Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Monday, December 4, 2023

Date: Monday, December 4, 2023
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 4h 28m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-a7pLuvSIw
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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[00:01:33] - Okay, board members, it is 7:30. Please take your seats.

[00:01:53] - December 4th, 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 Spring Hill Elementary School's select band under the direction of Dan Freeman.

[00:02:15] - I pledge allegiance to the flag.

[00:04:56] - Agenda item 2.02, certification of a closed meeting compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia, it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on December 4, 2023, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting.

[00:05:34] Do I have a motion? Ms. Dernot-Kofax, and seconded, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. All those in favor? Mr. Officer Siser-Heiser, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Omash, Ms. Marin, Ms. Dernot-Kofax, Ms. Tolan, Stella Bukarski, Ms. McLaughlin, Dr. Anderson, and Karen Corbett-Sanders.

[00:06:01] All those opposed? All those abstaining? Karen Keyes-Gamara. Madame Clerk, please announce the vote. That would be 10 yes, no, zero no's, and one abstention.

[00:06:20] and Mr. Frisch is not present. - Thank you. Confirmation of action taken in closed session. I call on Ms. Corbett Sanders for a motion. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who threatens students and staff members at school and damage school property and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent.

[00:06:46] - Is there a second? - Second. - All those in favor, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Janet Koufax, Ms. Marin and Ms. Cohen. All those opposed?

[00:07:04] All those abstaining? Ms. Seismerheiser, Ms. Omash, Ms. Karen Keyes-Gamara, and Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you. Ms. Sutlow?

[00:07:21] Ms. That would be seven yeses, zero noes, four abstentions, and Mr. Frisch not present. Thank you. 2.04, Announcements. Mr. Frisch has submitted a written request to attend this evening's meeting virtually due to a medical conflict.

[00:07:37] All those in favor of approving Mr. Frisch's request? Okay, that is unanimous for those at the table. And a huge thank you to Sterna Koufax, who will step in as vice chair as needed this evening.

[00:07:54] 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 slash school board slash board docs. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu slash tv slash channel 99.

[00:08:17] 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 all other board members will have one minute each. After tonight's proclamations, the board would like to invite those in support of the proclamation to join us for a photo.

[00:08:40] At this point, I would like to recognize Mr. Stu Gibson, who is in our audience. He is a former school board member. Thank you for being here. OK, our first proclamation 2.05 National Inclusive Schools Week Proclamation.

[00:09:02] I call on Miss Cohen for a proclamation. Whereas since its inception in 2001, National Inclusive Schools Week has celebrated the progress that schools have made in providing a welcoming, supporting and quality education to an increasingly diverse student population, including students who are marginalized due to disability, gender, socio-economic status, cultural heritage, language preference, and other factors. Whereas, Inclusive Schools Week is an annual event sponsored by the Inclusive Schools Network and is held during the first week of December, whereas to ensure that our students belong, thrive, and feel supported by their teachers,

[00:09:42] peers, family members, and neighbors, we must continue to learn more about the work of other organizations and groups in our community and share ideas, resources, and support. Whereas we must teach our students by our actions how to treat others, how to communicate and build relationships, and how to work in harmony to address our common needs. And whereas this year's theme, Draw Me In, provides an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to inclusive education, extend previous successes, and redirect our talent, time, and energy to improve outcomes for students and their families participating in art provides a pathway to self-discovery

[00:10:21] and sharing art opens doors to understanding and respecting different ways of thinking now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school board proclaims the week of december 4th through 8th 2023 as inclusive schools week and remain reminds the entire fairfax county public schools community that education takes on a beautiful shape when all children are included is there a second second Thank you, Dr. Anderson.

[00:10:49] Ms. Cohen, would you like to speak to your proclamation? I'd be happy to. I, with the help from my friends, really wanted to highlight what this means in our family. And I think the opportunity that Draw Me In brings us is really having us ask the question, do we see the faces of all the children and youth drawn into the canvas of our schools and society every day?

[00:11:15] The need to belong is a basic need of all students and an integral component of effective inclusive schools to be inclusive implies a fundamental commitment to building relationships among students families educators and the community to support safe and positive learning environments inclusive schools week also provides an important opportunity for educators students and parents to discuss what else needs to be done in order to ensure that our schools continue to improve their ability to successfully educate all of our students in fairfax county schools i would like to especially thank all of our educators families

[00:11:55] and most importantly our students during inclusive schools week and take a moment to applaud the progress we've made toward building more inclusive school communities while pledging to continue our work toward becoming a more inclusive society and as my friend rachna who probably will speak here will always say inclusive schools week cannot just be a week it has to be every school day every non-school day we as a county and a community have an obligation and an opportunity to make sure that we're seeing everybody for what they show up

[00:12:30] with and that we are affirming their identity whatever that looks like and making sure that they know that they belong here in our community and in our schools thank you dr anderson would - Would you like to speak to your second?

[00:12:47] - Yes, briefly. Thank you to Ms. Cohen for bringing this forward. This week serves as a reminder of our commitment to fostering environments in which every student, regardless of their backgrounds, abilities or differences, not only feel welcomed, but embraced.

[00:13:02] To be inclusive implies a fundamental commitment to building relationships among students, families, educators in the community to support safe and positive learning environments. Being inclusive also commits to elevating compassion, understanding, grace.

[00:13:18] When we recognize the inherent value of every individual, we not only enrich the lives of our students, but also we empower them to become compassionate, open-minded citizens of the world. Following this year's theme of Draw Me In, let us strive to ensure that we see the faces of all children and youth drawn into the canvas of our schools.

[00:13:39] I also want to wrap up my comments by returning to the theme and asking us to reflect on how we can draw in those who feel othered, engage in conversations with our children and students and others so that we can, so we need to see beyond the differences and offer greater acceptance.

[00:13:57] This is a call to action for all of us to identify this opportunity to see how can we draw in others in our actions moving forward today, tomorrow, throughout the year, and as Ms. Cohen said, this should not be just a one-time opportunity where we acknowledge that there are differences in our community.

