School Board Meeting   6/5/2025

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

It is Thursday, June 5th, and I'm calling our school board meeting to order.

We will start with a moment of silence.

Thank you, and if you'll 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.

Ms.

Yes, Madam Chair.

Ms.

Burns?

Here.

Ms.

Cooper?

Here.

Ms.

Dooley?

Here.

Ms.

Richardson?

Here.

And Ms.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Got a first and a second.

All in favor?

I think we'll pull that once we get to the consent agenda.

So we're back to a first and a second on approval of our agenda.

All in favor?

Yes.

Any opposed?

All right, Ms.

I, Shamora Cooper, declare that I have personal interest in the transaction of the Charlottesville City Public Schools for the reasons set forth below.

I believe I may participate in the deliberation and the voting on the transaction as permitted by Virginia Code section 2.2-3112B1 and 2.3115H

Specifically, the transaction in which I tend to participate in is deliberation regarding the vote on the Charlottesville City School Board operating budget for the 2024, 2025, 2025, and 2026 fiscal year, which includes pay to my daughter.

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

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

And 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.

Thank you very much.

And now we get to move on to some recognitions.

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

We are proud tonight to recognize our students who have earned career and technical education certifications.

These certifications reflect the hard work, dedication, and real-world skills our students have developed in fields ranging from healthcare and information technology, to culinary arts and skilled trades,

Their achievements not only demonstrate personal excellence, but also prepare them to contribute meaningfully to our community and workforce.

Congratulations to each of these students on this important milestone.

And I would ask that as I called, some of these students are here tonight.

And so I would ask as I call their name and share the program that they have participated in, they would come stand here in the front.

If they are here, Mayte Diego Lopez.

Her program was cosmetology and she has earned the Virginia cosmetology examination certification.

All right, then we have Fatima Flores-Puentes.

She has been participating in the EMT program, Emergency Medical Technician Examination, Virginia Department of Health Office and Emergency Medical Services.

Next, we have Jane, yeah.

Clap as they come up.

Jamie Roop, another EMT program student.

Then we have Leo Vasquez, EMT.

We also have Madina Abdekadir, a nurse aide with certification in nurse aide examination.

Katherine Garcia-Anjel, nurse aid.

We have Zecara Graves, nurse aid.

Sadia Hamilton, nurse aid.

Mercedes Gray, nurse aid.

I mentored her, I was hoping she would be here.

Tenaya Magruder, nurse aid.

and we'd love for Dr. Helts to come stand with them.

She is their fearless leader over at KTEC.

So we want to give all of them another round of applause for all of their hard work in earning these certifications.

Would the board chair and vice chair come on up and take a picture with them as well?

Dr. Gurley?

Yes.

Congratulations.

Thank you Madam Chair.

I am also excited to introduce the 25-26 student representatives for Charlottesville Parks and Recreation.

These students were selected for their leadership, enthusiasm and commitment to making a positive impact in our community.

We look forward to their voices helping shape future programs and opportunities for youth across the city.

And they will serve with our vice chair, Ms.

Burns.

So first, we have Mira Mazri, and I'll share a little bit of information.

about these students.

I hope they're here.

Mira is a junior at Charlottesville High School.

She is on the cross country and track team.

She also is captain of the debate team and vice president of the local YMCA Youth and Government Club.

She has been inducted into the National Honor Society, National Latin Honor Society, earned her degree of distinction from NSDA and her AP Scholar with Honor Award.

She is section editor of entertainment for the nighttime review and a link leader.

She is incredibly excited and thankful for this opportunity to make change and advocate for people in her community.

That's Mira Mazri.

We can give her a round of applause.

And next we have Harper Ulrich.

I know she's here.

Come on up, Harper.

Harper is honored to be chosen for the City of Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

She is passionate about helping her community and working to make Charlottesville and our world a better place.

She previously served as the school board representative for the junior class in the 24-25 school year, just this

current year, attended the VSBA conference in Williamsburg.

We saw her there and collaborated with staff and students to elevate student voice at CHS and in board meetings.

She is attending the Governor's School World Language Academy this summer and received the Seal of Biliteracy in French.

Harper founded Black Knight Mentors her sophomore year.

This works to increase leadership opportunities for high school students by placing high school mentors in all six of our elementary schools.

She is a member of the National Honor Society and values not only the academic rigor at Charlottesville High School, but the strong, meaningful relationships she has built with teachers.

She is an equestrian and competes across Virginia and she also serves as secretary for her 4-H club.

Congratulations to Harper and we're going to get a picture as well.

All right, and now we'll move on to section 8.0, comments from members of the community, starting with any comments from students.

All right, seeing none, we'll move on to comments from members of the community.

The first sign up I have is for Brett Schneider.

Good evening members of the board, Dr. Gurley.

My name is Brett Schneider.

I'm a parent of two rising third graders at Summit.

If my name sounds familiar, it's from my email from May 19th to you all about my concerns about Summit.

And I want to show up tonight to share a few comments.

I'd like for you all to get to know me.

I want to advocate for Summit Elementary.

I believe the school needs more resources.

To reiterate a few points from my email, a few things stand out about Summit.

They have the highest proportion of low socioeconomic status families of all the elementary schools.

They also have the worst test scores.

It's the only elementary school that has conditions for its accreditation, and it has the highest turnover amongst its staff.

Despite all this, there seems to be, in my perspective, an underinvestment in the resources at that school.

As a result, seven out of 15 classroom teachers have already left the school.

Now I understand that's anomalous and it isn't usually like that, but it still highlights this very high turnover at Summit.

and I'm thankful for all of your work towards the rezoning.

I know that's a difficult process.

I really appreciate the work that you all did to see that through.

And I believe that will help in the long term, but I believe more needs to be done in the short term.

So as you all review the staffing plan for next year, my ask is that you give extra attention to summit.

The first step in stabilizing

In the medium term, I know the budget for next year is already well underway and it's too late to advocate for additional resources for next year.

But in the medium term, I believe that there are additional resources that school needs

in addition to stabilizing the classroom teacher positions and limiting that turnover in any way possible.

It needs additional non-instructional resources such as additional counselors, additional special education staff.

I've heard from teachers that the behavioral and the needs that disrupt the classroom on a regular basis

routinely create challenges for them.

And I believe that this contributes to the high turnover.

I will add that I have nothing but great things to say about Summit.

We've had fantastic experience.

But the fact that I don't know who my, you know, there's only one third grade teacher that's staying for next year.

For the third grade students that are going to fourth grade, no one knows who these teachers are.

Are there any other community members in the media center who wish to give comment?

My name is Veronica.

I have a third grader at Burnham-Lorraine, and I'm going to keep it very, very short.

The only reason why I came here today, and I'm sorry I didn't come to more of these meetings, is to say thank you to the board, Dr. Gurley especially.

But the whole board, you guys, I know this was not an easy school.

I know there have been many, many things thrown your way and there's been many, many parents who did not necessarily only express the gratitude that I'm here for today.

Do not take it personal.

None of that is personal.

All these parents are trying to fight for their children.

and they kind of sometimes maybe forget that this is personal.

Those emails end up in your inboxes.

Don't take it personal.

Thank you.

Any other members of the audience wishing to give comment?

Anybody on Zoom, Mr. Cuomo?

OK.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, Chair, I move to take our, I think it's item, sorry, 9.7, the school board meeting schedule off the consent agenda and add it

Just, I did some quick research.

Okay.

All in favor say yes.

Yes.

Any opposed?

Okay, so we have an adopted consent agenda.

And now for item 9.7, which is our 25-26 board meeting dates.

I think I need a motion to approve August 7th, 2025 as our next school board meeting.

And then we will revisit the calendar in full at our August advance.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Great.

We've got a first and a second.

Any discussion?

All right, all in favor say aye.

All right, thank you.

And now we'll move on to our action items.

Good evening, everyone.

Last month, we presented our federal titles one through six.

All right, so we need action to approve our title.

Do we need to approve them separately?

It's individual, each one.

Awesome.

Okay.

So first up, our Title I application.

All right.

We've got a first.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

I do, please.

So and this is just a point of clarification on our agenda under where it describes action required, it says no action required at this time.

So I don't know if that's just if that matters at all.

I just noticed that so that as I was looking at that but particular to title one I did want to say thank you for rescinding the larger font how that breaks down again I just do for the record do want to express concerns about these

budgeted amounts, and I know we do have them for this next year, but just as far as Title I and funds under this current political climate, I do have concerns.

And then also just had a quick question about transfer expenses or transportation expenses to support students currently unhoused.

I just didn't know if anybody knew anything or had heard anything about McKinley-Vento and just funding for that.

No concerns.

And McKinney-Vento supports the transportation as well as Title I together.

Right.

And then just as far as flagging that, we're watching all federal moves at this point.

All right.

I'm just going to continue to bring up all of my concerns and I know we're all watching it, but I need to say that.

OK.

We have a first and a second for approval of our Title one application.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

We've got a motion.

I'll second.

Any questions?

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Wonderful.

We've got a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

Any questions or discussion around Title III?

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

I'll second.

Thank you.

Ms.

Cooper with the second.

Any questions, discussion around Title IV?

All right.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Next step is Ms.

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

At the May meeting, we presented the February policy updates for your review.

All right.

Is there a motion to approve the policies?

Okay, there is a motion to approve.

All right.

And I do believe we have some questions and discussion.

So go ahead, Ms.

Should we start down here?

Apologies.

Sorry, not sorry, I guess.

So first question, just generally, has there been a change or a desire to move away from student rights and responsibilities versus the language that I've seen a couple of times in here, student code of conduct in different policies?

So the physical document is the student rights and responsibilities.

And so there probably is some referral and policies that students conduct.

But the official language of the document, generally around most places, is rights and responsibilities.

I just felt like it was a little confusing because we made a big deal of going to student rights and responsibilities.

But then in a few of these policies, when I was reading through them, it said standards of student conduct.

I mean, that's kind of not.

That DSBA language, that is the standard of student conduct.

I know that that's probably hard, but that's the legal, that's the legal ease.

And if I may, the document used to be called the code of conduct.

It was never called the standards of student conduct.

