Board of Supervisors Meeting   2/2/2021

I'd like to welcome everyone to the February 2021 joint meeting of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors and the Nelson County Board.

Mr. Chee.

So thank you everybody for being here.

Mr. Chief and myself will tag team the facilitation of the meeting as we go.

I just wanted to do a few recognitions while we're here.

Representing the school administration,

Shannon Irvin's here, so she's going to be maybe participating if we ask.

I don't know exactly what's going to happen.

Also, Steve Parr and Ms. Candice McGarry are here from the county administration.

If and when we need some clarification on things, we have these folks here that can do that.

The agenda for the meeting is going to be fairly informal.

We're going to try to ping-pong between the two boards in terms of comments.

I will recognize Board of Supervisors members and Board of Board Members.

Each member of the two boards will have numerous opportunities to address whatever topics are on their mind, whatever comes up.

Whatever comes up is what we will be discussing.

At some point, as we wrap things up, we're going to talk about possible next steps for the boards together or the board separately.

Yeah, it's hard, correct.

Maybe if that monitor was turned really fast.

Well, I don't know.

Well, I can only speak about it.

I'll do what I can.

We couldn't hear when you were sitting over there, so if you want to switch with me, Tom.

Well, because you didn't get into your mom.

Yeah, there's a fan that's causing background noise.

It's probably something like that.

While we do that, I'm going to let Mr. Chief start.

I want to thank Mr. Reed and the Board of Supervisors for helping make this possible and our board.

School Board for coming together and meeting.

We've been looking forward to this.

As Mr. Reed said, this is going to be a pretty open agenda, open discussion.

Everyone will have an opportunity to speak.

We're going to try to

limited to somewhat of a fair time limit so each person can speak on the topic that they choose to speak on and then obviously either members can interact with conversation.

What I would ask is, while someone's talking, if someone wants to make a response, give me a little wave.

I'll get your name down and try to make sure I get everybody in the order they're in.

I'd just like to start by saying that I appreciate what the school board has done in this crisis.

And it's not just the crisis of the pandemic.

It's also the unintended consequences

the testing and the whole No Child Left Behind business.

And that, yeah, maybe we can move on beyond this.

And it is possible with the resources, with the children, with the teachers and the board that we have in Nelson County, not only have a good school system, but we can have a great school system.

I didn't prepare anything to say.

We had talked about having certain topics on the conversation.

One of them I think comes up first for me is, you know, how do we go about talking to each other on a regular basis going forward?

We used to do the two by twos and that sort of thing, and I don't know how they fell off, but I think that was a pretty good effective way of keeping the lines of communication open, which I think are super important between the two groups.

And then we can address, you know,

considerations that we have, which are short term and long term planning, focusing a lot on the project that we have to keep the schools up to par.

And I guess overall strategic planning from a county perspective as well, because one of the challenges we have is that our enrollment is declining,

you know on the face of it looks like something we're doing but possibly is something that we're all in the county doing from a lack of planning or maybe not planning for bringing in babies or you know six years ago you know we're suffering now trying to make a bad joke but anyway um just to keep those lines of communication open

so that we can try to make some plans that work for both the schools and for the county just in general.

And then to respond a little bit to Ms. Barton, I think that we all are trying as hard as we possibly can to make our schools the best we can possibly have.

And I think that comes from the heart, not from the water a lot of the time.

But we appreciate your support.

And thank you very much for agreeing to come and meet us.

Thank you.

Ms. Harlan?

Yep.

Well, first of all, glad to be back here.

Deja vu a little bit on the stage here.

But I think these meetings between two boards, I've said it as a school board member.

I say it as a board student body member.

I do look forward to when we can have a little less formal meeting where we can just kind of be together and talking and having a conversation.

I think that's where the real work takes place.

Two by twos are great.

We got started last year.

We had a two by two in the first three weeks of the year last year.

We had great intentions of doing that throughout the year and then COVID hits.

So that kind of derailed that a little bit.

I do think we're kind of getting to the point now with COVID that some of us may be more comfortable than others continuing to do that.

I for one am willing, if anybody wants to go ahead and do it, I'm up for it.

But of course being safe and setting the distance and all that, I think it's important.

But the meetings are imperative between the two boards.

And not only these meetings,

But when you're driving down the road and picking up the phone and saying, hey, Shannon, tell me about this, or here's an idea, or George, what's going on?

Just having those conversations across the board, I think that's important.

There doesn't always have to be a formal agenda item.

I think looking around this room, there's so many of us who have

Mr. Barton is always talking about what makes this community great and to me that's one of the things that makes us great is this community that we have as board members.

Yeah, so first of all, I'm excited that this meeting is actually taking place.

We have tried on numerous occasions to all get around the table, and my first hope is that this is not the first and or last meeting of this year.

I completely agree with what David Parr just said.

It is critical that these two boards talk.

It is critical that these two boards work together.

And it's critical that we share information, not just two by two, but with all members of the board.

I think there's a lot of things at stake.

I think there are a lot of things that we have come to the table before to chat about, whether it's capital improvement, whether it's things going on in school, and I for one, as long as I've been on the board, just cannot thank them enough, the support that you all have given us.

I know for one, Mr. Harvey and I have had some numerous communications, and I really appreciate the time that we've had to talk and have some

Wonderful conversations as being chair to chair.

But I do think that all of these conversations are critical.

And my next step, just to piggyback on something Mr. Reed said that we're going to look at going forward, is I would love to, by the time you get out of here, step whether we're going to do biannual meetings or whether we're going to do quarterly meetings as a board.

If we can agree on that, then I think we're moving forward, at least, in making sure that the two boards speak.

Something else, and I know Margaret touched on this, is in regards to capital improvement, capital planning, strategic planning, I think that's probably one of the great and probably one of the top agenda items that we probably need to have.

If we can start looking at all of the projects that we have, so some of these, I'm sure David can look at this list and say, they were items that were on the board when he was here.

They are certainly some of these items on the board that have been here since I've been on the board.

and at some point you really want to be able to chip away at them.

It would be nice if we could have whether it is a three to five year plan and lock four or five of them together and then have a five to seven year plan or whatever that timetable is.

But we can all agree to start looking at those items and discuss how we can potentially go about fulfilling them.

Because it goes back to what you just said, Mr. Barton, we want our school system

Good.

We want our school systems great.

