School Board Meeting   1/9/2025

It is five o'clock.

I want to call this meeting to order.

Let's start with a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Ms.

Burns?

Here.

Ms.

Cooper?

Here.

Ms.

Dooley?

Here.

Ms.

And Ms.

All right, we are now going to do our annual reorganization.

All right.

Is there any discussion?

I'll second.

Any discussion?

All right.

Oh, yes.

All right.

Thank you.

One, I just want to thank Ms.

Torres for an excellent job chairing us last year.

I thought you did a great job of setting an example of how to run a good meeting.

You facilitated, I think, all of the members' interests and made sure those were on the agenda.

And I really appreciate what you did.

I think

Ms.

Cooley, I have the same high expectations for you and look forward to your leading us through the next year.

Anything else from the floor?

All right.

At this time, we will take a vote.

All in favor, respond by aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Ms.

Dooley, you are the board chair.

The gavel is now yours.

Thank you.

All right.

So our next order of business is to elect a vice chair.

Madam Chair, I would like to move that Ms.

I'll second.

Any discussion?

All right, so at this time, all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

All right, welcome, Ms.

Burns.

I look forward to working with you this year.

Next, excuse me, yes.

All right, Madam Chair, I would like to

I would like to appoint Ms.

Leslie Thacker as clerk and Ms.

Wonderful.

Yeah, I'll uphold that motion or agree with that 100%.

All right.

So all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposition?

All right.

Welcome back as clerks, ladies.

We're lucky to have you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Wonderful.

All right.

So next up, we are going to move on to 7.0, our comments from members of the community, starting with any comments from students.

All right.

Seeing no students in the audience, we'll move on to comments from members of the community.

I believe we have two folks who have signed up to speak.

Thank you.

All right.

So first up, Dara Cartline.

Good evening school board members and Dr. Gurley.

Derek Hartline, 1517 Antoinette Avenue, lifelong city resident.

At the December 19th joint session with city council, I voiced my concern not only about the standing leaves in the Jackson-Vias staff lot, but also the overgrowth coming through the fence that catches the leaves and allows them to build up and pile back into the lot.

I vowed that evening to do a

that now is covered with snow and ice.

I'm sadly disappointed that even after pleas were made for safer conditions, that the overgrowth remains.

I can't bear to see another situation like what happened on November 25th happen again, where multiple cars go up in flames because of something that is completely avoidable.

I have often lived by the quote, if you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

Once the snow melts, I will take it upon myself to clear the fence line in the name of safety as it must get done and done well.

Years ago, I took over maintaining both interior courtyards at Jackson Viya because the crew the city sent to do it were damaging the turtle shells with their string trimmers.

Ever since, the turtles have been able to live a very healthy life as a result.

My hopes and intentions are for the same to happen

with the cleared fence line where staff feel both comfortable and safe to park their vehicles at work and not have to fear that something bad like a leaf fire may happen again.

Thank you, Mr. Hartline.

Next up, we've got Chuck Moran.

Wonderful.

Anyone else in the media center wishing to give public comment?

All right, seeing no takers.

Is there anyone?

Quiet crowd in the Zoom room as well.

All right, so moving on, we 8.1, our Charlottesville High School student representative report.

Welcome back to school today.

Ms.

Hudock, if you'd like to give us your updates.

Good evening.

I hope you all had a restful snowy break.

I received a lot of positive feedback on behalf of the CHS student body.

Students are pleased with the smoothness of this year and connect the efficiency back to the no phone policy.

Although this isn't a new implementation, the process of involving CSAs in the collection of phones has made a huge impact.

Students feel this has allowed them to focus and have noticed significantly fewer conflicts.

I also got the chance to speak with a Buford student and she said the system at Buford seemed to be working great as well.

Students would like this to continue into the next school year.

Recently, personal devices have been removed from the Wi-Fi.

Students are curious as to why this is and if this will continue into the next year.

Students who are currently taking AP Biology say the class is going well, but highly request a teacher for the students taking the class next year.

They would also like to know in advance if the class will be virtual with an online teacher like it is this year, or if there will be a teacher and a class in person before they sign up for the class.

Students ask if there will be any changes made to the lunches next year, as students who are athletes and or rely on school lunches don't find them to be filling or nutritious options.

Along with that, the senior class appreciates the trust and ability to let us go off campus for lunch and would hope that we'd be passed on to the next class.

Students enrolled in the art classes at CHS would benefit from and appreciate an increase in the funding for the arts.

It's been requested that the classes have cameras for the students who need to upload pictures for their college portfolio and also for underclassmen trying to build a portfolio.

As a current student in art myself, I have had to bring my materials to school as there are either not enough supplies or the supplies aren't high quality.

I'm fortunate to have the ability to bring my own art supplies, but I know that's not the case for everyone.

Overall, students are content with their year so far and feel the school system is more cohesive and meets a lot of needs.

They appreciate being listened to and the opportunity to have more student body involvement.

Thank you, Ms.

Hudock.

Next up, 9.1, we have Ms.

Good evening.

Thank you for your time today.

We've got a presentation today.

We just wanted to actually bring your attention to the Energy Star Award that Johnson Elementary just received.

This is actually a pretty large thing that we try to strive for in the sustainability space.

It proves that the facility has been operating efficiently for the past 12 months, and every year you could go back and actually apply each year to get an Energy Star certification.

We were able to apply back in December.

I'm sorry in November and in December we learned that it did receive the Energy Star Score certification.

The score was a 75 and just give you a little bit of background.

A 75 is it's on a scale of one to 175 actually means that it's performing in better than 75% of the schools across the nation when it comes to energy performance.

So when you achieve that level, you can actually start to apply for a certification to show that you've actually achieved that.

You've actually had it reviewed by an outside data verification professional engineer, and you can show that you're actually performing very well.

So it's actually something that we can put at the school and show that it's had some good performance.

Another way to put it is that

It's basically using 25% less energy than the median school across the nation, so sort of the average schools.

So it's kind of choosing 25% less.

And compared to the median school across the nation, it actually uses 88%, I'm sorry, 88.2 less metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

So we're emitting less GHG emissions right now because of the good performance at Johnson Elementary.

Just to kind of put that a little bit of a perspective, 88.2 metric tons is equivalent to have it on the slide, but it's at 18 homes electricity use for one year.

We've basically taken that out of the equation, reduced by that much.

Carbon sequestration, so the amount of carbon that

that trees can pull sort of out of the air.

88.5 acres worth of that is what's equivalent to the 80.2 metric tons that we've produced.

And it's the equivalent to taking 20 over 20 passenger vehicles off the road for a full year.

So these are actually pretty big impacts, and 75 is a fantastic score.

We want to try to maintain that at Johnson Elementary.

And if we go to the next slide, or I guess I can do that.

Sorry about that.

There we go.

I just wanted to show that really these scores are driven by operations and that really is attributed to who's in the school, what they're doing in the school, our plug load, our turning off lights, sort of the behavior of students, of faculty and staff.

This is showing that we're actually doing a really good job.

We're having an impact at that school and we want to keep trying to promote that.

The facilities maintenance team is doing a fantastic job of making sure the HVAC and the lighting is running appropriately.

There's a new building automation system at that school and they're making sure that's dialed in appropriately to run schedules right and make sure we're not running more than normal.

So the facilities maintenance team has a lot to do with that as well.

So it's sort of the behavior and operation side that come into making sure that we are achieving this 75 score.

At the school, we actually received a decal.

So on the screen, you can see there's a Energy Star kind of an etched looking decal.

And we're going to put that at the front of the school to show that when you enter this facility, it is an Energy Star certified facility.

And we're looking to do that as well for other school facilities as when they become eligible.

So we're going to try to keep keeping those Energy Star scores rising and see what we can achieve.

Just wanted to alert you to that because that's such a it's a really great achievement for the students and faculty there as well as the operations team kind of on the backs back inside of things and we just want to try to keep up the good work.

So we're going to be presenting to actually Johnson Elementary.

We're going to be talking to the students at their next school wide meeting, which I think was rescheduled from tomorrow to next Friday.

So we're going to be going to that and presenting to the school as well.

So looking forward to it.

Wonderful.

Thank you for your presentation tonight and your efforts.

I love the engagement of the students in the accolade as well.

And we look forward to continuing to partner with you and your team at the city to bring all of our buildings up to more efficient levels.

Thank you.

Next up, we will move to adopt our consent agenda.

Second.

All right.

We've got a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All right.

All right, Madam Chair and members of the board, last month in December, we gave you an update on our school naming process that concluded, at which time we presented you with the remaining four schools.

This evening, I ask that you approve the recommendation to change Burnley Moran Elementary to Sunrise Elementary.

All right, thank you.

Do we need to approve these each?

I think we should separate them out.

Thank you.

All right.

Madam Chair, just real quickly, I was able to be part of the committee or one of the board members on the committee for this.

As a whole, for each of these, this comment pertains to those that I just really wanted to applaud the work that was done to kind of get us up to speed as far as the process that was used and the work that each of the committees did, the individuals

that represented the schools and any community members that were part of that.

I was really impressed with the work and the heart and soul that was put into it.

So we have a motion and a second for approving the name change for Burnley Moran to Sunrise Elementary School.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposition?

All right, that passes.

Madam Chair, I move that we change Johnson Elementary School's name to Tall Oaks Elementary School.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

Any discussion on the Johnson Elementary name change?

All right, hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposition?

All right, that motion carries.

Next up, retaining the name of Greenbrier Elementary School as such.

Any discussion?

All right, all in favor of retaining Greenbrier Elementary School's name?

Aye.

Any opposition?

All right, that passes.

Seconded.

All right, I believe that was Ms.

Cooper seconding that motion.

Any discussion?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposition?

Thank you all for acknowledging the hard work of that committee and team.

All right, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Gurley, good evening.

Last month in December, staff did present to you the draft 25-26 program of studies.

All right.

Thank you.

You've got a motion.

