Coraggio Consulting Henrico County School Board Work Session, Thursday, March 27, 2025 Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025 Place: Henrico County School Board, Virginia Length: 2h 49m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbl8RSx4A7E 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:58] Good afternoon and welcome to the Thursday, March 27, 2025 work session of the Hemrico County School Board. The first item of our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance and Moment of Silence. [00:01:19] If you all would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing as you're able for a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all if you would [00:01:43] please remain standing for a moment of silence and you may be seated thank you dr cashwell and the next item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda uh colleagues do i have a motion i move that the school board approved the agenda for today's meeting um it's been moved is there [00:02:18] a second second second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it the agenda has been approved the next item on the agenda is closed session is there a motion to move into closed session i move at the school board go into closed session for the discussion of matters covered covered under items a1 and a2 of section 2.2-3711 of the code of virginia 1950 is amended pertaining to the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or [00:02:55] resignation of specific school board employees including a personnel hearing for employee case number 24-25-e-2 and the request for a religious exemption from compulsory attendance that would involve the disclosure of information contained in scholastic records concerning individual students Moved by Ms. Kinsella. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Irving. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. We are now in closed session. We will resume [00:03:29] our public meeting when we're done. Welcome back to the Henrico County School Boards March 27th, [00:42:58] 2025 work session. Colleagues, do we have a certification of the closed session? I move the school board certified by recorded vote excuse me that to the best of each school 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 did by miss kinsella is there a second second second by mr young all those in favor say aye aye any opposed the eyes have it [00:43:33] closed session has been certified dr paschwell thank you madam chair members of the board for the first item i'm recommending the school board approve the request for release from compulsory school attendance for student case number 24-25-re-9 based on bona fide religious beliefs and as always the names of the students are protected under the virginia freedom of information act is there a motion i move that the school board approve the request for religious exemption from compulsory attendance for student case number two four dash two five dash re dash nine moved by mr [00:44:10] young is there a second second seconded by miss atkins all those in favor say aye aye any opposed the eyes have it the request has been approved thank you next i'm recommending the school board approve the petition for license revocation an employee case number 24-25-e-2 and authorize me to forward the petition to the state board of education is there a motion i move that the school board approve the petition for licensure revocation and employee case number 24-25-e-2 and authorize the superintendent to forward the petition to the state board of education moved by mr irving is [00:44:49] there a second second seconded by mr young all those in favor say aye aye any opposed the ayes have it the petition has been approved thank you for the next item the board will receive an update and information about education related legislation that was considered during the 2025 Virginia General Assembly and Mr. Blackstone will provide that update thank you very much and good afternoon Chair Shea and board members Dr. Cashwell today I will be providing that update of the session [00:45:25] which isn't quite over yet as we await the April 2nd veto session after receiving the governor's budget revisions vetoes and amendments earlier this week as we have in the past few years this will be presented as a legislative a scorecard if you will related to our legislative priorities adopted last fall i did track over 200 bills related to our legislative agenda and of those 116 got to the governor's desk by my count and since i presented since i initially put this [00:46:01] together i've tweaked the presentation a little from after the governor's recommendations and vetoes which dropped on monday at midnight so i've condensed the individual priorities under each of our five categories and starting with the academic achievement priority area right out of the gate there were efforts to delay the implementation of the accountability system of the state's revised system and those were ultimately defeated there was a bill to that directs the board of education to revise its 3e readiness framework as part of the school [00:46:41] accountability system to measure high school student post-secondary readiness and incentivize work-based learning experiences the governor the governor did amend it to have to pass again next year to be enacted so that was that amendment another bill incorporates media literacy and digital citizenship into the standards of learning and the last item there was among the first bills filed were for school boards to develop cell phone policies restricting student use which you all have already done i will say the governor made a few recommendations on these bills this these two [00:47:20] bills as well primarily to say the restrictions should be from bell to bell which would exclude the use of devices in during lunch and in between class periods so that could be a point of contention going up moving on to the next slide in the state budget english learner teacher payments increased by 1.65 million dollars in state aid for next year a positive for our expanded flexibility [00:47:55] for english learner services priority was a bill to include a diploma seal of biliteracy as a high demand industry workforce credential to satisfy graduation requirements the governor did recommend a slight technical change to that bill before the session started i worked with the virginia Council of Administrators for Special Education to try to get a sponsor for our Special Education Code of Ethics bill that we were unsuccessful a couple of years ago. [00:48:26] Likewise this year we didn't get any takers, but there was another bill that did pass that permits the dismissal of due process hearing complaints that if one is substantively the same as one that was previously adjudicated, so that should help some. [00:48:46] So while not a clean sweep, we can check several boxes on this first section of our scorecard. Regarding funding, the amended budget is generally a positive one for K-12 public education. [00:49:01] However, while the conference budget essentially eliminated the cap on school support positions, governor's amendment scaled this back from about 28 to 1,000 students to 25 and a half, and we're not sure of what the budgetary impact is just yet with that revision, if it holds. [00:49:24] So this is a very disappointing development at the 11th hour, and it will be interesting to see how the legislature responds to that. I know there are some intense lobbying efforts going on to uphold the conference budget numbers. Once again, this year we will receive more in state aid than last year. [00:49:44] In general, it appears that there are no unfunded mandates that were passed. And last on the slide, although this would be under the purview of the county, there was a Senate bill to allow counties and cities to impose a 1% local use tax for public school capital projects. [00:50:06] But this was one of the governor's vetoes as well. okay so now the good news for our instructional personnel teacher recruitment topic the gold star this year is for our own long-term substitute teacher bill as you know we've been lobbying hard to get this passed and i was greatly relieved to read the governor's news release sent out at midnight at monday on monday to see this on the list of approved bills i was staying up waiting for that to drop and saw it and quickly went through and and was able to relax a little bit [00:50:42] when i saw our bills on that list so with the help of our hr department we made some concessions to address the concerns of those in opposition including a bachelor's degree requirement for subs working longer than 90 days a professional development plan for them and some data collection that we will provide to the VDOE for the next two years with another sunset clause enacted for 2027. [00:51:09] So we'll have to try again in two years to make it permanent then. I would like to thank publicly Kenya Jackson, our Talent Acquisition Ambassador, for her help. She was greatly instrumental in helping us get this passed. She came to the General Assembly to testify in several different committees and came to meet with some legislators and her input was invaluable so this makes the third year in a row that we've had a bill successfully make it through the legislature regarding the priority of additional revenues for i'm sorry additional avenues for licensure [00:51:47] several bills benefited cte teachers including a board of ed requirement to give work credit for step placement on the salary scale for required occupational work experience and this is actually something that we already do other bills allow for those with high school diploma and an industry credential to be approved for a provisional license to teach those relevant subjects the governor also made some technical amendments that would would actually make this even more permissive and the last bills under this topic scale back required non-academic training time [00:52:24] for teachers another amends staff accreditation requirements and provides alternatives such as exemptions for school counselors school psychologists and special education teachers who have other relevant training so under our safe schools and student wellness we had a large number of bills that came through during this session under that topic many were intended to raise awareness or provide training for things such as cardiac advanced heat stroke diabetes seizures etc so while on one hand there were some bills that were trying to reduce the [00:53:03] training that teachers had to complete there there's kind of this penchant for trying to pile other things on and and it was noted by many legislators so they they are sensitive to that one bill that supports our priority of safe storage and parental accountability calls for an annual notification of parental responsibility for the safe storage of firearms and also prescription drugs these were bundled in the same bill however the governor recommended an amendment to this that is likely to kill that bill several bills address our priority of advocating for [00:53:39] mental health programs and wraparound services you can see a few of those brief descriptions in the bullet points on on the right there another set of bills establishes requirements for local school divisions to ensure indoor air quality in each school building and an inspection and evaluation program this is could potentially be an unfunded mandate i think you know we're evaluating whether what potential cost that might be to us to if we have to replace and repair hvac systems on a different timeline than what we already have there was an amendment by the [00:54:18] governor to kind of relax a few of those provisions so we'll see if that one holds and moving on to our last area is uh there were a couple of bills that fall under the area of local school board autonomy a senate bill that would have required school boards to annually pay uncollectible school meal debts instead of individual schools was vetoed by the governor but that's something that we already do another bill codifies the governor's executive order to inform parents of confirmed or suspected school connected student overdoses within 24 hours [00:54:59] the tricky part here is what constitutes a suspected overdose and what privacy issues come into play for the victim and family so we will continue to work with our legal department and student health services teams to ensure that we are prepared in such an event so that is how the legislative session uh wrapped up in in a nutshell at least for the moment with many bills being adopted that do support our legislative priorities for this year again want to see how the veto [00:55:34] session goes on april 2nd after that is over we will create an updated legislative scorecard document that we will share with you and also post to our website one quick note that at the federal level of course things are very fluid as you know and so we are monitoring those things as well and we'll certainly keep you apprised of anything that we may learn from from them so with that I'm happy to answer any questions thank you so much Mr. Blackstone Ms. Kinsella thank you thank [00:56:09] you Mr. Blackstone for following all throughout this session and bringing us this update I don't really have any questions today just once again highlighting very excited to see the three e's valued at the state level for enrolled enlisted and or employed the way we value them here in henrico also just want to note i've heard nothing but great things about our cell phone policy and then very excited about the additional funding for english learner supports as our english [00:56:45] language learner population continues to grow and then excited about uh teacher recruitment removing more barriers there uh reducing teacher workloads um in terms of not reducing non-non-academic training for them and then still more work to be done in the soq and funding those soqs but thank you so much you're welcome madam chair thank you mr irving thank you mr blackson for uh the presentation i i did have some questions for for clarity um so in terms