We want the best school systems here at Nelson County.

Thank you.

Hey, I just wanted to also echo many of the thanks, obviously, to the hardworking school folks out here, the many teachers who have had to get creative in the midst of COVID, and all the difficulties that have come with that.

I also want to thank the chairman for arranging this joint meeting.

It's critical to having not only an efficient government but a transparent one and us having to be able to have open dialogue with each other about our concerns and thoughts and goals.

As I'm just going to use roughly the paragraph where it asks questions of priorities, successes, and challenges and questions, and I'm going to give some of those in this little opening.

That's right, Mr. Jerma.

I know one of my biggest priorities moving forward obviously with the school system is how I can support career and technical education here in Nelson County.

As we have seen with the COVID epidemic, we have seen careers change, we've seen requirements change, and we've seen a lot of people learn how to get educated from the household.

I'm grateful for the Board of Supervisors and Broadband Authority for our efforts and being one of the first municipalities to secure universal internet.

And I'm glad that we've answered the how, and of course we're going to work on expediting that.

But the next step is how is it that we can attract industry into Nelson County and make this place an affordable place for people to want to live and have a career, which leads me into the next comment that I want to talk about is the pupil situation.

Obviously, we know this is not just an issue that Nelson County struggles with, but really much of rural Virginia and America.

You know, I was speaking with Mr. Chief and as many of you know, I've grown up with some of your children and relatives and culture's changing, you know.

My generation is not having as many children as prior's have.

You know, for whatever reasons that may be, but it's going to be important that we address that on a cultural basis of what the future of that looks like and how we develop Nelson County around that.

And I'd like to get into that.

I'm not going to ask for this question to be answered immediately, but I'm just going to be curious to staff what the state is expecting on the pupil situation and what their estimates were.

I didn't get a chance to see what it's looking like, but maybe at some point after this, if that could be answered.

My next comment is about capital improvements.

I realize that is the biggest concern that many of you have.

I would like to model after Greene County, which has a Board of Supervisors, School Board, Joint Committee, I think what would be very helpful is if you had two Board of Supervisors and two School Boards kind of buy in together and say, hey, these are the concerns.

That way we can go into our budget session with two people who kind of bought in and can either explain or prioritize and assist you all.

in your planning.

You're right.

Ms. Turner-Drowson has mentioned the capital improvements plan that's existed to make the items that have been on there since she's been here.

Yeah, I've seen the same one over and over and over again, and we've answered just about none of them, other than the ones that were a major concern.

I would like to support creating a committee of two board of supervisors, two school board and county staff, and it doesn't even have to be something more than just giving a good suggestion.

because I think having that two board member buy-in is going to make it much more efficient and effective when it comes to our workshops and making capital improvement decisions.

Moving on into my next point, obviously, you know, we talk about some of the many issues that we have here in Nelson County and broadband was one of the biggest.

The second biggest is housing.

You know, many of our students are struggling with having housing access in Nelson County to be an affordable place to live.

And I think when we talk about prioritization of how we can increase that people are at the very least do damage control of the people loss.

We need to start talking about housing and internet and the equities around that and how you can be connected into our economy.

We have a beautiful place.

It's a wonderful community.

Even though a lot of people think Nelson County is getting over calculated, that's wrong.

Our supply can stay stagnant if not dropped.

So moving on from that, the communication is key.

I wish to continue doing two-by-twos.

I would gladly be with Mr. Parr and doing a two-by-two.

This doesn't have to be a formal thing, and I think that's one thing.

We all know who we are.

We can pick some dates and pick some times and social distance properly and have great discussion.

I want to thank you all for doing this.

As the baby on the school board, I am appreciative to be a part of, for this group, the first joint board meeting.

I think we are way more symbiotic, probably, than we even realize and where both are at the end of the day.

Through the school board, between the board of supervisors, we really all do what's best for the kids as well as what's best for the county.

One, they each uniquely go hand in hand, I think really no doubt.

There's some themes that I think continue, everybody seems to be concerned and have concerns about continued discussions on some of the same things.

Strategic planning, people enrollment, and open communication, and I think as we move forward, I agree with Mr. Rutherford, I think it's a great idea, and one of the things that we've talked about is capital agreements are big.

I mean, that's really big for our schools.

We're at the point where

We can't continue to push off certain jobs because of the safety issues, not only for students, but for community members who use those buildings.

So, you know, in the interest of being collaborative, I think it is a great idea to create that committee and work together.

I think at the end of the day, we do want to invest in the system, we want to invest in the system, we want to invest in the system.

And at the end of the day, I think that planning starts here with us and everybody moving forward, whether it's collaborative,

Until we can get this school operating budget under control, we can get rid of all these capital plans and all this other stuff.

Right now, we'll require, I believe it was, I required the state requirements of $7.5 million.

Is that correct, Dave?

Well, we could do some other $7.5 million, 100% of the county's money.

With an increase as of this year, I don't know if we've got more to go to make it better, but you asked for $800,000 in addition behind all these people and you have asked for more than what our taxes will produce more.

Our increase in taxes to bring in is

Right at or below what you want for the school budget.

Now, to me, I've been wasting time operating capital.

If you can't get the main thing under control and get what we can, you know, the people of the county can only afford so much.

I mean, not everybody's got these great jobs and all these other things.

Some of them are living off of Social Security.

Some of them look about fixed incomes.

I mean, they can't afford to just keep any time you turn around, you know, some of these big increases again.

That's why I think we need to get down to the nuts and bolts.

I think there's a lot of things to agree on, but we've got, if you don't get your budget in control, you're not gonna see any of this stuff happen.

That's...

You know, there's some things I know that, you know, I think what you can teach, you can increase teachers this year, and some of it may be made by the state, but what we've been gathering is, yes, they're going to fund it one year, then it's dumped on in quarters.

So there's a lot of things that, you know, that we have got to get under control.

You know, I I certainly agree with what Brooklyn Airman has said, but starting with Mr. Barton, I think was

It's important for me because my concern for Nelson County is that I'm very proud of our school.

I'm really proud of what the administration does, what the school board does.

And the overarching goal for me is really, really qualified.

And the Board of Supervisors doesn't really have much control over them.

The Board of Supervisors, of course, can provide enough funds for the school board and the administration to do those things that they believe and want to prioritize.

But the Board of Supervisors does have the ability to set a tone.

