Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax Regular School Board Meeting, Monday, September 15, 2025

Date: Monday, September 15, 2025
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 1h 32m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4320
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4320
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4320&doc_id=82c25ccd-94a7-11f0-8df7-005056a89546

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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[00:00:14] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is Monday, September 15th of 2025. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:00:36] Okay, we do not have any changes to our agenda or any other announcements, although I would like to welcome Mr. J.C. Martinez from the Director of Finance in the city.

[00:00:54] Actually, I don't, is it director or do you have, I just realized I don't actually know the official. Sorry, Chief Financial Officer, I kind of shorted you on that. Okay, the first item is the adoption of our agenda.

[00:01:12] May I have a motion, please? Madam Chair. Ms. Kelsey. I move that the City of Fairfax adopt the agenda as written and distributed. May I have a second? Second. Okay, Ms. Kelsey moved, Ms. Hickman seconded.

[00:01:29] All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. None are opposed, so the adoption passes unanimously. We will move on to presentations to the school board. I assume we do not have anybody signed up for citizen participation. So we'll move on to our student representative report, Ms. Abby Lucas.

[00:01:47] Thank you. Four weeks of school in the Fairfax City Schools have been a buzz. In Fairfax High School, the students have been involved in various activities. With Lion Pride has launched the 2025-2026 school year.

[00:02:03] Senior Sunrise took place on the first day. Then freshman leadership, freshmen were engaged in leadership activities organized by the Student Activities Office to help build teamwork and school spirit. The main market opened a new student-run entrepreneurship program. The main market opened, offering hands-on business experiences and marketing and management.

[00:02:23] The first tailgate, the season's first tailgate, tied to the varsity football game on August 28th against Langley. Unfortunately, the Lions lost, but it rallied students and families with volunteers supporting concessions. Unite and Excite was the name of the tailgate, and it boosted a lot of school pride, and it was organized again by SGA.

[00:02:45] Fall sports started, including girls' flag football tryouts, which is new this year, and getting great turnout there. And then this past week, we had pyramid night, which was all four elementary schools, two elementary schools, one middle school, and the high school all gathered together.

[00:03:08] And it was a big community event, and a huge success. And then in the elementary schools, Daniels Run had back to school night on September 10th, offering families a chance to visit classrooms, meet teachers, and connect with the school community. And, of course, the annual PTA picnic in the cafeteria with food trucks and fun activities.

[00:03:28] Providence also had back to school night on September 3rd, allowing families to connect, meet, and visit school and teachers. Before the start of school year began, Daniels Run had their annual welcome walk. Teachers visited the students' homes to personally welcome them into the school year. building connections, and setting a positive tone.

[00:03:45] At Katherine Johnson Middle School, they started their 2025-2026 school year with a positive start, including many events and activities for their students and community. Eagle Fest was hosted August 14th, an open house where families and students explored classrooms, walked schedules, met teachers to prepare for the new school year.

[00:04:04] Picture Day was September 4th and 5th. Students took school photos during PE on these days in a standard event to capture the students' portraits for the yearbook and records and the Italian trophy competition was held in late August and early September. KJMS held its first Italian trophy competition on time to class challenge with over 90 percent of students had no tardies with all teams achieving less than one percent tardy rate promoting punctuality and school spirit and PTA meetings and membership drive is still going on. Thank you. Thank you Abby. Is there any comments from school board members?

[00:04:44] i would just like to thank you personally for all your work with miss dorsey on pyramid night it was a great success um and both of you did a wonderful job arranging that so thank you thank you okay the next item on our agenda is a tuition bill and the fcps fiscal forecast and we have lee burden from fcps she is their chief financial officer i got that one and matthew norton assistant director for budget services okay uh good afternoon uh fairfax city school board members

[00:05:23] on behalf of fcps i just wanted to take this opportunity to uh thank you and express our appreciation to mr phillips and you all uh for your continued support and partnership uh if we could advance to the next slide just a a little bit of background here on the school services agreement it was established in 1962 uh it was revised in 1978 and it's still in effect today kind of in that general form so we've had a long-standing partnership with you all and we're approaching the 50 year anniversary of the agreement that's sort of been in effect since 1978 so that's exciting to know generally speaking we

[00:06:01] are operating schools on your behalf and you all are managing your the agreement you have with us and then also maintaining your city-owned buildings next slide so you know you all are well aware of sort of this partnership in action between our two organizations and obviously it's a it's a huge benefit to to both of us, providing economies of scale and allowing better utilization of your buildings, given the number of students that live in the city and the size of those buildings.

[00:06:31] This budget development timeline here is sort of meant to just sort of express one big thing that's happening in any given year. We basically have three fiscal years activity that's happening related to the bill. So in the first quarter of any given year, so July to September, we're closing out the prior fiscal year which includes the final bill calculation and then presenting to you all as we're doing now through late fall and into the winter we're monitoring the current year spending and collaborating with city staff to provide revised estimates which we'll talk a little bit about today as well and then simultaneously we also are beginning to develop

[00:07:09] future year budgets including a proposed city bill estimate and then finalization of the future year budget that doesn't come until May. So really, again, this kind of complicated graphic is just meant to express that there's, in any given year, there's three years worth of activity sort of happening during that timeline. If you could jump to the next slide. So with regard to FY25, FCPS, we saw an operational increase of $259.1 million, or about 7% compared to the 2024

[00:07:45] final bill. And there's a bullet list here of some of the major highlights that drove that $259 million increase being 4% compensation increases for all employees. There was a mid-year 2% increase related to some additional revenue that the state was offering that obviously we have to provide additional funding to match that and receive that small amount of state funding.

[00:08:08] There was a one-time bonus payment paid to employees. There was increases in health care premiums and counter retirement rates. And then there were changes in shifting enrollment and student needs. And that's one of the ones that I think later in the presentation will highlight quite a bit for you all, because what's happening with enrollment between city students and county students really does play an outsized role in the tuition bill. Next slide. So as far as FY25

[00:08:40] impact goes, it's a $7.6 million increase compared to the 2024 bill. What we've done here is we've broken that increase into four different things. The first one, which is about 60 percent of the change, is $4.6 million. And I would say that's the routine things that you all should expect, just given on, you know, whatever budgetary increases we have as a result of, you know, salary increases, if we have any kind of investments in the budget, if we have any initiatives, if there's costs due to inflation, those kinds of things.

[00:09:12] Mr. Norton, could you just speak a little to the multi-year investments and the initiatives, some specific examples of some of those things for our citizens who might be watching? Absolutely. So as far as multi-year investments go in this most recent budget that we're talking about for FY25, we had expansion of inclusive preschool.

[00:09:33] That was about a $2 million increase in the overall Fairfax County budget. We had the third year of the Joint Environmental Task Force updates, which are really green initiatives across a variety of about four different areas. We had improvements to fine and performing arts stipends. We had athletic expansion in the form of boys' volleyball and girls' wrestling.

[00:09:55] We are in the middle of a human capital management project update, so we're in year three of those costs. And then we are in the second year in FY25, we were in the second year of expanding certified athletic trainers, so there would be two at every high school.

[00:10:12] And we have three more years of that initiative to go. Okay, so, again, that 60% of the increase is really kind of related to just budgetary changes overall. The other changes for you all, 1.4 million, or about 20%, a little bit less than 20%, is due to shifting enrollment patterns.

[00:10:33] And so a very oversimplification of the bill is to say that, you know, the proportion of your enrollment and our enrollment to one another are going to drive the sharing of those costs across our two organizations. When there are small shifts in the total percentage of students that Fairfax City has, that can have a fairly large impact on the bill.

[00:11:02] Because as we are declining enrollment or changing enrollment and you all are level or increasing, your share of the total number of students is increasing more than just the number of additional students you're seeing. because in the most recent couple of years, Fairfax County students have actually been declining.

