Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, February 9, 2023

Date: Thursday, February 9, 2023
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 5h 29m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3MdJjzESAI
Official School Board page (FCPS): https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/school-board

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 2026-11-04. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:18] board members please take your seats board members please take your seats this february 9th 2023

[00:13:11] regular meeting of the fairfax county school board will now come to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the daniels run choir

[00:13:21] under the direction of michelle mccarton in order to comply with section 2.2-3712d of the code of

[00:15:38] virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the fairfax county school board convened THE CLOSE MEETING ON FEBRUARY 9, 2023, TO THE BEST OF EACH MEMBER'S KNOWLEDGE, ONLY PUBLIC MISSES MATTERS LAWFULLY EXEMPTED FROM OPEN MEETING REQUIREMENTS AND ONLY SUCH PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS AS WERE IDENTIFIED IN THE MOTION CONVENING THE CLOSE MEETING WERE HEARD, DISCUSSED, OR CONSERVED BY THE BOARD DURING THE MEETING. DO YOU HAVE A MOTION? MS. COHEN SECONDED BY MS.

[00:16:06] DERRENAC-HILFAX. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND. MS. KEES-GAMARA, MS. MARIN, Ms. Amish, Ms. Toland, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Derenat-Koufax, Ms. McLaughlin, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Bukarski, and myself. That is unanimous. That motion passes.

[00:16:22] If you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight, that information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website at fcps.edu/schoolboard/boarddocs. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu backslash tv backslash channel 99.

[00:16:49] The board would like to invite each recognition recipient for a photo after the reading of all recognitions. I call on Ms. Marin for recognition.

[00:17:07] Career and Technical Education, or CTE, month is a public awareness campaign held every February to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of such programs nationwide. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 18 of the 20 fastest-growing occupations within the next decade will require career and technical education.

[00:17:26] Career and technical education prepares both youth and adults for a wide range of careers requiring varied levels of education, including a high school diploma, post-secondary certification, and two- and four-year college degrees. Fairfax County Public Schools has a vast selection of programs that exemplify career and technical education.

[00:17:44] Through these opportunities, students are able to get a sense of careers they may wish to pursue and understand the necessary steps it takes to become a professional in that discipline. All of our career and technical programs incorporate workplace readiness and portrait of graduate skills, industry credentials, work-based learning, and career and technical student organizations.

[00:18:04] This year, we have 16 students going above and beyond by serving in various state-level leadership positions for their career and technical student organizations. We appreciate the time and effort these students and their teachers put into their organizations to benefit students across the state and we are proud to recognize some of these student leaders here tonight.

[00:18:23] Thank you to all our career and technical education educators and staff who help and ensure students are college and career ready. And with us tonight are student leaders from Technology Student Association or TSA, DECA, the Future Business Leaders of America or FBLA.

[00:18:49] You want to stand up? Come on. We want to see you. Please rise as you're called. Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, or FCCLA, COSA for our Future Health Professionals, SkillsUSA, Future Farmers of America, or FFA, and Educators Rising. Ms. Mary, would you like to speak to your recognition? Yes, I would just like to say how lovely it was to hear our students present just

[00:19:28] beforehand in a reception and celebration, and it's so clear how your involvement in this work is paying dividends. You're articulate, motivated, and also collaborative and sharing your skills. So it's really exciting to see what you're doing. Thank you for being here tonight and for all that you do, not only here in Fairfax, but in the state. Keep going. Dr. Anderson? Your light was on, sorry.

[00:19:56] Ms. Cohen? Yeah, I just had to give a quick shout out to the Lake Braddock Bruins and everything that you guys do to promote. See, Silk's back there. Thank you. So proud of you guys, and it's just really really cool to get to see I so appreciated being invited to the school along with Dr. Reed when FCCLA did their event thank you so much and just continuing to include us in your journey and what incredible future leaders we can't wait to vote for you all so thanks Miss Corbett Sanders thank you

[00:20:34] madam chair I too wanted to thank all of the students for being here but I also wanted to thank all of our educators who are so committed to ensuring that our students who are enrolled in CTE programs and workforce development programs are amongst the finest in the country. They win national awards, but more importantly they are put on the path for lifelong careers that are incredible. And I'm gonna put Dr. Reed on the spot a bit. The last time I checked Did we have 65,000 career and technical education certifications last year?

[00:21:15] I believe it was something like that, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Yeah, thank you. I, too, believe it's something like that. And it's an amazing number that very few people realize the breadth of the programs that are available to our students here in Fairfax County that range from agriculture to intense sciences to veterinary careers and also the trades with all sorts of opportunities

[00:21:47] and marketing. We have our kids who actually can build a house, one group of kids and another group of kids doing the marketing for it. We have kids who are involved in pharmaceutical tech and we have kids who are involved in automotive and the trade. So I just want to thank you Dr. Reed for leading such an amazing team of educators in this area. Thank

[00:22:23] you and before I say a couple words I'll turn to our student representative Michelle Togbeek to say a few words. Yes thank you I mean I have to say my CTSO is DECA so not to play favorites but it is really great to see our students participate in CTE whether it be again from marketing to learning how to build a house I mean it really ranges and it's amazing thing to see but I also want to shout out our educators the people who work behind the scenes I see the way my advisors work but not just that the people from across the county we have amazing advisors over at Oakton from mr. Barrow miss Hank house miss Thorne and

[00:23:03] then I have role models like the word in skis over at Lake Braddock to my own advisors and with Scott who I see in the audience and it's really they're a strong group of people and the work that they do is really admirable so thank you. Thank you and I'll just briefly say again congratulations to our students for all your hard work and your dedication to your families for supporting them and especially to the teachers shout out to Lake Braddock out there sorry but my kids alumni school so I had to shout out and I will say my son participated also in I think one

[00:23:40] of his favorite classes was family and consumer science so you know his last year at Lake Braddock so thank you for that incredible experience and since I could never teach him knife skills I'm glad you all did so I appreciate your and thank you so much for all your hard work congratulations actually one thing I for all those who don't or may be listening out there we have amazing Academy and career and technical programs in the academies and in our schools I was recently at Marshall Academy and I met the student who wants to be the GOAT. And he had a big old medallion on that said GOAT. And I said, what are you the GOAT

[00:24:15] of? And he said, Microsoft certifications. I have nine. So, and he's got a bright career ahead of him. So just, you know, you too can be the GOAT. So having said that, thank you very, very much for being here. We'll move on to the next one. And please stay for photos of the board as soon as we're done. So I will go and I will call on Ms. Keys Gamara for recognition. Thank you. The theme Working for the 2023 National School Counseling Week Helping Students Dream Big will focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within the U.S. school system.

[00:24:52] National School Counseling Week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. Fairfax County Public Schools employs close to 700 school counseling professionals, including including school counselors, directors of student services, and college and career specialists.

[00:25:15] These professionals are committed to preparing students to become lifelong learners and productive members in a global society with a focus on social, emotional wellness, academic success, and college and career readiness. Thank you to all of our school counseling professionals for the tremendous work you do.

[00:25:40] Thank you. Ms. Kees, can I just say a few words? yes thank you there are probably so many of us in this room who when asked would say our school counselors played a key role in helping us reach our dreams as students i'm no exception so it's no surprise that the theme for national school counseling week 2023 is school counselors helping students dream big national school counseling week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.

[00:26:20] The Special Week honoring school counselors recognizes school counselors who implement comprehensive school counseling programs, a vital part of the educational process for all students as they meet the challenges of the 21st century.

[00:26:37] Our counselors spend each day actively engaged in helping students examine their abilities, strengths, and interests, and talents for working in partnership with parents and guardians as well as our students as they encounter the challenges of maneuvering the educational system and exploring opportunities.

[00:26:59] Our school counselors play a vital role in helping students' academic career and social and emotional development by working with teachers to provide a system where students can realize their full potential and set healthy, realistic, and optimistic aspirations for themselves. As we continue to recover and move forward from life in a global pandemic, this role is more important than ever. And I couldn't agree more. So once again, to each and every one of the school counselors out there helping Fairfax County School students to dream big,

[00:27:35] we celebrate and honor you this week thank you for all you do thank you very much I will now hand the gavel over to my vice chair Mr. Annette Koufax I will now call on Miss Sizemore Heiser for the resolution whereas school board clerks in each locality through our great commonwealth are appointed by law to fulfill their duties and responsibilities and whereas school board clerks

[00:28:14] are responsible for keeping accurate records of the meetings and proceedings of the school board records of all receipts and disbursements, and record of all official acts, and whereas school board clerks perform such other duties in connection with the school business of his or her county or city as may be required by the school board, and whereas school board clerks maintain frequent contact with the public, including parents, employees, families, and the media on behalf of the school board and superintendent, and whereas school board clerks in performance of their duties are often required to work extra hours many extra hours attending school board meetings

[00:28:52] and whereas school board clerks join with school boards to help ensure that students achieve to their highest potential and whereas the fairfax county school board joins the virginia school boards association in recognizing the many and varied contributions of school board clerks now therefore be it resolved at its meeting on the ninth day of february 2023 the fairfax county school ward officially recognizes our two clerks with appreciation for their hard work and service

[00:29:24] i so move i will second this resolution heismar heiser would you like to speak to your resolution i would be honored to speak to my resolution and i'm sad i only have two minutes to do it because

[00:30:01] there is these two ladies sitting up here are two clerks understaffed by one clerk for well over a a year are truly the engine and the glue and the brains and the memory and the hard work and the dedication that keep us running despite ourselves keep us running and really honestly make us the best that we can be in all honesty work very very hard many long hours are available anytime day or night when I call or text I need this doesn't matter when it is the answer is with utmost

[00:30:36] professionalism calm patience kindness and a little touch of humor that just makes the day that much better and so we on the board and doing our work to help support students and staff and families in the community could not do our work without really the engine that keeps us going and they sit here every week quietly fielding a bunch of messages and making sure that we're doing our work the best we can and we wanted to make sure we took a minute on this week of school board clerk appreciation week to really recognize that again despite being down a clerk

[00:31:14] you haven't missed a beat and you've never complained and more than anything else serving 12 bosses which is not easy for those you've had one boss imagine 12 and you do it with such patience and kindness and professionalism so thank you from the bottom of our hearts Mr. Aranak-Houfax would you speak to your second yes I will you've done a great job about telling the public who these ladies are. You see the ladies in the back there as well. They are the

[00:31:54] support staff for each and every one of us. Hi. And they are here because they too appreciate you so much. You are there for them. You are there to help manage them, direct them, restore them when the time gets tough. And it's often tough sometimes in this office. I just want to say I thank you each and every day for being here for us. Sometimes, more than sometimes, you are here long into the nights. You are doing 10 to 12 hour days plus sometimes weekend work just to keep this

[00:32:31] board and the system on track. We so appreciate you and I am so grateful to both of you, Bev and Laura, for all that you do. I am honored to have the opportunity to work with you and to work with you and all the professionalism you exhibit. You have my heartfelt appreciation for your remarkable talents and your skills and all that you do to keep us together up here.

[00:33:03] And sometimes that is not an easy task. So from, just as Rajna said, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for everything that you do for us. Ms. Corbett Sanders. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:33:20] grace-filled empathetic caring student focused and steel magnolias ladies that is the way i think of you as people who are incredible colleagues who make every day at the school board a little bit easier and that when things are a little bit rough because as you can imagine the past couple years

[00:33:56] been a little tough. You always remember that we're all here for the same reason. The common good is the love and passion for our kids. And so my colleagues have talked about how much they appreciate you, and I too appreciate you. I love you, and I also very much appreciate that you both keep each and every one of us in your prayers. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Tolan.

[00:34:33] Yes, Bev and Laura are incredible professionals that, as has been mentioned, have persevered through some very difficult times with the school board, but you have done an exceptional job keeping our office running smoothly and in compliance with our governance manual while balancing the needs of 12 very different people.

[00:34:59] Our schedule is relentless with meeting after meeting, and you are at all of those meetings calmly making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible and as mentioned this is often outside of normal business hours you deal with people at all levels in fcps and that takes some skill but you do it with grace and charm and you successfully move us all forward on behalf of all of us thank you so much for everything that you do i always look forward when i go into the school board office to your welcoming smiles and you know warm activities and

[00:35:39] work thank you so much dr. Anderson thank you I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank our clerks they are behind the scenes getting it all done getting us organized and I know it's very hard work and I'm not going to belabor the point I think my colleagues have made a fine job of sharing with the public the work that they do but I cannot miss the opportunity to just say my thanks to you you all do it with a grace with a smile and it's been a pleasure for

[00:36:18] me to work with you so thank you and I'm very glad to honor you this evening and also shout out to the team back there I cannot not say thank you to you all because you are part of the engine that makes all of us run so thank you Christy Coffey you're awesome Mr. Frisch thank you um I get to spend a lot of quality one-on-two time with our clerks when I show up early for work sessions and and whatnot. I'm struck because when we talk about resolutions a lot in this room, we talk about how it's important to express the meaning behind the resolution, not just on that day, but in the days

[00:36:58] around the calendar. So I will say that I'm committed in the other 364 days of the year, as we talk about the calendar tonight, to show my appreciation and action and how I treat the clerks and talk to the clerks and work with the clerks and make sure that they know, even when I've had a weird day at my day job or whatever maybe a bad day of traffic on the freeway that they're appreciated and that our work would grind to a halt without them. Also onboarding our staff aides and executive assistants is no small feat and our office runs the way it does because of

[00:37:35] the diligence of our clerks and of course my ability to work with Jackie would be hindered entirely if our clerks were not there. So very much appreciate all of the work of our clerks and the entire office that the clerks run. It's a tremendous gift to this board. Thank you.

[00:37:54] Ms. Cohen? I guess it's a testament that we're going down the line here to get to sing your praises. You know, I think so much of what has been said is about your professionalism and how you professionally help us. But you're also the first people when we lose parents who remember to send flowers who give us big hugs when we come back into the office you are the first ones when days and different things we do get completely derailed to give us that nod and that smile and

[00:38:30] remind us that you know we're going to work together to fix it and for me with Stephanie who I get to chat with every single day the most amazing human being in the world and the reason I look remotely organized which is a total illusion the number of times that Stephanie and I say in a day you know I'm not sure let's ask Beverly and thank you for always being that person always being so responsive as it was said unfortunately kind of any time of night or day and thank you to your families who give up an awful lot of time and an awful lot of energy that you have to

[00:39:07] spend starting to herd cats you you do both are are kind of like swans everything looks really good above the surface um and underneath i know you're always always paddling away so thanks for just being who you are and making sure that we look like a somewhat functional human beings ms pokarski okay thank you of course i cannot let the opportunity go by to not express my gratitude I feel like we have been through a lot, Bev and Laura, the last year, and although most

[00:39:43] people I don't think realize just how much you do and what your job involves, I do though. And for that, I am extremely grateful to both of you. You are professionals.

[00:39:59] You are organized. You are problem solvers. You are managers of a group of interesting people with different needs and ideas, and you do it with a smile, and you really make our lives better, and I know that you do that for our staff aides, too, because Shaheen, who is my amazing aide, tells me that.

[00:40:23] So you are just as wonderful with them as you are with us, so thank you. Ms. Keese-Gamara. Yes, thank you. Ms. Corbett Sanders stole some of my words, but I'm still going to use them. The words I came up with were calm, cool, and collective, kind, and gently instructive.

[00:40:45] I am so grateful that I have personally been able to depend on both of you. And when we are trying to figure things out, myself and my aide, Nelda Brown, you guys just seem to know everything. And that is so comforting. So I want to thank you.

[00:41:02] I also want to thank Nelda. I wouldn't make it without you guys. So thank you for being there and for putting up with all of us. Ms. Amesh. Thank you. Beverly Madeja and Laura Cornell.

[00:41:20] I was just telling Ms. Tolan I am kind of at such a loss for words because I can say I really do love you dearly, and I hope that this is more than platitudes really that are at the dais, but an opportunity for us to remember and recognize our own appreciation so that perhaps we can show it in action as well.

[00:41:41] But, you know, to the public, it's one thing to tell them how much we appreciate them, and they know from the various relationships we have with them what that means. But I do want the public to realize that these are women who have inspired me and how loyal they are to our system.

[00:41:58] They're women who have sacrificed a lot of their family time, their personal time, their well-being. I mean, there are days where when I've seen, you know, Bev and Laura, I mean, they'll sit, they'll be sick, they'll be trembling in the cold, they'll be whatever it is, they'll carry things into their cars.

[00:42:14] And sometimes, I mean, none of us even notice that. And they're out there carrying boxes and putting things back and here and there. And it'll be late. I mean, some of our meetings last long and they wake up early in the morning and sometimes they're expected to show up the next morning and there's not a single time I would call either one of them and they wouldn't pick up or answer immediately or call me back.

[00:42:35] And just the amount of sacrifice really to me makes it very clear that you two are women of God, and I know you are women of faith, and I know that drives you through, and I know how important that's been in putting up with a lot that you don't deserve.

[00:42:51] But I think that's a testament to really the kinds of people you are and how lucky we are. I have no idea how we're supposed to find people after you decide to leave. whenever that day comes but we're truly very lucky to have you and the other thing I want to mention is to the public as well the lengths these women will go to ensure that everybody is included and that members of the public whether they be speakers when they make comments or folks who are trying to reach out are respected are heard there's even a time when somebody who didn't know how to use a computer and was really flustered came and they walked her through step by step

[00:43:29] to make sure that she could have her opportunity to speak i mean these again these are truly women that have exemplified tremendous character beyond just fulfilling their role and exceeding it even but um i could i could talk all day but but i'll leave it there and just saying um i sincerely appreciate you guys you guys have been my friends in in some of the toughest times uh when i felt isolated and alone even in this space so thank you both so much words will never uh suffice miss Well, as we all know, once one board member starts talking, then everybody is going to make sure that you know and hear how much we love and appreciate you.

[00:44:08] So I will just certainly echo all of the incredible praise that my colleagues have shared with both of you. As one of the longer serving board members, I truly cannot express how incredible you have both made me feel as a board member, feeling supported and cared for, and the fact that this is an incredibly difficult job and as noted the professionalism that you bring and the fact that you have shown each and every one of us such incredible respect it's a model

[00:44:43] for us all to follow so thank you for being so not just patient but really tenacious and staying the course in a job that can be so difficult you are truly loved. Miss Marin. Yes I wanted to say Thank you to our school board clerks and our school board office staff to the public.

[00:45:05] You might not have noticed, but it's a little tough to work in public education these days and particularly in school board offices. So it's really amazing that we have staff that continue to do such a high caliber of work. So thank you for keeping us going. And we honor you tonight. Thank you. And Miss Tockby.

[00:45:22] I mean, I don't know what else there is to say. There really are no words. You both have been my day one quite literally before my first day you taught me how to be really really patient within this role and you've also been patient with me when i barely understood how to navigate outlook um and i just have to say i really really appreciate you guys and i don't know what i'd be doing without you thank you all and thank

[00:45:52] you all i will now call for the vote all those in favor and that is unanimous thank you ladies I will now hand the gavel back to Ms. Chair Sizemore-Heiser.

[00:46:14] Thank you and thank you once again to our clerks. I really appreciate it. So what I would like to do is invite all of our guests here starting with those here in support of National School Counseling Week to please join the board at the Dias for a photo and students and staff please stick around you guys will be next so

[00:46:31] please come join us for a photo. If you are here this evening in support of

[00:48:40] School Counseling Week please join the board at the Dias for a photo. Sorry. My apologies. If you're here this evening in support of CTE, please join the board

[00:48:58] at the dais. We do have one more resolution, but I wanted to make sure our students and staff were

[00:52:51] able to get home in time. So since our board members take a seat, I will call on Dr. Reed for the resolution. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas the education of Virginia's school-age children is the foundation upon which the economic, social, and intellectual capital of our state is built, And whereas locally elected and appointed school boards play an important and vital role in a constitutional republic, and decisions made by local boards of education directly influence instruction in Virginia's public schools, excuse me, and whereas these decisions

[00:53:31] affect the present and future lives of children and also set direction to prepare all students to be competitive in a local, state, national, and here in Fairfax County, global 22nd century knowledge economy and whereas local school board members work with parents businesses education professionals and other community members to create the educational vision we want for our students and whereas this year's theme rising to the challenge reflects the leadership of local school board members as they serve their local divisions and advocate for public education with local state and federal leaders on behalf of all students and

[00:54:07] whereas School Board Appreciation Month provides an opportunity to celebrate virginia school board members who champion the mission of public education now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county public school community recognizes the contributions of the fairfax county school board for the academic success of its students and expresses its sincerest recognition for their focus on the well-being and achievement of students and be it further resolved that fairfax county public schools declares february 2023 as school board appreciation month and encourages staff students parents and community members to appropriately recognize

[00:54:46] these dedicated school board members so i'll just speak on behalf of our leadership team and our clerks and our staff that we recognize that there is no more important work in this country than the work of public education that all other professions go through public education k-12 and the opportunity for us to focus on excellence equity and opportunity for each and every one of our students and shaping our future is a deep responsibility for all school board members

[00:55:23] our staff would like to thank you for your efforts the countless hours attention to detail dedication and passion for this most important work so thank you thank you dr reed would you you like a photo? I'm sorry? Would you like a photo? Yes, we would love a photo. Staff, let's do a photo.

