School Board Budget Work Session   1/19/2023

Let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance of the Flag.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Ms.

Ms.

Dooley.

Here.

Dr. Kraft.

Present.

Ms.

McKeever.

And Ms.

I now need a motion from the board to approve the agenda.

All approved?

All in favor?

All opposed?

Good evening, Mr. Bryan and Dr. Gurley and school board members.

This evening, we will be presenting information on the FY 2024 budget development.

This presentation will be divided up into sections.

So we ask that you ask your questions as we go along in the presentation.

I will

I'll be presenting on the budget priorities and revenues.

Ms.

Powell will go over the general student enrollment and demographic information.

Dr. Odey will be presenting enrollment information on the English second language students.

And additionally, she will go over students' experiences.

And then Dr. Gurley will be presenting changes

to the FY23 budget from the FY24 budget.

Here are the budget priorities that we have set for the FY24 budget.

Budget priorities help us as we develop the budget.

Our budget priorities are building up foundational skills, supporting social, emotional, and mental health for the students and staff,

meet or exceed competitive staff compensation and benefits, and our budget priorities are in line with our strategic plan.

And Ms.

This first chart that I want to share with you all just shows the overall growth of our enrollment or the overall trend with our enrollment.

It's important to note that our enrollment has recovered to the pre-pandemic levels where we were before the school closures during the pandemic.

We are actually within 70 students of our 2018 fall number, and that was our peak for the time period that this graph has been tracking.

Housing developments, including the South First Street redevelopment and the Friendship Court redevelopment, those as well as other developments in the community are what we really need to keep an eye on because those are going to be the big drivers for these numbers moving forward.

So these are some charts you're accustomed to seeing.

The top set of pie charts is just showing the makeup of our student body with regard to race and what we continue to see is that movement of

Fewer students identifying as a single race or ethnicity in general, especially with our black African American students, more of them are falling into the other category because they identify with multiple race choices when those different forms are being completed.

What you'll also notice is there's a significant jump in our number of students who are identified as disadvantaged and I'm going to speak to why that is in a couple of slides.

So just, I know there are going to be questions there and just hold those questions for just a moment.

Continuing with these charts that we've been doing for many years.

And again, you'll see that what we do is we snapshot these in 10 year increments.

That's something I inherited from my predecessor.

And I do think it's an interesting look back to see how we move, you know, decade to decade, if you will.

So this set of charts, all of them reflect snapshots from the end of the school year, June 2002, 2012, and 2022.

So the top set of pie charts just reflects of our total disadvantaged student population, what percentage falls into each of those three categories that we've been tracking for decades, which are, you know, white, single ethnicity,

Black African Americans as a single ethnicity and then the all other group.

And so you can see that there on the top row.

The bottom row looks at the percentage of disadvantaged students identified within ethnicity.

So the way you read that, scoot this over here, for as of June of 2022, 55.7% of our white students were identified as economically disadvantaged and 92% of our

Black students and 80% of all other students.

So getting to what are the drivers of the jump in our disadvantaged student numbers.

The first one is Medicaid.

What we clearly see is that as our student population is growing, our number of Medicaid eligible students are keeping pace with that growth.

So that means a lot of our growth happens to be

in the student population that is disadvantaged.

They're what they call direct certified as eligible for Medicaid.

The next big thing that we are recognizing is that we have a significant increase in our McKinney-Vento students, which those are students who are identified as homeless youth population.

So just to give you an idea,

By way of contrast, last year there were 56 students across 30 families who were identified as, you know, under McKinney-Vento as homeless.

That was for the entire school year.

This year, as of last Friday, the 13th, 96 students across 44 families are identified as homeless.

And of those students, over a third are in our ESL population.

and Dr. Odey is going to be providing you more information on the trends we're seeing with our ESL students.

This third point, and this is a significant point, and it's during the pandemic, when all students were eating for free, you sort of lose a handle and it sort of masked any kind of measurements around students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

So we had three schools who were CEP schools before COVID

during COVID coming into this year, we added Walker, Buford, and CHS.

So not just more elementary schools, but three large schools.

And the way that the numbers work with CEP, because you no longer are collecting any meal applications for free and reduced meals, is if you're eligible to become a CEP school based on your what's called direct certified population, students who are Medicaid eligible, CHIP, TANF, those different programs,

then the way the data is handled is that's direct cert population.

You multiply that by 1.6 and that becomes the disadvantaged population for the school.

That's how they extrapolate that.

So you need to understand that that's also at play in the numbers and those charts that you saw earlier.

Yeah, just a couple of questions.

One is back to the charts on the top row there.

No, they would not.

Well, so it is, I want to be clear, it is self identification.

I would simply add that those categories are those state definitions and federal definitions.

They're very, very similar to one another, but neither of them really speaks to folks from the Middle East.

And so it really, that's a matter of discretion.

We sometimes see them as Asian and we sometimes see them tagged as white and then there might be others, but in my work with registration, those are the two most common options, but that's just an area where I think the categories

Often categories have limited use, and that's one where it prevents a struggle.

Yeah, it looks like there's quite a change in the last 10 years in grade increase in, I guess, the blue, which is white students, and quite a decrease in black students who are disadvantaged.

Well, I think, again, it is self-identification.

Ms.

Chuck spoke to the categories for everything the federal government did for better or worse to expand the number of selections that students can make.

It's not something that we control as an administration.

It's self-identification.

Certainly the influx of the ESL population from Afghanistan and places like that that don't have a clear category to choose from may be affecting some of these numbers.

It is difficult to

to tease out.

So with those three main drivers that I put together on the one slide, because it was such a noticeable thing, believe me.

I was like, OK, I can't just show these numbers and not at least have some idea of what's driving this.

And so the CEP school phenomena and coming out of that time period, the fact that we had more schools going into CEP status during the time when all students were eating for free, you see that kind of sudden impact, if you will,

And again, you're going to see the information that Dr. Odey shares about the growth in our ESL population.

That's certainly at play in these numbers, there's no doubt.

And then I did check on Medicaid, and for all the growth we're experiencing, the Medicaid growth as a percentage of our overall population is just keeping track, right, with the overall growth.

One other quick question regarding the homeless population.

Are we counting, when we're looking at the ELL or ESL population, do some of the families have lived in hotels for extended period of time?

Are those counted as homeless?

As homeless.

Right, and I would say just to, I'll go down, yeah, I can go down, yay.

I just recall that when I was getting these numbers together, of the 44 families that have been in situations of homelessness identified as such this year, 10 have moved into permanent housing.

So it's constantly changing.

But that number, as far as the number of students who are eligible for services under McKinney-Vento during the course of the year, that will only increase as we continue through the year.

But there are some successes along the way.

Torres, Ms.

Morrison-Burger, Ms.

Dooley, Ms.

Morris.

Thank you, Dr. Odie.

She has more information on ESL students.

Very good to see you all this evening.

So I do want to take a moment to go over our ESL outlook with you all today.

Here you're going to see just some information, of course,

Based on what you've heard from Ms.

Powell, there has been a great influx of English language learners this year.

You're gonna hear me refer to them as Ls throughout the evening.

This chart there before you shows where we ended last year with our Ls.

In June of 2022, we had 548 Ls.

By September 30th,

we had increased to 613.

And as of earlier this week on the 17th at last check, we're currently at 646 L's in the division.

It is a great increase of 98 English language learners since June.

Another way to look at that is September 30th of 2021,

we had 460 L's in the division.

So the 613 that you see there that we had as of September 30th of 2022 is a 33% increase, which is 153 students L's added in one year with only a staffing increase of two additional ESL teachers.

and we're projected to have 100 additional ELLs join us for the 23, 24 year.

So the question has come up, how many of our ELLs will we be graduating?

So right now there are 29 ELLs in 12th grade.

So we anticipate that we'll graduate those students off to move into their next phase of life in college career or military.

So just an FYI, we do use that September 30th data because that's when we turn in a massive report to the state, to the DOE.

As you probably know, our ELLs join us.

They enroll throughout the summer.

They're getting settled.

They're joining our school division, but we have until September 30th to fully process them, to assess them, to identify them as English language learners.

So another piece of information I just wanted to share, we have not had a year in the last 10 years, at least, where numbers have increased as they have this year.

It's a tremendous growth for us.

So you can also see here the enrollment by school, and you'll notice that Jackson-Vaya and CHS have the largest increases in enrollment.

In fact, all of our schools had an increase in ELLs, except for Burley Moran this year, they had a slight decrease.

But that just really goes to show that our ESL population, they're in all of our schools and it is our task and our joy and pleasure to support them and to help them to grow and develop.

