Coraggio Consulting
Henrico County School Board Work Session, Thursday, August 22, 2024

Date: Thursday, August 22, 2024
Place: Henrico County School Board, Virginia
Length: 1h 9m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxVcZUI75z4
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 2026-10-25. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] good afternoon today is august 22nd 2024 and we will begin our school board work session with the approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda i move that the school board approve the agenda for today's meeting thank you madison any sec a second second thank you all in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it the agenda is approved the next item on

[00:00:37] the agenda 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 of section 2.2-3711 of the code of virginia 1950 as amended pertaining to the assignment appointment promotion performance to motion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific school board employees is there a second second thank you all in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it we will now go into

[00:01:15] closed session we will reconvene the work session at the conclusion of our closed session we're back Now we will move on with our agenda and certify closed session.

[00:01:38] Is there a motion to certify closed session? I move that the school board certified 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 Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

[00:02:03] Thank you, Mrs. Kinsella. is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. A closed session has been certified. Madam Superintendent. Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the board. For the first item, we'll receive information about the successful launch of the ParentSquare engagement tool and the availability of new features for the 2024-2025 school year. And Eileen Cox will take us through that presentation. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, school board members, and Dr. Cashwell. Today, I'll provide you with information

[00:02:42] about the division's successful launch of ParentSquare and plans to enable new features as the school year progresses. Maybe. Not touching. As background, ParentSquare elevates school communications and engagement by bringing together essential outreaches into one platform. The

[00:03:20] Division uses it for rapid communication for things like snow days, but also for family and staff newsletters and announcements and news about events and topics that are of interest to families and staff. Teachers and school leaders use ParentSquare for two-way communication with families in multiple languages.

[00:03:40] Families have the option to select their preferred language in the mobile app, and messages written in English will be translated into one of more than 100 languages. Direct messages are translated in real time to allow for timely, authentic two-way communication.

[00:03:57] I just want to interrupt you for one moment, if you don't mind, to just allow us to pause to see if we can get the presentation working properly. Sure. Thank you. Love that.

[00:04:18] And now you may continue. In addition to messaging, ParentSquare has features for event sign-up, form submission, and more. we'll look at those options in just a moment. First, I want to share this snapshot of the division's ability to contact parents and staff members last school year and let you know that the statistics for this school year are already just as high. As you will see, our contactability

[00:04:50] rate is 99.6%. That means that we can reach 99.6% of families and staff members by email, text, phone call, or through the ParentSquare mobile app. The remaining 0.4% is usually attributed to families who have recently changed their phone number or email address when changing providers each day we receive a dashboard update that points out which families those are so that schools and the division can contact them this slide shows how our families and employees are

[00:05:29] choosing to receive information as you can see text messaging is the most popular 99 of our families parents guardians and staff indicate that they have a cell phone and 96 are electing to receive text messages. 85 percent of parents and guardians also choose to receive emails and 45 percent have downloaded the parent square mobile app with 35 percent opting to receive push notifications.

[00:06:01] This slide shows how teachers are using parent square to communicate with families and colleagues. These numbers are robust to say the least. Last school year teachers made more than 58,430 posts in Parent Square. Those posts include information, links to resources, photos, and opportunities to sign up for meetings and events. On the right of the screen, you'll see the data for direct messaging.

[00:06:33] Nearly 666,000 direct messages were exchanged between teachers, parents, guardians, and HCPS peers. Based on the trend data that you see on the screen, elementary school teachers tend to use the post feature more often while secondary teachers rely more heavily on direct messaging at the beginning of the presentation i mentioned the additional engagement featured features offered by parent square things like appointment signups event rsvps

[00:07:09] forms and more initially we did not plan to open these features up for the beginning of last school year our plan was to allow teachers and school administrators to become familiar with parent square before making these additional features available however some of our teachers and principals had another idea and it was a great one so based on their input and requests we were able to launch the features in the first semester including signups appointment signups rsvps and forms they could collect field trip forms use the features to sign up parents for parent

[00:07:48] teacher conferences and at the division level we were able to securely and confidentially deliver individual sol student reports to parents and guardians saving countless hours for school staff who traditionally had to sort printed documents step envelopes and mail them so far we've talked about usage data, this slide demonstrates some of the anecdotal success stories that we've heard.

[00:08:15] As you can see, general ease of use is a recurring theme and the ability to share and receive information from multiple sources in one platform is appreciated. Families also noted that they liked the ability to choose whether to receive messages immediately or through a digest at the end of each day. This is especially helpful if you have multiple students enrolled in different schools or programs across the division so what's next with parent square we're currently in the process of making student square available at middle and high schools students who have

[00:08:54] our students all who have hcps email addresses can receive email alerts and see posts in the student square on the student square website with parent permission they may also download the Student Square mobile app, which would allow them to see in a feed similar to the way that parents and guardians are receiving information. Student Square is primarily a way for teachers to send posts to students as an entire class or through direct message about assignments and events. It's also available for coaches, club sponsors, and staff who work with small groups

[00:09:30] of students across grade levels or classes to push out information about practices, meetings, clubs, and news. Once again, the messages are translated into the language selected by the student, allowing for timely two-way communication in up to 100 languages. We're very excited to continue to expand our use of ParentSquare. As a larger school division with active engagement by both teachers and families, HCPS is often asked to pilot new features for ParentSquare. Larry willis from the communications office and i also serve on parent square's national client advisory

[00:10:09] committee so we feel confident that our feedback from hcps staff is being heard and used as parent square continues to grow by leaps and bounds madam chair that concludes our presentation today and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you for the presentation i'll start to my right with mrs kinsella thank you chair atkins yes i bet a lot of folks have been interested in how to receive all the messaging um that we're getting i've heard that from folks as well as experienced it myself as at times as a mom a parent of henrico schools kids and as an employee

[00:10:49] you mentioned new features so given my experience and what i've heard my community currently we've We've got PowerSchool for forms and the great book of record. And we can see which bus we're riding. We can look at our schedule.

