ready. Good afternoon. It is 6:10. Thank you for your patience. I want to welcome everybody to our uh May 7th Charlottesville City School Board meeting. And if you will please join us in a moment
of silence. Thank you very much. And if you will please stand and uh join us in the pledge of allegiance. Allegian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you so much. Madame clerk, will you please call roll? >> Yes, Madam Chair. Miss Bryant >> present. >> Miss Burns >> here. >> Miss Cooper.
>> Miss Douly >> here. >> Mr. Meyer >> here. >> Miss Richardson >> here. >> Miss Torres. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Miss Craig Headway >> here. >> Thank you. And now I will entertain a motion for approval of our proposed
agenda. Please. I move that we approve our proposed agenda. >> Thank you, Miss Douly. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Miss Richardson. Any discussion or questions? All in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Any opposed? Thank you. So, moving on to uh 6.0, we are now going to um recognize student and staff. And we have Dr. Eley, please.
We have several recognitions. So, good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. Tonight, Dr. Malone and I have the distinct honor of recognizing several outstanding students, and I think many of them are with us tonight. So if you when your
name is called just come up here and join us. First we want to take a look back at a year of exceptional service. We would like to recognize our 2025 2026 student representatives to the school board. Ginger Craig Headway who's up
here with us, Sally Schwarzman and Jayla Turner. These students have provided commendable representation for our student body, ensuring their peers voices were heard in every decision. So, additionally though, we also want to thank Harper
Olrich for her dedicated service as our representative to the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Here comes Harper. All right. Hold for photo and thank you for your leadership.
>> Thank you so much. You all may be seated. Thank you. In anticipation of the official appointment appearing on tonight's consent agenda, we are thrilled to introduce the student leaders who will step into these roles for the 2026 2027
school year. The selection process this year was incredibly rigorous. Candidates participated in interviews where they shared their motivations, leadership skills, and what they could bring to the position. I want to thank our selection committee, Miss Burns and Miss Bryant,
Miss Webb Jordan, and Mr. Durer for their time and support. It is my pleasure to introduce our new student school board representatives, Kasia Edwards, >> Zaki Farhot. Yeah.
and Callie Sun. These students stood out for their thoughtful leadership and a genuine commitment to their peers. We look forward to working with you this year. And Miss Simulic will get a picture.
In accordance with the city parks and recreation bylaws, we are also naming our representatives to the parks and recreation advisory board. Please join me in recognizing Leo Ripple. and Si Schwarzman, who we're delighted
to see continuing his service in this new capacity. >> All right. And finally, we're excited to announce a unique learning opportunity. Through the support of director Ryan Anthony, two students have been selected for shadowing opportunities within the
parks and wreck department. We look forward to the growth of Kelly LSE Rivera Flores and George Aton. >> More photos. Board members, we are incredibly proud of these young leaders. We look forward
to the perspectives they will bring to our work this coming year. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Let's see. Next, I have the distinct honor of recognizing our Golden Apple winners. The Golden Apple recognitions
are a hallmark of educational excellence in our community. These awards would not be possible without the gener generosity of Mr. Richard Nunley and Better Living Building Supply and Cabinetry. For more than 20 years, they have championed our
educators, not only with this recognition, but by providing each recipient with a $500 classroom grant to further support student learning. We are deeply grateful for their continued partnership. The Golden Apple celebrates the passion and dedication of our
teachers. The Golden Apple recipients were recognized last week at a community celebration, but it's my pleasure to also recognize them here tonight. If anybody's here, you can come up. Otherwise, we we have the photos up here on the screen. Bruce Van Dyk, automotive
services technology at KEK. Justin Newberry, social science, Charlesville High School. Ora Townsley, English uh ESL teacher at Charlesville Middle School. Amy Jones, second grade teacher, Greenbryer Elementary School. Audrey
Atha Barnes, hospital education. Colleen Borgal, fourth grade, Jackson Via Elementary. Nick Liles, alternative education, Lugo McInness Academy. Katherine Plunkett, media specialist, Summit Elementary.
Katherine Meanie, first grade teacher, Sunrise Elementary. Christy Hartwell, kindergarten teacher, Tall Oaks Elementary. Allison Mutarelli, fourth grade teacher, Trailblazer Elementary. And Kobe Whitaker, sixth grade teacher, Walker Upper Elementary School. The
commitment of these 12 educators is truly inspiring. Please join me in a round of applause for our 2026 Golden Apple winners. Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Gurley. Um, tonight we have the privilege of pausing to
recognize the many different hands and hearts that make our schools run. Spring is a busy season of appreciation. We want to ensure every group of professionals who supports our students feels our collective gratitude. We begin by recognizing our administrative professionals. These
individuals are the command centers of our schools and departments. From managing complex schedules to being the first smiling face a family sees, their organizational expertise keeps our district moving forward. We also celebrated National School Principal Day recently. To our principles and
assistant principles, thank you for your vision, your late nights, and your unwavering commitment to both your staff and your students. April was occupational therapy month. Our OT's do incredible work behind the scenes, helping students develop the
essential skills they need for daily living, classroom success, and enjoyable play. Their specialized expertise ensures that every student, regardless of their challenges, has the tools to thrive. Continuing with more wellness champions, we want to recognize our
school nurses for school nurse appreciation day. They are much more than first aid providers. They are healthcare advocates, mental health supports, and a vital safety net for our school communities. We also want to give a huge shout out to our school lunch heroes. These dedicated
professionals in our nutrition departments work tirelessly to ensure our students are fed, healthy, and ready to learn. They truly are heroes in aprons. Finally, we come to teacher appreciation week. Our teachers are the heartbeat of this district. They are mentors, innovators, and constant source
of inspiration for our students. To every teacher in Charlottesville City Schools, thank you for choosing this profession and for choosing our students. So whether they are in the cafeteria, the clinic, the front office, or the classroom, these professionals form the
foundation of our success. We ask the board and community to join us in thanking them for their service. Thank you both. Um and yes I I've got a long list of gratitude to share at the end of the meeting. So that um we are now moving to special recognition
and we have Dr. Heltz to provide us with that. Thank you and welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening madam chair, members of the board and Dr. Gurley. Each year the Virginia School Board Association allows school boards to nominate three local businesses that provide support to their local school
division. This is appreciated as schools face increasing budgetary uncertainty. The business honor role helps divisions say thank you to the businesses for vital contributions. This evening, in recognition of their outstanding contributions and ongoing support of the
community's public schools, the superintendent recommends that the board honor FL Automotive, Trend Salon, and Blackbear Composting. Later this year, VSBA will publish the business honor role in the association's newsletter and recognize the businesses or
organizations on the VSBA website. The VSBA will also mail personalized recognition letters of congratulations to each business. Our first business is FL Automotive. Flow Automotive is being recognized for
its support of our students and schools. They've supported the funding of our track lights at Charlottesville High School. They also support CHS athletics. They also support KEK students and their work-based learning experiences, participation in advisory boards, and
hiring events to name a few. George Alfen and Jason Karinan are here on behalf of Flow Automotive. Thank you so much. >> Our next business is Trend Salon. Trend is being recognized for its commitment and dedication to providing ongoing
support for our schools, particularly KEK. Trend Salon supports our students work-based learning experience experiences, participates in the cosmetology advisory board, and attends K-H hiring events. They have also been known to hire several of our K-tech
graduates, as a few are here this evening. This evening, we actually have the entire leadership team from Trend Salon, um, who is able to make it. So, if the leadership team can come on down, we'd greatly appreciate it.
Thank you, Trend. And our final business partner is Black Bear Composting. Black Bear is being recognized for its 10-year partnership with the CHS urban farming program. Black Bear's willingness to collaborate with the urban farming program by donating and delivering rich
compost has helped our students and the community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for every child. Eric Walter is here on behalf of Black Bear Composting. Thank you to all three businesses for your support and the time that you pour
into our schools. Thank you. Um we are now moving to comments from members of the community and the first opportunity um we open up as comments from students. So if there are any students in the media center who would like to come forward
and provide public comment, we welcome you. Great. Thank you. And there's another opportunity later. Um, and now we open it up to comments from members of the community. And I believe we have Miss Tanisha Hudson.
Thank you for joining us. Hello. So, I would like to cover a medical emergency that happened on April 15th. I'm going to do my best to try to do this and not name names. So, I have a few issues with what happened. And as
you all know, when you signed the new collective bargaining agreement, you basically took out training for your staff and um support staff, teachers, and so forth. So, number one, I found holes in your emergency preparedness.
