2026-10-13 - School Board

Summary

Built from a Whisper speech-to-text transcript of the video; names and figures may be misheard, and votes are recorded only where stated clearly.

The board returned from closed session and certified that the closed meeting complied with Virginia law.
The board approved the minutes from previous meetings.
An invocation was given and students led the Pledge of Allegiance.
A high school math teacher was recognized as Virginia's high school mathematics educator of the year.
Four schools were recognized as National PTA Schools of Excellence, including Atlee High, Bell Creek Middle, Cold Harbor Elementary, and Elmont Elementary; Bell Creek will be recognized next month.
The division wellness coordinator was recognized for receiving a platinum-level workplace well-being award for the second consecutive year.
Board members shared announcements about school events, marching band performances, a new middle school cross country program, 9/11 tributes and a PTA fundraiser.
The board took a five-minute recess and later approved the consent agenda.
The instructional highlight covered dual enrollment and the three college-credit pathways: Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual enrollment through Reynolds Community College.
Dual enrollment has grown from 370 students last year to over 500 this year, with college composition sections increasing from 14 to 26 and course offerings expanding from one subject area to six disciplines.
The presentation described tuition-free “Passport Plus” credits, a $40-per-credit cost for some companion courses, available fee support, and a November 12 family webinar on college-credit pathways.
The presentation also demonstrated how families can use AP credit policies, IB credit policies, and Transfer Virginia to see how credits transfer to Virginia colleges.
An IB update said current eighth-graders will be able to begin the IB program at Atlee in ninth grade, while current upperclassmen remain at their zone schools; a ninth-grade plan is expected within two weeks.
Four policies were presented for review: three were described as cleanup/non-significant updates and one was a new reading specialists policy required by Virginia Code.
The annual comprehensive plan update reported that all schools are fully accredited and that 12 schools were recognized as distinguished, up from seven the prior year.
Class of 2026 outcomes included 1,305 graduates, 45 completing the Advanced College Academy, and 22 earning IB diplomas.
Self-reported post-graduation plans for the Class of 2026: 85.6% planned higher education, 11% planned to enter the workforce, 2.75% planned military service, and fewer than 1% did not report.
Career preparation efforts included over 2,000 career awareness meetings/events, 1,878 students earning 2,528 credentials/certifications/licenses, and 149 students completing internships or clinical experiences.
Advanced studies data showed AP participation increased to 1,475 students, AP exam volume grew 8.5%, and 78.1% of AP exams scored 3 or higher.
Dual enrollment grew from 371 to 571 unique students, with plans to continue expanding free college-credit opportunities.
The goal three update cited a three percent pay increase for all employees and four percent for teachers in the FY27 budget, plus a new Marathon Health location.
Teacher attrition was reported to have dropped from 13.73% in 2021-22 to 8.44% in the most recent year.
The goal four update covered VTSS teams in every school, house systems in nine elementary schools, and family/community engagement efforts.
A “Grow Our Own” future teacher initiative was presented for graduating seniors, including an application process, offer letters, a $2,000 signing bonus, and future recognition plans.
Capital facilities updates included remaining balances from Battlefield Park and Beaver Dam projects, Washington-Henry remaining on schedule, and a proposed $3 million transfer to Washington-Henry.
A facilities inventory identified significant needs, including a $1.4 million HVAC project at Mechanicsville High School with a six-month equipment lead time.
A facilities/capital projects presenter described transferring $1.4 million in capital funds to Mechanicsville High School for summer work, leaving $250,000 for future needs.
The Center for Professional Learning renovation was reported delayed beyond Dec. 31 into early spring because of discovered renovation challenges, while remaining within budget.
The Hanover Center for Trades and Technology expansion was awarded to a contractor, including three labs, five classrooms, a closed-campus addition, and a vestibule; an outside workspace was excluded; completion is targeted for Aug. 15, 2027, with a $10.75 million budget.
Facilities staff completed numerous summer maintenance projects across schools, including lighting upgrades, paving, boiler replacements, playground work, and power washing.
The division is upgrading its work order system to be more user-friendly for schools and principals.
Public commenters raised bullying, specialty center admissions, the location of the IB program, and family notification when serious incidents involve school employees.
A speaker asked the board to keep the IB Diploma Program at all four high schools rather than consolidating it at Atlee High School.
A speaker raised concerns about selection priority for public school students at the specialty center and the Governor's School.
The board approved revised policies on threat assessment teams, pupil transportation, board-staff communication, and lactation support for employees as a second read.
The board approved new course proposals for 2027-28: diesel equipment technology, welding, AP Business and Personal Finance, and Advanced Studies Seminar.
The board adopted the VSBA Bullying Prevention Month resolution for October 2026; the chair read a statement on kindness, bullying investigations, and school climate.
The board passed a resolution to convey the former Battlefield Park Elementary School building and a portion of its site to the county, and approved a zero-net-cost FY2027 capital improvement plan budget transfer.
Upcoming calendar items included a student food show at Atlee High School, a school visit day, the support employees of the year dinner, and a next meeting work session on school performance framework cut scores.

Agenda

Agenda not posted on the county CivicClerk portal; School Board agendas are on BoardDocs per hcps.us.

Sources

Video: https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/2689/media
Agenda: https://hcps.us/about_us/school_board

Transcript

Whisper speech-to-text, lightly cleaned; names and figures may be misheard.

Transcript

Good evening. Welcome to our October 13th, 2026 School Board meeting. It is seven o'clock and we are going to come out of closed session or sorry, we're going to go into open session and do I have a

motion for open session? Madam Chair, I move to return to open session. Thank you, Mr. Seifert. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Shroff. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in

favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay, we are now in open session. Okay, now we need to certify the closed meeting. Dr. Shroff, can you provide the motion for that? Yes, ma'am. Certification of

closed meeting. The board will certify the following. Whereas the Hanover County School Board has convened closed meeting on this day pursuant to an affirmation recorded, voted in accordance with the

provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 2.23712(d) of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such executive meeting was conducted in

conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore be it resolved that the Hanover School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted

from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the executive meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion

convening the executive meeting were heard, discussed or considered. Thank you for the motion. Dr. Shroff, do I have a second? Thank you, Ms. Lynn. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye. All those opposed? Okay, we have certification of closed meeting. Next, we're going to have the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance and we have the privilege of having our Pledge of

Allegiance led by two Elmont Elementary School students, Jeremy and Alexa Doran. So when we finish the invocation, we'll just remain standing and you can just come to the front or stand up where you

are and start us in our pledge. Okay. All right. So I'm going to give the invocation. So if you'll please rise. Heavenly Father, as we gather this evening, we pause with grateful hearts to reflect on

the many blessings and accomplishments within our school division. We give thanks for the remarkable successes of our students, the dedication of our teachers and staff and the countless individuals

who work together each day to make our school places, schools, places of opportunity, growth and achievement. We are especially grateful for the extraordinary teams across our division whose hard work

and passion often go unseen, but whose contributions make such a meaningful difference in the lives of our children. We thank you for our families and community partners who continually grow, excuse

me, continually show up to lend a hand, offer encouragement and believe in the promise of public education. May we always remember that our greatest accomplishments are never achieved alone. They are

the result of many hands and caring hearts with a shared purpose and a commitment to something greater than ourselves. As we celebrate our successes, help us remain humble in our achievements and

steadfast in our responsibility to every child entrusted to our care. Please help us remember the power of our words and actions. May we teach our children not only to respect others, but also to

value and respect themselves. Give them the courage to stand up for what is right, the compassion to include those who may feel left out and the confidence to know that each of them has unique gifts

and immeasurable worth. Grant us wisdom in our decisions, kindness in our words and unity in our efforts as we continue working toward an even brighter future for our students and our community. In

your name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you so much, that was very lovely. Good job. All right, next on our agenda, we need a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meetings. Madam Chair, I move to approve minutes for the

recently held meetings. Thank you, Mr. Seifert. I have a motion, do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All

those opposed? Okay, the motion passes, sorry. Next up we have the Chris Whitley Show with recognition announcements. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board and Dr. Pennycuff, it is always a

privilege to bring forth the great news and accomplishments for our students and staff. I will pause just a moment before we get started to allow you time to come forward. Our first recognition of the

night goes to an exceptional math teacher from Hanover High School who earned the distinction of being named as the 2026 William C. Lowry Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics High School

Mathematics Educator of the Year. Please join me in congratulating and giving a big hock yeah to Miss Mary Ann Veitch from Hanover High School. Our next recognition of the night goes to four schools

that earned the distinction of being named as National PTA Schools of Excellence. These Hanover schools are four of only 321 schools and PTAs in the US to achieve this prestigious status this year.

Additionally, they make up four of only 25 Virginia schools to earn this coveted designation which recognizes the commitment of schools and PTAs in building partnerships between families and their

school that are enriching the educational experience and overall well-being for all students. Congratulations goes to Atlee High School, Bell Creek Middle School, Cold Harbor Middle School, and Elmont

Elementary School. And one quick note, Bell Creek could not be with us tonight, but we look forward to recognizing them next month. Will all representatives from each school please come forward at

this time and congratulations. For the record, Cold Harbor is an elementary school, although they are advanced, they are an elementary school. Our final recognition of the night goes to a valued

member of Hanover's Human Resources Team who helped Hanover County for the second year in a row, I might add, to be recognized by Aetna Healthcare with the 2026 Making a Difference Platinum-Level

Workplace Well-Being Award. This award recognizes a strong commitment to providing workplace well-being, resources, programs, and support for employees and it is the highest level of distinction.

