Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, May 25, 2023

Date: Thursday, May 25, 2023
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 4h 7m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQBBnZRxUVI
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 2026-11-03. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:04:28] This May 25th, 2023, regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come

[00:31:07] to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the Mountain Vernon High School varsity singers under the direction

[00:31:17] of Chelsea Huber.

[00:33:48] That was fantastic, thank you. Agenda Item 2.02, Certification of Closed Meeting. The Board will return to closed session after the regular meeting and will vote to certify at that time. Agenda Item 2.03, Announcements.

[00:34:05] I would like to recognize Mr. Moon, former school board member who is with us this evening. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Moon. I would also like to recognize a member of Girl Scout Troop 1669 who was with us tonight to earn her silver medal.

[00:34:24] Thank you for joining us. Stand up. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Darenak-Koufax and Ms. Tolan have submitted written requests to virtually attend this evening's meetings due to personal conflicts.

[00:34:45] All those in favor of approving Ms. Darenak-Koufax's request, please raise your hand. Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Cohen, Mr. Frisch, Dr. Anderson, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Maren, Ms. Keats-Gumar, and myself. That is unanimous with Ms. Daronak-Koufax away from the table and Ms. Tolan away from the table.

[00:35:02] Welcome, Ms. Daronak-Koufax. May we do a mic check before we bring in Ms. Tolan? Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you. All those in favor of Ms. Tolan's request, please raise your hand. Again Ms. Keith Gamara, Ms. Maren, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Bukarski, and myself.

[00:35:24] That is unanimous. Welcome. Ms. Tolan, may we do a mic check, please? Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Ms. Tolan. Welcome. 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 backslash school board backslash board.

[00:35:47] docs tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu backslash tv backslash channel 99 agenda item 2.04 colon powell elementary school 20th anniversary proclamation i call on miss bukarski for proclamation okay thank you whereas colonel powell elementary school proudly celebrated its 20th anniversary on april 20th 2023 and its Its reputation for providing generations of students from a richly diverse community with

[00:36:22] an excellent academic foundation, and whereas for 20 years Colin L. Powell Elementary School has provided a safe, caring, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students to learn and grow by providing a rigorous education to students through general education, advanced academics, young scholars, Korean immersion, special education, English speakers of other languages programs and whereas the dedicated faculty of Colin L. Powell elementary school has a long history of learning about and celebrating cultures from around the world with a keen focus on Korean heritage and culture as

[00:37:01] evidenced by serving as the only school in FCPS to offer the Korean immersion program and whereas Colin L. Powell elementary school works collaboratively with students faculty parents PTA members and surrounding schools to instill a fierce love of learning within all students and empowers all learners to embrace new challenges with curiosity and compassion to uphold the school motto learning today leading tomorrow and whereas the dedicated faculty of colonel Powell elementary school has a long history of working to include all

[00:37:39] students and meet students where they are as demonstrated by their preschool autism classrooms enhanced autism classrooms and inclusive approach for students with disabilities to include participation in the Centerville Pyramid unified sports joining students with and without disabilities on the same team as they train and play together and form friendships and understanding now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School board honors Colin L. Powell Elementary School on the occasion of its 20th anniversary and

[00:38:14] commends the school on its history of providing educational excellence and enrichment opportunities to the students and community. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Bukarski, would I just pique to your motion or proclamation?

[00:38:32] Excuse me. Yeah, thank you. Well, I want to welcome Principal Larson, staff and everyone from the school. Thank you for being here tonight. It was a real treat and honor to celebrate this exciting milestone last month with all of you.

[00:38:55] It really was just a joyous occasion. The kids were so excited to be part of it. It was an entire school really coming together and celebrating each other, learning, community, and friendship.

[00:39:15] and I just it left me feeling just so so honored to be part of it it really it really was wonderful there was so much excitement I actually remember the excitement of this school opening 20 years ago because I was teaching down the street from it and the Korean immersion program in particular the only school in FCPS to offer this unique opportunity has grown in scope and and popularity over the years.

[00:39:44] And I want to acknowledge Mr. Moon in attendance today, whose labor of love and hard work throughout the years helped establish this program and provided opportunities to countless students in my community become true global citizens.

[00:40:01] One such student that I learned that attended Colin Powell, which was interesting, and really helped solidify how Colin Powell has built a reputation as a school that provides educational excellence and enrichment opportunities to its parents to its students rather with parent and family support was Justin Pearson so that name may ring a bell to some of you he was a member is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives who has been in the news as somebody who's standing up for

[00:40:39] his values and what he believes in and in particular against gun violence he was sworn into office at age 28 and is the second youngest lawmaker serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives we're so proud of him and the sharing that with the school and the students really allowed them to kind of think beyond their elementary school years to wow if he can get there what can I do what can And it really, you know, I think he is someone who exemplifies the qualities of FCPS's portrait

[00:41:16] of a graduate framework that we seek to encourage in all our kids, the development of these skills to empower them to be ethical citizens of a global community and engage in problem solving inquiry and design innovative solutions to overcome real world obstacles.

[00:41:37] So I welcome all of you. This is a wonderful community. And at the end of the day, it's a wonderful school because parents and community at large really love this place of learning and are there to support and be part of their children's education.

[00:42:00] So just excited to have been part of it. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Ms. Cullen? Absolutely. second to all of that. And I just wanted to say, I think really honing in a little bit on what Ms. Pekarski said, that when we go into our schools, I think especially as school board members, you know, every school has something special and unique and different. And definitely being at Colin Powell, I feel like that those critical thinking skills, the problem solving skills, whether you're walking through the Korean immersion program and sitting in a third grade

[00:42:39] class with kids who are problem solving uh in korean pretty amazing um and even will help teach you a few a few words um to the third grade class it needs a little work but thank you um and just in in every class in every grade level and kids who just want to be there staff who at least makes you feel like they really want to be there and what a testament to the school what a what a testament to principal lerson and the entire admin team and uh we're just so grateful

[00:43:14] that you're part of fcps happy anniversary thank you i will call for the vote all those in favor please raise your hands that is miss miss keith gamara miss maren miss omesh miss corbett sanders miss mclaughlin miss dr anderson mr frisch miss cohen miss bikarski and myself miss tollen and Mr. Not Koufax that is unanimous that motion passes thank you very much agenda item 2.05 proclamation naming the green bar west elementary school pray sorry playground edition I can't speak

[00:43:52] today the hope for goes in playground I call on Ms. Cohen for proclamation thank you uh Ms. Bukarski and I tonight get to highlight some of our wonderful schools that we get to share together and this is the second such uh such uh proclamation um whereas hope pergozin compassionately and faithfully served greenbriar west elementary school special education students and families for seven years as a public health teacher assistant and instructional assistant bringing the school and community together through kindness and positivity and whereas she was one of

[00:44:27] greenbriar west elementary school's first teachers who returned to the building during the pandemic and bravely went back to the classroom to assist students mostly challenged by virtual learning. Whereas Hope had been committed to supporting students with special needs through her bubbliness, empathy, and unwavering dedication to her school, students, and families before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and whereas she sadly contracted COVID-19 and subsequently lost her battle with the virus due to medical complications on September 15, 2021, leaving

[00:45:02] behind staff, students, and families who will always remember Hope's positive impact and a school community that considers her beyond deeply missed. And whereas when the Greenbrier West community learned of the coming Playground Edition to better meet the needs of their students with physical disabilities, school staff and community members endorsed dedicating this structure to Hope in honor of her devotion to their students with severe disabilities. Now therefore be it resolved that the playground addition at Greenbrier West Elementary School be named the Hope

[00:45:38] Purgosan Playground in loving memory of this brave, compassionate, and faithful educator, colleague, and friend. Is there a second? Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Cohen, would you have to speak to your proclamation? Well I will tell you when Mr. Blunt reached out to our office it was we shared with him that this process can take a really long time there's eight million steps in getting to name something and an awful lot of pieces that have to come together in the puzzle and the biggest one usually that we find challenge with is sometimes it's hard to get enough people

[00:46:15] who want to write letters and support we need several letters from staff community members and so that just takes a while because people are busy in their daily life I would say from the time that we sent that email to you mr. blount um maybe two days three days at the most um we had all of these beautiful letters back from the community and from colleagues from community members parents um who were absolutely

[00:46:50] touched by um miss pergozin and and everything that her name um means hope i feel like the resounding comments from people were that's what she gave right back to her kiddos and so we I just want to say it speaks volumes we know how wonderful Greenboro West is and the community is just amazing but I've never seen everyone come together so quickly and so in such a unified way about a single person so it speaks volumes to not only your school and community but definitely to

[00:47:29] what Ms. Pergozin meant to everyone. So we are very honored to get to have a small part in getting to honor her. Thank you. - Thank you, Ms. Bukarski, would you repeat your second? - Yes, thank you. I'm very glad to be able to second this tonight.

[00:47:44] Greenbrier West has a very special place in my heart as my kids attended for over a decade. And I may even see a teacher that may have had one of my kids, but I actually knew Hope. She was an IA there where my kids attended.

[00:48:00] So it was really, really hard to learn of her passing because what I remembered of her was just a ray of sunshine. I just don't know how else to kind of capture her, but that, I mean, to me, she was, she was so bubbly.

[00:48:20] She had the most beautiful smile. She was so kind and I would see her in my child's classroom. I saw her patience, and I saw her love for her kids. It was a loss, a real loss, for those children.

[00:48:39] And I know for the Green Bar community, of course, her family. But I am so happy to have known her. My own child, I asked if she remembered her, and she did. She actually talked about how nice she was, and her smile, and how she was always smiling all the time.

[00:48:57] So I'm just so happy to be able to honor her in this way. Thank you for bringing this to us. And I could not think of a better way to capture just everything that hope was than to name something that will give so many kids happiness.

[00:49:20] I think it's a great legacy. And I thank you all for being here tonight for sharing her with us in fcps thank you thank you miss tolan sorry i had my hand up from before but i'm very excited about this oh my apologies miss tolan all right seeing other hands that are up i will call for the vote all those in favor please raise your hand miss keith camara miss

[00:49:57] marron miss omesh miss corbett sanders miss tolan mr koufax miss mclaughlin dr anderson mr frish miss cohen miss pokarski and myself that motion passes congratulations ladies at the end for bringing that congratulations I'm excited to come visit the hope where goes in playground agenda item 2.06 John Davis Career Center 40th anniversary proclamation I call on miss Corbett Sanders for proclamation thank you madam chair whereas in 1983 the Fairfax County Public Schools Linconia Center

[00:50:35] was closed and its special educational vocational program moved to George C Marshall High School and whereas the newly moved vocational program was renamed the S. John Davis Career Center by the FCPS School Board in honor of Spear John Davis, the first principal of West Springfield High School, the ninth FCPS superintendent, whom placed an emphasis on improving quality of education and integration for students with special needs, and served as superintendent of public instruction, I apologize, and served as superintendent

[00:51:14] of public instruction for the state of Virginia from 1979 to 1990, and whereas since the work was begun by Dr. Davis with the introduction of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and modified to be the IDEA in 1990 that required public schools to provide equal access for education for children with disabilities until the age of 22. FCPS proudly continues to provide an expansive continuum of special education services for students with disabilities including a range of programming options and workforce readiness opportunities for students ages 18

[00:51:52] through 22, focused on career and transition services, and whereas the legacy of S. John Davis lives on today, 40 years later, at the Davis Career Center, now widely known as the DCC, and whereas all DCC students are driven to achieve success in vocation, independence, and self-determination because the DCC community believes that high expectations are critical to student success and the DCC community knows that students learn best when empowered, involved, encouraged, respected, and challenged in safe environments. Whereas all of the very unique

[00:52:30] work of the DCC is only possible with the support of a supportive community, the generous donations from and supportive Fairfax County business community, the FCPS Transportation Office, and the buses that carry students from 14 different feeder high school communities each day, as well as to and from work each day, the FCPS Department of Special Services, the FCPS Office of Career and Transition Services, the unwavering support of parents and families, the endless dedication of teachers, paraprofessionals, related service providers, clinicians, and countless other professionals who are all dedicated to the success of the

[00:53:08] talented DCC student body and most importantly the Davis Center students for their hard work dedication professionalism and determination and whereas the Davis Center invites businesses and nonprofits in Fairfax County to support the Davis Center students with additional workplace learning opportunities now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board does hereby proclaim that the Davis Center is recognized for its 40 years of service to the community. Is there a second? Mr. Frisch? Ms. Corbett Sanders would you like to speak to your motion or proclamation? Yes madam chair

[00:53:48] and I will be very brief. This is such an exciting time. The Davis Center is one of the highlights of Fairfax County Public Schools and it exemplifies the importance of inclusion and workforce readiness for our students and what is so special about the Davis Center is that it touches so many of our lives with the various opportunities that they provide to their students but also because of the wonderful work that the Davis Center does especially in support of the

[00:54:23] school board and so it was a great honor and I was very excited to hear that they were celebrating their 40th anniversary and that their commencement speaker was going to be their first principal, who happens to be a constituent of mine, David Temple.

[00:54:40] And he mentioned it in passing about going back and celebrating 40 years. And I went, 40 years? We need to celebrate this because that is a long time in anybody's life, but especially when you hear about schools celebrating 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.

[00:54:59] But 40 years, that's a big deal, and so it was with great pleasure that I suggested this proclamation, and I'm very grateful to my colleague for seconding it. And I do want to thank Principal Chad Clayton, who is here, as well as the ACSD members and the SEPTA members that are here as well.

[00:55:22] And I will encourage one last thing. Please, if you know businesses that have workforce readiness opportunities, please talk to them about the wonderful opportunity that they will have by partnering with the Davis Center because these are amazing young people and will be great contributors to whatever any partnership offers.

[00:55:46] Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Frisch. Thank you. I'm honored to second this proclamation. Davis Center was one of the first schools I visited after joining the school board. It's right in the heart of Providence District.

[00:56:01] I had an amazing time meeting and talking with students and hearing about their future plans. For 40 years, they have made their mark on this county. Because of them, the Davis Center name means something. So I want to congratulate them and thank them and thank Principal Clayton and the entire team at Davis Center. Everybody give them a round of applause. I also want to read the

[00:56:35] core beliefs and values of the school because I think everybody needs to hear them. We believe students will become productive and contributing members of society when provided with direct instruction focused on career and independent living skills. Students learn best when empowered, involved, encouraged, respected, and challenged in a safe environment. Students are prepared for life when provided with self-advocacy, problem solving, and productive communication skills. The optimal learning environment encompasses active involvement between school home and community all our students have the potential to learn the skills needed to be successful in our school and to generalize those

[00:57:14] skills to be successful in life high expectations are critical to students success so congratulations davis center on putting those values to work and into action for 40 years i also one more thing i would be remiss if i did not mention the cookies um if you work in fcps if you're on this board you know that there is not an event you go to that is not brightened by the delicious cookies made by our students at davis center um and i guess i have to be the board member that talks

[00:57:53] about the cookies but um i'm i'm honored to accept on the board's behalf the tray of 40th anniversary commemorative edition limited edition cookies so thank you very much for giving us our little sugar rush before the meeting. Thank you. Ms. Darenak-Koufax? Yes, I am proud to add my praise to the boards and the community members that came before us to create the Davis Center honoring

[00:58:30] Dr. S. John Davis and all those in the community who continue to tirelessly work to make the supportive center possible. I have visited the Davis Center several times during my time on the board. And I always come away smiling after interacting with the students and staff. It is truly an amazing place. And I am very sad I am not there. So somebody better save me a cookie because I was going to definitely talk about the cookies because they make the best cookies in Fairfax. I'm telling you, they are amazing. I am a super fan. So save me a cookie and happy 40th

[00:59:09] anniversary to Davis Center for all the amazing work you continue to do for our specials our students thank you miss Marin yes just thinking about 40 years I was reflecting on the date of when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed which was 1990 which is just about the same close to when the Davis Center began and if you think about where we were and we know we still have work to do but we're now in a school division that has employed seemingly the only neurodiversity specialist in the country. That's how much we value and

[00:59:46] respect and know that we must educate all of our students to the very best of their abilities and I think that the Davis Center really embodies that. All of our students have potential and all of contributions to make to their community and it confirms the commitment that the school division has that every student achieve in accordance with their interests their capabilities and their goals and we certainly need graduates to join the workforce and so some of you may not know so the Davis Center is a career center for adults with intellectual disabilities from ages 18 to 22 and they learn amazing workforce development skills in addition to educational skills so the cookies is one of like they're amazing and I've had the good fortune of you can order I don't

[01:00:24] want to call never talk we don't want to flood we don't want to flood the menu ordering here but the public can order food from the Davis Center students and it's delicious so I had my Thanksgiving pies from the Davis Center so you know they're top-rate our students know what they're doing and they're fabulous so it It also affirms that people with different abilities can do great things.