[00:11:20] So just for a point of context, a 0.01 percentage point change in that share of enrollment is roughly about $355,000 on the bill. And we have increased almost 1.71% from 1.6?

[00:11:35] Yeah, so just from 24 to 25, city has gone from 1.66% of that enrollment share to 1.71%. Now, due to rounding, it's actually not quite 0.05 percentage points. It's a little bit lower than that. So it's 0.04, but that's just a rounding because we're not going out to more decimal places than two in this.

[00:11:55] But the $355K multiplied by about four would be roughly that $1.4 million. Additionally, the city receives revenue credits based on the revenue that FCPS receives that is not revenue that the city receives.

[00:12:15] And those revenue credits since the pandemic have actually been going back down to what I would call more normal levels. And so during the COVID pandemic and even more recently, like some all-in Virginia funding, when we've gotten these infusions of capital, it has actually really had a positive impact as far as reducing the city bill.

[00:12:34] But when we go back towards normal revenue credits that are things that you all aren't receiving, you're going to see that as a negative impact on your bill. And so kind of, again, similar to the $355,000 for every .01 percentage point change in ADM or student enrollment, your revenue credits for every $10 million in revenue credits that you have reduced, you'll see about $157,000 impact on your bill.

[00:13:01] And that's what translates into this $1.5 million here due to declining revenue credits. And then finally, you all as a city have been funding some additional positions above and beyond what FCPS would normally provide to a school system or any given school.

[00:13:16] And that's a smaller, much smaller portion of this, but it's $300,000, which is the last bullet there on the slide. So moving into just kind of a quick summary. Throughout the year, obviously, as I said, we collaborate with Mr. Phillips and staff.

[00:13:37] And the city has been able to adjust the budget to the $63.6 million figure that you see on the top line there. And that was, I think, the city's most recent budget in January. Obviously, we calculate the final bill after the fiscal year closes in June, and the final bill calculation is $66.2 million.

[00:13:57] And so there's about a $2.6 million difference between what's actually budgeted for this year and what's actually owed based on the final bill. And there's generally variances there at any given year. This one obviously is a little bit higher as far as what you all owe, you know, compared to like historic norms, although it is much closer than last year's number was.

[00:14:20] And that number, the 66.2, is with the classroom rental backed out, so board members keep that in mind. This is the tricky part.

[00:14:37] So the $66.2 million, our final bill, actually has the classroom rental backed out because they treat it sort of as a discount. We need to add it back in because we treat it as revenue. Does that help?

[00:14:52] Okay. Yeah, and the terminology that we've been using is it accounts for classroom rental. I don't know if that helps people better than the way you're stating it. However you want to state it, that makes it make sense. It's like the battle of. Absolutely. So, obviously, that concludes the 25 portion of all this, which is the final bill.

[00:15:10] But we did want to make sure that we kind of, you know, look forward as well in this conversation. And so, with regards to the 26 estimate, we wanted to, number one, point out that in January, we had a projected payment for this current year that we're operating in right now of $61.7 million.

[00:15:30] Again, that was the initial estimate that was included in our 2026 proposed budget. As you can see, the number that we ended up with for the final bill for 25 is $66.2 million. And so what we're kind of calling on this chart on the third line a catch-up is off the bat, we already know that that projected payment of $61.7 million is low by $4.5 million because it's not even at the level of what the 25 final bill was.

[00:16:01] Now, you all, with some foresight, already have a city budget of $69 million, so that's good news. because it is higher than what that catch-up is, you know. But the same pressures, and we'll talk about this on the next slide, the same pressures that put pressure on this year's bill are likely to continue into the future given what we're seeing as far as the factors that I sort of laid out previously on what affected the 25 bill.

[00:16:29] So if we go to the next slide, you can see that enrollment and student needs, we expect it to play a big part of the bill role for 26. especially because you know we are seeing continued declining enrollment for county and yet it still appears as though city enrollment is growing and so your share of students appears to be continuing to increase since we expect it to be above that 1.71 percent we talked about so it's been 1.66 up to 1.71 and right now it's a question mark as to whether or not it goes to

[00:17:02] 1.75 1.8 you know i'm just throwing out a few numbers i'm not at all suggesting what it will be because we don't know that at this point. The prediction is that operating costs will continue to rise at approximately 7% or more? Well, so that enrollment pressure is by itself completely separate from anything else. So that'll drive some increase in the bill without us giving any pay raises, without us doing any multi-year. But your operating costs. But yeah, I also expect salary and inflationary pressures to be a factor in future years as well. Now, we already know

[00:17:39] those for our 26 budget but if you're thinking about 27 28 29 yeah all those things will continue to put pressure okay and then finally um you know we'd be remiss if we also didn't talk about again during the pandemic and covid and more recently with things like all in virginia there's been this infusion of you know federal and state revenue that has been slowly kind of going away and obviously those decreased revenue credits from what we had during that most recent like three or four years is putting pressure on a bit on the bill as well um and then you know kind of tacked in with that third bullet is also just the uncertainty at the federal level right now

[00:18:19] um i'm sure you all are reading the news as much as i am or close to it uh so uh with that i think you know we've kind of laid out the uh the things that are likely to put future pressure on the bill um and that concludes kind of this formal presentation for you okay um miss barley do you have any questions? No, I think that was thorough, and I think your clarifications caught my questions, so thank you very much. Okay, Ms. Kelsey. Yeah, I wanted to go to the multi-year investments that you talked about. One of my questions about it is you had listed the project

[00:18:57] updates. Is that like the renovations on schools? What would that all entail in those multi-year for like, because you said that was one of the multi-year investments is dealing with project updates and renovation updates, I think is what you said.

[00:19:17] Sorry. So let me clarify, because I think I've led you a little bit astray. The project update that I was talking about is our human capital management software. So our HR system that we also use to keep track of, you know, all the employees in the system, right? Yeah, that's, no, that's fine. My brain heard like other things.

[00:19:34] And so, yeah, okay. Nothing to do with capital at all. You guys deal with that on your side. We don't, we don't, that's not part of this. Okay, and then what was the athletic, you said the athletic trainers was also part of it, but what was the other athletic part you had said possibly in the multi-year investments? Yeah, we had athletic expansion in the form of boys' volleyball and girls' wrestling.

[00:19:51] Okay, just the new sports. Yep, exactly. Does this also include like middle school sports as well? Would that be part of it? Or is that something totally different? Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm in so many different fiscal years that I don't know if it was started in fiscal year 25 off the top of my head, or sorry, FY26.

[00:20:09] If it was, then yes. But if it was already in place in 25, then it's not going to have an impact in the future. But whatever year we're instituting, I'm sure. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Hickman. All right. I'm getting into the weeds here just a little bit.

[00:20:25] But I'm curious about, I'm comparing from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25. It looks like for the majority, for elementary and middle education, the city costs went up, which makes sense, except it went down in secondary education.

[00:20:42] is that are you looking at something yeah sorry i'm in the like detailed expenses i am on no we don't have less we had 13 136 last year and we have 14 0 60 this year or you know this fiscal year i think it's more expensive to or at the elementary and middle school programming than right high school yeah so does that mean that the initiatives were more in the elementary and secondary yeah so if you're looking at the the cost per pupil across elementary middle and high

[00:21:21] which i i think you might be looking at there was a 10.7 percent increase in elementary there was a very minor increase one and a half percent in middle school and there was a slightly larger increase in high school at seven percent and so what i would say is those initiatives and those changes in our spending patterns were more at the elementary and high school level which i i think lines up because you'll see that um you know a lot of the initiatives i talked about preschool uh the high school athletics uh the high school um athletics uh directors yeah sorry the certified

[00:21:58] athletic trainers those kinds of things we didn't have a lot of initiatives at the middle school level that would drive up um middle school program costs right okay i was looking at secondary i was looking at 4e which was 872 fiscal year 24 and it's 868 yeah so the the 743 000 increase the six and a half percent is that am i am i looking at the same figures you on 4e all right that's all right um and then my second question for you was um you're looking at the 872

[00:22:34] and it goes down to 868 yes okay i don't think he has that that was barb provided that for us i was just saying why is it cheaper for high schoolers like oh yeah yeah so i mean i think i do have it so if i'm speaking from something or i'm just not aligned with you let me get aligned with you no essentially the city costs of secondary education has gone down from fiscal year 24 to 25 but the 12.2 million is the number you're referring to right let's see where i'm not seeing 12.2 yeah if you look over it says 12.2 right so it has gone yes so yes the final amount

[00:23:13] went up because we had an increase in students but what i'm saying is the city cost went down Sorry, I don't agree with that statement. So what I'm seeing is that in FY24, the similar number for 4E was $11.5 million.

