Coraggio Consulting
Hanover County School Board Meeting, Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Place: Hanover County School Board, Virginia
Length: 3h 44m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1277/media

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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[00:00:01] personnel review recommendations of superintendent for resignations, appointments, transfers, assignments, promotions, termination, salary, adjustments, and leads for teachers and other employees. Section 2.2 dash 3 7 1 1 a 2 student disciplinary matters and consideration of requests for religious exemption from compulsory school attendance. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second.

[00:00:26] Ms. Welch is the second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. All opposed? We are now in closed session. We'll move upstairs, and we actually have a surprise upstairs. So this is going to be exciting.

[01:16:47] Okay, I see Mickey Mouse says 701, and so I now call our session back in order to our welcome, everybody, to our regular Tuesday, May 13, 2025 Hanover County Public School Board meeting. And with that, I would entertain a motion to return to open session.

[01:17:06] Mr. Chair, a motion to return to open session. Thank you, Coach Ike. Is there a second? second miss welsh thank you is there any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries coach ike you have a certification of closed meeting yes sir i have a motion to certify the closed meeting whereas the board of will certify that hanover county school board has convened closed meeting on the state pursuant to the affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the freedom of information act and whereas

[01:17:38] section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such executive meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore it be, I'm sorry, be it, resolved that the Hanover County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the executive meeting to which this certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the executive

[01:18:17] meeting were heard, discussed, or considered. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Welsh with a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. We are now returned to open session and we have certified our closed meeting. I would ask everybody to please join me in a moment of silence for the recent passing of Randy Lewis, who was an assistant baseball coach at Oak Knoll Middle School since the 2022 baseball season. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Lewis family, their friends, and the Oak Knoll

[01:18:52] baseball team. Thank you. I now ask that you join us in our invocation, which tonight will be led by Mrs. Welch, and then our Pledge of Allegiance to be led tonight by Kinsley Wright, a student at bell creek middle school loving and gracious god you are indeed the giver of all good gifts and we

[01:19:26] thank you today for all your blessings for the successful outcomes for of our school events and for all our staff members both the teaching and supporting members we ask that you bless them abundantly and we continue to seek your wisdom guidance courage and strength be with us in our deliberations and help us to be wise in the decisions we make for the good of all of those who have placed their trust and confidence in our leadership. Give us insight to lead with integrity that our decisions may reflect what is right and good. Keep us from short-sightedness

[01:20:05] and pettiness. Help us to make decisions that are good, that are for the good of all and guard us from blind self-interest dear lord grant us the humility to always seek your will and all that we do and say all glory be to you loving god now and always forever and ever amen

[01:20:25] one of the problems with us sitting here is that we don't get to shake hands with them when they get done so okay with that i will now move on to approval of our meeting minutes uh that everybody received. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Mr. Coleman, is there a

[01:21:03] second? Second. Mr. Martin, is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. And with that, I think we'll turn it over to what everybody is here for, Mr. Whitley.

[01:21:21] There we go. All right. Our first recognition of the evening goes to this year's Hanover County Public Schools Spelling Bee winner, who is a fourth grader and student at Royal Point Elementary school. Competing with 17 other Hanover County students, this bright and talented student spelled 50 out of 50 words correctly in the county spelling bee, which by my count are pretty good odds.

[01:21:54] As the division championship, she represented ACPS at the regional spelling bee held in March. Congratulations goes to N A O M I M A T T A R A, which spells Naomi Matera.

[01:22:10] next recognition of the evening goes to a talented student who is a senior at mechanicsville high

[01:23:07] school and won first place in the state in the storytelling category at the recent vhsl forensics

[01:23:13] competition congratulations goes to jude linhart next are several recognitions of our talented

[01:23:54] students and staff in our performing arts programs first we would like to honor a very talented group of students who were selected to represent hanford county public schools in the all virginia course Grace Meador, Mechanicsville High School. Lindsey Turner, Hanover High School.

[01:24:12] Rebecca Turner, Hanover High School. Any takers behind me? All right, right over here. And with so many musical performances that are taking place this evening, obviously, the following students were unable to attend tonight's meeting, but we still would like to recognize them.

[01:24:30] Caroline Connolly from Bell Creek Middle School. Anna Mason Fitchett, Mechanicsville High School. Naheem Hill, Mechanicsville High School. Malaya Pearson, Bell Creek Middle School, Ben Phan, Mechanicsville High School, and Leah Silva, Bell Creek Middle School.

[01:24:48] Let's give them all a round of applause.

[01:25:00] Great job. Next recognitions go to Atlee High School theater students who earn top honors from the Virginia Theater Association.

[01:25:24] In the Best Student Director category, Jamie Nelson. And joining her, the All-Star Cast category, Parrish Lewis.

[01:25:40] Not least in this category, earning the prestigious Virginia Program of Honor, congratulations goes to Atlee High School Band Director, Mr. Paul Rosecki.

[01:26:59] Next recognitions of the evening go to members of the Hanover County Public Schools family who were honored recently at the Hanover County Spirit of Volunteerism Award Ceremony for their significant contributions.

[01:27:21] In the spirit of one category, the award was given to Annie McGreen for dedicating her time and help to Cold Harbor Elementary School. Serving as the vice president of the PTA, she volunteers and devotes five to ten hours per week. She also volunteers at Bell Creek Middle School, serves on school board committee, and volunteers at her church.

[01:27:38] Congratulations to Annie McGreen.

[01:27:40] Spirit of Youth category, the Spirit of Youth Award was given to Chance Archer, a Patrick Henry High School senior who is the founder of One Small Chance.

[01:28:19] One Small Chance has raised funds and collected toys for schools, foster care programs, and Hanover Safe Place. Chances Leadership Inspires Classmates to Help at One Small Chance Events. He also volunteers as a Spanish tutor, swim instructor, and a student leader.

[01:28:34] Congratulations, Chance. In the Spirit of Youth Team category, the award was given to Hanover County Sheriff's Office Cadet Unit 606, who has helped shape the future of young people through teamwork and dedicated service throughout the community.

[01:29:10] Cadet Unit 606 is open to local youth ages 14 through 21, many of whom are our students, and provides hands-on exposure to law enforcement, instilling vital life skills and a strong work ethic. Many former cadets now serve as law enforcement officers in Hanover County and other jurisdictions.

[01:29:26] Congratulations goes to Sergeant Povar of the Hanover County Sheriff's Office and members of Cadet Unit 606. Next recognition, I'm going to ask Dr. Castle, who is their Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development, to come forward.

[01:30:06] Dr. Castle. Thank you, Mr. Whitley. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Dr. Penningup, and members of the board. I'm here tonight to formally introduce you to our 2025 Hanover County Leadership Cohort. As you know, we offered an opportunity for some of the best of the best of our teachers to apply to this cohort, and we had a rigorous application process, and these were 10 members we were able to select and offer this opportunity.

[01:30:34] So tonight, we'd like to formally introduce them to you. So as I call your name, please come forward. Kelsey Zeilinger, coming to us from Cold Harbor Elementary School. Katie Smith from Laurel Meadow Elementary School.

[01:30:53] Holly Dooley from South Anna Elementary School. Katie Ramsey from Elmont Elementary School. From Patrick Henry High School, we have two members.

[01:31:13] Our first is Lauren Davis. And Abby Tucker is our other Patrick Henry High School member. Next up is Dr. Troy Traylor.

[01:31:29] He is coming to us from Bell Creek Middle School. Maddie Ward is coming to us from Hanover High School. From Mechanicsville High School, we have Josh Pajak.

[01:31:48] And rounding us out, we have Kaylee Carmichael from Bell Creek Middle School. Congratulations to all of our members of the 2025 cohort. Mary Douglas, come here.

[01:32:25] All right, big smile. Congratulations.

[01:32:42] Okay, our next recognition of the evening goes to a highly skilled, dedicated, and caring school nurse from Hanover High School who completed the rigorous requirements for becoming a National Board Certified School Nurse.

[01:33:10] The credentialing process meets or exceeds industry standards for certification and reflects the knowledge expected of a highly proficient school nurse. This is a voluntary process and represents their dedication to their profession as well as providing the best possible health care to our students and staff.

[01:33:26] Congratulations goes to Nurse Jenny Miller from Hanover High School.

[01:33:43] Next recognition of the night goes to this year's winner of the REB Award

[01:34:38] for distinguished educational leadership every year one principal from each school division in hanover henrico chesterfield and richmond are selected for this prestigious award that recognizes principals who go above and beyond the daily demands of their position to create an exceptional educational environment this year's recipient will see receive a 30 000 grant 10 000 unrestricted cash grant and a 20 000 to be used at the recipient school this year's recipient is the

[01:35:06] proud principal of cold harbor elementary school mrs allison mullins like the spotlight so that was

[01:35:43] really hard for her but not least inspiring innovative kind passionate positive talented caring committed and enthusiastic are just a few words that have been used to describe the final group of individuals who will be recognized this evening we will call each member up individually to be recognized for a photo before taking a group picture with all of our terrific recipients

[01:36:12] Our Teacher of the Year, a skilled and talented English teacher from Patrick Henry High School who also graduated from said school with her Ph.D., Mrs. Lauren Davis.

[01:36:35] Next, our Support Employee of the Year, an Outstanding Administrative Assistant 2 for Secondary Education, Mindy Muntee.

[01:37:48] I want to make sure nobody's going to run up here.

[01:38:22] We're good. All right. And last but not least, our beginning teacher of the year, a dedicated special education teacher from Liberty Middle School, Emily Viken.

[01:39:04] Stay there. Dr. Sealy, come on in.

[01:39:28] Thank you. Yeah, so proud of you guys. And Mr. Chairman, that concludes my portion of the recognitions for this evening.

[01:39:53] Turn it back over to you.

[01:39:54] Okay, we'll let everybody get done getting out right now, and then we'll continue on with our meeting.

[01:40:51] I believe, oh, I don't see him. Lance is here somewhere. There he is in the back. Lance, you were hiding in the back. So we'll continue on. We're going to move into the public hearing for the redistricting of school boundaries.

[01:41:07] And we've asked Lance to come tonight to give us an overview of the proposed school boundary adjustment recommendations. Then we will hold a public comment session immediately following. With that, it's up to you, Lance.

[01:41:29] Beyond my skill set. We've got lots of people that got access to that, though.

[01:41:55] Okay, just give us a second here. I'm sorry, folks. Lance, you had a good trip?

[01:42:11] I had a great trip. That's good. i always get up early to make sure i don't have plane trouble so that's good i've been here a while that's good that's good today especially was a good day to decide that i actually got here in front of the weather so that helped that's good hey you brought the weather with you yes it was in southern indiana in louisville with me and thought i thought i should share can you take it

[01:42:33] back i think it's going back with me to be honest with you it's dropped into action there it is

[01:42:56] All right. And without further ado, I'll be able to use the magic clicker. Yes. All right. All right. Well, thank you and good evening. Appreciate the opportunity to come and visit with you. I believe this might be my last time in being here. So, you know, I know all good things must come to an end. No, you can look. We are, you know, we're guns for hire. So, you know, we'll no, no. Yeah. No. Okay. So, again, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Dr. Lance Richards and I'm with MGT.