And having this meeting is a great thing to do that.

It brings us all together and brings us closer.

The fact that the Board of Supervisors are able to be open

to the requests that are made by the schools and the fact that within our ability we want to meet those because I certainly believe that the decisions about where the financial resources are spent is really best made by you all and not us.

It's our abilities.

We have the ability to support you.

We have the ability to help make things happen.

We don't have the ability to compliment them or prioritize treatment.

I know that after the budget is set, there's always the possibility of y'all coming to us with a meeting and having us address that meeting fairly immediately.

I do believe the less that we have to do that, the better.

Of course, we can't predict.

To give you all the resources you need to be able to make those decisions as they come up, I think is imperative.

I like the fact that money left from your budget at the end of the year can go towards capital.

I think that's a really good thing.

I know I'm not speaking for everybody on this but I really do because it gives you the opportunity to meet the benefits of how you run things up until that time and kind of plan for the future.

I know you're not asking for the things you're going to need, but over the course of the year, many decisions are being made about you all.

And at the end of the year, I think that giving you that opportunity to benefit from that, you know, benefit from those decisions that you made, is a good thing.

You know?

But not anything wrong with that at all.

The other thing that the Board of Supervisors has the ability to do, besides setting a tone, is really communicate directly with leadership about those things that are important.

Thank you.

So, first of all, Ms. Irvin,

The number that we've got, the projected number for next year, was that the 1507?

Okay, that's the state's number?

Or is that our number?

That's our number.

So someone was asking about that.

That's what we're projecting as enrollment for next year.

So I want to start by first of all thanking the Board of Supervisors for allowing us to roll over money into capital projects.

from last year.

Those are going to be greatly needed projects.

You know, one of the things Mr. Rutherford talked about, CTE, and one of the things that has come to our attention is that the greenhouse at the high school is in terrible shape, because really not much has been done to it since that wing of the school was built.

And the glass in it is not even safe.

We're hopeful to use some of that money to rehab that because that's a very viable program that serves many, many students.

And it's also a safety issue.

And I also want to thank the Board of Supervisors and the broadband authority for all of the work and money that has been put into the Firefly internet

program that is going on in the county.

And I've said this to a couple of people.

I haven't been able to verify this yet, but I think we may be the first county in the state to have wall-to-wall internet availability once this is done, which is an amazing feat.

I view that as a game changer.

I think that is providing internet service, universal availability of internet service to everyone in the county.

Is town known to provide electricity to everyone back in the 30s?

I think it's that big of a game changer.

I think people may want to move here to out in the country if they have the availability of the technology to use and then take advantage of the scenery.

So along those lines, one of the things that we certainly want to talk about going forward is what do you all think the population of the county will look like going forward?

when they're all here, and also total population.

And certainly housing does go along with that.

We need housing at all levels, honestly, at this point.

I mean, we need affordable housing, we need middle-income housing, and we need higher-end housing, which will almost certainly require subdivisions and things like that.

So definitely out of my wheelhouse on that.

but we're interested in having that discussion to find out, not to drive it, but to find out from you all where you all see us hit because we need to be able to plan for those things.

I'm very mindful of, you know, looking at some of the reports that we have since 2007.

The enrollment in the school system has dropped drastically.

Also, the state's funding to the school system has dropped drastically.

As of right now,

State funds look like they're going to be $8.6 million.

In 2007, I think they were over $10 million.

At the same time, Mr. Harvey, to your point, the county's contribution to the school budget has gone from a little over $10 million at that time to over $15 million at this time, or close to $15 million.

I don't have the number exactly in front of me.

I would point out that seven and a half, you're 100% right, that's the requirement for the county.

But that $7.5 million is to meet the SOQ, the standards of quality.

And the only thing I would say to that, because I've had this conversation also with our people in the school system, is that no one in the state of Virginia funds at the SOQ levels.

It's a matter of how much over it we need to fund.

And I think those can be part of a broader discussion

If we can work on a relationship where we can do both.

We can work on the budget and what makes the most sense because we don't have a taxing authority so we come to you all for the money.

But at the same time we could maybe work on with a capital improvement committee, subcommittee from both boards.

Maybe we can work on a long-term plan to fund

For example, we put a roof on the school.

We know 20 years after that we're going to put another roof on the school at that point.

To be able to work on this relationship so we have that kind of commitment, we are certainly doing everything we can right now to be as physically conservative as possible with the school system at this time.

Not solely.

I don't think it's solely based on pupils.

So the deposit index is adjusted by the state every two years.

So that is one component.

As Northern Virginia does well, it's an inverse relationship to our composite index.

So it's a very symbolic component that you can use that.

are all of our SOQ project commissions and they're all funded on a per pupil basis.

There are also special projects and things that come through.

on the state budget.

What you raised in terms of based on that number that reaches out there that

They say we should have the teachers, not the increase, because they pay honor for the ones that are hard work for them.

Yeah, and then the others, we end up in the 100% salary plus 700% grades.

And that's what we gotta be careful with.

That standard quality thing, it's,

It's just a thing that it affects about three localities in the state at the same time.

It's a real negative impact.

But on the other hand, what they are telling us is you're getting all those tax dollars from say Wintergreen and some of the half rands and stuff like that.

So you've got plenty of money.

And it's true in a way.

but when you look at someone like Amherst, who I believe is the last number, they take like 20 some percent of the cost of education and the state pays the risk and I believe we have been about 50-50 and I think it's sometimes every now and then they tell us the other way that we're paying more than 50% of our kids' education but we don't

Gallowell, Dick Tashkoff, Stephen.

As you read most of the, some of the levels here in here, it seems like a fair fact that we're at .8.

I know for years nobody could explain this deposit index.

They hadn't worked anything else.

A bunch of us went to the Richmond one time and sat down in a room with some gentleman and he definitely explained to us what it was and how it worked.

And the thing is, when it's benefited 98% of the school systems,

or who is going to be a fool not to screw with it.

And what we always ask for is an exception to the rule.

Let us plead our case on why we don't think this is right.

We don't change everybody else in the state.

Just make it, you know, where we can get some kind of help.

I mean, Tony, you were talking about the positive indexes.

Amherst Composite Index is coming here as 0.3141, Nelson's is 0.5604, so the board really, you know, unfortunately in communities like us does fall back on the local authority to fund that difference and, you know, as a board that's not, we can't do anything about that, we can adjust and you were talking about teaching positions, we've netted a loss of over 20 teaching positions since 2014 to try to

right sides down to our loss of student population.

