School Board Meeting   12/7/2023

Yes, sir.

Ms.

Ms.

Dooley?

Here.

Dr. Kraft?

Present.

Ms.

McKeever?

Here.

Ms.

And our student rep, Ms.

Turner?

Here.

All opposed?

Motion passed.

At this time, we will have comments from the community.

As you step forth, please state your name and your address, and you will have three minutes for your remarks.

Hi, Derek Hartline, 1517, Apartment B, Antoinette Avenue, Charlottesville.

Dear members of the board and Superintendent Gurley, my name is Derek Hartline, lifelong city resident, 1989 CHS graduate, and an educator in the city schools for the past 27 years.

I'm here before you to talk about how we got to this point we are at since the last school board meeting on November 2nd.

The turmoil occurring

didn't culminate overnight.

There was plenty of signs along the way that went ignored.

In late January of 2023, the first video brawl involving dozens of students was picked up by Main Street Media.

When asked for a statement, a district spokesman person was quoted saying, this is not breaking news, and it's definitely not a matter of urgency.

This was very alarming to me.

At the February 2nd school board meeting, Tanisha Hudson told the board that CHS was out of control with violence.

Melvin Grady also spoke that night from LMA, and he was talking about the fighting going on, but now you need him in your night school initiative.

At the March 2nd school board meeting, student Allison Duggar pleaded for the board to speak to the students about the violence.

These calls for help fell on deaf ears.

But why?

Three things come to mind.

One, the board was very busy wasting time over the school renaming process and arguing about it at the same time.

Two, the board was way too occupied with the purchase of K-Tech.

Three, while collective bargaining was very important and a very hot topic right then, what good is bargaining if the teachers are leaving at an alarming rate?

I have attended both listening sessions and things that have stood out.

The vast amount of people who also attended and are here tonight are looking for answers they feel have not been shared by you about the events at the high school.

Each of the schools in the system are standing behind the staff at CHS.

On November 8th, Jackson Viya was informed that the policy revision for renaming schools had an eye toward potentially affecting both namesakes.

The guidance counselor and I created a petition approved by our admin to pause the action item for tonight out of respect so that the student support policies could be revised and rewritten instead of the facilities policy.

Every staff member, a total of 79, signed in support.

This petition also fell on deaf ears.

And the message that staff aren't being met or heard is loud and clear.

It seems pretty insensitive to have any action items tonight that do not pertain to the safety or the improvement of the conditions at the high school.

There's absolutely no good reason this policy revision about naming facilities can't wait until the new year and the new board.

Lastly, the next school board meeting is on January 4th, which is only nine school days away.

And three of this are when we come back from break.

Please do not let down the stakeholders here tonight for a third time.

As Martin Luther King Jr.

said, it's always the right time to do the right thing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hardline.

Good afternoon.

I am Bedell M. Fleming, and I reside at 102 Antoinette Court in Charlottesville.

I am also a native Charlottesvilleian and a retired educator in the Charlottesville school system.

In that capacity, I was able to be inside the frame and see the picture, and it wasn't always pretty.

Today I stand in front of you as the chairperson of the Albemarle Charlottesville Education Committee of the NAACP.

We are very concerned about what is happening.

Safety is important.

But more so, we would like for the board to be very, very mindful of thinking of reimagining

our system where we have to look at how we got to where we are and some of that is that a significant portion of our community has been overlooked and not really paid much attention to.

We're asking you to re-examine

As you go along, you can be the agents of change in policies and procedures, in methodology, curriculum.

All those things will be very important in helping us to be able to realign.

I want to share a quote with you.

It's from John Dewey.

He was an educator centuries ago, a reformer, a philosopher.

This quote was, what's best for the best of us is best for the rest of us.

Thank you, Ms.

Fleming.

Next up is Mr. Kale Jaffe.

Rhymes with Jaffe.

I'm Kale Jaffe, 1853 Edgewood Lane in the city.

I'm a parent of two current Charlottesville high school students and a parent of one recent Charlottesville high school graduate.

I think the point at which we need to start is to acknowledge that the loss of those three days of learning right before Thanksgiving was evidence of a failure

in our school system that the teachers sounded the alarm on.

And I thank the teachers for sounding that alarm.

What I think the community wants to hear first and foremost from Dr. Gurley and from the school leadership is an acknowledgement and ownership of that failure to say that's on me and pledge to fix it.

So how do we fix it going forward?

I think one of the most obvious parts of that failure are the loss of teachers that we have seen.

A lot of my own kids' favorite teachers, some of them are still here and I'm thankful for that, but a lot have left to move to other school systems.

When I looked online, we have 18 vacancies for faculty and staff positions just at Charlottesville High School.

Biology teachers, history teachers,

My own child's AP psychology teacher left six weeks into the semester and to date we do not have a replacement.

An AP psychology class for two months and going without an AP teacher.

Are these vacancies due to the safety concerns that you all have heard so much about?

I happened to run into Mr. Pitt on what turned out to be his very last day.

I was here at the high school on that Thursday for the fall sports banquet.

And he mentioned to me, unprompted, that he thought we needed to get SROs, school resource officers, back in the building.

He also mentioned to me that we need metal detectors at this building.

I noticed just recently the Richmond City School Board voted 8-0 with one abstention to add metal detectors to their high schools and middle schools.

So where is that conversation?

Where was it when Mr. Pitt was here?

Where is it now?

The key point that I want to leave you with is, and another issue before my time runs out here is I want to hit on is compensation.

I know teachers

have raised that as a concern.

Is that another reason why we've lost teachers?

To resolve this crisis right now, what we need to do, we need to think about what do we need to be asking the teachers now and providing them now in December so that they will sign new contracts in this spring, March or April.

so that we don't lose even more teachers going into the next year.

Stabilizing our faculty, getting these wonderful teachers to stay here, recruiting new teachers to come, having that stable faculty, that is the rock on which we will be able to rebuild this school.

And I urge you to look at the source of those problems.

Thank you all very much.

Hi, I'm Quinn Curtis, 110 Robinson Woods in the city.

I have a 10th grader at the high school, a seventh grader who I hope will attend the high school.

I'm also the coach of the speech and debate team here.

In fact, the last time I spoke to you all, I was introducing some of our state champion debaters to you.

And there you go.

As the debate coach here, I'm in the building a lot and I get to see a lot of the positive things that are happening.

I see students who are thriving in challenging classes and amazing extracurricular activities that rival anything that any of the schools in the area are doing.

I'm proud that when I'm here, I'm working with a group of students from many different backgrounds and when we take them to tournaments, we show up with a team that looks more diverse and is more diverse than most of the other teams that are participating in that activity.

It's special that the opportunities that this school has created are opportunities that are available to everyone in the city.

But right now, it all feels very fragile.

Teachers are the fabric of this school, and that fabric is fraying.

Last year, we lost about 20 teachers.

The year before that, we lost about 20 teachers.

As Cale said, there are 18 open positions.

14 of those positions are for certificated educators.

There are people who have left since the beginning of the year.

Over the summer, as a cost-saving message,

The school cut way back on overages which allowed teachers to make extra compensation by teaching additional classes.

So a lot of teachers in the school have taken a multi-thousand dollar pay cut while students haven't been able to get into the classes that they were hoping to take.

And that was before we had the incidents of two weeks ago where the teachers felt they had to shut down the school in order to get their voices heard.

I'm deeply concerned of what's going to happen because surely recruiting teachers to a school that looks unstable, that doesn't have a principal is going to be harder than it is right now and we're already struggling.

We can't afford to lose even as many teachers as we have lost in past years.

It seems like we're quite likely to lose even more.

I think the number one priority for the leadership of this district and this board needs to be finding out what teachers need to stay and giving it to them.

Otherwise, we risk a catastrophic spiral.

We lose teachers.

That costs us stability, costs us more teachers.

And everything that this community has built that is positive and special about this school could unravel very quickly.

Ms.

Good evening.

Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening.

I have a 10th grader and a recent graduate of CHS.

So we've been family here for many years.

And I've been looking at some of the information because the events that happened in November and the teacher sick out, if you will, that alerted us all to this problem.

Before that event occurred, as a parent, I didn't really feel that I had a good grasp on really how deep this problem was of school violence.

And so, based on the recent listening sessions we've been having, I think one of the things we're missing as parents is real information about how deep this problem goes.

And as a community, we stand ready to help in any way we can.

That's why we're here.

So, you know, there are stats that are publicly available through the Virginia Department of Education.

And I encourage all of you here tonight to do your research on that as well and take a look at the information that is there.

and see how we as a school at CHS compare to other schools and we as a school district compare to other school districts.

In looking at the data today from the last two years, I took a look at the school behavior and the school behavior reports that they have on the site.

and these specifically, I looked at the safety in particular, safety concerns.

And when I compared us at CHS to other Virginia schools of a very similar size, I wanted to be fair and look at similar size, and compared us with Albemarle County Schools, what I found was over the last two years, and of course we don't have this year's data, but in a two year period, we saw a 200%

increase in safety issues that were reported to the Department of Education.

That is very disconcerting.

So I'm sure there are probably reasons around that.

There may even be, especially with COVID and all of the things that were going on with us coming to school in attendance, there may be other things, pieces of data I need to understand.

But I want to make sure that we all have answers to those questions.

200% is alarming.

So I'd like the school district to give us some more information on, and transparency, really, about what's been going on, specifically at Charlottesville High School.

And then I'm really looking forward tonight to hearing about all of the new initiatives.

I truly am.

But I also want to hear how we're going to hold ourselves accountable.

I want to hear how we're going to measure success.

It can't just be we did this really great thing and we're hopeful it's going to do well.

We really need to put some metrics associated with it and we need to have intervals where we're looking at those metrics to understand if we're on the right path.

So that's what I'm asking for from you all tonight.

Thank you, Ms.

Miller.

Ms.

Good evening and thank you members of the school board and Dr. Gurley.

Really, thank you.

In my 16 years as a teacher with Charlottesville City Schools,

I have never experienced a school board and division leader who were more receptive to and respectful of teacher voice.

There have always been t-shirts and teacher appreciation breakfasts, much talk about how much we love our teachers, but this leadership team has been active in that appreciation, in that love.

This has been true for some time, an example being that teachers expressed concern over cell phones and a cell phone committee was created.

But it has never been more true than in the past few weeks.

A reset was called for and a reset is happening.

The two days of meetings that Dr. Gurley, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Odey, and other division leaders had with teachers were filled with opportunities for comment, collaboration, restorative practices, and solution building.

