Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County School Board Work Session, Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County School Board, Virginia
Length: 1h 27m (video)
Official meeting video (Swagit): https://chesterfieldschoolsva.new.swagit.com/videos/342532
Official minutes (BoardDocs, on the Jun 3, 2025 agenda for approval): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/chesterfield/Board.nsf/pfiles/DH4MP55C1099/$file/DRAFT%20MINUTES%20-%202025.05.13%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 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:08] Good afternoon. I'd like to call the May 13th, 2025 school board work session to order. First, we have summer learning opportunities presentation from Dr. Booth. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, school board members, and Dr. Mary.

[00:00:34] Thank you for the opportunity to present an overview of our division plans for summer learning. Summer learning is designed to support academic recovery, enrichment, and equitable access for all students. This afternoon's presentation includes an overview of the summer program offerings, program dates, school sites that will be used, and additional ways for students and families to access learning during the summer.

[00:01:00] To begin, we will highlight a few key features of summer school. First, it is tuition-free for Chesterfield County students who are making progress but not meeting all grade-level standard expectations. Transportation is provided from neighborhood bus stops to the summer school sites.

[00:01:19] Breakfast and lunch are offered to students at all sites. Additionally, at eligible schools, the meals will be free. Summer school will be in session June 9th through the 19th at our year-round school, Bellwood Elementary, and from June 23rd to July 17th at all other schools.

[00:01:41] Summer graduation, which is always an exciting event, will be held on July 24th at 2 p.m. at CTC Hall in the auditorium. There are 19 elementary school sites that operate on two different tiers. Tier 1 will be from 7.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m.

[00:01:59] Tier 2 will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We also have six secondary sites. Middle and high school students are combined, except for Salem and Fallen Creek Middle feeder pattern and Meadowbrook and Elsie Bird feeder pattern, which is split into two sites due to high enrollment numbers.

[00:02:19] Secondary sites operate on a single tier, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Students attending CCPS Online will access instruction from June 16th to July 24th. Listed here are the 19 elementary and six secondary summer sites.

[00:02:37] The academy location is listed as well. Summer school registration is done via ParentVue. While we ask parents to register their students, schools may register students during the last two weeks of registration, should a family need assistance.

[00:02:58] All registrations are linked online on the summer program's webpage. Once summer school registration closes on May 28th, waitlist will open. Students on the waitlist will not receive transportation, and their enrollment is not guaranteed.

[00:03:15] Registration for academies, SOL, SAT, and WISE will close on May 28th. Enrichment camps have various registration close dates, and CCPS Online for Accelerated Learning closed on April 28th. The instructional focus at the elementary level is literacy and math.

[00:03:36] Students attend summer school in person and take a pre- and post-test done via Alexia and DreamBox to measure growth. Our emphasis is on addressing learning gaps and preventing the summer slide. Kindergarten readiness instruction is based on screening received during kindergarten registration.

[00:03:54] Students are expected to attend summer school daily and may not exceed three absences. Similar to elementary summer school, summer school at the secondary level is offered to address learning gaps. Students in secondary classes are invited to participate in summer school if they were not successful during the school year.

[00:04:16] Students who have a D or F average are invited to attend. Middle school students have the choice to take one or two core courses. Courses are in two-week intervals. Pre- and post-testing in middle school is done through Mastery Connect and Lexia Power Up.

[00:04:32] Attendance expectation is for students to have no more than two absences during summer learning. MathBridge 8 is a course offered to students who will successfully complete Math 7 this spring and wish to take Algebra 1 in the fall. This course provides students with the necessary instruction to gain important math content that is needed to find success in algebra.

[00:04:55] High school students may take one course needed for graduation. High school students participate in SOL testing if needed. Attendance expectation is for students to have no more than two absences during summer learning. Our English learners will have learning opportunities in the appropriate instructional setting.

[00:05:15] Level 1 and 2 students will focus on English language development, and Level 3 and 4 students participate in their grade-level content classes. For elementary, middle, and high school students receiving instruction based on the Virginia Essentialized Standards of Learning, CCPS offers specialized programs exclusively for students with IEPs.

[00:05:40] These programs provide targeted support in a small group setting, focusing on math, literacy, and functional skills, such as communication and social development. Although extended year services are not classified as summer school, CCPS provides ESY opportunities during the summer and throughout the school year for students who qualify.

[00:06:02] Eligibility for ESY is determined by the student's IEP team. CCPS Online offers courses to students who are taking a course for the first time to accelerate their learning. accelerated course fees are listed here. Course runs from June 16th to July 24th. Time spent in a course is similar to time spent in face-to-face classes. We offer three cost-free test prep

[00:06:35] academies. SOL Academy is for students who pass an SOL course but fail the corresponding SOL. SAT Academy is for rising 11th and 12th grade students for test prep. WISE Academy is for students who passed the economics and personal finance course but failed the WISE test. This is a retest opportunity. All testing for SOL and WISE are held on site. Academies are held at Elsie Bird High School June 23rd to July 17th. Our enrichment camps vary in length and dates. Here we listed

[00:07:14] seven of the camps that are offered and their locations. A full list of camp options is available on the CCPS website under the summer programs page. All enrichment camps come with a cost and transportation is the responsibility of the parent. The next two slides highlight some of our enrichment camp. Camp Epic is for rising fifth through eighth grades. This camp provides hands-on career experiences such as those listed here. Cultural Arts Camp is for K through five students

[00:07:47] featuring visual arts, music, PE, engineering, and world language experiences. It has expanded to two locations this year. Camp Epic and Cultural Arts continue to be two very popular CCPS summer camps, so spots fill up quickly. World Language Camp is returning for a second year and is open to rising second through fifth grade students. We're excited to offer this unique opportunity for students to broaden their global awareness as they rotate through sessions in four languages, French, Spanish,

[00:08:21] German, and Latin. Team Skills Basketball Camp is available to students entering grades five through for the 2025-26 school year and continues to generate strong interest among families. The final camps we're highlighting today are all new, and we're especially excited that two of them bring camp opportunities back to the high school level.

[00:08:43] Cultivando Beyinges did the best I could with that one. I'm sure that Ms. Chatters probably could help me out with that one. Open to rising first through sixth grades, drawing with confidence designed for rising ninth through 12th graders.

[00:09:00] Vibrant Visions, Unlocking the Power of Color, also for rising 9th through 12th graders. I have provided an overview of our programming for the summer. However, families are also encouraged to visit our division's website or contact their child's school for more information.

[00:09:15] Thank you for the time this afternoon, and I can answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Dr. Booth. Board members, is there any discussion or questions? Thank you, Dr. Booth. I just had a quick question on with the course fees, Accelerate Course Fees.

[00:09:37] you've got the full full credit half credit year semester um for whatever reason that's not really making sense to me do we uh does the summer school course does it get broken into years and semesters or is it content like considered an entire year or it's considered the the course that the child would get during the school year right okay um i guess i i'm sorry which slide which one i don't have the on this i don't have it's a very pretty colored slide um it's a golden rod maybe this box

[00:10:15] it's accelerate course fee ccps oh it's ccps online that's the heading um so when you look at um it's full credit for a year which is a year course and that's the 325 the half credit would be a semester class the students would only it would be a semester credit and then the other two are students who are non-Chesterfield residents are the two prices that are $8.75 and $4.50. Okay, I guess it, so those are, right, so I see the differentiation. I guess my main

[00:10:52] question that we finally worked our way around to, I didn't realize that some were semester classes in summer school. That's what I didn't know. Okay, now we know. Thank you. No problem. Sorry, I wasn't clear on the question. No, it was, I'm sure, me.