[00:14:16] This is, as my colleague just said next to me, it is a mindset, one in which will benefit all of us. So thank you. - Thank you, Ms. Kovach-Sanders, do you want to speak?

[00:14:31] - I apologize, I didn't put it up, but I am glad that Dr. Anderson referenced my motto on inclusive schools, which is that it has to be a mindset. It is a cultural imperative that we make sure that every child is made to feel welcome, included and seen in our schools.

[00:14:54] - Thank you. - Ms. Seiswerheiser. - Thank you. I'm glad we're talking about inclusive schools week, but I will be honest, the word week has always bothered me. Inclusive schools week started many years ago focusing on disability and I'm glad to see it's expanded to focusing on seeing all of our students.

[00:15:15] But sometimes when you hear the word week, we focus on it for the week and then we forget about it the rest of the year. And so I really, I'm glad it gives a space for us to intentionally think about it, but I just wish we could say inclusive schools and drop the week, in my humble opinion.

[00:15:32] So I'm gonna focus on the disability part of it and inclusion. And I'm gonna talk about a recently released HHS Ed policy statement about inclusive preschool. And their justification for inclusion was about disability is a natural part of the human experience. Almost 45 million adults have a disability.

[00:15:51] Nearly one out of six children are estimated to have a developmental disability. And what I've always said is segregation in school leads to segregation in life. With autism, the unemployment rate hovers around 70%. The college completion rate is 37%.

[00:16:07] It is not often due to lack of skills. It is due to lack of understanding. The risk in the criminal justice system for people with autism is incredibly high. It is incredibly high because what we have currently trained our law enforcement on to be wary of, and we're doing much better, are often the hallmarks of autism and almost the hallmarks of anxiety.

[00:16:27] If we have inclusive settings in our schools, if students are educated together where they learn about each other, they learn about different ways of being, different ways of thinking, different ways of behaving, those are the future coworkers, those are the future public business owners, those are the future employers, future law enforcement and first responders.

[00:16:49] That is the only way we can make sure that every single person has the chance to fulfill their dream and become a productive, fulfilled member of society, which actually benefits all of us because none of us want to spend our tax dollars supporting somebody who could actually support themselves.

[00:17:05] And that person deserves the dignity of friendships, of work, and a fulfilled life. And if we talk about Inclusive Schools Week, then are we going to talk about Inclusive Society Week or Inclusive Society because it benefits all of us?

[00:17:21] And I'll leave you with one story that my son, as many of you know, has autism. And when he first started a music program and he was in a band at an after school music program and one of the students was very perturbed that he was there because he was touching instruments. And this is when he was young and talking out of turn and this and that.

[00:17:39] And I know this because he told me so just before the show. He came up to me and he said, when Jake first joined our band, I was very upset. He was touching my instruments. He was doing this. He was doing that. But now, I have to tell you, I was totally wrong. Not only is he a great musician, but when we're having a tough day, he makes us laugh.

[00:17:58] we're struggling. He's the one who says, come on, we can do one more. We can get this song. We can do it. And he said, not only is he a great musician, but he's actually a great human being. And if he hadn't been in this inclusive band after school with me, I would have never known that. Our future co-workers, employers, first responders, policy makers, leaders will never know that if we don't have inclusive schools, period. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Amish. Yeah, thank you. And I'm so grateful that we continue to bring this forward and to Ms. Asmerheiser's points you know having

[00:18:36] started as a point of advocacy for the disability community it's important to emphasize and I know Dr. Reid we've repeatedly made this ask and I really hope that in the next few years we see it as a reality to desegregate our schools and make sure that there is real inclusion of all abilities within the school building that we commit the resources to make sure that's possible I, you know, I think to Ms. Seismerheiser's point, the peers in the classroom who will be engaging with one another are that future police officer and are that future politician who will be making those decisions.

[00:19:10] And it's part of the educational experience that they intermingle and understand the differences that come with the beautiful diversity that is our community. And I guess in leaning into this theme, draw me in, right?

[00:19:26] It's one thing for us to say we want inclusive spaces. It's one thing for us to aspire and put forward the efforts to do it. But I think even as adults, we find discomfort in sitting and holding space and having purposeful pauses and understanding and reflecting when we do confront differences and when those differences potentially clash.

[00:19:46] But to have the courageous conversations that are so essential with the respect for one another that we can understand. Despite the difficulty, the tension, the frustration, the emotions involved, we can end up in a better place, right? Just like a sibling or an aunt that you don't like or whatever.

[00:20:02] We'll quibble and have that, you know, friendly fight over the Thanksgiving or or, you know, holiday dinner that at the end, that's still family. And I hope that we can inspire an education for our kids that doesn't shy away from, doesn't silence, doesn't suppress the other's perspective or the difference or the minority's view, but allows for that space so that we can learn from one another and develop through that compassion.

[00:20:27] So I hope we can all draw me in right and bringing everyone here. Also lean into being intentional about that. Thank you, Miss Mays. Seeing no other board members that would like to speak. I would like to call for the vote.

[00:20:44] All those in favor. That is unanimous for those at the table and Mr. Frisch. Thank you.

[00:20:59] Agenda item 2.06, celebrating our local Native American tribes and acknowledging our historic origins proclamation. I call in Miss Mays. thank you whereas from the first settlement of jamestown native american tribes are the original story of the state of virginia and the commonwealth has a deep diverse and tragic history with its then over 50 000 native people brought to life today through 11 officially recognized tribes who are indigenous to the modern state of virginia the chickahomani tribe indian tribe

[00:21:37] the chickahomani indian tribe eastern division the upper mattaponi tribe the rappahannock tribe the Monacan Indian nation, the Nassimund Indian tribe, the Nautiway Indian tribe of Virginia, the Cherahaka, the Pamunkey Indian tribe, the Potomac Indian tribe, and the Mataponi Indian tribe. And I really did try to keep those proper. And whereas many of these tribes are indigenous, not only to the state of Virginia, but also to Fairfax County, such that this land now known as Fairfax has a rich history that predates the establishment of the United States and was

