Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County School Board Work Session, Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County School Board, Virginia
Length: 2h 9m (video)
Official meeting video (Swagit): https://chesterfieldschoolsva.new.swagit.com/videos/339432
Official minutes (BoardDocs, on the May 13, 2025 agenda for approval): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/chesterfield/Board.nsf/pfiles/DH4MZU5DB8D3/$file/DRAFT%20MINUTES%20-%202025.04.08%20Work%20Session.pdf

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 2026-10-25. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:03] afternoon i'd like to call the april 8th 2025 school board work session to order first we have a continuous in school improvement update from dr jarvis hello good afternoon madam chair board members dr murray thank you for the opportunity to present today my name is erica gervais and i serve as the director of continuous school improvement this afternoon i will provide an

[00:00:43] update on the continuous improvement process in chesterfield county public schools outlining our strategies, alignment with the state framework, and our next steps as a division in our continuous improvement journey. Today's presentation will focus on the following three key areas.

[00:01:02] The work of continuous improvement in CCPS schools through a differentiated support model, the alignment of our CCPS process with the Virginia Department of Education's new performance and support framework, and the next three-year cycle, including the development of a new SIPP plan modeled to drive sustainable improvement. Continuous school improvement is an ongoing and iterative process designed to drive meaningful and sustainable change rather than focusing on quick fixes. This approach is based on improvement science where school leaders engage in a continuous

[00:01:39] inquiry and learning, implement small measurable and incremental changes, and uncover root causes of challenges to develop targeted solutions. Schools participate in this process through data analysis and informed decision making, goal setting and action planning, implementing and monitoring evidence-based strategies, and utilizing the Plan-Do-Study-Act model for continuous improvement. This structured approach ensures that all efforts are purposeful and lead to tangible improvements in student outcomes. The School Improvement and Innovation Plan is a key

[00:02:18] component of our continuous improvement work. While it is required under the standards of quality outlined in the Code of Virginia. It also serves as a guiding document for schools to align their improvement efforts with the Virginia support framework. Additionally, the SIP plan and process facilitates collaboration between school and division leaders to implement sustained and effective strategies for student success. The SIP is not just a compliance document, it is a dynamic roadmap that supports innovation and drives real change in our schools. At CCPS, we believe in

[00:02:55] providing differentiated and targeted support to all schools based on their unique needs. Our support includes technical and adaptive assistance in continuous improvement efforts, coaching teams with making data-informed decisions, school-based and division-wide professional learning opportunities, access to curricular resources and instructional coaching, focused support for special populations including English language learners and students with disabilities, collaboration opportunities with specialists and content experts, and quarterly leadership reviews to assess progress on SIP implementation. This model ensures that every

[00:03:33] school receives the necessary resources to foster continuous growth and innovation. Beyond that support that all schools receive, we provide additional targeted support for schools that require deeper assistance. Key elements of this targeted support include dedicated coaching from school quality support specialists, SIPP impact reviews every six weeks with key district leaders, division-supported learning walks to assess instructional practices and drive improvement, technical guidance to the state academic review process, and support in identifying evidence-based

[00:04:10] interventions that align with federal accountability requirements. Our shared vision is to provide tailored, data-driven support to ensure that all students receive a high-quality education.

[00:04:21] As we shift to the new performance and support framework, our collective division will work to continue to focus on ongoing professional development and resource for educators on how to interpret performance data and integrate the findings into their instructional practices, providing schools with access to data analysis tools that will help them track student performance and identify gaps in learning, offering specialized coaching to work closely with teachers and administrators to enhance student achievement, establishing peer learning communities to share best practices, strategies, and resources to collectively work toward meeting performance

[00:04:58] standards, ensuring district resources are strategically aligned to drive improvement, monitoring SIP implementation progress to ensure schools are tracking progress on key performance indicators and making adjustments where necessary, and identifying high leverage evidence-based interventions for specific student populations. By implementing these strategies, we will ensure that CCPS remains proactive and responsive in meeting students' needs.

[00:05:23] As we look ahead to the 25-26 school year, we are currently preparing for the next phase of a continuous improvement in our division. So this spring, we are developing a new three-year SIPs template that incorporates updated performance measures.

[00:05:42] We're also gathering feedback from school and division leaders to refine the plan and the process. This summer, we'll provide professional learning opportunities at our annual Leadership Academy to ensure school leaders are prepared for implementation, and we'll host a three-day SIP Summit where school teams can actively engage in improvement planning.

[00:06:04] This next cycle will allow us to further enhance our efforts and continue to build a culture of sustained excellence. In closing, our commitment to continuous school improvement remains steadfast. Through data-driven decision-making, targeted support, and strong collaboration, we are fostering an environment where all students can thrive.

[00:06:23] We look forward to working together with our educators, our administrators, and our community stakeholders as we continue this important journey. Thank you for your time this afternoon, and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Thank you, Dr. Jarvis. Board members, is there any discussion?

[00:06:40] Ms. Hutchins? Thank you for sharing. I love the tiered approach, and you lay it out in a really easy-to-understand fashion. Um, I want to, I want to hear you tell me a little bit about, um, the learning walks.

[00:06:59] I know that was a teeny little bit, uh, in the sea of, of evidence and the ways that you're working toward, um, improving. Um, but what does that look like? Certainly. So it looks different at every school. And so for our schools that receive targeted support, we work with the school leadership and the goal teams and their teachers to identify what do they want to learn from these walks, right?

[00:07:24] So what is the desired outcome so that there's a collaborative effort? So we are gathering information for them so that they can improve their practices. So each school looks a little bit different. Sometimes it's attended by multiple division team members.

[00:07:41] Sometimes there are a few of us. It all depends on what content we're looking at, what grade level. Sometimes they last a full day. Sometimes they're a couple hours during the day. So it's different, again, depending on the school. But again, these learning walks are designed to capture evidence of action plans that are in school's SIP plans.

[00:07:59] So whatever they have put as a change idea or something that they're going to do to improve instruction, we're going in there to say, is it happening? And if so, is it meeting the needs of students? And if it's not, are there things that we can do to adjust our practices in order for that to happen?

[00:08:15] So what support is needed in order for that practice to actualize in the classroom, right? And then the leadership team, along with us, and again, specialists from the division, work together to think about what's next. So now we've found this evidence. We've uncovered something, or it could be, again, something that's working really well or maybe some areas for improvement, and we think about what are our next steps based on this data.

[00:08:38] That's really good. I love it because it takes the data that can be a little cold, and it allows you to see it in real life and customize it really more precisely. So, well done. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Chatters.

[00:08:57] Hi, good afternoon. My question was regarding the timeline on the improvement. So, I know it says you go out every six weeks to check. Does that mean that the items on their SIP are six-week increments? Are they semester? Are they annual, short- and long-term goals to see if they're making the progress on how they thought they would do?

[00:09:16] So currently, they are annual objectives. So they're annual strategies. Schools create a three-year plan, and like I said, we're getting ready to go into our next three years. However, strategies don't necessarily exist for three years, so every year, schools are looking at, is this a sustainable practice?

[00:09:32] So, for example, in year one, if they put something into place, and now we have a system to sustain that practice, they're going to put something else into their plan. And so they're usually annual objectives for a school to look at. Next year, we're moving towards, it hasn't necessarily, it hasn't been, we're still in draft form, but we're looking at a 45-day cycle to start off with.

[00:09:54] Like, what has to happen that first 45 days of school in order for us then to put these change ideas or action steps into practice? So it'll be a little bit of a shift because right now we're looking at, again, things that we put into place for a year, but we're going to think about what is happening for the first 45 days and then making adjustments based on what we learned during those first 45 days.

[00:10:16] So the reason why I ask the question is because if we're trying to understand if they're meeting the mark, but it's an annual mark, so it's how are you assessing that they're making the progress toward the annual mark? So I like the idea that there's something on the table in draft form to do a 45-day incremental approach to it to make sure that we're going toward the goal of the annual.

[00:10:37] I was just trying to make sure that we're measuring it in enough time to do something about it or to course correct or to reward the fact that, oh, it's really working. Like, let's spread the news. Right. Yeah, and that's what our six-week meetings really are about. So those are the process outcomes where the end goal is our outcome goal, right?

[00:10:56] So these are process goals. So the six weeks allows us to really take a look at is what we, you know, are the strategies that we have in place working? And if not, how can we refine those? What changes? So that six-week cycle, we look at both implementation of action steps, but also impact on students.

[00:11:13] So we might be implementing something really well, but if it's not impacting our students in a positive way, then we need to think about what adjustments do we need to make. So those six-week cycles allow us to make those changes in real time. You're welcome. Thank you very much.

[00:11:29] Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you for the update. Next, we have a presentation on equity and student support services from Dr. Spurlock. Good afternoon.

[00:11:52] Greetings, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, Board Members, Dr. Murray. I am Lottie Spurlock, and I am grateful for this opportunity to provide an update on the work of the Department of Equity and Student Support Services for this afternoon's work session.

[00:12:11] The Department of Equity and Student Support Services consists of a director, yours truly, and six wonderful coordinators who lead the work to provide support and care for all of our students here in CCPS. Each coordinator leads a team of other leaders and support staff who work together to provide the support for a wonderful school experience for every one of our student scholars across the division.

