Coraggio Consulting
Henrico County School Board Work Session, Thursday, May 14, 2026

Date: Thursday, May 14, 2026
Place: Henrico County School Board, Virginia
Length: 2h 13m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTthh621PoE
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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[00:00:02] I would like to welcome everyone to the May 14, 2026 work session of the Henrico County School Board. At this time, I would like to note that Dr. Boyd will be filling in as the superintendent's designee in Dr. Cashwell's absence. The first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Ms. Lewis will lead us in the pledge in a moment of silence.

[00:00:20] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it is. Please remain standing as you're able for a moment of silence. Thank you.

[00:00:58] now move on to the approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda i move the school board approve the agenda for today's meeting thank you mr kinsella do i have a second second thank you mr young all in favor say aye aye the eyes have it the agenda is approved uh the next item on the agenda is a closed meeting is there a motion to go into closed session i move that the

[00:01:34] school board go into closed session for the discussion of matters covered under items a1 of section 2.2-3711 of the code of virginia 1950 as amended pertaining to the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific school board employees thank you mr shea do i have a second second thank you mrs atkins all in favor say aye aye the ayes have it we will now go into closed session we will reconvene the work session at the conclusion of our closed meeting we have returned from closed session is there a motion to

[00:02:11] certify closed session. I move that the school board certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each school board member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Thank you, Ms. Kinsella. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Young. All in favor say aye. Aye.

[00:02:42] All right, the ayes have it. Closed session has been certified. Good afternoon, Chair Irving, a member of the school board. Today, there are three of our five advisory committees that will share their annual reports. To begin, Ms. Tiffany Lewis and Ms. England will come forward to present the Equity, Diversity, and Advisory Committee annual report and membership slate.

[00:03:10] Good afternoon, Chair Irving, members of the board, and Dr. Boyd. as the chief edo officer it is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon for today's presentation i am joined by charmaine eaglin chair of the equity and diversity advisory committee for the edac together we will present the board with the edac 2025-2026 annual update the htps strategic plan journey to 2030 serves as our roadmap to success for all providing the framework and vision

[00:03:49] for our district's future this year with both new and returning members the edac held five meetings to gain deeper understanding and alignment with the strategic plan and the best interests of the hcps school community the work of the edac aligns with the plan's core values of being student focused fostering a culture of belonging engaging in meaningful collaboration with students families staff and communities as well as embracing innovation and academics and committing to

[00:04:21] equity by removing barriers and creating opportunities today we will review the membership slate and newly elected officers provide a recap of the edax 2025-26 goals share the edax recommendations for the 2026-27 school year and explain how hcps will respond and align with those efforts. I will now turn it over to Charmaine to present the membership goals and recommendations.

[00:04:54] The EDAC is comprised of parents, students, and professionals and educators within the HCPS school community. Last year's application cycle yielded the names you see on the screen reflecting the voting members for the 2025-2028 term. Per the bylaws, the EDAC is limited to 20 maximum voting members, although attendance and participation at scheduled EDAC meetings is open to the HCPS school community. This list includes students, parents, HCPS staff, and community members from each of the five magisterial districts.

[00:05:28] Bi-monthly EDAC meeting membership also includes those of non-voting capacity to gauge in meaningful dialogue and inquiries. Members are scheduled per school year and are made available to the public via the HCPS website. The EDAC is pleased to report the election of yours truly, Charmaine Eaglin as chair, Matt Wells as vice chair, and Alma Zed as secretary. This slide represents a recap of the EDAC's goals for the 2025-2026 school year as represented last year for continued communication for pathways,

[00:06:05] accessibilities, opportunities including QR code for easy access to college and career planning platforms and printed translatable one-page quick reference documents for easier grade level navigation for pathway planning. To solidify these goals, background knowledge was provided to the new EDAC members of existing HCPS resources and previously addressed EDAC recommendations.

[00:06:30] We thank gifted specialist Jenna Conley and the gifted education advisory committee for collaboration collaborating and hosting our January meeting where we discuss topics like homework and opportunities with gifted education resources for students, and special thanks to Dr. Tiffany Hinton from the Department of Assessment, Research, and Evaluation for supporting the EDAC in these efforts. This presentation in light of the committee on existing program efforts and helpful tools already underway. The EDAC recognizes the work of the board and HCPS staff to supporting students and families with guidance to

[00:07:07] previously submitted recommendations. In addition to these goals, the EDAC has also work to streamline processes for meeting and increasing modes of communication with the with the hcps community each term edac members identify area of focus for the committee the equity and diversity advisory committee chair in collaboration with the division of empowerment development and opportunity leads the community through comprehensive data analyses with a wide variety of data sources from there research into best practices for reducing barriers and supporting

[00:07:44] equitable access is conducted and discussed amongst the committee. After hearing from the HCPS experts and reviewing new strategic plans through guided discussion and reflective activities, the EDAC is embarking on developing an action plan to highlight the following focus areas: professional development focused on effectively teaching diverse student populations for all educators, data on programming for students and family therapy and counseling services and finally continue communication with families at earlier grade levels about about high high school opportunities i will now turn it

[00:08:22] back over to tiffany to share the hcps administrator response to these recommendations thank you charmaine i want to thank all the edac members for their careful consideration of equity and diversity issues and for their thoughtful recommendations on behalf of dr cashwell and school administration. I am happy to share that HCPS administration is committed to continue collaboration with the EDAC through the Division of Empowerment, Development, and Opportunity, the Division of Learning, the Division of Family and Community Engagement, our Communications Division, our Division of

[00:08:58] School Leadership, as well as other advisory committees such as the Student Health Advisory Board or SHAB to examine professional learning practices, student support and wellness data, and existing pathway options for families preparing for high school. Thank you for your time and we are happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you both for the presentation. Start with my colleagues to see if we have questions or comments. Mrs. Kinsella. Thank you Chair Irving. I would just like to thank both of you for the presentation today

[00:09:32] and for your work on this committee and thank my colleague Mr. Young for his service representing the board on this committee. I really do like the recommendations y'all have identified for the upcoming school year. I appreciate the work from this year. I think PD, professional development on teaching diverse student populations is always important, especially in a division, a school division as diverse as ours, so I appreciate that continuing

[00:10:06] prioritization. As well as the data on student family and counseling services, and is that gonna be in combination with SHAB as well, across collaboration maybe? - Yes, so similar to what was discussed in one of the previous slides about the collaboration with the Gifted Education Advisory Committee, the GEAC, the EDAC is interested in collaborating with other advisory committees of similar interests, and part of that is to garner that information that's already underway, and then to move forward in addressing some of those specific concerns or questions.

[00:10:42] - I like that. It sounds like collaboration and working smarter, not harder, right? And absolutely that last bullet point, continued communication with families about all of the opportunities available and the different pathways that students need to be on earlier versus later in their educational career.

[00:11:03] So that's really all I have, but just thank you for your service and all the members, their service on this committee. - Chair Irving. - Thank you. Mrs. Atkins? - I also echo sentiments of gratitude for the work Ms. Lewis, Ms. Eaglin, am I saying that correctly?

[00:11:24] - That's correct, yes. - As well as Mr. Young on the committee. The bullet point that resonates with me the most is the third one about communication at earlier grade levels, or just in particularly earlier ages.

[00:11:40] So it was interesting to really reflect upon the two different areas of focus on the grade level, thinking about academics and scholar, but then also thinking about age appropriateness, which is more focused on the age.

[00:11:56] So, if I could give any feedback, is when you are meeting with SHAB, GIAC, or some of the other committees, to also think beyond scholar academia, and think simply about the simplicity of the age when it comes to empowerment, and development, and opportunities.

[00:12:19] Additionally, I don't know if it's on the radar, but I would love for you to take a deeper dive into Maggie Walker as well, and make sure that's on the list around communications. The feedback that I hear often in serving on the Maggie Walker Regional Board is, is there a way that communications can get to students at earlier grades about Maggie Walker?

[00:12:42] And so I wonder if this would fit nicely in your work as a priority. But well done, thank you. - Mrs. Scheer. - Thanks so much for your work. I enjoyed our joint meeting with GIAC and EDAC back in maybe January, I believe.

[00:13:03] And particularly, I appreciate y'all's focus and looking at what systemic barriers may exist for the work that the county is already doing in making sure that it reaches our families. So, you know, things like the QR code and communication that y'all are looking at, I really appreciate that work and that lens to make sure we don't have unnecessary barriers so that all of our families can access the work of Henrico County.

[00:13:30] So thank you so much. Mr. Young. Ms. Eaglen, Ms. Lewis, thank you all so much for the work you did the entire year. I don't think folks know how hard it was to, I mean, to elect a chair.

[00:13:47] I mean, you stepped up when no one else wanted to. So, I mean, we applaud you. You stepped right in. You hit the ground running. I mean, you came in with great ideas. You live in my district as well. I think our kids go to the same school. So some of the things that we saw collectively, we got an opportunity to see from other districts what they were dealing with and the similarities and the differences.

[00:14:07] So not only are we talking about teaching diverse students, but the EDAC is diverse. EDAC is as diverse as it gets. It looks just like our district. And I think that's the amazing point that maybe the presentation misses is that we are diverse in there and we have diverse thought.

[00:14:27] So I'm so proud of the work we've done. This is only the recommendations. I know we have plenty more work to do. Sometimes our discussions go off topic, which is great because we get back to what we really need to do in our schools. So I'm so thankful. Of course, the recommendations are outstanding.

[00:14:42] Any time we can cut down on the information that parents receive and kind of collab with other organizations and other groups to make this simple. Where you want to go to high school should be simple. And I think we're addressing that each and every time we meet.

[00:14:58] So I'm thankful to you all. Once again, Chair Egan, thank you for stepping up three years. I look forward to the continued work that we'll do together. Yes, I'd just like to echo the sentiment of my colleagues. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for providing the recommendations from EDAC.

[00:15:15] I think they're all worthwhile endeavors and I thank you for all the hard work that you guys commit to our students and our staff and our community. So thank you. Thank you. Next, we will have our Special Education Advisory Committee report by Dr. Katie Smith.

[00:15:40] Good afternoon, Mr. Irving, members of the Board, and Dr. Boyd. I'm Katie Smith, Director of Exceptional Education, and today I will present our annual report for the Special Education Advisory Committee. Unfortunately, our SEAC president had a last-minute conflict and was unable to attend today. The HCPS strategic plan journey to 2030 provides the vision and plan for our division's future.

[00:16:02] The work of SEAC this year and next directly aligns with the plan's focus areas, especially equitable access, collaborative partnerships, and student growth. It's our effort to ensure every student, including students with disabilities, have the instructional resources and supports they need to succeed.

[00:16:26] This slide previews the structure of today's update, an introduction to officers and new members, a review of SEAC goals, and how our department will support our special education advisory committee. SEAC is comprised of a group of dedicated parents of students with disabilities, Henrico staff, and administrators.

[00:16:45] The main purpose of SEAC is to develop plans for improving performance of children with disabilities and identify priorities, assist the school division in interpreting plans to the community designed to meet the needs of children with disabilities, and to review the school division's Title VIB annual plan.