of the accountability [00:57:24] system delay what was the reason that was what was the general reason that it was defeated in the in the assembly that you can ascertain um i i um i really i i don't know exactly you know why it was it did make it uh quite a bit of the way and then um at the end i think it was probably one of those things where you know are is this a hill you're going to die on or not you know kind of that type of choosing your battles sure no i i just think it's you know obviously challenging to implement that at the same time that we're implementing the virginia literacy act [00:58:02] which is a certainly a worthwhile endeavor um but i just think it it puts a lot of burden on our on our staff um the other one was uh school boards to develop self-help policies so you said that he offered more clarification with the amendment do we believe that our policy will be required to be changed or and made more strict local school boards solve the authority to set policy for the local set policy for their locality and we believe meet this compliant compliance but certainly I know you will in the spring be revisiting our student code of conduct and all related [00:58:42] documents and so would offer that that's an opportunity for the board to discuss it then we've also will work to solicit uh and bring to you in that presentation feedback both from our students and school teachers and administrators on how this year has gone and should the board wish to make any adjustments okay thank you for that um the next i wanted to just talk about the support cap what was the what was the rationale that the governor offered for why it shouldn't be what what came out of conference do you know do you happen to know his rationale [00:59:16] I did read his amendment. I don't recall the specifics other than he mentioned that it was still an increase just not to the the same level that was that was requested. I don't think there were I can't remember exactly in the amendment reasons specifically that he said. Yeah yeah because for me something that's been in place for 20 years you're you're working in suffrage deficit in terms of what the state is providing [00:59:53] and that obviously falls on us locally and I think it's very disconcerting to see that that was amended to be reduced in its scope. Just for folks who are watching could you could you lay out what a local use taxes that was that was vipo by the governor in terms of being able to be imposed for school projects um i would ask john whack if he wants to take take that on that's his music well as the former finance director of the city of richmond uh yeah the local use tax is is typically a one percent uh sales tax that applied at the point of sale um i believe there's legislation [01:00:31] that would allow by referendum localities to be able to impose that but in our example the board of supervisors would have have to put that forward on a referendum if taxpayers want to contribute more sales taxes towards i just wanted to provide clarity for folks who were potentially wondering and aren't abreast of what different tax terminology is um okay the the only other two were um on parental notification responsibilities of safe storage of firearms so what is that what is that ultimately going to look like what like what falls on us as a school division that we [01:01:03] need to to do under that um that is a uh a controversial um amendment that he proposed that he wanted to add to that that a uh the students that schools would also inform parents if a student has requested to be affirmed as a gender other than their biological sex they wanted to add that as part of the parental notification okay so nothing that nothing to do with the original intent of that bill okay I appreciate that clarity so we would we would [01:01:43] be obligated to do that if if that bill were to pass as amended yes okay so that could still so that could still be okay thank you I appreciate that clarity and then the indoor air quality I I'm a big supporter of increasing indoor air quality standards and you did say that that may maybe somewhat of an unfunded mandate. [01:02:04] What is the exact levels and how much of a change do you maybe are aware of that we would be required to undertake under this? - I think for a number of these, and you're asking excellent questions, I think we wouldn't have enough information to be able to answer with specificity, but certainly could. [01:02:20] And as any of these would come to pass, we would be looking for direction related to what our responsibilities and obligations would be, but we can certainly dig into that one and let you know. All right. Well, I thank you for your time. Absolutely. Thank you so much. [01:02:35] Mr. Young? Thank you, Kim, for the presentation. I would echo Ms. Kinsella's English learner services with an increase of 1.6 million. Love the 3E framework. I just asked out to Cashwell if we coined that employment enlisted and enrolled phrase. [01:02:52] She didn't give me a clear answer though, but, and I see Mac back there as well. So definitely love the easier licensure path CTE coming in. do have a one question for you where it says students can now schedule telehealth visits including mental health appointments I know we do this in some of our classes already can you explain that what this bill actually does or what transpired with that there was a bill that would allow for telehealth services to be provided during the school day where the students wouldn't [01:03:28] have to leave school to go to an appointment, for example, that they could do it, have a place in school where they could do it there. The idea being that, you know, that would minimize the time lost to instruction. [01:03:43] Sorry, Mr. Young. Just to add on, this is similar to what we're already doing at Glen Lee Elementary School and that we've seen success there with students not leaving for medical appointments and then not returning for the remainder of the school day. So this This is meant to strengthen that commitment to instructional time and not having such a disruption to the instructional time. [01:04:07] And as you'll recall, when the Glenley Telehealth Clinic opened, the goal always was to look for opportunities to leverage that other places throughout our division. But we have seen success, so it's just another example of Henrico being the model. Right, being first. [01:04:24] How will we level maybe Hazel Health, Kerosolus with this new, are we able to, I see Dr. Cash will. I think we'll need to know more once this would be introduced and parameters would be put in place. But certainly the idea is we, the wonderful thing is we have a structure that allows broad access to telehealth services so that itself wouldn't be a barrier. [01:04:46] And then it would just be a matter of allowing that to happen during the school day versus outside of it. So we would certainly work to make that happen. and this would be also for other providers like outside providers that outside of care solace and and hazel hill correct okay thank you i appreciate it um madam chair no more questions thank you so much miss atkins so this is definitely uh great progress forward in legislation especially around academic achievement recruitment and i'm very pleased around the progress for environmental [01:05:22] practices i'm curious if you could share what the time frame will be around next steps so we know we have several things that the governor's office is going through things before the school division can you give a time frame based off of the history of when we would expect more details around really what do these things mean and what is the impact to our school division of which bills specifically were you talking about i think we could broadly say for all of these well i don't let me let me [01:05:58] give you some clarification where we are in our country right now with what things mean is fuzzy so that's a nice word but i do think we want to take advantage of giving the public an opportunity now that they're hearing these things they are not immediate we know that some of this will take time and so if you could speak to what that really means for us and the public so part of that is as ken alluded to at the beginning of his presentation that there's still several steps uh in the [01:06:28] legislative process and so uh as the um as the veto and um amendments continue to be um evaluated and that action uh ends officially the session later um this this week next week um april 2nd then then begins the process of looking at how do you enact the new legislation and that can take time depending on the intricacies of any given bill so as you as you were mentioning it's not a [01:07:03] flip of a switch it is looking at how we can do this methodically what are actually the parameters what is the guidance from the virginia department of education so it could take weeks months uh before we have a better handle on what some of that actually means but as ken said we're going to be posting our legislative scorecard as that is summed up and we'll continue to provide updates to both the board and to our community through our regular communication channels well done [01:07:36] thank you mr blackstone and team thank you so much um lots lots to digest here lots to be excited about lots to still hope for um two things that just jump out at me um are things that align with not only things that we've talked about as a board but that i continue to hear from students right that's what we're here for is for our students and so things that they've talked about to be elevated to this some of which the cell phone policy and they're eager to see what changes may come next year and so as we talked about earlier I shared you [01:08:14] know we'll do a review of that in the spring with lots of information from boots on the ground the students and the administrators and the teachers about what implementation looks like dovetailed along with you know any additional legal pieces and so seeing that rise to the top and then also seeing this piece about actually CTE licensure rise to the top I got to spend yesterday really the last two months engaging with students at Freeman with Project Maverick and legislative things that they've been advocating for and [01:08:50] judge the showcase yesterday, but one group was really looking at actually CTE staffing and the barriers to that and how it has impacted them as students. And we're thinking outside the box on, okay, what if we could get a welder who was retired and partner it with someone who has a lot of classroom experience and have them, you know, trade tricks of the trades, you will in order to expand you know the ability to staff and I love how they were thinking outside of the box obviously not the exact same as the legislation coming forward but the same intent right how do we reduce barriers [01:09:29] so that we can get more skilled professionals in the classrooms providing for our students and so anyway it just warmed my heart to see that some of the advocacy that our students are having about things that they're important bubbling towards the top of things that are happening and and changes for the better for our school division so thank you so much did you have one as well mr. young i had a thought around the update or scorecard that's provided i'm wondering and maybe you [01:10:06] already have this plan but to develop a qr code for it that was one and the other is could we get it into a business card? That is tough, but it'd be easier. [01:10:21] - We have looked at that and an actual business card size, the font would be really, really tiny, but it is a good opportunity in a business card size to have the QR code and some of the very top items. So yes, that's something that we can work on. [01:10:36] - So here's the thought that I had was, it's really just Henrico County Public Schools legislative update and a QR code. that fits on a business card and i think that's all that's necessary on it and one is cheaper two you can have many more less wasteful um for the environment so just wanted to give that to you for consideration great idea thank you just had one question um for mr blackstone the thousand dollar bonus for soq positions did that did that pass or are we still waiting on the final [01:11:12] yeah we're still waiting on the final notice uh good afternoon so um the way the budget has played out it appears is that the the state will provide funding towards a three percent salary increase for teachers as well as maybe a thousand dollar bonus as you're aware we're giving salary increases of more than six percent so i i think more than likely that will we'll have exceeded our uh our our employee compensation component oh gotcha thank you anything else colleagues thank you so [01:11:42] much appreciate it all right members of the board the next items are related to the calendar you'll have an opportunity to review the proposed calendar for school year 26 27 as well as a proposed minor adjustment to the 2025-26 calendar which this board had previously approved and you'll see a recommended adjustment there and so i'll turn it over to mrs coy for those presentations great thank you good afternoon madam chair members of the board uh this afternoon i'm pleased to [01:12:20] bring a presentation about the development of the 26-27 calendar for your initial review and consideration at the end as dr cashwell mentioned i will also provide a recommendation for a minor adjustment to the 25-26 calendar based on the feedback gathered this year the development of the proposed calendar is a collaborative effort that includes a wide variety of stakeholders and a great deal of input. Our HCPS calendar committee began meeting last fall to initiate conversations on the 26-27 calendar, shape the community survey, and develop recommendations for your [01:12:59] consideration here today. This year, we also engaged some of our advisory committees in new ways to gather their feedback. So we are incredibly grateful to the teachers, principals, parents, and students who have weighed in via any number of different mechanisms to help inform your