Alright. Good evening, everyone. It is Thursday, 11/06/2025, and I'm calling this regular meeting of the school board to order. If we could start with a moment of silence. Thank you. Please stand and join me in the pledge. My allegiance 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. Madam clerk, if you could call the roll.
Yes, madam chair. Miss Burns? Here. Miss Cooper? Here. Miss Dooley? Here. Mister Morris? Yes. Mister Myers? Here. Miss Richardson? Here. Miss Torres? Yes. And mister Schwartzman, our speaker up? Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to approval of our proposed agenda. Can I get a motion? So moved. Got a first. Is there a second? Second. First and a second. Any discussion? Alright. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Miss Cooper was our second. Alright. Now we get to move on to, some recognition starting off with all of our
students in the back. I think our CHS theater program recognition. Our fine arts coordinator, Aaron Eichlerst, will do the introductions. Good evening, madam chair, doctor Gurley, and members of the board. I am delighted to recognize the extraordinary achievement of our theater CHS program, which recently completed an amazing weekend at the Virginia Theater Association's high statewide high school competition. Starting with a fantastic send off show, this incredible group of 45 student performers led by their talented director, David Beckert, captivated audiences and judges with their one act scenes
selected from Mary Zimmerman's play, The Secret in the Wings. I'm thrilled to announce that theater CHS was named one of the the top two schools in all of Virginia. The conference does not announce a winner and a runner-up since both of the top schools go on to represent Virginia at the Southeastern Theater Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee later this March. The list of honors from the competition is long, but it also includes best ensemble, best musicians, best use of music, and a first place individual costume design award for
Esme Ognim Ant. Additional kudos yes. Yes. Additional kudos go to senior Siliva for creating the beautiful, performance poster. We could not be more proud of these students for their dedication, artistry, and teamwork. Their competitive season continues this weekend as they go on November 8 to the VHSL theater competition. As exciting as it is for them to move on to Chattanooga, theater CHS now faces the challenge of fundraising to support their trip. The total cost for this endeavor is $30,000.
So the program will be holding several performance based fundraisers, including our annual musical, West Side Story, along with hosting other special performances like talent shows and improvisational comedy nights. Community members may also donate directly online visit by visiting the theater CHS website, theater chs dot weebly dot com. We encourage our generous community to support them as they represent Charlottesville as they compete against nine other states. So congratulations to all.
Yep. Thank you. Let's give them a round of applause. And now, please enjoy a brief performance from the award winning one act, the amazing theater CHS. Alright. Thank you for that wonderful performance, and best of luck in all of your future competitions. We get to continue on with some recognitions, miss Rasnick with our National School Psychology Week. Good evening, madam chair, doctor Gurley, members of the board. I ask that you acknowledge National School Psychology Week in Charlottesville City Schools. I'm asking you to thank our school psychologists for helping students find their path to
success through academic, emotional, and social support. They demonstrate compassion and dedication to creating a positive environment and helping students navigate challenges and build resilience. This year, our school psychologists are partnering with our BCBA and leading work with special education teachers in supporting executive functioning interventions. Alongside our BCBA, they developed resources for staff to provide more effective interventions in the essential skills of self regulation, organization, flexible thinking, task initiation, and planning.
I will celebrate them throughout November, but I ask that you acknowledge them this evening by proclaiming National School Psychology Week. Absolutely. So this is an info and an action item. So do we have a motion to approve this recognition? So moved. We start second. Miss Cooper with the second. Thank you. Any discussion or questions? Alright. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Alright. Wonderful. Thank you. And next, miss Johnson, Bianca Johnson. Do we get both both of the Johnsons? Coming up, Johnson and Johnson for Family Engagement Month.
Good evening, madam chair, members of the board, and doctor Gurley. November is recognized as National Family Engagement Month, a time to celebrate and strengthen the vital partnerships between our schools and the families we serve, which is a relationship we know is essential for student success. This commitment aligns directly with our divisional goal to provide a culture of safety and belonging by maintaining strong community partnerships. We use this moment to extend a formal invitation to families to continue to actively engage with schools. As your child's first and most important learning community, your support is essential to their
success, and you are a vital component of the school community. To strengthen our partnerships with families, community organizations, and students through the community schools initiative, so excited to introduce doctor Jones Lewis as our director of community schools. Doctor Jones Lewis brings extensive experience in education, strategic planning, and community engagement, and we are excited to welcome her to this important role. We also wanna thank our community organizations who roll up their sleeves and work right alongside us every day. Honestly, our ability to boost school programs and services for our students and staff is
totally dependent on these key relationships. We're especially grateful for their solid partnerships, which has been crucial for keeping things steady and supportive for our families even in current times of uncertainty. We would also like to extend a sincere thank you to our building leaders, teachers, and staff. Your continuous hard work, innovative efforts, and dedication to fostering welcoming and supportive environments are the cornerstone to successful family engagement. The strength of these relationships is a testament to your dedication and commitment. Together, we look forward to sustaining our partnerships throughout November and for the rest of
the school year. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Chuck, before you sit down, you are next up as we, have a moment to recognize the passing of mister Eugene Williams. And one of the Johnsons is joining me for this, moment. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize a real legend in our community. Good evening, madam chair, members of the board, and doctor Gurley. Mister Eugene Williams was half of what the Daily Progress called a civil rights power
couple. In light of his passing on October 18 at the age of 97, it's appropriate for our schools to pause and honor him tonight. His service to our community extends far beyond his impact on Charlottesville City Schools, but that is where we will focus tonight's appreciation. I will read a portion of the text from the historic marker that is installed at Tall Oaks Elementary, which was, of course, then Johnson Elementary in 2019. This marker tells the next chapter of Charlottesville's desegregation story after Venable and Lane High
School were desegregated on 09/08/1959. The historic marker at Tall Oaks continues. However, further integration was minimized, and the other city schools remained segregated. To address this, Charlottesville's NAACP president Eugene Williams and his wife Lorraine, herself a teacher in Charlottesville City Schools, sued to allow their daughters transfer from all black Jefferson Elementary into all white Johnson Elementary. 15 other students and their parents were part of the suit seeking transfers to Venable
and Lane. Appealed to the US Supreme Court, Dillard versus School Board of the City of Charlottesville ultimately forced Charlottesville City Schools to stop the discriminatory handling of school transfer requests. Consequently, on 10/24/1962, Johnson Elementary was integrated by Carol and Cheryl Williams and by Michael Lewis and Rosalyn Whitlock, whose parents whose request to transfer into Johnson were also approved following the court ruling. Each victory paved the way for greater access to an equal education, and the ruling
had significant impact across the state and country. We honor mister Williams for his work to transform our schools, but we recognize that his service to our community runs much broader from creating and sustaining a portfolio of well maintained but affordable housing in our community to raising awareness of our local black history by successfully advocating for historic signage. In their lifetimes, he and his wife were recognized by the Charlottesville School Board, the Charlottesville City Council, and the Virginia General Assembly. As we reflect on the life and legacy of mister Eugene Williams, we honor him
for his unwavering commitment to justice, education, and community uplift that transforms Charlottesville and has inspired generations. His advocacy for equity, equality, and opportunity reminds us that true progress is built on core courage and compassion. His selfless activism paved the way and will continue to guide us towards a more just and inclusive future. Thank you, mister Williams, for who you were to this community. Thank you for sharing those words. And I would like to take another moment of silence, specifically, in reflection of the
contributions of the Williams family. Thank you. We will move, now to comments from members of the community, and we get to start with comments from students. I think we've got a few lined up here to go. The first on my list is miss Gold, Mia Gold. Hi. I am, Mia Gold, and I and I will start by saying, when before I joined theater, I was, like, didn't really talk to anybody. I was just, like, keep to myself, and, and I wasn't really out there. And I was, like, couldn't really speak in front of people because I have, like,
really bad social anxiety. But when I joined, like, CHS theater, it just, like, got better for me. Like, last year, I started my first play. And, even though I didn't really have any speaking roles, it just felt like I can, like, speak out more and, like, say things. And this year, we got the opportunity to win at VTA, and now we are going to SCTC, which I think is a really huge deal because this group of people that I'm, like, working with working with is, like, really awesome. They, like, put in so much hard work and dedication, and I feel like this
is a excellent opportunity for us to bring I mean, not bring represent Charlotte and Virginia and by possibly winning at SCTC. So I, oh, we also did get to go. This I won't say this was our first time. We cut we didn't really get to go because it was during COVID, but we were able to kinda go. But this will be our first time going. So I think it would be nice for all of us to get the opportunity to fully get to go. That's all. Mhmm.
Thank you so much. Mhmm. Next up, if you can help me with your name. I'm sorry. Ixchel Paz Gonzales? Hi. My name is Ixchel, and I'm a sophomore at CHS. I love this program, and I'm very proud of everyone who is in it. They are amazing people who have fun and make theater enjoyable. One of the reasons why I love theater is because you can really do anything and everything here, and it is a place where creativity is wanted and needed. It's a place where we get to have the opportunity to be as creative as
possible. It's a place where we all have a voice. And this year, we placed in the top four schools and get to represent Virginia this March at SETC. This took a lot of time and effort from everyone, from the people who made the costumes to the people who made the props and sets, lighting, sound, and, of course, the actors. Being a part of this wonderful program is such an honor. Even in the stressful moments, I still wouldn't want to be in any other program. Our next production is West Side Story, a show that challenges us artistically and brings
our community together together through music, dance, and powerful storytelling. That being said, these things do come with a significant cost for travel and production materials. We would deeply appreciate any support we could get from the board can provide to help us continue representing our school with pride. Thank you for believing in us and making programs like ours possible. Thank you so much. Next up, Esmee Ogden Amt. Hi. I'm Esmeogdan Amt.
I'm a junior this year, at CHS. I'm the costume designer for this show, and I'm hoping to pursue this as a career path. So for me, going to VTA is a huge upper was a huge opportunity for my future. I got to meet professionals in my field. I got to talk to colleges. I got to go to workshops to learn the skills that I'm going to use in my future. And it was also really cool to meet all the different high schoolers who are doing the same things that we're doing and seeing how they're doing it differently, you know, how their experiences are the same and are different.
And I think a lot of the people here can attest that it was a really cool experience for that reason, and SCTC would basically be twice that. It's it's the regional version of that. It's even more professionals, even more students, even more opportunities. So it would be really amazing if we were able to go. And I know that everyone here has put in just so much work to be able to get to this point, and we're so incredibly proud to have been given the opportunity to go to SCTC. And it would be really amazing if we could get any support that would make
it easier for every student to go. Thank you. And Aiden Clave? Hi. Oh, I'm sorry. Hi. My name is Aiden Clair. I'm a senior here at Charlottesville High School. I've been doing theater for four years, and the first play I ever did was Book of Will when we took that one to VTA. And that was my first experience with theater, and it couldn't have gone better. Every year, I've gone to VTA, and it's been just as excellent as the one before, if not better. And it's an amazing place for, schools all over the state to come together, and
we can celebrate our shared passion, learn plenty of useful things in theater and outside of theater and see some fun shows. SCTC has been a dream as part of that for four years for me, and finally winning this year was truly amazing. I can VTA is already a highlight of the year for me in SCTC. The next level above it is only destined to be the highlight of maybe my whole high school career. And I feel I can speak for the rest of us when I say it's gonna be an amazing experience, and we all know it.