All right.

And then I would open it up for discussion on the motion to approve.

We've got some people lurking on the sidelines to answer questions.

The answer is yes.

We did remove the requirement for specific certification in engineering master's degrees.

So someone with a technology foundation endorsement could teach these courses.

Dr. Odey, that includes the dual enrollment courses as well?

That is yet to be seen.

They begin the course on January 21st, so this will be our first time experiencing the online with PVCC, but Albemarle also has it online.

The DE is very hard to

find someone with a master's to teach it at a high school level.

So just to make sure we're clear, the barrier for that is that that course requires a master's degree in engineering.

Yeah, and I guess lowering the barrier or removing that barrier.

So I was wondering if there was going to be a difference.

Well, number one.

So you can't lower it.

Right.

No, I understand that.

But I guess in some of the comments or concerns that we had received as a board, there was just a question as to whether or not the experiential, the labs, the hands-on,

I wouldn't want to

tell someone that that experience wouldn't be different because we know we've seen what online courses look like.

So I would imagine that that part would be different.

I don't know how it will be enhanced or, you know, if there's some practicums required.

And of course, that part I don't know.

And I would imagine

that we've always appeared to do a really good job of receiving student feedback.

Yeah, we're not taking them out of the program of studies.

The DEs will stay in there and cross our fingers that someone with a Masters of Engineering would want to come and teach our students.

I'm sorry.

So another if Dr. Gurley or Dr. Coffey or someone could speak to, I know that through the years, we we made some decisions to try and allow some of our younger students to

have exposure to engineering, so at Walker to have the elective engineering, so as far as the diversity and trying to continue to increase the diversity of students.

Can you speak to one of you, I know you and I spoke Dr. Gurley a little bit, but just speak to how we as a school division are working to try and increase opportunities for students to

So it starts with I-STEM, which I'm very proud of.

It's an amazing program.

They work very hard on the curriculum to ensure that they are exposed to engineering, but also science.

We always say lead with science.

So it's the science, then the engineering and the math.

Then in the middle school, we're hoping to continue that engineering pathway.

So right now we have foundations in seventh grade and engineering one in eighth grade.

So when sixth grade comes in, we're hoping just to continue with that.

I know Mr. Jordan, we spoke at programs of studies and the reconfiguration that there's a possibility that we will have like a wheel in sixth grade where they can experience multiple different fields and then they'll still have foundations and engineering

one in middle school, and we recruit them.

We continue to show and expose all these wonderful things that they're doing in engineering.

The lab school's huge with this right now.

We're partnering with engineering.

So some of the things that they're doing in engineering, we're like, hey, we're doing this in science.

So it's a lot of collaboration there.

Any additional questions?

All right, so we've got a motion and a second to approve the 2526 program of studies.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

All right.

We now have our our items for discussion.

First up, we will have Bianca Johnson.

There she is.

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

My name is Bianca Johnson and this evening.

I'll be presenting updates on both family engagement and restorative justice and education here at CCS.

In this presentation, I'll share how we continue to meet basic needs.

provide school support and community engagement, as well as an overview of restorative justice and education, some data that I've compiled in the last two years, and our partnership with Central Virginia Community Justice.

And I will wrap up with what's next in both worlds.

According to schoolquality.gov, last school year around 63% of our students were considered economically disadvantaged.

This is well over half of our student population.

And this is a new data.

Most of the people in the room are aware of this.

And because of this, removing barriers and expanding access to basic needs continues to be a priority within division family engagement.

Our collaborative work with community partners that you all heard about in November helps make this happen.

The Emergency Food Network supports us with food bags for all breaks during the school year.

They also provide no barrier access to food cards for all students and families and hygiene supplies in our secondary schools.

The numbers that you see on the screen are for this school year so far.

But within the last two years, the Emergency Food Network has provided us with support totaling over $40,000, including over 1,000 bags of food, around 150 gift cards, and hundreds, if not close to thousands at this point, of hygiene supplies.

This nonprofit works really hard to assemble their own volunteer teams to assemble the bags.

And then Family Engage will coordinate the manpower to pick up the bags, deliver them to schools, distribute them to families.

Thanks for our amazing mental health staff and other staff that continue to show up and deliver to schools.

Buford Eats is in its third year of running at our middle school.

They mainly run a monthly food distribution program for the students and families there.

Students and families can sign up anytime to receive this support.

This is led by Buford social worker Tara Johnson, along with the committee of teachers that help run their monthly food pop-ups in conjunction with dismissal or school events.

Pop-ups are open to anyone in the community to receive food.

This is in partnership with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, who helps us by providing additional food boxes during summer and winter break.

It's been a while since you guys have received an update, so you'll see two years worth of data this evening.

Last school year, we had around 33 families sign up for a monthly distribution.

However, with the addition of pop-ups, there was a total of 11,000 pounds of food given out, with over 7,000 of that being fresh produce.

This school year, as of early November, we had 22 families signed up today.

There are 28 families signed up for monthly food distribution.

Almost 5,000 pounds of food has been given away and over 3,000 of that was fresh produce.

This team has done tremendous work on top of their already assumed duties to continue this great food program.

We continue to meet basic needs with EdZone, our partnership with the Chris Long Foundation that provides essential needs closets in all of our elementary schools.

Our six EdZone champions in the building work to take requests to get items to families.

CLF also supports our school supplies and coats annually.

Last year, there were over 500 closet visits total, and just by November numbers, we're already close to 500.

One thing that has definitely allowed us to better meet needs in a timely manner is having onsite storage space.

Thank you to those that continue to ask and advocate for this.

Requests for items to be replenished or to schools can now be fulfilled usually within 24 to 48 hours, which is essential because the access or lack thereof could be a factor on whether or not a kid comes to school that day.

Support drives continue to run yearly for our students, and in these last two years, family engagement has provided over 1,000 backpacks and close to 600 coats.

I've also worked to check in and provide support to school family engagement teams as needed through Community Connections, explaining best practices and also providing direct family support as needed.

Part of the work is coordinating community outreach around important conversations like rezoning or sharing information with families through the Dream Builders program or making spaces for exposure and community at family tailgates.

All right, to the RJ world.

In the restorative world, the fundamental hypothesis or the big idea is that humans are more happier, cooperative, productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when people in positions of authority do things with them, not to or for them.

Restorative practices aims to develop community and manage conflict by repairing harm and restoring relationships.

I think that people generally think of restorative practices or restorative justice and education and assume that it's mainly about conflict.

One of my biggest goals in this role is to shift that narrative or belief.

To the right on our screen you'll see a triangle that explains restorative work in tiers, mirroring how we discuss the multi-tiered systems of support or NTSS.

Just like MTSS, Tier 1 is for everyone and the proactive approach that we want to continue to elevate.

It focuses on building and strengthening relationships, and Tier 2 and Tier 3 are more responsive approaches and focus on harm or re-entry back into the school community.

My role in this work is consistent of tier one capacity building where time allows, but mainly receiving referrals or requests to support students or staff through different incidents and then working through the process.

This consists of groundwork, which are individual meetings where I can hear their story about what they're needing, what happened, and what they're wanting to move forward.

From there, we'll decide if it's best to bring these folks together to talk about what happened or to figure out other ways to find solutions.

During the 23-24 school year, there were over 100 meetings with around 26 staff and about 38 students.

Of those incidents, seven remained in the first phase or what we consider our groundwork meetings, and this is due to either a non-response from a participant or them deciding that they didn't want to move forward with the process, which is okay because it's voluntary.

I facilitated 12 full conferences around five community building circles and 15 community concern circles.

There were seven opportunities for professional development for staff and one community-facing presentation to share about RGE with families.

During this school year, there have been around 31 groundwork meetings so far involving 14 staff and nine students.

We've had three full conferences and three open incidents still in phase one or groundwork meetings that haven't moved forward.

There have been three community building circles, four community concern circles or check-ins, two opportunities for staff to be fully trained in tier one practices, three sessions offered during professional development days and training provided to community partners.

Last year, we created a partnership with Central Virginia Community Justice, a nonprofit that receives diverted court cases from our local Commonwealth attorneys and works through the restorative process with those involved in the criminal justice system.

Through a state grant, we were able to pilot having facilitators at CHS to respond to things in real time.

This pilot was during the last quarter of the school year, so for about two months, but it's important to see the reach in that short amount of time.

The two facilitators you see here, Jackie and Catherine, were able to connect with over 50 students and 15 staff and facilitate seven full conferences between students and staff.

Most of their support was provided to ninth and 10th graders.

In terms of impacts and three incidents, three students felt empowered enough to resolve their own conflict independently and positively.

A third of the students built a relationship and wanted to check in with the facilitators post-conflict and all parties reported an overall general satisfaction with the process and the outcomes.

This school year, we've tapped into the facilitators to support Tier 1 training to help with smaller staff circles.

And thanks to more grant funding, they'll return to buildings to continue their support sometime this month.

To quickly put those numbers together, this work has supported 52 staff, 88 students, and 19 full conferences resolved in a way that centered dignity of all the parties, the needs of the harmed, and overall better path to moving forward.

As the school year continues, so does the work.

This evening, I highlighted quite a few numbers for you.

And whether we're talking about those or data numbers in our buildings, we have to continually acknowledge that needs are increasing.

There is a need for more basic need support, more staffing, more time to provide instruction, intervention, support for staff, students, and the list goes on.

With this increased need, perhaps we also need to consider the need for more or different engagement.

And so now is the time for questions.

Pondering, what does this look like?

How can we do this in consideration with staff capacity or family capacity or student capacity?

What does universal engagement look like?

Based on best practice, what is the baseline for any staff, student or family?

What's going well and how can we sustain that?

What does community visibility look like?

Where are the places that we as a division can be more intentional well-being?

Who needs to be there?

Where is the space for community and collaboration in all of this?

These are not questions that I have answers to today.

Thank you.

I'll look to my colleagues for additional questions and discussion.

