Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County School Board Work Session, Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County School Board, Virginia
Length: 1h 47m (video)
Official meeting video (Swagit): https://chesterfieldschoolsva.new.swagit.com/videos/354878
Official minutes (BoardDocs, on the Oct 14, 2025 agenda for approval): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/chesterfield/Board.nsf/pfiles/DMAKVQ53BD0E/$file/DRAFT%20MINUTES%20-%202025.09.09%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 September 9th, 2025 school board work session to order. First, we have a report from the school health advisory board.

[00:00:34] The school board. My name is Lindsay Ewan. I am the outgoing chairperson of the school health advisory board. I've served the last approximately four years as the chairperson. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to serve on SHAB and for the opportunity to present today. So just an overview of what our committee is. SHAB is composed of community members with expertise in various fields relating to school health. Our mandate is to provide advice to the school board regarding any matters that pertain to school health within our school district. In the past, we've worked on

[00:01:13] things like school start times, trying to align them with best practices from what we know about adolescent and child development, ensuring that there's a nurse in every school building, increasing the awareness and supports for providing social and emotional learning in schools and providing input to updates on the CCPS wellness policy.

[00:01:35] And then for the past three years or so, our primary focus has been on mental health and especially mental health staffing within our schools. And this continues to be our main focus currently. But we continue to have a consensus among the members of our board that this is the priority of what we've been working on.

[00:01:56] We would like to continue to advocate for increased mental health staffing and funding for staffing positions within the school district. And our hope is that this academic year, the school board can spend some time during work sessions to brainstorm some ways to make that funding possible.

[00:02:16] I'd like to outline a few of the things that we've recommended in the past. We had the opportunity to meet with the leadership of the social work and psychology leaders in CCPS, and they helped us understand a bit about what they needed in terms of staffing.

[00:02:37] And they gave us some pointers as to the most pressing issues. So we recommended six additional social work positions, two additional attendance social work positions, six additional school psychology positions, six additional educational diagnosticians, one additional school nurse, and then to keep in mind budgeting for additional positions as new schools are opened as they would need those positions as well. And I'd like to outline a few reasons that we feel so strongly about this. In the past decade, rates of child and adolescent

[00:03:17] mental health concerns have risen steadily. By 2018, suicide became the second leading cause of death of people ages 10 to 24 nationally. And within Virginia specifically, the Department of Education's school climate surveys found that 10% of middle schoolers and 13% of high schoolers had seriously considered attempting suicide. And that's not people who sort of thought about death in passing. Those are people who are actually considering suicide. And in fact, nearly all indicators of poor mental health including suicidal thoughts and behaviors have worsened from the period of 2013 to 2023 when the most recent data was available so in light of those

[00:03:56] increasing mental health needs we continue to advocate for staffing ratios that are closer to the published best practices and like I mentioned two years ago we had the chance to meet with leaders from psychology and social work departments to get an understanding of where they thought the most pressing needs were and that's where we came up with with these numbers So when we looked at the budget that came out for the current fiscal year, we saw that one additional social work position had been funded, and we were grateful for that.

[00:04:27] We were saddened to see that that was the only position that had been funded. The remainder had been left on the unfunded priorities list for the 2026 fiscal year. We were excited to learn about the new telehealth services that are being provided from Hazel Health for grades 6 through 12.

[00:04:46] It's wonderful that the students will have access to some one-on-one counseling supports, but we wanted to make sure that it's understood that those providers play a distinct role from the providers within CCPS. The social workers and psychologists and additional mental health staff within CCPS provide additional supports, and they perform different tasks and they have a different role, including risk assessments, identifying high-risk students, coordinating IEPs, being able to observe in the classroom, And many, many more tasks.

[00:05:19] So while it's great to have that as a resource, we are still advocating for those increases in the CCPS mental health staffing. Another topic that took a lot of our attention last year were some of the changes to policies.

[00:05:36] In particular, we discussed the new cell phone policy and the policies relating to transgender students. And we had some questions and thoughts about both of those. In terms of the cell phone policy, some of our members had concerns about using suspension as a punishment for violating this policy.

[00:05:57] Some members were curious if there had been discussion of alternative disciplinary actions. Many people talked about experience of students sort of becoming disenfranchised and truancy and absenteeism and whether or not keeping kids out of school was the best way to get them to practice in line with that policy.

[00:06:18] regarding the policy affecting transgender students we had some concerns about potential for confusion in the interpretation and implementation of the policy particularly around the language speaking to parental notification of students preferred names some of our questions were what circumstances specifically would allow a teacher or staff member to notify a parent and which situations would mandate notification We talked some about possible ramifications of parental notification, both positive and potentially negative.

[00:06:59] We were curious what situations would allow teachers to decline to inform parents. Our reading of the policies, our understanding was that there needed to be an imminent risk of suicide for teachers to decline to pass on information to parents.

[00:07:15] We wanted to make sure that that's a correct understanding. And also learn a little bit more about how the teachers feel about that, if they feel that they are adequately equipped, have been given the appropriate training to be able to identify which students are or are not at that high of a risk of suicide.

[00:07:33] We were concerned that it might put teachers in a difficult position between feeling that they're able to best support their student in front of them and being able to follow kind of the letter of the policy. Obviously, this is a very challenging area. we acknowledge that there is not an easy answer that's going to make everybody happy.

[00:07:50] We had attempted to have an ongoing dialogue about this, and it made some requests to have someone come to one of our meetings, but schedules didn't align, and that wasn't possible last school year, which kind of leads into my last point. At our last meeting of the previous school year, we talked about the role that SHAB serves and the role that we would like to see ourselves serve in the near future, And most of us expressed a desire to feel more useful.

[00:08:17] We all have agreed to be on the board to serve an advisory function, and we want to be able to provide input in real time, to provide input before policies have been enacted and the changes have been written and everything is sort of set in stone. And to date, a lot of times we've felt that we are in a position to react to changes, but not to help make those changes.

[00:08:36] So we are hoping to find ways to work with our school board liaison to help us provide feedback in real time so that we can use our breadth and depth of experience among the members of the committee to help make sure that the policies that are written can really serve our student body in the best way possible and with that i'd like to thank you for the opportunity to present today and to have served as the chairperson for the last two terms and as according to our bylaws i'm rolling off as chairperson but i'll still be on the committee for about two more years to the end of my appointment and that's all i have thank you so much dr ewan board members

[00:09:14] is there any discussion? Ms. Hutchins? Dr. Ewan, we are so thankful for four years of you being the leader for that. It's unbelievable. You did such a great job and we are really grateful for that. Thank you for your presentation. I think you faithfully represented some of the discussions and you know they were they were discussions and so really you know that's the world we live in and so it's a space where we could have those discussions and

[00:09:49] i appreciate you facilitating those in a um a pretty safe space so thank you for your service but i'm really glad that you're still on the board thanks thank you next we have a presentation on health and dental contracts for 2026 from mr robillos and miss kenzie good afternoon uh so we have our health and dental insurance rate renewal information up next for your review as you know

[00:10:29] ccps uses the expertise of a health insurance consultant usi to analyze our recent claim data and the impact to our renewal rates so i'd like to invite our consultant charlene kinsey up to the podium to review this year's information with you all good afternoon thank you for having me my name is charlene kinsey with usi insurance i'm going to go over the results of our medical

[00:11:05] and dental renewals for 2026. this is we are entering in 2026 we are entering the final year of our contract with anthem it's a five-year contract later this year fourth quarter of 2025 we're going to be releasing a request for a proposal or an rfp to the other medical carriers with a january 1 27 effective date to start a new five-year contract for the 2026 plan year our projection recommended an 11.8 increase to the budget rates for 2026 this is a blended increase

[00:11:42] for the county and the schools it's based on claims from may of 23 through april of 20 um may may of 23 through april of 25 our projected projected expense for calendar year 2026 was 170 million when we look at the claims paid during the review period that i just mentioned ending in april of 25 net claims that were paid and did increase approximately 14.8 percent when we compare it to the last period a year prior when we think about loss ratio which is comparing you take your net

[00:12:20] cost compared to what your budgeted revenue is basically claims over premium that's received the county's loss ratio did increase from 88.7 percent to 91.9 while the schools increased from 96 percent to 105.4 percent that increase in claims was primarily driven we section segment out the claims into different revenue segments the large increase in claims between 100 000 and 400

[00:12:57] 000 that segment had the largest increase which was 21.5 percent and they increased 8.1 million dollars within that group so large claims increase the admin expense did not has not changed since 2021 that was the last time an rfp was released when the contract was written with anthem five years ago we negotiated that during that process for the rfp included in those app listed out a couple of things that are included in this admin expense um the medical and drug admin fees network access fee our rebate credit which i'll talk about in just a second and the vision fee as well as the

