Thank you, Madam Clerk. Will you call roll? >> Miss Burns here. Miss Bryant >> here. >> Sorry. Miss Cooper here. Miss Douly >> here. >> Miss Torres,
>> yes. >> Miss Richardson >> here. >> Mr. Meyer, >> yes. >> And Miss Craig Headway >> here. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. May I have a motion for approval of our agenda, please? >> So moved.
>> And a second. >> Second. >> So Mr. Meyer and Miss Douly, any questions, concerns, discussion? All approved. Say yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Any
disagree? No. Okay. Sorry. Um, next we are moving on to student and staff recognitions. And first up we have Dr. Eisely, the board, Dr. Gurley, as well as our whole CCS community. I am honored to
stand before you tonight to celebrate our principles. Governor Glenn Young has officially designated January 12th to 16th, 2026 as Virginia School Principles Appreciation Week. This proclamation is
a vital reminder of the hard work of Virginia school principles and their essential role in ensuring every child has access to a quality education and prepares them for life. I see daily how our principles serve as instructional leaders. They work diligently to equip our teachers with the support, training,
and resources needed to deliver personalized and innovative programs so that every student has the opportunity to succeed. They are the managers of our learning environments, overseeing the policies and procedures that maintain a safe and effective space for all. Beyond administration, these leaders are
entrusted with the profound responsibility of guiding, nurturing, and mentoring our children. They work collaboratively with teachers, parents, and the community to proactively prepare our students to be productive and engaged citizens. Please join me in acknowledging the tireless efforts of
our school principles from across the division. They deserve all the recognition and praise we can give them. Dr. Justin Malone from Charlesville High School, Mr. Rodney Jordan, Charlottesville Middle School, Dr. Summerland Thompson, Walker Upper Elementary, Dr. Lamont Troder, LMA, Dr.
Stacy Heltz Kek Mr. Eric Johnson Hospital Ed Program Miss Dina Fricky Greenbryer Elementary Dr. Tara Bartlett Jackson Vaia Miss Carmela Johnson Summit Elementary Mr. Brad Hendrickk Sunrise Elementary Jojo Mickens Tall Oaks
Elementary Miss Shantel Beverly Trailblazer Elementary and Dr. Elizabeth Korab Early Learning Center. These individuals work cooperatively to direct, develop and inspire every member of our school staff and student body. We are profoundly grateful for their
leadership and dedication. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Eley. Um, next up we have Rachel Raznik um to recognize National School Counseling Week. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Gurley, members of the board. Um, nothing shows
the creativity and value of our school counselors like what they're planning for next week, which is kindness week. Um, so next week we have an Olympics themed spirit week at LMA. We've got spirit events across our schools. We've got students writing handwritten notes.
Um, we have student initiated activities and staff initiated activities. And of course, someone is going to be wearing pajamas at some point next week. Um, school counselors are essential in developing life ready citizens um who will make a positive contribution to our
city. Um, I ask that you join me in acknowledging National School Counseling Week and the proactive role that our school counselors play in supporting students career, academic, and social emotional development. Thank you.
>> Okay. Welcome. >> Hi there, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Gurley, along with our CCS community, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that Virginia School Board Association designates February 2026 as
school board appreciation month. Now, I know that our gracious and humble members of the school board would probably not want me to take up too much space on this, but I do think it's appropriate to take a moment to celebrate the work that you do. And my colleague, Dr. Eley, is going to pass
out a gift that we created for you. It is stationary featuring student art from students across the division. Briefly, I'll just say that thank you. >> As school board members, the work that you do is the foundation of a successful community here in Charlottesville. You
manage decisions around student achievement, school safety, budget, policy. You see the division from every angle in order to strengthen schools for students of today and tomorrow. We appreciate your willingness to serve our community, the countless hours you
devote to this work and the way you champion education. Yours is not always easy work, but you bring skill, wisdom, and heart to it every day. Thank you on behalf of the division for your service. >> Thank you.
>> In addition, the Virginia School Board Association officially names February 16th through 20th as VSBA School Board Clerk Appreciation Week. Our school board clerks play an essential role assisting our school board members, the superintendent, and our local schools.
And tonight, I am honored to personally recognize our clerk, Leslie Thcker, and our deputy clerk, Julia Green. And Dr. Eley's also going to give you those same cards. Miss Thacker and Miss Green are invaluable members of Charlottesville
City Schools staff in their role as clerk and deputy clerk. They are always ready to help. They are attentive. They are detail oriented. They are reliable. They are the best. Because of them, our leadership stays supported and our schools function smoothly. Miss Stacker
and Miss Green, Leslie and Julia, on behalf of the whole division, thank you for your unwavering commitment to the schools. >> Thank you so much. Now, we're moving on to our first opportunity for comments from members of the community. Um, and
7.1 is our comment from students. So, if there are students in in the building, um please come to the podium, state your name. You have three minutes for your comment. I'm honored to stand in front of the board and superintendent Dr. Gurley. Hi,
I'm Solomon Schwarzman, a student here at CHS and a member of Green Bacon, Charlottesville City Schools Environmental Club and a former student representative at this board. As you guys know, though I'm in less formal clothing, I'm here like many other members of our club to voice my support
for item 12.1, the solar p solar power purchase agreement. The um these agreements would offer CHS an amazing and economic way of establishing long-term green energy. So, I'd urge that the board can do anything in its way or that it needs to establish this
agreement as quickly as possible. The city has devoted itself to lofty climate goals and all too often goals like this are met with an action. As a board, it's your duty to make sure that this isn't the case for this specific policy. It had cheapened the overall cost of
electricity. And as solar powers have or solar panels have already been proven to better our environment while also working well with our schools as proven by their introduction to K-tech, I'm sure it would make an amazing policy. So because this opportunity aligns with our goals of finance, the environment, and
student choice, I urge this board to pursue the power purchase agreement for solar panels at both CHS and CMS. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, come on up. State your name, please. And you have three minutes.
Hi, my name is Katherine Sharf, and I'm here to voice support for the item 12.1 solar panel installation. I'm a student here at Charlottesville High School who participates in the environmental club, and I care a lot about the future of our planet. These solar panels are an incredible opportunity to use renewable energy in order to power our school and
in the long run they will save money for our school system. The city of Charlottesville has committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 and this is a great step towards that. As a voice for the student body, we are in support of our board having pro- environmental policies. Therefore, I encourage you to
pursue this opportunity. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, come on up. State your name. You have three minutes. You can pull that mic down. Yep. Your name, Miss. Um, hello. Um, I my name is
Everest Kuster and I'm honored to be here today. I'm a senior at CHS and the president of Green Bacon, our environmental club. I'm speaking in support of the solar panel PPA agreement. The school board has made great progress with the solar panel installation on KEK, and I give my
greatest congratulations and thanks for that effort. This new PPA for CHS and Charlesville Middle School can only expand upon the excellent progress towards clean energy that we have already made. Schools serve to educate students and shape not only our learning
but also our outlook and perspectives on the world. This extends to the environment and sustainability. In a time where the climate crisis is increasingly seen as a sideline issue, despite the effects of climate change impacting millions of people around the world, students have an op sorry,
schools have an opportunity and a responsibility to create environmentally aware citizens. Environmental education is a very important issue, but schools can affect students beyond simply just learning. We spend most of our days in the school building and so the school
the systems of the school building have a direct impact on us from water conservation to the importance of disposing of waste correctly. Installing solar panels on CHS and CMS will show students that the schools and the city care about the environment. Beyond this,
the solar installation has the power to believe to inspire students to think more consciously about how their actions and inactions can affect the environment. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello, my name is Llaya Castleman and I
am a senior at Charlottesville High School and the vice president of our environmental club. I am here to voice my support for solar panel installation on Charlottesville City Schools. I want to start by thanking you, the school board, for all of the work you do for us students, for the daily support you
provide, the time and effort you invest into our success and safety, and the care you show for us. I also want to acknowledge and express my gratitude for your past investment in our school sustainability, such as the installation of solar panels at KEK. However, there is still so much work to be done. And it
is more important now than ever before. Now, when the people who are supposed to be leading our country are rejecting science and reason in favor of their own interests and pride. When we are faced with a constant onslaught of the consequences of global warming, wildfires, hurricanes, the current
winter storm, and yet our national government is denying global warming even exists. When the Environmental Protection Agency is being stripped of its funding and thus ability to actually protect our environment, in the midst of these nationwide threats to sustainability, the role of the local
government becomes more crucial than ever. And within that local government, the school systems hold immense power. Power to not just install solar panels and make our schools greener, but to inspire students to show us that you are fighting for our future, a future increasingly at risk in the face of
environmental degradation. More than just your power, this is your responsibility. Remind the community and most importantly the youth that you are committed to ensuring we have a safe home and planet to grow up in. Restore and improve our faith in government and
democracy. I know I speak not just for myself but for my fellow students and peers when I say that I feel terrified when I read the news. I feel let down and betrayed by our national government. I worry that there is no hope for our planet and there is not. Not if those in
power continue putting off or refusing environmental action. So I urge you to do everything humanly possible to protect the earth that my generation will inherit. This solar panel purchase agreement is the next step, one of many. I refuse to give up
on our planet and I hope you will continue fighting alongside students to protect our future. Thank you. >> Thank you. any other students here? And if not, I want to um on behalf of the board and this community, I want to
thank Si, Katherine, Everett, and Laya for your statements tonight. And if anybody goes back to listen to this meeting, this is what you need to listen to right there, their comments. So, thank you. All right. Now we are um comments from members of the community. Right after
that we do have a public hearing for comments that are specific to our budget. So right now I will ask for non-budget related if possible comments from the community. Anybody in the media center or online
come on up to the podium. State your name please. Address and you have three minutes. >> Sure. Good evening uh members of the school board and Dr. Gurley. My name is Susan Cruz and I reside at 2110 Charlton Drive. I'm the parent of two Charlottesville City School students. My
oldest is a 10th grader at Charlottesville High School and my youngest is a seventh grader at Bu Be Buford Middle School. Every year of their education since kindergarten has been sent spent in Charlottesville City Schools. I am also the executive director of the Community Climate
Collaborative or C3. Since 2021, C3 has partnered with Charlottesville City Schools to bring hands-on climate education into classrooms. Each year, we have delivered more than 400 climate activity kits to fifth graders and last year to both fourth and fifth graders in
Charlottesville City Schools. My 10th grader was part of the very first class to receive a a kit at Walker Upper Elementary School. It is deeply gratifying to imagine that the high school he now attends could soon be powered in part by solar energy with
your support. This evening, the city the city's office of sustainability will present a proposed power purchase agreement for two Charlottesville's most energyintensive schools. Power purchase agreements or PPAs offer a practical and fiscally responsible way for city
schools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without upfront capital costs or ongoing maintenance burdens. These projects also take advantage of federal tax credits that are set to expire soon. While climate action is under attack at
the federal level, there is another way to see this moment. The urgency created by disappearing tax credits mirrors the urgency of the climate crisis itself. Acting quickly is not just financially prudent. It is aligned with the pace at
which we must decarbonize our energy systems. Ultimately, climate action is about responsibility to future generations. Over the past 5 years, dozens of local teens, including some from right here at CHS, have worked with C3 as teen interns. Their message to
adults and decision makers is consistent and powerful. They want to see leadership that matches the scale of the challenge they are inheriting. Your support of this project would do more than reduce emissions or lower energy costs. It would send a clear signal to Charlottesville students, including my
own, that their future matters and that their school is willing to lead. We're grateful to the Office of Sustainability for bringing forward a proposal that allows Charlottesville to seize this moment. I urge you to do the same. Thank you. >> Thank you.
Any other members of the community here in the media center online? Okay. Um next we are um offering public hearing comments on our proposed 2026 2027 budget. So if you would like to make
comment, please make your way to the podium. Go ahead. Not the budget. >> That's all right. Go ahead. >> Sorry, I was a little late. Um, hello members of the school board and Dr. Gurley. I'm Alex Heinsman, the parent of
two kids at CCS. I have spoken before in opposition to the board's decision to return to police to our schools. A decision which privileged administrative convenience over our children's safety and a decision which we will continue to oppose in every way that we can moving
forward. As part of that process, a lot of parents and teachers pushed hard for specific language in theou forbidding collaboration between CPD and immigration enforcement. That language was added to the draft in October and then removed from the final draft in
December um out of as I understand it a well-intentioned fear that it might draw dangerous negative federal attention to our schools. In light of the city's recent loud and clear resolution condemning ICE and setting rules for city staff, I am asking the school board to reconsider that decision. I'm urging
you to consider a similar resolution, statement, or amendment that would specifically prevent CPD officers or other staff and partners from collaborating or cooperating with DHS or ICE. A student in Virginia was recently reported to ICE by his SRO. That same
day, he was taken from his foster home and is now in outofstate detention along with an estimated 3,800 other children. So, this is not a theoretical or a hysterical fear. This is a threat that is already present which could easily escalate and we need our school leaders to prepare and to protect our kids.
Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Ashen Stevens. I am 24 years old and I'm a full-time pair professional here in Charlottesville City Schools. My husband and I moved here from Salt Lake City where um he's attending grad school. So, we've been here for a couple years. Um, and I'm currently pregnant with our
first child. It's a boy. Super exciting. Um, I also live with a chronic illness that requires ongoing medical care and prescriptions, which often adds to our monthly expenses. I have a two-year degree and five years of experience in the special education setting. I'm bilingual in English and Spanish, which
comes in handy pretty often. My take-home pay as a full-time employee averages out to $1,600 per month. My rent for a one-bedroom, oneb apartment is $1,750. We are constantly leaning on our secondary income and government assistance to to get by, to simply get
by. Anyone who has worked in special education can attest to the vital role that pair professionals play in a productive learning environment for students with all kinds of disabilities. The data we collect informs instructional decisions. The care we provide supports student safety and
dignity, and the instruction we deliver directly affects learning outcomes. However, our wage does not reflect any of that. I'm incredibly grateful for the hard work of the CEA and their representatives to advocate for us consistently, but their work can only go
so far. We need continued change. It is simply not enough. And nor will it be enough until our hourly rate reflects the reflects the dedication and commitment that we have to our students. I am one person and I am one story. But there are hundreds of
hourly staff in this district who whose work is absolutely essential to our student success and we are so grateful for all of them. A living wage is not a luxury. It's the minimum. I feel that the school board
often doesn't hear hear from us during these meetings because many of us are working our second jobs during these hours that the meetings are held. So, I appreciate the opportunity that I have to share tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening.
>> Good evening. My name is Allison Carr and I'm a CSA here in at Charlottesville High School. I have a letter to read from the CSAs here. Dear school board members, we stand here before you today not just as employees, but as spec as the specialized backbone of the Charlottesville city school safety
model. Our team consists of state state certified Virginia school security officers trained in critical life-saving and restorative skills including deescalation emergency medical response and Narcan administration. We are writing to urge the board to honor the commitment made in our collective
bargaining agreement and fully fund our promised raises. Fulfilling this commitment is about more than a contract. It is a human choice to provide a living wage that allows us to care for our families and maintain a healthy work life balance in an increasingly unaffordable city. Excuse
me. The current reality for a CCS employee in 2026 is a period of unprecedented financial pressure. The cost of living crisis. Over the last 12 months, the cost of living in Charlottesville has increased by approximately 3%. Essential hidden costs
such as property assessments up 8.8. 81% and car taxes protect project projected to rise over 12% have dramatically outpaced general inflation. Housing and utilities with an with average rents reaching $2,88 and housing costs
increasing by up to $75 per month. Many of us are being priced out of the community we protect. This is compounded by utility hikes of 13% for water and up to 25% for natural gas. healthcare v health care volatilility. While local
service fees are competitive, insurance premiums are facing a projected 20 and a half% state increase. If federal subsidies expire, families could face a premium cliff, costing an additional $3,300 per year. The projected double
whammy of new state and federal legislation threatens to add over $5,300 in new annual costs to a single employees budget. For a single adult, annual baseline expenses are projected to jump from $49,896
to nearly $54,588 by the end of this year alone. For a family of four, total essential expenses are expected to exceed $111,000. Beyond the financial data, there's a functional cost to the division. Our
CSAs are currently underutilized with the with vital security functions now left to volunteers for special events rather than the the trained professionals CCS employs for these roles. By not utilizing our expertise,
the division does a disservice to the safety of our students, staff, and guests. We ask you to recognize the surviving versus thriving gap to be effective, present, and compassionate mentors to our students needs. We must
be able to survive in this city. We urge you to follow through with the raises agreed upon in our CVA. It is the legal the proper legal choice, the proper safety choice as well as the only human choice. Sincerely, the Charlottesville City
Schools Care and Safety Associates. Thank you. Thank you. >> Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. I am here to ask this board to stand firm and unapologetic in your support of the
proposed collective bargaining agreement between CCS and the CEA. We often hear the phrase the backbone of our schools used to describe our school support professionals or SSPs. Currently, our backbone is being pushed
to the breaking point. Many of the people we entrust with our children's safety and specialized learning needs are struggling to afford rent in the very city where they work. When we underpay our SSPs, we aren't saving money. We are paying a hidden tax in the
form of high turnover, constant vacancies, and disrupted classrooms. Every time a beloved nutrition worker leaves for a high higherp paying rental retail job or an instructional assistant has to take a second job just to make
ends meet, our students lose a consistent, caring adult in their lives. City council needs to hear a unified, forceful message from this board. It is not enough to submit a budget. You must
defend it. When you meet with them, make it clear that a scaledback budget is a direct cut to student services. Tell them that we cannot have safe schools without custodians or CSAs, and we cannot have inclusive classrooms without
instructional assistance. remind them that if our city wants to be a place where families thrive, we must be a city that pays our SSPs enough to thrive as well. I urge you to move forward with a budget
that supports the proposed bargaining agreement and reflects the true cost of a dignified education. Do not ask city council for what you think they will fund. Ask them for what your staff have told you at the table that they need.
Our support workers have had our children's backs all year. Now it is time for this board and this city to have theirs. Please fund a livable wage. Fight for the full budget ask. And let's invest in
the people who make our schools work. Thank you. Hi, I'm Jen Horn, 700 Druid Avenue pair of professionals, instructional assistants, nutrition workers, administrative assistants, administrative tech, registars,
custodians, and our CSAs. If we at Charlottesville City Schools are actually about educating children, about creating nurturing, safe, healthy places where they can be
educated, these people are necessary. They are integral. As someone who's been boots on the ground for a long time, I can tell you I haven't been in a school as beautiful as mine here. And it is because of these people. They deserve a
living wage. They deserve more than we could possibly offer them and we cannot go backward. Please, I realize that personnel is the biggest chunk of our budget. It looks big on that pie chart, but without the people I
just mentioned, none of this can happen. Please urge the city to fund our proposed budget and please cut away other things before you cut away these incredible humans. Thank you so much. >> Hi school board. My name is Abigail
Johnson and I am a first grade teacher at Jackson Baya. Being a first grade teacher, I work very closely with several education support professionals or ESPs every day. This includes the instructional assistant that I work alongside and who gives our students her
neverending love and support every single day. The structured teach instructional assistant who provides support for my students who have disabilities. The posto speaking instructional assistant who helps make school a safe place to learn and thrive for the Afghan students in my class. Our
admin tech who holds our school together. The list goes on. Several of the ESPs that I work with currently live in Buckingham, Louisa, Green, or Fluana because they have been priced out of Charlottesville. They would likely be here speaking for
themselves today if they didn't have to commute an hour each day, driving their kids to their jobs or picking them up from daycare or go to a second job. I have been told by many of the ESPs in my building things like, "I cannot afford to pay my phone bill, so my phone is cut
off. I couldn't afford gas to get to work, so I had to call out. I didn't really have a weekend. I had to work at my other job or I cried while paying rent this month. When the testimonies were being collected by the CEA to start bargaining
for this contract, the thing that stood out in every single one was there is a significant portion of CCS employees cannot live off of their current salary. Every single working person should be able to afford their basic needs,
especially the people who contribute so greatly to our school community to ensure that the young people of Charlottesville can thrive and be our hope for a better world. Charlottesville City School's vision is a community of hope, growth, and learning where
barriers are eliminated and possibilities are limitless. I argue that if you do not at the very least follow through with supporting this contract, our district will be denying its employees the material conditions for necessary hope, growth, and
learning. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Peter Davis. I'm a teacher here at Charlottesville High School. Um, I wasn't totally sure if I was going to speak or not uh tonight. I think everybody that spoke before me made the point uh very clearly. The only thing I could think of
is just this is a topic near and dear to my heart is talking about um our support staff. I started my career in education as a instructional assistant in special ed. Um gosh quarter century ago. Um, so it, you know, I think about this a lot
and I, you know, when we, this last week, especially as our custodians were backbreakingly shoveling and chipping away at ice and we put it on Facebook that we love them, we support them. We just need to make sure that we do it
when it really matters. Um, and not just in word. Um, and I know having gotten to know a lot of you all personally over over the years, I know you all have great hearts, and if it was up to you, you'd easily approve it and write that check. Um, and I know the city is is um
the one kind of holding holding the the piece here. But I just ask that um as you all enter the negotiations and as we I think in our in the room here, we need to make sure that we're lobbying the city too and we're not just ending our comments here, that we're continuing the comments to the city. Um but I think
that I just ask that you all please don't back off and don't back down um from this task to make sure that we get this for these people. Um you know we we've seen um with the CA um collective bargaining agreement. I'm like our
retention rate for teachers is is you know improving and doing great. Um if we can continue this and keep our support staff in the building for the long haul. Um, it's only good for kids because we're just going to have better working environments for everyone. Schools will be safer, schools will be cleaner,
schools will be better places, and I think we just we just got to keep got to keep the the foot on the pedal for this one. So, thank you. Anybody else in the media center? There will be another opportunity later towards the end of the meeting for public comment. Anybody online?
Mr. Como. Um, I do want to thank all of you who have made comments specific to our budget. I hope that you will be able to either stick around or or tune in or listen to the recording to hear um the budget presentation a little bit later
in this meeting. So, thank you. Um, moving on, we will now um move to our student representative report. Good evening. Uh, it's great to be back here at Trwella High School. Uh, I first
like to extend a thank you to all the people who helped clear sidewalks, roads, parking lots, and other paths that have allowed us to return to school this week. Class time is vital for our education, and every day in school, even with a 2-hour delay, is important. I would also like to extend thanks to Dr. Gurley, Mrs. Powell, and the city partners who made decisions to either
cancel or delay school following the storm two weekends ago as I know all the choices made had safety in mind. That being said, there are still many difficulties across all schools returning from our snow week. The ice that coated Charlottesville is just only beginning to melt, but many roads are
still too narrow, many sidewalks are inaccessible, and there's still many student many issues students face while getting to school. While returning to school should be a priority when deciding whether to close school or not, the conditions faced by students on Monday morning were stressful and disorganized. Many of my peers shared
their difficulties in getting to CHS this week, some of which are the following. The sidewalk at the drop off zone here at CHS is still coated in ice. The sidewalk at visitor parking is piled up is piled high with snow banks and ice. The crosswalks on sidewalks have near zero visibility for drivers, making
crossing streets difficult for pedestrians. Many families cars are still stuck in ice. Many streets across the city are too narrow for two-way traffic and slash or have no sidewalks accessible which leads to pedestrians walking in the road. I know the city is working tirelessly to amend these
difficulties, but I do urge consideration into these factors mentioned for future weather events. Finally, I'd like to thank my fellow students for speaking at today's meeting about an issue that is vital to the future of our school and our city. As always, I'd like to additionally thank everyone else who spoke at today's
meeting as your comments are important to this board's connection to the community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um we are now moving on to 9.0 which is adoption of their consent agenda.
>> Um Miss Torres, if we can move item 9.6 six and vote on that separately, please. >> A second. >> Second. >> All in favor of pulling 9.6 to discuss separately.
>> I Yes. >> Any opposed? All right. Thank you. So now I need a motion to approve the consent agenda without 9.6, please. >> So moved. >> In a second, please. Okay. >> Second,
>> Miss Brian. >> All in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> Opposed. >> Right. Thank you. >> So, Miss Douly, would you like to talk about 9.6?
So, I continue to not be able to support our committee assignments that include the committees that are not directly related to schoolboard operations, school division operations, or directly reflected to student outcomes.
Any further discussion? >> Miss Bryant, do you have anything that you'd like? Um, just that I I agree with Miss Douly's comments. Um, after thinking about it again, especially because the scholarship committee is directly tied to money being allocated
to our students, I do think that's a fair um kind of um evaluation of the situation. So, I definitely think that she's right on this. >> Yeah, I appreciate uh Miss Julie bringing this to our attention. And I
think oftent times we get kind of in a um in a place where we just look at a list and say, "Yeah, looks great. We love the committees we're on. We value the places that we're in." But um I really appreciate the opportunity to review the why. um why we're sitting
there and what the impact is um and is this something that um is truly benefiting the division and the operations of the division and our students and what that looks like. So, thank you for bringing that um to the group and I would um echo the same
concerns. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? I mean I think also in our board governance um we did talk about this. This did come up um with the group and there was some conversation about continuing on with
this list through this academic year and looking to revise that as we dig in a little bit more and look at these individual committees. Any other questions, comments? So, I think we still need to move. >> So, are we yeah modifying this list or
>> Yeah, I'm not sure. M >> looking to make a modification to this with removing those two items and proceeding or >> I honestly didn't know that there was support to do so and so I thought I was just going to be voting no. Um, so I guess in light of these conversations
then yes, I mean I would move to approve this with the elimination of representation on the public education fund of Charlottesville Almarl um and the Charlottesville scholarship program.
>> I would second that. >> Any further discussion comments about it? All right. So, the motion is to move the committee list with the removal of the two committees that Miss Douly listed.
So, all in favor of Miss Douly's motion, please say yes. Or let's do a show of hands, please. >> So, all in favor, raise your hand, please. >> Bryant. >> Miss Bryant. And I'm sorry, we'll need a voice vote from you.
>> I >> to support Miss Douly or not. Yes. >> I have Miss Hacker call. >> All right. Why don't you do a voice vote, Miss Hacker? Sorry. >> She was a yes.
>> Yes. >> Richard, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Cooper, >> yes. >> No. >> No.
So it passes then 52. All right. So then we have passed the rest of the consent agenda and our next um item is 11.0 and 11.1 which is an action item and that is our math curriculum.
Dr. Eley and Mitchum please. Miss Mitchum. Good evening, Madame Chair, school board members, Dr. Gurley. I'm here this evening to request action. Um, at our last meeting, I presented to you our curriculum options for highquality
instructional materials for mathematics. So, we were requesting the adoption of math space for grades 6 through algebra 2, bridges and mathematics for kindergarten through third grade, and STEM scopes math for fourth and fifth grade.