But just a thank you to you and your team.

I think even going back to beyond a year ago, the reset that this community was able to accomplish would not have been possible without your work and your team's work.

And so thank you for doing that.

And

keeping that work ongoing.

And I think we're all interested in how we can support and expand that work, especially as we're heading.

Are we heading into budget season or we're already thickly in budget season thinking about how we need to continue expanding on the critical work that you're doing.

So I'm going to start on this side with Ms.

Hudock if you have any comments or questions.

Not right now.

Yeah, thank you again, like my chair said, for all the work, I think, especially again, in helping get us to a good spot last year.

And then again, I think start the school year strong this year.

I see a lot of great outreach here, especially around food, et cetera.

And these are meeting essentials for students to be able to basically be able to learn, right?

And hopefully, again, not to go hungry

on the weekends and stuff like that.

What I struggle with a little bit is we're an education institution, not a supermarket and a food.

I'm really glad that you asked that question.

One thing that I think about often is Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

We cannot talk about education if their basic needs are not being met.

Part of that is that I shared this number earlier in the presentation that over half of our students are considered economically disadvantaged.

That means that they struggled to even have things like food.

I don't know if you saw the quote at the EdZone presentation, but there were sisters sharing toothbrushes, right?

So these are the needs that we come across.

And so when we want kids to do everything that they can in the classroom, it's our duty to some capacity to make sure that those barriers are removed to make that happen.

And so

Thank you.

Ms.

Johnson, you and I go back a little bit and I, from here, thank you for the work that you've done over the years to get us where we're at, but also have the vision to move us forward and to see where our students and our staff, because we hear you're working with our staff as well,

are being met where they are and doing the work.

And so thank you.

I wonder as you're doing this work in the community, your team is you.

Right.

And and I see you put out calls for help.

Hey, we need help delivering this or we need help delivering that.

And when you ask the question about like, who's doing this work with you?

And what does this look like long term?

What does the presence in the community look like?

I ask that question myself.

at various events in town.

So I just I hope that there are conversations happening on how we can utilize more staff to

Thank you.

I just have a very simple question.

I may have missed it in your presentation.

Could you define full conference?

Yeah, so the short version of the whole process is I'll get a spiel or what we call a referral from someone, right?

This thing has happened.

It's maybe a few sentences.

I don't want a lot of information because I want to hear from the participants, right?

I'll ask who was ever bringing me the referral to make sure that they actually want to do this and they're not being voluntold to do this, right?

Once consent has happened, then I'll start meeting with people individually.

So that's what we call groundwork.

Well, they'll get to tell their story about what happened.

What are they thinking since everything has happened and what they're needing to move forward?

And then I'll do that with all the parties.

Usually it's like one or two people, but sometimes it's a group of people.

And then when they're in a good place, a lot of times people say, well, how long does this process take?

And I always say it takes as long as it takes.

You can have as many groundwork meetings as you need to be prepared to come forward with the people that you have harmed or been harmed by.

And so the full conference looks like

The person that was harmed, the person that caused harm, or if there's a group of people that all need to come together, it's everybody at the table, where everybody gets a chance to talk about what happened, what were they thinking at the time, what have they thought about since, and what are they needing to move forward, and each person will get a chance to kind of share those things.

And then from there, we move in towards what we call the problem solving process or the agreements phase where that's where they get to decide, OK, I'm going to do this or I'm going to not communicate with you during this time or this is how I'm going to communicate or this is how our relationship is going to look.

from this moment on.

And if people want a written agreement, it's not a legally binding agreement.

It's more of like a good faith agreement.

And sometimes that's helpful for like admin, right, of like these students talked about this.

This is what they've agreed to.

So they've got that to go back to if something else happens.

And so the last part of the conversation is, OK, this is what we've agreed to.

Do we see any thing that doesn't look good to somebody?

Do we see any barriers to maybe like

doing what we said we were going to do.

And then from there, I kind of let them go on.

I'll give them about two to three weeks where I'll check in to say, hey, this is what you decided on.

How are things going?

For the most part, people are OK.

But every once in a while, we may have to go back to the groundwork phase to maybe revisit some of those things.

But that last email that I send to kind of follow up, if everything's going well, we consider that incident closed.

Thank you so much for that summary.

About this time last year, I did a workshop with Central Virginia Community Justice hosted by TomTom.

And it was roughly 20, 25 random community members that came into TomTom.

And we went through just a few of those pieces.

And in that moment, there weren't people that were harmed by someone else sitting in the room.

But some of the ways that the questions to facilitate that mediation were worded.

At the end of the meeting, you can see about 50% of the people in tears.

Thanks for the presentation.

I think that I would say I have been a privilege to being a part of the restorative justice work, and I would agree with Dom when I left.

I think Emily was there as well.

Once we were finished, you wanted to hug the person next to you, and so I think that work is important.

But I also think that the work of

basic needs being met.

We expect our kids to come to school, but we don't know what's happening behind the scenes.

So I love the fact that we're able to provide these services.

You know, I've seen, you know, food insecurities in the community.

I've seen not having the basic needs met.

And so being able to provide that in our schools warms my heart to know that, you know, it's an opportunity if a family is struggling that they can come and get food and that their basic needs will be met.

And I think that's what community work looks like.

And I think unless you are doing all of the things to help our children thrive, then we're missing the mark.

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for breaking it down.

The whole process seems like a lot of hard work is put into this process.

And we want to make sure that everything we're doing is for the children.

And I see it through your speech, through the presentation that you care and we need that.

Thank you.

So with your restorative justice, as you wrapped up all of the questions that I had, you said I don't have the answers to those.

So I am here to support you.

And as we continue this work, because this work is so important and I know you have my support and I look forward to when we when we can get some

some of those answers.

But more specifically, I was curious, have you branched into the community at all to start some of this work?

So I also work for CVCJ and so I receive a lot of the court cases, many of our juveniles actually, that are in this very building.

So I feel like we have a really good partnership.

Our co-directors have great relationships with the attorneys and know to talk to the right people to connect, to spread more awareness.

I think maybe there could be some more intentional conversations about diversion of funding, but I think that

Well, please let us know.

I mean, if we if we can do anything as a board to help support that and then back to just the engagement and the supports to students on the ground.

Can you talk us through or talk me through like how does that happen at an elementary school?

Like how do you know who who applies or who asks our parents coming in?

Each school has an EdZone champion.

Those champions have their own process, but for the most part, there's usually a generic form that either families can fill out, a teacher can fill out, or they will send a form with images versus the actual words of the things that they need.

and send that home in school folders and so the families can check what they need.

When that teacher opens the folder, here's the folder of the things.

Let me take that to the EdZone champion.

They go fulfill what the order is and then they'll also decide like if it needs to be delivered, they'll coordinate with the school social worker.

That's awesome.

And how creative, right?

So I applaud you with that.

You know, my heart is with you in that work.

Yeah.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I also just want to say one more thing.

I know Miss Burns, you had asked, mostly my work is by myself, but I do want to credit my supervisor, Dr. Johnson, who also jumps in when she can to help as well.

So we do what we can.

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

I'm excited to share this update.

This is always a great project to talk about.

And before we dive into the latest details, I always like to ground everyone, especially the public, if they're just really starting to tune in and where we're going.

This is the vision of the completed project at Beaufort campus.

So just like people to get that overview to start.

And if Mr. Jordan

Yep, good.

He's here.

So between the two of us, we should be able to answer any questions you have.

This is the job site camera.

If you look back through the updates, I always start with this view because I feel like it's like a specific reference point.

And I like to just have it at the front end.

Of course, this was from mid-December because we needed to submit our materials for this meeting before the winter break.

but they are just steady steady at it and I know many of you that have had the opportunity to see inside and tonight in this presentation we'll be able to give the public some view on the inside which I think folks are interested to see.

Again, kind of looking holistically at where we're going.

When you look at the campus, if you start in the back on what's going to be called Building A in the new configuration, it's the new gym and then that's attached to the new segment that's going to be the seventh grade wing and on the lower level of that there are fitness studios.

then that attaches to what's going to be the new sixth grade wing in the end and the lower level of that has some beautiful art studios and then that red area is the existing building where our seventh and eighth grade classes are now.

That's going to be fully remodeled starting next year and we'll talk more about phasing in a bit and then of course the performing arts building also gets a full remodel next year as well.

So we'll focus on phasing later in the presentation.

But continuing with kind of the current state of affairs on the exterior from that job site camera view that I always share.

If you proceed around to the back, which not many people get to see because it's restricted to construction traffic.

This first picture shows the back of the seventh grade wing and you start to see the gym there in the back.

And then I take you to the next shot is the far corner of the gym on the backside.

And if you walk up around there,

You're kind of looking at the side of that new seventh grade wing with the existing cafeteria on your right, the new gym on the left.

And again, these are mid-December views.

So there's been more work, certainly more work over the past month.

But now let's look at, start looking inside.

And I think that's what I'm most excited to share this evening.

This is what you see in a typical classroom now has all the ceiling grids in, the windows are in and drywall is up.

Out in the halls, we have tile going up like this is one of the new restroom areas which we love, love, love this new restroom standard where there are individual toilet rooms and then the shared area for the sinks you can see inside one of the toilet rooms are all fully tiled.

There's tile on the floor there.

There's a ton of electrical and mechanical equipment going in now.

Really all of the trades are engaged right now all over the building.

It is a busy, busy beehive if you go in that building right now, which it's very, very active.

I totally geeked out getting to see where all the geothermal wells come into the building, which is near the gym.

So excited to see that.

That's the picture on the right side.

And then I just threw in some of the views that are more landscape, if you will, to kind of give the big view of any given corridor.

And again, you see all that drywall still some open ceilings, mostly open ceilings.

There's another great shot.

I love all the natural light that's going to be in this new building.

The spaces just glow.

Even though it's still very much a construction site, it's just beautiful to me.

There's paint that's actually going up in some areas.