[00:13:37] sydney health app and the total health total new program enrollment has been relatively stable year over year total enrollment increased two percent from prior year to current the distribution of employees between the plans you have about 75 percent of enrollment in the point of service plans and 25 percent in the high deductible the hsa plan anthem does share the prescription drug rebates with chesterfield that's a prospective monthly admin fee a credit that shows up monthly

[00:14:12] as an admin fee credit that is increasing next year from 15 million to 18.4 million increases year over year. And that just means that we're expecting higher than normal rebates are expected to be earned. Your specific stop loss limit is $400,000. The increase that Anthem has provided so far is we're looking at a 17.9% increase to that stop loss limit. That would increase the

[00:14:45] per employee per month fee from $63.85 to $75.30. However, that fee, that increase is illustrative at this point anthem releases they wait into to get claims paid through july and then release the renewal the stop loss renewal to us in september they've done that every year so once we get the firm renewal from anthem then we will negotiate lowering the proposed increase and then to continue the guarantees that were already negotiated in the year prior so we'll work on

[00:15:19] that in order to reduce the overall rate increase that we were projecting our team recommended that chesterfield make several plan design changes we prepared and sent over numerous options for the county and schools to consider and we landed on one option that is adding an additional point of service plan that has a higher deductible and also adds co-insurance for facility visits so

[00:15:54] think hospitals er things that you would go in a facility for the out-of-pocket maximum on the current point of service plan is going to decrease co-pays are going to go up a little bit there's going to be no changes at all to the hsa plan and i have these changes outlined in a few slides um in more detail i think it's on the next one that incorporating these changes will reduce the overall renewal increase from 11.8 to 5.6 percent this is assuming that we will have a 15 enrollment

[00:16:30] shift from the current point of service plan over to that new plan we're assuming if that happens that the rates will decrease down to five point five point six percent increase to help achieve that goal chesterfield county and schools is going to be holding an active enrollment this year for 2026 and what that means is that we are going to actively instead of you either have a passive open enrollment are inactive and in years past it's been passive but this is going to be active we're going to encourage everybody to evaluate their plan choices and to actively go online and make their elections thereby hoping to achieve the goal of getting everybody into that new plan

[00:17:06] here on this slide i've outlined the changes i just spoke about again there are no changes to the hsa plan so the current um p the current point of service plan as we know it today in 2025 is going to be renamed to the premium plan so the premium plan is going to have the out-of-pocket max decreased um there will be a few office visit co-pays that will go up slightly and then we've created this new plan called that will now be called the standard plan it has a higher deductible

[00:17:39] than the current plan higher out-of-pocket maximum and then office visits have slightly higher co-pays and there's also going to be for facility visits as i mentioned hospital visits er visits you're you're going to have to pay your deductible and then 10% coinsurance after the deductible is met.

[00:17:58] So we would recommend renewing with the current point of service plan, which again is now going to be called the premium plan, maintaining the HSA plan as it is, and then adding this new plan called the standard plan with the changes that I just went over. I do have on the next slide the new rates for 2026 these rates reflect a 5.2 percent increase to the premium plan and an 11.8 percent increase for the other plans so you can see i know it's kind of small um but the lowest

[00:18:35] cost plan if we look at the employee only would be 30 as compared to the new standard plan at 39. so all right switching gears over to the dental plan um the current contract with delta dental is up at the end of this year in 2025 that was again a five-year contract so the program was put out to bid this year we had a joint rfp committee consisting of both county and school employees the committee chose to remain with delta dental for a 2026 effective date for a five-year

[00:19:11] contract we did make some plan enhancements to the dental plan for 2026 similar to what the the previous contract looked like. We're going to keep the three plans, the basic, the comprehensive, and that EPO dental plan. Rates will go up 8.7 percent, but with that increase, we're going to increase the annual maximums on all three plans, increasing the lifetime orthodontia max on the comprehensive and the EPO plan, and then we're adding Right Start for Kids, which is a program I'll explain in just a second. Actually, I'm going to explain it now. It's at the third bullet point

[00:19:50] on here right start for kids is a great program that we're adding to all three dental plans it provides 100 coverage for all children on covered under the dental plan under the age of 13 excluding orthodontics there's no deductible to meet as long as they see an in-network dentist their car their dental care is free so it's a great great plan for parents for families we did in negotiating the contract with delta dental for the first three years of the contract the rates are staying steady and then in year four we have a rate cap of 5.5 percent and in year six

[00:20:29] i'm sorry in year five we have a six percent rate cap um chesterfield is continuing the ten dollars per employee per month contribution through paychecks through their payroll contributions and that's valued at approximately 1.86 million dollars and then on this page on this slide we have the um the dental rates for 2026 for all three plants thank you miss kenzie excuse me

[00:21:02] board members is there any discussion yeah miss chatters thank you i had a question regarding the difference between office visit and facility visit is there a difference or is that the same structure no yeah office visits are like your primary care visit your specialist doctor visit whereas facilities as outpatient surgery inpatient hospital things done in a facility okay that was my question thank you you're welcome mr. Ferrante thank you madam chair good afternoon question on page wish me slide for it states the

[00:21:42] enrollment has been very stable with total enrollment increasing 2% is that year-over-year a 2% increase from the prior year the prior year okay and then And going on to slide number six, the goal was a 15% enrollment.

[00:21:57] Is that correct? 15% enrollment shift. Okay. So can you explain the shift part? So taking, when we create a new plan, what we want is for people to move possibly from your current POS plan, which will now be called the premium plan, into the lower cost plan, which is the new standard plan.

[00:22:17] It costs less. The premium dollars are less. So we want to shift. We're hoping to entice people through payroll contributions because it's lower out of their paycheck to shift into that new plan. And we need 15% to do that, correct? We'd like to achieve that, yes. So if we don't hit 15%.

[00:22:34] Then the increase will be higher. The increase will be higher. Okay. Thank you. It's anybody's guess what we'll get. Sure. That's why we're having an active enrollment. Very good. And active meaning office hours to have someone stop by and ask questions or?

[00:22:50] Yes. My team is doing, we're doing a recorded PowerPoint presentation called a Brain Shark. We're doing benefit guides. We're doing anything we can to help achieve that goal. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Real quick, Ms. Kinsey, can you go back to the slide that has the rates on there?

[00:23:10] That one? So what you're looking at is out-of-pocket, if you're looking at employee only, going from 86 to 39 if they switch. Yes. Is that correct? That's exactly right. Yeah. Just to point out the money side of it. yes yeah hopefully we'll get that shift with that yes okay all right madam sure oh sorry we have a few more questions i'm sorry mr and i don't know if this is your question you mentioned the copay going up is that correct what is the projection of that increase no that's built into the plan

[00:23:45] design into the into the anthem standard design uh-huh there are co-pays well it's a new plan so the co-pays are higher than the premium plan but you're paying less out of pocket out of your paycheck right sorry what we it what it's a new plan you can't compare it to anything we were just trying to figure out if you on average the current copay is $25 right I believe it was $25 yes oh I guess right okay you did look at that I need to go buy a powerball ticket right after this 25 right

[00:24:22] that plan is now the premium plan I think that's going to $30 and I think if I remember right the standard plan is 50 so almost almost 25 i think it's 50. okay thank you we were just trying to we were just trying to gauge what the copay increase was to defray what the lower premium yeah yeah you see them you see okay okay thanks okay thank you very much appreciate it you're

[00:24:50] welcome next we have an update on cef from miss height hi good afternoon madam chair and members of the school board i'm very happy to be here representing chesterfield education foundation my name is Laura Height, and I'm going to give you an overview of our programs and impact for the 2024-25 school year. So as an overview of our mission, we exist to provide equitable education opportunities

[00:25:25] and increase classroom innovation for Chesterfield County Public School students. So sometimes we say we have one why and a thousand hows because it takes a lot of different forms. And I don't have another slide until I go into how we achieve our mission in terms of resources. We do fundraising on behalf of Chesterfield County Schools. We're a 501c3 nonprofit, and so everything we raise is dedicated to supporting students, teachers, and school programs. Here's an overview of our

[00:26:00] revenue sources. It's mostly other foundations. We are a fundraising foundation, which is a little bit different from an endowment foundation. We get a lot of corporate support. We do special events and we get some individual support from fantastic donors throughout Chesterfield and the greater Richmond region. I mentioned one of our special events is Bravo. That's actually a program beyond a gala because it's an alumni engagement program. We have a process where people can nominate outstanding alums of Chesterfield County high schools, and then a selection committee chooses

[00:26:38] them, and then the honorees get to visit their alma mater, and we celebrate them at an annual gala, and then we raise money with this through sponsorships and ticket sales, and then those funds go right back into all the different programs that we support. And the next slides are some explanations of what those programs are. So we have a literacy initiative that takes shape depending on which school needs assistance.

