Good afternoon everyone. It is my pleasure to bring this July 16th business meeting of the Albamar County School Board to order. We will be beginning our meeting tonight with a closed meeting. Do I have a closed meeting motion?
>> Uh yes, Chair Berlin. I move that the school board of Almor County, Virginia, go into a closed meeting as authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act section 2.2-3711A 2-3711A of the code of Virginia under subsection one which authorizes the discussion
consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment and the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees
of any public body. Purpose of this item is to review three recent personnel issues. Second >> moved by Mr. Dylan Beck, second by Miss Lee. All those in favor of moving immediately into close session. >> I. Any opposed? We will now move
immediately into close session until 6:30. We will be in conference room 241 for the school board. Miss Berlin, Dr. Berlin. Everyone, it is my pleasure to reconvene this July 16th Alberar County School Board
business meeting. Do we have a closed meeting motion? >> Yes, we do. I move that the board certify by recorded vote that to the best of each board member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the opening open meeting requirements of
the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting. >> Second move by Mr. Dillenbeck second by Miss Bilman. All those in favor?
>> I. Any opposed? [clears throat] That motion clearly passes. Well, welcome everyone. Um uh Ms. Osburn is as ab is absent today. Um Miss Lee is here. Um we are going to begin our
meeting um with our roll call. Um, Miss Stone, will you introduce introduce yourself to the uh Erin Stone, assistant division counsel sitting in for the chief legal officer? >> Chandra Hayes, Aging Superintendent.
>> Uh, Bob Beard, Samuel Miller, district. Jim Dylan, Rio district. >> Allison Spilman at large representative. >> Rebecca Berlin, Whiteall district. >> Judy Lee Raana district. >> Kate Akov, Jackwitt. >> Good evening everyone. Pat Mclofflin, assistant superintendent for strategic
planning. >> Jason Grant, chief communications officer. >> Daffany Kaiser, assistant superintendent for community partnerships. >> Rosyn Schmidt, chief operating officer. >> Dan [clears throat] Reading, chief HR Officer,
>> Christine Thompson, clerk of the board. And thank you to our officers who are here tonight to protect us and protect us in our community um every day and every evening. We will now stand for the pledge of allegiance.
>> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and liberty and justice for all. >> We will now po pause for a moment of
silence. Get it. Thank you very much. Our next item on the agenda is the approval of tonight's agenda. Do I have a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda? >> I move we approve tonight's agenda.
>> Second. Moved by Dr. Akoff, second by Miss Lee. All those in favor of tonight's agenda. >> Any opposed? >> I am very excited um for our spotlight of education today. Um I would like to
welcome Lena Barnes from the science department to the podium. Um and we will have Alamar County's um high schools 2026 NSBE Junior Summer Academy students who will presenting to us.
We are excited for you guys to come forward. Welcome. And it looks like you brought a lot of fun things for us to learn about um and hear about. >> Okay, I did. We have I want to say good
evening. My name is Pearl Early. I serve as the National Society of Black Engineer Nesby Junior Preol Initiative Program Coordinator. It is an honor and a privilege to present our divisionwide educational
program which has proudly served students for the past 17 years. Each year we select 15 students to participate in our partnership between Almont County Public Schools and the
University of Virginia NESBY Junior Summer Academy. This partnership provides students with hands-on experience in engineering leadership, teamwork, college readiness
while inspiring them to pursue career in STEM. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the school board and the previous boards for your continued support for this program. Your
investment has made a lasting difference in the lives of our students. I am so proud to share that many of our instructors are NESBY alumni. One of our teachers is with us today
returning for his second year. Their commitment, demonstration and last impact of the program has former participate participants from back to mentors to inspire next generation.
I ask the board if the students run over their aotted time, I [clears throat] respectfully ask that you extend the students additional time to complete their presentation. At this time, it is
my pleasure to turn the presentation over to our National Society of Black Engineers students of Almar County School Division as well as the University of Virginia. Thank you.
[applause] All right. Sorry about that. >> All right. Um, good evening everyone. Uh, I'm going to turn this over to our students who are just going to go ahead and introduce themselves. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Jaden Ag. I'm a rising ninth grader going into
Alphamar High School and this is my first year with the NESBY program. >> Hello everyone. My name is Dalon Israel Hampton. I am a rising senior at Almor High School and this is my second year at NESBY Junior Academy. [clears throat]
>> Good evening everyone. My name is Joshua McDall. I'm a rising senior at Elmor High School. Um this is my third year with the NESBY Junior Academy. Good evening everyone. My name is Alex Kane and I'm a rising tough player in Albamar High School and this is my first
year in NASBY. Unfortunately, we don't have all of our students here with us tonight, but that doesn't mean we didn't bring along their contributions with us. Um, and with that, we're going to turn over to our staff. >> Uh, good evening. My name is Clifford
Brown. This is my second year working with NESBY and also ACPS. I previously graduated from Howard University and I'm a current graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. All right. Hi everyone. My name is Navian Francis. I am the lead engineer
instructor for this year. It's my first year with the Nesby Junior program. I'm a mechanical engineering PhD student at the University of Virginia graduate um research and teaching assistant. Thank you so much. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Stanley Lewis Speed the Jr. I currently
work at Journey Middle School. This is my first year as an instructor with the Nesby Junior program. I'm a graduate of Elizabeth City State University and also got my masters of mental health counseling at South University. >> Good evening. My name is Lenica Barnes.
I am a current ACPS um teacher. I will be moving to the ACE at Lambslane um academy um this year. and I'm currently a science teacher. I also teach biotechnology and the diversity resource teacher and the pulp studio co-lead. Um
and I also have the honor to thank um Miss Jess Mason who is the ACPS um special education teaching assistant at Alamar High School, Mr. Thomas Shansy Jr. ACPS um student security office and also um a huge part of our team. And
although her name is not here, we also want to thank Miss Tyrese Ayes for her support of the Nesby Junior Summer Academy. [clears throat] >> Community and communication. Before we touch a robot, we build something more important, a foundation. Communication
helped us become a team. Community helped us understand why the team mattered. I think these two belong together better than any other pair because they are both fundamentally about people. As you can see from the photos on the left and right hand side, we played
games, had discussions about current and historical events, which brought us closer together, not only as a group, but as a family. Not only did we build robots, we built resilience. As you can see on the left, the bullet points highlight steps that we commonly see in the engineering
process. My team and I went through this process when we worked on the mini bumpers. That yellow one you see on our left. At the start, things were going smoothly until we realized that we were given faulty batteries, missing screws, and very poorly 3D printed parts. So, we did
what engineers do. We used parts from other robots, and we utilized tools from Mr. Francis's lab. Mr. Francis. Um, in the end, our robot may have been an operational failure, but our engineer was a success.
>> Oh, um, from guiding from guiding each other to making bite dance, here are our building steps. We learned four important steps. Be clear, follow the right orders, fix mistakes, and repeat. In the human robot challenge
and when coding our rover robot, we used these steps to give commands, test codes, and adjust when something did not work. These steps helped us keep improving until our robots move, turned, and made the shapes that we wanted them to make. Some pictures are on the right
and left of the screen. LS um a robot dog baked dance. We program bite um black youth tech um education or something like
we had to be clear. Every robot every move that bite made had to be a persist command. If one wrong code it will break down the dance completely. And then we had to build up from directing humans to programming
robots and chronographing bite. Each step prepares us for the next which as you see um we had the spillos and the um mini robot over there. And sometimes our mistakes
if the if bite didn't go the way we expected to we will put this back into the code which our code was block code and then we ran the program over and over again until we found the correct code.
And now we would like to introduce you to Bite. >> Oh my god. Oh my gosh. Oh. Oh my god. >> For those of you who are watching remotely, THERE IS A ROBOT WALKING THROUGH [laughter] down the center aisle. So that's what people are looking
at and commenting on. [clears throat] That doesn't >> be getting this on. >> That is so Oh my god. >> I love it. But it's a serving time.
>> It's like a sci-fi movie happening in real time. >> Yeah. It's little thing. It's a little bottle thing. >> One second, please. All right, everyone get ready to see what your students have put together. >> One second.
Sorry about that. >> No, you're good. >> Oh, >> some space, please. People in the aisle. >> Okay. Can you see? >> Looks like it won't play through the speaker, but that's okay. Oh my gosh.
>> Stop it. [laughter] Oh my gosh. Goodness. [laughter] Again, [laughter] for those of you who are watching remotely, we are watching a dancing robot. [laughter] >> Incredible.
>> So cool. Oh my gosh. working. >> Oh my god, >> that's amazing. [music] >> Yeah, >> okay. All right. [applause] >> [applause]
>> Um, thank you guys so much for patiently waiting. This is the culmination of just your students which is just amazing. Um, we didn't already always have all the numbers that we wanted to because they have so many different programs that they do. You know, they're involved in their community and different things.
Um, so thank you so much just for your time. Uh, I'm amazed at just all the work that they were able to put into this cuz that might seem simple to some people, but we know the amount of teamwork, communication, dedication, and just everything that really went into that. So, thank you so much for your patience and thank you so much for your
time. Thank you. [applause] Oh god. I was walking out. [laughter] [laughter] >> I cannot speak. >> Can we get volume on that?
Is it really low? I want to thank the Nazing wrap up. I want to thank the As you wrap up pressure into >> No, This just the microphone we're getting. The video is really low, so I
don't know how >> Oh, yeah. I don't know how much. We can bump it up a little bit. Thank you. And I'm I'm hoping that what you have what you've experienced here tonight with your students, our
students, your support is really, really important. And this is always 17 years and look where we are again. Thank you. >> Thank you.
[applause] I have to say that was the coolest thing we've ever witnessed from up here. That was really impressive. >> I know we may have a couple more, but before you before you break that down, I think we may have a few questions or from the school board. lines for the
students or for >> those early um >> your questions. Yes. >> Do you have a theme each year in the program? Because I know I went to the presentation a few years ago and there was a microscope. I mean there are different kinds of projects that the students did. Do you have a different
theme each year or do they always select what they're going to do? Well, we collectively come together and decide what they want to do. Um it's not just me but my job is to bring the creative
ideas to the students um and let them birth out what they want to do. My job is also to make sure that the materials are there, the parents are on board um and that it is a
communication as well as community. And I think that's really important because our students need to learn what community as well as becoming and
being good citizens. And through what you have seen tonight will allow students to learn about all of that. We have middle school and high school students. They work together and you would have known that they were in
different grades. because they learn to work together. They learn to listen to each other, which I think adults need to work on that as well. >> Amen. >> And so, yes. And Miss Lee, thank you for
your support always. >> Of course, I I'm so impressed by this program and every year what you all are able to do and especially this year with the robot dog. a little bit disturbing, but also I [laughter] I appreciate the
um presentation showing the community and the communication because there is so much more to science and working than just the science. It's it's the community. So, thank you very much. >> And you must keep in mind and then I'm going to close my mouth. We're looking
at the future. Technology is the future. Matter of fact, is running us now. It's guiding us now. AI has I mean really think about it. So we either need to step up to the plate and do what we need
to do and support these students in all the areas that they need to become good citizens one outstanding students two and three go and three lead the
country. Alamar High School, Alamar School Division should be able to do that. Thank you. >> ABSOLUTELY. [applause] >> I' I'd love to ask one um question of a brave student or all of the students. You know, one of the things I always
think about is particularly during the summer programs, you know, there are these special times where you come together and work on products. As you think about it, like if you had your wish, what is something from this summer um and this program that you would love
to see in your science classes, your math classes? Um something that was lifted up that could be continued. Um I would be curious to like things that we as we you know as we the school board part of our job is to is to to think
about the budget and to support the budget process. And so we are already beginning to while we're just starting the school year for next year, we're already beginning to think about what priorities are for the following school year. So I would love to hear like what are some things you think would be helpful to have within your classrooms
um to you know to provide this like hands-on engagement. >> Um I really appreciate the question. Um, as a student here at NESBY, I could answer um, the most important thing that we can have as in our classrooms would be freedom of creativity and the
opportunity to always work with each other. In classrooms, we're often just handed a packet and we're handed the materials that we needed and we're expected to do things on our own. And I don't think that's the way students should operate. I don't think that's the way that students should learn growing
up especially. Everybody needs to learn how to work together and that's good. [applause] >> You have a you have an audience behind you and you have a school board behind you as well on that. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate that. >> I think we have one. Did you want to say something as well? >> Yeah. >> Come on, please.
>> You don't have to, but I just it looked like you wanted to. >> Hi. >> I think um basically um you know how AI is being used. We should use it. We should use it to help us, not to cheat, not not anything because like grammar
for example, it's using AI to help you write, not do the entire paragraph on your own. And I feel like it is a significant because people always say that AI is going to take over our jobs, but in reality, here's what we should
do. Use it to our advantage. like answer ask questions about it. Ask like like can you summarize this in something like to guide you to the answer. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. [applause]
>> As you said, these students are our I I I always hate to say future because they are our present, right? Like they currently are changing the world. Like they we don't have to wait till they're 18 to change the world. like they are currently changing the world. And I think it's important to acknowledge not not to say you have to wait till you're
18. Like they are currently changing the world. They're currently supporting their community, working with each other. And they make me feel very proud as well as just very confident in what's going to happen in the in the future. So, thank you so much and thank you to all the the leaders and the and the and
the teachers and the support people who make this happen. Uh we so appreciate you. And maybe we want to keep the we have a long meeting ahead of it. We might want to keep the the robot dancing to keep us all um [laughter] it's to keep a smile
on our face. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> The next item on our agenda 4.2 is school board superintendent and committee updates. I'm checking uh and I know um last week um Dr. Hayes um started a um a plan a
tradition of some updates and so I will defer to her to begin if that's okay with my peers. >> So there's just two things I wanted to follow up on from last week's meeting um when uh Principal Ratcliffe from community lab school shared one of his goals was to uh increase the enrollment
of his e elelll students uh to mirror that of the school division. And so I've asked um Miss Ayanna Mitchell, the director of equity education, to partner with him um and his team to develop a plan to address that goal that he has and we'll bring back information on the
plan and hopefully at the end of the year we'll see um an increase there. And then also um I've asked Miss Monica Kabarcus who is the um secondary ELA coordinator to come to a board meeting in September to provide an overview to
the board um some of our new board members and the community around our process of reviewing literature that is in our um classrooms and our school libraries um and more information as relates to the law that was passed in 2023 around parental notification ahead
of the usage of mature materials. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> Other announcements. >> Madam Chair, I have an appointment to announce. I'd like to appoint Lindseay Hower to the school health advisory
board. Lindsay is the director of office of community outreach and engagement at the UVA Cancer Center and she'll be an excellent uh member of this board. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And thank you um uh to her for her service to our community.
would you want to buddy if you >> Right. I'm uh shamelessly plugging uh the Albamo Foundation for Education. We have the back to school bash on the 9th which is a Sunday before school starts. Uh and we're still looking for
volunteers, still looking for donations. Uh it's going to be a great event with back uh backpacks filled with school supplies. um with I think haircuts, uh athletic um
exams, vaccinations, uh and it's going to be held instead of downtown, it's going to be held in the county at the old JC Penney. >> Thank you so much. Would you remind us of the date of the >> Sunday the 9th? I think it's Bob, is it
10? >> 10 to 2 12 to 4. >> 12 to 4. Okay. >> 12 to 4. >> I I had some of it. those. >> Yeah. >> And that is on that is the Fer Square Mall, the J C Penney, old J C Penney part and that is on the bus line, >> right? And they're volunteering
opportunities to pack the backpacks to set up the the site to be there to hand them out and then clean up detail after. >> Thank you so much. Any other updates?
Seeing no other updates, we're going to move to the next agenda item. We have moved a few things around there. It is what is presented, but just I want to explain. So, as I spoke um at our last board meeting um we had um comments on
our public comment um and we have done a review of a a lot of policies and one of them is our public comment policies. So, I am going to invite uh Dr. Jason Grant, chief's comm officer. Um Oh, you moved. Um to come up and to explain to the the
board has reviewed these, but to explain to the board and the public um the updates to these. We wanted to do this before public comment because if we if we as we vote, if this passes, those will go into immediately into immediate effect. And I just wanted to take a moment to again um thank everyone in the
public for um their suggestions on these. Yeah, madam chairman of the board, Jason Grant, chief communication officer. Um, hard to follow a dancing robot, but here we are. Um, so as we go through a couple things, the the main thing we looked at is with policy BDDH.
That is the policy that guides how we manage um the public comment period. It looks like a lot of markups. All you all have that uh packet there in front of you, but really it's codifying. It's taking some of the things that were in procedures, putting them into into the policy to make it clear to the public
and then being a little bit more specific so there's clarity around what is expected. Um, as you notice here, the first part of this are some of the general rules members of the public including students are encouraged to attend. Um, board uh sets aside 40 minutes for public comment time at the beginning of each business meeting. Um,
and it specifies business meeting because sometimes you'll have special meetings or other meetings where there may not be a public uh comment uh there. So, just make sure people understand that. um within those uh 40 minutes uh individuals can sign up prior to the start and it gets three minutes of speaking. If there's um 13 individuals
then we drop it down to two to make make sure we can maintain that. If there's more than 20 speakers then we have a a lottery system, right? So by lots they'll draw who those are and they get two minutes each on those. Uh chairs one with the authority to um enforce this and the board and their majority can
make amendments to these limitations as they deem necessary. So there's a specific meeting that you feel you know what we need different types of parameters around this the board as majority can take that motion up and do that with any board meeting. Um again the chair is responsible for maintaining decorum and so there's a rules of
decorum we put here to be clear this is where it became somewhat uh was more ambiguous in the previous policy or what are those rules of decorum so we want to codify that a little bit um they still addressing the school board as a body I think I'm loud on these things uh speakers can refer to should not be um
they can refer to board members this is one of the things that came up right so they can refer to individual board members division leaders staff when comments relate to official actions decision or matters within their authority. So clearly we can mention, you know, Dr. Grant didn't put something out. Like that's totally fine, right? Um
so as you go through that, but Dr. Grant's a total jerk that may not fall in line with duties, right? So as we go through just kind of give clarity around that. Um speakers have to refrain from these following things. They shouldn't make threats. They shouldn't use obscinity or profane language, disclosure of confidential information or private personal matters, or engaging
in conduct that would disrupt the orderly conduct of the meeting. Um the audience should refrain from speaking or shouting. applause any kind of verbal distractions um and creating an atmosphere that would be detrimental to the conduct of the meeting. Uh the school board members as members of this
under the quorum they um shall not respond nor engage with speakers during public comment. Um school board members should also limit their questions or remarks to the business before the board. So make sure that we're uh talking about the businesses there. Persons that are addressing the board. So this isn't only in comment. This is
any time that you may have a speaker come up and address the board. um they limit remarks to those relevant to the pending items and to answering questions presented by the school board. So people who are coming to speak stay on topic and again the chair is responsible for maintaining those rules of the quorum. So again laying it out being specific
and knowing where those are um the enforcement of the rules. This is a question that came up in a lot of the emails um that we had gotten as how this get enforced. So just being clear if there's a violation of the quorum uh the the chair makes that aware. If it persists, the chair can uh gavvel them
down from the lect turn. If they still aren't listening, then uh our law enforcement officers who are present can carry out that order. Um the chair uh can also call recess. If groups or individuals in the audience are violating the quorum, so we feel there's too much disruption, we can call recess, dismiss the room, and then and then re
uh come back together. That is the purpose of the policy. That's what we codified and laid out. We just want to make clear that people can see that. Um there's also in the packet we won't go through but you know what what is this what is it that we can speak to how the uh chair reads that the script of that
when it comes up all that language is there um not substantively changed in a lot of those because you had a lot of this but it wasn't um explicit in some areas. So if there's any questions I'll leave it at that. >> Would you go back one slide? I just want to make sure it says school board members to shel questions and remarks to
the business. Should that be public? I just >> No. So as you look at it in the policy um so as boards um are asking questions or making remarks it's about the business before the board so they're not off topic of what that board is as they're maintaining decorum. I think
that's the structure which section >> questions or comment um if you go back this specifically refers to business meetings. Historically, we have considered the first meeting of the month, the business meeting, the second meeting the working
meeting. And so maybe you want to substitute the word regular meetings or regularly scheduled meetings >> or incorporate both. I mean historically we didn't have public comment in working meetings. We do now >> but they have been >> differently described.
>> Did you get that Jason Mr. Grant? >> Yes, we can we can capture that and bring that into it. Um to your question about school board, I think that's line 28 and 29. Um if you look there, if that language is how you
want that language to be read through 30. >> Oh, I see. So the preciding I see what you Okay, that makes sense. I guess the one other question I have for the chair or for you is um
frequently someone is managing public comment and so is it that person who will and who gets the gavl. Mhm. >> So, but the the language of this talks about the chair. I mean ultimately it is the chair but
there is that difference of >> we can clarify as presiding officer um if that if that creates better clarity. >> Yeah. And I think that it does say that in the um document that's been posted. >> Make sure that's consistent.
>> Could you clarify um personal matters? >> Clarify what? personal matters on the slide. >> So under decorum. >> Yeah. So some of the issues that come up and this was looking at again looking at some other places that bring up rules of
decorum in there. Um if there's any private personal matters, those are things that are there [clears throat] are instances sometimes where people bring stuff to a podium to make public those which are not necessarily issues of the board or the school to make that aware. Um those could be gabbled down. So
>> yeah, but how do I mean that seems awfully vague. How do we determine what that is? >> We again we can strike that for sure. That that's that's the justification that's >> that is on line 25. Dr. Grant. [clears throat] >> Yeah. So again, we can strike private
personal matters. That's that's where that language is coming through though. I would suggest leaving it in and just saying something like um if it applies to only one person as opposed to the of interest to the public because we have
had people who have come up and talked about their own personal case which is of interest to nobody in the public except for that individual and I would want to make I would want you to make that exclusion. [clears throat]
So, I'm a little confused because um and I [clears throat] get that we're clarifying things, but you know, you're saying that we can talk about a school board member while we're up here, which is fine. Um but for instance, at the uh
the meeting in October, I sat here and listened to people say that I generally mutilated my kid. Is that something that would fall under this? You know what I'm saying? Like that's that's personal to me. That's about my kid. That's about my family. But where do we draw the line?
What is a personal matter? >> Well, that's excluded by the rest of it in the rules of decorum and not personally attacking the board members. >> It just feels great to me. >> It feels great to me. And I I know the piece on confident like
one of the the per first piece of this which is com we have had some some people share confidential student information like there like that is one of the things we want to make sure um that someone isn't sharing confidential student because it's a public meeting.