Another thing you notice on this slide are the FTEs that have been allocated.

We currently have 19 FTEs allocated to ESL, so that bottom row shows you how many ESL teachers are supporting the Ls.

at those different schools.

And one more tidbit for you.

In Charlottesville City Schools, we typically try to keep our pupil teacher ratio for Ls at 30 to 1 for an ESL teacher.

Now, the state only requires 50 to 1.

but we realize that that's quite high.

And if we wanna be successful in moving the needle with our Ls, then we have traditionally kept that at 30 to one.

We have not been successful at doing that this year at all of our schools.

So we do have work to do with staffing and you'll see that later.

On this slide, I just want to give you an idea of our English language proficiency levels here in the division.

As you know, level one students are typically our newcomers with limited to no English speaking skills.

They arrive with no English, but with proper support.

By the end of the year, I've experienced this as a principal of a school with high numbers of ESL students with proper support.

They, by the end of the year, they're talking so much in English, holding full, meaningful conversations with their peers, with their teachers.

And it's such, it feels so good to have done that work, but we have to have the proper support to reach those levels.

84% of our newly arrived students are level one students, 84% of them.

And so you can see there in the purple, that purple column shows the percentages, those percentage of L's at each of our schools.

who are level one.

The chart has level two, three, four, but I truly want to focus on those level one students.

And I really want you to put your eyes on Venable for a moment.

Venable is showing at 76% of their L's are level one.

Now, we don't want to be fooled to think, well, they only have 29 Ls at Venable because 22 of those 29 Ls are level one students.

And I will say,

That's huge to have that large amount.

And so when a school has a small number, they may not have as much support as another school that has a larger number of L's.

So, but we still have to provide the support for those students.

And then I want you to really look at the high school.

So we are pretty much accustomed to level one students entering at the elementary level.

We support them, we teach them, we provide them their services, and then they move along to level two and three and four and then to level five where we're just monitoring them.

And hopefully by high school, they're at three, four or five, but we have that large number of level one students who are entering

our high school.

And so it does present a particular challenge because we are still expected certainly to graduate them and to help them pass the SOL assessment.

So again, we need to provide the appropriate supports.

Now we'll say we are proud of the work that we have done as we move our L's from level one on up to level five, hopefully where we're monitoring them.

And they're more proficient in their English skills, but that just doesn't happen overnight.

And it certainly can't happen without the proper staffing.

And on this final slide for ESL, I thought it would be important to share with you the languages that are spoken by our Ls.

We have here the top 10.

As you probably know, Spanish is typically the most non-English language that is spoken by our students, as is the case in many school divisions.

What I would like you to notice, though, is the Afghan population.

The students that speak Dari and Pashto, our Afghan population, when you add those two numbers up, they exceed our Spanish speaking population.

So that's just indicative of

Where we are now, we have been welcoming so many students from different countries, from Afghanistan, particularly recently, to our school division, and we want to support them and help them to be the best that they can be.

We do love our diversity.

We love it.

I see it as our biggest one of our biggest strengths but also one of our biggest challenges.

And so we, we accept that challenge, and we work to make sure that our students have what they need.

So all we do, when we can't control what happens in the world and when we're going to receive students from other countries, what we control is what we do here in our division.

We stand ready to teach.

We stand ready to support.

We stand ready to grow and develop our ELLs.

Ms.

I have one question but it might need to wait for later because I think we were talking about there might be staffing concerns around this and so I just wanted to know what the staffing concerns were.

So, sorry.

Right now, we moved from 17 FTEs last year to 19 FTEs this year.

And this year, we've added two of those.

Well, we added two at the end of last year.

And we have added one more that is posted.

And we're waiting for someone to have the skill set, the credentials, and raise their hand and say, me, I'm ready to come and support Charlottesville City Schools.

but we do have a budget request for additional FTEs that you'll hear about later.

But again, yeah, staffing, we have to find the people and everybody can't be an ESL teacher.

You have to have those credentials.

Just curious about where does, what part of the world

I knew you were going to ask me that.

And I asked Dr. Fouts that just two days ago, and now I can't remember what she said.

Maybe the Congo.

She might have said the Congo.

I'll Google it and tell you.

But Rwanda, she did tell me that just two days ago.

I should have written it down.

So a good question.

Yeah, thank you.

Right.

That is correct.

We want them to pass.

And I have seen it happen.

But it won't hurt us if a level one student doesn't pass.

Well, of course we want them to pass, but no, I just, I don't want them to be penalized that first year.

And I know that there's a lot of work and VSBA has a lot of positions here.

Um, I, I would, I mean, we have no idea what these, these students, these people, these young, you know, families have gone through.

So, I mean, I personally would love to see us continue to push, you know, where it's, it's not a,

It's not a pressure point for them as we try and help them acclimate into our society.

You know, so just was curious about that.

And I'll follow up a little bit with the SBA on some of the legislative positions.

And some of it is related to Hardy Drive.

Yeah.

And I do want to, with regards to your question about the assessment piece.

So Dr. Odey is absolutely correct.

The students are not penalized.

However, at the secondary level, when we have gotten a lot of students in, in that ninth through 12th grade, they are required to,

to obtain those same verified credits.

So that does present a lot of challenges and sometimes what we see in that data is that some of those students become dropouts because if they come here at the age of 16

They're still required to have all the standard and verified credits and we end up seeing some of those students go to work.

So we do have to think a little bit more innovatively.

I mean, there's no work around for us in terms of the graduation requirement, but we do have to think a little bit more innovatively.

And I think that's another reason why having the appropriate staffing here at the high school level is essential for those students to be successful.

because we're not able to remove that.

I mean, the first day they come in, they're required to still follow the graduation requirements.

Did I miss anything?

Yeah, so that is something to, I mean, I mean, it's definitely, you know, when we talk about what can we do in terms of legislation, I think that that is, that's a big barrier for our students.

And, you know, and we are penalized as a school division for that, because there's just no way around that.

Yeah, I mean, I would love and I'll try and remember personally to follow up with, you know, our delegate and senator on this as we look at this.

I mean, I just feel like, yeah, for them to not get some kind of accommodation, even in, I don't know, the reading piece is a whole nother

monster that we need to address.

I mean, just to have to read in English and you're still learning the language is kind of a shame, I think, a crime.

You know, but other, like if they're taking a math test and are they able to, they have to read it in English, correct?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so to not offer accommodations, they might be a whiz at math, but they're struggling with the English.

So I'll follow up on that.

And with all due respect, and please, but I feel like I need to say this.

I know you prefaced in saying that you're going to call, just refer to these students as Ls.

It just can, and I mean, if we're talking about a section like students who are working with English as a second language, can we just call them students instead of Ls?

Absolutely.

I mean, I think that's a good reminder for all of us, you know, instead of sped kids, I mean, they're students first.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Dr. Oda.

Oh, I had a question for the different levels for accommodations to that question about like dictionaries, extended, I guess there are no time limits on SOLs necessarily.

That would all be part of their plan, their individualized ESL or ELL plan.

Yes.

Well, gosh, let's see.

Small group, I'm thinking small group.

And I'm not sure if they qualify for read aloud.

Ms.

If they are dually identified, so if they have an IEP, they could get the audio or the read aloud.

And the majority of students for the math, and if they're taking science or the civics, they can have the audio accommodation along with English.

Yes, I mean, it isn't English.

Yes, but they can also have the audio.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

And now I just want to share some of our student experiences.

We certainly have so many amazing learning opportunities, enrichment opportunities, extracurricular opportunities for our students.

So I want to take this time to just share some of the things that we

spend our monies on and some of the things that we spend our time on to support our students.

We'll start of course with the science of reading.

This has certainly been a tremendous focus for us, as you know.

Over there you see I've included that reading rope that you've seen before in literacy presentations.

Our students receive high quality and engaging instruction from both sides of that reading rope, language comprehension, and word recognition.

and we're working on developing phonemic awareness through sound play and articulation activities as students are learning to make sounds, to map out sounds to letters or developing fluency and automaticity and so much more.

We know that with all of these important

We've had so many teachers that are trained in letters.

We have more that are currently being trained.

We just want to make sure that our teachers are developed and ready with tools in their tool belt to support our students as they become great readers.

And we also have math workshop that has been a focus for us.

Our teachers are being trained there and making sure that they know how to support children at different levels.

We're focusing on math fluency, on numeracy, using number talk, small group instruction, all kinds of great math activities so that our students are prepared as they enter into higher levels of math as they move forward in their educational career.