decisions. So this year we engaged our student advisory and our teacher advisory committees on this topic in some new ways and this arose out of an initial conversation we had with our teacher advisory committee about their most precious commodity, time. So in the fall we [01:13:35] provided both committees with blank calendars, some general parameters, and set them free to get creative in drafting instructional calendars from scratch. They generated a lot of different ideas and they even engaged in some tough negotiations as they sought to reach consensus with their peers. While the ideas were varied, the strongest themes from our teachers were the need for more clerical time and the need for professional learning to occur earlier in the school year. Meanwhile, our students were nearly unanimous in their strong support of a staggered start and they had many vigorous debates about the length of various breaks [01:14:13] throughout the year the conversations this year i should also note were very iterative so tack principals and students gave the calendar committee a preliminary round of ideas and the calendar committee then translated all that into a couple concrete proposals which went back out to those groups so they could weigh in on their preferences about how the calendar committee had proposed applying their different ideas i think it's fair to say that these groups now have a new appreciation for the difficult decisions and compromises that go into creating school calendars. [01:14:50] Additionally, as we do every year, this year we administered an online survey to ensure that our community members also had an opportunity to weigh in. The survey helps affirm some of our ongoing practices and flag others that are no longer serving as well. This was the third year in which we requested feedback around a staggered start for our pre-k, kindergarten, sixth, and ninth grade students new to the survey this year we asked the community about their preferences when given a couple different options for the addition of a full clerical day for staff based on that feedback you [01:15:26] just heard about a comprehensive report with survey results is available in board docs and we'll cover a few of the highlights here so you may recall that the calendar committee has been contemplating a staggered start over the last few years and last year they developed a unique hcps proposal after hearing directly from some of our neighbors about their staggered starts. [01:15:53] Generally speaking a staggered start can take different forms but the idea is that a division brings back some transitional grades on the first day of school and then phases in remaining grades on other days that week. In the HCPS proposal discussed last year and again this year pre-k and kindergarten students would start either Monday or Tuesday as noted here with roughly half of each grade starting each day students would remain home on the alternate day this [01:16:27] allows those classes to acclimate to a new teacher building and routines in a smaller more personal group all other elementary students would start on monday as usual at the secondary level sixth and ninth grade students would start on monday and all other students would start on tuesday there are a number of reasons that some divisions have adopted this type of approach and why the calendar committee has continued to consider it the model aims to facilitate a smooth transition for students in key grades who are entering a new building by providing those small class settings [01:17:07] like with our pre-k and k students and an entire transitional day for sixth and ninth graders to adjust as an entire cohort the goal is that this type of start to the year will foster a strong sense of belonging and school connectedness between students and between students and staff. It also helps ensure everyone starts the year with the same set of expectations. [01:17:32] It offers a comprehensive and equitable orientation experience with transportation provided to all students as usual and the opportunity for all secondary students to walk their entire schedules that first day. As those are contract days for all staff, everyone would still report on those days, regardless of the grade or course that they may teach. [01:17:54] If they don't have students in their classroom, they may be assisting with other activities in the building or preparing for student arrival the following day. Here, you can see how our questions to the community have evolved about the staggered start and how support has grown over the last few years. [01:18:12] This year, we saw the strongest support yet from the community and a drop in the number of those who did not support it. These are the results of this year's survey by respondent type when asked about their level of support for the staggered start, as I just described it, that HCPS proposal. [01:18:31] So overall, we see about 65% support for the model, and we continue to see students rank it very highly, as they did in our Student Advisory Committee. This year, we also asked survey takers to share a bit about how easy or difficult it would be for their family to adjust schedules to accommodate the staggered start, and found overall most said it would vary or it would be very or moderately easy to adjust to. Based on the continued discussion of and support for this model, it has been included in the recommendation [01:19:05] before you today from the calendar committee. As I noted previously, staff were very clear in our discussions this fall that additional clerical time was a high priority for their calendar considerations. Based on that, the committee developed three potential options for adding a full clerical day to the calendar their recommendation was also informed by a general consensus that more half days would not be fruitful for teachers or for students that's why they considered a full day so the three options they developed were one adding a full [01:19:42] clerical day on election day and moving the professional learning typically done on that day earlier in September. That day in September would become a new holiday for students. The second option was adding a full clerical day on the first day back from winter break, and the third option was adding a full clerical day in between the first and second semesters at the end of January. [01:20:07] We then took those options back to the community and to our various advisory committees. As you will see in the next few slides, the results really varied. Families indicated January fourth as their preference but staff prioritize the day in between semesters one and two but as we unpack staff answers there is variation by role so generally speaking our teachers on tack prefer the day returning from winter break it was a close call but our elementary principals [01:20:43] preferred the first day back from winter break but that day between the two second two semesters was a close second. Our secondary principles were flipped with the day between semesters as the preference but the day first day back from winter break coming in as a close second. So generally speaking the two options were far preferred over the fall options with some variations between the two. The calendar committee debated these two options at length and ultimately the recommendation they made is to place an in-person clerical day in between the two semesters that would fall on [01:21:22] January 25th and it would eliminate the half day that typically falls at the end of the second semester. This year we also asked our community about their preferences for Thanksgiving break in part due to a recent change made by Hanover County Public Schools to provide an entire week off at Thanksgiving. As you might imagine this was a topic hotly debated by our student advisory committee but in the end our community was overwhelmingly clear in their support for our [01:21:56] current model where we have school monday and tuesday and the remainder of the week off therefore no change to our current practice is recommended at this time the final recommendations for your consideration are reflected in a draft calendar that is attached in board talks i also have a summary slide for you so the major changes being proposed include the implementation of a staggered start moving professional learning earlier in the year and adding a full in-person clerical day we recommend maintaining our current structure for [01:22:32] Thanksgiving break and our diverse religious holidays which were affirmed by our stakeholders throughout the process and in the survey so finally based on all the feedback we gathered this year we also started contemplating how it might be applied for the 25-26 calendar which you all approved last spring and is also attached in BoardDocs. So the two pieces of feedback driving these changes are one the request that the professional learning we offer occur earlier in the year and the request for more clerical time to be built into the [01:23:09] year. So as you heard we built that into our considerations for 26-27 but then went looking for these opportunities to build it in for next year. In BoardDocs there are two versions of the 25-26 the one that you all approved last spring and one that reflects these proposed changes so the proposal adds clerical time to the calendar by converting our current election day professional learning day into a flexible clerical day for staff [01:23:44] it then adds a professional learning day on september 22nd so september 22nd would become one additional new day off for students and families it maintains the same number of professional learning days for our teachers but redistributes them to occur earlier in the year the pl offered in august and september would be done so at the division level and october and february would be professional learning that is school-based so in this proposal staff gain a full clerical day now on November 4th, and it would be flexible in nature given the election so staff could [01:24:23] work onsite or off. By making this change, we're able to meet both of the concerns raised by staff throughout the process. And though this proposal solves for it in slightly different ways, it creates less disruption to an existing calendar than the one that you all previously approved. [01:24:43] And at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have. - All right, thank you so much. Colleagues, do we wanna tackle talking about both calendars at the same time? Do we wanna talk about one and then the other? [01:25:04] All right, let's... - If that's okay. - All right, let's start with the proposed 20, 26, 27, the order they came in in the presentation. So we'll be looking at that fresh calendar. [01:25:22] So who did I start with last time? Mr. Irving, I will begin with you. - Thank you for the presentation. I am glad to see the support of the Staggered Start. I'm a proponent of it myself as a teacher. [01:25:38] I've done it for the past couple of years and I think it's great. You know, if you have students, you'd have students anyway. And if you don't have students, you're probably helping out or you're getting prepared for the school year. So it's not a really big change as a teacher. [01:25:55] I think from a student perspective, it's nice to be able to come to a new building and figure out the lay of the land without everybody else being there. My only question is about the elementary students' grades one through five attending at the same time as the pre-K and kindergarten students, wouldn't that effectively not be a staggered start for them? [01:26:19] It would not be a staggered start for first through fifth graders. And the reason behind the bifurcation, the discussions that the committee had were in part based on what they learned from Chesterfield and parsing out how the youngest students acclimate in those small groups while the older students don't need quite the same transitional time. [01:26:42] Certainly, it's a big transition, but felt that they did not need the same type of transition. certainly they looked at lots of models and the proposal they came up with is unique for Henrico it is not exactly what Chesterfield does nor is it exactly what Hanover does we talked to both about their staggered starts so what what was the exact thing that we were what is what exactly are we trying to avoid by doing it this way the goal was really to create those smaller groups for our pre-k and kindergarten teachers the sense that that they shared with us was that that was manageable if they had a smaller class they didn't need all [01:27:21] the first second third fourth and fifth grade teachers to help them with that and that they could carry on with their normal days and that those siblings may come to school as they as they do now and that that may be a benefit it makes that makes perfect sense to me why do we do we think that the steady increase in support for staggered searches due to education on the topic I can't say specifically I would imagine that part of it has just been we've continued to ask and ask and talk about it over the years. That's all that's all that I have [01:27:59] thank you. Thanks Ms. Kinsella. Yes a staggered start and it's interesting I know communication and this wouldn't happen until right fall 2026 so yes and communication I am certain would be robust on whatever we go with and it's our third year right you just said families have heard it before it's our third year i think i heard you say okay um i was going to say how does it mirror neighbor and localities because we um we have employees right that live in other localities that work work for us so i want to be considerate [01:28:37] of them and um this would be what you're proposing would be amenable you believe based on the focus groups and of course there would be more feedback to be received yes or no yes before the board board approves this right we won't approve it until May correct so the 25 26 adjustment is up for your review and approval this evening but the 26 27 calendar now that it's been out will solicit additional feedback on absolutely okay so even though we're discussing it we are not approving [01:29:12] it we are not approving it we're going to gather more feedback because I just have to say the number respondents seemed low. It was slightly lower than last year. It was slightly under. It was also administered this winter for whatever that may be worth amidst other calendar disruptions. [01:29:36] Yes, we had so many calendar disruptions this year. So the seat time impact. What is the seat time impact um for the secondary if with the staggered start yeah so um we've remained largely whole um because of the differences and we can i can get into the wheat as many weeds as you would like um under the proposal students would either have 174 173 days in school we count by hours not by days but just as a reference point our original um for this year was 175 so we're we're right in [01:30:15] that same range we have the hour because we count by hours not by days well that's important though right hours not days yes 180 days um we count by hours so we are still within the parameter set by the state and then given i mean i know mr irving go ahead dr cashwell i think it's a great question that that still allows banked time it it meets the hours and then still has additional time banked into the calendar and then let's roll right into exactly kind of what you're talking about because we had weather related time this year and then other time where our buildings were closed um due [01:30:55] to other issues we do under normal circumstances we have the required more than the required amount of instructional time in our calendar though families can't really see right you can't see it right like yes okay that is absolutely correct did here quite a bit yes i have to say between january and february that's yes and we've been fortunate to have extra day extra hours of instruction beyond the requirement um easily achieved in prior years where we have not had inclement weather or other school closures this was an unusual year in that we were struck with [01:31:31] both inclement weather closures and of course the water closures but because our calendar goes well beyond the required um hours we were able to initially absorb five of those very easily it was when things continued on that it got a little more challenging and we were able to make up those hours differently thank you for the clarity um as to instructional hours um transportation do we feel logistically that we can achieve this with transportation yes so the idea with the staggered start is that transportation would run their routes as normal and provide that access for [01:32:09] every one of our students that doesn't exist on orientation days that are held over the summer and so while those some of those bus loads may be a little bit lighter they would run as usual and provide everybody an opportunity to familiarize themselves with those routines as well. And then Mr. Irving mentioned this briefly you know as a as a staff member you're working in the building depending, you know, regardless of whether you have students in your classroom or not, but I know that since we're talking about workload and some folks [01:32:44] may be feeling like, well, we would be working with students, a full class, why aren't our colleagues, right? What does that look like? Have we unpacked that? What the support looks like in a building so that everyone is still reporting for work and it's not going to cause dissension with our employees? [01:33:02] Right. it's still a contractual day regardless of what grade or subject you're teaching and while we haven't planned out those days in detail right it could take many different forms and as mr irving noted you may be with students regardless of the grade level you teach particularly at secondary right you may be with students part of the day assisting with some of those team building activities other parts of the day and then preparing for everybody's arrival the next day okay and then i just have to say i appreciate the elimination of the half half day We do hear a lot about that in regards to child care. [01:33:38] So thank you for that. So many conversations about the week of Thanksgiving that I heard about. And I'm glad, but also to balance it, I also heard if we're going to start mid-August, we want to get out by the end of May. [01:33:54] So I'm glad that we're keeping our current model with two days of school and then the three days off for Thanksgiving break and then the students overwhelmingly for anyone who wonders why we continue to revisit staggered start the superintendent student advisory group and really students anywhere you ask them continue to say that those transition years they would have I mean they will just unpack all the things you know I know we ask our seniors you know what would you like to have seen different in your k-12 experience and [01:34:31] overwhelmingly those transition times and for those that maybe cannot attend the orientation right that staggered start really does give them a smoother transition into into a building so thank you for the presentation madam chair thank you mr young uh thank you miss koi for the presentation uh i would like to start by saying i love the staggered start approach i think it gives our youngest learners in our middle and high school is a softer landing. So I definitely appreciate that it reduces first day anxieties as well for those sixth graders and ninth graders entering [01:35:09] to new buildings. I don't have anything else to add to it that Ms. Kinsella and Ms. Irvin hasn't already sort of went over, but I will piggyback on as many half days as we can get rid of the better, especially for my district because I'm hearing a lot of absenteeism happens on those half days so just keep that in mind colleagues as we um approach calendars going forward but outside of that miss koi thank you so much thank you mr atkins so thank you and the entire team [01:35:40] for the work i did have a few questions i wanted to know if veterans day was discussed um not by our calendar committee this year in any specific way no i mean we look at the totality of the the holidays, but I don't think they considered a specific proposal to provide that as a student and/or staff holiday in a specific way. [01:36:08] Okay. So I just wanted to share, that's something that I do get questions about regarding acknowledging Veterans Day. Then the other area of discussion, I also support the staggered start, and I had questions around the PL, which oftentimes I hear that educators want more PL, and seeing how in the [01:36:40] responses that educators wanted it moved sooner, I want to learn more context around that. Why do folks want it sooner in the year or earlier in the year? [01:36:55] And this is like a three-parter, so you might want a pencil or a pen. But I'm curious around productivity and flexibility. And so I'm hearing wanting it earlier. I want to know why having it earlier. [01:37:12] Is it to have a better jumpstart on particular topics? How are the topics selected? And how are we assessing the topics themselves as far as the timing of them? So are these trainings aligned in a way that it's relevant in a period of time? [01:37:33] Is that one of the reasons why it's moved up earlier? Yes, absolutely. I think some of the feedback we heard was the topics are good topics. The content is good, but we need it sooner. And one of the examples this year was related to benchmark. [01:37:51] And so we heard teachers asking for more professional learning around benchmark. And we could do some of that outside of school hours, but the day we had designated was later in the fall and could leverage that to the best of our abilities. [01:38:07] But that was when the day had been designated and schools and staff had planned for. So that's one example. The request really was focused on the impact that professional learning would have on instruction and on students would be greater if that happened earlier in the year and was relevant to instruction happening throughout the entire course of the year. In the calendar that you all adopted last year you did designate which two would be division level days so the PL would be coordinated by central office teams and then which two days would be building lead but certainly with the support [01:38:44] of central office and so the topics are chosen kind of collaboratively with those different teams on point to lead the professional learning whether it's in their buildings or elsewhere can you share with me how educators give input on the professional training that they desire in the building yeah i think there are a lot of different mechanisms and i'll invite others to chime in here as well certainly with new you know there are some things we know are coming down the pike perhaps a change in math standards knowing that may be challenging for a particular [01:39:23] school or grade level others kind of pop up during the year as teachers experience oh wait we got training on benchmark but maybe we want more we want something supplemental so I think there are a number of different ways in which those topics are identified and then surface to school leaders, to school administrators, to central office teams for support. [01:39:46] I wonder if there's a way to identify trends because if we understand the uniqueness of one school and then we learn that another school is desiring the same topic, how are we identifying trends and maybe there's a collective, smarter, strategic way to identify the topics and implement them as well. [01:40:09] I see lots of -- Ingrid's jumping up, Leslie, because that does happen. And in fact, a lot of times our schools will partner or pair up because they have the same interest or topic or they want to bring in a speaker on a particular topic and they may cluster. So, I mean, I think, you know, the PL is a big umbrella for a lot of things that happen. [01:40:29] So certainly at the division level, I know, and Dr. Hughes can speak more to this, you know, we're certainly pushing down anything that's required. So for example, there are training requirements that have to happen, then there's professional learning around, maybe there are new standards of learning for your content area. [01:40:45] We know all of our elementary educators were receiving training that was required ahead of the year and even during the year for new benchmark material, which is the language arts curriculum we adopted to become compliant with vla then there are things specific to the school and whatever perhaps their school improvement plan or the work they're doing as a school or team there are processes put in place to help that work align with what the schools may need and then teachers are making individual choices for pl through our hcpsu they may be choosing topics that are simply based on their interests to fulfill those other requirements and we see the [01:41:25] career ladder as a big example of that there's menu they could take individual courses they may choose to have those lead towards a micro credential specialization or they may take standalone courses that just are interested to them and they have a catalog of choices they may want to hone in more on classroom management or whatever it might be so there's kind of three buckets of pl that go on both the division the school and the individual and a good deal of collaboration and data collection that drives each of those so that you know as a system we're offering the right kinds of things that are based on interest [01:42:02] it would be interesting to discover at the building level training what the top five are especially across high schools and understanding what trends so as education changes so does the trend and what you want to learn. I was also at with Mrs. J at the Freeman Mavericks capstone project. There it is. And it was it was very intriguing because in that particular discussion [01:42:36] they talked about age and the similarities and differences between perhaps a seasoned teacher and a younger teacher and the way in which the same curriculum is taught and i'm curious if there are any trends in that space between high schools on what educators desire and if there's something that as a board we could better understand so that when we see changes that we want pl sooner so that it's aligned with what educators wanna learn. [01:43:15] If we knew what those top ones were, and I'm specifically thinking about high schools, maybe we could also assist with flexibility in learning it. Maybe not so much moving the date, but maybe there's some opportunities to assist with flexibility in how they learn it. [01:43:32] So just a thought. - Absolutely, and we can certainly share more outside of this presentation related to the PL interests and desires and some of the trends that the PL team has collected both at the site and division level. But certainly alongside that, know that educators were pretty loud and clear about how they wanted those days, regardless of the content positioned in the calendar. [01:43:55] So we really appreciate your consideration of that request. - Thank you so much. I think one theme I hear in this calendar development is responsive. It's been responsive to things that staff asked for, it's responsive to things students have asked for, and engaging the parents as well to try to be responsive to that in this iterative process while that's also kind of been a theme this spring, right? It takes longer to do things in an iterative process, but we get so much more feedback, and so thank you for taking the time to do that. A couple things I do want to [01:44:31] dig into, a couple specifics here. I echo with my colleagues that half days are really hard. I understand that through this iterative process, there's obviously a reason that they were included. So, I'm not trying to single-handedly usurp all of that input. [01:44:54] But half days are really hard. And specifically when I look at the calendar for 26-27, there is a half day on a Wednesday, October 28th. [01:45:10] That aligns with the last day of quarter one. I would, perhaps it could be considered to move that to Friday, October 30th, if that's still within the window in which teachers could do their