Coraggio Consulting
Henrico County School Board Work Session, Thursday, May 9, 2024

Date: Thursday, May 9, 2024
Place: Henrico County School Board, Virginia
Length: 1h 37m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ5E36mmvDI
Official meeting portal (Henrico County Public Schools, Diligent Community): https://henricoschools.community.diligentoneplatform.com/Portal/MeetingTypeList.aspx

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 2026-10-26. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:05] good afternoon we have a robust and enriching agenda ahead of us thank you dr cashwell leadership team and all individuals uh involved in the meticulous preparation for today's work session the first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda is there a motion i move that the school board approve the agenda for today's meeting is there a second second all in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it the agenda is approved the next item on the agenda

[00:00:43] is closed session is there a motion to go into closed session i move that the school board go into closed session for the discussion of matters covered under items a1 and a2 of section 2.2-3711 of the code of virginia 1950 as amended pertaining to the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific school board employees and the admission or disciplinary matters or any other matters that would involve the disclosure of information contained in scholastic records contained concerning individual students including a

[00:01:19] request for religious exemption from compulsory attendance thank you mrs shea is there a second second all in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it we will now go into closed session. We are back from closed session and now we are going to certify closed session. Is there

[00:01:51] a motion? I move that the school board certify by recorded vote that to the best of each school board member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting thank you mr irving is there a second second all in favor say aye aye any opposed the eyes haven't closed session has been

[00:02:28] certified madam superintendent thank you madam chair members of the board good afternoon for the first item i am recommending that the school board approve the readmission of student case number 22 22-23-S-4 and the name of the student, of course, is protected under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

[00:02:48] Thank you, colleagues. We have received the recommendation to approve the readmission of student case number 22-23-S-4. Is there a motion? Yes. I move that the school board approve the readmission of student case number 22-23-S-4.

[00:03:11] Is there a second? Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. The recommendation has been approved. Thank you. Next, I'm recommending that the school board approve the request for release from compulsory attendance for student case number 23-24-RE-7 based on bona fide religious beliefs.

[00:03:34] thank you dr cashwell we have received the recommendation is there a motion i move that the school board approve the request for release from compulsory attendance for student case number 23-24-re-7 thank you is there a second second all in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it the recommendation is approved thank you next i'm recommending that the school board approve the appointment of administrative personnel thank you dr cashwell we have received

[00:04:09] the recommendation to approve the appointment of administrative personnel is there a motion i move that the school board approve the appointment of administrative personnel is there a second second all in favor aye any opposed the ayes have it the recommendation approved. Thank you. The board has approved three new administrators and the first is Tiffany Lewis as the next chief equity diversity and opportunity officer and she happens to be with us this afternoon. I wish she could please stand

[00:04:43] to be recognized and congratulations on your new appointment. The board is also approved David Belton the next principal at Fair Oaks Elementary School and Elizabeth Cromartie principal at Springfield Park Elementary School. We welcome our new administrators to their positions and look forward to working together all right for the next item we have an opportunity for the board to review stakeholder feedback and the impacts of community input on the school division including updates from the superintendent advisory committees

[00:05:20] focus groups and a summary of the division results from our 2024 henrico surveys good Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Dr. Cashwell, and members of the Board.

[00:05:36] As you know, HCPS gathers feedback from students, staff, school leaders, and families in a variety of different ways throughout the year. While there are numerous opportunities, structures, and forums for that, this afternoon we will highlight a few specific ways we've collected feedback and input this past year and the impact it's already beginning to have.

[00:05:57] We are immensely grateful to the students, staff, families, and community members who give of their time to serve on these committees and lend their expertise to systems-wide change. Today, Dr. Hinton and I will present information on three different ways we've been in conversation with and seeking feedback from our stakeholders. First, I'll provide a few updates from our superintendent advisory committees. Then, Dr. Hinton will share some of the input collected to inform the next iteration of the HCPS strategic plan, including feedback on our proposed core values, vision, and mission for HCPS. Finally, she will share highlights from the annual

[00:06:36] 2024 HCPS Stakeholder Survey. There are currently 11 Superintendent Advisory Committees, and today we'll provide updates on five of those listed here. In addition to those five committees, this year we created a new Special Education Advisory Group for a series of conversations about the challenges and opportunities unique to special education teachers throughout the county. Before moving on to the substance of their conversations, I'll note that the committee format supports two major types of collaboration. First, it's a platform for members to share feedback, good, bad, or indifferent,

[00:07:15] on any number of programs, practices, or policies in place and on their minds. But there are also opportunities for member input on timely topics that are surfaced as matters of importance by HCPS leaders. We seek input as we are considering developing or refining something new or something different.

[00:07:36] Member input at critical junctures shapes the direction of our future work. This year, in particular, we asked for input from many of these groups and others related to the HCPS proposed core values, mission and vision, the Henrico Learner Profile , the Profiles of Henrico Educators and Leaders, and the Code of Student Conduct.

[00:08:00] Each participant has brought a unique perspective to contribute to the evolution of these major system-wide efforts. With our committees, I will start with our Student Advisory Committee, which is an inspiring group of young leaders from across the division.

[00:08:16] They've done an incredible job of raising their voices and those of their peers to ensure leaders understand their perspective on everything from school safety to the Henrico Learner Profile to what it means to really build a sense of belonging in their schools.

[00:08:32] This year, our students provided input on the HLP Refresh and the development of new profiles of Henrico educators and leaders. They shared thoughtful insight on how these profiles play out in their classrooms and what skills they as students need most. Our students also weighed in on the Code of Student Conduct and shared their experience and perceptions about how it unfolds day to day in their schools. One of the other topics we solicited their input on was the way in which students are supported in the transitions into 6th and 9th grades. They had many practical suggestions that our team looks forward to incorporating

[00:09:12] in plans at those major transition points. Next, we have our Teacher Advisory Committee, also known as TAC, which consists of an elementary and a secondary group. Throughout the year, they meet both separately and together. The committees provide opportunities for teachers from every school in the division to regularly convene with colleagues and provide feedback and input on timely topics and core instructional issues.

[00:09:40] TAC started the year by meeting together and organizing into feeder patterns to conduct a SWAT activity about the students they serve in that particular pattern. This helped inform some of the subsequent group discussions throughout the year and the topics brought before them.

[00:09:58] Our elementary teachers also weighed in on our learner, educator, and leader profiles and participated in discussions about specially designed instruction and supports for English learners. On these latter two, content experts were able to share information about new resources, and then the groups engaged in deep discussions about what other resources or supports they might need to serve those groups of students.

[00:10:22] Our elementary TAC leaders also weighed in on some of the implementation components of the Virginia Literacy Act, particularly around our new curriculum. The secondary TAC includes representatives from every one of our middle and high schools.

[00:10:38] Throughout the course of the year, But they covered some of the same topics as our elementary teachers, as well as some unique to secondary. In particular, they dove deeply into the Code of Student Conduct and its implications for secondary schools and students.

[00:10:54] They provided Dr. Noel with general suggestions as well as specific feedback related to dress code, generative AI, definitions, and cell phones. The input from our students, teachers, and principals directly shaped the proposals brought you last month in the first review of that Code of Student Conduct. As I mentioned earlier, this year HCPS convened a new group of educators to provide insight and guidance on special education needs throughout the county.

[00:11:23] Every school was asked to identify a special education leader in their building to participate. Overall, the group was incredibly positive and appreciative about this new opportunity to provide feedback based on their lived experience. At the group's first convening, teachers engaged in an activity to identify things that are going well and areas that are challenging.

[00:11:47] The group identified HCPS strengths as our new adaptive PE teachers, support resources for Orton-Gillingham reading, multi-sensory math instruction training, relevant professional learning offerings, and our secondary compliance coordinators.