[00:55:51] We would love a photo, sure. All right. The next order of business is community participation.

[00:59:04] Speakers must limit their remarks to no more than two minutes in length. At the conclusion of two minutes, the microphone or video will be turned off. School board members will be listening but not responding to individual speakers. The school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings, such as the capital improvement program budget and boundaries.

[00:59:24] Comments targeting, criticizing, or attacking individual students are not permitted during public meetings. Complaints regarding school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or school officials. Speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or school-based employee.

[00:59:41] Additionally, speakers should be respectful and observe proper decorum in their statements, avoiding profanity, inappropriate gestures, shouting, and comments that run counter to the spirit and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy. The school board welcomes community members to provide comments at its regular business meetings and public hearings on school deliberations, school-related issues, or particular topics.

[01:00:04] All statements should be directed to the school board, and speakers should remain at the podium until concluding their remarks. As a reminder, speaker substitutions are not permitted. A speaker may not yield their time to another individual before or during their remarks. shouting and outbursts from the audience will not be tolerated we are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today and we thank you for your cooperation madam clerk please call the first

[01:00:27] speaker our first speaker is student number one hi good evening school board members did my parents ask me to give my opinion yes do I like all these extra random days off of course I do show me a kid who wouldn't like school free days but I also want to do well at school it's hard to concentrate on my work with so many incomplete weeks. These extra holidays are not doing any good for my routine. Projects and test results never turn out great when you work on them over a long period of

[01:01:04] time with lots of breaks. I will start forgetting about what I've already learned before my test because of the random days off, and I do not want that. I would rather study and work hard and be done with my school year earlier than normal. Also, even if there is no school, afternoon sports are still happening at school, so I can't really do anything else with my friends or family on those days. I would also want a longer summer. If school starts earlier, my summer break is even shorter because next year I'll be in high school and I start school sports three weeks before actual school starts and is already at the end of July. And that leaves me with barely a month of summer break. It's fun and I want to do sports, but it cuts time that could be spent with family, friends,

[01:01:44] or for travel. Many of my friends think the same way. Please listen to our views. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is student number two. Student number two. Student number three.

[01:02:01] our next speaker is Michael Luley good evening thank you for having us and all you do for the performing arts we're very appreciative of that none of us got in this business to get rich so talking about money is kind of difficult but when Loudoun County is starting to poach our

[01:02:38] talent and our other teachers it's time to kind of talk about that to do what we can do to support the people we have here and keep them here during the height of the pandemic people used to talk about how teachers deserve a million dollars. Now, that's not the case. Now they have a lot of other opinions about what we're not doing and capable of. I took some time to do my hours for marching band and concert band after school of 315. My marching band hours are 127 hours.

[01:03:08] My concert band hours are 363. That's nearly 500 hours of after school time that I give to my students. I had posters, but I was looking dangerous, so I wasn't allowed to bring them in. If you take the high school choir stipend of $2,400 minus the high school band stipend of $4,600, it's about $2,200, making the high school stipend $2,200 and the concert band $2,400.

[01:03:36] If you do the math for the hours I've put in in each, you'll have some digital forms for that as well. It's about $17 an hour for marching band, $6 an hour and 60 cents for concert band. At a marching band game, that would be $17.70 an hour versus what the athletics office is allocating, $90 an hour of extra overtime to our school resource officers, which is needed, but a stark contrast.

[01:04:00] Concert band-wise, we had all-district band auditions a couple weeks ago. I was there for 10 hours doing auditions. That would be basically $6.06 or $0.60 an hour for that to be about $66. dollars. If I was a school resource officer working on that, I would get $900. The proposed budget that the Fine Arts Office is presenting is about $1,200. For that $500, or 500 hours

[01:04:25] would be about 24 hours. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sandra Martin. Good evening. Thank you. My name is Sandra Martin. I'm a parent, and for 14 years I've driven a bus for Fairfax County Public Schools. You're hearing some transportation employees saying that we were not represented and were kept in the dark about the collective bargaining committee's workings over the last year as a long-serving bdac team representative and officer i can tell you that this summer

[01:05:04] that this is untrue and is being used to by a few to split transportation's voice from the proposed operational support unit we were given updates of bdac for reps to disseminate regular postings were made on the fairfax county public school website of the collective bargaining meeting minutes and faqs our elected ots representative ON THE SUPPORT SERVICES ADVISORY COUNCIL, SSEIC, UPDATED BDAC REGULARLY AND SENT MULTIPLE ADVISORY NOTES TO ALL TRANSPORTATION EMPLOYEES, WHICH INCLUDED THE LINKS TO THE PUBLIC AND EMPLOYEE-ONLY COLLECTIVE BARGAIN, FAQ, THE SUMMARY PAGE, AND THE EMPLOYEE-ONLY MEETING

[01:05:42] NOTES ALL ARE POSTED ON THE EMPLOYEE HUB. AN ENGLISH-AS-A-SECOND-LANGUAGE COWORKER SAID, "MISS SANDRA, THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR US. LITTLE FISH GET EATEN. HOW PROFOUND." creating a mini unit for just transportation will leave us with an insignificant voice when negotiating with leadership and this moves us into the draft calendars again included one month of lost wages for support professionals 25 26 draft has up to 34 unpaid days thousands of hourly transportation food service professionals have their paychecks reduced every time a school day

[01:06:17] is changed to a non-paid holiday or teacher work day we're the ones that can least afford a loss of income we ask you to make any additional non-school days a paid day or follow out in other systems where the non-school days are paid all of them finally last year we were told by leadership would present a scale compression study on all pay scales before the budget was presented to you if the study was done it would show bus drivers medium is a step four well thank

[01:06:46] you our next speaker is Aliko Pedastar good evening we shared our concerns with you and superintendents since feb november we looked at the poor documents and are even more worried as you will lock us in for three next years your proposal have over 40 percent of incomplete weeks if we add the weeks with old days it would be 50 percent half of the school time

[01:07:23] the purple calendar includes 40 school days off in 2025 this is two months of no school on top of summer vacation. The proposals try to accommodate many interest groups except kids in the future. It feels like you're trying to fit 30 hours into day of 24.

[01:07:42] It's impossible to give everybody everything. Kids should be our first priority. Half of your kids have graduated Fairfax County Public Schools. They got a high quality education. You wrote in your profile write-ups that your priority is education. Ensuring the success and and kids, offering them opportunities, and yet your calendar proposal does exactly the opposite.

[01:08:08] You are taking these opportunities away. We understand it's important to respect diversity, but it can be achieved better than giving kids random days off. Our proposal is inclusive and non-disruptive. Following federal holidays, replace religious holidays with four or five days off that can be taken at the discretion of the families and used as they needed.

[01:08:29] Why don't you show that you can think outside of the box, be innovative, respective, and accountable? It's your hands to prove that you have heart and care about kids. Thank you. Our next speaker is Austin Isaac.

[01:08:45] Good evening. My name is Austin Isaac. I teach high school orchestra at Lake Braddock, and I will echo some similar sentiments that my colleague Mike Loli just shared with you, and I will also share some new information.

[01:09:03] Performing arts teachers are passionate about teaching our content, our love of the arts, and we work hard to share these things with our students. In order to cultivate these ideals, an inherent part of our job is to help students perform for an audience, which is typically outside of classroom hours. Students experience a multitude of performance opportunities that directly link a portrait of a graduate's skills.

[01:09:22] These skills are primarily attained in the arts through practice and doing. The after-contract hours commitments quickly add up, but the compensation in this school district does not, and yet this is an expected part of our job. Whenever there is an opening for a secondary orchestra position, the Fine Arts Office sends an email to all FCPS orchestra teachers with a job advertisement. Here is part of the description that is used in each of these emails, and I quote, the orchestra director leads the orchestra's participation in school activities such as concerts, festivals, and competitions, as well as school events such as graduation and the music department spring trip, end quote. I gave my high school

[01:09:58] orchestra colleagues a very brief survey about their after contract hour workload, and here are their answers. Question number one, how many non-contract hours during the school year do you spend rehearsing for and carrying out concerts, trips, graduation, and any other performances? The average answer was 95 hours. The second question, how many non-contract hours during the school year do you spend working on recruitment in your pyramid? The average answer was 19 hours. The third question, how many non-contract hours during the school year do you spend working with your booster organization? And the answer was an average of 23 hours. It is long past due that extracurricular stipends more accurately reflect the non-contract

[01:10:38] hours that performing arts teachers put in so their students have an optimal experience. The performing arts stipend proposal was given forth by the Fine Arts Office. It is a total of just over three million dollars with FICA and with a three billion dollar budget. It would be great to incorporate it. Thank you.

[01:10:56] Thank you. Our next speaker is Ryan Walker. Good evening. My name is Ryan walker and i'm a parent of two children in the lake braddock pyramid i'm here this evening to ring an alarm bell on the growing safety and security concern not just at lake braddock but across the entire district there's been a student stabbing at mount vernon high school frequent fights in schools reported drug use in bathrooms and an overall disregard for rules and regulations

[01:11:32] there's an epidemic and you have an opportunity to take proactive steps to protect our children Because if the four fentanyl deaths in FCPS in the past two weeks isn't enough of a wake-up call, I don't know what is. This isn't just one man's opinion.

[01:11:49] Last week, during a community forum, I noticed in the provided survey results that nearly 40% of middle school students do not feel physically safe in school. This is unacceptable. The same attention that is given to accommodating students who identify differently, changing names on schools, and reducing FCPS carbon footprint should be given to allow students to feel physically safe in their learning environment.

[01:12:13] With a budget over $3.5 billion, $200 million in federal emergency COVID funding, simple steps can be taken to ensure the physical safety and security of our children. Additional SROs in every school. Frequent unannounced screens from police canine units to search for drugs.

[01:12:30] ban the carrying of backpacks around schools. Without proper screening methods, school systems are blind to what's being brought into schools on a daily basis. Install metal detectors. Enforce rules and provide punishments that mean something. Stop worrying about litigation and bad press.

[01:12:47] Just do the right things for the right reason. Don't delay any further. Don't study this issue ad nauseum or conduct a series of dilatory discussions about funding. You were elected to take action to represent your constituencies to find the money to keep our children safe please do so thank you our next speaker is shelly arnoldi good evening my name is shelly arnoldi i'm the chapter chair for moms for liberty for fairfax county moms for liberty is dedicated to the

[01:13:26] survival of america by unifying educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government prior to moving here in 2010 i spent half of my 20-year career living overseas my ex-husband and the father of my two daughters is an immigrant and a non-native english speaker my daughter's best friend from kindergarten to seventh grade had two mothers who are very good friends and my daughters have two friends who are transgender in their friend circle so i am not sheltered or insensitive to the ways other ways of living i've recently met the mother whose daughter was victimized by sex trafficking predators aided by the failing system

[01:14:01] that places transgender ideology ahead of parental rights sage's law also known as the child protection act aims to protect the rights of parents and the safety of children who are dealing with gender confusion this board has allowed policies to be adopted that violate this law and endanger our children and it needs to change as you continue to ignore the virginia department of education 2022 model policies on the privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in virginia public schools you confirm that you don't care about the parents or citizens that elected you. For this reason, I've dedicated my time and energy to find 12 new school board members

[01:14:38] candidates to replace you. We seek candidates who will pledge to advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision making to increase transparency, defend against government overreach, and secure parental rights at all levels of government. The requirements are simple.

[01:14:53] We're seeking candidates who will honor the fundamental rights of parents including, but not limiting to, the right to direct the education, medical care, and moral upbringing of their children please use your last month in office to focus on academics and teaching the basics reading writing and math and stop pushing unwanted ideology

[01:15:11] on our children thank you thank you our next speaker is Dennis Allerton it's Dennis Allerton and I'm a bus driver with Fairfax County Public Schools I sent you guys all an email that kind of dispels some of the myths that all

[01:15:49] employees are best represented in a single big group and I hope you will read that thoroughly and understand it some of us have met with you recently some of you and I want to thank you for your attention and for your time and doing that those that have not met with us yet I do hope that you're still listening to us and you're still hearing us collective bargaining is not an issue that is contained in one district it is countywide and it is and it affects all

[01:16:23] of Fairfax County Public Schools we are not an association we're not an acronym we are the bus drivers van drivers and attendants of SCPS and I hope that you're hearing us some groups feel that we're incapable of speaking up for ourselves and making our own decisions and I can assure you that that is not the case recently I received and completed a survey asking how we as bus

[01:16:58] drivers would like to be represented I implore you to listen to those voices there are people in places who go to great lengths to see that you do not hear our voices and that speaks volumes to me as it should to you we have no further agenda we are the bus drivers that are asking for representation if our wishes are not represented in this initial process this resolution then I fear the likelihood of receiving meaningful and effective representation in the future will also

[01:17:34] remain unattainable thank you our next speaker is cassandra acui cindy walsh hello i'm speaking to the school board today to ask to support parents parents are the experts in their child

[01:18:09] parents who with great care chose their child's name parents have certain rights such as the right to be notified when outside speakers outside experts speak to their children which is HB 1803 and it uses the language that parents have the right to opt out the reality is parents should have the right to opt in parents have the right in the care and upbringing of their children this includes the right to review curriculum surveys or instructional material this is HB 1507 and Sage's law which is the right to notify parents about gender dysphoria a

[01:18:42] A child is taught 100 different acronyms to identify genders that if your mother does not recognize these terms, she is transphobic. In fact, there are so many terms, the people who are LGBTQ don't know what they are. You should educate them, and do not use TikTok to do so.

[01:19:00] Parents do not use TikTok. Parents are not a hate group, and parents' rights are human rights. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Melissa Weick. 5 a.m. I clocked in this morning. 135 miles per day. It's hard, but I'll wake up at 345 tomorrow

[01:19:37] and do it all again, partially because I love this job, but also because I can't call out and leave my route with extreme special needs open. We are tired. All staff are tired, but we're the ones with signs in the front lawn of every FCPS building pleading for people to apply to overcome the 160 driver deficit we start with each day. $23.83 per hour reads the yellow sign. $26.880 per year. To work and live in Fairfax County, I know that you know it's not sustainable. We must do

[01:20:14] better. The next step for recruitment is a strong union representing a strong transportation unit. 15 job types coming together to finally be heard instead of being lost in a sea of 430 other jobs. Somewhere around 2,000 employees, no mini unit. Getting the recognition we deserve, getting a strong contract to once again attract drivers from all around. Employees in a unit considered by them to be appropriate may initiate a request for bargaining. Virginia Code section 40.1

[01:20:48] dash 57.2 point C. I want you to know that's what the majority of employees have asked for. Our voices were already drowned out once in a large group making decisions on the behalf of others, and these supposed communications cannot be found. Please don't let that happen again.

[01:21:06] In regards to tonight's calendar decision, I stand behind any calendar. I want equity for all. I want instructional staff to have the planning time and workday as they need. I want students to have productive five-day weeks, but remember that each calendar adds unpaid days. Take the time to listen and look ahead to what the changes mean for the future of transportation and your workforce.

[01:21:27] thank you thank you our next speaker is dave hatcher our next speaker is amanda campbell good evening i'm speaking tonight as president of fairfax county septa we've appreciated this board's collaboration in recognizing and moving to address the long-standing problem of disproportionate discipline in our schools our membership has consistently been opposed to measures that will increase the impact of disproportionate discipline on our students with disabilities and so tonight we ask for your collaboration again this time in opposing house

[01:22:06] bill 1461 in virginia's general assembly this bill would mandate uniform responses for all students and staff and that would not address individual students needs nor best practice responses it is well established by multiple studies that students with disabilities students of color students living in poverty and males are all disproportionately subjected to school discipline in fcps students with disabilities and black students are three to four times more likely to be disciplined than their peers. HB 1461 will make this situation even worse. The proposed addition of a work group will not solve the numerous inherent problems in this bill.

[01:22:42] Relatedly we have significant concerns regarding FCPS's discipline practices in the wake of the prohibition of seclusion. There have been multiple incidents of assaults of students with disabilities by staff since September which leads us to ask what supports are lacking in providing staff necessary de-escalation and prevention tools. We appreciate that FCPS has been quick to take action to protect the students once these incidents come to light but that is not sufficient we have also received multiple concerns from staff that the level one required training on ross green's collaborative and proactive solutions is inadequate due to a lack of accountability for being fully invested in the training additionally we are receiving concerning reports regarding

[01:23:20] inappropriate involvement of sros in school discipline at an alarmingly increased rate these are all concerns theft have raised at the beginning of our efforts to prohibit seclusion in 2020 and we are frustrated to see them playing out as feared our children do not have the luxury of time this crisis must be addressed now and we are here to continue to collaborate with you to ensure that the voices of students families and staff are included in this work thank you

[01:23:45] thank you our next speaker is max selig good evening members of the board dr reed leadership my name is max selig i am a bus driver i've been such in this business for going on six years now i am a member of bdac bus drivers and attendance advisory council as a team rep i'm also the

[01:24:22] transportation representative for the support services employees advisory council and as an arm of that i'm also the transportation rep for the support employees association realize i'm going to ruffle some feathers here it's a messy business politics setting policy relations it's not easy and i'm on board with all you and everyone in here this is tough stuff i'm a supporter of the

[01:24:57] planned three unit collective bargaining plan it's a plan that will bring equity to an unbalanced system it's built around a coalition of all operations employees and i refuse to not stand with all operations employees and personnel the cafeteria workers the janitors the electricians the plumbers etc etc etc there are these notions out there that the three-unit plan was concocted in secret but we all know there

[01:25:36] were updates online on FCPS sites all along this notion that there was not extensive study and extraordinary time commitment by many many people and the notion that we're actually against the Teamsters. We're not. We just don't want the Teamsters representing just transportation. It's all for one and one for all. Thank you. Our next speaker

[01:26:05] is Erin St. Germain. Good evening. I came here tonight with a speech prepared, but I decided last minute to read you something that was read at my local high school, the high school I went to, the high school my kids will go to, something that was read by a 10th grade English teacher,

[01:26:40] and it was read to the minor students. So I just wanted everyone to listen and to really think about what it takes, what's going on in someone's head when they read this to children. It was a woman. The poem is titled Fingers. In bed at night, my fingers search, a heat I have no name for, sliding into a center, finding a hidden core, a stem or maybe the root. I'm learning how to caress

[01:27:17] and breathe at the same time, how to be silent and feel something grow inside me. And when it all builds up, I sink into my mattress. I feel such a relief, such a relief. I feel such a shame settle like a blanket covering me head to toe as an adult woman i cannot imagine reading i mean actually i just did but in front of children i mean 15 year olds 10th graders a woman a grown

[01:27:51] woman got up there and made the decision to read this poem to children thank you we also have one video testimony this evening submitted by Robert Rigby. Good evening. I speak for FCPS Pride tonight.

[01:28:24] We are an organization whose membership is 80% families and 70% educators, standing up for LGBTQ people in our Fairfax school. We all must keep the people in our school safe, respected, welcomed, and included. Then we must take intent action to hold Richmond accountable for trying to drive some people in the Commonwealth into hiding. Local school boards must shore up decency against the

[01:28:57] flood of animosity from Richmond. There is a broader tactic of trying to dismantle public schools by weaponizing anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, ableist, anti-Asian, anti-Hispanic, and anti-immigrant sentiment.

[01:29:16] I again raise the alarm about the safety of LGBTQIA students, staff, and families here in Virginia, even in Fairfax. The forced outing bill, 2432, has passed the Virginia House of Delicates.

[01:29:32] this passage's effect is to push leaders schools and families into rejecting lgbtq children a commitment from the school system and supervisors to keep us all safe welcome and respected in our schools and the county would be a good start efforts to persuade senators and the governor to hold the line against this attempt to drive trans children and their families into hiding

[01:30:02] would be a good follow-up thank you for listening thank you i will call on dr reed for a strategic

[01:30:19] plan update thank you madam chair um and thanks uh laura i think we've got the um not sure if we have the right slide deck up let's go ahead there we go yep we do thank you tonight i'm going to

[01:30:56] share a few brief updates on the strategic plan uh particularly given the board just had a retreat on the strategic plan this week on Tuesday. We've successfully held nine forums thus far, and there are three remaining, so we're doing a total of 12.

[01:31:15] Saturday, excuse me, Saturday from 9 to 10.30. We have a virtual, and then again, Wednesday and Thursday next week, we have our last two in person. And we're really excited about the number of voices and the really incredible wide and diverse ideas that are shared. We also want to encourage the community who are watching to visit our website for additional information and to register for one of our last three opportunities of our community forums. We've had five focus groups held this week with students from grades 3 through 12 and kicking off our

[01:31:55] division-wide elementary and secondary student focus groups have been really a key cornerstone of our strategic plan. Staying resolutely student-centered is a critical feature of this work. We did hold the elementary and secondary student panels separately and we received some amazing feedback from participants and their parents about the students experiences during these focus groups. The core planning team and the board will have a chance to review the feedback and we're really excited to incorporate that into the work. I want to give a shout out to Leona Smith and Kevin Morris for their thoughtful

[01:32:33] leadership with the student voice team their championing of this work is really critical and lastly just want to encourage everyone to stay connected the website we continue to have the latest breaking news as well as tuning into board meetings or attending one of the last three community forums finally I want to invite anyone watching to think about using our k-12 let's talk tool and there's a link to this on our strategic planning website where you can continue to share your thoughts and feedback as we develop our strategic plan.