I hear what you're saying.

What can our taxpayers hold?

I mean, that's the thing.

And that's a part of that strategic planning.

I think we all are really interested in this.

How do we, you know, the school system, how do we draw more kids in from a strategic standpoint as a community?

What can we do to break, like you're saying, to transition and have a better balance potentially between retirees and families of small-aged kids?

And it's way more complex and way more private than what I can do, but it certainly impacts

The other side of that equation we also have to keep in mind too is while that increase in family growth absolutely helps student enrollment, it helps you all, it also puts pressure on the infrastructure of everything else we have.

I know that brings in income from the state.

And then also start to eventually, when people learn, attract families.

But to attract them, we also have something for them to do.

I mean, back and forth with smaller students, but the primary thing that draws parents with children is the quality of education.

But it's a mixed bag because of what you stated, but the quality of education is what draws people to your community.

And yeah, we have to work.

All these things are true.

I mean, you know, you want to make an education affordable, but you also want to make it better, or as good as you can make it.

And really, I don't know if this is an appropriate time to talk about this, but it really comes down to the teacher who provides the service

to the city.

And a lot of my ex-students are teachers in the school system.

And almost all of them called me up and at one point they said, Mr. Parr, I'm a terrible time.

I'm having a terrible time.

It's not working.

And I would say, good, because if you can go and do a

I said, well, the only thing that really matters about teaching is this.

And you have to be honest with yourself.

Do you like the students?

Do you love the students?

If you do, you'll find a way

become a good teacher.

And being a good teacher is, you can help teachers.

I'm going to tell a story.

I'm sorry.

So everybody's talking about money's here, money's there.

They are doing all these things to help their infrastructure and help their tax base.

I travel to work.

My son is the only one in my household that works in the county.

So when I was in high school, Mr. Norris referred to Nelson as a bedroom comedian, and we had not changed.

And that was back in 83, 84.

We had not changed anything.

If anything has changed, the industry that we did have is now gone.

So we're not, as a group or as a county, we're not trying to get that tax base in from where I can see it.

Then we wouldn't have to come to you and the monies we asked out for wouldn't be as big if we had a bigger tax base and money was able to be distributed around as needed.

Everybody said the same thing.

This list has been the same since I've been on the board.

Some of these things are needs, some of these things are safety issues.

We're not trying to create anything but a safe environment for the schools.

We try to be competitive with our salaries and all those things.

We're not asking you to make this some conglomerate school that we can then draw from other states.

We just want the best education in the county.

And then we can compare ourselves with surrounding counties.

That's all we're asking.

I know some of these numbers are big, but we are trying to, as a board, look at these things and try to help each other so we can get these things dialed down to where we can come to y'all with a reasonable number.

So we don't have to listen to, you know, y'all are asking for too much money.

You know, the salaries are where we try to be competitive.

That's all we're trying to do.

And we're trying to make the best learning environment for these kids.

Thank you, Cesar.

I appreciate your comments and that's going to help lead into what some of the comments I have to say.

You know, I want to address some of the earlier comments from the chairman of the school board as it pertains to where we see ourselves go.

You know, I think a fact and early indicators are supporting this.

Nelson County has a stagnant population.

The biggest issue we see is it's a demographic swap.

We have an aging demographic, as Mr. Harvey had mentioned.

We are a retiree community, and it's being amplified, obviously, in areas that have a higher tax base and create that, but they don't bring the things that are important to a thriving community, and that's children.

And having, obviously, that impact is lack of state funding that comes with that.

When we talk about

The comparisons of Amherst to Nelson, you know, obviously there are a lot of similarities and there are some major differences.

As it pertains to subdivisions and whatnot, Nelson County has no road.

We have no major subdivisions coming.

We have no major affordable areas where people can have that only $900 a month rental property.

You know, those things are few and far between and those are what allow a working class person to live in a community like ours.

Otherwise they're dependent on

Family Support or they get into the inventory of rental properties, which is very small and almost non-existent.

When we look at the future of Nelson County, it's a scary one in a way.

We don't have major supply increases.

We have a stagnant, if not loss, increase of housing.

Obviously, the internet question is an amazing one.

Do I think that will increase our population

Slightly, but the biggest indicator of an increase in population is increase in supply.

Otherwise, all you're doing is replacing a household that once used to have a family with another house, with another family into that household, which isn't an increase.

It's just maintaining what you got, which is important.

And I think it's important that we preserve those who live in Nelson County and try to keep them from leaving as Mr. Parr said.

That's critical.

We owe it to our people to do that.

And, you know, obviously education is a critical piece, but we as a board of supervisors,

and School Board have to start getting aggressive.

We have to start looking at these things as not just inconveniences, but crises.

You know, the affordable housing situation is a crisis.

The internet, lack of internet availability was a crisis and we treated it like one and guess what we did?

We got it done.

And it's important we start looking at these things and treat them that way.

And I believe that these conversations as opposed to us doing this every year, going back and forth about, no, it's you, it's you, it's this county, look at this county,

We've got to sit down and have this conversation of what we see it to look like.

I do see and want Schuyler to be a thriving neighborhood community like it used to be.

As of right now, it is a struggling community with the average median income that is like near $30,000, which is impoverished.

And we look at other things like infrastructure.

As David mentioned, yes, when we look at increasing these things, increasing population, we have to look at infrastructure.

and that's a huge dollar number.

Just ask Mr. Reed or I when we sit on the water authority.

Those numbers are not affordable.

So we have got to start looking at these things and treat them as such a crisis.

How do we attract industry?

My answer is career and technical education.

You can't attract people here until you have a population that can work.

That's a fact.

And you can't attract a population here so long as you don't have houses for them to live in.

We have to look at these things because they're all interconnected.

all the struggles that we have and of course a high quality education is an important thing and I just want to say one thing that's very important and I hope we can echo this to our state representatives the commonwealth has failed you and they failed us they've made it to where a struggling community like ours have to figure out a composite index of 0.56 a number that not many counties have to deal with

and create a war zone between the school board and the board of supervisors when they're the ones who create these mandates that are unfunded and then all of a sudden somebody's trying to figure out who's going to foot the bill when in fact it was them who made the rule and that is a frustration that we've always carried and I hope that we can continue to echo our upsetness with our representatives on that so I can pick a better word but other than that you know

I think I agree with Mr. Chief.