[00:12:04] The group also identified opportunities for growth and improvement. This list included more professional learning, including PL designed for teachers and instructional assistance together, compliance coordinators at the elementary level, additional planning time with their general education colleagues, and a desire to hire more fully licensed teachers.

[00:12:25] Based on these challenges identified at their initial meeting, they delved deeper and brainstormed solutions at their second session. From there, they took that list and prioritized which of those solutions were most pressing for the division. The group coalesced around priorities that included more pl particularly summer options and those sessions with instructional assistants and the planning time with their general education teachers the group also provided input on future v-rec programming and how it can best meet the needs of some of their students the team is now working to examine how hcps might practically take action on these priorities moving forward

[00:13:04] the superintendent's principal advisory committee meets regularly via teams throughout the school year to receive updates, raise concerns, and challenges that they are experiencing as a group. The topics this year included Parent Square and their effective advocacy for some additional features. They also gave feedback on the school improvement process and division-wide professional learning opportunities for school leaders and staff. Like the other advisories, they too weighed in on the proposed HCPS core values and opportunities for the new strategic

[00:13:40] plan. The superintendent's support staff advisory committee is comprised of individuals from across our schools and central buildings. They represent a number of employee groups such as administrative assistants, school secretaries, and more. They are able to be conduits of information for their various employee groups or representatives of the building in which they work. The topics they discuss are wide ranging from safety and facility needs to attendance records to the need for language support for staff interacting with our multilingual families.

[00:14:16] Their advocacy directly impacted the availability of new language support resources this year. And finally, we'd like to share the members and the work of the Family and Community Engagement Advisory Committee. This group meets both online and in-person throughout the year and similarly structures their time together to learn about and give input on division initiatives to provide feedback as family members of students in HCPS on pressing topics such as school safety, school facilities, and the strategic plan.

[00:14:52] As you've heard, our advisory groups represent a broad array of HCPS community members. They bring immense value to our shared work, and above are some of the most notable impacts they have had throughout the year. Their direct feedback on ParentSquare was the impetus for the division adding additional features after our initial rollout, and their desire to gain language skills to support the work of our multilingual families drove the investment in Babbel and our ability to offer it to staff.

[00:15:19] They were gracious in providing input on large substantive topics like the Henrico-Learner profile and the HCPS core values. And their voices in those efforts will impact the division and our students for years to come. So now I'm gonna turn the presentation over to Dr. Hinton, Director of Assessment, Research, and Evaluation to share specifics about what we have heard from our advisories as it relates to the development of the strategic plan and to share highlights from that annual survey.

[00:15:49] - Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board and Dr. Cashwell. I would like to take you back to January when we first introduced the roadmap for our strategic planning process. With the 2030 strategic plan launch slated for summer of 2025, we've undertaken efforts this school year, including running focus groups and administering the 2024 HCPS survey to gather valuable community insights that will guide the course of our upcoming strategic planning work.

[00:16:22] Since January, we've been meeting with school board and superintendent advisory committees along with other involved community partners. To date, we've engaged with over 20 advisory groups to provide input into this process, and we have several others that we plan to meet with prior to the end of the school year.

[00:16:43] Our discussions have focused on three areas: foundational principles, the successes of current practices and the opportunities we face now and in the foreseeable future during our discussions on foundational principles we encourage participants to brainstorm and define the vision mission and core values for the school division which are crucial components of strategic planning while we're still meeting with groups today we will share a preliminary overview of some of the common themes from our discussions a report including all feedback will be compiled over

[00:17:21] the summer in preparation for the strategic plan steering committee meeting this fall and will also be provided to the school board at that time the initial question posed to our focus groups explored their vision for the school division asking them to articulate their long-term aspirations for our organization feedback highlighted common themes such as ensuring equitable experiences for all students fostering collaboration among schools families and the broader community and embracing inclusivity. The subsequent question focused on the primary mission of Henrico County Public Schools

[00:18:00] and the desired outcomes or qualities students should develop through their educational journey. Responses emphasize the importance of producing life-ready graduates, adopting a holistic approach to education, and facilitating school community partnerships. Next, we reviewed draft core value statements that reflect the fundamental beliefs guiding our organization's decisions and actions. Participants discussed what they like and suggested improvements. They supported values of belonging, collaboration, and equity and

[00:18:35] expressed a desire to more explicitly include safety and wellness. Additionally, we reached out to the broader community through our surveys to gauge reactions to our proposed values. The preliminary findings are encouraging, with over 90% percent of staff and families affirming their support for being student-focused, fostering belonging, encouraging collaboration, embracing innovation, and ensuring equity.

[00:19:04] We are in the process of analyzing the written feedback from these surveys on the core values and will integrate these findings into the comprehensive report we are preparing. When we asked groups about what is currently working well and the challenges we face in future planning. Several key themes surfaced. Stakeholders commended our strong emphasis on collaboration, the variety of academic pathways available, and the high level of commitment and expertise among our staff. While collaborative partnerships are thriving, there remains room for improvement in educating our community more broadly across schools

[00:19:43] and the division. Further areas identified for growth included striving for greater equity and addressing staff recruitment and retention challenges. These insights guide our focus towards maintaining strengths and addressing critical needs as we begin our upcoming planning efforts.

[00:20:04] In addition to focus groups, we conducted our annual stakeholder survey in February with students in grades 3 through 12, families and staff. The family survey was accessible online in English and Spanish with paper versions available in six additional languages upon request.

[00:20:23] We promoted the surveys through various channels, including the Henrico County Public Schools website, social media, weekly communications from principals, paper flyers, and the Binder e-newsletter. Listening to past student feedback, this year we collaborated with our communications department to produce a brief commercial featuring students.

[00:20:46] The video highlighted how survey results are used to make decisions in schools and across the division and encouraged students to share their perspectives to boost family engagement in the survey we provided incentives for both families and schools generously donated by the department of family and community engagement and the henrico education foundation we also continue our partnership with the metropolitan educational research consortium at the virginia commonwealth university school of education merck assists us by annually reviewing and updating the survey items

[00:21:22] to align closely with our strategic plan drivers, as well as administering and analyzing the survey results. This year, we received survey responses from over 42,000 stakeholders, marking a small increase since 2023, with around 2,000 more participants.

[00:21:44] Breaking down the response rates, we saw 67% of our staff, 18% of our families, and 76% of students engaging with the survey. In this section, we will highlight where we've excelled with over 90% positive feedback in each of our current four cornerstones.

[00:22:06] These successes demonstrate the effectiveness of our initiatives and the positive impact on our community. The consistent positive feedback from both this year and 2023 shows that our efforts are well received. It's important to note that while not all items will be discussed in detail, many that didn't meet the specific threshold still received substantial positive feedback.

[00:22:32] Starting with safety and wellness, the survey highlighted strong points such as our clear anti-bullying stance and effective crisis preparedness, ensuring all students know how to react in emergencies. Turning to academic growth, Destination 2025 aims to transform teaching and learning into engaging learner-centered experiences.

[00:22:56] indicates satisfaction in areas such as college and career readiness, where staff report that they actively assist students in exploring future opportunities, preparing them for life beyond school. Another critical component is the Henrico Learner profile, which is at the heart of our instructional model. It focuses on developing comprehensive knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for student lifelong successes. The survey shows that staff are engaged in creating relevant learning experiences that connect classroom learning to real-world situations. Moreover, the use of technology and data

[00:23:36] to support teaching and enhance learning has been well received, and families have expressed an appreciation for the accessibility of academic program information in various languages. We also emphasize creating a learning culture that values high-quality teaching, high expectations, literacy, and regular school attendance.