[00:11:06] We've got the MySchoolBox account. We've got the OSP fees. We still have paper forms coming home. We've got links on some paper forms to go look at on syllabi. And then yet we still have Schoology. Is there any chance, and I mean any chance, that new features you just mentioned may involve streamlining some of these some of the um the platforms that you just mentioned are specific to instruction student information and grading those would not be part of parent square

[00:11:40] because of privacy reasons and student record reasons now some of the other apps are not features that parent square currently has as parent square continues to grow if similar features become available we certainly would look at all of the the platforms that we have to determine which ones are the best use to meet our needs and i might add i think that's a really great question and we've been streamlining all things technological if you will applications as best we can but as mrs cox pointed out this one specific to a communications tool and delivering information

[00:12:18] and we were able to embed instead of the paper mailing for example the electronic mailing and and we can do some more of that as we explore the future. We used to have, in addition to all of the things you mentioned, RICOR separately for forms and then we were able to bring that into one of our existing platforms.

[00:12:38] So I know our technology team, as either contracts expire with current companies or opportunities expand within some of the student information platforms we have, we look to see how we can streamline those. it's fewer clicks, fewer links, and we've tried to really embed as many things in a one-stop shop as we can.

[00:12:58] For example, bringing our forms out of a separate platform was one step in the right direction. But certainly when it comes to some of those other, like for example, the school lunch payments, My School Bucks, getting things streamlined is always something we're looking to do.

[00:13:14] - I would just encourage it as a parent and as a school board member. more we can streamline the better without sacrificing sensitive information of course so i would imagine the power school stays power school right and then schoology as well or maybe not yes you're right power school is a student information system schoology is a learning management system so that they all do have unique purposes where for example parent square is used as a communications system but certainly some of the features within those individual for example

[00:13:50] the student information system being able to fold in forms and those kinds of things we're seeing those expand to meet the needs of school divisions nationally and of course mrs cox mentioned even her advocacy on the front of bringing back that specific feedback to parent square on the user end similar is the kind of feedback we provide to our vendors who provide our student information system and others and that's something i know that's often pushed for and we continue to strive to to use streamlined platforms or bring things together as we can in the interim before we streamline further streamline is there a way if you're an elementary parent is there like a

[00:14:29] checklist have you done this have you done this have you done this or if a secondary parent is there a is there a specific checklist for all the things on the website there's an online services page and tab that technology has put together what each of the different platforms are used for and how you can make sure that you have signed in and have an active account and and then also contact information for if you need assistance doing that i i saw that and it lists our resources and and explains them very well but i was thinking of actually using the parent square communication

[00:15:07] app to send different messages to different stakeholders about whatever is applicable. Absolutely. We can look into that. So that folks know. Because personally, from what I'm hearing in my district and as a parent, I agree. I want something that tells me I'm done.

[00:15:24] I'm paid. I'm done. Whatever it is, I'd like to or at least have a checklist, right, for things that are applicable. Sure. We can look into that. And then outside of that, so excited about the student square. But it won't allow the students necessarily to message one another.

[00:15:41] I don't want to be in conflict with our cell phone policy, right? Students cannot message one another. Direct messages and responses to posts can only be made between a staff member and a student. Great. Thank you for that. That's all I had.

[00:15:58] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mrs. Ginsella. Mrs. Shea. Thank you so much. Ms. Cox, you and your team have just done a tremendous job on many fronts, but especially the 99.6% connectivity, that's tremendous.

[00:16:16] I am loving ParentSquare. This is the first year that both of my kids, so I'm in elementary and middle, are both on that platform, and it has been so nice to have all the teacher communication in one place and not bouncing between apps.

[00:16:34] I am loving it. I do love, not that we're over-communicating, but I'm an over-communicator. So it really like fits my niche. However, my husband is not an over-communicator. And so you mentioned something about a digest.

[00:16:51] Can you, because whenever he asked me a question, I'm like, well, if you read Parent Square, you would know the answer. Well, that's always the right answer, Mrs. Shea. Yeah. So how could, how could I sign up my husband and perhaps other people who are more of the digest explain what that would look like so when you activate your parent square account there are user features if you go into your profile and there's a place that you can select whether you want to receive news instantly or if you'd like to receive it as a digest at the end of the day and that's usually about six o'clock each evening and you can set that differently for each of your

[00:17:25] student accounts so if you'd like to receive your middle school students messages instantly you can do so while still also receiving the elementary as a digest. And you also can have the option of whether to receive text messages or not receive text messages without impacting our ability to reach you in the event of an emergency.

