City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I hereby call this 23rd March 2026 Council meeting. Yes. I pledge algiance 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, Vice Mayor. Item two is adoption of the meeting agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So move. Thank you, Mr. Wood. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Slo. Any discussion? All in favor say I.

I.

Any oppose? Eyes have it. 5-0. Item three is matters from the mayor. I had the opportunity on Saturday evening to attend the men who cook fundraiser that was put on by the warm uh staff and board. Great great turnout. I think it was over 200 people uh and uh great time and and some really really uh good food. So item four is matters from council. All right. Item five is consideration of the consent agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mr. Wood. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Short. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Eyes have it. Five to zero. Item six is to hold a public hearing and consider adopting an ordinance granting a non-exclusive franchise to Verizon andor other biders to construct, install and maintain small sale facilities and wireless connection facilities to support the operation of small sale small facility infrastructure in the city's rightway. Miss Mickelson.

Thank you, Mayor. Um as we discussed last um meeting um it's actually fiber asset co LLC um which is working in conjunction with Verizon for Verizon's facilities to go in the city's right of way. Um this is the only bid that the city has received and um so unless there is any other bids here this evening, we will close the bid and um if happy to answer any questions council may have about the franchise agreement with um Verizon for installing facility cell phone facilities in the city's right of way.

Any questions? No. I hereby open the public bid hearing hearing. No bid submissions. I hereby close the public bid hearing. This ordinance was introduced, seconded, and discussed at the previous meeting. Unless there are questions, discussion, I'll call the question. All in favor of adopting the ordinance as presented say I. I any opposed? Eyes have it. 5 Z.

Item seven is to consider adopting a resolution providing the for the issuance and sale of taxable general obligation public improvement refunding bond not to exceed 9,500,000. Mr. McCormack.

Thank you, Mr. Lee. And good evening, Mr. Lee. Members of council, city staff recommends refunding the 2015 bond issuance through a taxexempt Virginia resource authority refunding. Uh the net present value benefit of this is about $513,000 over the course of 12 years. Um so it's about $42,000 a year. It's spread out across the general water, sewer, and storm water funds. Um the important thing to note on this is the VRA sale doesn't happen until a little bit later in the spring. So we give them a minimum that we'll accept for the savings. Um if the bonds sell at a rate end up going for a rate that's higher than that, we just don't participate in the sale and don't refund the bonds. If the bonds come in at a rate that's lower, we participate in the sale and realize the savings. Um if council has any questions, I'd be happy happy to answer them now. If not, the resolution is ready for adoption this evening. Any questions? Mr.

Do I have a motion to introduce the resolution? I'm so move. Thank you, Mr. Sto. Is there a second? A second. Thank you, Mr. Short. Any discussion? All in favor of tableabling the ordinance or do we need to be? You can adopt. Yes, sir. We can adopt. All in favor of adopting the ordinance, say I. I.

Any opposed? Eyes have it. 5 Z. Item eight is consider adopting a resolution authorizing execution of an agreement between the Virginia Department of Health and the Waysboro City Council. Mr. McCoy. Thank you, Mr. Lee. Um, the agreement between the Virginia Department of Health and the City of Wesboro Council governs how the Virginia Department of Health operates within the city. Um, most important thing to note here is this is not new money. It's money that was appropriated in the previous year. This just defines how the money will be spent and how what the relationship between the two parties are. U Mr. Hamp has already moved forward with signature on this. This resolution just um basically approves his signature on that document. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them now.

Any questions? Do I have a motion to introduce the resolution? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Schwarz. Do I have a second? No second. Thank you, Mr. Wood. Any discussion? All in favor accepting it the uh resolution to adopt authorizing execution agreement between the Virginia Department of Health and Wayne City Council. Please say I. I. Any opposed? I 75.

Item nine is to receive a presentation of the adopted fiscal year 2027 Wayne Public Schools budget. Calling superintendent Dr. Council. Thank you, Mayor Lee, members of council for the opportunity to be here tonight and present the school board's adopted budget. I'll start with the budget calendar. We start the budgeting process in October. Uh we asked the directors, budget managers, which are directors, executive directors at the central office and building principles throughout November to um work on their budget and budget requests to us. The school board also adopts their budget priorities in the in the budget calendar during the November board meeting. In December, we received the budget manager request and begin to meet with um budget managers, building principles, directors uh through January, review those. We also in December know the local funding from the city because of the funding formula applied to the act to the audited financial report that you receive early in December and we'll receive the governor's budget usually around December 17th or 18th of December. Uh by January, we've developed revenue projections. The city one is the one that's solid. The governor's changes with with the general assembly. Federal revenues continue to um change a bit through January and are always a bit of a projection. We do have a b a public hearing on the budget in January. By February, we are working through expenditures and have been but trying to solidify that. Um, I'll do a budget

presentation with revenue and expenditures at that point to see how far we are out of balance or if we're balanced, which is unusual if it is um based on the needs and wants that we have in the expenditure budget. We do have a work session in late February. If things go really well for us, the general assembly has given us some idea by that point of what state funding is going to be. That wasn't the case this year because this was the 60-day session and not the 45day session. In March, we adopt a budget because, as you know by city code, we submit a budget to you no later than the fourth Monday in March, which is today. Um so we adopted a budget in in at the March 10th meeting and um I'm here presenting that. Budget priorities this year were pretty straightforward. There were two. One, to retain and recruit outstanding employ employees, educators and staff by offering competitive compensation and benefit packages and to address our student needs, which involves having the resources that our educators need to u provide a dynamic educational program and personalized pathways to cultivate wellness in our staffs, the students and community. Um each student needs something a little different and we try to to provide that to the extent we can. Some demographics just our total enrollment including prek students with intensive support needs and and post high students. We have 2747 K12 students. Um you can see over 200 about 253 and four year olds at Wayne Hills and 74 students that have intensive support needs that um require additional

services and many of those are expensive. I list those because there's different funding from the state for each of those categories of students. You'll also see we're a very diverse school system. 40% 41% white, 24 Hispanic, 18% black students, and two or more races account for 13%. And our other population is growing too with uh different races and ethnicities coming to our city. Um we have a high economically disadvantaged population. It's hard to calculate that directly, but it is over 60% we know because we don't do free and reduced lunch applications. We participate in the USDA community eligibility provision. When you reach a certain point of economically disadvantaged, they don't require applications any longer. It's more efficient and less bureaucracy just to provide meals for everyone, which improves our participation. Also, we have 408 students with individualized education plans and another 246 with section 504 plans. Numbers about doubled in the last decade. Um, our English language learners uh now 400 students. That's an increase of 20 over last year. We now have seven languages spoken in the city and we provide translation services for those families and students. That's an increase of seven languages since last year. And 33 Slice students. Slice students are students with limited or interrupted formal education. They may be coming from a country at war, Ukraine, maybe they were in third grade, haven't been to school in three years. They come to us as a middle school age student. We've got to support them. You don't put them in a third grade at an elementary