[00:24:00] Our efforts in equity, fairness, diversity, and inclusion are anchored by the HCPS culturally responsive education model, which emphasizes self-reflection and a culture of belonging. Feedback highlights a strong understanding of equity and diversity among staff, along with educational materials that celebrate diverse cultures and histories.

[00:24:23] We received positive feedback on engaging students in discussions on current and historical events promoting an inclusive environment where diversity is valued and students are encouraged to embrace and respect differences additionally our approach to supporting diverse learners has been positively received particularly for english learners students and their families we utilize evidence-based practices to close achievement gaps and provide accessible pathways for enrollment in specialized classes and programs this holistic approach ensures that students feel supported and have equitable opportunities to succeed.

[00:25:02] In the cornerstone of relationships, our survey has identified multiple successes that strengthen the bonds within our school community. Communication is effective, with staff and families reporting that parents are well informed about student academic progress and staff reporting that they provide information about program options to families.

[00:25:23] Our school culture is welcoming, creating an environment where families and staff report that parents feel welcome at school, staff members feel respected by other staff, and they get along well with their teams. Additionally, the relationships between staff and students are strong.

[00:25:40] Families and staff report that adults in the school genuinely care about the students and treat all students with respect. Furthermore, family engagement is highlighted as a key strength, with staff actively seeking family support and involving parents as partners in decision making.

[00:25:59] next section highlights areas with more than 25% unfavorable feedback within our cornerstones. These insights are vital as they highlight where stakeholders believe we can improve. While these areas present challenges, they also offer a chance to refine our practices, ensuring that we continue to adapt and meet the evolving needs of our community.

[00:26:20] In the cornerstone of safety and wellness, students highlighted the need for more support in social-emotional areas, including encouragement to express their feelings and enhancing their development of social-emotional skills. Staff feedback suggests that behavior rules could be applied more consistently, and conflict resolution support among students may be needed. Additionally, bullying remains a concern, with reports of physical, verbal, social, and cyberbullying persisting across all groups. Turning to academic growth, while staff feel that they are effectively informing

[00:27:00] students about college and career pathways, students and families see room for improvement. They seek more opportunities for career exploration, increased awareness of job shadowing, externships, internships, and mentoring, and a deeper understanding of academic pathways and prerequisites.

[00:27:20] There's also a gap in providing deeper learning experiences as perceived by the students compared to staff. In equity and opportunity, students reported less favorably than family, and staff on consistent treatment of student groups, indicating that they perceive adults in their school as treating students of some groups differently than students of other groups.

[00:27:44] Several areas for improvement were noted in the cornerstone of relationships. Families expressed a need for more communication about Destination 2025. Additionally, while staff generally feel positive about the school culture, they would appreciate more recognition for their efforts.

[00:28:01] Respect among students is another concern. with both students and staff noting a need for improved respect for adults and between students themselves, echoing sentiments from the previous year. Looking forward, we will utilize the collected input to shape our 2030 strategic plan and guide our decision-making.

[00:28:23] The division summary results are accessible on the HCPS website, and we are currently analyzing the data at the school level. Each principal will receive a school-level report, which will be instrumental in developing their school quality plans.

[00:28:40] These plans are designed to meet the specific needs and opportunities identified within each school, enabling focused improvements driven by stakeholder feedback. And this concludes our presentation. We are happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much for your presentation. We will start to my right with Mrs. Kinsella.

[00:29:04] Thank you. When should the board expect, I know you said that building leaders will get a breakdown of building level survey data. When will board members receive that? You will receive it as soon as we receive it back from Merck.

[00:29:20] Okay, thank you. Let's see. I guess I'll start with the opportunity mentioned on the opportunity slide in terms of staff recognition. With the title of the presentation being Student Staff Family Voices, there are so many different ways to be involved, to have your voice shared back.

[00:29:51] I mean, what did you say? Dr. Cashwell has 11 advisory committees, and today we're just hearing about five not to mention the board sits on various committees can you tell me outside of superintendent committees and board committees what types of other focus groups exist I know there's one in transportation the transportation folks meet often are there groups like this to hear feedback for other employees is every group covered yes and I think if I've missed something

[00:30:27] uh feel free to chime in you know all of our supervisors of various employee groups and uh departmentally have structures within them which may be unique to whether it's like you mentioned transportation i know they do some things by zone and even at the school level custodial and maintenance it might be based on school team and then also zone as well so we're always seeking ways for our employees to provide feedback and input and to make sure we're communicating regularly to these employee groups you know not just through venues like the clipboard or written

[00:31:06] but in person right so i would say even at the school level a principal's advisor teacher advisory group through faculty meetings those are all opportunities when teams working teams are together, you know, and we really encourage all of our leaders to be soliciting input and feedback on any number of topics along the way.

[00:31:28] So these represent some of those more formal opportunities, but to your point, there are lots of more informal opportunities really baked into the way we do business. I think oftentimes we think one thing from a board level and then there's in the building level, right?

[00:31:45] So I guess I would ask is, what does it look like? Can we ask the employees? How would they like to be communicated with? Has anybody asked that question? Because sometimes, you know, just like we hear maybe some folks give us feedback that the student code of conduct, they didn't know, right?

[00:32:07] And then employees sometimes maybe don't know things because there's so much information and the work-life balance and the workload, right? Like, can we perhaps ask employees what works best for them? Certainly. And we've done that a bit.

[00:32:23] In fact, just at our advisory committee, teacher advisory yesterday, we were really pushing on some of that, even on what it looks like for them to liaise back to their buildings and support information sharing. But yes, I think there are definitely multiple opportunities to continue to hear from our employees on what works best for information sharing.

[00:32:43] But, you know, to your point, we do know that a lot of sharing from the top isn't always the most effective. And, you know, individuals, no matter what role they serve in the system, are very much focused on that. And providing a good service, whether it's at the school level or in central office level.

[00:32:59] And sometimes it's hard to make room for what feels like external information. And we don't want people to miss it. So we'll continue to work to streamline that and hear from our employees on that. I would appreciate that because the feedback, it does work. I mean, for example, it's my understanding the expansion of elementary planning time has now been shared back with our elementary schools.

[00:33:24] I know that we've also, you know, just more examples of how employee feedback has come to us. We've given as much in raises as we possibly can for this school year, 8.2%. We did a differentiated Friday pay for daily substitutes.

[00:33:40] New teacher academy compensation, class coverage and duties compensation, safety monitor compensation, class load compensation for board subs, parental leave policy, paid wellness days. I mean, we are doing things.

[00:33:56] I just don't think sometimes I think the things that we're doing get lost in the conversation. I'd appreciate some kind of elevated summary that lets our employees know money doesn't grow on trees. So we do listen and we do prioritize what folks are saying.

[00:34:17] So I would like to say that. And then I would like to elevate some feedback from the students that Dr. Cashwell, I know you're familiar with. But at our recent superintendent student advisory, not only do we talk about transitions, especially middle school to high school, elementary to middle school.

[00:34:38] We also focused on hub transportation times and how that impacts our students. They also were talking about belonging and enthusiasm in a building where there are some incentives being offered around our district for extra credit for attending and engaging in your school community.

[00:35:01] When we're talking about how can we get kids to come to school, some of our students only want to come to school, you know, for the extracurricular or the fun things. So I wanted to highlight that. And then, of course, our students as well gave direct feedback about counselor and teachover turnover or vacancies.

[00:35:21] So I just wanted to share that on the record with my colleagues. Let's see. What else did I have? I look forward to really diving into all the climate survey feedback.

[00:35:42] Do we know why only, what was it, 67% of our employees fill it out? Because I can say, I'll offer this first. I think that because it's done by school, because you have to give certain identifiable information, even though it's still anonymous, I don't think employees feel like they can be as honest as they would like to be.

