Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax School Board Regular Meeting, Monday, April 7, 2025

Date: Monday, April 7, 2025
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 1h 25m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4158
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4158
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4158&doc_id=fa01392f-421a-11f0-b7f5-005056a89546

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:14] good evening ladies and gentlemen tonight is monday april 7th of 2025 and this is the regular session of the uh city of fairfax school board please stand for the pledge of allegiance

[00:00:38] okay we have no changes in the uh to the agenda but i would like to welcome stacy hall uh city council member thank you for attending our meeting miss hall um and i would like to follow that with the adoption of the agenda may I have a motion please madam chair miss Kelsey I move that the city of Fairfax school board adopt the agenda as written and distributed okay may I have a second second okay miss Kelsey moved

[00:01:12] and miss Sessori seconded all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye no members opposed the adoption passes unanimously okay next item on the agenda is a presentation of the all-night graduation celebration donation we have Saabna Simpson with us this evening and students I'm not yeah you want me to come

[00:01:42] down yeah all right everybody come down I know right thank you next our

[00:03:13] presentations of the school board we do we have any but no one signed up versus and participation shocker okay and the student representative report ms batra hello everyone i hope everyone is pushing through our last quarter of the year and excited for spring break coming up this weekend over at providence they celebrated an incredible steam month steam night this past month with dinner raffle and fun activities additionally they are staying strong with their many spirit themes in march and april including favorite color day called awareness day and

[00:03:48] and Galaxy Day. In collaboration with Daniel's Run, they held a Daniel's Run versus Providence staff volleyball game. The Daniel's Run elementary schoolers had an exciting St. Patrick's Day as the sixth grade class sold lucky candy grams and all grades participated in building creative leprechaun traps. Additionally, they celebrated Read Across America Week with special guest readers. They also held their spring cleanup day on April 1st where they came together to weed gardens, pick up litter, and make small repairs. Families and staff had an amazing time coming

[00:04:21] together to improve Daniel's run. Soon, they will have the Scholastic BOGO Book Fair on April 11th and Donuts with Dragons on April 29th, so be sure to save these dates if you plan to go to them. KJMS had some fun music events recently, including the March 12th Orchestra performance and the April 4th KJMS dance. At assessment, their orchestra was able to earn high marks and had many excellent and superior scores. Their math counts teams and quiz bowl teams are also doing well with math counts securing impressive results at their latest competition and quiz bowl qualifying

[00:04:58] for nationals. Their Appian board game club is also going strong as 24 students came together from across the country to play with two KJMS students placing first. Fairfax High School had amazing shows this month including the fashion marketing show and cultural celebration which both featured beautiful garments from across the world as well as MCT Fest where students performed original compositions. Fairfax High School continued to stay victorious across the board with wins in the music department's high assessment scores, many DECA students making

[00:05:32] it to nationals, and the dive and wrestling teams becoming state champions. Soon they will also be showing Hadestown starting April 25th. I hope everyone is continuing to work hard in the week before spring break and make sure to get your Hadestown tickets thank you thank you Sia our next presentation is the Fairfax High School state of the schools address I'd like to welcome region 5 superintendent Becky Banig and executive principal Chad Lehman and we have dr. Georgina a with us good evening

[00:06:05] dr. a okay all right hope everyone's evening is awesome so we're going to talk about Fairfax High School academics opportunities and supports and some SEL initiatives that we have focused on this year at the school a little bit of our data so here's just kind of a school demographic information for this school year with current enrollment at 2,390 and also just looking at our ethnicity

[00:06:42] breakdown in our programmatic breakdown as well and just some exciting things 98% of staff have completed a possum recognition for a student this year so they've recognized at least one student in our PBIS tenants over 360 students have been recognized for Lions taking the lead so that means they were recognized for either portrait of a graduate skills or outstanding academics you have our honor roll recognition there for quarter one quarter two and quarter 3 770 students 752 students and 734 students our honors dual enrollment

[00:07:20] and AP enrollment have continued to have a strong increase over the past two years we were excited this year as we came into the school year that Fairfax high school had removed themselves from the response to discipline disproportionality list that I'll talk about a little bit more some of the things we did for that we have increased avid enrollment we actually very excited we have moved from three sections to six sections next year for avid and just also increased opportunities for dual enrollment and ap work by adding piloting certain courses and then

[00:07:55] i'm adding select courses as well as we support staff and becoming certified and supported to train those i'm knowing that you need certain credentials our lions are always leading and we are always excited about that i'll talk a little bit more about the george mason direct admissions partnership but here we are on a college visit where we took students that will also qualify for that a direct admissions program next year and about 77 students attended that and had a full day at the university got to visit classes toward the campus and speak with actual professors talk to admissions reps and really begin thinking about that post-secondary

[00:08:32] lifestyle formatting so one thing that we are always very support we are grateful for the support of the city is in the freshman transition program so we're able to offer with our CIF grant that freshman transition program in August for students that includes six teachers over 25 student mentors that attend and this past year served 272 participants we focus on specific content created lessons organization school tours a lot of team building and activities for students to just be comfortable with the idea of transitioning to high school and

[00:09:11] they have the opportunity to connect and become more familiar before the school fills up with the rest of them the grade levels and then we have added an equity component to that as well where we actually focus on just inclusivity and what it means to be responsible in support of one another and students engage in restorative circles around that conversation and dialogue to make sure that they're supported in that transition to a very diverse school community that we love to celebrate our freshman transition counselor the city also helps support us in this unique position that we share with KJ middle

[00:09:45] school so miss Kay actually does a variety of activities to stay busy but also to just stay connected between to building that bridge between eighth and ninth grade families on our end she does a lot more of retention and support of ninth graders so the ninth graders that had MTSS plans perhaps a ninth graders that had certain social emotional struggles or they had attendance issues we actually receive a list of those students so that she can have a close transitional eye on them and support them and check in with them heavily that first two quarters of the year to make sure that they are transitioning solidly to high school they also host club fresh which is an after-school program

[00:10:24] option just for freshmen alone we know sometimes as they are becoming a assimilated being around, everyone can feel like a lot for them in a large learning lounge setting or just in large settings and activities so they can report to the club fresh and hang out with some of their other freshman peers. There are snacks there for them and academic support and tutoring available for them as well in that space. We offered a freshman parent night.

[00:10:49] You can actually see there the continued increase each year of parents actually engaging in that opportunity for freshman parent night to actually also get parents to ask all those questions to get all the jitters out of the transition that can be so challenging as students move from middle to high school and then we've arranged rising ninth grade scholar visits and we also did a multilingual learners visit as well so just specifically for certain student groups to actually be have certain different types of diverse conversations around what would best support them and options for them in high school and have some of those one-on-one supports with counselors as well on site but then also an opportunity

[00:11:27] especially for our multilingual learners they got to actually meet the entire ESOL department as well and some of their teachers that would support them in transition and hear from a student panel as well about some support some support tips and ideas and maybe some of those mistakes let's not make when we come into high school right that they might have made or weren't so wise of when they were freshmen as well and then we also had the electives fair where we actually send our students down this is always a very enjoyable event for our students that actually go down and attend at KJ Middle School to actually support and promote clubs and activities and coursework that we offer at the

[00:12:04] high school so they look at it as a recruitment but they really enjoy that and then we had the rising ninth grade parent night curriculum fair as well for students as well and so we had approximately 250 of the parents attend that evening where they could receive course sequencing and actually talk to course content tables um so she's been instrumental in kind of making sure that both eighth grade parents and ninth grade parents know what is going on um and then like i said at that high school um transitional those first two quarters are pretty key with the support that we use for her to focus in on students that may be struggling um to transition well and helping to find them the

[00:12:43] supports that they need or the connections that maybe they are missing um our fairfax academy um this year our career expo hosted 52 guest speakers across 12 content areas there were keynote presentations we love when we actually host the career expo it's very exciting um for the students to actually um have the industry professionals come in and talk to them about what um a life in the a day in the life of could look like in this career um and actually also do simulations with them um i think the most one of the most popular ones was the video game creator that came and actually was doing how this class will actually take you into the creation of video games.

