School Board Meeting   10/9/2025

All right, good evening, everyone.

It is past five, so we're going to go ahead and get started.

I will call this meeting to order and we will begin with a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Right.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Ms.

Ms.

Cooper?

Here.

Ms.

Ms.

Richardson?

Here.

Ms.

Torres?

Yes.

And next up, item 5.0, approving our agenda this evening.

There is a motion.

Any discussion?

All right.

Any opposed?

Wonderful.

And we amended our agenda a little bit before the meeting so that our student rep can give his report out and then head to a choir concert.

Wonderful.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

OK.

Hi, everyone.

In case you don't already know me, I'm Solly, the student representative.

And due to a scheduling conflict with a choir concert, as already mentioned, I'm going to leave this meeting early.

I think I'll be able to stay for like the first maybe 45 minutes or so, but luckily I can still give this speech.

There are a couple things that I'd like to report on.

First, school is really back in business now, and everything's back to how it was before Rake, but seemingly better.

We've all adjusted, and school's doing really, really well.

Students are loving the extra days off they have this year, and are excited to be a quarter of the way through the year in just a couple of days.

We're looking forward to an amazing homecoming.

Truly, students are really, really enjoying this year.

And on behalf of the student body, I'd like to thank everybody who contributed to that.

Moving on to another issue.

Since our last meeting, I've spent a lot of time gauging the opinion of the student body on school resource officers, and I've probably talked to somewhere around 100 students, and I've come up with two major conclusions about the average student's opinions on SROs.

First, and most importantly, most students don't actually feel super, super strongly about the police officers themselves, and if anything, many students are in favor of the officers.

The majority

of students at the school recognize the problems that CHS has and the inability of the current system to solve these problems.

Many students have had enough of well-known issues improving in small increments and yet never going away, resurfacing every few months, a constant phenomenon at the school that motivates students to tentatively support policies that could possibly fix these problems.

During my previous report, I mentioned that the general opinion of the students at CHS has been cautious optimism.

And this holds true for this meeting as well.

People want their problems solved.

And from my conversations, the average CHS student finds that SROs could be the solution to their problems.

That being said, students, like the rest of the community, have some very, very serious concerns, one of which stands out among other ones.

The most important issue in the mind of students is the fact that SROs will have guns, and that most importantly, they actually haven't heard why.

Every single student I talked to, without fail, said that if SROs were implemented, they'd prefer them without guns, and they'd feel more secure if they didn't have guns.

But that's obviously not possible.

and many students' opinions on SROs as a whole shifted from positive to negative after the fact that they would possess guns was made clear to them.

This distaste for SROs having guns comes from my perception two places.

First is a pretty simple feeling of insecurity that comes from the presence of weapons so openly presented in a school setting, a feeling that no matter how many security measures are put on the guns will always exist.

Students understand that this feeling isn't a logical one, but the idea that, however unlikely, it's possible for, with one person's bad judgment, to be killed in the transition from first to second period is terrifying for all students.

And second, the fact that they don't actually understand the reason for why guns are needed for this entire project.

Whenever I talk to people about SROs and guns, the question of, well, why do they need to have guns in the first place, always gets asked.

And no student has ever been satisfied with the answer of, because one line in the police uniform policy says so.

They don't interpret that as a particularly cohesive answer.

And because most people's number one issues about SROs are guns,

which turns an otherwise pretty positive thing into something that most students find to be very negative.

Students just don't understand how the guns are necessary.

And this issue is possibly the hardest for the board to actually address, but as the representative, I'd advise a couple of things.

First is to make extremely clear why the guns are needed and the actual justification for

the officers having them.

Second, to make it again extremely clear that the police officers would not use the guns in any normal circumstance and that that is something that they are trained to be doing.

And that third, that there are pretty significant security measures in place to prevent people from stealing the guns.

And along with the issue of guns, students have a couple other concerns, especially about possible SRO involvement with ICE and regularly and in regular disciplinary actions.

But those problems seem easier to address because after

like pretty simple conversations with the students and letting them know the information in the MOU.

Most of those concerns are cleared up pretty quickly.

But it's always important to remember that despite these ideas that students have and the possible issues that they have with the policies, many students are still in favor of SROs overall.

It's only but they like

Although their like for it is detracted from by guns, students still feel generally positive about that.

So I hope that that report can help contextualize some things about the debate today or about SROs today.

And thank you all for letting me attend this meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Schwartzman, and I think some of your concerns may be addressed in one of our agenda items later this evening.

Next up, we have 7.0.

Ms.

I, Shymora Cooper, declared that I have a personal interest in a transaction of the Charlottesville City Public Schools for the reasons at fourth below.

I believe that I may participate in the deliberation and the voting on the transaction as permitted by the Virginia Code section 2.2-3112B1 and 2.2-3115H

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

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

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

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

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

It is my intention to orally disclose the existence of the interest during the meeting of the Charlottesville City School Board at which

The 2025-2026 operating budget is discussed and asks that each such disclose be recorded in the prospective meeting minutes.

Thank you, Ms.

Cooper.

Next up, we get to move on to some student and staff recognitions.

So we start off with Ms.

Members of the board, I am here to put forward three different acknowledgments tonight.

Is it okay if I do all three together?

Okay.

So Dyslexia Awareness and Disability History Awareness Month allows us the opportunity to celebrate the strengths of individuals with disabilities while taking an active role in creating a more inclusive and accessible environment.

Schools will take opportunities to celebrate students and adults with disabilities.

They'll be provided with age-appropriate books selected by our special education team leaders for use in classrooms.

Teachers are selecting texts that will bring awareness to students without disabilities and allow students with disabilities to see themselves in literature.

Additionally, materials are provided for public display.

We're also acknowledging October as Bullying Prevention Month.

Our school counselors will take the lead in increasing awareness among students and staff to promote safer, kinder environments.

Schools will celebrate with Spirit Days, but also through the thoughtful delivery of social-emotional learning lessons.

For each of these, our school administrators will receive resources to share with their staff each Friday and our instructional updates.

Thank you.

Next up we have Ms.

And I am inviting athletic director Andy Jones to come recognize our tennis stars.

Welcome, Mr. Jones.

Our lights are stars.

We'll figure it out.

All right.

Good evening.

I'm thrilled to recognize a truly remarkable group of student athletes, the Charlottesville High School boys tennis team, who have once again brought pride and excellence to our school and our community by winning their second consecutive state championship.

With an outstanding 20-2 record on the season, this team has shown what happens when hard work, discipline, and team chemistry come together.

They didn't just win, they dominated.

Throughout the postseason, they played at an exceptionally high level, making a powerful statement with every match.

In fact, they only had to go to doubles in one match, the state championship.

A testament to just how commanding their performance was from start to finish.

This level of consistent excellence doesn't happen without strong leadership, and we want to extend a heartfelt congratulations to head coach John Neal and assistant coach Peter Gunter.

Your guidance, mentorship, and belief in these athletes have been central to this team's success, not just in the win column, but in their growth as competitors and young men.

to our athletes.

You have earned this moment.

You have made CHS history.

Winning one state championship is a tremendous accomplishment.

Winning back-to-back titles puts you in a league of your own.

You have shown what it means to represent Charlottesville High School with pride, determination, and sportsmanship.

I'd like for you to come forward as I announce your name.

George Aiden, Patrick Cassidy, Tomas Chow, Gray Douglas,

Reed Douglas, Joaquin Albemarle, Sean Frank, Grant Gastinger, Kai Leonard, Asher Marini, T. Navi, Gino Park, Arlo Prey, Calvin Shulaw, Louis Vogelsang, Parker Riedel, Sydney Shulman, Coach John Neal,

Coach Peter Gunter and Coach Mark Ellinger.

No.

Yeah.

Sorry, buddy.

Guys, we're so proud of you.

We are inspired by you, and we are grateful to be able to celebrate your success as a team and as champions once again.

Congratulations again to the Charlottesville High School boys tennis team, two-time state champions.

All right.

Well, I have some other exciting news here.

Tonight, we also want to take a moment to express deep gratitude on behalf of Charlottesville High School, our student athletes, and the broader community for our school board in Charlottesville City Schools, your unwavering support in bringing lights to the Curtis Elder track and field complex.

This project would not have been possible without the vision, voice, and financial commitment of the Charlottesville City Schools and this very school board.

Your support has not only illuminated a track, it has brightened the opportunities available to our students and our community.

With the installation of these lights, the Curtis Elder Track and Field Complex can now be used during early mornings and well into the evenings.

It will continue to serve as a hub for health, wellness, and community connection.

Well, at least until 10 o'clock at night when the lights get cut off.

Again, thank you for your leadership in making this happen.

We are also incredibly grateful to the generous community partners who have stepped forward and helped make this vision a reality.

A few of them are here with us tonight.

First, Flow Motors played a significant role, and we especially want to thank Jason Keranen, Bennett Acuff, and Laura Reniger for their enthusiastic and ongoing support.

Jason and Bennett and Flow Motors have long been champions of CHS athletics and their donation toward this lighting project was a substantial one that made a huge difference.

We're also proud to acknowledge and thank the Perry Foundation and Wade Tremblay.

Being selected as a project worthy of their support truly gave us the momentum we needed to get this off the ground.

We also want to acknowledge the Charlottesville Track Club.

Thank you for once again showing how much you care about running and about Charlottesville.

Your generous contribution and your passion played a crucial role.

A heartfelt thanks goes to Mark and Cynthia Lauren Zoney, Diane Rawson, and Tim Wendel for standing with us throughout this process.

And lastly, but certainly not least, I want to thank our Black Knights Athletic Club.

The parent volunteers have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support our student athletes.

This project took coordination, outreach, and dedication, and our BKAC rose to the occasion.

Especially Dan Zimmerman, thank you for the countless hours you poured into this project.

You were a driving force behind the whole thing.

Also James Pierce, Raul Arbeles, Mary Gentry, and the entire BKAC board.

Your work, your commitment, and your love for our school made this possible.

Because of this incredible team effort from our school leadership, city school board, community organizations, local businesses, and parent volunteers, Charlottesville High School now is a space where students can train, compete, and build memories, no matter the hour of the day.

It's a place that reflects the values of inclusion, activity, and community spirit.

So from all of us, thank you.

On Tuesday, October 21st, we're going to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Curtis Elder Track and Field Complex at 615.

And we hope that you all can join us.

We're hoping to make that a big community event.

So we look forward to seeing the lights on, the track filled with runners, and our community can continue to gather at the Curtis Elder Track and Field Complex for years to come.

Jason Caronan, Benedict Cuff, Laura Reniger, Wade Tremblay, if you're here, any of the folks from the Charlottesville Track Club, and then obviously our BKAC members, please come on up.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

So we've gone from stars to lights and now we're back to stars again.

I just want to briefly recognize we really had

Too many teachers to recognize fully in the way they deserve, but I just want to have two slides here of teachers who have recently won awards, fellowships, grants, things of that nature.

You can see before you on this slide the eight teachers who won the Public Education Foundation grants, doing things ranging from environmental education to writing to soccer, just a whole variety of ways that are really enriching our students' lives.

Next slide, please.

I will read these by category.

We have, again, on to fellowships.

We have Fund for Teachers fellowships, National Center on Restorative Justice Scholarship, US State Department, Virtual Educator Program participants, and a brand new fellowship that is helping Virginia celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

So it's really just a huge array of ways that our teachers are making an impact, not only in our schools, but especially through the last one, it's schools throughout the state and also in the third one, really schools around the globe.

So I just really want to thank our teachers who, again, just really go above and beyond.

We appreciate everything they do during the school day, but this really reflects even a larger commitment.

Sorry, I'll wait for Joe.

The last category, I'm going to move quickly because we've had a lot of recognitions.

But the last recognition is just to the people who are sitting on the dais, recognizing the professional learning that you all have done to become better school board members for our community.

Thank you, Ms.

Quick point of order.

Thank you.

Yes.

All right.

Okay, then let's backtrack.

Thank you, Ms.

Morris.

Okay, sounds great.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Any discussion?

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

All right, a motion and a second.

I'll second that.

Wonderful.

A first and a second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Morris.

