School Board Meeting   5/2/2024

Good afternoon, everybody.

I want to welcome everybody to Charlottesville City Schools School Board meeting today being May 2, 2024.

Appreciate everybody being here.

And if you would now join me in a moment of silence.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Yes, Madam Chair.

Ms.

Burns?

Here.

Ms.

Cooper?

Here.

Ms.

Dooley?

Here.

Ms.

Richardson?

Here.

Ms.

And Ms.

Allen?

Here.

Any questions?

All in favor, please say yes.

Yes.

Any opposed?

Great, thank you so much.

We are now at our first opportunity for comments from members of the community.

We do have a podium up here.

Derek Hartline, 1517 Antoinette Avenue, lifetime Charlottesville resident

Good evening board members, Dr. Gurley, and student rep Raquel Allen, former student of mine.

I'm here before you this evening to discuss a three-sentence paragraph in the CCS April News Highlights that came out last Thursday.

This easy-to-overlook news stated that the school name changes for Clark and Venable will go into effect this fall.

The name changes for the two elementary schools occurred back in December 2020.

That was 17 months ago.

Lots of time has passed and lots of changes have occurred to the policy.

At the December 2023 meeting, a five to two vote was made allowing schools to be named for individuals.

This is a far cry from the committee's original plan in the fall of 2020.

Since the decision to consider name changes, the cost of the taxpayers of Charlottesville has yet to be stated, but asked many times before the previous board.

With a 2025 school budget that has a net decrease in revenue funds, I'm unsure how any money can be allocated to name changes.

The council's appropriation to the schools of $74 million is still $2 million less than what you were asking, yet it makes up for almost a third of the entire city's budget.

In order for the city to pass their budget, real estate, meal, personal property, and lodging taxes all had to be increased.

City residents expect the money you are receiving to go toward necessary investments.

Students are taught early on in first grade to prioritize needs over wants as part of their SOLs.

I would hope that the school board will do the same.

Investing funds into people and safety should be the top priority and is far more important and necessary than money being spent on changing letters to billions.

I have mentioned before that any name change is this close to what will surely be another unprecedented presidential election is just absurd.

Polling locations already just changed this past election year, but only 36% of the registered voters in Charlottesville turned out in November, so many have still not experienced this change.

By changing the name of schools in the fall, you risk disenfranchising voters who typically show up in larger numbers, especially in a major election year.

If the city schools

have already waited 17 months to do anything with the two elementary schools' names.

Postponing any action until after the election isn't going to hurt anything or anyone.

You can also help avoid the unnecessary cost of the city by not having to resend out new voter cards yet again this year as both Clark and Venable are polling locations.

Lastly, given that the new board has not been brought up to speed on the ongoing controversy over school name changes, it seems fitting that any name changes, especially those that are affecting polling places, be revisited entirely at a later date and time so more pressing issues and concerns can take the forefront of the board's attention by spending time and money more wisely.

Thank you, sir.

Is there anybody else here in the media center that would like to come up?

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

My name is Peter Davis.

I teach here at Charlottesville High School.

I just wanted to express my excitement I guess for one of the items on the agenda tonight for acknowledging the CEA's representation of the support personnel for educational support personnel that the voting took place a couple weeks ago and I think

I'm not here necessarily to speak on behalf of all of our custodians and our CSAs and nutrition workers.

But I can speak from my experience of helping them walk through the voting process a couple weeks ago here at Charlottesville High School.

And everyone that I talked to was ecstatic about it.

They were so excited to have a chance to have a place at the table as far as bargaining goes.

I just wanted to just express that.

And the excitement that I have for that, the appreciation I have to be working in Charlottesville where we get a chance to actually embark on these kinds of things and figure these things out as we go and work together.

So thank you for that.

And yeah, I think as we go forward, I know when we get into the nitty gritty of all the bargaining, we won't always agree on every single line item that we talk about and things.

But I think we can all agree that better

Safer, happier working conditions for all of us leads to a better experience for all of our students.

And that's what we all want in the end.

So just wanted to put that out there.

Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Anybody else here in the media center?

Anybody online?

I have a user with the last name of T-H-O-M-A-S.

I'm going to press them to the stage.

Hi, good afternoon, members of the board.

My name is Tamika Thomas.

I am a displaced resident of Charlottesville City who has students at Clark Elementary School.

And I came to this board meeting looking for some assistance and answers with a challenge I'm having with the school regarding my son's disability and procedures being taken for long-term suspension.

I tried to contact the offices.

I don't even know if this is the platform, but Dr. Gurley, your name was mentioned and they indicated that you were in the school board meeting.

And I think this is important.

I don't think I represent just myself.

I think I represent a lot of parents who struggle with children with behavioral and emotional disabilities in the school.

And I'm having a very rough time right now with,

procedures.

And I know some of it is subjective to what I feel his support should look like and what the schools are able to offer.

But the one thing that I can't get past is some of the procedures being taken when it comes to long-term suspensions and when it conflicts with state law.

So I don't know, again, the platform.

I think I'm speaking for more than just myself.

But I think when there is a state code in place that says that a parent should be notified for certain things, I think that there isn't anything that should happen differently.

So I'm just looking for some directive for myself on how I handle this going forward.

I'm not looking for a fanfare in this.

Ms.

Thomas, we will, someone from, I'm familiar with the situation and Dr. Odey and Ms.

Thank you so much, Dr. Gurley.

Like I said, I just looking, don't know where to go.

I'm dealing with some administrators and I just, you know, one thing that doesn't change is go to Virginia.

And that part I'm really struggling with, that I was not notified, my child was recommended for long term suspension, but I was fast forward into a meeting for

All right.

Please come forward to the podium.

Hi, so my name is Josie and I'm a senior at Charlottesville High School.

I'm Lila and I'm a sophomore at CHS.

And we're members of Green Bacon, which is Charlottesville's Environmental Club.

And we're both really passionate about conservation at Charlottesville High School.

We understand that you have adopted the Energy and Water Performance Resolution, which advocated for clean energy in schools.

We believe that solar panels would be the perfect addition to make this clean energy proposition a reality.

It's clear that the CHS student population is vastly in favor of solar panels.

And so we urge you to do what you can to implement solar panels on CHS and the other city schools.

Thank you.

Would you like to leave that with the clerk?

Thank you.

Anybody else?

OK, if not, we're going to move on.

There is another opportunity towards the end of the meeting for comment.

We will now move to comments.

Well, we got some students and I don't know if Miss Allen, this is your first opportunity and we are so grateful that you're here.

Yes, thank you.

My name is Raquel Allen.

I'm a senior here.

First, I want to say thank you for allowing me to be here today.

One thing I will say, as far as a thank you to staff and just the students in the school system, after the reset, coming to school has felt quite nice.

It's good to see people in the community say,

Oh, you go to CHS.

You know, you had a 27-1 season.

That felt good.

I want to thank everybody that's here for the support that y'all gave us throughout the season.

It was hard to talk about at first, but now I feel like I can get it off my chest.

So I just want to say thank you for that.

I did have one kind of proposal this evening.

2019 in eighth grade, I didn't get to finish my year.

also never got a documentation saying that I finished eighth grade.

That's something that's weighed on my heart heavy.

I feel like we're the last COVID class to graduate.

2020, my cousin graduated and had a drive around for graduation.

One thing I talked about today with Dr. Johnson was maybe a new system that could be involved in the coming years.

But wristbands for graduation, you show up with your ticket.

I see this year we have long seating.

So if you have under the pavilion seating, you get an orange wristband to go along with your orange ticket.

If you have lawn seating, you have a green ticket to go along with your lawn seating.

Students, they will be held accountable at lunch to sign up for a ticket.

What it involves for students is more so

If you have a student ticket you will have to stand up or either bring your own chair and to make sure that you hold yourself accountable of keeping up with that ticket one and two making sure that you sign up for it during lunch.

I know a lot of times as we're trying to build this community back at CHS it's important that we get involved with all events

and I feel like graduation is one of those events.

I know as a senior something that upset me was I couldn't graduate at JPJ as that's the traditional way up until COVID hit and then now you see Monticello and Albemarle going back to JPJ is kind of like dang I wish that was us but we're fortunate enough to still have a place to graduate so I'm forever thankful for that.

So just trying to make the best of what we do have and making the best of having our community join us.

So if you're in a seat

Say you're in a seat and you have on a green ticket, that means you're not supposed to be sitting there.

So having more community members there, that may help the traffic come in and out.

And I mean, we have a great community.

We've seen that all basketball season.

We've seen that after basketball season.

And again, that's something that me and my teammates are so thankful about.

Miss Amanda Burns and Dr. Gurley, you know, they were by our side every step of the way.

And I'm just appreciative of that.

But graduation being my next big step, I just want to make sure that everybody who was a part of my graduation, everybody who was a part of my success is able to experience that experience with me because I've lost a lot, but I've gained a lot with the people surrounding me.

Thank you for that.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Gurley, members of the board.

I'm here for three recognitions tonight.

So first, I just wanted to recognize that April was Autism Acceptance Month.

So we just take this opportunity to raise awareness and promote autism acceptance, celebrate the neurodiversity in our community and the individual differences amongst our students.

And just want to let you know that we pledge to continue advancing inclusion for students with disabilities.

April was also occupational therapy month, so OT is more than just handwriting.

Our occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistant focus on the things that our students want and need to do in their daily lives.

Occupational therapy uses everyday life activities to promote health and well-being and increases our students' abilities to participate in academics as well as play.

And then finally, on April 8, we will celebrate our school nurses for School Nurse Appreciation Day.

So our school nurses are acting as liaisons between the school, community, families, and students.

For many of our students, they're the most accessible health care provider that they have.

They serve on our school-based teams to promote the health and wellness of all of our students.

Our school nurses understand the impact, the link between health and learning.

And they support that in their daily interactions with students.

And our school nurses really do have a lasting impact on the health and well-being of our students with chronic and acute illnesses.

And that's sometimes not something that you just see every day.

But if you spend a few moments in one of our clinics, you'll see the lasting impact that they have.

and so we'll celebrate them on May 8th.

Thank you, Ms.

Raznick.

Madam Chairmember, members of the board and Dr. Gurley, good evening.

Didn't mean to come through that loud.

As we enter May, a month brimming with celebrations, as my colleague just recognized, from Mother's Day to commencement ceremonies, it's crucial that we take a moment to honor our incredible teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Recognized in the first full week of May, this year's observance falls from May 6th through May 10th.

In a recent proclamation, Governor Youngkin highlighted the dedication of Virginia's outstanding educators who enrich our communities with their commitment and compassion.

While I won't read the entire proclamation that he shared, I'd like to highlight a few key descriptors of our teachers.

One, trusted, respected professionals.

and other two providers of high quality, innovative learning experiences.

Three collaborators with parents to support each student's unique journey towards success, irrespective of a child's zip code, income, or background.

And the final one, but not all, our facilitators who help students reach their full potential.

These points merely scratch the surface of what our teachers accomplish daily as they work tirelessly with our students, families, and communities.

This week, and indeed every day,

and we're looking at actually next week and indeed every day let's make a concerted effort to thank our teachers for their invaluable contributions to shaping futures.

We appreciate them immensely for all that they do.

and then we'll move on to another group of very special people that we will celebrate and that is those folks are our school lunch heroes.

Tomorrow, May 3rd is school lunch hero day when we celebrate the dedicated professionals in our cafeterias who do so much more than serve meals.

These remarkable individuals provide nutritious food with a smile, ensuring our students are fueled for learning and growth every school day.

Their commitment goes beyond the kitchen.

They create a warm and welcoming atmosphere that makes our school cafeterias feel like extensions of our students' homes.

With each tray they prepare, they nourish the bodies, minds, and spirits of our young learners.

These unsung heroes play a crucial role in the educational experience, offering kindness and encouragement along with balanced meals.

Tomorrow but truly every day we recognize their unwavering dedication and the positive impact they have on every child who walks through the cafeteria doors.

Let us all take a moment to express our gratitude for their hard work and the pivotal role they play in our schools.

Their service is a vital part of our educational system and we honor them as our school lunch heroes.

And we have another group that we're going to recognize.

And those are our administrative professionals.

On Administrative Professionals Day, which was actually last Wednesday, April 24th, we paused to recognize and celebrate the invaluable contributions of our administrative staff.