[00:13:23] They wouldn't let her leave. They were actually just kind of like enthralled in how this could actually be the future of where they went, which was exciting. We also have our academy ambassadors where the students have actually taken great ownership and actually promoting their programs as well.

[00:13:39] So they really do enjoy kind of being a champion. Each program nominates a few of the ambassadors and the students actually will travel to recruitment events and then also attend their own academy events and actually supporting. Why I think this works so well is they take what they're getting from Fairfax Academy back to their base schools and share and celebrate and letting others know that maybe if this option did not exist for you, there's some great programming and CTE opportunities for you over at Fairfax High School. And many of them will tell you they will set up tables and be of the greatest promoters in their own cafeterias back at their base schools to say hey you need to

[00:14:17] come and try this out there's something great over here for you if you're looking for it and then continued growth and expansion of opportunities um the efo program actually offers our students with disabilities the opportunity to work in the industry in the academy as well in the pro photo program and then coming soon we are very excited as long as we can secure our funding we'll also actually be bringing to Fairfax High School and to Fairfax Academy the electrical trade as well so that is been approved now we just have to work our magic in securing budgeting but we're very excited about that opportunity for

[00:14:56] the industry for students I'm here Fairfax ESOL so here you have our ESOL numbers we were very excited we I think it was last year's number was about 56 kids so this year 86 kids earned additional credits for their world languages and so that was and then we had 55 students this year who earned all three credits for their world languages as well by offering the world language credit exam at school on-site that was very impactful we actually have added a dedicated ESOL counselor as well this this year to support our multilingual

[00:15:35] learners that has been very helpful as a liaison one to specific student group needs, but also to working with the parents and the families as well to have that support. And then we also have an ESOL Family Support and Intervention Specialist who actually engages in both academic support on-site and home support.

[00:15:53] That was born out of just kind of looking at our family engagement survey and parents wanting to know more about how they could help their kids in school. So they felt like they were getting communication, but then kind of when they were dealing with challenges academically what were the options for them and how could they better support if they did not understand exactly the subject matter or content students are working with and so our ESOL interventionist spends a lot of time she'll get on zoom she'll call them up but she'll even show up at the house actually to kind of help them understand how to better support students and then

[00:16:29] we were also just very excited about Weta Palooza which was our two-day testing opportunity we were one of the schools that piloted that this year and so this was the first time we've had this was the highest participation rate we've ever had in WIDA testing so we actually individually met with all students explained to them what their previous WIDA scores meant and then we actually created a three-tiered incentive system based on the growth that they would have on the WIDA assessment as well because the WIDA is required for multilingual learners to take but it is not a graduation requirement or a

[00:17:05] requirement for anything else so actually getting students invested in taking it for two days and taking it seriously and it taking about four and a half or five hours can be very very challenging so we were very methodical and kind of strategic about that and then when they were finished testing we actually didn't send them back to class because it had been a long morning so one day we had a pizza celebration they had open gym they had the opportunity to watch a movie and then on the second day we had an ice cream party and they got to go out on the field they got to play soccer they got to engage in games they got to do so kind of have a fun release after that intensive testing and here

[00:17:43] were our numbers so ninety seven point nine percent of the students completed the process that's the highest completion rate we've ever had for the school for students that actually competed actually engaged in all four segments of the test and actually finished them and this was the first year that we just had a noticeable attitudinal difference in students that had engaged in the test as well and they were actually excited and really excited asking us when the results were gonna come back because they wanted to know one like how they did but then to like if they had earned certain tiers of incentives as well but had taken it very seriously so we're excited for that and

[00:18:22] I think that's also just very important to a note that for the new accreditation system are they can do accountability system this is 10% of that and in schools with large ESL populations with multilingual learners we are going to have to focus on the one being invested in the testing to the results but the biggest part of that understanding that in that reading writing speaking and listening component if they're doing well and growing there it impacts everything else as well so that was a huge shift and just very exciting for our for our community and the teachers were thrilled here's some

[00:18:57] of our Fairfax high school special education data and we are in the preparations of kind of embracing the inclusion revolution so really looking at as we are being very intentional and strategic about course advisement just really looking at passion push areas and opportunities for students to thrive and succeed in the courses that we offer in the goals that they have and in the plans and opportunities that we can create for them so we have 272 students with disabilities that have an IEP right now we've expanded our community work experiences with a lot of Fairfax City businesses so far for our students that

[00:19:35] go out and do work in industry opportunities in their classes I'm here just a few of the places they're going to work from Weber's pet market supermarket to Ace Hardware the cinema arts theater and I think probably if you want to be in a good mood all day come out when the kids are boarding the bus for their career experiences because they are thrilled for the opportunity to be out in the community and then we actually offer the business partners the opportunity to come in as well and they are equally as excited to come in and share in the engagement and opportunity that they are providing to students and

[00:20:11] then another city sponsored event that we are able to provide is the learning lounge and so this is the opportunity to provide space on Wednesdays and Thursdays with late buses and we have peer tutors we have the opportunity for students to go to receive writing support and then we also offer tutoring right now teacher support is available for students as well clubs and activities also meet on this day so students I always say have the opportunity to do the best of both worlds you can go to the club first if you have a club meeting so you can do your connectivity activity but the learning lounge is open until the late buses arrive so there are teachers there to support you after your

[00:20:50] club dismisses so you can still get that opportunity for support and then we do have a school-wide coach class schedule that is pretty much built around the late bus days as well so majority of our teachers are either all there on Wednesdays or Thursdays to offer that academic support as well so the learning lounge I always say is a nice alternative if you need to maybe see it a different way or learn from a different teacher but you also have the access and opportunity to your teachers as well in that space and this year we have supported 620 students in the Learning Lounge so and most of them

[00:21:24] are probably frequent repeaters or attendees depending on where we're at if you come like last week or this week it's light because it's the beginning of the quarter if you get about a progress report time it is much heavier and then the last two weeks it is action-packed and we're pulling out more tables and having more teachers and adults actually come out and assist so opportunities and considerations so here is our rigor rising so here is our AP dual enrollment and honors enrollment that you can see over the past three

[00:21:58] years so we'll be going into 2526 moving from 20 2427 students in the previous year to 3047 enrolled in an AP course 490 and 2425 in a dual enrollment course in 752 in a dual enrollment in 25-26 and 3,327 in honors in 24-25 and 3,456

[00:22:29] in 25-26. And going for the gold, we are very excited. I like this chart just because it kind of shows that as we continue to, we have AP, we made AP gold honor roll as identified by college board and what I like is that as you see the increase in AP students a number of exams that students are engaging in the percent the students are maintaining the rigor the access and the performance so we can actually see that as the number is going up we are still kind of maintaining the threshold of performance to earn threes or higher as students are gaining the exposure to

[00:23:06] the rigorous coursework and then progress towards three E's as we understand the new accountability framework we have a heavy emphasis on just making sure that in the 3e component that we are focused on every graduate having an opportunity to earn points in one of the three categories above so whether that is enrollment in a highly rigorous course engagement in the CTE pathway work-based learning opportunity or high quality opportunity or enlistment which is also students can earn points for taking and

[00:23:38] sitting for the ASVAB. So this right now has been kind of a marketing campaign for us as we work because those accountability standards rolled out a little bit later and we were trying to stay up to date and up to speed with what would earn points and provide students with access.