[01:43:32] and it's been my honor and pleasure to work with you and your school community in making our way through this important process of student forecasting and boundary adjustments. So just kind of for your community, just kind of a walk down memory lane. My first visit with you was in October. I believe it was October 8th. And so we got together through that initiation and through the data gathering, and we began our work around capacity analysis. And you're going to see this word iterative that comes up in our third spot, but it deals with getting those numbers and kind of going back and forth and making sure that our data is clean and that we're able to report back

[01:44:08] factual information so that you can make informed decisions about the items and those actions you need to take going forward. So we looked at our forecast, again ping-pong those things back through that iterative process. We had our community forums in the latter part of January and brought that information back to you. And it did inform some of your decisions, some of your choices that you made going forward as we come into March and May for our draft and final recommendations. So to be quite honest with you, this is how the process is supposed to work. And you and your

[01:44:42] work and the work of your community in engaging this process has been exemplary. So again, kind of in looking at this framework, again, it's data-driven. It's been very important that it's been transparent. You've had a lot of feedback from your community, a lot of opportunity to share this information, bring it back around with them so they can have an understanding. It doesn't mean everybody has to like it, but they have to understand the need for it going forward. And I think you've done a great job with that. Again, iterative, bringing that information back and forth, and then working around and through those guiding principles and through collaboration in

[01:45:17] terms of those forums and online surveys. So in looking at those guiding principles, you wanted to make sure that you weren't revisiting this again next year or the year after. You're looking at that five and ten year forecasted trend. You were trying to minimize the impact and working to maintain those neighborhood schools and avoiding those island zones. Of course, transportation at, you know, the dollar used to be six and seven dollars a mile. I'm sure that that dollar amount is higher now with transportation in terms of rolling out your buses and then trying to minimize those impacts on your special students and your special programs. Now, I'd add one more thing to this. We also looked at feeder patterns in terms of your school between your

[01:45:55] elementaries and your middles and your middles and your highs. So these are the final boundary elementary recommendations and I'm just going to step through those because this is a domino effect. We kind of it kind of worked counterclockwise as we made our way through through this process and looking to reveal relieve some of that overcrowding. So starting with Cool Spring Elementary in order to alleviate the utilization you know this is that inset map that kind of break out there, Atlee Manor and Craney Island neighborhoods, the Green Double Hatch, the crisscross there, would move to Washington Henry Elementary starting in the 26-27

[01:46:32] school year. And then secondly, the Giles neighborhood in the brown area there with the hatch would remain at Cool Springs until the 27-28 school year with the opening of the new Washington Henry Elementary. And the next step, Washington Henry, again, that domino effect, In order to create space, Washington Henry, the area in gray would move from Washington Henry over to Rural Point, and this helps receive those students that would be coming in.

[01:47:01] Also, the light pink hatch would move from Washington Henry over to Mechanicsville, helping to create space again for those Cool Spring students. And then looking at Rural Point, the area in dark red would move from Rural Point Elementary over to Pole Green to bolster utilization at Pole Green.

[01:47:23] Again, balancing those utilizations and allow Rural Point Elementary to receive some new students from Washington Henry as we make our way kind of, again, counterclockwise. In terms of Mechanicsville, you've got the little navy green patch there that would move from Mechanicsville over to Cold Harbor to increase utilization at Cold Harbor and allow Mechanicsville to take on potential new students from Washington Henry.

[01:47:46] In terms of Cold Harbor, you've got a bright green hatch that you would see there would potentially move from Cold Harbor over to Battlefield Park to balance utilization between those two schools. In terms of Ashland, you have a purple area there that you note would move from Ashland over to South Anna to increase utilization in South Anna and to alleviate, again, looking forward, alleviate some of those issues at Ashland in the future.

[01:48:10] And finally, at Elmont, you have this yellow hatch area, yellow designator, that yellow designated area will move from Elmont Elementary School over to Kersey Creek to better align the elementary zones for the middle and high school zones. So there's quite a bit going on as we've made our way through this process, this very deliberative process.

[01:48:36] And I'm sorry, something's on my screen that's not on your screen. I don't have a keyboard. I've got some kind of walking chemistry.

[01:49:00] All right, here we go. we'll just go off of that no we'll work i got my distance contact and i'm good here all right so all right so in talking about i'm sorry i have a some kind of system thing popped up on my screen here so and again part of our conversation centered around then aligning those middle school and high school boundary recommendations so kind of back to your elementaries for a second originally we had four different splits and now we're down to one the centers around mechanicsville because we couldn't we just couldn't make that work and we'll talk more about that in just a second so in looking at your middle school and high school recommendations you can we're able to pull these out again in that first green block you've got students who

[01:49:39] would move from Chickahominy and Attlee over to Oak Knoll and Hanover aligning the Kersey Creek attendance zone okay so those kids once they start school together they can matriculate all the way through secondary school together and then the blue block you hear this these folks move from from Okno Middle School and Hanover over to Chickahominy and Attlee, aligning the Pearson's Corner attendance zone. And then the final block there is moving from Chickahominy and Attlee to Okno Middle and Hanover to align the Rural Point attendance zone. So again, taking a look at your attendance zones, realigning those, and making sure those line up with your middle school and high

[01:50:18] schools where we can. And again, we talked about this before. Before we had four elements, we don't have that slide but we had four splits where students attended school together and split out to different middle schools now we're down to one with mechanicsville in terms of the mechanicsville turnpike and we simply we simply didn't have capacity and make any different changes there and so these these are your feeder patterns along this recommendation with ashland beaver dam south and and elmont going to liberty and patrick henry kersey creek roll point pole green making their way to Oak, Noel, and Hanover. Mechanicsville having that split and then Cool Spring, Pearson

[01:50:58] Corner, Washington, Henry into Chickahominy and Attlee and Battlefield Park, Cold Harbor, Laurel Meadow into Bell Creek and Mechanicsville. And then here's your final in terms of statistics, in terms of utilization. So that first chart has our existing boundaries and if you did nothing what would happen in terms of Cool Spring going forward, in terms of some of your other schools for example, Rural Point, some of the concerns that surround Ashland. If nothing, we're done.

[01:51:26] I mean, the first chart there tells the story as to why I'm standing in front of you tonight. So if you go over to the second chart then, that first column in the second chart, the school year 2024 utilization, that's as if the changes were already in place for the current school year. So those utilizations in that school year 2024 utilization are the percentages as they would be if this recommendation were in place currently.

[01:51:55] And the numbers for Washington Henry are different because we're working off of that 465 capacity, the 495 capacity that's coming up later. And again, similarly here for your middle school and high school, attendance zones and percentages in terms of utilization.

[01:52:17] And you'll see specifically there surrounding some of the potential issues at Atlee into the future, Atlee High School. And then, you know, it always comes down to, well, how many kids are impacted? Where are they going to land?

[01:52:33] What are the number of families and students that are going to be impacted by these moves? And so this is kind of a matrix. The big thing is the current school of residence is to your left. It's kind of running up and down. And then across the top, you can see their new school of residence. So as you carry that across, for example, from Cold Harbor, 61 of those students are going to make their way over to Battlefield Park.

[01:52:56] And as you carry that all the way over, you can get your grand totals and carry it down into the total number of students that will be impacted. in terms of their current school of residence so that grand total i believe is 812 students and similarly you can see down below for your middle school and high school and so the final boundary recommendations this had originally been the green plan but there are some tweaks that were in there but it's largely reflective of the green plan uh for elementary middle and high school

[01:53:33] boundaries is presented to the hanover county school board for consideration and approval the The new boundary map will take effect, per your guidance, at the start of the 2026-27 school year. I think that's important, with the exception of Jowls Farm Neighborhood, which would be reassigned to WHES in the 27-28 school year.

[01:53:53] All other exceptions to the new boundary map will be subject to the division's final boundary implementation plan. Thank you. This is where we're supposed to clap and jump up and down and stuff, right? If you want.

[01:54:11] Okay. Before we go any further, does anybody have any questions for Lance? Steve? Yeah, I just want to thank you, Lance. Ten months, long haul, the utmost professional of your company and the company you represent, and McKay and Cameron's leadership. I applaud y'all greatly, and if anyone wants to give us a review, I would gladly either pass it on to Dr. Pennycuff or Ms. Stone, or I would do it on myself if I'm allowed. I appreciate that. You're quite welcome.

[01:54:43] anybody else all right thank you lance we appreciate it very much i'll be in the back yes sir we'll call on you when we need you okay and so with that we will now move into our public comment pertaining to redistricting on school boundaries in accordance with virginia code section 22.1-79 this is an opportunity for the school board to receive public input pertaining to the redistricting of school boundaries speakers are requested to follow these guidelines as each speaker is recognized by the chair or vice chair it'll be the vice chair in this case the speaker is asked to clearly state his or her name and address for the board. Speakers are asked to

[01:55:22] address their comments to the board and not to the audience. The board requests that the audience refrain from responding to speakers' comments with applause or any other audible expressions of approval or disapproval. The time allotted to each speaker shall be three minutes. Speakers will receive notification from the vice chair when time has expired. Although the board does not permit the use of slideshows or other projected materials during this segment, speakers are invited to provide printed copies of such materials to the board. Any speaker wishing to address the matter of redistricting should do so during this commitment period and not during the regular

[01:55:58] public comment period. Speakers wishing to address any matter other than redistricting will have an opportunity to do so during the regular public comment period. The board expresses its appreciation for the public input and cooperation during this segment of the meeting.

[01:56:14] And so with that, Mr. Vice Chair, I turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is Kay Metcalf here? Okay, you're up first. And Scott Roberson, are you here? You're on deck. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Kathleen Metcalf.

[01:56:30] I am from Chickahominy District, 9117 Warren Avenue. I didn't know you wanted my address. So I'm here to discuss, I'm a resident of a small non-HOA community called Atlee Manor. which on that thatched map you saw was actually so small that it's combined with Cranie Farms.

[01:56:47] And that's what I'm here to discuss, for you to reconsider the inclusion of Attlee Manor and grandfathering it in with the original Cool Spring Elementary neighborhoods like we have with King's Charter. So it is a single road of homes, originally built farmhouse 1900. The rest of the 39 homes included in this 40 home area were all built between 65 and 69.

[01:57:08] There are currently only eight households children under 18 of those only five households have children attending cool spring elementary so i wanted to pull in from the chart that he just threw the 2026 change from school spring to washington henry the number of kids it would be 83 starting 2026 there will only be four children from atley manor that's 4.8 so the point of my what i'm presenting to you today is the statistical insignificance of including atley manor but like the broad and like deep impact it's going to have on the small families a number of families that are there I recognize it's the enormity of the issue you're trying to address I also agree with addressing

[01:57:46] this issue so it's not from that place that I'm coming to you so I however I do want to highlight that redistricting Attlee Manor is being propped up alongside sprawling HOAs that have 450 plus homes or more which is a devastatingly inaccurate comparison to include Attlee Manor yet is being offered up is the primary step towards resolving this problem this is a huge mischaracterization of what this small neighborhood contributes in terms of student numbers currently two fourth graders two third graders one second grader one kindergarten student two of those children are mine one of them will

[01:58:22] or two of those children in total will be a middle school by the time this is enacted so that's even less students which is why there will only be four heading over to in 2026 therefore there's truly no value add in uprooting and reassigning the small neighborhood that has been in existence since the late 60s and assigned to cool spring since its opening day in 1997 the other impact it's three miles away that's triple three times the current distance children will no longer be able to walk or bike that's out because you cross 301 additionally it's splitting up families with multiple children that will spread across elementary middle and high school for drop-off I have four children that

[01:58:59] will be me for a decade ten years so I just want to highlight this isn't a a microcosm of one child two child and maybe just a few years we're looking at from a personal perspective a decade of this commute um the other you know so there's lots of pain and not much gain here um this may be my first day in person but i have been contributing all along on survey and feedback again i am just asking that um that we grandfather in attley manor with the other original neighborhoods assigned to cool springs since it's opening um moving at lee manor will not address the overcrowding problem today or in the future but it will cause much pain and difficulty for the few families that will impact thank you ma'am

[01:59:38] thank you Scott Roberson followed by Kristen Holti good evening my name is Scott Roberson I live in Milestone neighborhood in the Chickahominy district I'm here today to advocate for my daughter who attends Attlee High School and as a parent of a ninth grade student her name is Sydney Roberson I'm I'm asking one simple thing. Let our kids finish what they've started. When this boundary change takes effect, these students will be juniors, the most critical academic year of high school.

