Good evening. This is April Chandler calling to order the Legislative Audit and Policy Committee meeting for June 17th, 2025. Um, we normally begin with public comment, but there are no in-person public comments tonight. Um, the meeting will be audio recorded and posted in board docs. Um, we will move on to item number 3.01, approval of the April 29th, 2025 draft minutes. May I please have a motion to approve the April meeting minutes? I moved to approve. I moved to approve the April meeting minutes. I second the motion. Thank you very much. Um, the motion was made by Ms.
Donahue and seconded by Ms. Chandler. Uh, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, uh, hearing the, uh, the motion passes unanimously wi with Mrs. Cherno, with Mrs. Shernoff absent for the vote. Um, next we'll move on to our action item, um, number 4.01 policy, 2310 committees of the school board. Um, this policy governs the structure, um, efficiency and effectiveness of the committees to support the work of the board and the school division. Um, Ms. Allen, our chief communications and community
or chief of communications and community engagement will be presenting, oh, pardon me, Mr. Uh, Dr. Bergen will be presenting tonight. Thank you for the clarification. Um, Dr. Bergen, the floor is yours. Sure. And I'm also going to call on my colleague, Mr. Allen at the other end, who has done a lot of the work on the language in this policy to answer any questions. Um, I think you're both familiar with this policy from previous discussions of this. Um, We, uh, first started in on this policy
because, uh, the administration was looking to find a way that we could codify the work of the school business partnership. Um, it does exist. It is an advisory to the administration. It it's a very effective group to help inform our programming. But we didn't have any, we didn't have it codified in policy how we could capture the work of a group such as the school business. So that's where this started. Um, and then as we dug into this, there's been a lot of, uh, discussion with this committee and others about the paragraph on SAC and the work on the discipline committees.
And so at this point, I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Allen to, to carry it from here. We Thank you Dr. Bergen. Hold this up myself. Uh, if you can gimme a moment, I'm rushing it from another committee meeting. Okay. Well, that's fine. While, while you, uh, continue to look into their West, for our board members, I would just refer you to, uh, the red line version. Uh, it is on the second page, section seven, paragraph C, student Behavior and Accountability Committee.
Um, so you currently, prior to any revisions to this policy, school discipline hearings are heard by, uh, by SPAC as a three member committee. And they liaison with, uh, student support services for ease of scheduling and to make sure that there's timelines involved with hearing these discipline committees. They, they have to happen in a very prescribed cadence. Um, there's been some interest from other school board members who might like to serve on discipline committees. And so we've been in conversation between various board members about how can we keep the work consistent with SAC, uh,
to make sure that the hearings are conducted in a very consistent manner and in a timely manner as needed by prescribed timelines. And allow other board members the opportunity to participate in discipline committees if they're so inclined. And so, as it's written, you can see the wording itself, but it essentially would establish it, the SPAC chair would be the chair for every discipline committee. A second member of SPAC would be two of the three members. And then for another board member who's not a part of SBA C, if they're so inclined and want to participate, they would be invited to join in so they could understand the process and hear cases.
If no one outside of SPAC was interested in hearing cases, then it would fall to the three SPAC members to carry on as they currently do. Does that sound about right, Wes? Uh, that's correct. Um, so those, that's the, the, a major change to this policy that we're bringing forward to you. In addition to, uh, another change, as I alluded to earlier, is a way to codify the work of the school business partnership by establishing that there is such a thing as advisory committees established by the administration, um, as opposed to advisory committees
established by the board. So CAC as an, as an example of an advisory committee established by the board, that's three board members appointed by the board that has lots of community members and staff that support their work different for a school division. Administratively, uh, created advisory is the administration establishes the membership of the committee, and the board appoints a liaison, a single board member to be a liaison to the work. Right? So, so, and that's how it works now. So, Mr. Refe is the board appointed liaison
to the school business partnership. He regularly attends their meetings and is well-informed about that work. And then he can report back to the board about what he's learning and can provide input, uh, as what he's hearing from board colleagues. Those are the two major changes. Um, uh, some of the rest of this was, uh, Wes, had we spelled out previously, each of the advisory committees and their responsibilities, 'cause I see they're all in red line. Thank you, Dr. Bergen. Uh, yes, staff made an effort to, uh, harmonize or make sure that these descriptions were consistent based
on input we received from the community at a prior LAMP meeting. And so, um, we took that to heart and provided, um, updated language just to have more consistency in that approach. And then moving down to section C oh, or up to section C for select committees, you'll see, uh, proposed language for this committee's consideration just to provide, um, more information and clarity on chairship and membership of select committees, which, uh, staff. And its, uh, review of this policy with fresh eyes noticed,
um, might be helpful for clarification. But of course, that's just for, uh, this committee's consideration. Um, you're welcome to, uh, provide additional or alternative language as you see fed. Thank you Dr. Bergen. And thank you Mr. Allen, um, for refreshing our memory since it has been some time since we, um, met together in committee. Um, at this time, I'll ask, uh, Ms. Donahue, do you have any questions? No. Chair Chandler. Thank you. Thank you. Um, well, I would like to propose a motion. Um, I am referencing the updated red line at line 2 86.