Now, I know that all school districts do the Alice training, which is typically for like inside a threat or school shootings or that type of emergency, but it also teaches you about emergency preparedness for medical issues. So, I feel like the ball was dropped. I also
feel there's a lack of accountability from the administration here at Charles High School as well as people at the central office because the investigation took way too long. Um, there's a couple of things here. First of all, the suspension needs to be removed off of
the student's record because he wasn't caught. He admitted, but he wasn't caught. Number one. Uh number two, two 911 calls were cancelled simultaneously. While the first call was happening, the second call was called in and dispatch never even thought to send an ambulance
out here when a child was having an issue breathing. So, there's just too many issues here that I and three minutes is not enough time because I'm already down to a minute and 35 seconds. But a mental health condition or a mental health situation is a medical emergency. EMS
should have came to the school when a child told an adult that they could not breathe. Miss Bryant said she had mental health staff and her nursing staff on site, but she never said that they were in the presence of the medical emergency that
was happening. So then I did a little research after I got a foyer request and saw some conversations happening between upper admin the administration over here and then the individual in charge of facilities. So then I did a little research. Mr. Cougler had a 27 years.
>> I'm going to ask you to please refrain from names please. Thank you. >> He had a career as a EMT who knows an emergency situation. and he has more credentials than anybody else that was present at this scene. Number one,
the issue that happened on April 15th, you have holes in your investigation. It's a disrespect to your staff. You have two staff members who it was their family that this happened to. And then it was just a lack of care that was had when the call was told to be
disconnected, not once but twice, to the 911 dispatcher. This is disgusting treatment. This is a pure example of what I said when Miss Powell was giving her presentation at the last minute at the last meeting that you all can manipulate data. So, was this a a direct
reflection of you all manipulating data in real time of not wanting to report it to Richmond? Because this was disgusting treatment. What happened here? >> Thank you, Miss Hubson. We don't have anybody else signed up currently. I don't know that we have
anybody online that had indicated. All right. So, we will be moving on. We do have another opportunity at the end of the meeting for public comment and our next um 9.0 is our student representative report.
>> Good evening. As this is my last meeting, I'd first like to thank the board for this amazing opportunity of representing my fellow students. It has let me connect with so many of my peers and helped me appreciate all the hard work that goes into my education. I look forward to seeing all the amazing things next year's representatives will do.
Since we last met, CHS students have been busy. There's been great success in our sports. Theater CHS put on an amazing production of the musical 9 to5 and the class of 2026 had their decision day celebrating all of their post high school plans. And now we're almost halfway through our end of year testing. Seeing it is nearly the end of the
school year. On the behalf of the my fellow students and I, I'd like to thank extend a thank you to all of the amazing teachers, staff, and administration who have helped us learn all year. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And we are now to 10.0. Uh
may I have a motion for adoption of our consent agenda, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions, discussion? All in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yes.
>> Any opposed? Thank you. >> And now we move uh to 12.0 which is our action item which is our special ed annual plan. Um Miss Raznik.
>> Good evening Madam Chair, Dr. Gurley, members of the board. Um, I'm asking you to take action on our special education annual plan. We made one adjustment to shift um, uh, some from object code 2000 to 1,000 just to account for um, money
we have available in the current fiscal year of the budget. So, I do need a motion, please, um, to approve the special ed annual plan. >> I move that we approve the special education annual plan B flowthrough application for the 2627 school year.
>> Thank you, Miss Douly, for your motion. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Richardson. Any questions or discussion? All in favor, please say yes. >> Any opposed? Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> All right, we're moving on to items for discussion and the first um topic is 13.1 which is our updated collective bargaining resolution. Miss Lewis, thank you.
>> Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board. Dr. early. I'm presenting the collective bargaining resolution update. This update includes update about licensed professionals, confidential employees, and the timeline.
First, licensed professionals in section one of the definitions. The resolution has indicated that specialist role and we wanted to add it add some clarity by adding it's the math and reading specialist.
We expanded the instructional technology teacher resource teacher to include ISIM which is a CCS identifier. And then we made the special education related support staff a broader
um umbrella so that it would include occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, board certified behavior analysts. Next, the confidential employees. The resolution defines confidential
employees as any employee who is in who as a part of their job has access to confidential information subject to the use by the employer in collective bargaining or who act in confidential capacity on
labor relations matters to persons who formulate, determine, and effectuate management policy in the field of labor relations or the school board and we expanded this category to include
positions that are at the division administration office. Just a point of clarity, an employee does not include an elected or appointed school board official. Lastly, the timeline
in section six of the collective bargaining duty impass and related procedures. The resolution was updated to add more specific timeline information. The initial document noted negotiations
concluded in advance of the superintendent's budget making process. With the recommended revision, we've added bargaining regarding manners intended by the parties be effective
in the next fiscal year budget should commence sufficiently in advance of the beginning of the superintendent's annual budget i.e. October 31st, which will allow time for impass
proceedings application for bargaining unit approval process so the board can make timely acts on the budget that incorporate a unit's approved tenative agreement. Those are all the updates that we have.
I'm happy to address any questions you may have. And I do want to note that these changes would come into effect after the existing contracts have been fully implemented. >> Thank you. Miss Douly, do you have any
questions? >> I do not. >> Miss Richardson, >> Miss Cooper, no questions. All right, Miss Bryant. >> Brian, I'm sorry. >> No question. >> Either of you? Sorry, >> Mr. Meyer. >> No, no. Thank you for putting these
together and presenting them. Miss Lewis, did the CEA have any observations on these changes? >> They were presented with these changes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. So, you'll bring that back to us next.
>> We need that for approval. Yes. >> Yes. Thank you. >> All right. Next, we are at 13.2, which is our federal programs applications. So, I believe we have a few of you presenting. Thank you, >> Madam Chair, members of the board. Dr.
Gurley, good evening. I'm here as part of a four-person team to present to you about our federal program applications for the coming year. We are in the first step of our timeline, which is we bring the initial portion of the applications based on
what we know today about those funding totals, which is approximately $2 million in total funds. across the four titles. We bring our initial application to you today and in the bottom at our next meeting, we're going to bring to you a more fleshed out application as the state aid gives us more guidance and more information.
By July, all four titles will have applications due to the Department of Education. And hopefully, assuming all goes well, we'll be able to start expending those funds beginning July 1. It is a oneyear grant award year and that they're annual grants. However, due to the tidings amendment, we actually
have all the way until September of 2028 to spend those funds. So, even though we think about them as one-year grants, we're going to have a large window to spend those funds. We have four federal programs that you have in front of you this evening. The first is title one. Title one addresses
basic programs. Uh it is for our atrisisk students primarily in reading and mathematics. Title two switches the lens from the student to the teacher and works to recruit, retain, and train highquality teachers to support effective instruction. Title three is
very much focused on language instruction specifically for English learners and title four provides the wraparound uh services and student support and academic enrichment. because of this being such a large um a large scope of work with $2 million of
funding, it really attends to most of the portions of our strategic plan. So, if it has to do with instruction and it has to do with student support, if it has to do with teacher support or teacher retention, it's going to be addressed by these plans. So, there's broad applicability for each one of these application areas towards our strategic plan. I'm going to hand it
over to Stacy Reedall to present to you on title one. All right. Title one does have the majority of our funds from the federal applications. Our fiscical year 26 allocation is it's a preliminary. It can
change, but right now they have told us it's $1,488,35043. The mission of the Title One grant is to provide financial assistance to schools with high percentages of students from lowincome homes in order to ensure high quality and equitable education for all
students. In Charlottesville, we have five five elementary schools which have met the schoolwide Title One program requirements. That means at least 40% of their students are from low-income households. And because it's a schoolwide program, we can use the funds
to benefit all learners. The Title One grant focuses on three domains. It's literacy, math, and family engagement. The majority of our funds are to provide the reading specialists and math specialists as well as highquality intervention materials,
um, resources, manipulatives, and professional development for our teachers to ensure that we're uh, implementing evidence-based practices. It's also family engagement. Um, that's often our literacy and math nights and
events. We work with Bianca Johnson and she's helped us to increase our participation and engagement at these events. Um, and they're probably one of the highlights of this grant. Title 2 focuses on supporting effective
instruction by supporting staff. In our current year application, as you know, we have spent the majority of our efforts around new teacher mentoring and induction. We're really working to ensure that the new staff that we bring on board meet or exceed our retention rates for all staff. We're really hoping that all of that effort that we put into
bringing new people on board um leads to retaining those folks for a good long while to make a strong impact in our schools. We spend a significant amount of attention on lensure and endorsement. Not only do we bring on people who are licensed and ready to work, but through programs like I teach, we have
alternative routes into the teaching profession and we want to make sure that folks who come to our school division have the support they need to both obtain that credential but also um be effective in the classroom. We have a career ladder that you saw last year about this time that we've been able to
implement this year to work from our new folks to our veteran folks and make sure that each person has an opportunity to grow professionally in their own way so that we can continue to improve the quality of practice for all of our staff regardless of their experience level. And finally, we introduced something new
this year where our HR team um has is really working to improve our quality and our capacity so that we can be better in our efforts as we support each of the things that I've addressed. Finally, the major component of title 2 is addressing professional learning. And right now as a division we are engaged
in a comprehensive needs assessment process in which we are trying to determine what are the big needs based on how our school division is performing where we can spend funds in order to see the best development of our teachers so that we can see the most growth for our students. Thank you.
