's happening at the national level and then we look at what's happening here in Charlottesville city schools and so we are deploying our financial resources, we are deploying human resources

We're being very targeted in the area of reading in order to ensure the ongoing success of our students.

With regards to mathematics, we are actively engaging in building our students' understanding.

And so there are some high expectations for all of our students.

And so we are focusing on how students reason, explain, apply, and connect mathematical knowledge.

And so we're doing this through some rigorous learning tasks.

And so in the response to the gaps that have been created, we have revamped our curriculum.

So at the beginning of this school year, we did revamp our curriculum with regards to mathematics.

And that's following the framework that's found in the continuing the journey 2021 and beyond.

That framework was very intentional with regards to how we support and lead our students out of this pandemic.

And so we are deploying our human resources and our financial resources differently to support our students.

And one and the last thing in this area, we also

We have invested in the investigations curriculum at the elementary level, and we are seeing our teachers are loving that.

Our students are responding really well to it, and we are seeing a lot of strides with our students in this area.

So moving forward.

So what we know moving forward is that we have to continue to support the mental health needs of our students.

We are embracing our English language learners.

We are just working really diligently and very thoughtfully in this area on how we

Close those gaps for our students.

And then we know that on the other side of this, we want to accelerate our learning for our students because we don't want to have that, we want to have a forward mindset, you know, we want to have that growth mindset as we work with our students.

So what this all means, all of this ties together with our budget priorities and our strategic plan.

We've talked a lot about reconfiguration and how we can assist with making this plan move forward with the reconfiguration project.

This aligns directly with focusing on our student programs.

As you see in our budget development, we want to make sure that we are continuing to strengthen our

our instructional programs and we don't want to compromise the integrity of our instructional programs.

And then lastly, we are focusing on our staff compensation and benefits so that we can ensure that our students that I'm sorry that our staff are competitive, that

We can keep them here, that we will continue to attract people to come here, and so we are doing that through our staff compensation.

And these things are directly aligned to our strategic plan, which directly correlates to safe and supportive schools, academic excellence, and organizational support.

So at this time, Ms.

Thank you, Dr. Gurley.

I'm getting...

So is this one better?

This one's better.

Pat, I think it's working.

Okay.

That one's better.

All right.

I'll stick with this.

Okay.

So we'll stick with it.

I think so.

They're saying this one's okay.

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

So this chart simply shows the funding that we have been awarded through the different federal relief funding mechanisms.

It started with CARES, what we affectionately call CARES 1, and then there was a second award last year, CARES 2, and then the third and largest award, which is called the American Rescue Plan or American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA,

We just call that CARES 3.

But those are the three major awards.

You can see the proper names and you can see the amounts.

And the three awards total over $15.7 million.

So this is not an insignificant amount of money that we're working with.

It's been very helpful in dealing with the various needs as we navigate this pandemic.

And for the fiscal year 2022 budget, the budget we are presently in,

The adopted budget, because there wasn't an increase in appropriation from the locality, everything that was done to prepare for this school year and handle the challenges that we have now was done through the CARES funding.

So in this year's budget, there's 4.5 million, almost 4.6 million in non-recurring funds that are supporting our operations.

So this is a graphic that we came up with to try to help everyone understand this funding presents great opportunities, but there's also a challenge inherent with having so much nonrecurring funding coming into your budget and a limited time period in which to spend it.

So our current budget, this thermometer, usually you think of a fundraising thermometer as something you want to see go up, but in this case, it indicates a temperature, if you will, a fever that we need to bring down because our current budget does have about $4.6 million in non-recurring funds in operations.

And so there's really two ways to cool this down.

One is increasing revenues from recurring sources and the other is decreasing expenditures.

And it's not one or the other that will resolve this, it'll be a combination of both.

And it's important to realize, last year when everything was happening and we were still sorting out how to even do in-person learning safely,

fiscal year 2024 seemed like a long ways off, but the reality is this time next year when we're working on the budget will be our next and final opportunity to sort this out.

and get the one-time funding out of our operations budget.

So what we really wanted to share with you this evening, and I hope you had some opportunity to gain a preliminary understanding of a path forward through the executive summary that was sent before is, you know, we're, I hope you see, we hope the council sees that the school board is taking this very seriously with regard to both, with regard to expenditure reductions and of course, the need for additional revenues, but it's the combination that will resolve this.

So we'll talk about revenues first.

The good news is that the state is also fairly flush with revenues right now, in part because of the relief funding.

And so the actions that we did last year in our budget, school divisions all across the Commonwealth did that, as did the state.

A lot of actions were done at the state level with the federal relief money.

But there's also a lot of additional tax revenue being generated.

And all this has translated to Charlottesville with an estimated $1.7 million increase in state revenue for next fiscal year, fiscal year 2023.

Now, to be clear, this estimate is based on the governor's budget proposal that was issued in December.

That was the previous governor.

So it's always true that we really don't know what we're going to get from the state until we see what the House and the Senate come forward with with their proposals.

And then we go into crossover and then there's a General Assembly proposed budget, which usually represents the

the true amount that we're going to end up seeing as far as a difference here locally.

But this is a really good state budget year when you consider that our local composite index of ability to pay also did tick up a little bit for this biennium that we're now starting.

Key areas that drove this state revenue increase in the proposal is there was an increase in funding for at-risk students and Charlottesville has around, you know, 50% of our population definitely is in that category.

Sales tax, as I mentioned earlier, is looking good both for this year and for next.

This is important to understand.

The grocery tax hold harmless.

There's money in there to reflect the projected net decrease in

in state funding to offset, if you will, any impact from the loss of the grocery tax revenues for schools.

And then another key factor is the re-benchmarking hold harmless.

So there's two hold harmless provisions in the current state budget proposal that we're looking at.

And the re-benchmarking hold harmless is important because public school enrollments across the Commonwealth went down during the pandemic last year.

We're certainly seeing our numbers recover

But understanding this dynamic, ADM, the average daily membership, if you will, is the number one driver of state funding.

And so the state realizes that to use a snapshot of ADM or enrollment during the pandemic does not necessarily accurately represent the students we're now serving and the recovery that's underway as students return to public schools.

So I'm going to pause here for just a minute to give Leslie an opportunity to make some adjustments on the screen.

So I think I know the material well enough to wing it without seeing the whole screen, so we'll give it a try.

Except now I think we're one slide too far.

Yep, there we go.

Oh, thanks.

Okay.

I can talk to this one without having to print out.

It's okay.

But thank you again.

Okay.

All right.

So we've talked about the state revenue picture.

So now shifting gears to look at the local revenue picture.

The city budget guidelines allocate 40% of new personal and real property tax revenues to go towards education, to go for education now.

We did receive an update

early this morning slash last night from the city.

They let us know that the 40% calculation changed and it was great.

It moved in a positive direction where that would be another $200,000 by formula that would be allocated to the schools for fiscal year 2023.

So there was a revised presentation that was sent out today because we updated our numbers this morning.

We also made a few technical adjustments

for some contracts like KTEC that we had received additional information since the January 15th budget work session.

And originally we weren't going to make any updates to that budget change document until our regular meeting tomorrow night.

We were going to present all the technical adjustments at the same time, which net out to about $100,000 difference.

But when we got the new revenue number, we huddled this morning and said, let's just put all the updates in so that there's no confusion and everyone sees everything tonight.

So those are all the changes that have happened both on the expense side and the revenue side since the 15th.

It's worth noting that when you see this chart, this is a great chart that actually comes from the city.

It shows in the blue bars show what the formula allocation would have been each fiscal year and the red line shows what was actually appropriated.

And most years up until fiscal year 2020, you know, that the appropriation based on the 40% calculation was sort of a baseline and then there were discussions about other needs beyond that.

For fiscal year 2022, last year, if looking back, if we had received the 40% equivalent, it would have been $746,069 in additional allocation last year.

So, and this number, the 3.1 million actually didn't get updated.

It's now about 3.3 million.

So we failed to catch the update on this slide, but you get the gist of it.

So, there we go.

Now we're advancing.

So here's another look at the local appropriation.

This slide shows just that the average annual increase in city appropriation for schools was 2.3 million from 2015 to 2020, sort of during more normal times, if you will.

And it's always worth noting that the city's Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainable School Funding, that report, which was issued in January of 2014, it still rings true today, the work that commission did so many years back, that although it's difficult to estimate what the exact funding gap will be year to year, you can expect that it will range between two and four million any given year.

So we've talked about revenues.

Now we're going to shift to the expenditure side of our budget.

And this chart is simply a high level view of where the money goes by major category, not unexpected.

I'm sure personnel expenses, wages and benefits represent over 77% of school's budget.

This would be true for any school in the Commonwealth.

It's always around 80%.

and then on top of that contractual and non-discretionary services run around 11% of our budget and those are things like our transport that includes our transportation and maintenance contracts with the city which covers utilities you know insurances that we have to have programs like the vocational education program KTEC which we partner with Albemarle you know trash service pest control service those are all the things that are in there.

So now moving, taking a closer look at that biggest expenditure category, which is staffing, where are the staff?

83%, a little over 83% of the staff are instructional staff.

So these are staff that work directly with students in our mission of instruction.

Another 8% are school-based personnel, which are custodians, are nutrition workers, and then the school-based administration.

And then last but not least, 8.45%

are what we call division support and administration.

This is the staff at our office on Derry Road, Dr. Gurley's office, where we have HR, the finance department, and that's primarily who's there, communications.

And then the annex staff, which is where we have our equity team leadership, Pat Cuomo's IT team is there, that's the IT support for the entire school division, and then the special education department and the various content area coordinators.

And so that's where the staff are and what they do at a high level.

So this is just a look at our salary actions leading up to this year.

You can see there was no action for 2021.

You can also see that in 2019 and 2020, we did try to move the teacher salaries.

We moved the teacher salaries more so than we were able to move the salaries for all staff.

The teacher shortage continues to plague our everywhere, our nation, and certainly Virginia and Charlottesville are no exception.

I will say that, again, the current budget proposal that we have from Richmond calls for a 5%

increase for all staff for this fiscal year and another 5% increase for next year because the budget is always released as a biennium budget.

So we, of course it can change and likely there will be changes, but it's always a two-year budget when it's released.

And so be aware that in order to qualify for the state money that Charlottesville would be entitled to to go towards a raise, the salary action is,

We have 5% this year and 5% for next year based on what we have now from Richmond.

Okay, so now we're moving into the document that we use every year to bring all the changes together.

We call this our budget change recommendations summary, and we'll start at the top with the proposed salary and benefit actions.