[01:33:10] And that is our update this evening, Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Kiesemar, did you want to speak? Thank you very much, Dr. Reed. I just want to say, first of all, I'm very, very excited for the strategic planning work and the board retreat.

[01:33:28] I thought it was a really, really wonderful retreat to be able to dig into the data that the other teams and community forums have been digging into and really talk as a board as a whole about where we see our vision going forward and our goals for the system. So I just want to thank you. I want to thank your staff who have been working really, really hard in your core planning team here to put all these community forums together, to put all of the core planning teams and the other teams together, and to work with the board as well.

[01:33:53] This is really, really tough work, and I just want to give kudos to the staff for the work they're doing as well. Thank you. And I will call on you now for an update on academic matters. Well, one of my favorite parts of our board meeting, and it's really an exciting opportunity this evening to share some great news. Dr. Sloan Presidio and his team spearheaded the writing of a grant, and we did receive a U.S. Department of Education grant, which is a five-year grant, for $13.5 million, which in this case will be supporting school-based mental health

[01:34:30] services projects. We all know that even prior... I love that, right? I mean, if there's something we can all come around it's the mental health of our students staff and community so just really exciting I think that even before the pandemic we were seeing epic rates of mental health concerns among our students staff and families so the goal of the grant is really to increase the number of credentialed school mental health service providers and we also want to

[01:35:06] talk about making sure we increase the skills of our current staff across the board as well we want to also really push for training and professional development around mental health first aid for our students because we know that if our students and our staff across the board have skills this is really going to increase the culture and climate health of our schools and we know that students learn best when they feel safe intellectually physically and emotionally. So Laura, next slide. Currently, there is a national shortage of school psychologists

[01:35:42] and school counselors. And quite frankly, there's a shortage of a lot of staff. And these are key staff. And when we're short of our school-based mental health support staff, that just creates more anxiety and honestly, more of a concern. So the funds are going to be utilized for recruiting and hiring as well as retaining our staff and we definitely have multiple vacancies that we could fill we also as I mentioned earlier are really thinking about providing targeted and timely health mental health consultation to both students and staff reduce caseloads and really provide a more

[01:36:20] present approach to student needs so we're excited about these possibilities as well as across the board training for staff and our students next slide great thanks Laura this grant project is going to in 2023 provide some funding for recruitment support and retention of professional staff as well as the expansion of professional development and leadership growth because in Fairfax County we absolutely want to recruit and retain the best mental health professionals to support again our students and staff so in looking at

[01:36:56] the timeline just want to remind our board that the grant was awarded in January of 2023 and the grant was 2.35 million for a year one which is this year and then again in March of 23 and June of 23 we're going to be moving forward with new plans and we will have a similar process although we're pressing little on some optional ideas in terms of not just we I think there's a strong belief that we're not going to find the number of mental health professionals

[01:37:32] that we actually really might want to hire so one of the goals that we really are going to advocate for is the ability to use funds to support training for all of our staff that are working with students as well as I mentioned earlier the student-to-student mental health training supports and that is academic matters for this evening. I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you Dr. Reed I see Dr. Anderson and then Ms. Keith Camaro. Thank you first of all kudos to

[01:38:08] Dr. Presidio this is really fantastic news so great job and thank you for bringing all these great dollars to us. One of the things that I wanted to ask about as you talked about mental health first aid for individuals who work with our students can you speak to how that would impact our security officers at our schools and if there's space for us to consider providing the same training to the SROs that are currently in our schools because I know that's a point where we can do better to provide a better experience for more of our kids I think what's really important as we think about each and every staff member

[01:38:47] that works within our ecosystem that is Fairfax County whether we our school resource resource officers certainly would benefit from this training as would all staff that have an opportunity to work with our students in fact the data right now is that one in four persons are experiencing a mental health concern or situation so we know how important it is for our school resource officers to have that training as well as those staff who see our students first and last our bus drivers our counselors our social workers anyone who's working in a

[01:39:25] school or around students or around our staff so I definitely think that our school resource officers would be included in this professional development okay that's terrific the other thing that you talked about is using these funds to help be more competitive and attracting and

[01:39:41] recruiting mental health professionals how would have how is that going to better our efforts because we already know that there's a shortage of these individuals how will these funds help to create a greater attraction of folks here to FCPS outside of the professional development how do we even get them here so I think one of the things the funds provide is a coherent recruitment strategy it'll enable us to recruit across broader audiences I also think that as in any field working conditions are really a key to recruiting and retention and if we can

[01:40:18] have more mental health professionals then our caseloads are lower and I think there's a greater satisfaction among employees that are working in that field that they're able to make a difference when the caseloads are more reasonable right I understand that but I think my question was what is it that we are going to be doing with these funds that we could not have done without them we'll be able to hire more staff and we're going to be able to lower caseloads we're going to be able to recruit in wider areas. Okay that's not quite my question. I guess what I wanted to get to is since there's a shortage

[01:40:53] which you talked about why would we get now a greater share of that shortage? How are these funds going to help us to do that? Well I've I can re-state what I just stated but we will continue to be able to provide we'll be able to hire more positions which will enable us to have a lower caseload which we believe one of the things applicants look at is what is the caseload going to be when we take a position.

[01:41:17] So if we can have working conditions that enable a higher likelihood of success, we believe that will be something that attracts candidates. We also want to make sure we're able to recruit on a wider net, and this will provide monies for us to do that recruiting. But it's both recruiting and retention, and retention is connected to how do I feel about the work I'm able to do so we believe that we're going to be able to create those working conditions with increased professional development lower caseloads that more of those folks that we are able to recruit will stay okay and that I can

[01:41:52] definitely understand and my last question is this grant is for three years I believe so yes what I saw okay what is our long-term kind of thinking if we recruit all these wonderful individuals to FCPS how would we retain them once the grant expires that's going to be a great question and we'll be continuing to work on that I think that's the case honestly with a lot of grants we end up looking at the sustainability I think we just had that discussion with our title one grant recently in terms of putting adding more schools on but if we add more schools and then they come off the title one

[01:42:32] list how often do we start things and then have to stop them so at this point I THINK THAT'S GOING TO BE PART OF OUR ODYSSEY IN THIS PLANNING. THANK YOU. GREAT. THANK YOU. MS. KEES-KIMARA. THANK YOU.

[01:42:48] EXCITING NEWS. THANK YOU, DR. PRESIDIO. YOU KNOW, THIS IS REALLY CRITICAL IN MY WORK. I AM SEEING MORE AND MORE YOUNG PEOPLE LACKING THE COPING SKILLS AND REALLY UNDERSTANDING HOW THEY CAN MANEUVER FROM DAY TO DAY.

[01:43:12] THAT IS CERTAINLY IS REFLECTED IN THE SHORTAGE OF COUNSELORS AND I JUST FEEL I SORT OF FEEL IN THE POST PANDEMIC WORLD THE LACK OF CONNECTIVITY IS REQUIRING A GREATER WORK I DO APPLAUD OUR STAFF MEMBERS WHO HAVE BEEN ASSISTING STUDENTS WITH THE SEL WORK BUT I'M WONDERING GOING FORWARD BECAUSE THIS IS SO CRITICAL.

[01:43:41] IF THIS WOULD ALSO INCLUDE A FEW THINGS. ONE, I, LIKE DR. ANDERSON, HAVE SOME CONCERN BECAUSE EVERY TIME I NEED TO FIND THERAPY FOR A YOUNG PERSON I'M WORKING WITH, THERE'S WAITING LISTS.

[01:43:57] IT'S VERY, VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND THESE PEOPLE. SO I'M WONDERING IF WE COULD PERHAPS THINK ABOUT ANOTHER TACTIC, PERHAPS ACTUALLY HELPING TO GET information to families to support students so that you know they're that is enhanced the support from home is enhanced and perhaps dealing with some of those areas I'm also concerned about our employees because they've been on the front line and I think that it impacts their mental health

[01:44:32] their emotional well-being as well and so I'd like for us to give some thought to how we might support our employees better and recognize what those needs are and perhaps and find ways to support them encourage them and I think that helps with our strategy of keeping our employees as well and then lastly I didn't know whether Dr. Wilson had any and I'm so sorry I didn't get to give you a heads up um but I'll talk a little bit so you can think uh um maybe she can give us some ideas

[01:45:08] because I I I have found that there's a real shortage and what's the difference in what we're going to do to try to fill these positions so um I'm not sure Dr. Wilson do you feel like you have some thoughts about that um yes um recruitment actually can be a very costly venture um in terms of um you know going to specific locations i think it's all about um where we target and so

[01:45:43] this will give us an opportunity to look more broadly and as dr reed stated to cast a wider net um and to actually have the the face-to-face time that we need to have with candidates and build those relationships um and perhaps even invite those individuals to uh fairfax county public schools and spend time and in our classrooms and see exactly what's happening and and let them see um that it is truly it would truly be a benefit to them to be a part of

[01:46:19] our district if i could just add a couple things to that as well just very briefly i think dr reed did a really good job talking about how some of these funds can be used to build the the working conditions really that are going to attract folks and dr wilson's team is doing an amazing job on expanding recruitment but we're talking about other opportunities here as well so internship opportunities for individuals before they enter some of these professions where they can come and and work with us in a really supportive environment and understand that if they come to work for Fairfax they're going to be part of a learning organization and a learning community that's going to continue to be invested in their

[01:46:56] professional growth and their development where they're going to have a support system those are really big recruitment tools and so we've got some ideas in that area and just two other things real quickly I would say this is actually a five-year grant so we do have a little bit more time to expend these funds which is really good and this was really a team effort to do this work so it was folks from the Department of Special Services from financial services human resources that really came together to write this grant and Mike axler who's our director of intervention and prevention services I really want to thank him for taking the lead on this project he's actually on line with us tonight so if there were any super detailed questions he's

[01:47:36] available to answer them but I think dr. Reed's done a really good job kind of laying out the vision for what we want to do and as you mentioned we are targeting support services to families and to teachers particularly around working with you know students that have mental health issues and need those additional support so this is a pretty expansive project for us madam chair would you prefer I have one more question would you prefer I do as we approach this and try to make sure we're doing predict preventative work we all

[01:48:12] know we're in the middle of a opioid crisis and we are you know having difficulty where families aren't expecting things to happen. Is that a component of the work that we would use this grant for in terms of providing supports maybe preventative supports.

[01:48:29] I think it's certainly a possibility because it's certainly connected to mental health often drug use is a self medication due to mental health issues. So it's certainly a possibility and we're going to continue to frame out all the possible opportunities but point taken thank you i look forward to uh hearing what your thoughts your best thoughts later thank you thank you miss tolan congratulations this is so so exciting i can't

[01:49:01] believe it um you know with the hours that you know mike axler and dr presidio uh and i have spent and miss mclaughlin you know with the the successful child and youth policy team and a a number of people here at the board over the last years we know how acute this problem is and how hard it is to hire people whether you're trying to hire for saps or any organization in the county um a number of my questions have been answered i'm super excited that this we have a five-year runway to work on this the only question i was wondering about is i know often when we

[01:49:41] apply for grants of this size we partner with other organizations um and i was just wondering if we were partnered with anyone else um for this uh grant opportunity or whether it's all for fcps um this is really i mean money targeted for fcps but again as we think about building some strategic partnerships to expand opportunities and services um there might be some opportunities to you know enter into some agreements um you know with private providers if if that was something that was going to enhance our capacity to provide services and support so you know we're still looking at some of those opportunities for the future but right now these are funds targeted

[01:50:21] just for fcps awesome thank you again congratulations thank you ms cohen ms corbett sanders thank you madam chair and thank you dr presidio dr reed this is a really important area and your number of 25 percent that's 25 percent of our potentially of our students but it's also 25 percent of the adults in this community we are having a national pandemic on mental well-being

[01:51:00] so and mental well-being does contribute to how people are able to come and fully participate in school how they can show up for work and how they can be contributors in our communities so this is really, really important. I do have a couple of questions. In 2009, I believe, is when we had the support cap implemented in the state of Virginia. Is that correct? 2009? You would have

[01:51:33] phoned a friend. Does someone know? So I moved to Virginia in 2012. No, I have a friend two chairs over who I think can confirm that when the economic downturn in 2008 to 2010 that's when the legislature came back and said we need to cut expenses and it's like 2009 2010 is when the support cap was implemented across the state of Virginia and for many people when you hear the term support cap you think that

[01:52:05] That it is some, you know, not enough EAs or clerks and things like that, but actually the support cap applies to how many social workers, how many psychologists, and many of these positions that you will be restoring through this initiative.

[01:52:29] And it's long overdue but it's also one where this may be a transition program to actually get us ramped back up and not only ramped up to where we were but to allow us to build a forward looking program.

[01:52:50] So I hope that we will look at a couple of different areas. One is certainly encouraging as part of the discussion with our legislature that continued discussion because this board has said it is an important initiative which is to get rid of that support cap so that we can have these jobs full time forward looking.

[01:53:15] The second is to perhaps look at the ability of pushing in some of these lessons and these skills into our classrooms because these are essential life skills for all of our kids and third is to look at multimodal delivery of these services thank you thank you thank you miss Corbett thank you miss Corbett Sanders and thank you dr. Reed for that I just want to say I'm very excited to see the good work we see the student youth survey results and anxiety in particular is very high amongst our youth though having lower case loads and

[01:53:53] and our counselors and psychologists more able to really focus on our students is very important so thank you Dr. Presidio and your team for all this hard work this is going to be very exciting thank you Dr. Reed and with that I will call thank you I will call on student representative matters I'll call Ms. Togby thank you so much Madam Chair good evening and happy Thursday everyone special shout out today we have James from Troop 976 who is here with us this evening fulfilling his citizenship and community requirement. One last note about our

[01:54:32] CTSOs I had to say most of them are gearing up for competition season so I just wanted to say best of luck to all of them and I'm super excited and of course strategic planning the community forums have been hosts are going to be hosted in every pyramid and it's been super exciting to hear the feedback from my peers and to also see what's been going on online. There are a couple of virtual sessions happening and in person too. It's been great to get students involved to attend these meetings.

[01:55:01] We're shaping the future of our county and of course it's really important to have those who are directly affected by the decisions that we make at the decision table or decision making table. On Tuesday I was able to join the Board of Supervisors in congratulating all of our students and educators who were involved in the historical markers project which was so exciting and words literally cannot describe how proud i am together they were able to lift and tell all the untold stories some also unknown of our community from a total of 53 submissions from groups whether they

[01:55:40] be students classes boy scout troops and more the six finalists actually came or the six finalists stories were of Colin Powell, the West Springfield 16, Lillian Blackwell, Annie Harper, Gunnell Chapel, and Louise Archer. These submissions came from a range of students from West Springfield, Woodson, Louise Archer, and it was just really great to be there. I have to say, these kids gave me so much hope for the future because they're our next leaders, and the best part of the ceremony for sure was when the board moved to approve the resolution and all the

[01:56:17] kids said aye. And then of course it is counselor appreciation week. I have to say our counselors really don't get enough credit especially at the high school. Most advise upwards of over 300 kids and I have to admit on occasion I'm leaning on my counselor and she's the glue that keeps me together. I have had the pleasure of watching videos on social media from certain high school accounts like Lake Braddock and South Counties who have been highlighting their counselors and just really celebrating them which has just really been a joy for me and then lastly I am super excited to say that we have been gearing up to roll out

[01:56:54] applications for the next student representative to the school board which is kind of crazy to say yeah um just last year I was in the same position so it's definitely gonna be interesting to see how it all rolls out and it's gonna be great to see how it works with this team so let's have a great end to the week. Thank you, Ms. Togby. And it's hard to believe that's already happening. It feels like you just started with us. So thank you for everything you've done, too. You've been wonderful to work with. Agenda item 3.05, I will call on Dr. Reed for Superintendent Matters. Thank you,

[01:57:32] Madam Chair. It's been a fabulous couple weeks. The only really, I don't know, difficult morning was Groundhog Day morning. It is one of my favorite holidays. And for those around the country that know that I got a lot of sort of conciliatory texts when the groundhog did see his shadow.

[01:57:54] Paxtahani Phil actually saw his shadow. So while we have not seen snow this winter, there are six more weeks of winter, the Weyanoke woodchucks were able to soften the blow. So I was really appreciative of the opportunity to visit on Groundhog Day with Woody the Woodchuck at Wayanoke Elementary School and want to thank Principal Felicia Usher for hosting me and had a chance to get in the classrooms and see our woodchucks working hard that morning. Also had a chance to attend several basketball games. I went to the boys basketball game at South Lakes High

[01:58:33] School where they played Oakton High School. Lots of excitement there and I really loved the half-time dance team performance. I think Miss Marin was there as well and it was an opportunity for our high school dance team students to really teach our very young community students, our elementary students, dance routines and principal, oh dear, I'm not going to remember, Kim. Kim Ritzer.

[01:58:59] Reisner, thank you. Her little girl actually was on the dance team as well so it was just a fun evening. Also had a chance to watch the girls game at Herndon High School between the Hornets and the statesmen of Marshall. Fabulous game and their step team at halftime was amazing as well. I had a chance to join several board members in visiting schools. Thank you to our chair Miss Sizemore Heiser for inviting me to the Davis Center and the Marshall Academies and it was just fabulous to have a tour of the Davis Center and see how hard our young people are working on on their transition work and also at the Marshall Academies,

[01:59:39] the cyber security, just all the different pieces. I know I've particularly enjoyed the culinary arts and the types of cooking that our students are doing far exceeds my talent, as my family could attest.

[01:59:55] I also had an opportunity with Dr. Anderson to visit Holmes Middle School, Poe Middle School, and Mason Crest Elementary, and did take a few moments to shoot hoops with our students at, I believe it was Holmes Middle School, so I'll have to go back there and redeem myself. It wasn't my best outdoor shooting self. We also had a chance to visit Hayfield Secondary School, Lindbrook Elementary, and the Leprechauns with Ms. Darinak Kovacs, and our Leprechauns were doing some fabulous ceramic art as well as mathematics. So it's just, you know,

[02:00:30] anywhere in the division that we have a chance to go and be in classrooms there's magic happening all across this division with our students and staff i also want to mention that miss corbett sanders and i were invited to attend walt wittman middle school celebration of national history day and we had a chance to hear from several students and their projects and oh my goodness i actually learned quite a little bit about a couple topics and just the depth that our students are going into to demonstrate research, their ability to articulate their work. Again, just is

[02:01:04] amazing. I want to close by sharing that we do have a career day. Dr. Wilson and her team in human resources is working unbelievably hard and we have over 400 applicants and just about every school in the division represented this Saturday with the priority of hiring for our title one and hire free and reduced lunch schools we're just so excited about getting out and having the opportunity to hire early so props to dr. Wilson and her team Marty Smith and dr. Ivy and our regional assistant superintendents we're

[02:01:41] just pulling all of this together it's a team effort and we're just excited about the weekend so if you have a minute to stop by and maybe visit a CANDIDATE OR TWO ON SATURDAY WE'LL BE OUT THERE RECRUITING FOR FAIRFACS SO THANK YOU MADAM CHAIR THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH AND PER THE REQUEST OF A COUPLE BOARD MEMBERS WE'LL TAKE A FIVE MINUTE

[02:02:02] RECESS BEFORE WE MOVE ON TO ACTION THANK YOU BOARD MEMBERS PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS BOARD MEMBERS

[02:17:05] PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS WE'RE GOING TO MOVE ON TO AGENDA ITEM FOUR ACTION AGENDA 4.01 CONFIRMATION MS CORBETT SANDERS I CALL MS CORBETT SANDERS FOR THE MOTION IT'S RIGHT HERE

[02:17:43] madam chair i apologize i move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who physically assaulted another student while at school and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent is there a second i second it all those in favor miss bukarski miss colin mr frisch internet koufax miss corbett sanders miss tollen miss keys gamara all those opposed

[02:18:18] miss omesh all those abstaining miss marron and miss mclaughlin that motion passes and dr anderson's AWAY FROM THE TABLE THANK YOU I CALL ON MS COHEN FOR A MOTION I MOVE THAT THE TEACHER IDENTIFIED IN CLOSE SESSION BE DISMISSED FROM EMPLOYMENT FROM FAIRFACS COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS THERE A SECOND SECOND MS KEEZ GAMARA ALL THOSE IN FAVOR PLEASE RAISE YOUR HANDS MS KEEZ GAMARA MS MAYOR MISS AMESH ACTUALLY THAT IS UNANIMOUS THAT MOTION PASSES THANK YOU VERY MUCH AGENDA ITEM 4.02 POLICY 8610

[02:18:56] SCHOOL BUS TRANSPORTATION AND WALKING AND BUS ROOTS I CALL ON MS CORBETT SANDERS FOR A MOTION I move that the school board approve policy 8610.9 superseding policy 8610.8. Is there a second?

[02:19:13] Second. Ms. Cohen? Ms. Corbett Sanders? Should I just speak to your motion? Yes, Madam Chair. There's really not a whole lot to speak to on this motion except to kind of go through the history. This is really an updating of the policy to reflect the free bus pass program for all of our students in middle and high school and also reflect our commitment to provide alternative bus transportation options for those students who are the subjects of disciplinary actions.