I got excited for all of the recognition.

So thanks for bringing us back to that.

And now we will move on to 9.0, our comments from members of the community.

If there are any students in the media center who wish to give comments, please feel free to approach the podium.

Thank you gentlemen.

Okay.

Hello.

My name is Gabriel Dixon.

I'm currently a student at CHS and me and my partner are really leaning towards an idea of establishing an entrepreneur club, not just ourselves, but ourselves and others in the community as long with us.

We would like to become a cessation for our own community and help people get out of their comfort zone, improve on their own skills, and just create a community every student is welcome.

We want to have a lasting club for future success and inspire people to use their skill for their own personal benefit in their lives.

The club will bring pride and passion to CHS because it brings pride and passion to myself.

We would like to have a long and lasting successful club.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Subhan Shafiki.

I just want to add on what was said earlier by Gabe.

Even if you don't have any experience, you're still more than welcome to join the Entrepreneur Club.

This is a safe space where we all learn and grow together.

We plan to meet every Wednesday after school for about an hour and 30 minutes.

And our goal is to help everybody be successful in what they want to do.

Thank you, gentlemen.

And we're going to allow a little bit of discretion here.

Ms.

Thank you, Mr. Dooley.

Thank you, Chair.

So gentlemen, I do want to and I know that one of at least one of the board members was actually present and heard you speak in front of city council this last week and I was listening online.

So I was very impressed and tried to text Ms.

Burns to like make sure that

that they caught you or she caught you to follow up.

So yeah, absolutely thrilled to see and hear you here.

So your experience.

Okay, so what prompted this is back in my freshman year, when I first started CHS, I was noticing there was a lot of other students currently, they

bringing their product to school and sell it in school.

There's just a whole lot of really, really small businesses and they try to thrive at school.

So, and did I hear you correctly?

Maybe I was wrong.

Awesome.

Thank you guys so much.

We're excited to see your club take off.

So thank you for presenting.

And now, unless there are other students who wish to give public comment,

All right, so we'll move on to adult members of the community.

Anybody in the media center who wishes to speak, please come forward.

I think I'll start with my list.

I got Derek Hirtline is my first in-person signup.

Good evening board members and Superintendent Dr. Gurley, Derek Hartline, 1517 Antoinette, lifelong CZ resident.

I'm here this evening to discuss a couple of safety issues I feel are important and need attention.

Next month will be the one year anniversary of the vehicle fires at Jackson Viya.

With the leaves starting to fall with the season, I'm asking that the city schools and either facilities or park and rec can start picking up the lot leaves earlier this year.

Monday, November 3rd is a PD for staff, which will leave all lots empty at our school so leaves can be picked up that day before elections.

This will ensure that poll workers, voters and community members are safe as no one wants a repeat of what happened last year.

If these can be picked up on that day and possibly again on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break, I feel this will prevent the leaf buildup, which led to last year's fire.

My other safety concern I have has to do with the arrival and dismissal of Jackson Viya.

With speed zone cameras at three schools currently, when will Jackson Viya be seeing cameras installed as it's in proximity of one of the most dangerous intersections in Charlottesville when drivers reach Fifth Street when heading east on Harris?

Today marks the 39th day of school.

Each morning, I'm on duty opening the loop in front of Jackson 5 for bus arrival from 730 to 740.

So far this year, I have seen zero police setting up radar to catch violators of the posted 15 mile an hour zone at arrival.

In that 10 minutes each day, what I have seen is sometimes alarming and worth noting.

So far this year on two separate mornings, there have been car accidents at the intersection of Harrison 5th Street requiring emergency responses.

On one particular morning, I witnessed three different drivers in a 10-minute period smoking drugs while driving down the street.

We're not talking passenger.

We're talking about driver's impairment in a school zone and also in a place where it's drug-free.

On one day, an Albemarle County school bus was speeding because it was late picking up two Woodbrook Elementary students in front of Jackson Fire for some reason.

When I inquired with the parent of the two children, she said that they had missed their stop in two

have the bus meet them at the corner of Harris and Welk, even though it's not in the county.

That bus had to be doing at least 4550 to pick them up.

I realize it was late, but still unexcusable.

On yet another day, a Charlottesville Fire Department official was heading west on Harris toward the Fontaine Firehouse speeding, but wasn't on call as no lights or horn were being used.

If a bus driver and a first responder won't follow the posted 15 mile an hour school zone flashing sign, how can we expect others to comply?

It seems that if there isn't

a camera to catch speeders, then this chronic speeding problem will continue.

I'm interested in knowing the timeline for when more cameras will be installed.

Last this evening, I want to thank HR for posting positions for substitute elementary teachers and substitute instructional assistants on 10-1.

This is a real need this year starting out for coverage as a position

Thank you, Mr. Hartline.

Thanks.

Can you wrap up in the next few seconds?

Thank you.

Yep.

Just want to say it's not sustainable, but I know that the middle and high school are getting paid a little bit more, so I hope that we can make it so that the elementary also gets what they need as well.

Thank you.

All right, anyone else in the media center who wishes to speak, please approach the podium.

Good evening.

My name is Gabe Schneider and I am a

Can you hear me?

The parent of a fourth grader at Sunshine Elementary.

Over the last year, I've had the opportunity to work with parents from all of the other PTOs in the city to help start the Charlottesville Citywide PTO Fund, which has officially launched in the last few days.

While not all of the other parents that could be here tonight that I've worked with, I would like to call out Jill McKinley from Tall Oaks Elementary, who is here with me as well.

While not news to likely anyone in this room, the reality in Charlottesville is that some schools' PTOs are able to raise large amounts of money and others have significant trouble raising funds.

To address this, we have created the Citywide PTO Fund.

This group has been meeting and planning for roughly the last year or so to get this fund up and running, and we are excited to finally be able to provide support for all of our wonderful students and staff across the city.

The citywide PTO fund aims to increase funding across the board at all Charlottesville schools while also attempting to improve equitable funding across those schools.

We aim to do that by targeting corporate and philanthropic groups and also using a formula for fund distribution that takes into account the percentage of economically disadvantaged students compared to the average across all schools.

We have created the fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation to receive the funds.

It makes them tax deductible.

And we've also begun outreach to local and national companies and foundations so that we can help all city students and staff.

Our goal for our first year is $100,000, a figure that would greatly improve the resources of many PTOs who are currently not able to raise needed funds.

and on the sort of non-tangible side of things, we're also more effectively building our community and providing a forum for PTOs and school communities to join together and leverage all of the talent and resources that our families and communities have.

We do appreciate the support of the school board and the administration as we set out on this journey, particularly Chris Meyer, who has given us some background information on the previous fund, and we look forward to working and allowing all city schools to have the resources and support from their communities

that they need.

If you would like to learn more, we have a website that can be found at seavillecitywideptofund.org.

You can also email us at charlottesvilleptofundatgmail.com.

And I think I also provided you a couple of flyers and documents.

One of them is for our first fundraiser kickoff, which is happening on Thursday, October 23rd at Random Row Brewing from 4 to 10 p.m.

A portion of all of the beer and food sales will go to the fund.

and there will be live music with some of our parents who are more talented in that area.

And the other document you have sort of gives a little bit more information about the fun.

Thank you, Gabe, and to all the parents and community members that have been part of making this come together.

Any other members of the public wishing to give comments?

Hi, everyone.

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

Good to see you guys tonight.

My name is Audrey Yvette Avales, 201 West Main Street.

Sorry, guys.

These microphones are always finicky.

So I just wanted to make a quick announcement today that we, Charlottesville United for Public Education, are doing a collaborative event next Tuesday with Seville Dems.

and it is our school board candidate forum.

So a quick sorry for having this announcement delayed.

We had a lot of trouble securing the location and then figuring out the logistics of the event itself.

But it will be next Tuesday at the Jefferson School starting at six o'clock.

We will have all four candidates there and we're looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it.

And that's it.

Other members of the public wishing to give comment?

Ms.

Good evening.

Zionna Bryant, Charlottesville resident.

So I have a couple of points regarding the school resource officers.

So I've been to two of the community engagement sessions, info hours, and

These are a couple of points that I've made note of.

So it appears that there's been a misrepresentation of the survey data from the community during the discussion of your rationale behind bringing officers back into schools.

Ms.

Chuck has referenced repeatedly the 2024 survey that indicated most parents felt positive about SROs.

This is the exact survey that, like I said, she continues to cite.

However, I am not sure that it has been publicly stated by Ms.

Chuck or anyone that the actual question listed on the survey for respondents' interest is about learning more

about the Cambridge model, which is not with the CCS draft MOU mirrors at all.

And so it's misleading.

And to continue to cite that it's showing community support.

And it's just like I said a misrepresentation of the data and what the respondents were actually asked to respond to.

In the data that you all have presented, the language from that survey is further exploring youth officers or youth resource officers, and that is not what this MOU is doing.

So it's important to make these points publicly available to the community so that they understand how you shifted from that language to now writing an MOU.

It's also important to note that only 29% of Black respondents and 37% of Latinx respondents were A5.

You had numbers of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Yes.

Of that 29% and 37%, there are only a few fives, essentially.

The only way that you're able to get your majority of these demographics being interested is by combining together the threes, the fours, and the fives.

This is all important because, again, it makes it seem as if the data shows

that these two demographics in particular are really supportive of this SRO model or this MOU process.

And that was not what the data is showing.

And so I'd like for those who are in charge of putting out that survey to make those clarifying statements, that would be great.

I also think that it's important to note that at the two

Office hours or SRO info hours that I've been to only a few school board candidates have been there and I want to note that it's only been the women so Mr. Morse and Mr. Meyer have not been present and I think that sends a really loud statement to the community that

The board is not awfully wanting to participate in the process or willing to hear from all sections of the community.

And if you're only going to the meetings that are with the people that go to your kids' school or your friends, then you're not really listening to the entire community.

Other members of the community wishing to give comments?

All right, seeing none, if we'll go to zoom, if anybody wishes to give comment, raise your hand and we'll provide you to speaker.

A motion to approve the consent agenda.

All right, we've got a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All right, all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

So we've got a motion and second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, and point of privilege.

Ms.

Dooley and members of the board, I want to thank you all for accepting my recommendation.

This evening, I did make a recommendation on the personnel report to appoint Dr. Anna Eisley as our chief academic officer.

She has served us well in the interim, and I do believe that it's time for us to drop that and let her do the job fully.

Yes, welcome, Ms.

Isley.

Welcome to the same place you've been, but we're happy to have you.

We will move right along to item 12.0, since we did not pull any items from our consent agenda.

So, Ms.

Good evening.

Last month the budget development calendar for the fiscal year 26-27 was presented to the school board.

Those dates that are with the city council have been finalized so please note those on the calendar.

If I may, I just wanted to draw attention that in the agenda and in the online too that you did include the city's budget development calendar as well, which I appreciate.

And I think it's important that those board members who can and the public try to attend or watch those meetings as well.

So thank you.

All right.

So we do need to take action on this calendar.

So may I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

All right, Ms.

Burns, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Morris.

Is there any discussion, further discussion?

All right, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, thank you.

Good evening, School Board Chair Dooley, Superintendent Gurley, and School Board.

Tonight, I'll be presenting on our alternative school education programs, our Lugo McGinnis and our Knight School.

Advance, please.

Our strategic plan is aligned with target one, that we will maintain a graduation rate that is at or above the state average across all members, groups, and graduation rate.

Target two establishes a baseline and increases family and student engagement.

Strategy one enhances academic advertising tools and practices with a focus on equity and encouragement.

Of course, plans that include rigor, balance and wellness within the school counseling department.

And strategy to alternative programs will continue to develop outside partnerships in collaboration with the Division of Equity and Inclusion Advance, please.

We're super excited to announce it was no secret last year when we talked about the number of graduates that we wanted to complete.

And we did successfully meet that target of 18 graduates.

And those were students that were in that particular cohort.

If you look here, those are who those students are.

Just a little information.

Some of those students are currently working at FedEx.

We have one particular student that's attending Virginia Union University.

One particular student that is in collaboration with

Pipelines and Pathways working through the HVAC and then one of our students that's not posted their works with a postal service.