Congratulations goes to our Wellness Coordinator, Hailey Sakar. All right, next up we will do our board member announcements and then we will take like a five minute recess. So for those who do not

want to stay for the rest of the meeting, you can exit stage left. So do we have any board announcements that anybody would like to share? Yes, Ms. Lynn. All right, I have two. Students and staff

across Hanover County Public Schools had a blast celebrating Dolly Day on September 25th. They shot off their best Dolly Parton inspired looks from big hair and cowboy hats to plenty of sparkle. Our

schools were filled with creativity, smiles, and lots of Dolly spirit. And my second one is we are now more than halfway through football season. So I have had an opportunity to watch all four Hanover

County marching bands perform. I just wanted to give them a shout out because they're super entertaining. At least performance of jackpot, and I do if anybody is here from that, I sang Luck Be a Lady

for like two straight days after hearing it. So it was very entertaining. Hanover's performance of Nightscapes, Mechanicsville's performance of Out of the Darkness and pH's performance of The Haunted

Music Box, which is a rendition of Swan Lake. And as a former ballet dancer, I was like Swan Lake on the field. I don't know, but they did great. It was really spooky and I think it was it was well

performed. So for everybody, you had strong choreography, musical precision, entertaining formation changes, and an excellent ensemble balance. So great job to everybody. Super entertaining. Thank

you, Miss Lynn. That was awesome. Wait till your daughter goes to college and you can do that with marching bands. OK, anybody else have any? Can I go after someone else? She's so good at it. Yeah, I

would just like to recognize the new middle school cross country program that Hanover County has started. I didn't realize it had been 35 years since we added a new middle school sport. But I had the

opportunity two weeks ago to go to their second meet and was just super impressed at how professional it was. And what a great environment it was for families and kids and the runners and just super

well put on. And and it happened relatively quickly, too, for a school system to take on a big new sport like that. So I just can't say enough good things. And I think Brittany Moore, who made it all

happen, is actually at a meet tonight. They happen every Tuesday. So, you know, spread your thanks to her and her her small staff. Just one more person else. So that's that's awesome. And I encourage

all the families out there to get involved with cross country or one of the other many sports that we have in our middle schools and our high schools. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Seifert. OK, anybody

else have any OK. All right. Dr. Shove. Yeah, I'd like to just recognize Laurel Meadow Elementary School. They hosted a special parent parade to celebrate their families and they'll and all that they

do to support their students and their school community. Students lined in the hallways with handmade signs, cheers and plenty of smiles as their family members made their way through the school. More

than three hundred and fifty parents attended the meeting. And NBC 12 featured this on its One Good Thing segment based on Vision's social media post. So holler out to Laurel Meadow. Thank you, Dr.

Shove. Dr. Shelf. Yes, cadets in the Mechanicsville High School Navy J.R. OTC program. Once again, they honored the casualties of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. They

placed two thousand nine hundred and seventy seven U.S. flags in front of the school. Hanover High School hosted a special and moving 9/11 tribute with members of the school community participating in

a stair climb to honor again the casualties of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Joined by representatives from the Hanover County Sheriff's Office, Hanover County Fire and EMS

Department, Hanover County Board of Supervisors, the Hanover Commonwealth Attorney's Office, other distinguished guests, students and staff climbed the stairs of the football bleachers, demonstrating

their respect and regard for these casualties, survivors and heroes who emerged from that tragic day. Atlee High School hosted a beautiful 9/11 remembrance ceremony featuring the band, choir,

orchestra, film, theater and the J.R.O.T.C. students as part of a tribute honoring the lives lost and the heroes who answered the call and the spirit that brought our nation together in the days that

followed. Across Hanover County Public Schools, we flew the freedom flag and 25 years later, we still remember and do not forget. Thank you, Dr. Schelt. Do we have any more? Yes, I'm going to give a

shout out to the Kersey Creek PTA organization. I had the pleasure of attending their inaugural golf event yesterday. It was an absolute blast and whoever came up with the idea for the QR code and the

golf cart to get an extra shot, brilliant. Brilliant way to raise money and when I touch on the number of dollars they potentially have netted, they did a great job. 72 golfers, 18 teams, completely

sold out, 43 community sponsors and partners. I'm going to name the 15 folks that were on site. They were, it was, having done a, played in a, I know multiple of us have played in fundraiser golf

tournaments, this was extremely well put together. Ms. Lori Sturgeon, who's the vice president of the PTA organization and led the organization of the golf event. Audrey Smith, Ashley Mohorak, Melissa

Milkey, and this was a hard one so forgive me if you're watching online or you're here. Sarah Crachowill, Kaitlyn Warke, Kritika Lawani, Sophia Guerrero, Jordan Mackey, Sue Sturgeon, Julie Tashner,

Brianne Bursay, Amanda Drumheller, Kaitlyn St. John, and Beth Myers. Ms. Sturgeon didn't want me to go out and throw a specific number down because they got to get the audit in and make sure

everything's good, you know, on the lines. But they're going to bring in and net over $15,000 from this little 18 team golf event, which was, it was an absolute blast and I'm glad they raised all that

money, it was awesome. It's going to go to the school, the kids, the teachers and everything. So hats off to Kursi Creek PTA. Thank you, Mr. Coleman, and I'm assuming you mean golf shots? The QR code

was for golf shots. Okay, okay, extra golf shots. Just making sure. Just making sure. Washington Henry Elementary School recently hosted a fun Rise and Read event, bringing parents and students into

school bright and early to share books and a snack, and many parents and kids came in their pajamas. Saw a lot of good pictures of that event, so very cool, and then I wanted to share. As we know,

high school football well underway, as Ms. Lynn talked about, several of our football players were named in the Richmond Times-Dispatch High School Athlete of the Week. Jermaine brought us a

Mechanicsville High School, earned the recognition after he had the game ceiling interception in the Mustangs Season Opening 14-7 win versus deep run. Kayden Hughes of Hanover High scored five

touchdowns on four catches for 164 yards and two carries for 63 yards, and the Hawks win against Monnekin on September 3rd. And Kayden Wright of Atlee High School received the recognition for his

September 18th performance against Tucker, where he ran for 160 yards and three touchdowns, along with 51-yard receiving touchdown in the Raiders win. So shout out to those young men and their teams,

and I will add that though we've got several weeks left, I do believe the best record in the county resides in the Mechanicsville District for the first time in quite some time. So the Mustangs are

off to a great start, and I hope they keep it rolling. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Martin, and I have a couple comments as well. So one, this is well deserving of this teacher, but Roll Point Elementary

School Teacher of the Year, Deborah Dunham was selected to receive, excuse me, she is a Roll Point Elementary School teacher, and she was selected to receive the Teacher of the Year Award from one

small chance. A nonprofit organization started by Patrick Henry High School graduate, our alumnus Chance Archer, so it's well deserving. It was on our social media as opposed, and just

congratulations, Ms. Dunham, and also congratulations to Chance. He is an amazing Hanoverian, and we're very glad that he's still contributing to Hanover. So as you may have seen over the past month,

our community engagement team highlighted the many members of Hanover County Public Schools family in a social media series thanking them for all that they do to support our students. It was wonderful

to see all the positive comments as our community continues to show strong support for our schools. On behalf of the school board, I would like to thank all the members of the Hanover County Public

Schools family, from teachers to bus drivers to custodians to front office staff to nurses and so many other important roles for your tremendous work in educating our students who are the leaders of

tomorrow. Thank you. Last but not least, October is National Principals Month, where we honor and celebrate our amazing principals for their exceptional leadership, dedication, and vision they bring

to their schools every day. The school board extends its deepest appreciation to all of our principals for their tireless efforts in advancing the mission of our schools and supporting the success of

every student. Our community engagement team is also highlighting these incredible leaders on our social media pages throughout this month, and we encourage members of our community to show them some

well-deserved love and support. Thank you. All right, so moving on to, oh yes, we are going to take, thank you, we're going to take a five minute recess, so we will be back in five minutes. Okay,

welcome back to our broadcasted meeting. We are going into our consent agenda. We need to approve that. So do I have a motion for the consent agenda? Yes, Madam Chair, I move to approve the consent

agenda as presented. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.

And next up is our instructional highlight. Credits today, opportunities tomorrow, dual enrollment. And I think we have Dr. Herndon coming. Hi. Okay, so I'm excited to be here with everyone. Good

evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Pennycuff, and senior staff. I'm here to provide an overview about some really exciting things that are happening in Hanover County with dual

enrollment. And where would it be if I wasn't here to also provide an update about what's happening with IB with everyone as well. So we're going to, we're going to talk about a couple things. Our

main focus though is dual enrollment this evening. All right, so let's first talk about what is dual enrollment. Dual enrollment is where our students are having two roles. They are dually enrolled in

college level coursework through our partners at Reynolds Community College, and they're also earning their high school credits at the same time. You may remember that legislation was recently passed,

College Career Ready Virginia, that provides for free opportunities for dual enrollment. You remember that's my presentation where I say lots of letters over and over like UCGS, NACA, and so I came to

you last to tell you what our plans were, and we weren't sure where this was going to go. And we are really excited at the momentum that dual enrollment has gathered in Hanover County Public Schools.

We have three pathways to college level learning in Hanover County Public Schools, Advanced Placement, AP, and International Baccalaureate, IB. Both of those are where students are completing college

level coursework, and then they set for an, they have a performance and end of course exam that determines if college credit is awarded. Dual enrollment, very similarly, students are taking college

level coursework, but they earn their credit by successfully completing the course. There's no additional exam required to earn the credit. These are different pathways, but they have all have the

same high expectations. I have to give special shout out to my hyper squad this evening. The career counselors are here who work with our middle schoolers and high schoolers. And I think families

sometimes aren't sure like what is the best of these three pathways for the outcomes that my student is seeking. You don't have to know all the things to make these decisions. That's why we have our

wonderful career counselors and school counseling team. This evening, I'm going to demonstrate how you can check to see what score does my student need to get to get credits at UVA and Political

Science, for example, on their AP test. And we're also going to look at how do our dual enrollments credits transfer to Virginia State universities. But we get that it's complicated. At the last board

meeting, I talked to a community member who said there's so many pathways and so many nuances. I just feel like even through the expo and the things that we're sharing, I'm always wanting new

information. So through the support of the gifted advisor, we are going to have a webinar November 12th for middle and high school families that talks about each of these three college pathways and

details. And detail, excuse me. And it will also be recorded so people can go back and watch out at a later time if they can't join us. OK, so AP, IB and dual enrollment. AP, we're taking a college

level course. Then we're sitting for that show what you know exam. A lot of us are familiar with AP. It was in our own kind of curriculum background. Then in Hanover, we have IB, which is where we're

taking college level courses. But we're really looking at a broader approach to learning, more writing, more inquiry, more connections. And we have built in assessments as well as an assessment at the

end of that that helps determine credit. Dual enrollment. We're starting our real live college transcript while we're in high school. So let's talk about some of these things that are happening in

dual enrollment. I'm very excited about this. So traditionally, we have been offering College Comp 111 and 112. It's a series of English classes that our seniors were taking and our juniors in the