>> Good evening. Uh, title three funds has two parts and so typically or always we get that first one that you'll see and the the $80,000 was last year's funding. We won't know this year's funding until later in the summer. The second funding, the IY funding is for immigrant and
youth and my suspicion is we won't receive that funding next year because that funding is tied to if you have a significant increase in your immigrant population. Um so in in this school year if we had a significant increase that
was above the prior two school years combined um and a significant increase is 20 students and so we won't have that. So, my suspicion is we won't get that IY funding for next year, but we will continue to get the English learner title three funding. And we use that um
to upgrade our curricula specifically to buy additional materials to help students have access to grade level tier one instruction. We also can use it to provide tutors in the classroom. So we have um we have individuals who come into our schools and support students in
the classroom and then through um family engagement different activities with our with our families both in schools and then also also at the welcome center. Thanks. >> Hi good evening. Um the Title 4 grant is probably an amalgamation of it was
actually once three separate grants combined into one, but of all the federal grants, it probably gives us the most flexibility. And so our school division has chosen to um use it primarily to do mental wellness and positive school cultural support. And so um this has allowed us to start and
initiate our social emotional learning program, both instruction and assessment. And so the current grant year we're looking to um use primarily for our SEAL assessment tool which is called the DESSA in which teachers and students um both kind of complete a strengthbased rating scale just to see
where people are with our competencies. Um Care Solace as you would know is our our mental health and substance abuse coordination program that both our students and families and staff and their families all have access to and then supporting the great work that Bianca Johnson is doing with restorative
practices. So, as I shared with you at the beginning, we'll be back to see you at our next meeting. Hopefully, at that point in time, we'll have a better idea about what the annual allocations are for each one of these grants. We might not. We did not last year at that time. Uh, but we'll bring that information to you, and we're here tonight to answer
any questions um as coordinators of those programs. >> Thank you. Mr. Meyer, do you have any questions? >> Yeah. Uh I think Miss RLE I just had a was looking at the budget. There is a
small allocation for some private school supports. Can you explain uh how I guess we channel money from the federal government to private schools? >> It gets a little complicated, but I'm going to try and do it. Okay. Um so the part of the equitable equitable services
act um a component of it is that any students who reside in a title one school district and meet the eligibility meaning like the poverty level even if they're at a private school that fund that money gets
allocated to the student. So the funds follow the kid. So we have a stu if we have a student at I'm going to say Charlottesville day school they live in Summit school district which me is a title one school then that student would
like funds would be allocated to the private school based on this the per student um expenditure. It's not tons but it's a requirement of the federal grant. So we have to include a component of it. Yeah, I find
it. And so, for example, just this year, which schools in our area received some money through through this? >> We had two private schools, Charlottesville Day School and Community Christian Academy >> all received some money through us from
>> from the federal government because >> yeah, but equitable services is for all four grants. It's all with part of federal programs. It's just the criteria is different on eligibility and how much funds are distributed. >> It's the same thing for um it's the same
thing for special education. Um it's a component of that grant as well. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Cooper. Any questions? Questions? Miss Richardson. >> Yes. Uh thank you for breaking down the
titles for us. So, I believe I want to go to title two. Um you mentioned you guys are doing something new with HR. I was curious if you can like touch on that. What are you doing? >> Sure. So it's common in title two that we use those funds to pay for examinations for
lensure. So in the way that a teacher needs to get licensed to be a teacher. We look as a department and we look around at the state-of-the-art in in the industry and we determine um we look at what our qualifications are and see what are the certifications. So there's two that our department is pursuing. They are the two recognized industry
certifications for human resources. One is from the society of human resources often called sherm uh certified professional or senior certified professional or the other one is the you're going to test me human resources credentiing institute HRCI uh phrases.
So, those are certifications that we we test on as an as an industry examination to show that we are up to date with the modern and um what's the word I'm looking for? Make sure that we're up to date with the the industry and and maintain active credential.
>> Great. And then as far as retention and um I guess recruiting black professionals, how are you guys moving towards that? What >> I'd like to be able to come back and tell you about that next time. So, I was involved heavily in recruiting in my in a previous year, but we have a new
office, a new recruitment person who does that as her primary job duty, and I'd like to be able to bring that information back to you as a up-to-date, accurate representation of our efforts. >> Okay, I appreciate that. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> I do have a quick question for Dr. Fouts,
and I may have missed it, so I apologize, but the I the IY funding, I heard you say we might not get it. You're not anticipating it. Is there going to be a need or a gap? Um, >> what we've used that funding for the past few years is to help our high
school students who are credit deficient so they can graduate in four years. Um, and we're not using it that way this summer only because our numbers aren't there again. So, we have fewer students who are coming in credit deficient because we have fewer students. So, I think we'll be fine. um if we start
getting more immigrant students, we'll get that grant again and we'll start the program back up again. >> So, even like looking forward a year or two, I mean, if if we're missing that funding, >> are you able to forecast that there might be a need or you have you feel
confident you have a supportive board that you can come to? And >> that funding is very specific. So, the the title three funding we can use for any student in our English language program. We can also use it for multilingual families. The parents who might, you know, their their kids might
have exited our program, but we can still use it. IY funding immigrant in and youth is very specific to students who have been in the country for three years and and less. So, because those numbers are dropping, we we won't have students to use that money for anyway.
So, it really does match the need for the students. So, if our numbers increase, and it's nice because it's it's annually. So if our if next year we get more than 20 new immigrant and youth students then you know new immigrants newcomers to our to our city then we'll
get it the following year. So it does really follow the students. So I think we'll be fine but thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you all. >> All right. Next we have 13.3. Dr. Brown, nice to see you.
Hi everyone. Um, good evening madam chair, members of the board, Dr. Gurley. Many of you know me, but my name is Allison Brown. I'm the coordinator for history for the city. Um, I'm here with Mr. Bennett, who is one of the administrators at Charlottesville High School, who's also in charge of the history or supervises the history
department. So, as you know, uh, we were able to successfully add the AP African-American studies course to this year's program of studies. So, we wanted to begin by thanking you. you received the program studies in December and approved this course in January. Um, many of us have been working really hard
behind the scenes to make this course happen and to bring this opportunity to our students. So, we're just very grateful. Um, next the next part in that is when you bring up a new course, you have to find the right text to support students and make sure that we're setting them up for success on the AP examination at the end of the course.
