Coraggio Consulting
Hanover County School Board Meeting, Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Place: Hanover County School Board, Virginia
Length: 3h 43m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1515/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 2026-10-23. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:15] Good evening. It is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 at 5:33, and we are going to call the meeting to order. Do I have an approval of the agenda?

[00:00:31] I move to approve the agenda as presented. Thank you, Ms. Lynn. Do I have a -- I'm sorry? I'll second. Thank you, Dr. Schelp. Is there any discussion? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. those opposed okay we have a an approved agenda all right now um do i have a motion to go into closed session thank you madam chair yes i move to enter closed session in accordance with code virginia section 2.2-3711 a1 personnel review review recommendations of the superintendent for

[00:01:05] resignations appointments transfers assignments promotions terminations salary adjustments and leaves of absence for teachers and other employees superintendent's performance evaluation section 2.2 dash 3711 a2 student disciplinary matter thank you mr coleman i have a motion on the table do i have a second thank you dr strove um is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor say

[00:01:35] aye aye all those opposed we are now in closed session good evening welcome um it is uh tuesday

[01:30:32] June 2nd 2026 our June school board meeting and we're glad to have you all here thank you and welcome do I have a motion for open set to go into open session madam chair I move to return to open session thank you mr. Seifert do I have a second thank you dr. Shrove is there any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed the motion passes we are now an open session do you

[01:31:01] have a certification of closed meeting thank you yes ma'am the board will certify the following whereas the following work whereas the hanover county school board has convened closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmation recorded voted and in accordance with the provisions of the virginia freedom of information act and whereas section 2.2 dash 3712d of the code of virginia requires a certification by the school board that such executive meeting was conducted in

[01:31:40] conformity with Virginia law. Now, therefore, 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 meeting were heard discussed or considered. Thank you, mr Coleman have a motion on the table. Do you have a second? Thank you. Dr. Shove Is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor say aye all those opposed?

[01:32:20] motion passes So now we're gonna have our invocation and our pledge of allegiance If you will all stand I will do the invocation and mr Martin will lead us in our pledge. Let us pray Heavenly Father as we gather this evening for our meeting at the end of the school year, we pause to give you thanks for your guidance, provision, and faithfulness throughout the year. We are grateful for our students, for their growth, achievements, and resilience. We thank you for our teachers, staff, administrators, and families who have

[01:32:58] invested their time, talents, and hearts in helping our children succeed. As we reflect on the year behind us remind us of the many lives touched through education and the opportunities that have been provided to our students across our community. Help us celebrate accomplishments with gratitude and learn from challenges with humility. Grant this board wisdom as we continue to make decisions that serve the best interests of our students and schools. May we lead with integrity, work together with respect, and remain focused on the responsibility entrusted to us.

[01:33:36] As summer begins, we ask your blessings and protection over our students, families, employees, and community. Keep them safe, refresh their spirits, and prepare them for the opportunities that lie ahead.

[01:33:53] We thank you for the privilege of serving and for the hope that each new school year brings. In your name we pray, amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[01:34:21] Thank you. You can be seated. Okay, now I'm looking for an approval of the minutes. Madam Chair, I move to approve minutes for the recently held meetings. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Thank you for the second, Dr. Schroff.

[01:34:37] Do we have any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, the motion passes. Next up is the Chris Whitley Show. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[01:34:56] It is always a privilege to come forth and bring the great news and accomplishments of our students and staff. Our first recognition tonight goes to a group of talented students from Bell Creek Middle School who are in top state honors by being selected as members of the Allstate course. Congratulations goes to Caroline Connolly, Malaya Pearson, and Leah Silva.

[01:35:21] Congratulations. Madam Chair, that concludes my portion of the recognitions and I will turn it

[01:36:14] over to you. Thank you. So tonight I have the pleasure of a recognition of a very special person. Okay, I had to put my eyes on her. Okay, as a school board and school division, we often say that safety is our top priority and we truly mean it. We dedicate so much thought and care into ensuring that our students, staff, and communities are safe. No one more so than the

[01:36:50] individual we are recognizing for their retirement tonight, who has been a familiar face in our schools and our school board meetings for many years. Carrie Wright has served Hanover County for 30 years, first with our valued partners as the Hanover County Sheriff's Office, and for the past nine years with Hanover County Public Schools, overseeing our safety and security efforts.

[01:37:16] Throughout her successful career, Carrie served in many important roles at the Sheriff's Office, including leading the deputies assigned to our schools with the Sheriff's Office, and now serves as the first emergency manager for Hanover County Public Schools. She has successfully defined this position, setting a very high bar, and more importantly, she has developed strong relationships with our safety partners within the county that are vital to our safety and success.

[01:37:47] She is dependable, wise, and steady in moments when calm leadership matters most. She has approached every challenge with professionalism, compassion, and a deep commitment to protecting others.

[01:38:03] Because of her work, our schools are stronger, our partnerships are closer, and countless students, staff members, and families have benefited from the safer environment she has helped create. While much of her work happens behind the scenes, its impact is felt every single day.

[01:38:23] On behalf of the Hanover County School Board, thank you, Carrie, for your honorable service, your dedication to this community, and the lasting legacy you leave behind. We wish you the very best in your retirement and hope you will find time away from your phone and more time with your husband and dog.

[01:38:49] we also hope that you will finally have time to explore some more adventurous lunch options beyond your trademark peanut butter and jelly sandwiches congratulations

[01:39:54] okay um thank y'all and now it's time for our um board announcements so do we have any board

[01:41:17] announcements yes madam chair okay thank you um i just wanted to talk about i had the honor of of going on May 19th and celebrating the Project SEARCH graduate at Bon Secours.

[01:41:34] And as part of the program, students with special needs, they're immersed in the departments, and they have a lot of different internships within the, excuse me, in the hospital. And they help complete tasks and support patients.

[01:41:51] There was a very special ceremony, and it included the recognition of all the partners. And it's just really an amazing program. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you, Dr. Schroes. Does anybody else? Yes, ma'am. I have two graduation-related things.

[01:42:08] ACA graduation was held. Advanced College Academy students from all four of our high schools graduated from Reynolds Community College. Before graduating from high school, our ACA programs were housed at Patrick Henry High and Mechanicsville High. I just wanted to give a shout-out to those students and also for the THC-TT Awards Night and Signing Day on May 19th, the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology hosted its annual awards night and signing day where students were recognized for earning industry credentials and certifications and were presented with cords to wear at graduation. Similar to the traditional collegiate signing

[01:42:45] ceremonies for athletes, students who are entering the workforce were celebrated by signing with their future employers in front of a packed Atlee High School auditorium, a great event every year. So another shout out to the trade school and those students. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Martin.

[01:43:02] Yes, Dr. Schelp. Yeah, I'd like to say that, of course, obviously on Saturday, the 30th, we did have graduation commencement for all four high schools. More than 1,300 students graduated. And each ceremony by each high school was unique and organized in its own way.

[01:43:24] They included student instrumental performances. Of course, the customary salutatorian and valedictorian speeches. And most notably, in the awarding of the diplomas, we had the opportunity to really shake hands with each and every student as they crossed the stage.

[01:43:45] And one thing that stood out to me in particular was that each student, I would say well over 90%, with a very few and understandable exceptions, every student presented a very firm handshake, looked at me straight in the eyes, and said very clearly, thank you to my congratulations.

[01:44:07] This spoke to me because that ability to introduce yourself, to face someone eye to eye, and to exchange a firm handshake really sets the tone for every future interview, every future interaction of any real consequence.

[01:44:25] And so I was very proud to see this quality shared by virtually every student in Hanover County. - Thank you, Dr. Shell. I agree that it's such an impactful ceremony for our students, but also for us who sit on this board and know and get to share in that.

[01:44:49] So thank you very much. Ms. Lynn? - We want to take this opportunity to make sure our community is aware that as in prior years we are participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Food Service Program.

[01:45:05] Meals will be provided to all individuals 18 years old and younger at no charge on a first come first serve basis. Both breakfast and lunch will be served at Ashland Elementary School and Mechanicsville Elementary School on Mondays through Thursdays through the end of July.

[01:45:20] And specific information can be found on the HCPS website. - Thank you, Ms. Lynn. Yes. - I'll just add something to the graduation and our thanks for all of the administrators who were there all day from, I can't imagine how early till how late at night.

[01:45:38] So just an amazing ceremonies. And it's just amazing that people are there that long and in such good spirits for so long. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Seifert. Do we have it? Madam Chair, I have a memorial. Dr. Schroff.

[01:45:54] I just want to shout out to Mechanicsville High School's Navy JROTC. They hosted a beautiful Memorial Day ceremony that I was able to attend with Dr. Pennycuff. The ceremony, of course, honored the brave men and women who gave their lives to serve our country.

[01:46:10] And candles were lit in remembrance of major US military conflicts. The band performed with great pride. And the moving sound of taps reminded us of the sacrifices made to protect our freedoms. It was a very moving ceremony.

[01:46:25] I was happy to participate. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Shove. We have any other announcements? OK. I have one statement. I might get choked up. Thank you, Dr. Shope.

[01:46:42] As we conclude another school year, I would like to take a moment on behalf of the Hanover County School Award to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who helped make this year a success. First and foremost, thank you to our students.

[01:47:02] Every school year is filled with opportunities, challenges, accomplishments, and growth. We are proud of your hard work, your perseverance, and the many ways you have represented our schools and community. To our teachers, support staff, administrators, bus drivers, and custodial staff, thank you for the countless hours you invest in our school, in our students and schools each and every day.

[01:47:34] Your dedication extends far beyond the classroom, and the impact you have on the lives of young people cannot be measured. To our parents and families, thank you for your partnership and support. Education works best when schools and families work together, and we are grateful for the trust you place in us. This year, we celebrated academic achievements, athletic

[01:48:06] successes, artistic accomplishments, and countless acts of kindness and service. We watched students discover new talents, overcome obstacles, and prepare for the next chapter of their lives.

[01:48:22] These moments remind us why our work is so important. To the class of 2026, congratulations. Whether you are heading to college, beginning a career, serving in the military, or pursuing another path, know that Hanover County is proud of you.

[01:49:00] We wish you success and look forward to seeing the difference you will make in the world. As a community, we can take pride in our schools. Thank you. While there's always work to do and opportunities to improve, Hanover County Public Schools remains strong because the people who make up this community and the shared commitment to providing the very best opportunities for our children.

[01:49:28] As summer begins, I hope everyone has the opportunity to rest, recharge, spend time with loved ones, and enjoy the months ahead. Thank you for your continued support of our schools, our staff, and most importantly, our students.

[01:49:46] Everyone, I hope, we hope that y'all have a safe and happy and wonderful summer. Thank you. Now we can move on to business. Madam Chair, if I may. One more comment. Since we're giving a lot of accolades, a lot of people did a lot of great things this year, but it's not lost on me as a board member the time and effort that you put in.