paperwork to submit grades. [01:45:31] That takes some of the hardship of a half day from being on a Wednesday, moving it to a Friday. It also groups it with that longer weekend that goes into November 2nd and 3rd, which I've heard really positive feedback from both staff and families about when we group those days together as we can, how it's almost like a mini break, and it's really a time of rejuvenation. [01:46:02] And particularly looking at October 21st is also a student holiday because it aligns with a high holiday. And so just looking at in terms of the amount of disruption for families to have wednesday the 21st off and then wednesday the 28th a half day and then a long weekend um if if we could move that to friday and still have the clerical impact that we need i think it could provide a lot more continuity for families sorry that was a lot but yeah um and i'll just share [01:46:38] the rationale so um in calendars where we had four half days we tried to in the last few years balance two on wednesdays two on fridays because the absenteeism is higher on fridays when it's a half day so that had been the balance we had found previously now with only three we'll have to find new balance if that's the the will of the board but can certainly look at those quarter numbers and see how that would flow through the rest of the calendar yeah i appreciate that again particularly when we look at the week that comes before it and the week after it um it's a bit um seems [01:47:14] discombobulating for both families and for instruction. So, thank you. And then really love moving that half day to a full day on the 25th. Again, giving more time where it's needed, responsive to feedback, but also getting rid of a half day. I will be honest, when staggered start first came up, I was going to be a tough sell. But as we've brought it up. The increase in support is compelling. We see it from our families, we see it from [01:47:49] our students, we see it from our teachers. So that is certainly compelling. Top of mind challenges with it that come to mind, like Ms. Kinsella brought up the seat time hours particularly for secondary. But I'm going to believe you when you say we're still okay. [01:48:10] And it really looks like it's at most one day impacted. So I just want to be clear because staggered can sound like a lot of things like you said, but we're really looking at at most for families, one day impacted. Correct. [01:48:26] Okay. And then I think there, this doesn't need to be solved now, but also thought will need to be put forth for in secondary. We have a lot of classes that aren't just a single grade, right? not just ninth graders or they're not just sixth graders or so what does that look like so that it is engaging for students but also other students not missing things again it's one day but it is setting the tone for the school year yes so I'm putting some thought into that something else perhaps we can consider we haven't needed this in a handful of years [01:49:04] but it would have been helpful this year, is noting on our calendar later in the year what could perhaps be inclement weather days, right? I don't want to have to utilize that, but we saw obviously this year a challenge and, you know, perhaps could that pivot be easier for staff and families if it was listed as, you know, you have this day, we're planning to have it as a holiday. [01:49:31] day, however, it could be a possible inclement weather day if needed. So just a consideration as we continue to think about and look at this calendar. Any other thoughts about the 26-27 calendar, Ms. Kinsella? [01:49:49] How would we consider, you know, the transition years, not just the transition years for students, but newcomers? Could newcomers also be included in the staggered start? It's something that the committee talked a lot about as well, yes. [01:50:05] If there were students who were new to the school who wanted to participate, making that available to them, recognizing the bulk of the kind of team building activities would be for grade levels, but should the schools have the supports for those students to come again, walk their schedules, familiarize themselves with the building and some of the teachers? [01:50:24] Yes. Okay. Thank you. And then outside of that, I mean, really just the overwhelming support for, I'm so glad to see, and we're going to get to next year's calendar, just the adjustments, but the responsiveness to the professional learning, because I heard that everywhere, from the classroom to the principal, right? Everyone this year specifically said we need PL earlier to address whatever it is, right? Whether it's a division-based PL or a school-based PL, and I like the fact [01:50:59] it's still on the calendar, which we asked for, that it's public facing. I think Dr. Cashwell said, well, normally we don't put certain details on the public facing calendar, but I appreciate that no matter where employees go, to find out what does that time look like, whether it's a clerical day or an in-building day, right? Well in advance. I just want to thank you for that. [01:51:26] you for the redirect so i just wanted to provide context around the the hour concern so uh for those who may not be aware chesterfield county their secondary school day is 30 minutes shorter than our day and they have i mean in my personal role as a teacher we're having to add two days but they you know they were still able to miss a substantial amount of time before that was even considered and that was with a 30 minute shorter school day um so i think you know i wouldn't let that be a concern for for moving forward on in terms of the hour front and then in terms of the [01:52:02] staggered start i know that like from my personal experience uh one thing that that we've done that was super i think super helpful for students is the kids the students go to all of their classes that they would have so all seven sections so you get to see every single teacher you get to know where your room is and then each section was about 15 minutes except for a homeroom period which is longer and they meet with a program that we have called surf mentors and i'm sure our schools have similar programs as well where it's it's older students who come and volunteer their time to interact with them and do some fun team building activities each class that you go to has a different topic and a presentation that covers school expectations and then they also go [01:52:41] to a expectations assembly with the administrators which is longer in nature they go to lunch and that kind of fills up the day so for most teachers you know you may be seeing a kid for 15 minutes or you have or you could potentially have a helper so there's ways you can do it but i i found that as a teacher to be very useful for them and i think it's um something that they've been enjoyed and found value in thank you so much all right colleagues let's pivot to the 25 26 calendar [01:53:14] to which we're being asked to um perhaps to vote on this evening if we'll make an adjustment so Ms. Coy, you gave us a lot of great information as to the reason that this is being looked at, responsiveness, and this chart breaks down really, to me, well, it breaks down a lot of things, a lot about what it looks like for staff with change. So, I just want to boil down to, because that was a lot of the reason that the change is being made, but I want to boil down [01:53:49] for our families what the change looks like correct me if i'm wrong is that september 22nd would be a student holiday and that is the only change that families would see that's correct correct okay i just wanted to be clear with that all right on that note um colleagues questions comments concerns about this i think i'll just say it's resp it's responsive um based on the survey [01:54:20] the uh surveys that were sent to our employees um and just to what we just said about the 26 27 calendar right being so responsive um as as to families with staggered start or um staff with the with the learning occurring earlier in the year um i love this i absolutely love this and i love that it's public facing you know um that november 4th will now be i think it's november 4th right a clerical day right so it's out there you that you would likely not need child care that day [01:54:56] right because it's not in building right for staff right for staff right any i mean right clerical day for staff would be likely maybe a virtual option so what we proposed here is a flexible day yes so it could be on site or off oh sorry what we proposed was a flexible clerical day in this scenario so it could be on-site or off-site because of the nature of elections in our building recognizing some staff may want to be there and other staff or particularly high traffic buildings may prefer to be off-site so would staff then have the option or is that [01:55:33] principal option employee option it provides the employee the flexibility on that day yes but the employee has the flexibility that's what i was going for thank you so much all right other questions comments i will say i do appreciate if we're going to add a day to add it on a monday looking at the rest of the calendar there there are other mondays we'll just say what it is there are quite a few other mondays off for things like labor day that we have to you know and some other things as well um but hopefully by putting that as well as on a monday that it creates a little [01:56:07] bit of a rhythm there as opposed to you know another day off but again change is being responsive to our staff feedback and what they have said that they need as well as for families the only change would be September 22nd sums it up all right any other questions comments concerns thank you you're welcome all right appreciate the calendar discussion and again would not be seeking [01:56:41] your approval on the proposed 26 27 calendar until our may meeting all right for the next batch of items these are policy related and 6.02 through 6.16 are a batch of policies related to contracts and compensation and of course as you know the board initiated in their october 2024 request a review of policies on this topic being responsive to employee feedback and so in board docs there is a summary of all of the proposed actions for reference and would be happy to take [01:57:21] any questions again there's some consolidation retirement and clarification of language responsive to employees. All right, colleagues, there's a big chunk. Would you like to take them as a whole chunk? Would you like to take those smaller chunks? Great. Let's just go with any questions related to any of them. Related to any of them. We'll be happy to take. Actually, I have one, if that's okay. [01:57:53] Looking at actually the first one, I believe, P4-02-001, in the language of this, it uses board of education and it uses school board. I'm to assume that when it says the board of education, it's referring to the Virginia board of education and school board as our school board. And some of the subsequent policies, it's a little more specific there and it says the Virginia board of education I think that could provide clarity to those in the community reading the policy that [01:58:28] may not at first glance know the difference we can certainly take a look and provide clarity throughout thank you chair Shea I did have one question it is item 6.13 review of proposed revisions to policy p4-05-012 in that in the policy there's a section that states let me get to it hcps will compensate secondary teachers for covering classes including study halls when that [01:59:08] coverage infringes on their daily planning time has there been any discussion around compensation for elementary teachers as well I didn't see anything in the language for compensation for elementary structured this way specifically due to the unique nature of the secondary day so for example you may have a period at secondary where you're not teaching a class and it's your planning time and there may be a situation where a class needs coverage and you would agree to be compensated to provide that coverage because you're missing your [01:59:43] required planning time that's why there's a compensation elementary teachers are generally teaching a class you know throughout the day and they have their assigned planning time and so substitute coverage looks different at the elementary level versus by block or class so typically they're not covering in that way at the elementary level it's unique to the secondary schedule where you'd be able to leave a block where you didn't have students and cover a block where someone was needed versus elementary substitutes are taken for the day or throughout the day. [02:00:17] - The reason I'm asking specifically for policy related, so here it says all elementary school teachers shall be provided at least an average of 30 minutes per day during the school week as planning time. However, if you have an elementary teacher that is not able to use that 30 minutes of planning time to cover the cafeteria, am I reading this correct that they would not be compensated for the 30 minutes. [02:00:41] - They shouldn't be asked to cover the cafeteria. They are due their required planning time. And so our secondary, this is speaking to the required planning time that we want our teachers to have, both at the elementary and secondary level, because we have offered the option for secondary teachers due to the unique nature of the schedule to give up their planning time, we compensate them for that. [02:01:04] - So just for point of clarity, if there is an elementary teacher who should be using their planning time, but have been, or received a request to do another activity during their planning time, that is a building level discussion, correct? [02:01:20] - It is. - Okay. - Yeah. - Just wanted to make sure for clarity from a policy perspective. - I have a question on this one as well. And so it says that elementary school teachers shall be provided at least an average of 30 minutes per day. [02:01:37] - I thought we were shooting for 45 minutes. Is that a change or am I misremembering where the 45 minutes