These individuals are the backbone of every successful organization, seamlessly managing day-to-day operations that keep everything running smoothly.

Their expertise in organization, multitasking, and problem solving is essential, enabling the rest of the team to focus on their own responsibilities.

Whether it's scheduling, data management, or customer service, their diverse skills and tireless efforts are truly the glue that holds our offices together.

This day served as a wonderful opportunity to express our gratitude for the hard work and dedication of our administrative professionals.

It was a chance to acknowledge their pivotal role in our professional lives, often going above and beyond to support every function of our organization.

So let's make sure they feel appreciated, not just on the actual assigned day, but every day.

Their positive attitudes, commitment, and professionalism deserve our deepest thanks and recognition.

And Ms.

Thacker, if you could move to the principal slide.

Yes, thank you.

National Principals Day.

This week, school divisions across the nation celebrated National Principals Day.

That was yesterday, May 1st.

We extend our sincerest appreciation to the extraordinary leaders who guide our schools with passion, dedication, and vision.

Principals play a pivotal role in fostering a positive school culture, promoting academic excellence and supporting the growth and development of both students and staff.

Their unwavering commitment to educational excellence and their tireless efforts to create safe, inclusive, and nurturing learning environments are instrumental in shaping the future of our students and communities.

This week we celebrate the hard work, resilience, and leadership of our principals who serve as beacons of inspiration and guidance for all.

Their visionary leadership, innovative ideas, and unwavering commitment to student success inspire us all to strive for greatness.

Let us take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to our principals for their outstanding contributions to education and for their tireless dedication to the betterment of our schools and the lives of our students.

Thank you, CCS principals.

And now we'll go back to our Golden Apple Award winners.

We want to pause to celebrate these great teachers that are in our schools.

Celebrating the recipients of the Golden Apple Award is a heartwarming opportunity to recognize the exceptional educators who go above and beyond in their commitment to fostering educational excellence.

These outstanding teachers are celebrated for their innovative teaching methods, their ability to inspire students, and their dedication to professional growth and development.

Their unwavering passion for education not only enhances their classrooms, but also profoundly impacts the lives of their students, setting a standard of excellence in our school community.

The Golden Apple Award symbolizes a pinnacle of teaching achievement, reflecting the hard work, creativity, and perseverance of its winners.

As we honor these remarkable educators, we are reminded of the crucial role teachers play in shaping the minds of future generations.

Let us take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for their contributions, which leave lasting imprints on their students.

their recognition is well-deserved and it encourages all educators to continue striving for excellence in their classrooms.

The Golden Apple winners are shown here for 2024.

Alton Coleman for Buford, Teresa Amasia for Burnley Moran, Matt Richardson at K-Tech, Matthew Miller at CHS, Madeline Hermsmeyer at Clark,

Katherine Rogers at Greenbrier, Rachel Lieb at Jackson Viya, Kelly Walters at Johnson, Megan Greenwood at Venable, Edward Cash at Walker.

Let's celebrate these heroes in education for their incredible service and dedication.

and we will celebrate them formally with Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nunnally who sponsor the award on May 8th of this year.

Thank you for all.

I think.

There we go.

All right.

Thank you.

And now we have a disclosure.

Ms.

Here we go.

OK.

I, Emily Dooley, declare that I have a personal interest in a transaction of the Charlottesville City 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 deliberation regarding and vote on the Charlottesville City School Board's operating budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which includes pay to my spouse.

Two, my personal interest in the transaction stems from my husband's employment by the Charlottesville City School Board as a social science teacher at Beauford Middle School.

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

And four, I am able to participate in the budget deliberations and vote fairly objectively and in the public interest.

It is my intention to orally disclose the existence of this interest during each meeting of the Charlottesville City School Board, at which the twenty four twenty five operating budget is discussed and ask that each such disclosure be recorded in the respective meeting minutes.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Any questions, comments?

All in favor, please say yes.

Yes.

Any opposed?

All right.

All right.

We will get some action going.

Ms.

Hi, good evening.

Any questions, discussion?

As a reminder, this was presented last month.

All right.

Any opposed?

All right.

Good evening.

I am here to present the election results and certification of the collective bargaining for support personnel.

On March the 28th, it was certified at 6 p.m.

that a total of 114

114 members of the support staff participated in the election to have the Charlottesville Education Association represent them in their bargaining unit.

95.61% of the members of those who voted, cast a ballot in favor of the Charlottesville Education Association representing them.

Seeing that they have now certified, if you all will signal the next step in this by acknowledging, affirming the certification results.

All right, I would move that we approve CEA as the exclusive representative of our professional support professionals bargaining unit.

Any questions, comments?

Any opposed?

All right.

All right.

Next, we will have the budget amendment by Ms.

Good evening, Chair Torres, Dr. Gurley, and school board members.

This evening, I will present the budget amendments to the fiscal year 2025 budget.

This presentation will cover revenue and expenditure amendments to the FY 2025 adopted budget.

We're asking the school board to take action on these amendments so staff can proceed with teacher and staff contracts for next year.

The school board adopted the fiscal year 2025 budget on February 22 of 2020-24.

The adopted budget was based on the governor's proposed budget presented in December of 2023 and an ask from the city of $9,023,574.

The General Assembly adopted the conference budget on March 9

For VDOE's Calc Tool, the school division will receive an additional $1,395,258.

I just want to note, this is not the final state budget.

The governor and negotiators of the General Assembly agreed to set aside the proposed budget and reconvene in May for a special session.

If there are any significant changes to the state revenues, such as less state revenue than budgeted, we'll have to look at the fund balance to cover it.

If the change is positive, more state revenue, then we'll evaluate the best uses of those funds.

We are basing the revenue amendment on the conference budget because we need to move forward with the FY 25 budget to prepare and send out next year's

contracts for teachers and staff.

The city adopted their budget on April 15th with an annual increase in city appropriations to the schools for seven million.

This is a decrease of $2,023,574.

These changes are an overall net decrease in revenue of $628,316.

Next, I will go through the changes to the budget expenditures.

This slide shows the expenditures that had no changes to them.

The 2% mid-year raise is still in the budget.

Two teachers at Walker for reading and math specialists, one teacher at Buford for reading and math, a reading or a math specialist.

and one teacher at Clark for math specialists.

The General Assembly's conference budget included a 3% salary increase for teachers and staff.

You may recall the governor's budget had a 1% one-time bonus.

We made this action in the FY 25 adopted budget by a step increase for teachers and staff.

The 3% salary action increases our expenditures by $1,399,231.

Allying our salary action with the state rate increase allows us to certify VDOE to VDOE that we have met the minimum pay for our teachers and staff so that we may receive the state funds allocated to us.

To make the salary action change, staff reviewed the increases in the non-discretionary contracts, school-based program supports and improvements, and the FY 25 adopted budget.

And this is known as the change docket that we presented to you along with the FY 25 budget.

And it's located in your appendix with the adoption and the changes.

These are the expenditures that we retained in the budget but had modifications to them.

After we adopted our budget, the city notifies that the increase we have budgeted for maintenance contracts changed to $93,700 to the annual contract.

This was a decrease of $178,472.

reduced the access control software subscription costs by 2000.

This is a software subscription to maintain the key fobs and is not a hardware.

Amount to sustain the academic and operations at KTEC was decreased by 151,386.

Any additional funds needed will come from KTEC's fund balance and or their adult ed programs.

We originally budgeted 7.5 FTEs for enrollment growth.

We reduced the number to 3.5 FTEs for enrollment growth for English as a second language.

And another slide will go over the four FTEs that we had budgeted and the adoption.

And then there was a change in the site-based substitutes for two FTEs at the high school in Beaufort.

The superintendent and the principal at Walker agreed to retain the two FTEs for the reading and math specialist positions and not have a site-based sub at Walker.

These amendments total a decrease of $1,092,907.

These budget expenditures were cost increases as presented in the change document and adopted in the FY 25 budget.

In order to balance our budget and make the 3% salary action of 1.4 million work, they were taken out.

The most significant expenditure is the health insurance, which had no harm.

because renewal of the administrator and the self-loss carrier create a no-cost increase for the employer or the employees.

Some of the other expenditures you see, we found a way to sustain in our FY 25 budget and I'll review them on the next slide.

The executive leadership team scrutinized department budgets and current FTEs in conjunction with a budget request adopted to find ways to pay for them.

This means that departments rolled up their sleeves and had tightened up their budgets to accommodate these expenditures.

For FTEs and elementary enrollment growth,

and the high school's four subjects, social studies and English.

Handling of the SPED at KTEC through SPED teacher and transition specialists.

Night school will be moved to the prevention and intervention fund and the special revenues.

Incorporating the SPED IA stipend into their salary under the unified pay plan.

increased the tuition reimbursement rate to $1,000 per year from the funds that we had designated for the Longwood Administrative Cohort Program.

If the division received the net overall change of $628,316 in additional funding, what would we do with those funds?

We would fund the reading and math interventionists at Walker, additional specialists at Buford, and more site-based subs.

This slide summarizes the expenditure amendments that I just went through.

In order to provide the 3% salary action for teachers and staff as adopted in the conference budget of $1,399,000

$231 and balance expenditures to revenue.

Overall net change of $628,316.

We've reduced the non-discretionary and school-based programs by $2,027,547 from the adopted FY 25 budget.

This line presents the general fund and special revenue budgets

In grand total, our revenue source, city appropriation, state revenue, federal revenue, fund balance and other local funds.

I just want to clarify the fund balance.

Each year we budget the fund balance to provide authority to use these one-time funds to cover unforeseen costs due to enrollment growth, shortfalls in revenue, or one-time expenses authorized by the school board.

There is no intent on spending this money in the FY 25 budget.

The last two columns shown in the amended budget

are the changes between the adopted and the amended.

The total amended FY 25 budget is $1,800,794,227.

And this breaks down into the general fund budget of $94,743,863 and a special revenue budget of $24,678,680.

OK, so now we'll open it up for questions.

Thank you, Renee, for this.

I think it was a very good presentation.

And Dr. Billy and your team, if you had to change the budget up, I think you landed on where I would want you to

Focus on the things that I want you to focus on.

It's unfortunate that, again, we're not going to have all the personnel.

I think we need to meet our students' needs is my observation.

I also hope that, I know, Chair, you think you've been having some conversations with the mayor and some city councilors that this is a process that we need to evolve and that we can have a better process next year to hopefully have not the same situation happen again.

I have one clarifying question, specifically regarding the KTEC piece and pulling out of their fund balance.

And I don't know if this is anything that we actually talked about when we acquired them.

Yes, sir.

We are going to absorb them in the special revenue funds, because they are a designated special entity.

Okay.

Yeah, just, I don't know, it feels

And maybe I'm thinking about it incorrectly.

If there's a fund balance, would it go back to the whole division of pulses separately?

Maybe not.

Our special revenue funds also have a fund balance from there.

I mean, there are designated programs where revenues come in for them and, and sometimes the expenditures do not use all the revenues.

Makes sense.

Ms.

Cooper?

Any questions?

Ms.

Dooley?

Ms.

Thank you.

I know this has been a lot of work and a lot of amendments, so thank you for doing all of that.

I do want to, again, just bring to the forefront that we had to make some tough decisions, and this still looks a lot different.

Lee than what was initially presented to us.

And it really was a student based budget.

I think Dr. Gurley and staff, you know, heard some of the questions that were proposed to us in our work session with, with council.

And, and we did some of that work and we looked at some of the FTEs that have kind of been sitting there and repurpose some of those.

So I do appreciate all of that.

I do appreciate the fact that

With that $628,000, what could we look to and how would we evaluate the best use of those funds to really support our students?

And it makes me sad that

some of these schools had to kind of do an either or you know and and couldn't get the supports that they needed for you know for our students and when you look at you know like one of the schools happens to be Buford you know and and we need we need every support person you know that we can that we can get and that we asked for and this wasn't frivolous these weren't frivolous asks they were these were based on what our students need

So I appreciate support from fellow board members.

I appreciate community members who have stepped up and showed up and asked city council.

And I know they're paying attention and I know they worked hard to do what they have to do for the entire city.

But again, I do hope that we have some opportunities and I know that the mayor and I have

Chatted a little bit and I know that Dr. Gurley is reaching out to the city manager.

So, but again, and I think, I think our students deserve this.

So, all right.

So we had the motion from Mr. Morse.

