Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax School Board Work Session, Monday, April 20, 2026

Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 2h 49m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4528
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4528
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4528&doc_id=0131846c-3e74-11f1-bb28-005056a89546

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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[00:00:01] And then we'll go ahead and start. I'm Lauren Bartle-May. I'm on the school board for my first term. So I'm glad to have you guys here. I'm Sarah Kelsey. This is my second term. I'm Amy Hickman. My second term as well. Proceed accessory.

[00:00:16] This is my first term. Okay. And this is my eighth term. I'm old. All of them. So this is a special work session for the city of Fairbanks School Board. And it's Monday, April 20th of 2026.

[00:00:32] And we are so glad that you all could join us this evening. We know that you guys all have lots of activities and schoolwork, so we'll get right down to it. Each of the board members will have a question, and if you would like to respond, you can just raise your hand.

[00:00:48] Does that work for everybody? Okay. All right, Mrs. Barnaby, do you want to start with questions on one? Sure. Think about a time at school when you felt really excited about learning. What was happening, and what made that experience special? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Jonah then Marley.

[00:01:10] I'll go first. The time at school, like, when I was excited to learn was during science when we did a lab, because, like, it was fun to do, like, to help me learn more and more just sitting down and listening and to teach a talk, and it was, like, more interactive. One that I felt really excited about learning is currently we're doing, like, a civics project called the Moth Congress, and since I'm, like, really interested in, like, the law and, like, all of that, It was really interesting to understand how a court case works and how different attorneys and witnesses and how everything works.

[00:01:49] So it was really interesting to understand what happens. You could be a future judge, attorney, politician. Yeah, maybe. Anybody else like to... Yes. A time where I was really excited about learning was during an engineering project that I had to do.

[00:02:13] It was really exciting for my group to kind of combine all of our creative ideas and make something very big. And not only that, but we learned a lot about teamwork and communication during the...

[00:02:30] Does anybody else want to respond? Okay, we're going to go into the second question, and I apologize. But when we call on you, could you just introduce yourself and tell us what grade you're in? Okay, Ms. Kelsey, do you want to read the next question?

[00:02:47] What is something your teachers or school do that really helps students succeed? Abigail. My name is Abigail, and I'm in 7th grade. And something that I believe that my teachers do that really helps me and my peers succeed is providing study materials.

[00:03:05] Study guides, websites, or even videos are all very helpful when it comes to preparing for tests or quizzes. Yeah, Clara. I'm Clara. And one thing that I feel like helps me succeed that my teachers do is they talk to me.

[00:03:29] It's less academic in the strictest sense, but it helps me to feel more connected with my teachers and it helps me feel recognized not only as a student, but as a person. That makes me feel more comfortable and it helps me to feel better in the class and it helps me learn and it makes me feel more comfortable asking questions too.

[00:03:55] Does anybody else like to respond? Yes, Lee. I'm in 7th grade, and one thing that my teachers do is they give a really in-depth explanation whenever a student asks the question, and my hope is with creative thinking, like anything that's just slightly off-topic, but still helps to understand.

[00:04:30] Yes, Laura. I'm Anna Thompson. I'm in 8th grade. I feel that not only do teachers help you, like, succeed academically, I feel that they really try to connect with you and try to create a bond that you can, like, that is, like, a trust and that you can go to them, like, anytime, like, if you need help or, like, if you just, like, want to talk to someone, I feel that they really, like, try to connect with you and create a bond.

[00:04:54] Anybody else? First off, we really appreciate you all being here and your answers and you being as honest with us as possible. It really helps us be able to do whatever we can to help you.

[00:05:10] So my question is, if you could add one thing to the middle school experience that would make school more engaging or more fun for students, what would it be? I think that adding more hands-on activities would probably engage many students because physically touching things and seeing how things actually work I feel like is important for some students in their way of learning.

[00:05:44] And it also helps you understand. Instead of just talking about theories, it helps to actually see those teachings in action. It's also fun, especially in science, to see bubbles come out of the vials.

[00:06:07] I'm a librarian in 7th grade. and one thing one thing that if you could add one more one thing to middle school that would make it more fun and engage okay one thing I would add to my middle school experience that would make it more fun is probably more hands-on learning like projects or or experiments because I feel like in a way it makes

[00:06:41] students understand more better about this subject that they're learning and um yes claire my name's claire and i'm in eighth grade and i want to add on to what the past two people have said so like kind of like a passion project that you can work on in school like something that you're passionate about and you want to like expand on it or learn more about it and you can do it in school instead

[00:07:08] of like outside of school without like teachers help um so what advice would you give adults who are trying to make middle schools better for students?

[00:07:28] Teachers should try to understand the student more and better because you never know what they have. Just to add to that, I feel like as adults try to connect and build friendships with the students, they not only understand the students better and can better treat their needs and teach them, but they can know what's going on or if something bad happened,

[00:08:04] Like if they know the student, they will be able to tell and be able to help them. It would also help the students feel more comfortable asking questions and reaching out for help. Anybody else like to respond?

[00:08:25] Yeah. So I'd also like to add is like if the teacher is like having this like hard time like figuring out like, oh, like what project, like assignment would best suit my class, I feel like they should ask students like their opinions because from a student's point of view, it could be totally different from a teacher's point of view so i feel like getting feedback from students is a really good way of um making a school and a classroom yes valeria um advice

[00:09:00] that i would give to adults is um definitely listening to the students and in school and also out of school because whether it's something that's about their future or their classes or anything that's going on at home i feel like listening and having someone to talk to can make the student feel safe and um can make them have a can make them have a close relationship with the teacher anybody else yes i think that adults could get better um rubrics or study guides to

[00:09:37] really help with tests and projects um and yeah that would benefit students and get them better grades so jonah starting with you can you guys each tell us what elementary school you attended - I attended Honors Elementary School.

[00:10:04] - I attended Mosaic Elementary School. - Eagle View Elementary School. - Mosaic Elementary School. - Providence Elementary School. - I went to Eagle View and then I went to Willisbury. - From Eagle View Elementary School. - Oh, yeah, okay. Good variety.

[00:10:24] Is there anything else you guys would like to share with us? Doesn't have to be an answer to one of these questions, just any feedback on your experience in middle school? - Dr. Wright, do you have any questions?

[00:10:43] - Sure, how much time are you? Thank you, Ms. Pichens. Students, you guys are doing a great job. I'm really, really proud to be your superintendent with this type of feedback that you're providing to all of us. And it's also helpful, he came in right at the last minute, but your principal, Mr. Smith, is here too, and that's great feedback for him as well.

[00:11:03] And I might put him on the spot here in a minute and see what he thinks based on what he heard. The job as the superintendent is stress out the principals. I have a few follow-up questions on some of the things that you asked.

[00:11:20] What our wonderful school board is trying to do and myself as the superintendent is we're trying to think about what are the things that you need to be successful as students. What do you need to be as successful as students right now as amazing and talented and unique and different 7th and 8th graders, but also what do you need to be successful once you leave our schools?

[00:11:41] So for some of you that will be in 4 years, which is, I have an 8th grade son myself, it scares me that in just over 4 years he'll be done with school, and some of you it's 5 years. And the other thing we think about too is that a lot of the things that you're going to be doing once you're out, once you're done with your educational journey, whether it's finishing high school and going into the workforce, or finishing high school and going to a trade school or a college or a university, but a lot of the jobs that you will be doing in that time frame, they don't even exist right now, which is kind of crazy to think about.

[00:12:17] But as we look out to your parents, they can help you understand how much things have changed in the last few years. I have a niece that she's a genetic therapist. When I was in high school, I did not know what a genetic therapist was, right?

[00:12:35] We have people that are AI trainers, and there's all of these jobs that haven't existed now. So we're trying to think about what can we do to support you to be successful in any of those. You guys gave us some really good feedback. You talked about teamwork and communication. Marley talked about real-world skills with that mock trial.

[00:12:53] Claire gave us a great example about passion projects, something that we're really connected to. So I think some of those are really helpful for us to hear. Just a few things. So, Marlee, you talked about that mock trial, that you're really connected to that.

[00:13:09] Is it because it's something that you're passionate in, or it's just that it's a real-world thing that's connected to the society around us? What made you connect to that project as something that you pointed out for the school? Yeah, so I've always been really fascinated about court cases and how crimes are kind of situated in a courtroom.

[00:13:29] And I also really feel passionate about fighting for rights and fighting for us right, really. And so I really felt that it was a really co-opportunity to really try to get into the real world. It was like a scenario where I could really get into the real world and see if I could make any impact into that world.

[00:13:51] Yeah, that's great. That's what we want you doing. We want you leaving our schools with the skills to go make that impact, right? Not to go be successful in the world, but to go out and change the world. So I think that's great. One other quick follow-up. Both Clara and Jonah, you kind of talked about this idea of students or teachers knowing you as people or knowing what's going on or knowing what's going on outside of school.

[00:14:13] Can you tell us a little bit more, or anybody else can chime in? Why is that important? Or why is that something that you shared as something that helps make your experience more valuable when you're in our schools? Jonah? Because when you understand what it's doing, it makes it easier.

[00:14:31] Definitely. Claire, anything to add on? Sorry. Yeah, personal connection with the students could help teachers understand how to better teach them, understand their strengths and weaknesses.

[00:14:51] It can help them learn about, if they learn about the student as not only someone to teach, but as a person, they can, like, help them with out-of-school problems. They can help them better learn their subjects.

[00:15:10] They can introduce projects that can boost their education. And it just, it makes students, or I have, many of my teachers connect with me and talk with me, not even about school-related things.

[00:15:29] And it personally helps me feel more safe and more welcome at school. And if you feel safe and welcome, then you don't have to focus on finding safety.

[00:15:46] You can focus more on your way. That's really powerful. Thank you for sharing that. We want all of you to feel seen, to feel valued, and to feel heard every single day, right? So that's really important. Mr. Smith, anything that you heard today that sticks out to you from your wonderful students?

[00:16:02] Yeah, I thought I gave my presentation last month. So first off, excellent job students. You did an awesome job here in public speaking. I would say three things, right? Again, heard about telling about you, right, as a whole child, right?

[00:16:17] Not just about your academics, right? And that's something we preach from a lot of us to our teachers, right? I heard a number of you talk about hands-on, right? I've seen you in the hallways. I think science lends itself, right, to that hands-on stuff, right?

[00:16:36] So getting other disciplines, getting old. So there was three things, and I forget about three things, but I'll remember here in a minute. I think you're going to thank all these parents for supporting me.

[00:16:52] That's one of the most important things. There we go. Thank you. Okay. Well, you guys did great. Very impressive. You are all incredible public speakers, so you should all be very proud of yourselves. And we have a lot of good information, and I will just echo Dr. Wright's sentiments.

[00:17:13] But it seems like experiential learning, connections, and just really providing interesting learning opportunities in general seems to be what you all are looking for in school. I remember the sketches. Oh, thank you.

[00:17:29] Student voice, right? So I think we have tried, like the last couple of years, your input last year on what recess would look like, and the tutorial on learning, and those changes, right? Everybody out there hopefully took the survey and published some new branding stuff, right?

[00:17:51] When it trickles down, the individual teachers, right? As a teacher, that was something they did. The information back to figure out what the kids were doing, what they did, and we'll try to make some changes. We are going to home, and make sure that you're on your way out and enjoy the rest of your evening.

[00:18:14] And keep in touch, because we have an email address, so if you have any additional thoughts later, feel free to email us. It's very easy. It's schoolboard.fairfaxva.gov. But thank you for coming.

[00:18:31] Thank you. Like a little five-minute break. No, he really did. What? I don't know.

[00:18:51] Yeah, it's better in some rooms than others. That's very true. Okay, good evening, everyone. My name is Carolyn Pitches, and I'm the chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. We are going to each, well, I've just introduced myself.

[00:19:08] The other board members will introduce themselves, and if you guys could introduce yourselves and also tell us what for Adrian, that would be great. So I'm going to start down here, Ms. Bartle. My name is Lauren Bartle, and I am on my first term. And I'm Sarah Kelsey, and I'm on my second term.

[00:19:25] Lameen Hickman, I'm on my second term, which means I'm finishing my fourth year. Christine Accessory, I'm on my 8th term, finishing at my 16th year, so I can just imagine how old I'm probably. Okay, Kara, you want to start down there?

[00:19:42] I'm just, Kara, I just looked at your mom, I am. My name is Anna Hardy, and I'm in the 10th grade. My name is Backon Chongchukle, I'm in 9th grade. I'm Evan Curtis, I'm a sophomore. I'm Christian Lewis, I'm a sophomore.

[00:19:59] I'm Noah Adams, and I'm in the 9th grade. welcome all of you. Each board member is, oh, there's another. Hi, how are you? Come on in, have a seat. Hey, good to see you. Yep, have a seat.

[00:20:31] Sorry. Those who just came in, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us what grade you're in also?

[00:20:48] I'm Ahnam Amin, and I'm a 10th grader. I'm Zora Cuatra, and I'm a 9th grader. Okay, so welcome. Sorry, did you speak to us last year? Yeah. Yeah, it's a little bit familiar. Okay, Ms. Barlamay, do you want to start?

[00:21:07] Sure, so the first question is, what types of learning experiences help you remember and understand things the best? And anyone who wants to raise their hand. I was going to say, personally, I found hands-on, more like fieldwork stuff.

[00:21:27] like in leadership class when actually we have to go out and do the project, I've found that like problem solving and like decision making in the moment has like grown soaring.

[00:21:42] I would say like, you know, lectures with like guided notes are a great way that help me learn and, you know, like, you know, as like, you know, presentations, but as long as the instructor is keeping the students active, like, you know, making sure they're always engaged.

[00:22:01] Anybody else? Oh, yeah. I would say, yeah, like active learning is really good, especially where the teacher kind of makes you figure things out for yourself. Like in chem class, I know Miskita is really good about sort of making us figure things out on our own instead of just telling us the answers and have us memorize those, kind of figuring out how things apply, like in real life scenario.