[00:22:17] originally inhabited by thousands of indigenous people, including the Manahoic, the Pamunkey, the Dog Nations, among whom spoke languages like Siouan and Algonquian, the original languages of Fairfax County, from which names of landmarks like Akatink Lake originated, as well as many names we read on maps and road signs today without tribute to their origins of 10 million indigenous people in this nation, and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is recognizing and honoring our unique history, contributions, and cultures found in the Commonwealth of Virginia, including the tragic history of genocide, colonial settlements, dispossession of land, and erasure of Native

[00:22:55] cultures, all of which displaced Native American tribes in the area, and recognize that the truths of this painful history contribute to a comprehensive education for all students which align with Fairfax County Public Schools commitment to fostering an inclusive and culturally responsive educational environment that prepares youth for the future and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is home to hundreds of American Indian or Alaskan Native students and employs Native and Indigenous staff members including teachers administrators and support staff all a part of Fairfax County's Native and Indigenous population which is one of the largest in the state of Virginia

[00:23:31] and the state of Virginia is where "American Indian Week" was first recognized in 1988 to commemorate the history of Native people and the tragedies they faced in the harvest season, declaring that it is imperative to honor the culture and heritage of these Native people by acknowledging our shared history, centering their voices, and fostering spaces of learning and growth, and whereas the school board recognizes the importance of collaboration with local Native American communities, educators, and historians to develop and implement educational initiatives that accurately tell our story and reflect the rich Native American history of Virginia,

[00:24:08] as well as take intentional actions to empower Native youth and support their culture in our system. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby recognizes and celebrates our local Native population and notes sensitivities of this season through the promotion of November's Native American Heritage Month and the teaching of history of Virginia's tribes in all Fairfax County public schools as well as acknowledges and pays respect to the indigenous communities both those who originally owned this land but were historically displaced and those remaining community members who live here and continue to carry forth their culture

[00:24:41] in Fairfax County today. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Ms. Omeish would you like to speak to your proclamation? Yeah thank you. This resolution was originally scheduled for the meeting before Thanksgiving that our board had to postpone to lend voice to what we can't ignore. As we shared in the resolution, Native history and heritage remind us of important realities in our past and creating space for reflection around the experiences of our Native neighbors keep our consciences awake and remind us of the importance of learning about the injustices of yesterday and speaking against the injustices of today. The genocide of over 10

[00:25:18] million Natives in our nation unfolded over 400 years. As we see the genocide of Palestinians unfold today, learning about the Native genocide helps us understand how it is possible that such tragedy still unfold before our eyes. It was not lost on me that our local native neighbors have been a loud voice demanding statehood here in our own state of Virginia, drawing parallels for us to wake up when saying in the words of a Chickahominy tribesman, quote, "We are the Palestinians of Virginia, a people in their homeland without legal recognition." And it has been heartening to see some of our regional chiefs from the United Native Americans and others lead in the rally of over

[00:25:57] 300 000 people for indigenous rights in the march on washington for palestine just weeks ago and while they know this pain all too well it is also true that our native neighbors today are thriving and have triumphed and we're so blessed to celebrate them today i want to start by thanking and recognize our fcps native community our our staff member rick rufus kelly who serves as a councilman in the nataway tribe and the chairman of the annual powwow committee rick has been instrumental for helping invite members of the community to collaborate and partner on this proclamation i also want to thank the fairfax county history commission for their endorsement

[00:26:33] their strong endorsement of this resolution in particular my friend and chair lynn garvey hodge whose land dedication in the recent county history conference inspired me to speak truth and take this as a historic moment to offer for the first time an official language from the dais a land dedication for our school properties and i also want to recognize and thank rose powhatan who is a Native American artist, author, and cultural activist. She descended from both the Pamunkey and the Texanit tribal nations, and was instrumental in helping with this resolution, as well as Ms. Angel Kurtz and Mr. Kurtz, member of the Nottaway tribe, and her family for being in

[00:27:08] attendance. Her family, she has five grandchildren, she's proud, are part of our FCPS family at Mosaic and Wapple Mills Elementary, as well as many other family members, Ms. Daddio, as well as Olivia Didio and their three children, Sunny, Gina, and Ernie. So if you heard your name or if you're here representing this proclamation, please stand to be recognized. We'll certainly be taking a picture after this as well.

[00:27:31] Are our guests here? Yeah, please give them a round of applause. We are so, so blessed that you're a part of our community and remind us of the realities of our past in painful but beautiful ways. To be displaced from your homeland, to be violently occupied by an outside force is a great tragedy of modern history. And it's important to learn from that history of the holidays we celebrate even while enjoying the time spent with our loved ones and our seasonal festivities thank you for modeling how we can do that today we are so enriched by your membership in our community and your original uh of course uh part of this uh

[00:28:10] nation dr anderson would you like to speak yes briefly i think miss information did a very good job of speaking to the proclamation first of all thank you to our guests for being here i just wanted to elevate um some of the things that we talked about in the first proclamation which is the opportunity to be seen.

[00:28:29] While there are some painful histories here that have happened both in the Commonwealth in Virginia and throughout this country regarding the treatment of Native American Native people, I appreciate the fact that we are elevating the opportunity to learn and to be educated no matter how painful that history.

[00:28:46] We should not brush it aside. So thank you to Ms. Omeish for bringing this to the forefront and also in the concept of that we just talked about with inclusive schools, we are looking for an opportunity for all of our constituents, for all of our community to be seen, to be heard, to be included. And that includes acknowledging what has happened in our past. So thank you. And I'm very grateful to be able to support this

[00:29:16] proclamation. He's come out. Thank you. I'm grateful for this opportunity. And I was already looking in the audience and um seeing perhaps i thought folks that were connected um i've spent a lot of time in the seat talking about understanding history irrespective of who

[00:29:55] our americans have been um i appreciate comments from our colleagues that we shouldn't be talking about a week or a month we should be talking about education and so i certainly support including the history of all peoples who have helped to make us who we are today.

[00:30:16] And certainly that is the case for Native Americans. Certainly it is the case for many. And certainly we have a lot of work to do to make sure that we are not only seen, but knowledgeable with how we have been enriched by so many around us.