We need to start looking at these things and asking ourselves where is Nelson County going to be as opposed to where is Nelson County at today.

I'll tell you where it's at today.

It's those things that I just mentioned.

All the things I mentioned prior.

I totally agree.

I think, you know, and it's like the

Dog That's Fighting Its Own Tail, where you start with a circle like that.

And right here is a great place.

We all want to talk to each other more.

There is a planning document, I think, that we're supposed to be doing every five years or something like that.

I don't know if we've done it in a while.

And where we can get the public involved as well, because I think that that voice is important to hear.

And I agree with you, too, that we need to talk to Richmond.

about as many times as we can.

Housing is my middle name now and so I agree with you wholeheartedly and you know that I know what goes on in this county and it's a two-sided thing.

You know what I mean?

We have

On 151, we've got the service economy that seems to be thriving very well, but nobody can afford to live over there who work there.

So they all live in other regions and drive in.

So then again, we don't get the benefit of their lives being living here.

It doesn't really help us because these people are making, what, $10 an hour or something like that.

They're struggling as well.

You know, we've been in a county where people, you know, you get two acres on your dad's place and you can put your house there and that's a huge deal and people can live on $30,000 if they don't have a mortgage.

But, you know, we gotta look at where we put people.

I remember somebody told me one time that their kids had to move away to live their lives.

And maybe if they were, you know, if they did it well, they could come back and retire here.

So, I mean, it's a

You know, you don't want your kids to leave.

I'd like to interject a couple of numbers, if I could, into the conversation.

So Mr. Perkins had made some comments about what we were trying to do and he was 100% right.

And we have to be competitive.

within our region to get people.

And so last year, some of us started looking at what the composite index said about the county.

So we use that as a barometer.

The composite index, we have the 26th, at least last year, we had the 26th strongest composite index in the state of Virginia.

So by that

at least 26 on funding.

We want to be running salaries about that, but we also have to bear in mind that we have to compete with people in our region.

And the two biggest players in our region are the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

That's who we have to compete with for teachers.

So just a little food for thought.

In Nelson for 2020, 2021, for starting salary, we rank eighth in the state, which is great.

That helps us attract new teachers.

But that salary remains the same for the first 10 years, up through the end of year nine.

So by the end of year five, with five years experience, that moves to 14th, and with a little increase from $48,411 to a $1,000 increase, we go from 14th or 8th in the beginning to when they have 10 years experience, they are at 24th.

highest in the state.

But then after that, it starts dropping off, okay?

When you get teachers, good seasoned teachers that have 15 years experience, the ones in the Virginia retirement system that I joke that you can't get out of the system after 15 years because you've been into them as far as the retirement, but the salary goes up about $1,200 between year 10 and year 15 is all that goes up, and that drops us to 47 through the state,

By year 20, we're 56th in the state.

By year 25, we're 73rd in the state.

And by the time our teachers reach retirement age with a bachelor's degree, they're 95th out of 132 school districts in the state of Virginia.

So one of our goals has been to try to get everyone all of the face cables around the 25th.

But like most businesses, if you view this as a business, our salaries account for a little over 81% of our total budget.

And unfortunately, the math is messy when it comes to the schools.

You know, if we lose 100 kids, does that mean that we lose, you know, three school buses?

No, not necessarily, because they don't come from places where we have just, you know, it's not a school bus load, three school bus loads of kids.

Same goes with losing enrollment for teachers.

And to what Mr. Rutherford was saying, I think, and Tommy, when was the first big comprehensive plan done?

Well, the big redo.

The one that was so thick, the big redo.

Well, right.

But at any rate, my point is it's been very successful because what it's resulted in is a tourism based economy.

We've got an excellent tourism based economy.

Unfortunately, we don't have anywhere for anybody to stay.

and there's nowhere else for the people to spend their money.

I'm all for seeing jobs coming in.

I think Mr. Rutherford's right.

I think we need to have skilled workers, whatever the job that you're trying, whatever the industry is you're trying to bring in, they're going to want to know what your skilled workforce is for that industry, whether you're looking for CPAs or welders or whatever you're looking for.

So I think that would be good.

I think we are definitely tied together in doing this.

We want the best education that we can provide for the money available.

And so we want to turn kids out of our school system that are able to go and succeed and hopefully stay here, but can succeed in any field that they endeavor, whether they want to get a four-year college degree or higher.

or whether they want to take the CTE route or whether they want to be self-employed or whether they want to go in the military.

So that's what we all want.

And so I like these conversations because we can, we can, you know, continue working together.

But I think just like with the broadband, I think we need to, you know, we need to, we would love to be able to have a conversation and where are we going to be?

Where do you guys see us in five years, 10 years, 20 years?

What kinds of things are happening because the tax base is tough.

I know it's tough in a rural community because you know we've got a rural maybe not all agricultural community anymore but it's still pretty significant and we have land use which takes off the taxes and things like that which you have to do because it's a rural area.

So anyway I just wanted to inject some of those numbers and just to show you what we're trying to do

And there are certainly unfunded mandates at the state and the federal level that we can't do much about on those things.

There's a bunch of those.

One of my first questions when I got on the board was, I remember when I was a kid, how many people were in the school board office?

But everything has changed since then.

Mr. Parr, you're up.

Housing is a problem, employment is a problem, all those things.

The things that I was addressing, however, had to do with what you talked about, the quality of education.

Can you improve the quality of education without spending more money?

And the key to that is the teachers.

And the key to, look,

When a teacher stays in teaching, the reason a teacher is a teacher is because of this incredible joy.

It is something that one does, which one would never give up.

A good teacher would never become a supervisor or administrator.

Teaching is, look, right now in Nelson County,

Teachers are hurting because the energy that they get is from the students.

From every morning, going to class, and whatever happened the night before, the students are there and they energize you.

They make you strong.

You, your teachers, you have got to treat them as professionals.

You've got to get away from them, you know, the unintended consequences

of the testing has really hurt teachers.

This COVID thing has hurt teachers.

Teachers need to be creative.

They need to respect them, being professionals.

It's not just teachers.

In this whole society, we find professionals don't take responsibility for what they do.

We have to make,

Teaching in Nelson County is an incredible experience.