Since the reset, staffing vacancies have been filled

There are more substitutes.

There are plans for exterior doors.

There are plans for new hall pass systems in the works.

Walkie talkies have been ordered.

Night school has been opened.

Restorative student success meetings are happening with even more regularity.

There are student celebrations planned for next week.

Dr. Johnson will be bringing her considerable expertise to the new position of strategic advisor.

Since the reset, Dr. Gurley, Dr. Odey, and Dr. Johnson, as well as other division, school board, and community members have been in the school every day.

They have been positively interacting with staff and students.

They have been getting first-person experience with the needs of the school.

Perhaps most importantly, the division has chosen an experienced, highly qualified, valuable interim principal to lead our school.

Bringing Mr. Leatherwood back to CHS is an incredible gift.

Though we will miss Mr. Pitt, Mr. Leatherwood's knowledge and ability is so welcome and will complement our already excellent APs.

I do not have social media, but friends have told me things.

I've felt the need to speak this truth in honest thanks, but also to calm some of those things.

I was in the building today, all day, and yesterday, and the day before, and so on, for years.

Please believe me when I say that I have confidence that this school board, this division, under the leadership of Dr. Gurley, is going to actively address these challenges, amplify successes, and make CHS the greatest it has been.

Thank you, Ms.

Holland.

Good evening Dr. Gurley, members of the board, Mr. Bryant.

My name is Peter Davis and I am a teacher here at CHS as well.

I have a daughter who is a junior here, and my son will be in 9th grade here next year.

I'm currently in my 15th year as a teacher here at CHS, and I'm also serving as one of the building reps for the CEA.

And over the last decade and a half in this building, I've seen a lot of initiatives, a lot of policies, and a lot of people come and go.

And we've experienced a lot of really great highs, and we've experienced some really difficult lows.

And I usually don't speak in front of meetings.

I'm very much more of a behind the scenes

kind of guy, as you all know, because I've sent you plenty of emails over the past while.

But I do need to feel needed to say this tonight that our school community, we can't let off the gas pedal, like we got to keep going.

I'm so appreciative that all the support for the parents that have been in the building, the school like Ms.

Echo, Ms.

Horn, all the things that you all have done over the last couple of weeks to really get behind us and make a difference and it really is making a difference and I think teachers

Like Ms.

Horn said, you can feel it in the building.

The climate is slowly coming around.

And a much needed winter break is coming.

We're looking forward to time to unwind.

But just because we get a little bit of time away, that calendar flips to 2024.

CHS is not hogging the news cycle of all the local media channels.

We can't let back.

We've got to keep going.

Just remember that as the attention span fades from the community over the next little bit, which is going to happen, the teachers are still going to be here educating our students.

We're still going to be here for the next six months of school.

We're still going to be here this summer strategizing and planning.

We're going to be back in August and we're going to be here to work with the kids.

Long after the cameras are turned off.

But just a huge thank you for letting us have that reset.

We all know that a reset doesn't just solve it magically.

It gives us a chance to refocus, to roll up our sleeves and get the work done.

but I really just want to make sure that if nothing else tonight that I'm hoping that all the support that we're getting here, all the people that came to all the listening sessions we had, that if we could have just even a fraction of everyone that's involved in that coming to Monday night's PTO meeting and coming to

The PTO meeting in March and April and May and continuing this energy and this level of involvement.

We need it to echo the emails that we always get a CHS staff for building coverage.

It's all hands on deck and we need everybody.

And I just wanted to get that out there that we just got to keep pushing.

We can't let back.

Good evening.

I'm Pat Edwards.

I live at 212 6th Street Northwest.

I attended Charlottesville schools and I taught in this one for 25 years.

My last 25 years of teaching were spent here.

And I'm coming with a change of pace.

I want to speak to you tonight about your renaming because I am the sister of Alicia Lugo.

and Mrs. Rebecca McGinnis was my neighbor.

She taught Alicia and Alicia taught me and so I come to I think congratulate you on your decision to continue to vet the names of the schools because I truly want to encourage you to continue to examine the lives of those for whom our schools are named.

The late Holly Edwards suggested the Lugo McGinnis Academy.

She was a fighter who recognized them as kindred spirits, sacrificing much to better the lives of those around them.

The names of ideals and places are nice and sterile and safe.

But at this point in history, more than ever, we need to remind our children of people who cared enough to give their all for their sake.

These two ladies were positive, passionate ladies who were proud of their heritage and protective of their communities, particularly the children, cellophane and scene.

Please, and continue, don't fix what's not broken.

And there are those names out there even yet that might be given to some of the schools.

Thank you, Ms.

Edwards.

Ms.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Alexa Ernest.

I'm one of the representatives from the Student Council and a member of the yearbook staff.

I'm here to bring to attention that there are positive, it may not seem that big, but there are positive benefits of listening to music while working, and I request that the school change the policies to allow the use of earbuds, AirPods, headphones to listen to music.

I've done a survey the last few days and collected 159 responses

from students, staff, and volunteers.

81% of those responses said that they believe listening to music increased their performance, motivation, and focus on the task that they were working on.

And there are studies as well which reflect that these benefits can in fact come from music.

One of these were from Stanford University.

Researchers concluded that, quote, music moves the brain to pay attention, unquote.

They discovered that areas of the brain associated with paying attention or making predictions were more active when the music had been playing.

Many high school students have a lot of stress or anxiety as well.

Either it's about schoolwork or private matters, and music has been shown to have a positive benefit as well in this.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Rob Warner, 712 Highland, here in the city.

Got several things tonight.

The high school first.

Safety, security, calm.

We need it to really come.

We've had a bad session here.

Interesting short story.

My brother heard about it.

He lives in Washington State.

He called me.

I told him what happened.

He told me what's happening in his town.

The high school nearest his house, two students shot so far this year.

One on the grounds, drive-by shooting.

One in the school with a gun.

Neither died.

But we all think that's never going to happen any place.

Well, it is.

and that's why we gotta keep the calm.

One thing next time our new principal, Mr. Leatherwood, is in the public view, I think as many of the school board members as possible need to be standing beside him, a sign of togetherness, working, et cetera.

I think that'll be very important.

Dr. Gurley, I must thank you.

I have a granddaughter at CHS.

She says she's seen you roaming the halls, making sure there's stability, safety, quiet, and calm.

And I appreciate your very personal efforts to make this all happen.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next, and I'm gonna switch now.

School names.

Your newest definition that's now on the books is okay and much better than some of the earlier ones that we saw sort of in draft.

One thing, when it comes to naming of stuff, if you step back and sort of look at the rest of America, everybody names stuff for people.

I know you're under a lot of stress with this, but you're not alone with having problems with it.

It seems like Americans more than maybe anybody else does it, but look around all the things that have names on them, good and bad names, et cetera, and hopefully that'll give you some peace.

As far as the names go, I do not,

want you to change, please do not change any of the following names.

Johnson Elementary School, Burnley Moran Elementary School, and the Martin Luther King MLK Performing Arts Center.

I know with your new rules you can do it, but please do not do it.

MLK is particularly important to me.

I don't want to see it go.

Ms.

Good evening.

So I just want to take this time to speak on behalf of the black community who as we see many of us are not in this library tonight.

20 plus years ago, I was a student at Charlottesville High School.

20 plus years ago, I had teachers like Ms.

Pat Edwards, Ms.

Elder, who are in this very room tonight.

20 plus years ago, there was a shared responsibility model for not only discipline, but also the success of every student in this school.

Today, you are lacking that.

20 plus years ago, teachers were going into the community, but the community was also coming to the teachers and the staff and central office.

We had people like T. Lewis who made sure we had all that we need, just like Dr. Gurley.

I want to be clear when I say this because even looking in this room, I can feel the systemic pressure, right?

There are so many people that like to point out the bad things that's happening because the media took a

You know, story and made it bigger than what it was.

There's always been issues at CHS.

But 20 plus years ago was 53% black.

And it was less white students.

And now that the demographics have changed based on gentrification, you all are acting like this is a new problem.

It is not.

But 20 plus years ago, because it was a shared discipline model, the staff, the parents, and the student

also work together to make things better.

We're not doing that today.

Teachers aren't reaching out to parents.

Administration barely reach out to parents.

There's no type of working together happening here.

And I know that from experience.

I've been in these halls, along with Dr. Gurley, who is here all the time.

So I just want to be clear when I say that we need to stop

thinking that discipline is the pure answer for these kids.

And you also need to have a shared responsibility model on the teachers that really don't want to deal with these kids.

Some of these teachers aren't innocent.

They're giving them passes.

They letting them walk in the hall when they feel like it.

They walking through the hall talking on their phone when they feel like it.

They got six minutes to get to class.

I don't even know if I had four.

Albemarle has four minutes to get to class.

You can pick the school up and place it inside Albemarle High School.

That's how big Albemarle is.

They have six minutes.

Some things need to be changed, I agree, but some things are working.

and we're not giving the school board, the administration enough credit.

But I also want to add that for the last five plus years, Charlottesville in itself has been a disaster when it comes to black leaders like Mr. Gurley, like black city managers or any black person in position of power.

And this is a constant movie of people coming for black people in positions of power.

So instead of coming for them, how about we support them and work with them so that we make Charlottesville and Charlottesville High School a success?

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Hudson.

Ms.

Yes, and I'll just remind anybody in the Zoom room, if you would like to speak, you could let us know by raising your hand so that we can promote you to panelists and give you your three minutes to address your public comment.

I see someone listed as Tad Miller.

I'm allowing that person to move to a speaking position.

Yeah, can you hear me?

All right, I'm going to just get right to it.

I don't trust the administration to really give a transparent view of what's happening in the school, specifically at CHS.

I just feel like there's a huge lack of transparency of what the reality is

And I'm gonna jump in on the phone issue.

The reality is phones are the only way we are getting transparency as parents as to what the violent situation is at CHS.

I absolutely do not want phones in the classroom.

I want them off and away, but they are not hurting anything by giving us as parents transparency right now, because it's the only thing we're getting.

We've got to have more data transparency and we as parents need to know what the situation is for our children.

The phones are being made a scapegoat for actually creating violence.

That's not the situation at all.

The phones are not creating violence.

They are not creating a culture of violence.

They are just recording what is already there.

So we've got to address that issue.

And I don't think pouches are in our interest from a basic safety standpoint.

If there was ever, God forbid, a shooting in our schools, those phones are a lifeline and we've got to have access to them.

And if they're locked away, that is a terrible, terrible idea.

