School Board Meeting   5/1/2025

Good evening, everyone.

It is May 1st, and we are here for a meeting of the Charlottesville City School Board.

We will start with a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Yes, Madam Chair.

Ms.

Burns.

Here.

Ms.

Cooper.

Here.

Ms.

Dooley.

Here.

Mr. Morse.

Here.

Richardson Here Ms.

Torres And Ms.

All right, before we move on to the approval of the proposed agenda, I wanted to read a short statement.

Tonight, I want to take a moment to recognize an extraordinary milestone for our division and express our deep appreciation to the many hands that made it possible.

Yesterday, we learned that our application to acquire the Federal Executive Institute was approved at no cost to the school division.

This once in a generation opportunity will allow us to create a centralized preschool, consolidate our administrative offices, and expand critical services for students in alternative education and special education.

This outcome is the result of swift strategic work across many teams.

I want to thank our staff, especially Dr. Gurley, Ms.

Kim Powell, and everyone on the executive leadership team for moving quickly and thoughtfully during an intense and fast moving process.

I also want to extend our deep gratitude to our city partners, especially City Manager Sam Sanders and Deputy Director of Public Works Mike Goddard, for stepping up as strong collaborative allies.

We are also grateful to members of City Council who continue to be deeply invested in the success of public education.

This is what it looks like when local government comes together with a shared vision for what's best for our children in our community.

We still have a great deal of work ahead.

In fact, the work is truly just beginning.

But this is a moment worth celebrating.

The future of Charlottesville City Schools just got brighter.

Thank you.

All right, we have a first and a second.

Any opposed?

All right, we have an agenda.

I shall more declare that I have personal interest in transaction of the Charlottesville City Public Schools for reason set forth below.

but I believe I participate in the deliberation and voting of this transaction as permitted by Virginia code section 2.2-3112B1 and 2.2-3115H.

Specifically, this transaction in which I intend to participate in deliberation regarding votes of the Charlottesville City School Board operating budget for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 fiscal year, which includes pay to my daughter.

My personal interest in this transaction stemmed from my daughter employed by the Charlottesville City School Board as a care safety assistant.

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

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

I ask that this statement be maintained with the minutes of the Charlottesville City School Board.

It is my intention to orally disclose and exist

to orally disclose and exist of this interest during the meetings of the Charlottesville City School Board at which the 2025-2026 operating budget is discussed and asks that each such disclose be recorded in the respectively meeting minutes.

Thank you, Ms.

Cooper.

Moving on to some student and staff recognitions.

First up, student services recognitions.

Ms.

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

I have three recognitions this evening that I'm very excited to share.

The first is that the end of April celebrated the end of Autism Acceptance Month.

This celebrates and honors the experiences and identities of individuals with autism.

It emphasizes understanding and inclusion and moving away from

awareness towards meaningful acceptance.

Each of us can work towards that inclusive school environment by recognizing and celebrating the strengths in all individuals.

What we had the privilege of doing was we attended the Tournament of Champions last week in Louisa, and it fittingly ended with our Charlottesville City Schools community getting to have a dance party and parachute all together kindergarten through Post High.

and that's a really meaningful community that we're building for our students.

I'd also like to recognize occupational therapy, occupational therapist month.

We have two wonderful occupational therapists and a certified occupational therapy assistant that help our students develop meaningful skills to access activities throughout their daily life.

And then next week is School Nurse Appreciation Day on May 7.

Our school nurses positively impact our students, families, and staff.

And with over 40% of students in public schools having a chronic health condition, it's an essential service that we provide to break down barriers to health care.

Thank you.

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

So continuing in the spirit of appreciation, I am thrilled to celebrate some of our most outstanding educators, our 2025 Golden Apple Award winners, the recipients,

Later this month, we will have the honor of recognizing this year's winners at a special event sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Nunley.

These individuals were nominated by their colleagues and administrators for consistently going above and beyond in service of students.

Their passion, energy, and unwavering commitment to excellence are evident in all that they do.

We are proud to recognize the following teachers.

And you should see their names there on the screen before you.

Madison Urer from Buford Middle School, a history teacher there.

Jessica Scott, a gifted resource teacher at Burleigh Moran.

Karen Brown, a cosmetology teacher at K-Tech.

Emily Waters, orchestra director at Charlottesville High School.

Susan Mahoon, first grade teacher at Greenbriar Mary Yowell from Hospital Education Derek Hartland, I think he's in the room, iSTEM teacher at Jackson Via, Becca Covington, an iSTEM teacher at Johnson Heather Rose, an English teacher at LMA

Ariel Brunner, third grade teacher at Summit.

Lady Smith, second grade teacher at Trailblazer.

Laura Lindemann, a reading specialist at Walker Upper Elementary.

Please join me in congratulating our wonderful Golden Apple Award winners and thanking them for their incredible contributions to Charlottesville City Schools.

Thank you, Dr. Odey.

I am.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley.

Certainly, as you see during the month of May, we celebrate so many wonderful things, so many wonderful people, from Mother's Day to graduations to the recognition of school nurses and those other things that Ms.

Raznick shared with you.

So it is a perfect time to pause and express our heartfelt gratitude for a large group that truly shares in our excitement about all that we do for students and shapes our future.

These are all of our teachers in Charlottesville City Schools.

Each year, the first full week of May is designated as Teacher Appreciation Week.

And this year, Governor Youngkin has issued a proclamation

recognizing the dedication of educators across the Commonwealth during the week of May 5th through May 9th.

The proclamation is lengthy and very important, but I won't read all of it.

I will highlight a few key points that really describe what our teachers do and who they are.

They are trusted professionals who are deeply respected by the community.

They are creators of innovative high quality learning experiences.

They are partners with families in supporting every child's journey, and they are champions of student success and potential.

These words reflect the work our teachers do daily, but they only scratch the surface.

Our teachers are mentors, motivators, problem solvers, advocates, so many more things.

And they give their time, their energy, and their hearts to ensure that each student is known, heard, appreciated, supported, valued, and empowered.

So this week and every week we say thank you.

If you haven't already, please take a moment to reach out to a teacher or several of them and let them know how much they are appreciated.

So next week, happy Teacher Appreciation Week.

And then today is a special day.

It is National Principal Appreciation Day.

So yet another recognition, but one that is well deserved.

We proudly recognize the incredible individuals who lead our schools with courage, heart, and purpose.

Principals are more than just administrators.

They are mentors and problem solvers and cheerleaders and visionaries who help shape the daily experiences of our students, every student and staff member in their buildings.

Their work is demanding and often behind the scenes.

Yet their impact is seen in every celebration of student growth, every moment of teacher support, and every effort to build school communities where everyone feels safe, welcomed, valued, challenged to do their best.

From early mornings to late nights, our principals are constantly working to lift others up and move our schools forward.

As we mark this recognition today, let's take a moment to thank all of our CCS principals for their leadership, their compassion, and their deep commitment to our mission.

Their influence reaches far beyond the school walls, and we are grateful for the difference they make each and every day.

Happy National Principal Appreciation Day!

And then we have some other great folks behind the scenes our school lunch heroes.

So we have school lunch hero day tomorrow, May 2.

It's a special time to honor the incredible staff who serve in our school cafeterias.

These team members do far more than prepare and serve meals.

They nourish our students with care, consistency and kindness each and every day.

From the early morning prep to the last lunch tray served, they ensure our students have access to healthy, balanced meals that support their learning and well-being.

But just as importantly, they bring warmth, encouragement, a smile and a sense of belonging in the cafeteria, often greeting students with hugs and fist bumps and bright smiles that help them get through their day each and every day.

Their behind-the-scenes work may not always be seen, but it is felt in each classroom.