Advanced College Academy were taking it. Last year, we had 14 sections across the division. This year, we have 26 sections of college composition. We added 12 new classrooms full of kids and have

increased that capacity by 85 percent. It's a very comfortable class for kids because it's something that's been part of our dual enrollment program for some time. They're familiar with who's teaching

it. They understand they've had maybe a sibling who's taking it. So it has a little bit more historical traction than some of our newer dual enrollment classes. But nonetheless, last year, we had 370

students taking dual enrollment and we increased by over 50 percent. We have over 500 students this year who are earning college credits, knocking money off college tuition. Every day that they go to

their dual enrollment class. So we started with college composition and we had the Advanced College Academy. Now, we've kind of blended those together. Still have the Advanced College Academy where

kids aren't earning their associate's degree. Still have College Comp. Well, we brought forward new course disciplines with the help of our partners at Reynolds Community College. We have students who

are taking Biology 101 and 102. We have students who are taking a math series, U.S. History, Political Science, and French. So we went from one subject area last year to now six disciplines. This is

the piece, if you remember, I used to say dual enrollment, best bang for your buck. Dual enrollment is now the best bang for no buck. So in Hanover County Schools, you can take 15 college credits for

zero dollars. And with the work and help of Dr. Pinnikoff, we are clarifying this language so in families. Look at our program of studies, they can see what classes have no cost. They can see how they

transfer and they can see how it's being offered. But I want, this is the part that I try to tell kids and it really is kind of lost sometimes on a 15, 60 year old. But I think you're my audience for

this one. So dual enrollment, 15 credits. So over your junior and senior year in Hanover County, you can take college composition and that biology. Biology is a lab class, so four credits each

semester. And then this year we had history 121 in this lineup. Next year we're moving to government. We've heard from kids there's a lot more popular. It's a graduation requirement and a lot more

kids are choosing that over the history. So we take these classes, zero dollars in Hanover County. That's one full semester of college tuition. Remember through transfer VA, we have guaranteed

transfer agreements from Reynolds Community College to Virginia State Universities. So what would cost $4,200 at JMU? A student gets for zero dollars in Hanover. $6,900 at Tech, zero dollars in

Hanover County. VCU, $7,000, zero in Hanover County. And in this incredibly tiny font, you can see how things transfer. So English 111 and 112 transfer as the writing 103 and the writing elective at

JMU. The English sequence at Virginia Tech and the freshman English at VCU. All of this information, how do things transfer, how do they count, is publicly available. And I'm going to show you this

evening how you can access that. There's always a nuance, right? Like if you have a student who is interested in something highly specialized, that is when, remember, Hype Squad. You check in with

your career counselor and say, hey, like my son is super interested in going into nursing and dual enrollment. Can you help us pick the right courses that we're going to get the best transfer piece of

that? You don't have to navigate those decisions by yourself. All right, so it really is college credit at little or no cost. We have 15 credits packaged together and what we call Passport Plus that

are free and without cost and they're partners. So that's Bio 101 and 102. That's a whole year of biology. You may remember when we've talked before some of our classes have a compliment that falls

out of our UCGS pathways. So an example would be our literature series. Students can take the first semester of literature for free, but the second semester falls out of our agreed pathway because the

community college isn't going to give it all to us for free. So there is a per credit cost of $40 for that. So still students who take that course will have that fee. But it's super important that as

we talk to families about dual enrollment that they should know that cost is not a barrier to dual enrollment. If a family is not sure that they can provide the financial fee necessary for the

compliment course, again, career counselors and school counselors and principals can help. We have a system in place for that fee support. So our goal really is to connect as many families and the

many kids with that reduced tuition cost while they're here with us in Hanover. All right, so we're going to do some confirming of credit here in a second. We're going to look at how we can determine

what score do you need to get on the AP exam? It's a time of year that people are emailing me that question. Like what score does Bob need to get on his psychology AP exam for it to transfer? And

we're going to look at IB and dual enrollment. I do want to take a moment to give you a small snapshot update of some things that are happening with IB before we get into the nitty gritty of how this

is all going to work with our confirmation of credits. Last time that I gave an update on IB, we shared that our number one focus is keeping our cohort robust and rigorous and doing what's best for

kids. What do I love about IB kids? They are engaged and articulate and share what they think would be best for their program, which is exactly what we want. We heard from you, we heard from parents,

we heard from teachers, we've heard from students, that there is a big desire to be an IB diploma candidate, but it's really hard to leave high school as a junior. Some of you are nodding your head

because we had this discussion, right? Like going through high school and then us asking you to transfer to Atlee for the IB program was a big ask. So starting with our current eighth graders, we'll

be rolling information out at the start of November. Those eighth graders will commit to the IB program if they so choose and will begin their high school career at Atlee at the center. So there will

not be a transfer mid stream. So you're a raider from ninth grade, you're to 12th grade. We just kept hearing that I would really like to do IB, but I really don't want to leave junior year. That's

just when it gets good in high school, you know? So we're like, okay. So if you keep all of these things in your head, you may be asking, so we know our current 10th graders are going to stay at their

zone school, finish IB. And our 11th and 12th graders are staying at their zone schools. Our ninth graders, these are the kids that are keeping me on my toes and I'm loving it. So we have surveyed

them and we have gone back, our IB coordinators are working this week to talk to those ninth graders and say, how many of you are interested in doing the diploma program if it were to remain one more

year at your zone school? Many of those families have shared that they felt like they made decisions in eighth grade based on the information they had in eighth grade. So we get that. It's one of the

things that I've really appreciated about working with you and Dr. Pennekoff and Dr. Staley and Ms. Leissette about this is we have the flexibility to take a temperature check, to listen to kids. And

the kids are the best part of the IB program. So when kids say like, hey, wait a second. Can we talk about this? Absolutely. We can talk about it. So we have made that adjustment that our eighth

graders will begin the program in ninth grade and hold on ninth graders. We're still collecting your data and we'll soon, our goal is within the next two weeks to be able to share with that ninth

grade class if they're going to stay at their zone school. So that's my little like news flash update on IB because it wouldn't be a board meeting if I wasn't providing an update about IB. And the

great news is she'll be back with an update in November to tell you what happens. Right. Yeah, it's like a residency that I have. OK, so let's talk about how we find out how credits work. OK, and

remember, you don't have to take notes. You don't have to remember this. Career counselors are really good at this. OK, so we're going to start with I think my examples all use a government class,

whether it's dual enrollment, AP government or IB government. So let's start with AP AP. This is how I do this every day when someone sends me an email about AP credits. I Google AP credit policy and

I come to this page. Most students who are taking all of our students who are taking AP have a college board account. But you don't have to have a college board account to see this side of the college

board. So you can see I've typed in selected the class I'm taking a push as the children call it AP US government. And a push is actually US history. Sorry, I got ahead of myself. So then I can search

and it is letting me see the colleges that I'm interested in and the score I need for that credit to transfer. So if I would like to transfer my AP government credits to the University of Virginia, I

need to score at least a four. If I have remember specific needs, I want to be a nursing student or maybe I'm interested in a highly specialized field in engineering. I'm going to recruit a career

counselor to help me figure out, like, is this a good investment for my family? Like, if I get a four, how is this transferring? Is it transferring as an elective? Kids don't really dig that because

it's taking away choice when they get to college. Or is it going to take a general elective, a general curriculum? IB is a little more complicated, right? Like we know IB would be more complicated. So

I can select that I'm taking diploma program courses. Or I could select I'm going through the full diploma program and then type in my information. And it's going to show me something a little bit

different. So let's look at University of Virginia again. It lets me know that they do accept DP, that's the diploma program, and its courses through a credit policy. It's a little vague. I can click

on details and get more information. Or I can reach out to my career counselor to help me figure this information out. All right, Transfer Virginia, this is where it's at. This is dual enrollment and

it is through state legislation. I can put in where I'm taking classes. All of our students are taking their dual enrollment through J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College. They've rebranded. They

like to be called Reynolds now. And some of our students take EPF at Longwood. So I can use this, put in the course I'm taking, Political Science 135. And here it's giving me a lot more information

than I had with AP and IB. I can see that at VCU it's going to give me credit for Political Science 103. And it's going to go into that course. It's going to tell me the specific course I'm getting

credit for. You can see that there are some asterisks, like at Virginia Wesleyan. It's going to go for my general education requirement. So which excludes some things with associate's degree. But it's

just going to go for my Gen Ed requirements. You can see at Virginia Tech with my passport, it's going to apply to General Education Passport 3. That's a lot of terms and words that I may not be

familiar with as a family looking at post-secondary options. But my career counselor can translate that information for me and help me make those decisions. I think what we hear most often from

families is we don't know what to pick. We don't know how this is going to shake out at the end. And so I want to make sure families know there are pathways online, transparent, to look at AP, IB, and

dual enrollment. And also we have a great team of people in our middle and high schools to help with us. So I'm excited about what's happening, dual enrollment. We had a great year this year and we

are already looking forward to more expansion with that opportunity next year. When you just think about getting a semester off your college tuition, we're very proud that we've been able to offer

that to all of our students. Questions? Thank you, Dr. Herndon. You're welcome. Do we have any questions for Dr. Herndon? Okay, Mr. Martin. First off, your passion for what you do is amazing. It's fun

to watch and it just shines through. Thank you. So many people come up here. Not that everyone's not great, but you stand out and it's awesome. I appreciate it. So what got me my residency? What's the

-- yeah. See you next -- second Tuesday next month. That's right. Next month. What's -- is there an application acceptance process for dual enrollment? So here's the great thing about dual enrollment.

Students need to have a C, average. It can be either weighted cumulative average needs to be a C, and they need to meet the prerequisites. We do have pathways for students who might not have a C

average overall, but they're strong in math, for example, and they want to pursue that. We do not have an application on our handover end, but our dual enrollment students do apply to Reynolds, but we

help them through that process. So I often say we don't have an application, asterisk. You apply through Reynolds, but it's through a bulk application that we do. Got it. Yeah. I think the numbers are

going to keep going up. Yeah. I see the 51 percent jump. That's going to keep happening. Yeah. I think it's great. We are very excited. And we're really excited. We're going to have a really good

time. We're going to have a really good time. We're going to have a really good time. We're going to have a really good time. We're going to have a really good time. We're going to have a really good

time. I don't know how I would have done, but I had one really big thorn already out before I started. I see the same thing in friends and colleagues and whatnot. The financial savings is real. I'm

not minimizing it, but the real savings, I believe, is in the longer trajectory and how it improves graduation rates and finishing the course. Absolutely. Our research even shows that our students who

take an AP course, even a student who scores a two, or a student who doesn't take the exam, exactly to what you're saying. They've had that experience. They're doing it in high school. College seams,

it also not only helps with college completion, but it helps kids who thought maybe college felt too big of a thorn in the side, that they had that experience in high school where they're like, "Wait,

I did that. I took college coursework in high school, so maybe this is a pathway for me." I concur. This is not just the cost savings, but it is that long-term trajectory, so thank you. Thank you. Oh,

yes, Dr. Benico. I just wanted to share. I think one of the things that Dr. Herndon often says is, "So many of our children want to try AP, IB, and dual enrollment." And I think all of them have their

benefits. I think the difference between the dual enrollment is that it counts class for class. So one of the reasons the counselors are here with us this evening is we wanted everyone to hear the

same information as they are guiding the students to making their choices to understand what are the benefits of each one. And then we want more and more of our families to understand as we build to

30 hours of free courses. And as Dr. Herndon said, we're going to put in the program of studies, this one's free, this one's free. So the students who may have felt like college was beyond what their

families could help them do will see that they can try it out and there is no cost. There are some that come with the low cost, but as Dr. Herndon said, if your family is not able to pay, see your

counselor and we will work through that with you. We don't want cost to be the reason a student thinks they can't go on and take these dual enrollment classes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very

much. OK, and now we're going into information discussion and Ms. Hahn, you have some updates for us. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. What you have in front of you, you've got four policies, you can see

the descriptions that are included. The first three are not significant changes. They're really just more of a cleanup to kind of take another look at and kind of revitalize some of these policies.