Um, I would like to incorporate, incorporate, incorporate the CAC, um, suggestions. So we would re remove receiving special education services and replace that with, with disabilities. And then I would suggest that we delete lines 2 87 to 2 89 and replace it with the functions of CAC are as follows, a, advise the local school division of needs in the Education of Children with Disabilities, participate in the development, or B, participate in the development of priorities
and strategies for meeting the identified needs of children with disabilities. C. Submit periodic reports and recommendations regarding the education of children with disabilities to the division superintendent board transmission to the local school board d assist the local school division in interpreting plans to the community for meeting the special needs of children with disabilities for educational services, and or e review the policies and procedures for the provision of special education and related services prior to the submission to the local school board
and f participate in the review of the local school division's annual plan as outlined in subdivision B two of this section. Ms. Donahue, Ms. Chandler, uh, chair Chandler. Um, if I could ask a clarifying question. Sure. Are you proposing this as one consolidated amendment or separate amendments? One consolidated amendment? I, I think, um, given that CAC is one of the parent advisory committees that exists as a result of being required by the Virginia Department of Education, and, and I believe as codified in the law, um,
it does seem important to me to include the description of their work that their committee proposed and voted on in the policy. Second, Thank you. If I, if I could Sure. Go ahead. So my, I, I'm not opposed necessarily to the change, um, but it, it is, it is adding a lot more specifics into the, into the, into the description or definition of CAC that we don't have
with regard to the other advisory committees. Um, I don't, I don't know if there was desire to add more information to any of the others, or if there's a particular reasons o other than just this is what Ciac requested. If there is other reason why we would want their, um, their paragraph here to be more detailed and specific than the others. From my perspective, it is really just an issue of, um, they have offered this recommendation for the policy,
and I do feel, um, that it is important to honor their recommendation. Um, it seems important to me. Um, that said, I would be happy to hear if staff has any concerns or issues that they would like to, um, have us consider before we vote. Thank you. Chair handler. The one item I, well, two, two considerations. Um, there are other advisory committees that are required by the Virginia Administrative Code and have, um, and, and all of these are referenced. So the, the language that you referenced, which is from,
I believe a VAC 20 dash 81, dash two 30 section D, um, that that is cited, um, here as a legal reference. The, the one concern or consideration that the committee and board will, um, want to keep in mind is as, um, there's various statutory or, um, amendments to the Virginia Administrative Code. Uh, they may require more or less, and you, the policy could be not addressing those or over addressing as the case may be.
So, but it's certainly within, um, this committee's purview. And if there would like to be consistency for some of the other advisory committees that are required by law, such as the gifted educational, uh, education Advisory Committee and the Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee, we might want to kind of spell those out. And kind of, we, we made efforts in light of the public comment, um, to make sure these were consistent and copied language from the each of these advisory committee's, uh, bylaws. But if, if that's kind
of the direction the committee would like, we can re fashion these to make sure they're kind of consistent with what's set forth in the Virginia Administrative Code. Have we actually taken, um, the step of asking the committees that are required by law what they would like the, the, how they would like their work to be described in policy? Thank you. I don't believe we have, I I think that's a fair recommendation or consideration. Um, Ms. Donahue, would you like to, um, make that offer to the committees? It, it may delay this policy and committee further.
So that's, um, thank you Juror Chandler. I, I am a little conflicted about that because, um, while I like the consistency of the, of the current draft, if there is a thought of making changes to all of them to still be consistent, but more detailed, I'm, I'm not, I'm certainly not opposed to that. Um, but this policy has been in committee for a little while already, and even if we move it forward to the full board today, it will still not get voted on until August.