So I'm absolutely against the pouches.

If we're going to invest in technology for these kids, that's an investment in their safety and wellbeing.

Let's put vape detectors in all the bathrooms, because that's a huge problem that's not being addressed in your school system right now.

And I hear about it all the time.

We've got to get accountability for students, and I don't understand where the breakdown has been, and I want some transparency and understanding as to what has happened and what has changed in our accountability.

Do kids get punished for doing wrong?

There has to be consequences.

What is the situation with Lugo McGinnis?

Is it full?

I don't know.

I'm being told that it is full and night school is a second shift essentially of Lugo McGinnis.

We don't have enough teachers for CHS.

How do we have enough teachers for a second shift at Lugo McGinnis to take care of these kids?

I don't want them to fall through the cracks of the system.

They deserve an education, but I don't understand the math of how we're going to have enough people to help them in a second shift

You know, while great as an idea, is it a reality from a practicality standpoint of hiring the people to serve these kids correctly and efficiently?

I don't know these answers.

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

Once again, if you want to make public comment at this time, you can raise your hand in the attendee gallery.

Is anyone else in the room who would like to come forth and speak?

Please state your name and address.

Hi, I'm Becca Cole.

I live in Brandywine Drive in the Greenfire neighborhood.

I have two elementary kids and I actually wanted, I already said my thank yous to the school board and to Dr. Gurley earlier this week.

I think you guys are doing a really good job of listening and responding to this whole situation.

I'm up here because I want to talk to the audience actually.

It's a recurring theme for me to hear people who show up at the school board meetings because there is a single issue that they care about.

There's one thing that has sparked

major concern and so they show up and they come and they speak and they care and then they leave.

If you really care about what happens in this school system, I have no mic.

Am I back?

Okay.

If you really care about what happens in this school system, you should be paying attention all the time, not just when the media picks up on some disaster that's happening that is not as big as it probably seems like on social media especially.

We have to pay attention and we have to be involved in the entire process.

And if you're here in the building and you come to the meetings, you'll see just how hard this administration and this school board is trying and how well they are listening.

It's just unbelievable and I'm actually a little emotional right now, but I get very emotional frequently watching how hard they try to address the issues that we have.

and I think another thing that everybody here needs to keep in mind is that we only have so much control.

Our funding does not come from our community and not enough of it.

We need state funding.

We need power over these decisions and if you could maybe apply some of this energy that you're applying to this one specific issue to the issue of education as a whole and go and yell at the state and say please fund our schools because it's ridiculous.

Yeah, it would be great to pay more teachers, pay teachers more, have more teachers.

That's fantastic.

Where does that money come from?

We need the state to pay attention and the state is only going to pay attention if people yell at them.

So please continue to show up to board meetings, show up to PTOs, be involved, come as much as you can, but also focus some of that energy on the state and try and have them help us out too.

Thank you.

How many more speakers do we have in the room?

Good evening.

I'm Paul Reinhart.

I live at 1605 Oxford Road.

I have a ninth grader here.

I'm just going to leave you with a quote.

This fighting isn't going to stop until someone gets killed.

My ninth grader said that back on 16 November.

I'm not going to talk about the truth of that, but the perception is out there that this is getting worse in an age where anybody can get a gun.

I would hope that as you guys are deliberating about what to do with policies, discipline, et cetera, that you don't let up, as someone else said, on the importance of dealing with this.

Complacency helps.

I'd like to hear a public comment.

It's going to be a while.

Pardon me?

OK.

Don't let up on the focus of security.

I also think that somebody raised in the previous meeting, you have, if these are refugees from Afghanistan, they're bringing trauma with them, things that are probably well outside the skill set of your counselors to deal with.

Let's take advantage of UVA.

Let's take advantage of psychologists or psychiatrists to help them through this so they can learn.

But in the meantime, the safety is the thing that certainly has gotten me here.

I think the safety aspect is what brought a lot of people to the two previous meetings.

So please don't let this slide by.

And don't just get complacent with what we're doing before.

We're just going to keep doing it.

We'd like transparency on exactly what you're doing.

We'd like transparency in what's changing with your policies.

And that means telling us exactly what has happened in our schools.

You're not violating due process rights by not naming people.

If you just say we're closed because there's group fights, we'll get back to you on what we can do about policies.

But transparency means telling us the bad news, and I hope you do that.

Please state your name.

Good evening, y'all.

My name's Nick.

All right, that's as high as it goes.

So I just wanted to say that one of the things that I've been most worried about is that, and I share this concern, I think, with other folks, is that we're going to lose momentum, that we're going to do what Charlottesville does really well, which is talk the talk.

And we'll have some listening sessions.

And then it's just going to

So one thing that I hope that the school board can do is at least make sure that we have baked in in the next couple months after winter break ways in which people can continue to do this work that we can continue to have conversations and that

As part of those conversations, there can be a dialogue between different community members to say, OK, we're talking.

What else are we doing?

What else are we doing?

In addition to the school board meetings.

And I think that they need to be more accessible than the listening sessions have been.

There was a listening session where there was a mother, I believe, and she struggled to speak English.

She did a wonderful job of presenting her perspective.

But some of these issues that are affecting Charlottesville High School and Charlottesville City Schools involve folks that are from communities where they may not speak English great.

And we need to find ways that we have interpreters that are present in Pashto and Spanish and other languages

so that they can be part of this conversation.

Right now, this is in English only.

How can we include those voices?

Because the fight that was in this library right over there, there was racial and ethnic dimensions to that fight that tied to tensions that have existed in this community for a while.

And I think y'all can turn to the city council to ask for how can we have in different neighborhoods

may be at the community centers some of these conversations.

How can we bring in other people that are in the community to have these conversations to get to some of the more fundamental issues that are at play that are bringing these tensions into our schools?

Secondly, I would like to point out that one of the biggest issues, as we all know, is that we just don't have enough people in the building.

And right now, y'all have been stepping up

You have been showing up.

We have had volunteers.

Dr. Gurley, of course, as has been pointed out, you've been coming almost every day or maybe every day.

But how sustainable is that?

And yes, we got more people.

We got some people for the next semester.

But even when we were at resetting back to normal, if that's our goal, that wasn't enough.

That wasn't enough.

We need a couple more CSAs.

We need a couple people that can support admin with restorative and mediation conversations.

We can't just have Mr. Garrity or Dr. Garrity come in.

when he's free and not helping another school.

Bianca Johnson, who you all had come in and help us have restorative circle conversations.

Can she work just at CHS?

Can we get someone or a couple people like her just at CHS so that admin are more free to help with consequences when those conversations don't lead to something?

Thank you, Nick.

Mr. Carmel, do we have someone in the Zoom room?

OK.

Yes.

Sure.

There was Laura T. Had her hand up.

I'm just trying to find her now.

Laura T., if you still would like to speak, let's get your hand up.

I see it now.

And you will have three minutes to speak.

The floor is yours.

Just go ahead and unmute so that I can adjust your volume for us to hear.

Hi.

Hi, Laura Santiago.

I just want to genuinely thank everybody who's sitting up there and remind myself that the time that you give to our schools, many of us speaking wouldn't be willing to give a fraction of that.

So everyone up there, thank you.

I also tend to write letters and be involved at a different level.

But the reason I'm speaking today is in case any teachers are listening.

Over the past years, in terms of education reform nationally, but also our local reform, it's been really interesting to see the voice that people have that seems to just shout over the teachers.

And this has been the first time since I've been involved, three kids in different city schools, that I've seen the teachers start to have a voice.

And so I'm here so that they know that I will support them and I'll support them even if it doesn't help my child because the teachers are the school.

somehow, I'm not sure how.

None of us would want to go into a work environment where we're hurt.

Some of us have.

Some of us have been hit at work.

Everybody deserves a safe work environment, and teachers are no exception to that.

I don't know when we started thinking they're an exception.

I think the last speaker, I will just say I speak on behalf of myself, not a group, because even though I do have a mixed family and half immigrant Spanish speaking,

Each member of a group has their own opinions and ideas.

And I don't say that I represent all of them.

But I do think listening to the Afghani mother speak at that last meeting was priceless for us all when we talk about trauma and the fact that she spoke in support of a more structured environment, not a less structured environment.

And she's the exact person that we often talk about.

So I would say just be aware that there are voices that aren't here.

I know you know that, but it's just hard to get to those voices.

I speak only for myself.

I don't speak for that community.

I speak to support the teachers, and I'm happy to do anything in action that supports them.

And I just want you guys to hear that that's really important to a lot of families.

We hear the teachers.

We're there for them.

Thank you.

I think the next lesson was on the Howard Walker, then I'll get you.

You want it?

OK.

OK, that's OK.

Hi, my name is Leslie Harris Scott and I had not planned on speaking, but I'm so compelled.

I live at 943 Charlton Avenue.

I have been in Charlottesville all my life.

I attended Venable, Greenbrier, Walker, and Charlottesville High.

I'm a 1985 graduate, a proud 1985 graduate of Charlottesville High School.

I want to say that I think that as a community we need to really come together and stop picking apart on the negative and focus on the change and stay

focused on that.

I think it's easy to get sidetracked.

Dr. Gurley, I support you and there are many in the community that support you and this school board.

We know that you all know there's a problem.

We know that you care and we know that things are going to change.

So there are many of us who do not feel like, are they listening?

I know you're listening and I want to speak for those of us who in the community know that you are listening.

I want to comment, my son is also a graduate of Charlottesville High School and he is an engineer for Columbia Gas and I'm very proud of him.

Mr. Leatherwood was his principal and so I want to say that I know Mr. Leatherwood is going to do a good job.

He's a good man.

He cares and he will listen.

He doesn't need anybody coming at him with a negative attitude.

When you come, please come with some solutions because that's the way change gets made.

I also want to say that it's really important for us to work with the young people who have been involved in these fights.

Obviously, there's trauma there, there's social emotional issues, and I'm a licensed professional counselor, so I'm speaking my ease right now.

They need the help with counseling, with therapy,

with the Restorative Justice and I know y'all are going to do that.

These kids are going to get help.

Now I want to say my nephew, who I have legal custody of, he's at Lugo McGinnis and he's doing really well there.

He went to Ivy Creek and it was not good.

He's at Lugo McGinnis.

Mr. Trotter is the salt of the earth to me.

That man is doing a great job.

The teachers there are just outstanding.

And I want to ask you, my request is that

for the night school that they get all of the help that they need so that the kids that have to come there, because not all of them want to be there.

My nephew is there because he just don't want to go to school.