The fourth one, reading specialists, that is a brand new policy. That is not a rewrite. That is something that we are adding. This is something that has been required by Virginia Code and is something

that we are already excited to do. So this was a fairly simple ad, but it is noteworthy and that it is brand new and I'm happy to take any questions that you may have. Thank you, Ms. Hahn. Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have the annual report on student achievement and comprehension plan. Dr. Staley, welcome. Good evening, Madam Chair, school board members, Dr. Pennycuff. It's our pleasure to

provide an update on the comprehensive plan. I'll provide an update on goal one. Ms. Stone will provide an update on goal two. Mr. Wiedenhof on goal three. And Dr. Maupe on goal four. Grounded in

where we are today and where we strive to be, our twenty three twenty nine comprehensive plan reflects our mission to foster a student centered community dedicated to excellence in teaching, learning

and leadership. While striving toward our vision to empower confident, productive, lifelong learners, our work is guided daily by six police statements. We believe that students thrive in a safe,

secure and nurturing environment. We believe that students achieve their goals when offered multiple learning paths. We believe that resource allocation matches the complex needs of students, staff

and schools. We believe that relevant and engaging teaching develops critical thinkers and problem solvers. We believe that family engagement and community partnerships enhance quality education. And

we believe that robust and relevant professional learning supports success. Let's take a look at goal one. Goal one is to provide high quality and relevant instruction that prepares students to be

life ready, productive individuals. Goal one objective one is to enable all students to demonstrate annual measurable growth and literacy and numeracy to targeted responsive instruction. To support

this, we strive to ensure consistent growth for all students, strengthen foundational skills and reading, writing and mathematical reasoning and provide targeted instruction to meet diverse learning

needs. Hanver maintains strong academic performance on the 25, 26 SOL assessments. We exceeded statewide pass rates across all core areas. We also achieved the highest overall performance in the

Richmond metropolitan region. Again, in all four subject areas, we have performed the state by six percentage points in reading, by nine in mathematics, by five in science and by 13. In history and

social science. Additionally, we tied for first in mathematics and ranked second in history among Virginia's 15 largest school divisions. We're proud to report that all of our schools, 100 percent of

our schools are fully accredited. This achievement is a direct reflection of the unwavering dedication, expertise and tireless effort demonstrated daily by our outstanding educators, staff and school

leaders. We are also pleased to report that 12 of our schools were recognized as distinguished on the 25, 26 school performance and support framework, an increase from seven last year. Let's take a

look at the class of 2026. The class of 26 upheld our strong tradition of academic excellence, achieving an outstanding on time graduation rate with a majority of students earning advanced diplomas.

We had 1305 total graduates. We had 45 that successfully completed the advanced college academy program and 22 that earned an I.B. diploma. Fun fact, our students graduated from Reynolds Community

College with their associate's degree before graduating from Hanover with their high school degree. I was going to shout out our career counselors, but the hype squad has left us. What are our 26

graduates doing now? Self-reported post graduation plans reflect strong alignment with our 3E framework. That's education, employment and enlistment. Eighty five point six percent of our students

reported plans to pursue higher education at a four year university, a two year college or technical program. Eleven percent reported that they're going to enter the workforce, 2.75 percent reported

plans to enter the military and fewer than one percent did not report post graduation plans. Although there is much to celebrate, we remain grounded in the work of continuous improvement. What does

that look like? We established a data driven framework to assess school needs and to align resources. We developed a targeted support plan for each school and we will continuously monitor data and

adjust support and resource allocation throughout the school year. Goal one, objective two focuses on maximizing career preparation opportunities for all students. This objective aligns with the three

E's again, employment, enrollment and enlistment and is supported by targeted career counseling across our middle schools and our high schools. We are pleased to share that we hosted over two thousand

career awareness meetings and events during the twenty five twenty six school year. Here are a few examples. We recently held our education expo, the mission tomorrow event, which is for our eighth

graders, the technical school night at the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology, the fall and spring career fairs, the regional teen summit, as well as college and military visits. We are also

pleased to share that one thousand eight hundred seventy eight students earned a total of two thousand five hundred twenty eight credentials, certifications and licenses and one hundred forty nine

students completed an internship or clinical experience. Next steps for goal one, objective two include expanding the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology. We will be able to accommodate up to 160

additional students about 80 a day. We're increasing enrollment capacity in the cosmetology program. We're introducing two new courses, diesel equipment, technology and welding. And we're leveraging

the Superintendents Business Advisory Council to explore opportunities in cybersecurity information and technology, automation and advanced manufacturing and construction and logistics. Goal one,

objective three aims to foster diverse and rigorous learning experiences tailored to student skills and interests. Specifically, we aim to increase student participation and rigorous learning

experiences. And we want to empower our students to take active ownership of their learning. Student achievement and advanced studies remains exceptionally strong. Dr. Herndon shared some of these

numbers. Let's share them again. Our advanced placement student participation increased from one thousand four hundred students to one thousand four hundred seventy five students. We administered two

thousand six hundred and thirty eight AP exams. That's an additional two hundred seven exams or eight point five growth percent growth in exam volume. Seventy eight point one percent of students

earned a qualifying score of three or higher. As Dr. Herndon shared, our dual enrollment grew from three hundred seventy one unique students to five hundred seventy one student. That's an increase of

one hundred and ninety three additional students. What are the next steps for goal one? Objective three, we will continue to expand dual enrollment opportunities to allow more students to earn college

credit while providing financial savings for families. We will introduce new courses and we will strengthen support and communication for students and for families. We will implement recommendations

from both the gifted Advisory Committee and the C.T. Advisory Committee. And we will review the I.B. right sizing plan. The strategic initiatives outlined in goal one are anchored in robust fiscal

stewardship and comprehensive financial planning. It is now my privilege to introduce Miss Stone, who will present updates on goal two. Thank you, Dr. Staley. And so with goal two, watch now, I'm not

going backwards and I'm the one who knows how to make it go backwards. So for goal two is prioritizing resources and I would make the argument that all the goals relate somehow to prioritizing

resources. So a lot of what you're hearing you'll hear about tonight was because this board made the decision to make those activities a priority. And so the different areas include facility and

capital planning, safety and compliance, transportation. These are operational efficiencies. We're going to have a presentation just in a few minutes about our facility and capital planning. So we

will explore that more. And then also the support of prioritizing our limited resources to ensure that we're supporting that dynamic teaching and learning and based upon all of the wonderful

information we've heard tonight. I feel confident that we're doing a great job in doing that. Next steps over there will be countless hours over the next five or six months where we're developing next

year's budget. So that will be our focus in regards to next steps and that will be starting next month. And so next is Mr. Weedenhoff to talk about our workforce. Thank you. Good evening. I have the

opportunity this evening to speak in regards to goal three. Goal three focuses on attracting, developing and retaining a high quality student focused workforce through mutual trust, open communication

and support. Objective one focuses on a proactive and innovative approach to recruiting optimal talent, focusing on competitive compensation, strategic outreach and career building initiatives. Our

comprehensive strategy is designed to attract, retain and develop the best educators and staff. The fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget included a three percent pay increase for all employees and a

four percent pay increase for teachers. In addition, our budget process continue to annually support our job family market analysis to ensure both external and internal competitiveness in the market.

We continue to promote our unique benefits such as wellness initiatives and our marathon health clinic. Our partnership with Marathon Health continues to grow adding a new location just this summer in

Mechanicsville, expanding employee access to affordable health care needs, including behavioral health. We also continue this past year focusing on financial incentives for our employees with the

substitute financial incentive as well as the employee financial referral incentive. Our human resources department continues to focus on strategic engagement to cultivate relationships with our

future educators. We do this by interacting with our teacher for tomorrow program at each of our high schools to support and connect with high school students and pursuing teaching as a profession, as

well as interacting with our student teachers during our annual student teacher reception and having our HR personnel go out and meet with our student teachers during one to one meetings at their

sites. Our work in the area of recruitment continues to be a multifaceted approach with virtual and in-person engagement. Our recruitment event participation continues to grow. We have doubled our

events over the last three years. We have put a focus on local job fairs as well as more community engagement events. This is in addition to our annual college and university job fairs, as well as our

virtual job fair that Hanover County hosts every year, which is still our largest recruitment event. We also work to strengthen our programs for community and support staff who are interested in

entering the teaching profession through an alternative pathway. We do this through our annual I might want to teach event as well as supporting our path program and the I teach initiative. Objective

two focuses on continuing to offer high quality professional learning that aligns with our licensure standards. All district sessions are reviewed and approved for license renewal points for licensure

for our staff. Our UPLC district conference meets the specific needs of HCPs teachers. Instructional leadership is strongly supported with multiple opportunities for growth through multiple Hanover

centered cohorts, including our leadership cohort and partnership with JMU. Our teachers are strongly supported in the classroom with specialists and coaches fostering a culture of professional

growth. Instructional coaches spread across the district based on areas of priority. In addition to this, we also have our coaches provide direct support to teachers individually and in teams.

Objective three in our goal three focuses on proactively retaining our talented workforce by focusing on three key areas. Recognizing our staff achievements, using data to inform our strategies and

prioritizing employee wellness and benefits. Our communication teams lead robust daily engagement, averaging over five social media posts per day that spotlight our employees and innovative practices.

We also offer extensive formal recognition and awards assemblies. As you have all participated annually in our of the year gatherings, including our teacher of the year, beginning teacher of the year,

as well as our support employee of the year. And in the spring, we also gather to recognize our retirees with five or more years of service to Hanover County Public Schools. We continuously collect

employee feedback and analyze trends for continuous improvement. We conduct year round exit interviews to understand attrition trends. These targeted retention efforts have led directly to results.