[00:36:06] So I will just reiterate that the survey is completely anonymous. The results actually don't even come to us in their raw form. They go straight to Merck to do the analysis. And I did want to note that for school staff specifically, the response rate was 88%. It's more of some of our central departments. Particularly, it's hard to reach some of our operations teams, our cafeteria teams. So some of our central teams are kind of bringing down that overall percentage.

[00:36:36] But our school level response rate was around 88%. Again, trying to capture, right, what's the best way to hear feedback from each group. Thank you very much. Valuable information in this presentation. Ms. Atkins. Thank you, Mrs. Kinsella.

[00:36:53] Mrs. Shea. Thank you so much. First, I just want to start with appreciation for our superintendent and her cabinet leadership team. Y'all spent a significant amount of time with stakeholder groups. And, you know, this highlighted really just some of the touch points you have with that.

[00:37:12] But not only do you spend a significant amount of time getting this authentic feedback, it also has a real impact on the systems, the systematic structures of the division and decisions made.

[00:37:29] It's not just done to check a box. It's done because y'all authentically care about it and use it to make decisions. And I think that's so important for our community to hear and understand. And this really just touches on a few of them.

[00:37:44] I know you also meet with groups like the Henrico Council of PTAs, monthly with the leadership of HEA, HEF, a whole long list of different types of stakeholders to, on a regular basis, to glean feedback, as well as smaller focus groups when we have other things come up.

[00:38:03] So I really value the feedback that y'all get and share back with us for that. I think it helps us all do our job better, but in Henrico, it really is a priority. So a little bit on that.

[00:38:19] I know every group's a little bit different, but in general, how are the participants in these advisory groups chosen? Depends a little bit on the group and how they get identified. Some of them are recommended.

[00:38:34] Some of them come to us. other ways some are more community-based right so they're not coming through you know a school recommendation but our advocates connecting with families who say I really want to be a part of something do you know any way that I can get connected oh have you heard about our face committee that and I would note that on a number of them like the principal advisory teacher advisory we do rotate those assuming we get willing participants we try to give everybody an opportunity so for example the principals serving this year are not the same principals who served last year we try to make sure we're rotating and

[00:39:11] getting voice I know that for a teacher advisory we look for principals to recommend those who are willing to participate and it works for their schedule often they'll send designees if the representative can't make it they've asked a designee from their building to come a lot are really good about doing that so it varies in that way and sometimes we see individuals come more than one year in a row because no one else is interested but um you know i we do get a lot of new participation rotating through which is nice that's great i appreciate it i would um

[00:39:47] love to see kind of a central hub that highlighted some of these avenues for stakeholders to give feedback for those like holly or miss coy said that say hey i really want to provide feedback where can i go um you know and we can steer them xyz but having some sort of central public facing hub for for staff and for families to say hey i really want to participate how can i do that we have that right now with our strategic plan focus groups that we had been um recruiting for but just kind of a central place to realize that we have a lot of feedback mechanisms but what are they and

[00:40:24] how are they accessible to people who would like to participate but i think this is really a strong suit of henrico is again the the superintendent's commitment to stakeholder voice spending time engaging with it but also using it in a real way to help make decisions for the division so that's all thank you so much thank you mrs shea mr young well thank you for the presentation i I think Henrico County does a wonderful job getting the input from stakeholders.

[00:41:01] So I wanted to talk about opportunities today. I looked at one survey. It says my school prioritizes my mental health. 41% disagreed, 58% agreed. This was for the students. And we have Henrico Cares coming on.

[00:41:17] So I think that that's going to improve those numbers for next year. Do we have anything from last year that we can say we did and we improved on And can you elaborate on that a little bit? Go ahead. I can think of a few things here.

[00:41:33] And certainly we know this is an area we hear about frequently, not just from students, but from our staff and our families. So Henrico Cares is certainly in response to that growing need. And that's, for those that aren't familiar, a coordinated effort between Henrico County General Government and Henrico County Schools to bring more aligned mental health resources.

[00:41:56] But it's also, we've added school counselors across our schools to decrease ratios of student to counselors. So that's been an ongoing effort over the past years, as well as other support staff like psychologists and social workers.

[00:42:13] And then, of course, we've really worked to focus through our advisory block and our morning meetings at the school level to provide avenues for individuals to really have a wellness-first approach. in those structures and of course making sure that at every school our students have someone they know they can go to a trusted adult they care about and we actually heard some positive feedback from our high schoolers related to that at our student advisory group but I think there are a number of ways we need to continue to grow what those wraparounds look like and those

[00:42:46] resources look like. Thank you Dr. Cashwell and then do we know or is there something we can attribute to the low response by families with just 18 percent so as you can see reaching our families has always been a challenge we continue to make some inner you know some small gains every year and reaching them but it's still something that we continue to work with just trying to get the message out trying to encourage them to participate we work with the schools to really get them to engage their families because you know certainly central office sending

[00:43:23] a message is very different than our schools sending out a message to their communities so we we do everything that we can okay and then i heard you speak about this survey being anonymous is that for staff students and families yes okay perfect um no no other questions thank you guys i appreciate it i'm gonna add to my since i didn't mention this and i should because our team in mental health and student supports has done incredible work and i've probably not done them justice by telling you all the things that are new this year but another piece is the use of therapy dogs i did want to mention that because it's new this year particularly when there's a school crisis so that's something else that was new this year and probably many other

[00:44:02] things i didn't mention but i wanted to thank you thank you mr young mr irving so again i'd echo my colleague's sentiment about thanking you guys for the hard work that you do putting this together as a former teacher in the county i know what it's like to fill this out myself and the the pressure of getting the students to do it because I think with the response rate, if you don't have a statistically significant response rate and sampling, then the results aren't super useful.

[00:44:35] And it's very encouraging to see that 88% of building staff reply to this, which is you can't do much better than that without paying people. Students, 76%, that's obviously extremely encouraging. The families, though, is very discouraging. And 18% is less than our third through fifth population. And knowing what I know about elementary school parents, they are generally the most active in this. So I guess my concern from the family feedback is, are we even getting

[00:45:08] sampling that's representative of our whole community? Because I think if a large percentage of these and i don't know because they're they're anonymous are elementary school students and they're going to have very different concerns in middle and high school so i i worry about that because i do see a bit of contradiction within our successes and our opportunities and i and i mean it could be attributed especially for some of the family ones too well you know these are just entirely different groups of people with different concerns so it's hard to but it's hard to know with with an 18 response rate um i noticed that on for me slide 24 and 26 uh the ones for success

[00:45:48] is an opportunity we have an intolerance for bullying which is terrific i i can say when i was a staff in the building that i know that that is the case but then as our opportunities we are all groups are concerned about bullying so we have an intolerance for it but i guess i take it that it's still happening to such a degree that people are very worried about it so i guess that's an area for improvement the second one would be we do a great job i think communicating staff and families say that i you know i don't expect students to to compliment on that one but i do

[00:46:26] see the awareness of the hcps strategic plan from families which is communicated and i think we did a great job of communicating the survey we did it through many different channels so i'm curious where the disconnect is coming from from that in terms of we do an amazing job communicating but but maybe you just only care about a building level concern and you're not worried about the whole thing. So that was just interesting to me. It's not, you know, a critique or anything, but it's just some, something that I noticed looking at this. And I guess, what are ways that we think we can boost this with families? Because I do think it is shot out, but maybe

[00:47:02] there's a way that your prince, that a building principal and a communication at the end of the year can say, Hey, there's, these are ways, if you want to see changes in this, then you can do this. Maybe it's just the messenger has to be different. I don't know. But yeah, that's the end of my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Irving. I do have a few thoughts for consideration as you digest all of the feedback and look for answers to some of the questions. I'm very pleased to see the strength weakness opportunity threats tool used to garner feedback. I'm wondering what other tools were used

[00:47:41] that SWOT analysis for those listening and that was used in the secondary teacher advisory committee i'm wondering what other tools were used to help individuals critically think about their responses other than giving a question and receiving an answer the SWOT analysis allows individuals to think deeply about the topic can you share with me other tools you've used to garner responses So I can speak to the use of the SWOT analysis that was with our combined TAC at their very first meeting at the beginning of the year, and they organized by feeder pattern.