The fact of the matter is that it is costly. And while it's a once in a lifetime unique experience, it is and everyone here has put their all into this and deserves to be able to go. Any support that we can get in financially allowing everybody to be able to go, it would mean everything to me and to the rest of us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Are there any other students present who wish to give comment? Alright. If there are any oh. Alright. So as you approach the podium, if you would say your name and limit your
comments to three minutes. Hello. My, my name is Joshua. I'm just very excited for SCTC. I'm very happy for my group of peers that we made it this far. I'm very happy for my friends to hang out with them, to get to spend more quality time with them because I am a senior, and it's my last ride. So, yeah, basically, thank you. Thank you. Alright. We will move on to, adult members of the community.
First up is mister Hartline. If you as you approach the podium, say your name and limit your comments to three minutes. Good evening, school board members and superintendent doctor Gurley. Derek Hartline, 1517 Quintwinette Avenue, lifelong city resident. I'm I'm here this evening to follow-up on a couple of items I discussed at the October board meeting. I brought before the board a concern that the fallen leaves at Jackson Bayou would need to be picked up earlier this year to avoid another potential safety issue.
I suggested that the first leaf pickup could be occurring on Monday, November 3 when staff would be at CHS, and PD's leaving the lot clear. At Monday's PD, I spoke with doctor Gurley. And when he asked what would I be bringing before the board this evening, I let him know that it depended on a lot on whether or not the leaves got picked up. He assured me that the request was submitted for it to be done. I am honored and privileged to announce that all the fallen leaves so far were picked up on Monday morning. And on my way home that day, I saw that all the leaves also at
Tall Oaks were picked up as well. On behalf of the staff in Jackson Via, I wanna express my sincere thanks and gratitude to doctor Gurley, the board, and missus Powell for your support in this matter. It truly means a lot. Over the next several weeks, more leaves will continue to fall. And, unfortunately, there aren't any days where the lot will be empty until Thanksgiving break. I plan to support this effort in the interim to help remove the lease from the lot until the city can get back for another pickup. I was wondering if the board would be willing to make another request for the second pickup the day before or the day after Thanksgiving.
In about ten days or so, I will be removing what lease have built up since Monday's pickup. Please let me know your thoughts as I wanna partner with the city in this effort as I feel our combined efforts will prevent another fire from occurring due to built up leaves. Second and last of the season, I wanted to update you on the speeding along Harris Road. Just last week, the 15 mile an hour flashing light as you head west on Harris now has a real time speed indicator attached under the sign showing drivers how fast they are going. And when that, speed reaches 25 miles per hour or more at any time of
the day, it starts to flash red. This change is already making a difference. And if the board had anything to do with this recent installation of this real speed indicator, I wanna also thank you for your support in keeping this corridor safe for students, families, and staff. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening with you regarding my updates. Thank you so much, mister Hartline. Miss Bryant? Miss miss Horn, go ahead. Excuse me. You both will have an opportunity to speak with miss Horn if you wanna go first. Hello. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. This is not what I planned to say.
I'm sorry. I'm Jen Horn. I had a whole laboriously crafted piece about screen free classrooms that will have to wait. Be excited. Due to the fact that many of you replied to my email about standards based grading, many right before this meeting, that's what I'd like to talk about in brief. I do not think that standards based grading is the correct tool for assessment in the humanities. I have sent a letter to division leadership and to the school board.
I outlined my research and my concerns. What is clear is that there was not input from teachers of the humanities when the decision to move to SBG in every discipline was made. It also seems clear via the emails I've received that discussions as to whether SBG in all disciplines is optimal are happening. I would very much like to participate in those conversations. I would very much like for my colleagues teaching in the humanities to be part
of those conversations. The strategic plan calls for equitable grading, but SBG is not the only means to achieve that goal. I ask that before we truly begin down the arduous and time consuming path of implementation, we stop and talk, perhaps considering making SBG opt optional for the humanities as is standard in many SBG schools. Talk to your teachers, please. Thank you.
Thank you, miss Horn. Miss Bryant. Good evening. Ziona Bryant, Charlottesville resident. So I wasn't gonna speak this evening, but I was really impressed by the students from the theater, department. And I think it would be great to have the support for them to be able to do, the competition that they are asking for support for. I do think it's important for students to have access to spaces to have the ear of those who are making decisions. And I don't know what the support would look like from the board or what you can offer to them in this way.
But if you're not able to, like, make a monetary decision for them, it would be nice to open it up to the community and direct people in the direct like, point them in the direction so that they can support. We have a lot of nonprofit organizations that support the arts. We have a lot of philanthropists locally. And so one thing that I heard recently from a lot of community members is that there are people in their in the community who wanna support. They wanna volunteer more. They wanna give donations. They wanna just support students and support our staff. And so I think a way that we could do that is by starting with
this kind of low hanging fruit. I think it's a nice first project to see, a good request for community support, and it's similar to the snack drive and things of that nature. So I just wanna elevate and amplify their request for support, and also just remind you that, like, student voice is so important, and it's it's really scary to stand in front of this mic as a student in high school. I did it a lot when I was in high school, and it never got easier. So kudos and applause to those students who came out this evening to speak to you.
I hope you heard them, and I hope that you're able to follow-up with them in some way. Thank you. Thank you, miss Bryant. Any other members of the media center who wish to give public comment? Alright. Anybody on Zoom? If you are interested in giving public comment, you can raise your hand and we will elevate you to a speaker. Alright. Thank you. That will close our, community comment period, and we will move on to our student representative report out. Mister Schwartzman. Hey. Is that alright? Perfect. Okay. I'm Sully. And if you haven't seen me at any of the other board meetings or in
the halls of this school, I'm the student representative for this board. Quite a lot has happened since our last meeting, including elections just two days ago. So I'd like to take a moment to congratulate on behalf of the students, all those who will be serving in the next term and worked hard on campaigning for their positions. The student body looks forward to see what will happen in the future. And I'd like to offer a special congratulations to Mr. Moore for all that he's done for this board. Thank you. I'd also like to congratulate CHS theater. It's amazing to see so many people at a meeting advocate for what they want, and it's even more amazing to see CHS winning at state level competitions.
It's amazing in a lot of different ways. As us at CHS get back from our long Halloween weekend and start looking ahead to the holidays, I feel like it's a good time to reflect on some of the issues that have been brought up, to me by the student body. First, SROs. In the first meeting of many meetings that I spoke about SROs, I said that students are cautiously optimistic about the possibility of SROs. And in all of my speaking to people, I have found that that is even more true than I thought it was originally. And not only that, I found that the opinion of students is likely going to
remain similar or the same for the foreseeable future. Students and administrators have long recognized the current problems at DHS, and it's been reflected in people's opinions of SROs. They want change, and they think that SROs could be extremely good at making that happen. The group of people who are excited about the possibilities is a significant group of people. And it's it's an extremely commonly held belief among students at CHS that SROs could bring a lot of good change. That's not to say that there isn't opposition within the student body, but a crucial
thing to note is that generally, people the more that people learn about SROs and how they're actually going to be implemented, the training procedures, the weapon locks, the feedback systems, and the many changes that this board and administration have made to ensure security, the more people think positively of SROs as, like, possible tools for positive change in the schools. And that's why people are optimistic. They see that SROs could be good for change. But people are also very, very cautious about this plan for one major reason in
my interpretation, which is guns. What I've learned talking to people is that as long as guns are part of the SRO plan, there will always be caution. It's a terrifying thought for any student that they could be killed because of a single bad judgment call, and that there's not and there there's nothing that the board can do to make these students feel entirely safe. There's no policy that we can pass, no rule or regulation that can make people feel perfectly safe when guns are being displayed in a school setting, and that's just a fact of the SRO policy that we need to accept.
That being said, there's one thing that I think that this that this board should really continue to do, which is educate people about the SROs. So far, the board and the the administration have had many, many different ways of reaching out to people, and they've worked for the people who have interacted with them. The problem is not everybody wants to do that, and we can't make them do that. So my advice is, from the perspective of the students to this board to not stop educating, to make sure that all students can access resources to tell them what's happening with SROs whenever they want, whether it's this school year, in one school year,
or in five. If this is going to be a long term plan, we need a constant stream of educations so that people can understand what is happening in their schools. And I think that so far this board has been doing a spectacular job of that. I would just like to ensure that that continues. Moving on to a different topic. Since our last meeting, we've gone through the first quarter of the year, which has, which has had a lot of students approach me and ask about the grading system. So I'd like to relay two of those main comments. First and most importantly, many students really agree with the use of zeros for various
assignments, and many people are happy that the data surrounding the passing and failing rates is actually based on correct information rather than 50 some assignments when no work was done. Preventing this kind of grade inflation is crucial for getting accurate data, and it's fantastic that the board has done this. Truly, it's a huge step towards addressing the problems that have existed in our schools for a very long time at their core. Also, some students and teachers are concerned about the way that PowerSchool makes grades unavailable in between that quarter's end and the release of report cards. The purpose of that policy is to prevent students from annoying teachers about grades during
that time. But because, Canvas doesn't display final grades, students just end up asking teachers even more questions and reversing the impact of that, that policy. That's been something that a lot of students have reached out to me about. So if the board could look into that, that'd be amazing. The student body looks forward to the rest of the year, and whatever this board has to bring, we're gonna be ready, and it's gonna be amazing. So thank you guys for having me at this meeting. Thank you. Thank you so much, mister Schwartzman. Next step is moving to adoption of the consent agenda.
Is there a motion? So move to adopt the consent agenda. Okay. So I'm gonna give mister Meyer the motion. Miss Torres, do you second? Okay. We've got a first and a second. Any comments or discussion? Alright. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Next up, is our action item for this evening, which, miss Torres, are you talking us through this? Maybe? Would you please? Sure. So I represent I'm one of, a couple of represent represent Thank you.
Can't find my words tonight. Representatives from the Virginia School Board Association for the nominating committee, where we, based on the region that we are in, we then solicit, whether or not there are any interest to fill a chair and vice chair position for our Central Region. So, another, co representative from one of our neighboring divisions and I have reached out, and we did receive interest from our current vice chair, miss Amanda Burns.
And so we, she has submitted in her application, and we are bringing that to the board tonight, for approval. And then we will turn that in, and that will be something that will, occur, in a couple of weeks in Williamsburg. So that's what's before you tonight is, the nomination for vice chair for VSBA Regional, our central division. Thank you so much. And thank you, miss Burns, for being willing to put yourself out there for this nomination. Part of the nomination packet is approval, by the majority of the board to submit.
And so at this time, if we can have a motion to approve miss Burns' nomination for vice chair of our region. I'll make a motion to approve, Amanda Burns as vice president. Thank you, miss Cooper. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, mister Meyer. We have a person in a second. Any discussion or questions? I'm curious I have a question. I'm just curious. I mean, what made you wanna put yourself out there? Well, miss Torres asked, so that's helpful. I've also been, involved in the Central Region pretty heavily, not just in the capacity
of learning and education space, but also taking on our role with the VSBA task force for students in schools in challenging environments. And so really leaning into that piece and leaning into the legislative arm of VSBA and just learning a bit more. And so I think in this role, I can bring some of that experience to this role and then help, I think, further our collective voice in this region to advocate for our students who need it the most. Appreciate it. Appreciate you.
Thank you. I just think, I think, miss Burns, you've, been a very, impressive, passionate leader, for us over the last two years, and I know you've also spent a lot of time engaged in state level school board association matters. I know you've done a lot of, seeing on different committees again and and also trainings, and so I can't think of a better person to to nominate. Thank you. Alright. So we've got a motion and a second.