The energy and focus our students bring to their studies is powered in part by these unsung heroes.

So tomorrow,

And every day, let's recognize and thank the dedicated food service professionals who help make our schools not just places of learning, but places of nourishment and care.

We are deeply grateful for all they do.

Happy School Hero Day tomorrow.

School Lunch Hero Day tomorrow.

And lastly,

On last Wednesday, April 23rd, we had the privilege of honoring the heart of our school division's daily operations, our administrative professionals.

These team members are often the first point of contact, and they are studying our thoughts, our hands, they're behind the scenes, they're ensuring that everything flows seamlessly.

From managing calendars and communication to coordinating logistics and solving last minute challenges, their work keeps our schools and offices functioning with efficiency and grace.

Administrative Professionals Day gave us a moment to pause and reflect on just how much these individuals do to support students, staff, and families.

Their adaptability, attention to detail and calmness under pressure often go unnoticed.

but their impact is felt everywhere.

While this dedicated day of recognition has passed, our gratitude should be ongoing.

Let's continue to show appreciation for their steady leadership, kindness and professionalism, not just once a year, but throughout every season.

We simply couldn't do this work without them.

So we appreciate our administrative professionals.

Thank you, Dr. Odey, for all of those deserving recognitions.

We will move on to comments from members of the community, starting with any comments from students.

Good evening school board members and Dr. Gurley, Derek Hartline, 1517 Antoinette Avenue, lifelong city resident.

I'm here tonight to address another safety concern involving the grounds around Jackson Viya and possibly at other schools.

This past fall, I spoke about the abundance of leaves that weren't being collected that led to the fire that destroyed four vehicles on November 25th.

In the winter, I spoke at the board meeting and at a joint work session about the vegetation growth that's going through the fence line at Jackson Viya that needed to be cut back.

Also emailed the board and Dr. Gurley in late January about the lack of snow removal after 18 days in front of Johnson Elementary.

Now that spring is here, it's mowing season again.

For years, a crew from Parks and Rec would come to Jackson Viya before staff arrived and knock out the mowing before student arrival.

Somehow in the last couple of years, this large job of cutting acres of land has been outsourced to one individual.

This person arrives in his personal truck with no identifying markings nor wearing a uniform and does not check in at the office as expected to let staff know he is there to mow.

The gentleman who mows does so.

during the time students are playing at recess.

Last week, when he mowed, approximately 120 to 150 students were playing out back.

During this time, the gentleman is mowing full throttle, kicking up dust and debris and getting too close to students.

Not knowing his next move, but where he is mowing next, students and staff need to scramble to keep safe.

At one point, he crossed the blacktop, blades running where the most students were at.

While he is wearing long pants and ear protection, the children are not safe when he is mowing.

He isn't inspecting for debris before mowing, and statistics show the projectile from a mower can send items 50 feet away.

When I measured that out, that's from here to this U, almost to that plant, 50 feet.

at speeds of over 170 miles per hour.

Each year, about 10,000 students get injured from more related accidents, and roughly 67% of those injuries are by bystanders.

I'm curious where the cities is on their list of what the school system, facility maintenance, and park and recreation are each responsible for, as mentioned at the December 5th board meeting by Ms.

Dooley.

There will be more mowing that will need to be done at least two more times this year at Jackson Bayou.

Is there any way this board can reach out to the department in charge of this and find out why only one individual does all the mowing at Jackson Bayou, and more importantly, why it's being done while students are playing outside?

No parent or family member wants to receive a phone call telling them to meet their child at the ER due to a mowing injury.

At the same time, the school system doesn't want a liability.

accompanying a potential incident that is completely avoidable.

With the recent excitement of the new FBI acquisition of 14 acres of property, how will the city be able to maintain this large property when they are struggling to currently keep up with the leaves, overgrowth vegetation, snow, and now mowing safety on the CCS property that already exists?

Thank you, Mr. Hartline.

All right.

Good afternoon, members of the board.

My name is Natalie Aviles.

I'm a member of the community.

I have a child in Charlottesville City Schools.

And I'm speaking here today because on March 27, the school board voted 4-2 to put armed police officers back in Charlottesville City Schools.

Despite direct assurances from Emily Dooley to myself and other parents that this was just a procedural vote and we're actually going to vote on putting SROs back in school.

And I'm deeply concerned about the lack of transparency around this and lack of accountability.

to the public for why this vote was made, to reverse a policy that was passed in 2020 after lots of discussion from dozens of stakeholders in the community.

We were not informed that this vote was going to take place.

We didn't prepare for it because it was not on the agenda as a vote.

So members of the community who are very concerned about the issues that SROs bring up were not prepared for the vote that you actually made that day.

And, you know, there were two

separate external reviews of the Charlottesville and Albemarle Police Department that I have sent the results of to the board members to express my concern over statistics that show that there are marked and significant racial inequalities in policing in Charlottesville.

One of these reviews, which was conducted in 2014 when there were SROs in the school, show that SROs referred Black students at almost six times the rate

to the juvenile justice system as white students.

These are serious concerns that are backed up by statistics.

You have to answer to these.

We need a transparent and evidence based process before we decide to put police back in these schools.

This is serious.

and I'm particularly alarmed to hear that the reason that SROs are coming back into schools is because Charlottesville Police Department doesn't want to work with you unless you have an MOU that puts SROs back in schools.

That's alarming that they're trying to strong arm you into this position.

And it's not just alarming because there are very valid critiques that we have of the Charlottesville Police Department for those of us who have been following their conduct for a very long time.

I think it indicates that they don't feel that they need to be accountable to us.

And I'm worried right that that you're putting police with demonstrated racist patterns of policing back in our schools, when our students are vulnerable.

and I just want to point out that this is a time when Governor Youngkin has signed an executive order that deputized state police and local sheriffs to enforce ICE arrests, that you're also putting police back in schools when there are vulnerable members of our community who are undocumented, whose family members are undocumented, and that when you have ICE in schools, people will stop showing up.

I'm not just drawing on statistics that have to do with Charlottesville.

I'm also pointing you to a very large body of national statistics that have been collected by the ACLU that shows that policing in schools is harmful to communities.

So I think we deserve more accountability in how you came to this decision.

Parents are angry.

We don't feel like you're protecting the safety of our students.

And we really don't like the lack of transparency around your decision.

All right.

Next up, we have Ms.

Greetings school board chair and members, Dr. Gurley and division-wide CCS leadership.

My name is Shamika Terrell and I'm a 1997 graduate of Charlottesville High School and current place of employment.

I stand before you today to share my deepest gratitude for my superintendent, Dr. Gurley.

At times, individuals may say phrases that sound quite cliche.

When Dr. Gurley first started in our division, and still to this day, I have been extremely honored to work for a superintendent that truly leads with love.

That phrase is not one he takes for granted.

Nor is it one that he just says.

Dr. Gurley is a leader who cares about the overall well-being of his employees, students, families, and the greater Charlottesville community as a whole.

He has provided countless support to me and is always willing to listen and lend a helping hand when needed in such a caring, non-judgmental way, and I will be forever grateful.

I'm thankful for your leadership and service to humankind.

As I'm approaching my final days at Charlottesville City Schools as an employee, I want to take a moment to share just a few things I've experienced as working at CHS.

Humans thrive in environments where they feel like they're an asset, an environment where they also feel seen, cared for, valued, and appreciated.

Making human feels this way in schools is not the sole responsibility of the administrators.

It truly requires everyone collectively to work hard to create this culture.

A positive school culture and climate increases retention.

Student and staff attendance builds trust, opens the door for staff members to truly get to know each other outside of members in their department.

An overall healthy working environment one wants to be a part of.