[00:48:20] So they were often serving the same families, same communities, and so they used that as the tool to really set the stage for the work ahead as a TAC and really inform the entire group about what they saw as those strengths and opportunities.

[00:48:38] that helped informed what staff brought back to them throughout the year so that content around our English learner supports the specially designed instruction for our special education students so that was one tool that was used with them I don't I can't speak offhand to other tools that's been that have been used with TAC in previous years but would be happy to bring that back to you wonderful I think one of the things I'd like for the team to consider is giving a question and we receive a response.

[00:49:11] That's great. But when we have in-person opportunities or virtual opportunities, we also have another way to channel the responses. In other words, just like the SWOT analysis, you get folks to think about, well, what is a strength and what is a weakness on this topic?

[00:49:30] And then you can ask the question because they will begin to dive deeper before providing the response. So I'd like for the team to look at other tools, and there are several, and you'd have to figure out what's the right one for the right setting, of course.

[00:49:46] The one for students and the one for adults, it will be different. But I think in order to engage at a different level, just like the example you've provided, when we educate the folks that we are asking for participation on how to help us dive deeper.

[00:50:07] easy to give the question and get a response but how do we help them dive deeper so we have a better understanding and guiding us so if you could go back and just look at some of the tools that are available for assessment and then that helps us measure effectively 88% is great in responses but how do we use a response to understand that folks understood where we were going in the assignment is where i'm headed and you were about to speak i had another thought when you were done you heard a little bit about the focus groups that were conducted on core values and mission

[00:50:46] and vision and i think that's also a good example to exactly this that you're speaking of we asked the question in a survey and we got those static responses from all different stakeholders but through the focus groups that dare structures very specifically to solicit that that deeper conversation and more nuance um those are structured in such a way that through all of these advisories we were able to peel back some of those layers and learn more uh and confirm that understanding of the question but also uh take take that uh conversation further than one could simply with the survey for example same questions uh but different types of conversation different

[00:51:23] types of feedback that together help us really ensure we understand perspectives on something like that. That's wonderful. I'm aware of several different types of tools used in focus groups because I used to conduct them for a major company. Can you tell me what tools you used in those focus groups? So we used a variety of different strategies, nothing like a specific tool. We used, depending on the size of the group, sometimes it was just more of a standard focus group protocol where we asked questions and engaged in some of that conversation. Other times where it was a very large group, like TACC, we had them work in some small groups and maybe

[00:52:00] provide their feedback through some Jamboard activities or either kind of a round robin activity where we had poster paper around the wall and collected their input. So it really, it really was geared towards the size of the group to make sure that we allowed all voices to be heard in the process.

[00:52:19] Okay. But as you explore research and actually similar to SWOT and looking at specific tools so that the responses could be measured, I'd be very interested in seeing what that looks like. So I appreciate your responses there.

[00:52:36] I also had a question on when it comes to the student group, how are we recruiting for all abilities? Example, those that speak with their voice and those that speak with their hands. you help me understand how we recruited for all abilities in the student groups yeah I know that dr. Farrell worked for example for the student superintendent student advisory committee with the high school principals and we asked them to identify students who may not already be engaged in another

[00:53:12] organization in order to maximize opportunities where you think a student would either benefit from or enjoy being able to give feedback so sometimes we have more than one representative come from a school and then there are alternates that come but we we really leave it up to the schools to help us have students who represent various perspectives and you know we've been successful in that and i think that that also rotating that over the years sometimes they'll send us a senior and a junior and the junior will follow for two years and then when

[00:53:47] the senior moves on they'll pick another student but the schools really work to identify the students and we give them some guidelines very similar to what you've just said which is really think about diverse groups within your school students who may benefit from an opportunity to participate here who aren't also in other organizations where there's an opportunity to provide voice, like student government within the school or so on.

[00:54:11] So let me ask, of the student group that we have, is it inclusive of all abilities? I believe so, yes. Wonderful. And it represents all of our high schools, and juniors and seniors.

[00:54:27] And thinking about the unique participants in the groups, how are we measuring that we are getting an improvement and getting unique perspectives in the groups how do we measure that as you've heard we rotate through staff and so we're able to compare year to year you know how many students are are coming back for a second term versus you know which years we have a fresher group with new perspectives but i'd have to take a look at data to have any further anything more

[00:55:07] concrete on that i appreciate that i think um you know if for consideration with your teams if we are able to look at that rotation we would be able to identify more unique perspectives to understand the quality of feedback we're getting so if we're rotating students with similar likes and similar perspectives they're a new student but it's similar i wonder if we were a little bit more diligent in understanding what that rotation looks like would we get deeper perspectives

[00:55:46] more diverse perspectives and a better understanding of voice oftentimes at least i find with students whether they're within henrico county or outside of it i find that usually the more vocal students want to participate and so looking at reaching those students that feel welcomed and belong I wonder we could do that if we measured that rotation if we really understood and when I say we I know it's the principals doing this work a tool would be needed Dr. Caswell shared that there's guidelines perhaps we

[00:56:26] could take a look at those guidelines to give more guidance on what rotation looks like to better understand unique and diverse perspectives and I think we'll also start to tap into culture if we really looked and assessed and measured it in a way that we could make improvements there and then my last question for you is around funding is there monies allocated towards these groups so that they can do things like have meals and provide incentives so forth and so on is there

[00:57:04] a line item or money allocated to the groups at all and if not how would that work if we if folks wanted to pursue that um i can speak to the superintendent advisory committees there's no specific line item but we uh whenever folks are in person uh try to feed them snacks or whatever the case may be, depending on the group and what time of day they're together from central office.

[00:57:31] So, I wonder for consideration, as we take a look at wanting to have, especially for families, seeing the feedback of that response rate, specifically in the area of families, wondering if it's necessary to have a conversation around what would funding look like.

[00:57:50] i do not know but i wonder if that's a tool that we could use to get folks to participate more in in-person committees or boards for henrico county we have anything we can certainly look into that and and um to mrs coy's point we almost always offer a meal or snacks because i think you're right there there's something that incentivizes attendance or at least honors attendees by making

[00:58:22] the experience pleasant for them. And it's a beautiful thing to have a meal or two. I wonder if we need to be more strategic around the funding of it so that if there's one group getting a meal and there's another group at the same time that did not get one, I'm wondering if we could be a little bit more intentional in understanding if we wanted to pursue making sure that if it's something at mealtime that it's offered for all groups or lunchtime offered for all groups doesn't mean we necessarily do it but it's nice to have the offer and if that's something

[00:58:59] we pursued what does the cost look like? I think I would be very curious to receive that information. And that's all that I have. Thank you so much for the presentation and I think we all look forward to more. Thank you.

[00:59:14] Dr. Cashwell. right the next items are policy related and for all of the items 5.02 through 5.13 we are actually seeking your approval at the june 6 meeting so this is a first look at some policy revisions and for ease of going through them i would note that 5.02 through 5.12 are all part of a comprehensive review to the research and evaluation related policies and it actually collapses ten policies into three and creates some overarching policy there so

[00:59:53] are there any questions I would say related to 5.02 to 5.12 related to this consolidation related to the research and evaluation policies colleagues any Colleagues, any questions?

[01:00:10] No questions, but I do have a comment for my colleagues' awareness that Mrs. Shea and I serve on the policy committee. So all of these have been thoroughly vetted, not only by the policy committee, but the teams that do the work, work with it first before it comes to policy.