Um if there's something someone wants to bring to the board member they can bring it clo in you know in an email or a call. I that's one of the things we don't want someone to say if I like bring in confidential information because that is a becomes part of the public record and we never want kind of a person. So I think that that's the so
the first piece I think is um specific enough. I think the question is the second I'm just looking to my right to my left on the the other the second part of it. I think if we strike private that that clause the or private personal matters
if that's stricken most of these we can state that it still falls in line with that it has to be on actions decision matters authority of the board or operation of schools like it's still within the business conduct. So that that allows the presiding officer the ability to gavvel down if it is not
within the business of the board. So a private personal matter would still fall under it's not under the issues of the board on those instances. So then if that creates ambiguity I would suggest we could strike that clause and then it would still stand if the board feels
that that's >> provision. >> And so we would strike that on line 20 >> line 23 I'm sorry. Yes. >> 25. >> Correct. Line 25. The or private
personal matters would be stricken. >> One of the things on my mind just because we have it today, right? We don't always have a public hearing. We have a public hearing on on kind of specific policies. We have a public hearing on budget. >> Redistricting. >> Thank you. Redistricting. I was trying to think of a couple other options.
these do we need to make a statement somewhere that these rules apply to the public hearing >> or is that or is that or is that I mean in my mind they do like we should be using because I think part of this is you know one of the other pieces I heard
is consistency right like so we're going to make sure that what is posted that you see here that we post online matches what I read there is some but I just again for consistencies I want the public to know and us to know that what we do for a public hearing is the same
as what we do for public comment. So is that >> of this is public >> participation would just >> so it should cover everything. >> Okay. >> Do we all agree? I just want to again amb to this ambiguity thing. I just want >> I mean there's language in here about
not disclosing um student confidential student information. I think we should also have a phrase in there about ident identifying individual students. We always have that
>> I'm just I'm just I'm I'm looking up because I'm trying to think about positive negative of >> is that not is that not the same >> as disclosing confidential? >> Well, it's not necessarily confidential. You know who that this thing happened to
Kate on the playground. I mean that's not by definition legal. I mean confident >> microphone please. >> Pardon? >> Oh they just couldn't hear you. >> Oh I'm sorry. I mean confidential I mean a students I mean historically we've
always um stopped people from identifying individual students in their in their remarks. I mean, I guess a parent could talk about it, but >> um it's not strictly speaking confidential information. >> I think you can talk about whatever you
have the right to talk about whatever you want with your own child. I think it's just not disclosing >> other people's kids without permission. I mean, I don't you're getting into the weeds, but like in No, but like in an important way. No. Yeah. >> Yeah. We want to prevent students from being
>> identified and that's strictly speaking not usually considered confidential. >> Right. >> Could we could we just add [clears throat] disclose students names and confidential information? >> Well, I mean you can identify a student
by behavior like the the star football player at Elmo or you know whatever. There's other ways to identify a student. >> Yeah. But it like I but you to to Miss B Spillman's point like it is important to identify for a parent to be able to a
fan I need to a family actually to be able to um uh talk about their own student. So I >> right >> and you'll also there will be a challenge of managing >> smithing here I think. >> Yeah.
I mean, I don't think that um I mean, I think we're coming at this policy as uh thinking that like there will always be negative comments. I mean, I think if someone wants to come up and like say, "Oh, my kid won this thing." >> Yeah. Right.
>> I don't know. I mean, I feel like the con the confidential student information covers as much of that as is necessary. >> Okay. [clears throat] Speaking of confidential information, not exactly, but we do actually right now say in the notes that we ask the
people to say their district or their address. I'm actually not comfortable with people saying their address. If it was me, I wouldn't want to say my address. So that is I I don't know if we actually it might just be in the notes on the on the um website, but that's one
thing I just personally need we need to stop and I I want to make sure we don't ask people to give >> So it should just be your your district. >> Your district your voting district. >> Sure. Yeah, I agree with that. Okay, good point. >> I've been meaning to say that for a
year. So an ap and apologies that we have been asking for that. I do want I mean to say that usually what people do. >> Yeah, I know it's a pract >> right >> it's one of those. Um any other >> Madam Chair, we might want to add some
language to line seven. Uh the board shall set aside up to 40 minutes for public comment at the beginning of each business meeting or public hearing, right? >> If that makes sense. >> Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, are we ready for a motion?
>> The only again know apologies that for those people in the audience, but we do we wanted again we can come back to these. There has been a I don't know if it's this is like if it's a policy or rule or I'll use the word practice where a member can a
member of a group um and I can and I the AEA used this right they wanted to make a statement um before the before the um vote on I believe collective bargaining if I remember correctly and so there has been a practice and I don't know if it's
written or unwritten where where someone could request five minutes to speak for a group. Um, and that was something I was just say like I wasn't sure where that was written down, but it's been a practice we've used. My question is, is
that >> Yeah, I used it twice this year. So, again, I just again to make sure the public is aware of what their rights are and what are the things they can request. >> Um, is that something board that we want to include in this?
Yeah. I mean, I believe that the last time it happened, other members from the group just spoke anyway. >> The kid, so to me, I'm not sure that that is in practice useful. >> Okay. >> I was going to say the same thing. >> I just But I I want to say it out loud
to say if that is like but by not putting it into this at this point, we're not if someone calls and says this practice has happened in the past, right? And again, we can we can bring this back to the public and talk about this and there is feedback about that. But that was one of the other unwritten pieces that I just wanted to talk about.
>> And with lines 17 and 18, the board does have the ability to make a modification to any of those limitations. So if a circumstance comes up where you want to do that, you have the power to do that for a situation. >> Yeah. >> Any other updates, changes? So does the
board feel like I know I know uh Mr. Grant is has been editing this. Do you feel clear enough with what we have said to feel comfortable to vote on this? Because I would like to use it for the public comment. >> I do. >> Yes, >> I do. >> Yep. >> All right. Then I would move that we
would adopt the amended public comment procedures and policy revisions. >> Second. Moved by Miss Spilman, seconded by Miss Lee. I would like to do a roll call vote on this. >> And that's that's revisions as amended by the board. >> Yes. As amended. revisions as amended by
the board at 7:23 on the 16th. >> 16th. >> Uh ju just for clarification, Dr. Berlin, um the um provision of giving groups five minutes is on line 95. >> Oh,
thank you. >> This is a motion to approve as amended by the school board on July 16th. Mr. be here. >> Oh, so those are procedures, not policy. >> Yeah. So that can be changed.
>> Okay. >> Oh, so it doesn't affect this because that's a procedure. >> We can update those procedures and post those for the public. >> Mr. Beer, >> yes. >> Miss Mr. Dylan Beck, >> yes.
>> Miss Lee, yes. Miss Osborne. >> Absent. Oh, >> Miss Osborne is absent. Miss Splman, >> yes. [clears throat] Dr. Aub, >> yes. >> Chair Berlin, >> yes. >> So moved.
>> By a vote of six to zero with one absence. Um that uh motion passes. Um so we will now I'm just taking a quick look at the to see if there's any changes to what we just what we what uh I have the I have a new public comment guideline
that I am going to read. Um >> sorry. and we or and tonight we have a public hearing on the uh the misconduct policy and then we also have a um uh public comment.
Um I'm going to read these and then I while I when I get the the list I'm just going to say a quick something quick. So I'm going to read these new guidelines. The Alar County School Board welcomes public input on manage manders related to the schoolboard governance and
division operations. Members of the public may sign up to speak during public comment in the following ways. Online, sign up opens at 9:00 a.m. on the Monday of the meeting week and closes at 2 p.m. on the day of the meeting. By telephone, members of the public may call the school board clerk's
office to sign up on two till 2 p.m. on the day of the meeting. [snorts] In person, for meetings held in person, sign up is available at the meeting beginning at 6 p.m. and will remain open until the chair begins the public comment portion of the meeting. Public comment is not provided at special
meetings unless included in the meeting agenda. When there are 13 or fewer speakers, each speaker will have three minutes. When there are 14 or more speakers, each speaker will have 2 minutes. The total public comment period will not exceed 40 minutes unless the board votes to extend the time. The
maximum number of people or groups permitted to speak at a meeting is 20. If more than 20 people or groups sign up, each will be assigned a number and speakers will be selected at a random drawing. Those who are not selected may s may sign up to speak at a subsequent meeting or submit written comments for
the school board's consideration. When recognized, speakers should come come forward and state their name. I'm just making an edit to that. And magisterial district for the record. Public comment should be addressed to the school board as a body and should relate to schoolboard governance or division
division operations. Speakers may be referred to individual board members, division leaders, and staff when their comments concern official actions, decisions, or matters within the authority of the school board or the operation of the school division. All comments should be made in a professional and respectful manner.
Public comment is not a forum for debate or for questions directed to individual board members or staff. Threats, profanity, obscenity, disclosure of confidential student information, and con or and conduct that disrupts the orderly operation of the meeting are not
permitted. A timer will be used to track the speaker's time. When time has expired, the speaker should conclude promptly. Written comments and supporting material may be provided to the clerk for the board's consideration. to help maintain order and to allow each speaker to be heard. Please do not clap,
boo, or otherwise audibly express support or opposition during public comment. Those wishing to show support may raise a hand or stand. The board will not exch engage in discussion with speakers during public comment. Board members may address matters raised during public comment later in the
meeting other under other business as appropriate. Use of the projection system is reserved for staff presentations associated with the scheduled agenda items. So, let me just check my agenda. So, tonight we have two pieces to our public
comment. The first is our public hearing on policy. Um, and that that public hearing is on professional boundaries and prevention of sexual miscondent abuse. Um, as part of this, I just want to verify that as as you come up, um,
that what you are saying is related to the to the hearing on the policy. If you're if you signed up and were your preference is to just do a general public comment, which again is on all school matter business, um we can move you to just the the general public
comment. They're both given three minutes. Um I just wanted to clarify that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um so we have um seven people um signed
up for our public hearing tonight. Um, and I will call uh the first three people. Um, >> still getting >> Oh, Paul, I will not I will not call the first three people. [snorts] So again, first I will call the people
for the public hearing. Um, each of them will be given three minutes. Um, and then we will have our general public comment tonight. Perfect. Um uh the first three people are Jimmy Belal Blue, Daisy Roa, and
Heidi Gilman Bennett. Good evening, board members, superintendent, and other staff. I appreciate the work that went into the proposed professional boundaries and prevention of sexual misconduct and abuse. Every child in Alber County deserves to be protected, but after
reading the policy, I have one question. Why should parents trust that it will be enforced? The [clears throat] biggest flaw is the school division continues to investigate itself. Reports go to principles, human resources, and the title 9 coordinator, all of which are
ACPS staff. There is no requirement for independent investigations, no independent oversight, and no meaningful accountability for administrators who fail to act. A policy is only as strong as the people who enforce it. Unfortunately, my concern is not
hypothetical. On April 6, 2026, I emailed this board after speaking with students at Monachella High School who reported and described security staff displaying aggressive and unprofessional behavior. I further reported that security staff were adding female
students on social media, referring to them as honey, baby, sweetheart, beautiful, and commenting how great those leggings fit their body. Those are not professional terms and are inappropriate and clearly sexual harassment. The response I received from Chairwoman Berlin was simply, "Because
this is an operational issue involving employees, the school board is not able to provide information regarding this situation." That response illustrates exactly why parents struggle to have confidence in this process. When parents raise concerns about employees conduct, they
expect more than being told that it is an operational matter. They expect to know that the concerns are taken seriously investigated thoroughly and addressed appropriately. The proposed policy still does not [clears throat] require independent
investigations. It does not require automatic removal of employees from student contact during serious investigations. It does not require accountability. It does not establish meaningful consequences for administrators who fail to report
or respond to warning signs. Policies alone policies alone do not protect the children. Accountability does, transparency does, independent oversight does. I urge this board to strengthen the policies before adopting it. I also urge this board and really as a parent,
I demand that this board launch an independent third-party investigation into the events that happened at Woodbrook and Holly. If you folks sitting here tonight, some of you I I've spoken to, most of you don't respond to email, you need to place a vote forward
tonight to agree to launch a third party investigation. If there's nothing to hide, let an independent law firm that has nothing to do with Alberal County investigate it. If you need references, I'm sure I can provide some or any of these folks here in the audience. I can
assure you all agreeing with me. How many times do you need to hear what you need to do? If you truly cared, you would do it and do it tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Again, I I am asking that we uh standing is okay. Waving your hands is okay. I do
ask that we do uh do not clap. That's just part of the policy I just read. Daisy Roa. For the record, my name is Daisy Rojas. >> Rohas. Thank you. >> Um, I just want to say that policy is not the problem. We have good policies
in Almor County. I'm standing here to talk to you on the hottest day of the year because as a mother of four children who all went to Al County schools, I am hurt, furious, and scared. I've held several meetings and spoken to many upset families and educators. Some
of them are here tonight, and I'd ask all concerned parents to please stand up with me. Rather [clears throat] than my own opinions, I want to share some of the comments that folks have given to me and gave permission for me to share with you
tonight. And I will have copies for each of you. Parent one, I brought concerns up about what was happening but didn't get anywhere. There was a concerning lack of response from administration and the guidance department at Almor High School. Parent two, their plan did not
align with her medical advice or the recommendations of the psychiatrist they used for the evaluation. The school insisted she could do all school online. Kevin Kurs threatened me with court for her absences because she was unable to meet with the homeschool person while
she was hospitalized. No tutoring instruction was provided in a setting that felt safe to her. Instead, he advised that the alternative school was appropriate placement for her. He was to blame for the fact that she never did graduate.
Parent three, my nonverbal autistic child was coming home with bruises and acting out in unusual ways. I kept asking his teachers if something was different at school. After a few weeks, another teacher told me to call the principal and ask for the video of what
happened to him. I saw my child kicked and pushed by his own teacher. Parent four, Kevin Kurs, suggested putting an electric bracelet on my son's wrist. He stated that it would periodically buzz him to remind him to stay on task. My son was diagnosed with
severe anxiety. I felt that shocking him to get his attention was not an appropriate accommodation. Parent five, Kevin Kur, denied my appeal to reduce the suspension of my daughter who was assaulted by another student at school. He was provided with video,
photos, and even a statement from other administrators that she did not cause the student to to fight with her and attempted to step away multiple times. He responded to the appeal by stating that his decision was final and suggesting that an HR complaint be made
to Brody DS for the principal's failure to contact the parent in a timely manner. I even spoke to several current staff, faculty, and administrators who also had concerns about central office. Staff
number one stated, "In April of this year, 2026, an LE at Almeral High School was asked to resign and escorted off premises. Staff were told not to talk about it. Several teachers made complaints to HR about what was going on with students in his office. That was a
year and a half ago that the complaints were made. >> Thank you so much for your comments. >> Um yeah, and if you can give them to um to Miss Thompson and she will make sure we have copies of all of them.
Miss Heidi Gilman Bennett. Excuse me. Heidi Gilman Bennett, Samuel Miller. I support this policy generally, but agree that the policy is not the problem. I'm speaking tonight on the collective failure of central office leaders to
prevent sexual misconduct. It has recently been brought to my attention that an assistant superintendent has allegedly repeatedly over the past three and a half years projected a photo of me
in my college dance team uniform at central office staff meetings. up on a 60-in display, huge. Patrick Mclofflin would allegedly smile and nod, then disparagingly say, "There's our
family council president hard at work dancing." And make inappropriate comment about the type of dancing. To be clear, I was a dancer at Stanford University, uh, from which I graduated with honors in education. I was adorable
in this photo, by the way, from 35 years ago. Why? To discredit me. To retaliate against me for my data analysis of reading scores that led to the Bellweather audit. To humiliate me because I dared question his pet career
learning communities project and the cent's model. as a warning to staff not to report concerns, which they did not do for three and a half years during this allegedly repeated occurrence. On a
personal level, I'm with AOC and being proud of my dance accomplishments and um they were at Stanford University, right? So, I'm here tonight to let my girl and all of our daughters know that you can be smart and beautiful and a
talented dancer be taken seriously and change the world. But also, this behavior indicates a serious problem in ACPS. I learned of these incidents via an employees Title 9 and EEOC
complaints, which are far more broad and not my story to tell. For nearly four years, I have served as an unofficial ombbuds to families across ACPS who do not know how to get serious problems resolved. Families and students who have been actively or passively discouraged
from reporting harassment and discrimination of all kinds. When ACPS leaders look the other way, when Pat Mclofflin repeatedly mocks a parent and advisory committee leader, it creates an icky sexualized environment which numbs
staff to the damage of sexual misbehavior. It creates a culture of fear where employees do not feel safe reporting concerns, where HR passes the trash, and ultimately where students may be tragically harmed by sexual predators in our school. So, in addition to
passing this policy, I ask that Dr. Hayes remove the mediocre white male leaders whose bro club culture have consistently failed our kids. Thank you. Thank you so much. Charles Abby, I have a note that Charles
Abby is not speaking, but I just wanted to double check. >> That's correct. >> That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Um Joe Ellen Pasaric, Lisa Broadway, and Phil Reese. Hi there. Um, congratulations by the way if they're still here to the engineering
students. What a wonderful presentation. I'm Joel and Pizaric Whiteall. Uh, one thing I want to mention before I start. Did you all know that in 2011 the
Department of Education published guidelines to prevent sexual abuse in schools and that those guidelines uh require your review and update every 5 years? I think that if that were being
done, we wouldn't necessarily be here today. But I'd like to step back for a moment and consider where we're going next. How must a board deal with one of the most difficult cases or difficult crises
any community can face? Last week, a Holly me parent requested an independent investigation into what went wrong at ACPS. This request represents due diligence to
understand the failures and lay proper foundation to prevent them in the future. This request is standard operating procedure for a crisis of this significance.
You guys can't fix a problem that you don't know about or fully understand. And I think the previous testimony this evening has illustrated that point because you didn't know what you didn't know. We're now 40 plus days into the crisis
and you still don't really know what you don't know because there hasn't been an independent investigation. And frankly, as we speak, we don't know if there are other instances of sexual abuse occurring at ACPS.
So [snorts] why not get to the bottom of it once and for all? Why not send a clear message that this is unacceptable in this school system? You have a tremendous opportunity here to create
the impetus and the model for best protective practices. You have an opportunity to restore your credibility and avoid permanent reputational damage and significant enrollment losses.
The whistleblowers and the court of public opinion are watching whether you will do what needs to be done. Folks, an appalling 10 to 17% of school children report educator misconduct in
K12. This community needs authentic crisis corrective action. You have a moral and legal obligation to prevent foreseeable harm.
Please find out what went wrong and fix it. I lost my mic. Thank you so much. >> Please find out. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Lisa Broadway. Um I actually have a question first before you start. Don't
start my time yet. Hang on. I I want to comment on both of them. So I'm not sure like do I do it all now or should I come back up? >> Um >> come back up. I can >> Okay. Okay. So I'll just stop. Okay. So I'll stop halfway. Sorry. >> So this so this is the public hearing office.
>> This is the the policy. >> Yes. >> Yes. Um [clears throat] in the spring of 2019, I moved my family a thousand miles only for the Albamaro public school. That's it. That's I wanted my kids to go to the school and I
moved them thinking that they would have better opportunities and instead what I received was [snorts] my son has had his entire joy stolen from him and that is the onus of this entire
board including the ones who won't do me the decency of looking at me. My son [laughter] has [snorts] been failed. Like I said last time, I have asked the last time for an independent
outside investigation into this. I understand that the policy has been created and I appreciate that. That is what I asked for. But a policy alone is not going to make me trust any of you with my children ever again.
My son cannot go to counseling to process what has happened to him because [snorts] the minute that door closes, all he sees is sweetie. Trust is rebuilt through transparency, accountability, and a willingness to fully examine what has happened. And
Alamar refuses to take accountability. And you can say what you want, but you are not taking accountability in the correct ways. >> [snorts] >> Multiple accounts from staff and parents have come out since this saying that
they have brought their concerns about Sweeney to the assistant principal of Woodbrook and the principal at Hollyade. Time and time again they were ignored for three years. I made complaints against Mike Sweeney and I was told that
my child was a problem and that he needed he needed Mike Sweeney. It was only AFTER HIS ARREST THAT I felt any of my concerns were actually taken seriously. And I can promise you that even at this point, I don't feel like
they're taking they're being taken as seriously as they should. As both a parent and a special education teacher, I know that students with disabilities are the most vulnerable population that we can help. They often rely heavily on trusted
adults. My doesn't matter. We need to understand how these concerns were evaluated, how they were brought forth to the board or to the superintendent, and who is responsible for none of these things
being caught before now. My son, once again, is a black boy, A DARK-SKINNED BLACK BOY who wants to be a pediatric neurosurgeon with autism. [snorts] All of those factor into why he was chosen by this man and why it was so
easy to keep him with him. [snorts] And that needs to be understood. Thank you very much. [applause] Again, I I'm I'm sorry, but I ask that you [cheering] stand in support or that you wave your hands in support.
I'm just following the guidelines that we all just agreed to. >> Phil Reese. >> Madam Chair, can I is the microphone on? >> Just one give us one second. Apologies. >> Madam Chair, members of the school board, my name is Phil Ree. Next month,
my four-year-old daughter starts kindergarten at How Elementary School. In that same school, at least four students were allegedly sexually assaulted by a staff member. We just heard about the mom of one of them. This happened on school property during
school hours. If that fails to justify an independent investigation, please tell me what would. I've heard this board talk about new policies to fix the problems. I fully support in new policies,
but you don't really know what to fix until you investigate and know exactly what's broken. Now, this board accepted two resignations with no findings of wrongdoing. The superintendent is gone and the principal is gone. But a
resignation is not an investigation. A resignation protects the person leaving, but an an investigation protects the children who stay. Parents ask how four children were harmed inside a school, and they're always told, "We can't share that
because of employee privacy." But Virginia law makes employee confidentiality a choice, not a requirement. And our school division keeps choosing to put to put employee privacy before student protection.
But an independent investigation also protects this board and its employees, too. If every employee acted properly, an outside review will prove it and protect their reputations. But here's something missing from the sexual misconduct policy you're reviewing tonight. On ACPS's own
leadership chart, which you can find right on the website, one employee holds two titles. The Title 9 coordinator is also the assistant legal counsel. One duty is advocating for students who may be victims of
sexual misconduct. But the employees other duty is to protect ACPS from lawsuits. Federal law requires that Title 9 coordinators be free of any conflict of interest. So, please explain to parents
how this is not a conflict of interest. Some have suggested I'm seeking to make this issue political because I reached out to my elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, asking for their help. This is not a right or left
issue. This is a right and wrong issue. Next month, I'm supposed to walk my daughter through the front doors of Holly for the first time. She will spend time in the school library, but she will not know that she is standing just a few steps away from where something truly
evil took place. School board, your job is to put students first. Order an independent investigation tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Again, I ask that we not clap.
Uh, we are now moving immediately into our public comment. I have three people on tonight's list for public comment. Lizzie Bman, Phil Reese, and Lisa Broadway. Um, hold on, I'm a little short. Um, hello and thank you for your time this evening. My name is Lizzie Batman and
I'm a constituent in the Jack Dwitt district. I'm here tonight to discuss two different topics. Teacher and administrator administrator retention and the grading policy. All fun, a little different. Um I'm the mother of a rising second grader and fourth grader
at Greer Elementary. Um if you haven't heard, some things have been happening at Greer this year. But to put it in perspective, we have had over 20 staff resignations since our former principal was sent to another elementary school in the district. To give you context, we
normally have 10 max per year on average. One of the most recent resignations was one of our two assistant principles who decided to follow Dr. Saunders to Crosse. I will say that I have met our new
principal, Mrs. Browy, and had a meeting with her and Mrs. Newberry, our other AP, uh, our primary AP, and I trust that they'll be able to take on the helm of Greer to make sure that we are successful, and I'm grateful for that. However, there is still a lot of
uncertainty as we move into a new environment. It's a new school for all of these students, and this is a group that has the least and once again is giving up the most. What can be done to support our teachers? This is a huge turnover for
Greer. How can we make sure our teachers and staff are taken care of? I personally not say no to bonuses for all of them for their hard work and staying with the school to support these students who need them, but that's not for you to decide. Maybe influence. So
if you want to use some of that, that would be great. On top of Greer, we have Baker Butler with the revolving door of principles. And then we have Holly with an entirely different type of trauma. Who is taking care of these teachers? who is making sure they are set up to
succeed and have the support they need during these times of change. Not just the teachers, but the staff as a whole in these schools. And I'm most informed about the elementary side, but what about secondary schools as well? Speaking of secondary schools, this leads to my point about the grading policy. If we are going to support our
teachers in this time, not giving students a fair grade, i.e. maybe if they've done zero work, given zero effort, they should get 0%. is passing the buck to future teachers if students continually get passed. A little anecdote for you all. My rising fourth
grader took SOS for the first time this year. We felt prepared because on her homework and class assignment, she got a number grade. And when she got a 97, she said she was almost perfect. And I was like, very true. Good job. And good times. This helped shape and put in
perspective her mastery of the topic at hand. These grades also help reflect to the students how they're doing, how well they understand. 40% credit for no work turned in is not going to uh magically predict how well someone's going to do. In fact, 40% credit is not going to
prepare these students for anything in their future. This reminds me a lot of No Child Left Behind, which occurred in my time in school. Spoiler alert, many children were left behind. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Phil Reese, >> I don't have a pre mic, please.
