Coraggio Consulting
Henrico County School Board Work Session, Thursday, November 13, 2025

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025
Place: Henrico County School Board, Virginia
Length: 2h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kOHcpbxVpc
Official meeting portal (Henrico County Public Schools, Diligent Community): https://henricoschools.community.diligentoneplatform.com/Portal/MeetingTypeList.aspx

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-25. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:34] Good afternoon and welcome to the November 13th, 2025 meeting of our work session of the Henrico County School Board. We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and moment of silence.

[00:00:51] Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

[00:01:07] Please remain standing as you are able for the moment of silence. Thank you.

[00:01:24] Thank you. NEXT ITEM ON THE AGENDA IS THE APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA, COLLEAGUES, IS THERE A MOTION? I MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD APPROVED THE AGENDA FOR TODAY'S MEETING. THANK YOU, MS. KINSELA. IS THERE A SECOND? SECOND. SECONDED BY MR. YOUNG. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY AYE.

[00:01:40] ANY OPPOSED? THE AYES HAVE IT. THE AGENDA IS APPROVED. THE NEXT ITEM IS TO MOVE INTO CLOSED SESSION, COLLEAGUES, IS THERE A MOTION? I MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD GO INTO CLOSED SESSION FOR THE DISCUSSION OF MATTERS COVERED UNDER ITEMS A1 AND A7 OF SECTION 2.2-3711 OF THE CODE OF VIRGINIA, 1950, AS AMENDED, PERTAINING TO THE ASSIGNMENT, APPOINTMENT, PROMOTION, PERFORMANCE, DEMOTION, SALARIES, DISCIPLINE, OR RESIGNATION OF SPECIFIC SCHOOL BOARD EMPLOYEES AND CONSULTATION WITH LEGAL COUNCIL PERTAINING TO ACTUAL LITIGATION OF A CIVIL NATURE INVOLVING HENRIQUEL COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL STAFF AND STUDENTS BECAUSE

[00:02:19] CONSULTATION IN AN OPEN MEETING WOULD ADVERSELY AFFECT THE negotiating and litigating position of the school board. Moved by Mr. Young. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Atkins. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. We are now in closed session. We will resume our open meeting at its conclusion.

[00:10:37] Welcome back. Colleagues, is there a certification of our closed session?

[00:29:52] I move to this. Go ahead. Please pause. My apologies, Mr. Young. it was a false start false false start on the chair two minute penalty all right colleagues do we have a certification of the closed session i move that the school board certified by a recorded vote to the best of each school board member's knowledge only public business matters

[00:30:29] lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the virginia freedom of information act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting thank you mr irving is there a second SECOND. SECONDED BY MS. KINSELA. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, SAY AYE.

[00:30:48] ANY OPPOSED? THE AYES HAVE IT. CLOSED SESSION HAS BEEN CERTIFIED. DR. CASHWELL. THANK YOU. GOOD AFTERNOON, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. THE FIRST ITEM WE HAVE FOR YOU IS A REVIEW OF THE 2026 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES. AS YOU KNOW, THE BOARD ESTABLISHES AN ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE AGENDA AND PRIORITIES FOR ADVOCACY DURING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION. AND SO WE'RE GOING TO GO OVER THAT INFORMATION FOR YOU NOW.

[00:31:14] we have Mrs. Eileen Cox and Mr. Ken Blackstone here for that presentation. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, board members, and Dr. Cashwell. The communications team is pleased to once again continue supporting your advocacy for K-12 public education. As the Assistant Director of Communications, Ken Blackstone serves as the school board's legislative liaison, building relationships with legislators, monitoring legislation, and sharing data, background information and hcps policy positions with lawmakers to ensure our goals are understood

[00:31:49] and hopefully supported by henrico's delegation in the general assembly today ken will share draft priorities for your consideration and feedback with the goal of board approval for final priorities at your december meeting the draft priorities being shared today were developed using your EXTENSIVE PREVIOUS CONVERSATIONS AROUND ANNUAL PRIORITIES AND WITH INPUT FROM HCPS STAFF WHO HAVE EXPERTISE IN EACH PRIORITY AREA. THESE DRAFT 2026 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES ARE DRIVEN BY THE

[00:32:28] DIVISION STRATEGIC PLAN JOURNEY TO 2030 AND OUR FIVE POUR VALUES STUDENT FOCUSED, BELONGING, collaboration, innovation, and equity. The priorities reflect a firm belief that legislation affecting education should be thoroughly considered to maintain high standards and reasonable workloads, ensuring that educators can devote their time and energy to meaningful teaching and learning. As such, these priorities are more than abstract policy goals. They are practical pathways to ensuring that all schools have the necessary funding resources and systems

[00:33:06] to be successful. The first policy positions relate to academic achievement, the first focus area of the division strategic plan. Henrico County Public Schools supports student-focused legislation that is centered on what is best for students, ensuring that they have the resources, opportunities, and support systems needed to thrive. Virginia's new performance and support framework places an emphasis on student accountability with little acknowledgement of growth over time. The ability to meet ever-changing expectations depends on the AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES TO ADDRESS THE DIVERSE ACADEMIC NEEDS OF STUDENTS. HCPS URGES THE

[00:33:45] GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO PROVIDE TARGETED STATE FUNDING ALIGNED WITH THE FRAMEWORK TO HELP DIVISIONS EXPAND INTERVENTION, TUTORING, AND ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES THAT DIRECTLY IMPACT STUDENT OUTCOME. THE DIVISION ALSO SUPPORTS ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR ENGLISH LEARNER SERVICES.

[00:34:04] MORE THAN 10% OF HCPS STUDENTS ARE ENGLISH LEARNERS AND ENROLLMENT CONTINUES TO GROW EACH YEAR. ADDITIONALLY WE URGE LEGISLATORS TO EXPAND HIGH SCHOOL DUAL ENROLLMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND CREATE NEW PATHWAYS FOR TEACHERS TO BECOME DUAL ENROLLMENT INSTRUCTORS, PROVIDING SCHOLARSHIPS OR GRANTS FOR TEACHERS TO EARN THE REQUIRED MASTERS DEGREES OR ESTABLISHING ALTERNATIVE CREDENTIAL ROUTE COULD DRAMATICALLY EXPAND ACCESS TO COLLEGE CREDIT COURSES FOR STUDENTS. AND FINALLY, HCPS REQUESTS FLEXIBILITY ON SOL ASSESSMENTS AND FUNDING TO MODERNIZE VIRGINIA'S BALANCED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM.

[00:34:40] THE NEXT PRIORITY AREA IS CREATING SAFE, MODERN, AND SUPPORTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS. THE SCHOOL BOARD URGES THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION THAT STRENGTHENS SCHOOL SAFETY, SUPPORTS SCHOOL MODERNIZATION AND CONSTRUCTION, AND ENSURES EQUITABLE ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY AND CONNECTIVITY. AS YOU KNOW, SAFETY IS ESSENTIAL TO CREATING A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. HCPS CONTINUES TO INVEST IN MODERN SECURITY SYSTEMS AND SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORTS. HOWEVER, THESE NEEDS ARE STILL GROWING. DEDICATED STATE FUNDING TO HIRE

[00:35:15] ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL, IMPROVE BUILDING HARDWARE AND EXPAND SAFETY TRAINING INITIATIVES WILL HELP ENSURE THAT SCHOOLS REMAIN BOTH WELCOMING AND SECURE. IN AND OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL BUILDING, ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY IS VITAL FOR MODERN LEARNING. HCPS HAS MAINTAINED A ONE-TO-ONE DEVICE PROGRAM FOR OVER A DECADE, ENSURING THAT EVERY STUDENT IN GRADES K-12 HAS ACCESS TO A LAPTOP OR TABLET.

[00:35:41] HOWEVER, RELIABLE BROADBAND CONTINUES TO BE A CHALLENGE ACROSS VIRGINIA. STATE INVESTMENTS THAT EXPAND HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ACCESS FOR FAMILIES AND STAFF HELPS GUARANTEE THAT GEOGRAPHY DOES NOT DETERMINE OPPORTUNITY. SIMILARLY, LAWMAKERS SHOULD PRIORITIZE LEGISLATION AND INCREASES TO STATE FUNDING TO ADDRESS AGING SCHOOL FACILITIES AND NECESSARY INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATES THROUGH MODERNIZATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOLS DESIGNED WITH ENERGY EFFICIENCY,

[00:36:12] sustainability, and future-ready learning needs in mind. Our next focus area is policy positions that support the physical, social, emotional, and mental health of our students and staff. Henrico County Public Schools calls on the General Assembly to expand funding for school-based mental health professionals, wellness programs, and community-based services that support families before, during, and after the school day. HCPS also urges lawmakers to remove unnecessary and often unfunded classroom

[00:36:47] and administrative burdens on staff time. This allows our teachers and administrators to focus on what is most important, engaging and supporting students in meaningful relevant learning. The next few policy positions relate to staff recruitment and retention. When employees feel valued and empowered they are more likely to stay long term fostering a positive and stable environment for students and the entire school community hcps encourages the general assembly to prioritize

[00:37:21] investments in compensation licensure pathways and staff workload relief that strengthen the profession and sustain the education workforce state lawmakers should continue to explore alternative pathways into the teaching profession for example stream streamlining licensure REQUIREMENTS, REMOVING UNNECESSARY FEES, AND EXPANDING THE VIRGINIA TEACHING SCHOLARSHIP LOAN PROGRAM COULD MAKE IT EASIER FOR ASPIRING TEACHERS TO JOIN THE WORKFORCE.

[00:37:52] AT THE SAME TIME, INCREASING COMPENSATION TO THE NATIONAL AVERAGE IS ESSENTIAL TO ENSURING THAT VIRGINIA REMAINS COMPETITIVE IN ATTRACTING AND RETAINING HIGH QUALITY EDUCATORS. AND ACPS REQUESTS THAT LEGISLATORS IDENTIFY FUNDING TO SUPPORT INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS DEVELOPED by local school divisions to reduce employee turnover. Here in Henrico, examples include the HCPS Career Ladder and the Opportunity Schools Initiative. The final draft priority directly supports your work and responsibilities as a school board. HCPS continues to strongly

[00:38:31] oppose any legislation that would erode the authority of local school boards or impose unfunded mandates on school divisions. As a local school board, you are closest to the community you serve and best positioned to make local decisions that reflect local values priorities and needs maintaining a balance of local decision making and state partnership ensures that policies remain responsive and that every dollar dedicated to public education is used efficiently and effectively in addition to these 2026 legislative priorities the board holds continuing positions

[00:39:08] that support a wide variety of other areas to enhance k-12 education as bills are created and move through the legislative process staff will offer information data position statements and when necessary testimony at committee meetings to lobby on behalf of hcps i look forward to supporting you and our division as our legislative liaison again this year thank you ken board members you have a copy of the draft legislative priorities at your seat we look forward to receiving your feedback and are ready to make any needed revisions to support your scheduled adoption

[00:39:46] OF THE 2026 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES AT THE BOARD'S DECEMBER 18th MEETING. MADAM CHAIR, THAT COMPLETES OUR PRESENTATION. THANK YOU SO MUCH. COLLEAGUES, I'LL START WITH MR. YOUNG. THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. THANK YOU, KEN.

[00:40:02] THANK YOU, ELEEN, FOR THE PRESENTATION. I THINK WE HIT EVERYTHING SPOT ON TODAY UNDER OUR PRIORITIES. I WILL HAVE ONE EX FROM YOU, KEN. IF THERE'S SOMETHING THAT COMES UP THAT WE CAN COME DOWN TO THE GENERATION AND ADVOCATE FOR, IF YOU CAN JUST KEEP US ABREAST OF THINGS, even if they're getting close or when we get, you know, if they can use a little advocacy from a school board member from HCPS, I would like to know. I was debating on stealing Ms. Kinsella's line, but I'm gonna go ahead and steal it. Every politician runs on funding, fully funding public education. So we look forward to seeing what this new administration coming in would do to fully

[00:40:39] fund the SOQ. Another thing that's big on me is internet access. I was surprised to learn how many children in my district still don't have Wi-Fi. So I'm all on board. If I can come down and do any advocacy there as well. My top three things, I would say, of course, the full funding of SOQ.

[00:40:59] Any mental health legislation that comes through, I'm definitely on board with that as well. And then the last thing is the dual enrollment instructors and quicker pathways to kind of get them certified. So other than that, thank you guys for the presentation. Thank you for this booklet. IT'S AMAZING. I'M GLAD WE HAVE THIS TO KIND OF TAKE AROUND WITH US NOW.

[00:41:18] SO THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. THANKS SO MUCH. MR. IRVING. I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ECHO MR. YOUNG'S SENTIMENTS. THANK YOU FOR PUTTING THIS TOGETHER. I THINK IT FULLY COVERS THE BREATH OF WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR. YOU KNOW, AS ALWAYS, JUST I THINK THAT THE LEGISLATURE NOW, GIVEN HOW THE ELECTIONS WENT ON NOVEMBER 7TH, I BELIEVE IT WAS NOVEMBER 7TH, been a long couple days um there's no excuses to not fully fund schools there's no excuses to not

[00:41:53] bring teacher salaries up to the national average and there's no excuse to not do the work that we've been told needs to be done for the past five years to the past decade so now is the time uh and it is our expectation that it gets done thank you thank you miss gonzola yes let me start by saying And thank you, Mr. Young, for any comments that I've made resonating with you.

