Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax Regular School Board Meeting, Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 0h 14m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4272
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4272
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4272&doc_id=1f0b86cf-94a9-11f0-8df7-005056a89546

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 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:03] There being a quorum of board members present this evening, I call the meeting of the City of Fairfax School Board for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance, States of America, to the Republic, to which it stands, one nation, for God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

[00:00:31] Section 22.1-72 of the Code of Virginia specifies that at its annual organizational meeting in July, a school board shall elect one of its members as chair and one as vice chair and shall approve other appointments and designations of responsibility necessary for board operations during the year.

[00:00:55] So tonight, in my role as chief executive officer of this school system, I have the distinct pleasure and responsibility of presiding over the first part of this annual organizational meeting. You will see on your agenda the actions the board must take to approve organizational arrangements and make appointments for the coming year or the first order of business for this meeting.

[00:01:18] At this time, I will open the floor to nominations for chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. I nominate Carolyn Pitches as chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. Carolyn Pitches has been nominated by Lauren Bartlemay.

[00:01:35] Bartlemay, are there any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations, the motion before the board is that Carolyn Pitches be elected chair of the City of Fairfax School Board of Fairfax, Virginia. All those in favor of the motion signify by raising your hand and saying aye.

[00:01:55] Aye. Those opposed, the motion carries by unanimous vote with all members present and voting except Ms. Pitches. I am pleased at the, well, who is present? I am pleased at this point to turn this meeting over to Ms. Pitches, who will manage the remainder our evening. Chair Pitches. Okay, our next item is a call for nominations for Vice Chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. May I have a nomination, please? I nominate Christina Sessori

[00:02:28] as Vice Chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. Are there any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations, the motion before the board is that Christina Sessori be elected Vice Chair to the city of fairfax school board all those in favor motion by raising your hand and saying aye aye the motion carries uh unanimously we will move on to uh announcement of changes in our agenda which there are none this evening and we do not have any other announcements so we will adopt the agenda

[00:03:08] may i have a motion please madam chair miss sessori i move that the city of fairfax school board approve the agenda as written and distributed uh may i have a second second okay so miss cessary has moved and miss hickman has seconded that the um all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye none opposed so the adoption of the agenda passes unanimously okay we are on um our next item on the agenda is the annual school board organization uh miss hickman uh could

[00:03:45] you please read the agenda item into record i move that the school board authorizes organizational arrangements and appointments as follows one designate the first monday of each month as its regular meeting dates for october november and december of 2025 january february march april may and june of 2026 the regular school regular meeting for september 2025 will be held on the second monday the board will not will not meet in august work sessions will be held on the third monday of each month for the 2025-2026 school year with the exception of january and february

[00:04:23] 2026 for the months of january and february 2026 the work session will be held on the fourth monday there is no work session in december and june there is a joint city of fairfax mayor and city Council session in September 2025 and March 2026. There's a joint FCPS school board session in December 2025. A special meeting is scheduled for August 4th, 2025. If during the year the regular meeting date or work session date falls on a holiday or other conflicts arise, the respective meeting or work session will have to be rescheduled. In those instances, it shall be the

[00:05:00] responsibility of the division superintendent to inform the school board. Two, set the salary of board members at $4,600 per annum and that of the chairwoman at $5,600 per annum. 3. Appoint Barbara King, clerk of the City of Fairfax School Board.

[00:05:19] 4. Retain Stacey Haney to provide general legal services. 5. Establish a rotation schedule for the superintendent and school board members to either attend physically or virtually the Fairfax County School Board regular monthly meetings.

[00:05:35] This schedule will start with the superintendent and follow with school board members in alphabetical order. The FCPS agenda will be sent to the entire board prior to the scheduled meeting date. Appoint Carolyn Pitches as liaison to the Fairfax County School Board. Six, appoint Amit Hickman and alternate Carolyn Pitches to serve on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Seven, appoint Sarah Kelsey as representative to the City of Fairfax Environmental Sustainability Committee. Eight, appoint Christina Sesry as the City School Board Delegate to the VSBA Convention and Amit Hickman

[00:06:11] is the alternate delegate nine appoint christina sessori and carolyn pitches as the city of fairfax school board legislative liaisons ten appoint carolyn pitches and sarah kelsey as representatives to the washington area boards of education eleven continue the search for a city of fairfax schools representative to the fcps health advisory committee twelve appoint miss kate herman as city of fairfax schools representative to the fcps facilities planning advisory council thirteen continue the search for a city of fairfax schools representative to the fcps advanced academic

