Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Students And Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Students showcase STEAM projects; foundation reports $81,000 in scholarships; district highlights safety exercises and phone‑policy results
Summary
Middle school STEAM students demonstrated classroom projects and multilingual materials; the district foundation reported $81,000 in scholarships and new grant support; and student services described an interagency active‑shooter tabletop plus data showing the junior high cell phone pilot cut phone referrals roughly in half.
Middle school STEAM students presented classroom projects to the Board of Education, demonstrating sight‑word tools designed to support nonverbal students and those needing fine‑ or gross‑motor assistance. Teacher Braxton Dreher explained the class created multiple sight‑word tools and noted students voluntarily translated some materials into Spanish so non‑English families could use them.
"So today, what we're showing you are what are called sight words," Dreher told the board as students circulated to show examples.
Austin Truex, executive director of the Norfolk Public Schools Foundation, provided the foundation’s annual report: the foundation awarded $81,000 in scholarships to the Class of 2025 across 77 awards, distributed more than $20,000 in initial classroom grants and secured an additional $8,000 in community support for grant projects, and is launching a Norfolk Public Schools Hall of Fame timed with the Traditions fundraiser scheduled Oct. 23 at the Johnny Carson Theater.
On safety and student supports, student services director Chuck Hughes described an active‑shooter tabletop exercise that brought together Norfolk Police, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, the State Patrol, Norfolk Fire & Rescue, Faith Regional hospital, parochial schools and school safety teams to run scenarios and clarify command center positions and interagency roles. Hughes said the district plans to run follow‑up exercises for principals and to stage a live exercise in a building to test logistics.
Hughes also reported results from a junior high cell phone policy pilot that staff say has reduced discipline incidents tied to phones. He summarized September data: phone office referrals dropped from 20 in September last year to 10 this September, and a running total of phone violations decreased from 37 to 16, which staff attributed to improved student interactions in hallways and lunch.
Board members praised students and staff and discussed follow‑up reporting on safety exercises and cell‑phone monitoring data. The board indicated it would ask for monthly summaries from the junior high to assess whether the pilot should be extended districtwide.