[02:19:46] We will have one minor amendment tonight to clarify the possibility of instances where we may have to have overloads on a bus on a temporary basis. Thank you.

[02:20:02] Ms. Cohen, don't you speak to your second? No, I think Ms. Corbett Sanders covered it. Thank you. Are the board members supposed to speak? Oh.

[02:20:21] Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak? Are you ready for my amendment? Okay. I wasn't sure where we were here. I move to amend the main motion by inserting overloads may be allowed in cases of emergency as stated in the Virginia Code under Part D Additional Resources.

[02:20:41] Is there a second? Second. Ms. Lamesh, Dr. Anderson, would you speak to your amendment? Yes, briefly, just to explain why this is here. The state code does allow for school divisions to provide overloads during cases of emergency, when there's a bus breakdown, et cetera.

[02:20:59] I just wanted to offer some clarity to our public because the language strikes out the use of overloads entirely, and I do not want it to be mistaken that they could never happen under any circumstances. So I felt that it was more transparent for us to include this language rather than not.

[02:21:18] Thank you. Ms. Amish, can I speak to you a second? Yeah, I'll just add that my understanding is that there's not particular objection from the governance committee chair and that staff agree. This particular language will just help be more explicit about what is already the commitment to ensure student safety in our buses.

[02:21:35] Thank you. Seeing no, the board wishes to speak. I will call for the vote on the I will call for vote. The motion is on the screen. All those in favor. The amendment is on the screen. That is unanimous.

[02:21:52] I will now call for a vote on the main motion, which is the one on the screen. all those in favor please raise your hands and that is also unanimous so thank you agenda item 4.03 school year 24 calendar it's actually i will call on miss cohen for the motion all right everybody take a deep breath i move that the school board approved the blue option draft calendar updated on february 7th 2023 for sy 2023-24 and blue option draft calendars updated

[02:22:25] on February 6th 2023 for SY 2024 25 and 2025 26 there is is there a second I'll second it Ms. Bukarski Ms. Cullen would you speak to your motion I would thanks so much um you know there's a few reasons and and it's funny I think how we all kind of come to this just for the the public to understand I know that many of us did our own surveys I know that as a system we did two surveys the folks on the staff who worked diligently with school board members to try to get this we each had

[02:23:01] multiple two by twos and then I imagine an awful lot of one by ones probably more than any of us know and we appreciate all the work that Mr. Smith and Lisa Youngblood Hall and the whole team who worked on this really appreciate it for me you know I originally walked into it in all honesty, I said this in the work session, that I thought that we should move to a shorter winter break that aligned with our neighboring counties. I will say the people of Springfield have spoken very differently to that. Staff, families, divorced parents who have come to talk to me about the

[02:23:41] importance of the two weeks, any number of people, people who have to travel by car long distances to see their family because they can't afford to fly. And so this is one of those times that I'm taking off my hat of uh of staying with what i originally thought about and just listening to the people in my district who feel really strongly about this blue calendar it received the largest number of votes from folks in my district and received overwhelming support on our community survey that we did and the biggest thing that the feedback that we've continued to get is

[02:24:20] about not having as many five less than five day weeks as we have this year and that's been one of the overwhelming comments the other has been a multi-year calendar and I absolutely understand and agree with that as somebody with kids in the school how difficult it is to figure out child care how difficult it is to figure out summer camps and vacations and all those things if you don't have calendars to plan by and I had a few parents who said honestly I don't even care what this looks like just get it done because you guys

[02:24:56] already screwed up park takes and and they're just frustrated they want us to be done with it and so I understand that feeling as well it is far from a perfect calendar we worked very hard to reach out to teachers and staff in our district I had input from the 81 schools that we send kiddos to in the Springfield district and felt like I got a lot of really good feedback I know we couldn't accomplish everything but I feel like the iteration that was posted on Monday of this calendar really speaks to some of the concerns that people shared and and tried to embrace a little bit of what people liked about the

[02:25:36] purple calendar while maintaining the 180 days and you know for me this was a calendar that kept 27 weeks at five day weeks and again that was very important to our community it was a big piece of what ACSD asked for as we went forward so I I feel committed to this calendar and I'm very grateful that we're going to move forward with three years so that people can have some sense of understanding when and where they're supposed to be so thank you thank you

[02:26:13] Ms. Bukarski to speak to your second yeah thank you I will briefly as I think we are going to be speaking a lot in the next few minutes I I just want to say thank you to staff who've actually spent a very long time on trying to provide us with different options different ideas it was the most extensive calendar process that we have had to date I would argue probably a little bit too time

[02:26:45] consuming but that is a conversation for another day I think the blue calendar as posted this week tried to keep intact the themes that we saw from our surveys and our feedback about what was important to educators and to teachers to educators and parents and the community it is a compromise I said this at the work session I think I said it at the second one and I'll say it again we are definitely not penning world peace there is no perfect calendar like this

[02:27:23] Cohen said I have heard over and over that parents just want to know they want to be able to schedule their lives they want to have predictability and I think that is what we can give them here tonight I think the calendar in its latest form the blue one maximizes the number of uninterrupted weeks I think as much I think it was 20% more than the last blue option which is while at the same time respecting our diverse community and the priorities that they

[02:28:02] HAVE SAID MATTER TO THEM AND I HOPE THAT MY COLLEAGUES WILL BE ABLE TO SUPPORT THIS CALENDAR FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS AND I THINK THAT'S IT.

[02:28:17] THANK YOU. THANK YOU. MR.

[02:28:40] FRISH? MR. PARALMENT. DO WE GO TO THE SUBSTITUTE MOTION IF THE LIGHT ISN'T ON? DO I NEED TO RECOGNIZE A MEMBER FIRST? NO. NO. LET ME FIGURE IT OUT.

[02:28:55] DID I FOLLOW THE SCRIPT MR. MORGAN? to be recognized me it's whoever asked me I will call on miss McLaughlin for the substitute motion thank you everybody the clerk of the board and I spoke during the break and I was supposed to be the next recognized person for the substitute motion so that we can present the substitute motion speak to it vote on it and then everybody can speak to whether it's this

[02:29:32] main motion or it's the substitute motion so I was following the script I moved to substitute the main motion with a substitute motion such that the school board will approve the superintendent's blue option amended draft calendar that was updated and provided to the board and the public today february 9th 2023 for school years 2023-24 school years 20 24 25 and 25 26. is there a second i second miss mclaughlin would you speak to your

[02:30:05] motion uh yes before i speak to the motion um i would like to call on dr reed because as the board is aware Dr. Reed and her team worked on making some additional changes all day today and at 4 p.m. sent her recommended changes that we're referring to as the amended draft and so Dr. Reed if you could share why you're you created this amended version and recommended it to the board.

[02:30:36] If I if I may may I point of order can hold on hold on can we just have it put up on the board so we can see it yes it's it's here in front of us we can have them on behind us as well oh the actual calendar i'm sorry the actual calendar yeah yeah madame quick let me put the post the substitute motion act calendar on the screen which which one well we can read we can't

[02:31:03] do all three so so thank you miss mclaughlin i just want to do a short recap last fall more than 78 000 parents caregivers employees students and community members provided input on the calendar development by participating in our survey.

[02:31:31] Staff have reviewed the data with the calendar committee that was comprised of staff, students, parents, guardians, and community members. In late January and the early part of this month, we went back out to the community for feedback on four draft options and more than 37,000 participants participated.

[02:31:52] Staff then developed four three-year calendars that address concerns and the educational needs of our students. And I think it's been said already that no calendar will ever accommodate everyone, but we believe we've come as close as possible with the calendars that we are presenting this evening. The draft calendar for the next three years continues our commitment to centering the students' educational experience, recognizing the diversity of our students, staff, and community, and continuing to support the growth and professional development of our teachers and staff. The school year calendars features the three years already spoken

[02:32:28] to 180 days of instruction to maximize permitted instructional time 15 days of professional development for teachers and staff to ensure the most highly qualified instructional staff are serving our students and to allow staff time to close out each quarter I will also say that we are committed staff is committed to providing staff and the board the clear identified purposes for are 15 days of professional development in terms of which days are staff-directed, teacher-directed,

[02:33:04] principal-directed versus division-directed, and that should be out, Dr. King tells me, by April 1. That will be available. It also is a recognition of key community cultural observances or religious holidays, a start date that allows for almost two full weeks of instruction prior to the Labor Day holiday, and again, a reminder that school divisions that start before labor day are required to take both the friday and monday of the labor day holiday weekend as student holidays it does provide a two-week winter break which has been an overwhelming

[02:33:39] feedback that our community staff and students prefer and a spring break that is aligned with surrounding counties and school divisions as many of our employees live outside of fairfax county we've also one of the adjustments that we made was making it clear that our quarter wherever possible ended prior to a break so in the spring break quarter i believe we had ending prior to spring break so students staff and families can put their pencils down and actually have a break

[02:34:14] given our earlier conversation around mental health as well we did remove the green calendar from consideration because it was clear it would not receive approval but the new iterations we believe create the best possible scenario for consistent and meaningful student instruction it increases the five-day instructional weeks from our current year and it does continue to provide building staff for the professional work days needed for appropriate grading training and professional development so we can continue the level of excellence our schools are noted for

[02:34:48] thank you i i had thought dr reed you were going to walk through the why you decided to submit changes today i could walk through um well today we we have received more feedback this week both from the calendar survey that was remaining open as well as from our labor groups and several board members and the adjustments we made were to move the professional work days in august to start at that full second week so that staff had a summer where they didn't have

[02:35:28] to come back if they're returning staff that prior week where it's our new teacher group so we were able to slide that across we also tried to we needed to rectify the january semester ending grading time which we moved the professional work day for january of 24 i believe it previously was connected to the holiday of president's day but we wanted to make sure we had a grading day at the end of the semester and then we linked the professional work days following spring break

[02:36:06] so that again once we returned we were back in school and i believe those are the key changes for 23 24 in the out years we created similar a similar pattern really again to maximize flexibility during our summer and as well to create grading days and professional development days that we felt were reasonable I know there's a bit of concern about the number of professional work days at the end of the school year it's my hope that once we have our strategic plan in place that

[02:36:44] our school teams will be able to utilize one of those days as they plan forward for the coming year because one of the things we know is that summer is a great time for professional development and if schools are able to identify their plans of action in June they'll be able to select professional development opportunities that best match those plans during the course of the summer we also I'll just leave that there at this point so I'm happy to answer any further questions thank you and personally speaking to my motion what I'd like to

[02:37:20] share with my colleagues is I know how much we're all committed to ensuring as many five-day uninterrupted instructional weeks but what I've heard very clear from our employees and I'm still getting messages from employees is if you look at this substitute motion we do ensure that all of our teachers who now take graded work late graded work and they've got to get them into the books for QE to not having any professional work day at all to do that is highly problematic and

[02:37:56] I know that was feedback that Dr. Reed received from one of the largest teacher associations. My other concern and why I really hope the support will be here is that as Dr. Reed noted Our returning teachers were going to have to return on August the 11th for a Friday.

[02:38:16] Now with this change, they can come back on a Monday and we can shift the new teacher training from Monday to a Tuesday through Friday. What we're hearing from our teachers is the shortened summer break is a concern. In keeping with what we have in 2026, we really should be continuing to have the professional workdays follow spring break to create less CHOP for our families who have said it's really hard to be in, to be out.

[02:38:46] It's better for consistent learning as Dr. Reed noted. So those were some of the key changes. The only other change that I will propose regardless is addressing the Super Tuesday, which next year will be on May the 5th and prior county requests from the Board of Elections have been that we do not have school on that day because March sorry March 5th Tuesday super super Tuesday past boards have had to go and change the calendar after we approved it because

[02:39:25] of that I'm I will again speak to that but that would also address a professional workday I think is ill-placed in June. This to me is important. If we let stay the main motion, I very much worry about the impact on our new teachers, our returning teachers, and I worry especially about that QE2 in January not having a professional workday for our teachers. Colleagues, I can't tell you how problematic that will be for our employees who we say that we care about and want to make sure that

[02:40:01] that they have adequate time to get their work done. So I do hope that given this is what Dr. Reed and her team worked on all day, that it was her recommendation that as she had said, and I quote, "This is an integration of ideas that continue to be generated as we work to develop the best possible calendar.

[02:40:22] I believe there are some features of these attached drafts, this was the ones that are in the substitute motion, that make a great deal of educational sense. I don't have a dog in the fight. I just believe in Dr. Reed. I believe this is the right thing to do.

[02:40:38] And given that changes were made Monday and Tuesday by the superintendent and now made today, I think everything that's in front of us, the main motion or this one, has been done in just the last few days. But if people are intent on voting tonight, then I truly hope you will support the substitute motion.

[02:40:59] - Thank you. Ms. Dernot-Koufax, you want to speak to your second? - Yes, just briefly. I want to say that this calendar process has been both broad and comprehensive. You have staff and 12 individual board members trying to meet the needs of 180,000 constituents, and we are doing our very best.

[02:41:22] No calendar will be perfect. That's been said several times tonight. I do want to thank staff for being so responsive and respectful, and I want to thank my colleagues for talking together, even though we might not have always agreed.

[02:41:39] I appreciate everyone's passion and hard work, but we must come to a conclusion tonight for our families and it's the right thing to do. I ask everybody remember that the hard work for the diversity and inclusion we all desired in the calendar is hard work that we've already accomplished last year.

[02:41:55] And this has been much appreciated by our families. But families also like their two week winter break. And this simply means that other compromises have to be made. And that's earlier starts, later going into June, with many other things, many other variables beside.

[02:42:15] So what I do is I support this revised blue calendar as the best possible solution to support our students, our families, and our teachers. And my colleagues, I appreciate all of you, but we need to work together. And if we're going to stay here until we come to a conclusion, let's do that, but let's just do it with respect.

[02:42:36] And I thank you. Thank you, Miss Marin. Yes, I'm committed to passing something tonight. I have said before that for me, the ends, right, don't justify the means.

[02:42:54] Is that the right way of thinking of it? We had this process and I'm confused at how it sounds like one or several board members could approach the superintendent and ask for a new proposal. Dr. Reid, can you share how or this may be a question to the board chair, but it's difficult for me to do this job when in the minutes leading up to a meeting, I'm getting new information.

[02:43:23] And I would argue it's also not transparent to the public. So can you share with us what is your criteria for turning around to a board member their request for a document to come back to the board? So thank you, Ms. Maren.

[02:43:41] I think what I want to share this evening is that this is my first walkthrough in this calendar process here with our board. It's a unique process, and I think there is a lot of processing in the process, right?

[02:43:57] As I mentioned, there are 78,000 pieces of feedback early on and 37,000 pieces of feedback really at the end of January and early February. That's an incredible amount of feedback to sift through. Our staff, over the last several days, have been under, again, the direction of Marty Smith.

[02:44:17] We have Julie Fowler, Christine Wilson, Brian Booster, Michael Drager, and the whole Chiefs team continue to look at that data. And everyone is continuing to speak to board members as well as association leadership. There were some things about the blue calendar that became apparent to us.

[02:44:35] and it wasn't one or two board members coming to the superintendent. It was a look at a number of board members who provided feedback in the last couple days, actually through the weekend even, both to myself and to staff, as well as labor, as I said, labor leaders, and review of the feedback of the 37,000.

[02:44:56] One of the things we noticed was that we had left out that professional work day in January, And as we looked at that, it's the most probably important professional workday because that's where you have the most data in terms of semester grades, which might take more work even than quarter grades.

[02:45:12] So there were some pieces that we realized in that blue calendar that really did need our attention. So we began to tinker with it. And honestly, today just became an extraordinarily busy day. It was my intent to try to get it out to board members by 1 o'clock, and I simply wasn't able to do that with back-to-back meetings, and I apologize for that.

[02:45:31] so at this point I'm not sure what the process is in its purest sense if that makes sense but I'm committed to perhaps a more efficient process next time but at this point I've I think we've kind of tried to feel our way through what we have felt is perhaps a bit of a thorny path in terms of trying to meet as many needs as possible while staying student-centered in our approach to the next several years. I hope that answers your it is helpful and I'm heartened to

[02:46:09] hear that it was a blend of things since our last work session and not just advocacy in this week because that's what I had heard the most of you know I think that you've striven you strove to focus on the five days of instruction there were clear criteria and I want to assure the public that those haven't been thrown out the window along with all of their feedback I'm eager for miss omation miss Anderson's follow-on motion about setting or revising our calendar policy which has not been updated in eight years and that is incumbent on the board to do and our governance committee I do see this as an operational task so I would love to get the board out of the lane here in this

[02:46:47] work I do know some of the things that this calendar seeks to amend I have raised myself about you know the days after the spring break it's it's too bad that the staff didn't catch that the first time around because it seems pretty obvious. I know that's a challenging task but that is just one glaring thing.

[02:47:04] So you know I want to feel good about this vote. I don't like voting under duress and that's how I feel so I'm going to have to just figure that out now. I wish we could have a much better process among our board and then with the with the superintendent's support in the future.

[02:47:20] Thank you. Ms. Marin I support a clear policy and process moving forward 100 percent. you. Ms. Marin, did you, since you had also addressed the board, did you need additional answers from me or did Dr. Reed's answer suffice? All right, thank you. Ms. Toland? Yes, thank you very much for going through step-by-step sort of the thought process on each of these items.

[02:47:48] I just had one question. I was wondering about your conversations with our, you mentioned you talked to labor regarding the amendments. I'm a little curious about the move of the professional a work day from summer at the beginning of the school year like from August to June um you know it seems like kind of you know we're saying they want a longer summer but so you know do we take the day at the beginning or do we take the day at the end I guess is so I'm just curious you know

[02:48:24] if you talk to them if they had some reaction to those different days um you know what you heard Yeah, thank you, Ms. Toland. I think what the persistent request was that week where we have new teacher training coming back in August, the strong preference was to not start professional work days for returning staff until that second, or I guess it would be the third full week in August.

[02:48:55] Apparently that Friday and again, I can't see the dates from here, but the fourth new teacher day right now That's on the screen on that Friday Often as a day that new teachers spend in their schools and it's oh, thank you The fort or the 11th of August which had in the prior calendar been a professional workday They there was a real strong feeling that having new teachers in the building a lot of our returning teachers might be in the building But the opportunity to mentor or support new teachers on that day would be positive.

[02:49:32] But then that they wouldn't return to that full week of the 14th. And because the work days, we already have holidays at the end of June, it looked like that would be a preferable setup at this point. So for some reason, it was saving that whole week in August seemed more important than the June week.

[02:49:54] And you may not know the answer to this at this point, but I know with that professional work day being on Friday this particular year, we gave teachers quite a bit of leeway on, you know, how they utilized that day.

[02:50:11] We kind of said it was sort of their gift of time to work on some of those certifications and requirements that they had. You know, I'm sure some of that could happen even in that June time frame as well. Would you think of that, I guess, what is it, June 18th day as being very flexible for our staff as well?

[02:50:35] And maybe that would be a day that a core team might work on the strategic plan for the school? I would guess, number one, that Dr. King, who oversees our professional development planning in her department, One of the things we talked about was that she, by April 1, would have a determination on which of the 15 days are going to be identified as staff-teacher-directed versus principal-directed versus division-directed.

[02:51:09] And I think that we would probably grant more flexibility in the out days, but again, I don't want to get ahead of their work. And one of the things, the last professional development day has historically been a work from alternate location day.

[02:51:29] So that's been a pattern over the last several years. So to your point, around the 18th of June, likely that could be a staff work day that could be worked from an alternate location, which could be modules, professional development modules, you know, that are asynchronous or other types of professional work.

[02:51:47] So I will say I have heard from a number of my principals that they think it would be very beneficial to have time available to do their school improvement planning, sort of the strategic planning of the school in June versus waiting until much later in the summer, particularly if they're looking at year-end funds, availability, you know, at the end of the year so they could think about how they might use them or other, you know, funds that they have available.

[02:52:18] particularly our title one schools you know have some funding available and they they need to plan how to spend it. So I don't know if you have any comments on that. I guess that would be a pro for that June date. I think that's a tremendous pro for the June professional work day dates because data should be in and they'll be able to utilize their school planning process to then identify perhaps professional development during the summer that might be available and might also inform the professional development the divisions chooses to

[02:52:56] provide over the summer that staff might participate in I think if you wait till fall to do the plan you've missed a real opportunity to sign up attend or participate in professional development that might match the plan we're thinking about so I think personally the opportunity to plan button it up and and then head out for the summer to refresh and renew and come back and we know we're ready to go.

[02:53:21] In particular, this year, your commitment to have our strategic plan in place by May is gonna really also be an asset because we're gonna be able to look at what are the goals and measurements, what's the current data and actually be able to plan ahead of our summer this summer.

[02:53:38] So I think there's a lot of potential in the utilization of those days. - Just one other comment along those lines. know you know with our ESSER funding our schools have been reviewing every quarter you know how those funds are being used and then revising their school improvement plan accordingly so again I can see some uses for that day at the end of the school year versus you know sending everybody off

[02:54:06] and then coming back and and looking at that agreed yeah Ms. Corbin Sanders yes thank you Thank you, Madam Chair. I really appreciate your questions, Ms. Toland, because many of them are the same that I had, especially about the end of the year certifications and the school improvement planning process.

[02:54:30] And one of the benefits I see of having the team get together before they go off on July break is once they leave the building, you still have your administrators in the building who will operationalize and make appropriate adjustments.