And of course, the data drives the decisions that we make, all that we do, we must utilize data.

And the data has told us that we needed to focus more on science this year.

And so, as you know, we've hired a great new science coordinator and she has presented some new resources to us.

STEM scopes and oh gosh just lots of hands-on activities that our students, five ponds press that our teachers have been provided with and so the teachers are singing these resources, praises, the kids are enjoying their learning and just thoroughly

enjoying all that they can in science.

So I'm really excited about the growth that we will see as we come through the rest of this year in science.

And as you know, we are a VTSS division.

So tiered supports are very important to us.

We want to make sure that we're meeting students' needs fully.

And so we work with our schools and their student success meetings as we look at those meetings, have those meetings to look at students' strengths, areas of opportunity, and set plans up of how we can best support students in their growth and development.

We just certainly want to make sure that we have the appropriate supports that are needed so that we can move students forward.

And there you see that a picture of our AVID students at a college, a university.

So we provide AVID supports for our students.

We have AVID classes, AVID teachers that are just really giving our students different types of experiences that they may not have been able to have otherwise.

They've been to various college campuses just to put their foot on the college campus to see college life.

They just light that spark that that might be what they want to do next in their career but we do know that, you know, we talked about those three E's.

And so college might not be it.

It could be enlistment.

It could be employment.

But we like the idea of enrollment as well in colleges.

So AVID is a great way to get that going.

And then let's see.

You'll see there, oh, there's another picture of our Buford students at a Buford Model Congress.

So our students were able to sit with Delegate Sally Hudson and Cree Deeds and just talk about some real world issues.

And what a great experience that is for our students.

And even having living museums for our students to do research on people from history, we want to make sure that we're providing amazing experiences for our students.

And then as we work to meet students' needs and continue to provide additional supports, we have a focus on social-emotional wellness, as you know.

So we want to make sure we provide a variety of opportunities so our students can be mentally and socially and emotionally well.

One of our partners, of course, is Wild Rock.

So we've provided nature play labs, summer camps, and some of those camps are directed towards multilingual families.

So we're really working to meet the needs of all of our students.

Wild Rock has done weekly sessions on social emotional learning, for instance, at Burnley Moran for third grade.

But truly, we all of our schools are using Wild Rock, especially our elementary schools.

So we certainly appreciate that partnership.

We have an ESL engineering club where students are able

of Code, work on electronics and a variety of different projects, again, giving a wide breadth of experience for our students.

And as I spoke with Mr. Jordan recently, he shared with me that we had two young ladies on the football team.

So we're providing co-ed opportunities for our students.

That's different and great.

So I'm excited about that.

And then, of course, let's see, we have our

Fine arts performances and fine arts opportunities.

So I wanted to include this collaboration with Walker and Buford for a choral performance.

And finally, as we work to provide additional focus areas and areas to meet students' needs, we have a program called Youth Futures.

that the IRC runs and manages and really it's open to any immigrant student at our high school.

So there they're receiving homework help, they're getting introduced to people in the community to support them as they move forward and connections are important.

We all know that connections are important and we're providing that for our students.

Of course you've heard from Bianca earlier this month about Buford Eats.

So I've been able to partake in some of the delicious and healthy vegetables there at Buford.

So of course our school nutrition program offers great and delicious and healthy foods but we want to provide other options as well for our students so that is happening.

And as you know, we continue to deal with the effects of COVID.

So mental health supports continue to be a highly needed area for us.

Our school mental health professionals are still very much utilized in our schools and much needed to support our students' mental health needs on a daily basis.

And then I wanted to lastly highlight some of our mentorship opportunities and partnerships there.

So you see our wonderful superintendent and our awesome high school principal there with the members of MOCA.

We had some volunteers come to work with some of our students as mentors.

And then the Chris Long Foundation has certainly provided so much for our division in the way of school supplies

I just wanted to take a few moments to talk about some of the experiences that we're providing for our students.

This is just a snapshot.

I could talk all day long about all the great things that we're doing for kids.

and how we're spending our money, how we're utilizing the donations that are coming our way so that we can prepare life-ready students who are going to come back to Charlottesville and lead the way here.

I wanted to just ask a question going back to the instructional highlights and the science of reading and letters training.

Can you remind me which teachers or how many have completed that training?

And then what is the process moving forward?

And kind of secondarily, are we providing that to our ELL teachers as well?

And then like, I don't know, all of this,

Like how are we prioritizing teachers?

I can get numbers for you specifically.

I will tell you that it has been open to general ed teachers and special education teachers, administrators, coaches.

There is a wide range of different roles of teachers that have been taking the letters.

training.

We started it, I think, oh gosh, this is your third cohort.

I think of letters, teachers or letters cohort.

I think we can talk about it.

I think what Miss Tatel probably will say is that while it's been optional, I remember if I'm not misquoting her at one of our last success meetings that

A large number of every grade has been represented and that's what's contributed to us seeing increases in the data.

So I think we can talk about what mandating it looks like.

I know that

We've been largely represented at every school.

I think that the outliers are few and far between at this point.

I know we recently had some conversations about some trainings for

special education teachers beyond like letters be you know how we can extend the work with Orton Gillingham.

I'm just, it seems like we're putting a lot of eggs in this basket and I believe in it.

I mean, I'm a strong proponent of science of reading and letters, but I'm interested, like when we get into spring and start analyzing assessment outcomes, I would like to be able to trace it back, you know, to be able to see, sorry, I need to not gesticulate.

So would like to be able to see

You know, are we seeing the data match the money that we're investing in this training and programming?

Like, are we getting the bang for the buck that we think that we are?

And, you know, there seems to be

You know, great crossover with our students who are identified as special ed and our English language learners.

And we did have a conversation about how we can triangulate data in terms of because we know that some of our students who are receiving services at the tier two and tier three level

are receiving so many doses.

So they're, everyone's exposed to this science of reading, but then we do know that there are students who go on that are getting some high doses of some other Orton Gillingham based, Wilson based interventions.

So like, how do we triangulate like, which one is, you know, which one is moving the needle?

So I think what it will come down to at some point is that,

You know, this student has had this and this and then being able to identify, you know, that based on, you know, it's almost like, you know, looking at some problems of practice that based on the fact that they've had these interventions that we can attest or attribute.

And I will add, you know, it's quite a testament because it hasn't been mandatory to take the letters that we have so many who have actually stepped up to the play to take it.

But beyond letters, Ms.

Tatel is in PLC meetings and at planning.

Our coaches are in those meetings and at planning.

So our teachers plan together.

So if we have a letters trained teacher on a team with a non-letters trained teacher,

Could I just ask a follow-up question?

I'm wondering if there's consistency across schools in terms of how many teachers have taken the letters training, if it varies very much by school.

I will have to get that information.

When I'm looking at the numbers, maybe we have, I'm sure Ms.

And that may be something that, you know, we want to at least set some expectations to have, you know, some minimum number of staff at every school that has that training.

Since we're on literacy, since Ms.

Dooley opened the door.

So I think my understanding with the letters training too is that it starts, the cohort starts in the summer.

I think it was opened up

to anybody, but I agree wholeheartedly that I think, you know, the more staff that we have trained in that and a combination of Orton, Gillingham or Wilson, I think is best and better for all of our students.

With the Virginia Literacy Act, which is happening,

You know, I mean I know that there's legislation and that would be great if things were kind of mandated as far as literacy, but I think that's in the works.

and I was on the special ed, the SEAC meeting last night and there weren't a lot of parents.

So I had the opportunity to ask and we talked because one of the resources that was part of the presentation had to do with dyslexia.

And so I was curious like what type of collaboration there is with our special ed folks.

and with Ms.

Tatel and with reading and what type of training and crossover and how many of the special education teachers are actually trained in that.

And then some follow-up thoughts that I had today was just that a lot of these resources weren't available when my student was young and really needed them.

But this is, again,

what led me to continuing to be an advocate and sitting here today.

And so I'm so grateful that a lot of these resources are now available and that they're being pushed out, you know, K-1-2.

So, you know, as far as tier one instruction, these students are being exposed to this so that we're catching and supporting these students earlier.

But it also made me think about what

goals in an IEP for a student who is identified as dyslexic and I'm curious too so add to your list of information your questions please like how many students do we have in the division who are actually identified with dyslexia as part of their disability.

and what are we doing and what are those goals and how do the interventions differ for those students now and retrospectively, what would my goals, excuse me, what would the goals for my daughter have looked like 10, 15 years ago?

Because they weren't really targeted because I was told we aren't gonna train somebody in Wilson because for fear of that person leaving the division.