I don't have a prepared speech for this one, so I'm just going to speak off the cuff. Uh, it's a pleasant surprise to having two opportunities to speak. Um, I want to read something from Virginia Code, Virginia law code 2.23705.1 23705.1
says this personnel information is excluded from mandatory disclosure but may be disclosed by the custodian in his discretion. What does this mean? I'm not sure if the your legal council has has informed the
school board this when people put in foyer requests or when they're asking about an employee that did this or did that. The school has the ability to restrict sharing that personnel information from parents, but it's a
choice. It's a choice. As I read right here, you're not mandated to give that to parents or people, but you do have the discretion to. And I hope that your legal counsel has informed you of this because so many times, not just with
sexual misconduct, so many times parents say, "Hey, this teacher did this and and a there might be a report there might not." Parents were left in the dark, right? And it and it's putting employee confidentiality first ahead of students.
And you know, at the school board retreat, I was there. What what did the what did they say? You're as school board, you're supposed to put the students first, but we're putting employees first and students are maybe they come second or maybe they're third, fourth, I don't know. The
students need to come first and their protections need to come first. And I I ask you to ask your legal counsel for clarification on what I'm telling you because this is so important. This is this is the biggest problem I see with ACPS is that parents are left in the dark. I'm going to share uh something. I
know, you know, personal stories usually are not as effective, but um my son's uh my son was his his freedom of speech and freedom of religion was um hindered by a teacher
and I requested a meeting with that teacher, met with that teacher. Um eventually the principal was brought in. The principal agreed with me that the teacher violated my son's freedom of speech, freedom of religion. I then asked that teacher, "Well, are you going to do an HR report?" He wouldn't tell
me. I had he would not even tell me if he was going to do a report. I had to do some sort of HR thing. I don't even remember what it's called to document what this teacher did. And still to this day, ACPS has never told me that they
did an investigation or that my that my son was correct, that his freedom of speech was violated. This is the fundamental problem. I hope you school board, you put students first, not staff. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Ree. Uh again, I I'm
asking again that the applause stops. Lisa broadway. this is easier for me to talk about. Um, so I'm not I'm talking as a parent who has other children still in ACPS and as a taxpayer. I'm in the Rio district, by
the way. Sorry. >> Um, I spent time reviewing ACPS's policies and their budget in the last few weeks. Uh, as well as their instructional initiatives. And there's a question that I kept running into and it was, "How do we know that the investments that you guys are making are
actually improving anything the kids are doing?" Um, we continue to face challenges with academic growth at Alam Marl County and like I said before, I moved my kids here because this school's district at the time was one of the best. It is now
falling. Teacher burnout, staffing shortages, continued cuts to things that the students actually need. These are all happening while the money is being put into these programs that are supposed to replace these people. Now, I did research the programs that
Alam Marl County pays for, pays a lot for, and 85, I would say, percent of them have absolutely no peer-reviewed evidence showing that they actually help student outcomes. Yet in favor of these, we have
routinely cut studentfacing positions. People who are trained and trusted to teach these children much better than a computer. I am not against technology. I think it is powerful. I think it's useful. I think that it can be used to help a lot of students, especially in my
field. It is not a replacement for me and it is not a replacement for any other well-educated teacher who knows what they're doing. A screen cannot deescalate one of my children. If my ch if one of my students
is having a crisis, I can't put a screen in front of them. It's not going to do anything. If I don't have an aid because of the continued cuts that the district has made, I'm left there with what? an iPad
because they're going to do on it. This is not helping us in any way. So, moving forward, I would like if the board would investigate these programs that they are pushing on to teachers, expecting them to utilize and yet we are not seeing any kind of benefit from
them. So, while Albamar is continually facing lowered enrollment rates because people like myself have pulled their children to homeschool, we are going to keep having this problem. You cannot continually cut the actual
people who want to do this job. I am not a special education teacher for the money. [laughter] I can tell you that right now. I am in it because I truly care about every single one of these children the exact same amount that I care about my own
children and that is why I'm here because they deserve more. They deserve better. They deserve what we are capable of and we're not giving that. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate everyone's comments tonight
both for our uh public comment as well as for our public hearing. Um just going to talk people through the agenda if they don't have um it in front of them. Um we're going to do the approval and consent agenda. Um and then we have three um actually four pieces for
information. We are doing um uh the special education review update. Um the transportation update um the assessment and accountability update. Um we'll see where we need to take a break. Um and then we have an update on the mental health and social emotional supports in
schools. And then we will be doing the um the policy uh discussion um reviewing the policy on professional boundaries and prevention of sexual misconduct and then reviewing the grading policy um part two. So that's just I know it I know it is a long evening for all the
staff as well as everyone in the audience um but it was important for us to have uh these all on the agenda prior to school starting. Um, so the next piece on our agenda is the approval of our consent agenda. Do I have [snorts] a motion regarding our
consent agenda? >> Chair Berlin, I move that we approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Second. >> Uh, moved by uh Dr. Akoff. I'm going to say seconded by Mr. Dillanbuck. All those in favor of tonight's consent
agenda, >> I >> I. Any opposed? This tonight's consent agenda passes and we don't have any items pulled from today's consent agenda. Um the next piece of business we have is our special special education review update. Um Dr. Hayes is going to
introduce the Berkeley group who has have done a review um of it and they are live here to to provide a update to the board as well as the public. Good [snorts] evening Chair Berlin. Is it on? We are. Thank you. Good evening Chair Berlin. board members and the
community. I'm Dr. Hayes, the acting superintendent, and I'm here to provide um an update to the school board and to the community about the special education review conducted by the Berkeley Group. At the start of the 2526 school year, um we had a transition in
leadership in the special education department where we um hired a new director, Miss Ashley Strus, and a new assistant director, Miss Leslie Glover. and together we sat down uh reviewed special education um operations um academics in Albamar County and
determined now would be a good time to do a comprehensive review of special education in Alamar County public schools. And at that time I contacted the Berkeley Group which is a consultant that works uh with a variety of um organizations whether corporate
organizations or public schools to um see if they would be willing to partner with us to conduct this review here. And they and they um agreed. And so tonight I'm joined by Dr. Patrick Murphy and Dr. Scott Baker um who were the consultant, the lead consultants on this project and
Miss Leslie Glover, the assistant director of special education is here as well. So, at this time, I will turn the um presentation over to them. >> Thank you, Dr. Hayes. Um Madame Chair, distinguished board members, my name is Scott Baker. It is a pleasure to be with
you this evening. Thank you for the opportunity for us to share with you uh just uh the highlights and kind of a high level um summary of what uh our review entailed and what we uh learned and discovered throughout the process and what we're recommending. Um, as uh
the director of public education for Berkeley Group, um it's a joy to get to partner with school divisions like yours and we want to say in advance how much we've appreciated getting to spend time with um not only staff but parents and
to learn more and more about um the very important special education program and services that you offer. Uh my colleague Dr. Pat Murphy who is an executive manager for us at Berkeley Group is going to be sharing the bulk of the slide deck uh and going through that. Uh
it will be followed at the end with an opportunity for any questions that you have and any discussion that you'd like to have uh pertaining to the findings. But again, thank you for the opportunity to be here and I will now turn it over to Dr. Murphy. >> Good evening. Thank you uh Dr. Baker.
Good evening, school board members. It's a pleasure to see you this evening and staff as well. My name is Pat Murphy and I'm gonna lead us through uh this presentation this evening. I need uh just a slight little education though about how to advance the slides.
>> Is it just using the mouse? >> Okay. >> You may want to pull the mics up a little bit. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. So, I want to give uh you folks a little bit of background as far as how we uh
conducted the review and some of those pieces. I'll probably repeat some of this information, but it's always good to hear it um more than once. Uh we became involved in you folk with you folks uh at the end of March and then Dr. Dr. Baker and I spent some time here
in the district uh talking with folks and also distributing a uh survey. Um that was right around the the spring break period of time uh that we conducted a lot of that review. I also want to recognize that the board
initiated this review along with the superintendent. There are no compliance issues that you were responding to. You want to do better. you see that continuous improvement is important and um I think that speaks volumes to uh
what this board and the leadership uh and the direction that the district is going. So as part of uh a little bit of additional background um we looked at three sources of evidence. Uh the first was we looked at uh student academic
data specifically with the SOS standards of learning. Uh we also looked at internal documents such as policies, your budget, um communication. We also looked at advisory reports. And I do
want to make a special note that your SEAK group report having experience in other advisory groups uh is a very valuable document. There were a wealth of information that we were able to gather from that. So um I think that speaks volumes uh about that group. We
also looked at the Bellweather report and what you'll see uh in the review when you receive it, you will see that many of the recommendations that the Bellweather group uh provided you folks are also aligned with the information
that we're going to share with you. On the slide, you can also see that we uh had um over 286 respondents for the staff survey. We also had a number of respondents for the uh the parent and caregivers. So I think we had a wealth
of information not only from the survey but then also from the focus groups that we attended uh and held here. And you'll also see in the report that much of that information is supported with evidence based on our recommendations. So the
report is kind of grounded in both the qualitative and quantitative data that we were able to glean from you folks. You'll also see that we identified seven systematic strengths uh across and I'll cover those. There were five consistent themes as we looked at the different
groups and we looked at the survey information that consistently played themselves out uh as far as uh what those recommendations are based on. And then from there uh we developed 12 recommendations that are broken down
into three segments short-term, mid-range and then also long-term as far as how you folks would be moving forward with that. The other piece is we looked at your uh division strategic plan and we aligned many of those recommendations with your
division strategic plan because that's um basis of uh direction that the board uh provides staff and the the leadership of the district. So again, a little bit more background. Um, you folks initiated that uh this
review that speaks volumes as far as uh your position on that every student uh when they receive special education services should have long-term success and a meaningful educational experience. uh the scope looked at a variety of different things from academic outcomes
to your organizational structures to professional development and then also examined leadership and I do want to make a note and you'll see this in the U review report that there is great optimism and also excitement about the new leadership that you have with
special education and bringing on to new individuals into that role. So, you have a moment of opportunity that I think you can you can strike at as far as making some significant changes that I think you folks want to see. And I'll underline that the purpose of this was
not a compliance issue. It was not neither an audit. This was something that you initiated um in partnership with continuous improvement and growth. And you folks feel that you can do better. And I applaud you for that initiative uh to make that um to make
that change. So, what did we hear? Um, and and this is really a reflection of your staff talking to us about what they see as systematic strengths across the district. Uh, there's a strong culture of commitment and inclusion. Um, and uh,
everyone felt that these students are our students whether they're receiving special education services or not. there's a strong ownership and I think that's speaks volumes about your staff and their belief systems and how they see supporting children. Uh you do have
a high inclusive placement rate of over 70% of your students are in 80% of time in inclusive settings being mainstreamed. Uh again I think that speaks of volumes about the district but there's also room for improvement there.
So how can that begin to happen? several programs. Most significantly, the letters training was pointed out as an effective practice. So, um, what this speaks to is you have the skills and the ability to be able to move forward and
take strategic steps and implement those. It's how you set yourselves up to be able to to repeatedly do that when you have um new initiatives or new practices that you want to bring to bear. And I think there was generally a a pretty openness and reflection about
the idea that we do need to improve, we can improve. Um you also have uh a setting where you're bringing in new superintendent leadership and the interim role. So again, that married with the changes that you're seeing with your um special education leadership um
I think really sets you up uh for making some advances. you do have um statewide above average academic outcomes. However, you recognize that you can do better and you're not satisfied with the outcomes that you are currently seeing. Uh we
heard, you know, the belief that uh a strong number of your teachers believe in students. They have high expectations. uh and the dedicated and caring staff that you have here um I think is recognized and and I'll come back to
that um in in just a minute uh because there's a there's a flip side to that and I I want to point that out and then again positive uh relationships we heard in talking with families about that but I want to break that down to the individual level we heard about
individual positive relationships either with teachers or principles or assistant principles or member of members of the staff uh and families spoke very passionately about that but they also felt that individual relationship was was very important.
So when we then looked at what each of those stakeholder groups talked about and then we looked at that in relationship to the survey information. Uh we got a number of themes that played themselves out in listening to those
groups. We then took those themes from each one of the groups and we um cross-referenced them uh or cross-tabbed them uh to see what played out uh across those
different groups for kind of consistency to build on the recommendations. And I think one of the things we heard about um across all groups is consistency of practice. Um, we heard about different practices and ways of doing business was
inconsistent and that was across schools. That played itself out even uh more evidently going from elementary, middle to high. So, one of the pieces that we're going to suggest to you is that you look at
how you can establish consistency as students move through the K12 continuum, but also in addition to that, uh how can you set in place these practices so uh they help you as far as serving uh students.
Uh we also heard about the capacity of staff, time and professional learning. And by the way, there's a strong thread through all this information that your staff members, whether they're serving students in the classroom or outside the classroom, want to continue to learn.
They want professional development. They want the time to be a for that to be able to happen. But coupled with that, um there's a real press on time, uh and there's a real press on the capacity of staff in the number of students that
they're serving. So looking at staffing formulas, looking at case loads, I think is going to be something that's going to be incumbent as far as how you move forward. And that's also going to be tied to your your annual budget.
As I made mention earlier, families felt they had good relationships with staff and they broke that down on an individual basis from my previous comment. But one of the pieces that they also felt strongly about is
around communication and how that communication is disseminated maybe broadly or across the school. Uh and they feel that there can be a stronger network of communication at each level from the schoolboard all the way down to the individual classroom and how that is
established. So, one of the pieces we're going to suggest to you is looking at some type of communication framework that establishes how those messages are delivered uh and then uh how can that that element be uh a a critical piece of
of how you move forward with your uh community. had tremendous discussion also when we heard a lot about your service um model and instructional focus and that's really tied to the ABC base model. Uh
and one of the pieces that uh I want to share with you is in my career I have not seen a design like the one that is articulated here. So I want to give you the impression that I was very impressed. We were both very impressed
with the way that model is designed and originally intended to work. However, um the model has not been what we learned the model has not really been looked at in over a decade. And when it was established, the student population was
different, your staff was different, and you've had quite a changeover in personnel, which is just normal. um as people move through uh their careers. So we are highly recommending that you look
at that base model uh reassess it. You don't need to start over. It is it is well intended and designed but coupled with that we recognize that the different components of the model are
distributed across the district. And I think there needs to be communication about why and how they're distributed so people have a better understanding. We were here for several days. Uh and we got many variations of the theme of what
the ABC model is or the base model is. And so again, I think it goes back to communication and a clear understanding of how it was intended uh to work. And I think it is uh an effective model for you to kind of build on uh as you move forward. And then
a lot of folks wanted to know what the direction for special education services was in the district. So leadership, vision, organizational readiness is something that I think needs to be articulated. What are the intended
outcomes? What are the intended designs? How is this going to work? All become critical components for how you're going to be able to move forward. those major themes played themselves. Five major themes are kind of the u the foundation
which then we built our recommendations on and I think the strength of them both from a qualitative and quantitative um measure give you um a sound footing to be able to begin to initiate some of these changes possible changes.
So, as I mentioned, we've broken this down into three components of short-term, mid-range, and long-term. Uh, they they do have a a little bit of a timetable design around them. Uh, but that's just for structure initially. And
I also think you folks need to uh work with staff as far as designing how these um recommendations could possibly roll out recognizing your staff and your leadership know the culture of the school division and the capacity as far
as how you'd be able to move forward. So the first piece is establishing clear communication of a vision and a change management framework. So it needs to be articulated to everyone how we're going to initiate and take the uh first steps
with the recommendations that we're providing. I do want to point out in this next recommendation is some of these things the staff has already begun to initiate and this one here with the internal review of uh identification access and transition uh is something
that the staff has already begun to work on. So, I want to applaud the the leadership for beginning some of the things that we've already mentioned in here. Uh, and we learned about that after we uh we drafted the uh initial draft of this report. And then we did
hear from teachers uh specifically around co-planning, the need for co-planning time and reestablishing that when you have those co-eing models, you need your um teachers in both general ed and serving special education students
to be able to plan together. And we see those as kind of the the the first phase of this. The next um and I expressed this already is a divisionwide special education practice framework. Um a lot of this has to do with how IEPs are
developed, the meeting process, co-eing. Um all the elements that surround special education services need to be articulated. They need to be grounded and they need to be documented so they can be points of reference for folks to uh refer to. uh and then hold the hold
folks accountable for how they move forward. There also needs to be benchmarking which has already been underway looking at other school divisions like yourself, size, number of students that you serve um and possibly
learning from them the practices they have in place and also comparing yourself. are we um among some of the the best in the state or across the nation or can we learn from some of these other districts? You have done some benchmarking. We did learn, but I I
think that you can build on on what you've already done. Looking at the base model, I talked pretty extensively about that already. So, review, reset, relaunch. I think you can do that with a some type of consensus building uh approach. um and
also informing the public about how that moves forward. Uh these next two I think you may be able to collapse them together. I did mention that there is a need and a want for more professional learning that may result for both u
educational staff and also paraprofessional staff about how that may look. Again, time was the element looking at contract lengths, looking at when that would be provided and how that would be structured. This next one,
there is already been work underway as far as consistent performance monitoring of student academic performance. Staff is already beginning to look at that. I think that also relates to the initiative that was taken as far as how this department of special education
and the department of instruction are now sort of married at the hip and they are working together. So again, a good step uh in that right direction. And then we did hear uh sort of the a little bit of a a bottleneck or a pinch point
with the case loads of the school school psychologists and how that is playing out and also the need to look at um case load management and and their capacity. And then finally, um the last two which are a little bit longer term and
something that would give you folks uh some time and opportunity to uh take under consideration articulating the special education improvements as well as for all service populations as part of your continuous improvement system or
embedded in your strategic plan. I think conveys a strong message about the priority of students who are being served with um either special education or English language learners or other uh learners as appropriate. So embedding
that inf infrastructure uh within your continuous improvement system i.e. your um division strategic plan and then finally the community spoke a lot about the resources that you have. I do want to give a nod that um access to many of
your county resources was something that was reflected as a positive. Folks felt like, hey, we can make connections here. There are resources in our community and staff, by the way, knows how to do that and make those connections um for families. Um, I think you can build on
that, but in building on that, what are your relationships with some of the higher education uh, agencies uh, in the area, both community college and 4-year institutions? Uh, what could your, um, you know, relationship also be with
business groups as far as providing transition services for all students so that they can move into uh, a professional or or the job market. So there's a feeling that there's great greater resources in the community and you should have the ability to tap into
those uh resources uh across that continuum. So what would be a condition conditions for success for you to sustain uh these recommendations? Well, one is uh consistent leadership uh and
you've made some changes with leadership here most recently uh in the areas that I've already mentioned. But having that leadership and the support of the board, I think um will present the opportunity for you to uh make the changes that you
want to see. communication plan about how all these things are going to happen, how are they connected, um and making sure that those messages are consistent. I think of this format, the board meeting provides you that opport one opportunity to be able to do that.
But a menu of communication and have an understanding to the public and the community about how you're going to do that is really foundational. The process that we engaged with, I think, was around consensus building. We came in, we listened to people, we asked
them questions, we wanted their feedback and that input I think was helpful in us coming back to you with something that was is tangible and gives you the ability to move forward. I think building uh around all of these uh
recommendations a type of consensus building process is going to be really important because one it creates buyin and two it creates accountability. Um and I think those two ingredients are
really important to the success of any organization. And then some type of monitoring system through project management framework that gets regularly reported to the board uh needs to be part of your your diet. I don't think it needs to be here every meeting, but I do think it needs
to be evident that it's going to be on a consistent schedule and what you're going to monitor are based on the board's priorities. In wrapping up, I we we've sketched out a tentative uh you know, outline for you
to consider. Um leadership and communication infrastructure I think needs to be initiated here uh you know within a short period of time. Launching some type of um internal review uh that I made mention which is already
underway. The code planning time may be something that you can implement um here before the start of the school year, but it may need to be something that you consider as you uh look at your budget for the next fiscal year fiscal year. Establishing a continuous improvement
cycle. Um and I think this can be tied uh closely to your strategic plan. It could be possible too that you may want to amend your strategic plan based on some of the recommendations we're providing here. uh and then a roadmap for all staff around what professional
learning uh system you want to be able to roll out and again I'll just I'll just reinforce people are hungry to learn they want to learn and they see that as an important piece in how they are going to serve students um the report has an appendency
appendicy and uh within that report there's all sort of the details of how we conducted the focus groups what those engagements themes look like um and then uh a quick crosstab reference of the uh recommendations at a glance by the
themes and then by the particular recommendations. So I will stop there um and entertain any discussion or comments that the board has. >> I'm going to open it to the board um and
Dr. Hayes for uh questions, comments. >> I mean, I I really as a sped mom, I really appreciate this. I know when we spoke um we talked about this that um I think our ABC model is great, but like I
said, I'm a board member and a sped mom and I still don't completely understand it. So, you know, that it's really complicated and the communication is terrible on it. Um that said, I think communication is terrible in general when it comes to our sped students. Um we
don't get a lot of information. Um it's inconsistent and um I think that that creates a lot of anxiety and uncertainty which is really unnecessary when we're already advocating really hard for our kids. Um, so I'm really encouraged to see that we
are going to be pushing more on the communication side. Um, when it comes to parents, um, but I think a a big issue that we're facing is that's just for the kids who have already gotten services. What do we do for the kids who don't have the parents who know how to
advocate for them? What do we do for the parents and the kids who don't know what their rights are? don't know what their uh what resources we have for their kids. And also, what about when we try to get access for those kids and it's
denied because we've been told that we don't have staffing um in the school to be able to support our sped kids or a kid that needs extra intervention. So, I think this is a really great first step, but I think that we have a long way to go in our special education department before our kids are really successful.
Um and I think that as we are looking at budget, something else we need to consider is burnout for our our sped teachers is very different than our regular teachers. Um there aren't even words to describe how exhausting it is to parent um a child
with special needs. And these teachers are incredible. The fact that they can sit with these kids all day and try to make them successful in school. So, I think we need to think about what our staffing levels are, not just for TAs. Um, at our camp, we staff 1:1 and 2:1 uh
for our campers. And that's just at summer camp where it's really fun all day and they get to do fun things and they're not being forced to read and write and um interact with their peers um in in a high intensity environment like school. So I I want us
as we are going through this um this report and we're thinking about what is it it's not just you know these things that are listed here but it's really listening to the parents and also thinking about how can we better staff
our sped program so that our kids are successful and also while we're talking about it this provisional license is great but for sped that's a really hard thing because this is a really specialized um
job and to have people that are being moved from a TA to a teaching position. In my opinion, we are selling those kids short. They need to have licensed teachers teaching them from the beginning in order for them to be successful and and be in gened classes
as much as possible. Um, and the last thing I want to talk about, well, two things actually, and I and I think it's touched on a little bit, but is discipline. When it comes to our sped students, um we for those of us that are on the
disciplinary committee, um the majority of the students that make it to a discipline hearing have a 504 or an IEP and we are disciplining kids for their disability because the administrators don't understand the disability and they are reacting to the behavior and not
understanding the behavior that leads to those reactions and what that that disability plays into. So, um, we have a sped administrator at every school. These sped administrators don't know sped. A lot of them have never been a sped teacher. They haven't read the
IEPs of their students and they're disciplining them. Um, so that's something that really really need to consider if we want to have a systemic change is how are we viewing our sped students? Are they reacting as a disciplinary um action or are they
having a behavioral reaction with their disability? and making sure that those administrators understand every child that they're representing, every IEP, they've read every IEP, they've read, every 504, they understand the student that's in their office for pushing
another student or, you know, flipping a chair. That's not usually um a discipline issue. It's a behavior issue because of their disability. Um and last thing is I really appreciate the data collection and sharing of those things.
