Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, October 26, 2023

Date: Thursday, October 26, 2023
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 3h 54m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1W-h6v_CWw
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 2026-11-02. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:04] This October 26, 2023 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the National Anthem by the South Lakes High School Treble Ensemble under the direction of Jessica Irish.

[00:02:28] Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:02:31] In order to comply with Section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia,

[00:04:51] It is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on October 6, 2023, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements, and only such business matters were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting.

[00:05:17] Do I have a motion? Ms. Cora Sanders, is there a second? Ms. Omeish? All those in favor. We have Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Omeish, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch, myself, Ms. Darenette Koufax, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Kerrick-Komber Sanders.

[00:05:39] Is there anyone that does not agree? Okay, that motion passes. Thank you. Okay, then we have agenda item 2.03, confirmation of action taken and closed.

[00:05:56] I call on Mr. Frisch for a motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the school board approve and award a contract for labor relations administrator services, according to the terms and conditions discussed in closed session and authorized the division superintendent or the director of the Office of Procurement Services to execute, deliver, and administer the contract on behalf of the school board.

[00:06:20] - Is there a second? Ms. Marin, thank you. All those in favor, Ms. Colbert Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Theronette Koufax, Ms. Tolan, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. O'Meish, Laura Jane Cowan, and Roger Seiser-Hyser.

[00:06:40] Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes.

[00:06:53] Ms. Bukarski and Ms. Keys-Gamara have submitted a written request to virtually attend this evening's meeting due to a medical conflict and a personal conflict, respectively. All those in favor of approving Ms. Bukarski's request. Thank you, that is all members at the table.

[00:07:14] All those in favor of approving Ms. Keys-Gamara's request. Okay, that is all members at the table. I would like to call on our student rep, Ms. Karim, for an announcement.

[00:07:35] The board would like to recognize Troops 695 and the audience from Chantilly, Virginia, from schools Poplar Elementary, Rocky Run Middle School, and Chantilly High School here to receive their Merit Citizen Badge. Please stand to be recognized.

[00:07:51] Ms. Karim, I believe they're representing a number of elementary and middle schools, as well as the grades 6th through 10th, is that correct?

[00:08:14] Yes. And there are 17 of them. Yes. That's amazing. Congratulations. Thank you for your showing of citizenship. If you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight, that information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website at fcps.edu/schoolboard/boarddocs.

[00:08:43] Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu/tv/channel99. As a reminder to all board members, in accordance with our vote on September 28th, all sponsors of proclamations will have two minutes to provide comments, while other board members will each have one minute.

[00:09:07] We will employ this practice tonight and moving forward. After reading tonight's proclamations, the board will invite those in support of the proclamation to join us for a photo agenda item 2.05 west springfield high school maintenance building naming proclamation i call on miss cohen for this proclamation thank you whereas mr bob little has served as an assistant softball coach volunteer and facilities maintenance employee at west springfield high school since 1988 helping with practices and

[00:09:44] facility grounds and equipment maintenance whereas he has instructed and mentored many athletes and coaches and continues to do so serving them generously dutifully and faithfully whereas without seeking recognition mr little works tirelessly and joyfully to ensure west springfield facilities are safe clean and beautiful for all who attend school events creating and fostering an environment where athletes and students enjoy competing and taking part in many extracurricular contests whereas he serves as a role model in his worth work ethic and professionalism working

[00:10:18] upwards of 40 to 50 hours a week managing projects repairing irrigation maintaining mowers and lawn equipment and taking the initiative to make things right before an issue occurs and whereas mr little is a proud supporter of the spartan community the school's number one supporter spending countless hours attending athletic events and supporting students now therefore be it resolved that the maintenance building at west springfield high school be named the bob little maintenance facility

[00:10:47] in honor of this exemplary coach leader volunteer colleague friend mentor and citizen do i have a second second miss cohen would you like to speak to your motion i would i will tell you the two minutes would not even get through the first letter that was sent about mr little um i'll just take a few clips though from some of them that really stood out west springfield high school could not function over the past few years without the daily efforts of mr little said one of the people who

[00:11:24] sent a letter about him. Another person said 13 years ago I started coaching at West Springfield. On my first day I met Bob Little. He introduced himself and said to let him know if there was anything I needed. Day in and day out Bob would stop by practice to see how things were going. One day he noticed I was having some trouble locking up the shed. I mentioned that the lock was just finicky but still worked. The next day when I showed up to get ready for practice the lock had been fixed. That is a perfect example of how much Bob cares. I'm not the first and certainly won't be the last person that he has helped without being asked. These are the little things that Bob does for everybody. Another letter said in the

[00:12:01] spring of 1988 Bob retired from his job with the federal government. I told him he was always welcome to come out and help whenever he wanted. The next day he was at West Springfield softball field and he has never left. One person mentioned in PE class, in every PE class that goes outside and passes by where he's working there's always a student calling out to him. This person ended their letter by saying I don't know a kinder or more giving man than Bob Little. We are so fortunate Mr. Little that you have helped keep West Springfield looking as beautiful as it always does but more than that that you

[00:12:40] serve as such a fixture to our staff to our students who have the honor to get to have you be their favorite Spartan. So we were so honored to have the opportunity when Mr. Mukai reached out we couldn't think of anything more deserving. So thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed the football game last Friday and the new Bob Little maintenance shed. Ms. Seizmerheiser, would you like to speak to your second? I would

[00:13:13] thank you just briefly. I read the same letters that Ms. Cohen had read and you know letter after letter, page after page of just glowing remarks about the contributions Mr. Little has made to West Springfield High School community as a volunteer since 1988. I mean that is just astounding to me. The number of years Mr. Little has just shown up in ways small and ways large to maintain the fields, to make sure that the games go off, to make sure everything is in tip-top shape.

[00:13:45] And one writer said to me and that Mr. Little epitomizes the word service. He seeks no recognition for his service but is motivated to help the school and the students in fact one of the letters talked about how he would even help out at the concession stand to make sure things were running fine the concession stand was in good shape and wouldn't even take a free hot dog when offered which is just incredible when you think about it and you know that he would spend his whole day you know volunteering to maintain the field and doing whatever the school needs to be done and then come back in the evenings to support the students at their games and support the concession

[00:14:21] stands decades of time to take care of fields, gyms, courts, equipment, pitching wherever help is needed, even helping to take down a tree that had fallen on somebody's house in the pouring rain. I've never, I mean, reading these letters, I've almost never in my life heard about somebody who for decades just dedicated their service to the students in the school out of the goodness of their heart. He's been a regular presence at a wide variety of games and truly one of the most selfless and dedicated people who demonstrate such a deep love for the West Springfield community.

[00:15:00] This community is so lucky to have the service, dedication, expertise, and kindness of Mr. Little. I was astonished at reading these letters and I'm so grateful to Mr. Little to what you've done and and what you've given to West Springfield and to our school and to our students.

[00:15:18] So I am honored and happy to second this. Thank you. Mr. Anna Koufax, would you like to say something? Yes, just briefly. I represent part of the West Springfield district. And I just want to say to Mr.

[00:15:33] Little, I don't know you, but I thank you for all that you've done. It is, as my colleagues have said, amazing what you have done for that community. And I am so happy we were able to have this gesture of renaming part of West Springfield after West Springfield High School after you.

[00:15:55] Just thank you for your service to West Springfield, to the entire Fairfax County public school systems. And to all those listening, take a lesson from Mr. Little and help us with our schools because we need people like Mr. Little on our team and on our side. So thank you so much.

[00:16:12] Thank you very much. OK, seeing no other board members that would like to speak, we will move on to our next proclamation. Oh, I'm so sorry.

[00:16:28] Let's call for a vote on that proclamation. All those in favor, Ms. Seismerheiser, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Omeche, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch, myself, Ms. Derna Koufax, Dr. Anderson, and Ms. Corbett Sanders.

[00:16:45] And we have Ms. Delick-Pakarski online. And that's it. All right, see, I knew it would be unanimous. So, excellent, congratulations.

[00:17:01] Okay, let's move on to 2.06, Student Athletics and Activities Month Proclamation. I call on Ms. Marin for this proclamation. - National High School Activities Week was first proclaimed by Congress and President Ronald Reagan in October 1983 in recognition of the significant place extracurricular opportunities have in the growth of our high school students and how these programs and experiences help students to learn to set and achieve goals to organize their time effectively and to enhance the social skills that are needed to enjoy and succeed in life. Whereas the National Federation of State High School

[00:17:38] Associations expanded this week to National Activities Month in 2012 to properly celebrate the contributions and benefit students experienced by participating in athletics and activities such as speech, debate, music, drama, and other student groups. And whereas Fairfax County Public School stresses the importance of providing a well-balanced activities program, to augment the learning activities in the classroom and provides opportunities for student growth and enrichment in a variety of extracurricular areas, including athletics, student government, safety patrols, performing groups, journalism, drama, general and special interest clubs, and honor societies.

[00:18:13] So now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Public School Board does hereby proclaim October 2023 as Student Athletics and Activities Month in recognition of the many achievements by students participating in school athletics and activities and the generous contributions and efforts of the athletic coaches and trainers, club sponsors, student activity staff, parents, faculty, and school communities who support them.

[00:18:37] Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Mirren, would you like to speak to your proclamation? I think this proclamation covers it all. I'll leave it at that. Mr. Frisch. Yes.

[00:18:53] It does, but I'm going to give more because why not? Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Ms. Marin, for sponsoring the Student Athletic and Activities Month proclamation. It's my pleasure to second the motion during October and throughout the school year. We all work to celebrate the many benefits that high school students experience through their participation in activities such as speech, debate, music, drama, and other activities.

[00:19:19] As Ms. Marin read in the proclamation, the National Federation of State High School Associations expanded this week to national activities month in 2012 but i think i speak for everybody when i say this really is a year-long endeavor the intention of this special proclamation is to draw awareness to these the values and needs of inter scholastic activity programs i am well aware of the importance of these programs not only is my partner a high school choir director but activities like speech and debate helped me find my way in high school while our attention is turned to student athletics

[00:19:56] and activities month i want to say dr anderson and i had a blast attending the falls church high school homecoming football game uh last week and i am very much looking forward to attending a few of our upcoming high school theater performances which i will now plug shamelessly for some local high schools i will be attending the falls church high school production of annie and if you go see it you will not have a hard knock life uh yeah that's right um and that runs from november 16th to the 18th um i will also be attending the marshall high school production of the laramie project which runs november 9th to the 11th and i recently had an opportunity to speak with the cast

[00:20:36] of uh at marshall and commend their drama director uh bernie de leo and his crew for taking on such a powerful work so in conclusion uh and therefore happy to second this motion in recognition of the many achievements of FCPS students participating in athletics and activities and the generous contributions and efforts of their parents caregivers and the entire school community who support them okay seeing no other board members that would like to speak I do have to put in a

[00:21:11] little plug for our newest athletic activity middle school across country I was able to attend the first one of the first meets and was overwhelmed literally overwhelmed with the camaraderie the the sportsmanship, et cetera, that the students were exhibiting, and I'm just so thrilled that we have so many activities across the county to support this, and some new ones.

[00:21:36] With that, I will call for the vote on this proclamation. All those in favor, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Jarena Koufax, Ms. Toland, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Meeren, Ms. Omeche, Ms. Cohen, and Ms. Rache-Seis-Verheiser, and Ms. Pekarski.

[00:21:54] There are anyone opposed? Thank you. Okay, Red Ribbon Week Proclamation. I call Ms. Seismerheiser for this proclamation.

[00:22:11] - Thank you. Whereas the National Family Partnership, a national leader in drug prevention, education, and advocacy, sponsored the first Red Ribbon Week in 1988 in response to the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, in which angered parents and youth in communities across the country began wearing red ribbons as a symbol of their commitment raise awareness of the violence and destruction caused by drug abuse in america whereas the red ribbon program is based on scientific and evidence-based principles for substance abuse prevention and incorporates the following six prevention strategies information dissemination

[00:22:49] prevention education alternative activities community-based processes environmental approaches and problem identification and referral whereas the 2023 theme for red ribbon week celebrate red Red Ribbon Week, Be Kind to Your Mind, Live Drug Free, is a call to action to speak out in support of healthy choices. It also serves as a reminder that every person is empowered to shape the communities around us through positivity, bravery, and strength. Whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to offering activities and learning experiences which focus on the many ways marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, vaping, and other drug use can negatively impact student lives, including an

[00:23:29] alcohol tobacco and other drugs intervention program for students experiencing substance abuse. Now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board does hereby proclaim October 23rd to 31st as Red Ribbon Week in recognition of the oldest and largest drug prevention program in the nation and encourages students families and the FCPS community to unite and take a personal and visible pledge to live a drug-free lifestyle. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Mr.

[00:24:00] at Koufax. Ms. Seizmer-Hyser, would you like to speak to your proclamation? I think the proclamation speaks to itself, but I just wanted to share a few words that the National Family Partnership was founded over 30 years ago as a grassroots organization of concerned parents and is a leader in drug prevention. And it's really important in all times, especially in this day and age with the fentanyl crisis and the opioid crisis, to lift up the importance of drug prevention and really in talking to our students, to our community about the dangers of fentol, opioid, and other drugs. While FCPS is committed to educating students and families about the dangers of substance

[00:24:38] abuse and providing support for those experiencing substance abuse issues and supporting the health and wellness of our students in general, in light of the devastating toll of the rise of opioid overdoses in Fairfax County and nationwide, it is more important than ever that we lift up the issues. We've We've held town halls, we've met with families who tragically lost children to this epidemic, but we recognize that schools cannot do this alone.

[00:25:04] We need the entire community and organizations such as National Family Partnership to help us combat the rise in the opioid epidemic, to help us educate our families and our students, to help our families have conversations with their students at home, help our communities wrap their arms around our students and themselves about the dangers of drug abuse and especially how dangerous and deadly fentanyl can be and how it can be disguised and hidden and even a few dusts of some fentanyl can be deadly it is so vital i have met with some families who've lost children to this epidemic and it is heartbreaking so i'm glad to be able to lift up this proclamation today

[00:25:43] thank you mr kofax would you like to speak to your second yes um the goal of red ribbon week is to empower individuals our students to make informed decisions about their health and well-being in hopes that we can prevent the harmful consequences of drug abuse.

[00:26:01] Too many have lost their lives in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse. And we must continue as a school system, each and every one of us, the parents, caregivers, teachers, coaches, mentors, counselor, to be role models so we can encourage our students to make safe, healthy choices.

[00:26:24] I do, too, want to thank the National Family Partnership for sponsoring the first Red Ribbon Week over 30 years ago and for their continued work as a national leader in drug prevention, education, and advocacy. I and so many of my colleagues up here wear the Red Ribbon tonight as a symbol of our commitment to this cause.

[00:26:46] Thank you. Ms. Corbett Sanders. Yes, thank you. As somebody who remembers the original proclamation of the 80s And the approach was just say no to drugs, and we thought that would solve the problem.

[00:27:05] We now know that it is critical that when our children or community members self-medicate, that it's to address deeper and more difficult needs. And so it is so important to what we've done tonight to recognize that we need those wraparound services and those supports for people that face drug additions and I'm so pleased that Fairfax County Public Schools addresses this not only through

[00:27:41] its education programs but also by having the supports in our schools with our AODs our social workers and counselors and so I'm very happy to support this tonight. Ms. Amish. Yeah thank you and thanks to my colleagues who spoke so well on this I'm happy to follow that I wanted to extend even further perhaps I'm thinking about how we can make drugs a non-option for kids right it's it's kids end up exposed and sometimes unfortunately it is in our schools but that's the case I know dr. Reed that's certainly a priority to

[00:28:21] increase our investments in athletics and student activities and things that give kids an alternative to what they spend their time doing because a number of kids also resort to these things not only because of mental health challenges that are supported by such activities but also boredom and finding these things in school. So I want to kind of encourage us to also think of how we might help kids dream big and imagine the alternatives because once they're able to see a future that is different for themselves they'll no longer choose it as an option and they'll recognize the importance of it beyond just the health risks that we continue to preach about.

[00:29:02] I also just wanted to point, I'd be remiss really not to mention kind of the equity dimension of how we address the substance abuse challenges within our communities, you know, how we assign urgency to when we respond, when we commit resources, when it comes to matter.

[00:29:19] No doubt it's increased in concern in the community as a result of some of the fentanyl exposure, but I know that in some of our communities it's been a consistent concern of parents that have brought it up and so i'm hopeful that we can keep that lens and all the work that we do just like covet exposed some of the ugliest that's always been a part of some people's experience um this is another one of those that i'm grateful is a recognition since the 80s but i hope that will manifest through action as well and making sure that it's always urgent uh regardless of who it's impacting oh and finally i want to shed light on the fact that

[00:29:57] We actually don't have sufficient community county resources right now to support kids who are suffering through addiction. We don't have the right kind of facility, especially for kids in K-12, to work through this as a health issue and really find solutions.

[00:30:15] And the ones that we have have long wait lists and are just insufficient. So I just wanted to raise awareness on that point, and hopefully folks who are advocates who care about this issue can help us raise further awareness and advocacy on the county level and the state level to try to find solutions that are long-term and really help kids make that turn in their lives.

[00:30:36] Because we've seen heartbreaking stories as a board of kids who want to fix this, want to get out of the addiction, but the resources just aren't there right now. So anyway, I appreciate us being able to spotlight this challenge. Thank you, Ms. Amesh. Seeing no other board members that would like to speak, I have a couple of comments.

[00:30:57] I wanted to make sure that the public is aware that we have substance abuse prevention specialists within each of our pyramids. And they work with the schools, they work with the students, they work with families in the communities across each of our high school pyramids.

[00:31:16] if you as a parent have any questions or concerns about your student or want to know how to talk to your student please reach out to these professionals i have had the pleasure of working with kelly rankin in the langley mclean pyramid and diana vera in the herndon pyramid and they're incredible resources our family resource center also has regular webinars for parents and families on this topic. So please take advantage of that. And also this Saturday is National Drug Take Back Day.