[00:30:34] It's almost as if we eat a recipe, but we don't know the ingredients. and so I look forward to learning more, and I hope and I know that this school system is moving more toward that inclusiveness and the thirst for understanding, and I think we will all be enriched by it.

[00:30:55] Thank you. - Ms. Cohen. - Thank you so much, and thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it, and we're so grateful. We hope that you're gonna come back every year, but certainly on more than just a school board proclamation reading, I want to make sure that you're in our schools and teaching our kids the true and honest history of this nation, of this commonwealth, and we so appreciate you being here.

[00:31:24] I think it's so important not to in any way try to co-opt or compare what anything else is happening in the world with your experience. I can't begin to imagine, and I think as students certainly growing up in Georgia, I'm the birthplace of the beginning of the Trail of Tears, the end of the Trail of Tears.

[00:31:49] When I look at what our students learn about the history, about what our students learn about the path from Georgia to Oklahoma and points further west, I realized that's all that I knew of the vast majority of the Native peoples of the place that I grew up.

[00:32:14] And so I hope that we will, in Virginia, continue to tell the whole story, tell the story of the beginning, and tell the story of what is not to be the end, what is only the beginning of further exploration, further commitment to making sure that the legacy and the history is not lost.

[00:32:35] And so thank you so much for being here. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:32:51] I would hope that when we offer proclamations from this table, that we have the self-discipline to focus on our conversation about that proclamation. And the importance of this proclamation tonight is to recognize the history here in the state of Virginia and the impact of that history on our ability to be inclusive and to be able to tell the accurate history here in the state of Virginia.

[00:33:22] I feel very frustrated tonight that the discussion about this proclamation, which got the full support in advance of members of this board because of the spirit of the words of that proclamation, were taken and then used to talk about a global conflict, which we all can agree is a tragic situation.

[00:33:49] But I would urge going forward that when you solicit the support for a proclamation about this important subject that we stay focused on that proclamation. And so I am really conflicted tonight because I truly believe in the words of that proclamation.

[00:34:10] I am frustrated that it got spun into another topic. And there is very rare instances when I speak like this from the dais. Thank you.

[00:34:28] Ms. McLaughlin. I want to first thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. It's been a privilege serving with you all these years, and I know this is highly unusual for you to speak with such deep concern and passion.

[00:34:46] And I share your concerns in that this is a significantly important proclamation in front of us. And as someone who studied American history in college, it's a passion of mine.

[00:35:03] I continue to want to be a board member and a member of our society that talks about the complexity of history. it has to do with our tragic history as we're honoring here tonight about indigenous people and I am so proud to be part of a board and be part of a nation that is trying to raise this national and hopefully global understanding that we cannot over simplify history and we have to help our students understand the depth and the complexity of talking about such

[00:35:40] difficult topics and so I do see the merits of this proclamation and I am so deeply appreciative of everyone here in the audience tonight watching at home those of you who are connected and representative of our indigenous communities that you are here and I want to support this proclamation in honor of all of you but I will say again that we will not be a better society. If we, those of us in elected positions, those of us in decision making

[00:36:18] positions continue to speak in ways that divide our society, we have such an important responsibility to talk about the complexities of history and help our students to understand that because Because otherwise they can't even learn and therefore formulate and speak from well-informed positions and to recognize again history can often be quite messy.

[00:36:49] But what we learn from history, we hopefully never bear to repeat. And I look forward to continuing to be one citizen here in the United States that continues to talk about how do we learn from history and become a better people from it.

[00:37:05] And so to my colleagues, I really do appreciate what we do each and every day trying to ensure we have inclusive history. And certainly as a woman who didn't get to learn many stories about the incredible women who built this nation as well, I understand the importance of making sure we get better at it every day.

[00:37:27] So thank you. At this point in time, I would just like to interject for members to please as far as thinking about the proclamation, the proclamation stands and falls on its own, not on comments made for or against the proclamation, which reflect individual member takes of the proclamation.

[00:37:51] Voting to adopt this motion does not mean one adopts the reasons why other members voted or did not vote for it, but please think about the proclamation itself. Mr. Frisch. Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Sarah Koufax.

[00:38:09] sitting at Mr. Frisch's seat right now. I want to thank you all who came out tonight for the proclamation as it was intended. FCPS attempts to teach complete history that allows for students to understand multiple perspectives, apply a critical lens, and develop disciplinary thinking as it comes to our Native American culture. We prioritize rigorous and relevant learning experiences that affirm diverse identities and foster critical thinking

[00:38:46] and support meaningful relationships. I am going to just take a moment here at the risk of not making this sound light but when my daughter was learning about Native American culture she came home and she was so distraught she's like this is this is terrible what happened that Native American tribes no longer exist.

[00:39:12] And how can we repair this? And we went on a summer vacation that year that led us through the Trail of Tears. Oklahoma City was particularly profound with the statue there.

[00:39:28] And at that time, we and our family just have always felt a -- wanting to ensure that while we are proud of being American, And we're also respectful of what happened to the Native American culture.

[00:39:46] And I will stand on in support because of what Miss Toland has said, but I do want to say we thank you and we acknowledge the harm that has come.

[00:40:03] And we want to uplift the contributions of our contemporary Native and contributions of our contemporary Native people. So thank you for those who came out tonight and to those who spoke and who used this proclamation to divide rather than bring people together.

[00:40:27] I think that was done in poor taste, and I'm sorry that we're at this point where we had to deal with that. Okay, at this point, I would like to just take a moment to celebrate our local tribes, and thank you for attending the meeting this evening.

[00:40:50] I would like to acknowledge the spirit of the proclamation and support that. I guess, as usual, I, you know, feel such an importance to our, you know, local Virginia history and teaching that history and supporting students that we have working in this area.

[00:41:10] So I wanted to tell you about Peyton Walcott. He's actually been in front of us talking about boys volleyball very eloquently. but Peyton is a student at Langley High School and a member of the Nansamund Indian Nation.