So we are closely monitoring those young people and just letting them know that the door is always open for them to come back to our community day.

Please advance.

So our instructional model is outlined.

We continue to use Edgenuity as one of our platforms.

And again, as mentioned before, that's definitely outlined through Mr. Grady and the math concepts that he instructs.

We had an opportunity to share with one of our board members just exactly how Mr. Grady is able to flip his mind from algebra one to geometry and so on.

As we look at the applied learning opportunities, that's really just us being able to take our students off campus.

You'll hear more in the presentation about the Real Money Real World opportunity that was presented, as well as the Revive and Thrive, but I definitely would like to just take a moment and highlight how we were instrumental with attending the State Fair and our students participated in the Career Expo and found that to be very rewarding.

As we look at the pathways of courses, we continue to look at ways that we can continue to robust our engagement with the CATEC program, and I'll share more with that.

Dr. Osby and I are collaborating to work on ways that we can continue to

Find avenues for our electives for our students as well.

And so finally, the core instruction, we follow the same model as our high school counterparts.

And so when students come to us, we align those courses exactly with the courses that they have here at the high school.

Advance please.

So, Lugo McGinnis, just very quickly, you can see our student enrollment is 29, and then you see the breakdown of that.

We currently have 12 graduates that we are looking to complete this year.

We know that number may increase as the year goes on, but just wanna highlight some of the instructional points that are occurring.

Ms.

Phelps is leading our DDT SEL sessions every week that occurs in our core classes with each particular instructor.

Additionally, Dr. D,

Durangri is working with our YPAR.

As you know, each year they participate in a particular research project and this year is no different as it relates to that.

And then I would just like to highlight that we support our students on a semester basis so that they are able to deliver credits that are needed as well as credit recovery opportunities noted there.

And with our night school, you can see as well, we currently have 13 students that are in our night school program.

We have implemented with the support of Miss Bianca Johnson and Miss Desjourne our community circles, we also do that at Lugo day school, but we're really honing in on the supports and needs of our students through community circles.

within our night school program.

I'm super excited to talk about the partnership that we have with the Virginia Cooperative Extension as well as the 4-H with Ms.

Sara Brown and Ms.

Sara Morton.

They've been very instrumental, as you can see with one of the pictures, with a garden that we continue to establish within our particular campus as it relates to student information.

I do want to highlight, again, our Planned Parenthood.

That's a partnership that came along to work with our students on various aspects of maturity, adolescence, and hygiene and measures of that nature there.

So we've outlined three program goals, attendance, student enrollment with CATEC, and the development and our workforce experiences.

What we are finding is that we have a great campus percentage of attendance where our campus attendance looks well, but our student attendance is where we continue to need support, and so myself and Ms.

Phelps and others are

finding particular avenues of ways to encourage our students to attend school.

And you'll hear more about that in the next slide.

We want to increase our student enrollment to CATEC by 12%.

That's just really eight students.

And so Dr. Helts and her school counseling team works adamantly with Ms.

Felts when it's time for programming to make sure that we have particular students that are able to sign up and enroll in that.

And lastly, we want to enhance our workforce opportunities.

That's really driven with our night school program, noticing that we have particular students that are working during the day.

And so what we mean, and Ms.

Brown and others, we are now finding ways where we are going to meet with the employers during the day of those students at night school so that we can talk about those interpersonal skills, those soft skills that have been established and figure out additional measures in which supports can be provided with those particular students.

and that's just really at the ground level that we're beginning to build that out.

Next slide, please.

So our attendance and interventions, as noted before, our attendance looks good as it relates to our daily attendance with students coming to school, but we continue to look at what needs to be done for those individualized students.

We have began to develop individual attendance plans with goals and centers for those particular students.

We've also highlighted where those students that have five or more days that are chronically absent that we're working on those measures there.

So

Students in the next couple of days are being celebrated for those young people that have attended for the entire month as well as so far with the beginning with school.

And then we also have those meetings with those particular students that have five or more absences that we can provide additional supports and find ways to knock on doors to get those young people at school as well.

Next slide, please.

So what are we looking forward to?

Our night school program and LMA, finding innovative ways that we can bring our night school students in on Fridays and do some collaborative work with our groups that we have on our Friday afternoon so that we can have more of a holistic support in interventions and engagement with those particular young people, as well as finding ways that they can come on Fridays to possibly make up assignments and measures of instructional supports there.

Our next slide will be able to outline recent experiences.

On September 27th, with the support of Dr. Johnson making this connection, our students had the opportunity to attend the Jefferson School, where they participated in the Revive and Thrive event.

We had a financial literacy course, we did some boxing with wartime fitness, and we also had some mental health circle of wellness engagement as well.

On September 24th, in collaboration with the Virginia Cooperative Extension, Ms.

Sara Brown and Ms.

Sara Morton, our seniors at LMA, as well as collaboration with our Charlottesville Middle School, have the opportunity to attend a simulation of real-life experiences with our real money, real world.

that really gave a lot of traction because they came back the next day thinking they were heading back over there to learn more about that.

So that's something we need to build upon with that.

One of the activities that we are looking forward to in collaboration with the Virginia State School of Agriculture for our night school students is trying to develop a trip to have them go down to Virginia State to work with the School of Agriculture because we have begun that work with our night school program as well.

Next slide, please.

Our community partnerships are led by Mr. Williams, and so those particular engagements are between home and school, outside of knocking on doors and trying to find ways to bring our children and families into the building.

We're also trying to find innovative ways to continue that partnership between home and school to continue the trust that our parents have with our particular campus.

It's no secret that the word is out that we are doing a phenomenal work.

And so we want to make sure that we continue that momentum for those new parents that may be interested in allowing their students to come to LMA.

So the partnerships within the community are organized for meaningful relationships, real world experiences.

And one particular example of that is the Leather and Honey Partnership that we have with Mr. James Dow and Mr. Sean Goodwin.

Last year they had the opportunity of creating particular t-shirts and so we had a contest as related to rebranding the leather and honey opportunity and so that was a big hit for us last year.

Next slide please.

Here you will see the community engagement partnerships that we have established at the academy.

As you see, we have Leather and Honey Movement Church with Miss Taylor Boris.

That's a particular opportunity where each year we have a school beautification.

And you can see here where a team of us came together on a Saturday and we replanted part of our courtyard.

You see the Department of Human Services where we had a wellness day, wartime fitness, and I just would like to highlight where you see two of our students that participated last year in the civil rights southern pilgrimage tour that they had a great time hanging out with Mr. Williams and others there.

Next slide, please.

So what's next?

We're having a cook it up math night with Mr. Williams and Mr. Grady where breakfast will be for dinner.

We will also have our partnership with DARS come to talk to our students with disabilities and our families about particular opportunities of access for our seniors.

And so we're looking to have that October 22nd from four thirty to five forty five.

And that is a collaboration between our night school and our LMA

Program.

Next slide.

And before I take any questions, I would just like to introduce and bring up Ms.

Ziona Minor.

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

My name is Ayanna Minor.

I currently attend night school at Lugo McGinnis Academy.

When I first arrived at night school, I wasn't sure what to expect.

From the moment I walked through the door, everyone welcomed me with open arms, which I graciously appreciated.

The teachers and staff plan and raise an amazing role in my growth and development.

The smaller class sizes and personalized support helps me reconnect with learning.

In the past, I have had issues with my attendance, but the teachers at night school are encouraging, pushing me to do my personal best.

Staff members go the extra mile to ensure that students who may not have transportation can attend night school.

And that plays an important role in students being successful.

In addition to academics, we have an opportunity to participate in enrichment activities such as gardening, music, learning how to manage our money, and sewing.

We're able to do this with the support of our community partners.

My goal this year is to attend school daily.

However, it can be challenging sometimes because I work full time during the day, but I am determined to attend night school and complete my courses.

My ultimate goal is to graduate from high school and to become an NICU nurse, working with premature babies.

Another goal is to transition back into Charlottesville High School and enroll in the CNA program at CATEC.

This will prepare me from reaching my goal of becoming a nurse.

At this time, I would like to thank you, Dr. Trotter, and the night school staff for giving us an opportunity to move forward and pursue our dreams of becoming productive citizens in our community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Trotter.

Start on your end, Mr. Meyer.

Well, Dr. Trotter, I think I'll simply say this, and I thought about this earlier today when I was kind of reviewing the slides again before we came into the meeting.

My time on the board is ending here.

I don't know how many more times I'll see you, but it's honestly been a pleasure to see the work that you've done.

You

From the outside looking in, it seems like you're always approaching this and you're honestly seeing the students, which I think is reflected in the pictures that I see here, what we just heard from Ms.

Minor.

From what I'm hearing in terms of how many students that want to attend Lugo and want to attend Knight School, I just want to deeply show my gratitude towards you.

Just thank you.

Thank you for your work here in Charlottesville City Schools.

I guess the only real question that I have is, well, I guess two questions.

The first question is, how do we transfer some of your model, what you're doing now, back to Charlottesville High School or even the middle school?

We, I, us, that's right, need to tell our story a lot better at Lugo.

I've said it since I've been here going into year three, and I am holding myself accountable.

We need to put out video footage.

Student Expressions on the things that are going on so that those can be outshined.

So those can shine within CHS as well as the middle school to say that this is a beacon where supports can be provided.

We're not only for students that have disciplinary measures, but we may be for those young parents as well, male or female.

And so that's where the story needs to begin.

I have to do a better job of that.

What would you need from us because I think we've ran across this at least for one year and if not two years now of you know being at near capacity or full capacity.

capacity.

Yeah, and we're working, but yes, capacity just to be honest.

And I know that comes with time.

I know things are in motion for that.

And so just finding those spaces for our students to be successful.

I recently just got back last night from New Orleans with the alternative school conference.

Thank you very much.

If I can just make one comment, and it's probably out of my capacity as a board member, but I'm gonna say it because I got, I'm short on time.

Thank you, Mr. Morris.

Ms.

Sure, thank you.

It is no secret that I am a fan of LMA because my own child went there.

Same one I spoke about last week or last month is the same one I'm speaking about currently who thrived there.

But just when I think of all the hope that you and your team provide to our students in that space now and this how you've been able to grow the program.

And I think

It's extraordinary and I don't use that word lightly and I thank you and your team.

I know it takes a team to do the work and that speaks to your leadership as well and so really want to echo what Mr. Morse is saying and so I

I do wonder and I hope that there are folks out there listening that say they want to get involved.

They want to be a part of what you are doing and they want their businesses and their organizations to provide jobs and hands-on training and mentorship and all the things that we need to keep your program successful and students having the opportunity

Absolutely.

I say it all the time.

Don't call, just show up.

Careful now, you're going to have lying at your door.

But yes, don't call, just show up.

We do have some things in play.

Ms.

Great.

I really don't have any questions.

You know, I'm a fan.

One of the things I would say, I love that you all communicate.

And I think that's important because one of the things that I think that LMA does well is you bring in parents and you are connecting not only with the student,

you're connecting with the parents and so you're also asking the parents what it is that they need so that their student can be successful and I think that's a missing component and I would like to see that incorporated into all of our schools is to making sure that we are connecting with the parents.

because the parent is the foundation of most of our children's home.

And so if the parents are well and we're taking care and helping the parents grow, then you're going to see that reflect in the children.

So that's one component that I appreciate, but also would like to highlight that I didn't see in your slide when I was also reviewing it is something that

I attended was the, I think it was the Virginia Film Festival where you had some children that did a small film that was highlighted.

And so I also want to talk a little bit about that because I was able to attend that film festival and to see the work that and the partial partnership that you had.

I think it was Lighthouse.

Yes, ma'am.

Lighthouse Studios and all of the work that some of the that went into that project.

And so I think while

Dr. Gurley, have you all keeping it to nine or 10 slides.

It's a lot of great things that are happening that we are not able to see.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I really appreciated your presentation.

And a lot of my questions have been answered.

But do you guys have a waitlist?

Not yet.

We don't have a waitlist.

Because I remember last year, you said you had a waitlist where people were wanting to come to night school because of their living situation.