At this time, I'm gonna call the vote. So all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Miss Burns, you can't vote against yourself to get out of this, so thank you. Thank you for your service, and it passes, unanimously. Thank you. Alright. So we're gonna move up or move on to some discussion items, starting with the literacy update from miss Riedel. Good evening, madam chair, members of the board, and doctor Gurley. I am here tonight to provide the fall twenty twenty five literacy update with you. This update ties directly into our strategic plan, specifically priority one, increase academic achievement, and
the goal that all CCS learners will demonstrate mastery in reading and math. The data we will show look at tonight shows that we are on our path towards target one, which aims for eighty percent of our students to demonstrate proficiency in tier one instruction and target nine to increase reading achievement to at least 75% across our student groups. Tonight, we will begin by looking at our fall data for the present level of performance, and I will share what we are doing in response to the data and
to support our achievement of these goals. In Charlottesville City Schools, we use three assessments for early and ongoing literacy monitoring. First is the Virginia language and literacy screener. We call it VALS. It is administered in pre k through eight. However, it is used differently in different bands. In pre k through second, it is a universal screener, meaning everybody takes it, and it provides a band of risk. Students that are identified in the high risk band must receive a student reading plan.
For third grade, there's a set of criteria. It's students who are new to the state, previously identified, or attended summer school. It's only used for a small group of kids. And if they are in the red, they continue with the student reading plan. Fourth through fourth grade through eighth grade was new this year, and it's only administered to the students that failed the reading SOL or if they passed the reading SOL but received an audio or read aloud accommodation. All students must also receive a student reading plan.
It does not identify a band of risk, but because we administered it, because they failed the SOL, they automatically get a student reading plan. Second, we use DIBELS. It's also pre k through eight, but, again, it's different bands. Pre k to second grade is optional. It is mandatory or a requirement for our third through eighth graders. It's a universal screener. We use it to help identify what students need support to progress monitor and in the creation of some reading plans. We also use it some at the high school for students that are getting intervention
as a progress monitoring tool. Finally, we have the MAP assessment. It's a nationally normed assessment, and measures student growth in reading. We use it in grades three through 12. It's computer adaptive and provides a projected goal. Now we'll look at kindergarten through second grade data. The chart on the left is the fall VALS data for kindergarten to second grade. As you look at the chart, it's important to know what each of the bands of risk represent. The green band is those students who are identified as low risk on the screener.
This means they're at low risk of having reading difficulty. They should continue to receive systematic and explicit instruction within the classroom in order to continue growing as a reader. The yellow band on the chart represents the students that are in the moderate risk band, meaning they have a moderate risk for developing reading difficulties. These students need to receive some targeted explicit instruction within their classroom and may also need a little extra support or reinforcement based on their instructional indicators.
An example of this would be a first grade student with strong alphabet knowledge. They know their sounds, and they decode real words. However, their encoding or spelling may have some gaps. This student would do fine in the classroom. However, during the writing portion of the start structured literacy lesson, the teacher may need to provide extra support or attention to help the students spell as they write their dictated sentences. The reddish band on the chart represents the students that are in the high risk
band, meaning they are at a high risk of reading difficulties because they are significantly behind in some basic literacy development and need targeted explicit instruction. Teachers and specialists will create student reading plans for these students in order to ensure that they get the additional literacy instruction to help close some gaps in their literacy skills. Our early literacy data shows positive improvement compared to last year. Last year, thirty six percent of our kindergarten students began the school year in the
high risk band. That is six this year, only thirty one percent of them are in the high risk band. That is 16 students that moved into the moderate risk band in first grade. It's also important to notice that last year, we we had thirty six percent of our kindergarteners in the high risk band, And this year, we only have nineteen percent of our kindergarten students in the high risk band. Another important note is that seventy two percent of our black kindergarten students are now
in the moderate or low risk band. For second grade, we've seen a three percent decrease in students identified in the high risk band compared to last year's thirty seven percent, and forty four percent of our black and brown students are in the moderate or low risk band. These trends show our focused efforts on early literacy are starting to yield results. The letters and the VLA training that our teachers participated in last year was focused on what the systemic systematic and explicit instruction looks like in the classroom and how
to teach reading. Implementation of those strategies will support our strong tier one classroom instruction and continue to positively impact student performance. So what are we going to what are we doing to continue to grow our readers in kindergarten through second grade? First, we're going to continue to implement the strong, systematic, and explicit literacy instruction. Additionally, we've implemented the new HMH structured literacy model modules in kindergarten through second grade. The scope and sequence aligns with the science based reading research and is rigorously paced
so that our students are prepared for the next school year. We also purchased new decodable libraries that provide our students with extra time and practice implementing the skills they're learning through authentic and meaningful reading. We've also increased our tier one supports with some of our reading specialists pushing into the classroom to support our students. There are also many collaborative meetings happening in schools that include specialists, ESL teachers, gifted special education teachers, all together working together to plan for the explicit instruction and provide
the scaffolds so that our students can all achieve. They are working together to implement some of the SIOP training into their instruction, and it's making a difference. We are raising our expectations for students and providing the scaffolds so they can succeed. Another important item has been working with doctor Korab and her team as we begin to prepare for the early learning center and making sure that our students are kindergarten strong. The preschool team, along with a few reading specialists and instructional coaches, are completing the
early childhood LETRS course. This will mean that all of our pre k through fifth grade teachers will have completed some form of LETRS training. We're also working to align some of the instructional routines and components, which will help to make sure that they are pre kindergarten strong as they transition. As we move to look at the grades three through five fall assessments, remember that the fall assessments are different. We now have DIBELS and MAP that are administered to all of our students. On the left is the DIBELS data, and on the right is the MAP data.
While the charts look similar, it's important to remember these assessments provide us different information about the students. DIBELS is a series of short timed subtests used to assess reading progress. It includes phonics, fluency, and comprehension connected to grade level expectations. We then use that data to identify students that may be at risk for reading difficulties, monitor their progress, and guide their intervention strategies. Students in the green and blue bands would be similar to the low risk band we talked about on the VALS assessment.
These students should be successful with little or no additional support in the core instruction. The students in the yellow band represent those who may need strategic support during the core. This may look like partnering to read the grade level reading passage or preteaching some vocabulary words to support their comprehension. Strategic support occurs within the classroom by the classroom teacher. That means that all the students' needs for yellow, green, and blue bands should be
met within their classroom or tier one setting. This means that about 75% of our students' reading needs should be met within the classroom. You may remember our strategic goal plan states that eighty percent will demonstrate proficiency in tier one, and we're on our way to meeting and exceeding that goal. On the right is the MAP assessment. MAP is the computer adaptive assessment that measures growth. It measures reading vocabulary and comprehension and predicts the future. In addition to being a different being a different assessment, it reports five performance bands.
Students in blue, green, and yellow, above average, average, and high, should be successful in the tier one setting. The next performance band, orange, is the below average band. Some of these students may need the strategic support within the classroom, and someone benefit from explicit instruction in addition to the classroom instruction. The students in the red band would be those most at risk of reading difficulties and would benefit from the intervention and supports. This next look is a look historical look at our fifth grade cohort using the
DIBELS data. You can see that we're increasing our students in the core band while decreasing the intensive band. Since the strategic band remains the same, we know that some students are making gains and improvements in all performance bands. Alright. Third through fifth grade, based on our historical and present data, we have intentionally added or increased several instructional practices. First, the introduction of the integrated reading and writing assessment two years ago allowed us
to look at building our writing in response to reading instruction more explicitly intentionally in our earlier grades. We realized that writing in response to reading supports comprehension. Our students are building skills to locate and use evidence when responding to questions and thinking critically while they are reading. We've also increased our use of paired complex texts and novel studies. On Monday, teachers in third grade, fourth grade, and seventh grade met for professional development to implement their new novel studies.
We are aligning these complex texts to our core curriculum. This allows us to increase the rigor while providing scaffolds so that all learners can participate and grow. Teachers are also participating in purposeful planning. On Monday, they worked with their colleagues across the division to ensure that our plans and expectations are aligned to the twenty twenty four standards, And together, they completed some long term planning. Then within their PLCs, they're working together to meet the needs of all students.
Again, I've seen ESL teachers in adding visuals to the vocabulary cards, and GRTs are finding extension passages that would extend the learning. Everyone is united, collaborative, and purposeful in their planning. Sixth to eighth grade. Looking ahead to reconfiguration, I'm sharing the middle school data for grades six through eight. The assessments are the same that we looked at for grades three through five. Keeping in mind that on DIBELS, the blue, green, and yellow bands are the students
whose needs should be met within the classroom or tier one setting. For the MAP assessment, the benchmark would include the blue, green, and yellow. We can see that on both assessments, the percentages of students showing proficiency is not as close to our strategic goal of 80% proficient. We continue to provide systematic and explicit instruction while also working together to address these gaps and learning needs as you will see on the next slide. Again, this year, we have we have purchased Lexia PowerUp license licenses for all of
our students. We've also had professional development and training sessions for the teachers about how to intentionally implement Lexia. Students are setting goals for weekly units earned, and teachers are monitoring progress and providing small group intervention and extension when needed. At Charlottesville Middle, they have also worked to implement an incentive program to support their usage, including an Oktaki Fest. We've also increased our fluency routines and expectations, and we have two full time reading
specialists at each of the school sites that are supporting literacy instruction and intervention. We continue to use paired text and com paired and complex text. We want our students to read text across multiple days and classes in order to increase their reading stamina and engagement. We're also asking higher level questions that require our students to think critically and analytically and to talk about what they're reading. Before we move to looking at the high school data, it's important to take a
moment to talk about the student reading plans. As the Virginia Literacy Act expanded into grades four through eight, so did the VALS assessment and the student reading plans. This slide shows the number of students required to have a student reading plan in grades four through eight. Please remember that it's required for anyone who fails the reading SOL with a fail basic or a fail below basic score. Additionally, students who pass the SOL but require an audio or read aloud accommodation may
also receive a student reading plan. As you can see from the table, we have a total of 507 students in grades four through eight requiring a plan. This is a significant number. The data shows a relatively consistent number across our grades ranging from 97 students in grade four to a 105 in grade five. Our response efforts across all grades are critical to dramatically reducing these numbers next year.
Now for the high school. We really only use the MAP assessment to universally monitor student proficiency at the high school. Again, the blue, green, and yellow bands represent students in the average proficiency or higher. This means that about 74% of our students should be successful in the classroom or tier one setting. The chart on the right includes historical data showing the percentage of students performing below average. That means we want the bars to be as short as possible. You can see that in the last three years, we have decreased the percentage of
students performing below average. As students are receiving explicit and systematic instruction, this should continue to grow and improve. Here we can see the trends and patterns on the map assessment through cohort data. On the left, you see the grow group or cohort of students, and then follow across that row, and you'll see the percentage of students in the average to high band of proficiency. So on this one, we want the percentage to be high. If you look at the cohort of twenty twenty eight, our current tenth graders, and
follow them across, we can see the performance decrease in the middle school grades and then bounce back at the high school. We hope that by reducing the transitions through reconfiguration, we will decrease that drop in achievement. But the good news is our students are growing and performing. At the high school, we've revised our pacing guides to reinforce the text first planning and increase the qualitative complexity of text. The units connect to a variety of texts and are centered on an essential question
that requires the students to think critically and deeply. We're also exposing students to a variety of texts that will increase academic and working vocabulary. Again, I would like to celebrate that we have two full time reading specialists and a secondary literacy specialist that support our high school students. They are helping to provide intervention for those students with struggling skills struggling reading skills. We saw a lot of progress in our interventions last year, and the team worked hard to start their interventions and sports even earlier this year.