[00:17:49] Because at the division level and at the school level, we can override that digest setting and send something instantly to parents in the event of a crisis or an emergency. I think that's real important for our parents to hear. you I think that'll be hopefully some of our parents will dig into that I hope that I think that'll be really helpful for some of our families speaking of student square which again I'm really excited for I think when we look at student safety and communication I think this is an important layer for example my middle school child does not have a mobile device so how would they be able

[00:18:27] to receive those notifications without a mobile device you do not need a cell phone to take part in student square if you have an hcps student email address you can go on to the student square it's called mystudentsquare.com and you can access all of the posts and direct messages through the website rather than having to do so through the mobile app awesome um and then just one more piece of feedback and i haven't been able to follow up with some of our teachers who gave me the feedback last year. So it may have been rectified, but since you're on the national

[00:19:05] advisory, I thought I would share. For some of our staff who teach in the same buildings that their child is a student, as they have shared, that it can often be confusing because all of those messages are intertwined, whether it's coming from their student's class or is for their own class. It's like mixed up at the building level. So I don't know if it's able to be parsed out and that's um like a pd to be pushed out or if that's um there is a way to merge or unmerge your accounts as a staff member and as a parent and so if there's someone who hasn't been able to

[00:19:43] accomplish that on their own they're welcome to contact our office and we can assist and we will put that in as a tip in a future edition of the clipboard awesome thank you so much that's all from me thank you mrs shea mr young oh thank you miss cox for the presentation as a parent i definitely think um it's easy to distinguish what school is sending the message for multiple kids so i really love that did have a question on slide six about sign ups are parents able to nail sign up and volunteer i know we do that background check before we let them go on field

[00:20:18] trips and different things is that part of this so this is if a class has a field trip coming up or if they have an event where they're looking for volunteers a teacher can put in that they're looking for chaperones for example and someone can say yes i'd like to volunteer this doesn't take the place of any of the checks that we do for our volunteers currently this is just one way that individual classes can express their needs and parents can sign up awesome that's the only question i had my colleagues asked the other question but parent squirrel is wonderful thank

[00:20:53] you thank you mr young mr irving thank you miss cox for the presentation i i'm my children are too young for me to receive messages from their schools but i do receive them myself and i enjoy it i can see why most parents like it i everyone that i've talked to who has a child in the school system has just had positive praise for it so i'm thankful that we we have such a tool and i'm looking forward to the expansiveness and the the digest moving forward great thank you mr

[00:21:27] irving i do have a few questions regarding parent square and student square one thought that i had was around the usage data. Does the system offer information specifically to when families are using it just to better understand when is the when is a good time to send a message? I think that type of information may help staff better get better understand the right time to send a message.

[00:22:00] That's not available right now. That is something that I know that ParentSquare is looking into is how we can drill down into when text messages or direct messages are being opened when a post is receiving the most activity similar to the way that you would be able to view the number of users on a web page for example but that feature is not available that level of drilling down into the analytics is not available right now. Well it's good to know that it's on the radar because that

[00:22:33] That is another way to get higher engagement, whether you are the staff member, staff individual that is sending the message. If you have a good understanding of the best time to send messages to your families, you'd rather send it then, then to send it at a time.

[00:22:51] And then you're wondering, how come I don't receive a response, if that makes sense. It does. And some of our schools have even gone so far as to say, second grade will send their messages on a tuesday third grade will send their messages on a wednesday so that they know if a if a family has multiple students within the same school they know what day they're to expect messages from their child's teacher and that's exactly why i'm asking that question so individuals with multiple students um if they know when to expect the messages you'll get a higher engagement and response so thank you for that so i looked at how many touches we have uh based off of your

[00:23:31] slide so 129 176 is the number that i came up with and that's an approximate number and that's wonderful so a huge applause to you and your team for the work that you're doing and also for being innovative and continuing to explore what else is possible so that we can continue to be excellent that space and then the last now this really is a question is do you have a marketing plan or what does that marketing plan look like for students to

[00:24:05] better understand when to use it not at midnight how to use it when they're messaging staff I do believe that that is something that children need to be trained on or some level of understanding on how to use this tool school versus Schoology, where you can also message staff. So if you're a teacher and you're getting constant messages through Student Square, and then that student is also using, it will be wise. So I'd love to hear what the marketing plan is for students' understanding

[00:24:39] of this technology. Yes, ma'am. There is a user guide for teachers that will be going out and for principals as well as a guide and tips for students. There's a video that we'll be sharing through ParentSquare and through StudentSquare when our students are signing up. And in addition to that, every staff user has the ability to set office hours within their profile. So you can put out you can select as a teacher that your availability in parent square is from 2 30 to

[00:25:16] 6 30 p.m and if there is a message that's sent to you it will say this is being sent outside of the recipient's office hours and you will not receive a response so thank you for that and i'm going to give you a recommendation to consider so that we have guardrails for children so to share with the child that you can send a message to your teacher when something on is on your mind to me is very loose i think that you might want to consider at least in the beginning putting some guardrails up for all staff and these are the appropriate hours to message your teacher unless there's an

[00:25:56] emergency otherwise telling students they can send a message whenever they feel like it is exactly what i believe staff would receive and i don't know if if staff would want that or not but i'm simply asking you to consider thinking about guardrails and the way in which we communicate to our children. Absolutely. Great recommendation. And colleagues, I hope you understand what I'm saying. If anyone has any feedback there, I just think it's important that we put guardrails up in that space. I have a question. I have a question based on what you just said, if you don't mind.

[00:26:27] Absolutely, Mrs. Kinsella. Is there a way to, I guess you couldn't override it as a division, to respect folks' time. For example, it's after hours. Like the message would still drop, but it's outside of time.

[00:26:43] I think this is similar to email. So parents or students could be emailing a staff member or teacher, but we would, of course, make sure staff are clear to their students when they'll be checking, which is similar to what they do with Schoology and email as well.