No, we're working with our school counselors here at CHS and so there's probably about three young people that we are currently looking at for either our day or night.

We're really just looking at those three.

So the answer is no because I will always circle back with Ms.

Okay, and then as for Fridays, so can I get a more clarification on that?

So for night school, there is no course on Fridays.

That time is used for either if they're working, we still have the collaboration with K-UP for those students that need jobs.

What we want to do is we want to also have the opportunity for those night school students

So I just I don't know if you could feel it but I just wanted to like hug you as you were presenting because as Mr. Morse said I mean it's just been such a joy to see the program with you evolve and change and I have to say that every time you do present I love

I should just say all the presentations, but I just get so excited to see what the programs, how they're expanding and what they're offering our students as far as just life experiences.

I mean, it's really, really powerful.

So thank you.

Also from the bottom of my heart, I do have a couple of questions.

You mentioned trying to increase the enrollment in the CATEC and some of those programs.

Encouraging them to go.

Encouraging them.

They're comfortable at Lugo and encouraging them to go, but also informing our night school students of the opportunity.

So it's twofold.

Yeah.

And our numbers have always, since I've been there, been low just because of that level of apprehension of

What's going on over there?

And so it's also our young people that are there telling the story of what's happening at CATEC also.

This is why you need to go over there.

Okay, well, if there's anything we can do to help with that, please now.

Also, I was curious just about in one of your slides, it said all new enrollments participate in a reading assessment.

So I was just curious once once you get those results, what and how are you differentiating supports, targeted supports to the different levels?

And is there anything else

Yes, ma'am.

So that's headed up by Dr. Durangi.

When our students are enrolled, they will take a particular reading assessment to find out where their reading skill lies.

And if it is a level of deficit or growth, then that's how we know how to support with scheduling them either through her particular course where she works on those particular skills, comprehension,

I'm reading stamina measures like that or supporting them through Miss Rose was our English teacher with a higher level of need.

All right, thank you.

I'm going to pile on the thanks.

I think there historically has been the perception that LMA is where kids go for a punitive reason.

And you have changed the narrative on that, that we have students who are self selecting and want to go to LMA.

And I think everyone in this room recognizes that.

And to the extent that we can continue to push that out, as you said, I think is only going to be

beneficial to the program and to our schools.

This kind of, you know, prescriptive, just providing alternatives to students, I think is what like we're all about.

And we know that there are still some small pockets of students that are not, you know, maybe they're not the right fit for LMA.

They're still at CHS.

And so I think we're getting some more information here in a couple of weeks at a work session.

to just continue to build upon this work to try to keep meeting students where they are and giving them what they need.

Thank you.

And I would, just in case folks are watching, thank you to my LMA team as well, because this is definitely a team, as well as our night school as well.

Yes, please be sure to, yes, echo all of our thanks to your staff when you see them tomorrow.

And is Ms.

Miner still here?

Yeah, so again, thank you for your comments and being here tonight.

We do appreciate it.

Where am I at?

Ms.

Swift's getting up, so I think it's her.

Sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't get my slides in 6 to 10, so sorry.

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

Tonight we present the standards of learning assessment results from the 24-25 school year.

The presentation will provide an overview of these results.

Starting with the overall reading and math annual pass rates, and then we'll review the performance data for grades three through eight, high school reading and algebra one.

And then I'll also provide a few updates regarding the strategic plan data dashboard.

and just want to make note that we initially plan to review the state's new accountability framework, but due to the VDOE delays, we will postpone that until that data and materials are finalized.

All right, so priority one of our strategic plan is focused on student achievement with clear targets to guide our work.

In reading, we aim to raise achievement to at least 75% and in math to at least 70% across all student groups, while annually reducing the failure rate for black and brown students and students with disabilities, keeping our focus on closing the achievement gap.

So this past spring, students took SOL tests based on the new math and English standards, which are more rigorous and set higher expectations to prepare them for the next grade level.

These the assessments now include more complex questions that require students to think critically and apply what they know across different standards.

However, with new standards comes new cut scores.

And so the state recently approved new SOL passing scores, which are much higher than the current cut scores.

And so this change will be implemented this spring and will impact a large number of students across the state and across the city schools.

But to show a comparison of the previous standards to the new standards, here is a fourth grade reading example that shows higher expectations of the new standards.

So instead of memorization and recall, students must justify their reasoning and demonstrate a deeper understanding.

In this fifth grade math example, students are asked to connect and apply multiple skills across standards instead of demonstrating one skill at a time.

And so they have to get both question one and two correctly for them to get that entire set of questions correct.

All right, so now we're gonna look at the overall performance in reading and math, and this includes assessments from grades three through high school.

The division's overall reading pass rate was 67%, a four-point increase since 2022 and up two points from the previous year.

In math, we achieved a 67% pass rate as well, a 12-point increase since 2022 and up four points from the previous year.

And so now we're gonna take a look at grades three through eight.

So overall in reading in grades three through eight, we continued to see improvement with a six point increase since 2022 and up two points from the previous year.

In grade three, we outperformed the state by three points.

And in grade six, we saw an eight point gain at 66%, which was up from 58% over the last two years.

So despite the rigor of the new English standards, most of our student groups demonstrated improvement.

We saw meaningful gains of our Black students, English learners, and students with disabilities.

Our Black student group increased by eight percentage points since 2022.

And grade four was up seven points, and grade six was up three points, or excuse me, 13 points.

English learners showed steady gains across grades five through eight.

For students with disabilities, while there was a slight decrease in the overall pass rate, grade 3 improved by 6 points and grade 6 increased 10 points from the previous year.

So we know that achievement gaps remain, and so literacy remains a key focus as we begin year two of the VLA implementation and now extending through grade eight.

Last year, teachers in grades four through eight completed required training in evidence-based literacy instruction to ensure they are equipped to provide high quality instruction aligned with the science-based reading research.

And this fall, teachers in grades five through eight administered the VALS screener for the first time.

And this will be used to identify relative strengths and weaknesses in specific literacy skill areas.

And the teachers are now they're setting goals in the required student reading plans, we're monitoring progress and using the student level data to inform instruction and our intervention.

Okay, now on to math.

So grades three through math continues to show improvement, increasing 11 points since 2022 and up three points from the previous year.

And some of those grade level gains include an increase of seven points in grade three with increase from 60 to 67%, six points in grade five, 54% to 60%, and then eight points in grade six, 55% to 63%.

Most of our student groups continue to make progress, even with the increased rigor of the new math standards.

And over the past four years, our black student group has improved by 13 points.

Hispanic students have increased by 12 points and the multiple races group by nine points.

English learners and students with disabilities are also showing notable gains.

And some of those include in grade five our English learners increased by 11 points and in grade six students with disabilities rose by 20 points.

As we work to close the achievement gap, we are strengthening tier one instruction in math, providing targeted interventions, and expanding learning opportunities.

We are also in the process of reviewing high quality standard aligned materials for the upcoming textbook adoption.

High quality instructional materials are evidence based, they're accessible to all students, and they will help us increase the rigor of our instruction.

High school reading has improved compared to last year, increasing by 2 percentage points.

We also saw progress across our student groups.

Our black students increased from 48% to 54% up by six points.

Students with disabilities improved by nine points, and English learners gained eight points.

And building on this progress, the English department is engaging in ongoing professional learning that is grounded in the science of reading.

And they are collaborating with special education and English learners teachers to strengthen comprehension and vocabulary instruction, ensuring that all students receive consistent high quality literacy instruction.

So next, the Algebra I pass rates continue to show strong improvement over the past two years.

At CHS, the pass rate grew by 10 percentage points, with gains among our student groups.

Black students increased by 14 points from 66 to 80%.

Students with disabilities improved by 33 points, going from 44% to 77%.

And then our English learners achieved an 81% pass rate.

All of these pass rates higher than the state averages.

Division-wide, the Algebra I pass rate increased by 7 percentage points and surpassed the state average.

This rate includes both middle and high school students who took the Algebra I end of course test.

And so these results reflect the impact of solid tier one instruction, collaborative team planning, and the continued implementation of standards based grading practices that supports all learners.

And as I shared earlier, we will as soon as this information is released, we will bring that to you.

Can I interrupt?

Yeah, just maybe this is a good stopping point for questions on the first set of slides that were shared.

Yes, our whole place to intervene.

Thank you, Mrs. Smith.

I'd like to see the trends and I appreciate you sharing the multiple years of data here and I'm happy to see the trends going in the right direction.

for I think everything.

So within, you know, there was some key takeaways here, which were all great and were all very positive.

There were a couple, like you said, not all student groups, but we did have a couple student groups.

I mentioned students with disabilities.

There was a slight decrease in math.

As well as in reading and.

Yeah, what?

Yes, I mean, chronic absenteeism is one data point that, you know, what we were going to share in regards to the framework scores and total points.

The thing to keep in mind when that information does come out for the elementary framework scores that also includes

K2.

So it's all students at the elementary level.

And so when I pulled some numbers, because the most you can get in that category is 10 points.

And so the majority of the schools that were considered off track, you would have to have almost perfect attendance to bump up a few points.

But

The students in grades three and four, if they had if they were not chronically absent and also passed, then that could shift points within that area.

But yes, I mean, there is some of a correlation, but I think on a on a scale of, you know,

And I mean, yeah, unfortunately, we can't really discuss it.

Yeah, I know.

I know.

I didn't mean to lead you down that path.

I'm sorry.

But related to the absenteeism, we don't break out our absenteeism by in these categories also, I don't think.

Only by school.

And schools do look at that information.

Like we look at it as a division attendance team.

And then our school led attendance teams.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Swift.

Just in the reading pass rate, I think it's slide 16, we see in 2022 at 81 and 71, 73.

Why are we still, what happened there?

Good question.

So that was the last year where the WorkKeys reading assessment was considered, was in that pass rate.

And so after that, they have now taken that out.

So that's when the WorkKeys was included.

And the test is different.

Yeah.

And then stood out to me the algebra one pass rate, specifically with our black students and I just remember hearing and seeing Mr. Patterson's work with those students specifically in algebra one and wanted to

All right, thank you.

So I guess my question was looking over to some of the slides and which number is I think six where the rigor will change for new testing and how we kind of preparing our students for that.

With so many of our students that are struggling with

Math and Reading.

How are we preparing them for the test?

Right, right.

Yes.

So we are in year two of implementing those new standards.

So currently right now we are in math looking at adopting a new curriculum that's aligned to the new standards.

And so hopefully that will help teachers prepare students and increase the rigor of their instruction.

also in English Language Arts, now with the Virginia Literacy Act.

So all of our teachers, K-8, have gone through the required training and any new teachers that come on board will go through that training to make sure that their instruction is aligned with the science of reading.

So hopefully we will start to see that training and that professional development pay off this year and beyond.

And now with the new Vowel Screener in grades four through eight,

And I know we have like the tiered services, but outside of those tier services, what other supports will like the children that are really struggling with some of those skills?

So within our master schedule at each grade level, including the high school, they have an impact period.

We have wind time, what I need.

And so that's truly based on what the students need.

And so every quarter schools are looking at their data to then see, okay, what students, you know,

kind of based on the skills and the concepts that are being taught.

Like, do we need to take them out of this wind block and maybe place them here?

And so they're flexible groupings to make sure that students are truly getting and supporting those students that are struggling.

I don't have any questions, but I do want to highlight that my son, he did score a perfect 100% on the IDM essay score.

I got an email, a text message from his teacher.

And I just want to show that, you know, our schools are, we are putting out the work and our students are achieving the things that we are working towards.

So highlight Zaire for that.

Thank you.

Love the shout out.

So I attended just a quick literacy forum yesterday, and I know this isn't our literacy presentation, but I just want to make note for those who might, and we can carry it forward to when she comes back to report to us again.

And I'm just so thrilled that we've done the training, that science of reading is here.

But one thing that I heard several of the presenters talk about was not just training the teachers, but then the follow up with them and making sure that the science of reading and the training that they've gone through to fidelity

that they're able and that they are supported because it's that follow-up to make sure.

Right.

And I know I think Anna mentioned some of this at the professional learning update.