[02:54:46] So I do think that's -- those are some pluses to this. I will say I don't think that there's ever been a calendar process that has worked well for me. I think that it's messy, and I don't think that this calendar or any calendar before us satisfies all of the needs of our community.

[02:55:06] I will be offering a follow-on motion to whatever calendar gets adopted, which is really going to address the needs of the people who live in my area and who have spoken very clearly about the challenges of multiple days off and the two week winter break where we have people getting out on the 15th and our working families actually work that next week.

[02:55:31] And so I will be making a follow on on that. I do have a question though about the professional work days. I believe that it was you, Ms. Pekarski and I last year who had a follow-on motion asking for more detail about our professional workdays and actually having a real plan for them.

[02:55:50] We haven't gotten that detailed plan. I'm glad to hear that Dr. King will be providing one by April 1st, that's great. But along those lines, I do think that there are a number of days here that we've heard from our teaching community that are absolutely essential for them to be able to ensure that they are able to do their jobs and support our students the best way possible.

[02:56:14] Those are the end of the quarter professional workdays. And is there a way or do I need to do a follow on motion requesting a commitment by you and your staff that that professional workday at the end of the quarter is actually preserved for our teachers for planning and grading time and not used by other professional workday opportunities because it is precisely that need that we heard from people.

[02:56:46] - So, what I would say to that is that I think we should let the process run its course and that Dr. King is planning to meet with our labor groups, principals, teachers, and all impacted in that group.

[02:57:04] I'm not sure entirely who's traditionally in the group, but have them come up with a plan, And I will my commitment would be to bring the plan back to you with that as a strong expectation. But I don't want to get ahead of that group and make those decisions before they have a chance to meet and determine what they believe would be best.

[02:57:22] OK, the reason I ask is because that was one of the primary drivers I understand to make these modifications is to ensure that we had that end of the quarter professional workday for our staff. And so I would urge you and your team to honor that requirement by our staff.

[02:57:45] Yes, ma'am. And so you're saying I don't need to do a follow-on motion. I don't believe you do. I believe I'll take care of that. Thank you very much. And then finally, the last question, and it's a question that we hear from many of our families, is the opaqueness of the O-days.

[02:58:03] Could you speak to adding clarity to what the O-Days are really meant to be, what they aren't meant to be, and new learning opportunities? Thank you. Yes, I would be. Actually, what I'm going to do on the O-Days is I'm going to ask Mr. Smith to explain those because we actually created a new legend on the calendars.

[02:58:26] We created the half O-Day box and then an O-Day box. And I believe Mr. Smith has really clear language about that this morning. And there is, and good evening, Madam Chair and the Board, and thank you, Dr. Reed.

[02:58:45] There's more information about O-Days. It's regulation 2234. It outlines the school day for students, and within that regulation, we outline the work of O-Days. know that with our first iteration of O days there was no new work on those particular days and we heard loudly and clearly from the board and the community and from our teachers and students the difficulty without having new information on those days so we have amended to allow for new information to

[02:59:21] be shared that day and for information to be shared within Schoology for students we've also shared that there would be no test quizzes or assessments on those full O days there would be no auditions that couldn't be or tryouts that couldn't be rescheduled on those O days but there is the ability for new information for our half O days and those are the ones that are the slash prior to the O that is where we have no evening events on those particular dates and so our schools will not have back-to-school nights or any after-school

[02:59:59] events we will allow for practices for sporting for our athletic groups but there would be no athletic events on those evening O days and so that's a very high-level overview of what occurs on those O days and again there is a hyperlink on the calendar this year that will take members of the community TO THE ODAY REGULATION AND THE RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE REGULATION SO THEY CAN GET MORE INFORMATION.

[03:00:32] SO, MADAM CHAIR, IF I CAN JUST CLARIFY QUICKLY AND I WILL NOT NEED ANY MORE TIME. THE ODAY, THE COMMUNICATION ABOUT THE ODAYS, NOBODY GOES AND READS REGULATIONS. SO IF I COULD ASK DR. READ IF WE COULD HAVE SOMEWHERE PROMINENTLY ATTACHED TO OUR CALENDAR SITE site clarification on what O days are and what they are not.

[03:00:57] Yes ma'am. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Anderson.

[03:01:11] First of all thank you. No matter what I say this evening I want to be sure that you all are walking away with my thanks for all of your hard work. This was not easy. I was actually a little bit overwhelmed with the 12 calendars at the beginning and I know it's been a lot of man hours and I particularly want to give a major shout out to Mr. Smith I've given him the business quite a bit, but I do want to at least recognize the hard work even though we have some profound disagreements on the calendar.

[03:01:43] But thank you to you and all of the staff. One of the things that I've heard quite a bit, even in the conversation right now, is how your focus was to center student experiences and to recognize the diversity of the community.

[03:01:59] This is not the first time that I've raised it. I've raised it before. I would love to hear why Ash Wednesday is not even identified here in any way, because it is a holiday that is observed by a good number of our community.

[03:02:16] I was not making a request for it to be a holiday, but just so people know, it is there, it is happening. I would love to hear some feedback as to why it has not made this, even despite multiple asks.

[03:02:32] So, Dr. Anderson, one of the things on the amended calendar is it is listed under February 2024. It's not on the calendar as an O or an H, but it is listed below in the box, 14, Ash Wednesday.

[03:02:50] And then on the March 2025, it's listed for March 5th as Ash Wednesday. I may have wrong copies. I don't see it anywhere.

[03:03:00] MY APOLOGIES THAT THE PRINT IS SO SMALL BUT FEBRUARY I THINK IN 2024 MARCH IN 2025 AND I CAN'T RECALL WHAT IT IS IN 2026 MAYBE I PRINTED OUT THE WRONG VERSIONS THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF THESE VERSIONS THANK YOU I DO SEE IT NOW THAT YOU'VE MENTIONED IT ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I ALSO WANTED TO LEAN INTO IS I'M JUST GOING TO MAKE MY NECK

[03:03:37] intentions being known right at the onset this is not a perfect calendar I am not happy with this calendar but I would like it to be the springboard to our conversation so I will be in support of this for the next part of the for the next part of the conversation but whether or not this is the final calendar that I vote on that is yet to be determined because I too have been listening very specifically to the people in Mason District and this calendar does not meet none of these calendars meet their needs but before I get into that I will hone in back on what is in front of us which is the amended I do want to say it is really important for

[03:04:12] our teachers to be able to have those work days after the semesters end so I'm very grateful for that change but one of the questions that I have is regarding not all of them but some of the early release days for example let me just picked November 2023 that week students are at school on the 30th and their 31st which is a change then there's two O days they're still at school and then we have the early release day on the third and then there's two professional work days the Monday and Tuesdays of the following

[03:04:49] week I'm kind of wanting to know what is the expectation for those early release days on a Friday, before the weekend, before a two-day work period for teachers? Because it's really hard for parents to struggle with some kids who are walking through their doors at 1230.

[03:05:09] So the expectation for that day, it's a great question. I think that we have, I believe, two early release days left in this 23-24 calendar.

[03:05:29] And I see your point in November where you have the early release on the third plus two professional workdays following. It's likely one of those would be division or principal directed and one would be a day for grading.

[03:05:48] Given those two workdays, I will say Principal Millard at the high school level used that for kind of a wellness day where they had a kind of a breather day, which turned out to be kind of maybe one of their most incredible days.

[03:06:06] But in terms of academic expectation on a half day, I would have to say that it's probably not one of our stronger academic days given how early students get out. And that's actually all of the early release days. That's how the high schoolers and the middle schoolers speak about this.

[03:06:22] Like, why bother go to school? So it's essentially a non-day. So I would love for some review of those early release days, particularly if they are coupled or attached to additional non-student work days yes ma'am it looks like they both are mm-hmm right and I will save the rest of my comments for when we speak to whatever the main motion becomes because that was my time right all right miss keys Gamara thank you dr. Reed I want to thank you for continuing to push to try to find some

[03:06:57] solutions. I know I, too, was being contacted by staff members, families, parents, and guardians, and even students who were concerned about, especially in the beginning of the year, being able to have more five-day weeks. Because after that summer, when they have that long break, that's the more difficult time, I think, to get into the learning environment and build that consistency so I personally want to say thank you I also want to say that I was prepared today

[03:07:33] to really urge us to only vote for one year because I was consistent I was very concerned that the first quarter only had five weeks I believe out of 11 with five day weeks I see you have increased that first quarter to seven which may not be perfect but it actually provides a great deal of comfort to me. And it seems to address the concerns that I've been hearing from

[03:08:01] the community. So I want to thank you for your best thinking. And I will also say, I too don't remember a really easy calendar discussion. We're always trying to figure things out. And so I know that we can maybe get to where we're not trying to figure things out at the last minute, but

[03:08:33] typically that has happened in the past. I will be supporting this, and Dr. Reed, it is because of whatever you did or why that I feel so much better right now, and I think that it helps me to be able to answer folks who specifically reached out to me because they said don't forget

[03:09:03] we our kids need to be in school and I know that we all know that but when we when we don't have when we when we have an opportunity to increase increase the number of five day weeks I think that we should and so I appreciate your efforts and I will be supporting this thank you thank Thank you.

[03:09:32] Mr. Frisch? Thank you. I will say on the question of having things, you know, still being churned out leading into a meeting, I very much look forward to our board evolving to a policy governance model so that we can avoid this in the future.

[03:09:51] I think it will make it easier for everybody to navigate the work of this board. But I do want to set some notes here. When we first begin these conversations as a board and after talking with members of the Providence community. I came forward and said, I have here my top line, big picture things. We all said, basically, here are the things we want. And for me, it was, I was open to a shorter winter break. I identified them with their weekends involved. And I said, I wanted 12 versus 16 to

[03:10:23] 18, whatever it was. And I wanted more five-day weeks, continuous five-day weeks. I wanted an earlier end of the school year for everybody and the blue calendar the non-substitute increases the number of five-day weeks by nearly 20 percent over the current calendar are the one that we're living in right now the substitute motion does it by half so rather than increasing by nearly 20

[03:11:01] it increases by nearly 10 so there's a big difference there and that's one of the things that matters to me. Instead of 27 consecutive five-day weeks, we would be doing 25 by voting for this. So, if the value is on continuous five-day weeks, the initial motion does more of that. On the question of the winter break, this is where I had to compromise. You know, we talk a lot about the continuity of instruction being important and that the breaks make it more

[03:11:39] difficult and then we kind of close our eyes to that conversation when we talk about winter break and I didn't see much of a difference other than getting kids back in the classroom between 12 days off from the last day of school to the beginning of school in the new year and having 16 or 18 days off between the last day and the first day but it would get them back in the classroom sooner i didn't win that argument and the community didn't want that based on all the survey data so here's where we are um but given the choice also the the calendar from the initial motion

[03:12:19] not the substitute has everybody finished i believe on the 13th or 14th 13th 12th uh well there's still work days 14th and the substitute motion moves that to the 18th so on that account and I would be open to other changes but I will oppose the substitute motion because it reduces the opportunity to increase our five-day weeks by half and it extends the school year for staff by

[03:12:53] an extra four days. Thank you Mr. Frisch. Ms. Cohen? Yeah just to piggyback on that if you look at the out years of the amended calendar this next year our staff would have to come back for the 18th so they would lose intent possibly a week of summer employment it gives them one more week that they don't have off which we've heard is a big problem for recruiting teachers for ESY so that's this year the next year instead of three

[03:13:28] professional work days after the end of the school year there's one and then in the third year there's four professional work days after the kids have gone home which again pushes them halfway into the third week of June so there's no when we say we traded one day in August for people to have a longer summer break but you just took another week out of a whole week out of it at the end so that's not that seems that's not a trade as a former educator that I would want to make

[03:14:03] you know I I do understand the January conversation I think one thing I would say is that that professional workday on the 16th came just about a week and a half before the quarter end and you know in my mind you have that professional workday to get the bulk of your grades in and then what's remaining you have an early release day that you can fill in I mean everybody would be overwhelmed if they're waiting until that last day to put in every single one of their grades.

[03:14:36] That's a conversation, though, that if somebody wants to make a substitute, I'm willing to have that conversation if our staff feels that pulling the professional workday to back align it in January. But we lose another week of five days if we do that. If we make the change here that adds two more days to spring break, again making a longer spring break when some of our families have continued to say that these long vacations are difficult we lose another five-day week like I cannot vote for something that not only gives our teachers another you know fewer week of summer potentially makes ESY harder

[03:15:16] to staff and gives our kids two fewer weeks of five-day instruction I feel like we came to this all saying that we valued it so I I don't I I do I am frustrated to be fair that I feel like at the end of the day there was a blue calendar that took in the feedback from the final rounds of information from our constituents from our community and we advertise it on Monday that sat there we got a lot of good feedback and it's not just one we had another teacher's union that

[03:15:53] said they liked it. So we can go back and forth about what teachers people talk to. I don't want to pit anybody against anyone. We're trying to do the best by our students. We're trying to do the best by our staff. And so I just don't think this one does it. And I appreciate the attempt to make some changes. But I don't think this one does it. Ms. Amesh. Thank you. And I'm going to echo a lot of sentiments from Dr. Anderson. I know staff you've been beat over and over and pushed in many direction. So I'm just grateful for the effort to get here. Though I guess I'm I am dismayed that

[03:16:32] we couldn't have discussed this before the previous work session because I think that was the intention really was to come back with some of the modifications. Hopefully we can learn for next year. But in any case I guess for the record I just want to remind everybody that the two week winter break piece yes was a strong preference of the community but so was starting late and ending early and we never compared where people landed on those so and none of those are possible to do together so we just have for the record we have to keep that in mind for future planning and just thinking about um what we prioritize i did want to ask how how hourly employees or 11 month

[03:17:10] contract etc are impacted by the changes if you guys could please speak to that in addition to the planning time piece please so um the planning time pieces are just rearranged they're not 15 days of planning, professional work days are still 15 days, just in different places.

[03:17:32] And the hourly worker impact, Mr. Smith? So I know there have been questions about transportation employees, and we have two pay plans for our employees who are the hourly contracted, and we can build in additional time on one of those professional work days to balance out their work schedules.

[03:17:51] They also have those paid non-working days as part of their contracts. I'm sorry. Wait. So how many is it for each of them? I don't have the numbers, but I know that for our transportation plans, we have an old plan and a current plan.

[03:18:10] And so in the current plan, our bus drivers have a higher salary with fewer paid non-working days. And in the older plan, our drivers have a lower hourly salary with more paid non-working days built in to help smooth the impacts but what we see here with the number of five-day weeks or the consistent number of five-day weeks and even four-day weeks in the calendar that does help smooth out the pay for our hourly contracted workers right but how many unpaid days does that leave them with

[03:18:46] for each version so there are no unpaid days because they are paid for the work that they do so they're they're paid for a contracted number of days so there are no unpaid days within the calendar there may be days when they aren't paid because they aren't driving that day but they are paid for a set number of days throughout the entire year and we provide those paid non-working days to smooth out their paychecks during the course of the year but these calendars

[03:19:23] do not take any days away from our hourly contracted individuals. No, I understand that, but the unpaid days end up impacting them regardless, right, like whether they're booked or not. So how many days are they not booked then in the 11-month period that they're contracted for?

[03:19:41] How do they compare? Well, I don't have that analysis for all of the calendars. We've provided 12 calendars tonight, so I don't have that analysis. But what I can share is that individuals are mostly impacted during that two-week winter break.

[03:19:58] And so when we have a two-week winter break, when we had shorter winter breaks, we were able to use some of those days to smooth their pay during the December work month. We use more of those days now during December to even out their pay when they're not driving in December so that they're not just paid for those yellow days that you see those two weeks worth of work days on the calendar. So we use paid non-work days to smooth their paychecks for those months.

[03:20:30] So again, our drivers are not losing any dollars by any one of these calendars. They are paid for the set number of days that are within their contracts to work. Yeah, I guess I would want a clearer idea. I think it would have been important for us to know a little bit more clearly how they're how the different how they're differently impacted based on each of these versions because I know that even in the prior years planning they ended up losing what was it six days or something of what they could have been could have been included to be

[03:21:09] paid so I just I don't know Dr. Reed if we can commit to at least should there be a deficit making up for it in professional development days or whatever it might be some kind of opportunity Yeah, I'm happy to take a look at that. My understanding is that no days were lost because the days are worked. It's the cadence of the pay. In other words, there may have been, and Marty, maybe you can try one more shot at this because I don't think we're losing days. It's when the pay happens.

[03:21:42] we're stretching them right yes that would be it's the cadence of the pay and so it's the the number of days that they're paid in any given month and so if you have fewer days that you would have normally worked in that month we have paid non-working days that we provide those employees to balance out their pay during those months we also have worked with our transportation services folks to ensure that they're on one of those professional work days I believe in April it will be a training day for staff so that again is a day

[03:22:16] where drivers will be working and they will also use that as a day to balance their pay for that particular month so I guess then how many paid non-working days do they have and how many are we like creating in this calendar like how many of these non-working days are out ultimately going to be unpaid so for for our transportation drivers on the current plan there are six paid non working days because again they have opted to have higher hourly salary with more paid non-working days or with fewer paid non-working days and I believe

[03:22:55] that for the previous plan they have a lower hourly salary and there are approximately 20 paid non-working days okay and do you know how that compares to the other calendar that's consistent in their contract so it's not based on the calendar that's consistent with their contract that is a component of their contract we have a landing page on our website that has a full explanation for our drivers with the two plans we we show a clear delineation between the

[03:23:33] hourly paying one plan versus another plan we have given those drivers the opportunity who are on the old plan to switch to the new plan for a higher hourly rate with fewer paid non-working days as well as giving them more opportunities and better opportunities for any overtime pay that they might have okay but those I guess I think you know what I'm trying to get out because those six days are gonna ultimately fill in for those gaps but if they're if it's stretched more then they're ultimately gonna end up with more days throughout the year that are not paid right but they're still being paid for the same

[03:24:12] number of days? Okay, I guess that's something I think we should look into because just in terms of how we might make up for the stretched days that we're taking from them, if there is a difference between these two, which I believe there is given that we extended the work days in the end, I think, but let me see. Yeah, since the work year was stretched a little bit, but, and I say that because I continue to hear these concerns from hourly employees. I mean, there's obviously some

[03:24:47] kind of gap. And if I wasn't able to cover it here, then I guess that's it. I mean, I'll take a go back. I didn't realize my time would end. All right. Thank you, Ms. Amash. I do have a, I'll write you down for a go back. I have almost every single light on, so I'm assuming everyone else wants to go back, or if not, please turn your lights off and we can, oh, I'm sorry, and still, I know it hasn't gone yet. I just wanted to, do you want to go back? No, no, it's your turn.

[03:25:16] No, it's your turn next. You're next. Yeah, it is my turn. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I mean, I'll just say I guess I'm really disappointed because I feel badly for staff that have been put in this position I feel badly that this is not transparent to our public posting things after an extensive amount of time to work on it it's just not the way we're supposed to do business and honestly there really is no excuse because we've had months months months I do not want to repeat what has been said by Miss Cohen and mr. Frisch I 100% agree with that everyone on this

[03:25:53] board has said we want to maximize instructional weeks that have five days and now so many of us are getting ready not me to vote on this amended version that has less than the other option we have or any of the other options honestly that makes no sense to me and with somebody who has kids in school and I need my kids in school and many other parents do.

[03:26:17] We've got a long winter break. We compromised because people said that was important. So now we're looking at a long spring break. You know, the long weeks are difficult for parents to get care. A day here, a day there, that's difficult too, but there are camps in high schools.