I do have one um sort of edit to the presentation that I brought you the last time. We had some questions about the um math AI tutor that is was priced in our quote from Mathspace. Uh Pat Cuomo and I
met with our rep. We did a little bit more investigation. We reviewed our current policies and regulations. We considered the experience that we had this year with um Edia and their math AI tutor and we have decided to pause on um
considering that we think that the teacher should really focus on learning the new instructional materials, how um to best assign assignments online and respond to that data. and that teaching students how to interact with an AI
tutor, how to ask effective questions in order to get guidance in completing math assignments is an additional professional learning component. And we really think that it's best to focus on the the core tier one instruction um until we really know the program and we know how we to best utilize it with our
students and then we can reconsider the AI tutor. So that does adjust the overall cost estimate somewhat. Um, we are going to also consider, um, I think Mr. Meyer was one of the people that pointed this out, um, adding
textbooks, classroom textbooks. So, we wouldn't necessarily purchase textbooks that would go home, but we would have those available in the classroom. So, certainly if a student um, needed to do work using a textbook on paper versus completing an assignment online, that would be an option because we would have
those books available in the classroom. So that um is a savings of $21,347. >> Any other comments, Mr. Meyer? >> Uh thank you, Miss Mitchum, for uh that clarification around that and I guess maybe an addition uh based on some
feedback uh regarding the availability of I'd say I guess non-screen learning uh opportunities in these math curriculums that are being approved. uh with the again still with this math
space which is I think sixth grade to 12th grade. If I understand things correctly you say there will be books available in the classroom but the teachers will still be prioritizing using online learning tools and screens.
>> The teachers will be using resources that they could project online. Okay. um excuse me, project on their Prometheian board or their um Busanics, excuse me. Um we really aren't doing any online
learning, you know, in our pilot with CMS and it's not in our implementation plan. So there's a difference between online learning and teacherled learning with an online practice component. So, as our pilot at CMS, our recommendation
has been that the teachers assign two tasks per week that align to the instruction that the teacher has delivered to the students. >> So, those two tasks are currently between 8 and 12 questions long. They take about 20 minutes a piece for a
student to complete. So if a family does not want their child to have a Chromebook, these children will still be able to basically get their math uh instruction without having a Chromebook. >> Absolutely. Yes.
>> And that will not be a requirement to receive math instruction. >> Right. It's not a requirement for them to do the problems online. Basically a student like a teacher here like at the high school for example when we talk to when I talk to the math specialists here at the high school the teachers here are
very comfortable with accessing the curriculum online and choosing the questions that they want the students to complete and then printing it off as a worksheet because we do want to see the students work. We do know that um just like with writing, doing math, you know, pencil and paper, that's that's what's
best for student brains, you know, putting their answers in online, what that does for us is give us a rich data dashboard. We can really sort those students out. We can see who's making progress. We can see who's being persistent. We can see exactly where
they need additional assistance and kind of target our instruction. But that's part of the professional learning. So, we need to make sure that we're not overutilizing the online component while we figure out how to maximize its effectiveness, but having a student be able to complete similar problems from a
textbook on paper or from a teacher created worksheet using the program would definitely be an option. >> Well, I think how you just explained it to me that a family or a student will not be required to use a Chromebook is what I'm I've been looking for and that
they will have options for again. So, thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Miss Bryant, do you have any comments, questions? >> I do not at this time. Thank you for your presentation. >> Uhhuh. Any board? Anybody else
questions? Otherwise, I'll >> Nope. I'm ready to make a motion um that we adopt math space for the secondary level and a dual curriculum model for elementary which includes bridges and mathematics for K through three and STEM scopes math for fourth and fifth grade. >> Second.
>> Any other discussion? All in favor please say yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Any opposed? Go. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. We are now moving to items for discussion and first up we have 12.1
um which is our solar power purchase agreements. Miss Powell and Miss Arnold. >> Good evening madame chair and members of the board and Dr. Gurley like our student speakers earlier this evening. I'm very excited to have with us um tonight Miss Crystal Riddle. She is the
director of the city's office of sustainability and she is here to provide the board and the community with an update on the solar PPA work that they've been doing. Hi, good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. Um, as Kim said, I'm Crystal Ritterville, director
of the Office of Sustainability, and I'm here today to provide you with an overview and an update on our efforts related to solar power purchase agreements for two city of Charlottesville schools sites. I'm joined this evening by Megan Milo. She's the director of solar empowered schools
for Madison Energy Infrastructure with whom we've been working closely on this opportunity and also April Wimberly from the city's attorney's office who's been supporting the project team including recently your legal counsel. Um before I start I want to thank Kim Powell for her
support and collaboration and I need to acknowledge the thoughtful comments that were made earlier this evening. Um so to start with I'd like to set the context for this project. As you know, the city of Charlottesville adopted updated greenhouse gas emission
reduction goals in 2019 and these contemplate 45% reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 and subsequently the community's first climate action plan was adopted in early 2023. So with the understanding that a
significant portion of emissions are associated with energy consumed by the built environment our buildings and the fact that municipal building portfolio both city and school buildings is quite large. The climate action plan identifies the installation of solar
energy generation systems on suitable municipal properties as a key implementation strategy to generate clean energy to reduce electricity bills and to reduce greenhouse gases. The climate plan also identifies power purchase agreements or PPAs which I will
describe and explain shortly as the mechanism to expedite this strategy. Um a little more background um as a well it is a wellaccepted and cost-effective strategy to install solar systems as soon as possible following roof
replacements so that the life of the roof and the life of the solar system are are aligned. Um, in Charlottesville, we have actually made some pretty good progress with solar deployment recently. Um, in 2025, a 31KW system was installed on the fire bypass fire station. That's
a new construction project. So, it has a new roof. And then many of you were present to celebrate the completion of the 263 KW system on K-tech, which recently it had a roof replacement. So, it was really great to have you spontaneously speak at that ribbon cutting. Um, so the next two eligible,
largest and eligible municipal projects that have newly installed roofs are Charlottesville High School and Charlottesville Middle School. So, we have been eyeing these large buildings for quite some time. And now that they have new roofs, we've been working to
propose strategies to get solar on them. The reality is that the potential solar system sizes for these two schools come with a substantial installation cost that was deemed infeasible to pursue at this time with local capital funding. And so, interestingly, for solar
projects, we have this alternate financing strategy called the power purchase agreement, which presents a compelling opportunity. It enables a customer to receive predictable and lowerc cost electricity with no upfront capital investment. and it enables the
owner of the system to take advantage of federal tax credits and receive a reliable, predictable income from the sale of electricity. So, we're going to do a little bit of a like lesson. What is a PPA? And I think some of the students actually described it, but we'll go over it a little bit
further. A PPA is a contract between a power producer, also called a seller, and the buyer, also called the purchaser, outlining the terms of the sale and purchase of electricity over a set period of time. And so in the graphic here you see the site owner in
the middle and this is who we refer to as the buyer or the purchaser has an arrangement with two power producers power providers. A solar developer who finances installs owns and operates a new power installation generation system
on the owner's property and provides that power directly to the site at an established rate. and then also a relationship with a traditional electricity provider in our case Dominion Energy who continues to provide electricity from the grid as needed and
then through a net metering arrangement compensates for any excess power from the system that would go back to the grid. We can come back to this diagram, but I've got a couple more slides that will describe the relationship. So, as I mentioned, the power purchase
agreement model allows a private solar developer to finance, install, own, and operate a solar array through this long-term contract and a site access agreement. The developer owns the retains the ownership and the operational responsibility and the host
customer purchases the si the systems electrical output. Importantly, they purchase it at a negotiated rate that is proposed to be lower than the prevailing utility rate and for a predetermined period of time and that can be 15 to 25
years. So, PPAs provide price certainty for both parties. They help the customer meet climate and sustainability goals and clean energy goals and they reduce long-term electricity costs. And meanwhile, the developer and the the investor stands to make a profit on the
arrangement because they receive stable revenue from the customer over the life of the agreement. Here's another graphical way to show how the PPA works. Based on a guaranteed energy rate over the term of an agreement, and 25 years is a common term, you can see this hypothetical
costs comparison. The traditional energy cost in the upper portion of the graph trends upward and the PPA energy cost in comparison in the lower portion stays lower with a with less significant increase. And so over time the savings
or the avoided costs increase as these two cost curves deviate. So with respect to traditional energy uh electricity rates based on his historical trends and future projections these rates are expected to continue to rise. they're projected to do so at
rates higher than what we've been using to develop the PPA proposals. So on this graph, this blue line which you see is the PPA rate that is locked in for the electricity generated by the system along with an escalation rate providing
assurance and predictability related to future energy costs. So in summary, the PPA is negotiated to balance risk between the parties, providing predictable revenue and savings for both over the long term. The
project the rate is based on the project costs and project characteristics. Some of those include the agreement term, the escalator rate, the access to financing incentives, and the ownership of the associated environmental attributes. And then the developers ability to access
the currently available 30% federal investment tax credit called the ITC supports their financing strategy. And I think we are all aware the recent federal bill HR1 which was passed in early July of 2025 provides for early termination of these these this federal
federal tax credit. And um but I will say that at this time we and Madison our partner have assured us are well positioned to work these projects within the deadlines but executing the power purchase agreements and initiating the
proc the projects as soon as possible is critical. Um just for reference and as a reminder for the community Charlottesville falls in the electric utility territory of Dominion Energy. Dominion is one of three utilities utility company that have pilot programs
around power purchase agreements and Dominion's pilot program essentially allows for this model to move forward. So we're authorized within this utility territory to enter into this type of an arrangement. Um I want to give you just a really quick overview of how we've gotten to
where we are. We have in fact been tracking the PPA model for over a decade and there are a number of reasons why we haven't been able to pursue this earlier. one of which includes the timing of new available roofs that are well suited to align with the lifetime of the systems. So in late 2024, we
restarted serious exploration of PPA's including confirmation that we would be able to use an existing cooperative contract from Fairfax County um which they have executed with Madison Energy and we've been working through the various steps. So last year we requested
and received preliminary proposals from Madison for two separate PPAs. Um the city initiated the interconnection application with Dominion for those two systems which is part of what triggers a review process on their end to identify system upgrades that would be required.
We conducted due diligence activities that included tracking down over 30 public bodies in Virginia that are already in have already entered into PPA. So we are not reinventing the wheel. There are many good models and examples out there and we surveyed a dozen of those to solicit their
experience with PPAs and with their developers. City con um completed a financial due diligence assessment to determine that PPAs really were a a a good financial strategy for us to proceed with. And then in September,
Dominion um provided the grid related studies for the high school which helped inform project costs. Subsequently, we've been working with Madison to do to complete the reviews and studies that further inform and refine the system design and layout. And by the end of
last calendar year, so that that's for the high school. By the end of last calendar year, we also received the um grid related studies for the middle school. And so our next steps related to the middle school are occurring in parallel to the work that we're doing on the high school, but they're basically
sort of in a cadence one one after the other. So we're at the point where we have preliminary proposals for both schools. These present system capacity and the amount of annual traditional electricity that the system production will offset. And so it's pretty exciting
to think that with such big roofs, we can make a major dent in offsetting the energy um um load. So we also have a comparison between the current average electricity rate and the indicative PPA rate. So that's basically the the rate
at this point in the negotiation that we're looking at and the projected 25-year avoided cost totals. So here here you can see that the average traditional electricity rate for both of these schools is 12.5 cents per kilowatt hour and the indicative rate is lower
than that so that the savings can be realized in year one with significant avoided savings over the term of the PPA. And I want to share that Madison's program also includes a student education and engagement component with the project and we believe that that's a
critically important um component to delivering projects like this on schools. Um so this is my favorite picture in the whole presentation because it's when we actually see blue panels all over Charlottesville High School and it shows
us that that this is really starting to get real. Um, so I did make council like look at this picture hard because it's really really good. All right. Um, so what's on track going forward? So I do for starters I sent you
a memo in mid J in mid January and I need to clarify an important detail in the summary memo based on some recent legal deliberations. So specifically it pertains to who is party to the power purchase agreement and it has been
established that the party to the agreement should align with site ownership and so as a reminder CHS is owned by the school board. CMS is owned by the city of Charlottesville. So site owner is contemplated to be party to the
power purchase agreement with Madison Energy as the purchaser. And so for CHS, this will be the school board. And for CMS, this would be city of Charlottesville. There's also a site access agreement component to this. And again, for the high school, that would be the school
board. And for CMS, that would be the city of Charlottesville. And it would be modeled on the the agreement that's um established for CHS. So, moving forward, we um we're finalizing negoti we're continuing to
negotiate and finalize the proposals. We gave a presentation to council earlier this week. We have this one this evening. Madison is completing the um engineering design for CHS, the high school, and will initiate the permitting process soon. Um the next step will be
to come before this body with an opportunity to take the actual final decision around the CHS power purchase agreement. And once that's done, Dominion will receive the authorization to initiate the grid upgrades. And the
reason we need to get the agreement signed first is those upgrades are direct project costs and and we just don't want them to incur costs because before we know we're going in parallel we continue the process for the middle school PPA including still due diligence
design engineering and negotiation and as soon as we can we would bring that agreement in front of city council to do the same and then in then authorized uh Dominion to move forward. So, the timeline, the construction timeline for both of these projects will
be closely coordinated with Dominion's interconnection team. They have an 18-month window to do their work. It is our goal and expectation that we will all understand this community's desire to get these things done as quickly as possible. This it is subject to our
timeline to get the agreements executed and Dominion's timeline to get the upgrades done. And so Madison again has assured us that they are focused on the financial incentives and they are positioning themselves to be um in the best position possible to move this forward. We're all motivated to see
these project come online as soon as possible. And then just in conclusion, we're excited to be here to give you this update. We're excited in 2026 finally to be talking about getting these projects over the finish line. Um,
we see a number of benefits going the route of power purchase agreements for these two particular school facilities. In terms of feasibility, the PPA gives us a strategy to rapidly install solar on our largest eligible projects without local capital investment. They support
the growth of renewable energy sources and help us advance our climate and sustainability goals. They provide projected cost savings. If you look at the combined avoided cost for those two schools over 25 years, we're talking about $4 million. So, we got to get this
going. And they provide price stability. And I'm here to answer any questions. And I know that Megan and April are here as well. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Bryant, do you have any questions online? >> No, I do not at this time. Thank you so
much for your presentation. >> Great. Miss Douly, Miss Richardson, >> hello. Um can you explain the difference between the 70% SCHS and then the 100% SC CMS?