[00:23:36] And now in 25, the similar number is $12.2 million. So I've got a $700,000 roughly increase in city costs for the high school program. You're looking at 2023, but who's looking at the bill before?

[00:24:06] not not the final 24 bill but some some intermediate 24 23 2024 so what we reconciled was the 23 bill that she's looking at the reconciled 23 bill we're looking at the reconciled 24 bill yes so that's from 23 this is the reconciled 23 bill here that's reconciled 24 bill so so yes no that but it that's when they reconcile it but it's for the previous no i understand that part of it i understand that's why i'm just saying it's still a lesser number

[00:24:43] it is a lesser number yes it is a lesser number from 23 reconciled to 24 yeah essentially what i'm saying but he he doesn't have that okay sorry i'm looking i have 24 and 25 yeah he doesn't have 20 you don't have 23 24 okay that is totally fine um and now i don't remember what my second one was sorry that's okay i'll and if you you know if we need to have further dialogue about that's one

[00:25:09] Okay, Ms. Essary. I do have two questions. Should I do one and then go back? No, go ahead. Ask them both. Ask away. All right. So just a clarification for people listening at home. When you refer to revenue credits tied to state or federal funding like ESSER, All-In Virginia and whatnot, and that funding, those credits reduce year by year, is the programming still in place with FCPS and they just continue that funding?

[00:25:43] through county initiatives, or is it just that programming is going away as the revenue credits are decreasing? It's a combination of both. Okay. So in some instances, we may be continuing some of the things that were funded with ESSER originally. In other instances, we may have not done that. In some cases, we may be using some other funding source to continue it. And then if that funding source goes away, you know, we might sunset it, but it could be either or of what you just said okay and and sorry add on to that the is that typically county-wide or is it just

[00:26:18] depends on the sort of the region's needs and such oh boy um that might be a heavier question you might want to get back to me on so yeah so i mean if i was to hazard a guess i would say a lot of that funding was county-wide but there are certainly the possibility that some small bits and pieces of it or some portion of it could be more focused okay and then my second question all right the so I was watching the August 28th school board meeting and I noticed that they the board approved for roof replacements for two for high

[00:26:56] schools one for middle actually two for middle schools using an infrastructure replacement fund and I just wanted to get clarification as to where that funding comes from and is it just so our city residents can understand that you You know, the academic money we provide is for the academics here and not necessarily funding any structural improvements on other schools.

[00:27:32] Yeah, so thanks for letting me phone a friend there. So that infrastructure financing committee money that's coming from the county, it's part of our construction fund. So it's completely unrelated to the operational stuff here, the academic pieces of all this.

[00:27:49] And again, because you all sort of manage your buildings and we manage our buildings, when we start to get into the construction fund, It's not really at play in this conversation. Thank you very much. Okay, so just so everybody knows for clarification purposes, when we talk about operating costs, we are talking strictly about instructional programming and personnel, not anything having to do with facilities projects or CIP related to FCPS schools.

[00:28:31] Okay. Is there a way for the city to, and Lee, this might be a question for you, or Matthew, I don't know, to get sort of a breakdown of, and maybe it's in here, and I'm just, because I know these numbers off, like what goes into that, into your operational costs?

[00:28:58] Like what we're paying a piece of the operational costs. Can you just be specific about exactly what's in it or am I making sense? Okay. I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to, because the question has been asked from constituents and regarding, well, what is an operational cost?

[00:29:25] And we typically say it's instructional programming and personnel. that is it there is nothing else in there is zero right correct is that or we are basically asking what components make up the operational costs that we pay and pay a piece of the entire operating fund okay so it's instruction it's you know finance it's it's all of our costs are separate

[00:30:00] from cip facilities anything related to building renovations none of that is part of this bill this is the operating fund only okay that's what we're trying to make sure that that's what that was the thought but we just wanted to make sure that nothing else was included in that it's based on our actual costs in the operating of operating the schools not maintaining or improving facilities thank you that's helpful um and what about total uh total other operational costs when we talk about

[00:30:36] other operational costs what is i know you've explained this to me before i just cannot recall what it's a number five yeah i can i can take a stab at that okay if you feel like it's insufficient i'm sure we will no it's it's fine anybody absolutely uh so when we look at when we look at our budget and we talk about that operational cost um of the 3.961 billion that's the very top number on on um probably the sheet you're looking at um we we broadly break our um budget into what i would call 10 program areas and so we refer to that as elementary middle and high school or the

[00:31:15] three that are broken out separately here that are really based on these per pupil numbers and the adm and all of that calculation other operational are all the other costs outside out of elementary, middle, and high school for us. So the interesting piece there for you all is that- Is that like council and like leader people?

[00:31:33] So the other operational costs that we have, special education is a large one, right? And that really spreads across elementary, middle, and high, but from a bill perspective, we are including it in other operational. So that's one thing that I think is a little bit, I don't want to say kludgy about the way that this is done, but it's definitely a little bit odd that we are going to the trouble to calculate elementary, middle, and high school on its own, but then special education kind of gets lumped in with things like financial services, you know, all the other things that are part of that, right?

[00:32:08] So transportation is one of our other big programs. Instructional support, which is all the instruction provided by, like, our curriculum specialists and things like that that are not based at the schools, but that are providing support, you know, centrally to develop curriculum, roll out training, things like that.

[00:32:27] And then central administration covers functions like financial services, human resources, some of those other areas. Legal services, I assume, is also included. Legal services would be a classic example of that. We have a small, very small bucket for our, like, leadership team that's kind of separate from central administration, but we sort of lumped those two things together.

[00:32:51] So I think I've covered most of them, certainly the big ones. Okay. All right. I think that was – okay.

[00:33:12] I think that's it. I can email if I have any other questions. Yeah. Okay. Abby, do you have any questions? I have no questions. I'm sorry.

[00:33:29] I'll get used to it. Mr. Phillips. No further questions. I've got it. Thank you, Matt. All right. Thank you very, very much. Thank you all so much. What? Oh, we have one go back miss Kelsey. Sorry, it'll take two seconds. It's just more for our constituents The ADM number is the March count, correct? Is that the number for at the end of the year?

[00:33:55] When is this number? Okay I just wanted to clarify because I know we always tell all these different numbers And so I just want to make sure that our constituents knew where we're getting this number from. Thank you Membership is the September number and ADM is the March What is next? I believe it is Dr. Phyllis Pajardo. The superintendent selection process update from Dr. Pajardo is this evening. Welcome, Dr. Pajardo.

[00:34:32] All I can say is, whoo! That was a lot, even sitting in the audience. You're not here anymore. Yeah, absolutely, a lot to digest, but, you know, a very important part of your work.

[00:34:50] As the next thing that we're about to talk about, which is your superintendent search process. So I'm providing an update from last month when I was here, and I'm pleased to say a lot has been going on.