We had the second from Ms.

Dooley.

We've had discussion.

Any other questions, comments?

All right.

Yes.

Any opposed?

Please say no.

All right, up next, we will have Miss Burns.

Thank you, Dr. Gurley.

Madam Chair, board members, thank you for the opportunity to speak on this.

Tonight, we're taking up a resolution on the importance of secure storage of firearms.

And I just want to share a personal statement that I've shared prior and want to take the opportunity again to do that.

Gun violence.

is personal to me.

I've witnessed firsthand the profound grief and loss that my son has experienced when he lost three friends, Devin Chandler, Deshaun Perry, and Lavelle Davis at the hands of a classmate turned gunman.

I've observed legal proceedings and sentencings of a young man who I used to drive to and from

AAU basketball tournaments due to crimes related to the use of a firearm.

I've talked with teenagers who no longer feel safe navigating their own neighborhoods due to threats on social media and escalating levels of community violence.

I've walked elementary school children around a crime scene when Nicholas Pendleton lost his life to gun violence in broad daylight on a Wednesday afternoon.

I assure you gun violence is personal to me.

And while the resolution may not have prevented these specific events, it does provide an opportunity to increase awareness among our CCS students, families, and staff about the importance of secure gun storage, the legal requirements of parents and guardians to securely store their firearms, and the best practice of keeping guns unloaded, locked up, and stored separately from ammunition.

And so today, now therefore be it resolved that the Charlottesville City School Board directs the superintendent and members of the superintendent's executive leadership team to take such actions as are necessary to increase awareness among CCS students, families, and staff

about the importance of secure gun storage, the legal requirements of parents and guardians to securely store firearms, and the best practice of keeping all guns unloaded, locked up, and stored separately from ammunition.

and be it further resolved that Charlottesville City School Board directs the superintendent to create an appropriate letter in English and other languages spoken by CCS families and staff to parents and guardians that explains the importance of secure gun storage

and preventing minors from accessing guns, the legal requirements of parents and guardians to securely store their firearms, and the best practice of keeping guns unloaded, locked up, and stored separately from ammunition, which letter shall also be included in the annual registration materials at each school site.

Thank you, Ms.

Burns.

Thank you.

And we will take action on this, I believe.

I motion that we approve this resolution as presented this evening.

Yes.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Burns.

Madam Chair, I think there's a is this opportunity for a photo?

Is that okay?

So please, if you would like to, I guess, come come up front, or I don't know how we want to do that.

Do we don't have a resolution?

Do we print it out?

Right.

Okay.

What do you what are you envisioning?

Come on up and hold it and thank you for your support within our community and surrounding communities.

We now have our first item for discussion, Ms.

Good evening, Dr. Gurley, Madam Chair, members of the board.

I'm very pleased this evening to have with us a couple of very important members of our city's Environmental Sustainability Division.

We have with us this evening Energy Management Coordinator, Kurt Vizier, and the Water Efficiency Program Coordinator, Jill Greiner.

Each month, Dr. Tanya Coffey and I meet with these individuals to discuss the performance of our buildings as far as energy performance and water performance.

We discuss pending capital improvements and projects to improve our energy and water performance.

And we also talk about student outreach and various engagement and initiative which many of you as parents may have seen at different times.

They do a lot to work with our students with education around sustainability and outreach in that area so they're great partners and this presentation is not only in conjunction with the month of Earth Day, so to speak, but

We'd like to provide this update in conjunction with the release of the city's annual report around energy and water performance.

The executive summary is attached to your agenda item and the full report will be available on the city's website.

Thank you.

As Kim said, I'm Kirk Vizier.

I'm the energy management coordinator for the city.

And this is my colleague Gil Greiner, who's the water efficiency program coordinator for the city as well.

Jill and I both facilitate the city's energy and water management program that emphasizes improving energy and water efficiency at city and school facilities, which is over 70 municipal sites.

The last time we presented to you, we were from the Environmental Sustainability Division, as actually Kim mentioned, but within Public Works, but now we are actually, we've been elevated to the Office of Sustainability under the City Manager's Office.

So this essentially is an extension of the City Manager, and it's really placed a new emphasis on the city's commitment to climate and sustainability.

Today we'd like to give you an overview of Charlottesville City Schools performance from the City of Charlottesville's fiscal year 2023 annual energy and water performance report, it's a mouthful, that was developed by our program this year.

So just to briefly touch on what we're going to be going through, we're going to give you a brief background of our reporting.

Then we'll highlight some key actions from the annual energy and water performance report and then the performance of the school's portfolio specifically.

We'll then touch on some key focus areas for FY24 that are from the energy and water management program.

And then we'll give a brief highlight of other initiatives coming out of the Office of Sustainability.

And go to the next slide.

Thanks.

So we began providing the annual reports of energy and water performance for the city and schools in 2019.

For FY21, we decided to combine all municipal and school reporting into one annual report and include an executive summary for the whole report and then one specific two CCS to make it easier to see aspects related to the school's portfolio.

The report incorporates three focus areas identified for improving energy and water performance, operations, technology, and people.

It then goes into a more detailed analysis of their annual performance with some key metrics that we follow to track progress towards our goals.

You can view the full report, school executive summary, as well as companion international, I'm sorry, companion interactive dashboard on our website listed at the bottom of the slide.

We also have it at the end of the presentation as well.

First, let's go into more detail around the program's operational focus and the actions from FY 23.

So our program's goals with operations is to have school building systems run as efficiently as possible while meeting the needs of the occupants at the school.

We have continued to work with CCS and our facilities maintenance teams to maintain consistent communication along improving and maintaining energy and water efficiency.

This includes monthly meetings with CCS administration, as Kim mentioned earlier, and facilities maintenance, tracking utility usage through our energy cap software, and confirming that HVAC scheduling reflects building needs and some other items that we need to try to help maintain that operational performance.

Additionally, we've been working to fine tune load shedding where non-critical systems can be set back or turned off during peak energy demand times of the day,

to manage spikes and energy usage while also maintaining occupant comfort.

Facilities maintenance has also worked to improve efficiencies in our equipment operations.

For example, they changed how the chillers operate at CHS to run in parallel versus in series, which reduces the energy usage of the chiller operations.

Up to the next slide.

For technology, these actions focus primarily around improvements made to school buildings, so through equipment upgrades and replacements.

Some of the technologies and actions that happened in FY23 included upgrading lighting to LED in Greenbrier's library, replacing HVAC equipment at Johnson, Venable, and Walker Upper Elementary, and upgrading the building automation system at Clark, which is important for controlling and monitoring building HVAC systems and lighting.

Additionally, CO2 monitors were installed at Johnson Elementary to enhance our control of fresh air intake.

And the first of three phases of the roof replacement here at CHS was completed, which will help tighten the building envelope and position us for future installation of solar on that particular section, as well as once we get to the rest of the other two phases for the rest of the roof.

We also participate in a rebate program through the PJM Grid for implementing projects that reduce energy use, which helps us to gain more funding as well for making improvements.

The next slide.

So we're pretty excited about this.

This has been a multi-year effort to get where we are, but we are excited to announce that we have executed our Master Energy Performance Agreement with CMTA.

This energy performance contract is a design-build mechanism where we work with CMTA, which is an energy services company, to design and implement energy and water saving projects in all of our facilities.

This mechanism still requires us to secure funding for the initial project that way, so that is either through internal funding, typically the CIP, or outside funding through grants.

This contract provides a nimble delivery mechanism should we receive grant funding as we already have projects identified and the engineering firm secured to help implement that work.

Our first project of the EPC structure is upgrading the cooling system in the IT Data Center at City Hall Annex, which is planned to be completed by the end of this year.

We'll be designing next phases of which schools will be a part.

HVAC, lighting, plumbing, retrocommissioning, and solar have all been identified throughout the school portfolio, and we are revisiting where electrification makes sense to integrate.

If all projects are implemented, approximately 530,000 in energy and water savings could be captured, 50% drop in electricity usage, that's a 15% drop in natural gas and water, and that's $530,000.

Just want to make sure I'm pointing that out.

CHS lighting has been brought up as a potential first effort with schools, which is one of the largest saving items in the portfolio.

The timing still needs to be finalized as we're still working through designing of these phases, but potentially FY26.

Next slide.

All right, so I want to talk a little bit about our people and behavioral efforts that we're having.

People play a really important role in the facility's energy and water performance, and how they interact with the buildings and its water fixtures and energy fixtures, as well as the number of people in the buildings, can significantly change our utility usage.

So our program has identified the need to connect the people to the facilities they use, and our program is using education and communication to support these efforts.

In FY20,

We did engagement work in the classrooms, also with the staff on addressing energy and water saving behavioral changes.

Next slide.

Now we're going to switch gears and go into a little bit more about the school's performance.

First, we want to highlight that our new targets that we have for our reduction goals that we've established to help us meet our municipal greenhouse gas reduction goals.

These are challenging goals.

We will need to apply numerous strategies to meet them.

The greenhouse gas goals is the same as the community-wide climate action goals.

And to support these, to meet these, we also have a 30% reduction in our energy use intensity and water use intensity by FY 2030.

EUI or energy use intensity or WI and water use intensity are both industry standard measurements for building performances that take the utility usage per a building square footage to make these values more comparable within our portfolio and nationally.

And they really normalize the building sizes and any additions to our portfolio.

So to look a little bit more at EUI and WI,

Here you can see the school's energy use intensity and water use intensity trends and the red dashed line indicates our 2030 goals.

FY 2011 is our baseline year and we've used this as it aligns best with our climate action plan goals and their baseline year.

Both EUI and WI, it's important to have lower values here as these are more efficient.

And we also included a regional average for EY and a national median for WY for school specific buildings.

You can see that our goals are well below these values and that we will still have a lot of work to do to meet our goals.

For EUI, we have identified projects, including solar, to get us to our goal.

And if we were to do all the building improvement projects outlined in our energy performance contract, we would get to an EUI of 41.

If we were able to install solar at all our plan sites, we would get to an EUI of 29.

For water use intensity, if we were to do all our projects outlined in the energy performance contract, we would also be able to meet and exceed our water use intensity goal.

Looking more into our school's actual utility usage, the schools as a group are one of our highest utility users.

When comparing to last year and our baseline year, both electricity and water had decreased in usage, and natural gas saw no change from last year and an increase in usage from our baseline year.

When wanting to know kind of where our usage is coming from, electricity use at our schools is mainly tied to cooling and ventilation systems, lighting, and plug loads.

Natural gas is mainly tied to space heating, water heating, and kitchen appliances.

And water use is heavily driven by our outdoor water use, water fixtures, and any large water leaks that we might run into.

Next slide.

Performance and cost is our next focus.

And here, our utilities costs were $1.37 million, which accounts for actually about 37% of the city's total spending on utilities.

The increasing trend in utility costs is primarily driven by our large increases in utility rates noted here.

Facilities being run at higher ventilation rates, partly due to some COVID mitigation strategies and increases in some utility usages.

In addition, Lugo McGinnis Academy was not added to our portfolio until FY 2016.

As utility costs and rates continue to go up, we have an even more incentive to reduce our utility usage and to help keep costs down.

Next slide.

Another important metric that we track is our school's Energy Star score, which is a really useful benchmarking tool in comparison to other schools all over the country.

Energy Star scores are on a 1 to 100 scale, where the higher score is a better score.

Scores are developed by taking the space attributes of a facility, so square footage, number of occupants, number of computers, operation hours, things like that.

and the energy usage for a given period to determine the score.

75 is the minimum score needed to pursue an Energy Star certification for that school.

Our goal for 2030 is to have all 10 schools at an Energy Star score of 75.

Again, this is a challenging goal.

We have had six schools meet Energy Star certification in 2009.

However, nationally, schools have become more efficient, which has collectively made it more difficult to achieve that 75 score.

Because our schools are being compared to all the schools across the nation, we're going to need to work even harder to meet that 75 score.

As you can see, Johnson Elementary and Lugo Guinness Academy are both at or above the 75 prerequisite.

And we are eligible to apply for Energy Star certification.

So we are currently confirming the data for these and that we're going to be looking into the certification process soon.

Finally, I wanted to highlight the school's greenhouse gas impact for school building operations.

We are seeing a general decrease in our greenhouse gas emissions from last year and from our baseline year.

So looking into FY24, we're going to continue working toward reaching our high performance standards that will help us meet our 2030 goals.