[00:22:22] I would say as in the teacher being able to relate and tell us real life situations on how we will be able to use that on a daily basis. I would also say that having a teacher to be able to relate and tell me their perspective and their personal experiences also helped me be able to learn a little bit.

[00:22:43] I like engaging activities. For example, in my Spanish class, we have to learn vocabulary, and sometimes the lists are very long, and they use a software called GameKit. It's like a game. You can answer questions, and the questions are related to the content, and that really helps me remember and understand what I need to do for the subject.

[00:23:00] Is it the technology piece to that, or just the way it engages you? So my marketing class, we do a group discussion and hands-on activities and just like projects.

[00:23:21] And I think that helps me a lot with marketing and yeah, that's it. What is your name? Hi. Hi, my name's Paris. It's nice to meet you. Are you in 9th or 10th grade?

[00:23:37] I'm in 10th grade. 10th grade, okay. We just did the first question, which is what types of learning experiences help you remember and understand things best? So I think that the best types of learning and teaching that help me learn the best is definitely hands-on steps or interactive.

[00:23:53] I think I learn much better when I'm being engaged to learn activities, games, stuff like that, versus just taking down notes. I think taking down notes is kind of like they get bored after a while, so I don't really lose focus and stuff like that. So I think games help keep it fun, but still, it will, for me, still remember.

[00:24:12] Can you explain the GimKit, what that is? There's a variety of games inside, so the teacher will host a session and they have the games list to choose from that the students can play, but the core concept is in order to complete, like, to play the game, you need to answer questions.

[00:24:40] I've only seen, like, a Kahoot-style question. Is it, like, look it, almost, but for -- Kind of, but, yeah. Relatively same class. Is it only one class that uses it or do you use it in lots of classes? I've only used it in my Spanish class.

[00:24:56] Okay, Spanish. I think it's mostly language, I think. All right, do you want that? Yeah. Schools are preparing students for a world that is quickly changing. What kinds of skills or experiences do you think students will need most in the future?

[00:25:15] Yes, Christian. I think they will need social skills. I've noticed that in our current society, it's becoming very rural and there's less written materials that i've noticed so i think being able to talk to people and communicate especially on a deeper level is going to be very important i would say change in general life changes quickly and a lot of things happen so being able to get used to that change at a young age and get used to that can be a lot of character development skill sets and that we would

[00:25:49] want to be able to set in ninth grade and seventh grade yeah getting used to that change at an early age so when we do get to that point where we're out in the real world and it's changing so quickly that we're just not caught at the ball that's a great great answer soren did you want to go and um yeah i would i would say one one skill i think or you know a set of skills that a lot of a lot of students uh probably benefit from learning is um smart financial skills um i feel like you know we send a lot of students out into the world and they're not financially prepared you know like to

[00:26:24] you know, probably handle their money, support a family, support themselves, support people they care about. So I think that's one thing that we could really do better about teaching a lot of our students. I would agree with you as somebody who has two 20-something-year-olds.

[00:26:44] You'll help in that department. Okay, Evan. I would say originality is a big one. I think, you know, AI is getting a lot bigger and taking over a lot of things, especially in the writing aspect, and a lot of rubrics are really strict about a lot of those things, and I think just getting some more space for students to be original and to present their own ideas would be really good. Like, I'm an AP seminar now, and the IWA and stuff like that are really great for me. I've enjoyed it a lot, to be able to kind of come up with my own argument and discover what I want to write about, even though we still had the stimulus packet to base it off of it. It left a lot of room for my own interpretation to be put in there.

[00:27:21] I wanted to ask, so you mentioned financial literacy, which I am curious if you've taken economic, personal finance. I have not, but I am currently taking principles of business, and we do go over a lot of financial skills.

[00:27:42] The teacher, Mr. Morrell, is really great about teaching us everything, and we actually spent most of quarter three devoted to planning the future, how to like you know apply for a job how to handle a job application like we do literally did a whole summative project on you know how to do a job interview how to write your how to write your resume and how to contact interviewers and you know all so many important skills amazing yeah how many of you have taken the personal finance costs already they don't know they do but they They typically take it online after.

[00:28:24] Yeah, or you have to, yeah, you guys are taking the summer online. Yeah, they do pee now this summer. Right, you know, they're all on there. Wow, that's a question. Is that awesome? Well, because I know they have that gym.

[00:28:48] So that's part of that. Yes, Finance Park, yes. It's usually part of the 8th grade civics curriculum, and they go to a place called Finance Park. Okay, does anybody else want to share? Yes. I think students need skills like critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and also communication.

[00:29:09] And I think marketing helps a lot with that. I'm taking my team right now, and we do a lot of that stuff. I was going to say effective communication. I just feel like simple things like writing emails or talking to your teachers.

[00:29:25] A lot of people don't know how to professionally word, stuff like that. I think that's because of texting culture and stuff like that. Just simple things like that. They kind of tried to teach us a story line of time in ninth grade, I think, but it wasn't very, like, it wasn't something very focused on. I think adding on to trying to be more, like, adaptive and stuff, because new technologies are coming out, so I think it's easier to have more flexibility since, you know, there are new types of resources that students can accept, like, access, and needing to be able to access different things and use new sources and tools in different ways.

[00:30:01] I also think that communication is also another thing where because like how Anna said, like texting culture and stuff like that, it kind of changes the way that communication runs because they're so used to, oh, like thinking before what they say versus an in-person conversation, you kind of just have to have a conversation.

[00:30:18] So I think being able to have a way to like teach students how to properly communicate with you and anybody else. First of all, thank you for being here, especially those who are in APS and have your IPAs and IPWs do this week and then you're busy.

[00:30:39] um so you guys actually hit on this a little bit but with new technologies like artificial intelligence that are becoming more and more a part of everyday life how do you think schools should and could help students to learn to use these tools more responsibly and responsibly and effectively and we can kind of just start here um i think one way that you know i've started this is one way i started to use ai more this year like in a responsible way um and it's really helped me is like, you know, to help create practice resources for different classes like

[00:31:13] AP Human Geography, Biology, or Math. Like, I've used ChatGPT to help me create practice questions or, you know, help create comprehensive, like, you know, cram guides and review guides or lay out really complicated terms and, you know, layman's terms. And I feel like that's one way a lot of teachers can help students use AI for a better purpose rather than, because right now the message that teachers are sending out to students about AI is, like, don't use

[00:31:46] AI. AI is bad. You know, it's forbidden. It's a sin. If you use AI, like, you know, you'll face consequences. But I think, you know, if we, like, if teachers show students how to use AI in that more, you know, helpful and productive way, I think it could actually benefit a lot of students. Obviously, we shouldn't use AI to cheat and write our essays and stuff, but if we use it in that method to help us study and get better, then I think it's definitely...

[00:32:19] What ideas would you have for using AI for writing, because I know that that's always like the sticking out, what do you see as responsible ways of using AI with writing? I feel like, you know, maybe checking grammar, or, you know, helping to revise, or be like, you know, or, you know, asking like a chatbot, like, hey, you know, I'm a little bit confused, Like, you know, my teacher said this about my essay, and I'm a little bit confused.

[00:32:49] Can you elaborate, can you maybe elaborate on what my teacher said and help me understand this a little bit better? Or, like, you know, or like, you know, doing revision, or like, you know, finding small things in someone, like, you know, writing before submitting it, like, to make small edits or something.

[00:33:07] Not writing the full paper, not generating the idea for a paper, you know, just the student should write the paper, The student should generate the idea for the paper, and AI should help the student make the paper better after that, and help them improve their writings.

[00:33:28] So, originally, I think the idea of AI was like, wow, somebody can just do my work for me and show work. But I think in school, it's so important. Now, I learn how to responsibly use it, and I think it's just a super helpful source for learning.

[00:33:47] And I think it's actually, like, sometimes, you know, you get, like, a not-so-good teacher and there's someone or some tool that can help you actually understand a topic. I find myself using AI, and it's actually helped me understand it much more than a way that, like, my teacher has taught me a way. And I think that if there's, like, some way that AI can, like, a type of website software that can, instead of just giving you straight up an answer, it's more, like, of a teaching tool.

[00:34:14] So, yeah, it can know how to solve it, but it'll kind of guide you through it versus just straight up giving you what you're asking for, like the answer. It can actually, like, teach you through it. I would say knowing when it is and isn't appropriate to use AI.

[00:34:31] I'm going to cling off to what he said as in teachers make it seem like, oh, it's so bad to use AI, although I feel like it's a lack of knowing when it is and isn't able to use AI. I feel like if students are able to know when they should be able to use AI and when they're not, I feel like it will help the whole community in school as a whole to understand that, oh, maybe I should use AI on these things and not so much on these.

[00:34:54] For example, as in math space that we're currently doing in our third man, as in it gives you an AI helper to kind of help you if you're going to get stuck on a math problem. I mean, it helps you, although it doesn't serve even the answer. So I feel like just knowing the difference in between being able to draw the line in between cheating and knowing what is helping you is a big part of AI.

[00:35:17] Yeah, to add on to that, I don't think enough people focus on the positives because it is really good at doing things like data analysis and stuff, which we aren't doing too much of in high school, but as well it can help you. You can give it things like copies of rubrics and stuff, and it can mock grade essays for you and give you feedback and stuff, like what to fix grammar wise and stuff or maybe you can polish stuff up like this like i'm in speech and debate and i did have it run through my speech to give me pointers on it because my teacher like speech coach wasn't allowed to directly tell me what to fix in speech so it is really good for things like that where the teacher is not necessarily allowed to help you

[00:35:51] like with college board assignments but you can get some help with it from that i was just going to say like schools continuing to teach like critical thinking skills because okay a lot of are starting to use ai on helping stuff so like you need to be able to like be like okay i'm looking at this like is this accurate information that i'm looking at and also being able to like generate more direct prompts like it can help you a lot if you're very specific on like what you're asking especially if like you're not trying to cheat but like yeah you just need to like jump start your idea if you're like very just knowing how to like word stuff using ai do you have any classes that

[00:36:29] active when you utilize AI? I have leadership. I think our teacher kind of doesn't like straight up be like, oh, your assignments are like AI, but he encourages us to get ideas from it, especially because, you know, we plan like events and ideas and same with social media. We look online, what's trending, what can we do to promote Spirit Week, stuff like that. So I think he definitely tries to promote AI and he encourages us to kind of get ideas from it, which I like, I kind of like it because it's kind of like letting us think about, like what type of stuff is out there and not only just limiting ourselves to like what google and

[00:37:06] websites have to um i feel like ai is it's good overall like you get practice questions out of it but i think school should like really limit it because um some students they bring their like omav laptops from like their home to bring it to school and they just ai everything like every moment they get which is like it's unfair to some students who like can't afford that and like have to use school provided laptops so it's blocked on school laptops but not on personal yeah they find like places like there are yeah ways around it yeah yeah some some kids like you know get

[00:37:40] proxies and they find ways to get into like chat chiquiti and receptivity and on the school computers oh on the school computers yeah they use proxies to get into chat chiquiti and stuff and get through the firewall so there's no ai um website that you're able to access with at CPS school. Outside of, you said, math space has kind of like a supplement. Like technically no, but people do find ways to get around that concept. They just got really strict on it though, and they've blocked like basically everything. Yeah, like students like to bring like their own laptop from home, and they're like really unfair for other students. Yeah, so like those who can't

[00:38:19] maybe afford to bring their own laptop, those who choose not to bring their own laptop. Yeah, it's really unfair. So it's not like a firewall school, it's the actual laptop itself. I think I think even if you bring your own laptop, all your own school Wi-Fi stuff will be blocked but people will go on their personal hot spots.

[00:38:37] Like I had to do just now. Interesting. Thank you for sharing all that. That's really good information. Anybody else want to share on that topic?

[00:38:53] So my English and like history teacher actually like encouraged us to like use AI for like brainstorming or like learning new things. And for history, I use AI a lot because like we learn a new thing like every day and I think it helps a lot.

[00:39:10] And like we shouldn't depend on AI. They should teach us how to like get those things that we only need. So summing off that, what is something you wish schools offer more opportunities for students to explore?

[00:39:35] Not necessarily AI-related, but really any opportunity. I think like real-world experience or kind of like job-related stuff that's kind of outside the school environment. I think it's really important because a lot of students are confused about what they want to do after school, after college, or even what they want to major in in college.

[00:39:57] And I feel like high school is kind of like the perfect time to introduce new careers or, you know, just interests that people can have outside of their, like, education and what they want to do in the future. I think ever since I was younger, really the only two jobs that I knew were a teacher, a doctor, or a lawyer.

[00:40:13] So I think I kind of just switched between those three until I realized that there's so much more out there. And I wish that, you know, there's kind of a more opportunity to have, like, newer, like, careers introduced. And, I mean, even, like, talking to my mom, I would be like, you know, I would love to be a doctor, but there's so many other jobs that I'm not even sure about that maybe I would love those many more.

[00:40:35] So I think if you can introduce, you know, internships or just, like, shadowing that, like, the school can offer, I think that would be really helpful and beneficial. Okay. You can go first. Okay. This is kind of more specific to, like, Fairfax High School, but, like, what I've found, like, personal experience, like, I wish we had more, like, my teachers are just more flexible.

[00:40:59] like I found that like with after school like opportunities to make up work I do sports like last year I did a sport all year round so I would have practice at like 3 15 every single day and teachers don't like us taking tests during line time but my coaches don't like me missing so I feel like teachers like I know line time is loud but I feel like if I'm willing to take the test during line time they need to be more flexible because the school gives you that time because they know you have stuff after school and they just need to be more flexible with that or maybe be more flexible at the end of the year or end of the quarter like last quarter was crazy we didn't have many line time so maybe teachers need to understand that I know they're busy but maybe

[00:41:37] they need to stay a couple more days than just Wednesday and Thursday when the late bus stays because like I would be willing to stay or they need yeah they need to realize that I have practice every single day like I need to be able to make up my test during line time because my coaches don't

[00:41:51] I would say, as in, recently we had the job, although what I did notice is that it was very much slim pickings, and even though we had slim pickings, it was the bare minimum, as in, like, if I were to go up to one day, like, oh, you have to be at such and such age to go ahead and apply, although I want to go ahead and find me a job at an early age, so it just makes it a little bit harder to go ahead and find my way, and I also feel like, as a school, they prepare you more for college instead of what the real world is going to be like.