[03:26:37] You know, grandparents can help, a neighbor can help, a babysitter, it's too much. believe it's too much and I think we've talked about what is best practice with professional development and that is not lumping three and four professional work days at the end of a year and extending the calendar for teachers it doesn't allow for the type of the professional development that helps our teachers and then helps our students can we deal with it can we do something with it sure we can if we have to it's kind of what I'm hearing but will it be

[03:27:13] the most impactful and effective type of professional development if not we're being fiscally irresponsible that's my opinion I'm not gonna support it I do see a space where maybe there's a few things we can tweak and marry these two I'm sad that we're doing it at the board table but I guess I'll see where others are thank you and I will take my turn before going to go back so I really appreciate first staff's very hard work over these many months and dr. Reed helping

[03:27:51] to take a lot of feedback back and helping to take it to add to the process you know and when we felt like we needed to reach back out to the community with all these options and you know mr. mr. Smith and your staff I really appreciate all the work over these months and taking the feedback so thank you for that I know it's not easy there is never a perfect calendar and you know when you have so there's somebody I think two days ago when you have many many competing interests all coming together it is um all about compromise i know several of us were worried about the two-week winter break we heard very strongly from the community the importance of that we heard very strongly from the community about the importance of the uninterrupted

[03:28:31] learning the five-day um weeks so um you know and the one thing that i i don't want to repeat what people have said but the one thing i hear often from staff at the end of the school year is that they're tired they're done they want to have this summer so I wonder I understand about the strategic plan and things like that but I do wonder the and I think our teachers have amazingly high capacity but really the capacity of our teachers at the end of a school year to really dig into some robust professional development and some of these calendars where we have you know three or four days at the end of the year and extending the every calendar into the

[03:29:08] following week I wonder if that's the most effective use of some of these professional work days and extending the summer I appreciate dr. Reed talking about what you think some of the benefits of the latest draft is that came out and I wish we had a little more time to dig into that and understand that so I guess I'm listening to what I heard from the community and the two things I really heard were the two-week winter break and the five days on uninterrupted learning so I'm you know I also hear my colleagues about what they like about this amended draft so I am very torn about this Dr. Reed I hear what you're saying too I'm gonna ask you a question Dr. Reed in terms of the

[03:29:47] differences between these two calendars and the professional work days at the end have you talked to teachers associations about wanting to stay longer in the school year and their thoughts on the the professional work days added to the end of the school calendar I have not talked about staying longer in june with associations i have um i think the intent no i have not thank you um have you talked about the i know one of the changes was to move that professional work day on that friday um i guess what was your thought or staff thought about having that professional work day on that

[03:30:26] friday before school starts the the week before the full week of i think there was a strong um i have spoken to staff about that and there was a strong desire not to have the six professional work days in a row at the beginning of the school year and really a belief that the returning staff really preferred to come back the week of the 14th rather than the one day and then the next week so so was the thought that it would be better to move it to the end of the school year well we have to move it somewhere and i think where we're caught i think

[03:31:05] everyone at the table right now is trying to do the best we can to create as many of these five day weeks and so it either goes if we pull it out of the 11th of August if we're looking at the 2324 calendar it either needs to go in the middle of a week or at the end right it's there aren't other choices so it either creates a less than five day week or it goes at the end of the year and I know this was unthought about the Super Tuesday or moving it in other places that would create another so it's just it's it's a challenge is what I'm trying to say so

[03:31:45] So I'm going to sit and listen to the go-backs, but I do feel like with this calendar coming today, it is difficult to really get a full sense of the thought of going later into June and what that thought is for our staff. So I'm going to keep listening.

[03:32:01] Thank you. With that, I'm going to go to the go-backs, so I'll start with Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you. I want to just sort of make sure the public and the board are really clear on a couple of facts. One, not a single board member directed Superintendent Reid today to do anything about changing it.

[03:32:19] That was all on her own, just like Superintendent Reed chose to revise earlier this week the main motion. So what our superintendent decides to do when board members or teacher associations email her feedback, that is her professional decision, whether she wants to do anything with it or not.

[03:32:42] So I want to make sure every board member understands not a single board member asked her to do anything today. We didn't ask staff to do anything today. Dr. Reed chose to do that, and I respect what they've come back with. Secondly, I did send some feedback to Dr. Reed and her team, and I absolutely agreed that we don't want a June 18th professional workday there.

[03:33:07] I absolutely recommended that we do Super Tuesday, March 5th, because I guarantee you the County Board of Elections is going to come to us and say, Please do not have children in your school that day and preferably have your teachers telework.

[03:33:22] That is what has happened to us before. I wish I were seeing this in here, but the draft calendar that Dr. Reed gave us is a better base than what we had early in the week. But I also want to be clear to board members who keep talking about transparency. Several of you gave feedback to Dr. Reed.

[03:33:41] She changed it, and that got posted on Monday and Tuesday. So if we're all about transparency, then what we should have the main motion is what we posted two weeks ago as new business. And every one of us who felt that it wasn't where it needed to be could have had our amendments.

[03:33:57] But the second thing I'll say is if we're really about the five-day interrupted, which I believe we all are, then we could have been pairing some of our religious holidays with our professional workdays because we already have protections for staff to observe their religious holidays.

[03:34:13] Instead, going into the third year, for board members who are so concerned, we have six religious holidays. So that means up to six interrupted weeks of learning. So there's a little bit of a cognitive disconnect.

[03:34:30] But if we don't have a professional workday for our teachers in the second quarter for this coming year, I want to make sure every teacher know I fought for that. And I would hope all of you are going to fight put that into the substitute calendar thank you dr. Anderson I had to rush back over here just very quickly because I do know we want to get to some other things and and mr. Smith I do have a couple

[03:35:05] more pointed questions that I wanted to ask because it is it is an issue and I know we're balancing a lot and I'm going to speak about this a little bit more during the follow-on motion a little bit later but I think in my little funny math we have 33 days during the gaps not unpaid because obviously all of our drivers everybody who is an hourly employee who works less than 11 months they're going to be paid for the times that they work they're going to be paid for the days that they work what I think miss omesh wanted to speak to is when we have these holidays they are

[03:35:41] not at work. So they have those gaps in their earning power because had they had a much more truncated period where they did not have those gaps, or if they were involved in professional development, they would have had greater pay because now even their summer is overly shortened and they can't secure secondary employments, which many of them do. By my math, I think there's 33 unpaid days in the 23 24 calendar um 33 is that what you confirm well i don't i haven't

[03:36:18] you haven't done it i haven't okay so let me just say it then i haven't my math brings me to 33 days in the 23 24 year 28 days in 24 25 and 36 days in 25 26 um but the other thing that i wanted to say i know that's a concern for all of us we have many concerns and these are competing interests We have not locked down to what is prioritized, which has been a question that I have asked for the past two years when we talk about all of these factors. But one of the things that's been an issue here is the timing. We've had this survey that was sent out to parents and the

[03:36:55] community, and we see that they responded. It closed on Tuesday. No, was it Tuesday? It closed Monday. We didn't have a chance to collectively come around that data and to have conversations. Similarly, with the calendar that was posted on Tuesday, we didn't have a chance to come together.

[03:37:15] So we're making the sausage now because the timing was off. And maybe that's something else we could pay better attention to. Thank you. Ms. Amesh? I can actually, I mean, what I'll say is that I'm in a similar place with Dr. Anderson, where if it's my understanding that staff, after more thought given to this than we were able to give at this table, thinks that this option is better, I certainly want to make sure that the hourly employees

[03:37:50] piece is given some thought to be a little creative around how we might address that. And I appreciate you, Dr. Anderson, for clarifying that. Then perhaps, folks, it's very obvious that while we need to plan ahead, and it was actually an admirable thing for us to think about a three-year calendar and, you know, wanting to -- that's an aspiration and I think we need to get there.

[03:38:17] It is clear that if we're not in agreement right now, the process has been chaotic and subjective enough that we haven't been able to determine criteria by which we do this and not even specify or even have an understanding as a system of who owns which parts of this, then I think it's incumbent upon us to approve a one-year today, develop a policy, and then come forward in the future to develop a two-year so I mean or however many three more years or whatever it is so at least to ensure there's fairness and and we

[03:38:53] minimize the subjectivity and improve the predictability of this so I hope that folks can consider that I know both motions right now are for three depending on what happens with this one I I guess I'll offer motion later but I I urge us to just be reflective of on that because I know it's like we came up with this goal of the three-year we came up with the goal of wanting to finish the calendar today and being you know responsive to the community but merging those goals is actually landing us in a place where that's actually counter to either of those goals so in any case I and I'm mindful

[03:39:30] of where the community is at too with the engagement piece of and transparency where we're kind of doing this now it's not a great place to be but I appreciate you all for considering Thank you, Ms. Commissioner. Corbett Sanders. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just comparing how most of our families look at this calendar, and they look at the calendar when we start, when we end, when is spring break, when is fall break, when are the days that their children are not in school.

[03:40:04] Then I look at where our support employees are, our bus drivers and food service, and they're the ones who want to be able to work during the summer and take on extra employment. So the more continuous weeks that they have options to work during the summer, either for us or for other organizations, are important. So when I look at this, and we've been having these conversations about professional work days, I look and I see on the amended calendar

[03:40:38] that our kids get out on June 12th in the first year, June 11th in the second year, and June 16th in the third year versus the blue, which would be 12, 13, and 17. So they're getting out earlier. What that means is that our bus drivers and others who would like to take on other employment during the summer could actually take on other employment in the summer. I do get frustrated

[03:41:10] at the three years because we haven't seemed to settle on the criteria however I also know that our community needs predictability they need the ability to plan and so I would urge that if anybody considers moving back from a three-year calendar to being a one-year calendar that it has to be that a one-year calendar with the commitment to have years two and three adopted prior to the

[03:41:46] end of this school year because we cannot keep doing this to our community folks people need to be able to plan. Ms. Cohen? I just I feel like we're doing that right now to be honest like my frustration is I don't know why we had months and months and months of all of this process and I can't even imagine the hours of staff time that have gone into four different versions three years each multiple times now three versions of the blue calendar times three years each you know I just

[03:42:23] think like if we're not ready to do this then let's not do it this is like the worst to me kind of our family works our families work so so so hard to participate in these surveys and studies and then we just say like well you know we actually at the end of the day like we don't care what you think and that's what people feel like you know I I feel like it's just it's very very frustrating to sit here too as a parent with kids in school and like I I just don't know why we why we can't pull the trigger on what we advertise to people and they had an opportunity to comment on and it

[03:43:02] gives us the, you know, most amount of five-day days. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. No, I'm not done. I just was waiting because people were talking over me. Go ahead, Ms. Cohen. If we wanted to make some substitutions and try to merge this thing, I absolutely understand that. But this time now at the table, we haven't even done our capital improvement plan. It's 1043. And these are two of the most important things that we do. So, you know, I just remain so frustrated that if the blue

[03:43:39] calendar if people want this i think it's a bad idea leads our employees a whole extra week where they cannot get further summer employment which a lot of them have to do because of what we pay them i don't even i just i we're we're none of us are going to convince each other everybody showed up here today knowing what they're going to do i'm going to go through the rest there's two more go backs and then we're going to call for the vote miss pokarski it's late i made my

[03:44:14] point I don't need another term. Ms. Marin. Yeah just thinking of two things one is an Oakton High School the keynote speaker a few years ago at graduation a beloved teacher said honor the process that's what he told the entire graduating class so I'm thinking of that and I'm thinking of last night at Crossfield Elementary where our students gave a portrait of a graduate presentations of learning and the topic was giving and taking feedback so I'm gonna stick with what I had planned when I walked in which was to vote on the original motion and not the amendment I'm honoring the

[03:44:46] process and all of the input given and I am ready to vote when people are with that with that I will call for the vote see another speak the motion before us

[03:45:19] is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands all those opposed all those abstaining that motion passes all right I thought the amendments were

[03:45:53] all the main I apologize I'm there's a lot of this it's going did you have a question? Yeah, I was just asking that that was on Megan's substitute motion and the vote was

[03:46:29] 8-4. 8-4. Thank you. Madam Chair, may I ask a process question of our parliamentarian? Sure. Okay. Mr. Morgan, so as many of us were discussing just here at the dais, that this was a recommend, this was a substitute motion for the main motion. Many of us said that yes, this was a recommendation we got from the superintendent and we believe this was the better main motion but we still want to amend the substitute motion so now that this has been accepted as

[03:47:06] the substitute motion becomes the main motion can't we still be amending now what is the new main motion yes that's my understanding that the current main motion is the substitute motion so now we can amend this one based on any concerns so i did have one amendment that i shared with everybody in both both my speaking points to fix the june 18th professional work day because of what people said they're concerned the impact on teachers and i am still concerned that we're going to have the

[03:47:42] county coming back to us about super tuesday so i did want to present that and that's what i'm trying to understand i also understood that there were some board members who were interested in combining the professional work days and religious holidays so the question is can we have amendments on the main motion that's the question the answer is yes so we will move on to the amendments to the main motion so i call on ms mclaughlin for an amendment point of information madam chair i'd like to just make clear and if i'm understanding we've turned this into the main

[03:48:22] motion but we have not voted on this calendar to be amending it i apologize i apologize i'm trying to figure out what thank you so anyway no what what mr morgan our parliamentarian was explaining is this is now the main motion just like before we amend it before you vote as it's finalized yes that's what i'm trying to get out so hang on a second guys so we're going to now have amendments to this main motion and then we'll vote on the main motion so i call on ms mclaughlin for an amendment thank you um ms madeha can you pull up the amendment that had to do with

[03:48:58] the june 18th professional work day and all right so that one that yeah yeah these this is not the right one so um it's it's supposed to read this is when we weren't changing anything so if you can i'm just trying to get the language there if you can please pull up the one again that's showing

[03:49:32] the march 5th and the amendment needs to now read because of this the the substitute motion august 11th needs to read june 18. so then i'll read it i moved to amend the main motion by relocating the 2023-24 it's not a friday we're just going to say june 18 professional work day to tuesday march 5th the super tuesday presidential primary day based on past county board of elections requests to

[03:50:03] close schools on that day and then the rest is struck because it's not related so that's that's my immense suggested amendment is there a second so i'll second yeah i'm miss mccloughlin can you

[03:50:43] you please read your motion again? Sure. It's on the screen. I move to amend the main motion by relocating the 2023-24 June 18 professional workday to Tuesday, March 5th, Super Tuesday presidential primary day based on the past county board of elections request to close schools on that day. Zero second. Ms. Keyes-Gamara. Ms. McLaughlin, should I speak to your motion? Just briefly because I've spoken to her before. Again, I don't have a dog in the fight. People have apprehensions about doing this but I heard people say they didn't want to encroach on our non-12

[03:51:20] month employees ability to work the following week and I completely agree so by doing this we are going to absolutely address which I am certain going to be a concern of Super Tuesday having children in school so you make it a professional work day Dr. Reed can determine if that's going to be a telework work day or not but this needs to happen and this way we take away the concern that a lot of our colleagues had on whether or not to have a wraparound professional day on the following week. I know that we don't want to be creating these less than five-day

[03:51:59] instructional days, but if that is what the goal of this board is, then we should have been combining a lot of our religious holidays with our professional workdays, and we didn't do that, not with this one not with any of the versions so at a minimum I do believe this is still a better fix I hope you'll consider supporting it but there are no hard feelings if you don't but I will say if we come back because we hear from the county board of elections Dr. Reed I put my marker on

[03:52:30] the ground Ms. Keyes come on you want to speak to your second yes um thank you Ms. McLaughlin I am always concerned when we have elections and we have members of the public that we have not had an opportunity to vet and we're trying to conduct school at the same time. It is always a concern for me. And I don't, I think it is an inappropriate burden to place on our staff to try to figure out

[03:53:03] a way to separate children from that traffic. So that's, I also, you know, that is the reason I think this is important, and I'm happy to support it. Thank you. Ms. Amash? Yeah, no, thanks. I guess I just want to clarify, because this is, for that last week, we're trying to basically allow teachers to end early, earlier, right, rather than having, like, a hanging work day. Right, they would end the Friday before. And then the primaries. Okay, yeah, I think I can support this. I mean, I don't love the last minute. None of this was talked about in work sessions and stuff, but this is where we are tonight

[03:53:39] on everything so um but yeah i mean it does seem like a good idea dr reed dr reed is there any um concern or objection that comes to mind uh about the on this off the bat no no concern and i um i don't think i know staff and i did not discuss super tuesday uh coming from a state where all voting is mail-in this is new having people in the schools and I can see the concern okay cool well thank you Ms. McLaughlin for catching it all right Dr.

[03:54:17] Anderson yes I I'm really super conflicted here because as a former building administrator I definitely understand the concerns that take place at the site I am just really struggling with the fact that we're not doing a substitution here so that we still have a five-day week someplace else. I would love to see that there is someplace else where we can take something out to create a five-day work week. If we could get that, I could be on board with this. Without, I am struggling and I don't think I can. So if anybody

[03:54:56] sees one, please shout it out since we're workshopping this thing. Do you see the staff? Does anybody see a space maybe where we could do that? I'm sorry. Would you repeat that? Let me just clarify that if we move the 18th professional workday to March 5th, what happens is then we have to move the end of the school year an extra day because we've taken a school day out.

[03:55:29] So it would be a professional workday on the 14th and 18th. It just would only be two of them rather than three. 14th and 18th of what? june in 2024 because moving a professional work day to the day of super tuesday makes it a non-school day so everything so we do need to get it so pretty much you're getting at my question because we've just eliminated days we've gone from 180 to 179 which i am not interested in no it would be at 180 still it's just that we would still have a work day on the 18th oh we'd

[03:56:05] have to oh the last day of school will now be the 13th correct so you're saying the teacher workday will be on the 14th and then the 18th and then the 18th that's correct so we haven't solved the problem well we've gone we've solved the problem of the Tuesday problem but not the end problem because teachers are still coming back that way that would be correct I don't know if I'm interested in that trade I just want to be clear about what it the implications appreciate

[03:56:37] that I think I'm gonna mull this over um dr. Anderson are you finished or used to um i can't you have the order miss tolan so i was going to put mr smith on the spot um can you tell us in the past um i i just can't remember in 2020 um if that if super tuesday

[03:57:11] if we have been requested by the county for over the last years i know you've been here a lot long enough to have been through a few of these do we are we generally asked by the county to close the schools we have been asked by the Board of Elections to have no students in the building that day and and I have to go back to see what the calendar actually showed on the 20th or in 2020 but I don't know if we had staff in the building that day but I know that we have been asked in the past for no

[03:57:41] students no I'm good thank you thank you Ms. Corbett Sanders. Yes, thank you. And I really appreciate the reasoning behind this based on prior years where we had Super Tuesday and a number of our schools were used as precincts. I would just suggest that things have changed since how we did things in the past in

[03:58:17] that the state of Virginia now has significant early voting, which takes place for a couple of in advance and so the number of people who are actually coming into our buildings that's one piece the second is with our newer with our newer buildings what we've done is really created more of a cordoned off area for students to vote and or for the public to vote in and so I would ask rather than making this decision tonight without real data on what percentage of our

[03:58:57] electorate actually votes in person today and knowing what the status of our schools are as far as having a cordoned off area for example the school that I vote in now has an entrance into the library which is where they would do it and there's no way for people to go beyond that spot and I know that that's been part of the ed spec elsewhere so I'm reluctant to vote on this today until we actually and if there is a situation in the future where we have to address it then we will be informed about it miss Cullen yeah I wish that we

[03:59:35] had that problem with primaries that we had that many people who were voting in person I there's I cannot now we'd be at a calendar that has 24 five-day weeks so that's only one more week than last time when overwhelmingly we heard from the community more five-day weeks and we are chipping it away again like what a waste of people's time so I I agree I think we have no excuse absentee voting now which has taken down that day significantly and again I agree with

[04:00:13] what Miss Corbett Sanders said that if we start to see that there's going to be some huge surge then I think we can have that conversation we did that with Eid we've done it uh we did it with um inauguration day sometimes we have to make some adjustments in it but i can't support another another week where we just have a random tuesday off ms bekarski yeah i agree it just keeps getting worse with every comment i i i see the value in the argument

[04:00:48] maybe um and i cannot support that though not another last week i think there's a couple go back here but I'm going to take my turn to speak before we're going to go backs if you do not want to go back please turn your lights off so I very reluctantly voted for the substitute and the reason I did I I'm not a fan of how we got here I'm not a fan of all of any of that and it's not about the hard work that people have put into this calendar but if Dr. Reed feels that this substitute

[04:01:21] calendar in her professional judgment on the professional work days is the best one However, having said that, I do not, I cannot support this 100%. We have no excuse to absentee voting, not all of our schools or precincts.

[04:01:39] So now we have students missing school on a day when it's not even an issue. So I think this far ahead, I think this is, we've just spent 25 minutes on something that we could have, if it was an issue, done it for 20 minutes at that point. So I think it's something that we need to not add another lack of five-day week.

[04:01:59] And if we need to work on it, we address it, we can. But I don't think we should be doing it here and right now without that information. So, Mr. Frisch, I see your light is up, so I'll let you take your turn. Madam Chair, can I call the question? Well, I'm going to keep the last one to speak. Okay. I just need, like, 30 seconds. Two points.

[04:02:16] One, I don't believe either of the major political parties has set its primary schedule yet for 2024. So I think this is early. Super Tuesday, you don't know what states are going to be and what. They're still working it out. there have been art I mean I'm looking at an article right now from February 4th about the calendar being close to being finished or agreed upon but the party sets that and we don't have that yet for either party secondly the original motion calendar had 27 five-day school weeks

[04:02:49] the substitution which is now the primary calendar we're considering has 25 this would have 24 and current calendar we're leaving living in the 23 20 22 23 school year has 23 so we will have done all of this to increase the number of five-day school weeks by one. Thank you um Mr. Kopex you've been spoken did you want to speak? No Madam Chair I called the question. Do you mean take a vote on calling the question? All those in is there a second to call on the question Ms. McLaughlin all

[04:03:27] those in favor of calling did you want to speak or you take a vote? Calling the question. All those in favor of calling the question please raise your hand. All right that motion passes so the motion before us would you put the motion force on the screen please madam clerk the motion before us is on the screen I will call for the vote all those in favor uh Ms. Kieskamara yes or no Ms. Kieskamara

[04:03:59] I was just recording it but it doesn't matter all those opposed all right that motion fails oh all those abstaining I thought you know okay that motion fails all right is there any other amendments because I know the script has changed a bit is there any other amendments to the calendar before

[04:04:33] TO MOVE ON TO VOTING ON THE MAIN MOTION. ALL RIGHT. SO, MADAM CLERK, IF YOU COULD POST THE MAIN MOTION ON THE SCREEN, PLEASE. MS. SAZMAHYSER. OH, I'M SORRY. YEAH, I'D LIKE TO MOVE TO DECOUPLE THIS MOTION SO THAT WE VOTE TO APPROVE ONLY THE 2023-2024 CALENDAR AND POSTPONE VOTING ON THE OTHER COMPONENTS UNTIL A POLICY IS DEVELOPED.