These numbers for the teachers, the support staff and the administrative staff, the numbers all reflect the 5% average increase that we need to do to be eligible for the state money.

For our teachers, the teacher scales have an average 1.1 and a quarter percent between steps.

So the salary action is step plus a 3.75%.

Same is true for our administrative scales, which have an average of one and a quarter between step.

Our support staff, which are nutrition workers, custodial workers, instructional assistants and office support secretarial staff,

Some years back, I think it was two years ago, when we made the move to ensure that all of our scales started on step zero at the living wage of $15.

To make that lift happen in one year for all those categories of employees, we had to do some compression on our support staff scales.

So now those scales have an average of 1% instead of one and a quarter between each step.

So that's why you see there that

to get them that average increase of 5%, it has to be a step plus 4% instead of step plus a 3.75.

We are seeing about a 10% increase in our health insurance.

Last year we had no increase.

It was a nice little honeymoon, but we also knew that medical inflation has certainly not taken a vacation and everyone's now catching up on all the different

procedures and different things that they couldn't or didn't want to do earlier during the pandemic.

And so we are taking a look at things we can do to hopefully mitigate cost increases next year, but for this year, this is where we are.

We have a small increase in our employee assistance program contract, which is through the University of Virginia.

And then this last item is we needed to make some adjustments to our assistance

and general nutrition manager pay scales because we had some overlap, almost overlap between assistant managers and our elementary nutrition managers, such that we weren't able to get our assistant managers to want to move into our elementary jobs when they came open to be managers.

There wasn't enough differential in the scale.

The total cost of fixing the scales is about $26,000, but we looked at our existing budgeted transfer to our nutrition department because we have a budgeted transfer each year to support school nutrition and that existing transfer can cover the $26,000.

So that's why it's a $0 item showing here, but it was reviewed in detail with the board at our January 15th work session.

Okay, so moving into the next section of our budget change recommendations.

We have our recurring and non-discretionary items.

So the first three items are things where you guys send us money or the city sends us money and then we send the money back to the city for some important services and then for this tax.

So this reflects the pupil transportation contract increase as it was given to us.

Same goes for the maintenance increase.

And we know that a good portion of that is the salary action that the city

is taken with the 6% to help address your staffing and so forth.

And so that's reflected in these numbers.

It's part of it.

The third item is the stormwater tax that we've had.

There's been discussions in the past

about, you know, can we, do we really need this?

Should this be happening?

But neither here nor there.

The bills continue to come and the tax has been going up and our budget line item isn't matched up with what we're having to pay in the stormwater tax.

So the $15,000 reflects the amount that

would balance what we've actually been seeing with those bills and what we have in our budget to handle that.

In total, it used to be around 30-some thousand, but I believe the latest number we had, and we've shared this with Chrissy Hamill, it's gone up to a little over 50,000, and so we're trying to just sort that out.

KTEC, I mentioned that earlier is one of our partnerships.

They have salary actions and benefit increases and things like that, that they have to take care of for the staff there that work with our students on vocational programs.

So that's what the 34,000 reflects.

The Piedmont Regional Education Program is a regional partnership to provide special needs services to some of our students with the highest level of needs.

and that program has been going through a lot of changes over the past couple of years because the state has changed how they're funding these types of services.

And we are still honestly year to year kind of sorting that out and seeing what it looks like as far as what we pay into PrEP versus what reimbursement we're getting from the state.

We, based on our experiences through last year and what we know of our projections for this year, we believe we can lower that expense line by about $150,000.

In an earlier presentation, it showed an estimated decrease of $300,000, but we have since been reminded that last year there was a bit of a holiday where some cost increases were funded from the fund balance at PrEP, and now all that's coming into the cost for next year.

There's not going to be a second holiday

with them using fund balance to cover increases like they did last year.

So now that unfortunately meant that our estimated savings had to be adjusted.

We are seeing an increase in our workers' comp coverage cost.

We've been looking at, this is a really nice fine arts program that has been in Charlottesville forever.

It was the Minds in Motion program with all fourth graders across the division.

It was a partnership with the Richmond Ballet, but that partnership ended during COVID, and there were some logistic challenges with it even before COVID.

But with challenges, there come opportunities.

During COVID, a beautiful new partnership formed with the Charlottesville Ballet to do a program, I think it's called Chance to Dance with all the fifth graders, where it brings everyone together and it has some culminating performances.

And so we were able to save money by shifting to, it's a division-wide program for the fine arts, but we were able to shift to a local partnership and we're really excited about that.

Next, this $33,000 increase, $33,060 for software subscription support and maintenance.

This is a process we go through every year where we look at all the software programs and subscriptions that we have and use for instruction.

You can imagine there are a lot.

And then there are business systems as well.

And we go through them and we look at, are there any things that we can discontinue using?

And then basically for everything else,

Well, what are their scheduled increases for their annual subscription and maintenance costs?

And so that's a net increase number, but there were some reductions that were brought forward in the process so that number wasn't any higher.

We decided to discontinue use of some things.

And then the technology audit, we will continue having technology audits.

I want to be very clear about that.

That is essential in today's environment.

But when Charlottesville initially embarked on technology audits, the firm that we've been using is very good and it was a very good resource early on.

But now that we've been through multiple annual technology audits, Pat Cuomo and his team came forward and

They offered that they believe there are some less expensive resources that we can use to perform this function.

And we also think it's just like you periodically change your financial auditors.

It's not a bad idea to maybe use some other resources for tech audits for at least the next several years.

So that was a net decrease that we project.

So the total recurring and non-discretionary increases are $734,888, but you'll see that most of that in the net is really tied to our city contracts, if you look at the first three numbers in that section.

And so, sorry that you had to listen to all that detail.

I hope it was an appropriate level of detail.

All right, so I'm going to talk about the school-based program supports and improvements.

And so I think if you look at the previous budget book, this section was very long.

And so what we are proposing, we are being very thoughtful about how we are moving forward with our request.

And so in this area, you will see there this school year for the upcoming school year, we're just making two requests.

And that is for a stipend for theater assistance.

And that's an assistant.

Those are some assistants who have been doing the job currently.

And so we are just adding the compensation and what we did was we did a job analysis and we found some positions that were already doing like roles and so we made sure that the compensation for this matched positions that are currently doing similar type jobs.

and then the last is the speech pathologist and the school psychologist.

We have a lead in each one of those areas and so what we want to do is let the compensation for that lead position match what happens for like the department leads and team leads in the building and so we are asking that we compensate those individuals so we're adding a stipend in those areas.

And those are our two requests in the area of school-based programs, and that is $5,650, and that's significantly lower than what we had for last school year.

So these are some recommended budget changes, and I guess I want to start by saying that we have been very thoughtful throughout this process.

And one thing that Ms.

Powell talked about earlier is that most of our funds are connected to people.

So when we looked at that, it was a bar graph that was going horizontally.

When we looked at that graph, you know, when we think about materials and supplies and things, those things make up just a really small portion of our budget.

But when we look at people, people are really what makes up a significant amount.

And so when we talk about how we get that thermometer down, one of the things that we talked about is how can we reorganize our people

without compromising our instructional programs.

And so that first line shows reorganization and FTE adjustments.

And so this is a total of 17 positions that we have outlined here and what we are recommending.

And I'm going to go into a little bit more in depth on the next slide.

And so there are 17 positions, and I'll get to that in a second on the next slide.

The next one is the content squats stipends.

We are going to remove that because that was a one-time expense when we were coming out of the pandemic, and they were doing a lot of the curriculum work.

So we are making some adjustments in there, in that area.

Book rooms, we are going to reduce that by $60,000.

That was a one-time expense.

During the pandemic, we had to facilitate and provide books to our students, and those books weren't returned, and so we knew we had to replenish at the school year, we had to replenish those book rooms throughout CCS.

And so that's an expense that we had last year that we don't have this year.

And so that would be a savings of $60,000.

And then there were some one-time expenses related to internet and communication, and that is also a cost savings of $12,000.

Thank you, Dr. Gurley.

And I think what we'll do is we'll come back to the revenue piece and tie this all together.

I'm going to go ahead and skip to the next slide so that Dr. Gurley can talk about the staffing recommendations and how we arrived at those.

And I'd also just like to point out before we go there, one of the first things we did in trying to come up with cost reductions was to look back at the additions last year and say, okay, how much of all of that, all of it was in response to the pandemic.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

So in the previous slide, I talked about the reorganization.

And so when we think about, well, how do we get there?

How do we move the needle down?

How do we do things that are not directly, that don't impact our programs?

And so one way is to reduce the number of instructional assistants by 15.

And so some of them are directly retired to grade levels.

And then some of those instructional assistants are tied to programs that we no longer do anymore.

And so we have been working with our principals to talk about what would your programs in your buildings look like if we made those reductions.

And I think we heard loud and clear that

Most certainly we could make those things work.

We could make those things work if we make some reductions in that area, we could find some ways to make some adjustments.

And so I do want to preface by saying that I know we're talking about reductions and I know sometimes that that can be a little nerve wracking, you know, as employees are listening to this, but when we say we're making these reductions, we are

No one's losing employment.

No one's losing any employment.

We have some vacant positions that can absorb some of these individuals.

Attrition will be able to absorb.

We've done our letter of intent and we know that

in the area of instructional assistance.

We've had at least five that have said that they're going to retire.

So we know that we are more than able to ensure that people are still employed.

So we're just making some reductions that are not going to significantly impact programs while also ensuring that we can still ensure people that they will have employment for next school year.

There are two administrative positions that we are planning to make some reductions and so that would be a cost savings of $247,000 and so we have started to have

some conversations with those individuals that we're going to start to make those changes.

And so you see that listed there.

There are some elementary teacher positions, and that's not cutting any of the current teaching positions that are currently in the building.

What happens is we do make some adjustments based on student enrollment.

So looking at the student enrollment projection for next school year, we know that there will be

We will have at least two classrooms that we won't have to staff with the teacher because of our projected enrollment for next school year.

And then we do have listed here, which is actually not a reduction, but we have been working really closely with Buford to address some of the needs there in terms of some alternative programming.

And we've kind of heard some of that from the visions from

members of our board as well.

And so we have a really solid plan that we've been working through.

And so we would actually be adding two teachers there, but we wouldn't need to add them back into the budget.

We would be able to absorb them from other programs.

throughout the building, throughout our school, so that kind of will offset it.

So again, I just want to make sure that we know no one's losing employment.

Thank you.

I'm going to go back to the slide that kind of pulls the expenses and revenues together, but also I would just want to point out that under more normal circumstances, it would have been difficult to make these kind of reductions without saying that people would lose employment.