[00:27:04] So some of them, it's the book machines. We restock book machines throughout the county schools, and sometimes it's library support. There have been growing requests for buying Spanish titles, especially at the high school level. Also, other resources and supplies that teachers or reading specialists might need at the school level.

[00:27:23] For example, at Marguerite Christian, we help stock some literacy carts to help neurodivergent and other kids who might be struggling with reading from a page learn how to read using manipulatives. We also expand the definition of literacy to include drama and theater. So we supported Carver Academy's new drama club. And then some of you were present at a big reading rally that we hosted with E3, Elevate Early Education, at ECOF Elementary last fall, where every child in the school got a new copy of a book and an NFL player who wrote the book, Malcolm Mitchell came and read it to them. It was really special. Another program that we support is Mirror

[00:28:03] Me. You are probably all very familiar with this, but this is a teacher pipeline development program specifically trying to increase representation of diverse demographics within the teacher pipeline. And we had 18 students and 17 mentors last year. This year, that's increased to 21 students and 21

[00:28:23] And CEF's part of this great program is raising money to pay stipends to those participants and the mentors, and then also providing things like the celebration dinners and meals for meetings, other special events, and recruiting and promotional materials as we assist in growing this program.

[00:28:44] This year, we are working on some new ways of expanding the program to possibly include career switchers and others that we would like to support as they become fully licensed teachers and work in Chesterfield County Public Schools.

[00:29:01] Another program that we run is the Innovation Grants. Some of you got to accompany me on school visits recently as we awarded these to teachers and staff at our schools. this program continues to grow thanks to our donors and thanks to the support that we get from chesterfield county public schools as being a great partner and so we received 55 applications this year that's more than double last year and we were able to award 18 innovation grants and three replication grants when i presented to the school board last year you all asked about those replication grants so this year we made a more concerted effort to show those to people

[00:29:39] and bring them in, and especially if they applied for an innovation grant, but it was something that CEF had funded in the past, we gave them a replication grant instead. We additionally do mini-grants, and these are funded by the Cameron Foundation.

[00:29:57] I would like to grow this to include the whole county that's in our strategic plan, but currently we fund the Cameron region, which is 13 schools in the Bermuda and Matoica district, And those are grants. Last year, those were grants up to $400. And we were able to do 37 of those, thanks to Cameron Foundation.

[00:30:16] Another program that we support is Meadowbrook Academy for Developing Entrepreneurs. So we were able to provide their kiosk carts. They had 52 students participating in this. And they already were doing great work. But this is yet another proof of the fantastic outcomes of this great program at Meadowbrook, this student-led business enterprise where they're interacting with their peers, they're getting really great real-world experience in how to run a small business, and they're bringing more people into Meadowbrook and raising awareness of this program at a great high school.

[00:30:50] We were able to send some of these students to the state conference and then the international conference as well for developing entrepreneurs with the assistance of the school board. Ms. Chatter is joining us as a partner to send everyone who qualified to the international conference in Florida this year.

[00:31:06] One program that we are really, really proud to support through philanthropy from the Community Foundation is this veterinary science classroom expansion at Monacan High School. We can't take any credit for this. We just were there to support and help bring in the resources while our incredible career and technical education team made it happen.

[00:31:28] But I was blown away when we asked, how many extra students got to take veterinary science this year compared to last year? 94% increase. They went from four students at Monacan having that opportunity at CTC Hall or CTC Courthouse to 77 students able to take veterinary science classes right there at Chesterfield.

[00:31:48] And in just casual conversations with people at Economic Development Authority, I know that vet tech positions are in high demand. So it's really wonderful that our school system is supporting this career pathway. We support Chesterfield Recovery Academy through fundraising to provide wraparound services like additional therapeutic supports, field trips, staff appreciation, student incentives for attendance, you name it.

[00:32:15] Their completion ceremony, we take the place of their PTA in a lot of ways, and they deserve it. We're really proud to support these students in recovery. Thanks to some of our donors, we were able to offer scholarships. These are all donor-designated scholarships.

[00:32:31] Last year, you might recall, we offered the very first Merv Doherty scholarship for an outstanding young scholar, and that actually went to a Mirror Me participant. We received 75. Again, this was thanks to the Chesterfield County Public Schools Communications Department, helping us get the word out to different schools to get the students to apply.

[00:32:54] We were able to double the applications. So thank you all for your support there. We do early childhood support as well. This can look like books, positive behavior incentives, staff appreciation. And last year, we covered 100% of before and after care for pre-K students at C-Club.

[00:33:14] And we also did playground upgrades and other school-level initiatives, again, taking the place of a PTA or PTO since they don't have one at that school. Teacher Licensures is another Cameron Foundation-funded opportunity that we were able to provide this year.

[00:33:33] That's something we work in partnership with the Human Resources Team to identify teachers at eligible schools and offer them reimbursement or prepayment for I-Teach classes and Praxis exams. This has been a great savings for the teachers because some I-Teach classes, that's $3,000, instead of a staff person paying for that, we're able to fund that thanks to the Cameron Foundation.

[00:33:58] And we all know the benefits of having fully licensed teachers in our school. It's good for them, and it's great for us, too. Here are some other highlights of programs that we funded this year. We have been a partner to CCPS for Teacher of the Year, Ellie Bratazzo, the All-County Awards, Hall of Fame, the College and Career Fair, and the Participate Learning Teacher Exchange Program.

[00:34:22] Then Share the Love refers to some of the other staff appreciation and mini-grants that we've been able to accomplish throughout the year thanks to our donors. Looking ahead, we're rolling out our school ambassador program right now, which is where there's a self-selected staff person at each school who serves as a CEF ambassador.

[00:34:42] We're doing this to address the difference in who applies for innovation grants and who doesn't. I want to make sure that when there's an opportunity for a classroom grant or funding for your school, that every school knows about it at the same level. And every school also has a voice at our table when we're talking about literacy initiatives or we're talking about the direction that programs are going.

[00:35:04] I want all 68 schools to be present in that conversation. So that's off and rolling. And then we've got classroom mini grants again this year. And we've got our Bowler Challenge, Bravo Awards, All-County Awards. We've got a lot of great things going on. And I'm happy to answer any questions you have about what I just shared.

[00:35:24] Thank you all for your incredible leadership this year. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Height. Board members, is there any discussion? Mr. Baranto? Thank you, Madam Chair. I thoroughly enjoy sitting on the CEF board and getting to see the behind-the-scenes work.

[00:35:42] It is a nonstop mission that you have to improve every aspect of CCPS that you can, and that does not go unnoticed. And so I greatly appreciate what you and the board are doing on a daily basis to ask the question of how can we help, how much more can we do, and more importantly, who needs the help.

[00:36:05] And that's the focus, and it always comes back to our students. And that does not seem to get past anyone on the CEF board, which I'm very grateful for. So I know I said this before, but thank you, as always, for the many things that you do for us, for our teachers, the foundation itself, the dinners, the fundraising.

[00:36:25] We could go on and on. But if it wasn't for this initiative, we would not have half of these things going on throughout the school year. So we greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Ditto. Thank you.

[00:36:40] Thank you for everything that you do and that the board does and all that you look out for for our staff and our students in Justerville County. So thank you. Thank you. It's a privilege. Thank you. Next, we have a staffing update from Dr. Huff.

[00:36:56] Good afternoon, Ms. Coker, Ms. Hutchins, members of the board, Dr. Murray.

[00:37:13] Pleased to be able to share with you this afternoon a staffing update. And we have a lot of good news to share. All of our classrooms are covered with VUE-certified teachers, annual subs, or long-term substitutes. And 97, almost 97.5% of our classrooms are currently headed by licensed teachers.

[00:37:35] Since FY22, our teacher attrition has dropped from about 12.5% annually to about 8% annually. And we're seeing that percentage stay down, so we're encouraged by that. Our vacancy rate for elementary teachers has dropped.

[00:37:53] Our vacancy rate for core content secondary teachers has dropped. Among our math teacher vacancies, that vacancy rate has dropped. So a lot of progress this year on staffing our classrooms.

[00:38:10] We've also had a year-over-year success with staffing bus drivers. That vacancy rate has been reduced from 9.9% in 2023 down to this year, only one-tenth of one percent.

[00:38:26] And, you know, that number with a division our size is just on any given day, you know, someone's relocating or retiring. So we're really pleased with that. We also had all of our routes covered for the start of school, and we have a healthy pipeline of trainees working to get that CDL license and be available to take routes.

[00:38:52] The vacancy rate for our food service positions has continued to decline each year for the last four years. It went from a high point of about 24%. We're down to 7% this year.