[01:50:12] And I think that we are a better board because of you. And the amount of time that you put in that a lot of the rest of us don't does not go unnoticed. And I swear we weren't drinking at closed session because we're all crying tonight. But I just wanted that to be said because being the chair of the board, there is so much time that goes into doing that that the rest of us don't necessarily put in.

[01:50:35] And I just wanted to publicly thank Whitney for that, her leadership, and what she's done for our board. Thank you. I appreciate that. I think we make a pretty fantastic team, but we have a lot of great people to work with, so thank y'all very much.

[01:50:56] Now let's get on to business. So we are done with board announcements, correct? Does anybody else have anything else to say? Okay, moving on. So we are looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda.

[01:51:13] Thank you, Dr. Schelp. I have a motion on the table. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Schroff. Is there any discussion? Okay. No discussion. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay. The motion passes. Now we are moving on to information discussion and I believe we have Ms. Leah Hahn coming down to go over a few revisions.

[01:51:44] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. What you have in front of you is a group of proposed policy updates. We have presented them in this manner because all of these policies complement or crossover with each other. The first three, or excuse me, the first two are specific to discrimination and harassment within the workplace.

[01:52:11] And the language in those is similar to what you will see in the 7-1.2 and the two below that, which address the same issues within the context of students and not just employees.

[01:52:28] What you will see with the series of the seven policy updates within that section, we used to have our policy with all of these things combined into one. And it became a bit difficult for our families to understand, for staff to use the policy effectively. And so what this has done is made very clear that we have a policy that addresses both non-discrimination, non-discrimination

[01:53:04] as it relates to disability and prohibition against harassment. And that's the area where you will see the references to Title IX. And so what we hope this does is it makes these policies more user-friendly and it helps both staff and students understand the process when in the event that they have something that they need to either report or address.

[01:53:27] And then the one in the middle, 5-6.1, suspension of staff members, this is in response to a recent bill, HB 849. And so what it does is it brings our policy into compliance with that change. And it clarifies that we are compliant with that change to mirror that language provided in the legal update by the General Assembly. These, of course, are on for first read. I'm happy to answer any questions, but no action is needed this evening. These will come

[01:54:03] back to you at your next meeting on the action agenda. I will say that the 7-1.2.1 regarding section 504, I have been working with staff to make sure that the way that this is worded is functional for them specifically with the way that we do things in Hanover. So it is entirely possible that you will see minor edits to this one when it comes back to you.

[01:54:32] would not anticipate any substantive changes thank you miss Hahn do we have any questions you have time to look over this and ask questions between now and the next board meeting but do you have any questions tonight okay all right thank you thank you miss Hahn okay so it looks like we have maybe an Avengers

[01:55:00] team coming up all right good evening madam chair members of the board dr. Pennycuff. We come before you tonight as a unified team because the topic of technology and education is far too complex for any single department to address alone. Tech usage impacts our local Hanover community just as deeply as it does school divisions throughout the nation.

[01:55:31] By standing here together, we want to ensure that multiple perspectives from curriculum and instruction to technology operations are presented transparently. Our goal tonight is not just to deliver a report but to provide a meaningful opportunity for this board to ask questions and engage with us across this deeply nuanced topic. To understand where we are going, we have to look at the broader cultural landscape our students inhabit. Recent data from Pew Research highlights a major shift. Today's teenagers have overwhelmingly moved to YouTube as a primary hub

[01:56:10] for both research and entertainment. However, there is a vast difference between how a student scrolls through YouTube at home, and how an educator utilizes it in class. Our teachers are experts in pedagogy and content.

[01:56:27] When they introduce a video, they do so with a highly specific instructional purpose in mind. They use these tools to teach students how to critically evaluate information and carefully scrutinize sources. In practice, a teacher selecting a digital video clip is no different from a teacher selecting a specific print material or textbook excerpt to support a learning objective. We are not blind to the risks of tech. The CDC has released alarming data linking high daily screen time to negative mental and physical health outcomes for

[01:57:03] teens. This is why we must clearly distinguish between passive screen time and instructional screen time. The groundbreaking book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, has compelled all of us in education to deeply reflect on the ways we can mitigate passive screen time in our schools.

[01:57:24] What you will hear about tonight is how Hanover County uses technology strictly to enhance instruction, not replace it. We commit to a continuous evaluation of both the impacts of technology and the alternative options available to us. Our teachers are trained to design instructional activities that place the academic content and the developmental needs of the students first. Crucially, we support our teachers in understanding how and when technology truly enhances learning, and just as importantly, how and when not to select technology as a tool for

[01:58:03] learning. As a division, our mission is clear. We will continue to actively monitor for and eliminate passive screen time for our students during the school day. It is important to note that Hanover's history with technology looks different from many of our neighboring divisions. We have always taken a measured, deliberate approach. If we look back to the 2019-2020 school year, we had only just begun a very limited pilot program testing one-to-one devices at Bell Creek Middle School.

[01:58:37] We were moving slowly and intentionally. Of course, the arrival of the pandemic completely disrupted the timeline and necessitated that we accelerate to move towards a division-wide one-to-one model. Even before the pandemic, technology was actively and safely used for instruction in our classrooms. Many of you will remember the five packs of devices in classrooms, dedicated computer labs, and cows, computers on wheels. Tech was a resource we went to rather

[01:59:14] than something that was sitting on a desk. The usage data that we are sharing with you on this slide confirms that this philosophy is still alive in Hanover. The data shows that technology is accessed in short bursts by our students throughout the day. As you can see, the average login time for a student is about 15 minutes. So this indicates that devices are being open to complete highly targeted, vetted learning activities, such as small group station work, rather than being used

[01:59:46] for hours of continuous mindless viewing. As we look at the pie charts on this slide, you can see a clear visual breakdown of exactly how our students are spending time on division devices, and it differs from elementary to middle to high. If you look at elementary, we see that recess and lunch occupy 10% and 7.7% of a student's day, and then the two blue categories, the dark blue

[02:00:21] representing instruction that is not technology-based, and the sliver of lighter blue, which is 4.6, which indicates when we have technology-enhanced instruction. Middle school, you see the shift. We don't have recess. We have other opportunities for students to move around. And we've switched in middle school now to a block schedule from the elementary where they were in the same classroom, going to recess, going to lunch with their peers.

[02:00:53] Middle and high school usage is fairly similar across the board. I think what we have honed in on as staff is that middle school is a unique opportunity for us to have some conversations. So looking ahead to the next school year, our primary focus is heavily directed at the middle school level. The transition from fifth grade to sixth grade is massive in developmental milestones for a child. They are dealing with more teachers, more personal freedom, more homework, and significantly more access to technology. We want to ensure that they are fully supported

[02:01:31] during this critical shift. So we will continue to drill down into our usage data to constantly police the quality and the purposefulness of the time our students are spending on technology. We will have some new tools in the fall that will allow us to do that. Second, we recognize that school doesn't happen in a vacuum. We want to explore new options to partner with parents more effectively, supporting them as they navigate this new landscape of technology.

[02:02:02] And finally, we want to make sure that we are better supporting parents in reducing and controlling passive screen time at home, reinforcing the boundaries we are setting in the classroom. And so tonight, you will hear from a variety of my colleagues behind me as we take you through some of the more detailed nuance of how technology is being used in Hanover County public school classrooms.

[02:02:29] We want to make sure that you have the opportunity to hear from our experts and to ask us questions so that we may respond and so that together we can forge a path forward that serves the best needs of our students.

[02:02:44] And so at this time, I will transition over to Dr. Sheri Beth Fisher, who will go through our instructional, our model for instructional design. So several years ago, teachers and leaders across our school division collaborated to develop this visual representation that captures the process our teachers engage in as they design instruction for all students.

[02:03:12] This model for instructional design now anchors all instructional planning and decision-making. So I'm going to briefly walk you through the design process, which most often occurs in those collaborative team meetings during our teachers' unencumbered planning time. So when you hear about the meetings during planning time, this is what they're doing. The process begins with teachers referencing the pacing and guidance documents that the curriculum and instruction team provides for them. And from here, the teachers identify the essential standards that

[02:03:45] will be covered in the next unit of instruction. Next, teachers collaboratively unpack the standards. And that just means that they look at the nouns and the standard to identify the concepts and skills that the students must master during that unit. And then they analyze the verbs and the standards to determine the level of rigor that's required for that instruction.

[02:04:10] With those things in mind, our teachers can then consider how to best measure student learning at the end of the unit of instruction. The summative assessment is really important because ultimately it's going to provide the teachers with a way to reflect on the effectiveness of their instruction and of course to identify the students who are going to need more support. This assessment isn't going to be given until the very end of that unit of instruction, but developing it now ensures that the teachers are planning aligned instructional activities that will best prepare the students

[02:04:45] for success. Designing instruction, the next little bubble here, involves organizing a sequence for that learning and then determining those most critical places to check in on student learning along the way so we're going to come back to this portion of the model in just a minute and then at that point we enter this little loop which we call our continuous learning loop and this involves instructing a small chunk of material assessing student progress on that chunk of material and then using student data from formative assessments to identify the students

[02:05:23] in need of remediation or extension. And we remain in this loop until the entire learning progression has been taught. And finally, at the end of all of that process, students are prepared to take their common summative assessment so that teachers can analyze the data and reflect on their instruction. So let's take a closer look at the design instruction bubble, because in addition to defining a learning progression and developing those common formative assessments here, teachers also develop or select instructional activities that will best support their students

[02:06:02] at this time. And this is often our teacher's preferred bubble because this is when they can flex their instructional expertise as they have autonomy over how they deliver the learning to their students. So teachers have a myriad of instructional strategies that they may elect to use as students move through the learning progression. Some of the most common strategies that we see in classrooms are listed here in these pillars. Reading and writing, discussion, collaboration, hands-on learning, just to name a few. These strategies may be isolated or they

[02:06:40] may be layered on top of each other. Sometimes technology provides students with opportunities and experiences that traditional teaching does not afford. Other times, technology may not be used at all. In the pie charts that Mrs. Greif just shared with us, we saw that Hanover students spend over 75% of their time engaged in instruction that does not involve technology.

[02:07:05] When teachers choose to incorporate technology, it's often layered with other strategies. And you're going to see some specific examples of that in just a moment. The other place where technology integration is frequently considered within our model for instructional design is when we're planning assessments, especially those summative assessments at the end of the unit.