During my observations over the past five years, there are several things of growth areas of growth in my opinion that would highly benefit students and teachers that would briefly like to speak on the importance of pausing for a moment to focus on internal development.

for the overall school community as a whole to help increase morale, intentional planning to increase minority efforts and retention.

Being from Charlottesville, I know it's not the easiest place to recruit and retain minorities, but I know this is a goal in our strategic plan that Dr. Gurley and everyone is really working hard to do.

And I remember years ago when I was here we used to have a gathering together collaborating with ACPS that brought minorities together to bond and support one another across school divisions to build a sense of connectedness and belonging.

Another point, the implementation of a school wide virtual program with a certified teacher.

This is a program for all students.

And additional, I'm going to speed up, additional dual enrollment course offerings that students can access.

And in closing, I would like to thank my building lever administrators and cool school counselors and Dr. Gurley.

I know that there is so much work that still needs to be done, but continue your vision in moving this division forward.

Thank you, Ms.

Terrell.

Hello, board, Dr. Gurley, thank you for having me.

I'm a parent, name is Nick Steiner, parent of two at Charlottesville City Schools, and I'm here to express my frustration and disappointment in the process for voting for SROs.

It is clear that the superintendent and the administration has repeatedly failed in upholding our current safety model.

That is not just my opinion, but their own.

In the spring of 2023, the school safety coordinator quit because the school was failing to enforce safety policies.

And then sure enough, there were the fights in the fall, teachers walked out, and the administration had to do something.

At that time, Dr. Gurley stood in front of the board and said he failed, and said there would be better communication and more transparency.

And then this past year, we've listened to Ms.

Powell list all the ways they are failing.

They don't know when to call the police.

They don't know how to do weapon searches, don't know how to do the threat assessments, et cetera.

They talk as if this model is a separate thing and not their responsibility.

Instead of fixing the issues, they want to outsource them to the police for half a million dollars.

I think we deserve better leadership.

Also, I've heard that the administration has been pushing for SROs the whole time to fight the pretense that it has not.

If you want SROs, Dr. Gurley, I wish you would stand up here and transparently say it and make it plain to the community.

and the board, it is your responsibility to set policy and make sure it is dutifully carried out with a focus on student success.

Again, there seems to be no accountability or transparency.

A year ago, teachers, students, parents, CSAs asked why are you doing this?

How can we be a part of this to figure out options and solutions?

You ignored everyone, made up your mind behind closed doors, and we've never even gotten a comprehensive list of problems.

It's something different every time you say it.

The guiding principles for assessing the need for SROs from the Federal Organization of Community Policing says, in making an assessment, communities should engage broadly with all stakeholders, ensure that the voices of students and families who may be affected by the presence of SROs are considered.

This includes students, their families, teachers, and community members, among others.

This was not done.

This was a poor process.

And now I've been told that the new program,

will have guardrails, assessment, oversight, transparency, all great things, but I fail to believe that because there has been none of that so far.

We don't need SROs.

We need better leadership.

We need a fair process.

I want to thank Ms.

Richardson, Ms.

Thank you, Mr. Steiner.

Hello members of the board and Dr. Gurley.

My name is Alex Heintzman, the parent of two CCS students, and I'm here also to express my disappointment in the board's vote to return police to our schools and to urge you to take our concerns seriously as you develop a model over the summer.

We've been promised a model with guardrails, although no one has any specific examples.

We've been assured cops will only be in the high school or maybe the high school and the middle school.

We've been promised the school community will be involved at some point eventually.

I've been told police would never be involved in student discipline, but that they will enforce school rules.

And after watching this process so far, I'm kind of wondering who's going to keep those promises.

The board, who voted for a hugely controversial policy without a survey or community feedback session.

The administration, who failed to support our existing safety model or consult their own faculty and staff or present any alternatives.

The CPD, we had an MOU with guardrails and chief coaches refused to sign it.

I'm sure that you hoped by voting yes you would stop hearing from me.

I sympathize.

That you would stop receiving what Dr. Gurley referred to as those ridiculous emails.

But those concerns are not ridiculous.

They are grounded in statistical fact and recent local history.

Mr. Morse and Ms.

Burns shared their honest, valid, and important personal experiences with SROs, for which I am grateful.

But Ms.

Dooley did not feel moved to share hers.

When you were principal of Nathaniel Green Primary School, you called your trusted SRO to help with an out of control student.

And that child ended up in handcuffs and leg shackles in the back of a patrol car.

He was four years old.

Now that child had ADHD.

So does mine.

My concern for my child's safety is not ridiculous.

Thank you.

Good evening board members.

For those of you that I haven't met, I'm Sarah Gottlieb, and I'm here as the parent of two children who attend Charlottesville Public Schools.

I want to express my deep disappointment at the vote that took place at the last school board meeting that allowed SROs back into our schools.

It did feel like there was no transparency with that vote after having been assured that it would not happen, that it would be procedural, not substantive.

I would have come to that meeting had I known that there would have been a vote.

I would have come to that meeting so I could share with you my unique expertise in this area, both as a law professor that studies the efficacy of criminal legal reforms and police action and misconduct, but also as someone who has spent the better part of the last 15 years working as a public defender and working in the criminal legal system.

I would have told you and explained to you my firsthand experience seeing the trauma, the everlasting trauma that is inflicted on children when they are arrested at their schools.

I would have also described to you the work that I have done representing adults who were arrested as children in their schools.

It is called the school to prison pipeline for a reason.

It begins the revolving door of the criminal legal system when people are children, and that continues well into their adulthood.

The trauma of being arrested does not end once these children leave their public schools.

I would have also shared that this is a particularly dangerous time to invite SROs back into our schools.

I would have shared with you that in this Commonwealth right now there are SROs that are sharing the names of children with ICE agents.

I would have shared with you that those ICE agents have been known to come into public schools.

And while this hasn't happened yet in our school district, it very well could.

I would have shared with you, as others already have, that the studies show that SROs, when they do negatively impact students, impact students that are part of uniquely vulnerable groups, students with disabilities, students that identify as LGBTQ,

immigrant students and minority students.

And I would have asked you to please think of those students and protecting them rather than making them more fearful at this time and perhaps causing them to stay at home and not attend school because of their fear of these officers.

I hope that you will continue a more transparent process going forward.

I hope you will consider these concerns and hope that the community will be more involved.

And I hope our students will be safe in schools going forward.

Thank you, Ms.

Gottlieb.

Good evening, board, Dr. Gurley.

My name is Peter Davis.

I'm a teacher here at Charlottesville High School.

Just a quick little thing I wanted to share.

I've been talking with our CSAs a lot.

I talk to them every day all the time.

But after the vote last month, they immediately had questions like, what does that mean for us?

You know, and there was some uncertainty there.

I reached out to Ms.

Powell.

She very quickly confirmed that, you know, their jobs aren't going away and things like that.

But in talking to him and speaking with Mr. Byers again this morning,

who's the head CSA.

I think that there is a very big desire on their part to have a seat at the table as the MOU is being written.

And so I would assume that that's already in the work, but he heard I was coming and asked if I would share that.

I just wanted to make sure that that was definitely in there.

Cause I think they've got a lot of valuable experience and I just wanted to put that out there for them.

Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Any other members of the media center in the media center who wish to give public comment?

All right, Mr. Cuomo, anyone online in Zoom, please raise your hand.

All right, we will move on to our student representative report out.

Excuse me, Ms.

Good evening.

Tonight is my last meeting as the student school board representative for this school year, and it has been an honor to serve my school and community.

I want to thank all of my peers for their support and feedback, Dr. Malone for his time and support, and all of my teachers who have encouraged me.

I also want to thank Ms.

Burns for all the time she spent with me and the other reps making sure that we had what we needed to be successful.