But I guess if we look for a silver lining, the one bright side about having so much trouble filling positions is that

There are vacancies and things that we could look at, and the schools are no different than most other employers.

You see this now when you go out to restaurants, it's always help wanted, help wanted, help wanted, and I know the city is dealing with the same thing, but we were able to factor that in and look for ways to be as compassionate and caring as possible while also putting the programs and children first.

So bringing it all together, here at the bottom of this slide, you see the projected increase in the state revenues based on the governor's budget that was released in December with the previous governor.

And then you see a city estimated request.

And there's a box at the bottom that shows how the estimated request was determined.

And it's based on our latest formula allocation number, the one that we received

last night slash this morning from Ms.

Hamill and we very much appreciated that update.

So it's the formula allocation increase along with simply the increases that we've been given for transportation maintenance and then what we need to balance our line item for paying the stormwater tax with the bills that we're actually receiving.

and that total is 4.2 million, $4,216,341.

If the city is able to honor that request, now I'm gonna go forward,

This is what it does to our thermometer, to our currently, I don't want to call it a sick budget, but to our budget that currently has a fever of non-recurring money paired up with recurring expenses, we can make some good progress to get that fever down to right around $2.1 million.

And so we are

We're hopeful that this will be the outcome because we believe that although there will be more hard work to do next year, this is perhaps a reasonable starting point.

So certainly happy to answer questions, but moving along in the slides,

The next slide is really just, I call it a public service announcement of sorts.

It's very important and the federal government wants us to always be making sure that everyone understands what the intentions and allowable uses are for the federal money, the ARP and ESSER funds.

And we also want to point out to everyone and anyone who's watching at home that you can always look at our plans for the use of the ARP and ESSER funds on our website.

And you see the link there.

It used to be our return to learn page, but now it's charlottesvilleschools.org forward slash COVID hyphen communications.

There's a link at the top that says if you want more information about how federal relief funds are being used and if you want to provide comments about how federal relief funds are being used, you can hit a link.

and it takes you past all of our COVID protocols and things that parents need to know on a day-to-day basis and it jumps you right down to a separate section about the ARP relief funds, the current plan uses, and again, most importantly, provides an opportunity for comment.

Of course, the public's always invited to comment at any of our meetings as well, the school board meetings.

So how does this all come together?

Because

You may be thinking already, well, it's great to make progress on getting this one-time money out of your operating budget, which we of course need to do, and you don't want to do that at the last minute, or it would be a very convulsive and ugly and painful process.

But then what do you do with this money?

Here's the opportunity piece of it.

What do we do with this money to put it to best use for the citizens of Charlottesville, for the students of Charlottesville?

And this is where the CIP comes in.

So on this slide, I do have a note because it's important that, you know, at least 20% or about 2 million of that over 10 million in ARP money has to go towards addressing learning loss.

Those are things like the social emotional positions we put in last year and all the actions we've taken to increase reading and math specialist hours and things like that.

We have no problem meeting that minimum requirement with what we've got in our plans this year and going forward.

To use these funds for construction or capital improvement projects, it requires prior approval from the Virginia Department of Education.

We've already reached out to VDOE to find out, to get the application, to find out what's involved.

So we're poised to do that as soon as we know that it's the right thing to do, that we can, that council and the school board are on the same page to start migrating these dollars out of operations over to CIP

without causing any kind of more difficult or traumatic operational challenges for the schools.

So this box on the left is just a scenario.

It's just an example to try to show how this all could come together.

You see at the top that 15.7 million, the total of all of our CARES and ARP money,

all this one-time money that we're dealing with.

You see the first line, that's what we actually spent out of the one-time money in FY21.

The next line shows the FY22 estimated use of these one-time dollars, and then FY23 shows the current

or proposed, if you will, use in the FY23 budget.

And this, of course, assumes that the state budget projections hold, and it's based on that ask, you know, the city request number that you saw earlier.

If those things came together, if all these plans and estimates come together, then

The 1.8 million is a placeholder.

And I sort of backed into that and I will tell you how I did it.

I went through the CIP and this is getting into the next slide so we can we can go forward and backwards as much as we need.

But basically, I took the CIP plan that was presented at the last CIP meeting back in the fall.

when the school CIP committee met with all the different city officials, and I basically grabbed every school CIP project that's in that presentation, plus the last two elementary modernizations, which are currently scheduled for Greenbrier's this summer, Johnson's the next, and then Venable is the final

All of that is within the period of performance for this money, because that's the key when you think about these projects.

They have to be projects.

If we're going to go this route, these have to be projects that we can execute within the period of performance for these federal dollars, which is March of 2020.

So that's looking backwards.

It started March of 2020, and it goes through September 30th of 2024.

And so when I grabbed all those projects, you can see what the total is here.

Also, just to give you a heads up, there's already an HVAC grant that we have gotten that covers over $800,000 worth of HVAC projects.

Basically, we're covering all the HVAC projects that are in the CIP during the same timeframe.

And so,

This is again, sort of a hypothetical, but as we've gone through this budget season, it seems like we're getting to things that can perhaps be more tangible and things that people can put on the table and decide yay or nay and move forward with.

We could potentially take care of over 7.5 million.

It could even be as much as 8 million.

This is, but you understand the ballpark we're talking about here.

Federal dollars that we could bring to bear

to cover existing school CIP projects, which are all the capital maintenance projects, except for the continuation of the modernization projects where we touch the elementary schools at least once to give them some refresh and update, because as you know, those buildings are very, very old and it's been really impactful for the schools that we've been able to do it for so far.

So,

It's kind of hard because everybody's not here and I don't know who has questions or how we want to handle this, but we'll go forward into reconfiguration now and talk a bit about that.

And then I believe the next step is to turn the podium over to VMDO for them to talk more about where we are with reconfiguration.

I don't know.

Thank you, Kim.

Mayor Snook, do you all have questions at this point or can we continue?

Well, I know I've got questions, but I don't know how long Mr. Knox was intending to talk and whether we ought to ask him now so as to get them out of the way or whether we want to wait.

It's up to you all.

Okay.

Shall we wait and do all the questions at the end, or do you want to talk about finances, ask the financial questions now, and then wait and ask any architectural questions later?

I think the reconfiguration finances are directly aligned with some of these other questions that we might have in the financials, like they are related.

And then let's push on and we'll ask all our questions at the end.

Thank you.

So give us just a second.

So by way of teeing up Mr. Knox's presentation, again, just reminding everyone configuration is so important to address our aging facilities, reduce student transitions during the critical middle years, provide modern state of the art facilities to support best practices for both early learning and middle school education.

and improve safety and reduce our carbon footprint.

And that's not that last item is also very, very significant.

And I'd just like to point to a resource that I hope you all will take a moment when you look at the presentation.

This link is a hot link or it should be to take you to some information about how school environments impact student achievement.

Dr. Gurley brought this forward.

And when I looked at it, I just thought it was very

Very compelling.

And so specifically significant correlations have been found between poor structural, conditional and aesthetic attributes of school buildings and low student learning and achievement.

And if you go deeper into that story, it's quite compelling.

And so I just want to draw attention to that before I turn things over to Mr. Knox to talk more about reconfiguration and the financial part of that.

All of a sudden slide down.

So I just... Change the slides here.

All right, great.

Thank you, board and council.

I'm always excited to be here because every time I speak to you about this, this is the closest we've ever gotten to reconfiguration.

I'm also really excited because this is the board and the council that we'll have if we do this, right?

If we move forward, if we sign a construction contract, we start building something, this is the board and council that makes that decision.

So that's exciting in a future is now kind of way.

So we are at the very end of the process that we've been on since for the past year, and we're getting to the point where it is time for admission.

And this process has been intentionally set up on the schedule so we can define what it is that we want to do.

prior or going into the budget cycle.

So that work was defined, the work that we've been doing was defined in the RFP that the city issued in 2019.

This is, conservatively speaking, I think this is the 43rd presentation that we've given of this project, and that's not counting some of the summer school classes and things that we've taught.

and I think along the way what we've tried to do is to really talk about not just the what and the cost but also the why and articulate why this project which has the clumsy name of reconfiguration but does a lot of things that support equity student capacity across every single campus climate commitments attracting and retaining staff and improving learning and those are the reasons why this project has been consistently recommended especially by the school board over 14 years of analysis and study

The defined part of this has been working and exploring multiple options with the public.

What are the various approaches?

What do they cost?

Once we got that figured out, we've been in the design two piece of this, which has been what we've been up to the past three months, roughly, working with our building committees of CCS professionals to make sure that we are developing the floor plans and the buildings that support the teaching and learning that we want to do here in Charlottesville.

But this has a stop point, right?

The scope that we had basically said, take it to 30%.

Let's figure out what it is that we want to do.

And then based on those documents and the cost estimates, we're either going to fund it and keep going, or we're going to cancel it.

So for me, when I saw that language in that RFP, I said, okay, to cancel it is getting to no, right?

Everything else is getting to yes.

So it's not just about figuring it out, but it's about leading a process that hopefully gets us to yes together, right?

So the big questions are actually kind of simple, right?

Will we get to yes?

Will we get the yes regardless of the funding source?

We all know what's going on with the special sales tax.

And then what are we saying yes to?

Those are really the questions that we have before us over the next month, right?

So

Our work kind of finishes this week.

We will do our last pricing set of the cost estimators on Friday.

We'll spend next week updating all the renderings to reflect the revised work.

And then we'll get those cost estimates back on the 15th.

We have two working group meetings.

The working group is a subset of the CIP, the school CIP committee that Councilors Wade and Pinkston serve on, Vice Mayor Wade and Councilor Pinkston.

And then

Basically, by the time we get to about St.

Patrick's Day, that's kind of when we need a decision about what we're going to do.

Are we going to cancel it?

Are we going to move forward with something?

And what is it that we move forward with, right?

You see, that is a couple of days after the General Assembly, and it is roughly a month after we get the call assessment back and report that information.

So some of the questions we have.

and we don't have to answer these tonight, but looking ahead, if we decide to move forward just with design, not necessarily committing to construction, does that need to come before council for a vote and a decision?

And then to what extent, if any, do we meet again with the public?

Do we re-engage the community design team in any way, shape, or fashion?

Those are things to think about.

As we look ahead to the schedule, the schedule is driven really in a lot of ways by how long it's going to take to get through the city approval process, right?

So this is about as far as we can push it.

Our goal is to go to bid in February of 23.

The cost estimates are based on going to bid in February of 23.

This pushes it all the way to late February.

This is about what it takes.

Charlottesville is no different than any other city where the reviewers take time to review stuff and they want to see a plan that doesn't change.