[00:35:05] a lot of good work not busy work but a lot of a lot of good work so good evening chair good evening school board members students mr. Phillips city school staff good to be with you again so tonight if you go ahead and go to the next slide so tonight specifically we are going to look you can advance yeah there you go so tonight specifically we're gonna take a look at the approved timeline as well as give you some preliminary themes that came from your

[00:35:40] stakeholder input and with that let's first look at the approved timeline so you have the timeline in front of you nicely segmented into four months as I said I am pleased to say that all activities in the month of August were completed on time on schedule and that's always a good thing we are clearly into September now I'm giving you the update we have a community forum scheduled on Wednesday and then beginning next week I start screening applications for this

[00:36:14] work as we move into October October is going to be a heavy lifting month with your interviews your first round interviews your second round interviews And if everything goes in place according to schedule in November, we will be back together with you actually having a new superintendent.

[00:36:35] And so, again, lots of different activities, but in fact, this is what you have approved. And just for the public record, I'd just like to know now, and just a quick discussion, and Madam Chair, if you want to poll the board or just to see if there are any changes or concerns or questions about the schedule and the timeline that has already been approved.

[00:37:00] Ms. Barron, do you have any questions or concerns or do you have modifications to this? I think the timeline looks great. Ms. Kelsey, Ms. Ackman, Ms. Cessary, I think we're good to go. all righty well let's just keep it in drive and keep on moving on then so now let's shift to the stakeholder input since i was last here with you all we have spent the last 30 days gathering input from a variety of stakeholders and through a variety of venues we have collected input from

[00:37:37] about 75 stakeholders. 40 of those have been through one-on-one, either telephonic or virtual sessions. We've also had some small group meetings. You were part of the in-person community forum. And with the help of Ms. Dorsey, thank you very much, we launched the online survey and so far we've heard from about 20 stakeholders from the online survey.

[00:38:06] so that's been about the last again 30 days hearing directly from 70 about 75 of your stakeholders which is i think is a a nice number so let me share some of the themes that have emerged from speaking with the stakeholders and i am categorizing these as preliminary because we still are in fact collecting input and the survey will still be open all of this week as well as we have a virtual forum that will take place.

[00:38:40] So with the preliminary themes, I'm going to characterize some as opportunities and priorities. And instead of going through each of these, since you just pretty much had a pretty heavy lift in terms of the tuition bill and the school services agreement, let me just highlight a few on each of the slides.

[00:39:01] People are certainly concerned, as you are, about academic achievement and the academic success of our students. So they really see that the new superintendent will continue to highlight and recognize students, monitor student achievement, as well as to innovate programs and positions that are kind of the icing on the cake and make the city of Fairfax a unique place to be.

[00:39:29] Some of those positions you heard Mr. Norton speak to in terms of the tuition bill, you're currently funding an avid teacher at the elementary level no other school in this in the fairfax county has an avid elementary school i think you're funding a security position at the elementary level again very different innovative and in the past you funded a counselor at the middle school level a transition counselor at the middle school level in the high school level to really identify and help meet the needs of some of our students who you know we

[00:40:05] were pinpointing to have greater success let me speak to the budget and resource management again probably no surprise to you again based upon the presentation that you just had you know folks are concerned and know that this new superintendent as a priority should be focused on the budget and how resources are managed with anticipating the continued rising costs of the tuition as well as managing the cost of renovations if we move to the next slide

[00:40:39] let me just highlight two opportunities in priority school safety top of mind with your stakeholders is school safety for our students as much as we would like to focus on academics kids cannot succeed and adults cannot succeed if they don't feel like they're in a safe place to learn and to be able to thrive you've already taken some initiatives by having secure vestibule increasing your cameras in schools staffing the security person and as well as having your SROs

[00:41:16] in place but that is continues to be top of mind for stakeholders right now and so it's an opportunity for the new superintendent to either continue on that pathway of what you're doing and maybe even take even additional steps to support school safety in school and then staff retention as educators we know that we are not alone in being concerned about teachers in the classroom building principals even the city school staff staying and and and and being in a great

[00:41:52] place to work and thrive. And so, again, that's an opportunity for the new superintendent to consider. As we move now to the preliminary challenges, I put academics, and we'll highlight that again. There are certainly things that are happening right now that are taking an impact on our students' social, emotional, mental, and physical health. So folks want to make sure that

[00:42:25] our new superintendent addresses that right away and figures out ways to in fact continue to support our students in those areas because all of those things impact their academics. Additionally there's a huge let me just address the boundary adjustment there's a huge boundary study that is occurring in Fairfax County right now and those boundary studies have some impact on who's in city schools other than the city students.

[00:42:58] Let's just make sure that we know, I think I can safely say, you know, that city students are not being moved out of city schools. That's a first priority for you as a board. But what is the impact of the boundary adjustment? How large will Fairfax High School be when the boundary adjustment is over?

[00:43:17] How large will your elementary schools be in your middle school? And, you know, what's the impact on programming, depending on the size of those schools. And so the important thing that people want to have the new superintendent do is get right involved in that, learn about that, partner with you, you know, to make sure that the voices of the city of Fairfax schools is present in that boundary study before final decisions are made.

[00:43:47] As we move to the next slide, highlighting just two challenges, no surprise to you, I think, given some of your more recent discussions with the mayor and city council, is the city development and the increased development in the city, whether it's projects that have been planned, projects that are already in process, and that impact on enrollment.

[00:44:16] The residential, I'm speaking specifically for residential developments that have been approved, that have been planned, are in development right now, because that does impact your enrollment, your city enrollment, and consequently impacts the tuition cost.

[00:44:34] Challenge, I think speaking with one voice to the city council around your concerns about this, and stakeholders want that to happen. And then, again, it's worth repeating, people are concerned about the fiscal and the financial challenges that await this new superintendent.

[00:44:55] And you as a board, too, in terms of the renovation costs, those are rising as we speak. Certainly the bond passed, but how much money is going to be used and how much money can you get to modernize the schools given the bond passing?

[00:45:13] I don't believe that any of the bullets that are on these slides are a surprise to you. You probably could have written them without having the input of 75 people. However, that is an important part of this process is that you do get to hear from what others are thinking and to see if your thinking is aligned with them.

[00:45:37] So as I conclude, I just want to give you a couple of final reminders in the search. We do have the virtual community forum this Wednesday at 630, probably tomorrow. Ms. Dorsey will have on the website information about that, and we will make sure our community knows that they are welcome to attend that virtual community forum.

[00:46:01] It should be about 30 minutes. Our online survey will continue until Friday at 5 p.m. It has been out there for a month, and we need to go ahead and get that closed.

[00:46:17] And so 5 p.m., the link will no longer work. So if you know friends and families that want to provide some input, go ahead and share that with them. My next report to you all is in October. These themes will be finalized then, so I won't call them preliminary themes anymore.

[00:46:37] I'll call them finalized themes. And then certainly for each of anyone in the public to look at the city website to check for search updates, what's going on, what's happening, you know, here.

[00:46:54] And at that point, at this point, I am ready to answer any questions or take any comments that you might have. And if folks have any questions from the community, they are free to use the superintendent search inquiries email address, and we will respond promptly.

[00:47:15] Thank you, Dr. Borgiardo. Ms. Barley, do you have any questions? I don't really have any questions, just comments. I agree with you that there's not really a surprise in the themes, but I think that's reassuring that stakeholders are seeing things in a similar way. Ms. Kelsey.

[00:47:34] No, I knew you would do it, but you answered my question. I just wanted to double-check the closing date of the survey. And then this is probably for more Ms. Dorsey. Ms. Dorsey, could you send us, like, a link or something that we could post to send out to again? I know you did once, but could you send it again?

[00:47:51] Thank you. Ms. Heckman. I just wanted to thank you for your work on this and highly encourage everybody who can to come to the virtual night to continue to add in their input. Ms. Sassari. I just want to make sure that our constituents here, the 75 stakeholders come from all walks of life.

[00:48:13] Will you just clarify that for us one more time? Yes, absolutely. So we have, from the survey, we've had students, parents, staff to complete the survey because we asked them in the beginning when they're completing them the demographics that they are representing.

