School Board Meeting   10/5/2023

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

Dom, are you able to hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Okay, let me get your volume up on my side here.

Check one, two, one more time, Mr. Morse.

Yep, check one, two.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I would like to make a motion to approve Dom Morris's request to attend the October 5, 2023 school board meeting remotely via Zoom due to personal matters.

All in favor?

Aye.

Then let's have a moment of silence.

Madam Clerk, would you call the roll?

Here.

Here.

I don't think he can hear you.

Mr. Morse.

Is that for me?

Yep.

Calling roll for you.

Aye.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

The next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda.

Any discussion?

Aye.

All opposed?

OK, at this time,

We will now have comments from members of the community.

The Charleston City School Board welcomes comments from members of the community.

And we ask as speakers, please keep their comments to three minutes.

Do we have anyone here in the room who would like to come forth and speak at this time?

Okay, is there anyone currently in Zoom that would like to speak?

Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak at this time?

If not, you have another opportunity later on in the meeting.

All right.

Thank you.

Next on our agenda is special recognition.

And Ms.

Good evening Chairman Bryan, Dr. Gurley, members of the board.

I'm here tonight to ask for your support in acknowledging October as Disability History and Awareness Month, Dyslexia Awareness Month, and Bullying Prevention Month.

So first, Disability History and Awareness Month highlights the importance of increasing public awareness and respect for persons with disabilities, informing the public about the many contributions to society and emphasizing the ability of disabled persons.

Disability is a natural part of the human condition, and Charlottesville City Schools is committed to having high expectations for students with disabilities and providing their education in the least restrictive environment.

As part of Disability Awareness and History Month, we'll be hosting a tailgate on October 20th.

Families can expect to receive a flyer in Parent's Square in the coming week, and we will have games and activities as well as a meal.

Families who register in advance can receive social narratives, visual supports to increase their access to the tailgate, as well as a sensory kit to use at the game.

Is there a second?

Any discussion?

All in favor?

All opposed?

In addition to disability history and awareness, we want to draw special attention to dyslexia in the month of October.

Dyslexia is a learning disability that is characterized by difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling.

We want to take this opportunity to celebrate our students with dyslexia who through specially designed instruction and accommodations and modifications are able to achieve their goals.

We also want to acknowledge the special education teachers who are engaging in professional development to build their skills as teachers of reading.

We have many special education teachers who are engaging in or who have completed letters training and the multi-sensory structured literacy training offered through the Department of Education.

Materials will be distributed to schools to increase awareness of the characteristics of dyslexia and effective teaching strategies.

I'll move that.

Is there a second?

I would like to just make a comment, as always, thanking Charlottesville City Schools and the state for recognizing this during the month, and not just this month, but every month, knowing very well that it takes years to get where we are right now, not just here in Charlottesville City Schools, but throughout the state.

I also want to give a shout out to Decoding Dyslexia, which was a grassroots parent movement that started probably, how old was my daughter, probably 13 years ago, 10 to 13 years ago working

to get parents throughout the state together.

Going to Richmond and meeting with legislators, they were really key in getting some of the legislation passed specifically for the dyslexia training that has to happen at the state level, the dyslexia school designee, and also were really key in working

with different delegates and senators right now as we move forward with the Virginia Literacy Act.

So I think this is just a really unique and important point to make in the sense that when you're advocating for something

and first a group of kids who might need something.

So something like explicit instruction with literacy not only benefits kids who are struggling readers who might be dyslexic, but as we are now seeing the Virginia Literacy Act and the science of reading, something that really would have benefited my daughter.

It really wasn't in place yet, but now we have it.

So not only are we catching and helping and able to support our struggling readers who might be dyslexic or have other learning disabilities, but it is also benefiting all of our students.

So again, in my mind, that's really what equity is about.

and when we're fighting for something, making sure that it benefits everybody.

Thank you, Ms.

Torres, for sharing those thoughts.

So all in favor of the resolution?

Aye.

All opposed?

OK, thank you.

Then finally, October is also Bullying Prevention Month.

It's a busy month.

Throughout this month, our schools will engage in age-appropriate activities to bring awareness to and prevent bullying in schools and online.

Almost 30% of youth in the United States are estimated to be involved in bullying, either as a victim or as a bully.

and an estimated 160,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade miss school every day due to a fear of being bullied.

Young people who bully others and those that witness bullying can also experience negative mental health effects.

I ask that you recognize the month of October as Bullying Prevention Month with the intention that the issue of bullying and its prevention will be discussed in schools and classrooms.

But our schools don't wait till October to establish a positive school culture that positively impacts the mental health of our students.

And that's just one way that schools are preventing bullying.

Schools are implementing evidence-based practices for social-emotional learning, facilitating restorative practices, using data to inform which students need individualized support, and then supporting individual students and families.

In review of each school's existing positive school culture Tier 1 plan, we can see that schools are using a range of resources, including Second Step, Zones of Regulation, and RethinkED, and that all staff members receive training on how to build a positive school community.

We all have a part to play in preventing bullying.

And I wanted to share that if you believe that your child has experienced bullying at school or online, please reach out to your school counselor.

They're there to support.

And that resources are available for teachers, families, and students on our website.

And it's stopbullying.gov, which is very comprehensive.

Second.

Yeah.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you so much.

The next item on the agenda is the adoption of the consent agenda.

Yeah.

Do we have a second?

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Mr. Chair, we will now have Ms.

Hoover.

She will come before us with the budget calendar, if you remember last month.

If you remember last month, she brought forth our proposed budget calendar.

Good evening.

As Dr. Gurley alluded to last month, we brought you the budget calendar for the budget development for fiscal year 2025.

We have already started working on the items identified on that calendar.

The survey was

turned out or released today.

And we have our first budget work session on October 19th, and that will be in the Walker cafeteria.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Ms.

If you remember last month during the middle school construction presentation, there were two budget items.

The first budget item is to amend our FY24 budget for the school construction grant that we received.

and the amount is $17,562,682.

That's the first motion.

And then the second motion is to authorize the use of fund balance for the construction of the new preschool.

And that is for $1,500,000.

Well, this is the first motion.

OK, all in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Now, the second motion.

Do we have a motion?

Second?

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Thank you, Ms.

Hoover.

We will now have items for discussion.

Good afternoon, board chair, school board members, Dr. Gurley.

My name is Lamont Trotter, and tonight I will be presenting to you the educational compass and program review of Lugo McGinnis Academy.

On this slide, you will find our strategic plan goals that are aligned with the division goals.

And that is simply a state that all CCS learners will graduate equipped with a plan for the future.

And CCS will foster a strong sense of community.

At LMA, I would like to say that our school counselor is doing a phenomenal job working with our seniors as well as our underclassmen and making sure that we have a plan and that they're familiar with the correct credits and courses that they belong in.

On this slide, you will see that I will discuss six segments for tonight's discussion, who we are, our expectations and routines, our enrollment and processes, instructional framework and interventions, community experiences, and our academic compass.

Who are we at LMA?

Lugo McGinnis Academy is an academic community that supports students within the alternative school setting to meet individual needs around course completion and credit recovery.

We are committed to ensure students feel welcomed and respected within our culturally responsive learning environment with healing centered engagement.

I would also just like to pause and just share with you that since coming to Lugo McGinnis, I have felt the welcome not only from our staff, but equally from the division.

Thank you.

Our next slide will outline our expectations and routines.

They're few, but they're mighty.

Our attendance and arrival, LMA students are expected to attend school daily and regularly communicate between home and school is important for various circumstances.

Since then, what we have also done is we have allowed for perfect attendance incentives.

One of our high level incentives that we gave out was a concert ticket.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with who Moneybagg Yo is.

I'm not, but our young people were.

So we gave out a concert ticket for that.

Equally, as we look at course completion, ensuring that our students that have failed a course and not been successful, that they are aligned with a credit recovery course, as well as their initial credit course there.

We equally use edunuity as a support system.

And with Mr. Grady here, we see that he equally uses edunuity to a great platform.

And finally, our behavior support.

So we look at supporting students with and without IEPs to make sure that they receive the necessary supports needed.

LMA promotes a place for student voice, mediation and individuality.

Ms.

LeClair, our SEL counselor, Ms.

Phelps, our school counselor, Mr. Williams, our family engagement counselor and our teachers all play a vital part in making sure student support is addressed.

When we look at the enrollment at LMA, I am excited to announce that we currently have 26 students and that enrollment continues to climb.

We have five students under the Accessible Education umbrella, and we have four particular students that I will highlight shortly in our senior capture.

We have nine staff talent members.

And I would also like to say that we have two students that are taking Spanish three right here in this building at CHS, as well as dual enrollment.

And we have one young man that is taking nursing at KTEC.

So with that being said, I'm super excited to share that as we receive new students, we have new student orientation where we meet with our families prior to them enrolling at LMA.

So they will know exactly what the culture is that we expect as the students enroll at LMA.