[00:42:26] They don't decide to go ahead and help and guide you to what career you want to do instead of what college you want to do. They only give you options for if what's next, not what's going to base you for what your life is. We're talking about the job fair you guys just had the other day. So I feel like if we're able to, as a whole, to be able to open up that door for more careers and being able to guide students to what careers they want to do instead of just the college and what's coming next, I feel like it would make a big difference in students being more employed and just a better school as a head coach.

[00:43:01] Yeah, I would say having more things to look into other jobs, especially for young people, because I know I have a late birthday, like I turned 16 in September, and I've been looking for a summer job in almost all of them, or a summer internship. Almost all say you have to be 16 to start, and I'm very interested in local politics stuff like this, but yeah, almost all the stuff I've been looking into says you have to be 16 to start.

[00:43:23] So maybe just like a gateway to that sort of world of local politics that could be through the school and give opportunities just like this one for young people to get to meet representatives and stuff and discuss things. Yeah, and are here in the city of Fairfax.

[00:43:40] I was going to say, as the city resident, you should look out. A lot of the boards and commissions, especially for the next year, have student reps. Yes. Keep an eye out. Another thing that's kind of not really related to like outside, But I think extra credit, just in general, I feel like I'm personally, I'm not really a really great test taker.

[00:44:01] And I feel like it's kind of hard to kind of limit your main grade being on test. So I think that extra credit assignments could really help, especially for those stingy 2% away from a better grade or, you know, teachers not really letting you redo assignments from the past few weeks.

[00:44:19] So I think extra credit could really help. And I think it kind of gives students an opportunity to redeem themselves. Maybe they were having a rough week, and it kind of really affected them. So I think just extra credit in general would be really helpful. And I know a lot of kids have been kind of wishing that we offer that. So just a suggestion.

[00:44:36] And Soren. I would say, you know, more academic-based after-school activities. Like, again, this is just Fairfax High School in particular. Like, I feel like compared to other high schools in the county, we only offer like you know a slight handful of like academic activities like science Olympiad and forensic speech and debate and quiz bowl and I feel like that's the limit and you know compared to other schools that have Model UN and oh actually sorry I take them a real subject and FDLA and then like others

[00:45:11] with Model UN, and TSA, and Varsity Math League, and, you know, some, I'm sorry, Technology Students Association, and it's just like, you know, why are we so limited, and so many other schools have so many other programs, and we have such a large interest for these academic programs at our school, we have a lot of smart kids at the school that would definitely interested in such programs, so why are we lacking in these programs?

[00:45:47] Yeah, I know Mr. Ege really wants to get the TSA back up, at least last time I talked. So there was one at one point? He said so, yeah. I feel like I had Nancy Melnick's voice in my head, and all you have to do is fill out a form and find a sponsor and talk to Ms. Melnick.

[00:46:06] Yeah, I mean, that's what it is. I'm being honest with you, because my son tried to start a club, and I know that's exactly what she tells the kids every time, so go and run with it. She isn't the most helpful with people, I'm speaking from experience, she's not the most helpful with people trying to start a club, find people who are interested to join.

[00:46:29] She's literally like, here's the form, go do everything, it's really hard. Especially if you're a brand new student, so it's like it really limits how many opportunities you have to start a club. So you're looking for support and being able to start the clubs?

[00:46:46] Yes. Okay, that's really good feedback. We'll turn that doctor right here. So has anyone tried to start a club? My friend has.

[00:47:01] Did you have any difficulty finding sponsors? I think that for them, they did whatever teachers were closest to them, but I think it also depends on availability of the teachers too. A lot of times they don't really want to stay after, but I think they did a good job running it. They have a lot of people who are private.

[00:47:23] Sponsors remind me, maybe Dr. I don't see Dr. A in here, but a sponsor cannot be a parent who is a level three volunteer with FCPS ASPE teachers. I started a club, but it was at Daniel's Run, and I think being in leadership class, like, we had the connection to Ms. Dorsey, and that just made everything, like, so much easier, because I was in that class, and, like, Mr. Freeman just helped us with, like, everything.

[00:47:48] What I wanted to say, for FLA Future Years of America, although we struggled to find a sponsor for us, we would continue switching sponsors and switching classrooms. It was very hard to stay consistent on a continuous schedule.

[00:48:04] And on top of having sports, not having a planned out schedule, a continuous schedule, makes it hard to be able to have your whole week planned out when you know you have homework and stuff. So having that switch and change also makes it harder to be able to want to stay in a club or stay in a sport in general.

[00:48:24] So who ran your club? It was never consistent. Wait, was it Future Wars of America? I know my friend started a club, and I think it was Miss Gibbs Jones for a while, but she left in the middle of the year. So I know that totally messed them up.

[00:48:39] And it hasn't been on the schedule because it wasn't run by students. Wow, it's one of the communications. that does anybody else have any or want to comment on share any information yeah i think just i don't do a whole club thing i think in general clubs because they're kind of ran by these student officers it's kind of not really consistent and you know there's supposed to be meetings every month but i mean i'm in a couple clubs and i don't think i've had a single um meeting since the beginning of the year so i think that's kind of hard because it's you want your service hours you want to be

[00:49:18] able to be part of the community and it kind of doesn't work out because you also have to rely on other student schedules not blaming them i mean it makes sense but i think it's just kind of hard for the students to be running it since they also have a lot on their plate as well i also say like you know sometimes you find a sponsor and they're willing to do it and you find like you know you host regular meetings but sometimes you know the sponsors aren't willing to do much and the problem is when you try to do act like you know club activities and you try to do things like fundraising and stuff, you know, the sponsors will say, oh, can you try to do it on your own, but then

[00:49:54] the school says, oh, no, you have to do everything with the sponsor, but then the sponsor doesn't want to do anything, so they just say, forget it, and then you don't end up doing anything, and then you're just kind of stuck. It is really frustrating. Our sponsors are a purely volunteer.

[00:50:19] Unless it's a VHSL. Yes. Unless it's what? It's a VHSL. I think a quiz bowl. Yeah, but I don't know, but we have a quizable national competition at the end of the weekend that our sponsors have to pay for the substitute teachers to come in for them on Friday.

[00:50:44] I'm sorry, you said the teachers? Yeah. The school told them. Ms. Melnick and Dr. A told our sponsors that they would have to pay either out of their pocket or club funds for the substitutes. I saw the email.

[00:51:00] I know. We're all looking at this window, right? I told them that was crazy, but they didn't want to argue. They said, we don't have any other money, and we don't want to argue with them, so we'll just do it. This is quiz ball, right?

[00:51:16] Quiz ball, yeah. Which is interesting, because it's VHSL. Yeah, that's what I said. They were like, everyone should not have the budget to board national records. You know, we don't have the money for it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you have the money for football, right?

[00:51:32] You have the money for basketball. Well, well, I don't know. We can get to a whole other day. But thank you for sharing that. Oh, you're welcome. Okay. Dr. Wright, do you have anything? You're good?

[00:51:49] He's got a task now. Does anybody have anything, any final thoughts before you thank them? What? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, thank you for reminding me.

[00:52:05] If you all think of anything once you leave, because sometimes that's what happens, at least with me, please feel free to email us. Our email address is very easy to remember. It's just schoolboard at fairfaxva.gov.

[00:52:21] So anything that you want to share, we would love to hear from you. It's on the website. Yeah, if you go to City of Fairfax Schools, the website, our email addresses are there as well. You can let your peers also know that, that if there's ever a plan, that we are happy.

[00:52:37] We may have to send you to the right person to help with the answers, but we're happy to help facilitate that. Thank you again for coming. You guys are very insightful. There's a lot of fun. I do have one of the questions. Yes, Lauren? Ms. Kelsey, are you the school board rep for ESC?

[00:52:53] Yes. Yeah, cool. Okay, I thought I recognized you. Oh, you're the ESC? Okay. Yeah, he's our ESC. Okay. And I would say a big thank you to all these families. Oh, yeah, thank you for bringing your children to us. My child, though, I only bring it up because my child has been a challenging child going through the school system because there was a way to where the sister's son was going to find it.

[00:53:24] Yes. He only has the proxy. I'm not kidding. Well, yeah, but I mean, he's been very quiet, and I want him to share the knowledge and the positives.

[00:53:39] I think the only motivator I had to do anything like that back then was simply because because a website I really wanted to use back then was called Scratch, it's a block based coding language. People call it very limited, but I like breaking through the limits, it's very fun. I do it in my downtime, because sometimes I just have F and try to work early.

[00:54:00] So it's something to do, but I don't know why at some point it ended up getting blocked, it's unblocked now, but it was blocked back in my elementary school, and at some point my middle school blocked it too, so it was very upsetting, because I was like, I didn't know what else to do with myself. So I was kind of just like sitting there and I think that's kind of what made me push to try to figure out how to get around it. That's mainly my motivator, at least I think.

[00:54:27] Positive. I'm thinking this year. Yeah, people I did have. We have positives in this world.

[00:54:48] Thank you. Thank you so much.

[00:54:54] We have another on the way.

[00:56:04] Like, he's walking in. Okay, just doing poetry. Oh, yeah, we have four. And she sounds just like one of these famous poets. Like, when you started talking, I'm going, "Oh, my God, I just need you to recite a poem right now." Because you sound like you were, like, into it, and I'm like, "Oh, let's go."

[00:56:19] Like, I know. Do you know who I'm talking about, though? Okay, 'cause she started, too, so yeah. I can't think we should have been, like, they played the video of her, and I'm just sitting here, like... No, we just got it. Like, if I close my eyes, I don't want to think for her. You grab the questions.

[00:56:36] Or you can get it. Here, share with me. You got it right now. I feel very well circled, right? I don't know. I'm surprised that you are a child that needs to be started.

[00:56:54] You never start on this one. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know if it will help, uh-uh.

[00:57:21] We're also, like, sitting on each other's laps, so it's not a problem. All right, thank you all for coming this evening.

[00:57:37] We know you have activities, schoolwork, lots of things to do. So we'll get started right away. I'm going to, we're going to introduce ourselves, and we'll ask you all to introduce yourselves, name and grade level. I'm Caroline Pitches. I'm chair of the City Fairfax School Board, and I'm serving my eighth term on the school board.

[00:57:57] My name is Lauren Bartlemay, and I am serving my first term. And I'm Sarah Felstein, and I'm serving my second term. I'm Amit Hickman, and I'm also in my second term. Christina Sussre, this is my first term. Can you guys start with me? Yeah, sure. Hi, my name is Fabiana Escobar.

[00:58:14] I'm a junior here at Fairfax. Hi, my name is Sandra Abbey. I'm a senior here at Fairfax. Hi, my name is Mark Nelson. I'm a senior at Fairfax High School. Hi, my name is Sandra Mann, and I'm a senior at Fairfax. Hi, my name is Gerard Schiller, and I'm a junior here at Fairfax. Okay. All right, so we're going to ask you some questions, and if you'd like to answer, just raise your hand, And everyone's welcome to answer all the questions or some of them.

[00:58:41] So the first question is, looking back on your years in our schools, what is a moment or experience that stands out as especially meaningful to you? Yes. So back in January, at the end, I had surgery on my shoulder.

[00:58:59] So I was out from school for a couple of days. And a bunch of my teachers, since it was an important time right about when second quarter was ending, were very helpful in letting me extend deadlines a couple days and also staying after school for a lot longer, which I really appreciated to help me finish and get all my work done.

[00:59:20] That's really great to hear. Yes? I would say my first year here, like our first tailgate in football game, it really helped me connect with the school and interact with others. For you?

[00:59:38] Your father now? For me, I think it was my elementary school years, especially sixth grade. It was my first year here in the U.S., and I was, like, three months to finish sixth grade. So I entered, like, around the end of the year, and my English was, like, really bad.

[00:59:56] And I didn't know how to connect with the teachers, but I feel like that year was very special because my teachers tried all their best to, like, I don't know, get translators and, like, get help in the class. It was really meaningful. What elementary school did you do? I went to Little Roy Elementary School.

[01:00:16] Okay. One moment that really stood out to me, it was really meaningful to me, was definitely the beginning of senior year, was interacting with the counselors. That experience where I was able to really go into my classes and really get a good depth look at them and really... It was kind of surface level because it's the beginning of the year, but I was able to have really good conversations with my counselors from what I wanted senior year, and it kind of felt like a whole culmination of the relationships I've been building with them this whole year.

[01:00:40] And it was kind of like they knew me, they knew what i wanted they knew where i was planning and where i was going and i that relationship built upon those four years it was just so nice being there and really like i went in there and i was like i have to change a bunch of stuff and it was they were so willing to work with me they're so willing to help my senior year be the best year possible and it really felt like nice like this i put in four years of working and talking to these people and it really felt like we were connecting on a level where it's like these are more than just counselors they are trusted adults that i can talk to and really like give my grievances to and really share my experiences with like i had no reason to stay in a class that i didn't feel

[01:01:18] like i wanted to be there because they create an environment where it's like if i don't want to be there i can just go and i felt like i was super meaningful to me especially in my last year of high school i guess i'm the last one to go i would say probably the most consequential time throughout my 13 years in FCPS was my transition between sixth and seventh grade. Of course, that was affected by COVID, but what the school provided before COVID was an elective fair or an elective night at the middle school. A couple tours of the middle school, elective selection

[01:01:55] while we were still in elementary school, and I feel like it really just helped me prepare for period classes instead of just following a line leader, and it really did help with the I assume you were a Katherine Johnson? I was, I did get a Katherine Johnson. But you were a COVID 6th grader? I was a COVID 6th grader, March of 6th grader.