[00:39:08] We'd like to see that a little lower, but a number of those positions are part-time, non-benefited positions. That's a little bit different market for us. Attrition for day porters is trending lower year over year.

[00:39:23] That's the third consecutive year that we've seen that. So again, we're just very pleased with those results. Our substitute rate, so far this year, each week we've been above 90% at or above 90% fill rate, and of course that was kind of the national pre-pandemic gold standard to get to that 90% of the time when someone calls out there as a substitute to respond.

[00:39:52] And so we're very pleased with that. And that's a 25% improvement over the pre-pandemic or early pandemic lows. It's also an improvement over our pre-pandemic data. So we know that the board has done a lot to support substitute compensation and high demand days. And we're pleased with the results of that.

[00:40:18] We also accomplished our goal of being able to hit a target of 3,400 substitutes the end of last year. We are actively interviewing. We have a lot of interest in substitute teaching this year as well, and we're planning for upcoming events to have substitute hiring fairs.

[00:40:41] We won a National Association of Counties Achievement Award this year for our substitute teacher hiring and engagement and last year we piloted regionalized substitute recruiting efforts for schools with fill rates that were below district average and we were pleased with the results of those pilots 17 of the 19 schools targeted had a significant increase in their substitute fill rate and we are planning those events again this year these charts kind of show you well we know that it's important to have substitutes because it's important to have adult

[00:41:20] presence and consistency in the building it's also an important working condition for our teachers you wake up at 2 a.m with a sick child you want to know that someone's there to cover your class the next day but these charts show you that it's also a really important pipeline for us for career switchers people who might want to try out the classroom try out working with our students and then become interested in earning their licensure or taking another full-time position which has to fill county public schools so you can see here last school year we hired 278 people who were

[00:41:56] day-to-day subs into full-time or part-time positions and so far this year we've already hired 170 people so that is an important way for people to kind of gain some exposure to the classroom and the curriculum in the teaching and learning environment and we can also see from this chart that people who are entering our profession through this way they tend to be staying so you can see that number there people still active in their role so it's not just that we hired people from the day-to-day substitute pool last year and then a different group this year we do see that

[00:42:35] many of those folks are staying with chesterfield county public schools and making a career of education we do still face some challenges attrition is still higher than we would like and some critical non-exempt roles bus driver and instructional assistant and as you know this year the board added through the budget process 70 instructional assistant positions and that was a heavy recruiting lift so that was a challenge our special education teacher area also remains an

[00:43:12] area of need for us we're still in a national teacher shortage and we are getting salary competition we think we this is anecdotal because we don't have year-over-year data yet but we think that the competition now seems to be coming more from other school divisions of course during the height of the pandemic when there were many job openings and many fields we were experiencing pressure from both surrounding school divisions and other public and private organizations that seems to have shifted a little more towards in infield competition as the economy changes

[00:43:51] our budget timing of course as you know an important part of our budget is state funding And the schedule for that has differed the past few years from what, you know, it typically was. And so we've sometimes not known about the finalized state dollars until late spring or early summer.

[00:44:13] And so sometimes that makes it difficult to recruit with incentives because the recruiting is for the following year happening prior to the finalization of this budget dollars. So good news with instructional assistants and still some remaining challenges.

[00:44:32] We did fill all the vacancies that we carried from last year. Last year we were running about 25 vacancies. Those were filled. All the attrition vacancies were filled. And this number is about a week outdated now. We've filled about 35 of those new 70 positions.

[00:44:48] And tomorrow night at Providence Middle School at 5 o'clock, we're having another instructional assistant fair, and we hope to fill most of those remaining vacancies so people can register on our website or registration. While it's appreciated, it's not required, and so we are accepting walk-ins as well at five o'clock tomorrow at Providence Middle School. And these are just some other things that we've done and that the board has done to try to fill those IA vacancies. We've hosted 10

[00:45:25] instructional assistant job fairs resulting in 286 accepted offers and there were salary increases four years in a row and then differentiated salaries for IASC. So definitely we've made a lot of progress there filling all the attrition, all the carried vacancies for last year and half of the additional positions so far and hopefully we'll have good news to report next month after this next fair. Some other strategies that we're using, you're familiar with the Handshake software

[00:45:59] and that's the software that we're using to engage with students in college and university programs. It can be undergraduates or graduate students. Most colleges and universities use the software through their career placement services. So we are able to reach out to people with permission who might be in education programs but might also be in other programs and still interested in teaching.

[00:46:27] So, for example, math majors, English majors, other majors that have skills of interest to us. And you can see there we heavily use that software. They have fairs online that are conducted electronically through that.

[00:46:43] We attended 17 of those last year, sent over 77,000 messages and engaged with over 15,000 candidates. So it's a way for us to get our name as an organization and our needs out there in front of people in university programs.

[00:47:03] You're familiar with iTeach, and that has been a good option for us. People learn differently, and they choose preparation programs that fit their life and their other responsibilities this program we've had the high second highest completion rate in the state of Virginia I know over 100 districts are engaged with this program and we had 217 teachers complete so far or enroll and 70 complete so far but I have seen many more applications come

[00:47:40] through just in the last week since we've captured this data so we're expecting a high enrollment this year as well. And we were excited to be able to sponsor a cohort of 75 aspiring licensed teachers. And for this year, we're able to do that through grant funding.

[00:48:00] And we are focusing on elementary, special education, mathematics, and English learner licenses, because those are areas where we have the greatest needs. So we're really excited about that, and there's a lot of engagement. 146 people attended our career switcher events in August alone, so we're really excited about that and hope to have 75 more licensed teachers in areas of high need by the end of the year. You're familiar with our partnership with Participate Learning,

[00:48:37] which is the largest provider of international exchange teachers in the United States. They've been operating since 1987. Only about 3% of their applicants are accepted into that program. And our principals are making selections and matching with applicants who are licensed teachers in their countries and experienced, as well as eligible for licensure through the Virginia Department of Education.

[00:49:08] So we've had a positive experience with that program, and teachers can stay for up to five years. So this year, we have a total of 88 ambassador teachers representing 13 different countries. So literally bringing the world to our students.

[00:49:24] And we also have five new schools participating this year. So we have a total of 22 of our schools, almost a third of our schools are participating. Several other outreach strategies we pursued for staffing.

[00:49:40] We had 66 recruiting events last year, an 8% increase over the prior year. We attended five outreach and networking events at Fort Lee. We completed 11 teacher licensure information sessions at schools and libraries throughout the county.

[00:50:00] We also did kind of a meet us at the library program, and in the spring, we had several sessions at libraries around the county just to engage with citizens about different opportunities that we have available.

[00:50:16] We've also expanded our recruitment efforts to a few additional colleges and universities. Last year, we went to Elizabeth City State, went to upstate and western New York universities, and North Carolina State as well. We are offering licensure assistance as one of our strategies, and with the pivot towards being dependent on many career switchers and less availability of traditional undergraduate trained teachers, licensure has just become more important, and there are so many pathways

[00:50:51] to licensure and so many different backgrounds and skills and talents that people bring that it's really become important to kind of counsel people one-on-one on different pathways to licensure. And we were able to go out to 65 schools last year. That opportunity was offered to every school, as well as have some central events. And we also participated in two reading specialist cohorts with Longwood University. So those were grant funded. And we had 15 reading

[00:51:26] specialists complete all of their training in August, and we're expecting another 16 in December to complete. And these are just some examples of some of our external job fairs last year. I know often citizens or teachers will be curious about which college and university fairs we're attending, so this is an example of those. And of course, we don't want to miss an opportunity to remind folks how to apply with us.

[00:52:00] And so we've listed for anyone's interests or assistance our careers at ccpsnet.net. That goes straight to our recruiting department as well as the website where folks can review positions that are currently open.

[00:52:17] I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time. Thank you, Dr. Huff. Board members, is there any discussion? Ms. Hutchins? Thank you, Dr. Huff. As you and your team are one of, you know, you lead one of the largest groups in Central Virginia, right?

[00:52:41] We're the biggest employer in this area. So this is a humongous task that you and your team have in front of you. I am, every page that you went through, it was yet again, oh, wait, they're not waiting for people to come. You're not waiting for people to come to you.

[00:52:57] Hey, I want to teach. No, ma'am. You're going on, oh, wait, you need a license. Oh, let me help you there. Oh, let me help you. Hey, have you thought of this? Your brain and your team, you are always thinking this way. And that's where we see these numbers begin to go. They're filling, filling, filling.

[00:53:13] I just, and this award that you guys won. I mean, it's all like, oh, we won an award. That's a huge deal. And it was because of your creativity and your innovation. And so I just want to shout about it. I'm really thankful for you and your team. And you do a great job, and we get some really great people because of it.

[00:53:31] So thank you. Thank you. Ms. Chatters? Hi, Dr. Huff. I just want to say the still active chart that you showed, appreciate that data point to help us see the big picture of it's working.