He doesn't like school.

He's got social anxiety and other issues from trauma.

And so therefore, we got to look at all the children and we got to think about all the children from AP to whatever.

I don't even know what it is these days.

But I want to encourage you all to stay strong and keep the faith and don't give up.

And for people in the community, if you got a complaint, come with a solution to go along with that complaint, because that's the only way it's going to change.

Thank you, Ms.

Harris.

Ms.

Good evening.

Nikaya Walker, a 1998 graduate of Charlottesville High School.

I've had three kids go through this system, graduates 2016, 2018, and 2021.

So I know some of the teachers that are still in the building because it was very recent.

and currently I have a niece who's a ninth grader, my brother's daughter who's a ninth grader at CHS.

So still have the commitment, you know, the commitment to the community because my own family has been through the system and present, but also because I view all of our kids as my child, as we all should and hopefully do.

I have been alarmed over the past few weeks at the outcry by the community

It is a typical outcry from the Charlottesville community to place blame and stereotype and speak negatively about the most vulnerable citizens in this community.

It is not to make excuses for anyone because we all send our kids to school with the hopes that their futures are brighter than ours have been to date.

And Charlottesville hasn't done before this administration

When we were in school, the best job at educating black students in this community.

The reason I fought so hard for social programs when I was on council is because a lot of times it has nothing to do with lack of brilliance.

The kids we're talking about, they are brilliant.

If you get to know them, if you talk to them, there's so much vibrancy in their lives that the trauma that was just talked about, it suppresses.

That is a community effort.

The school can't do all that work on its own, but when they walk through that door, the individuals have a lot of trauma that they're dealing with.

So before there's an expectation that they can sit down and read a book,

We have to understand that we have to meet those needs, not label them, not make the school a prison, as people are talking about metal detectors and other instruments that are along the lines of criminalization.

They haven't worked in other places.

There are still shootings in those places.

There are still crimes in those places.

And so we have to look at

A community hopefully is ours.

We're failing at it.

We start and then we stop.

But we have to look at the root causes and can we really tap into those causes.

When you talk about a situation like the brawl in the library, no teacher wants to come to school and to work and leave injured.

We know that.

And there shouldn't be an expectation.

But the community also created that rift.

Years ago when the IRC started bringing

families into this community, black families were displaced.

So the students that you're talking about today, even if they can't articulate why there's a rift, they heard things from community leaders and providers that it's so much easier to help families that are coming into the neighborhood than black people who've been here forever.

I've been a part of some of those conversations.

If you go into the neighborhoods where black people have predominantly been the majority of,

that are now, they're not in the community, they've been replaced.

And they heard through that replacement that they were not, if they had been number one before on the list, they were moved down the list.

So other families replaced them just because of agreements between leaders in the community.

So we have to understand that leaders, when we create

the battles that our students are now fighting.

And I hope, because I know I'm out of time, that as we come up with solutions, because our kids deserve a vibrant education, and we want them to learn and grow, we don't want them to graduate with diplomas that don't mean anything, and we don't want them to not graduate.

But I hope that they're not used as scapegoats for members of the communities that don't care,

that don't care about their futures.

And we have to acknowledge that we do have some of those members here.

So I implore you as a school board, I understand the pressure, I've been under it.

But I hope that you consider that you all can go off and get other jobs.

The kids and their futures depend on the decisions you make.

And I hope you make it as if someone were making it for someone you love.

Thank you, Ms.

Walker.

I have someone listed as Melvin Grady.

And Melvin, I will push the button to allow you to talk.

And just please state your name formally for public record.

You go ahead, Melvin.

We cannot hear you at this time.

I see you're muted.

And when you unmuted, we were not able to hear you.

Perhaps you could check the microphone that's being used and see if that's on.

And then we can try to let you know.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

OK.

I've been planning on speaking, but I just wanted to bring this up.

I live at 238 Hartmansboro Road.

I'm from Charlottesville as well.

Went to school at Greenbriar, Walker, CHS, and UVA, all the good stuff.

I just want to say one thing.

I don't like the vision, okay?

So I'm trying to be very clear.

I'm in work right now.

I'm an employee of Charlottesville schools.

I'm at the night school.

I just want to say one thing about the media and some of this stuff that's being said about Luke McGinnis and the night school.

If you don't know, please stop putting your two cents worth in, especially when it comes to negativity.

I'm here

It's not trenches, but I'm here at Luke McGinnis teaching, my third year now, and we just started night school.

I'm not representing night school as far as I know Mr. Trott is going to speak later.

I just want to say that I am here.

I'm in the trenches with the kids and the teachers and whatnot.

I know what's going on.

There's good things going on here at this school.

So those who are, I would say naysayers, please get your facts together first before you start shooting shots at someplace you have no idea what's going on.

You do not.

You are not here.

I am here.

Others are here.

I'm giving shots out to the little McGinnis.

Thank you for the school board and everyone who spoke in support of Charlottesville High School and the whole system.

But please, media, stop saying things that you do not know because you're hearing this or that.

Please ask the questions to the right people and get the proper answers.

But I'm here, and there's good things going on at the alternative school and the new night school.

That's what I want to say.

Thank you.

Okay.

I have MJ Smith listed.

MJ Smith again for, oh, you just lowered your hand.

MJ, could you please raise it again?

MJ, you have three minutes just as a matter of public record, please state your name and address for that.

This is MJ Smith and I live in the Fry Springs neighborhood on Todd Avenue.

I only, I have been listening to this and attended many meetings in person and on Zoom and specifically to the concern about increased safety at the school.

At the UVA hospital to go to the emergency department, we pass through a metal detector.

To go to see a basketball game at the JPJ or a concert, we go through a metal detector.

To fly in an airplane, we go through a metal detector.

Ad nauseam, I acknowledge the worry about the school environment becoming an incarceration environment.

I disagree.

And I think that this is the reality of the world that we live in right now.

And the path of least resistance would be to deal with the lax gun control situation we have in the state of Virginia and across the country and at least mitigate weapons, you know, bullet weapons coming into our schools.

Thank you.

I do have somebody listed as concerned parent.

Concerned parent, would you please, when we allow you to speak, please state your name and address for public record.

Hello, thank you.

I'll just give my initials.

They are DB.

This afternoon, Amanda Corman put out communication to parents regarding FAQs on the CH City Schools website regarding discipline, including a discipline dashboard.

And what I'm wondering is if they've also responded to the Charlottesville Police Department.

Because this afternoon at 439,

NBC 29 reports the Charlottesville Police Department is asking city schools for more information about an alleged sexual assault that may have happened on one of their campuses.

It's an incident investigators heard about, but not from the schools as would be required.

Police Chief Michael Kochis says he and Commonwealth Attorney Joe Plantagna have sent a written request to the schools for more information.

In it, they also remind the schools that any reported sex crime on campus has to be shared with them.

It's all about the kids and keeping the kids safe, Chief Kochis says.

I can tell you through my conversations with Dr. Gurley, there's nothing he takes more seriously than keeping the kids safe at the schools he's charged with.

And so I have no doubt in my mind, he wants to do just that.

The police chief says he's been working to set up a time to meet with Dr. Gurley to learn more about the alleged incident.

Thank you.

I'm Maggie Heafey.

So to be honest, my friend brought me here today and said, Maggie, please don't talk because I've talked a lot here.

I have said a lot of what I need to say, so I'm going to keep it short.

I will gladly talk to literally anyone if you want to know how I feel about this, but that's not what I'm saying.

I'm here to say thank you to a few people who have been supportive of me, my peers, and my classmates in the building, many of which are in this room, Dr. Odie, Ms.

Swift, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Gurley, as well as a lot of the teachers that have been working insanely hard for the well-being of their students, and that's what needs to be recognized.

Ms.

Horn, Mr. Gore, I see you over there.

Ms.

Charmaine Williams.

I mean, there are so many people in this school, which are the reason that I go to CHS.

There isn't so many people do.

There have been countless efforts made by a committee of teachers to make a kind of a fun BKT next week to have a spirit week next week.

There are so many positive lights in this room and in this school that need to be acknowledged.

Yes, as people have said all over the media, teachers don't get paid enough to break up fights.

They don't get paid enough to devote their lives to the well-being of our students.

And to be honest, I know a lot of people don't want to hear it coming from me, but on a personal level, I'm just really grateful for a lot of support that I've been given.

Dr. Johnson, I don't know if she's here.

That girl is always in the hallways saying hi to every single person.

There's so many people like that that really need the credit and that I think everyone needs to say thank you too.

Thank you, Mandy.

Is anyone else in the Zoom room?

I have a person listed as Lisa Green.

Lisa, when I hit allow to talk, please state your name for the public record.

And you should be able to unmute at this time.

We are not able to hear you, Lisa.

I see that you've unmuted, but we're not picking up your microphone.

If not, should I have an opportunity to speak later on in the meeting?

Can you hear me?

Yes.

My apologies for not being there.

Lisa Green, 216 Chestnut Street.

I just had a little surgery today, so I'm sitting here one handed.

I just wanted to make a couple of comments.

First off, I'm the team director for the mountain bike club there at the high school.

So I'm very involved with several students at the high school.

And yes, there's a lot of good things.

I want others to be perfectly clear that

Some of the parents that are standing before you, including myself and my wife, this is not a media.

We are not taking our advice from the media.

We are listening to the students that are in the school.

I have a 15-year-old sophomore and a senior at the high school.

The information that I am speaking about comes from the students in the school.

And so while they are not directly involved in some of the activities, they are affected

and so I also, as a part of the mountain bike team, we have several members and I want to thank, we call Nick or affectionately known to us in our household as Mr. Mr. but I want to thank him for his words because we do have some folks in our IRC communities that do attend a school that are affected by this as well and I appreciate the opportunity or his ideas for bringing up some

translation opportunities for people to be able to speak and be heard.

So that's all I wanted to say is when I did not listen to my kids early enough.

So my apologies for not being in front of you sooner, because this has been something that's been going on for a while.

And I, as a public official, I sometimes like to let things

Let things work its course and work through.

And so, but we're at a place right now where it has, when the teachers have to call a sick out to get things, to get heard, we're at a critical mass point.

So I hope you take that seriously.

I will see you all in January.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Keisha Lashley and I live at 1030 Wesley Drive.

And so first off, I just want to say thanks to everyone who's here and everyone who's a part of this conversation.

My situation is a little bit different from other people in that we live in the county and we

bring our children to school in the city.

And there's a very specific reason why we do that.