She is patient, kind, and committed, and I appreciate her mentoring us.

This position has taught me so much leadership, advocacy, communication, and compromise.

I was given a taste of the adult world by collaborating with others in a professional setting.

I will take these skills with me wherever I go after high school.

I have some things to report this evening.

A recent focus has been the grading policy at CHS and how it speaks to equity and best supports our students.

I met with Dr. Malone and Ms.

Mason to discuss the complexities of this issue.

There is meaningful work being made in this area to refine our practices in order to hold students to high standards while also supporting them.

This work is not done, but it's headed in a great direction.

I've also been very passionate about my advocacy for our arts.

Teachers currently have what they need to continue to work with administration and to get through to the end of the school year.

There's still going to be ongoing discussion about how to best support our students and all students deserve equity of opportunity and it's essential that these students and teachers have the supplies that they need.

At the last meeting, I spoke about some successful field trips and collaboration between schools to connect students.

More collaboration is happening.

WOCA and Black Knight mentors are teaming up to volunteer in all six elementary schools for their field days.

And Link Crew also wrapped up after a great year of mentoring freshmen.

Leadership, mentorship, and connecting with younger students is something that CHS students are very interested in, and I hope to see more opportunities to connect CHS students with the younger students moving forward.

I want to talk about how KTEC, there's a big desire from students to expand KTEC, possibly starting in ninth grade or earlier so students can pursue opportunities that are meaningful to them sooner.

I'm also excited to hear that attendance is going to be addressed next year.

Many students have given me feedback that attendance is an area in need of refinement and they're very grateful these steps are being taken.

Finally, I'd like to share with you deep appreciation for the AP Lang seminar.

I know that some of you were there.

Mr. Maynard and Ms.

Chuchas have done amazing work teaching the AP Lang course this year and did a phenomenal job of allowing students to share what we've learned.

Students worked incredibly hard to write research papers and make presentations, and it was great to see so much appreciation from the community, an event that packed the small gym, brought people together and highlighted the stellar academics at CHS.

Again, it's been an honor to be the student school board representative, and I am grateful the board values student voice, and I'm grateful to have been chosen to serve and represent my peers.

Miss Ulrich, on behalf of the board, thank you for your service.

We have truly appreciated the role that you've played in the comments and suggestions that you've brought to the board.

Thank you.

And Miss Burns, thank you for your leadership.

in this endeavor.

We do.

Thank you.

All right, so we will move on to item 10, adoption of the consent agenda.

Thank you.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Wonderful.

First and the second.

All in favor of adoption of the consent agenda, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you.

We will now move on to item 11, or my 11.1.

Ms.

Hi, good evening.

I'm asking that we take action tonight to approve the special education annual plan.

From our last meeting, there is one slight adjustment in that we will be able to provide the structure teaching teacher at CHS through a general fund position.

And instead, we'll be moving some of the supports from

employee services to personnel to support additional physical therapy.

All right.

A second.

All right, any discussion or questions before we vote?

Yeah, so to be clear, if you can clarify your motion.

Yeah, for the special education annual plan with the modification.

All right, so we've got a motion to approve the special education annual plan with the modification by Ms.

Cooper and a second by Ms.

Burns.

So back to if there are any questions or comments before voting.

Any opposed?

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Next up, we have Ms.

Good evening, board members.

Last month, I presented to you some budget updates for the fiscal year 2025.

was a one-time retention bonus and a budget amendment for the FY2026 budget.

We are pausing on the FY2026 budget amendment until we have a final budget from the state and we're supposed to hear where the governor is supposed to return his

gives vetoes or actions tomorrow.

So we're pausing on that piece of the presentation.

But we are asking boards authorization for the one-time retention bonus for staff, which would be $1,000 for all staff for a total cost of about $921,710.

Are there any questions?

So to be clear to the board, this is a vote to authorize, again, just the one time retention bonus portion of Ms.

Hoover's presentation from our last meeting.

Thank you.

There was a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Wonderful.

First and a second.

Any comments or questions before voting?

Sure.

I made some comments on this the last meeting.

My concern is twofold.

One, the state is sending us only a partial amount of the budget, which we've been dealing with for a long time.

But I wonder, colleagues, when

do we stop that for some reason and or figure out a way to push back about that and have another conversation.

The other thing I do worry about is a the difference between our lowest paid employee and our highest paid employee.

And is that how big is that?

And, you know, are we being mindful and fair when we think about the compensation between our lowest employees and our highest employees?

OK, so

This is I don't think the item to really maybe where I want to put my flag on the hill and die on it.

But that is a concern I have colleagues and I hope we can address that in the future.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

All right, to review, we have a motion to authorize a one-time retention bonus for instructional support staff, all employees, using funds from the FY 2025 budget.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Wonderful, thank you.

And next, we have Ms.

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

This is an agenda item we've been working with since last fall.

All right.

So the superintendent is asking for us to approve the March 27th, March 27th, 2025 recommendation for elementary school rezoning and the phase changes.

Madam Chair, can I ask for two votes on this?

We had a discussion about Policy JC, and I want to take one piece out.

OK.

So, I move to approve policy J.C.

with the exemption of section A, bullet point five, which refers to the athletics piece.

Sorry, could you say that again?

Read that one out?

Yes, I absolutely will.

It is a limitation on participation in certain athletic activities for a student who chooses to attend a school outside of the attendance zone in which he resides.

Oh, section A and then the fifth bullet point.

So I want to, I move to approve Policy JC, but I want to strike out Section A, the fifth bullet point.

We've got a motion and a second.

Any discussion around this motion?

Yes sir, Dom, do you mind explaining?

So if you think about it, our sports structure, you're going to have one school, and so they can't be in a different attendance.

Like for Charlottesville High School, there's no other high school for them to participate in.

So if it was like Albemarle, they could live within the Albemarle High School's district, but then choose to go to Monticello.

We don't do that.

That's correct.

Thank you.

It's not applicable.

And I think that wonder if that crept back in from the VSB update, VSB update, and we didn't catch it because it wasn't in the old policy.

So apologies.

That would be something that was an oversight on my part when we were making the additions for the allowable uses.

I can only think that that's what must've happened in the version that you're looking at.

All right, so we have a motion to approve policy J.C.

with the elimination of the fifth bullet point in Section A. All in favor say aye.

All opposed.

All right, we have an approved policy J.C.

as amended.

All right, we have a motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Any questions or discussion?

I've been thanking all my colleagues who I think engaged in this very robust process.

I would, again, I think it's a little anticlimactic to say the least here, but I also want to thank the administration for what I thought was a very robust and transparent process that did a lot of outreach.

And I think this sets a model for us to do it in the future.

And I don't look forward to doing it in the future, near future.

And I think this will hopefully last us for a long time.

Thank you.

So we have a motion and a second to approve the superintendent's rezoning recommendation for elementary schools.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

Thank you.

Thank you to Ms.

Jackson, who I think was on Zoom as well.

I'm moving on to our items for discussion.

First up, we have our federal programs applications with a whole bunch of folks.

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

It is a pleasure and a privilege to speak with you here tonight.

Before I get started, I want to give a note of thanks to Patrick Farrell.

Historically, Patrick would have been up here speaking about all of these programs to you, and now we have a team of us who are working on federal programs and throughout the entire process speaking for myself.

As I've learned the process, Patrick has always been a phone call or email away.

He's been an excellent resource as I've been learning my particular part of this under Title II.

So thank you very much.

Tonight we are going to give you an update on our federal program applications.

We'll talk about each one of the four federal titles in turn.

Before I do that, I want to give you two general updates.

The first is that all four title coordinators attended the Virginia Department of Education training, which was two weeks ago.

