Staff Advisory Minutes
Central Elementary
Good News: 1. Shoutout to first grade. With two teammates out on maternity leave, everyone has stepped up and gone above and beyond.
Great news, thank you for recognizing your selfless colleagues!
2. Shout out to the ladies who run the west wing loop! It is a TOUGH job and they are great at it.
Yes! Thank you for highlighting their work!
3. Shoutout from Mrs. Ravitsky. As a new employee she has felt welcomed and supported from day one. It’s been such a positive experience. 🙂
Thank you for the positive encouragement - and we are so grateful you are a part of our team!
4. A shoutout (a late one) to the custodians for doing such a great job in the winter getting our parking lots and sidewalks clear and ready for the return of staff and students
Wonderful recognition - well deserved!
Staff Questions:
Why is there not a step increase for multiple degrees (masters, masters plus 30, phd).
Our stipends have been in need of revision for some years, and I have attempted to address this through our annual budget process. I have never seen a “step” system associated with stipends - they are often flat rate amounts, like ours are now.
However, I hope to move us to a stipend program for degrees that utilizes a percentage of the employee’s salary, which would move up not only with step increases but with salary increases (raises) as well. We will work on this in the fall with the hopes of supporting a change with the FY27 budget. It will require additional funding, of course, so we will need to measure how it is prioritized against other budget requests/needs. Staff feedback will be critical.
Is there a county wide policy as to where parents can eat with their students? Why do parents have to eat in the conference room, even if they have filled out the volunteer form?
No, there is not a countywide policy related to parents eating with their children at school. Page 8 of the Central Parent Student Handbook addresses this as follows:
Parents wishing to eat lunch with their child, please contact the school in advance to secure a location outside of the cafeteria to enjoy with your student.
There have been instances in which parents have behaved inappropriately in the cafeteria (confronted other students about issues outside of school, etc) and our need to ensure a safe environment for all students is prioritized with this practice.
Carysbrook Elementary
Good News:
-Free breakfast and lunch for all is one of the best things you have done for the children of Fluvanna. It shows you care, and builds their self-esteem, not to mention what it does for their ability to learn.
What a thoughtful and encouraging note! Thank you!
-Students can no longer waste time playing with their screen-saver. When they open their computers, they see a Fluco emblem which makes it clear that the computer is school property and used as a tool, not a toy. Thank you.
We are glad to have been able to receive the feedback and respond in a way that supports our teachers and students positively.
-Securely is a godsend to teachers. They no longer have to worry about students not knowing their assignments or wandering into other places to play games.
This is wonderful to hear - thank you!
Staff Questions:
-School in Fluvanna should be 4 days a week and all year round with breaks every 9 weeks. This would go a long way toward consistency and students would not lose so much learning during the summer, especially the students with learning struggles. Getting up so early, I believe, is also a reason for a 4-day week. Many teachers and staff commute and/or have to get their children up and ready, so that means rising at 5:00 am. By Friday, EVERYONE is completely wiped. Finding good public school teachers may get harder and harder, and Fluvanna does not have the option of a plethora of schools for a choice voucher. A four-day week is an appealing option for recruiting from places like Charlottesville and Richmond.
I am a big proponent of the potential benefits of a year-round model, though I don’t believe it’s always right for all communities. There are many and I would support Fluvanna taking a deep dive into the consideration. I will talk with the school board about this.
Regarding the 4-day work week, I’m open to considering it especially in tandem with a year-round schedule. Simply removing one day of instruction per week with our current schedule would give us too short of a calendar to even comply with minimum state requirements.
The most appropriate place to begin this conversation is with our calendar committee, with support from the school staff. If there is a contingent of staff at the school interested in this, that should be reflected in the feedback given by that school to their representative to the calendar committee.
So - I will work with our school board to determine levels of support for consideration there and you (school staff) do that same work at the school level and bring the request to the calendar committee.
-A couple of 3-prong plug-in areas for slow battery charging are not expensive and, for those who get either electric or plug-in hybrids, it would mean they would be able to recharge during work hours. (another perk for teachers and staff and so easy to do).
We will investigate the cost and feasibility of providing this for our employees and report the information we learn through this committee.
- With our new badging system, is it possible to set the alarms so that teachers can have access during certain hours of the day when school is not in session?
Example: alarms activate at 10 pm or 11 pm? That allows teachers to come back if needed to work on things in their room.
Saturday and Sunday times that teachers can access the building.