[00:41:26] Last school year, after Peyton met with Principal Greer and contacted my office, we connected him with our K-12 Coordinator of Social Studies and for him to discuss his vision for lifting contemporary Native American voices in FCPS curriculum through the development of video interviews.

[00:41:46] During the meeting, the team brainstormed needs and actions for Peyton's vision to become a reality. Peyton was equipped with the necessary gear and equipment needed to take his journey into indigenous connections around the county and beyond. Peyton started with traveling to speak with tribal nations down the eastern portion of the state.

[00:42:04] And he has also almost completed a science video, so we're cross-curricular, a science video on indigenous people and oyster reefs and oystering. He has also completed working on a video about indigenous identity and the Jim Crow era, and is being supported with historical context by Dr. Isra Wee from Social Studies.

[00:42:33] While he states that his progress has been a little slower than he would have liked, he is now finished with this college applications and is resuming his focus on this important area of study. Payton, we cannot wait to see your finished product.

[00:42:48] I've seen some in-between videos, and they are fantastic. So even, you know, our own students are hard at work making sure that FCPS teaches the history, the true history of Virginia. Thank you.

[00:43:08] Okay. With that, I would like to take the vote. All those in favor of this proclamation? Ms. Tolan, my light was on. Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Amish. I think that we all have had an opportunity to speak to the proclamation, so I think we'll go ahead with the vote I understand I think we've all had the chance to have go backs in the past we haven't done proclamations actually I've done that in the past but that's your discretion so I understand you're telling me I can't speak yes I'd like to

[00:43:40] take the vote thank you okay those in favor of the proclamation okay that is unanimous at the table and Mr. Frisch thank you okay our next proclamation 2.07 National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Ms. Somesh. Whereas while we believe every child deserves a safe, stable,

[00:44:16] and supportive environment to call home, housing and food insecurity remain pressing in our community, worsened by rising food costs, interest rates, and rents, where the rate of evictions has doubled as hunger has surged and the rate of unhoused families with children has increased by 33 percent in three years, with a quarter of those who are unhoused in Fairfax County being children, we know that housing and food insecurity affect the social and emotional well-being of students and have numerous cascading effects that impact education and student success and whereas the expiration of COVID-19 supports such as the expanded child tax credit universal school meals

[00:44:54] as well as reductions to the supplemental nutritional assistance program program snap have caused hunger to increase such that one in every eight children in this country experience food and security, and more than one-third of students in Fairfax County qualify for free or reduced lunches, student hunger negatively affects the ability to learn and focus, leading to lower academic achievement and a higher likelihood of school absenteeism, student hunger and homelessness result from historical and structural injustices that disproportionately affect communities of color, and whereas students who are unhoused or homeless face challenges that pose unique traumas resulting from a lack of stability in basic necessities such

[00:45:33] as food and shelter, teachers, administrators, and support staff should use trauma-informed practices to gain a better understanding of the ways in which these 2,300 students are affected by their circumstances and the ways in which these adverse childhood experiences, ACEs, affect their learning, and whereas FCPS educators, support staff, and community organizations and volunteers play a critical role in supporting students who are unhoused, homeless, or hungry, them navigate the challenges they face whereby dedicated special services staff have a long history of service through partnerships with programs like the weekend food backpack program

[00:46:11] codes for kids back to school basics and more which address the difficulties faced by economically disenfranchised children and whereas given our mission of excellence equity and opportunity for every child addressing the challenges of housing and food insecurity requires a comprehensive and compassionate approach that includes collaboration among government agencies affordable housing developments non-profit organizations community leaders and concerned citizens to create a society where no family is left without a home or food for their family now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school board recognizes the opening of county shelters on december 1st

[00:46:48] through hyper hypothermia hypothermia prevention program which provides shelter to over 1 000 vulnerable residents each year during the winter months. This is a time to build solidarity and greater understanding around these needs and to develop sustainable solutions through coordinated efforts that combat hunger and homelessness in our community once and for all. Second. Thank you.

[00:47:15] Miss Mej, would you like to speak to your proclamation? Yes, thank you so much. Board members every year have the chance to bring two proclamations. This is the second that I'm very proud to bring and it took inspiration from a national campaign of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, which takes place November 11th to 18th, where people come together across the country to draw attention to the problems of hunger and homelessness like we're doing here tonight.

[00:47:38] I'm proud to be the liaison to our system, to the Affordable Housing Advisory Council, AHAC, and I want to recognize their tireless effort to build affordable housing for all in our community. I want to particularly thank Jerry Poggi for his leadership on the council and his guidance over the years. Thank you for being here tonight and for building bridges between our school system and our county for many years. I also want to thank John Boylan, who is officially representing AHAC's executive committee and was a past president, as well as the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce for being here tonight, and Thomas Fleetwood, the Director of Housing and

[00:48:15] Community Development for our county, as well as other AHAC members who send their regards. I'm sure there may be some others, but accordingly I would like to thank the the Affordable Housing Advisory Council, AHAC, for endorsing this historic proclamation, the first of its kind for FCPS.

[00:48:30] And I also wanna thank Cathy Shuffle, as well as the entire special services team. Cathy Shuffle is our FCPS homelessness liaison, and her team of social workers have helped us craft the language for this proclamation. And their tireless work, of course, that the team does over the years is so essential to supporting some of our most vulnerable students.

[00:48:50] I wanna plug that there is actually a drive right now gift cards to their office for kids in need. More information on that can be found on their on the website but I encourage all to partake in our in the spirit of giving this season. I can vividly recall during the great recession of the late 2000s family friends and fellow students losing homes and so much more during that tough financial time and of course now living through a global pandemic we've seen our government suspend mortgage payments, provide rental assistance, expand SNAP, and attempt many efforts given the challenges families are facing, not just

[00:49:27] in the global pandemic, but always and now even more so in the aftermath. I do want to end by touching, of course, on the fact that these hypothermia centers are opening now. Part of the timing, while we wanted to coincide it with Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, it was timely that the shelters are opening this week, and flyers about this can be found at the back of the auditorium where you we hope that you'll help us raise awareness you know students who face hunger and homelessness as the resolution outlines do show up to school with unique challenges and we all know

[00:50:03] Maslow's hierarchy right you can't show up when you're hungry and you're you're worried about what's going on at home or where you're gonna go after school is finished and these are realities that our kids face every day in the thousands we think you know Fairfax County we're so privileged to be in such a wealthy county and it certainly ranks up their national rankings but we forget that there are large pockets in our neighborhoods our neighbors who are struggling and who now in the winter season will be facing particularly difficult struggles that many of us can sleep warm and home without thinking about so I hope that you'll help us raise awareness about these shelters by

[00:50:42] grabbing a flyer I do hear that's my time but I hope that this is a step forward in ensuring our educators are responsive to those students' needs. Ms. Kees-Gamara, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, briefly. Thank you. And thank you for this very thorough report on the state of homeless children and hunger in our community.