As you can also note that our communication has been very robust with our Facebook, Instagram, and Parent Square communications.

Our instructional framework at LMA outlines that we continue to follow the division expectations as it relates to class assignments and coursework.

Again, outlining that we have students that take courses at CHS and KTEC.

Student schedules are twofold.

Again, looking at credit recovery for those students that need additional coursework as well as initial credit.

Again, we use Edgenuity.

I would like to just stay there for a second because with our students that are supported through Edgenuity, we celebrate those young people for completing those courses on time and before course completion.

And finally, the LMA staff provides direct instruction, project-based learning opportunities, independent learning opportunities as well.

Our community experiences are great and mighty.

I will first start with our MEMA and our Lighthouse Studio partners that come each Thursday.

The first day that they came, I noticed that our students' faces lit up because of the type of engagement that took place with our MEMA group.

They are a music group where students have the opportunity to develop music and different opportunities around music theory.

Our Lighthouse Studio is a filmmaking project that our students equally are partnered with.

And so they equally come in to talk about filmmaking, technical abilities, and collaboration and communication.

And going back up to our first group, which is our YPAR, which is Youth Participatory Action Research.

This is a partnership with UVA that allows students to deal with social justice principles that they are able to present not only to our LMA staff, but to the board as well.

In our educational compass, LMA is headed in a continuous force of momentum where student experience, personalized learning, and teachers provide instructional content relevant to student understanding and experiences.

We continue to become a campus of academic success, student support, and positive outcomes.

And how do we do that?

We're looking at our compass.

We will continue with division leadership to provide meaningful academic lessons, provide student voice that will be driven by topics of interest and student support success.

Educationally, LMA will continue to capitalize on our workforce program and future partnerships to develop off-campus workforce experiences for our students.

Our motto for this year is that you belong here.

Thank you so much, Mr. Trotter, for presenting.

Exciting.

I'll start with Dom because I have a tendency to forget folks who are virtual.

Dom, would you like to start off?

No comments or questions at the moment.

The only thing I'd like to say is that I had a great opportunity to spend some time on campus and a couple of Fridays ago, I believe, and had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting all the staff, but more than that, the students.

were just so happy and full of joy.

So it was really fun.

I appreciated it and a nice thank you card for my visit.

So thank you for that to everybody.

And I look forward to coming back.

Yes, ma'am, through Cultivate Charlottesville.

So thank you again for the tour.

Well, it sounds wonderful.

And I think you've really brought a lot of great new positive energy to LMA, which I think is terrific.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

And just curious,

Are the students, what is the goal to have students remain there for like the whole year?

Yes, ma'am.

So the goal is for the students at LMA to return back to the comprehensive high school.

Even though it's a smaller setting, we want to get them to return back to the larger setting where they can continuously engage with their peers, although they have the opportunity to participate in sports and of the like.

Yeah, it sounds like that may be happening too.

Yeah.

That it's a real positive place to stay.

Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

I think Mr. Grady wants to stay.

Anyway, yeah, that's basically it.

I'm excited and I look forward to visiting too.

Yes, ma'am.

I would love to do that.

Ms.

Thank you for the presentation.

Yes, and I enjoyed it.

It was very good energy.

Yes, ma'am.

So our maximum capacity that we're currently looking at is about 30 students, and we're knocking on that door.

Okay, thank you.

Ms.

Ms.

McKeever.

Turner.

I don't really know much about Lagomagnes Academy, but seeing your presentation, I can really tell like the passion you have.

And it was really interesting too.

And I'm just really excited for you and the kids at Lagomagnes Academy.

Thank you.

Mr. Trotter, seems like you got it going on.

I'm excited.

And Mr. Bryan, I want to add, he's been very humble, but the attendance rate is the part that he did not mention.

I thought we had talked about this, but the attendance rate has been rather high this school year.

I fail to recognize that we do have two of our young people that's hanging out with us, William Washington and Angel Jackson, who is our senior that we're speaking of.

Thank you.

It does sound like they're going to need a bigger building.

It was on my list and we talked about having to maybe build up there if we're saying that same footprint.

We got trademark in it.

Maybe it's already done.

We don't know.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, school board members, and Dr. Gerling.

As always, I want to take a moment to thank you for your ongoing support and affirmation of our equity work.

This presentation is an overview of the past, present, and future of our equity work.

I would like to begin this evening by providing a high-level overview of the history of our work and why this work continues to be important.

Our first slide provides snapshots of our community's history with race, racism, and systemic inequities.

In the top left corner is a photo of two Black students learning at home after the city decided to shut down schools instead of desegregating them during the massive resistance movement.

The bottom right is a snippet of a news article that speaks of racial unrest and riots in the schools in the 1980s.

The bottom left reflects an image of the Unite the Right protests in August of 2017.

And in 2018, there was an article written in the New York Times about racial inequities found within the school division.

And a photo of that article is in the top right corner.

As a culminating result of these events, particularly the New York Times article, the community, including students at the time, urged the school division to immediately take action by evaluating, improving, and ending practices that were harmful to marginalized groups.

Published on October 16, 2018, almost exactly five years ago, the New York Times article became the impetus to our present day movement toward a more equitable school community.

During this initial phase, the school division and the community held over 15 school-based, student-led, and community events, along with surveys to solicit and provide feedback.

From these conversations, activities and sessions, 32 themes emerged.

From the 32 themes, the community narrowed them down to four key focus areas.

Our four key focus areas became the building blocks for our equity work.

They were equity foundations, diverse, inclusive and rigorous learning experiences, supported and supportive staff, and growing relationships.

Over the course of five years, here are some examples of what we have accomplished.

To establish a solid foundation for our equity work, the school board adopted an equity policy, an anti-racism policy, and most recently a transgender non-binary student support policy.

Initially, the division created school-based equity councils and a division-level equity committee, which was composed of staff, parents, and community members.

The division has also organized multiple ways in which students can provide ideas, thoughts, and concerns to the division and school leadership, including as school board representatives through advisory groups and student-led conversations.

Additionally, we have reassigned the students in the West Haven community to its neighborhood elementary school, and we also now provide division-wide free nutrition and school supplies.

For our diverse, inclusive, and rigorous learning experiences goal, we have an intentional focus on recruiting a more diverse staff.

We redesigned our gifted model, exposed more students to honors level content, and revised the social sciences curriculum to a more inclusive and truthful history.

In our support and supportive staff focus area, the division began providing a higher quality mentoring and support for our new and veteran teachers.

And all teachers now receive a baseline of equity focused professional learning and have the opportunity to delve deeper into division organized equity certificate programming.

The division and individual schools began celebrating and recognizing teachers and students in a more intentional way.

And we've adopted a collective bargaining agreement that elevates teacher voices.

We built our family and community engagement department at the division level, and we've implemented a new communication tool that translates our communications into many different languages.

We've reviewed and revised our discipline processes and procedures, and we overhauled the school safety model with a deeper focus on proactive relationship building at the center of our new model.

Our overall goal has been to move our division beyond decades of good intentions into a new era of positive impact.

And so our work continues.

We began with our four key focus areas, transitioned into our inclusive excellence framework, which we presented to the board last year.

And now the new strategic plan embeds all of that work and provides our action plan for the future of ongoing work for the next five years.

It is designed to hold Charlottesville City Schools accountable for our commitment to our community.

As we transition into the next phase of our equity work, accountability will be essential.

In January 2021, the equity committee at that time began to address the previous superintendent's specific charge of recommending up to 10 data dashboard metrics.

We're taking that information along with the measurements listed in the strategic plan and creating a data dashboard for the division.

Together with our consulting firm, we have created a timeline that will tentatively have our dashboard ready for public viewing at the start of our second semester.

I along with the director of data assessment and communications department will be responsible for annual updates to this resource.

As we continue to finalize the foundation of our equity work as a division, we must continue to establish division-level protocols, streamlining processes, and uphold accountability, as well as continue to embed equity as part of our school system expectations.

Part of doing these three things includes evolving as needed.

With evolution comes innovation, and from that the Office of Strategic Initiatives has emerged.

The Office of Strategic Initiatives, while still under development, will allow us to formally house space for meeting needs, the coordination and implementation of special projects, as well as family community partnerships and engagement.

The Office will also support the implementation of our strategic plans priority areas.

Here are a few examples of streamlining processes under the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

We have been a part of leading the development of the strategic plan and our equity certificate opportunities.

With the awareness that supporting our students is a community effort, we have streamlined our volunteer and donation processes.

Using the example of volunteering specifically, we have created a volunteer handbook and implemented a required registration process and training.

Since its implementation, we have trained well over 140 volunteers, including community members, UVA students, parents, and community partners.

We have also created specific volunteer opportunities, such as supporting our walking buses, our family engagement efforts, and being a member of our Village Keepers program.

Our Village Keepers program is a strong reflection of the community coming together to support our students.

First introduced to the school board in November 2019 as they bring back the Village Initiative, the Village Keepers program is a program that actively recruits and provides spaces for community members to support our students.