if they're 13 years old and need to be in sixth or seventh. And so we're increasingly getting those students with limited or interrupted formal education from a variety of of backgrounds. Interesting. And many of them very traumatic and difficult. 106 students that currently identify as homeless. I guess the good news is that's only an increase of two over last year. That's a large number of though that require again specialized services particularly transportation. Um good students just unfortunate situations and 25 students in foster care. This is an important slide because all of those students which number several hundred well over a thousand actually over 1500 I guess if you add them all up and they're not each a unique student that's a significant percent of our population that's requiring specialized services. So the revenue summary, our state funding is at $34 million. Our federal funds we project at three million. Um local city appropriation generated by the funding formula is 21 million. And other local funds are funds that we generate ourselves through the school division. We bill Medicaid for Medicaid services that are allowable uh including nurses, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, some transportation. Um our Medicaid reimbursement would be about half a million dollars of that. We generate some other money through um things like rental of the cell tower that has the lights for the tennis courts. um tuition, insurance reimbursements would go in there. So our total revenue is 59 million542,000

just under $60 million for the operating budget. This just breaks it down. Um the majority of our funds comes from the state at 58% about 5% from the federal uh and the local city is um 35 36% of our total budget. Our expenditure summary um is 34 million720. That increases right at $3 million. That $3 million increase is at at least a 3% salary increase for all employee groups. Uh some additional positions, some reductions of positions and repurposing of positions that I'll talk about a little bit later. Benefit cost increase a million150. Part of that is an anticipated 14 12 to 14% increase in health insurance premiums. Uh we are seeing increased enrollment in our health insurance plans and we subsidize that pretty significantly for um our employees that participate. And when salaries go up, benefit costs grow go up as well because the Virginia retirement system is a percentage of your salary that's paid as as our FICA taxes, social security and Medicaid. And non-sary costs are all the things not related to personnel and salary. Those um total over $10 million 10,800 that's an increase of 679 about a 6.7% increase. These are materials and supplies in our buildings, the cost of purchase services, um that's all of our utilities, maintenance of facilities, transportation costs, fuel costs, um some cafeteria and nutrition.

Although nutrition is a separate fund, but we do bear some of the cost of the cafeteria as well. Um, it's a large organization. We are the largest employer at this in the city with about 600 full-time employees and that number comes from the again the audited comprehensive financial report of the city. So, um, we have large campuses and provide lots of services for students. 82% of our school division expenditures are salaries and benefits. That's pretty consistent across the state. Somewhere from 78 to 84% of school divisions expenditures are salary and benefits. We're a very people inensive business. I just saw an article a week or two ago from one of our neighbors that was reporting 85% of in salaries and benefits. The details of the expenditure budget as I said 3% salary increase for all employees. We've got adjustment additional adjustments to salary scales for teachers and support staff that are at the top of those scales as well as adjustment to some administrator salary scales to align our salary scales more closely with our surrounding school divisions. Each year we analyze the the salary scales of the of surrounding school divisions to be sure we're aligning at all steps and in all ways. And each year we make some adjustments. Over the last four or five years, we've adjusted a number of salary scales um down to finishing adjustments on these and then we'll start through that process again next year. We did identify 12 positions that we could reduce through attrition. Six of those I believe or eight Dr. Barber helped me. Eight of those are instructional assistance aids positions.

Could be that students have graduated and no longer need that assistance or have moved to a program that does or have transitioned into a more inclusive classroom and don't does do not require as many services. Um some of those are general aids in a efficiency review that we conduct. We identified some of our elementarymentaries that h had a higher ratio of aids than others and over the last two years we've tried to standardize that so they have the same number of aids proportional to the buildings. We did add we do have the addition of four special ed teaching positions in this budget to address the needs that I talked about earlier. Couple of those positions we were unable to fill last year so we're including them this year. Um, addition of a transportation manager position. This it's a full-time job just keeping all the vans and buses and vehicles running and maintained and filling in as finding substitutes or filling in. Um, and reclassification of the existing instructional position to meet scheduling needs and serve student needs. Um, in some cases, for example, we might have a um, career and teched position we're unable to fill, but we find a math teacher or science teacher that we need. So, we'll reclassify that position. Still a teaching position. Um, but it it looks different on the um, but in the budget when we do that. So, there's the proposed expenditure budget. Um, as I said, salaries and benefits are right at 82%. The non-s salaries about 18%. Um, not much you can do to reduce non- salary. It it just goes up every year.

So, there's the summary showing that there's a balanced budget. We do have unfunded needs. Um, and as I've said, we this is the FY27 operating budget. But in order to balance, we've established priorities and made some difficult decisions. Um, our school administrators and building principles identified several data driven data driven personnel needs and facility improvements in their budget request. And in our prioritization, there were several of those that we could not fund with this budget. These are unfunded personnel needs. I won't read all those to you, but you'll see they're spread across preschool, elementary schools. Um, we need to provide more support in our elementary for technology, engineering, art, and math. Um, we did we do not have all in Virginia funding any longer. That was a program through the general assembly that we had funding for three years to provide some part-time teachers to um assist our students in literacy and literacy acquisition reading through the elementary and middle schools. Um we anticipate we may need to add back as many as four instructional assistance based on enrollment. That will depend on the class sizes that we have particularly at kindergarten and primary grades. when we get to August. And um special education needs, these are not budgeted, but we if we have to add those, we'll take in most likely an unfunded an unfilled position and reclassify that. We do need a reading specialist at Kate Collins Middle School. That's a pretty significant need. And a reading specialist at Wsboro High School to assure our students are

reading on grade level when they graduate, go into the workforce. So the estimate the estimate of those needs for personnel is $677,000. We also have facility and maintenance needs. Normally we put anything over about 300 or $400,000 into the capital improvement plan. However, there are some things here that are not. We have put weapons detectors in at Wsboro High School and K Collins Middle School. had very good feedback about those and are very pleased with the additional safety and security that those are providing. To do that for all of our buildings would be $450,000. We don't have to do all that in one year. We could break that down over the course of we'd like to do it over the course of three years at $150,000 a year. We don't have that in right now. There's some resurfacing of sidewalks kind of yearly maintenance sort of things. Um, I'll speak to the replacement of five boilers at Wsboro High School. One of those boilers went down right at the beginning of the cold weather in October or November. It just wouldn't fire and it's not it can't be repaired. There are five boilers there. We've operated on four. The fourth one the companies have told us is limping through. We were lucky to make it. Uh, there's a long lead time on these. They're all the same age, which is about 30 years old, and we just need to put them all in at one time, get a better price and a better installation. So, we'll plan to use either reserve fund money or maybe unspent end of year fund that I'll talk about a little bit in a minute. And we may get enough additional state money in May to do that, but we'll replace those boilers this summer. And then going back up, you will see uh