[00:23:55] We knew that in the third column enlistment has been huge and that has not been something that has always been kind of supported for students. One, they didn't understand it, automatically assumed that they took the ASVAB they had to enroll in the military and so kind of rebranding it to share with students that it is career battery tests and you could take the assessment we have a career person come in and actually talk about the results with students and strengths and weaknesses in the careers that they may lend themselves to to use the results for that and that you do not have to go to the military we traditionally only have about 30 kids take the

[00:24:30] ASVAB to date we have 75 kids that have taken it in our senior class and we're giving it one more time so through that that's also been a lot of kind of phone calls a lot of individual student conversations and also a lot of conversations that you know kind of explaining just even this 3e model that you don't have to enlist but we do want to make sure that in one of these three categories you feel prepared that you have an option when you leave high school to have earned something and many of you our goal is in all three buckets you have that option if your schedule lends itself but you know if we can get it in one we can get it into or we can get it in three, we know we've done our job.

[00:25:06] I always tell kids, it's not enough to see you to it, we have to see you through it. So to it is the diploma on the stage, through it is what's gonna happen after that to make sure that you feel supported or you have a plan. Going backwards, okay, literacy.

[00:25:22] School-wide focus on, we switched to maps in the WEA map testing this year, so we did have a heavy emphasis on, last year we had focused on Lexile levels, this year we actually did school-wide PD on, With every department on understanding how to read the NWEA MAP scores, right, because that was a new test. But we did give training, we gave whole staff training, and then we gave training to CTEs as well to say understanding that I'm always a champion of believing, like I always say, literacy does two things: it saves lives and changes lives, right.

[00:25:54] It's like the opportunity that if you have strong reading skills it gives you gateway access to being successful everywhere else. So staff really kind of dug into those scores and then we did a lot of just like kind of interesting correlation if you have a struggling student let's pull up their map scores let's see if we're seeing something here that's indicative that we could scaffold or plan for for these specific students so that we're making sure that we're inspecting and that we're meeting all students needs we do offer literacy classes for targeted students that are identified as struggling readers or a few grade levels behind we also offered a double block option to support foundational skills for esau students students with disabilities and some struggling

[00:26:33] readers that double block was coupled with their English class so it actually was just additional kind of literacy support for them to be successful in a course where they were already having struggles we did have just around another literacy component we have the creation of our student library advisory council this year so students actually joined the library council and they meet weekly and they talk about how to make Fairfax just a more literacy rich environment and place they've started a lot of their work just kind of honing in in the library but just kind of changing the selections that we have always constantly promoting what we're doing in the library but the last one was also

[00:27:13] creating the podcast studio in the library so we have that now that other classes can actually go up and use to participate and then students actually will also record some of their own podcast opportunities staff to staff student to staff and student to student as well but also kind of just doubling down on that amazing speaking component that we want students to become comfortable with as well after they've done the research or the topic that they are going to talk about on the podcast.

[00:27:42] Numeracy. So we are Project Momentum. So we have received a lot of district supports. And then we've also added additional layers of support. So we have a math instructional aid and also a math interventionist that are both committed to coming into our Algebra I classes and some of our geometry classes to offer additional level support and also provide pullout support.

[00:28:05] We offer tutoring during line time after school and at Saturday school specifically for math and students that need both intervention and students that need acceleration. So we actually have an advanced math teacher there and we have a math teacher there that can also support students if they're just needing extra help or needing some level of math recovery that we're noticing so that they can be successful.

[00:28:29] and then we are trying i'm excited this year we are we are piloting readiness testing so students will actually um for the sol self-identify when they feel like they are ready to test so we are providing three test dates and they will look at their scores and then those three dates and then they will decide um where they feel they best fall in this testing window so on the first date if you're like i've got this and i've got a lot of other stuff going on in may let me go ahead and take this and like knock it out they could sign up for an april date they're like i need more time i need to come to a few saturday school interventions i'm probably going to maybe test

[00:29:06] on that last date and still have my opportunity for retake but um our goal is to go this way with all sols moving forward but we're piloting it with math next year so or this year so i'm excited to see how that will turn out we are going into year three of our world languages summer camp They are super excited. This is always such a fun experience. It's one of my favorite breaks to take in the summertime when camp is going on. And we have all of our elementary and middle, some of our middle feeder students that are there, and they are just actively engaging in learning German, Spanish, Latin, and French. It is always exciting to see.

[00:29:42] Here is AVID. We have been very intentional in using this as a support system, especially as we are focused on passion push courses and rigorizing to actually have students know and parents know that this isn't it this is a great coupled support if you're going to take your first rigorous or challenging course that worked well like for our current students in avid most of them when we just looked at course enrollments 48 of those students took an additional rigorous course they were already enrolled in at least one honors ap or de but they added an additional one so we um

[00:30:20] we were excited for that um we are very excited on may 9th we are hosting senior signing day for the first time to celebrate all of those three e options so all of the seniors will actually get to come into the auditorium they're going to get t-shirts we're going to blast up the schools there's a dj and we are really going to celebrate the fact that they have post-secondary options we've invited our friends from the elementary and middle school avid um to come and watch and then and then some of the underclassmen as well to come and watch.

[00:30:49] And then consequently, our college fair on site is going on the same day. So by offering that college and career fair option, the kids will also get to visit that college and career fair as well to think about post-secondary options. And then they have been on four college field trips this year.

[00:31:07] We do have school-wide AVID college days, and then we have school-wide AVID advisory lessons as well. And as I'd already highlighted, we were excited to double the AVID sections that we are offering next year. And then, oh, post, I don't know, my formatting is all off here.

[00:31:26] We were very excited this year. We were able to offer a six-week free SAT prep program as a post-secondary. And we had 50 slots. We took 55 students because in the first hour and a half that we sent it to parents, it was fully filled up, right?

[00:31:42] So we actually kind of saw that the need was there. one of the things we know next year is we'd like to run this three times so in three six-week series is coupled right in front of the SAT offerings so that wherever students are at in that space they'll be able to have that opportunity and then we were very excited that 325 of our students made it to George Mason direct admissions so they were admitted and yeah so we were very excited about that opportunity for them PD opportunities also the city supports us in being able to offer these opportunities we were able to send four

[00:32:19] additional people to avid summer institute we were able to send our pbis coaches to a pbis summit we were able to get eight additional staff newly college board trained we were able to join the lighthouse schools pilot this year that we're very excited about which talks about using AI to empower students with disabilities and multilingual learners in access and capability, and we offer that in three tiers for student access, teacher access, and parent access, right,

[00:32:53] so working with those three groups to talk about how that could be used as a friend and not an enemy in a healthy way. College board, we had two teachers go on to present their work from Fairfax High School at the College Board Conference for Innovative Practices.