[00:12:36] We foster positive relationships, embrace the beauty of our diverse student population, and ensure equitable access to resources and support for all individuals. The agenda here on this slide just shows the order in which I'll provide this informational update today about the work of our team recognizing that it is our goal to enhance safety well-being inclusivity by addressing students mental health physical health and social and academic readiness as indicated in our ccps strategic plan that you'll be actually discussing

[00:13:15] today integrity teamwork ingenuity and equity are core values as a school division it is through a lens of equity that we continue to focus on what is best for every one of our students eliminating barriers and co-creating a safe supportive learning environment where students are seen feel a sense of belonging and have access to opportunities that lead to learning spaces where students can excel as shown here on this slide we are focused on meeting the needs of each learner through the intentional work in our schools across the division as well as through

[00:13:54] our external community partnerships, such as Chesterfield Education Foundation, the Black History Museum of Virginia, and Virginia's Center for Inclusive Communities. As recently shared in another board update on ESL, we recognize that English as a Second Language is our programming that supports our students who are English learners, or ELLs for short. We are continuously striving to support every English learner always and in all ways. We started this year with over

[00:14:30] 10,000 L students and that actually represents the fall number. We're still waiting to update that number based on students who've enrolled since the beginning of the year. We recognize that there are many programmatic supports in place to provide the best opportunities for students who are acquiring the English language and we engage in ongoing professional learning and development for staff in order to best prepare them to set up our L's for success. We choose to employ an asset-based approach to best support our L's. Again, we are continuously striving to support every English

[00:15:05] learner always and in all ways. On the next couple of slides, we'll highlight the work of school counseling and mental health services. Our CCPS school counselors serve in every school to provide comprehensive school counseling services that are aligned with our state and national standards school counselors work collaboratively to meet the needs of students within three domains of practice academic social emotional and career and our counselors also provide a holistic approach

[00:15:41] to supporting the success of all students currently in this season our school counselors are busy working to support preparations for next school year through the scheduling process academic and career planning and preparing students to transition to the next grade school council counselors take an active role in connecting students with the future opportunities like specialty centers tech centers and governor schools for instance they do this all while supporting the social and emotional growth of students and within school communities. Our

[00:16:21] mental health support specialist work in feeder patterns to support communities and build partnerships to support families in crisis and overall wellness. Each member of the team works collaboratively with school teams to support the specific needs in each building, providing consultation and response services. This team has worked hard to exceed the new learning requirements set for the state to train all threat assessment team members, meaning the state requires a refresher every three years, and we do this every year. We also value developing

[00:16:57] valuable partnerships with local agencies to support all students and families. Our mental health interventionists support safety around the clock days and nights including weekends snow days holidays etc the team works collaboratively with school teams our police department and child protective services to support the needs of our community i do want to put in a plug for our upcoming free event spring into wellness affair that will be held on may 1st and we invite parents

[00:17:32] guardian staff, community members, and the focus is mental health. Additionally, the Office of School Counseling and Mental Health Services has a broad reach into some other areas to support school communities. Extensive partnerships and collaborations are key components of this team and this office. We work diligently to create connections that support our prospective job force, hosting interns and practicum students from all over the Commonwealth, participating in

[00:18:04] regional, state, and national platforms helps CCPS lead in this work. Our offices within the whole Department of Equity and Student Support Services work together to provide expanded training, constantly improve our practices and procedures to meet the needs of all students. There are many details shown here on this slide and the ways that we collaborate within our department and with other departments. This slide highlights the work of school social work and shows a little bit of

[00:18:40] the current staffing. And so our social work team consists of a coordinator, a school-based and school-based social workers, two attendance social workers that are very important to mitigate chronic absenteeism, nine attendance intervention specialists, and McKinney-Vento staff to support students experiencing homelessness. Additionally, our social work team is instrumental in fostering collaboration, enhancing student engagement, promoting student well-being, leading data-informed

[00:19:17] attendance interventions, and implementing and monitoring evidence-based strategies, some of which Dr. Gervais just mentioned. This next slide here highlights the work of our school psychologists and educational diagnosticians.

[00:19:35] They work hard to promote an effective homeschool collaboration and wraparound services for our students. When appropriate, school psychologists also collaborate with other community providers to coordinate mental and behavioral health services.

[00:19:50] As noted here on this slide, the psychologists conduct cognitive assessments, and educational diagnosticians are key players for educational assessments. Also shown here on this slide is our current staffing model to meet the needs across the division in the psychological and diagnostician realm.

[00:20:13] One highlight here is that two practicum students that we hosted this school year have been hired as interns for next year, and we're excited about that. The opportunity to host graduate students as interns and practicum students has proven to be an effective pipeline for recruitment of highly qualified school psychologists.

[00:20:36] And we'll wrap up with a focus on student health services. We know that the mission of student health services is to keep all students safe, healthy, and ready to learn. School nurses address the physical, mental, emotional, and social health needs of students and support their academic achievement.

[00:20:58] Here is, on this slide, you see a picture of our school health team, and we are grateful for not just the nurses, but also our 67 clinic assistants. And on this last slide here for student health services, you'll notice their work is so much more than just Band-Aids and ice.

[00:21:20] We are grateful for the many ways that they show up for our students, And we are really proud to say that we have, in addition to 15 National Board Certified Nurses, this year we have a unique opportunity for our coordinator and two supervisors to be accepted into the first cohort of School Nurse Leadership Academy.

[00:21:42] We're excited about this opportunity. So this wraps up our overview and update on the Department of Equity and Student Support Services. I'm grateful for this opportunity to highlight our work and how we show up for students daily, in many ways not seen, but all for the good of a wonderful school experience for every student.

[00:22:07] I'm happy to answer questions at this time. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Spurlock. Board members, is there any discussion? Mr. Paranto. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that presentation. And I want to highlight the McKinney-Vento section of your presentation.

[00:22:30] I had asked at the agenda review, and Dr. High sent out, so thank you very much for that information, Dr. High. It didn't seem to me that we were staffed enough for those that we were able to identify, understanding that there might be others that we cannot identify that would fall into this category.

[00:22:51] and so the question I asked was, what would the appropriate staffing level be? And the answer was a specialist, but it seemed as though in the way I read the email was more so leaning on the social worker than the specialist. Is that correct? My understanding is if you had to choose between the two, and I'm not asking you to, but I just want to make sure I understand the structure of the email was that a social worker would outweigh in benefits than adding another specialist.

[00:23:23] Is that accurate? Yes, I would say when we think big picture, of course, we're really grateful for the specific work, a specific lane of work for our McKinney-Vento team, but it is exclusive to certain things. And when we think about the work of a school social worker, it is broader, and so they would be able to meet the needs of the work of McKinney-Vento specialists as well as other areas of supporting families.

[00:23:47] So then ideally, if you combine the two together, we're just over an ask of $246,000. But the social worker alone is just over $143,000.

[00:24:06] Of course, that's including benefits. That's not the salary. It's salary plus benefits. So we're at $143,000. I know we're going to have more conversations about the budget and what that looks like and revenue from both the county and from the state.

[00:24:23] Ideally, it sounds as though we would benefit greatly from a social worker that would focus primarily on the McKinney-Vento being a part of that staff. So I greatly appreciate the information and the time spent together, that information for us to review.

[00:24:41] So thank you. Ms. Chatters. Hello. So my question was related to the equity leads that are at our schools. Can you briefly say what the responsibilities are of the equity leads in our schools?

[00:25:00] Yes. So we're grateful that each school is able to have an equity lead. Some of that has looked a little different by way of role. We even have had principals serve as the role of the equity lead.

[00:25:15] Ultimately, each principal is the equity lead in their building and the champion for that. they could be anywhere from serving as a teacher to a department chair depending on the level but overall to support the work of continuous school improvement we think beyond the numbers and we think about what does it mean for every child to meet with success and good enough is not good enough and so the at minimum the equity leads in each building are expected to attend a monthly meeting during those meetings oftentimes there's professional learning and opportunities for them

[00:25:55] to share hot topics of things that are specific to their building's needs and it becomes an opportunity for the collective group thinking about a problem also our equity leads are expected to champion efforts so while they're busy a lot of times as teachers working in their own classroom any opportunity that they can connect with their building administrators whether it's a standalone equity team a school improvement team a mental health wellness team they find natural entry

[00:26:31] points to support sometimes they're also asked to turn around professional learning and development within their own buildings but that is not something that we have a hard line on for every equity lead ultimately they are a champion for it and while we operate from a place of how do we detail that in the strategic plan and come together for those specific learning opportunities on the monthly meetings it is also there's also room for them to tailor it to meet the needs of their

[00:27:01] specific student population so there's not a training requirement for the equity leads to have before they are identified as equity leads, correct? Well, every employee is expected to engage and sign on for the professional learning as deemed by our state around cultural competence.

[00:27:29] But that's the minimum. At minimum, every employee is expected to do that. And then the follow-up work comes in each of the monthly meetings. And that's where that embedded professional learning takes place for the leads. I know Dr. Waterford does an amazing job of also providing some survey sort of exit ticket opportunities for them to share what other professional learning needs they might have.

[00:27:56] But we also know because we get to see from a big picture balcony view in the school division where some schools have a need that they may not recognize. And we also seek to support schools in that way as well. And that means that you would be pushing into the school because you see something that they didn't see?

[00:28:15] Yes, and that does occur. Ms. Hutchins? I have a quick question surrounding the psychologists. So you say we have 35 countywide, and that's about two per, no, not two per, one psychologist per two schools, plus or minus, and we have five bilingual.

[00:28:40] I just am curious, given our landscape, our current landscape, is that five bilingual, those five psychologists, are they enough, or is that something that we are, are they, I guess I'm asking a couple of questions.

[00:28:59] Are those psychologists at specific schools, and they don't, well, yeah, are they enough? Is it enough? Do we need more? That's good. They're not necessarily specific schools, although we do have to recognize the growing needs of our immigrant population and the needs of students who are L's.

[00:29:23] And so we know that that 10,000 number has risen since the beginning of the year. And so if you ask any school employee if we have enough staffing, I think the quick answer is often no. I think it's important to note it's not just about the staffing.