[00:11:08] thank you all right thank you all so much thank you appreciate it next we have a food and nutrition program update from mr dunbrack evening madam chair board members dr murray thank you as always for the opportunity to talk about our excellent food nutrition services program here in chester

[00:11:44] fale county public schools um so just kind of again to go over some general background on our program we are a federally funded program we operate national school breakfast program national School Lunch Program, CACFP, which is the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program. That is after school feeding, snacks, and dinners. And then SFSP, which is the Summer Food Service Program, which is a lot of what Dr. Booth just talked about, our opportunities to serve students over the summer. Currently on pace this year to serve about 8.7 million meals, just over.

[00:12:18] Our average daily participation is right in line about last year. We are obviously losing a couple days to share from snow days and other various occurrences during the year that have impacted our total touch. In terms of free and reduced percentage for the county, 38% of the students in Chesterfield County qualify for free breakfast and lunch, either directly through the state of Virginia or the federal government, or via application through our program. Currently have 476 staff members, hopefully, knock on wood every day. And we are a self-funded program,

[00:12:51] effectively a very high-level federal grant program. So I just wanted to start. We are an award-winning program also, and I think it's important that we highlight that. We were recognized this year by the VDOE for our breakfast program at SECLA. It is one of the awards. There's three schools in the state that won it this year. It is for increasing breakfast participation and overall environment for breakfast for the students. Dr. Harris was also an award winner for us as our breakfast champion of the year for her dedication to the students over there and making sure that

[00:13:26] they have a good breakfast every day. Also, we were recognized by the school board association, Virginia school board association for our farmer's market program, which I know we've been in front of you talking about a couple of times, but it really is a pretty unique program in the state of Virginia that we've been recognized for several times. And that is going to take place again this summer at the farmer's market. We were out looking at the site the other day. So we are very excited about that but it was for the food for thought competition so it was expanding access to summer feeding effectively for students also in the school nutrition association of virginia recognized

[00:14:02] several of our staff members this year for their dedication to the program and overall just their excellence working in school nutrition so tracy will and our manager at bird high school was the overall sna virginia manager of the year for the entire state so that's an incredible accomplishment Ronnie LaPelle in our office, who does marketing, was recognized as one of the admins of the year for the state of Virginia.

[00:14:24] Reams Road and their manager, Heather Patterson, did win the marketing award this year. And then Dr. Hill at Hopkins was recognized with the Friends of S&A Award this year, and it was nominated by her manager, Lynette Perrin. So Golden Trey winners is something that we wanted to do this year.

[00:14:40] There will be slides at the end of this presentation that show some excellent trays that are going out in the field. And we've got a lot of really beautiful food that goes out every day. And we want these folks to highlight it and take photos and be proud of what they're serving in the schools. And when they send us a really great photo and the kids are enjoying it, we go out and we give them this nice spray-painted golden tray.

[00:14:59] And they get to put it out on their lines, and it's a trophy, and they love it. So we're very excited to be able to do that. So these are a couple of our award winners this year, and we were very happy to highlight them. So warehouse is a topic we've talked about several times over the past few years, and very excited that that is really ramping up to kind of go full steam ahead in terms of next year for what our ultimate goals were.

[00:15:23] Currently have a staff of four. We'll be hiring a couple more folks this summer as we scale up, so we should have about five folks there by the end of the summer. Weekly deliveries to each school are currently going out now, and those will increase next year. We'll also be getting some direct from distributor deliveries and direct from farm deliveries next year, which is something that ultimately was our goal when getting into this operation.

[00:15:44] So, very excited about that. We had our first direct-to-farm delivery this year, which was very exciting. We had folks go out and take photos of the carrots that came in. We were very excited about it. So, we are looking very forward to expanding that program. So, vending, and vending is something that school nutrition, obviously, as has evolved throughout the years, used to be a very large piece of school nutrition programs.

[00:16:12] And as we have obviously evolved throughout the years, that has become less and less of a mainstay of the program. The county proper did contact us earlier this year with the concept of having an overarching vending contract for every county building, be it courthouses, police stations, office buildings, schools, etc.

[00:16:32] so we are working with the county to transition over to a process where they will have a contract over all the vending machines really the impact for the schools is we will not have student facing vending machines anymore quite frankly we are getting to the point where we are barely able to break even running those students don't carry a lot of cash around with them there are obviously a lot of limited things that we can have and I know it causes a lot of concerns for principals when it comes to student traffic how they're going to interact with machines. They can't open them during the shift and various other concerns. So

[00:17:06] the county will be reaching out to folks within the schools as we move forward to potentially talk with them about individualized services that will be available to the schools in terms of offering vending machines through a third party for things like teacher's lounges, field houses, after school activities, things of that nature. And important to highlight, we will still have drinks and snacks and all that fun stuff, they will just be in the line with us where we want to prioritize making sure that our lines are fully stocked, ready to go, and getting kids out quickly.

[00:17:37] Community eligibility provision is something that we talk about every year, and it's a program that we're very fortunate to participate in. And effectively, what that allows us to do is give every student in a qualifying school a free breakfast and lunch. And that is based on the student-identified percentage, or the ISP.

[00:17:54] Effectively, what that is, is we are notified by the state of Virginia, the federal government, once a month about the students within Chesterfield County that automatically qualify for a free or reduced meal, be it they receive some type of federal benefits, SNAP, TANF, McKinney, Vento, they're on Medicaid, things of that nature. And that would, again, make them an identified student. If we have a percentage out of school, 40% or more of the students there qualify for free or reduced lunch via identified percentage, then we are able to qualify them for this program. Currently we have an ISP in Chesterfield of 36% and an overall free and reduced of 38%. Really what that

[00:18:34] means is we have 36% of our students qualify through the ISP and 2% qualify by the old school paper application, which is mainly online at this point. In terms of financial impact, there is a financial impact in terms of the percentage at which we claim. So there are thresholds at which we have to make sure that an ISP is a certain percentage before we can participate in the program without effectively losing money. So CEP sites, I do like to do a map because it is always interesting to show folks kind of the clear delineation in the county when

[00:19:13] it comes to some of our CEP services. So as you can see on the left-hand side of the county, we have a lot of non-qualifying schools. On the right-hand side of the county, we have a lot of qualifying schools. We will be talking today about potentially adding one school that's kind of been an albatross and a sea of green the past couple of years, and that would be, in this instance, Bailey Bridge. So we currently have 42 schools that are participating in CEP. What that means is 60% of our students in Chesterfield County schools, as of today, can go get a free breakfast and lunch every time they walk into school building, which is a pretty phenomenal thing. In the current precedents that we've set, which is 30%

[00:19:53] ISP or more for a school would qualify them for CEP. If we are able to do that, then that would add Bailey Bridge. That is important because the past two years we've qualified both Crenshaw Elementary School and Manchester High School and have not been able to qualify Bailey Bridge Middle School, which is always a difficult conversation to have with those parents who potentially have a student at all three schools and one has to pay while the other two receive it for free. So this will help that community out quite a bit.

[00:20:24] So some of the uncertainty affecting school nutrition and just kind of food service as a whole, I think it's important to highlight. We are being notified by our vendors that we should anticipate anywhere between 10% to 30% price increases on products as we continue to move forward.