We know that sharing experiences, diverse representation, and life wisdom are important in student development.

As Village Keepers, community members are able to volunteer their time in a variety of ways, including mentoring, providing wellness opportunities, and sharing their strengths and skillsets with our student community.

I am the director of community engagement with Freddie Kids.

I'm also a former graduate of Charlottesville High School.

So I'm here today to share with you all about our Stump and Shake mental health initiative and collaboration.

So we will be coming into Charlottesville City Schools in the very near future.

as a way to engage with youth while also discussing mental health topics.

This past summer, we had the privilege to work closely with some of our local youth as a way to get them up and moving and also talking about mental health.

So some of these topics were surrounding your social and emotional skills, leadership skills, and also just how to build your community.

How do you identify the things that bring you joy?

Good evening everyone.

Village Keepers is a prime example, even by definition, that it takes many to support all and it's a shared responsibility to do so.

In the work that I coordinate, family engagement is also a shared responsibility.

between the family, community, and school.

Each participant plays a part in ensuring that our students are served, supported, loved, valued, and evolve into functional adults.

No one participant owns one role or duty more than the other, as we know that anything that we can do alone, we can likely do better together in partnership and collaboration.

You've heard the many ways that our Charlottesville community has come together to provide for each other, and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to the ones I've worked with in this role since 2019 to help us along the way.

Your collaboration has made sure that students and families have access to free and essential items like hygiene and school supplies.

backpacks and coats.

Your collaboration has provided snacks during the school day and for field trips along with meals during break so that our students don't go hungry.

Your collaboration has provided opportunities for our families to learn, to voice their concerns and give feedback.

Your collaboration allows us to meet needs in a way that centers dignity and respect for where people are.

We thank each and every one of you for the opportunity to continue to help support and improve with your feedback.

And so I will just take a little bit of time talking about some of the ways that we share responsibility with stakeholders, including donors, partners, family, students, and community members.

Reciprocity is defined as mutual dependence, action, or influence.

Part of our donor relations is being mindful of how we can support our donors or partners as well.

And this looks like assisting with the planning or coordination of our partners' events.

We also promote and elevate opportunities or events that would be beneficial to our students and families.

You may see us volunteering at these events as well or sharing information about how the community can volunteer just as these partners would do for us.

We're also intentional about including our partners in meetings.

Examples include the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and our View for Eats committee meetings, where we've made decisions such as sharing the load of leading the team, we now have two co-leads to help with that, as well as expanding food pop-ups during sports events at CHS and Walker.

This also looks like refining our processes for food distribution with our folks on the ground in mind.

With their input, we've pre-planned dates for our break distribution, leaving us time to fill in gaps with volunteer support.

Another example is our expansion of EdZone, and that's our hygiene closets for elementary students, which will now include EdZone champions.

EdZone champions are one designated staff from each of our elementary schools who will work with myself and the Chris Long Foundation.

to expand the access of our essential products made available in our buildings.

They'll also share data at staff meetings and with me for inventory purposes and host pop-up style setups at school and community events.

Finally, our staff, family and stakeholder feedback is the most important piece as this helps us center exactly what our students and families are asking for and it helps with our refinement processes we continue to improve and it gives us an opportunity to gain perspectives outside of our own.

And as I normally do to wrap up my time with you all, I leave you with a quote to wrap up our presentation.

People often underestimate the power of collaboration.

If we truly are going to revolutionize education, collaboration will be the heart of that work.

And that's from Leslie Kennard, an educational leader from North Carolina.

And we thank you for your continued support.

Well, thank you, ladies, for your outstanding reports.

And I'll start to my right with Ms.

I just want to say that it was a really great presentation.

I had a lot of information, very thorough.

And I can tell a lot of time was put in it.

Ms.

McKeeven, Ms.

I think my comments are just of gratitude to you and your team and just I'm grateful to be in this role doing this work with this focus.

I think we're surrounded by some communities both nearby and nationally that are running away from these conversations and are falling into a trap of thinking that the pursuit of equity is a zero sum game and that to work towards leveling the playing field that somebody is going to have something taken away.

And so the work that you are doing is tremendous.

I'm grateful for you.

I just want to say yes, it was a lovely presentation and it was good to see all of the things that you all have been doing.

And the biggest thing that came to mind is when you were showing the New York Times article and like, you know, where we started or where I started as a school board member.

And what stood out to me the most about what you all do is that

when COVID happened, when it started, and everyone's like, you can see the cracks in society.

I felt like this school division really came together to take care of people and you will organize like you just pivoted just so beautifully and gracefully and you helped so many people and y'all are still doing all of those things now.

and you know it's like one thing like you know this little piece and that little piece but together they're huge like the we're talking about kids being able to play instruments if they don't have the money or they can't cover fees and then the the free and reduced lunch

I've heard horror stories from people who are like, you got a red ticket when I was in school.

And so now doing the work to make sure kids feel equal.

When my daughter goes to school, I'm like, you got a snack?

You got a snack?

And she's like, calm down.

There's snacks in the classroom.

So I just remember where we started and where we are now.

It's evident that you all really care about people and that it's not like y'all are doing a job.

It seems like a second nature for you guys.

So I appreciate all of the work that you all are doing.

Well, me too.

Yeah, I think we're very fortunate to have such a great team to really grow this work and to make it more than just words.

I mean, there's so much actually happening.

to make this real in people's lives.

And I think that's really awesome.

So I had one question.

And that is about the donors.

When you talk about donors, I'm wondering like, you know, who are the donors that you have in mind?

Yeah.

So our main donors, I would say, are the Chris Long Foundation.

So they give us the support through EdZone.

The Emergency Food Network donates food cards, their time, and then cards so that we can purchase our hygiene items for our secondary students.

We also get community donations.

And so sometimes people just call us and say, I have money to give.

Where does it go?

We just let them know.

And we don't just get money.

I think we get time, we get talents, we get everything that the community has to offer.

We have wonderful partnerships with organizations, but we couldn't pull off a lot of the things that we do without the community support.

For example, when we decided to do our Back to School, our school supply initiative, it was new this year.

And without the community rallying behind that, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off in the way that we did.

United Way gave us a great donation.

But we also, through the community, got all the supplies that we needed to create almost, I think it was over 1,500 backpacks for the school community.

I would say that we are.

I think we are fortunate, a fortunate community to have people being willing to give what they can.

And so we do have everything that we need at this time.

We are in the process of rolling out a snack drive and a co-drive.

So it's that season.

Great.

Ms.

Yeah, you said me too.

I guess I need to say me three to a lot of that.

But I think the pieces that I've enjoyed and been impressed by are just the evolution of the work that you all have done.

As my colleagues have stated, through the years as things changed, as COVID rolled out,

Again, we didn't stop.

I mean, the whole community came together and we did it in different ways and we're continuing to do it, but to watch how that's changed and how you all and everybody kind of re-evaluates what we're doing and how we can do it better.

and so I just appreciate that from both of you and from your team and both of your hearts and as always give us a shout out or give us a shout if you need help because we'll show up.

Thank you all so much for the gratitude and the praise that you all give us.

I want us to make sure that we see ourselves in the work that we've done.

We couldn't have done the work that we have accomplished in the five years without being together.

We have so much more to do, and so that will continue to take a collaborative effort.

And so please continue to see yourself in the things that we've accomplished and the work that we need to continue to do.

Thank you, ladies.

But yes, I too, like Lashundra came on in 2018 at New York Times article.

So we have really put our feet to the grindstone and really perfected our equity vision and making those connections beyond the community, not only with our parents and students and partners in the community,

It's just beginning to continue to grow and develop and evolve.

And you're doing amazing work, and your hard work certainly has not gone unnoticed.

And thank you so much for all that you all do, for our children, teachers, staff.

And we're just proud of all the work you're doing.

Thank you, Mr. Roy.

Bravo.

Bravo.

And again, this is another group who has been very humble because they kind of glazed over it, but they really have evolved this office into the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

And if you look at that graphic,

The center of it is equity.

And so one of the things that we didn't spend a lot of time on, but that village keeper's component, I truly believe that the work of Dr. Johnson and Ms.

Johnson will be an exemplar around our state and our nation.

I do believe that that work, the core of that work is what's going to help to refocus our students.

We talk about getting teachers of color and

So, okay, we don't have them.

So let's, but we have people in the community who can be just as impactful.

And so taking them through this volunteer training and giving them, giving our students the supports they need.

We're looking forward to our students participating in Stomp and Shake, all of those things.

And so, but it's a testament to the work.

And so again, thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board and Dr. Gurley.

I have to say I'm following two tough acts right here.

But I will say the one the one card I have is that the work of developing our strategic or legislative priorities for the year in some ways really operationalizes all the work we've seen in the last couple of presentations.

to help us pave the way, to make life easier for ourselves, to make the changes we want to see for ourselves, and to help school divisions across the country make changes as well.

So tonight is really just a conversation starter.

We will continue this conversation at the work session in October.