[00:33:14] And we have CLT PLC opportunities, so we actually, all 167 of our teaching staff members all adopted a UDL-focused text this year. So we did 167 texts, and our faculty meetings transitioned to professional development opportunities because we were not able to, we have a limited PD calendar this year for the district.

[00:33:36] So staff was able to have choice in what they wanted to deepen into, but all of them kind of have had a UDL focus that aligned with where the district was going, but also helps us best serve our students that we want to continue to support as well. And then we were able to send our academy teacher to artists on Broadway as well as an opportunity.

[00:33:56] Dr. A., could you just, for anybody who's listening, all of us know what the acronyms are? Oh, yes. Just in case. I don't know if anybody's watching, but... Yes. Instructional coaching and literacy as well has been a focus.

[00:34:12] So our instructional coach has been focused on Ready for Rigor and then Universal Design for Learning, UDL. And also he was pivotal in delivering the understanding literacy data and following up with those departments as we dug deeper into looking at data correlation.

[00:34:32] And then he facilitates the monthly CLT facilitators meetings to make sure that all CLTs have a continuous focus on the plan, do study, act cycle. So if any team needs specific focus, but that also everyone's getting kind of the same message on what we are instructionally focused on.

[00:34:51] And was able to observe about 90% of our faculty and give them feedback as well to date right now. And then you have a link there where you have the PowerPoint, but he also records weekly coaching videos that are sent out to staff on our Fairfax YouTube channel for instructional coaching.

[00:35:08] And now we'll talk a little bit about SEL initiatives. So we do offer peer group mentoring. We have 120 students that are trained with upperclass mentors, and they work with our freshman advisory groups in about an 8 to 1 ratio.

[00:35:29] and so they push into those freshman advisories and do activities with them, answer any questions the freshman may be having, and the idea being to kind of have just a connection to a different age group or level of student in the building. They are very excited because freshman next year we'll have a recess at Fairfax High School and our freshman academy.

[00:35:56] And we're always piloting. And they're very excited because this will also be an opportunity for them to push in and engage with students in a different and more fun way. And we have still figured out a way for students to get the same information that they'll get as freshmen in that they get in lion time.

[00:36:17] And the students, this doesn't interrupt them having the opportunity to still visit teachers for the extra support either. But this gives them something that we can see that they deeply miss coming from the middle school. It's manageable with 600, it's not manageable with 2400, but when others are hearing about it, they're like, "Why aren't we getting it?"

[00:36:36] So we'll see how it goes. And then we offer several groups at Fairfax High School. So we have an executive functioning group of students. We have a newcomers group of students that we offer multiple times a year because we're very transient with our newcoming population and they arrive at usually three key dates, around three key dates.

[00:37:00] So we actually offer a parent group for their parents to better understand the educational system and then we also offer student groups as well that cycle through. We have restorative justice groups. We do have 56 staff members at Fairfax that are restorative justice certified.

[00:37:16] And then we are very excited, we've been approved to add a student-trained group as well. So we are actually going to train students as well. We're perhaps the peer mentors, right, because they are doing those facilitated mentor activities. And so more in a sort of circle model.

[00:37:33] They wouldn't mediate conflicts, but they would just create community, and using circles to create community would be the idea. As we train them, we offer attendance circles. We have a social skills group for adaptive curriculum students. we have a community college nova transition group we have a finding my friends group for students that have been deeply disconnected and are just looking for friends to hang out with so we've been able to help them find each other and do fun activities we have a social support group that might address students that have concerns with vaping or substance abuse and they work with our

[00:38:08] social worker and our drug counselor that's on site and then we have we have very intentional targeted lion time um that has um mtss advisory so those students um as we were more intentional at looking at data at the end of the year said well if you've maybe you know failed three or more classes had an attendance challenge you were grouped with a very nurturing mentor um to be your advisor and a person that would have deep oversight over grades and your attendance and and your well-being so kind of that above and beyond advisor that could really be the champion

[00:38:44] for you because you need that on multiple in multiple ways and tiers and then by grouping them that way we're also able to um push in counseling and social work supports to those locations as well to have those checks checks with those students um the excitement of pbis implementation of our behavioral matrix we spent a lot of time last year getting feedback from students from our staff from a PBIS committee um and from parents about what we were thinking of when we talked about promoting accountability being accountable for actions working hard

[00:39:20] and self-advocating um and then we were able to push those lessons out in lion time and then do the recognitions and then we kind of inverted it and allow students to also do teacher recognitions when teachers are showing some of those PBIS tenants as well and then this week we're adding a student to student component where they can recognize where they see some of that behavior with one another as this is student appreciation week as well so we'll have them appreciate and show that to one another and there's our pause patrol that heads out on the run to give out those those awards or recognitions that teachers have nominated

[00:39:59] students for and there's all kinds of things in that treasure chest um but just trying to promote positive culture in the building so you have everything from positive referrals you have happy day teachers you have happy day students you have fun fridays um we offer an opportunity for students to fill out a form on schoology to get tickets to events um we offered staff tailgates we have our food pantry and we actually have a fresh food drop on fridays as well that was added this year we do the lions on their lead recognitions um reinforcement of the pause lessons or

[00:40:35] pause attendance through lion time with little activities um support teachers in sel classroom approaches um the clothes we had a clothing thrift gratitude grams teacher recognition by students so the inverse the pause patrol and then also offering an opportunity for more field trips which is something that students have asked for as well and so looking at different entry points to those field trips chronic absenteeism so our school improvement goal is to move last year we were at 16.1 percent our goal is to get to 14.1 percent we are currently at 16.3 percent

[00:41:14] so what we're doing to address chronic absenteeism so i do send out the attendance report cards bi-weekly that just let people know what zone of attendance that students are in and then my most recent letter I realized that I think people still I was just a lot more explanatory about how you can earn back sometime because we do know that life happens when you are when you when you're sick or you know things happen and you can't be at school also explaining that excuse and unexcused absences are viewed the same I think that always still surprises people I know where my

[00:41:54] child is I'm not sure why you're sending me this letter and it's like it's just you to be aware because it still impacts the absenteeism and so we have attendance conferences and plans we host the attendance circles we have a student support group also if there are things that a lot of these times in these conferences or plans will be revealed that there's other larger issues in life that are occurring so we do have a direct pipeline to get support for that we have students that just need the check-in and out daily they actually want it whether it's text messages in the morning a phone call somebody to find them in first period or somebody to call them by 8 30

[00:42:31] if they haven't gotten to school yet um and then we do offer um saturday school as that opportunity for students to have um that earn back and the ip fit is the opportunity to earn back so to date we've earned 1.6 percent of our attendance back through ip fit recovery um so we've we've touched a lot of students that way um but we're continuing to plug away at it because it is still a challenge um to date we have 396 chronically absent students we've done 306 plans and held 114 conferences

[00:43:10] for students um family engagement um parents want to learn and want resources as well um you know one thing that we did was so we really looked at what that could look like And our families were just very honest about wanting an English language learning program for themselves to better feel that they could navigate school.