[01:00:45] So I want to say to the students, especially those who make these cookies for us constantly, thank you for your dedication to quality and professionalism. We appreciate your work. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin?

[01:01:04] I do want to just join the chorus of praise for the Davis Center. It really is remarkable what it does every single day to help our young people to find purpose and passion and for them to be prepared to go out into the world and just add some levity to it because this is my 12th year i've spent 12 years other than covid eating a lot of davis center cookies and i do have a lot of colleagues who make fun of me and wonder where i keep putting

[01:01:37] those cookies. I had one warned me years ago that they would show up one day, but so far my genetics have helped with that. And then I wish I could joke that the Davis Center is older than I am, but that's not the case either. So I will just say 40 is a glorious, glorious decades of service to our county and a glorious celebration. I'm so proud to be part of a school division that has created the davis center i want to thank the principal especially for your passion and support

[01:02:13] for the students and families and i look forward to as a resident ordering lots of cookies when i retire thank you thank you miss tolan yes i just wanted to throw my congratulations into um to everyone affiliated with the davis center um mr clayton the students the staff and the business and community partners that offer amazing real-life on-the-job opportunities for students.

[01:02:50] I am very honored as I've been on the board. I've been able to attend the graduation from the Davis Center several times. And it's always wonderful to hear about the amazing places the students are going. Some are off to college.

[01:03:06] Some are going directly into work. Some are going into other types of programs to promote them and their abilities and to be able to make contributions to our community. So thank you so much to everyone for all the work that you do. And I hope you save a cookie for me, too, because those cookies really are amazing.

[01:03:26] Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Cohen? I know everybody's talking. I don't want GW, GBW, and our friends over at Colin Powell to leave yet. But, man, we do love the Davis Center.

[01:03:42] I apologize. I just want to say thank you so much. I have to say the school is an amazing place not just because of the amazing students but also because the staff of people who just genuinely when they get up every single morning maybe they don't feel it when they wake up but by the time they walk in the door everybody's got a smile on their face everybody is ready to go and the energy and enthusiasm around life skills around job skills getting to go out into the field if you haven't had an opportunity to get

[01:04:20] to go to Burlington Coat Factory and have somebody teach you how to put those little things make sure that every every size is right and everything's in the right place and man I had a some serious appreciation for for that work and I think about it every time I go to Marshall's um and and what our students bring to the restaurants and the hotels that they work at, it is true partnership in the most perfect sense of the word.

[01:04:52] And I think for everything our students get, I would argue that the places that are offering these opportunities get a whole lot more in return. Our students show up ready to work, ready to contribute, and just kind of generally excited about life.

[01:05:09] And it's contagious. And so thank you for everything. Thank you Service Source and Mason Life and people who make what the next step is gonna look like a little easier. And as always, thanks to my good friend, Chad Clayton, who sometimes getting your kids ready for this is a hard conversation.

[01:05:28] And making sure that we as families have done the right things to set our kids up for success, that is not an easy thing. So thank you, I see so many of you here and we just think the world of you, so thanks so much. - Thank you, and seeing no other hands are lights up I will take my turn I'd be remiss if I didn't speak to the Davis Center because I first met Chad Clayton when we worked together on an FCPS inclusion workgroup I feel like a lifetime ago but eight years ago I think it was and it was you know not long after that that I toured pulley which is the sister school to Davis for my own child to see if it was an appropriate

[01:06:05] place for him and you know for parents with disabilities or for parents of students with disabilities often we talk about leaving the school system is going over the cliff and not knowing what you're going to do. And the services are very different once you leave the school. And it's a very scary proposition. And so to have the Davis Center be this bridge, right, to help our students really get the life skills, work skills, independent skills, self-advocacy skills, self-determination, right, there's so much to it. And then take those skills into the workplace where I agree with Ms. Cohen, they bring so much to the workplace. Every

[01:06:42] time I've gone to visit one of the work sites the people who run them say the students are amazing in terms of their work ethic and how hard they work and their positive attitude and I would put a little plug in Dr. Reed for expanding our own internal FCPS work sites because I know when those also rave about the quality and the hard work of our students but you know one thing that some people don't always realize is that students at Davis Center I mean students with IEPs are entitled to a free and appropriate public education until 22, so people at the Davis Center are, there are students there who are working towards a standard diploma or working towards even an advanced diploma at the Davis Center.

[01:07:18] It is really to the continuum of students who could benefit from having those extra years for those life skills, independent skills, and self-determination skills. So I encourage every family out there as their child is going through the system with an IEP to think about what that looks like when they leave and what the services they need.

[01:07:36] one of the things I'll lift up that Chad and I've had, I mean, hours of conversations, but he often says, think about what your child will need and be at age 40, and then backwards map from there, and I think that is the Davis Center, PULLY, and our STEP programs really do a good job of helping be that bridge, so when that adult is 40, they're living an independent, fulfilled life like we all deserve. And so the Davis Center, what you bring to our families, because I know it's a partnership with families too, and what you bring to our young adults who are excited and skilled and

[01:08:14] passionate and work hard to the world, is you bring that ability to make that fulfilled life happen. And that is an amazing thing that you do. And we should talk about it and lift it up. And the fact that FCPS has been doing it for 40 years, and I keep looking this because I'm looking right chat over there. I'm looking over there and look at the principal. The fact that we've been doing for 40 years means we really were a groundbreaker in transition work 40 years ago. And I'm looking right and we should give us it was a groundbreaking thing we did. We had the Davis Center before IDEA.

[01:08:49] That's groundbreaking. So I'm looking forward with a special enhancement plan to be groundbreaking again as we move into the next as we prepare all of our students for as you often say Dr. Reed the careers that we don't know exist yet. And I think that we have such a great foundation in that and a great program and really wonderful staff.

[01:09:07] So with that, I will call I will just say first from the bottom my heart is a parent whose child is not off the cliff in a different path. Thank you for providing that option for him and many, many of our students who have benefited. So with that, I will call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your hands as Miss Bikarski, Miss Cohen, Mr. Frisch, Dr.

[01:09:29] Anderson, Miss McLaughlin, Miss Toland, Miss Darinat Koufax, Miss Corbett Sanders, Miss Omesh, Miss Marin, Miss Keith Gamara and myself. that motion passes. Congratulations to the Davis Center. I would like to invite, I would like to invite Mr. David Temple, Principal Clayton, and all those here in support of the S. John Davis Career Center 40th Anniversary Proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dais. And I ask that my colleagues remain at the dais for the next two group photos, which will be called up by our clerk intern. Oh, please don't leave. We're going to do photos for the

[01:10:06] others after. So for those who are for Greenbrier West and the playground, please hang out. We will

[01:10:20] be doing the Colin Powell as the Greenbrier Afton Davis Center. I would like to invite Principal

[01:12:18] Jamie Lowerson, Colin Powell Elementary School staff, Mr. Ilyong Moon, and all those here in support of the Colin Powell Elementary School 20th Anniversary Proclamation to please join the

[01:12:30] board for a photo. I would like to invite Principal Jamie Lowerson, Colin Powell Elementary School

[01:13:05] staff, Mr. Moon, and all those here in support of the Colin Powell Elementary School 20th Anniversary

[01:13:12] proclamation to please join the board for a photo. All right I would like to invite those here in

[01:14:05] support of the Greenbrier West Elementary School Hope Pregazon Playground Naming Proclamation including Hope's husband Josh, her mother Kim Payne, Hope's father Keith Payne and her other family members as well as Greenbrier West parents and staff to please join the board for a photo at

[01:14:25] front of the dais. Agenda item 3.01 community participation. The next order of business is

[01:17:57] community participation. 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. 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 other school officials. Speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or school-based

[01:18:37] employee. 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 board deliberations, school-related issues, or particular topics.

[01:19:01] 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.

[01:19:19] We are grateful for those who've come to speak to us today, and thank you for your cooperation. Madam Clerk, please call the first speaker. Student number one. Please note that this speech contains sensitive content.

[01:19:37] Don't judge a situation you've never been in. Mitchell Perry once said, Hi, my name is Megan, and I'm a teen advocate for suicide prevention and mental health awareness. Do you know the famous Judy Garland, a.k.a. Dorothy? She was also suicidal despite the smile on her face in the movie, The Wizard of Oz, and in her everyday life.

[01:19:54] This shows that you can still be suicidal despite appearing fine. Your friend can be suicidal and show up to gatherings and their job. Your very own child can be suicidal and tell you that they're fine. You might ask, Megan, how do you know so much about this topic at such a young age? The answer to that question, I felt this way too when I was 11 and 12 years old.

[01:20:14] Suicidal thoughts is like fighting with your very own mind every day and just begging for it to be over. I see my friends hurting every day and it breaks my heart knowing that they're hurting but are too afraid to say something and fear that their parents won't believe them or simply say they're overreacting and tell them it's all in their head.

[01:20:30] And yes, I'm sure you might say, not my child. I'm here to tell you, yes, your child. Did you know that suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24? Did you know that almost 17% of teens, grades 8 through 12 throughout Fairfax County, have reported that they had thought of suicide in 2021 and about 6% of them going through with it.

[01:20:54] So yes, it could very much be your child. What I'm hoping is that parents not in this room but throughout Fairfax County to understand and believe your children when they say they're struggling with suicidal thoughts. Do not say they're overreacting or too sensitive.

[01:21:11] If you'd like more information, please look at the Instagram page at yourmentalhealthisapriority as they have great information on how to care for your loved ones with mental illnesses. Thank you. Norma Margulies: Good evening. My name is Norma Margulies. I am a FCPS parent, and I am --

[01:21:50] Excuse me. And pause your time, please. We need to back up away from the dais, please, and stay back by the seats if you want to record. Yes, pass that first aisle. You may continue. As I say, I am a FCPS parent, and I'm the founding director of Hispanics for STEM.

[01:22:10] We are a pro bono association of parents dedicated to the promotion of STEM and computer science among Hispanic students, in particular low-income students in northern Virginia. November 7 is a monumental date. It's truly important for all the families of all members of the community. Why? Because we have the chance to elect new members of the school board. However, Hispanics for STEM have noted that whenever we talk about elections and the candidates and the opportunities to choose a new board, most of our parents don't know, don't have information. In

[01:22:47] In this connection, we welcome, salute, congratulate the Northern Virginia Hispanics of Chambers of Commerce, who has invited the two candidates for the Providence Magisterial District for a forum with the PTAs, the 19 PTAs. The Northern Virginia Hispanics of Chambers of Commerce has invited Mr. Carl Friedrich and Mr. Tony Savio to attend this groundbreaking event where they will be answering questions of members of the community.

[01:23:14] As of now, we have learned that Mr. Tony Savio has agreed to participate, will take Saturday June 3rd from 2 to 4 at Providence Community Center. Unfortunately, we have not heard from Mr. Carl Frisch. So I am here publicly to encourage Mr. Frisch to attend this event, to face your consistency, to face the families and answer the questions, why they should vote for you again.

[01:23:39] Thank you. Tony Savio. So I wanted to address this board again about school safety, which has been very troubling like it did earlier this month.

[01:23:59] But I wanted to speak a little bit about something that's really concerning that came out of Fairfax Times suggesting that the American flag artwork that's depicted in the school board office has caused triggers. And I kind of want to talk about what that means to a veteran.

[01:24:18] What I have here is a flag that was flown in Afghanistan in 2010 when it deployed many times. This flag embodies a lot to veterans. It embodies the freedom and diversity of this country.

[01:24:36] Myself and other veterans sacrifice our lives overseas, with some of them never returning for that. We sacrifice life to protect the American way, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. We serve to protect the diversity of this country, from the traditional families to our LGBTQ community right over there.

[01:24:59] That is embodied in this flag. We serve to protect the American dream of every child in this country, regardless of who they are. And that is embodied in this American flag.

[01:25:15] So what I want you to do is when you think of this flag and what it represents, I want you to look at it from a different prism, a prism of freedom, of hope, of what our country can be if we could get through the negativity and get through this diversity or get through the division and create what our founding fathers see in this American flag and what every veteran sees in this American flag.

[01:25:42] Thank you. - Phil Young Moon.

[01:26:00] - Mr. Carprish, that's Michael Key. Madam Chair, the honorable members of the school board and Dr. Rick, good evening. When you are in the closed session, by the way, you missed a great impromptu performance by Mount Vernon high school varsity singers.

[01:26:18] One of the music they performed was none other than the most popular Korean traditional folk song called "Arirang." So you should go to their concert at Mount Vernon sometime to listen to that. My name is Yil Young Moon and I'm glad to be here this evening to share a few points for your consideration.

[01:26:36] Since I only have two minutes, I'll make them very succinct. First, on the world language programs we provide in our schools. I have always believed in the importance of providing our students with opportunities to learn other languages beginning in the early grades.

[01:26:54] Waiting until the middle or high school years is often too late. As we try to train future leaders of the world, it will be vital for those leaders to understand the languages of the countries we want them to lead. Earlier this evening, when we were celebrating the 20th anniversary of Colin Powell Elementary School, we noted the success of the school's two-way Korean immersion program.

[01:27:22] That program is the pride of the school and only available at Colin Powell. I believe that that should be offered in more schools. Second, on the adoption of the budget this evening, I applaud the efforts of the school board to expand the pre-K program.

[01:27:40] However, we should consider accelerating the program expansion. And the school boards continue to focus on this through the strategic plan is appreciated. As we know, about 23% of our kindergartners have no pre-K experience.

[01:27:58] That equates to about 2,600 students. Shelly Arnoldi so I was pleased to learn that you've added middle school sports to the budget for next year thank you this should address some of the mental health issues plaguing our children

[01:28:34] yesterday I received an email reporting that FCPS is committed to supporting social and emotional success of all students and it pointed to SEL instruction materials including identity tools and dangerous divisive concepts I'd like to know what benefit was gained by the 2.4 million dollar contract you awarded in 2020 to the company co-founded by the U.S. Attorney General Gardner Merrick Garland's son-in-law for the SEL screener. The justification in the RFP said that schools had become de facto mental health providers and while parents did not ask for you to be the de facto

[01:29:08] mental health providers and you have no business taking this role on. SOL and SAT scores continue to drop and the kids appear to have lost the ability to critically think as a result of the SEL nonsense. So it's time to stop the experiment and go back to focusing on academics. Please remove the SEL program and redirect unspent funding towards core academics or athletics. Now I'd like to shift to the students rights and responsibilities document. The 124 page book is full of rules and restrictions that are in direct violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. You define hate speech as any form of expression intended to humiliate or

[01:29:45] incite hatred and the minimum punishment for the first infraction is participation in a culturally responsive intervention. Now, I don't know what that means, but it's ridiculous, and it's not okay for you to do it to my child. The vague speech restrictions cause a lot of stress on children because they're afraid to say what they think, and they fear punishment. I know this because my own children have attended Fairfax County Public Schools for 13 years, and they're incapable of accurately describing another individual using physical descriptions such as skin color, hair color, body size, or ethnicity. Speech was protected in the First Amendment because it's the most important thing to preserve a free society.

[01:30:24] Rest is out of time. Mitchell Hewitt. Kahira Bagdadja. Cassandra Alcoyne.

[01:30:51] Good evening. I'm Cassandra Alcoyne and thank you for letting me speak tonight. What I'm going to speak about is the three day weekend that we're all about ready to go into with our schools. Our schools are starting this three day weekend and on Monday we're going to observe an American holiday the Memorial Day a day where we honor the over one million men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military.

[01:31:17] Yes, there will be parades and ceremonies, but do our students really know what this day is about? Do they know that this was a day set aside to remember the U.S. military who sacrificed their lives for our country? At every school board meeting I've attended, there's been always a resolution or a remembrance for a special event or an event in our history.

[01:31:37] Has there been one for our U.S. military who have sacrificed our lives for our country? Memorial Day is a personal, very personal to me. I'm a military daughter, military wife, and now a military mom. And I've seen firsthand the sacrifices that our young military men and women make every single day.

