School Board Meeting   8/7/2025

I'm looking forward to the rest of this year.

Is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Excuse me.

Every school year, students who are homeschooled are required to show academic progress at grade level every school year.

You don't have to do something online, but as a part of it, the code does require that families show that the student is making progress at grade level.

All public school students have to take SOL tests.

All public school students who are enrolled in the school, yes, they do have to take end of the year SOLs, as mandated by whatever that grade level is.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Swift coming back to us for approval of some policy updates that we saw in May.

And if so, we can put that with the August update for action in September.

So to get us started, is there a motion to approve the policy updates?

So moved.

Torres.

So I know that got pulled and is up for discussion later.

Correct.

Dr. Gurley.

There are implications beyond this year.

It was instructional versus non-instructional.

There's time limits.

Yeah.

Non-instructional professional learning opportunities that are not federally or state mandated have to fall within the window of three hours throughout three to five hours out of the course of the year.

So safety response within a building doesn't fall, which is not prioritized.

There's no federal code.

So you can only require it every five years.

And so it's something that we're struggling with a bit.

Wow.

And we are looking to take at least one component that we feel like we can make into a video, but I'm not even sure how something like watch this on your own, how that plays into that time requirement.

especially in the current, you know, under our CBA.

So the previous version had that it would be.

They can speak very specifically to that.

I mean, I trust that it's being covered, but I would love to hear how and when.

That's okay.

And so I just was curious if you could speak a little bit about who that liaison is and then do we have it on our website?

I will double check, but she is our designated family liaison.

Any other questions?

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chuck for our 25-26 school board meeting schedule approval.

I'm just here to answer questions if anyone has questions about why we made some adjustments to the calendar.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

And I will open us up for discussion.

So I don't quite understand why we selected these two dates to move.

And I don't think we would have any qualm making that adjustment.

Any further discussion or questions?

So thank you.

So I just want to give him a big shout out for that work that he does for us.

Any opposed?

Opposed.

Powell.

I also want to take a moment to give a big shout out to Lieutenant Greg Wade, who was, I believe, with us this evening.

Great.

So here we go.

They wanted training for students and staff, and they wanted clarity about location and the visibility of SROs.

So before Dr. Johnson steps away, any questions regarding those focus groups?

Thank you, Lisa.

If you might be able to touch on that a little bit.

Yes, ma'am.

And so I'm grateful that my current police chief wanted to meet with us and talk to us and get our perspective.

And I believe that this work that has been given consideration on behalf of school resource officers will add another level of additional value to that safety program.

Thank you.

They bring back the communications that we've lost and they bring in familiar faces so that we're not interacting with strangers on a regular basis.

You know, know a lot about in collaboration with their teachers that it would help build relationships as well.

And that adds the benefit of our school resource officers building those relationships, understanding student behavior in the school building and being able to then relay that information to their counterparts in CPD, which allows us to support our whole community in a better way.

And so from the mental health perspective, knowing that our SROs are trained to work with our students really does make a difference on the mental health side.

Thank you.

And then in September 4th, maybe some of these same people will be back to share what they've heard and what adjustments they recommend in light of what they've heard.

But again, huge thank you to everyone who was part of the work to get us to this point.

Mr. Meyer?

Is that where we're at at the moment?

But it also speaks to your point about these are youth, specially youth trained officers that are really part of the value is serving the community 24-7, 360 with that expertise.

So I appreciate that.

I do also want to talk about today's political climate and making sure that we are putting language in our MOU about accountability and transparency around the power that has been given to the police in our current political climate so that our children are being protected.

Richardson?

And I'm just here to see how everything will pan out.

wants to come up because he spoke to that as far as the stance that the Chief has taken publicly and I had even kind of pushed gently or asked that maybe there could be a statement from the Chief on our website as far as his position for Charlottesville Police Department.

That would need to take place prior to any federal assistance being given by CPD.

his understanding of where Charlottesville as a community stands, you know, as far as him making that statement publicly, but that he, there is no doubt in my mind that the community would support and definitely would draw a line, a hard line there, if that was crossed.

Local perspective, that's exactly what that's speaking to.

And then I'll let you explain.

Sure.

Just the difference between the two.

But as we move along together, I'm sure there are things we'll want to refine and better define to keep everybody's lanes clear and just make sure that this is really leveling up our safety the way we want it to.

Are we gonna open up feedback or is that another committee?

And that could also, if it's on the website, of course, it's available to our families to provide those kinds of feedback points as well.

I was just curious, how many SROs are we talking about?

One based out of CMS, but that one will be one of the floaters and then a supervisor because there's a desire for the unit to have a sergeant and that individual also be a floater.

Really wanted to have some music playing that you had to dance out to, but...

Do you have any questions?

Fresnik, her multi-tiered system of supports overview.

Any questions so far?

At what part of a teacher's day or professional's day is this?

So we prioritize getting staff and families together to have the conversations.

And so like, how are we keeping kind of that whiplash from happening to students?

How is the school mental health professional that's intervening using brief challenges involved?

and we're really excited 15 school mental health professionals were trained in the spring and we're excited to be able to offer that if it's needed and we will be able to accept referrals starting when school opens and that would be looking at data or referrals that come to us from administrators or school mental health professionals from either I know vaping was talked a lot about last year as a concern and so looking at the data that we have and then serving students who are

And you'll continue to get a written report monthly.

Ms.

You might say.

Are you talking about referral to court services?

Are there other sticks there that we've thought about that, again, that are, you might say, a privilege in our system that aren't necessarily basically providing the basic opportunity if you're not attending school?

But we've got to get really to the root cause of why kids aren't coming to school.

Thank you.

Is there any area that you can think of like at a tier three level that we need to beef up or increase to support our kids better?

But we're still seeing where some of our gaps are is that we've got to implement and do things with fidelity.

But if there's ever anything we can do to better support how things are implemented, I mean, we're here for that as well.

And so just supporting us as we continue to develop that mindset of it takes a team for every kid.

Lewis.

So now, as of today, we have six openings or seven employees because we have two part time people serving in one position.

We wanted to call out the assistant principal hire as well.

So I'm just here if you have any additional questions.

Any questions for Miss Lewis?

programming systems you put into place and the administration we're seeing and one question, love to see all the, we had an issue with substitute teachers last year and not having enough of those, I guess, I'm sorry, I didn't preview this with you earlier, but where are we at with substitute teachers?

It's set to go posting at 1201, August 1st, and we already have 32 applicants for substitute teaching, and it's only been posted four days.

All right, sure.

It's $30 an hour at the secondary level.

The openings were at the elementary school where we had $20 an hour, which is still great pay.

Thank you very much.

Swift.

And so we ask that the board take action on these policies at the September board meeting.

Go ahead.

All right, thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Mr. Meyer?

Thank you.

Cooper?

Richardson?

We have a lot of new things happening, a lot of changes, and I'm just happy to be at a table where my voice could be heard.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Yep, Ms.

All right, Miss Swift, anything on our work session wrap up?

Can I talk to you?

Will that be captured by Zoom?

Is there a remote participation or is it all in person?

I don't think it was built in but I mean if you want us to record it.

I think probably recording is more feasible than a hybrid.

All right, so with that, we are adjourned.