[00:43:37] Well, we actually designed this course, interestingly. So we could not find someone to teach it. So I ended up teaching the course at the school, designed the course for the parents. And we talked about where are the places that you feel are most challenging to navigate.

[00:43:56] And so we talked about it was school, it was job interviews, it was health care, it was leasing, banking. And so we were very intricate in curating for them, like kind of almost like a life access class around English language.

[00:44:14] So every lesson kind of was very tailor-made using ESOL strategies to help them gain language acquisition and practice, but also to kind of really walk out of there and be able to take it if they had a job interview the next week as well. So we really just made that a strong support for them.

[00:44:31] And you can watch that video later, but that's there as teaching, and you'll see our happy hands that we do to celebrate as we learn the language. and they were they enjoyed this and it and what we also use this as an opportunity for was like while we have you here we can also just talk to you about progress reports are coming out here's your students report cards let's have some counselors on standby let's look at your attendance right so you're already here and we're get you know we're getting this great resource right and then let's also be a resource to you to make sure that your students are on the right track and getting what they need as well and that is definitely responded to just kind of a survey we gave them that they just feel far more

[00:45:10] connected to the school in the community now to the point that the last series of this we're actually starting next week and because of where we're at we'll be offering an on-site and I can zoom live into their homes as well if people don't want to come out just based on some of the concerns they'll be able to have access in both ways and then just continuing with that that engagement so just focusing on talking points our family liaisons offer a variety of parent classes and parent circles a lot of them focused on our international

[00:45:49] families and then also conduct virtual check-ins because sometimes you don't want to not come in but a work schedule or life has permitted so we do have this great resource um that everybody i think was ready to run away from post covid because we were all tired of it but now we do realize it's a quick and easy way for people to be able to connect back to each other um and then also just even communication in general just being more intentional about offering grade level sessions in the evenings um for all of the different grades to be able to have

[00:46:21] the opportunities to check in um college access nights um by grade level as well um and then um the virtual the virtual sessions that we offer also in just different languages um here's our saturday school data so if you look at it um we are at 101 attendees last year and this year we've had 378 kids attend saturday school so it is not it is not ever like a huge attended event but it It is a very intentional and needed event for those that are attending, and they are benefiting greatly from the one-on-one or the small group and tutoring support that they're

[00:47:00] getting in those sessions. Our family liaisons, they have just been very intentional in supporting us in contacting and communicating, and they've done that around everything from immunizations to our ASVAB testing to attendance, right?

[00:47:21] So they also just want their families to understand our systems as well and to just be deeply connected. And then we do offer, like I had shared, we have the Friday Food Drops, which is fresh food. We average about 50 or 60 people that are coming in to get fresh food, produce, and meats on the Friday.

[00:47:37] And then we always have our food pantry open where our family engagement center is able to take them over there. And then we do offer edgy futuro classes. We offer the literacy classes. We do offer a preschool program at our school as well. for our Hispanic families, that's also a subsidiary of Eje Futuro and then our pyramid has made kind of an intentional support as well to looking at geographically like where we are and maybe looking at our population and Eagle View that feeds into Fairfax High School hosting our Arabic Family Night because there are a lot of families that live in that area that can either walk

[00:48:15] there or find it easily accessible that have kids in all three levels of the school right we host a lot of the Hispanic events and invite the feeder schools to those events as well so kind of if we can find pockets and pods working together as a pyramid knowing that the community all eventually all ends up as lions then you know we can all find places where our community can have access and roar all right thank you for all you do to support our schools our theme for this school year was together we win and we know that we are

[00:48:50] so grateful for the partnership and support you give us to create just a winning culture for kids. I think we need to thank you for supporting our school. Ms. Barlney, do you have questions or comments? Thank you so much. It was exciting to hear all the stuff. In particular, I didn't know anything about the English language learning for parents or a lot of the pyramid collaboration happening, so that's very cool. I guess my question is, with the increasing number of students taking AP and dual enrollment what does the support look like especially as there's a big

[00:49:27] increase for next year for students that might be coming in with disabilities or or their first attempt at these classes and what did those supports look like I guess both for the teacher and for the student yeah so we I mean I think one is so we are offering team taught sections of all of our AP classes and and the dual enrollment we're not allowed to because of the guidelines with NOVA but for the AP courses we are offering team taught sections so we think that truly for students that need the additional supports the two adults in the room will be one of the easiest and most accessible ways to immediately support those students and then we've also talked

[00:50:07] about some very intentional positioning of lion time with additional strategic support for students that are in their first-time AP classes kind of communicating that to parents that there are strategic places that they can go for additional tutoring and support with someone in that subject area to offer them access that maybe isn't competing with 25 other kids a group that's making up a test a group that's doing something else are the two big ones that we have thought about and then we know a lot of our teachers um are very they're very excited about the increase but they're also hesitant as well because they know the numbers will be larger um and that there may be some different learner needs

[00:50:46] So we've also offered them the opportunity for additional training this summer. Thank you. I'm very much excited to hear about the team taught AP. Thank you. Ms. Kelsey. Yeah, you blow me away every year because it's always like, and I know I've told you this when you gave us our tour, was you guys make me want to go back to high school.

[00:51:09] It was not fun, but you make it sound fun. And I know that's why we have so many successes coming. I know it is a team effort, but that team is led by you. um and without you I don't know if it would be you know as because you have so much out there wow and you energize everybody I mean when we see you obviously we want to smile too because you're so you know it just engaging engaging very she is engaging I mean and so I do want to thank you for that because as I've told you before you only have to stay for a couple more years because

[00:51:44] my daughter's fifth grade and as long as you're there through her then you're great um but no my questions um one of them i have because this number blows me away that it's the first year of this program the george mason direct admission how many seniors do we actually have right now 580 and you have 325 going direct admission already that just is like bam wow because carolyn and i were looking at each other when we were saying these numbers when you're saying these numbers because you're like i know this is small like i knew it had to be more than half i I know. Yeah. And like when you're, you're sitting there, the Saturday school, it's not big 378. No,

[00:52:22] but that's 378 kids coming on a Saturday to school on a sixth day. And I can tell you when I was in school, I wouldn't have gone on a Saturday probably, you know, that says something. So these numbers are just like blowing my mind, um, that they're the first year, especially with that program. Um, my other question that I had for you is those group supports that you have. I know obviously the targeted line time MTSS one occurs during the day do they all occur during the school day or are they before after school they all occur during the school day is it all during lion time majority of them are during line

[00:52:56] okay just because a lot of well especially anything MTSS related or attendance related you're not wanting a student to miss anything that is like academically focused so it's just easier to pull them during the line time for those supports so that they're not missing something else and then the goal is ultimately to create a group that they like being a part of enough that they look forward to it and we don't do it every lion time we make sure that they still have in a Tuesday Thursday lion time week Tuesday maybe your group day Thursday you still have the time to go and visit your teachers so that you're not missing that access okay I do I do love that you have

[00:53:33] that opportunity for everybody like there's something for everybody at the high school and that's very important you've definitely included even the smallest thoughtful thing um thank you and um please you know rest over your spring break because i'm not seeing any time when you rest yet so thank you miss kelsey um miss hickman you said something at some point and carol was like does she sleep thank you also for everything you do um first question just simply answer who provides the fresh food for the fresh food program you know i don't actually know our liaisons had arranged it

[00:54:11] and they they drop it off every Friday um I do not know actually what the what the source is um I can get back to you with that yeah I was just curious I think that's an amazing connection and program that we have that you know it's great great to hear um okay tell me a little more about this recess pilot program where are these freshmen going during there's going to be so many opportunities for where they'll go is there like a time break like 10-15 so it's it's It will be their Lion Time A.