this estimate. There's a Senate bill last year, Senate Bill 1413 that requires air quality monitoring and reporting. We thought that might be amended this year. Um there were some amendments that actually made it more stringent. The amendments are tabled. So, we have two and a half years to complete this and our estimates are around 35 to $40,000 per building to do that. We weren't expecting it to we didn't know what to expect in term of cost, but that's an expensive one also coming within the next two years. We want to start with part of the buildings this year and then finish up next. So you got a million394,000 a million4 of facility and maintenance needs that we really need to address. That gives you $2 million total. I'll talk just a little bit about the capital reserve fund. the capital reserve fund. The the city council in 2019 um adopted a resolution that this had been the practice that when we finished the year in June and had the audit there were unspent funds available and the practice had been to appropriate appropriate those for capital reserve accounts. Um that was codified through a resolution with the city. It's been very helpful to do that. Mr. Short was around then and was instrumental in helping to get that done. We do end up with unspent funds at the end of the school year. Because of efficiencies, sometimes unfilled positions, additional VDOE funding. This week's a perfect example of that. The general assembly adjourned and they adopt what they call the caboose bill because it's at the end of

the bienium. So, we're at the end of the two-year bienium and they've appropriated additional funds to school divisions for this fiscal year. Well, we'll get those funds in May or June. There's not a lot you can do with them in May or June. You haven't had time to bid them or now we've got to bid on the boilers at the high school. So, we're hoping that there'll be 400,000 to do that. We've got that plan. But when we don't spend those and we know we've got large projects, we save that money toward that end. Um, we also get some reimbursements that come very late in the year. You never know when you're going to get your federal reimbursements. And so if they come in in June, again, we don't we can't spend them or if we filed for them this fiscal year and they come in in July, they get acred back. I would also point out on unspent funds. This is a $60 million budget, right? 1% of that is $600,000. It's hard to operate an organization with 600 employees because they come and go and get closer than 1%. We shoot for a half a percent of 300,000, but that's difficult. There's a lot of moving parts. So, we're happy if we get under 600,000 at a half a million. If we're a million and a half, if we're one and a half percent at the end of the year, that's good, but it's $900,000. And it's not that we didn't need it. We just weren't able to spend it by the end of June. So, the capital reserve has a balance of just over $2 million. And we'll use those to complete significant pro projects that are necessary for our facilities. Those are shown in the capital improvement plan. and you'll see those are higher dollar items. Um the we've got to do some work at our

baseball and softball facilities for ADA, but we're hoping to do that as part of the project because those are high school facilities. Um the track needs rehabilitation. That was last done 10 years ago. We thought we could get a couple more years. They're telling us we'll get this season out of it, but that's we're going to have to resurface it. We need to expand our Thrive program with an additional modular unit at Berkeley Glenn. The HVAC units at KCMS are more than 20 years old. One has been down the entire went down in in December and we've had just a large portable unit in that room. A second one went down a month or so ago with cracked heat exchangers that can't be repaired. There's a third one that's on its way down. Also, there are 54 of those units in the building and we've had two different companies look and tell us you just need to start replacing them 30 or at a time till you get them done because they're going to keep going out and we need to do we don't have any heat. Um that is 2.9 million right at 3 million to do that. There's a 12week lead time. We're probably going to order five units this week to replace the three that are two are nonfunctioning, the other one's closed. We'll try to do five this summer, assuming we have 250,000 to do that with. Um, we need to be on a regular bus replacement. We should be replacing one bus a year at about 135,000. Um, the state tells you life of a bus is 15 years. We have 20 buses on the on the road every morning. So, we need to do at least one a year. We have been buying some used buses from other school divisions who are trading those in and they're still functional

and van replacements and just vehicle replacements. Um there is a note that we operate over a half a million square feet of facilities. 543 square ft inhabited by um 3,200 stu 3,100 students and 600 staffs. There 3,700 people a day in those facilities. They've got to be cooled and heated and um a good working environment. And we do maintain 94 acres of campus. There's a little bit of that campus at Berkeley Glenn and Kate Collins that's not maintained. It's wooded area, little bit of Winona, but the majority of it are athletic fields which are not inexpensive to maintain and and keep up or just playground areas and around the buildings. That capital improvement and reserve fund are separate from the operating budget. We'll deplete that 2 million this summer between the Waysboro High School and the and the the U Kate Collins HVAC if we don't do anything else. So I'll talk about the general assembly budget just a little bit. The general assembly every bienium every two years recalculates what they call the local composite index. That's a that's a ratio that the state uses to determine the relative ability of a locality to pay for public education and the relative ability of the state. You have to think of it as a 100% or as $1. So previously our composite index was 3633 in the new bianium it goes to 3809. Easiest way to think of that is for every 36 cents the Wesboro puts in, the

state puts in 64 cents. It's going to 38. So for every 38 cents the locality puts in, the state puts in 62 cents. The composite index has gone up the last four bieniums, I believe the last eight years by a couple percent each year. uh used to be like 0.31 but that LCI is based on the true value of property in your locality the adjusted gross income and your taxable real real estate sales and they apply a formula that increasing LCI indicates the locality has more ability to pay the local share for schools and the state has then pays less so we get less state funding when LCI goes up it's an encouraging measure of the economy of the city and the growth, but it does reduce our share of state funding. We don't have an FY27 budget from the general assembly. Um, and the House of Delegates and Senate budget were about $1.4 million apart for our share of state funding. So for city of Wesboro, the House of Delegate version would give us 1.4 million more than the Senate version. Both of those budgets allocate more funds by a couple million dollars over the governor's budget from December. So we based our budget between the House of Delegates and the Senate budget. um assuming that the conferees will be able to settle on some number in the middle. I don't know that I would even call it an estimate. It's a bit of a conjecture, but we picked a number again in the middle and that's what we've budgeted on. After the final budget is adopted at

the state level and signed by the governor, we may need to amend the budget. If it's a h 100,000 or something, we'll work with Mr. McCormick to determine the point at which we need to bring you an amended budget back because it's it's never exact. If it's pretty close, we'll be okay. We do also recognize that you need to know the state budget because ultimately it gets engrossed into your budget when it's adopted for purposes of appropriating the money, but I don't think it really impacts how you're budgeting based on the state amount. Uh just a summary about the caring professional staff being the foundation of a strong school system. I've said that in other words already. We do have exceptional employees I think and we want to be supportive. We have been able to provide fair and competitive compensation and made great progress on that in the last 12 years particularly I would say the last 10 years. Um often the state provides money for budgets. This year the House budget provides 2% the state share of 2% which is about 40% of what it actually costs to give the raise and the Senate version provides for a 3% U raise the state share. There's much speculation that the 3% might be in the final budget and that's what we have budgeted on. Um, there's another paragraph just about meeting students and their basic needs, being sure that they come to school, feel safe, supported, and a comfortable learning environment, heat and AC and lighting. Um, and we feel like we have good community support to meet that and to strengthen our learning outcomes. Um, and then the final, we just need we need all of those funding sources to provide safe, supportive, high quality learning environments, which we strive to do, and