We recognize the urgency to support these young people. They are also working to push into classes and providing the scaffolding supports for students as they as well as wrap around support for some students by pushing in. CHS has also made a commitment to increasing explicit vocabulary and comprehension routines in their literacy in classrooms. To do so, we've connected with doctor Jade Wexler at the University of Maryland. At the start of the school year, she provided a school wide literacy training and
then extended her work more explicitly with the English team, ESL teachers, and special ed teachers throughout the school year. The goal of the work is to consistently implement vocabulary and comprehension routines so that the students can use the strategies in any context during high school or after. We're looking extend at extending the training to history and science teachers in the spring because we recognize that students read in all classes, and they need strategies in order
to be successful in any setting. Thank you, miss Riedel. Madam, chair, members of the board, and doctor Gurley, in addition to all of the professional learning and the instructional routines and practices that miss Riedel described to you, we wanted to take just a moment to also share with you another way that we're responding, to our data and addressing our achievement gap, and that is in advancing, the data analysis, work with our instructional leaders. So we've always looked at data. Leaders in our division have always always looked at data.
But this year, we're setting a new standard for how we use it and the intentionality with which we, examine it. So, we've been very intentional about developing our leaders' capacity to analyze data deeply, make meaning from it, and maximize the tools and the reports that we have. So two key areas that have been emphasized here, which you'll kinda see over on the right there, leveraging multiple data points and drilling down to the individual student level. This has really anchored our work, with our division instructional team, which includes our instructional
coordinators. We began with taking a deep dive into, all the reports that MAP has to offer. We engaged in a data analysis workshop and self reflection where we analyze the individual, practices that that coordinators have and how they look at data vertically by courses and grade levels and membership groups. We thought about how we respond to the data and communicate that. We decided to do a cohort analysis. We actually selected sixth grade, because they had recent SOLs and and all the, subject areas.
And we focused in on our black students, as that is, a a focus area, in terms of our achievement gap. We looked at students' fall map scores and reading from the time they were we looked at the students who have been with us from third grade through sixth grade and looked at the trend across time, longitudinally at their, their performance in literacy, across time. We also, made connections between their growth and achievement and other indicators like chronic absenteeism
through the, as part of the state accountability measures. Content coordinators shared their own, data from their content areas and, student membership groups in that cohort as well. We have done this work with our principals and are continuing to do so. We would be doing some more next week with them. But we did the same to taking a a deep dive into map reports and all that we're able to accomplish with the tools that are in and learn, about students and their achievement, from the MAP reports. We analyzed, black students' fall data in, reading and MAP.
Grades three through 12, we shared those with principals, and we overlaid their previous year's SOL score with them. Again, emphasizing, the multiple data points. So, you know, when the more data points we have, that are manageable to sort of analyze at once, we can really start to when we drill down to the individual student, we can really start see sort of, you know, what it what is happening here, what's going well, what's working, what's not. And then in cases where it's not, make informed decisions about next steps versus just using, you know, single points of data.
And, we've also guided our principals and leaders through, accountability analysis, looking specifically at membership groups, their proficiency level, and expected growth, absentee patterns, with the, new state accountability framework. So we're really trying to capitalize on those reports and features that we have, and really focusing in on drilling down to individual students. And we're trying to model that as leaders, for our school and division leaders and
also, not just looking at the individual student, but at multiple data points, with the goal of strengthening our collective capacity, for all instructional leaders to be able to confidently interpret the data, identify needs, and, take action, that leads to meaningful act outcomes for students. Amazing. Thank you. Questions? Yes. Mister Schwartzman, I'm gonna start down with you. Any questions on our literacy presentation? Not right now. Thank you. Mister Meyer? Thank you very much. Very interesting, and and I wanna go back to, I think, slide 13, which shows
the the trends over the cohort years. Miss Rideau, you correctly and I think you you noted the drop off between grade four and five and then the bump up between eight and nine. And I have my own interpretation of what's going on, but I'd like to hear yours again. What what do you think is happening there? I I do think one of the key factors is the fact that we have we are making a transition to Walker Upper Elementary for two years and then another transition to the middle school for two years.
And I do think, like, that transition does impact and cause that small slide if they come back then when they go to the high school. So that we're losing a lot of students, I would say, to the private schools, and then they come back, and then we're seeing that's that swing. Because we go we lose, our our rates go down, looks like, like, five or six points, and then they bump back up between eight and nine. But your numbers don't hold on.
I might my vision your numbers don't re decrease that significantly with the enrollment in the middle school. Like, it's some, but it's not much. When we're following that tenth grade cohort across in the middle school, there's 264 and there's 283 in tenth grade. So it's about 20 students, but there's still that 20% that big that jump from 69 to 76%. So I think that's like, I do think there's something more happening there than just
enrollment back from them. Okay. I think the reconfiguration will help us with that. Alright. Yeah. I mean, it's yeah. I think overall is, you know, what I'm not seeing you know, we get to the last years there, it looks like, and we're up to our our high seventies. But, I mean, my concern is, don't we need those high seventies earlier? Absolutely. And I do think part of what with the novel studies and, like, the longer text that we're reading, we've built in more expectations this year for them, and much
more rigorous in in at the middle school, and they're performing. The kids are spending more time in text. Okay. They are doing more reading, and I think we're gonna see the gains in that. Okay. Well, good. And and, doctor Hansley, you know, I like I heard you speak a lot about we're analyzing data a lot of different ways. We're engaging with it. We're taking down the individual. Right. I mean, each child's individual on his own unique gastritis. I mean, I I'd be interested in in the future, you know, what is the the percent of kids who are needing tier two and tier three supports? You know, however of them are chronically absent.
You know, if we look at black students, alright, is it, are there interest you know, what other factors are associated with those students too? And to your point there, is there something more beyond than just the reading supports that we need to be, you know, in providing them? There are other things too when we look beyond just the reading supports, but other things that we can also look at that I'd be interested in learning about in the future. Thank you. Excuse me. My question is in regards to the data analysis. And I appreciate the effort coming from the instructional team and principals. I guess my question is more so, like, how does that filter down to the
classroom and specifically the teachers? And if if there might be evidence of certain approaches working better than others and and how that might be addressed. Yeah. No. I appreciate that. Well, we know that the principals are the instructional leaders in the building, and, we wanna make sure that they're fully equipped with, you know, a full understanding of the scope of the reports that we are able to to access and that we're, able to utilize. We're also doing this work, like I said, with the coordinators. So, you know, a lot of times the coordinators are are the instructional supports that
are also in PLCs and working with teachers. Even today at one of our school success meetings, we we heard all about, the level of support from our, secondary literacy specialist who has been working on data like, data, spreadsheets and analysis work for, the teams just sort of facilitating some of that work that the teachers are then utilizing. Certainly, we're doing we I'll be working with instructional coaches in the morning, actually, also on this work, and they're working really closely with teachers.
So one of these one of these efforts is to really just get everybody on the same page with, like, feeling equipped and, fully confident in in the ability to support teachers in that work and, to make sure that we're setting that tone and that, you know, regardless of who's in the PLC, that data analysis work and the sort of most importantly, the next steps decisions are at the forefront of that. So, it's sort of starting there, and you're right. That work is happening in in PLCs, with teachers, and that's that is the hope.
Thank you. My question's around, more the high school level that when we look at, how many students that's affecting, we don't have as much time to recover them. And I just wonder, like, are there enough reading specialists, coordinators, people to address a group of students that we don't have much time left with them? And we don't want them to drop out. We don't want them, you know, we want them to leave here.
As doctor Gurley always says, the day after graduation is the most important day. What does that really look like for those students, and how are we getting them to that successful, hopefully, space? I can say one of the greatest things about our reading specialists here is not just the it's not the quantity, it's the quality. Like, we have two amazing specialists who make really deep connections with our students. They come. They work. They learn. Like and they were exiting and adding new kids at constantly throughout the year.
Those kids are going in back into the classroom and using their strategies. And now we've built it up where we wanna do, like, that wrap around, and they're pushing in to see how the kids are using it within the classroom also. So, I mean, I we feel the urgency here at the high school also, but we are doing a lot of really intentional work to make steps and and strides in a very quick manner. Thank you. Dom took my question, so thank you. Fair enough. Miss Rakesh. I appreciate the presentation.
I think for me and I understand that we are focusing when it comes to data, on our black students, the, SWD, and ESL. Right? And I guess for me, I kinda wanna see data on other backgrounds as well just so I just so we can compare. Because I know that we emphasize on black students and improvement and numbers are low, but I I wanna see other numbers as well to compare to just to make sure that we're getting the correct data. Sure. We can get that for you. We've got it. Miss Richardson, did you mean other, membership groups, or what what down were you?
Just I wasn't sure where you're at. The demographics. The yeah. Other groups. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies, just a couple quick questions. I I do wanna say I I also have an interest. I mean, one of our strategic goals is is looking at all membership groups. Right? And so you've listed kind of a a whole, and then, on the slides are are black students as well. But I'd be curious to see, the student with students with disabilities and other just to see where we are as far as trending towards the goals that we're making.
And then as far as the students who have the read aloud or, supports, and it's may have the the reading plan. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah. So it's not an automatic. We if they have an audio accommodation and passed the assessment, then we need to look at abundance of resources and data points to make the decisions about what's gonna meet their needs best. In order to have that accommodation, they probably most likely already have an individualized plan,
and we need to make sure is it being met there? Does it need to be something additional? We just need to make really good decisions that are student based with a preponderance of evidence. Totally not related, but, doctor Eisley may be able to, reflect back to to a student that scored a perfect on her math SOL, when she was in third grade. And I believe doctor Eiseley, you were her teacher then. And at the time, I just was curious nowadays, and she I don't know that
she had a read aloud at that level. I don't remember. But I know that it was a point of contention or there was a question about whether or not students with disabilities and she definitely needed the read aloud support for her her, reading disability and challenges. But I think they weren't going to allow her to use the read aloud for math, and which I found was just confounding, for somebody who struggles to read, but was a a really strong math student. How do we deal with that now? Do you know in general?
Yeah. So there are guidelines for the accommodations and what's allowable, for students depending on what their disability is or or what their, need is. So that all goes through, miss Swift, works with with, STC's testing coordinators on those, and and what is either in the IEP or five zero four or, you know, some of our, English learners may have accommodations, but sort of there's different allowable, accommodations.
So there's a there's a team that that looks at each student individually about what they what they would qualify for. Yeah. Thank you. And then just curious too with the data and the intentionality and just the work that we're doing as a division, and with doctor Gurley's kickoff, at at, the beginning of the year, which was great. So again, and maybe this was answered a little bit, but, once you are looking at that data, and then again, drilling it down to individual students, what do you
need, or what can we do, or or do you have the people in place to then individualize what those students need to make the improvement? Yeah. I think a lot of it is just figuring out, you know, what's going on. So we may be looking at a student, and we see consistent, really strong, you know, maintaining really strong scores sort of all the way across. We may see a student who's had a steady steady climb all the way all the way. So the the main idea is that, you know, we don't look at all the students who fell in the average band on MAP and say, okay.