[00:29:40] what we do with the staffing and how we really employ strategies that really work for students i will note that for school psychologists and the social workers there were no additional positions at this time granted and we realize that we have to prioritize the priorities but we have to recognize what that looks like across the vision each year as we add new schools thank you i hope that answer. That's it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Spurlock. Thank you. Thank you for all

[00:30:16] your time and great presentation. Next, we have an update on literacy from Dr. Staines. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, School Board members, and Dr. Murray. I'm Dr. Emily Staines, and I'm the Director of Secondary Curriculum Development and Support. It is my pleasure to

[00:30:55] update you today on our revised CCPS literacy plan for 2025 through 2028. Our updates regarding implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act in elementary and middle schools, and our excitement as we look ahead towards our future work. While I'm presenting today, I am thankful to celebrate the leadership of Dr. Monique Booth, who spearheaded this revision, as well as our dynamic literacy curriculum specialist, Karen Hoover, who supports elementary, and Dr. Caroline Canning, who supports secondary. We last provided a literacy update to the school board on September 10th, 2024,

[00:31:32] by way of Dr. Monique Booth, and the topics I'll present to you today are listed here for your review. The CCPS School Board adopted our current literacy plan in May 2022. This plan built on the 2018 literacy plan and was developed with input from over 150 teachers and staff. This team began our work by recognizing we needed a refresh, not a rewrite. This is because our core beliefs around high-quality literacy instruction still hold true today. And our plan continues to support critical thinking, communication, and the integration of reading, writing, and research.

[00:32:11] We updated the plan based on feedback from school leaders, teacher leaders, and reading specialists in our division. And we decided to keep the five main points of our plan, curriculum instruction, data analysis, literacy in all areas, professional learning, and stakeholder engagement. Some key updates in this refresh include focusing on our CCPS literacy vision and beliefs, as well as our K-12 literacy best practices. We also highlighted the literacy journey from elementary to high school. The team updated the action steps for each part of the plan and added a new glossary of terms

[00:32:48] and references. In the first year of our updated plan, we will involve our schools, community, and teachers to launch the plan. We'll also partner with our communications team and the Chesterfield Education Foundation to create media spotlights and opportunities to support literacy and engage our stakeholders. We're especially excited to continue teaching using the 2024 Virginia English Standards of Learning and use data to support both teacher and student learning. Our focus will continue to be on utilizing evidence-based literacy instruction

[00:33:23] and research-based reading strategies, particularly in K-8. In elementary literacy, the use of open court reading ensures teachers have easy access to high-quality grade-level literacy instruction that's rooted in scientifically-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction.

[00:33:42] It guarantees that all students receive daily grade-level instruction in every classroom. Students are exposed to a variety of texts, and we're excited to continue this work in year two. Emma, elementary schools are also participating in literacy walks, and teachers have been surveyed to provide feedback on this year's implementation.

[00:34:01] This year, reading specialists have added resources to support OpenCourt, and we look forward to sharing those results with you for continual improvement in teaching and learning at our next literacy update. With the shift from PALS to VALS, our teachers have been trained to use VALS through Canvas modules from Virginia Literacy Partnerships.

[00:34:20] We also assessed all kindergarten through third grade students this fall to check literacy indicators and monitor progress. Looking ahead, vowels and updated reading plans for grades four and five will be part of our next literacy update as well. We will continue collaborating with reading specialists to support vertical alignment and monitor the use of our literacy materials for supplemental and intervention support.

[00:34:45] In secondary literacy, our CCPS secondary literacy resources are aligned to help teachers strengthen core literacy skills. Teachers from all schools help design and update these resources, focusing on evidence-based strategies and assessment that are based on the VDOE's goal of, quote, developing skilled readers and building reading stamina, end quote, in the K-12 English standards.

[00:35:11] We've added 17 middle school reading specialists through the Virginia Literacy Act, along with 18 additional elementary reading specialists. And these specialists are working hard to develop systems for supplemental intervention literacy resources and practices.

[00:35:27] They're also supporting teachers with planning and building confidence and evidence-based reading instruction. Looking ahead, middle schools will introduce VDOE-approved literacy materials for supplemental and intervention supports next year, along with updated student reading plans that, again, align with the Virginia Literacy Act.

[00:35:50] Chesterfield County Public Schools are re-centering our K-12 literacy efforts by highlighting evidence of student learning through professional learning communities when planning instruction. We will also refine our supplemental and intervention strategies for kindergarten through eighth grade to support our personalized student reading plans.

[00:36:09] And lastly, we affirm our commitment again to our community by stating that, quote, CCPS believes the goal of literacy instruction is to equip every student, PK through 12, to become critical thinkers, effective communicators, strong readers and writers, and problem solvers who can impact their world, end quote.

[00:36:28] Thank you for your time this afternoon, as well as your commitment to literacy for all of our students here in Chesterfield County Public Schools. Happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Dr. Staines. board members. Is there any discussion or questions? Mr. Paranto. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:36:47] Thank you for the presentation. Would you mind expounding a little bit more on the partnership with the Chesterfield Education Foundation? So this is part of our recommitment as part of our plan for 2025 to 2028. We did have stakeholder engagement as our part of our previous plan, but we realized that one of our key stakeholders, the Chesterfield Education Foundation, was not directly part of our plan. It was all of our internal district resources. So we're really excited to add them along with CCPS libraries, and we want to work collaboratively with them to really define what that relationship looks like. So since that really is at the beginning of our relationship, I feel far more confident being able to speak to it next time that we're together

[00:37:27] because I don't want to over-promise and under-deliver, but we are very excited to see what that's going to look like in our community at large. Thank you. Can you refresh my memory? When did we start with open court? Is that two years ago? I believe we started in two years ago.

[00:37:46] Last year was the first year. Okay. So next year we'll have third graders that started with open court in kindergarten. So will we be able to see some, so the second, sorry, you were correct, second, the final.

[00:38:01] So two years from now then. Thank you. Just looking to see, you know, how open court is affecting, you know, and helping our third graders because that's kind of the pivotal second, third grade is when literacy really want to make sure we're strong in that area.

[00:38:19] So just looking forward to seeing that data when that time comes. Two years out then. Yes. Right now we're giving vows kindergarten through third grade. We also have in third grade, for the first time, students sit for the SOL test at the end of the year for reading.

[00:38:34] So that is really our first measure and moniker for elementary. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sorry, I have one. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Well, I was debating. So I'm assuming we don't have even any anecdotal, just anything about open court.

[00:38:56] I'm just so curious about it. Like we are, we just, yeah, don't have. I think we have enough anecdotal to say that as any part of any opening implementation, we are really excited to have a resource and to have a consistent resource.

[00:39:14] So what I think that anecdotally we feel comfortable with, I'm going to look at Dr. Booth to make sure she feels good about this as well, is that for the first time ever in Chesterfield County, or rather I should say for the first time in a long time, students could transfer within our school division and they have like pacing, they have like sequencing, they have a similar resource that's being used.

[00:39:32] And that has eased a tremendous burden on the teacher of trying to figure out where is this student and what are we supposed to be doing. We also anecdotally have other school divisions that are also using open court, so we are also hearing from them, what are you hearing about implementation?

[00:39:49] And that's part of the reason why Karen Hoover, in listening to a lot of that great feedback, has been working with our reading specialists to develop even some additional resources that we said, hey, in year two of this, we're recognizing there's still some areas that we could specifically improve for our specific division needs.

[00:40:05] So we're continuing to be really responsive as we have that. But once we have the teacher survey, I think we'll be able to speak far more confidently, quantitatively, and qualitatively for you. Perfect. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:40:23] thank you Dr. Staines next we have our strategic plan update for 2025 through 2028 from Dr. Pope

[00:40:32] I'm stalling while Dr. Murray hands something to you so good afternoon board chair vice chair

[00:41:21] members Dr. Murray we're going to begin by handing you a backpack which was just unloaded with materials that you're going to need to really work during this work session topic today's topic provides you and our public with a first look at our strategic plan. We are providing updates for your consideration, and what everyone's getting a first look at today is a result of three months of collaboration with Dr. Fox, our Director of Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, each Division Chief and their team members, Michelle Golson, our support staff member who assembled your workbooks

[00:42:01] way too many times to count and the deputy superintendent and superintendent as a reminder and to frame this work we're going to begin with a historical time frame of course here are our topics and this is just to refresh everybody's memory two boards prior to you the strategic plan Imagine Tomorrow was approved in August of 2018, and it was dated to expire in 2025.

[00:42:36] It had an accompanying brochure with banners that hung outside each of our schools, and then one board prior to your board, we had, with Ms. Coker and Ms. Heffron's voice, an update to that strategic plan.

[00:42:53] And in that update in 2022, we gave attention to the introductions, objectives, and measures. And here we are in 2025 when the plan is set to expire. And after consideration, we wanted to bring to the board for your consideration an extension of the plan through 2028.

[00:43:14] But in this proposed update, we will look at the title, Introduction, Core Values, Objectives, Measures, Strategies, and Tactics. So where we are in our process right now, this updating process, complete with workbook, was exactly what we used in 2022.

[00:43:37] And I think it was well received. It worked well for everyone. So we're going to try this process again. You can see on this timeline what I've just referenced as far as getting us to this point. Many voices have already contributed. We've heard from division instructional leaders, central team members, our ACTS representatives who will be soliciting feedback from the teachers in each of their buildings, and all of our principals.

[00:44:06] Following this presentation, an invitation will go out to staff, our broader Chesterfield community of parents and stakeholders to submit feedback throughout the rest of the month of April then we will come back to you in May with a draft two you're looking at a draft one in the workbook right now and in that draft we will consider all the feedback that we've been presented with show you where we've made additional changes and depending on your comfort level and the timeline that works for everybody involved either seek your approval in May or come back in June to continue the work

[00:44:40] updating the strategic plan so at this point if you've not already dug out your workbook you may want to get into your backpack find that and you may want a writing utensil so in your pencil box there's probably something you can use if you don't have something there's no lunch in there

[00:45:09] mr paranto we we fell a little short on that one as you look at each slide if you see a wb notation That's the page number that correlates to your workbook.

[00:45:26] So we're now going to turn in your workbook to page two. Anything in blue on this deck or in your workbook indicates proposed change to the currently approved 2022 plan.

[00:45:43] So obviously what you're looking at here is the introduction, and it's in blue. And while some language has stayed the same, for example, we still have two goals. We still have 11 objectives. This was still originally designed as a seven-year plan.

[00:45:59] We are still touting that the plan has always been intended to be flexible and something that we can adapt, adopt, or abandon components of across the implementation years. All of that's the same, but there are also a few sentences in this introduction that have been updated.