[00:42:23] And you're absolutely right on what I said, that every single politician runs on education. And if not now, when? So now is the time. Really, the past few years, the work I know this board has done on this legislative booklet really is, to me, commended.

[00:42:44] I know for me, I support everything. hard for me to choose um what i may feel stronger about um except for i will say that whatever um we've had we've had so many new for example the math uh standards and the new reading standards and the virginia literacy act and you know nothing has been removed from an educator's plate so that's top of mind for me what can we you know what can be removed um and also knowing that we

[00:43:19] do have uh what did you say ten percent right english learner enrollment um what kinds of resources are we advocating for just more funding um what does the advocacy look like for our english learners yes primarily it would be for funding for the programs that we have uh the successes that we've seen and how we can expand and continue to grow along with our student population and then um do we believe we're going to make progress in the s funding of the soqs

[00:43:56] do we believe that given i mean given what mr young has said and what mr irving said about recent election results we always are we confident we always believe um i think that we have a renewed opportunity to come together with our peers to advocate together i know that mrs atkins uh has often come down to the general assembly and met with lawmakers individually but then also uh spoken at some of the committee meetings so i think that um now is the time

[00:44:32] to redouble those efforts well i look forward to the collaboration um and moving virginia's education in virginia forward especially in henrico county public schools madam chair thank you miss kinsella miss atkins so thank you as well uh applause is is due i remember when we began the discussions on how do we advocate in a way that is fruitful so thank you mrs cox mr blackstone and the team for continued progress in this space i do believe that we have

[00:45:09] a really really strong foundation now when it comes to legislation and advocacy i also believe now that we can sharpen our focus and make our legislative priorities actionable measurable and impactful so this is probably going to be a moment that if you don't have your pen in your pad you want to get that in your hand right now i have much to share and i'll pause in between thoughts to ensure that i'm giving you ample time to to write i think that we move from aspiration to accountability now so in the beginning we started with the conversation then we moved into the

[00:45:48] round table discussions uh during our meetings and now we have the booklet wonderful progress let's add a little bit more meat to that so i'm going to start with giving you some examples for you to ponder and explore one of them specifically we have in our booklet here rather than stating support early childhood development, I think we can be a bit more specific. Again, these are things for you to explore, make sure the timing is right. Given recent elections, I think it is. So instead

[00:46:25] of saying support early childhood development, maybe our statement could sound like increased state funding for universal pre-k programs to ensure all children enter kindergarten ready to learn and even more specific if we want to go further and it's appropriate we can say reduce education staffing gaps by 15 within two years that is a bit aggressive but i want to give you a flavor of how i think we can continue to progress in our advocacy and moving from general statements to a bit more specific and i think this helps legislators as well uh and the reason why is

[00:47:02] because we're transforming policy into actionable results for legislators so that's something to consider as we continue to look at advocacy and how we can advocate in 2025 and beyond i'm going to be really really uh intentional down to the alphabets and the words and the sentences that i am about to recite for you are you ready yes okay wonderful okay so i want to be clear about the realities and communities specifically for verina sanson howland springs but this could go all the

[00:47:36] way through henrico county and beyond that families are still recovering from the pandemic we have to remind our legislators of that academically socially and emotionally many of our families are facing some impossible decisions do i take my child to the doctor or do i pay these sky-high electric bills we have to have that as a part of our advocacy conversations in the general assembly please remember that and i think that's also a way to express urgency around the increased

[00:48:14] funding that we are asking for because it is bigger than just the classrooms it's the entire school community approach this is a different approach than in the past it's similar to advocacy in the pandemic but we're in post pandemic we have to remind ourselves that we were in a pandemic we're recovering from a pandemic and now we're also layered on the challenges that we have from furloughed employees snap benefits so forth and so on let's remember that in our advocacy i think that'll be very helpful for us i also want to um thank my

[00:48:51] colleagues in advance with grace i have a lot to say so that was one pause and i'm going to let you continue to write just give me a nod when you're ready we're good okay so the next area i have is around recruiting engaging and retaining staff I want to start with recognizing the incredible work of our substitutes they step in they provide stability and they do their best under many different circumstances however I do believe it is unfair to expect students to achieve their best grades when they are led by substitutes for extended period of times especially in specialized

[00:49:31] of high need areas. And so the focus here is to highlight the urgent need for increased funding for timely staffing and resources to support teaching and learning across all of our classrooms. That's a talking point. Ken is still writing, so I'll pause. All right.

[00:50:03] The next area is around safe, modern, and learning environments and local governance and fiscal responsibility. So I recognize the impact of recent legislation and so whether you're talking about Senate Bill 974, if you're not familiar, that streamlines development approvals by shifting site plan and subdivision review to administrative agents. And this may improve efficiency, but it also reduces opportunities for public input and oversight. Why am I mentioning that. Particularly for for Rhino-Sanston and Highland Springs where we had a proposed data

[00:50:40] center near Baker Elementary or the newly approved asphalt plant which sandwiches Montrose Elementary between a waste landfill and now this new asphalt plant. And that could directly affect air quality, traffic safety, as well as just student health, staff health. And so I particularly, this is an I statement and advocating for school boards to retain a formal voice in these decisions and that development approvals don't happen in isolation from the schools that they impact.

[00:51:16] Potential talking point. Okay. All right. In the next area, this is regarding academic achievement.

[00:51:34] We must also remain aware of policies that increase administrative action at the expense of teaching and learning. I do believe too often we have a lot of check the box mentalities and that reduces the quality and efficiency of instruction and putting sort of compliance over student engagement and growth it is a tough balance which i do recognize and i think this could be a wonderful talking point as well so as we look for strategies that could be successful for us that could empower teachers and prioritize student learning i just shared this with mrs shea

[00:52:10] so she's probably going to wink or nod but i think we should start rethinking the 90-minute class period and expanding recess opportunities across all grade levels to support development mental health and learning outcomes now with that said that is something that you're going to have to deeply explore that may not be of course it's not something for right now it's it's impossible for right now but i think when you're thinking about advocacy what you're thinking about is what could be proposed in the future and you begin setting it up to get there so that's one talking

[00:52:44] point as well so i want us to focus on areas where clor clarity and perhaps measurable goals may be helpful and now i'm going to be really specific those were more general so in specific areas of special education student safety and environmental health and community impact those are the three areas i'm going to be specific in all right so students in low incidence

[00:53:20] populations that would be your deaf your hard of hearing your deaf blind they truly require targeted support and so stronger funding and clear policies will provide ongoing professional development for staff on specialized instruction and safety protocols standardized emergency procedures ensuring all students can safely participate in drills and evacuations fund essential technology and community communication devices so visual alarms

[00:53:56] for deaf deafblind are really really important and it is also expensive that's a great talking point when you're talking about increasing funding so caption alerts just accessible notification could be a wonderful talking point as well and now i'm going to dive into environmental health and community impact. One of the things to explore with our experts and our leadership team beyond,

[00:54:29] as well as my colleagues, is looking at a school health impact assessment before industrial or high pollution developments happen near schools. Also establishing state-level guidance on environmental risk, whether we're talking air quality, noise, or traffic hazards. And also establishing clear protections to prevent harmful exposure to students and staff in alignment with

[00:54:58] the Virginia Environmental Justice Act. All of this that I am sharing with you needs to be vetted, but I think these may be powerful and profound ways to increase funding, help legislators advocate or push forth and create policies because there's some specific measures in them to try to attain.

[00:55:25] it keeps us as a school board accountable as well as the legislator as well so i'll close now in talking about just a quick reminder that while we are at the mercy of local state and federal decision making that is true we absolutely can still move forward with progress and advocacy in the general assembly i've given you quite a bit but again i'll be i'll be there again this year and pondering over the uh booklet that we have that is fantastic we continue to

[00:56:00] sharpen our pencils i think we're getting to ink and these may be some ways to get us less temporary and more permanent paths forward for you know the 21st century so thank you colleagues for that space and time mrs shea the floor is yours thank you so much appreciate it um thank you for this work I really appreciate I mean you've used our conversations over the last two years as a board and things that are still left on the to-do list if you will and realign them with our new strategic plan and our new quarterstones and I think it's really well done so thank you

[00:56:40] I also really appreciate that I don't when I read it I may have missed it but in the booklet and in the presentation I didn't hear the phrase fully fund public education or meeting with delegates you know people say fully fund public education and they always come back with like i thought we were like what does that even mean you know for some that aren't on the education committee and that sort of thing so giving these specifics around soqs and specific areas of funding i think is really helpful for our legislators that take time you know to read it and digest it i was with a um a pta last week and part of their advocacy was going to be to email delegates and

[00:57:19] asked to fully fund public education and one of them asked me well what does that mean and I was like it can mean a lot of different things and I said I really suggest that you get specific with it you know and gave them some suggestions of things to look for because we all want public education quote-unquote fully funded but it can mean so many different things the specificity you're giving or some things are highly specific but some things are just giving context to what that would mean to fully fund I think that's really helpful to our delegates who don't live and breathe in this space every day so thank you for um being intentional with your words and your

[00:57:55] asks i think that carries a lot of weight and a lot of power and a lot of opportunity for us to have meaningful conversations with our with our representatives so thank you i also really appreciate dual enrollment to continue to be on this um i know i'm like a dog with a bone on this one this is like my thing but you know really talking to representatives at both the state and the federal level, it keeps coming up that dual enrollment really is an important pathway forward for our students. But so many miss the pitfalls of what it takes for teacher licensure

[00:58:34] in that space and how that really is a barrier for us to be able to expand offerings to our students. And I know that a lot of that is not legislative at the state level or wherever else, but it's going to take a group collaborative effort locally, the state, the nation, to have the right people advocating and pushing on the entities that control those things. And so it can't be just one arm. I think it's going to have to be a collaborative effort. And so while some of those pieces are not legislative, I do really appreciate it continuing to be part of the conversation. It's going to be

[00:59:14] hard one to change and get momentum around but I think it's that important for our students um and their their pathways forward so thank you um I also noticed you know our licensure piece on removing barriers to licensure and I don't know the first thing that came to my my mind is um I think in Henrico we do a really good job with alternative licensure and for our for visually licensed teachers how to support them in meaningful ways and getting them the education piece but also the

[00:59:48] real-life mentoring um and in henrico i think we do a really good job of making sure alternative licensed teachers have the same expertise and preparation that traditional i just know not all divisions are going to be able to do it that robustly and so you know as we advocate for this we're advocating through the henrico lens which is yeah let's roll we're doing it really well but i also want to be mindful that this impacts the whole state and i want to make sure that in other localities that might not have the same infrastructure that we're still not

[01:00:25] um that we're not diluted that it won't dilute the quality of teacher beyond him right i know it won't dilute the quality of teacher in henrico because we're doing it well and we're doing it right but thinking through a state lens just and i'm not saying remove it from our agenda that just popped top of mind as we have these conversations. Yes, ma'am. And that's one of the goals of the redesigned priorities is that we're showing some of the examples that with adequate funding can be replicated other places. And, and once again, having Henrico lead as a model in those types of

[01:01:04] projects and initiatives. Excellent. We don't get everything perfect. But I think we do a darn good job at a lot of things and thinking outside the box on a lot of things and anywhere that we can provide examples to our delegates and to our other divisions across the state i think i think that's great so thank you and then just um echoing what miss kinsella said about trying to advocate on what can be removed from teachers plates you know i think last year was really hard with new right

[01:01:40] with the Virginia literacy with new standards in both reading and math and and maybe science and social studies as well without a crosswalk year that's really hard right and it it was a lot and new assessments and that sort of thing and those are beyond our control in Henrico but they're having a real impact on teacher retention and just capacity you know teacher capacity and so really having the state understand that yeah we want to do all the things and we all want to do them all quickly but that's having a real impact on our staff and our students in the classroom

[01:02:18] and so it's not more is not more um and so trying to look through that lens you know whatever we can do there and then finally um really uh agreeing with uh mr young about advocacy down at the um down at the state house I think it is incumbent on us as Henrico to be a part of those conversations we're part of the big six um which is uh for those in the community who aren't familiar with that term it's approximately half the students in the state are enrolled in six um divisions

[01:02:57] with us being one of them six or eight for the big six the big six right okay it was an even number around there, but being part of the big six and also being geographically so close to downtown Richmond, I think it's really important for us to be a part of these conversations and be a voice with our access and our opportunity. So anything we can do, I know we can't all be there all the time, but between the five of us advocating for these items or other things

[01:03:32] for public education and we appreciate that we also would ask for your understanding that some of those meetings are scheduled literally the evening before and so ken may be sending you an advisory or an alert outside of the regular um you know updates from the legislative session to make you aware so if you see one of those and you're able to attend if you could just you know send him a quick message so that he can make sure there's a place for you when you arrive at the General Assembly. And I'll just add to that that you can also testify remotely in most of the

[01:04:12] committee, subcommittee meetings anyway. And he can help set that up for you as well. Thank you. Mr. Irving, you had to redirect? So this, I think some of what Mrs. Atkins had said that was NOT I WOULD SAY DIRECTLY RELATED TO YOU KNOW EDUCATING STUDENTS BUT I THINK IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT IMPACTS HOW OUR STUDENTS COME TO US IN SCHOOL AND IT GOT ME REALLY THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT I'VE BEEN THINKING A LOT ABOUT AND THAT'S YOU KNOW BEING A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER AND SEEING THIS MYSELF THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND GAMBLING ON OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

[01:04:51] AND I YOU KNOW I CAN ONLY SPEAK FOR MYSELF AND I'LL CERTAINLY HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITH MY colleagues, but I would like to see advocacy towards banning all social media for children that are under the age of 16 in the state of Virginia.