[02:00:15] Forcing them to transfer schools at this point will be disruptive, unnecessary, and frankly harmful. Sydney is fully invested at Allie. She works in the front office, active in multiple clubs, volunteers, runs track, is a varsity starter on the women's soccer team, and plans to play in college. So uprooting her now derails a lot of what she's worked for academically, socially, athletically, and I know she's not alone. These students have built relationships with faculty, aligned their course schedules, found their footing. They deserve stability, not more change.

[02:00:47] And if you remember, these are the same students who have already faced more than their share of disruption. They were separated from their elementary school peers to attend a different middle school. They lived through the isolation of the COVID school year, and now just as they found their place in high school, they're being asked to start over again. There's no downside to granting a waiver to keep these kids at Atlee. Public data shows the impact is negligible. Even Atlee's principal, Dr. Wheeler, is publicly supported letting these kids stay. We're not asking to change the zoning decision. We understand that's something that has to occur to overpopulation. We're not asking for transportation. We're just asking for a choice,

[02:01:26] the ability for current ninth graders a milestone to finish at Atlee. I also heard rumblings around possibly letting students move to Hanover a year early, giving them three years there. That's definitely not a solution. It's a dismissal of everything we've said.

[02:01:43] These kids don't need to be relocated earlier. They need to be heard now. This is about protecting their academic path, their mental health, and their future. Your decision will have lasting consequences. I ask you guys to put yourselves in their shoes as students, as parents, and make the right call.

[02:02:00] Thanks for your time. Thank you, sir. Kristen Holti, followed by Andy Hogue. Hogue here. Oh, sorry. Good evening, Chair Mays, Vice Chair Eikenberry, School Board, and Administration. You know, it's unfortunate that this need for redistricting has to happen,

[02:02:32] but it has to due to the overcrowding issues and the safety of the children. In regards to the redistricting of school boundaries, I'm just trying to be proactive on certain situations.

[02:02:49] It is not the school board's fault that this situation occurred. I put the blame and responsibility on the supposed non-profit lobbying group activists that have been diverting the attention of the school board away from this vital matter due to their hate speech rants on other radical issues.

[02:03:11] It's been taken away from the school board to focus on the overcrowding to these other issues that have taken a lot of time away. I know this is a very serious issue, but at least the families have time now that it doesn't start until 2026, 2027, and if anything else needs to be reevaluated, maybe it can be done.

[02:03:38] But I trust MGT that they've done a thorough job, and I know this is a very difficult situation for you also. Thank you. Thank you. Andy Hogue, followed by Amber Angel or Angel.

[02:03:58] Oh, there you go. Okay, thank you. Hey there. My name is Andy Hogue. I am from the Chickahominy District. I appreciate you getting my name right the first time. It's awesome. I appreciate that. I live in the Giles neighborhood. So I have two children at Cool Spring Elementary, a son and a daughter, one in third grade and one in kindergarten.

[02:04:21] And I'm a little concerned about the boundary adjustment process. One, I feel as though we could have some sort of parent advocacy into what is happening and have a representative from whatever neighborhood is being moved to help with the process.

[02:04:40] I also believe that the decision in hiring MGT as a third-party consultant seems a little questionable. While MGT was selected through a competitive process, many of our community feel that the scenarios presented lack genuine transparency and have been influenced to align with predetermined outcomes I was a little disappointed in the slideshow tonight that one he couldn't get it pulled up and it wasn't readily available which kind of showed a lack of concern or want for this to the slides haven't changed since October and January the only thing that changes the dates the green scenario has always been there and

[02:05:18] always will be and second the delay in addressing the overcrowding is troubling uh the significant increase of enrollment at cool spring elementary uh was evident in as early as 2018 yet um yet actions were used to were used and postponed as a result our schools have become overcrowded and temporary solutions uh have like learning colleges cottages have been implemented instead of long-term fixes um and you know basically that's kind of what i wanted to state right now and I really appreciate you guys thank you sir amber and then

[02:05:57] Rebecca DeVincent are you here my name is amber angel and I am the chicka home in the Chickahominy district and I am located in the cranny island estates neighborhood and I recognize the various the merits of various options and I understand and see why the green option is the favorite however I would like to propose a modification to the timeline of the green scenario in the current scenario our students in these small neighborhoods will have to transition into the population of Washington Henry elementary school and then the next year

[02:06:36] have to transition into the new Washington Henry elementary school on the surface it seems they will be going to the same school those two years however the school building will be different half the student population will be different I also assume you will get new additional teachers and administrators to handle the influx of kids. To me, my kids, and all of our kids, these are most definitely different schools. In a more specific and extreme case, which worries me the most, my current second grader will attend four schools in four years. He will go to Cool Spring Elementary School, Old Washington Henry Elementary School, New Washington Henry Elementary

[02:07:14] School, and then transition to middle school. This also doesn't just affect kids who are being redistricted. This most definitely impacts kids who are staying at Cool Spring as well. They will have friends that will leave the school, they will make new friends, and then a huge percentage of those friends will leave again. Then they have to transition to middle school again. You may wonder why I care about these multiple transitions. There is a recent study that was presented to the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in 2023, so very new. It found that after school

[02:07:50] redistricting there was a 10.6 higher percent higher firearm incidence rate compared to communities that did not redistrict schools as well as a 21.3 percent increase in firearm injury incidence rates here's a quote from the doctor that presented this study i quote only a few kids are affected but the resulting impact is that there is schools there is social destabilization in some way because as everyone who has attended middle school and high school knows you get to the community that you're part of and there are social hierarchies that exist and a known quantity of people in your area and then you have a shuffling of

[02:08:29] school district it means that there are new social interactions new hierarchies that need to be formed and you have a disruption as a result of that I know that it's elementary sorry I'm cutting a ton of stuff out I know that it's elementary school 30 seconds I know that um we don't have these issues but it shows the impact that it has at our kids four schools in four years is crazy to meet. So I propose that we do it all at once. Don't make our kids make these transitions multiple times. Go through two redistricting. And I'm glad somebody from Attlee Manor is here because

[02:09:04] Craney Island only has like 30 kids that will be there. It was way overestimated. So it all between the two neighborhoods, it's like 35 kids. It's not a lot of kids. So I would love thank you ma'am thank you and rebecca de vincent um good evening school board members and dr penny cuff my name is rebecca de vincent and i reside in the chickahominy district as well and um i've

[02:09:43] been here before i provided public comment at the march hearing i've been to some of your work sessions with mgt and got to view how that was working and that really helped me recognize that mgt and the school board put in a lot of thought and consideration into the various plans and i just wanted to again comment on my support of the green plan especially as it relates to your stated goals of providing relief to cool spring elementary and remaining community-minded i have three children to attend pearson's corner right now i have a third grader and a first grader and my

[02:10:20] youngest is in preschool and will start kindergarten in 2026 and the green plan does the best to to balance school utilization of the current and five, 10-year trends. The Green Plan provides relief to Cold Spring, but it helps the future.

[02:10:36] And as a parent of a child that will be a high schooler in 10 years, I don't want to do this again. And the Green Plan is not the perfect scenario for Atlee High School, but it's the best with what we have, considering all the other options. There are so many families impacted by this, and as the previous speaker just said, we don't want to keep having children make adjustments when we don't have to.

[02:10:59] Let's learn from the mistakes of the past and missing red flags and pay attention like you have right now at those red flags and avoid problems in the future. I also support the Green Plan because it's not dividing any neighborhoods. Specifically, I live in Rutland and the Purple and Indigo Plans.

[02:11:17] We're dividing our neighborhood into sometimes two, sometimes three different schools. and I know that Rotland and Cool Spring don't look like the same neighborhood on a map, but when you live in those neighborhoods, you do know that we are the same community, and our children see each other at school, they play on our same playground, they go to the swimming pool, and if any plan divides a neighborhood, that does not remain community-minded, and that does not sound like Canover County. I do want to thank you for giving the community the opportunity to provide input through the survey, the Google form, the public comment meetings and today's public hearing that's specifically what i was asking for in february

[02:11:57] when the indigo plan came out and you've given it to us and i appreciate being heard this is a significant change it impacts many families and i hope that the board and hanover county continue to listen to parents for variance requests and consider each thing on a case-by-case basis i know cool spring elementary is a difficult thing but when you think about just a few students in one neighborhood i really do think that the school board should consider the variances on a case-by-case basis um your commitment to public input is very much appreciated

[02:12:32] and i thank you for recommending the green plan and being mindful of our students futures thanks thank you ma'am mr chair uh that's our public comment thank you boundary adjustment and with that i will now close our public hearing on redistricting of school boundaries and i'd like to thank everybody for being here to speak uh we will we will take this topic up again in a few minutes approval of our consent agenda do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda mr chair i'd like to make a motion to approve our consent agenda as presented there's a motion on the floor is there a second second we have a motion in a second is there any discussion all those in

[02:13:12] favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries and with that we're up to our instructional highlight tonight and now i know why all the interventionalist uh counselors are sitting in the back in their outfits so uh welcome and we are sitting on the edge of our seats to learn what we can learn from you tonight thank you um good evening mr chair school board dr penny cuff and team my name is carla allen i'm coordinator of counseling services for our school division this is our first year having four intervention counselors having used a reallocation of one of our positions last year

[02:13:47] for the first time we've been able to do all of our classroom lessons and but we have also been been able to run small groups for those students who need an extra layer of support at all of our middle and high schools and the Georgetown school also students and families have been able to seek out one-on-one sessions not just providing this service for students who have referrals tonight we will be sharing a portion of their workshop that we provide for faculty and staff thank you for your continued support of this much-needed program and I will turn it over to our intervention team good evening I have the opportunity to

[02:14:26] introduce us, but I will turn that over to each individual. Come on up. I'm Regina Brown, and I currently work as an intervention counselor at Patrick Henry and at Liberty Middle School. Elizabeth Plemons, and I am at Hanover, Oak Knoll, and the Georgetown School. I'm Hillary Daniel, the newest intervention counselor. I'm at Atlee and Chickahominy Middle School. And I'm Stephanie Robertson. I'm at Mechanicsville High School and Bell Creek Middle. And while on our slides we may present as circles and squares. We really do come together as a perfect fit to serve the intervention

[02:15:04] and prevention services in Hanover County Public Schools. So today we're going to talk a little bit about what's new in the world of substances. And I'll begin with letting you hear a little bit about nicotine. So nicotine has been on the rise in our community, both with kids and with adults.