came from? - This is probably grounded in the state requirement. And we actually offer more than this at all of our elementary schools. And thanks to the board's additional staff, the budgetary change that was made, we were able to create more planning time for elementary teachers and going beyond this, but this would be a minimum as is required. [02:02:05] - Okay, thank you for the clarification. we allowed to continue on the other ones or do we want to stick on this let's see if we have any more on this one it's you know it can be meaty and then we'll go to the next one anybody else have one on this uh planning time for teachers all right hearing none mr irving pick your pick your next yes uh the next one is um what is this oh this is the sorry i'm trying to give you a [02:02:35] number 6.10 time schedule so it says the okay I don't have my question anymore I answered it myself okay the other one then I will switch unless anybody had any comments about the time schedule okay the next one was staff meetings which is 6.12 so okay so this one says in here principles shown sir that staff meetings are consistent with the annual contract hours of instructional [02:03:14] personnel and schedules of all applicable staff can we define what that means so if we're saying that a contractual day ends at such time very often having been a teacher faculty meetings can extend past that time is that saying that they should not do that so right they want to be mindful of not going beyond the time that's accounted for within the teacher contract for things such as staff meetings which are accounted for in the teacher contract but there is a limit to that and [02:03:45] this is acknowledging that in policy will we put out um information saying it's it's it's you know you should not exceed this amount of time for a given meeting we have provided guidance to our administrators and i i would note that one of the um while not up for approval by the board the contract amendment that is simultaneously being worked on this speaks to that and is also spelled out um similarly in the contract the amendment that will go with the teacher contract based on employee feedback to provide more information and specificity while it doesn't this is not a change [02:04:22] it's simply adding clarifying language to again ensure that we're um we are mindful of that there's intentionality around that and it also spells out the number of hours um within the contract that are to account for staff meetings etc individual extracurricular if that makes sense yeah i i appreciate on this one how other related school events beyond the instructional days very explicitly laid out what those could include i i think that uh a transparency for staff is is important can i and and just to piggyback uh dr cashwell for clarity um there is time in the [02:05:01] contract beyond the instructional contract day for staff yes and one of the things at the request of staff was to be more clear about exactly how and what that looks like and so you'll see as we finalize the contract amendment it will spell that out in more detail as I shared we worked with TAC and other groups on really laying that out and that was something they were very favorable with their feedback on having that included there again it's more specificity it's not making a [02:05:34] change to it it's just simply being more clear and spelling it out no I'm just appreciative i mean the having sat served on the policy committee so with ms shea so we've been working on these for quite some time and then um in response to our initiative in 2024 right and policy has to take changes have to take place first before uh the contract addendum changes can take place i mean dr cash welkin or mrs coy can you just please list all of the feedback like [02:06:13] the places we've gotten feedback. I know you just mentioned teacher advisory committee. We've had the policy committee. We've had principal advisory committee. We've had, I mean, can you just please give some detail? And also we read written public comment, listen to public comment, and read emails and consider that feedback. [02:06:36] You may have covered them all. I mean, right, I'm at the grocery store. I'm hearing feedback. I mean, we are receiving feedback at all times right so that's really what the clarity and specificity that we're adding is right have I missed any of the groups the only one I can think of is we did create an internal work group with principals this year to look at these issues specifically an informal work group that's gotten together and will continue to do so but I think you've we've listed just about everything else thank you very much I just wanted to let my colleagues know in case they didn't how many places it's gone that Mrs. Shea and I have had the privilege of hearing [02:07:16] right in policy committee before it even got to policy committee. That's all I had, Chair Shea. Thank you. And I appreciate that, Ms. Kinsella. And again, just to reiterate what you said, even more clearly, and correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Coy and Dr. Cashwell, but a lot of this work, work, while we're continuously doing policy work to make things clearer on our many, many chapters of policy, a lot of this work is directly responsive to the feedback from the fall survey that we use as a starting point which asks for clarity, specificity, and to [02:07:52] codify a lot of the provisions that we've made over the last couple of years. It's taken that iterative process we talked about earlier, going through a lot of review groups been going back through the same review groups to see other because we want it to truly be responsive to the needs of our staff and reflective of what as Henrico public schools we're providing for our staff and so this has been a lengthy process it continues we're not taking [02:08:25] action on these I think until May 8th and so they're still open for review we welcome continued feedback on them as well but a lot a lot here but a lot of clarity here any other of these reviews or retirements colleagues that you would like to specifically dig into today I do have one question, Chair Shea, back to the staff meeting. Is there any sort of notice that principals are required to give staff before having a meeting? [02:09:03] I think typically they do provide a published schedule of when they would be held. However, I would imagine there might be an emergency scenario on which they may want to call one. Something would occur during the day to debrief with staff. But, you know, most importantly, the guidance, I know Dr. Grant and her team work with principals to help them understand the importance of managing time well and being mindful of teacher contract time and not exceeding that okay thank you okay no other all right team thank you so much all right next presentation [02:09:41] we're very excited to bring you is an update related to the campus of virginia randolph project and dr hughes is going to provide the presentation and a number of key players just went out of sight but i want to acknowledge them i know they're in the wings ready to answer questions but there's uh is a multi-departmental effort as we work to bring this world-class program to life so you see susan morris with us from the construction side dr smith adrian cole johnson is here jennifer rucker is coming from the back and who have i missed of course mac how could i and he all have [02:10:20] been instrumental, key players in the work, and really excited to share an update on what you can expect to see with that program. Dr. Hughes. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Shea, members of the board, and Dr. Cashwell. As Dr. Cashwell said, the team and I are here today to provide the board with an update on the campus of Virginia Randolph and to include a brief overview of not only the facility but the redesigned programming. As the board is aware, renovations on the campus begin in 2023. To coincide with the facility renovations, teams have been working on the redesign of programming, some of which has [02:10:57] already begun to serve students. As you can see on the opening slide, the theme of the campus is her legacy, our future. The planning team, in collaboration with the Virginia Randolph Foundation and the Henrico Recreation and Parks History section have worked hand in hand to ensure the legacy of Virginia Randolph is immersed in the work of the facility and the programming. [02:11:21] In alignment with Destination 2025, the renovations of the facility as well as the programming include the strategic actions shown on the slide. At this time I'll turn the presentation over to Susan Moore who will provide a brief overview of the facility. Thank you Dr. Hughes. [02:11:41] As you all will see on this slide, the original campus of Virginia Randolph was comprised of 14 buildings which equated to almost 126,000 square feet. The oldest building other than the cottage was built in 1929 and was an active part of the Virginia Randolph High School. [02:12:03] Eight campus style buildings were added in 1958 and 60 and two more buildings were added in the late 70s. In reviewing the programs to be included in the upgraded facility, it was determined that a new comprehensive school building was the best course of action to replace the old campus style buildings from the 50s and 60s. It was also decided that the oldest building, Building B, would remain as part of Virginia Randolph's legacy and be connected to the future new structure. The two buildings dating [02:12:40] to the late 70s were also selected to remain and be utilized for the ace center which did receive an addition and for overflow use upon completion the new updated campus will have five buildings encompassing approximately 170 000 square feet the photo you see in this slide is miss virginia randolph herself standing on the very steps of building b thank you the construction for this [02:13:14] This project began in the late summer of 2023 with the demolition of the campus-style buildings and the construction start of the new school structure. The top image in this slide was Mosley Architect's schematic rendering of the new building, and the bottom image is an aerial photo of the construction to date. [02:13:35] As you can see, there's been a lot of progress. This slide also outlines the timeline as we are nearing the substantial completion of new building with an anticipated move in during our upcoming spring break yes next week the spring break will move will include the students who are currently on site at the campus of virginia randolph students who were located at other schools during the construction process will be moved into the new facility this summer the spring break move will also vacate building b [02:14:12] which will then be turned over to the contractor for its renovation. The renovation process will continue through to the end of this year with an anticipated move in and turnover during the winter break in December. When HCPS returns from that winter break, the new Academy of Virginia Randolph should be ready to welcome all students. [02:14:36] And as you've heard, the theme of the campus of Virginia Randolph is Her Legacy, Our Future. This theme will be represented throughout the new facility as part of the building design aesthetics. Throughout the planning process, there was thoughtful discussion on how to merge key aspects of Virginia Randolph's teaching philosophy and legacy with the durable skills found in the Henrico Learner Profile. [02:15:04] These key concepts will be highlighted through carefully designed graphics incorporating Learner Profile themes, along with inspirational action word labels and symbols of various components of a sycamore tree, which holds historic significance to the site. [02:15:21] These graphics, as well as their corresponding colors, will be placed in each corridor of the primary building. The educational and architectural design teams have worked closely with the Virginia Randolph Foundation and the Henrico Recreation and Parks History section during this design process. [02:15:43] We have taken a journey to recognize all of the aspects of the legacy of Virginia Randolph and what she created along with the impact that community has on education. With that, we will continue to embrace and work alongside all communities to ensure we are connecting with the families we serve. [02:16:07] As part of the evaluative process, the design and education teams both recognize that the evidence of Virginia Randolph's legacy must be interwoven throughout the facility. The learner profile language and action word themes have been connected with images of the history of Virginia Randolph and the school activities that have taken place on that site. A sampling of the possible graphics is displayed in this slide. [02:16:37] These inspirational images will be strategically placed throughout the school. In addition, an exhibit wall will be placed in the auditorium area of the FACE Hub to educate students and visitors alike to the legacy of Virginia Randolph and its inspiration to the students that attend. [02:16:57] I will now turn the presentation over to Dr. Smith to review the educational program which will occur in this revitalized and re-envisioned facility. Once renovation is complete, the campus of Virginia Randolph will house a total of four programs, which include alternative programs, the Virginia Randolph Education Center, Family and Community Engagement, and the Advanced Career and Education Center. Once the building reopens, alternative programming [02:17:31] will be most housed on one campus in Henrico County, providing a K-12 continuum. It was important to take a step back and reassess what alternative programming is and develop a comprehensive approach as the planning process for redesign unfolded work began with the alternative programming central and school teams conducting a needs assessment to determine opportunities for growth what emerged was the need to create common language and develop foundational understanding of alternative programs for all faculty and staff to support students in alternative