So, that's what we're here to do today is to recommend a text for approval. Uh so moving right along um as you'll see our agenda has multiple components. First we're going to introduce the textbook adoption committee and review our overall process thus far. It's
important to note that we modeled this textbook adoption after previous textbook adoptions for AP social studies courses. The last one was in the 2017 2018 school year. Uh we will also review our process and um ultimately give a
recommendation and explain our rationale behind that choice. Uh we will cover the anticipated cost for this adoption as well as um potential next steps moving forward. And then at the end of the presentation, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Let's so let's meet the committee. Uh as you can see here, let's start with our teachers. So we have two teachers who are slated to teach this course next year. Mr. Timothy Johnson is our current CHS teacher. He teaches African-American history and US government. He has also taught in the past a variety of courses
including AP Government. Next, we have Miss Rachel Carlson, who is another current CHS teacher. She teaches world history 2 and AP World History. She has also taught African-American history, just in a different school district. Next, we have our department chair, Mr. Matthew Degan, who teaches Virginia US
history and AP world history as well and presides over the department. Next we have Joseph Patterson who is one of the instructional coaches that supports our department. Um and then we have Rio again admin over social studies
coordinator of social studies. Okay. So our process so far uh we worked over the summer and the fall like I said to add the AP African-American studies course to the program of studies and it was approved in January. Thank you again. Uh after we got approval, I reached out to all of the publishers
listed on the AP College Board website for the course. Of the four listed, three sent us books to review. So those were the three that we evaluated. Uh and we'll you'll see we took pl that evaluation process took place in March and April where we individually uh
reviewed the materials using the VDO VDOE rubric which we'll explain on the next slide. So we these are the three textbooks that we reviewed. Freedom on my mind, a history of African-Americans with documents for the AP course, the
African-American journey AP edition, and the AP African-American studies from slavery to freedom. We reviewed each of the three textbooks using the Virginia Department of Education's textbook evaluation tool specifically designed for social studies. Now, this can be a little hard
to find, so we've printed out copies for you. If any of you would like to review, just raise your hand. We'll happily bring one to you. Um, but it is Yeah. It is linked in the slideshow and I did annotate where you can find it if you want to look for it again. It's found in the Virginia Board of Education meeting
on January 15th, 2018. Attachment B. So, as you see the tool in front of you, there are two sections. Now, section one, which is on the screen and in front of you, talks solely about alignment with standards. And given that we chose books solely off of the pre-aligned
College Board list, uh we controlled for that. Now, it's important to note that College Board does not officially endorse any one textbook or publisher, but they do ensure alignment. So, we controlled for that in section one and focused our evaluation on section two, which contains nine criteria. Criteria
one is about age and developmental appropriateness. The second criteria is about textbook organization. Third is on textbook formatting. Fourth is on writing style overall syntax and readability. Five is about information sources the primary and secondary
sources embedded inclin. Six involves integration of se of skills and concepts and that really is what are we teaching and our students having opportunities to practice those things within the textbook. Seven deals with ensuring that the textbook has a lack of bias and stereotyping. Eight ensures
that the textbook includes diverse perspectives and representation. And then the ninth criteria deals with dig digital considerations and resources. And so the board the Virginia Department of Education recommends that for each of those criteria you the score or evaluator assign an A for adequate, L
for limited or N for no evidence. So moving forward in our process, we each scored each of the three textbooks individually. Then we came together to calibrate and come to consensus. Um, as you can see on the next slide,
we also wanted to quantify our scores to help um, in the deliberation process. And so we did that by assigning a numerical equivalent to each of the rankings. A is the highest ranking, so it received a two points. L has one point and N has zero points. And then we we brought in and added all of the
scores from all scores on the committee across all criteria. There's only one textbook, Freedom on My Mind, that received a perfect score of 108. It received A's across all criteria from every committee member. Our second choice is the AP African-American
studies textbook that received a score of 96. And the the lowest ranking textbook was the African-American journey who scored that scored 77 points. And so from both our qualitative discussions and quantitative numbers, we have two finalists, Freedom of My Mind
and AP African-American Studies. From this list, we calibrated and it's our official recommendation that we move forward with Freedom on My Mind. Um, and so I wanted to um read you something from the committee. Um, part
of our process, not only did we individually evaluate using the tool and we calibrated collectively, but part of our evaluation process was that every committee had to write a rationale explaining why they had their first choice. I then took all of their ration,
synthesized them together and created a combined statement on behalf of the committee. Every member has reviewed this and approved this as an official recommendation. So from the committee, Freedom on my mind offers a highly accessible experience for both teachers and
students by combining comprehensive yet comprehensible narratives with an intuitive AP aligned structure. This textbook not only discusses complex historical impacts with clear direct pose and sensitive content guidance, but it also empowers educators through
embedded instructional strategies and specialized tools like the AP skills workshop. These tools and resources provide targeted practice for document-based questions or DBQs and multiple choice questions to ensure students can deeply analyze course
themes and excel on the exam. Finally, this textbook weaves together diverse cultural perspectives, accurate factual knowledge, and a rich variety of media to support students throughout this course. And we're not the only division that thinks this. On the next slide, you'll see that many divisions across
the country and within the state also use this book or an earlier edition of this textbook. Oh, sorry, one more slide. So, thank you. So, some of the districts in Virginia currently are Alexandria. I mean, you they're all there. I do want to point
out that I do anticipate that this list is going to expand. Many districts across the state are adding this course this year. And so I did want to point out that um Arlington is on this list. One of the authors of the textbook edition, the teacher version of Freedom
on My Mind is Antwanet Dempsey Waters. She is an Arlington teacher. She also was co-chair of the development committee for the AP course. She also was co-author of the African-American BDOE course and she is one of the authors of the teacher edition for
Freedom on My Mind within our state. Um but as you can see there's a wide range of divisions size diversity location etc from every region or from the majority of the regions I should say. Um additionally I wanted to dive a little deeper and so I reached out to my
colleagues in these divisions and said can you talk to your teachers the people using this textbook in their classrooms? Do they recommend it? Why are not and so I received quotes from a variety of educators across the state. On the next slide I've included two for you. First is from Dr. Dr. Karen Wallace in
Manasses City Public Schools. She said, "Freedom on my mind is an excellent resource for African-American uh African-American studies because it provides students with opportunities to interact with primary and secondary sources to gain a broad perspective into African-American studies. The book also
includes AP practice questions and is fully aligned to the course. The teacher edition is also great because it provides suggestions for classroom enrichment and student engagement." Casi Farmer, a Henriiko public school teacher, said, "Freedom on my mind is essential for AP African-American studies because it directly aligns with
the College Board standards. My first year teaching this course, we had no textbook, and it was difficult to assign students enriching texts that supplement the work that we were doing in class. With the textbook, I've been able to easily assign text and choose activities that directly align with the class. The
textbook provides questions, DBQs, again, document-based questions, projects, readytouse assignments, and best practices for teachers to implement in the classroom. Without Freedom on my mind, I don't think I would have successfully taught AP African-American studies this school year. It's
imperative to have this for the course. So, as we transition to thinking about, well, what will this cost? Uh, we anticipate based on the current uh course request at Charlottesville High School to have two sections of this course. Both sections would cap at 25
students for a total of 50 students. So the quote for 50 student edition textbooks, two teacher edition manuals, and access for both teachers for the online hub of resources from the publisher comes to a grand total of $7,36 $638.91. Okay, so that brings us to today. Um,
again, we officially recommend moving forward with the Freedom on My Mind textbook and with your approval, we'd love to move to the community review portion. Um, it's vitally important to all of us on the committee that we include voices from our community, and that we allow for a space for students and community members to access the
text, both the the one we're recommending and our runner-up text, to review all of the online multimedia resources that go with these texts, and to give us their feedback. So with your approval uh if we move into this next stage as many of you saw coming in today the the tables already set up with both
of these texts there's a way to on paper or electronically use the VDOE tool and give us feedback. Additionally we recognize that many people in our community have daytime commitments whether that's work or school or life at home and so we want to be as available
as possible so that anyone in our community who wants to give us feedback is able to. So, I provided my communication cards, my emails on like everything associated with this adoption. I'm happy to sit oneon-one or with a small group in a in the community to go over the online and inerson
resources and answer any questions they might have at a time that works best for their schedule. Additionally, I've worked with Mr. Timothy Johnson who is on as a committee member and also our African-American history teacher and he's going to bring his students down to evaluate the textbooks as part of his class. So with your approval moving
forward, uh we would continue the community review until the end of May where then I would synthesize all of the information from the community and come back to share the final and hopefully they corroborate our recommendation and we can move forward with the purchase and official adoption of this textbook.
So with that, I'm done. Do you have any questions for me? >> Well, that was great. And I'll start down here. Any questions to my right, Miss Douly, Miss Richardson? Thank you, Dr. Brown. Um, I was just curious uh to why the AfricanAmerican
journey didn't make the cut. What was it about that particular text that didn't? >> Of course, there's a variety of criteria that it scored lower on across the board. Um, the the biggest factors were overall organization, readability. The other two the top two textbooks were
organized in this in a pattern that mirrors the AP course. Uh the third textbook had a like bar in the middle that had like an equivalent where you could find where it correlates but it wasn't intuitive and so everyone who was reading the book was like I don't know how this works and how this correlates.
Additionally uh the printing was not high quality and it's our belief that if if we're going to adopt and spend a lot of money to adopt that it needs to be a high quality text that is truly representative of the people covered in the textbook. So,
>> I appreciate that. Thank you for your time and dedication to this. >> Of course, >> Miss Cooper, Miss Burns, >> thank you. Um, and could you remind us what prerequisite courses students would need to take to be able to get into this
class? >> Sure. There are no prerequisites. We are offering it as an upperassman elective course. Um, and there are some recommendations from the AP like college board and other things. for example, they highly recommend that it's taken in
tandem with VA US or AUSH because they found that when you do take those in tandem with one another, that you score higher on both the exams, I see some nods that you've also heard this. So, we've been really intentional with how we position it in the schedule. Mr.