[02:15:22] Marketing has been specifically targeted to our students with the onset of the advertising of all the appealing flavors and the perceived lower cost than smoking and the lack of smoke, which makes it easier for kids to hide, and then the appeal of all kids doing it, which we know is not the case.

[02:15:43] Many teens, however, and adults underestimate how much nicotine that they're actually consuming by using vapes. Initially, people were told that they could quit smoking by transitioning to a vape, but what we've learned now is that a single vape can contain as much as as much nicotine as two packs of cigarettes. Our kids are also being introduced to Zen packs and a Zen pouch can have using using a Zen pouch for 30 minutes can be the equivalent of smoking three cigarettes. So those products are

[02:16:17] smokeless but they're not harmless. They still deliver a really strong dose of nicotine. So you see on the slide that the FDA has approved millions, I mean, has received millions of applications for approval for vapes to be sold in the United States. However, only 34 of those products have been approved. Yet you will see vape stores popping up all over our community and communities across the world, and they are selling vapes to our kids that are not legal.

[02:16:48] While this matters, nicotine is highly addictive, and it's especially harmful to the developing brains of our youth. Nicotine can affect their memory, attention, their mood, and regulation. Additionally, early nicotine use increases the risk of long-term addiction to both nicotine and other substances. So just because it is not a cigarette does not mean that it is safe.

[02:17:12] Nicotine in any form is dangerous for our teens. I'll turn it over to Ms. Daniel. This is my favorite topic to talk about. I could talk about it all day, but I'm not. I'm going to highlight a few things. The first one I want to focus on is the potency that has changed within cannabis. For example, THC decades ago would be between 2 and 3 percent. Then that was, what, the 1960s, 70s. Today, our flower strains are up to between 20 and 30 percent. And then we have

[02:17:49] the concentrates and all of the synthetics. Those are anywhere from 60 to 90 percent. That is a huge increase and to put that all in perspective a dab of oil or wax one of the concentrated form of cannabis one hit of that is equal to like 50 joints back in like 1969 if that gives a some you know some perspective there the second point is excuse me like I mentioned cannabis comes in a lot of different forms vapes edibles oils most are unregulated meaning that the labels do not necessarily match what's actually inside of the products that are being sold in smoke shops and

[02:18:26] little gas stations and such, like CBD, we don't actually know what's in there. Which can lead to, and has been linked to, serious adverse effects, psychotic episodes, and often worsens underlying mental health conditions, like anxiety and schizophrenia, especially in younger users.

[02:18:45] Research shows that using marijuana before the age of 18 has a higher risk of addiction. The adolescent brain, as we know, doesn't stop developing until about 25. So in this one, like your executive functioning, the prefrontal cortex is at its peak of development.

[02:19:01] And so you're way more likely to develop an addiction, especially with using something like cannabis, cannabis use disorder or substance use disorder during this critical period. And using has long-lasting negative or can have long-lasting negative consequences.

[02:19:20] That's it. All right. We're going to talk about opioids. Opioids are legal. They are most likely to be used in the medical facilities and hospitals.

[02:19:39] Unfortunately, however, 7 out of 10 pills that have been seized, those pressed pills, the fake pills, 7 out of 10 in Virginia have enough fentanyl in them to kill a youth. And so we unfortunately have seen a rise in general around Hanover County in opioid use.

[02:20:02] We have been able to work with, because of the four of us, we've been able to work with our community partners, Opioid Task Force, Hanover Cares, on working on providing naloxone training.

[02:20:18] We were able to provide naloxone training during our UPLC last summer. We had a couple sessions there, and then we brought it into our middle and high schools and were able to provide training with the use of Virginia Department of Health and CSB.

[02:20:37] They were able to come in and provide training for admin and senior teachers and things like that. So, again, because we have the four of us and we're able to spend a little bit, spend more time providing training and things like that to our staff.

[02:20:56] The other thing with opioids is because they are legal, unfortunately, a lot of families keep them around in their medicine cabinets. and so students adults are able to get those real pills and use those and then once they're gone they are turning over to the fake pills in a little bit we are going to talk about some things that we have here with us but one of the things is making sure that we you have lock boxes in your home to provide secure all

[02:21:34] all medications and things like that so that students are not able to get those okay and so another thing that we have done in the past year is we have joined forces with vcu so vcu collects vapes nicotine vapes across the state of virginia they collect them they research them they basically open them up and they chemically test what's in them and compare it to what the packaging says because as Regina said earlier, 26 million applications to the FDA had been looked at, and only 34 products were authorized, meaning that they matched what they said was in the products.

[02:22:12] So last school year, we submitted all of the collected vapes throughout the entire county, and those along with all the vapes collected across Virginia with the different organizations and school districts that are participating in the study, they found that 82% of the vapes collected across the state of Virginia had double the amount of nicotine than the packaging stated. More scary is that 18% of those vapes had levels of Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC in them.

[02:22:41] So they're being listed and sold as nicotine vapes, but they are laced with THC marijuana. So a student could be smoking a nicotine vape thinking it's okay, and they could test positive for THC and have no clue that they've been ingesting this. This school year, we are also participating in that same study and we've already sent about two boxes worth of two big boxes of nicotine vapes that have been collected amongst throughout the county they are sent in and they're only looked at based on region so they are not marked as like a specific school or specific area it's different regions

[02:23:18] of the county that way they can also collect data in terms of which vapes are more popular in which areas of the state and now for show-and-tell um so one of the things in the top left are those Zen pouches that we had talked about in reference before they are in a little canister looks very similar to what like old-school chewing yeah chewing tobacco comes in except for they look like Orbitz gum and so unfortunately students are transferring them from that

[02:23:52] packaging into a gum container and then people are not realizing what those are next up is a regular vape and we have some examples down here of just what they might look like the next one over is vapes that are obviously being sent or what's the word I want targeted there we go to youth because I don't know a single adult that needs to carry around a Nintendo so yeah and this is one that

[02:24:28] was confiscated. It looks like a Slurpee or like a McDonald's toy of some sort. That is a vape. There are watches that look like vapes. And then the bottom row is THC. The one that is newest is the one that says cart pens. It is an actual working pen. And the piece that goes into the top is for THC and so they are able to just take a hit of it off the tip or the back end of the pen and often they're then blowing it down their sweatshirt things like that and so they're

[02:25:06] doing this in the classroom in your homes on the bus that type of thing we also have a number of items um and so this is a sweatshirt um that has cords and those cords link to a vape they link to the vape juice um um and so it links to it and so they're able to just take a hit whether nicotine or thc off the ends we have hair brushes um that the bottom unscrews they can hide items in that

[02:25:45] this one the top unscrews they look like regular hairbrushes okay and majority of this stuff that we have we bought off of amazon so kids are able to get it we have a scrunchie just kind of like you know karen went on my wrist it has a zipper pouch that you can unzip obviously these were made for people right to go to the beach put your keys in put some money in unfortunately students are not using them that way um pretend lipstick um it opens as well um to be able to

[02:26:21] hide pills in it that type of thing this is a real sharpie marker um but you unscrew it and it has a whole canister to be able to um hold something a actual vape fits in there um this is a key fob looks like a regular key fob except for you open it up it's a hidden compartment um again you're able to hold carry there we go oh there we go fake money's falling out um it's just paper don't worry

[02:26:53] right um and then this is an old school dictionary um except you open it up and it has a lock box in it now i will be honest i sent one of my my daughter with one of those off to college right to keep her passport and money and jewelry in it, but a lot of students are, not a lot, some students are using them to hide drugs and things like that in plain sight in their classrooms, or not in the classroom, in their bedrooms, and so we just, we talk to the kids about this,

[02:27:32] we have done presentations in multiple places, we did the UPLC last year, And then we are doing that again this year to be able to provide information for admin and teachers alike. And we train counselors, yes.

[02:27:49] Thank you, Elizabeth. Anybody, any questions, comments, Steve? Thank you very much. Very, very good, as I saw your solo a month or two ago, two months, I guess. Very well done. Thank you again. And just one quick question, if you've identified businesses in Hanover County as having sold these types of products, knowing that it's a little bit more potent than what's on the label, have those businesses, are they possibly under investigation with our finest, I think right down the road here somewhere?

[02:28:28] So we turn any of that information over to our SROs to be if we hear of places that are selling to underage people. I also know that Hanover County Sheriff's has a program that they hire people under the age of 21 to go in and be secret shoppers.

[02:28:50] And they've done that with alcohol for a while now, and they are actually starting to do that with vape shops as well. The problem is there are so many vape shops that they cannot regulate everything. Now it's vape shops.

[02:29:10] Oh, yes. We also, yeah. So we have worked with the narcotics department at Hanover County Sheriff's Office. Actually, Sergeant T.J. Daniker is, well, not Sergeant L.A.W., Detective T.J. Daniker. He's actually a Hanover grad. He has worked and done, we've done professional developments with him.

[02:29:28] We've done some parent sessions where he has spoken about what's currently in the county, and they also take that information from us, and we'll go after those vape shops that we specifically know from students sharing information about maybe behind the scenes.

[02:29:44] They're like, you know, if you know them well enough, they'll let you go to the back room and buy something further illegal. We do share that information with them, and they are going after those companies. and we have had shops they reported back to us that we have had shops in Hanover County that they've had continuous reports about and one recently that they did have a pretty large bus there and then they followed the financial records of them and realized that not only were we supporting the vape shop in Hanover County the funds were being then sent back to another country

[02:30:19] for to a terrorist organization mr. Martin thank you all very informative important work you do um From an awareness perspective, what kind of work do you guys do in the schools early in the year to educate kids?

[02:30:35] I think a lot of it is an ignorance in terms of how bad these things truly can be for you and how they can be laced with things that are often fatal. So I'm just kind of curious on what your kind of early-year communication cadence looks like. Does that involve parents? Obviously, you can't force mom and dad to get involved, but just kind of want to see what that looks like a little bit.

[02:30:53] So we oversee the SOTA program, and so starting in fourth grade, we have high schoolers that go into our elementary schools and do just, like, good decision-making, a little bit of friendship, making wise choices, that type of thing.

[02:31:11] And then in sixth grade, we do lessons to every sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grader in Hanover County. We go through PE and do those lessons. And then we have 7th Up, which is high schoolers that go into our middle school and do lessons with our 7th graders and 8th graders.

[02:31:30] And so we are constantly providing prevention services. We have offered a few parent sessions this year, and one of them we had not a single person turn up. And the East did an awesome parent session two weeks ago, transition meeting.

[02:31:53] I was there all night, and I had three parents. So we are trying to get out more with the parent piece of it, but in terms of kids, we are starting as early as fourth grade with just information and things like that.

[02:32:08] Thank you. One more real quick. The Narcan, do we have that in all of our middle and high schools? Say that again? Even the elementary. Okay, yeah, so nurses are trained, and then we all carry it. A bunch of our admin carries it, and so, yes, it's available.

[02:32:26] And a follow-up to that, how many times have you had to use it this year? None for me. Good. All right, none. The board would want to know that. If it ends up being used, Carla, we would need that reported up through.

[02:32:41] I don't know. That would go through. I don't know if that's in our policies or not, but I would consider that being a serious, significant bodily harm kind of thing. Yeah. Okay, good. Let's hope you don't use them. Yes. It's great to be trained, but let's hope you don't have to use them. Any other questions? Just one quick question.