>> So it essentially um it's a matter of how much available space is on the roof and how much that size of a system can provide for what that building is using. So it turns out that at
CHS is the 70% if the building were even bigger a it would be using more power but we could get a bigger system on it. But I think we have some unique opportunities in the high school as well to do other energy efficiency and energy improvement projects that over time the building's energy use will go down and
the amount that the system is producing will be it will increase. >> Okay. And then what happens if we have any delays? Um it depends on delays about what >> as far as if anything breaks down or
like the purchase of the items are delayed like do we have any backup? >> Well, I think Megan can speak in terms of sort of as the developer what their plan is for project delivery and delays. I think our our responsibility right now is to get the agreements over the finish
line and then we hand it over to Madison to get the project over the finish line. >> Yeah. So, hi everybody. Thank you um for your attention to this matter and for um uh for listening to the presentation. Um so the the short story is that uh the
way that a power purchase agreement is set up is that incentives are aligned for the developer and for the customer to get these systems as online as um as much as possible. Our business depends on it. We don't get paid a scent until these systems turn on. So, we're always
doing everything we can to um accelerate schedules while maintain, you know, making sure we're doing the right diligence and and doing things in order. Um, in terms of delays, the um the most consequential would be a delay in contract signature in relation to the
deadlines. Um, that creates a domino effect of not meeting certain deadlines for receiving the the investment tax credit. Um after that um we do have backup plans. Um so if construction gets delayed due to uh things outside of our
control, we're closely monitoring that and we have a backup plan through allocating for example safe harbored equipment that would allow us to extend that deadline. And the way that that gets unlocked starts with that contract uh signature so that we know that we can
allocate and reserve that capital to make these make sure these projects are secured. Thank you. And then um can you just give me a little bit more background on the Madison Energy um I'm not familiar with that. >> Sure. Yeah. Uh we are Madison Energy
Infrastructure. We have an office here in Charlottesville on the downtown mall. Um and we are a clean energy solutions provider. We have done solar on um 150 schools nationwide and almost a hundred
here in Virginia. Um and um I I actually manage our solar empowered schools curriculum integration program. I'm a former teacher who is aligning these lessons with um with SOS, with learning standards, with science standards. Um so
really exciting to see you all interested in this. And um we all of the work that we do is through what we call thirdparty ownership, which is uh this PPA model where we are the long-term owner and operator. So, we're your partner today and then we're your partner through the end of the term 25
years from now. >> Cooper, >> no. Miss Burns, >> just a quick question. With the savings, both the high school and the middle school, who will receive those savings?
This is probably a whole another presentation, but um I think the fact of the matter is um like everything else um budgets will need to be developed based on projected costs associated with
electricity >> either purchased from the solar generation system or from Dominion. And I can't predict, but Dominion's prices are going to go up, so who knows, right? I what what we do know is that we can
have a predictable cost for the power generated from this system for that 25 years. And I think it ultimately becomes a it's a policy and a political conversation between the school board and the city council on that element.
That's not that's outside of my project. It's above my project >> in 25 years or over time. >> I'm sorry. >> In 25 years or over year over year. So year-over-year we we are projecting to see savings. What we can't say right now because we can't see into the crystal
ball what the um Dominion energy prices will be. There may be a a scenario in which we're spending more than we anticipated on the Dominion electricity and so there's maybe a wash. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Meyer.
>> Uh you mentioned a education program that comes with this. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that? We heard a lot of students who are really interested in this topic. >> Yeah, that was that was really exciting to see. Um, so solar empowered schools is like I said uh it it comes with the
partnership. Um, it we have both digital uh resources and actually digital learning modules. So more than like you know download a lesson plan which we also have but like a a guided lesson with interact interactive things for
students. Um, a couple of examples would it's really designed to engage students with the technology that's on their roof. Um, so a couple of examples are um a solar circuit challenge that we actually did recently with CMS students already um in a STEM class where
students are using mini solar panels. It's the same technology as what's overhead uh to to understand circuits and electricity and photovoltaics. Um and then we also have um a dashboard lesson that not only takes you know the
live energy data that you will have you and students will have available to you about the solar energy production but it really digs deeper into interpreting that and then um applying that knowledge by making predictions for what that curve will look like in the future based
on the weather forecast for example. >> Great. Uh yeah, we we heard again from a couple students plus some members of our public about the urgency in us again moving this forward and colleagues, you know, I think this sounds like it must come up for a vote for us maybe next
month and I hope we would approve it. I you think you know I'm in this this business and I fully support what is being presented to us. Uh if anything again because of the urgency we were requested. Uh what I haven't seen here is and I I know there's interconnection
studies being or just were finished but CMS while CHS sounds like it could be constructed this summer we would still be able to take advantage of the tax credits with CMS. Okay. >> Just confirming that because I think that sounds part of the again the
savings here, right? Uh additionally I know I think we have a roof that's being converted in 2026 the the summer sunset. Is there a way we could or sunrise, excuse me, I should I should know there that
I think I saw that we have to start construction by July 6. Is there a way to safe harbor uh that project? >> I think that we need to I mean, we've talked about it. We're aware of the interest. We would love to get more solar on more things as as quickly as we
can. I don't want to take our eye off the ball of getting these two agreements over the finish line, but I think it it is an opportunity for us. These are models. This is like a template and if we can get this moving, then we have other opportunities to figure out what our options are. >> I guess my question is there a way to
safe harbor it and for the sunrise way to do that? One of the biggest challenges is safe harboring involves a procurement commitment and if we don't have funds approved for that solar project yet, we don't have funds to commit. >> So, do you need a legal commitment or
you need a financial the PPA doesn't require a financial commitment? No, but um the Sunrise is a significantly smaller building with a smaller system size and so it would really need another its own financial assessment to determine whether a PPA is the right mo
model or approach versus owner finance like we did at KEK. >> So we're going to have to study something even though we talked about this model being the best way to do it. Um, this was the best model for systems this size. 100% at this point in time
with no money available to finance it locally. This is the best plan B, frankly. >> Okay. But we potentially will lose a 30% savings on a cost because we're going to have to study it. >> We are going to potentially have to look at it, but I can't commit to another
solar project tonight. >> Okay. Well, and I I just want to say I heard urgency from a lot of our >> staff. I think we're hearing urgency of finding money to pay our staff. >> Uh I think we need to find ways to save money and I would hate to see us lose an
opportunity. Uh and I think this has been great work done and I want to take all these lessons that you've all have executed so far and I think Madison can probably run on this and I would really like to see us do more. Thank you. >> Good. Thank you. >> Miss Craighead Way, do you have any questions?
>> Uh just a comment. I just want to echo um what my fellow students said about being in support of this. I think it's a very important thing for our school and for the future of our city. So, thank you so much for your presentation. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. A couple quick questions. Can you explain the difference in the um
indicative rates between CHS and CMS? >> Um I I might let Megan do it, but it really has to do with the project characteristics, how big it is. Um the the costs of the projects themselves are different just based on the realities of those buildings. Um the in the
interconnection costs are slightly different that Dominion has shared. So there's just drivers that affect the the co the rate. >> I I think she nailed it. It's um the cost of the project that we need to recover over time and that's really the calculation.
>> Thank you. And then just I don't know if you recall or maybe Miss Powell, I'm not sure, when we were looking at CMS and we we knew we were we wanted the the um roofs to be solar ready, what was the capital cost? Like if we had put solar
on it upfront, do I mean just ballpark? I'm not going to hold you to it. >> I mean, if we had put if we had integrated solar in the project cost, we would be adding another three to four million to that project budget. And is that comparable to what then the PPAs are investing to put it on now on
both of these roughly? >> So it's basically it's I mean I in transparency I put in CIP requests to own or finance these two projects and so we had costs of what that would cost and then with the response that that was not could not be accomplished with local
capital funding this model is the same. So, we would be incurring the same interconnection costs. We It's possible it would be I can't tell you if it'd be more or less expensive, but it's in the same ballpark. >> Yeah. I just couldn't remember what that cost was. >> I mean, they're three to four million dollar projects a piece.
>> And then just curious about any idea of maintenance costs over 25 years, what that might be. >> So, the the really good thing with a PPA is that it's their problem, not ours. >> No, no, I understand. And I just was curious like how much are they like how
much are we saving that we don't have to manage with that? >> Uh that's a that's a great question. We typically think about it in terms of watts. Um I would have to get back to you before I quoted anything, but I mean it's
thousands of dollars a year. Yeah. >> Yeah. I just curious. Um and then >> I can get you an answer because we tried to come up with some sort of an estimate estimate of what that could be and I think she's right. It's like a hundred to to over $100,000 over that period of time. >> Okay. And then I I tuned in right when
you were presenting to council. What were there any like pressing or interesting questions that counselors raised during your presentation? >> I mean, I think that everybody has the same desire to have some confidence and assurance that we can get these done under the constraints that our current
federal legislation has established. And we are thinking about that all the time because we want to see these work. And so I think that's the I think that's the most pressing concern is how can we can are we are we confident that we can pull
this off. And I think that if we can get if we can sign the agreements, we can pull this off. >> Great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? Anybody? All right. Appreciate you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Next we have Dr. Eley with
the fifth grade elementary re reconfiguration transa transition. Madame chair, school board members, and Dr. Gurley, I'm here to share with you what the transition to fifth grade will look like for our first group of students that's going to um remain at
their elementary their neighborhood elementary schools for fifth grade next year. Um, as you recall, we shared um at the program of studies presentation a lot about what sixth grade um, you know, some of the the aspects of sixth grade, the instructional um, program there. But
tonight, we'll focus on the fifth grade experience and what that will look like. Um, this work is certainly rooted in the strategic plan and aligns with pro providing a coherent, rigorous, and aligned instructional program. Um, and
of course the priority four goal. um of successfully reintegrating all of our fifth grade classrooms into the neighborhood um elementary schools. We want to share with you what a typical um day for our fifth graders at the elementary schools are going to look
like. Um all fifth graders will have daily instruction in the core content areas of literacy, math, science, and social studies. This includes that um what we call win in a lot of the schools um what I need or a differentiated support time where students um can
receive additional support as needed or you know whatever it is they need extensions um they'll have the staples of the elementary day the morning meeting lunch recess their um specials. Our fifth graders will follow a specials or some schools call it encore um uh
schedule like the other grade levels in K4. So that would be a continuation of what the students have already had in fourth grade. Um so that you know includes art and music I STEM PE library those um types of things throughout the week.
We want to prepare um begin preparing students for what life in middle school is going to be like. So without the Walker fifth sixth grade transition the fifth grade will be sort of their their year before heading off to CMS. Um, and what we've appreciated about Walker is
that graduated approach to kind of getting used to what um, a middle school setting would be like coming from elementary. So, we hope to kind of mirror some of those great aspects of what students have had in that Walker structure. Um, so students will switch
classes for their core ele um, core academic classes. Um so they'll go to three different um core classes or and have three different um academic sort of core academic teachers um during the school day.
Each academic block is around 85 minutes of core instruction. So one would be literacy, one would be math and then one would be science and social studies. So kind of those three areas you see there across the top. And there would be um one teacher for each of those areas. Um
all of our schools as of right now are slated for three um fifth grade classrooms um teachers. So this works out for that. Um and the rest of the day the lunch specials recess would mirror um a typical day.