With Lugo McGinnis and Johnson Elementary at or above the 75 Energy Star score, we would like to go ahead and pursue certification for those facilities.

Multiple building improvement projects will be taking place at CHS, Greenbrier, and Jackson Viya.

We'll also be placing mirror clings in all school restrooms to remind all students and faculty about water saving behaviors.

And we'll also continue to develop energy and water conservation materials for the science pacing guide.

So putting a little focus on solar here, we are looking to expand our solar on schools, building from the existing solar that we have as schools have the biggest roof space.

Currently, CHS and Lugo McGinnis are our two locations where we have actual installations.

Schools' solar capacity was reviewed through the energy audits that CMTA provided, so we have a cost estimate to start from and potential capacity.

Funding for solar can come from CIP, so City Solar is a specific program for that that we have, but those would really fund smaller systems that we would own and maintain outright.

We would also be planning to pursue the direct pay federal incentive part of the investment tax credit to help with the funding.

We're also reviewing power purchase agreements and what it might look like to structure a certain set of facilities under this arrangement.

Grants are another funding avenue that we have been pursuing, such as the Renew America Schools grant last year.

Although that was unsuccessful, we are pursuing other grants that fit this scope, such as the climate pollution reduction grant.

Pairing solar with energy storage is another component we are looking into to expand resilience, which would also align with certain grant opportunities.

We've had to work through limitations from Dominion Energy as higher capacity systems beyond 250kW will typically trigger extra fees from Dominion for their equipment infrastructure upgrades.

We've had discussions with Dominion to see how we can navigate the requirements and reduce those interconnection fees and also get a better idea of total costs to use in our planning, which they are still evaluating for us.

Most systems hit right at the 250kW mark or just below, but for CHS, we would like to see a larger system put into place.

We will be developing a solar deployment plan this year to lay out a schedule and a path forward.

Although not specifically from our energy and water management program, we wanted to provide a quick update on other efforts coming out of the Office of Sustainability.

For school bus fleet electrification, we applied for rebates to replace two old diesel buses with electric buses through the EPA Clean School Bus Program.

This is one of our staff members, if you can somewhat see in there, in an electric bus that was demoed at CAT in early April.

We are also developing a community EV infrastructure deployment plan in partnership with Albemarle County that will support electrification within government operations and the community.

We'll also be pursuing LEED certification for Charlottesville Middle School once that is constructed.

Green building standards are also something we are going to be developing where these are standards that put green building and sustainability best practices and integrates those throughout the life cycle of our facilities.

So from construction, renovation to operations.

And resilient together, this is a partnership with Albemarle County and UVA where we are helping to lead a collaborative planning and implementation process to make sure our community is resilient to a changing climate.

You can also learn more about where we are in our climate program work plan update to Council on July 15th.

Next slide.

And just wanted to say thank you for your time today.

I think we went on a little bit there, but hopefully that was informative for you.

Again, you can find the full report and the executive summaries at the city's website that's listed here.

And we're happy to answer any questions that you have now.

Ms.

Richardson, do you have any questions?

Ms.

I think it's not lost on me that the savings that the city would garner from implementing these plans is roughly equal to the deficit that we have.

in this year's budget.

And so I love all of this.

I think all these goals are so laudable.

It's hard for me, like we can't even start thinking about these when we can't even get fully funded for a needs-based budget.

So like our environmental efforts

are always going to come second to fulfilling the primary needs of our students.

Ms.

Mr. Morse?

Ms.

Burns?

Jill and Kirk, thank you very much.

This was a great presentation.

All the information I was hoping to see in addition to the appendices, et cetera.

I will just, building off of Ms.

Dooley's comments, what I see here is unfortunately a lost opportunity to save some money that would basically close the gap.

If a lot of the things you've been talking about here, and I'm not saying you were responsible for that,

but were implemented five or six years ago, we would have $300,000, $400,000 to basically spend on teachers and everything else while still having a quality, healthy environment for our students.

So I guess I'm just a little frustrated when I see that you started talking about it back in 2021 and we just finally signed an agreement in 2024.

I get,

One, I want to recognize the water intensity has gone down.

That is great savings here.

I'm a little frustrated when I see our gas use has gone up in 12 years.

All the things we've been doing in our gas usage is up.

The same time in the energy use intensity, in slide nine, FY 2011, it was 50 units per, whatever, EUI, and we're at above that right now.

So what have we been doing for the last 13 years?

It doesn't seem like we've been really moving the needle.

And I guess my overarching question is just because I hope this new energy performance contract is going to help deliver some of those projects, but I'm glad we signed it.

It sounds like you have, I heard a lot of, if you know, we do everything we could say 500 K a year.

But that's a lot of hedging, but I want to hear,

When we do this, we'll be saving all these different things and now.

Now again, I know you all don't control all that.

And I appreciate your providing information.

I love all the education you're doing also.

Now to get us up to questions.

So, just to be clear here,

We're, it seems like a lot of our schools are not energy, not meaning the Energy Star certification basically now at all.

I mean, there's only like two maybe, based on recent audits.

Okay.

All the things we're under, greenhouse gas emissions, our natural gas usage has gone up, right?

Our electricity usage has gone a little bit down.

Yes.

That's a great question.

When CMTA went through and reviewed all of our systems, at first when they went through, it was looking at just getting more efficient natural gas in there.

We are revisiting that to have them take a look to see where we can pivot to more electrification

Thank you so much.

What we're doing right now is leaning on CMTA to provide us that analysis to let us know what is that for each school?

How much is that going to cost?

And then how can we integrate that into projects before we move forward with anything on the natural gas side?

OK, so there are no plans at all at the moment for any electrification projects of our

There are, we have some renovations that were brought up by CMTA that was for, I'm trying to remember the specific schools, but it was looking, there's like a whole HVAC renovation.

I believe in those, there was some thought of the electrification, but there wasn't a full review that was done to try to really see how we could redesign things.

Most of these have been a little bit of an equipment replacement type of scenario where we're putting in more efficient systems, upgrading cooling towers, upgrading BAS controls.

On the HVAC side, pivoting to something that is not natural gas is something that we want.

We just have to get more information about that because it is a redesign of that, the cooling and how the HVAC works with that.

So I guess my hope is right.

We're not prioritizing right now the boiler side of it, meaning we're revisiting the natural gas side to see if we can see what the new strategy would be for that, but still moving forward with the other pieces of the EPC that we could start now and then start to integrate those in.

But HVAC is where we're going to see

But unfortunately, it's the highest cost, sometimes has the most impact, but always the highest cost.

Lighting, you've got a lot of impacts.

Controls, you want to get dialed in.

Retro commissioning, we want to get dialed in.

At least if we're not going to be replacing all those systems, but at least for now, get them running right so we can save that money now and then hopefully reinvest that into some of these larger projects that will have more capital involved.

The solar PPAs you guys basically are doing with the synergy performance contracts is very similar to a solar PPA.

You sound like you have a solar plan.

So the solar, the PPA part is not a part of the EPC.

So if we went through the.

through the EPC process, they reviewed the capacity that's there.

We've got a number we can start with to decide what avenue we want to go, whether that's investment in owning it outright or actually going through a PPA route and actually not doing the EPC for that.

So the EPC side, we could do something that would have to be owned outright and we'd have to have the money up front to be able to do that.

But the PPA wrap is different.

Yeah, totally good.

That's why we're trying to think through this because we do have some funding that we could put towards through city solar.

It could cover maybe a small system, meaning 150 to maybe 250k debits.

We're trying to determine how best to use that and maybe even pair that with a PPA perhaps where you buy it down and have that designed out.

But yes, you're correct that we are developing that now.

So we are getting input from Dominion where they were going to be providing us some, actually they approached us to help us.

with their energy solutions department or group.

That's another group within Dominion, which was interesting.

So we're getting some input from them about just what a PPA looks like from the facilities that we have.

another solar developer local reached out to us as well and we didn't go and try to actually get this from anyone they just sort of came to us and sort of a pro bono so we are accepting support in that where they can provide us some real numbers around a PPA based on

our roof size, what we're trying to install because we have those numbers at least an estimate from CMTA and roof replacement schedules and how that all plays into trying to bundle essentially solar projects to make a PPA really worthwhile.

to get something installed.

Likely.

I think a summer of 25 would be great.

Again, we've got to put a plan together and determine exactly what we want to do.

But we're ready to do this.

Again, Josie talked earlier.

We've been hearing from students.

We've heard from everyone.

We've been trying to actually figure out how to incorporate this and get into a PPA or something to understand that better to make some decisions on this.

So we're ready to do it.

We're interested to get this information before we make final decisions and start moving forward.

I would say like this year, meaning like right now, as soon as we get this information back, we're ready to start designing this because we already have a contract mechanism if we wanted to do a DPC route with owning some.

The PPA seems to be less of an initial outlay out front, obviously.

Pay it out over time.

We don't own it at the end typically, but you can.

I think there's some ways where you could have it transferred to you.

And we're trying to determine what schools will have rooms ready to do that, to bundle together to then move forward with that process.

So I'd love to bundle a lot of them in that and just get it moving.

I don't want us to mess up our operations and educating our students but the ability to potentially bundle together the roof replacement and the solar PPA together and get all that done at once and keep that off the CIP budget but again have the private sector and we hedge and we fix our electricity rates

As we've seen, they're going to grow and we know they're going to keep on going up.

And then we save money and I can hire more teachers or sorry, Dr. Gurley can hire more teachers.

No getting a fixed rate.

I absolutely agree.

I think that's, I mean, we're going to, we're going to keep seeing increases from Dominion.

I think from our side, we have the roof data that we need.

We have the specs and everything that we need.

From talking with folks who understand PPAs, we're trying to do that, so we're making informed decisions.

I think we're getting that input now.

If others have

ideas of how to approach either investing some money in something through the PPA, so our city solar funding goes into that to buy it down to then have more, essentially deploy solar quicker or essentially buy it down.

If there's methods with that that people know about, if there's just anything from that side of things that we are not experts in, but we've been learning a lot,

It would be great for us to have some input a bit more.

I think, you know, the private sector that is located here in Charlottesville delivers 80 percent of the solar on schools in the region and in the state.

So there are people in the city that know how to do this and execute.

I think my concern is that

There's a lot of different iterations and you've been, again, do that and we're going to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

And this is what I think I've been seeing for the last four years, but then we don't take action.

And so again, not speaking on behalf of the board or Ms.

Powell here, who again are your main contacts there, but I hope we can get to some action and not let the perfect get in the way of let's move something and start saving some money.

I would agree with that.

Anyways, I think this was a great presentation.

I'm, again, a little disappointed that the energy unit intensity is, again, higher than it was 12 years ago.

And again, that's why I still think we're seeing our higher utility bills.

If I saw our budget correctly for this year, it's 1.53 million or something like that, or that was at least what budget from the city.

So again, going back from four years ago, it's this $300,000.

Absolutely.

We want to do what we can control, which is reducing our usage.

Right.

Absolutely.

That's what I'm going to really push you, at least personally, what I'd like to see.

Sure.

This is great information, exactly what I was hoping to achieve, and thank you for all those answers, too.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

Mr. Myers.

You and I are going to have fun on the CIP committee because that's the intermediate step.

So keep all of that energy there.

No questions.

You had no questions.

All right.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Gurley, members of the board,

Annually, Charlottesville City Schools is required to submit a federal grant application to the Virginia Department of Education.

And in the past, we submitted a consolidated grant.

But last year, we elected to go with four individual grants, a grant for Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV.

All of the grants are aligned to the priorities and targets of our strategic plan.

And these are some of the focus areas.

So Title I focuses on providing high quality instruction.

Title II focuses on teacher quality.

Title III focuses on supporting ELLs and multilingual families.

And Title IV focuses on continuous improvement of our learning environments.

Grant applications, again, are carefully aligned.

Oh, I guess I'm going to step away and let each grant person, grant manager, describe the priorities for their grant.

All right, I'm here for Title I, Part A, which provides financial assistance to school divisions to help ensure that all students receive a fair and equitable and high quality education to meet the challenging state academic content and achievement standards.

Allocations are based primarily on the percentage of students from low income households.

In CCS, we focus on literacy, math, and family engagement,

I will say this year we're going to transition Title II to Josh Herndon.

He's an HR coordinator for the school division.