[00:53:47] Like they're staying, they've switched over, and they're staying. So I really appreciated that chart. And then as my usual questions go with the vacancies, if you're going to get a minute, can you just shoot us an email with where they are today, the ones that we're talking about? because you said we're at 97.4 percent yes so whatever the delta is if you can show us where they are yes that'd be great thank you thank you so much dr huff appreciate it next we have a

[00:54:15] presentation on high school opportunities from dr coleman good afternoon ms coker ms hudgens board members and dr mary i am jennifer coleman i'm the coordinator of student engagement unfortunately dr merriman is ill today so i'll be here sharing with you high school opportunities so students in Chesterfield have a variety of opportunities to explore some of their career interests.

[00:54:50] So in addition to the numerous core and elective course opportunities they have at our 10 comprehensive high schools, we have 13 specialty centers where they can explore specific interests. And in addition to those, they also can apply to one of our three regional high schools, Appomattox Regional Governor's School, Maggie Walker, or also Code RBA Regional High School.

[00:55:14] Our technical centers offer students, 11th and 12th graders, an opportunity for one- or two-year programs. And then students 9th through 12th grade can take one or more courses online as well. So I want to show you a quick little video our creative and media services team created.

[00:55:34] This sort of showcases our specialty centers.

[00:55:51] So our students have an opportunity to explore a curriculum and content that focuses on a specific interest that they may have

[00:57:42] while they're in high school over their four years in a comprehensive high school setting. So we have over 2,500 students currently participating in our specialty centers. The next couple of slides list all of our specialty centers. They're listed with just a snapshot of what their focus area is, but they're listed in the order of their opening, with our first being math science at Clover Hill High School 31 years ago.

[00:58:07] And so you'll see the addition of our programs from STEM programs to humanities, to our last couple being our HPT program, which CEF mentioned, Vet Science, which that's at our Health Professions and Therapy Center, and then our Academy for Developing Entrepreneurs at Meadowbrook. So mentioned in our or shown in our video that we just saw just a second ago, transportation is provided for our students that participate in our centers as well as those that attend our regional governor schools. We want to be sure our families know about our specialty centers and that that is an option for students to consider when they're going to high school

[00:58:45] so that begins with our letter that goes out early fall from our superintendent to families of eighth graders to let them know we have fairs coming up where they are please come out and find out more about our centers to our district updates that go out to families to information from schools that go out from principals to counselors that talk to students to parent presentations that happen in the evenings whatever opportunities we have available to make sure that we're getting that word out to families as many that in as many ways as we can so that they know that we have these available we do have an application process for our specialty centers as well as the regional

[00:59:23] governor schools we do align our timeline with that and this is the overall timeline so it begins with specialty centers as I mentioned in the fall so it starts in late September with open houses being October and November, and then early December, we wind up with the application process.

[00:59:42] In early spring, students finish their application process, whether it's their audition or their assessment, and then offers go out in early March. So also opportunities, I'll switch a little bit to another opportunity that students have, and that's participation in our dual enrollment courses.

[01:00:00] So we partner with several community colleges. Four, we have South University, Blue Ridge, J. Sargent Reynolds, but also Bright Point Community College, which I will specifically focus on because that's our largest. And so we have programs, our passport courses that we offer.

[01:00:18] Those are automatically transferable courses to any state college or university in the state of Virginia. They automatically transfer. So it's 15 to 18 credits that students are able to take through those courses, and they are continuing to increase the number of courses that qualify as well.

[01:00:34] passport courses. Also included in alignment with the Code of Virginia, our students, we offer the courses that align with the uniform certificate of general studies, which is 30 to 32 credit hours, and students are able to earn that, which is equivalent to a one-year degree that we used to would have referred to as a general studies degree. But our students are able to earn that at any of our, have the opportunity for those courses at any of our high schools. So during this year, we have over 3,000 students that participate in dual

[01:01:09] enrollment. Our students in the last couple of years have earned over 26,000 credits through just their dual enrollment courses alone. And students can take dual enrollment in these three areas. They can do it in person in high school. They can do it online synchronously or asynchronously.

[01:01:26] Students also have the opportunity to take courses concurrently, actually on campus at BrightPoint. Our teachers have to be credentialed the same way that teachers on BrightPoint's campus have to be credentialed. They have to earn the same degrees and the same credentials.

[01:01:43] And so we currently have 85 dual enrollment credentialed teachers, and we offer 43 specific distinct dual enrollment courses this particular school year. So I mentioned dual enrollments and concurrent. Students also can earn college credits with advanced placement courses and International Baccalaureate courses. For AP and IB courses, students do have to earn a qualifying test score to earn that college credit. Students in our International Baccalaureate Specialty Center can take college IB courses. All of our students can have the opportunity to earn college credit through AP courses. We offer several of those courses at all of our high

[01:02:20] schools. All of our courses, our multiple courses that I mentioned, are offered at all of our schools and all of our students and all of our high schools can have the opportunity to earn the ucgs lots of benefits for taking a college level course in high school students are able to earn high school credit and college credit simultaneously in class they do are able to trans transfer going from facilitate from high school to college a little bit easier by being exposed to what the rigor of a college class is like taking a college course on their high school campus with a high

[01:02:56] school teacher with high school supports facilitates that as well and helps you know students become a little bit more comfortable with what a college course would be like it is a lower cost beginning this year all dual enrollment courses offered through BrightPoint are at no tuition cost for students so they are free courses for students and going into college with more credits then my time to complete my degree is reduced which means my overall tuition bill would be lower and for families or students receiving that tuition bill that is a definite benefit

[01:03:32] so thank you so much for the opportunity if there are questions that i can answer i'd be happy to do so thank you dr coleman board members is there any discussion mr first let me apologize for that you put it on do not disturb but you forgot your husband is cleared for do not disturb um i wanted to say thank the video is great i i really appreciate that and just one extra thing

[01:03:59] When we were going through that process for specialty centers, it helps to start sooner than eighth grade because some of them, when you go to the specialty center and listen to what they are expecting you to have, it gives them an opportunity to make sure they have that course if it's required or what the grade is that they're looking for for you to have in that course.

[01:04:18] So I would, when I went my PTA rodeos to my middle schools last year, I let them know, hey, seventh graders, you should go. Like, this is an opportunity for you to see what it's about and then get prepared in eighth grade to buckle in and do what you got to do to be able to get in and be more competitive. But I love what we're doing to make sure that we get more people interested in what we have to offer.

[01:04:37] So that's great. Thank you. And I just want to mention about the, you know, Bright Point and dual enrollment classes as being a mother who had their oldest take advantage of those classes.

[01:04:53] It is a tremendous savings to do that. So I'm so glad that CCPS is partnered with Bright Point and able to offer that to our students. So thank you. Thanks so much. Next, we have a presentation on Bensley and Falling Creek Elementary School redistricting from Dr. Wattica and Mr. Briggs.

[01:05:15] Good evening. It is so nice to be with everyone. I am very excited to talk to you about two rezoning propositions that we have tonight that are a result of some really great work and progress that's being made in Chesterfield County Public Schools over the last couple of years.

[01:05:34] So, excited to talk to you about that. Before I get started, I do want to recognize that most of the work that you see here is really the work of Justin Briggs and Diane Gappas, just two really highly professional people that do great work, and so I want to recognize their work, and so I thank them for that. So we'll start off with the Binsley Falling Creek Elementary School of Rezoning.

[01:05:53] I do want to mention before I start that we did have a public information session on this topic on August 26th at Falling Creek Middle School. Got some great feedback from our community, and so we're glad to be there for that. So I want to start out by just kind of sharing where we are in the county. For those who may be watching that may not be as familiar with these schools, on the map it shows sort of where we are in the county, sort of east side of the county.

[01:06:14] What we'll share is that these two schools, Bensley and Fallen Creek Elementary, do share a border, and there's a great opportunity to balance enrollment. So currently Fallen Creek Elementary is operating at about 130% capacity with 21 classroom trailers, and so that's a huge amount.

[01:06:30] At the same time, we are very excited to be rebuilding Binsley Elementary with a higher capacity, and as a result, we'll open with a design capacity of around 1,000 students and a program capacity just under that at 900. So we'll talk a little bit more about what that means in just a minute. So there's this great opportunity to balance that enrollment, take advantage of the space that we're creating, as well as get as many students as we can out of trailers in the Southern County.

[01:06:57] So it's a little bit small for folks to see, but just to share with you where we are, sort So capacity-wise, again, I mentioned a little over 130% of program capacity at Falling Creek right now. You probably know that at Bensley, we are currently utilizing the old Falling Creek Middle School as swing space as the new school is being built.