This is what these students need. Because, you know, what what we see is when we look into that, that might there might be one student who for whom that's the highest MAP score they've had yet to date, and they're on this trajectory upward. And maybe they haven't passed their SOLs, but this year, they're predicted to, or they're right right at the cusp of being predicted to be to pass. Whereas there may be another student, for whom they've they've had really steady, strong scores. And then this this one, they're in the average band, but that's actually the weakest the weakest score they've had so far. And so we need to like, the way we would address that or look at
that is gonna be different for the student who's on kind of the upward the upward trend. And so, it really and then, you know, then we are able to overlay other pieces with it. Like, how did they do on their SOL last year? Have they been missing school like him? You know, what did they did they make their appropriate growth? That's a new, with as part of the accountability system, we can see, you know, not just our students who didn't pass, but also students who did pass. Like, are they making growth? So there's a lot of pieces that we're, looking at, and then I think, you
know, I think we do. I think we have we have we have the resources in place, I think, to be able to to do that work. It's just getting down to sort of the individual student and and making really, informed next step decisions. Great. Thank you. And then I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pivot to it. So slide number four. When we're looking at grades, it was the kindergarten, first, and second grade scores. And if you look at the 2024 for the kindergarten group where it says high
risk band, I just wanna make sure I'm looking at this correctly and thinking about it. So thirty six percent were in the high risk band. Correct? But then when you look at fall twenty twenty five first graders, that was a drop. Right? That's that same cohort? Or No. I I tried to bold those. So in 2024, our kindergarten students, the thirty six percent who are in the high risk band, the next year in first grade, it was only 31% in the high risk band. So, yes, we decreased the number of students.
Sorry. I I when you said dropped, I was like, no. It was a good thing. And so, yeah, we did decrease the percentage of students in the high risk band, and we increased from thirty seven in the low risk to forty six percent. Okay. Great. Thank you. Miss Cooper. I just had a quick question in reference to, like, the student success plans when you are able to identify a student that may may need the additional support. How are we reaching out and engaging the families to bring it bring them in to be a part of that?
I know they send, like, if your kid, receives, like, tier, two or tier three services, they'll send, a paper home asking. But how are we intentionally getting families to be a part of that process, and bringing them in to sit down with us to be able to talk about what those interventions look like and seeing how, you know, is there any feedback that we can add to the plan versus just sending something home and expecting the parent to, like, pick that up and say, you know, here's my suggestions, or here's the additional
support that I feel like my child needs. Yeah. So, at the elementary schools, they did send it home, but they also handed it out at parent teacher conferences. And they use the conference time to have the conversation to go through the VALS report. Here's what it says about your learner. Here's what you can do at home. Here's what we're doing at school. What do you think? Like and really worked on that. And then we try to continue in our literacy events to make sure to target the information from the from the reports, from the VALS reports where you're doing some
intentional practices on, like, what routines and procedures the families can use at home to support what's go happening in school. So trying to build that partnership. It's a little like, the parent conferences attendance at the middle school is a little bit different because they have the team meetings, so they don't necessarily have all students, but they do invite in all of the students who are on the reading plans. And with this is the first year we've been really intentional, and we need to grow and expand that. So we're trying to figure out good ways to partner and increase that partnership.
I would like to see that we really be intentional because I think that, again, I'm gonna continue to say, unless we start involving our parents in these conversations and have them sitting at the table to support their kids at home, we're missing a piece of closing the achievement gap. Thank you. I I have one quick question, and then I have a comment. I guess my first question is kind of a follow-up on what I was talking about early in terms of data utilization for teachers, and I'm gonna say this as nicely as I can. And it is not crafted the way that miss Chuck would would would do it.
But I I've worked in, a few schools within this area, and I've been around a a number of of teachers. I know that there's different experience levels. And so I think one of the things that I'm I'm kinda worried about and maybe hoping that you you could address or, find find some way to speak to is I've I've personally witnessed where teachers say, oh, okay. We saw the data, but then the day catches up to them, and they they don't have time to plan to actually utilize the PD, the PLC.
Does that make sense? Like, how do we address that so that we have consistency in our classrooms, but also have the autonomy that a teacher will need? Does that make sense? Yeah. I I think you're getting to the to the sort of, the now what part. We we look at data a lot of times. We say that here's what, so what, now what. And the now what is really the most important part of all. Right? Because we could look at it all day, but the now what is what are we gonna do about it? And so that's what, you know, we're really trying to to push our PLCs and,
our teams to do is is what is the now what part. So any of the lift that we can do, you know, with we with pulling the data, we've got a lot of things in EduCLIMBER. I know even even, miss Swift just did a session on Monday on, you know, all the different tools within EduCLOMBER and how you can build a data wall. And there were, you know, teachers in there eager to to access that. And, you know, we've had, as I mentioned earlier, our specialists making, data walls so
that that the data is there. Right? Like, it's not the lift is not as much, on gathering or or having it together. So, that is the goal. I know, even even in our little in our workshop with coordinators, we we shared the here's what, now what, so what. And we did that ourselves, and we were like, we really need to focus on the now the now what part. So, that is definitely a focus area. Right? It's very easy to kinda get caught up in in you you look at it,
and then you go on and and you don't have, as much time. Another thing, our PL sessions, we're really trying to I've been looking at some of the feedback already. And and what our teachers we know our teachers love is, and this is not just limited to to appeal on literacy, but is is the things that they can take right away and use right away. And and I love reading that in the in the feedback of, oh, this was so great. I got, you know, two things I can do tomorrow, you know, that I can respond to. So that's what, you know, we're always encouraging, obviously, our instructional leaders, coaches, coordinators to
to get to the now what part. And even part of our conversations with coordinators was, you know, how are you helping to communicate, and then what resources are you providing? If you're looking at, you know, a grade level's data or a school's data or, you know, a specific your specific content area and you notice a trend, like, what are we doing to provide resources or to give remediation materials to alleviate some of that, off the teachers too? It's really gotta be a partnership. So Thank you. I appreciate that so much.
I I have a quick question excuse me. A quick comment, and this is more so towards the to my board colleagues. I think between, like, the cohort data and even the I think it was slide four that we were looking at. So you're still kinda looking at a cohort. I think, like, this is one of those data points that as a outgoing school board member, I'm asking you to reconsider or at least start the discussion around the retention and promotion, policy. I think, ultimately, when we when we look at the third through twelfth grade cohort model, like, we want students to be at a 100%.
Right? I think it's wonderful that we're we're getting growth, But particularly in those early years, if there's something that we can do, then let's let's do that. So I I think it's worth having that discussion. I understand that I'm not gonna be on the board much longer. But as, you know, one of your colleagues that has been asking for this in a variety of ways, I think, what, it's been I guess it would make make two years now. You're on for two. So it's been two years since we've had some of our former board members also
asking for a revision of the policy. So I just ask that you just start the discussion. You may not change anything, but I think it's worth talking about. I'm go ahead. Yeah. Thank you, mister Morris. I am also interested in that conversation. I've brought it up more in an attendance, space. But I would argue probably as mister, Meyer pointed out that they are probably hand in hand, attendance and literacy, and what does that really look like. I think, also, when we talk about discipline at the high school and what we've
seen our greatest needs are, again, in the high school space, I just recall conversations and emails from high school teachers that say, I can be as welcoming and friendly and engaging as I can. But if these children cannot read, I cannot teach them. And we have to break that cycle coming from the lower grades into the high school and recognize what that does in the high school space, to our teachers.
And just I hope that's a conversation we can continue to have. And I don't know, personally, like, retention in upper upper grades, you know, make sense to me. But I I I think in that k through two, three space, that sweet spot, we we have to do something differently. And I hope I have some other colleagues on the board that are interested as well. So thank you for bringing that back up. I think that could fit into a work session conversation just because it's gonna be
a longer conversation most likely than what we can accomplish in this setting. My only parting thoughts are that, in the spring, as we think about our school member visits to schools that maybe in addition or as an alternative to visiting classrooms, that it would be helpful to be a fly on the wall in a school success meeting, or PLCs just somewhere so that folks who maybe aren't, like, domini sitting in PLCs in our past, like, can get a sense of what that data analysis looks like. And so in the work that you guys are speaking of of, you know, not
just having it be this rearview mirror retrospective, but what the next steps are. So whoever is scheduling those in the spring, those are my my thoughts. But thank you guys very much. And as we transition, I keep getting distracted by the moon out there if everybody wants to just look at it while it's there. And with that, we're gonna move on to, doctor Prowse with our English language program overview. Good evening, madam chair, members of the board, and doctor Gurley. I'm here today to provide an overview of our English language program and how we serve multilingual learners in Charlottesville City Schools.
When we think about our strategic plan, building our capacity of our teachers so that they can support our English learners is sort of woven through the strategic plan. One thing I think, coming after the literacy update that I just wanna make sure that we're all aware of is when we think about that first target, increasing academic achievement, our English learners are in all of those numbers. So the literacy data that you just looked at, our students, maybe not their very first year, but their second year in the country are taking the math assessments.
The VALS assessment, their first year in the country, they're taking it. So our students who are still building their language skills are also part of those numbers. And as we get new language learners, who are very new to English, that's going to affect those numbers as well. Our students who are learning, English are learning the content at the same time, but they're still held to the same expectations by the state. So I think that's important for us to think about. As we strengthen our, our schools and we provide a culture of safety and wellness
and belonging, we also think about how we can do that in a culturally responsive way, working with our, different, different staff members to help work with our families as well. And then if you go to the next slide for priority three, we have done a lot of work around supporting our staff with SIOP training to help our staff think through, ways that every staff member in Charlottesville City can support language development, beyond just the l teachers. And, I'm excited to say that we don't really see we haven't seen the wait
list for bus transportation or any of that anymore for our l family. Students have bus spots when they come to our schools, pretty immediately now. So that's really good news. Today, I'm going to give you an update on our enrollment through the welcome center for last year as well as our l enrollment and staffing changes, the language proficiency data based on the access test, our SAS program update dates, and then some challenges and next steps. Alright. So this first slide offers information about the welcome center last year.
We've this is our fourth year that we've had the welcome center where it is a division level place that families can register there and do their language screening and gather information for registration. We work closely with our administrative technicians at all of our schools to kind of gather the different pieces families need for their students to start. So you can see that last year, we had 214 English learners enroll. Of our kindergartners, about half of them, 48% enrolled from our Charlottesville City Schools pre k. So about half of our English learners were in our programs in, as three and
four year olds and moved into our kindergarten program. We had about 30% of our students transferred from other countries and, 25% of our students transferred from Alamar. And I think that's something that we always have to remember that we see families move back and forth multiple times in their k 12 schooling career. And so the more the city and the county are aligned in terms of our instruction and our expectations, that's really helpful for our families who are a little bit more transient. We also had 145 English learners transfer out of Charlottesville City Schools last year.
Alright. This is the first time since I took this role in 2021 that we've seen our numbers drop. So each year, we have some English learners who graduate. So you can see we had 25 English learners who were still in our program who graduated last year. We had 55 English learners who exited the program, and that means that they scored a 4.4 or higher on that annual language proficiency, test that they take in the spring. We had 62 new, new kindergarteners join us as well, but that does put our number a little bit lower than when I saw you all last year at at
721. And the main reason for this is the change in federal policy around immigration. And so, currently, the International Rescue Committee and other refugee resettlement agencies, resettlement is on pause, essentially. And then we also aren't seeing additional, immigrants from other places who come in without agencies. We're not seeing that growth as well. This year is the first year we have to meet our, standard of quality related to our students' language proficiency level. And so you can see, at the division level where our, language proficiency level falls
from a one, which is very beginning, to a two sort of, building that those language skills, three would be considered intermediate, and four, more advanced language learners. And then that's broken down. The state says there needs to be a one to 20 ratio, and then that moves up as, as the language proficiency moves up. As of now, we have, we have 28 English language learner English language teachers, which does give us a little bit of room for growth as the year continues. And we have that number thanks to you all because I think for the last
four years, every year, I have come saying that we will need more English learner, teachers to match our growth. I don't expect to have that request this year. So students in our program take their in their annual language proficiency, test in between January and March each year. This test is called the ACCESS test, and it's the only way a student could exit our program is through this one this once a year annual test. The state uses this language proficiency, data to measure how well divisions are doing, supporting their language learners.