[02:32:57] Do you partner with the nurses to teach the children what happens to their bodies inside when they use the vapes? So we don't partner with the nurses necessarily, but we are going through PE class and they have their own SOLs on substances for each level.

[02:33:14] But we are constantly talking about what it does to your body, what it does to your brain. And because we now have four of us, right, we are able to do more small groups and large group instructions. I have doubled the amount of activities that I've been able to do in the cafeteria this year, getting out information, knowledge, resources to my students.

[02:33:39] That's excellent, Elizabeth. Thank you. Anybody else? Coach? Well, I just, again, thank you. And, again, partnering with Dr. Maltby, and he gave you all a big shout-out about an hour. Well, it seemed like a day ago, but it's been, I think, about an hour ago. But I like the fact that y'all are partnering with each other and a lot of good communication. That speaks volumes for our school division. Thank you. And we all know who you are because you get matching shirts. That's wonderful. We have a few of them. We're going to leave this down here over on the side until the end. And then if you guys want to. We'll come try it out.

[02:34:18] don't try anything oh i'm sorry i don't mean you can but yeah we'll just leave it here for the supervisors that'll be good we'll leave a little present okay moving on doctor uh let's see i think it's going to be uh miss grife are you uh doing the textbook adoptions history social studies and math oh we have a whole team it is a doctor and it's not even a ph it's not even a ph doctor it's a real doctor i said a real phd that's right good evening mr chairman members of the

[02:34:54] board dr. pennycuff senior staff tonight members of the curriculum and instruction team are present to report on the work of three separate committees approved by the board in February to recommend textbooks for specific grade levels and courses offered in Hanover County Public Schools I would like to take a moment to thank mr. Martin who served on our elementary social studies textbook adoption committee mr. Eikenberry who served on our secondary Social Studies textbook committee, and Chairman May, who served on the high school elective mathematics textbook committee. Pursuant to board policy, each committee also included a school

[02:35:32] administrator, parents, and teachers, and was facilitated by the curriculum specialists for that content area. The groups gathered on multiple dates to meet with publishers and consider textbooks prior to coming to consensus on which books to recommend to the board. In addition to that committee work both teachers and the broader community had the opportunity to review the books and provide written feedback dr. Rob Williams the curriculum specialist for history and social sciences is here to share recommendations for textbooks in kindergarten through 12th grade social studies courses and mr. Ian Shank will then follow dr. Williams to share

[02:36:08] recommendations for high school mathematics elective courses they will sharing feedback from teachers they'll be sharing price points that we have feedback from the community and I do want to share with you before they present that we do have textbook funding available for all of this so we're not here to ask for additional funding from the board we are able to cover the expenses we just want to share with you the recommendations there isn't font

[02:36:45] large enough for me to see this I'm sorry mr. chairman board members dr. Pennykauf. Good evening. Two different social studies committees met this spring to review textbooks for use as instructional resources in our schools. One committee focused on elementary textbooks, the other on middle and high school books. The elementary committee is recommending books from Five Ponds Press to use with our elementary students. Five Ponds writes textbooks specifically for and aligned with Virginia Standards of Learning. The committee recommends that each elementary student receives a textbook, and during the seven-year adoption period,

[02:37:22] Both teachers and students would have access to electronic textbooks. Teachers would also have access to both print and electronic resources. In the review of books, elementary teachers overwhelmingly supported adopting these books. As you can see in the slide, five community members provided written feedback on the books, with four of them supporting the adoption.

[02:37:44] As a note, you'll see at each level one person commented not sure. That's the same person commenting not sure at each level, just for your awareness. The secondary committee is also recommending books for Five Ponds Press for middle school social studies courses.

[02:38:02] The committee recommends a classroom set of books be purchased for each teacher. Like the elementary adoption, teachers and students would have access to an e-book, and teachers would be able to access both print and digital resources throughout the life of the adoption. In their review, middle school teachers unanimously supported adopting these textbooks.

[02:38:24] For nine high school courses under consideration, the secondary committee is recommending adopting books from three different publishers. This reflects the preferences of high school teachers and their review of books, as well as the preference of the committee. The committee recommends adopting a class set of books for each teacher, as well as digital access for students and teachers for the life of the adoption. For World History 1 and World History 2, as well as Virginia U.S. history, the committee recommends that we adopt the books from Savas. A note, the price shown for the Savas books here has been updated since the slide was created and has

[02:39:01] actually less than the amount that you see on the slide. We'll keep waiting then. You come back next month, and maybe there'll be a lot less. So we'll keep doing that. The committee is recommending books from McGraw-Hill for our Modern Global Studies and Virginia U.S. government courses.

[02:39:21] And finally, the committee recommends books from BFW Publishing for our standard level psychology elective and for three of our advanced placement courses, AP European History, AP U.S. History, and AP Government. I'm happy to address any questions from the board any questions for the board excellent presentation of course I think it was the glasses. So thank you Yep. Oh, mr. Simon NC. Sorry great briefing. Thank you. And those look like great books. I'm curious as to Textbooks versus digital. Let's say we didn't do digital. You know, how much would just those few books be?

[02:39:57] How much would it be to have a book for every kid ballpark figures so publishers? from what I will from what they tell me the expensive part of creating textbooks is paying authors and paying for the rights to use images and maps and charts and things that people create. So the physical textbook and the digital textbook are very similar in price. They give you some discount if you get both, but getting more printed textbooks obviously would cost a significant amount more if we chose to get a textbook for every student. The

[02:40:33] committee recommended getting class sets based on what their experience has been. They use the textbooks in classrooms. Students can access them on their Chromebooks. If students want to take textbooks home, there are textbooks available to take home. I've spoken with parents before who like to support their children in their work and want to have textbooks at home. There'll be plenty of books to meet that need as well. I hope that helps answer your question. Thank you. Anybody else?

[02:41:03] I've taken my glasses off, but I think I'm turning it over to Ian Schenke. All right, Ian. You look nice and rested. Exactly. Doing my best. Yeah, thank you, sir. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Pennecuff and senior staff. I'll bring you the recommendations of the High School Mathematics Elective Textbook Committee.

[02:41:21] I'll begin by echoing Dr. Fisher's thanks to our committee, which included Mr. May. Thank you for being our school board representative, along with parents, administrators, advanced studies coordinators, and classroom teachers. So for our high school mathematics electives, the committee unanimously recommends the purchase of Pearson textbooks for our Algebra 3 course, our Pre-Calculus course, and our Discrete Mathematics course, and they recommend the purchase of BFW Publishing for AP Statistics and Probability and Statistics.

[02:41:54] Similar to what Dr. Williams shared, our committee, too, is recommending a purchase of a class set of hardcover textbooks with enough to be able to be sent home or checked out if parent or student so desires and digital access for all students over the seven-year adoption period. You see the costs there on the screen for that. The committee's recommendation is unanimous and was echoed by our three community members who provided written feedback, all in support of that adoption. We do have a special case with the AP Calculus textbook.

[02:42:26] The committee is recommending that we move to the Stuart text, which is a Cengage publication. The special case with that is that that edition or there is a second edition planned for publication within the coming months. The committee recommends not purchasing now because and just waiting for that new edition to come out.

[02:42:46] The new edition will have a lot more resources for students, a lot more resources for teachers. So their recommendation is that we would wait until the 26-27 school year to implement the new textbook for AP Calculus and continue with our existing resources for that. And again, that was a unanimous recommendation on behalf of our committee.

[02:43:04] We did provide the first edition of that textbook available for our public comment from our parents. We did not receive any comment from the community on that textbook. And I'd be happy to answer the questions that you have about the mathematics texts. Go ahead. Coach, Ike?

[02:43:20] Well, it's not so much for you, Mr. Shank. It could be for Dr. Williams or Dr. Fisher. It really doesn't matter. It might be more for Dr. Williams since he's the longest serving in this position of you three in this division. I'm just saying you've been around. I'm thinking you, really?

[02:43:36] i might have him really so you left before he okay did i think i had him by about maybe three or four months oh has it oh well i'm in the same i should i should wait until i hear your question though before i admit to that so well i was just kind of curious that um i know the seven years is pretty much a done deal but in y'all's time i guess the two of you will let dr fisher off the hook then um there you go um are the bells and whistles more now with a classroom set uh obviously

[02:44:13] everything on on the chromebooks i mean it just everything follows or was it more limited eight years ago are we getting more bang for the buck now um because we're putting more emphasis away from the screens and trying to do more of a diverse teaching because you know at first maybe 15 years ago there was a little bit more push on getting on the screens and now it's a little bit more of a push to kind of mix things up a little bit more. You know everything that we've read about all this kind of stuff too and Mr. Seifert has been instrumental in sharing a lot

[02:44:52] that with us too. But I'm just kind of curious if you've had noticed any change with the publishers since you had such enough. I wanted to wait till everybody was finished because we had such a variety that y'all have picked from. And so I'm just kind of wondering, are the publishers doing an adequate job of that diverse learning mechanism more so now than maybe they were 10 or 15 years ago? So from the mathematics perspective, and if Dr. Williams or Dr. Fisher could add one, would be welcome too. One of the things that I think has happened is that our publishers have

[02:45:27] recognized that in the era of open access resources and lots of other things that are out there, Pinterest, teachers pay teachers, that the textbook companies need to do something to really be able to market themselves to the classroom. And in doing so, and in my perspective, that the digital resources have been greatly enhanced. Several of the books for mathematics are going to include and going to incorporate an AI component so the students can go, can, it can answer a problem online using AI and then AI will respond back to guide the student towards the correct answer.