[00:31:50] So there are many many locations across the county where no questions asked you can show up at the police stations etc and turn in and many of our pharmacies and turn in unused drugs prescriptions etc. Our own Kelly Rankin will be at Tyson's Emergency on Leesburg Pike to between 10 and 12 or 10 and 2 on Saturday for that purpose as well. All right. So with that, I will call for the vote on this proclamation. All those in favor, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Anna Koufax,

[00:32:28] myself, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. Omeche, Ms. Cowan, Ms. Seismerheiser, and Ms. Pekarski. That is unanimous. Okay. Proclamation 2.08, Disability History and Awareness Month.

[00:32:49] I call Ms. Seizmer-Hyser for this proclamation. Thank you. Whereas the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was founded on four principles: inclusion, full participation, economic self-sufficiency, and equality of opportunity for all people with disabilities, and FCPS is committed to the principles of equity, excellence, and opportunity for all students.

[00:33:16] Whereas Virginia recognizes October as Disability History and Awareness Month to increase public awareness and respect for persons with disabilities, inform the public concerning their many contributions to society, ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities, encourage health promotion to increase community awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities, and emphasize the abilities and rights of disabled persons.

[00:33:41] Whereas over 28,000 and approximately 16% of FCPS students receive special education services and research has shown that students with disabilities encounter more difficulty being accepted by their peers making friends and becoming involved in schools community-based activities and clubs and non-disabled students and whereas since it is a civil right of people with disabilities to be included in society we must ensure they are included in the fcps community by increasing knowledge and understanding of disabilities promoting positive attitudes by

[00:34:15] creating a culture of respect and inclusion and ensuring the school curriculum and norms events and processes are accessible and inclusive of disability history and disability norms now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school board does proclaim october 2023 as disability history and awareness month in recognition of the many contributions and strengths of people with disabilities and to promote an inclusive school community is there Is there a second?

[00:34:46] Second. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. Ms. Heiser-Heiser, would you like to speak to your proclamation? Yes, I would. Thank you very much. We mentioned the number of students with IEPs in our school system, but we didn't mention that approximately 700,000 Virginians under 65 have a diagnosed disability.

[00:35:04] While we often talk about the challenges students with disabilities face in being included and involved in activities, my hope is that increasing awareness will change the culture in our schools to allow for these students and their talents and abilities to be fully included in our school and our community.

[00:35:20] My hope is that not only do we increase awareness and accessibility for everyone to have the opportunity to fully live their lives and fulfill their unique potential, my hope is that we lift up the mutual responsibility for accessibility and adaptation.

[00:35:39] It is about time we stop looking at a person with a disability and asking them to change to fit into our world. Is it about time that we say, what can we all do to mutually adapt and expand our world to be inclusive of the lived norms of people with disabilities?

[00:36:00] Imagine spending your whole life being asked to be somebody you're not. That is very difficult. My hope is by bringing this forward, we ensure that our curriculum and our books highlight disability history and experience, as well as reflect disabled persons within all stories.

[00:36:20] We need to make sure our books and stories talk about people with disabilities as doctors, scientists, teachers, neighbors, as just part of the community, as a norm. My hope is by bringing this forward, we'll move from the medical model of disability where we expect people with disabilities to adapt, where we provide help for adaptation and accessibility.

[00:36:48] My hope is to move past the social model of disability, which states that people with disabilities are more disabled by the society they live in than the condition of their disability and my hope is we get to the civil rights model where people with disabilities can live their full lives that is my hope that is my dream and I believe that FCPS can be a trailblazer in this work thank you miss

[00:37:24] size for heiser miss Cohn would you like to speak to your second I always have a hard time going after Rachna you know I I echo everything that you say and I I believe while we can be a trailblazer here in FCPS that we still have a long way to go.

[00:37:41] And a big piece of that is making sure that people with disabilities have a seat at every table where decisions are being made. That instead of things being chosen for them, decided for them, that they are part of the conversation. And that means how we design our playgrounds, not just making them accessible, but making them inclusive.

[00:38:00] It means our field trips need to make sure every kid can participate fully just like the kids standing next to them. It means that our kids should have access to every sport, club, extracurricular activity, all the electives should be available to all of our students. We have work to do and we've come a long way but we have a lot of work to do and so I've been proud to be part of a board that I believe in the last four years has continue to make sure that our students with disabilities are in the

[00:38:35] conversation and you know proud to have a superintendent who believes that accessible playgrounds ought to be part of our CIP and we are getting there but it is painfully slow and I look at kids like Jake and Finn and for them their time here in FCPS is done and so they didn't have the opportunities that a lot of kids did who went through so it needs to happen yesterday so that we can make sure that all of our kids are able to graduate feeling like they have been not only a meaningful part of everybody's story in FCPS as they've gone through

[00:39:14] their journey but that they've really left their mark because they've been given every opportunity to do that so thanks very much thank you miss Cora Sanders yes thank you and didn't want this evening to go by without recognizing that it's been 40 years since the Davis Center was established and the Davis Center provides much-needed transitional planning and supports for students with disabilities but that's only one portion of what we need to do

[00:39:54] for our kids so this afternoon I actually today I went down to Richmond for the joint initiative between CHEF, the higher education organizations in the state of Virginia, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Governor's Office to focus on career and technical education.

[00:40:16] And one panel was about the economic imperative of ensuring accessibility and inclusion of our students with disabilities, and it focused on two things. One, that we have over 100,000 jobs that go unfilled in the state of Virginia, and many of these jobs would be filled if our students were given the opportunity to gain these skills.

[00:40:46] And they talked about the importance in the health care area, in the welding area, and the critical role they play for the U.S. Navy. And so I urge each and every one of us as we go forward from tonight and every day to talk about how not as a deficit mindset, but instead with a mindset of opportunity and inclusion that our whole society benefits from.

[00:41:18] and we want to make sure we do this but we also will need to change at the federal level some of our laws which limit the earnings of people with disabilities for them to get continued benefits and so I know we talked about our legislative program this week we may want to be making some amendments to it to address this need in particular thank you. Thank you Ms. Corbett-Sanders Ms. Omeish. Yeah thank you and I guess piggybacking off it means that they have

[00:41:55] a place on this board table and in the leadership of our of our division and schools as well. You know when we look at the built world the physical world around us we see how public spaces and places can be inclusionary or exclusionary. We feel welcomed in or we feel left out and I want folks to reflect the next time you're out for a walk notice the small ramp at most intersections between the sidewalk and the street. These are called curb cuts.

[00:42:22] Today they're everywhere, but 50 years ago this wasn't the case. A student activist named Ed Roberts was a wheelchair user who couldn't use the sidewalks or public facilities because these spaces were not designed for people like Ed Roberts. Back then, something as simple as a curb cut or a wheelchair ramp was a dream, but Ed and a group of friends were determined to make a change and so that their school could be more accessible for everyone, and now we all benefit from their advocacy and activism. And of course the movement didn't stop there. My colleague shared the American Disabilities Act and its

[00:42:57] changes over 30 years ago and the improvements it's made. And we even have some, not all, textured sidewalks that help those with visual impairments now too. I'm proud to be part of an institution that celebrates diversity in its many forms. I know we could always be doing more for students who feel overlooked or out of view. We take this moment to uplift and celebrate all our students and the next time you're out for a walk I want you to think about those student voices who changed our world for the better and who and and remember students that you can do the same and I'm hopeful that we can let it inspire us towards the still needed changes because I'm certainly awaiting

[00:43:33] the day when FCPS finally adopts full inclusion for students in our schools and I know dr. Reed you're gonna be the one to do it so I'm looking forward to that thank you miss Marin as a school board we have a duty to fulfill the law the American with Americans with Disabilities Act and the individuals with Disabilities Education Act are preeminent in our work it is unfortunate that the federal funding never seems to quite meet the need and this is a pattern for years despite that we try to educate our students and I've come to

[00:44:11] learn that we have to meet the legal requirements like I said of the law and the legal definitions and certain accommodations that support our students and also staff with disabilities but I also have come to see that we could perhaps in some cases use terms like people have different abilities because really everyone has different strengths so for instance dyslexia 20% of the population has dyslexia well dyslexia can actually be a superpower and I love to look at the campaign called made by dyslexia because it shows that if you have a dyslexic brain you could do things that people without a dyslexic brain can't do so I really want to encourage us to look at people for their

[00:44:47] strengths. We all have weaknesses, but we also all have strengths. And as far as history goes, I'd love to see our students learning more about amazing people who happen to have disabilities and led incredible lives, like Judith Heumann, who passed away this year, who was integral in helping pass the American Disability Rights Law. Haben Girma, I read her biography. She is a blind, deaf woman who also graduated from Harvard Law. And finally, Temple Grandin, who did so much to elevate you know the autism and animal behavior we have so much to learn and I hope that as we look to expand our teaching and FCPS to all sorts of areas

[00:45:24] that we've neglected in the past for whatever reason that we do include the stories and learning about these people thank you thank you okay seeing no other board members that would like to speak I do want to make a couple of announcements to make sure everyone is aware that this Saturday October 28th is the real assistive technology for everyone conference sponsored by your assistive technology services department in the Department of Special Services

[00:46:00] so that is at West Springfield High School this weekend also one of our incredible community partners the special education PTA is sponsoring a zoom presentation on October 30th from 7:00 to 9:00 I mean you can register at their website, FairfaxCountySepta.org. It is feeling lost. Find your way when your child's needs take you on the road less traveled. So a huge thank you to our community partners and our staff for putting on these incredible conferences and resources for families. Okay, with that,

[00:46:37] I will call for the vote on this proclamation. All those in favor, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Koufax, Dr. Koufax, Ms. Tolan, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. O'Meish, Ms. Cohen, and Ms.

[00:46:53] Ratchus-Eisberheiser, and Ms. Pekarski. That is also unanimous. Okay, with that, that is the end of our list of proclamations. I would like to invite those that are here this evening in support of the West Springfield High School Maintenance Building Renaming Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[00:47:17] I would like to invite those here in support of the Student Athletics and

[00:48:44] Activities Month Proclamation to please join the board for a photo. I would like

[00:50:07] to invite those here in support of the Red Ribbon Week Proclamation to please

[00:50:11] join the board for a photo. I would like to invite those here in support of the

[00:51:26] Disability History and Awareness Month Proclamation to please join the board

[00:51:30] for a photo. Okay our next agenda item is Community Participation 3.01. We

[00:54:04] We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Community members can sign up to provide comments at school board regular business meetings and public hearings on the school board's website. At regular business meetings, speakers may address any school-related issue except those that have been scheduled for public hearings, such as the capital improvement program, budget and boundaries.

[00:54:30] 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 not use personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or a school-based 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

[00:55:04] letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy which protects students and staff from discrimination based on age race color sex sexual orientation gender identity religion national origin marital status or disability speakers must limit their remarks to no more than two minutes direct their comments to the school board and should remain at the podium until concluding their remarks additionally only the speaker may stand at the podium they may not be joined by others. Speaker substitutions are not permitted. A speaker may not yield their time to another

[00:55:44] individual. At the conclusion of two minutes, the microphone or video will be turned off. School board members will be listening but not responding. We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. Audience members should hold their applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks and remain at their seats, including when video recording or taking photos.

[00:56:11] We are grateful to those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation. Madame Clerk, please call our first speaker. Student number one, who I believe is virtual. Good evening. I'm a student at Lake Radek.

[00:56:30] Today I would like to bring your attention to the many Palestinian students and families in FCPS. Contrary to what people in the U.S. might think, what is happening in Palestine is not due to religion. So it is not anti-Semitic when someone is supporting Palestinians. It is simply the support of basic human rights. We can all agree that every life and soul in this world deserves to live. Both Palestinians and Israelis have lost many innocent lives. But as the U.S. continues to take moments of silence for the lost Israeli lives, no one seems to acknowledge the thousands of Palestinians that are being wiped off of this

[00:57:06] earth. No one is being asked to condemn the actions of the IDF, and no one is showing empathy to my people. On October 10th, during my history class, I was a victim to the awful words of my teacher. He claimed that Palestinians are terrorists, and when I responded to his false claim, it further escalated the conversation and I was brought to tears. When I told my school's admin about this, all they had to offer was an apology. The county has stated that they will remain neutral on this topic, but everything I have heard or seen has been very one-sided where they support Israel. Many members of the school board have been making statements in support of Israel. They spoke about how the Jewish community has been suffering these past few weeks, but not

[00:57:45] once did they mention the constant suffrage of children in Gaza since 1948. Not once did anyone mention the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Arab comments made by students and teachers here in FCPS. These statements have made me and many others feel silenced and censored as if what we have been through these past 75 years does not matter. Yesterday, an announcement was released saying that many Jews felt that the map of Palestine made them feel unsafe, like it is eliminating them. But there was no statement released when I reached out telling FCPS that a teacher called Palestinians terrorists or when a student shouted that Palestinians deserve to die

[00:58:23] in a classroom. Why does it only matter when Israelis and Jews say that they feel unsafe and not when Palestinians and Muslims are actually put in an unsafe situation at school. While the public school system may try to silence us, this will only make us speak out loud.

[00:58:47] - Brady Kyle, Brady Kyle. - Tess, Tess.

[00:59:04] - Good evening school board members. My name is Brady Kyle and I'm a senior at South County High School and one of the senior players on the South County boys volleyball team. I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to speak here on behalf of my team behalf of other volleyball clubs in this county. Although I won't have the chance to participate in next year's season, I believe underclassmen student athletes to continue to have this opportunity and to participate in boys volleyball clubs as a school-sponsored sport rather than just a club sport.

[00:59:33] Volleyball is a sport of teamwork, communication, and good sportsmanship. It is a sport that challenges its athletes, encourages them to think quickly on their feet, and provides a safe environment for friendships to grow. For For decades, volleyball has been a primarily female-dominated school-sponsored sport in the high school setting.

[00:59:51] However, in the past few years, multiple high schools in our county have been able to create boys' volleyball clubs. Among the many are Lake Braddock, West Springfield, and South County. The South County Boys' Volleyball Club has seen great success since the starting of last year. Compared to last season, the team had twice as many players try out and participate in the team itself, and so this proves that there was a much increase in interest and that our club had to create two more teams to accommodate for the amount of student athletes that participated.

[01:00:18] Making boys volleyball a school-sponsored sport means that we will be able to continue expanding our influence and provide a safe environment for boys to make good friendships and stay focused. Support for funding will provide our athletes with much-needed equipment, gym time, transportation for away games, hosted home games, and much more, all of which we struggle to obtain. We strive to impact the lives of other boys in our district through this volleyball program but as a school-sponsored sport there's opportunity for improvement and we chase opportunity with your support we can improve our school sports programs and the programs of other high schools for the benefit of future generations of

[01:00:57] high school athletes thank you David Walrod good evening chair Tholen Dr.

[01:01:17] Reed and members of the board thank you for providing me the opportunity to speak tonight my name is David Walrod and I am here tonight representing our educational staff as the president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers. On October 1st, an important change was made. The administrator pay scale was changed, providing a much-needed raise to our longest-serving, most experienced administrators. By doing this, our administrators were shown that Fairfax County Public Schools see the value of their knowledge, experience, and connection to the community. FCPS demonstrated to our administrators that we want them to remain part of the Fairfax County community for their

[01:01:53] entire career. Recruiting new talent is important, but retaining that talent is even more important. Every time an administrator leaves for another district, Fairfax loses that experience and leadership. As a teacher, I fully recognize the value of a skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced leader.

[01:02:12] This value, however, is not limited to our administration. Our experienced teachers serve as team leaders, department chairs, sit on school improvement and innovation plan committees, serve as mentor teachers, help lead curricular teams, write curricula, and utilize their own long-term connections to the community. As important as it is to retain our quality administrators for their entire career, it is equally important that we retain our teachers for their whole career. Every time a teacher leaves for another district or leaves the classroom due to money concerns, it's the students that suffer. I ask that as you think about compensation this year, you think about

[01:02:50] how to demonstrate to your veteran teachers that you value them the same way that you value our veteran administrators. The vote you're taking tonight on adjustments to the pay scale effective January first are timely and appreciated but it will take more to help stem the tide of teachers leaving the classroom prematurely. Thank you for your time this evening. Maya Mahdi. Hello. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. My name is Maya Mahdi. I was born

[01:03:29] and raised and educated here in Fairfax County and I'm here as a young person as a human being to talk about equity because I've noticed a lack of equity in our education system and from some recent statements from some of the school board members.

[01:03:44] As elected members of the school board, you have an obligation to shape the next generation of responsible, educated, and upstanding citizens. Right now, I believe you're failing this next generation. As a Syrian American and a Muslim woman, I noticed there are a couple of things that Fairfax County doesn't necessarily teach kids these days.

[01:04:05] You don't teach them that Muslims invented the first compass. You don't teach them that Arabs invented algebra. You don't teach them about Henry Ford and he invented the car. You don't teach them that he brought over Arabs to the United States and to Michigan to help found the auto industry.

[01:04:23] You teach them about the Sykes-Picot agreement, but you don't teach them that the Levant area of the Arab region was united under one constitutional representative government. And there's so much more nuance to these facts, but you don't teach that either.

[01:04:39] You're not teaching students about the contributions of Arabs and Muslims to this world. And this helps reinforce these disgusting stereotypes that all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists, that they're barbaric, that they're savages, that they don't deserve empathy, that they don't deserve humanity, that they're human animals.

[01:05:05] And this is a direct quote from the Israeli Defense Minister. That's why he called Palestinian people. And some of you have released statements that do not acknowledge the 6,000 Palestinians that have died.

[01:05:23] 3,000 children!

[01:05:45] Thank you. Thank you for your remarks. Shelly Arnabi. So, two and a half years ago, I received an email that made me angry enough to write to you guys.

[01:06:11] SO I'M GOING TO READ IT TO YOU AND THEN I'M GOING TO READ THE RESPONSE. WE HAVE FOUR CHILDREN IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, TWO IN HIGH SCHOOL, AND OUR CHILDREN HAVE BEEN AT HOME FOR MORE THAN A YEAR AND I'M SHOCKED BY THE FAILURE OF THE OVERALL SYSTEM, INCLUDING MASK MANDATES, GRADING ELIMINATION, AND NOW RACE, ANTI-RACE NONSENSE.