[01:07:17] So we don't have those numbers right now, but it is where we are. So I want to differentiate between design capacity and program capacity and school capacities. I think that might be a little bit confusing to a lot of folks. So design capacity is when an architect sits down and says, I'm going to draw these classrooms on a piece of paper and think about optimally how many students can fit in this classroom.

[01:07:41] We're thinking, you know, usually about 25 can fit in a classroom based on those optimum uses, right? But the reality is that most schools oftentimes, you know, are not perfect optimal uses, right? There are different uses in the school that do take place. For instance, special education classrooms might have eight students.

[01:07:59] We might use a classroom for ESL or Title I reading that just are not using the space at that efficiency level that maybe we would be. So as a result, oftentimes, that program capacity is a little bit less than what that design capacity originally is. And that's just sort of how it works.

[01:08:15] Usually throughout the division, that number is lower. There are some circumstances where it may be a little bit higher as we're using spaces. But we just want to kind of share what the difference is there. So where we are in this process, in this conversation, this map shares a closer up view of the existing zones.

[01:08:36] Route 1 is sort of the up and down road that you see there. Route 150 is Chippenham Parkway is the sort of left to right there. Our goal here is to balance enrollment and provide relief to Falling Creek Elementary School and, again, minimize the use of trailers to the best extent we possibly can.

[01:08:54] That's an important part of our strategic plan, and it's something we want to continue to talk about because it's very important for our students to be in school buildings. Again, we also want to continue to utilize the space that we have rebuilding Bensley. At the same time, we also want to make sure that we are being efficient in our operations and that we are providing the closest commute we possibly can, as well as allow for potential growth opportunities.

[01:09:19] So the proposal that we are bringing forth tonight is to change the attendance zone. On the map, you'll see sort of a highlighted with gold area sort of north of Chippenham Parkway. You'll note that there's a couple of neighborhoods there, the Ranch Acres, Bermuda Crossing Apartments, the South Point Landing Apartments, where approximately 119 students live in the school division.

[01:09:40] You'll also see on the sort of east side of this map a big, large area where it doesn't look like anybody is living, and that's because that's the DuPont area. No students are living there, but we do have to have a zone there. So that is why that looks like that. Just taking a look at our study area commute, again, one of our goals is to provide and to ensure that when we make changes, we are getting as close as we can to our schools.

[01:10:06] So we, in this proposal, we do have a slight reduction in distance for these families that would be moving, going from about three miles to 1.8 miles from Bermuda, as well as just a little bit of a reduction. So not a huge change, but certainly very important and certainly meets the expectations and the goals of the program.

[01:10:28] And if we do all of that, here is what we'll look like in terms of the future. So we will be at 82% as we open Bensley and 113% at Fallen Creek. So we'll still be over 100% capacity at Fallen Creek. So still more work to do there. But there will be still additional room to grow into Bensley as we do need to.

[01:10:49] There was a request from a board member to take a look at demographic information based on this change. what you'll see here, the ESL population as well as the free and reduced lunch population that will be enrolled in the school, what you'll see is that there's not a significant change from one school to the other as we go forward. So just kind of a slight difference. And then finally, just a couple of things to consider. So this will come back to you this evening for a vote for your school vote based on the number of students that this impacts. Just to consider, the two schools

[01:11:25] currently are in a separate Bell tier, so families will need to change. Currently, Bensley is on tier two. Fallen Creek is on tier three. The principal has requested that we take a look at putting Bensley on tier one. We'll take a look at that. We'll bring that back if that's something that's feasible to do. Certainly, we'll accommodate that if possible. Another thing just to consider is the center-based gifted students at both schools attend Henning, so no change there. Bensley zone students that in pre-K do attend CECLA, so that will be a change for some families if that's the case.

[01:11:57] And then one last thing to remember is that rising fifth graders here will be allowed to, will be, will can submit waivers to remain at their school, but of course parents will need to provide transportation. Just finishing up here, just a summary of opportunities and limitations.

[01:12:15] So we will have the opportunity to eliminate seven trailers at Fallon Creek, and we'll optimize that space at Bensley. we'll also have the opportunity to further relieve Fallen Creek down the road. That continues to be a challenge that we have not necessarily solved through this.

[01:12:31] So again, this will come back to you tonight for a vote, and we'll be happy to take any questions that you might have. Thank you very much. Board members, is there any discussion? Thank you very much.

[01:12:50] Next, we have a presentation on the West Area Elementary School redistricting. Hello again. As I mentioned before, this is the second of two rezoning conversations tonight. That is a result of a great amount of progress that's being made in Chesterfield County.

[01:13:08] This one is the result of the construction of the new West Area Elementary School located in the western part of the county. So we'll get started. Of course, as you're aware, we've been working on this school for a number of years. It is planned to open next school year. So any conversation today about zoning will be effective again next school year.

[01:13:27] Of course, not this school year. School Board does have policy on how we are to make these recommendations, how we should define them. Those are listed there. We also, again, will mention that we have a strategic plan objective to reduce the number of trailers as much as we possibly can throughout the division. So those are two really important guides that provide us some guidance on how we develop these recommendations or potential options.

[01:13:51] I want to just outline that there are a number of planning objectives that we do take into account when we develop options for you to consider. We have developed two for you to consider tonight as we go forward. Of course, we want to balance enrollment. We talk a lot about that. We want to minimize transportation routes.

[01:14:07] We want to keep neighborhoods intact. And I'm not going to read all of these to you, but I just want to share that oftentimes these priorities can sometimes compete a little bit. And so we try to find the best possible couple of options that meet them the best we possibly can. And so I think we've done that in a lot of respects.

[01:14:23] And so this is a great opportunity to take advantage of some work that's going on. So here's our study area. Of course, the Western Area Elementary School will open again in August of 2026 with a design capacity of 1,000 students.

[01:14:38] As you know, it is located in the existing Grange Hall district, and if students who are zoned there now want to continue at Grange Hall next year, they will be able to do that for their other zoned school. So I just want to just clarify for everyone, it's a little bit of a strange zone because it sort of wraps around the Moseley District, and so that's kind of why the school is being targeted for this area, and so that represents an important part of that.

[01:15:02] So we are taking a look at this area because Moseley and Woolridge are both overcapacity. Both schools are operating with a 10-classroom mega-trailer, and what you'll note is that the location of the school on the map is pretty close to those two schools.

[01:15:20] And so it provides an opportunity to leverage out and balance out enrollment based on where those schools are. So all those schools now are at program capacities that you see there. Grange Hall is the only one that's not over program capacity.

[01:15:40] And you'll note that Mosley and Woolridge are at 109% and 108% respectively. So for those people who may be tuning in just for this agenda item, just mention the difference again between design capacity and program capacity. So design capacity, again, is when an architect sits down, writes down, creates a plan and sort of defines the optimal number of students that can be in a space based on the design characteristics.

[01:16:06] Program capacity, of course, is that sometimes we know that schools don't operate as originally designed. Sometimes there are classes that have lower class numbers, maybe a special education classroom, for instance. Maybe you have eight students, or an ESL classroom might have pullouts, or Title I reading might just use the space differently than originally designed.

[01:16:25] And so that is the difference we see between design capacity and program capacity. Sorry to repeat that again, but I just wanted to make sure that if folks are just tuning in for this item, they hear that and know that difference. So our goal has been to develop potential boundary moves.

[01:16:44] And our goal here is to relieve Mosley and Woolridge, effectively using that space. So we have kind of chunked out different parts of the area, and you can see kind of the smaller areas that we've kind of provided opportunities to show. And using that geography to, again, try to make sure that we are not only balancing out that enrollment, but also doing it in a way that limits transportation time, makes sure neighborhoods are as attacked as they possibly can be.

[01:17:12] And so we also have a number of pressures on the western part of the county, as you're aware. There's a tremendous amount of growth that continues in the western part of the county. So we have utilized the county stratus report. So this is their housing sort of pipeline conversation where they can take a look at what development is happening and what we would predict may occur down the road.

[01:17:37] So one of the things we know is that we don't know what's going to be built precisely in the next five years, But we use that information to provide some predictions based on what's been approved, what the market is kind of doing, and so kind of taking an idea of what might happen. So in the western part of the county, we have a number of units.

[01:17:55] 1,100 units are projected to open within the next five years. Another 3,600 housing units are projected to open within the pipeline. So we will need to think about housing growth in the area, how that will affect future enrollment, and how it is that we will base those decisions.

[01:18:13] Another consideration to take a look at, and this will come more obvious when we start talking about the two options that we've proposed. In both options, because of the geography of where the school is, in both options that we're going to talk about, Grange Hall, the enrollment will significantly reduce as a result of this work.

[01:18:33] And so this provides an opportunity to provide an additional center-based gifted program at the Grange Hall site to backfill that space. And so we're providing that opportunity as well. We've also shared just some of the capacities are in some other CBG sites that we can consider.