Going into it with a defined scope is pretty important.

We have some cost reductions that we're going to talk about tonight.

There was a reason that we wanted to present this to council and board at the same time so everybody can see it.

And I have a very big disclaimer here.

I'm going to show you some things that aren't going to be popular, that aren't going to be popular with what the community design team wanted.

But there are our suggestions.

They're coming from us as a consultant.

No one at the city of CCS has told us to make these.

No one's endorsed them, right?

So you can blame me for the ideas, right?

So in the process, we have been looking at all kinds of different scopes.

We've looked at things that were as small as 35 million.

just basically build a couple of extra additions, classrooms to put the sixth grade in at Buford.

We looked at things that were much bigger.

We've gone back and forth on this process to try to define what it is that we want, what we can afford, and trying to find that sweet spot, right?

So we were at $75 million, right?

So we got to work.

We did a cost estimate right before Christmas.

We got it back on the 15th of December, and all of a sudden it was at $82 million, right?

So we had a meeting with the working group

to report this information and our directions were crystal clear.

It's like not only can it be a penny above 75, you actually need to find ways to get below it where we are, right?

So we took some time off for Christmas and then we went set about doing that.

I will say that it's normal at a 50% schematic for the price to be a little bit high because now we figured out

All right, we know what we want to do, we know what we want to build, let's figure out what kind of systems and materials we can put into it, and what can we afford, right?

So we normally, we're a little over, but usually it's like a million, right?

Not seven.

So a lot of this is driven by the continued inflation, now at a 40-year high of where it's been.

So

In a lot of ways, what we've done over the past months, we've tried to tackle this problem, is we've kind of gone back to this chart that we showed you in September.

But not only did we look at the different options and the square footage of them, but we also looked at the degree to which we renovate existing buildings to remain.

That's buildings A and buildings B at the Beaufort campus.

So the process that we're going through now is kind of revisiting this a little bit and see what we can do, right?

So the first thing we've done, and these are steps we've already taken, they're going to be reflected in the documents that we have estimated on Friday.

We squeezed the building, we reduced it in area, the floor plan.

So we were at 151 square foot a student, which is exactly the average of a new middle school designed and built in the Commonwealth over the past five, six, seven years, right?

We've cut 5,700 square feet out of that.

That takes us to 46.5 square feet per student.

That's actually a little bit less than the smallest option that we considered back in September.

We reviewed this with our building committees and we kind of decided that this is about as much as we can squeeze program and still before we start compromising capacity, the 1050 that we're designing for, and also scheduling an ability to program this.

So you remember this is a rendering that we showed you back in concept design that shows outside space down at the field level.

I show this to you just to say we're working on renderings next week that will have that level of post-production.

But the space you see here between the Boys and Girls Club, which is the building on the far left,

and the new building is that space.

Just zoomed out looking at it from the field.

This is what we priced.

This is what came back at $82 million.

So not only have we shrunk it in area, we've also shrunk it in volume.

Before, after, right?

So before we had these tilted roofs and inside that was a mechanical space.

That's in addition to the square footage that we reduced.

So all of this is going to be reflected in the new calls estimate.

We hope there's significant amounts of money that come out of the project from this.

Beyond that, so those are things that we're taking and that we're doing that are going to be in the project.

After that, we're looking at alternates that we're going to have priced so we can decide, is this something we want to do as a community?

This is where it gets tougher as a project.

So we looked at the site.

What can we do on the site?

And what are the things that we can do that, what are the things you can only do when you build the first time and what are the things that you can come back and potentially add on later?

Things in the second category.

So we looked at not doing the adding basketball courts and a walking track around the new field.

We looked at eliminating the parking we had down at the field, which would take our parking spots down from a plan 255 to 216.

We looked at getting rid of the outdoor dining terrace space to the west of the existing dining.

And we also looked at not building out the garden, not using this budget to build the garden out in any way, which was something I know a lot of people talked about as being important.

The space would still be there, but we wouldn't spend the money to build it out or do the rainwater harvesting.

Again, something we're going to get a price for, see what it costs.

You can see the base condition and the alternate condition up there.

You could come back later and do it.

Let's look at the plans a little bit.

So this is the floor plan for the full base condition of what we would price.

And what we begin to do is we start looking at, okay, how can we scale back what we do to renovate the existing buildings to remain?

There's basically three areas, right?

We can do less to the exterior walls, what we call the building envelope, do less on the inside, or we could take, and, or we could take pieces and phase it, say, do this piece later.

So on the envelopes, what we would do is top here, you see building B is what we'll estimate as our base estimate.

Then we're going to look at one reduction where we don't change the exterior walls, meaning you don't add any more windows, you don't get any more daylight.

We'll still come in on the inside and insulate and we'll replace the glass with insulating glass.

And then the next option after that, don't do anything.

Don't do anything to the exterior walls, leave them the way they are.

We're going to look at that for A and B pricing.

A, that has a pretty big impact, right?

So this is a daylight model you see in the bottom left.

That's your existing Buford.

The top left is a model of addition and renovation.

We did it down in Bedford County last year or two years ago of what we like to do in terms of ideal daylighting.

And the picture on the far right is an existing classroom in Buford.

So it would stay that way in terms of natural light, right?

Here is, again, another rendering we showed you in September before.

and after.

So I'm going to point out a few things here.

You look at the very, at the top, you can see those high roofs that have now flattened, right?

And then also you can kind of see, so this is the base condition.

I'll also point out that here you see where we've added windows into A, that material between them, that's corrugated metal.

That's the degree to which we have taken down the materials and the cost of the materials we're putting in the project.

Next step beyond that,

is where we begin to get rid of the courtyard space, the outdoor classroom space, and not do anything to the existing building.

New windows and natural light, no new natural light.

We still build an addition next to it, right?

Then now we move to the inside.

What are the things that we're looking at?

So this is building B. The left is the base condition we'll estimate.

After that, we're saying, okay, let's expand the lobby.

Let's put this stage extension on the right side.

Let's put a new roof over them, but don't do anything to the inside.

Leave it.

You can come back and do that later as an interior renovation.

Third option, don't touch it at all.

Just leave it there.

Make it a phase two, figure out another time to do it.

Building B. We talked about this before as an option.

Building A, same thing where we're looking at potentially not touching it.

This is where you'll see the biggest savings and also have the biggest most pain, right?

So this is the plan.

What we do is we wouldn't, anything in gray, we wouldn't touch.

We would only renovate enough to bring the admin suite up and where we are connecting with new construction.

So you would have a project that would be

part 2026 and a project that would be part 1966, 60 years apart in the construction.

This is a chart we showed you before that kind of shows the different levels of where we begin to affect major things from accessibility to bathrooms, air quality, thermal comfort.

That line between best and same, that's where you go and renovate or choose not to renovate on the inside.

Once you don't renovate on the inside, you get down to that column on the far right.

Save the most amount of money, have the most amount of impacts.

This is just a model to show what the projected operating costs are just for your energy bills.

Right now, Beaufort costs about $175,000 a year in energy bills, not water, just energy, gas and electricity.

Our baseline design is predicted to have 107,000.

That's pretty incredible, right?

We're going to add 80,000 square feet to that campus, and we're going to reduce your energy bill.

That shows you, so we're taking out D and C. That means that buildings D and C use more energy right now than 80,000 square feet of new construction.

That's how inefficient these campuses are, right?

You can see if we still renovate the inside, those bills go up a little bit, but if we go and

and not touch them at all, they go up quite a bit.

So your energy costs would be back up to about $160,000 a year.

The other thing that's important here is that if we choose not to renovate the inside, we also cut back on the geothermal wells and the systems that heat and cool that air on the inside.

So when you take that step, you're committing to a campus that is a hybrid.

It's part geothermal and the new stuff we'll build, but it's part chiller and gas-fired boiler.

So you're committing to a campus that stays on fossil fuels, right?

Once you go to that step.

So an easier way to picture this is if you offset all the energy with solar panels, how many solar panels would you need?

We're not buying solar panels as part of this project.

Hopefully we're going to get them on there through other ways in the future.

But this is Buford right now.

The yellow dotted dashed line, that's the space you have available on your roof at Buford today for solar panels.

The big blue field, that's how much you need to offset the energy use now.

Bigger than the CHS football field, almost as big as the soccer field.

A massive amount.

When our baseline design, even after the changes I showed you tonight, we could still get about 95% of the PV solar panels, photovoltaics on the roof, right?

If we decide to not renovate, not change the exterior walls, but keep renovating the inside, it's about the same.

It's a little bit bigger in terms of things.

If you don't do any of it, you're back here.

Right, just an idea of the sustainability impact of doing or not doing different levels of renovation.

Finally, we're also looking at looking ahead to the future for Walker.

This is the master plan for the pre-K center that would come at some point as a phase two.

What we would do now is we're looking at a price just to accommodate kids to get them from building A down to the playground area.

So if I zoom in here, you can see a new ramp and also a play area that we're gonna get.

We're having this price as well, so we can at least do something for this interim step when we move the pre-K to Walker.

and I always open and close with the schedule, try to get through as fast as I could on that.

Thank you.

Appreciate you as always.

Councilors have questions?

We don't have an assigned order, but looking around, I see Sena right next to me.

So Sena, go first.

OK.

So and this is where I keep coming back to.

I am 100% behind the fact that our schools need massive and serious renovations all across the board.

But I still do not understand how reconfiguration, what is it about the magic of reconfiguration that is supposed to be addressing our equity needs?

And that's just where I would love

So I'll take a quick stab at that and I'll let others.

If you go back and look at the joint work session from September and also from the council item from September, you'll see a slide that we presented on this.

The fact of the matter is that if you look at the percentage of people of color in Charlottesville versus the people of color that are in your pre-K population and your middle school population, it's significantly higher in pre-K and middle.

And if you look at your percentages of economically disadvantaged people in Charlottesville, that's also one number.

Your pre-K population is much higher and your middle school population is much higher.

But, okay, so I understand.

I've read the stuff.

but at no point is it explaining to me how reconfiguration moving fifth grade back to elementary schools and combining sixth, seventh and eighth, how that helps that.

And that's just the answer I'm trying to get.

And I'm not talking about remodeling the buildings.

So part of this is creating the comprehensive elementary model

and going back to a comprehensive middle school model.

And so there is a stark disconnection between what happens at our fifth grade and what happens at the current traditional, well, it's not even a traditional elementary model, it's a current K-4 model.

So if we can get back to, I mean, as you saw earlier with the work we're doing with the science of reading, I mean, all that's everything that we're doing right now is aligned to research.