[01:02:15] Anybody have a go-backs? Can you follow up? Yeah, okay. What is something our schools do really well that we should continue doing for future students?

[01:02:32] I would definitely say having the class variety, being able to take more electives, especially when you hate your D anymore, being able to take classes and electives more correlated to what you want to do in your future.

[01:02:49] For example, I take entrepreneurship, and seeing something I want to do in my future business-related, being able to take a class right now in high school definitely helps with that and also explores your options and getting a feel for what classes can be like that.

[01:03:05] Yes. I would say when we meet with our counselors and, like, how often we do, I think that it really, like, sets up a structure in which, like, I know what classes to take or what to do to succeed later on.

[01:03:26] Yes, Mark? What I would like to say is promoting diversity in classrooms. I feel like in each classroom, it's a really good, like, way to socialize and really understand different types of people in the world. I feel like for every single classroom, I've had a different experience with almost every single person that have really learned how to navigate conversations with people, no matter, like, race, ethnicity, or anything, because of how diverse these schools are and how promoted it is that you're in different classes with different types of people almost every time.

[01:03:53] And I think that's really the strength about Fairfax County as a whole, is the diversity in how like everywhere you go, you meet someone new and you really learn how to like talk your way through society and how to interact with different people of all kinds. I think it highlights the best part of a public school. And I really think like Fairfax City School specifically encapsulates that.

[01:04:14] - Yes, I feel like the opportunities for like academies and those kinds of things, it's really helpful. Especially when trying to decide to stick with a certain career, you're not deciding for, like, what you're going to do for life. You're getting, like, a taste of what you can do for the rest of, yeah, of your career.

[01:04:33] So I'm taking an academy right now, and that has been really helpful and has given me a perspective of being like, oh, I don't think this is what I want to do, or probably this is what I want to pursue, or I don't really like this side of the career that I'm choosing. I would probably go to this other path.

[01:04:50] So I think that's... In this academy, or are you... I actually go to Fairfax Academy and Chantilly Academy. So doing both of them gave me, like, a different perspective because Fairfax is more like the arts. Yeah. And Chantilly is more like technology. But both of them gave me a sense of, like, oh, I think I want to pursue something in technology but not too close to, like, mathematics and stuff like that or probably engineering, but more focus on the arts.

[01:05:18] So that gave me a bigger perspective. And I'm last again, I guess. So what I've seen with all of my friends, and this has been the pattern throughout high school, is that anything that they want to do, first of all, their counselors are honest with them in what the class provides.

[01:05:40] And I am talking about electives here and elective classes, but I have seen people be able to do anything they want here, anything, hands down, except for firefighting, but that's pretty big. Any niche, anything, is covered for them.

[01:06:01] Very nice. Does anybody have any follow-ups? Oh, sure. I have a question. A lot of you are kind of hitting on a common thread of being able to find classes that are of your interest or career group.

[01:06:18] What's helped you kind of gravitate toward certain classes? Like, is there anything that the counselors are providing or that previous teachers from earlier grades that sort of kind of have ignited a spark? I mean, for me, I would say it started even in, like, elementary school, doing, like, an hour of code activity.

[01:06:39] So, like, introducing that when I was younger helped set, like, what I wanted to do later on. And then once I entered middle school, they offered coding electives, computer sciences. So I was, like, I would want to take those.

[01:06:56] And it really, like, solidified what I would want to take in going into high school and prepare for that roadmap. I would kind of say something a little similar to that is instead of Hour of Code in elementary school, I did math.

[01:07:13] Now, this wasn't a school-supportive event. It was completely parent-funded. But the school, or some teachers, promoted it. And without them promoting it and really fostering this opportunity, I wouldn't have been as aggressive with my math courses that I took throughout my time further on in high school.

[01:07:40] I feel like for me it was the CTE Summer Academy here at Fairfax. I was able to take some coding classes just to have a taste of what it was like. But then I started being more interested in it and thinking of even pursuing computer science, a computer science major.

[01:08:01] So I think just kind of opportunities for the students gives them, like, a perspective, even if you don't find yourself doing that in the future, just getting a taste of what it's like is really helpful. Because I never thought I would do computer science at all.

[01:08:19] Yeah, that's great. Having those experiences is a good thing. Yes, Ms. Kelsey. Just curious, is anybody else doing academy classes, whether it's here or the other ones? Exactly.

[01:08:35] Okay, so this is actually very timely, and we have two of our representatives here from our architecture team firms that are going to be helping us. But we're going to be doing some major renovations on Daniels Run Elementary and Providence Elementary or two city of Fairfax elementary schools, and some improvements also on the roof here.

[01:08:58] But from your perspective, what kinds of spaces or features made the school building a great place to learn? And it doesn't have to be just from what you remember from elementary school. But in general, or anywhere that you've been, middle school, high school, what helped? Most classes are very decorative.

[01:09:14] Some are, and some aren't. And definitely being in a class that's more decorative instead of just having four beige walls around you, definitely feels more welcoming, and you're definitely more, like, you want to participate more rather than, because you can focus better.

[01:09:30] You don't feel like not constantly wondering what's going on outside and stuff. So being able to, like, look around and see. Yes. What are you standing on that mark?

[01:09:48] No offense, but the, like, AC and heating. No, you're, you're, no offense I'm thinking. I'm just kidding. We, we, yeah. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to focus when I'm thinking about how. When you're freezing or hot. Freezing or hot. I'm really hot right now. Yeah.

[01:10:03] I feel it. Thank you. That's very good. Thank you. For spaces or features that make the school learning a great place to learn, I would say usually spaces with a lot of students, where students do, where there are a bunch of students, it's easier for students like me to kind of immerse myself into it.

[01:10:24] And in being in that space where there are multiple students, it's easier to kind of feel like welcomed and feel like a place where it's, okay, there's a lot of people here. Everyone's going to be asking questions. It's a really good time to learn. So like sometimes we're in the auditorium and we're doing lessons and someone's on the big screen. That amount of students there kind of helps make every question feel important because there are because when you do ask a question you know that some students there probably might be thinking of it but no one's willing to ask so that kind of encourages me to kind of ask questions in that spaces or I think that's important and then other features I feel like the library is also a really good space as there's a lot of things in the library that different students would want

[01:11:01] and it really brings students together when a student wants to read about black culture black history can also be in the same space as a student wants to read about just European history in the same in the same way and they can both reflect on it since they're both in the same space i believe environments where that tie two people who are there for different things but similar objectives can really foster good conversation and extremely important anywhere well i guess i'll go i would say um the maybe not dr a but all of the assistant principals have seen me eat outside

[01:11:41] whenever it's been over 45 years today, yeah, Miss Anderson was out there. I always take the advantage when I can. I think it's really good for students' mental health to be able to go outside. I mean, especially the school doesn't have too many rooms with windows.

[01:12:00] I mean, I've had full schedules in years here where I haven't had a single window in my schedule. So I think that outside piece is just really good. The fresh air as well. I mean, ventilation is never perfect, right? I'm not necessarily talking about the school, but fresh air and sunlight, it's just great.

[01:12:21] So more eating or more outdoor spaces, maybe one outdoor classroom. I would say I miss taking walks around, especially after a couple hours under the fluorescent lights.

[01:12:37] I think some vitamin D would be good. I will add up to that. I definitely agree with what they say, especially being in a classroom for an hour and a half, you need some break. So I feel like that would be really cool.

[01:12:53] A classroom outside, that would be really helpful. And I think it gives you a different environment too, and you can engage more in what you actually are doing. - Those are great ideas.

[01:13:09] Does anybody have anyone looking for a student? - And that's what my psychology teacher did, is after a big test or whatever, he let us go outside to either do a walk around the school or something. One time, I think it was before AP season. It was AP season.

[01:13:25] We were doing a test review. We literally went outside and get, like, review cards, and we would play a game with the review cards, and that helped. That was fun, and it was really immersive. It was, like, a really easy way to remember. Because I think the game was, like, someone had the definition and someone had the name of the thing, and then, like, they would read out the definition, and then someone who had the name of it would go to it, and then they would read out the definition.

[01:13:46] I have the last. Yeah. It was really useful. Anybody have any go-backs on that one? No other ideas for the building.

[01:14:03] Okay. All right. If you could give one piece of advice to our school board about how to improve schools for the next generation of students. Mark. I already talked to you.

[01:14:20] I just believe more immersion with the businesses around us or the entities around us. Like, we have the courthouse next to us. We have the Fairfax County Government Center next to us. We have the Fairfax City Government Center next to us. Those are all things students would love to participate in if they had a chance, all opportunities.

[01:14:37] Like me, I did an internship with a defense attorney when I was sophomore year. Things like that should be, I think they should be way more common. I mean, like the court is like a 10-minute drive from here. I think there's stuff like that, programs that would really immerse students in the community around us, which is extremely strong.

[01:14:56] The Fairfax community, like you can see it at football games, the community members just go to enjoy the games. I think we should really be immersing ourselves way more or like the students way more into that because those are careers that students are looking for and they're right there.

[01:15:11] And I thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'd say like the job pair we had recently, like it really helped. I know there was a science and technology, a science and technology academy that came and that was really helpful um and like uh outside of that throughout the school year i think it would be better if schools mix social and like work because i feel like towards the beginning of the school year that's like when it all hits and then by the time like you get to second semester

[01:15:47] it's just like tireless work and like uh just waiting until summer which can feel like very tedious i would i'm not saying that we're not connected but i would make a push for even more activity and like a unified feeling of the school and i have no idea how to tackle that in the slightest you mean in grades like just in fairfax in fairfax okay just the feeling of being one school it's a huge school it's very important and also um i'm i was what everybody else was saying it got me

[01:16:25] thinking back to middle school um there were we have a lot of time here there were uh learning seminar in middle school. And there were some where kids could move around. There was like a wiffle ball. Where did you do that? I did the ping pong. There were a certain number of slots, but kids killed to do that. I mean, they really wanted to do it. And it was a great break in the day. I got wiffle ball a couple times. It was a lot of fun. If we could get a couple of things

[01:17:00] like that next Saturday. So now it's volleyball. All 7th graders are all trying to do volleyball. at a volleyball team, right? I have a male volleyball team.

[01:17:16] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, go ahead. This might be for Dr. Hay, but do we have work study still at Terifax? I mean, I remember when I was teaching here, we were talking about bringing... So this year, we actually, Mark and another student came forward and actually asked to kind of start this idea of the lion experience.

[01:17:39] So that's not work study, but it's a capstone experience for seniors that they can fill out an application for, and they can pair with a local business, a local, maybe a local government organization, a local non-profit organization, and they can fill out an application, and they will go the last two weeks of school, they'll actually be exempt from their finals to go, and they'll get that real-world application experience, understudying or shadowing the individual and getting that opportunity or experience. I think to Mark's point, what we want to do is we want to strengthen like the partnerships with more businesses and having individuals come forward this was a pilot that they advocated for about mid-year right so we

[01:18:19] kind of had to put it together pretty quickly so i think we have about 40 kids that are going to go out and do it um this year for the first time they're very excited about it we have some that are going to work at the local housing authority some that are going to work um we have one that's going to korea she's been working with orphanages over there so she's actually flying over there for two weeks to work with the non-profit she's been working with there so we have a variety of different yes I'm going to the local elementary schools and actually working that are interested in education some going to car dealerships but working in the finance office based on being in DECA and entrepreneurship and marketing right so they've kind of found their niches so that is

[01:18:55] that is really kind of like the new like like level of work study if a student has a modified schedule we can work with them like with the business and marketing classes they have an opportunity where they can have a work study period and the teacher there actually will go out and see them in the field as well and then now programs like teachers for tomorrow our advanced engineering course like we can also partner them electrical will be able to do it auto tech can do it we can partner them with a job and they can go out and have that authentic work experience yes yes and just you know my works yes Carrie

[01:19:34] and I are going to be working over the next couple of months on how we can engage more Fairfax City businesses in that process and so kids that may not have somewhere that they want to go but need something like we want to work with the city grounds team we want to work with like a lawyer or something like that so there's definitely some things that we're trying to work on to build that because we absolutely believe that these kids and the things they're doing are really cool so It's such a small community with so many opportunities, but then we are.

[01:20:07] Do you guys have anything else you'd like to share with us? Yes. I remember my computer science teacher, she does a really good job of, like, sending potential internships to us.

[01:20:26] So, like, summer opportunities just throughout the school year. So, she does a good job of connecting us to real-world experience in addition to learning stuff in class. And I appreciate that so far. That's great.

[01:20:42] Geospatial's teacher does that, too. Yeah, he's great. Shout out to our college. Shout out to Miss Anderson. Miss Kim finds every scholarship under the sun.

[01:21:01] I don't know how she does it. I had a brief conversation with her about scholarships, and she still sends me scholarships to this day. Biggest help ever. She is genuinely a repository for every college.

[01:21:19] She is. She knows everything. Dr. Reich, would you like to say a few words? Sure, and I'm going to actually ask one question. But before I do that, I would, you just heard the shout-out, but a big shout-out to Ms. Anderson and Dr. A for being here and supporting these students.

[01:21:37] And then also a big thank you to all the families that are here to support these students. Guys, you did a wonderful job tonight in the last 15 minutes. you've been active listeners you've been reflective thinkers you've been critical thinkers you've collaborated with each other you've been public speakers you've been thinking on the spot all types of skills that i don't know what you're going to do in your journey outside of i know you're going to be wildly successful and i know you're going to use these skills so this is a purposely you know complicated question but how'd you learn to do all this right everything

[01:22:14] that you just did in the last 15-20 minutes outside of having awesome teachers and awesome families like how did you learn to do what you did in the last 20 minutes anybody have a thought or a theory or a guess yeah i mean model un and just practice like i did it only like freshman year but like in this room like i learned how to speak publicly and try and cut out filler words and try and speak confidently and in addition my teachers like whenever we do like presentations It's just practice for real-world applications.