The Department of Education has a normal annual process by which they give updates about how federal programs are to be implemented.

We have a bunch of new information that came out this year.

So you're getting an update tonight, but you'll get another update in June.

And all of those updates from the Department of Education will be reflected in those applications that we submit in June.

One major change is that the Department of Education is now

Thank you for having me.

The second piece that applies to all four of the title areas is just a general disclaimer at our training we heard time and time again questions about

How are changes at the federal level, federal grants, and how they come down to the local level?

And what we heard repeatedly from the Department of Education was that we are conducting business as usual for all four title programs until we receive further updates.

So what you'll have from us this evening, what you'll hear again in June, is we are proceeding as if it's normal circumstances, following all the guidelines from the Department of Education, and we'll continue to do that unless some other major change happens at the federal level.

All right.

Our federal programs are really comprehensive.

And as you look at all four of the titles, you'll see that they really touch just about every aspect of what we do here in our school division.

And so Title I is all about providing children with fair and equitable high quality education.

Title II is about supporting teachers and administrators in recruitment, retention, growth.

Title III supports our English language learners, and Title IV is about continuously improving our learning environments and supporting social-emotional learning restorative practices.

Those touch everything.

So when you think about what happens with our strategic plan, each one of these titles has multiple touch points across our strategic plan.

So I'm not going to go into each one of the targets, but they really do support the entirety of the work that we do in our division.

Good evening.

Title I, Part A is a federal grant program designed to ensure that all children have a fair, equitable and high quality education.

Its goal is to close achievement gaps and provide meaningful opportunities for success, especially for students from low income backgrounds.

Eligibility and funding is allocated primarily based on low income data.

We then complete a comprehensive needs assessment to determine our areas of need and create goals.

In Charlottesville, our key focus areas include literacy, math, and family engagement.

We then use the Title I party funds to support school-wide programs that strengthen these areas.

This includes hiring additional reading and math interventionists, purchasing intervention materials, and organizing family and community events that build strong school-home connections, to name a few.

This information is all included in our application and will be submitted to the VDOE at the end of June for the fiscal year 24.

Our Title I Part A allocation was $1,483,963.68.

We use this information in our current allocation or application until we get the final allocations in November, and then we submit any revisions as needed.

You can kind of stop at each piece if anybody has questions specific to Title I that Ms.

Riedel can address now.

All right, Title II.

Title II is about recruiting, retaining, and training teachers and administrators to support effective instruction.

were one-seventh of the size of the Title I budget.

So Title II historically has not been a big part of the program.

However, there's a change coming to Title II for the coming year.

Historically, we have used Title II funds to pay for two positions out of the budget under what the state calls class size reduction.

An easier way of thinking about that is in order to reduce the teacher-student ratio, we spend funds to do that so that we can make class sizes smaller.

The state has

We tightened up the way in which it is approving class size reduction and we are most likely to not be eligible to use those funds for the coming year for positions.

As a result, that small number of 200,000 is actually getting quite large.

So what has historically been about 10 to 15% of that budget available for professional development is now going to be 85 to 90% of that budget available for professional development.

So what we have shared with our Federal Programs Advisory Committee in our quarterly meetings is that we're going from a budget of about $25,000 to a budget of almost $200,000 to support recruitment, retention, and training of teachers and administrators.

So this is a really fun time and a really opportune time to be involved in Title II and some big changes will be coming that way.

It's a really neat opportunity.

So when we come back in June and you see the Title II budget, you'll see a pretty significant departure.

Part of the process that the Department of Education has outlined and due to the fact that we're changing the major place where we're spending money is we are going to conduct an in-depth needs assessment over the next month.

So Title II is really going to undergo significant changes.

I can't say the same for the other titles, but for our title, you're going to see some pretty significant updates.

So I look forward to sharing those with you in about a month.

Before you walk away, Dr. Hastings, Ms.

Thank you.

So just clarify for me, I mean, this won't affect, I mean, we're not changing what we're going to do as far as class size reduction.

Okay.

All right.

Just with this, it sounds like you have different scopes you can utilize the money and we were using it before again to fund two positions.

No, historically the state has I think eight different categories that we can use Title II funds for.

We as a division have elected to expend those dollars on class size reduction.

We will no longer do that, at least based on the current forecast for the coming year, so we can use it in any one of the other areas.

The Virginia Department of Education, based on guidance from the federal government, spells out allowable uses of expenditures by each title area, so the state is very particular about you can spend money on this, you may not spend money on that.

and then in addition as part of the VDOE training we go to best practices institutes to learn from other school divisions about what's really working in those areas.

We're seeing some neat crossover right now between the VDOEs training and what we're getting for training with the Virginia Association of

School Personnel Administrators, a really fun group where we meet together and look at how we're leveraging Title II funds for recruitment and retention and training of staff.

So this is not a Charlottesville thing.

This is a Commonwealth of Virginia thing.

Colleagues, I'm just interested in this because I think without getting into our closed session too much or at all, but

Ensuring that some of our neediest schools who I think serve some of our challenged students, it sounds like this could be potentially a nice tool to help ensure we're keeping staff in those high turnover schools.

We have a requirement as part of the needs assessment process to look at site-based funding under Title II.

So we don't have the ability to blanket, say, all Charlottesville City Schools need this, although that could be a category.

We really will focus on this school needs this, that school needs that.

Thank you.

Oh, gosh, no, no, no, this might go to Dr. Gurley.

So I'm not sure.

But also, I just I'm jumping back before we get too far back to the title one.

And I don't know who can answer this or if it even makes sense.

But I know we don't know until we know and we're gonna

continue to operate as is right now.

But that's a chunk of money.

And we can share the grant application.

They're required to input by object code how the funds are being spent, professional services, personnel.

And then speaking for myself, maybe in board lay terms that would make sense to me when I'm

Yes, it would and we've been having conversations even

We've been having conversations even over the last two weeks for the 25-26 school year, for example.

I know I've shared previously that we've had schools on Title I waivers.

So that's been what is now Trailblazer, Burnley Moran, and Greenbrier.

And so for the 25-26 school year, Burnley Moran will not be a Title I school because their current percentage is 29%.

So it's those types of things that we have to address and we'll continue to support the schools.

The threshold is 40% and that you have to require for CEP and Burnham Moran is 29%.

and so that school will not be Title I but we will still ensure that there are some supports there.

It may not look exactly the same but there will be some supports there at the schools and our team has already worked through it.

You've got it, great.

It's also reviewed annually.

We do this application every year.

So all the data, what it is this year might not be exactly next year.

Yeah.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm here to talk about Title III and Title III supports our English language learners and their families.

Our allocation for last year was $73,000, and so we're writing the plan for this year with the same expectation.

When we think about the money for Title III, there's sort of three different buckets we support our students and our families with.

The first is both upgrading and providing access to our instructional materials.

So for example, students in our algebra class, there might need to be some work

to make the language a little bit more accessible so we can use that funding to provide curriculum summer work for our teachers to help make the content more accessible.

Another thing that we use this money for is in in school tutoring.

So at multiple elementary schools, Walker, Buford and CHS, we have hourly tutors who come in and work specifically with our English learners.

We can use this money for professional development.

And so

Last year we used it for additional PSYOP training for our instructional coaches.

And then that last bullet is a separate fund that we won't know if we receive until August or September.

But what that fund is, immigrant and youth funding, is if we have an increase of students who are immigrants or students who've been in the country in public schools for three years or less, if we have a steady increase for three years, then we get additional funding that's around eight to $10,000.

We've received that funding the past two years, but I write the grant without knowing if I received the funding, and then if I received that additional funding, we add that on.

And that funding, again, it supports similar aspects, but we have used that funding in the past to provide an additional English summer school.