[01:31:55] I've witnessed heartbreaking scenes where families waited at the pier or on the tarmac thinking their husband could actually come home but they knew they had died at sea. So it concerns me that we have become complacent in educating our students about Memorial Day and what it represents.

[01:32:12] In educating them on the sacrifices that our military have made so that we can enjoy our freedom and liberties today. Unfortunately, there's been anti-American rhetoric that has come from the school board, and we know what that is, from the anti-American flag recent sentiment, as well as the Iwo Jima where we lost 7,000 soldiers.

[01:32:30] Additionally, our children aren't learning US history. The recent reports about only 13% of our eighth graders being proficient or above proficiency in US history is disturbing. So I've lived across the globe, and I can tell you the American flag is one of the most recognizable images in the world.

[01:32:48] We need to let our students know that they should be proud to display it. We need to teach them U.S. history. We need to make sure they have an understanding of the contributions of our U.S. military.

[01:33:03] - Cheryl Binkley. - Good news and bad news of the month. We have built a remarkable set of schools in our community for our young people, and you have a lot to do with that, but also the staff, our faculties, all of our people in our schools and our students.

[01:33:35] There are those who do not want to just disrupt those schools though. They would dismember them. I come to warn you not about the culture wars, but what the administration in Richmond is doing behind the scenes while the flags and rallies and Twitter threads ebb and flow.

[01:33:55] The lab schools they are proposing have a little known requirement that creates a governing body that It removes power from local school boards to administer those schools. There are also several new ways that they are moving education money behind the scenes that was allocated to education to private hands outside of the procurement rules.

[01:34:21] And I don't have time to give you all those yet, but they're there. So you are the bulwark. This requires you to be ever diligent, braver than you thought you could be or would have to be, and stronger than those who would destroy what we have built as communities.

[01:34:42] As you attend the award ceremonies and the graduations and stare at those thousands of smiling faces ready to venture forth into the world, let that remind you that the work you have done is not just good work.

[01:34:58] It is the sacred future that we must preserve. Misha Chernoff. Good evening. I am Misha Chernoff. I am a Fairfax County teacher.

[01:35:25] I would like to speak about the OAG work session held last Thursday and the discussion that took place regarding having an audit performed on ERFC, which is the Supplemental Pension Program. Much of the meeting was spent requesting that OAG move up the timeline to audit our pension plan.

[01:35:44] However, right now, employees are struggling with our new health care plan. I suggest that instead of auditing ERFC, the board audits Cigna. The OAG could procure a specialized health care claims auditor to determine whether the claims that are processed and paid are compliant with the covenants of the plan, determine opportunities for recovering payments erroneously processed, and could determine if internal controls are adequate and operating effectively.

[01:36:14] It was troubling to hear conversations about eliminating the pension for new hires and putting that money instead in the pay scale to attract millennials. I'm not a betting woman, but if I were, I would bet that if that 6% is not earmarked for our pension, that money will never see daylight in the pay scale.

[01:36:36] We are all aware there are organizations that are salivating at the thought of dismantling our Fairfax County Supplemental Employee Pension. I need and employees need a school board that is going to champion this essential benefit which can only be found in Fairfax County. No other school district in the Commonwealth has this defined benefit plan. I want to thank you Mr. Frisch for your statement of support when you shared the shift away from defined benefits across the country has made retirement less secure for every

[01:37:09] worker where it has taken place. Employees need you to audit Cigna. Doing so will let us know you

[01:37:16] hear us and are taking action to improve the system. Thank you. Asra Nomani. My name is Asra

[01:38:21] Nomani. I came before you three years ago. I came to you with sincerity of parents everywhere. What you all decided to do was poke the bear, the mama bear. You decided that you were going to use your 12 zero Democratic majority on the Fairfax County School Board to put a reign of tyranny into our public school system. You put us up against a cleanup crew in the community to clean up your

[01:39:00] dirty work. I call them Antifa because just like the far left Antifa movement, they are about character assassination, and destruction. And what is it that you did then? You put a hit on our number one high school. It is Asian American Pacific Islander Month. I am an immigrant from India, and you erased us. John Foster, your council, is celebrating this week because you won a

[01:39:35] decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to continue your racist, anti-Asian, unconstitutional policy to TJ, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I'm going to tell you how this is going to go. This is the decision. These red flags are going to bring you into the annals of history as the racist and the white supremacist agents that you are in channeling supremacy over others. We will not tolerate it, and you will go down in history as losing in the U.S.

[01:40:13] Supreme Court. Just like Brown versus Board of Education, Coalition for TJ versus Fairfax County will be historic. Tiffany Anderson. Thank you, board, especially Ms. Laura Jane Cohen for listening

[01:40:53] to my husband and I's plea to, yes, reinforce the proponent of middle school sports. It's a much better way for these developing minds to spend their time. As we all know, these young developing minds until age 25 don't have a prefrontal courtesies to really make wise decisions.

[01:41:11] And in fact, it took one dad coach tonight, one neighbor, one aunt to get from soccer, baseball, baseball, so that I could be here. And that was repeated a handful of times during the winter because I got to be a part of your strategic planning committee for the family representation. As a first-generation American, I spoke Spanish first, so there was a hurdle just learn the language but unfortunately my education did bring me into the vastness of a bullying world which i received given what my outward appearance may have looked like to other children at the time being a mother of a child who's been bullied i know and i honestly pray for the right resources

[01:41:51] to give him but what was amazing was two different religions coming from those two different family backgrounds were able to reconcile and i think that's what we're called to do is to reconcile to talk and to discuss our needs and one of the things that we did as a family was chose Fairfax County over LA County Schools because of your academic excellence my husband and his whole family is an alum from here we're very grateful for it however there have been some things that have caused harm and concern through SEL in fact my almost freshman says mom I just answer the questions randomly because I don't understand what they're saying so I let your board know this just

[01:42:28] because i need you to take into account these developing young minds and the pressure placed on them they're not yet quite adults they will be one day and we will empower them but i plea for you to the equity policy please give your community partners time to review and partner with each of you we're here to support not to tear down but to build a bridge and i'm grateful for the time you have because this was really hard to make tonight but i'm here thank you madam chair that was our last public speaker thank you agenda item 3.02 academic matters i'll call on dr

[01:43:02] to read to share academic matters madam chair it's with great excitement that we

[01:43:45] address academic matters this evening one of the things that parents will soon be receiving as well students are the new video e student assessment summary reports and these are going to be new this year actually and dr. Presidio and his team have put together a short presentation this evening because we want to be time-sensitive and make sure our families are aware that these documents will be coming to your home shortly. So I want to provide a little background information and that is that the VDOE has released a new tool called

[01:44:19] Virginia's Visualization and Analytics Solution. It's also known as VVAS to all divisions in the Commonwealth. As part of this tool, divisions are going to be distributing this parent report showing student SOL testing history data. This is part of the state's initiative to continue to provide information to our parents and educators regarding student progress and the student progress specifically is on their SOLs so I want to provide some highlights what the report is and what the report isn't so the new summary reports actually been

[01:44:59] done which is in conjunction with a new web-based tool that uses video assessment data to build these reports they're going to be provided for any student who has an SOL testing history in the state of Virginia as of the spring of 2022 so that would be a year ago and the report shows the student performance on the SOL tests over time however it will not include this year's SOL reports now we do find that a bit probably less than satisfying for our parents but I just want to make sure that our students and families understand that these reports

[01:45:39] are going to be distributed by VDOE. They come from VDOE, so they will be separate from the actual SOL reports that the division will be sending home. This report also is going to show families to see how a student's performance compares to other students in the Commonwealth who took the same test. So it's an interesting type of report that parents will not have previously seen one of the things we thought this evening that would be helpful is to provide a sample report so we this sample report came from the VDOE

[01:46:14] and this could be for example a Fairfax student or it could be a random student this is simply an example what you see on the chart on the far left is a potential student's third grade SOL fourth grade and then fifth and sixth eighth and ninth so it follows the student if they were in the Commonwealth of Virginia over that period of time in math reading science and social studies so parents will have an opportunity to see how their students did over time however again I want to remind the board and our community that this will not

[01:46:52] include data from this current year it will only include SOL assessments taken 2015 and 2022 all scores are going to be expressed as state percentiles which indicate how a student's performance compared with all other students who took the same assessment in the same school year so you see the percentiles on the bottom chart so students and families will be able to see that in a particular year based on the particular content area they'll see the percentile that their student would have scored.

[01:47:30] For example, if they're in the 57th percentile, that would mean that they would have scored better than 57 students out of 100 across the Commonwealth. So, I think it'll be interesting data, again, not as timely, perhaps, as we might hope, because there will be, again, a second correspondence with this year's scores, but it will provide the prior seven years.

[01:47:54] I want to remind families that this will be coming to our homes shortly they're planning to be made available in mid-June via the CIS ParentVUE or US Mail the websites will be live with more information and again it will not include this year's SOL score here in Fairfax County Public Schools we do use various data sources to determine student growth and success this student assessment summary report is only one piece of many other data points that are used for families and staff and students as they plan their

[01:48:34] academic journey with us here in Fairfax County so just wanted to make sure that this is time-sensitive and new information sent in a new format that our communities aware of that so that is academic matters this evening madam chair thank you dr. Reed thank you to your team for pulling that together we'll start with dr. Anderson followed by mr. Frisch thank you just to clarify it will not include this year's data it will not include this year's data that is rather unfortunate because obviously we all want to see the progress up until

[01:49:10] this year particularly we're a couple of years well not a couple you will slightly a little bit beyond the pandemic and I think parents are looking to see that growth however I would love for you to speak to us in terms of how do you want or how do you expect parents to interact with this data because we will receive it and so what. So thank you Dr. Anderson I think our intent and I think the intent of VDOE is that the more information students and families have the better they can plan perhaps resources and also as they think about scheduling courses moving forward through the division I think it gives

[01:49:49] families an idea anyhow of those snapshots in time of where their students were. I also I think it's again one data point. It's not a full picture of a young person's capacity but again it's just more information and part of the reason we're talking about it this evening is to make sure that it doesn't catch families by surprise. I don't think it's a overemphasis or underemphasis. I think it's just interesting data at this point. Sure but I think it's realistic to think that when parents get this particularly since it's going to show progression over time, that if their students are performing in a particular manner, they're going

[01:50:29] to want to talk about some interventions with the school staff. Absolutely. Are staff prepared to have that conversation, which is nearly impossible to think that is not going to happen? I think that one of the concerns I would raise, I think it's laudable that we're trying to be transparent with data over time. I think sending it out in mid-June is probably not ideal, particularly since it's a year delayed because most students and staff are taking the summer off. I think if we have families that have students in summer programming, it would be an interesting data point to perhaps speak with

[01:51:07] a summer educator about. Otherwise, it would be something parents would likely need to hang on to until the fall back to school and open house meetings and certainly I think it's a data point that ought to come up as part of that conversation either to talk about enrichment or intervention one you know either one thank you can you speak a little bit to how the data is going to be represented for students who are typically exempted if a child has never received has never taken or been administered any of these SOLs what are they going to get in the mail I think dr. Presidio is saying I don't think they will receive something unless

[01:51:43] they've taken the traditional SOLs is that correct that would be correct. I think that's important to state so that parents who don't receive one may be able to put that in context. The last piece that I want to share is the data that is provided to the schools after the completion of these SOLs is not just filed in a drawer. So I want to be sure that we're speaking to how does staff use this data outside of it being compelled by parents. So Dr. Presidio I would love for you to just share with the public how our teachers and principals ENGAGE WITH THIS INFORMATION IN ORDER TO PREPARE FOR OUR STUDENTS IN THE FALL AND TO CREATE INTERVENTIONS, ET CETERA.

[01:52:21] WELL, THANK YOU FOR THAT QUESTION, DR. ANDERSON. AND I THINK AS DR. REED KIND OF MENTIONED DURING HER PRESENTATION, YOU KNOW, THE SOLS ARE ONE DATA POINT OF MANY DATA POINTS THAT TEACHERS USE IN TERMS OF THEIR PLANNING TO WORK WITH THEIR CLASS AND WITH INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS AND TO PARTNER WITH PARENTS IN TERMS OF WHAT INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS' NEEDS ARE.

[01:52:41] SO THEY USE THEIR OWN CLASSROOM-BASED ASSESSMENTS. We also have large standardized assessments that we give in reading and in math, in particular, in those subject areas at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. And classroom teachers look at that data with their grade level teams and with the administrators and the other instructional leaders in their building on a regular basis as part of their collaborative teams.

[01:53:02] And they plan interventions based on what the multiple data indicators are showing for individual student needs. And there's a wide range of interventions from differentiation in the classroom to additional support outside of the classroom to high-impact, high-intensity tutoring that we're offering and have been offering for the last several years as part of our ESSER program to opportunities to extend summer learning through the ESY program or our summer learning program for students.

[01:53:34] And we'll probably have close to 30,000 students enrolled in summer programs this year to get additional academic support. So, again, this is just one indicator that our teachers use as part of a collaborative process with their colleagues and instructional leaders in the building to really target services based on what the data is telling them.

[01:53:53] Thank you. And I would be remiss if I didn't ask this question only because I have been asked this question routinely, even though it was not part of my plan. How do you want for parents to just interact with any SOL data, whether it be this one or just when teachers are shared with them? Some parents believe that it is the score for the end of the year.

[01:54:11] If you can provide some of that information so that the public can be informed in terms of how to understand these SOL scores in context in addition to what Dr. Presidio shared in terms of what does it mean for my child if he is advanced or not advanced or proficient or did not pass?

[01:54:31] Does that keep them back? Those are the questions that I routinely hear. So thank you Dr. Anderson and I think that essentially we want families to interact with those SOL scores understanding that's a moment in time that's a snapshot of a student's performance at that moment we think that the very most important conversation is between the student family and the teacher the current teacher our staff are amazing at looking at what I would call formative data or real-time data it's important to look at these at the SOL scores because they do tell a system-wide picture as well as an individual student picture I know that

[01:55:10] in many cases we look as a system at the data the SOL data to say are there gaps are there areas that were really strong in at certain grade levels are there areas that may be across the division we're not as strong in that we need to look at with curriculum teams to support our staff at the school level but if I'm a family member our parent and we were parents we still are actually but when our students came home with state assessments it was important to look at those not just at the score but kind of how the breakdown of the score was what parts of that like math score did our student do well in and what part maybe did we need to work on a little bit and it often created a conversation

[01:55:50] with our students teacher our child's teacher and that's really the most important connection is with the teacher thank you you know what I did lie I do have one more question when this goes out to parents will it have particularly for our ELL students whose evaluation on the SOL is calculated slightly differently based on the growth factor will there be a different presentation to include that if you know we don't know yet I I think right now the state they're trying to create look it appears to be a generic template and that

[01:56:25] generic template is being populated with data across the entire Commonwealth I would expect as time goes on it's going to become more nuanced but I don't I can't commit to under I don't think there's a separate template but we could be surprised I think this is evolving and again it's the very first time we're going to be receiving these dr. Presidio do you have any other Intel no I mean I would just add I think that this really is the first attempt to provide more transparent information to parents around the state because not all school systems have the same technology capabilities that we have in Fairfax

[01:57:02] THE SAME WAYS TO BE ABLE TO SHARE INFORMATION THAT WE DO HERE. SO IT REALLY IS A STATEWIDE INITIATIVE TO MAKE THIS INFORMATION MORE AVAILABLE, MORE TRANSPARENT TO PARENTS. AND OVER TIME, AGAIN, THE INTENT IS TO ADD MORE FUNCTIONALITY, MORE DETAIL, AND CERTAINLY BE MORE TIMELY WHEN THE INFORMATION IS RELEASED.

[01:57:18] SO THIS IS JUST REALLY THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT. APPRECIATE IT. I'M GOOD. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. MR. FRESH. THANK YOU. I'D BE REMISS IF I DIDN'T MENTION THAT WE STILL HAVE QUITE A BACKLOG WITH OUR VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FOR TEACHER LICENSURE.

[01:57:35] So I hope that they catch up on that just like they do with the reporting out of these scores. So let's talk about these scores. These are not news to families, right? They already have this data provided over time. And so with the new data coming, and this is data that we've been studying on charts that are similar to what have been showed here.