[00:17:02] The officers and members elect that you see on the screen represent only those who are new to their respective roles. This group of members elect would join the other 18 members who were previously approved. Five SEAC meetings were held this year, September, October, November, January, and March.

[00:17:19] With this additional member recommended for approval today, SEAC would have at least two members per magisterial district. For the 25-26 school year, SEAC members identified two goals, and the work on these goals will continue going into next school year as well.

[00:17:38] Goal one was to establish a special education PTA liaison in every school. It's part of SEAC's work in providing an inclusive education for students with disabilities. This supportive role offers support to school communities to ensure that PTA activities and events are accessible to all students.

[00:17:54] We are proud to report that several of our schools have added the special education liaison position. Additionally, some of our schools have hosted sensory hours prior to the start of a PTA event, or have included a sensory room activity during their events to allow all students to participate.

[00:18:12] Goal 2 focuses on support retention efforts of new special education teachers. This supports CEAC's outreach efforts to support new special education teachers and provide information on how to collaborate and partner with families to ensure successful parent-teacher relationships. SEAC parents attended our novice teacher week training in August to speak with new teachers about the importance of collaboration and connection with families. As part of our teacher feedback survey, our novice teachers indicated this was one of their favorite sessions of the entire week. Additionally, SEAC families participated in a parent panel for our provisionally licensed teachers as part of their March professional

[00:18:49] learning session. Lastly, SEAC members sent an appreciation letter to all teachers and instructional assistants on the anniversary date of the passing of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and have facilitated specific appreciation events such as painting school rocks to show their love and support for special educators. In addition, we hope to participate in a book study as a way to encourage additional parent involvement in SEAC and increase the knowledge of parents in the IEP process and these goals again will continue for the 26-27 school year.

[00:19:21] HCPS Exceptional Education Administrative staff, we are poised and ready to collaborate with the SEAC officers and membership slate once appointed to support and promote their goals for the 26-27 school year. I'm excited to share and exchange ideas to build trusting relationships between families and school staff.

[00:19:39] Following the board's approval of officers and membership, our office will work alongside the SEAC to continue to work on the goals outlined on the previous slide. Additionally, several other superintendent committees have reached out to start to plan a few collaboration events between the various groups next year.

[00:19:55] We want to encourage cross-committee collaboration, as many of our students are also represented in the other school board advisory committees. I thank you for your time today and welcome any questions that you might have. Thank you, Dr. Smith.

[00:20:10] Colleagues, I'll start with Mrs. Agnes. Thank you and the committee for the work. I'm very excited about the liaison with the PTA, PTSA, and I would assume PTOs as well. I think that work is gonna extend the reach to assist with inclusion.

[00:20:30] I also really adore the thoughtfulness that was put into sensory activities. I think that also not only extends the reach, but that'll help build the relationships and get more feedback into how we can do this better.

[00:20:45] So very appreciative, thank you. - Thank you. - Chair Irving. - Thank you, Mrs. Kinsella. - Yes, it's always a highlight to hear this presentation. I echo Ms. Atkins' sentiments about the PTA liaison initiative.

[00:21:04] I'd like to highlight Mr. Irving's service as a board representative on this committee and serving as an alternate, having the pleasure of attending, even though Mr. Irving was also at the meeting. really enjoyed it seems like the the group has grown the participation has grown am I correct in that yes we now have 18 members after today yeah I mean that's it that's amazing so more involvement I know the conversations were rich I would just like to highlight another experience I had outside of

[00:21:41] listening to the PTSA liaison conversation but it was when we were were going over the homework policies and just rich conversation and getting feedback from every single committee whether it's that serves our students but especially that especially this one so thank you so much for the work and the presentation. Mrs. Shea? Thank you I was particularly excited to hear about that session that you had for PD or for PD for novice teachers the

[00:22:20] opportunity to talk with parents I think that connection is so important and I remember back when I was a first-year teacher you know you hear things about everything right and you don't know which pieces to hold on to and which pieces to not hold on to and so having real interaction with the parents right that you're partnering with in order to educate students.

[00:22:45] I can just imagine that was a really rich conversation and really rich experience and reflected in the feedback you got. And so thank you for thinking outside the box on that, on how SEAC parents could connect with new staff members and really be formative in how they're entering Henrico and entering their career.

[00:23:06] And I think that's so important on a lot of levels for our novice teachers to give them really positive things to enter in, but that have substance, right? Positive things with substance. And it sounds like that was what the session was made of. So kudos to you. Thank you. Mr. Young. Dr. Smith, thank you for the presentation.

[00:23:25] Special education holds a special place in my heart. So I love the goals that you all set out for. I do have a question because I love the PTSA liaisons. If the school doesn't have a PTA, Is there still a liaison? Because the school still does events and different things.

[00:23:43] Absolutely. So we sent a letter actually to all of the principals because the goal was also twofold. One, we might not have many parents on our PTAs. So this was a way to have a principal kind of tap into a family member that might help them also get involved in their community.

[00:23:58] So we actually started with our principals to help them reach out to their school community and say, is there someone in your school that you think this would be a great role for? And then we're working on, so we had a few schools get, you know, as soon as the email came out, we're ready to go, here I am, all in.

[00:24:13] And then in August, we're planning actually to have a meeting for people to come and learn about it. 'Cause we had some people say, hey, I'm interested, but what's the time commitment? What do you need me to do? And so that's kind of how it started to grow. But certainly using the current PTA liaisons and other families to make sure that we have that focus.

[00:24:31] We did have some schools expand to have sensory rooms in the evenings as well. And so we work to provide funding to schools to make sure that they had those opportunities to have some inclusive opportunities. - Yeah, that's amazing. I'm gonna yield to Ms. Kinsella real quick. - Thank you. I just had to, I have a redirect based on that topic.

[00:24:50] What about some kind of collaboration or representation with the FACE Impact Committees? If the principals aren't able to identify-- - Absolutely, that's a great idea. - Families that have time or interest at this point, that the school is still represented because, you know, that's a, maybe there are other ways and face impact committees came to mind. Absolutely. I'll definitely take that suggestion for next year. Yeah. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you so much, Mr. Young. No, you're welcome, Ms. Casella, but amazing job, Dr. Smith. I thought I had another question, but I think,

[00:25:25] Christy, maybe I shouldn't have yielded so soon. I'm good. If I have anything else, I'll ask later, but great work with the SEAC. I appreciate it. Thank you. - Thank you, Dr. Smith. Thank you to all the members of the Enrico County community that serve on the SEAC committee.

[00:25:43] It's privileged to get to take part in those meetings. I think that the parent, the PTA liaison is a wonderful role just to help establish a relationship with parents in the community and answer their questions. And I also think that as a teacher myself, coming in as a new teacher and being able to actually speak with parents of students who have special needs would be remarkably insightful.

[00:26:07] I'm glad that that work is being done and will continue to be done. Thank you again. Thank you. The last committee sharing their annual report this afternoon is our gifted education advisory committee and that report will be presented by Mr. Michael DeSalt. Chairman Irving, members of the board and Dr. Boyd. My name is Mike DeSalt, director of teaching and learning. Our chair, Mr. Jonathan Hudson, was unable to join us today but I am pleased to present to you the GIAC annual

[00:26:42] board report. The work of the GEAC this year and into the year 26-27 school year remains rooted in Henrico's strategic plan. The GEAC's collective effort is to ensure that every student, including our advanced learners, thrive. Today's GEAC update will include an introduction to the slate of officers and new member nominees for the 25-26 goal updates, recommendations for 26-27, and how the gifted department will respond and align with our advisory committee. For those of you who may

[00:27:20] not be familiar with the Gifted Education Advisory Committee, or GEAC, it is comprised of a group of dedicated parents and RICO staff, community members, and students. Their main function is to examine, question, and advise the gifted department in order to promote mutually beneficial relationships among school boards, schools, parents, guardians, and our community, developing each to its maximum potential to address the needs of our advanced learners and gifted students.

[00:27:48] The officers and members elect you see on the screen represent only those who are new to their respective roles or terms. Other magisterial districts are represented equally amongst the larger group but are not shown on this slide. The advisory board is designed to support up to 20 members across all five magisterial districts, including student voices from middle and high schools.

[00:28:11] These individuals bring energy, advocacy, and a shared commitment to gifted education. The officers and members elect are being recommended for the board's approval today. The GEAC members put these goals into action by providing input to the various components of the Henrico Local Gifted Plan for the year 2026 to 2031, along with attending several division and school-level events to help share information about Henrico's gifted program and identification process.

[00:28:40] Ongoing professional learning for our members was highlighted when we hosted Dr. Stephanie Lambrick, specialty center education specialist to support ongoing best practices for our families. We also co-hosted a joint advisory session with our EDO director, Tiffany Lewis, as you just heard, and the EDAC committee to collaboratively work on shared visions to cross assist between committees and advisory members. Innovative highlights were showcased at each meeting around talent development services and gifted programming in Henrico schools that gave our GIAC small samples of the various meaningful, critical, and creative

[00:29:17] thinking opportunities available to our students. And our group continued to share our advocacy for additional staffing to mirror Henrico's expansion of the gifted students across the district. GIAC's recommendations for the upcoming year were rooted in the gifted programs data, local plan, programmatic needs, and committee work. Each of these components helped frame our recommended pathway into next year. These recommendations reflect the committee's continued focus on expanding access, strengthening talent development, and supporting

[00:29:55] advanced learners across the district. First, the committee is recommending the talent development pilot in grade one at title one schools. This is designed as a 30-minute weekly service to build early potential and expand access at the earliest stages. Second, we are recommending grades three through five math aptitude services to provide more targeted support for students demonstrating advanced math potential and third the committee recommends an implementation of the a cubed supplemental curriculum for math in

[00:30:30] grades four it is a high quality research-based instructional resource and finally the committee continues to advocate for additional staffing to ensure that we can sustain program quality and expand equitable access across the number of identified students that continue to grow.

[00:30:51] These recommendations, of course, are grounded in our review of the program data, local plan goals, and ongoing committee work. Following the board's approval of the slate of officers and memberships, HCPS administration will work alongside the GEAC to work towards their goals and recommendations.

[00:31:09] HCPS appreciates the gifted education advisories committee and recommendations today. These priorities align with the division's commitment to increasing access, opportunity, and achievement for advanced learners. In response to the proposed talent development programming pilot in first grade at our Title I schools, the Department of Teaching and Learning will explore opportunities to design, implement a developmentally appropriate model that builds that early potential through enrichment and critical thinking experiences. Consideration will be given to scheduling structures, staffing capacity, and alignment with existing instructional time to support feasibility and sustainability.

[00:31:48] For grades three through five, math-specific aptitude services, Henrico will continue to examine service models that support advanced mathematical talent development, including the use of flexible grouping, enrichment, and targeted instructional supports. This work will be informed by our student data, school-based needs, and alignment with division mathematic initiatives.