[01:00:28] Sometimes it goes back to them with questions from policy. So just to let you know, these have come from policy to us. Thank you, Mrs. Kinsella. And I'll just ask one more time to ensure if there are any questions, feedback, or thoughts that everybody had the opportunity.

[01:00:46] Ms. Shea. Thanks so much. As usual, these, I just want to affirm for our community that these will be on the webpage for feedback as all of our policies are, correct, Dr. Cashwell?

[01:01:03] That's correct. Because I know this has been a topic that some of our community members have had a lot of feedback on in past years and so I just want to make sure that the opportunity is out there for if they have input or suggestions or feedback for these policies that they're aware that they're out there and available for feedback so thanks Thank You Ms. Shea Dr. Cashwell yes and then the next three policy items are related to revisions related to technology and acceptable use and have been made in alignment for example 5.13 to align with proposed

[01:01:40] edits in the student code of conduct also 5.14 changing information to technology to staff acceptable use technology and 5.15 is the retirement of policy multimedia there are any questions about those items colleagues any questions or comments all right Dr. Caswell all right our next item Dr. Hughes and Mrs. Alsop are coming to the podium to provide a review of our 2024-2025 grant funding recommendation that

[01:02:17] you review these grants as we would of course be seeking your approval of the grant funding at our monthly meeting okay good afternoon chair Atkins members of the board and Dr. Caswell This afternoon, Tina Alsop, Director of Federal Programs and Foundation Learning, will present the board information on the federal grant applications for the school year 2024-2025.

[01:02:40] As a reminder to the board, these are federal grants that Henrico County Public Schools applies for annually. Good afternoon. For the remainder of the presentation, the board will be provided information on Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV federal grant applications.

[01:03:02] Each of these grants has a connection and supports one or more of the Henrico County Public Schools strategic plan goals. The federal grants were written by reviewing and analyzing division data, meeting and listening to HCPS stakeholders to include students, staff, families, and community members, and researching and identifying opportunities where grant funds may supplement division funds to support student achievement and wellness.

[01:03:37] Federal grants are estimated to be just under $14 million. Final grant allocations from the Virginia Department of Education are not available until September. Title II, Title III, and Title IV grants are prepared using leveled funding, which is the same funding amount as Henrico received last year.

[01:04:01] The Title I grant shows a decrease based on the preliminary allocation released by the VDOE on April 11th. Title I is anticipated to be just over $11.1 million.

[01:04:18] The Title I Part A funds provide additional financial assistance to schools with high numbers of students receiving free lunch. 48% of the grant awards provides Title I schools with instructional staffing to support literacy and mathematics, along with funding for additional instructional supplies.

[01:04:42] As shown on the slide, family engagement staff, early learning preschool support staff, McKinney-Vento staff and student support, professional learning opportunities for staff and school-based instructional programming to provide summer books for students and refresh classroom libraries to support literacy are also included in the grant.

[01:05:09] The schools shown on the slide will be included in the Title I application. As a reminder, Title I funds can be used for all students in the school. This year, we welcome Chamberlain Elementary back as a Title I school.

[01:05:28] Title II Part A is anticipated to be just over $1.2 million. The purpose of Title II Part A is to increase academic achievement for all students through improving teacher and administrator quality.

[01:05:44] The Title II grant will support the division through funding additional instructional coaching positions. This grant will also provide exceptional education, instructional assistance, access to UVA WISE courses, assist with new teacher professional learning stipends, allow teachers to participate in letters professional learning, begin a George Mason University math cohort, and provide professional learning, book studies, and conference opportunities for staff.

[01:06:21] Title III Part A is anticipated to be just under $600,000. The grant includes funds to support both language acquisition and immigrant youth. School III language acquisition is used to provide teachers and students with instructional support through instructional assistance and instructional supplies as an ESL library to support English learners.

[01:06:50] Professional learning funds were provided for division leaders and school staff to attend state and national ESL-focused conferences. A portion of the funds also provides supports for family education programs, such as Parents as Educational Partners for parents and guardians who do not speak English.

[01:07:13] Title III, Immigrant Youth, is used to directly support students who have arrived to the U.S. within the last three years. These funds provide both instructional materials for newly arrived students, as well as funds to provide additional support through language acquisition tutoring.

[01:07:35] Title IV Part A is anticipated to be just over 900,000. Title IV Part A funds are intended to improve students' academic achievement by increasing the capacity of school divisions to provide all students with access to a well-rounded education, improve school conditions for student learning, and increase the effective use of technology.

[01:08:02] In addition, McKinney-Vento staff, family advocates, science instructional coaches, safety and wellness resources, advanced coursework assessment fees and support for students, kindergarten registration home libraries, books, and one-school one-book programs are included in the grant.

[01:08:27] I would like to thank each of the federal grant coordinators and finance staff for preparing the grant applications. The work of federal grants requires the highest level of collaboration with many HCPS and Henrico County stakeholders.

[01:08:44] On behalf of the grant coordinators, we would like to thank each of our thought partners for collaborating with us to provide opportunities and access for students to discover and achieve their potential and goals. At this time, we will be happy to answer any questions.

[01:09:02] - Thank you, Ms. Alsop and Dr. Hughes for the presentation. We will begin with Ms. Sharon. - Thanks so much. Ms. Alsop, I'm just always wowed when you bring all of your grant information forward.

[01:09:17] It takes a lot of understanding of the nuances of grants and programs, as well as Henrico and our data and our programs to make all this happen. So thank you, you are a unique powerhouse of information for Henrico.

[01:09:33] So I think only you can do what you do. So we really appreciate you. I just have one question, just for kind of the general education of myself. What are the metrics used to designate Title I?

[01:09:49] - Okay, so we look at what we call direct certification numbers. instead of using people are used to the free and reduced lunch applications but because we have schools that receive a free lunch we use direct certification numbers which come to us from our school nutrition department and we take a look at the amount of funding and how far that funding can go down and still provide an effective program within our title one schools thank you so much

[01:10:23] that's all thank you mrs shea mr young uh thank you miss allsap thank you dr hughes um just one just want to point out something it's a million dollars less um in title one funds this year but just to be clear our schools won't see any lack of resources or anything correct they will not okay that's all the questions i have thank you thank you mr young mr irving thank you for putting this together i i don't have a question per se but uh

[01:10:59] Given that Ridge Elementary, whose population is 47% English language learners, seeing the tutoring for immigrant youth in Title III obviously makes me happy. So it's great to see. Thank you. And Mrs. Kinsella.

[01:11:16] So I have a question about the Title III grant funding. So you said, is that also, what was the specific word, leveled funding? Yes, it's prepared at level funding. So it would have been based on last year's information.

[01:11:33] right? Yes. And it won't be confirmed until what the fall you said? Correct. So could it perhaps be more funding allocated to Henrico? There could be based on numbers being confirmed as to enrollment, right? The 930 enrollment. Is that what it goes off of? And they also look at our census information when making determinations for the amount of funding received. Because I would like to ask for in response to some advocacy I've received, and if the funds don't come

[01:12:09] in higher than expected through Title III, then I'll just let my colleagues and Dr. Cashwell hear this request, I've heard advocacy for a full-time counselor to the Welcome Center that would support our students, especially our secondary students in the way, just in different advocacy groups.

[01:12:38] And in my work as a school board member, right, just heard that that resource is needed for our English learners. So I just appreciate you finding a way to give that kind of full-time support, 'cause I know we have a part-time counselor at the Welcome Center, but not a full-time.

[01:12:57] - That's correct. We do have someone who is in that capacity full-time. They serve the Welcome Center, but then they also help us in some of our newcomer classes that are at Tucker. So sort of split between two worlds, if you will. So I appreciate the feedback and we can work on getting more help on the Welcome Center side.