[00:46:15] For example, we are obviously requesting to extend the plan through 2028. that would make it a 10-year plan, which is equivalent to the previous strategic plan designed for excellence, which was also a 10-year strategic plan here in Chesterfield. Additionally, that last paragraph emphasizes that because of the Virginia Department of Education's new framework and support system, where we are all in the 24-25 school year under this new framework, there are some changes in our measurements and our language that

[00:46:49] we need to make to align with that new VDOE framework. All right so if you look on pages one and two you're going to see the title and we are going to recommend for your consideration a potential adjustment to the title and this reached my ears as someone heard Dr. Murray speaking at an event and he said in Chesterfield County we imagine tomorrow and it's time we even begin imagining beyond tomorrow. At least I hope that's how it was said. And it struck me as a potential

[00:47:27] title adjustment to distinguish the previous two iterations to this iteration. Everything else that you see on pages three would stay the same. The vision is still to create a better tomorrow. Mission, igniting passion through authentic and captivating experiences. And our values remain integrity, equity, teamwork, and ingenuity. We still continue with our two goals with no proposed wording changes to these goals. Those of us who've been working in this plan for a few years

[00:48:03] will sometimes paraphrase and say you know goal one if you wanted to shorten that is really about never stop learning and goal two is really about taking care of people. Of our 11 objectives there are only two that require some slight revisions in objective 1.3 you will see college and career is a proposed cross out that language mirrors too much an outdated measure with the virginia department of education the college career and civic index so we don't want confusion we can

[00:48:42] simply keep that objective and remove those two words and shift to a new measure that we'll look at shortly. And with Objective 2.6, we're simply requesting an addition to that language to emphasize internal and external stakeholder measurements that we'd like to add. So just a little bit more before we get going. Color coding, again, as I mentioned, blue indicates where we have language already, and we'd like to make a revision to the content. Red is where we are

[00:49:18] proposing eliminating content and green is where we are proposing adding new content and we will explain the reasons for those changes as we go through. Obviously there's always one but right in in any presentation so I just went over the color coding but one exception because most of our measures began by 2025. We've obviously updated that to say by 2028. We're not going to consider that a change and make all of those blue. So that's my disclaimer before we get going on that.

[00:49:56] And then finally, as you dig into the workbook, pretty much every page is laid out in the same manner. So just to walk you through so you understand at the very top row, you're always going to have goal one or goal two because we only have two goals. On the left, you'll see where we currently sit with the 2022 approved plan. What is the current version? What is the objective?

[00:50:22] What is the current measure? And then in that lower left quadrant, you'll get a paragraph called the why. And this is where staff will try to explain to you the reason why we are proposing a change. Then when you flip over to the right-hand side of the page, you're going to see all the proposals. Here we are in spring of 2025. What revision are we proposing to you?

[00:50:49] I like that you can look at the current measure and the proposed revised measure side by side so your eye can just scan across. And in the lower right quadrant, there's a section called results. And that's where we make a notation of business rules. What data are we going to pull? What are we going to present? What are the advantages? What would you expect in an August update when we come each year to report out on the strategic plan? So that's the layout of each page, and hopefully that will work for you. And again, you'll see the color coding. And this is the point where we have

[00:51:27] finished all the front matter introduction, and each chief is now going to come up here and walk you through the measures that they and their team members report out on each August. So since I'm already at the mic. I'm going to go first and get mine behind us. The Division of Teaching and Learning report out annually on five measures under Objective 1.1, 1.3, and 2.2. This is kind of the table of contents. I'll keep that up on the slide for you to see. And then if you flip

[00:52:00] in your workbook to page six, you're going to see this is a revised reporting driven by VDOE language. And as you look at page six, this is where we are requesting no change in the wording of the measure, but a notation that rather than pulling PALS, we're going to be pulling VALS information for you, which will change how it's reported out because that's a new metric, a new measuring tool. Pretty simple. Got to make alignment adjustments to the state. Oops,

[00:52:39] Too far ahead. On page seven, again in blue, a change being requested and driven by the Virginia Department of Education changes. And what you will see here is that with the adoption of the new support framework, we are, for accountability, passing and showing growth are very different.

[00:53:03] So what we would like to do in this measure is more closely align with the objectives of meeting or exceeding expectations used in the new framework. In the new framework, Mastery includes scores in reading, math, and science. So you're going to see that we've added science.

[00:53:19] And if you look over in the results, we're going to be using the annual pass rates to ensure a consistent business rule in reporting this out year after year. And that's pretty much the explanation for the language change there. On page eight, we are proposing no changes.

[00:53:37] But if you'll remember, one of our goals talks about the infinite learner. So in your backpack, you have a reminder of our infinite learner that was approved at the approval of our strategic plan in 2018, where the Virginia Department of Education has five C's in Chesterfield.

[00:53:54] We have six C's. We added the C connector. And as a reminder, we report out on that to you each year, and we take that information from student report cards at the elementary school level. So no changes there. Next would be on page nine.

[00:54:12] again revised language because of changes with vdoe this is where in the objective we're crossing out the words college and career and this is where in the measure itself we're moving away from the readiness index and we're moving to the new 3e index which is enrollment employment and enlistment and we're explaining in the results section what we will actually pull and report out on for that particular measure and then for the final one before I hand off the microphone

[00:54:43] under objective 2.2 you will see that this is not only a change to the measure but the reasoning for it given growing concerns about student mental health and feedback from parents and teachers our department recommends that the height and weight components be eliminated from the fitness testing starting next year. This aligns with the recommendations from the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Education, who have said that it is actually the school

[00:55:19] division who will make the decision you have the option of including this or not, although they recommend that you don't. So we would like to remove height and weight assessment to encourage an environment where students feel more comfortable enhancing their well-being while still striving to keep them physically fit we would report out on three of the four measures instead of four out of five if we remove this so that concludes the changes for consideration with my division I'm going to come back up at the end and talk you through strategies and tactics but in the meantime

[00:55:54] you need to hear from a few other chiefs and Dr. Booth is coming up behind me if you have any specific questions that you would like to pose now. I know that this is kind of your initial moment to just digest this information, and we have all month to work through revisions, but if anything there that I presented was not clear, I could probably clarify before I hand off the microphone. Dr. Pope, I want to thank you before we continue in this. For those that may not know, I have issues with color, and you have taken the extra step to put a color coding cheat sheet

[00:56:34] together for me so that I can follow along with what's shaded and what's not and what it means. And so that means a lot to me that you took the time to do that. And I just wanted to probably thank you for helping me follow along. Absolutely. Thank you. Anytime. Anything else? All right. Dr.

[00:56:52] Booth is going to come up next. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, school board members, and Dr. Murray. It is my pleasure to share the proposed revisions to the strategic plan that align most directly with the work of school leadership and student support services. For the Division of School Leadership and Student Support Services, we have measures under six objectives in our strategic plan that we report on annually. Of the measures listed, you will note proposed changes

[00:57:25] to five of the ten measures. We will begin on page 12 of your workbook. Measures 1.2a will remain the same. This measure is essential to our strategic plan as it reflects our commitment to ensuring students stay on track academically. By setting a goal to meet or exceed a 98% on-time promotion rate for all students by 2028, we are emphasizing the importance of providing the necessary support for students to progress successfully from one grade to the next. On-time promotion is a strong indicator of academic success in school engagement. Achieving this goal means that students are

[00:58:04] mastering grade-level content, receiving timely interventions when needed, and benefiting from a supportive learning environment. This measure ultimately ensures more students remain on the path to graduation and future success. Next, let's turn to page 13. Here you'll see a proposed revision to the language of Measure 1.2B. The updated measure reads, by 2028, 90% of eligible SAT suite test takers will connect with College Board-associated resources. Connecting with College Board resources was added as a monitoring metric during the October 2022 plan revision.

[00:58:44] Since we rely on the College Board for this data, changes in how they report may impact what we can access. The revised language ensures flexibility to account for current and future reporting methods. As a reminder, the SAT suite includes the PSAT 8-9, the PSAT, the NMSQT 10-11, and the SAT.

[00:59:06] Now, let's turn to page 14. Measure 1.2c will remain unchanged. This measure is a critical component of our commitment to preparing all students for success beyond high school. By encouraging students to enroll in at least one advanced placement, interbaccularity, or dual enrollment or honors course, we are promoting access to challenging college-level material.

[00:59:35] Additionally, this measure ensures our focus on equity. By setting a goal of 90%, we are intentionally working to expand access to rigorous courses for all students, ensuring that all learners have opportunities to challenge themselves and grow.

[00:59:51] Ultimately, this measure is about raising academic expectations, providing support for students to meet those expectations, and preparing graduates who are ready for college, career, and any other pathway they may choose. Next, let's turn to page 15. Here, you'll see a proposed revision to the language of Measure 1.3B.

[01:00:13] The updated measure reads, By 2028, all CCPS 8th graders will have a completed academic career plan. This revision better aligns with the Virginia Administrative Code, which requires all schools to begin developing a personal academic and career plan for each 7th grade student, with the completion by the fall of their 8th grade year.

[01:00:35] For students transferring into eighth grade from non-Virginia public schools, the plan must be developed as soon as possible after enrollment. Additionally, we've refined how we define a completed academic career plan for the purposes of this measure.

[01:00:51] A completed plan is one that has been drafted, reviewed by a school official, designated by the principal, and shared with the parent or guardian. This definition is consistent with the data available in our current platform and ensures accurate reporting.

[01:01:09] Now we will turn to page 16. The proposed revision to 1.3D includes a change to language and reporting based on changes from BDOE. The updated measure and reporting reads, By 2028, CCPS's federal graduation indicator will meet or exceed overall state performance.

[01:01:30] This change is proposed in an effort to provide greater clarity as Virginia uses graduation rates and indexes. While the Virginia on-time graduation rate has been reported in the past, the federal graduation indicator serves as the primary measure in the state's new school performance and support framework. Aligning our strategic plan with this key indicator ensures consistency with how school performance is assessed at the state level. Now we will turn to page 17. Measure 1.4a will remain unchanged. This measure is a key priority in our strategic

[01:02:09] plan because regular school attendance is foundational to student success. The measure ensuring no more than 5 percent of CCPS students are chronically absent by 2028 reflects our commitment to reducing absenteeism and addressing the barriers that prevent students from attending school consistently. By reducing chronic absenteeism, we are not only improving academic outcomes, but also fostering stronger school connections and enhancing overall student well-being.