But it's referring to a lot of the different student behaviors that we list out in our student rights and responsibilities.

Dooley's point, that to me, that's the lowercase, like it's not referring to the document.

Okay, so maybe we can just flag so and I again apologize that I didn't bring this to you a little bit earlier.

But policy JFC and also JFCM were two of the places that I saw that.

Okay.

And then also, I'm sorry, my next question that I'm gonna go to was regarding policy GCE.

And it was about substitute teachers.

And there was some just some blanks in that policy.

I mean, there was like, fill in the blanks, insert other qualifications desired by your school board.

And I just felt like

If we should be filling that in, we need to do that now.

But I didn't know if that was an oversight.

GCE, yes.

Is that in the one that we're doing for discussion?

I think that's in the one for discussion because I don't see GC.

because you know we're doing another set.

Yeah, so I apologize if I, because there were a lot to review.

It may be in the discussion.

Okay.

So we'll hold that one.

found that for later.

Okay, sorry.

I wanted to just say I appreciate the fact that the policy IKEC, the promotion and retention policy has been pulled for right now and that there's going to be committee work on that.

Can anybody provide any info as to what kind of research or what we're doing with that policy?

From what I recall from our last meeting, Ms.

Torres, there was concern about including attendance as a consideration for retention.

And so that was one of the main discussions that was brought up as well as including parental, how to handle parental requests for retention.

So rather than to rush that work and that discussion, we decided to pull it

Okay.

I do know that I have other concerns about this and I'll try and email them to you all.

And I didn't know if I thought some of my colleagues also had concerns about this.

Yes, also appreciate that it was polled.

not rushing to a decision, but also digging a little deeper.

We've heard some feedback from teachers this year, sorry, from teachers this year, particular to attendance and what they're seeing in their classrooms.

And late arrival to school, late to class, they don't show up, but still manage to earn 50%, just

due to some grading policy but then they're moved on from those classes because technically they pass but they haven't actually been in the class and so I'm interested to just understand some different approaches that we might take to attendance whether it results in a true

Ms.

Yeah, I'm interested in

for the lack of a better word, kind of setting some hard benchmarks or check-ins.

One of the thought processes I had is to have students reading by third grade, like third grade should be one of those benchmarks.

If a student is not at a mastery level, then we should consider keeping them back.

The other part of that in terms of mastery is as we have our new grading policy, I think kind of maybe what you were alluding to, Ms.

Burns,

If a student has not mastered at a certain level, which to me would be the equivalent of a C or above, not escaping with Ds, then we should really consider holding them back.

I think there's more to discussion in terms of how many benchmarks and should it be one at each school?

Should it be multiple at elementary to, I guess,

tried to not impact the social stigma of being held back, opposed to someone being held back in 10th grade or something like that, which kind of happens because if they don't have enough credits for they don't pass English, they're still in ninth grade.

I kind of want to just jump in and kind of say I second that.

I'm looking at attendance and for retention or maybe hold incidents back to really look at that at an elementary level and how we catch that before we sending them to fifth, sixth grade and how we really being intentional about like, you know, having metrics put in place.

that if our kids aren't meeting those benchmarks like Dom shared, that we're catching them at a really young age.

So I just want to caution the board that there are, like, I think there are several different topics here.

So attendance grading and promotion are all,

distinct conversations that could be reviewed.

And while there is overlap, I don't think that we should be tying them all together in the way that it sounds like some are promoting.

I don't know.

I mean, I'm interested in hearing from the experts in our schools and our leadership about this idea of benchmarks.

I think there's a lot of conversation about what is developmentally appropriate and the continuum of learning that occurs that it's not as clean and clear cut and black and white as at this moment they either have it or they don't.

So I just, I don't know.

I don't like the zero integrating policy.

I'm not sure the gradient policy that we landed on is the right one because we're still trying to operate in a 100 point

you know, scale, but we're using half of the numbers.

And so, you know, the unintended consequence now is where we've got students who aren't doing much and are still able to pass, but that's a different conversation.

Attendance, we still have kids who don't come to school, but they know the content.

And so, like, are we, that's a different conversation about how we're making sure we're meeting those students' needs.

Yeah, I have some concerns generally, but I really want to caution us from trying to like thread all of this together so seamlessly and, you know, present one, you know, clear policy that's going to capture all of it because I don't think that's the case.

And I see some of my colleagues chomping at the bit.

Yeah, I think I just need a little bit of clarification.

And maybe I'll, I guess I'll just provide a little bit clarification, clarification where I'm coming from first.

So like grades are supposed to be the reflection of what the student knows and what they've learned.

So to me, that's all kind of the same thing.

If it was with a mastery grading, if a student can perform, then that means that they have that knowledge, which means that yes, they should be promoted.

I think what my concern is, is our additional supports.

It seems to me, and I'm anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, it seems to me that can only work to a certain degree, you can only catch a student up X amount of you know you might get extra years worth of growth or two years, but if a student is in eighth grade.

and they're still reading on an elementary level, at what point do we say you should actually stay here so we can give you additional support prior to going to high school?

I remember one of the, and again, I'm always willing to be corrected.

One of the claims when we did our big reset is that I think it was like 30 something students out of 34 at WALK were reading below I think the seventh grade level or something like that.

So I think for me, with mastery, it proves it's an indicator that the student knows the thing.

If they don't know the thing, then we're not setting them up for success.

So to me, that's tied in.

Maybe you weren't speaking to me, but I just want to clarify that.

I think I'm I would defer to our I think I'm thinking specifically literacy and learning how to read that that

happens a lot of different times for different students.

And also thinking about our students with special needs, you know, how are we accommodating their promotion or retention students who learn differently and need something different?

So I don't have all the answers, I think, and I don't think any of us do.

I think

Just generally, public education doesn't, right?

Or like, if we could solve the achievement gap, we would have done that.

It's not like somebody has the secret sauce and is withholding it.

I appreciate your feedback Miss Dooley.

I mean, I do see how you're seeing that there are a lot of different pieces.

But I think ultimately, I think the concern and people correct me if I'm wrong, is that we've seen students be promoted for lots of different reasons.

And there's different metrics feeding into that that may or may not impact whether they're promoted.

But ultimately,

promotion and walking across that stage, they should be able to read and do certain things.

And I feel like there's been enough of us who are expressing concerns that a lot of our students probably aren't for a variety of reasons and not for a lack of us all trying to support them.

So again, I don't have answers, but I do feel like this is percolated.

It's something that comes up time and time again throughout the years.

I don't know if we have time in August to do a dedicated you know at our at our at an advance at some point to really just focus on these types of things because I feel like there's an appetite and there's a need to really dig into this and and to do better by our students again not that we aren't aren't all trying but

I think I think we need to do more.

I agree.

OK, so we have a motion and a second to approve our policy updates.

Sure.

If I may, the.

Facilities policy didn't seem to like it was updated.

per the email I had sent.

Along the lines of allowing for... I thought it was updated in the live document.

Was it not?

We all agree.

So it's

And I just clicked on the document again.

Okay.

So would you like to make a motion to amend

I move that to amend the motion to remove policy KGRL and to retake action on it at a future meeting.

Who made that?

Who made the first motion to approve?

Ms Torres, do you accept the amendment?

Okay.

And Dom, you'll second that.

Yes, I do have one quick question.

Sure.

Policy JHDA.

This is because we received our committees earlier today.

This is the policy that refers to a human research committee.

Because it's in policy, is that now one of the school board committees that should be added?

Policy JHDA Human Research Committee, paragraph three.

I suppose any education research would be human research.

Can you speak to what exists currently?

Yeah, and this refers to funded by the US Department of Education.

I understood it to be like superintendent, not a board committee, like any any superintendent directed committee.

Okay, so we have a friendly amendment to remove the facility's KG policy in a second.

We need to vote on accepting the amended motion, and this is not voting to approve the policies, just voting to

approve the amended motion.

So all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

So we're back to our amended motion of approving the policies as presented with the exception of polling policy KG.

Any further discussion?

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Swift.

And our last action item is the FY26 budget amendment.

Ms.

Good evening.

Good evening, board members and Dr. Gurley.

At the March 27 school board meeting, I made a presentation to you regarding amending the FY26 budget for additional state funding that's

came out of the March 6th budget from the General Assembly.

We paused on that because we were waiting on the governors and the governor returned that budget with no changes.

So now we're bringing that amendment back for you to approve.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Hoover.

All right.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Ms.

Cooper.

We've got a first and a second.

Any discussion or questions?

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

All right, we'll move on to our discussion items.

All right, Madam Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurla, good evening again.

It is my honor to introduce our 25, 26 student representatives to the Charlottesville City School Board.

These students were selected through a thoughtful interview process during which they demonstrated their passion for student voice, their leadership abilities, and their desire to contribute meaningfully to our school community.

A selection committee carefully consider each candidate strengths and potential to serve in this important advisory role.

We will have two student representatives who will sit on the dais each serving a five month term August through December and January through May.

They will also attend designated work sessions, collaborate with their fellow student reps and participate in monthly board meetings.

In addition, a third student representative has been selected to serve as an alternate and mentor, someone who will step in as needed on the dais throughout the year and support the ongoing collaboration and collection of student voice.

All three of these excellent students will work closely with board mentor Amanda Burns and will play a vital role in collaborating to shape the student experience and helping guide the future of our schools.

Please help me welcome our incoming student representatives.

I will call their names and share a little bit about them as they come to the front and stand here to prepare for a picture.

First, we have Ginger Craghead Way,

or Penelope Ginger Craggett Way.

She is known to most as Ginger and she's a rising senior at Charlottesville High School.

She's gone to Charlottesville City School since kindergarten and is a proud Trailblazer Elementary School alum.

At CHS, she competes in the mock congress debate team and is a co-president of the CHS Film Club.

She is a two-time VHSL Film Festival Award winner, member of the National Honor Society, and a distinct member of the National Speech and Debate Association.

She is grateful for this opportunity and excited to work with the school board.

Ginger will serve on the dais for five months.

Let's give Ginger a round of applause.

Next, we will have Solly Schwartzman.

Salih is a rising junior at Charlottesville High School.