And starting last year, the English language proficiency growth counted as 10% of of the mastery part of school accreditation. The VDE sets an annual target that increases each year, and you can see that target in bold at the bottom. So this past year, it was 56%. Though we did not increase though we did increase our percentage, we are still not meeting. We haven't met the expectation from the state since before COVID. And if you break that down a little bit more and you look at our elementary versus our middle and high school, if you click one more, time, it'll make
a little perfect. It'll make a circle for you to focus on. You'll see that our elementary school progress, and so this is our, our k through, through four, has made steady progress in the past several years. So they the elementary alone actually did exceed the state's expectation with 57%, And where we're struggling, in is both our middle and our high school. And you'll see that we've made growth. We've dropped. We've made growth again. Last year, when we looked at the scores, we used some of this to provide
more additional staffing at Walker and CMS at CHS. So we're hoping that this year, an additional staffing and more support for the students at the secondary level can help. But at the middle school, we had 38%. And then at the high school, we had 43% who are meeting the the expectation. I do want to say that the expectation, for a newer student, the expectation is higher. Right? For a student who is who is, like, at a level three, there's less of an expectation of growth because they already have some language.
And, the state's expectation this doesn't mean that only 57% of our elementary students made growth. It's just that they met the state expectation for growth. We had many more who, you know, went higher with their numbers, but they didn't meet the state expectation. For example, at k two, for a level one student, the state expectation is one whole point of growth. So if they made a half a point of growth, they're not shown in these numbers. Alright. To shift a little bit, you all probably remember last year, I spoke about the
SAS grant, which we had just found out that we received from the federal government, which is a specific grant to support Afghan students who came to The United States after 2021. What I don't think I knew last November is we wouldn't get that grant money until March 2025. And so, but since we have gotten that money, a lot of really exciting things have happened in our schools. So we have hired four bilingual instructional assistants. We have an Afghan family liaison. We also have a contracted IRC staff who's working with some of our elementary schools
that have a lower Afghan population. And the main, focus that those, new staff members have been working on is supporting academic, achievement for the students within the classes and also helping with engagement and helping connect the families with our schools. And so our bilingual staff speak Pashto Landari, and they've really been able to, do a lot of great work within our schools. We also had a couple different summer camps that students were a part of, and so we had, a handful of our elementary students in the SAS program got to
go to Wild Rock over the summer. And we also the Ravenna Conservation Alliance put together a summer camp for middle school girls and boys where they looked at different science, career paths that they could take. We'll have that grant. It'll run through the end of this year for the SAS staff, and we'll also be able to do additional programming over the summer, but we won't have the SAS staff after this school year, because the grant funding will end. Alright. So with all of that, while we're thinking about challenges and next steps, one thing
we'll continue to do is work on helping our staff, build their capacity and figuring out how to best meet our students' language and literacy needs within the classroom with SIOP, three and four this year. We're also going to continue to monitor, the changing landscape around federal, federal programming. So our title three grants that we received from the federal government, this past year was delayed. So we should have gotten it in July. We officially got it last week. And so, there might be federal changes.
The title three grant is about with two different parts, it's about $90,000 that we may or may not get in the future depending on if, school funding changes at the federal level. The other thing that we're acknowledging is that, we continue we have changing demographics with our English learners. So we typically welcome 70 to a 100 new refugee students in our in our city schools every year. And with, refugee resettlement pause, that's not an expectation that we think we'll have in the future. And so we're thinking about pivoting our the work that we do and focusing on
the language learners that we have in the classroom and what do we as l teachers need to shift to be able to make sure that we're meeting their needs. And then we are also with reconfiguration, there's lots of moving pieces, lots of lots of buildings, and so we're also thinking about the welcome center for, in the future if it would move from the annex, which is currently located, to a different to a different home. And that's it. Open it up to the board for questions. Miss Torres, let's start down with you this time. Thank you. Let's see.
Looking at I think it's slide nine. So when you were just referencing the the different scores or the the struggles and scores being a little lower for the middle and high schoolers, is that reflective of just the influx influx of students at that age coming in? It is really hard. Okay. So so the per the growth means we have to have our students who for year here for about a year and a half before they're actually part of these numbers. Because if they're a newcomer, they don't have two years of the test.
And so our newcomers actually aren't reflected in this growth at all. But I do think that, a couple of things happen. One, the, the ACCESS test have has different grade bands. So six through eight is a grade band, nine through 12. And the ACCESS test is an it's a really difficult test. It's four parts. They have to take it in four different days, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. And it's it's, assessing their ability to, understand, like, academic language in English. And so not you know, you might have students that we could have a full
conversation with and you think they're you know, they understand English. They're doing just fine. But then when they take this assessment, they might score, like, a two or a three because they haven't built those academic language skills. And so that's where I think the struggle is because as the as the content gets harder, there it's a little bit harder to match, like, a a student who is their second year in the country, who's in sixth sixth grade, that's a larger gap than a kid a student in second grade, their second year in the country. Right? Because the content expectations are so much higher.
Okay. And then I don't I don't think it was reflected, but I think I sent you a question just in general about the absentee rates for our students and then what what we're doing to support them and the families and what else we need to know as a board to support you all. You all have I think I saw you all have absentee rates for at each school level, at the at the division level in each school. And so when I pulled and looked at just the English learners, you do do
see a jump. So I think at the division level, it was 21.4% was the abs was the chronic absentee, and it jumps to 30% when you look at our English learners. And then there's a couple schools that it's a bigger jump, and it is our middle and our high school. Our middle and our high school, have more significant absenteeism for our English learners than for the general ed population, which is obviously going to be part of why maybe they're they're not meeting with as much success in language and possibly into their classes as well.
I think one thing the with our Afghan population, which about 220 students, are supported with the SAS grant out of about 720 English learners. And so, with our students in the SAS program, having the bilingual IAs has been really helpful to be able to hear from the families what the barriers are. All of our schools have access to a language line, so they can call home with an with live interpreter, and they can ask those questions. But the bilingual IAs have really built, like, a relationship with the with the families,
and so those conversations, I think, are more natural. And and they're hearing more because it's more sustained. You don't call and get a different interpreter every time. And so I think we are learning more about, about some of those barriers. At the high school level, one thing that is a little bit tricky is some of our students who are are over the age of 18 who are still attending school. And so school is not a require you know, it's not legally a requirement for them to be there. They are allowed to continue until they graduate. And then some of our students have a lot of barriers with needing to have
work while they're also going to school. And so thinking about, like, alternative programming, we have we have a strong Program, but thinking about how that could grow or how it could serve some of the English learners, I think is something, like, for future planning that would be really helpful. Hi. How you doing? So the r the I the r the IRC Yeah. Position, so it will no longer be next year. Correct? It that specific one, unless the IRC funded it, but the IRC does have a
youth programs team that I think has about at least two other full time staff that have been, that have been working with our schools, and they wouldn't they wouldn't go away. So this was an additional staff member for them to specifically work with our Afghan. The IRC did, I think, in, like, January or February when they they lost some funding, so they cut some of their positions. But they'll still have a smaller group of a youth team that will continue to work with Charlottesville City Schools. Okay. Because that was my next question. How are you gonna fill in that gap?
Yeah. And it's interesting because the IRC is is, you know, they they are allowed to serve families for five years. Mhmm. They do more intensive case management maybe the first year where they're working with families, but they can continue to serve families for five years. So they're also shifting a little bit to think about what who what are some different ways they can be involved with students who've been here a little bit longer because they aren't receiving new families every week like they have typically. And so, we're hoping we'll continue to work on that partnership, but involve them more
in some of the, in some of the family meetings that we do. We just our our staff can now see we have a tag now where our staff can see families who are still being supported by the IRC, so it provides, like, another, another person for them to reach out to and kind of connect with. Great. And are they in the schools all day, or is it a specific time that they come in Yeah. And, interact with the schools? The SAS, IAs are are Charlottesville City School employees. So they're they're all day. So the five IAs.
And then the IRC, the IRC person that we're that we support, she's in our elementary. So our elementaries that don't have SAS programming are Greenbrier, Summit, Sunrise, and Trailblazer. Mhmm. I think she's at Greenbrier and Summit a little bit more because that's where Afghan population falls in, and she works with both the l team there and the, and the administrative team. But she's not there all day. She's sort of, like, case by case, they call her up when they need help with things.
Those are my questions. Thank you. Mhmm. I just had a couple questions in reference to I know you talked about, like, attendance, and I know you highlighted a couple of reasons of, like, you know, some of our students not being able to come to school, the age of 18. So they really don't you know, there's no big push there and then work. Are there other reasons? And what are we doing to put services in place to kinda support those families? I think, one thing, like, when I was sort of reviewing some of the students who have been here who who have, like, a higher absenteeism, and this was just
at the secondary level, some of it has to do with, like, feeling, like, a level of comfort. Like, are there other people who speak their language in their classes? Are there do they have, like, a group of friends that they connect with? One thing that we've seen that's extremely positive is if we can help get students connected with additional activities, being on a sports team, joining the band, and, in, theater. We really see that engagement shift a little bit. So that's one thing that we try to do, at the at the school level
is help with that engagement piece beyond school, so beyond, like, the classroom part. And I think, otherwise, I think for some of our students at the secondary level, it is like, our our school counselors work a lot with them about, like, helping them feel comfortable and giving them different, like, opportunities. Like, if you if you need to have a check-in and things like that, I think that's the other thing that we could work on is some of the smaller, like, social emotional pieces to help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. Thank you. Thank you.
I wonder I don't know, but wonder what is the City of Charlottesville, our partners at the city, doing to also support this work? Because it feels very heavy on the school district doing a lot of this work that I just as I'm hearing some of these things, and and the IRC is great, and Simborreras, and all these other organizations that are doing really great work. But I wonder, is the city I mean, is this on the radar at all
of our city partners and what they could be doing differently? I know the IRC does a quarterly meeting, and the last one was last week. And it was actually, last week's was all around, food resources, right, for families. So, Loaves and Fishes was there, and DSS was there, and the Blue Ridge Food Pantry. And so they were kind of talking about different different avenues and different ways you can help get families connected. And in those in those meetings, like, the mayor joins them.
There's definitely like, Rotary Club is there. There's a lot of different community partners, but I don't think in terms of my role, there isn't any direct, connection with with city partners. That's good to know. And maybe something for my board colleagues and I to ponder as we continue to take on a lot of what happens in the community, in our schools. How can we best partner with the city? And when we talk about forming relationships and engagement and encouraging them to get here, I know miss Mohammed over at CMS, when I was there, talked about the cricket
team Yeah. That they have formed, and that's encouraging to hear. I also sit on the parks and rec advisory board as part of my duties on this board. And it was a great opportunity for her and I to connect and talk about the master plan with the city that there is a plan to put a cricket pitch over at Tonsler Park, but it's not not quite there yet. And so I understand there is one over at Darden, Taub Park, and maybe some opportunity for us to at least help with transportation to get the kids there.