But I know like even at the high school, they're working with Dr. Wexler and with the ongoing professional development and also like at Walker and

All right, thank you.

So we'll get back on track.

Oh, yes, the strategic plan.

So a couple of updates, so we

So the 24-25 data has it has been updated on the data dashboard.

However, there have been some changes to some of the measures due to the new state reporting.

So for VALS, which formerly PALS.

So we and this is just a screenshot of what that looks like now that we added a new graph and just kind of a

A little note there to say we can't, I couldn't add it to that same graph because you can't compare those two measures because they're measuring different skills and using different, completely different benchmarks.

And so that's why you will now see a new graph, but we will leave that there or even as we build onto this, we'll link it to another page as well.

And then we were going to discuss the graduation, the new graduation calculation rates and the 3E readiness, which is the employment enrollment and enlistment that the 3E has now replaced the college career and civic readiness index.

That was the old accreditation model.

And so again, once all that information has been released from the state, we will, we will update this data dashboard and then bring that

And so just on the next couple of slides, so each year, the strategic plan, we review our targets, the metrics and strategies to ensure accountability, holding ourselves accountable.

And so in these slides, we highlight our progress on the strategies aligned with each of these priorities.

And so we've just kind of highlighted where we are making progress.

So in some cases, in some of the strategies where we've moved from the planning year to the implementation year, we're making progress.

Or if you see we were in planning year, we were on track, but now we're implementing.

And so very different from planning to implementation, but we still are making progress for those strategies.

So for priority one, that's strategy one and three.

For priority two, we were, we are on track for all of those culture of safety, wellness and belonging.

for priority three.

So supporting our staff.

So for three, we are making progress.

We've gone from planning to implementation and in a planning year that was a needs attention.

But we we've looked into that strategy.

And so now we are making progress as we start to implement.

In strategies 7, 13, and 16, we have moved from planning again to implementation and are continuing to make progress in those three strategies.

And then as we move to priority four, ensure effective and efficient operations for strategy three and five on track to making progress as we've moved from, again, planning to implementation.

Strategy 9, Making Progress.

And then Strategy 13 still needs attention.

And so I know operations, they're looking into that, working on that.

That's around, I think, the recycling and composting program.

So we are looking into that.

Hope to be making progress this year.

So I know I went through that quickly, but are there any questions around the strategy progress?

I have a quick question and please forgive me if I missed it.

In terms of on track or making progress, how was that, I guess, compared or reflected to the targets that we have?

Yes.

So we looking at the metrics and the different measurements that are aligned to the targets and the strategies that and then also you have to take into account like the planning year versus the implementation.

So if we're implementing and we're on track, then we feel pretty good that we're we're approaching that overall target.

But if we're in if we are making progress, we feel like we've got headway, but we're not quite

approaching that benchmark or that target.

It needs attention.

Other questions on the dashboard?

All right, thank you, Ms.

Swift.

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

I'm excited to be here tonight to share two important updates related to family engagement and strategic initiatives.

Last budget year, you approved a new position for our division, the Family and Community Engagement Outreach Specialist.

This role was created to strengthen our division's capacity to build strong partnerships with families and community organizations.

This position also focuses on providing learning around family and school engagement, organizing workshops that promote student achievement, and facilitating and attending events as a CCS engagement ambassador.

In September, we welcomed Abigail Ferguson to our team as the first to hold this position.

Abigail brings energy, professionalism, and a deep commitment to relationship building.

She has already made an incredible impact and we're thrilled to have her as part of our department.

Hi, good evening Madam Chair, school board members and Dr. Gurley.

My name is Abigail Ferguson and I'm excited to join Charlottesville City Schools as the new Family Engagement and Outreach Specialist.

Before this role, I spent over three years with the International Rescue Committee supporting families and students from diverse backgrounds.

In my short time at CCS, I've already had the pleasure of meeting many principals and working with some of our wonderful students and families.

I'm committed to keeping families engaged and informed and I look forward to all that we will accomplish as we work together to support student academic success.

We are truly excited to have Abigail on our team.

Our second update focuses on the division's official transition to the community schools model.

A community school serves as a hub for its neighborhood, a place where not only education happens, but where students and families can access wraparound supports, such as health services and family engagement programs.

The goal of this model is to remove non-academic barriers to learning so that every child has the opportunity to thrive.

In 2019, the Virginia General Assembly directed the Virginia Department of Education to create a statewide community schools framework.

Then in 2022, the VDOE announced the funding opportunity for divisions to develop and implement this model.

The framework emphasizes collaborative leadership, family and community engagement, student motivation, mental health, and meeting students' basic needs.

The VLE extended funding opportunities where interested divisions could apply for planning and implementation grants for individual schools, clusters of schools, or at the division level.

Here in Charlottesville, we have long recognized that students and families thrive when their needs are met and when their relationships and support networks are strong.

We are grateful for all the community partners, organizations, and individuals who have been doing this important work for years.

Additionally, CCS began having discussions during our initial reconfiguration conversations in 2021 about what it could possibly look like to build an infrastructure for wraparound services, possibly through a community schools model.

Building upon these efforts, we applied for the community schools planning and implementation grant in July of this year.

And we are thrilled to share that we were awarded $235,000 to support our division's community schools initiatives that focus on literacy, attendance, and mentorship.

While this funding was proposed, with this funding, we proposed an umbrella initiative called the Community Mentorship Coalition.

Through the CMC, Charlottesville City Schools and the Greater Charlottesville Community will work together to create a structured program that uses community relationships to build a network of support for our students.

Guided by the belief that we are better together, the CMC will bring together parents, families, nonprofits, the City of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, businesses and other community members to mentor students from early literacy through life and career readiness.

Rooted in the community schools model, this initiative aims to transform our schools into hubs of opportunity, connection, and care.

The CMC will include three key program initiatives.

The first is what we're calling the Confidence and Comprehension Club, or CCC for grades K through six.

In this program, community mentors and partners will volunteer during and after school to support literacy through tutoring and mentoring.

They'll use division-provided literacy software and books to help strengthen students' foundational reading skills.

We will train community partners to use the Lexia literacy program, purchase take-home literacy kits for participating students, and establish reading clubs at schools.

And I want to give a special shout-out to Ms.

Vizina Howard, who's leading our first reading club at Summit under the leadership and facilitation of Ms.

Juanika Howard through the City of Charlottesville.

In addition, we are parting with the Jefferson Madison Regional Library to host a reading celebration and this will be hosted by Dr. Gurley on November 1st.

This is an exciting opportunity to celebrate the joy of reading with students and families.

The second program is called our Bridge Builders Program.

This is designed for seventh and eighth grade students.

Its goal is to help students develop a sense of belonging and curiosity through exposure, mentorship, and authentic relationships.

This program may include monthly teen time events at schools complete with food, games, and enrichment activities led by community members.

These events can be held after school or on weekends, either on school grounds or in partner facilities.

Bridge builders may also include mentorship opportunities with trained adults from the community and real talk circles, what we call them real talk circles, where mentors and youth facilitators guide conversations around identity, mental health, and purpose.

The third program is called The Lab, also referred to as the Life Ready Academy, and will be designed for high school students in grades 9 through 12.

The Lab will focus on promoting literacy through life readiness experiences.

Selected students will participate in rotating workshops on topics such as financial literacy, resume writing, car maintenance, nutrition, time management, and tenants' rights.

The program will also connect students with career exposure opportunities and every senior participant will be matched with a CMC mentor who will help support their transition to post-secondary education, training, or employment.

At the division level, the grant will fund a one-year community school specialist position to work alongside me and Abigail in implementing the CMC model and building the formal infrastructure needed to sustain the CCS goal of a smooth connection process for community partners, families, and students to access wraparound services and essential resources where needed.

This will also include a discussion of our long-term goal of working with partners to provide medical and dental services.

Additionally, we are developing a digital talent bank, which will serve as a living directory of community members who wish to offer their time, talents, or resources to support our schools.

The grant also includes funding for a van, which we're really excited about, which will help transport students to and from community schools events, assist with attendance initiatives by providing second chance pickups for students when needed, and deliver supplies and basic needs items.

The van will also become part of our face branding setup during events and activities.

As part of the next steps, we will formalize an advisory board and working groups, and they will take the lead in organizing and implementing the programs outlined in the proposal.

The advisory board will function at the division level, while each of the three working groups will oversee the three program initiatives.

Each group will include a diverse mix of staff, partners, families, students, and other community members.

These groups are scheduled to begin meeting this month.

We are incredibly excited about this opportunity that the grant provides and deeply grateful for the partnership that makes this possible.

We believe this initiative will significantly strengthen our collective efforts to support students and families across Charlottesville City Schools.

And thank you for your time this evening.

Thank you, Dr. Johnson, and welcome Miss Ferguson.

We're so happy to have you.

Miss Torres, I'll start down with you if you've got any questions.

No questions, but I was excited to see the tenants' rights included, because that is very important, especially because I'm in the housing sector, so I really appreciate that.

Stardom Young, so they understand what they're going to be dealing with in the real world.

Appreciate it.

Maybe?

Yeah.

Ms.

I just had one quick question.

I know that Lisa and I had met with Dr. Gurley sometime beginning of the month and one of the things that I shared is having, we have some amazing

groups that are that are doing the work in the community especially like resident services groups.

I know that PHA and CRHA both have resident services groups that they're working with some of the children in the community and so one of the things that I would hope that we start to brainstorm is how we bring after-school programs back into the community

Yes it's great to have them in the schools but if we had them on site in the community because you know some of our children are watching older siblings and stuff like that and so they can't always take advantage of some of the after-school programs and so if we had them on site in the community centers we are doing all of this amazing redevelopment with some of our properties and they have beautiful community center spaces and so hopefully that we're integrating with

some of this into our communities.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

We had a conversation about that recently as well.

And I remember I was at City of Promise at the time when then Roland Moran was doing reading and after school care in the West Haven Community Center.

I remember the impact that it had.

Thank you.

I have also been serving on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as part of my duties on the school board.

And so, to Ms.

Cooper's point, I think Parks and Rec is trying to do some creative work in the community with their Connect sites and

how they're trying to grow some programs for people.

And so I'm just wondering if that could be another avenue of leveraging like the people and the communities that people trust to build out some of that programming and be more of a, I think, collaborative relationship with the city and that the city, our partners can see our students.

in that light as well.

And so just would advocate for some work in that space as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Johnson.

Welcome, Ms.

Ferguson.

Glad to have you join the team.

This all sounds great.

OK.

And this is going to be for a one year grant?

It is.

So part of the conversation for this year is the sustainability plan.

Part of the proposal had to include a sustainability plan.

And so when we convene, we're looking at partners and the current work that we're doing to be able to sustain what's working and what's not work and roll off what's not working.

And so as part of the conversation, Abigail will go alongside the grant funded position so that we can build that infrastructure and continue to have it in the upcoming years.

and so we will need to continue to build off of the base that we'll build this year and then Abigail in her role will continue to take the baton and we'll sustain it as we need to.

You answered my next question which was a lot of

Yeah, quickly.

Sorry, I got my memory jogged by a couple of folks up here.

So thank you for that.

Regarding just partnering with the city parks or whoever a couple of years ago, I know that a few of us advocated for city council to kind of put a pocket of money aside

for youth programs and youth support.

I don't know if that's still there, but I think it would be worthwhile.

Maybe Dr. Gurley can ask her or somebody, but that might be a possibility, another end to have a conversation because I do feel like we really do need the supports in the community as well.

So it seems like a nice opportunity to see what we can do.

Thank you.

All right.

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

I'm here this evening to share important updates related to the School Resource Officer Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU.

In this presentation, I'll provide an overview of the major updates and highlight additional revisions to what we're calling version two of the MOU.

I've given each board member a copy of the MOU, and if you're in the audience and you'd like to follow along, there are some versions on the back so you can walk through it with us.

Bianca will also share a summary of the feedback we received through community engagement efforts and discuss upcoming feedback opportunities.

Please feel free to ask questions as they arise.

Members of the committee who are present will do their best to respond.

And if additional information is needed, we'll be sure to follow up.

Just a quick reminder, the MOU outlines what will happen while the standard operating procedures or SOP does more to describe how it will happen.