[00:26:59] You know, that things received after a particular time wouldn't be, I think that's what Mrs. Cox was pointing out about the office hours. But certainly, understanding it's another communication tool is a positive. But on the flip side, helping students understand the purpose is to be specific about a topic or an assignment.

[00:27:16] And typically, if a teacher or a club sponsor is making a post about something, that would be the time to engage back rather than using it as an open communication tool because there are other tools like that in place in Schoology. So certainly setting expectations and understanding around that will be important.

[00:27:34] You know, I think it may be intuitive once it's begun to be used by coaches and teachers what the use cases are, but certainly great feedback and something we'll continue to work with as we roll it out. Thank you, Dr. Cashwell. It certainly will be interesting because I do believe children will be more amenable to using that app than they would Schoology and some of the other platforms because the app is a high-profile way to communicate for young children and so i just want to put that

[00:28:10] out on the radar so that we don't you know inadvertently cause problems so thank you so much miss cox thank you and thank you members of the board for your outstanding questions related to parent square and the future rollout of student square will keep you posted as things progress into the new school year. Our next item is a review of the schematic design for the living building of the Center for Environmental Studies and Sustainability. And of course, at our next meeting, we'll be seeking your approval of that design. And so Susan Moore is going

[00:28:50] to kick off that presentation. Welcome. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Chair Adkins, Vice Chair Shea, school board members, and Superintendent Cashwell. Today, we are very, very excited to bring forward for your approval our schematic design for the living building at wilton which is one of our projects on the 2022 bond referendum presenting with me today will be laura gwen she is a managing director for perkins and will our design firm and a vital part of our

[00:29:24] design team on this project so on the screen you'll see an actual site that will be where the building will go at Wilton Farm. And the living building will serve students enrolled, again, in the Environmental Studies and Sustainability Center, as well as all levels of HCPS students in various capacities and our Henrico community. This new educational facility will be a leading example

[00:30:00] of sustainability and regenerative design, and it will focus on experiential learning to prepare students for possible future careers in the environmental sciences. This will be the first living building challenge certified public K-12 facility in the world. Yes, I did say the world.

[00:30:27] And the only, only the second living building of any kind in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Laura will briefly review the living building challenge in the next slide. The facility will demonstrate daily HCPS's commitment to sustainability and innovation both in building and education as well as to the Henrico community who supported this project as part of the 22 bond referendum.

[00:30:56] I'll now turn over the presentation to Laura so she can walk us through the schematic design. Thank you Susan and good afternoon to members of the board as well as Dr. Cashwell great to see again it is a pleasure to be here today to provide you updates on the design of this living building challenge at the wilton farm i'd like to start by explaining why this is called a living building the living building challenge is maintained and administered by the international living future institute called ilfi for short their mission is to drive market transformation towards a socially

[00:31:38] restorative future. The LBC challenge includes seven categories or known as pedals. You'll see them featured on the screen. The project team must achieve 20 performance imperatives across these seven pedals in order to achieve a full certification. This is a more robust program than most high-performance building certifications in the industry and in fact there are only 30 fully certified buildings in the world, as Susan mentioned, and that this HCPS will have the

[00:32:12] first public K-12 living building in the world. The design of the living building is focused on maximizing the building's ability to serve as a teaching tool itself. Both the landscape and the building include features intentionally designed to spark curiosity and serve as a living laboratory. For example, the building will generate all of its energy that it needs from on-site solar panels, and the students will learn how energy is used in the building.

[00:32:45] The project models responsible use of the land, the water, and energy and materials to the highest levels possible. And again, for an example, the water used inside this building will be used for drinking and cooking and restrooms. It will all come from rainwater that is harvested, captured, and purified on site the students will learn firsthand about the hydrological cycle and how to protect our water quality the construction will generate virtually no waste that will be sent to a landfill and the building materials will include a significant number of materials

[00:33:21] that are being reused many from some local projects including materials that we have already salvaged from other buildings within the district and for example we intend to use some older gym floors for new wood paneling on the interior and also as a flooring material in this new school.

[00:33:41] So these strategies and others really help the building to earn this certification in the Living Building Challenge, which will also ensure that Henrico County Public Schools is a national leader in the environmental education. The project will be located on a portion of the land formerly known as the Wilton Farm. Many of you are probably familiar with this area it's a parcel of forested and agricultural land near the osborne turnpike and the james river the county purchased about 1200 acres on this property and it includes a historically significant

[00:34:17] resources careful consideration has been and will occur at every step of the design process to preserve and honor the rich history throughout this site the yellow highlighted area by the boundary is approximately 62 acres and that is the site that hcps will be utilizing for our project the white location symbol shows the selected area for the new building and it's on a gently sloping field near whale lake the location is ideal as it is far enough away from the 895 overpass

[00:34:55] so that vehicular noise is not audible in the building nor will it be visible utilizing the clearing this this open field means that no trees will need to be removed to build this new building and the proximity to the lake allows for this curriculum connection to include include learning modules on the wetlands on water quality native flora and fauna amongst other topics on this slide it zooms in on the building site and this shows the major focus for the major landscape

[00:35:31] features that'll be evolved on this project at the top left corner is a proposed orchard over here and um it's it's shown in a circular fibonacci sequence we'll go over to the low one on the left and this is envisioned as an opportunity for students to begin to leave their mark and make their mark on the school and the land here for example each graduating class may be invited to plant a tree a row of trees to commemorate the time that they spent at this site learning so that the mini forest continues to grow slowly over time and students can see this