[02:46:03] Well, that's very important because we have an entire team out of Washington right now making deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which is number three in the world in AI innovation behind our us being number one so I think that's kind of an interesting that you brought that up but I guess I can bring Dr. Fisher involved because it kind of gets back to what we did last spring by with our literacy and HMH and the workbooks and something tangible that can go home with the

[02:46:40] children and the parents can work with them and we're trying to put more emphasis on bringing that family unit together into education um and i i'm just witnessing all this and i see that y'all are looking at the same details so i just applaud you for being very consistent with that so that's enough of my rambling mr thank you i was wondering guys now that we've looked at all the you know all of the options there are the new books uh it seemed like 30 per class and this maybe is for you know miss grave so 30 books per class every student has

[02:47:17] access to one but i was just recently in a class at a high school and the teacher told me i don't have enough i would like to have more books there's definitely not enough book books for you know every student that i'd like to have one and then there was another class my my son's uh telling me that he wanted he wanted to have a book and i got the impression that maybe there were no books in the class and so just what's what's our standard with books and of course the science is coming out touching the book reading the book itself versus online is uh the best way to learn so our policy i'm not aware of any teacher or student who does not have access to a book and so if they would

[02:47:55] like to contact me directly i will certainly take care of it um access to a book i mean i saw the book but there definitely weren't enough for you know every student um in the class so what's the one per student in the classroom one per student in the classroom to be used during the class time if a student needs to take a book home we accommodate for that so if you're finding that there are teachers or students who don't have that situation available to them please direct them to me okay thank you okay anything else all right thank you very much both of you all three of you thank you so much for your presentation uh very well done of course so

[02:48:30] okay with that we'll move on to uh the discussion about parent support organizations and our policy change hopefully we have another presentation on the way oh we still have this funky box up here that is unusual okay well good evening mr chairman school board members here we go so um we're here to talk to you speak to you tonight about parent support organizations and bring forth a policy change this is the first read so there is no action tonight we will be back next month but

[02:49:08] we wanted to share with you our plan so the school board would approve any policy change and that we included with your agenda packet is a proposed policy that was included with that but we're basically just taking the existing policy which focuses on parent teacher organizations and pulling in that support organization in the past when someone read that policy they thought well this only applies to PTAs and so we're going to broaden that policy to

[02:49:41] make it clear that it's applies to any parent support organization that has the desire to use the name of the school or the logo also included in the policy change is that annually these organizations would have to request to use the name of beaver dam elementary school PTA or even the logo so there would be an annual process for the organizations to request that use also we're suggesting the modification of a regulation and the superintendent has

[02:50:16] the authority to make that change we in this regulation we reference the student activity fund the student activity fund accounting manual that in the past has had a section that it talked about parent organization so we'd like to expand that to make it parent support organizations in addition we're going to reference a support organization procedure and create a separate manual that would be for any organization that again wants to use the name of the school

[02:50:52] or the logo so by making it a separate manual we can pull that out we can distribute it to all of these organizations it's readily available the student activity fund accounting manual will reference it and discuss the fact that that it is available and the requirements but it will be a separate document so we can distribute to those organizations it doesn't get lost in the multi-page student activity fund manual which most of that information is not relevant to these organizations what we're looking at is an annual requirement to request to use the school name and logo we mentioned that

[02:51:30] that would be included in the policy. We would require all officers to complete a statement of ethics and fiduciary duty. And so each year, the newly elected officers would have to sign off. We'd request a copy of the current bylaws. We'd want a copy each year of their certificate of insurance to include directors and officers' liability coverage, annual financial statement, copy of all the monthly bank reconciliations from the previous year.

[02:52:02] Also, we would require an annual background check for any criminal history. So that would be through our Raptor system, but it's a level two. It's one level up and it's not looking for just crimes against children, but any type of criminal history.

[02:52:17] We would also develop a annual fraud training that the president and treasurer would need to access. We would likely do that through a Google Meets or some type of meeting. We will record it and then make that available.

[02:52:35] As you know, our finance director, Dawn Hardman, is a former internal auditor. I think she is in here. She is a fraud examiner. She's got lots of credentials that I'm not even sure what they all are, but they're very impressive. And she has been interacting with our director of internal audit for the county in schools.

[02:52:55] And so together, they would put together something pretty quick and direct and require the organizations to participate in that. And then this would also include that as needed for fundraising activity, first they would have to report that activity in advance to the principal.

[02:53:13] Let's make sure it doesn't conflict with something that the principal is planning to do. And also then the principal is aware of what they are fundraising for. would be a summary report at the end of the fundraiser that would go to the principal and then at any time should hanover county public schools request access to financial records or want them to make it available to the auditor that would be required so the timeline we will be back to you next month with after a second read and request approval of the policy we will work

[02:53:48] also to get the superintendent to approve the new regulation we will develop the support organization manual which we've we already had a great draft of that um share the division leadership meeting and then in july work with the activities directors and in august begin that support organization training so while i'm just here for the first read of the policy we wanted to make you aware of what we're planning behind that policy change and i would be happy to take any questions we have any questions for the board miss Welsh this really doesn't

[02:54:24] have anything to do with the policy but a question around fundraising I understand the principal needing to understand what the fundraising is for and everything and I think a lot of the elementary schools do these booster thons and raise lots of money is there like you know appropriate things to be funding for from these PTA's and PTO's is there like a list of appropriate you know most items correct most of them work with their principals today and mr.

[02:55:03] Eikenberry and I had this discussion one time like where does it cross over to a capital item right versus a fundraiser and so when we look at that we look at is it something that that we kind of fund for all schools and we have a replacement plan and sometimes schools have an idea that maybe yes the basic provision of what we have I'm gonna say a playground equipment but they've decided well in addition to what is the standard we would like to see on the playground one of those shades or something well that's not something that

[02:55:40] that we typically include in our capital plan and so often it is something that is you know taking it beyond the typical um equipment that we provide sometimes you may see that they want to look at some um the the speakers or you know that are used when there's a presentation made and the ones that are that are standard don't necessarily meet expectations so we we can work with principals and you know say if there's if you're unsure if there's a gray line then reach out to us okay thank you okay any other questions all right thank you very much we look forward to seeing

[02:56:20] you next month yes why don't you stay there i will so the next item is um regarding the school board compensation market study uh this board of supervisors finance committee conducted a market study of the compensation for boards and commissions in hanover county they compared the compensation to chesterfield and henrico county for a variety of it included the board of supervisors planning commission social services board board of zoning appeals board of equalization

[02:56:56] board of elections and they also looked at school board they compared those numbers and based upon that they are recommending to the Board of Supervisors to consider some compensation changes and that includes the school board compensation the Board of Supervisors does not set the compensation for the school board but they did receive this data and they will consider whether they think it's an appropriate amount and make a recommendation likely to you all and so

[02:57:30] What they're recommending based upon that market study is that the school board member compensation increase from $8,000 annually to $17,490 and for the chair from $9,100 to $18,590 effective January 1 of 2026.

[02:57:51] thereafter they're making the recommendation that that amount increase the same amount that we have in each budget for merit increases for all employees. They did look at the numbers, as I mentioned, for those two counties, but in the end, the recommendation that is coming out of the finance committee was that they felt that the school board compensation should be equal to the planning commission so when we look at the average it's over 26,000 compared to those two counties they looked at 75% of the average which was just over 20,000 and option two was 90% of the lowest

[02:58:29] which was over 22,000 their recommendation the finance committee to the board of supervisors of the 17,490 is based upon the findings of the planning commission they felt that that was a good comparable for the school board and so what we will bring back or what we've shared with you is that the state code requires this board to approve any compensation increase before by June 30th before July 1st for it to be

[02:59:03] effective January 1 of 2026 so if the board does desire for us to bring this back as an agenda item next month we can do that and then action could be taken at that time to put that in effect for january of 2026. thank you miss stone um this this is going to be presented to the board of supervisors tomorrow is that correct so we'll have some indication on what's good the board of supervisors feel about this correct okay thank you any questions from the board when was the last time i think somebody told me when was last time we got a uh this board received any kind

[02:59:41] of increase 2006 okay thank you miss stone we did excellent job thank you all right with that we'll move on to public comment time this is our regular public comment time the school board conducts a public comment segment of its meetings to receive information from the general public on matters related to hanover county public schools per board policy the total time allotted for public comments shall not exceed 60 minutes speakers addressing the school board are requested to follow these guidelines as each speaker is recognized by the vice chair the speaker is asked to clearly state

[03:00:19] the speaker's name magisterial district and the subject of the speaker's remarks speakers are asked to address their comments to the board and not to the audience the board requests that the audience refrain from responding to speakers comments with applause or any other audible expressions of approval or disapproval time allotted to each speaker shall be three minutes each speaker's elapsed time will appear on the screen speakers will also receive notification from the vice chair when time is expired although the board does not permit the use of slideshows or other projected materials during this segment speakers are invited to provide printed copies of such materials to the board the board expresses its appreciation to the public for its cooperation

[03:00:57] and during this segment of the meeting and with that mr vice chair i'll turn it over to you thank you mr chair let's do this all over again uh mark killing stat are you in the audience i do not see him. Kristen Holti, do you desire to speak again? Okay, you're up. Is Charlie Hogue in the house?

[03:01:18] He had to leave. Okay, one second, Ms. Holti. And Ms. Hunter Jordan, you're on deck. Thank you, Ms. Holti. I'm back. All right. Good evening, Chair Mays, Vice Chair Eikenberry School Board and Administration. I am Kristen Holti of the Cold Harbor District. First, let me state that I'm very proud to live in the Cold Harbor District, and I'm proud of the Vice Chair Stephen Eikenberry as my representative and the Board of Supervisors Chairman Michael Harrisburg. They are doing an

[03:01:58] outstanding job representing me as a constituent. I pray Vice Chair Eikenberry will be reappointed as the Cold Harbor School Board Representative. For Steve Eikenberry has been the researcher and the backbone to the school board. Thank you for appointing Dr. Lisa Pennycuff as the Hanover County Superintendent, for she was thoroughly vetted. She has proven herself as an in-depth educator and school educator. Dr. Pennycuff has been doing an excellent job as interim superintendent and is familiar with the workings of the county. Congratulations again, Dr. Pennycuff.

[03:02:32] You are doing an outstanding job, and I appreciate you. With the previous presentation, I forgot to wish everybody a happy belated Mother's Day with what was going on earlier with the families coming up. Let me see. I'm also thankful that the Hanover County School Board enacted the clear bag statute at the games because that really has saved children from bringing weapons into

[03:03:06] the arenas. We've been hearing a lot in the past about violence on the field with people concealing weapons. And I really appreciated that previous presentation from the intervention counselors, because I don't think parents know what their kids are doing. It's sad that I don't think parents are aware of what their kids are doing sexually or vaping, that a lot of things

[03:03:41] are available to them, unfortunately, when they were under 18. And lastly, Memorial Day is coming up, and I want to, I know we want to all honor and mourn the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. And the very last thing is, I think it's, I think As far as your last increase being in 2006, with the amount of work that all of you go

[03:04:16] through and what you deal with, you definitely need an increase of more than $8,000 a year, for I appreciate all of you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Pat Hunter-Jordan. Good evening.

[03:04:40] My name is Patricia Hunter-Jordan, and I am in the Coal Harbor District. First, I'd like to thank all of you. Our Hanover 8 or the students who integrated our Hanover schools back in the 60s truly appreciated all that was done for them in the two ceremonies.

[03:05:05] And so I want to thank you all for all of that. They are happy about what occurred and we appreciate your taking the time and making that happen for them. Second, earlier today, as I said in your work session, I listened to one of your members state that this is a, well, we kept political in that.

[03:05:37] When he said this is a conservative school board and that we'd listen to parents' rights. And I think today there comes a time when we once understand, I hear a lot of people even throwing shade on the word woke.

[03:05:54] And so for me, I was really appreciative the other night when I listened to Pope Leo XIV, and he said to be called woke in a world that sleeps through suffering is not an insult.

[03:06:13] It's the gospel. It invites us to reconsider the significance of this term and its implications in our daily lives. Being woke came from an African-American vernacular signifying alertness to racial and social injustices.

[03:06:36] And over time, it has grown to embody a broader consciousness that encompasses various forms of oppression and inequality. To be woke simply means to be attuned to the struggles that marginalized groups face and to actively seek solutions to eradicate those injustices.

[03:07:06] So today, we want to urge our school board to recognize the needs of all children. And while sports are important, focusing predominantly on them may not be ideal, since at least there are less than 2% of students who receive scholarships to college, and even fewer who play professionally.

[03:07:36] So there's a pressing need for mental health care, for academic support, and recognition of the arts and business talents among our students. We encourage you to awaken and act in the best interest of all students.