But then maybe they would be able to get their own way home. So I'm hoping that that comes to fruition because I think that's been, from my understanding, a good point of connection for our middle school students. And even some of the high school students, I understand, participate in that as well. So I think speaking to that connection and then how the city does their part, could be some good advocacy work to make sure that they're being included in programs in our city as well. I know, like, SACA does a really good job. We have a lot of strong teams of of different immigrant youth.
But, yeah, thinking about parks and rec and and adding to that would be great. Thank you. Mhmm. Doctor Foss, appreciate the presentation. And, wanna congratulate you because what I am seeing is you're graduating people out of your program, which is, I think, the ultimate outcome we would like to see. And, so thank you for that. And and it feels like we're able to catch our breath here a little bit with at least, you know, fewer people registering for our program each year, so which is good.
I mean, I I think that does you know, we we caught up and and, again, I hope you're successful this year in graduating more folks out. And I guess I think doctor Gurley, you know, there's a lot of FTEs there. You know, do we continue to support that to make sure we're getting that program graduation, or are we gonna actually gonna start to maybe redeploy those other FTEs out to a different, to further assist those students in other things. I don't know. But I think something to think about. I would like to yeah. I would say, miss Burns and you mentioned SACA and I it seems to be
that after school activities are really helpful in helping integrate these kids. And I I just wonder, are there more that we could be doing at the middle school level especially? And we've talked about this, whether it be soccer. I know we don't have a soccer team, for example. A cricket club, other things that are not that much money that can, again, facilitate, I think, a lot of, integration of these students and help them, advance also, through these different, reading progress for any other kind of things that we're trying to get
them through benchmarks. Excuse me. So, thanks for all your work. Keep up the good work. But, yeah, I think we can like to see some modifications too as we advance and evolve this. Thank you. Mister Shortspin, any comments? Yeah. So I see on the, like, list of the progress in slide nine how the, like, progress rates kind of taper off after elementary school. Are those are those rates about new students joining in middle school? And are the rates within elementary school continuing into middle school?
I don't know if that makes sense. But it's like, are the students who are succeeding in elementary school continuing to succeed in middle school? Or how is that Mhmm. Breakdown kind of happening? Yeah. It's tricky because, you know, what what we would hope does happen with a lot of students is they continue to make progress and then they exit. So every year, we're looking at a little bit of a different group of kids because we're looking at students their second year taking the test, and then we no longer have the students who who exited. And so, it's the majority is the same group of kids, but things are always
shifting as the new students, But as the new students arrive but the state takes that into account. So, like, students who are newer to the language, the expectation is their language will increase a little bit faster. If they're younger, their language will increase a little bit faster. We see a lot of students exit in fourth grade, sort of that the end of elementary school, we see a huge group of students exit. And then if you don't exit in fourth grade, you might be there until the next grade band, which would be eighth grade. We see that often because the test gets a little bit harder.
And so even if if you don't exit, but you're, you know, advanced in your English skills, you might still hang out for a little bit before you can get that 4.4. But I do think that we've continued to shift our model a little bit, the middle and high school, to try to better support English learners. And we've we've done that a lot by do by doing co teaching where, especially at our middle school, you know, in their English seven class, we have a stew a group of students who are at that level one proficiency, and there's an English
teacher and a, and an L teacher in the same room to try to really help support language development in multiple contents. So we're adding more we're adding more support that way versus in in past years, maybe that was happening in English, but then they go into a science class and they're in a typical science class with with their, peers who speak English. And so it's really hard to get language development when a teacher is teaching you 20 kids on her own. So we've kind of shifted things continuously.
I'm hoping that that will help. There might also be a tiny bit around, you know, the the access test. You don't have to pass to graduate. There might be a little bit of our kids get tested a lot, and you have to come in ready four times. You know, so it's it's essentially a four hour test broken up. And so there might be a little bit of a kid not really feeling like it matters as much as an SOL test as well. We try to work on that, but I think that we see that more at the middle and high school as well.
Alright. Thank you so much. Appreciate your presentation. Our next presentation is from doctor Johnson, update on our SRO MOU. Good evening, madam chair, school board members, and doctor Gurley. I just handed you all a draft of the SOP, which are the standing operating procedures for the SRO program, and there are extra copies in the back for anyone in the audience who wanted to follow along with tonight's presentation. It's good to be with you all again this evening. For tonight's presentation, I'll be providing an update on how we've been developing and refining the foundational documents for the implementation of the school resource officer program based on stakeholder
input. I'll focus tonight's remarks on updates since my last presentation on October 9. We will we will review key themes from students, staff, and general community, and then introduce the standard operating procedure to illustrate how both the SOP and the revised memorandum of understanding incorporate these concerns. Finally, I'll conclude with our upcoming next steps. First, I wanna remind everyone that as we look ahead to adding two police officers to our current safety model in August 2026, that's our program structure rely on two central documents.
The first is the memorandum of understanding. Thanks to the community feedback, we refined our initial draft and published draft two, which I presented at our October meeting. The MOU establishes the high level scope, goals, and principles of our of collaboration between Charlottesville City Schools and the Charlottesville Police Department. This document is still in refinement as this SRO work group is finalizing the draft based on feedback from the city attorney's office and stakeholders. The second foundational document is the standard operating procedures, which was published on October 23.
The SOP is the practical detailed guidance for daily SRO operations, implementation, training, and selection. The SOP is considered a living document, meaning that it's subject to continuous, evaluation and refinement based on ongoing feedback. Before we take a look at the ideas of the draft SOP, let's review some of the key themes and feedback we've heard from students, staff, and the community this fall. Throughout this fall, we have been seeking feedback to help us make sure that the guiding documents are as strong as as they can be.
We've held in person and Zoom events and have had forms and surveys available for the community staff and students. I wanna take a moment to thank everyone who has participated in this process. I'll begin with student feedback first. We received feedback from students in part through the extensive canvassing through our student school board rep. Thank you for your service. We conducted a student survey and through a number of lunchtime events and dedicated information sessions at Charlottesville Middle School, Charlottesville High School, and LMA. As with general public as with the general public, we received a wide range of
student opinions as you communicated tonight with both, support and opposition. Per the survey and face to face engagement, when we asked specifically, how important is the topic of returning SROs or the fact that SROs are returning to you, more than 60% of the students reported that this was not a pressing issue for them. Around 14% did say the issue was very important to them. And as you've heard our school board report even this evening, we've also heard a sense of cautious optimism. Students' concerns were focused on the officer's firearms and fear that having an officer on
campus would have a negative impact on groups such as our students of color and students with disabilities. There was a widespread agreement that students prioritize training officers in areas like youth mental health, de escalation, and working with students from different backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences. When we asked about the most important element of safety, students reported that their own knowledge of how to act in a crisis as their top priority. We also found a shared sense of how students would know the SRO program is successful. They know that they would find the programs to be successful if the school culture
was still warm and welcoming, but even calmer with fewer safety issues, and they want this to occur without increasing student arrest. This is also a shared goal of staff, the community, CCS, and the police. Finally, when we asked the best way for students to meet their SRO, they selected spring lunchtime visits and August events such as open house. This idea that they want to meet the SRO as a person first and not an officer has been present in student feedback since our initial focus groups this spring and summer. Since I last gave you an update, the community feedback has continued to focus on
program accountability and oversight. The community sees their input as reflected in the second in the second draft of the MOU. We continue to, receive helpful feedback. For instance, they want to ensure that when SROs are not in school, the SROs will not be assigned to other police tasks that would undermine the trust and positive relationships they are building within the school community. Others have pointed out additional account accountability resources within CPD. Community members continue to affirm that our schools should be places of learning and support. All feedback continues to be shared with the working group so they can be explored
and added to the MOU or SOP as appropriate. Staff feedback from both the info hours and through more informal conversations affirm that the the protective language from the second draft of the MOU was well received. One element of our conversations with staff is that while it's important to train the SROs and to continue training our care and safety assistants, the success of this model will require all staffing trained to understand the role of SROs and c r and CSAs. Staff should understand that except in a true emergency or dangerous situation, an SRO will only engage in a situation at the direction of a school administrator.
Staff also confirmed the need to stress the teachers that SROs should not be contacted for behavioral issues. One thing we've heard throughout the process from staff and others is that we need to create additional opportunities for our care and safety assistance to offer input, especially for the standard operating procedures that will guide the day to day of how our CSAs in the in the school SRO will work together. Therefore, we've we have added CSAs from Walker, CMS, and CHS to the working group as we continue to to refine these foundational documents. As you know, the last time I presented, I reviewed the ways that we incorporated
community feedback into draft two of the MOU. In the same way, the SOP mirrors this feedback and addresses topics that are important to all stakeholder groups, such as the selection and training of officers, mechanisms for program accountability, defining the role of CSA and school employees, and continuing to delineate student protections. Now let's take a moment to do a high level review of the SOP. First, let's turn to page two. And at the top, you will see the operational overview section. This section includes the number of SROs for the program, noting one SRO at CHS
and one at CMS. Another request was how to clarify, how CCS will co select the SROs. You will find the section on the selection process on pages five and six. This section gives additional information about the process, including that students, staff, and parents or guardians will be included. Pages six and seven, detail required training, not only for SROs, but for our care and safety assistants and administrators who will be working with the SROs. This includes mental health and crisis intervention, implicit bias, racial bias, restorative justice, and cultural
competency. A chart on page seven of the SOP outlines training areas and the timing of that training. As you heard last month, the processes for accountability and data transparency are clearly outlined in the MOU. If you would like to go back and review the MOU, you can find that information on pages six through 10 of the second version of the draft MOU. The SOP does not expand further upon this practice, but it does refer to the commitment in the MOU. This is an example of an area where we are still considering whether this information
belongs in the SOP. So if you have thoughts, feel free to provide feedback. Now let's go back to page three. I wanna take a moment to highlight the consideration for special victims section. We had an important request to give guidance for a group known as as special victims, and this is where that information is addressed. We also heard questions about the use of body worn cameras, and this is covered in the MOU. The specifics of what school spaces should be protected, such as a nurse's office, are still being developed with the SOP.
Finally, there is a universal agreement that we do not want our SROs to enforce school discipline or address minor misconduct. To give clarity to when SROs would engage, SOP contains a matrix found on pages two and three outlining scenarios when SROs would and would not be involved. Our next slide covers the timeline that was also presented in last month's presentation, and reminder, as the city heads into winter budget season, this program will not have a budgetary impact. And now I'll I'll conclude with next steps. The Google form on our website is still open to capture feedback and how to
refine these documents, and our working group continues to meet. Next steps include continue to work closely with CPD and and the city to make sure we are in full alignment. In addition, as we continue to refine the documents, we may find that some ideas or operational details in the MOU are better suited in the SOP. This will not change the commitments or content. It will just place the content in the correct place in these guiding documents. The goal of the working group is for the final MOU to be presented at the December 4 school board meeting. After any final edits, doctor Gurley and chief conscious would sign the agreement.