[00:32:10] And regarding the gifted supplemental math curriculum, A-cubed, a fourth-grade pilot was conducted this year the division will continue its ongoing rollout and professional learning to ensure high quality consistent use of this advanced curriculum feedback from the pilot classrooms will inform our future scaling and refinement efforts the recommendation for additional staffing will continuously be revisited in the context context of division priorities enrollment trends and available resources provided by our board progress on these initiatives will

[00:32:45] be monitored through program evaluation process disaggregated data review stakeholder feedback and of course alignment with the division's goals this concludes our presentation and we'd be happy well we i would be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you mr de salt uh i'll start with my colleagues mrs shea would you like to go first sure i just looked up the a cubed math curriculum and got a little bit giddy excited maybe during the break i'll try some of these fun

[00:33:19] problems this is what I do for fun colleagues all right it was it's a joy to serve on GIAC and you miss Connelly do a great job engaging with our parents I think my disappointment this year which is not I want to be very clear it's not directed at you or miss Connelly or or the or even the committee who does such a great job it's kind of broader is that there's not more community participation um in the in the committee i know a lot of a lot of our community has a lot of opinions

[00:33:58] and feedback particularly as a county as we we looked at a new local plan and we're developing new models of service and instruction um i think we heard a lot of in my district i heard a lot about that last school year and the local plan and i was really hoping that would drive a more engagement in our committee in terms of giving feedback to the decision makers for gifted instruction right and to give feedback as we develop policy and the local plan and it just didn't come to fruition and even though I mean we

[00:34:33] pushed it out a lot of different ways and so I I don't know if this point is the right word but I remain puzzled by that gap of interest in the topic and and wanting a change, and then not engaging in the place in which they could have an impact on change, if that makes sense.

[00:34:53] I just, and so I'm puzzled by that, and I keep digging into kind of my brain on why that is, are there barriers to access, or are there barriers to understanding what the committee is, but the committee itself does really great work, so thank you so much.

[00:35:11] And I know this was a year with a lot of meat to it, looking at the local plan that we have to update. And so, you know, thank you for all that work, but then also giving us kind of the brain nuggets to think about on how we can expand services to our students and also talking about the homework policy and all these different policies that the board has looked at.

[00:35:34] I really appreciated y'all bringing them to all of the committees because every committee that has reported today and broader than that as well brings a different lens, right? A different lens, and so we get a different layer of feedback, and so I really enjoyed our meeting with EDAC where we dug into things together through two different lenses at the same time.

[00:35:55] My one question for you at this time is as we are looking at the responses to the recommendations, the administrative response, and we're looking at the grades three through five math adapted services, what kind of outcomes are we hoping to see from that?

[00:36:13] - So first of all, thank you for that feedback on the GEAC committee itself. That's always helpful, the perception of others, so that we can continue to strive and improve. As far as the three through five component there, we have to remember this was one of our first years where we opened access to the Math 5/6 Advanced Curriculum.

[00:36:30] And in doing so, we saw great results when students were given the opportunity to participate in more advanced mathematics. We also saw that some students were coming with some gaps that needed to be filled. And so our hope is that by providing these additional services and then backing that up to the talent development component there, we're catching more students before they get to middle school so that they enter our middle school with much stronger mathematical skills.

[00:36:57] I love that. I love that answer. Great answer, Mr. Dussault. No, but I really like that. And being a middle school mom myself, living through math five, six this year and two years previous, my learners are very different and they had two very different experiences, not necessarily positive or negative, but just two very different experiences.

[00:37:17] One of my children really loves Math 24 and participated in a lot of the Math 24 competitions in the county and has really high mathematical fluency because of that. And that had a really positive impact on their Math 5.6 experience because they weren't using that like mental CPU processing space for the fluency.

[00:37:40] They were able to use it for the concepts, right? while the other one had relied more on a calculator, right? So the brain was processing new concepts and processing fluency at the same time, and that's a lot, right? And so I'm really excited to hear that that's really to build up to make Math 5.6 more accessible to all.

[00:38:00] My little pause I had inside when I first read that was thinking, hoping that this was not the case, that we were trying to accelerate more kids beyond that towards that algebra in sixth grade, which as a science math professional gives me, there are some students it is appropriate for, but that's a really big jump to algebra in sixth grade.

[00:38:21] So I'm glad that that's not the outcome we're pushing for. We're pushing more for Math 5.6 to be more accessible. I'm excited about that and I'm excited for our students. So thank you so much. - Appreciate that. - Thank you, Mr. Shea. Mrs. Atkins.

[00:38:37] - Thank you and the committee for the work. This is quite interesting to me for many different reasons. and so I'm gonna be processing well beyond our meeting today and probably reach out to the committee, specifically with some of the discussions we've had on the School Health Advisory Board about the brain and the stress.

[00:39:01] But I also wondered if the committee has thought about reaching colleges and universities to assist with what I see here. So because of the scale and the depth of what I believe you're trying to reach with your goals, I think it would be astute to reach out to VCU, particularly to get guidance, have them come in as guest speakers to talk about particularly the education division, and have them come in and talk to the committee about some of the things that you have as your goals.

[00:39:37] I think they will be very insightful as you move forward and process through this. The question I have is around the talent development with Title I schools. Is the committee thinking about tackling all the Title I schools with this 30 minutes, or are we gonna pace this out?

[00:39:57] My recommendation would be to be very targeted at first, because this does take additional resources, and this is a classroom adjustment. Can you share a little bit more about that? - That's a great question. So over the past two years, we have kept it very targeted to a small number of schools.

[00:40:15] Part of it is to build the capacity of our teachers. The teachers need to know that these students are out there and they need to know what they're looking for. And then the second piece is, and I think you just touched on it there when you're talking about VCU and neuroplasticity and things like that, that sometimes the brain's not fully developed yet.

[00:40:30] And how do we encourage these students so that they stay on this pathway of rigorous instruction so they have these great opportunities as they head towards middle school. So as we have moved slowly with this, We have seen some very, very good results in terms of the number of students identified, student confidence, and things like that.

[00:40:49] Obviously, we would love to be able to scale to all of our Title I schools, but to your point, sometimes you go a little bit slower to build the ship. - Correct, additionally, this may be advantageous, but I would also recommend getting a health professional, psychiatrist, psychologist, along with that, because when you do push for talent development at first grade, particularly if the target is Title I schools.

[00:41:22] This is where a big equity question is gonna come into play, in ensuring that not only are you having the 30-minute weekly services with students, but provide the support for the family so that they can have appropriate discussions about it.

[00:41:38] So in isolation, I'm sure you're gonna get some results, but I think you get a very much larger outcome when you bring in the support for the families on why you're developing talent in this specific way for 30 minutes in the development of the brain.

[00:41:58] So those are just my thoughts at top of mind. My mind is racing with these goals and so I will certainly reach back out at a later date. Thank you so much. - Thank you, we look forward to it.

[00:42:13] - Thank you, Mrs. Kinsella. - Yes, thank you so much, Mr. DeSalt for this presentation. And just once again, I'm gonna thank Mrs. Shea. Well, I've tried to thank each member, or at least highlight their representation of the board on the committee. And I know Mrs. Shea spoke often and often enthusiastically about the work the committee's doing, so I really wanna acknowledge that.

[00:42:38] And then I also wanna say that Ms. Adkins really dove in, I think on the question that Mr. Young and I were noodling, 'cause when she said it, we were like, that was our question. So, and it's around the Title I schools, so I'm pleased to hear that we're not just gonna roll it out in all of our Title I schools, but at the same time, I wish we were, as to give our student, you know, all of our students access and the opportunity.

[00:43:05] But how will the schools be identified? - So that's a great question. So again, I can give you a more comprehensive update of the schools that we've used after this report, if that helps, and I also would like touch base to you mentioned you'd love to have all of the title one schools a part of that and that kind of goes into some of the experiences that we've designed during the summer for any of our title one schools things like the Science Museum the Richmond Railroad I forget a couple others the Henrico theater where we've encouraged the families to come with the students and I think Miss Atkins touched on this that that awareness of you know what we're trying to do here and that the families need to be a part of this journey so to

[00:43:43] speak and I think we highlighted this in a board report probably in the fall and as a capturing of the summer of 2025, but the numbers were much, much larger than we ever thought they would be. So there's a lot of interest there. And so I think it's a matter of how do you continue to share the larger group, these experiences, while you're starting to narrow down those particular schools and what you're doing in those schools.

[00:44:06] But I'd be happy to provide an update around that if you'd like. - I'd greatly appreciate that. This is something I'd really like more. to better understand, maybe to even dive deeper and ask different questions, and really improve what the committee's work.

[00:44:25] Chair Irving, that's all I had. - Thank you, Mr. Young. - Mr. Dusalt, thank you for the presentation. Also enjoyed the joint collaborative meeting between GEAC and EDAC. I believe that was back in January, as Ms. Shea said. But Mr. Dusalt, I heard expand access, increase access, I heard opportunities, all the things that EDAC also is trying to do, And EDAC, GAC, SEAC, all of us are in a space of increasing opportunities for our kids, right?

[00:44:55] Like, so when I see all these things, only that I can think of is EDAC because we do similar work and how all these kind of intermingle and intertwine. So I'm glad that all of us are headed in the same direction. It doesn't feel like GAC is going this way, EDAC is going this way. It feels like we all are going the same way on this highway.

[00:45:10] So I'm pleased to hear that. And also, Ms. Atkins did take my question, but she elaborated on it a little bit more than I probably would have. So I'm appreciative of that. But I like the fact that we're identifying gifted kids early. It's that simple for me in our Title I schools.

[00:45:27] It's that simple. So thank you so much for your service. Great job. Great presentation. Great work. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Quick redirect. With our a cubed, is that, who is, whose responsibility in terms of instructionally is it to provide that? Is that coming from the classroom teacher or the GRT? So this year during the pilot it was the GRT pushing into the regular ed classroom and then it was on the backside of things our mathematics specialists taking a look at where some of these would fit naturally within the scope and sequence of the curriculum. So it was a lot of give-and-take, a lot of

[00:46:05] feedback to say why does this work does this not work and so that when we provide the training for this summer and the ongoing training we'd have a little bit firmer of a foundation to build off of excellent I'm glad to hear it's not one more thing on general classroom teachers plate I think that I like to hear you say I like that the where does it already dovetails into what they're already doing and that also that push-in model where the students are still in the classroom but getting we're getting that enrichment so thanks for that clarification. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. DeSalt. I have no further comments or questions. I think my colleagues covered it all, but thank you for your service. Thank you for everybody who serves on the

[00:46:45] GAC committee. I'm looking forward to see how we carry this out going into the next school year. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the annual review of the proposed changes to our code of student conduct. We will be seeking approval at the June board meeting, allowing the Proposed changes to take into effect for the 26-27 school year.

[00:47:09] And we have Dr. Ingrid Grant to present to us the presentation. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Irving, members of the board, and Dr. Let me start over. Good afternoon, Chair Irving, members of the board, and Dr.

[00:47:24] Board. Each year, the Disciplinary Review Hearing Office conducts a thorough review of the Code of Student Conduct and brings forward any recommended updates. These updates are designed to ensure not only adherence with the law, but to ensure consistent expectations across all schools, protecting instructional time by ensuring that students remain focused and engaged throughout the school day.

[00:47:53] Annually, the code of student conduct is reviewed to determine whether revisions are needed to strengthen understanding and implementation or to ensure alignment with new legislation. For the 26-27 school year, the proposed revisions for the Code of Student Conduct addressed primarily cell phones and smart devices based on new legislation.

