NELSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD OCTOBER UPDATE
NELSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING SUMMARY
as of October 22, 2025
During the October 9, 2025 School Board meeting, Superintendent Hester honored the school custodial staff both with a One Nelson award and with a special recognition for the relationship they have with students and keeping the school facilities clean, safe and welcoming. She also recognized Tye River student Dakota Viar, who was nominated by his teacher, Ms. Brown, for being so kind to his students and the environment. Rob Mansfield and Michael Cash are community volunteers with FCA and Nelson County athletics that received One Nelson awards as well as HS school counselor Zack Wingate with his positive energy and helping students get into classes that match their long-term goals. School Board Academy awards for active participation in continuing education training went to Margaret Claire, school board chair; Shannon Irving, Assistant Superintendent for Administration; and Amanda Hester, Superintendent.
During Dr. Hester’s Pathways to Success presentation she talked about how the school worked around the Seven Stars Music Festival heavy traffic issues, expanding workforce development opportunities at the high school (including building a house for a Nelson family), motivational guest speaker Rohan Murphy at each of the schools and a family night event, an upcoming special olympics meet at the HS, continuing work on training staff on cybersecurity, sending out requests for SNOW REMOVAL contractors, the every-45-day bus inspections by the mechanics, the cafeteria staff trying to get more “scratch” (local, homemade) meals to students, and the great fun for the community at the HS homecoming tailgate party.
Maintenance Supervisor Les Campbell said the HS renovation continues on schedule. Joyce Colburne from Honeywell and Bobby Hall from Carrier spent some time discussing the continuing problems with the HS chiller. They have asked for an engineering review from Moseley Architects to tell Honeywell and Carrier what they need to do since some changes occurred between the time the original equipment was purchased (a like-for-like replacement using COVID/ESSER funds) and the HS renovation projects.
Scott Belako explained SMART goals for each of the schools in four domains: academic supports, staffing supports, organizational learning supports and school climate supports. School staff are placed in teams that look at the school data, develop the goals and see that the schools work toward those goals throughout the school year.
Ryan Yarzebinski showed the results of the state preliminary accreditation results for Nelson County. He pointed out that even though Nelson County has scored 34 out of 132 school divisions across the state, that the state cannot capture a lot of Nelson County’s successes including student and staff enthusiasm and the significant community support the schools receive. The new accreditation model includes scores for Growth, Mastery (SOLs) and Readiness (absenteeism, advanced course work at MS and HS, and graduation rates and Ready for Life indicators at the HS). Tye River and Rockfish River Elementary Schools and Nelson MS all received an “on-track” accreditation score (meeting state expectations in all three areas), and Nelson County HS received a DISTINGUISHED score of 91.98/100!
Dr. Hester gave an update on the six year (2023-2029) comprehensive plan “NCPS Pathways to Success”. She presented a review of how the division progressed towards the plan goals in the last two school years. This followed a series of leadership reviews that occurred over the last three months so that the division may know how to pivot with all the changes that are occurring at the local, state and federal level. She suggested a change to the HS Readiness indicators to match state expectations and updated the approved comprehensive plan presentation to include a slide on Trending Challenges which she discussed. She is interested in community feedback on the comprehensive plan.
School board members are pleased with the transparency of the Nelson County Schools (like the three presentations at this school board meeting), the vertical alignment of our goals across the divisions, how well we are improving on our goals, and how professional our staff are.
Assistant Superintendent Shannon Irving presented an unqualified (clean) audit report for the School Activity Funds. There were a few recommendations at the end to three of the schools for minor items to improve their processes. Kudos to each school’s bookkeeper for proper management of their school funds!
The School Board approved the 2025-2030 Gifted Plan for K-12 students:
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