[00:54:43] Okay, so they'll have it two or three times a week. Yeah, so more than likely for freshmen because we are going to pilot the freshman academy. So they'll be on six teams competing against each other in attendance, GPA, academics, all the fun things.

[00:55:01] The teachers will also be teamed as well so that we can actually have cross-curricular conversations, which I think is something that we're missing the opportunity to do in high schools. So the teachers will have the opportunity to still meet with their content team, but they will also have the opportunity to be on this cross-curricular team.

[00:55:17] They'll also have the actual flexibility to modify their own internal schedule as well in the core four. So you'll actually be able to maybe do 45 minutes of bio, then 45 minutes of English, then come back and do your lab after the 45 minutes of English, and then go back and do your writing simulation.

[00:55:34] They're going to actually have the autonomy to kind of have this flex schedule with their core teachers. So is this similar to like a team, like the teams they have at Katherine Johnson? Similar only, but only in the regard that it's just the core four is really because there's so many electives in high school and so many opportunities.

[00:55:53] But yes, they will. But our idea is for it to be, you know, kind of color-coded, right? And it's not by any ability, very all, you know, heterogeneous groups, right? but that they'll have t-shirts and team names and they'll have a field day once a month, right?

[00:56:12] And so kind of keeping them, the things we're seeing that are very antsy in transition and that are finding it hard for them to connect sometimes as a community or to all the other things, we're hoping that this team model will at least help them connect to a core group of their peers and then figure it out from there, right?

[00:56:32] So they'll have classes with similar children as we're seeing? Yeah, and then they'll go, and yeah, and then the middle of the building is becoming the freshman freeway. So, yeah, so a lot of it will just be for them traveling straight down the middle of the building. Wow, this is really cool, really cool.

[00:56:50] Thank you. Ms. Cessary. Thank you. First, congratulations on being named Region 5 Principal of the Year. Thank you. I mean, I know you, because my former colleagues at Fairfax, but just seeing your energy every time I meet you.

[00:57:07] And like Ms. Pitch has said, I don't know when you sleep. Just everything you do is just amazing, and it makes me a little jealous I'm not still there. I love being here, though. But I want to take a moment and just make sure that our city residents recognize that one of the perks of our relationship between us and the county is that we're able to provide extra funding to our schools, which is managed with our wonderful part-time staff, Mr. Phillips.

[00:57:37] And I want to make sure that there's an opportunity. I appreciate your presentation, including things that were city-funded, just so they can see what the extra level is provided there. I'm going to get right direct to it. We are in budget season, as you know, both on the county side and the city side.

[00:57:55] And if any funding isn't there next year, what does that look like for your school? I want to, I really do want to hear right from your point of view of like what, and I know that's really hard and it's going to be Region 5 too, stepping in if you like, but just I want to make sure that our community recognizes what that really looks like and because I can see it. I know what that means, but I want to make sure that we have an opportunity to share that with our community if possible. I mean, I think that any, I mean, anything you take away, I always say you're taking away from kids, right? And we have 2,400 kids. We serve at Fairfax High School. We

[00:58:35] have over a thousand kids that come through each day for the academy program, and we're deeply committed to serving all of them, but serving that many students and knowing that we are proudly diverse and celebrate that. We also have a lot of needs and resources that we have to have to be able to support those needs. So I guess if we come back to like the Saturday school example, Everybody's like, ugh, Saturday school, but 372 students have needed it, right?

[00:59:03] When we think about the Learning Lounge, and it's like, oh, staying after school, you know, over 600 kids in the school have needed that, right? And that resource is offered to, those resources are offered to all students. When I think about, you know, you think about graduation, on-time graduation rates, and a lot of people focus on that, and many people will say the ninth grade is the pivotal year for that, right?

[00:59:26] you think about our freshman transitioning counselor and if a person isn't there to have oversight over kids that maybe aren't doing their best and we take that resource away that would be really probably detrimental to the person an additional person that had the time to dedicate resources in their eyes and encouragement to those kids and their families when i think about just even professional development and growth when we talk about worrying about increasing student profiles in AP and DE classes if we can't afford to provide resources and books for all of our staff to lean into UDL which is universal design for learning meaning every learner can

[01:00:01] learn in the same spaces and have access we are removing that resource from our you know from our children right because anything we're taking deeply or ultimately will always impact them because when you have to even taking a counselor now I have to remove another person from running groups to now you know cover the freshmen because we know that may be a priority over you know the kids that get a group but now six kids aren't getting a group um that have identified that they have no one and that they need to be deeply connected to the school right i think um even and it's not listed in here but even the support with a security specialist right security and safety are

[01:00:37] one of our number one priorities every day um in a school that has you know 23 doors that people could come and go in that we constantly be you know traveling around and checking back rooms and and making sure kids feel safe and that someone's watching and seeing, right? I think, you know, the only thing that I can say is anytime you take away, you take away from kids, staff have to find time, space, and energy to do more.

[01:01:02] And ultimately, something will always end up suffering. I have no other questions. Thank you so much for that. I'll just ask you about the electrical program. Can you tell me a little bit about what you're envisioning for that?

[01:01:21] I think I look at, so even if we look at Fairfax High School, you know, and we just ran our data, we were doing a reflection for our AVID program, and we were looking at whole school college readiness that, and we still have about 20% of our students that aren't absolutely sure when they graduate, if they're going to matriculate to community college or to four-year college, right?

[01:01:42] And we only have a small group, I think 16 kids this year, that are doing enlistment, right? So I think about, like, what other opportunities or options do we have here for students to transition to trade or industry? And we see how successful on the base school side the Fairfax Auto Tech program is, and that students are deeply connected in a hands-on learning CTE experience.

[01:02:07] And by the way, the city is hiring fleet technicians. I saw that. And it pays well. I saw that. $70,000 to $80,000. I saw that. I see that every morning. We need to tell John King. Great advertising. Yeah, and so I think it's finding, so what other, where are we at with providing those opportunities?

[01:02:29] And we look at, we think about Edison, that is the only other school in the county that offers that opportunity, and there is a huge wait list. They are never able to take all of the students and a lot of the students, because it is the only program might be coming from all the way on the other side of the county one of the biggest perks is that Fairfax high school centrally located right so we would be able to kind of absorb some of that and offer opportunity to those waitlist students and then there's also just kind of a desired workforce need for that industry as well so our idea was to kind of the

[01:03:07] best of both worlds we will we're going to find a way to get that money to make those modifications so we can have that lab, and then we're going to, you know, be able to provide 140 kids the opportunity to matriculate through and graduate high school certified, you know, to at least head into, like, level one journey and those trades and industry opportunities, and the jobs are there, and even when we went to visit Edison, they're like, the jobs are here, like, and we need to fill them, and the kids are, you know, we're getting the kids ready, right, so

[01:03:43] I think that is our idea I mean we had we had two kids last year that went to Edison I mean and they had to give up the travel period and it was still difficult for them to even get over there and get back in the time because you have to have at least five kids to get a bus from the school and so a lot of people are not traveling that far right so we know that it's a great resource to offer our own children and then we know that when we open that up other children will also be interested in because CTE has that data that has shown that.