[00:48:31] In terms of the 40-some people that I had one-on-ones with, they were your city school staff. They were you as well. Fairfax County board members, your current mayor and city council members, key stakeholders in the Fairfax County school system that our superintendent would normally engage with, and key staff from each of the buildings.

[00:49:00] principals teacher leaders as well so cut from a variety of folks across city of Fairfax as well as Fairfax County Public Schools thank you so much for reaching out to all those folks there's a lot of a lot of people to reach out and get these themes in and just to reiterate that those really are the people that our superintendent will definitely be interacting with during this position I also just want to thank you so much for all your work on this so So far, and so, yeah.

[00:49:28] Thank you, Ms. Sussery. Have no questions? I have no questions. Okay. I have a couple of... Yes, ma'am. I just want to clarify some things. So the school, one of the themes of the school services agreement, we talked about collaboration of all parties, were people specifically, when you say mainly FCPS and City of Fairfax government, our school board with those two entities?

[00:49:53] Correct. Correct. Yes, it is. Were there any concerns that people brought up? Well, there are a few wild hares, or I'm going to say wild hares, but there are certainly people that would like for you all to consider your own independence in terms of no longer partnering with FCPS.

[00:50:15] That is not the majority of the people who I spoke with, but there were people who definitely said, hey, you've had, as Mr. Norton said, You're about to enter the 50th year of this agreement, and there are things that you are doing and that you're paying for.

[00:50:30] And do wonder, while you operate somewhat independently with the board, with the superintendent, to probably go totally independent. So kind of what is, I wish I had my notes immediately in front of me, but, you know, what are the advantages or disadvantages of continuing the school services agreement?

[00:50:55] uh with fcps that would be the best uh paraphrase that i think i can share with you okay was did anybody bring a board of supervisors by any no not a one person yeah i did not reach out to any board of supervisors either i just was wondering if any um constituents or people within the city felt that that because typically the city of fairfax school board does not interact with the Board of Supervisors. I was just curious if anybody wondered about that or if people thought that there was some value in that. No, not at all. I think, you know, while this, the school

[00:51:34] services agreement certainly is a four-piece partnership, to your point, the County Board of Supervisors, the Mayor, City Council, you all, and Fairfax County Public Schools, the three that they probably see most are you, FCPS, and the Mayor and City Council. Okay, and then in terms of the boundary adjustments it's mentioned attending to the impact of enrollment shift from possible boundary changes again there were there any specific concerns that came out of that and what types of impacts they were yeah so people are remembering some of the enrollment shifts

[00:52:13] previously at fairfax high school and it would have been then linear middle school when there There was not a major boundary adjustment. Oh, when Fairfax Villa was shifted to Woodson Frost. Yes, absolutely, yeah. And so people are remembering that both of those schools went down in enrollment quite a bit, and there was then the need for management of curriculum, programming, staffing.

[00:52:39] So that's still in folks' heads, as well as is this boundary adjustment or boundary study, because it's countywide, is much more comprehensive than the previous, which was a limited boundary study.

[00:52:55] It was a limited boundary adjustment that was requested by the city because both schools were overcrowded, and it brought us back to right sizing, and now we are sort of back on the same trajectory. We are right back where we started from that 2014 boundary adjustment.

[00:53:16] Our numbers now look, again, very similar to they did to then. So I was thinking more in terms of I know there's always concern about test scores and athletics when it comes to boundary adjustments. I didn't know if anybody brought up that.

[00:53:34] Yeah, no, it really is about, you know, what's the size as well as, I mean, clarify this as I did here and for you all, you know, city enrollment of the city students still their first right is to be in a city school other than for programming reasons going to another school as and i think for you all it's paying attention to that timeline associated with the boundary study in fcps okay great thank you this is very helpful to but again i don't think any of us were surprised by um by the themes that you um discovered

[00:54:14] does anybody have any go-backs for Dr. Bajardo okay so we will see you again this week dr absolutely I'm gonna be a bad penny just thank you so much thank you dr. Bajardo okay let me see where is my agenda okay okay now we have the opening of school and summer report and that will be done by our acting superintendent mr. Dan Phillips thanks very much chair pitches and school board members. Great to be here with you this evening. So we've had an excellent opening to the school

[00:54:50] year so far and we're just looking forward to a great year ahead. I just think I spoke to someone on the way in and just asked how's it going and I asked him the same question. He's a parent and it just seems like we've been off to a really, really good start and so just want to share some numbers with you and a few pieces of information. Thank you, Ms. King. So you can take a look at our opening day numbers and you'll see that Daniel's run is down a little bit from the beginning and you know just remember there are lots of fluctuations throughout the year and different months bring different things at different schools so just uh kind of looking at the the beginning of

[00:55:28] the year uh daniels runs down a little bit providence is up a little bit providence has regained you know i was formerly the principal at providence and covid really hit our numbers pretty hard it's really interesting to see and and also some changes in apartment complexes and things in the city changed around that same time but it feels like to the best of my recollection 960 was about as high as we got while i was at providence and we're back to 955 so those numbers have really recovered katherine johnson is down a little bit from last year but we're still a little over the program capacity at katherine johnson i think it's 101 capacity daniels runs

[00:56:06] 89 providence 98 katherine johnson 101 and the fairfax numbers are down slightly from the uh from last year's opening day but they're still at 97 96 capacity and obviously we'll keep a close eye on those numbers we'll get a chance to review those every month and see where we are with that taking a look just so just looking at class sizes for a second our elementary school started the year fully staffed I think it's important to know that and that's a change from the last couple of years so we're very excited about that and happy about that there are some

[00:56:42] long-term subs related to some new parents and medical needs and things like that but you'll also notice that class sizes are up in a few grades just remember Fairfax County Public Schools had that budget adjustment in the spring that impacted staffing so again we're going to work with principals pay attention to those classes class sizes and any related needs and concerns that might arise from them both Katherine Johnson and Fairfax High School are also fully staffed to start the year and same thing with a few long-term subs but but thankfully each position is filled enrollment is down slightly as we start the year at both schools and we'll continue to monitor those numbers each

[00:57:21] month our principal has been very positive and they've all shared all four schools just that things have gotten it's been a great start for them and just just a couple words about our principals I'm just so thankful for them and a lot of that good start that we have is due to their work you know and so just proud of them and the proud work that they do every day with our students and staff and while students and staff are away for parts of the summer our principals spend their time closing out one year and diligently preparing for the next and we just appreciate appreciate their dedication their efforts to make the first weeks a time of welcoming reuniting and getting back to learning

[00:57:57] and so their hard work has paid off and we've really been off to a good start so far and with that any questions about the opening miss Bartleman no miss Ms. Kelsey? Not at this time.

[00:58:16] I'll email you when I come up with them. Sounds good. Ms. Hickman. I don't know that it's a question. It's a marvelous statement, but I'm noticing a pretty big decrease in kindergartners between kindergartners versus first graders in both schools, and I'm curious if this is kind of a new sign of the times, or we just had a, I mean, I guess these are, maybe we're just seeing the impact of true COVID kindergartners.

[00:58:39] We could be. We could be, and I think just after spending time in both of our city schools and even my previous school just some years there's a little bit of some years it's a bubble and some years it's a dip and it usually sort of works itself out and you can sort of follow those you know some years we'll have a class again as principal at providence when i started i think we had six teachers at each grade level and then went to seven so we had to seven in kindergarten one year and another year we had four in another grade level and it just kind of works itself through but often when we see a four we'll follow it by a seven you know what i mean and just and In fact, I think at Providence last year, if you look at first grade at Providence, it's at 7.

[00:59:18] So it's just a little interesting thing. And Mr. Foreman can give us more information on it for city residents. I'll also be interested in seeing the comparison from this year to next year. If it jumps, if more people are choosing not to send their children to public kindergarten or kind of where it was, if this is a trend we're seeing.