And that was, you know, years ago.

So we're way beyond that.

We have a lot of resources to support these kids.

But now I feel like and I want to ensure that somebody who is truly identified with a disability such as dyslexia or reading disorder is getting specific

IEP goals and interventions above and beyond what we're offering in the classroom because we're all getting some.

We just know that they need dosing, the more intense dosing of something to help them.

And again, dyslexia is tough because it's challenging because

Kids present differently, you know, I mean, very severe dyslexia to not so much.

So we know that this has to be individualized.

That's the IEP.

But I, yeah, I want to make sure that we're not cutting any funding that we're training as many student teachers and letters and Orton Gillingham.

Again, I don't think there's a best or a one

One shoe fits all type of thing for every student.

But the more that we have to offer all of our kids, you know where I'm at with that.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any other comments or questions for Dr. Odi?

Ms.

All right, so now we're going to shift into the revenues.

And here you see a pie graph of our sources of revenue that come into the school division.

The largest revenue that comes into the school division is the city appropriation of 59%.

And then the second largest is the state revenue for 21%.

and then the third source of revenue is the federal revenue, which makes up 17% of the monies received by the division.

Now the federal revenues represent the ESSER funds, nutrition and Title I, Title II, Title III, Title VI funds.

When the ESSER funds are spent and are gone, federal revenue will continue to be our third

in order of revenues that come into the school division at a much lesser amount.

On December 15th, the governor released his proposed budget.

It was mainly a technical adjustments of budget based on the adjusted daily membership because of the March 31st and September 30,

30 ADMs were significantly higher than the original estimates.

All budget lines that use the ADM were recalculated and reflect the increase for the ADM.

And then the state sales tax projections were updated.

We're estimating that the division will receive about $2,554,452 in state revenue for FY24.

The governor's proposed budget also includes this one-time 1% retention bonus to employees that are employed with the division now in fiscal year 2023 and remain with us for fiscal year 2024.

We don't know whether this proposal will pass or not, so staff will come back to the school board asking to use fund balance.

like we did for the one-time bonus payment.

As I stated, the city appropriation is one of our largest, it is our largest, it's a primary source of revenue that comes into the school division and we are very grateful to our city for supporting the school division and our students.

The city uses the allocation formula where 40% of the new personal and real property taxes go to the schools.

Our five-year trend for the school's contribution increased.

The city has increased the annual contribution from 2.7 million to 4.2 million this past year.

The city's allocation formula for fiscal year 2024 is estimating $4 million.

And I just want to remind everyone that this range falls within relationship to the Blue Ring Commission Report that was done almost 10 years ago.

The $4 million in the formula allocation for the schools would remove our dependency.

on the federal relief funds, the non-reoccurring one-time funding, and would help us address our inflation and compensation issues.

It's very critical that the city provide us this funding formula increase.

It removes us from the federal funding cliff and it stabilizes our school operations.

We'll continue to draw down our ESSER funding for instruction and social and emotional and mental health

per the deadlines.

And this will put us in a position for the schools to support the city and the infrastructure projects via the gain share agreement that we have with the city.

Here's a table of the ESRA funds that we have to spend down as of the beginning of this fiscal year.

The next grant to be spent by September 30, 2023 is the CRRSA, or we'll call it the SR2 or the CARES 2 for $676,480.

We'll use this money, we'll draw down this remaining amount based on the one-time bonus that we did in December.

and custodial supplies.

So we'll definitely spend this money by its deadline.

The next deadline that we have is September 30th of 2024, which is the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.

We've budgeted 1.2 million, I'm sorry, 1.9 million of our ESSER funds to be used in this fiscal year.

And we'll draw this down

and more against that $10 million that you see.

We have an ESSER spending plan and I've mentioned it in the last couple of presentations that is located on our school website of how we're going to spend our ESSER funds.

Over this fiscal year, next fiscal year and fiscal year 25, we'll spend down those funds.

We're required to spend down those funds and we will spend down those funds.

The SR3 grant has a requirement that we spend down 20% to address the learning loss.

And this is about $2,013,184.

And we'll exceed this amount in support of our students to address their learning loss.

Our focus in spending the SR3 funds is to support our teachers, our mental health needs, tutors and hourly interventionists, technology,

and social-emotional support counselors and social workers in place through the school division.

Are there any questions on the revenue?

Okay, I will turn it over to Dr. Gurley.

Do you have any questions?

Ms.

Morris?

Ms.

Dr. Pratt, Ms.

We'll definitely put that in.

I think a lot of people could relate to that.

We're going to use that to support our teachers.

and their salaries.

We're going to use it for our social emotional counselors and their salaries and benefits.

We'll also use it for technology and custodial supplies and that tutoring and narrowly interventionists.

And so I'm curious too, in the custodial supplies.

It's due to the safety.

Okay.

And then I mean, that might be indefinite though, right?

Okay.

I did see that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Take my glasses off to see.

So I am going to talk about our budget changes and requests.

The first thing that I want to start by saying is that hopefully what you've heard throughout our presentation is, one, what happens here on a daily basis?

And what happens here is centered around our students' experiences.

So as I talk about our changes for the upcoming budget, and what we'll see is that nothing is gonna change about our students' experience.

Our goal is to preserve what happens to our students each and every day.

So when we, as we sat and we talked about, you know, what are we prioritizing?

And we heard the things that were on your mind.

We said, as we developed this,

How do we preserve what happens in the classroom?

And I know one day at a principals meeting, you know, listening to, you know, just getting feedback from them and, you know, talking through with our superintendent's advisory committee about the things that are important to them.

That's what's being preserved here.

So as we, so if you remember, so as we talk about this budget changes sheet,

If you remember, the governor's budget last year called for a 5% increase and then another 5% increase for next school year.

So what you see on those first three lines is that the teachers will get one step plus a 3.75% increase for an average of a 5% raise.

And then the same with the support staff, they will get

They will get one step plus 4%, which will equal their average of the 5% raise.

And then lastly, the administrative staff will get one step plus their 3.75 for an average of 5%.

I want to, if you notice next, it talks about step correction.

And so it was brought to my attention.

It was brought to my attention by a teacher.

And you know, I listened to teachers.

So it was brought to my attention by a teacher and then subsequently by a few more teachers that during the pandemic, we had employees, they had their salaries frozen.

And that was during 19, was that 19?

2021.

So during the 2021 school year, their salaries were frozen.

So for instance, if a teacher had completed 14 years of experience, had completed their 14th year, they were still frozen on step 13 instead of getting 14 for their next contract year.

but we were hiring people from the outside who had completed 14 years and instead of putting them on step 13 with their colleagues, we put them on step 14.

So we have an inequity right now where their teachers who have this, well employees who have the same years of experience but they're being paid differently.

So

What we're doing, so I'm going to go back to my, so we have people who have frozen steps based on, who have frozen steps while new employees were placed on their next experiential step.

So therefore, what you see here is we plan to correct that freeze by, we plan to correct that freeze and that will come at a cost of $392,000.

So I want to

I want to outline for you how we plan to do that.

The only people that will qualify for the correction are those employees that have remained in those positions that

They're still in the position that they were frozen in.

So they have to still be in the same role.

And the basis for this is that anyone who's changed a job, that we have given them their experiential credit when we changed their position.

So if they moved up and they became an assistant principal, we verified their years of experience and we've placed them correctly.

If they've had some type of

If they moved to a coach role or if they went to some type of any other role, we've done recalibration in there.

Are we providing back pay or this is just a one-time catch up?

So you and I started the same year.

We started in 2002.

So we are completing our 21st year, but you came from somewhere else and you're on, you're already on step 20 and I'm right now on step 19.

So

I'm asking them to fix me because I've been a teacher.

I've been here.

I've not changed my role.

And so now you and I will be on the same step and you essentially won't be getting paid more than me.

So there's no back pay.

We're just catching people up.

We're just catching them up and putting them on their right step.

I hope I did that some justice.

Why were they frozen?

because that was when we had that bad financial year.

And I'm saying we, I wasn't here, but that was the year that Charlottesville City Schools had a bad financial year.

And I think we thought we had the best of intentions, but someone forgot to say, hey, when new people come, you need to put them, you need to freeze them also.

So I just applaud people for doing the right thing because, you know, as I told the team, we could have had a whole bunch of people who just resigned and reapplied for their jobs.

So I just am thankful that people showed up each and every day.

And so this is a way for us to right our wrongs.

Well, it's not a wrong, but just righting this unintended consequence that we've had.

And so we figured out a way to make it work.

And so we're going to make that work.

Ms.