The second version of the MOU was published as part of the presentation materials and is available on the Charlottesville City Schools website.

The accompanying SOP will be published around October 15th.

I'd like to begin by highlighting five major updates to the MOU, which were made to align with some of the feedback we've gathered over the past several weeks.

First, the number of SROs has been reduced from four to two.

One will be based at the high school and one will be based at the middle school, and both will float as needed to serve LMA and other schools.

This change addresses concerns about the financial impact as well.

The Charlottesville Police Department will repurpose two existing vacant positions in order to implement the MOU with no request for additional funding to add positions.

The revised MOU also strengthens accountability by specifying that the agreement will automatically pause if there is a federal takeover of the Charlottesville Police Department or any agreement with ICE.

In addition, it now clarifies that the Charlottesville City Schools will co-select school resource officers in partnership with CPD.

Finally, this version incorporates student-centered language and protections inspired by the NYCLU model, reinforcing our commitment to maintaining student rights and well-being in everything we do.

We'll review those changes a little more in-depth, along with additional updates on the following slides.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Members of the Board, and Dr. Gurley, here to share an update on our recent community engagement efforts regarding the School Resource Officer Program.

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts and perspectives.

We know that this is an issue where people hold strong and wide-ranging beliefs, and we value all of your voices.

Since our last update, we focused on creating numerous opportunities for dialogue.

Our survey remains open at charlottesvilleschools.org and we've hosted six dedicated community or staff information hours for attendees to hear updates, have their concerns addressed, and questions answered.

We've also held student-focused events at both the high school and LMA, and just yesterday, Kim and I participated in the Justice Coalition meeting to share updates and answer questions.

Through all of these engagements, including community and student info hours, and the responses submitted through the Google forum, we've seen some themes emerge that are guiding our next steps.

We have clearly heard the dissatisfaction with the decision making process.

Many have expressed a desire to have been evolved earlier, and I want to acknowledge that concern.

We've listened to a range of opinions on the program itself.

While a larger share of the voices at these events and in the form responses have expressed some opposition to the current decision, we've also heard from parents, staff, and students who support the presence of SROs and their role in school safety.

We continue to take all viewpoints into consideration.

We appreciate the detailed questions we received about the specific training, background, and supervision that the SROs will have.

We hear and acknowledge the community's desire for high standards and we are focused on ensuring that the SROs are trained not just in security but in topics such as de-escalation, relationship building, and how our schools operate.

We've heard concerns about the fact that SROs are sworn police officers who are armed.

The SROs must be sworn officers because they are the personnel authorized to handle state required police tasks and criminal matters on the school property.

We'll continue to define and explain this requirement while also detailing the specific limited scope of their day to day role in the building, which is another thing we've seen highlighted is curiosity and the feedback.

We've heard questions like, what does their role look like in specific scenarios or how will they interact with students?

Ultimately, we've seen that every piece of feedback we've received is driven by a desire to achieve two things, safe schools, and equally important, that schools feel warm and welcoming for all of our students.

And this is our commitment, too.

I'd now like to take a few minutes to walk through the additional changes included in the updated MOU.

And just to note that this MOU is still under review at the city attorney's office and may undergo additional changes based on their direction.

So we have our MAUs and if you would like, feel free to walk through as I name the page numbers to follow along.

As we discussed earlier, feedback from various stakeholders, including some board members, questioned the need for the original number of SRO officers, which was originally four.

After careful review,

The decision was made to pilot the program with two SROs instead of four.

Starting with two officers allows us to gather meaningful program data, evaluate school needs, and make informed adjustments in the future.

There were also concerns about the financial impact of onboarding for officers.

By reducing the number to two, CPD has committed to staffing the SRO positions by repurposing two existing vacant positions.

This means there will be no new budget impact for the program's rollout.

We also received a recommendation to review and incorporate language from the New York Civil Liberties Union's model, which we're calling the NYCLU model.

According to the NYCLU, their model was created to meet legal requirements while safeguarding student rights and promoting a supportive school climate.

They emphasize that it's not meant to describe a perfect school environment, but rather to establish policies that prevent overreach and reduce potential harm caused by excessive police involvement in day-to-day school operations.

The NYCLU encourages districts like ours to use it as a framework for handling unexpected situations so educators are not called upon to make policy determinations on the spot.

Drawing from this model, CCS has incorporated additional language throughout our MOU.

For example, you can go on page 2.

and see that regarding circumstances and processes for removal or reassignment of an SRO and more language in a program evaluation section that's also on page six.

And you should notice some darkening of the text and that's where the changes are highlighted.

Specific additions include the stakeholder feedback and complaints subsection started on page eight.

and the public reporting subsection at the beginning of page nine.

The goal was to incorporate more details about these program components in the MOU.

And if you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask.

We will also ask to clarify how officers will be selected for the SRO program.

If you look at the top of page 12, it now more explicitly states that the Charlottesville City Schools and Charlottesville Police Department will jointly select officers for the program.

It's at the very top.

It also clarifies that training, supervision, and evaluation of SROs will be a shared responsibility between CCS and CPD.

If you look further down on page 12, the MOU expands on specialized training requirements.

It specifies that every SRO must receive training in key areas, such as relevant state and federal laws, school and personnel liabilities, personal liability, security awareness within school environments, mediation, conflict resolution, de-escalation techniques, disaster and emergency response,

Systemic and individual racism, cultural diversity, implicit bias, working with students with disabilities, mental health needs, substance use disorders, or past traumas, and student behavior dynamics, including current research on child and adolescent development.

Finally, there was a request to define the specific circumstances that would automatically terminate or pause the program.

If you head back to page two, you'll see the language that states that either the Charlottesville City School Board or CPD may terminate or pause this agreement at any time if local conditions or uncontrollable external factors create conflicts with the goals of the MOU.

This latest revision now adds more specific language that the MOU will also be considered null and void immediately if the Charlottesville Police Department comes under federal operational control or if the CPD engages immigration enforcement activities that involve sharing student or family immigration status or facilitating immigration-related arrests.

Do we have any questions before we move on to the next slide?

There was also a request to clarify whether the SROs will use body-worn cameras.

This is being addressed in the SOP, which will outline that SROs will use body-worn cameras in keeping with the CPD policy with additional measures to protect student privacy.

I'm heading over to pages 13 and 14.

There were several inquiries requesting an explanation on specific incidents or circumstances SROs would interact with students.

General guidance and expectations are covered throughout the MOU, including on pages 13 and 14, which notes

Unless there is a clear and imminent threat to safety, the SRO should act only upon request of school administrators.

Requests for SRO law enforcement assistance are to be channeled through a school administrator.

Guiding principles for conduct representing a clear and imminent threat to safety may include posing substantial harm to physical well-being of another person, is willful and malicious and causes substantial harm to the property of the school, constitutes the permanent taking of property of substantial value.

It also says that SROs shall not act as school disciplinarians as enforces of student rights or responsibilities, nor may they act in place of school officials for classroom management or in place of school social workers, counselors, psychologists, or psychiatrists on school property or at school-sponsored events.

Generally, SROs shall not use police powers to intervene in normative child and adolescent behaviors, and school staff shall not request the intervention of SROs when responding to normative child and adolescent behaviors.

There will be more specific guidance and examples in the SOP.

We're going to page 17 of the MOU.

We also clarify protections for immigrant refugee students and overall student privacy, which can be found under the information sharing section of the MOU.

The addition specifically notes that CCS shall not initiate communication with any law enforcement agency regarding the students or family members FERPA protected or otherwise personally identifiable information.

CCS and CPD shall not enter into agreements to share information with federal immigration authorities except as required by law.

In the SLP, we were also outlining other protections needed for special victims, which was also a concern.

Special victims are victims of a sexual crime, attempted crime or abuse.

Special protocols and properly trained personnel need to be used when addressing the situations.

And this is especially true for minors.

And we are taking that into account.

On page six in the MOU, under the section called Evaluation of the School Law Enforcement Partnership, we discuss program feedback and evaluation metrics.

The document notes that the feedback and assessment process is continuous and must include qualitative and quantitative measures, perspectives of various stakeholders from within CCS, CPD, and from families, a focus on youth perceptions, measures of assessing collective impacts on school climate.

Specific metrics include the climate surveys required by the Code of Virginia.

Under this code, school divisions complete school safety surveys of staff and students alternating between the middle and high school each year to assess school climate.

Student behavior and administrative response or what we call SBAR reporting will also be used.

This allows evaluators to consider measurable objectives such as how many incidents are reported to each school.

are reported each school year and how many resulted in law enforcement action.

Analysis will differentiate between incidents of administrative discipline and law enforcement actions.

Additionally, the CPD will provide data regarding youth involvement with law enforcement quarterly to the CCS Coordinator of Safety and Security, unless otherwise requested by CCS.

Information sharing between CCS and CPD will be essential for providing the quantitative data required for overall program evaluation.

In addition to the CPD juvenile offender data, all occurrences in which SRO makes official contact with a student on school property must be logged by SROs and all such reports must be reviewed by CCS administrators.

For the purposes of this MOU, we define official contact as questioning a student for law enforcement purposes, detaining of a student, an apprehension, citation, or arrest of a student.

Other contacts between SROs and students deemed necessary to support student safety and well-being is determined by the SRO, SRO supervisor, or CCS administrator.

This logging of official contact is in addition to the reporting required by the school board policy or by the statutory requirement.

The MOU also describes ongoing performance review meetings, evaluations, and the development of a mechanism for students, staff, and families to provide feedback, which is also what we heard was needed and we all agreed regarding the SRO program by reporting positive and or negative interactions with SROs via an online form.

This form will serve as a way for stakeholders to initiate a report of any notable interactions or observations involving SROs.

These are feedback items that have been addressed thus far.

There is a version of this MOU available online that highlights the key differences between the original published draft and the updated version of our MOU.

Dr. Johnson and team, I really appreciate the report out and the version that you provided that shows those changes.

I think it reflects what I've been reading in the report outs from all your different events in addition to the conversations I've been having in the community.

people want to see a lot of explicit things.

And then, you know, to a certain extent, it's an MOU, like you mentioned, is a little bit higher level.

SOP is a little bit more in the weeds.

And I do ask people to give a little bit more.

I think there's a lot more explicit content now in this MOU, which is great.

Again, I think we'll address a lot of the concerns we've heard, but also let people understand that the SOP is where a lot more explicit things will be.

So thank you for all your work on that.

I don't have any questions.

Not specific to this, but I did want to point out there was some feedback from community members in regards to making sure that we heard student voice and just want to make sure we really highlight the good work that I think we've done there.

And I think in last month's presentation, we just highlighted the few opportunities that were here.

at the high school, but we're able to then identify that we should go to the middle school.

And that opportunity is upcoming and then doing the work at Lugo-McGuiness Academy.

So just highlighting that student voice is being heard and taken into account, that these comments are not all from, you know,

the community adults and adult stakeholders but really highlighting the feedback that our students have given us and I think unfortunately Mr. Schwartzman had to go but just to be able to echo that our student feedback has been

I think quite remarkable.

I've been able to take part in that as have Ms.

Dooley and Ms.

Cooper and Ms.

Torres along with Dr. Gurley and his team and really hearing the reflections of our own students weighs heavily, I think, on our group and what they're sharing and is reflected in this work.

So just wanted to make mention of that.

I had a question on page eight in the first highlighted, so second paragraph on page eight, where it talks about the official contact reports and identifying whether the incident was or was not school related.

And I was just hoping to get a little bit of clarity about what like it's in school.

So how are we like what makes it not school related?

Good evening members of the board.

Just to get into the weeds a little bit, this could be referring to incidents that are being reported by a student at school related to things that have occurred outside the school that's the most self-evident

example I can come up with.

I'm sure there would be others, members of the work group of really kind of try to get down as far as we can to come up with every available outcome to think of, you know, everything we can to think this through.

And that's where a lot of this language comes from.

Thank you.

And Mr. Wade, before you go, Lieutenant Wade, that's already happening currently, right?

Our officers are already interfacing in this role.

This is just naming it in a document, correct?