[00:20:42] These are not only food items, but mainly kind of the things that are needed to send us food, plastic packaging, aluminum packaging, cardboard packaging, things of that nature. So I explained it to my folks, it's not the milk that's the problem, it's the milk carton.

[00:20:59] That's the problem. We have plenty of milk to put in the carton, but it's harder to get the carton right now. So as always, folks are passing the buck along to their customers, which does impact us. And from a federal program sense, as I said at the beginning, our program is in a very broad definition, a high-level grant program.

[00:21:17] And there's certainly been discussion about grant funds being affected at the federal level. From the BDOE's perspective, it is business as usual for us. We have been told that funding should not be affected as we head into the 25-26 school year.

[00:21:34] So as always, we are going to continue to move forward and feed as many kids as possible until they tell us something has changed. One thing I did want to add to this slide that is fairly recent. With the adoption of Governor Yunkin's recent budget, one of the amendments that was included is a ban on all foam products as of July 1.

[00:21:55] That is going to be a pretty massive change for us. In terms of foam products, we used around 4 million individual pieces last year. So we are currently working with vendors to find alternatives for those and determine what the pricing is going to be on that.

[00:22:13] But that is not just a school nutrition thing. That is a restaurant statewide food service situation. So we are anticipating also some potential delays in receiving some of those products as everybody tries to transition off of those products by July 1 of this year.

[00:22:32] Meal pricing. So every year we get a lovely paid lunch equity tool from the fine folks at the DOE, which is a tool that we are essentially supposed to use to calculate our weighted meal price, effectively our average meal price.

[00:22:49] And every year we have added to our meal price effectively to cover the increased costs of the products that are coming in, and we'll get into that a little bit later. Currently our meal pricing is $2.25 for breakfast at all levels. Elementary school lunch is $3.25, middle and high school lunch is $3.50.

[00:23:07] Biggest difference between elementary lunch and a middle and high school lunch is the portions that are allowed through the federal program. We can offer a middle and a high school student a full cup of fruits and vegetables where we can only offer a half cup to elementary age students. So that would be the difference in the price in there.

[00:23:24] So, again, we talked about the POE, and that really is effectively from the USDA a metric where they use the current consumer price index plus 2%. normally their suggested increase. So if we take that standard metric, we'd be looking at about a quarter a meal for this upcoming school year, which would put us at $2.50 for breakfast, $3.50 at the elementary lunch, and $3.75 at the middle and the high school lunch. I did want to point out that the weighted price for Virginia, so the average meal price suggested by the state of Virginia for this school year, is $3.85. So even next year, we would still be under what the average

[00:24:01] meal prices for the state of Virginia suggested this year. So we are very much in line with suggested pricing. And I wanted to talk a little bit about pricing and kind of illustrate what that looks like on a tray because I think that's important. Talked about five components before.

[00:24:18] You hear me talk about five components a lot. My folks don't ever want to hear me talk about five components again. But a meat alternative, dairy, fruits, veggies, and a whole grain. So in this tray. We have a wonderful cheese tortellini as our entree. That's both our grain component and our meat and meat alternative, which in this case is cheese. We have two portions of vegetables. So this is a high school or a middle school tray and two portions of fruit, which, so again, a high school or middle school tray and dairy. If we look at that by a price, $1.50 for the entree, 27 cents for the green beans, 34 for the mandarin oranges, 21 for the carrots, 54 for the pineapple, 27 for

[00:24:56] the milk for a total of $3.13, our cost, not including labor, not including disposables, not including anything it costs to turn the lights on. So I think that's, again, something important to point out. I will say when I started in school nutrition 14 years ago, we didn't consider entrees that were over 60 cents a serving. So obviously prices increase, things change, but it's interesting to kind of see how we've evolved over the years. A little bit of the same thing this is our chicken lo mein some fresh watermelon mixed roasted vegetables those are

[00:25:30] roasted red peppers and snow peas our students favorite apple slash orange juice and milk and again analyzing that cost that meal would cost right around three dollars and 27 cents our cost so i think one it's important to highlight that you know we are getting in highest quality ingredients that we can there is a cost associated with those things we are not trying to pass that cost along to our consumers, to our students, to our families, we are really just trying to get the best product available to our students. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have,

[00:26:07] but I appreciate the opportunity to get to highlight some of the great things that we do here. Thank you, Mr. Dunbrek. Board members, is there any discussion or questions? Two things. One on slide eight, if you don't mind, and this just goes towards your dedication.

[00:26:32] If you look at that picture in the bottom right-hand corner, is that your camper? No, sir. That is not our camper. So when we took this facility over, it was being operated by the fine folks at Blue Bunny Ice Cream. And they lived on site.

[00:26:48] Well, I figured, knowing you and your dedication to your craft, that you just decided, hey, I'm just going to leave this here. My guys are there every morning at 5 a.m. So we don't have a lot of hours where we're not there. But fortunately, I've been able to avoid the camp.

[00:27:05] It's all good. Joking, of course. On a serious note, the foam. Yes, sir. You mentioned 4 million pieces last year that your department used. Yes, sir. We have to get rid of all that. Yes, sir. Could you give me some examples of what is being used that's foam?

[00:27:23] Is it the cups that the fruit comes in? Yes, sir. Three main products. So they would be bowls, fruit bowls, soup bowls, and then styrofoam trays. So we have, there was a decision made many, many years ago before any of our times that plastic trays were somewhat of a nuisance and some of the dishrooms within the school and dish return windows were done away with.

[00:27:49] And it was determined that disposables would be the wave of the future. Because of that, we have some schools where we just simply cannot utilize plastic trays. One of the other fun things with that is there's no way to dry a tray. The only way to do it is to air dry it and a plastic tray takes forever.

[00:28:05] so we have not necessarily had the the dollars to invest in 64 000 individual trays so every student gets their own um and then we also have several schools where even if a student had a tray we would not be able to get it back from them and wash it um so we are trying to find a a suitable uh replacement that is not paper because frankly the paper ones are too flimsy we are feeding young students we're gonna have a lot of food hit the ground and that's not just an issue for us that is an issue for our fine folks to have to clean up after the students in that instance and they will not be thrilled uh when that's happening and so you have till july

[00:28:43] one of this year to replace sir so i we are going into summer school with what we currently have um but for next school year we will have to find a replacement a suitable replacement thank you yes sir since we're on slide eight go to slide nine i can make it easy for you yes oh no that's not the 110. Which one do you need? Yes, that's it. So if, and this is just kind of a question

[00:29:19] that I'm sure you know the answer to. So the ISP countywide at 40%, would that apply the CEP countywide or is it always on a school by school? So it is a school by school, the state metric for, so at 40%, we have to qualify as school. No questions asked. Between 25 and 40, it's up to our best judgment in terms of what we feel is best for the students. For a district-wide CDP percentage, we have to be at 60. So we would have to hit 60% of the total students in the county coming through on that ISP list to qualify all schools. We have some schools that are over 60%

[00:29:59] currently. Our lowest percentage is 7.5% free and reduced. So we are very much a unique county, and we've talked about that before, and we run the gamut when it comes to percentages. So unfortunately we're not close to that 60 got it um and then there were a couple slides ahead of that you were talking about um the federal lawmakers that are considering raising the um isp from 40 to 60 that is there is that's been discussed um and so that would effectively leave