Our teacher attrition rate has steadily dropped over five percent since the twenty one twenty two school year, going from thirteen point seven three percent down to eight point four four percent. We

are prioritizing employee wellness and benefits through expanded incentives and opportunities that encourage healthy lifestyle choices. We will continuously evaluate our wellness offerings and

engagement and continue to ensure our benefits remain relevant to the needs of our workforce. Our next steps during the twenty six twenty seven school year, human resources will continue building on

our efforts to attract, develop and retain high quality workforce across the division. Our focus will center on six key strategic areas in compensation. We are going to continue our job, family and

market review and adjustment process in the area of benefits. We are partnering closely with our benefit consultants to improve employee education, helping staff better understand their options. And

select the plans that best suit their families. We will continue to build our talent pipeline from within. As you will hear later this evening, we will be launching our grow our own program for hiring

back Canover County Public Schools graduates into teaching positions. We also will be continuing to expand our path program in conjunction with the I teach initiative to support non traditional

pathways to teaching. We will continue prioritizing and expanding our staff recognition efforts to honor the dedication and excellence of our employees across all job families throughout the school

year. We will continuously continue to actively analyze employee survey data and feedback. And lastly, in the area of wellness support modernization, we are going to ensure our wellness initiatives

reach every employee. We have several targeted goals for the coming year, including redesigning and modernizing our wellness website. Continuing to expand wellness reimbursement options, enhancing our

wellness champions program across the school and departments. And continuing our community partnerships and continuous improvement efforts to ensure that we continue to strengthen our community and

health partnerships. While using participation data and employee feedback to adapt our offerings to meet the evolving needs of our workforce. And I will turn over for goal four to Dr. Mulby. So I have

the pleasure to talk about climate and community. Goal four allows our school division to identify, create and put into place those systems that best connect our students and community to our schools

while creating positive school environments. So how do we support student and employee wellness? We do this through instruction and tier one activities to highlight awareness days such as anti-

bullying, kindness, mental health awareness, career development and career development month. We have transition support activities that include providing programs for those students new to a school

via transfer or maybe through that boundary adjustment. All of our elementary schools are expected to use morning meetings and to align those meetings with classroom needs through the support of

counselors and behavior coaches. Several of us, as I decide, are actively participating in wellness challenge as we speak. In regard to objective two, in order to be proactive with our behavior and

discipline approach, every school now has a VTSS team and nine of our elementary schools now are implementing the house system. Those VTSS teams that exist in each school look at behavior data and

make decisions based on the trends that they're seeing in that data. The house system in school helps to develop camaraderie and a spirit of competition among those students. Some of our secondary

schools are actually mirroring that now and what we're starting to see is active competitions between grade levels and opportunities for activity. One thing that I just wanted to highlight is the

bulldog break that's happening at Bell Creek Middle School. I asked them for some language to help me describe what exactly that looks like and so after lunch, students and staff have a chance to get

outside and recharge. They connect before returning class ready to learn and hopefully lowering those behavior incidents that we were seeing post-lunch. So they connect before returning to class ready

to learn. Students can play ball, run around, talk with friends or simply enjoy the fresh air. It's a 15 minute window that they've put together that I will tell you that they do their best to protect

as well. So it's something they try not to take away so that every student has that opportunity. So objective three, strengthening family engagement. So teachers and staff, of course, continue to use

parent square as a common platform, active collaboration and common message between schools and the same feeder pattern to support whole family school attendance. Cultural family nights and programs

that highlight student and family heritage to share food and traditions. The entire community is invited to attend and participate in these events. School specific events are held that also foster

literacy and math along with family engagement. Objective four is opportunities for organizations, groups and congregations to come together to support our schools, students and staff. Many schools

are offering a variety of opportunities for the community to engage with our schools such as house breakfasts, game nights, parent parades and more. To further illustrate that, we've actually

collected a couple of pages of photographs that are pulled directly from our school's Facebook pages. The way I think the best show how our communities are engaging with our schools are all the

photographs that are contained within our school websites that show exactly that. So in terms of our next steps listed here are some collaborative efforts within schools, corridors and across the

division to effectively support and serve students, staff and families. Specifically feeder patterns are often given the opportunity to work together to best align goals and resources vertically. So

an example I gave earlier was that a middle school is reaching out to an elementary school to get a better sense of those strategies that worked for kids that were struggling so that they might

translate those to what it might look at the middle school so that they can better support those students through their transition in sixth grade. That being said, I'd like to show you just a couple

of slides of photographs. Again, taken directly from our school's websites. This is what we're seeing on the Facebook pages that are highlighting all those kids that are smiling, that are enjoying the

climate that's being developed in their schools where they're inviting the community and families to come in. Some of the examples that you're seeing here are football players greeting students at

Cool Springs. This is beginning of the year. Engaging community and national night kickoff events, ribbon cuttings at Beaver Dam, watchdogs in our schools, sorting ceremonies, parent parades. There's

just all these incredible examples that are out on our websites now, and I wanted to share a couple of those photographs with you all. That being said, I'm going to step back for a moment and invite

any questions for my colleagues and I that you might have. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have any questions? Yes, Dr. Schiff. I don't have any questions. I just while you guys were presenting,

I just want a couple of things that stood out to me. The graduation rate in Virginia is 91 percent, and I'm going to round a little bit because I'm terrible at math for one. But ours is 97. Sorry,

Terry. Our our the number of students, so we're up the average in the country is 87 percent. So we're up 10 percent on that students going on to four year colleges. The average in America is only 46

percent and we're sitting at 66 percent. So Dr. Pinnikoff and the instructional staff and everybody guys have done an amazing job. So congratulations. Thank you, Dr. Schiff. Does anybody else have any

comments or questions? Thank you for the great presentation and all the hard work that you've done. It's truly a blessing to be a part of Hanover and and have four children to have graduated and then

two are still here. Hope to graduate. And then I know many of us have kids in the system that or kids that have graduated that, you know, it's a blessing to be here. So thank you. Moving on to our

next information discussion agenda item is Hanover County. Grow your grow our own future teachers initiatives. So we have Dr. Wietenhoff coming up. Thank you. Whereas Mrs. Dr. Herndon has a residency,

I stop in every couple of minutes and just bombard you guys. I am excited, though, this evening to speak with you about a creative approach to recruitment that the human resources department in

conjunction with multiple departments throughout the division will be working on. This initiative is going to create a pipeline for talent in our most critical instructional areas with candidates and

individuals who have a strong community tie. This is our grow our own future teacher initiative. Now, I know I do not have to go through a lot of information with this audience because we are aware of

the national teacher shortage that our country has been facing and continues to face just in Virginia alone. So this is this is not a unique Hanover concern. This is a national concern in Virginia

alone during the twenty five twenty six school year. Our state face two thousand four hundred and fifty one teacher vacancies. One thing that I do want to highlight that is something that we need to

be cognizant of here in Hanover and that this program will be an additional tool for us to try to come back is that the thirty one percent that it's at or near retirement age in our current teacher

workforce in Hanover. So our grow our own initiative is not going to replace any of our current recruitment efforts. All of our recruitment efforts are going to continue. This initiative is going to

be another creative a solution to our recruitment efforts. And it is going to be an additional strategy for us to have in our toolbox as we go through our recruitment. Just a little background our

H.R. department. I have the honor to be the coal facilitator on our Richmond Association of School Personnel administrators in the Richmond region. And we hold an annual in-person event every year.

And so we took the opportunity this past year to host a grow your own speaker to come in and talk with us about how these programs work. We also as a department have had the opportunity the last two

years to attend our national conference. And we made sure that we attended all of the sessions that we could for divisions that were hosting sessions that have their grow their own initiatives. In

addition to that we have done reviews with other school divisions in the state as well as our partners in H.R. throughout the state to speak with them about how their grow their own initiatives have

worked in their school division. Our grow our own program is going to be eligible to any graduating senior from any of our high schools. They will have to complete an application process that

application will ask them to submit a formal application their acceptance letter to a university in which they have been accepted to a VDOE approved teacher preparation program a recommendation from a

current teacher during their senior year. And they also are going to be asked to complete a personal essay in which they will have to write why they would like to return to teach in Hanover. Our focus

will be on the top critical shortage teaching endorsement areas that are in Virginia. However we are going to stick to the areas at the time that the students graduate from high school. So if we get

to a point in four years where middle education is no longer an endorsement that's no longer critical shortage area. If we made an offer to that individual because that was the endorsement area that

they were going to proceed in at time of graduation of high school we will honor that once they are able to return to us as a teacher. Those individuals who are graduating seniors who are selected

they are going to receive an official teacher contract author letter from Hanover County Public Schools. In that letter they are going to be directed that they do have to reach out to Hanover County

Public Schools by January 15th of the year that they graduate college. And the reason why we selected that date is because that date will allow us time to continue to work through staffing and working

with our specialists and our principals and to make sure that we are accounting for these individuals who will be returning to us in their endorsement areas to ensure that we have the positions

available to them. They will also upon returning to us after following graduation receive a $2,000 signing bonus if they do move forward and accepting that contract offer we do want to assist them

with that move back into Hanover County and so this is a way to incentivize them to make that move back to their home. Now I can't leave my role of HR so I did have to include HR information in this

offer letter so in the offer letter that they will receive it will be that employment is contingent on sufficient division funding at the time of their college graduation as well as the availability

of the teaching position in the critical shortage license endorsement area at the time of their high school graduation. And this also does not set aside any type of employment requirements so they

will still need to have to fulfill all of their employment requirements to obtain employment with us as a school division. So where we will go from here the department throughout the fall is going to

be sharing this information with our school principals and with our school counselors and our career counselors to make sure that we can include this information in the local scholarship packets that

are provided to our students. Throughout this winter we will be coordinating with our high schools to ensure that there is time during their recognition programs in the spring to recognize these

seniors who are eligible to receive and do receive these offer letters. And then we will also be working with Kate to make sure that we're on the June school board agenda to make sure that we have

these individuals and their families come in June to be recognized by all of you as well. February 5th will be the deadline for applications to be completed and submitted throughout the month of

February. We will have a cross department hiring committee really set up just like an interview panel to go through these applications to ensure that they meet the standards that we're looking for for

our eligible seniors and select the recipients. And then by March 1st we have to have notification out to our school counseling departments to let them know that these specific individuals have been

selected to receive their offer letters of employment. So the program will culminate with two events. We will be of course recognizing these seniors at their individual school senior award ceremonies.