And people stayed here for a long time.

You know, you talk about the bad, you know, the way, you know, you attract teachers by spending a lot of money.

You know, you need to make teachers feel that they are important parts of the community.

And you don't do that by dictating what they teach, how they're going to teach it, what hour, all those things.

You need to show respect for them.

Now, teaching is a community thing.

You know, whether it's the parents of the children or the children or the teachers themselves.

We have perfect-sized schools in our community.

They're perfect.

300 people is a perfect-sized school for a grammar school, primary school.

and everything is connected.

Good schools will bring more people, you know, and that sort of thing.

That's what I want to make.

I appreciate your comments, Skip.

And one of the things I will say is we have some amazing teachers here.

We also have amazing staff.

We also have amazing bus drivers.

We also have amazing food administrators.

We also have amazing, I can go on and on and on.

It takes a village to run a school.

And I think, I think we have all agreed that we are here

I also want to point out

Someone at some point was talking about the teachers and the number of teachers and I think it was Ms. Rockette that pointed out the number of teachers that we have lost.

Our school administration, and I certainly want to point out Ms. Shannon Irvin who does amazing work when it comes to get creative

and how we are going to work with a little bit of staffing that we do have.

Some of the things that they have looked at, the educational levels of our teachers, they have doubled up some of the responsibilities of individuals.

We have individuals that have stepped up into roles.

So I think we have gotten as creative as any county has gotten.

And I think that is something that needs to be highlighted because I agree with you, Skip.

Teaching starts with the heart, and that's what we have here at Nelson.

We have teachers that understand the importance of taking care of students.

And I think our job is to make sure that we create an environment that allows those students to succeed, but not just the students, but the teachers to succeed.

And just as Mr. Perkins had said earlier, that's how we're looking

A lot of the things on capital improvement, I for one cannot wait until that slate gets wiped clean so that we can start working on the things that really matter.

Working on the things that will help our students.

Someone over there mentioned about the CTE, that's critical.

That is critical now more than ever because it is the skills that are going to be needed out of this pandemic to move things forward.

And those are the types of things we need to focus on.

So I look forward again to an opportunity for us to dust off or create a brand new strategic plan.

And then we do that together.

I just want to add, that is pragmatic.

That's a pragmatic way of looking

Nothing idealistic about making an environment for teaching and for students and for that relationship to blossom and to grow.

I mean, not that it's not there.

Don't get me wrong.

I don't think it's not there.

But I think it needs, it's been injured.

I appreciate that.

You know, one of the things that we're challenged with, with not only the yearly operations at the school, it's, you know, we keep coming back, kind of the capital improvement information.

You know, Jesse, I know one that's been really important to Pal in the year to your pardon, and as a board, one of the things we're charged with when we look at those capital improvement funds, or those monies that are left over at the end of the year, is do we reinvest in those direct student hands-on education

like the welding, or do we have to take care of the safety concerns?

Things like video cameras on the bus, or even buses.

We got a report recently on buses in our operation, and you would be appalled if you saw the age of the majority of our school buses.

So we want to get to those hands-on CTE investments, capital improvement type investments.

Our challenge is, from a safety standpoint, we can't ever catch up enough to get to that point.

In those things like the buses, the bollards, battlers we talked about last time, things that impact student safety every day.

One of the things that we talk about is the quality of life in Nelson County.

And that's why we have the people that come in here to be part of the quality of life.

And the time we were doing the subdivisions and all that stuff, you cannot show anywhere on paper

where increasing school kids is going to be good for the county.

It's going to cost you money.

If the average house comes in and we're paying per school, if they've got two kids, you're losing big money.

So the thing to try to bring in more kids is, I'm not saying it's not the answer, but it

It cost us money, especially in our situation where our composite index is so high and, you know, that's the one thing that helps us so much is where our biggest tax base is, they have no kids.

Now that's the reason that's so beneficiary.

I think you probably have to worry if you have kids coming over to Wintergreen.

But, you know, it's a two-sided soul.

If you want to do all this growth and everything, and I have never been in favor of growth because it does not pay for itself.

So you just gotta figure out where you want your qualities at.

I mean, you want your qualities of life.

I mean, the Rockfish Valley's gotten so bad now.

It's your qualities of life that's really hurt.

When I get on planes, I put the traffic, you can't get it on the road.

We don't need any more development in Rockfish Valley.

Y'all can have anywhere you want them to go.

We need to relieve some of that pressure over there and put it on 29 and some other localities to build up some of these other areas that you've got to do things and promote things.

that makes people want to come here.

Now the internet is gonna be a big thing because before it was only in certain places and now, now it's gonna be everywhere.

So that's a tool that we can use that is good for it all, but the banks can work at home and that kind of thing, but you know, growth is not always a positive thing.

Increasing your kids in school is not so much a positive thing.

Let's go back and look what it cost to count and stuff for a couple of people to educate their child.

You see these people come in and say, well, I don't have any kids in school.

Well, if you ever had any kids, somebody paid for that education.

And that's your turn to take back on your turn.

And I would say I don't know that we are, as a board, pro or anti-growth, either one.

We have to take our cues from you all as a board because you all are going to set the policy within the county that's going to determine what the population is and what the demographics of that population is.

Young couples are not having kids anymore.

And that's where you saw that.

Yeah, you know, I think, you know, we can discuss this in many different shades.

I do think an action item that I would

National Improvement Joint Board.

And I think a two and two would be a great, great combination.

So Mr. Chairman, whenever that time does come appropriate, that is something I'd like to approach.

The second thing that when we talk about the strategic plan, the comprehensive plan, for the record, that's a $100,000 experience for the local government.

And it takes, Steve, what does it take a year, a few years?

to do it effectively because essentially you have to go through the planning commission and many different aspects of it then it becomes to us then it goes you know obviously you'll have some commentary so you know but we can do some immediate strategic plan and immediate goals for the board and I think you know the comprehensive plan needs to happen it's something that I think we already got

We voted to do it and it was a major undertaking.

We had staff changes and it got on the back burner.

And hopefully in the future, that's something we can address as a board.

And of course, including you all in the conversation.

But I think that joint comprehensive group can facilitate some of those conversations, you know, and those two-on-two meetings.

You know, I think we could have them as a big group like this.

I think some of the two-on-two meetings are going to be a little bit better and easier to facilitate.