[01:04:13] So then to have two industry pathways there, I think, is a great opportunity. Well, I ask because my husband is an electrical equipment specialist for Dominion, and he's also a licensed electrician and has his own business.

[01:04:28] And he has always been pushing. And when my daughters are there, he's like, why don't you have an electrical program? So if you ever need anybody to come in. Don't put that out there in the universe. I've got my sunshine color on. I'll volunteer him.

[01:04:46] But I just wanted to say, on behalf of the board, thank you for making Fairfax High School so much more than a school. It is a community center. It is a support system. It is a home for lots of our students. I've been involved with Fairfax High School for 15 years, And I've seen this evolution, and you have taken it to places I never thought it could go.

[01:05:19] So I am incredibly grateful for our community that they get to experience this high school. But I just want to end up with what I was saying, that the community is what makes the place great, right? I am a champion, a cheerleader, an idea innovator, because I love to try things.

[01:05:40] But it needs that, to make it a community. It does, but the community, I just want to end with that. The community is what makes that school, like, the community is fabulous, and their commitment and dedication to our kids and the students' commitment and dedication to our school and to each other is really what makes that school's heartbeat.

[01:05:56] And please let the faculty and staff know also how much we appreciate them. Absolutely, I will. Does anybody have any comments? Jeff, would you, Mr. Pottenberg, sorry. Well, it's really hard to add on to that, but Dr. A, you know, simply put, When we met with you this past week in preparation for your comments this evening, it's so infectious.

[01:06:18] You heard, we want to go back to school, we want to be a part. You really, your leadership, you know, you talk about a community, but it takes leaders to build followership. And you've built such followership, such a family, a family of students, a family of community, a family of teachers.

[01:06:34] That environment that's so rich that you create has to do with your essence, your leadership, your ethos, your style, your effort. your commitment to the community, the inclusive environment that you've provided, and in partnership with the Region 5 team, I'm just honored and humbled to be a part.

[01:06:52] And when we compliment you, your humility to say it's the community, it truly takes all of us, and you are a key part, and I am pleased to follow you in your leadership. Thank you.

[01:07:09] - Yeah, and we would also like to thank Region 5. You all are always, you know, you're always here. You're pretty much the only ones. Yeah, you got to champion the two because we got to keep her. Mr. Phillips, would you like to say anything?

[01:07:26] Just follow with what Mr. Plattenberg said. It's just an honor to work there. And I swear when I was sitting here, I was thinking, you know, maybe I could be an AP again if I was at your school. And I'm not really kidding. Yeah, I know. Probably so. Mr. Phillips. Yeah, I know. But it's just so amazing.

[01:07:42] I've been known since now. Quite a few retire, rehires, yes, they don't want to leave. I think the joy that I see with our students, and many of them, my former students at Providence, I write to you every time I'm in there just thinking about it, and it's humbling, and it's just very, very sweet and lovely, so thank you.

[01:08:03] Thanks so much. Well, we're going to let you go home. All right, thank you. Thank you. Thanks again. Okay, we're going to move into, we do not have a public hearing this evening, we'll go right into action items and the first action item is the approval of the march 3rd 2025 minutes uh may i have a motion please madam chair miss hickman i move that the city of fairfax school board approved the minutes of the march 3rd 2025 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed uh may have a second i second thank you miss hickman moved this borrow may seconded

[01:08:40] city of fairfax school board approved the minutes from the march 3rd 2025 uh regular school board meeting are there any additions modifications to the minutes okay all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye no members opposed the motion is unanimous okay the next action item is the approval of the updates to section 1.3 for the Fairfax City School Board policy manual is there a motion madam chair necessary I move that the city of Fairfax

[01:09:18] school board approved the update to section 1.34 of the school board policy manual as printed and distributed um and may have a second second okay miss sessory moved miss hickman seconded the city of fairfax school board approved the updates to section 1.34 of the city of fairfax uh school board policy manual as printed and distributed um all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye no members opposed motions unanimous the last action item is the redirection of cip funds

[01:09:54] um is there a motion i move that the city of fairfax school board approve the reallocation of capital improvement plan cip funds to support the completion of the daniels run elementary school vestibule project this motion is contingent upon fcps approval for the city to reimburse fcps for executing the project in order to enhance the safety and security at the school

[01:10:18] Thank you, Ms. Barlmee. May I have a second? Second. Okay, so Ms. Barlmee moved and Ms. Kelsey seconded. The City of Fairfax School Board approved the reallocation of capital improvement plan funds to support the completion of the Daniels-run elementary school vestibule project.

[01:10:38] Again, this motion is contingent on FCPS. It's approval for the city to reimburse FCPS for executing the project in order to enhance safety and security at the school. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

[01:10:54] Aye. Numbers are opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Okay. We will move on to superintendent matters. Mr. Platt and Berg. Thank you, Madam Chair. One thing I did want to point out. When we talked about this GMU early acceptance program, I would be remiss if I didn't point out, when I first got here, I started working on expanding the partnership and creating new partnerships with George Mason University.

[01:11:21] But if it wasn't for Chair Pitches to swiftly remind me of the need to have had it done yesterday, I met with, at the time, no, but it was for the right reason. And you heard about it this evening, because it benefits our students.

[01:11:37] And I remember Ms. Pitcher saying to me that we're in their backyard, we're strong partners. And I used those exact words in meeting with the dean of education at the time for admissions. And his response was, you know, we'll go ahead and look at you.

[01:11:54] You don't really fit in the model that we have. We don't have enough faculty and staff. And I said to him, how can I remove those barriers? Because we have faculty and staff. My undergraduate was from George Mason. We have so many people that are committed in partnership with you.

[01:12:11] And to hear about it this evening that it has grown to have over half the graduating seniors, of which my niece is one, in those early admissions is just simply incredible opportunities for students. So I did want to thank the chair specifically for her efforts and her leadership and keeping me focused on that.

[01:12:31] This past week was an incredible week of activities across our schools. And as I said, Dan and I met with Dr. A over State of the Schools report, and it was as infectious as it was this evening. And you just want to be a part of something of what she has created over there, that whole aura of the environment.

[01:12:51] It's simply amazing. And we have talked about our electrical program and multiple meetings we've had. And it is rather expensive, but we're thinking of many different opportunities to try and pick away at that, because the need is so great as was mentioned this evening.

[01:13:08] I attended the Daniel Run volleyball game and the cultural night at Fairfax High School and it was an exciting night with a lot of activity. The gymnasium was quite a buzz with the families and the elementary students and it was simply just an incredible evening as they all are across our division.

[01:13:26] We also attended the budget town hall the past week and that was a really good turnout those that were looking for additional information I want to thank all the board members for their attendance in that as well because I I saw the conversations that were being held and the ability for the understanding compassion and yet the awareness and educating of a lot of folks who didn't have an understanding of the overall city budget and where their investment for our public schools went and and I did want to recognize that as well one One of the other things is I met with the director, Jen Glazer, regarding that electrical

[01:14:05] program and trying to figure out how to go ahead and share the responsibility on some of those investments. And the last thing I'll mention is that April is designed as the month of the military child, and it's time to recognize and support the children of military personnel. Purple Up Day is April 15th, and it encourages everyone to wear purple and show your support for military children representing unity across all the branches of the military.