I mean, it would be a lot.

I mean, you see what it costs in one school year.

One school year would cost us $392,000.

Yeah.

Was that all employees?

All employees were frozen that year.

Yes, I asked that question.

All employees were frozen were frozen that school year.

I don't remember that in the budget.

If you remember back in March of 2020, when COVID hit,

Subsequently after that, that's when the disparity happened and they were off.

I do remember.

I remember that that year very well.

We were still hiring people that year and we were just saying, hey, you finished five years and so we're going to give you put you on step five when they should have been on four, because that's what happened to a five year teacher here that year.

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

But I'm very thankful for the first teacher who gave me that little gentle nudge.

And then I had a couple other teachers say, can you take a look at this?

And so I think everybody wins.

Everyone who's still frozen wins in this situation.

So I'm just appreciative that hopefully this will be able to pass forward.

So just thank you.

So that's that.

And then you see, and so you also see there that we have some increases, we have some increases to health insurance that we are anticipating.

We are going to continue to support our EAP, our Employee Assistance Program.

And then there's some, there's some, another amount there with our Virginia Employment Commission for Unemployment.

So I'm going to now talk about the non-reoccurring and non-discretionary contracts.

And so I know you all are accustomed to seeing this list.

And so what I should say first is that inflation is driving everything up.

And so let's keep that in mind as we look through this list.

I'm not going to go through the list in its entirety like I did at the top, but I do want to bring your attention

draw your attention to a few items.

So the first one is our transportation and maintenance costs.

So those costs are not final.

Our team did just receive those numbers within the last 24 hours.

And so as you can see that these two costs make up a significant amount of our non-discretionary cost.

and so we're going to continue to work with the city and see how we can hammer that out and see if we can get that number down a little bit because I have a few questions that I've asked to the team but again I don't want to put the city on the spot or you know or a team we just need to work through and and look how this compares to previous numbers and just make sure that we ask all the right questions.

I know the city has been a very good partner with us so I know that they'll welcome

Any questions that we have for them about in these two areas.

The other thing that I want to draw your attention to is the ESL interpreting services and testing.

And as you can see, I know you don't have the number to compare to from last year, but that number is increasing.

That number is up significantly.

And as you can imagine, that as we get more immigrant families and as we get more students who require ESL services, that we're going to require more interpreting services.

We're going to require more testing in this area for those students.

So that cost, I would imagine, will go up.

If we continue to trend up in terms of bringing on more students next year, when we stand before you about this time, we probably will be making the same request even again to allocate more funds to that area.

Any questions with regards to the first part of this budget change request?

I'm sitting here with the last year's budget and this year's budget.

And so there are a few things that I just wanted to ask out.

Absolutely.

Going back up to the employee assistance program, I'm not sure if the numbers that I have from last year are the accurate ones, but

It looks to me like there's a huge increase from $1,754 to $6,758

And I'm just curious, does that mean that there's just more people utilizing the EAP services?

Absolutely.

Ms.

Lewis probably can speak more intelligently to this than I can, but I know that at one of our previous, during one of our previous conversations, our employees are accessing our EAP program.

And I know that when we stood before you all, I mean, we were at a point where we really needed to support people.

And so that has definitely proven itself beneficial to our employees.

That's wonderful.

Speaking to the mic, I can't hear you.

Excuse me, sorry about that.

UVA went to a new model of per person pricing for EAP due to the fact that the level of service and taking advantage of those services has gone up.

Okay, thank you.

I'm also looking at the health insurance from last year to this year.

And to me, I mean, it's looking like it decreased almost by half from 818,000 to 476,000.

Is that true?

Could that be?

Yes.

Let's see.

In FY22, we held our rates the same.

So when we went into FY23, our health insurance went up about 10%.

And so this year, our health insurance is going up 5%, 5.76%.

But no, no, we're saying that we had an increase in FY 23 of 818,000.

And then in this year, we'll have another another increase.

I see.

So these are all just increases, not the actual numbers.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, so that's correct.

Okay.

Well, so the only the other thing I guess I'm just wondering about the

Kim Powell.

Christy Hamill provided quite a bit of detail that we haven't had an opportunity to dig through in the past 24 hours with other things that are going on.

So we just received that.

I did confirm, because one of the things that we're going to really focus on is the prior budgets.

Of course, they did change the wage rate from $18 an hour base for up to 21, which is great.

Unfortunately, that hasn't translated into a big influx of additional drivers yet.

We have two in training at this time and 10 on staff.

Um, now some of the money does go towards paying for, um, CAT drivers to help out.

There's two that are currently doing some help work.

But the reality is the budget number that we were provided is based on 30 drivers, not including relief.

No.

So the city's addressed this question before.

What happens with their vacancy savings, right?

It feeds into their vacancy savings.

and then that goes into some of the things you see in the, you know, the surplus numbers and all of that.

But I believe, and I've shared this with Chrissy in very preliminary discussions with Ms.

Hamill, we're going to need to talk about this and what's realistic because this is based on, it's not 40 anymore, I've been told now it's 30, I need to further verify that.

But I don't know if that's a realistic number for us to achieve.

Just getting to 20 or the low 20s will be a significant improvement for us.

So I just think there's, as Dr. Gurley alluded to earlier, there's just going to be some opportunity for discussion around the staffing that this is based on, what's realistic for the next year.

We also need to take another look at bus purchases and where things are going with that.

So they're noted as estimates on this chain sheet because we want to really be clear that these numbers, I think they're placeholders at this point,

but we need to really talk with the city and understand their perspective on these numbers and exactly where everything's coming from because I know maintenance has needs as well.

Utilities jumped up quite a bit.

Potentially we would have the numbers squared away to a place where the city is comfortable and we're comfortable and feeling good moving forward before then.

And so then you would have an update for that work session.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Can I follow up just to wonder what you're talking about?

Now I do, I don't remember a lot from 2020 March, but I do remember we had a meeting and I remember asking,

What happens when the buses aren't being driven?

Where does the gas money go?

Or if positions aren't filled, where does that money go?

And I remember in the meeting,

And it's on video somewhere.

But the answer was that that's the estimate.

And when we go over, we're not charged any extra.

But when we go under, the city keeps that balance.

And so we started talking then about getting a contract that actually shows

like an itemized of what we're paying for, because all we ever get is the final figure, the increase.

So I didn't know that that number is based on the estimated drivers that we should be getting.

So if those aren't filled, it would seem like that's a significant amount.

So vacancy savings I think has been a considerable factor in people transportation.

It's also a factor in maintenance right now.

To be honest, they have quite a few skilled trades positions that they need to fill, and that's been the case for some time.

So on the one hand, there'll be these areas where there are savings, and then on the other, there will be budget line items where they underestimated, for example, utilities in some cases or materials and supplies.

They have had

increases in contract services that support our schools as well.

So there are pluses and minuses all through the budget.

And because it is, they don't have any crystal balls over there any more than we do.

So there are estimates that set these contract prices.

And we do know the surplus, any surplus from their operations with regard to the schools and any other department or agency, it all rolls into their final settlement of the year and that surplus number.

And then there are decisions made for the good of the city based on those funds.

But we are trying to look more carefully and have a common understanding of these line items and make sure that we understand where these contract values are set at the beginning that we all feel good about where those values are set.

But there are going to be pluses and minuses.

So for the areas where they have savings in relation to the operations for us because positions aren't filled,

There are also lines where they're having overages.

In the world of transportation, one of those areas is special transportation needs.

McKinney-Vento, the homeless transportation, the money we get through McKinney-Vento for homeless is not very much.

Can we see one of the contracts as a follow up?

Maybe.

See if I can.

You haven't seen that in quite a long while.

The school division as a pay as you go division, meaning as people leave us and then file for unemployment, we pay on them as we go.

And therefore, over the last two years, people have left us and have filed for unemployment, and we're paying on them

Gotcha.

Okay, thank you for that.

And then last year, did we not, the public transportation and maintenance, didn't we roll that right back into what we asked for from the city?

And are we considering that again, or because we're

Things are different.

That is certainly a consideration.

We had that last year, I guess it was the first time that we've done that where we just said, OK, you know, this is our ask and then this is what we need.

I think in this particular year, looking at where the formula allocation has us sitting at this point, you know, whether or not that's something the board would like to do, certainly be at your discretion.

But what

Ms.

Hooper and Dr. Gurley have put together here.

We're at a balanced budget because frankly, it's a good year for the formula allocation.

We all know there are years that aren't so good.

And in those years, the city thankfully goes beyond the formula allocation.

Yeah, no, I'm grateful for where we're at, but I just was curious about that.