It's a partnership between Albemarle and the city to help our students who maybe are credit deficient at the high school catch up and take an additional English class over the summer.

That's how we've used it in the past.

This is $70,000.

That is correct.

Yes.

Well, so we have around 750 English learners in Charlottesville City Schools right now.

So someone can do the math.

They took about three or four different federal grants and put them together into one particular kind of grant program.

And its idea is that it's there to supplement some of the core programming that old school divisions are funded for, but then based on the individual school division's need.

The three parts, again, that our funding can be used for is, generally speaking, well-rounded education.

And there's a lot of discretion within that.

We have safe and healthy schools.

It talks about improving learning conditions for all students.

So that has a lot of our mental wellness and our positive school culture programming.

And the last and much smaller category is the effective use of school technology.

The idea being not focused so much on hardware, but increasing the capacity of our staff and students to use technology.

to improve learning outcomes for students.

So the primary use of what we've done for the last eight years for Title IV is to really to establish and continue our social emotional learning program, both instruction and assessment.

The Care Solace program that supports staff and student wellness is funded out of this, and also we support restorative practices.

I don't know that there's much to wrap up.

Any questions or comments that have come up that haven't been asked yet?

All right, thank you.

Thank you all.

All right.

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

As required by Virginia Code, school boards must review all policies at least once every five years.

In addition to our internal review, we also receive regular recommendations from BSBA.

which helps us ensure that our policies remain current and aligned with best practices.

So tonight I'm presenting the February 2025 VSBA policy updates, as well as a few local policy updates for your consideration on first reading.

The executive leadership team has examined several existing policies for revision, deletion or review.

The updated policies are provided in a red line format in which the new language is indicated by underlining and the deleted language is shown with a strikethrough.

And the attached tables provide a brief description of these changes.

Now there are four policies that we would like to highlight for closer review due to more substantial revisions.

Policy IIBC is new.

Pat Cuomo and his team have developed

Community use of school facilities includes specific language allowing community use outside school hours, prioritizing school and city partners, and prohibiting partisan political events.

And then policy GA personnel policy goals outlines the CCS standards of professionalism.

And so some of the ELT members can share more specifics regarding these updates.

So the superintendent recommends that the board receive these updates for consideration this evening.

Formal action will be requested at the June 5th meeting.

Go ahead, Ms.

Ms.

Lewis is going to, they're going to give you updates from their policy.

Okay.

Good evening, board chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley.

Policy GA is a personnel policy for goals, was updated to provide more guidance for staff on professionalism and standard of professional conduct.

In the past, professionalism was addressed through evaluation process and school handbooks.

The division has taken a more proactive approach by placing professionalism expectations within the policy to ensure consistency and expectation and standards, time and attendance,

certification or licensure expectations, respectful interactions with students and other staff members, work expectations, and employee-student relations are some of the topics addressed in this update.

Although several standards of professional conduct are outlined,

This list is not intended to be all-inclusive, but it illustrates a minimum expectation for acceptable conduct and performance at Charlottesville City Schools employees.

I have read this policy and I think it's worded in a way that's very flexible from staff member to staff member.

I'm wondering if there's any

It's certainly worth the consideration right now student dress is under the code of conduct, the student code of conduct.

not necessarily our staff.

So these policies directly address our staff.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments from the board to Ms.

With the new personnel policy, it looks like there's a lot more detail.

Again, going into it again, you moved it.

Will this in any way accelerate the processes for the evaluation of a, sorry, I don't know what I'm looking for here, but an employee who has a disciplinary issue?

So the policy update pertaining to the sale or disposition of surplus property, that was modified for a couple of reasons.

And we really modeled the change around what Lowne County did recently with their updates.

It was mainly because there was a reference in there to like going to the city for permission for disposition, which is not anything we've been doing.

So that was dated.

And then with the upcoming donation that we're making from all the surplus furniture for underprivileged communities elsewhere, which we'll have more information forthcoming about, that's really exciting.

But that really wasn't contemplated in the policy.

So we felt updated.

So I think it's safe to say that artificial intelligence especially generative AI is a very powerful tool is also a tool that needs training needs knowledge needs needs some boundaries, so that we can use it and harness it in the best way possible.

The policy itself is just to establish that exact thing, that wall.

And one of the one of our position our position statement basically says that we recognize generative AI to be transformative, but also a very

We're going to walk a really tight line on that AI so that we can make the best decisions possible for our staff and our students.

We understand that it's a valuable tool for educators.

We understand that it can enhance learning, expand access for students and staff, and can just do wonderful things.

However, we also recognize that with AI, kids and teachers and staff can do things

that they shouldn't be doing, which fall back into acceptable use policy, plagiarism and things like that.

So I formed a committee that will be meeting for the next few months.

And over the summer, we're going to develop some regulations which will tie closely to acceptable use policy and student rights and responsibilities.

And that that will be based on current research as we know it.

And because this is such a new and fast paced

topic, we will make sure that we review those regulations and the policy yearly so that we're not falling behind the speed at which that is moving because it's a pretty fast train.

Mr. Cuomo, as he said, he and he's forming a team.

I think you all saw the email soliciting support from around the school division of anyone that's interested in participating on the committee.

So he will be working on those regulations.

And so those

we expect will be in place by time we return.

And I think, you know, so this references the acceptable use of technology policy as well as the student rights and responsibilities.

And I'm not sure where the overlap then goes to Ms.

Sure.

I don't want to speak for HR, but I can say that part of the regulations will will involve, you know, an approval process so that there's guidance by supervisors that people just aren't haphazardly using AI in generative AI, so there will be

I know we've heard from our student rep on occasion

that teachers are using AI to provide feedback and potential grading and I wonder if this policy captures or at least my voice is asking to please capture something that

Yes, I did want to touch on that.

Students saw this on the agenda and made me very happy that they actually looked at the agenda, but I got some feedback from them talking about that and talking about how they do think there needs to be limitations.

There is valuable use to AI, but that is a very limited use that needs a lot of scaffolding to make sure that students, it doesn't kind of

tip over that line into plagiarism and kind of an unhealthy use, but also there have been instances of teachers using AI this year and students went to administration and students were told nothing could be done because there was no policy.

Yeah, and the policy most certainly will address that expressing that direct instruction

is by far the way that teachers should deliver instruction, the way students should receive it.

And so exactly right, this policy states the importance and breadth and depth of generative AI and the guidelines will outline, you said a great word, scaffolding.

The research shows that there's definitely levels of generative AI all the way from known

generative AI.

There's generative AI to help you come up with some ideas for brainstorming and then we know that that high end is you just type in a question or a report on a certain topic and AI will spit out an answer for you and we want to avoid

that kind of AI on an independent level.

And same thing for staff.

We don't want staff substituting their expertise for student instruction, student feedback.

We want to make sure that it enhances but does not replace the experts that we hire in our school system.

I was technically on there for the community use of facilities, but I actually think Carolyn's presentation summed up what I was going to say.

So can we clear up the use?

There was a comment about political use or

It would eliminate just as we don't want staff using their role as within the school to support partisan

politics.

We don't want the buildings used to support partisan politics.

And that was made clear in various policies.

It was kind of throughout various policies, ideas pointing at that, but there was no place where it explicitly said that.

And that question has come up.

But there are other plenty of times where politicians have visited our schools because they're not on the campaign trail.

They're visiting civics classes or whatever it is that's fully allowed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lots to unpack here in policy.

So in the time that we have between now and June, please dive in, make sure that you are comfortable with the policy and the associated regulations specifically for these that are under review and the new policies.

I think if I could, I'd like to bring up just this evening to put on the radar for my colleagues, the promotion and retention policy.