[00:30:33] 35 schools out so we had before the mandatory 40 or more qualifying that came into place we only had seven schools in county um that would qualify we would have less than that um tomorrow if for some reason they did change this provision okay then that would eliminate how many schools from the program um 30 plus we would have right we would have between five or six schools and we have one that's on the line so we would monitor it every day but at worst five at best six um

[00:31:09] can you i hate to ask you but i think it would help us in um you know as advocating for this program to know like which schools how many kids this impacts and what that looks like if you can provide a list absolutely great we break it down by site fantastic i think that'd be really helpful for us and and sure you know when we were able to advocate for this program absolutely thanks i can have a mulligan please please i want to go back to the phone just had another question

[00:31:45] hit me do you know roughly and i'm sorry to put you on the spot and if you don't know the answer right now that's okay the amount of money that's being spent on everything foam versus do you have an idea of what would need to be spent on its replacement no idea on the replacement vendors are still working on i have a meeting with our vendor on june 5th where the hope is he'll be able to present a an apple to apple sheet on what we're currently getting and potential price um this year i again i i can only speculate it's it's going to be low seven figures one to one to

[00:32:24] two million probably thereabouts of the current spend on yes sir yes sir okay whenever you have that information if you wouldn't mind i'd really like to understand that a lot better yes sir 100 i can pull that for you again that's something that we've been working on pretty recently just again with our vendors to try to figure out what our what our options are moving forward I mean, at the end of the day, right, one of the things that concerns me in that is just the overall cost to the district that wasn't accounted for.

[00:32:55] So this was a process that the state of Virginia had undergone several years ago, and there was supposed to be an eight-year window where they had hoped that the industry would kind of acclimate to these things. Two years ago, they put an official ban on that because they realized that the industry was not catching up, that prices were not righting themselves.

[00:33:16] This kind of came out of nowhere, so the VDOE actually took it upon themselves to notify all school districts and say, hey, we need to get ahead of this because it's going to be imminent. So I think that's part of the issue is right now everybody's in the same boat, so folks are scrambling, so we are still waiting on pricing and to figure out what our options are.

[00:33:34] Okay, thank you. Of course. Thank you, Mr. Dunbar. Thank you. Next, we have an update on math pathways from Dr. Staines.

[00:33:50] Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, school board members, and Dr. Murray.

[00:34:06] I'm Dr. Emily Staines, and I'm the Director of Secondary Curriculum Development and Support. It is my pleasure to update you today on our division progress after almost a full year of implementing our new CCPS math pathways. While I am presenting this evening, I am thankful to celebrate the dynamic leadership of our K-12 math curriculum specialists who are here this evening, Dr. Deanna Moreau, who supports elementary, Jill Miller, who supports middle school, and Dr. Michelle DeLoach, who supports high school.

[00:34:36] We last provided a math pathways update to the school board on May 14th, 2024. The topics I will present to you today are listed here for your review. The CCPS school board adopted a new math pathway after encouraging feedback from our stakeholders.

[00:34:54] By opening a new math pathway, our families have more flexibility as students enter fifth grade to select a wider variety of courses that best meet their students' needs annually. All middle school students have the opportunity to take Algebra I in middle school, and students in 7th grade math can enter Algebra I in 8th grade by successfully completing a summer bridge course for 8th grade math content.

[00:35:22] So let's take a look back on our first year of implementation. On this slide, you can see our 2024-25 enrollment numbers and our projected enrollment for 2025-26. There are a few important reminders to consider when reviewing this data.

[00:35:39] First, Math 6 and Math 7 were newly adopted courses this school year, so we did not have students enrolled prior to 24-25. Math 8 was also not available for students this year because of the division's previous course sequencing.

[00:35:57] However, as we look ahead to projected enrollment in 2025-26, we see our projected numbers increasing in Math 6 and in Math 7. Families are also choosing to take advantage of Math 8 for next year, and in conversations with our middle schools, the feedback suggests that students and families are grateful to consider on-grade level options coming into middle school with the understanding that they have opportunities to accelerate or decelerate each year.

[00:36:27] Our division curriculum team and our incredible teacher leaders have been hard at work building instructional resources to support our educators for both the new Virginia Department of Education's math standards that we have fully implemented this year, and our new CCPS middle school math pathway courses. In elementary, Dr. Deanna Moreau has led a team of teacher curriculum writers to develop resources aligned to our new state standards. And Dr. Moreau also collaborated with special education and our gifted partners to support student learning at every level in our division resources, which included purchasing additional supplemental materials to support

[00:37:06] the differentiation in math 5a in middle school jill miller has led a team of teacher curriculum writers to develop again those division resources aligned to our new state standards she too fostered a collaboration with our special education and gifted teams to build comprehensive instructional resources and assessments for our teachers to use ccps has also had an opportunity to use one of our new mathematics digital tools math space in several of our middle and high schools to collect initial teacher feedback on a potential new math product that is aligned to the 2023 math standards of

[00:37:42] learning. CCPS division staff have also worked collaboratively to build a summer bridge course. And this bridge course is required for students currently enrolled in Math 7 who want to accelerate into Algebra 1 for their eighth grade year. This bridge course ensures that students do not miss key content that is needed prior to enrollment in Algebra 1. And our team generated three free options for our students. We have an in-person option, a synchronous virtual option, and an asynchronous virtual option through Canvas. Curriculum development and support is grateful

[00:38:18] for the collaboration with our school leadership teams, school counseling, summer school, and CCPS online to make this happen for our students and families. Feedback is crucial, especially when you are engaging with our teachers and staff members to understand how implementation is impacting their instruction. About 96% of teachers surveyed said they use our new CCPS middle school math resources on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. Some of our most popular resources are our quarterly instructional guides that support teachers with sequencing their instruction, our standards guides

[00:38:56] that help teachers unpack what the new standards mean, as well as our learning experience resources that showcase how to bring the standards to life in the classroom, as well as our sample assessment questions that are incorporated into each unit. While feedback is ongoing, about 92% of our CCPS stakeholders are still supportive of the new adopted math pathway one year after implementation, which is relatively consistent with our initial indicators of support at this time last year.

[00:39:28] I'm excited to share an update from our voices from the field. Feedback from our stakeholders is incredibly helpful as we consider our next best actions for next year, including additional ways to communicate our math pathways and our options to our families.

[00:39:44] As we look ahead to next year, our team is fully committed to being the best at getting better. And this means that we continually find avenues to collect formal and informal feedback to strengthen our division resources, our course offerings, and more support for our teachers and our schools.

[00:40:04] For 25-26, we will utilize Imagine Math and Imagine Math Facts to provide differentiated learning opportunities for our students. This is specifically in elementary. We also look forward to enhancing our support for K-8 math through supplemental and intervention resources, as well as providing professional learning to teachers on any new division-level math resources.

[00:40:30] Lastly, we will continually focus on what resources and professional learning experiences we need to rebuild, what we need to restore, and what we need to revise. We are consistently grateful to hear what is working and what can be changed or adapted to better suit our students' and our teachers' needs.