And so, I mean, there's probably more research about the comprehensive elementary model than the current models that we're currently implementing.

And so I do believe strongly that that's going to address a lot of our equity issues, because I know we've talked, we talk a lot here about the two years at Walker, two years at two years at the middle.

And I do believe we have a lot of opportunities to align our programs, we can create, I mean, our students are doing well, I mean, but most certainly we can move the needle a lot quicker.

And we had some of those comprehensive

If I may add to that, when you look at, there's another slide that Wick did in reference from earlier presentations about the developmental needs of students and the impact of having these significant transitions during these significant developmental periods.

And I would just say that our model here in Charlottesville is very unique.

If there's anyone else in the state that still has it, it may be one other division.

And there's a reason for that because of the impacts of those transitions and how that ties into what

WIC spoke about is that, and we see this in our enrollment numbers, families who can make choices and not go through those transitions during that time period tend to do so and then many of them rejoin us at CHS.

Our families who don't have choices,

families of color, families who are economically disadvantaged.

They are the students who are primarily impacted by this model that is no one else in the Commonwealth is on board with.

And I don't I won't speak beyond that.

If I just may add a couple of things, I think

I think our achievement data show the problems that these students are having at these transition points.

So we have the data.

What I really wish would be that you could visit the schools and talk to principals and teachers.

and you can begin to get a sense of the complex needs of these students, the students who are our students in our community, who live in Charlottesville, who go to our public schools.

The needs are enormous.

And one of the problems that we've had with the two years, two years, it hasn't really provided an opportunity to build the kind of school community that these students really need.

And they really need it.

You know, they need it academically, they need it emotionally.

and they need it socially.

We really very much need a different kind of model to address the needs of the students that we have.

And a lot of them are students from poverty whose families have lived in Charlottesville for generations.

And the situation sort of stay the same.

And as you know, we also have the other population of families who are well resourced

and who have many choices for their students and they can take them out, which they do from grades five to eight.

And then there's this whole new cohort that comes back to the high school.

So we're dealing with different populations.

On the other end, I want to say that the other real reason for this is the Comprehensive Early Childhood Center.

We really need that as well if we're going to address the equity needs of the families in our community.

And there's so much more that we could be doing if we had a center that housed all of our preschool kids and their families.

We could be offering

different kinds of services to address some of the developmental delays of these students, and some of them are significant.

Right now, I think we're doing, I think, a great job with our preschool program,

And if I may add to what Dr. Kraft just shared, in addition to that lack of time and opportunity to build community during those middle school years, the prior principal, Eric Johnson, used to say, you know, you've got them one year and then

just as you're getting to know them, they're thinking about moving on to the high school.

And not only does that impact the students as a community, but the ability to engage the parents in a Buford middle school community as parents, because we've seen the Walker and Buford PTOs try to combine to combat that, but that feeling of I just arrived and now I'm getting ready to go.

Really, we see that play out in those buildings.

I was also reminded that the proposal of reconfiguration

has been arrived at from three totally different start points over the past 14 years.

And I think it's important to understand that.

The first thing was efficiency study back in 2008.

During that time period, the state was promoting efficiency studies and they offered resources for any school division that would

take part in it and invite in these outside consultants to review your operations and recommend different efficiencies.

And having that, you know, we have the six elementary schools, but then on top of that, we have that split in the middle years, which they deemed as an inefficiency.

And then we have our preschool program spread out across the division.

And Dr. Kraft touched on the division of resources, right, across locations.

And so reconfiguration was recommended

back then as part of an efficiency study.

Fast forward, and this is since I've been here, we were still in a really strong growth surge up until a couple years ago, and so we were starting to have capacity concerns.

This was also part of the solution that was recommended to address growth in the city as it comes.

Now, the pandemic has set us back a little bit with our enrollments, but we're already seeing recovery.

and depending on what happens with affordable housing and expansion of affordable housing units, we expect that to continue to be something we have to keep our eyes on.

And then, you know, fast forward to the other events that have happened to Charlottesville and the focus on equity, and those are things that have already been spoken to.

But it's very interesting to me as someone who hasn't been here the whole time reconfiguration or every time reconfiguration has come up,

Sena, to address, to hopefully address your concern in terms of reconfiguration, I sort of want to give you a little history lesson in terms of

how this reconfiguration, and you may already know, came about.

I was currently teaching at Walker at the time in 1988.

When the discussion came up about Walker and Buford, middle schools and one school was perceived to be better than the other.

So this

When a group of people got together, community members, future studies needs, I'm sure it's somewhere in the archives, after it was all said and done, it literally divided the community.

So the final say, and I don't recall that teachers at that time had any input in terms of what was going to happen.

waiting with bated breath because we didn't know what was going to happen.

And it was finally decided that Walker would be the upper elementary school that would serve all the fifth and sixth graders and beautiful to be the seventh and eighth grade school.

This was supposed to solve the problem at that time, the equity problem at that time.

I taught at Walker for 22 years.

And I can tell you that when students came to Walker from the elementary schools, you could see the divide.

You could see how the schedules were centered around certain instrumental groups, which literally divided our student body.

You had two schools in one.

Fortunately, my teaching experience was great because I taught a diverse group of students, but not all of our classes were diverse.

And it became apparent over the years that this model, because it was done because of race, has not worked.

So if we want to address

Equity, we need to look at reconfiguration.

And I agree with Dr. Kraft, by the time the students got there, they were gone in two years.

So we really didn't have a chance to develop a rapport with the students through the six they were up in at Beaufort.

Think about all the transitions, four transitions by the time they got to Charlottesville High School, they had transitioned to four different schools.

So that is my experience of dealing with Walker Elementary School the time that I was there for 22 years and how our students were separated because of race and how the classes were constructed and the students of lesser means really were placed in certain classes than your more fluent students

who replaced more of the academic rigorous classes.

So you could see the divide there.

But the teachers continued to forge on all those years to try to serve those students that came through those doors from the various elementary schools.

So that was my experience dealing with reconfiguration early on at its onset.

Go ahead.

Keep it up a little bit, but yeah.

Good evening.

Thanks for the presentation.

Can't hear you, Councillor Pinkston.

How about now?

A little better.

We've got a few questions to start.

I guess pulling back to the data you presented about the achievement gap and its growth during the pandemic.

No, it did not double.

It just, it impacted various groups differently.

So let me flip back for you real quick.

Yes, the learning, so the learning loss during the pandemic.

So at the end of the first full year, so at the end of the 20, at the end of the 2021-22 school year, I'm flipping back really quick.

I'm sorry.

So at the end of the 20-21 school year, depending on your situation or what group you were in, the achievement data impact, you were impacted differently.

So we know that

On average, all students, if all categories together based on race, it was an average of five months was the learning loss gap.

But when we couple that with some of that other data, so if it's a student with a disability, we know, so that wasn't in the presentation, but we just know that we can infer that the

The gap is even greater because you're already coming.

There's already some deficits there based on the data that was presented that your income level.

So we know that students whose families that average income is twenty five thousand dollars or less.

There was seven months of loss there when you talk about mathematics and there was six months of loss there in the area of reading.

So we know that different students were impacted in different ways.

Yeah, and I'm sure everyone's on the same page.

I mean, you just seeing and hearing that data is pretty

Stark, especially given the longstanding achievement gap we know we've already had.

And it would seem to me that really seems like our top priority is how do we address that learning loss that's exacerbated the existing achievement gaps and disparities in learning in our system.

The presentation had also mentioned using evidence-based approach to try to address that learning loss in the achievement gap in reading, writing, in mathematics.

I'm just curious in more detail what specifically those evidence-based approaches are.

So when we talk about research-based, so for example, we know that anything that when we talk about Orton-Gillenham based, we know that those programs are evidence-based practices.

And so we know that some of it is about explicit instruction.

We know that it's about how we teach fluency.

So all of those things, we're not just what we used to call

hobby teaching.

We're not doing things because we like doing those things.

We are picking and utilizing strategies that we know yield results.

And so that's what we're implementing.

And we're doing that systematically with our students.

Today I had an opportunity to sit with one of our principals and she said, you know, we met for one reason.

She said, well, do you have an opportunity to sit with me and just look at some of our data?

And what we know is that our students are making gains.

When we looked at where they were in September,

And when we look at where they are right now, we are moving.

I use the word propelling.

We are propelling our students forward, no backward steps.

And so we are just using things that we know yield high end results with our students.

And so it could be Orton-Gillingham based.

We're looking at how we teach our numeracy strategies for students for mathematics.

Councillor Payne, if I may just jump into it, as Superintendent Gurley said, for the last couple of years, yes, we really have invested in literacy and training for the teachers throughout the summer.

So if you

look into the science of reading and what that is.

It really is pretty straightforward as far as the instruction and the model that we are using throughout the division.

We've sent and had several teachers over the last two summers trained in this.

So it's really a huge shift in literacy and we've got a great literacy team and coach

and it is making a huge difference and to have the entire division focused on this and again tying that back into reconfiguration and having

you know more time with those students K through five to receive that instruction where those where those teachers are trained in that is also just going to you know huge gains as Dr. Gurley said propelling our students forward but but that is the literacy type of instruction and interventions that we want and we need and that I personally have been

been pushing for as a parent advocate years before I even got on the board.

So I'm really excited about that.

And that slide that talks about the science of reading, there is a graphic there that just talked about decoding and phonological awareness.

Those are those types of research-based things that we are doing.

And so that is included on that, the decoding principles.

So

And I know in past discussions, the point of particularly with literacy and numeracy before third grade is interventions in one-on-one or smaller group tutoring being really critical.

And I know

budgets are always difficult, constrained.

So right now, I think we all, as we meet with, as a principals group, we do a really good job of analyzing our resources, whether it's human resources and whether it's just supplemental things.

And so I do think that we are always being very conscious and being really good stewards of the public's money and saying, are we getting an academic return on investment?

So we know we have reading specialists in our buildings.

We know we're using interventionists in our buildings.

One thing that we're doing right now is we are and this may have been before my time, too, but I know it's happening right now that tier one where everyone gets that core instruction, we're not pulling students out of classes.

So every student is getting tier one.

and so those students who need those intensive supports at tier two and tier three, we are being very strategic and so ensuring that the teachers were building capacity with teachers and then we are pushing in supplemental supports into those classes.

So in terms of the resources and that goes back to our presentation also Council Payne in terms of we have to knowing that

We got to get that thermometer down, like how do we protect the integrity of our instructional programs, but also not be depending on non reoccurring funds.

And so that's also as we continue over the next year, like we're going to have to be very thoughtful about how do we not compromise?