[01:05:06] Social media has had just absolutely devastating impact on our young people, and I would say even our adult world. There's a study that came out from 2003 to 2024, there's been a 50% decline in children age 15 to 20 in attending social events.

[01:05:27] doesn't mean like a party that just means like any sort of social event where you actually get together with other people has been halved and that's being replaced by this online world that's not regulated it they can see tons of things they can engage in the worst impulses of anything that a teenage brain allows them to and i feel that they're just fundamentally not equipped to handle it and we as adults probably are not fundamentally equipped to handle it um and then it also makes me think of gambling. I don't know about you all, but I've seen gambling just become pervasive

[01:06:02] around our country. After the Supreme Court decision that allowed betting on professional sports outside of casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey, it's exploded. I mean, I feel like I see ads every single day. I hear especially my high school boys talking about gambling in a way that is very disturbing. The New York Stock Exchange recently invested $2 billion with Polymarket.

[01:06:32] Google is partnering with Polymarket, which allows you to bet on politics, sports, basically anything in their search results. And I think that we in Virginia, we can regulate this and we should, because it is impacting our young people. In many cases, it gets you down the path to an addiction that can financially destroy your life and I think that we would be remissed as a school division to think that we we do more than just teach kids things we teach them how to become citizens and interact in our world and we also have to deal with what these students do in their day-to-day

[01:07:12] lives when they come to our rooms and if I have a student who's thinking about the money that he lost on a bet last night that he shouldn't have even been able to place because he's 16 years old and what his friends are saying about him on social media I don't think that that student's going to be able to perform to the best of their ability in school and so I think it's incumbent upon us as people who care about children and care about the future of this country to advocate for things that will make them healthier because you know I I think of I I think of the world that my my young daughter is going to come into going on to social media and all the nasty things that will almost certainly be said and all the beauty standards that are impossible to keep up to

[01:07:51] because everything's a filter and people portray their lives as being these things that they are not in that moment and it is terrifying and then you think about the fact that you know these massive companies are trying to get you hooked on gambling from the moment that you get a phone and we can stop these things like you can pass laws and you can stop these things and it has been done australia banned social media for anybody under the age of 16. um you know pornography for example has been banned within multiple states and requiring age verification. These things can be done and they should be done because our children are too important in their future and how they

[01:08:30] interact as citizens is too important. So I would like to see advocacy on that. Obviously that will take us finding some sort of consensus on that, but that's certainly something that I am thinking about and what can be done. And we do have the opportunity to provide positions, statements, and testimony on topics that aren't necessarily spelled out in your priorities but as as they arise related to bills and you know proposals discussions we certainly are ken will be in a great position to help draft some of those for your review and approval that's a good that's

[01:09:08] good context appreciate that uh redirect miss atkins yeah i just want to chime in particularly as i was listening and processing all of the comments um that was shared a great approach in a general assembly is reminding legislators that what happens within a building absolutely is indicative of what's surrounding that school and whether it's gambling vape shops all of those things a great talking point for the testimonials that you will probably need to drive home

[01:09:45] the messaging is what happens in schools is a reflection or indicative of what surrounds it so whether we're brick and mortar with a vape shop or whether we're online with social media and gambling has both many other things as well so whether it's environmental risks academic achievement mental physical well-being i think that could be a great entry point into your approach and the conversation with legislators on the impact and there's measurable results around

[01:10:20] that you can look at you could pick a district target one school look at the number of vape shops around it look at the number of manufacturing industries around it and then align that with the other things which would be your social media impacts which there's a bunch of information on that and then package that in a way that the testimonial really hits home absolutely our schools are a microcosm of the communities right so you're absolutely right there thank you so much

[01:10:53] thank you for your work on this um the presentation the booklet also preparing um a meeting for us to have a legislative breakfast with our representative lunch with our representatives to be able to have SOME IN-DEPTH CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THIS. SO THANK YOU AND THEN YOUR WORK ONCE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY BEGINS. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH. ALL RIGHT. THE NEXT ITEM FOR THE BOARD IS OUR ANNUAL UPDATES RELATED TO OUR ACADEMIC AND CAREER PLANNING GUIDE. WE HAVE A NUMBER OF PRESENTERS

[01:11:26] WHO WILL COME FORWARD TO BEGIN THAT PRESENTATION. GOOD EVENING, MADAM CHAIR. HERE WE GO.

[01:11:53] GOOD EVENING, MADAM CHAIR, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, DR. CASHWELL. I AM AMY JOHNSON, AND DIRECTOR OF STUDENT SUPPORT AND WELLNESS FOR HENRICO COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS. AND WITH ME THIS EVENING IS TAYLOR SNOW, DIRECTOR OF SECONDARY TEACHING AND LEARNING AND MAC BEATEN, DIRECTOR OF WORKFORCE AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT.

[01:12:11] TOGETHER WE WILL PRESENT AN OVERVIEW OF THE 26-27 HCPS ACADEMIC AND CAREER PLANNING GUIDE FOR THE BOARD'S APPROVAL. WE WILL ALSO HIGHLIGHT HOW HCPS'S ONGOING COMMITMENT TO PROVIDING A DYNAMIC PROGRAM OF STUDIES WITH CONTINUOUSLY EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES EMPOWERS STUDENTS TO GRADUATE NOT ONLY PREPARED BUT WITH A CLEAR PLAN TO STEP CONFIDENTLY INTO THEIR POST-SECONDARY LIVES ENROLLED, ENLISTED, OR EMPLOYED.

[01:12:45] IN DIRECT ALIGNMENT WITH THE JOURNEY TO 2030, ACADEMIC AND CAREER PLANNING CONTINUES TO BE A STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA FOR ACHIEVING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE. IN ADDITION, CAREFUL AND THOUGHTFUL ACADEMIC AND CAREER PLANNING WILL ASSIST ALL STUDENTS IN DEVELOPING THE KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ATTRIBUTES NECESSARY TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR LIFE-READY GOALS. BEFORE WE MOVE ON, WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE MANY DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS, TEAMS, AND STAKEHOLDER GROUPS AS SHOWN ON THE SCREEN THAT MET, REVIEWED INFORMATION AND PROVIDED INPUT OVER A PERIOD OF MONTHS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP THE HCPS PLANNING GUIDE PROPOSED THIS EVENING.

[01:13:24] AS A REMINDER, THE BOARD WAS PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED WITH A COPY OF THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WHICH OUTLINES THE PROPOSED EDITS. OUR TIME TOGETHER THIS EVENING WILL FOCUS ON FOUR PRIMARY AREAS, HIGHLIGHTING SOME OF THE INNOVATIVE COURSES AND INSTRUCTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES DESIGNED TO EXPAND STUDENT LEARNING, PROVIDING ACADEMIC PATHWAY UPDATES, REVIEWING EXPANDED OPPORTUNITIES, AND PROVIDING A CLEAR TIMELINE OF IMPLEMENTATION MILESTONES AND EXPECTATIONS. AND NOW I WILL TURN THIS PORTION OF THE PRESENTATION OVER TO TAYLOR SNOW WHO WILL HIGHLIGHT PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE 2627 HCPS PLANNING GUIDE

[01:14:02] WHICH WE WILL ASK THE BOARD TO APPROVE. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, AMY. IN ADDITION TO THE ROBUST COURSE OFFERINGS, I'M HAPPY TO JOIN YOU TODAY TO DISCUSS NEW COURSES THAT WERE REVIEWED BY THE NEW COURSE PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR THE 2627 SCHOOL YEAR. EACH CHANGE WAS APPROVED FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BY THIS COMMITTEE, A TEAM OF CENTRAL OFFICE DIRECTORS AND TEACHERS, AND CONSIDERED THROUGH THE LENS OF DIVERSIFYING OUR COURSE OFFERINGS.

[01:14:29] The primary driver for this work, driven by the HCPS core value of being student-focused, was to be responsive to our students' needs and requests. What our committee found particularly rewarding was that whether they realized it or not, our students' requests are guided by many of the aligned actions of the Journey to 2030 strategic plan. This is a powerful bellwether for the success of our leaders and faculty in ensuring that students understand what these values mean for them. At the middle school level, two new courses were reviewed. The first is Mind

[01:15:04] over math an elective enrichment course intended to provide an elective option for students who would like additional math coursework who are not in need of the intensive numeracy intervention we already provide this course is analogous to the creative communications and creative writing electives that provide similar opportunities for english language arts additionally we are thrilled to ask for the board to consider the addition of a unique interdisciplinary student elective option in the form of our cornerstone elective this course will provide students with project-based opportunities rooted in personal passions and interests that are intended to develop the durable skills of the Henrico Learner Profile. This course will be available to sixth, seventh,

[01:15:44] and eighth graders at schools who elect to offer the course and can be delivered as part of the elective wheel, as a nine-week or semester-long course, or as a full-year elective. At the high school level, the demand for additional dual enrollment and AP programming was reviewed, and as a result, as shown on the slide, AP Comparative Government, Honors Sociology, Dual Enrollment Biomedical Engineering, and Dual Enrollment Art History are being presented for your approval. Additionally, the committee reviewed a unique senior capstone experience for our students at the Verina Center for Environmental Studies and Sustainability in alignment with

[01:16:21] similar capstone experiences at our other centers. This course will create opportunities for our VCS students to complete a culminating project-based capstone experience that reflects their mastery of content, concepts, and skills embedded in the center. I'll now turn it over to Director of Workforce and Career Development, Mr. McBeaton, to discuss some exciting proposals in the world of CTE.

[01:16:43] Thank you and good afternoon. To ensure students graduate life-ready, having the value of a high-quality work-based learning experience for students is essential.

[01:17:00] For students in the Advanced Career Education Centers, earning this high-quality work-based learning experience goes beyond just learning the content. After extensive review by the new course planning committee, we're excited that these classes which are currently offered now will be weighted to acknowledge this extra requirement for these courses. We're also excited to highlight the new courses that we will be offering as we continue to expand the opportunities for students. On a side note, over the past five years, CTE has added 34 new career

[01:17:37] focus course opportunities, many of these first of their kind, that continue to help students graduate not only life-ready but future-ready. In addition to adding new courses, teams from across the division have made updates to academic pathways rooted in student opportunity along with legislative and policy changes initiated at the state level. Academic pathways have not changed substantially, but updates were made in middle school math to reflect 2025 General Assembly legislation

[01:18:17] that directs school divisions to enroll students who score in the upper quartile of select standards of learning assessments in accelerated math courses for the following year. In HCPS, this update is most impactful for fifth and seventh grade students, as fifth grade students who score in the upper quartile would be enrolled in Accelerated Math 6-7 and Grade 7 students, meeting the same criteria, would be enrolled in Algebra 1. These changes are currently slated to go into effect for the 26-27 school year, pending any changes proposed by VDOE and the General Assembly. However, as with any student scheduling decision, school counselors will work

[01:18:55] closely with students and families to make sure that students fully understand the benefits and challenges presented by their course scheduling options. The AP Capstone Program has been included as an elective option for HCPS students for several years. It is a project-based, writing-intensive program that includes two courses: AP Seminar, typically taught in 10th grade, and AP Research, typically taught in the 11th. To take better advantage of flexibility offered by the Virginia Department of Education, we're happy to report that beginning next year, students who choose to

[01:19:29] do so have the option to allow AP Seminar, formerly an elective course, to count as their English 10 credit for high school graduation. This will expand opportunities for students to engage in additional elective courses that allow them to pursue their interests and personal learning passions and create a simplified pathway for attainment of the College Board's AP Capstone Diploma.

[01:19:51] The HCPS Planning Guide is not only about highlighting our course offerings and pathways, it's a vital tool to communicating information about the myriad opportunities made available to students that allow them to pursue their passions and explore career post-secondary education and military options as such we're excited to share an exciting update to our community service diploma seal program as the board may be aware the virginia department of education permits school divisions to create their own diploma seal programs as a complement to the official vdoe diploma seals

[01:20:29] in alignment with the Journey to 2030 Strategic Plan and the Henrico Learner Profile, we're pleased for the first time this year to allow students to pursue the Life Ready Learning Diploma Seal. While maintaining the current community service program, we also wanted to give students an opportunity to highlight their work in other areas that help demonstrate their life readiness skills. In addition to hours spent engaged in community service learning, students will now be able to submit hours spent engaged in externships, community and civic action, school-based enterprises, job shadowing, student leadership, and peer mediation. Students who

[01:21:07] complete 80 hours of these experiences and reflect on how they've contributed to their progress toward mastery of the Henrico Learner Profile will achieve the Life Ready Learning Diploma Seal. I'll now turn it back over to Mr. Beaton to share some exciting updates about work we've undertaken to highlight enlistment options for our students. We'd like to wind this presentation down by highlighting a specific achievement that has emerged from work that was done through last year's planning guide updates. HCPS has fully implemented an approach to allow

[01:21:44] students enrolled in JROTC to count that credit as half of their health and physical education. Additionally, the Department of Workforce and Career Development has worked to support students in securing enlistment opportunities by increasing opportunities for engagement with military recruiters at events like our life ready expo, college and career night, and our career rodeo.