I think we do. We prioritize the well spending of our employees and our students. The budget you've seen has increases employee compensation, additional positions that we've identified to serve students, and significant increases in the cost of employee benefits. more increase in the cost of employee benefits this year than the last couple largely due to health insurance. Um we do continue to invest considerable amount in programs and services that pro support our students social, emotional, academic and behavioral needs which are becoming more varied and more significant in many cases while at the same time maintaining the essential supports of public education. We remain committed to facility maintenance that to provide those safe, supportive learning, working environments. That's really just our mission and our responsibility for our employees, students, and community. Um, we are presenting a balanced budget to the city of Williamsburg. It does not meet the needs of our students, staff, and and programs fully. I would be remiss as superintendent, as representative of the school board, if I didn't talk about the funding formula, which is a topic of conversation, as you know. Um, any change to that, whether it's funding gaps, guardrails, dollar smoothing, whatever you want to call it, would result in reduced funding or limited funding for Wayne'sboro schools. that limited funding or reductions will negatively impact our current programming and proposed cuts will be detrimental to our students, staff, schools, and our community as a whole. Uh we will not continue to make progress and I fear begin to go backwards. Um our staff remains committed to doing their very best job each day. firmly believe that we have incredible staff that work hard and do great with the

resources they have. We're proud of the student, staff, and our families who support us, and we appreciate the opportunity to serve them. I'm happy to take questions or comments. Any questions, Dr. Castle? I have placed or or I asked that a copy of the presentation be um placed at your at your seat tonight. So you have that happy to answer questions Nick in the future if you have those. Um

I have questions but I don't want to prolong us either but because I do have so many questions. Um but I'm going to choose one. And so what foundation um do you use or standard do you use to determine uh that you are in need of uh weapons detectors for all the school sites at at the tune of $450,000?

Is there like a standard or some sort that says all must have that? There's a couple of different companies that make the the U weapons detectors, but they're not unlike going into an airport or courthouse or many public buildings that you walk through. Um, our administrators at the high school and middle school have worked with our students to understand the three- ring binder won't come through. So, you got to have some people there and they're taking the binder around the sides, scanning it or opening it to be sure nothing's inside. Then students and book bags come through as do adults who come in during the day. We'll begin using these in our athletics facilities next year. Um unfortunately we do have weapons show up in our buildings. We you may have seen in the news in the fall young person at an elementary who did exactly the right thing and came to the teacher and said there's something in my book bag that shouldn't be there and there was. Um

we would have caught that. um turned out fine for us because the young man did what he'd been taught to do. But um those are just becoming pretty standard around the state and the country. Unfortunately, we need that. And uh they're priced on state contract. We looked at the prices, went to some other school divisions that have implemented them already and saw how they worked. Um, some of the parents were at football games in neighboring school divisions where they were using them for their football games, uh, which I think is a really good idea. We didn't have them at that time. We had applied for a grant that allowed us to purchase four two of the four sets that we have and we waited until we the amount of that funding which was October.

Yes. Purchasers. And then I guess my second question is of of the unfunded uh facilities and uh maintenance needs and and unfunded personnel. Um of those amounts, how much would our funding that we give could be utilized for that? So the spend that we give to you, would it be able to be utilized for all of this unfunded personnel needs or maintenance? There's no restrictions on how we spend our local funds.

Some on the state funds, some of the state funds are non-discretionary. Like basic aid is a pretty big chunk. It's the first line on the the state budget is broken out by lines and there's about two pages in this notebook. The first line is basic aid. I don't remember that number, but I think it's $14 million. We can pretty well use that for what we need to want to. Okay. As you get farther down, there's designated funds for at risk students, English language learner, special ed, different programs, Virginia preschool initiative. Yes. So, that was some of the demographics of the students that you talked about earlier that um those tend to be funded differently. Okay. Fine.

And and and our funds that we provide wouldn't be utilized for that. Thank you. So, I'll stop there. Now, I will comment the federal funds all have strings attached to them and lots of them. So all those federal funds are going to programs and we have to certify all that. Thank you Dr. Castle. I have too. So you did say that over the past four to five years you've worked uh to adjust the salary scale of the employees to be competitive in the local region. Where do we fall?

Right in the middle I would say. uh we do a comparison of 10 surrounding school divisions that you can drive to reasonably from here and we have people in the city that work in those and in more recently we're able to recruit some teachers from those places. um somewhere from about 5th to 8th or 9th. The eighth or ninth would be at the top of the pay scales, which is one of the things we're adjusting. And our administrator scales um on many of those scales are eighth or ninth or 10th. And so over the last five years, we've tried we have addressed our support staff, instructional aids, custodians, cafeteria, bus drivers, um counselors who have a different scale. Um we've worked on nurses. We probably need to do more on that. It's and speech language and physical therapy. It's hard to compete with the medical industry, but um we're able to. Sometimes it's because the schedule matches their children's schedule if they're in school. Would that be accurate, Dr. Barber? Five to five to nine if I'm wearing that.

And then secondly, on the capital improvement plan uh shot that you had up there, how many of those were you hoping to be able to tie into the $60 million um loan that the city's going to be 100% responsible for? the the the only ones of those in addition to the instructional wing and the gymnasium would be um we have said construction of a new gym and associated facilities improvements to the baseball and softball facilities. We put that language in hoping that when we get our final um guaranteed maximum price for the construction of the buildings of the classroom wing and the gym that there will be capacity to address those a press box with ADA accessible bathrooms at the baseball field at the softball field which would serve both with the ADA. Um, we've since learned about the track rehabilitation. So, if the money were there, we could do that as well. The um, and then if you go back a little bit more, this our tennis courts, this ice storm just really wre havoc on it. There were some small cracks like you might find in your parking lot. I think a combination of the weight because part of the tennis court is built on some field dirt and it appears that that has settled and then just the water thawing and freezing there some cracks over there that's probably an inch and a half to two inches wide. That one just came up right this winter. Um I would think that would be and that's

will be a question when we do bond sale to to to see if we can do that. And even the boilers, again, the boilers have come to our attention over the last year.