He's unable to be here tonight, so I'm stepping in in his place.

Title II funds are support effective instruction, and the funding is focused on high quality instruction, so we use the funding to support professional learning and staff development.

Some of that professional learning focuses on differentiation, critical thinking, and pedagogy.

Where it's also gonna be a higher focus on content knowledge with the state coming out with new regulations about a focus on the science of reading.

In addition, the funds are used for class size reduction.

All right, good evening.

For Title III, those funds are used for language instruction for our English learners and other immigrant students who've come to the schools.

And we use them in three different parts.

So the first thing we do is use it for instructional materials to support and allow access to grade level content for our multilingual learners.

The second way we use this is through professional development.

So both professional development for our ESL teachers, but also professional development to support our content teachers.

So one thing you've heard a lot about this year is our PSYOP training where we trained all of the instructional coaches.

That's one of the examples we've used our Title III funds for.

We also use it for different family engagement events specifically with our multilingual families.

And Title III has an additional grant that we received some years and not others.

Good evening.

Title IV is a supplemental program to, the idea is to help school divisions supplement their core activities.

And so it's generally around three target areas.

One is what they call well-rounded education, where you're able to kind of add some supplemental supports to your core program.

The other is for safe and healthy students about how can you improve the conditions to increase student learning.

and the last and probably more de-emphasized is the use of technology to increase the achievement and digital literacy of all students.

Here in Charlottesville City Schools, ever since we've had a Title IV grant, we've been able to use this to promote our positive school culture and mental wellness domains and of our multi-tiered support.

So this has allowed us to introduce and grow our social emotional learning instruction and assessment, the Care Silas Program that offers support to both Charlottesville families and staff and students.

That's just a quick summary of what the federal grants, what our focus areas are, and just some insights into how the funding is used.

No, anybody to my left?

Burns, to the right.

Okay.

Nope.

All right.

Good evening, Madam Chair, school board members, and Dr. Gurley.

My name is Anna Isley.

I'm the Coordinator of Professional Learning and Gifted Education at CCS.

I also have Ashley Riley, our lead GRT gifted resource teacher, and she has been with the division as a GRT for 10 years.

I'm pleased to be here with you today to present the draft of the local plan for the education of the gifted.

Today we'll share some of the local plan requirements as well as present key goals of our plan and its alignment to the strategic plan.

So priority one of our strategic plan centers around increasing academic achievement and specifically increasing students' access to rigorous instruction, including opportunities to think creatively and critically.

That is what our talent development approach

to Gifted Seeks to Do here in Charlottesville.

Another key part of this target is supporting staff with professional learning, which also aligns with our collaborative model that we have.

Gifted services are push-in services.

Our gifted resource teachers collaborate with teachers in PLCs, professional learning communities.

They help provide differentiated resources and approaches, instructional strategies, and they're a vital part of our grade level instructional teams.

We are really working to align, particularly at the elementary level, our research and inquiry projects and learning experiences to the five C's, critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship.

So we feel strongly that the work that we're doing and that's reflected in this plan aligns with the portrait of a graduate and

The strategic plan.

In fact, this is just, we're taking the opportunity because two of our folks that we collaborate with, we're here tonight, actually.

Good evening.

Yes, we were really fortunate today to see two of our collaborators.

Mr. Davis from the high school just recently collaborated with his urban farming class for all of our third graders across Charlottesville City Schools as part of our recent food to table unit.

During that unit in literacy, students learned about urban farming and learned about how food gets to your table.

And this was a wonderful opportunity for us to pilot and partner with Mr. Davis and his students hands-on experiences of seeing what this looks like and learning opportunities within our school system.

As many students didn't even realize, urban farming is a class I can take when I get to CHS.

They got to visit the urban farming

Garden here at Charlottesville.

They got to visit the chickens.

They got to do a hands on seed ball.

So it was a wonderful experience for them to really have a hands on connection to the learning they were doing in the classroom.

Another partnership we have going on currently right now in fourth grade is with our energy and water management.

So Kirk and Jill, we were actually just using their real world dashboard today in one of my fourth grade classes, exploring our own energy and water usage.

It is connected to our current unit about how we can help to care for our planet.

And our students are going to be creating advertisements for their fellow students in the school, connecting to that idea of conservation.

Thanks Miss Riley.

We just thought we'd capitalize on those opportunities since they were talked about tonight.

Additionally, you're going to see alignment with our local plan draft for the gifted here in the strategic plan, priority one strategies four, seven and eight.

These focus on differentiation as being a key component of our strong literacy and math instructional programs and strategy seven and eight, as well as the opportunity within the scope of the program of studies to take dual enrollment and advanced placement courses.

Just wanted to review a little bit the local plan requirements.

So the VDOE requires school divisions have a local plan for the education of gifted.

We do follow a template provided by the VDOE to create this plan and the school board must approve the plan.

Our current local plan ends in 2024 at the end of this school year and so today we're going to be sharing with you our new local plan draft which seeks to really continue the goals of this previous plan and includes just minor revisions from the previous one.

So we'll take a look at that now.

In CCS, we view giftedness through the lens of talent development.

We believe that all students are talented and we cultivate their potential through collaborative high quality differentiated instruction.

We recognize that the need for students to think and perform at high levels is important for cultivating their potential for advanced learning.

So that comes right from the plan.

That's our definition of giftedness.

This state requires school divisions to have an identification process.

So we will continue under this plan to identify students in the areas of English and math.

This is specific academic aptitude in each of those areas and the identification process begins in third grade.

Our plan includes goals in six different areas.

So on the next few slides, you're gonna see those goals.

The goals here are around identification and the delivery of services.

First, with our lens on talent development, our identification process utilizes an asset-based lens and seeks to provide a process that identifies representative populations of students mirroring our student body.

With a goal of rigorous instruction for all, our push-in and collaborative service model

focuses on talent development, seeks to support differentiated learning experiences for students, as well as support for teachers and continuously developing their skills and toolbox around differentiated instruction.

Our GRTs not only provide differentiated learning experiences, instructional approaches that promote the five Cs and enrichment opportunities in English and math, but they also provide formal professional learning opportunities on our division-wide PL days for teachers, and additionally, more frequent regular collaboration and support in PLCs with teachers and teams or individual planning sessions in their work.

In addition to the services they provide with students, this collaborative model really does seek to support that collaboration and support for teachers and differentiation as well.

The last two goals, the first one is equitable representation of students and parent and community involvement.

A goal of our plan is to identify and develop the talents of all students, including those from historically underrepresented groups.

Another goal is around supporting parent involvement awareness and communication.

These goals, along with the rest of our plan that you all have the draft of it, are very similar to the local plan that's ending at the end of this year.

That is only a few minor revisions have been made to the previous plan.

as the one we have right now, the 21 to 24 plan represented significant changes in the model that we had previously.

So we're looking forward to continuing the goals from that plan.

And again, so much of it is those goal areas, they mirror that current plan.

A couple of the revisions.

For example, to give you an idea.

We did work to align the description of services to reflect the CCS program of studies to make sure that was in alignment.

The language around endorsements for gifted resource teachers was tweaked to align with the language from the VDOE.

Initially, the draft actually included a requirement for a gifted endorsement, but the language now reads, the gifted resource teacher should demonstrate an ability to create and carry out flexible, differentiated, and enriched curriculum experiences for students, because that's what we're looking for in our GRTs, and gifted education is preferred.

So again, this plan, the draft that you have, it's the work of the gifted resource teacher team and coordinator, our chief academic officer and Ms.

Swift, they were part of the discussions as well, along with, of course, our gifted advisory committee has been a big part of that work.

But again, this plan,

The 24 to 29 one that we've shared with you really does represent sort of just a continuation of the work from the 21-24 plan.

Again, the goal here was to share this plan with you, which you have and highlight the goals of it and the alignment to our strategic plan, which is, you know, if the plan really does align well to our strategic plan.

So any questions?

Are the GRTs going inside the classrooms?

Yeah, it's a push in model.

Okay.

So the services are the students that are in the classroom during the tier, the tier one instruction, the core instruction, so that whether or not a student is identified as gifted or not, they're part of that.

Ms.

Yeah, so one of the that's something our team is working on and many of the metrics in the strategic plan actually aligned to this very thing.

from the number of AP and DE courses to and the percentage of students enrolled in that to the percent that are ID to the actual number of professional learning sessions I think that are focused in differentiation so we can certainly, you know,

Those things are easier to gather data on.

I think we're at a point now where we feel like we're implementing the plan.

I mean, coming out of COVID and, you know, the teacher shortage is real and we've had people get, you know, pulled or, you know, we've at times had, you know, have been working to hire folks.

So I think we are at a point now where we feel like we're able to

you know we're making some really good strides and in not only implementing it but really aligning our work with the core English and math work and working on those metrics as well.

I think like anything else in school it's it's hard to isolate a single thing and say this is you know in terms of student achievement this you know these push-in lessons just like anything else are like

what led to this growth or not.

But we are working on those metrics.

I mean, even just from trying to have continuity in the quantity of lessons that students are experiencing, the common experience like Ms.

And then I'm not sure that you guys have this information, but just I'd be interested in knowing how often our GRTs are not actually able to do their jobs because they're being pulled to cover

other duties as assigned.

I know my children have benefited from the program in this new form and have enjoyed it.

But the observation being is, I think my understanding of the model, I think it was very good.

We like the pushing in.

Everybody, right, does have a talent.

We need to develop that talent.

They're gifted in some way.

However, yeah, the gifted teachers are doing everything else, unfortunately, to fill the personnel gaps we have.

And so it seems to have been very irregular.

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

Again, I had the same microphone problem I think Dr. Odey had.

I'm going to move through this very, very quickly because I'm really just realizing what everybody meant when they were looking at this agenda and seeing how long it is.

So I'm just going to, Ms.

Thackeray, you can just try to keep up, but I'm just going to kind of skim through and if anybody wants to slow me down at any point, hold up a hand or ask me a question when we're done.

These first set of slides, probably the first 10 slides in this packet were prepared by the designers of the environmental graphics.

Iconograph.

And they have been great partners to us.

So they pulled together several like a core team of school administrators, city folks to kind of guide the process.

And then we've also had an advisory group of students, parents, teachers at both groups who have really met.

I think maybe one of the next few slides has a timeline of the various meetings that we've had throughout this year.

So

That has been a big commitment, but the people on those groups really enjoyed the work.

It was fun.

When you work with designers, it's fun to see what they come up with.

Leslie, if you don't mind giving me a slide or two.

I know that in addition we also had two big community surveys and so we had particularly the first one we had great response on and the second one had smaller response but anyway both of them really gave a chance to just set a course like we're building this exciting beautiful new middle school help us understand how you want it to look how you want it to feel

And so they were able to gather some good consensus out of I think the top idea was I want to feel like I belong here, right?

And that's a beautiful setting, just a beautiful set of directions for a designer to work with.

People also just specifically looked at specific models.

They had samples from other middle schools.

If you could go back one slide, please, Ms.

Thacker, sorry.

Along those bottom rows there, you can see just some examples of what these are some kind of wall art from various middle schools.

Which ones do you respond to?

and the two that really rose to the top for that, the community liked the ones that have elements of nature in it and they liked ones that are inspired by street art or murals.

And so the designers took that as kind of their marching order and then they came up with a couple of possible iterations so they could show again going back to that second survey to the community and now if you don't mind moving on.

and I think there's even one more after that that shows all yeah no if you scroll down exactly right there then they showed these three options to the community like okay we're trying to combine street art and we're trying to combine nature are we there and people people were sort of torn between I think the one on the top and the one on the left is the two that they liked

and specifically then that advisory group of parents and staff and students could speak at length with them about what they liked and what they didn't like.

And one of the findings from that, which I don't think is reflected, this is an idea that's not in the slides, but one thing that came out of them is that people upon looking at these images realized, wait a minute, we do like nature, but the unique thing about Charlottesville is that we are in a city and we're surrounded by nature.

So they actually asked the design team to go back and

Reflect that in the art.

Show that we are in a city.

We're not just plopped down in a forest.

That's not our setting.

And so that was a good, again, just bit of guidance for the designers to work with.

Then if you could go on to the next few slides.

So then they started just playing around.

I think they have a phrase that they call recognizable, but not specific, I think is the phrase they use.

And they're just gathering ideas like, what do we want to see?