[01:13:14] - I think it would help us in terms of engagement and graduation and dropout rates, right? Belonging, all the things. just wanted to put that on everyone's radar so thank you for sharing that thank you mrs kinsella thank you again for the presentation thank you for presenting it in a way that's digestible because there's a lot of numbers in this work there's a lot of understanding of the legal terminology the expectation how the money is marked and providing the results of how it was

[01:13:51] used as well and so we want to acknowledge all the work that is put in and this is just a smidget of it of what we're seeing as a school board so appreciate you and thank you so much dr cashwell i echo the thanks to mrs alsop and the entire federal programs team and all of the leads of the various grants for their work thank you so much the next and final item i have for the board's considerations an opportunity to review changes for the fee and tuition schedule for the upcoming school year and again won't be seeking the board's action on that at this meeting it will in the june

[01:14:29] meeting so this is a first look at those revisions mr wack will provide just a high level overview there and then we'd be happy to take any questions you may have good afternoon thank you dr cashwell again these are these fee schedules are approved by the school board each year and I did want to point out you do have mechanisms in place at the individual schools for students that are economically disadvantaged can have certain fees waived during the process. I will just highlight really two categories of major changes this year. So in the mandatory fee

[01:15:04] schedule you'll see that we're striking all fees and offense fines related to parking so that will save approximately 120 000 that's uh paid by parents and students each year um to man to manage it at the at the high schools uh the other uh notable change is just reinsert or inserting the the summer academy fee structure for fees that had been in place through uh 29 2019 um i when i went back and saw employers these these fees weren't specifically listed on the schedule but again i

[01:15:39] just wanted to point out these are really partial cost recovery I would note just to give some context in what we're paying per hour for a teacher in Summer Academy is about 73 percent more this summer than it was in 2019 so we have been using our federal pandemic relief funds to increase the hourly rates at Summer Academy and they will also help us this last summer but after that we will probably need to revisit whether we're going to have to put more local funds if we're going to continue having a summer academy of this magnitude yeah i would note just to summarize

[01:16:18] and add on to some of what mr wax says as you know when we provided our financial summary the past few years we've been looking at the expiration of some of the esser funds we used some esser funds to offset and completely eliminate costs particularly the year we were coming out of virtual learning and back into in-person learning to get lots of kids into our summer programming and we did that at no cost to families leveraging some of that ESSER funds we have as those have expired gone back to some basic summer academy fees certainly there's not a fee for everything and as you mentioned Mr. Wack any student who may have a financial hardship we

[01:16:55] would work with them to cover that as we always have for any of these fees and would also note that the costs for summer academy while coming back this year and we did advertise that to families last year as well and it's been noted in our summer academy material that's out currently those have not increased in a number of years even though obviously the cost for operating summer school has gone up and he mentioned pay for teachers and of course so this is an at-cost item for the division and so that's why that's reflected here and i'll add for the for our

[01:17:31] our newer school board members this this 120 000 in savings is on top of about 1.6 million that accumulated in in recent years so we're looking at about 1.7 million um in annual savings to uh students and parents by by the systematic uh elimination of some of these fees again happy to answer any questions thank you mr wack for presenting the changes uh we'll start to my left with mr irving thank you for this presentation and this in this listen i'd like to say first of all

[01:18:07] that i'm extremely happy that the parking has been eliminated that can be a challenge for some of our students and families um the my my question is and i maybe missed it so forgive me if i did how much revenue do we generate off all these fees each year so almost all essentially these fees go to the the student activity funds that are not necessarily associated with our with our our operating budget okay um so i um we did quant we've quantified individual ones where we've eliminated over the years so i could get back to you with okay with the remaining fees so the

[01:18:42] schools were able to use these as they okay okay great specific typically it's an extracurricular um question about the summer academy fees are these means tested so these again are the same amounts that were were in place up through 2019 and if if a family is not able to to afford for that and document that they can they can have the fee waiver is that what you're asking yeah like this so for example i i mean a disproportionate number of students who end up in summer academy are generally from lower income backgrounds so that's why i i look at the fee and and think

[01:19:21] are we making sure that these that this won't be inaccessible to these individuals yes okay all right that's all i have thank you thank you mr irving mr young no questions thank you sir mrs shea thank you so much I am so glad to see that yet again for another year we are waiving the out-of-county tuition for employees on a big our employee students on invariance so I'm really excited to see that we're continuing that for I don't even know how many years in a

[01:19:56] row at this point but great and like Mr. Irving said I'm seeing the the parking fee waived I know we actually got some advocacy around that and so it seems it has resolved itself which is which is great um around that kind of tied in are we still going to require that cars be since they're not paying a parking fee do we still have a mechanism to register cars um with decals and or passes so that we make sure we know which cars are on schools will continue to use their process for

[01:20:31] students to be able to park and apply to park because as you know with or without the fee student parking is limited and so each high school has a particular selection process they use for students to apply to be able to park and for denoting that so folks should tune into their school's procedure for that perfect so even though it's now free it is not a free for all correct in terms of everybody that's right scrounging for a spot all right great um and then this is a bit nuanced and perhaps it doesn't on the voluntary fee schedule and perhaps it doesn't

[01:21:07] belong there, but consider possibly, especially for the AP test, if we could add something about that there's a hard deadline for paying that fee, there seems to be, even though it gets shared out with much redundancy, I know this by our principals and our AP teachers, when that deadline comes every year, there's a handful of families that said, oh, I didn't know it was a hard deadline, And we get to the point where with College Board, we don't have the flexibility to add more tests or order more tests.

[01:21:45] And so there seems to be, at least in the years I've been on the board, a handful of families in my district that have reached out that just have this panic over the actual deadline for that AP test fee and how we get to a spot where we have no more flexibility.

[01:22:05] So, I don't know if it belongs on this fee schedule or how we can continue to make sure that message is heard. So, thank you. While I hear the feedback, we'll find ways to emphasize the deadline. Yeah, I don't know that everyone's staring at this schedule, but yes, we'll work on our communication plan for that.

[01:22:22] Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Shea. Mrs. Kinsella. I would just like to thank Dr. Cashwell and the team for getting rid of the parking fee. I believe I asked for it in the fall or sometime during the budget process, maybe.

[01:22:39] So I appreciate that. What is of interest to me is, and again, this is day-to-day, which is not my lane, but I need to ask you, what is involved with the first offense, second offense, third offense? Because I do believe in perhaps fees and consequences associated with safety issues.

[01:23:01] And we'll work with our schools on procedures for students who violate parking procedures. And honestly, those fines really weren't fees, so they probably shouldn't have been germane to this document anyway. But we will work, whether it's some other consequence that comes with parking violations, parking violations will be dealt with.

[01:23:25] I appreciate that because safety is paramount, but just is a piece of that. I wanted to lose the parking fee, but not lose sight of safe driving for everybody. I would like for the board to receive information on tuition for approved variances for out-of-county because the board heard advocacy on that.

[01:23:51] We prioritized this advocacy, made it happen. As Ms. Shea said, what is this year? we're finishing year two of it and hope to approve it right for next year because this is an annual approval item that you know we're being responsive to our employees about so i'd like to receive some information absolutely about that if you don't mind and then next i can report i believe we had about 43 employees take advantage of that and we're really at this point have the same same level of interest okay they're looking forward to having that paragraph approved thank

[01:24:28] you right thank you so much for that um and then as to summer academy because i'd really like for this to be clear as a parent um who's heard advocacy regarding this and as a parent who's actually taking advantage of our summer programming students that need remediation will not have to pay if remediation is recommended, right? Versus students who fail a class need to repeat the class.