[01:57:56] With this new data coming, how long would the Virginia Department of Education have to wait to include this year's data, which would probably show significant growth year over year over year for the last several years, last couple of years. - Thank you, Mr. Frisch. I, at the risk of not being entirely clear, I'm gonna defer to Dr. Presidio on this 'cause I know some data's back already, but I don't know when the window closes for the Commonwealth.

[01:58:19] Dr. Presidio? - Yeah, and I'm not entirely clear on this myself, but what I will say is in terms of the release of this year's scores to parents, we anticipate that that will happen before the end of the month of June. So, again, the timeline here is very close and similar, but the state's been working to roll this report out for about six months.

[01:58:38] So, again, the timeline that they were working on just didn't coincide enough for them to be able to get this year's data there. But that certainly is the intent for future reports. I am not a computer expert, but I've done a mail merge before. I've updated spreadsheets before.

[01:58:53] And it seems that once you've got the system set up, plugging in one extra variable for a new year of data would not be a stretch. So I will be using my newsletter to make sure the parents understand that this is data that we were that we gave them last year and I think it's great that we're going to be showing it in the same charts that we've used as a board but they need to know that the real meat and potatoes were already responding to last year's data with the targeted interventions that we're doing right now in our schools the real data that we're going to be looking at much more closely is the data that's coming within the next month.

[01:59:31] Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Keith Camara. Yes, and I'm happy to follow my colleague, although a number of my questions have been covered thoroughly by Dr. Anderson. When I look at your the chart there, I'm just wondering if it might be helpful for parents who are watching what they can exactly expect, because I'm not sure that every parent knows what categories will be covered and exactly how the scores would be shown.

[02:00:05] and can we just get a description of what they can expect yes ma'am if we could bring the chart back up Laura please what they can expect is essentially data prior to last spring I believe it started in 2015 and thank you Laura the for example if you go back if I'm a parent the chart up above with the squiggly line if you will the areas that are going to be reported are mathematics reading science and social studies and it's going to be for

[02:00:41] example from the left to right third grade to ninth I expect if a student didn't arrive in Virginia till fifth grade perhaps they wouldn't start till fifth it's really the Virginia SOL historical data prior to last last year and previously so all of those four areas of SOLs will be reflected over time and then in that bottom chart I think the I think it's new is the fully on percentile reporting but it might not be but I there is my understanding is that might be new in terms of how our students are doing compared to students

[02:01:17] across the Commonwealth and by our I mean this specific student example would have percentiles in each of those grade levels and content areas that would indicate how i did as a student compared to all other students at that grade and that content across the commonwealth okay so that would be 21 22 correct uh data that they will be receiving which if parents are attending teacher parent teacher conferences would they have already been discussing some of those to mr results yes to mr frisch's point we've already handed out data

[02:01:55] through last year through 2022 so this is not new information it's going to be presented in a new way and part of the reason we're you know talking about it this evening is so it's not confusing to families who may think this is something new and it's not it's really a snapshot of the historical view of their students sol history and if you are a parent that wants to take this and when you get the letter or the notice about your current sol score you could go in and put your own dot in i

[02:02:28] suppose um you know as your next grade level and kind of continue your graph but really uh the two pieces of information are going to cross in the night and be one piece will be current and the other will be really information families and staff already have had so i think you hit on the THE WHAT I'M REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT HERE IS WHETHER THIS IS GOING TO RAISE SOME LEVEL OF CONCERN FOR PARENTS RIGHT AND WILL WE BE SENDING ANY KIND OF COMMUNICATION OUT TO JUST UH ONE FIRST OF

[02:03:01] ALL EXPLAIN WHAT THIS IS WHY THIS IS HAPPENING AND THEN PERHAPS EVEN MAKE SOME SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO UH AS YOU DISCUSSED EARLIER HOW THIS MIGHT BE HELPFUL NOT JUST FOR THE UPCOMING SCHOOL year but even maybe even for the summer right um i just i'm a little concerned because sometimes when you get that letter with fcps on there right it's you know you wonder uh-oh what happened and how can we alleviate that and turn it into a real positive for for our parents so i think

[02:03:39] guardians yeah i think you're hitting on something really important and communication is key we can't over communicate. I know staff and Dr. Presidio's department is working on what could be a companion piece or preemptive piece and this is really the first part of that strategy to begin that more public conversation because I don't think it's on the radar of many of our families at this time.

[02:04:02] Right and I would like for our students to you know we sometimes have this drop-off right during the summer and perhaps this is an opportunity for parents to understand or to have the suggestions of more reading and fun games that are learning etc while you're having fun in the summertime but still reading books and although my kids still think i punished them but they did read so um i'd just like to have turn it into as much of a positive as as we can yes ma'am we'll make sure

[02:04:36] the board is copied on the communication that goes out. Thank you. Ms. Corbett Sanders. Yes, thank you, Dr. Reed. I, too, have significant concerns over the timing of this report. You know, we always talk about the importance of data and data analytics, but we also talk about the importance of data in context. And it seems to me that what we're talking about here is data out of context and could be and I'm sure that this is not the intent but it could be

[02:05:11] very confusing for families to be looking at data that is a year old at the same time that they are receiving new data and I am always impressed with the skills and capabilities of families in Fairfax County, however, I don't believe that they will be adding that extra dot for each of the core four, nor should we expect them to, but I would urge that we have to have clear communications to families to give them the context of the data, which is that the governor wants to make sure that we

[02:05:48] have a very clear and tell the history really well and that this is historical data, but that you encourage families to take a look at not only the historical data but the data that they will be receiving momentarily or will have already received regarding the success of their kids and encourage that important partnership, that partnership between parents and teachers and administrators to determine how best to support our students either through

[02:06:23] interventions or through opportunities for acceleration and so if we could have a communication that kind of lays it out that we in Virginia like our history and that we want to make sure that people are able to learn from the history but look forward yes ma'am we do want our history to be accurate thank you thank you seeing no other hands that are going up I just wanted to take a quick turn to ask one question about this I appreciate the the efforts in the conversation my colleagues about clarifying that these are old scores and

[02:07:03] that Dr. Presidio you're working together to figure out how to do that communication and so take this I know this may be more work for your staff so feel free to take it or leave it but is there any way to create our own version with this year's scores as well anything is possible madam chair just saying here's what the state's requiring us to send you and here's the updated version well we will certainly look into that and get back to you um about the possibility um i'm so sorry i put you

[02:07:39] on the spot and you're welcome to or you know or some way of saying you know we will certainly look into it no doubt but i i do want to just point out that we are legally required to submit this report and and i really do appreciate all the concerns that have been raised um by the body tonight many of which were shared multiple times by staff well i'm not saying you shouldn't submit the report i'm just saying i'm wondering if there's an additional that we can send saying hey we wanted to update you as how your child is doing i know we send progress reports and but you know if i mean i actually don't think it's a bad idea to send some historical context to our families right so i'm wondering if there's a way that we can kind of take that idea for ourselves as well

[02:08:18] right so here's the state reporting required to do we do what the state's requiring us to do but we like the concept of showing how your students doing over the years and so we're going to send you this information that includes that that's up to date for this year just a suggestion yes ma'am we'll uh we will look into it and i'll get back to you great thank you very much dr reed um thank you for the academic matters i will now agenda move on to agenda item 3.03 student representative matters and i call on miss togby thank you madam chair good evening and happy Thursday everyone. I almost said Friday. This past week has definitely been a busy week. I got to

[02:08:57] attend the ceremony for our student equity ambassador leaders who gathered for one last time for their senior ceremony where they sent off their seniors and they gave them their cords and everything. What I really loved was the fact that we got to watch each other talk about the highlights of the program, what we really enjoyed, and what I guess kind of legacy we want to live or leave with them. And then on Monday, I got to join Dr. Ivan, Dr. Reed with the rest of the students who participated in the strategic planning core team, where we just kind of talked about the ups and downs, what we want to see improved with whatever we gave suggestions for with the core planning team, as well as what we really want to see out of the strategic planning

[02:09:35] process. And last night, I got to join the amazing chapter of Oakton DECA with board members Seismar, Heiser, and Frisch for their end-of-the-year banquet. It was a night that we all got to celebrate the accomplishments of their members from the successful socials that they planned, their competitors, and their seniors, where they also got to give them paper plate awards.

[02:09:57] Some of them were most likely to reclass for DECA, which I thought was hilarious. And if you don't know what DECA is, DECA is a career and technical student organization where they practice the values of being emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.

[02:10:16] As Fairfax's largest DECA chapter with over 200 competitors, I have to say they make me very proud to be from Fairfax, and they do it all in style, I have to say. They have an amazing advisor team, which encourages their amazing officer team to only live up to be as great as they all are.

[02:10:37] So I'm incredibly grateful that they invited me and I enjoyed my time with them. Lastly, I want to shout out both McLean and South County's crew teams for placing at finals in the largest regatta in the world, only to be the only two public schools from Virginia to do so, which I thought was a pretty big deal.

[02:10:55] But also while I was chatting with the teams, they mentioned that it was really hard for them to secure a lot of people to participate this year because crew technically isn't recognized as a sport within FCPS. It's only seen as a club. So they told me that on average they spend a little over $2,000 every year, which is a lot of money, especially from certain areas.

[02:11:17] So I thought it was really interesting to kind of just have that conversation to talk about whether it's uniforms. Some of them even have to replace boats, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. And so I definitely think this is a conversation we can continue having. That is all I have for you all today. I know we have a couple of busy weeks left, but thank you.

[02:11:39] Thank you, Ms. Togby. Thank you very much. And it was a pleasure to enjoy the DECA banquet last night as well. Agenda item three points. I apologize. Ms. McCauley, do you want you to turn your light on? Please go ahead.

[02:11:58] Oh, I just wanted to share with Ms. Togby and the audience who might be listening with respect to crew. It's a beautiful sport. I have a niece rowing up at Boston College, and I rowed a little myself in college. so I'm a huge fan. For many years when we've had this conversation about championing that crew become a VHSL sport here in Fairfax County Schools conversations with individual school teams were that they weren't sure they wanted to become a VHSL sport because then they would have some of the

[02:12:31] controls and restrictions of VSHL including private coaches. So part of it that we were hearing back as board members years ago was we're fine the way we are because we want to be able to hire the coaches we want to hire and pay those coaches what we want to pay and so I think there's a little bit of a push pull about which way to go so I'm really glad that you brought it up because it is a beautiful sport I would love to see it be formalized but I just wanted to make sure everybody knew it's not that prior boards or this board or indifferent to it, it's just, it's a little more complicated.

[02:13:11] Ms. McLaughlin, thank you very much. I'll move on to agenda item 3.04, superintendent matters. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Ms. Togby, and I had a chance to be out on one of the river rats, and I use that term lovingly, the river rats boats at a recent regatta on the Occoquan, and it is a fabulous sport and a huge equity sport as well, as it's the number one college scholarship sport for women in our country, so point taken.

[02:13:46] Anyhow, since last we were together, I've had a chance to be out and about quite a little bit. I was able to participate in the Foxmill Elementary Matsuri Festival two weeks ago, and also attend the Vienna Elementary's 150th anniversary celebration.

[02:14:03] I didn't realize it was the school hosting, the oldest school building and continuous operation Fairfax County very well preserved and it was a really well attended event this past Saturday at a fun-filled event at Luther Jackson right here in the gym middle school girls basketball was going on and it was our Fairfax middle school basketball tournament I got to do the score clock and scoreboard for our championship game was very exciting later it had an opportunity to attend a charity chess tournament at Rachel Carson Middle School organized by our

[02:14:40] middle school students to benefit children in Turkey and Syria dealing with the recent earthquake last Thursday evening I had an opportunity to attend the arena stage in DC to see our talented students here from Luther Jackson Middle School they did an amazing job in an annual voices of now showcase and their piece was called Inside Out. It was really, I thought, very well done. Also, Holmes Middle School, Kilmer Middle School, and Robinson Secondary performed on different evenings.

[02:15:13] Different schools were on different evenings. This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to join the closing ceremony for global leaders, global leaders of Fairfax County, held at Oakton High School. This is the third cohort who've gone through the program, and this year we had 110 students. I also had a chance to speak at a number of ribbon-cutting events this past week. Congratulations on these newly renovated schools at Madison High School, Oakton, West Potomac, Braddock Elementary, High Bluff Valley Elementary, and Washington Mill Elementary. I see we have a Braddock Eagle here, a former Eagle.

[02:15:52] Thank you, Ms. Houston. These buildings all look amazing and I also have to say Just an amazing thank you to our community for supporting our schools and our bond dollars. It really matters. I know at High Blah Valley and also today at Washington Mill, I mean, the families were so excited about the removal of trailers in particular, but just the children, I mean, it matters when you walk in and just see this amazing facility.

[02:16:23] And also a big, huge thanks to the staff in these renovated buildings, the amount of patients to work in a construction zone for several years is significant. Last night I had an opportunity to speak at the Early Identification Program Senior Graduation and New Student Recognition Program at George Mason University, and it's an incredible program.

[02:16:46] We honored a number of seniors graduating and eighth graders joining the program. So speaking of graduation, beginning next week, our first graduation starts June 1, and it's quite a season of celebration we have a tremendous uh i think tremendous number of students to be grateful for and then lastly just a reminder monday there is no school for all of those students and families and staff watching we are taking time to celebrate memorial day and it is traditional to observe that on the last monday of may so for all those that our families of those who've served

[02:17:26] I JUST HOPE WE ALL TAKE A MOMENT ON MONDAY TO REMEMBER ALL THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR ALL TO PRESERVE OUR FREEDOM SO THANK YOU THANK YOU DR. REED AGENDA ITEM 3.05 FISCAL YEAR 24 OAG RISK ASSESSMENT AND AUDIT PLAN I WILL NOW CALL ON ESTRA COE AUDITOR GENERAL TO PROVIDE US WITH A PRESENTATION ON THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL'S FISCAL YEAR 2024 RISK ASSESSMENT AND AUDIT PLAN MS. COE SO TONIGHT I'M GOING TO PRESENT THE FISCAL YEAR 24 OFFICE OF AUDITOR GENERAL

[02:18:02] oag risk assessment and audit plan um on the box docs there are two documents uh one of that is a more detailed nuts and bows document that share with the board and also the community members about the details about how we come up with the plan and then tonight i will go through this presentation as a high level to um to highlight the key points uh for the for school board and the community members as a background for the um for those who are listening or are watching us today uh oag reports uh to the school board via the audit committee and our mission is to perform

[02:18:40] independent audits over the existing organizational processes within bedfax county public schools so with that we can move on to slide three so to start today presentation um i would like to highlight the timeline of review by the audit committee and the school board on the plan we discussed the audit plan both at the audit committee meetings and also the school board work session in addition to tonight's presentation there is a time building in june um to discuss

[02:19:14] uh any further questions that we may receive from the school board members on or after today so for the school board members are welcome to join our audit committee in june if there are any further comments that we need to address before the approval of the plan in july and with that we can go to slide four so slide four here again stated our mission that i have mentioned in my opening remarks and also according to the auditor general authority policy 1105 that we shall submit the plan annually to the audit committee and then it has to be approved by the school board

[02:19:53] and then on slide five it highlights the procedures of how we come up with the audit plan and i'm thrilled to present that we received 12 out of 14 correspondence from our school board members and the audit committee citizen members we also solicited feedback there are over 100 surveys as well as almost 40 in-person interviews we also examined what our neighboring school districts are doing to ensure that we capture the hot topics that the other internal audit

[02:20:28] office are looking at and after we collect all these ideas and the universe of topics we consider all the different types of risk right and we all know that that in today's world there are reputational risk financial security risk legal risk etc and after considering the risk factors we put this plan together so on slide six i would like to pause for a second because here is the result of the risk assessment and also the upcoming topics that we are going to

[02:21:04] look at for the first two topics they are the topics that we are currently performing in this fiscal year and then we will continue to finish them in the next fiscal year and then the engagement listed from three to nine they are all new engagements that we identified and for those of you who are interested to look at the different metrics that we come together for this uh seven topics they are included under um slide 22 of this presentation so moving on on slide seven

[02:21:39] here is our actual work plan there you can see the 10 topics listed on the side with the time with the timetable so you may see that that for now we have assigned life for about five months for most of the new topics and this is a tentative timeline that we may adjust when the audit is happening so that when we get an opportunity to look into it that timeline may need to be um to be changed so with that for um slide eight and onwards we will spend more time to kind of talk about each

[02:22:15] topics and um the way how the slides are assigned is that we will describe a little bit about what it is about the topic and then we will go into the audit objective and scope of work and that i would like to take a little bit um a little bit of time to go through each one of them and then it also include who are our state internal stakeholders and then also the time frame so with that slide eight and slide nine they are the two topics one is the employee evaluation process audit which is currently ongoing and then slide nine is the school activity fund audit year-end

[02:22:52] at june 30th 2023 and these are the audits that we started already and then we are either in the process of finishing and then the reporting will happen Ms. Ko I need to stop you for a second we do not have quorum at the table we don't have quorum at the table we need to pause the meeting all right thank you I apologize Ms. Ko you may continue okay so we can move on to slide 10 so starting on slide 10 here are the new audit topics that we identify for next fiscal year

[02:23:31] the first one here is the food and nutrition audit um in the interest of time I will focus on the objective area and highlight what we are going to look at so we are going to look at the compliance aspect we will also look at the business objective and the key performance measures we will compare fcps how we manage food and nutrition with other k-12 organizations we will also look at how we use vendors and consultants how do we monitor food waste how do we monitor inventory turnover etc last but not the least is the financial accountability components

[02:24:08] where we will look at including the look at the use of overtime and also student debts so on the next slide here is the facilities maintenance audit so for many of you might know that that back in fiscal year 2018 my office has conducted an audit in the same area and then currently as of fy 23 we notice that there are still some areas where we have made audit recommendations um that they have not been fully implemented because of variety of reasons so we would like to we take a look at facilities maintenance that's the first objective is

[02:24:48] to see where we are with the audit findings um that kind of carry forward from the previous audit and secondly we will also look at the checks and balances right meaning the internal controls um over facilities maintenance mainly focus on how we maintain the work orders right do we looked at the estimate like how much we estimate in the beginning does it like come close to the actual work being performed at the cost incurred and also the whether the workflow of the work order is effective objective three is compliance driven and then objective four

[02:25:24] is to conduct a physical count of facilities maintenance assets and also inventory and on slide 12 here is our grand audit um many of you again may know that that our my office has been looking into the esser 3 uh the expenditure the grand expenditure spending through continuous monitoring last year and in the next year we would like to suggest on top of esser or some other selected grants, my office could take a broader look into how they are operated.