[00:59:36] And it's worth paying attention to. Yeah. For sure. Thank you. Ms. Sessori. I just want to ask a question about the over-programmed capacity at Katherine Johnson. Sure. Is that due to late enrollments in the summer, like just sort of that quick influx of enrollment, or is that something that we could have projected or that we anticipated?

[00:59:56] I think it was that way last year also. In fact, I think it's down a little bit. It's down for last year. So we were probably at 102, 103 percent capacity last year, and we're down to 101. but again just uh you know providence kj and i guess the high school to a certain extent if we look at it in a different month it'll look different you know just uh i think it it always it's good to look at the trends year after year but month to month things can change a lot yeah i will just say this i am noticing that these ninth and tenth graders that's going to be

[01:00:32] one long graduation could be it definitely could be and seventh and eighth grade does not look any those kiddos coming up looks like we're going to have quite the enrollment for you know and over the next year or two um that that dip is the 11th grade class right now right and there's a rebound and there's a very big rebound and a lot of those are city kids so there'll be a lot of familiar face. A lot of them are city kids. Yes. Absolutely. And I am also noticing Providence has significantly

[01:01:11] more students than Daniel's Run and classes. Again, for a period of time over the last couple years, it was almost flipping. Yeah, Daniel's Run was up in the upper 800s at one point. Now we're down to the upper 700s. Okay, or mid 700s. But I think that high number of Providence is worth watching also. Yes. Because we're pretty close to capacity there. And also as programming needs change, more special education students, some that require a smaller number of students in the same

[01:01:46] size classroom, those things can impact what it feels like in the building also. So we'll be working with the principals, Mr. Pratt, certainly, and all of our principals for that. Okay. Would you like to move on with summer school? I'll just keep going. Yeah, sure thing. So let's just go back a little bit and shift back to the summer and just look at a couple things for the summer this is actually pretty quick also just reviewing summer school activity and then I'll close at the end with a little bit about facilities but you'll remember in the spring we received and this was at the same time we were talking about those the budget realignment and the staffing changes Fairfax County made the decision to change the way that they did their

[01:02:25] summer school offerings so this summer they only offered the SOAR the academic support summer school program at title one schools so our title one school in this case is Providence so they got the SOAR program and a program called Explorers for Multilingual Learners and this was a change from the last few years you know post-COVID there was a real robust summer school program really at all of our schools and it's you know the budget impact now caused a little bit of a reduction this year and so when they cut that program they also

[01:03:00] cut the young scholars so advanced academics program and the bridge to kindergarten program and so the board certainly had questions and our former superintendent and I both thought about it also we spoke to our principals in the spring and with the support of the school board we were able to add back in a modified three-day kindergarten bridge program for all we at least we offered it to all the rising kindergartners in the in the city and I'm sorry in our schools not just city residents but anyone and i know our our principals our kindergarten teachers and our families appreciated that extra opportunity it's not the same as the 15-day program we had

[01:03:37] before but in that case those were like specifically invited students mostly students who've not been in preschool programs before and this one was one for everybody so it was a chance for the the young students to be in the in the building before everybody else got there with the staff dedicated just to them so it's a really nice program and i'll tell you a little bit more about in a second and so first just going back and looking at some numbers uh barb if you'll go back to this thank you very much so for the soar for the title one program at providence that program included students from providence elementary school and also brookfield brookfield's also a title one

[01:04:15] school so they sent their students it's quite a distance but they sent their students to providence and i know the board had an interest in making sure that we sort of had a home field advantage and we got that again this year but just at just at providence this time so those students participated in the soar and then the explorers program for multilingual learners the soar program this year had 121 students all together and that was for current k-6 students and those students received support in our instruction in math language arts and all using the benchmark program that they used during the school year and they also participated in some project-based learning

[01:04:53] activities that was integrated with the language arts curriculum. Some students created opportunities for students to present to their classmates in other classrooms, and also our rising fifth graders presented career projects to a group of rising first and second grade students, which was fun.

[01:05:10] The Explorers program had 45 students and, again, multilingual learners. Those students were in grades three through six, and they also used benchmark express curriculum to provide instruction in reading writing listening and speaking and then for the kindergarten program Ms. King thank you thanks to the support of the school board we were often able to offer that short jumpstart program at both elementaries and again it was a change but the school teams felt that it went really really well kindergarten teachers mostly a Daniels run but I know Providence would have had the same goals they set three achievable goals for the

[01:05:47] new kindergartners they wanted to have the chance to interact with other other students to transition in the classroom and get a little familiar before the year started and then also to start working toward a following one-step directions and just like every other year some come in prepared to do that and others aren't quite ready for it but the school teams felt that the students made progress on all three during those three days and there are other intangibles as well they were able to start making friends they could feel the routine of the kindergarten they probably got to meet the principals in a way they won't when the school year starts and everybody else is in the building and so it's just a great opportunity for them and we thank you for for making that

[01:06:24] happen at Providence there were 51 students there for the three half days the parents said it made a tremendous difference in helping their children's transition as well as their own so it was a head start for parents as well to get in a few days before the school year started or before the the masses of other students arrived and so great great success undoubtedly investment in introducing those routines and making school familiar and comfortable will help them as they transition and again just after spending time in elementary school usually it's at first three weeks in the beginning it's a lot of cat herding and students all over the place and by the third week they're lining up

[01:07:02] just you know they've started to pick up the routines and the traditions at Daniel's run the kindergarten team made calls to 70 families who pre-registered for kindergarten, 21 students came, they had bus transportation, and they also felt like the program was a great success.

[01:07:20] So thank you for offering that and giving us that chance, even though the county wasn't able to, we were able to here in the city. Ms. King. Catherine Johnson Middle School. I gave you some information at the end of the year last year that the algebra program would be offered at Catherine Johnson, and I didn't really know until mid-summer that the program wasn't actually offered there.

[01:07:40] I think the intention was, but they made a switch, and it was offered at Liberty with transportation from Katherine Johnson. And so there was a staff person from Katherine Johnson that was able to work with the students, so there was at least someone familiar.

[01:07:55] And so they worked at Liberty. The teacher reported back that the students felt a stronger foundation in algebra after being in the program. They also got to use some avid strategies during that time, focused note-taking and that sort of thing. she remarked that it was fun to see the students make connections and relationships with students and teachers from outside their base school which which was kind of neat katherine johnson also had a program that was sponsored by the city city school board the rise program so the introductory program there are 225 students in the rise program this year just like a previous year students

[01:08:32] consistently say they really enjoy the opportunity to be in the building before the year starts they They do a scavenger hunt, so they get familiar with the building itself, and they get to know those important places in the building. They made some Catherine Johnson tie-dyed shirts, and the program was a nine-to-one program.

[01:08:50] Students had a lunch, a snack, and they got a T-shirt. And according to administrators and the teachers, the program went really, really smoothly, and again, the students felt like it made a nice transition to middle school. And then Fairfax High School, there's always a ton of athletic camps, band camp, that sort of thing.

[01:09:10] With the board support, we offered a Latin and French camp for the third year. Students learned about colors, numbers, sports, greetings, food, body parts, that sort of thing, culture and history. And learned a little bit of French, German, Latin, and Spanish.