We want kids to feel like this reflects their place.

Still some of the outdoor elements of the trees, the mountains, the river, things like that, but also places that you feel like, oh yeah, I've actually walked down that street.

It may not even be a real street in Charlottesville, but it's going to give that feel that you are in Charlottesville, that you recognize it.

So that's really the kind of work they're working on.

And I think you can just scroll through the next few.

They just gave us another slide deck for us to start mulling over further iterations, but they're still just working on this.

And I think it gets back to that idea that you start off, you know, you just gather a bunch of information at first and then you start funneling it down.

And the idea is that with every iteration they're just getting closer to what their advisory group, to what the core group, and really what the whole city wanted to see.

So I think that's the update on environmental graphics.

They are fun to look at.

If you haven't looked at these slides, I totally encourage you to do so.

And then I'm going to skip through the mascot part really quickly too.

On one of those very first surveys that the environmental graphics folks did, they slid in some questions about the mascot because obviously when you have a new school that is a big question.

And again, they had a big response, like 1,100 people responding to that one.

It was very split on the idea of do you want to keep the middle school mascot to be the same as the high school, which is very common in communities that only have one middle school and one high school, or whether people felt like the middle school should have its own separate identity.

The people who wanted a new identity said three things.

If you pick a new one, I don't want it to be violent, I want it to be very relevant to Charlottesville or Virginia, not just some tropical thing that happens in other communities, and I want it to be inclusive of race and gender.

So those were sort of our guiding things as we started sifting through the hundreds of ideas, or maybe not hundreds, but at least a hundred ideas that came in on that survey.

Okay, next one please.

From that, how did we narrow it down?

We know that Buford uses some of the uniforms from CHA athletics, so it just makes sense that we would follow that orange and black color scheme.

We elevated ideas that would even work within that orange and black.

We elevated ideas that have relevance to Charlottesville and Virginia and we elevated suggestions that were mentioned frequently and finally we pulled in folks like school administrators from Buford and Walker in central office because they're the ones who have to live with this and support it and sell the idea and we wanted them to pick ideas that they feel good about

So really, the survey that's out right now is, do we want black knights?

Do we want another type of knight, like an orange knight or a junior knight?

Do we want the chargers?

That was another one that came up a lot because of that connection, Charlottesville and chargers having the same first four letters.

And the idea of monarchs, which kind of can tie in with either the crown and royalty or the butterfly or both.

and you can flip through the next few slides.

That survey is still open.

We've gotten nearly a thousand respondents and we will pull together a committee, excuse me, I have a little frog in my throat.

We will pull together a committee to help us wrap her up.

The last thing I wanted to give you an update on.

Did something happen?

Oh, thank you, thank you.

The last thing I wanted to give you an update on is the actual construction, and that is coming along well.

That picture Kim took from the cam today, so that's the very latest picture as of maybe 11 o'clock this morning, and as of today, I am delighted to say that we are on schedule and on budget, and of course that could change tomorrow, but

But let's celebrate what we have right now.

They've encountered more rock than they wanted to.

They've had some rainy weather this spring.

But we had good winds to dry things out.

And they've just, as problems arise, they find solutions to the problems.

So we're just very appreciative of Nielsen Construction and the good progress they're making.

If you could go on to the next page, really.

This is just a tweet that Matthew Gilliken pointed out just to stop by and saw pictures and was happy to see how much progress has been made.

So we encourage other folks to take a walk as well.

And again, I just want to say thank you to these various partners.

And I'm going to skip specifically to the partners at the bottom of this list because they are the ones who

every day are putting up with a little more noise than usual.

They're having gym in a different building than usual.

Even tomorrow, Rodney sent a message to his staff that he copied Kim and me on.

Tomorrow, between 11 and 1130, please have students walk into the gym.

Use this other sidewalk.

It's just a half hour.

But if you're not paying attention, that's a bad half hour.

So it's a lot of adjustment and a lot of communication, a lot of cooperation, but I don't know about you all and I'm not asking for folks to start complaining, but I

find that people have just been supportive.

They understand that this momentary inconvenience for the students and staff at Buford is worth the long-term benefit.

And so I just, I don't think we can say thank you to the staff and students and their families enough for their patience in all this.

As Mr. Jordan sometimes jokes about what a smooth and quiet year they've been having at Buford this year, he says, the loudest thing at my school is the construction.

And so I just want to thank his staff and students for putting up with that construction.

Just along that, it does sound like there is pretty frequent and coordination around hopefully noise when things are happening, dangerous situations, etc.

I think that is the case.

I know Ms.

So Mr. Jordan and Mr. Scott Smiley, who's the day-to-day project manager on the job, they work together very well and very closely.

So like tomorrow, there's that brief window where a cement truck needs to, for the footers, they're going to take down a section of the fence that's right there on the bus loop and they have to put the cement in there.

You know, that just means where the staff, the students normally walk down right beside that fence, they're just going to walk down in front of the auditorium.

Those little things happen.

You'll notice that, you know, we fenced off near the auditorium for some other work.

As Beth mentioned, things happen, but the response is so quick, so smooth, so thoughtful as far as being told in advance and then thinking about the safety ramifications.

and just we're almost past the point of we're not

So they should be past the rock, yes.

And there's still occasionally going to be some, you know, some bangs or loud noises.

I mean, they're working with big steel and things like that.

But if there's testing or anything going on, what I've observed is that the flexibility of Buford under Mr. Jordan's leadership and

Please give my regards.

City staff is managing all of them, right?

So we have a meeting every other week with a couple members of City Facilities Development, Mike Goddard and Stuart Harding, myself, the project manager that's contracted.

It's a big table and it's a good team.

Ms.

Yeah, I had the opportunity to go on a community walk over on Forest Hills there last week or so I went last week, week before, I don't know, and talk to the neighbors that bumped right up against the project.

And I asked, how's it going?

Do you have any feedback, any thoughts?

And every single one of them were

Pleased.

Had no complaints, no issues.

Very happy with how things were being handled, you know, really in their backyards.

And so commend the work that Nielsen and folks are doing over there.

There was one comment about parking, which I think CPD is looking into.

So you might want to share that.

It's two hour parking on the street there.

And

I think they're parking for eight hours.

Mr. Morse, Ms.

Cooper, Ms.

Dooley, Ms.

Richardson.

All right.

Up next, we have Ms.

This presentation is information to the school board with the school calendar changing for the

24, 25 year to school starting on the 14th, August 14th.

We need to make some changes with payroll.

The school board policy tells us that the school calendar's first day students are required to attend.

It occurs prior to the 15th, a payment schedule to ensure that all contract personnel are compensated within that first month of employment.

So what that means is the first day of the 24-25 school year is August 15th.

So that means the first day of pay for those folks will be August 15th.

And that's changed from September 15th under our current schedule.

Teachers and support staff that are 10 month contract personnel will receive their first paycheck on August 15th of this year.

So the impact on our 10-month contract employees is their last pay for the 2024 school year.

If they spread over 24 periods, we'll be on July 31st as opposed to August 31st.

And that their first pay for the 2025 school year will be August 15th instead of September 15th.

All right, thank you.

Sorry, Miss Riedel.

All right.

Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Gurley.

Again, I'm here tonight to share with you the CCS division literacy plan.

as required through the Virginia Literacy Act, which will be submitted to the state on July 1st.

So I will be returning at the next school board meeting with the request for your approval.

Tonight we will discuss and look at the five key elements of the Virginia Literacy Act as listed on the VDOE website.

These key elements drive the goals and the vision of our literacy plan in Charlottesville.

Tonight, we're going to look deeper into each one of these.

First, the strategic plan.

While creating the CCS literacy plan, it was important to everyone involved that we align our work with the strategic plan.

Everything that's included in the literacy plan aligns with priority one.

Ultimately,

It's to increase academic achievement in literacy.

Let's start with a little background information.

And there's a lot of acronyms tonight, so I'm going to try and make sure I explain what they are.

The VLA, or the Virginia Literacy Act, was passed in the 2022 General Assembly for the purpose of improving literacy outcomes for all of Virginia's learners.

When the VLA was passed, it specifically included details for kindergarten through third grade.

It has since been expanded to include grades four to eight, making it much more comprehensive.

Guidance and directions regarding the VLA is a living process and we get frequent updates.

I think I got one about 20 minutes ago in my email.

Our implementation will continue to grow and evolve and be more inclusive each year.

I say all of that so that you know that there are parts of this current plan that will expand and change.

We are taking this step by step to be intentional in our decision making and processes to ensure student achievement.

One part of the literacy and plan includes a literacy vision.

We've had literacy visions in the past, but they've mostly lived in like the reading world.

We used them to guide our yearly goals and our professional development, but they weren't shared and enhanced by all.

Now we're hoping that our literacy vision will be a part of everybody's work.

We've had several groups work on crafting the vision and then shared it with other stakeholder groups for feedback and input and we've made tweaks and adjustments.

Ultimately, every person that worked on it agreed that CCS believes that literacy is a civil right that has the power to create equitable outcomes for every student.

Through our evidence-based literacy instruction and explicit processes, we will ensure that students have a solid literacy foundation so that they can become effective and successful readers and writers.

Once the literacy vision was created, we had to really look at our instructional materials.

The VLA requires that we implement and use high quality instructional materials, HQIM, for the core, the supplemental, and intervention instruction.

That means we should be using instructional materials that support the science-based reading research.

It is kind of like if I asked you to make a pizza, I would have to give you the dough and the sauce and the cheese, all the right ingredients so that you can achieve.

That's what we mean by high quality instructional materials.

Fortunately for us, the core instructional program that we use in grades K through five is HMH Interreading.

that's already on the approved list.

This was a huge relief and allowed us to move forward in preparing and aligning our instruction.

Many school systems in Virginia have recently or are in the process of adopting new curriculum right now.

In fact, the week before spring break, we had another school system come and visit us and some of our classrooms so that they could see what HMH would look like as they prepare to implement.

The initial list of supplemental and intervention materials were just reviewed and released officially last week and more will be released in the fall and over the summer.

Because of the timing for this information, we do not have to specifically include our lists on the plan right now, but we will have to provide an amendment later.

However, it's good to know that we use a variety of the different programs and resources and all of them are on the approved list.

Supplemental and intervention resources are used for very specific reasons and with specific students.

Therefore, not every one of the options on the slide would be used by everyone, nor would they be applicable to everyone.

For example, SPIRE is one intervention material that was on the approved intervention list for phonological and phonemic awareness, also phonics and word analysis, as well as fluency and automatic word recognition.

This resource is used by some of our special education teachers for students that need specific intervention in those areas.

Supplemental programs are used to enhance the core instruction program.

It's often used when the core program does not provide adequate instruction or practice opportunities.

For example, Peggarty phonemic awareness is on the guide as an approved program, and we use it in kindergarten classrooms to enhance our phonemic awareness skills in the foundational skills block.

Since not all of this information's ready, we'll have to submit a revised plan in December.

Now that we have solid resources for our core supplemental and intervention instruction in literacy, sorry, next slide.

It's time to plan for how we implement that evidence-based literacy instruction.

This includes professional development and training so that everyone is aligned in best practices for teaching literacy.

By the end of the 24-25 school year, everyone in grades K-8 will have completed a literacy-related training from the approved resources.

We will continue to provide letters training

We're also going to use some of the Canvas modules that have been created and shared by the Virginia Literacy Partnerships, or VLP, in order to accomplish this requirement.

The VLP and the VDOE have shared that different modules will support different people in different roles, so we look really forward

We look forward to the differentiated model of professional learning that we'll be able to offer next year so that everybody can be aligned in our understanding of science-based reading research.

We'll also work closely with Dr. Isley to support everyone through the professional development plan.

In addition, we'll be implementing consistent expectations for observing and monitoring the instruction with the support of the administration, reading specialists, instructional coaches, and many others at each site.

In addition to monitoring the instruction, we also have to monitor our student learning.

We will use the new state approved and required VALS assessment

This is the Virginia Language and Literacy Screener, which was the PALS screener, but it's now aligned to the Science of Reading and will provide us with more data.

Students that are identified as at risk on the fall VALS assessment will receive a student reading plan.

We have been piloting student reading plans and our communication with families as partners in the plan this year.

We've also been working with different teams to provide guidance documents and resources to support specific student groups, such as our English language learners with the reading plans.