[01:22:11] We have also provided opportunities to celebrate the students selecting a military option through our military commitment ceremony. Last year, we celebrated 34 students who were committed to entering the military after high school. All of the information shared today is reflective of HCPS's commitment to position every student to graduate ready for successful enrollment, ENLISTMENT OR EMPLOYMENT AND WILL BE SHARED WITH HCPS STUDENTS AND FAMILIES THROUGH AN

[01:22:49] ESTABLISHED ONGOING COMMUNICATION PLAN THAT INCLUDES BOTH DIVISION AND SCHOOL LEVEL OUTLETS. THIS COMMUNICATION PLAN WILL ALSO HIGHLIGHT THE NEXT STEPS AND UPCOMING DATES SHOWN HERE TO ASSIST ALL STUDENTS IN ENTERING GRADES 6-12 IN THE 26-27 SCHOOL YEAR AND THEIR FAMILIES IN preparing for the two-week HTPS course request window set to open January 5th and run through January 19th. The course request window now includes two full weeks and weekends, further ensuring that students and families have the time they need for careful course planning

[01:23:25] and selection. School-specific details and information about the course request process will be communicated by the school directly to students, parents, guardians, and school counselors are available in every school to answer questions, address concerns, and work in partnerships with families to support all HTPS students in creating tailored, future-focused academic paths to assist in meeting their educational and career goals. We are happy to take questions at this time.

[01:24:03] Thank you so much. I will start with Ms. Kinsella. Thank you so much, Tiershe, and thank you for this update on our planning guide it certainly hasn't evolved and um and it's looking good and i'd just like to start on slide 14 which mr baiton just presented um by saying i'm proud um to be where the three e's uh came to uh came to be that we celebrate enrolled enlisted and employed

[01:24:36] and henrico schools i do have a question um about which schools do not have um the rotc program okay currently the schools without the rotc programs are godwin glenn allen freeman i think it's those three but the the availability for students to enroll in a jrtc program we they have the ability to go get a variance to the closest school to them to still have these same opportunities okay and i did not how that's more is that listed in greater

[01:25:15] detail in the planning guide in the planning guide um i don't know that i see our director our chief of communications is shaking her head yes um that just jumped off the page at me i didn't have a chance to uh search for that so thank you for that mr bayton um next i believe it's slide seven um focusing on dual enrollment um as we spoke about dual enrollment earlier during our legislative discussion until instructors increase this may

[01:25:49] be best for dr snow as i know you've been working with the students and on the committee until we can increase dual enrollment instructors what do options look like to expand access to dual enrollment so i mean i will say we're proud this year to offer at least one dual enrollment course at all of our high schools obviously that's a small first step but but it's one that that is knowing what what teachers have to do to achieve that certification is is a really powerful important one going forward there are lots of things that we've looked at as a group one in

[01:26:26] particular that we still have details to flesh out but but has i think a lot of promise is around offer engaging with Reynolds to offer asynchronous dual enrollment options such that with we would use hcps facilitators to monitor student progress through that work obviously asynchronous instruction isn't for everybody but but even if we can just create a few more points of entry while we work to get more teachers eligible to teach dual enrollment i think those asynchronous options are going to become very popular and those would be accessible to students either within the school day with the support of a study hall or outside of the school day as an additional course

[01:27:05] that they can work and then receive feedback from HCPS personnel who are licensed to teach dual enrollment. Thank you. I look forward to that transformation. And then the next question is actually from Mr. Baton again, and it's slide eight. So high quality work-based learning experiences and the additional weighting. Who has access to these classes with the additional weighting?

[01:27:34] well i'm excited about that because now students who are interested will actually do and take some of the classes they're interested in um without the worry of it um them not getting the gpa credit for it yes correct i mean it seems to be responsive to that that it was part of our consideration but also these courses are offered at the ace center which is the advanced career education center where students are really doing more than just the content and when they're able to go out and do things like an apprenticeship or internships that really have a documented number

[01:28:11] of hours on task that they're using the content they learned in the class as well as the certifications they've earned it does add much more value to that student as they graduate and so this is just celebrating the value added of the ace center to the student's resume really do we think that families will understand this? I mean, are we going to, this is new, correct? So I guess the question, how are we really going to highlight this to families, to students and families? Will

[01:28:47] it be through counseling or? All of the above. We will use school counseling. We will use their social media. We're in the process now of going to the schools and sharing information about our courses and i will tell you the most powerful one is going to be the word of mouth from other students going back saying i'm doing this and earning this at the same time so we will dispel some of the myths about the quality of the education that students are receiving at the ace centers fantastic i mean this is really exciting um and or said the urge benefit that's actually

[01:29:25] interning with Richmond Ford, Bill Talley Ford, CMA, and spending many hours, over 120 hours in a semester, actually working on customers' cars while supervised by a licensed technician as well.

[01:29:42] And so we're really valuing these students. They can leave out of high school and go straight into the workplace with this experience, making, you know, $78,000, $90,000 a year with the potential of over a hundred thousand uh in a year or two okay and is it the high quality work-based experience has changed has it not yes ma'am a lot of things used to be work-based learning experience but the state has gone in and added some parameters about how many hours the content that the student it has to be tied back to the coursework that they're learning during the day and and it can't just be

[01:30:21] um like if i was doing a high quality work based learning experience i can't just be doing one thing they have to continuously learn it's a learning plan attached to what they're doing okay thank you for that and then lastly very excited to see um the expansion continued expansion of cte courses for our students um how many new programs have we added and um how many students now have access through you know our recent renovation of our ace programming specifically

[01:30:58] ace hermitage or highland springs that had a big renovation and um our virginia randolph location and i think what you're you're speaking to yeah i pointed out we have 34 new courses offered um which was definitely an impact of the ace center as well but i think because of all these changes and I can tell you I pulled this statistic not too long ago in 2020 just prior to COVID our duplicate account number of students we served was right at 25,000 last year our duplicate account

[01:31:34] hit almost 30,000 so when as we've added these 34 programs we've also increased their enrollment by our duplicated enrollment by roughly 5,000 students so that speaks to NOT JUST THE ACE CENTERS, BUT THE COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMS THAT WE OFFER AS WELL.

[01:31:50] THAT'S AMAZING. ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITY, RIGHT? THANK YOU SO MUCH. CHAIR SHEA, THAT'S ALL I HAVE. THANK YOU. MR. IRVING? YES, THANK YOU ALL FOR THE PRESENTATION. I'M JUST LOOKING THROUGH THE NEW COURSE OFFERINGS. SEEING THAT WE ARE NOW GOING TO BE OFFERING AP COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT, THAT'S A CLASS I WOULD LIKE TO TEACH MYSELF, BUT I'M SURPRISED THAT WE DID NOT PREVIOUSLY offer it is it what why would why have we hesitated until now i think the hesitation in the past was was probably because it was limited in terms of its ability to satisfy the the government

[01:32:25] requirement for graduation yeah um but we've had so much demand particularly in social sciences for additional elective course offerings that um i think we finally kind of hit a critical mass of of um demand for that class and actually it's an elective that we planned as being part of our curriculum for the center for cyber security that but it wasn't slated to go up this year because that was going to be something that was going to be added for seniors but that request came to us directly from a school who had demonstrated desire from students to take the course the development of our model un programming too has led to a lot of interest in that course so um just kind of i

[01:33:05] think it just became the right time so we're excited to see that on there i'd love to teach it too yeah are we are we also thinking about the increased emphasis on the point system with the new accountability model and how ap courses are playing into the extra i think it's 1.25 points compared to just a regular honor school i mean i think more that's um a positive benefit of of the decision that's about students at the at the forefront already so it wasn't um we need to add courses because we need to to chase those points it was we need to add these courses because our students are are showing interest and then as a benefit the more opportunities we give them to

[01:33:45] engage in that work uh the more it does benefit those uh those points in terms of the 3d model sure and and a course that i came upon uh that's going to be new this year that the ap just created is ap business and personal finance i'd like us to look into that in the near future because that helps meet graduation requirements as well and i think it sounds like a cool course obviously you know the first year of creation of anything is uh you know i'm not sure i'd want to be in the trial period but just moving forward keeping that on on our minds um the the cte expansion continues to be excellent i think these are definitely preparing students for jobs of the

[01:34:24] future um and yeah no i just echo mrs kinsella um expanding opportunities to all of our students especially with you know the changes to the uh how much more difficult it is now to qualify for a high intensity work-based learning experience i'm glad to see that we're that we're doing our best IN KIND OF LEADING THE EFFORTS TO MAKE THAT POSSIBLE FOR OUR STUDENTS. THANK YOU. MR. YOUNG?

[01:34:52] THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR THE PRESENTATION. I ECHO MS. KINSELE WITH THE CTE PROGRAM AND THE NEW COURSES. I'M A HUGE FAN OF WHAT YOU DO WITH THE CTE PROGRAM. THE AP COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT THAT MADISON JUST MENTIONED IS AMAZING. I DID HAVE A QUESTION. ALL THOSE NEW HIGH SCHOOL COURSES ARE AVAILABLE AT EVERY HIGH SCHOOL. YES. SO IN TERMS OF -- FOR THE DUAL ENROLLMENT classes in terms of the staffing you know we have we know we have a dual enrollment certified art history educator at our center for the arts at Henrico high school so we know that they'll be

[01:35:28] able to offer that starting next year but gone are the days where if we're adding a course we're just adding it for a specialty center we want to make sure if we're adding it that we're making it an option for everybody so courses like that courses like the VCU biomedical engineering dual enrollment course uh is highly specific in terms of who can teach it but um if schools can find somebody who can or if schools are interested and want to engage with us and helping somebody get the certification they need we want to make them available for everybody so they are available but in practice we might not see them at every school starting next year right thank you for

[01:36:03] that um access is extremely important you were talking about um some partnership with j sarge um and a screw a scrutinous learning i had a question if a student is let's say have a um study hall would they be able to enroll in an online course at jsa i should kind of take that during that study hall period we still have some exploration to do with with j sarge we've they noted this option to us in a meeting last year and we actually have some meetings coming up to get to the specific logistics of of how and when and what the what the student engagement with it

[01:36:39] WOULD LOOK LIKE, BUT THAT'S CERTAINLY SOMETHING THAT WE'LL EXPLORE AS PART OF THIS. IS IT SOMETHING THAT WE'RE ON BOARD WITH AS A COUNTY? YES. I MEAN, THE LOGISTICS, AND I THINK IT WAS MENTIONED, IT WOULD BE RELATED TO HAVING WHAT THE ROLE OF AN HCPS STAFF MEMBER WOULD BE.

[01:36:56] SO FOR IT TO BE DUAL ENROLLMENT, YOU KNOW, AND ALSO BE OUR COURSE, THERE WOULD BE A LIFT FOR HCPS, LIKE AN ADVISOR, A MENTOR, I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT WORD IS, BUT THE LOGISTICS, OUR PIECES WILL NEED TO WORK OUT IF THEY'RE ABLE TO MAKE THIS AVAILABLE TO US. SO CERTAINLY SOMETHING WE'RE PURSUING AND WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO OFFER.

[01:37:14] I THINK IT'S MORE FLEXIBILITY RELATED TO THE DUAL ENROLLMENT. YEAH, THANK YOU FOR THAT. I JUST KNOW EVERYONE DOESN'T GET INTO IACA PROGRAMS. AT HALAND SPRINGS, I THINK THE OTHER ONES AT TUCKER, CORRECT? AND THEY STILL WANT THAT HIGHER LEARNING, THAT RIGOR. SO I WAS JUST WONDERING WHERE WE WERE AT WITH THAT.

[01:37:30] SO THANK YOU FOR THAT, DR. CASHWELL. one question on the impacted math pathways i think it's slide 10 from the math five to the accelerated six seven those students that on the accelerated six seven what's their path as far as seventh grade course is that the seventh grade is that accelerated seventh and then algebra one students who currently take accelerated six seven uh go into algebra one the next year okay that's what i was asking okay perfect all right i think that's everything that I had yeah madam chair thank you thank you miss Atkins well this certainly is a great opportunity

[01:38:07] to align Henrico's academic and career pathways with the evolving needs of our students I just want to say thank you it's just so much excellence it was difficult for me to process where to actually start so I'm just going to read what I wrote for you so that I don't get sidetracked and i'll start over from the beginning this planning guide presents an opportunity to align henrico's academic and career pathways with the evolving needs of all of our students and demands

[01:38:43] of varying industries as we move forward i want to reaffirm that academic planning is inseparable from student well-being when i go to visit the a centers students are happy it makes a difference hands-on learning and knowing that individuals care the staff in these aid centers care deeply that wasn't written i keep getting off track let me go back to my written so thank you to the excellence and effort provided by the groups and individuals listed in this presentation indeed

[01:39:19] their dedication ensures that academic success is balanced with care connection and support well done also the opportunity for students to receive the life ready diplomacy seal is innovative and reflects the powerhouse and intentional positive efforts and impact of henrico county public schools period now i get into my sentences with pauses i'm also pleased with the focus on

[01:39:53] military sciences mr bade and i just had a meeting talking about you know what does the future look like um for henrico county and the military and i'm very passionate about our veterans our active duty and their families and students that attend our schools and so uh you actually was very timely in your announcement being that we celebrated you know veterans day this week i do have a few questions i want to better understand how closely are the offerings aligned with dual post-secondary

[01:40:28] and military. So as students learn more about the advantages of joining the military and potentially getting their education paid for free with post-secondary, I wonder if we are grooming or sharing how to balance that. So if you're a student and you want to join the military but you're also joining to get your education paid, how do we prepare them for that? Well first off for our students in the JROTC programs, obviously following that pathway into a four-year