He is co-captain of the CHS debate team and qualified for both the National Catholic Forensic League in CFL Grand Nationals and the National Speech and Debate Association, an SDA national tournament.

He is an active member of Model United Nations, Quiz Bowl, Key Club, and Green Bacon.

A congregation Beth Israel, he serves as a student teacher and as religious and cultural vice president of Beth Israel Temple Youth Group, B-I-T-Y.

During the summer, Solly swims for the city Swordfish, and Solly will serve on the dais for five months.

Let's give Solly another round of applause.

And lastly, we have Jayla Turner, who will serve as an alternate and mentor.

Jayla is currently the only majorette in the CHS Marching Knights.

On her own time, she practices baton to grow her skill, and her hope is to be able to twirl in college.

She is also a part of the Wind Ensemble.

The past three years, she has served as the student council president of her respective class.

She has also served as a member of the Link Crew, helping the freshmen around CHS.

The instrument she plays is the clarinet, and her goal is to be able to play professionally and use her talents to pursue a career in music therapy.

She has served as a student school board rep previously during her sophomore year, and she is very excited to be back and knows that next year is going to be wonderful.

Jayla has been selected, as mentioned before, as the alternate and mentor representative, a role we believe is a perfect fit given her exceptional prior service on the board.

Give Jayla a round of applause.

We are so excited to have these wonderful student leaders serving in these roles for the 25-26 school year.

Congratulations again, and let's get that picture with our board chair, vice chair, and superintendent.

Okay, so we actually get to take action on approving these students as school board representatives.

So if there is a motion, Ms.

Burns.

Wonderful.

We've got a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Great.

Maybe they can teach us Robert's rules of order as well.

All right.

We've got a motion and a second.

Any more questions or discussion?

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Wonderful.

And welcome.

We look forward to serving with you all next year.

All right.

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

It is a pleasure to be with you all this evening to talk about our lovely Charlottesville Middle School.

This picture was taken not long ago.

We've come a long way from when we started in the fall of 2023.

And over the last two years, there has been a lot of planning

about how we would start school this coming August.

And so I would like to thank the team of people that I've been working with, Ms.

Powell, VMDO, Nielsen.

Thank you.

I wasn't sure how I was gonna get through this.

All right.

and Stuart Harding from the city.

And so while we've been having school for the past two years and navigating the world of construction, we have also been planning for this summer.

And so I'm going to share that with you all this evening.

Next slide.

The next few slides are just pictures of how things began last school year.

This is how things began.

Next slide.

This will be under construction this summer, actually, this week.

There will be a lot of concrete, and so this is what we will see when we return in August.

And then obviously once the entire project is finished, this is the wonderful school our students will be attending.

Next slide.

Alright, so the first thing we're going to do is talk about logistics and how we're going to make this whole thing come together.

So if you go by Charlottesville Middle School this summer, you will see this sign.

You're probably not going to get past the Aquatic Center.

There will be, this sign will be posted because myself, as well as our assistant principals, registrar, and instructional coaches, we will be at johnson slash tall Oaks this summer.

Thanks.

Alright, school safety.

This is going to look a little bit differently.

You can go to the next slide.

This is going to look a little bit different than what it does now.

So while we are having school in our new construction, there will be renovation.

Our existing building will be under renovation.

And so there will be a construction fence around what we know now as the main building and the fine arts building.

But in the midst of that, we don't have a cafeteria, so we have to have lunch in D Building.

And so we're gonna safely get our kids from the new construction to D Building.

We do have a coverage plan for arrival, dismissal, and lunches, as well as transitions.

Primarily administrators, CSAs,

and other non classroom teachers will help us with this process.

We also have right now we currently have one CSA but we're going to work to get more of them certified to do traffic because

There will be an intersection right there by the Aquatic Center coming off of Cherry Avenue, where parents will be leaving the pickup and drop-off area, and our buses will be coming from behind the Boys and Girls Club, and so we will have someone there to direct traffic before they even get to Cherry Avenue.

And then everyone will have a fob,

However, unlike now, they will only have keys that are necessary for the work that they do.

So right now we have

I don't even know how many master keys out just because of the layout of our existing building, but that will change so that people don't have access to places where they don't need to be.

And then our CSAs will be stationed all over the new building to make sure that there's always their presence at least.

Next.

Alright, so again on the inside.

So if you look at the picture on the left.

Essentially, you will be standing at the main entrance and those are and the main entrance is on the third level of the school, and so those steps will take you down to the second level.

When you get down.

to the bottom of those stairs.

Our library and our books and temporary library space will be to the right.

And then there will be a wall in between the new construction and where you see those bricks.

And by the way, those bricks are gone now.

But there will be a wall there to make sure that we keep everyone away from the construction.

Alright, parking is going to be more of a challenge next year than it.

Already has been, but when to get to our parking lot where our staff will be next year, you would enter off of 9th St and then you just follow the service Rd to the to the back of the school and that the parking lot on the left is a new parking lot and it is permanent, but it's not enough spaces for.

100 people.

And so to the right is where our outdoor basketball court will eventually be.

And that will actually be temporary parking next year so that we have more parking spaces.

I anticipate some of our staff will still park at the Aquatic Center, which is totally fine, but we will have parking for for our staff.

Next.

and then our buses are also going to be going through this area so there will be an arm gate right by where our kitchen is now and then there will also be one on the other side of the Boys and Girls Club so that once school begins at 830 we can put the gate down and you would need access in order to get to the back of the school.

All right, so this is going to be a major change for all of us.

You can go to the next slide.

So currently, our buses, our bus loop is in the front of the building and our parents enter off of 9th Street.

In order to access the parent pickup and drop off area, this will change.

beginning in August.

So our new bus loop will actually wrap around the entire property.

So the buses, our buses will come in off of 9th Street.

They will go around to the gym and they will drop our students off there and then they will continue out to Cherry Avenue.

And then our parents will enter off of Cherry Avenue, drop our students off

at the front and then they are going to exit out Cherry Avenue as well.

So this is going to be a change.

We are really going to encourage our parents not to pick up or drop students off at the Aquatic Center because it's just going to add one more wrinkle and we're going to have to find somebody else to cover.

And so this will be new next year, but we're going to get through it.

Next slide.

And so these are the doors where our students, when they get off the bus, they will enter through these doors and just walk to the end of the hall and then go up some steps.

The area to the left, there's a blacktop that's going to be there.

And so sometimes our buses come before 815 when we let students into the building.

And if that is the case and they do not want to eat breakfast and they'll just be outside, there will be someone out there with them.

If they do want breakfast, they'll go inside of the building and we have an area where they can eat breakfast in the morning.

And this is that area where I was talking about, sorry, there's a lot of construction happening, but.

They'll essentially walk up the stairs to the mezzanine, and that'll get them into the rest of the building.

Thanks.

All right, for family pickup and drop-off, you can go to the next slide.

Again, our families are gonna come in off of Cherry Avenue.

They'll drive all the way up, and then they'll drop their students off, make the loop, and then exit out.

We're hoping that eventually,

there may be an opportunity once our parking lot is finished for parents to make the loop, but then exit out and they go out 9th Street, but we'll see how that goes in 2627 next line.

All right, our walkers.

So we have students who walk from different directions.

Some will be coming from Cherry Avenue, and if they do come that way, they'll just stay on the sidewalk.

They'll walk all the way down, and then there's a crosswalk.

They'll cross there, and then they'll, if they're eating breakfast, they'll go to D Building.

If they're not, they will just hang out in the front, and then they'll come into the building at 815.

Next slide.

So there's actually been some changes to this.

So our students who come from Prospect Avenue, Forest Hills Avenue, they're still going to enter from 9th Street, and they will still enter the back of D Building because that is the only way they can enter without going all the way up to the traffic light.

and just coming all the way around.

So they will enter through the back of D building.

They'll have breakfast or they'll hang out until 815.

From my understanding, and I think we need to go back and look at this, but this is not going to be ADA accessible now, which I think we need to look at that because if we have a student who needs those accommodations, then that is not going to work.

So next slide.

All right, so our current D building, which sort of sits in the back of our school.

So right now we have two classrooms, D409 and D410.

Excuse me, D410, excuse me.

We're using those rooms for temporary storage this summer.

And then Nielsen is going to go in and create some holes so that essentially our

Classrooms are connected for lunch.

Two of the rooms will be used for serving lines, and then the other rooms will be used for our students to eat lunch.

We will have about 24 students in each classroom.

Once this work is completed, our custodians will go in and make sure that we're ready to start school in August.

Our students who walk from Prospect, Forest Hills Avenue, they will eat breakfast here.

All students will eat lunch in D Building.

We do have students at times who do not want to be in the middle of the noise.

And so we will have a designated space for them.

And then after winter break, D Building will be demolished.

Next slide.

And this is just sort of a picture of what that

temporary food service area will look like.

And the new plan is for the walkway near D49 and D410 to be the accessibility area.

But I think we're gonna need to look at revisiting where the steps are.

Next slide.

And so this is sort of the area where that temporary walkway will be so that our students can get

from the building to the main building, vice versa.

It will not cover this entire area.

It is gonna be very narrow because they'll still be working, but this is sort of where the area will be.

Next.

All right, so our current building, A building is the main building where most of our core classes are, cafeteria, front office,

B Building is where our fine arts classes are.

And then C was demolished last school year.

That was the gym.

And then D Building is where we have a seventh grade team.

But beginning in August, A Building will be the gym.

And then seventh grade will be B Building.

Area C will be sixth grade, D and E will be eighth grade, the library science and engineering classes, and then the F building will be fine arts.

Next slide.

And this is just a picture of what it will look like beginning next school year.

Next slide.

And then the next picture is just the site plan that was created by VMDO, which points out where everything is, such as the construction fence, the bus loop, parking and things like that.

Next slide.

All right, so with instruction, next slide, some things will remain the same.

We are going to stay with our two teams per grade level.

We have a minimum of six teachers per team.

And then our periods will stay the same.

We'll stick with 79 minutes for our core classes.

And then our electives will be 45 minutes.

Every other day, we will have early morning PE, but we did not get enough requests for after school PE.