[02:07:28] Digital assessments provide us with greater opportunities for immediate feedback, and in turn, they support our students in being able to respond to student data. These common data points set the stage for teachers to be able to collaborate around the next steps for their students, and they also allow us to monitor student performance across classrooms and schools throughout the division. So when we come and share our quarterly academic reports with you, that is the data that we reference to be able to share with you how students are excelling across

[02:08:01] the division. So we're going to take a look at an example of how instructional technology may be intentionally incorporated into elementary math first. And to do that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Ian Shank, who is our curriculum specialist for mathematics. So the philosophy our teachers follow when designing mathematics instruction is math workshop. This provides flexibility for teachers to meet students where they are with personalized, individualized, and differentiated instruction. Depending on

[02:08:38] the mathematical goal of the lesson, teachers may start in whole group instruction before splitting out into stations. During this time, teachers would pull small groups of students to provide additional instruction, enrichment, remediation, problem solving, while the rest of the students are provided choice about how they are going to engage in a learning station to help extend their knowledge of the mathematics.

[02:09:04] These learning stations might be additional practice, they may be spiral review, they may be math games, they may be fact fluency stations, or students may engage in a technology-based station. In determining the stations that teachers provide for students to choose from, they begin with our curriculum guide. So for example, I'm going to take the form of a third grade teacher planning a unit on fractions and helping our students develop some conceptual understanding of what a fraction is. Our unit guide clarifies that third grade students need

[02:09:40] to understand fractions as an area model, think slices of pizza, or a set model, think about a dozen donuts and recognizing that a quarter of them have sprinkles, or as fractions on a number line as a measurement model. And this is where we think about our rulers as students make the connection between fractions on a ruler. And most importantly in this unit, students are making connections and recognizing how those models are similar or different than another and being able to fluidly move back and forth between them. And as teachers are planning this instruction,

[02:10:18] They're thinking about how can I help students visualize that connection between area model and set model and measurement model. And this sparks a memory or a knowledge that the program that we provide, the technology program we provide at the elementary level, is ST Math.

[02:10:36] And ST Math provides an excellent puzzle that students can solve that can demonstrate this connection. And I would love to demo that with Ms. Patterson's help. I'm still seeing that online.

[02:10:55] There we go. All right, so this is what students would see when they engage in ST Math. Now, a couple of things that you notice immediately, there's a penguin, there's a unicycle, clear blue sky, a faded out green arrow at the top, and a couple of things that you don't notice.

[02:11:15] You don't notice any words. You don't notice any instructions. Students are left to apply their critical thinking to figure out how to solve this puzzle. And yes, we call them puzzles and not math problems for students to solve.

[02:11:31] So I'd love to take just a second and involve you all a little bit and tell me, what do you think we're supposed to do? Any ideas? It's a great question. How far does the penguin have to go to get to the balloons?

[02:11:52] Yeah, that penguin's name is Gigi. Our elementary kids love Gigi. One of the hints that ST Math provides is a student who really doesn't know where to start can just tap the screen. And if you see what happened real quickly, those balloons lit up. And so now that's a hint that maybe I'm going to tap the balloons. Now notice what happened when I tap the balloons. That green arrow at the top of the screen is no longer faded out. It's now solid green. Well, let's push it.

[02:12:24] Gigi rolls across the number line, landed right on that number one, looked very disappointingly at the camera, and now we're starting back at the beginning. All right, so what do you think we're we're supposed to do to solve this puzzle. Remember, I can take my balloons. I can drag it across.

[02:12:44] No pressure. Where should I put this balloon? I see the number one. So we'll put it right there. Let's hit the green arrow. Gigi goes across that one, lands, and successfully flies off the screen. And now students are engaged with a next question. Candy, yes, exactly. So now we see Gigi on top of The unicycle was one circle, now it's four circles.

[02:13:11] So same thing. How do we get Gigi off of the screen? Where do you think we should put Gigi this time? Or where should we get the balloons this time? I'm seeing the number four. So let's take that. We will drag it over. We'll put it at number four. We push the green arrow and notice this connection between the size of those circles, the full rotation.

[02:13:32] There's a great physics example here, physics analogy, as we figured out where to put those balloons to go through four full rotations. Now you heard me say a second ago that we're looking to do fractions. So students start with this, they explore a little bit about the mechanism of how this is going to work, and then they engage in the next problem which looks like this. So now you see Gigi is standing on top of that unicycle. I see one full circle and over top of that I see a portion of a circle. So the same mechanism is going to apply. I've just advanced my level. I've made this a little more challenging. We're going to figure out where those

[02:14:10] balloons are put and maybe, I don't know, is that, what do you think? That's about one and a half, right? So let's put that right there about one and a half. Let's put the green button and whoops, we didn't make it. Now notice what happens is students didn't get that right. We know immediately I missed it. And what do I do? I get to do it again. There's no prompts. There's no, hey, put the penguin here, it's I'm continuing to use what I've learned to solve additional problems. So really strengthening not only the knowledge of fractions, the purpose of this, but really what is that critical thinking skill here and how do I use what I've learned

[02:14:47] to solve new problems. So now I recognize, wait a second, that other circle, it's not about a half, is it? It's a little bit smaller than that. So what if I put over there more like, I don't know, about one, maybe one and a fourth. So I'll do that. Notice we've got At the area model, one and a fourth, think about the slices of pizza, I got a full slice of pizza and a quarter of the other one.

[02:15:08] And I've made that connection to the area or the measurement along the number line. Students directly connecting that measurement model to the area model in an excellent visual way for students to see exactly how those things are related together.

[02:15:24] Now in total, students will engage with ST Math for about 10 to 15 minutes. So the stat we saw earlier, that when students log on, they are engaging about 15 minutes. That matches about what we're seeing here with ST Math. And as they are doing that, they're provided with that immediate feedback.

[02:15:42] Like I mentioned, they either got it right or they're wrong, and then they are challenged to persevere and continue trying through it. Teachers are then provided with a lot of detailed feedback about how their students did, how quickly the students progressed through the puzzles, how many puzzles they solved, their level of accuracy along with a whole host of other data. That data then is used by the teacher along with data from classroom assessments and classroom observations to inform our next steps and maybe determine the next time which students am I going to pull from my small group, which misconceptions do we need to fix there along the way. That's how we might use technology in the

[02:16:21] elementary math world and I'm going to turn it over to Miss Laura Cooper to talk about technology in the science world. All right, so in a previous position I served as the instructional technology coach at Patrick Henry High School. One of the teachers I've worked closely with taught biology and was experiencing two challenges: student engagement was low and assessment scores were not where she wanted them to be. As an ITC, my first step was not recommending a technology tool. Instead, I started with the standards and the learning progression. As

[02:16:59] As we reviewed the unit together, we realized that some instruction had expanded beyond what students were actually expected to master. Science is a subject with multiple depths of understanding, and for teachers who are passionate about their content, it's easy to want to share everything just because it's interesting.

[02:17:16] While that additional information could be valuable as an extension, students first needed a strong understanding of the required content. Next, we looked at student engagement. At the time, much of the instruction followed a traditional format. The teacher presented information through lecture and Google Slides while students completed fill-in-the-blank notes.

[02:17:34] This was often followed by independent work and occasionally a lab activity. Students rarely asked questions, participated in discussions, or demonstrated ownership of their learning. So before we even talked about technology, we asked a different question. What experiences did students need in order to move successfully through the learning progression?

[02:17:54] That question led us to redesign a unit using a HyperDOT framework. Can you please click completed version for me? At first glance, this may look like a digital worksheet. The blue text that you see would be sample student responses.

[02:18:17] So this would be equivalent to what a completed document would look like. So it looks like a digital worksheet. However, what you are seeing is only the student facing document. Throughout this unit students participated in class discussions, received direct instructions, met with the teacher in small groups, built physical models, wrote responses, reflected on their understanding, and collaborated with their peers.

[02:18:40] The HyperDocs simply provided a structure that connected all of those experiences together. The unit began with the learning attention, so if you scroll up to the top for me. This was the overarching goal for learning. One of the things we know about engagement is that students are more likely to invest in learning when they understand why they are learning something.

[02:18:59] The learning intention helped answer that question from the beginning. The HyperDoc followed the 5E instructional model, so you'll see the first stage was Engage. Students began by watching a short video and reflecting on questions related to inherited traits. They were asked to think about what traits humans share and what makes each person unique.

[02:19:18] They then attempted a DNA building activity before receiving any formal instruction. This was intentional. Rather than immediately giving students answers, we wanted them to think, wonder, and develop questions. These activities were followed by a discussion. Because students had already watched the video, reflected on their thinking, and attempted the activity, they entered the discussion with ideas and were ready to share. This significantly increased participation compared to the traditional lecture format. Next, if you'll scroll down a little bit, is Explore. In this section, students were given a choice between two resources: a reading passage, available digitally or on paper, and a video.

[02:19:56] Both resources were aligned to the same standards and covered the same content. The difference was student choice. When multiple resources are equally effective, allowing students to choose can increase engagement and ownership. Teachers often select a single resource for an entire class.

[02:20:13] However, not every student finds the same resource engaging. Providing students with choice between resources of equal quality, students could select the format that works best for them while still learning the same content. You'll see that regardless of which option students chose, they worked with a partner to create a timeline of DNA discoveries and answered a summarizing question about what the discovery of DNA told us about science.

[02:20:36] Students were discussing, collaborating, organizing information, and communicating their understanding. Technology supported the learning, but it was not the learning itself. Following the explore section, the students reflected on success criteria. These simple check marks gave students a private way to communicate their level of understanding.

[02:20:55] At the same time, they provided the teacher with immediate information about which students needed additional support. The teacher was then able to create flexible small groups and provide targeted instruction based on student needs. If we'll scroll down next, you'll see explain.

[02:21:11] You'll notice that direct instruction still occurred. Students were provided with the teacher slide presentation as well as a recording of the lesson. This allowed students to revisit explanations as needed and provided support for students who have been absent during instruction. However, the learning did not stop with the lecture. If you'll scroll down you'll see that students participated in discussions, completed formative checks, labeled diagrams, sketched structures, analyzed models, and reflected on their understanding as they move throughout the content.

[02:21:39] So what you're seeing here is a completed worksheet. So right here where you have stop right one second where you see this nucleotide. Students had to construct this so like if you you double click it, can you double click it for me? It might, maybe, or not. Open up in a separate tab where they can actually manipulate the labels and move it around. So this is what this looks like finished, but again they're moving and they're labeling, and then they also took the time to draw that physically in their notebook, because knowing what a nucleotide is, is important for not only

[02:22:13] this standard, but previous standard where we talked about our big biomolecules. If you keep scrolling through, you'll see that we are answering questions, we're discussing, we're reflecting on success criteria. Keep going. We did a lot with this information. Here was another model where they interact with it, labeling, dragging, moving things, answering questions. Keep going. We're reflecting on success criteria. Look at all of the things the students did with this information they got through the lecture. Keep going. All right, stop. Go up, go up, go up. All right, perfect right there.

[02:22:47] So one of the most powerful examples occurred during this section, the DNA models. DNA is an abstract concept. Students can't see it, which often makes its structure difficult to understand. Students explored three different models. First, they created a two-dimensional model, which you can see up here.