[04:05:07] IS THERE A SECOND? SECOND. ALL RIGHT. MS. AMESH, WOULD YOU SPEAK TO YOUR MOTION? yeah i guess uh just briefly i mean i shared mostly earlier but um we're desperately in need of a calendar policy i think last year and this year have demonstrated kind of the subjectivity to the process um staff are and are forced and the reason why they have to put in so much work is because there's not as much clarity about who owns which components and what are the priorities of the board in developing this and so it ends up being a back and forth over an extended period of

[04:05:45] time with different things and trying to reconcile what is the community saying, what is the board saying, going back and forth. So I remind colleagues, we all agree that we need to plan ahead. And we think long term, we would like to get to a place where we are actually planning three years at a time. It's a best practice. Divisions across the country are doing it.

[04:06:04] But we can't commit ourselves to three years when we know we have got serious problems with the calendar. You know, for me, number one, there's a fairness issue that I've been raising from the beginning of this, whether it's how we determine which holidays matter, which ones are prioritized, why are certain holidays that have a comparable population size professional work days, O days versus full holidays. That is stuff we have not resolved. The idea, there are also opportunities with the calendar that we can think about, whether it's early release days, which was something that was shopped around and we discussed, or planning days, trying to find new ways of incorporating

[04:06:42] those. I think there's more work to be done to get a fair, justice-informed, equitable calendar that prioritizes, that ensures we're at least considering all layers of employees and all subsets of the community, whether we hear from them or not. So I just, again, I urge my colleagues to consider that, yes, a three-year planning process is what we want, But we're not there yet right now to do that in a way that has integrity and that is bulletproof, such that we can commit to that, lest we find ourselves in a place where we discover new mistakes the following years.

[04:07:21] So I urge my colleagues to support this, and we will work towards the three-year plan. Dr. Anderson, you want to speak to your second? Yes, I do. obviously I'm in full agreement with what Ms. Omish just shared but additionally I want to make sure we clarify that the timeline is not going to be elongated we want for this policy to be fast-tracked and we want for this calendar to be done before the fall would be will be preferable by December definitely of next year we do not want to have families in this position again

[04:07:55] So I would urge us to commit to one year, complete the policy as soon as possible, and complete the other two years very, very soon. And I don't know what is reasonable for you, Dr. Reed, which is why I'm kind of hesitating around a timetable, but I would love it to be done by July.

[04:08:18] Is that in any way reasonable for a policy to be determined and then subsequent calendars to meet that policy? well the calendar piece the policies us I you know if that's the will of the board we'll make it happen and a governance committee chair who is that thank you I almost said miss Cohen would it be possible for governance to fast-track a policy so that we can do by July 1 a calendar dr. Anderson I think

[04:08:55] before I could say fast-track on the this policy versus others we have a work session scheduled on February 21st in which I would hope that the board as a whole would look at all of the various policies that are up and we as a collective would decide what our priorities are because it seems to be quite fluid and i know that we have a number of policy issues that um you know i our governance committee is um committed to getting as much done as possible i think we have achieved quite a bit

[04:09:34] in a short time together but um i'd like to have a prioritization from the whole board and not make a spur-of-the-moment decision thank you um and continuing to speak to this second i i don't think we're ready in order to i don't think we can commit to three years right now we're not ready we don't have the criteria that we need to make sound decision making and i do not want to compromise that because we want to provide our families with planning which is important i think we still have some space to to get this better so thank you miss mclaughlin so i'm going to try to

[04:10:13] add a little levity believe it or not um and here's how i am looking at what we're faced with i know no one is enjoying this whatsoever i will say that um again it was two weeks ago that we posted his new business so when we say there was months and months and months there was months and months and months to just hear input on the things that people are interested in but we only had community feedback on actual draft calendars of what all their feedback might logistically look like and mean for the last two weeks i lobbied that we were going to postpone this

[04:10:51] to march 3rd because we wouldn't want to have the same amount of a budget it was not supported so here we are we've got a couple choices one we vote for the substitute motion as it stands we can then at any point in time if you vote yes you're allowed to reopen it if you want to revise the years two and three if that's the concern i don't want to be voting for three years i've been clear for everyone who's heard me in every public meeting i didn't want three years i was told we

[04:11:25] had the votes i don't think we do i'm counting it up right now at a maximum we're at a six two don't want three year at all and four who wanted the main motion to begin with so i'm i'm willing to compromise and put my vote in for three years even that goes against a lot of the things that i wanted but otherwise then we're down to five people who want the substitute motion three who are going to be uncertain and four who wanted the original so you guys i'm just trying to sort of say

[04:12:00] we've got to compromise somewhere i am willing to come to the three years on this substitute motion even though it is far from perfect that's my compromise i'm going to ask my two colleagues sitting on the fence who voted with us on the substitute motion we're going to need you to get to seven or the four who didn't like the original decide if you want to have to come back another night, but somebody's got to come join me and be seven. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Mr. Frisch? Okay.

[04:12:35] Ms. Corbett Sanders? Thank you, Madam Chair. So calendars are incredibly emotional because they impact all of our lives, and they impact our lives in different ways. Families need the predictability.

[04:12:55] Staff need to know when they're going to be needed, when they're going to be able to do other things, And if you're the superintendent of the school system, you need to know how you're going to operate your school system. So my question, Dr. Reed, and you have been very gracious in responding that you will make whatever happens will happen. You will make it work.

[04:13:21] What is your preference in addressing what do you think provides the most stability for you operationally? What do you think allows you the most flexibility in being able to go out and recruit people. And what do you see as the downside if we were to adopt three-year calendar if at some point you had to go back and tinker with it a little bit, but not hit, not address things like the beginning of the school

[04:13:59] year, the end of the school year, the breaks? And I know that's a lot and I apologize. No, it's, I appreciate the question. I, you know, I think if we could get a multi-year calendar that would be preferable just for stability and planning and then as we think about if we want to make adjustments in out years it's not so time-sensitive right now we're in February as hard as it is to believe we're on the second half of the school year and knowing when the year is

[04:14:36] going to end I think it's very important to our staff students and families in terms of knowing when next year is going to begin right and planning for just a variety of things so i would prefer a multi-year contract or a calendar i mean and i think i don't know how close people are in terms of what other possible amendments or however you process the calendar at this point but i feel like if we could get to a multi-year with the additional expectation of a clear calendar

[04:15:14] policy moving forward I think that would be helpful I think doing the policy and two more years all at the same time is also possible but perhaps more challenging at this point thank you dr. Reed mr. Frisch it's um what time is it oh good I

[04:15:47] was afraid it was a you know 10:15 so it's it's a strange position to be in to oppose the calendar, but be inclined to support a three-year version. And I do that because I don't have as much hope that this board can get there as other people might have. Certainly not in time to get two years, two more calendars written at the same time as a policy. I do have trust that

[04:16:26] the governance committee can come up with a good policy. And I say we shouldn't rush that policy. I'm happy to make it one of our priorities when we have that conversation in two and a half weeks. But if they come to us and they have a draft policy that is fantastic, there's nothing to keep us from having other conversations.

[04:16:50] But I want everybody to replay in their head if their short-term memory is still capable of working at this hour exactly what Dr. Reed just said, right? And that's what's motivating my vote here, is that for the continuity of the system, FOR AT LEAST SOME EXPECTATION OF CONSISTENCY, THAT'S THE RIGHT MOVE TO MAKE.

[04:17:15] AND YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT COMPROMISE, I DIDN'T AND WON'T BE VOTING FOR THIS CALENDAR, BUT I WILL BE VOTING FOR US TO HAVE CONTINUOUS FOR THREE YEARS WHILE GOVERNANCE WORKS OUT ITS POLICY. JUST A POINT OF ORDER, MADAM CHAIR.

[04:17:34] YES. CAN WE PLEASE HAVE THE MOTION ON THE TABLE POSTED ON THE SCREEN, PLEASE? YES. MS. MS. i had moved to decouple the main motion so that we vote on a 2023-2024 calendar adopted 2023-2024

[04:17:59] calendar uh to vote on the 2023-2024 calendar which the amended blue which point of order if i may yes mr first the calendar in front of us is three years and so to change that

[04:18:34] there's no decoupling it from anything so it would be an amendment to change it to a one-year Voting on the first calendar alone. So, Ms. Amesh, it would be an amendment to change the calendar to just one year, not decoupling it.

[04:18:53] I mean, you could do it either way. Sure, we can do it that way. So then I move to amend. Then that would mean I would move to amend. We can either split the first motion or just change it altogether. We can change it altogether. So I move to amend the main motion.

[04:19:09] Do you mind just scrolling down, Bev? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there we go. Okay, there. BY STRIKING THE LANGUAGE BEGINNING AT SY2024-2025.

[04:19:31] SO ESSENTIALLY THAT COMMA WOULD TURN INTO A PERIOD AND WE WOULD STRIKE THE REMAINING PORTION. YEAH, THE PERIOD WOULD BE AFTER 2023-2024. ALL RIGHT. DO WE HAVE -- I MOVE TO MEND THE MAIN MOTION.

[04:20:00] THIS IS BY STRIKING LANGUAGE BEGINNING -- NO. ALL RIGHT. WE'RE GOING TO TAKE -- NO. OKAY.

[04:20:17] SO THE MOTION BEFORE US IS ON THE SCREEN. YEAH, I KNOW. I'M GOING TO GET BACK TO YOU. MS. CORBETS? MR. FRISH, DID YOU WANT TO FINISH SPEAKING TO IT?

[04:20:33] phone all right the community wanted more five-day weeks we didn't give them that they said whatever you do for the love of god please make it three years so we actually know how to schedule things and we're talking about not doing that either and i just i want to apologize to the staff to be honest how many hours you guys put into all of these versions to hear this play out this way is i can only imagine demoralizing i apologize to the people who were part of the

[04:21:08] calendar committee I apologize to the people who did the survey because what we are continuing to show up here is that we we're not we're not going to listen to your actual feedback so I'm I'm definitely a hard no on this and I just I just wanted to apologize because all of the work that's gone into this when we're in the middle of strategic plan we're in the about to be in hiring season where all the things that we're asking our our central office staff to do and make right and and we're just, you know, making a mess of it today.

[04:21:43] So I just wanted to apologize. - I actually have a point of order question. Ms. Amesh, did you want to add, there was language around doing it in the spring. Is that part of your motion or is it just voting on the one calendar?

[04:22:00] - I mean, that's why I had decoupled them, but the intent here is for us to develop. - Ms. Amesh, it's not the intent. I'm asking, did you, the language in the motion, is it just to vote on the one year calendar or is it to vote on the one year calendar,

[04:22:15] DEVELOP A CALENDAR POLICY AND THE OTHER TWO YEAR CALENDARS BY SPRING BECAUSE THAT WAS WHAT I HAD HEARD I WANT TO MAKE SURE WE HAD THE MOTION CORRECT I HAD NOT SPECIFIED A TIME FRAME ALL I HAD SAID WAS AND TO DEVELOP THE FOLLOWING TWO CALENDARS AFTER A CALENDAR POLICY IS DEVELOPED OKAY I JUST WANT TO CONFIRM THAT THIS IS THE CORRECT LANGUAGE ALL RIGHT I MEAN THAT COULD BE ADDED IF THAT'S THE CONCERN I'M NOT SAYING THAT I'M ASKING WHAT YOUR MOTION WAS THAT'S ALL MISTER THAT WAS MY

[04:22:42] original motion. Hold on a second. Ms. McLaughlin? Yeah, I don't care when I speak. I just haven't had a chance to speak. I apologize. There's a lot of lights that are on. Oh, of course. Yeah. No, that's okay. Is it because chair and vice chair go last? Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, then I'll take my turn. Look, as I said earlier, I appreciate what Mr. Frisch said, and I want to make sure all of my colleagues are crystal clear. From the very beginning, I never wanted three years, and I have been very

[04:23:21] concerned about the lack of five-day weeks and i really asked lots of board members why we weren't going to pair our religious holidays and our professional work days and i was basically told there wasn't the support for it so while mr frish is making a massive um sacrifice i i want to make sure everybody understands i always said if i had to be the seventh vote because this system has to to move on, I will. But respectfully, I disagree with some of the remarks made by my colleagues.

[04:23:55] We are not here because this is a dysfunctional board. We're here because we as a community, our long-standing system, at least my tenure on the board, we do one calendar at a time. Our new superintendent had wanted us to strive for a three-year calendar. And as she noted this evening. It's been a learning experience for her, and I appreciate her humility. So I would really like for everybody to understand this is a no-win for just about everybody voting tonight, but I am

[04:24:31] willing to compromise, and I'm willing to get us over the finish line tonight knowing that, as Mr. Frisch said, we can make changes after the Governance Committee comes up with a policy. A new board will be elected and come sitting here in January and they could blow up the next two years. So nothing is sacrosanct. We're just trying to do our best. But for the idea that I will say again for people who want to make sure they're heard, I did not hear from the Braddock District that they wanted

[04:25:04] three years. I didn't. I heard people actually saying you threw out 12 calendars and expect us to make Heidner hair of it in the manner of less than two weeks. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. So, Dr. Reid, I was going to ask you the question that Karen.

[04:25:23] Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm sorry, Ms. McCarsky. Three times. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ms. McCarsky, then. Go. Go. Okay. It really doesn't bother me. I'm not going to support this.

[04:25:39] I do feel, as I've said, that tonight we have not respected what parents have said is important to them. By choosing to go with a calendar that had more interrupted weeks than what we could have actually landed on.

[04:25:56] And I have heard that people just want to know. So I'm not going to support this because at some point we've just got to listen to people. And I do not see this group doing this more effectively if we have to do it again.

[04:26:13] So I can't support it. Now, for the third time's a charm, Ms. Darnak Koufax. So, Karen Corbett Sanders also asked Dr. Reed what I had wanted to ask, what you thought was best, and what I assumed when we made the first amendment, when we made the substitute motion, is that what we were looking at was a three-year calendar.

[04:26:49] I've never done one before during my 12 years on the board, but I think it's okay to do this. And that is the compromise that I feel that we are making. We are going forward with a three-year calendar, which is the updated blue version that came out today.

[04:27:06] And when you looked at that, you looked at all three years, correct? Yes. Yes. So that was the intent that I moved my vote when we voted on the substitute amendment.

[04:27:23] So I will not be supporting this. And I think it is time -- I think it's very unrealistic. I appreciate the fact that there will be policy, but as Ms. Corbett Sanders said, the governance has many policies that they have to review. And when you look -- and I know Ms. Amesh, you said you -- you spoke to it originally and you said perhaps we can do it, you know, in the spring or in the fall.

[04:27:46] We have the strategic plan. We have graduations. We have committee reports that we didn't even hear last year because we couldn't fit them into the calendar. I cannot imagine going back and doing this calendar, this process again. I think the public owes it to those who have been asking for it for a while.

[04:28:06] We are delivering for those who, you know, who said we're not quite where we need to be. We're trying our very best. But I will not support a one-year calendar because it was my understanding that when Dr. Reed and her team looked at it and presented to us, it was a three-year format, And that's the way I think we all need to look at it and move forward.

[04:28:32] Ms. Omeche, I'm going to ask a point of order again. Is this the motion that you wanted? Because you seem to think it's not. I had said that I had included the other two. I just shared some exact language with Ms. Madeja. She can post it.

[04:28:55] It's the same meaning everyone's understood. It's just to be very clear. Is this the motion then? This is the same. I just told you, Ms. Madeja has it.

[04:29:16] All right, Ms. Tolan. Thank you. I would like to just kind of address the idea of listening to the community we have had surveys we have talked to people in the community we had a group work on this we had two work sessions you know I heard loud and clear from people they wanted of course the two-week break which we have in here they wanted a multi-year calendar so that they could plan ahead they they wanted more five-day weeks but they also wanted

[04:29:50] more weeks that were less disjointed like you know a day off on monday and then a day off on wednesday we cleaned that up and i the amended version is actually i think a little bit better at that than the the original version so and we're differing by you know one one five-day week um in these different versions so that is you know i can handle that which is why i voted for the amended version i will not support i'm not doing the multi-year calendar and i also you know i really appreciated

[04:30:27] mr kofax's comment that the other thing i'm hearing loud and clear from our community is they would really like us to work on things like our strategic plan on academics coming out of covid they would like us to work on the traffic issues that we have at all of our schools we've got facilities issues in drainsville that we need to work on we have significant behavioral health issues with our students we need to work on that so can we please vote on

[04:31:02] a three-year calendar and move on so that we can put our energy in what our constituents are asking us to work on thank you all right do you have so with that i'd love to call the question all right is there a second to call on the question miss corbett sanders all those in favor of calling the question all those opposed all those abstaining all right that motion passes the motion before

[04:31:40] us is on the screen all those in favor of this of the motion raise your hand you're in favor of this motion this is to make it a one-year calendar this is the motion on screen all those in favor of this motion all those opposed all those abstaining the motion fails we will go back to the main motion that is on the screen that's the that's the substitute all right

[04:32:37] mr mr morgan can you please help us so this this is the substitute motion but the amendment that was the two amendments that were brought failed the one was the amendment was on voting on primary day while the other amendment was on the one-year calendar those two failed so is this as amended or is this yes it's the main motion is as amended so it would be the blue option amended for all all three school years but it should not read i move to substitute the main motion with no that's that's i moved to pass the main motion as amended correct correct that would

[04:33:14] be fine or i moved to adopt that would be fine all right the most well hold on the motion before us

[04:33:44] is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand all right well hold on all right the motion before it's on the screen we need to adopt the main motion it says at the end all right so I apologize it doesn't actually need to say as amended the motion is to approve the

[04:34:20] superintendent's blue option amended draft calendar that was updated and provided to the board today February 9th 2023 for school year 2023-24 school year 2024-25 and 2025-26 that is the current motion before the board all right so the motion before it's on the screen does anyone was just want to speak to the main motion I have okay can everyone turn

[04:34:57] their lights off and then turn them back on because we have like five lights on so please turn them all off now anyone wish to speak to the main motion all right dr. Anderson yes as I just said earlier I wanted to investigate this amended motion but in terms of what my support is for this I I will not be voting for this for a number of reasons obviously the three years that I don't think we are getting right will be one of them and what I said I was going to share earlier is the Mason District feedback was quite clear wanted to 71 percent of those who took that survey wanted an increased number of five-day

[04:35:35] weeks I was hoping for us to be able to get that in here it has not happened 83 percent of our folks wanted a two-week winter break which I think this does happen and more than half wanted to have more than more instructional days they do not feel like this is sufficient my community is not happy with this number of days off that's just the long and short of it so I'm not going to be

[04:35:59] able to support it um miss McLaughlin thank you um I just want to say in advance that I really appreciate any and all board members who are going to vote on the main motion. Myself, Mr. Frisch have been particularly articulate, Ms. Rochner-Seizmerheiser, this is a bitter pill to swallow. It is not fun to be voting on this one, but if this board wants

[04:36:35] to adopt a calendar tonight, rather vote to postpone until March 2nd, then this is where we're at. So I hope we will continue to look at ways to improve the calendar, including to what everyone said we increase the number of five-day instructional weeks by coupling your religious holidays with your professional work days because that would increase from anywhere from three more weeks of uninterrupted learning to as many as six in year 25-26. That is the reality. So for every

[04:37:11] board member who's committed to that, you might be able to fix this in the out years. I welcome it. But in the meantime, I am willing to fall on my sword and vote for this in the spirit of compromise. And I, again, appreciate that this is a painful vote for probably just about everybody tonight, but it is where we're here.

[04:37:33] We've got to find seven somehow, and I'm willing to be part of the seven. Ms. Cohen? Yeah, I just wanted to, for the community, for transparency, just to state I will not be voting for this calendar for all the reasons that I mentioned previously, that this does not meet the desire of the Springfield District to have more uninterrupted weeks and does not meet the desire of the teachers who reached out to me to ensure that they were not working into the third week of June. So I'll be voting now.

[04:38:08] Ms. Bukarski. Yeah. Thank you. Me too. Just to be on record again I'm very thankful to staff for their hard work but I will be voting against it. I do not feel that this is the best calendar for kids. I do not believe it honors the request from our community for the most uninterrupted instruction possible we had other options that would have done it and I do not believe we're following best practices when it comes to the placement of professional work days and ultimately you know for me that's a that's a fiscal consideration

[04:38:45] so I know this has been difficult but thank you Corbett Sanders I think your was up next sorry i apologize i think you were next madam chair as i've said none of the calendars actually met the needs of what i expected to come out of this calendar process the ones that are most important to me were the ones that met the needs of working families and the continuity of

[04:39:22] learning this amended calendar does actually increase the number of weeks of uninterrupted five days compared to the one that we discussed at the work session a couple of weeks ago.