Bennett has, I say we, he has. He's done a phenomenal job of making sure that we can honor as many of the College Board recommendations as we can. >> Thank you. I just know it's top of mind for many of us that we're um offering these AP courses to our African-American students and want to make sure that
they're presented with the opportunity um to be first in the seats really if we can. Um would love to hear that next year. How many students were able to take it? We currently >> do we know what that is? >> We currently have 44 that have already
enrolled in the course for next year. Uh, and so we do have a couple seats remaining, but we are overall very excited and to be able to honor as many of the requests as we have been able to. >> Thank you. And then my other question, which I think you've answered some with Mr. Johnson evaluating his class coming
to evaluate them. I'm just wondering about student feedback. Maybe if there's an opportunity. I know graduation's coming, so I don't want to task Ginger with this, but >> No, I'd be happy to. Yeah. If if I if I could ask that our student reps um we
can get you their contact information if all of them >> we already chatted earlier today. >> Thank you. Um I just I think this is a really great opportunity to utilize them as the voice of their peers and to get their classmates excited about a new opportunity. So if we could bring them
to the table. Thank you. We are going to send a message out. I forgot to mention that but just so everyone is clear. um because as much as I love to think that everyone watches these minutes and heard my speech and you know or hanging on every word um I do want to make sure that is disseminated appropriately.
Additionally, by having it housed in the annex, we can it's available before school, during lunches, after school. And I do highly recommend because I know access to the annex can be a little tricky um for security purposes. If anyone wants to review that text or you hear of anyone, anyone emails you that's
like I I want to just email me, I'll happily connect with them. My office is right by the stairs. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Of course, Miss Bryant. >> Um, thank you so much for all of the work you did on this. I was actually going to ask, what other uh courses would you recommend for students to take
alongside it? Just knowing um some of the the writers behind this and knowing like their scholarship, I think that a push would be appropriate. But as you already suggested, um this is so exciting. I'm actually over the moon. I don't know if I'm giving that energy, but I'm so excited.
>> So are we. >> Um I'm really excited about the fact that also Deborah Gay White is one of the um one of the writers of this book because her work is, you know, so I guess crucial to as majors when you're learning like the foundational elements
of this work. And so knowing that um this is like a kind of a prerequisite for a student who may want to study it in college or who may want to look to this sort of scholarship I think like having her work there is so key. Um, I guess another question for you just as far as the course, not just the
textbook, and I know this isn't nec we're worth talking about the textbook, but what would those other opportunities be like to engage with like the Woodson Institute, which is a leading, you know, AAS um, place, right? Like, so, and they do so much research, but also invite
like visiting scholars and things of that nature. So, like what would that relationship be like, if any at all? and like how will you incorporate um I guess like outside scholars to be a part of and like engage with the students. >> Um clarifying question are you talking about for this course in particular or K12 social studies
>> for this course in particular? >> So this will be our pilot year. Um and so part of the process in preparing for that year is we already have summer curriculum work and we're partnering with the teachers who are planning to teach this course. I've already met with both of them and we're we're we're we're
our wheels are turning. And so we absolutely in K12 social studies in general, we recognize that we live in such a rich and robust area with many scholars who know far more than we do on certain topics. And so we already are bringing in scholars in a variety of K12
moments and places. Um and so I anticipate that we continue that process. Um it's also important to note as you were speaking it was reminding me of um criteria seven uh or sorry eight which is diverse perspectives and part of that is in authorship and so just in
case that wasn't clear before um a lot of times when we we evaluate textbooks we think of that as like who's covered in the book itself and whose stories are told and amplified and whose are silent silenced but a part of this tool then why we chose to go with the VDO tool on this for social studies is it also
prioritizes diversity and author ship and making sure that a variety of scholars with unique perspectives are included in the text. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Mayor, >> no. Miss Craig Hayway, do you have any comments?
>> Yeah, I just like to say thank you so much for all the work you put into this. I think that this um criteria that you evaluated the textbook with is very robust and very showing of uh freedom of my mind being uh probably the best choice. So, thank you so much. >> Of course. Thank you. So I think yes, go
for it and then we look forward to seeing you back in June. >> Of course. And you too can evaluate the textbooks and give us feedback. We'd love to hear from all of you. >> Thank you. >> All right. And next we have our policy updates. First round of them. Thank you.
>> All right. So good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, and Dr. early. Um, as required by Virginia Code, school boards must review all policies at least once every 5 years and revise them as needed. So, in addition to our internal review process, Charlottesville City
Schools subscribes to the Virginia School Boards Association or VSBA uh, policy services. And so VSBA provides member divisions with policy updates and sample policy language based on changes to state and federal laws, regulations,
and then relevant case law to help ensure school division policies we remain current and align with legal requirements and best practices. So tonight, I'm presenting the VSBA February 2026 policy updates along with several local policy revisions for first
review. The updated policies are provided in a redline format with new language shown in red and deleted language shown with a strikethrough. The attached summary table also provides a brief description of the proposed changes.
At the May 21st work session, we will discuss the policies that you have specific questions about in more detail, such as the promotion and retention, student health services, uh fundraising, and the tobacco and vapor products policies.
Um, and there were some questions regarding discipline practices that will be addressed when we update the student rights and responsibilities handbook. So, the superintendent recommends that the board receive these policy updates for review this evening and then with action requested at the June 4th
meeting. >> Thank you. So, board members, um any questions now? And keep in mind we will be meeting to talk um at our work session about policies again. So, start down here. Miss Douly, sorry.
>> Sorry. Um I had asked just about um the fundraising policy um that we don't have any reference to crowdsourcing donors choose. >> We we agree. >> GoFundMe and I would love to see some language addressing that at some point.
>> Yes, we we agree. Thank you for bringing that to our attention, >> Miss Richardson. Okay, Miss Cooper. I don't really have anything, but um I kind of look forward to um digging deeper into the retention policy um at
our work session. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Burns. >> Nothing for tonight, but um would echo Miss Cooper retention policy and hope that we can have a robust conversation around that. >> Um also
vape policy. um just really understanding what happens uh when our children are bringing vapes to school and then what happens um if there's an adverse event, adverse reaction um and understanding what that looks
like. Um so that's forward to our discussion couple weeks. >> Thank you, Miss Bryant. >> Yeah, I know we Thank you. Also, um I know we have an upcoming um work session about policy. I shared the concerns
about vapes and um about retention and I would also add that I think when we talk about the fundraising policy I just hope that it doesn't come across to our staff as like we're trying to limit like I I share the concerns that like there are a
lot of legal like things about you know just like fundraising on these platforms and like what that can turn into but I also think that like politically and socially like there's a reason why teachers are having to even do that in the first place and it's because they don't have all the resources necessarily
that they need. So I think that there's a bigger conversation that needs to continue to be had about like how do we get more resources for our teachers and I imagine that all of my colleagues I can't speak on their behalf would agree with that and so I just hope that like when we discuss that we're able to think
like thoughtfully about how like what the impacts of that could be too. >> Mr. mayor. >> Yeah. No. Uh look forward to digging in right into a lot of these topics. Uh I would
ask around uh when we're writing policy for example and I noted in the retention policy change for example we make an assertation without necessarily citing is it how do we draft policy when is it typical that you should be
should be citing something? Uh >> yeah you can add it as like a footnote or like an append. >> Okay. that it is possible to add footnotes when we're again if we're going to be doing that cuz right sorry >> again would >> if we're going to make a claim I want to make sure we're again
>> uh backing that up uh >> then our technology policy is I I don't think up to the where I would like to see it uh and so I would just like to make sure we add that to the work session I think a lot of us have concerns around screens
and edtech and if uh that policy doesn't really have a lot of discussion at the moment around that. Uh so if we're not going to be adding policy around that or the staff doesn't have suggestions around that, I guess I'd like to understand what's the plan for figuring that policy
out or do I need to write it? Uh which I don't think you want me writing it, but >> I Well, I think Pat and his team are um working on that. So >> I would I would ask I guess Mr. Meyer if you have specifics and I know you've
shared this frequently but if there are specifics that you would hope to see included in that to maybe send that in an email form to Mr. Cuomo and and >> yeah I'll uh I'll send an email to Mr. Cuomo and uh copy all you also.
>> Is that okay with you Dr. >> Is that okay Dr. Okay, thank you. >> And if you would copy me too as a policy copy. >> I wasn't going to leave you out. Sorry. Excuse me, Mr. That was uh of course >> also gonna Yes. And if any of you have like as you review these even further um
specific questions, just feel free to email us. >> Um >> yeah, and and we were in in our um ELT meetings. I mean some of the conversations I know that we've like you all are having regarding um like
substance abuse vapes and things some as we work through the policies on the 21st I think what we find what we may find is some of these things have more implications for the rights and responsibilities versus the policies
because the policy manual directs u many of these things directly to develop regulations and or ensure that they're included in their student rights and responsibilities. And um I was made aware that um that was one of the things
that's already been advanced to the uh student rights and responsibilities committee and they've met at least once and the second meeting I think is this week >> tomorrow >> about which topic sir? >> Um student health services. So, I know the question has come up about like um
referring students to like mandatory referring students to substance abuse outreach programs um and those types of things and embedding them in the rights and responsibilities document because that's forward- facing um for our families like we always send families to
that document >> and it's it's also something we can um lay out in our regulation to the policy. So, and same thing with like uh promotion and retention like talking about criteria and specific guidelines for schools to follow. We would lay those out in the regulations document.