We will also be inviting them to come to the June school board meeting to sign their contract offer letters and to be recognized. And even though these are kind of the two final culminating events,

human resources is planning on continuing to keep that engagement with them over the four years that they may not be directly here. We already work with many of our graduating seniors in getting them

signed up to be substitutes during their holiday breaks when they're back home. So we will continue doing that with these individuals, reaching out to them if there's any type of summer opportunities

during summer school or extended school year program. So we are going to continue that engagement with them over those four years so that we don't break that bond that we established during this

process with them. And with that, I will take any questions that you may have. Thank you. Do we have any questions? Yes, Ms. Martin. I think this is awesome. I got really excited when I read this in

the agenda. I obviously went to school here. So I know a lot of people that teach here. And I think one of the biggest things that they're here is because they had such a great experience and they

don't want to leave. So I think this is an awesome initiative. I don't expect you have this information, but maybe come back to us if you do know. Do you know percentage wise how many of our current

staff members went to Hanover schools? I don't know currently how many of them like percentage wise. I just say it would be a great exercise to come back and look at. Right. I do know last school

year. I do know that we had twenty four of our new teachers who were Hanover graduates who came back to Hanover. And my second one, Ms. Stone might throw something at me, but the two thousand dollars,

where did that come from? It's just kind of that's the best we thought we could do. Or I'm just I'm curious if we feel like that moves the needle. Yeah. You know, it's difficult because we're sort of

planning on a budget item for four years from now. So we felt like this was sort of a good first step to take. What's that? We have time. OK, great. Thank you. A really good job. Don't let her hear

you. A really good job. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I think we're all very excited about this new initiative. It's a great, great idea. Great, great job planning it. I can't wait to see how

it shakes out. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll see you next month, too. OK, Ms. Stone to talk about capital and facilities updates. Good evening again. This is a super exciting presentation. And

before I start, I want to introduce Kevin Salls. He is our director of facilities. He just started with us in February of this year, and I want to compliment him for most of all this work. So I'm

standing up here when you guys have technical questions. I'm going to look to him immediately. So first, we'll start with the Battlefield Park Elementary School. And this is just, again, wonderful

news. As you know, we've opened the school. And so at that point, we go back and look at our budget, which we started with 45 million. Our project to date, which includes all of our encumbrances, all

of our reserves that have to go to a general contract as they finish things out, was forty nine point forty one point nine million. You may recall that the project originally included demolition of

the old school. The county made the decision that they wanted to retain that building. And so part of that agreement, part of the discussions we had during joint education committee meetings, was that

we would transfer the funds originally intended for the demolition back to the county. So this budget shows the transfer of that three hundred and fifty thousand to the county. And then for this

project and Beaver Dam, which is next, we said, let's keep a reserve. As you go through the first year, there are things that come up that we want to deal with. So we want to make sure that we retain

a reserve in those projects. And we still have a remaining balance of over two point two million dollars. And I have to give also some credit. We know how much I'd love to watch the dollars. But we

also know Josh Bauer with CRA. He has, you know, he's very dramatic and brings a lot to the table. But he is wonderful at working with contractors and helping us to watch the budget. I think he feels

as strongly about it as I do. And so I certainly appreciate that. When we look at Beaver Dam Elementary, the original budget was forty three point eight million. It's a smaller school. The project to

date cost forty point nine million. We want to have that reserve. For example, recently or in the last few months of the construction, we identified that we needed the generator to go with the pump

station. So that's an example of an expense that we may identify as we go on in the next several months. So we also recommend a reserve of five hundred thousand. But that still leaves a remaining

balance of two point four million dollars. So these projects were managed very well by our team, by our general contractors, by our engineers. And I think both of them are great success stories. Now

we'll move on to Washington Henry. This project is on time. Substantial construction is through the summer. We've talked about this a couple of times, but I want to mention it again, that the final

phase will be in the fall of twenty twenty seven. So when we have the ribbon cutting, there will still be a temporary parking lot and a temporary playground area. And that will be completed within the

next couple of months. We went to the Joint Education Committee on January 16th of this year. And we talked about the fact that the estimated cost came in over budget. We brainstormed at that time

some ways that we could address that. We were working with the county. We did some value engineering. But at that time, we said that we felt that we would have some remaining dollars. We could not

identify it at that time. But from Beaver Dam and Battlefield Park that we could redirect to this project. So at this time, we are in a position to do that. So the next slide touches on a budget

transfer that we have on the action agenda later this evening. We talked about the remaining balance at Battlefield Park Beaver Dam that subtotals over four point six million dollars. We know we have

a need at Washington Henry. So we're proposing that we move from those two projects, three million to Washington Henry. And then I'm sure as many of you heard in the region, some of our neighbors were

struggling with HVAC issues during back to school. Well, Mr. Salz was already ahead of them. One of the things when he took the job was he said, I want to start to take an inventory of all of our

major components and our buildings or a roof or HVAC, understand where our needs are. And he has identified some needs and some significant ones. And so we will talk about that more as we are

developing our five year capital improvement plan. But understanding that we had some remaining balances, we talked about what are some of those most critical needs that you are identifying. And he's

working with a contractor that does this work. And one of those projects was Mechanicsville High, an HVAC need of one point four million. The equipment, and I'm not even going to begin to name

everything, has a six month lead time. So if we want to perform the work at Mechanicsville High School this summer, then we needed to talk about do we have the funds? Do we get those funds transferred

so that we can make sure we can order the equipment and start to address some of these things over the summer? So what you will see here and we haven't talked about before, we're going to talk about

this a lot more during their budget development. But we are proposing to remove one point four million of those dollars to Mechanicsville High School for that project this summer. And we're happy to

go into that with more detail in more detail. So that still leaves us two hundred and fifty thousand for future use. Should something else crop up this year, then on the capital that we feel that we

need to address. And not that I'm leading the witness, however, another one of our capital projects, as you know, is a renovation project of the Center for Professional Learning. Its expected timing

is probably going to push a little beyond the December thirty first, which was their original date and push a little more into the winter into early spring. Well, why is that? Well, we'd rather build

new schools than renovate, quite frankly. And we've talked about that in detail with any renovation. There are things that you discover that are renovation challenges. There was water ponding on the

roof. The matching bricks became very complex. The sanitary lines are under a concrete slab. And so sometimes you don't even know what you have until you start to unearth it. There was no domestic

water shut off. So we got in there, we discovered things that our facilities department said, you don't want to do it this way. You're going to spend money renovating something. And then, you know,

you have a water leak and you don't know how to cut it off. And now suddenly you have a flooded facility. So we are addressing those things as we go. We are still within our budget. But as we deal

with these difficult situations, I may be back and remind you of that two hundred and fifty thousand. Hopefully not, but again, with any renovation project, you start to identify things as you go,

including structural steel size. And again, he's the expert. He can explain it better than I can. So moving on, we have the Center, the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology, our expansion there.

We put that project out to bid. It was awarded to Gulf Seaboard. It includes really most everything that we had hoped to do. When we talked to you, we said, hey, this is what we'd like to do. But

we're not sure that we have enough funding to do all of these things. It includes three labs, five classrooms, which is two in addition to the base bid that we were concerned we would not get. In

closing the entire school so that it's not a campus style school with the addition and a vestibule. The only thing that we were not able to get into the contract was an outside workspace. And of all

the things that we had hoped for, that is something that is is more easy to add later. And so we're very excited about the project. The timeline completion date is August 15th, twenty twenty seven. So

we're going to push. We're going to be pushing to the very end. But we have experience doing that. Overall, the budget again is ten million seven hundred and fifty thousand. That's seven hundred and

fifty thousand thanks to delegate Wyatt that helped us with that state funding. And that really assisted us in being able to get all of those alternates into the base bid. So that is very exciting. So

now we're going to quickly walk through all the summer projects. What the facility staff, in addition to moving into new schools and all the work that was required with that, they tried to really

capture some of that low hanging fruit in all of their classrooms and they did a wonderful job. So there's at Cold Harbor, there's new lighting in the hallways and offices. They power wash the

outside. They repaved a portion of the asphalt near the playground, cool spring, new countertops and sinks related to plumbing on the first and second floor. They added the bottle filling station,

Elmont. They had to this is at the entrance, the repair of the exterior dry fit and wood trim. I'm not real sure what dry fit is, but Kevin can certainly help us. But I would call it the trim on the

roof there or at the top there. So at Cursey Creek, you may recall that we had some damage to the entrance from the ice storm. So that was repaired and did some replacement of brick and steel. Laurel

Meadow, they upgraded the gym lighting from fluorescent to LED. They painted multiple classrooms and the restrooms throughout the school. Mechanicsville Elementary replaced the fluorescent lighting in

the restrooms with LED lighting. And then they'll be maintaining the current operating systems other than event emergencies. So we're going to do the best we know that that school is out in the

capital improvement plan, not that far. So we will address issues as they arise, but not necessarily do any major projects there. Pearson's Corner replaced the LVP flooring and building C. Pull Green

installed a new boiler for heating and hot water, added LED lighting in the hallways. Power washed and installed a new playground. Rule Point, we had to resurface the overflow drive and make some

repairs there. South Anna, we expanded and resurfaced the gravel addition and power washed the sidewalk and building. Bell Creek power washed the exterior and a new dumpster enclosure. Chickahominy

replaced outdated dust collector in the woodshop class. Paved the parking lot, replaced one section of the roof, and replaced the stage lights with LED. Liberty installed a new stage lift, replaced

two sections of the roof, and replaced fluorescent lighting with LED throughout the school. Atlee upgraded the outdated sound system at the football stadium. Hanover High installed a new boiler

system, and a lot of the major projects were in their CIP. And some of the smaller ones were things that we just did with our operating funds. Replaced the lighting with LED in the auditorium and

painted the stadium and concession. Mechanics for High painted the goal post. Dr. Pennekev helped to identify that as a need. Art room floors replaced a segment of the sanitary piping with PVC.

Upgraded the gym lighting, power washed the football field bleachers, and upgraded the weight room. Patrick Henry renovated auditorium backstage restrooms, installed safety fencing at the baseball

dugouts, and weight room design discussion. There's capital project for that. Trades and technology. The center has been brightened up. We replaced all the lighting with LED. And Georgetown painted

the interior new carpet in the office area. And central office installed an awning over the back entrance. So a lot of work that was accomplished over the summer as part of that maintenance work. And

then this is just a list. We took a snapshot of what were the work orders that the requests that were out, the requests that were completed. Sometimes work orders cannot be completed immediately. We

may have to order something or to fix it. They moved all the furniture in the building contents. For the boundary adjustments, we did have to move some furniture around during the summer and then into

the new schools. And we're now working on upgrading the work order system to something that is more robust and user friendly for our schools and our principals to input work orders. So it's very

exciting. A lot of work that was accomplished. I am very appreciative. We have a great team on the facility side and also with our capital projects. So we'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you,

Ms. Stone. Do we have any questions for Ms. Stone? I would like to say thank you. I love this. This is great breakdown for us to see all the nice stuff that we've done for the schools and keeping them

refreshed and updated. And thank you, Kevin and partner Jason. They're y'all are both awesome and we appreciate you. So thank you so much. They've done a wonderful job. Thank you. Yes, thank you. OK,

next up we have public comment. So we have our general public comment and then we had we had public comment for our budget season and we have no one signed up for our fiscal year 2028 budget. So we

will move on with our general public comments and we have seven. And Dr. Shroff, if you want to read your statement. Yes, Madam Chair. The school board conducts the public comment segment of its

meeting to receive information from the general public on matters related to Hanover County Public Schools. Per board policy, the total time allocated for public comment will not exceed 60 minutes.