programs ensuring that current and future needs of our students are met in addition [02:18:11] professional learning on instructional practices and wrap around services for students to ensure the needs of all of our students were at our forefront over the past three years to assist with the needs assessment school leaders have had the opportunity to visit other alternative schools within the commonwealth visits allowed staff to meet with other districts and school leaders as well as teachers to gain insight on best practices for alternative program offerings data from the needs assessment indicated that there was a strong that there needed to be a strong k-12 understanding of alternative programming and a more robust professional learning plan for [02:18:47] staff in both alternative programming and instructional practices there has been intentionality to ensuring that we align our day-to-day instructional practices to district state and national standards additionally we are aligning our efforts with the hcps strategic plan and the national alternative education association standards the department of alternative programs and engagement has been aligning efforts to support student transition to and from alternative programs while instruction has been a focus extensive wraparound services are now available [02:19:20] to students to ensure needs are met dr jen rucker the director of alternative programs has the privilege of supervising alternative programs throughout the division once the campus of virginia randolph opens it will serve kindergarten through 12th grade the elementary intervention program which is currently located here at newbridge is a program that serves general education students kindergarten through grade five a referral for assistance from the home school starts the process of enrollment and based on student progress while enrolled in the program students remain for four six or nine [02:19:57] weeks and return to their home school with transition support the program for academic career empowerment also referred to as pace is an alternative program currently on the campus of Virginia Randolph that serves over-age general education and exceptional education middle school students who are two or more grade levels behind schedule. The Academy of Virginia Randolph and Opportunity School is a high school program currently located on the campus of Virginia Randolph. Students enrollment in both PACE and the Academy of Virginia Randolph occurs through an application process or placement through the Disciplinary Review Hearing Office. [02:20:34] each program is staffed with an instructional leader highly qualified teachers and instructional assistants as well as a behavior and mental health staff the smaller campus size are a great advantage to many students and the reason many students apply to these programs or ask to stay beyond their placement the revitalization of virginia randolph education center has been a priority focus for henrico county public schools over the past two years henrico has sought to re to design a world-class special education program the department of exceptional education met with key stakeholders to determine the expanded service and program options the department [02:21:14] interviewed former students parents special education teachers pair professionals therapists and building administrators our department visited several special education private day schools in the region around richmond all the way to charlottesville and petersburg a tour the facilities provided valuable insights that guided our recommendations to build a state-of-the-art facility with adapted equipment and technology to ensure our program redesign would meet student needs one of the features i'm most excited about is our two-way mirror classrooms which will allow for supported coaching for teachers as well as parents from our related service providers and [02:21:52] school-based mental health teams the expanded program options include programming for preschool age students and early childhood special education programs, elementary, middle, and high school age students. These programs will support students who require a modified curriculum known as the Virginia Essentialized Standards of Learning or VSAWs and programming options for students who receive instruction on grade level standards of learning curriculum. [02:22:18] In addition, Virginia Randolph Education Center will serve students with autism in grades K through 12 who require intensive behavior, communication, and social skills supports. These programs can provide an expanded continuum of services for students who require more intensive supports than what are available in a comprehensive school or provide a step down option for students who have been served in private special education day schools but are ready to return to a least restrictive educational setting. [02:22:47] The school board's commitment to excellence is evident in every aspect of the program's redesign. Virginia Randolph Education Center will follow the annual HCPS school calendar but will also provide extended summer programming for all students. I want to thank the board for your commitment to the students at Virginia Randolph Education Center with the 52 new positions that you have provided to ensure that as we expand student services at VREC we will have highly qualified staff to meet both their complex learning and behavioral needs of the students on our campus. These positions include board certified behavior analysts known as BCBAs, [02:23:23] registered behavior technicians, expanded therapy options including music therapy, a dedicated speech-language pathologist, reading specialist, classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, and a team of school-based mental health professionals including a dedicated school counselor, social worker, and school psychologist. Over the past year we've partnered with Virginia Commonwealth University's Region 1 Autism Educational Consortium to develop professional learning plan that will help ensure our staff on the campus will have a differentiated skill set to support students with challenging behaviors while providing rigorous instruction additionally the vcu staff will provide technical assistance to our teachers through modeling and [02:24:01] coaching as part of our partnership we are very excited to welcome students to our campus at the start of the new school year now dr hughes will provide updates from family and community engagement thank you as the building opens family and community engagement will launch the second full service community hub as a place where students families and educators come together in support of learning and growth the face team under the direction of adrian cole johnson is in the process of crafting programming and partner elements that align with the unique needs of the school community and similar to the processes at the oak will host a robust listening tour [02:24:39] to gather feedback and insight from stakeholders this full service community school hub will be a place where families can access essential services, strengthen their confidence in supporting their children's education, and find the resources they need to thrive. [02:24:55] As shown on this slide, some key elements of the new hub will include a telehealth center to provide wellness services for students, a satellite family resource center, enhanced after-school opportunities, and dynamic link-to-learning community programming that boasts engagement for all stakeholders. [02:25:14] This vision for the FACE Hub is rooted in bringing together strong partnerships to provide wraparound support for students and families. This center will ensure every student and family has access to the resources they need to succeed. And finally, the Advanced Career Education Center, under the direction of Dr. McBeaton, is also housed on the campus. [02:25:36] It's important to note that this center is one of three ACE Centers that serves Henrico County Public Schools. The ACE Center, which is already open on the campus, offers students specialized programs that prepare them for various careers and post-secondary education. [02:25:52] Current ACE programming, in addition to new programs on the site, has gained much interest from students. In fact, the interest has tripled. One new program, the Fire Sprinkler Program, is the first in the country at the high school level. [02:26:09] That's right, the very first in the country. They're listening. First in the country. As of all ACE Center programs, the goal is this for students to have real-world experiences as they work to become not only career-ready, but life-ready. With courses like welding, precision machinery, motor sports, heavy equipment operator, and diesel technology, just to name a few, the students who complete the sequence of courses at ACE at the campus of Virginia Randolph are and will continue to be sought out by employers in the area. [02:26:42] We hope that the Board has enjoyed this brief overview of the campus. To say staff is over the moon is an understatement. The work on this facility and programming has been innovative and invigorating, as we have worked to ensure world-class experiences for students enrolled in programs that will soon be housed or are already housed on this beautiful new campus. [02:27:03] To be able to honor Virginia Randolph's contribution to education and celebrate her legacy has reminded of her spirit and passion and it has been humbling and even emotional at times I'm getting emotional Virginia Randolph's life work was education and we hope that as this campus opens we will honor her legacy I sincerely want to thank the board on this endeavor it has been just a wonderful wonderful work for the team and I want to make sure that I thank them they have put their heart and soul into this so at this time we'll be happy to answer any questions all of us thank you so [02:27:42] much thank you so much team i know um i can speak for the whole board that we're very excited about this project we know it's going to serve students from all parts of the county all of our districts but i will give the honor of starting remarks with the man who has the building sitting in his district mr young yeah uh thank you chair shea i don't i told her just now i don't know where to start this this is so much more than what i envisioned when we hear a new building we think [02:28:16] new building same program i'm hearing new building and it's a totally different campus i can't thank y'all enough um for working on this and and and doing the visits to different districts and statewide and making sure that our kids because they serve all of our districts so they're our kids are, how can I say it, are being thought of and cared about, for lack of a better word. [02:28:41] And then the fact that we're keeping Virginia Randolph, who was an African-American educator, at the forefront. She was a teacher, committed to vocational training, individualized learning, community service, and the fact that her legacy, Our Future, doesn't feel like a slogan. It feels more of a mission when it comes to Virginia Randolph. But as I contemplate, I do want to thank Ms. Atkins, Ms. Kinsella, Ms. Shea, Reverend Cooper, Ms. Ogborn for having the insight to do this. We can't, we're new to the board, me and Mr. Irvin, but we're going to pick up where they left off. But I just want to thank y'all first for looking out for this [02:29:20] school and looking out for kids in all of our districts. I think that's important to highlight here. And as we continue to, I can't wait to visit and cut a ribbon and do all those nice things, but what I hear is a place of second chances and new beginnings, especially with PACE, EIP, the Academy of Virginia Randolph, but I'm looking at ACE Center and after-school opportunities, family and community engagement, telehealth. I mean, I can keep going on and on. Mr. Frank Thornton, he's a curator of the museum over there, so board colleagues, reach out to him if you want to do like a tour and learn more about Virginia Randolph, [02:29:56] there is a museum there as well, but I can't thank y'all enough. I don't know if I have specific questions. Have you guys started hiring for the 52 new positions? Has that happened yet? It is definitely underway. So, we currently have posted the Virginia Randolph Education Center principal. Tomorrow I'll actually conduct interviews for the program coordinator. [02:30:19] other positions are also uh open right now um bcbas rbt's um pretty much everything teachers i'm hopefully going to have posted fingers crossed um tomorrow or right after spring break we're still working on what that looks like with kind of the expanded opportunities for students coming longer in the year and so uh tbd on teachers but i'm really excited about those opportunities All right. And are we really opening this up? [02:30:46] Oh, yes. Oh, that? Yes, we are. OK, OK. It wasn't on my calendar. Are we are we officially going out and or when is the official? When the whole package is ready, we're going to have a big extravaganza. [02:31:01] Susan can speak to that because this was done in phases. It's a unique project and we want to honor the whole thing so that everyone can really see all of the pieces and how they're integral as part of this campus and her legacy and we want the staff and students to be a part of that experience as well so susan do you want to speak to that absolutely so what we are reaching substantial completion on the new building the focus is on the second floor which will house all of the kids that are currently being educated at the campus and so we'll have a little more time to do the finishing touches on the first floor which is where dr smith's group [02:31:40] will be but we will move those kids into the building in the summer when it's less disruptive for their programs um and then when uh they'll be working on the renovation of building b starting next after next week um because next week will will be when we make all of the transitions um so we would recommend the big celebration be when we get building b renovated in