[00:48:16] Revisions to the cell phone and smart phone device sections were based on Senate Bill 108, which prohibits cell phone and smart device use on school property from first bail until dismissal, including at lunch and between classes, was recently signed into law by Governor Spanberger.

[00:48:38] While the previous language in the code on this topic aligned with the executive order previously issued by the former governor, the new law necessitates firmer language and additional clarity within the code of student conduct for the upcoming school year to ensure compliance with the code of Virginia.

[00:48:58] While the changes are minimal in scope, they are expected to reaffirm our commitment to a cell phone free learning environment and have a meaningful impact by promoting consistency across all schools.

[00:49:13] As you can see on the screen, we propose adding the following language to be in alignment with the governor's new legislation. The proposed revisions include language that clarifies and prohibits the use of cell phones on school property, bell to bell, including at lunch and during class changes.

[00:49:34] We propose removing any language that speaks to a teacher's discretion regarding cell phone use, as no cell phones or smart devices are permitted during the school day. The only exceptions for students with IEPs, 504s, or healthcare plans that require the student's use of a cell phone or smart device.

[00:49:59] In addition, we are proposing adding personal smart devices to elementary and secondary cell phone use for clarity. To make it clear, we again propose removing any language that mentions a teacher's discretion regarding cell phone and/or smart device use during the school day.

[00:50:20] And to be in alignment with the governor's new legislation, we propose adding language to the code of student conduct that states no student shall be suspended or expelled as a consequence solely based upon their use or possession of a cell phone or smart device.

[00:50:39] However, there are level consequences for those who do not meet our expectations regarding cell phone use. As we move forward, it is important to reemphasize the expectations that cell phones remain stored and out of sight throughout the entire school day.

[00:51:00] During class, phones should be placed in designated classroom storage containers and/or kept in backpacks while students transition between classes and during lunch. As stated earlier, the only exceptions are related to IEPs, 504, or healthcare plans are permitted in accordance with established guidelines in the code and with school level approval.

[00:51:28] Again, students will not be suspended or expelled solely for the possession or use of a cell phone or smart device. However, students will be expected to comply with the policy and failure to do so will result in clearly defined level consequences listed in our student code of conduct.

[00:51:51] To support successful implementation, school administrators will continue to receive in-depth training during summer professional learning. In addition, updated guidance documents, resources, will be shared with both administrators and teachers in our families to support consistent implementation.

[00:52:11] This completes the review of these minimal proposed changes and we welcome your feedback. At the June 11th meeting, we will be seeking final approval to ensure our code is aligned with the state code at the start of the 26-27 school year.

[00:52:30] Thank you for your continued support. This concludes the presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. - Thank you, Dr. Grant. So my colleagues, is there anybody who would like to go first? Ms. Atkins.

[00:52:46] - I did have a question. - Yes, ma'am. - In the presentation, it says storage containers provided to secondary schools. Are they also provided for elementary? - No, ma'am, but if a school requests one, we do provide them. - Okay.

[00:53:01] - Then has the division considered assigning volunteer or service work as a restorative consequence for non-compliance? - No, we haven't, but that's something that we could take under consideration. - I think, you know, I reviewed, of course we have to be compliant, but I also reviewed the consequences, which are aligned with other consequences that are much, much more, in my opinion, worthy.

[00:53:31] So for a simple cell phone, I am hopeful that when you have discussions and when the team gets together to really look at some of the restorative practices or service work or volunteer work. So if a student is caught with a cell phone, maybe that consequence looks like staying after school and cleaning parts of the school or volunteer work at the church or something other that's positive versus feeling like punishment.

[00:54:01] And I think we would be well-positioned for this to be embraced better if we took that type of approach to non-compliance. So I wish we would, as a division, when we're looking at certain actions by students to really look at a positive spin on it and look for progress in accountability versus punishment.

[00:54:27] So just wanted to give that feedback for a discussion. Thank you, Chair Irving. I appreciate your comments as to what the consequence may look like and how it's received by the students and the families. I really appreciate the presentation and it's just interesting. I think this is the first time we've had so few recommendations in the student or edits to the student code of conduct and I just like the way you explained it. I like the way that you highlighted that

[00:55:05] that there was gonna be training this summer, right? And then I think like we speak every time we discuss the student code of conduct and families are supposed to read it and they're supposed to sign it digitally at back to school.

[00:55:21] How are we gonna ensure, is there gonna be some sessions in our buildings, if you will, at the secondary level, especially as to the new rules, if you will? Like, hey, we know what it was two years ago, what it was this year, and this is what's up for the next school year.

[00:55:46] What is the plan? What does that look like? - Every year we provide guidance documents for our principals along with presentations for them to, during their back to school with teachers, to go over it with their teachers, setting the clear expectations.

[00:56:01] And then there is a student presentation to ensure that students are following the guidelines. We also work with communications. There has been a video in the past. We will continue to do videos. We will continue to provide signage around the schools when schools ask for it in certain places.

[00:56:21] So we do that every year and we will update it to reflect our current legislation. - Okay, and then not in the presentation today, but just since we are discussing student code of conduct, I felt it was appropriate.

[00:56:38] Often times this year, and over the years in service, I hear frequently about dress code, and the, I guess consistent, the Student Code of Conduct is clear on what the dress code is.

[00:57:01] However, constituent feedback expresses concern for the, it's not consistent across the division, and what can we do, perhaps, to pay more attention to dress code?

[00:57:19] For people who may be listening, that this is, if you've ever been in some of the secondary drop-offs, you've seen it. - Yes, ma'am. We will continue to work with the principals during professional learning during the summer. Dr. Noel has a presentation, and we will continue to make sure that we clarify and set expectations for principals to set expectations within the school for the dress code.

[00:57:45] We know that that's the area that we need to continue to work on, and we will also continue to work with our principals on it, and teachers. - Thank you so much for that, I do appreciate it. Chair Irving, that's all I had. - Mrs. Atkins.

[00:58:02] - Thank you for the redirect, I wanna be respectful. Do you wanna go before I give my questions? Okay. - I did, as I was sitting here thinking through, I was at Henrico High School as a guest speaker for AP government class, shout out to Ms. Broda's class.

[00:58:22] This was a very rich discussion on the law and on the implementation of the law and how when the school board receives this new law, we are challenged with implementing it and doing it as best as we can.

[00:58:40] One of the discussions was around the bus. it was around how oftentimes things that are happening in the school is indicative of things that have happened on the bus, and particularly around cell phones.

[00:58:56] And if there's going to be an incident, if there is bullying, or any more of the negative uses of the cell phone, oftentimes, sometimes it gets escalated while on the bus and then something breaks out in the school, but then on the opposite end, it's preventable because families and students may know about it and can avoid it before walking into the school.

[00:59:20] I am wondering if there is some sort of innovative, creative way that we could put monitors, TV monitors on the bus. I know that's an extended expense, but I am really trying to think out of the box and on the bus, some sort of TV message to remind our students about this rule, about the more aggressive approach that we are going to have because we really have no choice because it's a law.

[00:59:48] That's one. And that sort of came out of this discussion was, you show up to school and all of a sudden it feels like something's smacking you in the face because there is an addiction and I'm gonna leave it right there.

[01:00:04] So if I smoke crack cocaine and you didn't give me the crack the next day, I'm gonna have a response. And I'm being very aggressive with my statements because I want us to be more prepared, particularly on the bus and in the cafeteria. Forget the classroom.

[01:00:20] I think we are gonna manage that very well. But in the cafeteria where this is our students' time to debrief, to socialize, to talk while they eat and all the things, I wonder if we're well prepared in the cafeteria and if we're well prepared on the bus.

[01:00:37] So if we could have monitors in the TV, TV screens just to talk about things, talk about the addiction of cell phones, Talk about what happens to your ears when you put the plugs in your ears from your phones and the impacts of that. If we could embrace educating our children around technology along with removing it, I think we would be well positioned for our students to learn why we're doing this versus just taking it away.

[01:01:06] Our students are phenomenal. We can educate them while embracing this change with them versus just doing it to them. And so that sort of came out of that AP government guest speaker situation. The other question that I have is around school security officers.

[01:01:24] Will there be training for them as well for when, if a student pulls it out, do they know how to handle that situation? And is training part of the plan? Dossel will work collaboratively with John Costello and his team to ensure that they're trained.

[01:01:40] Fantastic. Thank you so much for the redirect. Of course. Mr. Young? Yeah, Ms. Atkins, I feel I set you up for failure in Ms. Brodin's class, because I too went and spoke to the class, but I actually took this presentation with me so we could have some discussion around it.

[01:01:58] So Ms. Atkins, I feel like I might have set you up for further discussion, but it was a lively class that I spoke with that was a little upset as well, but it was good discussion on what the school board actually, I presented and I let them pretend they were school board and I was you for about 30 minutes, Ingrid.

[01:02:19] Not as polished, though, right? But I've got a couple of questions here. One, when I went to the class, and I'm on campus a lot, I see our children wearing headphones and iPods like they're jewelry. Are we saying no AirPods in the ear all day, no headphones, even if not connected, around the neck?

[01:02:40] Are we... No devices. No devices, period. And no discretion, right? And no discretion, no devices. I just wanted to make sure we were clear, even if it's not connected. They had the beets around their neck.

[01:02:57] They walk around school all day. We don't know if they're connected or not, so no devices. Exactly. Okay, that's what I wanted to hear. Another thing, Ms. Kinsella, you pointed it out about the dress code. Can we have no discretion there as well, as opposed to school discretion? Because obviously, we have children violating the dress code.

[01:03:15] But it's up to principal discretion, teacher discretion, on how it gets reported. any language that can be put in that says no discretion, like we are now doing with cell phones. - That is something we can take under consideration. We know that dress code is something that we continue to have to work with, and we will work with our principals to ensure that students are compliant with the dress code policy.

[01:03:43] - And we spoke about consistency with this policy, so at length, Dr. Ingrid. So I definitely appreciate you just sort of explaining it to us as well. I did like the community service approach. I do a lot of community service. So when it comes to not necessarily a punishment, but a consequence for having a cell phone, I sort of like that approach.

[01:04:04] I'm interested to see if something comes from that as we sort of, as you guys meet over the summer. I think that's a good idea. And one other thing I wanted to touch on in the code of conduct, and I pulled it up, bullying is is written in the code of conduct about 42 times so when we go back to these cell phones the cell phones are in the pocket I'm gonna give you a scenario fight breaks out student poor cell phone out to record this is a gray area right now but it says no suspensions but if I'm gonna put this fight up I'm gonna post it we into this sort of just help me sort of navigate

[01:04:44] that if something like this happens during the school day remember it says so you cannot suspend or expel solely for cell phone, but if they violate another code within the Code of Student Conduct, they can receive severe consequences.

[01:04:59] - Okay, and I just want children to understand, students to understand that as well, that pulling it out to record and send to others. - That's your second violation. - There you go, right, right, right. And that's what I want to hear, 'cause like I said, bullying is becoming something that's prevalent now, whether it's cyber, in person, and it's mentioned 42 times, meaning that HCPS does take it serious.