[02:23:05] And again, this is the completed version. They had to drag and put this puzzle together to complete this model. Then they built DNA friendship bracelets as a three-dimensional model. So this was hands-on, and you can see a picture of what one of those looked like. And finally, they explored a virtual model.

[02:23:21] So if we were to click that, it's a very complex three-dimensional DNA molecule that spins in all different directions. So students could interact with it in ways that they couldn't do otherwise. So you can manipulate it if you want to, but just to see what it looks like.

[02:23:38] They could click and look at, actually click where it says sticks down there on the left-hand side. So they could click and then ball and stick and ladder. So they could click through and they could look at the same DNA molecule in different forms.

[02:23:53] using this digital resource. So students were able to compare the strengths and limitations of each model. This was important because comparing models is a required biology standard and one that students often struggle with. Technology did not replace the hands-on experience, they still built the friendship bracelets. Instead it expanded the number and types of models students could analyze.

[02:24:16] Students were able to interact with DNA in ways that would not have been possible using static textbook images alone. Next, if you'll scroll down, was elaborate. In this section, students again had a choice between resources. They could either read an article or watch a video about the human genome project and cloning. Both resources address the same standards and contain the same essential content. Students discussed their learning with peers, wrote summaries, and participated in class discussion about how advances in technology had expanded our understanding of genetics and what ethical considerations societies should consider when working with cloning technologies, all of which are required state standards. Once again, students were given

[02:24:54] ownership over how they accessed the information while still engaging with the same learning goals. Many students actually chose to explore both resources because they became interested in the topic. Finally, if you'll scroll down, students moved into Evaluate, the last phase of the 5E instructional model. Before completing the assessment, students were asked to review their success criteria reflections and identify any areas where they still needed support. If they had marked that they needed help, they were encouraged to revisit resources, explore a different format, or ask the teacher for clarification before taking the quiz. This was important because the assessment was not treated as a one-time endpoint. It became a part of the

[02:25:32] learning process. Students also had the opportunity to retake the quiz, but only after reviewing content, completing additional activities, or asking the teacher to explain the concept in a different way. The teacher then used the assessment results to identify remaining misconceptions and determine next instructional steps. Most importantly, after all of this, student outcomes improved. Summative assessment scores on the CNA unit were significantly higher than scores on previous units. It wasn't just good technology-enhanced instruction. It was also the intentional redesign to increase engagement, provide multiple pathways for learning, offer

[02:26:09] opportunities for discussion and reflection, and allow students to interact with content in meaningful ways. So scroll up and down for me. You'll notice on the side those same blue pillars that Dr. Fisher discussed earlier. If you'll go back to the presentation now and on to the next slide. As students worked through the HyperDoc, oh sorry, as students worked through the HyperDoc, they participated in direct instruction, discussion and collaboration, hands-on learning, reading and writing, small group instruction, and technology-enhanced learning. All of these

[02:26:47] experiences were happening simultaneously. Technology was not the lesson. Technology was one tool intentionally selected to support movement through learning progression and provide opportunities for engagement, visualization, differentiation, accessibility, and interaction that traditional instruction alone could not provide. And next, Heather Causey, our instructional technology curriculum specialist, is here to share more. Thank you so much, Ms. Cooper and Mr.

[02:27:17] shank for those wonderful examples of how hanover does truly support responsible and purposeful technology enhanced instruction but let's get to a big purpose of our meeting tonight we want to talk about screen time so as we talk about technology um enhanced instruction we easily segue into the discussion of screens but as miss greifes talked about earlier all screen time is not equal. Passive screen time is that scrolling, that entertainment, often social media, and just

[02:27:56] consuming content that is the one that is negative. That is the one that's negative when overused. Academic screen time is instructional. It's skill building. It's collaborative. It's active. It's research-based. It's purposeful, and it's often creative. And when we talk about YouTube, society is using standard YouTube for that entertainment opportunity and that doom scrolling for long

[02:28:28] periods of time. That's the passive, the YouTube that we don't like. But in Hanover schools, we only have access to the academic filtered for minors version of YouTube. And when students are accessing this tool for instruction, they're often using it with Edpuzzle, another vetted application that breaks apart video so that the content can be stopped and asked of questions and assessment and increased engagement. When screens are used in instruction, they're supervised, guided by

[02:29:05] trained professionals, and grounded in our classroom curriculum to create that positive learning environment. Last month, I was excited to talk about this, last month Dr. Castle and I were invited to speak to congressional offices in both the Senate and the House in Washington, D.C. We spoke on the topics of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, e-rate, and screen time. One of the most interesting takeaways from that day was the work that Hanover is doing

[02:29:41] showed us to be way ahead of the curve in addressing many of the concerns the nation is dealing with. So let me explain. In that summer of 2024, Governor Youngkin called for divisions, some of you may remember, to create guidelines and policy regarding cell phone access during the instructional day, trying to address the passive screen time concern. But look at Hanover.

[02:30:10] As you can see, on the same day that the Executive Order 33 was issued, the Hanover County School Board had already voted to implement a new policy to remove cell phones from our instructional day approximately a year before the state mandated it across all divisions. So to recap, Virginia was ahead of the nation in addressing the concern and Hanover was ahead of Virginia.

[02:30:40] What are other things we're doing to help? We have a three-layered approach. IBOS is our main, very stringent web filtering agent and we have never allowed social media on our devices for students. This tool filters to ensure our safe content across our devices and stays with the student even while they're at home. Layer two is our approval portal. This process requires that all instructional tools that our teachers use with students follow a rigorous vetting process.

[02:31:19] They have an instructional technology review. They're checked by curriculum specialists. They have to comply with our data privacy agreements and will now be vetted for accessibility. And then layer three, that's the classroom layer.

[02:31:35] Securely, which we purchased last year, is a computer monitoring software that's used at that teacher classroom level. Teachers can actively monitor students when screens are in use. They can redirect an individual student, they can send direct links to save time, as well as create content-driven allow list and not allow list based on the instructional design needs of that lesson.

[02:32:07] In Hanover, we are a one-to-one environment. Kindergarten students are given iPads, grades 1 through 5 have touchscreen Chromebooks, and 6 through 12 have Chromebooks that go home. Even though they go home, though, that layer one IBOS filtering stays with the device.

[02:32:32] And finally, for me, let's talk about curriculum. Again, ahead of the curve, HCPS instructional technology team recognized the passive screen time that our students may be struggling with at home and wanted to help.

[02:32:49] We quickly revamped the digital citizenship curriculum to address that need. This new curriculum was put before students in the fall of 2024 and continues to be revamped every year. This curriculum is based off the content from Common Sense Media. All students K-12 have lessons on five of the six core pillars, and only secondary has the additional lessons for AI literacy. K-5 students do these lessons with their teachers during morning meetings.

[02:33:24] 6th through 10th grade students have these lessons in health and PE, and the 11th and 12th grade curriculum is covered in economics, personal finance, and government. Just a few examples of the learning intentions for the Be Balanced lessons are, in 4th grade, what does media balance even mean?

[02:33:47] In 6th grade, students identify ways and reasons to unplug at home. And in eighth grade, students reflect on how digital media is designed to help or hinder them making good choices. Much of this Be Balanced content is about empowering the student with the what, the when, and the how much for making good media choices.

[02:34:15] And finally, let's not forget the state-required curriculum. Digital learning integration and computer science standards prepare our students with skills for their future that support concepts such as computational thinking, cybersecurity, computing, and media literacy.

[02:34:36] And with that, let me turn our presentation over to Dr. Castle. So where are we headed next? We have four big groups here that we want to talk about. These are our key stakeholders. We start with our students, we head to our teachers and our parents, and then finally our leaders.

[02:34:56] And so always at the core, the place we always want to center everything, our first priority is our students. We want to always give them that digital citizenship curriculum. If they're not hearing and seeing the modeling examples that we've talked about tonight from us, the educators, where are they going to get it?

[02:35:13] We are the best place to give them that information and show them this is what you really need to be doing with these tools. their productivity tools. They are tools to be used for learning. They're not just here to waste your time. So we want them to be engaging and interacting with this tool appropriately, and that's what we're doing with digital citizenship curriculum. Interactive learning, yes, engagement.

[02:35:35] We want to pull in those teenagers. We want to pull in those little learners and make sure that we're engaging with them every single day effectively and really helping them to learn. And finally, all of that happens within a very safe, probably the safest environment we could give them right here in our schools each and every day.

[02:35:53] Of course, this happens also through getting well-trained teachers. It doesn't happen by magic. It happens from really hard work in helping our teachers understand how to apply those design, instructional design model techniques that we discussed earlier. Where do you do those things? I think Ms. Cooper's example showed a lot of work.

[02:36:12] Imagine all of that work and thought that went into creating that entire unit from step by step by step in each place, finding the right way to engage students and helping them learn in the most effective way. So it happens with specialists, it happens with all of our resources, you're seeing some of the workshops and other places that we go to learn about the information.

[02:36:30] And then even when we start in the beginning with new faculty, like in our new faculty academy, we're onboarding those staff members to help them learn and grow and know where to start and giving them our philosophy and our approach to how we engage students. And finally, lastly, we do provide the bumpers, the guidelines.

[02:36:46] Our AI guidelines are a good example of that. When and how and when you should or should not put something into play is really important for our teachers as well as our students. And so Dr. Staley is going to come continue the conversation. In addition to students and teachers, we will also provide support to our parents.

[02:37:09] We will keep parents informed. We will keep parents involved. And we will provide resources to our parents. What does that look like? We will share information to our parents using ParentSquare. We will invite our parents to community events and forums.

[02:37:28] We will teach our parents about AI, cell phone use, privacy, security, and other topics. We will provide parents access to our online portal and other digital resources. We will provide technical support. And our website is robust.

[02:37:46] We have a plethora of resources on our website. Simply put, we want to partner with our parents that are essential in this work, and together we will help them navigate this world of digital parenting. Finally, through instructional supervision, our leaders will monitor appropriate screen time in classrooms.

[02:38:11] Administrators will participate in collaborative planning with our teachers and with our departments. Administrators will conduct walkthroughs and observations and give instructional feedback to our teachers. Administrators will engage in professional learning alongside with our content.

[02:38:27] Specialists and then principals' leadership teams will view student achievement and other instructional data. In summary, we are strategic in our planning. We are grounded in best practice for instruction and for student safety.

[02:38:45] We are diligent in monitoring implementation, and we are committed to supporting and monitoring purposeful and meaningful technology-enhanced instruction in our school. Madam Chair, school board members, on behalf of the ILS team, thank you for the opportunity to provide these updates.

[02:39:04] What questions may our team answer? Thank you. I know we're going to have lots of questions and discussions. So yeah, go ahead, Dr. Schoen. Thank you, Dr. Staley. And to everybody, it's very, very well done.