The accent wall colors, you see those in various spots.

People here can see some of the new colors.

This is where the old meets the new.

This is on the right-hand side, you can see the building that houses all of our seventh and eighth grade classes now.

It's kind of like you'd be looking into Mr. Jordan's office there on the left, on the right hand side.

And remember, this is the area where it's going to have like a glass ceiling.

So what's so cool when you're standing there is you realize that this actual, this feeling, this natural light is still going to be there, even when it's all connected and enclosed, because that whole line there between the old and the new is a glass roof.

We'll talk more about that area in some of the other slides coming up.

But that's where it stood, you know, mid-December before winter break.

All right.

So, again, trying to start getting people used to the new labeling of the buildings.

It goes from the gym being Building A.

and then B, C, D, E, F. We'll end with the fine and performing arts, our very fine performing arts building, which will be building F. I'm already working on ways to reprogram my brain to get the letters with the right buildings.

So we start with the gem letter A. This is the phasing and all of that kind of coral peach color, A, B and C, that's the new construction that's underway right now.

and we are, it is 2025, I have to remind myself of that every time I write a date right now, and we are still tracking along for substantial completion on phase one of this calendar year, 2025.

and at that point we move into phase two which involves the blue area up there and so essentially what happens next year is we move into all the new construction with the seventh and eighth grade for next year and then in the back where it's kind of blue and peach coral colored where it says current D building those of you who are familiar with the Beaufort campus there's that not so great breezeway that runs down beside the building and then you

You go into that area.

We're going to have to use that building for the first half of next school year for dining.

And I'm going to explain all of that in more detail in a minute.

But the areas that are grayed out, that's where the construction moves into this coming summer.

So I want to talk more about the logistics for next year so people can start to wrap their heads around.

You see Cherry Avenue there at the top and then 9th Street down the side.

Next year, when students return for the fall, the parent drop-off and pick-up is going to be what's now the bus loop.

So we're going to want all car traffic next year to enter and exit on Cherry.

because when we get into renovating the existing building that we're using and the performing arts building, even that parking lot is going to be taken up with that work.

So parents driving to Buford will come in and out on Cherry and use the loop.

for our staff and our buses and our food deliveries and our trash service and of course the construction traffic.

That's all that should be coming in off 9th Street.

Staff will have tags and when they come in off 9th Street, they're gonna proceed down to the new parking lot that's down below the gym and for the interim year, we're also going to not complete the basketball court area.

We're gonna have that kind of lined off with some temporary lines and that will be additional parking.

the contractor and the city have done some counting and supposedly we're going to be losing 52 parking spaces but gaining 69 down below including using the basketball court what will eventually be the basketball court area as temporary parking.

So our staff will have tags and they will come in off 9th and they'll proceed down to that parking area.

And then they will exit at the end of the day out towards Cherry just like a bus will.

Our buses next year will start coming in on 9th Street and using the new bus loop.

So the buses will be looping out that way as well.

and we'll still have to get food deliveries off that entrance, trash service will still have to come in off that entrance.

But that's really, the 9th Street entrance should really just be those things.

Other logistics for next year.

So I already mentioned the current A and B buildings are not available, the main building and the auditorium building.

Our new gym is open, so let's just take a moment to appreciate that.

We will no longer be limited to just having the boys and girls building, which we've been so thankful for that partnership so that our students had some gym space, but it's going to be great for the students and for the health and PE department to have the new gym.

The fitness rooms will not come online initially as fitness rooms.

The fitness rooms are where we're focusing our performing arts classes.

They're large spaces.

We're working through those details with that team, but Mr. Jordan is doing a fine job of laying out what we can do.

The fine art, the performing arts is sort of like the health and PE team has been.

You know, they have to kind of make the sacrifice for next year in order to get their wonderful new spaces they'll be moving back into the following year.

Seventh grade moves into their new space in what is the new B building and that's where seventh grade is going to stay.

Eighth grade moves into what will ultimately be the sixth grade space for the one year.

The library

We'll be in that lovely glass-topped area.

sort of in the corridor.

We're going to bring in the media center shelves that are on wheels or mobile.

And again, Mr. Jordan's doing a great job working with the teacher for that area to make sure that we will, you know, there'll still be library services, but it's just going to be kind of in the corridor area.

And those shelves are very mobile, so they can be pushed up against the wall at the end of the day or whatever we need to do.

But that plan is being worked out.

and then other offices and educational spaces in the new building are there going to be some people are going to be in different spots than where they will land permanently when we get all of our space back and then the other big change is the dining situation because they have they won't they can't complete the whole dining area and the kitchen in a summer so we that we will get it back by winter break but for the first half of the year

It's going to be like Jackson, like what we do for Jackson Via now.

Those of you who don't know, Jackson Via doesn't have a kitchen either.

Food is prepped here at the high school and delivered.

Mr. Jones and his team are geared up.

We will be prepping the hot food and it will be delivered to the Buford campus where there's some temporary construction that's happening in the D building.

There's going to be some classrooms and some masonry work.

So you'll enter into what's now a classroom and then you'll go out through another classroom.

It's, and we're putting water service in for the serving lines and everything's going to be up to code.

for food service, but we're obviously not installing a full kitchen.

And then we will, we also have a guarantee from the contractor, they'll have a covered walkway from the new construction to get into that building as nicer and nicer than that breezeway that goes back to the D building currently.

and then there are some opportunities where outside of like that art studio and the fitness studio there's some new like terraced areas or we could have some maybe some outdoor dining on nicer days so we'll hope for that and then excite we're very excited that after winter break during winter break we will transition into the new kitchen and cafeteria area and then the D building goes away

So they will get into the new kitchen and cafeteria for the second half of the next school year.

But that first half, we're going to be working it out in what's currently called B Building.

So, looking ahead, I want to show folks where we are with our interior concepts.

A lot of the finishes have been selected and stuff.

They may not be all exactly final in these pictures, but these are good representations to give folks an idea of what things will be like in the new

In the new areas, these are new classrooms.

There are different types of desks, depending on whether it's science or a makerspace type room or some of them what they call that thumbprint, which is the curved and some of them are the square desk.

But regardless, everything is very movable and flexible to facilitate collaboration.

All of the learning wings have breakout spaces and there's different colors that sort of designate, so like that blue I believe is sixth grade, green is seventh, and then that reddish maroon color is the eighth grade.

Again, lots of movable pieces to allow folks to gather in different ways.

These are some more breakout areas.

The one that's at the top, you can see one of the new murals that's going to be coming in.

And that's looking at the you have these, I think they call them story stairs.

They're gathering places that are common in more modern schools.

That's a fitness studio there at the bottom of the stairs.

And then this other breakout area just shows the type of spaces that will be at the end of some of the halls where folks can gather in a small group.

This is that area from that photo where Dr. Gurley was standing with the glass ceiling like you see the natural light just pouring in.

And again, we're going to get the cafeteria at the end of for the second half of next year.

But this is a rendering showing you kind of more about what that space will be like.

The chairs won't be white.

Those are just placeholders for furniture.

This is an example of the LEAP classroom and a sensory space.

We have some really great spaces very intentionally designed with Rachel Rasnick and her team for our students with different needs.

And this is that breakout space again in the area where the ceiling is glass and instead of the, this is outside of where the permanent media center will be there on the right.

But for the next year for the interim on the other side of those stairs is where there's going to be shelving set up and that will be the interim year media center space.

These are some views inside of the media center area.

There's going to be some different study and breakout classroom spaces and then some really great furniture.

Those blue chairs are ones that are actually going in and they're really neat.

I think the students are really going to appreciate a lot of this furnishing.

And then the dining area is really going to be nice.

There's going to be different types of seating.

We're going to start to bring in the orange color for the new mascot because that terrace overlooks the gym.

We'll still have the dining terrace with picnic tables.

and this is a look at the office area when you come in.

Again, those furniture selections don't exactly show the final.

I believe, and there'll be more about this later, but the the whole desk at the front is made out of the from the wood from that old from the tree that was taken from Buford.

So that's where they, I believe, are using that wood.

So I'm kind of ending where we'll begin, so to speak, because I believe that's my last slide of the interior views.

But I thought this would be a good time to start giving people that vision of of what the how the whole design comes together.

Those aren't final renderings, but but they give people that feeling and they certainly get me excited.

So happy to answer questions.

All right, Ms.

Torres, do you want to start with any questions?

Ms.

I just want to know where the mirrors are going to be in the bathroom.

So like what we have on the B Commons, we have to find places on the walls that are near the sinks in that general area.

Typically, that's where mirrors will go.

I had a chance to take a tour a couple weeks ago.

I don't remember the exact date, but just excited to see where it started and how it's come along.

And I think the kids that

are going to be able to have their first year there.

It's going to be really excited about just the open space, the classrooms, the amount of writing that comes into the building.

Yes, absolutely.

And we toured on a pretty overcast day and being in there

is pretty amazing.

And so I think, you know, what I would ask of my colleagues and our community is we just have to continue to beat the drum for investing in the physical spaces where we send our students.

I'm speaking before you, Mr. Meyer, because I know you're going to take my words.

But this is where we want our kids to be learning.

This is where we want to be sending them.

And so I think we need to just not

When the building is open and we've got students attending Charlottesville Middle School, we have to continue asking the city to invest in our physical spaces because all of them need to look like these images do.

and going back to Ms.

Johnson's presentation, the basic needs space that's in the middle school also, you didn't have a picture in there, you can't capture it all, but is another incredible space that's a dedicated space for providing services and dignity to our families and students where we're kind of makeshift closet space is what we're using now in some of our buildings and so

Yes.

So thank you, Mr. Jordan, your task of handling this transition is immense.

That's a huge lift.

Ms.

Burns.

Yeah, thank you.

I too was on the tour.

So thank you for that.

Mr. Jordan, thank you for leading

the work there every day and Miss Powell, you and your team for everything you're doing.