How do we not compromise our programming in order to continue to

move that needle, propel our students forward.

And I think we're doing, we have the people in place.

I do feel like we have all the right people.

We're getting, as Ms.

And another question is you'd made reference to the need for greater in-school counselors due to

mental health impacts of both the pandemic and the shift to an all virtual world and virtual learning.

And I know there's some pretty striking data nationally, but is there data we're able to collect or know of locally that can sort of just give us a sense of is the trend getting worse, better, help guide

how much investment we're going to need there.

Because I've read data nationally, which is pretty stunning, but I just don't know.

I'm sure we're seeing that trend locally.

And so what I've done is we've charged Patrick Farrell, and he's our supervisor of interventions and supports, and Jody Murphy, she's in charge of our, I guess her title is charge of SEL.

And so what we've done is we've asked them, so we have deployed using the CARES funds and some of the grant funds, we have deployed more SEL workers into our buildings.

And so we are asking them to

Keep track.

We want to know how many students you're touching.

What types of issues are they facing?

Because this is one thing that I will tell you that we've heard loud and clear from our principals.

This is something that they would like to protect moving forward.

and this is gonna be a tough one for us in terms of how do we keep this budget balanced, get this thermometer down, but also work very intentionally with our students because we know that there is a demand.

I mean, our principals are telling us every day, these SEL workers are having to just help keep our students calm, deescalate situations, just be a buffer and a barrier between things that are, our students are bringing a lot of life

into our buildings daily.

I mean, I can tell you that one day I was standing at a bus stop with some students and just the things that I got to witness in terms of, you know, this is the real life that they're bringing into our buildings.

And so this is the type of things that our SEL workers are just helping to get our kids with a good jumpstart, knowing that you're bringing some baggage

And so we are asking them to keep some quantitative and qualitative data that we can report out.

Chancellor Payne, if I may also tag onto what Dr. Gurley said, I don't know if you remember, he did reference that our changes and requests last year, the list that we proposed during our budget was significantly longer and it's significantly more than what was presented this evening.

And a lot of those changes and increases to our programs were social emotional positions.

I mean significantly increase the number of supports in each of the buildings, knowing and we did have to use CARES money to support that and some other grant money that we received, but knowing that we were bringing all the kids back into the buildings and that we would need those supports.

and so there are numerous more positions and supports in each building than we have ever had and it's something that we've always aspired or wanted to have in the buildings and that people have asked for throughout the years.

We were able to do it.

We got a presentation from

principals and the SEL group, Patrick Farrell and Jody Murphy, a couple of months ago at the school board, and I'm sure it's available for you guys to look at, but just the impact that these people have had in each building

to support staff, but more importantly, to support the students was incredible.

And it was very clear to us as a board that this is something that we do and we know we're going to have to work really hard and get creative on how we can continue and maintain those positions

because it is something that the principal said.

It's just been amazing, the difference it's made for them in the building, how they're able to support the kids and support the staff within.

So I really do appreciate your question, but I think we're in a good position.

We just know we have to look at next year's budget

I've just got three more questions for now.

We'll be done.

The next is...

I like research and go down a rabbit hole with it.

And I did read the link that you had sent and looked at the research that it cited that had hyperlinks, which was only like three or four out of the tons of citations.

So not nearly all of it.

And it was pretty clear that there's an impact on the achievement gap in terms of

schools that have asbestos flakes like paint flakes, chronic water leaks that are unaddressed, asthma triggers, etc.

But the study wasn't about reconfiguration in and of itself.

And I know that there are

School Districts across the country at various points which have gone through with reconfiguration and both for our own decision making councils being able to communicate to the public.

That's a great question.

Powell come up and I don't know if... Well, I don't know that I have a great answer because all I was going to hearken to is the fact that unfortunately I don't think we're going to have great success finding a study that's relevant to our particular reconfiguration because our existing condition is fairly unique and has been for a long time.

I've been working in education now for

around 20 years plus when I switched from private sector.

And even back then, the model, the middle school model was six, seven, eight.

So it's just been, we've been not with the established model for so long.

I think for all the things we talked about earlier and why reconfigure with the transitions during the middle years and how that aligns with significant developmental periods in a child's life,

We're somewhat unique.

So I, you know, I'm not saying lots of what you hear about with reconfiguration a lot of times in other places are closing schools and combining, you know, rezoning, that type of thing that you hear a fair amount of that around the Commonwealth.

And I would ask, I don't know if, if WIC has anything to add to this, but I have not short answer is no, I don't know that there's necessarily a body of peer research about a community

addressing our specific situation because ours is somewhat unique.

There could be some things out there about the impact of like centralized preschools for a community.

Was your question, excuse me, Kim, specific to like the materials and specific to the asbestos in buildings and how that affects it.

And so regarding or relating to council's decision, the level of reconfiguration that you're willing to

fund or support?

No, I think it's to just help inform our decision making as well as the communities in terms of expected impact on the achievement gap for any investments we make.

So again, the research that was linked, which is just what was linked, is about, again, lead paint flanks, asbestos, asthma triggers, badly outdated HVAC systems.

So I guess really the relevant question is just like,

what sort of those environmental triggers in poor quality of school facilities we have now that would be addressed.

And then in addition to that, what we would expect the impact on the achievement gap to get from reconfiguration, which is also, because I mean, the proposal is both of those things combined.

And my understanding is there was sort of a nationwide movement towards the unified middle school model, which we're definitely,

Sure.

I mean, that's a great question.

And I hope that you have picked up on, and I know that we've presented, you know, quickly, but in prior presentations, he has spent a lot of time, you know, talking about the amount of light in educational, in, you know, classroom settings, the noise, the decibel of noise and air, you know, pollution that's in the classrooms currently.

And so

you know what he presented tonight is as far as scopes of pricing going forward and look at that presentation again and you know when we're looking at pretty much doing nothing you know some of those the second and the third you know the minimal renovation to doing nothing where they're not even adding any new windows in you know where they're leaving the brick up and not

updating or changing or modernizing any of the outer shell.

I mean, there's really no changes that are gonna be occurring to what a student might feel walking up to the building and let alone the natural light.

Yeah.

Just to add a little bit here, I mean, I think you're talking about not just the reconfiguration, but the aging buildings, inadequate physical facilities.

and the impact on learning and achievement.

And there are other studies.

There's this group that I've been part of, this re-envisioning middle school at UVA, and we've had presentations that really talk about the type of learning spaces that early adolescents need

to engage in learning, and particularly some of the more at-risk kids that have more difficulty just engaging and being ready to learn and mentally available to learn.

And so there's a lot there on things like zones of regulation.

A lot of these kids emotionally are kind of

you know they're they're they're you know they're dysregulated I guess that's a psychology term but it's really hard for them to be present and available just to learn and they're already behind but there's research that shows that you know you know different kinds of learning environments different kinds of spaces

help them calm themselves down and to a place where they are more on an equal playing field with some of the kids who are not at risk.

And so there are things, yes, natural light, but if you go into these schools and you see the hallways, hallways are very problematic.

and I think they are triggering for a lot of these kids because they see kids that they don't get along with, you know, and a lot of stuff happens there.

So there's a lot of pieces to this, but it's basically, you know, looking, stepping back and looking at the whole

learning environment of a school inside and even outside.

A lot of research on outdoors, using the outdoors therapeutically and academically.

And just a couple more questions.

Sorry, I take so much time.

One that came to mind just from this is, and I would certainly welcome the opportunity to go through with school board principals, anyone through all our school buildings.

I don't have children, so I have not had children through the school system.

And given that, you know, in our schools, where are we in terms of the research that

So I will say that thanks to the partnership with the city, our buildings are not unsafe.

I just think that needs to be said.

There is asbestos in Beaufort, but it is not exposed and is something that's monitored carefully.

We, if we have paint issues, we try, we work very hard.

And when I say we, I have to credit our partnership with city facilities maintenance.

We work very hard.

Forgive me, I'm from the country, putting lipstick on the pig, doing the best we can so that our schools and our students don't suffer what's known in the business as broken window syndrome, right?

You know, that is so, so that work's being done.

What we can't fix is the lack of natural light with the type of work we do with maintenance on the regular.

What we can't fix is the fact that when the air handling units are running in the classroom, it's the equivalent of having an adult speaking and a normal tone of voice the entire time the teacher is trying to instruct the students.

That's the decibel level of those old classroom wall units.

These are things that have been in the presentations before, and they're things that are not

easily remedied with routine maintenance to avoid what I call or what's commonly called broken window syndrome.

So the other thing I would add, and for those of us who sometimes attend a meeting at another school district and get to go in another school, or some of us have intentionally gone on trips to look at newer projects,

The feeling you get when you walk in those buildings and you think about what's there versus what we have here for our students, particularly at Buford and Walker, it just makes you think, wow, every child, every student deserves this environment every day.

When you think about it, most days we spend, as working adults, I know personally I spend more of my waking hours at work than I do in my home.

Maybe not quite that same balance for our students.

But this environment, I mean, I think it matters.

And we may not know, we do not have the peeling pain.

I mean, I'm not saying we don't occasionally have a pain issue that it might take us a little bit of time to get to.

But please, you definitely should come and look at the facilities.

And then also just close your eyes and imagine as an adult, and this may not be so hard to imagine with a lot of people working at home during the pandemic, but the difference between working, say, in a basement day in and day out that just has those little lights at the top and you've got a noisy

you know furnace running in your basement or whatever and you're grinding it out right and it's just it's old and it's dark and you've got noise running in the background now picture yourself walking every day into a beautifully you know into a modern building with lots of natural light and the proper acoustics you know what's the impact that would have on you as an as an adult going to work every day our students are no different.

So, and I know that VMDO would be happy to arrange visits to other schools that represent the vision of what we're trying to work towards so you can see the experience, that contrast between what we have and what school districts all around us have.

Well, I would certainly welcome that opportunity to do so and happy to find time to do so.

Just two more.

One, it sounds like, you know, may not be answerable, but was curious if there is peer-reviewed research and meta-analyses to evaluate the impact on the achievement gap that school districts that have gone through with reconfiguration have

what impact that had on the achievement gap versus the impact on the achievement gap of those other interventions such as what was evidence-based approaches to literacy, numeracy, one-on-one or smaller group tutoring interventions particularly for the third grade and to get a sense of that but it sounds like that's sort of an unknown.

So last question is just

100% understand why our discussion today is focused on, you know, the 75 million for the one building, 95 million for the two.

So I don't I didn't break.

Well, actually, I did sort of bring the school CIP plan, which goes out five years and everything that's that is for the schools is I pulled every project between the HVAC list and the other list.