[01:41:04] college is a financial benefit as well as support benefit. So that is definitely encouraged, and I know our school counselors use that as a leverage tool too as they're talking to students because they realize that I can do this and spend one week in a month enrolled in a JROTC program at the post-secondary and then that transfers to as so the college is helping pay me as well as pay for my college and i'm moving right into a commitment after college so i think uh with that you know our instructors one fine line that they really do walk is how do i encourage students to

[01:41:44] be successful thinking life and life ready and future ready and not say that this is the only pathway and i'm very proud our instructors keep that both options open for students so i don't know if i've walked around your question or went right at it well i think you tapped into it it's a tough question on the surface it seems like i would get an easy response it's a very tough question and it's a very complicated one i'm delighted that i'm starting to get those type of questions from students the other question is well the military actually offers more than combat

[01:42:23] i might want to be a dentist in the military i might want to be an administrative assistant in the military but i'm not hearing about those things i often think about combat and so if i do enter what does that look like what are the other careers in the military if i choose that path and so the reason i say you tapped into it is because you did answer some of it but i would like for us to think and maybe this is more on a counseling end on when we're marketing military

[01:42:55] sciences that that could potentially be a piece of course but there's so many uh different career pathways within the military other than just you know combat or war and what uh some of the input I've received from students so wanted to give you that the other question is around community partnerships so what can what community partnerships can further enhance program awareness and participation myself as well as my colleagues may know some organizations that want to come in and

[01:43:30] help our a centers in whatever type of way shadowing mentoring maybe financial what are those organizations and that you would want to be in our schools that perhaps the school board could assist with bridging or connecting you to well honestly we're always open to anyone we recently last year added a retired uh veteran who um actually lives at the bisonic home and he's on our business advisory council and he's helping bring a lot of these as well as some additional resources to the

[01:44:07] table to help with some of these recruiting concepts in the schools. So we are by having that layer added to our business advisory council, I think it's opening up some doors, but we are always open to more. You know, me and business partnerships, that is the, that's the key to success. Yes, I would like to, I would like to ask if the board could receive maybe the top five areas where you would like more connection because perhaps one of us may have that connection as well and could be the connector for whatever program it is that would be really insightful

[01:44:47] yes ma'am and then finally this may be a dr cashwell question but as we focus on student readiness i also want to highlight the importance of continued support for our educators and initiative initiatives like the praxis bridge program i may not be pronouncing that adequately i just recently learned about that and i am wondering is that something that we are looking at currently or something that we may explore so under the recruit retain reward umbrella and all

[01:45:22] things professional learning and offerings for our staff i think is what you're speaking to while this course catalog would be for students we absolutely do offer supports in those preparing to take the praxis or obtain their licensure in an alternative way we have a lot of no-cost options that we offer and one of the reasons you saw some of that language in the legislative agenda as well again that's a best practice we're able to put forward it does require local funding and And so this idea that if the state could better support funding for those types of things,

[01:45:58] which everyone is struggling with across the state and nation when it comes to recruiting teachers and getting folks who are prepared to teach in the classroom, that's something where if funding were made available, that would offset funding for us to use our funding elsewhere.

[01:46:16] And certainly we know this is a priority need. for that program, how much do we spend to help our educators? I could get you a dollar figure. I don't have that handy. I think it would be helpful to understand what that dollar amount looks like. I've spoken with several educators specifically on that particular program, and if I had a better understanding of how much we spent in an advocacy space, it gives a great target and talking points on how to continuously ask for increased funding as well. Yeah, we can certainly parse out some of the costs related to our licensure cohorts, praxis support.

[01:46:52] There are a number of layers of supports there that are pretty comprehensive. - Thank you, Chair Shea. - Thank you so much. I have a couple general things, and then I actually wanna dig into the executive summary, some specific questions there.

[01:47:07] And so Ms. Burton, while Ms. Burton's pulling that up, just a couple general things. I was really delighted to see the honors credit or the increased credit being pursued some of the CTE classes. I know we got some advocacy around that, which was a really good opportunity to look at it. But some of those courses really are very technical and very advanced, you know, and so I'm glad we're going to be able to give some additional weight to those.

[01:47:39] I think that's, I think that's important and affirming of the work that those, that advanced work that those students are doing. So thank you for digging into that. ALSO ON THE PRESENTATION THE TIMELINE THAT WAS PRESENTED JUST FOR CLARITY WHEN WE LOOK AT OUR STUDENTS HAVING TO MAKE THOSE COURSE DECISIONS IN JANUARY THAT IS ONE REASON THAT THE BOARD REALLY WANTED TO TRY TO MAKE OUR BOUNDARIES DECISION IN DECEMBER TO GIVE STUDENTS THAT THAT DECISION POINT BEFORE THEY WERE GOING TO BE ENROLLING IN CLASSES AND SO I THINK WE TALKED ABOUT THAT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BOUNDARIES DISCUSSION BUT I THINK THAT KIND OF GOT LOST

[01:48:18] along the way with some questions from the community and so this really puts a a nice articulation there um and then just generally and this is not it's it's tangential to the to the course catalog but i'd be remiss if i didn't say i continue to be concerned with the load of ap classes that some students are taking and the impact on their mental health and their kind of life balance um additionally some of these students at one of the schools i represent particularly many of them hire private tutors for some or all of their classes and to be able to

[01:48:56] continue to carry that load and just thinking about like really again the impact on their mental health and their just life balance as a high schooler i have great concern about it and so as we continue to look i'm glad we are expanding opportunities for students i never want to take OPPORTUNITIES AWAY, BUT I ALSO THINK AS WE LOOK AT THE COURSES WE OFFER, AS WE LOOK AT POLICY AROUND ACADEMICS, AS WE LOOK AT PROCEDURES TO REALLY PUSH US TO KEEP THAT AT FRONT OF MIND, AS WE CONTINUE TO INCREASE ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITY, HOW DO WE ALSO ENCURRENT BALANCE FOR STUDENTS,

[01:49:32] RIGHT? SO THAT'S A, AGAIN, A TANGENTIAL, BUT I JUST THINK IT'S SO IMPORTANT TO JUST CONTINUE to highlight um wherever we can i know there's a lot of arms to that so anyway all right digging into our executive summary on page one the ad drop which is the first thing um does this also limit when students could move to a different level so like let's say they enrolled in an ap class and they found it really wasn't a good fit for them right and trying to move to the honors class

[01:50:07] instead are they um still confined by this um window of the first 15 school days to make that change or is it considered a similar course so that there's more flexibility does that make sense historically um with level drops those have been permitted throughout the course of the year so um you know there are times where like masters you know there has to be a course available for that student to move into so there has to be a conversation about you know there could be a level drop but but you meant this would have to happen in your schedule otherwise and and before we do

[01:50:46] any of that the goal is always to make sure we're doing everything we can in the course they're in to support the student but access to those level drops is is ongoing excellent i just wanted to make sure because you know sometimes it's just necessary but i know it also requires the other course to be offered for there to be space in the other course conversations between those two TEACHERS IS YOU KNOW THERE'S A LOT OF LAYERS THERE BUT I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE WE WEREN'T CODIFYING SOMETHING THAT LIMITED THE ABILITY FOR THOSE CONVERSATIONS THAT'S YEAH THAT'S CORRECT LEVEL ADDING A LEVEL KEEPING THAT LEVEL DROP OPTION IS SOMETHING THAT IS CONTINUING

[01:51:23] EXCELLENT ALL RIGHT ON PAGE FOR THE END OF PAGE FOUR GOING INTO PAGE FIVE WHEN IT LOOKS AT GIFTED AND ADVANCED LEARNERS OPPORTUNITIES I KNOW WE HAD SOME CONVERSATIONS LAST YEAR around the sixth grade TAG course being required and so I see it is still required in this and so I don't know I just again out of my lane but I just will continue to advocate for the sixth grade TAG class remaining an option for our students but really when I think of that transition into sixth grade having students be able to enroll in what makes them passionate and

[01:52:03] want them to come to school right and if that's a gifted tag class awesome right just like it's an option in seventh and eighth grade but if it's another elective like having another elective that gets them jazzed during that transition and to find their community i want to make sure they have um that space so just to continue just to advocate to continue to have that conversation around the requirement in sixth grade and we can definitely get clarity and detail from our gifted MIKE DUSALT'S NOT HERE AND HE -- AND I KNOW HE'S THE -- MAKE SURE THAT WE GET THAT FOR YOU AND JUST SOME CLARIFYING POINTS FOR THAT.

[01:52:37] EXCELLENT, THANK YOU. AND THEN ON PAGE 13, IT MENTIONS WITH HEALTH AND PE, THE JROTC GETTING TO USE IT AS HALF OF THE PE CREDIT, WHICH I THINK IS EXCELLENT. I LOVE THAT. HAVE WE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE ANY PROGRESS ON THINGS LIKE MARCHING BAND AND SHOW CHOIR THAT ARE ALSO CLASSES THAT HAVE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF physical you know involvement in order to also satisfy that half credit so my understanding is that would need to come from the General Assembly for us to have the flexibility to do that I think

[01:53:12] in the very distant paths before any of us many of us in the room were NHCPS there there was some flexibility used for some of the dance programming at Center for the Arts and it was something that we had to to switch out of when DOE clarified what what could and could not count most recently they've they've expanded similar flexibility to the unified PE course which is which is a partnership with students that have that have exceptional needs and students who are there to learn and support but that's all the additional flexibility they've added but I know it's it's

[01:53:51] been that legislation has been proposed at the General Assembly in the past it just hasn't made its way through great well glad to have to know something else to advocate for with our with our delegates. So I appreciate that. And then finally, on page 26, the very last part, I just wanted to say that I'm, I'm glad to see we're expanding to fluent speakers three for Spanish. I think we know that our fluent speakers have different needs than our non native, our native speakers have

[01:54:26] different needs than our non native speakers when it comes to world languages, particularly around language literacy in terms of as opposed to like speaking in fluency and so as our EL population grows to be able to support what they need is great so I really appreciate that it has been very popular in its first year we have a lot of engagement with the course and are hearing a lot of great things excellent and then I think just to oh and then you don't have to go back Ms. Burton but I think I missed this point I was really excited to see things like an honor sociology

[01:55:01] class right giving advanced coursework that's not necessarily AP or dual enrollment so that students have that kind of middle ground as we continue to expand offerings and then to Mr. Young's point to kind of concisely put it and correct me if I'm incorrectly putting this is all of these are now listed in the course catalog of what schools can offer it is dependent on having the certified staff to be able to offer them and enough student interest always rooted in having the staff

[01:55:36] available and then how individual schools decide to allocate that staff based on student course requests excellent and then oh i skipped this one mind over matter math for middle school i saw that i i dug into the google doc and all the things and i saw it's a semester-long course it looks like yes but it can be offered as part of it can be doubled up as well so schools would like to offer that as a full year. And what what grades does that offer to? It'll exist at just like creative communications and like theater at the middle school level it'll be available at all at three grade levels. It won't be one, two, and three but students can engage with it three separate times

[01:56:16] to earn separate credit. So we have students who are in who take who have taken creative writing all three years of middle school sort of under the umbrella of the one creative writing class in the planning guide so it's similar to that excellent i love all things math so all right thank you for letting me dive into some of those specifics the presentation was was great and hit all the big highlights i just wanted to make sure for some of these specifics because this kind of is a a passion space for mine that i that i understood all the details so thank you for your patience with that i think i'm full of redirects today i don't know why but i i do have a question

[01:56:54] it's also in the summary on page two regarding generating recovery of academic direction on this grad so i want to better understand the last sentence here which states while enrolled students work with their student support and wellness personnel on developing and improving their coping strategies to ensure their successful transition to a comprehensive learning environment

[01:57:27] And this is the part I have the question on, which is an ideal environment in which students can learn, grow and feel supported. Help me understand what that ideal environment term means. So, Mrs. Atkins, our grad program, which is housed over at the Adult Learning Center, previously did not have access to a school counselor or a school social worker.

[01:57:56] I mean, had access in that someone was available, but not on site specifically for that school. And we knew that there were students there that needed the benefit of having access to full-time employees. So as part of the grad program, we have started ensuring that we are embedding those social emotional supports for our students, because we know many of them are being served in an alternative placement.

[01:58:20] And we wanna make sure that they have the skills, both academically and socially, emotionally, return to the comprehensive school i wonder if the verbiage could be positive i wonder if there's a better way to say that we're offering support in an ideal environment i think there's a much much better way to say that i don't know what that word is at top of mind but if it comes i will absolutely share we want all of our students to be in environments that are conducive to learning

[01:58:54] and positive versus ideal. So, please take a moment to think about that and perhaps find, you know, better verbiage that really represent Henrico County Public Schools' effort in trying to provide a conducive environment for all of our students. Thank you, Dr. Hughes.

[01:59:12] Thank you for that feedback. Oh, redirect. Mr. Beaton, question for you. As I was pondering different things up here, how hard is it to recruit and retain teachers with us adding so many new courses? Well, once again, business partnerships are key to our success, and we are constantly, because businesses are really in need of these young people, they are supporting us in helping find these.

[01:59:41] For instance, our fire and sprinkler program that we have, that teacher is actually paid for and on loan from VSC, which is one of our partnering companies. Bon Secours Hospital, we have a partnership with them where they're providing two nurses for us on loan.

[02:00:00] So a lot of these companies, there's such a huge demand. They're willing to use this as an opportunity to recruit. But to your point, it is difficult when, you know, an auto mechanic can go out and make, you know, $100,000. And, you know, how do we pull them off the line turning wrenches?