[01:02:38] Ultimately, achieving this goal means more students will have the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed, aligning with our mission to prepare every student for their future. Please turn with me to page 18. Measure 1.4B will remain unchanged.

[01:02:54] This measure focuses on monitoring discipline practices across the division to ensure fair treatment of all students. The measure for CCPS schools to eliminate disproportionality in student suspensions by 2028 reflects our commitment to create inclusive, supported learning environments.

[01:03:13] Disproportionality occurs when students from certain demographic groups experience significantly higher suspension rates than their peers. In our case, the threshold for disproportionality is a ratio of 3.0, meaning students in a specific population are at least three times more likely than others to serve 10 or more days of suspension in a given year. Reducing and eliminating the disproportionality is not only a matter of fairness, but also essential for improving student outcomes. Research consistently shows that suspensions are linked to lower academic achievement, increased dropout rates, and higher involvement in juvenile

[01:03:50] justice systems. By focusing on this measure, we are ensuring that discipline practices are applied equitably, and students receive the support they need to stay engaged in their learning environment. Next, we will turn to page 19. The updated measures for 2.2b and 2.3a read, by 2028, all schools will achieve a rating greater than or equal to 3.0 from students, parents, and staff on the relationship score of the school climate survey. These revisions are necessary as we transition from the building

[01:04:27] ranks school culture survey to the U.S. Department of Education school climate survey during the 24-25 school year. This survey provides division leaders and principals with valuable insights to ensure all students and staff experience a healthy, positive environment for learning, working, interacting, and growing, regardless of the educational setting. We work closely with research and evaluation to determine which domains would provide school leaders with the most actionable data. We will use the relationship score as the primary measure for reporting.

[01:05:02] As a subscore within the engagement domain, it offers a consistent and comparable metric across all participant groups, students, parents, and staff. This adjustment ensures that we continue to gather meaningful insights into school culture using a nationally recognized survey instrument.

[01:05:20] The revised measure also allows for flexibility by not naming a specific tool while still focusing on the relationship aspect of the objective. Finally, our last measure can be found on page 20. Measure 2.4b will remain unchanged.

[01:05:38] This measure is a vital component of our strategic plan, emphasizing our commitment to ensuring all students have access to rigorous academic opportunities, ensuring that by 2028, enrollment in AP to DE and IB programs mirrors the general student demographic population, reflects on dedication in eliminating barriers and ensuring all students have the opportunity to engage in advanced coursework.

[01:06:05] Historically, access to these programs has not always been equitable. Certain student groups underrepresented. By addressing disparities, we are working to ensure that every student, regardless of background, is encouraged and supported in pursuing their academic potential. This measure is particularly important because participation in advanced academic programs is linked to stronger college and career net readiness.

[01:06:29] Students in AP, DE, and IB courses often develop critical thinking, problem solving, and time management skills. Additionally, earning college credit through these programs can reduce the financial burden of higher education and enhance college competitiveness.

[01:06:44] By monitoring and aligning enrollment with our student demographics, we will ensure our efforts are both effective and equitable. This commitment reinforces our belief that all students are capable of achieving at high levels when provided with the right opportunities and supports.

[01:07:00] Thank you for your time this evening. Up next, we'll have Mr. Bob Meister from Business and Finance, but I welcome any questions you may have at this time. Thank you, Dr. Booth.

[01:07:17] I had a couple on page 17, and this is not for you to answer. It's just a comment. I still find it unfair for CCPS to be judged by chronic absenteeism, and it is not our responsibility to get children to school.

[01:07:36] But I understand why the metric is there. I'm just not a fan. the next one is on page 18 I know there's a portion where we're going to talk about how do we get to that the schools will eliminate which would mean zero disproportionality love the goal I'm really interested in the how we're going to get that done right so that one and then the last one is on page 20 where you talk about academic programs will mirror the general student demographic population when you say academic programs are you talking about

[01:08:15] Well, let me not put words in your mouth. What do you mean when you refer to academic programs will mirror the students? So when we report out on that, we report out on CBG, grades 3 through 8, and APDE IB enrollment. Now I understand.

[01:08:41] Thank you. That was all I had. Saffron. Thanks. Can you explain the difference between the federal graduation indicator and the Virginia on-time graduation rate?

[01:08:59] Was that yours? Yes, that's mine. I'm not going to be able to say it. can stand here and in depth explain the difference other than I mean just kind of like how is that come on dr. patty fox the federal graduation rate is based on a four-year cohort of students entering and graduating within four years the primary difference with the Virginia on

[01:09:36] time graduation rate is that we recognize two special classes of students who may take longer to complete high school and that would be certain English learners and special education students. So those people are given six years in the Virginia on-time graduation rate before they go into the denominator versus it's four years flat, and that's all you get in the federal.

[01:09:59] Great. Thank you. Thank you for the answer. So honestly, it's a little bit lower, you know, but honestly it's what they're measuring at the state, so we want to be consistent with that. So the states adopted the federal guidelines and eliminated the previous Virginia graduation on-time graduation rate guidelines that allowed for what students who receive special education services are, by law, allowed to be served until they're 22, correct?

[01:10:32] So, yes. So what happens is when I first came to you and talked to you about the new framework, I said they're very much aligning this to the federal guidelines. I remember. And the federal guidelines do not allow for that. So there is the 15% at high school that is for graduation requirements, and that is the federal.

[01:10:48] They do use the six-year rate with the extended and also the additional diploma type in the 5% of the high school readiness indicator, but the primary one is the federal now. That's the State Board of Education adopted that.

[01:11:06] Yes. Okay, thank you. And I guess – thanks, Pat. I don't know. I had another question, Ms. Chatters, on page 20, objective 2.4B.

[01:11:24] So I know that includes dual enrollment, AP. And there can be some significant economic barriers to students to be able to access those programs. Do we have anything in place to ensure that those economic barriers are surmountable for our students?

[01:11:44] I do believe we have some opportunities for, I don't know if you could call them vouchers, but support to help students to access those assessments that are required. Thanks. I would just add, Ms. Heffron, that we do have our fee waivers as well next year.

[01:12:01] Dual enrollment will not carry a fee. So, some good news. Making notes. Mr. Paranto. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[01:12:16] Page 14, the goal by 2025, current measure by 2025, 90% of CCPS students, either advanced or standard diploma, will have enrolled in at least one AP, IBD, or honors credit bearing course.

[01:12:35] Enrollment and completion are two different things. So is the goal to have them enrolled, or is it the goal to have them enrolled and completed? So I apologize, it's a two-part question. You didn't see that coming. That was part one. Part two, taking into consideration 90% of CCPS students would encompass a certain percentage of them being special education students to make that up and not downplaying any one student's ability. However, also understanding that some of our

[01:13:07] special education students work as hard as they can in pursuing a standard diploma with what would be considered a general course, and then having an APIB or DE added on top of that, I don't know how we navigate that. So I'd like to understand more in that 90% number. I think that you bring up a very valid point in an opportunity when you give this feedback to look at how we maybe revisit that. But I do agree, it is 100% that we would want them to also complete the course, especially

[01:13:46] as this aligns with the new performance framework it is a requirement in order for the schools to get those credit those points that the student not only enroll in the course but they complete the course and pass an exam or either earn the required grade in that course so I think that is valid you know thought that you bring forward but if you reflect on the data from that was presented from in 2324 results um 60 67.8 percent of our students with disabilities were enrolled so we are not meeting it 100 percent in the meeting the goal but we are getting there so the hope would be that we would continue to have those opportunities for students with

[01:14:26] disabilities as well miss hedgins thank you for this um so on page 19 uh with the school climate survey um i just made a note i know that it is anonymous um just this is where it's popping into my head right now um we need to make sure there there's chatter that it could be not chatter uh tracked you know by ip addresses i'm looking at ernie over there um and there is fear i i think

[01:15:04] it's i believe that we work very hard for this to be as authentic as possible and we need to make sure that it is anonymous and it is um anonymous uh so that it is authentic um so that was just something that hit um similar to um miss chatters i i have a lot of how how how so i like where we're heading on these but i do have i guess how's not now so um but with the cbg ap deib

[01:15:39] be honors, yeah, that is, that's a huge how, so, and needed, wildly needed, and I think, yeah, that's, I have a lot of where are we now, but maybe we'll get to that later, so thank you.

[01:16:00] Thank you very much. All right, now Bob is up. You'll have to get used to the new clicker. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Murray.

[01:16:19] Measure 2.5 is really the realm of business and finance here, where we talk about the equitable, efficient, effective, and sustainable use of assets. 2.5A really gets into the efficient and effective piece of that. I'm proposing no changes here today. The language reads, we, CCPS, will only use programs and services that have demonstrated positive impact.

