Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County School Board Regular Meeting, Thursday, May 23, 2024

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2024
Place: Albemarle County Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 2h 35m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtHhDg6Upo4

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:02] I'll call this meeting of the Elmoral County School Board back to order. Do we have a motion? - We do. I move that the board certified by recorded vote that to the best of each board member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

[00:00:26] - Second. - Moved by Ms. Spillman, seconded by Dr. Acuff. Could we have a roll call vote on this, please, Christine? - Mr. Chuck Pace. Yes. Dr. Acuff? Yes. Ms. Osborne? Yes. Mr. Graham Page?

[00:00:42] Yes. Dr. Berlin? Yes. Ms. Spillman? Yes. Chair Lee? Yes. So moved. Okay. Thank you very much. And then we have a motion coming out of closed. We do, Chair Lee. I move that this board adopt the teacher nominations for 2024-25.

[00:01:00] I second. Moved by Dr. Acuff and seconded by Mr. Chuck Pace. All those in favor? Aye. - Aye. - Not opposed? All right, so moved, thank you. Next, we will start with our roll call. Let's start with Josiah Black.

[00:01:17] - Good evening, everyone. I'm Josiah Black, School Division Counsel. - Matthew Haw, Superintendent. - Allison Spillman, at-large representative. - Ellen Osborne, Scottsville District Representative. - Rebecca Berlin, Whitehall Representative. - Judy Lee, Rivanna District.

[00:01:33] - Kate Aikoff, Jack Jewett District. - Graham Page, Miller District. - Chuck Pace, Ryo. - Patrick McLaughlin, Assistant Superintendent. - Claire Keiser, Assistant Superintendent. - Helen Dunn, Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Officer.

[00:01:49] - Christine Thompson, Clerk of the Board. - Daphne Keiser, Assistant Superintendent. - Officer Allen, Elmer County. - Thank you very much. Next we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:02:09] - Delegance, defy, public, proud, indivisible, liberty and justice.

[00:02:27] - Next we have a moment of silence. I know that we will be thinking of ACPS graduate, Elijah Witt, who served as a student representative on the school board and has passed.

[00:03:05] Thank you very much. Next we have approval of the agenda. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Moved by Dr. Acuff, seconded by Mr. Graham Page. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

[00:03:20] Nope. All right. So moved. Next we have approval of the consent agenda. Is there a motion? I move to approve tonight's consent agenda. Second. I second. Moved by Dr. Berlin, seconded by Mr. Chuck Pace and Ms. Allison Spillman. uh is there any discussion all right all those in favor aye any opposed nope okay consent agenda passes next we have announcements we'll start with school board superintendent business i'm going to just cede my time to our spotlight which i'm really excited about and it's uh bittersweet

[00:03:58] because uh while we are recognizing our retirees and wish them the best it is i'm kind of sad to see them go they've done outstanding work in our schools and in our departments and serving our students they'll be missed and so I'm just gonna pass on that time thank you chair Lee so I do believe we have Roslyn Schmidt with state budget update no get in front of the retirees just very

[00:04:36] briefly Roslyn Schmidt chief operating officer as you heard in the news the state does finally have a budget we approved or you approved a budget back in April based on the conference budget which was presented in March and so when comparing what your budget was to the ones ultimately approved by the governor and General Assembly last week there is about a $750,000 shortfall meaning there's less state revenue than what we had adopted main driver of that shortfall is related to sales tax the good news is we were anticipating some variability in States and so your budget included a contingency measure which had an

[00:05:15] unallocated expenditure of $700,000 so coincidentally similar amount so at this time we don't recommend any take take any taking any action but we're still awaiting further calculations. Thank you. And then Dr. Heiser do you want to go or do you want to hold off?

[00:05:38] Okay all right thank you Ms. Mitchell. Hello everybody so I'm Ayanna Mitchell

[00:06:17] director of equity education office of community engagement good evening i wanted to quickly share with you a little bit of updates we had our equity conference this past saturday we're here to just talk about our culturally responsive teaching programming where we're really focused on closing achievement gaps and we know that our work has shown that as it accelerates learning for our students of color and our linguistically diverse students so we have a team who does this work with

[00:06:49] us if they could please stand and come on up here with me stephen turner dr deron battle rosara gonzalez munez megan washburn dr melissa hairston and dr rusty carlock have all worked to support our educators across the school division this year we did make changes to our program where we restructured so that we can make it more accessible based on the feedback that we received over the years for what they need what our educators asked for and this is what that looks like and the conference this weekend was wonderful we

[00:07:28] had about 50 people who came and celebrated and we had 145 recipients of our micro credential and certification we have 311 people who completed the culturally responsive teaching book study which is our foundational text and we have 510 people on record this year who have entered our credentialing programming from some either from the very beginning and have participated in our program thus far leading us to the outcomes

[00:08:00] of getting everyone credentialed by 2026. we additionally wanted to recognize that we had equity educators of the year from red hill agner hurt our special programs and evaluation director many of our drt and some administrative teams and i just wanted to ask all of those who received their credential this year and who were recognized for equity educators of the year if they would

[00:08:27] please stand at this time thank you would you like to i did attend and it was wonderful and i always the energy around our equity work is fantastic and so i really appreciate it thank you thank you i thought the student panels were also quite quite good it's good to hear hear from our students

[00:09:04] directly and also the teachers panel was really enlightening thank you thank you very much next we have 6.2 introduction of the school board student representatives for 2024-2025 tonight's my pleasure to introduce our new student representatives for the 2024-25 school year the The student representative program was adopted by our school board in 2019 to more closely represent the interests of our students.

[00:09:37] Beginning next year, we will have one representative from each comprehensive high school, as well as community lab. In total, we had 47 students who applied, a phenomenal amount of interest. I couldn't be more pleased to announce our reps. Reps, please stand when I call your name and tell our audience a bit about you.

[00:09:54] We have Isabel Wang, she/they, an 11th grade student at Albemarle High School. Isabel is a strong representative of Albemarle High School and all ACPS students due to her active listening, leadership, and communication. As a peer tutor, Isabel uses active listening to foster empathetic engagement and create an environment of mutual respect.

[00:10:12] She is also an active leader in various clubs and organizations, including YAPIC, the Student Equity Board, Varsity Volleyball, and peer tutoring. Her involvement in these groups allows her to interact with peers and take action based on their feedback, demonstrating her commitment to addressing their needs. From Community Lab, we have Cam Roper, Heavey, an 11th grade student.

[00:10:31] Cam brings a wealth of experience and dedication to representing his peers. He is a member of the Student Senate. You can stand. Has actively fought to remove fat suits from theater productions and is involved in the Queer Student Alliance QSA. Additionally, Cam has been working on a student voice project to implement and protect sensory rooms in county schools, demonstrating his commitment to making schools more inclusive and supportive.

[00:10:54] Next we have from Monticello Musa Ahmed, who is an 8th and 11th grade student. As a strong representative from Monticello High School and all ACPS students, Moosa prioritizes inclusivity and ensures that every voice is heard. His dedication to improving the school environment comes from his commitment to understanding and addressing the needs of every student.

[00:11:17] We have from Western Albemarle, Margaret Lee. She, her, and 11th grade student. Margaret believes that the most important quality of a representative is the ability to listen. She understands that no one person can experience every act of prejudice, discrimination, or injustice. As a heterosexual Asian American woman, Margaret can represent her fellow Asian American peers, but no, she cannot represent all minorities, ethnicities, and sexual orientations through her own experiences alone.

[00:11:43] However, she can listen, give a voice to the marginalized, provide hope, inspire, and serve as a role model with her willingness to act. So welcome all, and we look forward to working with you next year.

[00:12:01] Thank you. Next, we have our spotlight on education, recognition of retirees with Dr. Claire Kaiser. With Dr. Claire Kaiser, I'm here. Oh, there you are.

[00:12:18] Good evening board members, staff, families, and guests. I'm Claire Kaiser, Assistant Superintendent for Organizational Development, and I'm going to sit here so that you can see the people who are really being honored tonight as they come up. I thank you all for being here today as we come together to celebrate and honor the dedicated service of our teachers and support staff from across the school division who are retiring this year.

[00:12:41] It is a time for us to acknowledge the incredible contributions each of these individuals have made on our Mall County Public Schools. We are a better and a stronger school division because of each of them. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our retirees, our families, friends, and all of our colleagues and guests who have joined us here today for this special occasion.

[00:13:01] Your presence here is a testament to the profound impact these individuals have had on you and your community and our community. I would like to also recognize and thank the Human Resources Team, who has done incredible work behind the scenes to make tonight's ceremony possible, and also our Strategic Communications Department as well.

[00:13:21] Today, we will recognize 65 retirees. We will celebrate your hard work, dedication, and passion. Each one of you has played a vital role in shaping the minds and lives of countless students, and your influence will be felt for generations to come. Your commitment to education has been the foundation of our school division's success, and for that, we are eternally grateful.

[00:13:43] No matter your role in Albemarle County Public Schools, you have touched the lives of so many, and your impact truly is immeasurable. Tonight, I will read the names of all of our retirees. For those of you who are in the audience, when your name is called, we ask that you do come forward.

[00:13:59] You'll first receive a certificate from Jenny Stearns right here in front, and then we will ask that you come up onto the dais and have the opportunity to go around and be greeted by each of the board members. As you exit the stage, Patrick will gather you off to the side, and then at the end, we'll have everybody come up together for a group picture.

[00:14:21] We'll go over those logistics again later on if need be. Each of the retirees tonight is going to receive the certificate. We also have a plaque up here, a sample of what will be mailed to your house, just to honor your time here in Albemarle County.

[00:14:38] So with that, I am going to start by reading the names. And Sarah's going to do a little bit of a slideshow so you can see them up in front of you. Ernie Almanza, teacher at Henley Middle School, 10 years.

[00:14:57] Kevin Anstine, lead bus driver, transportation. Debra Baker, classroom teacher, Journey Middle School.

[00:15:27] Caroline Bertrand, classroom teacher, Western Albemarle High School. Elaine Broadus, classroom teacher, Murray Elementary. Freda Campbell, office associate, Burley Middle School.

[00:15:53] Susan Carter, lead bus driver, Transportation. I realize I've forgotten to say their number of years, so I will now start that. Susan has been with us for 29 years. Karen Chisholm, Lead Bus Driver, Transportation, 35 years.

[00:16:14] Virginia Coffey, Classroom Teacher, Career Elementary School, 18 years. Brenda Cornett, Child Nutrition Program Analyst, Child Nutrition, 19 years.