[01:18:51] We also just, on that topic, we want to just point out that there are a number in that area, there are a number of students who are accepted into the CBG program, but for one reason or another, choose not to attend. And so we don't know exactly why all that may necessarily be, but we propose that or we think that some of that may be the distance from home to that CBG site.

[01:19:15] So we think this opportunity might provide a little bit closer CBG site for a lot of families, and so it provides an opportunity for students to show them. When we talk about capacities, we will assume that the CBG number stays the same, But again, hopefully, more students will take advantage of that opportunity if it is available to them.

[01:19:36] So we'll get into our options. Option one is based on the map that you see. So the red line around sort of where the West Area Elementary School is sort of the proposed option there. What it does is relieve Woolridge.

[01:19:52] It will take Wynwood at Fox Creek and Fox Field. We'll be united together at the same school. We use the word reunited here, probably better to say just reunited, probably more artful term, to make that clear that it was connected. We also will relieve Mosley outside of Magnolia Green.

[01:20:11] That will backfill, again, Grange Hall with relocation of CBT programs. If you do that, this is a lot of data here, so I won't go through every single data point, but I'll point out three columns under option one, impact, that shows the number of students who will be moving. Based on that particular school, very importantly under CBG impact, the sort of larger block, the program capacity.

[01:20:35] So this assumes that we do create that CBG program at Grange Hall and we make those moves. It still leaves Grange Hall at about 50%, a little more than 50% of capacity, program capacity. And then you see Mosley, Woolridge, and West Area will operate in the mid to upper 80 percentages.

[01:20:51] So there's a really good place to be. And then in the housing pipeline, as I mentioned before, we don't know necessarily what housing will be built, but based on this county stratus report, the best information that we have, that is a five-year projection of where we think we might be going forward. So you would have potentially two schools that would be over capacity in about five years if, in fact, the housing is developed the way that we think again.

[01:21:14] Again, we don't know that's going to happen, but that's the best projection that we possibly can have. That's just shown to demonstrate that there continues to be housing pressures as we talked about moving forward. I'm not going to read all these to you, but these are the subdivisions that will move to the West Area Elementary based on option one.

[01:21:35] And just kind of a brief overview of opportunities and limitations. Again, we are, of course, relieving Mosley and Woolridge. We will reduce the number of trailers by potentially up to 20 trailers. We would share the facilities or same schools at Fox Creek and Fox Field. We know that's been a part of the conversation going forward.

[01:21:51] And then also we have the opportunity to consolidate or provide an additional program at CBG for Grange Hall. And very importantly here is Grange Hall's end zone enrollment will be temporarily reduced quite a bit. So that is a consideration to take.

[01:22:08] Option two is very similar to option one, but it changes how that Foxfield and Fox Creek connects together. So in this particular scenario, the difference is that Fox Creek would move to Western Area Elementary, where Foxfield would remain at Woolridge.

[01:22:27] Mosley stays the same, where North of Magnolia Green gets relieved as well. Same thing here. Also, Grange Hall will backfill with a CBG program. So again, a lot of data on this one. So we'll just point out these couple of columns there that option two impact the number of students who will be moving.

[01:22:46] The program capacity under that sort of larger block of CBG, again, Grange Hall remains fairly small in comparison to its program capacity. In this case, there's a little bit wider spread between the three schools that would be remaining as well. So it's a little bit different, but there is at the very sort of last one, we'll note that there's also two schools that ultimately, if the five-year housing pipeline happens, as we suspect, will be over capacity.

[01:23:13] but the new school will be under capacity during that time frame. Again, we don't know what that housing is going to actually do, but that's the best information that we can provide. Same thing here again, the subdivisions that will be rezoned to the west area.

[01:23:31] And then again, the same, very similar opportunities as the previous option, but then limitation would remain split, those two Fox Field and Fox Creek subdivisions. And I'll just finish off. These are the two options that are side-by-side that you can see.

[01:23:48] Kind of major difference between those, as I mentioned, the neighborhood that would be there. I won't read all of these to you, but there are just different capacities that may change over time. I'd be happy to take any questions after I tell you that we will have a public information session at Deep Creek Middle School on September 30th from 6 to 7 p.m.

[01:24:07] We'll be happy to see you there, and we'll be happy to take any questions. Thank you very much. Board members, is there any discussion? Mr. Perrante. Thank you, Madam Chair. I greatly appreciate you and your team and the amount of hours and time that have gone into this. The challenging part is when it's an elementary school that's near other elementary schools. You can only draw lines in certain places that make sense. And the difficult part here for our community in the western part of Hull Street is the two options. I fielded a question not too long ago about, well, how can we don't have four

[01:24:46] options or five options. And I think when we start talking about a high school, you probably would have, and I don't know this for sure, but you'd probably have more options than two versus an elementary school strictly because of where it's located. And that's the difficult part. I greatly appreciate, Justin, and again, your team in figuring out what makes the most sense. Obviously, in either option that this board chooses, we're going to have schools over capacity projected in five years two schools in option one and another two schools in option two.

[01:25:22] Actually, I think one of those schools stays over capacity in five years. I think Woolridge and Mosley are the ones that switch off. But still, to your point, and I greatly appreciate you saying that, we don't know what that looks like, so what makes sense for us from now to that five-year mark I think is an extremely important conversation to have as well. So with that being said, also September 30th, 6 to 7 p.m.

[01:25:46] at Deep Creek Middle School to have these presented to the community and then have that feedback as well. So thank you for that. Thank you. Next, we have a presentation on year-round school from Drs. Fockelson and Fox and Ms. Rudd.

[01:26:24] Afternoon, Ms. Coker, Ms. Hudgens, members of the school board, Dr. Murray. I'm joined by Mrs. Rudd, principal at Bellwood Elementary, and Dr. Fox, our director of research and evaluation. And together, we're going to share some updated information about Bellwood Elementary, our year-round school, and the consideration of returning Bellwood to the traditional school calendar.

[01:26:46] We'll briefly review the background of the year-round school, some initial goals, the highlight some current data and programming, and outline both some potential benefits and other important factors to consider in making this change.

[01:27:03] Year-round school calendar began at Bellwood in 2018 and at Falling Creek Elementary in 2019. Falling Creek returned to a traditional calendar in the 24-25 school year, while Bellwood has remained a year-round school. The year-round calendar shortens the summer break and instead provides extended fall, winter, and spring breaks. Free learning intercessions are offered during these breaks, giving identified students opportunities for both remediation and enrichment.

[01:27:41] Our initial goals in implementing a year-round school calendar were centered on student learning and enrichment. It created the potential for increased opportunities for both academic support and enrichment, aimed to reduce summer learning loss by starting the school year in July and offering four intercession opportunities for students with a variety of instructional needs that could be met and supported by teachers.

[01:28:06] And finally, providing regular breaks built into the calendar that were designed to help maintain focus and stamina for both students and staff throughout the school year. Good evening, and I am here to talk to you first a little bit about our methodology.

[01:28:29] The primary focus of our evaluation for the past four years has been academic progress, and we measured change in performance using spring-to-spring comparisons where possible, which allows us to capture the full effects of the different calendars on the student outcomes.

[01:28:45] Take you back to your sixth grade science teacher days for a minute. Another important aspect of our methodology was ensuring that we were having light-to-light comparisons. Because we can't control the students, we control for the factors on the back end. And this included selecting students from schools in the same geographic area and based on input from elementary-level directors.

[01:29:07] Additionally, we applied a statistical technique called propensity score matching to ensure we're comparing similar students. And student groups were matched on demographics and prior performance, which is a very big indicator of current performance.

[01:29:25] So looking at the actual data, as noted here, in the 2021-22 school year, We were unable to do the fall to spring comparison or the spring to spring comparison because of COVID impacts to data. We were also unable to do the PALS spelling data.

[01:29:41] However, the rest of the comparisons are the spring to spring comparison. And we did reading and math as well tests and also the PALS spelling subtest. And unfortunately, in Chesterfield, we are not seeing the higher growth in students at our year-round schools.

[01:29:58] Rather, the data are showing that our growth for students in those schools is equal to or at times slightly less than the students' experience in traditional calendar schools. Several other questions came up about attendance, so we explored that.

[01:30:14] The first was participation of invited students to intersession. And what we see is that there is decreasing participation over the last three years at the intersessions. We also look for any potential effects of having different calendars within the feeder pattern.

[01:30:30] We examined secondary student attendance during intersessions to explore whether older siblings might miss school to care for younger siblings during the intersession breaks. Fortunately, we found that there were no effects on secondary student attendance. There were also questions about attendance during the first 30 days, given the earlier start of the school year for year-round schools.