And a lot of that is just because students are in a fine arts program or they play sports and things like that.

Next slide.

And so next year, every teacher will have 45 minutes of unencumbered planning every day.

They will meet once a week for a PLC, and then they will also meet once a week for their team meeting.

We did have to update, we were hoping to have two lunches, but after talking to the building inspector, 36 students in one class is just too many.

And they wanted to wait until later this month to see how it would all look.

And we needed to get started with our schedule.

So we just went ahead and we're planning for four lunches.

Next.

All right, so some people will be in their permanent spaces beginning in August.

We are excited about our brand new gym.

And so our students no longer have to go to the Boys and Girls Club for PE.

They will do everything right in the gym.

And then our art studios will be available as well as the clinic.

And then our seventh grade English math and history teachers will all be in their permanent locations.

Next.

So as far as temporary spaces, so eighth grade will occupy area C, which is where our sixth graders will be when they come over in 26-27.

Band, orchestra, and chorus, those classes will happen in our three fitness rooms, and then engineering will take place in one of the art studios, and then there's a classroom right across from

one of the art studios.

And so our two engineering classes will happen in those spaces.

We do have a family support room in the new building.

That's where our urban farming class will be.

Our library, as I said before, is going to be on the second floor.

And then we have a structured teaching room for our students with disabilities.

That's going to be on the third floor.

And then we have a space for our Esby class.

That'll be the second floor.

It's actually not inside of the corridor.

And then our tech support will be on the third floor as well in an open space.

And the next few slides, I think are just some pictures so you can see what it looks like.

So this is what our fitness rooms look like.

And so I believe this is the room where our band will be.

Next.

And then this is what our art studios look like.

So one of our engineering classes will be in this room next year.

And then this is our family support room.

And so our urban farming classes will take place here.

Next.

When our students return, all of this construction equipment will not be there.

But this is what our structured teaching room will look like.

We can get about 12 students in this classroom.

And it's basically a place for our students who need to leave the larger setting, the gen ed setting, within that 79 minute block, they can return to this room with an adult.

Next.

And then this is where our ISBE room will be.

And I think we can have about eight students plus a teacher in here.

Next.

All right, so some people will have a shared space.

So our avid teacher, theater teacher, and world language teachers, they will essentially have a landing space.

So they will have a space where they can keep their belongings, all of their instructional materials, but then they will teach in other classes when those teachers are on planning.

Our instructional coaches and specialists are going to share a room on the fourth floor.

Our mental health professionals are also going to share a space on the fourth floor and then our assistant principals will be on the third floor.

And I do want to add that although these people are sharing spaces, we will have designated spaces where people can reserve if they need to do some one on one counseling, meet with a family, things of that nature.

Next.

And this just talks about the things that our teachers will have in their classrooms.

And you'll see a picture of it on the next slide and how it all looks.

So this is what a typical classroom will look like.

It is very nice.

We are, the cabinets, the wardrobe closets are already in the classrooms.

We're going to be installing the view sonic boards this summer.

They're actually already over in the new building, and then our furniture will be delivered the week of July the seventh.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Next slide.

This is what our science room looks like in the new building.

And so these labs will be occupied by our eighth graders next year and then our sixth graders the following year.

Next slide.

And so with our breakout spaces that you'll see in the next slide, we plan to use these spaces for small group instruction, for

One-to-one instruction.

It's an opportunity for our students to collaborate more.

We have town hall meetings to talk about expectations, our eighth grade promotion ceremony.

And so it's a good space for that.

There's flexible seating there.

And we can even have staff and student conferences in these spaces.

And there's a very lovely picture on the next slide.

And this is just an example of what those spaces look like.

Next.

After school activities and clubs, we can, yep.

So fine arts, because we will not have an auditorium or a band room, orchestra room, and the fitness rooms just aren't large enough for the entire orchestra or the entire band,

We are working with Aaron Icors to have rehearsals here at Charlottesville High School and there will be transportation for our students from Charlottesville Middle to Charlottesville High.

Our concerts and shows will continue to be here in the Performing Arts Center and then there's just ongoing communication and coordination between myself, Mr. Icors,

Virginia Cauldron, and our performing arts teachers and transportation.

Next.

For sports, again, we are very excited to be back home in our own gym.

We thank Dr. Thompson and Walker for allowing us to use their gym the last two years.

But as you'll see on the next slide, we are very excited about our gym.

but volleyball boys and girls.

Boys and girls basketball will take place in our gym.

Swim practices will continue at the Aquatic Center and baseball and softball and track will happen in other locations, most likely here at Charlesville High School Lane and Lane Field.

And then we are hoping that when our 6th graders come and the project is finished in 2026 that we can have some intramural sports.

just to generate some interest and get our kids excited about sports that we don't currently have teams for.

And then there will be a calendar where we have all of this information because we know that people will use our building, they're gonna rent our building, and so that everyone knows what's happening at Charlottesville Middle School, there will be a calendar.

Next.

This is our lovely gym.

They've actually just put the floor down

I think now they just have to come back and paint it, but the the rims are already in there.

The scoreboard is in there.

It is a very nice space for our kids next.

All right, so we have been working, again, the people that I mentioned before.

We've been meeting, and then we also recognize the importance of communication.

And so back in January, when we returned from winter break, we had a meeting with all of our staff to just talk about furniture primarily, and then the timeline.

for preparing for phase two, which is now.

And then we also met again in March to talk about the phasing, the safety measures, and the new learning spaces.

And then next slide, we also held four parent info sessions to give our families information about this summer and next school year.

Next.

And so we are planning to have a young night kick off on Monday, August the 11th.

We recognize the importance of bringing our students in as soon as possible and also their families in the past.

We've had meet and greets on the Monday and Tuesday before the first day of school on that Wednesday.

And we did that within like four-hour windows.

However, due to logistics such as parking, we cannot do it in the same manner this summer.

And so we know that the community is excited about our new building.

We know that our families are excited.

and we are going to get them into our building as soon as possible.

Our goal is August the 20th.

We're gonna start having back to school nights where each team will, once a week, each team will host a back to school night so that we can get our families into the building so that they can see what's happening, where their kids are learning.

But before then, on Monday, August the 11th, we are going to bring in our students.

for an orientation.

So they will come in, they will go to their Core One classes.

They'll have some time with their teacher.

If the intercom is working, they'll get to hear from me.

And then they are going to tour the new building with their Core One teachers.

and then if you've ever spent some time with us on a Friday primarily, once a month we do a big school-wide pep rally.

We are gonna try to do that before they leave.

So from like 1230 to 1245, we are going to work with Ms.

Powell, Ms.

Green and transportation to provide transportation to our kids who would normally ride the bus and then parents can also drop off their students

It'll really be a good test run, too, to see how all of this works.

But we are planning to bring in our students Monday, August the 11th.

Next.

Thank you, Mr. Jordan.

Any questions from board members?

All right.

Next up, we've got our Biennial Division Literacy Plan.

Ms.

I'm definitely not as tall as him.

I'm sorry.

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

Tonight, I'm presenting the Charlottesville City Schools Biennial Division literacy plan for your review.

This presentation is being brought forward for both information and action as required by the Virginia Literacy Act.

The vision and goals of our literacy plan are to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students that are rooted in science-based reading research to increase literacy skills across all student membership groups.

This work aligns with priority one of the strategic plan and will ultimately increase academic achievement.

Last spring, I shared with you for the first time the division literacy plan.

At that point, we were still awaiting approved curriculum resources for grades six through eight.

And we were waiting for guidance documents for the student reading plans and specific details about the Virginia literacy and language screener, VALS.

But then at the start of the school year, we began to implement and we revised as more details and information were released.

We're now taking that information from the plan and we're revising it to include the two-year vision.

Tonight, I will share with you both what has been accomplished and what our next steps are.

And Ms.

Brice is here to share the highlights and goals for CHS, even though they're not included in the literacy plan.

There are six sections of the literacy plan, and we will take a look at each section while keeping in mind the goal and the vision for Charlottesville City Schools.

The first section of our literacy plan includes a comprehensive communication plan.

In Charlottesville City Schools, we believe that literacy is a civil right that has the power to create equitable outcomes for every student.

In order to achieve this vision, we must communicate and partner with all stakeholders.

For our families and caregivers, we provide detailed student reports from VALS for students in kindergarten through third, as well as MAP and DIBELS reports.

We share student reading plans outlining individual goals and strategies.

Our aim is to provide clear and actionable information so that families and caregivers can actively participate in their child's literacy journey.

to keep our community informed.

We present updates to you all, the school board, and maintain relevant information on the CCS website and host literacy sponsored events to raise awareness and engagement.

Our teachers are supported through ongoing professional development opportunities and collaborative professional learning PLCs are focused on best literacy practices.

Finally, our administration receives regular updates from the VDOE and are engaged in intentional collaboration with our reading specialists and me, the literacy coordinator, to assure alignment and effective implementation of our literacy goals.

This comprehensive approach ensures that information flows effectively across all levels, fostering a collaborative environment dedicated to student literacy success.

The next section, we're on highly qualified and high quality instructional materials, HQIM.

Sorry.

The next section of our literacy plan focuses on the instructional materials that underpin our literacy program.

We're committed to providing our students and teachers with resources that are research-based and effective.

For kindergarten through fifth grade, our core program will be HMH Interreading.

For grades six through eight, we will continue to use My Perspectives.

Additionally, starting in third grade, we will include at least one novel study and text set per grade level.

to deepen comprehension and engagement with literature.

We believe that this is essential in our goal of developing skilled readers and building reading stamina, which was one of the areas identified in our standards and our progress monitoring data.

I have included a few of the supplemental resources that are available and used in our schools.

During their most recent school year, we noticed that occasionally a student may need additional instruction on foundational skills.

We then identified an approved resource called Really Great Reading that would meet this need.

Really great reading also allows for an intervention that aligns with the classroom instruction and student mastery, which will help us to alleviate the learning gaps for our students by aligning those programs.

For intervention, we have a wide range of targeted programs.

I noted a few of them there.

We've also worked hard to ensure that our interventions address our achievement gaps.