[00:40:50] Thank you for your time this afternoon, as well as your commitment to math for all students in Chesterfield County Public Schools. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Dr. Staines. Dominique? Good afternoon. I did have two questions. One, what is the messaging that we're using to let families know that Dreambox is going away and imagine math is the new thing? Because there will be some consternation when my little person is looking for Dreambox and I'm like, it's not working. What are we doing to message that to parents so that they know? We're currently working

[00:41:28] on our best communication plan moving forward to make sure that first and foremost, all principals have been notified, which at this point they have been. And then we're going to continue to work on that messaging whether that's through the Friday messaging for families or if that actually goes through individual schools as part of their back to school package essentially for families to say we are so excited about our 2025-26 resources here's what we have available for your students in literacy and in math. Okay and then the second thing was about our the bridge course for math so my son didn't have an opportunity to do it when it was offered but how do we again it's the messaging

[00:42:06] part because I've seen a lot of phone calls or emails regarding I didn't, my child might not be ready. What am I supposed to do? How do I get in and all the resources. So I know we get Sunday emails from every principal. I get four. So I get it. But is there something specific to curriculum that maybe we can post somewhere so they can see what their options are besides what Dr. Booth already presented for what we have going on in the summer? Absolutely. So part of our big messaging in terms of division messaging is always through the summer school opportunities that are available that, again, Dr. Booth, you just highlighted, let us know.

[00:42:43] We also have really been working closely with our school counselors. So school counselors have been having those one-on-one conversations with families as the students are showing that they're interested in potentially accelerating into Algebra 1. That's those personalized phone calls, not those robocalls, that we really think is the right touch right now of what's the next best step for our families.

[00:43:05] but we are always looking for any opportunity to communicate this out far and wide that this is available for your families i'm sorry one more the i did get an email from a parent that wanted to clarify whether or not do they have a choice and i believe the answer is yes but you know from the horse's mouth is probably better than just mine but if if they were trying to decide between taking math eight or algebra like is it up to the parent it's not just the counselor saying hey you should probably go to algebra my child feels more comfortable in math eight let's do that absolutely

[00:43:42] all families get the opportunity to decide in their students eighth grade year are they interested based on their pathway that they would like to go into math eight because that's going to be the best fit for my child which means algebra one in grade nine or would i like to do that summer bridge course and i'm really interested in algebra one for their eighth grade year we have put out some guidance documents that jill miller's done a great job of helping to curate qualitative and quantitative data to really help families make the best decision for their students thank you

[00:44:13] thank you thank you thank you for all your hard work and your team's work on on communicating this and giving our options to our students and families thank you next we have an update from communities and schools from mr smith and miss hall okay hi hi ashley hello it's nice to be with you all this afternoon. I always get excited with the chance to share some updates and outcomes.

[00:44:50] So today I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into our model and also some brand new data around CIS's impact on economic mobility. So you all could probably recite at this point that our mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. We do that through our full-time site coordinators who are inside schools connecting students with resources, providing interventions, building trusting relationships, and removing barriers to success. We currently serve 14,000 students at 15 schools, and you all have seen my little pyramid before. We serve all students with tier one supports. In the middle, we've got our

[00:45:29] tier two, where we're doing targeted programming and groups, and then our tier three, which are those individualized wraparound supports for students. So just making sure we're all in the same headspace. So I've talked, I've mentioned before about the CIS 5 basics. This is something that when our founder developed CIS, he talked about every child needs and deserves. And you have probably heard me talk about it, but I thought today I could share an example from programming this year that kind of went with each one. So the first one is a one-on-one relationship with a caring adult. And I often think, of course, about our site coordinators and the relationships they're building with students. But we also rely so much on tutors and mentors that come in to

[00:46:09] build those relationships with our students. So this year we had more than 50 mentors coming every week to meet one-on-one with students. We also worked in collaboration with partner organizations like Boys to Men and Mega Mentors to coordinate those mentors for another 120 students. Research of course shows that when students have a mentor they're more likely to show up, to be at school, to improve academically, and of course have higher aspirations and develop positive social behaviors. A study came out earlier this week from mentor.org that 74% of mentees say their mentor contributed to their success later in life. So I think it's not just about what they're doing

[00:46:48] day to day, but how that's setting them up for the future. The second basic is a safe place to learn and grow. And we do a lot here around, of course, in partnership with our schools in creating safe and welcoming environments for our kids. So whether it was building Zen dens for students to de-escalate when they're having some big emotions, putting together learning kits to practice skills in some of these social areas, providing translation services to better engage our families that speak different languages. Another thing that I wanted to share, over the

[00:47:23] last few years, we've seen a big increase in our students who have lost a parent or a loved one. And this year, we renewed a relationship from, we had a great, great opportunity to renew a partnership with full circle grief groups where students got to work over eight weeks to really process what had happened with that close family member and do that in a really safe healthy way each session the facilitator used best practice grief counseling and they did things like having wheel of feelings where students could sort of work through what that looked like they did an exercise where students got to choose an animal that represented their loved one and one of the

[00:48:02] One of the students selected a red bird and explained that she sees one each morning and believes it's her father checking in on her. The last session ended with students blowing bubble kisses into the sky, and it was a symbolic moment that allowed them to really express that love in a really gentle, meaningful way.

[00:48:20] Of course, all of this is helpful because if that is what they're focused on and thinking about, they're not learning in school. So all those other things are really, really crucial. The third basic is a healthy start and a healthy future. We work closely to make sure our stock, our pantries are stocked.

[00:48:37] We've got food bags for families, helping connect families to health services that are happening on nights and weekends, providing eyeglasses, even beyond kind of what's required in the school system, immunization clinics, crisis support. Last year, we had 287 CIS volunteers at our schools who contributed over 700 hours.

[00:48:57] A lot of that is in this basic needs space, and they actually gave over $562,000 of in-kind supplies, like basic needs, student incentives, you know, holiday assistance, things like that. Of course, again, removing barriers to learning.

[00:49:15] The fourth basic is a marketable skill upon graduation, and, excuse me, we do a lot of that in full school ways, but we also work really, really intently on our goal setting with our students that I think connects to that. So with our case-managed kids, at least when I pulled this data a couple of weeks ago, we had 193 students working one-on-one on goals connected to academics, especially reading and math.

[00:49:38] We had 273 students focused on improving attendance, and 305 of those case-managed students focused on social and behavioral support. All of that, of course, is, again, not only working in the classroom support, but what that looks like when they go off to have a job. All those things are really important.

[00:49:54] We also provided academic and ESL tutoring, college and business visits, career fairs, job shadowing, small groups in that so that students are dreaming about their future. I got to go and be, I was a last minute sub in for a field trip recently and got to go to one of our manufacturing companies with students.

[00:50:14] And it was so fun just seeing their eyes open to a completely different career that many of them would have never thought about before. They also really loved the break room because there was ping pong there. And I was like, hey, whatever gets you excited about going to work. That's fine. That's cool. The last basic is a chance to give back to peers and community.

[00:50:32] This year, we had students plant gardens, create welcoming spaces in the school, put together art therapy boxes for fellow students, lead teacher appreciation efforts, and serve as ambassadors to younger students. Last month, you guys got to meet some of our students from Embrace Bird and hear how that A student-led initiative with CIS is emphasizing service and connection and advocacy.

[00:50:55] And, of course, we know that when students volunteer early, they're more likely to be volunteers as adults. They're more likely to have civic pride, empathy, and leadership skills. Our goal, of course, isn't just to support students while they're here, but how are we creating future leaders and future changemakers.

[00:51:13] So I'll shift gears a little bit. I've talked to you about our model before of integrated student supports, but a lot of the new studies that are coming out are directly connected to that model and how it plays out. So I wanted to just remind you of that beautiful image there. And of course, the outcomes that we have, this is from last year, hopefully all of you guys have gotten one of our impact reports, I have more I can send. I'll be eager to share in just a couple months the new data.