One of the most significant items you'll see there is the CHS roof replacement.

So that is a big one that's coming.

We're continuing.

In addition to that, you'll see these, I don't know if it's abbreviated or if it's spelled out, but building automation system upgrades.

That's the controls that regulate, you know, temperature and outdoor air exchange and all of that.

There's a project that's ongoing with the city facilities maintenance and facilities development to

work through our buildings one by one and migrate them and upgrade the BAS.

There is a significant master key of all the buildings in the division.

We haven't had a new master key system here in a long time, and our current system is

for lack of a better word broken.

So we are actively working with security grants from the state to put access control on our buildings, similar to what you see in many of the city buildings.

So we're leaning into grants to do that and maintain and expand our camera infrastructure and our visitor vestibules.

So most of that we're trying to keep

you know, off the table for city appropriation and handle it from other sources.

But with that's going to need to be the master re-key that we need to get started on in the next year or so.

And then

Our HVAC needs are just pretty steady, but everything we've got in the next several years is on that list.

There will continue to be HVAC capital projects needed beyond that.

There's a CHS, a big electrical project, but that's coming up this summer to do a lot of rewiring at CHS.

Sorry, I'm kind of going off the top of my head here, but every project that's in the CIP for the next five years, or I'm sorry, the next three years

Thank you.

If I can just intervene here for a second, I just wanted to say in response to Counselor Payne, the absence of data or meta-analysis about school reconfiguration and middle school consolidation in relation to the achievement gap

may not be there because we are so far behind other districts.

They went through this process prior to the advent of No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing.

Thank you.

Great.

Sure.

I will endeavor.

One component of this, as I was reading the slides and the research earlier, even before I got on council, what is the impact of the capacity study that was done in 2017

So basically the capacity study, the major outcome from that was that we would, you know, with regard to the elementary schools, we would

possibly have three larger, we could add on to maybe three elementary schools and address that there.

And then that work set forth what we thought the target capacity should be at the middle school.

And that's what this is designed for.

So we looked at an elementary solution.

Then we looked at what would the target design need to be as far as capacity for the middle school.

And then for CHS, if you consider how to address growth potentially at every tier,

The answer for CHS is we would need to free up the annex in part, that could be part of it, but that's also something that's baked into the considerations for the Walker campus.

So the recommendations are very much still connected to that work that was done in relation to capacity and just making sure that nothing is designed or built that you've outgrown it when it opens the doors.

Right.

Okay, so that data did inform the overall plan.

I guess, just from my perspective, you know, I think it's always going to be hard for a non-professional like myself to be able to weigh in and say, will this or will it not improve outcomes?

I have to rely on the

the democratically elected school board and the people that you all hire to run our schools to provide what you think is good faith statements about what you think we need as a community to have the best middle school, the best overall schools that we can have.

And from the presentations that I've been presented and thinking about it myself and minimizing the trends

the transitions between schools and how that impacts equity.

I think for me personally, that's compelling.

I will never be able to sort of suss out the sort of counterfactuals in terms of like if we did this and didn't do that, the kind of

impact that might have precisely on outcomes.

My sense is that it would be too complicated to even sort of suss out.

I certainly get the fact that these buildings are very old and I get the intention and the hope, the goal of reconfiguration and why that is a good thing.

And so I'm supportive of doing all we can to move this forward.

one thing that I think would be helpful just for the community to have a sense of, and I know that this is hard to tease out, so I'm sorry Mr. Knox for sort of putting you on the spot, but is there a way to tease out, you know, say just for the $75 million request for Buford, how much of the money is being spent on, you know, really

getting the facilities up to scratch and how much of it is the net addition to accomplish reconfiguration?

Is that something you can even begin to put a number on or are they all too intersecting to even be able to do that?

It does, Councilor Pinkston.

I think that's exactly why we've organized and arranged the alternates the way that we have, right?

The renovation work is about bringing 60-year-old facilities up to snuff in terms of their learning environments.

The core, if you don't do any of that, but still do what's left, that is adding the new space, which brings us up to the capacity that would allow us to have at a minimum 1050 students

at the campus and achieve reconfiguration.

The other thing I'll note about the capacity study, it was done in 2017.

The first thing that was done before we started this process was to update that study and see where we were.

And what I think gets lost sometimes in terms of reconfiguration and Councillor Payne asked about future CIP needs.

We all know we need more housing.

There's going to be more people, more students.

The biggest future CIP need is more classrooms, whether it's trailers or expansions at any of these campuses.

Reconfiguration creates more capacity at every campus in the system.

because it takes pre-K out.

You can put more fifth graders in the same space.

It takes the campus at Walker and allows it pre-K to expand there if we ever want to take it to the full, all of the eligible three-year-olds in the city or beyond.

It also preserves building A at Walker for expansion anywhere in the system, and it allows central admin space to come out of this building, CHS, and allow CHS to expand.

Excellent.

And I will say that the way that you've laid out your series of alternates with the design is, I think, very good.

I'm just going to go next.

I don't really have any questions.

This is something still very dear and near to me.

And I just want to state that, you know, I don't, you know, I'm all about working with the youth.

And for the past 30 years, I've mentored countless young people.

And one of them, excuse me, let me get this.

and one of the projects we did was a visioning project and this young man, this is about seven, eight years ago, it's outside of the work of the school and this young man envisioned that he wished he had a new school and these things is really kind of hard to measure but if you can imagine that the kids will care and know that we as a community support them, that we love them

that if we invest in them, and they know that with the schools that they're in, I know this is going to be a difficult decision that we go through, this information is very helpful, it's probably, I think Wake said that he's given this probably the 45th or 46th time that he's given it, and I think that I've been in half of them

but this is good that the public is hearing this information and thank you all so much for this opportunity for both board and council to hear this information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wade.

I have a few questions.

First of all, do we have a sense, assuming we go ahead with this plan, I think that you're

Sorry, that, sorry, Councilman Snook, that would depend on the council and the funding.

I mean, obviously, we can only move, the school board and any of these projects can only advance at the will of

Well, I mean, what I'm trying to get at is it seems to me that between doing Buford and then doing Walker, then doing the elementary schools, we are probably at least eight and probably more like 10 years away from addressing the basic issues in the elementary schools.

Well, okay.

I mean, this, we've got this, this plan of doing Buford.

And I guess when we, I have not asked you all, I assume you figured out how you would move

bodies between classes during the construction period and what the capacity is and so on.

But so then you do Buford and then presumably you have to do Walker and presumably that's a multi-year process as well.

And then at the end of that, you've taken the fifth grade out and you put them into the elementary schools and taken the pre-K out of the elementary schools.

and presumably there is some construction necessary in the elementary schools for that to happen as well.

So I think I understand a little bit better now.

You should know that the cost of the project, the $75 million budget or whatever the number ends up being, that has always included enough funding for what we call the camping out condition for the preschool to be on the Walker campus.

And Wick alluded to this in the presentation that there's a certain, you know, minimal

Amount of investment that needs to be made, and I would call him back to the podium to give the exact number, you know, the exact estimate, if you will.

But it involves putting a pathway down to the play area so that the little kids don't have to use those steps at Walker to get on grade with the main play space.

And it involves some furniture package stuff that we would have to do to get the right furniture packages in the right places.

But that move, basically what the board has said all along is that reconfiguration is the primary goal because of all those things that we've talked about with equity and child development and all of that.

And so the way that everything is structured and planned and what's budgeted even in the first phase does not leave the schools in a situation where

you don't have a way to effectively serve the preschoolers or that the elementary schools are left with issues that, now I say this, depending on what goes on with growth in the community, if we're expanding affordable housing units, we fully expect more students to be in our schools, but that will impact our schools regardless of the configuration that we have.

No, it's not.

And it's not entirely your fault.

But let me ask the broader question, the entire question, to show you where I'm going.

We have been told for decades, perhaps, that the primary way we measure and acknowledge the achievement gap, particularly among different races, kids of different races, has been third grade reading scores.

And I asked this question a couple of years ago and I was told, oh, you shouldn't be focusing on third grade reading scores.

You're making a mistake to focus on third grade reading scores.

But my question was always, what about this is going to get at the achievement gap, at least as I in my lay fashion have understood it as being related to third grade reading scores.

Logically, the only thing that's going to affect third grade reading scores is

is something that would happen before third grade or at least no later than third grade.

And therefore, what happens in fifth grade probably doesn't affect third grade reading score as much unless you get to dealing, unless you get to the Walker pre-K and great things happen there, unless you get to different things happening in elementary schools.

So it sounds as though we are probably eight to 10 years away

If the building is the issue in the achievement gap, we're eight to 10 years away from having an answer that is going to affect the achievement gap as we have traditionally measured it with third grade reading scores.

No, I think respectfully I would have to push back on that because what we are doing at the early childhood level is we are building capacity there and we're doing that we're doing those things right now.

So if you look at our pre-k curriculums, we are investing a lot of money

you know state monies using our VPI grants we are doing a lot even with our community partnerships so even with our students who don't qualify for some of our programs we're pushing into our community partnerships so I think one thing that I will say here is we value what happens at that three we probably serve more three and four year olds than anyone around us and I don't have the exact data to that but I can almost assure you

based on some of my previous experiences that Charlottesville City Schools serves probably more third and fourth, I mean, three and four year olds.

So we are already addressing what we know to be part of the issue.

I mean, there are, when you talk, when we talk about research and we talk about data, we know that there are several variables that contribute to the success of students.

So we know that the building, yes, most certainly is one of those things.

Quality programming, whether it be early childhood is another part of it.

We do know that there are some indicators of what happens before third grade.

But as we said, we are using the science of reading, which is evidence based.

So I mean, we aren't just waiting on reconfiguration.

We know that that is going to be a game changer for our students.

I mean, we I think Mr. Bryant said earlier, we know who's left back.

at Beaufort right now.

And I think the students recognize what's happening to them as well, that when you walk in, it's a fishbowl.

Well, it's not a fishbowl because it's not as much glass as a fishbowl.

I mean, very few windows.

I mean,

And so you don't want to spend, you know, that's not where you want to spend, send your children, but we, we do because that's all we have.

And so we're, we're just asking someone to invest in that, invest in our children's future because they, they recognize that they don't have, if they had the opportunities or the financial resources, the parents would make different decisions, but they go there because that's what we afford to them.

And if I may add to that, Mayor Snook, because I think I'm starting to understand the question.

You're asking how this will, you know, thinking about third grade as a pivotal measurement point is what you're saying.

And how are we impacting what's happening leading up to third grade with this project?