[00:36:07] evolution on campus, offering an opportunity to watch this tree's life cycle over time. The site features various educational stations which will cover various aspects of the natural world. In addition, a small-scale wind turbine is featured at the center of the spiral to showcase and teach about another form of renewable energy, and the rendering also shows a proposed landscaping which includes planting of new trees that will begin to fill in even the existing forest and and it's done through a process that we call rewilding amongst the new trees the driveway accesses and terminates

[00:36:46] in a new drop-off area for the buses and vehicles with a circular turnabout the students can then walk on a new trail through a newly planted forest of trees to up to the building which is seen from above is shaped, the building itself as seen from above is shaped to resemble a bird's wings. This aerial view of the site shows the building's relationship with the newly proposed drop-off area, the landscaping, the forest, and you can see the glimpses of Whale Lake. It also shows the new

[00:37:23] student forest more clearly. As a visitor walks around the corner to approach the building, they get their first view of the proposed building through a green roof. The plantings on this green roof are native to the area and make it look or appear as though the building is growing out of the ground even though in reality the roof line is too high for anyone to be able to access.

[00:37:48] The floor plans are color-coded to illustrate various uses for this proposed building. This is the upper level or main level of the facility and it shows the administrative wing on the right separated from the classroom wing by the main entry and lobby. The main entry is the only building entry which allows the vestibule to serve as an effective security checkpoint once you've been granted access inside the lobby you have access to the administrative area the restroom bank and the receptionist desk and as well as the classroom wing and off the back

[00:38:24] a beautiful view of the outdoor expansive deck that overlooks the forest and views to whale lake the classroom wing is designed so that each classroom is accessed directly from the commons area which benefits from full height windows to allow visual access to the forest this brings in abundant natural light which will penetrate deep into the space the operable windows into each classroom will allow for direct access to some landscape planters featured on plan north which are playing an integral role in the project's approach to managing storm water

[00:39:00] By naturally filtering the rainwater, it's another opportunity for the students to engage for soil and water testing and just a great learning experience overall. Both the classroom and the admin wings feature a screened-in porch enclosure at each end, which will extend the usable space during those milder weather times in the school year.

[00:39:23] The circular rainwater cistern featured in the upper right is shown at the edge of the admin wing and the rainwater is collected off of the solar paneled roof above and stored for use inside the building. We'll switch now to the lower level, which is essentially a daylighted basement. It features covered outdoor classroom areas, which is an additional space that allows for outdoor instruction. This outdoor classroom has direct access to the trails leading down to the lake

[00:39:58] and is directly connected to the outdoor gear and canoe storage room for ease of access. This lower level is envisioned as kind of the messy level where wet boots or field equipment, canoes, and other teaching materials can both be stored, accessed, and cleaned.

[00:40:16] This level also includes the mechanical room, which is designed with tall floor-to-ceiling windows, which allow the students to look in and see the instrumentation that supports the building's energy systems. The compost room houses equipment to support and support the proposed composting toilets, which means that this facility uses very little water and it in fact produces soil rather than sewage.

[00:40:43] The landscape design includes a small stream to flow underneath the building to allow for another direct connection with nature during the school day. Shady forested planting areas underneath the building mean that students can learn about ecosystems all around them this stunning elevation is the main facade of the building that will look out over the forest and towards whale lake it promises to be a beautiful and dramatic view of the building the right side of the building in this view shows the glass enclosed administrative wing

[00:41:21] and classroom wing on the left that are covered by outdoor deck areas and access from the lobby the left side shows that large common space out facing this area with the classrooms behind it in the foreground you'll notice the landscaping is shown as natural it's a habitat that will allow insects birds mammals to thrive and be part of this experience every day the large expanse of windows while articulated with sun shading devices similar or used to minimize the heat

[00:41:56] gang during the summer and warmer months will allow for free solar heating in the winter. The light blue enclosure on the lower level is a restroom space. You see that down there if you want to point that out, Susan. And this is to allow for use during outdoor activities so that students who are learning outside don't have to go upstairs in order to use the facilities and will be a great convenience feature. This rendering shows the building nestled again in the landscape and the proposed green roof as an extension of that ground plane this view of the building is seen from a

[00:42:33] current proposed pollinator garden and down in the in the lower level again showing use of some proposed salvage wood materials on the ceiling and the glass enclosed water treatment room this outdoor class classroom environment down here is is also shown i'll turn it back over to you now, Susan. Thank you very much, Laura. As you can see, Perkins and Will has got an incredible start on our living building design, and we are very, very excited about this opportunity to build

[00:43:12] a fully sustainable building and pursue the living building challenge. Our goal is to have the design completed at the end of this school year, with construction starting immediately after that construction of a living building requires additional time as the systems are more specialized and have to be carefully selected and our materials have to be carefully selected but the finished product is going to be a striking environmentally sustainable addition to our henrico community

[00:43:45] as a reminder the project delivery is utilizing the construction manager at risk method which allows us to bring our selected contractor onto our team and let them be part of the design process which will assist with determining our construction methods and our materials and determining that they will remain within our construction budget the living building challenge will require a one year post occupancy monitoring period before the building can be fully certified as meeting the

[00:44:20] requirements of the challenge but i do want to make it clear hcps will occupy and utilize that building for that entire year of monitoring just as a reminder we just want to let you know that this was a part of our 2022 bond referendum we had about three million dollars in general capital and 13.3 million dollars as bond funding with a 16.3 million dollar total budget for the project as you can see our goal is design completion in june of 2025 with construction