Um, but we actually need to be taking the data. We need to be um monitoring our students success and and we are struggling with that. Some of our schools haven't done it in 2 years. Um, and that's a tragedy and we can't expect our students to be successful if we're
not actually taking the data on our students and monitoring where they're struggling and where they're succeeding. Um, and I'm just going to say this, my son is 13. He can't read. He got exceptionally proficient on his SOS in
reading. >> Someone explain to me how that happened. I get that we read him the questions, but that is not [laughter] My husband and I actually laughed at it and threw it in the trash. Um, so how
are we actually checking on these students and seeing if they're succeeding or are we pushing them through till they get to post high and then hoping that they get a job? um without actually giving them the tools that they need to be successful in life. So, I will get off my soap box, but this is obviously something I'm really
passionate about, but also our students deserve better and I'm really happy that we're at least taking the first steps to investigate it. And um I hope that we actually implement some of these things and we're not four years down the road like we are with the Bellweather report
and still haven't made much progress. Other [snorts] comments, questions? >> That's hard to follow. [laughter] >> Sorry. >> Um I I guess my question goes to um the
professional development and the joint planning with other teachers and how how well we do that. It sounds like we need some work on that. Um, I mean, we have heard from SEAK several times over the
years that the professional development about special ed needs to be with the the up mainstream teachers as much as with the special ed teachers. And I'm not sure how we what our what our rules are for that. I I have no idea actually,
but Dr. Hayes is going to tell me. I don't have them all but I um what I will say is well two things. One um as they mentioned sometimes the challenge that we have is the contract differences between our TAs and our licensed staff.
And so the time in which they return or what's counted as a teacher workday, what's not can differ between the two contracts. And so sometimes that has posed challenges um in the past and that's something that we could bring up in you know budget discussions and and things of that nature. Um, also at the
beginning of the school year prior to the initiation of this review, I asked uh Dr. Megan Wood, who is our director of professional learning, to work with Miss Ashley Strus and Miss Leslie Glover to develop a uh three-year plan for
professional learning opportunities for our staff, um, TAs, and our teachers that would provide them with additional training um, around content. What we were noticing was that there was a limited amount of training that they were receiving in some areas. Um CPI
training was offered quite a bit. Um but trainings around the content and how to engage with the content in different courses was not offered as much. So they began working on that plan already. Um and there are some guidelines that we have
to follow around professional development u with limitations that have been placed by the BOE of how much professional development academic non-academic that can happen as well as [snorts] making sure we are adhering to the AEA guidelines but that's a process that we have started um but that will take some work just depending on
contracts and and um funding for different positions >> and I appreciate you bringing up SEAK. I think that there has been discussion about SEAK being an official committee uh for on for the school board and we've never actually done that. It's a committee that some of us try to attend
a meeting. But I think it would be really important to have actual representation from the board at SEAK so that we know and hear and can report back to the board in our committee meeting updates what is going on in sped and what our actual needs are because
we're talking about 12% of our students have a 504 or IEP. That's a that's a significant portion that I think deserve the representation on the board. [snorts] Other comments or questions? >> Um, I'm sorry. I was trying to pull this
up on the ESB, but I was not able to click on the item. Is that linked? >> Yeah, I was going to make an apology to the public. I did just notice um that uh this presentation is not linked um to the to the board's agenda today. We will
make sure by tomorrow morning that that is linked um so you have access to that. And so, please take my personal apologies that that is not there. um we want to make sure that you have access to this as well as the full report and we will make sure that happens. So that's why you can't see it. >> Okay. Also, the update on mental health is not linkable. Um while we're at that,
so um I was just trying to flip back and see what the 60-day 90day whatever. >> Oh, yeah. Could you go back to the timeline >> to the timeline the short-term >> um recommendations >> and just >> there or you want to go back to the recommendations?
>> Uh go back. I think back maybe it was short. >> Okay, there you go. There you go. Short. Okay. And just ask Dr. Hayes um [clears throat] like how feasible or you know these these recommendations are in
implementing. >> Um so I believe all of them are feasible. What and and what I really appreciate um from Drs. Murphy and Dr. um Baker is how they broke out the timeline so that it was reasonable. Of course, we can't do everything all at
once and because some things may take budget proposals or conversations, but uh one of the things they agreed to that we're grateful for is to stay on board to help us um move this process forward. Um you know, just a a a personal concern
is that as I was transitioning from assistant superintendent of instruction to acting superintendent, I wanted to make sure that this work did not fall through the cracks. And so they've agreed to stay on board to help us monitor and make sure we move uh this work forward. And also um Miss Clare
Kaiser, the retired um assistant superintendent of of human resources has agreed to come back and support this work as well to make sure that things keep moving forward and to create a help us create a cadence for bringing information back to the board. So we are
already started on um this process and in terms of SEAK um we will we've we've instituted kind of a new practice of providing them with some updates. Um Mr. Strus started this year with you know sharing different things with them throughout the year. Um, we will share
this full report once it's received with the broader community but with CEK and they've agreed to come and do and I'm speaking for CX so I apologize if they want us to come we will uh come and share um the entire presentation and work with them on ways that the they
feel the community would best receive communication because we don't want this to be a one-way street. We want this to be a two-way street. Also engaging our family council um which we did throughout the process as well. um they were invited in to come and and and meet and provide feedback. So those are some
of the things we've already started. Um and I'll also say and I and this was not Miss Thompson. We got the propos I'm going to throw you out there just a little bit. They did share the the the presentation um this afternoon. So that's why it's not linked. Um but we do
we will have it for you. Um also I want to make a mention to some training we have coming up uh in respect to LEA um local education authority and special education discipline. We realized that there was some challenges that were taking place and um there was some
disproportionality in the suspension rates. And so next week at our uh leadership training with all of our principles from every school, uh Sans Anderson will be here to present for a half a day for our elementary staff and for our secondary schools around LEA designation um special education
training. And in the spring, we pulled a um I asked the technology team to pull a report on discipline uh rates for every single school in the district to identify where there's disproportionality. Those schools were given that information and we've developed plans um especially on the
secondary level for using their step FTE to address um discipline issues. So those are some of that's amazing. Thank you. I know that was a lot. Sorry. >> Other questions or comments? Okay, I have a few um
or maybe some of these are requests. One is I appreciate you saying that the Berkeley group will be um kind of following along and if we can as part of the scope um I think it makes sense. thinking like every other month updates
to the board on this because because it almost seems like it's kind of 60 days out and that that information comes from the Berkeley group just to say okay almost like an like I hate to use the word a review to say this is where we are right green yellow red or however
you do it to say like are we on target for these for where we're once it's agreed upon what these timelines look like internally with your staff to then say okay where are we on those and having them them look at that. Um because I and then have that just be a regular agenda item. Um and then with
the person um responsible like who for each of these recommendations if they're all again if they're all taken by the school district or if there's some that are or not or moved a little bit but making sure we know like what the timeline is and then who's the who's the ultimate
person responsible or people responsible because I think that's an important piece as we kind of see things going forward. Um the second kind of and third tied together is we've you know talked a lot about budget and so you know as I said earlier about something like we're already beginning to think about budget
even though we're just starting the school year and so again not sure if this is in scope or this is possible but as we think about some of these things particularly around you know case load and um uh uh teacher child ratios right is there
are there you there's guidance from CEC um Council for Exceptional Children, right? There's guidance from DOE, but like in your work kind of across the country and the school districts you led, are there some recommendations that as you look to us that you would um and you don't have to answer this, but that
you would share with us, you know, based on some of these promising practices that are out there so that we could think about because my next question is, you know, can you help us think about costing some of these things out, right? because there's some that we could do potentially now and there's some that we
have to make sure we know early enough as we move into budget and then which are the pieces as I as I think about look out to my AEA um lead are that we will have to in you know have conversations on and discussions and it might be that there is some
differentiation between special ed teachers and regular ed teachers around hours and assistants around hours of professional development. So the more you can help us think about what are some of these potential costs. So again kind of in this scope we begin to say
okay how do we do right by our students and give them the services that we um we know they deserve. I believe that's everything. But >> I'm lowering it because [laughter]
I used to be taller. Um I I will I just would like to to close and and do a a little bit of a a response that kind of to a number of things that we've heard u but to put a fine point on some of the things that my colleague Dr. um Murphy
shared but I want to start with something that I'm remembering that you just shared. And uh the answer I think to both of those is yes. we would um the reason that we do what we do is not to provide a report that's static and then
we leave. We we understand as former system leaders, as folks that are still unabashed um supporters of public education, we want to make sure that it's successful. And we we all know that plans, whether they're full strategic
plans or different types of plans that come from reviews like this, they live and die in implementation. Um and so we are really excited at the opportunity to continue to be a thought partner uh for you as a board for your staff. And so we
would certainly be glad to um provide any number of recommendations and supports uh throughout this initial implementation phase. I would say one thing uh Miss Berlin regarding budget we haven't you know we don't want to be too presumptuous when we're engaging in a
partnership but u my colleague Dr. Murphy too humble to see. He's already put together a little budget sort of consideration. Um but that would be something that we would want to continue to uh be informed by the uh the upcoming
engagement. I also want to share something um that ties to things that many of you shared um about where the the division needs to improve and many of those things were that were borne out in this this review process and the findings. But I I want to go back to
something that I think is very important and it's important for you to hear. Uh I think it's important for your your stakeholders to hear. Um what I often see and have experienced is when a school division doesn't need to uh or a system doesn't need to improve, it's not
required to. there's not a compliance issue or it's rare to see a proactive effort um as this partnership this this engagement and one of the things that I think is going to come naturally because of that is there are strengths that that
uh were uh reinforced earlier that can be uh really catalysts for how you move forward and I'm just going to give one example that came up um brought it up a number of folks brought up the seuff about how and it's right up there on the
screen. Um this idea of uh co-eing and making sure that the professional learning is provided for those that are um trying to meet the needs of all of our students here in in ACPS, but also specifically special needs students.
What you have here that is very strong is a belief in and a mindset of inclusion. there. Sometimes you go and you find that there really isn't that belief that all students can be successful and that the best place for them to be successful is in that uh tier
one core instruction classroom included in in with all students. Even though we know research bears that out, there are still situations where there isn't that that mindset. You have it here in uh ACPS and abundance uh across all of your stakeholder groups. that belief that all
students can learn at high levels in an inclusionary setting. What you see as a theme and when you get the report, which we will have the full report available to you next week um that we would encourage everybody to go through. It's much longer than the the highlighted uh
presentation tonight, but it's going you're going to see a theme that's overarching, which is taking um these strengths and then making sure that there are structures, processes, systems put in place to move them forward. So
you everyone's like, I'm in on co-eing. I'm I'm a believer. How can there be enhanced structures, opportunities, budget investments, uh professional learning to help you move that forward and and bring greater fidelity to the very practices that you believe in but
just right now are hindered in uh implementing across the division. So I just wanted to share that as we believe this is a strengths forward type of review and so we look forward to continuing to support you and again thank you so much for the opportunity. I
on a personal note began my career as a special education teacher assistant and that's not why that recommendation was in there about um but I think we are seeing that we are in a new era of challenge when it comes to staffing um
and I I do think that that's an example of assets that you have that you can continue to invest in at higher levels um to kind of help move your capacity forward. So, thank you so much for this opportunity and and we look forward to working with you again.
>> Thank you very much. >> Uh and thank you to all of our families, all of our teachers, all of our leaders who um responded to the survey, participated in focus groups, had one-on-one conversations. This information helped um guide this. Um and
then we will uh uh probably at the August meeting note when we will be doing updates regarding I'll work with Dr. Hayes. um to to note when we will be doing updates. Um my thought is that we are going to do
um the transportation update and then do a break right after. >> Sounds perfect. >> Is that okay? And I apologize. I did not introduce you. Um I now um introduce um Miss Jamie Gellner, director of transportation to
give us a transportation update. Good evening. My name is Jamie Gellner and I'm the director of transportation. So now you have it twice. [laughter] This evening I will share a little bit about our department before discussing our current staffing status and the plan for open routes. Our employees connect
strongly to the mission of ACPS, particularly to know every student. Bus drivers, van drivers, and assistants form powerful connections to students and families and immediately impact each school day. You can see the department reflected in goal three, equitable,
transformative resources, ensuring transportation for students who require bus service to attend school. One of the strategies under goal three is to remove transportation as a barrier to any division programs. and we do work really hard to do that. Besides home-toschool transportation, we
take students to specialty schools outside of Almor County, between schools within ACPS into before and after school programs. We take students home in the evening from places like the Boys and Girls Club and support all of the guaranteed field trips in the division as well as any other field trips that a
school decides to do. We support outside agencies with trips and work most evenings and weekends. We support our special education students to assure ensure they can be safely transported to school as well as work-based learning and and internships. We support step and
school suspension programs or any academic recovery on the weekends like Saturday school. We support emergency operations across the division and our maintenance shop maintains our vehicles as well as vehicles for the local government. We provide long-range planning for the division and serve on
many planning teams. uh we do even more but those are some big buckets. I'm not going to read all these quick facts but we have five major functional areas operations which includes our daily operations for 29 schools and
buildings and at least 11 11 other special education locations um and our dispatch the administrative team for all of our onboarding pay budget processes. our maintenance team, um training, which is constant throughout the year, and
long-term routing and planning. We have many areas to continue to improve. Um but here are a few successes from the 2526 school year. I won't speak to all of these. Um but just a note on special education support. We support students in foster care, students
protected by the McKenna Vento Act, and other students with special needs. Any student who cannot access their their educational needs in an ACPS school may be sent to an alternative placement. We have at least 11 other schools outside of ACPS that we are responsible for
transporting students to and with different school schedules and calendars from ours. Some of these schools are the Virginia Institute for Autism in Charlottesville, the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Stanton, the Faison Center in Richmond, and even
Rivermont schools, of which there are many. And we transported one in Virginia Beach last year and one to Fairfield, which is between Lexington and Stanton. We utilize thirdparty vendors when we need to in order to support our students. And so, I just wanted to share
a little bit more there. And we also, just as a note, because of the the previous um discussion, we've been digging a lot into our sped over the two years I've been in there and working on all of our strategies, professional learning, and structures.
Um, we're very proud of our inservice this year. There were some statistics on the previous slide, but we offered multiple sessions over the month of March and required all staff to take at least two classes. Our own staff taught all the classes and included student management, CPR, and first aid. And I
taught a class called leadership and cultural competency to name a few. Um, I'm proud of our 54% employee engagement rate. And the pictures are from a plaque that I gave our shop team for their heroic efforts to dig us out during a Snowcrete event the likes of which none
of us had ever seen. I'd also like to highlight six staff members who earned employee recognition awards at the end of the year. Kathy Cobb is on the top left. Um she was our employee of the year. She's the lead driver for flex activity and substitute
drivers. She's shown incredible leadership and commitment to our transportation team. She's the ultimate problem solver whenever a route needs coverage. Kathy is already working handinhand with dispatch and lead drivers to find a solution and keep things running smoothly. Through a year
of challenges and change, Kathy has remained focused on supporting her teams, our department, and our students. This MVP award is a true reflection of the positive impact she makes every day and the deep respect she has earned from her peers and leadership.
Um Dorothy Spencer um is our timekeeper and staff member of the year. She is um not pictured on this slide, but I have an update. Lamar Lewis, our lead driver at Agner and our lead driver of the year. Lorie Malone primarily uh drives for Baker Butler and
she's our driver of the year. Charlene Austin, who primarily drives for Elk Hill and Keys Academy and is our van driver of the year. And Sharon Thomas, who assists on a sped bus for Baker Butler, Al Maron Journey and is our assistant of the year. We also gave out
300 challenge coins throughout the department, ACPS, and in the community in recognition of service. Um, and we're going to continue that tradition, but I don't think I'm going to have as many coins to make it more special. All right, so here's what you want to
know. Um, the bottom line for the board, the schools, students, and families is that we do have enough staff to offer all students transportation service to start the year. We continue to offer an employee referral bonus to recruit school bus drivers and the 2627 starting
salary is $2443. Tell all your friends. Um we've gotten creative with radio and TV ads. Um and I'm working with a few stations to do digital marketing. At our job fair in June, we hired four school bus drivers. Last year for the entire school year, we
hired 34 staff members and 17 of those were school bus drivers. At the end of the year, one and a half because we have some that only do half routes had left. So, we netted 15 and a half drivers. In the previous year, just for comparison, we hired 38 and a half school bus
drivers and over the last two years we lost 15 of those for various reasons. So, you can see how we are constantly having to hire. Um, currently we have three bus drivers and one substitute in training and four more who are in process. With our annual turnover and
taking all of these numbers into account, we have at least nine routes that need coverage and we still need to finalize our sped routes. Um, last year we added six buses at the start of the school year to accommodate changes in special education student needs. We will
likely start the school year with four to six open routes. Um, and we will cover them with our staff, primarily our flex drivers who work as permanent substitutes. Um, and we have six flex drivers this year. So, last year we had five, now we have six. Puts us better
there. Um, we do plan to utilize Everdriven again, um, which is our third party vendor. They ended last year with six routes and we do plan to start off the year with four routes with them. they did the Virginia Beach route.
Uh we will stack routes at some schools, which means that we'll take some students to school early and some students will stay late. In other words, at some schools, buses will do two bus runs. This does require elementary schools to provide staff to supervise students before and after the bell rings. Um you can see on the slides the
schools that will potentially have a stacked route, and I'm aiming for five. The most likely elementary schools will be Agnar, Greer, Baker, Butler, um, Collie Me, and Crosseé. The most likely secondary schools will be Almoral, Journey, and possibly Lakeside
and Henley. But it is easier for us to try to absorb some of these routes for coverage because fewer secondary students ride the bus. Okay, that was a lot of information on that one slide. Do you have any questions for me?
Can you remind us Jamie of both the number of routes and the number of students generally speaking that that are served? I think people need to hear this. >> Sure. So we have about 160 bus routes
and about 30 of those are sped. Those are just round numbers. Um we have 14,000 kids in this the school division. about 10,000 request transportation and 6,000 to 7,000 regularly ride.
>> Thank you. >> It's a big job. [clears throat] >> It is a big job. I'm wondering is there any way to eliminate eventually stacked routes where elementary school kids might have to stay late? >> Yes. So
>> I'll just a note on that is so in my first year, this is this is starting my third year. In my first year, we did have 12 stacked routes to start the year and we removed them throughout the year as we could and we ended with none. Last year we didn't have any stacked routes.
Um, and we had some high turnover in the wintertime, which does happen for us, um, due to illnesses and just regular turnover. Um, and from March until the end of the school year, we covered 27 to 30 open routes every
day between absorbing building staff. And then the schools had a brunt of that anyway where the kids were staying after or they were getting to school late. And so having the stacked routes ensures that families and kids have a planned
time and schools can plan, you know, that coverage and it's not, hey, today you have six open routes at all tomorrow, so you're going to have 100 kids standing there waiting for a bus. That's a lot more difficult for everybody. So I'm trying to just be a little more proactive to start the year
and I think five is not 12 and we can see how it goes. Thank you. [laughter] >> Thank you. Um and I think you've been doing a great job in your two and a half, three years uh at as director.
With respect to the turnover, I know it's a constant problem in terms of exit interviews. Why do I'm I'm thinking both of the $24 and change uh u payments, but also what are the reasons that you lose drivers?
>> So, we have a pretty good retention rate. I've been monitoring that the past couple years. So, first year we have like an 85% retention rate and for two years it's about 74 and over three years it's 70%. And in an average industry like those are pretty good numbers.
>> Um it's a hard job. I wonder what our teacher turnover rate is for sped in the first three years >> and how that would compare. So the first answer is they leave in the first year because it's a hard job and it wasn't what they were expecting and they have to manage a lot of children and not just
drive the bus. Um in that second year we have a lot of um personnel and family issues that might come up um because of the age of some of our people. They might um they might be taking care of parents. They might be taking care of
other family members. There's we have a just a small number of drivers that we have one driver this year who's going to be a teacher. He was working for us while he was getting his degree, so they just moved on. Um and then regular retirements because we do have kind of
an older um demographic. So >> I was just trying to identify something that we could do. >> I've been monitoring as much as we can. I do I I feel very supported. One thing that a driver just texted me about while we were talking is that
>> um there's a new county initiative for I guess housing um and for full-time staff. And I did have a question that I was going to ask HR about what counts as full-time staff. >> Um so more creative things like that might help some of our people who do
fall on the lower end of the wage scale, but they do work. As I talked about, we work a full day. They work a lot of hours for us. >> Yes. >> Are most of our staff from Elmor County? >> A lot of our most of our staff does not
live on Marl County. >> Does not did you say >> does not >> does not live. So, I'm curious. Um, obviously I have a special needs student and and having the monitor or the aid on the bus has been super helpful in help and with behaviors
on the bus. And I'm curious if that's something we've considered on all of our buses and if that might help with the retention if the driver doesn't have to also deal with the behaviors on and I'm sure that's something you've thought of, but I'm just curious as we prepare for the budget. again are those things that
in the long run may actually save us money as far as like training with drivers and and things like that. >> Yeah. So yes, we have considered it. It's come up over the years. Traditionally, it's been hard to staff. We're usually short assistants. Um this
year we did a lot of different things to recruit assistants and I had a surplus for a while and we piloted a few things. So, we had like a student management position, but as you know, we need to we have to have assistance on special
education buses that's required. And so, when we had a few surplus, we tried that out on routes where um maybe the driver needed some student management assistance. >> What we discovered is that it's really a different job that requires a little bit different training. So, we need to work
on that. Um but also we quickly needed those assistants to go back to special education buses. So that didn't last very long. >> Yeah. And and thinking about the creativity around it, you know, something that I have thought about is, you know,
when we're talking about people wanting these full-time positions. Um can we get creative when it comes to like them having building positions and they're also staffed on the bus to and from and then are working at the schools during the day? that would create a full-time position for them where they would get
benefits and things like that. Just I completely trust you and I think you're doing a phenomenal job and have done a really remarkable job uh with what you took over. Um but just kind of spitballing um in thinking creatively how that might uh solve some of those issues.
>> Are the aids on the special ed buses um their transportation department or they special ed department? They are transportation department. Yes, >> Jamie, I want to um concur with everyone
with the great job that you and your team are doing. Um when we were in more of a crisis mode, when we were seeing transportation updates every two weeks, I think um there was a lot of discussion of the numbers that you mentioned earlier where like 10,000 may sign up to
ride the bus, but 7,000 actually do regularly. Is that something that you would consider to be a problem that's solvable or is that just sort of the cost of doing business with that where someone will come on every 10th day or something?
>> Well, I know that the staff tried that and it didn't yield it was more work than it helped. >> Um I think with the demographics and the size of our county um we're just we're not we're not there
yet. I mean, we we still need to add bus routes in general to look at our service models. I think I talked a little bit about it last summer, but generically speaking, we've had the same number of bus routes for a very long time. [snorts] >> And the the the right questions a lot of the times when we talk about
instruction, it's like what are the questions we're asking? It's not like can we take all the kids to school, it's how do we get them to school? How long are the bus rides? How many children are on each bus? And we're just starting to crack into those questions and improve some of some of those and make
continuous improvements on links a ride number of students on bus so that we can have better student management and all of those things. >> So I mean the answer is we need to keep hiring people. >> Okay. [laughter] >> I mean for them. >> Yeah.
Anything else? No, >> the only other thing the only thing I think everyone covered everything was um how I I know this was a a question in the past, but how are parents notified when they are receiving second party um
pickup uh and drop offs um particularly for for children with delays and disabilities? >> Do you mean just for like the initial contract? >> Yeah. So, how like how would they know if you know it's going to be an Elvar County bus or or that?
>> So, first we try to keep as much in house as we can and a lot of our third party routes are the ones that are farther away. >> Um, but we we do a handhand with the parents to talk to them that this is this is the resource that we can provide
and we give them all of the Everdriven information and they have direct contact with Everdriven and us. Um, we do get if there's any complaints, we do get notified. Um, they they [snorts] handle those complaints. Their contract has all
of those requirements of background checks and things that we have and I do plan to review the new policy with them when it is adopted to make sure they adopt it as well. >> Um, so that part is working well.