[01:06:27] THE MOST RECENT SURVEY RECEIVED WAS THE LAST STRAW. I SAID WHO IS BEHIND SCHEDULING OF IN-PERSON CLASSES, MASK REQUIREMENTS, AND NOW RIDICULOUS INCLUSION OF RACE DISCUSSIONS? THE RESPONSE I RECEIVED WAS THAT ANTI-RACISM, ANTI-BIAS SURVEY AND RELATED POLICY WORK IS GUIDED BY GOVERNMENT AND DIVISION POLICY AND THE FAIRFAX COUNTY GOVERNMENT'S ONE FAIRFAX POLICY COMMITS THE COUNTY AND THE SCHOOLS TO INTENTIONALLY CONSIDER EQUITY WHEN MAKING POLICIES. THEN IT FURTHER SAYS THIS POLICY IS THERE BECAUSE FCPS EXISTS IN A COMMUNITY WHERE RACISM AND BIAS CONTINUE TO LIVE. THEN IT REFERRED TO THE 2019 NEWS SURVEY OF THE

[01:07:05] The FCPS student in which nearly half of the students reported they had been subject to disparaging remarks about race or culture with a greater percentage of students of color reporting as victims. So I read the 246 page youth survey report. There's a section called delinquent behaviors and victimization.

[01:07:22] And there's a lot there is in fact a larger percentage of students of color reporting they had been victims of aggressive behavior. But the truth is the next same page says the same group had the highest percentage of admitting they were the ones who had committed aggressive behaviors we do not have a racism problem we have a behavior problem the one Fairfax policy is a radical anti-american socialist policy that should be eliminated we didn't vote for it we didn't review it and we didn't ask for it and the idea that you're establishing policy based on things that we never pay no parents saw that I'm

[01:07:56] aware of times up sorry so please thank you Alexandra hello good evening my name is Alexandra Hillu and I'm here tonight to speak about school board policy at the October 12 school board meeting school board member Laura Jane Cohen read a

[01:08:34] statement on behalf of the entire school board that focused on the quote vicious attack by Hamas on Israel and the impact on members of our local Jewish community the next day my school board representative Carl Frisch sent an email appeal to residents of our district referring to quote terrorist attacks in Israel and asking us to donate to a religious organization that provides, among other things, money to Israeli soldiers. No such assistance is provided by this religious organization to Gazans who have been under siege and constant bombardment for 19 days. My question is a simple

[01:09:14] one. Why are members of the school board issuing statements on geopolitical issues and asking for donations to a religious organization? This violates the narrow purpose of your role, which is stated on your website as setting general school policy and establishing guidelines to ensure the proper administration of FCPS programs. Instead, you are using your elected positions as a platform to advance your own personal, religious, and political agendas. Why aren't you focusing on closing the COVID learning gap for all students? Why aren't you encouraging

[01:09:53] superintendent reed to hire more dyslexia specialists 20 of fcps is roughly 190 000 students are dyslexic yet there's only one position for a dyslexia specialist and it's vacant in 2019 the school board agreed to fund security vestibules for all schools yet this hasn't been done why not simply put i like many others in your districts i'm asking one that you do the job you were elected to do and two that you not use your role as a platform to advance your own

[01:10:24] personal religion. Tegas Tesfay. Tegas Tesfay. Amanda Campbell. Good evening. I'm speaking tonight

[01:11:01] as president of Fairfax County Special Education PTA. As we approach the upcoming election we would like to inform the community that we send a special education candidate questionnaire to all school board candidates. Please visit our website at fairfaxcountysepta.org to view the responses we received. The OCR finding last year put a significant burden on our special education staff and continues to have an impact. As of September's ACSD meeting FCPS had 500 provisionally licensed teachers in special education classrooms and 262 long-term substitutes. Our staff have loudly voiced the need for salary increases for some time and so we support the two percent

[01:11:37] salary increase you are voting on tonight. We additionally ask that you keep in mind the importance of IAs, PHAs and PHTAs in special education classrooms and ensure that retention and recruitment plans explicitly include them as well with regards to the legislative priorities you discussed this week we appreciate the board taking into consideration supporting work at the state level to ensure the implementation of accessible and trauma-informed emergency procedures for all students fcps's current procedures which require students with mobility impairments on the second floor of a building to remain in a designated room until the fire department evacuates them is an outdated pre-9-11 procedure we appreciate the work being done

[01:12:16] currently within FCPS to update this regulation and absolutely support such work at a state level as well. At the state level, we also ask you to consider advocating to remove student attendance as a criteria for school accreditation. We understand the concerns regarding chronic absenteeism, however tying accreditation to attendance disproportionately impacts our students with the highest support needs.

[01:12:38] For example, Key Center and Kilmer Center, both public day schools with populations entirely comprised of students with disabilities have chronic absenteeism rates of close to 50%. Punitive approaches to attendance will not help improve the attendance rates of students dealing with significant medical needs, including students with chronic medical conditions and FCPS homebound students.

[01:12:58] Thank you. Cindy Walsh.

[01:13:17] Gender dysphoria can be the solution to adolescence that has nothing to do with gender. That is why it is popular. It is an excuse to not date anyone and not have to explain it. It allows students to hate their bodies and to do so in a click and to reinforce self-hate.

[01:13:34] They can also use gender to reject anyone's advances. Students may not understand how to reject someone gracefully or how to accept that rejection. Right now they can change to a gender using it to say no for them. Nobody in Fairfax tells you there's nothing wrong with you to not date anyone and dating is not necessary in middle school.

[01:13:54] Born in the wrong body teaches students that their body is no good the way it is because they must accept someone else. They must be someone else to be loved. Students must learn to accept their bodies and themselves as God made them to be. Surgery will not fix a sad heart.

[01:14:10] The messages teach self-hate. It starts from students who hate their body to hate themselves, to self-harm, to severe depression. The problem is they are teenagers. Most students in high school hate something about the way they look, but will remember wistfully as they age to become that way

[01:14:28] again. Thanks. Can we call the next speaker please. Emily Vanderhoff. Good evening Chair Toland Dr.

[01:14:54] Reed and members of the board. My name is Emily Vanderhoff. I'm a first grade teacher at FCPS and a proud member of my union FCFT. I'm speaking tonight to ask you to approve the proposed two percent salary increase for all staff to go into effect January 1st 2024. As you all know staff retention is critical now more than ever. We are in a moment when more and more educators are leaving the profession. We are stretched thin. We have had schools as recently as last week with up to 10 instructional vacancies. Central office staff are being deployed to fill the gaps forgoing the important work that they do to support schools. This morning I counted 173 instructional vacancies

[01:15:29] and we're almost a quarter of the way through the year. We also know that around 30% of our staff live outside of Fairfax County, many of them in districts who haven't had the same challenges making the state match for pay increases in the past few years. Each time we leave money on the the table by not meeting the state match, more and more employees consider leaving Fairfax for our neighboring districts.

[01:15:50] They perceive that staff are more valued in districts that can take full advantage of every state-funded raise. As a representative of FCFT, I can share that compensation is a top priority of our membership. Our members have been actively engaged at all levels from local to state, supporting funding for public education and especially competitive staff pay.

[01:16:08] We are also advocating and supporting candidates at the state level who are prioritizing making the local composite index LCI more fair by accounting for the cost of living so that Fairfax is not so uniquely challenged even in comparison with the districts directly bordering us. I share this to show that we know the challenges this board faces when it comes to funding pay increases and the different bodies controlling our funding.

[01:16:29] In this case, I commend Ms. Burden and her team for providing the funding to meet the state match within our existing budget and I urge this board to take this step to improve pay for your employees. Thank you. Sherry Kuppel. And just a quick reminder for the audience, if you're taking a video, you need to be in your seat. Thank you.

[01:16:55] Good evening, Board. Dr. Reed. Tonight, I will not be addressing a particular policy. Instead, I want to ask you all a question. Do you believe in God?

[01:17:11] As I said in my first address to the school board, I'm a Christian and believe the Bible. Genesis 127 says, So God created man, as in mankind, in his image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. For thousands of years, society and academia have recognized that there are only two genders.

[01:17:30] I choose to follow the science. I do not believe that gender is fluid or intersectional. Therefore, I cannot complete the FCPS substitute teacher training course, affirming that. I have a heart for those who struggle with gender dysphoria. It's a difficult place for them to be.

[01:17:46] I pray for them and want to help them to be the person that God created them to be and not harm them by giving them drugs and chopping off perfectly healthy body parts which the medical community now calls gender-affirming care. Luke 1722 says, It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

[01:18:12] Is FCPS causing any of our little ones to stumble? Is the policy that allows biological males with male body parts intact to share locker rooms with females? Is that harmful to our kids? sharing hotel rooms on field trips, keeping kids' pronouns from their parents.

[01:18:30] I come back to my original question, do you believe in God? Do you have a personal relationship with him? Because you can through his son, Jesus Christ. And one day, everyone in this room will stand in judgment before him.

[01:18:45] Will he look at the policies that you support and say to you, well done, my good and faithful servant. Thank you, and may God bless all of you. Andrew James Drake. Good evening.

[01:19:11] I'm Andy Drake and my children go to South County. Thank you for not only this opportunity to express my views with you, but also enabling me to show our youth that it is possible for them to affect change. I'm a proponent of Fairfax County sanctioning boys volleyball as a school sport.

[01:19:27] Over 35 years ago, I started a boys volleyball team in my high school in upstate New York. So today I'm surprised that our county does not support boys volleyball, even though Virginia does. The stated reason restraining change is perceived lack of interest.

[01:19:43] To the contrary, last year, when my son and his classmates established a boys' team to be sourced by SoCo students, we hoped 12 would show up, but there were 30, so we had to make two teams. In year two, this year, we had over 60 students show up. We've had to add tryouts and cut some because we could only manage three teams.

[01:20:01] We play in the Nova High School Boys Volleyball League, which includes Fairfax, Loudoun, Alexandria, and Arlington schools. Over the last year, this league has increased from 35 to 49 teams. are other leagues and clubs nationally last year six more states sanctioned boys volleyball as a high school sport interest yes five other quick issues volleyball is a valuable as a lifetime activity that emphasizes teamwork and communication a boys program would support the girls program we have female school players supporting our practices and two of our boys are managers for this girls the girls team and it's routine for the boys and girls to get together to casually play volleyball

[01:20:37] boys volleyball is inexpensive title nine can be managed and accommodated lastly it's ironic that Fairfax County just hosted the NCAA boys volleyball national championship it still does not sanction it for high school students please support this small change that can significantly impact and improve so many students high school

[01:20:57] experience thank you Vanessa Hall Vanessa Hall first I wanted to say thank you for all the time you've put in this week I failed to do so on Tuesday when I spoke because I get very nervous when I'm up here thank you I'd like to recommend that you pass the raise for teachers in my decades in FCPS as a parent and an alumnus I've seen the lengths that teachers will go to for

[01:21:36] their students and families including performing significant uncompensated work this is one of the many reasons I've spent hundreds of hours supporting teachers in and out of the classroom unfortunately there is an FCPS teacher who uses students as pawns and political games repeatedly violating social media policy and FCPS regulations by sharing student work, disability information, gender identity and more on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, all without parental consent or permission.

[01:22:06] Not only that, the same teacher secretly recorded and publicly posted on YouTube disciplinary discussions with school principals, which meant that privacy and safety of even more students was violated. There were at least four disciplinary hearings, meetings for repeatedly violating policies and regulations, including pulling a child out of another teacher's class for personal conversation.

[01:22:30] As a parent and trusted volunteer, I take all students' safety seriously. If I see something, I say something. However, I almost wish I hadn't said something in May. Because my family has been endangered as a result of retaliatory actions by this teacher and their allies, merely because I asked that they be reminded of the rules.

[01:22:52] Because of their retaliation, I had to contact both the police and school SRO to keep my kids and family safe. No one deserves to be retaliated against for expecting a teacher to keep our students in school safe. However, reporting was the right thing to do because all students deserve to be safe, especially our most vulnerable students.

[01:23:10] They learn best if they're safe and respected in their school. No FCPS student, including my own, deserves to be the center of a misguided revenge plot by a teacher who repeatedly and flagrantly refuses to follow.

[01:23:20] alex galli who i believe is virtual alex should be up okay i speak there

[01:24:20] past couple of years have been difficult for educators and support staff alike especially in sites like the burke school where you have the added risk of injury that comes with serving kids who need the most help education is already a difficult enough profession no matter what part of it you work in and at times it feels thankless regardless of how many pizza parties are thrown in the teacher's lounge. While the raise is welcome, a 2% increase is nowhere near enough to make up for the struggle FCPS workers have faced, especially in recent years. For the sake of time, I will not name these struggles, but you all know what I'm talking about. All that being said, vote in favor of the raise. I'd also like to add that as an Arab American with Arab

[01:24:59] and Muslim students, with the escalation in violence in West Asia and heavily biased media coverage, it's starting to feel less comfortable and welcoming for us. Do better to make us feel safe for here please play the video submitted by andrew diamond drake hi i'm andrew drake from south county and i want to share our season's highlights with you so you can say yes to boys

[01:25:35] can you please play the next video for lauren mcaughey these remarks are from a friend hi i

[01:27:47] am an fcps parent and i am here to tell you that you are all falling short at your jobs you can do better try harder there is room for improvement now wait a minute i know this isn't true i know you work tirelessly for our communities how you felt just now that's how in so many ways the school system talks to us the families of students battling health challenges this is a problem that boils down to two things one lack of dedicated advocacy currently there seems to be no individual or team within fcps tasked with understanding and addressing the educational needs of children with complex medical conditions while we have experts for various learning challenges there is a noticeable absence of expertise when it comes to supporting the

[01:28:27] educational journey of students facing health issues. 2. Truancy-focused approach. The school system's prevailing perspective on absences inadvertently creates additional hurdles for students and parents already grappling with medical complexities. This approach manifests in the form of A. Barriers to homebound services. The process is often convoluted and overwhelming, resembling a maze rather than a clear roadmap for families in need.

[01:28:51] B. Attendance policies. Families in the midst of medical crises are further burdened by attendance policies including daily calls frequent trips to obtain doctor's notes and the pressure to bring unwell children to school solely for attendance purposes then actually unenrolling children even those in the process of obtaining homebound services this has a huge impact on a student's feeling of belonging to the school community c unsupportive attitudes messaging often implies that the child or parent needs to try harder exemplified by emails highlighting a child's chronic absence in bold letters stating that there is room for improvement please reconsider

[01:29:28] the current policies and establish a dedicated team of experts to address the educational needs of students with medically complex conditions by recognizing their unique challenges and providing tailored support we can ensure that every child regardless of health status receives the education they deserve thank you madam chair that's the last public speaker okay we are moving on to agenda

[01:29:59] item 3.02 strategic plan I'd like to call on Dr. Reed evening madam chair and I am thrilled to bring our strategic plan update this evening and one of the things that want to thank also Amy

[01:30:35] Hunter who's here Amy you want to raise your hand Amy's our math guru that's the how do I say the mastermind behind our five-year multi-year plan to achieve our algebra by eighth grade goal and Dr. Presidio is also here to support this report. One of the things that we've committed to with our strategic planning updates is to make sure we have small bites once a month at board meetings so I'm thrilled to have a chance to share this one with you. Goal three on our strategic plan is specific

[01:31:11] to academic growth and excellence and goal 3 is also a goal that all of our schools in Fairfax County are being responsive to this year the measure I'm going to share this evening is specifically the successful completion of algebra 1 by 8th grade we know that this goal is going to be monitored by several measurements in particular a key academic milestone around successful completion of algebra 1 by 8th grade we're going to take a look at the fact that if we're able to have our students do that, their access to advanced coursework and science and technology courses is really significantly improved.

[01:31:51] A recent study from NAWIA found that after taking Algebra 1 by grade 8, student enrollment in advanced math in 9th grade increased by 30 percentage points and in 11th grade by 16 percentage points. So we know that algebra in 8th grade puts our students on a trajectory of more advanced math courses which in a more math driven future career path at this point is really a significant data point overall math scores in 10th grade rise as a result of algebra 1 completion in 8th grade as well and we know that all of

[01:32:26] our students who are able to complete this access accelerated courses at a greater rate we're really excited about the fact that I want to remind our board in our community that algebraic thinking does begin even in preschool so I mean what could be more profoundly important than algebraic thinking at this point I'd like to share a video that's put together by our collaborative teams at Key Middle School and Kilmer Middle School and these are members of our algebra access networked improvement community I think we need to go back a slide to

[01:33:04] do that. This work has focused on increasing the representation of students who participate and are successful in Algebra 1 by the end of 8th grade. So if we could go back a slide and play the video that would be great. Thank you.

[01:33:20] One of the reasons it's important for students to take Algebra in 8th grade is it allows them to access additional courses at the high school level.

[01:33:37] There's dual enrollment courses that open up. There's AP coursework, IB coursework they do need to be able to think logically problem-solve find errors correct errors those skills that we learn in a math class I think applicable to all the jobs out there that we don't even know exist yet FCPS recognizes that to prepare each and every student for eighth grade algebra requires curriculum changes starting in elementary school while those changes are taking shape many educators have already begun working toward this goal using innovative practices. Key and Kilmer Middle Schools are part of the first cohort of the Algebra Access Network Improvement Community or ANIC. The first

[01:34:17] cohort includes four middle schools that are working together with instructional services staff to have more students take algebra in the eighth grade. The educators and instructional services staff meet, collaborate, share ideas, and then take what they learn back to their individual schools where the ideas are shared. What results is a continual cycle of planning, executing, looking at data and sharing results. We're working on a cycle where we make small changes and then by the time we meet again we're going to report back on whether or not that small change has been effective and then we can see what the other schools are doing too. Here at Key one of our change ideas is really increasing

[01:34:53] communication between our families and our school site. We're also looking at how can we increase that conversation between student and family and really fostering that not just what did you do at school today but encouraging students to you know bring that conversation to these are my glows, these are my grows, this is what I'm working on, these are the supports in place that I can take advantage of to help me. So our small change that we came up with our meeting in September was this idea of tracking these students who jumped from math 7 to algebra in eighth grade. We have a list of those students and we're progress monitoring them just to see if anything obvious any patterns come from that that we can see what we can do to help those students who didn't have the pre-algebra

[01:35:33] background. I think something that we still have to figure out as a group is is how to intervene and get those kids caught up. The work of the cohort is already proving effective in increasing enrollment. When I first started taking algebra, I thought algebra was gonna be very hard.