[01:14:31] It's come a long way in showing the supports in our schools, and I wanted to compliment Dr. A while she was here in getting Fairfax High School as a purple star school this past year. She did an outstanding job in doing that, and our elementary schools are working towards that endeavor so that our whole Fairfax City schools are all purple star schools, so they're working in that manner.

[01:14:56] So, Madam Chair, that's all I have for this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Plattenberg. I will move on to board matters, and I'll start with Ms. Sessori. Madam Chair, I actually have a point of inquiry. Oh, yeah. May I ask a question to the superintendent? Of course, Ms. Sessori.

[01:15:12] Thank you. Mr. Plattenberg, can you give us an update on the RFP process for the elementary schools? Yeah, absolutely. Tomorrow we're going to be meeting with Ron Hull. He's the city procurement officer working under Patty Inocente on behalf of the city.

[01:15:29] And that process will be, Mr. Phillips and I have signed our non-disclosure and non-compete confidential agreements with the city. And the other members of the committee hopefully have done so as well and responded to Mr. Hall.

[01:15:44] We're going to be meeting to go further on that. I briefed the board liaison on that. Ms. Bartomee, who I really appreciate has taken the time to meet with you on a few occasions to already stay current on what's been going on. I've also provided in the weekly updates where we've spoken about What exactly the process is so what has happened is that the?

[01:16:07] City procurement staff had issued a request for proposal that was due April 3rd. We had 19 respondents and in viewing the list of respondents that we're going to be Discussing there's a lot of confidential confidentiality that goes into this process I'll be providing briefings not only with Ms. Bartleby but also in the weekly update on where we are the anticipation and the intent is to go ahead and get that that process concluded before the end of the electing season before the summer break

[01:16:41] sorry I got a little distracted there and as someone was calling a friend I don't know but yeah no thank you so much for asking that necessary because it is ongoing it is underway and as the board had been pushing collectively in our February meeting was to go ahead and get that conversation going with the community this fall now all this is predicated on the budget process certainly but we think we've got a clear path forward to start that engagement with the community and I don't know that miss Hickman had asked about it again at chairs this morning so thank you for asking that question I should have

[01:17:19] brought that up thank you um did you have any other okay um miss did you have a question okay okay miss hickman i have no follow-up oh yeah okay you have no follow-up okay no follow-up yeah to miss hickman what okay oh my goodness we're doing board matters she yeah and i said i was starting okay now board matters now is i think i'm so sorry yes no no you're fine so now you can

[01:17:53] do your board matters. Thank you so much. I just want to start by congratulating Amiya Rajiv at Catherine Johnson Middle School for being a finalist at the Fairfax County Spelling Bill. I saw that on social media. I was very proud of our city student representing there. I also want to thank Chairwoman Pitches and Mr. Phillips for attending Tuesday night's session with City Council in representing our city schools during this conversation around the budget meeting and whatnot. April 2nd was paraprofessional day and I just want to take a moment and send my heartfelt

[01:18:30] gratitude to all the paraprofessionals in our schools that make an impact on our students every day. Your hard work does not go unnoticed even though I know it feels like sometimes this time of year. We really truly appreciate what you do. Friday like many of our board members here got to watch the fun between the Providence and Daniels run volleyball game we somehow probably somehow squeaked out a win I was very proud of them on that one and I love the cultural celebration we did on that was also on Friday too it's one of my favorite events at the high school to see just the diversity of culture there so and I am looking

[01:19:08] forward to Hadestown I can't wait to see that since I always love the spring play so thank you accessory uh miss hickman yes i also had the pleasure of attending the providence daniels room basketball game or volleyball game i don't know maybe we should go back to basketball though there were no injuries oh providence won that too okay that's fine maybe we need a new sport and then um the culture and it was just it blows me away every single year um and the way the students support each other i think is one of my favorite parts and how they're cheering and screaming and excited so it was really wonderful to see I did want to make

[01:19:47] mention of ice mr. Platenberg and I attended the regional elected leadership Institute Network whatever the acronym is meeting on Friday with the other local jurisdictions both school board members and superintendents and a big part of the discussion was the probability or the likelihood of both state and federal funding cuts and i think with the conversations we're having in our own community in terms of budget it's really important to keep that in mind and that if those cuts come what will happen how will it have direct impact to our students whether it be you know school lunches

[01:20:27] or you know idea supports in terms of special education students and i think dr a said it perfectly that every time we take money away from schools we're taking money directly away from students which means lack of supports for them which clearly has a really big impact so I just want to encourage our community to be mindful of that as they continue to attend the council work sessions and meetings and hope if people have not yet had the chance and didn't attend the open house or town hall whatever it was to go back and listen to chairwoman pitches speaking

[01:21:06] the other day the explanations of why the school board needs certain funds in order to be able to support the schools other than that I hope everyone has a good spring break thank you miss Hickman miss Kelsey I again will repeat the Daniels run and Providence volleyball game I will say Daniels run did win the first set and they looked pretty on fire I was kind of worried for a minute um but and I will say I think this everybody was engaged in it and you saw a lot

[01:21:42] of athleticism from people that you wouldn't like I didn't know a lot of them played some of this I'm sorry Mr. Boerhauer was out there and it was really awesome to see him out there going for those balls and he always did the basketball one yeah he did but I but watching him do this at volleyball too because it was there were people diving on the floor I was starting to get worried that some of our teachers were going to get hurt so yes I mean you may be right we maybe need to find a little easier sport but I kind of would like to see did you say ping pong pickleball I kind of

[01:22:21] would like to see KJ in the high school do a little competition with teachers maybe we can get that going too but then I would also like to say a lot all the spring sports have now started so good luck to those teams I've seen some softball baseball lacrosse games and all our teams look amazing this year also on the 23rd is the Fairfax Pyramid art show so come out and see all of the students wonderful artwork it's always amazing to see what these kids create in the short period of

[01:22:54] time that they have um and also um everybody have a fun and safe spring break um and come back ready to obviously learn all the exciting things that dr a has planned at the high school thank you miss kelsey miss borrow me um i wanted to touch on the budget town hall we had last week as well we were all there but i had some really great conversations with people in our community who had great questions some who came in not really knowing anything about our relationship with FCPS some not really having any information about the budget

[01:23:34] prior and people had great questions and were really kind of open and engaged in the process and and what our schools need so I thought it was a very successful event and I hope we continue things like that in the future and then I wanted to make a plug for Hadestown they're doing some really cool stuff with this play that is new even for the plays at Fairfax so they've got swinging lights over the over the audience and a big turntable on the stage and all kinds of great stuff they've got planned so I think it's gonna be a very cool show so

[01:24:10] everyone should come see it thank you I won't repeat so I'll just thank Dr. A and all her staff over at the high school and region 5 for coming this evening um and i just wanted to take a moment to um remember uh mr dave goldfarb he passed away on march 24th he was principal at fairfax high school for nine years in fact he was principal

[01:24:42] when i was first elected back in 2010 he wholeheartedly loved that school and all of the students um our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and um his two children um and uh that's all i'll say about that before i okay um if there's nothing else before the board i will ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 7:55.

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