[02:25:56] For example, we were looking at if the grant expenditures are made consistent with the purpose and the intent of the grants, we will also look at the design and the implementation of controls to make sure the design of the checks and balances, not only they exist, but then also ensure the fidelity of implementation of those controls across the district.

[02:26:20] We will also look at how management is monitoring if the goals of the grants have been met so that we can test and making sure if there are metrics to measure whether the grants are operating effectively, then we will take a look at that as well.

[02:26:36] And then slide three is the IT system access audit. We all know that since the pandemic, the importance of IT has just been elevated so high. So each year in our audit plan, we have put in a topic that is IT related.

[02:26:55] So for this particular audit, we will focus on both the physical and the logical access controls of the system. And of course, we cannot look at all IT systems because there are so many of them. So we will be looking at the physical and logical access controls of selected systems.

[02:27:14] And then slide 14 is the local school activity fund. And since I mentioned it earlier, and I won't spend a lot of time on it, and for those who maybe wonder why OAG looked into local school activity fund every year, it's because it is a state requirement that the LSAF, local school activity fund, shall be audited annually.

[02:27:34] so with that we can move on like slide 15 and this is continuous monitoring i kind of mentioned about it earlier that we will continue to up our game by doing more analytical reviews on continuous monitorings the major reason is to be able to spot timely potential irregularities right instead of having a discrete audit topics continuous monitoring is going to cover a broader range of transactions and it will help us to make smarter choice of samples and in addition to the

[02:28:09] technique uh technology kind of like um making sure we have done continuous monitoring we will also do something new this year which is listed on the last bullet point here that we will be performing um we will be performing and announce cash counts and e-commerce collection of event fee so we will go and check out if the cash collected is it the right amount is it follow the right procedures etc so with that then the other slide is the business process audit this is something that my office has been accustomed to perform that includes both the

[02:28:46] schools and the office business reviews and we will continue with this type of audits and then on slide 17 which is almost the end of my presentation and this is the other oag duties that we perform on top of the audit that i mentioned before and you see many different bullet points here and i would just like to highlight two of them here for all of you um the first one is item two um the fraud ways and abuse uh inquiry where we have been supported by a culture of see something and say something at fcps where our employees and community members

[02:29:25] have you know brought concerns of fraud ways and abuse um to our attention and i just want to take this opportunity to thank our school board members our staff members and our community members support on it and i also want to highlight item seven which is the oag quality control monitoring and peer review so you may ask me what does that mean right um so um it means that that my office is being audited by an independent auditor to ensure that our process is effective and efficient and

[02:29:59] then also according to the government auditing standards. So, I'm very proud to share with you all that we get a pass on that review. So, with that, we can move on to slide 18. So, slide 18 here mentions some of the other potential audit topics. There are three of them: procurements retirement benefits uh student mental health where we received high accounts to conduct audits however due to different circumstances that that my office did not suggest to audit them in fy24 and of course that that if any of these areas need to be audited by

[02:30:39] the majority of all by the school board then we likely would need to adjust our current plan because of resource uh limitation and considerations we can go into the details on slide 19 the first one is procurement the reason why we do not propose procurement to take place in next year is because the policy have just been revised so in order for us to have like enough samples to to look back to see whether the transactions are taking place according to the revised policy to have a holistic look at that we suggest to wait for a year or so

[02:31:17] before we conduct audit in this area moving on slide 20 here is the retirement benefits and of course um retention of staff members and benefits are always very critical for the well-being of the division um and the school board has discussed extensively about this topic at the work session um that uh the superintendent will review this topic further before the school board determines whether oag should proceed with this audit in fy 24 or not and moving on to slide 21 here is the

[02:31:51] student mental health um and of course this is a very uh critical like an important um item uh in our today's society um as oeg does not have poor competency or we don't have staff who are um uh advanced like have the deep knowledge in this topic and if we do need to audit this uh this area we would likely need to hire a outside expert to support us with it and then slide 22 award i referred to earlier is the appendix here it recorded the key metrics of how we support the

[02:32:29] primary topics for next uh for next year and then the last slide um here uh slide 23 are some of the useful links for the community members who are with us today and if you want to know more about the office of auditor general here are some links that you can go in to explore the details further so with the about it concludes my presentation for tonight thank you miss ko i'll call on miss cohen thank you so much i just wanted to take the opportunity uh one more time when we get it

[02:33:04] uh to thank miss ko and her amazing team who's done such an awesome job uh coming up with the audit topics this year and really taking an awful lot of feedback from all of us two things i just wanted to mention um one certainly is um i i worry a little when i heard the conversation um testimony from one of our lovely teachers i we are not we do not want to take away erfc we just want to make sure that it's the best thing um and and the most helpful thing for you guys and we want to do that

[02:33:41] a hundred percent in collaboration with you so my sincere apologies if anybody took the comments about that in that way it certainly was not intended so I I want folks to know that but the second thing is I do just want to remind my colleagues that this is kind of your opportunity to get any additional questions out that you've thought of since the work session and if not then we will be having an audit committee meeting on June 21st which of course you're all welcome to attend, but if you can't attend, just please feel like you can send your

[02:34:17] questions or comments to any of us on the audit committee, and we will make sure that we have answers for you before we have to vote on this report. And again, thank you so much, Ms. Coe, your team. Amazing, amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Tolan? Yes, thank you. I've had the good fortune for at least the first two years of my term on the board of participating in the audit committee and I have always appreciated the how well run the offices and the professionalism of

[02:34:51] your staff so I appreciate the presentation tonight I did want to point out again I talked a little bit about this at the work session excited to see the facilities and maintenance audit work that you'll be doing and I'm looking forward to you know really looking at that um the work session i'm sorry the work order processes and um and looking at the asset management tool and how that can help us with our renovation queue work that we're doing um in parallel when you talk about the um the work order processing that will also include the

[02:35:28] dc 407 process also is that correct um i would need to uh go back to double check ms tolan um because I'm not very into like kind of like a lot of the details, but I would definitely check that and then advise the board accordingly. Okay, that would be great. And then I also just wanted to back up what Ms. Cohen said too. I know we talked a little bit about ERFC at the work session, and I think if you look back at our ERFC work sessions, I'm probably famously the one asking

[02:36:03] the most pointed questions about the operation of ERFC at those work sessions, but as someone that has money in ERFC myself, believe me, I'm very interested in just making sure that it is running as efficiently as possible and working as best it possibly can for all of our employees.

[02:36:24] So, I know, you know, that's a potential audit topic for perhaps another time, but, you know, would support taking a look at that just to make sure that we're serving our employees as best we can. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Colbert Sanders? Yes, thank you. And thank you, Ms. Coe, for all of your hard work. For many who are not as aware of what our Auditor General does, I think it's really important to understand that she looks at not only fraud, waste, and abuse, financial risk,

[02:36:59] but she also looks at reputational risk and working with our council for legal risk. And so it's a comprehensive approach to auditing, and she usually, she has been recognized by national groups and international groups for her leadership in this area.

[02:37:18] So I want to personally thank you for all your hard work and the leadership you've brought to this function. I do have one clarification question, which you did answer at our work session, but I wanted to raise it again so that people understand that when you're looking at the grants audit, you are not planning or are you planning on looking at the IDEA grants grant?

[02:37:45] - Thank you, Ms. Culber-Sanders. It's a great question. So what would we do is when we get closer to the audit, we will take a look at the universe of all the audits, like all the grants that we have. And we will also coordinate with the external auditors, right?

[02:38:04] Because they are also performing a financial audit on grants. So of course, IDEA grants is one of our major grants that we receive a lot of expenditure and support from the federal government. So the chances that that will be picked will be high, right?

[02:38:23] but I just don't want to say for sure yet because I want to have my team to have the opportunity to look at the grants universe before we finally determine what grants are we looking at and also in collaboration with the external auditors to ensure that there will not be duplication of work.

[02:38:45] - And obviously you'll be taking into account the special education audit that your organization oversaw as well. - Definitely. - Thank you very much. And thanks for all you do. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin.

[02:39:05] Yes, Ms. Coe, I just wanted to publicly also acknowledge my appreciation for the hard work you do every year with your team to really help us build a robust audit plan. I know there are times with 12 board members and a superintendent and a highly engaged leadership team that you are hearing a lot of different perspectives on what's mission critical and what we want to study.

[02:39:34] So I really want to convey to the public the amount of due diligence you did with your team to really take in all of that input. I still believe that it's one of the most crucial things we do to create not just effective operations but to continue to build public trust in the substantial amount of funds that we are fortunate to receive every year to sustain this great school system.

[02:40:03] So many thanks again for the hard work that you and your team have done. And I look forward to being engaged in the work that you'll bring to us going forward. Thank you very much, Ms. Daroni-Koufax.

[02:40:19] Daroni-Koufax, you're muted. I haven't done this in a while. So I was started to say along the same lines as Ms. McLaughlin, I thank you so much for your hard work, you and your team.

[02:40:43] I have had the privilege of serving for two years now on the audit team. And I have seen, as colleagues have said, the due diligence, the way you look at things and you have been praised by your peers and that's extremely important.

[02:41:02] And you have given us a plan, which is solid. And the other thing about you and your team, even if the plan is solid, if there's something that comes up, if there is an immediate issue, you are flexible, you are able to move on a dime to be able to not necessarily even take things off the plate, but get extra work done. And I thank you and your team so much, Ms. Coe, for this.

[02:41:27] And it's a privilege to have been sitting on the team with you for the past two years. Thank you. Thank you very much. Seeing no one else who wishes to speak, I will just remind folks that We have an audit committee meeting as well on June 21st if you have more questions before we have our audit vote.

[02:41:47] So thank you, Ms. Coe, for your time and for your, again, excellent work and your presentation and your professionalism. And just as a former audit committee member, it's been an honor and pleasure to work with you. So thank you. - Thank you, everyone. - Agenda item 3.06, strategic plan.

[02:42:03] I now call on Dr. Reed to provide a presentation on the strategic plan.

[02:42:28] - Hello, Madam Chair and distinguished members of the board, it's my pleasure this evening present you the FCPS strategic plan for 2023 through 2030 and this work honestly represents the culmination of nine months of intense dedication hard work and commitment from the entire Fairfax community I especially want to thank Marcy Neal who's here who led this effort so it was Neal and Dustin Wright and Alicia Martinez who are in the back who've done a tremendous amount of leg

[02:43:06] work. Of course, I also want to thank all of you. You've spent countless hours, over 40 hours, and multiple meetings to really continue to review, reflect, and refine the extensive feedback we receive from stakeholders all across this county. During the presentation this evening, I'd like to discuss the importance of the strategic plan for our division, the research-based and community-driven process we used to develop this roadmap, the key components of the plan that were created throughout the process and preview our steps for implementation to ensure success for all students.

[02:43:45] In addition, it's so critical that we recognize the importance of alignment because when we have alignment, we're better able to use resources, time, and decrease workload for all staff involved. I want to start this evening by centering the voices of our school community who have all contributed to the development of this plan.

[02:44:06] So I would ask the board clerk to play our video please. We had a really fruitful discussion about the different issues that we experienced at school and different solutions that could help mitigate those problems.

[02:44:26] And we got to express our different points of view from different schools so we got more diverse perspectives. So in the beginning was a lot of data and then towards the end the work groups where we got to put a lot of our empathy and feelings into it and ideas was great.

[02:44:42] We were extremely vested in coming up and developing ideas that were different. And the data was very important. And so I thought that was also very good that Fairfax really allowed for individuals to see data and information in order to really form their opinion and discussion.

[02:45:02] We not only included principals and teachers and children, we invited many community members. And so all of those voices contributed to this plan and I do believe that helps it better represent the entire county. The process is important to me or being open to larger groups is because this county is so diverse and you can see that our school systems every day. So every voice being heard, verbal and non-verbal. I hope this shows that for at least the next couple of years, this is what Fairfax County truly cares about. This is what Fairfax County prioritizes

[02:45:33] and this is what we hope to see in the future. All right, thank you, Ms. Togby. You were a a key component I appreciated your conversation and insights as well Monday as we debriefed with the students who participated in the strategic plan so want to remind our board that at this time of the year we tend to go to our graduating seniors and celebrations of many successful accomplishments throughout the journey I'd like also for us to I'd encourage us to think not only

[02:46:13] of our current graduates but of our newest students those that are enrolling as kindergarteners next year they will in general be representing the class of 2035 and we're excited as we welcome the class of 2035 to a school division that is going to be tightly aligned and focused on closing not only closing our achievement gaps across the entire division but making sure that each and every student reaches their unique potential these young scholars this This class of, actually, maybe 2036, is planning to face, I think, some challenges along the way.