Um, so I'm, I really was of the mindset that I would like to, uh, vote this policy out of committee today, um, even though I am saddened by the fact that, um, that means we will have to do it on our own without our partner, Ms. Shernoff. Um, but, um, given that it will go before the full school school board is an information item, could we please ask staff to consult with the committees to get, receive their feedback and then we could, um, incorporate some changes
or present some information to allow the full school board to consider any proposed language? I mean, sure. We certainly can. Um, in summary, what I'm hearing is, and, and I, I appreciate the optics, uh, Ms. Don Hugh, you, you've got this with all due respect to CAC, they're gonna have a very long description of their work. And then a two sentence description of the, of the other advisories. Um, and it was meant to be concise and policy does not have to capture literally everything that we do. Uh, and using a truncated description
of CAC would not limit them to everything that you just read, uh, that they would, that that is their work, that will continue to be their work. Whether we codify that in the policy or not, this policy is simply trying to help the public understand we have a number of advisories, and generally this is what they do. Um, so the staff recommendation, I was very comfortable with the staff recommendation. That is not any disrespect to our advisories for the feedback that they've provided. We value their feedback and we regularly incorporate feedback from our advisories
across all of our policies. I sort of tilt with Ms. Don Hill on this one that this, um, is a rather lengthy description. And in, and just for the optics of all the others, we can, to your question, go back and ask each of the other advisories to help us, you know, make a more robust description of all that they do. Uh, but I'm not sure that it's necessary for policy there. They have bylaws. They, they have their own practices. We're not gonna capture literally everything that they do. Um, so speaking only for myself on rep on behalf
of administration, we were happy with what we brought you, but if you, if you'd like us to expand on all the other definitions, we can and we can have that ready, we can try to have that ready for the next school board meeting when this comes forward for information. Thank you for that, Dr. Bergen. Um, I would be curious if, if there are any other aspects that, well, I guess we should vote on the motion. Um, so the motion has been properly, um, made, um, by Ms. Chandler and seconded by Ms. Donahue. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Okay.
Um, seeing as there is no possibility of breaking the stalemate, um, the motion, um, fails. So one to one, um, Can I ask a clarifying question before I move on? Sure. Um, given that we know some of our advisory committees, um, don't meet during the summer, getting feedback from them for the next board meeting might be difficult. So, not to say that it's impossible, but are we thinking date, timeline wise? Like when you would hope to have that? I was just curious.
Um, good point, but tracking what just happened, the vote to the amendment to the base motion failed. So just for point of order, I think that takes us back to the base motion. Mm-hmm. Which would be to accept the, the, uh, revisions as presented. So negate the need to go back and get more information from advisors. I guess that was my question. Does it negate that? Because it sounded like they still might wanna get feedback from advisory about what it says about them in the policy, even though this didn't pass.
But I might be confusing that. No, I mean, I, my request still stands. I, I do think it's valuable to, to reach out to the committees and ask for their feedback if we haven't done so yet, as of to date. Okay. Which we, we work for the, the pleasure of the board. So we are happy to, to, to Natalie's point, we're gonna have difficulty communicating with most of these organizations until August anyway. So are you opposed to taking any action on this policy today as presented?
And then we can bring back revisions in the future if you want to consider it. Again, I'm, I'm, I'm just following your lead, Madam Chair. Thank you for that, Dr. Bergen. Um, I, I am, um, I have struggled a great deal, um, with this policy and some of the revisions. I, I can't necessarily say why. I just wanna make sure that we get it right. Um, I am willing to have it go forth in to the full board. I, and I, I'm willing to do that today,
Would be supportive of that. So, um, we'll see what we can do and we'll see how it goes. And, um, I'm, I'm sure if people care enough to provide feedback, they will. Okay. Um, is there any more discussion on the policy? No. Um, I have expressed some of my, um, reservations. I am gonna vote in favor of moving the policy forward today, um, more out of timeliness than necessarily expressing any positions. Um, you may find that what I say in front of the full school school board may reflect, um, different, a different perspective.
But I, I do wanna make sure that we are timely with our work and continuing to move it forward. So, um, is there a, a motion, um, to be made regarding, um, moving the policy? I miss Donahue. Thank you, chair Chandler. Uh, I move that, uh, the legislative audit and policy committee approve the staff version, um, red line of policy 2310, and send it to the school board for consideration as an information item.