This slide just presents a couple of key slides as we head towards that legislative session that starts on the 10th of January.

As you know, we look to other educational organizations to help us develop priorities so we can come alongside them in their work.

The Virginia School Board Association's priorities are published for this year.

And they have that document is linked to this slide here.

You can see the link at the top of that section.

Virginia Association of School Superintendents has

They frame theirs a little differently now.

I think it's like a positions document or something along those lines.

That one I did not see published yet.

And Virginia Education Association often publishes one as well, and I have not seen that one yet.

So we will just keep looking for those and finding points of residence as we move forward.

Our local electeds in the last however many years, their own positions have been very well aligned with these positions as well.

There's no knowing in the future what may happen, but that's been a good alignment in the past.

Previous issues of concern that just examples of things that we or other school divisions have brought forth or that have been active in the General Assembly in the past.

As you know, we have been advocates of the 1% sales tax option for school construction that has not gone through in the last couple of years.

But I think that is a possible continuance for this year.

We have in the past, we've had success clearing up some of the bureaucracy about after school care regulations.

An active subject has been teacher licensure and alternative paths to certification in light of the national teaching shortage.

And as you know, many cultural flashpoints have come up, not only in Virginia, but across the nation as people look to K-12 education.

Upcoming areas of interest and I don't know, I'm happy to see the floor to Miss Torres because I know she attended a conference to to hear some of these presentations.

And I'm not going to read all the words on this slide, but you can see that there's a lot of items on this list that have direct relevance to our schools and our students, our teachers and our staff.

And so we will want to be following these issues as the session goes.

And again, at the work session, if we want to talk about any of these particular issues more closely or as we get closer to the session, we hope to schedule a time to connect with our local electeds after the election.

So we'll have a chance to go deeper on what these things might mean to us.

Across the country people keep saying an off year, but that is not true in Virginia.

So I just want to remind people who may be watching that this is a very big year in Virginia politics.

Every single seat in the General Assembly is up for grabs.

There has been renewed districting lines drawn.

So regardless of our viewers' politics, regardless of their perspective, this is an important way to support our schools.

Let's make your voice heard.

The key deadlines are up ahead, but I just want to make sure that nobody is thinking, oh, it's an off year.

It's an off year.

No, this is the year everybody watches Virginia, because for us it's a very busy year.

So for our next steps, as I say, this presentation is truly just a conversation starter.

You all are welcome to ask questions or have conversation among yourselves if you want.

But we just wanted to kind of set the table for the things you might start listening for and looking for in the weeks to come, especially as some of these other position papers are published or as we gain greater clarity about how some of these issues might be shaping up in the General Assembly.

If you all have specific suggestions that you'd like me to look into or questions about specific items that you'd like me to research or find answers for before the work session, I hope you'll send me an email.

That will be the chance.

The work session is the chance to really have a more deep conversation on these issues.

And then we will find time to connect with our local electeds after the election when they've hopefully caught up on their sleep a little bit.

And that might, is that the last slide?

I believe that is the last slide.

Okay.

All right.

And I do want to publicly thank Ms.

Chuck for the one million hats she wears, team of two.

So I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Our next presentation is none other than 10.4, our accreditation update, Ms.

All right.

So good evening, Chairman Bryant, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley.

Virginia public schools receive annual state accreditation ratings based on performance through combined achievement rates.

And there are also federal reporting based on unadjusted pass rates in English, math and science, as well as other measures of quality and performance.

And tonight's presentation will focus on the state's accreditation system and how our schools performed on overall student achievement, achievement gaps and student engagement.

First, I'd like to start with the alignment to our new strategic plan.

Student achievement aligns with the priority one, which focuses on increasing academic achievement with these three goals in mind.

And here are the targets and measures that we have set for school accountability and accreditation.

And I would like to highlight target 11, which you will see that six of our schools did meet that target this past year.

So like the state, we continue to feel the impacts of the pandemic and do not see the progress our students deserve on the Virginia Standards of Learning tests.

But even so, we see some causes for celebration.

CHS's data is particularly strong with 93% in English, well above the state's benchmark of 75%, and 83% in math, again, well above the 70% benchmark.

CHS also continued to report high rates for on-time graduation and completion rates.

The on-time rate stayed at a high of 93%, slightly higher than the state average and a very high rate among other cities.

The graduation and completion index rose about three points to 93.7%.

All of our elementary schools combined achievement rates exceeded the state benchmarks in reading and most exceeded state benchmarks in math.

Two of our elementary schools, Burnley-Maran and Jackson-Vaya, have emerged from periods of academic review and state monitoring due to improvements and gains in student achievement.

A number of the division student groups showed small but needed gains in the unadjusted pass rates.

For instance, our Black students were up 5% in reading and 9% in math, and our students with disabilities were up 6% in reading and 8% in math.

But alongside these gains, our overall unadjusted pass rates, which do not include growth, showed only modest improvements and continued to trail state averages.

For instance, the division's overall pass rate for English was 65% compared to the state's average of 73%.

When this data is broken out into student groups, we find continued troubling disparities.

Charlottesville's white students surpassed the pass rates of white students statewide with a local pass rate of 88%.

But for other groups in our schools, the pass rates were lower than comparable state averages.

Additionally, the division's overall math pass rate was 60% compared to the state's average of 69%.

Again, breaking the data into groups shows similarly wide disparities among demographic groups.

And these disparities in our middle grades five through eight are a particular source of concern reflected in the accredited with condition status at Walker Upper Elementary and Buford Middle School and Clark Elementary School also shares that status.

The average chronic absenteeism rates have nearly doubled across the Commonwealth.

Our rates have risen significantly since the pandemic, particularly at Clark, Walker, and Buford.

And the data show what we already know, that if students are late or absent, they are not learning to their full potential.

And during the 22-23 school year, chronically absent students in the state of Virginia were behind their peers by 18% in reading and 25% in math.

The state accountability system is based on the requirements included in the standards of accreditation that measure student performance on multiple school quality indicators.

The school quality indicators provide information on overall student achievement, achievement gaps, and student engagement.

The 23-24 accreditation results are based on the data from the 22-23 school year and compared to the previous year data from the 21-22 school year.

It is important to note that the final performance rating is based on the current year unless the cumulative three-year rate is more favorable.

Performance on each school quality indicator is rated at one of three performance levels.

So level one, the performance meets or exceeds the state standards for the indicator or making adequate progress.

Level two, the performance is near the standard or making sufficient progress.

And level three, performance is below standard.

Under the SOA or standards of accreditation, schools earn one of the following three ratings accredited, accredited with conditions or accreditation denied.

All of our schools are accredited for this school year.

However, three of our schools are accredited with conditions, which means schools with one or more school quality indicators at a level three.

Schools with level two indicators for all students in English, math, or science, and schools with any level three for any indicator will undergo academic review.

For state and federal requirements, regardless of performance level, all schools must develop and implement an improvement plan that provides a roadmap that sets out the changes a school needs to make to improve the level of student achievement and shows how and when these changes will be made.

Schools identify the necessary targeted work that needs to occur and organize the strategies and resources required to support that work.

And division leadership will monitor these plans for implementation and impact throughout the school year, including our scheduled school success meetings.

So elementary and middle schools are evaluated on the overall pass rates and growth in English and math and the overall pass rates in science in grades five and eight.

The high school is evaluated on the overall pass rates in English math and science, but these rates do not include year to year growth, but does include English learners who made progress towards English proficiency.

So here's a breakdown of the performance levels for academic achievement and how a school's final performance level is determined.

For English and math in grades three through eight, the combined achievement rate includes students who pass the SOL tests and students who did not pass but demonstrated significant growth meeting or exceeding progress benchmarks, including the English learners that made progress towards English proficiency.

The state benchmark for level one performance rating in reading is 75% and 70% in math.

One thing to note that last year, student growth was only calculated from spring to spring, which was different than the 21-22 school year that also calculated growth from the 21 fall growth assessment as well as spring to spring.

And for the achievement gaps or the student groups in reading and math, a school will remain at a level one if no more than one student group is at a level two.

Performance levels for student engagement include the graduation and completion index, which is based on the performance for the most recently graduating cohort of students or on a three-year average.

It also includes a high school four-year cohort dropout rate, chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year, regardless of reason, rates less than 15% will receive a level one rating, and the College Career and Civic Readiness Index, which measures the extent to which students successfully complete advanced coursework, CTE coursework and credentialing, and work-based service learning.

Schools can meet level one or level two performance ratings by also demonstrating adequate improvement, which is accomplished by reducing the failure rate by at least 10% from the previous year, as designated as R10.

Alright, so first we'll start with the three year comparison at Burnley Moran Elementary School.

Overall, Burley Moran continues to exceed state benchmarks as they have maintained their reading and math achievement rates and continue to outperform pre-pandemic rates.

32 students or 12% of their student body had chronic absenteeism.

And since their rate is less than 15%, they meet level one standard.