[00:51:05] Some of you may know that in my professional life, I've done a great deal of work as a guardian at light. I'm working with various populations. And what I realize and what is abundantly clear and working with various families is simply that hungry children can't learn.

[00:51:23] And so we need to work as a community to not only make sure that they have safe roofs over their heads, that families are supported, but that when they come to school, they eat. I know that in the past we have done some things to try to make sure that children have breakfast, that they can have lunch.

[00:51:40] But this is very difficult, especially during the holidays when kids are seeing their peers not having the same struggles. And there is a stigma that is attached to having these experiences. So I'm grateful to be able to have this conversation.

[00:51:57] I consider every child in our community our child. And so I'm really looking forward to working and collaborating not only on the local level, but the state and federal and in every way that we can. I know that there are advocates out here who really care, and I hope that our families, and especially our students, take this moment and receive our hope for our community and our support.

[00:52:23] Thank you very much. Ms. Colbert Sanders. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Ms. O'Meche, for this proclamation. This is something that, as you know, I've raised concerns about for quite a long time.

[00:52:39] What people fail to realize is that we have unhoused or homeless, people that fall into multiple categories. And Fairfax County does have the hypothermia shelters. They have homeless shelters.

[00:52:56] However, the way it works is we have shelters for families. We have shelters for adults. What we don't have is sheltering for unaccompanied youth. And we have a very large population which is in flux.

[00:53:16] many of them are homeless because of tensions with their families or other reasons and we have as many and many identify as LGBTQIA youth and so I am urging as we look at this very important issue that as a county and as a society that we have shelter for those children and that those shelters not only provide a roof over someone's head, a warm bed,

[00:53:52] and food, but also the wraparound supports necessary for our students, and it is particularly important to look at this when we talk about inclusion and the importance of addressing the very real needs of this population.

[00:54:10] And so I encourage you that when we look at this, that we also include advocacy for sheltering those students. Thank you. I would like to call for the vote.

[00:54:25] All those in favor of this proclamation? Okay, that is unanimous for those in attendance. And Mr. Frisch, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Anderson is away from the table.

[00:54:42] Thank you. Oh my goodness, okay. Madam Clerk, do you have that? Ms. Merrin and Dr. Anderson are away from the table. Yes, and I also have Ms. Merrin away for the earlier proclamation that was right before this.

[00:54:58] Thank you. Okay. Agenda item 2.08, Robinson Secondary School Student Activities Office Naming Proclamation. I comment Ms. McLaughlin.

[00:55:15] Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas Mrs. Edna Clark served as an administrative assistant at Robinson Secondary School from 1994 through 2020, where she has helped teachers, community members, and coaches.

[00:55:32] Whereas Mrs. Clark worked tirelessly to ensure that athletes and coaches were supported and had everything necessary for a successful season. Whereas Mrs. Clark created a welcoming and nurturing environment where our athletes and students enjoyed competing and attending our athletic events.

[00:55:50] Whereas Mrs. Clark served as a role model when it came to work ethic and professionalism. She went out of her way to provide assistance, mentorship, and resources for new colleagues. and whereas Mrs. Clark was a proud member of the Robinson Secondary School community, one of the school's best supporters, spending countless hours attending events supporting Robinson students and athletes, now therefore be it resolved that the Student Activities Office at Robinson Secondary School be named the Edna Clark Activities Office in honor of this exemplary

[00:56:25] employee, colleague, friend, mentor, and citizen. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Cohen, Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to speak to your proclamation? Ms. I would, I am absolutely honored and thrilled to be presenting to you the Robinson Secondary School Activities Office naming in honor of Mrs. Clark.

[00:56:51] Having represented the Robinson community for these 12 years and being a parent of a rival high school, Woodson, I know that all the years that we would compete against Robinson.

[00:57:07] I frankly knew of no other school in the county that the Robinson Rams have the most remarkable school spirit and athletic prowess. And so, it's something that I personally can appreciate for Mrs. Clark to be bestowed with this honor.

[00:57:26] I mean, she has given so much for more than a quarter century to her community. And often it is the people behind the scenes working so hard for so long in support of our schools. I just look at this as such a wonderful way for us to finally elevate and bring forward for the future and going that the Robinson Rams will always know how special Edna Clark has been to the Rams community.

[00:57:59] And before I cede to my wonderful colleague who I share Robinson with at the magisterial level, I do want to also thank our principal, Tracy Phillips, and her administrative team for coming here this evening as well, and our regional area superintendent, Penny Gross, for also joining us for tonight's honor.

[00:58:21] And thank you for your patience. We will be asking everyone to come up for the photos with the proclamation, so please don't leave after we vote in this proclamation, but to my colleagues, I do hope to see unanimous support.

[00:58:39] Ms. Cohen, would you like to speak? Thank you. I wondered if the folks from Robinson who are here to support this resolution, do you mind standing up so we can all give you a big hand? I think we've had such an honor.

[00:58:59] Actually, I think the last couple of meetings we've had the opportunity to get to name a few things after folks, and it is absolutely one of the best parts of this job. Getting to read letter after letter of people whose lives were really transformed by somebody who just kind of felt like they were doing their everyday job, just being the best that they could be.