One of the areas that we want to improve this year is getting more data from Everdriven about their arrival times and their communications with families and just making sure they're doing what they're supposed to do. >> Um I didn't really ask for that last year and you know now that
>> I'm thinking more about those things I'm like yes >> I need to have all that. >> Yeah. >> Um one quick question. Um the new parent is it parent square? Is that what it's called? Um, is that how bus drivers will also communicate? Because we've been
getting text messages um from our bus drivers. >> Um, you know, if they're going to be late or um a substitute bus driver or whatever, um, we always get a our various bus drivers um, have us on like a group chat for like our neighborhood or whatever. Um, so I'm curious if it's
all going to be centralized in Parent Square and trackable. >> We have not had a chance to really talk about that yet. I would like to move there eventually or maybe having all of my lead drivers have access to parent square
>> and they can contact um right now you won't see drivers communicating through parent square to start. >> So what is the like standard then for is it text message um from the driver to the parents or what's the like >> a long-standing tradition has always encouraged drivers to reach out to
families and we have always told them they don't have to use their own personal phone. They can come into the office. They can use the phones at school. They can write a message and give it out on the bus. They can use Bright Arrow now parent square and we'll help them do that. >> But as you all know, a lot of them just
personally text, >> right? >> Um so that is a discussion that's a conversation I just need to make sure >> that we're doing the right things to do that. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Any other questions?
No. >> Okay. Um I do think and you can tell me if it should be at the August or the September. You don't have to tell me right now meeting but just because we are going to have some stacked routes and if you could just give a you know we like a five minute update. Um I know those first couple days of school so it
could be the September meeting but I would like to just get an update to see where we are. Totally understand the position we're in but just to make sure we're staying on top of that. I can do that. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you for staying late.
>> Um I am going to recommend a 10 or 15 minute break. >> 10 >> 10-minut break. Um and we will resume at um uh uh 9:20. >> Perfect.
I'd like to call us back to order, please. >> I appreciate everyone um for staying, but unfortunately I do think we have about two more hours in front of us. Um I'm guessing, don't judge me, but >> I'm going to cry. >> We want to make sure that all of these important issues are given the correct
time. >> Straight to my vein. However, um yeah, chair, I would like to move that we pull item 9.3, assessment and accountability update, from the agenda and just have it submitted to submit the report for
record. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I'm sorry. Apologies. Moved by uh Miss Spilman, seconded by Miss Lee. All those in favor of pulling agenda item >> I >> I >> That motion clearly passes. We will move
on to the update on mental health and social emotional supports in schools. >> Good evening, Madame Chair, Dr. Berlin, acting superintendent Dr. Hayes, schoolboard members, community, and staff. I am Dr. Kesha Lipkcom, and I'm here to provide an update on mental
health and social emotional supports in our schools. This presentation has been prepared by staff who have considered stakeholder input, policy, and operating procedures that will be effective for students and staff. H
there we go. This update will support our strategic plan as we train and monitor staff to provide and know every student. I don't know why this isn't working. Tonight I will review the history of the
social emotional learning coach role, the qualifications for the school counselor, mental health support specialist, and the social emotional learning coach. I will also provide detail on the number of employees that we have in the mental health support specialist and social emotional learning
coach roles. I will also discuss a potential title change to the social emotional learning coach title. I will share the delineation of duties, boundaries, and documentation and provide an overview of the supervision of duties and standard operating
procedures. I will stop at the end of each section for questions and again at the end of the presentation. The history of the social emotional learning coach counselor coach counsel as coach position. In 2024, staff who held the position of SEO coach or
counselor were notified that by 2028, staff must acquire the necessary credentials to become a certified mental health support specialist. Staff have been given four years to fulfill the credential requirements for the position. Staff who do not meet the requirements for the mental health
support specialist position by 2028 will receive reduction and force notification with the timeline for licensed employees during the 2027 2028 school year. For background information, the school counselor holds a master's degree and is
licensed by the state of Virginia and endorsed in school counseling. The mental health support specialist also holds a mast's degree in either social work, counseling, psychology, human services, or closely related field and licensed by the state within a with an endorsement in the discipline that
corresponds to the degree. The social emotional learning coach holds a bachelor's degree and is credentialed through the Virginia Department of Health as a qualified mental health professional certified person because staff were notified in 2024 of the change to the social emotional
learning coach position. As previously mentioned, staff who were in the social emotional learning coach position have worked to obtain a license to become a mental health support specialist. We currently have 21 licensed mental health support specialists in 24 of our schools. Our two centers currently do
not have the position, but do have full-time counselors. Based on data that I have, there is one mental health support specialist and six staff that are working toward their licensing. The school support roles that will re that will be reviewed tonight are the
school counselor, the mental health support specialist, and the social emotional learning coach. We are considering options to retitle the social emotional learning coach. One potential name is the student support liaison which will be referenced in this presentation. The potential title and
duties will be re realigned and also presented this evening. The mental health support specialist and student support liaison will be supervised centrally by the coordinator of the counseling and wellness uh person. Are there any questions at this time?
The next session will provide an overview of the del delineation of duties boundaries for the work with students and how we [clears throat] will document the work. Our school counselors serve a key role in all schools on all levels. This is a
snapshot of what the Virginia code says our licensed schools counselors do. They coordinate the development developmental programs for all students. School counselors direct academic pathways, respond to inquiries for courses from students, parents, and teachers. They counsel students regarding career
interest and support students with universal social emotional growth strategies, resources, and time. They provide information on scheduling, conuct solution, focus, counseling, and interventions. Counselors provide a great deal of support through
consultation and collaboration. They work in visible spaces and communicate with parents regularly. Parents can notify the school that they do not want their child to meet with the school counselor and it will be honored. School counselors may have brief interactions with students regarding scheduling
attendance or respond to immediate needs during the school day. If there's an emergency such as self harm or harm to others or other types of crisis, school staff will intervene and communicate with parents and guardians regarding the situation. Counselors follow the
Virginia Department of Education school counseling standards and the ethical standards of the American School Counselor Association with emphasis both respecting parents rights and protecting the student. School counselors maintain their logs and notes in our system
called branching minds. Our mental health support specialists work to help students regulate their behavior so that they are able to access the curriculum. They are also key personnel in that they provide students with another support person to help them manage their thoughts and apply learn
interventions to make decisions throughout their day. Mental health support specialists meet in secure spaces so that so the students can speak freely about their concerns unless there is an emergency situation there. These will be established opportunities that
were previously communicated with parents. Mental health support specialists also document their notes in our system called branching minds. The school support liaison, the potential new title for the social emotional learning coach, will provide
tier one support in classroom settings or in visible spaces. Personnel in this role will have a daily schedule to support students during key parts of the day to include arrival, transitions, classroom groups, and dismissal. Small
groups will be assigned by the principal or counselor to support attendance or behavioral goals. This uh the school support liaison will deliver restorative strategies to classrooms and groups of students as needed in visible spaces. The school support liaison will assist
the principal or counselor in organizing schoolwide events and supporting positive behavioral interventions for all. School support liaison will document their work in branching minds as well. This is a matrix just to give you a quick overview of everything. The school
counselor, mental health support specialist and school support liaison. Beginning with their work in the primary tier, the school counselor will provide supports to all students as well as the school support liaison. The mental health support specialist will provide
more intensive support as delineated um regarding tier 2 and tier three. The core scope of the work of the school counselor again is academic, social and career planning. The mental health support specialist provides more therapeutic support and the school
school support leaison will support the school regarding restorative practices so that students are able to attend to lessons in the classroom. School counselors will have one-to-one interactions that are centered around academic, social, career exploration and
check-ins with interactions um excuse me with students. Mental health support specialists will provide intensive support and one-on-one interactions and the school support liaison will work mainly in the classrooms with assigned groups. the
approved spaces for these this personnel group. The counselors will work in open door spaces with windows uncovered. Mental health support specialists will also work in designated office or classroom spaces and the school support liaison will work in observed
environments such as the classroom or an open office space. All roles still are going to be required to document their work in branching minds. Branching minds is our system in which we can monitor progress on all students. All three roles will record interactions
with students and branching minds. Branching minds will automatically record the dates of the meetings. Staff will record the purpose of the meetings. There will be notes from the meetings also who attended the meetings. They can add supporting documents. They can log family communication and the types of
services provided. It also includes instructional information to include assessments, progress, and next steps for students. Are there any questions about the roles or the documentation? >> Um, I want to say that this is the first time I've ever seen delineation of the
roles like that. Thank you so much. We've asked those questions many times, so I really greatly appreciate that. Um, >> thank you. a couple of months or time is a weird accordion some time ago. Um we were told that there was going to be a third party available to have give
mental health support to our kids and I was just wondering if branching minds would cover those as well or if that's still a thing. I don't know is are we still having the third party potential? Am I making that up? >> I think you're referencing like cartwheel the um organization that we
work with for students to like taotherapy telea health. So we still we will be using that still. >> Okay. Yes. >> Thank you. >> You mentioned under [clears throat] school support liaison the onetoone
being extremely rare and uh workg groupoup context. Can you flesh that out a little bit? What does that what does that mean? it rare meaning they would normally work with groups that would be assigned by the either the probably the
teacher, the counselor or the principal in the classroom so that of course it can be witnessed and we know what they're working with and what they're working on. When I say extremely rare, it may be that they're escorting someone from one space to another. So that's probably going to be a rare occurrence or it may be something that helps assist
the teacher take a kid to another room or help them go somewhere for testing purposes or what have you or even meeting with the counselor group and as they all collaborate together. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I want to add just one thing. Uh one of the things that we discussed when we
were working on this process is um [clears throat] around because we offer tea help and teleaotherapy for students making sure that there was an adult once the student came out of the therapy session in case they were um emotionally upset and everything. So that could be a
one-on-one interaction where they would walk the student from that taotherapy appointment to their counselor for additional support. And if I might add you for the teleotherapy, we have to find an assigned space for them. So at least it would be closely monitored and just in case something is going on and they
could alert someone else to come and assist like the principal or the other counselor or nurse or what have you. >> One of the concerns we've heard is who who is monitoring the documentation. So the the branching minds is that
documentation that's visible by uh principal anybody in addition to a principal >> I'm getting to that next slide. Thank you. >> The supervision of the roles of the school counselor, mental health support specialists and student group leaison
will be explained in this last section. In the chart before you to your left, starting at the bottom of the screen, the building principal will monitor log entries weekly that are placed in branching minds by the count by the school counselor, mental health support specialist, and support liaison. The
building principal will ensure that personnel are working with students in visible and safe meeting space. The building principal will monitor a calendar of meetings from the sport personnel and handle first level compliance reviews. If there are any concerns, the building principal will follow the protocol to contact the
necessary persons as stated in updated policy. The recent discussions, it has been decided to shift the oversight of mental health support specialists and school support leaison to central office. Thus, the coordinator of counseling and wellness will supervise these roles, provide training, conduct
learning walks, and evaluate the work they provide to schools. The coordinator will also monitor entries and branching minds on a monthly basis. The executive director will review audits of logs and branching minds as well as feedback from learning walks to ensure monthly compliance and effective training
resources for staff. The division superintendent will review documentation quarterly to provide updates to stakeholders as needed. Per updated policy, we expect personnel to be in spaces that are easily observable. We expect parents and guardians to be informed of services
provided to their children. And we expect that information for students to be documented in branching minds so that as a team we know every student and know how we can support them to help them be successful. We will continue to review and monitor stakeholder input in our procedures to ensure consistency in
practice and provide thorough and responsive communication. Thank you. Are there any additional questions? And did that answer your question? Thank you. >> I have just a couple questions. So, who hires the SSL? Is that building level or
is it division level um mental health? [snorts] Uh you or who who's hiring the SSLs? >> It's not me. Previous practice that believe the principal has been hiring them lately. As of late for the recent interviews, the new coordinator of wellness has been involved in that
hiring and and we ended up hiring with the school personnel. >> And then what will be the practice going forward? >> She will be involved as best as possible. Yes. Okay. Um I think that's really important um that it not just be a building level. I
mean we're talking about um social, emotional, mental health issues. I think um someone that's qualified and and that is their job. Um and then what are the qualifications for the SSL? you know, I I saw back on the first couple slides you were talking about degrees
or, you know, that they're trying to get lensure, but are um we're still tasking these people with, you know, some pretty serious even if they're, you know, in a group setting or whatever, you know, we're talking about mental health of our kids and and
dealing with emotional responses to things. And I want to make sure that those people are actually qualified to do that and aren't, you know, >> I'll just leave it at that. >> Understood. We are in the process of reviewing the job description along with the title change and work with human
resources. That is part of our process over this week and in the next couple of weeks to get that updated so we can provide an update on that soon. >> Yeah, I would be really interested in seeing that. Um and then on the operating um towards the end when you
were talking about um either open doors or windows um what are the budget implications of retrofitting buildings to make sure that places have windows or doors that uh
will allow us to abide by these new guidelines? >> That will have to be investigated as well. >> Yeah. I I would imagine that our schools given our CIP um issues may not uh meet all of those standards um that we're putting
into place. >> Right. Thank you. >> Other questions? >> Um okay, so couple followups. one is I'm just thinking because we don't have another school board meeting before um the the start of school is there a
way to do to share the update I'm just thinking like with us and the public around the what your question around updated job description and then kind of the this question around
places that may not fit this schools that may not have a place that follows these guidelines and what's being done about them. I just feel like just knowing I I don't know we can think about the mechanism because
it's not a public I mean is there an upd written update I trying to like for my former board members like I just just knowing that school is starting there's a couple things that I think us and the public would like to know. I'd love to get information on that. I know
before school starts and so just figuring out you don't have to answer I like >> well I I we can work with Dr. Grant to figure out the best way to get the information to the board and the community. >> Okay. Into the community. Okay. Um no I forgot. Oh, and then similar I think
this is an easier one is that like as as Miss Lee said, this is really helpful and I think making sure internal communications and to parents of like particularly about this is how this work like these are these positions in a way
maybe this is like a principles update. I don't I'm just trying to think like is part of what the principles do making sure that this is shared out because I do think like even at the board level but the public level and even some teachers like I like making sure people clearly understand these distinctions
um because [clears throat] to know when to appropriately reach out. So some type of internal communication um that happens around that with staff but also with with families um would be my other request. Okay.
>> And then my other So then my last question is just around um the notification to parents when there is a one-on-one if it's outside is that through parent aware where parents source parentware parent square
apologies. Parent aware is another company. >> There's a lot of >> parent square would that be through that? like how would that I I I just I always think about our families get information in different ways and speak different languages and read different languages and so how does that like the operational piece of like how that
communication happens particularly I think one of the things we we heard in the special ed review and and other things is like that there's some consistency about how that happens right because so that Miss Spilman doesn't get one like it's not doesn't happen in one way and Henley in one way and so if if
centrally We can make a recommendation that this communicate the parents are notified and it goes through X and it's done by Y so that there's consistency across the county. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Consistency of communication and how
it's done by school from the mental health support personnel. >> Yeah. When that but you know if that if the expectation is that one-on-one communication is happening just making sure there's some consistency on how that occurs. And I think, you know, I don't know if this is the time to talk about it or when we're talking about the
policy, but um you know, my heart breaks for the mom we heard earlier in her nonverbal child who can't tell us what went on in a one-on-one meeting. How do we Yes, we want to
document what's going on in these one-on-one meetings, and I think it's great that we're going to be doing that, but if we have a child that can't communicate to back up what was done in that meeting, um I think that that's something we need to consider. You know, do we have another person in there? Do we record those meetings? What, you
know, I and maybe we don't answer that tonight, but I think that that is something we really need to consider for the kids that can't tell us something happened, something didn't happen. Yes, that's what happened in my meeting. How do we document that and how do we make sure that that report that the parents are getting is accur actually accurate
because Mr. Sweeney could have written whatever he wanted in that report and sent it home and that wasn't actually what happened. >> Yes. Thank you. We'll provide clarity of that very soon. Any other questions or comments? Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, the next um item on our uh agenda today, I honestly don't know if we've ever gone to 6 9.6 and 9.7. Um and I don't mean that a way. um 11:30 at night.
>> But um two so we have two important and we did we did want to put these together um just so that we could kind of in a way be work working just using that part of our brain. Um so we are going to start with the uh policy discussion
continuation professional boundaries and prevention of sexual misconduct abuse um uh Dr. Russell Carlac um educational equity data scientist. So, first of all, just to get us started, um, a huge thank you to to Dr.
Carlick and everyone who's worked with him on this. Um, and a even more so and both this and the grading policy, excuse me, a huge thank you to the public. Um, uh, uh, our teachers, our parents, we had a number of students write in on all
of these um constituents. Um, uh, we appreciate all of the feedback. So all the feedback that came to us directly um was sent uh to Dr. Hayes and Dr. Carlock um and uh we've also all the schoolboard
members have reviewed it um and have kind of comments from some of that. So um I will let you kind of tell us how this like what kind of what you're going to do, how this update is going to work and then um how the finalization um uh and potential vote will happen.
>> Great. Thank you so much Dr. Berlin. Thank you members of the school board. U we will be discussing the key issues that arose in public feedback and I want to reiterate what Dr. Bruin said that we are very appreciative to all of the many members of the community, our staff, our parents who communicated with the board
uh during this time uh to provide feedback that we were able to incorporate into uh this updated version of the draft policy. Uh we'll discuss what those incorporated changes look like and then open it up to questions and discussion prior to Dr. grant coming
to work with the board on uh adopting the exact language that you would like to include in the new policy. Uh there were four key issues that came up in the public feedback. The first was around a dual reporting structure and ensuring that there was reporting not
only to the building principle that that was seen as insufficient that there needs to be additional reporting there needs to be a dual reporting structure to uh someone outside of the building. Another issue was improving the definition of emergency. So linking it
to issues of security and safety. There's also a a call for a centralized digital log for student meetings that logs that must be easily accessible at the the division level for monitoring and review. And finally, parental notification and
founded cases of abuse. Uh so parents whose children had interactions with a staff member with a founded child abuse allegation should be notified unless doing so would interfere with law enforcement. So the first is around providing a dual
reporting structure. Uh so this section of the policy is new uh to address that and it says additionally ACPS employees are required to report in writing suspected incidents of violations of this policy regarding professional boundaries in person
one-on-one and electronic communications with students to the building principal and concurrently to the human resources department. At the beginning of each school year, the principal will share this policy with parents guardians and include contact information for the school's human resources partner as a
channel for reporting. A system for reporting concerns anonymously shall also be shared with the school community at the beginning of each school year. Currently, we have the help me system that allows uh parents and students to address issues anonymously. The second was around improving the
definition of emergency. And so we added language around relating to health, safety or security. And there will be additional uh language that you will see in the policy that was u recommended by Miss Spilman and Miss Lee also gave
additional feedback, but it was prior to being able to uh put put it up in front of the public. And so we will address that separately in that section. Uh the next part is around the centralized digital log for student meetings and this is part of the section
4C limits on one-on-one interactions. It says all adults shall document when one-on-one meetings occur with students in a division managed digital system. This digital documentation system will be monitored by principles, department heads, and division leaders and will be capable of producing lists of one-on-one
meetings with students. Parents and guardians shall be provided a list of one-on-one meetings with their child upon request of such list in writing directed to the building principal. This system branching minds as was referenced in the last presentation exists in our school division. Uh we worked with the department of
technology. It does have the capability to rapidly produce all documentation that was provi pro provided in that system by the staff member. Uh also per the department of technology uh each teacher each staff member who has children rostered to them in our student
information system uh also has the capability to go into branching minds and document a meeting uh with that child. Notification for founded cases was the last uh of the main the four main issues that were addressed. That is when or if an adult as defined in section one of
this policy is suspended or terminated for sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse or rape of a child or due to having become the subject of a founded case of child abuse or neglect. The superintendent or superintendent's design shall inform the school board in writing within 24 hours. The school
board shall determine whether the superintendent will inform the families of ACPS students who may have come in contact with set adult based on consultation with the Almal County Police Department andor the Al County Commonwealth's Attorney. There are a few other sections that we
also wanted to bring up. these didn't come up as part of those four core themes that came out, but we do think it's important uh to highlight them. The first is around counselors and other specialized staff. Um counselors have a a special section of Virginia code
dedicated to them. Uh it's also in part of Alberal County Public Schools code and we discussed a little bit in our last meeting around the requirement uh for families to be notified of the school counseling program each year with the opportunity to opt out of that program. Uh also wanted to make sure
that we highlight that per Virginia code cited here that licensed school counselors may provide short duration personal or social counseling to students that is needed to maintain order, discipline or productive learning environment without affirmative parental consent. consent that is in in Virginia
code um for all other services with counselors, special educators and other staff. And we thought it was important because we were thinking about the other staff that meet regularly one-on-one with students. So career counselors in high schools as an example, uh school psychologists could be an example, our special educators who are case workers
for students with IEPs. Um, we thought it was important to bring them under a similar uh, framework that our counselors operate under in terms of notifying families at the beginning of the school year what that service looks like, what the parameters are around any one-on-one meetings, and giving families
the opportunity to opt out of those services. Uh, as part of those services, meeting regularly, uh, there would not be notification every time a one-on-one meeting takes place. There would be documentation of that. Um however, families would have the option of opting
out of those services. U addition to the one-on-one electronic communications that we thought was important and this speaks to your question in the last presentation, Dr. Berlin, around the many different situations we have. We we do have families who do not have email. Uh we have students and families who don't
regularly use electronic communication. Um we also have uh students who are um unaccompanied minors whose families may be unreachable because they live in another country. Uh and so we wanted to make sure there was some contingency in place for for students in those situations. And so if an adult must
contact a student via email and their parents email is unavailable, the adult shall include their direct supervisor in the communication to ensure that there's not a onetoone uh direct communication being made to the student. We also wanted to just clarify that adults shall not use personal phones to communicate with students unless using an
application provided by ACPS that allows for accessibility to parents and guardians. Uh those are the main changes. There are many other minor changes that you all can see in the red line version of the policy. Um first I'll address questions and then once those questions have been answered, Dr. Grant will come and and
lead the policy adoption process. I guess [clears throat] on on the slide uh on documentation of one-on ones, we had an example from Dr. Liskum of the special leaison walking a
student from one meeting or one classroom to the other. Would that be I guess it's the definition of meeting. >> Yes. And that came up in a conversation with teachers as well. Um, you know, I I taught a course at Monachella High School this last year and uh it was a
first period course and there are times when every day actually the first student that comes into class is by themsel with me in that class, right? So, is that a meeting? Um, is a student stopping by a teacher's classroom uh during lunch? Is that a meeting? Is a
conversation in the hallway a meeting? And under this framework, uh those are not meetings. Um however uh it's going to be important in our implementation for all adults who are working with our students to understand that when you are alone with a student um the other parts of the policy still are in place. So you
have to make sure that it's visible um that you're uh in a if you're in a classroom the classroom has to be open it's accessible to other adults uh and then also understanding the other aspects of professional boundaries to ensure that um that those sorts of encounters are not leading to
professional boundaries being violated. Um so that's how we've interpreted it at this point. So the meeting would be so if I'm a teacher asking a student to come to my uh lunch for tutoring that needs to be documented uh and that needs to have parental consent involved. Um
but if it's a chance sort of a student you you usually have in many of our schools our high schools for example students may go to teachers classrooms for lunch and usually there's groups of students but it might be that only one student comes that day. uh because it's not a planned, it's not invited by the teacher, it wouldn't be considered a
meeting in that situation. >> Thank you. >> I know my other board members, but I just don't want to forget this one because it actually came up today. is for the board. who would we designate it
as our because we have students who message the school board um about student voice and so we I want to make sure that we also follow the policy and so we should just designate who our there's well there's two pieces one who
is our supervisor and who should we include if there is because oftentimes we don't know the par I should say I've had one occasion where a student has messaged me with his parents But every time else it's just the student messaging us independently. So
>> yeah, >> interesting point. >> I was thinking on that point maybe we would do the rest of the board. I don't know. I was just say CC the on your response >> which we which we usually do but just just for the public to know that's again because I don't again want to stop students from messaging us
>> because they are bringing a very important piece of information to us and so I just want to make sure that we as well are following that policy. So >> they they often send their messages to the entire board so it's not not even a one-on-one.