And then also didn't we pay or use some of our ESSER funds to pay for the increase in bus driver?

So until you all take action, what we've done when they've been trying to move forward and help solve the problem with the driver shortage, what we've done for the bonus, and then more recently for that wage move, we've come, we've asked you to kind of give the nod to say yes, if needed.

We're going to dip into these funds, but you may also recall that when we've had those agenda items, I have shared with you that the probability of us needing to do that is very unlikely because of the staffing shortages that are persisting, which again is the main thing I think we need to revisit with the city, with the maintenance and the transportation pieces.

I'm going to bring up a point Ms.

Dooley brought up earlier in terms of the step correction.

I'm not huge on retention bonuses to be honest, but I feel like there's needs to be additional

I guess compensation for missing out on that pay in terms of thinking about opportunity, cost, what they could have done with that money.

Even if it's just something simple as they had that money being on the correct step and they could have invested it in the stock market at 6% or something like that, 8%, who knows?

Dr. Lee, do you mind if I say something first?

That analysis would be a very complex analysis because the step correction situation occurred over two years during the pandemic.

It's pretty straight.

As challenging or as complicated as that analysis was, at least it was just a matter of who do we have here now in the same position that was in that position, same position, same pay table,

That's really only where the equity issue comes in, June 30 of 2020.

So if you have an employee that changed jobs in the middle of that, figuring out and so they've only maybe they were only in that position for one year versus two years, but then they got a promotion since then.

And there's just so many other factors that are going to come into play.

And the other thing you have to realize is

What this move is intended to correct is the equity issue between the people who have stayed with us and didn't resign and re-enter versus new people coming in.

Yes, we've had new people coming in.

They chose to come work for us through this time.

The other people could have chosen to leave.

Because of the complication and the cost,

That's not a road I would recommend going down.

The course of action that should have been taken when you freeze salary scales, what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to take the salaries and roll them up one step.

That step was missed.

That was not done.

I'm sorry I wasn't aware of that earlier, but that is the way to handle a freeze.

Where I come from in Greene County, believe me, we know how to handle freezes.

That didn't happen here, but it would be very complex and costly to approach it in another way.

And I will say that, too, in just talking with my colleagues from the area and from other regions and just thinking of previous experiences, the actual freeze itself is not uncommon for employees to have their salaries frozen.

And so I think that I am, you know,

I am just really thankful that we're able to even make the recommendation to fix it because I just know that that part within itself is a lift and then I think about, you know, outside of how we're fixing it now that it truly does come at a cost.

I will tell you that we are embarking upon, well,

We are in a salary study.

Ms.

Lewis and Ms.

Hoover and I had our first meeting.

And there are some things that we do need to do there.

And I will tell you that the price tag is very steep.

So I think some of it, while I don't know if, you know, we'll do whatever the board wants, but I will tell you that

Well, as we start to share some of that other information from the salary study, I think it's going to shed light to that, you know, in order to really get our employees where they need to be.

And that's not about correcting steps.

That's ensuring that they are being we're being competitive with market value that if we once we show those figures that I mean, that's a big price tag to do.

And we

feel strongly that we do need to do something.

And so they presented various options for us.

But I do think that our employees will, they will appreciate that too.

And we will need to figure out a way to make that happen and if we can make that happen.

But I think it's definitely worth considering.

Yes, we do.

And to be clear, we're not just talking about teachers, nurses, anyone who's in the same job that they are now, that they were in when the freeze occurred, this will stop the situation from ending people, you know, that inequity situation, which is really what this is about.

Yeah, and to be clear, I wasn't talking about people that are no longer with us.

I'm talking about additional to for the people that

stayed with us.

And, you know, when the governor signed something in the budget of a bonus and we jump at it to fulfill the bonus for everyone else, that's not within the SOQ.

But I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to trust you on this on the salary study, because I know that's been in the works in listening to what you say as well.

Yeah, I just had a question about something that isn't on here about contracts.

And I was looking at last year's budget.

This has to do with fine arts.

And last year's budget showed that we ended our contract with the Richmond Ballet that was coming in.

But I know that we have Charlottesville Ballet coming in to work with our students.

Right.

We do.

That's going that's been working really well.

And I don't know what the I don't know what the cost.

I don't know why my initial was.

There was no cost, but I'm pretty sure there is a cost.

But it's I do know based on our conversation last year, which was my first budget, that what the the fee for Charlottesville was way significantly substantially less than what the Richmond Ballet was charging us.

And we actually

we actually get to do more with the Charlottesville Ballet program.

So it's still in the budget, we still are.

Yeah, still in the budget.

This budget change sheet is just things that we are making changes to.

Yeah, we still are preserving.

As I said, when I first started this presentation that we are preserving the experiences of our students.

So we're not taking anything away from our students in this,

Okay, thank you.

I have some more slides.

Oh, you do?

Okay.

Yes.

All right.

So our next slide deals with our school-based programs, supports and improvements.

And so

You heard earlier, we keep talking, you know there's a theme here and one of those themes deals with our students who receive ESL services.

So we are, if you notice on that first line, we are adding additional staff there.

And so this will allow us to continue to provide those quality services and supports.

We are converting a temporary position.

So you see that there's an addition of three in that far right-hand column.

We are converting one of our temporary positions to a permanent position.

And then we are adding two additional teaching positions in this area for a total of three.

And so I will tell you that the ask, the ask was for two.

So we actually here, we're going to exceed what the ask is so that, you know, we can brace for growth.

We can brace for the growth because we know that it's going to happen.

And I think Dr. Odie shared with you, well, she did share with you that Dr. Jeannie Fouts says,

projecting that we will probably see a growth of 100 for next school year.

So we will have three based on what we've put in place here.

I'm going to move down to the next one where you see data and digital learning specialists.

So I will tell you that while I've not been here 10 years, that for the last 10 years at least in the state of Virginia, we've seen an increase in the state reporting mandates.

So those are our

Our record collections, our student data record collections, those require someone and that someone in this case is Ann Skipper, who is absolutely amazing.

It requires her to extract data and build files for various departments in order to submit those things.

And so I would dare say I had written the number in my notebook and I probably should have written it in this presentation, but I know that there are at least 40 state reports.

And so Mr. Cuomo has some positions that he's been paying on an hourly basis.

So what we are going to do here is we are going to convert some of that hourly money and add just a little bit of money here to create a full position.

And so this person will provide support to ANSCCP with regards to pulling the data and doing the record submissions.

In addition to that, this position will also help with the staff development needs of our staff as it relates to technology.

So being able to use these products, for example, how to be a good user of PowerSchool.

I know that I've had conversations with our team like

We just can't call Ms.

Skipper and say, can you show me how to do because she has work going on.

And a lot of times what I'm finding is that people are asking her the same questions.

And part of that problem is, part of the issue is we have this gap where we don't have someone to do the trainings unless the director of technology goes to do the training, which then spreads him thin.

So we actually, so you see the $92,000 here, but there's actually some cost savings here because he's combining some positions and we're adding a little bit of money here to make this a whole position.

And so this position will be on a teacher, will be on the teacher salary scale.

The next thing you see there is a teacher and there's a position for a graduation coach.

We've made a lot of strides in our efforts to increase our graduation rates.

We are proposing a graduation coach to place emphasis on supporting the growing needs of our students.

We know that our students have trauma.

They are experiencing a lot of life.

We know that if we wait until their 12th graders to provide them the support

It just inundates the entire staff.

So the graduation coach will essentially serve as a lifeguard in this building.

They will work with our students.

They will work in collaboration with our testing coordinator so that we will identify those students who are deficient in their verified credits, that's the students who need SOLs, identify students who need standard credits so they can be the liaison

between the school counseling office, helping students be in the liaison with the WALK program, helping to get students where they need to be, checking in with students in terms of absenteeism.

And I think that, you know, as we've talked about this, that for me and what I've seen in previous experiences, this takes a little bit of the load off of the school counselor because they're not, the school counselor doesn't have to focus on students who are in tier three, who are in crisis, who are barely trying to get to the finish line.

And so I know you all have heard me say that the most important day in a student life

is not graduation, it's the day after graduation.

So this role will also help with some of that workforce development that many of the students that we're talking about in this bubble are not always college bound, but we don't always have the mechanisms in place for those students to be successful because we do place so much emphasis on college readiness.

So this position can also work with like our CTE specialists with helping students to

Dr. Gurley, can I ask, why not add another school counselor and reduce caseloads?

that question came up with the team.