[01:30:52] And these results were variable, with year-round schools having slightly lower attendance rates than traditional calendar schools for two the three years that we studied good evening um it's when we started to look at the benefits of moving back to a traditional calendar there were several that stood out to us and first being that student attendance should improve because families will have their children on the same calendar as the rest of the district and second testing will be aligned throughout the entire division

[01:31:30] because right now we have a different testing calendar than the rest of them so we should be able to use our data more effectively um third instructional materials and resources will roll out this at the same time across the division and that alignment allows more consistent learning experience for students no matter which school they attend um fourth teachers will be able to once again participate in the county-wide professional learning day during teacher work week and that gives them more equitable access to training and collaboration that's vital for our students and for their success as well and finally a traditional calendar will provide

[01:32:09] additional time in the summer for leadership teams to collaborate and to plan and work together and that extra time will help to ensure that a stronger more prepared start to our school year and next as we look in at the tradition with the transition back to the traditional calendar there are several key considerations that we think will help us that we discussed is first was to make sure that students don't lose the enrichment opportunities that they've had this entire time. So we've looked at additional funds and possible grants that we could use and also met with CIS personnel to see how we can use those funds to still give those kids that benefit.

[01:32:48] And second, we recognize the importance of extra academic support. So we were also looking at securing funding for before or after school tutoring opportunities, which will give students more time for targeted support. And we also continue to have the YMCA after school next year. Third, communication has been a top priority and we have a comprehensive plan to make sure that faculty and staff and families and communities stay informed just like we did when we first started this. We've also been very intentional about our staffing, and we've worked to make sure we have the right people in place for the students so they'll continue to transition back. A lot of

[01:33:24] the same teachers that were there in the beginning are there now as well. And finally, compensation alignment for teachers moving from the year-round pay schedule back to the traditional pay schedule. A plan will be put in place to make sure that their contract transitions smoothly back to the paid calendar that everybody else has.

[01:33:45] So, and altogether, these steps will allow us to thoughtfully and effectively transition back to the traditional calendar to keep our focus where it needs to be on the children and their success. So, based on the information and the additional data that we've shared today, we do recommend that the students at Bellwood Elementary return to the traditional school calendar.

[01:34:08] And we are here to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you all. Board members, is there any discussion? Ms. Chatters? So I was part of the sitting in that side when we first decided to go to year-round schooling with two of our schools.

[01:34:29] And one of the prevailing questions I had then that I still have now is, are we saying that it, why are we saying that it didn't work? I know what the data is showing, right, that we're not performing, they're not performing differently than our traditional students, which would make sense to just go back to traditional since we're still performing at the same way.

[01:34:52] But the root of why we're not, why is it not working? Is it because we're not all on that schedule? Do you think that would help give all the children opportunity to achieve higher? Or I'm trying to understand why it's not working.

[01:35:11] Yeah, I think those are questions we've also asked. As we've looked at the data, I think we've speculated over the rest of the division not being on that calendar. I mean, I think there are a lot of different points that we could explore. COVID occurred during some of that.

[01:35:35] But we've been, you know, several years now from COVID, and we've continued to see a decline at Bellwood. And I know that that's part of what Mrs. Rudd, you know, came to us and said, it's not working.

[01:35:55] If I may. Go ahead. Then I'll add something. Go ahead. I appreciate those comments, Dr. Fogel-Slong. I would also offer to your direct question, Ms. Shatters, would it be more effective if all of our schools, well, that's exactly one of the reasons why we're suggesting to move Bellwood to the traditional calendar, because there is heightened efficacy when we are all aligned.

[01:36:25] So, yeah, I think that it would have worked a lot better had there been either all elementary schools or the entire division going forward. For some of the reasons that were illuminated, for instance, professional learning opportunities for our instructional staff is being missed, and that's paramount.

[01:36:44] I think another key data point there is the kids who need the intercession, that number should be closer to 100%. They're not showing up to have that gap fill. So what's the draw? I would like to think that, or I do think that the intercessions provide an opportunity to disengage if they're not attending.

[01:37:12] And that's maybe a little more enticing to stay home. For those reasons, in a school division our size, it's an impracticality to think that one school can go it alone and be void of all the other shared resources along the way.

[01:37:33] And I agree. This is not a, I don't want it to go back traditional. I wasn't a fan of it staying on, but again, I was over there. I wasn't a fan of it staying on because it felt it was a heavy lift, right, for the reasons that you mentioned. The professional development was missing. There was some connectivity, right, that the school felt by itself in a community our size.

[01:37:54] And so I wasn't a fan of it staying on there. So I'm glad we've gotten to this decision. But I was just curious as to the data shows other places, right, that it works. But it works because everybody's on it, right? So I just was trying to get to that. Thank you, John. And I'll just add, yes, because I was here two years ago when this was before us before.

[01:38:16] And a big piece of that was because of the data at the time was all muddied with COVID. And we gave it a couple more years just to see if things would change and trend in a more positive direction.

[01:38:36] But I also agree it is hard to be solo when there's so many moving parts in a school division our size. Thank you. Thank you for your effort, Ms. Rudd. um you're an amazing principal so thank you very much next we have announcements communications in school board comments school board members are there any announcements or comments this evening sorry miss chatters sorry thank you madam chair um my comment is related to there's been traffic

[01:39:15] i'll say that um email or social media traffic and i know i'm not supposed to read it i read it but i don't respond growth but one of the things that our families are talking about is our school start times and a lack of child care and now i know we can't do anything about child care so this is for people who are watching what can you do about the situation that you're in um and this is just you know dominique chatter's opinion right we need more child care in places where we don't have child care right so we're talking there's sections of the motowika district that have

[01:39:54] no access to child care but our school start times are what our school start times are so besides the YMCA, we have to encourage our Board of Supervisors to look for child care business owners that want to operate inside of those districts where we need child care services, because some of the things that parents are concerned about, and as a parent with four children, it would, the different times that everybody has to be someplace and the time that you have to be to work is an issue that our families are facing.

[01:40:24] So I would encourage parents who are feeling the pinch to not just reach out to us or talk about us on social media, but go reach out to your board of supervisors and let them know that you're interested in having that type of service in your community. You're interested in that type of business in your community because they are the ones who make that decision.

[01:40:44] It is not on us, but we hear you, and we'll continue to ask for those types of things to happen as well. And then the second thing that adds on to that, which is an advocacy moment, is our state legislators also have impact on that.

[01:41:02] So if you really feel that strongly about how development is going in our communities and how fast they're going up, that is where the energy should be focused. Again, we do not control how many houses go up. We do not control where they're built. We just have to deal with the ramifications of those things happening.

[01:41:20] So if you want to be proactive, I would suggest you start there and definitely use your voice because that is your power. Thank you. Our next school board business meeting will be held this evening, September 9, 2025, at 6.30 p.m. here in the public meeting room.

[01:41:40] If there's no further public business, we will need to enter into closed session, which will be held in the PMR conference room. Madam Clerk, please announce the items for today's closed session. Madam Chair, it's my understanding that the school board desires to enter into a 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 two, discussion and consideration of matters that would involve the disclosure of student records.

[01:42:14] 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? Dominique Chatters? Aye.

[01:42:30] Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. We are now in closed session. Make a motion.

[01:42:54] Is there a second? 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 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.

[01:43:29] Is there a motion to adopt the resolution? I make a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Coker? Aye. The motion carries.

[01:43:44] Is there a motion regarding the student matters? In case numbers, 2025-26 slash RE14, 2025-26 slash RE15, 2025-26 slash RE16, 2025-26

[01:44:08] slash RE17, 2025-26 slash RE18, 2025-26 slash RE19, 2025-26 slash RE20, 2025-26 slash RE21, 2025-26 slash RE22, 2025-26 slash RE23.

[01:44:35] it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld. Is there a second? I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters. Aye. Stephen Pronto. Aye. Lisa Hudgens. Aye. Ann Coker.

[01:44:50] Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the first personnel matter? In case number 2025-26-17-HR is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld. Is there a second?

[01:45:06] I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? 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 2025-26-18-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:45:28] Is there a second? I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? 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 2025-26-19-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld. Is there a second? I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? 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

[01:46:08] number 2025-26-20-HR it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld. Is there a second? I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters. Aye. Stephen Pronto. Aye. Lisa Hudgens. Aye. Anne Cooker. Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter? In case number 2025-26-21-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:46:40] Is there a second? I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters. Aye. Stephen Prada. Aye. Lisa Hudgens. Aye. Ann Coker. Aye. The motion carries. Is there a motion regarding the next personnel matter? In case number 2025-26-22-HR, it is recommended that the superintendent's recommendation be upheld.

[01:47:02] Is there a second? I second the motion. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Cooker? Aye. The motion carries. Good evening.

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