[00:16:31] Renee Duvall, Routing and Planning Manager, Transportation, 21 years. Cynthia Diggs, School Nurse, Woodbrook Elementary, 10 years. Cindy Dudley, Office Associate, Albemarle High School, 6 years.

[00:16:52] Viv Fuel, school nurse, Scottsville Elementary School, 26 years. Amy Gartner, classroom teacher, Broadduswood Elementary School, 32 years.

[00:17:13] Phil Jeremita, public affairs and strategic communications officer in community engagement and communications, 13 years. Barbara Gibson, bus driver, transportation, 9 years.

[00:17:35] Maybe we should just pause for a second and maybe get things organized. Laurel Gillette, classroom teacher, Brownsville Elementary, 26 years.

[00:18:07] Catherine Glover, classroom teacher, Community Lab School, 24 years. Carrie Graff, classroom teacher, Mountain View Elementary, 28 years.

[00:18:26] Mark Green, currently instructional coach, 26 years. Thank you, Ms. Glover. Steve Heon, athletics director, Western Albemarle, 20 years.

[00:18:49] Mary Heppner, classroom teacher, Crozet Elementary, 8 years. Ross Holden, School Division Counsel, 5 years. Tim Howitt, Classroom Teacher, Instruction, 20 years.

[00:19:16] William Hughes, Classroom Teacher, Western Albemarle, 13 years. Craig Jennings, Classroom Teacher, Burley Middle School, 25 years. Tracy Kelsey, Classroom Teacher, Woodbrook Elementary, 20 years.

[00:19:41] Sharon Kessler, Autism Assistant, Baker Butler Elementary, 25 years. Tana Kirch, classroom teacher, special education, 18 years.

[00:19:58] Frank Lawson, classroom teacher, Western Albemarle High School, 34 years. Margaret Leary, teaching assistant, Baker Butler Elementary, 13 years.

[00:20:19] Lori Mack, classroom teacher, Center for Learning and Growth, 11 years. Martha Massey, classroom teacher, Mountain View Elementary, 33 years. Kevin Matheny, classroom teacher, Western Albemarle, 33 years.

[00:20:41] darren maynard classroom teacher western albemarle 35 years angela melton teaching assistant egner hurt 23 and a half years helen miller classroom teacher monticello high school 13 years laurie

[00:21:12] morricone teaching assistant brownsville elementary 16 years heidi morse classroom teacher lakeside middle school 12 years carol o'neill office associate baker butler elementary 20 years ruth Parham, teaching assistant, Stone Robinson Elementary, 29 years. Barbara Parrish, custodian,

[00:21:49] building services, 30 years. Monica Powensky, teaching assistant, Albemarle High School, 10 years. Fran Reset, classroom teacher, community lab, 23 years. Lori Reeves, library media assistant,

[00:22:21] Baker Butler, 11 years. Helen Roby, classroom teacher, Agner Heard Elementary School, 30 years. Barb Rosen, classroom teacher, Hollymead Elementary, 24 years.

[00:22:42] Sybil Rotesh Hunt, classroom teacher, Woodbrook Elementary, 18 years. Paul St. Pierre, bus driver, transportation, 10 years.

[00:22:59] Tammy Schwab, classroom teacher, Baker Butler, 19 years. Ryan Schell, classroom teacher, Albemarle High School, 18 years.

[00:23:16] Paul Shepard, classroom teacher at Monticello High School, 7 years. Suzanne Stevens, classroom teacher, Crozet Elementary, 17 years.

[00:23:36] Dana Strickler, school-based substitute teacher, Crozet Elementary, 17 years. Maria Tavares, custodial team lead, building services, 16 years.

[00:23:54] Maria Tavares-Azulina, classroom teacher, Baker Butler Elementary, 15 years. Dolores Thompson, specialized bus driver, transportation, 29 years.

[00:24:19] Maureen Tilly, classroom teacher, special education, 19 years. Dorothy Trotta, school nurse, Broaddus Wood Elementary, 21 years. Orlando Watkins, bus driver, transportation, 11 years.

[00:24:42] Jane Watts, transportation assistant, 5 1⁄2 years. Charmaine White, transportation director, transportation, 19 years.

[00:25:02] Anne Whitlock, classroom teacher, Brownsville Elementary, 25 years. And Frank Workman, Custodian, Building Services, 36 years.

[00:25:19] As we will ask all of our retirees to come back up front quickly for a picture.

[00:25:32] All right, if we could have our retirees come on back up front so we can get your picture.

[00:27:58] As these people are walking back towards their seats and headed off into the evening, I do just want to say to each of you that while you will very much be missed by our students

[00:28:35] and our colleagues with whom we have worked for so many years we are also very excited for you as you embark on this new chapter of your lives we wish you all the very best in your future and endeavors and that hope you're we hope that your retirement is filled with joy relaxation health and new adventures and please know that you will always be cherished as part of our mall canny public

[00:28:56] schools give them a chance to get their well-deserved charcuterie cups next we have public comment uh

[00:29:33] ellen osborn is doing public comments so i will see the gavel to her all right we welcome public input at our school board meetings to sign up to speak during the public comment period you can do so in several ways you can do it online sign up is available from 9 a.m on the monday of the meeting week until 2 p.m on the meeting day or by phone call the school board clerk's office to sign up until 2 p.m on the meeting day or in person sign up at the meeting is available from 6 p.m. until the public comment period which is now. Please note that public comment is not received

[00:30:12] at special board meetings unless specified on the agenda. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak. The maximum number of people or groups that may speak at a meeting is 20. In the event there are more than 20 people or groups who wish to speak at a particular meeting, each speaker will be signed a number and numbers will be drawn to determine which people or groups will have the opportunity to speak speakers should state your name address or your voting district address comments to the school board limit comments to school board governance or school division

[00:30:46] operations and you can also provide written statements and supporting material to the clerk school board will use a timer to track each speaker's time speakers are asked to wrap up their comments by the end of the three minute mark to maintain respect please refrain from clapping or other audible forms of support. You may raise your hand instead and debate with the school board is not allowed. The projection system is for staff presentations only. So tonight we have two

[00:31:20] speakers. We have Vernon Lectie first and then Heidi Gilman Bennett. Good evening. My name is Vernon Lectie and I am president of the Albemarle Education Association. Tonight I wanted to officially let the school board know that the Albemarle Education Association is submitting a request for a certification election pursuant to section A.7.1 of the school board resolution

[00:31:59] provided for collective bargaining in Albemarle County Public Schools. The Albemarle Education Association seeks to represent bargaining units of educational support professionals and licensed professionals as described in section one of the collective bargaining resolution. The AEA has a combination of membership records and authorization forms from over 59% of the employees in the Education Support Professionals Bargaining Unit. The AEA also has a combination of membership records and authorization forms from over 80% of the employees in the Licensed Employees Bargaining Unit. Authorization forms supporting this request have been signed within

[00:32:39] the preceding 12 months. A copy of an unsigned AEA authorization form is enclosed in our official letter of petition for an election, which I will be giving tonight to Dr. Clark Kaiser and Dr. Haas. By completing this form, employees have indicated that they wish to have AEA represent them in collective bargaining.

[00:32:59] All authorization forms and membership records have been prepared for submission to a labor relations neutral should the school board direct verification in accordance with section 7.A.3 of the collective bargaining resolution. We look forward to continuing to work with Albemarle County Public Schools Human Resources Department, Superintendent Haas, Mr. Black, and the school board on the next steps in the process to achieve collective bargaining for the workers of Albemarle County Public Schools.

[00:33:27] Tonight, I wish to thank all of the workers of Albemarle County Public Schools, the more than 50 organizers spread across every work site in the division, and the entire community of Albemarle County for their support, as we continue to push forward in making it possible for the workers of the school division to collectively negotiate their contracts. Thank you.

[00:33:48] Thank you, Vernon. Heidi Gilman Bennett. My name is Heidi Gilman Bennett, Samuel Miller district. I'm here tonight as an individual parent to speak about chronic absenteeism. My son was recently injured in a serious car crash, racing to get to Saturday school. Your school board policies and the implementation practices are causing serious stress and punishing students and families.

[00:34:26] put aside for a minute the unexcused absences and truancy for excused absences my kid and many others are being required to attend buyback sessions at the high school level yes students are required by the state to meet seat time requirements but school boards across Virginia have enacted policies far more equitable than ACPS for example allowing waivers for interruptions beyond a student's control. Our kids are facing unnecessary consequences and school staff unnecessary scrambles. High school credits aside, elementary and middle school students are

[00:35:06] being pulled to attend buyback sessions. Yes, it is great genuinely to offer free tutoring for kids who need to catch up academically, but there are also kids who have missed days due to migraines, surgeries, COVID, respiratory illnesses, fevers, who aren't behind, families are hearing vague threats about state mandates. In fact, what the state is actually requiring is for ACPS as a division to face accreditation penalties for chronic absenteeism rates, which become an issue

[00:35:40] because ACPS is also in trouble for academic achievement and gaps. Superintendents have recently been allowed flexibility by VDOE to write off absences for buyback sessions students attend but just because you can does not mean you should if you were to design a student focused and equitable attendance policy it would not be this families should not be required to get expensive doctor visits and notes more take time off work to transport students to study halls you

[00:36:17] should not penalize students because their school bus arrives late high schoolers should not be denied credit when they've mastered course content this is not as you've responded to me multiple times simply my personal child's issue it's about both school board policy and implementation I ask you to take responsibility and appropriate action thank you that concludes a public comment for tonight yeah oh that's what you really wanted thank you thank you

[00:36:55] very much next we have our school division work session our early

[00:37:00] childhood education preschool by Lisa Molinaro we are running yeah I actually

[00:38:03] got sidetracked by Ross it was so nice to see him back he told me all about his very very lovely travels I'm so good evening everybody my name is Lisa Molinaro and I have the honor and privilege of serving as the lead coach for our Albemarle County Public Preschools. I want to begin this evening by thanking the board for giving us this opportunity to share our story. I believe that it is one worth sharing because it is deeply connected to our ACPS strategic plan and a story of hope. The Oxford Dictionary defines hope as a

[00:38:38] feeling of expectation, a desire for certain things to happen. I have spent the past five years with preschool aged children, their families, their teachers, and many members of our local community who spend their days shaping the hearts and minds of our school's youngest citizens. Every day I get to experience what hope looks, sounds, and feels like in our preschool classrooms. I believe a story is best told by the people who write it and I have some people that are joining me this evening. I think they might be standing out in the back,