So when we look at the achievement breakdown, student groups with the less than symbol means the group size is less than 10 students and the numbers will not be publicly reported to protect student privacy.

So we will only show the overall rate.

The column for total tests taken includes recoveries that are counted twice, twice in the numerator and the denominator.

And recovery means that a student did not pass the previous school year, but they received remediation and then passed the following year.

So therefore, to get that combined rate, it's the sum of the four columns, the passing, recovery, growth, and L progress divided by total tests.

So now, Burley Moran is rated level one for overall performance in English and math.

And I would like to announce that Burley Moran improved from a level three to level two for the achievement gap in English, increasing the achievement of Black and Hispanic student groups.

And therefore, they will not have to undergo academic review this year.

The English achievement gap is level two because the economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities group did not meet the state benchmark.

Student groups such as the Asian and multiple races did not meet the benchmark but remain level one based on the three year average.

The math achievement gap is level two, as the black student group and students with disabilities group did not meet the state benchmark.

However, the black student group did improve from level three to level two this past year by reducing the failure rate more than 10%.

Next, we have Clark Elementary School.

Clark's English rate continues to exceed the state benchmark.

However, there was a decrease in math compared to previous years.

They did reduce the failure rate by more than 10%, which keeps the overall math performance rate at a level one.

84 students or 30% of their student body had chronic absenteeism this past year.

And since this rate is greater than 25%, it is at a level three.

Clark Elementary School is rated level one for overall academic performance in both English and math.

However, Clark is accredited with conditions due to the level three performance for the achievement gaps in English and math, and will undergo academic review this year.

While we do see some improvements for a few student groups, Clark is rated level three for the achievement gap in English as black student group and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark.

Economically disadvantaged student group did improve from a level two to a level one performing above the state benchmark.

In math, the overall performance is level one because of the reduction of the failure rate.

And they had 12 more students pass this past spring than they did in 2022.

The math achievement gap is rated level three since the black student group, multiple races and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark.

The economically disadvantaged student group did not meet the state benchmark, but they did reduce the failure rate, bringing it to level two status.

Clark School Improvement Plan identifies these areas of concern and outlines specific action steps to address them.

And a few of those examples include ensuring equitable student participation by increasing the amount of relevant student reading, writing, and discourse during instruction that follows the science of reading research.

Increasing the explicitness of math instruction and using proven instructional strategies to build conceptual understanding.

Providing professional learning opportunities from the Virginia Assessment for Literacy updated and expanded series and coaching support to assist teachers with implementing reasoning routines and math to help students with problem solving.

Clark also has a goal to reduce chronic absenteeism by implementing a proactive tiered support system that connects school staff with students and families to provide personalized early outreach

and success plans to increase student attendance.

So in the past, Clark has been routinely with accreditation, has had issues with accreditation.

So they've often been with conditions.

So as I recall,

just giant notebooks full of lesson plans.

So do we look back on what we did correctly in the past to get to a point where we succeeded in the past?

I mean, you just spouted off a lot of different ways that you guys are looking to correct, course correct.

Yes, so a lot of these action steps were suggestions from the state.

So when we did the academic review with the state, this was a lot of the feedback from our division team and the state.

So when they had their level three monitoring meeting in the spring, this was a lot of feedback that they've now incorporated into their plan.

So we do look back and kind of do that, bring in some of that feedback and that course correction to make sure that

Yeah.

So it was a it was a combination of our division team that met with Clark and also feedback because they had to present to the state with the division team.

And a little and just the one little caveat to that, too, is that

The accreditation system when Clark came out the last time, the accreditation system is completely different now.

So many of the indicators, so many of the high level indicators are

where we were or better.

What's pulling us down now with the condition part is that when the accreditation system changed, it's these if two or more subgroups, then you go yellow.

So I think that that's what's changed a little bit.

So a part of it is

Unfortunately, I guess it's kind of that cliche of comparing apples and oranges in terms of the systems because the accreditation systems have completely changed.

I mean, in addition to administrators, but this system is many of the numbers are higher than they were.

But it's some of that low level one or more get you yellow to level three, those types of things.

Does that make sense?

So next is Greenbrier Elementary School.

Greenbrier continues to surpass state benchmarks, even though there was a slight decrease in both English and math.

26 students or 9% of their student body had chronic absenteeism.

Greenbrier Elementary School is rated level one for all the school quality indicators.

Almost all student groups met or exceeded the state benchmark in both reading and math, except students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark in reading.

The math achievement gap is level one since all student groups met or exceeded the state benchmark, and the black student group is also level one as the failure rate decreased by more than 10% from the previous year.

10% or more.

Yes.

So overall, Jackson-Biah exceeds state benchmarks as they have increased their math achievement rates and continues to outperform pre-pandemic rates.

51 students or 16% of their student body had chronic absenteeism and is rated level two as it's above the 15% benchmark.

I would like to announce that Jackson-Vaya is rated level one for all of their school quality indicators.

The reading and math achievement gap groups have both improved from level two to level one.

And because of this improvement, they will not have to undergo level two state monitoring.

Almost all student groups met or exceeded the state benchmark in both reading and math.

However, the black student group did not meet the benchmark for reading, but they did reduce the failure rate by more than 10%.

Students with disabilities improve from level three to level one, exceeding the state benchmark in both reading and math.

Next, Johnson Elementary School.

Johnson continues to exceed state benchmarks and pre-pandemic rates, even though they did have a slight decrease in English and math.

50 students or about 18% of their student body had chronic absenteeism and is rated level two.

Johnson Elementary School is rated level one for overall academic performance in both reading and math.

All student groups met or exceeded the state benchmark in reading.

Students with disabilities is level one due to the reduction of the failure rate, the R10, and economically disadvantaged group did improve from level two to level one, meeting the state benchmark.

The math achievement gap is level two as the black student group and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark.

Economically disadvantaged group is rated level one because of the reduction of the failure rate.

Venable also continues to exceed the state benchmarks for both reading and math with significant gains in math.

43 students or 15% of their student body had chronic absenteeism and is rated level two since it's slightly over 15%.

Venable is rated level one for overall performance in reading and math.

The English achievement gap is level two as the Black student group and economically disadvantaged group did not meet the state benchmark.

Students with disabilities did improve from level three to level one, exceeding the state benchmark for reading.

And all student groups met or exceeded the state benchmark in math and maintained level one status.

All right, now let's look at Walker Upper Elementary School.

We see decreases in both English and math as compared to previous years.

However, science did increase from the previous year by reducing the failure rate more than 10%.

154 students or 25% of their student body had chronic absenteeism and is rated level three.

Walker is rated level one for overall performance in English and math.

However, Walker is accredited with conditions due to level three performance for achievement gaps in English and math and overall performance in science is rated level two.

Therefore, they will undergo academic review this year.

The English achievement gap is level three as the black student group and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark.

The math achievement gap is level three because the black student group economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark.

Walker school improvement plan identifies these areas of concern and outline specific action steps to address them.

A few examples include ensuring that all students are interacting with grade level texts and having their individualized needs met through differentiated skill groups and intervention groups.

Grade five math will focus on the implementation of investigations to improve the teaching and learning of elementary math.

PLCs will meet weekly to analyze student data and create tiered supports based on student need.

They will utilize the reading and math specialist as well as the gifted resource teacher to provide push in tier one support.

Teachers will engage in year long professional learning with Dr. Shawn Woodley on culturally relevant teaching and specific content related PL such as learning how to scaffold complex texts.

Walker staff is also committed to addressing attendance concerns through a tiered approach that begins with family engagement, establishing positive relationships, and educating students and families about the importance of attendance for achievement.

Walker's attendance team will monitor the data and use it to organize their attendance improvement strategies and ensure chronically absent students receive support.

Here's Buford Middle School's three year comparison.

Buford had a slight increase in English, including the reduction of the failure rate, but they did have a decrease in both math and science when compared to previous years.

208 students or 36% of their student body had chronic absenteeism and is rated level three since it's above 25%.

Buford's overall achievement in English and math are rated level one.

The English combined rate also includes the grade eight writing SOL, which impacts the overall performance rate.

However, the reduction of the failure rate in reading improved the overall English rate from level two to level one.

The black student group Hispanic economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities did not meet the reading state benchmark and therefore remain at a level three for the English achievement gap.

Buford did improve from level two to level or excuse me from level three to level two for the economically disadvantaged and Hispanic student groups by reducing the failure rate.

The math achievement gap is level three as the black student group economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark.

Buford did improve from a level three to a level two for the black student group and economically disadvantaged student group by reducing the failure rate.

Overall performance in science did not meet the state benchmark and is rated level three.

Buford school improvement plan identifies specific student groups and action steps that they will take to address these gaps.

And some examples include utilizing the wind period or what I need time each day to extend learning opportunities for students to work with teachers for targeted remediation or enrichment of specific concepts and skills.

Reading and math specialists will provide tier three intervention as well as push and support during tier one instruction.