[01:22:48] So some head nods here. A very popular class freshman year for a lot of people is leadership. And I took leadership freshman year. And instead of having tests all the time, you'd have at least one presentation a month. And after that first quarter, we would do presentations where we don't even get to see the slideshow behind us that we made.

[01:23:08] So remembering it and then coming up with things on the spot, like you would delete a certain slide sometimes. you'd have to come up with something just getting that practice that year in leadership definitely i'd say just throwing yourself out there and getting comfortable with rejection a lot you know like getting that internship at the attorney like i got a lot of known responses or rejections and with throwing yourself out there like all the school board committee stuff and the board of supervisors and all that i would just go to meetings and just sit there and at first i

[01:23:44] wouldn't talk to anybody and then steadily i started talking to the assistants and like the more you realize like the more you make an effort to try and talk to someone the more people will talk to you and the better you get at like finding your way around people learning what people like to hear learning how to talk to people the right way and you really start to navigate your way through people and that's how you end up meeting like brian hill like the board of supervisor executive and that's meeting people like that and realizing like okay all you have to do is just put yourself out there and that these people really want to talk to you and that these people are excited i went to the board of supervisors meeting and they were like freaking out because i was the

[01:24:21] first student to go there in like five years like half people don't even know they're like real like they they just putting yourself out there people will notice and people will accept it and people will love it just seeing your interest and just seeing you try and i think that's really important and i think that's honestly one of the best ways to learn how to speak in front of people how to speak in front of a crowd, it's just putting yourself out there and just seeing what happens.

[01:24:48] I failed, like, man, I went to, kind of like, I walked into Wharton because the door was open, and I went to an economics, like, what was it, an economics lecture. At the very end, I was up, like, the guy was there who I went to see and talk to, and I completely froze, and I didn't say anything.

[01:25:06] And I think that was before I started everything. Ever since that day, I was like, dude, I'm just going to put myself in rooms, and I'm just going to talk. And then that's how I learned how to talk. That was still the most embarrassing moment of my life. I stood there, and I looked like a deer in headlights. And there was food, and he offered me food from the table, and I just said, thank you.

[01:25:23] And then I took it and left. And then I never turned back. Like, I was like, Mom, we're leaving. Well, you certainly are. I can speak from experience, because I've received several emails from you advocating to... And I would have loved to have had you.

[01:25:41] Yes, that's smart. We wanted to. They just said, because you weren't. They didn't think you were old. Timing was wrong. It was, yes, timing was wrong. But. But thank you for self-having. Yeah. Absolutely.

[01:25:57] And your email communication was fantastic. It was super professional. I honestly, I hadn't connected the dots between you and your mom. And I did not realize that it was you. Yeah. And then, until after, I was like, oh, my gosh.

[01:26:12] Because you were, what, like, 16 when you? I was around 16. You're doing a great job advocating for yourself. Well, I could give one last answer. I would say I had a little bit more of a variety.

[01:26:33] What definitely got me out there was freshman year English, where our teacher gave us points, actually made us speak in front of the class, and we had to get like six, it was like three points every time he spoke, he had to get 60 points by the end of each quarter.

[01:26:51] I knew it. Yeah, that's who Claire had. Yeah, and it basically became a routine to present in front of everybody in the class. And also, just like Samuel, I did a lot of UN freshman year, only freshman year.

[01:27:09] There was also a summer academy I did for the Space Coast program that we had to make a presentation presented to our little group of eight people, just peers. And our master teacher surprises us every time when he says, okay, well, you said the word, um, 103 times.

[01:27:30] That wasn't me. I was only 97. But you didn't get the idea. There you go. There's another one. 98, 98. 98. Oh, 99. And then also city council meetings.

[01:27:45] I've been doing those pretty regularly, and I've basically forced myself to not make a speech in advance, just to go with what I know. And that kind of helps because when somebody has a question, you can't look down at the paper most of the time. You've got to have it ready at the top of your head.

[01:28:02] I think I'll end on the last note. But I think it was my 8th grade civics teacher at Katherine Johnson who said you have to, like, advocate for yourself because no one else will. And I think that's what started me being able to speak on my behalf in front of others because, like, no one knows what I want to say but me.

[01:28:28] And if I care about, like, what I want to say, I'm going to do my best to try and get my message out there. I feel like you guys are not going to be the last ones to talk. Well, I think for me was my experiences. I mean, I'm still learning how to talk in front of people.

[01:28:46] But I think my experiences, like, especially, like, at elementary school and middle school, I will be, like, all the time, like, by myself, quiet, like, that shy girl. And especially, like, trying to step out of my comfort zone, I would just do the stuff that I would never thought of doing, like being in the school play while not knowing any English.

[01:29:10] So it was really cool to see, to just push myself to do stuff that I never thought of doing. So I think speaking right now, it's kind of scary, but at the same time, it's just helping to, like, every experience. We've all done a great job.

[01:29:27] Thank you so much. Really impressive. Really impressive. So we'll let you go because we are sure you have something you need to do. Oh, did you? Well, no, no, no. So I know you're graduating. I don't want to steal a trip to this letter, but please email us.

[01:29:44] Yeah. Or continue to email us. It's forward at carefaxba.com. Mark knows the email. Yes, I'm so sharp with you. It's on our website, but seriously, anything that comes up after you leave this room or if you have friends, classmates, we're, if you're, you know, you may not have the answers, but we'll take it to other people who may know.

[01:30:03] I just wanted to share, like, I never thought that it was, like, very open to students to, like, actually, like, communicate. Oh, yeah. So this is my first time hearing this. And we have a student rep, too, on our board as well. So we're going to absolutely get it.

[01:30:23] Thank you. All right. Thank you all. Take a couple.

[01:30:41] Presentation, which is the renovation conceptual design. So, Dr. Wright, do you want to start? Okay, good evening, Chair Fitches and members of the board.

[01:31:04] Thank you for your time tonight, and I would just, again, be remiss before moving on to this topic without, you know, sharing how proud I am of all of our students. That was pretty amazing and pretty inspiring, and I was just side-barring with some members of our design team.

[01:31:23] I think it's a really good, you know, that last question I asked about being curious about how they got there, how they learned some of those skills. Yes, that's content. Yes, yes, that's curriculum. Yes, that's pedagogy. And it's also environment. And so I think it's a great segue for us to be talking tonight about the type of learning environments that we want for our students.

[01:31:42] So today's discussion focuses on our elementary capital program and continues our work following the 2023 facilities conditions assessment and a 2024 bond referendum. The goal for this evening is to review where we are, to walk through the options in front of this board, and ask the board to provide clarity on direction.

[01:32:04] I would like to begin by introducing some of our design partners that are supporting this work. At this point, they're old friends. They have reserved parking spots out front. But just in case there are any guests in the room tonight, we have Molly Merleau from Mosley, who is helping us with Daniel's run.

[01:32:22] And then we have Allison Legg from Architecture, Inc., who's supporting the work at Providence Elementary School. So as we move to the next slide, I'll begin by briefly walking through the agenda. We're going to look at some of the key questions that are before the board this evening, or visit how we are arriving at this current path of where we are today.

[01:32:43] And then reviewing some of the concepts, the costs, and considerations for each school. And then we'll close with a discussion about some of our next steps. So the questions that are in front of the board today are really one question, but two versions of it.

[01:32:59] So what is the design concept that will be the direction for Daniels Run Elementary School? And then what is the design concept that will be the direction for Providence Elementary School? And as with last week's discussion, this is a directional decision, not a final design approval. So we're trying to say, help our design partners, what is the direction we want to move in?

[01:33:21] You're going to see some graphic representations tonight. The final product, I can almost assure you, will not look identical to what you're seeing tonight. There's still a lot of iteration. There's still a lot of feedback and input that needs to be thinking. But we're trying to figure out, are we trying to put an addition on this side of the building or that side of the building?

[01:33:41] Are we trying to put a really small addition or a really big addition? So those are the type of decisions that we're making this evening. And this clarity is important to avoid any delays, any added costs, and potential inefficiencies. So we want to think about how did we get here.

[01:33:57] And again, for nearly everyone in this room, this is a familiar story, but I always think it's important to review. So in 2023, the City of Fairback Schools commissioned a facilities conditions assessment to look at all four of our buildings plus green acres. And to think about what those buildings needed and what was the current state.

[01:34:18] And one of the big things that came out of there is all four of our buildings need various amounts of work on various types of systems within the buildings. But another thing that that SCA came up with is that all of our buildings, and specifically our two elementary schools, they have good bones.

[01:34:34] They have good internal structures. The foundations are strong. The internal components of the building are strong. So that makes them strong candidates for systematic renovations. So coming out of that facilities conditions assessment, we began down a path of systematic renovations at both schools.

[01:34:53] So comprehensive, everything in the building. So all of your major systems, your HVAC, your heating, your electrical, all of your fixtures throughout the school. And then thinking about potentially some small additions at each building, which would at a minimum remove the need for modular buildings on both sites.

[01:35:10] And then making sure that we have the type of designs that we're looking for in the future. So based on that direction, the work began on the current path that we're going down. In 2024, the voters in the city of Fairfax approved a $220 million bond at a 69% approval rate.

[01:35:26] The language on the bond referendum was just related to school construction, but a lot of the outreach that the city of Fairfax schools did was talking specifically about elementary school renovations and work on the roof here at the high school. And so the program that we're working towards reflects a significant community investment, and it's also reflecting the community's expectation that we deliver high-quality learning environments, responsible use of funds, and long-term value.

[01:35:56] On the next slide, we'll see where that current program is. And I apologize that our screen is a little cut off, but because I said that, it magically fixed itself. I don't know if you know how powerful I am. but what you see is the current program that the city of fairfax schools prior to my arrival began and where we are right now and that includes again those renovations at both of our elementary schools and some work here at fairfax dedicated to the roof you can see estimated costs and you're going to hear me use the word estimate and emphasize that that this is the cost of where

[01:36:35] we are right now these are it's inevitable that these are going to shift potentially in both directions over the course of this project based on various factors, but this gives us a ballpark idea and then you can see the estimated timelines for completion. It's my belief that these timelines are achievable if we maintain the momentum of where we are right now. And then the last thing we'll do just as a review is that renovation process. So if you've been to any of our meetings where we've looked to engage with our stakeholders, we've seen some version of

[01:37:08] this slide that talks about the process so we begin with issuing contracts right now we're in conceptual design and then we're going to continue throughout the process as we move forward we are currently finishing that concept design phase and that's where board direction is critical and impactful but again i would remind everyone that decisions at this stage can directly influence cost and scope and schedule but they're not final design decisions the last thing i would say before we move out this slide is to emphasize how much engagement has taken place so far just since the

[01:37:45] architecture and engineering contracts were issued in Mosley and Architecture Inc. There's been significant staff engagement, community engagement, and then also the most fun part has been some of the student engagement. You've still got a little snippet of that this evening. So the what I'm going to do for this next section is present the options at both schools and I'm just going to keep going through both of them and then i'll turn it over to the board for however you want to structure your conversation but we'll look at daniel's run first and then we'll move on to projects so as we

[01:38:20] look to daniel's run and we'll go ahead one more slide to get an overview of the project and the team that's supporting us so this is our team from mosley you can see some of the project leads again molly's here tonight and some of the contractors that they work with and then you'll see on the the next slide some of the basics of our project here so this is an overhead shot of this of the site yeah the current enrollment is approximately 756 students this building dates back to 1956 when it was the original Layton Hall elementary school and you can see the approximate size for square footage and

[01:38:56] the acreage of the site now Mosley has done a wonderful job of presenting several concepts for us to consider but we're going to go through each of them individually but you can see three concepts that are all again i want to emphasize the you're going to see where some of the additions to the building are tonight but i can't emphasize enough that every other part of the building even if the shell of it stays the same will be gone through top to bottom and so what we're going to be looking at is does this meet our baseline needs is it but what are also

[01:39:33] some of the differences in circulation, flexibility, and construction approach, and we want to understand the advantages and trade-offs of each option. And that's where we'll go next in this project. So we're going to look at option one first. And I would say one more thing about Daniel's run, too, is that we have some significant limitations with the site.

[01:39:57] So there's a lot of open green space, which is a great feature of our school, but a significant amount of that is in a floodplain. So when you think about, and Dr. Wright, can we expand out the back of the school?

[01:40:13] Do we have any options there? They are very limited at the site because of that floodplain, and that's something that, again, our design partners at Mosley have, I think, done a really nice job of working through. So we'll go ahead, Ms. King, we'll go ahead one more slide. So we're going to start by looking at concept one, which you can see has two small editions.

[01:40:35] There's a one-story edition in the front and then a two-story edition in the front. And as we look at the next slide, you'll be able to see some of the advantages and disadvantages of this option. And I'm not going to go through and read through every single bullet on each of these.

[01:40:55] But, you know, one of the things to consider on this one is it does a really nice job of maintaining grade-level neighborhoods. so there's enough flexibility in the building to have that educational continuity. And it minimizes the demolition of existing structures, so it utilizes a lot of the original building.

[01:41:13] And then it's really strategic about how it places spaces throughout the building. Some of the considerations are it's still going to limit some of the circulation in the building. Any new stairway will only be limited to two stories and not three stories. And it would have the least amount of new roof space, which would limit if we want to look at PV arrays, so solar arrays on the building.

[01:41:38] The smoothest path to that is new roof space, and so it has the most limited amount of that. As we look at concept two, and our board members have, we have one image here. Our board members have significant amounts of additional images to help these concepts come to life.

[01:41:58] This is a two-story addition on the right side of the building. And then some work within our courtyard space are the major structural changes to the building. And then there's significant reconfiguring within the building. So this has some strong advantages where it looks at doing some restructuring over the courtyards.