>> Yep. So as we as we approach the work session on the 21st, I think we got to kind of um shape our mindsets in terms of the policy outlines the structure we want to see for the school division and
then that's what directs staff to develop those subsequent regulations. So, you know, I mean, we could spend all evening um with some of these things on the 21st, but it's really about creating the
structure and then staff laying it out and the regulations andor the students rights and responsibilities document. And in some cases, it may be even some modifications need to be made to a staff handbook. >> And I think specific to the um the
health, the the vaping and those types of supports. I mean, I think for quite a while, we've had different levels of conversations and concerns about what types of supports we can offer. And I think this will lend itself to
um the board understanding or being able to voice or to ask like how much can we push or mandate some types of supports for families and students who who might um you know have have issues or concerns or
be abusing or be victims with vapes and these types of substances. So I think that's what we had talked about right Dr. gurly was just again I think there are a lot of valid concerns from us and and then also how do we or what can we do to better educate and prepare the
community and parents um on a big scale so I think there are a lot of lot of those touch points which I think you're all are aware of so I look forward to that >> okay thank you >> have a clarification question that so if we're working on policy when or h when would we get the
regulation because I feel I don't >> the pol the policy is the business I mean is really the business of the board and then we outline in regulation um we outline in regulation how to operationalize it. So the the policy is
the governance piece which is the essential tenant of the board and then the regulation is the work of staff. So, and some of these Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Like I know you and I have had a conversation about operationalizing some things and I I can't remember which one
it was right off the top of my head and I I think I said like once you all once we see what that policy looks like then we can jump in and make changes to the regulation because if we change it beforehand >> it may not line up with whatever the
policy is you establish. I think just understanding and having some expectations around what the turnaround time is on that. If we're having a policy discussion, May, work session, potentially vote on some policies 1 of
June, is it realistic that I mean if the students rights and responsibilities doesn't get updated until >> July, August, does that >> I've given them a deadline. Um I think Dr. Try to that deadline is
July 15th >> Wednesday >> and that's specific to like retention student health services kind of the big ones we've hit >> right well the rights and responsibilities wouldn't have the retention in it but anything that I mean if there's some things in the rights and responsibilities that are health
services related in terms of um student mental wellness supports, um, medical supports, things of that nature, then we have until July the 15th. So, I mean, that's why some of these conversations are so important that
>> I mean, the the turnaround time, we have to ensure that what we do has a reasonable expectation because people will be going in five different directions at the end of the school year. >> Absolutely. That's why I wanted to make sure we're managing expectations. And
then for the retention policy, that's more of a regulation if I'm understanding where we wanted to put some clear definition to what we think retention could look like. >> Yes. And and we're going to have this conversation. I just want to make sure
that as we work through this that some of the examples we are using are aligned with states that have already outlined it from the state level. So, you know, like in one of the peer reviews, it says like 25 states have and so we have to
make sure that if we are doing something like that that we have the supports to back doing something doing something like that. So, I think that we have to keep those types of things in mind as we try to operationalize some of these things. >> Yeah, that's right. >> And stay in alignment with Virginia
code, right, in the regulations. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that. just expectations wise of regulations versus policy versus students rights. So, >> thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. Yes, ma'am.
>> Um, I think one thing that or Yeah, it is a question. So, like as far as like when we are thinking about regulation versus policy um where does the accountability piece come in because I think we're seeing how some policies are
regulated firmly and some not so much. So, how do we as a board make sure or get some sort of follow-up data to make sure that these policies are being followed, that they're working, and that they're actually aligned with the stated goals of like the strategic plan?
>> Yeah, I think we I mean, I honestly think that we do it all the time in terms of the the metrics piece. I mean, we we are always bringing back data points. Um, and I think, you know, as a board, um, as a staff, I think, I mean, every year we we up the ante in terms of
we want to see more of more of. So, I think that the accountability part happens here. Um, so if there's a particular thing that's aligned with the strategic plan, you're like, I want to see this annually every fall, which I think for many things, we do that. Um, I
think sometimes our focus shifts and it's not aligned with the strategic plan and I think that's when we kind of kind of go off the rails. And so, um, yeah, I think you all are the accountability pieces and we the staff reports to me
and then I report to you all. Um, >> no, no, no. That's great. Um I think like as far as of course you are in charge of the administration for each building. So we may not as a board get the feedback of what's going on which makes it very difficult when we are of
course approached by community members with concerns. We are limited and I want to like be clear about that like publicly we are limited. We don't have access to camera footage. We don't see the things that you get to see. In that same breath, I think it's important for
us to think about like, okay, vapes, for example, are something that has been a problem for a long time and it's a problem everywhere, not just in our schools. And so I think like when we think about involvement from like law enforcement or
EMT or whatever, like without getting too specific for any specific cases, I just think that like when we talk about police being in our schools, we talk about like outside involvement and partnerships, like what does that actually look like? And I feel like as we continue to talk about having community partners, having outside folks
like of course cleared to be in the building, what are the updates around these safety protocols that even our community partners are receiving? What is that training looking like? And I know we can continue this conversation when we have our policy um conversation. But that's key too. I know you want to
start um just being more clear on what those include and tracking the data and being accountable about all of those things. I think that, you know, the safety protocols is something that I would raise as being a concern as well, just to make sure everyone's on the same page, teachers included. It's very
concerning to me when I hear from one teacher that I didn't know this, but I hear from another teacher, I did know this, but it's all the same policy. So, that's what I kind of mean around accountability. Like, if the policy is the same, everyone should >> be on the same page. >> I agree. >> Thank you. Thank you.
All right, we are now 14.0 which is board response to written reports. Um, any questions around that, Mr. Meyer? M Douly? >> I do. >> Okay, Die, we'll start you first. >> Yeah, for the schoolboard meeting schedule, when are we revisiting our
meeting time? >> Thank you. I meant to bring that up. Um, I don't know if we if there is a if we want to do that at the next meeting. Anybody have a sense? So again, this was a trial
for six months, I believe. We decided or through this, you know, the end of this academic school year to try um the 6:00 start time and then we were going to revisit that. >> Just chair related to Miss Douly's observation, I do think we're having
another work session about our um organization, collaboration, etc. And to me that would be the I think Miss Dulie if that's with you I think that'd be appropriate time to discuss it next time.
>> So is that the June 1st or the June 13th? I don't know. Let me let me circle back and I'll send a communication out and we'll we'll work it into one of those work sessions if that's all right with everybody. >> Sounds good.
>> Okay. Any other questions or comments? Mr. Meer, >> I have a question. Um, I guess what are we >> when we made the decision um to move the time back like what were we trying to
control for? Like do we have like are we looking at attendance, audience, involvement, engagement? Like what are we using as our um criteria to keep or to go back to the five o'clock? I think those were the reasons that it
was proposed to change it to to six o'clock to see if there was a significant change um in folks being able to attend at a later start time or if it changed any of that. So >> yeah, I guess my question was more of
like um do we have anyone tracking how many people are coming to the meetings or are we going to look at like how many people signed up to speak during this trial or not? Like I guess I was just wondering like how would it or is it just based on our own opinion as board members? >> Well, we do have um we do have the lists
of of folks that have signed up, >> you know, and keeping in mind that some of those meetings I mean those aren't consistent. I mean, as you see tonight, it was a different um turnout. So, I think there's variances depending on what the agenda is and what the topics
are um that are circulating through, but I think that's definitely a data point that could be included. and then feedback from board members um as to what they'd like to do and open to consider anything else. All right. Anybody else? Miss Burns. I'm
sorry I didn't mean to jump. Usually it's just Mr. Meyer who likes to provide comment on on in this section, but if anybody else to my right, Miss Cooper, Miss Richardson, anything? >> No, just just thinking about the time
and just maybe depending on the topics. It can start at six if we needed to start later or or we want to just be consistent at five. Um just to see how open everyone is on the board just throwing out some options. Um flexibility
remembering that we all some of us get off at 5, 5:30, 6 o'clock depending on the day. So >> just throwing some ideas out. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh you know colleagues, I really like my written reports. Uh I I do think it is a
great way to provide information to us and the community. So and I do appreciate the staff putting them together. I do read them and look at them. Uh starting with the the meeting schedule, I will note we are making an adjustment for a religious holiday again
is proposed uh which I'm not in favor of but uh I've never heard of Monday Thursday and being a a Catholic uh having at least grown up Catholic. Uh but I would suggest we do not make modifications uh to our meeting schedule
for any specific religion. Uh next uh if we're not going to make adjustments for all religions uh on the social emotional learning report I miss Rasnik, thank you again for putting this together. Um I
appreciated the very rich in data here. uh a lot of reporting here and I noted that we did so far I think this year make 13 referrals to a multid-disciplinary team for court intervention in regards to unexcused
absences. Um I assume that is more than last year. Uh but uh I appreciate to that data and then know that we're we're doing that. I guess is there any
other color you might want to provide us around that? Is that working? Is it helping you think? Okay, >> it's a it's a new process utilizing that multiddisciplinary team um and it engages with the court services unit. Um
so we're identifying that team might identify services um and not move forwards. Um but it has been a really supportive process because um we're able to be collaborative and include different agencies in the conversation.