Speakers who wish to address the school board are requested to follow these guidelines. As each speaker is recognized by the chairperson, the speaker is asked to clearly state the speaker's name,

magisterial district and the subject of the speaker's remarks. Speakers are asked to address the comments to the board and not to the audience. The board requests that the audience refrain from

responding to speakers' comments with applause or other audible expressions of approval or disapproval. Speakers are allotted three minutes to address the board. Each speaker laps time will appear on

the screen. Speakers will also receive notification from the chairperson when time has expired. Although the board does not permit the use of slide shows or other projected materials during the

segment, speakers are invited to provide printed copies of such materials to the board. The board requests any person with a complaint about a school division employee to first address the concern to

the division superintendent in accordance with board policy. Comments targeting, criticizing, or attacking individual students are not permitted during this segment, and speakers should refrain from

using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student. Speakers should be aware that while the school board allows speakers to address any matter within the board's

preview, speakers may be held legally responsible if they make statements that violate the legal rights of others, including threatening or defamatory statements made against staff members, students,

or parents. The board expresses its appreciation for the public's input and cooperation during this segment of the meeting, and our first speaker is Detrell Bolden. And next up is Holly Jackson

Conrad. Good evening, my name is Detrell Bolden. I am here speaking on my granddaughter Nala Wilkerson. Nala Wilkerson was involved in a incident at Patrick Henry High School on September the 21st,

and she has been giving the, she has been. Miss Bolden, just one second, I'd like to yield to Miss Holland. Madam Chair, I just want to make sure that speakers understand that sharing, identifying

information of students, especially minors, is, excuse me, not permitted. And certainly, we just want to make sure that the privacy of our students and our families are kept confidential in this

public setting. Okay, even if it's my granddaughter, don't say the name. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And we pause the time for you. Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm

here for a student at Patrick Henry High School that has been taken out of Patrick Henry High School to Georgetown. This student is not the student who she's portrayed to be. This student is a lovable

person. She loves school. She will befriend any student that she comes in contact with. Georgetown is not the best place for her. Her first day there, classroom was disrupted. She spent the day in the

counselor's office. They had students throwing things at the teachers, so the class, you know, it wasn't able to, you know, conduct like it should have. Kids were fighting. The teacher was unable to

teach. The school does an offer. Offer all classes now it takes. The school doesn't offer all classes that the student takes. The principal stated that when Nala Grades came in, he was even surprised

as to him having a student come in with those grades that she does have. She spent the day in the counselor's office. She was traumatized, depressed, all because of the obtuse behavior and the lack of

interest in performing the job that the assistant principal did not do. He did not follow the school's procedures. Once he was notified, the mother did everything correct. Was notified of the

situation that it could occur on that day. Students, they shared the same class and they were both in that class. They were not separated. At the end of the school day, she was attacked by this

individual. She was stripped of her, she's in the ninth grade. So she was stripped of going to her first year at Patrick Henry, the football games, the homecoming. But the student that initiated the

fight was able to go and it is so unjust. Even coming here, I see no diversity here. We had the DEI taken out. When we come to these meetings, we are faced in front of, it's like us against them. And

something has got to give and hand over. I've been in the school system for 32 years. And when I go to Henrico, when I go to the city, I do not see this. So I'm asking that you are pleased, something

needs to be done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Holly Jackson Conrad is next. And then up after Miss Conrad or Miss Jackson Conrad, Mary Michelle Peltier. Good evening. I'm Holly Jackson Conrad, a

1972 graduate of Patrick Henry High School. I'm also a vice graduate of Virginia State University. And I'm a retired teacher of 39 years with Richmond Public Schools. My concern tonight is bullying in

Hanover County, what's not being addressed by these administrators. I don't have a child in Hanover County, but I have a lot of family members. Bullying is wrong. According to your policy, bullying is

strictly prohibited in Hanover County public schools. An assistant principal in Hanover County who neglects to implement bullying policies may face serious consequences. Neglecting to address bullying

can lead to lawsuits against a school or individual staff. You don't want a lawsuit here in Hanover County for bullying. When you can prevent a fight and you've been told ahead of time that morning

that something's going to kick off, then anybody, any administrator or teacher, have been trained and taught to deal with that situation. You don't just ignore it. I taught school for 39 years. If a

child came to me and said there's going to be a fight, somebody's going to bully me, attack me, I would stop what I was doing and address it. Unfortunately, that didn't happen at Patrick Henry High

School. The assistant principal did absolutely nothing and I'm disappointed and I'm hoping that each of you who hear me do something about it. You can't just let it pass. So I'm looking at each of you

tonight. I'm Holly Jackson Conrad and I will be following up on this situation, not just at Patrick Henry. Liberty is another school. We have to address these concerns. Thank you. Thank you. Mary

Michelle Pelter and then after that, Anna. Hi. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. My name is Mary Michelle Pelter and I'm with the Chickahoman district. I'm here to address regarding the selection

process for Maggie Walker Governor School, as well as the other specialty centers across Hanover. Under the current policy, public school students receive the priority. Private and homeschooled kids

are considered only if seats remain available. I discovered this while I was exploring my high school options for my child who's in eighth grade right now. And she goes to a Catholic school currently.

For me, I find this as something it's not an equal opportunity for us because we are not given the chance to be considered for to get into this competitive high schools. So for me, admission should

always be based on merit and not just because of where they go to school. So I asked this from Dr. Herndon Ashley. She said that 71 Hanover students applied last last school year. And out of that five

were private or homeschooled. And so just imagine all 16 spots went to a strictly public school students. So for me, this is kind of unfair and misleading for us because we are allowed to apply. We

are allowed to test. We are allowed to partake in the admission process for Maggie Walker, for example. But when it comes to selection time, we are set aside and priority was given to public school

students. And I wanted to compare this to the Richmond public school system because they changed their policy about two years ago as well. Because they feel like the public school kids are at a

disadvantage because there were more private school kids, I think, that are being selected. They implemented a multi-phase, a three-phase approach to how their selection process is. But they never

push aside the private school or homeschooled kids. And for me, can Hanover do something similar so as not to take away that opportunity from our children as well? I'm really not asking for special

treatment or guaranteed admission. I just wish that my child will also be given the fair chance to be considered, to compete for that spot and not just be pushed aside. We are Hanover County's

residents. My child is a Hanover County child. She does go to a Catholic school right now just because that was our choice when we decided which school she can go to during her formative years. So I

just wanted to voice that out. Thank you. Sorry, Gregory Jorgensen. Good evening. My name is Gregory Jorgensen, and I'm a freshman attending Mechanicsville High School. I am here tonight to address

your decision to move the IB Diploma Program to Valley High School and to ask that you keep the IB program at all four high schools permanently. As a student at Hanover County Public Schools, I chose

the IB program because I love the way it motivates you to engage in the content you are learning. Alongside of this, it was a perfect program for me because I was able to stay at my home high school

where I have already constructed relationships, found my community in the band, and where I run cross-country as a fall sport and where I run indoor and outdoor track with my teammates and my amazing

coach. It's a full IB diploma where to be moved to Atlee. I would have to leave all of that behind. This applies to a lot of students as well. We would have to pick between a program we want to do and

everything that would be built in our zone school. In addition to this, I applied to the Hanover Health Science Center last year, and it was selected for my first choice of sports medicine. Yet I

declined it because I decided that I wanted to do the IB program and stay at my home school with my friends. Now that all the IB diploma opportunities are moving to Atlee starting in my junior year,

it seems I have made the choice for nothing. If I had known that the board was moving IB to Atlee in my junior year of high school caused me to lose all my friendships with my teachers, who would one

day be my mentors, I would have definitely accepted the invitation to the Hanover Health Science Center because I would have begun that program as a freshman, not disrupting me right in the middle of

my high school career. I know many others were also affected by this decision, whether it was students accepted into the Hanover Health Science Center or even Maggie Walker Governor's School. How is

it fair to let us make those decisions without knowing you would do this? It is not. The students and our parents were not informed IB would be at Atlee, which should have been a huge determining

factor in our decision making process. I also heard the argument that consolidating the IB program into one school will somehow strengthen it for the county as a whole. On the contrary, I have seen

and experienced how students respond well to smaller classes. Teachers are able to give much more individualized and stronger mentoring opportunities to their students. With smaller groups, students

can also collaborate and share ideas much more effectively. Not every program has to be larger to become stronger. If the goal of the county is to shape a better IB experience, perhaps we should

invest in uplifting the teachers and students that are already at all four high schools instead of concentrating on moving everyone to one building. All things considered, many of my fellow students

agreed that IB should be kept at all four schools because it was something that was promised to us from the beginning. I hope the board considered what the parents and students wanted. I hope they

considered how this impacts me, my friends, my family, and my school. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well done, young man. And I'd also like to give a white paper. Sure. Thank you. Next up is Shannon

Skurdla. Good evening. I am a parent in the Henry District, and I am here talking about communication. I am following up on a concern I raised at September's school board meeting regarding

communication with families about the arrest of a Hanover High School teacher. Mr. England worked for Hanover County Public Schools for eight years. He now faces allegations involving soliciting a

child and sending sexually explicit photos. Let me be clear. I am not blaming HCPS for his alleged misconduct. To our knowledge, this did not involve Hanover County students or occur within the

county. I understand that the division cannot speak on an ongoing investigation or disclose confidential personal information. My concern is not what happened because, what happened, because I can

find that out myself online. It's what happened after. In the months since the last school board meeting, Hanover High sent more than 44 parent square messages to my family alone. Not one acknowledged

the situation or informed families that support resources were available. Instead, I was told by Ms. Welsh that because the incident occurred off campus, communication was left to the affected

school's principal. Our principal, Ms. Rees, later informed me that additional resources had been brought to the school and teachers had been notified. The teachers were notified, not the families. A

student struggling to process this news should not have to figure out where to find help and then have to find the courage to ask for it. I even asked Ms. Rees if a broad communication through the

school was not the right fit, whether former students who had Mr. England as a teacher could be notified. I was told identifying and contacting those families would be a lot of work. For all of those

that are not aware, HCPS maintains student schedules and course histories. These students can easily be identified and surely their well-being is worth the effort. Because during the 25-26 school

year, students in Mr. England's class would have spent approximately 135 instructional hours with him. That is 8,100 minutes. My son was one of those students. These were not just hours in a

classroom. Students may have trusted him, looked up to him, or viewed him as a mentor. Now some may be questioning their own judgment and wondering whom they can trust. A simple message could have

acknowledged the situation, clarified what could be shared, and informed families that counselors were available. It would not have blamed the division or compromised an investigation. It would have

showed families that their children's well-being mattered. Instead, there was silence. This was a county employee who worked directly with students for eight years. This should not have been left to

the discretion of one principal. What if any information was shared? I am asking the board to establish a better division-wide policy requiring proactive communication with all affected families when

serious incidences involving school employees may impact a student's well-being. Families deserve acknowledgment. Students deserve support. So I ask you, the board, are we here to protect students and

support families even when the conversation is uncomfortable or are we more concerned with keeping difficult topics quiet because staying quiet has never made a child safer? Thank you. Thank you. Next

up is Patricia Hunter Jordan. Good evening. Patricia Hunter Jordan and my magisterial district is Cole Harbor. I'm here this evening. We are here in bullying month, anti-bullying month. And I want to,

again, encourage our school board to look at this and to look at the policy that we currently have because what we are currently doing is not being effective. Our kids on a daily basis are being

bullied in our school. I can tell you that since school started, I have had nine complaints of just the n-word being used. They've all been reported and nothing is really being done about it. So if

someone comes up into your face and does anything to you, a little kid, a young kid, is expected to just turn around, accept that, and walk away. And so you expect the kid to act as an adult in these

situations, and they are not. And we need to understand that, and our school policy says, "Well, we're going to punish you." What about educating them? What about educating the person who perpetrated

the wrong to understand that this was not the correct thing to do? Because when we send them home for 10 days, it doesn't help. But if we teach, if we teach them about anti-bias behavior, it should

be, at least we're attempting to do something to correct the wrong. Our kids are being hurt by this, so we expect them to just take it on the chin, act like you've never heard what you were called.