[02:39:22] It's really well done. I do have a couple of questions. What were our scores in 2018, reading, math, science, social studies, compared to now? Like, have we made-- I know it's different, too, so it might not be able to be compared.

[02:39:41] So if that's the case, just tell me so, it's OK. Yeah, I do not have those numbers at the ready. But we can certainly take a look at those for you. And also, in doing so, to help contextualize what has changed since 2018.

[02:39:58] When we look at research around this topic and almost any topic in education, we often will find correlation, which means that two things happened in proximity to each other. Finding causation is sometimes a little trickier, and we need to make sure that we are doing due diligence.

[02:40:16] And so we want to make sure that when we compare scores, that we give the board sufficient context to ask more questions so that we can really get to the root of any causation that we might want to address. Would it be fair to say, though, that we haven't made-- not just us, but the Commonwealth-- anybody in the Commonwealth hasn't made great strides since adopting this practice of one-to-one laptops?

[02:40:41] So I think that you actually need to go back a little bit further than that. Because if you look at even in the Commonwealth of Virginia, when school divisions onboarded to one-to-one devices varied greatly. If you just look to our south, Henrico led the field pretty much nationally in their one-to-one.

[02:41:00] And so you would want to look at Henrico's data for a much longer period of time than you would look at ours, which was basically 2021 until now. And so that's where I think that we need to make sure that we're being very specific in the questions that we're asking and the data that we provide.

[02:41:18] Okay, that's fair. And then how did we measure the time that the students were on the Chromebooks? Is that just purely through the software we'd buy? Yes, it is through a software program. I'm going to ask Heather to come up. Analytics Plus basically uses the login of the student in their Chromebooks.

[02:41:45] I'm so loud. I can hear you. It's fine. I know. I'm so loud normally. So Analytics Plus, though, those data points were an average. And I'll be honest, they're like an average of an average. And we don't 100% love the nuance that we want to get in there, because we would love to be able to separate all these different pieces out of when and where.

[02:42:11] But that is what Analytics Plus is telling us, and I think you addressed that, is coming to us this fall. So we're very excited to be able to see more nuanced about where and when. um that instructional use time is actually happening and what maybe like what they're going to look at we should be able to see some of that yes okay and then dr strofe we're also going to put eyes on them right um because we certainly can get a lot of information from analytics plus but we also have itcs in all of our buildings and we have administrators and we want boots on the

[02:42:45] ground visual confirmation about how our students are using the technology how is it helping engagement and where is it distracting students from being engaged in the instruction that we've put in front of them so we're going to be doing a combination of taking data that comes from the use and the times and things like that but then also doing some real human-to-human interactions and and seeing what we can see in the classroom and how that's affecting our students okay and I have one last question and dr. Staley you alluded to this do we send information home and we know that it's relatively new research is coming out

[02:43:22] let's say the last year about screen time and passive screen time do we send any information to parents to say hey look at what your kids doing or you know monitor whatever we might say number one thank you for asking that in our digital citizenship curriculum as the teachers work through those morning meetings they have been given blurbs to go out through parent square explaining that curriculum and what we're talking about with students I was in a session with parents was it a month ago dr. penny cough two months ago the big safety

[02:44:00] meeting and wanted was it a couple months ago it was so fun the one of the big ask from that meeting was parents asking for more information in regards to not just screen time but any other suggestions from the school about how they can help in this new digital parenting age and so we're developing a newsletter that right now I'm affectionately calling control function parent because that's funny and that actually is one of our big initiatives from the instructional technology team for next year or it'll start in the fall okay good thank you and if I could just add to that and ask mrs.

[02:44:38] Causey to explain that safety event that we did that had the digital citizenship, gun safety, several areas, and the parents rotated through stations to learn about different safety pieces and what they could do to support their children. Would you mind talking a little bit about what you taught the parents that evening? Oh, wowee. So my role was obviously about digital age parenting, and I shared a lot of resources, predominantly from Common Sense Media, because that is a source that we love we talked a lot about um how they can work with supervising but

[02:45:14] also winning the mind of their student about using these tools um there were a lot of resources shared in there and i think that's where the questions came of like hey can we have more of this um and that's where it landed with all right let's do a newsletter let's let's help more and do more of the face-to-face events. I think that was also an ask, which is something we will certainly work on. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Martin. I appreciate the information. Very, very comprehensive. I think

[02:45:50] that the board is not looking for no technology. I hope you guys understand that. I think it's just trying to make sure we're purposeful about how we do it. So I feel like you captured that in that presentation, but I just want to say that. When it comes to Chromebooks, especially one-to-one an elementary school i know a lot of districts have abandoned them k through two um la's uh large the second largest district in the country um which i agree with very little that happens in la but um they uh they've gotten away from them k through two um and have limited uh three through five um so i'm just kind of curious and that's just one example i know many others that are doing

[02:46:30] something different with with the one-to-one especially at the elementary level so just kind of wanted perspective on you know what we're thinking in that regard. I think that staff would be very pleased to bring back to you a little bit more nuanced information on how we use it K through 2 and then in a 3 through 5 band because the data that we shared with you today was a wider band and I think that we want to really pinpoint for you how much time but then

[02:47:02] also how that time is being used. If it's being used for ST Math, I love that. If it's being used for students scrolling, we hate that. And so we want to make sure that however we're using it in whatever grade band, that it is being purposeful, as you say. And so when we look at K through 2, we all acknowledge that there is much less that we need to or that we even should consider using digitally. The vast majority of our K-2 classrooms, as when you visit in the fall with us, you will

[02:47:40] see very minimal technology in there, but we're happy to bring back to you the specifics of what that is so that collectively we can make great decisions for our kids. Thank you. Another, just sticking on Chromebooks, and I don't know the answer to this because my kids are younger, but did the secondary kids utilize Chromebooks at home for homework? Yes. So I guess when I think about that you know i think about a kid who's active in sports gets out of school at 3 30 goes to practice till 6 has to go home shower eat dinner and then is staring at a screen at 8 30 9 o'clock and i think we all know how disruptive looking at a device that late at night is for sleep which we

[02:48:19] know is you know critical for kids so are there any um thoughts around curtailing what we can do from a from a homework perspective and trying to cut down on that and that's not you know that's less of a um educational thing and more just a well-being of the of the student so i'll be honest the the idea of light the blue light um and sleep is something that our team has not had a conversation about related to homework and what time of day our students might be engaged in that i'm hoping that analytics plus can give us a little bit more insight as to time of day and things like that but i love that idea and we can certainly yeah it's just ideas that i think a few

[02:48:57] a spitball around and we don't have the answers but just things that we're thinking about so i i don't it's fine that we can't answer that today i just wanted to put it out there right as as we said at the beginning this is a great opportunity for us to exchange ideas and for you to to bring us new things to think about as well yep i'm good for now i can't promise i won't have more thank you mr martin and i'm just going to go down um mr coleman do you have comments right now or i'm listening to mr martin and dr schroff i think a lot of a lot of what what they're targeting is looking at that pie chart and the accuracy of it.

[02:49:32] And I think we're headed that way. Agreed. An average of an average standard deviation, one, two, plus or minus. Right, and the range. We acknowledge that there might be some classroom teachers who very rarely engage in technology-enhanced instruction and some that are doing it much more.

[02:49:52] Sometimes that's content-based. Sometimes it's based upon the age of the student. Sometimes it's based upon the comfort of the teacher. And so we acknowledge that an average gives us this, and the range is this, and the conversation and the story here is what's going to give us the information to make really good decisions.

[02:50:11] I think the big thing that jumps out to me with all this is just, you know, and I think it's in here, and I just couldn't, as I was flipping through, the accountability of leadership, teachers, IAs, everyone to adhere to and be educated in understanding of what passive screen time is versus it and just the implementation of it and uh i think that's i think the implementation and the accountability piece of the leadership in the schools i think is going to be crucial i agree with

[02:50:42] you thank you mr coleman dr schelp yeah i was glad that you asked for some ideas to think about um what occurs to me in the in listening to the discussion is that we were focused really on the technology itself and how we're currently trying to use it and whatnot. There's an implied acknowledgement that there's benefit and that there's danger. And so I think about fire.

[02:51:15] You know, we can use it to heat our house. We can use it to burn our house down. And fire was probably the biggest innovation to mankind prior to the wheel. So this is similar. And so the focus and the thought I would have to focus on is the child themselves, the student, who's actually using it and is making choices about how it's used. We're concerned about discouraging mindless

[02:51:47] scrolling and whatnot, but the individual is going to be that person who has the technology in their hand and what they do with it. And my concern specifically goes to the potential for addiction, I think in terms of addiction, it's part of what I deal with professionally, and addiction is a topic we could talk about for a long time, but here I see a potential, and I experience the threat myself.

[02:52:19] I meet with a tutor every Monday morning for an hour and a half, and often view a TED talk, and it's very helpful and facilitates what I do, but at night, I have to put my phone in another room to charge it to keep myself from mindlessly scrolling and I can't remember anything that I've scrolled over the last week nada nothing and yet my screen time tells me how much time I spent doing that and so the choice I make it's not as easy as awareness awareness is

[02:52:56] probably the most overrated thing I hear from therapists and others because awareness does not translate directly into behavior. And motivation is also overrated. Discipline is far more important. Motivation does not get me to the gym every morning. Discipline does. Motivation is what you do when you want to do it. Discipline is what you do when you don't want to do it,

[02:53:25] but you do it still. So I guess the form of a question, do we have any mechanisms or are we at all observing for addiction, as it would relate to using these kinds of things?

[02:53:44] And is there a role for discipline that the repetitive doing of something is necessary? I know all about the piano. I can answer any question you ask me about the piano, tell you every key on the keyboard. I cannot play the piano.

[02:54:01] I will never play the piano simply from listening to it or watching it. Without time on the keys, it's not going to happen. And how do we affect that in this area of technology?

[02:54:18] I think part of the answer is the work that we're doing. But as you have pointed out, these are lessons. So this would be in the awareness world. And then the discipline has to come in with us engaging with our students and having them take action.

[02:54:35] Like, I'm done with my lesson. I'm closing the laptop. I don't need to do that anymore. Helping our parents to model that at home as well and making sure that action precedes motivation because that's in essence what you're suggesting is that sometimes we're not going to be motivated or even if we have great motivation until there's action, we aren't going to have the connections with our brain to have that form into a habit.

[02:55:02] And I think that that's where when we look at that fifth to sixth grade change, I think that that's something that we have to really consider very thoughtfully. How are we building the actions, the disciplines, the habits in our students gradually so that by the time that they are adults, 18, going off to job, enrollment, whatever that might look like for them, that they have the habits, the discipline around technology to use it as a tool when it's

[02:55:38] appropriate in a manner that's going to help them to be efficient or effective in whatever they're trying to do. And I think that we need to measure that out perhaps more at the educational world and mirror that with our parents. So eighth grade looks a little bit different than ninth grade.