[00:39:15] Chandra, so you may want to let them know to come on down. Stories are told best by the people who write them, and so with me, I want to introduce Emlyn Laird, Bright Stars teacher from Agner Hurt, Ryan Galganowitz, an early childhood special education teacher at Baker Butler, the Bright Stars team, Debbie Sheeler and Allison Subra from Greer Elementary School, and my collaborative partner in all things preschool,

[00:39:52] Julia Petro. She serves as the ECSE coordinator. I believe that your time spent with these individuals this evening will help you see that your investment in our preschool programs is making a positive impact on the lives of our students and the outcomes we hope to achieve in Albemarle County. Our agenda this evening will be spent learning about what pre-k and preschool is and why it is essential understanding how our program connects to our strategic plan exploring

[00:40:28] our current state and learning more about how we measure the quality of our preschool programs we will also provide an opportunity for you to sit with our teachers side by side to better understand what it looks like for our students to be learning in our preschool classrooms the first question is what is pre-k and why is it important pre-kindergarten known as pre-k is an educational

[00:41:06] program designed for four-year-olds as the name suggests the goal is to prepare children for kindergarten and future success in life a quality pre-k program is designed to help build social physical emotional and cognitive skills at the same time it introduces classroom learning so that children are familiar with the process when they begin kindergarten. In addition, it has a strong family service component in which families are assisted in accessing community services to create stability, opportunity, and a

[00:41:40] network of support to ensure academic success. ACPS specifically offers our pre-k programs to our most at-risk four-year-olds as identified through a coordinated enrollment application process which is aligned with the guidelines outlined in our VPI Virginia Preschool Initiative grant.

[00:41:59] Murrow County offers bright stars as a pre-k program while early childhood special education and Head Start programs are seen as preschool programs because they serve both three-year-olds and four-year-old children at risk. It's important for the board to know that while our Virginia Preschool Initiative grant does permit us to serve three-year-olds, we currently do not due to limited space in our schools. We experienced this as recently as this year when we had to

[00:42:34] temporarily relocate our Woodbrook Bright Stars program to Agner Hurt. My job this evening is to help inform you of the current climate of preschool, so I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to share with you that one of the most pressing issues for families in our greater Charlottesville-Albemarle community is finding affordable child care and preschools. As part of the preschool network we work closely with our local CDI headstart program and the Greater United Way's mixed delivery and early scholars program to serve the many families needing quality preschools but capacity versus need is

[00:43:14] significantly out of balance at this current time with far more families having need with no options so why pre-k high-quality pre-k programs help to prepare children for the demands of school and life. Research tells us that public pre-k programs provide a positive place for children to learn, play, grow, and begin their school experience. They are taught to develop habits and practices for lifelong learning and to see themselves as competent, confident

[00:43:49] students. In essence, it is the very first step we take here in Albemarle County at reaching the goal of developing thriving students. This quote really resonates with me. I've spent my entire career working with young children and John F. Kennedy said children are the world's most valuable resource and the best hope for our future. But in placing your trust in our staff and our schools,

[00:44:20] I believe that we are making a difference in the world at large. Here are some data points that help us better understand our why. This data exemplifies why we must continue investing in our preschool programs. Last year, 1,060 students graduated from Albemarle County Public Schools. Each year, seniors are asked through a survey to share their plans after high school. The survey data reflected the following. The orange bars represent our overall graduates

[00:45:00] that were non-bright star students and the blue bar represents students who graduated in 2023 but started their education here in Elton Morrow as a bright star. 66.2 percent of bright star students planned to attend a two or four year college as compared to the 78.8 percent non-bright stars. Four percent of our bright stars planned to attend a trade or technical school which was equal to the non-Bright Stars graduates. 27% of our Bright Stars compared to 16% of our non-Bright

[00:45:36] Star graduates chose to seek employment upon high school graduation. And 3% of the Bright Stars graduates reported that they had no plans as compared to 1% of the non-Bright Star graduates. This is not surprising as we serve our most at-risk students, but in our ideal scenario, this there would be no difference you should see no difference in these comparisons between what we have planned to talk a little bit more about what we do and why we do it i want to

[00:46:09] introduce you guys to asia christmas so asia was a bright star student in miss geisha goodman's classroom at stone robinson elementary school in 2001 to 2002. the middle picture shows asia asia here now with her teacher more than 15 years later. Asia graduated from Monticello High School in 2015 and began her post-high education at the University of Virginia, majoring in education.

[00:46:39] This past Sunday, Asia received her master's in education, and as the picture shows, she is very ready to be hired. When I asked Asia how Bright Stars impacted her educational journey, she said, Bright Stars gave me some really great teachers who believed in me so fiercely.

[00:47:01] They pushed me to try harder and more challenging things. As I grew, they stayed involved in my life and encouraged me to take more challenging classes to boost my self-confidence even more so that I was prepared to enter college. They supported me through all my ups and downs.

[00:47:22] Asia's a kid that came from a background where some would say college was not possible for her. Because of the investment we make in our students as young as four, we give them hope. Preschool is a story of hope.

[00:47:39] It is a time and a place that we begin to equip our students with the mindset that they can do anything and they can be anything. When we think about preschool programs offered as a part of Albemarle County Public Schools, we have four primary funding streams that support our programs.

[00:48:03] The first is Bright Stars, which is funded through the Virginia Preschool Initiative Grant. This is a matched grant between the state and the school division, and it provides the largest number of seats to our students and families. ECSE, otherwise known as Early Childhood Special Education, is funded primarily through school division's local funds and a very small allocation from the federal government.

[00:48:29] When I asked Katie about this, Katie Compel, Director of Special Education, she shared with me that the funds that we got are about the equivalent of two special education teaching assistants we also have one blended title one vpi pre-k program which shares the cost of operation at red hill elementary school and we have one of our classrooms at agner hurt elementary which is actually triple braided it gets funding from special education vpi and

[00:49:02] Title I. That particular classroom is currently our only classroom where we would say that it is an inclusive model. We work to ensure that children who have IEPs are placed inside that classroom with children that are non-disabled. Our Head Start program is fully funded through a federal grant and a small amount of local philanthropic donations. To give you a better picture of what that looks like whoops there is a slide and I'm gonna I'm gonna

[00:49:41] kind of see if maybe I I apologize where we missed a slide I apologize for that right now we'll go ahead and we're gonna go here because this is the nuts and bolts of the program when I told you that we are deeply connected to our strategic plan I actually told Claire before I came down this evening I said this is where you're gonna hear me talk you're gonna see this slide for a while because it's kind of hard to think about preschool without thinking about

[00:50:18] everything that is on this slide. When you look at our vision, our mission, our values, and goals, it would be hard to ignore that the Albemarle County preschool programs were intentionally designed with all of these things in mind long before we published our strategic plan. Our vision states that our learners are engaged in authentic, challenging, and relevant learning experiences, becoming lifelong contributors and leaders in our dynamic and diverse society.

[00:50:48] As recently as July 2021, the VDOE began requiring all publicly funded schools to adopt a state-approved curriculum to support the development of our new early learning developmental standards. These are the equivalent to SOLs in preschool. With the support of our teachers, our administrators, and families, ACPS board adopted creative curriculum for preschool as a resource to support learning experiences for our students. This curriculum was intentionally selected because it engages our students in daily project-based real-world investigations

[00:51:27] of topics that all preschool students and families can access. Things like the study of trees or clothing, water, buildings, things that every single child who comes into the classroom can make connections to and with so that they can share their understandings, their thinking, and their experiences with others. Our curriculum makes it possible for every child to contribute to the community of learners. Preschool teachers are skilled at taking things in our everyday lives and helping children develop an awareness of the world around them

[00:52:05] and how they can positively impact this world by contributing their knowledge and experiences. A recent scenario of this being played out is very recently our Woodbrook teachers was having the kids engage in a study of gardening and they helped them understand that gardening is vital to us as human beings.

[00:52:28] It's vital to communities. it's the way that we get our food. And as a part of the project, the teachers planned for the kids to head over to Lowe's right down the street. And the amazing people at Lowe's did this phenomenal job of teaching the kids about what it is to be a gardener. They got to see firsthand all the materials and tools that we use when we're gardening. And then to go one step further, they donated several, several hundred dollars worth of materials so that the children could go back to their classroom and plant their own gardens. That is real life, real world learning.

[00:53:10] In our mission, we commit to working together as a team to end the predictive value of race, class, special capacity, and gender for our children's success through high quality teaching and learning. This mission is the purpose of our preschool programs. Almost 30 years ago, we designed our preschools with this mission as our primary goal. Our programs were designed to reduce disparities among our young children upon formal school entry to reduce or eliminate those

[00:53:44] risk factors that lead to early academic failure. In our mission, we seek to build relationships with families and communities to ensure every student succeeds. We are one of only a few preschool programs across the state that offer each of our enrolled Bright Star families a personal family support specialist.

[00:54:07] Through our longstanding partnership with ACDSS, our students' families meet monthly with their family support specialists to work on personal goals that not only improve the quality of life for them and their child, but also works to create strong homeschool partnerships and to help them see their child's teacher and school as an advocate for the needs of their child.

[00:54:31] I believe that Asia's story is a perfect example of this. Engaging a child's family in school community is a key ingredient identified in high-quality preschool experiences and predicts long-term school success. Our family support specialists work closely with the classroom teachers to ensure that families have a clear understanding of where their child is performing and how they can best support their child at home.

[00:54:59] Through these partnerships, we are able to educate them on what resources are available in the community to help them and their child access the needed supports. Family coordinators partner with parents to support them in working towards self-identified goals.

[00:55:15] Historically, parents have indicated a desire to set a goal to further their education related to finances or other areas which may lead them to finding more rewarding employment and supporting increased self-sufficiency. Parents with limited or no English proficiency will often endeavor to enroll in English language class courses.

[00:55:38] A frequent goal identified by our parents is to learn positive parenting and discipline strategies. In collaboration, the teacher and the family support worker to provide the time, the support, and the resources that help our families meet their identified goals, which results in positively impacting our families while in Bright Stars and far beyond.

[00:56:00] Our ACPS values of equity, excellence, family and community and wellness are tightly woven into the fabric of our preschool programs, making them more likely to achieve our goals of thriving students and affirming and empowering our communities.

[00:56:17] The best way to empower our community is to engage with them in the work that we do. We take great pride in creating community partnerships that contribute to the overall quality opportunities that we offer our students and our families.