The collaboration and support has definitely allowed us to prepare for implementation of the student reading plans in the 24-25 school year.

The next component of the BLA addresses family engagement and partnership.

One of the most popular questions that teachers and specialists hear when working with families is what can I do to support my student at home?

We're working to make sure that we have a bank of resources ready and available to answer those questions.

We are designing a literacy web page that will be part of the CCS website.

Within that resource, we will provide access to online resources such as Lexia Core 5 or Power Up.

So they can be used at home as well as in school and links to the Virginia Literacy Partnership website, which is shown here.

And it's actually really expansive.

There's tons of questions and resources there.

In addition to our website, in several of the feedback sessions, it was brought up that we

We also talked about creating resources for each school to use and share with families that will provide insight into what the VALS assessment looks like, how to read the student reports, and then how to match their child's needs.

These items will be able to be used at literacy events, conferences, open house, just so we have consistency across our schools and our division.

In CCS, we're fortunate to have such an amazing and strong team of reading specialists that support our students and staff every day.

In addition to their everyday responsibilities, they have been preparing and planning for the VLA.

They are one of the reasons that CCS is in such a good position to ensure that we not only meet the legislative requirements, but that we're implementing the best literacy practices that will support our students and increase our literacy performance.

We've already completed the letters course, all of the reading specialists, and several of them now lead the facilitation for others.

In addition, they have completed the VLP Canvas modules this year, which were designed for reading specialists and then implemented and laid the groundwork for teachers for what they will be doing next year.

They've also piloted the student reading plans and begun to increase teacher capacity for providing tiered interventions and supports so that they'll be successful with reading plans as well.

Now that we've discussed the key elements within the VLA in depth, I just want to take a quick moment to discuss the template.

School divisions have been provided a division literacy plan template that has been completed and will be submitted to the state on July 1.

The process of completing the template has really allowed us to embrace our literacy vision and ensure that we are implementing all five components of the legislation.

Our shared values and practices were reinforced the entire time that we completed the template.

It was really reassuring to see that what we do and what we say align and match.

I now need to take a moment and say thank you.

This was a lot of work, but it was valuable and important work.

And it wasn't done alone or in a silo.

If I tried to list names, I would forget someone.

So I'll just let you see some of the groups of people and let you know that when I say that every person in every session had a voice, whether it was there or through an email or over the phone or walking down the hall, everything was heard and appreciated and shared.

Thank you, Ms.

Riedel.

This is a very impressive plan.

I'm not an expert on literacy, so I'm going to allow my other colleagues, but appreciate all the effort.

Obviously, we went a lot into it and it was a very good presentation.

Ms.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I see that this plan outlines K through 8.

and we know we have folks that need help in 9th through 12th grade.

Yeah, and the VLA only addresses K-8, but we have needs in the high school and we definitely, I've had a meeting with a team of teachers the other day and we talked about some of the developmental skills

of the younger grades or the foundation, not the developmental bit of foundational skills are still needed with some of our high school students.

So how do we bring morphology?

How do we bring word analysis in?

So we're not talking just about comprehending the text, but how do we attack the words within it to make the meaning true?

And they've been building intentional things into their pacing guide.

And so that and our support with the whole team and the specialists and everybody, I think we're working on building that as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

All right.

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

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present for your information tonight our proposed new grading policy, Policy IK.

This policy has been carefully developed through extensive research and consultation and reflects the insights and recommendations of our CCS grading committee, which includes teachers, principals, and other academic and equity leaders from within our division.

Our primary objective for this new grading policy is to ensure that our assessment methods are equitable, transparent, and truly reflective of each student's academic abilities.

We aim to enhance student learning and achievement while upholding rigorous academic standards.

This policy is crafted to promote consistent, meaningful assessments and to afford students ample opportunities to demonstrate mastery of their subjects.

The policy focuses on several crucial components, accuracy or ensuring grades accurately reflect student understanding and knowledge, support or offering structures that aid student learning, and consistency, maintaining uniformity in grading practices across our division.

You may recall that when I presented the program of studies last December, I included a slide indicating an adjustment of our grading scale to a 10-point scale.

Following the board's guidance, we removed the grading process from the program of studies and held off on implementing this change to conduct a thorough review of our division-wide grading procedures and practices.

This was in line with our strategic plans directive to develop a comprehensive K-12 grading and assessment policy that is equitable.

Now, the committee is prepared to proceed with this change to a 10 point scale for the 24-25 school year.

It is important to note that most school divisions do not include a grading scale directly in the policy.

It is typically found in regulations, school handbooks, or posted on division websites, which is our plan as well.

Our grading committee is currently finalizing regulations for this new policy, IK, which we will present for your information.

at the May 30th board meeting.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the committee for their unwavering dedication and meticulous work on these initiatives.

Their commitment to prioritizing the best interests of our students is truly commendable.

We had many meetings to discuss what is best and right for students regarding grading and assessment.

I am deeply appreciative of their efforts.

Tonight, we are presenting Policy IK for your information again, and the superintendent will request that you take action at the May 30th board meeting.

Thank you.

I'll start down to my right, Ms.

Richardson.

Ms.

Thank you for your work and attention to this subject.

Absolutely.

As I mentioned, we did have principals on our committee.

When we did our review, we found that there were inconsistencies across the division.

not to say that everything was bad, it just wasn't consistent.

And when we have children move from school to school, we need some consistency and alignment.

And so as we, if it is the board's will that we move forward with this policy, our next step is to continue that conversation with principals, make sure that teachers are aware of this change, this, not a change, it's a new policy, we did not have one.

previously, so make sure all of our staff are aware.

And what our goal is, we know that everyone has been introduced to the strategic plan.

It is what drives what we do.

And so in that strategic plan, there is a focus on reviewing our grading practices and implementing a policy.

And that's what we're doing.

So we really do need to have those conversations with our teachers.

We can do that at the building level in faculty meetings.

We can add professional learning sessions to our PL days if we need to just to talk about this.

and make sure that everybody's on board with what this is and to introduce them to the regulations that will accompany it.

It is important that everyone understands our next steps and how they can just be consistent in implementation and doing what our children need regarding equitable grading practices.

No, I mean I just think it's just such a

This policy and the implementation thereof is just hugely non-negotiable, right?

That the culture around grading and it not being punitive and

It's just like this isn't something that can be rolled out like our cell phone policy.

It has to be there day one.

And I am not sure that all teachers are even aware of the practices that are outlined in Grading for Equity, the book that you mentioned before that is hugely powerful.

If board colleagues haven't had a chance to read or listen to it, I would encourage you to do so.

It really does require a change in mindset for some.

We don't want to grade children on behaviors.

We need to grade students on their mastery of the standards of their knowledge and understanding of what is being taught.

And so

In some schools, in some classes around the state, probably around the nation, there have been grading practices.

If you don't turn in your assignment, you're getting a zero.

You don't get another chance to do it.

This is what you chose to do.

I've already got mine.

And this is what you, you know, we don't want that mindset.

Our goal is to help our students to grow, to help them to learn and to show what they know.

So this grading committee's work is not done.

The first step was to develop, to review practices and to develop a policy.

The next step is to make sure we continue the education of our staff, to make sure that we're working with principals and staff to help them understand the why

The why behind this?

The book Grading for Equity by Joel Feldman really guided our work.

Everyone had that book and we started our work with pointing out key pieces that really helped to guide what we what our thoughts were to help us to, you know, even change some of the way that we were graded growing up.

We really had to change our the way we thought about grading.

So the next, and it won't, we know it won't be easy.

This is what is the timeline.

So if we were to adopt this policy next month, like, well, the regulations or the corresponding

They'll be ready.

They're almost ready.

There's one little change that we need to talk about in our committee, but they're ready.

We wanted to have this ready for the end of the year so that as we go into summer work, the policy prayerfully would be approved.

The regulations would be, all of that would be public knowledge.

We can start the communication so that our schools, our staff, our families are ready.

Any questions?

All right.

I do have a few questions, more so in regard to maybe a definition of a few terms here.

And actually, let me back up just a little bit.

So under accurate, we have a line to standards for learning.

In previous programs of study, I've seen two different grading scales, where we had like a math grading scale and had the other one more, I guess, a little bit more traditional.

With a lot of standards for student learning, are we thinking of switching to one of those?

Right now, for 24-25, math will continue with standards-based grading.

It is our goal to over the years, it requires a lot of training, a lot of professional learning for staff to understand that

the standards best grading so we have experts we have a really great expert in our high school and we have another couple other experts on our team that can help with this and so yes we want to move to other content area as the years go on so 24-25 it continues to be math as we're

implementing this new grading policy.

Yeah, I guess my hesitation, my personal

hesitation is, for me, I feel like this is the great moment to say, hey, we're setting a new, we're doing something new opposed to rolling it out over time.

I think when we talk about clarity,

Not exactly clarity, but supportive for student learning.

The last bullet, provide parents and students ongoing, credible and useful feedback in a timely manner.

I think like some of that, if the parent is trying to look at two grading scales and trying to understand what's happening, we don't get clarity there.

And that's one of the things that I'm worried about.

also see it as a great opportunity to, again, move us in the way that we want in a quicker way, in a quicker fashion.

Coming from a CTE background, I already know that they technically have to do standards-based or competency-based reporting for each of their courses and all of their standards for the state that the division is supposed to keep for five years, if I'm not mistaken.

I think that's one of the things for me is just like I would love to just see us.

Like let's tackle the problem, let's tackle it appropriately.

And maybe I guess what appropriate and what you're saying is we need more leaders to be appropriate.

And for me as a individual board member, appropriate is let's get it done and let's get it done now opposed to having to go back.

And this is maybe kind of what you were getting at for the environmental, for the furnace.

Do we go electric or do we continue to stay natural gas?

Like let's, let's knock the thing out now.

and not waste time having to go backwards.

The other question I had, and I think was maybe kind of answered in your dialogue with Ms.

Dooley, when we talk about separated from work habits, I've seen a couple different models separate it in the sense of, hey, we're not going to grade it at all, or it's not factored into the grade.

I've also seen some models where it's almost like a separate

a separate report card.

So I think you might be referring to me saying we're not going to be grading behaviors.

So that's late assignments, students choosing not to do their work.

That's due on May 15th and instead doing it on June 1st.

Yes, ma'am.

We're not going to grade behaviors.

We're grading students' understanding and knowledge.

And so as educators, we have accepted this call to help our students to learn.

And so we need to do the work to ensure that they have the appropriate instruction and the appropriate encourage, motivation, continued prodding,

to get those assignments done so that we can see what they know and grade that rather than grading because you've dozed off in class, I'm taking 10 points off of your assignment.

That's not assessing what a student knows.

That's the behavior.

We deal with the behavior in another way.

We assess about what they know.

You did.

A hundred percent.

One of the other things I had a question about is under supportive of student learning.

One, two, three, four.

The fourth bullet.

It mentions make it.

I'll just read it.

Make adjustments for transitional periods, including elementary to middle and middle to high.

So right now, of course, you know, fifth and sixth grader at Walker.

And in just a few years, fifth grade is going to be going to the elementary school.

So that is there to see, do we need to do something different for our fifth graders?

because Walker's one school, but do we need to do something different for our fifth graders because they're going to be back at the elementary school?

Those are some considerations that we're having in our grading committee.

And certainly as we're looking at Buford, we have many opportunities, high school credit courses that are there.

This is a thought process we're looking at.

Ms.

Yeah, so I would echo Mr. Morse that if we're going to do this, let's do it and not create or incidentally cause more confusion and rule it out as a whole.

And then again, how are we communicating this in a clear, consistent way so that our parents, students, and educators all have the same expectations as a whole.

We believe in over-communicating, so I certainly would want school-based communication, but also division-wide communication.

We use Parent's Square.

If this policy is approved on May 30th, we'll start that communication division-wide.

We plan to, again, have the regulations prepared so that they can also be shared out with families, with staff as well, so that over the summer, they can start digesting what this is gonna look like in classrooms, what this is gonna look like with my child, what I'm gonna see when assignments come home,

graded the next week or the next two weeks instead of six or seven weeks later.

These are some things that we want to make sure that we're talking clearly.

One more question in regards to grading and will this be in Canvas?

Will it be in PowerSchool?

Like there is lots of

So Canvas communicates to PowerSchool.

We would continue to use Canvas specifically in our secondary schools.