I will coordinate decisions among the principals to (a) determine feasible access to schools during off hours and (b) investigate the best avenues for staff to use to request additional access.
The alarm system is completely separate from both the Centigex alert badging program and the Door Access app system. Integrating those systems would be extensive and expensive, but it can be considered if the above-mentioned options don’t adequately address the need.
FMS
Good News:
Shout out - A huge thanks to the human resources department for completing an additional payroll for our bonuses in the middle of open enrollment, contracts, and other end of year chaos. Your work is greatly appreciated!!
Agreed - they’ve done an incredible job, thank you for the recognition!
Staff Questions:
Are we still looking at hiring another behavior specialist? If so, how do we know this is an effective position? Just because we don't suspend kids anymore hardly, is not a good metric for saying we are controlling negative behaviors. We don't need anymore coaches or specialists, or mental health professionals. If we have money, we need to spend it on getting adults in classes to help the teachers.
Thank you for the feedback. There are a couple of issues raised in this comment/question, both of which would be better served by dialogue. We certainly do suspend students quite a bit, so there’s probably a separate conversation to be had around why a staff member would have the perception that we aren’t suspending students anymore. Another question - and what I suspect might be a part of the perception - is whether or not suspensions work. Increasingly, they don't. Suspensions are really only effective when there is a strong partnership between the school and parent/guardian such that the school can communicate the need for the parents/guardians to take on the primary role in the discipline process for whatever event led to the suspension. Without that, removing a student physically from school does very little, if anything, to address the behavior in question.
That confirms the statement made by the person who submitted this comment/question. Suspensions typically don’t address negative behaviors well - and accordingly suspending kids less doesn’t control negative behaviors.
This is why having access to well trained professionals who specialize in behavioral intervention and have the ability to work with students and teachers to develop strategies that improve student behavior and promote positive learning environments in the classroom is critical.
Suspension Data for FMS and FCPS 2024-25 School Year:
STS Short Term (STS)
LTS (LongTerm Suspension District Admin
Expulsion w/services (SBTS: School Board)
FMS
68
7
1
DISTRICT
246
21
7
This is not a question but a request. Several teachers have expressed frustration over "inequitable time" at the different schools and I never feel confident answering them. I assume that our contract hour lengths per day are the same at each location, however there may be an uneven amount of time that we are monitoring students. For example, at FMS we have students in the building from 7:25 - 2:55 (for 7.5 hours). I would like for the admin/superintendent team to look at the different schools and see if this is equitable. If not, perhaps we can change the drop off times at the various schools to make it that way. Thank you!
I will create a chart to conceptualize how teacher time is assigned and accounted for in the various schools to ensure we are providing equitable assignments as much as possible.
FCHS
Good News:
Staff Questions:
Is it possible to try the schedule that Powhatan is using next school year? If I am correct this will not add actual hours to the HS school day based on our current schedule just start earlier.
This would do a few things:
Better prepare our students for future careers where most of the time 8am is the beginning time.
Will greatly reduce and possibly eliminate students missing class who leave early for activities or sports.
See info on the schedule:
We want to make our PCPS families aware of an important update for the 2025–2026 school year. The School Board has approved adding 10 minutes to the school day, and adjusting bell schedules across all schools to better coordinate transportation. The new daily schedule will be as follows: Elementary students may be dropped off at 8:25 a.m., with classes starting at 8:40 a.m. and dismissal at 3:30 p.m. Middle School drop-off begins at 7:20 a.m., classes start at 7:35 a.m., and dismissal is at 2:25 p.m. High School students can be dropped off at 7:25 a.m., with a 7:40 a.m. start time and dismissal at 2:30 p.m.
In addition, the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year will begin with staggered start dates to help key grade levels ease into the new school year with extra support. For elementary students, Grades 1–5 and Pre-K/Kindergarten students with last names A–M will start on August 18. Pre-K/K students with last names N–Z will begin on August 19, and all Pre-K/K students will attend together starting August 20. For secondary students, only Grades 6 and 9 will start on August 18. Grades 7–8 and 10–12 will join them on August 19.
We encourage families to review the dates and times closely and mark their calendars now!
It is certainly possible to consider this. This summer we will work with the operations and transportation teams to determine what flexibility exists with our start and end times.
Ideas, especially ones that dramatically shift the traditional structure of the calendar, are best moved forward with a significant portion of a school’s staff in support, having discussed and coalesced their collective perspective on the change.