[01:35:50] I was kind of nervous. I was really nervous. I was nervous too. I thought it was gonna be hard because there was gonna be a bunch of letters, numbers, and symbols that I had to deal with. My seventh grade teacher, I thought it was gonna be hard, so I didn't want to do it, but she encouraged me to.

[01:36:06] Now I understand it more, and I can do the work without asking for help. I think algebra is still hard for me, but it's definitely taught me how to problem solve and think differently. Excellence, equity, and opportunity.

[01:36:25] So, I think it's a good reminder that we do have division-wide alignment in completing algebra by 8th grade, and what you saw is really one of our schools or two of our schools that are on our first cohort.

[01:36:42] It's actually a really carefully designed plan as we're phasing this work in over the next several years. It's a definite focus on working with staffs in all of our schools and bolstering courses to make sure our students are fully prepared for this challenge. One of the things that we began this year with was that our middle schools were required to create a goal around addressing algebra by eighth grade or one of the leading indicators for this measure and every elementary school developed a sip goal with a math focus that addressed a specific need of their students so this is really a very carefully scaffolded strategy to bring about success on this

[01:37:21] measurement want to speak also to the algebra access network improvement community and this is something that you heard a little bit about on the video One of the things participation at this point includes four middle schools in cohort one and we'll have 11 middle schools in cohort two.

[01:37:40] The network was created in response to data that reveals misconceptions about open enrollment in middle school and access to algebra one by grade eight in our community. This network uses improvement science techniques and the network improvement community structure.

[01:37:58] And I have Dr. Hunter here with me, who is, as I mentioned, the mastermind. And I think we'll be able to support thoughtfully responding to any questions you might have. So in terms of staying informed, I want to remind the community and the board that on November 14th, during our goal three presentation around academic growth and excellence, we will have further data on this goal and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have at this time.

[01:38:25] Thank you, Dr. Reed. Dr. Anderson, do you have some questions? Yes. Thank you. Thank you for this very interesting report. I can't remember the slide number, but one of them talked about students successfully completing the course.

[01:38:41] Can you speak in terms of how that is being evaluated? What does success look like successfully completing algebra one that would be passing the course? I don't know that we said a grade determinant. Did we Dr. Hunter? Minus. So that they're earning.

[01:38:58] So I think it's a C minus and that they're also earning end of course credit. So passing their end of course exam. okay thank you one of the things that I definitely want to raise in this area is the inconsistencies across our schools in terms of grading we have some schools where the formative is 45 percent and the summatives are 55 percent we have some schools where it's 90-10 while this is commonplace at our high schools it is also commonplace in our middle schools so I I would love to ensure that that C minus at place at school x is the same C minus as school y so I would love to hear what

[01:39:32] your thoughts on making standardizing that very important marker that we're utilizing to evaluate success here. So thank you Dr. Anderson I think one of the things the end of course exam is going to be that is consistent so that is a piece of consistent data. Dr. Presidio is heading up a grading equitable grading practice advisory committee and might want to speak a moment to grading at the middle level or not if not I'll continue down this path yeah I think we probably need to provide some more information to the board about that work that's happening we did some I think good work as a committee last year

[01:40:11] and then this year we're going to reconvene that committee at the end of first quarter and look at the impact of some of the grading policy changes that we made last year but again I do want everybody to know that our goal is consistency and grading scales from school to school and classroom to classroom and that's true for all of our high school credit-bearing classes which obviously would include algebra 1 in eighth grade so I think we took some good steps last year we've got more work to do this year thank you in the end of course exam that you've discussed is it separate from the SOL okay I just wanted

[01:40:46] to be sure thank you one of the things also that was shown on the video is how apprehensive some of the kids are about engaging in this work and I would love to hear in terms of what are supports that are being provided so that the kids who have missed that pre-algebra course they feel comfortable that they feel that they can be successful. Yeah that's actually a great I would say like a struggle and something that the the schools in the algebra access network and proven community really work on and so I think that's why this community itself is really helpful because it gives school leaders they bring together

[01:41:23] a team of key personnel and they really talk about the root causes for why students aren't enrolling in algebra and why or maybe even math 7 honors and sometimes that just has to do with student self-efficacy like do they see themselves as a math person and then the school will decide what are the minor or like small but mighty and meaningful changes that we can make to improve for example self-efficacy so like one example was a school just made the small shift of talking about students transitioning rather than skipping content. So just that like small shift in language really sort of helps students

[01:42:02] realize like oh I can transition and someone's gonna help me along the way. You saw that schools are you know monitoring students who move from math seven to algebra one and making sure that they fill in whatever content they need. So the beauty of the work is that middle schools are already doing this work and it's not just in the NIC either like you know middle schools across the county are doing this work but the middle schools in the NIC are really testing out ideas on how to make this work and I think the result will be that they'll have a community of you know a collective responsibility to take all of those students when we get to that point and support them from wherever they're

[01:42:41] coming from so we're kind of building a pipeline or like a foundation to support students as we start to phase in algebra one for for more students over time thank you that was very helpful you actually set up my next question quite nicely how are we determining which students participate are they self-selecting teachers are selecting or is it all of the students at key and kilmer so right now schools are really taking a school-based approach they're deciding what's best for them we are really serious about open enrollment and one thing that dr reed mentioned

[01:43:17] was the misconception that exists in our community about what open enrollment is open enrollment means that if you're in sixth grade and you want to take math seven honors you can take that course without a prerequisite same with algebra one if you're a seventh grader who took math seven but you want to take algebra one as an eighth grader you can take that course but we haven't really had clarity in the community about what open enrollment really means and so the work of the schools in the NIC is really discussing and norming on as a team like as a school how are we helping students see number one that they have this option how are we communicating with families

[01:43:53] are is our language conveying that you can do this course it's a choice that you have and then instead of a teacher for example saying like I don't know if you're ready instead it might be hey if you want to take this class here are some things that you should work on so that you can be successful and then passing that information on to the teacher the next teacher to say here are some scaffolds or supports that the student might need I think that I think that's really important because some students without the outreach from staff will never see themselves in these classes so I'm looking forward to that continuing consistency of the open enrollment process lastly the cohorts as you've described there's two in the first and

[01:44:33] eleven in the second and there's four in the first I'm sorry four in the first 11 of the second so we still have a few middle schools not yet spoken for how were those two how are the schools being selected and what is the timeline for these cohorts that's a great question so when we started the the NIC the strategic plan as it is now wasn't in existence we were still working off of the goal from the prior strategic plan so we started it as a voluntary program like would you like to be part of this and that was really critical because we weren't really sure what it was going to look like from our end so we wanted to

[01:45:09] make sure that we dedicated time and and you know coaching to those schools so those four schools that we started with we really kind of tested the model out and then the strategic plan came into place and we had a bunch of schools want to join so then we had those 11 schools join capacity does limit my team and being able to support what is now 15 schools we go out we do coaching visits with them I have one next Wednesday where we talk to them about where they are with their plan and support them along the way and it is an issue of capacity. The hope is actually that we can start

[01:45:44] to pair up schools to support each other and then gradually release from the schools who have been you know doing this work longer like Key and Kilmer and then hopefully bring in new schools as we go. The benefit though I don't want to sound like the work isn't happening in other places. The The benefit of us bringing in those goals from the strategic plan into the SIPs is that we actually got to take some of the techniques that we were doing with the Algebra Access group and then sort of do a softer version with the rest of the middle schools when we did SIP sessions this summer.

[01:46:18] So we wrote up documents to say, like, here are some sample strategies and actions that you could put in your school improvement plan, and those were all sort of fielded from the NIC. still it's it's like a soft rollout to the other schools and then I think once we bring them into the neck it'll be more formal and they'll get more dedicated support the second cohort that has already begun then yes we started it the second cohort started in late July August yeah thank you Dr. Lee what are your plans for the remaining schools if they have not yet self-assigned well

[01:46:56] I think there's such excitement that they're going to be self-selecting for NEXT YEAR AT THIS POINT WE'VE GOT 15 15 SCHOOLS WHICH IS JUST MORE THAN HALF OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS AND OVER THE SEVERAL YEAR PLAN WE'LL BE PHASING IN THE REMAINING SCHOOLS OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS THANK YOU I THINK THOSE ARE MY QUESTIONS I APPRECIATE IT THANK YOU DR. ANDERSON MISS OMESH YEAH THANK YOU HAPPY TO FOLLOW DR. ANDERSON'S POINTS AND THIS IS GREAT TO SEE I'M REALLY GRATEFUL I KNOW DR. REED THIS WAS ONE OF THE VISION VISIONARY POINTS YOU BROUGHT UP EVEN BEFORE YOU JOINED

[01:47:35] us in this division and how it's tracked as a civil rights point and how critical it is. To that end I am curious about kind of the you know we we came to the understanding as a school board when we were doing TJ admissions and all that that obviously the admissions process itself has revisions to be made but it's a pipeline challenge right and so we need to look from much earlier of how we're preparing kids which includes access so that brings me to ask in terms of advanced math even at the elementary level my you know I

[01:48:07] MY DREAM WOULD BE THAT KIDS WHO WANT TO OPT IN THE ADVANCE ACADEMICS SO LONG AS THEY MAINTAIN A CERTAIN GRADE LEVEL CAN STAY WITHIN IT RATHER THAN US TELLING A KID WHO REALLY WANTS TO DO IT YOU CAN'T DO IT BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T PASS AN ARBITRARY TEST IN SECOND GRADE OR ARBITRARY MIGHT NOT BE FAIR BUT IT'S STILL IN SECOND GRADE TO ASSESS YOUR QUALIFICATIONS SO THAT'S THE BROADER ADVANCE ACADEMICS CONVERSATION BUT I AM CURIOUS WHAT SPECIFIC STEPS AND I KNOW THIS IS KIND OF PROGRAMMATIC HOW WE'RE HANDLING IT MAYBE AT LATER YEARS BUT SPECIFICALLY ELEMENTARY UP IN

[01:48:37] ensuring there's access to that advanced math because we did identify that some schools don't have that and that there's no way right that they're going to be prepared like their peers would be if that's not even an option in their school. So I think you know one of the keys to the work is it's really pre K through 12 transition and elementary schools are also working on this as well as our middle schools. And again I just want to clarify that algebra in eighth grade is not necessarily an accelerator.

[01:49:09] track it's really just basic where our students really would be matriculating just on a traditional trajectory I don't know dr. hunter do you feel like you want to add anything about the elementary journey I mean in the video we tried to couch the video is like there's some good work happening already and there's more to come so yeah ready but you know in the video it did say like we're in the process of drafting a plan like we're pulling together plans and really that we'll have to address some curricular changes in elementary for the standard level because as you mentioned right now an advanced math track does

[01:49:47] prepare you for algebra 1 in grade 8 but we need to make sure that the standard track does and then provide additional rigor and extensions for students and you know who need that extension beyond what we would provide in the standard track so that's what we're working on right now yeah and that's great to hear so please please please make sure it's a component you know it's one thing to change our practices and you know offerings but if kids don't even have it that's a whole different access equity issue and then the other piece is I just kind of wanted to speak to the out algebra in seventh grade right as an advanced option I'm assuming we're still vetting kids for that right was or is

[01:50:26] that has that changed we're not okay so kids at this point there is still a a current process for Algebra 1 is Algebra 1 honors as a seventh grader there is still a process okay or criteria I should say yeah is do we have like research that justifies that you know if we do move towards everyone in eighth grade if a kid wants to do it in seventh yeah I mean again we're speaking as one of those kids who was prohibited even though all three of my siblings did it yeah we're looking at all aspects and really so just to be fully transparent our original plan was leverage the 2023 standards adoption with the Virginia Department of Ed but

[01:51:05] that got moved up a little bit so we're kind of clamoring to reassess and accelerate accelerate our plan and we're examining all of those options to make sure that we have more open pathways yeah I mean with this and with advanced academics Dr. Reed I really think if we if we I mean we don't want to set kids up for failure right but if kids are able to prove their capability they're doing well in the regular class and then maintain a certain grade point average whatever in those classes there's just no reason why we'd tell them because you didn't pass this test can't do it well I think there are a lot of Fairfax students for math is their Friday night lights right I mean it's a

[01:51:40] it's a thing I mean I math limits 84% of our career choices it's a determinant in the AI world the upcoming algorithm around quantum it's hard not to be excited about mathematics yeah so I just want to offer that as a potential way of rethinking how we do this for algebra in seventh grade and advanced economics more broadly and then finally just on the pre-algebra thing because I know that was asked my understanding is pre-algebra isn't actually it's kind of a misnomer a little bit it's more like fractions and percentage is just making sure that the basics of math are solid so you can apply them in algebra am I

[01:52:19] wrong about that I mean the the pre-algebra course right now as it exists with the remember new standards the 2016 standards is a pretty robust course it's a survey course so it's different includes you know geometry other topics probabilities statistics and things that you may not get in the same depth as you would in a traditional algebra one course but there are valuable standards in that course that provide a nice scaffold to algebra one I think that the question that that that we have is how do we I mean what middle schools are doing right now is when they do have students go from math 7 to algebra one

[01:52:57] they're compacting content and they're picking the most salient and relevant standards from the pre-algebra course to ensure a nice bridge and they're doing a lot of intervention. So I think again what we need to examine is how do we build a course pathway sequence that begins as early as kindergarten or even pre-k and really starts to develop that algebraic thinking along the way and highlighting it and making it very visible and known so that it doesn't feel like such a mysterious you know like the students who said I wasn't sure I could do it you can do it so we're just trying to really examine all pathways and all approaches so that we can really develop algebraic thinkers by the time they get to grade eight yeah no i'm

[01:53:36] really glad to hear that it's changed and that you all are thinking of how to adopt it or adapt it even further so thank you all for this work i'm excited to see where it goes thank you miss cord sanders thank you um just a couple of quick questions um first you talk about four and 11 but but we never got the list of who the 4 and the 11 are.

[01:54:01] And I would be very interested because obviously I would like to know which ones are in Mount Vernon. Well, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, we will get you a list in our Friday letter tomorrow. Okay, thank you. I also think it's really important to point out when we adopted our strategic plan, We were very intentional in addressing, in our strategic plan, the importance of meeting kids where they are.

[01:54:30] And so we recognize that students come into our system at various points of algebraic readiness and that they move around because especially students who are living in poverty have a higher mobility rate.

[01:54:45] And so my question is, what are we doing to address the unique needs of those students who enter our system at a later date? And what are we doing from the standpoint of remediating or mitigating some of the learning loss they may have had or learning delays by entering into our system at a later date?

[01:55:11] At any grade is kind of what you're talking about. Yeah, we have kids who move in that may or may not have interrupted learning. And they come to us some, it's easier in many ways if they come to us earlier on because we can do the scaffolding necessary.

[01:55:30] But when we talk about algebraic readiness in eighth grade, and if a student comes to us in sixth or seventh grade, what are we doing to provide those scaffoldings? Oh, sorry.

[01:55:47] Go ahead. Well, no, one of the things we actually sometimes have the reverse issue as well, where we have students who come in from out of country or other divisions that are more ready for, I mean, they're ready for algebra much earlier than we've been ready to teach it.

[01:56:04] So I think the students who have gaps or have missed content I think the comment that Dr. Hunter made around salient points and compacting critical content is really really a critical strategy.

[01:56:23] I don't know if you want to elaborate on that. Yeah I mean we have we have a variety of interventions that we train teachers on and then we promote in beginning in the early grades and we have you know supports in middle school and I think that schools are all very aware of the need to take students from where they are and and help to find again like that most critical content that we need to remediate or bolster to get them to the next level and we do a variety of professional development with schools and teachers on like how to do that so I think that's a really general answer but I you know but specifically there are points along the way that we have really robust like you know you've You probably heard about AVMR, Advantage Math Recovery.

[01:57:02] We have a tremendous number of teachers who are trained in that. That's a great intervention, especially for students who might be coming in who have interrupted formal education. We have courses at the high school level and the middle school level to address students who come in from those in those types of situations.

[01:57:19] So there's a variety of strategies that we kind of work with to address those needs. SO, DR. REED, AS PART OF YOUR FRIDAY LETTER, IN ADDITION TO THE LIST OF SCHOOLS AND WHERE THEY FIT INTO THE SCHEDULE OF 4-11 AND THEN THE ADDITIONAL 10 TO BE PROVIDED THESE SUPPORTS, I WOULD ALSO LIKE A MORE DETAILED RESPONSE THAT GIVES A LITTLE BIT MORE RESPONSE TO THE targeted interventions that we do provide I know that there has been a lot

[01:57:56] of push for one-to-one tutoring and there have been some different services available we do do some tutoring online but that tends to be taken up by higher level learners and so I'd like to have a better more detailed response on what we're doing because it's not only to get them to be able to enter the algebra classroom but then as they as we add more robust mathematics that we want to

[01:58:28] make sure that we continue those scaffolds I just wanted to put a plug in for please please communicate and educate parents about how students are being taught math I recently tried to help my fifth grader and it was very tough and the thing was I just kept saying leave the ones column blank and He needed to see a zero there and then it all got worked out.

[01:58:52] So please you know I've seen schools do family math nights. I know it's tough sometimes to get parents attention but we want to help our kids. And it's it's different now. So thank you. Great suggestion. Yeah. And who wouldn't like to spend an evening doing math. The family that does math together stays together.

[01:59:14] Everything exactly what you're thinking. Yeah. Thank you. And I am all in support of family math. Thank you. I was also thrilled as we were developing our strategic plan about this very intentional selected measure.

[01:59:29] It's very important for many of the reasons my colleagues have spoken about, but of course there needs to be a little bit more. So I do want to probe a little bit about the algebra students who may or may not be ready for algebra one in seventh grade. grade. Ms. Amesh was talking about this. Is the Iowa test still the test that we do that's the test to see whether or not there's a readiness level? Yes, the Iowa, the IAAT is part of the criteria. One of the criterion is to pass six advanced, and then it's scoring in the 91st

[02:00:06] percentile or above on the IAT and I'll just remind everyone that we often have families who appeal to their principal for that process and we let that be a school-based decision. Yes so that's much the same for my duration on the board. I do want to mention one thing Dr. Reed that you know in so many of these things that there is an equity issue and lots of schools do prep extensively for their children's for their students to take the Iowa test while some schools do not and I think that can impact the scores significantly

[02:00:45] just as practice on any team volleyball or sport improves your outcomes I think that's important to know I do not want to take anyone's test prep away or people who concentrate on that I think it should be a part though of the curriculum leading up to those testing times Thank you for that.