And I think that, you know, I think school counselors, you know, I've talked with some school counselors and they, you know, we've had some, I had a conversation with a school counselor that said, could we just pull all of our ELs to students who are receiving EL services?

Could you pull all of them off our caseload and give them to one person?

I think we are appropriately staffed

In terms of school counselors, I think that we really need someone who can pull away from the desk, pull away from the school, and like be in the community.

We don't really, we do a good job with attendance, but we don't have an attendance worker.

But we know that many of the students who straddle this bubble, who are credit deficient, are often students who have the attendance issues.

So I mean, this person, this graduation coach is really the everything.

Concern is conversations that we've had previously about silos and ensuring that you know we've talked about just within this building we've got a problem you know teachers only teaching one type of students and not having any ownership or in some cases expressing that they're fearful of engaging with

you know, some of the students that you're describing.

No, I believe that's a legitimate fear.

And I have, and you know, I encourage the team to give me the pushback.

So I did get the pushback.

The student still belongs to the school counselor.

This person just gets to relieve a little bit of that stress of like the school counselor doesn't have to devote 120% and not be able to equitably divide themselves among the students on their caseload.

I mean, I definitely think it's a, you know, it's a 12 in a dozen situation.

It's kind of the same.

It's kind of the same thing.

And at heart, I mean, as we talk about like what's the credentials, I mean, ultimately a school counselor probably would make a really good graduation coach.

I know in my previous experience, the graduation coach was a former school counselor.

To some degree, they are the school counseling.

I mean, we could create another school counselor and tell them to do the exact same, to tell them and ask them to do the exact same thing.

It's just, this gives the person just a little bit more flexibility without having to have the load of having an entire caseload.

I mean, they won't have, I mean, they will prioritize students, so prioritizing seniors and juniors, and then, you know, fewer sophomores

I also implore them to take on a lot of freshmen and not wait until we get too late.

So I just think we have a little bit of cleaning up and I think the pandemic exposed a little bit of that.

But they are all of our students and I think it's a great debate that why not another counselor and

I just think this position gives us just a little bit gives the school a little bit more flexibility in terms of meeting the needs of students so you're just not

I think that's ultimately what happens.

It relieves them of a little bit of that school counseling responsibilities and gives them the flexibility to be in the community, pull the student, work closely with Ms.

Burke and ensure the students have the verified credits and connect with the walk.

All things the school counselor would be doing, but just a little bit more flexibility to do it.

but I'm open.

You know, if as a board you say, I don't think we can support it and we do another school counselor, I think they'll be, you know, they'll be ecstatic.

It probably, it may have been missed.

Absolutely.

I know Virginia Beach has a model of this, and there are various names to this position, but Virginia Beach has a version of this.

Hampton has a version of this, my previous school division.

There's someone, sometimes what you hear, you hear this often referred to as dropout prevention, and I don't like that name.

I want you to be a graduation coach.

But yeah, you do.

If you, in your Google searches, you probably will see dropout prevention specialists more than you will see the title called a graduation coach.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, they have to coach.

All right.

Our next thing, we have, I'm sorry, I lost my place.

I lost my place.

Longwood, I'm sorry.

So we have this need to grow our own.

I think what we've seen as people get promoted that we just have this need to develop our own next cadre of administrators.

So we have partnered with Longwood

to provide an administrative cohort right here in Charlottesville City Schools.

And the program is actually three semesters.

So it will be the fall of 2023, this school year, this upcoming school year, fall of 23, the spring of 24, and the summer of 24.

So one year, the program costs less than $6,000.

It's like a no brainer.

So we, my recommendation is that we pay for half of it, which means that

I mean, essentially it will cost someone $3,000, which is unheard of to get an administrative endorsement.

I know that I have gotten the question about why not UVA.

Well, the reason why is that this program is for anyone with a teaching license.

So you can't be a school counselor.

You can't be a social worker.

You have to have a minimum of three years teaching experience.

This is a certificate program.

So this is to add the endorsement

on to your current teaching certificate.

So you must already possess a master's degree.

So we put this out to our staff and we got about 26 responses and 15 of them were, I want to participate.

And then there were some people that said, I want some more information, but this would allow us to pay for half of it.

The cost would be $45,000.

But my point was that I had gotten a question about why not UVA?

UVA does not offer a certificate program.

You have to, if you have a master's in English, you have to get a master's in admin.

And I think what we see from, we put those things out there when we get them from UVA, but we saw a big response from this.

And it's because if I have a master's, why not take two classes a semester and have this endorsement and have half of it paid for?

We would like to include this, include the caveat that if they leave, they have to pay us in thirds.

So if you stay one year, so you have a three year obligation.

And then if you leave, if you work for us for one year and then you leave, you got to pay us back the remaining two thirds.

If you work two years, you owe us one third.

If you don't come back after you finish, then you owe us the entire half.

But the program is $5,995, and we're going to pay $3,000 for each employee.

So there's an informational that will be happening soon.

I spoke with the Longwood rep.

Jessica Ford is the contact person.

She's working with them, and they're waiving the application fee and all of those other things for this program.

But it gives us an opportunity

to build our own.

And I think if this works well, we can continue on with something like this with the people who have some interests can become our second cohort.

And we would be growing our own right here.

The next thing you see is our Buford Athletics request.

We got that from Mr. Jones and some of it stems from his time over at Buford.

We had some situations where we had football come back this school year.

We weren't able, there were moments where they weren't able to have an athletic trainer.

The budget just didn't match the current programs happening over at Buford.

That request was made and this just allows them to ensure that they have what they need to provide our students with safe and productive athletic programs.

And then the last thing you see is the Teacher of the Year.

This was our inaugural year with our Teacher of the Year program.

It looked really good when I watched it online.

But we have included a budget here so that we can continue to do that.

And just I think we can't say enough that we are still doing the Golden Apple.

This just allows us to be competitive with the rest of the state to participate in the Teacher of the Year program.

and then we have some reductions.

And so unfortunately, we have had some positions that we have been unable to fill this school year.

And so when that happens, we have vacancy savings.

So you can see there that there is a vacancy, there's a vacancy savings of $818,000 there.

The next line, the STAR program,

We had monies allocated for the star position over at Walker and Buford, and that's our structured autism program.

We had funds allocated there, but those positions were not filled the entire year.

And what we found is the programs worked successfully.

The caseloads aren't high.

The finance team has met several times with the special education department.

have met with the ladies and the program is working successfully.

So we're just going to reduce the allocations for those positions, but it doesn't take anything away from the experiences of the students in those programs.

And then lastly, we had the Teachers of Tomorrow program, which is facilitated by Virginia State.

The program

did happen this school year.

It just had a different funding.

We found that it had a different funding source.

So we're just eliminating the half of a position that was dedicated for that.

And that's what you see reflected there.

And we are still in conversation with Virginia State University to see how we can continue or if we will continue that Teachers for Tomorrow program.

And then lastly, the revenues at the bottom.

As you can see, the state funding is increasing.

So this is an increase, Dr. Kraft.

It's increasing by $2.5 million there.

And then we

We are ending our dependency on our federal assistance.

You see that $1.9 million and we will continue to use our gain sharing and capital improvement funds in order to work collaboratively with the city and spend the funds down.

And then lastly, our request is $4 million from the city.

and this is in line with our formula allocation that we use yearly.

I will start with Ms.

Thank you so much Dr. Gurley.

So the questions that I have, I also agree with Miss Dooley related to the graduation coach.

Like I think that's a, I just, I'm looking at the kind of in my head where all of the positions are in the high school.

And so many are focused on getting kids to graduation.

And I do wonder like, and I think the stress of being a school counselor could be that you have such a dramatic caseload that you can't,

Meet the needs of all the kids on your caseload.

And you're saying, of course, the caseload is reasonable, but it may allow all of our school counselors to better serve in this role as half graduation coach, half school counselor.

I'm not sure I respect your expertise in this.

I just, again, I worry about so many positions.

having this focus and what Ms.

Dooley said about silos.

So I also had the same concerns that Mr. Morrison, Ms.

Dooley had about the contract result, the step increase, the step correction.

So other than that, I appreciate all of this work.

I think 4 million is, I know,

as part of the Blue Ribbon Commission.

I'm very well aware of the findings of that.

I do think about $4 million is a lot to be asking of the city at this time.

But I do think that this is an incredibly limited budget that you have made this ask of.

And it's all going to salaries and meeting, and frankly, supporting our community with increased salaries for our staff and teachers.

And what I will do before we meet again, I will pull the administrative staff here, so maybe Mr. Pitt and all of the school counselors to have a conversation.

because most certainly, if out of that conversation, they're like, we need another school counselor, then that can most certainly be the ask.