[01:42:18] There would be a translucent corridor connecting the two courtyards that enhances circulation. It has some great options in those courtyards for some covered outdoor classrooms. You just heard our students on the panel talking about that. This one specifically looks at where our SAT classrooms are and moving it farther down in the building towards the addition.

[01:42:40] And that's a really good example of a feature that is in Concept2, but it really could be in any of the concepts. And then, again, it tries to be really strategic about where staff workrooms, office spaces, small group instruction spaces are placed throughout the building.

[01:43:00] When we think about considerations again since it's only it will not connect all three stories of the building and then there's a just additional cost and compilation complications with demolition of the One-story wing and our first-grade factions are currently happening and then finally we're going to look at concept three concept three is a three-story addition that would have Two stories above-grade and then a third-story extension on that lower level that's kind of built in the hill down near where the playground is.

[01:43:37] It increases connections and circulations throughout the building and would have a new stair connecting all three levels. So it would add to the other three-level stair back by the cafeteria in June. And it creates extended learning opportunities beyond our traditional classroom spaces in the building.

[01:43:55] And it does a really nice job of grouping together all of our specials classes. Our music classrooms are grouped down near the gym, and I think that would allow some really great options and some really great flow through the building. When we think about considerations on the next slide, there are additional costs to that three-story addition, but it provides a significant amount of flexibility and a significant amount of flexible spaces for our students and our staff moving forward through the next 30 to 40 years which is going to be the expected lifespan of this building. The

[01:44:32] last thing that we'll look at with Daniel's run are some of the estimated costs and so what you're going to see here is all three of the estimated costs side by side on the top part of the screen you see what in the school construction and renovation world we call hard costs. So those are the actual construction costs.

[01:44:53] And then below you're going to see soft costs, which is our architects, our permits, our project management, all those different things. And then some contingency work and then funding for FF&E, furniture, fixtures, and equipment. You can see that generally speaking, all three concepts are relatively close to total cost. And so given that minimal difference, the decision is less about cost and more about long-term functionality and value. Based on the information available and the stakeholder feedback, it would be my recommendation to move forward with Concept 3 for Daniel's Run. It provides some of the strongest overall circulation with a full three-level

[01:45:32] connection. It has an efficient use of the site footprint, it has greater long-term flexibility for the building, and it has the most opportunities for sustainable features. Again, this option best aligns, I think, with what has expressed to me as the goals of future-ready design, functionality, and long-term value for Daniels Run.

[01:45:52] Okay, so before we move to any discussion, I also want to provide a similar set of information for Providence Elementary School. And again, this has been a really wonderful journey, similar to the wonderful partner we have in Mosley at Daniels Run.

[01:46:10] Architecture Inc. is supporting our work at Providence Elementary School. And Allison Lake is here to represent and to help us out during the discussion part of this evening. You'll see at Providence Elementary School some of those same basic details that you saw with Daniel's run, where you have the overall enrollment, the original construction of Germantown Elementary School, and the various improvements and additions that have happened over the years.

[01:46:39] Additionally, you can see some basic details and statistics for the building and the site. Of note is the baseball fields in the back of the school, that's school property, and those baseball fields are managed by our partners at Parks and Recreation.

[01:46:55] So you're going to see four concepts for Providence Elementary School, and we'll walk through each of them right now to talk about what are some of the advantages and what are some of the considerations. So we're going to go to the next slide and start with concept one, and I always fumble when I try and say this, so I'm going to say it really slowly.

[01:47:17] This one has received the name of many, many additions. So many, many additions. So you'll see multiple small additions throughout the site. So you can see an expansion off the back of the library. You can see at the back of the school a two-level addition that adds additional classroom spaces.

[01:47:38] You can see on the right side of the school, near the existing blacktop, a one-level expansion that would provide extra room for our specials classes. And then you finally see some extra work at our cafeteria area.

[01:47:54] And then that front bump out of the building is probably the best way to describe it. And that's a two-level addition that would help expand the square footage in all of those classrooms on that front part of the building. That's the original part of Germantown. And the square footage for classrooms in 1956 was a little bit smaller than our needs are now.

[01:48:13] So it really helps modernize that space. One thing before moving on is that I would, similar to Daniel's run, Providence would experience outside of these additions systematic renovation throughout all parts of the building. And the existing parts of the building that are not these blue additions would still receive those top to bottom new systems, new fixtures, upgrades, and facelifts.

[01:48:39] Two other things is that all of our options look at reconfiguring the cafeteria. Right now it's a very unique L shape, which provides some challenges for layout, supervision, and functionality. So it would move it to a more square, rectanglish shape.

[01:48:54] And then all of our options would spend some time reconfiguring Kiss and Ride in the parking lot. If you've ever been able to visit Providence Elementary School, you know that the way that it's structured as you're actually entering on the non-traditional side of the road.

[01:49:12] So you have to channel your inner European driver to go and know how to move through that part of that parking lot. So all of the concepts that we would look at would address those. So when we look at concept one, you can see some of the advantages and considerations.

[01:49:32] You know, the impacts during construction, the ability to kind of transform in front of the school, and cost effectiveness. It would need some reconfiguration of the bus access, but that's really fairly minor But one of the things that we heard a lot from the feedback similar to Daniel's run of wanting to connect all three floors is Having the second floor of Providence be able to connect right now if you know the building It's like a v-shape, and there's no way to get around completely at school, which has lots of Actual day-to-day implications for our students and our staff

[01:50:10] Can you clarify, or let me just let you clarify, the addition that's on the back side by the blacktop that's out back, what is that supposed to be? So that would be one story, and that would be, in this concept we're proposing, it would be music and moving art, since art is a little undersized.

[01:50:35] And that blacktop space wouldn't be lost. It would be relocated maybe planned north of the gym where there's not a field that is utilizing that space right now. Okay, and one more clarification. So I'm assuming it's the blue area that's where currently I think it's like basketball on the playground is on the right-hand side.

[01:51:01] What is that? That's what she was just referring to. Oh, I mean on the back side, like the blacktop kind of wraps around the back. So back towards, I'm just going to walk up. Yeah, I'm sorry. Oh, it's okay. I'm sorry.

[01:51:17] Yeah, it's okay. So right here? Yes. So this would be a two-level addition. It's essentially probably, it's like, it ends up being four classrooms and some small, flexible space. So two classrooms on the bottom, two classrooms on the bottom.

[01:51:33] Okay, and on the back, to the right, that's the art in these, okay? Yeah, and that would be a one-level addition. That's cool. And the library's a one-level? It would stay, it would be at the same height as that library. It's like a, it's a double, you know, it's a big one open space, so it's a high ceiling there.

[01:51:53] So one of the things that, and this applies to all of our programs, is that we're looking at something called educational specifications, or ed specs, which are a guide for schools to say you need this much library space.

[01:52:10] Ideally, you would have this much classroom space. Ideally, you would have this much teacher lounge space. So our designers have done a great job of looking at that, coming up with a program or a programmatic design. And so this pitches in that. In this version, you see that expansion of the library there to try and gain.

[01:52:29] Our library is currently a little energized, so probably in some of the other concepts, The library still increases, it just happens on the interior of the building. Great questions. So we're going to look at concept number two. And concept number two is still an on-grade addition.

[01:52:48] So it means that we're building everything just straight up from the ground. And I'm going to just work through the three sections of it. On the far right of the screen, you have a small, modest, one-story addition. That is, again, some of those special spaces that you heard this lake talking about.

[01:53:07] Just not as large as the other one. And then the biggest thing that you have is a really significant two-story addition that goes out the back of the building. When you would walk into this space, and some of the other materials you have have renderings of this. You would walk into a large open atrium-type space with a translucent roof that would still allow natural light to come in.

[01:53:27] And then you would go to two levels of classroom spaces. So I think it's five classrooms per level, so it adds close to ten classrooms and five or four houses. But it's additional classroom spaces, and there's the appropriate office spaces or small group spaces back there.

[01:53:48] So that's your large addition. Seven. Seven. So 14 total. So it's a large addition back there. Would anything change on the interior of the building where the previous concept had to bump out to help those, I mean, since we're gaining seven additional classrooms, is there something that would be done on the interior to?

[01:54:14] On this concept? Yeah, to reconfigure those classrooms. Not in the front of those buildings. Okay. So, you know, what the true answer is, we can do whatever we want, but we have some limitations, right? So, one of the ways, and we'll look at prices of this in a minute, one of the, so any of the blue things that you see have pretty specific prices to them.

[01:54:40] And so, there is the ability to take, well, we like this and we don't like that. So, that's possible, but it's all going to have a cost. What I'm saying is, so, on the front of the building, leaving it just as it is, but like we said, the classroom spaces were smaller.

[01:54:59] when this building was done in this concept they're gonna remain smaller so they would just okay so there would be like any thinking out walls combining classrooms nothing like that I mean that would not there's a little bit of it that could happen but we can't substantially change the foot I just wanted to make sure yes that's a great question and the bump out ones also increases the quantity of classrooms so they might get a little bit larger but really it's our way of adding in an additional one because we needed it so if we look at some of the

[01:55:36] advantages and considerations that large addition is really the focal spot of it it has you know that atrium space that you would walk into would be a new space for large group gatherings but i would say it would not be big enough to have full school assemblies the if we miss king if we get back up one slide. This concept also includes something that our design team has been referring to as a sky bridge, which would be a second story only connection across the courtyard.

[01:56:07] And it would have a larger space in the middle where it could be an instructional space, it could be a gathering space, but it would be limited in size. I would just caution everybody in that. And so that's one of the other options. So if we go ahead one slide, we'll see the advantages and considerations.

[01:56:27] I would not choose this option for it. This is, but that first bullet that you see is by building that large addition in the back, it provides you some flexibility around a swing space. So once those classrooms are constructed, they can really be constructed with minimal impact on the rest of the building.

[01:56:46] And then when we need to work on the rest of the building, classrooms can cycle throughout that space. There would still need to be a use for modulars or trailers on the site. But that would provide some flexibility. In terms of considerations, it will most certainly cause us to lose one of the baseball fields back there.

[01:57:06] It's the most expensive. And there's some pretty significant relocating of existing rooms. They would still be there, but they would be relocated with the communications room, which is kind of where all of our servers are now need to be moved. That's a little bit about concept two.

[01:57:24] And then concept three is what has been termed by our design teams as a vertical expansion. So you'll see on the bottom right of the screen is some small, modest additions to the cafeteria, which helps with that reconfiguration that would be happening.

[01:57:41] And then a large two-story addition. This large two-story addition out by the blacktop provides additional classroom spaces, additional music and art spaces. And then it also connects the entire second floor. So there will be a vertical expansion on top of our first floor, so a building on top of the existing first floor on that part of the building.

[01:58:04] And then this concept also includes some vertical expansion over, think about where the administrative suites are, building on top of that. So, again, you have additional space on the second floor. As we look at the advantages and considerations, lots of flexible spaces, lots of circulation areas.

[01:58:23] we talked about that second floor connector it would allow for a potential expansion that that option that we were just looking at in concept two where we go out the building it still allows for expansion if the knowledge school ever needed to grow in size in terms of consideration all that vertical expansion adds some complexity in terms of building so you cannot have anybody underneath the second floor while they're building it so it would just provide some some just complicated phasing that our builders and our design teams would have to work through as they set the building up

[01:59:02] and then finally we started with three concepts and based on some of the feedback that we're hearing from the schools we looked at a fourth concept with some of the feedback that we're hearing from the community and this ended up with what you see which is kind of a combination so when we were talking about moving things around, or can we have a little bit of this on Concept 2, this is kind of how we ended up with Concept 4.

[01:59:29] So what you're seeing here is that large two-story addition on the right side of the screen that still connects to the second floor. You're seeing that sky bridge across the courtyard, and then you're seeing that bump out on the front side of the building. And that's Concept 4. So a lot of the things that I've described previously from other concepts, They're just kind of put together in a different model here for concept four.

[01:59:53] As we look at the advantages and considerations, it just kind of combines some of those advantages that you were able to hear from previous versions. And so the last thing before I stop talking is we'll look at just some of the cost for Providence overall.

[02:00:11] You can see the range in the concepts, so it's a little bit of a wider range than Daniel's run. But I still think all of these represent a balanced approach between cost and program enhancements. My recommendation for this board, again, based on the information available and stakeholder feedback, I would recommend concept four for Providence, but without the sky bridge.

[02:00:35] I think it provides strong flexibility for improved circulation, and those multiple second floor connections are powerful. And it creates some opportunity to expand older classrooms and modernize the building frontage. And then removing that sky bridge allows us to reallocate those resources to higher priority needs that this board might identify and maintain the integrity of the overall design.

[02:00:57] And it just helps us continue to think about value within the project budget. And hopefully that any of these approaches that we would go with, I think, provide a good balance of quality, cost, and long-term functionality. I'll just return to those key questions on the next slide before the board.

[02:01:16] You heard some of the analysis and the recommendations. Again, all of this is based on trying to maintain alignment with the original bond approach, deliver strong educational and facility outcomes, and balance costs of long-term value for our city, and most importantly, for our students.

[02:01:36] I think at this point, we have a lot of information that will allow us to move forward with confidence, but it will be important to stay on track and avoid unnecessary delays, which could lead to those cost escalations. I'm happy to answer questions, feedback, discussion. We've got the two pros here to help us out with all of that.

[02:01:55] And the goal is to ensure alignment before moving forward. So I really appreciate the board's engagement throughout the last several months of this process. I look forward to a great conversation this evening. Okay, so I think how we'll do this is we'll ask questions first, and then I'll ask board members for their preference for concepts for both schools.

[02:02:18] Selfishly, I'm going to ask the first question. And I never get to. We're doing whatever questions you have. You can just ask them all at once and indicate which school, what concepts you're asking about.

[02:02:35] So for Providence, concept four, will there be anything done with the library? Because I know the other wouldn't be an internal. Yes, absolutely. All the concepts, the library will be expanded.