I'll second the motion. Um, the motion has been made by Ms. Donahue and seconded by Ms. Chandler. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say, aye. Aye. Aye. Um, seeing none opposed, um, the motion passes. Uh, I get two, uh, with two members present and Ms. Chernoff absent for the vote. And with that, uh, we will move on to our information items. We'll begin tonight with item 5.01, office of the auditor General, uh, draft fiscal year 26 audit plan. The purpose of the audit plan is to improve the transparency
of the internal audit function and to keep the audit committee and other stakeholders informed about audit management. Um, and the draft audit plan has identified some potential audits for the fiscal year 2026. Um, Mr. Audit, um, sorry. I'm such a headache. Um, Mr. Ahad Woods, the Auditor General will be presenting. Um, Mr. Woods, the floor is yours. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, what we have here is a list of 15 audits that we've ident or audit topics that we've identified in the audit universe. Um, the listing was developed using a, uh, series
of surveys administered to senior staff, principals and board members. And out of those surveys, we came up with a listing of 15 potential audits. Um, today we're just sharing that universe. Um, nothing else needs to happen today. So, between now and our next LA and P meeting, we have two months, which is plenty of time for committee members to review the, uh, the list of audits to come up with audits. They'd like to see also during this period, if there's any audits that are not on the list. If you are more than welcome to provide a, a topic or an audit title, uh, to me,
and we can add it to the next meeting and discuss there for approval. Um, and so right now we ask that you just, uh, take a look and if you have any questions regarding the universe, I'm here to help. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Woods. Um, so I understand our, um, assignment for the next committee meeting would be to have an idea of what our priorities would be so that we can have a more fulsome discussion. Correct. Also, please note that the universe as presented is just a count. They are not categorized in any risk or priority.
Uh, it is just a listing of the audits that we've developed. Thank you for that clarification. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? No. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, given, um, we will move on to our, um, next item, which is 5.2, the legislative update. This update aims to inform the committee and the community about updates that have occurred since the end of the legislative session. Uh, Mr. John Sutton, our coordinator for government relations, will be presenting. Mr. Sutton, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, very quickly, uh, this will be, this will be even quicker than the audit,
uh, the audit piece. Um, I just have a brief update for the, for the committee this time. Uh, this go round, uh, we're in the early stages of planning both our legislative priorities, uh, for next year, uh, as well as next, uh, next year's session, as well as up the upcoming legislative breakfast. Uh, I know that's a very important, uh, very important thing, uh, for our community and, and for our delegation. So, uh, the legislative breakfast has been tentatively scheduled for November 14th. Uh, I'll send something out, uh, very quickly, uh, to, uh, give you guys the heads up on, on, on that.
Um, and as these plans work out, as they flesh out, I'll be more than happy and, and look forward to sharing further details with the committee. Um, thank you Mr. Sutton. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? Nope. Seeing none. Um, we have completed the items on our agenda for this meeting. Uh, is there any new business? Uh, Ms. Donahue? Thank you, chair Chandler. Uh, we have discussed previously in this committee, and also it came up briefly at our board retreat. Um, the question of public comment and our public comment policy, and if it would be potentially in the best interest
of the division and the community to consider making changes. Um, and I would advocate that we should consider making some kind of changes. Um, as you are well aware, um, we've had several instances this year, um, where a very large number of public speakers have signed up to come out to our meetings. And while it is fantastic to have the community involvement, uh, and to hear from the members of the community
what their priorities are, and, you know, what is of the most importance to them, um, I have struggled with, um, how to balance that in light of our other responsibilities. Um, and I have thought of, uh, you know, we've, we've done research on what other boards, other school boards and other, um, you know, other bodies, uh, the way that they do public comment, um, considered a number of possible changes.
Um, and in my, in my mind, uh, I would suggest that we consider possibly dedicating one night a month as a public comment night, Just as a thought. Um, well thank you for bringing that forth as new business. Um, I would be happy to add that to the agenda for the August meeting, um, and I'll look forward to engaging in the discussion. Um, is there, actually, I will ask, um, Mr. Allen, is there any parliamentary procedure that's required
or is it's my purview as the chair to determine the agenda? That, that's correct. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you for that clarification. Um, with that, um, seeing no further business, we are adjourned. Thank you.