I am.

specifically concerned and engaged about our promotion and retention policy and how students are being promoted to the next grade and what that looks like, whether it's demonstrating performance and reading and math at the current grade level, how they move.

And in particular, I'm interested in evaluating if attendance should be

And so I think

We've got to take a full breadth look at what this is and how we move students to the next grade.

And I do think attendance should be under consideration.

And so I'd like to have a little bit more of a deeper discussion and thought on that as well.

I'm asking my colleagues to do the same.

I guess I'll just add to that in just a little bit.

I know Miss Bryson Morseberger and Mr. James Bryant, they were both kind of interested in this policy.

I think they spoke out a couple of times before they rolled off of just reevaluating how our kids are moving forward throughout our system.

I'll be interested in seeing potential modifications based on what you suggest in this.

And if staff or somebody could prepare those options to us, I'd be interested in considering those.

Yeah, I think that it likely is going to involve a longer discussion with research that speaks to retention and promotion and

Do you think that work was done

When Mr. Brian or Ms.

Moczberger brought it up at the time or do you think that's?

No.

No.

Yeah, I think the only thing that I can recall, we were having a discussion about something else.

I can't remember what it was.

And I asked about, would this prevent a student from being promoted to the next grade?

And I think Dr. Odey referenced research that shows that

Certainly, there is research for and against retention.

We work to put this policy together.

We looked at other school divisions to just make it more explicit in what we're doing to support students so that they are

We certainly don't want to move students along just because.

a fine balance of how we support our students.

This policy is just very explicit really to show a collaborative approach between our teachers, our administrators, and our families on how we can support students.

A question had come up you know who makes the final decision the parent or the teacher

And so that was incorporated into this policy to just show that really there should be no surprises when a student is not performing at the appropriate level.

Surprises are for birthdays and Christmas.

They're not for promoting and retaining students.

We should know if a student is not meeting with success.

So those conversations should happen early in the year because oftentimes when you bring those parents on board, students, that home support starts happening as well.

We know that our teachers are working super hard in the classrooms and oftentimes we need some additional support at home so that students can be successful.

And as we continue to put teeth behind our attendance procedures, I think we've worked really hard this school year.

I think this has been the school year of systematizing what happens with attendance.

I think Ms.

Raznick and team have done a really good job of

of keeping the importance of attendance in front.

And I know that once we get that amended budget, you know, putting other positions in place to support attendance, I think to Ms.

Burns, you know, she says it regularly, you know, you got, you must be present to learn.

I think we all agree.

We preach that, that same message.

And so if we can keep students here, get them here, hold families accountable, then that's the first part.

And so I think it is a really fine needle that we're threading when it comes to is it just explicit that if you are chronically absent, you fail?

I don't know that

I don't know that it's that one size fit all.

And so I think it does take a little bit of work.

It's a couple of different prongs here.

And I think that that's what goes into these retention meetings.

And that's what goes into the student success meetings.

Yeah.

I think one piece that I haven't seen in my review of this is like, this is all school.

directed retention or promotion.

And there's, I don't see language to a parent request for retention, which I feel like sometimes happens, especially at the elementary school level where there's a request for the student to repeat a grade.

And so just a consideration that it may be helpful to include specific language or policy around a request that's made outside of the school.

And I would add, I mean, when we talk about attendance, I know this probably goes without saying in this room, but this is not just that you came to school, but that you went to your classroom.

So I think evaluating not just child in the building, but child made it to algebra, made it to English 9, made it to geometry class.

and taking a full look at what that looks like and communicating with our parents and families that not only do we need them to attend school, which is a great start, I love that you're in the building, but now let's get you to class.

I will say that I know I receive text messages when my son misses a class and I get straight to it.

So parents should be involved and they are being notified when their child is missing school.

All right, so some light reading for all of us before our next meeting related to policies.

The attendance and how it goes along with passing subjects was something that came up in one of the meetings that SCA and student reps had with Dr. Malone and Mr. Rod and it was something a lot of students are very passionate about and I went back and had some more conversations about that before this meeting and students say that there should be a role in terms of attendance because what we're trying to get out here is equity but it's not equitable if you're

passing high school if you're walking across the stage and you read at the level of a fourth grader.

You can't go to college.

You can't be hired.

You can't go into the military.

You have no skills.

And that's not speaking to our idea of equity.

Thank you.

All right.

Our next topic here is board response to written reports.

There's a lot in here.

So again, make sure that you have reviewed all of those reports.

And we'll move on to our second opportunity for comments from members of the community.

If anybody in the media center would like to come forward.

Right.

Good evening.

I'm still Peter Davis, still teacher at Charlottesville High School.

I literally haven't had a chance to think about this because it just came up.

But Ms.

Burns, I just want to thank you for bringing up what you brought up.

I think it shows that you've been talking and listening to the teachers, and that's important.

And those are the conversations that are happening around lunch.

Those are the conversations happening in the hallway during passing periods.

and those are the things that yeah I don't I don't pretend to have all the answers to but there's definitely a lot of things that are in there that I think would be worth looking at so thank you for bringing that up thank you board for taking on that light reading I'll be diving into it too as best I can just to kind of see where we're at with it because I honestly I

Don't read these things much.

So it'd be good to to kind of look at that too.

But thank you for bringing that up.

Thank you for taking the time to look into those things.

Any other folks in the media center?

All right, seeing none, to Zoom, if there's anybody who would like to give comment, please raise your hand and you will be promoted to speaker.

Right.

Seeing none, we'll move on to board member comments.

Ms.

Ulrich, any concluding comments?

Just want to say thank you again for the opportunity to be a student school board representative.

Yes, and our gratitude to you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Very exciting news this week.

And I want to congratulate Dr. Gurley.

And again, thank also the staff and thank you, Chair, for reading that note.

But obviously, I think this is

definitely generational.

I think this is $100 million that is going to save our school district and the city.

And again, I think help deliver great education opportunities for our students.

So I look forward to seeing a lot of action in the next couple of months, a lot more work for staff.

Sorry about that.

In addition to the extra work you already had, but a great opportunity and not

that we're not jinxing ourselves and there's not a change.

I am concerned about absenteeism and I was looking at the written report that was provided again and I noticed it inched up this month or in March which and so I would encourage the administration to be thinking creatively about especially this last month and you know what are some different things you

could be doing that we're not doing.

I know we're doing more systemic about tracking all this, but are we trying different things to help improve that we haven't tried before?

And especially this last month where I think a lot of there's a tradition maybe and or a norm for a lot of kids not attending school.

So

Yeah, I'm hoping, for example, that the 32%, I think, or 31% of our students that are now chronically absent at CHS, you know, we get that maybe below 30 and or hopefully down to 25 or 20.

It might be too late now, but that's literally like a third of our students.

And I would really like to see the boards focused on and you're hearing about it now.

I'd really like to see, you know,

I'll stop there.

Thank you, Mr. Meyer.

I want to share two very quick stories before I read something.

When I was, I don't know, maybe 12, 13 or something like that, it was a participant at a nonprofit in the area and they took us to Atlanta, Georgia, and we did a little cookout.

And I kind of looked down the street and there was

A gentleman walking, I was like, ah, it looks like that guy that used to speak at our school.

I said, it can't be.

And then he gets a little closer and boom, there it is, Mr. Alexander.

Earlier, I guess it's May 1st, so earlier last month, I wore a hat.

It was a yellow hat.

And my student said, Dom, what are you doing wearing a yellow hat?

And I said, it's just my style from Mr. Alexander.

And so anytime I think about Mr. Alexander, guess what?

He pops up.

I ran into him a couple days ago and he reminded me of something that he has and it's Yes You Matter.

Thank you.

Yes, you matter at this moment in time.

Help love each other and always be kind.