This is a huge heavy lift and to be on task and on budget and to do that work is tremendous and I will echo Miss Julie.

Every student and staff in the city of Charlottesville deserves a building that

looks like this and promotes learning in an environment that is safe and comfortable and clean and just really excited about the work that you're doing there.

Thanks, Ms.

Powell.

Mr. Jordan, the prize at the end is a nice new school building for yourself, so please keep with it.

Ms.

Powell, it looked like you took a picture from a live building cam.

I don't look at it every day, but the project team, I guess you probably don't need that, but I'm one of the users who's authorized.

It's a Nielsen system that I can look at and grab images from.

They gave me access in part so I could provide these updates periodically.

So it's where I grab a lot of the photos from, some of them like the geothermal wells.

I don't look at it every day, though.

I don't.

But it's great.

Good.

So it's substantial, what they call substantial completion date.

And for us, of course, we still aren't having summer school at Beaufort this summer.

We'll be still in punchless mode, even on the new wing.

So I won't say we're done, done then.

The important thing for the contractors is that that's when we have to be prepared to surrender what goes into phase two.

like that's when we, that's a big deal because they have, that's where they'll start to focus their efforts.

Mr. Jordan has been working with us and with VMDO to plan meetings this month with staff to get everybody geared up for what's to come with transitioning furniture and everything.

That's one of the big lifts, Ms.

Burns, you mentioned big lifts.

That's a biggie that's coming up for us.

Very happy to say our city did work into the contract.

We have large containers coming.

We're going to be able to donate a lot of the

whatever's good that we won't be needing in our new space, but would be welcomed in some underprivileged places outside of the US that are working to build schools.

And so I think that's a really, really good thing for everyone to be aware of.

And because of the timing of that with when we're getting the new furniture for Trailblazer, because they're the last of our elementary modernizations, I was able to get that piggybacked into those containers.

So I feel really good about where the furniture is going from both the middle school

So that's a big lift, though, for our staff purging and getting ready to embrace all the new.

I will always, I can speak to the on time, like there's not, but the on budget piece, I'm always going to say that's the city's story to tell, not mine, because I'm not, I'm not involved with that part of it.

You know, I've shared before we, they hit a lot of rock early on that puts you on your heels a little bit.

It's not like wildly out of budget in any stretch if it is, but I just can't speak specifically.

That's not my story to tell.

I know, I think we're using every bit of the budget that was put aside for this project.

And will there be some kind of community event in June or July?

It's going to be closer to open house for returning.

I say that only because I'm sure they'll be in punch list up to here around that time frame.

So I wouldn't look for it to be open to the public in June.

Certainly as we approach August, like in July, before school starts, it's obviously going to have to be open.

And that'll be something we have to plan for how we, there's open for parents and students and then there,

will need to be something for everybody else as well.

I just wanted to say that sounds so cool, and I'm jealous that I'm graduating and I'm not going into middle school because that's so exciting.

And I think it's going to be really well received from all the students.

All right, carry on.

You can go back to your laptop and checking on the Nielsen camera, see what they've done on the ice.

Thank you all.

Good evening.

Madam Chair, members of the board, my favorite member of the board, former Walker Wolverine, Miss Hudock over there.

It's great to see you in this new role.

And of course, Dr. Gurley, good evening.

I think I know all of you, but I'm coming to you in a new role.

I have a very long title, Administrator for Human Resources and Student Data.

And a portion of that role is around recruitment and retention.

So I'm here tonight to talk to you about

recruitment and retention, and I am here on behalf of Ms.

Lewis, our human resources director and the other two members of our amazing human resources team.

I do not do this alone.

I'm just the messenger tonight.

You received a written report in September that gives you the details about things like demographics, rates, hiring rates, retention rates.

So that's really where you would find the great detail in this.

That's not what we're here to talk about tonight.

We're going to start a little bit with where our current openings are.

I'm going to move into what our

retention strategies are, and then I'll switch over to what we're doing to recruit our next generation of teachers.

I'll just play with this microphone for a second.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm sorry.

All right.

So, hiring is always a fluid process.

We're constantly

seeing changes.

We're constantly bringing people on board.

You're doing it tonight as part of your personnel agenda.

But as of the 15th of December, we had hired 132 new staff members, four of whom were administrators, 74 were teachers, 56 were other staff, all the various roles that make our school division operate.

You can see as you look at our distribution here of both racial breakdown and gender breakdown that we are making progress but have continued work to do towards our strategic plan goals of a more diversified incoming workforce here in Charlottesville City Schools.

Right now, or rather as of the 16th of December, we had eight and a half full time positions open in our schools that broke down to one administrator, seven and a half teachers plus another two part time teachers and four instructional assistants.

Then we were always hiring for substitute roles.

So we're always in need of substitute custodians, instructional assistants, nurses, excuse me, nutrition workers and substitute teachers.

as we look at it by level and by school.

Of our elementary schools, Greenbrier Elementary is fully staffed.

Our other schools are at one to three openings.

In our middle grades, Walker fully staffed, Buford at three openings, CHS at three openings, and then Lugo, McGinnis Academy, and KDEC fully staffed.

Last year, Josh Herndon, who was in my role previously, came and explained to you, or I think will be presented to you, the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee's report on Virginia's K-12 teacher pipeline.

If you remember from that presentation, if you were here for that, you probably remember that the story isn't great.

The outlook for teachers in the Commonwealth of Virginia is getting harder every year, quite frankly.

So we see more teachers leaving the profession and we see our vacancy rates going up.

Quite recently, I was doing an exercise with a group of our administrators at building level and division level, and we just did a quick check to see what the number of openings were in region five in our region.

And at that date, in the middle of December, we had 55 open teaching positions in our region.

And so this becomes a very competitive process in order to not just recruit teachers, but then also retain them and make sure that we can hold on to them over time.

That JLARC study really honed in on why it is that our teachers are leaving the profession.

Now this this chart here on your left shows you statewide why it is that our teachers are leaving and teachers report again statewide that the number one reason why they're leaving is a lack of support, followed by too high of a workload, ineffective school leadership and inadequate salary.

Then let's take a look at what it looks like here in Charlottesville.

So last year, when we checked with our staff as they were on their way out, we saw approximately 40% or exactly 40% of our staff were leaving for a new opportunity.

I think that speaks pretty highly to what's going on in our region and the number of openings that are out there.

Right now, as we work to retain teachers, there is a constant ever-present need

for teachers in every district in our region, which means that if we aren't working to retain them, someone else will be working to hire them.

But we see a number of other reasons up here, 10% unhappy with school leadership.

But about a third of those from non-renewal to relocation and retirement are really not the area where our focus is going to be.

We can't do much about people who are moving away, and we encourage people to retire when they get to that age.

But otherwise, we have about two-thirds of our staff that we have direct impact to work on retention for.

in our current year.

The number is pretty small, so the percentages don't tell us much.

But we can see that five out of seven of our of our folks have left us due to personal reasons, due to health or family reasons.

And so this remains a stressful, difficult profession, and it remains an ever present workload in front of us to ensure the retention of our staff.

Looking at those big state numbers, we can connect those to the work that we're doing here in Charlottesville.

First and foremost, support for teachers is directly, directly addressed by our strategic plan priority three for supporting our staff.

Fully one quarter of our strategic plan is focused on supporting the staff who are in our schools.

You approved for the coming calendar two mental health days, hoping that that will have an impact on retention.

Everything that we do in our work has the potential to impact people's decisions to stay and continue to contribute to our school division.

And then finally, we have seen since 2021-22 to now an increase of 12% of administrator retention.

And so hopefully as we see an evening out of consistency of school-based leadership, that'll have a trickle-down effect to staff remaining in their roles or remaining within our division.

Here we see, since 2018-2019, since that school year, our retention rates.

Retention rates are measured against the previous school year.

So when you see that bottom line there for 2024-2025, that means when we started this school year, we retained 82.11% of our staff, 82.81% of teachers, and 86.21% of administrators.

All of these are interconnected roles.

So the greater degree we have of retention overall, the better chance we have of sustaining retention in each of our roles.

As a former school administrator, I have a pretty strong opinion on the impact of school administrators on the retention of teachers and staff in schools.

And I'm proud to see that number increasing from where we were in 2021 to where we are now.

I do believe that's going to have a significant impact on retention of staff, not just teaching staff, all staff within our sites.

When we think about our work around retention, our retention for the purposes of this conversation really is going to break down into two areas.

One, the work that we do as a human resources team specifically, and then two, the work that we do as a division around professional learning.

We are a small team of human resources folks.

We have four people, but we do a lot of, I think, really good work.

So it starts with the things that we have available to our staff around wellness.

So we have an employee assistance program.

We have the Care Solace program.

Of course, many of us access the facility memberships, whether it's to different sports clubs or things in town.

But then we also do some very targeted support.

We have 30-day, 60-day, 90-day meetings with human resources.

which means a human resource member is reaching out to our new staff on a regular schedule to say, hey, how are things?

How can we help?

What do you need?

We also, as a human resources team, do office hours in each of our schools, make ourselves available to be here in the building to say, how can we help?

Drop in.

What can we do to support you?

We've increased our tuition reimbursement rates.

We offer support for new and novice teachers through mentoring and individual coaching.

And really, as we look at these last few bullets, we're really changing the way that we think about growing staff into new roles.

So when I started as a school-based administrator, if a teacher was leaving, I put out a job posting and I had five, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 applicants.

That's not an exaggeration for a general education teacher.

We don't have that luxury any longer, and so we have a very specific need to be growing our staff from within.

We're going to support our staff who are not yet licensed to work towards their licensure, and then also support our staff who are currently licensed to make sure that they're staying licensed.

But then we're also going to work, we also continue to work to transform our instructional assistants into classroom teachers, to transform our classroom teachers into school-based administrators, and to really be working to, while our staff are here as part of Charlottesville, to retain them even as they grow into new roles.

from a professional learning side of the house.

