School Board Meeting 8/14
Ext. Summary

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To start the meeting, over an hour was spent on Ms. Phelps as chair preventing Ms. Cole, Dr. Daniels, and Ms. Shelley from removing items from the consent agenda so that all Board members would be able to discuss these important items: 

• 4.01 Approval of Donations - Shelley asked for information about the process for approving the donated books that had been removed 3 months prior and now placed back in the list for approval. As well, she asked if the new “Braveboy” books had been through the same type of review. Ms. Cole questioned the veracity of Mark Taylors assertion they had since there were no similar detail or full citation for any of the Braveboy books in the donation list. 

• 4.08 Reclassification of up to 10 Teaching Positions to Para positions for One Year to Support Increased Class Size for Identified Elementary Schools - To date 70 licensed teacher positions have been reclassified to temporary/interim teachers (unlicensed) or para professionals. While the August vacancy report shows 81 vacant teacher positions, the 70 reclassified positions are still vacancies based on state SOQ requirements - so that’s 151. Additionally, there are many elementary classrooms with over 24 children because of teacher vacancies which are not being counted. Each of these classes requires another “body” - a paraprofessional because the class size is over the limit. Simply adding a paraprofessional is not the answer. Taylor has not presented any plan to address: 

  • Lack of space concerns with having overpopulated classrooms

  • Lack of trained supports for teachers to manage the size of the classrooms

  • Ancillary support for students with special needs having to be in overpopulated classrooms

  • The real reasons why HR is not able to attract applicants for licensed teacher positions in Spotyslvania and what will be done to rectify it for Spotsylvania. Blaming it on the teacher shortage when our vacancy rates are double those of similar surrounding area districts is not an acceptable excuse.

  • Our students deserve licensed teachers and licensed teachers deserve manageable class sizes.

• 4.12 Charter Policy LC-E - The only revision to the Charter policy regulation, which is basically the application a potential charter has to complete to be considered by SCPS, is that the date of submission was moved from September 30 to December 20 of the year prior to the school year for enrollment. Pushing this date back is problematic to say the least. However, Board members wanted to discuss why the date change was even suggested. 

Additional time was spent before the acceptance of the Agenda because Ms. Cole’s motion to remove the above items, also included a request to ADD the “Appointment of a School Board Member to the Steering Committee for the Academy of Technology and Innovation at UMW”. There was much discussion on why a Board member needed to be added which did not include committing to actually sending SCPS students to the program. Participation by a division school board member on the steering committee only allows for the division to be allowed the opportunity for a proportional number of student seats IF the division later decides participation is warranted. 

The vote on Ms. Cole’s motion failed. Subsequently, Ms. Gillespie made a 2nd motion to accept the Agenda with only the addition to Action Items (11.0) of the “Appointment of a School Board Member to the Steering Committee for the Academy of Technology and Innovation at UMW”. Motion passed. 

 

>>Please note by Roberts Rules of Order the intent of a Consent Agenda being added to any Agenda is that items that would be - by consensus, unanimously accepted by the board, because they have already been communicated, and or discussed, questions have been answered for all prior to the meeting. Thus the reason for the policy to not have discussion of Consent Agenda Items. Roberts Rules of Order ALSO allows for any one Board member to request removal of an item because discussion is necessary. If removal is requested there does not need to be a vote. The Chair is obliged to remove the item and place it for discussion at that time or during action items. In Spotsylvania, the Chair is placing items on Consent Agenda AND preventing staff from communicating information or answering questions for the Ms. Cole, Dr. Daniels, and Ms. Shelley. Thus, they are being blocked from serving the best interest of the constituents for the districts who elected them. 

 

Public Comments (please reference archived video link)

 

Action Items

11.01 - A motion was made by Ms. Shelley and amended by Ms. Cole to accept the revised attendance policy JED / and regulation JED-R with two changes to the 1. Excused Absences section of JED-R:

• Adding “unless a special situation exists” to allow staff to consider additional excused absences prior to a third-party note being required

• Adding “Upon the tenth absence “within any two nine-weeks grading period” that is excused by the parent/guardian…” to allow parents more freedom to excuse absences occuring over a broader period of time prior to a third-party note being required. 

Ms. Shelley’s motion with the amended changes passed.

11.02 - Motion passed to approve Revisions to School Board Policy EFB Food Services and Regulation EFB-R3 Student Meal Account

11.03 - Motion to approve Policy JA Ensuring Privacy, Dignity and Respect for all Students passed with dissent and a ‘no’ vote from Ms. Cole and Dr. Daniels and with Ms. Shelley abstaining. 

• Ms. Cole voted “no” because the policy is not in the best interest of all students, discriminates against the protection of all students, and removes freedoms from parents to make sure there is support for  their student’s individuality in the school setting. 

• Dr. Daniels voted “no” because the policy is not supported by federal DOE policies for the protection of transgender students from discrimination. The state JA model policy will put SCPS division in jeopardy of losing federal Title 9 funding and provide an opening for litigation against the school division.

 

Ms. Phelps appointed Mr. Abuismail to the Steering Committee for the Academy of Technology and Innovation at UMW. 

 

Meeting was adjourned out of order since Ms. Shelley had New Business to discuss. This is the 11th Regular Meeting where the Board chair has broken policy and not allowed for New or Unfinished Business to be discussed and / or acted upon.