The um we did get a $94,000 price on tennis courts today, so it's consistent. And this chiller repair is scheduled. A new chiller at the cafeteria is 125,000, but they're telling us we'll get 8 to 10 years out of a repair. So with that one's scheduled um to to happen soon actually before hot weather.

It would seem to me to to bundle um any additional improvements to sort of finish off all necessary capital projects as part of the um high school project might be in order. I mean given the relative marginal delta um in what the borrowing would be. I mean, obviously, we have to run the numbers and and see how we're tracking on the rate, but um

that was kind of my point, Councilman Shore. You take the boilers, the tennis court, the rehab of the track, you're still under a million, maybe under 900. We've already had the civil work done, the surveying work done for the sidewalks and the ADA accessibility part at the uh softball field. And there will be a sidewalk connected to to the existing press box and then a concrete pad in front because it's not accessible with the stones that are there. I'm getting into the detail, but that would be a few hundred,000 also. So, in the scope of 60 million over 20 years, it'd be nice to wrap that up.

Other questions, comments?

What's the Thrive program at Berkeley Glenn? Um it serves students who are primarily on the spectrum of autism. Okay. Uh elementary age students through middle school. Um it was a program that was pig million program in Stanton and two years ago they announced in October they would close in December and we had eight students I believe there. Um Gesta County and Stanton had a few students. we we had to do something and we actually probably saved money by running the Thrive program because we were paying a lot for students to attend. It's been successful. We've transitioned students back into uh elementary classrooms and middle school classrooms um as they've aged through that program and developed the skills to move back in.

That's great. Do we have any tuition students there now, Dr. Barber? At one point we had capacity to have host some students from other school divisions and they were paying tuition as they do with we do occasionally with programs and they do. I didn't think we had any right now. Any other questions Dr. C? Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Thank you Dr. Castle. Item 10, communications correspondence calendar. Mr. Wood, we don't have anything. Mayor, item 11, citizens comment. Do we have anyone signed up?

Yes, we do. Okay. So, I'd like to remind those that will be coming to the podium, you have four minutes. Green light will come on at 30 seconds. The yellow light will come on for you to wrap up. Tom Manaval.

Good evening. My name is Tom Manville, 145 Huntington Place, Ward D. Uh, I've been a Wesboro taxpayer for over 25 years, and I spoke with you last time about my favorite form funding formula. I also am the one who ran most of the data up front trying to make sure we were we knew what we were talking about when we looked at the impact of the 3% funding formula. Um I'm here tonight to speak in favor of not putting a cap of any form on the funding formula. It's a very simple formula. Uh but specifically after the meeting, at least more than one councilman told the news leader that we needed to do our homework and check our numbers and I had done my homework before we got into the city council meeting and so I apologize, but I did go back. So I'm used to being challenged on any uh things I do. So as for for employment, I analyze complex systems. This was not that complex of a system, but nonetheless, I doubled down and did more. I checked the math. I rewatched January 13th's joint session, which I was at, and I watched it repeatedly, and it can be painful to do that. Uh, I reached out to people I work with and respect professionally to doublech checkck my work and in the community to check my work. I asked school board members whether they heard and saw what I heard and saw, and it was pretty uniform. At the end, I'm happy to report I didn't need to make any changes to the model I was working with. You see, I built a spreadsheet model, very simple, with over 20 years of real city revenue data, the actual history covered by the formula, and did a sides byside model of the city funding would look like at 3% cap. I applied real numbers, real years, real revenue, real growth based on the real Wayneesboro, not projections, but actual historic records. So, I have sent this out to old friends and new ones I'm making. Heck, anybody who wanted it. And as of last night, I

ended up sending it directly to each of the school board and city council members with a personal note. If there's any errors in this model, tell me if my assumptions are wrong, correct them because I want to get this right. We would we should be able to come up with an agreement of the impact of such a proposed change. And because I'm an invested citizen and taxpayer, I looked at what the model said to me and it said the same thing over and over again that it would be painful at first and then it would crush the school system in the long haul. This is not a small out of calculation situation. This is a constant reduction of school funding over the long haul. 3% any percent not dealing with the size of the city growth, not dealing with inflation, not dealing with the other market driving issues is a is handcuffs that they cannot afford to live up with. Review my analysis. Do you disagree? Understand that the citizens know this funding agreement exists. Understand that when we have our taxes raised, you'd be surprised how capable we are of accepting it, knowing we know where it's going. To find out that it's now not going to the schools anymore or a significant chunk is going to be trimmed off the top kind of makes us not interested in the large tax raise we just got last year. I didn't come and complain last year. I took it. I pay more taxes every year now. But I'm okay with living in a great community. I'm I'm okay with getting this community out of the bottom third. But don't leave our school kids behind. Don't do it on their back. We're willing to pay the taxes, but don't give it to your own special projects if you would. Thank you for your time. Nicole Snder.

Nicole Snder. Hi. Um, my name is Nicole Snyder. I live at 604 South Popppler uh for 29 years. Um, so thank you for um giving us an opportunity to speak. I wanted to start by saying that um I want to recognize the work that you guys have done on the plan. I mean, the data does show that you generate more than $40 million in long-term revenue, and that really is meaningful. So, thank you for your commitment to the city's future. That same data also shows that there's a problem that we really should fix. And when budgets are the tightest, the cap restricts the available funding. And that is exactly when our schools are going to be forced to make very difficult realworld cuts. Those cuts are not abstract. They look like fewer teachers in coaches positions and sports like swimming and track. They look like programs not just being scaled back but eliminated. Not because they aren't valuable, but simply because there isn't flexibility in the funding. And those programs really do matter. Both of my boys have benefited from the current formula and the programs the school is able to fund with that formula. From tag teachers to swimming coaches to a pole vault pit. all of these programs where my children were recognized by this school system in this city for going to states and beyond from this program. For many for many kids, I know that some of these programs or athletics like track or swimming aren't just extracurriculars. They're pathways and they build discipline, teamwork, structure. They keep students engaged in school. And for some, they are the difference between getting into a college or earning a scholarship that even makes college possible. And that was critical for both of my boys getting into school.

When we cap the funding, we're not just tightening a budget, we're closing doors. What's important here is that the cap is not what's making your plan successful. The long-term gains still happen without it. The data shows that the model performs, meaning the removal of the cap is a low-risk adjustment. So, right now, the cap is creating an unnecessary tradeoff. By removing the cap, your you will allow your plan to do what it was designed to do, which is generate the long-term growth while also providing the flexibility to protect our school funding when it's needed most. This isn't really about changing your P plan. It's just about strengthening it. Strengthening it. If there is a cap, it will kill programs like pull vaultting and swimming, football, soccer. You can count on it. There are only three teachers that are also coaches and the rest of them will go. They will go. So, I urge you to remove the cap so we can protect the schools, maintain stability for the families, and still achieve a strong financial future that your data already shows is possible. Thank you.