But in terms of the capital improvement, I think an action item that I'd support and I hope we can get done today is doing that joint committee.

The only way the comprehensive plan works is when you get through this comprehensive plan, you've got to follow it up by some

If you don't zone according to the content of the plan, because at the time you get there, you start telling Ernie that, Ernie, we're going to make your place where it ain't going to be worth nothing.

Don't follow up by zoning, stick with it, and then you won't be able to make it.

And I have never seen a confidential plan pour off the shelf once put there since I've been out in the cold.

The only few cases will be if somebody thinks there's something in there they can try to pull something from there and use that right after it's done and after death.

And it's just a shame to spend that kind of money, but there's a lot, it's taking all the cars you can do in every six months, mostly every five years, to get us extra.

I am really, I think that we should move ahead with the CIP team

and I think we should assign people to that, right?

So that it's not like polluting, people should be on the committee.

I'm kind of asking and kind of telling that it's not going to be the same two people that meet every single time.

Like sometimes it'll be, you know, me and Cesar and Tommy and David Parr and sometimes

I think it's important to build the relationships, that we have that notation on the two by two.

The two by two should just be an informal thing together and, you know, have a few specific business ideas and then just talk.

I think that's important.

Just build a relationship with them and reinforce them.

The other committee, just having two from each board assigned, I don't think that's necessarily, I don't know, y'all might not agree with this, but I think maybe the two chairs should discuss it and make your appointments as chairmen from your board, appoint two people to that.

We don't necessarily have to decide today because I think that is such an important

that we don't want to just assign somebody today and they not be committed to that.

I think it's something that the attorney, you should talk to us and get feedback and George, you should do the same and assign those people because they're going to not float.

This could be really good.

One question that I would have would be timing, because I know you're dealing with your budget right now, if you speak, more or less.

We'll be looking at ours in 40 or 60 days.

I don't see how it's, I think it's just another

I don't think that we should delay it because of budget.

When do we not have budget?

I think sooner is better than later.

And truly I think the committee is

Look at it from two different sand points.

The short-term immediate, let's get this thing going and skip four people together next week and do something, you know, start talking about this budget.

And then also knowing that there's going to be another budget as soon as this one's closed out.

Working towards that long-term, ongoing conversation.

But let's not go into this and say, okay, we're in budget, let's wait until June.

We're in budget, let's get it done next week.

And same, piggybacking on something you said, George,

about the topics to address and you mentioned you know basically saying you know it's our role to look long-term and help you all solve your income issue and the budget issue and I get that that's true we've got to look at that as a short-term and long-term thing as well you know we also we need to understand right now we have $800,000 you got to figure out that's today we also have 20 years from now we've got 1507

1507, you know those are two same type of conversation $800,000 shortfall this year, student enrollment dropping $1,507.

That's the number I'm giving.

That's a long-term picture, something we need to address long term.

How can we do something as a county to not only bring the

Strain, you know, the infrastructure.

What can we do to offset that, like we said earlier, with some tax breaks to go with it?

That's a long-term, you know, long-term responsibility.

Short-term, we got to address 800,000, you know, so we need to look at this knowledge just one size fits all.

Anyone else on the school board?

Two legs at a table that's neat, you know.

We understand that you fund more than school.

We understand that you fund law enforcement.

You fund the service authority.

We understand all of those things.

So, like I said before, we're not asking you to just fund us, but fund the community and grow the community so we can all grow together.

That's what we're looking for.

We're not trying to just sweeten our pot.

The one thing that we don't want to lose sight of, and I think we're going to have to change our minds on that, that little fund, because this year, a lot of funds are total.

And it wasn't because they saved it.

It was because we didn't spend it.

And I think that's probably more than twice what that number number is.

And that's distorted by the fact that we didn't have in-school, we didn't have bussing, we didn't have all of this.

So you just got to keep that in mind because it's got to be.

four and a half hours left over every year.

And the other thing is, you can turn in a budget with no interest.

I'm getting smart about to do that.

And we have before.

We've had years where it's been totally down to fund.

And if you can't do anything,

others maintain exactly what we've got.

So we've moved into the what are we going to do stage of things, I think.

And so we're looking at two things that are really pretty basic.

One of them is the Capital Improvement Committee.

Two members from each board.

I think George and I could poll our members and see who's interested in doing that.

You know, get two people from each and then get those folks together and as soon as they can get together we can do that.

We also have, you know, the 2x2s, which the other members of Bullet Wars

would have an opportunity to lead George and myself to be perhaps my proposed, not on either of those, and that would give us the opportunity to meet with them, get what's back, and be apprised to what's going on.

I don't know if that suits you or not, but it would seem that that might be an equitable way to move forward and let those

So that the four remaining members do the two by twos, is that what you're saying?

Right, so we have two each on the Capital Committee.

Well, you know, have more conversations about those things.

Perhaps initially we could do that between, you know, there'd be three on each side including us.

Maybe we could have two sets of them in different combinations.

We can't do three.

No, I mean we could have two different combinations with those three and that would take us up to

So each board will be meeting the record meeting next week, correct?

We'll meet next Thursday and next Tuesday.

So in the meantime we could maybe select the CIP committee members between now and the next board meetings and then you and I can

You can kind of do the two-by-two and if you're on the committee.

Well, they're separate.

That would be a stat.

Yes.

Yeah, that's exactly what you're doing.

I think we all have enough time to juggle to fit it in.

The other thing I think we heard in the beginning of the evening was that people wanted to, maybe us as boards, have a commitment of how often we might want to do this.

I've always felt that this meeting, I've always got to speak twice a year.

I think they have come from, if we do the two by two and the committee, those things will come together.

I don't, I mean, I just think, you know, maybe three times a year, you know, so we can, that's a well-rounded number, so we don't, you know, lose focus on where we are, you know, every six months.

Then we got that one in the middle where we can still branch out from and feed from.

So perhaps the two of us can get together after we

Dr. Martin, and by next week, propose a date and then we might get started on that and project right off.

I just want to go back to one last comment.

In jail, the district court gets their budget under control until something we can afford it.

I think you wish you can go and follow.

Nobody can sit there and talk about the same thing the law is talking about.

Well, that is something we're definitely going to be discussing going forward.

My point is, what's going to happen when you go back to school, then we will know the reality.

We don't have a school degree out for me yet.