You go home and get 10 days, just like the other kid who did this to you gets 10 days. And if you do retaliate, if you do hit them back, then you get sent to Georgetown while the other kid goes back

to the school after 10 days and does all the other activities that you're now denied. So we're asking that you look at that punishment policy that you have, and think about how we can work to make it

more of a corrective policy, to correct behavior instead of to just punish. I'd also like to ask that you look at the early release. I go to pick up my grandson some afternoons. We've got five, six

kids out there for early release. I'd rather they take some more classes. Maybe we want to be in that dual enrollment program. Senator Jordan, your time is up. So we want to look at that as well.

Thank you for your time. Now we are moving on to our action agenda. The first one, the first on our agenda is consideration of proposed revised policies as a second read. And Miss Holland, thank you

for joining us back. Thank you, Madam Chair. What you have in front of you are the policies that you saw at our last board meeting for first read. And so they are in front of you again. No changes

have been made. And they are up for your approval if you so see fit. And I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. All right. Thank you, Miss Holland. Do we have any questions on the

proposed revised policies as this is a second read. Then we are looking for a motion to approve these policies. Madam Chair, I move to approve the proposed revised policies 4-1.2 threat assessment

teams, 4-4.2 pupil transportation, 5-1.3 board staff communication, and 5-3.8 lactation support for employees as presented. Thank you, Miss Lynn. I have a motion on the table. Do I have a second?

Second. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. Thank you, Miss Han. Thank you. Next on the agenda is

consideration of the new course proposals for 27-28. Dr. Saley. For your consideration of the new course proposals for the 27-28 school year, they are diesel equipment technology and welding. Those

will be offered at the Hanover Center for Trays in Technology, Advanced Placement Business and Personal Finance, and Advanced Studies Seminar. Those will be offered at our comprehensive schools. Thank

you, Dr. Saley. Do we have any questions? Okay. Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve these? Madam Chair, I move to approve the proposed courses for 2027-2028. Thank you, Miss Lynn. I have a

motion on the table. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. Thank you, Dr. Shrove and Mr. Martin. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed?

The motion passes. The third action item we have is the adoption of the VSBA Bullying Prevention Month resolution. I will read the resolution before we make an emotion to approve it, and that is,

"Whereas the Virginia School Board Association, VSBA, encourages school divisions across the Commonwealth to promote safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environments for all students, and whereas

bullying in all forms, including verbal, physical, social, electronic cyberbullying, can negatively impact student well-being, school connectedness, and academic success, and whereas fostering

positive school climates where students feel respected, valued, and included is a shared responsibility of students, families, educators, school boards, and community partners, and whereas school

divisions across Virginia are committed to preventing bullying through education, awareness, clear policies, and the promotion of respectful and responsible behavior both in person and online, and

whereas the VSBA provides guidance and sample policies to support school divisions in addressing bullying and encouraging positive student conduct, and whereas Bullying Prevention Month provides an

opportunity for schools and communities to engage in conversations and activities that promote kindness, inclusion, and respect. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Hanover County School Board, in

partnership with the Virginia School Board Association, hereby recognizes October 2026 as VSBA Bullying Prevention Month. The Hanover County School Board encourages all schools, staff, families, and

community members to work together this month and throughout the year to promote safe, respectful, and supportive learning environments for all students. Okay, so now I'm looking for a motion. Madam

Chair, I move to adopt the Hanover County School Board Proclamation, designating the month of October 2026 as Bullying Prevention Month. I don't know if there's any discussion. Okay, thank you, Dr.

Schell. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. And before

we move on, I am going to read a statement quickly. On behalf of the school board, I want to share that we have a commitment to providing safe, welcoming, and supportive learning environments for all

students and staff, as reflected in this resolution. We recognize that this commitment requires more than words. It requires intentional, ongoing efforts to promote kindness, encourage positive

relationships, and ensure that every student feels valued, respected, and supported. To this end, we are pleased to share that once again this year, schools across Hanover County will be participating

in a variety of special lessons, activities, and observances in recognition of Bullying Prevention Month. Our schools are finding meaningful and creative ways to reinforce the importance of kindness

and respect, including by celebrating Unity Day next week by wearing orange, the official color of Unity Day. These efforts also reflect our division-wide and ongoing emphasis on kindness, which we

believe is essential to building strong school communities where every student feels a sense of belonging. We also recognize that instances of bullying unfortunately occur. Please know that we take

these situations very seriously. Our school and division administrators follow a well-established process to promptly and thoroughly investigate every concern. When bullying is substantiated, students

are held fully accountable in accordance with the Code of Student Conduct, which reflects the seriousness of such behavior and our collective commitment to swiftly addressing it. This important work

does not happen in isolation. Rather, it extends well beyond our school buildings and into our community. During Bullying Prevention Month and throughout the school year, we encourage our students,

families, staff, and entire school community to join us in reinforcing these important messages. While working together, leading the kindness, and treating one another with respect, we can continue

building school environments where bullying is not tolerated and every student has the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. Thank you. And moving on to our fourth action item, we are welcoming

back Ms. Hahn. Hello, yes, I tried to talk Ms. Stone into doing like a tandem presentation for you guys. We both worked on this with our partners at the county. So you may recall when we initially

discussed the construction of Battlefield Park, we discussed doing a demolition of the old building. So the Board of Supervisors expressed an interest in retaining a portion of the former Battlefield

Park school. So what this resolution does is it will convey both the building, not the full building as you know some parts were taken down, but it will convey the original building with the land

underneath it to the county so that they can decide what they would like to do with it next. This does not impact the new construction or the location of anything to do with the new construction. And

I'm happy to take any questions that you may have. And so would Ms. Stone. Do we have any questions about the previous Battlefield Park Elementary School returning back to the county? Yes, Mr. Sajky.

I'd like to ask, how much is the county paying us for it? So we have a really fantastic relationship with our county partners and we will often negotiate both the return and the borrowing and the

sharing of property. And I hope that answers your question fully. It does fully. We rarely returned. That is true. So, OK, thank you for your questions. OK, so do we have a motion to return this

parcel back to the Hanover? Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution to convey the former Battlefield Park Elementary School and a portion of the site to Hanover County Essar plus property. Thank

you, Dr. Shrove. I have a motion on the table. Do I have a second? Thank you, Ms. Lynn. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. All those opposed. OK, the motion passes. I know some

people will be very excited. Thank you. OK, Ms. Stone, you are up for consideration of the 2027 capital improvement plan budget transfer. Yes. And this is the transfer that we detailed in the

presentation earlier. And at this time we were asked that the board would consider for action to approve the budget transfer as detailed. Thank you. We do we have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move to

approve a budget transfer between multiple projects in the fiscal year 2027 capital improvement plan as presented with zero net cost. Thank you, Mr. Coleman. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr.

Martin. Is there any discussion or questions for Ms. Stone? I forgot to ask about that. OK, seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. All those opposed. Motion passes. Next up, moving right along our

left, we have our fiscal status report that's in your packet. So please take a look at that. Make sure Ms. Stone is on her toes. We have the facility usage report. Please take a look at that. That's

in your packet. Make sure she's on her toes again with looking through that. And next up, we have I'm going to turn this over to Dr. Pennycuff for calendar events coming up. Thank you. Earlier this

evening, we talked a little bit about the foods that our children have in our cafeterias and in their homes and that a large part of their health will be based upon the foods that they eat. On

Thursday, we have something that's unique to Hanover and we have a food show. And students from all over the county come and they taste new foods that will be in the cafeteria and they can give their

thoughts on this is a yes or this is a no. And they provide feedback and then that feedback is used to determine what will be added to the school lunch menus. So for those of you who are available to

join us at Atlee High School this Thursday from nine to one, students will be there. You're welcome to come and taste test to and fill out a form for what you think about the foods that you try out.

Also, our next we visit the schools annually in the fall and this Friday, October 16th is our next school visit day. For those of you who are able to join us, we look forward to having you then. And

then next week we celebrate our support employees of the year at the dinner on October 20th. If you are able to go and you haven't yet let Kate know, please do so that we can sign you up. But that

would be October 20th at five thirty at the federal club. So please let Kate know if you haven't responded and are available to attend. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Penny. And your all your events, all

your events are in your purple purple packet. So these are, I think, through the year. Yes, Dr. Shelf. Can I bring some of my habanero ghost and Carolina Reaper peppers to this event, this tasting

event? You may be the only person who eats them, but you could bring them for show and tell and show the children what they are. I know. Have the EMS on on call. And I will say the food show is

fabulous. I have been once or twice. I think I've been twice. And it is wonderful. It's very it kind of brings you back to your days in school. And I will say that most of it's good. It's not, you

know, most of it's good. And you can fill out your form and I did, but no, it was fun. It's really fun to see the kids interacting and tasting all the stuff. And they're very proud. So so thank you

for allowing us to be a part of that. And then, Dr. Penny, do you want to go over next meetings topics? Yes, thank you. Next, for our November school board meeting, we'd like to have a work session

that involves understanding the school performance framework cut scores. And then how those ratings change based on the threshold rating. So we would like to do that in the work session. And then the

policies that we're seeing this evening for information and discussion will be for action next time. Thank you, Dr. Penny Guff. I'm excited about that work session. I think we need a refresher on the

yes, I know he's he's ready on the accreditation accountability piece and how it's changing for the next several years. OK, now next up on our agenda is our adjournment. So Mr. Martin, did I look

eager? Yes, Madam Chair, I move to adjourn our October 13th 2026 meeting. Thank you. Mr. Martin and Dr. Shrove. Is there any discussion? There never is. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed.

We are now adjourned.