I'm glad you threw that out there because I hadn't thought about there.

If it's half school counselor, half graduation coach, I can kind of put that ball in their court.

We had a conversation about the graduation coach, but I mean, that's definitely not an end all be all.

I would be interested to hear what they have to say as well.

I have a few questions.

The first one was about the technology position.

Yes.

I know you said it was helping support the state reports, but will that position also do reports for us?

You remember when we were looking at like testing data or map data and we were trying to talk about like how to follow a certain cohort and so that we can actually extract the data before like they go to high school.

So will this position

Well, we actually interestingly enough, we had a conversation about that at our last meeting about we do have this need.

You know, we have Miss Smith, who, you know, technically she's a department of one, but it's assessment and accountability.

And so there's a little bit of overlap between what should be happening in her department.

and then what happens with the state reporting and being able to pull reports and being able to give.

So I think we definitely have a vision of what we would like to work towards and I think we can be innovative in like really what this looks like inside of Charlottesville City Schools and that was just our last conversation we had this week.

So I think we all are thinking the same way.

We identify that there is a need.

And so this position can definitely fill a lot of the gaps, plural, because we know that Ms.

Skipper, we know that Ms.

Skipper, she's just a team of, in a sense, she's a team of one, but she's doing a lot of this on her own.

about the graduation coach position or the counselor position, it will be helpful to see like what the current caseloads are.

And then for the graduating students, what are the outcomes for the students?

Because I know we talk about a lot about how we're college focused.

And if you're not on a college path,

The outcomes, you don't have the, that there's some discrepancy between like the outcomes depending on the path.

So maybe it would help to see like, where do our students go after graduation and how those numbers break down.

And that was it.

Well, I really like this budget, and I appreciate the thought that's gone into it.

I like learning about people like Ann Skipper, who we don't get to meet.

We don't get to know who is this person doing this outstanding work there, and to know that she could use some help.

You know, overall, I feel like I'm grateful that we get to keep all of our mental health counselors, keep all those services in place.

You know, I was really worried about that.

But, you know, I feel really good about that.

And, you know, this budget should be

met in a very positive way by our city council.

I think where we're going with this and what we're asking of them is very reasonable this year.

So I feel fortunate in where we find ourselves.

And I really do appreciate all the work that's gone into getting us to this point.

Ms.

Thank you.

So just a quick question and a comment about the English second language positions, the three FTEs.

So one is the temporary that's listed right now, but not filled.

That's correct.

So we're going to we're going to with your blessing and city's blessings with money we will take and we will make that position.

So then based on the earlier presentation and the numbers and the anticipated 100 more students coming in, do we feel confident that three is enough?

That we shouldn't have more support?

I mean, when you're looking at the big picture and especially the number of students who are coming into CHS, and then we can roll that right into your graduation coach,

You know, I mean, there's so many needs.

Well, no, I mean, I think people they're not afraid to ask here.

So what we know is that we are losing.

We will be graduating 29.

We will be graduating 29 with the addition of the three positions.

And remember, the state is 1 to 50.

We are doing 1 to 30.

So that's 90 right there.

So I believe we're in a good place.

in terms of if you think we're losing 29 and we could potentially be getting 100.

We won't get all 11.

We won't get all 100 on the same day.

Prayerfully, we won't get them all in the same day.

But the three additional definitely will give us the support.

And we had a conversation

with the principals today.

Ms.

Powell did an enrollment.

She did an enrollment projection with us at the principals meeting today, just looking at what the trends may be.

And we just have to make sure that we're working very closely with the IRC so we have a heads up with regards to who are the students that we're getting, where are those students going, and we know that

We have some housing, you know, some new housing things that will be popping up that will be supporting our students.

So we just need to make sure that we're working with the city to know where students are going, working with IRC.

And I think that the I think the three is definitely is the right move, because remember, we're going to be starting with three, but not starting with one hundred.

Okay, thank you.

And then, if I may, and I know I sent a question earlier about supports for some students at KTEC.

So along those lines, there is, and I don't remember the exact number, but some of the students who attend KTEC are also English as a second language or immigrant students who are there.

and in your follow-up or whoever's follow-up with Ms.

Carter and because our students follow Albemarle County's closing policy, if KTEC is closed, our students who are there don't have a place to go.

So if we could look into or check in with Mr. Pitt or Miss Carter had offered, you know, that there is space there, but we would just have to have a staff member to go over and support those kids there.

But to make sure, and this is just somebody who's come to me who works with some of these students that have shared that in prior years.

So if we can look at whether there's a space here, if KTEC is closed, that these students know that they have to report to and do some work and or it sounded like there's an opportunity if we had a staff member that could go over and support them there in that space.

So just before I forgot about that, I wanted to put that on your radar, please.

Also, I mean, I'm intrigued by this graduation coach.

I mean, I'd love to kind of see it plotted out.

It sounded like you had a lot.

I mean, there's definitely a need, right?

Yes, ma'am.

And I would love to, I feel like every student, but maybe some students need it more than others should be.

have a different type of relationship and contact with somebody who's really watching them from the time they get to Buford, you know, and to be able to track them up, but to not wait till 11th and 12th grade, but to really, and whether that's realigning or allocating the number among counselors so that they can really follow them.

from the time they step foot in the high school and support them.

Because I think a lot of them get lost and are off people's radars until you are at those last two years.

And there's a lot to recoup at that point.

And I'm sure there's a lot of models of what this could look like.

And again, as far as pushing out into the community, that's a lot.

I don't know that all of our, I mean, they'd have to be on some kind of schedule if we're going to be making home visits or monitoring the attendance.

Yeah they originally on that budget change sheet they originally they

Yeah, and I know there were a lot of needs there.

There were a lot of things that, so that's fine.

I just wasn't sure where that came up and that's it.

Thank you so much for all of this.

Lastly, it's probably been sitting till, okay.

The last thing here is that we do have some upcoming meetings.

So the PTO meeting, which will be online, will be the 25th is next week, I believe.

Yep, next Wednesday.

So we have the PTO meeting where we will do a high level overview of the of the budget.

We did this last year.

I remember that.

And then we have a community update.

We have a community budget update that'll be online.

That's on the 31st and then we will come back here during our regular session and then there's the public hearing of the budget on our next meeting and again by that time I will have tried to schedule that meeting while we'll have met with the school counselors just to talk about

to make sure I get their plight and the current needs.

And then you see the remaining.

And I did, I don't have it here, but I was not able to be here on the 9th of January.

And we were slated, I was slated to have a conversation during the superintendent's advisory meeting about the budget.

So I just will give our staff members that are on the superintendent's advisory meeting an opportunity to ask any budget

I do have a comment.

and no friends who have been graduation coaches.

And that was a part of my vision of not having a one-size-fit-all, but we need to find ways to reach those children who perhaps are not going to college.

And I can tell you on an everyday basis, you are, as a counselor, ASCA says 250 to one counselor is a reasonable size caseload.

Also,

Working as a counselor, you're responsible for a lot of things.

Unless things has changed since 2016, all of our counselors here are also responsible for the 504 plans, which means that you have to meet yearly with parents.

So two weeks at the beginning of the school year, you're meeting individuals with parents to update those 504 plans at the beginning of the school year.

Then you have identified by the end of your 11th grade year students who are in academic

trouble and at risk of not graduating.

So you have to have those senior success meetings early on at the end of the 11th grade, sometime very early in the 12th grade year.

So you do, counselors are doing a lot of things, accounting credits.

You have to know how many credits.

your students have passed.

So when someone comes into your office and say, well, Mr. Ryan, so on, so on, so you have to have those books up to date.

You're writing letters of recommendations for those seniors who are doing early action.

So it's a lot that is going on in the guidance office.

And I cannot think of a better way of adding a graduation coach to work with those students that are identified as having some type of academic issue

and work and in finding a pathway for those students to have a life after graduation plan when they leave here.

So that graduation coach is extremely important in working in conjunction with the school counselors.

Are there any other questions for Dr. Gurley?

We will now have comments from the community.

Ms.

Okay, next on the agenda is upcoming meetings for the budget.

On February 2nd, we will have a school board meeting at five o'clock here in the Media Center.

February the 8th, the Charlottesville City School Board and the Charlottesville City Council will have a joint budget work session, five o'clock at KTEC in the auditorium, February 16th.

We will have another school board budget work session here at 5 o'clock in the media center, CHS, February 23rd.

There will be a city school board budget approval meeting at 5 p.m.

here in the media center at Charlottesville High School.