And then my other question is in regards to the evaluation tool of the SRO.

You know, I'm familiar with evaluation tools that we use for school personnel.

And so and this may be forthcoming, but just is there an evaluation tool that's unique to the school resource officer that this combined evaluation group would have over them?

Or is it

like the CPD.

So I'll give you my opinion.

I won't speak for the breadth of the work group, but what I will say is that CPD evaluates their employees every year.

I haven't seen the evaluation tool that's used for the teacher, so I can't make a comparison to that.

And so perhaps I'm just adding more work to the work group to, you know, think about what what that looks like to be this because it says that we the two entities are going to work together for training supervision and evaluation.

And so just

I think we need a tool.

And I'm certain we probably do not have to reinvent the wheel.

There are clearly other school divisions that have school resource officers.

And Miss Dooley, I don't know, and Miss Burns helped me out or other committee members, I think in

discussing this, there was definitely a desire and there was feedback to really want to be able to, like Lieutenant Wade said, collaboratively evaluate the efficacy of the program and how it's going.

And so using some of these reporting as far as the incidents and really being able to

designate you know what types of incidents and looking at that to see if there were trends but some of that data would feed into the evaluation just of the overall program so I think that feeds into it but I don't know if the Colorado model or any of those other templates we looked at but there was some strong language in those where it really did pare down maybe it was the Alexandria model initially

Well, it's almost like we're evaluating two things.

We're evaluating the program overall, but then also the unique individual at each school.

And so I think there's going to be some crossover in that data, but then when it comes down to it, that one person, is it the right fit?

I don't know, that data maybe doesn't align.

And so what is the, I don't know, what is the tool?

And it doesn't sound like we have it yet, which is fine.

But just if we can continue conversation around that.

Sure.

Ms.

Cooper?

Am I going the right way?

Yes.

Do you have any questions?

Ms.

Richardson, Ms.

I did want to just kind of piggyback a little bit, Ms.

Burns, as far as some student feedback and yes several of us had the opportunity to spend some time here at the high school and I felt like it was worthy for those of us here right now to kind of hear and I know that we have been doing an exceptional job trying to push this out

in different ways as our parents square and making this available for people to look at and provide feedback.

And I appreciate that we've extended that and we're still gathering feedback.

But I think what struck me today and just kudos to these high school students because they were very engaged and they were very gracious in

letting us kind of interrupt their lunchtime.

So I was grateful for that.

But I think it

Even though we've pushed this information out, there were still really valid and thoughtful questions.

And to the extent that you and whoever comes into this school to work, and as we really roll out the program, I just wanted to share some of the questions that I heard today in the comments because I felt like

several hours after the fact, I was still able to sit down and write them out.

So again, just questions about what will CSAs do?

So just needing clarification again around, or some students just haven't figured that out, you know, so, but hopefully we're taking notes here.

I have them, I can pass them on.

How will SROs be introduced to students in a non threatening way?

And we've talked about that.

But again,

to hear it from a student, obviously it's weighing on them.

Adding SROs into the mix will increase the already adult heavy presence and pressure within the building.

Another comment was my sibling was here when SROs were in the school and it felt like it was an aggressive type of presence.

Under what circumstances will they pull their gun?

And there was a lot of conversation around that and safety concerns.

How do we know how secure their weapons are?

What type of training will an SRO receive?

Is it different and how long does it take?

Will they be policing the hallways?

Will they be arresting kids?

And if so, for what and under what circumstances?

And I know we have answers to all of this, but again, I think the fact that these questions were percolating still, you know, just shows that we still need to do work.

And I don't know what the best way to reach every single one of those kids with this information.

And I'm looking at you and it's not like it's your fault.

I know this is teamwork, but I just want

I want everybody to hear this.

And what other types of duties will they have to fill their eight hour day if they're not out in the hallways.

So anyway, I don't know that any of the students are listening but I want to thank Dr. Mon and everybody for allowing

Thank you.

There's also a couple of additional slides around timeline and next steps if you'd like to review those at your convenience.

Thank you.

Next up, we have some board response to written reports.

Yeah, Miss Dooley, Chair, if I could, on the member committee reports, several of us were able to take opportunity to visit schools just the past week.

That was the week of the 29th that we had designated.

as a board to do some visits and wonder if we might have a little bit of discussion there as to what we were able to, you know, observe and how we were able to interact with our students.

Sure.

Yeah, thanks.

I visited Summit and I think I wanted just one reflection from my visit there in conversation with Principal Johnson was an unfortunately continued kind of drop-off, pick-off situation with unsafe behavior by a lot of drivers and disrespect to the crossing guard and getting kind of reflected on that with Dr. or Mr. Hartline's observations too.

I still think we have some work with our city partners in this case to do around that, specifically at Summit.

I also thought about kind of as we change up, I heard a little bit about fourth graders and a certain amount of chronic absenteeism kind of issues.

and as we push fifth graders back down to the entry schools, I think that's an opportunity, but again, kind of those supports for helping students and families norming school attendance, I think seeing a lot of changes that we need to keep that up.

Finally, I visited Charlottesville Middle School after a brief stop here at the high school.

I haven't gotten my calendar wrong, but wanted to, sorry, Dr. Malone, but

Had a great conversation with, sorry, Principal Jordan and hearing about how a lot of his teachers are doing a great job kind of meeting his students and then setting up a kind of good examples and engaging with students right away in the classroom.

Thank you.

Ms.

Morris, Ms.

Burns?

Sure, thank you.

I had the opportunity to visit some schools, start with

The Charlottesville Middle School with Principal Jordan and just really want to acknowledge the work that Mr. Jordan has done.

It is a tremendous undertaking to renovate, build,

reconfigure a building and have to be in it and lead instruction.

And so really just wanted to take the opportunity to thank him and his staff for that time.

Something that he did mention, so where they're currently serving their meals will need to be demolished

winter breakish time and so the quasi cafeteria will need to move into the new cafeteria and I think there's still some like lingering questions about

that work that so much needs to be done during that time and while our staff should be taking that time to rest and rejuvenate I think there's some concern that Mr. Jordan and our facilities team may have to be there to do some of that work and just want to somehow honor their need for some rest coupled with

the work, right?

It's so much work to do.

If I need to throw on some sneakers, I'll go over, but I, you know, we might have to, it could be a community-led effort, I don't know, but just want to be really mindful of what we're asking our staff to do during that winter break time so that we're ready to come back to a brand new cafeteria.

and then visit great there.

It was really wonderful to go by the classrooms and see be able to see into the classrooms and not have to have to necessarily just interrupt learning by unlocking opening a door going in like we could really see actual learning happening.

and one might think that windows are distracting but actually what Mr. Jordan tells me is that because we have every classroom has windows and you can see and it becomes less of a distraction and so that was really impactful to see all the learning that was happening in those spaces.

And so from there, went over to Lugo McGinnis Academy.

I think I've said everything I need to say about Lugo and Dr. Trotter and his work, but just also being mindful of the role that he has.

He's overseeing Lugo McGinnis Academy.

He's helping at New Pathways.

He's helping with night school.

He is wearing several hats and also now our disciplinary hearing officer and taking on some consulting with principals on discipline matters.

So I just want to be mindful of what we're asking, the hats that we're asking our staff to wear and that they're being compensated appropriately for those hats.

and then I was able to spend some time here at Charlottesville High School and just to echo Ms.

Torres, our students are just truly remarkable.

The words that they shared during my time with them on our visit, Ms.

Cooper and I came and went separate ways to capture as many

students and staff voices as we could but there's still some work to do and I think that's reflective of our upcoming work session on October 23rd where we will talk about some of these behaviors of our students and what it looks like here in our high school to support our staff

and also support our students and families to meet them where they're at and hear what they need from us to be successful.

And then I went to Summit for my usual harvest of the month, which was lovely.

Thanks.

So briefly, I went to Trailblazer and spent some time with Dr. Baptist, who is kind of our pinch hitter principal, and Ms.

Beverly, and just had a great time observing some classrooms.

That's a very vertical school if you guys haven't been there recently, lots of steps.

But yes, it was just a joy to be there and also got to see two practicum students from UVA that I think were a little bit terrified that a school board member walked in as they were doing one of their lessons, but they did great.

So it was lovely to see that.

spent some time over at Walker.

The nurse was out.

So I really got to observe the clinic and just to see Dr. Thompson and really all the staff pitch in to help was really awesome.

But a note to us in budget season, we should not be cutting nursing positions because nothing got done besides nurse clinic things.

and then got to be at CHS as well.

And my only comment there is how great the off and away policy is.

Like at lunch, like kids are playing hacky sack.

That's what we did when I was in high school before we had cell phones.

And so it's just been, that's one thing that I think like seeing kids talk to each other and talk to us was pretty cool.

So yeah, I visited a lot of schools.

So elementary schools, Summit, I spent a lot of time there.

I would say I want to say that Carmela Johnson and Pamela Davis is doing an awesome job at Summit.

I want to say that, you know, Summit is one of the schools that have a lot of social

Students with social emotional challenges and so just watching them and how they navigate some of those sometimes you can see four or five students in the office at one time.

But you know the love and the compassion that they have for their students is just amazing to watch.

So I just kind of want to highlight that.

I spent some time at Trailblazer with Ms.

Baptist and Ms.

Beverly as well.

And one of the things that I enjoyed seeing, I would say with all of the elementary visits that I was able to do was

that they were actually teaching and, you know, the kids weren't like sitting in front of a laptop.

Like you actually seen some instructional, the teacher up at the board talking and engaging with the students.

So, you know, that was really like good for me to be able to kind of witness some of those interactions.

You know, I got to a point where I was like, let's not go into the class because I felt like the kids were getting distracted.

I was like, who is that?

But just that it was warm to see my heart.

And I want to highlight that I did also visit Charlottesville Middle School and I got to spend some time with Mr. Jordan.

And so one of the things I felt like

It was a sense of calmness when I walked into that school.

And I would say that when we was on our walks, one of the things that I observed and I really appreciate it is that he took the time to speak to everybody that he walked past and to engage with them.

And I think that's important when you're in a leadership role, even when it's time, since you don't feel like, you know, to show up your best self, he was smiling, he was talking.

A couple times we had to talk and engage with the construction crew.

So like Amanda said, I think he's wearing a lot of hats.

and for us to be able to appreciate and acknowledge that because when we have good quality people, we want to keep them around and acknowledge the good work that they're doing.

So I appreciated that.

And also I had not taken a tour of Charlottesville Middle School, so it was nice to walk to school and also been able to look into the classrooms and to see the teaching that was happening.

I had a sentimental moment that brought tears to my eyes when I was there as well.

I saw a young lady and I'm sorry that I don't remember her name but it was two young males there that you know they had gotten themselves into a little bit of trouble but she was taking the time to have a conversation with them and she was sharing with them about her experience in her life and I think that those are the moments that goes amiss whether they take what she said at that moment I think but when they become adults they're going to always remember that conversation that she had with them

And so I really appreciate seeing that, that level of connection, because even though they were in trouble, they were engaged and they were listening to what she had to say.

So that showed me that they had a great amount of respect for her.

And so and also I came to

One of the questions that I ask all of the principals that I engage with is, how are you taking care of yourself?

because I know that this work is hard and so remind them to take care of their self because self-care and burnout is real.

And so when you're dealing with so many things that are happening within school, within your personal life, I want to remind each and every one of our students, our teachers,

and our admin and even the, you know, the other employees of Charlottesville City Schools to always take care of yourself and recognizing if you feel like you are to a point where you burn out, then take time for yourself, whatever that looks like for you.

Ms.

Yeah, I had the capacity to visit CHS this week.

I came during a quiet time.

I was here like from one

to like 130.

I will probably be back early morning.

I was told to come Thursday, Friday, see some action at nine.

The long lines I was to look out for a lot of late students.

So yeah, that's where I stand with the school visits right now.

And I do have time and I could pop in.

I will pop in.

It's good to hear that all of you have been visiting the schools.

So when they saw me, they wasn't too surprised to why I was here.

So

Yeah, that's mine.

I was able to just get two in, and I also had a schedule mix up.