[01:16:43] We do that through two means. One, before we spend the money through our annual budget process, and second, after we spend the money as we partner with Dr. Fox and her team on program evaluations uh the second no change to page uh the second 2.5 b speaks to the other two items which is really the equitable and sustainable piece uh all budgets and assets will reflect program sustainability and equity and we've measured those generally through sustainability lens through the five-year plan that we present throughout the budget process and through the equity range where we look at how we spend those money at the school division making sure that it's not a one-size-fits-all

[01:17:21] at each school for both staffing and for the division or distribution sorry of funds to those schools so no change to either of these and happy to answer any questions now that's it thank you awesome mr smith thank you board members i will note as i was uh getting ready to come here i realized that i had a different printout than maybe what you have so i think i've got it straight but um i feel like i'm navigating differently let me know thank you um so for communication

[01:17:58] community engagement, I'm going to cover seven different measures. I'll note two revisions, one possible elimination, and four new ones that will be proposed. The first one you have on page 25 remains the same, essentially updating that for the year itself. What you have there is you have the increase of total financial value for external partnerships that we have, and that's looking at year-over-year increase. On the next one, on page 26, a suggestion for elimination of a measure. You'll recall that over the past couple of years, the county government has not done their

[01:18:37] community satisfaction survey for the citizens. With that, we're going to propose elimination of this measure. We'll talk more about that in a moment. On page 27, you have a revision in some the language there. In the past, we've had a measure that deals closely with the phone calls, social media pieces that we have out there. As we've gotten into our new communication system, some of those measures don't allow the analytics there. So we're broadening our approach and looking at the engagement there more or less with regards to social media pieces. We'll look at some of the

[01:19:14] engagement we're doing directly with some different channels year over year, looking at different increases engagement measures as well as looking at the website followers and looking at kind of the page views that come with that. The next measure is on page 28 and this is a new one. I think if you have, let me double check, this is where I've, this is a new measure. I'll note with

[01:19:49] the new measures, when I met closely with our team, we felt like year over year there's not been a presence for a lot of the work that's being done with regards to family and community engagement and participant services, as well as creative and media services. So you'll see kind of the conversation here looking at these different measures. So on page 28, a new measure there looks closely at communications and community engagement, looking at the partnerships we're doing with our schools, parents, and the community, and looking to increase that engagement by 25%.

[01:20:19] Like you've heard from some of the chiefs, I'm sure you'll hear from others as well, working closely with Dr. Fox, looking at some of the different measures that we could put in place to see that. On page 29, that is a new measure dealing largely with the work in creative media services. Again, not inclusive of all their work. However, this is a new measure looking directly at what is known as earned media. Essentially, this is news media coverage. The equation generally comes to play. So if you look at it, what would it cost for us to have a commercial on television and the work we do there to earn media? It doesn't cost anything. We're doing that now,

[01:20:56] but bringing into place, obviously, that measure and the tracking that comes with that. On page 30, the next two deal directly with constituent services. This is looking at our work with regards to Title IX regulations and the mastery knowledge for division staff and best practices, and that will be done essentially through the reporting log we have with our schools.

[01:21:20] And the last measure, which is a new measure, deals with community engagement, Looking, well, I'm sorry, with conditional services, looking to the work that we're doing with regards to what is known as formal complaints that we receive, and looking to reduce, obviously, those complaints through the resolution methods.

[01:21:42] So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Mrs. Chatters? So I'll start with the last one, since that's the last one you mentioned. When you say we're going to try to reduce or an annual increase in the percentage of formal complaints resolved, are you talking about the emails that the school board members receive that we, so I can't speak for everybody, but if we're able to resolve the situation with a conversation with the constituent, do you want us to start reporting that information to you?

[01:22:19] Because right now, I'm guessing by the way this is written, you would only be tracking what John does for us. A little of both, and I think to bring a really good caveat there, I think we can work closely with the board to determine that. I mean, overall, larger conversation, you know, the tracking pieces, we would always look to have a broader tracking mechanism for a lot of the work that it's done.

[01:22:42] It's not so much tracking, but certainly it's our ability to work with a constituent who may have kind of an ongoing situation to look at the work that's done. that's kind of done obviously in-house through Dr. Phillips and clearly Dr. Murray before him and putting that into place and I think that what we're looking at in this measure is both the informal and formal resolutions that are done so I think we'll circle back to the board certainly on that point to make sure that we're capturing ultimately it's probably more from the staff perspective from the measure but I think you've raised a really good point about the work the board is doing as well so and then my other question was regarding page 28 where you said

[01:23:22] increase engagement by 25 percent do you have a metric that we're going to measure engagement by yeah so basically for that piece we have for a lot of the programmatic pieces that we're doing we have surveys that we're we've just started doing this over this past year formally surveys that are given out to participants to to log both the experiences they've had to find ways that things that they they like didn't like and things that we can do do better so we have in place that that measure right now actually so would that include for example when we have town halls and we only have five people show up so we want to increase that next year like that's the that's

[01:24:00] how we're going to when you say increase by 25 percent you're talking about those kind of engagements as well more structured to our family and community engagement pieces that were done through um amy bartolotti and her team um and i think we're i'm going to give some thought to that too i think we have uh certainly with the work that that i do and our team does we have a constant overlap with the board purpose and i think maybe we can kind of consider the town hall pieces too is how we do that i think that's town hall is probably another separate conversation we should have um for a variety of reasons but right we just i i would like to increase that number if for

[01:24:40] at least for dale district i know i would like to increase the number of people who participate and And if we can come up with great ideas together on how to, I know one idea, if we feed them, they will come. I'm just saying, Bob, I need some money. No, I'm kidding. I mean, but seriously, that is what might drive folks to show up.

[01:25:00] We might need to. I'll say it this way. I think I agree with you, and probably even outside the strategic plan, I think that we should have that conversation with the board about the town halls. There's a lot of great suggestions, whether it's where we have the town halls, meet people where they are.

[01:25:18] Maybe there's a notion of consolidation of the town halls in the sense of that we're bringing people directly where they are. I think sometimes that'd be more options people have difficulty picking from. I think also looking at some of the social media aspects that we could involve, different social media channels that have town halls, that may be an option as well.

[01:25:38] So I think a separate conversation in a positive way that we should have. Thank you, Sean. Thank you.

[01:25:52] Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Drs. Murray and Hai.

[01:26:20] My pleasure here to chat with you this afternoon about our strategic plan elements in regards to operations. We've got a fairly lengthy list here, and we were working off of six measures in the most recent plan up to 2025.

[01:26:41] And today we're going to discuss the elimination of three measures, the revision of three of those six, and the addition of five new measures. And again, I'm going to hope that my workbook is going to match the pages that we have here.

[01:26:57] But on workbook 33, we are talking about a measure that measured facilities' responsiveness to work orders. And we believe that we can eliminate that measure at this point in time as we strive to 2028. On page 34, we're going to keep this measure and just slightly revise the language which in regards to our buses arriving to schools every morning on time.

[01:27:22] Page 35, we are again revising our school bus modernization replacement plan to state more vividly that we would like by 2028 that 100% of the fleet would not exceed the objective lifespan of 15 years.

[01:27:45] Moving on to page 36, I'm pleased to report that we had a very important measure in regards to safety and security. Our camera systems, access controls, school entrance renovations, they were all successfully completed so we can eliminate this measure because the goals were achieved.

[01:28:06] On to page 37, again, we are simply revising our measure in regards to school cleanliness and meeting the APA 2 standard. Our schools have been clean for several years, and we want to maintain and continue that fine work.

[01:28:25] Page 38 shows a previous measure by 2025 of meeting ASHRAE standards for ventilation at 100% of the schools. That goal was met in 2023, so we feel confident we can eliminate that measure and move on to some other measures that we're about to discuss.

[01:28:48] So as we now move to page 39, the next five will be proposed new measures. The first one has to do with the Office of Safety and Security and its growth and maturity into becoming a fully functional department within the operations division to ensure that the staffing and capabilities meet all of our needs.

[01:29:14] On to page 40, we are striving to reduce our reliance of modular facilities for classroom instructional learning. We're at 261. We want to strive for 175.

[01:29:32] We believe we're going to get at least 30 this summer. So, again, we're going to keep our eye on this one and hopefully make some very significant progress by 2028. Page 41 has to do with the expansion of our preventive maintenance system work that's done by our facilities department, Moving on from HVAC, roofing, electrical, to other systems to include plumbing, and this will support our major maintenance program.

[01:30:11] Page 42 builds upon the custodial services goal of keeping our buildings clean to pilot and employ innovative tools and resources such as robotics and supply tracking, more hardy chemicals to reduce the stripping required on our floors.

[01:30:27] And finally, page 43, again, coming back to facilities, and yes, we used to track work orders, we now think it's time that we can really step up our game in regards to inventory management and adding commodities each year into our new FMX system so that we have a great handle on what we own, how old it is, and whether it's going to continue to service or needs maintenance and replacement.

[01:30:58] I'd be happy to take any questions at this time on any of these measures. Mrs. Chatters. Hey, Josh. On page 39, you talk about a fully functioning department of the Office of Safety and Security.

[01:31:14] What other responsibilities are you envisioning that department would have? One of the new ones that we're looking at, and it's actually in the very immediate future, is to replace the police that conduct traffic control operations, and we pay them over time.

[01:31:35] It's very expensive. It's very effective and needed at certain locations. And we are about to hire our first SSO that would be trained by the police to perform traffic control duties. So that's one example.

[01:31:50] As the department matures, we see the need for dispatch capability right at our central office from some more regional supervision and assistance to our SSOs out at the respective schools to reflect structures that we have in some of our other operational departments.

[01:32:10] So there's quite a bit more that can occur as we hopefully implement the weapons detection systems in the next few months. We're going to learn a lot about the needs for both staffing and perhaps additional material and equipment is needed. So opportunities abound.

[01:32:26] Thank you. Mrs. Hutchins? So on slide, I'm talking about the maintenance. I think it's 43. When you're talking about the improved asset management system to ensure the inventory is maintained, that just, I have all kinds of exclamation points around that.

[01:32:57] I was very excited about that. That is something that we do. Is this different from a, it's broken, we're running to fix it, where, hey, we're going to catch it before it breaks, right? Yeah, it's kind of hand-in-hand with what the facilities condition assessments that Ms. Heffron brought up a couple of months ago that looks at an individual building.

[01:33:19] This allows us to look division-wide at, let's say, all of the VAV boxes that are within our HVAC systems to see how many hundreds or thousands of them there are in their ages and their expected useful life.

[01:33:34] So we can group these things by commodity or part number as opposed to going school by school and saying this school has this set of issues. So we can do the analysis of our inventory and our future needs both ways once we have this in place.

[01:33:52] This is exciting, and congratulations on this. This is wonderful. Lots of work to do. Thank you for your support. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Coker. I believe Dr. Huff is up next.

[01:34:18] All right, Ms. Coker, Ms. Hudgens, members of the board, Dr. Murray, I'm happy to share with you some goals and objectives from the Department of Human Resources and Talent Management.