[02:55:56] Ninth grade might look different than senior year. Fifth grade should look different than sixth grade. And how are we building that across the continuum? Thank you, Dr. Schelp. Ms. Lynn. Okay, and Mr. Seifer. Okay, thanks for the briefing everyone very comprehensive and I know a lot of work went into that So I really appreciate that and I have a better understanding and I've learned a lot of you know Positive things not just from the brief but just from conversations I've been having so I know there's good technology in our schools And of course, I'm not anti-technology. I mean, I want technology to continue

[02:56:34] Progressing as fast as possible and people able to utilize it, etc. I you know kids having kids in the schools and that I guess just big picture I'm so worried because we're uh this is when we wire their brains like if us adults use our phones too much we can throw them away and six weeks later we're pretty much back to normal but elementary schools we get screens wrong and when I say screens I'm talking phones and chromebooks um and the bigger picture that that is but if we get it wrong for the elementary school kids the middle school kids the high school kids, then they're probably messed up for life.

[02:57:09] And science says that, whether it's they're less empathetic, whether they don't are able to have relationships, get married, they're so out of shape from their childhood, they don't become healthy adults. So that's why it's so critical, and that's why I'm very focused on it.

[02:57:27] Talking about the discipline there, I feel like the safer approach really is more the avoidance of it. you know, rather than trying to teach kids, you know, good social media use at 12 or 13, you know, the recommendation is don't even let them have it till 16. And so I think you can take that down to the, you know, elementary school and the iPads. Maybe best just to avoid it because we've got, you know, scientists out there saying, hey, if they use too much, we're seeing permanent damage in their brains. So who are we to say, well, it's good for up to 30 minutes and then an

[02:58:04] hour, it's neutral. And then at two hours, it starts damaging. I find a hard time thinking of anything that is good. And then too much, you know, becomes, you know, permanently damaging, I guess. So there's that. I wanted to tell Mr. Martin, thanks to sports and that, because I'm living that with my kids, except oftentimes it's not eight o'clock after practice that they're on their Chromebooks. It's 1030 at night. And, you know, and to see my kids typing away, just knowing It's you know going to mess up their sleep. So yeah, I'm glad that's a new top topic to consider and yeah, I would Yeah, we're not like to see the screens at 10 o'clock at night

[02:58:44] And then it's a dr. Shroff my first question also was just nationally and you know Hanover and I think it's the biggest question is Where is the improvement? You know this big transformation this billions of dollars across the country in the world and you know why aren't we all sitting here going gosh that was a great decision look at all the good things that are happening with our kids and and I don't I don't feel like we have that nationally or or here in Hanover so that's that's what I hope you know we're really looking at and and then so that we don't have that big improvement that we all just immediately see but we have

[02:59:20] all sorts of negative things that have come with screens and this is screens in general and and I know we're doing some good things with screens so I'm not talking about all screens, but in the book "The Digital Delusion," they talk about the number one thing he talks about is the distraction that the Chromebooks, let's call it, are doing. And to think that we have to have an app that monitors what our kids are doing, you know, it just makes me wonder why do we have that device, that we have to have another device to monitor it. So they're distracted, they're wasting a lot of time, there's percentages how much time they're doing other stuff. There's the risk of inappropriate material, and I

[02:59:57] think Hanover does it better but are we you know doing it perfect you know how many kids need to see inappropriate stuff before like gosh maybe just books was was was worth it I saw a statistic recently they say by I don't know maybe 2030 or something 40% of kids are gonna be nearsighted so gosh is you know this big move to screens well worth physically damaging their eyes to reduce attention span I also bring up cheating with the Chromebooks it's I think just easier to do that and I was talking to a Henrico teacher experienced middle

[03:00:33] school math teacher who has kids in Hanover schools and she says I personally am moving away from Chromebooks doing less things on them because the cheating is so bad among my students I don't know what they know and obviously you know bigger problems than just not learning the material I've seen that with my own children in schools, and she was happy to be getting this program that we have that allows the teachers to see what the kids are doing, but my kid's teacher had that, but she wasn't using it, and so I don't know how a teacher keeps track of what 20 kids

[03:01:08] are doing on their screenbook or Chromebook, so there's that negative aspect with the Chromebooks. I think it's pretty universal. Parents feel like they can't help their kids with their learning as much anymore. Let me help you with this.

[03:01:23] Where's the book? So we could go back. But there's no book. It's just handouts. It's just, well, I take notes in class. The teacher gets her material from lots of places. So they have parents I don't feel can help anymore. We talked about the reduced sleep. I've had parents tell me their kids are less organized.

[03:01:40] Things are on the computer. They're not writing anything down to be more organized. And then, of course, we have just scores down. That's just a list of what I came up pretty quickly. The other thing I'll talk about, passive versus active, and I completely agree with that, but I think just as big is books versus screens.

[03:02:01] And I've been bugging you all year, do they have books, do they have books, right? But I feel now that we need to make the students use the books more, like the teacher needs to think, gosh, they learn it better, retain it better, actually flipping the pages.

[03:02:17] And in that book, Digital Delusion, it talks about when you have a book, you've got, you see it all. It has structure versus you're getting handouts. You're getting, you know, it's just kind of random, you know, random info versus as you're paging through that book, you're seeing where you came from, you can see where you're going.

[03:02:35] So I would hope that we would, and it sounds like we are talking to Dr. Penicuff, more of an emphasis on books because the science says it's better. And I can look at emails that I've written before, and I'm like, who wrote that email? And it was me, and if I would have written it with my pen, I would have remembered it according to the science.

[03:02:56] Henrico's school board chair, Madison Irving is his name, and he's actually a Chesterfield teacher also, so I think that's really unique and great. But they had the same meeting as this one last time, and he basically said he questions the one-to-one Chromebook.

[03:03:13] So I hope we're questioning it. I'm not saying he's right. know who knows but that's where he is and his points were is he has such a hard time keeping the attention of his kids and he says that he feels like his students today no less technology than he did and I don't know if you went to Chesterfield or Henrico schools but they know less technology than he did back when he had a technology lab where there was intentional tech ed versus ed tech is the two terms that I hear a lot I kind of talked about the young kids and just you know worrying about you know the wiring of their brains so we're

[03:03:53] about gamification you know like the math video and that's very engaging in that but does it make books boring and hard to learn you know after you have something is as great as great as the technology there you know for me I need all the help I can get so I'll take something like that but for the little kids. I mean, you know, math is boring. A lot of stuff is boring, but you've got to learn to push through it. And just talking about LA schools, I'll also say that Utah has banned all screens K through three. So, you know, we're talking about us, you know, being a leader. Well, there's there's

[03:04:30] Utah saying no screens K through three unless they're specifically teaching technology or something to that effect. And yeah, I guess those are the things I'm concerned about. It's very complex topic but I just put it out there for everyone to think about so thank you thank you does anybody have any other comments questions oh yes yes doctor sorry mr. Seifert mentioned this how do how are we combating AI chat

[03:05:06] GPT or do we have some is is there a way to combat it oh yes please Hanover has taken a very conservative approach to artificial intelligence in our schools it is obviously an important movement that is happening in society and we do need to address students need to understand it right as you can see we already have developed curriculum for 6 through 12 to start discussing that we do have some very vetted opportunities of tools that have artificial

[03:05:42] intelligence in them and when instructionally appropriate students are allowed to use those with oversight directly from the teacher it is a part of a long-range plan to talk about again a conservative approach to how we're going to get students the skills that they need particularly high school students let's just say that particularly high school students the the skills they need to prompt engineer and to use those tools effectively in their workspaces, but also continue to make sure that we're giving that safe environment and to protect

[03:06:19] our data privacy, which is foremost in why we are taking such a conservative approach. Well, and I think all that's great. What I was wondering, though, is that let's say I teach, you know, 12th grade English and I'm having everybody write a paper and we all know you can go and you can just type it into something and write me this paper and it spits out whatever you tell it to spit out.

[03:06:44] How are we combating that? So number one, ChatGPT is not allowed on our devices nor are any large language models. So during the school day, students don't have their phones in order to do that. On our device, in a classroom, an English classroom, securely would be able to see somebody even attempting that, which remember, again, isn't possible on our devices. Now at home, there is that possibility so one of the things that we're working with teachers on is how could or should we be changing some of those instructional opportunities to lessen the possibility that that is being used to give a false represented

[03:07:23] representative of what the student can do on their own okay and then last question are we also providing teacher resources that do want to pull back on some of the you know screen time or do we the teachers have the resources that they need to teach in an analog way.

[03:07:42] I don't know what else to say, how to put it. You got that one? We've never stopped providing teachers with how to teach in that method. This is sort of just a layer. Our default model-- so you asked the question about AI and ChatGPT and turning in essays.

[03:08:01] And as a former high school English teacher, I have a lot to say about that. The way that you do that is to be engaged with your students' learning as a teacher. And our teachers are phenomenal at doing that. You're doing conferencing with your students one-on-one when they're writing papers.

[03:08:19] You're looking at drafts and seeing how draft one changes to draft two. You're having them do peer-to-peer reviews on their paper. So there is a lot embedded within the way that our pedagogy is established that diverts us from technology.

[03:08:38] The default is the old school way, And then the technology is the enhancement. OK, thank you. Sure. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. So a couple things. So we have an ask, or there has been an ask.

[03:08:59] But a couple-- I just want to make a couple quick comments. First of all, we bought our daughter Apple computer, whatever, laptop, MacBook, yes. And this was last year for her to go to school. Guess what's on it?

[03:09:14] ChatGPT. So, I mean, these things are coming on the devices that we're buying for our kids to go to college or school or whatever to have at home. So, but I have heard that there are programs out there that you can upload papers that search for whether it was done on AI.

[03:09:37] And I know in the law field that there has been big discussions about AI use and the healthy use of it. So I think you're going to see that how we use AI is more important to be discussed because it's out there and it can be used as an enhancement and as a functional enhancement to careers.

[03:10:05] I think I just took some notes about what everybody was saying and I'll give you the compilation so that, and I'm sure you've taken notes too, But outcomes, test score outcomes, assessment outcomes, you know, what's changed and the scores since 2018, since prior or from a different division.

[03:10:29] I heard a big theme of books, books, books, where we are with books and do we have classroom sets? Do we have enough books that if a child and a parent wants the book to come home, we can facilitate that?

[03:10:45] And I think we've talked about that in multiple courses across all grades. Wait, could I just say, actually using the book, not just us having them and they're in the corner if the rare kid wants to grab one.