So when we think about our teacher work days, our professional learning days, the work that happens in our schools, it's not just about making sure that our teachers are licensed and ready to work, but also do they have the skills to meet the challenges that are changing.

And so I think about something as simple as what we heard from Ms.

Johnson and the challenges that she's working as her department of one or two to attend to.

That is the same, that work is very difficult, it's very challenging, and we need to provide support to teachers and staff who are doing that work in the buildings every day to be able to do that same kind of work in their classrooms.

And so our PL efforts are started at a division level, they work down into our schools, and then we support teachers on a daily basis through the work that they do in professional learning communities, for the work that they do in teams, and then of course, through the instructional coaching model that we're doing in our building.

Our PL efforts aren't only limited to our teachers, we give opportunities for teachers to become teacher leaders, but we also give opportunities for assistant principals to grow as we work to retain them and grow them and do principles and other leadership roles and then we offer or we participate in the recently appointed administrators program through Virginia Tech.

The work of teaching is really hard and it comes out in that JLARC study and it's not getting any easier.

And we have a real need, a real significant need and focus to be supporting our teachers at their most important work and that is around instructional support.

So we start with our novice teachers and make sure that our novice teachers have mentoring and individualized coaching.

There's a direct connection to the funding that we get through the Title II-A plan and the work that we do to ensure that our teachers are able to hit the ground running at the start of the year, but also grow into the full craft of teaching as they finish their first year and move on into their second and third years.

Of course, we offer embedded support in each of our schools at the department and grade levels through specialist positions, through instructional coaches, and then we support through professional learning communities.

Our recruitment season is just about kicking off.

So here towards the end of the month, we'll start moving around the state and really around the region to be engaged in in-person recruiting.

That means that we're going to career fairs, we're going to different events at different schools.

On the right, you can see these are all the schools that we're planning to go to.

Actually, we've added a few more in the last couple of days.

So that's sending representatives from Charlottesville City Schools to these locations to meet the people who are coming out of

Education programs or other programs to work into our schools.

We try to spread that load out among other administrators, in addition to the Human Resources Department, so that we can have alums go to the schools and be able to speak and talk about the connections.

And it's going to be a busy season.

There's a lot of competition.

I was surprised, it's my first year, so I don't have a year to compare it to, but I was surprised that just about every one of these sold out in about 48 hours.

So these aren't just open, they don't have limitless space.

So this has been a very competitive market to get into and then make sure that we have a table and we can conduct interviews and that timeline is getting tighter and the stakes are getting higher.

We're of course also working with the City of Charlottesville, PVCC, and UVA around other positions that are not classroom positions, but other positions to support in our schools.

A few things that we're doing a little differently this year.

We've always worked for clinical placements or student teachers, but this year we really focused on expanding the access of specifically UVA, but all of the schools within our region for their student teachers to be in our schools.

So if you can come to our schools as a student teacher, then we can train you in the way we do things and hopefully we can have first crack at hiring you into our roles.

And this year, we made a concerted effort to do that.

We had 88 CCS teachers sign up to say that, yes, they'd be willing to take on a student teacher.

It's a lot of work.

It is a lot of work to engage in an apprenticeship model where you're teaching someone how to do this professional craft.

And we had 88 people step up and say, yes, I'm willing to take on this work so that I can ensure that my school is fully staffed, that I can ensure that our community has best access.

UVA has been a really, really excellent partner in this.

As of December 13, we had 40 placements arranged.

A quarter of those are in special education, which is fantastic.

That's a very difficult position to fill.

That number is actually up to 45 now.

We added a few more this week.

But we're really working to have those placements come in.

Now, if we think back to some of those earlier slides about retention efforts, hiring novice teachers means hiring teachers who need a great degree of support.

But that's where we are right now.

So we're going to continue to work to find veteran teachers who are able to come into our schools and able to make an immediate impact.

But there's also a really awesome opportunity with UVA here as our neighbor to be able to take on those students also and grow them.

As I often remind principals, or I actually asked a group of principals recently, would you have put in the work to make you the teacher that you became?

Because it's a lot when you start in that first year.

I'd love to have my first group of students back

put it that way.

We're also engaged, we submitted as part of the VDOE alternative route to licensure program.

We've submitted an application to join into this program.

This is a new initiative at the state in partnership with iTeach.

What it allows us to do is to recruit associate teachers.

Associate teachers are those folks who hold a bachelor's degree, are working towards licensure, but are not yet eligible for licensure.

They have to be eligible within a year.

we're hoping to get two people through this program but at our recent human resources administrators conference this was a big topic of conversation that as a state we're looking at more and more ways that we can get people through non-traditional routes to come into work in our schools because that's the nature of staffing right now and again if teachers who are coming out of

a teacher preparation program.

As novice teachers need a lot of support, so do teachers who are coming to us as associate teachers.

So it's incumbent upon us as we look at both our strategic planning but also our efforts around human resources and professional learning to make sure that we have the support for these folks when they come into our buildings.

Finally, one final change that we're engaging in is that our internal or external application system, the way that people apply for jobs in Charlottesville City Schools is changing.

So it looks more modern.

It's updated.

It looks like a modern website now, but we're using the PowerSchool SchoolSpring platform.

One really cool thing about that is that you actually, it's got a much more robust database search process.

You can go in there and search by address.

You don't have to,

up until recently, if you wanted to find a job, you had to go to an individual school division, you had to look up their postings.

This has all of them.

So anyone who's a power school customer, which feels like just about everyone in the Commonwealth, anyone who's a power school customer and uses this product, we can see all of those jobs.

So we're really centralizing the search process for positions.

And finally, this is, you're the first to hear this, but we just finalized the date for our spring career fair.

It'll be on March 1st.

We're navigating PSATs and SATs and all the wonderful things that happen in this building.

So we're gonna go with March 1st and we'll be, as part of that, as we've done in previous years, we'll be offering onsite interviews for anticipated openings, which is a really cool thing.

So it's hard to believe that in less than three months, we'll be knee deep in this.

So fun times.

That is all I have for you as part of my presentation.

Thank you, Dr. Hastings.

And I think I want to make sure, at least my understanding, too, in the way I think about this is things that the HR department is doing.

There's a lot of other things that the school board, ourselves, and other things like a new middle school, new buildings, installations, et cetera,

are important for retention too.

No, you're 100% right.

In fact, I think you said the prize at the end of this is that he gets a new school.

Yeah, he better not leave.

He's doing all that work.

Retention, everything that happens in our bill, everything that happens here.

has the potential to impact recruitment and retention, every single thing that happens in our buildings.

Well, then I want to I mean, some observations and maybe a question or two that comes out of this, but

I'm actually okay with a little bit of a turn each year, just because I think we're going to make sure we keep the best.

I'm also okay with people leaving, but that knowing that maybe because we cannot offer them a leadership opportunity or something like that, like a vice principal, and they need to go to Albemarle or somewhere else, but that when that opportunity opens up here, that they're interested in, we have those people coming back.

So our applicant pool for our administrators then is enriched with and or filled with former staffers from CCS.

So, and that's, I think, a private sector strategy that's also used.

And I'd like to see us think about that too.

So I think Dr. Gurley, you have been doing that in a way, if I understand things correctly, with the professional learning opportunities you've been providing for staff to, again, look in an experience or mentor, I forgot how it all works, but become into a

leadership or junior administration level.

I do think we're in a very competitive market here for staff and teachers.

And again, we're surrounded by the county school system, et cetera.

You mentioned, I think, 55 openings right now in District 5, which is that.

And so when I also think about this, I think about the need for good management and compensation.

You know, I think we don't necessarily control compensation.

Some of that is from the state level and our council of city colleagues, our city council colleagues.

But at the moment, we're, I think, paying the best compared to the apples to apples of Albemarle County, which is great.

However, I do think we want to make sure we are also providing the best management because that's what's going to differentiate ourselves.

And so I do see some things in here where we're doing more professional leadership for administrators, which I think I mentioned that that is great.

But that is a differentiation and I just want to make sure

I think Dr. Gurley, you mentioned this.

I really appreciate your leadership style, but is all the other principals and vice principals also kind of implementing your leadership style and culture and focus?

And so I do wonder, is there enough training that goes into, because teachers go into teaching to teach and they get trained on teach, they don't necessarily get trained on management.

And I just wonder if that is being implemented enough to ensure that

Again, staff feel like they're supported because when I see the things, why people are reason, leaving, they're unhappy with school leadership.

Again, we can't, all of them, we can't get rid of that.

And sometimes people need to move on again, but having a good boss is very important.

And you mentioned that, Dr. Hastings.

So I don't want us to lose sight on that.

I think I saw some things in here that touch upon that.

And I'm going to leave it there.

So a lot of observations, sorry, but, and I do appreciate the addition of

kind of why folks are leaving our system.

Not too happy with all of that, but I think that's, again, a fair amount of healthy kind of churn that we need to have happen.

Ultimately, to me, like success is we have zero staff openings.

So that's where I think we need to get to, because that demonstrates that people want to come to us.

Thank you.

When you talk about retention and why teachers leave and stay and come and go, I, interestingly enough, am on a task force with the Virginia School Board Association that talks about students in schools in challenging environments.

And we talk about retention being part of that challenge.

And what we hear in that space is that

legislation coming down and governor's orders.

It's too much, too fast with the Virginia Literacy Act and then changing accreditation benchmarks right after that.

It is so much work that we are asking our teachers to do.

And it's not we, it is state level we.

And so I just want that to be said that at the VSBA level, we recognize that and that is part of our legislative conversations coming up next week with the legislators that

This is hurting us.

This is hurting us in a retention and long term.

People are not going into the profession of teaching any longer and because they hear their own teachers just dismayed by the workload of what they're being asked to do more and more and more.

And so just want my colleagues to know that that's on the radar of the VSBA and for you, Dr. Hastings as well.

And then

wanted to also share observation.