[01:34:36] The first one is on page 45, and you may recall that in the last CCPS strategic plan, we had a goal surrounding employees passing a revised rigorous screening.

[01:34:51] That involved things like ensuring that we had done background checks, reference checks, reviewed disclosures regarding prior employment, reviewed the prior employment history if the person was an employee who was returning to us, as well as completing performance assessments for selected positions.

[01:35:15] So, for example, the principal and assistant principal positions are examples of ones where we have some rigorous written performance assessments coupled with the interview and the screening. So we have a tweak to this objective, and it has to do with our new software with the ERP.

[01:35:38] So we are going to try to incorporate all of these processes and procedures and change our standard operating procedures to make sure that we can fully enact all of these with our new software system.

[01:35:53] Additionally, on page 46, we had a previous measure about on-time completion of required elements for evaluation for teachers, assistant principals, and principals.

[01:36:11] This is a requirement of Virginia Code, which points us to the Virginia Department of Education process for evaluating these positions. And you can see that over the past couple of years coming out of the pandemic, we've made a lot of progress.

[01:36:27] We've had a 9% or greater than 9% improvement the past two years in completing these elements. So those are things like goal setting, observations, a mid-year review, as well as a summative performance review. And we know at some point we're going to kind of hit a cap on those because occasionally you'll have an employee who might be out, for example, at the end of the year and that final element isn't completed in the time frame.

[01:36:57] But we've made steady progress, and we want to keep this goal and set a goal of 95% completion just to ensure that this becomes part of our organizational culture since we've made so much improvement.

[01:37:13] The next item is on page 47, and this was an item regarding on-the-job accidents and workers' compensation and reducing those claims by 50%.

[01:37:29] This was a pre-pandemic capture, so we had a little bit of a rollercoaster with those numbers because the numbers went way down during the pandemic when we had more remote work and then backup. up. And then, of course, our employee population base changes each year as we grow and add schools. And so that metric has remained stable the past two years. So you can see almost identical claims ratios for the past two years. And we have implemented a slips, trips, and

[01:38:03] falls module, and that can certainly be maintained as well. And so we're recommending the removal of that goal. The next one on page 48 was an item where we had identified apparently in 2018 that licensed educators would reflect the student demographic population. Now since that original goal was developed in 2018, CCPS has diversified its teaching staff with one in four new teachers

[01:38:40] last year self-identifying as an educator teacher of color but mathematically the way the original goal was written was challenging because it would have required changes to current staff and there was a shortage of educators in all demographic groups exacerbated by the pandemic so the revised goal was proposed and a revised measure that we would explore additional opportunities to recruit candidates for identified instructional roles from a wide variety of

[01:39:12] backgrounds. We know that talent lives everywhere. Talent lives in every zip code, and CCPS needs talent, and we need talent as we continue to grow and as we continue to recover from the shortage that was exacerbated by the pandemic, and so we also are recognizing a change in our reliance on traditional undergraduate programs to more of a reliance on various entry points into teaching, much more reliance on career switchers.

[01:39:49] We've had a lot of success with annual substitutes and substitutes and instructional assistants becoming interested in full-time teaching positions and pursuing licensure pathways. So this, we're proposing to do an annual report that highlights our efforts to recruit broadly, which would include things like which colleges and universities did we go to, what kinds of local events did we have, what associations, fraternities, sororities, faith communities, military installations, various groups have we worked with to try to recruit.

[01:40:27] And we think by doing that, it also may highlight some future opportunities. If there are some things not included and we have a public report, then that, you know, people may suggest additional avenues to us to recruit.

[01:40:42] And our next measure, which is on page 49, is a new one. And this is by 2028, CCPS will digitize personnel files at all locations.

[01:41:00] The Library of Virginia requires us to maintain most elements in personnel file, most of the record types, for 50 years. So I started with CCPS in the fall of 2019, and I have not outlived my lack of poker face about the paper files and the crank 1950s files that came out of the wall.

[01:41:27] But I'm happy to report that we have since eliminated those, and we have digitized all of our central personnel files and benefits files. And as of today, we've digitized the files of 36 schools, and we have put processes in place to maintain those so that the schools don't have to create additional paper personnel records.

[01:41:47] But by 2028, our goal is to have all schools digitized, and we think that's important because it reduces risk of, you know, fire, theft, there's a backup, there are better security controls for what can be sensitive personal data, and that's important to everyone, especially in 2025.

[01:42:09] And it's also more efficient when people call or request their records to be able to retrieve them for them. I'm happy to entertain any questions at this time. Thank you very much.

[01:42:26] We have technology next. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board.

[01:42:44] I appreciate this opportunity to talk through new measures related to technology services, Division of Technology Services. One of the things you'll notice in our circumstances is that these are all new measures. The reason for that is that previously the Virginia Department of Education required a separate technology plan that was approved annually.

[01:43:06] They no longer do this, and so we're folding in technology measures into this division's strategic plan. So this isn't comprehensive of everything we do, but it's representative of our connections to the other world.

[01:43:26] This right here? Oh, you can't hear me. I got you. Apologies. you need me to start over okay all right thank you um so uh the the first of these measures is instructional the other three are more operational so the the first measure on page 51 if you're following along in your workbook um is that by 2028 100 of schools will fully implement the division's annual digital citizenship curriculum so digital citizenship curriculum it's important We live in a digital society.

[01:44:03] It's a requirement of the Virginia Department of Education. It's also a requirement we receive e-rate grant funding through the FCC, and as a part of being eligible for that, schools and libraries have to have an Internet safety program and be able to demonstrate that.

[01:44:21] The challenge with our digital citizenship curriculum, it's similar to lots of things like, you know, those things that there's not a dedicated class for where you're supposed to integrate it throughout the curriculum, throughout the K-12 experience. So it's a little easier at elementary school. We leverage the library rotation to deliver a lot of these lessons. In middle school and high school, it gets more complicated because your schools are challenged to try to find the time to integrate it, although acknowledging that it's very important. So we see that as part of our

[01:44:57] challenge and role in the division of technology services is how do we make that easy for them to meet this requirement we we have we provide the curriculum we provide the lessons we put them in our division canvas learning management system we provide them lots of options for accounting for how this has been delivered so we do this already our aim is to to make to do this better to make this easier for schools and to have 100% of the schools implement it with fidelity.

[01:45:29] Moving into the more operational side of our measures, on page 52, by 2028, CCPS will reduce total cost of ownership and increase inventory accuracy of technology assets.

[01:45:45] So like Josh talked about just previously, and I've spoken about previously around our Chromebook inventory and our asset management we feel that this is one of our higher priorities and it's to make sure that the instructional arm of our division and the operational arm of our division can can do the work that they need to do so initially we're we're establishing this Chromebook lease that will once the initial cost is is behind us the the annual and variable and

[01:46:20] surprise costs will drop off significantly. In longer range, as we grow in together a replacement cycle, we should start to see efficiencies and cost savings around this as well.

[01:46:37] On page 53, this measure is by 2028, CCPS will increase the number of sites insulated from phone and data outages and improve network uptime network uptime is really isn't our biggest challenge we do we do pretty well there but we're we're not stagnant we're growing we're growing division so we have to plan for the future and making sure that we're ahead of that that we're always in a situation where network uptime is not a concern we do have some challenges with phones we have an

[01:47:15] age and a dated phone system in schools. They go down from time to time, weather-related, infrastructure-related, and we believe that we can replace an update and modernize that phone system and have it reliable for schools. And Mr. Meister says, show me, improve it, but we believe we can do it without increasing costs that we pay right now.

[01:47:39] And the last measure on page 54, by 2028, CCPS will reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The reason is there's a lot of risk there to downtime, interruption to operations, and money.

[01:48:01] We're in regular conversations with our county IST department because they have the same issues, they have the same challenges, and we partner on that regularly. As I've shared before, this is one of our newer arms of our department. We have a small staff, and so we balance services and people.

[01:48:21] And we rely on penetration tests and third-party entities to come in and evaluate our cybersecurity posture. They provide ratings. They provide recommendations.

[01:48:38] And our measure there is on the CISA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an audit of zero critical findings. And so, again, these are things we've highlighted that are a part of a larger technology plan, and they're things that we've prioritized.

[01:48:59] So I'll welcome any questions. Mr. Conte. Thank you. And thank you for the revisions and what you're doing. I just want to go back to something you just said with the penetration testing. So are we paying an outside entity to breach or attempt to breach our security?

[01:49:19] We do. Our network? We do. We've done that in the past couple of years. They'll come on site and or school locations as well, and they will attempt to breach our cybersecurity, our systems, and then report out on what they find and where there's vulnerabilities and such.

[01:49:42] And then the vulnerabilities that are found, is there a measure in here? I see zero critical findings, right? But when they do find something, is there a timeline in regards to fixing that versus, okay, we know now we have this issue and we'll put this plan into place, but what's the timeline on that?

[01:50:05] I just want to understand the procedure. Right, and it's, when they give us these findings, they kind of rank them in terms of, like, this needs your immediate attention, this is critical, and that's the actual terminology they use, and then, you know, into medium and lower priorities.

[01:50:23] We just currently, we address the critical ones immediately or as quickly as we can, but what we want to be able to do in our planning in terms of transparency is, within those different categories, say, this is our response time to a critical.

[01:50:39] This is our response time to a media. We don't do that now. That's what we will do moving forward. That's what we're going towards. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And I think to take us on home with this is Dr. Pope again to round it back out.

[01:50:57] Thank you. Thank you. All right. We are in the final stretch. Great job. We are at the strategies and tactics section. Currently in our approved plan, that's a seven-page section.

[01:51:14] we're going to now go through 10 pages of very tiny font line by line. I'm only kidding. We're not going to do that. But I would like to give you a little bit of an overview. The strategies and tactics was originally approved in 2018. It was not part of what was reviewed in 2022. So we are presenting to you updates in language in the section. And in the strategies and tactics section as it's designed, a strategic plan should have four components. People remember those by thinking of the word ghost misspelled the language arts teacher and me must say g-o-s-t goals objectives

[01:51:50] strategies and tactics so you've just sat through the front manner the front matter the goals and the objectives we're now to the strategies and tactics and in our plan we have two priority areas priority area number one is personalized learning and development of the whole child Priority area number two is culture of high performance, continuous improvement, and evidence of impact.