For one thing, we started off with, my son is here at Charlottesville High in the 10th grade and he started off in one of the county schools and it wasn't a very good fit.

And part of the reason why we're attracted to the city schools is because of the level of diversity that's represented in these schools.

And there's racial diversity, there's also socioeconomic diversity,

and of course that brings with it all kinds of challenges.

But I think we have an opportunity to, if we can figure this out, it's an interesting social experiment and I think we have an opportunity to be stronger for it in so many ways.

What we're experiencing right here is a microcosm of the world and this is part of the reason why I want my children to have this experience.

In the past,

Few weeks, I've heard a lot about the need to engage with the teachers.

I agree with that.

I'm a teacher myself.

I'm an educator.

And I believe that that is critical.

We have to support our teachers.

We have to figure out what resources that they need so that they can be here and thrive in their jobs and they're not constantly putting out fires.

We've also heard a lot from parents.

I don't know to what extent the voices we've heard are representative of all the different parent groups.

The one voice that seems to be very silent from these conversations are those of the students and they're young people in a few years they're going to be in college in a few years after that they'll be in jobs and they have a lot of opinions and they also know

what's working and what's not working and I think we it's a missed opportunity to not engage them in the conversations because I think that there's a lot that they can contribute and so I spend a lot of time thinking about stakeholders and how to engage with different stakeholder groups and it seems like the place where we're at right now

We're reacting to many symptoms of a problem.

And I don't know what the problem is.

And of course, there are people who have been in this community much longer than I have been.

And so maybe you all have a better sense.

But I get the sense that it's much deeper than so kids are fighting.

Why are they fighting?

I mean, maybe it's because there's trauma, but why is there trauma?

And I think if we can get to the root cause of why some of these things are happening, why did the teachers call out sick?

Maybe part of it is violence.

I think we're jumping to a lot of conclusions.

So maybe there are other things, lack of resources, et cetera.

So again, I think we have an opportunity to really bring multiple stakeholder groups and not expect that the students are children who are incapable of speaking up for themselves because they are, we keep referring to them as kids.

They are kids.

but they're also, I would maybe even go so far to say that they know a lot more at their age than I did when I was their age because they're exposed to so much.

So I'm out of time, so I'll stop there.

Thank you very much.

Well, at this time, we will move to the next side of my agenda.

If you'd like to speak later on in the meeting, you have another opportunity to do so.

This time on special recognition from Ms.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The last time I will call you Mr. Chair and members of the board and Dr. Gurley.

Before I move on to recognitions, there was a question earlier about a news article that was on tonight.

And so while we're not going to be speaking to specifics about the issue, I do want to read just our statement so that if any folks have questions about how we handle any allegations that you can understand a little bit more about the process.

And my computer just died, and so I'm hoping Dr. Odie, I just shared a document with you.

I was afraid my computer might die, so I made a last-ditch share.

Our policies and practices are in alignment with Virginia State Code and Virginia School Board Association policy.

We take any reports, even third-hand reports, of sexual assault seriously, and we follow our policies, procedures, and legal obligations with fidelity and in careful consultation with legal counsel.

Charlottesville City Schools is in contact with the police department to address any concerns they may have and to continue strengthening our working relationship.

Because of confidentiality considerations, we will not comment on any specific situation.

All in favor?

Aye.

And I will continue with 7.1.

This is a completely different change of topic.

And so we're just going to take a deep breath.

But one vein of comment that we have heard from the community is that even during challenging times, they still want to lean into the joy.

They still want to remember the good things that Charlottesville City Schools is doing.

And in this case, we'll have to remember a long, long time ago.

But Charlottesville City Schools is going to set a historic wrong right this Friday night.

So on Friday night, I would like to invite the community to come cheer on the undefeated CHS boys and girls basketball teams.

And while I love a basketball game, something even more than two regular season games will be happening this Friday night.

We will be honoring the 2,001 CHS women's state champions.

And yes, you heard that correctly, 2,001 more than 20 years ago.

After a magical, undefeated state championship season and a state championship to wrap it all up, these women did not get the celebration, the respect, or the rings to which they were entitled.

So this Friday, thanks to the advocacy of champions Morgan Smith and Donna Churchman, and with the full support of Athletic Director Andy Jones, we are going to fix that.

And before we celebrate the estate championships, Charlottesville City Schools owes them an apology.

So, on behalf of Charlottesville City Schools, please accept our apologies for not celebrating you and not lifting you up in that moment or ever since then.

We hope that Friday night is wonderful.

That team was amazing.

You women are still amazing.

Thanks for representing Charlottesville High School so well.

The celebration of these state champions will take place between the boys and the girls game.

The girls game is at 6 o'clock and the boys game is at 730.

You can buy your tickets online at gocville.org.

Congratulations, CHS girls basketball team 2001.

Is there a motion?

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

Motion passed.

The next item we have is a disclosure item.

Yep.

I, Emily Dooley, declare that I have a personal interest in a transaction of the Charlottesville City's public schools for the reasons set forth below, but I believe I may participate in the deliberation and voting on the transaction as permitted by Virginia Code Sections 2.2-3112B1 and 2.2-3115H.

Specifically, one, the transaction in which I intend to participate is a vote on fiscal year 2024 budget amendment and authorization of an additional 2% increase, which includes pay to my spouse, a social science teacher at Beauford Middle School.

Two, by way of my association with my husband, I'm a member of a group of three or more, all employees of the school board, the members of which are affected by the budget, financial deliberations and approval,

and I'm able to participate in the budget deliberations and vote fairly, objectively and in the public interest.

Thank you, Mr. Linn.

Next on the agenda, we have two action items.

Ms.

Good evening school board members and Dr. Gurley.

Before you is an action item to amend the FY24 budget for additional state funding that we received to support the additional 2% raise.

Last month a presentation was given to you

Yes, Chair.

I move to amend the fiscal year 2024 budget in the amount of $1,163,914 for additional state funds for a total amended fiscal year 2024 budget of $107,957,902.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

There's another motion.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, I move to authorize an additional 2% raise to teachers and staff effective January 1st, 2024 as adopted in the state's amended budget.

All opposed?

Motion passed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Gurley, good evening.

During the November 1st board meeting, I introduced a policy revision for FFA, Naming of Facilities and Grounds.

In response to feedback received, we are proposing a revision to our recommendation.

Our updated suggestion is to preserve school names while utilizing a process to rename a school or grounds if at any time the school board deems the existing name inconsistent

with its vision, missions, goals, and values.

The recommendation specifies that no new facilities, rooms, or grounds should be named after individuals.

I would move this without the no new facility rooms or grounds shall be named after people.

Is there a second?

I think part of the 12 years that I've been on this board that has been most significant have been the names, the naming of the facilities that we have

Dawn, the football field, and Lugo McGinnis.

And I just, I remember seeing Ms.

Lugo at the opening of Lugo McGinnis.

Wait, was she there?

I'm sorry.

Remind me.

Ms.

No, Ms.

Lugo.

Alicia Lugo.

No, Nikki was at the opening.

Okay, yeah.

I remember when I was campaigning initially, I knocked on her door and it was just such a privilege to meet her.

So anyway, I just remember her presence in this community and also the football field had the same, we had a big conversation about naming the football field.

And that's why we ended up naming it after two people.

and it ended up

We had one nomination and me and Mr. Mickey and the school board at the time worked really hard at like, cause we had another person and their family say, well, what about this person?

And so we were like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do?

And it was difficult and we worked through it and we had, you know, we came up with the name that we did.

And I just feel like sometimes you just have to have a conversations with the community that are hard about these names.

and I just hope that we can, in the future, honor our community members that do such amazing work and really provide the foundation for so many of our students to thrive.

Anyway, I just have a lot of nostalgia for the work that we have done as a board over the past decade with the names that we have chosen

and I don't like the idea that we're closing that door for future school board members with this new policy.

And I'm sorry that I wasn't here last month to be able to make these comments.

So I apologize for this sudden change.

Ms.

I just like to add that we've gone back and forth about this a lot of times.

And I think the biggest hold up for me for naming it after individuals is that to be safe,

We throw out the opportunity to honor people who do reflect the values of the community in an effort not to upset those who will be disappointed if we change a name.

And so I believe that Charlottesville can continue to have hard conversations.

and if you think someone is worthy and that they have accomplished something that we would like to honor in the community that we absolutely can.

And if we look at a name and say that it no longer upholds the values or it was named at a time when I couldn't even attend schools here, that maybe that doesn't honor who we are anymore.

And I think that we can be adults and say that we don't have to penalize everybody

Wow.

So yeah, I think we may need to take a look at some of the wording of this again.

But my position is that while I support the idea of not naming

entire school buildings after a person.

I would like to preserve the ability to honor somebody for a room, a library, or something else.

I just think we're tying our hands too much to not allow ourselves to do that in any way, shape, or form.

Yeah, so I don't know if that reflects the current motion that's on the floor.

Is that what that is?

The current motion says, so basically there is a sentence under number two.

OK.

Yeah.

OK.

I'd support that.

But where are we in terms of the names of buildings after people?

Is that still here?

OK.

So Dr. Kraft, I definitely interpret facilities as buildings, but I think, you know, if you don't, that is interesting.

So I don't know.

Do you think facilities doesn't mean buildings?

I'm not sure what it means, actually.

I'd like to be clearer about it.

I think it could mean a lot of things, facilities.

Okay, but then it also includes rooms or rounds.

This, to me, this sentence means that there would be no naming anything after buildings.

Okay, you're removing that.

Mr. Morris.

I think the biggest thing for me is having consistency between facilities, rooms, grounds, in terms of if you're naming an after person or not.

I'm still processing the new facilities, but to be honest, I think I can go either way.

Ms.

Oh, I did.

I've already asked her.

Are we back with you?

No, I guess an in full transparency.

So there was some work or there was an opportunity that board members had to kind of do two by two to discuss this policy after our last meeting.

So if anybody had some thoughts about that to kind of give some input and in full disclosure, there were some things that conflicted.

with the time that I had slotted to meet with administration.

So I canceled my opportunity to have a sit down and to share thoughts because there were some more pressing things going on with the school division at the time.

So I'm not sure that I'm honestly prepared to weigh in on this.

I mean, the only questions I had was when you look at the definition of the word entity.

An entity could be a person.

So I don't know if that was intentional to use that word and to leave it open for consideration.

We do.

I just had a question.

I just want to make sure.

So I heard it was, you know, speak passionately about Lugo McInnis.