[00:56:34] We have long-standing partnerships with the Paramount Theater, the Discovery Museum, and Wild Rock Foundation, each making it possible for our preschool students and their families to engage in high-quality field experiences that extend and enrich those students' learning at no cost.

[00:56:55] These experiences give our students access to see their community outside of their home and school, while personally connecting the child's learning to the parent, while also providing some pretty special memories for them. Another partnership that I'm particularly proud of, because it has been with us since we've opened the program, So I want you to think about 30 years.

[00:57:18] For 30 years, the Quilters God of Charlottesville has provided handmade quilts and books for every single child to use daily during nap time. Children then get to take this quilt home with them.

[00:57:35] I can tell you, my daughter was personal friends with somebody who attended Bright Stars, and that child still actually has her quilt. Sarah's 36. My guess is that quilt's probably wrapping up her baby. So when we think about the idea of the impact that our community has on our children, I can tell you that it goes very deeply.

[00:57:57] This fall, we established a partnership with Front Porch Music Resource Center. With the support of our community engagement department and some very generous philanthropic community members, Dr. Kaiser made it possible for all preschool students to have weekly music classes.

[00:58:14] These are just a few examples of our community's role in our ACPS preschool programs. There is an old African proverb that is said to have originated from the Nigerian Igbo culture that says, which is loosely translated to, it takes the community or village to raise a child.

[00:58:34] The phrase conveys the idea that many people are needed to provide a safe, healthy environment for children to develop and flourish. Here at ACPS, our preschool programs work hard to ensure that we use all the community resources we have available to us, because the more we show our community to our students, the more they feel connected to be a part of it.

[00:59:00] So we're just going to take a second to kind of look at this timeline. It's a big one. 30 years. We're going to celebrate 30 years of bright stars here in Albemarle County. 1994-95 is when we opened our first program.

[00:59:17] We continue to open programs every year for several years thereafter. But I think the piece that I really want to focus on is this right here, this 2021 dot on the timeline. Because it's a big change. This is when ACDSS handed the grant over to Albemarle County Public Schools.

[00:59:39] While we were deeply involved in the grant, we didn't actually manage the grant. And starting in July of 2021-22, the grant did become ours. And I think it was the perfect time for that to occur, because the face of preschool at the state level was changing deeply.

[01:00:03] It was the onset of accountability for pre-K. We've known that accountability in K-12 education for a long time. But this takeover allows us to really manage most important parts of our program. So to kind of take a look at our current state. Earlier I shared with you this idea of funding and braided funding and this is just kind of a blank to see the

[01:00:37] difference between the funding that occurs for each of our programs. One of the things that's really important to know and understand is who gets into the program. So VPI is a program that requires us to look very deeply at the children that we are accepting. And we do this through a pretty rigid application process, and that application is actually a shared application

[01:01:13] across all of the programs. There's a benefit to that, because when a child leaves Albemarle to go to Charlottesville because their family has been displaced, they don't have to start over. It's a shared application. I pick up the phone, I call Sheila Sparks in the city, and I say, we have a family that that is transferring over and because they already have all the information everything's done the child can start the very next day when thinking about how we place children in the program there are four categorically eligible placements homelessness parents with

[01:01:48] limited education and by limited education that means they did not graduate from high school if they received a ged that that doesn't count as categorically eligible it is truly families whose parents did not have the opportunity to finish high school. We also accept now categorically students that are identified with by special education.

[01:02:10] These children do have to have a IEP under IDEA and then we and probably one of the largest categories that we enroll families in is this particular one. Families federal level of poverty is 200% or less. So these are the categories that fill our rooms. While K-12 programs have worked hard to foster equity by de-leveling heterogeneous groups when possible, the nature of our pre-k process creates classrooms with almost all students having high levels of economic

[01:02:46] need. We should consider this in the future when designing our preschool programs. This slide kind of gives you a good look at the number of applications that we've received this year. We received a total of 322 applications. The numbers beside each school are the number of applications we actually received from that school community. 206 of those 322 families were placed in a preschool program that was their child's kindergarten school. So

[01:03:25] 64% of our children are in school right now learning about their school and they will be the experts when August rolls around and they're sitting in the room with a bunch of new kindergartners they're gonna feel a real sense of accomplishment and pride because they know where they are at of the 200 of the remaining that we have placed we placed 41 students out of district I do want to take a little bit of time to just highlight that very high number at Baker Butler you can see that Baker Butler the community there is changing and there is far more need at

[01:04:04] Baker Butler for children to engage and have access to a high-quality preschool those 21 students you can see that there are 36 applications that came in those 21 students are students whose families could transport them to a preschool there were possibly when you look and you see that the wait list for Baker or Butler had three children those three children actually had greater need than the 21 we placed but unfortunately we were not able to give them a seat because they weren't able to get

[01:04:41] transportation from where they live to where the location of a preschool that had space was another thing to pay attention to is the number of applications just over 200 i think this is a a really I've been paying attention since we've done the coordinated enrollment and I am now doing applications this is my second year in doing this I've seen this continue to grow I think what we're finding is that while we have identified families of poverty we have a significant number of families

[01:05:14] in Albemarle County who actually live just above the threshold of poverty so the idea of being able to afford a preschool option for their children is pretty low. And so we continue to watch that number. And then lastly, what I will say about the number, the 16 that are on wait list, because I think it's important to know this because you're going to see a slide that's going to talk about placement. The children who are on the wait list, a majority of those who are wait listed were wait listed because of the transportation issue. They are on a wait list for a school, but that

[01:05:52] school's program is at capacity. So it makes it a little bit harder to get them into the programs. So this slide actually shows kind of the breakup of where our classrooms are. We have 11 total Bright Star classrooms. Two are at Agner Hurt, two are at Greer, two are at Mountain View, one at Red Hill, one at Scottsville, one at Stone Robinson, and two at Woodbrook. We have nine ECSE classrooms.

[01:06:23] some of those are in the same schools as our bright stars programs we also have three um what we consider to be self-contained ecsea based preschools and then i want to highlight the head start program and i think it's important because you guys have asked about this we started the year with five head start programs as you guys are fully aware maca head start who was the agency managing the grant actually relinquished the grant in early february late January. When we took our break for spring break we found out about three

[01:07:00] weeks before that they were not going to reopen all five programs and so we are currently operating with a Head Start program at Agner Hurt and a Head Start program at Crozet. I did find out as recently as last week that CDI has asked us to offer any application for the Greer Head Start program or the Holly Knee program they want us to actually consider for our our preschool programs because at this current time they are not able to say with definitiveness that those programs are going to reopen. They have to get those sites licensed and

[01:07:38] probably the more challenging part is they actually have to get them staffed. This kind of just gives you a little bit of a blink of what the enrollment looks like. I want you to realize that this 193 out of 196, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have seats open. It goes without saying that our families are very transient. We have one classroom

[01:08:10] here at Greer that the teacher has 18 today. But between the beginning of the year and now, she's had 22 children in her classroom. So children move in and children move out. And we always have children that if the parents can get them there or if they live in the district we get them there so this number i can tell you changes on any given on any given day at any given time our ecsc classroom i think is also really interesting to pay attention to and julia's going to talk a little bit about this in a couple of slides but they have an ideal like we do we

[01:08:50] don't cap ecsc when children's have ieps we place them and so you can kind of see that sometimes like here at greer they're actually putting more children in the room than what they designed the classroom for and that's because this is a big need this is a growing need and then the other thing that i will tell you is that when you think about um enrolling in our program we we do run what's called a year-long rolling enrollment process. We don't have a begin date and an end

[01:09:26] date for when we enroll our students. We take kids all the way up until the last five, six weeks of school because we realize that it takes a while for a four-year-old to get acclimated, so we don't have them come in and start. While the state allocated Albemarle County 213 seats for our VPI Bright Stars grant this year. We could only offer 196 seats due to space capacity. Our allocation for the upcoming school year has increased to 222. These additional seats have been allocated,

[01:10:03] and the budget you recently approved provides funding for adding another Bright Stars classroom. We are so grateful for this generosity in funding this program, and we are just beginning the process of adding this much needed addition this slide reflects on preschools basically you can see that the racial and ethnicity groups are a majority minority program i don't think that probably surprises us but i did want to make sure that you saw that the percentages of each race and how it

[01:10:38] is represented in ethnicity probably something that has changed the most in our preschool programs is this data so just as the landscape of albemarle county has changed over time so too has the makeup of our bright stars program this side this slide reflects the current percentage of children enrolled in our preschool programs with limited english proficiency and you can see that that's at 39.3 if you take those same schools where these classrooms sit and you average the limited english

[01:11:13] proficiency at those schools it compares to about 17.4 percent so you can see that our preschool programs are are i like to say we're very fortunate to have the diversity that sits inside the classroom because it teaches our kids about the world around them but it also presents challenges as you can imagine this is another just a quick blink slide i'm not going to spend much time on it but it's certainly something to pay attention to the blue bar is the percentage of children enrolled in a preschool program as compared to the percentage of limited English

[01:11:53] proficiency in their school. I think it's really important to note the Woodbrook school. They have over 70% of their children who come in on day one not speaking any English. As we get ready to talk about the accountability, I think that's a really important factor to keep in mind when the way we test our children to see what they know and understand is by using the English language.

[01:12:18] Julia, do you want to take a minute to kind of talk about the special education? Yeah. So I help supervise the early childhood special education classes.

[01:12:34] So we wanted to take a look at the increase in numbers of students who have IEPs in pre-K and compare it to the just total growth of the special education students in the county. So you can see there is a significantly different increase.

[01:12:54] So, I mean, things are increasing all over, but pre-K students who are eligible for special education is increasing a lot. The state has advised us to account for a 3% rise in identify students with IEPs, and I was seeing that, you know, it's a 10% increase, a 12% increase, and then another 10% increase this year.

[01:13:17] So, it's a lot of students, a lot of students we have to take into account. This is just the students in pre-k with IEPs, the amount of students. So from that last slide, these are the numbers just increasing, going down during COVID, but continuing to increase.