[02:01:08] Thank you. OK. I just have one question myself and it's a little bit of a different twist and talking to some of my middle schools are so excited about this work.

[02:01:26] But also as we continue with this work and we're shifting courses and who's taking what and we're moving kids up into these more advanced courses. What are you seeing as far as I mean I know it's not always the easiest to hire a secondary teacher with a math, you know, licensure, much less somebody that's trained in addition to some of these special areas, you know, special education, you know, some of these special accreditations that you're talking about. What do we need to do to make sure that we have the right staff in place to be able to do this? So I think the first is that we're going to need to invest

[02:02:04] pretty heavily in professional development. I think we can all agree. And that does begin in kindergarten, right? Because we have some fantastic kindergarten teachers, and they may not be realize that they're doing some algebra already so I think that's number one we'll need to make an investment in our existing staff and we've actually started conversations in my office with HR with other relevant stakeholders we're not really sure we're trying to figure out who but around this issue of licensure because it could pose a challenge for us so I think that that's something that we as a school district are gonna have to look at carefully how are we recruiting math teachers who have the licensure to not only teach algebra one but teach some of the even you know teach seventh grade content.

[02:02:45] And so I think that that's part of something that we can look at more you know in depth as a as a county and then maybe even incentivizing additional endorsements. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[02:03:00] I know it's an issue. Thank you Dr. Hunter. Okay seeing no other board members with questions. We will move on to academic matters agenda item 3.03. thank you yeah thank you madam chair and this evening i am thrilled i mean this is exciting as almost as exciting as algebra um but i'm thrilled to share just a high level overview not the detailed report but it's foreshadowing our goal three report that we'll have an opportunity

[02:03:38] to more deeply explore on november 14th but this evening i just want to give a high level look at our annual pass rates and accreditation outcomes for this past spring so I want to start with our annual pass rates on the state assessments and as is our way here in Fairfax County we look at three-year comparisons and we also look at how we are doing compared to the Commonwealth of Virginia so as you can see in the chart we had some significant initial gains between

[02:04:14] 21 and 22 coming out of our coven pandemic and now we're seeing a bit of a what I would call sort of a steady maintenance of those gains and we also know that it's going to take us a couple years to reclaim the ground that we had prior to the pandemic but we really are feeling we're feeling good that we've maintained the gains that we have and we also know that as we are able to conquer are some of our current non-academic challenges like absenteeism and supporting strong mental

[02:04:48] health that that's going to continue to have us improving scores both this year and in the coming years. And these particular pass rates do include all SOL and VAP tests, VAAP tests taken over the past year, summer, fall, and spring.

[02:05:08] The next slide breaks down our VAAP scores, or our Virginia Alternate Assessment Program tests, a little bit more over the prior three years. I want to remind our community and our board that approximately 99% of our students do take the SOLs, and that about 1% of our student body in Fairfax County takes the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program.

[02:05:33] The three-year trend also, I think, is quite interesting because it illustrates a significant change in the format of the exam that occurred in the spring of 2022. You can see in 2021 our VAAP scores were 80% or above or close to 80%.

[02:05:52] In the spring of 2022, the U.S. Department of Education directed that the VAP change from a portfolio-based assessment of aligned standards to a multiple choice assessment. And this change in format has affected, obviously, the results.

[02:06:11] Again, we have a fairly small percentage, which can be moved very quickly when you have fewer students as you're in. But one of the things that we're really going to be thoughtful about is how are we supporting our students who take this exam now in this multiple choice format rather than in the portfolio format previously. The next slide is our again our annual pass rates three years by our student groups and again since 2021 we continue to make progress and overall our

[02:06:49] performance trends have leveled out and are remaining stable at this time. Our English learners have seen the most substantial improvement over the past three years and still have substantial improvement to make additionally we want to note that fairfax county consistently outperforms virginia for most of the reporting groups again with significant notable strengths want to summarize again at a high level and again we're going to go into more detail november 14th but just want to be clear about our summary of accreditation um schools out of our uh the

[02:07:29] percentage of our schools that are accredited are 99.5 percent with a 0.5 percent accredited with conditions which means really that all 195 of our schools are are accredited so accreditation was not or was not denied at any of our schools so i think that's really a testament to our hard working staff in a wide variety of roles and we're very proud of the work our staff continues to do in supporting our students teaching and learning again on the high level of 2023 accreditation

[02:08:04] indicator performance level outcomes i want to remind our community and board that we do report six school quality indicators for elementary and middle school while we have nine school quality indicators for high schools this was also the first year that we had a CCCRI indicator that counted and I really want to commend all of our high school staff because this was a new data point that was announced fairly late last year that this was actually going to be counted towards accreditation it's

[02:08:39] called our college career civic readiness index and we have gathered a group of our high school principals and DSS's and central office staff to work on the completion of that index even earlier in the high school careers of our students but just this is a again a high-level report on this performance level one means the school met the state standard level two means the school performed near the standard or is improving and level three means the school perform below the standard. So again this data looks very promising and

[02:09:17] it also clarifies those areas that we're going to need to work on. I will say that our chief of schools office is actively partnering with our chief academic offices instructional services and special services team to support improvement strategies and monitoring gear to address the specific needs at each of our schools. I want to report that we also have been active in the Virginia growth assessment fall testing and this is a participation chart so we're thrilled in green is reading and yellow or the golden rod is mathematics

[02:09:53] so we're very close to 100% of our Fairfax County students across third through eighth grade participating in the VGA assessments the reason that our seventh and eighth grade percentages are lower is because we did not test the VGA in Algebra I and Geometry. It should also give you a sense of how many of our Algebra I students, percentage-wise, we are at. So we think this is, again, very promising. These VGA assessments are still relatively new. They were required

[02:10:29] by the Virginia General Assembly in 2021, and the results are not used as part of school accreditation, but they are another way to inform the supports that teachers provide these results will be shared with families via the US mail in November something to look forward to this coming month and finally there is a public reporting of school performance data on the Virginia Department of Education website linked to the Virginia school quality profiles

[02:11:00] so that is academic matters madam chair thank you Dr. Reed Dr. Anderson just one quick question because i know we're going to have a work session on this the data that's been you that is being shown is that adjusted or unadjusted dr presidio so it's both okay because there's different rules for the sol results and different rules for accreditation um so it's actually both so when

[02:11:39] we're looking at the um sol results um those are uh adjusted the soa results are not adjusted i I've missed that second piece. The SOLs are adjusted, but-- The SOAs are not. OK, thank you.

[02:11:57] Ms. Teismerheiser. Thank you, and I know we have a work session also, so I'm just going to, one, a GLOW, as we used to say it before, so old language, and also just a preview of something I'm going to ask at the work session. But for the GLOW, thank you for separating the SOL and VAP scores and explaining the difference in the VAP scores.

[02:12:18] That is, as you know, something I've been asking for for probably four years, and I'm thrilled Thank you, Dr. Presidio, for having that on there. So I appreciate that. I would love to have an idea. I know you mentioned 1% of our students are taking the VAP assessment, which is what it's supposed to be.

[02:12:35] I'd love to get an idea of what percent of our seniors graduate with an applied studies diploma versus a different diploma and compare those two percentages. Yes, ma'am. I know you won't have it today, so it's a preview for what I'd ask for the work session. Thank you.

[02:12:51] Thank you, Dr. Reeve. I don't see any other board members with questions. Thank you very much. - Thank you. - All right, we will move on to agenda item 3.04, student representative matters.

[02:13:08] Have a call on Ms. Karim. - Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, everyone. Since our last board meeting, I've had the opportunity to attend the High School Principal Association meeting, also known as HSPA, where I shared various resources that address common themes raised in student meetings.

[02:13:25] One important topic is prayer rooms. While it's a part of our school improvement plans for all FCPS facilities to have a prayer or meditation room, these spaces don't always fully meet the needs of our students. We're seeking understanding from staff regarding the significance of prayer without unnecessary scrutiny.

[02:13:43] Additionally, we aim for these prayer rooms to be accommodating. Students are not asking for something extravagant. They simply need a clear space for their prayers. Some students have voiced concerns about tables and chairs occupying the space which cannot be easily moved. To address this, I've met with the McLean Islamic Board and a few other students.

[02:14:01] Together, we drafted a one-page document outlining the importance of prayer and how to be considerate of our students' needs. I shared this document with the HSPA in the hope that it can be distributed to all high schools. While this represents a small step, it's a move in the right direction to make our students feel valued no matter what the situation is. Even when it comes to the issues our community participants brought up today, equality is at the core of this issue. All students in Fairfax County deserve to be heard, valued, and respected. In addition to sharing information about the prayer room guidelines, I also presented a checklist used by Woodson administrators to

[02:14:36] establish a student-driven problem identification and issue resolution program. This program is supported by the Department of Justice and involves a student group known as SPIRIT, which collaborates with DOJ officials to address various school issues. The checklist used by Woodson administrators has proven highly effective in ensuring that students feel heard and valued.

[02:14:58] Moving on, I've previously discussed the importance of portrait of a graduate, Presentation of Learning, also known as POGPOL, emphasizing how crucial it is for students in terms of their academic development and life beyond school. When the POGPOL experience is implemented accurately, it becomes a practical strategy that aligns perfectly with FCPS's Equity Commitments 2, 3, 4, and 5 as outlined in our strategic plan.

[02:15:22] It serves as a powerful tool to promote equity and guarantee that every student has the opportunity to excel and reach their full potential. The POGPOL career days at Woodson have been particularly helpful in guiding students in exploring their interests and potential careers. It's essential we expand this career day beyond Woodson High School as it is POGPOL focused.

[02:15:41] In the future, I hope to collaborate with the HSPA for this initiative. During the recent Student Advisory Council meeting, delegates had the opportunity to engage with their regional assistant superintendents, FCPS leadership, and other senior figures in our county.

[02:15:57] Some of the issues discussed included student-to-counselor ratios, concerns about food waste from free and reduced lunches, inconsistency in grading policies, and many others. Another update I have regards Technology Youth Empowerment, a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded by the SEALs.

[02:16:13] This organization aims to bridge the gap in STEM education, particularly in Title I schools. With our most recent student representative from Justice High School, they have expanded their collaboration to two more schools, which are Glasgow Middle School and Glen Forest Elementary, both of which are Title I schools.

[02:16:31] They will soon begin teaching activities involving Finchbots, Arduinos, and other engineering and computer science activities in these schools. Looking ahead, I'm working with Dr. Anderson, and we will be hosting a town hall meeting next Monday with Regents 2 and 6 to discuss various issues from grading to other pressing matters.

[02:16:50] Speaking of grading, it's an ongoing concern that I'd like to bring up again to seek support from other leadership. It's crucial that we bring consistency to this matter and centralize our grading systems as each school currently operates based on its individual needs. Colleges evaluate applicants based on their school grading policies.

[02:17:09] However, we must address the disparities such as Annandale at a 90-10 split and Edison at a 95-5 split and other high schools with highly unreasonable grading splits. This lack of equity poses challenges for our students in their pursuit of excellence. Before making any changes, we must ensure we have solid and concrete evidence for our new implementations.

[02:17:30] It's essential to base our decisions on data and research to promote fairness and support of our students effectively. A relevant example of the importance of evidence-based decision-making can be found in California. In the 2014-15 school year, the San Francisco Unified School District altered the way algebra was taught, postponing it until 9th grade instead of offering it in middle school.

[02:17:53] This change aimed to address racial achievement gaps in advanced math courses. However, the outcomes of this change were at best mixed. Despite the initial intention to reduce achievement gaps between racial groups, the results fell short of expectations. In some cases, the research was presented as support of the policy, even when its actual findings contradicted the assertion.

[02:18:15] It is in our best interest to gather evidence that will be effective when making decisions. And lastly, on Agenda Item 6.01 regarding the fiscal year 2024 revised budget, it's noted that state aid of $19.7 million is allocated for supporting the changes FCPS is making for its employees.

[02:18:34] However, we also have the option to use this money to assist employees who sponsor after-school clubs, extracurricular activities, or other student organizations that require some effort. Sometimes finding volunteers to sponsor these clubs can be challenging, and there's no financial incentive. Furthermore, we could also consider allocating money to student groups such as the Student Advisory Council or the Student Equity Ambassador Leaders to support their initiatives.

[02:18:57] Thank you. Thank you. Agenda Item 3.05, Superintendent Matters. I call on Dr. Reed. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be somewhat brief this evening.

[02:19:14] I know we're running late. I do want to share that I did complete the six regional community conversations and this week finished up at Hughes Middle School in Langley, or actually those were my employee conversations were at Hughes Middle School in Langley High School, finishing our third and fourth employee conversation. And my fifth and sixth community conversation was at Madison High School on Tuesday evening and last night at Liberty Middle School. So I really want to thank everyone that came out and shared their thoughts and comments and concerns.

[02:19:49] We have had a number of school visits since last we met. Terraset Elementary School had a chance to visit their kindergarten classrooms and very impressed with the use of the Conscious Discipline program in kindergarten classes. Clearview Elementary School really had an opportunity to visit preschool classes, including preschool autism and early childhood special education class and early childhood Head Start class.

[02:20:16] So a lot of excitement at their very youngest learners. Want to remind our board that we're in the process of hiring our tutors for our high-impact tutoring program And we're thrilled as we continue that work that we began a year ago I had a great visit at our finance park with board member Miss Derenak Kovacs and we had a chance to see Our middle school students in action Learning about finances, which is a good thing I had a chance to visit with our FCC PTA and attend our FCAC Champions of Character Awards.

[02:20:53] And then the Langley High School concert was amazing, Ms. Tolan. We had a chance to, along with Principal Kim Greer, listen to an amazing performance. I want to also share with our community, we're so pleased that 17 of our secondary and high schools were named to the AP School Honor Roll by the College Board.

[02:21:13] And I want to remind our community that TJ applications are open now. And there is a meeting or actually the applications must be started by 4:00 Wednesday, November 15th with a deadline to submit the application by Friday, November 17th at 4:00 p.m.

[02:21:32] Please visit the TJ registration page for more information. And if you're a parent and haven't had a chance yet, please do complete the Federal Impact Aid Survey, which is available online in CIS and ParentVUE. So thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:21:49] Thank you, Dr. Reed. Agenda 4.01 Performance Review, Executive Expectation Number Three, Relationships with Families and Communities. Before we move on to the Performance Review of Executive Expectation Number Three, Relationships with Families and Communities, a motion to revise our process so that forms will be optional while the Governance Committee is considering the executive expectations process and that there will not be a mandatory vote on each executive expectation was postponed at the last

[02:22:25] meeting. Without objection the motion is postponed indefinitely. I see no objections so the motion is postponed indefinitely. At this point I would like to call on Ms. Omeish for a motion. For the board to fully consider how to provide feedback on executive expectations i move to defer the decision to the next school board on

[02:23:00] whether school board members vote on executive expectation compliance and policy reviews and the use of the executive expectations forms the governance committee shall discuss various options for accountability on executive expectations and the use and content of the form including consideration of voting on executive expectations and bring recommendations forward for the new 2024-28 board this will be discussed at a future work session in preparation for a vote by that board by february 8th 2024 in the meantime the superintendent will continue providing executive expectation compliance reports at regular meetings as scheduled and school board

[02:23:37] members will offer feedback through the next steps process or an electronic version of the current feedback form which will be attached to the next steps thank you is there a second i'll second it thank you miss seizmerheiser miss omesh would you like to speak to your motion yes thank you um so So we tried this last meeting, but I think we're at a better place.

[02:24:01] And I think this time we're going to be able to model a spirit of collaboration and good faith amongst colleagues. There were many, many conversations for, I'm sure, what amounted to ours. So I want to thank my colleagues for their work on this and getting us to a place where we can come to some agreement around the best process without any board member feeling disrespected, constrained in how we do this.

[02:24:26] I want to first thank Dr. Reed who came up with the visionary idea of how we set this up to begin with in moving us towards a better accountability system for our school for FCPS and having conversations with her on a regular and consistent basis and what this will do is Dr. Reed will continue presenting her executive expectations we will then be able to provide feedback and each board member is able to do that either through the next steps process which we typically use at at a work session where we have a Google Doc, everyone documents their thoughts, people can indicate support for the different next steps to offer some sense of consensus for

[02:25:03] Dr. Reed so that she knows what to move forward with in modifying what she's presented, or I suppose the same feedback form that we used in a previous meeting which is optional for folks to attach electronically as well.