[01:05:21] - Yes, we do. - So no other questions, but appreciative of you. Thank you for always picking up on me as well and answering all of my questions. - You're welcome. - Thank you, Dr. Graham. - Mrs. Shea. - Thanks so much. You know, I have to chuckle a little bit that Mr. Young and Ms. Kinsella both brought up dress code, 'cause I was gonna bring up that this is the first year that I have not gotten feedback from students on dress code other than the teenager living in my own house who everything's, you know.

[01:05:52] - So it's getting better. - But I was gonna say, this is the first year I haven't and one of my high schools does a end of the year project every year and there's always multiple projects about dress code. And some of them are on the old dress code or what they perceive the dress code to be.

[01:06:08] And I'm always like, well, let me, you should read the code of conduct 'cause we've amended it. And so I was gonna say, I felt like we had some wins this year dress code that um it's get it's being better understood but maybe that's just my inbox but a win from my inbox we appreciate dr grant uh on the um on the on the dress code gotta take a win where we can get it on code of conduct um so talking about looking looking at cell phone because that really is our um biggest um edit here um what are we doing to ensure that our

[01:06:45] administrator's time especially during that first chunk of the year getting used to this is not consumed with being the cell phone police next year i'll be honest it's going to be hard implementation when we start out and i think if principals start out with they're very strict and this is what it's going to be and when people violate it they you know they get their consequences and not ignore i think sometime when it gets out of hand is ignore it when you see it like we see something say something when you see it you need to do something about it and we

[01:07:21] need to work with our principals to let them understand is how you start it's going to be how you finish and so if you start strong it should get easier for you along the way is there a way that we can stream I I don't know all the documentation process in terms of like once a cell phones confiscated or when there's a violation but if we can just think about if we can proactively streamline perhaps for our administrative our administration team that process once it's confiscated so if they are having a large volume particularly at the beginning of the year at least

[01:07:59] that takes something off their plate principals work with us to develop the guidance so we will get feedback on how we should go about that excellent thank you and then I'm thinking about the can take storage containers for the secondary school so I assume those are in the classroom so the student puts it in when they arrive in the classroom and they take it out when they leave the classroom or they can keep it in their book bag okay to me that's really important that they have the option to keep it in their book bag because especially now next year we're saying no

[01:08:37] use during lunch no use during class change that seems really tempting if I put it in at the beginning of class and I take it out at the end of the class not to you know check see what I missed if that makes sense and so if it just stays in the book bag perhaps that temptation is is decreased but I also want to make sure on the flip side of that that teachers are equipped with what they need for success and they're gonna be way more the expert than I am because they're living this every day and if they say we need containers to make it happen I want to make sure they have they have containers already yeah Usually the students that have to put them in the containers are the ones that don't want to comply.

[01:09:16] So if you want to keep your cell phone, you keep it in your book bag. I feel like as a student or as someone who's addicted to my own cell phone, it would be much less tempting if it was just off and in my bag than taking it in and out and having that transfer moment to get sucked in.

[01:09:35] I think that's really all for me. I think it'll be interesting to see... um how what the implementation day-to-day of the cell phone changes look like and um i think for some of our schools it'll be a very stark contrast to this year and for some of our schools it'll be just one you know one more incremental step so um it's all for me thank you i'm sorry i have another question chair irving if i could have a redirect mrs atkins i wanted to better understand

[01:10:12] so I've seen the storage device for the smartphone so you get your phone you get a number at the beginning of class at the end of the class you turn your number in and that matches the number in the storage device that you slide it into but with prescription meta glasses and smart watches will those storage containers damage glasses and watches I don't know that answer but I was if I had a smart the smart glasses or the watch I would keep that in the book bag

[01:10:49] so protection so for the guidance because there's the I have a pair so the glasses themselves of course you can record and you can talk to Siri you can ask questions and speeches it can dictate back to you why you're doing your speech and I put my glasses in a storage container of course it's not what the teachers have but the heat inside of it damaged the lenses and they were prescription and so I would like for us to take some time over the summer

[01:11:23] because you're gonna have a very irate parent if a student has them to return back very damaged glasses similarly with the watch itself if you put the watch in a container and it consumes the heat it also will hurt your eyes if you put those glasses on but with the smart watch itself with particular storage containers the heat may damage the covering that film that's on the smart watch so if we could just be very astute and make sure maybe we do a test I don't know with whose watch or glasses but really do the research to make sure that

[01:12:01] they don't get damaged in the storage containers and maybe we can give schools some guidance around that yeah so we don't have incidents like that yep just that was at top of mind that i just wanted to share thank you thank you dr grant um yeah i have thoughts about this being being in the classroom and kind of enforcing the cell phone policy um i do think that i'm glad that the law removed any ambiguity in the room it's much easier to just say no all the time i found that that's as a teacher how i got the best compliance because in previous years it was all right you can have it during sometimes if i give you permission and

[01:12:40] and you can't have it during other times, but I've found that just, the answer is always no, is the easiest. And I think that you hit the nail on the head with, enforcement in the beginning of the year is vital because my students in my room, and I can't, I can say for a fact that not all teachers enforce this equally, but students were never on their phones in my room because they knew without a doubt that it would be taken every single time, regardless of who you were, what grade you had in the class or anything.

[01:13:07] And that's how I got compliance. So it is very true that if you enforce, students will generally abide. The issue, however, is the hallways and lunch, and logistically it is very challenging to enforce, and that's why I'm not quite sure that the storage device in a room or a backpack is the answer, because if you leave it in your backpack, kids will sneak it out and then take it in the hallway in the middle of class, and that's generally almost the hardest time of enforcement, is when a kid is walking alone in the hallway with their cell phone that they took out

[01:13:45] I'm teaching so I'm not paying attention to you grabbing a device out of your backpack. And so I do think that if I had to choose between the two it would absolutely be devices must be stored within the container because then there's no temptation of taking it out with you when you're going to the restroom and then texting your friends then waiting for them to do the same thing and then texting each other to meet up which which happens. But then between class changes and lunch

[01:14:12] The biggest struggle that I've run into is, like, if I don't know who the student is and they have their cell phone and the rule is not a warning, it is this device is taken, how logistically do we go about doing that? have we empowered teachers to take the cell phone? Because the law in subsection B, part three says ensure that implementation and enforcement of such fallacies is the responsibility of the school administration, minimizes to the extent possible any conflict with teachers or any disturbance to instructional time, and does not involve a school resource officer. So logistically,

[01:14:49] that becomes very challenging, where I don't know the student's name, we are obligated to take the cell phone. I cannot walk the student down to the office because that would interfere with my instructional time, but also buildings have maybe at the high school level, which is primarily where we serve enforcement, I think the most four to five administrators who could be doing any given thing in the building at any given time and the challenges that presents. And I do think to Mrs.

[01:15:22] Shea's point, the temptation of getting the phone out of the case and then taking it to your next class does also conflict with what the law says because it says in subsection B part 1 prohibits students cell phone and smart device possession. They cannot even possess it because we've focused on the use, but possession is also prohibited under the law. And so possession is taking your cell phone out and carrying it with you to the next class. So I think, you know, we've done it a particular way over the past few years, and I'm glad that we have, but in order to comply with the

[01:15:58] law, that actually doesn't comply with the law. So I'm trying to figure out how, when it prohibits possession, which is physically having the phone in your pocket or anything, we would be in violation. And thank you, Mr. Irving. I think a piece, as we're all thinking about the new legislation that was just passed, to Dr. Grant's point earlier, we're really going to have to collaborate very, very closely with our principals who are boots on the ground to make sure we're consistent and that we thought through all of the different nuances, scenarios and make sure that we are compliant with the legislation.

[01:16:34] And so you do have our commitment that we will certainly be compliant. We're going to partner with our principals to make sure that we can fully operationalize this and support them so that it minimizes adverse impact on instruction. And so our instructional leaders can be just that, instructional leaders to the greatest degree possible.

[01:16:52] But we will have to put forth a lot of initial work to make sure we're consistent with our processes season, so that students know what to consistently expect, as do our staff and our families. So we're going to continue the conversation. I appreciate that context.

[01:17:07] And again, I'm mostly speaking from my own experience and having to enforce this myself. I do think that one thing that I have found, and I cannot speak for HCPS because I'm not a teacher in HCPS, but when I have a student with a cell phone, for example, I just type their name in, the period that they're in, and the class period, my room number, and student's name into a google form which sends a message to the office they message our school resource i mean school security officer or one of the administrators who then comes by the room grabs the student takes them down to the front office processes it and then the student comes back i have no conflict with the student i've never had a student get upset with me during that

[01:17:46] because i don't even engage in a back and forth it's just you need to leave so i'm curious what that process looks like for us in terms of minimizing teacher student conflict over this this topic because I do think that's that is vital um and ensuring that this is uniform across buildings because I think you don't want to get into a situation of you know well this is how it's done here but why is it done this way here and it's not uniformly applied across all of our buildings I do think that one of the suggestions that I would have as well with recommended consequences for secondary in particular the first defense is

[01:18:24] device confiscation until the end of the school day verbal warning and a parent or guardian contact i think at this point though we don't need a warning because we know what the law is and it's been this way more or less within our county for the past two years prior to now and i think that we should strike that and just move to parent has to pick this up on the first offense you know that you're not allowed to bring school your phone to school and if your parent can't get there for two days then maybe you should think harder about following the procedures such that this has not become a major inconvenience for you.

[01:18:59] Because I do feel that if on the first attempt your parent has to come get this and uproot their day, especially if you have a parent who works odd hours or whatever it is, or just out of principle, I'm not going to get this right now because you shouldn't have been on your cell phone, perhaps that encourages our young people to adhere to the guidelines a bit more strenuously.

[01:19:22] I'm just trying to comment on a couple of the points that I've heard. Because Mr. Young said, yeah, there's part C within the laws that says any violation of the student's code of conduct can coincide with the results in an instance of disruptive behavior as a term defined in the subsection shall be addressed in accordance with the regulation and on student code of conduct so that's covered in terms of device damaging that Mrs. Atkins spoke about I think my biggest retort to that would be you're not supposed to have the devices at school like the the metaglasses are a smart device and if you don't want your device to be damaged you shouldn't have it may May I respond to that?

[01:20:00] Yeah, of course. There's a difference between, in my opinion, there's a difference between implementing a law that we have to do and being compassionate towards parents.

[01:20:23] If a child damages clothing that they weren't supposed to wear and that clothing was damaged by the school. I think we would want to be compassionate enough to say that, yes, we are aware that your child wasn't supposed to wear X, Y, Z, but because the school damaged the clothing, the school board, in my opinion, should be compassionate enough to acknowledge that it was our fault.

[01:21:01] So I hear what you're saying, that the child, because these are children, was not supposed to do something but they are children as a parent and children do things and make bad decisions doesn't make them a bad child they make bad decisions sometimes so whether it's the clothing that got damaged by the school or the bad decision to bring the device that got damaged by the school the school is liable for that so I hear what you're saying that a child shouldn't have made

[01:21:34] a bad decision whether it's a device clothing or their person if it is damaged by the school or a school harms a child or a school damages a device the school should acknowledge that regardless of the bad decision that the child has made those are just my thoughts at top of mind sure sure I mean I think that there is some level of if you bring a thing to a building things can happen that doesn't mean that it's intentional and I think you know we

[01:22:09] we are also denying people agency and their decision-making by saying that we are ultimately always accountable for anything that happens at any time within a building and I think you know in my experience having seen front offices and how these devices are stored those types of devices would not be put with the cell phones in a case but again that's just that's that's my view of the situation yes mrs. Shea thank you um I pulled up the code of Virginia as as you speaking mr irving just to dive into this a little bit more and i just want to make the clarification

[01:22:47] that it looks like all eight times that the word possession is used including in the header it's used possess it has possession and use together and so i am i do not have a legal degree but in terms of bullion algebra the use of and their possession and use i think what we are proposing in this student code of conduct is in line with the law because possession doesn't stand by itself.