[01:13:43] And then this is sort of within this year, the makeup of our students with IEPs and where they are served. So many of them are served in ECSE classrooms. Some of them are served in the community if they attend a private daycare or a private preschool some of them are served in our bright stars programs and then some of them are served through a sort of walk-in speech model so students that might qualify for speech language services would receive those services at a local elementary school so that orange chunk right there is a combination of bright star students but also students who may just receive speech language

[01:14:19] services and are identified as having a speech language impairment and then we have a few students too who maybe are served in some other way sometimes we reach out to community partnerships like VIA to help support certain students or there are students who have an IEP but for whatever reason they are unable to attend a school or a program that that's recommended for them so yeah so as of August 2023 all publicly funded preschool programs are required to

[01:14:58] participate in the VQ B5 unified measurement and improvement system translated to Virginia quality birth to five. I think that one of our teachers that you're going to get to work with tonight actually developed this and I think it does it does a really nice job of capturing everything that goes into the picture of evaluating the quality of preschool programs. We have many things that are required by the state as part of this. Whereas SOL assessments

[01:15:35] determine the quality of K-12 programs by measuring how well children have developed mastery of standards of learning, the Virginia Quality Birth to Five program focuses on the quality of interactions between adults and their students in the classroom. Research shows that interactions between adults and children are important for early childhood education because they help children develop social relationships, language skills, and cognitive abilities.

[01:16:03] Positive and intentional interactions help children feel happier, healthier, and more confident. When we talk about quality at the preschool level, programs are going to be basically evaluated against an 800-point system.

[01:16:24] 700 points is the maximum number of points that the quality of interactions can measure, while using a state-approved curriculum gives 100 points. how do we get at these interaction points because that's a lot of the quality that you're looking at it's the bulk so we use a tool called the pre-k class observation tool this is just a really quick blink that you can see i'm not going to go through this but what do quality interactions look like in

[01:17:00] preschool classrooms well the things that we pay the most attention to as are things like emotional support classroom organization and instructional support within each of these three areas there are categories that make up what makes for good emotional support or what makes for good classroom organization and instructional support when teachers get observed we go in with intentionality we look for the frequency with which these key indicators over here are being demonstrated

[01:17:34] And then the teacher is scored from a score of one to seven, with one being the lowest and seven being the highest. The classroom is formally observed three times per year by a trained and certified observer.

[01:17:58] Two observations are done internally by ACPS trained observers, while one observation is conducted by a state-assigned observer. As a trained observer, I have to pass a certified test every year to say that I am still able to walk in that room and assess those indicators against what the pre-K class tool sees as meeting the expectation.

[01:18:26] In addition to the observations I do, the state comes and does its own observation using the pre-K class tool. The reason for this is to build inter-rater reliability in the scoring.

[01:18:42] If I score a classroom higher than what the state scores, we actually have to write a letter to the state justifying that, and then they come back and do another observation in that classroom to see if, indeed, we are on track with our score.

[01:19:01] Trained and certified class observers use the pre-play class tool to capture the quality of the interactions demonstrated in the classroom for each dimension. Each observation is followed by a feedback cycle to help identify opportunities for improvement, but more importantly to help identify areas where targeted professional development is needed to improve the overall quality of our programs.

[01:19:26] This was the draft of the first VQB5 Quality Profile Report. A couple things to look at is you can kind of see here is the number of interaction points out of 700 that this school achieved. This is the number of points that they received for using the curriculum.

[01:19:44] And then this was their total number of points. Classrooms that score between 700 and 800 points will be awarded a quality rating exceeds expectation. Classrooms that score between 400 and 699 points will be awarded a quality rating of meets expectations.

[01:20:03] And classrooms that score between 100 and 399 points will be awarded a quality rating of needs improvement. Any program receiving needs improvement ratings on their 23-24 VQP5 quality profile will be required to participate in improvement planning, much like our K-12 schools do.

[01:20:27] In July of 2022, the VDOE made it mandatory that all publicly funded preschools participate in the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program screening assessments, otherwise known as VKRP. The new VKRP Coordinate Assessments measure mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills to complement the Virginia Statewide Assessment of Literacy using the new Pre-K Virginia VALS Assessment.

[01:20:53] By taking this step, we can now offer teachers and families a more holistic view of a child's progress while ensuring that they are kindergarten ready. Research shows that high-quality early learning experiences are critical for young children.

[01:21:08] However, we know that not all children entering kindergarten have the resources, opportunities, and experiences to develop the foundational skills needed for success in our schools. At the time of implementation of VKRP assessments, 42% of Virginia's children entered school unprepared in at least one or more of the four key areas.

[01:21:33] VKRP assessments provide information to teachers, schools, divisions, and families that can help change this outcome. This is baseline data for us. So this is our fall pre-k EMAS data. I do want to say, I just received, these are new reports, the state is putting these out for the very first time.

[01:21:59] I received this about two weeks ago, I think it was like May 13th or something, and so it's a little bit lagging because we're at the end of the year. But when you look at this data, I think what's important to pay attention to is this is the state. So when you look at how children performed on the early mathematics assessment system, you can see that our four-year-olds, as compared to the state four-year-olds, we had more children that fell in the beginning growth band as compared to the

[01:22:33] growing growth band and the strong growth band. This is a little bit different because we used to use benchmarks. When you think about the pre-k pals, they had defined benchmarks. We've moved away from using a defined point in time of where a child should be, and we've gone to thinking about a band, a range of development. It's how our standards are also written. So this really aligns with our standards the other thing that this does which is vital at the preschool level is that by looking at

[01:23:09] a skill and knowing where a child is on that skill developmentally a teacher is able to better adjust what she is doing with that child and differentiate it so that we can scaffold it to move up to where they need to be so when we look at this data you know our hope is that we will see this look far more balanced by the end of the year. I think the other thing that I am very fascinated since it's all new is I am curious to see how since we have such a high ELL concentration in our preschools,

[01:23:45] are we being affected by that? Because a lot of times when the teachers are giving these tests, they start giving these in October. The children really haven't had enough time. So when they sit one-on-one with them and start talking to them, they may not even understand what's actually being asked at that time. And this is actually our three-year-old data. Julia, do you...

[01:24:08] Oh, you're the best. Thank you. Julia, do you want to talk a little bit because I think this data looks really different and I think the very first thing I want to say is that you need to remember that the N in this data is very small compared to the state because our program is only for children who are currently enrolled in our ECSE classrooms. I think you said it all essentially since bright stars a four-year-old only program the only three-year-olds that we serve in Albemarle County would be through an ECSE or early childhood special education program so any student that was

[01:24:44] three and received the EMS math assessment has an IEP and is placed in a special education classroom so that is a smaller number in comparison to the state where other counties serve three-year-olds in different ways but just keeping that in mind that you know there are a lot in the beginning number I mean that makes sense to me in some ways just because I'm sure many of these little kiddos have never been in a preschool setting before oftentimes and are working on other skills in addition to their math like speech skills and and behavior skills and emotional regulation and things like that so just

[01:25:21] keeping that in mind yeah the other piece that I really want to make sure that you leave here with and understand is that when we look at these growing band, these growth bands, the most important thing to know is that children in the growing band are identified as on track for kindergarten. That could be misleading by looking at the way they have this laid out, but when children are in the strong band, when they land in the strong band, that means that

[01:25:59] they are already meeting or exceeding some of the kindergarten expectations. Children who fall in the beginning band in the spring will benefit from extra support as they get ready to start kindergarten in the fall. Having this information is very important to kindergarten teachers since they typically will not have any baseline data for their students until early October when they administer the VKRP assessments. That's about seven weeks of instructional time. So for the children who come out of our preschools, our kindergarten teachers have seven weeks to really

[01:26:38] hone in on those children who fell in the beginning bandwidth. We know a lot. We know where their strengths and their weaknesses are when we analyze the data. So I hope as we get more versed in VKRP, the relationship between our preschools and our kindergartens will prove to be vital to improving the quality of outcomes for the kids. Another component of the VKRP assessment, besides the early mathematics assessment screener, is actually something called the CBRS. And the CBRS measures

[01:27:17] two things. And I think it's really, really important that, I like to say we got it right. We got it right here. Preschool is all about socialization, self-regulation. It is about getting kids ready for school. And as part of our VKRP assessments, we look at how well our kids in preschool are doing in developing their social skills and their self-regulation skills. The CBRS or Child Behavior Rating Scale is a teacher report that measures a student's self-regulation and social skills development over time in the classroom. Self-regulation skills support students

[01:27:55] in managing their attention, their emotions, and behaviors in order to adapt to the demands of the school environment. Highly effective preschool classrooms create daily learning opportunities that allow children to recognize their emotions and identify how they feel so they know how to move forward safely, safely and healthily. When we do well with developing these skills in our students at preschool levels, we actually have the ability to impact our panorama data because we look at those things later on down the road. Just like the EMAS, the

[01:28:32] state gave us an opportunity to look at how our children have entered the the albemarle county preschools you can see that in our in our four-year-olds we look a little bit more closely aligned to the state and in our three-year-olds we're a little bit we're a little bit lagging but again i think julia explained why that might be the case and then when you look at our social skills preschool teachers use their daily interactions with their students to teach social skills

[01:29:07] we know that when we focus on teaching young children how to interact appropriately socially we are equipping them with the confidence the self-esteem and the independence that results in greater school success strong social skills can help children build healthy relationships adapt to changing situations ask for help appropriately learn to cooperate with others be willing to share and appropriately express their frustration verbally and physically i like to say it teaches our kids how to play nice as can be seen from the graph our students

[01:29:41] closely compare our students closely compare to other four-year-olds across the state in the area of their social skill development we know that what we do in preschool equips our students to kindergarten for kindergarten and beyond for literacy data preschool is also shifting to vowels the state is working to supply us with state and local data about our performance bands but we have

[01:30:15] yet to receive this i can share with you what has been on the call of the school quality profile for kindergarten readiness and literacy through that they may change with the accountability measures that we spoke about earlier but this year's profile you can see that 26 percent of our kindergartners attended a public school such as those offered by acps as compared to the statewide average of 32. So we are a little bit behind. We're lagging a little bit behind with the number of kids who come into our kindergarten classrooms. We're lagging a little bit behind the state

[01:30:53] average of them having kindergarten readiness opportunities. And out of all of our kindergartners, regardless of whether they attended preschool experience with us or not, 71% of them came in meeting fall literacy benchmarks in comparison to 77% at the state level. We will continue to try and meet the community's need for pre-k as we get more details in pre-k literacy data from the VALS department, from the VALS team. We look to make sure that we're doing our part to raise that 71%

[01:31:26] by having our ACPS preschool students prepared for literacy. All right, at this time, I like to say you're going to get to do the best part of the meeting. You heard a lot, but what we have planned now is um you guys are going to have a break and our teachers are going to come up and they're going to set uh at the two tables um we would ask that you guys um kind of stand i wasn't sure how the arrangement would be but if you guys could go to where the tables are the teachers are going to have some things on the table and they're going to talk to you about what it looks and feels like to be a preschooler in any one of our albemarle county public school classrooms you're going to

[01:32:05] to get to hear from both ECSE teachers and Bright Star teachers. Should we ask questions at the very end of the work session? Let's do that. Let's do that. We're going to take our break now. Sure. Okay.