The English department will participate in professional learning with Dr. Christy Dubay to learn how to accelerate the reading achievement of every student through a focus on high quality differentiated tier one instruction.

The math department is working with consultant Skip Tyler to help teachers differentiate instruction and build thinking classrooms, as well as target specific standards and skills students need to be successful in higher level math courses.

and all staff will engage in culturally relevant teaching sessions with Dr. Shawn Woodley.

Buford has also formed an attendance team that meets weekly to discuss students who might be at risk and provide individualized support such as attendance contracts or home visits.

They also have a plan in place to make sure that all attendance procedures and protocols are being followed to ensure there is an accurate account of daily attendance.

And last we have Charlottesville High School.

The high school's overall performance in English, math and science continue to exceed state benchmarks.

248 students or about 19% of the student body had chronic absenteeism and is rated level two since it's above 15%.

CHS is rated level one for all school quality indicators except the math achievement gap.

The black student group and students with disabilities did not meet the state benchmark in math.

However, both groups did show improvement.

Students with disabilities had significant gains from the previous year as noted by R10 and all other student groups met or exceeded the state benchmark.

And science overall achievement is rated level one.

CHS continues to report high rates on the on-time graduation and completion rates, which rose about three points to 93.7% surpassing the state benchmark.

Great job CHS.

Additionally, for the graduating cohort, the College Career and Civic Readiness Index measured student preparation for college and careers while in high school.

Credit is given for advanced coursework such as AP and dual enrollment courses, CTE courses and credentials, as well as work-based and service learning.

The 2023 cohort had an index of 76%, which meets level two performance.

To meet level one performance, the state benchmark is 85%.

And Megan Fitzgerald will share more information when she presents on the CTE plan later this year.

So while we do see a lot of gains, including many of our student groups, we know we still have a lot of work to do.

And we are committed to improvement, even where we are already exceeding state benchmarks or averages.

Some recent or new examples of supports that we have added in our schools include a new secondary literacy specialist position supporting grades six through 12.

We are currently in the planning stages with All in Virginia, taking advantage of state funding to provide staffing and resources for tutoring and attendance.

We also have a robust professional learning plan this year to build the instructional capacity of our teachers and leaders through meaningful, relevant, and personalized professional learning.

And just to name a few of these opportunities, as mentioned earlier, Dr. Shawn Woodley is doing year-long work at Walker and Buford to focus on culturally relevant teaching,

We have SIOP training for instructional coaches to support teachers in addressing the academic needs of English learners, but these practices and strategies also benefit all learners.

And there are various sessions throughout the year to support teachers with differentiation and student engagement.

But more comprehensively, with the launch of our five-year strategic plan, we have built an action plan to move us forward, not to the old normal before the pandemic, but to a new normal of academic and personal growth for every student.

We are taking the necessary supportive actions to help us reach our goals so that we can become a community where everyone can achieve their full potential and lead to the elimination of the achievement and opportunity gaps.

The new strategic plan's goals and targets were not only designed to hold us accountable for student outcomes, but to also hold us to our vision that CCS will be a community of hope,

Growth and Learning, where barriers are eliminated and possibilities are limitless.

And finally, if anyone is interested in learning more about a school's profile, here is the link to the Virginia School Quality Profiles page, which provides information about student achievement, college career readiness, program completion, school safety, teacher quality, and other topics of interest to families and the community.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Powell,

detailed and extensive report.

Thank you.

Yes, just very quickly, I guess more so, maybe not a question, more of a comment.

Just please let the board know anything that we can do in regards to supporting solving the chronic absenteeism.

I know that it certainly affects their academic performance.

But in addition to that, we can't say that we're serving all students if we don't have students there on a regular basis.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm sure that that data point has caught all of our attention here.

Any sense of, I mean, it kind of makes sense that maybe you would see a higher absentee rate, you know, in the 2021 or even 2022, 2023 year, but I would kind of expect it to be going down, you know, and as we all saw, most of these schools, the trend was up.

I think you see it in so many sectors.

I think there's some behaviors that were learned that need to be unlearned, but I think when we

talk about what employers say they are seeing.

I watched the recent Board of Ed meeting and employers are reporting that employees aren't coming to work across the country.

And so attendance is bad even in the private sector.

So I think you just see people who have learned some really bad behaviors and it just needs to be unlearned.

And

I know we're going to have an attendance campaign that will be coming out of our strategic initiatives office and so we're going to work to meet people and I would even say to Miss McKeever, I think Miss McKeever may have said it, but even areas where you see students who have buses

I think that some of the frustration that some of our community members have, you know, we see buses that are empty and are going to spaces where students really need the buses.

And so it's about helping people to understand the importance of being at school, being at school on time and being here every day.

I don't know if that was a silly question on my part.

I'm not sure what your face was.

Your look there was Ms.

McKeever.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's, yes, I mean, I think we're all hearing that data as far as the work sector, you know, with adults and the trends of, you know, being at home working from home.

But I can't help but think about, you know, how we, most of us here on the board, you know, worked through COVID and, you know, people wanted their kids back in school, right?

I mean, there was also that perspective of like,

We need our kids in school in the building so that we can go back to work and then we've seen this drop.

I was just curious.

And I also think too, Ms.

Torres, that the other part is that we're talking about a day, a month, I mean,

On the surface, it may look like the student is coming to school and coming to school frequently, but if the student is missing one day a month, or let's just say two days, I missed one at the beginning and one at the end, it looks like on the surface that the student is not missing a lot of time, but over the course of the school year, that student has missed 20 days, 20 very important days.

And so that's also what lends itself to that chronic absenteeism because we hear that from parents.

You know, it was just two days, you know, one day at the beginning, one day at the end.

But that makes that chronic absenteeism.

You've already hit that threshold when you hit that day a month.

So you have when you have students who are missing two days and people don't think anything is wrong with it.

And it's about it's about a whole lot of things about engagement.

It's about there's a whole lot of things that that contribute to that.

Well, it's not hard to do.

No, I look forward to hearing the marketing campaign or the, you know, the attendance campaign.

And yes, as Mr. Moore said, anything we can do to support that.

A quick question.

Also, just kids who are in the buildings, but not attending certain classes.

You know, like ever, you know, from the beginning of the school year and not showing up in certain courses.

I mean, I think that, you know, we're seeing that reflected in this as well, although it may not be captured in absenteeism, right?

I mean, if you're missing just one course a day, not showing up, walking the halls in the library.

because you don't want to go to a certain course.

It's for that, like if they're absent the day.

and then the other just question I had was I love this and I loved the presentation last year.

I mean, I really appreciate it and the time that you spend going through it.

I was wondering though, if somewhere, and there's a lot of, you know, not much room to add one more column in that, but if you could add or even just put it somewhere with the state benchmark is for the certain achievement gaps, did I miss that?

Oh, so like for reading?

Oh, great.

Yeah.

Well, and I know it was, was a lot of information.

But yeah, for English, it's just an overall 75%.

And then math 70.

So in the beginning when Yeah, but I can I can add that somewhere in the scrolling back and forth.

To see what the average was.

But otherwise, make it more clear.

Thank you.

I first of all appreciate the presentation.

I mean, there's a lot of a lot of numbers and a lot of information, but I really appreciate how you put it together.

And, you know, I think it's as clear as it could be.

And, you know, I feel like we

We know where we are.

And I mean, I feel like our team is on top of this.

Not everything is where we want it to be.

But I feel like we have our eyes on the prize here, and we're on top of it.

I, of course, also was just very struck by the absenteeism.

And I wondered about two things.

The differences amongst the schools, that was curious to me, there are some pretty drastic differences.

And I don't know if we have a sense of why that might be even like amongst the elementary schools, there are quite a few differences.

And then certainly, by the time you get to Beaufort, like 36%.

You know, and then it goes down again at the high school.

So I don't know if there's

Well, and I can say part of Clark and Buford, there were some not following some of the attendance procedures and protocols.

And so the reporting out of the accurate daily attendance.

So that is something that they now with these attendance teams that they have in place.

I mean, a small percentage of that.

Just not capturing so when a student is late but comes to school, making sure they go back and mark that student present.

So there were times where there were some that that was not happening.

We've also had quite an increase in our ELL students, families, and I'm wondering if there's any impact there.

That would be useful to know because they might need different kinds of interventions.

Exactly.

But that's it, thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

I don't know if this is just, I always say this word wrong, anecdotal, but I just feel like kids have been through

a lot.

And it's hard being a kid.

And then when you look at like the elementary schools and you go to Walker and Beaufort, it gets, I don't know, we spent like two or three years during COVID.

Like if you're sick, if you have sniffles, you think you might be sick, you should stay home.

So now my kid is like, I wasn't feeling well yesterday.

I don't, I don't, do we need to monitor?

So there's that.

And I think there's just a lot of like social anxiety and things like that.

And

It's hard going from elementary school to the upper elementary school with the, how the classes are, you know, like, it's just, I found personally my students, it's a lot to take in at one time, especially after like they've run the gamut of like that COVID end of the year where it was like, you know, you log on for a few hours.

and then transitioning back.