>> Okay. And it just real quick around that this team is being led by the position I think we hired. >> It's led at a supervisory level. Um so it's coordinators of student services are the primary facilitators.
>> Okay. Uh, I'll just I will note and I looked at the absentee report, we're trending all in the right direction. Uh, I'd like to see all our elementary schools look like they're going to be in the green. Uh, I hope you can hold that on and I think we
will. Uh, we'd love to see more more progress at CHS. Uh, where a quarter of our students are deemed chronically absent, everybody. Uh, which is a lot better than 40%. It was a couple years ago, but uh I think we got a long way to
go there still, I will note, but the division is down to 18, which is puts us not in the red anymore. Uh and it looks like we're going to hold that. So, congratulations, but keep up the good work. Uh and yeah, then I I did I did appreciate
uh all the reports uh from the visits uh colleagues you made to the the schools and and appreciate reading about those too in the written report. Thank you. Miss Torres, I did want to chime in once more. Sorry. But just about the chronic absenteeism, just
>> like kudos to Dr. Gurley and your team. I think this is reflective of putting process in place and being consistent with it. I know that we all want overnight immediate change, but that doesn't happen. There is some
inertia. Um, and so I think this the lessons from this chronic absenteeism report can be applied to a lot of different things that we are asking of of you. Um, specifically student achievement and just all of the the work that's being done. It's not always
immediate gratification. Um, but this is reflective, I think, of a lot of energy um that people have put in. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Doulie. Uh, Miss Craig Headway, did you have any? I know this was on board response to reports. All right,
thank you. Um, we are now moving on to comments from members of the community. This is our second opportunity for comment. Um, and I don't see anybody in or around the Zoom. So, we are now
Oh, hold on. if she'd like to. Sure. Okay. Miss Hudson, did you want to provide comment again, please? >> Can you all hear me? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to kind of finish up what I was saying because
three minutes is definitely Vape detectors should be off. Vape detectors should be everywhere. Number two, I know you all if if if you're trained enough to cancel 911 emergency calls, then your staff should
be trained enough to know what the popcorn lung condition is and how serious that is with people who uses vapes. And then number three, um, in this particular situation, your staff didn't know if this was a legal vape,
illegal vape, what was going on. You didn't even know he had a vape until he admitted it that he had a vape. And so, as much as you want the student, Mr. Malone, to take accountability, the school needs to take accountability as well. And that's why I'm demanding that this suspension be removed off the
student's record because you all are just as much accountable for cancelling that emergency call on that student and lacking a decent emergency preparedness plan. And you need to work on one because not only did you This was a pure
case of negligence on Charlottesville City School's behalf. Um and and straight disrespect to the parents to the parent that works for the school and also the other family member that works for the school who was demanding that 911 be called and an emergency person come there and then he was on the
emergency paperwork and was told that he wasn't. This was handled all the way wrong and you all need to be accountable for that. Um and it and it's no real, you know, issue here other than you got to work on some type of emergency preparedness plan. And I know with this
new um agreement that you all have going on with this collective bargaining that you're removing even outside training that's not educational based. But you need to make sure that anything pertaining to emergency medical health
uh general welfare of a person is is is somewhere locked in to your normal um training or yearly training that qualifies your teachers. because this this could have been it could have went the other way and the student could have
died and I want to make sure that that's recorded and on the record and anybody that watched this meeting know that because that's what could have happened and you don't know what other health issues this young man is going to have since having this situation or what was in that vape while you cancelled that
911 call. So, I want to thank y'all for your time tonight and I hope you all have a great night. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we will now move to comments from the board. Um, and I will start down. I don't know. Miss Craig
Headway, do you have anything else? All right. Mr. Meyer. >> Uh, yeah. No, I know that uh the staff here with parents and uh city staff also have been working on the traffic issues
that we've been having at Summit Elementary. I want to thank everybody for uh participating in those meetings. I think it's moving in the right direction. you know, I would say everybody's got there's not one silver bullet to the situation, doesn't it seem like and and uh but I I do think we're
uh moving in the right direction and I do hope to see it improve um further and I do appreciate the city is sending staff there now every day to uh assist and and help keep order. And I do just ask parents that you do follow the
directions that the the principal has uh put out there to ensure an orderly and safe arrival and departure of our students uh to to and from school. I'll stop there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Bryant.
>> Um first I want to say congratulations to all of the students who are appointed. Um that was a great process and I really enjoyed interviewing all of the students um who were a part of the interviewing process. Um I was really impressed with like how they were
interviewing. I mean so I was like is this a job interview? Is this a college interview? I mean it was it was really good and that was just really inspiring as someone who was a student school board rep here. We did not have interviews so I didn't really know how that would go. Um, but it was great and
I learned a lot about their individual um, obligations and leadership roles that they currently hold and I was just really impressed by all of the debate students and all the students who are doing SC student council and all of the different things that they're doing. Um,
just really impressive. In addition to that, um, I want to say congratulations to any seniors that we had here tonight that we celebrated. Like this is the best time of your life. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe some people say it's college. I don't know. But um congratulations on being at the end. I
hope that your graduation celebration is really joyful. Um to the retirees, I went to the retirement celebration yesterday and that was also a full circle moment. Mr. Mace was my a push teacher. Um so loved having that class
and one thing I really appreciated about that class was that Mr. Mace pushed back against us which prepared me for UVA. like it prepared me for college to be able to like defend my perspective and to have the research backing and all of those things and I just really appreciated being in that course. Um,
and then to all the retirees, like all of the retirees that I've seen over the years and all of the contributions they've made to our schools are so phenomenal and we couldn't do this without them. So, I hope that they felt the love yesterday and I hope that they continue to feel and receive that love.
Um, wow, there's a lot. Um, but I will say as my final thing that um I think we're all doing the work to make sure that our students get everything that they need and um as we approach like we just had college decision day. I went to the K-tech ceremony yesterday and I saw
students sign with their employers and um with their supervisors or the the teacher from KEK and I thought that that was really inspiring because now we're seeing that I feel like our division is celebrating all next steps and I think that that is so important especially we talk about chronic absenteeism as we
talk about retention as we talk about these really big ideas like what does that look like in practice when a student is reaching the end of their K12 educational journey. Um, and I think they will think back about all of the supports that they may or may not have received. And so I think as we continue to try to um expand our services and
meet all students where they are and get them to where they need to be, I hope that we continue to expand that celebration. I hope we have more students next year. Um, and that we continue to get the word out to the community about the different things that are on the table, the different offerings. Um, because there are so many different ways you can go after high
school. All of them are valuable. In this moment, we're seeing how sometimes you, you know, you you think you're going one way and then you need another skill. I'll just say that. And I think that um making sure that students know all of those things. They have like the the preparation for what the economy is
like and all of those things is like really important. So, thank you all to the staff for all the work that you're doing to prepare students for their journeys. And thank you Dr. Gurley for all the work that you're doing too. And yeah, have a great night everyone.