[02:25:18] So this provides maximum flexibility to offer sufficient feedback to Dr. Reed after she presents but does defer the the idea of a vote so we would not be voting whether or not she's in compliance this early at this stage and and we would hold that theoretically now until the end when we evaluate her but the governance committee will be reviewing this entire process and determining for the future board what is best for them because we also don't want to over speak or decide for them the way that they would proceed with this process so i'm grateful to all my COLLEAGUES I KNOW MS. TOLAN, MS. SIZEMORE-HEISER, MS. CORBETT SANDERS AND OTHERS HAVE SPENT A LOT OF

[02:25:56] TIME HELPING ME HAVE THESE CONVERSATIONS WITH FOLKS AS WELL. SO I LOOK FORWARD TO A SUCCESSFUL NIGHT WHERE WE'RE ABLE TO STREAMLINE THIS AND WORK TOGETHER. THANK YOU. MS. SIZEMORE-HEISER WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR SECOND? YES, I WOULD. I KNOW THIS HAS BEEN A TOUGH AND PAINFUL PROCESS AND I KNOW IT'S ANYTIME I THINK WHEN WE'RE LOOKING TO IMPLEMENT SOMETHING NEW IT TAKES time to find a place and this is truly a compromise for the time being until the governance committee

[02:26:30] can really take a look at this process and come back to the new board with a process i do believe that having accountability for the system and accountability to make sure that we our superintendent and her staff are maintaining not just the goals of this strategic plan but the expectations this board has laid out for her is very important and so i believe that we'll get to a good accountability place where we can make it clear for our superintendent staff whether they're on track or not and how to address things if they're not on track so I think these there have been many conversations about this I think the next step process for now will be a a a good

[02:27:06] place to provide some of that feedback and I will just say that I don't know where we're going to land but I don't want to foreshadow that we're going to land in any particular spot but we'll wait till the governance committee comes back and we'll see what they say and I'm also glad that we have a date certain February 8th by which this vote will happen so this won't be hopefully taking much longer so I do appreciate especially Ms. Tolan, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Omesh, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch and all the conversations we've had. Ms. Bukarski, I think I've talked to everybody about 18 times and I know Ms. Tolan has talked to them many more times than I have so I appreciate

[02:27:45] ALL THE HARD WORK THAT EVERYBODY HAS PUT INTO FINDING A PLACE WHERE WE CAN TRULY FIND A COMPROMISE AND MOVE ON TO THE GOOD WORK OF ACTUALLY THINKING ABOUT WHAT THE REPORTS ARE AND HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT THE REPORTS AND GET SOME FEEDBACK. SO I THINK FOR FOR THIS MOMENT IN TIME THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO LAND AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT THE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE COMES BACK WITH FOR THE NEW BOARD TO PUT IN PLACE. THANK YOU. DR. ANDERSON WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE comments on from previously um miss corporate sanders i just want to thank the makers of the

[02:28:25] motion for this um but especially i want to acknowledge what this does do which is it addresses a frustration that many of the members of this board had when they came on four years ago that very soon after they were brought onto the board they were expected to provide feedback on a superintendent whom they didn't have as much experience with and so what this does

[02:29:00] is it captures the comments and the experience of the outgoing board in a way that the new board will be able to have informed decision making and so i just think that it's um as you say miss seizmerheiser a compromise but i actually think that that's what good governance is all about is that we all come together to work towards a common understanding and hopefully

[02:29:30] this sets up the next board for success okay i don't see any other board members that have comments. So at this point in time, I would like to call for the vote. All those in favor of supporting this motion. Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Jonah Koufax, Ms. Tolan, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. Omeish, Ms. Cohen, Roger Seisberheiser. Do we still have Ms. Bakarski

[02:30:07] with us? I cannot see her. Yes, I vote yes. Thank you. And Ms. Bakarski. Ms. Kees-Gumar is here as well. Oh, thank you, Ms. Kees-Gumara, for joining us. Okay, so Ms. Settler, would you like to announce the vote, please?

[02:30:25] Ms. Kees-Gumara, is that an affirmative? Yes. Then the vote is 11-0, so it's unanimous. Thank you. Okay, so that passes. Since the motion passes, Dr. Reed will present her report on executive expectation number three, relationships with families and community stakeholders, which is nice following her board matters, board members will then be able to ask questions or make comments.

[02:30:59] After the board asks questions, they will be able to provide feedback through the board's next steps process or could potentially fill out an electronic expectation form, which will be included with the next steps.

[02:31:15] Both of these documents are available to board members in the meeting Google folder that you have. The entire list, you know, for the public, the entire list of proposed next steps and any executive expectation forms will be shared with Dr. Reed after this process is completed and will be posted in the library section of board docs for the public to view.

[02:31:43] So I will now call in Dr. Reed for a presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair. And so this evening I will be presenting executive expectation three relationships with families and community stakeholders and you have this in front of you.

[02:32:00] I think that this is one of the ease that's very important in terms of make maintaining an organizational culture that facilitates collaborative trusting and responsive partnerships with all of our diverse stakeholders.

[02:32:16] This is a key I think to the functioning of our school division is interaction and with our community and making sure that we have timely communication and open communication I think with our our families and our stakeholders internally and externally.

[02:32:37] So this evening I want to share that I'm certifying that the information we're providing is correct as of this evening October 26th and to the best of my knowledge I believe I am in compliance with the board's executive expectation around this topic the indicators I want to be will be sharing in the past year 22 23 we held and I attended a total of 87 community meetings that were organized organized by the office of communications and community relations including

[02:33:12] all of our pyramid gatherings meetings also on specific topics separate from just community forums we did provide special accommodations during these meetings as we were trying to be very thoughtful about our community members attending including language interpretation child care as well as handouts and resources that were translated and having translators on site Of these 87 meetings, 15 were strategic planning community forums with breakout groups in English and Spanish, and three of the 15 strategic planning forums were virtual, with one of

[02:33:51] those being Spanish language only. Again, all of these meetings had interpreters, childcare, and American Sign Language. We also, at the fall of this year, as I mentioned earlier, held a series of superintendent community conversations one in each region as well as employee conversations we held for in a north south east west want to share with the board in our community that our central website has had 34.5 million page views annually and 68.7 million page views for our school websites we provide regular

[02:34:28] training for central office staff and school web curators and also attend to ADA compliance. At this time we are doing a full redesign on our FCPS website and are going to be looking for feedback not just from you as board members but also community stakeholder groups students and our staff. Another key that we've done with our central website has been this I think is in particular Dr.

[02:34:58] Anderson's request early on is a text-to-speech available on our FCPS website which increases accessibility as well as school web pages in English Spanish and Korean we have an intercultural engagement team that's been fully established and has fostered equitable enhanced outreach access so we really have made this a priority we have a calendar toolkit as well in multiple languages division-wide newsletters are translated and e-notify we have an intercultural playlist for informative voice recordings which was created in

[02:35:35] FCPS on an Espanol YouTube channel to keep all information organized we have employee news which reaches more than 40,000 employees while the division newsletters distributed to more than 320,000 families and community members That's a really broad reach.

[02:35:56] Our Instagram account reached 20,000 followers in August of '23, and Facebook has reached more than 100,000 followers. We've added LinkedIn into our content calendar and started a presence on Nextdoor for targeted community communications, and our YouTube channel saw a 24.7% increase in the past two years and has added a multilingual channel for educational videos about key communications yielding 47,600 video views and 1,000 subscribers.

[02:36:31] We continue to work on the stories of our student staff and division. We've also begun retooling work on the student registration welcome centers. We've begun completing transcript evaluations and we're also working on online registration as a key support for our families.

[02:36:53] The online registration system was one of the barriers our military families shared, and so that online registration process is something that we're working to continue to add to and incorporate so that all our families that move in and out of the division have access to courses and can meet timelines with their online enrollment and registration process. We also have supported our dedicated resources and supports for military connected families and our strategic plan obviously was a key piece of last year's work and significant community engagement. We're

[02:37:32] going to be working with family panels this year which will include families representative of each school and we've provided translations of handbooks enrollment forms and a variety of other important documents within the division family information phone lines at the Family Resource Center are used to provide general information and 22,000 contacts were made with families on these lines we also deliver an FCPS multilingual podcast in English Spanish Korean and Arabic to provide timely information to families in the community

[02:38:08] so I one of the things I heard in the last executive expectation report is that we needed more direct links to data or examples so this particular executive expectation has a number of links for you to take a look at any of those the talking points tool is another free easy and safe way families are communicating in home languages which is again a real priority as we engage with all members of our community and there are multiple pathways for businesses community groups and government and governmental

[02:38:47] entities to engage with our division and support our students our ignite partnerships continue and our business and community partnerships as well so it's important to stay connected to our county executive brian hill and county executive hill and i try to stay in communication weekly and i really appreciate his support and guidance in the county he's been a tremendous resource we have a number of outreach and partnerships teams as well as advisory councils the ombuds office again

[02:39:22] continues to provide service to families and we're beginning the implementation of a let's talk resource which actually monitors emails and i wouldn't say monitors emails but monitors the responses so that we have a better sense we have a lot of sort of bracketed email boxes meal mailboxes that emails go to and it's really helping us because we've had an increase in our volume of emails to make sure that we're able to have teams be responsive to those and have added resources

[02:40:00] IN THOSE AREAS TO PROVIDE SUPPORT THERE SO I THINK REALLY I'LL STOP THERE I THINK YOU'VE GOT ALL THE DATA AND I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS IF YOU HAVE THOSE AND I BELIEVE THIS IS POSTED RIGHT ON THE MADAM CHAIR ON THE PUBLIC SITE SO OKAY WE DO HAVE SEVERAL BOARD MEMBERS WITH QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS JUST START WITH SEISMER HEISER THANK YOU AND I'LL PUT SOME MORE ON THE NEXT STEPS BUT I APPRECIATE THE REPORT AND I APPRECIATE THE DETAIL THAT'S HERE IN RESPONSE

[02:40:35] a couple things that I just would love to kind of see perhaps as you move forward digging a little more into is the amount of usage of both the family resource center and the office of the ombuds in particular the office of the special education ombuds but really both of them the families resource center provides great webinars I know there's a youtube page but I do wonder how much are we're getting the message out to families about how much it's used and what's there and I mean I constantly have parents like oh I didn't know this existed right and I think it would be really one thing to look to as we're looking at that engagement is how are we getting that

[02:41:12] information to found and measuring the usage of some of these things especially I will say one of the things that families one of the big areas of concern is transition out of FCPS and there are some webinars on there but parents regularly don't know how to navigate that process and I know it's come up and same with the ombuds I'm always a little surprised at how much it's utilized in comparison to the services when I when we get those data reports quarterly about the usage and reports I'm always surprised at the low number okay they have I think one time early in my term I think I said I got more special education reports than they did yeah and so I think that's

[02:41:50] something maybe to look into is how can we expand the knowledge of those offices AND THE USE OF THOSE OFFICES BECAUSE THEY ARE GREAT RESOURCES. THAT'S GREAT FEEDBACK. THANK YOU. YEAH. THANK YOU.

[02:42:08] DR. ANDERSON. THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS INFORMATION. IT IS VERY HELPFUL. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I KNOW YOU SPENT QUITE A BIT OF TIME TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME IS THE COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS IN WHICH YOU'VE ENGAGED. I THINK THE STAFF HAS DONE A REALLY GREAT JOB IN ENSURING THAT THERE ARE INTERPRETATIONS available so that families can access just to follow up things there that I'd like for consideration when we're talking about the availability of inter of interpretation services I think we're not as consistent as we need to be across all meetings obviously for these meetings it's very intentional and it

[02:42:47] happens every time but meetings such as CIP meetings renovations the language of the invitations say as available which will discount parts of our community so I would just look for that intentionality to be across the board and I forgot my second thought on that. The other piece that I wanted to also talk about the text-to-speech again I am very very grateful for that but I also I would love to see if we can even capture usage of that. Are people clicking that function so if you can have that be part of the conversation that would be

[02:43:25] Great. Another point that I just want to raise is in this area as we're talking about being equitable I'd like to hear a little bit more in terms of how we're going to really be intentional about the equity part of the stakeholder communication which is which leads me to a couple of things that we've talked about you know false church high school turf the region two meeting that was eventually moved to Glasgow.

[02:43:55] I'd like to see some of that intentionality so that we are being really mindful of what is happening in the community. And the last piece, going back to the community meetings, I would love to see how does that become a two-way discussion?

[02:44:16] Because we're in the room, parents share a lot. What's the loop back? What does that look like when they provide pages and pages of information? I know that some of the concerns that are raised are individual but for the things that are more collective. Right. What can families look to have after that meeting occurs.

[02:44:35] Great question and we've added as you know Donna as a role to be at those meetings so that we can collect those data points and get back the feedback loop both to individuals as well as being able to have a list of the parents that attended to send something back this fall which is a step further than we've been able to do with registration.

[02:44:58] So we're looking forward to having a more systemic follow up to the group who attended and then those specific needs that have been raised often on a card that a community member or family has left with us that we can then make sure those get distributed to the departments for follow up.

[02:45:18] That feedback loop will be great to maximize that time because I know the community looks

[02:45:22] forward right to those opportunities I'll just put the rest of my comments in the form but I do have a quick process question for the chair I believe that the next steps form we're supposed to do the typical voting how does that work if one chooses to do the regular form since that's an option so since we just passed that we're going to have to do some discussion about that so let's fill this out this time

[02:45:59] and really take a look at it and we'll figure that out and how it will all be collected. The intention is that it would all be collected and available for the public and for Dr. Reed. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Anderson.

[02:46:18] Ms. Corbett Sanders. And then that will be followed by Ms. Keys-Gamara. I see your hand up there. Thank you, Dr. Reed, for this. And I especially appreciate the click-through opportunities and what you've provided us. I've got a couple of questions.

[02:46:35] And one of the components of this plan is timely and open communications. And I know we're very good at broadcast communications. When something's going on, we can get messages out and provide messages to the community, updates to what's happening.

[02:46:55] And I'm particularly cognizant of this because of what occurred where there was a swatting incident at Carl Sandburg and the community was made aware of what was happening during that day.

[02:47:12] I guess my question is, okay, that's one piece of the feedback mechanism, but it's after the dust has settled and people are feeling fragile because their lives have been disrupted by a threat in the community, perceived because of the way it was reported, where is our feedback loop, not only for our parents and students of checking in, how are you doing? We know this was

[02:47:47] a traumatic experience? What can we do to support you? But also for our teachers, because our teachers and staff in that building were traumatized. So what are we doing to ensure that we have that continuous feedback, checking in, and really ensuring that we walk the walk of a caring culture? Well, you know, I don't know that that's been a strength in terms of the coming back after the fact and checking in.

[02:48:26] So I'll make a note of that to be more intentional about that. That would be great. Thank you. Now, there's a second piece on page eight, item five. We talk about engaging students and parents to fairly fairly address community conflicts and ensure equitable inclusion.

[02:48:49] We've heard a lot of comments tonight in the public speaking, the community engagement as well as in speaking with community members and seeing it on social media that our community here in fairfax is struggling to deal with the conflict of what's happening geopolitically elsewhere and some are feeling very vulnerable and that their voices

[02:49:22] aren't heard some are feeling that way as members of the jewish community some are feeling that way as members of the Muslim community. And when we talk about engaging students and parents and guardians to address community conflicts, this is an area where I think, because it comes back into our schools, it's really important that we create fora to allow for that community dialogue amongst students,

[02:49:57] but in a safe space because our students aren't feeling safe right now in be to be able to Express their concerns and they're fearful of Experiencing anti-semitism and Islamophobia and so I I'm wondering what you The school system is doing to ensure that everybody feels safe secure and included in our schools

[02:50:26] So, I think at this point, we've put out a statement a couple weeks ago related to the topic you're referring to at this point. We put out a statement.

[02:50:41] We've worked with our school principals on statements and are responding to community members as we receive information. AND I THINK THE KEY IS GOING TO BE CONTINUING TO PROVIDE COMMUNICATION AND BEING CLEAR THAT WE'RE NOT GOING TO TOLERATE HATE SPEECH OR VIOLENCE ON OUR CAMPUSES, THAT WE NEED SAFE LEARNING SPACES. OUR CORE MISSION, AS YOU KNOW, IS EDUCATION AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE FOCUS ON SAFE LEARNING SPACES AND PROVIDING THOSE AND ENSURING THOSE SO THAT EACH OF OUR STUDENTS

[02:51:15] feel welcomed and respected on our campuses thank you thank you uh miss keese gamara yes thank you for uh this report i'm hearing a little feedback i'm not sure if it bothers you guys but i think we're good we're not hearing it okay great um so dr reed dr ricardi did um refer to one of the things i wanted to talk to talk about with respect to clear communication around facilities and um

[02:51:54] what we were told in the cpdc meeting as you know we've been working on the engagement process is that we want to have translation but we don't always have and i'm hoping that you can put it on your radar as to perhaps there needs to be um i don't know if it can be available virtually or in another way but in in my particular business if you don't have translation services and people are present who want to participate then you don't have the meeting and i understand that's that's

[02:52:30] harsh but i'm wondering are we exploring other avenues to make sure that that particular need can be met we certainly can absolutely we certainly can explore other avenues for that so i'll make a note of that and uh see what's possible yeah i appreciate that i as we have last night there was significant concerns uh that entire swaths of a community could be eliminating the process when we're trying to build up engagement um so i'm happy to work with moving

[02:53:08] forward for as long as i'm here and perhaps beyond um the other thing that stuck out to me in that meeting was that there would seem to be in terms of our facilities a two-week period for um uh notice and and sometimes longer and so um this isn't necessarily probably not something you were aware of but the committee will be recommending that we standardize that time period um i think i want to look at two other things one is effective communication and some of my colleagues have

[02:53:46] alluded to this or perhaps discussed this and so i'm wondering what accountability measures we can set for ourselves to make sure that we're one not just reaching the same people all the time um that those who need interpretation services are actually being included and encouraged to participate and is there their accountability measures in place or that you're looking at that can help us to be able to know how effective our communication is being so I think great question I think the let's talk tool that we're working on implementing right now in several

[02:54:26] departments will help us get to that and I think if that's a key and it's part of our equity commitment then we're going to have to identify tools that are going to enable us to be more clear and more transparent with you and the community on our ability to reach um all of our family members and stakeholders so more to come on that i think that's a discovery we're going to need to be on this year i i know it's ongoing work um and i appreciate the efforts that have occurred uh thus

[02:54:59] far but um i'm concerned that our community is becoming more diverse and um you know i think we plan as to how we're making sure that we're having effective communication as that growth takes place uh the last category i want to deal with is the the misinformation that can occur and a plan to address that i was at one of your community meetings this week and i always appreciate that um and i know you don't like to correct people and i and that's very polite um but i also know that that other people in the room are hearing the misinformation.

[02:55:39] So I just throw this out there for thought 'cause I worry sometimes when information that is incorrect is stated publicly and others don't have an opportunity to get the accurate information, then people go and repeat that somewhere else and create, I don't know, something we have to go back and correct when we didn't deal with it the first time it was set.

[02:56:09] - Yeah, I think that's a fair point. On the particular topic I think you're referring to was the committee setting thresholds around Title I. And I honestly, in that moment, I had to think, is there a committee that is thinking that's what they're doing, right?

[02:56:26] So I think if it's a clear, like, no, I have to make sure we say something, 'cause you're right, otherwise it gets repeated. So I think that's good advice for sure. - I just offer a thought because I know it comes in my office hours and I'm sort of there trying to think where'd that come from.

[02:56:47] So at any rate, I offer that as a possible way to try to make sure that we're not only communicating, but we're communicating effectively and we're addressing the narrative that impacts all of us. - Yes, ma'am. - Thank you.