So here here you go. This is a this is a schedule of what it um will look like for fifth grade. Um so you'll see some of those um uh sort of like I said those staple components of an elementary um day arrival the morning meeting lunch recess
but you'll see those different blocks those three blocks. So this um classroom would be this would be for like one fifth grade classroom would have literacy first with the um teacher number one the math block you know next and then the science and social studies block but um it could you know there's
two other classes so one would start with math one would start with science and social studies and so they kind of rotate around um that way students are getting that experience of you know transitioning from one um class to another having different um core
academic teachers as well. We did want to show um share with you what the SOS um students the so assessment students will take. So um previously third and fourth graders prior to this year have only taken the reading reading and math um so
assessments and this will remain the same for third grade. I just put that on there because they do take so you can see it. But that reading and math will will remain consistent for them. What we do know though is that when students got to have been getting to fifth grade at Walker, they it's sort of a really heavy
lift on the so assessments in fifth grade. So um that has included um reading, math, science, Virginia studies and the integrated reading and writing um which was formerly the writing so um the IRW has not the integrated reading
writing has not previously counted in our accountability measures but um they may very well likely do so in the in the future. Um but in preparation for reconfiguration, we've actually shifted Virginia studies to fourth grade. So
actually this year it's being taught in fourth grade and fifth grade. Um so all of our fourth grade students are getting Virginia studies um as the first year of teaching it in fourth grade, but we had to do it with fifth grade, too, because they they didn't do it last year as fourth grade. So we've got a large group
of students this year, two whole cohorts taking Virginia studies, but um we have shifted that Virginia studies to fourth grade. So beginning next year that will be consistently in fourth grade, not in fifth. And then you'll see the reading, math, science, and integrated reading
and writing. The science does also include content um from fourth grade. The state sort of allows you to choose which grade you teach um Virginia studies and do the assessment in. So this just allows for a little more balance across the grade levels in terms
of the assessments. And so we did this actually prepared for it, you know, last year and have implemented it this year in fourth grade. So they're just spacing um out the the end ofear assessments um a little bit. So um that will be in full
effect next year. Um students in fifth grade will have grades in their academic courses just like they do now at Walker. So, um, again, we love that that sort of gradual, um, getting ready for middle
school and, um, there was a desire to not have sort of sixth grade be like all of a sudden, wow, this is this is brand new. So, we're we're preparing students for that. Um, you know, currently students like in fourth grade this year, all and all of the K4 students receive a
three, two, or one. So, meeting expectations, nearly meeting or below expectations. We will keep those same designations in the specials courses just because those are, you know, more infrequent in terms of they they might, you know, they might um go to to art or
PE, you know, those are like a limited number of times during the week. And so um they'll still continue to get a 321 in those specials areas, but the um academic courses will um receive grades. Now, what does this look like for
teachers? What's unique is that all the fifth grade teachers in the division will have the same um all the classes will have the same specials time. And so the specials time in elementary school is the time when students go to PE, art, music, those those special areas or
encore areas. And that's when our classroom teachers have their planning time. So by having all of the schools in the district have the same block of time that allows our teachers to have common planning time with each other. So at any
of the one sites like the whole fifth grade team would be able to to plan with each other. Um they they would have the opportunity to have school-based PLC's because they're sharing the same students, but then they can also um engage in district-wide contentbased
PLC's for their specific area that they're teaching. So, you know, because there's only going to be one literacy teacher in a school or for fifth grade or one math teacher for fifth grade. Certainly, they have specialists and the coach and lots of lots of support, but
it will be very nice for all of those fifth grade math teachers, for instance, to be able to hop on to be on a Zoom together. the coordinator can be on there um coaches who are supporting math and be able to to sort of um collaborate with each other, plan with each other, particularly given that we have a we'll
have a new curriculum. Um, so that's a feature that, you know, there's been a lot of collaboration with with coordinators, certainly with principles to kind of figure this piece out so that teachers um are we can still maintain that departmentalized model, but we can
also make sure teachers are supported and have colleagues that are um teaching the same content. Okay? And it's a very short uh presentation just to kind of give you a glimpse of what it'll be like, but I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have.
>> Yeah, appreciate that. Um, Miss Bryant, >> I have no questions at this time, but thank you so much for your presentation. >> Sure. >> All right. Um, yeah, Miss Cooper, go ahead. >> Um, so given um looking at the
Oh, sorry. um the slide where um the students kind of will be moving around. Um so I know some of our schools um like will they have like a Pacific wing so that like they don't distract like the other grades with like the switching
classes and moving around. Uh, so I know Miss Powell has been working a lot with the principles on the reintegration of the fifth grade classrooms and sort of where they will be located and um can can you speak to the whether they'll all be to I mean typically they they group
the cla the the classes together and so yes she's confirming that they'll be just just as they are now typically like first grade classes are together second grade so the the idea is that proximity for the fifth grade classes as well. Okay. And the reason I asked is because
when I've um done school visits um I think it was last year um I noticed that like some of the classes um like maybe like a third grade class some of the classes were scattered and so I was just wondering like will all of those um grade levels be grouped together so when
they're moving around it's not a distraction to the other grades. >> Yeah. Um, our typical cohorts are three classrooms, but occasionally you'll see a a grade level go through where it only requires two and sometimes it requires up to four. And so Trailblazer is a good
example where you see there are some scattering. And um we there is capacity, the good news is there's capacity in the buildings to host our current and projected enrollments for the near term with the resoning decisions that were made to get ahead of the construction
particularly in the summit. um school zone, but um there are times when you see a cohort coming through and you're going to have to go to four instead of your normal three or whatever. And the principles make some decisions around that year to year. But the plans that we
have seen um with the reconfiguration, they have the um there the classrooms are in proximity by grade level for every um grade. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. Uh, thank you for the presentation. I know we're going back to all the
elementary schools with the fifth graders, which is great. The three teachers per grade, are we concerned ever with having, let's say, only 40 kids and three teachers and being kind of overstaffed or how do you manage for that?
>> Yeah, so those those three teachers are based on the projected enrollments that we're anticipating having and just it it's it's most of our grade levels. That's kind of how that works out. Like Miss Pal said, occasionally we have numbers for two or four. We can work the same model, like the same differentiated
or same departmental, excuse me, model with two or four teachers. It would just be a reconfiguration of the subject areas. So, um it would likely look like a literacy and social studies, a math and science teacher, like that type of a breakdown. Um while still maintaining
the same, we've worked it out. So we while still maintaining that same planning time being consistent. Um so it's just a it's a slight and if you have four you can have two pairs of people. So we it's a it's slightly different. We just presented this model because right now that's what we're
slated to have. >> Miss Burns, no questions. Miss Craig had >> uh yeah I was just wondering about the split between social studies and sciences. is like will that be like every other day or like every other week or sort of what's the split there? >> Yeah. Um right now the fifth graders
have um each of those classes um like they have both both days like or every day they have both classes. So um that amount of time allows for us to do to do both. Um, but it could be flexible in in that like if if there was a day where
there was a particular, you know, science lab or something that we needed to to extend and have a longer block and a shorter social, you know, you could kind of trade we could trade time as as needed with that. Um, particularly since, you know, the the fifth grade is very, you know, science um, heavy, but
um, yeah, generally speaking, that time would be split for for both subject areas. >> Great. Thank you, Miss Douly. Miss Richardson, >> I don't have any questions, but I do want to point out that I like the um
common planning time for all the teachers. It it really means a lot so everybody can have time to get everything together and prepare for their students and um the rest of the day or the week or however that goes. Um how are the teachers feeling about um
this new transition? Yeah. So I think um you know principles are certainly working with their with their teams and and and the the incoming teachers most many of whom are coming from you know Walker as fifth grade and so this is you know they've been doing a
departmentalized approach. So this is going to be probably a more seamless um transition for them than if if they were to take on you know all of the subject areas like the K um four teachers have been doing. Oh, wait. I do have a question. And um how are you guys preparing the fourth
graders for the new uh fifth grade schedule? >> Yeah. Um that's that's on the horizon of of what you know what we will be um principles will be talking about with um with students. Certainly nailing down this schedule and and this plan was was
was first on our list. We did notify families of our fourth graders earlier this school year and we didn't have the exact plan, but we did go ahead and prep students and families that, you know, ne they would be hearing about these plans and that we could go ahead and tell them for sure they were going to have multiple teachers and, you know, they
would start switching classes and stuff. So, um, they're getting, you know, they're they're getting accustomed to that. But, you know, we know our fifth graders have been successful with that at Walker and and, you know, they'll it'll be the same. Um, and I think, you know, it will also help them feel like the oldest kids in the building. You
know, it's a little it's it's a unique um structure and setup. So, um, we're hoping they'll be excited about it as well. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Um, just I think we've allocated money to bring in bigger desks, right, to do that transition.
>> We have a fifth grade furniture package. Yes. >> Yeah. So, are we all ready for that? >> Furniture isn't going to >> The summer the summer swap is ready. >> Yes. All of those plans are are are being made from from the fifth grade furniture to where shifting around the
classrooms in the building. Miss Pal's been working with the principles on that. >> Cool. Great. Thank you. >> All right. Now we have um potential land transfer. Miss Pal. >> Hello again, Madam Chair, members of the board. Dr. Gurley. Um, this evening I
bring before you a property matter for your consideration. Um, the address of the property is 1324 Long Street. And I don't know another way to share this summary other than to read it for the public. A 70-year-old resident owns his primary residence and two small adjacent
slivers of land and the parcel numbers are given there. Um, these additional small parcels are between his home and the Sunrise Elementary playground, specifically the large blacktop play area. While he qualifies for the city's elderly real estate tax relief program based on income and age, his ownership
of these two additional small parcels currently renders him ineligible. To resolve this issue, his proono council from the legal aid justice center has propo proposed that he convey these two small parcels which have a combined assessed value of approximately $5,300
over to the Charlottesville City School Board. So, the rest of this presentation, you're going to see a lot of photos to kind of orient you and the public to this property. This is if I'm standing at the top of the steps at um sunrise looking down towards the property. That house you see there um is the edge of
the the residence. And then um this is the an aerial view that's actually a lot more helpful. And what you can see here is that there's a rectangular parcel and then there's like this tiny uh triangular sort of shaped parcel. And you put those two together and you just get a slightly bigger rectangle. That's
what we're talking about. Um, this is the base map from the city's GIS system showing the same thing. Um, the property, you know, sort of fronts on uh 250 there. Um, but interestingly, and we'll come back to this, there's no real a there's there is an access road that
kind of sweeps up. It's a interesting little street that's not a street, and we'll talk about that more later. This is more information from the base map. I just want you to be able to see for yourselves the parcel numbers, the assessed values, and so forth. Um, I want to talk briefly about the
zoning for this property. It is currently a CX-5, which stands for corridor mixed use. And what that really speaks to is the density and the height that can be built there. But this is really we're talking small parcels. Our parcel is um CM, which is exempt
education because we're tax exempt. And so the main question that I could think of or the main homework I was able to do before getting any indication from you all as to how you want to proceed was to ask this question of um the city of NDS, which is if the board accepts the
property, will the city allow the school board to just get the zoning changed from a CX-5 to to CM to kind of fold it in with our property and and and or do we just get it changed to CM since we're the owners and then just continue to
hold it as two small small parcels just to minimize cost, minimize the work involved with trying to accommodate this request or would the city require the board to have the property surveyed, platted, and combined with our parcel. And so again, other than reading this, I'm not really sure how to convey, but
anything you see here in italics is from the email response I received from NDS. The zoning on the two small small parcels doesn't automatically change to CM if we acquire them. If we if you accept the property, the only way to change zoning is to go through the resoning process. And then it goes on to
say, however, we are able to combine the CX-5 zone parcels into the larger CM parcel without reszoning them. This surprised me. This creates a split zone parcel where there are two zoning designations associated with the parcel. The city does not prefer this. I honestly didn't think they would allow
it because it does not they do not prefer this, but it's allowable. And then it talks about any kind of subdivision, which doesn't necessarily mean subdividing. It can mean any kind of boundary line adjustment. Um just requires a survey uh and a new plat that the city would review. Um so more info
about zoning and resoning and storm order fees, which was another question I just wanted to ask about. This next part is just talks about how again what does and doesn't trigger reszoning. And then um NDS was kind enough to forward my question about storm water taxes because
that's just something that we deal with. We actually have to pay this that even though we're tax exempt, we are fined um or assess the same kind of uh storm water fees that any other property is. Just because we're government held doesn't mean we're exempt. And I just wanted to make sure there was nothing about this property that would cause our
stormwater fee assessment to go up. And the answer was no. >> And Sunrise and Sunrise is Charlottesville City Schools, not the city. >> It is. Yes. I'm sorry. We wouldn't even be here talking about this if it were probably a city pro part property. We
just would have allowed the city would have been the decision maker. I'm sorry. >> Well, I was I kind of leaned over and asked him that and was just like, why didn't he just give it to the city? >> I should have I should have um fronted that information. Apologies. It wouldn't even be your agenda item if this wasn't one of the properties that is titled to
the school board. Thank you for asking that question. Okay, so more photos just to orient you. Um, this is like looking from the parking lot down there by the playground and there and then you can see the entrance uh granted snow coverage. You can see I was killing multiple birds with one stone when I was
doing campus assess uh assessments. That's when I snapped these pictures. But this is the driveway that goes in there. And it again, it is such an interesting um little area of homes because they're long street addresses, but they don't have individual, you know, none of those properties have
individual access right onto 250 for understandable reasons. So, there's that access that goes up from 250, but the primary access, and I saw someone using it even while I was there, is that to go out the back, if you will. Um, I don't know if I Oh, yeah, my cursor works.
See, right here, they come out that back way. And so when I look at this property uh matter, the big questions that I think would should be firmly resolved before you make your decision are just making sure
there's no encroachment concerns for the future because the last thing you want to do is accept uh parcels of property that down the road there's boundary line issues. So, um, I immediately thought about the setback of the home from the prop where the property lines are
because there's some of the views on the GIS that it looks like it's really tight, but um, I don't know if the city really has a lot with regard to setback requirements like you find in county. So, maybe not a problem, but that's something you're not going to know unless there's a survey. And then simil
similarly I can never say that word that that rear entrance driveway the way it kind of curves and sweeps in like understanding where that is in relation to the property lines again to make sure that there doesn't become any kind of boundary line encroachment disputes or entanglements in the future.