[00:59:20] And I will say from two -- I hope it's okay to speak for you -- Bruin parents, thanks a lot for making the team so wonderful. We really, though, have seen firsthand when we talk about people who may not necessarily think that they're the person who makes somebody's day. I hope so much that this just reminds all of us that whatever role you play in school, whatever role you play for kids, it's a big one. It means a lot to all of us here. So thank you so much. Really pleased to have the honor to get to bring

[00:59:57] this with Megan. Thank you, Ms. Amesha. Do you want to speak to this proclamation? Yeah, I want to thank the folks from Robinson who came forward. As you all know, Robinson is the institution that made me who i am and and uh who you see me to be today um i i wanted to certainly mention i mean miss clark was there when i was there uh and while i i i had you know bad luck of not having the chance to have worked too closely with her i did poke around because i know a lot of my peers uh uh did uh given that she was there for 26 years helping students being friendly a friendly face someone

[01:00:37] students and parents could depend on and who could trust. I did receive an outpouring of letters of support for this proclamation and that just goes to speak to the love that Ms. Clark inspired and all those around her and so I wanted to just share one of those quotes that does speak to her spirit. Edna was seen as a leader within the administrative staff both at Robinson on all the other high school student activity offices more and more importantly, Mama Clark often would go beyond job descriptions and get to know the people on a personal level, listening, encouraging, and hand-holding, many through difficult personal

[01:01:15] challenges. She knew her job, but more importantly, she took the time to get to know the people and cared. What an example she set, and I hope that that's one we can follow to humanize one another and show that kind of care. Thank you. At this point in time, I would like to call for the vote.

[01:01:35] All those in favor of this renaming, Ms. Colbert Sanders, Ms. McLaughlin, of course, Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Tolan, Mr. Kofa, Ms. Kieskamara, Ms. Omage, Ms. Cowan, and Ms. Roger Seismerheiser, with Ms. Marin and Dr. Anderson away from the table, and Mr. Frisch is in favor as well.

[01:02:00] All right, so that is through, but that is passed. Honor 2.09, honoring the 70th anniversary of Cameron Elementary School. I call on Ms. Sterna Koufax for a proclamation.

[01:02:17] Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas Cameron Elementary School, located in Alexandria, Virginia, first opened its doors on September 8, 1953, during the post-World War II period, the school was originally going to be named Happy Valley Elementary School.

[01:02:34] But the school board renamed the new building Cameron Elementary School on January 6, 1953, eight months before opening. And whereas, Cameron Elementary School went through, oops, sorry, my computer, went through several phases of adding classrooms in the spring of 1953 and May of 1954 to accommodate the growing number of children moving to the area and served children in grades one through seven until 1960 when Cameron's seventh grade class was moved to the new Mark Twain Intermediate School.

[01:03:12] The first kindergarten class at Cameron began in September 1968 and Cameron Elementary School was rededicated on Saturday, June 12, 1972 after construction was completed on the northeast side of the building, which included moving the front entrance of the building and adding a resource area, music room, school lab, gymnasium, central courtyard, and several new office buildings.

[01:03:38] And whereas, the earlier mottos for Cameron Elementary School started by former principal George Towery regarding the quality of education starts here, and that is still true today, that the Cameron Cobras to Cameron Cheetahs, Cameron Elementary School has seen much growth and change throughout the years.

[01:03:57] From an animal courtyard in the back, where students learn to care for rabbits, goats, small birds, guinea pigs, and baby chicks, to Cameron was also one of the first schools to try voluntary school uniforms in the mid '90s, which included a shirt that said, "Character counts at Cameron."

[01:04:15] And whereas Cameron Elementary School had visits by first ladies, Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush, in the early 1980s, and when future lady Barbara Bush donated books as part of the Reading is Fundamental program in 1987, and First Lady Nancy Reagan came to promote the Just Say No substance abuse campaign.

[01:04:36] And whereas today, Cameron Elementary continues to educate a diverse student body with a very dedicated group of teachers, administrators, and staff who are committed to supporting Cameron's mission to embrace and celebrate its diversity while promoting children's academic, social, and emotional growth through real-world experiences to ensure that they become responsible citizens working to their full potential to enrich their lives and live in this world. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County

[01:05:15] School Board honors Cameron Elementary on the occasion of its 70th anniversary of providing educational excellence and enrichment opportunities to students in their community is there a second second thank you miss carpet sanders miss jenna kuffex would you like to speak to your proclamation yes ma'am and i will try to speak slower this time i am honored to bring this motion forward this evening it has been wonderful to share the vast history of cameron elementary with all of you

[01:05:49] when fcps was established in 1870 there was a one-room schoolhouse called cameron school and in 1892 a new cameron school opened near the intersection of telegraph and franconia road very close to where the school currently sits today through the first few decades the school saw the establishment of intermediate schools the desegregation of public schools and the introduction of kindergarten classes including one of the first early childhood learning and and Demonstration Centers, which was established in 1971.

[01:06:23] Principal George Towery led Cameron Elementary School for 30 years, from 1980 to 2010. And I had the privilege of meeting Principal Towery just prior to his retirement in 2010. He once said, "I get a glimpse of 27 countries each day when I walk into Cameron Elementary School.

[01:06:46] It's like a little global village. I think kids who go to school here have a real picture of the world the way it really is. And in my opinion, they are far, far richer because of it. Today, Cameron continues to educate a diverse student body where over 22 languages are spoken.

[01:07:06] Since 2020, Principal Eric Johnson assumed principalship and he has shared with me that Cameron's STEAM Lab and classroom teachers helped Cameron students develop the skills they need to be successful communicators, learn to collaborate, become responsible, ethical, and global citizens, and problem-solve by learning to be creative and critical thinkers, and learn to establish goals and become resilient individuals, all attributes of FCPS's portrait of a graduate.

[01:07:38] He also shared that Cameron focuses on the whole child and emotional learning is just as critical as academic learning. And I wanna close by giving you just a few lines of Cameron's school song written by teacher Jennifer Dawson.

[01:07:53] At Cameron, we are all a very special family. We come from different places from all around the world, from Vietnam to Pakistan, Mexico and Colombia too, from India, Bolivia, and Africa to name a few. Everyone, let's join hands and spread peace through all these lands.