[02:00:18] So it's a fine balance. as we was talking about legislative priorities um mr blackstone maybe something needs to be introduced where we can retain teachers we're paying them the industry average um for our cte courses um as i was sitting there and you kind of alluded to these subject matter experts could go in another field and make more money um than coming into teaching the classroom yeah i would just note absolutely that has been a discussion and some advocacy points related to even what the qualifications are to be able to teach the course so even if money were no object and you have the

[02:00:53] industry expertise without the teaching licensure what does that look like and pathways there to have some flexibility has been a hot topic and also would just note that the career ladder actually offers additional financial incentive for particular certifications and licensure and INDUSTRY EXPERTISE, WHICH WOULD ALSO MEAN IN AREAS IN OUR CTE AREAS. SO THERE IS ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL INCENTIVE THERE. I JUST WANTED TO POINT THAT OUT.

[02:01:22] NO, THAT'S AWESOME. THAT'S WHAT I WANTED TO KIND OF ALLUDE TO. SO THANK YOU FOR THAT, MR. BATEN. MS. ATKINS, YOU SAID A COUPLE THINGS ABOUT GOING INTO THE ACE CENTER AND SEEING HAPPY CHILDREN. AND I HAVE SEVERAL STORIES OF THIS. I HAVE A KID OFFERED TO CHANGE MY OIL YESTERDAY BECAUSE HE CHANGED THE OIL OVER THERE AT ACE HIGHLAND SPRINGS. I DID TELL HIM NO.

[02:01:41] I WANT TO MAKE SURE HE FINISHES THE COURSE FIRST. BUT HE'S HAPPY. SO THE THINGS THAT WE'RE DOING WITH THESE ELECTIVES, JROTC, BEING ABLE TO OFFER COURSES THAT MAKE OUR STUDENTS HAPPY IS SO IMPORTANT. SO I THINK WE'RE DOING A GREAT JOB. MADAM CHAIR, THANK YOU FOR THE REDIRECT. I APPRECIATE IT. ANYBODY ELSE? ALL RIGHT. SOUNDS GOOD. THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH, TEAM. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT.

[02:02:02] ALL RIGHT. THE NEXT ITEM IS ANOTHER LOOK AT OUR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN. AT OUR LAST MEETING, WE HAD A MORE IN-DEPTH LOOK AT EACH AREA OF THE PLAN AND THE PARTICULAR FINANCIAL NEEDS AND ASKS FOR THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR. WE'LL SUMMARIZE THAT AGAIN FOR THE BOARD AND BE HAPPY TO TAKE ANY QUESTIONS AS THIS IS UP FOR APPROVAL AT THE MONTHLY MEETING. MR. PRITCHER.

[02:02:24] THANK YOU. GOOD AFTERNOON, MADAM CHAIR, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD AND DR. CASHWELL. TODAY I WILL SHARE A REVIEW OF OUR PROPOSED CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR THE FYI 2627 FUNDING REQUEST. FOR A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE FUNDING AND ALLOCATION REQUEST, THIS CHART SHOWS EACH LINE item for a total request of $33.1 million. This is an $8.1 million increase. Again, this increase comes from a focus on addressing critical HVAC needs along with the impacts of inflation. We will be seeking your approval for this request at this evening's meeting. As part of our review of current

[02:03:04] and future capital needs, we discussed how inflation continues to drive up project costs over time. The chart shown highlighted the impact of inflation on previously allocated funds for key initiatives. The school's meal tax reserve has seen a 37.5% increase due to inflation since 2014.

[02:03:25] Also playground replacement costs have risen 22% per site since 2024 and school bus replacement costs have also grown significantly increasing by 29.1% within the last four years. as we know the meals tax has been a vital source of funding supporting henrico county public school since its inception providing an additional revenue for facility improvements renovations as well as major capital and safety projects across the division due to the rising costs of the impact of inflation we are asking for an increase in meals tax funding from 9 million

[02:04:01] to 5.3 million dollars or 15.3 million dollars excuse me i'm sorry that would be a massive decrease by the way but yes uh 9 million to 15.3 million this addition this additional 6.3 million would allow us to meet inflation costs as well as providing additional funding for security projects we remain grateful to both this to both the school board and the board of supervisors for this funding to help maintain our facilities and this concludes the presentation we will be

[02:04:37] SEEKING THE BOARD'S APPROVAL OF OUR PRELIMINARY CIP AT TONIGHT'S NOVEMBER MONTHLY BOARD MEETING. AFTER THAT, WE WILL PROVIDE OUR PROPOSAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS SO THAT IT MAY BE CONSIDERED DURING THEIR BUDGET DELIBERATIONS. ONCE APPROVED BY THE SUPERVISORS, IT WILL RETURN TO THIS BOARD FOR YOUR FINAL APPROVAL. AGAIN, I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE TO THIS BOARD AND THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT AND CONSIDERATION OF OUR CIP requests and at this time I'll be glad to have answer any of your questions thank you so much Mr. Pritchard um and and just to highlight like you said this presentation is really focusing on

[02:05:14] what we're taking action on tonight which is the capital improvement plan for 2026 2027 that's what we um take action on tonight so really looking at the funding for the next fiscal year yes ma'am all right thank you so much um I'll start with Ms. Atkins any questions I know this is uh the second time we've seen this so i'm just hitting any any last minute questions thank you chair shea thank you for the presentation no questions thank you thank you so much mr young no questions thank you mr prisha appreciate it mr irving seeing that i missed this last

[02:05:52] i'm in my absence i i don't have questions but i do have a comment that i'd like to make um if you look at the meals tax funding and allocation request and seeing that since inception which was back in 2014, we've spent a combined $96,690,470. I want to put that number in perspective because over the last three years, the meals tax has brought in over $110 million in revenue.

[02:06:26] So I just think that that perspective is useful in thinking about the total spending versus how much the meals tax brings in for us as a county thank you miss can tell um no i just have i think i just want to um ask mr pritchard what is it slide where shows the inflation rates the impact of inflation okay yes right there um if you could just i mean i know we discussed this at last

[02:07:04] meeting um can you just um put into number of playgrounds the impact of inflation like what money used to buy versus how far the dollars go now. Yes, ma'am. When we first started this project, we were able to do four playgrounds with $1 million.

[02:07:23] And since that time, which was 2024, we have now reduced that number to three. So putting us at $1.6 million in that request would put us back on doing four playgrounds per year, which would put us on 11 to 12 year cycle at our elementary schools. Okay.

[02:07:38] Thank you so much for that. Yes, ma'am. for all the work you've done on the capital plan. Chair Shea. Thank you so much, Mr. Pritchard. Just two points for me. I just, I support our increases, particularly the increases around mechanical, like I expressed last time, but decades being of, was it 2 million, 2.5 million?

[02:08:00] Somewhere around there, we were there for decades for roofing and mechanical. 2.5, yes, ma'am. And until just two years ago, and, you know, with the age of our systems, The diversity of our systems, like you pointed out, having hundreds of different systems in the county, but also the real impact that our COVID procedures had on our HVAC.

[02:08:21] And it was the right thing to do to have those procedures into place, but the continual flushing, the higher filters, the higher filters, it really had an impact on our systems. And so, you know, we're paying the price tag of that now.

[02:08:40] Again, it was the right thing to do, but it has real consequences. And so I support the increase there. And then the other thing I wrote down, Mr. Irving, echoes what Mr. Irving said. I have concern with the deferred meals tax that we continue to see and how we can advocate for getting our meals tax money.

[02:09:05] And I know that meals tax money is still being invested into our schools with construction and construction overages and all that. we continue to have deferred maintenance projects in our buildings that need to be addressed and our meals tax is doing exceptionally well it is doing better than projected and so you know as a as a as a board thinking about how we can help advocate for that to continue to be able to chip away at our lists on our on our CIP of continued maintenance needs and so just bring that top of

[02:09:42] MINE BUT WE CONTINUE IN HENRICO TO MOVE FORWARD WITH OUR BUILDINGS AND OUR MAINTENANCE WHICH IS IMPORTANT WHEN MORE THAN HALF OF OUR BUILDINGS ARE OVER 50 YEARS OLD. SO THANK YOU FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM'S WORK AND TRYING TO MANAGE A LARGE SYSTEM OF BUILDINGS. SO THANK YOU. ANYTHING?

[02:10:03] CHAIR SHEA, I JUST WANT TO PUBLICLY SAY THAT I SUPPORT A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THOSE DEFERRED FUNDS. THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU SO MUCH, MR. PRUTURE. ALL RIGHT. AND THE NEXT ITEM AND FINAL ITEM FOR ME IS AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOARD'S REQUESTED BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT SCENARIOS.

[02:10:25] AND MS. THAYER WILL PROVIDE THAT PRESENTATION. GOOD AFTERNOON, MADAM CHAIR, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD AND DR. CASHWELL.

[02:10:46] TODAY I WILL BE PRESENTING THE BOARD WITH A REVIEW FOR THE STANDING REQUESTED BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT SCENARIOS THAT RESPOND TO YOUR AUGUST 28th REQUEST. THIS SERVES AS OUR CONCLUDING REPORT TO THE BOARD RELATED TO YOUR BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT REQUEST. we will review and summarize input collected throughout the process which has now ended and examine final scenarios on which the board will take action on in december as a reminder school spaces fall within journey to 2030's focus area of learning environment with the goal of all students and staff learning and working in safe welcoming and innovative spaces previously a

[02:11:24] preliminary enrollment count was shared with the board here is the final enrollment count for the 25-26 school year which is 35 fewer students than our preliminary count additionally this slide illustrates the percentage of seats remaining available across hcps now we will take a look at the scenarios the board will be considering for action in december staff have updated the slides to reflect the board's requested changes from the last two months starting with carver the functional capacity for carver has increased by 4.3 percent from the from last school year to this current

[02:11:59] school year. This scenario remains unchanged from the September 11th presentation. The estimated impact of this scenario remains at eight elementary students, placing Carver at approximately 94% functional capacity and Mayberry at 93%. At the request of the board, the Cuyahawson middle scenario has been through multiple changes since September 11th. The currently standing scenario is only impacting the same neighborhood as seen in the Carver scenario. This would have these students moving from Tuckahoe middle to Cuyahawson middle the estimated impact of the scenario would be at

[02:12:37] around six middle school students placing Cuyahawson at 78.9 percent and Tuckahoe at 95.5 percent moving on to high schools the functional capacity for freeman has decreased by three percent from last school year to this current year this is before ace center students are accounted for on day one or day two this proposed scenario remains unchanged from the september 11th presentation The scenario places Freeman at an estimated 94.4% functional capacity and Godwin at 94.3% functional capacity. Again, prior to ACE Center students being accounted for.

[02:13:14] Looking at the Tucker scenario, this scenario was changed by the board during the October 23rd work session to remove the prior section three, which involved moving students from Tucker to Godwin. Only sections one and two remain for this scenario. Tucker has experienced a decrease in functional capacity by 1.9% from last school year to this current year. The two sections under CONSIDERATION WOULD IMPACT A TOTAL OF 274 STUDENTS, 168 IN SECTION 1 AND 106 IN SECTION 2.

[02:13:45] THIS SCENARIO WOULD SEE TUCKER AT AN ESTIMATED 88.6 PERCENT FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY AND HERMITAGE AT AN ESTIMATED 96.1 PERCENT FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY PRIOR TO ACE CENTER IMPACTS BEING ACCOUNTED FOR. MS. THAYER, I HATE TO INTERRUPT. IF YOU DON'T MIND PULLING THE MIC DOWN JUST A LITTLE -- I'M SO SORRY. MR. RICHARD HAD IT UP A LITTLE HIGHER AND IT'S JUST A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO HEAR.

[02:14:05] I apologize. Finally, we'll review the Henrico scenario. This scenario remains unchanged from the September 11th work session. Henrico has decreased in functional capacity by 2.6% from school year 2024. This scenario would impact a total of 242 total current students, 181 in Section 1, 60 in Section 2, and 1 in Section 3. This scenario places Henrico at an estimated 80.6% functional capacity once the new cyber security center and fairways development estimated student

[02:14:39] yields are accounted for highland springs would be an at an estimated 83.1 percent and hermitage would be at an estimated 73 this slide provides an overview of the high schools when all three scenarios are implement are implemented simultaneously with the updated school year 2025-26 data this chart displays the net changes for each of the six high schools that could be impacted should these scenarios move forward only one of these schools is impacted by more than one scenario that being Hermitage so it is important to note that those figures will not match prior

[02:15:15] slides for Hermitage's estimated enrollments or functional capacity percentages as a review of the overall estimated functional capacities for these schools before ACE Center students are accounted for Freeman is estimated at 94.4 percent Godwin is estimated at 94.3 percent Henrico is estimated at 80.6 percent. Hermitage is estimated at 86.9 percent. Highland Springs is estimated at 83.1 percent. And Tucker is estimated at 88.6 percent. And for the board's convenience, here's

[02:15:53] a chart displaying day one and day two estimated functional capacities for all six potentially impacted high schools using the school year 2025-26 enrollment data. Starting on the public input received, this will be a high-level overview of the major themes as they apply to the currently standing scenarios accumulated by the solicitation of public feedback additional documentation related to public input that has been has been uploaded into board docs hcps had multiple options available for community members to submit input on the boundary adjustment scenarios these included

[02:16:31] an online survey that was available in multiple languages was available from september 16th to october 10th this survey accumulated 1729 responses three public town halls were held where a total of 346 response cards were submitted and multiple small group discussions were held and facilitated by division leadership discussions had note takers that summarized the topics and points made by community members and attendance written comments submitted directly to the school board on the september 25th and october 9th meeting saw a total of 28 total comments related

[02:17:07] to redistricting the redistricting email inbox has been available from september 11th which was the first day that boundary adjustment scenarios were brought forward to the school board and continues to be active for community members as of this tuesday november 11th there have been 306 emails received by this inbox a public hearing was held by the school board on october 23rd where community members had the opportunity to address the board directly with their comments during which no speakers came forward that is a total of 2 409 written responses from the community and 12

[02:17:42] facilitated small group discussions over the course of three town halls breaking the public input COLLECTED DOWN BY SCENARIO STARTING WITH CARVER HERE'S AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESPONSES RECEIVED FROM THE VARIOUS FORMS OF PUBLIC COMMENT THE CARVER SCENARIO HAD 130 COMMUNITY MEMBERS SUBMIT FEEDBACK USING THE SURVEY WITH THE MAJORITY OF RESPONDENTS BEING OPPOSED TO THE CHANGES THIS BREAKDOWN CAN BE SEEN IN THE CHART PROVIDED ON THE UPPER RIGHT OF THE SLIDE PREDOMINANTLY COMMUNITY MEMBERS CHOSE OPTIONS CITING FEEDER PATTERNS AND COMMUNITY COHESION AS CONCERNS SIX RESPONDENTS SUBMITTED OTHER AS A CONCERN WHICH ALLOWED FOR SURVEYS TO WRITE

[02:18:22] TO FREE WRITE IN THE COMMENTS, AND ITEMS SUCH AS MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS OF STUDENTS IMPACTED WERE DISCUSSED IN THESE RESPONSES. DURING THE TOWN HALLS, A DOT-BASED FEEDBACK ACTIVITY TOOK PLACE THAT ALLOWED FOR PARTICIPANTS TO INDICATE THEIR LEVEL OF SUPPORT PER SCENARIO BY PLACING A DOT THAT SHOWED WHETHER THEY SUPPORTED, OPPOSED, OR WERE NEUTRAL ON A SCENARIO.