Um [clears throat] I also you know have a question you were talking about being the first student in the classroom. Similarly I think that um especially high I know in high school um students often go to a teacher's room for lunch as like an a trusted adult because they
don't like being in the cafeteria. It's overwhelming or um I know my daughter is one of those people. So how do we consider that? Um, is it something where the teacher asks permission from the parents and you get a a I think that's
one of those situations where it's gray, right? Like, um, this is somebody that is a trusted adult in their mind. Obviously, keep the door open or whatever, but um, do you have to document every time you have lunch with them if it's, you know, three times a week or whatever. So, I think that's something else we may want to consider
in this. I just to speak to that the board can choose to to make language around that so it's clearer. Uh and again many of our high school teachers regularly eat lunch with students and it's a wonderful practice for building. It's typically in
groups. And so I think if it's a one-on-one lunch meeting, then I think that teachers uh it doesn't mean that it it can't h ever happen, but I think that anytime staff are meeting one-on-one with students, then we need to be more aware of those professional boundaries and ensure that they are being honored
and respected. >> Um >> Russie, could you go back to the four points that were raised? Um, so there was um a question today about um and this a little bit came up earlier
too about like schools with trailers. Um would there be appropriate rooms in those schools? And um I'm sure that's something that everyone has thought about. Is there an operationalized answer to that?
>> Yeah. So, um, we looked into this a little bit and, uh, we changed the language from inaccessible to a closed door to make it clear that the door needs to be open, uh, because inaccessible was reported as being a little vague and we need to be more clear about that. Um, there are some
spaces in some of our schools and I used to work at Burley Middle School, which is one of our older schools. Um and looking thinking back to that there are some offices and spaces in that building and in other schools as well that would not be appropriate for meeting. Um it but there are spaces there. So there
might be some staff who currently have an office that under this new policy would no longer be an office that is considered acceptable um to meet one-on-one with a student. And in those cases, the administrators are going to need to work with that staff to either change their office or provide an
additional location for them to have those one-on-one meetings when they need to happen. Um, in a medium to longer term, uh, there it may be, uh, important to look as part of building reviews where those spaces are and if there need to be changes made of to the physical
structure to make them more accessible for one-on-one meetings. >> Thank you. I wonder if that review needs to be more systemic than building by building whether building services or long range planning or somebody should look globally at all of the
>> counselor spaces. >> Yeah, [clears throat] >> I look back at Nishvit. I'm I'm just looking through some of the feedback just to make sure if there's anything else, [clears throat] other comments, questions.
>> Just generally, assuming we pass some version of this tonight, h how is this going to be implemented? How is how are our are counselors and teachers and building supervisors going to be
informed about their about the new rags and also about if there are not appropriate spaces right now what kind of timeline are we thinking about?
>> Yeah. So as a foundational policy, it it will not be one department responsible for implementation. It will be all of our departments working together. Um as uh Jamie Gilner mentioned earlier, she's already thinking about when this if this policy is adopted um how she will
communicate it out to her staff, [clears throat] including bus drivers. Um, so I think that that kind of review for all of our department heads at division level will need to be important and considering um how to implement and train staff around the new policy if and
when it's adopted. Jason, >> is it sliding up? Oh, there's a delay. I got it. [clears throat] >> Sorry, I couldn't hear you. >> I'm trying to see if it's pulling up on here. There might be a delay or it's not accessing here.
>> I see it. >> I see it. >> Yeah, we can see it. >> I'm There we go. >> All right. Um, so as we go through there's a few changes that we've gone through in here um that came in later
and it's not showing here. Sorry. >> Might be a long delay here in between these Chris. I do want to ask g ask Dr. Hayes this I think um ultimately you know you and I have
talked a little bit about kind of every like chain of command like ultimately this is schoolboard policy but who is the person um everyone is a part of it to per per Dr. Carla but at the end of the day who is the person responsible for making
sure that this is you know documented communicated okay I just wanted to >> that would that's an important I think this is an important statement to make yeah this at the end of the day this is you know Dr. Dr. Hayes will make sure that this is she will work with her team
who then also working with the principles and teachers to make sure this is is is [cough] um documented, shared, followed. So >> along those lines, who who is the supervisor for the coordinator of
counseling and wellness? >> Dr. >> Dr. Lipkcom. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. So, in under [clears throat] definitions, uh there was language just added to what the red line is. We had the red lines based on the comments from
the last board meeting. We had some other comments that came in after we posted it. So, um we've got these included in here for you all to see. Um so, you know what you're looking at across the board. So, on item D, uh this was from I believe Supervisor Spilman U
board member Spilman. Um, so relating to mental and physical health, safety, abuse, disclosure, suicidal ideiation, threats of violence, those are added to that. Anything additional, Miss >> Thank you for adding that.
>> Any any concerns on those? We can >> Okay, good. That's good. >> Um, then we go through. >> Yeah. Not >> there's a line 101. Yeah. Line 101, encouraging students to keep secrets.
That is under inappropriate uh boundary violations. Um so that's added. >> It's an important one. >> And as we're going through these, you'll see the red line versions that are there. These are ones that have gotten added in from your last comment. So if there's anything that you feel should not be there or you want to stop and and
discuss, we can do that as well. And I'm just moving kind of slow so y'all see where we are if you wanted to stop on anything. So this one here is added on limits on one-on-one interactions. That last sentence, counseling offices shall maintain reasonable privacy while
remaining oh not caps observable through windows or uh vision panel. >> What is a vision panel? Um I think like um like sometimes they
just have like the um openings in the door that's not a full window, but you can like see what's going on inside. Got it. Okay. >> And then this paragraph there's I I'll let you read through that paragraph. There's a lot of different additions into there. I think you can read that and see if there's any edits that you
want to make to that for lines 163 through 175. I think those are good. Very great. Any [clears throat] questions, comments, concerns on that?
>> I think those are good. >> Okay. Then uh through uh line 186 adding this system will document that a meeting occurred but shall not be required to include confidential counseling notes. Do you want to give any clarification on
that? >> Um, yeah. I mean, I think Hold on. I have notes on my computer. Hold on. >> Just a note, I think maybe the building turned the air conditioning off at 10:00. >> Just a note, if you see me sweating, um,
I >> I there's anything we can do, but >> um, this is on confidentiality. Is that right? This is on the documenting one-on-one meetings. So as they occur online >> Yeah. I think you know if um
like for counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, confidentiality is an important part of their job. So um that there are legal exceptions to that um including abuse report threats, court orders, things like that. Um but that
you know if you're in counseling and parents have signed off on it you know you're going to say we've done this counseling and you know what is confidential is not for me to determine it's those professionals determine the confidentiality. I just want to respect those profession professionals.
>> Do we have a division managed dis digital system to do this >> to maintain the note? Yeah, the branch. >> Yeah, branch mines. >> Yeah, branching mines. So, it is a tool that we have. It hasn't been
>> branching >> mandated forced used all the way through there, but it's there. It can do that. So, that'll be part of the training to make sure that it's utilized. >> Called branching lines. >> Okay. >> Platform. >> Thank you. Next is at line.
>> Can I Oh, just a quick question. So, I appreciate you putting the auto company partners because I think that's an important piece. Um, sorry it's just late because this is probably in here and I probably thought we already thought about this is but the the our seniors who are who turn 18
>> that Yeah. So, I that's in here. >> That's in there. Okay. >> Um, yeah. under 203. I added that in there. Um >> because they're [clears throat] legally different under um so we have to like comply with Furpa and state laws, but once they're adults there's >> Yeah. [snorts]
I request that we add one word in line 238. Um the advice that we stipulate adults may not knowingly
friend or follow students or accept friend or follow requests. Young people are clever and [clears throat] sometimes they may disguise a friend request. Um, so I think
>> the key is to stipulate that it's >> you know a proh prohibition on accepting a friend request from somebody who a teacher knows is a student
>> knowingly. Yeah. >> Because they Yeah. being the parent of teenagers. I don't even remember. What do they call them? Spam. I don't know. There's some name they have for these other accounts. So, there's the ones the parents see and then there's the ones that only their friends see. Um, >> is it what >> is it?
>> Fin. Thank you. Obviously, I'm not a cool mom. [laughter] >> Um, >> thanks, Judy. Thanks for uh >> showing how uncool I am. Um, but I I think it's it's the knowing act of and I
don't know [laughter] how I mean again that gets gray, but you know I I can see that happening. Um, and and I think this is hard too because you know there are again
best intentions, right? So there are trusted adults at the high school that I know, you know, coaches and things like that that follow the students. And so, you know, that I think that's it gets a little gray at this point on social media because
coaches are the ones that are helping them get recruited by colleges and your social media account is how you get recruited unfortunately now. So, um I think it it gets a little bit difficult um in in this regard of what the intent is and and I don't know how we word that
or how we work around that, but I I don't >> in and I'll address both those f the last one first. So, u this does provide the opportunity for staff members to create professional social media accounts, okay,
>> that are strictly professional. Uh and so in in that particular case, if a coach wanted to have a coach so and so professional account and it was um it has to be open to the public, it has to be fully accessible. Um that is is permitted under this. The issue is with
personal social media accounts being used for this >> private and yeah >> and I will say we we also discussed this knowingly piece and uh Josh is not here tonight but legal in legal counsel was around the exception the potential for
the exception to swallow the rule and putting knowingly in there could potentially allow uh a lot of gray area and if if that's okay with the board that that's fine but just from a legal standpoint, putting knowingly in there
>> opens [clears throat] up a lot more gray area. >> So, I mean, maybe it's just, you know, if you don't if you're not sure, then don't don't accept the friend request, right? Like air on the side of >> good judgment. Um, >> but I do I I I appreciate you pointing out the professional because I do think
that they're, you know, and it's not just sports. I mean, we've got, you know, our GIS and and things like that that they're using this stuff um in a really meaningful way um through the schools. Um, and so I don't want to lose that because technology obviously blessing and a curse. Um, it really is
helpful for these students to have and look at film making, right? I I think of our um like Miss Lee and I were just talking about the film club at Albamarl and both of our kids are very involved in that. And so, you know, h how do we protect these
things while still protecting our kids at the same time? and and and it unfortunately is kind of gray but I do think you know the encouraging of the professional account may help with that. >> So are you encouraging us are you discouraging us from adding knowingly or
>> I think the issue on knowingly becomes the individual could knowingly >> be liking but say I was not knowing because of the policy. >> So we want to make sure >> that that's the guidance that was there. That's why said don't put it in there
and if you're not sure then don't accept the friend request. >> Yeah. >> But that was the guidance. >> What do you think Jim? >> Okay. >> I'll defer it to the attorney. >> Okay. Knowingly. Yeah. [snorts]
>> And then the other thing on those professional social accounts if a coach or others are using those those will become approved through that right. So it's it becomes clear and part of ACPS. Um, we added this photo part in here. I want to make sure that this is clear.
Um, when when parents register, they opt out of allowing their kid to to to be filmed or on video or anything. So, there's an action they have to take at registration to say don't opt in, >> otherwise you're in. Um, so we wanted to
make sure that was clear on here that they gota they got to take some action to opt out of that authorization so that people aren't having to try to track down every parent every time if they've already had that approval. But if there's obviously any request, if someone says I don't want there even if
they didn't opt out and they said I want to take that down, we will take that down still. So just want to make sure that was clear why that language >> or when you accidentally opt out of your kids media and then they're not in a yearbook and they're real mad. [laughter] Um I just as a an editing thing I think that first adult should be parent or
guardian. Right. It's not just from the definition of adult. >> Say that again. Sorry. >> So I'm sorry. Yeah. Line 245. >> Should that be parent guardian has adopted out of this authorization during registration? >> I guess that Yeah. >> Got it.
This part here about email has created a lot of questions um on there. So I wanted to pause on this a little bit. Um and we do have uh Mitchell with technology who can address a little bit of the questions on parent square what it does and doesn't do a little bit. Um
but the idea of copying every single time has raised some concerns from teachers and and and staff of someone says hey I want my test grade they didn't copy their parent do we ignore it do we say you know what's what's sort of the action so we want to encourage
people to utilize parents square but they may still email there is the potential of looking at this from the perspective of we talk about here we restrict one-on-one electronic communications with individual students to account systems platforms that are provided by and accessible to Albamarl
County public schools. There is a possibility to look at this and if it is to official K12 Albamaral account because we do have access to K12 Alberal accounts as well. So we could the parent may not have access but we can pull that. So that's another area to
look at but there could be some communication where the parent is not engaged in this. So that was one option was looking at it. If a student emails us from their K12 account, can is it okay to respond to that K12 as opposed if they use their Gmail account or something else, we still wouldn't be
able to do that. Um, but I don't know if you all had any questions about how parent square functions um or around this because as written right now, any email to a student is going to have to have a parent CC if it's if it's email.
And I want to make sure we understand the potential implication to that um more broadly. >> That seems to me to answer the questions that I understand us to have gotten. But um I this is since this is a brand new policy and I
think that our usual cadence for reviewing policies is five years. I wonder if it should be in here or if it's in another policy that since if we make something out of kind of whole cloth if we should if we could review it once a year because I don't know if this will look the same to us next year.
>> I mean and I'm going to look to uh a couple people here. I mean I there's a piece I don't want to change it mid year but there is a piece of me that does wonder like is there some midyear right like because I think
>> we have the public has brought up many of the unintended consequences and ways it might make teachers be difficult like it'll make it harder for some teachers and we but we probably you know we can I always say you can figure out 80% of those but we can't do
20% or we could get to 90%. And I do wonder like, you know, if there is a, you know, I don't know how we kind of say that or we just like, you know, I think this should be regularly looked at every year, but I do wonder about like if after the first x months of implementation if there are some things
like I don't like that we can bring up again for discussion, share them for public comment. Um, >> yeah, I was actually just going to ask that like what is our um, you know, I know policies that have been in place we review every five years, but what about new policies that we've never
created before? Do we have an a review [snorts] timeline for that or does it [clears throat] >> craft it? We can craft it >> per code. There are some policies that get reviewed more frequently. Some are annually, some are bianually uh, that are there. The board can review a policy
anytime and once. And so if you wanted to work some language into this that said we want to review this uh uh every year at the start of the year that's uh totally up to the board on how often it would come back to you. >> Yeah. Then I think you know probably as we're implementing this it would be at
the end of the first semester. >> Yeah. >> Um and then again next summer at the end of the second semester. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Into the language of the of the of the policy but we can we could adopt it with that recommendation.
Yeah. So nothing prohibits at any time. You don't have to have in the policy. You don't need to quantify when that review is. The board at any time could add that to the agenda through the chair to to pull. >> Yeah. And just for the public, one of the things we are work we I shouldn't say we we have not started working on it yet, but [clears throat] we will be
working on a like a a a calendar that the board is using to to like to a long-term year-long calendar so that it is easier to we can we can put these types of things on. And what does that assessment look like? It's not just a presentation from Dr. Lipkcom. It's
>> what sort of feedback are we getting? And I think that that's really important. It's not just from, you know, even principles. How are the teachers feeling about it? How are the students feeling? How are the parents feeling about it? Um, and I think that needs to be laid out explicitly what we're looking for and when. Um, and
that doesn't again doesn't have to be part of the policy, but I think that um is an important determination and it's not an afterthought and we don't get to the end of the semester and then be like, crap, we we need to pull this together. Um, I would like to be a little more thoughtful um about it.
>> Um, [clears throat] go ahead. No, you go. Can we go back to the social media for a second? Um, I have another concern. So, um, for those of us that use real Insta and not Finina, um,
if you have a public account, anyone can follow you. You don't accept a request. So, how do we prevent a student? I mean, a student, a teacher, an administrator should not get in trouble because they have 5,000, 10,000 followers and a student who they don't even know is
following them. Doesn't mean you have to follow them back, but someone should not be um get in trouble for having a public account. And and we as a school division can't tell a teacher to not have a public,
>> but these are just private. These ones in 239. >> Okay. So, adults may not friend or follow students or accept friend or follow requests from students on private personal Okay. But >> on their >> I'm sorry. Should say on their private personal accounts. >> Well, but I think that that still gets
gray because it's their personal account. It's just it they have their privacy setting to public so that you don't have to send a friend or a follow request. It's just anybody can follow. Kind of like you do with a celebrity, right? Like you just hit follow and they might get a notice but they you know if
they're >> getting 20 or 30 a day, how do they know which one's a student? They can't go back and and look at that. So it's their private personal with their personal email account, but it is a public open to the public. Anybody can follow them.
I I think I think with the policy um you can't accept it, right? So you have to take an action to accept in this policy and so you cannot you can track that like if someone says I want to file and you get that request you can't accept
that request if you're on a platform in some platforms you have to accept it. Anybody can make the request. >> Okay. So, I think we need to I don't know if we bold it or italicize it, but I think there needs to be an emphasis on that except because that could easily get someone in
trouble. >> Okay. >> And yeah, we're saying they can't follow that student, but if if it's not stopping a student and a public account from following them, >> they can see the content. >> They can see the content of the teacher. doesn't mean the teacher can see the
content of the student, but >> that that that minor has chosen to follow an adult with a public openf facing account >> and that student can see all of the teachers stuff. >> Yeah. >> And we can't force a teacher to have a private account. They can do whatever
they want. >> Correct. >> This is where I need my student rep to help us understand like the intricacies of this. >> Yeah. And we're not cool. Remember >> cool enough. Yeah. >> Um, yeah. It just it and this is where I
think we're going to get a lot of feedback and you know and Yeah. >> And this is I think in the social media sphere too. I mean we've got friend or follow there. There's likes, there's other way, right? We're just using these as the generic language and you're right if they if they're there. We do have a
way on a lot of these platforms that you do have to accept, right? So we can see who they've accepted or not. And I think that's if an issue comes up, we can at least see that part of it too here. >> Have we seen other districts have a
similar policy around social media? >> Yes, that particular line that is generating a lot of discussion comes from Harrisonenberg uh public schools. Okay. >> So it sounds like this is potential discussion point. I mean this is I mean
this is a hard like I don't I understand the intention of I think this is the question of like are we putting something out there that is difficult to monitor and makes it very difficult for staff. [clears throat] >> I I don't know. I mean I feel like this
is a really easy path for someone who wants to groom. >> Agreed. No, I agree. I agree. So I just want to make sure it's important that it's there. >> Yeah. The language is clear. Do we all feel comfortable about the language? And this might >> I mean I personally do because it says private and personal and I don't so
>> I I feel comfortable with it but I understand your point >> and I think as long as the we are prohibiting and I think it it clearly states this from the adult following the student on their social media even if theirs is open in public.
>> They may not reciprocate the follow or the friend request or whatever. So, right now I've got the accept is italicized to to put emphasis to that. Is that the direction the board wants to move? >> I think I agree.
>> Yeah, I think. Yeah. >> I have a question actually. I just thought about this on the email piece on the and again this is like it's like how is this implemented how is this shared you know across across the whole staff parents but also students so it is
students second nature to just email something off to their >> um teacher >> teacher right and so then is it just assume when that teacher responds I mean we can try to teach our students that about this policy And why? I mean, part
of this is like in a developmentally appropriate way, right? Like teaching our students about this policy, but how like that that if you know, if they're not if they're emailing their teacher through a ACPS account, um,
uh, that then the teacher is going to respond with that student's parents. So, I mean, I just think that's a that's a change, right, from from student. So, I think it's just help making sure students >> [clears throat] >> they don't have the and I think this is what it says if they don't have the
parent or guardians and they include their supervisor at the school. So there's another adult on the response from the adult. >> Yeah. And I think making sure students understand that it's not you're like in because I think you know I could see my you know again I see my my my one of my student my children who's graduated but
is very self-conscious like oh my god I'm in trouble because >> you're including your principal. >> You're including the principal right? And so I think you like it is just but making sure as part of this education really helping the students understand not just like not just the like this is
happening but this is happening because of this of this policy. Um because I think that's just that is going to be a change for students and I don't want them to think they're in trouble when their parents are included or their um >> a supervisor.
>> And I think that that brings up another point. um we're a month from school starting um and we heard this similar on the grading policy. What is the grace period? What is the leeway as people are learning these things? You know, I don't want a teacher to
or a student to get in trouble because they accidentally forgot and just emailed like, hey, you forgot to turn in this assignment or this is due tomorrow. You know, whatever it is like I I don't know. >> Yeah. There's a big difference between, oh, I forgot and I'm grooming you, >> right? So yeah, I mean
>> this is a huge this is a huge shift from what has been done and um I guess I'm looking to Dr. Hayes. I don't know that you have the answer right now but um yeah I I um
I think this is where we take it like you know we have the policy in place and then we'll look at each situation accordingly. Yeah. Um, if there's a situation where, you know, don't forget your test is tomorrow. We could say, you know what, that was an accident, you
know, was nothing nefarious in that communication, but call me later tonight and I can talk to you would be, wait a minute, that's something we need to investigate a little bit further. So I think as we work through the process, we'll probably just have to, you know,
discuss it as we go forth and then if a situation occurs, we'll have the policy to lean on as far as how we discipline or speak with that employee. >> And this is where one of the issues. So we say these systems must provide, we could change that to ACPS must provide
access. We're talking about the system doing it automatically. Um to the extent that the system allows that, we can use that system. Um but then that that would sort of take some of that onus if we we can provide them access to any emails of their K12 email for example. They don't
the system doesn't have that but we can easily provide it >> because we're going to be moving towards parents square where all the communication is supposed to go but students still have their ACPS email and their Google Drive and all of those things which also I guess brings up a whole other point on like Google Drive
and things like that. Is that something that needs to be a part of this policy or is that just like we hadn't even really considered? [sighs] >> So let me ask to hear would you rather it be the system so the technology has to automatically do that or ACPS must
provide access. Well, to me it's provide versus allow, right? I mean, like provide is affirmative, right? It'll come out of it. And then allow is it lets us look in. So,
I mean, like, am I expecting to see every email or every message that my son messages because he's missed an assignment? Cue the grading thing? Um, I I hope not, but if I have questions or concerns, I I would like to be able to
see it. So, to me, allow makes more sense. >> Is that is that what you're suggesting? >> That's my suggestion, but I don't know what the rest of the board is interested in. >> Um, yeah. So that's what I'm and I and I guess that kind of then
>> pulls in like Google Drive and all that other stuff, but like I don't have access to my kids ACPS email. Like I don't Right. >> I don't even know how I would do that. >> Right. Um would it would it be helpful if tech I
know there's a representative from technology here to maybe share >> um >> the ability to access student Google drives staff Google drives you know emails if if necessary. Yeah, because like you can see stuff on P school and
schooly and the bazillion other platforms that we have that we try to find all the information, but >> the actual email in Google Drive, I don't have access to that. >> Hi, good evening. Uh Mitch Lincoln, assistant director for enterprise applications from the Department of
Technology. Um, in terms of access, family access to Google Drive or email, uh, the main way that we recommend folks do that would be for the student to give their password to their parents. Uh, there's no sort of built-in mechanism in those systems to do that. Parent Square does have that functionality built in
already. So, uh, parent square will link the student and the parents accounts so that when a parent and a when a student and a teacher are messaging, the parent has the ability to log in and view all of those messages. So, we're, as been said here before, we're going to try to direct as much of that communication
through parent square so that parents have the allowed visibility without getting their inbox uh cluttered up. Um, but the that functionality doesn't exist in those other systems. >> So, we can't Are you able to just share
passwords with all of us? >> Theoretically, yes. Some security concerns about >> I was going to say pass. Yeah. >> Yeah. But aren't as I mean our kids are minors. Aren't we entitled to their passwords as parents?
>> Yes. >> So [snorts] man, this is a lot. >> No, it is that is spinning. >> Yeah. No, I think it is the that's why I keep going to the >> I think on an individual basis that's not a problem. Like giving an individual
parent their students password. I think when we operationalize doing that for all of our students and we start sharing >> Yeah. >> massive data >> I mean by just putting allow >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> And maybe that does just cover it.