[02:46:53] As they enter our kindergarten class, they'll be joining K-12 students across the country for which 65% of them will be preparing for careers that don't yet exist. In fact, in the past six months, we've been rapidly learning about implications of AI chat GPT and who knows what's going to be created in the time that they're in school to overcome these challenges and to deliver on opportunities and to lean into innovation and technology in ways that we're excited about this strategic

[02:47:26] plan is going to deliver on goals and measurements that will guide our way one of the things that's going to be important to remember is that this plan will serve as our North Star and help us navigate a path forward to ensure success and opportunity for all students. It would help us be in the light and stay in that light as we keep equity at the center of all that we do here in Fairfax County as well as serving as a beacon of excellence to remind us of the standards we have in our division and we can always aspire to exceed them. After all that's what we do here in Fairfax. This North Star will clearly define the

[02:48:05] best route for us to take in the years ahead to reach our goals and again with that tight alignment it's really intentional to stay focused and disciplined so that when all of us share the load we have we have less that each of us individually have to do so really we're hoping that this is going to be not only an incredible experience for our students but also one that our staff will find fulfilling the power of alignment again and the unity of purpose is critical the clear direction that the board has insisted on with the goals are a clear direction that will really support our next generation of

[02:48:44] learners the community-centered process as you heard from several of the voices on the earlier video has created I think a really strong strategic plan it's not one that's been created in a vacuum it's been interrogated pushed and truly studied revised and reviewed multiple multiple times this has been an intentional decision to make this a broad community effort and we believe it's created a powerful shared vision want to review for the boarding community all the different planning teams that met overall we had more than 65 meetings

[02:49:23] with different community stakeholder groups which is not an insignificant number of meetings there were multiple opportunities for engagement and I'm extremely proud of the number of staff that came to help facilitate that attended and gave their feedback of our students our families this was definitely a team effort the engagement impact summary and you'll also find in your board documents this evening we did craft an executive summary which you do have as part of your board materials to really capture the work and a narrative

[02:49:59] and I'm very proud of Alicia Martinez Dustin Wright and Marcy Neal for putting that together along with Tracy Nguyen from our communications department I think it's a powerful narrative that I hope you'll have a time to read it will also be posted to our website reminder that at the core of the work we're talking about doing are the students first and foremost student learning is our highest priority we know that to meet the needs and the goals of our students that we have to have instructional effectiveness that sit

[02:50:33] within an empowering infrastructure so the structure of our plan it's organized around five goals as you recall and within those goals there are measures the board has worked through identified and clarified we have equity commitments that reside within each goal and then we have our four pillars which will enable and support our staff in working with our students so like to move into the actual goals measures equity commitments and pillars to

[02:51:13] actually share our plan so our first goal is a strong start and again we're talking about pre-k through 12 and this is a significant goal in terms of expectations around really a strong start for students whether they begin with us at the beginning of their education career or transfer or transition in at some point during their career we want to make sure that whenever they join us here in Fairfax County they have a strong start our progress toward this goal will be measured in a number of ways by the

[02:51:48] measurements on the screen so I won't read them to you goal to safe supported included and empowered again this is a significant goal around student health and well-being are prioritized as well as student voice measures on the screen will be those to which we will report annually to you as a board and our equity commitment remains solid and contextual for the school goal 3 academic growth and excellence this is really the core of our work in goal 3 and a goal that we're expecting every school to be responsive to depending on their grade

[02:52:28] level and again these set our core commitments for the division and again will be annually reported to you as a board goal 4 equitable access and opportunity speaks to access to high-quality academic programming and resources to support each and every student's success over time another powerful goal with an equity commitment identified and goal five leading for tomorrow's innovation and this is perhaps I think one of the most interesting goals in the prior four goals I think are foundational to this

[02:53:07] work we must have those foundational pieces in place if we're going to effectively and actively innovate this particular goal around students innovating and preparing for the future we have yet to imagine is really going to be a critical goal that I believe will increasingly set us apart from other divisions around the country our staff is ready our students are ready and our families are ready so we're really excited to launch this strategic plan I want to share the four pillars and remind our staff students and families that these pillars are the necessary conditions to support our classrooms our

[02:53:47] educators and our students the four pillars need to be conducted well for our work in the classroom to be as amazing as we expected to be here in Fairfax County we know we're a large division with over 200 sites and this will allow us these pillars done well to move forward together I want to share briefly the overall stakeholder satisfaction as a data point for the different goals you'll see the goals on the left one through five and the overall satisfaction in the review of those and this is after quite a little bit of

[02:54:25] revision review and revision if we go to the second the associated measures overall stakeholder satisfaction and the next slide the pillars we have overall stakeholder satisfaction and again the pillars are those conditions for which we have to satisfy what will happen within the strategic plan so finally we have next steps and acknowledgments the early implementation and key milestones

[02:54:59] will be benchmarking significant dates as we come up to the start of the year we started that this morning with our instructional team and our leadership team presenting our school planning template for the coming year and the process our regional assistant superintendents will engage with principals and principals with their staff on how to bring these measurements off the table we really want to narrow the focus at the school level and then make sure that the division fills in all of these gaps in terms of supporting

[02:55:33] the school level work like to acknowledge the all of those on the screen for their work and remind we can go ahead and go to the next slide and remind our community our board our staff and our students that together all things are possible I think that the strategic plan is going to require us to re-imagine some of our structures and systems and in some cases build them as

[02:56:05] we work forward to achieve our academic vision that we expect by 2030 so that is our strategic plan madam chair thank you Dr. Reed I'll start with Ms. Corbett Sanders thank you Dr. Reed I think it's important for the community to have a briefing such as this we as a board have had I believe four separate work

[02:56:35] sessions and retreats to dive into this as well as all of the various teams and going out into the community so I appreciate you pulling this all together and I just a correction or a clarification we will be voting on the strategic plan adopting it at our next board meeting June 15th June 15th next

[02:57:04] That's great. Thank you. And we've had multiple opportunities for the community to weigh in on this. And I think that's important. And I hope that community members will take a look at it. I, for one, am very excited about the school improvement planning process that will take place between now and September, where each of our schools, it's my understanding, will have one common goal that they have to include in their school improvement plan and a second one which will be unique will be pulled from the list for their initial focus is

[02:57:40] that true that's correct oh wonderful thank you now one last thing and it's just out of curiosity we have Fairfax County Public Schools changed its logo I believe seven years ago but there seems to be another logo on this strategic plan are we changing our logo not to my knowledge no ma'am we're just creating sort of little icons that will be strategic plan specific okay so I would just urge because I see the icon is of a star that's being used throughout this

[02:58:17] presentation maybe I'm not sure there's one in the yes but we don't see the Fairfax County Public Schools logo down in the corner but on every page we have that star and I just think we want to make sure people know that that is unique to the strategic plan as it almost an emoji but that we are committed to the logo that we changed a few years ago yes ma'am and it's on the front page of the

[02:58:52] strategic plan on the right I was just concerned because all the slides have a a point a new emoji so thank you thank you Dr. Anderson thank you there's been a lot said we've had lots of conversation so I'm not going to belabor the point too much I just want to do two things the slide that had all of the names can

[02:59:20] we put that back up please the acknowledgement slide yes it's slide 23 I just want to be sure that we spend some time on the slide because we do realize all of the individuals that are listed here not only spent numerous hours working on the

[02:59:56] strategic plan and all of what that entails but also while doing their other jobs as well. So I think it's really due that we give them a round of applause. So that's what I'm asking us to do at this point. So thank you all so much for all of that work. The other thing that I also wanted to highlight because I know was a point of contention for me when we get right back to the first page where it says excellence equity and opportunity we had a moment where equity did not make it on some of the documents and I'm glad that that was reimagined and returned because I certainly know

[03:00:35] without that as a North Star as you like to call it we will not be as effective in reaching all of our students because we know that our students are in a continuum. Some of them are starting at the starting line.

[03:00:52] Some of them are 15 paces behind the starting line and some are a hundred and with that really being committed to having some equitable practices allocation of resources all of the resources in which we have to offer. We will not bridge those gaps.

[03:01:08] We will just continue to move those gaps. So thank you for recommitting to that in writing. I know the intent and the spirit were always there but it's really important for what we put on paper and communicate out to our community really reflects what we talk about.

[03:01:27] So thank you looking forward to the vote in June. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Frisch. I like the star. I think it looks like a little kid giving a high five to achievement.

[03:01:43] what I'll say but I do want to point for the community and we glossed over it because it would have taken another 10 minutes to really dig into the measures because that is where the rubber hits the road and it's going to be what we use to measure the success of our goals and how we're doing as a school system both the performance of our superintendent and her team but also how this board allocates funding for priorities so dig into those measures they're exactly what you want to see the school division focused on thank you thank you thank you

[03:02:21] Ms. Toland yes thank you thank you for the presentation I just wanted to say I had that there's like a very strange echo we don't hear it Ms. Toland okay I'll just keep talking then I just wanted to say I had the opportunity of participating on the instructional team with Dr. Presidio and Megan Roman.

[03:02:53] And so in addition to the 40 some hours that we spent with the board, I had several meetings with that group, all day meetings as well. And I just wanted to, for the public, explain maybe some of the intentionality that went into this planning in that we had about 150 people participate.

[03:03:13] And when we got there, we were all broken up into small groups. And it's deemed that every small group had somebody with an instructional background in science, math, social studies, language arts. In our group, we also had CTE. There was someone with a high school background, someone with middle school, someone with elementary school, someone with special education, people from schools, and people from the central office.

[03:03:40] So the teams are put together, I guess, that are very intentional. and we had the opportunity to really work together for several days on our input to the strategic plan. One of the things that this group worked on in particular was the pillars and that kind of bolsters everything that we're trying to do in the strategic plan.

[03:04:00] And we put together what would the school-based people really need to do? What would leadership at the schools need to do? And then what would division leadership need to do? So if you dive into those pillars, you'll see some intentionality at all three of those levels.

[03:04:17] And this is really where the work happens. And the people that are really responsible to do that work are the ones that put it together. So I think it's pretty exciting, that piece of the work and that piece of the plan. And I just thought I would give you a little bit more detail.

[03:04:33] Thank you, Dr. Reed, and to everyone else that has worked so hard on this. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Amish. Yeah, thank you. A lot went into getting us here, and it's been nearly a year of work.

[03:04:51] So I just want to start off by thanking the team for everything they've done, and I know it's been back and forth with the board as well. Obviously, it took the culmination of so much input to get to the product. I'm particularly excited about the emphasis and the commitment that, you know, Dr. Reed, you, and the division are going to be taking with pre-K, an early strong start for students.

[03:05:12] I guess, you know, I just wanted to make sure that as we take a look at, you know, the product as it is now, that we not lose sight of the qualitative nature of some of these pieces, too, and keeping ourselves honest. And I'm hoping that the community keeps us on our toes as well, because it's one thing for us to look at the numbers that will eventually be the metrics that are reflected here, but certainly another to consider ourselves successful, I think, in these idealistic, you know, visionary goals that we've set out.

[03:05:43] And I hope that that will be beyond compliance, beyond meeting a number. And I know you came from a division where that was the way you set your own goals. So maybe if you want to just speak to that a little bit, right? Because I remember in particular noticing we don't just want every kid to pass, right?

[03:06:00] We want every kid to excel. We don't want to just see the graduation rate hit a certain percentage, but we want to see kids doing the things they might dream of or love or, you know, that have had experiential opportunities. So, yeah, I'll give you a moment to just say something about that.

[03:06:14] Thank you Miss Amish. I think that for our strategic plan to be truly effective in history we'll look back and judge it right. It will be a plan that enables each and every student to achieve their unique potential and it's just so critical for equity excellence and opportunity to all be framed together because we want to maintain that high level of excellence and we also know that we have high expectations we have to partner that with high support and the support is what's variable not the high expectations and as a division I think if

[03:06:50] we straight stay true to that and maintain that North Star we're gonna continue to be world-class sure no I appreciate that comment especially that you know it's all it's at the end of the day an investment that you know we can't expect to see numbers changing or results without money to mission right which is what I know you you spoke to as well I guess the last thing I'll say is I'm hopeful that I know we came into this work with this idea of a targeted universalism lens That each one of these pieces not just a little value statement. That's an equity commitment But that it's an entire lens the way that we think about the work that we put on the hat of every

[03:07:28] Possible person we can imagine in our system and all the the most vulnerable needy You know population within it and make sure it works even for that You know child right and that by doing that it ultimately works for everyone So I hope that we don't lose sight of that.

[03:07:44] I know it didn't ultimately reflect perhaps in the language explicitly. I know, bless you, sorry. I know that it was embedded in the intent. And I'm hopeful that we see how that manifests, you know, not only through the equity team, but as an expectation for all the staff that are going to be a part of implementing the whole thing.

[03:08:04] So to the public, keep us honest because this is, you know, we're still, you know, trying this out. AND IT'S THE FIRST WE'VE COME UP WITH A PLAN BUT ULTIMATELY IT'S ONLY AS GOOD AS IT'S IMPLEMENTATION SO APPRECIATE YOUR WORK AND LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING WHERE IT GOES THANK YOU THANK YOU MS KEES CAMARA YES I AM LOOKING AT YOUR FOUR PILLARS AND IN A WAY TODAY THAT I HAD NOT PREVIOUSLY AND IT'S ON PAGE 17 DIFFERENTIATED AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

[03:08:37] vibrant home school and community partnerships etc d culture of equity excellence and accountability and as I was looking at it for the first time today I've seen them before I thought I'm looking forward to incorporating these standards into how we select train and hold accountable our staff members um i know we have varying populations in all of our schools um and i know i've talked to

[03:09:12] many across the county some who feel included and some who do not and i hope and i'm believing i have hope that these pillars if we take them seriously and use them as a measure to say this is what we're looking for right and provide challenges for those who perhaps have not had SOME EXPERIENCES WE CAN MOVE THE NEEDLE SO THAT IS MY HOPE TODAY SO I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW I SAW THIS A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENTLY TODAY AND I

[03:09:47] DO REALLY HOPE THAT THIS WILL BE A MEASURE WHERE WE CAN SAY THIS THIS IS WHAT WE'RE ABOUT AND THIS IS THIS IS WHAT OUR PROFESSIONAL STAFF MUST DEMONSTRATE TO MEET THE FCPS STANDARD THANK YOU MISS KEYS I know, as Ms. Toland mentioned, it's really the operational work sits within those pillars.

[03:10:11] And we must actualize that work to achieve the outcome of the goals and measures. So they are the bedrock upon which the measures and goals will be attained.

[03:10:28] Thank you. Ms. Darnak-Koufax. Hi. Yes. I'm getting the same echo that Elaine got. But I wanted to say at this point in time, Dr. Reed, I want to thank you and your team.

[03:10:46] And there's so many. And we will go through that later as we pass this. But it has been a favor of, I think, love and devotion for you. I had the privilege of sitting on the core planning team with the chair, Ms. Seismar Heiser.

[03:11:03] And we got some extra time to, in addition to the 40 hours we used as a board as that team, I had the opportunity to sit with over 140 community members whose passion and energy and drive never ceased to amaze me.

[03:11:19] They never stopped giving for their ideas and their excitement through many, many meetings. And as we go to get to the point where we are passing this, I want you to know how much I appreciate your drive to get so much of a community-centered process.

[03:11:49] Because I think that's where we talked about it in the beginning. Is this something that we want to take the old plan and just kind of dust it off? Or is this something we want to re-engage? And we as a board together with you decided we wanted to re-engage.

[03:12:04] And I think we're at an excellent point and I can't wait to vote and talk more about it. I am, since many board members have been talking about some of their favorite portions of the plan, mine of course is goal one with a strong start and adding pre-K to our goals as something that we need to strive for a strong 3k education to help close gaps in ways we never could before thank you thank you miss janet koufax and given the late hour i'll save most of my remarks for the

[03:12:43] next meeting where we are working on passing thus i just want to thank you for your vision and your team for the implementation and i really look forward to the result of many many hours of hard work by hundreds of people coming to fruition so thank you dr reed thank you agenda item 4.01 confirmation of action in closed meeting the board will return to closed session after the regular meeting and will vote to confirm action taken at that time so we'll go on to agenda item 4.02 fiscal

[03:13:13] year 2024 budget i call on miss tolan for the motion i move that the school board adopt the fy 2024 approved budget as detailed in the fy 2024 advertised budget modified by the adjustments included in the agenda item. Is there a second? Ms. Pakarski, Ms. Tolan, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, please. I'm happy to be here tonight to vote on our FY24 budget. We have been

[03:13:51] through a full budget process, and I thank our budget staff, Lee Burden, Alice Wiginton, and Matthew Norton for the constant assistance at all times of the day. A huge thank you, too, to the Budget Committee's Vice Chair, Stella Pakarski, and to Dr. Reed. It has been a pleasure to work together over the past few months. In October, the Budget Committee conducted a work session to determine school board priorities for the FY24 budget. This was a challenging year to determine budget priorities given that we were developing a new strategic plan at the same time we went

[03:14:26] through our budget process. Of course, one obvious priority is the hiring and retention of our workforce. Post-COVID realities around workforce are a particular challenge for the forward-facing education industry. This budget affirms the value we place on FCPS employees by providing a three percent MSA plus step increases averaging 2.22 percent as well as other initiatives that will provide needed support to FCPS students and FCPS staff. We are still hopeful we can work with the state to advocate for an additional bonus for our staff and intend to send a letter to our Fairfax

[03:15:05] delegation regarding this and other budget priorities as early as tomorrow. There were a few adjustments we had to make from the advertised budget. Early May, the Board of Supervisors approved the county's FY24 budget, and in that proposal, the school board advertised budget is fully funded in the sense that all recurring costs as identified in the FY24 school board advertised budget were included. Since then, the retention bonus, which is non-recurring and was included in the governor's introduced budget, but was not included in the General

[03:15:40] Assembly substitute skinny budget, making it so the local revenue and the state revenue associated with the bonus have been eliminated in the FY24 school board approved budget. Additionally, the state's current budget does not provide additional funds to address the deficit due to the VDOE calculation error. Thus, the state revenue loss of $12.7 million is one of our recommended revenue adjustments. Again, state revenue to support the retention bonus has also been eliminated.