Thank you. Katherine Carver. Good evening. My name is Katherine Carver and I live at 324 Ridge Circle. I'm a parent of three children currently attending three different Waynesboro City Schools. I'm also a graduate of Wesboro High School, married to another graduate of Wesboro High School. I'm a lifelong taxpayer who has owned a home in Wesboro for 21 years next month. I pay thousands of dollars in personal property taxes every year as our vehicles are rated on the perfect NADA value, which is very often more than what we originally paid for the vehicle in the first place. Our city is growing and building at a quick rate, which will generate even more tax money as the years go by. And our school system deserves to grow with the city. When I see inquiries as to which local school system is the best and where people should see their send their children, the only time Wesborough is mentioned is as a cautionary tale of where not to send your children. We need to at least be competitive with the nearby school systems. Surrounding schools can offer salaries that attract staff away from our school system. We have a shortage of bus drivers, teachers, coaching staff, substitutes, and other staff which is directly related to the low wages offered. People need to be reassured that they do not need to leave Wesboro or send their children to private schools to get a good education. We need to invest in our schools and be proud of them. While I personally believe we should increase the school revenue allocation to 50% to more match our neighbors and close this gap, I am certain that we must stop the cap. I pay taxes and invest in this city and our children deserve that you invest in them as well. Thank you.

Dishy Martin. My name is Darcy Martin and I live at 700 Refe Road. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak. I would like to speak about the proposed change in the school funding formula and I want to bring attention tonight to the numbers. Thanks to Tom Manville, we have a chart which outlines the effect a 3% cap would have had to date if it had been implemented 25 years ago. The results are striking. Wesboro schools would have received $43.5 million less over that period. Looking at funding based on 2025 city revenue alone, funding for the schools would be reduced by $5 million. And I have to ask, why is city council proposing this change? The 3% cap would devastate our school system. I am asking this council to protect our schools by not implementing the 3% cap and maintaining the current formula fund for formula funding formula. And I got distracted because honestly I would I would agree with Katherine and

say increase it but my goodness at a minimum do not implement the 3% cap. Thank you. Thank you.

Eric Hilker. Hello. My name is Eric Hilker. I'm at 766 Pine A. I'm concerned about the 3% cap on school funding increases. I have three kids currently in Waysboro City Schools. Two at Kate Collins, one at Berkeley Glenn. Um, nothing in our experience so far with Wesboro schools has suggested that they are significantly overfunded in any way. Um, indeed, our experience has been that often Waysboro struggled to retain experienced or qualified teachers for a long tenure. And I don't intend here to disparage my kids teachers in any way. Uh, I really think they are doing the best with the support that they have. Our kids have had some great teachers, but many of our kids, current and past teachers are within their first few years of teaching experience. And this is similar to other families that I know. Experience matters in developing strong educators and strong education programs. And Wayneboro has a greater proportion of highnee students than surrounding areas. And yet we already commit a lower percentage of city tax revenues to our schools than our neighboring districts. We need to invest in and support teachers who are capable, trained, and experienced to work in the Waysboro context. Given this, I find it troubling to imagine what our schools would be like if the 3% funding cap had been in place for the last 20 years. This would mean that our schools would operate at about 75% of their current funding. And I can only imagine that studenttoteer ratios would be higher. Teachers would be paid less and given less support in the form of training and in-class aids. With an even higher rate of teacher turnover and less experienced teachers in the classroom, the quality of education would be significantly degraded. I would hate to look back 20 years from

now and see those effects in our schools. The 42.5% funding model works because it keeps the city's priorities in the right place. Providing highquality public education is a significant proportion of what our community needs our city to do. I realize that there are other important projects that city council would like to fund and I have no doubt that those are worthwhile things to do, projects that would be a benefit to our community. But decoupling the growth of the school budget from the growth of Wesboro would misplace the priorities of our community. The school system is the single largest way that the community of Wesboro takes care of its people. Those with kids in schools, those without kids in schools who still benefit significantly from our strong school systems. Waysboro's tax base is growing and the best investment our town can make is in the education of our kids. You know the value of good schools in our community. Providing quality education grows a community that can support a flourishing Wesboro. Stronger ties to the community, better skilled workforce for local employers, low incidence of crime, long-term economic growth, and broader access to success for students from a wide range of economic backgrounds. I often have colleagues in Charlottesville who consider Wesboro, especially when they would like to buy a house. And for many, the first question they ask me is, "How are the schools in Wesboro?" To limit school funding is to limit the growth of our community and the investment we make in growing a flourishing city. As our tax base grows, we should use that opportunity to invest in our schools. The 452.5% model works and it's the best investment

we can make in our town. Thank you. Thank you. Andrea Kendall.

Good evening. Uh, my name is Andrea Kendall. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and I am entering my 25th year of providing behavioral health and addiction services to Stanton, Augusta County, and Wesboro. One of the most powerful tools that we have to keep our community safe and well is school. Every single day, I see the long-term impact of youth who were left behind by their school systems. We must have a place where kids feel wanted, where they feel inspired, empowered, and connected. Where they feel, I have a passion. I have a purpose. I have a community. I'm going to be someone. I'm going to do big things. I see a future for myself. That is lifesaving. And I know it's already hard to recruit and keep good teachers and to obtain quality materials and to ensure a wide range of subjects and activities so that every single child finds their reason. And I just don't see how we can do that with this funding cap. So I ask that you please reconsider. Thank you.

Thank you,

Ashley Short. Good evening. My name is Ashley Short. I live on Fairway Drive in Ward B. Been a taxpaying homeowner in the city since 2010. I'm a former Wesboro educator and a parent with three kids in our public schools. I'm here tonight to speak in opposition to the proposed 3% cap on school funding growth. Being direct, a cap is a cut. It's just a slower one. Under this proposal, our schools would operate on 76 cents of every dollar they receive today. And that gap widens every single year. That's not fiscal responsibility. That's a choice to permanently lock our schools out of the revenue growth they helped generate. I spent years in the classroom and I know what it's going to look like when a school can't recruit and keep the people kids deserve. It looks like high turnover. It looks like talented teachers leaving for districts that pay them what they're worth. It looks like kids paying the price for decisions made in a room like this one. The current formula has worked for 20 years. And it's not generous. The cap doesn't make it better either. It makes it permanent and it makes it worse every single year. We know council has a vision for Wesborough's future and our schools need to be part of that vision, not left behind by it. And so I'm asking you not to cut what schools have already built. Thank you.