>> I I keep going back to what's what's the like original like what's the intent? >> Yeah. I think what gets difficult is all the other all these systems that we have, you know, like I appreciate parent square is going to try to centralize some of this, but >> there's still Google Drive and their
email and schooly and powers school and now what were all the other ones we were talking about tonight with mental health and I mean it's just never ending. >> But it's those that allow that there's I hear you're saying Google Drive, but there's a communication component that
is happening, right? Like there are some things where there's not one-on-one communication, >> right? But >> teacher commenting on Google Drive. I mean, a teacher commenting on my essay on Google Drive. >> Exactly. That's one-on-one communication. And so, how do we have
access to that? Because if we're talking about one-on-one communication, I mean, and that's where it's getting really tricky because where do you where do where do you cut it off? Where do you say that's appropriate communication? I don't need to see everything. But it sounds like access to it. >> Yeah.
>> Right. So, how do we And maybe that's just part of this communication strategy of listing every single system that your kid can be communicating with an adult. >> Yeah. I mean, >> that's where it gets really like
>> it. Yeah. It gets tricky. And also kids I mean in so many presentations that we've seen it's like if you set up a boundary, kids are going to find >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah, >> like dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. So, um I think the systems that are provided by
and accessible from our school division. Um >> yeah, >> but I I think my point is I don't even know all the systems that my kids have access to that are communicating with
adults and that's my dying, >> right? My like all these things, you know, I help me, you know, I don't even know what all of them are. And so maybe that's a conversation separate from this, but it's that communication to the parents. These are all the platforms
that your children are communicating with adults in our Mhm. >> division. >> If you want their passwords or their permission and who do they reach out to? I'm sure you're not going to want that bazillion emails. But we have to think about that, right? If we're opening this
can of worms, we're opening a can of worms and we have to be prepared to deal with it. >> I also think it's worth noting too for something like email or Google Drive, we have access to all of this. So like this is not happening in secret. It's not being actively monitored by a parent or an adult. Um, but we can go back and
find anything. Um, >> sure. But I mean, as Miss Lee said, I mean, if we're worried and and I appreciate this this conversation around grooming, but a groomer is going to groom, right? They're going to find that the the opportunity to take it. And so
if I know that I can access that at any time and a groomer knows that it's not just the IT department or the principal that at any time could but that a parent's going to and can be monitoring this, that is one extra step of protection that I think is what we're talking about.
>> And I think on a policy level, I think what you're saying is valuable and needs to be part of the communication, right? >> Certainly to parents, but I think on a policy level, >> to me, this seems to cover those things, >> right? I agree. I agree. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure that as
we're that we're not missing anything and then it comes back to bite us. >> Right. >> All right. So, we've got again these here in this discussion. This is must allow access to parents or guardians deserve all communication with their child in the case of communication system that does not allow access to
parents or guardians. for example, nonACPS email, the parent guardian must be included in the communication. So, what that does is that they're using the K12 email. We're assuming that's trusted and that's schools and we can see that and we can access that. But, if
it's a Gmail or something like that, that's a nonACPS email, they're going to have to copy the parents on that. >> I I don't think we I don't like that addition. No. Okay. >> Um Yeah, I think eg email >> just email. So, you want on the K12 email, we want to copy parents.
>> That's the one that I think it's important that we copy parents on if I mean, yes, let's all use Parent Square. Um, but I think that's where it feels most likely to be a problem is in everyone's email. So, I don't think
narrowing it to nonACPS email makes sense to me. system >> and then the addition if it's are you all because this was added here if an adult must contact a student via email and a parent's email is unavailable
>> adult shall include their direct supervisor again that may be a lot of emails coming through every teacher to every principal right so how that copying occurs so at the moment >> I mean are there that many I mean I'm sure there are a lot of families that
don't have email um access but do we say that it's that they I don't know that d putting it as the supervisor or what is the like maybe that's not the best system I don't know I don't
>> I I also if we can go back I don't think that we should kill the automatically in the in line 254 because as we noted you can get access >> but it isn't automatic you have to request it. So I think automatically makes sense there. >> So you want to leave automatically. The
system has to allow it and we can't provide. >> So just take out automatically >> or no to no to put back in automatically because >> don't delete it. Yeah. >> Don't delete it because Gmail does allow access. You can get it. >> Um but it's not automatic.
>> Okay. >> Like that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> No one I just thought of it. This is and this is I'm just gonna say this out loud because this is an implementation thing. Yeah. Um we're all so hot here. Um [clears throat] Rosen, there's no way we can like everyone's gone. There's no one
we can talk to to turn the AC back on. I assume at this point >> I will I reached out earlier and it was working. >> Yeah, I think it automatically goes off at 10. So I don't know. It's it might like someone might have to hard reset it. >> I will um >> the on call tech again. >> Sorry.
>> No, sorry. Um >> Oh, I know what I was going to say. So this is again like this is an implementation thing right like there's an email that I use for my children's like there's an email that I give the school
with knowledge that this is like official communication there's this is going to put a lot of email into parents emails right every reason why again I think just in this implementation like this
communication with parents making sure they're sure they know it's like like and I think there is something on the um like the the what parents fill out but it's like this is former like this is the phone number for emergencies this is for like the you know the school's closing because of snow like this like
if people are giving their email making sure they are aware what is coming I mean I think again this is like this is not a policy but an implementation but I'm just putting a little starter >> is there an option for parents to like say I don't need to receive any more of these communications from this
teacher like put >> there I mean there haven't been like I think that's your point right like is there >> they would email the teacher to opt out >> yeah I just [clears throat] I'm thinking about Allison there's four children
right like so again it's like intention I understand it but it's like I this again I think is an implementation piece But just how does that like making sure parents aware that this is something that will be happening? Um >> I mean if you feel like the policy is
sound then I think we definitely can have the implementation discussions but I would like to get through the policy. >> No I agree. I agree. I I will y >> I think so. Anything else on the communication piece? Again,
these were all originally there. So, we can stop if there's things you haven't seen. Are there multi just on line 280 are there multiple when it says department's human resources partner is that because in HR there's a person for
okay and I again I think again I'll just making sure like as part of this communication like that you know those are outlined This addition here on line 298 is from Miss Lee um terminated for allegations
of sexual molestation. So I do have a question about that too is like um as a matter of uh practice are people who are alleged to have molested sexually are they
suspended and or terminated is there another category? Are they put on leave? Like is there something is there any category we're missing here? Um, we also have discussed in our own meeting um, when we'll be notified about things. So,
I think there is a little belt and suspenders thing to that, but I just wonder if this covers all the things that happened to someone, >> someone who's put on administrative leave before they >> before they have had a finding or >> Yeah. So, that's why I wanted
allegations because allegations I mean, justice takes years sometimes. So >> but before suspended or terminated should we have >> administrative I feel like >> well that's the question is there a category that we're missing >> right
>> of things that happen to people who are right >> alleged to have done these things or >> I don't think there's a category you're missing >> when these kinds of allegations come forward it's highly likely that an employee will
be uh placed on in a leave state >> while the is that the same I think That's I think it's a definition piece like we like we use that that you we use like there are different term I mean I think again clarifying for the public there are different terms like suspended means administrative if that's the
right term. Okay, thank you. >> But is that what what would be the right word to use? So is this what's the word I guess what's the word we're using? So we're all using similar language. >> It might be more consistent with language we use with employees to say is
placed on leave. >> Okay. >> Placed on leave. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Is that reading how And in line [clears throat] >> line 299,
>> subject of a founded case of child abuse. >> Is there a layman's definition? What what makes a case founded? >> Clicking a stone. >> Yes, that's a term of art um related to
a CPS finding. Okay. might be helpful to make a footnote. You >> could just insert CPS or DSS in front of founded if you like. >> Yeah, that's helpful. [snorts]
Just >> so insert C uh child protective services in front of founded >> with a hyphen >> with a apostrophe >> uh service. >> I think the apostrophe goes after the
siren services. Yes. Is there ever a case where someone is suspended or terminated just for allegations? >> That's what I was just asking. >> Yeah. I mean, [clears throat] it's it's always the potential that someone would
resign when faced with allegations and then they are terminated from employment when they resign. That that's also a term of art. I think having all three covers us >> if any of these things happens.
>> Yeah. I think it's worth >> noting to the public that this >> is a new policy. you know that the superintendent or designate shall inform the school board in writing within 24 hours
of a staff member being placed on leave. Obviously that didn't happen in in the case that is, you know, the elephant in the room. Um, so I think it's important
that people hear this is one of many steps that we're taking to u address that what we see as a gap that occurred.
>> Is that fair? >> [clears throat] >> I I the line 300 I I think this is like for the public I think this is a question is this you know
this kind of may and the that there there isn't a timeline there I know in things like this it's difficult to put a timeline but um I mean I hate things like in a timely manner but it's just like you know it's
like shell inform. But again, if I had a parent hat on, my question would be, okay, you could are you going to inform me today, tomorrow, 6 months from now. So, is there a way to put a timing piece into that? >> Separate from the
>> No, this is the school board shall determine whether the superintendent will inform the families of ACP students who may have come in contact with set adults based on consultation with the police department and the Commonwealth and Turi. I I just
>> we we you know we notify the state students but there's no timing like there's no timing to parents and I know it's >> Yeah, I think that would be >> Yeah, I think that's >> important. >> Yeah, >> I I wrote that line just I think it should be the school board's
determination along with the superintendent and the police department. How do we inform parents and what and I know you're working on a >> a policy or legal language or something like that? >> Yeah. I >> and you can correct me if I'm wrong. I
think the challenge would be the police department or the >> common Yeah. No, I think that we don't know. >> Yeah. Two days. So >> you could say when and whether or whether and when
>> and that gives you the opportunity um that Mr. Dillbeck did or maybe that just said you know you can it's at the discretion of the board in consultation with the superintendent and the police when you do it as well as whether you do it at all.
>> But you want to give some guarantee to the public that we are working on it quickly. >> Yes. >> Yeah. That's my Yeah, that's my >> and I and I understand all the pie like again it's like all the pieces but I don't know. >> Well, this is also assuming that the
school board is told. So, I mean it there's so many things that are >> I mean I think I feel like >> yeah I mean it's we have to defer to ACPD but shouldn't we put in writing that
>> with their you know in conjunction with or working with >> Yeah. Yeah. Like are you saying within 24 hours of when they say >> or when we are told by ACPD? >> Yeah. >> Contact the families because we don't
want to ever hinder an investigation, right? >> Um that's the last thing we want, but we also want to assure the public that we are taking the responsibility is when we are allowed, we are immediately reaching out to families. >> There are so many variables in these
cases. I think you want to maintain the discretion. >> Yeah. >> Whether and when you disclose and talk to families. I know that families want to hear right away, but there may be good reason why you don't want to do that when a case comes up.
>> I know. >> I know. I know. I might be missing some important information, but assuming we're we're talking about minors, not not uh adult students.
If I'm a parent of a student and my child has met with somebody who has been placed on administrative leave, I want to know right away. Mhm. >> And I believe parents have the right to
know right away. >> Is there some other legal barrier that has to be overcome? >> Yeah. >> Law enforcement, >> investigations. I mean, there are just I I just think there are too many
variables to tie yourself to it. >> And I and also I think Dr. Hayes brought up in our um retreat last week like there's lots of reasons that someone goes on leave that >> right >> you know what did you say like someone has a something on a t-shirt that you're
whatever or they fell asleep in the closet like at what point you know do we I I think we can I mean staff members going to leave for like I said a multitude of things could be maternity leave medical leave um or it
could be leave because I worn an appropriate shirt to school. Um, I think in any case, if a staff member is on leave and is going to be out for an extended amount of time, we can notify families that Dr. Hayes is going to be out and Mr. Beard is going to be
substituting during that time, which lets them know that that staff member is out. However, if there's a legal component to it, we're not sharing anything without the permission from the police department, Commonwealth attorney, >> CPS, >> CPS. Right. So, I think we can we can
share because we do I mean that happens not consistently. That's one of the issues. um we can do that across schools, but I think when it comes to the legal portion um and any investigation or allegations, that's where we'll have to take that guidance from
the Commonwealth attorney or the police department. >> Okay? And we're not talking about somebody being placed suddenly because of a t-shirt here, right? Obviously, we're talking about >> allegations of sexual molestation and so
on. Um, so assuming that that's the issue at hand, I still have a really hard time understanding how we can withhold this information from parents who have,
my understanding, an absolute legal right to know what's going on with their children. Um, and how would the police be involved? I'm having a hard time understanding a
scenario where the police might be involved and the parents still not be informed of what's going on. Like, how is that even possible? Mhm. >> So, I I understand we want to stay within, you
know, the bounds of of the law, >> but I'm also hearing and as a parent, I'm concerned about wanting to know exactly what's going on with my child >> in a timely way, >> promising consultation >> in a timely way. >> We're we're calling ourselves the
decision makers and we're only promising consultation. >> Say it again. in the policy we are the decision makers and we're only promising consultation. Yeah, >> I think that the issue would be if in any way and so I can imagine in which
even charges or an investigation on one count is being investigated, but there are other accounts that the person under investigation isn't aware that these other things are also being investigated. And then by releasing to all of those families, it could
potentially compromise the investigation to other counts that are also happening for that particular person. And that's [snorts] just one example in a way that that information release could potentially impact an investigation. And the the bringing the person to justice
for the crimes that they've allegedly committed is also really important to think about. and the the prosecutor and the law enforcement are the experts in building that case. And as Miss Lee points out, you all have ultimate decision making power. Um, however,
making sure that that's in consultation with the ones who are running the investigation to make sure that it doesn't compromise that investigation, bringing the person to justice on potentially multiple accounts, um, is also an important consideration. And I think also protecting the the board um
if the allegations are unfounded or they they're innocent and we've jumped ahead of the legal team, >> right? I mean, I think we need to remember that we're innocent until proven guilty in this country. And so, yes, we are it is
our utmost duty to protect the kids, but also we are legally bound by, you know, and and I hear I completely agree with you. I want I want to know what's going on with my kids. And I think this is where it gets really hard because
how I don't know what the answer is because I I agree with you, Jim. Like I want to know I want to know immediately and I also don't want to be hindering an investigation
>> for a potential criminal, right? And >> I think this is where we take legal advice. >> Yeah. >> And and I think your policy because because it is allegations. So >> right with you're going to know within 24 hours that those allegations are there.
>> You'll know information about the context of that. Um, and then within the context, you'll have more information and consultation with CPS and police that you can then make that decision of when and and where that happens.
>> Yeah, I'm in favor of of the policy. I think it is good. I think we do need to drill down and be a little bit more specific, but I also think it would be helpful to consult with
police department, Commonwealth attorney to find out >> what are the boundaries and >> how can we is there a way to inform parents in such a way that a timely way that wouldn't
um interfere with the investig ation. So I think you know in the interest of getting a policy in place um like we've talked about before we can come back and >> well and what if it's
>> is that highlighted section sufficient for the consultation with police and >> for now [laughter] >> okay >> yeah we were all left out of that before >> um you know >> and and I think there's a it's important to note to that there's a difference
between inappropriate behavior and criminal behavior. >> Yeah. >> Um so someone could be very guilty of inappropriate behavior that doesn't rise to the level of CPS findings or the police um and the Commonwealth attorney
indicting someone, but we still as a board or as superintendent would find that behavior and HR would find that behavior inappropriate. Um, and I would want to know if a a teacher in my school was acting inappropriately even if it wasn't criminal. So,
I hear you and I don't know what the answer is. >> I think we can work on >> we can work on um >> yeah, >> further delineating that so families can know if it was inapprop you know in some form we can work on it.
>> Yeah. >> I just don't Yeah, we'll have to work with legal. I I can understand the anger of of >> sure families absolutely didn't hear >> for months. >> Absolutely. >> That's >> completely understandable. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And as a as parents,
>> we get it. Yeah. 100%. And we're angry, too. >> Line 307, I want to clarify why it's structured that way from employee to licensed personnel. The section code is about licensed personnel. So in the event where a person is not a licensed
personnel, there is no uh notifying of the state superintendent. So I just want people to know that why that change is there. This isn't trying to make it more difficult. This is what the state code requires the the 10 days for licensed personnel. So that's the reason for that
change there. I think that gets us to the end. >> [snorts] >> So I don't know from here. So we have it as amended is in this document. You've seen those that the board is comfortable with this as amended. Understand you can
bring it out at the very next board meeting. You can say we want to make a change, right? Um but if there was a motion to adopt this policy as amended and we could move that. >> So we I just want for clarification. we can adopt it as it's amended and then
let's say we get further feedback or we have those conversations with ECPD or Sarah or whoever else that can provide further insight. We could make a motion at the very next meeting that we want to amend it based on this information and it can be a continually working
document. Yes, you can bring it in at any board meeting and and anybody who votes in a majority, so the winning or the the prevailing side of a motion can always reconsider a motion within the same business meeting or the following. So you could always do a reconsideration.
>> Okay. >> If you vote if but you got to be in the side that that won uh that motion. >> Okay. Right. Right. Okay. So that's I think if we I I think I like the idea because I don't feel like this is done but I feel like it's >> enough that we are putting necessary
protections in place before the school year >> with the notion that this is an evolving document and to be improved upon as >> we are Yeah. >> Yeah. >> because it's to your point it has to be in place. We've got to get this in place
for the start of the school year in less than I can't >> 28 days. 28 days. 26 days. >> Jason, can you add in [clears throat] line 295 we in 299 we inserted child protective services before founded.
>> So I'm sorry I got line 295. >> Well below that we added child protective services as part of the definition founded. So for 290, yeah, for in 295 it should be added as well. They should be consistent. >> So you're not in the mic, so it's hard
for me to hear exactly what the request is. >> We inserted in 299 child protective services in front of founded, but in line 295, we also have the word founded. So we should be consistent in our usage.
So just insert child protective services. >> But is it applicable in 295? because that's for policy. >> The violation of the It's a violation of the policy. >> It's a violation of a an ACPS policy and not necessarily a CPS. >> I think
>> Yeah, cuz we would we would look at this policy whether there was a finding by line 295. >> Okay. >> I also want to give Dr. Hayes, who is always smart enough to have a fan. None of us seriously. >> I know we were coming in for so many ways. Yeah. Um see you for that right
now. um [laughter] um to uh >> to just give us an idea of I I know that this should continue to live and there are going to be thoughts that come to us and feedback that we get
but um the level of difficulty it will be for you to I know >> implement a policy >> knowing that there might be changes >> is there I mean I just wanted to give you a second to I just want to name that and see if there was anything you wanted to talk Yeah. Any concerns or things we
need to >> welcome to the job. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Um >> transparency. texting the team and said, "Hey, do we need to pull together an imple implementation team that doesn't
stand forever, but while we are um working through this process to make sure it's reviewed, we're providing feed, you know, we're getting the feedback from the staff, we're providing it to the team and making sure that all of our staff members are updated and our students understand the changes as well.
So, this will be a team effort as Dr. Karak spoke to. Um, and I was just mentioning to Mr. Beard, our principal leadership meeting is next week. >> Mhm. >> So, and then the week after that, it's new teachers and full staff. So, >> Right. And we're not back together until
after school starts. >> Until after school starts. Yeah. >> So, Okay. Thank you. >> We can always call a meeting if >> I'm sorry. >> Are we ready for a motion then? >> Um, I was just >> I move that we approve the policy on
professional boundaries and sexual misconduct. um as amended. Second. Moved by Miss Lee, seconded by Miss Spilman. I'd like to do a roll call vote for this. >> Miss Lee, >> yes.
>> Miss Osborne is absent. Miss Filman, >> yes. >> Dr. Aub, >> yes. >> Mr. Beard, >> yes. >> Mr. Dylan Beck, >> yes. >> Chair Berlin, >> yes. with a vote 610.