[02:57:03] - Thank you, Ms. Amesh. Thank you. I definitely want to be a little bit more thoughtful and I know that we've built in some time with this new process to have the next step situation but I for now I just want to emphasize some points that were raised maybe take a different flavor on them you know Dr. Reed what we do with language interpretation I think is just outdated at this point I've brought it up before that one budget year we looked at a very cursory overview of just what the needs are and it was $98 million

[02:57:38] short of what we would need to meet the needs of our families and I mean we're you know we're talking it should be to the level where schools have immediate access to that kind of thing a newsletter that's sent out to the school community some of our schools are more than half Spanish speaking I mean it's it's insane that that's not available immediately you know at all times on the school at the school level and that's just Spanish I mean there are so many languages spoken by our families in significant numbers so that's a key one that I think we have to make some progress on even to the point where I

[02:58:15] mean ideally in a system this diverse we would have even our school board meeting broadcasts like being multiple you know like offered in languages and whatnot but let's start at least at the school level and then I think on that intentionality piece and consistency I think you've done a great job with some reorganization in our division already and I know it's a fine balance with change management of like how much to how fast but I do think that some reorganization reorganization or consideration of that internally could be useful we have different community partnership silos in our division you'll have the you know office family partnerships and then you'll have this

[02:58:54] random other office doing outreach and then the schools do outreach and so it's kind of like who's doing what right we're totally doubling up on resources here so I think some thought there would be well worth your time in the remaining time that you have for this year's evaluation and then I just had questions about you know making sure that in this climate in all times that kids have a means of reporting discrimination and I know that that's something we've talked about making sure they have that tool I understand you know again was supposed to be deployed this year perhaps hasn't been I just want to ask for an update on where we are on that so currently where we are is

[02:59:33] is on the wiring of the back side of the system. And that's that let's talk tool. So there is a process for reporting concerns. And what we want to do is capture the reports. And so we're wiring the back side of that so that we're able to capture and collect those reports in real time.

[02:59:55] So if all the reports right from any source and in particular wanting to make sure that student reports are captured and addressed. So I think it's right now it's a process of making sure we have that backside work done because we're not, what we'd like to do is be consistent in how those reports are made so that we can look at patterns perhaps across the division and make sure that we're able to provide resources and support in real time.

[03:00:25] - Okay, when can we, I've been very patiently waiting. - You have been extraordinarily patient. I WOULD THINK LET ME SEE WHAT WE CAN DO BY THE END OF NEXT WEEK IN TERMS OF GETTING YOU IN NEXT WEEK'S FRIDAY LETTER SORT OF THE WHAT I WOULD CALL THE FUNCTIONAL PATH OF WHAT A REPORT LOOKS LIKE WHERE IT GOES AND HOW WE'RE CATALOGING AND MAINTAINING IT AND ADDRESSING IT.

[03:00:47] I APPRECIATE THAT. THIS TIME MORE THAN EVER, KIDS ARE EXPERIENCING ALL KINDS OF STUFF. ABSOLUTELY. OKAY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. MR. FRESH. THANK YOU FOR THIS REPORT. COUPLE THINGS.

[03:01:02] page 8 let's talk thank you my understanding is that this will soon replace client communication I mean it's already replacing it elsewhere in the division that it will soon replace or eventually replace it in the school board office the number of times that school board members have been locked out of being able to deal with their constituent services because client communication is down for the afternoon or whatever you know I've heard very promising things from the people who are already using let's talk and I'm excited for our school

[03:01:37] board offices to be able to have something that is more current and you know technologically savvy to deal with our constituents so I'm looking forward to that rolling out further second you mentioned the new website that's being worked on to help us connect with our families I don't know if you mentioned that there will be a mobile app component to it and it's good to hear the focus on accessibility one thing as we you know design this path forward that I think is important I know the interviews are underway with different facets of the school

[03:02:13] division and the school community to determine what is needed for the website one of the things that's been most frustrating has been going to a school website and finding no pertinent information about what's happening in the school community you'll find that information in their newsletters every single week they'll send out the information but it doesn't make its way to the website so if a parent or a community member wants to see what's going on at the school and they're not signed up for the newsletter they're just not finding it and so my understanding is that the technology we're looking at for the new website allows a central mechanism for

[03:02:49] updating these websites so that they're more up to date i think it would also be worth considering how do you empower individual schools to understand the importance of keeping this information current on their websites um so hopefully we can look at that and then finally the family resource center um both chair tolan and i have had lunch at the the center with our center staff they are incredible um and they do tremendous work and they maintain a really great library of resources for families one thing that i've talked with them about that i'm eager to see

[03:03:26] if they'll try out uh is taking their show on the road and doing um you know mobile um resource centers in the various pyramids around fcps so that they can take it from dunloring to the community so i i'm very encouraged by the direction that we're going um your community conversations our testament to the willingness to listen, and I think that's how we start this conversation.

[03:03:53] Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I have just a couple things I was going to point out. To follow up on Mr. Frisch's comments about the Family Resource Center, I noted in the report that you gave us that one of the things that they are doing is supporting and collaborating in the implementation of our opportunity neighborhoods.

[03:04:17] And so that just made me make that connection with our recent conversations around community schools. Exactly. And this is just one piece, you know, in this whole family engagement report where, you know, as we're moving forward thinking about community schools and how we could possibly implement them most efficiently and effectively, you know, let's make sure we look at all this great work and figure out how it could be pulled or combined or made even more efficient to provide those kinds of resources to our students.

[03:04:52] One of the things that you mentioned in here, too, I will make a note about is just keeping the board informed of concerns, repeated concerns, and, of course, additional data, information, et cetera, that comes up in some of these presentations.

[03:05:13] I just want to thank you for being so careful about doing all of that. You know, sometimes it's a bit overwhelming when you open as a board member, open your email and just see, you know, what's going on. But I do feel like I know if there are safety concerns, issues, whatever, across the whole county.

[03:05:31] And I think that's very important. And I thank you for that and for your very thorough now Friday letters. Right. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. As a reminder to board members, and to kind of get back to Dr. Anderson's question, you have a Next Steps document in your folder, and we'll follow our usual timing for Next Steps documents

[03:06:06] that you've got three business days, so up until 5 p.m. on October 31st to enter anything that you want to enter in there. And then an additional three days beyond that to go back in and just log in your support or agreements on, you know, anything that other board members have put in there.

[03:06:31] If you also want to use the electronic form based on what we passed tonight, you have the option to do that. And that gives you an opportunity to just make additional comments or wonderings or, you know, questions about the executive expectation report.

[03:06:48] And those, we will just have to, we're thinking at the same time that we have the next steps comments. So that's Friday, November 3rd.

[03:07:05] And we'll send this all out to everybody just as a reminder. The next agenda item that we had listed was the policy review for Executive Expectation 3, relationships with families and community stakeholders.

[03:07:21] Since the board earlier this evening passed this motion under agenda item 4.01, deferring this policy review of the executive expectations, we will not be handling this agenda item tonight. Okay, now we are moving on to agenda item 6.01, an action item for fiscal year 2024 revised budget.

[03:07:48] I would like to call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. Thank you. I move that the school board approved the revenue and expenditure adjustments as detailed in the agenda item. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Dr.

[03:08:04] Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, please. This action will provide a 2% raise for our teachers, bus drivers, instructional assistants, principals, central office staff, all FCPS employees. It's important to be clear about how FCPS is managing this compensation increase. The state's calculation metrics place a greater burden on divisions such as Fairfax County. The total cost of the 2% raise for all employees in FCPS is $30.5 million. The state

[03:08:41] It provides exactly $5.3 million, or approximately 17% of the funds for this 2% raise. Therefore, FCPS needed to raise $25.2 million to actualize the 2% adjustment.

[03:09:02] That is not a state match, but rather the funding burden rests largely on local funds. This lopsided formula continues to be a part of the Board's legislative agenda. And I know we're looking forward to an opportunity for that to be corrected.

[03:09:19] A state budget amendment, a recent state budget amendment, resulted in FCPS being allotted $14.4 million as reimbursement for support positions. Due to the flexibility allowed with those funds, the $14.4 million is being allocated to the 2% raise.

[03:09:41] The remaining $10.8 million will be coming from Staffing Reserve. At this time, typically, such action would have been posted for new business and voted on at a subsequent board meeting.

[03:09:57] But the limited notice and timeline provided by VDOE required for the board to both present and act upon this this evening, which is a departure from normal board practices. At this time, I would like to invite Ms. Burden to provide additional clarification on the posted document before I conclude my remarks.

[03:10:20] Dr. Anderson, I'm not sure what else I would add because you pretty much covered everything that's in my notes. I think there were a number of inquiries regarding the staffing reserve impact.

[03:10:37] Why was that flexible for us to utilize? If you can speak to that a little bit since we didn't have the benefit of additional discussions. This recommendation repurposes 10.8 million in staffing reserve. we have about 190 positions remaining in the staffing reserve and that the staffing reserve as you know is budgeted every year and for fy24 310 positions were included all of the original positions included in the fiscal 24 approved budget were distributed to schools in an attempt to ensure early hiring due to the national teacher shortage so the staffing

[03:11:13] reserve was depleted by the summer of 2023 so we recommended that an additional 200 positions be funded at year-end and that was approved on August the 31st again right now we have about a hundred ninety staffing reserve positions remaining because we did not exceed the enrollment projection in September which at the time we were concerned about which is why we proposed the additional staffing reserve the recommendation assumes that the value of a hundred positions or ten point eight million be repurposed for the two percent salary increase we believe we will still have ample positions about 90 should additional

[03:11:52] staffing needs arise this year although normally few positions are allocated after October because of the potential disruption of adding teacher positions once the school year has started typically after October we allocate about 25 positions thank you miss burden just to conclude my comments I do want to say oops I hope that my colleagues will be in support of this motion as we heard earlier from several speakers how we spend our money is indicative of what

[03:12:28] we value additionally I ask for continued consideration for differentiation compensation for staff and hard-to-fill fields such as special education where the number of vacancies are numerous also as we heard tonight and title one schools where a staff turnover tends to be more significant while the two percent raise is a start it is clearly insufficient in ensuring our professionals are compensated at their full

[03:13:02] value nor does it bridge the gap enough for our family liaisons drivers ias and others to earn a wage that allows them to reside in fairfax county so i'm looking forward to your support thank you yes card sanders yes thank you madam chair i'll be brief this is a motion that allows us to retain teachers at the status quo essentially because this two percent is being

[03:13:41] enacted across the state and we cannot afford to not adopt it however i do want to bring people's attention to the importance of continued advocacy and work at the state level because the JLARC study was very clear that we fall below all of the neighboring states in state-level funding for public education k-12 and the greatest needs are in the area of special education and our students with

[03:14:21] free and reduced meals who are not necessarily addressed in the state the SOQs to the level that we need them to be. Additionally we were very excited about the concept of fully removing the support cap but it's not clear in the budget language that was adopted in September that that will be a permanent relief of the support cap and so I urge my colleagues to support this

[03:14:57] this measure tonight but to advocate for the state to address the the needs that were laid out in the Jay Lark study thank you thank you mr. fresh thank you I think dr. Anderson and miss Corbett Sanders for their detailed explanation of why we're here and have this unusual timing not only as Dr.

[03:15:27] Anderson indicated because of the unexpected procedural changes by the Virginia Department of Education but also because of the very much delayed budget legislation from the General Assembly and the governor but here we are nonetheless and I support this 2% raise because our teachers and staff are the backbone of our school system and this vote follows three years of pay increases for all staff in our school system that the board has prioritized and if we want to retain and recruit world-class educators and school staff we must continue

[03:16:05] to have competitive compensation. We're just beginning the process of developing the school systems 2025 budget with Dr. Anderson as budget chair and Ms. Corbett Sanders as vice chair and I'm hopeful that we will do even more to demonstrate our appreciation for these dedicated educators by further increasing pay to address the national teacher and school staff shortage in addition to increased pay I think we must continue to find innovative ways to make the work of our educators and school staff a bit easier and you know to be clear teachers and school staff deserve

[03:16:44] a lot more than we're giving them in this pay increase but this vote is a step in the right direction and it shows that we value their hard work and recognize their dedication to our schools and our students. So I will gladly vote yes. Thank you. Mr. Koufax. Yes just briefly I too support this two percent raise for the many reasons my colleagues have stated. I do want to point out as Ms. Corbett Sanders did the JLARC study that's been out there this is not something new for those of us that have sat on this board for many years this uh the points made in this

[03:17:22] study about virginia being on one of the lowest paid states for teachers in the united states is an abysmal statistic to hold and we for years have known that it is our local revenue that is even getting us the minor adjustments that we get this two percent is different than that and so i will support it but we cannot continue to be last in the nation of this and with with the pay for our teachers in particular so it is something that we will continue to fight for

[03:17:59] those of us who are on this board to the bitter end with our state legislators and those who may be moving on you will be hearing from all of us okay i don't have any other board members that would like to speak Miss Miss Totland I'm so sorry I had forgotten to ask Miss Burden to also inform us of a question if I may have her complete that Miss Burden can you talk with us as we're talking about recruiting and retaining teachers what it what is the action

[03:18:37] of our neighboring school districts when it comes to this work um yes based on our conversations with the the finance folks at the neighboring jurisdictions um alexandria arlington prince william and loudoun county are all doing a two percent increase on january 1st and you know one of the things that you should know is that we've you know of course been looking at the 24 salary schedules of the our neighbors compared to fairfax and for fiscal 24

[03:19:09] we rank four of eight wavy participants in the bachelor's lane and we rank seven of eight wavy divisions in the master's lane so it is imperative that we at least main maintain what they're doing as well as you know ideally be able to have that as a priority in the future thank you thank you you Dr. Anderson. I am very happy to support this increase in pay for our staff. As some of my

[03:19:47] colleagues have said it's not enough. We know it's not enough but at least it is one small way to show our appreciation to our staff. I do want to also thank Lee Burden and Alice Woodington for preparation of these documents. I know it was a short notice you know given what Dr. Anderson and explained with our timeline, but I did find and maybe this is after two years of working with you on the budget that I immediately had some questions and as I dove into it, all of my questions were answered in the document.

[03:20:23] So thank you very much for preparing this and putting this together. So with that, oh, Miss Marin, you added yourself to this. Please go ahead. - Thank you. I'm very glad that Dr. Anderson explained the math that's involved in providing a 2% raise to our staff that is more than well earned and deserved.

[03:20:44] And I do hope that the state can be more specific when it talks about what a match is. While it's great to have a little bit of money, having 17% is not a match by definition or in actuality. So I also want to just put out a plug for the other things that the school division can do to support our staff by ways of compensation, particularly around leave.

[03:21:09] I was talking with a 30-year veteran teacher in our school division yesterday, and she relayed the need for flexibility in using leave. So for instance, must it be differentiated between sick leave and annual leave? Can't we just treat our staff as professionals to use the leave, whether they're sick or they need to go to a family event or they have something else?

[03:21:29] So I would love to have the superintendent consider that. And then also I've heard over time about reinstating the job share option where, you know, two staff members can share one job, especially as people have become accustomed to more flexibility and working from home and people want to be with their kids and their family and they don't want to be in traffic.

[03:21:49] You know, what can we do and especially when we're trying to get in as many people as possible doing job share where people can work part time and get a living, you know, a living wage at a part time rate. I think these are things that we can do, especially if the state is not going to provide an actuality true matching funds so we can fully fund our educators their worth I'd love for the superintendent to please consider that going forward thank you thank you Miss Marin okay so with that I would like to call for a vote on the motion which is displayed on the screen all those in favor

[03:22:28] Ms. Colbert Sanders Dr. Anderson Mr. Koufax Ms. Tolan Mr. Frisch Ms. Marin Ms. Omeche Laura Jane Cohen, Roger Seiser-Heiser, Karen Keyes-Gamara, and Stella Pekarski.

[03:22:45] And with that, Madam Clerk, would you please announce our vote? The vote is 11-0. It passes. Thank you. Okay, number seven, consent agenda.

[03:23:06] 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.

[03:23:22] 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.

[03:23:40] Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. Agenda item 8 point, agenda item 8, new business.

[03:24:00] 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 nine, board committee reports.

[03:24:20] There are no committee reports tonight. Agenda item 10, board matters. Oh, Ms. Eisemarheiser? I'm happy to skip it, given the late hour, but I didn't know if you want to report from PEC, because we did meet this last time. Absolutely.

[03:24:35] Please. I'll be very very brief just that the public engagement committee met and we discussed the final touches on the advisory committee handbook now that we have our strategic plan we went through and aligned it with our strategic plan and made a few edits and so it should be coming to you and to the vice chair within this week to schedule for a work session so we can take that off of our agenda after two years of working on it and move on we also got a little preview of some thoughts on the website redesign so it was a great meeting and we're going to move on to talking about our um standing

[03:25:11] committees in the next part of that forum topic so that was my report fantastic thank you moving ahead okay moving on to board matters and i call in miss clover sanders thank you madam chair i wanted to thank the business community that so often steps in when a child or a school needs supports. This week I want to give a special shout out to Day Violins. The Day family have been stalwarts in our community sharing the joy of music education with thousands of students in our bands, orchestras, and one-on-one

[03:25:49] lessons over multiple generations. And this week Day Violins stepped in twice for the schools of the West Potomac Pyramid. Co-owner Jenna traveled across the county to support the community in which her husband was raised and her sister-in-law teaches. I want to thank you. Secondly, on a more serious note, I want to extend my prayers to the community of Lewistown, Maine, as they deal with the terror which wreaked havoc on their community during a youth event at the bowling alley and a local restaurant. Here in Fairfax

[03:26:25] County, we've had a couple of incidents where students made threats about gun violence. Parents, I implore you to speak to your children about the impact of these careless words on our community. These words bring fear to our fellow classmates and the staff in a building.

[03:26:42] I had many members of the community reach out to me and share the fear that their children and colleagues shared with them. With that, I would like to read one comment in particular, and please bear with me. Having dedicated over 15 years of my life and my teaching career to the students, it is with grieving and disappointed heart that I write these words.

[03:27:05] Unless you've experienced it yourself, no one will ever know the thoughts and feelings that go through a teacher's head when those dreaded words come across the PA system. Teachers follow lockdown procedures. First, there's confusion sets in and you ask yourself, is this a drill?