They use Canvas and it communicates to PowerSchool.

to make sure that grade is, parents can see Canvas, parents will be able to see Power Teacher.

We can, if you're telling me that it's not consistent, then I will continue to work with our technology department to make sure that those are rolled over carefully.

I can just speak very quickly to that.

So we can set up the parameters and the rules to make sure that whatever the grading policy is, it's matched in all of our technology platforms and everything that communicates originates in power schools.

So we'll just make sure that everything that receives grades has the same rule structure and same format so that there wouldn't be a chance of

Would that include the opportunity or the ability to change like the mathematical equation maybe instead of using average but using a decaying average or using mode or decaying mode or something like that for power teacher or

Yeah, there's a lot of possibility.

I think that once the policy is passed and we have sort of the rules that get defined, then we, as a technology team, will work with our vendors and put in place what we know can be put in place and, and work with, you know, our, our job is to align the policies.

That's going to be in our regulations.

We have that information in our regulations.

That was inconsistent?

Yes, it was inconsistent.

There were inconsistent weighting across the division.

So the assignment won't be graded based on the late submission, but communication, that feedback to the parent and the student should be ongoing.

If an assignment is due on April 1st and the student doesn't turn it in, it will be because of our new, it should be happening anyway, but with that being directly in our policy, we would anticipate and expect that ongoing communication is occurring with families and with students.

Okay, but wouldn't necessarily show a student failing because we're not grading the behavior even but... I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

The grade would likely go in as a missing assignment, a missing assignment.

And we work with technology, what that, what that shows up as.

Um, but again, the communication with the family is, is key, uh, to let them know this, this child is not, your student has not turned in these assignments.

We need to know what they know.

So I guess yeah, I'm not saying overarching philosophical, where I do think we need to set kids up for success in the real world, which also means meeting deadlines is turning things in on time.

So I don't know how we square that with what we're talking about here too.

My other concern is just do teachers have the ability to control their work photos to an extent and ensure that and incentivize at least and or again have a consequence for students who are not turning things in or not keeping up with the learning that needs to be happening in their in their classroom and thus you have 30 different I guess in my mind kind of lessons you're having to teach because your kids are all a different

different spots in the curriculum because they haven't been doing their assignments or they have been doing their assignments.

So I guess I worry a little bit about the implementation on this and the ability for our teachers to actually manage all of it and manage their workload too.

I think one of the key things that you said is it's our goal to help students to be successful, to meet with success.

And so if that is what we commit to doing, then we have high expectations of our students.

We set those expectations.

We build relationships.

We work with students to get their assignments completed.

No one is saying it's going to be easy, but we can't take the easy road out and just give the F or just give the zero.

It is our job to help students to meet with success.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate that.

Last question here is because I'm imagining we're going to have a lot of

We reviewed the grading scales of area school divisions, and they're already at the 10 point grading scale.

Great.

So I was curious if Dr. Isley has professional development ready to roll out or if this was something that we move forward with and decide to really go, you know, I mean implement it say by the beginning of the school year.

I mean you can't really train teachers through the summer for this.

Are you saying we can't treat- Implementing it, I don't know.

I mean, similar to what Ms.

Yeah, I think I'm hearing two things.

So one part of it,

One conversation has been about the equitable grading practices, which most certainly that does require professional development.

And so I know that that's something that Dr. Isley can run through our professional learning institutes and training.

So I think that sounds like equitable grading and making sure that everyone has a chance to engage in that professional learning.

then I think the other thing that I'm hearing is about the standards-based grading.

And I think that that, and so one part of it that I'm hearing is like, if we're gonna do it, we need to go all in.

And so I think part of it is, I think the bigger conversation is the work that it took to get our math team there, right?

I mean, because it's,

It's not just a mindset change because I think you can bring that part along.

It's the actual implementation of it.

And I think I look at it in terms of in education when we change standards, we have like this cross, what we call the crosswalk period where you're

working in the old and looking at the new.

And it feels like we have to have that on ramp, because if you if we don't execute it correctly, there are tons of unintended consequences.

So I think we what I'm hearing you say is, yeah, we need to make sure we are going that way.

But we can't be talking about it.

We just can't keep talking about it because that's that energy efficiency model that we were talking about earlier.

But most certainly we need to see that there's this blueprint.

And typically

With any standard change in education we have that crosswalk year and so we need to figure out what that crosswalk looks like so that teachers understand that you have to get the mastery and students need to get the mastery and that's what we're grading and we're not grading just the behavior components of it that where the student

The student was asleep, so I don't know whether the student knows the work or the student turned in an assignment and got 80% of it correct, but he or she slept in the class, so I'm gonna subtract 20 points.

So that's not reflective of whether the student knows the material.

Yeah, no, thank you for kind of separating those two out.

But even as you spoke right there about the equity part, I mean, that doesn't sound like that's an easy training either, probably for some people.

So, I mean, how do we envision if this policy is passed with the regulations of rolling this out?

That is true.

I've been working with Dr. Isley already, preparing for the 24-25 professional learning plan.

And so we already do equity sessions and cultural competency sessions.

We already do that work.

This would just be added conversation.

We already are taking the steps towards equity with our students towards making sure that every student gets what they need.

So now this is just another added layer.

And what does that look like?

So yes, as we're moving forward with our professional learning plan for 24-25, these conversations will continue to have at PL sessions in August and also at faculty meetings at schools.

PL happens at school buildings as well.

So it won't just be the one and done sessions that we have as a division.

these will be things that as Dr. Gurley and I meet with principals at principals meetings I'm sure we'll have those conversations then so that we meet monthly with them and so we'll you know follow up and see how things are going what else do we need to do to make sure everybody understands what needs to be done to implement this policy with fidelity.

So we know that there's work ahead but the first work is

Thank you.

Anybody else have any questions around the policy?

All right.

Thank you.

Oh, wow.

Yay, we're to the next part.

So we have the next item would be board response to written reports.

And then we will move on to a second opportunity for comments from members of the community.

So if anybody would like to come up to the podium.

Thank you for allowing me to speak again at the end of the meeting.

I have never spoken twice in one evening, but feel that I have to say warrants another few minutes.

At the last board meeting, Ms.

Burns expressed her outrage over the adaptive bike that was taken for Jackson Viya back in February.

This trike provides a leap student mobility, which is crucial to her education and provides important therapeutic and social opportunities.

I can't help but think if there were exterior cameras, this might have given the police a visual on who did this horrible act.

Since then, there has been vandalism on Jackson Valley School property in the form of sexually explicit drawings, obscenities, human defecation on the playground, as well as wrapping up the swings round and round, preventing students from using them.

During the same week that a loaded gun was located on school property at the Boys and Girls Club, another weapon incident

occurred just three days later in the evening at Jackson Viya.

A Jackson Viya student and Walker student were threatened by a pair of older teens or young adults with a gun.

Staff families, CPD, and division staff were made aware.

At no time should any student feel unsafe at school.

As Dr. Gurley stated on April 16th, safety is our school's division's top priority.

Despite recent actions to combat this,

By the division, more proactive measures are needed.

To support the CBD in curbing the gun epidemic, a need for exterior cameras is a must.

Not later down the road, but in the immediate future.

The situation that transpired could have ended very differently.

Luckily, no one was harmed physically, but mentally, the scars will always be there for those two students.

This could have happened to anyone.

Mr. Meyers, this could have happened to your children, who will always call Jackson VI home.

Lastly, the CPD, like CCS, is not immune to being short-staffed, so they need the school division's support to have eyes when they can't be here.

Jackson VI is one of the only city school playgrounds that can't be seen from the road and only accessible by foot.

As I mentioned at the start of the meeting, investing funds into people and safety must remain the top priority.

Please invest in cameras for all exterior schools, not just Jackson Viya, sooner than later to keep our whole community safe.

Thank you.

Anybody else in the media center or online?

All right, thank you so much.

And now we will move to board member comments.

I just want to say I want to thank everybody who presented.

Thank you Ms.

Dooley and Ms.

Cooper.

Mr. Morse, Ms.

Sure, just wanted to remind parents that Parks and Rec for City of Charlottesville has summer camp registration open and all have available spots right now.

So I want to encourage folks to take advantage of that opportunity.

It's reasonably priced, comparative.

to some other offerings in the area.

And there is financial assistance available through Parks and Rec on the website, or there is a paper application available in the Parks and Rec office, which is located right below city space on the downtown mall.

So again, just want to encourage folks that, you know, our city is offering that to our children

as a great opportunity this summer to continue with learning, being outdoors, active with their peers, and engaged in the community.

Just to add a little bit on Mr. Hartline's observations and comments, and I think as Amanda mentioned, was it last week or two weeks ago, we did walk a little bit with Chief Kochis and some of the CPD and discussed

Not only safety in our community and guns and gun violence around, but this was a little bit in the wake of, again, the weapon that was found at the Boys and Girls Club in middle school alternative program that was brought in by, again, unfortunately, one of our students.

I am very glad that we made our resolution today.

Again, you know, I think we're just trying to mitigate, unfortunately, and we can have policies that can mitigate these things, but

We can't, unfortunately, make the policies that I think actually solve the root problems of these things, which is, to me, access to guns.

So all that said, I am looking forward to our conversation May 18th, I think, with Chief Kochis and to talk a little bit more about school safety and security and

keeping our youth safe and feeling safe in our schools.

That is coming up here and I'm looking forward to that.

And I do think we'll probably see some new changes for the next school year.

That could also include more cameras, but I think again, cameras are a tool in the toolbox, but we need a lot of different things to happen to, I think, solve the root cause of this problem.

I'm gonna stop there.

But thanks everybody for participating.

And you're right, I thought it was a very productive meeting.

We've got through a lot today.

All right, everybody.

Thank you.

I do want to thank all the staff.

I want to just kind of, um, I was going to summarize, I mean, and you can look at the agenda and see what happened tonight, but I think, you know, Charlottesville city schools is doing a lot of good stuff.

I mean, and just tonight, I mean, we, um, highlighted and, and, you know, gave appreciation to principals, teachers, admin professionals, nutritional staff, or golden apple awards.

students, everybody.

I mean, thank you for everything that you're doing.

So we did that.

We talked and had our Be Smart resolution, talked about sustainability, literacy, our middle school update, and that's pretty exciting, equitable grading.

I mean, so many good and heavy things and a lot of work is being done and

As was alluded to we do have a work session coming up so we will dig into some of those topics a little bit more so that's exciting and then I just wanted to remind everybody anybody who's listening that there's some wonderful art on the downtown mall so if you get a chance to

to walk and enjoy the pretty weather.

There's some awesome art throughout the downtown.

And I just want to thank Dr. Gurley for everything that you do and we are better because you are here.

Well, Miss Torres took everything that I was going to say.

But I do want to read it.

I want to just say how proud I am of our literacy team.

I've been going with the team to the regional trainings for the Virginia Literacy Act.

And it's so nice that when we get there, people are saying, hey, you all are using HMH.

We've

had people who've come to see it.

They love the way you're implementing it, the way you're utilizing the materials for all students.

I mean, we are getting it right.

And I truly believe that we're going to crack this code that is the gap, that achievement gap.

I mean, that gap that is occurring nationwide.

And I say that because it's a lift that's going to require us all and I know that we have more work to do in terms of engaging our community, engaging our families, because as I talk with people about

the right to read that when we went to go view that film it really is about how we engage our families and when we look at what the difference is with student success it's how we engage our families it's being present every day getting ahead of this chronic absenteeism

all of these things that our students up for success and so I believe we can crack this code because people want to see what we're doing not because it looks good but because it's working and so I just thank everyone I just I just want to make sure that I'm showcasing and celebrating you all for

all the hard work you do there.

And then, so Ms.

Torres already told you about the Art Connection tomorrow in the downtown mall.

And the last thing that's on my list is just shouting out Seaville Weekly for our LMA, just featuring LMA and night school.

Again, we are getting it right.

Our students are happy and I just appreciate our community for highlighting our staff.

Thank you all.

Have a good weekend.

Oh, tomorrow is Friday.

Ms.

Swift, do you have any wrap up?

All right.

And upcoming meetings, we have May 18th.

Again, this is our Charlottesville City School Board quarterly advance, and that will be at KTEC starting at 830.

And then our

What would be our June meeting will be actually May 30th here in the Media Center.

And that will be, I believe, our last school board meeting for the academic year.