[03:16:11] Expenditure adjustments include deferral of the achievement gap strategies of $6 million and the Special Education Compensatory Services Fund of $2 million to be funded with FY23 year-end funds. Expenditures associated with the retention bonus of $19.9 million have also been eliminated.

[03:16:30] State revenue will likely be adjusted this summer. As always, any upcoming increases in state revenue will be included in the FY23 final budget review as an addition to the FY24 approved budget. Any new General Assembly initiatives or fallout from the federal debt ceiling issues will be considered at your end.

[03:16:52] Again, thank you to all of you for your part in making the FY24 budget process a success. Thank you to our members of the public that provided input, and I hope that we will be successful in passing this budget this evening. Thank you, Ms. Tolan. Thank you for your hard work as well as our budget chair.

[03:17:11] Ms. Pekarski, would I just speak to your second? Thank you. of course one of the most important things the school board does is the development of this 3.5 billion dollar budget this budget's focused and addresses a specific needs of our students staff and families to fulfill our local statutory requirement as a school division we are forced this year to finalize our budget based on the only current concrete actions of the General Assembly specifically the adoption of their skinny budget we must pass our budget and plan for the next school year now, which means that we have been forced to make

[03:17:49] cuts to our planned expenditures or otherwise defer these important initiatives due to the uncertainty of the state budget. We understand that there may be larger national economic issues at play, but we are keenly aware of potential impacts on both state and local education funding.

[03:18:13] However, our children and their education cannot wait. We still have to fund our budget, we have to pay our teachers, and we have to ensure that our classrooms are staffed on time. We urge our leaders to finalize their work on the biennial budget with any amendments as soon as possible to provide school divisions with a degree of budget certainty and time to adjust to any of these changes that might be made this summer prior to the opening of the 23-24 school year and this board has sent a letter stating the critical

[03:18:51] need for a budget to be settled as soon as possible to our elected delegation there are no amendments that have been proposed but there are several follow-on motions and assuming consensus the follow-ons have been bundled into one motion for efficiency and omnibus these follow-ons are a result of many many conversations with the budget team and board members about our priorities and the best ways to meet them and in conjunction with listening to our constituents about the needs that they also see new unanticipated priorities

[03:19:31] such as our fine art stipends athletic trainers etc will be funded at year-end as well. We are confident that we have the operational mechanisms to ensure that these are handled in a timely manner so that any hiring decisions that need to occur are not impacted.

[03:19:51] These new priorities are recurring but will be funded with non-recurring year-end funds in fiscal year 24 with plans to build into the fiscal year 25 base budget. I'd like to extend my sincere appreciation to budget chair Elaine Toland who is extremely hard working extremely thorough and of course our wonderful team Dr. Reed Miss Burden Miss Wigington and the entire FCPS budget team for their incredible work and

[03:20:28] I hope my colleagues will support this tonight thank you thank you very much Ms. McLaughlin. Great. I know it's an extremely late hour, so I just want to cover some highlights. First of all, Dr. Reed, I want to thank our CFO, Lee Burden, who earlier today I had written and asked some questions to just better understand what we heard earlier tonight about ERFC, which is one of our defined benefits that we give to employees.

[03:21:00] It is something above and beyond salary, but we do take about 6% of the salary value and contribute that to this defined benefit. And then we do require from the employee to contribute almost 3.5% out of their paychecks.

[03:21:21] So that is about a 9.5% amount of funds that the question became might employees want to see that in their paycheck going forward for future employees for consideration. It was simply board members asking questions, thinking about future employees and retention, but it's really important that we make sure our employees understand that this is a school division for 50 years that has been committed to ERFC.

[03:21:50] I know this board would never want to take any decisions without our thorough engagement with our employees, but given that Arlington, Prince William, and Loudoun, just to name a few who compete to take employees from teachers to principals and others, and when people have capped out at ERFC after 25 years, but VRS is now at the 90 rule, we have a real big gap where we're losing some of our most senior and veteran and highly trained employees.

[03:22:24] So I just want to say again to our audience and particularly those who represent our employees and reached out, please do know that the only thing we are most concerned about is how we make sure our employees have the most amount of money in their paychecks because we know it is extremely hard to live and work here in Fairfax County.

[03:22:48] I also want to say, Dr. Reed, that you know what's very important to me is that we continue to help educate our employees about why our pay scales look like they do, how we can continue to be the most competitive in our pay.

[03:23:05] And so I look forward to our future budget preparations going forward. But the thing to celebrate this evening is that for all of our employees, we are bringing as much of a pay raise as we possibly can based on our dependency on the Board of Supervisors and the tax revenue that they bring in.

[03:23:24] So I do want to continue to really honor and encourage our employees to understand we remain competitive in the region, and that is by virtue of a school division and a school board who values their employees.

[03:23:40] So thank you, and I look forward to supporting the budget tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Amesh? Yeah, thank you. Thank you to staff and Ms. Tolan and Ms. Pekarski for your work in getting us to this point.

[03:23:55] I guess in building on kind of a future-looking thought, I did want to just mention, I know in lieu of a follow-on, today I will be working with Ms. Tolan on some slight changes.

[03:24:11] As you all know, colleagues, every year we have advisory committees that come back and report to us the amazing findings that they have, the recommendations they have to improve on our work in a variety of areas. And it's sometimes difficult for us to assess what is the budget cost of these recommendations and it comes at timing that might not be easy to inform than our budget process.

[03:24:34] And so hopefully we're going to try it for this year but see how it manifests and then potentially bring it as an ongoing step. But for all of us who are liaisons to the various committees to submit budget questions related to those recommendations in advance of their presentations so that we then have those numbers available when the advisory committees present for our consideration and conversation as we think about how to prioritize what's next in the years ahead.

[03:25:04] So I know Ms. Toland will be working with the budget team and I to try to bring those numbers for the coming ones, though some of them are pretty soon. So we'll see what we can do. And obviously that came out of the conversation with the pre-K policy team and just thinking about pre-k transportation wanting to remove that as an access barrier but not really having the numbers right to see if that's even feasible so hopefully that will be a constructive step moving forward but overall looking forward to seeing you know what the updates are from the state to see if we can try to restore the bonus for our staff and certainly if we can move up the

[03:25:41] achievement gap strategies and the special ed compensatory services to be spent with with our current funds if we're going to get them. And finally, Dr. Reed, this will be my last budget with this team, but, you know, I've been harping since I got here on the importance of a needs assessment process in advance of our budget process. We don't have a systematic way of prioritizing. The strategic plan will give us guidelines, but it's still different than really doing a thorough look every year, up and down, you know, left and right of our department, of our schools, where is there the most pressing need so that we can equitably decide how to allocate those funds and not just kind of who we've heard from and which

[03:26:19] divisions have been the loudest or which community members have come and spoken, right? So I'm hopeful that we can be thoughtful about how to construct something like that. And I imagine that's a, you know, a process between you and governance, it's probably more than just your shop, but I hope that you can be someone who stewards that in the years ahead.

[03:26:38] But again, appreciate staff and colleagues for what got us here and look forward to updates from the state. Thank you. Thank you. Very excited that we have arrived to this point, and honestly, there are a couple of things that I think everybody is excited about because I've heard quite a bit. You would think middle school athletics is the only thing in this budget, so our communities are very excited about that, as well as the additional focus on family liaisons and the full-time status for at least five more in our highest-need schools.

[03:27:16] There have been some bumps in the road, obviously, from the unfinished state budget and the reduction in the ask to the Board of Supervisors. But I think you have devised a plan for us to deal with that, as we must, because we know that resources are limited.

[03:27:35] Moving forward, kind of some of the questions that I continue to have, just honestly, and I want us to be thinking about moving forward, and I will be supporting this budget tonight. Let me just also say that. But one of the things I'd like for some additional thoughts around continues to be the five positions at the elementary schools for safety and security.

[03:27:56] Not because I don't think we don't need them, only because I know we have, what, 142 elementary schools, something like that. And it's hard for me to see the effectiveness of just five individuals. If I just did some back of the envelope math, Even if they were to make rounds to all of these schools they would be seen once every two weeks.

[03:28:20] So it does really make me wonder if those five individuals those five personnel can be more impactful at our middle and high schools that are experiencing continued issues when it comes to safety and security.

[03:28:36] The other thing that I want to bring up is advanced academics. We are in the year three that is in this budget, and I think that is great because those are in alignment with some of the recommendations from the study from a couple of years ago.

[03:28:55] But I will look forward to some tightly coupled monitoring processes and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness. Just kind of the long lens, something that I've said at the beginning of this year, beginning of last year, is what is the return on investment.

[03:29:10] I think we need to be a lot more intentional about that and a lot more transparent to our community because we do have some in our community that don't see necessarily those efforts. So making sure that we are clear in terms of how are we evaluating what we have.

[03:29:25] It's not just adding on every year. There was one piece where I think this year you really touched upon that at the beginning where you talked about while we didn't have the enrollment growth to align with our ask, but it's the needs of the students that we have that made sense for us to continue to need more funding. We need kind of more of the same with all of the other things that we do.

[03:29:49] And I think our community is really wanting to hear that as I am. And that looks like that's my clock and I do want to say thank you to everyone who's worked on this. Thank you Mr. Frisch. Thank you. Tonight's budget clearly identifies our schools our school divisions priorities investing in student achievement and better pay for our world-class educators and staff this is the third year in a row that we have raised pay for all of our employees I think their tireless dedication to our students

[03:30:27] deserves even more but this is definitely a step in the right direction in addition we are investing in student success and achievement as some colleagues have already mentioned whether it's increased access to advanced academics or broadening the reach of our research-based literacy instruction, early childhood education, middle school athletics, the list goes on and on.

[03:30:51] That's what this budget is paying for. And here we are doing our job. And so we wait patiently for our friends in Richmond to finish their job and get the budget done for us so that we can have some of this uncertainty settled.

[03:31:09] We hope that the governor will work with our legislature to fix his math error and make sure that we have the resources we need to meet the needs of our students. And I appreciate Ms. Omash's comments about our advisory committees. Yes, 100%.

[03:31:24] And at some point in the future, we're going to have a work session about the structure, shape, how we onboard people, what the exact process is, not only for chairs of the committee but also for from conception of the charges of the committees through the staff's annual reporting back and updating committees on how things are going. And I think that fits perfectly into that discussion.

[03:31:47] So hopefully we'll get we have a lot on our plate. So I know we'll get to that eventually. And I hope that's part of the conversation for sure. Thank you. Miss Corbett Sanders. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I am pleased to follow my colleagues on this first by thanking the staff and our chair and vice chair of budget for all of their hard work.

[03:32:13] But I wanted to tie what we're doing here with the earlier presentation on the strategic plan because Dr. Reed you indicated when you introduce the strategic plan that there is likely to be some structures and approaches that need to be changed as a result of the adoption of the strategic plan, but I think the most important aspect of structures changing is how we align the strategic plan with the

[03:32:48] budget because the budget is our mechanism for realizing that strategic plan. So I would hope that starting next week people are beginning to go through the strategic plan and align it with each of the areas of the budget and identify where we may need to move money around next year to ensure that we are able to accomplish that plan.

[03:33:23] And so it's something that my first term on the board, I got the support of my colleagues to require the mapping of the budget to the strategic plan.

[03:33:40] And I look forward to seeing that happen again with the next budget. So thank you. Thank you. Ms. Cohen. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. coming in sort of when the cycle was just about to start and you had had like a whopping I don't know what two months to figure out how to solve all the you know world problems and the FCPS and to do it with a limited budget anyway I I know that this is a little bit I think we feel some of us like a little bit of

[03:34:18] a placeholder budget as we really did in-depth work with the strategic plan and we're excited about it just a couple of things in particular that I wanted to highlight um of course as a former preschool teacher I cannot say enough times how excited I am about the opportunity to not only expand it um but to have maybe some creative thinking about placement and I know that the whole team is working on figuring out how do we make sure that all the kids who are eligible get to come and hopefully um we also do that in a very inclusive

[03:34:53] way I know that our inclusive preschool moms were did a beautiful job last meeting of expressing it so I just want to put that plug in again and I would be remiss if I didn't say that so many of us have continued to get emails about elementary school planning time I recognize that that is not addressed directly in this budget but that is a promise that you have made that we are GOING TO COME UP WITH SOME INVENTIVE HOPEFULLY SOLUTIONS ON HOW TO HELP ADDRESS THAT AND JUST THANKS TO COLLEAGUES I KNOW IT WAS A LOT OF WORK TO PULL ALL THIS TOGETHER AND ESPECIALLY THE

[03:35:33] OMNIBUS TO COME AND I APPRECIATE THE WORK THANK YOU MS COHEN MS KEYES CAMARA YES I DO APPRECIATE ALL THE WORK THAT HAS HAPPENED AND I DO I JUST WANTED TO COMMENT ON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING MOTIONS I THINK WE'LL BECAUSE I KNOW AS A BOARD WE HAVE EXPRESSED AND I HOPE I DIDN'T miss a comment on this but it is a priority for us to address compensation and so I am grateful that we were able to come together on some language and I

[03:36:08] just wanted to make sure that our community and particularly our staff realize that we are making that commitment to take the appropriate steps to try to figure out how to get that done so I appreciate everybody's support thank you thank you mr kofax yes uh thank you i i too i want to thank uh miss burden and miss wiggington and their team as well as our budget chairs um miss tollen and miss mccarski to get us

[03:36:42] to this finish line today this is my 12th budget as a board member and i have had unfortunately some budgets along with miss mclaughlin that have not been as positive as this one i mean it has always been my goal as a board member, and I'm sure all of you, to ensure that we compensate our world-class employees in a manner that we need to. And while this is a pretty good place to be this year, and we have done well over the past three years, there have been many years where

[03:37:21] we're still playing catch up from so I want to say I am grateful for where we landed today I also several my colleagues have commented on I think the recommendations that we are finally filling by getting advanced academic teachers and out all of our elementary schools when I sat there when my daughter was in elementary school when I sat on the advanced academic advisory committee these were when some of the recommendations came out so it took us a long time to get there but we are there today there are many things in our budget some move fast some some not quite as

[03:38:00] fast I still think there will be some positive things come here and and I want um you know as as I leave this board I want our employees to know particularly our teachers that this we've always worked very, very hard because we realized we could not be who we are. You are the heart and you're the soul and you're the core of our system. And we want to work to ensure to retain you, to keep you. And we are doing our best at working with our funding partners to ensure that this happens. And I look forward to having more good news, I hope, as the year end moves forward.

[03:38:39] Again, thank you to the whole team who has been here and allowed us to get to this point. And Dr. Reed, I forgot to mention you by name, but thank you for you, as colleagues have shared, coming in at the point in time where you did and then taking on this whole new budget during your first year.

[03:38:58] So thank you all. Thank you very much, Ms. Darnett-Koufax. And again, for the essence of time, I will not take much of my time other than just really to thank Ms. Byrd and Ms. Whittington to thank you, Ms. Tolan and Ms. Bukarski, our budget chair and vice chair.

[03:39:14] And I'd like to thank Dr. Reed for your first year here to have to do a budget with some of these challenges especially with the uncertainty from the state so I just want to thank you all for your hard work I think we have a good budget here and I look forward to the alignment and I actually really appreciate the advisory committee comments as well that's something that we worked on I think two years ago in Peck on the advisory committee handbook that I think started on when I was chair of Peck and finished under mr. Frisch and looking forward to really using that as well so thank you lifting up that idea so with that I will call for the vote the motion before us is on the screen

[03:39:49] all those in favor please raise your hand that is Ms. Bukarski Ms. Cohen Mr. Frisch Dr. Anderson Ms. McLaughlin Ms. Daronak Koufax Ms. Tolan Ms. Corbett Sanders Ms. Lamesh Ms. Marin Ms. Keith Gamara and myself that budget passes unanimously yay well done that's not bad yeah we did it today not tomorrow. That's a good thing. So with that, I will call on Ms. Tolan for an omnibus follow-on

[03:40:27] motion. I move to approve the following follow-on motion. To direct the superintendent to develop a program for board consideration within the Department of Human Resources that aligns with the school division's forthcoming strategic plan and affirmatively assist qualified employees with registering for and maintaining annual eligibility in the U.S. Department of Education's

[03:41:02] Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. The effort should target focused outreach on like Ms. Tolan, you're muted. Sorry. Unlikely eligible employees such as new hires and those who have recently graduated from college, previously applied for tuition reimbursement, moved over a column by completing an advanced degree are previously sought assistance with verification for a qualifying federal student loan repayment program or the public service loan forgiveness program.