So Mr. Meyer, you were not the only one that showed up and surprised the principal and said, hi, and nice to see you.

See you another time.

Anyway, I was able to just, again, two elementary schools.

So I went to Greenbrier and Tall Oaks.

Which one did I actually see?

Jackson, Vier, Tolitz, but really was focused my time on walking and looking at spaces and as they prepare for receiving fifth graders next year.

So kind of discussing with the principals, you know, just how they're looking and what they're planning to do as far as space and where different classes will go.

and just trying to check in with them as far as what their needs might be to make that a smoother transition of note and I did elevate this to Dr. Gurley and the team as far as a budget priority of mine that I added late to my list and this was not the first time that I've seen this through the years but seeing our specialists

Working with kids in hallways or in stairwells and doing an excellent job and the kids were totally engaged.

And I think there are some benefits to sometimes being adjacent or close to the actual classroom as far as time and getting them what they need.

but really wanting us as a board and then as we look bigger as far as our CIP and what we can do for space to have designated quality spaces for our specialists and our students who need that extra time so that they're not sitting

three little chairs and an adult at the top of a stairwell but kids looked happy and engaged and I think everybody is doing the planning you know while they're running their ship currently but really trying to look ahead and see where the fifth graders would go and you know trying to juggle class size and those types of things so really

And I know you all are working on that.

And that's an ongoing planning thing.

But it seems like it could be something that's going to sneak up on some principals as they're trying to focus on what they're doing right now.

But enjoyed it.

Love to have that opportunity.

Thank you.

We also had the outcome of student disciplinary matter.

colleagues, we have this excellent report.

In here, what I'd like to note is the continued improvement, Dr. Gurley, and trend.

I do see some schools ticking back up a little bit.

But we will watch this and see what happens.

But I think we're back down to 16% at the moment.

It's a good start.

We were at 21% at the end of last year.

So

Let's keep up the good work.

I did get two notices.

I think today my phone rang or I got the from my kids having perfect attendance.

So I like to see that continued type of communication.

I think it's, again, different than we did last year.

Awesome.

And then the last one is facility rental rates.

All right.

I do have a quick question.

So I see at the top said recommended to go into effect for new rentals beginning January 1.

Would that be if after January 1, someone says, hey, we want to reserve this space, and not if they want to reserve it today for a future date?

So we would only be accepting reservations through the end of the school year now, but if someone did make a reservation prior to January 1st, it would be under the current rates.

The thought was that those rates would go into effect for new reservations that we start taking as of January 1st.

Gotcha.

Oh, not so fast.

Sorry.

Can you speak to why the PAC did not increase?

We've gotten some feedback previously that there are much needed repairs and chairs and carpet and things like that.

Cost wise, the rate for that didn't appear to be wildly out of line with other facilities.

Right now, what that facility really has going for it primarily is just the size of it, but as you stated, there are a lot of repairs needed.

We are just now getting some, under the leadership of Virginia Cauldron has been doing a great job.

We are starting to see more of a break even with cash flow from rentals with what we track with the operations of just very limited staff that support that space.

My thinking was not to make a move on that until those facilities are actually improved because we're not going to generate enough rental

Thinking one to confirm.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up, we have our second opportunity for comments from members of the community.

Anybody in the media center?

Come on down.

And simultaneously, if there's anybody on Zoom who wishes to speak, raise your hand.

OK.

We're now at comments from the board.

All right, colleagues, I think for some of you, this is your second to last meeting.

I'm not trying to, again, decipher what might happen in an election either.

Sorry, colleagues.

But I just want to note that I think I appreciate everybody's constructive engagement.

I think we all believe that we're here to do good work for our district's children, and we don't question that.

And I think we don't

have public disagreements.

And if you look around the state, you see a lot of boards that are dysfunctional, unfortunately, and that's not the case with us.

So I appreciate you all for all that.

Second, I just want to note that, you know, there was a UVA donating or leasing for a dollar, the Oak Lawn property to the city.

I think that's interesting.

I appreciate that.

I do not think that it's equal to the FBI building.

and I want to keep, you know, I hope we keep that in mind.

In my mind, you know, UVA still did us a very big disservice by how they acted around the FEI building and the, you know, more or less donation of the Oak Lawn property to us is not equivalent and we still need to have, I think, a broader conversation with them on how they support our school system.

and the city in general.

Second, I mentioned, sorry, the Summit Elementary School pickup and drop off issues.

I think this dovetails with Mr. Hartline.

We still have some issues, I think, in some schools and I think like to

get a report maybe in the future about you know how do we decide if we need to speed cameras and some of these things and or how the police department is working with our school staff to help ensure safety especially with again some it's just a tricky situation.

I know with all people working on it but it is still not working according to parent reports.

Finally, I want to thank the parents that have gone together and the joint PTO fund.

Again, this happened a couple of years ago.

Great to see it happen.

And I look forward to hopefully seeing its success.

It's a great way for a lot of different stakeholders in our community to engage and keep our parents engaged.

And finally, colleagues, just a quick report out.

And I think it was an important update from our joint CIP meeting with the city councilors the other day that

City staff will be putting together a medium long term infrastructure plan.

I think this is important.

We'll not jinx it this year, hopefully, but if the General Assembly were to pass a sales tax increase, that the ability to have a referendum on that, that we would have a plan that we could then take to the community promptly in the fall of 2026.

So I think I really appreciate our city's colleagues thinking about that and getting that in place hopefully for early 2026.

Well, I want to say a couple of things, but I think the main thing, because I'm ready to go home, is, you know, there's been a lot of political violence lately, and I just simply want to denounce that.

I think it's very important for us as elected officials, as well as community members, to ensure that we are having proper conversations and discourse with each other.

I think it's just really important that in all aspects, whether it's community violence, black on black crime, whatever, whatever it is, like I think like we need to love each other.

And I think that's really, really important.

I know in different situations, I mean, honestly, in any situation that someone is

trying to commit some type of violence towards a person like, you know, at that moment, you might need to take, find some help for yourself.

So I encourage those that, you know, might be struggling with the political climate or struggling with, you know, a neighbor or whatever it is to, you know, go seek help for yourself and not just for yourself because you want to harm that person, but even for yourself as well.

I think just overall it's really, really important for us as a board, as Chris kind of mentioned, like as a board continue to have positive conversations with each other.

That doesn't mean that we can't be real and state our actual opinion, but just being respectful of each other is greatly appreciated.

And I think generally I appreciate it in the Charlottesville area.

So I just, you know,

with state and federal stuff, I think sometimes we can get caught up in those emotions.

And I just want to say for the whole community is to just understand that we're still people.

At the end of the day, we're still people.

And generally speaking, we all have the same goal.

Just how do we get there is different.

Ms.

Cooper?

So I had a couple of comments.

One of the comments was in reference to we had an SRO conversation at Kindlewood yesterday.

And so when we have community conversations or interacting with the community, we have to be mindful of the community that we are serving.

And so if we are in a community that we know

You know, need an interpreter.

We need to make sure that we have folks there to service the community.

So that everyone is getting the information and they understand what's happening.

And so again, when we are planning these community meetings.

I don't know if it's like a checklist or something that we need to put together to making sure that we're checking off the boxes so that all of the needs of the community is met.

And so I wanted to highlight that.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about that I didn't really mention.

is when I was in some of the older schools upgrades and so I would like to know like where are we with some of those upgrades.

I was able to see some of the classrooms that weren't utilized and so if those classrooms aren't utilized why aren't we taking the time so you

upgrade those classrooms where nobody is in them if the goal is to bring fifth grade back to elementary.

If those are little things that we can be doing throughout the year.

While school is in session, I think that we need to look at that and see how we get some of those things done.

And just like, you know,

In conversations with City Council, when you go from Charlottesville Middle School to some of the older schools, you just realize like the air quality and stuff like that.

And so being mindful that when we have a school that's 100 years old, and then we have like these brand new schools, we need to invest in the schools that

are a lot older so that we're making sure that our kids not only get a quality education, but they're breathing in healthy air while they're in our school system.

And then one of the things too is like, you know, we know some of our schools are dealing with big emotions, children with big emotions.

and so making sure that we are supporting those schools and making sure that we you know if in budget session if we need to advocate for more funding to have someone to do that just that work that that's what we do but we are supporting those schools and checking in and making sure that things are going well and how can we support you because that work can be hard and can be challenging.

And also, I kind of wanted to highlight on just some of the feedback that I've been hearing from the community because I work in the community.

I'm hearing a lot of parents saying that they don't feel supported with their child's individual education plan.

And so I want us to be

engage with our families and being able to work with our families.

Some of our families don't understand that language and so being able to break it down for our families to be able to understand and listening to their feedback and what they need because if it's their children nine times out of ten they know what's best.

for their children.

And so making sure that they feel a part of that process, because I've heard this conversation from about four to five different people.

And so just kind of being mindful of how we have those conversations, who's in the room and how we are facilitating those conversations so that parents feel like they're getting what they need for their children.

That's it.

Thank you, Ms.

Richardson.

Additional comments, Ms.

So Ms.

Cooper, I want to make sure you know, hopefully you know, but we do have the Special Ed Advisory Committee.

So please, please refer them to somebody on that committee and or it's kind of why I'm sitting here.

So I mean, I would always be another ear, you know, to kind of help guide them.

But that's important.

So thank you for for receiving that feedback from families.

Some of you already said it, but I too was really excited to hear about the citywide PTO.

So I'm excited to hear more and see how we can support them because I think that's a great, a great move that the PTO is the joint group is doing.

So thank you for that.

Another little shout out to the tennis athletes and the back to back state champs.

I also wanted to just take a minute.

I think maybe we all got some, but we got some postcards from community members that were just reaching out to share their concern and to talk a little bit about budget, budget priorities, and then specifically how it may have impacted

Thank you to the community members for reaching out and taking the time to write postcards.

There was one more thing I wanted to say.

Oh, November 4th.

Please, everybody, go out and vote.

It's election day.

So we got a big statewide election.

And just remember to do that, please.

And thank you, Dr. Gurley, for everything.

I had the opportunity to give the greetings this morning for CHESPR that is the school communicators organization

And it is comprised of school communicators from DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

And so they are holding their conference here.

And Ms.

Chuck and Ms.

Corman are doing some presentations there.

And I mentioned them because people are watching Charlottesville City Schools.

and a lot of wonderful things happen here and I think that people are intrigued about how we navigate very difficult spaces and so I say that to thank each board member for the work that you do because I think it shows that people are watching, that you're listening to the community, that you entrust me to do what's right on behalf of our children

And so we often get asked a lot of hard questions about how we can help them through some of their more challenging situations.

I just wanted to give you all kudos that people are watching us and giving us high fives.

and I also want to just acknowledge Jessica Brantley.

She was also on the personnel report today and the board approved her appointment.

She will serve as the professional learning coordinator.

So we will take a little bit off of that, trim a little bit off of that job and Dr. Isler will keep some of it, but she will be onboarded as the professional learning coordinator.

and I think it comes at a very good time where she gets to do the work along alongside someone who currently does it instead of most times people get hired in August and in July and they're right in the thick of it so really excited about you know she's on the team but keeping her on the team and in another role and she'll continue to support health and physical education as we continue to navigate the rest of the school year

And the nine weeks is getting ready to end.

And I have just had a wonderful time being in and out of our schools and our students continue to amaze me.

Again, the conversations we have with our students today in the cafeteria, the conversations I've had with elementary children on the playground, with our parents at the grocery store, out at games.

And we have a wonderful community and our families

I don't let people say that our families don't show up for our children because they do.

All families, all families, regardless of social economic status, all families show up for their children in some way.

And I appreciate the work that they do and I appreciate when they reach out to me.

Anything in this way for work session wrap up?

OK.

We do have several upcoming meetings.

One is two weeks from today.

Folks will have a really hard decision about coming to our school board work session or the random row event with the citywide PTO.

Maybe you can do both.

So we have a work session starting at four that will then transition into our meeting with legislators thereafter.

Thursday, November 6th, we're back here for another school board meeting.

And then we're taking the show on the road November 18th through 21st, heading to the BSBA annual convention.

And I lost my agenda.

Is that it?