Um, so cost, right? What does it cost the schoolboard potentially to do this? A title search should be less than a thousand bucks. And that's just good practice in any situation like this. Probably a couple few hundred bucks, 250, whatever. That's not a big expense.
Re there's a um I happen to know a lot of people who worked in the surveying business. and um research. We can I can pull whatever documents the city has, see what the quality and recent how recent the latest surveys are that are on file, but all in all, it's probably
good to just order a new survey, which should cost less than $3,000. Um so the cost out of pocket to do this should be less than the appraised value of the property. Um, and so I was
reluctant to take on any of the to do any more than what I've done without getting some kind of indication from the board as to how you'd like to proceed. That's all I have for you and really want to just get your feedback and questions for additional homework I may need to do.
>> I'm going to start to the right, Miss Douly, real estate lady. um does this have any value to the division or our students? >> Well, and so that's ultimately why we
are here. Um our schoolboard attorney, you know, I mean, he's said we need to take our direction from you all. I mean, you know, based on where it sits, I mean, I don't know how much more usage I
mean, I don't know that it provides any extra value to Sunrise. Uh I mean clearly there are uh as Miss Powell presented there are cost um associated with it but this isn't something that we
had planned to do um like acquire this piece of land two a month ago two months ago. >> Yeah I I empathize with the homeowner um but I don't think that this is something that we should be pursuing. Um, I would
welcome the legal aid center to contact the city to see if the city is interested in being deed these parcels and having it be cityowned property. Um, but I don't I'm not comfortable expending school funds on something that
does not directly benefit student outcomes. >> Miss Richardson. Okay, Miss Cooper. >> Um, I second with Miss Douly. It looks like it's a very small parcel of land
and I'm not sure um again how um it could the use and I don't know if we will be spending more money getting surveys of the land and all of that um for a piece of land that we really can't do anything with.
Miss Burns, >> I would concur. I ask procedural question. Is could could we move this to an action item tonight and and weigh in on it and just I I don't want to take up any more Miss Powell's time. Is it an
action item? Do you need like a >> just direction >> direct or do you just need direction? We had it today as an information item just to just kind of get the feel of the will of the board as a because we were told it need to be discussed publicly. >> So I I I would echo my colleagues and
thank you. No, thank you, >> Mr. Meyer. >> Yeah. The only thing I can think of is we acquire it and then someone rolls up those other three properties and wants to buy it from us in the future and we can make some money off of that. But like I doubt that's happening anytime soon. It just looks like liability to
me. So I don't Yeah. No, this is not I'm sorry again for this land owner, but I think the city might be a more appropriate kind of party that could fix this. >> Miss Bryant, >> um yes, I concur with my colleagues. Um
I think on the topic of encroachment, I think that could possibly um pose some issues in the future. So I definitely think that it would be best for us to uh pass on this opportunity. But similarly, as it's been said before, like I am
empathetic to the homeowner. I hope they're able to find a solution. I just don't know that it is directly tied to student outcomes for us. >> Miss Craighead, any comments? Yeah, I agree. Thank you. >> All right. And we will just respond to
the homeowner that we have no interest in acquiring that property. >> All right. Now, 12.4. Dr. Gurley. Give me one second. I've been sitting so long. All right. Uh good evening, Madam Chair,
members of the board, and um our community. Um this evening I will provide you an update on our fiscal year 2627 budget development process. Um and I will be focusing on our changes.
All right. Um since we met um we since the last time we've uh we met we did um receive notice that our budget um won again has won the meritorious budget award from ASBO and that's the
professional association for um for school business u and so just kudos um because it's just a recognition of the excellence that we continue to pour into our budget development process. Um this slide we always show you because
it's just a reminder that each year um the superintendent is required to um share a needsbased um pro present I should say a needsbased budget uh to the school board.
Uh as a reminder, we went through a budget um priorities process um and that process which which was which was done in collaboration with um our schoolboard members. Uh we held sessions uh with our
um PTOs um to gather um the things that were on people's mind in terms of what should we keep in the forefront of our budget development process. And here you see what those priorities are.
On this next slide, what we did was we aligned those priorities um with our strategic plan. And as you see there um student support, achievement and well-being and early childhood education
overlap with two of our um with two of our strategic paying priorities. And then we have compensation and retention which aligns with support for our staff. And then facilities and capital improvement um which aligns with our um
ensuring effective operations um priority. I will now take you through um our revenue where the funds come from. And we've talked about this and we've heard mention of it this evening. The revenues
pime um primarily um come from our city. Um the city accounts for 63% of our revenue. Um 20% of it the our revenue comes from the state and then um only 6% of our funding comes from um the federal
government. Um when we look at our local revenue that includes our tuition that we have for our non-residents and then we do um which we are so fortunate we do um get
um quite a number of donations um to Charlottesville City Schools. Uh our fund balance is considered a one-time revenue source and it reflects the accumulation of fund surpluses from the uh previous fiscal year.
We showed this um slide previously. Um it just illustrates our um trend over the last 10 years. Um you see where there was some significant increase and that was during our pandemic. Um that
was during the pandemic when we had um the ARP and the ESSER funds. Um we got a considerable amount of money during that time. Um but by the 25 26 year we start returning to prepandemic levels. Um and
then as a reminder our federal funds support key areas such as school nutrition uh title one um our title one and our title 6b which is special education. When we look at our trends across the
state, um this this shows a trend of the state revenues. Um the 20 fiscal year 24 represents the highest mark in our state revenue. Um this is the fiscal year we received the um $17 million towards the
support of the construction of our um beautiful middle school, Charlottesville Middle. the state funds um have been leveled funded um for for the fiscal year of 25 and for the fiscal year of 26.
Um we spend a lot of time talking about our um local composite index um and the 27 is a new biionial uh is a new biionial for the state budget and we were rebenchmarked um and so that's our
um local composite index which talks about our ability to pay and so our LCI um peaked in the during our current bianium which was um 77.02% 02% u but for the 27 by um for the 27 it will
decrease um by.36 so that will change our LCI to 76 um from se to 766%. um this change while it is a decrease um while it's a decrease we also um have a
decrease in our ADM which means we will see um less state funding for CCS and then um and then you'll see I just have some we have some notes there on the side u which further explains um elaborates on our local composite index
um so when we look at the comparison there are 134 um school divisions in the state of Virginia. Nine of these school divisions are at the highest LCI which is 80. Charlottesville City Schools is
ranked um just below this group with 7 with 76.66% that we mentioned earlier, placing us 10th um out of the 135. and we are well above the state average of 41.18%.
Um again a high LCI reflects a strong ability to pay which results in u a lower amount of state revenue um provided to the school division. When we look at enrollment trends um
this was a chart Miss Hoover and I went to the um state conference back in January. uh which is always an informative time in terms of what's happening in the state of affairs with enrollment and school finance. Um and as
you can see there there is a decline um there's a decline in enrollment in the state of um in the state of Virginia and what you'll see on the next slide is we are mirroring that decline. Um so what
you see at the state level we're also seeing here um we um we dropped so we do our um se fall membership count and so we had a decline of 86 students um so
that was from the 4443 and so that now puts us so that now puts us at 4357 students for fiscal year 26 which we are um currently in. Uh and then there are
some things that are reflected in that um enrollment projection which are lower birth rates u population mobility um and lasting shifts in family enrollment choice. You know, we saw we've seen an uptick um across the state and families
that are choosing homeschooling. Uh and so that's um also factored into those numbers. So um what does it mean as far as funding for CCS? So our um projection
from September the 30th reduced. Um so that means our state aid so our um projection our projections from the September 30th reduced the state aid to
the school division uh by604 million. Um and then we are estimating a state revenue that state revenue will decrease by $57,000
a little bit over $57,000. um the VR the VRS rate um has a change and so we are we had initially when we came to you um back earlier in the
process we had projected a higher uh VRS rate but we have through some of the budget work the last time we met we did present that we are um now going to calculate it at a much lower rate which helps us um in the budget process Um,
the governor is only giving a 2% raise for SOQ funded positions. And so we did insert a slide, which I'll get to in a second. Um, it's SOQ for um, it's 2% for those SOQ funded positions, but as you
know, and we continue to say, we we staff way over the SOQ in order to provide um, quality services for our students. Um so the governor is doing 2% but right now what's factored into our
um our budget is the 5.5% for our licensed personnel um which was in the um licensed personnel um collective bargaining agreement last year. And then what you also see baked in the current presentation is the um is the raise of
10.5% for uh for support personnel. Uh the funding formula um that Mr. admire uh has taken a liking to each year we do this presentation um that
when we look at this um as we presented in the pod the revenue comes from the city um which is our largest funding source of 63% the graph shows the blue bars um with the city's 40% new personal
and real property taxes designated for CCS and then the red line shows what the actual increase the funding um to the school division was in FY23 and FY24 the
division received an increase of $4.2 million in FY25 the school division received an annual increase of 7 million and this was um primarily due to the increase in the LCI rate to cover the loss in our state
revenue. Uh the FY26 the annual increase was 4.9. Um and the city is projecting $6 million in new revenue. Um and right now the funding formula
shows that we're going to receive $1.5 million. So let's talk about expenditures and where um the money goes. Um, so education is a bis uh is a people
business. Um, and so this is every school division. It's not just true of Charlottesville city schools. Uh, this donut shows that 73% of the budget goes to salaries and benefits. Um and we've
tal we talk a lot um we talk a lot about you know it takes you know having the right people at the table but also paying um paying people. Um the next largest expenditure are the contractual services for um maintenance and
transportation. Um the next slide shows the allocation of the personnel. Um so the majority of the personnel um reside in instruction
at 75%. Uh 14% of the personnel are custodians, nutrition workers, admin techs and then admin make up 12% of the personnel and this includes IT, finance, HR coordinators.
Um and to the side of the table what we did um minus the administration we just showed reflective of who's who's in what group in terms of and that's just because someone had asked about um relative to collective bargaining since
our last presentation um we did um add this slide I know um it came up during our last during our last work session and I think that we since we do have a new school board member U Miss Bryant, I think it's just really good to look at
this to show that um when you look at that first column, the state e um the state's um standard of qualities um FTE, full-time equivalents, that the state funds 312 positions. Um but we we um we
pay for 579 positions. And so when you look at something like the state says it only takes 267 teachers um to provide appropriate education, we know that many
times the 432 teachers that we are we have staff sometimes that doesn't even feel like enough. Um so it takes way more uh it takes way more to run a school division than the antiquated um SOQ model. Um, even when you look at
something like the state only um factors in that it you only need 13 school counselors to run a school division to run Charlottesville City Schools when we um have 13 when we have 30. So, and then you know the instructional assistance
which we heard talk of at the start of this meeting this a this e this afternoon evening. um the instructional systems the state says that we should only have 12 and you see we have 82 um and so it's a very antiquated model
we've talked about um how the JARK has done a lot of work in this area um and so that um that will continue to evolve in terms of the funding formula over time um compensation increases um we talked
about this um at the work session um no changes Since the last time we've met, we um have factored in um the collective bargaining um for licensed personnel, which you see that two um to the um
number of $2.7 million. The collective bargaining um ask for the um support personnel, which um equates to one uh $1.3 million um dollars. and then the 3%
raise for um administration which is the typical um the step plus just one and a half so it's for an average of 3%. And then our health insurance there's a 2% employer increase.
So here uh you see that the total personnel cost is $1.9 million. Um and that's what we have currently baked into the um budget presented to you all this evening.
Um when we talk about personnel when we talk about personnel savings um we will have some savings from the reconfiguration and so we know that the Walker we will be sunsetting the Walker
current model of the 56. Um and so you see those positions listed here. Uh we also have some additional um vacancies from um we also have some addition um vacancy savings throughout the year. And
then there is the Walker retention bonus um which we did have we baked that into the we baked that into the budget. So we won't need that bonus again next year. So that is a um a savings which we can transfer um and we can redirect
somewhere else um within our budget. On this slide we um we talk about this annually. Um there have been no changes since the last time we had the work session. The maintenance contracts um did decrease from the very first
presentation that we did. Um and then we have the transportation. Uh we have the transportation. Um we had projected um initially back when we first started the budget process an increase that would be about $487,000.
Um and this is a 10.6% increase over five years. And so what we see here is that the um increase in the contract will be $238,000 for a total uh city contracts increase
of about $470,000. >> Dr. Gurley. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Sorry, real quickly. Right there, just on that slide. So, wasn't that about $300,000 more the last time we saw that? Is that correct? Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Mhm.
>> And that's just updated updated information from the city that we're learning like what >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. >> How is that? >> I did say that wasn't a change. That was that this slide that part on this slide is a change since the work since the work session. Yeah. >> And what was the reason? Why was that?
What what gave us the difference? Do we know? >> Yeah. >> It's not wireless. when they were reviewing their when they were reviewing their budget, they just saw $300,000 addition that did need to
be there. So, this 238,000 reflects bus replacement. >> Thank you. >> All right, we good on that slide. Sorry. Um and as it relate as it relates to um
this slide, there have been no changes on this slide, although we did clean up some of the language here. Um what we on the previous slide when we when I when we previously presented this, that second position said K-tech agricultural
teacher. Um, Andy. Oh, it said vet. Um, it said vet science. Um, and so on that second position, it now says CHS agricultural science teacher. Uh, because the position is already 0.5 vet science at
KEK. That uh that teacher is endorsed in a and if you remember in the program of studies, we're bringing that class to CHS. Um so we will have the um we will have an agra science um class here that
we have in our program of studies and this is our way of making it whole. And then um we did have some questions about the gifted position. Um there was a lot of discussion. We talked at length about it during our last meeting and then we
had some questions after the meeting. So I just we just wanted to make sure that we clarified that that position is a teacher. That person teaches at CHS and that te this position also is the lead
gifted teacher um supporting the school division. So we did um have that clarity there. Those were the only changes to this slide since the um oh and I'm sorry. And then we did decrease um Dr.