>> Miss Bur. Sure. Thank you. I want to recognize our teachers, those who received Golden Apple Awards and those that didn't. You are all working incredibly hard. you are doing the hard work and you are loving our children
through a really strange time. And I think just recognizing that so many of our students are in different phases of life and experiencing so many different things in the world and just how you continue to show up and lean in and see
them and care for them in ways that um may not ever win you an award, but you keep showing up and you keep doing the work. And so just really want to recognize everyone who is continuing to push in and to do that work. Um also
want to acknowledge uh Dr. Gurley and his team. We're coming to an end. Thank you for a really great school year. Um as a parent and as a community member and as a school board member. Um, I feel like year three, I'm
getting to know you and you're doing an exceptional job and I appreciate the way that you allow us to push you a little bit and you push back on us a little bit and and to your point, that's how we grow and that's how we get better and how we continue to do the work on behalf
of our students and our staff. And I will end lastly probably a little emotionally um on our students. Ginger, it has been a greatest joy
to love you and to see you and to care for you and to learn from you. I said recently to um a a friend in the community that I am supposed to be the mentor, but gosh,
I feel quite mentored um by all that you do and your cohort of students have done over the years. I had the joy of serving with you on the parks and wreck advisory board last year and um now in this role
this year and I could not be any prouder of you and Harper and Jayla and as I'm out in the community and attending scholarship brunches and breakfasts and um just seeing how you all are so honored and cherished in the community
and I'm so excited for the next cohort of students. Um, I just can never say enough about how wonderful you all are and just the joy that you bring and how you've been able to capture the voices of your
student colleagues, your cohort, and bring it back to the board. And so, in my heart, I appreciate you. Um, and Miss Bryant, thank you for joining me as a mentor so we can share some of this work together. It was great to have you
sitting in on those interviews with us this year and and really just diving in and hearing all the stories um and all the just wonderful things our kids are doing. And I think we'll have another wonderful bunch next year. So, thank
you, >> Miss Cooper. Um I just wanted to echo kind of what has already been said. I'm not going to um you know go back down that rabbit hole. Um but congratulations to our
students. Um that is doing an amazing job. Um I'm sorry that I was able um I was not able to attend the KEK signing um because I was under the weather. Um, but I just remember the excitement last
year and um, just watching our students be able to um, you know, sign and, you know, leave from high school and be able to go into the workforce because I think that looks different from for every student. Um, and so I appreciate that
our school division um, has that opportunity to think beyond college um, because we know that's not a path for all students. Um, so Um, I also would like to get a give a shout out to our teachers that's doing amazing work um in
our school division and our administrators. Um, being administrator is hard. Um, and I just want to, you know, thank them for all of the hard work that they're doing inside of the buildings. Um I have been able to um just check in with some of the
elementary schools and um our elementary schools has some amazing um administrators that are doing a lot of of the work um of not just being administrative but being caregivers and caretakers and making sure that our littles um are cared for. And so I just
appreciate watching that in action. Um, so again, I just would like to um thank the the staff and the team for all of the work that they're doing. >> Okay, Miss Richardson. >> Yes. Um, I want to thank everyone who
presented tonight. Uh, any community members who spoke up today. Uh, I wanted to touch on the vapes real quick because I remember maybe three years ago that we had like a parent engagement meeting or Zoom. I think maybe it was like after
the pandemic and um it was a speaker just letting us know like how vapes are coming into the schools and like the effects of that. And I don't know if we had a session like that since then. So maybe we need to like double back on that um since it's it's coming it's
becoming more and more of a problem. Um, as for me, this it's the school year is ending. Um, I'm like summer summer time. I'm excited. Um, it's been a great year. The board, we have been through a lot this year. I think we have grown. Um,
we've pushed each other and I think that there's more great work to come. As I said before, like give us grace because everything that's coming towards us is new. It seems like a lot of new topics and um and new bargaining things are going on and and we're we're trying to
learn from it and make the best decisions for our community. Again, thank you to the administration and um I am excited. I did hear some talk about the SRO coming into the school as far as like interviewing and things like that.
So, my my ear is still to the streets. So, they sound sounds promising and um we're going to keep positive thoughts and um hopeful hopeful things for that. So, yeah, everybody have a great night. >> Thank you, Miss Douly.
>> Thank you. Um so, for me, this is the most wonderful time of the year. I love all of these celebrations. This is the payoff for all of the work. Um and so, as everybody has already alluded to, all the various events that we're going to do our best to try to attend, um culminating what? May 20th, which I
think is the next time we'll all be together. We have a lot of meetings coming up, but not before graduation. Um, and then, um, you know, I have had the opportunity to work for four superintendent. Um, and I think Dr. Gurley, if I had the chance to work for
you and your team, I might still be in education. Um and so um you know a lot of the highlights and accolades um that we recognize today neglect to recognize you and your team that's here. Um and so
I think for myself and I'm sure the rest of the board, you know, thank you. >> Thank you. Um so I am going to repeat a little bit of what's already been said because I I was making notes. Um so I kind of titled this gratitude in springtime. So alluding to like if you
look at any one of our calendars, it it's got a lot on it and sometimes you have to pick and choose how many of those events that you can make in a night or in a week. Um and right now it's a lot and it feels really heavy but it's good heavy. Um and and it is a
little I don't know when you look when you look ahead it's like oh how am I going to do that? But every time I walk out of one of those events, it's like a little bit more of my bucket is filled. And just seeing the joy um on students faces, on parent and famil family's
faces, like at KEK last night, just the pride um of being able to sit up there and sign and and have a job. And it it was just this again um another thing that was really um meaningful to see that um all of the academic highlights,
you know, the students receiving different scholarships. Um, again, the signing days, the choir and orchestra and band celebrations that have been offered, theater, um, all of the sporting events, again, staff and teaching highlights, not just the golden
apples, but the highlights that that have been pushed out through social media. I mean, I look at a lot of those and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I do have something that I could share about that person and know that they're that they have touched people that I know and
students and made a difference." So, I mean, when you look at the big picture, it it's just a great division and there's so much that everybody um offers to this community and the students on a day-to-day basis. Um, I don't want to leave out. Um, every morning at least
two buses go by my house and I always think about the bus drivers and if I'm out there in my pajamas shutting the gate, I'm waving. I don't know if they know who I am other than the crazy lady in her pajamas. But I do want to express gratitude and and just highlight bus
drivers, our nutrition workers, um our CSAs, the administrative professionals, support personnel, again the retirees. Um, so many of those people, again, I think Miss Lewis said 338,
I believe, cumulative 384, I'm sorry, 384 cumulative years of experience. Um, was represented last night at the retiree. I mean, that's just a heck of a lot. A heck of a lot. Um,
and and not uh to leave out Dr. Gurley and your leadership team. So all of the front facing the frontline work that you all do daytoday um and and most don't know the behind the scenes work and the time and the
hours that you all put in prepping us for dayto-day for current operations but already way into um next year and and prepping for that. So I do really we all I'm saying I but I know we all appreciate you and your staff and your
leadership team. So, thank you. Um again, um I I am so grateful for the opportunity to be witness to the joys of our students and again what the staff um invests um the wins that our students um whether
you're receiving a reward or again just showing up uh to class and and being able to interact and learn something. Um this is a pretty incredible opportunity. um and I don't take it for granted. So, thank you all.
And now we have your comments, Dr. Gurley. >> All right. Good evening. Um the first thing that comes to mind this evening is the definition of our belonging to or
made by us. And um our community is amazing. Um we don't always uh we don't always see it the same way. We don't always see that the direction
or how to get to the end is the same, but we all want the same thing. We want the success of our students. And Miss Richardson said that we have had some very hard topics this school year. Um,
and even in all of that discourse, um, our goals have always been the same. It's been the safety andor the success of our students. Um, our families are amazing. Um, when I
look out in our audiences, um, we look different, but we want the same thing, the best for the children crossing the stage. Um, our students are amazing. Um, our students have been holding us
accountable. Um, and that's what we want. Um, we want kids, young adults who will leave here and just be better than we were. Um, and we want them to be better than us.
And they are, and they show us that daily. Um, and I just think of where we've been and where we are right now. And sometimes we just don't thank our kids enough for really stepping up. The pandemic was
hard. They gave us some hard years. We love them a lot for those hard years, but they have been superb this school year. Our staff, um, everything that you've heard this evening, it's because someone picked up a piece of paper off
the floor, someone cleaned a toilet, someone taught a child, someone drove a bus, someone administered a medication. Um, our staff, uh, they're amazing. Our school board, uh, the governance, um,
it's what makes our school, it's what makes our school division operate. At the beginning of the year, um, I stood before you all and said what we face, we can change, and the data is
showing us that it's changing. Uh we're setting high expectations for all of our students. We're not lowering the bar. Um and as I am now, I've learned from another parent and I'm now teaching my
child, we can do hard things. And so we are embarking upon summer and everyone just needs to um work hard. If you're in the central office, work hard because that's when we do our hardest work when no one's here because the summer is very
short for us. Um, but the reward is when we open the doors back up to receive our students. Um, so I appreciate all the kind words. Um, they're not about me. They're about the the teachers and our staff and central office. And just have
an amazing summer and I'm looking forward to May 20th. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. All right. work session wrapup. I think we're good. Thank you, Miss Swift. Um, upcoming meetings, we do have May 21st, we have a schoolboard
work session, uh, focused on policy review and discussion here 5:00 p.m. in the media center. So, here at Charlottesville High School, um, we do have a a June 1st governance, board governance. Um, and that will be here as
well. And um June 4th would be our next regular schoolboard meeting, 6:00 p.m.