[03:11:01] Because they're going to do what most of the other kids are doing, what the teacher is encouraging. But hopefully the teacher has read the science of the book is better for retention, et cetera, et cetera. Thank you. homework on screens um avoiding that especially late at night with our secondary students which they're the only ones to take them home um and then the use and the stages of different grades the progression of of use and taking those devices home also in our younger kids the k through two

[03:11:39] um you know what does that look like um and then you know something that i thought when we had a discussion um it's great the the interesting thing is the securely use and maybe the uh training additional training on securely use for these teachers um it could be an opportunity as well and um and then just i think the resetting the expectations of you know technology as an enhancement in our instruction so the ask is do we want to

[03:12:15] make this a priority to continue to eliminate the passive use of tech and also look at additional ways how we can how we can see the effective use of technology and how it's effectively enhanced our our instruction is that fair to everybody I would just describe it as perfect you know you can never be perfect just perfect our use of technology and just looking at all the

[03:12:51] latest data that would be my asking okay so give me a read on making this a priority so thumbs up okay okay so we this will be now become a school board priority to to better dive into this and perfect our technology uses instruction so it was fabulous presentation thank you so much we know that took a lot of time and effort and that's why we are making it a priority because it is taking a lot of time you know and and puts a lot on y'all's plate so thank you

[03:13:30] very much it was great any more comments questions if I could I just wanted to make a couple of wrap-up comments. One of the things that I wanted to be sure that we distinguish when we're talking about screen time is that difference between passive and academic screen time. So I think that we are all extremely supportive of reducing passive screen time, whether it's at the end when students are finished with their work and they're pulling out a book or they're choosing to open up their Chromebook. So I think that's an area we can look at and we'll look at those pieces for us. But I think part of it, too, is having those discussions with parents

[03:14:10] that, you know, there's a difference between the academic screen time that's used to enhance instruction and the passive screen time that you see your child play in the games or scrolling, as Dr. Shelp said. I think we have to distinguish between those two because the academic screen time they're going to need for the rest of their academic careers from the time they go on to middle school to junior high up through college through high school and on to college that's going to be part of their life so that responsible use is extremely important we are only getting

[03:14:50] textbooks only getting instructional materials for our content areas that have textbooks so that's one of the pieces that's coming to you tonight the first set that we chose was going to take two years to get the textbook so we went back and we took another option so that we would be able to have those textbooks our families are able to check those textbooks out that match up with the curriculum that the teachers are using in the classroom so they do have that resource too I think the other thing that I want to be sure that I share is our k-5 students have never

[03:15:25] regularly taken home devices. So they use those devices under the watchful eyes of their teachers and of that Securely program. That Securely program also allows us to program those computers so they don't have access to things that they should not have access to, such as pornography and sites that they should not have access to. So we have the ability to block sites and we have the ability to say you can only go to these sites. One of the things that we've talked about

[03:15:58] including in our messaging for parents is how do you do that at home so that when your child is using their device at home how do you know what they're doing on their device? Is it game time or is it their homework? So since we don't send devices home through fifth grade that's where we see that transition for our sixth graders and that's an area we're talking about is how do we ease those children in to having the freedom of a device and how do we help their parents understand that we need it for academic but not for the passive and that's what we will be looking at too

[03:16:37] is how do we reduce that passive screen time even at home by being able to say to parents you can expect homework to take 15 to 30 minutes on the computer or however long it is and then please put the computer away so that we're able to not tell the parents what to do but to give them parameters that say this is what you can expect. And maybe it looks different for the brand new sixth grader and a little bit more for the seventh grader, a little bit more for the eighth grader. So those are things the team and I will be having discussions on about what's appropriate and at what level. Our students are reading books. When you go into our classes,

[03:17:15] you will see that. So we have so many good things. We just don't want to throw the good out with the less than good, that we understand that there is passive, and it is not good, and it is damaging to children when it's not monitored. So we definitely want to educate our parents on that, but when we're having discussions on screen time, we definitely want to separate the distinction between passive and academic. So thank you for listening to the presentation, and thank you to the team for doing an outstanding job on helping our community and our school board understand that

[03:17:48] distinct difference. Thank you, Dr. Penny Cuff. Thank you, team. Appreciate it. Avengers. Okay, so now we are going to move on to our professional learning update by Castle.

[03:18:09] Evening, Madam Chairman. It's been a long time. Members of the board and Dr. Penny Cuff, I am here to present tonight the State of the Union for Professional Learning. So to start with, the State of the Union for Professional Learning is strong. It is very strong. And tonight I want to talk about it. So the first thing I want you to know is that we have a mission. Our mission is to always provide professional learning that is valued, accessible, and transformative. We want it to make a difference, to have an impact on what you're doing in the classroom. We kind of see this as a cycle. It's a 360 cycle going around here. It starts with that foundational support. Who are

[03:18:48] the beginning teachers? Who are the young to the profession teachers? Who are the people that need the 101 level? We move them into higher levels of performance, getting them up to the daily practice routines that we want to see that we know as best practice. And how do we do that? We do that through our flagship events, our activities, our sessions, our training, our support with our coaches. And eventually those people that were once the 101 foundational people will become our next leaders of instruction and getting us and leading other new people coming into that cycle around the trip, around that circle. So what does this look like for PATH folks? We cannot

[03:19:24] give this presentation without talking about one of our primary jewels in the crown, which is PATH. PATH, I love this graphic because it starts with that shell. If you look at the person with the mortarboard on their head, it's just a frame at first, and that's who those people are. They have a lot of potential. They'll have a lot of opportunity to grow and learn and become an amazing teacher, but they've had no training yet. They're fresh off the boat, if you will, and we're going to get them up to speed. We do that in year one, giving them all those foundational pieces that they need and now you see in year two that it's starting to get filled in and finally by the time they're in year three attaining their full licensure we see this as a

[03:20:03] great teacher in our division ready to be fully certified and provide excellent instruction for our students along the way every step of the way we're providing professional learning ongoing support for these teachers that are entering our profession. UPLC is my favorite thing to talk about in this conversation. I love it. It's so exciting. It's an amazing time every year. I'm going to get some more in depth on this one, but right now we're over 200 sessions, unique sessions, and I want you to think about that. That means about one in every seven of our teachers is supporting this. They're actually doing it themselves. One of every seven of our

[03:20:41] instructional staff is out there providing, doing, leading a session. There's a ton of information happening. And the coolest part about it is I trust what you as my colleague are saying because you're in the trenches with me every day doing this and I see you having success. I want to learn from you because you have that street cred that I believe in. And so this is what UPLC does for us.

[03:21:04] It gives us that chance to learn from the best of the best within our division. What does it look like? Over the years, we've grown. When I think about the success of this program, these three days, 40% of our staff in 2024, right at about 50% in 2025. Half of our teachers over the course of three days are coming in over the summer when they're off and learning and growing and reaching to go further. Half of our staff. And if you want to talk about tipping point and research that says what does it take to create momentum, it takes people. And it takes enough people getting on board with an idea or a concept. And one of the ways we build that is through UPLC. And so I'm

[03:21:42] really excited about this. I will share with you that right now we're getting really close to 700 and it's barely June. And as we get closer and closer to July, we keep adding more and more people to this. So I'm hoping that number will get over 50% this year. Some more information about UPLC right there. It says 207 for 2026. It's actually a little higher than that when this slide was created. It's grown a tiny bit more. So again, I think it's right at 212 right now you can see that 25 dip was that was the year we had the tight summer remember that where it was like no time off and anyway some people took a vacation that year okay well anyway we're back

[03:22:19] up to 200 plus sessions these are some of the examples of session topics that we've led and provided for our staff i'll give you a second to look at these i know that you've read this entire report in great detail but i want to give you another minute to review it really quickly i was threatened with less than 10 minutes in this presentation so I'll move on now and this is another thing we're providing overall in professional learning in professional learning this is our catalog right now inside of our professional learning management system we call

[03:22:54] frontline frontline we got 240 sessions there's 4,357 people that we've touched 19,650 hours and 47,865 points that are awarded toward relicensure and certification. That is a lot of professional learning taking place and a whole lot of support for our staff. This is just the internal stuff.

[03:23:21] So when Mrs. Welsh travels out of to Charlottesville for a little workshop all day long, that doesn't include her workshop, which also would be more hours and points awarded. So now I'm going to kind of run you through what a typical pathway might look like. Here's half of your profession, your career. You might start off as a PATH teacher. You're young, you're learning, you're figuring it out. It takes you about three years to get through the PATH program. After your first week of immersion, you're going to go also to New Faculty Academy. And finally, after that three years, you get your full certification. And Amy Thompson is standing there waiting for you with a smile on her face. And she says, I think you'd be a great candidate to work with Mary

[03:23:59] Douglas Roscoe and our Teacher Leader Institute. And the person says, yeah, okay, I'll check it out. And they go into that Teacher Leader Institute, and after a year of that, they say, man, that was so much fun. I'm going to now join up and go Teacher Leader Certification because I want the state of Virginia to put that little seal on my license that says I'm a fully certified Teacher Leader.

[03:24:21] And now after a couple more years, it's been about, what, six years here, seven years I'm in this profession. I'm going to pursue National Board Certification because I want to receive what is the pinnacle of teaching in our profession. I want to get this amazing certification on my record because I want to be the best of the best.

[03:24:38] And after you've gone through the NBCT and you've had incredible training and support from our staff, you're going to come back to us and we're going to say, maybe you're ready for the next step, which is the Next Generation Leadership Academy. You're going to be one of our aspiring assistant principals. And finally, after you've been an amazing assistant principal for three or four years, you're going to say, next for me is the principalship.

[03:25:00] I want to jump in that chair. And so I'm going to get you ready in the statewide communities of practice for excellent scope and get you along that continuum. There's other pieces on here. We might throw in CERN with William & Mary. We might throw in something from JMU, the Virginia PSP, joining in that program. There's lots of parts and pieces here that we can add in this continuum, but it is a continuous process of growth and development.

[03:25:23] And eventually remembering that 360 cycle, this is kind of what that is talking about here. So, Title II. Tonight, you've got the grants in front of you, and Title II is one of them, and this is obviously my favorite because it's me. It's all about professional learning. This one can't go to students. It can't go to anything in the community. It can only go to our teachers and our staff that do this amazing learning. So, there's four pieces here, the creativity, the innovation, the access, and being current. I want people that are creative. I want them to think of solutions and I want to build capacity with them. Creativity for Title II, this is what

[03:26:02] it allows us to do. We can think of ideas all day long, but if we can't support them and can't make them happen, we lose our creativity. This allows us to make it happen. Because of that creativity, we create innovation. New ideas, new approaches, new ways to be successful with our students and be effective in their learning. That provides that access to those activities, those workshops, those sessions of learning that we want to have for our teachers and staff.

[03:26:27] And finally, again, that's how we remain current. Two things that I'll point out here. One is our recently completed reading cohort where we had nine people finish up last year in the fall of 2025. And then recently we've had our last five pop through this spring.

[03:26:44] That's 14 teachers that are in our buildings that are really well certified and able to do some great reading instruction. And you all know about our leadership cohort that is going to enter into that second part of their year. We'll have five that finish in the fall, try that again, four that will finish in the fall, and five that will finish next spring.