And I really think we need to point out that even at phase one,

when we have the preschool co-located at Walker.

We have staff still with us who were part of the Jefferson School Preschool Center when it was all together there.

And they have talked very early on when we were having this third wave of discussion about reconfiguration, about how excited they are to come back together as a preschool community and the synergies that we'll create for that program that we also, they believe, will help to serve our students better

earlier.

Okay, I guess I am glad to know that there are ways to address the achievement gap, at least as it relates to third grade reading scores that are not dependent on the newness of the building, that there are other things that you all are going to be able to work on.

Because frankly, the overall problem

that when the comment was made, the question is, what can we afford?

And the issue for us on council is exactly that.

What can we afford?

Every figure that has been provided by Mr. Knox, ranging from 61 to

to $73 million is still $10 million more than we were led to believe when we put the number into our budget three years ago into the capital budget that we should be looking at.

And frankly, the $50 million that we put there

was not really put there because of any representation by the school division.

It was put there because we looked at our budget and said, this is about the biggest nut we think we can put in here and still make the rest of our budget work.

And so we are stuck with the situation of literally every single one of these proposals

that you're making to us ranging from 60 to $73 million is more than what we had previously put in there when we didn't even have a plan for how that was going to happen.

So we've got a lot of really serious problems to figure out in terms of what we can afford and how many other programs in how many other areas of the city

we are not going to continue to work on and continue to implement so that we can do this 60 to $75 million school plan.

Frankly, I don't see a lot of, I'm not terribly interested in doing an unsatisfactory $65 million job as opposed to a good $75 million job.

Once you're spending $65 million, you may as well make the best of it.

I'm just trying to figure out how we are going to balance things in our capital budget and obviously we're going to have to do a lot of thinking about it and trying to figure out where we come up with the money.

Anyway, the questions I have, most of them had gotten answered along the way.

Michael had asked many of the questions that I would have asked.

I will make one addition and that is that

I don't think it is going to be safe to figure out whether we're going to get the sales tax referendum option until April, because although the General Assembly will will adjourn, there will still be a veto session.

We can anticipate from what we've seen so far that in at least some circles in the Republican Party, this issue may

may be a political football.

I hope it won't become one, but the party line vote in the House Committee last week is concerning in that respect.

So I hope that there would be a way to look at this and say, okay, our real kind of trigger point is probably mid-April.

It's really not mid-March.

So anyway, I don't have any any other questions.

I just, I'm not, I'm not sure where we're going to land with all of this, and where we're going to find the money and what things we're going to cut in order to make this happen, assuming we do make it happen.

Okay, Mayor Snook and counselors, I want to thank you all for your questions and your comments.

And I hope that as you reflect back on the presentation and the work that we here in Charlottesville City Schools have presented to you tonight, that you are mindful that, you know, we came to you

in good faith, you know, with at least or close to a million dollars worth of cut, you know, reductions that we came to you also with a creative way to shift some of our CARES money to current CIP, you know, funded

projects there for millions and millions of dollars.

And so we do have something that we are bringing to the table to you all.

We continue to appreciate your concern as we are with literacy and the programs and the types of instructions we do.

So your support for those.

And I hope that you have heard that we're going above and beyond and really do

take that seriously and for every single student.

So your continued support in the programs that we already have are important.

So I appreciate you bringing those questions and look forward to continuing this discussion with you and staff on how we can get our students what they deserve, the students that are in the building.

Let me say I acknowledge and I appreciate the

the creative suggestions about ways to perhaps use CARES Act funds and so on.

That's a great idea.

I hope that can work.

And I hope it would work regardless of whatever other contexts we may have for that decision.

Thank you.

If it's okay, I believe we did, and I'm not sure if we still do.

We had two or three people for public comment that had signed up before.

So if that's okay with you, and I'll let Mr. Como take a look.

We did have Annie Subtle, Ms.

Puryear, and Ms.

Cooper signed up.

or any of them are available still, please.

Yeah, we can get started by asking anybody in the attendees gallery to raise their hand or they could go to the chat box and just type their name in.

I do see that we have

We do have Leah Puryear.

So Leah, I'm going to promote you up for panelists and you should be able to unmute at this time.

And once you are muted and live here, you'll have three minutes for public comment.

Puryear.

I do.

I just had to unmute.

I want to thank Dr. Gurley and all of the participants this evening for the information that has come forward and for council listening to the presentation.

I think each of you in your own way understands the importance of reconfiguration and what that means.

We constantly say we are a first class city and we need to represent what that means.

And those things mean different things to different people.

But our students deserve, our students deserve reconfiguration to address racial inequities

to address educational inequities, which Dr. Gurley has shown in his presentation and things that each of you on council is concerned about.

You're concerned about academics.

You're concerned about students being able to read and write and compute.

And you're concerned about children becoming productive citizens.

That is what public education does.

and we need to recognize that.

We know that it's difficult.

We know that it's a heavy lift, but you have to understand that there are people that are willing to do this heavy lift with you.

I am a taxpayer.

I'm willing to do what I need to do for this to happen, as are many, probably all of our citizens.

in Charlottesville City.

Thank you, Ms.

Puryear.

Yes, we do.

I see a hand up with the name Chris Meyer.

So Chris Meyer, I'm going to promote you to panelists, and you'll have three minutes once you're unmuted.

Thank you.

Good evening, counselors and school members.

Thank you for

Again, your time and dedication to the community.

You know, I think everybody's motivations are in the right direction.

And I was really impressed by the school board presentation.

You know, I think

The school system is going in the right direction.

I'm a parent of a kindergartner and a third grader that goes to Jackson Valley.

We are more than happy with the education our kids are getting there and want them, though, to continue through middle school.

I think it is telling, and I think it was mentioned by board member Kraft, you know, that if we're thinking about equity, I think one of the great signals, at least why we need reconfiguration, is the amount of students that leave and families that pull their kids out for middle school.

that leave the system.

I mean, if that's not, sorry, a signal that something's wrong with our middle schools and not, I'm not complaining and saying that I think the school district doesn't do a great job and try and deliver, but, you know, they're handicapped to certain extent by the buildings that they're having to use and we need to change that situation.

I also just mentioned, you know, I was associated with a great group of parents that helped put on the joint PTO emergency fund last year that helped raise $165,000.

While doing that, I was amazed and interacting with the great amount of school principals and other PTOs, but

The amount of things beyond the education system, educating the children, that the school system actually delivers the families.

It is one of, I think, the point of the spear, you might say, for delivering social services to any families in the city that need social services.

And we're talking about the social and emotional education of them.

and those are essential positions that again are now being funded through that and I think we need to consider and think about the operational budget beyond just delivering a first class education hopefully to all the students and citizens or all the students in the community but beyond that also also delivering a lot of key essential social services just to ensuring we have an equitable community.

I will say and I think

I will ask counsel to think about a mindset of changing away from our 95 cent real estate tax to one that actually reflects what our peer cities with and look at the AAA bond ratings that average $1.13 for the real estate tax.

Imagine if we had $1.13 coming in revenue, what we could fund and pay for, not only for our schools, but the affordable housing that we need and everything else.

That's where we need to get.

That's where everybody else is at.

We shouldn't be limiting ourselves to thinking about 95 cents.

And that's what we have to do.

And that's all we can afford.

We can do better than that.

So I do want Council to think about also, sorry, where do we want to see ourselves in two or three years when The New York Times comes back and does a profile our school system?

One that made those investments that we needed to do or one that didn't?

Thank you.

Yes, the last name is listed as Cooper and Chamora.

I hope I'm saying your name correctly.

I apologize if I'm not, but I'm going to be promoting you to panelists and you can unmute and you'll have three minutes to speak.

We are not able to hear you.

Sorry.

Good evening, members of Charlottesville City Council, school board members.

I would like to personally thank you on behalf of our community and the work that each one of you do.

My name is Shamora Cooper.

I'm a resident and a mom of Charlottesville of two boys that's

currently in the Charlottesville city school system and a daughter that graduated Charlottesville city schools and now attends ODU.

I'm also a committee member of the Charlottesville United for Public Education that just launched today.

And I also was a part of the peer engager group that was engaged in the community and speaking with parents about the reconfiguration process.

I'm here today to express that you all take the steps to fund the $75 million reconfiguration process that City Council agreed to support last fall after more than a year of intense public engagement and planning.

We believe that amplifying community voices that have been previously gone and heard is important.

Public education is essential for all student well-being and reaching their full potential.

Our city has a responsibility

to provide education that is inclusive, accessible, and equitable.

We believe that it is essential to have a central location for early childhood preschool education for our children, as well as integrated programs to address community's needs.

Early childhood education is critical because it allows children to develop the academic, emotional, and social skills required for success in schools and beyond.

I grew up in Charlottesville and raised two children as a working mom.

I was blessed to have my children have access to early childhood education and have seen the benefits of early childhood education in each one of my children and how they have thrived.

I don't understand why it's so difficult for council and the communities to understand that we don't get equity and poverty if we don't invest in our children to give them the best start in their education and follow them through.

By replacing deteriorating schools at all levels and making sure that resources are available and we can ensure that every child in our community thrives.

We will be delighted to have you as a partner in our campaign to strengthen public education in Charlottesville.

Students, family, and Charlottesville community

are counting on you to raise to the occasion and prioritize education.

Charlottesville United for Public Education is asking city council to commit to funding the budget costs for the reconfiguration process and prioritizing resources based on students' needs.

Thank you.

Right now, there are no more hands raised.

I know sometimes we'd like to give a few seconds for last calls.

I know it's getting late.

All right.

Thank you, counselors, Mayor Snook and everybody.

Watch your inbox because we'll be sending invitations for tours to the buildings.

And

If I could just briefly comment.

I definitely appreciate the presentation and how the schools are looking at the CARES Act funding and other things.

I will say the city has also been already looking at a 10 cent real estate tax increase, cutting West Main in the parking garage from our budget.

And Mayor Snook touched on this, but the elephant in the room is the affordability in our budget crunch.

And I know we didn't get into that tonight, and I just want to raise, I really hope that we are able to come to the table together with a lot more structured conversations beyond just a couple work sessions, because I don't think there's any way for us to deal with this issue without some really tough, in-depth conversations that we didn't get into tonight.

Again, even with a 10-cent real estate tax increase, we would still have no room in our CIP or general fund budget for about a decade for new expenditures.

with cutting West Main parking garage and a Tencent real estate tax increase.

So I just want to highlight, we're definitely taking this seriously on our end, but it's tough.

We're staying unified to hope we get that sales tax increase from the General Assembly, which would really help solve this.