[00:44:55] completion being about a year later one thing i do want to point out is with the construction manager at risk method we may have the opportunity to release some portions of the construction early so the construction could be phased so we're looking right now at a mid-year opening in December of 26 with our one-year occupancy, post-occupancy for the challenge certification and then hoping to achieve our full certification in December of 2027. So with that, we leave you

[00:45:31] with one more wonderful view of that lakefront facade and we're happy to take any questions you have? I'm quite speechless. So I'm going to take some time with this and I will take the liberty of going first. So I'll ask my colleagues for grace as I digest what you have shared and do my best to articulate all these scrambled thoughts that I have in this moment. One of the things that stuck out the most was just the thoughtfulness of the building to stay true to its

[00:46:09] environment. It's very easy to go for something very shiny, something very new. It's difficult to be thoughtful enough to be honest and to be truthful into what this environment is. It is forest. And so I'm very appreciative. And so Ms. Moore and Ms. Gwen, I thank you so much for the presentation. I thank all the teams for all of the work. And now, as my thoughts are really coming

[00:46:43] into focus, I do have questions. So, colleagues, thank you for your grace in coming and sharing. What is the occupancy or projected occupancy for the building? We'll be looking at about 100 students. So, with the four classrooms, we can have 100 students in those classrooms. And we would be able to have some occupancy in the commons area.

[00:47:09] So the final occupancy will be determined a little further into the design completion. - But we're looking right now that that's a fairly large building. So we're looking at about 100 students, hearing you right, correct? - Yes, yes ma'am.

[00:47:24] - So the idea would be that our students at Verina High School who are in the environmental and sustainability program could be holding class there on a regular basis. And then students who may be coming from various elementary schools to do a canoeing field trip or be in the pollinator garden would exist at the same time in and out of those outdoor spaces.

[00:47:43] So for the classroom space, the fixed classroom space and building, but given the expansive grounds and the outdoor space connected to the underneath, you could expect to see many more there at the same time. - Great, that's kind of what I was thinking.

[00:47:59] So thank you for answering the question on classroom space. dr cashwell the much larger audience and participants of the building the other question is around parking i didn't see or perhaps i did not understand what does parking look like around the building itself well it's not a conventional parking lot like you might see in many of the schools today it is designed intentionally to be very thoughtfully integrated into the landscape you'll notice to the left here you see two yellow school buses over here at this drop-off and right

[00:48:37] in between these trees around that roundabout is essentially parking spaces that are designed to go off of that angle parking spaces right off the drop-off so parking is right there as well as some additional parking spaces along the main drive in you'll see carving out of some of those right here for additional overflow if there was a community event or other things of that nature there'll be additional capacity there if somebody needed to drop off a larger material load and deal with loading or an accessibility oriented drop-off that needed to be made there is a convenience

[00:49:15] lane to be able to drop off very close to that front door of the building but we will not encourage necessarily everybody to go in front of the school and keep the experience of vehicles separate as much as possible from the learning environment and the students. That's so good to hear because I'm thinking about traffic and I wanted a better understanding of the road itself getting in, coming out and where the parking would be. And you mentioned wind turbine. Could you share with me a little bit more about what type of wind turbine you're looking at?

[00:49:48] Yeah, this is a smaller scale wind turbine. It will look perhaps a bit more sculptural than one of the kind of pinwheel or end of an airplane looking one so this will be a little bit more sculptural in nature it's designed right around that Fibonacci sequence it will probably appear a bit more sculptural this is probably something about 20 to 30 feet high in nature more almost like a flagpole of sorts I think if you think of the wind turbine that's on top of Maggie Walker

[00:50:20] thank you it would be probably something very similar to that as far as the shape goes and then regarding those bodies of water that surround will there be pathways to those bodies of water from the living building yes the specific routes for all those have not been designated just yet the main one that we have proposed a pathway for that gets all the way down towards whale lake is an extension of the building and then one accessible pathway that loops all the way through the forest kind of follows the the shoreline and comes out at basically a lake station or a kind of dock at

[00:50:59] the end of the end of the pathway there are some other wetland areas on the site that we believe will have some some opportunities to get closer to the water but those are all being still designed at this point in time thank you again and now i'll turn the floor over to my colleagues for their comments and questions as well and i will start to my left with mr irving so thank you for this presentation this is obviously amazing i wish i wish that i could live here um i you know this is

[00:51:31] just a testament i think to the commitment of hcps to wanting to truly express our commitment to sustainability i think the building is just it is a a beacon of what public spaces and what public buildings not only could be but should be and i think it should be beautiful because it's shared by all of us um and i think that's just part of what it is i the net water net positive water net energy positive that's just fantastic i think the fibonacci sequence which is often found in nature

[00:52:05] is is a very clever touch uh that was added in so i i appreciate that i you know i don't have too many questions just because i think that this mostly speaks for itself and it's you know It is awe-inspiring, and I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this, and I'm glad to see that it's even opening quicker than I would have expected, giving something of this quality.

[00:52:31] So, you know, thank you for the presentation, and thank you for, you know, showing us what this will be like, and I'm excited to get into it eventually. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Irving. Mr. Young? Yeah, once again, thank you for the presentation. I'm by no means an environmental expert, but I know a good thing when I see it.

[00:52:50] And this is a really, really good thing that we're doing here. I heard lake access, wind turbines, solar panels, no waste generated. The use of recycled materials to create the building and protecting our environment has become increasingly important to our daily lives. So I definitely cannot wait to get into this building.