[00:51:40] But before that, I wanted to talk about some really interesting studies that have just come out. And I will caveat this, that I am brand new looking at a lot of this data. So if you have a question I don't know. I promise I will find it out. But I thought it was really interesting. So first was around, these were two national studies that CIS nationally worked to do. So the first was around engagement. One of the critical things that site coordinators focus on was of course found to be a leading indicator of student success. That's not really surprising given our local data. But we found nationally that CIS students reported stronger peer relationships, a more positive view of education, and higher motivation.

[00:52:17] Additionally, and I think this is really cool, there was a survey of almost 1,400 teachers at 174 CIS schools. Some of those were here in Chesterfield. That teachers also benefit from CIS. They reported higher job satisfaction, less burnout, and greater retention when CIS is part of their school community.

[00:52:35] I think that's really powerful, given all of the things we're thinking about with the teaching profession. Another piece of the study, or the second study actually, was conducted by Harvard, and it parallels Raj Chetty's work on economic mobility, if you're familiar with that.

[00:52:51] And it looks long-term at the impact of CIS on economic opportunity. They actually started interviewing students who've been involved with CIS since the 90s. So really a longitudinal study with us. So mirroring our own data, CIS increased graduation rates were 7.5% higher than they would be without CIS interventions.

[00:53:10] That's equivalent to 55 more graduates per school on average. Our presence can narrow the graduation gap between low and high poverty students by nearly 7%, which, of course, has really long-term impacts. And then the last thing, you know, I always talk about CIS as the leader in dropout prevention, but the impact goes beyond graduation.

[00:53:32] In this study, they also found that CIS accounted for $1,500 more in annual earnings by age 30, $9,000 more in lifetime taxes paid, and if scaled nationwide, could reduce the achievement gap by 20%. So obviously, I'm not in charge of everything everywhere, but I think it's data like that that really reinforces the partnership that we've created in continuing to grow and expand here in our own community. So just wanted to kind of lay out where we've been over the last number of years, where we are now, and I hope next year with your all support to be able to go into a 16th school, as well as adding a second site coordinator full-time at one of our middle schools, moving our

[00:54:12] total students that we work with completely from 14,000 to 14,725, and those case-managed kids, those most intensive one-on-ones from 760 this year to 885 next year. So all really exciting stuff, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Ms. Hall. Board members, is there any discussion uh actually you do amazing work only only with you guys in partnership and um you know

[00:54:46] thank you for sharing like i'm going to say uh impactful impact study but yeah you're uh it's it is it's the the numbers are there and we all know that this support works and it's um it's very satisfying to see it play out thank you for the work that you put that you do every day um and your team does every day and of course there's like coordinators who are amazing just amazing just amazing it is nice to see though when a big study comes out like that because you know you're always kind of like we believe this is working and to feel like we see that you know it's awesome

[00:55:22] ditto but um i the thing that jumped out at me was the um i guess job satisfaction of teachers now these teachers that work directly or adjacent or people in the building like that is kind of astounding i know i was really excited i think you know what they saw in the comments that in the in the larger presentation that was shared with us was around i'm not running around trying to find notebooks i i recognize that my student who's having this big thing going on at home i'm trying

[00:56:00] to teach class right i need someone else who can kind of do some of that and you know i am by no means presenting this as the silver bullet to the challenges and teaching so i'll be very clear but I think that is really cool to see that it's not only a support to students and we've always thought that right I think we've always believed that if we're pouring into educators they have more space to pour into students which is why we do a lot around teacher appreciation and all those things but to see from the survey that it's actually day-to-day helping as well as was cool

[00:56:28] to see yeah thank you very much and I can't wait to see where CIS continues to grow thank you guys so much. Next, we have a review of the 2026-27 draft calendar from Dr. Pope.

[00:56:57] Good afternoon, board chair, vice chair members, and Dr. Murray. It is my pleasure to fast forward us in our thinking clear to the 2026-27 calendar. It feels early. Let's finish this year, but actually this is when we come to you annually, when we look at those calendars. And the topics that we normally cover in this type of presentation are listed here, nothing alarmingly new.

[00:57:25] different. I always like to remind everyone listening of the code that we adhere to with the Code of Virginia. In particular, any time a school designs a master schedule, they need to be sure that they're getting those 140 standard credit seat time hours for our students. The entire master schedule needs to fit within the calendar that we ask you to approve, and we only ever bring a calendar to you that we believe it is possible for our schools to design a master schedule to meet these code requirements. It's also very important when we're looking at a schedule

[00:58:00] that we consider our neighbors, because we may have employees here who live in another school division, and if their breaks do not align with our breaks, that can be problematic from a child care standpoint. It's always our goal to have all of our teachers in the building and all of our students in the building, and we have found across the region when our breaks don't align, we sometimes get into a little bit of a problem with that. The other thing that we look at when we consider the calendar are the questions that we receive from our teachers and our principals throughout the year one of the ways that they are submitted is through our advisory council of teachers acts and we look at those questions and we think what has come up throughout the previous

[00:58:39] year that could impact potentially what we bring to you for your consideration and approval with the next calendar very responsive to feedback we typically call this the road show and you can see that at this point, this calendar that you're about to look at has already been reviewed at the cabinet level with our principals, with our ACTS teacher group. Sage, it was my pleasure to be with the superintendent's student advisory yesterday, and now with you today. The next step in the feedback loop would be for our community members, and that's anyone that lives in Chesterfield,

[00:59:16] anyone that has a thought about our calendar, to please, please, please send an email to the address that you see there. We will bring all of that feedback together for final refinement of the calendar and I'll come back to you in June and we'll go from there based on the feedback that we've received. The linked item on this particular slide is actually the listing of the dates that we're asking you and our community to consider. The list of dates includes not only the month, it includes holidays, it includes the end of quarter, it includes those large breaks that

[00:59:52] families like to plan around. And just as a reminder, this particular listing of dates would be for our parents and our students. Our employees have their own work calendars, so HR works with them each year on the days that they're required to work. But this is when we want our students in school, so it's important for our parents to know this calendar. You will notice that in that listing of dates, it doesn't look like a traditional calendar that you might have previously printed and stuck onto your refrigerator with a magnet. We are always looking to improve, and we never want to over-promise and under-deliver, but it is our full intention as a

[01:00:32] school division to really list the dates on the website so that as we have changes, because there are always changes, that that can be updated automatically. And then the ideal that we're striving for will be to have those calendars push automatically to personal devices. So you'll always have the most up-to-date, accurate calendar right there on your device, and you don't have to worry if the one hanging on your fridge is outdated or accurate. This slide is a typical slide where

[01:01:05] we point out the length of summer. So when you consider the end of the 25-26 school year and the start of the 26-27 school year, the summer that's couched in between there is actually a 12-week summer. Normally, our students have an 11-week summer, and the reason for that is just every year calendars are different. In this particular calendar, Labor Day comes very late, so it's going to feel like an extra week of summer before everyone returns. As with our previous calendars,

[01:01:41] we strive for that 178 instructional days. That is what you're presented with. We also know that our teachers highly value that clerical time at the end of a quarter. We have five of those built in. We still are a school division that on the last two days of the year give a three-hour early release so you can work on odd day and even day grades. We're also going to continue the staggered start that we've implemented for many years now. Our teachers continue to say that that's a great way to acclimate the newest students in the building, for example, sixth graders coming in