And so I think that it's a lot and just simple things that I don't know.

I mean, I think about like, you know, when you go to Walker or Buford, it's a much bigger student population.

You might not be with friends.

You have to adjust to several teachers, but I think it's hard.

I think it's just hard being a kid.

I personally feel like it's a battle every day to like, let's please, can we get out the door to go to school?

So it's, I feel like

When I talk to people, it's like it's a struggle for a lot of kids.

But that was just my little anecdotal thing.

The other question or comment concern was when we're talking about the schools and being on like with conditions and things like that.

Was there ever a time when all of the schools had their accreditation?

Well, the accountability system has definitely changed in the past 10 years.

But there were times and also when the SOLs were very different to that there there were times I think it was right before the pandemic, Clark was accredited.

And then had we

In 2020, taking the SOLs, I mean, we had all the data in front of us.

They would have been accredited and Buford the same.

And so I think just, I mean, I don't want to say it's because of the test, but there are a lot of factors I think at play.

And then of course, since the pandemic, you know, those gaps that were there have now just been exacerbated.

And then I know you were saying develop plans and things like that.

I remember when we were here last year, and it just always stands out to me, the performance for black students, performance for students with disabilities.

And it's not necessarily you can answer it, but it just I

would want to know about the targeted things for those specific groups that are across the board.

Whichever, you know, no matter what the school, you can be in like a school that gets a one, but those numbers, when you showed like breaking it out by the different groups, just by the last three years, that it's always

I don't know how to pinpoint it, but it just feels like we were talking about that New York Times article before, and that was what we were talking about then.

It's like when you're looking at it, okay, let's look at economic disadvantage.

Let's pull out the... It can vary, but it seems like

being a black student or being a disabled student, no matter where you are, that there's just, you're not getting what you need.

You're asking a question.

Yes, thank you.

There's a lot to unpack here.

Some of this is great.

Some of it is definitely concerning.

I don't think I am alone in

like my overall sentiments towards standard of learning tests generally.

So I don't want to lose sight of that as we dig into this data.

At some point, I would love to see more information on our students on nationally normed assessments as opposed to the SOLs, just to have a better picture of where they are.

I think all of that said, I don't know, like as we're diving into this in academic review, I've been through that.

I know it's not fun to have

It doesn't feel good.

It doesn't feel like you're being honored and treated as a professional.

But the data is clear, like whether it's the SOLs or not, we are not serving all of our students.

fully.

And so I think you know this coming on the heels of our equity presentation feels very timely.

And so I don't know like as we're working with teachers through reviewing this data and professional development to not get caught in the weeds of hating on the state and SOLs and like keeping the main thing the main thing about

The first two weeks of school took the fall map assessment and then we're wrapping up the fall growth assessment which it's not a pass or fail, you get a vertical scaled score and it's based on the previous year's content and so that will even provide more information on top of the map data.

And I know I said this before, but the cohort data, to be able to see the kids year over year, I recognize that you could not add one more element to this data that was presented tonight.

I appreciate that.

But really being able to see how students are improving from year to year as opposed to third grade this year to third grade next year, that is a data point.

But to be able to see third, fourth, et cetera.

Ms.

Thank you again, Ms.

Swift.

We're calling you all sorts of things today.

I'm not the only one.

Pretty soon we'll be like, Dr. Cole.

So thank you for that.

I appreciate it.

And so there will be more in-depth in the work session.

Yep, we're going to do cohort dance.

Okay, so that I think is really critical.

Again, I think the culture of the schools are really important in this absentee data, and I cannot emphasize enough that this, I think, reflects pretty accurately what I suspect is

happening at the school level for, you know, you can just tell where the kids want to be and why.

So I also wondered how much of our like redistricting or whatever happened to what we did with Burnley Moran.

and Venable had anything to do with some of the numbers changing at Burnley Moran and Venable.

Like, I just wonder, because again, we're not following cohorts.

This is just very broad data.

And I feel like I would like us to be just very, just honor and respect that these numbers are changing.

I don't know, maybe they're doing some magic somewhere and that's great.

But I also just think it's very important to be respectful of that change that we made.

and then Jackson Viya like just crushing it.

I mean that is amazing and I don't know what the changes are there demographically and I just think they keep getting more kids and that's amazing and I don't see those children that they are receiving

as anything but incredibly needy.

So like it's just an incredible amount of English language learners coming into their community, among other things.

So economically disadvantaged.

So I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.

that has been, so I'm just three cheers for Jackson-Baya.

I mean, there's a lot of good news in this report as well.

I just always, I think the larger dynamics at play can be hidden by the data.

And I just wanted to also just acknowledge that there's things in that data that

We should also make sure we're mentioning as somebody is leaving the board.

I just want somebody to always acknowledge that like we obviously have a bus issue.

So yes, absenteeism might be a problem for some kids.

Although man, seeing those crossing guards everywhere around town as I'm driving my child to school is so nice.

There's just a lot of good things happening and I see the parents with the kids walking and it's really lovely.

Ms.

First, I want to say an amazing presentation.

Thank you so much.

I'm really happy to see that my former elementary school, Venable, as a Venable All-Star, I'm really happy to see that the data looks really good.

And although I think I am like the youngest one in the room, elementary school is like, you know, just like learning is really important to me because that sets the foundation for other learning in like the levels moving up and things like that.

I actually did have one question, and the board members can also chime in on this too, but besides the pandemic and COVID and bus issues and things of that nature, what do you think contributes to kids not going to class and not showing up to school?

Why they're not showing up?

I mean, I think there's many factors that were mentioned before, whether it's just anxiety or transportation.

Also, I think the pandemic, although we're seeing the rates decrease from that, which we would think we would see an increase,

I think these are some unfortunately learned bad habits, but also, you know, especially more in the younger grades.

You know, students aren't driving themselves to school.

I think it would also be good.

I mean, I appreciate that question, Ms.

Turner.

And being a CHS student, I would love, I think the board would also love to hear from you.

Like, what do you hear are the reasons why maybe a student is not engaged in school or why a student may be in the building but not be in class?

From what I have seen, I feel like sometimes it can be

the teachers, just depending on who you have.

Sometimes it can also just be just no motivation and not having the drive to go to class.

And my seventh grade year was virtual.

And I understand the feeling of not really wanting to go to school because there's just no drive behind it anymore for me.

Being virtual, I was out of an in-school setting.

and it was something very different for me and I work better in environments with a lot of people.

Yeah, I just mostly feel like there's just knowledge and really care about their education anymore in a sense.

It's just kind of like, you know, I'm going to school and that's it.

That's what mostly what I've been seeing.

Thank you, Ms.

Turner and board members.

I'm not going to

and a lot more because I concur with a lot of what you said.

But I just I just want to say that we have to continue to encourage our students to come to school because there is a direct correlation between being in school and being successful academically.

And if you're not in school, engaged in learning, it takes a long time to catch up.

So students just come to school and

while you're here continuously engage throughout the day with all of your teachers because that is going to reflect life after high school if these habits don't turn around in terms of attending school on a daily.

That's critically important.

Thank you.

Ms.

Swift for your report.

Thank you, Ms.

Swift.

And she works.

She's another one of our worker bees.

I appreciate you.

Lastly, we will have 10.5, the middle school project update with our chief academic officer, Ms.

We are a team and we all work together.

And in fairness, Dr. Odey did cover my agenda items last month, or at least some of them.

Good evening, Chairman Bryant and members of the board and Dr. Gurley.

I'm happy to be your last agenda item this evening.

I have some exciting updates from the middle school project.

So this first image just shows the work continues on the geothermal wells.

And I know that's not exciting, but that is a lot of work.

It's going to continue through November, putting that infrastructure in place that's going to be under the new basketball courts in the field.

and there's a lot of lay down and big items that are staged on the campus.

You see the large pipes and conduits and it's a lot of stuff that's going in the ground.

A lot of dirt continuing to move.

The last image in the bottom right corner.

In the September update, we showed where the breezeway was, you know, pulled out that was connecting the gym and now all of the concrete including where the stairs used to be to go down to the office, all that has been removed.

This next photo shows, of course, all of that removal, taking all the sidewalks out that generates quite a bit of rubble that has to be removed from the site.

There's still those large tree sumps and stuff that have been removed.

All the trees are gone now in that bowl area.

And then the bottom right photo here, where you see the

The draping or curtain, if you will, around the gym building that leads to our next item, which was big for the month of September, and that was asbestos abatement.

The entire gym building was curtained and all of all the asbestos was removed before, drum roll,

This past weekend, and it was truly over the course of a weekend, the gym building was leveled.

The gym is down.

And I do want to commend our partners in this project, Nielsen Construction and their subs.

I thought it was very thoughtful that they accomplished that over a weekend.

So of course it takes a little more than two days to do that and get all the debris out, but I thought it was great that they accomplished what they did over a Saturday and Sunday.