[02:18:41] THE RESULTS OF THE DOT ACTIVITY FROM THE TOWN HALLS FOR THE CARVER SCENARIO IS THE BOTTOM chart on the slide it shows a predominance of opposition or neutrality and primary discussion points during the town halls and from the response card submitted centered around feeder pattern changes school capacity and transportation burdens there were two emails submitted to the redistricting redistricting inbox for this scenario specifically both being in opposition to the proposed boundary adjustments citing similar reasons to those listed above looking at the Cuyahawson scenario, here's an overview of the responses received from the various forms of

[02:19:21] public comment. The Cuyahawson scenario had 954 respondents, with the majority being opposed to the changes, as seen in the top chart on the slide. As a reminder to the board, the Cuyahawson scenario has changed twice with the first adjustment occurring only one day prior to the survey closing. The primary concerns listed for the Cuyahawson scenario were school capacity OR PROGRAM CHANGES AS WELL AS FEEDER PATTERN CHANGES. THERE WERE 67 RESPONDENTS THAT SUBMITTED OTHER AS A CONCERN AND INCLUDED COMMENTS ON IMPACTS TO SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC GROWTH FOR STUDENTS, DISTANCE BETWEEN IMPACTED NEIGHBORHOODS AND SCHOOLS, MENTAL HEALTH OF STUDENTS IMPACTED,

[02:20:01] LACK OF DIVERSITY, AND REAL ESTATE VALUES. THE BREAKDOWN OF THE DOT ACTIVITY SHOWS A PREDOMINANCE OF OPPOSITION WITH A TOTAL OF 243 DOTS OUT OF 258 BEING OPPOSED TO THE SCENARIO. PRIMARY DISCUSSION POINTS FROM THE TOWN HALLS CENTERED ON CAPACITY CONCERNS, COMMUNITY COHESION AND TIES, TRANSPORTATION CONCERNS, TIMELINE ISSUES, AND PROGRAMMATIC CHANGES. THERE WERE 26 WRITTEN COMMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD AND 175 EMAILS SUBMITTED TO THE REDISTRICTING EMAIL INBOX FOR THE CUYAQUISON SCENARIO. 197 OF THOSE WRITTEN COMMENTS WERE IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED

[02:20:40] BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS. FOR THE FREEMAN SCENARIO, THERE WERE 218 COMMUNITY MEMBERS WHO SUBMITTED feedback on the survey with the majority of respondents being opposed to the changes they cited feeder pattern concerns community cohesion and capacity concerns 22 respondents submitted other as a concern and discussed items such as disruptions to social and emotional experiences and distance between options and impacted neighborhoods looking at the chart for the dot activity it is showing an inverse with a majority of support on the freeman scenario

[02:21:17] primary discussion points from the town halls included transition plan logistics capacity relief measures and process fatigue for specific neighborhoods there are 14 email emails submitted to the redistricting inbox 10 being in opposition to the proposed boundary adjustments two being fairly neutral and two supporting the proposal moving on to tucker there were 103 respondents from the survey with the majority being supportive of the changes The primary concerns listed for the Tucker scenario were school capacity or program changes

[02:21:52] and the separation of community. There were five respondents that submitted other as a concern and included comments on diversity and the need for a majority feeder school for Tucker. The breakdown of the DOT activity shows a predominance of opposition or neutrality on the Tucker scenario. Discussion topics at the town halls included demographic changes, transition concerns, and a need for support services for students that are proposed to change schools there were seven emails submitted to the redistricting inbox three being in opposition and four being fairly neutral focusing on logistical questions on transitions for students

[02:22:29] lastly looking at the henrico scenario the survey saw 110 respondents with 71 opposed to the proposed adjustments primary concerns chosen for this scenario were separation of community and school capacity there were 14 other respondents that included comments regarding student disruption safety concerns lack of diversity mental health of students impacted and real estate values the breakdown of the dot activity shows a majority of neutrality on the henrico scenario with only 23 dots for opposition and 15 dots for support discussion points included socioeconomic equity

[02:23:06] community cohesion building upgrades and transition concerns there were nine emails submitted to the redistricting email inbox seven being in opposition and two being neutral towards the boundary adjustments as an overview for transitions the board determines that students in grades 5 8 10 11 and 12 may remain in their previously zoned schools at each student's discretion this allows for students that started out of high school to finish at their high school should they choose to do so for further clarity those are school year 2025 students currently in

[02:23:45] grades 9 10 and 11 that may stay or go also known as rising 10 11 or 12th graders for school year 2026 for elementary and middle only those in transition grade currently fourth and seventh graders also known as rising fifth and eighth would be offered the option to remain the board has determined that no additional transportation options will be provided to students that choose to stay at their previously zoned schools students opting to stay will need to provide their own transportation given the board's original timeline this meeting provided an overview of public input

[02:24:23] collected as well as the remaining scenarios in student transition plan now that you've seen the latest scenarios and totality of the feedback, we'd be happy to answer any questions or take any direction related to whether the scenarios will continue for December for action. Thank you.

[02:24:41] Thank you so much, Ms. Thayer. I appreciate your report out and also your tireless work through this whole process of changes has been made and recalculating things and making new maps and that sort of thing. So thank you, truly. Colleagues, Ms. Kinsella?

[02:24:58] in general for example when we're moving students as to capacity of a school for example freeman for example tucker you feel confident or at least in the development numbers and enrollment projections and so forth before that it's not just a bubble right before we move students we like to look at everything possible as we've discussed right programmatic changes all kinds of things um the

[02:25:33] trends we're seeing at Freeman and and Tucker in your opinion these are not bubbles I would note the trend data that Rachel has shared with us over the previous years related to overall projected enrollment for the school division have been on par which shows a continued declining of students what has held true for the past I believe three years is a reduction of students across our high school so that is a trend we're confident is on track to remain which is a continued reduction in high schoolers across the district that overall reduction is similar to what we projected and

[02:26:12] varies again by level but what hasn't varied is the high school level and I guess layering on that the board has shown great interest in learning more about development and potential development impact and I know you've looked I know you've looked at this you follow this in the work that you do that's kind of where i'm i'm leading i mean i i get the trends for the division and different levels of schools within the division but development has been of great interest um to the board of course and when looking at development patterns we are of course seeing more development happening specifically in the fairfield district as well as varina has had a

[02:26:48] few hot spots um on the edges of brooklyn from fairfield is also seeing some development and that of course is important to call out when we're looking at trends right so when discussing Tucker and Freeman we are seeing some development happening in those areas so I do think it's important to get ahead of those developments especially these long-range ones that are looking at having over a thousand units being put in thank you I'll just say once again as I've said probably I don't know quite a few meetings whenever this topic comes up I don't believe I've heard

[02:27:24] enough for my constituents in the Hermitage community. I don't believe that the presentation of all the data collected shows that constituents have impacted at Hermitage. No. So I have concern about that and I agree with the constituent feedback regarding Tucker that leaving Tucker while we're going to fix capacity it will still have five feeder middle schools. So sense of community there. Again, that's of concern to me. But with the number of students that were moving

[02:28:01] into Hermitage, again, I just need to hear Dr. Cashwell confirm and guarantee resources for Dr. Jackson and his school with the inflow and potential outflow of students to Hermitage High School. Yeah, I would note that should the board approve these scenarios in December, it's going to be incumbent upon staff to begin first as course registration begins in January and February to track what student enrollment is and determine which students may stay or go so you know as you noted with the redistricting plan we know how many students could be impacted

[02:28:40] but it will be largely dependent on those taking advantage of staying or choosing to go so we're going to have I would say a transition year where we're going to have to pay really close attention to staffing and work with our families to make decisions and indicate their interest in staying or going early on so that we can plan and we can staff each building according to their needs. And that may look different over a period of a few years as that transition fully takes place. But our goal is always to make sure we're putting the right staffing and supports in each school

[02:29:14] to match the student needs and enrollment. Thank you, Dr. Cashwell. Madam Chair, THAT'S ALL I HAD. THANK YOU, MR. IRVINE. THANK YOU FOR THIS. I THINK THE UPDATE IS HELPFUL, ESPECIALLY LOOKING AT ALL THE SURVEY AND THE PARTICIPANTS AT THE TOWN HALLS.

[02:29:35] YOU KNOW, I JUST CONSTANTLY COME BACK TO THINKING ABOUT HOW WE ARE LOSING STUDENTS AS A WHOLE. AND YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU LOOK AT THESE DAY ONE, DAY TWO NUMBERS BEFORE ANY SWITCH, OUTSIDE OF TUCKER, IT JUST MAKES ME WONDER, LIKE, IF ANY OF THIS IS EVEN NECESSARY.

[02:29:56] now I don't you know that's that's not to say that I won't end up voting for this in December but I'm just looking at these and saying is this actually numbers that warrant moving people at all outside of Tucker um and I don't know you know because I just think that looking at like the Weldon Cooper data they were spot on with the reduction of students we were wrong we thought we were going to grow slightly um and I think regardless of all of this development that's happening. The median age of a home buyer in the United States right now is 61 years old.

[02:30:35] These people do not have children who are going into schools. And I would love for our student population to be increasing. I want as many families as possible to move to Henrico and be able to live here and experience the wonderful things that we have to offer, but that is not what's happening. And I think it would be irresponsible to not like consider those factors.

[02:31:01] And I think maybe we have ideas of how things were at a time, but maybe that maybe that data is not, you know, accurate now. And so I'm left looking at these day one, day two capacities, noting that I think most of the high schoolers, for example, are probably going to stay where they're at.

[02:31:20] So most of these switches are, you know, they're not happening all at once. It would be phased in over time as the new eighth graders and then eventually seventh and sixth graders move on up. But I just, you know, I just wonder, like, are we actually fixing something?

[02:31:40] And maybe we are. You know, I had to make a final determination in December 1 that, but I just looking at the numbers and getting the actual membership counts, I think it's made me think in a different way than I had previously.

[02:31:56] And, you know, I certainly want to think, you know, with the changes that would be happening to Godwin with the development there, like just keeping an eye on that because we are INCREASING GODWIN'S CAPACITY, NOT TO A HIGH LEVEL BY ANY MEANS, BUT MORE THAN THEY PREVIOUSLY HAD. AND I JUST WANT US TO BE COGNIZANT OF THESE THINGS AND NEVER THINK THAT WE'RE SOLVING SOMETHING LONG-TERM WHENEVER THIS IS JUST A YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT THING THAT WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY BE MINDFUL OF, AND I THINK WE ARE. BUT I JUST, YOU KNOW, I'M NOT AS SURE AS I WAS

[02:32:35] YES, PREVIOUSLY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. YUM. THANK YOU, MS. RACHEL, FOR ALL THE WORK YOU DID ON THE REDISTRICT AND I KNOW COUNTLESS HOURS AND DAYS AND PROBABLY LOST A LITTLE SLEEP IN THE PROCESS, BUT I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR PUTTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER FOR US. I'M GOING TO SPEAK TO THE HEMRICO HIGH SCHOOL SCENARIO. NOT GOING TO SORT OF RELIVE ANYTHING, BUT FOR HEMRICO TO BE SO LOW AND TO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COUNTY, IT'S HARD TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF IT. WOULD IT BE IN DIRECTLY in the middle of the county. I can understand Verona being on the edge of the county and

[02:33:13] where the enrollment is there, but for Henrico to have shrunk over the years so much and nothing has been put in place to help that community or bring cohesiveness to the community. And I think that what this scenario is doing, just want to note that in this scenario, whether it's the Central Gardens area, all of these students went to school together at Radcliffe.