The really great reading programs such as Countdown Blast and HD Word are examples that meet those needs.

Though not included in the VLA requirements for the Division Literacy Plan, we wanted to include updates and information about grades 9-12.

In Charlottesville City, we use

Teacher and district created curriculum guides and pacing guides.

In regards to interventions and supports for tier three, we use programs such as rewards, story and sips.

We were excited to see that many of the programs we already use are on the approved resources guide for secondary students.

The next one is professional evidence-based reading training or professional learning.

This past school year has seen a strong commitment to professional development in evidence-based reading practices across our division.

We've had a significant number of staff members actively engaged in high quality training programs focused on literacy.

It's a pretty remarkable investment when you include all elementary and middle school teachers in one training that's focused on literacy.

And you can see this included electives teachers, math, science,

History, everybody in elementary and middle school.

Reading and writing occurs in all classrooms, so by including that training for everybody, we're able to reinforce that.

In total, we had almost 350 people participating in at least one of the literacy courses.

Some of our individuals completed a letters course and a Virginia literacy partnership course.

Some specific examples for the upcoming school year include intensive professional and learning partnerships at Walker and CHS.

At Walker, Dr. Tammy Williams from William & Mary will work closely with literacy teachers to support comprehension instruction,

of Complex Texts.

At CHS, we're supporting English, ESL, and SPED teachers through training with Dr. Jade Wexler in the evidence-based PAC-PLUS literacy model.

This includes professional development and coaching focused on building students' background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Now that we know what resources we're using and have completed the training, it's time to look at how we can identify student need and progress monitor their learning.

This year, we implemented BALS K-3 for the first time.

Next year, we will expand its usage to grades four through eight.

We're still awaiting the guidance from the VDOE and the VLP regarding the criteria, subtests, and instructional indicators.

In the meantime, we also use MAP and internally designed assessments.

And at the high school level, we're closely monitoring student progress using multiple assessment tools.

MAP growth is our primary measure for tracking academic growth and ensuring students are progressing towards grade level benchmarks.

Students scoring at or below the 20th percentile on MAP are additionally screened using DIBELS to identify specific literacy needs.

We continue using MAP throughout the year to measure growth over time.

There are many ways and opportunities to monitor implementation and progress of the division literacy plan.

One example is our literacy walks.

In the fall, principals and I met and discussed several school-level literacy instruction.

Through our discussion, we identified an area of focus and then the school members that would participate in these walks, such as instructional coaches and reading specialists, and how we were going to use the walkthrough look for tool developed by the VDOE.

On the day of the visit, we were really able to narrow in our focus on that identified area.

And it allowed us to collaborate our expectations, provide precise feedback, and create action steps for that school.

Next year, we will continue to refine our process and monitor our action steps while increasing the number of literacy walks.

We will also look at ways to share and learn across our schools.

A large component of the VLA and literacy plan also includes engaging parents, caregivers, and community members.

Families and caregivers are invited to participate in the student reading plan process.

We regularly communicate about student performance and progress on VALS, DIBELS, and MAP.

We also hosted many school-based literacy events at all of our elementary schools.

Just this week, the 210 Reading Specialist team was designing and preparing a fall literacy event that will provide consistent messaging and support our families about the VALS assessment, including descriptions of the subtests and resources for families to support in their students' reading growth.

Overall, in thinking about the next steps in literacy for the division literacy plan, we will continue to focus on the implementation of evidence based literacy instruction with continued professional learning and monitoring of implementation.

We will also increase our students' opportunities to engage with complex text in meaningful and authentic ways.

We will make sure that our complex texts are windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors for our students.

The novels and complex texts will also support continued reading stamina.

The stamina to develop and

To read a text across multiple days or weeks is a skill set that will support our students as they continue to grow in their literacy.

We also want to increase.

We also will increase our usage of the VALS screener in grades four through eight.

This will be a big lift, but the information should be valuable to both our teachers, students and families.

That concludes my presentation.

Right.

Thank you both for your presentation.

Open it up to the board for questions.

Yeah, thank you very, very thorough.

My apologies for the state being delayed and getting you all the information so you could further develop it, if I may, for them.

One thing that in here that I get a lot of questions about, and I don't think it's directly associated with this, but kind of indirectly is screens and impact on learning and or reading.

So I think we're trying, I know by implementing some of our novel studies and everything, we are also engaging kids in reading physical books.

So we're trying to find the balance between the physical paper copies of books and reading as well as reading on screens.

Ms.

Morris, Ms.

Thank you.

I appreciate all the work you're doing here.

I maybe not necessarily for you with just a comment to my colleagues, you can do all the work in the world, but if our kids are not here they are not reading and they are not receiving intervention and so

I'm concerned about all the effort and energy and great work that goes into this.

But if we have children that are not in the classrooms when one of your, when a child might get pulled for intervention, what happens?

They're not here.

They're not getting it.

And so I just that's concerning to me.

I just I don't know if there's a response to that, but if they're not in the room and they're wandering the halls and you go to pull them.

You just moved to the next kid, I guess.

I think the response is that we are doing everything we can to make sure that the instruction is meaningful, relevant.

They want to be engaged, learning in the classroom.

I am curious what we are doing to help parents understand the results and data that's coming back to them.

The map report comes home, I have to like Google and remind myself how to interpret it.

And you know, same with valves and dibbles and all of these things.

And so I just want to know, like what we can do to help caregivers better understand where their child is at.

And if in like parents square, if there's a video that can go out when the scores are sent out as just like a

cheat sheet to help.

And then also just like getting to a greater level of specificity with that data.

So like, great, I can see where my child is relative to his grade level peers and where he is relative to what his RIT score was projected to be.

But it's not giving me the detail of like, is it comprehension?

Is it phonics?

Yeah, I can definitely say that this year, at the start of the school year, we had all intentions of doing our kickoff literacy event to explain all the components of VALS and how to read that student reading plan and the student report.

But with everything coming to us at the last minute, we weren't able to put it into place as we would have liked.

We did have parent conferences for anybody who had a student reading plan where we went through it together.

But next year, now that we know K to three, everything about vows and we figured out everything where that will be part of the back to school night, where everybody will get to hear the same information and understanding and then be able to follow up and ask those questions.

But I think how we expand that to map and all of the other data

assessments is important for us to do.

Yeah.

And just thinking, like, we know that we're not getting every student or every parent coming to these events.

And so I think, like, we're always thinking, how do we reach population that doesn't come to us?

And, you know, and so what is kind of part of that plan?

And there doesn't need to be an answer right now.

But just thinking about, like, how are we going to households or communities or wherever to

That's great.

Next steps to figure out.

Thank you, as always.

So I wanted to kind of flip back to slide two where you kind of refer to strategic plan and our priorities and the specific targets.

So at some point, and I know we've talked a little bit about the data dashboard, kind of being able to use the dashboard specific to these targets.

of where we maybe were at the beginning of this academic year and then when you present I'm assuming you're still kind of going through data from this most recent testing to kind of see where we are in relationship to that because that's again I think someone stated it I'm very appreciative of what

The division has done as far as investing and preparing and training staff and those who work with our students.

But this is really what matters and what a lot of people should be paying attention to.

So we can put these up here and go ahead.

Oh, no, I'm totally, I agree.

And it's okay.

I mean, I want to say this personally, it's okay if we're not even close to that, and I want to see that and we need to know that.

And then we can dig in, right?

But that's really,

Those are the things that I want to see.

I am so grateful that we are where we are as far as literacy and the science of reading and that we have all of these tools as far as interventions that we can offer our students.

But again, it's the benchmarks.

It's where are they at third grade, fourth grade before they get much further than that.

I mean, we really need to be, in my opinion,

I don't know, honing in, just hanging on to that kid and doing something different or something more.

I'm curious though, if you can give me a snapshot or us a snapshot, because again, you've listed a lot of great interventions here for K through five and six or eight.

Do the teachers have just kind of

individualized choice as far as what interventions they're using, or what does that look like?

Yeah, Sips and Spire and all those, those are in a tier three intervention.

So those are done by the reading specialists or Spires with the special ed teacher.

And for the classrooms and their support, it's more of a tier two within the room.

And we have exact program and resources and tools that are connected to HMH, as well as UFLI,

and a couple others.

But our reading specialist, and that is one of the Palooza sessions, is digging into exactly like how are we helping the kids within the classroom?

How are we providing these interventions for the kids who just need a little extra?

They need a little bit more, but not so much that they are requiring a Tier 3 intervention.

So at the beginning of the year, I had presented that there were 492 reading plans.

And

We learned a lot about reading plans and I realized that the information that I was sharing was the caseload of our reading specialist and we actually had more students because our ESL teachers were providing support through a reading plan.

Our special ed teachers were providing support through reading plans.

We ended up having, I think the information you want is at the very start of the year we had about 21% of our students that were on Reading for Lands.

By the end of the year we had moved out and gone down to 17%.

And keeping in mind that our, the way we were doing it this year was not just the VLA requirements.

VLA only required it for K to 2.

This is our numbers overall because we implemented and we did it across all the grade levels K to 12.

So we took it on.

We said, if this works, if we need to be identifying and being intentional in the support that we're giving our students and our families in literacy, then we're going to do it for everybody.

But so we saw definite shifts and decreases.

And we I believe the data is showing also improvements that is aligned with it.

The VALS data alone, we were able to see improvements.

Okay.

And I know, you know, that the students moving in and out of that might might vary and then as new students are identified, but I would love and I don't know how that would be to be able to track and just kind of see the progress from this year.

And then I don't know what's working, what isn't.

I mean, I'm sure you guys are digging into that.

Yes.

And really trying to hone specific interventions that might be more impactful for certain groups of kids.

But

I believe we're up for adoption in two years, so we will begin that process.

I know we follow right behind the math, and it would be too large of a lift for our elementary teachers to adopt a new math and a literacy at the same time.

So I believe it's math, and then it's literacy right after, and we'll be able to review.

Might be approved, but is it the best?

Thank you both.

Oh, we need action now.

Well, go ahead, Mr. Meyers.

Mr. Meyers has made the motion.

Ms.

Torres second.