[01:32:20] Thanks. We'll be back at 8:12. All right, everyone, gather back up. We're going to

[01:42:56] meet around the tables. We've got a lot of cool stuff on there.

[01:43:19] This is sort of the special ed corner here in terms of things that are like not effective. No, this is like social-emotional, this is the curriculum. Yeah, it would actually be easier I think if that. This is kind of like a trunk.

[01:43:36] So it's kind of all... Oh, yeah. Tell me what you're like. We had plans on you guys doing four, this is four in a group of four. But since it's all together, you guys can just find a seat.

[01:43:55] All of them are preschool, all of them are going to talk, and you guys feel free to ask questions along the way.

[01:44:14] Honestly, I think we would prefer just to have you all look at some stuff, maybe, and then just ask us questions and let us know what you're curious about. why don't you talk about it like you were doing like a back to school night parent okay like how you would like how you use pictures how do you use those it is a work in progress we actually were brainstorming a little bit more today about it but we really look at all of these different components when

[01:44:50] we're planning pretty much every part of the day, morning meetings. Would that be easier and then you guys, do you want us to just sort of talk to you? Yeah, that might be easier.

[01:45:07] Well, they're fun, they're very high energy. So I'm the early childhood special ed teacher over at Baker Butler, so my role is a little bit different i don't know if it makes more sense for you to start with bright stars and then i can kind of go to how to differentiate or i can just sort of jump into what some of the things are that i think one thing that you two share um and they observe what's the plan

[01:45:42] but i think a good bit of our trends oh yeah the more that we've had experience with this YEAH, SO I CAN TALK THROUGH WHAT SOME OF THAT LOOKS LIKE. TO MY BLINDER OF FUN THINGS.

[01:45:59] SO TREES FOR US. SO THERE ARE A LOT OF BOOKS THAT COME WITH THE CURRICULUM. PARTICULARLY FOR ECSE, SOME OF THEM ARE MORE APPROPRIATE THAN OTHERS, AND SO WE MAY HAVE TO LOOK FOR-- So some will have to modify, some are appropriate as is depending on the language level and development level of the groups there.

[01:46:29] But really creating a curriculum like this is designed to have activities and studies that the kids can access. It's not dinosaurs, which are very part of the PKRP. But there are no dinosaurs that we can go and see.

[01:46:44] so when we're doing tree study in the fall we're playing outside with the trees and we're pulling it into our responsive classroom morning meetings so we're looking at different pictures of leaves and can we find leaves that are identical matches can we find leaves that are not identical matches can we then finally stand up and find our partner who has that so we're pulling in that social skills component as well this one spike crew is very math oriented this year they noticed they want to

[01:47:19] count how many after we laid them all out on the ground so you know our families leaves roots whatever that one was there were five and then they want to see how many was in that okay then how many which sets are the same which sets are different which has more which has less and i think for us to run with it and go but because we have kids with differing uh needs like these ones that are black with a high contrast.

[01:47:42] I have a student who has cortical vision impairment, so he needs his materials to be high contrast. So we'll create separate sets of materials. That's why all the slides on the smart board are black and have yellow and red as the primary text colors, because he can see that more easily.

[01:48:00] It's actually really cheesy for everybody else. Doing different art projects that we need to do, the tree studies, so we work with our art teacher, she's fabulous so getting motor tasks sensory activities question of the day is one of the things that comes up in there all the time so are there trees at our playgrounds there are technology we don't use a lot yes like the ipads um we they were purchased for us during for whatever reason but we don't use them in our classroom that often and i think our belief

[01:48:37] or we detour like we have our philosophy little trees that we have in the classroom and so for a couple of them our computer question they was how many leaves are there now particularly when the caterpillar got on the leaves so we started eating them that never went down very quickly um so that was interesting to like to track how many leaves there were um they got variants this year of dictating how to draw things to go with some of the other studies. So this was supposed to just be about birds, but they wanted to add people and they wanted to add water for the birds. So, you know, we work on all that kind of stuff. It's just fun to do lots of things.

[01:49:15] our wow study or wow experience is for the second year they made a tree of gratitude for the whole school so we worked on the hallways

[01:49:48] But they will come and they will do the WIDA testing for us at the very end of the year, so that then gives them the information going into kindergarten so that they can receive the EL services starting in kinder, you know, they'll be given their EL levels, one, two, whatever it is, proficient, but we don't receive any hands-on services from EL.

[01:50:12] Now if we have concerns or questions or needs, we always have the availability to reach out to the department or support for families who are needed to register.

[01:50:27] Yes. How do you deal with the English learners? Last year I had eight languages. Eight languages. I'm sorry. So mine was eight languages out of 18. But she has 10 children in her class. And mine has changed, but I will probably say I'm pretty close.

[01:50:45] because I have my dominant, oh yeah, more than half, more than half of our students. The materials that we do, we'd love for next year. Not that we've been with them, they're very helpful, they are so good. I'm sure they are, but they'll be the first to tell you that it's not a lot of experience.

[01:51:04] And that is part of the curriculum as well, show photographs. I know that the director has introduced, Lauren. Yeah, Lauren's amazing, and she's very much in the face of it. Yes, it's just resources, which, you know, so we do.

[01:51:22] Yeah, you do what you have to do. And I also do have to say that is part of the beauty of preschool, is because we do so much with language and body and emotion. Well, and so many of these kids already, like, it's hard enough, like, understanding a child that speaks English as a toddler. Like, they have their own language anyway, right?

[01:51:39] So, you know, I get it, but at the same time, like, people -- It is pretty amazing to watch. Yeah, especially people will ask people outside of education, you ask all kinds of people.

[01:51:55] And I have a lot of pages and my answer is always to play. Yeah, absolutely, it loves, like, yeah. But I think you're right, like, when you're talking about what the emphasis is on family, if we're not giving support to those families, how can they advocate for their kids?

[01:52:16] If you're trying to set that precedent already by the time I get to kindergarten, you have that engagement. So what I'm going to say is the one thing that really helps with that is the mission of the state.

[01:52:32] And they have access to live translators and interpreters and access to people with a phone. and they do a lot, a lot with our kids.

[01:52:48] So we do have that. That is definitely a much more powerful aspect of our program. I should say, like, within the early childhood, looking at the, like, the early childhood special ed program, the language delays that are often, you know, for their support, the children are in the program.

[01:53:05] And so even though it's coming from a different place, we're also having to be very mindful of what we're introducing the level at which different children are accessing the questions that we're talking about or you know if they have communication devices it's everything you know programmed in there yeah whatever it is to make sure that everyone can access that information they can set up in there regardless of

[01:53:36] So there are, right, that would be lovely, there are a number of different AES platforms that work with the Business Technology Department together.

[01:53:56] This student is using this one, her home language is Pashto, they can also do that. Because they can't have it directly from the classroom. Absolutely. But we know it's more about -- Oh, yeah.

[01:54:11] Yeah. It's literally like text messaging parents, but it's translated. Yeah. And it's literally like we're texting. Unfortunately. Yeah. But that is something. We've just been meeting with the family about it, and they had asked. I mean, you can. We have sisters. Correct.

[01:54:26] We use it. It's on our personal side. We should have had them. We don't have English to her instead of her. Correct. And we said, no, like, we really want you to be preserving your whole language in the home, in four parts. She's here in English at school. She is learning at that time. We want to make sure that she's still getting it today.

[01:54:45] But that's what I'm saying to me, because she's not taking the time for teaching us. So anyways, we are a majority of what we laid out today. But the... Do we have a lot of time with social-emotional?

[01:55:01] So you guys are white stars, and we are 100% white stars, so we're not rated in this title. We actually do have conversations for later.

[01:55:24] So a lot of our days spent teaching is through a pediatrician, right? I mean, a pediatrician will typically recommend that to the parents. So there are some of the strategies that we use. Yes, it can be family, it can be anything easy, and it will be a parent to child find, essentially, the state takes on students starting at age 3.

[01:55:47] I'll just breathe in, figure it out, and have something to be done. Otherwise, they just start to breathe in, and they'll be trying to still learn to breathe. Yes, we do. But then you'll see them translate. She did. Yes, she did.

[01:56:18] The content is wonderful, it does help that. With any new thing comes along, we're like "oh, a lot of my kids use this issue." This child is a nightmare, and every time he sees a good one, he's standing outside my office. And this is the retouch breathing where they're going to get in and dive out.

[01:56:35] But because this is the green one, and this isn't plays out, and this isn't plays out, and it's just what the criteria is about. So they went through their little breathing exercises together.

[01:56:51] So how does that work for a child, like this, 20 minutes, and an ECC class? So, that's a really tricky question, because honestly, Debbie Schultz's classroom is amazing, and he has such an odd person to see exactly how it feels to track that.

[01:57:10] But they work really hard to get in there, and to be honest, he would have been a good ICC candidate, but we really have to prioritize if a kid can stay in the Brainstars class, they should stay in their Brainstars class.

[01:57:23] I think also on the proactive part with social-emotional, like we use Responsive Classroom, morning meetings when we start our day that way, our kids are calling on to that when they start kindergarten, so there's always a greeting that starts, so it's practicing how do you orient yourself to the person next to you, and maybe I contact it, may not, but we're going to orient, we're going to acknowledge the person next to us, at this point in the year we're typically giving the person their choices, so before we start, There's one greeting when you stay sitting down and one greeting when you stand up.

[01:57:58] Because two choices where you stand up can get a little too exciting. So they get to pick two and then you would turn to your neighbor and say, "Would you like a high five or a tornado sign?" And the other person would say, "Which one, they both do that thing and then turn to the next person."

[01:58:16] And so learning that idea of how do you greet others, acknowledging that, using their names, and within the special room or that maybe somebody's just doing a high-five because that's their favorite thing right now what they know and even though that wasn't the choice we do activity which is usually

[01:58:51] based and it's something that's going to be bringing them together and then morning message which is outlining kind of what to expect for the day there's often a question in there we're coming down to the end of the year so the librarian's last session with us was this past Monday as we see her on Mondays And so this is going to be our last day with Ms. Harmon for this year.

[01:59:23] What's a way that we can give her a special advice at the end of life? We're not going to reserve special education. So giving them some information about the day, adding in questions, sort of framing your head about how you're going to prepare for something. That's always so good for you because she's not here today. Okay, we'll write them down.