[01:23:16] Correct. I worked closely with Dr. Grant and feel that the code of conduct as proposed is compliant with the law as worded. So it will really come down to implementation and being consistent. Oh no, I'm glad that that is the case and my reading comprehension on that was not sufficient um okay no i think that that is that that covers it all oh i did have one logistical because i was actually talking with the yearbook teacher at my school and this actually does

[01:23:50] present somewhat slight challenges for yearbook and i think from a um resource and equity lens historically yearbook within high school has allowed students even even under our previous policy if you had a pass specifically for yearbook to take pictures and then upload them to the yearbook logistical system that is then used to create the yearbook if you're not allowed to use the device even for educational purposes how are we able to support those courses within our building so that they can still fulfill their duties of because of my understanding is that cameras which we

[01:24:29] used to have you know the old-school cameras we may not have as many of now because we were able to supplement it over the past few years with cell phone use how are we providing I know this is very niche but I do think that the your book is an important part of buildings and how are we able to and we as a board provide the resources for the school so that they're still able to carry out these duties because it was something that I didn't even think about until I spoke to this teacher today yeah and again maybe it's just talking with those teachers and saying what supports do you need and in lieu of this but I just anything that you can bring to us on this front I would I would be in support of I did see the old-school digital cameras are making a comeback in

[01:25:08] HACKY SACK AND THE GRAPFUL DEAD. I THINK I SAW HIM FOR LIKE 25 BUCKS NOW OR 30 BUCKS. YOU KNOW THE ONE WITH THE DIGITAL CARD. BUT I THINK THAT'S A GREAT POINT FOR US TO THINK ABOUT WHAT GAPS THIS MIGHT CREATE AND WHAT ADDITIONAL RESOURCES OUR SCHOOLS MIGHT NEED. YEAH, VERY NICHE BUT I THINK AN IMPORTANT THING FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE SUPPORT THEM. I HAVE NOTHING ELSE. THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THIS AND ALL THAT YOU ALL DO.

[01:25:34] THANK YOU. THE LAST ITEM WE'RE EXCITED TO BRING FORWARD IS A REVIEW OF OUR schematic design for the new Fairfield Area Elementary School, and that will be presented by Ms. Susan Moore and Mr. Josh Bauer. Good afternoon. Chair Irving, board members, Dr. Boyd, I am Susan Moore, director of facilities, and we are excited to be presenting the proposed schematic design of the new Fairfield

[01:26:13] Area Elementary School. Presenting with me today is Josh Bauer, principal, planner, Center and senior project manager with Crabtree Roerbaugh and Associates, our architect of record. Also with us today in the front row is our capital project manager and architect, Adam Byfield.

[01:26:35] We will review the project progress to date, as well as the proposed site plan, floor plans, and exterior elevations. This project is one of our 2022 bond referendum projects.

[01:26:52] The school location is identified in the maps on the screen by the pink star. On the overall map to the left, you can see that the school will be located on the northwest area of the Fairfield District. The map to the right shows that the project's site is on the Woodman Road extension, just west of Route 1 and the Virginia Center area, also adjacent to the River Mill development.

[01:27:19] As stated in the fall of 2025 by our planner, in preparation for the new school, boundary lines must be drafted and reviewed by the school board division leadership and the public. Necessary adjustments will need to be made at the elementary level, and when considering feeder patterns, the school board may choose to review attendance zones at the middle and high school levels.

[01:27:47] adjustments will need to begin the draft stage in the 2027-28 school year with a final vote for approval by the school board by fall of 2028 at the latest it is anticipated that the boundary adjustments will impact chamberlain greenwood longdale and trivet elementary schools at a minimum or it could be as expansive as reviewing the boundaries for echo lake glen allen holiday and laburnum elementaries as well the more expansive the proposed scenarios are for public

[01:28:26] review the longer the lead time will need to be prior to your final vote also as we continue in this project the new school will need to be named in accordance with school board policy the naming process will be brought back to the school board at a later date to start the project off the design team led four in-depth programming meetings these meetings included a programming committee excuse

[01:28:59] me committee comprised of our design consultants facilities capital personnel the elementary education specialists and representatives for elementary administration both from the school and division levels the group discussed and explored site relationships amount size and adjacency of educational spaces needs for resource areas as well as the relationships and requirements of the common spaces i will now turn the presentation over to josh to review the

[01:29:36] site and building schematic design good afternoon the project site is located adjacent to woodman road to the south and fall line trail to the west it's approximately 23.3 acres approximately 50 percent of the parcel is designated as wetlands the developable area after subtracting the wetlands setbacks and easements is approximately nine acres our team is proposing to develop the western portion of the site the design separates car and bus drop-off on woodman road and may accommodate

[01:30:15] up to 75 cars during the high capacity pickup and drop-off times the schematic design shows parking for 10 buses and 143 cars. Delivery access may be achieved through the bus loop, around the west, and to the north face of the new school. The building location is proposed to be on the northwestern side of the parcel, placing it away from Woodman Road. The playgrounds are planned to be located on the northeastern side, away from the delivery drive and from

[01:30:51] Fall Line Trail. The Fall Line Trail will be securely separated from the from the school site to reduce interaction between the trail walkers and students and staff. While the wetlands on the site limits our buildable area, it creates an opportunity for experiential, educational, ecological space where students may engage the local natural environment. I'm glad I have to say that again. So our

[01:31:26] TEAM DISCUSSIONS, THE FINAL PROGRAM KNITTED FOUR PRE-K, THREE EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATIONAL CLASSROOMS AND FIVE DEEP GRADES KINDERGARTEN THROUGH FIFTH GRADE FOR A TOTAL OF 37 CLASSROOMS.

[01:31:42] THE PLANNED BUILDING CAPACITY IS 750 STUDENTS. THE TOTAL BUILDING SIZE IS APPROXIMATELY 92,870 SQUARE FEET. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE BUILDABLE SITE IN AN EFFORT TO REDUCE THE TRAVEL DISTANCE WARRANTED a two-story building. The building is organized by a Main Street design. That is the red shaded area. This is Main Street. It kind of separates the large group space from the classrooms.

[01:32:14] So starting at the entrance on the Planned South Side, the layout includes administration and counseling and the clinic flanking the secure vestibule and then the vestibule, the stage and the cafeteria. The stage is designed with two proscenium openings, one on the stage and one on the cafeteria side to maximize the flexibility of performances and assemblies.

[01:32:46] The stage has direct access off of Main Street, so it can be utilized as an additional classroom. Crossing Main Street, we have art and music classrooms. The programming committee preferred an enclosed courtyard for enhanced student safety and access.

[01:33:04] On this first floor, we have pre-K, kindergarten, first and second grades, and educational education classrooms. these spaces have the toilet rooms inside of the classrooms moving to the second floor main street is stacked directly on top of the first floor we're showing the media center off of main street and then we have in the wings our second or our third fourth and fifth grade classrooms with multi-stall toilets off of the quarters each floor has open space open office space for

[01:33:38] educators without classrooms faculty work rooms and enclosed small group spaces so this is a proposed bird's eye of the building um what we're proposing for for the materiality is titan block um on the material on the on the as the masonry base with precast sills and two different colors of face brick schools are often very horizontal and what we're proposing with the two colors of brick is remote verticality and break up the facade this is the walking view

[01:34:14] of the front entrance the vertical blade wall extracting from the main entrance guides your eye to that point of entry the the drop-off canopy extends from the from the bus and car drop-off separation and continues all the way to the front main entrance as you can see the drop-off canopy on the left this is the separation between the car and bus drop every area it's an offset from the front entrance this permits a a better better site functionality and also a better view of the

[01:34:48] front entrance this is a proposed view of the interior courtyard we are proposing synthetic grass and concrete pavers for the servicing to reduce the impact on maintenance i now turn the back over to susan pardon my little coffin jack there this slide indicates where we are in the project scheduling we have concluded the programming and schematic design phase and if approved the design team will proceed into design development and construction documents

[01:35:22] wrapping up the design in february of 2027 the plan is to bid the project in early spring of 27 and start construction early that summer construction will conclude approximately in the spring of 2029 with a summer move-in our students will be able to start the school year in their newly opened school in the fall of 2029 we will conclude our presentation with this beautiful evening view of the front of our new elementary school and we'll be

[01:35:58] glad to answer any questions that you may have thank you all so much for the presentation I will start with my colleague mr. young if you'd like to go first I'm sure he has lots to say I absolutely would like to start first thank you for the presentation the building looks phenomenal if I had to complain I guess my only complaint would be it's a little too close to your district um Christy I don't want to lose I don't want to lose my new school and the new census um but I got a few questions for you um is this design seen

[01:36:36] anywhere else have you designed a building like this anywhere else I know this is the first time for this for this specific design okay so this would be original one of one of a kind it is absolutely one of concert all right there we go let's put a check beside that one all right media center uh is that the new word for library yes sir okay all right just wanted to double check that uh the courtyard i heard you say it was a different type of grass to reduce maintenance it's not turf though right it would be a synthetic grass it would be turf yes okay perfect all right um when it comes to drop off

[01:37:13] are the children the students entering the same entrance because i see it looks like the canopy sort of wraps around in the front are they using the same entrance to go into the school that's typically our recommendation um is that is that both the car and bus drop-off would enter at the same point which is main street uh because it's the largest widest opening in the building so that is typically what we would recommend okay if i may add yes you may we would have the option to use that entry over to the left-hand side of the school lower left-hand corner of the building we would have that option to work that in as a possible entrance to the school.