Thank you,

Sean Allison. Good evening. I'm Sean Allison. and I live at uh 520 Chestnut Avenue. Uh as a resident and a parent, I have three students in three different schools. I am also a youth sports coach in Wesboro and for the last six months between September and February. I worked on the front lines as a full-time substitute teacher at Berkeley Glenn Elementary. I see our kids in the classroom. I see them on the field. And I see incredible educators who pour their hearts into them every single day. Because of what I have seen firsthand, I am here tonight to speak against the proposed 3% budget cap for our public schools. Let's call this 3% cap what it actually is. In today's economy, it's a cut. More than that, it's an absolute insult. Wesboro is growing. We are seeing new development and new families. But if you want this city to keep growing and getting better, you have to realize that sustainable growth starts with the schools. Right now, by starving our education system of proper funding, we are communicating that our schools are an afterthought. Because we continually fail to fund our schools properly, we are rapidly falling behind surrounding districts. We are bleeding amazing dedicated educators who are leaving leaving for neighboring counties that actually offer them the compensation and resources they deserve. The financial structure in our district has become completely backwards due to the lack of proper funding. The system is now in a position where it is paying

substitutes more than our full-time foundational educators and aids. While I value the work I did as a substitute, a system where temporary coverage earns more than the permanent staff holding the building together is a system in crisis. Ultimately, it is our children who pay the price for these budget restrictions. They pay for it with larger class sizes, fewer resources, and the loss of phenomenal teachers. You cannot treat the school budget as a place to trim the margins. It is your most critical investment. I urge you to look at the educators at Berkeley Glenn and across the city, recognize their worth, and drop this 3% cap. Our community's growth depends on it. The last thing I say is this. If this cap is what you feel is best for the city, I hope you never have to call for a medical emergency because in time down this path, it will be an undereducated person on the other end and you will not survive. Thank you,

Alex Edwards. Hello. Hello. My name is Alex Edwards and I'm in sixth grade at Kate Collins Middle School. I'm 12 year old years years old and I've had four other siblings go through the Wsboro school system. My mom has worked here for almost 30 years. This year I've been to clubs every single day, Monday through Friday. I value my school library so much. My teachers are fantastic and they make learning fun. This year I've already learned how to play trumpet, put on a school musical, and learn how to crochet. Some of the people that shaped me are one of my tag teachers from elementary school, Miss Parks, and she challenged me a lot when things were too easy for me. And Miss Anen, an instructional aid from my elementary school, cared about me really a lot. And Miss Brigita, Miss Mary, my lunch ladies, always gave me a hug. I learn best in small classes that are under control, where kids are emotionally stable and my teacher can meet the needs of each student. At Westwood, one of my favorite programs was building brighter bulldogs. It's a steam program that was run that was funded by a grant. I learned Cricut, 3D printing, photography. This program might produce future engineers, designers, photographers, actors, and artists. Funds from the grant have run out. We need to find a way to keep these programs going so students can become professionals who will contribute to Wesboro in the future. We are all one community and we need to show that we care about the best

education for everybody. Capping funding won't help. It will hurt. My education is priceless. Please don't put a 3% cap on it. Thank you so much for your time. Giovana Edwards. I hate to go after that kid. I claim her most days. Uh so my name is Jovana Edwards. Um I have worked in Wsboro public schools for 29 years. Um all at Westwood Hills. Um I started back in the 1900s, kids. The 1900s. Um where uh we actually had chalkboards and uh SOS were new. Email was a brand new cool thing um to to figure out. And so I've seen in my time here a lot of uh things come and things go. I've seen staff come and go. I've seen students come and go, curriculum, hot topics, um trends, so many things that have come and gone. But you know what has been consistent? Kids that have the need to feel safe and the need to feel loved and the desire to learn. And what else has been consistent is that we've had the teachers and the staff rise to meet those needs. Um, I'd like to paint a picture of what school is like now as opposed to several decades ago when I started. Um, but side note, if you'd like to come and sub and see for yourselves. You would love it. Toughest job you'll ever have, but I

guarantee you'd have just as many hugs as sneezes in your face, and you would love every second of it. So, we would welcome you if you'd ever want to come and sub because it's just a great position to be in. I made a list of things that we have more of us as now as compared to when I started teaching. Um, and a list of things that we have less of. Uh, we have more kids with higher needs. Uh, we have more ESL kids. We have kids that are on IEPs and 504 plans and diagnoses that I didn't even know existed, you know, 10 years ago. Um, we wear many more hats now than we ever used to. Um, we have more teachers on provisional licenses now. It's becoming harder to find those who are highly qualified. And I worry in 5 to 10 years what that's going to look like. Um, and how qualified our staffs will be because we are leaving at a rate higher than we are filling the positions. We also have um more data collection. We have more testing than we did decades ago. And overall, we have more simply added to the teachers plates. What do we have less of? We have less time to do the things that must be done in order to remain in compliance at the federal and the state level. We have less money, meaning lower salaries than many of the nearby school divisions. We have unfortunately less support than at least for me personally than what I used to feel decades ago either from families or from the public and there are times when I feel it's become an us versus them mentality despite the fact that we are all on the same team working towards the same goals. So there never seems to be enough time, money or energy but somehow we make it we make it work and we always find a way to make the most out of what we have.

But you know what hasn't changed over the last 30 years? Our heart and our hustle. That's Melissa Cobbism and I think it's very appropriate. But man, we are tired. Are we tired?

Raise your hand if you're tired. There you go. We are tired. Even though we love what we do, we need your support. We can't do it all all on our own. Um, the other day, sorry, it's going to make me emotional. We were doing a less sorry on fact and opinion and I was working with fourth graders and they were raising their hand to give examples of facts that can be proven. And then I said, "Can anybody give me an example of an opinion?" And this boy my size in fourth grade, he's a gentle giant. He raised his hand really excited and the first thing that came out of his mouth, school is better than home. School is better than home. That was his opinion statement. These kids deserve the brightest and the best that we have to offer. That's something else that has never changed. They deserve to have the best staff, the best buildings, the best materials. We've got to provide that for them. We are the most consistent piece in these students lives. Not only do we need to attract great educators, let's also attract great families who value education and want to partner with the schools because we're on the same team. And we can do this by making our schools as strong as they can be. We want these families coming to Wesboro. And like the other gentleman said, first question they always ask, how's the schools? They go pull up the data. Just like our students, our city has endless potential. Let's work together to make our students, our schools, and our entire community the best that they can be. Please consider not putting a 3% cap on funding our schools. Thank you so

much for your time.