[03:07:56] Thank you, ma'am. Have a good evening. And Mr. Chair, that was our last speaker. Okay, with that, we will close public comment and move into our action items. and so uh miss stone you're going to probably get the most speaker time tonight so uh we're back to consideration of public of boundary adjustment recommendations and your mic's off i don't know how there you go there we go okay i want to first um explain that the presentation that was made

[03:08:29] earlier was actually attached to this agenda item because we had the overview of the mgt recommendation before the public hearing and now we're considering it as an action item and so the presentation was there it was there the entire time it can be found on board docs there and I just want to mention that because MGT has had that presentation to me for several weeks and I want to make it clear that we've certainly had that presentation so as you receive the full presentation tonight

[03:09:02] for consideration for approval of the boundary adjustment plan as presented for the elementary middle and high school this is the former green plan I would be happy to take any questions or should there be a desire to make a motion is there any any questions from the from the dais okay coach Ike you got a question are you ready to make a motion mr. chair I'm ready to make a motion okay I'd like to make a motion to approve the boundary adjustment recommendation as presented this evening which was also known as the green plan thank you we have a motion on the floor

[03:09:40] to approve the green plan uh do we have a second second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries coach hike do you have another motion for us now yes mr chair i do have a motion to implement um the boundary implementation plan and as follows through 2026 2027 12th grade 8th grade and 5th grade 2027 through 2028 for giles

[03:10:13] students to remain at their current school 2025 2026 kindergarten students to attend their newly zoned school in 2025 26 school year all current and rising middle and high school students impacted by boundary adjustments to attend their newly zoned school beginning in 2025 26 school year and school division staff to encourage current school year eighth and ninth grade students impacted by boundary adjustments to move to their newly zoned high school in the beginning of 2025

[03:10:48] 2026 school year okay thank you is there we have a motion is there a second second have a second mr coleman is there any discussion uh yes sir um just based on what we discussed earlier in the work session we have ninety two hundred students in the secondary level option to its present state allows all secondary students the opportunity to finish at their current school with the exception of a small group of 41 students at Attlee and Hanover seen as those 41 represent less than half of 1% of our secondary students allowing them to have the

[03:11:27] freedom of choice is an immaterial impact to the overall goal of this plan however as far from immaterial for those 41 kids and families like one of the speakers we heard I support their ability to choose what's best for them as some may even want to switch schools I would support option two with this small amendment to include these 41 but without that I will not support this okay thank you miss Lynn that's okay I saw you light on all right mr. Seifert if you're gonna you want to amend you'll have to get a motion in a second here just a second I'll do the let it let's have our conversation mr. Martin if you're okay with that. And then if you want to make an amendment to the motion, I'll be glad

[03:12:06] to entertain that. Is that okay? So we can keep talking. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Eifert. Yeah, I just agree with Mr. Martin exactly with what he said there. And I'll just add that, you know, we really are the representatives of the parents here. And I think if you were to go out and ask the 30,000 plus parents in Hanover County, parents, we've got 41 kids at Atlee High School in Hanover, 35 and six, and they'd like the option to be able to stay at their school and finish high school if they could i truly believe over 30 000 of those parents would vote for those

[03:12:38] kids to be able to do that okay thank you anybody else any other comments yes i would just like to take the opportunity to uh i want to thank mgt uh for a very well done process i feel like it was a very good decision on our part as a board to bring in a third party and i think you've done a fabulous job. I appreciate your objectivity. And I think the data-driven, transparent, iterative. I've learned a new word this evening. I'm just being honest. Thank you. And collaborative. I feel like it was done as such. And I feel like the community involvement piece was done very well.

[03:13:18] I would also like to just make it known that I want to thank our principals for voting unanimously for this as well, and I would like to thank our central office for voting for this unanimously. This was not an easy decision, and it's not an easy decision for anybody on this board, but the bottom line is I feel very confident that the central office as well as the leadership within these schools are focused on the interaction between the kids and the teachers in the classroom, hence why we're very focused on that sweet spot and the utilization that MGT

[03:13:54] helped us identify so i'm uh i just want to say thank you for everyone's support mr may if i may i know that the sample motions there were several that were provided um we just want to ensure that the lead in the first phrase indicates that the board is supporting a waiver process yes thank you yes he whispered in my ear he thought a word was left out i just think it sure

[03:14:32] okay any other discussion okay so i know you moved down there but you're gonna have to make sure i don't mess this up so mr martin are you are you making a motion are you uh moving to amend ask mr seifert to amend his motion in some form or fashion that's where we are right now i would like to yes okay if i understand right point of order for you for you i know you walk down there but um we have to take they have the motion for him to make an amendment to the emotion mr cipher would have to agree to it i mean mr eikenberry would have to agree to the amendment

[03:15:07] is that correct so mr chair i believe that there was a second of the original motion there is a motion it's on the floor that came up i think that that needs to be addressed first okay so we vote on that first and then if he wants if that is defeated then we could take a new motion is that what i understand yes okay all right any further discussion before i go into the into the voting i want everybody to have a chance okay then the motion on the floor is to uh a motion to implement a waiver process to allow the 26 27 12th grade 8th grade and 5th grade 20 27 28 for giles

[03:15:46] students to remain at their current school the 25 26 kindergarten students to begin their newly zoned school in the 25 26 school year all current and rising middle and high school students impacted by boundary adjustments to attend their newly zoned school beginning in the 25-26 school year, and the school division staff to encourage current school year 8th and 9th grade students impacted by boundary adjustments to move to their newly zoned high schools beginning in the 25-26

[03:16:18] school year. That would mean anybody that is impacted by this would be the most would be one year at a new school at a school prior to moving so we're talking about this year's current ninth graders we're encouraging them to move to their new uh zone to school starting this fall so that's the motion that's on the floor and with that we'll call for the question all those in favor say aye all opposed no madam clerk will you uh pull the board mr coleman yes mr eikenberry yes

[03:16:56] ms lynn no mr martin no mr seifert no miss welsh yes mr may yes the motion carries 4-3 okay thank you thank you and so with that we'll move on our next consideration is consideration the revised policy 5-2.2 application for positions thank you mr chair this was presented to the board for first read at the last meeting this is a pretty short and sweet revision

[03:17:32] it updates our policy 5-2.2 to include omission of pertinent information during the application process as a cause for dismissal from the application process or if it is learned of after employment is offered it can be dismissal from employment thank you i would entertain a motion to approve the uh revised policy 5-2.2 as presented so moved mr coleman is there a second second miss welch any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries

[03:18:12] thank you consideration of calendar adjustments who's got that i do okay dr benny go okay thank you similar to the recent action from the board of supervisors we are asking the school board tonight to please declare the following dates to be holidays for hanover county public school employees. This includes the Wednesday, November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas, Friday, December 26th, 2025, the day after New Year's Day, Friday, January 2nd. All

[03:18:47] schools and offices would be closed. Thank you, Dr. Petty Cuff. May I get a motion from the board? So moved. Mr. Coleman, is there a second? Second. Mr. Martin, is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries and with that I think miss stone you're back it has been okay so I am back to talk about the budget as you all probably heard yes it's been a little over a week now the governor did sign

[03:19:25] the budget as a recap on February 17th the school board approved the superintendent's budget and then on April 9th 2025 the Board of Supervisors adopted approved and adopted the school board approved budget I've listed there the dollar amounts for each of those funds and now with the signing of the budget by the governor we do need to go back and make a change to the adopted budget when we went into the budget and we included and reserved we made an

[03:20:02] assumption that school state revenue make increase by 2.5 million we were hopeful that would happen well as it turns out there's an increase of three million one hundred and eighty five thousand we've listed there how it is distributed out between the different revenue line items and then we also show that we're going to reduce that reserve we had set aside those dollars so we will reduce the reserve revenue by the 2.5 million for an overall increase from our approved budget to the proposed adopted budget of a six hundred and

[03:20:40] eighty-five thousand for fiscal year 2026 what we are proposing is that two point two million seven hundred and eighty-five thousand of that go into salary and benefits the balance of 400 000 to go into contractual services and then we have to reduce also the reserve on the expenditure side for a net increase of 685 000 of that 2.7 million that we're showing in salary and benefits it is proposed that 2 million of that go into lifting

[03:21:17] the teacher pay scale even further and i'll just back up a bit you can see basic aid is going up by 2.2 million 700 000 of that goes into special ed so those are really the funds that were available that would result in an average increase in regards to this teacher pay plan adjustment of 5.5 percent added to the proposed three percent compensation or merit increase for a total of eight point five percent for our teachers in terms of a salary increase next year i do want to touch

[03:21:55] on the fact that that four hundred thousand you may recall the discussion about the csb clinicians that are in our schools there are a total of six one is funded with our operating budget one is funded with the county operating budget and then four was funded through a grant that we were hopeful that would continue this year we are now with the final finalization of the state budget we understand that that funding is not continued so we're proposing that we use some of these

[03:22:29] additional funds to fund those clinicians for at least one more year that gives us time during the budget process next year to think about what works best it buys us some time to work through that so that is generally lists the changes in the budget and we're now prepared to adopt a budget where the operating budget the first motion would increase by six hundred and eighty five thousand and the CIP and the school nutrition would remain the same thank you miss stone so so I just want to reiterate to make sure we got it clarified for everybody so we're adding

[03:23:05] two million dollars additional to our teachers and employees salary base pay and salaries and this is for the teacher pay scale teacher pay scale yes an additional that and we started with 4.5 million adding two for a total of 6.5 million so that that that's a great investment and one year and something that I have not seen and my years with with Hanover schools it really does continue to to emphasize our priority on keeping the best and the brightest teachers that we can possibly keep in our area and so with that I would

[03:23:44] entertain the first but you backed up a slide the first motion I will need that so do I have someone willing to make the first motion yes mr. chair I'd like to make a motion to adopt the school board's physical year 2026 operating budget for a total of $266,131,983 with amendments as presented.

[03:24:10] I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a second by Ms. Welch. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries. Do I have a motion for the second adoption? Anybody? Well, Mr. Chair, I can count some more.

[03:24:27] Go ahead. You're on the roll. Keep going. I move to adopt the school board's approved five-year capital improvement program for fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2030 in the amount of 139 million 788 000 for all five years including 14 million 261 250 for our fiscal year 2026. we have a motion on the floor is there a second second miss welsh is the second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries you're on the roll coach ike don't let me down lastly i move to adopt the

[03:25:05] school board's approved fiscal year 2026 school nutrition services budget for a total of 10 million 298 057 we have a motion on the floor is there a second second we have a second miss welsh any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries unanimously on all three thank you great job we have an adopted budget we will need to give finance a couple of weeks to get that final document to you they've got to distribute all these line items that we didn't know until we got the final number but they are working on that and we'll get it to everyone and

[03:25:42] online are you coming back in just a minute about our budget i am okay good just want to make sure i wasn't dreaming thank you and uh the revised hanover county school board protocols and guidelines this is what we worked on uh this is what we worked on at our work session if everybody will remember right at our last work session that uh that we worked on and this is the uh what we came up with the final draft on it and so i would entertain a motion that we adopt the hanover county uh board protocols and guidelines so moved mr coleman is there a second second miss welch

[03:26:18] is there any discussion we have a motion in a second is there any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries thank you great job and now miss stone since you haven't had any microphone time tonight i am back so um so along with the governor's fiscal year 2026 budget we also had good news in regards to the caboose budget and what that means is additional funding for the current year fiscal year and so that included 1.8 million of additional funds along

[03:26:53] with it was a requirement to have a bonus for our employees of $1,000 for full-time and $500 for part-time and as you know when the county adopted their budget for next year they included a bonus for their employees in the current fiscal year and the amount of and this is for eligible employees but included 1,200 bonus for full-time and 600 for part-time. So what we are proposing tonight is that we amend

[03:27:26] our current year budget to recognize the additional revenue and to direct that all to salaries and benefits. The 1.8 million is for that, that was the intent, although the entire cost is 3.3 million.