One of our strategic goals is to attract and retain more teachers of a diverse background.

And so I specifically had questions about that when I looked at the slides and noticed that there were not many HBCUs listed.

And after some conversation back and forth with Dr. Gurley, I think

really impresses upon me that we have gone in years and people don't want to come to Charlottesville.

And so we can do all the work that we want on the recruiting side and send you everywhere.

But if the perception of Charlottesville is what it is, and I'm asking for my community and colleagues at City Council to really lean into this and understand what culture looks like in Charlottesville, and they don't want to come here, specifically young Black

families and communities and people of color, they do not want to come here as professionals because there is nothing for them to do relevant to their culture.

That's a problem.

And I think as a community, that's a conversation I think needs to happen as we talk about housing and as we talk about transportation and all of the things that happen in the city.

How are we also attracting a diverse group of people to our community?

And so I think just

for people to recognize that as a school district, we can only do so much to bring people here if at the end of the day, the city of Charlottesville is not where the diverse people want to live.

And so I applaud the work that's being done in that space.

But again, we can only do so much and drive so much of that.

And so I appreciate what we do.

But

Just know that it continues to be a barrier.

So I appreciate the effort and work that goes into that.

But as a city, if we don't do better, they're not going to come.

And just to just for public record, you know, what Miss Burns is referring to is

She had asked a question about our recruitment efforts at historically black colleges and what I shared is that we've done a lot of intentional work.

Specifically, we've gone to Norfolk State a few years.

We've gone to Virginia State every year since I've been here.

and we have not brought back one black applicant to Charlottesville City Schools and I will say that it is factually statistically correct that historically black colleges produce the highest number of African American teachers yearly and so, you know, UVA produces a lot of teachers but they do not produce more black teachers than historically black colleges

And so with that being said, we are just not bringing people back.

And I do believe that it's due to, you know, what is it for me to do in this community?

And one thing that I did think about after I hit send on our communication is that

Black people do work where other black people are.

And so, and I say that to say that, you know, the word of mouth of referral is like, what's in it for me.

So if I find out like, why are you working there, then maybe I will have an interest to also work there.

and so I do feel like that's an area of opportunity for us that you know we can get our friends here but just informally and having conversations it still comes back to the yeah but that's not for me you know I want a nice brunch on Sunday and you know I want to see people who look like me and it's just not available and so and I will say that you know young graduates of all color though say the same thing

Wow, that was a lot.

I feel like he was talking to me.

Okay, I did want to ask about the increase in the tuition reimbursement because it's at a thousand.

What was it previously? 500.

Okay, and then I wanted to say how I'm excited and I love to hear feedback about the ADCCS volunteers with the teachers working with the teacher-student partnership.

I think like the buddy system is really important when you're starting a new career and having someone who has experience to kind of help you along the way.

It's really important.

So I really appreciate that new component that we are putting together.

Hey Dr. Hastings, thank you.

Just a quick question about the Growing Our Own or the I Teach program.

So you said we're in the midst of an application.

So we're waiting on the state.

So we've submitted the application and this would not be until the coming school year.

So we're in the application window, I think May, April, May.

So what are the criteria to be approved?

I'll extend the language by saying we have to be very clear about the professional learning and support we're going to provide for them.

integrate them into the system and provide them opportunities to learn at the same time while they're being the professional.

And that plan has to be explicit to say, here's how much time in the classroom, here's how much time for instruction, here's how much time

watching and observing, here's how much time they're mentoring.

So we just have to work through that plan.

So I'm smirking and I don't know if people can say this.

I mean, I see this, but seems to me like we hear a lot of these great potential programs that VDOE offers or the state offers, but they kind of then throw it at school divisions and say, show us what you're going to do, you know, where we have to kind of create our own.

Like you said, you had to do a lot of work to kind of show the scaffolded supports that we're going to do.

I mean, it's just like this one.

I'm not always in the state supportive situation, but for Charlottesville to autonomously come up with what we would like it to look like makes it look different than Harrisonburg, who was approved last year.

And they've already had four teachers go through this process.

But we could describe and package it unique to Charlottesville.

Thankfully, Mo Gaffney works for iTeach and she gave us a template.

So she's been a very good partner in this work.

So the template that the state has as the grant, and then she's been pulling out the particulars and providing examples.

So it's been a really good partnership with her.

I do not anticipate.

that it will be much longer for us having success.

Yeah, no, I'm appreciative of it and the possibility.

Yeah, no, I appreciate you and appreciate your presentation.

All right.

So next up, we have board response to written reports, the first of which are the board member committee assignments for the upcoming year.

I think this will come back on the consent agenda next month.

And so we've kept things as assigned from last year.

But any changes we need to talk about between now and next month, if there's any

swapping or reassignment of those assignments.

We also have our board member committee reports and the outcome of student disciplinary matters.

This brings us to our next opportunity for comments from members of the community.

Dr. Gurley, members of the board.

My name is Chuck Moran, as you probably know by now.

I am the great nephew of the now former namesake, Sarepta Moran, and a graduate of the City Schools.

I live at 932 Bing Lane in Charlottesville, right next to the now named Tall Oaks Elementary, which I actually really do like that name quite a lot.

So we have now closed out the renaming process as of tonight.

And looking back, as we often do at the end of a process, I've been engaged in this for two years.

It was two years ago this month that I submitted a video to the board saying that I thought we were engaging in a flawed process.

And I still feel that way in a number of ways.

In looking back, there have been a number of highs and lows.

Among the highs, I think that the individual naming committees was a fantastic idea.

I wish we'd instituted that earlier, but it was a really great idea and I think it came in at a good time considering that it wasn't earlier.

I am grateful to have been selected to be on the Burnley Moran renaming committee.

I do like the new name that we came up with.

I fully support the new name of Sunrise.

I'd like to thank Dr. Johnson for running some really great meetings, and I thought those were very courteous and professionally handled.

And I'd also like to thank Beth Chuck, who, more than anyone in this room, engaged with me throughout the process.

She reached out to me proactively when a news release was about to come out by phone to make sure that I was aware ahead of time, and she was very responsive during my FOIA request, so thank you, Ms.

Chuck.

On the low side, there are highs and lows.

On the low side, my lows are well documented.

If you need copies of my emails, just search through your email under Chuck Moran and you will see that I've had quite a number of complaints, primarily focused on the documents that were written by Mr. Phil Varner.

I still feel like those are unnecessary.

I think that going back two years ago, what I said as a branding person, and that's what I do professionally, we could have just renamed the schools.

We could have very easily just said, it's time for a refresh.

Let's just come up with some new names.

and moved ahead.

We didn't do it that way, and so I'm still sore about the fact that a lot of the namesakes were dragged through the mud, including my ancestor, because these documents were not substantiated.

In fact, the author himself says that he's not a historian, and he made the point in the daily progress that he expected the division to do a deeper dive, and that did not happen as well.

The last part on the lows was that I really felt like Ms.

Burnley, Ms.

Moran, and Mr. Johnson were not allowed to be put back into the renaming process.

I think that was a failure because had I been on the renaming committee of any of those committees and had the ability to review, like Johnson-Baya, the ability to retain the names based on the capriciousness of when those people were born and were able to teach, then we might have had a different outcome.

But again, water under the bridge.

So in closing, Amanda Corman with the school division asked me a year or so ago what it would take for me to feel comfortable about coming to the renaming celebration.

I will attend that.

And for me, it will be full circle because I attended Burnley Moran's dedication ceremony.

I was a little kid, four or five years old, and I'm actually the person who pulled the covering off of the portrait that sits at the school at this time.

So I have two requests at this point.

One is that that portrait be returned to our family.

If her name is going to be removed from the school, I would very much like to have that portrait back.

And secondly, by close of business tomorrow, now that the documents are no longer needed, I ask the Division to remove those documents so that they can no longer provide harm or misinformation to the community.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Moran.

Are there any others in Mr. Heartline?

Thanks for letting me

with this final name left.

And I will go ahead and speak to that.

We will be sunsetting that name when the school closes on next year.

Thank you.

Any other members in the media center wishing to give comment?

All right, looks like we have somebody in the Zoom room.

If you are interested in giving comment, you can raise your hand.

All right, we will close out our final public comments section and move on to comments from members of the board.

I'm gonna start just by saying I'm sure I was joined with many of my fellow parents in the division being excited to send my child back to school this morning after an extended time off.

But I just wanted to highlight just the impact that the schools have

on our community.

You know, the loss of instructional time, access to food and basic needs that we heard highlighted earlier tonight, access to mental health supports, you know, that aside from the inconveniences that schools being closed pose to families.

Mr. Hartline doesn't let us forget, as he shouldn't, the car fire that happened at Jackson Viya last year that was a result of leaves not being removed.

And now we're seeing the ongoing impacts from this storm impacting our schools.

And so I just, maybe this is a request for a written report, but something that just really delineates the responsibilities of school personnel and our colleagues in the city.

Just so that we can be clear, I feel like we are clear, but perhaps our colleagues are not clear on who is responsible for what.

What is the role of a custodian and school personnel in cleaning up after a storm?

and what are we paying the city a good sum of money annually to take care of.

And so that is my request.

I appreciate, Dr. Gurley, you and your team and the efforts that you've made this week to communicate with the city and to work to get our kids back to school as safely as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hartline.

I always appreciate your observations and your comments.

I do want to let you know that I sent 10 requests to the city this morning through the Seaville app to have sidewalks cleared on Harris Road so that kids could walk safely to the school.

And unfortunately, the responses I got back from them were that the task had been completed

and it was their responsibility to as of 6 30 a.m.

yesterday morning to go out and review the safe routes and cite homeowners who had not cleared their sidewalks yet and give them 24 hours which should have completed sorry this morning at 6 30 before our kids were supposed to walk to school and they were supposed to send out crews today at the cost of the homeowner to clear those sidewalks.

I hope that's happening around the city.

I haven't checked it.