[02:02:50] it's about a thousand square feet below the ed spec so yes in every concept the library will be expanded so in concept four we're proposing to expand the library sort of within the administrative office spaces in this one the communications room which kind of anchors the admin office will remain as is because it's quite expensive to redo all that cabling however any of those admin spaces that are displaced would be redistributed or found within another area of either the existing footprint or the addition so we

[02:03:29] would not even though they would be displaced we would not lose them as an amenity for okay and I was just a real quick sorry to interrupt is just that the both projects a lot of these there are questions of hey what would that look like there are and materials that you have designs or layouts of what that could actually look like that's been provided to you and I would say concepts two three or four for Providence

[02:04:00] what will the increase in capacity program capacity would be yeah so all of them are we've been shooting for a capacity of around a thousand students and so the these additional spaces that at Providence. So it's a mix, you know, what you're seeing, I would say, on both projects is having that capacity right around 1,000, but also having all of the program requirements that those educational specifications have and having those flexible spaces or those small group spaces.

[02:04:38] So Providence has about 1,000 students in it right now, but as all of you know from spending time, they teach in every nook and corner of the building, so it's actually providing more dedicated spaces for

[02:04:50] Allison is that a good way to say it yeah and there are a lot of spaces that are being used as classrooms but they're actually undersized so this project would kind of right size those spaces so the students could fit in there they could have more area to kind of be comfortable and focus on learning so even though maybe the capacity isn't increasing that drastically the spaces are now going to be right sized for for the students and teachers to work in there were many spaces in providence that were

[02:05:29] once open spaces that were then closed in to make classrooms we called them i think they called them wet or wet dry areas um will any of those be reopened okay yeah we have um proposed that some of them be reopened sort of as um collaboration space um i think that was part of concept three which was also carried into concept four is how do we use every um inch of the building for learning opportunities and so corridors right are essential for circulation but they're often

[02:06:06] underutilized when you know people aren't moving around so trying to open up parts of the corridor so they become breakout spaces so we've kind of coined some terms you know um like a welcome Welcome Commons right at the main entry of a reading Commons outside the library the area that you're speaking of That's kind of in the wing that was closed in we are calling that a learning Commons So trying to incorporate these many moments throughout the building So we're using circulation because we need it, but there's also opportunity for teachers or the librarian

[02:06:45] To pull students out or even you know teachers to use this space to engage and it could be very flexible um so trying to recapture some of that in a purposeful way and for daniel's run my question is um are we trying to look at like um sort of like a commentary because i feel like daniel's run never really had a commentary providence is doesn't really either it's a little bit more like when you walk into providence there is like a open space or we don't have any

[02:07:23] seating or anything like that will that be possible at daniel's run i know you guys have challenge right the challenge is twofold I think probably with both schools with the program that we're working with does not include any square footage in the programming for those kind of common spaces so like Allison was saying we're trying to look at where are opportunities in the building maybe off of corridors in some places like this enlarged library area is true in all of

[02:08:01] these that's one area that has been recognized as an opportunity area have larger gathering spaces we looked at some concepts where we had that open to the corridors and had a little bit more of kind of that open feeling to it but the feedback that we got from staff was that in an elementary school they really preferred more of a sound barrier so we might have some more visual connection still looking for opportunities for those wow moments in kids spaces and we are looking at the main entry and how can we open that up a bit more how can we

[02:08:39] make these courtyards more functional and transparent and and useful with coverings being able to have some more gathering outdoor amphitheater space but though there's a desire for a large gathering space it's just not really in the program, so we're looking for smaller moments and collaborative areas and flexible learning spaces as we can fit them in within the building.

[02:09:05] Great, thank you. Ms. Barlow, I have a few questions. I spent a long time with the drawings, I think. Okay. Is that right? I've got a few questions.

[02:09:22] With regard to Daniel's run, just to confirm, concept one and concept two are limited stairway access. Concept 3 would be all three. Correct. And does concept 3 also move the stack classrooms at concept 2? So that was, there were plus and minus to that. Any of them we can still reconfigure and move the stack if that is decided as we get into schematics. So like Dr. Wright was saying, there's still a lot of movement within the building possible. It's the general concept of

[02:10:01] how we want things, but if it comes back that there's a strong preference for SAC to be further from the entry area, we can do that, and that also might come up with looking at the revised main entrance area. We might need to relocate SAC anyway to enlarge that area.

[02:10:17] And then the library space, is that staying the footprint? Is that staying the same? So it's being enlarged. Oh, okay. So in all of them, it's kind of wrapping around the courtyard there and making that more transparent, reconfiguring the stair when you come in.

[02:10:34] There's a lot of wasted space with that odd angle, so really opening that up and making it a more open stair. We looked at learning stair concepts, but it was felt that it wasn't as necessary at the elementary school for that space, but to have an open communicating stair that was a little more efficient, that we could then take some of that space for extended learning beside it, And then also have a two-story volume for the library with the story area beside the stair and having some more connection to the courtyard and some transparency that way.

[02:11:10] Really looking at making that a destination and kind of school moment and expanding it. And then with how many classrooms? So at Daniel's Run, if you're looking straight classrooms, we're only adding one classroom to what's currently there.

[02:11:35] Across all three classrooms? All of the programs are the same in all three concepts, so there's not really a change in number of rooms in any of them. It's just kind of where they are and how they're configured, but as you know, there's like a preschool program, so when we say there are six kindergarten rooms, the reality is currently two of them are preschool rooms, but they're going to be termed kindergarten rooms, and in schematics, we may decide with Dr. Wright, if you'd rather see them labeled per how they're being used currently or if we want to keep them labeled for the ed specs whatever will make sense going forward we can look at that but in the

[02:12:14] program analysis at the end of schematics you'll see how it lines up with the ed specs and then what the use is for the school you'll be able to see those side by side yes and it will be comparable to what you have at Providence so there'll be parity between them so they're both going to be around and that's in student capacity.

[02:12:40] And then for Providence, for Concept 2, when you were talking with our community the other night, you mentioned that there was an expansion across all three concepts for the cafeteria, but I didn't see it in Concept 2.

[02:12:56] How is that being modified for Concept 2? So we don't show it in those blue massing. those were kind of meant to show where the footprint is increasing but and as we move into SD basically we would kind of rework the entire inside so take out the guts even address structure in there and maybe reconfigure the kitchen so it's not so long and skinny maybe it becomes a

[02:13:33] bit more condensed more like a square which allows uh the current orientation of the cafeteria which is kind of my more of like an l shape to become more of a square shape so we haven't figured out all the details but it's probably going to involve some structurally working and maybe something to do with the roof too and then um and i think i saw in your plans that you're adding four additional classrooms across all kinds four additional classrooms but it's actually a little bit more

[02:14:08] because we do have the two trailers and there are a couple of classrooms that are undersized right now that were kind of you know used a teacher's work room or used a smaller space so um they're actually going to be i believe i have six including the trailers probably eight because there are two

[02:14:41] classrooms that are currently undersized they were just kind of as dr wright said found space so Right. And with Concept 3 and the hybrid Concept 4, I noticed you're taking away some of those classrooms who create the little most, those interactive areas where kids and the full-off students.

[02:15:06] They're being relocated. They're not being taken away. Sorry, thank you for correcting my term there. I think the last thing I'm just curious about, the sky bridge. Sell me on this. I'm having a hard, like, I've done a lot of renovations in my house and i realized renovating a school is very different right now but like but i'm having it what's that i mean yeah that sounds really cool um but like what like what does that look like and

[02:15:39] what and how have school how have other schools used it it's like um i see in the plans it's connecting one side from the other essentially having another touch point between the two sides but um so mute so think of um like an overpass right like if you're taking the metro and you have to cross you know the freeway to get to parking think of something like that but in a

[02:16:12] more thoughtful like engaging way with you know the environment um we heard a lot of feedback about how the courtyard was just really this beloved place for the school and we also heard this challenge of just not being able to connect on the second floor right the first floor is this great loop and then the second floor doesn't offer that and there as dr. Wright mentioned some of the considerations when doing a

[02:16:49] vertical expansion is how do we build over occupied space and so kind of our solution to that was well can we connect somewhere else right so can we connect maybe through the courtyard so we want to solve this problem by giving this continuous loop circulation but we also don't want to impact too greatly like what is happening on the courtyard so kind of treading lightly having a lighter touch on it. So it's this kind of element that can span across the courtyard. It's obviously

[02:17:26] not going to float. We're going to need some kind of structure that anchors it to the ground, but it would be more of a light thing. People could still pass through and still use the courtyard very similarly to how it is now, but just addressing that concern of circulation. But then along with the same concept right like we need circulation we need to be able to move through the space but how can we utilize circulation in another way and so maybe it becomes a little bit larger in one area and you know people could students could come or teachers could come and

[02:18:04] use it as a place to collaborate or learn outside of the classroom so what's the current square footage of the courtyard right now and then with the sky bridge like what does that take take i used to take out quotations more just like thinking about because you're putting a second story walkway over that then it's i mean i imagine that might like we do a lot of gardening in there and so how would that impact you know the sun and and access i don't know the square footage um off the top of my head but that's something that i can definitely get for you but we did do sun studies

[02:18:40] because that was something that was of a concern for us for any of the concepts right like how does it impact the courtyard and light and stuff so you're right that a sky bridge having some sort of built structure through that is going to impact it at certain times of the day and we included those on studies um so so so one can we just clarify all right we would only be getting

[02:19:20] one classroom to daniel's run but an additional capacity can you explain how that works so we're looking at adding to new music rooms and a new art room so those are some of the support spaces that might be in current classrooms so you're reallocating those back as classrooms but then bringing in new spaces so you're getting more new rooms than just classrooms but it's how you're utilizing those spaces that's really thank you I just want to clarify for the public because I know we've kept saying, there's four new rooms, but classrooms.

[02:19:55] Right, but there's also additional support spaces. Like, there's not built-in work rooms at Daniel's Run. You know, those are out in the corridors of those large areas, so we'll have four work rooms that are enclosed for teachers to be able to utilize there and distributed through the school.

[02:20:12] So it's really reconfiguring some of the space, both for support and teaching and specials. And then I saw this as a question for both of you. So I saw in one of the concepts, I didn't write down which one, about in Daniel's room being able to do some solar panel or a community section.

[02:20:29] Is that something that would be able to be done in both schools in multiple concepts or only in certain ones? I'll take a stab at that at first. So a couple things. Anywhere where we have new construction, which is we're building brand new from the ground up, which means we can design the roof the way that we want.

[02:20:57] would have the ability to have solar on there right now. So you saw on some of the Daniels Run renderings, you know, on those additions, we could do solar there. It's my understanding that the rest of the Daniels Run roof right now is not currently structured for solar in the existing parts of the building.

[02:21:17] Providence, similar thing. It's something that we can look at with any of the new construction. And then we're fortunate that however they did the addition, the newer parts of the building, that it actually is solar ready. I think the most appropriate way to say it is that it gives us the option to do solar.

[02:21:38] Solar is a complicated process. So I would say that it's something that we can, having the option is what we would probably want on any of these, on as much of our buildings as possible. Because then you get into power purchase agreements and licensing contracts and all those different things.

[02:21:58] But the actual new additions and then a good chunk of Providence will have some options for it. Did I get close? And that's exactly what I would answer. And I would back up, Dr. Wright. Anything new will be solar ready so that whether or not the panels go in day one or maybe they get worked out after that, they would be easily placed on there.

[02:22:23] And then actually, Dr. Wright, my second question is for you. What would you say kind of rose to the top in the more recent community listening sessions public in terms of what they're looking for? So I would say for both the connections of the buildings, so that three-level connection that Daniel's run, and then that connecting the top floor had a lot of positive feedback.

[02:22:56] i would say you know the the addition of spaces which may so again you asked a great question to molly of hey one classroom but but there's a lot of spaces being added so that additional space which then allows for three to four teacher work through throughout the building flexible teaching spaces throughout the building is something that that really rose to the top and i think that you You know, but also, you know, there's, I'm trying to think about the right way to rephrase this.

[02:23:31] People, you know, there's aspects of both buildings that people like a lot, too. So, like, not, you know, having them still feel like Providence, having them still feel like Daniel's Run is something that we heard as well. Anything to add to that in terms of what came through from Q&A? Yeah, I think the flexibility, I think, just space for flexibility.

[02:23:51] Those run? Daniel's run on Concept 2 and Concept 3. The only true difference in the bigger part of the additions is one's three-story, one's two-story.

[02:24:08] Correct? Correct. But it's same square footage and all that, basically. The addition's a little bit larger. Well, they're similar because the floor plan of two is a little bit larger because it's only two-story.

[02:24:27] Three actually has a smaller footprint, but it's three-story. So there's similar square footages, but different configurations. And then on concept two, on concept two, you show a bridge in the courtyards?

[02:24:50] Well, it's not. What is the circle? Because I see it's something that's already there you're taking out. So in concept two, it's removing the multipurpose science classroom that's there. And it's going, yeah, so it's demolishing that classroom to extend the courtyard to make it more of a connected, larger one courtyard, but still maintaining the circulation path with more of a transparent, glazed corridor on either side.

[02:25:21] So you have that circulation, but you could open it up and be able to get access to the courtyard there. So it's more of a wall, kind of. It's a wall. Think of it as a glass walkway. Okay, that's what I'm saying. Is it a walkway or is it a wall? A glass walkway. Okay. Yes.

[02:25:37] Got it. That's what I was trying to say. It's a covered, enclosed glass. It would only be one story, correct? Correct. Okay. Just one story. Okay. Because there's not a second story across from it. Yeah. Okay. And then at Providence, on the bump outs, the bump outs only on the front.

[02:25:59] So those class sizes will be slightly enlarged. On the other side of that hallway, there's still going to be the smaller side? Does that make sense what I'm trying to get in? Yes. So right now, the classrooms are kind of rectangular this way, and the longer side of the rectangle is parallel to the corridor.