[00:06:50] placement advisory committee 14 appoint miss juliana nelson as the city of fairfax schools representative to the fcps minority student achieve oversight committee member 15 appoint dr sally driver as the city of fairfax schools representative to the fcps career and technical education advisory committee 16 appoint mary k cizunas as the city of fairfax rep to the advisory committee for students with disabilities 17 appoint dan phillips as acting superintendent

[00:07:26] effective august 1st 2025 18 authorize the chairman and the clerk to sign all legal documents for the board other than those requiring the signature of some other officer and authorize the vice chairman to sign in the absence of the chair 19 authorize the assistant the interim superintendent for the city of fairfax schools to execute official documents relating to state federal and local aid as well as procurement and other documents that by policy or practice the school board has authorized the superintendent or interim superintendent to execute thank you

[00:08:04] miss hickman do i have a second second okay who was that miss kelsey second thank you miss kelsey okay miss heckman and the sick man read into record the annual school board organization and miss kelsey seconded it all in favor of the school board organizational items read into record signify by saying aye. Aye. Members opposed. No members are opposed. So the reporting is unanimous. Okay.

[00:08:37] Moving on to presentations to the school board. We don't have anybody signed up for citizen participation and we don't have any public hearings this evening. So we'll move on to our first action item. First action item is the approval of the June 3rd, 2025 meeting minutes as uh printed and distributed um the clerk has provided these minutes is there a motion madam chair uh miss kelsey i move that the city of fairfax school board approved the minutes of

[00:09:11] the june 3rd 2025 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed i have a second i second ms kelsey has moved and ms barton barley has seconded the city the minutes of the june 3rd 2025 uh regular school board meeting um are there any changes or modifications or addition okay being none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye no members are opposed to the motion is unanimous um the next item on our agenda is the approval of employee contracts

[00:09:49] for our assistant superintendent mr dan phillips communications director carolyn dorsey and facilities director tom woods for fiscal year 2026 may have a motion please madam chair miss sessori i move that the city of fairfax school board approved the employment contracts as printed and distributed for dan phillips assistant superintendent carolyn dorsey communications director and the services contract for tom wood facilities director for fiscal year 2026. uh may i have a second second okay miss sessori moved and miss hickman seconded that the school board

[00:10:27] approve the out oh whoopsie-daisy the wrong thing is written on here sorry um that miss uh necessary is moved miss hickman has seconded the approval of the employee contracts for mr dan phillips assistant superintendent communications director carolyn dorsey and our facilities director tom woods for fiscal year 2026 are there any changes or modifications sorry that's my dog Okay, being none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye.

[00:10:58] Aye. Aye. No members are opposed, and the motion passes unanimously. Okay, we will move on to superintendent's matters. Mr. Plattenberg. I don't have any matters at this time. Thank you. Okay, board members, I will start with Ms. Bartlemay.

[00:11:16] I don't have anything either. Okay, Ms. Kelsey. I just want to wish everybody a safe and fun summer. And I also would like to wish Mr. Plattenberg the best in his retirement in a month.

[00:11:38] And that's all. Okay. Ms. I'm trying to think of who's next in line. Ms. Hickman. I also, since our last public meeting, wanted to thank Jeff and wish him well on his retirement.

[00:11:53] Hope he gets some relaxation time in a little sunshine or whatever that might be. and just to congratulate everyone on a positive end of the school year and wish everyone a happy summer and say 4th of July. Okay, Ms. Sessori? I'll reiterate what Ms. Hickman said but I also want to take a moment and thank my fellow board members for their vote of confidence in nominating me for vice chair. I'm honored to step into this role and just want to let you know that I'll work hard to represent our school district with integrity and purpose. I wrote a little something

[00:12:33] and just want to just I'm reminded of a quote that I recently read from the late representative jury Connolly who said that when you get power you have an obligation to exercise it responsibly but exercise it otherwise why do it and though I've only been on the board for six months I've spent over a decade engaged in our community both as a teacher a school leader PTA volunteer now on the board with all y'all and I do take each obligation very seriously and as we look ahead the coming school year uh i'm committed to continuing the work we've been doing uh keeping

[00:13:09] the school bond on track and on budgets and making sure our schools have the resources they need to create exceptional learning opportunities and finally i just want to wish everyone a wonderful summer if you haven't checked out our facebook page information was recently shared on how to access summer meals if your student is in need and most importantly don't hesitate to reach out to the board um thank you so much thank you miss cesary um i would just like to thank jeff for his service to this board our city our schools um and you know thank thank you jeff for your work on

[00:13:45] the bond and also the rfp i know that was quite um an undertaking um we wish you the best of luck and we we do hope that we see you again um you're always more than welcome if you you know to to come to a board meeting i'm sure you'll be missing them um and i'd also like to just wish everybody a safe and happy healthy summer are there any other matters before the board okay being none i will

[00:14:23] adjourn the meeting at 6:47.

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