Eley did um make a good catch on the lead gifted teacher at the last meeting that said $59,17. It's decreased by $4,000 because there was a um currently there's a stipen of $4,000 and we will not need that stipen.
Uh we will not need to stipen that position because the duties will be in the um gifted lead gifted teachers position. All right. Um so and then there are no other changes on that slide. And so the next is our um
budget summary. Um and so um here's the bottom line. Um just to summarize what we talked about this this evening. Um we are recognizing the um lost in loss in revenue uh because as I
said earlier because of the LCI decrease but also the decrease in enrollment. Um and then when you look at our expenditures when we talk about salary and benefits it comes to about $1.9 million. Our city contracts are listed
there. um uh student needs and improvements, the $347,000 um there to import um to support instruction operational effectiveness and then the total expenditures
increase. So right now the increase um is one uh is $2.8 8 million. And if you remember the slide, the funding formula, the funding formula is currently slated
at $1.5 million. Um and and lastly, this is our um just the budget summary. um just showing our percent of change from the 26 from um
FY26 to FY27. And then the budget calendar. Um we have we do have the joint work session on the 9th. Um, and I was here at the high school earlier and I was talking to um, at least a CSA and an instructional
assistant and I said that would be a great meeting that you probably want to show up to because city council will be in the room. Um, and so a lot of the things that we heard today you probably want to echo to our city councilors. Um we do have a placeholder on the um on
the calendar for the 12th and then um the meeting to approve um the proposed budget is in two weeks on February the 19th is when the budget is approved. Um and then city council
um our city council presentation is on March the 3. and I can take some questions. >> Thank you Dr. Gurley. Um yeah, I will open it up for questions discussion here um amongst my colleagues. So um thank
you for the updated presentation and who would like to start? >> We'll start. Um >> okay, Miss Bryant. >> Yes, I'm sorry. Um thank you so much Dr. Gurley and staff. This isn't a question,
but just to acknowledge um those the clarity on the positions that I had questions about, particularly uh the um the gifted education position that helped a lot. I know I had a lot of questions during our last budget work session. So, thank you so much for all
of your work on this. >> Yes, ma'am. I hope you feel better. >> Thank you so much, >> Mr. May. >> Thanks. So, uh, just to try to understand what our staffing looks like, again, not the compensation, but we're
saving 10 F, uh, full-time employees with the Walker configuration. >> All right. And then, uh, were there any other vacancy savings or other positions that were in addition to those 10? Miss Hoover's going to turn her mic on
and she'll I can tell you that we had vacancy savings from our coordinator position um because we didn't fill that but she can give you a comprehensive. So we had that other vacancy number encompassed
two ESL teachers that one we have budgeted and one's vacant and they were due to student enrollment number declines. We have a um instructional uh assistant
um that's included and that's because of decline in student enrollment. And then we have a course teacher uh that was a temporary uh position for this year. And then the remainder of that uh vacancy
number was the VRS rate change of about 1,54,000. >> So it's a total of 13 full >> million, >> you know, but how many full-time employees are we now having are having fewer?
Uh and we're adding 2.6 equivalent. looks like. So what's our net in employee change? >> Four four positions plus the 10. >> I guess my question here is it sounds like we're actually
>> it's eight. It's No, it's more than eight. >> We're going to have fewer staff, which also reflects fewer students if I don't think things correctly. All right. And we can get to the exact numbers another day, but wanted to Oh, I think it's
important to point out uh the other question going back to my favorite topic, Dr. Gurley, on I think it's slide 19 uh or 15. Yeah, the city funding formula. Is that a city ordinance or is
that just a guideline? >> I think it came out of >> It's a city guideline. >> A guideline. All right. So, it's not >> and it's not something that the school board has given as a guideline. That is city council guidelines. >> Correct. And does that 40% it just
reflects any increases in personal or real property tax, not all the different tax revenues that the city has? >> I can't answer that. I mean, we've been told that it's real estate and personal property. >> Okay. Well, I I'm looking at their
presentation from last Thursday and they're projecting $7.1 million of new additional tax revenue coming in. Uh, of that only four is or 3.9 is from real and personal property taxes. Actually
projecting out a reduction in by I think $60,000 in real personally personal property tax. So, uh, my my point being here being is that the the city has different tax levers they can pull if they want to increase taxes, which don't
necessarily again using the guidelines, you know, again, help our budget out or not. So, they can increase their total pie, but not necessarily increase ours. Now, we're going on a needsbased budget, right? So, we're not trying to have a
fixed amount here. And I remember very clearly again colleagues with two years ago talking with councelor Snook about this and there was agreement by them that we should again figure out a new funding formula. So that is why I'm not a big fan of this because it guarantees
short changing the schools basically no matter what. Um, so and it does not, again, this is projections. And so when they have a surplus at the end of the year in real property taxes like they've had over the years, do they write us a new check for 40% of that surplus? No, they do not.
So, um, sorry, I wanted to just I think that's important context for when we're we're thinking about, uh, you know, how we present our budget and, uh, in relation to the cities and and I don't want to say
what's fair here, but, you know, again, I started with we're actually reducing our headcount here uh, because we're seeing that and I think we are again presenting a needs-based budget. So, thank you. >> To answer your question, we're decreasing our FTS by 11.4.
>> Thank you, Mr. Meyer. And I think some of those again are worthy of Monday's meeting on the 9th when we're all in the room together. Um, Miss Miss Burns, do you want to jump in?
>> Sure. Thank you, Dr. Gurley, Miss Hoover. I know you all have been moving our levers so I appreciate that. Um I want to go back if we can just to look at um
slide my apologies where we're showing like the collective bargaining contracts. So 22 20 22 20 Thank you. Um, so we know our licensed
personnel that's ratified contract. We understand that number and I think I just I want to be clear that I hear and understand the gravity and the impact of our support staff needing this increase and
needing the collective bargaining piece to be ratified for them. But we don't have that contract yet. And it just it doesn't mean we don't want to do it. We just haven't seen it. We haven't received it yet. And it's just hard to
conceptualize like that number when we don't have a ratified contract yet for us to approve and for us sorry um to to have like scope and sustainability and what that looks like. And so I just when
I look then on further slides of like this joint budget work session on the 9th potentially you know we have this meeting on the 12th another work session and then approving your budget on the 19th. I just that doesn't sit well with
me when we haven't done the first step of the ask in the contract. And so I just I hope we see that soon. And I hope that comes to us and we can um I think for me like I want to honor what so many
of our staff are asking for and to validate um just the work that they do day in and day out and to support that. But we have to receive the document and we have to go through the process. So I am hopeful that we receive that soon um
so that we can keep the entire process moving forward. And I'll echo sentiments from you and Mr. Meyer and I'm sure my other colleagues like these stories that we heard tonight of the the disparity
and what our staff needs to make this right. Our city council partners also need to hear that. And so I am I know it's been said again. I'll say it again. Please come on the 9th and make sure that your city council hears your
stories and understands the impact of what it's like to live in Charlottesville or to not live in Charlottesville, but to work for Charlottesville City Schools that so many people are just dedicated and passionate extenders of the educators in
our buildings. And so I'm just hoping that that happens. Um, it's also a city council meeting on the 17th. It it doesn't have to be with us. You can go to city council without us as well. And so I hope that people um will look at
their calendar and continue to tell the story in city council chambers as well as here and at Walker. So that's my >> Miss Miss Burns to your point. Yeah. Thank you for all of that. Is is I think what you were trying to allude to a little bit is the timing piece of this,
right? I mean, that contract, we haven't seen it. It hasn't come to us. I don't know where that is at. Um, as far as the the process with >> the um Miss Lewis, Miss Lewis shared with me that the um the contract is um
slated to be ratified on um February the 16th is when they vote on the contract. So that means it would be presented to you all at the um first March meeting which I believe is the 5th or the 6th,
>> right? And then it's two readings, right? I mean it kind of falls outside of the time frame of when we're meeting and when we need to move and then we're presenting something to >> city >> city council and we I mean there's just a lot of unknowns but we don't even have
that piece in front of us yet. and and for the public's knowledge, I mean, we have stayed true to the ask and this number that has been plugged into the budget all the way along. So, we are supportive of that, >> but here we are down to the time. It's a
crunch, >> right? >> Thank you. >> Anyway, anybody else? Miss Douly, do you have Sorry, you're coughing down there. >> Miss Richardson, Miss Cooper, anybody? >> Um, thanks Dr. Garly and your team for this presentation. And um I would just
like to echo um all of the things that my colleagues had said. Um and also um we have been getting um massive amount of emails. Um, and I wanted to say that we do want to support our
support staff, but um, just to put it out there that, you know, um, to also send all of those emails to your, um, city council members so that they can also see it as we will be presenting this budget to them and they have um, to
approve um, the funding. So, making sure that you're sending um, these emails to your city councilors. Thank you. All right, I'll try to talk. Um, I saw some reaction in the audience. So, to be clear, we've seen a draft, but we have
not seen a final ratified uh contract for the support staff. And I think, you know, the the rub that we're trying to express is that a draft is exactly that. It's a draft and we are trying to create a budget um that is that we have to vote on. It's
final. And so I think that is um the timeline that we are trying to articulate some frustration and just the ability to move forward and make informed decisions is challenging um in absence of of that. Um
I just want to also draw attention to the disparity in salary increase for administrative staff. Um they are not part of bargaining units. Um, and I don't know that it's feasible in this budget cycle, but just want to stay
focused on them um, and the work that we're going to need to do in subsequent years to ensure that we are fully compensating um, our administrators as well. I think that's all I have right now. Anything else?
I mean again we have stayed firm with this and we are fully supportive of that and I think this is you know I know that um one of my colleagues and myself have reached out to some of the counselors and and presented these numbers and the importance of of you know them
supporting this full ask. And so that is our expectation and our hopes so that you know that what we are doing on on our end and from our um from the seats that we have um but I guess I'm a little
perplexed um what this looks like you know what are we presenting to them on the 9th. I mean we support this but we don't have a contract that has been voted on. Is that right? Am I am I using the right
language? >> Yes. So, it's the the contract is the contract will be the um uh Charlottesville Education Association um will be the support staff will be voting
on um on the 16th of February and then >> Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, first of all, a couple things. Um, you are correct that administrators do not have collective bargaining. I just want to be clear. That's because in 2001
when we signed cards to receive collective bargaining, the administrative bargaining unit didn't sign enough cards. That's on them. if they want to have another card campaign, they can come talk to us and we can do that. They don't have bargaining because
they chose not to have bargaining. Just so we're clear. Number two, we are talking to counselors. I have talked to three of the five already. So have all of our other people. They are getting the same emails you're getting. Don't worry, we will also be there Monday. Number three, we had a ratification
election on the books for yeah, late January snow apocalypse. Um, and then I have to tell you the reason you don't have a ratified contract is because there is a disagreement on one of the
articles and we have been waiting for city staff, this staff to engage with us about it. We can't ratify a contract that has doesn't have an agreement. Our lawyers have been talking. We have been waiting
on a response from Dr. Gurley and Miss Lewis. >> You have not responded to my email. >> My your response was to go through the bargaining process. >> All right. I'm going to I'm going to time out here, please. So, we're not >> I'm not saying you didn't respond. I'm
saying there's not a resolution to that disagreement. We cannot ask members to ratify a contract just like I wouldn't ask you to vote on this budget because you don't have the ratify contract. Also, a ratified contract is a union. That's
union business. It's not yours to do. It's ours. It's a chance for the bargaining unit to vote on the contract. Um it's it is the next step for us. It's not necessarily a roadblock to discussing what's actually in the
agreements. Um, we want it ratified. We wanted it ratified a month ago. >> All right. So, >> and so there's work that has to be done on the division's end to get that to you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, I just need
you to know and make sure that all your members know that we're we're in a time crunch now. So, I appreciate you coming up >> to clarify that. and um but but they also need to know that we've been fully supportive of this amount. So, thank you. >> And I I so I just want to make sure that
I clarify because I adore Miss Gillicanin, but so she sent me an email and I responded back immediately. Um I think yes, we do a we we disagree, but I think where we at is we're we're done. We're done with it. Okay. And if they're
not, then I think it goes back to the initial where we I mean the timeline should have started over the summer. I mean it's it's timeline. I mean so I don't know. I mean I am willing to do whatever
it takes to get us over the finish line. I mean we are I mean our group is done. Um so it sounds like to me it sounds like an impass but it also sounds like a timeline issue. So, >> so I mean I think moving forward we do
know we we have a meeting Monday. Um and then at this point I'm going to ask um Miss Thacker to go ahead and notice the work session for the 12th and if we don't need it we won't need it but to go ahead and and make sure that that is noticed properly. Um, and if there are
any other questions or comments, we'll talk. Um, any other questions? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next um item on the agenda is board response to written reports. We have our schoolboard committee reports, um, our
chronic absentee written report, and our outcome of student disciplinary matters. Mr. Meyer, do you have anything to say? >> Uh, I'm looking at the chronic absentism report. Want to congratulate staff. We
seem to be making progress. Uh, dropping down. There's a trend down the division total. there's been little bumps or whatnot, but uh appreciate the progress that's being made. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing this number further drop.