[01:02:17] and ninth graders coming in. We always in this division align our holidays to the days that we anticipate the highest level of absences and you'll notice on our calendar we simply put holiday and that's because we know if we hold school on that day we'll probably have teachers and students in a higher absence number we do have the two-week winter break very important to everyone the one full week spring break those breaks do perfectly align with our largest neighbor Henrico in our region and then we do have what you just approved for the 25-26 calendar we went

[01:02:54] ahead and included in the 26-27 calendar those three-hour early release four dates for our teachers to be able to participate in professional learning throughout the year so we're back to the agenda but at this point I ran quickly through it because for me it's something we do every year but it may not feel that familiar to others so if you could please ask any questions I'd be happy to try to answer them thank you Dr. Pope board members is there any discussion Ms. Hefron thanks um I was

[01:03:31] just looking at the summer calendar sorry my throat's dry i was looking at the summer calendar counting the weeks so it looks like in 27 we'll have an 11 week summer so we're just right it's it's normally 11 this year or um it the reason we're going to hit that 12 week it's again it's labor day comes on the 7th so we come back to school as as late as possible because we always anchor to that labor day and as you know by virginia code we have to have friday and monday off. So you try to get a full week of school in, then you hit Labor Day. And it is exactly what our neighboring division has already approved. So again, trying to keep those start dates and

[01:04:11] those major breaks aligned is helpful. But it is purely the way Labor Day falls. That's driving that extra feeling of an extra week in summer. I'm sure I will get nothing but accolades for that. Right. That'll be the positive feedback. Anything else? All right. Well, we'll see what feedback we receive from our community, and then we'll come back in June, and we'll go from there. Thank you.

[01:04:38] Perfect. Thank you. Next, we have an update on the FY25 year end from Mr. Meister. Thank you, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, other members of the board, Dr. Murray. I'm here today to talk to you a little bit about where we are in FY25. I spent a lot of time over the last several months talking to you about FY26 and the budget and all that. We'll set that aside for now. I've got a relatively

[01:05:13] a dense approval packet for you this evening, and I want to make that a little bit easier to digest by walking you through what is here. Typically, when we hit March, a couple of really big things happen in the finance and budget department.

[01:05:30] One, we get a chance to see Q3 actual expenses. We also get the ADM counts for March, so we like to use the month of April to really take step back and understand where our current year position is. It helps us paint a story for what may be coming at year end, and this is an opportunity to really take a step, look at those results, and be able to set the expectation both for the school board as well as the board of supervisors in terms of what to expect at year end. This is not the audited financial results for

[01:06:04] FY25. Needless to say, we're still going through that. That process will occur after the fact. We have done this last couple years in June. I accelerated that to May. This year, knowing at the time that the budget for FY26 was still very much an unknown, and I didn't want to complicate next month's budget discussion with FY25 and potentially media FY26 topics. So I'm coming here today a little bit early, but I think with a whole bunch of good information on FY25.

[01:06:37] This comes in really three separate packs of information. First, at the end of every year, we request carry forward from the Board of Supervisors for ongoing activities. These are dollars for items that we don't wish to wait until the full, complete audit to continue using those funds. They're generally appropriated in 25 that we need access to early in 26. That's the first item I'll walk you through. The second is we'll take a look at where we expect to end the year, both on a revenue and expense side. Every year, we hope that leads us with a modest surplus. We'll see that again this year. And we'll set some expectations for the board and ultimately for

[01:07:16] the board of supervisors on what our intent is to do with that money should it come to fruition after the audited results come to pass. And lastly, there's always a few adjustments that we need to make to align appropriation categories with different things that have changed over the course of the year.

[01:07:35] So those are the three big things. There's another one that I'll add in here with respect to an FY25 bonus when we get to the end, but I'll hold that for a moment. So FY25 reserves for continuing operations, we're looking to carry forward about $17 million.

[01:07:52] The bulk of that is for all-in. If you remember, we got about $22.7 million of all-in funding two years ago that was intended to be spent over three years. We didn't spend much in the first year given the timing of that, so we're basically looking to spend about half of that in 25 and the other half in 26.

[01:08:10] This is to carry over that particular piece, and I'll dive a little bit deeper into that spend on the next slide. And what I'm calling here the traditional carry-forward items make up the remaining $7 million. You can see about half of that is for curriculum resources, about a million for grants, so we can continue to provide match as those grant activities continue.

[01:08:30] Grants typically don't fall on the traditional fiscal year timeline, so we need to sort of have a mechanism to bleed that over, and you can see some of the other items lined up there. This list looks very similar to items that we've seen in each of the years that I've been here, at least, that are just generally good housekeeping to make sure we can continue these items early in FY26.

[01:08:52] So I promised a little bit of a deeper dive into All In. You can see as that funding was designed, it was meant for tutoring, literacy, and absenteeism. The FY24 and FY25 projected amounts here for tutoring in the just under $5 million, with an anticipated just over $5 million for the last year in FY26.

[01:09:16] Literacy, about $10.5 million of expected spend over the course of the period, With about $3.8 million of that anticipated for FY26, including some apprenticeships and endorsements largely for reading teachers, as well as literacy material, which has been a really big focus of that particular aspect of this particular funding source.

[01:09:37] And lastly, absenteeism, where we have attendance specialists on the payroll that we would need to continue to pay for into 26 to the tune of just over $1 million. You can see that adds up to about $10 million, so a little under half of the $22.7, but roughly aligned with what we would spend in FY25, assuming the rest of the year rolls forward as we anticipate.

[01:10:01] So the second big piece of this is to request for that likely surplus at the end of the year. Once again, I must state this $11.6 million that I'm signaling here as an anticipated year in surplus is not audited results.

[01:10:20] These are projections from myself and our budget team to understand where both revenue and expenses are likely to land. Obviously, we're still in the year. We'll see how this comes through as we go forward. What you'll see here is about $8.2 million of expected expense savings, primarily driven by teacher and other staff vacancies.

[01:10:39] There are some offsets with respect to higher operations costs, and as we went through our budget, probably won't surprise you, higher special ed costs as well. A good news item this year that I wasn't able to share in the last couple years is revenue is actually a favorable item for us.

[01:10:55] This year we've got that ADM number earlier in April from the March 30th point. That actually came in a little bit higher than our previously assumed level to the tune of about $2.4 million of additional revenue as we would roll that ADM into our calculation tool we get from the state, which signals the anticipated state revenue.

[01:11:17] So that's good news for us. We saw historically a pretty tight correlation between fall enrollment and this ADM, Average Daily Membership, number we get in March. The last two or three years, that relationship has changed, has gone down.

[01:11:35] We anticipated to continue to decrease this particular year. It actually rebounded to a more historical norm level, which led us to a slightly higher revenue that you see here. And lastly, about a million dollars of higher local revenue. We tend to budget conservatively on items like facilities, rentals, and things that we get from, quite frankly, our own here.

[01:11:57] And it looks like it will be coming in a bit higher this year as we get those receipts in. So what does that look like by line item? You can see that here by major category. Instruction, just under $10 million of projected balance, about 1.4% largely teacher vacancies.

[01:12:14] There's some special ed costs in there that offset that. Admin, attendance, and health, about break-even transportation, a little bit favorable. Fuel costs came in lower this particular fiscal year than we had projected last year. So that's a good news story there.

[01:12:31] O&M, operations and maintenance, that's the biggest negative on this page of $2.3 million. Higher maintenance costs, higher costs for certain leases in the building. This is an area that was hit uniquely hard by the especially tight year-end last year, where we weren't able to contribute one-time money to help support the O&M group.