[01:59:39] We wish them well. There's our pictures. We want a picture of them which we'll send to them when they're not there so that they know that we'll wish them well. But that kind of sets off the day, and that's what they're going to have to go into. And also, they're already in that format.

[01:59:57] This year, many of the programs moved to eight, and you are running all these students with IEPs for today. Oh, I thought he said he came. Yeah, that's what I was looking at on my question. You're saying that some of the kids, too, can't speak. She's got them online.

[02:00:13] Do we have to meet those numbers? I don't know what I'm saying is if the class can fit 12 students, we have 12 students that need an IEP, that have an IEP, that can go over that number, can you go to like, or not have gen ed kids so that you're meeting this with all this.

[02:00:36] Is it great that you're going to feel like moving forward is questions like those to think like, well, what if we didn't have peers in the class instead, and we just wanted So that's where the challenge is, like, you're giving them a peer access, but it's still not inclusion, it's still not inclusion, it's still not inclusion.

[02:01:04] I'm sorry, you can't see it. I think that's probably a little bit of inclusion that we need to have. Well, also, we can restart about this stuff. No, I know, but we did, but we know. Yeah, we got pastors, and I just want to, like, so that's all obviously, you know.

[02:01:21] I do think there's great, IEP students in the classroom, but I do think, and this was the people that want to go on, sometimes this year, it's almost like they would rather be. And that was best. I do think that the six-year model has value, but I think that right now we have a CSU out of the brain.

[02:01:47] I don't know if any of the resources were unlimited to be sure that would be great, but I don't know if there's some of the kids that are not quite good at all. And that's interesting too, I know, but for my experience, we really can't, like, we can't just say, like, this is full, like, you know, so that's been kind of over there for the last few months.

[02:02:20] and it's like a real puzzle piece. Yeah. We bring it out. And there are some community agencies who have been able to help support like by-- Yeah. They have like an early child. Yeah. And they can kind of see the back end. And that means they change our in the morning meetings. Yeah.

[02:02:36] We're sorry. But some people are all longer. Yeah. It's a big chapel. I mean, it's a big chapel. Wow. But I would say, in general, They are all feeling, at least like they can just say.

[02:02:51] - Do you wear skin? - Pretty much. I have one boy who came in that spot. - What boy do you wear? - And that's what she was wearing. - It's pretty much, pretty much. - It's pretty much. - Yeah, it is. - I mean, are you serious enough to do that? - Do you have a challenge of getting special ed teachers in thinking?

[02:03:10] I mean, I know we've got-- - Could you do it one or two times? - Last year we had all of our special ed teachers here in the upper body will tan very well but my tense track about like the rest of the special ed staffing that are we

[02:03:46] able to staff it having staffing issues I thought it did great. I know it was a couple years ago. I know a couple years ago.

[02:04:01] So they were able to choose different activities to show their parents. How they better turn off. And now there is a lot more. Do you get a set of pre-K teachers? Yes. And so these are just looking at the school classes.

[02:04:18] And it's challenging. It's so powerful because it is free. So our pre-day kiddos have so many teaching assistants. Now, that's not in every school. We're lucky that we have that. But because of this, we thought we want to get our family and them from this as well.

[02:04:38] And then we just have a board of our people. They're speaking to us in society. I just feel like they're speaking to us in society. I just feel like they're speaking to us in society.

[02:04:53] Thank you.

[02:05:30] to talk to people about literacy, which so much of our literacy is more of a language communication. But obviously, we do tons of read-alouds, we do have new areas, and stuff like that. That is one of the other nice things, too, with creative curriculum that comes with some text.

[02:05:49] Not always do we think we can take the text back to our dreams, but we will then find something to learn. because the read-a-law after graduation was filled and spent so much time talking with kids.

[02:06:05] - Yeah, I'm really curious on here to put this stuff on it's different times for pre-K or whatever, and what's the same year? - So it's difficult, 'cause these are here's late, like, passing straight versus kids that are not in a free program and feel like, you and I've been working at that early childhood, not reading and access to it And like you said, the oral skills, the conversations, things like that.

[02:06:33] Do you remember that? Sometimes me and I have a hard register for the kids. Well, that was part of my question, too. I mean, there were 300 plus applications and 200 more things that you want to be the best.

[02:06:49] Is that outreach for them? Is this a group of parents that are very active and, oh, I'm going to register my kids? Or is it sensible? Yeah, I met her during the campaign.

[02:07:08] I mean, some families, they know they need support for their child, and they want to - Yes. - And involved, so some of them will, especially if they have ordered children, but otherwise, there's a lot of them.

[02:07:27] - Which thought do you have space for you, and they don't really know that it's available, and it's helped to learn to express them. - Because these high school students, I would say maybe, and that's a big part of it. It was an application for a year. - Hi. - And we sat outside over there, like it's in the front of me, regular students.

[02:07:45] - I think I have a picture of that. - Hey guys, we have about three more minutes. Oh, actually, I think one. Oh, she-- I told you. OK. So you have curriculum guides like this one. Everything that you teach. So from the-- Yeah. So we-- This one's fantastic.

[02:08:01] It's totally cool. But we were able to have these little boxes that come with-- Ooh, that they had. So these were the-- Teaching cards, the books. Yeah. So we have those for each of you. Yeah. So something varies. Yeah. And they just put together. Absolutely.

[02:08:16] I know. I know you wanted to play with it. I know you wanted to play with it. You do not come with this. No, so anything else that is not in a box, we get separately.

[02:08:38] So we use those for counting activities. And all of the little cross-section of specific goals. I guess this has to be exciting and exhausting.

[02:08:51] So in closing, I don't know if you guys can hear me, I can speak up.

[02:09:45] say that again there we go so in closing actually um what we'll do is we're not going to go through all of them but i really wanted you guys to get an example of how our families feel about the gift that they get in here in elman rock county by allowing their child to attend a public preschool program um so we've included several letters and a video and probably something to note about the video is that the video is actually from a kindergarten parent, a current kindergarten parent whose child attended the Bright Stars program at Agner Hurt

[02:10:22] and she was being interviewed because part of what we do is we host what's called kindergarten transition night and our parents come and learn about what to expect, the differences between preschool and kindergarten, so we kind of set them up for that but I'm just going to read the very first one and you guys can certainly at your leisure read the others but this is a letter that was written by a parent she says I am Hamada Sharif Bahar's mother we came to

[02:10:56] the US on September 6 of this year migration is always challenging but if I did not find Greer School and Miss Subra it would be worse and frustrating Bahar started learning, socializing, and playing in Greer School. I could not believe that after one week, she woke up soon to go and see her friends and lovely teacher, Ms. Subra and Ms.

[02:11:21] Patterson. It is incredible that after eight months, Bahar can speak in English and understands people's speech very well. Greer School and wonderful teachers made the life easier for us. I wholeheartedly appreciate Bahar is confident and sociable now that is why we do preschool so this is one example and this is Bahar on her first day and I think if you really just look closely you can see the apprehension in her little expression she's trying to figure out where she's at and what's happening and here she is sharing her learning with her parents and here she is a

[02:11:58] confident ready to go to kindergarten or so with that we open the floor for questions for all of us um i actually have a couple but first of all i want to say um this was really impressive and i think we only scratched the surface and i'm excited to delve into it um i have a niece who is in the ecsc a base program at stone robinson and she is non-verbal autistic and when she started in April of 2023 she couldn't speak at all and now she she's been living with my sister and she

[02:12:37] had been living with me for the last year as she was going through a divorce and now she says hi auntie every day when she gets home and she talks and she uses her tablet to communicate and ask for things when she used to just throw a fit and it's remarkable and they have actually been potty training her and within the first week she was like mostly potty trained and my sister works and so I just think that's incredible and so you know my family has benefited greatly from our special ed services but to see her really thrive in that preschool environment has been phenomenal so thank

[02:13:14] you for that I really appreciate it and my family appreciates it I did have a question you were talking about the transportation issues is that part of our greater transportation issue with Albemarle County or are there specific issues related to preschool that kind of are outside of other transportation issues that we deal with I would probably lean in and say that you know historically the way that our transportation system in Albemarle County Public Schools is set up is buses transport to and from the school where the child lives like we

[02:13:51] typically don't have buses that are taking kids from stony point say to baker butler if you live in the stony point district you can get on a bus and ride that bus so i would say that it is more about the idea that our buses have defined routes if we made it possible for every child to get on a bus and be driven to a school where a program is i think there would probably need to be a significant number of increase in drivers and the development of routes for sure um you know as i think about honestly like when i think about that i just think about it from the standpoint of

[02:14:31] it is a barrier but i think that we can start thinking strategically about how we can break that barrier yeah i'm just curious about that because um if we're not offering every program at every school um it seems like it's an issue for me that if there's a program that's across the county that is the best suited for this child and a parent can't provide transportation then we're denying that student the right to an education. I was just also say Allison I think what's also important to note is that if a child is identified with an IEP because of special education I mean

[02:15:09] that's one of the reasons why you see such disparity between what it costs for an ECSE child versus Bright Stars child those children by law are provided with transportation so our most at-risk children find a way to preschool regardless of where they live when they have that IEP but also think about the fact that those kids who are already special needs often spend more than an hour on the bus each way to get to preschool which is a lot for a three or a four-year-old especially without a parent so that's just part of a bigger

[02:15:48] thing that I think that we need to like you said think creatively and strategically how we can address this issue because I do think that that is a barrier to some kids being able to get to preschool and be able to be provided that service which as we talked about really sets these kids up for success if can get them into the program. So that's just something I was curious about and I want to delve in a little bit more. And then I think you I think Julia answered my other question which had to do with the ECSC and the integration of with our numbers of gen ed students but that's something I'm a little bit interested in

[02:16:26] in exploring too and making sure that we're providing the services we need to all the students that are eligible for it but she and I said we would talk about that some more later so great I think that was it thank you others thank you guys so much this was a great program I think it's so important to help people see the great work that you do because this just the way we really do will make a difference in our third-grade reading scores I mean that's fine that's my big thing I'm curious about because I think what what do you see differences across

[02:16:59] schools but to what extent are the programs provided with specials we talked a little bit about English learning support what type of kind of additional supports are provided that kind of similar to what like a kindergarten class would how does that how is it the same and different I think this year really was an impactful year all of our buildings did a really really really nice job of I think Roslyn you can certainly speak to this probably even better than me Roslyn made sure that building level administrators knew and

[02:17:39] understood that when they got their staffing that the numbers for the preschoolers that sit inside their building are part of that staffing matrix and so I think that you can ask the teachers that are inside this room they all we prioritize based on the way that our program is designed we prioritize physical education and we prioritize guidance because we believe with what our program is that many of our children do not have access to

[02:18:13] getting outdoors the way they need to because of where they live and we also know that a lot of times they are experiencing things in their homes that that we need to help them understand and know how to work through.