[00:53:09] If you take a second, can you explain the roof to me? um i see that we have solar panels but also there's some sort of plants or something involved in it it's called a green roof yeah green how does that work so green roofs actually have been around quite some time it's a little bit of an upside down roof system if you don't mind i will take this one my background is roofing so um and i will tell you you don't get designed green roofs all that often so i i'm really excited about that but you put the membrane on the bottom close to the roof deck and then all of that growing medium goes on top of the roof so there's a couple of

[00:53:48] different ways it can be done it can be a tray system where you literally literally put trays of growing medium across the whole roof or it can actually be the medium is laid on the membrane and actually grows on top of the membrane in the process so it helps reduce heat island effect because it keeps your roof cooler you don't have the higher temperatures on the roof surface like you do with a conventional membrane roofing system it's a wonderful thing it's it's uh it can be absolutely beautiful and the way our designers have have laid this building out it will be very

[00:54:24] visible so the kids will get to see this roof don't want to take a lot of kids on a roof just for all of the various reasons but we do want them to see it and experience it and understand the roof can be that fifth facade yeah perfect thank you so much um and one last thing i love when hcps leads the way on anything so this is incredible and thank you for your time and the presentation thank you thank you thank you mr young mrs shea mr young so well said on so

[00:54:57] many things way way to go i love it um when you make this sound like an ecological disney world i mean the way you just describe it all it just sounds you know i'm not an outdoorsy kind of gal But this, as Mr. Young says, I know something good when I hear it.

[00:55:16] So thank you for sharing your passion with us and the vision for the space. I know this is a significant investment for us. So I just want to touch on a couple of things. Ms. Moore, you shared with using a different strategy with our construction vineyards and at risk to make sure that they are part of helping source materials for a lot of reasons, but also to remain in budget. Can you just hum a bar again about that to help me understand what that looks like? Because as we have skyrocketing school construction costs, that's definitely top of mind with all of our construction projects coming down.

[00:55:56] Understood. The construction manager at risk is a delivery method that the school board approved last year along with design build. So we have our traditional format, which is design bid build. And the reason why we chose the construction manager at risk method on this job is it gave us, one, the opportunity to go ahead and start working with our designer and get the project started. And then it allows us to bring our contractor in under a separate contract, but as part of the team so they are actively involved in resourcing materials working with companies to

[00:56:35] find the the various materials we can as well as can't use in the project and they are there to help guide us if we get a little too skippy on what we're putting out there they can say no no no hold up that's not going to fit within the budget but here here's something that we could do that may fit in the budget so it is a it's just a different delivery method but it allows us to include the contractor as part of the design process it's structured differently without getting too deep in the weeds it's structured a bit differently so you don't have change orders

[00:57:11] in a cm at risk project unless you change the scope of the project so it's it's just again another procurement method and delivery method for the construction process but with a highly specialized building such as this it is really the way to go in order to ensure success in the final product would you add anything more no i i don't think i'd add anything to that was good summary well i'm really looking forward to um seeing how this different mode of procurement

[00:57:45] and delivery unfolds I'm tentatively excited about it. It seems at first blush to help hold kind of all of our feet to the fire in terms of staying in the budget and both getting the dream to happen but making it happen in a feasible way that keeps us good stewards of not only our ecological resources, but also as accounting our fiscal resources, and so finding that balance there. And so I'm really looking forward to seeing how this new method works with this

[00:58:23] building and how it may be able to be applied to other projects in the future. And then, you know, as we're talking about the investment and the benefit for our students, Dr. Cashwell, it really helps me when you explain that possible use for seeing that perhaps the environmental students would be there on a regular basis and then adding in field trips so do we foresee once the building is fully completed and up and running do we see it foresee it likely being occupied on a daily

[00:58:57] basis at least during the school day absolutely and likely after hours for the community i mean this is a building that has teaching and learning purposes during school day and after, as I said, into the community. So you can expect to see it occupied frequently. And I know that our, we'll in the future share a report from our instructional team on all the exciting programmatic connections here. So parallel to the design of the building, our folks in teaching and learning and our experts in science and history and working alongside this project

[00:59:36] to think of all of the potential teaching and learning opportunities, both with the building itself, the space, and so on. So certainly the first most natural connection is for our high school students at Verina for this to be their school, their place to be and learn and explore and put their program into action outdoors.

[00:59:59] But I would suspect that, you know, whether it's teacher professional learning on site or student field trips at all grade levels and ages, that it will be a bustling active place. - Awesome, well, I'm very excited. And I know, you know, Henrico, not only the school side, but also our government side really specializes in, or I should say really thrives in our community partnerships too.

[01:00:22] And I see a lot of opportunities for community partnerships with things like the pollinator garden and all of these spaces that we have, such great community partners in and how they can come alongside us to enhance the learning opportunities for our students and our community. So thank you so much. Mrs. Kinsella. Yes what an exciting presentation. Still processing so much of it and processing what my colleagues have said and really Mrs. Shea and I always highlight budget things so I love hearing things like

[01:00:56] no waste building project and repurposing. Um, so thank you for that, but it's just fascinating and not having been out to the property, right? So one way in, one way out, that's what we're doing. And we feel comfortable with that. Okay. I mean, I know we want to leave the land as, as, um, as we found it as much as we can, but I just hear one way in one way out and thought I'd ask. So thank you for that. And then as to restrooms, we have enough restrooms in the design

[01:01:32] for the different age groups that will be using the property. Not familiar really with the type of restrooms that are planned for this facility. Sure. So the number of restrooms is required by code okay so code code immediately determines um based on occupancy how many restrooms we have to have um and of course our ada accessible rest uh toilet stalls would have a taller ada accessible

[01:02:07] toilet in the other toilet stalls we could do a shorter more natural not more natural a more a shorter toilet that you would see in a home a 15 inch toilet okay um so that we would anticipate would be appropriate for all age levels that would be utilizing the building.