[03:27:42] so we are proposing that we would use the remaining 500,000 of contingency in order to make up the difference and then as you know we always have some salary attrition each year and that goes back to making up that return to the county for our capital improvement funding for the subsequent year that attrition savings is already in the salary and benefits bucket so we do not need to add that there but we're requesting that the board approve a budget amendment tonight to recognize

[03:28:17] the additional 1.8 million dollars and to also approve moving 500 000 from contingency into salaries and benefits the combination of those with attrition savings will make us will result in us having enough funding to implement that bonus in the june 30th check same timing as the county thank you miss stone so i just want to go ahead and clarify this one too so we we have tonight uh approved a roughly eight and a half percent average increase for all of our teacher the

[03:28:51] teacher salary group and now we're getting ready to approve a 1200 bonus um to go out at the end of june uh at the same time of uh that the county will send theirs out um i think our board is doing a pretty good job of acknowledging who the important people are in our county and so with that i would entertain someone being able to uh read make a motion for me coach ike you're on a roll well it's all about dollars that's right go ahead and get them i was a history government major so i have no idea what this stuff means mr shank please help me um i moved to amend the

[03:29:28] school board's physical year 2025 operating adopted operating budget for an increase of 1.8 million as presented we have a motion is there a second second mr coleman and miss welsh any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed the motion carries well well very happy to carry go ahead coach and lastly i moved to transfer 500 000 from contingency to salary and benefits in fiscal year 2025 adopted operating budget to fully fund a bonus

[03:30:05] for employees as presented so motion we have a second second mr coleman any discussion yes mr chair yes coach ike i'd just like to reiterate that uh 8.5 percent average teacher raise along with these bonuses and the fact that miss baker we have a retainment percentage of approximately what going forward? 7%. 7%, which is lowest it's been in maybe since you've been in that position

[03:30:39] that you can remember, Ms. Greif. And I can't. Okay. Okay. I'll take that. That's all right. You're back to AP English again. All good. Well, I just want to commend the rest of the board and the leadership of Dr. Penicuff and the fact that I sent a message out to all teachers that we're not done. And we're looking already at next year and trying to upgrade the scale. And we appreciate

[03:31:15] y'all staying and making our staff's job just a smidgen easier. Thank you. Anybody else? Any other comments? Dr. Penicuff? I just wanted to say thank you to our team and thank you to senior leadership and to the school board. Because of the work that you've done to invest in the teacher salary scale and the work that you've done in the behavior coaches, the math coaches, the English coaches, reading coaches over time, I think that we have created an environment here that makes the

[03:31:49] job more doable. It's a very hard job, but the support that the teachers get and feel from the staff that is here is impressive i cannot tell you how impressed i am with all of you for making this commitment to get the teacher salary scale to where it needs to be and to this incredible team that's here in hanover that makes people want to come and stay so thank you to all of you thank you dr penny cuff and i know that i haven't voted yet so i will get to it now i will call for the question. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries. And Dr. Penicoff,

[03:32:27] I echo your sentiment. I know we have a lot of our senior staff present in the room tonight. And I just tell you, you know, it's a wonderful team. We are extremely blessed to see everybody work together, our assistant supes, the directors, all the people in central office. And it's just wonderful to have such a great team to work with on a daily basis. And we truly are honored to be on the board and be able to participate in this. So we thank you for that. Thank you. Miss Stone, I don't think I'm calling on you again tonight. Okay. Miss Hahn, do you have something to clarify

[03:33:01] for me? Yes, Mr. Chair. I misspoke previously when I said that an amendment would not be allowed during the discussion when you presented the question for the implementation. What I would propose is that Mr. Martin be able to make his amendment now and have a vote on that. Okay Mr.

[03:33:25] Martin would you like to state your amendment please? My amendment would be to allow go with option two with an amendment to allow current freshmen at Attlee and Hanover to continue at their schools if they so choose it would be 41 students in total. And you have a second? Second.

[03:33:45] Mr. Seifert is there any other discussion? Okay we'll call for the question on this we have this is a separate vote is that right i want to make sure i want and this is just on this amendment correct and sir could i you may say one thing for discussion just for discussion purposes uh principals were mentioned uh the alley high school principal dr wheeler said this would be no problem he's had over 200 more students that is schooled in this so 41 students there not a problem and and i'm not i i don't really need to debate this all i will say is that it's not that we're saying

[03:34:21] the 41 cannot stay there they can apply for a waiver as part of this waiver that we just approved they can apply if there's a legitimate reason for them to be there but it gives our central office staff the ability to then um that we're not just grandfathering our blanket approval that's the way i think i understand what we're doing with our waivers uh i believe i'm right Miss Stone you can probably stand up again or push the button. So that that grade level was not included in the waiver process they could still

[03:34:57] approach our existing variance process that we have today but but it was not included in the motion for what what we're going to create as kind of a standard waiver process. Yep it does. And under the standard variance process these would you know be turned down today so it's yeah there's no no chance for them they would be turned down unless there was a hardship that was articulated by the family and provided some

[03:35:30] documentation okay we'll call for the question all those in favor say aye aye all opposed no no madam chair i mean madam clerk pull the board please mr eikenberry no miss lynn i mr martin

[03:35:52] yes mr seifert yes miss welsh no mr may no mr coleman no uh the motion fails okay thank you for that one other thing i needed to go back to for administrative purposes that i did not give board member announcement comment time so i did want to open up before we close tonight do any do any board members have any announcements that they would uh like to make before we look for a motion to close. Mr. Seifert. I know it's late. I'm going to be super quick. I just had to publicly

[03:36:29] thank Dr. Penicuff and her staff for the new program, the Parsons Cause Trial, high school actors being able to do that. Dr. Keith Matthews, Director of Performing Arts, was awesome with that. Mr. Charles Wax was here earlier. I wish he could have heard this, but such an impressive job by him and the students. And if you don't know what the Parsons Cause Trial is, I encourage you to Google it or go to the June 21st show where the students will perform again at the courthouse at 10 o'clock so and then also same thing thank you public thank you to Dr. Penicuff for trying something new at the chess tournament over 90 kids at the arts and science festival and a big thanks to Jen

[03:37:08] Greif for suggesting the tournament at the arts and science festival that was the perfect place I don't don't know if it would have been successful without that suggestion so thank you and uh jeremy smith english teacher from patrick henry uh was the uh teacher person with that and says he could run it himself next year if needed so that's awesome he's a very capable uh teacher very very impressive and a wrestling coach also so just thank you dr penicuff again and your staff for that wonderful opportunity new opportunities for our children thank you mr seifert anybody else

[03:37:43] mr martin yeah real quick just want to uh congratulate our our senior class i know graduation is a very exciting time um so just want to give a public uh congratulations uh we got miss welsh and mr seifert on our board have graduating seniors so congratulations to them and their families thank you all righty anybody else coach you got anything yeah i do i just want to um since it's kind of been a while we've had a lot of events in uh april and uh may and uh seconded pat hunter jordan's comments about the uh the eight trailblazers that came into patrick

[03:38:20] henry and lee davis and that was a quite an evening on both fronts and um after that i just want to include the uh all the volunteers um mainly from i guess all of our high schools and then our elementary schools for the big big big feet meet that we had at addley high school this past year and if you get a chance to come out next year I would encourage every member in this room actually it's it's it does a body good especially your

[03:38:53] heart and soul so I would encourage that and then on the same evening which it kind of got overshadowed which is kind of unfortunate because the amount of effort that was put in by the beast that happens to live in the East in my corridor, they all happened to, all the principals happened to descend on Bell Creek Middle Thursday, the 24th of April, for what they called an Eastern Corridor Family Night.

[03:39:26] And what they did was they talked about what we offer as a school division, but primarily in the Eastern Corridor. And they talked a lot about a lot of different issues that transitioning from the fifth grade to middle school and from middle school to high school and unfortunately it wasn't very well received but it wasn't because of lack of effort that's for sure and so all five principals were involved and you had a lot of counselors that were involved so I think they're going to do it permanently they're just going to have to build it with better communication maybe it'll start to

[03:40:06] catch on Mr. Seifert alluded to our arts and science festival which was outstanding again Again, having our chamber, jazz chamber conductor, being honored tonight. And, gosh, he dazzled me with a little earth, wind, and fire in Chicago.

[03:40:25] I know most of the people in the audience don't know what all that meant, but, you know, they're into ACDC and Metallica, so that's a little bit more common. And then Mechanicsville High School had their Villefest, which, again, was for another good cause to raise money for families that are left without a parent, and how to kind of move on from that trauma. And that was a very good heart and soul therapy. So again, it's been a lot of things. And again, I could go on into what

[03:41:02] we did last week at our retirees, our PTA council, and then our Hanover salute. So we've had a busy time period and and uh do i need to turn my calendar to another week i mean goodness gracious um i think that's enough thank you i was anybody else any other comments just real quick yeah the pta banquet was wonderful it's always one of my favorite things to go to every year to get to see the awards for all the pta uh boards uh throughout our county um the hanover salutes program was just absolutely wonderful and the retirement dinner and i'll tell you i've gone four times and it was

[03:41:41] the quickest one we didn't have many retirements this year and that's a very that's a good thing and i think it's a lot of positive activity going on in hanover county and it's a real joy to be a part of this um i remind you that coming up we have uh the hanover scholars all of our scholars the schools will be doing their scholars awards to start tomorrow we have two tomorrow um that i plan on attending and i encourage all board members that can find time to to go to them they're both Some of them are during the day and some of them are in the evening, so I encourage you all to go.

[03:42:13] I remind everybody that we have Memorial Day coming up, and it's time to actually take a pause and think about exactly what Memorial Day is really all about. And for those that have given the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that we remain free, because freedom is not free, just ask a family, a Gold Star family that's lost a loved one.

[03:42:33] And then I guess the other thing that's coming up sometime this month is this thing called graduation. This year, it's going to be at our new location down at Henrico at the VCC sports event.

[03:42:50] And we're looking forward to that. A little bit more spread out this year. I give you credit, Bob. You've done a good job on the last one of these that I'll probably attend as the chair anyway. You know, we start at eight o'clock in the morning. We go to eight o'clock at night. And so it'll be a long day for me, but it's okay.

[03:43:05] I appreciate it. But just remind everybody of graduation and all the board members remind you of that too okay you have in your materials for review you've got the fiscal status report you got the facility usage report and the calendar of board related events um dr pennycuff you got some topics for our next board meeting that you've taken tonight yes sir we have secondary schedule will be brought back for the next work session we have parent support organizations which we will bring back for information possibly action code of student conduct will come back for information and discussion our textbook adoptions

[03:43:40] will be back school board compensation and that those are the topics that we currently have for june thank you does anybody else have anything else for the good of the board all right mr uh mr coleman do you have a motion yes sir chairman may i would like to make a motion to adjourn this may 13th 2025 school board meeting if we have i didn't even get a chance to ask but okay we have a motion in a second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all opposed we are adjourned thank you everybody for being here

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