[02:33:36] If it's the Chamberlain Farm scenario, all of these students go to school together currently at Chamberlain. So it is a reunification of students as well. So these students have gone to elementary school and middle school together. And to have that community be rebuilt at Henrico because Henrico needs that right now to walk through those hallways and not see many students there or not see that culture built or understanding that we won't have a JV girls basketball team and watching the band sort of dwindle right in front of my eyes. And I'm watching other schools as I travel around and these other schools get to enjoy those things.

[02:34:12] They get to enjoy the culture. They get to enjoy the sold out football games and the band is almost two or three times the size of Henrico High School. So I just want to encourage my board members to, you know, think about that as we look through these scenarios. I do think that we have something that will work here in place if passed in December.

[02:34:32] But I just want to give that a little bit of context to my counterparts on what happens TO A SCHOOL WHEN IT'S SO LOW IN ENROLLMENT. I KNOW WE HAVE THE ISSUES WHEN IT'S EXCEEDING CAPACITY, BUT I DO WANT MY COLLEAGUES TO THINK ABOUT WHAT COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE WHEN IT STARTS TO DWINDLE AT SOME OF OUR SCHOOLS. SO THANK YOU FOR THAT, MADAM CHAIR.

[02:34:52] THANK YOU, MS. ATKINS. MS. THAYER, SINCERE GRATITUDE TO YOU. ALSO I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR SURVEY, ATTENDED the town halls and engaged in one-on-one conversations with me and any school board member, I appreciate you and I acknowledge the many priorities you and I are facing in this country

[02:35:25] and closer to home in this county and even in our neighborhoods. And I don't want, as a leader, to add to worry. I know that when individuals purchase a home, the school that our children attend is an important factor, and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge, at least at the genesis, or making sure that I remember the why, for any shift or boundary adjustment.

[02:36:01] Paying attention to the survey results, the survey results are low, and so is town hall participation in my opinion compared to the number of families that we serve and so i also take that into consideration however i will address it because individuals took the time to participate in it and it's important so specifically the survey shows that the majority of respondents expressed opposition to the henrico scenario while most town hall participants were neutral

[02:36:33] i do take this feedback seriously i'm grateful for the thoughtful engagement from our communities and more importantly hearing directly from you helps guide the decision-making process so everyone who's paying attention now or will look at the recording or pull me to the side please continue sharing your thoughts the vote is in december please continue sharing your thoughts um i'll say I statements because it helps me in my decision making as I'm a conduit I'm an extension cord of

[02:37:08] connecting individuals to what they want for their children and for their education so the focus is education. Ms. Thayer I do have a question about the numbers on the overview of public input slide i think that's slide seven um if you can help me understand the math because yeah there we go i do have a question so according to this you have 334 written and email responses so 306 emails

[02:37:45] 28 written as to 334 and i'm going to piece this together correct yes okay let's move forward when you add up the emails and written responses on each slide my calculations is 233 yeah why is why is that some of the written responses were for scenarios that are no longer on the table we had many related to jackson davis's scenario which of course is no longer there we had several about

[02:38:18] hungry creek so those were removed from the specific scenario slides as they were just not related to that specific scenario but they were included in the reports for the town hall summaries as well as the survey report just so that the board and the public are able to read what those responses were as well outstanding i actually think it's important to acknowledge all of the individuals that participated and it should be in this presentation and then an explanation to what the difference is so if there is someone coming to take a look at this presentation they're going to to do exactly what I did, and they're going to add up the math and say, hey, Henrico County

[02:38:55] isn't adding this accurately. So, I would encourage an edit to explain why the numbers are different. We will certainly add that in. Thank you. You're welcome. Another question that I have, when I look at the Henrico scenario, and I'll scroll to that quickly here, for the town hall feedback, where we have 68 individuals that are neutral, can you or someone from the leadership team give insight as to the feedback they were hearing in the rooms as to why folks

[02:39:30] are selecting neutral. I don't want to assume, but I will give you what my thoughts perhaps are, and it's because the majority of individuals may not have been from the Fairfield or Verena District, and therefore they're saying I'm neutral because I'm not familiar with those areas, but that's an assumption. Can someone give me some facts around what neutral means in this slide?

[02:39:56] So certainly we wouldn't be able to accurately represent every conversation that took place in every room. So I don't want to overgeneralize, but I do know that our facilitators, when they were directing participants to take this activity, were just looking for a pulse check as the scenarios were being described related to an individual's reaction with neutral not necessarily being negative or positive right being truly unsure it could mean I need more information to form a position it could be I have questions or it could be this it doesn't impact me or it's not my

[02:40:35] community and so therefore you know I'm not going to take a position one way or the other so that's THAT'S CERTAINLY ONE PIECE OF INFORMATION, THE CARDS COLLECTED THAT HAD SPECIFIC COMMENTARY I THINK ARE A REALLY GOOD WAY TO PARSE OUT EACH INDIVIDUAL'S FEEDBACK WITHOUT US BEING A LAYER TO, YOU KNOW, MISUNDERSTAND THE COMMENTS.

[02:40:58] THEY WERE VERY SPECIFIC TO WHAT EACH INDIVIDUAL LEFT AND WE DID PROVIDE THOSE PARTICULAR COMMENTS TO THE BOARD MEMBERS AND MADE THOSE AVAILABLE. there's a full report for each town hall that has the comments gleaned then an overview of the themes gleaned as well as the red yellow green i think it would be uh helpful because neutral also means i don't know i don't know what boundary adjustment even means i don't know if this is the same as

[02:41:35] redistricting i think you know one thing this has been a wonderful process of learning and offering the opportunity for engagement when presenting surveys clarity is really important so you know options like especially face to face and in person i don't know check here that that is a very different message and it also is helpful because it gives guidance that on from a leadership

[02:42:11] perspective perhaps we can do some things differently i'm i know that we have the list of individual to parse out and figure out uh it would be helpful if we did not have to there's a there's a summary for each um school scenario that summarizes the feedback on the cards as well as the specifics so and we did include that in board docs i know it's lengthy BUT THAT DOES GIVE AN ATTEMPT CERTAINLY I HEAR YOU AROUND THE LANGUAGE USED AND UNDERSTAND THAT IT COULD BE INTERPRETED A NUMBER OF WAYS AND WOULD CAUTION JUST USING THAT RED

[02:42:49] YELLOW GREEN IN ISOLATION WHICH IS WHY WE WANTED TO GIVE LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE TO RESPOND IN DIFFERENT WAYS TO THE EXTENT THAT IT WOULD BE HELPFUL IN BUILDING THAT LARGER BODY OF INPUT THAT THE BOARD IS CONSIDERING AND IT'S A LOT THAT WE HAVE provided here and certainly you know the survey data there was a pretty strong response when you think about the total number of survey respondents based on the number of individuals potentially impacted here so certainly you know think that gives a pretty good and you know it gives a good

[02:43:27] look at how individuals were feeling related to each scenario in a different way right with different terminology so i think there are a number of data sets here at least to compare and use so again i think it's helpful in this particular presentation to share that an individual who goes back and review this presentation may not be aware of all of the layers that school board members may be aware of oh certainly and we did include in the board docs with this presentation the full

[02:44:04] SUMMARIES FOR EVERY TOWN HALL, ALL OF THE SURVEY DATA, BUT WE COULD SURELY ADD SOME SUMMARY SLIDES AS WELL. IT'S JUST WE DIDN'T WANT TO NEGLECT THE FULL PICTURE AND THAT'S WHY WE DID INCLUDE THE FULL REPORTS IN BOARD DOCS AS WELL. SO AS ANY INDIVIDUAL MIGHT VISIT THIS PRESENTATION, THEY COULD ALSO SEE EACH OF THE TOWN HALL DATA SETS AS WELL AS THE FULL SUMMARY FOR THE SURVEY.

[02:44:31] understood i'll say this a different way for individuals that are not astute and have not been following this i strongly suggest that you put this information in the presentation itself into the slide into the slide deck so i know board docs there's other information there perhaps there's information here there and everywhere but this is the presentation that we are using and that's presented to leadership for us to consider as part of our decision making so for the general audience and population that may not have been following this, I think it is important to add

[02:45:09] that in here. That's really the point that I'm trying to make. Certainly we're happy to make any additions. We want to make it easy to find and follow, but we also don't want to truncate data as well, understanding that, you know, anything we could put onto a slide is just sharing parts or pieces of a summary otherwise as you can see each of the documents here in board docs is hundreds of pages so just trying to make it something that's digestible but happy to add slides add additional information we also have the website that has all the full reports so we definitely

[02:45:47] want to make it easy to find and easy to follow along with thank you chair shea thank you so much um colleagues um you know i'll i appreciate miss thayer um mentioning that you know throughout the survey even up to the day before the survey closed some of these options continue to change and so some of the the comments in the survey um were taken into account kind of as things went on and so they they've changed or been resolved if you will um like for example with the freeman

[02:46:26] scenario there was a lot of feedback about what what transition grades right and so that was resolved along the way also reading through the individual comments in the scenarios I noticed a lot of conflation where people were opining on a certain scenario but then their comments went to a different scenario so anyway the point is you know these are to Ms. Atkins point, these are layers as a school board that we are looking not just straight at

[02:47:00] what the respondents numbers are. Obviously, that's a layer, but also, you know, digging deeper into how have, how have changes impacted this, right? Perhaps people thought they were responding to one scenario and they were another. And so taking all, all of this into account.

[02:47:20] and then you know for me as a school board member i'll readily admit i am not an expert in hermitage hemrico and highland springs high school and so you know i lean on the community input from that to better understand it as well as my colleagues who serve those areas right these are these are layers um that we look at um i will say i uh share ms kinsella's concern for the feeder patterns at TUCKER THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE'VE HEARD FOR BEFORE WE WERE ON THE BOARD AND IT'S IMPACT TO THE COMMUNITY SO I'M GLAD TO SEE THAT THEY'RE GETTING CAPACITY RELIEF I THINK THAT'S GREATLY

[02:47:59] NEEDED BUT I THINK SOME OTHER CHALLENGES THERE ENDURE TO MR. IRVING'S POINT ABOUT LOOKING AT THE ENROLLMENT NUMBERS I THINK THIS IS WHERE AS BOARD MEMBERS IT'S SO IMPORTANT FOR US TO KNOW beyond just what the numbers on the page like what they mean day-to-day in our schools what they mean for building usage and impact um and available resources and all of those things where um and we talked about that some kind of throughout the fall as to while a number might be over under

[02:48:37] a hundred percent it still may be a significant strain on the school and so understanding with our planning department and our superintendent and our and her staff what those numbers mean and then also for us being in the buildings and seeing the day-to-day operations having the conversations with the building staff about what the needs are and knowing the community you know I know for Freeman for the better part of 10 years they've been over capacity there's a lot of places in the building where three teachers are assigned to two classrooms

[02:49:12] and in an older building where there's no flex space and there's no teach office space for teachers when they can't be in their classroom that's a it's a significant challenge right that's a significant um challenge as well as many more um faced with um the high the high capacity there and so i know specifically um speaking to my area the godwin freeman it was very it's very much THREADING A NEEDLE, RIGHT, TO MISS KINSELA'S POINT, MAKING SURE IT'S NOT A BUBBLE, MAKING SURE WE DON'T SWING A PENDULUM TOO FAR ONE DIRECTION, LOOKING AT DEVELOPMENT AND THOSE

[02:49:48] SORTS OF THINGS. SO ANYWAY, I STILL THINK, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY BELIEVE FREEMAN NEEDS CAPACITY RELIEF, AND THAT WHILE IT IS HARD, IT IS HARD TO CHANGE HIGH SCHOOLS, IT IS HARD TO CHANGE ANY schools you know these are tough conversations I think with the expanding the ability for high schoolers who have started to stay to finish I think that that is a win for students and families

[02:50:23] to try to relieve some of the acute challenges around boundary adjustments so continue to have a lot to think about and process over the next month but just to be clear these are the scenarios we will be voting on on December 18th it is so this is this is it these are them December 18th it is a little over 30 days away so any other comments redirects questions thank you so much

[02:51:01] just kidding here we go i don't know if it's for miss thayer necessarily or if it's for um dr cashwell or perhaps um miss cox and communication now that the scenarios are final it doesn't appear the board has made any adjustments today um communication what does communication look like before um the board votes so we've continued after each board meeting BOARD MEETING TO SHARE OUT TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY PROGRESS IN THE PROCESS, AND WE'LL DO THAT AGAIN.

[02:51:38] WE CAN CERTAINLY, WHILE THERE HAVEN'T BEEN ANY CHANGES MADE, WE'LL REAFFIRM THAT AS THE STATUS OF THE SCENARIOS AS OF THE LAST REPORTING REMAINS, AND THAT THE BOARD IS STILL ON TRACK TO TAKE ACTION IN DECEMBER. THANK YOU. MADAM CHAIR, THAT'S ALL I HAD. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[02:51:56] DOES THAT CONCLUDE YOUR ITEM, SUPERINTENDENT? IT DOES. EXCELLENT. THANK YOU. The next item on the agenda is unfinished business. Colleagues, do you have unfinished business for the work session? Next item is new business.

[02:52:13] Colleagues, do you have any new business for the work session? All right. Then the final item for the work session is the announcement of meeting dates. Our next meeting will be here tonight at 6.30, our monthly meeting.

[02:52:30] And then following that will be December 18th that we just spoke about with a 3 p.m. work session in a 6:30 monthly meeting here in the New Bridge Auditorium. Meeting times may be adjusted as needed. This work session is adjourned.

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