>> All right, and we are at 14.0. Excuse me, I'm losing my voice. Uh comments from members of the community. If there's anybody in the media center who'd like to come up and make comment, anybody in the Zoom
All right, thank you so much. Um, and now we're on to comments from the board. Um, I'm going to start with Miss Bryant. Do you have any comments? Um, yes. So, um, I want to start by saying I appreciate all of the community
uh members comments this evening. Um, I appreciate the fact that multiple staff uh shared their lived experiences and um drove home the point of why it's important for us to continue to support their collective bargaining
work and uh just fully supporting our staff in any way that we can. And I feel like everyone on the board um has expressed that. So I I agree with everyone else who said that too. Um, as
far as things that I've done recently that I've appreciated, I would say that, um, being a part of the meal distribution at CMS over the snow days was great. I really enjoyed being there. Um, it was good to see community
partners engaging in getting meals to um, families and making sure that families came to receive those meals. So, I appreciated the shuttling of students and um also just the fact that they were helping us get the word out.
Um I'll also just say that I appreciate the custodians who did all of the hard work to get the ice up and to help clear the school properties for us so that students could return to school. Um, I received a lot of emails about school
closure and uh varying opinions about whether or not that decision was rushed and I appreciate every single email. I try to respond back to everyone as soon as I can. So, I would just ask that on all issues. Continue to communicate with
me and I'll do my best to get back with you. Um, and lastly, I'll say uh happy Black History Month. There are so many other things I could touch on, but due to being sick, I'm going to limit my comments. Um, but happy Black History Month. My uh two great uncles, as some
of you may know, were uh two of the first 12 students to integrate schools here in Charlottesville City Schools um and attended Trailblazer. And one of my great uncles who was a part of the Charlottesville 12 did pass away earlier this week, Marvin Townson.
Um, I'm making that comment today because unfortunately I wasn't able to be there in person. Um, but I just wanted to I was going to make this kind of comment anyway to honor their legacy for Black History Month. Um, so yeah, it's it's very unfortunate. Um, but I am
just able to say that I learned so much from him and I know that he lived such a fulfilled life and left behind such a great legacy. Um, and so I encourage students, community members to dig into that history, learn about it, honor it
during this month and every day because it's such an important part of our school division's uh, history and legacy. Thank you so much and have a great evening, everyone. >> Thank you, Miss Bryant. Feel better. And thank you for sharing that,
Mr. Meyer. >> Uh, thanks. Yeah, a couple things I want to to to talk about. Um, one, uh, Snowville will was top of mind. I I do appreciate, I think, the efforts of our
staff to collaborate with city staff to again get our schools opened. um to my my public, you know, it takes all of us, I think, was we learned and I had some great uh snow shoveling interactions with some
neighbors who I've never met and before and and again to again try to open up these sidewalks and and bus stops to get folks. But, you know, there's a plea in there also to shovel your sidewalk, please everybody. Uh you know, again, we
can't expect the city to do everything. Uh I am looking forward to hearing from Miss Powell a afteraction report on how we're going to do better next time we collaborate with her. And not that I'm again blaming our staff but um I do want to see us these while are unprecedented
that we we seem to still have these storms every couple years and and again we can't figure out still how to get all the sidewalks cleared. So, um, yeah, hopefully if we have another one of these before the end of this winter season, and I don't want to again jinx
us here, but exactly, we're going to all figure it out. Take those shovels out we bought uh bought and uh get get to snow shoveling quickly. Uh, next colleagues, uh, and I hit on this last time, but the retention policy, I think I sent shared
with you guys an article. Um, and I really do want us to consider um that policy before the end of the year. Uh, I really do think we need to ensure our children are reading and if they're not, we should not be advancing them. Um, and and we need to I think
look at that and kind of carry on Mr. Morse's I think exhorttor exort uh uh plea to us to work on that. Uh, I've been talking a lot about screens and edtech and this math um that came up in the math curriculum. You
know, again, also I think we need to update that policy. We got some emails about that this week. Uh, and need to consider how that technology while as a tool is also potentially again I think impacting our students potentially negatively. Uh, very happy to see the
solar PPA agreements come to us. My ask is I think we can do more and I would like to take all the lessons learned with creating these two new ones uh and and try to get another one in so we can save some money again and and support uh our staff more and and and have more
resources, financial resources for our students. Uh finally and thinking about it is again uh thank you Miss Bryant for reminding me that is Black History Month. I uh go back to Mr. Eugene Williams who unfortunately um passed away this last
year and was a historic icon here in Charlottesville and did so much for our school system here and uh I think black students overall. So, thank you, >> Miss Burns. >> Thank you.
>> We had a snow event and we are all better. We're okay. We made it. Everyone's back to school. Thank you, Dr. Gurley. I want to just hug you. You did such a phenomenal job feeding our
children hot meals during a really difficult moment. And we went from no program to pizza, Domino's pizza at the back door of Mount
Zion Church and City of Promise front steps to hot meals at our brand new middle school with a beautiful kitchen and nutrition workers who were so excited to be there. Um, I was thankful
to be able to serve with you and Miss Bryant and Miss Torres and other community members that came out um to support our students. And I just I don't know if everyone appreciates what a heavy lift that is given the federal
guidelines with how we feed kids and how it gets counted and who it gets handed to. and I didn't even fully appreciate that. So, thank you for the education on that as well. We can all learn every day. Um, but I just um to see that
number grow every day. Um, getting the word out and working with our city partners and our teachers. We had teachers who came and brought families um that had been coordinating with social workers in the schools to make
sure that identified families were cared for. And I just um those who know me well know food is my love language. I love to feed people. I think that's like right hierarchy of needs. We feed people first. And it really just was a
tremendous honor to serve with you in that space. And so I just want to share that um and I said a lot during your budget presentation and I um again want to support what our support staff needs and
they need a living wage to be able to live in our city and care for our students and I want to support that and so I hope we can continue to move that process forward. Um, also again want to thank our custodial staff,
maintenance staff, the city, parks and wreck, everyone who came out um to help. Oh, and shout out to Matt with Parks and Wreck. He is the um the skate park manager, but he like converted into
nutrition helper. And he is lovely. If you haven't seen the video, he's the guy that's like super excited about the chicken. Um, and and that was a big that was a big deal. So, thank you to Matt for stepping out of the skate park and into our schools. That was great, too.
Um, so just I know sometimes we get a lot of emails about the difficult things and the heavy asks, but there are so many really amazing things happening. And I want also my colleagues and
community to hear that we are receiving that information. And Miss Torres and I are working hard together to hear you and to build agendas and build um work sessions on calendars and budgets and
development and how do we do this work better together? and just know that we are hearing you and it just takes a little bit of time to do some of these things, but we're hearing you and we're trying to take note and working them in
where we can and so I just really want to appreciate the work that gets done here every day and our teachers and staff who make it all happen. Thank you, Miss Cooper. Um just echoing what um some of my
colleagues already said, but I want to give a huge shout out to um the maintenance team. Um I think that you know have worked in maintenance for 10 years prior to the work that I do now. Um being outside in the snow um and ice
shoveling sidewalks is not an easy task. and we have a lot of schools, a lot of sidewalks, and it takes a lot of hard work, labor, your cold. Um, and so I just want to appreciate all of the helping hands and the volunteers um that
supported. I also would like to, you know, give Dr. early um a shout out too um because I know that over the weekend um and after hours um you received a lot of text messages, a lot of phone calls um and a
lot of emails and you are very responsive to each and every one of them um and so I gladly appreciate um your commitment to our students, to our families, and to our community. Um, and thanks to the board, thanks to Amanda,
um, and Miss Bryant, um, for showing up, um, and for all of the volunteers, Lisa, um, for being able to provide our families with meals, um, food insecurity in our community is real. Um, so I appreciate the fact that our school
system um, stepped up to make sure that our families had access to food during the um, inclement weather. So, I just appreciate all hands and all efforts um that it took to get our kids back to school safe. So, I appreciate you,
>> Miss Richardson. >> Uh I just want to say thank you to everybody who presented today. Um I was excited to see the presentation for the PPA because I kind of caught it earlier this week. So, um I did have questions from when I sat in on Monday. And you
know, I'm going to say happy Black History Month. Um that's something that I will not forget. I will always remember that. And um I hope you guys celebrate and really remember how far we have came and how far we're going to go. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Julie.
>> All right. Um while we're on the gratitude train from the storm, um Miss Small Chick, did I say that correctly? Did I get it? Okay. Um, welcome to the world of winter weather advisory and communications. I understand you've been doing that a lot. Um, not just this most
recent storm, but kudos to you for the communications that have gone out around this storm. Um, probably too many closures than any of us really wanted or families wanted. I was happy to fire my 8-year-old assistant and send him back to school on Monday. Um, but um, just being informed and knowing what was
happening um, was very much appreciated. So, thank you for all of your work. Um, and just to go back to my comment about administrators to me, I don't it's we need to treat our people well regardless of whether they're in a bargaining unit. That's my point. Um, and so just
continuing regardless of whether you're um part of CA or not, we want to make sure we're taking care of care of our people. So we will continue to do so. >> Thank you. Um, thank you for all the comments everybody. Again, just a quick shout out again to principles,
counselors, our clerk, deputy clerk, and my colleagues. So appreciate all of you and and all of the roles and our superintendent um and your staff and and there was and several people have alluded to a lot of the behind the scenes and I'm sure
there's so much time and hours and phone calls and collaboration and meetings with emergency um preparedness folks on the city level and and you and Mr. Sanders and everybody all of that. So, um, please know that we are aware of that and we
are grateful for you and and what you what you did, what we as a team did. And yeah, I'm sure there are things that we've learned. Um, and I know that all of us and I know um, you and Miss Pal received probably daily little texts
from me as I was driving around doing my daily work like this corner, look at this corner, I see students and not blaming anybody, but it's just an awareness of like seeing kids climb over ice and waiting at a at a major light
and intersection just made me want to jump out of my car, you know, and make sure that they got across. us. So again, just an awareness for anybody out there who might be listening to this, you know, and and um and even later, it
really is a we, right? We have to take care of everybody here. And whether it's students, whether it's um I I saw, you know, a community member with her walker today parked off to the side as she's
trying to hold her car with the shovel to get ice out. and I just had the throw. Or that wasn't today, that was yesterday. Anyway, you get it. We all have to take care of each other. And and so if there are sections of sidewalks you can't get to it or you see your
neighbor can't get to it, fine. I mean, this was wonderful. We had United Way step up. Um but we but we have to be mindful of the fact that that those sidewalks out front are impacting everybody potentially that are walking
bus stops. You know, people sitting on piles of ice in the road because they can't get to the sidewalk for the cat stop. So anyway, just a lot of safety. We need to take care of each other. I think we did a great job um to the best
of our abilities and I just am so grateful for you and for Mr. Sanders and everybody who's pitched in. Um and I'm going to stop and and that's it for my comments. So, thank you. Next would be um your comments, sir.
>> Sure. Um I just want to um just thank our our community. Um this job requires a lot of grace. um you know there are um never um right answers but there are
always wrong answers. Um and so we are always going to heir on the side of caution um and keep students safe. Um but we um but when we know we can do it safely, we are always going to bring students back.
Um and that's what happened over the course of of the last few days. It was hard. Um, but most certainly I will not take any credit to what happened um with the meals. While I appreciate a gold star and a certificate and a trophy, um
I will not accept one this time. Mr. Jones collaborated um with some partners in the surrounding areas. He got the grant put in and then you know the unsung heroes. We talk about what
happened in this community, but we had school nutrition workers who drove from Gordensville, Green County. I mean, you know, people were coming outside of Charlottesville to ensure that our students were being fed in this community. Um, and so I
appreciate it. You know, um, I appreciate Dr. Johnson um who never wants to take credit for anything but but really you know getting the message out she and the face team getting the message out to community partners. Um
just a lot of work happened. Um I mean you know people see news stories and think that people just show up for meals and you know a lot of time with our families um you know was neglected during that time but it was worth it
because the greater cause was to make sure that every person who wanted a meal could get a meal and we made that happen. Um happy schoolboard appreciation um month. Um I appreciate you all. I appreciate my left and right
hand school board clerk and vice and and the deputy clerk. Um and I'm always going to end with um smart people can work anywhere and I'm surrounded by some very smart people. Um you know we we recognize our
principles um who are working tirelessly um you know and then we have a central office staff who um have a lot of ands in their titles um who are doing a lot of work and so I just thank you all for
continuing to show up each and every day because I cannot do it by myself. So see you tomorrow. >> Thank you. and work session wrap-up. I don't think we have anything, Miss Swift. Thank you. Upcoming meetings real quickly. Again, Monday, February 9th, this is a joint budget work session with
city council. This will be held at 5:00 p.m. um at Walker in the cafeteria. So, I encourage everybody to show up and make your comments there, please. Um, Thursday, February 12th, we do have slated for a follow-up schoolboard budget work session to just look at
those types of any changes that we might need to bring forward or or talk about some more. And then the following Thursday, the 19th, is when uh the school board will approve, receive and approve the superintendent's proposed budget. Um, that is at 5:00 p.m. here in
the media center. 5:00 p.m. for that one. And then our next regular meeting would be Thursday, March 5th, um at 6 PM here um in the media center.