And so the action, I'm sorry, the action is just to roll in the 2025-2027 part of it, correct?

Correct.

All right.

Yep.

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

All right.

Next up, Ms.

Can you all hear me if I leave the mic over here or do I need to move the mic?

I should move the mic here, it sounds like.

Okay, perfect.

I have a lot of slides and I'm hoping to move through them very quickly.

So I want to be able to man the slides myself.

So Ms.

Thacker is not guessing what I'm up to.

I'm here tonight to speak about our communications and our community relations program.

And I would just wanted to give a brief explanation.

Amanda is actually on vacation this week.

I'm so sorry she can't be here.

But in her absence, I just want to give her a huge shout out.

She is a tremendous asset to our program.

So smart intellectually, so smart emotionally, and just brings a lot of that to bear on our work.

So what is it that Amanda and I do all day?

This is a national survey of people who do our jobs.

I know the font is small, but the words over there on the left are crisis communications.

That is the top priority that my colleagues across the nation identify.

And it's followed by social media.

And the main thing I want you to look at when you see this slide is that this is not an exhaustive list.

You'll see as I go through this presentation that we do a lot.

But what I notice about this chart is that it's pretty flat.

In other words, there's no one or two things that people think are the most important things.

It's a pretty flat thing where people feel like all the things are pretty important.

And so within that world where there's a lot of priorities and there's a lot of good things to do, how do we narrow down our messages?

And we really focus on what we call the need to knows and want to knows in the monthly newsletter that we put out.

We call that the news and highlights.

And really, even that we could we could give you a whole lot of news.

We could give you a whole lot of highlights.

So we try to use the strategic plan as kind of our North Star for how to narrow it down, what to focus on, particularly the parts of the strategic plan that we were working on as a division for that year.

And even once we narrow down our content, there are so many choices to make about channels.

And that is, you know, you might say, well, do all the channels, do all the things.

But I want to remind you, there are two of us.

And also that do all the things all the time is not a strategy.

So within that, I'm just going to show you some national data that helps guide our work.

This is just a national survey about how parents prefer to receive essential non-emergency school information.

You'll see that the website looks like it is really out ahead.

However, if you were to gather up all the items that are parent square, covered by parent square and add those up, that actually pushes it way ahead of the website.

The last thing I want to point out is just how small that figure is for social media.

So that is the national data.

And then we'll move on to just our own local data, which comes from last year's Title 1 survey for elementary families.

Once again, you'll see that Parent Square is really head and shoulders out there.

And I want to give a shout out to those elementary families who still think that there's a place for backpack mail.

The flyers and notes, particularly those families, are often talking about seeing their kids' actual work.

They like seeing what it is that their kids have done and what their kids are working on.

So I'll go back to Parent Square to start us off.

That's the top tool and by national surveys and local or not Parent Square specifically, but by the data that was gathered nationally and locally.

And I last spoke to you maybe a year or two ago about its launch and then how it was going.

It's still going really well.

I'm still proud to say that our data is good, that we can contact our families.

and that we're really branching out and using a lot of those robust features that the system offers.

Of the 14 features, we're using 13 and the only one that we're not is credit card payments because we have other ways of doing that.

I really just am proud of our staff as I look through these figures at how many text messages, how many photos they're sharing, how many volunteers they're getting signed up through this system.

The main tool that we use day in day out, kind of the bread and butter of Parent Square, are these posts that we send to a whole group.

Could be a whole school district, could be a whole class, could be a whole school.

Amanda and I alone have a list of 120 of these annual messages that we send out.

I know it feels like every family gets 120 from us, but many of them go to some targeted group, kindergarten registration or

people who haven't re-registered by a certain date or whatever it is.

So that's a lot of the work we do.

And then also, Amanda and I really, we try to focus in on these personalized, taking advantage of the data sets that we have to get the right information in front of the right person.

Just your child's login, your child's bus information, that sort of thing, just your child's report card.

just to make sure we're giving really actionable messaging to families.

So we're clearly sending out a lot of messages.

And the question is, who's even opening these messages?

Who's reading them?

And those are two different questions, but the way the industry can measure it is who's opening.

And I'm really pleased with this slide.

If you look at the industry standard across the country for marketing type emails, 36% open rates.

If you look at education open rates, 49%.

And if you look at the open rates for our monthly newsletter, 81%.

If you were to delve deeper into the more topical messages that we sent out, maybe to specific neighborhoods about rezoning, those were in the 90s, which is just crazy high.

It doesn't mean that it's 100.

We want it to be 100.

And again, opening an email is not the same as reading an email or understanding an email or feeling equipped to act on the email.

But even as a starting point, I'm really proud for our division to be getting this high level of engagement.

And I think it does reflect on what we all know, which is that our families care.

You know that I also use Parent Square for unplanned communications and for those I work very closely with people like Kim Powell, our principals, we really just want to get accurate information out to families as quickly as possible to get ahead of any kind of rumors or confusion.

I think that you know at the beginning I talked a lot about strategy and priorities but all that kind of flies out the window when you have to send a message out so a lot of the job is really just balancing that kind of being strategic but also being responsive.

I'm not going to read through these Parent Square Next Steps.

I think the big idea is that we want to just work to equip everyone and give everyone some good guidance on how to follow best practices and really improve consistency across schools, across classrooms.

Those best practices also include how to know when you're sending too much.

It's a very powerful tool, but at the end of the day, we're good spammers, but we're spammers and we have to be mindful of that too much quality.

Next tool up, the website.

I'm not going to talk about this too much except for the fact that I'm still really happy that it works hand in glove with Parent Square.

That's an efficiency that Amanda and I have really appreciated.

When you start turning to the website, you're not only talking to our specific families or families in the community who have signed up to receive our messaging.

you're really reaching a broader audience of prospective families of our own staff of prospective staff and people in the community who just have an interest in some topic rather that they're wanting to look up.

Our goals for the website first is to try to decentralize control of it because a lot of the people in this room are content experts in certain areas and we want to give them editing access to their own page to get Amanda and me out of the middle.

We also are doing a summer upgrade that will improve the navigation, the appearance, the ADA compliance of the site.

When we rolled out Parent Square two years ago, they had just acquired their website partner and they've just really enhanced the abilities and the capabilities and the appearance of what's possible now.

And so we have hired a vendor to give the site a good refresh over the summer that I think we will all be glad for.

Next category is media relations.

And I know this one hits you guys pretty personally sometimes.

The first thing I want to say is just look at that's not even an exhaustive list.

That's barely a list I put after 10 or 12 or however many there are right there.

But for a small community and for a small division, we are very, very media saturated.

We want to be good partners to our media colleagues and so a lot of times when a media call comes in, again, that's one of those things that Amanda and I will kind of drop the plan and try to help the reporter out because it's a real partnership that we have to be.

We want them to be good to us and we want to be good to them.

At a very conservative estimate, our media log shows, or at least at the time I was putting these slides together a couple of weeks ago, showed 140 stories.

We don't usually log the sports stories.

We don't have as much to do with them, and it's just keeping the log itself is its own job.

That is a mix of stories that we place, and it's a mix in stories that reporters come to us.

That's about five stories a week, and while it may not feel like it,

The overwhelming majority of those stories are neutral or positive.

On the days when the news doesn't feel so neutral or positive, I wanted to show this slide to you because this is a national survey about how families learn about K-12 education in general or their child's school in particular.

Their child's school is the light blue line.

And you'll notice this is one that is not a flat chart, right?

There's a head and shoulders winner about how families learn about education and that is from their own school.

That's not only directly from Amanda and me, that's from their principals, it's from their teachers, it's not only electronic communications, it's all the ways that their schools could be face-to-face meetings.

But that is the way that families learn about what K-12 education in America is like.

And it's particularly how they learn about how their own school works.

number two on that list is family and friends it's a pretty significant drop to get there and when going back to our media partners I think maybe number five on the list is news stories number seven on the list is television stories so I went ahead and just rebuilt this graph to show you what would it look like if we combined news reporting and television reporting and it's still number three on the list behind friends and family

For me, one of the big takeaways here is that we have a very powerful tool.

We have an audience and families with children that anybody in town would want to have that audience, and we can speak directly to them.

We can equip those friends and family that are talking and teaching one another about our schools.

We can equip them with good experiences and good messages about our schools.

Last one I think on the list is social media.

And if you recall, I think families only said maybe 2% of them wanted to get information or get essential information from schools through social media.

And yet on the list of ways that people who do my job listed it as a priority, it was number two on the list.

That seems like a really big disconnect, but

When we talk about need-to-knows and want-to-knows, the need-to-knows mostly come through a tool like Parent Square, and the want-to-knows are all about social media.

And again, that reach on social media, it's well beyond our particular staff and families.

You have a lot of community members, you have people out of state, especially when a post really takes hold.

I think it was these graduation pictures on Instagram.

I think the last time I checked that it had maybe 45,000 views on it.

It can have a very big reach when you get a story that really tugs at the heart or just is inspirational in some way.

So I'm not going to go through these.

The job is busy and complex.

It's no more busy and complex than the other people in this room, but it is.

And I'm happy to go deeper on any of these when I'm done.

The last thing I wanted to mention is that a big part of the job is also being a thinking partner to my colleagues in the room, particularly when we have a new project, rezoning, all the re's that we talked about this year is an example of that.

That's made this year a busy year for us.

We really want to be involved not only in the communications, but we're just an extra set of brains, an extra set of hands for projects like that.

And especially as these projects kind of rub up against real parents, against real staff members, against real students, we want to kind of, that's the community relations part of it.

We want to make sure that we are helping everybody look at it from the perspective of those stakeholders.

So when you see topics like transportation, you don't think, oh, that's communications.

But but Amanda and I have had our hands deep in all of these topics.

So I think I've covered these next steps except for the last three, and that is working more closely with our family engagement team, just so we're all on the same page about we're all engaging families.

We're all hoping to share information, but also get information back and to get feedback back.

So how can we work more closely together?

Another one on the list is elevating student voice, because that just makes everything better.

And the last one on the list is really taking advantage of that beautiful middle school that Mr. Jordan was telling you about and just the opportunity that it presents for us to help everybody gain excitement about this middle school and this resource in our community.