But when I drive home today past Harris Road and Jackson Bayou, I will be verifying again and sending another note to city council asking them to do their job and or hold their city staff accountable for doing what they said they were going to do, which was cite homeowners for not clearing their sidewalks.

So all that said, and getting to, again, building off of what Ms.

Dooley, our chair, just mentioned is there are, unfortunately, this was my

I'm an unfortunate lesson my first year as school board member that we do not control.

A lot of these things include our budget and a lot of operational functionalities which I want to focus on and being having excellence and again do impact the retention of our

our faculty and staff.

And I think Dr. Hartling, the example of the fire, you know, how demoralizing is that to staff?

And unfortunately, again, it is that there's not things that I can hold anybody accountable for.

So I am asking questions to Dr. Gurley frequently documenting these things.

I think Ms.

Powell and Dr. Gurley might get

Too many emails from me, but please do know and understand I am thinking frequently about again how to work strategically and constructively with our city colleagues to hold them accountable to deliver the services that we pay for.

and ensure our staff have a good operations and that our students and family can get to school like transportation, have buses that are not delayed, have bus drivers, et cetera, frequently.

So enough of my little soapbox on that, but I do think in colleagues looking at 2025 and again, thinking about all of the violence and emotion, not all the violence, but a certain amount of

in our community and emotional challenges our students face.

I would like to hear from city colleagues and specifically probably the police department on what are they doing to proactively engage the youth of our communities and de-escalate the violence that's happening.

Because as I think we've commented frequently, these are things that are coming into our schools and impacting our ability to, our students' ability to focus on learning and our ability to have

a structured school environment that promotes learning.

So I do hope we can engage with our city colleagues on that.

And I think, Ms.

Dooley, you mentioned, because we cannot do everything.

Finally, I just want to, I've been thinking a lot about and then for the public, the General Assembly is discussing a number of education bills at this moment, some of them around our standards of assessment.

And I think there are some

legislation that is out there, for example, to try to change some of the directives that came down from the State Board of Education around, for example, only allowing our English language learner students one and a half years before they have to have basically mastered English and a subject.

And if they do not pass that, if they do not do that, we get dinged on that.

Our current, I think, allowance is five and a half years, which, again,

We should try to do that quicker than five and a half years, but one and a half years seems a little early.

And I think the legislation that's being promoted would allow students to take tests in their native language, which, okay, that could be a compromise.

But I think there are a lot of things, unfortunately, that have been promoted by the existing administration and the governors that unfortunately we will be

having to deal with this year and could make, which I don't think is necessarily true, but make our schools seem like they're failing.

And I think that is demoralizing to our staff and I'm sorry about that.

And I want the staff to know that we will be working to try to change those things and ensure that there's an equal playing field when we're thinking about what schools are and how they're doing, what schools, whose schools and how are they doing.

That's another kind of challenge.

I think I'm thinking about the year and want to basically make sure we're proactive about.

So enough of my soapbox here, but thank you very much.

Colleagues, I think we had a very productive 2024 and I look forward to a productive 2025 with you.

Thank you.

And while Mr. Meyer was over on Harris Road, I was in my Fifeville neighborhood and was equally disappointed and dismayed and sent in my own app requests.

for the Prospect Avenue area where the Greenstones on 5th are and then the Forest Hills neighborhood area walking to Buford were of particular concern to me when we talk about attendance and how children do get to school and there was some

community chatter about kids in the street throwing snowballs.

I'm actually okay with that.

Kids do that.

They should throw snowballs and I'm okay with that.

But standing in the street doing that was because they couldn't stand in the sidewalk.

There was nowhere for them to safely stand because people didn't maintain their sidewalks in their area.

Greenstone on 5th.

And so

Again, as we have these conversations, that was not by fault of the school district, but by lack of work in the community.

And so just reiterating and understanding that.

And then in regards to

when we talk about standards changing and again talked about this earlier with retention one of the items again that the challenging school environments committee is looking at the VSBA is our English language learners and so know that that is also on our radar for that conversation to happen with legislators and and what that looks like for the timeline and also

testing in native languages, recognizing that

Collectively, there are over 100 native languages and we can't just say, here's the top five when we talk about equity.

And so just understanding what that work and what that ask would truly be if we went in that direction.

So wanted to share that and appreciate Dr. Gurley and your leadership through this lovely snow and everything else do for us.

I just would like to echo all of the things that my colleague has already said.

And I also do want to thank, take this time to thank Dom and Lisa, not, you know, Lisa as the chair and Dom as the vice chair for not only your work, but for your mentorships behind the scene that nobody gets to see.

I just want to say Happy New Year and welcome back everyone.

So I live on the other side of town.

So, Burnley-Morans slash Sunrise Education and Summit side of town and put in a few photos and an email to some of our counselor coparts expressing my concern as a community member.

Witness and I and I again I've said this before but I drive around town and provide health care to people so have to access their homes and drive and park and try and safely get out of my car to get to their houses and

first hand, hit some ice and, you know, gravity works.

So, but luckily I'm here and just a little sore.

But anyway, big concerns regarding just inaccessible crosswalks.

I mean, throughout the entire city.

I mean, people standing, I mean, I watched people stand like, how do I navigate this?

You know, stepping through ice,

and piles of snow to try and get to a crosswalk.

Four-foot piles of snow at dangerous intersections when there's no snow.

So these were just a couple of examples of pictures that I sent and with an awareness that it's been a while since we in Charlottesville have had this much snow and the snow that we have had the last several years

Typically, as followed by temperatures in the high 40s, sometimes 50s.

So there's a melt that happens.

So trying to just maintain that and an awareness and the number of snowplows that are out there and probably contracting people to just put on those big old

Plows on the front of their trucks.

So realizing again, that this was unique, but it happened.

And and it really is impacting safety on so many levels, you know, so not just sidewalks, and I'm supportive of that, but again, an awareness that there might be some people who can't

shovel their sidewalks.

So I mean, there's there's a lot of layers to this.

But again, from a school board perspective and a community member, you know, this did this is impacting safety and roads, you know, we're talking, let's look at Market Street.

two lanes and you should have parking on at least one if not both sides and parts of that.

It is maybe one and a half lanes of accessible driving, maybe a little bit better as of today, but no parking.

No parking available in front of the central library on

Market Street.

I mean, so there's a lot of work, a lot of concerns.

I'm sure our counterparts at the city are hearing about this.

And I don't have an answer.

But we all again, we know we can do better, but safety and yes, getting our students into the buildings.

taking care of our neighbors can also be a part of it.

Outreach and just knowing who can and who can't get out of their homes, trying to help in that way.

But I appreciate and I know also that Dr. Gurley and Ms.

Powell have been on the phone and I know that the city's aware.

But I hope, as my colleagues have also said, that we're doing the best and it's a tough call.

to delay school, to cancel school.

You know, for some people, it's not the right call.

And it won't be the right call until there's no snow on the roads.

And that's a real that's a reality for some.

So again, I don't think

or I do know, without a doubt, we prioritize safety of staff and students.

But this was unique and it's really, really hard and we're supposed to get a little bit more snow tomorrow and Saturday, I think.

So I appreciate everybody.

I appreciate Mr. Morse working with me in the last year.

I appreciate the rest of the school board.

It's been a pleasure and it's an honor to work with all of you and I look forward to this next year as well.

So stay safe everybody.

Thank you.

All right.

I just want to, one, just thank everyone for the grace that they've extended over the last few days.

It's, you know, one of the hardest jobs of the superintendency is, you know, snow days, because like every day, we're prioritizing student safety as well as the safety of our families and our students.

And so I know people come from everywhere and it's, you know, one of the emails I received yesterday was like,

You know, I live in this area and what do I do?

And I want you to first prioritize yourself.

And you know, I know you have a decision to make for yourself and your families.

But ultimately, I think what you heard today is, you know, there are other variables.

So I do want to thank, you know, our bus drivers.

I gave transportation a call this morning.

and it's like I just want to make sure we've looked at the roads clearly because I'm taking my advisement from them and I want to make sure we've taken we've looked at the streets and and make sure that we're just taking our time we get there when we get there and I and I also want to thank the people who are you know the communities really rally together you know I really want to thank the folks who have helped our students get to school you know students have normally walked and

You know, I know that there have been instances today where we've helped students to get in vans and cars and get to schools.

So I appreciate that.

And I also want to shout out some students.

I don't like I typically don't like to copy and paste emails so that students get the same email.

So I think I just really want to shout out some students out, because since I've been sitting in this room, I've gotten a lot of emails from students.

and just they're sharing their concerns about, you know, sidewalks at the schools, sidewalks in the communities.

So I just want to acknowledge Sophia, Hayden, Josephine, Hart, Elodie, Jane, Eli, Naomi, Skylar, Macy, Riley, and I think there was one other student, maybe I already responded to that student.

But I just want to thank you all because I hear you.

I definitely understand, you know, the road conditions are different all over the city.

Your voices mean so much to me.

I thank you.

I thank your teachers for suggesting that you reach out to me because, you know, as we hear from our student rep monthly, your voices matter.

And so many of you talked about the sidewalks at the school.

And so

I've already forwarded on to your principal.

He's already assured me that we're addressing it.

And so just be safe in your travels tomorrow.

All right, thank you, everyone.

We do have some upcoming meetings.

Thursday, January 30th, we have a budget work session back at Walker Upper Elementary.

The following Thursday, February 6th is our normally scheduled school board meeting back here, starting with closed session at four.

Let me have the wrap up.

I think snow falls under it, but general grounds maintenance?

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you our interpretation of what that is, because as we saw with like the Johnson project, you know, I love our city partners, but they struggle with what's facilities and what's parks and rec.

So we'll, we can tell you what we believe it to be.

And that can perhaps start a conversation between us and city council to ensure that we are all clear on

And Mr. Hartline, don't clean the tree lines.

We will make sure the tree line gets taken care of.

All right.