Mr. Harvick makes a good point and I know y'all noticed that there are a slew of question marks ahead of us about what things are going to look like and what kind of demands are going to be on our resources going forward and that is a good reason I think to support what we proposed here because y'all are going to have to be able to be flexible enough to respond to that

as it comes up and we can support you in that and knowing that we've had good communication leading up to it and as it's going on so that you all feel like you can do what you feel like you have to do.

And I think that's the best we can do at this point is to know that we've got good communication, you've got support and

Mr. Carter, Ms. Irwin, in terms of the money, we have two of the best people in the business doing what they're doing in terms of finances.

The experience of going to Nelson County Schools has been wonderful for so many students.

It continues to be.

And the schools continue to attract people because it's a wonderful place for them to go.

And then you can make it better.

I mean, just the attitude

of the teachers to feel that you, you know, there's great joy in teaching them.

And it was a great joy in teaching Nelson County.

And that will not be lost if we continue to

C. education has been really important for all our children, you know, that we have the attitude that all the children are people thinking for themselves.

I mean, it's just, this is a good place for you.

You know, if we have to raise taxes, maybe we'll have to raise taxes.

Tommy, one of the things that you've said, Billy Bradley, is to me that there are a lot of question marks for next year.

There's no doubt there are a ton of question marks whether kids will come back whether they won't.

But at the end of the day, we know that schools are born to kind of broaden the burden of responsibility through this entire pandemic with the kids.

And we know that when we get those kids back to school, whether it's the end of this year or the beginning of next year, whatever that is, we've got kids that are going to come back with probably a lot of compounded

Emotional issues, social issues, there are going to be some academic catch-ups, so whatever budget we're working on, there's not been a budget proposed, we've had a proposed budget, but we don't want to make a submitted budget this time.

We're going to have to take into account a lot of work that those students are going to need from a social-emotional standpoint, from catching them up academically, and whatever we present when that presentation comes will be with that in mind,

We've got a lot of work to do to help these kids get, not only back to where they need to be, but come back in the same place.

So I just, I hope you all will keep that in mind when you look at the budget.

Well, the failure is not what the school says, not what that teaches.

The failure is with the parents.

If you could train the damn parents to be responsible

And check the interest in the kids' education.

But I think you're gonna have some kids that you can completely lose for the whole year.

And we don't have any control over that.

What we do is we manage the kids systematically once they get there.

And so, you know, that's why I just say, I hope when you look at whatever that budget looks like, just know that we're

Yeah, just to echo that, we do not have control over that.

But what our job is, is to meet people where they're at, and to get them where we want them to be.

And that's what I want these two boards to do.

Yeah, when the students come back to school, they can know that they're important.

And the teachers are important.

You know, and that's part of what, that is pragmatic.

That's a pragmatic view.

The value of the universe.

Okay, if no one else has anything to add on the topics that we've discussed, Mr. Chairman, we're ready to move to final comments, right?

This has been an awesome meeting.

What a great first step.

This final meeting is at the end of this.

This is just the start, so thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me be a part of this.

I look forward to what I hope will be lots of great work in the future.

I'm like, absolutely not.

Notice that we sit here and just try and make everything look good, but it doesn't look good.

And we've got to be able to work together.

Anybody got to think this forward, think about something very partial to the school system in the last 20, 30 years?

I'm just excited that again the meeting has actually taken place.

I'm more excited that we just might get some dates on your calendar for future meetings.

What I'm told is that those dates will remain and that we do remain focused as two boards to meet together and to spend time together working on not only what our students need but what our county needs.

You know, everybody always, you know, I would come here, the students are the most important and all that, and many times people, they lip service to that.

But children is really what we live for, you know, all of us.

and we do the best we can.

It can be done.

It can be done.

Children can be inspired if they feel safe.

And I'm not talking about if they feel love.

It works.

And that community of schools can

and it makes the teachers feel so good and all those things.

I don't really have anything to say to add to this either except for thanks for putting this together.

You guys did a great job.

It's always great to see your charming faces.

I got to watch that family meeting on YouTube the other day accidentally.

It was really interesting to watch you guys, you know, have your relax meeting together.

I appreciate you two more than you guys might believe.

But anyway, thank you very much.

This is going to be super productive.

One thing that I did the school board before and I'm back again,

Again, to echo many of the other comments, this is a very productive meeting.

I do look forward to the continued conversation, not only just in the logistics of thinking of capital improvements and the regular budgetary needs and our concerns.

I look forward to a better future for Nelson County as a whole.

Obviously, our children are a big piece of that, but overall, it's every single person who lives in this county that we're interested in their future.

And I have this to be a very viable, healthy, and safe, and economical place to live.

I do think we're going to make some great strides.

You can add me to it if you want, Mr. Reed.

But I will say I would like to have more in-depth conversations on career and technical education.

And I hope that with permission from staff that I can continue those conversations with some of the staff and seeing how I can

I'll facilitate with some of the relationships I have in the region.

So I think that post-COVID is going to be the next step that we grow in this county, is focusing on that technical education.

So thank you, Mr.

So I appreciate everybody coming out.

To do this, like I said, I hope it's the first of at least a couple more weeks.

I've listened to everybody.

We need to work on the diversity in the schools, outside the schools, because the world is changing.

Well, this has surpassed my expectations on a lot of levels.

It's been a real heartfelt afternoon, which I didn't expect going into it.

And my commitment to the quality of life and quality of education

still here for all of us and I look forward to working with Mr.

So I'd like to thank Chairman Reed.

I'd like to thank the members of both boards.

One of the things that I love about this is not only was it a free exchange of ideas but looking around the room we have such

as far as their backgrounds and what they bring to the table and their discussions and their viewpoints, whether it be experience or the job fields that people are in.

And I think this is going to make for a tremendous working relationship.

Very excited that we've had this meeting.

Very pleased with the outcome.

And Mr. Harvey, to your point, there are a lot of tough decisions

All I can do is pledge to you that we will do everything we can to work with you all to bring the cost is you know do the best we can with the cost so again there are so many moving parts to this you know but you all have been such

You know, we had a big meeting and had a lot of tough questions for a lot of people, and we did a lot of walking, and we saw them with pride.

Once every once we all, all of us understood, and we all learned a lot.

And so I look forward to it.

Whose document is this?

The blue and green highlights.

Is that Candy's or Candy's?

You can't wear it next time.