[01:09:28] Students were really excited to be at Fairfax High School. the younger students have spending time in the building where they'll eventually end up hopefully they had a great time they also worked in collaborative cohorts with each other very well and they formed a lot of friendships and and flourished during the camp and then dr. I and her team dr. a excuse me dr. a and her team hosted 300 students this year for Lions on the rise that was a record the most students they've been able to offer that that introductory program to it's designed to help new students acclimate and create connections to Fairfax High School and again it just felt like a lot

[01:10:03] of great success so thanks to the board for offering that program thank you very much and also a big thanks to our teachers summer administrators and staff members who ran those programs this year any questions or thoughts on that first I just wanted to say thank you for making the kindergarten jumpstart happen sounds great and then I had a question about the algebra summer program. I can't remember, who were the target audience? I think the audience was students who were preparing to take algebra, so this is just sort of a foundational three-week opportunity to

[01:10:41] learn some things to kind of make the transition easier as it starts this year. All right, thank you. Thanks, Ms. Barber. Ms. Kelsey. With algebra before eighth grade being one of the goals for FCPS, is this program most likely going to be offered again, the algebra program, next year? You know, it's hard to say just knowing what we know about the way the budget impacts summer school but I would think so because it would be a national alignment since it is a goal that they continue to offer and it wouldn't be a surprise to see it offered even a little younger yeah I was gonna say what some

[01:11:19] of this if they want seventh graders to start taking in stuff too I'm sure I would like to see if it is like when we find out if it is if we can try to get it at KJ again so I was surprised by that and I don't want to say disappointed because I know those decisions are made just about the number students that are coming from different buildings and all that stuff but we'd love to have it at KJ we like having a whole field advantage in the city for sure well and I think we might get more than 62 students if it was you know they did provide the transportation if it was I don't disagree sure thing just to clarify just on that point it's 62 students from the city or 62 students

[01:11:56] total in the 62 from Katherine Johnson okay that that went to Liberty for the program. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Miss Hickman, Miss Sessori. Okay. Actually, I was able to go to Bridge to K to volunteer and help out. And they were so happy to be there. They were so cute and little. And they just grew so much over three days. Like they learned their numbers and colors really fast I taught some of them how to spell some words and it was it was really great it was

[01:12:36] really fun uh Kevin were you at uh fear the what was it um the 300 students at Fairfax high school or no I was there um I had a great time interacting with the rising ninth grade students um and I'm I've made friends with a few of them and I sit with them at lunch um and uh just trying to get them acclimated to high school giving them tours and everything you guys are so great it's like literally warm my heart yeah I just I love those stories so much because I know one of the big things that even as a parent we think about like what's the relationship with other students in

[01:13:13] the building going to be like and it's a fear that parents have a lot of times and I know it's certainly one for students so having familiar faces other students especially and teachers just knowing somebody when you walk in the door makes it easier so thanks and Abby I'm so glad you get to be with the kindergartners and and you know it's a big thing for them too and i'm sure they think you were one of the teachers they actually thought that i would be their teacher one day come back and join me so i was like no yeah it was really funny thanks to both of you for doing that oh thank you guys and miss pitches i've got two more facility slides that are really really quick if it's okay can i do those i could have just kept going but i wanted to take oh oh i

[01:13:53] just assumed can i do those real quick yeah all right here we go so i'll i won't take long here we had a really really busy summer uh in facilities and i want to thank tom wood tom works as a contractor but he's really part of our family and part of our team and he's so instrumental in making things happen during the summer and often when something needs to be done during the school year and hvac is out or something like that we call mr wood and it's done and i don't know that we jumped the line because it's probably not reasonable to say that but we get really good attention and tom just helped us so much of the summer with getting things done some of its planned summer maintenance and others are are just emergencies and things that come up during the summer i'm going to hit a few highlights of just significant things and things that have

[01:14:32] been long-term projects that we've been working on so just take a look at real quick the pictures after many years we've created the i'm sorry completed the project to replace the old carpet at daniel's run with tile and we're almost there at providence i think we have nine classrooms at Providence left, and then we're done. And then we renovate. But yes, Dr. Fajardo, yes, the carpet to tile is almost complete. But I think that makes a big difference for teachers when they come back, and there's a little bit of a pain because you pack up differently when you're going to do something like that. But when you come back and you know the floor is going to be clean and shining and new, it looks really good, and it's inspiring in the classroom. So I'm happy we were able to do

[01:15:11] that this year. Working with our partners at FCPS, there's a path at Fairfax High School that leads to the Country Club Hills neighborhood, and at the end of the path, there's a bridge that's over some storm drains that was completely destroyed, and it was a real hazard, and Parks and Recreation folks let us know about it, and the school board was supporting getting it done, but FCPS took care of it for us, so it looks really good, and it's a great path now to get home. Even if you're riding your bike in the dark, it's safe to get there, so we're happy about that. We added some basketball stanchions at the the field house at Fairfax High School that needed to be

[01:15:46] added that gives the fiscal education teachers additional options during the school day so we're happy about that and then also we were working on an auto tech classroom project we installed lights last year and John King our awesome teacher there really loved the lights but he really wanted the floor to to sparkle and look great and it does and I I think he's gonna have to tell the students that it's probably not going to be like that when you get to work in the field but our floor is really really nice and then one more four more quick slides our photos as you saw the other night we have a new scoreboard at the football field and that's gonna it's certainly gonna benefit our teams

[01:16:25] that play you know from our school from Fairfax High School but also there's a small ribbon scoreboard it wasn't a great expense but it'd be a great thing for FPUIC and other other users of the scoreboard to to be able to use it without necessarily using the video board that comes with a loud sound speaker and things like that.

[01:16:45] There's an option for everybody. It kind of is what it boils down to. We did a lot of grounds maintenance, and you can see the marquee is visible at Providence, which is really nice because they cut the bushes down. And a lot of that work that happens during the summer, you know, at the end of the year, if you're paying attention, you can see that there are a lot of needs, but when school starts, it's ready.

[01:17:05] And we just appreciate the Blake Landscaping works with us the awesome school custodians that do a lot of the work and then also our partners in fcps to make the places look good and and i can't say enough about those custodians let me let me stop for a second and just say it's a massive undertaking because in an eight-week period they tear down everything that was happening and they rebuild it and we walk back in the buildings it looks as close to a new place as you can find and that's a lot of hard work so thanks to all of them who do that added treat at katherine johnson this year we took out some old hallway lights that were in disrepair and they turned yellow and some of them had fallen down to the sides

[01:17:43] and i had the good fortune of working with the electrical staff at fairfax high school during with this project and they were so happy about it they put so much energy into it and effort and when the project they finished one hallway so one hallway was old and one was new and they asked me to come over and look at something i was thinking oh my gosh what are we going to look at but it was basically the difference between looking at 1970 and 2025 so when they turned the lights on it just looks like a new place so so happy about that and thanks to the support and encouragement from the board yes it's really nice and i know it's going to it won't be something

[01:18:20] kids think about every day when they're in the hallway but it certainly looks good and it represents it looks amazing it really does and and it's the team we're going to do a fcps cares for the gentleman who did that the full team gentlemen and ladies who worked on that because they did a great job and again they were so proud of it and it's just I think that speaks to our partnership we talked about you know there are a lot of things that you can look at and think about but when we work with folks from FCPS they're on our team and they're our family it's not it's not it's never enough against them it's it's working together and we're happy about that and proud about that relationship and then finally we were really excited to see what we thought was

[01:18:58] going to be the beginning of the vestibule project but I went by on a Monday night and there was nothing there and I went back on Tuesday Wednesday morning and it really looks like a full-on vestibule need some glass and things like that but again we appreciate our partners in FCPS and certainly the support of the board to make that happen and we're also it was mostly the board I'm just I think so too well I'm talking about the people that put installed it like that that's high and dry and I financially you're a hundred percent right and the guys who built it work for FCPS and we're happy with that and I we are also looking at the vestibule project for Providence Elementary School

[01:19:33] and so we're looking forward and i'd also like to thank you dan on the daniels run vestibule because the original date was for it to be started and finished was well into after the holidays the winter holidays yes in february and we are at september 15th 26th well no right now okay i'm sorry i was looking at the end date and i gave that away didn't i i think now you gave away i I did I was holding on to that information yes no thank you very much I appreciate that but again it's about the partnership and yes but you have done

[01:20:11] quite the job of advocating and being on the phone and trying to get it done I appreciate that and again I'll I'll deflect a little bit and just say there was someone answering on the other end and we appreciate that so thank you and that's just a quick look at facilities there are other things that happened during the summer and again it's a lot of hard work by folks to make the places look right for our staff and our students when we return so thank you thank you mr. Phillips okay oh does anybody have any questions about facilities miss borrow me no questions but I just want to say I've had the pleasure of seeing

[01:20:48] several of the projects and they look great and our students do well when they have a nice place to learn thank you miss Kelsey mine's not a question either there, but I will slightly adjust what you said. The students do notice the lights. Yes.