[01:02:24] That's what I'm getting at, is the field trip. I think you said on the lower level, underneath, outside, they would have access to bathrooms. So I'm wondering, given the age range, this facility will serve, not just our high school students, right, in the program.

[01:02:40] Okay, thank you for that. And then, again, just hearing all this for the first time, I just have to ask. So each of the individual components, right, have been proven elsewhere. Though this is going to be the first public K-12 in the world like this.

[01:02:56] All these individual features have been test-driven other places, right? So that when we put them all together, because I'm just kind of thinking, is there a backup plan? For example, like along the way, if X isn't working the way we thought it would.

[01:03:14] I mean, I'm certain the roof will work the way we think it's going to work, right? But is that considered? again because i'm not a design you know in design or in um construction and maintenance so absolutely i think all of the systems we're looking at have been uh looked at and road tested in other yeah um the composting toilets have we we've actually been to the some of the living buildings that have composting toilets in them there's also foaming toilets i can tell you when we did visit the Candida building in Georgia, as well as the Brock Center in Virginia Beach,

[01:03:50] we talked to the maintenance folks. I love talking to the designers. I love talking to the heads of the building, but ultimately for facilities, we want to talk to the maintenance folks and we want to get the real deal on what they think about the systems. Radiant flooring, I believe we're considering radiant flooring. Radiant flooring has been around for quite some time. So I can't think of any of the cisterns. That's an active practice. And there are numerous other buildings in the country and in the world that have individual petal certifications.

[01:04:26] They just don't, there's only 30 that have all seven petal certifications. So there's a number of these sustainable systems that are there and have been being utilized. Because I will tell you, You know, facilities, we like to work with systems that we feel very confident are going to be successful in the long run.

[01:04:46] Right. Well, as a board member, I like investing in facilities that I think, you know, are going to be around for the long run and be successful. So thank you so much for all that. And I just wanted to hear some of the vetting that you've been through, because when you put all of this together, Seven Petals, you said, hadn't been done, right?

[01:05:05] Not for public schools. for public schools and um so we're just going to lead the way thank you very much you're welcome madam chair thank you mrs kancella mr irving you wanted to be around the floor is yours yes so when mr young asked about the roof that got me thinking um so these so these essentially a living roof does that help and you said that it reduces building temperatures would that help reduce taxation on hvac units within the building themselves it would actually yes it does help to reduce that by lowering the temperature a bit it lowers the demand that you'd have to be able to

[01:05:42] provide air okay and and is it possible to install solar panels on top of this type of roof not just to the side but like on the medium itself so um frequently if you want the green things to stay green and grow you wouldn't cover them up with another solar panel so we've separated that out between each of the sides of the roof the admin wing is the one that has the solar panels above it and that helps to be a consistent membrane essentially to be able to drain the water towards the cistern so those solar panels and the the amount of energy demand that we have

[01:06:21] understood from all the uses that dr casual has presented as well as just the day-to-day occupancy, we've taken a look at the energy model. And this array of solar panels, as we call them, is sufficient enough to provide even more energy than the building actually is projected to use. So you can think about it as kind of a no power bills school.

[01:06:45] Yeah. And then the last one was, was there any consideration given to geothermal heating just in staying in the renewable vein and kind of removing the certain. Yes, geothermal is still being studied as one of our approaches to the systems. And that's still in design right now.

[01:07:01] OK, great. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Irving. And then just in closing for a project like this, I happen to love the outdoors and I happen to like to sleep outdoors. And so I think that the more exposure we give to the world about what Henrico County Public Schools can do in being innovative, and certainly a project like this requires that we remain at attention and not be at ease.

[01:07:33] So it will be uncomfortable, but that does not mean that we will not receive the reward, which is the opportunity. And I firmly believe that it could be one of our HCPS students that saved this world because they've come through this project and had this opportunity.

[01:07:52] And I'm so grateful. And there are thousands that will be grateful for the work that you, your team, and Henrico County Public Schools remain invested in. And that's innovation. So thank you so much. Thank you all.

[01:08:08] You're very welcome. Thank you. And board members, that is the final presentation I have for you. this afternoon. And Dr. Cashwell, this was a good one to remove and not to remove, but to move on to the next topic because it's so pleasant. It's so pleasing to be able to be present. I'm still marinating in the last presentation and I think that's the right thing to do. And as Mrs. Kinsella

[01:08:41] said, it is important to assess the risk. It is important to vet. It is important to continue to lead. And as Mrs. Shea, all of us have presented something and united in a way that we all agree that HCPS will lead the way. So I'm going to move on before I start preaching on what HCPS has done and will do. And the next item on the agenda is unfinished business. Colleagues, is there any unfinished business hearing none i'll move on to the next agenda item which is new business

[01:09:20] colleagues do you have any new business you would like to present the last item on our agenda is the announcements the school board's next meeting is this evening thursday august 22nd 2024 at 6 30 p.m. right here in New Bridge Auditorium. This meeting is adjourned.

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