So that's really exciting and we just wanted people to see that view from the camera.

Last but not least, some work that is in progress now that just started really this week is we had staged items behind the B building, behind the auditorium building for the temporary

Garden location.

And there's some small equipment there now actually taking the next steps to carve out the actual garden area.

There's fencing that's going to go up there.

And that process is moving forward.

So, in conclusion, just a friendly reminder for everyone, we are in phase one.

Students are continuing to learn in the old buildings while the construction happens.

Where the old gym went down, a large new multi-story building is going up.

And of course, right now, we do not have athletic fields or the gym.

We are so grateful to the Boys and Girls Club for their partnership, allowing us to use their gym during this time.

That partnership existed before, but we're leaning into it even more right now.

And when we get to the summer of 2025, the seventh and eighth graders will move into the new building for their learning spaces, which will include the new gym.

And during that last phase, that second phase, all of the A building and the B building, the auditorium building, all of that gets renovated.

to complete our project by summer of 2026.

We are on schedule and everything is just moving along.

Okay, I'll start with Dom.

Mr. Morris?

Ms.

Torres, Dr. Kraft, Ms.

Musburger, Ms.

Dooley, Ms.

McIver, Ms.

Turner.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Powell.

Our next item on the agenda is number 11, board response to written reports and the school board member committee reports and Dr. Odie's Buford Lab school update has been so duly submitted and so duly noted.

Next item are comments from members of the community.

And I guess I'll start with the Zoom room.

If there's anyone in the Zoom room, please raise your hand.

State your name and your address, and you have three minutes to comment.

Do we have anybody in the Zoom room?

Do we have anybody present here in the room who would like to speak at this time?

Thank you.

Now we will have comments from the board.

I will just talk about just some positives and negatives I heard from my peers at my school today.

So today I went around in some of my classes and asked for some positives and negatives and even seeing women at CHS.

So starting off with the positives, we have school clubs, which I can attest to a lot of school clubs are getting started and I'm really happy to see a lot of my friends and a lot of the students, you know, have fun and stuff like that.

And next up is sports.

I can say that a lot of our sports teams have been doing really well.

I'm really proud of our sports teams and especially for beaming the marching band and stuff like that.

Cavalcade is this weekend, so I'm really excited about that.

And I know that our, I know we're not getting score, but I know that we're going to do great regardless.

The last thing I have for proposals is activities.

So stuff like homecoming, which that just happened.

And I will say it was really fun.

I can say that I have seen that and stuff like that.

being more connected and seems really happy.

And I'm glad to see that.

So for the negatives, just in CHS, some of the environment and things that go on in the hallways, sometimes the environment at the school isn't the best.

But a school is a school, so not every day is going to be a good day.

Another negative that my peers are talking about is some of the adult figures in the building.

I've never had any negative interactions with any of them, but I have heard stories from some of my friends about certain things that have been going on with that.

That was something.

Another, the next one, this is just like kind of like a more school thing, but the lunches are short, which I can attest to, and the micros do get like really crowded, but that's more like an in school thing.

Another more kind of in school thing, BKT, Black Night Time, birthday mints, we can't leave our BKTs.

That's more of a, like a really like CHS thing, but I,

I understand what my peers are saying because there are some times where I need to go to a place like a beauty and then I can't and I have to figure out something else.

Another one that a lot of my peers were talking about, the no-phone rule, especially at lunch, and I know I can't really say much about the no-phone rule because it's already set in stone.

but I will say as a student and as someone who frequently sometimes needs to text my mom because I have after school lessons and she knows I have like guard practice and stuff like that and um just other people about you know my like you know as a case of marching band I've sometimes found it hard to find the time to text my mom and my dad or to call my parents when I need something from them or when I need to let

You know, know something without saying off and away all day.

So next one is more diverse classes.

And when I was talking to my friend, you told us to me more like CTE classes, what she was saying and stuff like that.

The next one was more help.

outside for students.

We do have BKT and I know there's early morning and after school help, but sometimes you just need like other outlets for help and things like that.

Let's see.

I'll skip these two because they're more school focused.

The next one, my friend actually listened to me.

the English 9 and 10 curriculum.

I can't really speak much on this as I've only completed one year of English here as a freshman.

And right now I'm currently taking English 10.

But I found it really interesting that she told that to me.

So next is a bathroom maintenance.

And I can attest to this as being

you know, because I value my privacy.

It's like that.

I value that.

And not having locks on the girls' bathrooms in some of the girl's bathrooms in CHS is just kind of unnerving to me.

I'm not too sure why that is, but that was one thing that people told me a lot about.

Next was just grading, like the grading system, I think, and stuff like that.

And I don't, I understand

Like, why would say that?

Just because like the way the numbers are now, it makes it a little more difficult to like, really get a and my grades kind of drop sometimes when I do get like high scores on something, but I understand.

And last thing,

was lunch.

And I pack my lunch, so I can't really say much on this, but I do know a lot of my friends, just kind of just people I've spoken to, a lot of my peers just have trouble with lunch and things like that.

And, you know, I wish I could help.

Well, thank you, Ms.

Ms.

I have some follow up questions.

Can you see Mr. Pitt later?

You did a great job.

Thank you.

It's such a good thing to see you advocating for your peers.

And and I just it's just obviously we love hearing from you and your and our students, students, period.

So thank you for

articulating that so well.

And also just the, what I want to say, like just even going and taking the initiative to go and talk to your peers before you came out here today.

So thank you for doing that.

That's all I have to say.

Ms.

Ms.

Sweff, did you get all of that for the school board crap up?

No, I'm good.

Ms.

Moore-Sperler.

Just, Ms.

Turner, welcome.

And we're really happy to have you as part of the board.

And just keep asking the questions and telling us.

It's really important to us.

So thank you so much.

Yes, I wanted to extend my welcome to you.

I'm glad you're here and do appreciate that.

And you being one student, you're kind of like how we get to hear what's happening in the building.

So I really appreciate hearing all of the positives and the things that we need to do better.

So thank you for that.

Just wanted to say thank you to everybody.

I wanted to just share too that Homecoming was fun.

I was able to attend the game and

watching football, but also the marching band has stayed for the whole thing.

So I could watch the marching band.

And our Miss Taylor is the majorette or twirler or drum major.

Okay.

But if you get the chance to go to a game and see her in action,

It was so impressive.

Beyond everything else that you have, it was just a joy.

Thank you so much.

That really means a lot to me.

I've been twirling for a long time, and it makes me really happy to hear people be appreciative of what I'm doing and stuff.

You're welcome.

I mean, the band was great.

I mean, I was really impressed with them, but I told her before the meeting started, I just found myself totally watching and following her the entire show.

Mr. Morris.

No comments or questions.

Thank you.

And again, my sentiments to you as well, Ms.

Turner, you both

All right.

We love it.

Thank you so much.

I am going to yield my comments.

We have a two-minute video that I'm very proud of from our communications team that summarizes our strategic plan.

It's two minutes, and then we will be going.

The Charlottesville City Schools 2028 strategic plan takes equity work that began in 2018 and embeds it into our ongoing strategy as a division.

It is designed to hold our school system accountable to our vision that we can become a community where everyone can achieve their full potential.

Priority number one, academic achievement.

We want all of our students to be prepared for college, career and life.

We're doing this by helping them develop the skills they need to succeed in school and beyond, and by focusing on rigorous, inclusive and relevant learning experiences.

Priority number two, safety, wellness and belonging.

We want to create a safe and healthy learning environment for everyone.

We're doing this by focusing on social, emotional, and physical wellness, building a strong sense of community, and promoting school safety.

Priority number three, supporting our staff.

We want Charlottesville schools to be a stellar workplace for all our employees.

We're doing this by recruiting and retaining additional staff talent, providing meaningful professional learning, and valuing staff voice.

Priority number four, effective and efficient operations.

We want to make sure that our resources are being used wisely and effectively.

We're doing this by modernizing our facilities, improving our operational efficiencies and upgrades, and focusing on sustainability and environmental awareness.

In all of this, we are guided by our core values of relationships, growth, wellbeing, and joy of learning.

We have set ambitious goals with rigorous benchmarks that will ensure we truly walk the talk.

This is how we achieve our vision of becoming a place where barriers are eliminated and possibilities are limitless.

So I just want to thank you all for a good school board meeting and kudos to one of our very own CHS students.

And I think that's really, I mean, that's the fruits of our labor to have our students be able to do that kind of work.

So aside from Ms.

Thank you.

Upcoming meetings.

Before I get to that, I want to also thank all of you all who presented tonight your reports.

Great work.

We appreciate you.

We love you.

Our next meeting will be on October 19th.

So Charlottesville City School Board work session advance at five o'clock at Walker Upper Elementary School cafeteria.

And our next board meeting will be November the 2nd here in the Booker T. Reeves Media Center at five o'clock.

Okay, well, we're adjourned.

Okay, that is an action item.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Second?

All in favor?