Based on the policy, Mr. Chair, we would be allowed to retain names of current buildings and facilities, buildings, all of those things.

as long as once they go through the process to examine the names, they meet the vision, mission, goals and values of the division of the board.

The previous the previous policy that was presented removed all names.

I mean, it's fine if you guys don't agree.

That's fine.

But we got to move on.

This is just this is I mean, we have been talking about this for a very long time.

Would you repeat your motion, Ms.

Okay, the only, so my, except the recommendation of the superintendent, which is the policy FFA, except for removing the line, no new facilities, rooms, or grounds shall be named after people.

Good, okay.

So, is there a second?

I second.

Okay, wait, who seconded?

I second.

Okay, you did?

Okay.

All right, all in favor?

All opposed?

Opposed?

No.

No.

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Ms.

Ms.

All right.

All right, we will now have items for discussion.

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Gurley.

Good evening again.

Over the past few months I've worked closely with a dedicated team of staff members including principals and coordinators to enhance the program of studies for the upcoming 24-25 school year.

I want to extend my gratitude to the entire team, many of whom are present tonight that you'll hear from for their collaborative efforts in refining and simplifying the document.

Our goal was to make it more user friendly and comprehensive for families.

This collaborative effort focused on maintaining consistent and clear language while eliminating unnecessary repetition throughout the document.

I'd also like to express appreciation to teachers and students who contributed their perspectives on what is needed in the program of studies.

Numerous internal conversations occurred during the preparation phase.

Additionally, the team developed streamlined processes for adding and removing courses to and from the program of studies.

All of these efforts were undertaken to enhance efficiency and facilitate a smoother experience for all stakeholders.

On this slide, you'll see that we've taken steps to align the program of studies with our new strategic plan.

As depicted here, I've emphasized priority one, which focuses on increasing academic achievement.

I've outlined the specific targets and strategies directly addressed there before you.

Next slide, please.

This evening I'll offer a concise overview of the program of studies, provide general updates, delve into recommended grading changes, introduce a novel tool referred to as the CCS Secondary Courses document, present specific school changes for your review, and address any questions you may have.

And we'll discuss next steps.

Next slide, please.

Our program of study serves as a comprehensive resource encompassing a catalog of academic career and technical and other elective courses within secondary education.

Additionally, it features an exhaustive list of electives that may be offered based on student interest and staffing availability.

Next slide.

Our team implemented various general updates to the program of studies, incorporating changes to course descriptions and course names.

Additionally, we revised several prerequisites, introduced guidelines on adding and dropping classes, and provided clarity on repeating a course.

Furthermore, we streamlined the document by consolidating some courses, creating a more user-friendly resource for students and families.

Next slide, please.

We are currently engaged in a task related to strategy six in our strategic plan, which involves a comprehensive review of grading practices within the division and the formulation of a grading policy.

To undertake this initiative, we have assembled a grading committee comprised of coordinators, supervisors, principals,

We're leveraging insights from Joel Feldman's Grading for Equity book.

I've got that here in case anybody wants to peek through it.

So we've been using his book as a book study and we've initiated multiple discussions on grading practices currently in place here within Charlottesville City Schools.

Notably, we currently lack a formal grading policy and our dedicated team is committed to developing one over the coming months.

The grading committee has identified an immediate concern related to the grading skill entrenched in our program of studies for many years as depicted here.

While all courses except for math, which employs standards-based grading, have adhered to this scale for an extended period, our committee has conducted extensive research examining grading scales in neighboring school divisions such as Albemarle and Louisa and even further away like Fairfax and Henrico.

Drawing insights from our book study, the committee recommends transitioning to a 10 point grading scale, aligning with the practice adopted by neighboring divisions.

Next slide, please.

As we embark on the development of a comprehensive grading policy encompassing clear explanations of how, when, and why students are assessed in outlining fair and equitable grading practices, our committee sought to implement this grading scale for the 2024-2025 program of studies.

The rationale for transitioning to a 10 point scale is presented here.

Our primary objective is to ensure fairness and equity for our diverse student body with varying learning styles.

By adopting this scale, we aim to enhance clarity and transparency, minimizing ambiguity in the grading practice processes.

Next slide, please.

Recognizing the imperative for alignment with standards, we have to back up one more, please.

Back up one more.

I think we went one.

Yeah, that's where we are.

Recognizing the imperative for alignment with standards is crucial to consider that our students often transition between school divisions.

Maintaining consistent grading scales becomes essential for accurately gauging student achievement.

Furthermore, aligning with other school divisions not only promotes equity, especially for our students pursuing higher education opportunities, but it also ensures our students have the same advantages as their counterparts in neighboring divisions.

Transitioning to a 10-point scale helps us mitigate potential bias, emphasizing the importance of grading practices reflecting students' academic achievements rather than external factors.

In the grander context, adopting a 10-point scale is a positive stride as we work on developing a comprehensive grading policy.

It contributes to fostering a healthier learning environment for students,

Reducing stress, improving the accuracy of our grading system and ensuring consistency and alignment with educational norms.

We anticipate presenting a finalized grading policy at the conclusion of the school year.

Next slide, please.

The grading committee also took on the task of creating an easily navigable document outlining pathways for students known as our CCS secondary courses document.

Parents can utilize this document to explore potential pathways for their students.

And I'll ask that you, if you could please click on the link so I can show an example there.

All right, so if you're able to see that, we'll talk a little bit about science.

If you look at the column, maybe scroll up a little, I'll talk about science.

A parent, a student can view the progression for science.

If you look going vertically, up and down, you look at science, grade six science is where our sixth graders would be, then grade seven life science, grade eight physical science, and so forth and so on as you go down looking at the options

for the student as they move through high school.

If you hover, just hover over a link there, then you see that it reveals prerequisites and descriptions.

And if a course is linked, users can actually access the actual curriculum framework from the Virginia Department of Education.

If you would please just click one of those, it takes you directly to the DOEs.

framework.

Hopefully it will take you there.

There, nope, let's try another one.

There we go.

It's showing on this screen for some reason and not that one.

But what I will share is that, there we go, it takes you, if you click on a link that is there, it takes you directly to the information that is shared from the Virginia Department of Education.

Now if there is no link, it is likely because it pertains to a local course.

It is not one that was designed by the VDOE.

We believe this document will serve, if you can go back to the presentation now, we do believe this document will serve as a valuable resource for students and families.

It is embedded in the program of studies, so families as they look at the program of studies, as they're scrolling through that document, they can also find that link right there for them to view.

Next slide, please.

All right.

At this time, we will have our principals come up to share their school-specific changes.

We'll start with Ms.

Thompson from Walker, then Mr. Jordan from Buford.

Jason Bennett will present for the high school.

Mr. Trotter is here, but there are no changes for LMA.

He can come up and say that or I can do that.

That's fine.

And lastly, we have Stacy Helts here to talk about K-Tech.

So we'll start with Ms.

All right, good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley.

Thank you for allowing me to present about Walker's changes, and I will be quick because there are only two of them.

Our first change is that we have officially included first and second year band and orchestra for our sixth graders as an actual course.

Separating them into those classes has been standard practice for quite some time, but we're now formalizing that in the program of studies.

And then our second change is that we've aligned our grading practices with those of Buford and CHS.

It's our goal to establish a consistent grading scale starting when students are in fifth grade so that before their grades actually count towards any sort of transcript or anything like that, they and their families are getting the same kind of feedback that they'll be getting from fifth grade all the way through graduation.

And that alignment also includes adopting a standards-based grading scale in our math classes.

So that's all I have for Walker.

Do you have any questions?

Okay, and if not, I will turn it over to Mr. Jordan.

Good evening, Mr. Chair.

Members of the school board, Dr. Gurley, I also only have two minor changes this year.

So as you know, back in the school year 21-22, we went to offering theater during the day to our

seventh and eighth grade students.

What we would like to do is offer a level one and level two option.

That is mainly because if we have eighth graders taking theater for the first time, that would be level one.

Right now it says theater seven and theater eight.

The other one we noticed in our work this summer and this fall that in the program of studies we have a Spanish two

Part one, but there is no part two.

So we just want to move the part one and at this time I'll take any questions.

Starting to my left.

So I just asked Mr. Jordan this question related to the math.

It's the pathway on the spreadsheet CCS secondary courses.

It indicates mathematics as pre-algebra seven, pre-algebra eight, but there is a pathway to go from pre-algebra

Yes, that is correct.

So we do offer algebra one to our seventh graders and our eighth graders, any student who is in pre-algebra seven.

can take Algebra I as an eighth grader.

We do have, each year we work on criteria for students to be able to take Algebra I as an eighth grader.

And so we will be sharing that information with parents in January.

And so students who meet the criteria do get to take Algebra I as an eighth grader.

And those

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Gurley, thank you for letting me be here tonight.

For the high school, we've got more than just two.

We have one that we are adding, which is unmanned aircraft systems two.

Last year, we added the first unmanned aircraft systems one.

And by adding this, this includes us to have more CTE completers and provide a sequential elective at the high school for students that are interested in aircraft engineering and mechanics.

Next slide, please.

In addition to adding the one course, we are recommending the removal of these four courses from the program of study.

The first concepts of lab science.

The state no longer recognizes that as a science course, and so we are going to be removing that.

Literacy lab has unintentionally tracked many of our students over time.

And students with disabilities will continue to be able to have access to that intensified reading instruction through a course of multi-sensory literary instruction.

But now our students are receiving reading intervention and support within our English classrooms, which allows all students to have access to the honors level curriculum.

The Survey of Foreign Films is a course that has not had student interest in the last five years.

And so without student interest, it's not something that we feel that we need to continue to provide.

And then lastly, Algebra 1, Part 2.

Currently, our students have access with disabilities to be able to take Algebra 1, Part 1.

But in order to move on in the math curriculum, the second course that they take would be Algebra 1.

So it is a sequence within our engineering department.

I just want to make sure we're doing it in a like, like not old school way.

Like, I mean, and are they doing it?

I mean, because I mean, are they learning programming or are they OK?

It's not just like.

It is, yes.

Because, you know, I just, I don't want it to be like, I want it to be, you know, are they going to competitions with this?

This was the first year for that.

So I'm sure if there are competitions, they would be interested in doing that.

Hi, hello.

Dr. Gurley, members of the board.

So Unmanned Aircraft Systems is, of course, they are learning drone mechanics, they are learning manufacturing, and they're getting out and getting their FAA pilot 107 remote certification, which allows them to actually get a job right out of high school with that certification and make really good money.

And so the second one will be more comprehensive with the curriculum.