Motion carries. >> Thank you very much to the entire team for all of your work on this and again thank you very much and again thank you to the public for um all of their comments on this. >> Um the next item and again I know it is
11:00 and I again apologize to everyone but because school is starting this is something that we just have to keep moving through. Um the next item on our agenda um the last item is 9.7 policy IKBA
grading policy part two. Uh Mr. Craig Dmer, executive director of curriculum assessment instruction will lead us in this discussion. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And the uh prior to um the presentation, Craig asked me to
or uh I was asked to provide a little bit of context on how we got here. So, I just wanted to remind the board uh that in the last meeting, we discussed the policy and we talked about the grading policy and uh the changes that we were recommending to the policy itself and
how that's separate from the administrative procedures. Uh and so administrative procedures connected to the last discussion we just had are something that can be changed fairly rapidly without the board reviewing it. Um however the first we need to discuss the policy recommendations that were put
forward that in the redline document. Um there were two main changes that were made. One was around communication to families and the second was around uh directing the department of instruction uh to create a set of procedures that
incorporated some of the key elements from the findings of the evaluation of the grading system. Uh and so now Dr. Grant will review that policy with you similar to the one that you just did. It's much shorter policy uh to see if you would like to make any changes to it
prior to you vote you voting for adoption. So >> I think this one has just the two paragraphs on the policy. I'll let you figure out what that is. I don't mess it up. We have it in a Google doc. So you'll
bear with me for just a moment. I will pull it up. This was our and no >> it's not it. >> No. >> Do you see it? Um Jason,
>> here it is right here. >> That's not it. >> Yeah, >> we do have the hard copies. >> No, started. They have the hard You do have the hard >> We can walk through the hard copy that's there. There's only two paragraphs if you all are comfortable. The two
>> Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't >> problem solving. >> Yeah. I don't know if I have the Is that it? >> That's not the one that we changed. No, I'm sorry. >> Not tonight. >> So, you'll notice on line we'll just walk through. Okay. You'll notice on
line 12 um we have to ensure effective communication of grades. School staff shall provide an explanation of the grading system to students and parents and legal guardians at the beginning of each school year. Schools shall communicate to parents and students on a regular basis and evaluation of the students progress toward meeting the
academic objectives. So again this goes to it's not a lot of the questions are the implementation part of it right the policy that you have is you are making certain that by this statement that uh ACPS is notifying parents what it is how
it works and and we're not just leaving it for students to figure out with teachers. Um the other addition to this policy is on line 61 on that second page and again I'm just reading since folks don't have it at home. So, um, the school division shall create procedures
to support staff in implementing this policy and shall conduct periodic reviews with teacher and student input to ensure procedures are meeting the goals of grading accuracy, consistency, and support for student learning. These procedures shall include requirements and reasonable limitations for student
reassessments, a minimum grade that differentiates between attempted and unsubmitted assignments, regulations on accepting late work from students, requirements for communication of grades, and notifications of risk of failure to parents, a minimum number of assignments per marking period and
grading scales. So the through this the policy is requiring through the superintendent to be able to make certain that we are looking at is this working, is it not working, are the goals that the grading policy is supposed to be put in place are actually working and so you all can be able to
have access to that to know that reporting on what's working and not regarding the grading policy is expected by the board by the adoption of that paragraph. So those are the two additions. everything else is the same and then the implementation and give us
talked about implementation for questions that you have how that gets implemented what that works like and why um we're recommending the specific grading changes but this is the policy if you're comfortable with that a motion to adopt this policy and then if you
have questions though that you want to get to in that we can speak to policy or if you want to talk more about the implementation to figure out then whether or not this policy is there that's your discret pressure. >> So, what we're essentially voting on is [cough] just the policy. We'll have a
separate discussion about procedures. Um, and will we also vote on those as well? >> The procedures are not part of the board policy. That's through the superintendent. So, the policy gives direction to the superintendent that we need a policy in place that does these
things. Yeah. >> Um and you're and that we report back to the board what those things how how effective they are, >> how it gets done and implementing that that is not a board discussion on all those aspects. Discussion for sure, but
it's not a a board uh action to take on that. >> Okay. >> So, you need a a motion to pass this. Is there any do we is there any discussion? I didn't mean to jump ahead of you, chair. I was just asking >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Then I move that we adopt the
amended grading policy presented to us. >> I second. >> Um Jim >> and I did it in unison. >> Uh moved by Miss Billyman. I'm going to give that one to Dr. Akov if that's okay. >> Sure. >> Um I would like to do a roll call vote
on this one as well. >> Miss Osborne is absent. Miss Bilman. >> Yes. >> Dr. Aub. Yes, >> Mr. Beard. >> Yes, >> Mr. Dylan Beck. >> Yes, >> Miss Lee. >> Yes, >> Chair Berlin. >> Yes,
>> motion carries. She saved. >> Okay, thank you. I didn't see it. Where is the teeth? >> This one. >> This one's the one box. What happened to um your speed
right here? >> Right here. >> No. Mhm. >> All right. 11:15. Is it close to that? >> 11:16. >> All right. I'm Craig Domer. I'm the executive de director of curriculum assessment instruction. I'm here just to
talk about how we're planning to implement some of these uh policy changes in the grading policy uh for next school year in uh four short weeks. Um before I begin, I also would like to thank Dr. Carlock for his thorough report. Um I know it was a lot of work
and also the parents uh students and teachers who uh responded to surveys, sat in focus groups. All of the quantitative and qualitative data is immensely helpful in trying to figure out the next steps in this policy and uh we couldn't have done it without
that report. I also just a a quick shout out to the Almar High School math department who I sat with a few months ago um for all of their planning. Uh the conversation with them was uh they brought great um thought uh cander and
care for students and the feedback they were able to give us I think uh was also helpful in thinking about how we wanted to make some changes for next year. Again, the vision and mission I think grading right is the communication of how students are learning uh the
standards that they're mastering and how we communicate that to them and to their parents. And it really is through that clear communication that we're hoping uh they're able to be motivated and we are able to help close those achievement
gaps. I'd like to talk about the key takeaways that the office of instruction had from the report, the purpose of our changes for the 2627 school year, have uh some immediate next steps and then happy to
take questions. When we were thinking about what we wanted to implement in, you know, four to six weeks, we really focused on the great distribution changes and the impacts in the report, the practices where we were outliers and the long and short-term recommendations uh in the
report and which ones could be done in a short time frame. The next slides really are just from last week, but just the ones that we focused on. really trying to remember that the grades had become more valid uh for lower achieving students and less valid for higher achieving students. And
to try and dig into that a little bit, we had to look at the qualitative data. And we tried to make recommendations in the short term uh that wouldn't damage the the growth that we've had in the validity on the lower end of the grading scale while also um perhaps hopefully
having some impact and bring some more validity to the upper end. Uh one thing we took away from this chart right is that while the distribution is still valid both in reading and in math uh there are more Fs given now than there were uh pre-
pandemic both maybe due to learning and um just our thought was around thinking about that lower end of the scale. It hadn't really led to inflation um on that lower end. the differential impacts. Really thinking about those um highest
achievers having the most uh drop in validity and in particular on this kind of chart seeing that um that again on that lower quartile there were more uh D's and Fs given than there were prior to this
policy. um and in that uh upper quartile and second upper quartile that's where we start to see um additional A's and B's. I think we are a qualitative outlier around um all these bullet points as Dr. Carlac pointed out and as you uh change
the policy to really call upon the office of instruction to make sure that we have some uh procedures specifically around these. I won't read the long and shortterm uh recommendations. [music] We tried to hit most of these bullet
points uh and hit the ground running. Uh next month when we thought about what we wanted to do in the office of instruction, uh all the curriculum coordinators came together to work along with the office of instruction directors. We reached out and talked with um every secondary
school um administrative team as well. And we really wanted to focus on changes that would be a start and not an end. Uh so that the committee when it's named and when we start working with a grading committee really has the room to operate uh to make the decisions around some
long-term changes around regulations. But at the same time, we recognize that there are some pain points around the policies and procedures around grading. We felt like doing nothing uh was not our best course of action either. And so we wanted to really focus on changes that would increase communication,
reflect that community feedback. And what we um are asserting the feedback is at least at this juncture for the short term is that we do want grades to show how much is learned. We want students to take their studies seriously. We all want our students to achieve excellence
and we really want teachers making sure they're spending time on designing instruction focused on student learning. And whenever possible, our changes, we would want to increase the accuracy, clarity, and consistency of grading across the school division around communication and clarity to
increase grading transparency and proactive family communication. Our recommendation is that teachers would be required to communicate with parents or caregivers regarding student progress if a student is at risk of failing or will fall two or more letter grades in a
class at the six week mark of each quarter. So I think again kind of in layman's terms, right? If you're at the six week mark of any of the four quarters and a student um is at risk of failing with a D or an F or if they had an A in the previous quarter, now they
have a C, that we would take proactive communication to let the parents know um that that is the current grade. We're formalizing the rolling semester average, which has been the key practice since the policy, but I don't think it
was ever in writing. So, semester 1 and semester 2 grades each equal 50%. Um, and final grades are calculated with each semester equaling 50% of the final grade. Thinking about work habits and how they may affect grades, we really wanted to
think about what we wanted to say about late work and limitations for student reassessments. Our proposal for this year is that late work shall be accepted without penalty for the longer of two weeks or three class meetings from the due date. Following
that time period, any late work may only receive a maximum grade of 85. Um I think that the discussion around this recommendation is kind of twofold. Uh the two weeks or three class meetings is really just to uh protect students in in
times of snow days or days off of school for professional learning that should they miss an assignment or miss a due date and something happens uh just really trying to be clear that they have three class periods or two weeks. Um in thinking about uh what the after that
time uh penalty would be. Uh again trying to leave some room for the committee and thinking about the lower end versus the upper end. Uh we didn't want to penalize students uh at that lower end where grades are becoming more valid, but we wanted to um think about
what it would mean to get an A if you're more than 2 or 3 weeks. And we felt comfortable, administrators seemed comfortable with the idea that uh to get an A, you should turn your week your work in within two or 3 weeks uh most of the time and that we could work with
students if that was becoming a problem. For retakes, uh students may retake or revise each graded assessment project paper one time. uh to be eligible for that retake or revision the students initial score must be below 90 and their retake revision score cannot exceed 90.
U practice assignments tied to that assessment in the current unit of study should be completed before the retake or revision. Uh we got a lot of feedback I think in the last week or two around uh that recommendation of 80 or 85 um and how that would feel uh to students who
have lived in this policy and again uh we feel leaving it at an A at 90 was the right step for the immediate future. Um, I'm sure that the committee uh will discuss it kind of at length for calculating grades, trying to increase grading transparency and
establishing a differentiated grade floor. Teachers at this point will be required to enter a minimum of five grades into the grade book over the course of each quarter. And these grades should be a combination of assignments in the summitative and formative categories each quarter. Collaborative
teams are required to set the grading design so that no one assignment or assessment counts for more than 35% within a quarter. This will ensure that no one assignment has a disproportionate impact on the quarter grade. We took that language uh from Fairfax. Uh we had
played around with a bunch of language around what kinds of assignments for those five for the minimum. Um but we really felt like if we just kind of said no one assignment can be more than 35% um then uh it would require some
variance in those assignments. Um I think the recommendation at first had been seven. Uh in talking to high school administrators they felt five would encompass what most teachers do now. Um and that would be a good place to start.
This is our plan to publish the secondary grading scale. Um just have one uh row for F and that would be any average between 40 and 59 uh with the asterisk of the grade of 40 is reserved for missing work. Um all submitted work
that is reasonably complete will receive a grade of 50 or higher. Uh I think we need to leave it to our teachers um and school employees to kind of be the arbiters of reasonably um if a parent or student disagrees with the teachers assessment of that I think that they
would go to the future supervisor and uh and so on and so forth trying to kind of regulate that ahead of time um might be difficult but we will see again with what the committee says and as this becomes a living document. our immediate next steps. Uh we're going
to revise and republish the grading handbook for 2627. Uh we're going to work with school leaders at leadership next week on July 23rd. I think there may be a few final ironing outs of some of these things. Um
in particular, um the 35% there's some talk about making it on the semester because it's a rolling semester average. so that no grade is more than 35% on a semester. And we need to do a little bit of work on assignments that are due, you know, right before the end of the
semester, how we do the two weeks when grades close, things like that. Uh but we need um to make sure all the administrators are in the room to kind of have that conversation, but we'll make sure that the handbook is updated to reflect that before it's published out to parents and students before
school begins. Uh these changes have already been incorporated in the learning for new teacher academy the following week and then in pre-ervice week uh principles will go over these changes with their staff. Um and we will have some FAQ sessions uh hosted by the
office of instruction on the Friday of pre-ervice week. Um there's no real uh opportunity to bring all secondary teachers together to deliver the professional development. Uh but we feel like the for most teachers uh having it
delivered at school will be more effective and plenty uh those who have questions uh will be welcome to join us on that Friday. uh at the end of pre-ervice week and before the first day of school uh we will send out the revised grading handbook highlighting
these changes uh for parents questions. I've had conversations with probably two dozen teachers and parents and um I have to say I appreciate
90% of this. I think it's definitely a step in the right direction and like you mentioned in terms of like the retake minimum cap um teachers were sort of
split 50/50. I know that Kathy Kaufman and the math department folks at Almoral said we think 80 is is a a good number. Um, one one thing that was pretty much unanimous among all of the teachers and
parents that I've heard from is that giving a 40 for no work turned in is completely unacceptable. I I understand I wasn't around when when the grading policy and implementation was enacted I
guess 5 years ago the detrimental impact of a zero but I think what we are doing e even reducing it from a 50 to a 40 sends the wrong message. We're saying
we're giving a student 40% credit for doing no work. That's nowhere do we see that happen in the real world anywhere. So in my opinion, and I'm not speaking on behalf
of myself, but on behalf of the vast majority of secondary teachers that I've talked to, we should give a zero when a student doesn't turn in work. They they've failed because they've figured it out. And I was talking to Mr. Barfield yesterday. They're smart.
they've they've done critical thinking and they can calculate how much I can get away with and still pass. And that's we don't want to perpetuate that. That needs to stop. So, I feel pretty
strongly about this. Not just this isn't just Jim's opinion. this is I'm I'm relaying this from many many teachers um that
so yeah that that's the major um tweak that I would suggest we make and I think we can trust teachers to work with students to explain this is this is the
new rule and if students don't turn in work because they had a death in the family. Okay, that's that's a different scenario. And teachers can work with with students on those particular um tough cases. The
other the other thing that uh I think rubs a lot of people wrong is the fact that we're saying there is no penalty for late work up to two weeks. Work [clears throat] that's turned in up to two weeks late has no penalty. Again,
where in the real world does that happen? I think we need to we need to begin teaching young people there are consequences for um the the the work habits that that
they're building. And if if we say, "Oh, it's okay to turn in work two weeks late. You can get full credit." No, that's that that's to me that is teaching the wrong lesson. So those were the two specific items.
>> Um I think this is this is hard for me because obviously I have a kid who has had this grading system and I see the effects. I also believe in grading that accurately
reflects students knowledge. So to me trying to shoehorn them both into one practice is what is problematic. Maybe maybe that's a thing. Um so
because work ethic is incredibly important but if our philosophy is the grades should accurately reflect students mastery of a subject then those are two different things. I think that I think they're two different
things and I don't know of a way to measure both of them accurately and to um yeah to measure both of them accurately and to balance both of them because again they're both very very important
um and it's also a thing about educator's time you know it's a it's a thing about all of those things I also want to stay in our lane stay in my lane of I guess just providing feedback back and asking questions. Um, the thing that
I've gotten a lot of feedback on is the retake cap. Um, and whether that accurately reflects students mastery of a topic by the end of the retake session or whatever. Um, that's the one that I've gotten the most
feedback on, I will say. Um, one student suggested and I emailed back without replying to everyone, so I'll forward it. but um suggested doing the half like half point back thing. I this might be something that you all talk about all the time. I
had to ask my son what that meant. Um where if you got an 80 then you possibly could move it up to a 90 but not to 100, you know. So there wasn't an arbitrary cap. So I just wanted to ask if that was something that you all thought about and I see that you have this up so I'm sure
that your cap makes this still accurate. I don't know. >> I mean, to be honest, I'll answer the questions, right? Because I think even staying in lane or not, right? Like, uh, it's warm up for August 7th, I think, for our FAQ, uh, session. But, uh, just
a couple points. One, um, I just put this up to just talk about kind of that zero and where we looked at the quantitative data to try and see kind of where the anecdotes and we think that the qualitative data lie. um at least to the best that we can um
kind of judge. Um but overall, I think the other thing to keep in mind that we're hoping for is that we've made some changes that we think will produce maybe different data by the end of the first semester to also then allow the committee to see how these changes
impacted this uh distribution um and whether that accomplished the goals. So, uh, to kind of speak to the zero, um, I hear the same thing, uh, back to my assistant principal days at Henley when
we start having these conversations just in a school level. Uh, I think it is this, uh, the math part of my brain, the parent part of my brain, right? Like it all kind of is in this kind of conversation. And I think uh, it is hard
to do it in one grade uh, for sure. and we're not going to be able to set up a work habits grade system um in the next four weeks. Um so when we looked at this uh data and when I talked about it with Dr. Carlock a little bit um there are
there are a couple assumptions that we made and I'll just be totally in the front with that is that even at a 50 it's hard to take a 50 and still get an A. Um, and so that we think that these kind of A's over here in the top
quartortile are kids who are earning A's and scoring in the top quartortile. And so we're going to assume that maybe some of these B's and C's and D's are the kids that we're talking about who might know all the material, scored high in some early tests, and decided
because they got some critical thinking that they're going to take some 50s and they're happy walking out of the class with a C or a D. Yep. >> Um and so we're really looking at this and then we come over here and we kind of see an increase in D's and Fs valid
um even with a minimum of 50 uh if they're not turning in an assignment. And so we really wanted to be careful on dropping that floor there and and ruining kind of any validity gains we'd had in the lowest cortile. I think we're
hoping um that the two smaller changes can add to some bigger change. One is that by capping the retake at 90 because what I heard from some teachers, right, is that kids are just retaking till they can get up to 99 100. And if you do that on
several tests, you banked more points to be able to take a 50 um and walk out with a B and a C. And so if we cap it at 90, we we might not have as many students up at the 97, 98, 99 after u
multiple retakes. Um and then if they get a 40 instead of a 50, again, we're hoping that these kids who were okay taking a B aren't okay taking a C, and the kids who are okay taking a C aren't
okay taking a D. um and we start to kind of move that shift um and that they start turning in assignments uh and if they do we think that they are smart kids uh and they will get A's and B's and and their
grades will go up and they will learn kind of some of that work habit. I will say some of that's an assumption to be played out over the next um 18 weeks and I'm sure Dr. Carlac will help us run some data at the semester to see um how
that's going um as far as grade distribution but that was again I think we feel two small experiments that will get to the most critical issues. Um I think we heard from teachers right that they were giving a lot of retakes for
kids who are already giving ACE um and that that was really allowing kids to sit back um and take 50s. Uh, the other thing we really try to do just with doing the 40 is knowing that parents want an easy way to know in the grade book whether something's been
turned in, not graded, um, or just was poor. Um, and so we think having that 40 is a quick way for them to see, oh, it's missing. Um, and so we can kind of close that. I think the there are lots of solutions from a
categorical grading scale to um a different grading scale to a letter grading scale and I look forward to kind of leading those conversations with the committee um and hopefully coming up with a better permanent solution uh beyond next year. >> Um thank you for all of that. That was
helpful. Um I just have a couple of things and I actually agree both with Mr. Dumbbeck and Miss Lee. Um, I think if we're um only allowing one retake, then we should allow them to get up to 100 because the whole point is to show
mastery. So, um it seems to me if if we are capping when you can retake and you can only take one retake. If you have mastered it and you got it did all the work and you've gotten it all right, then you should get
the 100. um it incentivizes them then with the only one retake to actually study and learn the stuff and prove that they've mastered it. Um I'm also not a fan of the um 40 or 50 for no work. I mean, we
don't give our kids um their allowance if they don't do their chores. Um you don't get paid if you don't show up to work. Um and I have uh my twins could not be more different. um one is very strong academically and I was just looking at
his fourth quarter and year grades and guitar which he had 100 in for three quarters and then he had a 65 in the fourth quarter because he knew he didn't have to do any of the work and he still got a 92 for the year so he just boned it in for the last quarter. That's not
the lesson I want to teach my kid who wants to go to an Ivy League. That doesn't look great. Um, my other kid really struggles academically. Super smart, can't get her work done. Um, but she knows if I can turn in a few
assignments and I'm going to get a 50, she's fine with a D or a C and she hasn't learned any of that work ethic e ethic and it doesn't matter how much our husband and I hound her. There's no incentive. Um, and so I can see it from
both sides, but I feel like um we're actually hurting them. bo on both ends um whether they're strong academically or not. Um the other thing um and you touched on it is I really appreciate the um more
information for those of us that um are tortured by the fact that we check our kids' grades. I love the fact that my parents never knew what my grades were till my report card got mailed home. It was so great because the anxiety and the angst that I feel when something is
missing and I I think Judy can probably attest to this too. Teenagers are like, "Oh, they just haven't graded it yet for the whole quarter." And and they're like, "I did it. I swear she just hasn't graded it yet." And I don't want to hound the teachers. Um I would really like to see more accuracy in reflected
in the grading um that's put online for parents and for students. Is it really just it's been submitted and hasn't been graded yet? Is it really a zero? It's my teenager is going to tell me what I want to hear so that they don't have to do the work at that moment. Um, so it would
be helpful to have that information accurately and timely without putting a ton of work on the teachers, but I also feel like we could actually be helping them by knowing accurately and timely if my kid did an assignment, if they missed it, if they missed that two week window, whatever it is. um it it would probably
end up causing less work in the long run, but okay, that's it. Thank you. >> Yeah, I actually thought that was part of the communication piece at one point during the conversation. Yeah, >> I thought that like >> a regular time for assignments to be graded was part of that. I don't know if it got dropped off, but it seemed like
that was part of the conversation. Yeah, because I mean I would look at some of my kids' grades and there were no grades for the entire quarter um until after the the quarter ended and then we were missing all these grades that they swore they did that they didn't do and it was too late at that point. So um I would
love to have more timely update of that information so that we can help as parents stay on top of those things as well. >> And truly I mean there haven't been regulations. We are an outlier. I mean like I mean I I get that but this is a great chance to move forward. >> Yeah. Yeah.
>> One question one question I've have because of a lot of the feedback that I saw what that hasn't been noted before is on the retake and the timing of this. So based on what I'm reading is like we are putting a limit on turning in late work but from and again this is coming
from from the teachers perspective of the teachers who wind up spending a lot of time on retakes um particularly significantly delayed from the time that test is. So I that would just one my question is there a
reason why we're not putting a time limit on that? Um >> yeah. >> So because that that came up particularly with a lot of math and science where people students are just waiting. >> Um >> yeah and and it seems to be the problem
is that students who want to take a retake will wait until the last minute and it may be >> three four five weeks after the original test >> and so yeah I think the best learning
for them, right? They're already But also just I I think about the teachers and like they have a plan for grading and then suddenly there are all these retakes there. >> Yeah. I mean, because I had some teachers, I think one of them was here tonight, who had specific timelines when
you could take a retake and then none. And then other teachers was like, you can, you know, redo an assignment or turn it in throughout the whole quarter. And so that inconsistency also when you're taking six or seven classes at once I think um creates a lot of challenges on on all ends.
>> Was there any sort of time frame at some point in in some of these recommendations or was I just I might have been looking at I was looking at Rockingham County's grading policy which
they just adopted Monday. Um, so as it stands, we don't have a requirement. I notice that says to be eligible to retake, the students initial score must be below 90 and so on. Practice assignments tied to the assessment in the current unit of study must be
completed before the retake. I agree with Dr. Berlin that it might be helpful for both students and teachers to say within two weeks what whatever the time frame
is a reasonable amount of time not last minute before the marking period ends. >> Yeah. >> I think in our conversation next week just about how we're going to um navigate the end of marking periods both for kind of late work in general we can have that conversation with principles.
I think when we had the original conversation, we felt like limiting it to one um for some students, right? Like that could be a month later that they really have um learned it before the end of the quarter. Um for others it could
be kind of that two weeks. So um again trying to think about what's one uh is is both policies, right? Both the limit and the time frame um and the 90. Um and so just trying to kind of land on what
is enough change um to give some relief to teachers and what uh would be too much in one >> and and so I guess my [clears throat] question is on all of that. I just want to make sure I understand um you you're talking about the committee. So um again this is an ever evolving I'm guessing
you know we've had this grading policy for a number of years and not much has changed in it. Um I'm hopeful at least that this is an evolving process that we are moving you know taking what we're learning on all sides and and we're going to be
adjusting it as necessary over the next >> I think it's something we'll get feedback from the committee on um I think just as a kind of starting point what is um at least in my head I think in people that I've been talking to and thinking about this is right uh there'll
probably be a large update to regulations next year. Um, and then it might be more of like they'll they'll continue to meet and take feedback and look at evidence and then maybe make uh changes every two years. I think we don't >> we don't want to be changing grading policies in the middle of the year
probably and maybe not every year, but five years might be too many without at least stamping them that yeah, they're working and here's how we know. >> Great. >> Yeah. I I just again want to reiterate the the you know the teachers that I
talked to were divided on some of the issues cap and so on but the one thing that was nearly unanimous was you know zero for for no work turned in and so I just implore the committee to consider I
think 40 is better than a 50 because there is some differentiation But I think we're missing the point, the the main objective, which is to help students understand that they don't get credit if they don't do the work, if
they don't turn anything in, and to not allow them to game the system because I guarantee that's what's been happening. And UVA discounts um the GPA of Al Marl County students. I
can I can attest to that because they know that our grading system is skewed to give a 50 for work that's not turned in and
that's hurting that that that hurts our students. >> Having said that, I appreciate all of the other changes that that you guys have worked on. I think it's we're making progress. >> Yeah. Thank you for this zero is think
about that please. These are guideline used to be guidelines now they're regulations. What is the difference and how much flexibility do teachers have around these regulations? >> Uh I think we're calling them regulations because we're going to maybe
start attaching the grading handbook to the policy as the regulations. Um yes they have been guidelines in the past. I think we will kind of have that communication. We're looking for some more consistency. I think we always want
um to have some kind of out um for um exceptions or certain courses or when we want to try new practices. um which I think the committee will also kind of uh be charged with kind of setting up like when what is the process for a teacher
or a PLC to try something um different um because we we never want to kind of stop at least a little bit of that innovation as we move forward um and learn more through research and things like that. >> Thank you.
Um, I Jim, I I agree with most if not all of what you're saying, but I will also note that this is not the first grading system that kids have gained. >> Like by far. >> Yeah, for sure. >> So, I think we should keep that historical perspective. >> Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. >> Lighter Friday. >> Um, yeah. Yes. There. Um, is there any other business by school members and the superintendent? >> Can I just ask that? Um, since it's so
late, if one of the officers could just be in the parking lot when we're leaving tonight. Um, thank you. Um, I probably I if we still have both officers. I don't know if we do, but I think most people are parked out front. Um, if we could get at least an officer standing out there when we're walking to our car, that would be great.
>> And thank you to Miss Schmidt for getting the AC turned back on. Shout out to Leo, the tech with um Fez in this building. He >> Thanks, Leo. >> Thanks, Leo. >> Uh, one thing we forgot to uh announce during superintendent uh schoolboard
committee is, and correct me if I have this right still, um, I'm looking at Roslin, a Mountain View ribbon cutting July 24th, >> 10 a.m. >> 10:00 a.m. So, everyone, Mountain View, first new school we are opening in 25 years. So, we all need to be there to
>> I will be out of town, but I will be there in spirit. And I'm sorry. >> We all need to be there to celebrate this um historical um time. So, that was my last um piece of uh anything else. Thank you to you guys that stayed for
this huge record breaking schoolboard meeting. >> A huge thank you. >> Thanks everybody. >> Um yeah. >> Uh seeing no further business and hearing no objections. Any objections with this? Um, I call the Alamar County School Board meeting adjourned. Thank
you so much for your attention.