addition to our new building done and then you'll be able to see the whole cohesive architectural as well as [02:32:14] educational finished product throughout and it's going to be great. January of 26. Correct. But still opportunities to tour pieces and parts that are up and running as they, but for the the big ribbon cutting celebration, January of 26. All right, thank you so much. I'll yield the floor to my boy colleagues but I mean I can't I can't thank y'all enough thank y'all so much thank you Ms. Kinsella I concur with with with everything my colleague just said thank you so much Mr. Young [02:32:54] just to really preserve and honor Virginia Randolph's legacy but this has been work that I I even have to thank the prior, prior board, because this work really has been going on, I wanna say since maybe 2018, for sure. [02:33:15] So yes, so even the board that, I think Mrs. Bevcock, John Montgomery, Mrs. Marshall, then I can't think of Bill's last name, right? Bill's last name. - Pike. [02:33:31] - And Mr. Pike, who temporarily served mrs marshall so now that we've thought thanked all um of the prior board members also dr kinlaw um and he started it and dr cashwell for picking it up i guess um yeah this was coming in this effort we first started talking about what it could be to reimagine the place and then it took a lot of innovative thinking not just about the programs but the structures and what could be. So certainly we were talking about the seven years in the making and I've been [02:34:10] excited to be able to watch the team vision and dream big and think about our students first and foremost. This is definitely hopefully what's come to life here shows the great care and attention to detail when it comes to meeting the unique needs of all of our students and what that could like in a world-class setting and they've risen to the challenge in every way and as you pointed out each board has been instrumental in supporting that with uh you know unique uh funding opportunities and keeping this as a priority so we we're so grateful for the board support to be able to [02:34:47] bring this to to life yes thank you um really i i can't wait to see it i'm with you uh mr young maybe we could go see little pieces of it i'd hate to i don't want to have to wait nine more months, but I'm so excited to see outside of all the programs and the students that we're going to serve in a world-class facility. I want to better understand some of our FACE efforts, some of our family community engagement efforts, and because it serves all [02:35:23] five districts, but as a hub, as a resource hub similar to the Oak that is in the Verona district in the former highland springs high school it's so close to the brooklyn district and its location i'm interested in you said there was going to be a survey right to local schools so what do we what is the hub and spoke model look like yes um as this comes to life great question and you know with the oak we were able to be pretty geographic with it um what we're looking to do is to really try to drill in and of course we know students come from across the district, [02:36:03] but can we look at habits and trends, certain schools that may feed into Virginia Randolph a little bit more and be really intentional about connecting with those school communities, families, partners, and things of the sort. And then also working really closely with all the other partners to understand the unique needs and crafting resources and supports based on that. [02:36:24] Okay. Thank you so much. And then I'm just going to make just a comment, tripling enrollment at our ACE at Virginia Randolph. Mr. Bainton, can you just speak a little bit to that? I mean, as involved as I, as the whole board is really in business advisory and our ACE programming, can you speak to just the level of interest and excitement there? [02:36:50] Well, I think by putting key programs there that were not duplicated in other places, really raised up to level uh and then honestly having the teachers be a part of this planning and knowing what's coming when the kids walk in there now you can just feel the excitement and and i'll use the uh the heavy equipment when you walk in there you see this huge trainer that's like a great big video game and they get excited so yeah or and or the the fire sprinkler program having the the ability to show what we're teaching has really changed the level of interest [02:37:28] in the program and the building itself gets people excited then they walk in and they see the equipment they get excited and then they meet the teachers and they get even more excited so that explains that i can't sum it up any better than that well fantastic i mean i think that what the fire sprinkler program is a result of our regency um project right yes and that started actually when it it lives in the world of plumbing uh but not many people want to sign up to be plumbers for lots of reasons but because of movies everybody thinks sprinklers are really cool [02:38:05] and nice clean water so kids get really interested but they still didn't understand that until we did the regency mall project and had the opportunity to find out hey this is a fun opportunity and then all the companies that were involved with that came together and created that they donated all the equipment stuff that we have in there so and and fire sprinklers have even moved from commercial properties into residential properties right so this is a pathway for students a new a new pathway yes actually our last house is the first house that we know of in the country that's that's ever had students install a sprinkler system into it. [02:38:44] So it's a fully sprinkled residential home. - Thank you so much. So much more to say, but I'm not gonna say it all today. I need to, I need to, I wanna see it. And then I'll have more to say, Madam Chair. [02:39:00] - Thank you so much, Ms. Atkins. - I think you captured it with invigorating and innovative is I believe the two words that you chose. and just watching the progress, not just through the presentation, but in talking with individuals. [02:39:22] I think Ms. Randolph would be very proud. - Thank you. - You know, with a mission of making sure that individuals that may not have had access or individuals that some deemed as a mistake, but actually was a opportunity to learn a lesson and turn it into something else, which may develop into a career. [02:39:46] And so this building speaks to heart. And I dare say that this building itself, I can't wait to see the full product, to see how each section works together. [02:40:03] And that's the message, you know? So having Virginia Randolph and understanding her history and understanding that struggle and knowing that students won't have to struggle here is a powerful testimony to what I believe Henrico County Public Schools is striving for. [02:40:25] And so this is certainly more than a highlight. It is gonna deserve so much more. I can't wait for the celebration and I'm hoping that we have more than a ribbon to cut. I'm hoping, yeah, we need confetti, we need blowhorns, So we need all of the above because this is one of those buildings that touches history in a very unique way. [02:40:49] And it also is a reminder of what we can do when we work together. So much more to come, I'm with my colleagues, the words kind of escape me because my mind is kind of noodling over what will our children experience when they become adults? [02:41:12] What are the stories that they're going to have when they say, I went through Virginia Randolph and some of the perceptions of what it was and how their experience was nothing like that at all. It actually is one of the best places I could have ever been. [02:41:27] That's what I suspect they will say. But I look forward to walking through the building, celebrating not just on that day, but for many days to come. So I appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into the vision because you got to have that before you start the process and everyone involved certainly put more than just their minds into this and I'm very appreciative. [02:41:51] Chair Shea. Thank you so much. I echo my colleagues. This is just incredible. We all have new building projects in our districts that from the very successful bond that are either happening or are going to happen that we're excited about and bring new opportunities for students and we'll serve students well but this is on a whole different level yes it's new buildings new spaces but it is so far beyond that when we look at not just new programming but new whole [02:42:24] new types of programming so that as Henrika we can serve our students first and best and to look at the more robust offerings that we can offer for our many diverse learners um this is a game changer and um i love how mr young put it that he sees a lot of second chances and new beginnings in the best possible way and so thank you to all of y'all's team's dedication to think outside the [02:42:57] the box, to kind of shake the boxes that we know, to look at all of the best practices that we see in facilities, both locally and regionally and beyond to say, what can, what can Enrico take back from this so that we can do best by all of our students? [02:43:18] And it took this board, the previous board, the board before that, it took innovative It took all of these pieces coming together because this is what's right by students. And so January 5th, can't come soon enough. [02:43:33] We're excited. Thank you for truly for all of y'all's work. Colleagues, anything else? Ms. Rucker, did you have anything to add at all? I know you deal with a lot. Okay, okay. You don't have to. You don't have to. Okay, that's perfectly fine. I just saw everybody else had an opportunity. [02:43:50] So thank you. Maybe we should just say how much we appreciate her. Yes, I understand a little under the weather today. That's a flip-flop speaking part, but incredible team. And yeah, Dr. Rucker's work on this top notch. [02:44:05] We appreciate you, Dr. Rucker. Thank you, team. That concludes items from the superintendent. Excellent. Colleagues, the next item on our agenda is unfinished business. [02:44:24] Do we have any unfinished business? Hearing none, the next item on the agenda new business do we have any new business for the work session chair shea i would like to take an opportunity to talk about uh project maverick and capstone and i'd love to turn the floor to you to talk more about it um i was delighted to it wasn't my first time at freeman but somehow this time at Freeman there was so much love there in their projects it felt different and I [02:45:03] don't know if he felt the same way but in conversations with the students and the staff I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work that I saw whether it was in the library whether it was in the hallway as I walked into the building and walk into the office there were students excited and saying Miss Atkins we can't wait for you to see our project and I thought that having that level of excitement to attempt to change Henrico County Public Schools but in some of those presentations it [02:45:42] could probably change legislation and I was very much impressed and blown away so I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that experience at Freeman but I'll turn the floor over to you. Oh thank you I will try to be as brief as possible but it is such an exciting project project Maverick is the capstone senior capstone project that every senior at Freeman high school engages in it is similar to project citizen where students identify an issue either in their school their [02:46:18] specific school or the school division or the locality or even larger legislation and they research it often engaging with the elected officials or other government counterparts they come up with three different solutions and then they pick the best solution and a path to implement it and i believe this is about the fifth year they've done it but i think i agree i think it was the best and part of that was really i have to thank a lot of our staff who took time to go [02:46:49] over multiple days and talk one-on-one with students including mr bayton and mr whack and i'm going to forget a lot of people miss moore miss they have a lot of facilities questions so miss moore is like a rock star over there mr roguish and some of the government counterparts as well, spending significant time with the students. The depth of knowledge that they have about these issues from their personal experience, but also from engaging with elected officials and [02:47:22] government officials and reiterating their solutions is incredible. Everything from the parking lot to big class sizes to things at the locality to one project looked at mail delivery for unhoused peoples. And while it sounded like this huge topic that was hard to swallow, came up with a very implementable solution. And so just the passion of these students, [02:47:59] just incredible um if when you when you talk to these students you know we're going to be okay we're going to be okay and they've also put together web pages with each of their proposals um and so colleagues i look forward to sending you many of their projects that kind of fall under our purview to talk about and see what we can glean from it but thank you um miss atkins for coming um mr irving went to the showcase as well some of my other colleagues also engaged with them and our staff and our government counterparts really making a difference for these students [02:48:32] so that they can make a difference for our community. Thank you Ms. Atkins. Anything else? Yeah. Is there perhaps a link, like a list of the links? I know Mr. Young and I were celebrating the first National Honor Society for Henrico Virtual Academy. Yes. I will get a link to y'all so you can peruse all the projects. Fantastic. Thank you colleagues. Anything Anything else? [02:49:03] All right, last item is the announcement of the upcoming meeting, which is here at 6:30, our monthly meeting. This work session is hereby adjourned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com