They will be doing more map detailing.

They'll be surveying, doing more pictures and editing with their drones.

That's so fantastic.

And the framework.

I'm excited.

That's great.

Thank you for sharing.

Moving down the line, Mr. Dooley, Mr. Morris, anyone to my left?

Ms.

Turner, do you have anything?

She has Ms.

Turner.

I am really excited to see the push for more CTE courses.

Last year, I was an AVID-9 student.

This year, I'm also an AVID-10 student.

But last year, AVID-9 was a CTE course.

And my teacher was actually Ms.

Fitzgerald.

And I look up to her a lot as a leader.

And I'm very glad that there's been a push for more CTE courses because I think they're needed.

Because when I was

I wish that I had like family consumer science and you know because I really want to learn how to sew and grow my cooking skills and things like that so I'm glad that there is being a push for these courses.

That would be a question for Ms.

with the unmanned aircraft.

Yes.

So we offer workplace readiness for the entire CTE program in March.

So it is a school-wide test that we offer to all of our kids in addition to the FAA pilot 107 remote certification.

And they also do the college workplace readiness assessment plus the CWRA plus if they do not pass the workplace readiness or the FAA pilot 107.

Yes.

Ms.

Thank you.

So I was curious in our board advance, when we were talking a little bit about this, we talked about adding new classes like this could potentially affect staffing or other sections of classes.

With CTE courses, and this is something Ms.

Fitzgerald also could probably report on,

Some of our CTE requirements do have a cap on the amount of students that can take the courses.

And so when we're looking at student interest and when we do the course recommendations, in addition to what the overall needs of the building are, that's when those long, large conversations occur.

And that generally happens in the spring, but we try to drive the courses that we offer based upon student interest.

So the same instructor staff person who teaches level one would be teaching level two.

I mean I think that was brought up as a concern, right?

That would be correct, yeah.

Okay.

And then my other question would be back to the literacy lab.

Thank you for making eye contact with me on that one.

But I was curious, like how many students, I know that's probably changed a little bit since my student was here in the building, but how many students is that impacting?

And so those students were actually pulled out of class to work in that literacy lab.

That is correct.

In years past, we've had a variety of different levels of Literacy Lab in the past.

Those generally have been capped at about 10 students to keep it as a low number, and the amount of courses that we've offered for Literacy Lab has changed from year to year.

This year, we've not had any of those courses because we've shifted to provide that intervention from pulling those students out of an elective course or taking away a course that they could potentially choose to take

to getting those interventions with our reading specialists inside their English classroom.

For the literacy lab, it would depend upon the year.

We've had upwards of four six years ago to two years ago.

Dr. Kraft.

Ms.

I'd just like to add, it's nice to see more of the CTE classes being added to the curriculum.

And this is the last time you all will get to hear me say this, but I am an HR professional.

I can tell you that like a lot of these types of CTE courses, things with drones, what do you call it?

Geographic information systems and things like that are really picking up and

You know, there's one path toward it, getting the degree, and there's a lot that you can do with the CTE courses and getting a job right out of school and going that route.

I didn't have a, I'm sorry, misunderstood.

I don't have a question for Mr. Bennett.

Well, do you want to share them now?

So we have two more.

Okay.

Any more questions, Mr. Bennett?

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

This helps.

Are you up next?

Where's Mr Trotter?

Oh, Dr. Helps.

Good afternoon, board chair, school board members.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, school board, Dr. Gurley.

This evening, I will just touch on a few changes to the KTEC program of study.

The changes just reflect some minor tweaks to language due to the transition and the memorandum of understanding that is currently in the works.

And just to be transparent, there might need to be some

continued tweaks as we work through that.

But when I was working on it, that's kind of where we were at the time.

But I will say that the programmatic updates are just to reflect the current offerings.

And I'm actually not making any recommendations to changes to what we're offering currently.

This year, we have not offered auto body.

That program was dissolved.

at the end of last year.

Really, they were finding it difficult to place students in the workforce.

That pipeline just wasn't very helpful.

The businesses were not hiring students directly from high school, but that is in contrast to our auto tech course, which is highly popular.

The local businesses are really hiring our completers and such.

That program is actually being expanded and we're

taking the auto body lab and transforming it into another auto tech lab.

So we should be able to hopefully serve more students in that program.

And that is a two year program.

Our students do get ASE certified and some of them also end up with the being able to do state inspections, which those of the center board members that were there at our last meeting did hear from industry partners that that is highly valuable.

to our students entering the workforce.

Another course that was reflected previously in the program of study was embedded geometry.

That was mostly into carpentry.

And while there are many practical applications, they found that just having it as a course within a trade program was not

It was challenging from practice and practical standpoint.

Additionally, there were very few students who needed geometry when they got to KTEC.

So students are still applying that knowledge, but it's just not being offered as a course.

And then the last one is English 11.

Just due to our schedule, it's not being offered, but English 12, Government and Econ Personal Finance are the three academic courses that students are able to take at KTEC.

Thank you Dr. Helps.

Over here to my left Ms.

Well, maybe this is more of a general comment.

Now these changes sound really appropriate and fine, but I guess I'll just say this now that I, you know, this is one of the issues I think that this committee has done a great job.

And my concern is the calendar and the timing of having board discussion tonight, and then a vote with four new board members in January.

And I would just ask that there maybe be an opportunity before the board meeting, before they have to vote to sort of run them through this a little bit.

So to inform them a little bit more about the program of studies, the things that we're talking about tonight.

I'll just make a comment.

Dr. Helts, you're off the hook here.

I would like the division to consider other opportunities for embedded courses.

I see it as an opportunity to progress and move education forward.

I think there are a lot of different opportunities that we can take courses that have a natural fit.

One of the courses that I've seen done previously is Social Studies and English.

I just think there are opportunities that we can have another, excuse me, we can have another

All right, thank you.

Thank you to all of those wonderful folks that helped with the presentation tonight.

And again, thank you to our full committee on the work that they have done to prepare our program of studies.

I do have a question.

In the program of studies, we have a grading policy or the grading scale.

Thank you, Ms.

Dooley.

We have a grading scale, but we're going to have a future policy before the end of the school year.

I will tell you that most policies that I've seen don't necessarily have the grading scale in the policy.

It's separate, maybe in regulations.

If you look at, for instance, at Albemarle's policy, the grading scale is not there, so

We haven't had a grading policy, but we had a grading scale.

So I think that this.

If we remove it, the program of studies is approved before the school, of course, in January, typically.

I think my excuse me.

I think my hesitation with moving forward with the grading scale is it doesn't include the board's vision for a grading policy.

Okay.

I would just like the board to consider, to think about

what it would look like and maybe I don't want to expedite the committee, but I do think we need to have voice from the board of what we intend or what our expectations of a grading policy before it all gets put into a program of studies and printed off and et cetera.

And I think it could just create confusion.

And I don't want the committee to feel as though they've done a lot of work.

And then at the last moment, we've decided to change it because

Any other questions or concerns?

um correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I thought we had a grading policy like it was like you can have or is that just in the schools that we have a grading policy you probably have grading practices okay that the high school uses okay we don't have a division policy okay and that's what we're gonna work to create

Okay, because I think this is when I was in eighth grade, but like, we're able to have like unlimited retakes on like any sort of test in our quizzes.

But but now that like, actually makes a lot more sense, since not a lot of teachers at least here and even some of my teachers don't follow the grading policy that we have set in place.

So that that does make a lot more sense.

I do, yeah, thank you.

I'm speaking towards the strategic plan.

It calls for, I have mine floating around here somewhere.

Planning, the strategic plan calls for the equity grading policy to be in implementation next year, which aligns with this program of studies.

I concur.

Thank you.

I just, I agree.

I mean, I thought that's what you were referencing was the work that was done in the strategic plan.

I welcome a conversation about grading, a hundred point scale when we only use half of it drives me nuts.

So on the surface, I'm not opposed to amending the 91 to 100 piece, like a full 10 point across the board for what we have in place right now seems fine.

but certainly I understand like instead of moving forward with printing something that we might then change like I did look at Albemarle County's both their grading policy and their program of studies and they don't have a grading scale in their program of studies so I don't know that that would be a problem to just remove you know approve the program of studies from the programmatic portion but

Let's not move forward with the grading policy included.

And then I'm having a little bit of trouble with the spreadsheet.

And as I'm hovering over things, the link is covering the notes and whatever.

So I need to do that on a different screen.

But to, I guess, Mr. Jordan and Ms.

Thompson, if they're still here.

My big concern is just especially around upper elementary and middle school and the idea of prerequisites for especially elective courses.

The whole point, I think, of those grades is to be exploratory and to have access.

And so again, when I can look at this more clearly, hopefully it will say that.

Those prereqs will also be in the actual program of studies document, too.

This is just two different ways of looking at the courses, whether you look at the 100-page document.

Did you all understand the question?

I don't think they understood what your question was.

Thank you.

I just had, because this is my last program of study and it's one of my favorite topics ever and I just have two thoughts that I would like to leave this board and this community with and just think continue to be my like love language or one is algebra by eighth grade.

I just really feel passionate about

ensuring a pathway for all of our students to have algebra by eighth grade and I feel like we've kind of stepped back from that goal a little bit by kind of having

All of these criteria for making sure that our kids, I'm fine with having pre-algebra in seventh grade, that's great, but I want to make sure that the goal is still algebra by eighth grade for all of our students.

I don't know how we get there, I just feel like we need to continue to that goal that is the international norm and we need to keep that goal in mind.

I have not been successful in 12 years at me getting there, so good luck.

But I really think that that needs to continue to be the goal.

It needs to start in kindergarten and it needs to continue up.

It's just the standard.

We cannot do unmanned remote drones without having really good math skills that continue on into the high school and into college.

And if you have good math skills, you can

really get very far.

That is well documented.

The other

The thing that has always been a passion of mine is foreign language.

Obviously, years ago, I definitely was sat on the board that did vote to take the foreign language teachers out of our elementary schools.

And the reminder from Mr. Jordan today about the Spanish one, part two,

or whatever it was that we are taking out of the program of study is just a reminder that

I mean, I get that we are trying to continue to have to engage our students in education and just giving them opportunities to enjoy school and like find their passions at school.

And that's great.

And I think what Ms.

Dooley says is right about like not gatekeeping and just like finding a way, you know, finding a way for them to, you know, really engage with all of this stuff so that they can

find passion in school.

But foreign language, I mean, we have so many foreign languages at the high school.

It's kind of fascinating.