[01:37:48] Okay yeah that's so I don't know any of my schools use the same entrance right now for drop-off and bus riders so I don't know if that's going to create sort of a delay going through the scanners or just something to keep in mind is I guess you're designing it sounds like you already have a backup plan if something like that happens. The fall line trail what sort of design will be put up or safety measures will be put up to kind of keep i guess bike riders trail walkers is there some sort of infrastructure that's going to be put or is it a natural it would be fencing

[01:38:21] so we would have some level of fencing as well gated with gates at strategic areas so then during the off hours we would be able to open those gates so that the public could potentially access the fall line from our site and folks from the fall line could come on to the school site if they so choose okay but during school hours and this is very consistent with our other schools those gates would be locked so we would actually have a physical separation from anyone who might be using the fall line trail during school hours okay awesome and um is the building going to be

[01:39:00] i guess lead certified are we putting solar panels on roofs are we we so we are going after lead silver okay um and we will be doing solar a solar installation on the building we uh are working with cra to do the to design the building to accept the solar and then we would do the solar through our ppa agreement with dominion energy okay awesome i got a couple more questions when it comes to the track are we thinking about artificial grass or turf in the middle of the track kind of keep down the maintenance and maybe you you know maybe they can use it a little bit

[01:39:38] more at this point we would have to look at what the budget will support for that it would be a first it would be another first another one of a kind i mean if we're gonna do it um let's go all the way um i think that answers all of my questions like i said it's a beautiful building the design is great i look at commercial buildings all day at costar um so i'm gonna go there and bragg as well um so but thank you for the presentation i'm sure my colleagues have i may i might have left a couple questions for you all but if i didn't i apologize mr consult thank you so much for being with us and for the presentation i'm going to go to slide

[01:40:17] eight and just being less familiar with the schematic when i look i i see like a wall with no windows what is that so that that would be the gymnasium so that's the gym so that the windows would actually be on this side to be what we want to try to refrain from is having if you have any basketball activity um is try to refrain from putting windows across the face of that so so the windows would actually be on this side i just thought i'd ask so that this is captured or so i could answer questions is and but also just looking at the aesthetics of it with there's

[01:40:52] you know windows and then no windows and just knowing how much sunlight means in a building right even on a rainy day it's still good um i believe for the mental health to be able to see you know, to be able to see outside and have natural sunlight. Mr. Young, I appreciate all your questions. They were very thorough. I'm going to try to come up with one and ask Mrs. Moore about what input, what is the biggest change about this building, right? Since basically

[01:41:28] Henrico team members, right, worked with the professionals who do this, who, you know, the design team and so forth what did what was like one of the biggest changes maybe since mr. Young has pointed out this is the first the first one in Henrico schools like this is the first one you know that you've your firm is designed like this what do you think is the is the biggest one of the biggest changes I would say one of the biggest changes is to go ahead and enclose the courtyard with building rather than having it be a fenced courtyard and that

[01:42:03] was something that was discussed at length among our design committee as to which way they liked. Did they like that more open-ended courtyard where we had fencing to secure it or did they like, what was our term for the enclosing? The racetrack. Yeah. We talked about having the racetrack around in the educational classroom areas. Yeah, I really like the enclosed courtyard just because of the fall on trail and the stranger danger if you will especially for the elementary level but mr. young had had a comment it it might have been that a regard to

[01:42:41] safety but maybe not well when you said first of his kind I did we say the stage would be open from the cafeteria as well as the gymnasium is that also something different and our schools I know none of my schools we always have the cafeteria or the gymatorium is this a combined sort of approach so this is a shared approach and this is so we have some similarities different architect different projects to Davis and Longin so in Davis and Longin we have a shared percentium or stage between the cafetorium as well as the gym it gives

[01:43:17] the school a lot of flexibility as far as where they want to hold events and what type of events and then the stage and area is designed so that you can reduce the noise that travels back and forth and if you want to add anything yeah and the other and right is a really very very flexible feature you said because you can open the percentage on both sides and we have access off of main street to get to the stage so it could be also doubled it not going to be a stage but also as i use as a functional classroom also um now there is no daylight in the space um but that but the from the standpoint of having another space where you can maybe do some small groups in it'd be a

[01:43:54] perfect spot for that thank you thank you miss gonzola i - I appreciate you asking that. I mean, it sounds like the ideal space, if you will, for like grade level kinds of events, right? Where you need more space for the families. I'm thinking, you know, the moving up ceremonies, if you will, fascinating.

[01:44:16] And I like the fencing along the Fallon Trail, 'cause all I was thinking of is stranger danger, stranger danger, right? So I'm glad you did highlight that. interesting um okay so i hate to you brought it up because you mentioned boundary adjustments but what what would lead us to have a more expansive uh boundary adjustment process at this point like that kind of surprised me when you you kind of went out you added more schools to

[01:44:55] the ones that i i think i had in my mind when this building opens well and unfortunately so we are the bricks-and-mortar people, and I would have to defer to Rachel Thayer, our planner, on that.

[01:45:11] I would hate to speak something out of turn with regard to that, and if I remember correctly, I believe she did talk about that in that fall presentation, I think it was, about what the possibilities could be when reviewing how we inhabit the school and what impacts we have on other schools in order to fill this school, not necessarily fill it completely right away, but start to fill it.

[01:45:39] - Well, I don't mean to put you on the spot because I know you're not part of doing that work, but since it was mentioned, and I do know there's a lot of development too, again, not your department, that could impact it.

[01:45:56] So yeah, that's just a question for all five of us to keep in mind. - And I think we can certainly go back to Rachel and talk to her about this question and possibly provide it in a board update. - Yes, I'd appreciate that.

[01:46:12] And now I'll just hand it right back to Chair Irving. - Thank you, Mrs. Shea. - Thank you, Mr. Irving. I'll start with, it's a very thoughtful placement of the building and the facilities on the property.

[01:46:28] And I appreciate you explaining that, especially thinking through even where the playgrounds are located with respect to the fall line trail, so very thoughtful. I notice it is right next to the wetlands.

[01:46:44] Are there concerns about what critters may come out of the wetlands into the playground? - I think that's-- - As someone who is not outdoorsy, I'm outsidey, that was my take on this.

[01:47:00] - No more so than any of our other schools. - Okay. - 'Cause we have numerous schools where River's Edge is one that comes to mind very quickly. have the chickahominy river that runs uh right behind river's edge um you know we have a number of other schools that have water close by so and you know it it when we have woods nearby there's an opportunity for critters to make their way on to they want to get an education too maybe i don't know um but that is something that we do have an exterminator on staff not that we exterminate

[01:47:35] critters but they help us manage them a wildlife relocator yes excellent all right um i was really excited to see that all um or for you to share that all of them i'm trying to find the schematic sorry um all of the classrooms on the first floor have a bathroom attached i think is what you said which if you've ever spent time in a k-2 classroom that is a serious perk to have a bathroom there and thinking about how much instructional time is saved um from having to send you know a buddy and

[01:48:14] you know that sort of thing so and i and it also makes the space more flexible in how it's used correct in terms of because there's certain age groups that are required to have a bathroom in the classroom and so it gives more flexibility as to um how those spaces are used and by what ages and that sort of thing so very smart i mean i know y'all are smart but very smart um kudos there um looking at the um gymnicaf notorium three-part series there um i remember being excited about this

[01:48:50] previously so it wasn't holiday but it's jackson davis and longin is that the plan We built so many schools in such a short time. So this is me getting very technical, kind of like with the windows not being in the shot of the basketball.

[01:49:09] When I see that, it looks like there is storage that's accessible from the platform, as it says. And I guess it doesn't have the curtains drawn in the schematic. But is there like offstage space?

[01:49:25] so if they if they were doing a play or a production could they still have you you get what i'm saying like we're not bumping up against walls as soon as we're off the stage correct just to the right of the platform you have gym storage that's directly off of the gym floor right so you have that storage available um and then of course we have a phys ed office right off of the gym floor as well i guess i'm looking at like off stage space if that makes sense like if you're doing a production oh okay you get what I'm saying like where the curtains with stage curtains are versus the side curtains versus like bumping against the wall right right so we don't

[01:50:02] actually not showing the curtain layout we're not quite to that point yet but yes there will be a you know the the curtain will be wrapping around the entire space and we'll be able to use you're going to have about three or four feet between the inch of the curtain and the wall itself you know around around the entire space okay and what's also awesome about this is when you're talking about queuing you know because this is often a big issue when you have a play when you have a performance or an education you know academic excellence ceremony you know is where does everybody go as they're as they're going up you know so you can use either the if you're if if if all the the if the observation the gallery is in the gym okay you can actually use the cafeteria

[01:50:39] as your cue space and and enter the back of the stage from there because both sides were to have the ramps and are accessible um so again it gives really does create the most amount of flexibility every time that we've done a similar concept we have the dual proscenium everybody gets really excited because of the amount of functionality of it yeah that the queuing is a great point um the elementary school my kids go to put on a big musical and there's probably 90 kids involved and it backs up to the outside and so for two hours 90 kids are like right in the wings like can't

[01:51:15] queue up. So the queuing is a big thing. I just wanted to make sure we had, you know, as a musical theater person, you know, space to perform, and that sort of thing. So thank you for indulging me in that colleagues. And that's the Oh, I have one more question. And Mr. Young, you're not going to like this question. And know that I'm not leading on to anything. I am excited we are building this building excited we are building this building but knowing the questions we're going to get asked i

[01:51:49] want to ask so 750 students a lot of students right great i'm glad we you know we'll have space to do a lot of great things there we also see birth rates declining right and and that will hit elementary school first so can you iterate our our ongoing need for this building when we see some declining birth rates i know my counterpart will have those questions for me um does it have to do with student distribution does it have to do with age of building does it have to do with development

[01:52:21] um yeah again i think rachel would it would be great to have rachel's input on these questions but i can tell you we have had a fair amount of development in that area river mill made a very considerable difference in the number of households we have that could contribute to this school as well as we have developments going on across Route 1 in that Virginia Center area.

[01:52:50] Development is part of it. We had some larger enrollment in a few of our schools, and this was the logical choice for where we needed to start looking, as well as the other new school on our bond referendum, 2022 bond referendum, which was the West Area Elementary school um how the declining birth rates start to affect us will you know i'm sure rachel is tracking all of that but again i'll be happy to get with rachel and provide a better update much better

[01:53:24] than i can provide uh and have more information for you to be able to utilize with your constituents yeah perfect thank you i think it's important you know and i think like you uh alluded to i think it's important that we acknowledge that we can't just look at total elementary school enrollment and total elementary school capacity right and say well there's seats somewhere in the county because it's really making sure we have seats where we need them without creating huge transportation

[01:53:56] weights for kids long distances from schools to um you know where students live um a domino effect TO ALL BOUNDARIES THAT SORT OF THING SO YOU KNOW BEING SMART WITH IT AND ALL OF THAT DEVELOPMENT I KNOW GOSH RIVER'S EDGE WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THAT BUILD OUT THE ENTIRETY OF OUR TERMS YOU KNOW TWO TERMS AND THE IMPACTS THERE SO I APPRECIATE THAT IT'S JUST YOU KNOW AS WE CAN CONTINUE TO HEAR THESE CONSISTENT CONCERNS YOU KNOW WITH ENROLLMENT I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO

[01:54:32] ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM AND STILL BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT WHY THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT project and and uh and project we um continue to look forward to the building and completion of thank you i'd uh redirect to my question was before um additional capacity discussion it was talking about just trying to get clarity i mean mrs shea were you trying to ask about the wings on the sides of the stage and then we started talking about yeah and then we started

[01:55:07] talking about rapping and cueing and i'm thinking but what about the wings because i i just wanted clarity on that like yeah i think that's where you started yeah that's where i started and then you know i ran down my performing rabbit hole is there any space in the wings of the stage also as a theater person and someone who loves the arts is there space in the in the wings or is it just like to queue through the additional space i'll let you do so we're going to have a cyclorama the curtain that goes all the way around so that way you can open it from both both ends so so when you open on this end it'll be you know it'll be on your back um so we're still working through these