[03:41:39] I direct the superintendent to evaluate the safety and security staffing across the division to develop a formula to include, but not limited to the following metrics, student enrollment, school needs, student behavior, specific school level, elementary, K-5 and K-6, middle, 6-8 and 7-8, high schools and secondary schools, reporting structure, crisis management training, and other findings to be identified in the forthcoming safety and security review.

[03:42:19] To direct the superintendent to develop a proposal for school board consideration to re-establish a sick leave donation plan or a sick leave bank plan for all employee groups.

[03:42:36] To direct the superintendent to explore and report back to the board in alignment with the school division's forthcoming strategic plan, the possibility of offering all middle school students the same mental health teletherapy services currently provided to high school students with parent guardian approval through Hazel Health. And finally, that the school board directs the superintendent to initiate a full review of salaries deferred benefits and stipends offered employees to determine the competitiveness of fcps salary structure and to provide input to

[03:43:16] the fy25 and or the fy26 budget cycle um just as a technical i think it's defined not deferred benefits oh I'm sorry that is correct we meet without objection can we if Lee miss burden can you confirm this defined benefits not deferred benefits in this motion I'm assuming it is but I just want to confirm with you miss burden I yeah it shouldn't be deferred but I'm not sure it should be defined either

[03:43:56] because that speaks specifically to pensions it's probably should say employee benefits I would imagine so without objection may we just change out employee benefits before taking that objection from the board all right we'll change that to employee benefits thank you you may continue ms tolan okay i think that's it all right is there a second i'll second ms tolan would you have to speak to your motion please um the preparation for this island of us motion motion has involved listening to our constituents on needs that they see many heartfelt conversations with board members about priorities and best ways to meet

[03:44:36] them i appreciate all the efforts of my colleagues as we work together on this i look forward to our continued conversation on items that are not being voted on tonight such as working with the budgeting needs of our advisory committee recommendations or making sure end of year items are taken care of in a timely manner such as hiring our new athletic trainers i am happy to support this set of following motions since many are budget neutral ways to improve our operations or enhance the experience of our employees i am happy to support the look at how we deploy our our security staff since I've repeatedly asked that the ongoing security review include a look

[03:45:14] at how staff are utilized in our school buildings and what the reporting structure is for those employees. As someone that left hours and hours of sick leave on the table when I left my employment with FCPS, I am happy for us to take a look at this set of procedures to further benefit our employees. Of course, my elementary school principals are already asking for their students to have access to the tele-mental health resources our high schoolers now have, so looking to expand to middle school, depending upon how this resource is working for our high school students, makes sense to me. With my work across the county, I'm acutely aware of the lack of supports for

[03:45:51] adolescents and children needing mental health services. I'm very excited about the overall salary and stipend review requested. Ms. Karski and I were discussing that with Dr. Reed and others when Ms. Keyes-Gumara also came forward with this idea. Although in the FY24 budget, we have done a few small things to enhance retaining experienced staff such as adding a step to our teacher scale we need to take a full look at how we approach this to assure we are the most efficient and being the most competitive in a tough employment market. Again thank you to my colleagues for their

[03:46:26] thoughtful work. I hope we can expeditiously vote on this motion. Thank you. Ms. Bikarski would I speak to your second? I'll just briefly say that I support all of these. I think they're pretty self-explanatory for me I'll say some of them like the the sick leave donation and and Bank dr. Reed has already initiated on her own and is doing but I think it's it's a good idea to have it here so that you know it is a board directive and that doesn't change because for some of us who have talked

[03:47:05] to prior superintendents about this let's just say I'm very happy to have it codified there but I will also say we've had some feedback when it comes to the extra steps on our scale so I do hope that when this review is undertaken that that will be taken into consideration because there are some real long-term impacts on that that I think we we need to look at and think through holistically I hope my colleagues can support this thank you Mr. Frisch thank you when we

[03:47:43] first started providing teletherapy services to high school students the first thing I started hearing was from families with middle schoolers asking when they were going to get theirs so I want to thank Miss Omeish for leading the charge to get us this far and this being one of her big passion projects on the board because it's already having an impact on students I have talked to students who thank us for the change this has made in their life and we owe it to middle school students to do the same thing for them I've done some

[03:48:17] investigating on a platform called Google and Hazel Health the service we offer our high schoolers is already being used in the entire state of Hawaii to provide benefits to all of their students and it's also being used in other school divisions to provide it for younger students as well. So I look forward to hearing back from the superintendent on that front. And then finally, my passion project, public service loan forgiveness. For people that don't know, this is a program from the U.S. Department of Education that allows people in public service, including educators and school staff, to have their federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of service. The problem is many people don't know

[03:48:56] about it. It's complicated. It's hard to get your applications in and maintain your eligibility. And consequentially, in 2021, thousands of educators were rejected from the program, even though they were qualified. And so after many conversations with the superintendent and Dr. Wilson about how this might work, I decided to bring this forward with Dr. Anderson so that we would build in a system within human resources that actively looks for people who are qualified for this and assist them with getting enrolled and recertified every year.

[03:49:31] I was speaking to a friend at the Department of Education last week and I was telling them about what we were doing here and they told me they weren't sure of another school division in the country that is taking this step and how exciting it is. So if we want to talk about other ways we can get creative about putting more money in our educators pockets this is one of those ways.

[03:49:52] We connect them with these federal resources to forgive their loans after 10 years of service in Fairfax County Public Schools. I can't think of a better way of helping them with that burden because as many of us know the burden of student debt can be suffocating so the more we can do to help alleviate alleviate that early the better and I support the other motions as well and I'll let the others speak to those.

[03:50:20] Thank you Dr. Anderson. Yes I do want to start by saying I will be supporting all of these that are listed especially since my name is attached to three of them so that would be a good idea and I do also want to thank miss omesh because I know she has been a strong advocate for that I remember when she first mentioned it it was probably our first couple of months on the board so it's nice to see things come to fruition to fruition a couple of things that I also want to highlight particularly mr. fresh already covered number one very well I wanted to speak about number two a

[03:50:59] little bit which is a safety and security staffing it's come to my attention that the staffing for safety and security at our middle and high schools has not changed since the early 2000s so it's been about 20 years in which our middle schools are allotted an assistant and our high schools are allotted a specialist and three assistants with three schools that are allotted for assistance Woodson Chantilly and West Potomac and the rationale behind there is unclear because it's been so many years since it's been evaluated clearly the landscape

[03:51:37] has changed and in addition to the fact that this is an outdated formula it also does not account for size because the middle school formula is only for grades seven and eight and we have three schools that have grades six seven and eight so there's no accounting for size there's no accounting for enrollment There's no accounting for the size of the facility itself.

[03:51:58] So this is way overdue. And I'm excited to let Dr. Reid embark on that work. Similarly to what Miss Pekarski shared, I'm glad to hear that the sick leave bank, as we were talking about it during the work session, this has been something that Dr.

[03:52:19] Reid has also been having discussion. This codifies it so that we know for sure it is going to happen. because I was surprised that we did not have this here in Fairfax County and I'm glad to hear that we will be able to provide that support for our employees. Because personally speaking, I've been a contributor to such banks and it has made the difference for many of our employees when they are facing difficult times.

[03:52:46] What I do want to kind of put into the ether for conversation, particularly as we talk about the athletic trainers, the stipends for band, et cetera, I want us to be thinking more robustly and more comprehensively when it comes to all of this work, which many of these follow-on motions speak to.

[03:53:11] But I'd like to see us get into a regular routine of evaluating those stipends so that it doesn't have to be because people are before us. So we should have some sort of cadence where every three years we're looking at some group so that we don't fall behind on our benchmarking because then we end up being kind of caught unawares and not as prepared for it as we should be.

[03:53:34] Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Ms. McLaughlin? Great. Dr. Reed, one of the things I wanted to add on the sick leave is that in previous years I've had conversation with county government employees who told me that they do have a sick leave bank. So I do want to just emphasize that one of the things we, many of us, have spoken to is that whether you work for the county government or you work for Fairfax County Public Schools, it's all taxpayer revenue, and we want to make sure that all employees, regardless of which side of the aisle you work for, that there is that sort of parity of benefit.

[03:54:10] So I hope you'll work with the county executive in looking at the program and what they do. And then I also would recommend when we're looking at employee benefits that we not only just look at the surrounding school divisions, but again, we also look at the county government to see because they have their pension system since they don't necessarily, they don't have the VRS like we do.

[03:54:39] So I think that there will need to be some of looking at how those two compare. And then, you know, I think it will be important as we help our employees understand for hiring and retaining and keeping them that we, the board, that you and the division understand just looking at ERFC alone, yes, if we did not have that secondary pension system, there would be 6.5% more money going into employee paychecks

[03:55:16] coming from the employer, there would be 3% of their existing paycheck that would stay in their paycheck and not go toward the system. So essentially a 9.5% differential annually when it's a system that you have to be vested for five years or otherwise it's not portable.

[03:55:35] You only get your contribution back, but people leave behind 6.5% for the years up to five that they're not vested in. And just for my colleagues to understand, we have about 23,000 employees that currently are members of ERFC. Of those, 2,700 are in the legacy plan. Those are the employees that we've heard that if they work past 25 years, then they start to lose the benefits from it. I say that because we do need to think about our legacy employees, but understand for the vast

[03:56:13] majority of people who work for us and are getting ERFC this isn't the issue anymore but the VRS went from the rule of 80 to the rule of 90 and once we did that then ERFC became out of step in that people can't retire and walk away from the VRS so they leave us because they cap out at 25 years and then they go to lend the surrounding jurisdictions so that's why I think that this it deserves a holistic conversation with our employees and thank

[03:56:48] you thank you miss McLaughlin I will just say very briefly I wanted just to thank this mesh bringing the telemental health it's really gonna be I think a legacy of yours on this board so thank you for for that and like mr. first said I've heard many many students talk about how life-changing it's been for them so I just wanted to thank you bring that idea to the board into the system and dr. Reed I want to thank you for your work on this but I want to really talk about some of these things what I'm really really impressed is when we many of us have lifted up the sick leave issue for you as well and I appreciate dr. Anderson codifying it because it's been brought up before you were here as

[03:57:24] well but you know what I really appreciate is when we brought it to you you already put in motion the steps to address it because it is a huge issue and I think it's it's very beneficial for retention for our staff and just for the morale of our staff so I I really appreciate you already working on it and And as for number two, I do support all of these.

[03:57:43] But for number two, I think this is perhaps a good hand-in-hand with the safety and security audit that we're getting the results in July because I don't know how much the audit is going to talk about staffing per se. I don't remember. But if it doesn't, this is a nice hand-in-hand with that. If the audit does talk about staffing, it can help inform number two.

[03:58:01] So I think that's important as well. So I appreciate my colleagues thinking thoughtfully about a lot of these issues and bringing them forward. And with that, I would like to call for the vote. The motion before us is on the screen. All those in favor please raise your hands.

[03:58:17] Ms. Keith Kamara, Ms. Marin, Ms. Amesh, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Tolan. It's changed, it's just crossed out. Ms. Tolan, Ms. McLaughlin, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Bukarski, and Ms. Darenak Koufax.

[03:58:34] That passes unanimously. Congratulations everybody on the hard work to get that in the omnibus. I will call on Ms. Tolan now for a housekeeping motion. I move that the division superintendent be authorized to take whatever actions are necessary to implement the decisions made by the school board relative to its FY 2024 approved budgets and that all policies and regulations inconsistent with the budgetary motions passed tonight are hereby modified and amended accordingly.

[03:59:06] And the division superintendent is to be granted authority to make all necessary minor changes and technical modifications to the budget and to salary scales to comply with the intent of the school board with regard to its budget actions. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Tolan, would you just speak to your motion? Just very quickly, this motion is simply what the title suggests and directs the superintendent to be sure the policies recognized in this budget are actually taken care of and implemented in an efficient manner. The wording for this motion

[03:59:46] is directly from our governance manual unless there are specific questions about this from my colleagues to how we can vote on this in the affirmative thank you miss pokarski do you want to speak to your second no thank you all right miss mclaughlin did you wish to speak thank you seeing other hands that are up i will call for the vote the motion before us is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands that's miss tolan mr nat koufax miss pokarski Ms. Cohen, Mr. Frisch, Dr. Anderson, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Maren, Ms. Keith-Gumar, and myself.

[04:00:25] That motion passes unanimously. Congratulations. We have a budget. Congratulations, everybody. Agenda item 5, consent agenda. Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure, Robert's rules, provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion.

[04:00:44] Many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the 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 agenda item six new business the following are new business agenda 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 agenda item seven board committee reports I call on Ms. Corbett Sanders for a Governance Committee update, Ms. McLaughlin for a Public

[04:01:23] Engagement Committee report, and Ms. Keith Gamara for a Comprehensive Planning and Development Committee report. Ms. Corbett Sanders. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I will be brief. I know the hour is late. The Governance Committee met and we had a very robust discussion about the importance of policy governance where we actually whiteboarded an approach that clearly defines roles and responsibilities for the superintendent and her staff and how they will utilize existing

[04:01:58] databases of policies as well as legal review and departmental review. And once there is a consensus amongst the superintendent staff, they will send that to the superintendent for approval, which will then have the individual policies working through our clerk's office be referred to governance, which will then review and bring back to the whole board either

[04:02:35] in a work session or for adoption at the board table. And we are hoping to have a robust discussion about policy governance on the 20th of June. And that will be the location where we will show you the whiteboard content which will soon be put in PowerPoint.

[04:03:01] Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin. The Public Engagement Committee continues to discuss how we're going to refine and improve some of our public meetings related to public comment and we also have been looking at how we wrap up our community engagement in general we do a lot of surveys and other ways of engaging the public and we want to set

[04:03:37] up the future board with how how best to set some of those expectations and UNDERSTANDING SO WE JUST REMAIN BUSY THANK YOU MS KEYS CAMARA YES CPDC HAD A MEETING ON MAY 17 2023 IN GENERAL FOR THE PAST YEAR WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON REALLY TRYING TO TIE WHAT THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS LOOKS LIKE TO THE NEED FOR APPROPRIATE COMMUNICATION FOR THE COMMUNITY AND WE TOOK SOME MAJOR STEPS IN THIS LAST MEETING.

[04:04:14] I THINK WHEN STAFF FROM MS NIX -- AM I SAYING IT? NOT NIXA. OUR COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR WAS THERE, AND WE WANTED TO MAKE SURE WE HAD TIMES AND DATES IN THERE FOR SPECIFIC COMMUNICATION, SO THAT WHEN WE BEGIN A PROCESS, PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY UNDERSTAND WHAT TO EXPECT.

[04:04:37] SO WE TALKED ALSO A LITTLE BIT about how CPDC can be helpful in the development process. Dr. Riccardi Anderson brought concerns to us regarding Glasgow Middle School, and we discussed that with Chuck Fanshawe.

[04:04:55] The recommendation was to prepare, submit a follow-on motion, which I previously have discussed with Dr. Reed, to examine the structural problems that are caused by the size that school and also having um all the grades in that particular school um and then i already talked about the engagement process there is one other issue but i will uh defer that till later because we're waiting to hear a report from mr fanshaw overall i did want to mention to um this

[04:05:32] board that the conversations uh which have been quite substantive substantive in cpdc we hope will help to make the facilities process easier for all board members because you would have access not only to fpac and staff but also fellow board members that can help to try to work out a process by which we can address some of the concerns that can arise so that is my report for today thank you thank you very much and because of the late hour and the

[04:06:06] need to go back into closed without objection we are going to skip forward matters and with that this meeting is adjourned well recess we're going to go in back into closed thank you

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