[04:39:38] And so I believe that everything is filled with compromise. None of us are fully happy, but when we look at the operational expectations and the conversations and the comments that have been made by our superintendent, I think this is the best we're going to get. And I would also urge that sooner rather than later we clarify those professional work days to address things like guaranteeing that the end of the quarters those professional

[04:40:14] work days are used by our teachers for planning time and ensuring that that date of June 18th is a flexible date that people can work from wherever and with those two you're pretty close to where we're at the other calendar that was put forth, may have gotten rid of a five-day continuous learning, but it had a two-day week in it in April. And so there were trade-offs in both, and there was

[04:40:50] significant input via multiple surveys, by a work session, by people speaking with their their constituents and I just urge people it is now quarter of 12 and we have to get a vote and then we have to move on and do the capital improvement program thank you miss Marin yeah so I will be voting for the calendar because we have to have a calendar and for my colleagues who are going to vote no you could only vote no if people like me vote yes in order to keep this school

[04:41:28] system going. I don't understand the inconsistencies of some of my colleagues who opposed a calendar on some issues and yet will not vote for this calendar because you're saying you didn't want the, it wouldn't have enough time for governance to do it in the spring. Families have said they want a calendar, they need a calendar, and yet you're going to not vote, which means you're essentially doing the things you said you didn't want to do. So by not voting and if this calendar fails, we will not be responding to people's requests to get them the calendar already.

[04:42:02] We will not have a calendar before the spring and a policy. So I respect your principle and I was with you when we voted on the additional motion, but I think now we have to get a calendar. Otherwise, what is the next option here? So I also must say, I don't understand why all this work couldn't have happened in the work session. I'm just perplexed by that. This is the kind of dialogue that should be happening in the worst sessions, not the drilling of staff, of question after question on every aspect of the calendar, but the talking to each other.

[04:42:34] And finally, I must defend our employees who are not in the religious majority. It is disrespectful to ask people to choose between their religious observances and cultural observances or working. That is completely not an option that should be on the table, and I think it's very disrespectful to keep raising it as such.

[04:42:52] I am ready to vote whenever anybody else is. Thank you. Ms. Keyes-Gamara? I will be voting for this and and I had significant concerns I don't see a significant change between what was proposed earlier in the week and what the superintendent is recommending but primarily one of the big concerns I had and I think the superintendent addressed it in her proposal is one of research suggests that when our students take off that long break in the summer it is

[04:43:30] very difficult for them to it is harder for them to get back into the learning the the rigor of our schools and and we had fewer weeks in the beginning of the year in the previous calendar than we do that by which that that was recommended by a superintendent so for that reason I'm I'm accepting her best thinking and And I know that she needs some time to figure out what works here in Fairfax, but I want to support her in what she's recommending.

[04:44:06] I think it's the right thing to do, so I will be supporting this. And if it's appropriate, I'd like to call the question. Got a second. All right. The question has been called. I thought everybody had spoken, so I wasn't trying to cut people off.

[04:44:25] No. I have not, but that's okay. Oh, I'm sorry. That's all right. I don't mind. And Mr. Frisch wants to speak as well. So do you still want to call the question? It's OK if you do. I'm just all right. We motion's already been seconded. All right. So the question has been called and seconded. So I'm going to call for the vote.

[04:44:42] All those in favor of calling the question, please raise your hand. So that was Miss Keese Kamara, Miss Marin and Dr. Anderson. All those opposed, Mr. Bukarski, Mr. Cohn, Mr. Frisch, Ms. McLaughlin, Mr. Anna Kovacs, myself, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Amesh.

[04:45:00] So that motion fails. We will continue on. Mr. Frisch? All right. This is going to pass in a moment, but I want to make sure that we don't pass it without being very clear about the numbers that we're talking about. Every version of the blue calendar offered had more five-day weeks of instruction than the calendar that we're voting on tonight.

[04:45:25] This calendar does have more five-day weeks than the calendar we currently live in, but all of the calendars that were offered in this process had more calendars than the one we're currently or more five-day weeks than the one we're currently living in just to be clear so that we all have the data that is accurate the calendar that was replaced had 27 on a five-day school weeks this version has 25 and the status quo that we live in right now has 23 so those are

[04:45:58] the numbers period um also coupling with religious holidays would gain us two which would put us back at 27 it wouldn't gain us three to six it would gain us two. Thank you.

[04:46:21] Miss Keats-Gamara did you want to speak again. All right I will take my turn. I will be voting for this not happy about it because I think this process has been a mess but we need to have a calendar we need to have a calendar for three years because we have a strategic plan we have collective bargaining we have our literacy plan our staff needs their time to focus on our student mental health and many of the other initiatives that we have coming down the pike and we need to have a three-year calendar because I don't want to go through this process again next year so all right let me get

[04:46:58] focused talk to you later okay so so with that I would do want to say thank you to the staff I'm sorry we're here so late thank you for mr. Frisch for explaining that this is still better than what we have now and everything is a

[04:47:33] compromise so with that I see no one else who wishes to speak I will call for the vote the motion is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand are you voting all those opposed I'm sorry do you want me to call this I apologize I'm gonna call for the vote again so they can call the names I forgot our clerk asked us to call the name so all those in

[04:48:09] favor of this motion please raise your hand Miss Keith Gamara Miss Marin Miss Toland Miss Corbett Sanders Mr. Koufax Miss McLaughlin myself all those opposed Mr. Karsky Mr. Frisch Miss Cohen Dr. Anderson and Mr. Mesh that motion passes with that I'm actually going to call for a five-minute

[04:48:28] break because I think our staff and we're been going for quite a while all right we're going to

[05:03:01] come back together and try to keep moving on on our agenda keep moving on because it's a fun night it's Friday already so without objection I would like to postpone the follow-on motions not the amended not the amendments but the follow-on motions to the calendar and the CIP to action at the next regular business meeting if there's no objection we will move all follow-on motions to action all right so will we do those in advance of other action items on at the next meeting we will start with those okay we'll start we'll put them to the top of the action item without objection at the next regular business

[05:03:39] meeting so okay so we will do that so give me a second to figure out where we need to be agenda item 4.04 capital improvement plan I call on miss keys Gamara for the motion thank you I move that the board approved the proposed FCPS fiscal year 2024 through 2028 capital improvement program. Is there a

[05:04:11] second? Ms. Tolan? Ms. Keyes-Gamaro would like to speak to your motion? Yes just brief no. I'm good. Thank you. Ms. Tolan would like to speak to your second. Actually so I just want to say you know I understand that the CIP is not perfect same conversations we just had but but there's lots of data and information and a spending plan that we need to move forward on to continue our construction

[05:04:46] and enrollment projection work efficiently. Staff has done their usual good job of summarizing where we are now and what our enrollment projections look like for the next five years. We do have several amendments that I understand we will be dealing with in a couple of weeks that improve the current CIP but the CIP really the five-year enrollment projections are used for our short-term planning purposes. The numbers are used to determine the need for staff at each school and short-term changes that need to occur to accommodate the number of students such as

[05:05:25] modifying an existing school building or adding a modular. Our principals need to move ahead in staffing for next year so they need to have us vote on these enrollment projections that are in the CIP so that they can use this data to move forward with planning.

[05:05:47] So I hope my colleagues will approve the CIP and I guess we'll deal with the amendments next time. We're doing amendments but not follow-ons. Thank you very much. I appreciate that clarification. You're welcome.

[05:06:05] Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Yes, thank you very much, Ms. Kees-Gumara and Ms. Toland for this motion because it really is a time-sensitive action that we must take tonight because not only for planning purposes for our staff with enrollment numbers, but it's also critical for us to be able to adopt our capital improvement plan so that it can be provided to the county because the county uses it for its planning and also for bond futures.

[05:06:40] bond activity and so I welcome this and I also welcome the amendments that will be made tonight thank you thank you miss McLaughlin yes I just wanted to say I will be supporting the CIP but most importantly I want to thank our interim assistant superintendent Chuck Fanshawe not only for being here so late into the evening waiting his turn but more importantly just the incredible amount of work you have done stepping in and learning so much about this process meeting with board members and really helping dr. Reid and her team and all of

[05:07:19] us it's been fantastic and every day I'm just so grateful that we have your knowledge and expertise to help this school division so thank you for everything you keep doing every single day miss Pekarski sorry I know it's late but last year we did have a follow-on that we would have some information come back to us about the Western High School possible site acquisition can somebody please speak to that before I vote for this so my understanding is

[05:07:54] we've contracted with JLL which is a consulting firm who has looked for sites in the Western region that would be able to cite a comprehensive high school and at this time my understanding is there is no site large enough that they've located so an alternate strategy is looking at a couple of our very large parcels that have elementary schools on them and looking for elementary size sites which I think there are a few that we've discovered and I've asked staff to

[05:08:29] pull together that report I know we sent a note out a day ago maybe unfortunately and I apologize for that but we will put something more comprehensive together but it looks like that's the land acquisition possibility the other question on the table that we discussed most recently was does it need to be a comprehensive high school do we need to have a conversation which is different than the follow-on motion I understand that do do we need to have a conversation about utilization maybe of a commercial building as a high school prototype or are we looking for a traditional comprehensive high

[05:09:09] school so I will get the JLL report more clearly to the board but that's the update that I have I don't know mr. Fanshawe give anything you'd like to add to that no ma'am I think you did a great job well we just talked about it so my memory is yeah thank you I appreciate that that is helpful I mean that is you know moving in some direction my question is then when do you expect to have that and when we'll be having that discussion as to possible alternatives

[05:09:45] which I think are wonderful ideas and I have advocated for so really we were looking wanted to get through the CIP so then we can focus on on coming up and working through those alternatives talking with the superintendent the cabinet as to some of the ideas we have and then after we do that we can bring that forward okay thank you you know I'll ask again um and I will be voting for the CIP thank

[05:10:17] you thank you Ms. Pekarski I see no other hands up so I'm going to call Ms. Tolan for an amendment I move to amend the main motion by relocating Kent Gardens Elementary School from table three monitoring capacity concerns by the Fairfax County School Board to table four priority recommended boundary capacity adjustments on pages 38 and 39 of the proposed cip with a scoping during spring

[05:10:54] 2023 this will allow staff to do a full scoping to determine if a boundary change a program change or both are good options to reduce the capacity issues at kent gardens elementary school is there a second second miss omesh miss toll just speak to your motion yes thank you um this amendment is long overdue. I want to thank Principal McGuigan and the Kent Garden Elementary School students, parents, and the community members for speaking to us over the last year on this topic. I do agree

[05:11:32] with them that dealing with the overcrowding should have happened long before this, and I will not make any excuses for the delay. Kent Gardens is at 121% capacity. At this point, we need to amend the CIP so that a full analysis of student membership changes that are projected to occur with program changes or boundary adjustments can be done. Staff will come forward to the community with this analysis and recommendations in 2023, taking into account the public input we have already received, and community input will be sought on these options before a final decision

[05:12:09] is made. The Comprehensive Planning and Development Committee and the Facilities Planning Advisory Council will also analyze options that will be presented. I have to congratulate, you know, ISD and facilities have worked closely together and have maximized efforts to increase the capacity at the school without making these significant program or boundary changes, but they have exhausted, you know, ways to modify the building. They have done things like added a new duplex, they added a quad of classrooms they've adjusted the interior of the building

[05:12:46] many times and we did adjust the French immersion program to now have 25% out of boundary students versus 40% is what they had previously. Kent Garden parents are rightfully frustrated with our process to work on issues like this and it is my hope that as we move through this process throughout the next months that we can learn some lessons on how to deal with issues at other schools in a more timely manner. I'll stop there. Thank you Miss Amay should I just meet your second?

[05:13:22] Yeah I want to first thank Miss Tolan and staff for their patience and helping me understand this and walking us through it. I three quick things one I definitely came in skeptical you I don't you all know where I stand on trying to elevate specific schools or communities without thinking of a holistic county-wide process. But with a little more research and understanding, it did come to my attention that this is actually the top school that has an overcrowding problem right now in an area where a solution seems to be within reach. So, well, you might notice in the CIP we have

[05:14:02] Wakefield Forest at 135 percent, but that is underway and there's a renovation coming up that will have a capacity enhancement as a part of it so that brings us to Kent Gardens which is at 121 percent and there is room here to have some creative solutions both programmatically and then potentially also with rethinking zoning a little bit to look at how we might address it so that's my first point the second is we find ourselves here because in 2018 there was a halt to any administrative boundary changes that staff can recommend to bring to the board

[05:14:39] as the board supposedly develops a policy to ensure that the prioritization of boundaries and whatnot is predictable. And we have yet to do our part of that work as a collective.

[05:14:54] I'm excited to see when that will be coming forward. But that means that in the meantime, Kent Gardens, the problem there has only grown and we haven't been able to address it. So this is an opportunity to do that. And my final point is really just taking a look at that region.

[05:15:11] We look that the school, Kent Gardens itself is at 121% capacity, but all of the schools nearby have significantly lower than 100%. So, you know, Franklin Sherman's at 77%. Chester Brook is 77%. Spring Hill, 84%. Church Hill Road, 86%.

[05:15:27] And on and on of examples of where there's a big opportunity here. Ms. McLaughlin? Yeah, it's late and I'll be brief. Dr. Reed, I would just say that I'm very happy to support the amendment here from Ms. Tolan.

[05:15:44] And again, knowing that both you and Mr. Fanshawe are completely new to this process. But I will say that I am concerned that your predecessor really kind of put us in a tough spot. It really, this amendment should be coming from Ms. Tolan.

[05:16:00] This should be the expertise of the facilities team. And you've heard me say in prior meetings, I support funding whatever positions you need so that we don't find ourselves with 200 schools where, in this case with Kent Gardens, I think this is long overdue.

[05:16:18] So I want to thank Ms. Tolan for your incredible outreach to all of the board members. And I hope your community knows that. You really put a lot of work into it. But I don't want to have board members in the future feeling the burden because the idea is obviously it's operational you guys come and give us your operational assessment and analysis and then we as a board agree disagree or amend so I'm looking forward to it for the future board because I will not be here this is my last one but for the future board and your future team that

[05:16:56] maybe this gets done by the team thank you miss Bukarski all right seeing no other board members who wish to speak I will call for the vote the amendment is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands miss Keith Gamara miss Marin miss Amish miss Tolan miss Corbett Sanders mr. Koufax miss McLaughlin dr. Anderson mr. Frisch miss Cohen miss Bukarski and myself that

[05:17:28] motion passes I will call on mr. Koufax for an amendment thank you madam chair I move to amend the main motion by reallocating 0.5 million dollars for the design and planning of an early childhood education center on the land and currently designated as a Route 1 Pinewood Lakes Elementary School.

[05:17:51] Is there a second? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Jernak-Kofash, I'd like to speak to your motion. Yes, thank you. Colleagues, this is something that I have been sharing with you for several months now, but for the public here is a recap, a brief recap.

[05:18:07] We have a bonded property in the Franconia District on the Route 1 corridor that was originally slated to be an elementary school because of overcrowding in that area. It is referenced as Pinewood Lakes, and was originally funded by the bond referendum in 2013. Right after the bond approval process for this property, the Department of Defense had a realignment that resulted in over 11,000 jobs being relocated to Fort Belvoir.

[05:18:30] Shortly after this, FCPS was able to secure federal grant funding, construct a new elementary school on the Fort Belvoir base, alleviating the immediate capacity need for the previous bonded school. In the spring of '22, Mr. Smith and his team put together white paper about how we might use this bonded site as a standalone pre-K and why it would be so important.

[05:18:51] Dr. Reid shared this with us in a Monday letter on September 12, 2022. As many of you are aware, study after study show that for every dollar invested in pre-K, there's a 7 to 15 percent return on investment with the greatest impact seen with children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

[05:19:08] Many of us here have a lot of the impact of a quality pre-K program. However, it's most unfortunate that many FCPS children come to our doors without this experience. We for years have worked with the county, the skip team, and state and federal legislators to try to get funding needed and slots and space for our underserved students.

[05:19:26] Unfortunately, after many, many years, we are only serving one in six children ages birth to four. Based on the current budget, this project would have available approximately 15,000 to 20,000 square feet for dedicated classroom use.

[05:19:42] The space would allow for up to 400 pre-K, early head start, or pre-school special education students to gain that critical, strong educational start. Today, we'll be voting on the design and planning to get this started. We are putting $500,000 of the $21 million in funding already approved for this project into the five-year cash flow.

[05:20:03] And today, let this be the start of a new model for early education for our community, and I look forward to your support. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, we'd have to speak to you a second. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. It's an honor to be able to second this amendment to the CIP.

[05:20:20] We all recognize the importance of early childhood education to lifelong learning. Early childhood education allows our children to gain important life skills that go beyond the numeracy, phenomic awareness in their letters. It also provides the opportunity to begin developing the essential life skills that we see in our portrait of graduate to include collaboration, creative problem solving, and working together. COVID had a significant impact on the availability of early childhood education opportunities across the country, the state, and here in Fairfax County. There was a

[05:20:55] 32 percent decrease in spots available for early childhood education for economically disadvantaged students across the country. Along the Route 1 corridor, the needs for early childhood education have been significant since well before COVID. Prior boards worked with the superintendent to address concerns by providing resources for our in-home providers, many of which shut down during COVID. The in-home provider approach to early childhood education was not sufficient, nor was

[05:21:30] it the best approach to educating our youngest learners, especially those who come from economically disadvantaged homes. In essence, we had an uneven landscape for early childhood education, and at best, and the pandemic worsened the conditions. SKIPT was established, I believe, 10 years ago to address these needs. SKIPT continues to work on these issues, and I do support a collaborative model between the county and public schools to address this need because of the funding structure

[05:22:07] here in the state of Virginia in particular, which is a K through 12 model. So now we have an opportunity to begin to address the deficit in Fairfax County. And as you've heard, the money has been set aside to build this facility. The project of establishing a new school was bonded.

[05:22:25] I'm almost finished. There is a huge demand for this program. The community in which it will be residing has 50% of English language learners. Senator Sanders, would you like 30 more seconds? I only need five. Thank you.

[05:22:43] The community in which this would be situated has over 50% of the residents speaking a different language than English in their homes. It will greatly, they will greatly be benefited from this program.

[05:22:59] And I expect that the superintendent and her team will work with the county to ensure that what we are doing is complementing what they are doing. Thank you. Mr. Frisch? Mr. Frisch? Thank you. I want to congratulate Ms. Darnak-Koufax on bringing it this far. You know, in the same couple week period announcing her retirement, this is quite a legacy to leave behind. We've heard from the superintendent that if we want to

[05:23:38] move numbers, this is how we do it with early childhood education. And so she has indicated that there must be a plan to achieve closing the gap of early childhood education by 2030 and so i'll be looking forward to seeing from the superintendent a comprehensive plan that includes how this fits into that um and i'm sure many colleagues at this dais will learn a lot from what we what we do here um in providence district we have graham road community building property owned by the school division in an area where early childhood education is needed

[05:24:17] very much or opportunities are needed very much and I will we will undoubtedly benefit from the process moving forward here and seeing how this works out and what partnerships we can benefit from as we grow out this work but again I look forward to hearing from the superintendent down the road as you know I think the current budget has 10 classrooms in it of early childhood education it'll be interesting to see how this and that investment and future investments tie together to get us to that goal in 2030. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you. As Ms. Corbett

[05:24:56] Sanders noted the successful children youth policy team when it was founded and of which I'm a founding member was absolutely two issues early childhood education and disparities in juvenile delinquency and in student discipline so it's been a long time coming Dr. Reed I know when you toured the Braddock district schools with me one of the things that was your number one question in each school we visited was are there any rooms that we can be using for pre-k so I would just like to ask you to

[05:25:33] to speak to Ms. Darenak Koufax amendment in terms of your support and desire to see this amendment go through as part of your larger plan for expanding early access to childhood education which I believe every single board member supports. Thank you Ms. McLaughlin and I even at even sort of looking for classrooms as we move around the division I think it's critical that we really put a stake in the ground for an early childhood center

[05:26:10] and in particular in the community where we might have high needs in terms of our young students coming to kindergarten less ready than we do in other parts of the county so I really would support the plan and think it's a key piece that would anchor our early childhood program even as we identify other classrooms within other schools thank you Dr. Reed I just also want to say having been with Ms. Koufax from the very beginning I just want to thank you again for always being an incredible voice and champion

[05:26:49] particularly the hard work you've invested in this project but tirelessly for 11 straight years and before you even join the board that we know this is how we move the the needle for closing gaps so thank you so much for really bringing this one to us tonight. Thank you. Seeing no other people who wish to speak I will call for the vote. The main motion is on the screen. Sorry I'll call for the amendment is on the screen. Excuse me. All those in favor please raise your hand. Ms. Keyes-Gumara, Ms. Marin, Ms. Amish, Ms. Tolan,

[05:27:26] Ms. Corbett Sanders, Mr. Annette Koufax, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Vukarski, and myself. That is unanimous. That motion that amendment passes. Congratulations. I will call for a vote on the main motion, not to cut short your congratulations, which is on the screen.

[05:27:47] All those in favor, please raise your hand. Again, Ms. Keith Gamara, Ms. Marin, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Mr. Arnett Koufax, Ms. McLaughlin, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Bukarski, and myself. That is unanimous.

[05:28:03] That motion passes. Thank you very much, Mr. Fanshawe, for all your hard work and your staff, and Dr. Reed for all your hard work and stepping in here. I meant to also ask without objection I would like to skip committee reports we can do the committee reports next time and board matters so we're just going to draw a consent agenda new business and be done so consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members in the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the

[05:28:40] meeting. The consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. New business. The following are new business items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but action is scheduled at a future meeting. The new business items are on the screen. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

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