Again, thanks to everyone who have shared who has shared their perspective and ideas to help us strengthen these key document, and this concludes my presentation for this evening. Thank you, doctor Johnson. We will open up to questions, from the board, mister Schwartzman. Yeah. First off, amazing job. The Thank you. Representation of student voices in that was, like, spectacular. Oh, awesome. Thank you. But I did have a couple of questions about some student concerns surrounding the, SROs getting involved in, like, parts of student life that they might not be supposed to,
but maybe still would. For example, with the, like, possession of contraband items, how can we ensure that if a police officer sees contraband items, they wouldn't just immediately, like, intervene. Or, like, how how can we make sure that that isn't happening or that or that they wouldn't, like, go and just try and get approval so that they could intervene at one moment, I guess. Would you like to go ahead and Mhmm. So I think the key there is that, when it comes to involvement of police
with contraband items and if we're speaking about things that are like vapes, drugs, that type of thing. First of all, a vape is not necessarily illegal. It's not allowed in school. So an SRO should not be asked to intervene with that, a case where an officer maybe would an SRO maybe would intervene if they thought they saw, like, a sale of something going on in school. But, really, unless it's a quantity that would constitute distribution, which is something we're already required by the distribution, which is something we're already required by the code of Virginia
to engage the, you know, the law enforcement with, there would be no reason for them to, get involved. And, actually, within the SOP, I believe, and if it's not already there, we'll go back because it's a great question. But I believe there's a there's a, like, a table that we started putting in there where we try to, like, further clarify where SROs are in or out as far as involvement in different situations. And that's definitely something we need to make sure is clear. So I does that get it what you were looking for? But I think the big factor the biggest factor is whether the quantity is something
that could constitute distribution. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. There was also one other student concern that I had heard about with physical altercations. Mhmm. Obviously, harming a police officer is, like, a federal offense and would not be good. But in a fight, it's, like, relatively common for people who try to intervene in those fights to get hurt just because that's the nature, although it is very unfortunate, of some fights at DHS. So how does that work if there are students at CHS who so happen to
be fighting and, SRO gets involved and they, like, harm the SRO not realizing who it is? We've talked about that quite a bit in our work group, and it's a great another great question. So, understanding exactly what you said that sometimes our staff, when they intervene in trying to stop students from harming each other, deescalate a situation, break up a fight, our staff sometimes has become injured. And just like with the staff, the officer will have discretion whether or not it
becomes a charged situation or not. If it's an inadvertent, you know, elbow or something like that, it is very unlikely from what we have been told working with our CPD liaison that they would choose to charge just like our staff don't necessarily to choose to charge, but they can. Our our staff can charge if they're injured when they're breaking up a fight. They can they that's not something we could take away from our staff, that that option to do that. Same is true for the officers, and we believe, we you know, it is our
belief and has been CPD's expressed, thought that the types of people who will sign up to be SROs will understand that. That's what we're gonna be looking for in the people who take these jobs to understand the difference between an in inadvertent elbow or something that's not intended for them versus if someone actually goes after an officer, just like just like if someone actually went after a teacher and the intention is to hurt that person, that is a different different ballgame. Those are very good questions. One of the things we're also considering, in our conversations around training is the conversations
we need to have with students. And so continue to get those questions together, That could help influence our training as we put it together. So thank you for those. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much for the update. Alright. Next we have some board responses, to written reports, including our committee reports, chronic absenteeism, and our pupil teacher ratio written report. I see mister Meyer over there chomping at the bit, ready to go. Do you have some comments on those? Yeah. No. I always enjoy the written reports. Thank you for including them. I will note that while some schools have been making some progress on their chronic
absenteeism, I'm seeing upticks at CMS and CHS. I have a a child in elementary school, and I've received recent, communications about positive things they will receive, tags if they don't take it. So I'd like to see that. I have not gotten anything from CMS. Not saying that nothing's are are being done, but just making that observation. I will say and I and thank you for also doing the people, seeing our
ratios, teacher ratios. You know, I I hope the community sees, and and for one thing, I will I don't think VDOE's averages are anywhere near what they should be, and they need to be adjusted. I think we've talked about that also. But, I hope that the community notices that our averages are significantly lower, or or 50% more than in a lot of cases. So we are doing it, you know, we are staffing, I think, as as we
should be. I understand also it is difficult, you know, to project how many students we're gonna have in matches to teachers with a lot of enrollment coming right at the end. I do see Jackson Via having a pretty high rate or sorry, classroom vis a vis some of the other schools, and and and, again, then compare that to the ELL learners. You know, so I just wanna make sure we're, again, allocating staff, to where the needs are also. Thank you. Any other questions or comments about the written reports? Thank you. We will move on to our second opportunity for comments from members of the community.
If there's anyone in the media center who would like to speak? Alright. Seeing none. Anybody in Zoom, in the Zoom room who wishes to speak, feel free to raise your hand and you'll be promoted. No takers. So we'll move on to comments from the board. I keep mixing that. Miss Torres, we'll start with you this time. Yeah. Not a lot, but if you will, colleagues so coming up and when we go to Williamsburg. So I'm I'm a delegate representing Charlottesville City Schools. We often get well, every year, we get in any edits or new legislative proposals.
And then the delegate assembly gets together and we vote yay or nay, up or down on those. This year, there's not a lot in here, but there is one new, legislative proposal. And since there's only one, if you don't mind, I would love to kind of get just a thumbs up or thumbs down or think about it. But it's pretty simple. Basically, it's a proposal to, remove chronic absenteeism as an indicator and accountability and accreditation models used to rate public schools.
And that's it. Very simple. So, it this passed, it will be proposed to the delegate assembly, and every school division there who has a delegate in the room gets to vote up or down on it. So I'm not asking for, a response right now unless everybody wants to give one or just a thumbs up, thumbs down, or if you want, like I said, chew on a little bit. We've got a little bit of Yeah. Is that something that you could email to us? Sure. Absolutely. Send us the link where we've probably been sent it.
I mean, it's just look. I read exactly what's on here. That's all it says. Supporting information or anything. Mm-mm. It's just it's a brand new motion to approve that legislative position. Okay. So this is something that then VSBA will will carry forward as their position when they head to the general assembly. So just wanted to throw that out there. Other than that, really no other comments, but thank you to Charlottesville community and the state of Virginia for showing up and voting. And I, personally, am humbled and grateful to those that supported me, and I'll continue
this work. And and, you know, we just kinda keep on moving. We're in the cycle and in the rhythm, and and looking forward to our our budget talks with city council and the work that goes. So appreciate you all. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Richardson. I don't really have too much to say. We are approaching holiday season, so I'm gearing up for that. And I hope everyone is gearing up to spend some time with their families and friends, as, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas and all these things, approach.
I had something else to say, guys. Oh, yeah. Report card. So report cards came out, and I just hope everybody had did you have a good report card? Good. Because my my son has straight a's, so I just wanted to throw that out there. It goes, Zaire. Good rating. It's always great to see, the hard work that our children are putting out every day, and, the the grades are showing for it. So if you didn't get a good report card, do better. But yeah. Thank you. Yes. I wanted to bring to the board and community attention that the Community Attention Youth
Internship Program is open for applications for students 14 to 21 years of age. This is a program within the city that provides opportunities to learn workplace readiness skills, have growth mindset, earn some money. And some really great organizations that take, take our students in to teach those job skills. Some such as JMRL Library, which I know doctor Gurley spent some time there this
weekend. The Music Resource Center, a few different barbershops, BABA, Virginia Discovery Museum, the West Haven Clinic, Wild Rock, just to name a few. But really, wonderful opportunity for students in our community to earn some money and job readiness skills. So wanted to bring that to the intention of everyone. And, wanted to thank, mister Becker and the theater program for bringing the students over
here to take some time out of their theater rehearsal this evening to share with the board. And that is all I have for tonight. Thank you. A couple of things. One, wanna congratulate miss Torres, chair Dooley on your, reelection. Look forward to serving with you again. It's been a pleasure so far and multiple years. Wanna congratulate miss Bryant. Thank you for attending also. I think that's a an example of the service you're gonna bring in the future and and dedication and, look forward to serving with you also.
Colleagues, wanted just to flag for you that the city council did have a budget presentation the other day, on kind of long term. I don't know if some of you saw that or not, but I was heartened to see they were using a 5% annual growth in our budget, which was, I think, generous and good. At the same time, they're also projecting more revenues in the future. So those are just things I think we'll have to start to think about. And, for the community in general, I I hope you continue to show up for us and communicate to your city counselors the importance of funding our public school system.
I am also heartened by the Virginia the turnout in election, and I I do hope that with a, the new state leadership, we will see a sales tax referendum, legislation passed that, again, to my city residents here, that would allow us to make substantial upgrades to our, school infrastructure that are needed. So starting to start thinking about that. Finally, I I just wanna we we eulogized, mister Williams a little bit this earlier,
and then and I had the privilege of working in an office a couple houses down from mister Williams. And so I can say I was educated on his porch a lot about, it's just desegregation, segregation, the racial history here in Charlottesville, schools, etcetera. And not having been from this region, that was, very impactful. I can't say enough. I think a lot of our community's leaders sat with him and learned a lot.
And, you know, unfortunately, he served our community during a time where he could not be elected necessarily, which I think he would have been a great elected leader. I think doctor Verlet first met you in his, living room also. So, yes. You know, I I think it was appropriate in how we've recognized him so far and and want everybody to stop by the the historical marker at at Tall Oaks and, keep him him and his family in your thoughts. Thank you.
Oh, wait. Oh, I'm so sorry. I just had a question. I was just curious to to know the, how much for the theater's trip. We never got a price on that. How much each student? Okay. Okay. I just wanted to have a number for that. Thank you. Mister Short any final comments? Not much. Just, like, thank you guys. It should be great. Thank you. Quickly. Emily, I also too, Chris, I think I would like to say also Emily and Zai, congratulations.
But I also wanna say congratulations to Lisa. So I do thank you guys for asking. So grad grad grad grad gradation congratulations on all three. He said miss Torres. Oh, I didn't hear miss Torres. Sorry. Didn't hear it. But just wanted to make sure that we capture everybody. So yeah. Thank you. So as has been noted, there there was an election this week. I know miss, Torres, miss Brenner are happy to be on the other side of it. Throughout kind of the lead up to it, I had the opportunity to speak a lot about our schools, and a lot of the positives that are happening.
And would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that I get to talk about those things because of all of the incredible work that our teachers, and staff and administrators do. So thank you. And I said today, in an interview, and we'll see if it actually gets printed tomorrow, or in what capacity it's, printed. But there's been a lot of excitement, and enthusiasm and interest in this school board race. Perhaps because it was the only competitive race, locally on our ballot. And just kind of my plea and shout out to the community is to stay
engaged in our education, our public education, even when it's not an election cycle. And with that, Doctor. Gurley, you're up. Alright. I do want to recognize, just mister Eugene Williams. He was one of the one of my very first meetings, when I arrived here in Charlottesville City. Mister Juan Diego Wade said there's someone that you must meet, and it was not optional. And, what's what was, very memorable for me in that moment is that, mister Williams
gave me a bow tie, from his closet. And so I have a piece of history, that many people don't have, and and it does mean so much to me. We have a lot of exciting things going on in the school going on in the schools. And so, we will our communications team will push those things out. But, coming up soon, we will do our first royal recognition. Mhmm. And so I'm very excited that we will be recognizing our, teachers and support staff
for really embodying the core values of Charlottesville City Schools. So be on the lookout for that. I did have a great time last Saturday at the library, and we had toddlers all the way to school age children. And so our city, really showed up for me, and I appreciate it. And we have another event that you will be hearing about pretty soon in December. So just stay tuned and stay connected. Quite a teaser. Thank you. Work session wrap up? Alright. And for upcoming meetings, taking us on the road to Williamsburg in a few weeks,
November at the Virginia School Boards Association annual convention. And then our last school board meeting of the year, we will say a farewell to mister Morris, on Thursday, December 4 back here at 5PM. And with that, we are adjourned. Thanks all.