[01:12:52] So they've been running a little bit higher as they've seen higher costs for some of those routine maintenance and other things. And that shows up here as about a $2.3 million. Expected variance will appropriate additional funds. Most of that revenue will put in this line item to make it whole by the end of the year.

[01:13:08] And you can see technology and debt more or less online. Revenue, that $3.4 million, you add it all up, it's at $11.6 million. anticipated surplus for FY25. You'll hear me come back in likely November with the audited results.

[01:13:24] I expect it to be somewhere around that, but we'll see how that all lands. So the next step in the process is for us and the school board, yourself, to signal to the community, signal to our board of supervisor friends what our recommended uses of that fund should it come to fruition. The first and I think most critical item on this list is what I'll call FY27 one-time funding. If you recall, dating back several years, we've bolstered our ongoing operating fund by allocating one-time funds to ensure that we can continue to run the district how we want to. That started at $15

[01:14:01] million. We've been trying to move that number down to a more sustainable $5 or so million over time if you recall this year in fy 26 we landed that number at 8.8 million this would propose to continue to lower that a little bit more to about seven million dollars for what would be your starting balance if you will for your fy 27 budget the next big and important piece to put and where the bulk of the remaining funds i am recommending we allocate towards is our debt reserve we are are building a high school. We have an aggressive referendum still in front of us. We fully expect

[01:14:41] there to be a bubble, for lack of a better term, of our debt service costs as we put on these new projects. Allocating additional money to our debt reserve now will help us not crowd out critical ongoing operating investments come FY27, FY28 when that debt bubble does roll forward. So this is really intended to help protect FY27, FY28 operating items so I don't have to come to you with a significant increase of what would always be a limited new dollars to allocate toward debt reserve to debt servicing. We can continue to make that a modest increase over time so long

[01:15:20] as we're diligent with our year-end funds and continue to contribute to this fund. The last number on here, it's not a very big number, but it's the remainder, is bus replacement. We know this is a massive priority for Dr. Fry, Mr. Davis, Dr. Murray. We'll continue to look at this and other replacement schedule type items for any remaining funds. At this point, with $600,000 left, that felt like the highest and best use to signal at this point, subject to ongoing discussions as we see our final FY25 results. The third bucket, far less exciting and interesting, because I'm not

[01:15:59] asking you to signal where you might want to spend some of the savings, but these are really adjustments to FY25. So we'll need to appropriate additional state revenue. I talked to you about the $2.4 million from the higher ADM. We have also received positive news on a budget front for FY26, which also had a pretty sizable impact on FY25, where the state budget has continued to include $6.7 million for Chesterfield County to help fund state-funded bonuses for

[01:16:33] instructional positions. I'll come to you this evening with a memo on the appropriation and the bonus plan for that money. We also need to appropriate about a million dollars of local revenue and some other additional grant funding. Didn't make my overall summary, but about $400,000 of additional grant funding will also ask you to appropriate on the revenue side.

[01:16:57] Now we flip to the expense side. What we put on the operating fund, we have to also put on the revenue side, we also have to account for. On the expense side, I mentioned O&M was the biggest negative on that sheet. I proposed to the board to allocate or appropriate $3.3 million to the O&M category to make that category whole and give us a little bit of wiggle room if anything should surprise us in the last six weeks or so, although I don't anticipate that and expect there to be a positive balance at the end of the year. Administrative and appropriation, we're right on that line. You remember that was zero. Initial $100,000 will give us a little bit

[01:17:34] of buffer. In administrative and instructional appropriation, this is where we allocate monies for that instructional bonus, that $6.7 million new state funding for that particular item. And the $400,000 on the grant side, we need to carry that over for their expenses.

[01:17:53] So that was a lot. So what that'll show up this evening as two memos. First will be 79-25, which will hit the bulk of what I talked about today, which will include those appropriation changes, the preliminary year in usage, and that reserve list.

[01:18:09] Again, that's one memo. The second memo, and the one that I think more people will be excited about, is 080-25, which is the calls for your approval and the ask of the Board of Supervisors to appropriate the $6.7 million for that instructional bonus that we have talked about.

[01:18:32] So with that, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Mr. Meister, board members, is there any discussion or questions? Mr. Ferrante? Thank you. The $600,000 for buses, what does one bus cost again?

[01:18:53] was that the question everybody everyone's got that question i beat you all to it we're all we're all in the same thinking we're just wanting to know how much is a new bus cost 140 a little over 100 150 it's up higher i had 140 i had 150 to 160 right so so buses yeah replacements so we don't more than one yes right i knew one bus didn't cost six hundred thousand I just didn't know what $600,000 was going to buy us.

[01:19:25] Give or take four. So roughly about four. Okay. Thank you. I missed an ass. Okay. Thank you for the update. Awesome. Thank you all.

[01:19:42] Next, we have announcements, communications, and school board comments. School board members, are there any announcements or comments this evening? The next school board business meeting will be held this evening, May 13, 2025, at 6.30 p.m. here in the public meeting room.

[01:20:00] if there's no further public business we will now enter into closed session which will be held in the pmr conference room madam clerk 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 one the discussion and consideration of personnel disciplinary matters and the discussion and consideration of matters that would involve the disclosure of student records.

[01:20:34] Members of the board, you've just heard the items requested to be discussed in closed session. Do I have a motion in that regard? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dot Heffron? Aye. Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Bronto?

[01:20:50] Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. We are now in closed session. Do I have a motion to reconvene in open session? So moved. Is there a second? Second.

[01:21:06] The board is now in open session. Madam Clerk, would you please read the resolution certifying the closed session? Now there, for 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 this certification resolution applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the school board is there a motion to adopt the resolution

[01:21:41] so moved is there a second second madam clerk would you please call roll on the motion dot hephron aye dominique chatters aye steven paranto aye lisa hudgens aye and cooker aye the motion carries is there a motion regarding the the student matter in case number 2024-25

[01:22:16] slash 32 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 aye dominique chatters aye steven paranto aye lisa hudgens aye and coker aye the motion carries is there a motion regarding the first personnel matter in case number 2024 dash 25 slash 01 dash ph it is recommended that the hearing officer's recommendation be upheld is

[01:22:51] there a second second madam clerk would you please call roll in the motion dot heffron aye dominique chatters aye steven pronto aye lisa hudgens aye and cooker aye the motion carries is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter in case number 2024 dash 25 slash 52 dash HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:23:18] Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Scott Heffron? Aye. Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter?

[01:23:34] In case number 2024-25-53-HR, 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? Dott Heffron? Aye. Dominique Chatters?

[01:23:50] Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter? In case number 2024-25-54-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:24:08] Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dott Heffron? Aye. Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter?

[01:24:24] In case number 2024-25-55-HR, 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 Hefron?

[01:24:39] Aye. Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter? In case number 2024-25-56-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:25:01] Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, 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 next personnel matter?

[01:25:19] In case number 2024-25-57-HR, 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? Todd Heffron. Aye. Dominique Chatters.

[01:25:34] Aye. Stephen Pronto. Aye. Lisa Hudgens. Aye. Ann Coker. Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter? In case number 2024-25-58-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:25:53] Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, 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 next personnel matter?

[01:26:10] In case number 2024-25-59-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be approved. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion. Dr. Heffron? Aye. Dominique Chatters?

[01:26:26] Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Cooker? Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter? In case number 2024-25-60-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:26:46] Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Scott Heffron? Aye. Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. The motion carries.

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