[02:18:28] And so classroom guidance and physical education were prioritized, and principals were told, please make sure that your Bright Star students receive this. And I can say that all of our schools were able to get the specials, with the exception of Woodbrook, because Woodbrook was being housed at Agner Hurt for this year.

[02:18:53] It was a challenge for the Agner-Hurt guidance counselor to serve the kids with all of what they had. And then it was a great challenge for Woodbrook to free up their guidance counselor to come over.

[02:19:09] And so those students were not able to receive classroom guidance. I think that there's a mission and a commitment that all of our preschool classrooms receive those specials. And again, like I said, that's thanks to Rosalind and Craig making sure. that our principals understand that that's that needs to happen wonderful what about english alert we talked a little bit about that because i mean that dramatic that is very different as well as the fact that if you're able to assimilate to english the earlier you do the better you prepared you are so i think that is something that we definitely need to start thinking about rebecca

[02:19:47] but what i can tell you right now is that the way we identify children to receive english language services is they take a they actually take a placement test called the WIDA and the WIDA is not administered to preschoolers and so because we don't have any way of measuring who needs it right now we don't offer English language services at the preschool level is there I was just gonna say it is important to note that right now I work very closely with Laura McLean from the

[02:20:23] ESO office and we go student by student at each school and we determine which students are going to be there's a there's a matrix I guess that she works off of her rubric and so we determine before they leave preschool if they will receive ESO services and day one of kindergarten is there some sort of test that's out there that we're just not using that would allow us that's a good question. Can I get back to you? Yeah, absolutely. I'm just curious if we could create one or something

[02:21:00] that would, you know, get us those services for those kids. Yeah, that's something I will definitely look further into. Dr. Hauser-Roslyn, did we put two years or last year, two years ago, we put an extra kind of, I need to say floater, but there was an extra like unassigned English learning learner teacher I'm not sure if that's the right classification in the budget that we said we would look at numbers then I'm just wondering if there that's a possibility like to look at that those those teachers and if we

[02:21:37] have some that are that we were kind of holding back until we saw the numbers in k-12 would be possible to think about I would feel better if Lauren we're here to discuss that i know uh as we made our way through the budget process for fiscal year 24 uh ellen pointed out that every year we staff it and then you get so far into the year and it's grown so why not add staffing and so we did do that and lo and behold you know moving into this year it grew significantly at the newcomer center so we ended up i believe using all that staffing

[02:22:16] but uh it would be a good to get a follow-up from lauren on that question thank you well and i wonder about supporting the teachers on that i mean it's one thing for the to know the kids can't speak english but how can we better support the teachers when it's very obvious to them that the student regardless of what level the child could ever test at it's very obvious if the child doesn't speak english to the teachers how can we better support the teachers through professional development can Can we dedicate some PD?

[02:22:43] And I asked the GREER teachers that-- and they're using their personal cell phones for Google Translate. And they're using the Remind app, which translates their message. So they're finding ways around it. But I think that's, again, using what you have to serve your students and maybe something we need to look at more closely.

[02:23:05] Ellen, to speak to yours, I will tell you that Lauren and I recently talked about what PD can look like next year at the pre-k level so she and I are actually working right now to try and figure out how we can bring some of that ESOL teaching knowledge and experience over to our teachers so even if it's just a certain few tricks and strategies that can get them started so we are on that. Could you go back to the first slide you were showing with some test results?

[02:23:43] sure whoops that's it right there but you said these were just released right so it was from this spring nope these were just released to me on Monday May 13th but this is our fall data this is our baseline data gram right okay well my question is will there be any penalties or any type of repercussions for us looking at our beginning scores compared to state averages well no like

[02:24:21] I like right now the Virginia births the VQB 5 measurement system uses what I spoke about earlier with the class interactions and the curriculum that is how the quality of the program is being currently evaluated starting in the fall of 2024 there there this is where it's a little bit different than SOL's the actual academic progress of the preschool programs is not something that

[02:24:50] gets equated into the quality birth to five profile quality rating. Okay. Thanks. I have a couple questions. Are we using the E-M-A-S as a kindergarten assessment? Yeah, actually VKRP is preschool and kindergarten, which is really nice, Chuck, because it's a continuum. So you do get to see for kids who do go to a Virginia public preschool. You do get to see their data. I think that's also really important when you're thinking about our

[02:25:28] children that are in special education because we're starting to collect data from the time that they're three. So by the time that they're five you should be able to see a pattern of strengths and weaknesses that really allow you to hone in instructionally for those children. And the other question, that's great, I'm glad to hear that um the other question i have is um what i wonder how many four-year-olds are out there that need pre-k that we're not serving do you have a feeling for that well we're trying i do think that as the coordinated enrollment application this is our truly our second year

[02:26:06] through the united ways go to grow application process that we are tracking applications collectively so i think we're getting better at being able to monitor that um i try every like i'm in the middle of application season right now chuck and what i will do is i have a massive spreadsheet every application that comes in i literally the very last category in the application sheet says you know what can we recommend and sometimes we can recommend vpi sometimes we can

[02:26:40] recommend ECSC as a reverse inclusion program and almost always if they don't get placed in one of those I then will call the parent and say would you like to go on a wait list if we have openings in other schools we'll place them in those schools so we're getting we have better tracking devices now to literally see the number of applications that come in the number of applications we place and the number of applications that are sitting on the bench so to speak thank you Chuck yet asked the question I was going to ask but for what we have about

[02:27:20] a thousand kindergartners so we have about two hundred and thirty-ish kids in our pre-k we probably a little bit more than that yeah well just in terms of our school division we've got 30% you know are free and reduce you know lunch eligible thank you and and higher higher percentage than the 25% of that are going to to our pre-case there's got a do we take data when kids start

[02:27:59] kindergarten to know generally if they've been to pre-k any kind of pre-k I mean, I'm looking at the sliver of kids that don't have any pre-K. There was a question when the kids registered, and Rosalyn, I'm going to lean maybe to you and Craig on this.

[02:28:17] There used to be a question when the children were filling out the registration, did your child attend pre-K, and then they identify that. Is that still part of? Oh, yeah.

[02:28:36] All the kids that are in a public preschool, that data follows. if you didn't attend a public preschool and you attended another preschool do we know if that child do we know if that child attended another preschool and then by inference you know who didn't so I can I can actually answer that question so there is United so there we're beginning to see data because of the ready region Virginia system and so blue ready region Blue Ridge which is ours they because again every program that has a child is going through kind of similar data it's not as inclusive as ours but children in the

[02:29:16] private preschools so I think there will be a time pretty soon where you could I mean we definitely potentially could look at our data I mean that would be a love to follow it through but I think through some of the ready regions data and Rebecca you're spot on that so for example if you know foundations preschool foundations preschool actually takes a certain number of children through VPI since they do that all their children participate in the VKRP assessments so some of the private providers that receive public funding

[02:29:52] they follow if you if you take any public dollars you're you're engaging in VKRP assessments so we are probably going to be able to track even our private providers who take public funding we'll be able to get VKRP data on those incoming kindergartners as well i was really wondering if those at-risk kids who did not get it anywhere could be identified and had special resources on the first day of kindergarten that's that's where yeah ah something for me to certainly bring back i mean we have a we have a

[02:30:31] really strong like regional preschool network through ready regions we do a lot of talking about all things pre-k i think that's a really good question to bring to that table and as i get information i will gladly share it with the board thank you lisa you're welcome i just had one quick follow-up off of the um specials um so if the pre-k classes and preschool classes are not getting all of the specials right now does that mean that the teachers are not getting planning

[02:31:04] time and the things that pre-k is definitely different than k-12 trying to find planning time at the same level that our k-12 teachers receive it it's it's out of balance do they get some planning time yes is it equal to k like the k-5 planning no yeah i think that's something we need to investigate a little bit more too and look at making sure that you know our previous going to talk specifically to ec dismisses for a half day on fridays to try and incorporate for additional

[02:31:44] planning time for pre-k teachers which is limiting for us because then there are certain repercussions from that as a as a division where we don't have a technically a full right preschool program but i think it's also just unique to pre-k that the length of many k through five specials really isn't developmentally appropriate for pre-k kids often and a lot of I think schools will view nap time as planning time which if you've ever been in one of these classes during nap time it's not effective planning time um so every mother knows that too you don't get anything done during that time so I think that you know there's been efforts to try and work around that

[02:32:19] and to add to that but yes I would just like to echo that also on the ECSE side of things even though we have that half day planning it's not a perfect system just yet yeah okay just something to put out there I think is something to be considered as far as how our preschool teachers are being treated and and things and things that they're getting or owed it should be considered I will say that teachers in the school our preschool we do take full advantage of our DPLC times to bring all of the preschool network together we use that as a time to kind of anchor anything

[02:32:56] that's new that we're having to learn collectively that's a that's a nice time it's not planning but it is a good time to connect with others and I think that's really important because in most cases these guys are islands there's only one of them in a school and so we try really really hard to embed opportunities for them to come together to share resources to learn together a good point there's no team to be doing lesson plans together and sharing across classrooms or things like that so all right thank you I want to thank you all and just recognize that you have to see some four-year-olds in a very short amount of time so just thank you very much if anyone on the board has any

[02:33:34] other comments or questions we can certainly send them along but thank you I appreciate your late time here tonight I was just gonna say Judy I really love that you said that one of my teachers said I go to bed at 9:00 to 9:30 are we gonna be done careful driving home I want to thank all of you guys for being willing to have us here so listening to our story and please know that you are welcomed in any of our preschool classrooms any day anytime you might be put to work and you might come out dirty but I promise you you will come out happy all right last we have other business by board members and

[02:34:13] superintendent any other business I have something okay um I would like to appoint miss Betsy souls being to represent the Rio district on the ACES committee if you guys don't remember what that is it's uh the committee for environmental sustainability um and it would be for a term of two years is that do you want to make a motion to that yeah that's that's one okay i make a motion that we appoint ms soulsby second all right moved

[02:34:49] by uh chuck pace seconded by ellen osborne any discussion all those in favor aye opposed no okay so moved thank you any other business no all right told you more about her it's all right okay all right no other business thank you very much we're adjourned

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