[01:55:46] the proper amount of storage so as the storage again we're still in schematic design as we say okay here's how much table and chair storage we need and and gym storage that will be adjusted the stage will get larger or smaller based it won't get any smaller but it won't get it may get larger if we say hey josh you put way too much gym storage on there we can actually make the stage a little bit bigger we would actually adjust that wall out uh so but it said you are going to have space between the curtain and the wall all the way around that entire space to be able to move around there without having to be on this side without being on the viewable side of the curtain that answer your question so you'll have curtains at those oh so the opening you're

[01:56:23] seeing in the drawing is not necessarily the opening you will see when the stage is complete you're you're seeing a line that's a panel that can close off that stage area but that's not the panel you will use when you're performing on the stage but we're basically not going to have wings on the side of the stage it's going to impact storage i get the curtain that goes around it and so forth but on the side you you will have some wing space between the curtain some wing space thank you yes that's all i wanted to know somewhere around eight feet on each side so right because what you'll have is you're going to pull your curtain back okay and that curtain is typically

[01:57:01] about four feet from the from the uh proscenium opening so we have another four feet beyond that so basically you're going to have eight feet from the wall to the curtain on each side to be able to operate in elementary school that should be that should be fantastic um high school you typically want you know 12 to 15 you know because you often have other other gear you're because of five off you know but i just didn't hear it clearly like are we going to have wing space on the sides for me that was a yes or no yes so thank you very much i appreciate all the additional details um thank you so much jerry mrs atkins well this is a healthy discussion

[01:57:41] i am very very very excited for the fairfield community that deserves it i'm also extremely excited for all of our schools and being a part of the process i appreciate the thoughtful work that has gone into this love love love that there are restrooms in each room on that first floor that's significant i also know that as i'm thinking about new construction for schools

[01:58:10] i think about is it aesthetically pleasing is it a healthy space is it inspiring and are we being fiscally responsible I also think about is this building future ready so that so much so that I spent about three hours on this design and partly is coming off of spending so many hours on the living building and so schematics development

[01:58:45] all the things lead certification you know all the things so I do have questions I understand that when we choose land next to wetlands that that acquisition usually is cheaper can you share with me what we're estimating the cost of this project and in particularly the cost of the land I want to better understand if this land what percentage of this land is cheaper because it's near a wetland the project cost for this school is I believe 46 million if I

[01:59:22] remember correctly on our bond referendum um it now that's total project cost so that's your construction cost all of your consulting fees all of your inspection fees everything that go along with it the land acquisition was part some of the land we already had some of the land was um prated as part of the in order to work with the river mill development to get the best possible place that hcps needed for the school location so i don't have an actual

[02:00:01] cost for the land either the part of the parcel that doesn't have wetlands or the part of the parcel that does have wetlands i can get a value of that for you i can look that up and provide in a follow-up report provide you with what the value of the the land is i would be very curious with the cost just wanting to be fiscally responsible but not trading at the harm of the environment so i would really love those numbers so i know this project is still in its

[02:00:37] early phase and i recognize you may not have answers to some of these questions but i'm curious as to if you could explain to me the size of the buffer between the development and the wetlands itself so we have setbacks do you uh josh if you feel better suited to answer this question that works for me as well there are county setbacks that we have to maintain off of the property line regardless of whether it's wetland or non-wetland land so any any distance off of the property line

[02:01:17] is determined by the county setbacks in the county code correct but i do know that from zoning and other factors that the setbacks can be adjusted so i'm curious if they were adjusted in this project they were to my knowledge they were not adjusted okay we also have so we have setbacks and easements there's also some other additional um requirements with the property of the development of how close we could be to well the the on-site development had could only be so far away from the development line itself so there's other kind of um rules that we had to follow in order to develop this plan

[02:01:56] correct so we we did not ask for any um adjustment at this point in the setbacks we we've just submitted to the county to begin the pro to officially begin the process you know to go to go through that but we have not asked specifically for any type of of adjustments to those to those requirements it appears that we'll be building into the wetlands so i'm curious how how does that work so if this is standard and we're building that parking lot will be building into

[02:02:27] the wetlands in other words subtracting from the wetlands so how is there a buffer so so we are going to have a very small impact so the way that the rules work is that there is a percentage of impact so if it's less than a half an acre or if it's greater than an acre there's different rules of what you have to follow we are we are looking at a very minimal impact you know on on what we're proposing here uh that engages the army corps to talk about what those rules are and what they and and what those offsets are by making this my this this impact our goal was to have as minimal of a

[02:03:03] um of an impact on the wetland i keep saying impact you know on on on the uh you know on the wetlands itself this design is as narrow and skinny as we could possibly make it to make to to make it still functional with having a limited you know limited impact i think that's wonderful can you tell me what that is the actual percentage yes I think it's a little more than a quarter of an acre okay so I don't know the exact I think it's like 0.27 and please don't quote me on that but that I believe that's what it is of the nine acres is about I think it's around 0.27 said which puts which puts us in a shorter impact timeline thank you for that and has there been

[02:03:43] an assessment conducted around humidity moisture control all of those things because that you said a quarter of an acre buffer so has there been discussion on humidity moisture control all of those things and impacts to human bodies and the building itself so we're actually in the process right now of doing this study on the soils so that's actually in we're actually in the process right now of doing those studies to see what the impact is you know the again the designation which is in yellow shows where the limit of the of the of the wetlands is you know so again we're going

[02:04:23] to be doing the soils testing is ongoing and then we'll have a true assessment of what the condition of the soils are to make a determination on how we want to proceed i think it's great i'm so happy to hear that you're doing that because that'll also help assess the groundwater the impact to that in the ecosystem itself and what may need to be done to assist with soil erosion and so you'll get that with that assessment i'll be interested in the results of that do you have an estimate

[02:04:50] around when you expect to receive the results end of the summer perfect i also want to talk about landscaping i know we do an excellent job of sourcing natives and i just want to do my due diligence in making sure that I advocate that we use native planting around the school and then I also was thinking sort of around biophilipic design I see some of that here and I have a few recommendations for consideration given

[02:05:29] the budget I understand it's tight and very slim but wanted to offer some of these around this because one great strength that could be instead of sort of building around the wetlands but embracing the wetlands that could be a huge asset within itself and I think it could be a campus strength so some of the considerations is thinking about building a built-in seating at the window a permanent structure at the window so that our elementary

[02:06:04] students in the classroom can get the sun not just by being in their seats but in the window structure itself that would be turnkey it would be transformational to be able to do that for our young people so i don't know the cost but wanted to give that to you i've not seen that anywhere the other thing is i was looking at the outdoor space i forget the technical name for it that's enclosed yes um is there any canopy there whether it's from trees or other structures to provide

[02:06:38] shade we will continue to develop what happens in that courtyard it's any number of things that could happen whether it's potential play equipment that could go in that courtyard or it's plantings or natural divisions in the courtyard itself to give kids an area of outdoor learning but that That will come as they continue through design development and then head into construction documents.

[02:07:08] I would advocate for some level of shade canopy, preferably trees, but whatever's fiscally responsible for shade while the babies or while the students are out there. The other thought I had was having a wetland observation deck.

[02:07:25] That is transformational. Don't know the cost of that, have not seen it, but just studying this design, I think this would be fantastic to have an observational deck for these wetlands where they could see the wildlife, they could see the trees and all of the things.

[02:07:42] That would be pretty phenomenal. And then also a rain garden at this site would work very, very well considering the wetlands are there. And then lastly, I'm pleased to hear that we're gonna have solar.

[02:07:58] Something that I had been noodling over was having solar panels for the parking so we hear a lot about the heat island effect it may be very cool to have solar panels in the parking lot so something i haven't seen at any other school but to have the solar panels where you're going to have the lighting and the solar i think would be phenomenal along with charging stations so if we're thinking about the future we know about hybrid we know about electrical vehicles why not go

[02:08:33] ahead and prepare for that and put charging stations in this parking lot I am a huge advocate for thinking about the future we know it's coming let's not let's start with Fairfield elementary school right here so those are just some of the thoughts that I was noodling over at looking at this design and so thank you so much for listening I know a lot of this was more about infrastructure and a little technical on ecosystems and biophilific design as well but I appreciate you're listening. Chair Irving. Mr. Young. Oh just one thing um second floor uh lactation for the

[02:09:12] mothers great addition um thinking about our um our parents who have just recently given birth so I just want to add that in there that we are thinking about um our new mothers um right here so thank you for that as well. Yes. Thank you both for the presentation. Lots to absorb. Very exciting news for Fairfield and just for our county as a whole. Love the design. Love the courtyard. I did want to talk about one thing because I'm glad I'm so glad to hear that Ms. Atkins has come on board with the solar canopies for the parking lots. I was going to advocate that myself. I think that is it should

[02:09:47] be done because we don't have to we're building a brand new parking lot like it's not like you have strip up the asphalt that's already there you can put it in the charging stations excellent idea more and more people especially with gas prices going where they are are going to be switching to that we may as well make that accommodative for for folks um and installation charges up front when you're building new is much cheaper than retrofitting something that already exists so i i'm glad um the colleagues are interested in that as well um and the only reason i'm talking about about this because it's not related to the presentation, but Ms. Shea brought up the

[02:10:24] demographics point and fertility rates because she knows that one of her counterparts will ask about that. I've actually stumbled on research recently that shows that the fertility line that people portray is actually not true. So there's a lot of data that's come out recently that shows that the fertility rate is not lower, it's actually that people are just having babies later. So if you look at a concept called completed fertility, which looks at the total amount of fertility over the life of a person so generally to age 44 how many kids are you having

[02:11:01] the oldest millennials so that's slightly older than me are having just as many kids as the youngest boomers who are people like my parents they're just doing it later so it is a myth when you look at the fertility statistics because there's a difference between total fertility and completed fertility total looks at it at a point in time and generally when we cite it There used to be far more teen pregnancies, which dragged the age distribution down lower.

[02:11:34] Fortunately, far fewer teenagers are having children now. And given the economic necessities of women entering into college at higher levels than ever, going for career development, they are pushing their childbearing years to later. So we're not actually seeing fewer kids being born.

[02:11:51] We're just seeing them born at later ages. So I think it's very important that we push back on these conversations that people are having fewer kids, because they're not, it's just when the parents are older. And that's not directed to Ms. Shea, but I just think it's important for people to have that context because I was unfamiliar with it when I saw it. I think it does make a lot of sense because the largest age group in the entire country right now are 35-year-olds. So people who still have childbearing years left will probably have kids. Most people want to have families that they have the ability to. So it's very important that we as a school division are advocating for buildings like this because if we don't have them,

[02:12:31] it puts us in a lot harder space than if we, you know, didn't. So thank you for this presentation. I love it. Super excited for Fairfield. Super excited for Henrico County Public Schools. Chair Irving, that concludes the items from the superintendent. Colleagues, we will now move on to unfinished business.

[02:12:50] Does anybody have any unfinished business? Hearing none, we will move on to new business. Colleagues, does anybody have new business? Hearing none, we will move on to the announcement of meeting dates. The school board's next meeting will be this evening at 6.30 here in the Newbridge Learning Center Auditorium.

[02:13:07] The next work session will be on Thursday, June 11th, 2026 at 3 p.m., followed by a monthly meeting at 6.30 p.m. Meeting times may be adjusted as needing. This meeting is adjourned.

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