[01:52:16] Under those two priority areas, you have strategies. The strategies are numbered. Under the first priority, you have 10 strategies with multiple tactics, and the tactics are what you see bulleted. Under the second priority, you have five strategies, again, with multiple bulleted tactics.

[01:52:38] And what you're going to see on these table of contents pages is that in each of those strategies, you're going to have additions and deletions, again, indicated with the color coding. You can see the workbook page numbers, and there's one that also has revision, and that's number 13, and we've changed just a little bit of that wording under the creative culture of structured autonomy with measurable accountability and supports for innovation.

[01:53:08] Everybody who's contributed dug into these back pages. I have their paper copies with their names in my office of who struck out what, who proposed which edition. I personally couldn't stand here from memory and tell you who proposed what or why they were even thinking in that way, but I can give you some general ideas that guided our work.

[01:53:30] The first general idea was, because we may be changing the name of the plan, let's take the name of the plan out and simply call it the strategic plan. And secondly, we had names of products previously in this section. From 2018 till now, being good stewards of our funds, we often compete and buy the best products for the best price that benefit our staff and students.

[01:53:54] So it probably behooves us to take out the name of an exact product. So we tried to write this a little bit more generally than it had been written before. And we also looked for redundancies, tried to eliminate some of those. And also, sometimes we felt like something was good, but maybe just not quite in the right area.

[01:54:13] So there was a little bit of rearranging as well. I will not take you through these 10 pages, page by page, but it is why you have the color-coded workbook, so that you can flip through and see without having to go between the old plan and the new plan what's being crossed out and what's being proposed as a wording change, so that you can dig in.

[01:54:35] And of course, over the next month, we're excited to receive feedback from every single board member as well as our entire community. When we get to the end of this slide deck, this is where anyone watching, anyone who accesses this, and I know Sean's team is going to do a great job helping us message this out, our staff and our community members can absolutely provide their feedback going through this form, and we're asking for that by May 2nd, end of the day, and that will get us enough time. Of course, we'll be looking at the feedback as it comes in, but if we can cut it off

[01:55:13] by May 2nd, we have time to really assimilate all of that feedback for our second draft that we'll bring back to you in May. So that's the goal, that's the plan. Do you have any final questions that I can answer about the process or what's next.

[01:55:36] I think everyone has done a fabulous job, and it is very organized, so thank you very much for that. I definitely appreciate it. Dr. Murray, thank you. I just want to say while Dr. Pope is at the mic, first a collective thank you to the cabinet for their work, but on an individual level to Dr. Pope for shepherding this work.

[01:56:01] Obviously, it's extensive, very robust, and so I appreciate all of you, but an extra thank you to Sharon. Thank you. I enjoy it. All right. Next on our work session agenda is kind of circling back to the topic that we had in last month's work session, but that was around our school board, code of conduct, and governance handbook.

[01:56:33] It was mentioned that we wanted to kind of, I guess, detail out the role of the vice chair. So at this time, I'll take comments. It's open dialogue of what we would like to see added to our governance handbook around the role of our vice chair.

[01:56:53] Mr. Baranto. Thank you, Madam Chair. I commend the board for acknowledging the importance of a vice chair. I know we joke around. It's not a joke, but jokingly say, you know, one heartbeat away type thing. But no pressure, no pressure.

[01:57:14] But it is an important seat on the board. And one of the things that we had discussed in a previous time was in regards to the school board, essentially school board employees, right?

[01:57:30] So we have three. And the superintendent does, you know, we do their review of the superintendent. But we currently don't do a review in regards to growth development and building for our clerk or for the school board attorney.

[01:57:45] And I thought in regards to that structure that that was something that our vice chair would be able to head up. chair obviously heading up for the superintendent but the vice chair and for those two positions working obviously with the board in what that looks like for that feedback development if you want to call it that but just gives a pulse to be able to the board put their finger on the pulse and say hey we're good this is where we are we're meeting expectations and we're moving forward so

[01:58:20] That would be my recommendation in addition to the responsibilities of the vice chair, but that's my feedback. Thank you. Ms. Heffron? Thank you.

[01:58:36] It might be valuable for us to include in our vice chair. I guess we would just add it as a section, maybe after or before the chair, I have somewhere in there, the specific duties. I think it would be appropriate for us to just emphasize, like, I guess clearly state that it would, that these specific duties of the chair would be the duties of the vice chair as the first alternate.

[01:59:09] And then I was thinking, could also add some description of, like, the vice chair is the first alternate for the chair in division-wide community events. I think that's kind of implied and understood, but just to kind of clarify that.

[01:59:26] But, of course, I think when we have it spelled out in the governance document, that otherwise, if it was specific to a magisterial district, that representative of that district would be the primary point of contact.

[01:59:46] We can highlight that the vice chair assumes committee assignments based on the bylaws of that committee. We have a few committees where if you're the vice chair, chair and vice chair, it's assumed that you're going to be the liaison for that committee.

[02:00:05] Do we want to get down to partnering for how we pair up for agenda reviews or anything like that? Or do we want to leave that? Because I think there may be schedule conflicts where we can't align those.

[02:00:24] Both of those roles can't align for appointments. But I'm just throwing it out there. Ms. Chatters? So the only thing I thought about different than what my colleagues mentioned is we don't talk about the timeline in which we respond to constituents.

[02:00:50] So I thought maybe, like, what is our current thing? Like, when they send something to all five of us, what happens with that? Chair takes that, and either, most of the time I just send it on to constituents.

[02:01:08] Okay, because that's not written in here. So you might want to put that in there for chair. So this is outside of the vice chair. Right, but I'm saying, I didn't know if that was like an, if the vice chair is an alternate to the chair, then that responsibility should be listed under the chair to make that an alternate responsibility for the vice chair.

[02:01:28] I know Ms. Cogar and I had this conversation about how many iterations of this we've been through. So I don't know if we've already talked about this, but to your point, Ms. Chatters, and I can't remember if it's outlined, But with the understanding that if a constituent specifies I live in the Clover Hill District and then sends it to the board, okay, so that's an understanding.

[02:02:09] Sure. They don't mention what district or what school. It's just I have an issue, and they send it to all five. And so just for clarity, who's actioning those? Gotcha. So for clarity on that, just to make sure I'm following along.

[02:02:25] So if it's an email to the entire board, but the constituent says, I live in the Matoika District, the expectation is I'm responding to that constituent, even though they reached out to the whole, we're not waiting for the chair to say.

[02:02:43] But if it's generic, there's no clarifying, I live here, then I just want to make sure that's what I think your understanding was. That has been my practice as chair. So if it is general, I either respond typically engaging with staff on that.

[02:03:03] If it is direct to a board member, or at least you can tell based off of the school, or they say what district they're in, I let that board member respond. No, I agree. I just want to make sure I was understanding the point of clarification, if you will. Chair responding versus individual board member, even when the board is, the entire board is in the two line, if you will.

[02:03:26] Okay, thank you. There are times when probably this happens because we don't reply all. So maybe all of us will send it on to staff, possibly.

[02:03:43] But I think it's very important to specify because if we think that everyone is doing it, maybe no one is doing it. So I think that's very important. and the last thing i had was under duties of the chair it's under evaluation and retreat it says enlist board input to plan a retreat agenda on an annual basis i was going to see if that would be something that the vice chair can take the lead on perhaps getting our retreat or our team

[02:04:15] building of whatever we're doing like we did last year i have nothing um in addition to where we were talking about committee assignments um one other thing that we've instituted with the vice chair is director meetings so putting that as a quarterly director meetings putting that in the

[02:04:45] vice chair duties no i these are all things that we had uh you know i thought about so we i think we've hit it i can't think of anything else and i think these are all really uh appropriate and i like that if we're going to have a chair and a vice chair and we have a governance handbook i think it's appropriate that these duties are in there so well done so i will take the ownership

[02:05:19] of writing all of this up and we'll get this disseminated out for everybody to review i'll go back and watch the video next we have announcements communications and school board comments school board members are there any announcements or comments the next school board business meeting will be held this evening april 8 2025 at 6 30 p.m here in the public meeting room if there's no

[02:05:54] further business no further public business we will enter into closed session which will be held in the pmr conference room madam clerk please read please announce the items for today's closed session it is my understanding that the school board desires to enter into closed session in accordance with section 2.2-3711.a of the code of virginia the virginia freedom of information act and specifically under subsection 2 the discussion and consideration of matters that would involve the disclosure of student records.

[02:06:29] Members of the board, you have just heard the items requested to be discussed in closed session. Do I have a motion in that regard? I make a motion to enter into closed session. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dot Hepron, Dominique Chatters, aye, Stephen Pronto, aye, Lisa Hudgens, aye, Anne Coker.

[02:06:49] Aye. We are now in closed session. Do I have a motion to reconvene in open session? Is there a second?

[02:07:07] Second. The board is now in open session. Madam Clerk, would you please read the resolution certifying the closed session? Now, therefore, be it resolved that the school board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification resolution applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting or heard discussed or considered by the school board is there a motion to adopt the resolution

[02:07:43] so moved is there a second second madam clerk would you please call roll on the motion dot heffron i dominate chatters i steven pronto i lisa hudgens i and cooker i the motion carries is there a motion regarding the first student matter in case numbers 2024-25-16 it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk

[02:08:18] would you please call roll on the motion. Dot Heffron. Aye. Dominique Chatters. Aye. Stephen Pronto. Aye. Lisa Hudgens. Aye. Ann Coker. Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the remaining student matters? In case numbers 2024-25-29RE, 2024-25-30RE, 2024-20 25 slash 31 re it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld is there a second second madam clerk would you please call roll on the motion dot heffron

[02:08:55] aye dominique chatters aye steven pronto aye lisa hudgens aye and cocker aye the motion carries

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