I threw out a bunch of statistics here.

I'm certainly not gonna run through any of those.

I think that the bottom line is I hope I've explained that Amanda and I stay very, very busy, especially in a year that brings a lot of change.

And I'm not any busier than the folks at this table, but there does come a limit of what is sustainable for two people.

Dr. Gurley encourages us to hire the company who's giving the website a refresh this summer, because there's just not enough hours in the day, right?

hire a photographer to go to some of the events that Amanda and I just can't get to.

Hire a graphic designer to do some of the things that would take us a lot longer to do than it would hire a graphic designer.

Even without strategy, we stay very busy.

And so as we think of more, I was making notes to myself during the literacy presentation about videos that would help families understand data.

That is a great suggestion, but it's a more, and at some point more requires more.

So that's what I have.

Thank you very much.

Just lots of gratitude.

And I was just starting to count the tabs open on my screen right now, nowhere near compared to the 73 that you had listed there.

But I don't know how the two of you do it.

So just and again, you listed so many

I can't even begin to name how many times I've leaned into you or you and I have talked throughout the years about new things coming up or issues or anything, and you do.

Absolutely.

Anyway, I'm grateful for you.

Yeah, I guess the only comment I'll have is, you know, more means more.

You know, thank you, Mr. Chuck, for I think was very covered everything, which I really appreciate in a lot of detail in there, as I would expect from a communication professional.

I think it is interesting kind of the social media

I do think we do a really good job at communicating and I've seen that improvement and I've heard that

parents have felt a lot more proven sense getting parents square going and kind of again, as you say, more frequent communications around, especially emergency events, et cetera, where we, the police get called, you know, and being able to get that information out to parents through parents square.

And I think what I've seen as you're doing it really quickly is very helpful.

And I want to give you kudos for that.

Cause I think that was a large concern and a lot of folks had a number of years and this tool seems to be working.

A couple of things overarching thing here.

And again, I think I mentioned this in an email, like I think we do really good communication and marketing though, is I think something that I'd like us to see tightened up a bit and, or maybe expanded.

And I do realize there's again, limitations of your time and efforts.

And so, you know, things that I think about our summer interns, I, or is there, you know, some where there's obviously debate,

and experts in debate.

But do we have some kids that are excellent at marketing here that we could pay a little bit to give you 20 hours a week during the summer or even during the school year to help with, I think, a lot of that social media?

And I know I'm not sophisticated with it, but I think these kids are and could help do some of that.

You mentioned equipping our families and parents.

And I think there's a bit of an initiative to do that.

And I'm really excited to see that because I do think they can be our best messenger, especially when thinking about marketing.

So giving those those talking points and sending out those materials for them.

And I was even encouraging them, you know, and how do we encourage them to when they get into those conversations with their friends who, for whatever reason, are not sending their children to our schools.

Kind of, again, push them gently and or give them some tools to again.

So I'm glad we're thinking about that and doing that.

You know, one thing I think I wrote to you about is I'd love to see

bumper stickers for all of our schools.

Very simple thing because I see all that for all those private schools.

I see that for the schools and it drives me nuts.

And I want our bargaining, when I go to the grocery store, I want to see and again, Charlottesville Middle School, Charlottesville High School, Greenbrier, you know, again, all those cars in there just to show people that vast amount of kids who send them to our schools is kind of like they are not the minority.

We are the majority.

Sorry, the last thing is I am excited about CMS and I'm glad to see that point there that is there a public launch?

Let me jump in on a couple of points.

You had mentioned, let's just start with bumper stickers.

Every year in the printed calendar we send out something a little bit fun, a magnet for the refrigerator or a sticker sheet I think was last year.

This year you'll be glad to know it is window clings for your car.

So that order was placed about a week or so ago.

In addition, a lot of those kind of classic marketing efforts that you might think of, even in terms of avenues like Charlottesville Family Magazine, some of that kind of went into a pause during the pandemic and Amanda has really been kind of rebuilding that program up again.

I think you'll be glad with that.

She's particularly excited about the possibilities with Charlottesville Middle School.

In addition to your bumper stickers, she is working on t-shirts for some future young knights.

One thing that I've heard people mention in this community is we've got one

One thing I think about is our city councilors who approve our budget and what are the media sources

They're reading and I think that's more traditionally probably like the daily progress and our non-social media, etc.

So that is an audience that, again, I want to make sure we're considering.

And I think we've done a lot better job of presenting our asks this year and with our PowerPoint decks and Dr. Gurley's presentations, etc.

And I want to see us continue to be able to think mindful of

You know, for better or worse, that channel being something that influences decision makers about, again, some of our more important financial matters.

Thank you, Ms.

Chuck.

Appreciate you and give our gratitude to Ms.

I will do it.

I will do it.

Next up, Mr. Cuomo.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm going to just try to do the advance from here, but I've got backup just in case, so I'm going to ask Ms.

Lewis if she could just spacebar to the various slides.

I will say for Ms.

Chuck, she gives Parent Square and Facebook and social media way too much credit because the supervisor and tool user behind the product is usually the one that makes it super successful.

A lot of people say they would never want my job.

And I always say to her, I would never want her job because of all that it entails.

But I come to you tonight with updates and future prospect for bringing fiber and Internet and streaming to Charlottesville High School Stadium.

I met with Andy Jones, we've been talking for days and weeks and we have some updates to share with you.

So the background, plain and simple, the background is

We all know that having streamed games is a benefit and advantage for a school system.

The reality is that the last four and a half to five years have been just inundated with multimillion dollar projects.

We did private fiber for the entire school division.

We've outfitted security cameras, doors, just enhancements that are

were higher priorities, to be blunt, things I think the board has spoken truthfully about and the community has given feedback on.

So those projects, as Beth said, there's a certain amount of things that you can do, and then you run out of things to do.

And that's where we were.

Those projects just, for lack of a better word, they took priority over this request.

We know it exists.

We are here to talk about some long-term goals.

So one of the long-term goals for me and for Andy and I think for CCS Athletics is we want to be able to bring this fiber, which is essentially internet, which is essentially streaming to the stadium, as well as potentially other areas of athletics through Charlottesville City Schools.

So there is an initial phase which would run fiber to the CHS stadium.

And it would also future ready us to have the fiber but not the equipment in place so that if two or three years down the road came and we wanted to add an event to another field, to another avenue, we wouldn't have to have this conversation over and over again.

We would just have to move from like an 80% finish to get to that finish point and work with our vendors.

and what that looks like from an aerial view.

It's a little hard to see with the yellow on the bright, but essentially you'll see the stadium on your left hand side, the high school in the middle, and then the baseball fields on your right.

So the plan would be to run fiber underground from the school, which is basically the main data center.

And while we're doing this work, we would

preemptively run fiber past the tennis courts strategically.

We would run it to the track and field space and then we'd go the other way underground.

We'd have to come all the way around, making a little stop at the baseball field, come around the baseball field.

We'd have to bore under the railroads tracks and the road over there.

on Melbourne.

Then we'd pop out at the stadium.

And since we were over by that stadium there, we would run fiber to the press box.

And there's an office over in that space, which is strategically located by to a field.

So that would be the entire need of fiber that we think would future proof

any future athletics events and whatnot.

But the initial phase would cover the stadium.

We would expand and get the equipment needed to stream from the stadium.

And like I said in phase one, the timeline estimate would be hopefully starting a project in the fall that has some flexibility.

We're looking at three to five months, upwards of six months, but essentially to be ready for the 26-27 school year.

There's a long list of things that need to happen, including permits, getting the work done, buying the hardware, connecting it, and again having that future ready for phase one, which again, we would work to get that ready by the spring of 26 so that in the 26-27 school year, we'd be all set with the fiber portion of it.

Now the short term goal, Andy and I have been working with our current vendors and working with some wireless technology that we feel could find a short term solution to get streaming to the stadium, which would be just a wireless 5G router and working with one of his vendors that streams the football games.

and so his short-term goal working with me, we're testing this out this summer, is to use that piece of equipment which we already have, work with the vendor who's already providing the camera for us and make that an operation that will work for the 25-26 school year, for this upcoming school year.

That process is ongoing.

I don't have

We didn't find the solution and test it just yet.

We have the pieces of the solution.

He's in contact with his vendors, the athletic department.

But that's a short-term goal because we realize getting this work done is going to take some time.

So again, we're having these conversations with the vendors now.

We started in May to find a short-term connectivity solution for the Charlottesville Stadium, the high school stadium.

We want to put that kickoff, so to speak, in July to make sure it works.

And then during the fall season, we want to use

that equipment to make the streaming happen.

But then also, hopefully in the fall of this school year, we want to lay down all of that fiber and future ready the additional places as well as the stadium.

And by March of 26, ideally, we want to have that hardware up and running and tested and know that it works so that as we move into the summer of July 2026, we can move away from that temporary wireless technology

and Andy and the athletic department can have their official launch for the phase one which would be the stadium and then again what that would do is future ready other stadiums or locations where athletics were held should the need arise down the road.

and after that point the only costs would be to provide the hardware necessary or the subscription necessary.

We wouldn't have to do any additional digging.

We wouldn't have any additional internet fees.

Everything would be off of our main network.

So it's just a really upfront upfront to get the fiber run, first year to get the

Stadium access and then just as it ebb and flows towards additional events needing to be streamed, I'll leave that up to Andy and his team.

We'd be in a much, much stronger position to be able to have a turnaround time of getting something up and running in a relatively short period of time for minimal cost.

It's the labor and the fiber.

And then for the crossing under of Melbourne, is that a VDOT easement or the city?

A railroad is the biggest obstruction.

We're going to try to use existing piping that we've done with other projects, but we have to assume that they're going to make us start the entire process over.

And then there's a process for the day that we can actually do the boring.

because they have to make sure there's no trains and safety involved.

I'll speak on his behalf.

Having the ability to stream at that stadium or other locations, he told me, was a definite plus for being the stadium that would be asked to host future events.

Because a lot of the expectation from his words were that the

the stadium ready streaming made the venue more likable for outside people to say, hey, let's host something at Charlottesville.

Thank you.