[02:26:23] So when we're doing the bump-outs, we're proposing to rotate it the other way. So the short side of the rectangle is parallel to the corridor. So when we do that, we're able to increase the number of classrooms that are there.

[02:26:40] So they will increase slightly, but it's more that we needed to get more classrooms in there. So that is really what is taking up the additional square footage. I think we're going from maybe like four to six.

[02:26:55] I was just trying to figure out the thinking behind, like if there was any other kind of change to the backside of it then. So the backside would not stay, but the classrooms are, you know, with typically we like to say within 5% to 10% of the ed spec is an acceptable range to be in.

[02:27:17] And pretty much 95% of all the classrooms are, that were designed to be a classroom, are within that acceptable. Okay, at Providence then also, the courtyard, are we changing the way, like, because I know Daniel's run, we've seen some specs for, like, making it friendly for the lower preschool special eds and stuff like that.

[02:27:47] And so are we changing the Providence Courtyard at all other than this side bridge? We want to enhance the courtyard, but we're not proposing to do anything radical at this point.

[02:28:02] But that is definitely the next step as we move into design to figure out what is there because there are so many wonderful elements of it. um not take away anything that is really beloved by either the the staff students or the community but just try to enhance it right make it a little bit more usable or accessible or whatever those needs may be okay they just love the decks that come every year so that's why i'm just i i know if i don't ask that question it would definitely be refreshed and upgraded and replaced where necessary i don't think we're looking at any major structural changes but you saw a dangerous run and provide some potential structural changes to the layout.

[02:28:42] And, okay, and then the Sky Bridge, my question there is, this could be the selling point for me, is there a way, I just know, I'm originally from Missouri, and we have at Union Station connecting one building to another over this big highway, a bridge that walks, and you can go up and down the bridge, and the kids love crossing over the road, and all that, this obviously doesn't have a road.

[02:29:12] Is there a way, if you're on the bridge, though, to then come down to the courtyard? Because that would make it much easier for the second-floor people to get to the courtyard. Or are we thinking it's just a pool, is what you're thinking? Well, not just a pool.

[02:29:27] Five-man's pool? Yeah. I know a lot of elementary kids that would love to go down a fireman's pool. I will not say the teachers, but the kids probably do. I would insist on a zip line. I think right now, if you look at just a first-level addition, would definitely be something that comes down in the courtyard by structure but not okay and i think there's some you know uh abilities to do some design work around that structure um allison's going to freak out because you know i you know remember i i actually did not recommend this guy so but i'm going to paint a picture of it like you know that that top circle part could be a big

[02:30:04] translucent space where teachers can come and do read-alouds and the bottom structural part could It looked like the trunk of a tree with different aspects of Daniel's run. Think about the sculpture at Radcliffe Park, right? Like, it could be a real focal point of the school. But, again, it would definitely have cost implications.

[02:30:23] And we want to be thoughtful about how that meeting space in the middle, how big that could actually be because of some of the things that Accessory brought up. Would it really then just, you know, would there be a big shadow in the courtyard at all the time? Or would it take up a lot of that space?

[02:30:40] i think it's just some some things to be thoughtful yeah no i get that and to me it's very sunny courtyard which also if you're teaching out there a shadow might be nice i don't want to teach up in the burning hot sun um okay that was my question then that's all i have All right, so I will ask the board members what happened to them.

[02:31:06] I think Christina. Oh, you have a follow-up question. And I have a follow-up question. You're sitting next to me. And I have a couple of follow-up questions, too. I'm constantly looking at me because she's made me paranoid about the whole. Yes, I'm sorry. Do you have one? What are you asking her for?

[02:31:23] I just have a question since there has been a lot of skybridge discussion. So my understanding, procedurally, is that these are big picture designs that have a next phase with lots of details.

[02:31:38] We need to pick which option we're going with. If we follow the recommendation and do option four, can we leave the SkyBridge decision to when we're going into the details, or is that something that we need to say?

[02:31:55] We have to accept it as... But could we say we're doing option four and SkyBridge up for discussion? Yeah, so I think it's possible that we would just, so we would just have to know sooner rather than later because there's design implications where the sky bridge connects to either side.

[02:32:19] If it stays in, then it causes, there needs to be a spot for it to enter the hallway, which takes up classroom space, right? If we don't have it, then the designers will start working through and put classrooms there. So it's probably something that could potentially allow for some decision time.

[02:32:38] Throughout this process, you're going to hear about something called add alts or add alternates. So we could say, you know, here's the price of it, and then if you wanted to add this part on, there's an additional cost. And those are typically things that you can add on and decide later on in the project, right?

[02:32:58] They're like additional bells and whistles. This is one where there's actually some design and structural implications. So I think tonight, if we get a direction on a concept, I think we'll be okay. We just can't spend too much time on the deliberations about the sky bridge.

[02:33:15] And I'll look down. I'm trying to determine how red I'm making Allison right now. No, I'm already like, I just said that. But I think if we get some direction on a concept that, and really it's, oh, we need a little more time on just this part, I think we can get the team started.

[02:33:35] And at this phase, I think Molly said it maybe in our last meeting, it's all these puzzle pieces, right? And we have to figure out, it's our job to figure out how they all fit together in a way that makes sense, in a way that's functional, in a way that's beautiful, and that makes a great space.

[02:33:53] So right now, my brain is already thinking, okay, well, these puzzle pieces, right? Which can we move around that should the SkyBridge be in today? Okay, we can design it a certain way with these puzzle pieces that are the most flexible.

[02:34:11] And then, you know, in a month or whenever it flip-flops, well, we already know that this is kind of the question mark of the project. And so we have a solution that we can easily just say, okay, well, the hard part is building the walls, right?

[02:34:26] And we know that these maybe might be in flux. So where can we have some flexibility to just move things around should the decision go one way or the other? So now is the time to take the moments and be thoughtful about the decision on bid day when the drawings are out and we get a number back from the contractor, that would be a more challenging time to then make a different decision.

[02:34:57] And if it is truly an ad alternate, then we're going to have to think about that anyway. So there is time to make the decision that feels good. I think adding on to Farway's question, I was thinking could we achieve the idea of a sky bridge without the sky bridge, right?

[02:35:16] Could we have, say, in concept three, you have a second story sort of meeting, open meeting space. Could it be like a bay window that overlooks the courtyard, still brings in natural light into the hallway and provides, you know, both without, you know, building over the yard?

[02:35:35] Would that be something we decide later during those detailed specs or is that something that we say, hey, we don't like the sky bridge option for, but hey, we want you to still think about that meeting space and maybe, like, is that something we talk about now? Because as Dr. Wright said, you need to think about what those classrooms, the spaces mean.

[02:35:57] Is that, am I understanding that correctly? Yeah, we've already kind of talked about, okay, Skybridge is an ad alternate, right? It's kind of this thing that's really cool. It's a possibility, but it also doesn't provide equity with Daniel's Run.

[02:36:14] Like Daniel's Run will have this really cool glass corridor perhaps that connects, but there are kind of these different elements. So we've already kind of been asked to, okay, what would be an alternative to a skybridge? What could we do within the courtyard that kind of creates this cool light-filled space that maybe floats a little bit or something?

[02:36:37] So we're going to look at that in the next steps moving forward. The other space that we have proposed is turning in where we're showing the connector on the second floor. creating sort of like a roof and kind of see it where the reading specialist is now like that space um it could be an outdoor deck kind of space and maybe it's a teacher's lounge or something so there's some opportunity to have you know connection to outdoors but not be at the

[02:37:14] courtyard you know more from like an observer level so uh there's that opportunity too and if it was okay we're going to get rid of the sky bridge but we still want something that's kind of light-filled perched within a tree like a tree house you know there's an opportunity to maybe do something that's enclosed rather than open kind of a question for both of y'all um thinking like i know we're adding in some bathrooms into classrooms are we at the stage right now assuming the answer is no it's later to talk about like rethinking the bathroom spaces that are

[02:37:54] We are commonly used in Providence, there's a bathroom right next to material that's a weird thing. I mention this because when Broadway and I went to the BSBA, sorry, we went to the BSBA conference two years ago and it might have been your firm, I can't remember who was in it, but talking about the new build at Falls Church High School and some of the open concept bathrooms.

[02:38:25] I know it's a very common theme across secondary schools, right, because we want this sort of open concept, right? But, like, you know, hearing, you know, I'll admittedly say I have a sixth grader, and I hear from other sixth graders of Providence and how the bathroom gets congested.

[02:38:43] And that open concept bathroom idea, like, for people listening in, there's sinks in the middle, but everyone has an individual stall, and they come out and see if the kids actually wash their hands, that kind of thing, but you go to wherever. There are multiple concepts for how to look at the joint toilet rooms, and that's something that came up in one of the staff meetings we had some feedback on, and we were asking questions as we're looking at that.

[02:39:12] We haven't done the bathroom design in detail yet. That will be done during schematics. We're going to look at both accessibility needs and new accessibility guidelines. we're also going to look at where do those sinks go one of the concepts that we talked about is maybe enlarging the area at the corridor bringing the sinks out facing the corridor so that you take that hand washing out of the enclosed space and that's more of a shared space that's easier to

[02:39:42] access from the corridor and monitor and so taking away a little bit of the thinking the best way to of phrase it the perceived secretiveness of things that happen in toilet rooms to be able to just be able to function and be able to have healthy interactions there and be able to monitor the activities. Does that make sense? So I think you know circling back accessory that's where we're going next. You know once we have a big idea where the big pieces of the puzzle are the next part of

[02:40:22] it is what type of bathrooms are, what type of classroom doors, what type of white fixtures, those type of things. That's where we're going next. I just want to make sure I'm not, but I also recognize things like that could impact the placement of the classroom. I will be worked into the next phase.

[02:40:38] Yeah. And then last thing, just to clarify on Daniel's run, you know, when Dr. Wright walked us through Daniel's run last week, one of the things I was quite shocked by, I'm not a Daniel's front and parents, but how much the lack of storage is there?

[02:41:00] Storage is always in the hallway and sort of there's open concept. We're just talking about basic. We'll get into that in schematics and be able to look at it. We have heard impact or input from multiple people that they would like more storage.

[02:41:21] Absolutely, just because I know we were looking at those things and deciding on those classrooms and whatnot. The one thing that came up in our conversation as we were looking at, too, is making sure that any new classrooms that are installed in there, or even smaller educational spaces, that they're always with the windows in mind, just to make sure that students have access to those windows, especially hearing and thinking about what our students earlier said.

[02:41:52] Anyway, those are my comments. Beautiful. okay mine will be quick um one thing because i know we're moving into it and i'm not going to look at you um please no it's not when you do the next plans because i know it will get into the dividing can we get like a current list of like how many like i don't care where but like how many kindergarten classrooms they currently have this year how many first grade like that just someplace it can even be in your friday newsletter um just so we have and then my other

[02:42:24] quite a seat was quick and then my other one is um when you did go do the staff previews can you tell us i think i asked you this um which one was the preferred one by the staff at each of the preferred concepts so daniel's run definitely option three um and um i mean we did not do a vote for uh uh providence um but there's a strong consensus around connecting the second floor

[02:43:01] so that would be either option three or option four for problems well option concept four was a result of the staff meeting so um although we didn't do a vote like concept four was and it was you know the big thing was we like we liked concept three but we really liked bumping out the front of the building to make those classrooms bigger so that's how you ended up that concept I think it's safe to say concept three for Daniel's run and concept four for

[02:43:32] problems. I think for Daniel's run concept three makes the most sense it's the only one that addresses the stair issue so I think concept three and then I agree with option four providence addresses the problems a lot of community feedback went into the hybrid For Daniel's run, option three.

[02:44:10] For Providence, option four without the sky bridge. Definitely strong preference for option concept three for Daniel's run with the understanding of new conversations about looking into possibly switching where the entrance is and what that looks like and also separating SAC versus the entrance for safety reasons.

[02:44:33] So those would be kind of my two, I would say, aviots, but sticking points. And then I'm in agreement on concept four Providence and I don't particularly have strong feelings towards the skybridge I think it sounds like there's other options and probably a better use of funds for more practical things even though I think it's super cool but I'm also afraid of heights so maybe I'm having some personal issues. In my mind it is.

[02:45:01] This is the skybridge you see it. Ms. Kelsey. Daniel's run concept three and I agree with Ms. Hickman where she's that on that, having that conversation further, Providence's concept four.

[02:45:18] Okay, so I think we have a clear path. Are you in agreement? I didn't get it. I just said Daniel's one of three, Providence four. She was in the north. I know. She normally goes last.

[02:45:33] That's why. I just went down the line. Okay. She wants to go home. All right. Does anybody have any last comments? Do you really? I do.

[02:45:49] Okay. We're going back to the sky bridge because we all agreed option four. So what is the time? I'm just curious if I take. She doesn't know when she has to know about. The specifics. The specifics, you know. Like what's the date for the drop date for the sky bridge?

[02:46:08] So I think it's something we're going to be working on over the next few weeks to try and get some additional information. So, just to clarify, we're talking about Concept 4 at Providence, but we want to find a little more details about what this skybridge might look like, the impact, what size it could actually be, and then we'll bring that back to you.

[02:46:38] Yeah, I would even ask, what would be the cost of rents with and without the skybridge? Okay. We have a rough number on that right now, but that I can provide after this meeting because I can't do it without my head. But I think we need a few weeks to just try and get some of that information. So maybe we can shoot for the May 4th meeting.

[02:46:59] Well, I'll talk to our colleagues to see if that's possible. But if it's not, I can do it through written communication. And if it's a true ad alternate, too, we can kind of do the two different plans where it's SkyBridge is in as an ad alternate and then SkyBridge is out.

[02:47:18] And so what that impact on those connections are, where those classrooms are, whatever those spaces are. Part of it, just to clarify, is for circulation purposes. For circulation purposes, when we were not doing the vertical expansion.

[02:47:36] So now that we are, we kind of have the two. So it's now just a cool thing. If there's anything else before the board, I will adjourn at 9.73.

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