For my fifth grader, you know, she's taking a one semester class.

She's in fifth grade.

She's taking a one semester class that she I don't think she can take another foreign language again until seventh grade.

And to me, that is just like in our forward thinking, progressive community is just shocking to me.

And I'm a little, you know, just I, I'll take the hit.

Like, obviously, I was on the board.

I've been on the board for a long time.

This has certainly been on my

This is me.

You know, this is what we did as a community and as a school board, but we need to continue to think about the future, think about our role as an international player.

This is Charlottesville, right?

We're always going to have a need for foreign language and

Our students, no matter what, are going to need to find a way to engage with our foreign language.

And it's just our job, I think, to make it interesting, make it interesting and fascinating and engage our students with the foreign language.

Our fifth graders are actually really enjoying that Spanish class.

Don't get me wrong.

And we can continue that trend.

And so that by the time they're in seventh grade, they can take the part one or part two, whatever it is,

so that they can be successful.

And it's not just the one population of children.

It's not just the one socioeconomic strata.

You know, it's just not one type of child.

We have engaged all of the children so that they are all kind of interested in it and they think it's possible.

And then they can get that much closer to the advanced degree.

These are all things I think as a school division, I would hope that we continue to keep our eye on because math and foreign language are just always going to be so fundamentally important.

So that's my always will continue to be my passion.

And I'm very grateful.

Thank you, Mr. Peeve.

Dr. Odie, I just have one concern.

in regards to the program of study, because I do know that shortly after the holidays, high school counselors will shift to program mode, calling students in to do their courses for next year.

So I guess my concern would be if you print the program of studies without the grading scale, what would you do after?

Because they're going to have to confer to that.

That's what we do.

We refer to that program of studies in terms of doing program planning with students.

Well, if it is the board's will that we remove the grading portion from the program of studies, then we would just add it as regulations when we do the policy.

that that's an option there that we can have a totally separate document.

It needs to be available for students and teachers and families to know, you know, what is it that I need to do to to earn an A in this course?

Thank you.

Any other questions in regards to that?

Okay.

So this is for information only.

It is for action in January so that our high school counselors can get to get to work with our students.

All right.

Thank you, Dr. Odey.

Good evening again, board chairs, school board members, Superintendent Gurley.

Overview, I apologize.

I first would like to start with a quick story of one of our students on his way to school last night, to night school.

He came in and he was a little fluttered.

He was upset.

And him and I got into a conversation and he ended up leaving out the door, not because of my conversation, but because of what took place before that.

I called mom, let mom know that we were concerned, wanted to make sure he got home safely, let her know we would do a home visit to make sure he's back at school today.

Upon arrival, I spoke with a young man.

I said, well, what was the problem?

He said on his way to school, the streets were talking, and that's why he was upset.

And so he was also upset with me because he knew I was coming to his house at eight o'clock this morning and he had to get up to do chores.

I say that because our plan in night school is to one, make sure that students have a voice and to feel that we do care about them and to equally know that we are communicating with parents to let parents know ultimately what our goal is for student success with our students.

So I wanted to first open up with that.

If we can move to slide two, please.

Slide two just basically outlines our strategic plan with our priority of increasing academic achievement.

And with that, we will continue to address the particular targets and strategies that are outlined by maintaining the graduation rate.

Even though our young people are coming from CHS, the goal is absolutely the same for them to mirror exactly what happens at night school as well.

Equally the target number two is for 100% graduating those students.

And then as you see noted with the strategic, excuse me, strategy one and two to continue to enhance the academic advising support as well as creating a system of personalized college and career plans.

Ms.

Phelps, our school counselor,

We'll take the lead on that as students come into our night school program.

That equally is aligned with what the school counselor has already done at CHS.

Night school is a mirror of CHS, so we are talking and communicating with those counselors as students come into night school.

Here you will see our program overview of why Knight School, who are our students, which I kind of changed that, what is the profile of a Knight, days and operations, our Knight School staff, as well as our student resources, instructional programming, and other related services, as well as next steps.

Next slide, please.

Why night school?

Night school is equally important because we plan to do several things.

One, we first plan to address the smaller class sizes.

We want students to be able to maximize teacher-student engagement through discussions, peer groups, as well as projects.

It's important because as we began our orientations, many of the students said they felt overwhelmed, they were in a bigger environment, and they wanted something a lot smaller.

So we first want to make sure that we are maximizing class sizes and then equally looking at setting the opportunity for students to have the opportunity to change.

That's going to be a two-fold environment.

We want to meet students who need an environment that is less stimulated and equally students having the opportunity to learn from one another and as well as build relationships with those staff and students.

and ultimately looking at our dropout as aligning with our strategic plan, addressing those students that may potentially be on the cusp of dropping out or over age and under credit and addressing those measures there.

We also want to make sure that students that are at risk have the opportunity for counseling services and supports where they are able to overcome particular challenges.

One of the areas of measures that we want to do is make sure, as it was outlined earlier,

is by having those peer groups with possibly having Miss Bianca Johnson come in to do peer groups, mediations, and things like that should those be areas of concern.

Next slide, please.

So who are our students?

We are looking at students who have not met the success within the academic setting.

Students that, again, are on the cusp of dropping out, students that are falling behind in credits and making sure that what we do is we equally are supporting those students.

So as they come in the door, we're looking directly at their transcripts and we're putting those students either in that English course or potentially that math course for them to receive that individualized support from the

We'll hear more about that as we talk about the instruction.

Looking at the personalized learning plans or needs, each student walking in our door at night school has a different particular need.

Some just have the need where you give me my math assignment with Mr. Great on edge annuity, put me in a corner, I'm good to go.

But then we also have students that need Ms.

Faulkner that is able to sit down with the student over in a corner and being able to work with that student individually for them to feel success.

We also want to make sure that our students feel that they have a second chance when they come to night school.

Like the young man that I experienced yesterday afternoon, him making sure that at the end of the day that he comes back even though the streets are talking or that there has been a particular negative encounter with someone on the way to school, that he has that second chance to feel successful.

Next slide, please.

Here you will find our hours of operations.

We have already began night school, and we are honing into our second week.

And so we are Monday through Thursday from 3.45 to 6.45 at Lugo McGinnis.

Next slide, please.

Here you will find the staff that currently support tonight's school.

I would just like to plug that these staff members are working at two of our other locations and they're coming over at the end of their shift.

And so here you have those outlined.

Next slide, please.

And that's just a picture of our team.

I do want to highlight two of our staff members that I know are in the building, Mr. Patterson, as well as Ms.

Williams is in the building.

And you also heard from Mr. Grady.

And so this is a stellar team that we are launching and loving on kids over at Lugo McGinnis.

So when we look at the student resources, you have those here, we are working very much in depth with Ms.

Sarah Morton with our Virginia Career Works.

And so what we want to do with that particular program with our young people is address several objectives that that program has outlined.

And that is to provide an emphasis on equipping students with those particular soft skills so that they are able to navigate in those workspaces.

and as well as focusing on adaptable skills for diverse workspaces and having a level of accountability for various metrics.

Additionally, we are partnering with our K-UP where we plan to have about 10 to 15 students work in that particular program where they are having performance-based stipends in that particular agency.

We have our Hooroo program that also supports us at LMA during the day, and so that is where we have one of our representatives to come to speak to our young people

not only about financial literacy but also about mentoring, having the correct attitude when confronted with negative behaviors.

Next we have our Rise Above which is a trauma-informed social emotional learning program and that particular program is driven through Region 10 and so we are working with all of these particular student resources to

Make sure each one has the necessary assets to be successful.

And finally, we're having a partnership with UVA with our DBT skills in schools.

And so these are various modules that Ms.

Phelps, our school counselor, will be working with our students on as it relates to interpersonal skills, dealing with trauma and measures of the like.

Next slide, please.

So our instructional programming, as mentioned earlier, is very simple but yet complex because each student is different.

We're continuing with that face-to-face instruction that is paramount.

We are, again, capitalizing on that edge annuity portion there.

And we also have Ms.

Faulkner, who is working with our students with disabilities.

I would just like to say that with our particular students, we are still following

each particular education plan, making sure that goals and objectives and measures are supported there as we work with our particular students.

We want to equally lean heavily on project-based instructions where students have the chance to show us what they know in that aspect.

Next slide, please.

And so with our related services for other students, we have transportation not only for home, but also for pickup.

Many of our students, they may live in the walking zone area.

And so between Mr. Williams and us using our school car, we make sure that students are picked up as well as taken home.

We also do have the opportunity for the activity bus.

So as our enrollment continues to increase, we work with our transportation department and we're making sure that there is a bridge between the activity bus for pickup.

We do have hot meals Monday through Wednesday, but not only that, Mr. Williams and myself are also diligently working in our kitchen to have and provide lunches as well with our staff and things of that nature.

And so we do have cold meals on Thursday.

Next slide, please.

And so what are our next steps?

We will continue to identify those students who benefit from the night school program.

Myself, working with the high school here, the ultimate goal is that we have a soft handoff.

So I'm coming over to make sure that these young people have a name with a face.

So when we get to the table for orientation,

Mom and student potentially already know who those faces are.

One of the positives is that the staff that is working at night school as the students transition from the high school, they will already know many of our staff, Mr. Patterson, Ms.

Williams, Ms.

Hawley.

And so that equally is a bridge that helps with easing any tension, any concerns that occur.

We are going to continue to monitor each student's progress through that learning plan, making sure we're following the alignment of credits as well as what each individual plan is accepted.

And finally, the consideration of expansion possibilities, and I'll say this word three times, location, location, location.

So as we expand, we will continue to be at the support of the board.

Next slide.

Thank you, Mr. Trotter.

Okay, I'll start over to my right.

Ms.

McKeever, I think that we left the last time.

Ms.

Ms.

I'm at the risk of redundancy.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

You know, I'm just really

Happy to have another avenue for students to help students find success and the possibility to have a place for students where we can intervene before they're really hitting the depths of not being successful in the traditional comprehensive setting.

And so, I think our ultimate goal would be to have this kind of program available to

Every high school student.

But until we have all the funds to do that, you know, I think this is one step in the right direction.

Mr. Morse.

I'm going to be redundant.

I would just like to say thank you for what you're doing.

You are boots on the ground, cooking, making meals.

And when I knocked on the door to ask everyone in the building, like the people I saw, everyone was happy.

The kids are happy to be there.

And it was just a very welcoming environment.

And a lot of kids we keep hearing go there and they don't want to go back, that they enjoy it.

So much.