I believe we would use surplus funds, discretionary funds from our budget.

It's not something that we've baked into the existing budget.

Okay.

And at the moment, I think we're charging $50 an hour for folks to use the stadium.

In the update that Ms.

And that this would be obviously some kind of add-on if they want to use this.

I guess, Michael, my concern being is we're making an investment.

We're providing a better product here.

We should be charging market rate for it, especially.

Great.

OK, I'm seeing heads nod.

Great.

Right.

And I think, yeah, my only concern is doing project development and having to get easements.

And railroads are notorious for specifically, again, fiber optics and trying to get across.

I think there's a whole set of lawsuits and legal things that just got passed here in Virginia to facilitate that.

We've done it before and we're working with a vendor who's been with us for years.

But again, the reason for the info and action tonight is because we fully recognize that asking for that, you know, one day's worth of work can take three months to get start to finish.

Thank you.

Mr. Morse?

Ms.

Cooper?

So the money would be used discretionary like surplus funds, correct?

What is our balance right now?

Our fund balance was 9 mil.

I'm just repeating about $9 million.

Thank you.

I've got a motion.

Yes.

So friendly amendment Ms.

As the estimated cost.

Okay.

So all in favor, aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, and we're back to you, Ms.

Hello again.

So we have prepared the May 2025 VSBA policy updates for the board's 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 the strikethrough.

The attached table provides a brief description of these changes.

In addition to the revised policies, the second section of that table includes a list of policies that were reviewed by VSBA but not revised.

And so we ask that the board take action on these May policy updates at the August school board meeting.

And then I did want to reference a couple of policies that were brought up earlier.

So the GCE substitute teachers, that was an oversight.

So that bullet where it says insert other qualifications that should be removed because we do not have any other additional qualifications to add.

So that will be removed.

and then the JFC and JFCM is new.

That's the new cell phone policy, which we took that language from JFC and we inserted in that policy, but regarding the student conduct language.

So wherever we, wherever we see any language that references the student code of conduct, we do replace that with the student's rights and responsibilities.

However, the standards of student conduct reference that policy and the standards that are outlined in the students' rights and responsibilities.

If that makes sense.

Are there any policies specifically that you guys are overviewing or that you wanted to bring our attention to?

There are new, like brand new VSBA policies.

The advanced accelerated math student, the cell phone I just referenced.

And then the notification about the school connected the student overdose.

Now that I've got a little extra time, I'll go ahead and send these questions and comments in email to everybody.

And again, thank you for your grace as I kind of mesh them all together with my notes.

It's a lot.

Thank you.

Any other questions at this time?

Some more light reading for a month off.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

We have several written reports in item 12.0.

Chair, I want to discuss, if I may, excuse me, some of the written reports.

Is that OK?

Yeah, I just wanted to point out one on the YMCA update.

I was very happy to see again that, or at least the reporting that they had

No wait list at the start of the school year, which I think is very important and increase their overall enrollment.

My expectation is that that happens again this coming fall and that they had and for all the parents out there listening, they had created a new aftercare program or care program for the days when there's professional learning and other our staff is working, but there is kids are not in school.

So I was happy to see that.

I did note on the absenteeism report, which I'm very happy that we're receiving also, that a number of schools did improve year over year.

I think the majority did and some substantially.

And I think, you know, again, the team and staff at Summit Johnson, I think in Jackson Viya was where we saw the largest improvements in absenteeism.

I did note that there were two schools where we had worse results.

which is concerning to me.

I think it was Buford and Trailblazers, but only slightly.

You know, I think we've talked about this the last month and it's come up today also that, you know, I think this is something that I hope the administration and speaking for myself here that it is focused on.

I will note that CHS ended the year with 33%, basically a third of their students chronically absent.

Very concerning.

and I want to tie this back to the communication side of things and I do hope that we figure out how to communicate that this is a problem better to our parents and to the community overall and as one of our tools that I would say you know and trying to make improvements here.

I do want to make sure that we communicate this to the community because I don't want to sound an alarm on this one.

So yes, I want to agree with you that the number is larger for Buford.

The percentage is, so last year, the chronic absenteeism was 24.82%.

And so at the end of the school year is 25.3.

Ms.

Raznick can explain this better than me.

but we're talking about a student.

So this is not that you had a hundred more kids who are chronically absent.

I don't know if I'm doing this in injustice, but we, so as we are looking at these numbers and, you know, so I think people could walk away from this messaging thinking that, you know, that we have way more kids who are chronically absent.

Yeah, so this is the raw data.

As we get waiver days and things like that included in this, you'll get some updated information.

We've started looking at the actual, like when we think about Trailblazer, for example, we pulled a report down and we're looking at, is it predominantly kids with a bus, without a bus?

Is it students with disabilities?

Is it families?

to try to tailor what happens differently at Trailblazer next year.

It's the same thing will happen for Buford.

What is the impact of suspensions on chronic absenteeism?

Because suspensions count as a day absent.

And so thinking about alternatives to suspension.

And then we have two days this summer where school teams are coming in.

And I mean, you mentioned Summit, like that is a substantial

decrease.

And we are so proud of them.

And seeing their work this year has been exceptional.

And they, you know, there's some special sauce, right, that they figured out and having them share what they did with Trailblazer is going to be more meaningful than me sharing it.

No, thank you.

And again, this is the data I'm hoping to see.

I'm glad to see you guys are also parsing it, you know, again, below just this and understanding it.

And I'm really excited about the results of the summit and great to hear that they're sharing their special sauce.

Wasn't happy to see, though, that some schools did not improve.

All right.

Moving on to our second opportunity for comments from members of the community.

I want to thank you, the staff and administration for the graduation, the high school graduation.

I think it was very impactful, very exciting to see that amount of students crossing the stage there and again, learn about all the accomplishments.

that they have done.

So congratulations to staff and obviously all the students and graduates.

Thank you.

I'll just quickly share gratitude for the school district changing the academic calendar a little earlier so students and teachers can get out a little sooner.

Being a part of a neighboring school district is a big difference.

Burns.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Congrats, Dr. Gurley.

What I would say was a pretty great year from where we sit.

Sure.

We hear a lot of grumblings and valid concerns, and I think that shows just the committed community we have, but gosh, we get to celebrate a lot of really great things.

and I think we saw a little bit of a glimpse of that tonight in our students that we're bringing on and just hearing about the other really great impactful work that's going to happen in the future and how we continue to all do this work collaboratively.

I think if anything, it really shows our community that we do listen and we do hear what they say and that we can take a step back and we can pull policies that maybe we were going to vote on, but now we're going to look at a little bit more because there's something more.

Yes, a little bit of downtime, right?

A little bit of committee work mixed in there for some of us.

Wanted to

say that I had meant to make a comment about one of the new policies, the AI policy.

And I know that there was some committee work done around that.

So I wanted to just kind of elevate that and kind of tie it a little bit to some comments we've heard and that I tend to concur with as far as

screen time considerations and would love to kind of, I'm going to continue to bring this up as a concern.

I had an opportunity to sit with some fellows from the Hunt Institute Policy Cohort that I was invited to be a part of this last weekend.

and our session focused on K-12 funding and just K-12 issues and it was really interesting to just have conversations as it is with this board to hear different perspectives around AI, people who felt

There really wasn't a need to put guardrails around it.

And then I'm on the far other end of that spectrum.

But to just be able to have civil conversations around that and to listen to different perspectives.

I'm and as I think everybody in this room is really supportive and wanting our students to be critical thinkers and to be able to engage and

AI is something that we can't really ignore.

It's here and it's out there.

But I'm very much concerned about it and really would like guardrails and would like some ongoing work

within the division to really take a look at that and to encourage and support teachers to limit screen time and also to just that responsible use, but also had the opportunity to talk with Ms.

Horn a little bit about what she did in her classroom this year and was really impressed

that she went screen free and all of the parents in her classroom and the students were totally supportive of that and the engagement that she was able to be witness to.

And so I think it's worth putting a pin in.

Basically, what she talked about was using Chromebooks and using the computer to do some research.

but then asking students to do first and second drafts by hand and then sitting and engaging with their colleagues and just the interactions that she saw.

with students rolling over in their chairs to say, hey, take a look at this.

And then they got to use their computers again to publish their final works.

But I really would love, like I said, to continue to elevate this as a concern and something that maybe we can do a little bit differently here in Charlottesville City Schools.

also a shout out and to pay attention to the new cell phone policy and the bell to bell, just how that looks and how that's been rolled out.

And again, I think that ties into screen time, computer time, and just the mental wellness and health of our students.

also want to and I'm anxious to see if the middle school PTO, how they can be engaged and part of the branding and the work as the middle school begins to show itself as the state of the art building that we have.

I know we've got a lot of parents and people in the community who are willing to jump in.

So I hope that we get to see that a little bit.

And then one final thing I will wrap up with is that again this Saturday, June 7th, there is

and Autism Awareness Festival.

And it's at Moss Knuckles Elementary School and Courthouse on 2055 Courthouse Road, Louisa.

But it's a fun day of family events.

There's going to be a bouncy house, craft vendors, food vendors, games, face painting.

This is from 10 a.m.

to three.

And again, it's for autism awareness and everybody's welcome.

Thank you.

I don't have any comments.

I just want to thank my extraordinary team for an amazing school year.

That's principals included, that's teachers, that's every group of support staff.

We have truly had a remarkable school year.

You know, sometimes

The staff uses better together more than I do because sometimes I feel like it's being cliche but I mean they really are the definition of being better together and I do want to also thank the school board for your continued vote of confidence and my leadership of the school division.

I am very appreciative of that.

I don't take

it lightly the responsibility of leading the future of the students of Charlottesville City Schools.

We thank you for accepting it.

I'm Ms.

Swift.

So I took some notes around the promotion and retention policy.

So I try to capture everyone's thoughts.

So we'll continue to discuss that, form the committee and kind of go from there.

Also the policy KG, we will insert Mr. Meyer's suggestions and we'll see that in August.

and then also about providing additional information to help parents interpret data.

So such as creating a video or just kind of maybe a one pager to help understand some of the various mini reports that we send to families.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.