[03:27:04] And so, again, some very specific examples of how Title II enables us to go further and really help develop some great leaders in our division. I also want to point out our ITCs. We have an ITC in every one of our secondary buildings, our instructional technology coaches. And they're providing a lot of the support that we talked about earlier tonight in the previous presentation.

[03:27:24] And there's one for every two elementary schools. Those are not the only coaches we have. We have reading coaches. We have math coaches. And we have recently started exploring what a special education coach might also look like and do in our buildings and really provide the support for teachers in meeting the needs of those students.

[03:27:40] It doesn't happen in isolation. We've worked very hard in collaboration with our departments for special education, curriculum and instruction, and professional learning. There is five people in professional learning. Five people don't do all this. It's a lot of people that do all of this.

[03:27:58] We don't do the math leadership. That happens with Ian Schenck, and he provides outstanding professional learning for our teachers. That happens with other people that are specialized in their content areas and the work that they do every single day. We coordinate, we collaborate, we talk, we work together to provide amazing experiences for all of our teachers.

[03:28:16] So it is this amazing machine that's very effective. It happens with grounding ourselves in those core values. Yes, I want to honor the expertise of our teachers. I think we do that really well with UPLC, pulling in all of those staff members. By the way, do you know what UPLC costs us?

[03:28:32] I did an analysis the other day, a cost per person that they're attending. We spend about maybe $3,600 a year on UPLC. and we're reaching 1,600, 1,700 people every year. Divide that. You're going to that conference for about maybe two or three bucks a person.

[03:28:50] You're not finding that anywhere in the state of Virginia or anywhere that I'm aware of. Amazing return on that investment. It's evidence-based. We're doing what is best practice. It's based in research. It is what we want to see happening in all of our classrooms in, quote, the perfect world.

[03:29:06] This is when that happens. It happens, again, with collaboration, multiple people working together. sharing ideas putting best practice principles in place and really helping each other to learn and grow and finally that's building that innovation with great practice now i need all of you to buckle up here because the best slides coming don't look ahead the best slides coming but it is overwhelming and yet it is simply a snapshot of what we do are you ready i'm ready if you're ready here we go i'm gonna click hold back boom there it is i wasn't lying that's a piece of

[03:29:44] our world. And you'll see what I've been talking about in this presentation folded into all of those places. You see onboarding, PATH, you see collaboration with all of the departments, you see the different programs that are offered for our teachers. And it starts over there with our mission and our vision and gets all the way over there to the far side of that leadership evolution. Again, it's a linear approach to that circular graphic that I showed in the beginning.

[03:30:09] So, that's the state of professional learning in Hanover County. I'm very happy to be the leader of that department and to work so collaborative with amazing leaders like Sherry Fisher and Diane Brown, led by our wonderful team of directors and other folks. So, this is what I want to leave you with. Every single hour of professional learning that we provide is ultimately an investment in the academic success and future readiness of Hanover County students. Do you have any questions?

[03:30:45] Thank you, Dr. Castle. You do such a fabulous job with this subject. Thank you. Yes, do you have a question? Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that, Dr. Castle. All I could think about was in the industry I've been in in the last 20, 25 years, a lot of the companies and corporations that I've worked for, they preach, you know, how much R&D that they put back into their own company and they brag about it. We brag about it because I think it speaks to how well they develop and continue to compete in their market, if you will. I think you're doing a fabulous job. I think this

[03:31:23] is extremely important to Hanover County, extremely important to continue investing in our leaders at every aspect of these schools because they're only going to provide and grow and develop. And if we can keep him here even better um so thank you for what you do and i just i think this is a i think with the expansion and you know the development or soon uh building of the of the yes there we go yeah professional learning center there it is um i i just think it's we have to keep we got to stay focused on on once they take me off the chain it's bad

[03:32:00] so thank you for what you do i think it's very important and i'm glad glad that you did this tonight thank you thank you thank you mr. Coleman any questions comments down there yes I'm gonna talk to you offline I would just like to know more about some of the details and that's a great briefing and I'm very happy with the state of professional education so I'm gonna schedule a 15-minute meeting he wants to do the Myers-Briggs test first then then didn't have there you go okay

[03:32:35] Anybody else down there? No? Okay. Just thank you. Great work. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you very much. It was great. I don't think 10 minutes does it justice, so, you know, but you did. You had, I gave out bags of candy so they could stay awake, so thank you very much, and I think, you know, coming from the McDonald's industry, we focus so much on training, and I think if you see companies or businesses, organizations leave training behind or R&D behind that's when you see companies

[03:33:12] start to fail and organizations to start failing so I think that the I think the purpose purposeful training and continuing education is fabulous and it's definitely come to life in Hanover County so thank you we are now at public comment mr. Coleman do we have any public commenters we do not do not but do I need to still read everything no we are good to move on to thank you thank

[03:33:47] you madam chair thank thank you mr. thank thank you mr. Coleman next is our action agenda and consideration of proposed proposed revised policies do you want to stay remain at your seat yes thank you I didn't make guys read so I I feel like I'm going to sit here. Thank you, Ms. Haft. So what you have on your action agenda is the policy that I brought to you for first read at our last meeting. This is the revision for our family and medical leave policy. And this was a substantial update to provide clarity.

[03:34:24] You're going to see some of these from time to time where we go back and we look and we want to make these, again, more user-friendly for both staff and for our employees and our families to understand what's going on. So we would ask that you adopt the revised policy.

[03:34:43] Thank you, Ms. Hahn. Do we have a motion to adopt the policy? Madam Chair, I move to approve the proposed revised policy 5-7.10, family and medical leave as presented. Thank you, Mr. Seifert. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, those in favor say hi hi all those opposed motion passes moving on to the consideration of proposed revised policy 7-3.1 code of student conduct madam madam chair I move to approve oh I'm sorry sorry we're gonna have a little

[03:35:19] discussion in this one oh okay thank you dr. Volpe yeah absolutely thank you madam chair board dr. pink up senior staff I am here to answer any questions there was no additional changes that came through my office so this is just a discussion amongst yourselves and I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Dr. Maltby, the alternative language that you sent me, I believe that the group is interested in using that alternative language and possibly taking out the second sentence in that. So I believe Ms. Lynn may have

[03:35:57] it and could read it to be sure that we understand okay okay so school closings due to inclement weather will not count towards suspension days taking out the next sentence this is true for any school days taking out for any reason when students are not in school and attendance is not taken including school days closed that are not on the approved calendar in exceptional circumstances the superintendent has discretion to allow credit for school days closed that

[03:36:28] are not on the approved calendar thank you thank you thank you and um are we going to get this to miss hahn or miss hahn helped draft okay great so perfect thank you very much okay um so now uh dr strove can we have a motion yes madam chair i uh move to approve revised policy 7-3.1 code of student conduct. Thank you, Dr. Shroves. I have a motion on the table. Do I have a second? Second.

[03:37:05] Thank you, Mr. Coleman. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion passes. Consideration of the textbook adoption, science elementary school. Do we have any questions, comments? I'm just trying to speed this up.

[03:37:23] But do you have something to add to the adoption? No, I was just going to give kind of an overview. Okay. The team from representing all of our elementary schools has selected Accelerate Learning STEM Scopes Virginia.

[03:37:42] It has our recommended curriculum adoption. It is strongly aligned to Virginia's standards of learning and the science and engineering practices. It is also, as Dr. Fisher and Ms. Cooper said, addressed, aligned to both the 5e Science Instructional Model and the Hanover Model for Instructional Design.

[03:38:04] Every student will get a hard copy version of their appropriate grade level STEMscopedia, which is our textbook, and each teacher will receive a hands-on investigation kit so the students will be doing science.

[03:38:20] There are additional digital resources that allow extensions and things that they can't safely cost-effectively with with simulations and things like that but it is really designed so that the students are doing science we have all the materials will be here in July prior to UPLC that Dr. Castle mentioned and we have nine sessions scheduled throughout the summer so that regardless of vacation schedules every teacher should be fully prepared to address these materials with their students come August and the start of school. The

[03:38:59] reviewing teachers did state that the program had rigorous and engaging investigations. There was a lot of background teacher support material that they appreciated and the public commenters were impressed with the variety and engaging resources that were available. So I would like to thank you for your support in this process and ask you if you have any questions that I can

[03:39:23] Thank you, Mr. Gilcrest. Do we have any questions? I would like to thank you, Ms. Lynn, for being a part of the committee. I know it's an extra thing, but it is kind of interesting and fun to be a part of, so thank you for doing that.

[03:39:41] and thank you to all the teachers and administrators and I think you have some parents on that too as well. So very much thank you for all that. I think we're all excited about the books in the children's hands and also the kits for the teachers or the classrooms.

[03:40:00] Any questions? No questions? Okay. Do I have a motion? I move to approve the recommended elementary science textbook adoption. Thank you, Ms. Lynn. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Thank you, Dr. Schelp. All those, or is there any discussion?

[03:40:20] Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay, the motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Gilchrist. Appreciate your time. Okay, so now we are moving on to the fiscal status report, which you have in your packets. You also have a facility usage report in your packets.

[03:40:39] and you also have your purple calendar events in your packets as well along with our annual school visits as well and the dates should be have sent to you. Ms. Brown sent them all to us in advance. Dr. Penica. Thank you. Just a couple of dates on July 14th is our next regular school

[03:41:13] award meeting. During that time, we will have our reorganization meeting and also our remainder of the year regular meetings will be approved at the July meeting. We have our HEF, Hanover Education Foundation's Summer Golf Tournament to raise money for scholarships on Monday. And for those of you who are able to join us for lunch, please come at one. Some of you are going to participate and We'll be very glad to have you.

[03:41:46] Come by anytime, even if you are not able to come at the lunch or to play. Come and just stop in and say hello if you'd like to. Our summer graduation will be on July 30th at Attlee High School. We have our ribbon cuttings on August 18th and 19th for Battlefield Park and Beaver Dam.

[03:42:07] And our schools are looking beautiful. Our annual school visits are on your list. And Ms. Brown has updated the schools for each date. So those of you who aren't able to be with us for all three dates, you can look and see which ones have the schools you are most interested in visiting.

[03:42:28] And then the annual convention down in Williamsburg for the Virginia School Board Association, the date for that is also listed for you so that you can plan ahead if you're able to join us. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Penny Cuff.

[03:42:44] And next topics for our next school board meeting. We'll have the policies that you saw tonight for information and discussion. We'll be ready for action. So if there are any questions, please give Ms. Hahn or me a call.

[03:43:01] And we'll be happy to talk through those with you. Thank you, Dr. Penningup. Is there any other questions or comments for tonight? Okay, so that leads us to our adjournment. Mr. Martin.

[03:43:17] Madam Chair, I move to adjourn our June 2nd, 2026 meeting. Thank you, Mr. Martin and Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? There never is. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, we are now adjourned.

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