[01:21:08] The hallway used to be yellow. It is not yellow. When they spent a lot of time last year in the cafeteria area for after school, and now they're in that hallway, it's very noticeable. And so, yes, they do notice it. It's not just the adults. Great to hear. Thank you. Ms. Heckman.

[01:21:26] I don't have a question about the presentation, but I'm curious, Because I know we're going to be voting shortly on moving some CIP funds. Are there any numbers associated to it yet? Or right now we're just giving permission to be able to reallocate as needed once the numbers come about?

[01:21:42] And you're talking about the Providence Festival? Yes, the Providence Festival. I think it's safe to assume that it's going to be in the ballpark of the Daniels run. It's in the design phase right now. Then it'll go out to bid. I think as long as we're included on that initial bid, we can look.

[01:21:58] Our cost should be similar to what other FCPS schools are paying, and it'll probably be right in the neighborhood of the Daniels Run. And with the fact that Providence has much more county kids than Daniels Run does, has there been conversation about? Yeah, when we get to the motion.

[01:22:14] That'll be. We are going to talk about that. We're going to talk. I appreciate that. It's a great question. Thank you. Ms. Sessori. I just want to thank you, Dan, for all your hard work in getting these projects done. Our schools look amazing. I didn't do any of the actual work, but I'll take it on behalf of everybody who did.

[01:22:32] On behalf of everybody who reached out. We work with a lot of great folks, but thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Cessary. Okay. We do not have any public hearings, so we will start with our action items. The approval of the July 1, 2025 regular meeting minutes and the August 4th special meeting minutes as well.

[01:22:52] The clerk has provided these minutes. Is there a motion? Madam Chair. Ms. Cessary. I move that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the minutes of the July 1st, 2025 School Board regular meeting and the August 4th, 2025 School Board as printed and distributed.

[01:23:09] Second? I second. Okay, Ms. Sessori moves. Ms. Bartle may second it. City of Fairfax School Board approve the regular meeting minutes from our July 1st meeting of 2025 and the August 4th special meeting minutes as printed and distributed.

[01:23:28] are there any changes or modifications or any additions okay being none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye none oppose the motion passes unanimously the next is the approval of the reappropriation of funds of cip funds is there a motion madam chair necessary i move that the city of fairfax school board approve the reappropriation of capital improvement program cip funds to support the completion of the providence elementary school vestibule project

[01:24:00] This motion is contingent upon FCPS approval for the city to reimburse FCPS for executing the project in order to enhance safety and security at the school. Okay. May I have a second? I second.

[01:24:17] Okay. Again, Ms. Cessary moved and Ms. Bartlemy seconded. City of Fairfax School Board approved the reappropriation of CIP funds to support the completion of the Providence Elementary School vestibule project. I have asked the superintendent to work with FCPS around contributing to the cost of the vestibule as 30% of their students attend Providence Elementary School.

[01:24:49] They are paying for their own vestibules. We are being responsible for our vestibules, and as such, we are hoping that, well, we are making the we are going to put in that request um okay all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye none are opposed to the motion passes unanimously okay superintendent matters um mr phillips well thank you so much it's been a really exciting beginning to the school year

[01:25:25] you know those first week weeks of school require so much prep and planning but our schools are just ready to go I was fortunate to be able to attend all the open houses in the back-to-school nights and it just really made me miss being a principal in some ways I appreciate our principals and our families so much for sharing their joy with me and with all of us as we started the new school year also I just want to say for a second thanks to everyone in the city government team for all their support and guidance during this transition between superintendents and you know again I've said I'm a principal and there are a lot of things that go on in our office that weren't in my wheelhouse as a principal and we've

[01:25:59] gotten great support and i just want to also thank our awesome schools team our small but mighty schools team right now for keeping our focus on schools and students despite being down a person in our office uh in addition to beginning of school year we're in budget season we're supporting the hiring of the new superintendent uh we started planning the renovations in our elementary school so it's been a really busy time and it's taken a team effort but i think we've had a very productive summer and a great school opening and finally i said it a second ago but i'll reiterate it here just a great shout out to our incredible teachers and students who bring our schools to life when

[01:26:35] they return i've seen firsthand as a parent and educator and i think this is really important good things happen in our schools every day learning friendships fellowships and joy are the norm not the exception and you hear a lot of noise but that's not the reality there's so many good things that happen so i just urge our community this year pay attention to the great things that happen we're going to have moments where things feel uncomfortable they're going to require extra attention and we're going to give things attention but don't miss those good things that's the joy of school and it's just we have great a great place throughout Fairfax County but particularly our four schools so

[01:27:11] enjoy that thank you well said mr. Phillips okay let's move on to board matters miss borrow me thank you I also had the pleasure of attending several of the back to school nights and it was fun to talk some to some of the city residents about our schools and what's going on in our schools I also wanted to welcome our student representatives Abby and Kevin we're glad to have you guys as we start this new school year and I also wanted to encourage city residents to complete the survey this week or to attend our meeting on Wednesday great

[01:27:48] Miss Kelsey so we don't repeat everything again the one other thing I would like to say though is attending the pyramid night on Friday was a lot of on there were so many families that were there at one point I was wondering if they were ever going to go into the football game because they were having so much fun outside but it was a great game a great night and congratulations to the one Daniels run Daniels run winner who won the M&Ms

[01:28:23] and the Providence winner who won the lion they were both very excited they both I know the Daniels run one was kind of gonna rub it in sister's face I think but they were very excited about winning and we had a great turnout for those raffle prizes and then I will say yes please do attend the community forum the virtual one on Wednesday and fill out the survey thank you I also enjoyed attending the back to school nights that I was able to attend as well as pyramid night which was it's

[01:29:01] always a lot of fun. Thank you, Abby, for all your hard work on that, and the rest of your leadership team. It really was so well done, and I know the younger children really enjoyed it. Thank you, Dr. Projorter just left, but a huge thank you to her for the amount of countless hours she has spent talking to stakeholders and going through feedback, and I'm going to just go ahead and say what Mr. Phillips said to thank Ms. Dorsey, Ms. King, and also you, Mr. Phillips, for doing the work of four people as three people you do you make it look effortless and we really appreciate everything you all always do and especially during this time I'm just going to echo what a lot of

[01:29:40] people have already said before it's been an amazing start to the school year all the events that we've attended the back to school nights the pyramid night on Friday just as a reminder of how amazing our city schools are and just the joy of being in school and having that community there and it just kind of connects I know tonight was heavy with the tuition bill and budget but it's hard to put a price on that that value of that community that we create with our schools and just again thank you for all the teachers and staff for starting the school year strong and thank you

[01:30:20] ditto to all of that and I'll just once again thank Carrie and Abby for all your amazing work on the pyramid night and i'm just going to do a gratitude tour um i'm thankful for the smooth start but i'm also again very grateful to you dan um i don't think i could continue doing this this year without you um and carrie and barb i i literally we're gonna like the fourth person's not gonna be a superintendent it's gonna be a therapist i i am not sure how you guys are

[01:30:59] managing. It's a long time to go without having two people, a superintendent and an assistant superintendent, especially with all that we have going on with facilities and now this whole process of hiring a new superintendent, start of school, wrapping up all the summer programs. So I'm just very grateful to all of you so okay if there's nothing else before this board I'm going to adjourn us at 8:02

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