[01:25:05] That's correct. I want this to be because there is a difference that's not on here. So maybe we could have more information provided because, right? I think I know what you're asking. Yes. And we can provide some clarity.

[01:25:21] I would like some clarity around that because there's a difference between enrichment, you want to. Right. In other words, are you taking the summer course because you've not passed it and taken it during the school year in a manner to remediate the credit, or are you taking an extra course to get ahead?

[01:25:40] Either way, but yes, I think versus remediation that might be offered to an individual during the school year in order to help them make progress in a content area. We can clarify that. Yeah, summer is an important time for families, and then our CTE also does summer programming, so you would pay for that.

[01:26:00] Where is that captured? Is that the same? Because it's not the same time period. Is that, and I just missed it? There is one specific to the driver's education. I'm not sure if you're talking about that course. No. I was talking about our CTE students, like the exploratory CTE program in the summer.

[01:26:23] That falls outside of general summer academy academic programming. Okay. Thank you, because it just seemed like most of the fees were in here, so thank you for that. And then lastly, I would just like to thank the division, and then I'm going to have an ask to thank the division for behind the wheel of only being $125 per year.

[01:26:44] family or per student because if you go to an outside provider, a third party, it's anywhere from $395 to $500. So thank you for this reasonable fee of $125. I'd like to see this area staffed and I realize it's similar to the dual enrollment that the instructor has to have a specific certification in driver's ed, but I'd like to also see us support this so that our students truly are life ready so I appreciate you hearing me on that thank you mr. Wack madam chair that's all thank you so much

[01:27:23] and and I echo the sentiment around the parking fees it's a delight to hear that I had a question around payment because you know for nursing students cosmetology students barbering students particularly the kids that they need are are over $100.

[01:27:42] Something that I hear quite a bit is around the way to pay for it, where I believe right now you can pay for it in two installments. I'd like to learn more around, can you pay for it on a different scale?

[01:27:57] Perhaps it's easier to pay every month a little bit than two large chunks for some. So is that a mandated rule requirement, Or is that just known? I'm looking at the fee schedule.

[01:28:13] I see the asterisk that says tuition may be paid in full or to installments. Help me understand if this particular statement is across all of Henrico County, or is it left up to the particular class, principal, teacher to share how that can be paid?

[01:28:36] I want to make sure it's equitable because I've heard different things in different ways around how this money can be paid. The comment with the asterisk is specific only to out-of-county tuition. So, in other words, for that particular line item. The others would be collected as directed by whatever the program would be.

[01:28:55] And I do not know, but we can find out and get back to you what the payment looks like for the CTE courses that you're mentioning specifically on how they're paying to the program, whether that's offered at installments or not. But that comment on the bottom is specific to the tuition payment, not to the separate fees above it, if that makes sense.

[01:29:17] I think if we could get clarity on that document, that would help, you know, for folks that don't have the background knowledge of it or however we share this information out with families, if there's some verbiage around the payment and how it can be paid, especially for students who are paying for it themselves.

[01:29:36] I think it's important for them to understand how they can pay it and not be discouraged to learn, hey, you have to come up with that chunk of money two times. It's much easier if they could come up with it maybe on a monthly basis. So I appreciate you sharing that.

[01:29:52] And specifically for barbering, cosmetology, and nursing. I will. And how those are collected directly at the programs at our ACE centers. And I do know that the Technical Education Foundation does assist with tuition, not tuition, with the fee for the items as well. So I'm not aware of any installments or plans that they have in place, and they may, but we'll find out for you. Perfect. Thank you so much. And there is a redirect. Mrs. Kinsella.

[01:30:22] Thank you so much, Chair Atkins. Because the board received advocacy, I would like for you to actually explain for those who may watch this back and want to know why the online payment system that families use charges a fee that we write it's it's we do not get that fee correct i yeah i can speak to that briefly i mean certainly we are committed to making sure that we're not passing on any undue expenses to our families and as mr wax said we've eliminated over a million

[01:30:55] dollars in fees to our families but there is a cost to using the online system for us and so if a person chooses to pay fees that way and by the way there are no cost options for paying the fees if you were to do it in person at the school that is possible but if you would like to use the online payment system there is a small fee that allows us to administer that system you know that allows us to use it. So it is at a cost to the division. Could that be elevated with our constituents, please? Because we've received, I know Mrs. Seamus-Atkins and I in the past four years have

[01:31:34] received feedback on that. And I realized that they would have to be processed at the school, but we do have financial folks in our schools. We can make sure families know that there is an option. Especially regarding the lunch account, because there are maximums that you can even put on the lunch account, which runs up the fee, for example. But if you could send payment to school, I would like for that to be elevated. And then lastly, with the elimination of the parking fee, I just want to be assured that because the parking fee monies were not used to

[01:32:09] pave parking lots and so forth by our operations team, that the principals in the building will not be, it's my understanding, the principals use this money in their buildings. So the principals will not have to somehow find this money they were using to support some need in their building, Dr. Cashwell or Mr. Wack?

[01:32:31] Like all of our fees that we've eliminated, the division or the school building were receiving those. So that has meant us finding ways to reallocate other dollars to that as we're budgeting. So in this case a portion of that came centrally for maintenance.

[01:32:49] We'll cover that in our other maintenance items within our budget and then a smaller percentage of that went to the school and we'll make sure we're working with our principals to meet any needs that might come up. Thank you so much. I just wanted that to be clear that our principals and buildings would not be disadvantaged by this.

[01:33:07] Thank you so much. Mr. Irving. Ms. Kinsella said got me thinking and I would like to know if we could explore what it would look like to have an in-house payment system for credit cards and just if there's a possibility of doing that in the future to present you know these fees from families going to this third-party entity and just the feasibility of that and what that would you know look like over over the long term. So yes we're essentially getting back to that we're passing on the credit card processing

[01:33:42] fee if everyone were to pay their fees online um and we were to absorb that cost that would be about 250 000 per year that's not not in our budget but there is again that dr cashwell mentioned a a no cost option uh parents can pay uh add to them uh to my my school bucks account for for student meals as well as pay the pay those fees through through the system and pay by check and avoid the process and we can certainly look at what it might be uh cost and time wise to administer a payment system in-house i mean i i would want to be a realistic even if we took that on in-house

[01:34:19] it would come at cost and and the administration of the system whereas by a small fee being passed on to the user and us using a third party they're administering uh the system but certainly something we can look into yeah i don't want to make any decisions right now i just want information around what that would look like and and the potential numbers any other questions comments or thoughts all right thank you mr wack thank you you're welcome that moves us to our next agenda

[01:34:54] item which is unfinished business colleagues do you have any unfinished business the next item on the agenda is new business and colleagues i do have a new business item to share so dr cashwell on behalf of the board i'd like to dr cashwell and to the public i'd like to acknowledge the comments that we have received from stakeholders both written and in person regarding collective bargaining please know that your feedback has been duly noted

[01:35:34] and continues to be reviewed board members in collaboration with the superintendent remain committed to furthering our understanding of this matter assessing its potential impacts on the school division and employees and exploring a path forward dr cashwell to inform future considerations the school board tasks the superintendent to one gather stakeholder

[01:36:06] feedback and explore best practices for employee engagement to provide information about collective bargaining in school divisions throughout the commonwealth and three provide information and considerations about the school division's organizational structure including the unified pay plan or upp lastly a progress report should be presented to the board by september 2024 is there a motion i move that the school board tests the superintendent to report on avenues for employee

[01:36:43] feedback as described by the chair is there a second all in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it and we will move forward with the request that was shared with dr cashwell i should say request to noted no worries all righty the last item on the agenda are the announcements of meeting dates the school board's next meeting is this evening thursday may 9th

[01:37:20] 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the New Bridge Auditorium. This meeting is adjourned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com