THANK YOU. ADAM CIPLE. Good evening, council. My name is Adam Ciple. I'm a Wesboro resident in Ward D and the parent of two WPS students. Everything in our schools is measured by a standard. Our educators teach to a standard. Our students are tested by one. But tonight, I'm here to talk about the standard of expertise and the dangerous gap this council is creating by ignoring the experts around us. We hire professionals to lead this city. Last April, your own city manager provided a professional baseline. He stated that to fund our safety and sta stabilize our workforce, we needed a tax rate of 89 cents. You chose a compromise of 82 cents. Some might call that a middle ground, but the city staff calls it a $2.1 million revenue gap. And now we're hearing proposals to lock that gap in place with an artificial arbitrary 3% funding cap for our schools. Council, we are here to tell you, close the gap, skip the cap. I recently met with local PTO members and concerned parents. They didn't talk about compromise. It didn't come up once. They spoke of fear, failure, and being forgotten. That's a quote. They told me the old mantra of do more with less has reached its expiration date. As one parent put it, quote, "There comes a time when you aren't doing more with less. You're forced to do less with less. That's where we're at right now. To bring ways together, you have to close the gap and skip the cap." Your January 2026 engagement report mentions education 51 times. Page 103 is explicit. Quote, "Families want to see stronger schools. addressing these issues could help retain and attract families to Wesboro contributing to the city's vitality. End

quote. Good planning doesn't involve ignoring the experts we hire or the three or 734 survey respondents who told you schools are a primary pillar of our city's vitality. We must listen to the experts. Dr. Castle, thank you for presenting tonight, an expert in our field, in our community. There's also a Wsboro public school parent I want to talk about. He's a world-renowned educator, Professor John Almarro. He teaches that equality is giving everyone the same access. But schools aren't like that. Each learner comes from a different past, different challenges, different strengths. I see this in my own home. One of my sons has an IEP. For him, the typical school doesn't fit. It leaves him further and further behind every year, unable to catch up. When we impose a 3% gap cap on a district with over or with 106 homeless students, 12% special education needs, and 62% economic disadvantage. We aren't providing a school that fits anyone. We're providing a restricted educational experience, one that binds the growth of all learners and ensures they can never keep pace with their peers in Harrisonenburgg or Stanton, Augusta, or Albamarl. If you want our children to keep pace, close the gap, skip the cap. I know this council stated at the January joint meeting that our fire department is a top priority. I grew up in a first responder family. My father was a career firefighter and he taught me that you don't meet an emergency by choosing to walk away from a $2.1 million uh 2.1 million dollars in revenue that your own city manager called necessary. You don't manage a crisis by suggesting tax cuts while infrastructure fails as this council mentioned at that January meeting. And you certainly don't meet it by forcing our schools to bridge a $ 1.9 million operational gap by eliminating classrooms and relying on attrition. In

Wesboro, our school demographics are the emergency. When six out of 10 students face economic disadvantage advantage, you are in a five alarm struggle for the future of our city. You cannot cap your way out of a crisis of this complexity. I listen to the sirens blaring all around us. I hear the experts ringing the alarm. I hear the local education experts like Professor Al Elmarro ringing the second alarm. I hear the Wesboro Together Study You Commission ringing the third alarm. I hear the concerned PTO members and parents I met with last week ringing the fourth alarm. And I hear the parents, educators, and community standing before you tonight. We are the fifth and final alarm. Again, I hear them all. Do you? For years, our educators were the silent partners in Wesboro's growth, absorbing $4 million in revenue rebates to help attract new business. Now that those investments are paying off, it is time this council lives up to the name of its own plan, Wesboro. Together, close the gap, skip the cap. Good planning shouldn't be a slogan on a poster. It should be the standard we set for our city and our children's future. Thank you.

Thank you. Ellen Winner on th Ellen Winter 1101 Fair Peway Drive. On Thursday, March 12th, 2026, a public notice environmental permit appeared in the news, Virginia, that Northrup Grumman was seeking a permit that would limit its hazardous air pollutants in Wesboro to below major source levels. Yikes. What does that mean? No public hearing in this matter is scheduled at this time, but one can be requested from the Department of Environmental Quality by April 13th. Residents of Wesboro should be made aware of air quality issues regarding this new plant. I ask that city council request a public hearing to make transparent the environmental impact that Northup Grman will have on our community. We should know from past experience industries doing pollution control correctly from the start rather than cleaning up after years of damage is the way to go. Maybe this permit will require ultra clean air, but the following information suggests otherwise. We want north of Grman to assure us that they are doing best practice air pollution controls to keep our environment clean. According to co-pilot on the internet, even when emissions stay below major source thresholds and quality qualify as a synthetic minor source, people nearby can still experience noticeable health and comfort effects mainly from low-level particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, odors, and irritants. These effects are typically milder

than those associated with major industrial sources, but they are not zero. Um, these are some of the types of pollutants commonly regulated under synthetic minor permits, which is what um, Northup Grumman is asking for. What humans may sense at synthetic minor source levels, odors, irritants of eyes, nose and throat, respiratory sensitivity, headaches, fatigue or like nausea, chemical sensitivity in certain individuals. Why these effects occur even below major source levels? A synthetic minor source is a facility and this is what um North Grumman is being listed as is a minor source um facility that could emit at major source levels but accepts enforcable limits to stay below them. The permit category is about regulatory thresholds, not about no impact. I repeat that sentence. The permit category that they're asking for is about regulatory thresholds, not about no impact. Key points to take away. Thresholds are based on annual tons per year, not momentby-moment exposure. Short-term spikes can still occur when annual totals remain low. Human senses, especially smell, detects some pollutants at concentrations far below healthbased limits. Sensitive populations react to pollutants at lower levels than the general population. Please let me know if the city council will request a public hearing on this issue so we can become informed. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

That's all, Mr. Mayor. All right. Thank you all for your comments. Item 12, close session. Uh, city manager requested close session. Is there a motion? Mr. Mayor, I move to recess into close session in order to consult with the city attorney regarding a specific legal matters relating to a state agency's authority and proposal that requires the provision of legal advice as authorized by section 2.2-3711A88 of the Virginia code. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Thank you, Mr. This requires a roll call vote. Miss Border Lee. I I

We're in close session.

return to open session and certify the closed session.

Mr. Mayor, I move to adopt the following resolution. Whereas the city council of Wainsboro has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 2.2-3712 2-3712 of the code of Virginia requires certification by this city council that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now, therefore, be it resolved, the City Council of Wsboro hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies. And two, only such business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the city council of Lansboro.

Is there a second? A second. Thank you, Mr. Short. Any discussion? Roll call vote. Mrs. Bortlee. I. I. I. I. All right. We're in open session. Item 13. Is there a motion to adjurnn? I make the motion. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Is there a second? A second. Thank you, Mr. Wood. All in favor say I. I. I. You. Thought I wasn't going to say it.