[03:27:23] Was this scheduled? Did I miss an email? And as your brain processes these thoughts, in fact, the fact stands out that your principal's tone of voice, there's no emotion, no intonation, and just monotone. Then you act.

[03:27:39] You go through the protocol. You've practiced over and over again. You call out to your colleagues. Did you know about this? Is it real? Who's got the front door? The back. Are we okay? And as you go into shelter, out of the corner of your eye, you see the police cars, lights flashing, more cars.

[03:27:56] than you've ever seen before on a school campus. Oh, God, is this real? Hurry, hurry, silence the phones, text mom, keep your heads on straight, calm, stay calm. Over and over, reminding yourself, the cops are here.

[03:28:12] I'm not hearing any gunshots. Please, dear God, let the officers figure this out. And 16 minutes of agonizing takes place before you hear a voice, a key in the door as the handle jingles. Oh, thank God it's an officer clearing the room, a sign of relief.

[03:28:29] We know now that that was a prank. A few days later, the tears start, the numbness is gone, and it hits you. You are grieving. You're grieving because 1,400 children lost their innocence in mere minutes, and for the parents who wake up in cold sweats, and you're grieving for yourself and your colleagues.

[03:28:48] There's also disappointment, the disappointment in the lack of check-ins with staff on how they're doing. As parents, many of the members of this board check in on family and community members in the aftermath of tragedies. Tonight, I ask parents to speak to their children about the dangers of these senseless pranks, as they call them.

[03:29:10] I'm asking the superintendent and his and her leadership team to ensure that we check in with staff when they're faced with these type of threats, and we need to ensure that we honor our commitment to creating and presenting preserving a caring culture by making sure we do the follow-up thank you thank you Dr. Anderson thank you for that one of the things that I wanted to raise in my board matters tonight is concerns that both Mr. Frisch and I heard in

[03:29:45] visiting with false church students which is the fact that the cap of the AP I'm sorry AP and IB exams is at six and some students are more ambitious and would like to have the support that we provide with having the additional assessments be paid for at this time they do have to purchase and pay for themselves any assessments beyond the six and for some of our students that really presents a significant challenge because the fees are ninety eight dollars I'm really hoping Dr. Reed that based on the conversation we had earlier and and

[03:30:21] elevating it here that we're able to find some accommodation to offer equity to our students and being able to reach high and achieve and having our support to do that I also wanted to talk about some school visits that I engaged in in the past couple of weeks had the opportunity to visit a music class at Annandale Terrace where the enhanced autism class was being led by Miss Linton who is such a fabulous teacher and goes above and beyond and is trying to learn and grow in music therapy strategies to use for her students so

[03:31:01] that she can differentiate and be involved in the IEP goals that students don't have in music but could have in music as they do in adaptive PE and so looking forward to having that conversation with you dr reed i have not yet it's really just i think a fascinating um space for maybe for fairfax county to be a leader because we don't have um music goals typically i also observed a very unique program last night at annandale high school an organization called stop child abuse now scan has been providing the strengthening

[03:31:36] families program for five years under an MOU with FCPS the program is a seven week interactive series parents and teens they work with facilitators to build communication skills and to strengthen bonds through games projects and discussions last night's curriculum focused on peer pressure the students were in one room engaging with the facilitator and the parents were in another room also having that discussion with the facilitator but from their perspective and then coming back together to really build understanding with each other. It is such a rich opportunity for our students and

[03:32:14] families and this was entirely led in Spanish. There will be other sessions that are in other languages and maybe English but last night's session was in Spanish and our family liaisons are so integral to the success of this program and so kudos to them for doing some for engaging in such a meaningful way with the community.

[03:32:35] The Strengthening Families program is a collaboration with SCAN, administrators, family liaisons, food pantry liaisons and nonprofit organizations. And I think I've already read that dinner and childcare was also provided for the participants.

[03:32:50] And it's really a time for the families to commune. And they don't typically get that time, but they do during these series. So I wanted to make sure that Dr. Reid, you were aware of how impactful that program could be and how many of our schools really need such supports. Also talked about, Mr. Frisch mentioned earlier, we attended homecoming at Falls Church High School. It was fabulous. Mr. Frisch was on top of the pyramid with the cheerleaders. He was not, but it was just a great time. The Jaguar

[03:33:28] spirit was hard to quelch because even though there was rain, they were out there cheering and really drove the rain away. It was really a great time. And I also want to say thank you to Mr. Powell and the staff at Glasgow Middle School for the terrific Inspire Conference. And I had the opportunity to present with Mr. Powell in engaging with the community in ways where they can benefit and support their children. Like every single parent, they just want to know what are the tools, what are the strategies so that our students can be as successful as possible. So I appreciate the TIME THAT THE STAFF PUTS INTO THAT BECAUSE THIS WAS A VERY EARLY SATURDAY BUT IT WAS WORTHWHILE

[03:34:07] BECAUSE OUR PARENTS AND STUDENTS BENEFITED THANK YOU ANDERSON THANK YOU UM MS KEES GAMARA WOULD YOU LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN BOARD MATTERS I WOULD THANK YOU JUST GIVE ME A SECOND I WASN'T SURE THE ORDER YOU WERE GOING THROUGH BUT I DO HAVE SOMETHING I ACTUALLY LIKE TO GIVE A REALLY quick let me turn my camera on if i can just get a quick report because i like our other colleagues to know about cpd we've had two meetings working on community engagement so just quickly the

[03:34:44] important thing is that we have been reviewing a document with respect to facilities to make sure the community members are fully have an opportunity to be fully engaged and we will be sharing that document shortly. With respect to my board matters, I want to say it's been fun to run around the county. I had an opportunity to participate in the Herndon High School Homecoming Parade as well as the South Lakes High School Homecoming Parade and the South Lakes High

[03:35:22] school race to benefit the food pantry. So Ms. Marin and myself were people who helped greet some of the folks coming and we got to say ready, set, go. It was all very complicated but enjoyable. I also had an opportunity to go to a couple of Dr. Reed's community conversations.

[03:35:48] was where we got to hear some employee concerns, which was really helpful. And then it wasn't last night. This week, I went to Madison, and we heard significant concerns. And I have to say, I was very, very proud of some of our students who were from Rachel Carson, from all over the county. And they spoke eloquently to Dr. Reed about their concerns about the environment as they held up a sign that said, we are running out of time.

[03:36:23] I think if we had been able to hear it as a board, we would have all been very, very proud that our students are educating themselves, they're articulate, and they are really embracing advocacy. Speaking of that, I had an opportunity this morning to hear a review of the Lewis Leadership Program, their annual report in a meeting.

[03:36:46] And it was, I was beyond overjoyed to see young people who have really embraced the opportunity to develop themselves, to serve their own community.

[03:37:01] One young man described his project, which was to reach out to other young men to encourage them to participate in higher learning. So that was really, really cool. And I hope that we all get an opportunity to hear the progress that has been made in just one short year.

[03:37:23] I think that's pretty much it. I do want to say that my heart goes out to those in Maine and those who are very concerned as Karen Corbett Sanders mentioned from the various communities.

[03:37:40] And so certainly I hope that we continue to support one another. I very distressed that we are dealing with so much pain, and I do hope that we can make progress together and utilize the resources that Dr. Reed has previously lifted up on behalf of our families.

[03:38:00] Thank you so much. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Madam Chair, I wasn't expecting you to call me then, but happy to go, so thanks. - Thank you very much, Ms. Teisbrheiser. Sorry, I thought we were just going down the line.

[03:38:17] So, well, thank you. I will be brief. I wanted to lift up a couple of things. I first wanted to mention that I've actually been out of town and sick for the last week and a half, but I wanted to mention where I was out of town, which is at the College Autism Summit, and I was actually presenting at the College Autism Summit, and I lift this up because I think it's really important as we talk about students with disabilities, we talk about that transition piece, and what are we doing not just to transition to the workplace, What are we doing not just to transition to our great programs at Pulley, Davis, and STEP, but what are we doing intentionally

[03:38:56] to make sure our students are ready for the challenges of college? And that's the challenges of the different atmosphere at college, which is still in some ways a very zero tolerance atmosphere. The challenges of the executive functioning challenges, independent living challenges, negotiating with living in close quarters in dormitories.

[03:39:15] I don't know how much we intentionally our transition services focus on that and I think it's a really important place to focus because the college retention rate for students with autism is 37% so 37% of students with autism who start college finish in four years so I just wanted to lift that up as something really important especially when you consider I think it's now one in 40 currently have autism my children in school so this is a huge need so I apologize for missing the homecoming games last week but this is where I was and I think it's important work to

[03:39:51] present on what I would consider really important thoughts for college administrators and I it was interesting to see the fact that there was zero k-12 administrators at this summit and I think it's something that we may want to look at either this or other ones of k-12 administrators going to hear at the college side of what supports are like and what supports exist so that can help inform what we do on the on the school side so i will just leave it at that i the last thing i just wanted to add is that um as our community is hurting as people around the world are hurting

[03:40:27] and as innocent people are dying i am hopeful that we can continue to provide a safe environment where all students feel safe and comfortable coming to school where students and staff and community can have difficult conversations in a respectful way and where we can support each other and lift up each other's humanity thank you thank you Ms. Hamesh I want to note October is Filipino Heritage Month and Cancer Awareness Month both of which are important to many in our community

[03:41:04] this week is also Dia de los Muertos when many of Mexican and other heritage honor their ancestors I also appreciate and won't repeat the robust comments made about the main shooting lives over which we mourn just that I just as I did when mourning the lives of both in Israel and Palestine last meeting. I would like to recognize the struggles of all our students, loud and quiet, minority or not, Jewish, Muslim, Baha'i, Christian, or anything else, Palestinian or Israeli. Our words and rhetoric have weight. The emails we send out as board members have weight. They can be a source of healing or a source of pain. They can humanize or they can

[03:41:43] justify violence. It's not easy for me to say this, but it is shameful that four of my colleagues decided to send wholly one-sided statements that make zero mention, not just of the thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, of which 3,000 are children, but of the harms felt by our own students. Students you all claim to represent and meet in our schools. Like the Palestinians abroad, are they not human enough? Don't get me wrong, it's important to call out the hate that kids are experiencing. I'll be the first to say tonight that the Nazi swastika at South Lakes and the bullying in our county are abhorrent and must be called

[03:42:19] out, and I'm glad it was. But in your deafening silence, let me remind you we are seeing the results of dehumanizing Palestinians here at home. It's not lost on our entire student population that a six-year-old child, Wadiah, was just stabbed by an adult he considered a friend 26 times, screaming you Muslims have to die. The instruction here in FCPS erasing Palestine or teaching it through ignorant and hateful commentary at the hands of our own staff across this county here in our schools is also abhorrent. It is institutional racism and erasure about which our silence is complicit. In this context, I want to

[03:42:57] applaud each and every one of our students who have been courageous and taken a stand. Hundreds are joining in humanitarian walkouts across this county. At Oakton High School, a Jewish student wrote to me about this, calling what's happening to the Palestinian people, quote, "disgusting and disturbing," Holding a sign that says, quote, "A Jewish voice for peace," he says, "I feel this way because I can't stand to see women and children losses of their homes, families, and their lives. My heart goes out to the Palestinians who have to deal with this every day. May God be on their side during this difficult time against

[03:43:32] the state of Israel." And his Palestinian peer at Oakton says, "Four days ago my family was informed that while my uncle was at the market buying food for his wife and three young children, he tragically lost his life by an Israeli airstrike. Similarly, my mother lost 10 of her close relatives, grandparents, sons, wives, and children because of an airstrike. Let us take a moment of silence to pray for our betterment.

[03:43:56] And let us take a moment of silence to remember Wadi'ah and all the innocent lives lost in the occupied territories of Palestine and Israel. Thank you, Ms. Perrin. Yes, I was at Madison High School earlier this week to attend Dr. Reid's community conversation, and a very hot topic is grading. And I know that came up today as we discussed one of Dr. Reed's reports. And, you know, our students can't wait. I'm aware that there's been a committee working on the grades for some time, but the fact is that we need to have a more specific grading policy in FCPS. So, you know,

[03:44:35] as students are applying to college right now, the confusion, the emotion, the consequences of students having different grading systems every year, we cannot tolerate that as a board or a system so I do advocate very strongly that the the superintendent work to swiftly put in place a grading system that makes sense and supports our students. One community member asked tonight why a school board member would respond to geopolitical events and the answer is because our community in Fairfax is the definition of diversity so when significant events take place across the globe we here in Fairfax pay attention and some of us are intimately connected. My heart goes out to our community here knowing that so many of are impacted by the pain and suffering of hate and war.

[03:45:15] Education can help ease this pain. Educating children about controversial issues is hard, but we cannot deem it impossible. I've heard students and families asking for better education in our classrooms based on reliable facts that are presented from different perspectives and experiences. And I know that teachers want to best serve their students in these times, but they too need the guidance on how to do so and grace from the community as they attempt to facilitate such learning.

[03:45:39] The point is not to get students to decide is right or wrong, it's to understand what's happening, try to make sense, and try to learn so the future can be better and more peaceful. The communication I've received these past four weeks confirms that too many people in our community feel misunderstood, unheard, and disrespected. Addressing this is the work before FCPS and the community, though, if we want to provide our children with the strongest foundation upon which to build their education and future. I'd also like to address a more local issue. There is talk of a casino coming to Reston which is home of the South Lakes Pyramid and Supervisor Walter

[03:46:13] Alcorn has stated his reiterated his opposition to such an idea. This is being talked about because of laws that the General Assembly passed but it is opposed by our local Reston leadership of Reston Association, Reston Citizens Association. So I do want to inform the community that this is out there and it's something where voices are needed to maintain the communities that we have invested in. I want to mention I also was at some PTA meetings in the last week at Carson Middle School and Langston Middle School. I want to say kudos to the South Lakes High School students who we saw some of whom tonight performing the national anthem. They participated in an amazing production

[03:46:52] of Carmina Burana, which if you know it's a very complex undertaking and it was spectacular. Last night was the Vienna Halloween Parade, probably the best weather that's ever been on Maple Avenue and I always love to hear that Madison marching band. Lastly before tonight's meeting I headed over to the FCPS dyslexia open house as it is dyslexia awareness month and I'm glad the board was able to address that tonight as well as we recognize disability history and acknowledge that those contributions thank you thank you madam chair earlier this month I had the honor of

[03:47:28] welcoming members of the Korean Embassy along with Dr. Reed my school board colleagues Stella Pekarski and former school board member Il Young Moon for than a decade FCPS has received grants to help support our Korean language programs from the government of Korea and I know we are grateful for their continued partnership. Since our last meeting I've had the pleasure of attending events with students and staff and parents around the county. About two weeks ago I spoke at the Davis Career Center's 40th anniversary celebration at Marshall High School and want to thank Principal Chad Clayton for his work organizing the event.

[03:48:04] it was very well attended it was very inspiring earlier in the day i met with marshall high statesman theater director bernie de leo and the cast of marshall's upcoming performance of the laramie project which runs november 9th to the 11th last week dr anderson and i met with the student government as she mentioned at falls church high school we fielded really great questions about curriculum about the renovation project and a number of other subjects they really kept us on our toes the next day dr anderson and i also attended superintendent reid's meeting to

[03:48:40] update the community about the falls church high school renovation project where we as a school system were eager to report that the the scope and intent of the renovation project remains intact and we now have a lot of other questions to follow up on so we will be doing that in the days ahead Also, in recent weeks I had an opportunity to meet with the newly installed Marshall Road Elementary School principal Matthew Chapman, and so certainly congratulations to him and a special thank you to all of our principals since it is National Principals Month.

[03:49:17] Finally, my staff aide Beth Thompson and I had lunch with the team at the FCPS Family Resource Center, which offers free webinars, confidential consultations, a lending library, and resources to help adults support the success of their students. They really do incredible work, and I encourage everyone to check them out and learn more about everything that they have to offer our families.

[03:49:41] Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. I, too, wanted to focus a little bit on some incredible sustainability efforts I've seen by students. Recently, Dr. Reed and I were at a conversation with the McLean Citizens Association, a focus on student questions,

[03:50:02] And we had a wide-ranging conversation, but it started out with two first graders in a Daisy troop that were very concerned about how to reduce cafeteria waste and primarily how to, you know, save food in the cafeteria that is not being eaten.

[03:50:24] So we shared information with them about, you know, other schools in the area that have our, you know, food sharing programs, et cetera. But as you know, we had at our school board meeting a couple of meetings ago, a young woman from Great Falls Elementary School also talking about her interest in reducing food waste in our cafeterias.

[03:50:47] So I did connect with our new food and service food and nutrition service director, Mr. Sacco, before I went out to Great Falls to meet with this student and I was actually thrilled to to hear his long list of initiatives coming up.

[03:51:04] which is really trying to have us be more environmentally sustainable in our cafeterias. And one of the things they're really looking at, and my student was super happy to hear about, is looking at having bamboo utensils instead of the plastic utensils that we currently have.

[03:51:23] And then, of course, the whole move to build up our scratch cooking and the bank of recipes. And one of the things they're doing very soon is launching scratch-made grilled cheese sandwiches. eliminating the plastic wrapped pre-made sandwiches that we have so we're making some progress but i'm really proud of our students bringing all this forward too um our langley um i'm sorry our drainsville area pta leaders met last week and um our parent liaison from langley high school um julie thurman gave a bit of an overview for everyone about the role of family liaisons and

[03:52:02] and how family liaisons can work with PTAs, PTSAs, et cetera, to help them reach out to our families. She discussed the monthly Langley Saxon service opportunity, which I really want to highlight.

[03:52:17] In October, we had 350 students participate during this service project that is done during Saxon time. And her description of the number of the types of projects students are working on got all of my PTA leaders across the whole Drainesville district super excited about trying to emulate a program like this. So if anybody else has any questions about doing something like that, just let us know.

[03:52:45] I would just like to mention that tomorrow I will be sending out a newsletter and it will feature a story about a young man I met at Great Falls Elementary School who's doing some excellent work on artwork to promote peace and this is the sixth grader. Once again a young person has showed me the caring and kindness that we all need to exhibit to make sure our school community shows the care for one another that all of our students and staff need. I am honored to work every day with these young people. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.

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