Good times, bad times, they come and go.

Yes, you matter more than you'll ever know.

So I just want to read that very quickly because, man, it just pops up.

He's so instrumental in our development of our community.

and even something from a school speech, you know, well over 15, 20 years ago, I remember.

So I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention.

And I think it's also very important for the Yes You Matter movement, I shouldn't say movement, but message, because I won't even say students.

There are certainly members in our community that are struggling with mental health.

In the last two years or so, I've had members of my own family struggling with mental health and struggling with the issue of taking their own life, to be honest with you.

We have been very fortunate and blessed by God that they are still here, but an inch

Thank you for sharing that, Mr. Morris.

Ms.

I want to thank Harper.

Anya and Nulia are not here, but they served prior to our Miss Ulrich.

And so just want to thank them for their service on our board.

Your leadership, your dedication, how you lean in to your student body and the adults is to be commended.

We have spent some time together and I'm hoping that

As this process moves forward for you as you know your time here at CHS that you can reflect on your time here as well spent and how you move into the world in the next phase.

I'm so thankful for you.

get you in our halls another year, but Anya will be leaving us and going to Virginia Tech and Nulia is committed to the University of Virginia, so I was very proud of both of them.

And then also another congratulations to Harper.

She earned honors in French.

from the Virginia Governor's School and so just speaks to kind of all the spaces that she shows up and so many of her peers and I'm incredibly thankful that I get to serve on our board and be able to work with our students and so I'm hoping that this role becomes an actual committee spot that we can make sure that this continues no matter if I'm here

tomorrow or the next day, that someone else can continue to do this work with students with fidelity and the same just joy really that it brings me.

And so I'm super thankful for you.

As we finish out the year, I want to encourage other students who may be interested in the role of the school board representative to apply for that role.

The application is open until tomorrow, Friday the 2nd, and then after that there'll be some interviews and final decisions that will come to our board in June so that our board knows

who those folks are going to be prior to the next year and that I have an opportunity to meet with them prior to school year and make sure that everyone's connected and knows where they'll be and what that looks like.

So really want to encourage our students to open that email from Mr. Rod if you haven't already and take a few minutes to apply and get two letters from your teachers recommending you

so that we can continue to have super strong leaders and voices in our school that represent our student body.

Continuing with that same student youth voice seems to be my new favorite space.

The Youth Council and that's directed by the city of Charlottesville is also looking to fill positions.

They are looking in particular for one student from Lugo,

They are looking for two students that are currently in middle school and they are currently looking for three at-large students attending private or home school within the city limits.

and a 12th grade student from CHS in a various attendance zones, very specific spaces that they're looking, Burley, Moran, Johnson, Greenbrier, Summit or Trailblazer.

So if you know anyone, please share with your peers looking to get those

filled, and that's on the city side of things, but also coordinating with you and with me in the future.

And just again, want to acknowledge Dr. Gurley and his team, Ms.

Powell, Ms.

Hoover, all the staff that jumped in, Sam Sanders, the city to get a tremendous application that I think was thorough, was dynamic,

that clearly outlined the exact needs and the priorities of our youngest learners and our most vulnerable learners.

And I think that speaks to how we do this work every day and just the thoughtfulness that goes into how you lead our division and the work that you do every day.

And so I'm so thankful that we have you and that you're here.

and thankful for the community, our teachers union, Livable Seaville, individual teachers and community members.

Just for the outpouring of support and advocacy, again, that kind of reminds us why CCS is exceptional.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Well, I was going to say something, but I think Mandy took it all.

Thanks to our student rep, you did an amazing job.

You can have my seat.

It was just the pleasure of just hearing you speak and represent the students of Charlottesville High School.

I really don't have anything else.

Congratulations to Dr. Gurley and his team, the city of Charlottesville, and all of the hard work that went behind it.

I am a guru for early childhood education and so I'm super excited about the way that we are moving and I look forward to the work that we'll be doing in the future.

Thank you.

Ms.

I wanted to start by saying yes you matter.

I really like that.

I was on point.

For people who may not know, we have lost two young men in Charlottesville

Thank you for that.

The federal program applications, I want to say thank you to everyone who presented today because I, part time, I am a application grant reviewer so I know those applications can be thick and heavy and intense.

Yeah, thank you to everybody for your comments.

And I apologize I didn't get this comment in around policy talk, but I am also in favor of really digging into the policy IKEC and would love to do a work session or have Dr. Gurley, if you're agreeable, dig into that and bring some info for us to look at, please.

I think that speaks to

I mean, we're looking at students, as Harper said, crossing the stage and struggling or not being able to read, but catching them much, much earlier.

And it's a bigger problem.

And I realize that it's not all on Charlottesville City Schools.

And I think there are partners within the community who have highlighted this.

We need to figure it out.

We've been saying this for years.

This is nothing new and it's time to to really kind of dig into it.

So I please, if we can do that and add that to the list, I'd appreciate it.

And then also, I'm sure I don't mean to steal anybody else's thunder, but May 22nd, big day graduation.

So congratulations to all of the students and seniors.

and everybody who's worked very hard to get to that place.

Thank you.

So we are heading into celebration season.

So graduation, Miss Torres' reference.

We're all looking forward to seeing our students at JPJ here in just a few weeks.

Unbelievably, it is May.

And then hopefully also Saturday at Buford's celebration.

I'm looking forward to that.

We've got KTEC Completer Ceremony Signing Day.

All sorts of wonderful opportunities to celebrate our students.

And as next week is Teacher Appreciation Week, we recognize that the celebration of our students wouldn't be possible without the teachers and all of our staff that help them get where they are and achieve what they do.

So thank you to everyone.

Our next meeting is going to be after

Our next general meeting like this is gonna be after the school year wraps up, so I hope everybody has a lovely end of their semester in here.

All right.

First, everyone's been congratulating the ELT on the application for the FBI building, but the real unsung hero is Leslie Thacker.

I mean, literally the whole application was made possible because she put it together.

You know, we were working with our city partners and it's not one of those documents that you can drop in Google and collaborate on.

So she was literally plugging it in and hitting save every time she put something new in.

And that's really how the application made it to the federal government.

because she put it together on our behalf.

I also want to I had the opportunity last night to see the choirs of Charlottesville.

And when I say it was amazing, it was phenomenal.

I forgot the young man's name already, but to me, he kind of like stole the show.

They sung Good Vibrations and it was just the cutest thing ever.

and so just to see all of our students who are in the choir and going on to do other things.

Also, there's, and I just want to say there's so many other things that are happening in the month of May, so I will not begin to say all the things that will happen, but just know that the music highlights that are put together by Amanda Corman and Beth Chuck, very detailed and has something for everyone located in it.

This, tomorrow, if you want to see me relive glory days, I'm throwing the first pitch at the baseball game tomorrow.

So I will, that's 5.30.

So I will be doing that tomorrow.

And then on Saturday, I'm doing double duty again because we have the Buford Fillwell and I'm doing the keynote for the 100 Black Men Scholarship Breakfast that has some young ladies in it now too.

So I'm really excited about bringing that message.

And then finally, I want to thank Miss Terrell because she didn't have to say those things.

And I think, you know, when you hear people say that you're not leading well and hear someone acknowledge the work that you do daily and see you do the work, that's what really matters to me.

And I appreciate the critiques about the things that can be more transparent.

Those things are well received.

And so I appreciate our

our families coming forward and speaking about those things.

But I equally, doubly appreciate what Ms.

Thank you.

We have a couple upcoming meetings, one next Saturday at KTEC, our school board advance, and then our June 5th regularly scheduled school board meeting will be back here at 5 p.m.

I skipped over you, Ms.

Swift.

I'm sorry.