[01:08:13] For this is our hope, the world to unite, and for all people to love and not fight. Please help us make this world a better place. So thank you. And I wanna thank Principal Eric Johnson, Assistant Principal Amanda Snyder, Gaila Baumgart, social worker, Tiffany Reed, the advanced academics teacher, and Antoinette Dewatt, the speech language and pathologist who joined us here tonight and will take a picture with us later.

[01:08:43] So thank you all for being here. - Ms. Corbett Sanders. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Much of what I wanted to say was already presented by my colleague, Ms. Derenak-Koufax. For many of you, you probably don't know that a lot of the schools in the Mount Vernon and Franconia area, Ms. Derenak-Koufax will have 50% or like 54% and I'll have 46 and vice versa.

[01:09:14] And that's why we often do these things together. I just want to share a little bit about Cameron Elementary as being a microcosm that truly reflects the spirit and the evolution of Fairfax County Public Schools.

[01:09:33] Many people may not realize that the reason Cameron Elementary School was built was partially because a portion of Fairfax County was moved into Alexandria City, and so we had an area of the county that needed a school.

[01:09:50] And the area is where Cameron Elementary is. And originally it was going to be named the Burgundy School because there were 350 houses being built in the Burgundy community.

[01:10:06] What happened though was that the Burgundy Farm School president came and said, you know, there might be a little confusion here. So perhaps we shouldn't name it Burgundy. And that's where we got Happy Valley. And before it was actually opened, they decided to name it Cameron after and in recognition of the school which used to be right at Telegraph Road, and that was the Cameron Valley School.

[01:10:36] The Cameron Valley School actually opened up in 1893. So there's actually -- we're celebrating 70 years of Cameron Elementary. But it's almost like we're celebrating 140 years of Cameron Elementary.

[01:10:53] It's just grown from that two-room schoolhouse to the complex that it is today. And that kind of reflects what has happened here in Fairfax County. But most importantly, what happened at Cameron Elementary was a recognition that Fairfax County was changing rapidly.

[01:11:12] So we not only needed facilities, But under Principal Towery, they actually had a focused intentional hiring approach to ensure that the people teaching in the school reflected the diversity of the students attending the school.

[01:11:33] And so what we saw was really an evolution and a very early understanding of the importance for our children to have somebody in the building who they can connect with and that they share those cultural connections with.

[01:11:54] So, in general, or in summary, Cameron Elementary has always been a community-centered school, and a recognition of that community-centered school is not only about Cameron Elementary, but about Mr. Towery, who spent 30 years in the school.

[01:12:13] And I am happy to support it. I would also just bring your attention to not only the diversity of the people he hired, but he actually hired the very first Spanish family liaison in Fairfax County. That shows the wisdom and the foresight that he had in that capacity.

[01:12:33] Thank you very much. Thank you. At this point, I would like to call for the vote. All those in favor of this proclamation, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Prakarski, Ms. Toland, Mr. Nikofax, Ms. Giesgemarra, Ms. Omeish, Ms. Cowan, with Ms. Miren, Mr. Frisch, also positive, with Ms. Miren and Ms. Roger Seismerheiser away from the table.

[01:13:16] Call on Ms. Toland for a proclamation. The proclamation honoring our 2023 Citizen Bond Committee and the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce proclamation.

[01:13:37] Whereas the 2023 Citizen Bond Committee and Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce play a crucial role in supporting our schools and contribute to high quality education and life in Fairfax County. And whereas collaboration among local public schools, community organizations, and businesses provides a well-trained and highly educated workforce, and whereas first-in-class instructional facilities are required to provide spaces for students to practice and hone the skills needed for success in the workforce and their communities.

[01:14:12] And whereas an excellent public school system must have school facilities that are educationally best in class, safe, and more environmentally sustainable to reserve finite natural and financial resources. And whereas, public school facilities serve not only the students and adults who learn and work there, but also provide essential space for community athletics indoors and outside, community meetings, and distribution of public health services, including emergency shelter and more.

[01:14:45] And whereas members of the 2023 Citizen Bond Committee, led by Chairman Len Forkus and co-chair Catherine Hosek, and the Mount Vernon-Springfield Chamber of Commerce, led by President Hallie Daugherty, have dedicated their time, energy, and resources in support of passage of the 2023 $435 million school bond referendum, with 68% of the county's voters voting yes.

[01:15:17] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board extends its highest commendation and deepest appreciation to the chamber and committee for their leadership and outstanding service to Fairfax County public schools and Fairfax County.

[01:15:34] Through their unwavering dedication to the children and overall success of this community, your work has resulted in securing sound public investments to provide the best public schools possible for every FCPS student. is there a second second thank you Miss Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan would you like to speak to your proclamation yes thank you so as mentioned our recent bond passed with 68 percent support of Fairfax County voters with the showing a renewed community investment in Fairfax County Public

[01:16:14] Schools I want to give a huge thank you to our bond committee for helping to spread the word on board on the bond and why it is important to all Fairfax County residents I'd like to do a similar thing to what we've done before can all those people who are members of the bond committee the chamber of commerce etc please stand so that we can recognize you thank you so we as voters

[01:16:48] Fairfax County voters approved the sale of forty four hundred and thirty five million dollars in and bonds to fund the building and renovation of schools. Bonds spread the cost of capital improvements over a number of years and are expected to fund future constructions and renovations and renovations and enhancements and planning for 16 schools across the division.

[01:17:12] I'm excited to say that they include renovations for Drainsville Elementary School, Herndon Elementary School and Armstrong Elementary School in the Drainsville district And also Franklin Middle School, Lee's Corner Elementary School, Brookfield Elementary School, Cub Run Elementary School, Waples Mill Elementary School, Poplar Tree Elementary School, Virginia Run Elementary School, Willow Springs, Center Ridge, Union Mill, Brenmar Park, Sankster, and Saratoga Elementary Schools.

[01:17:44] It's a long list. Our facilities folks are gonna be busy. Renovations across FCPS provide enhanced safety and security features, improved technology access and environmentally responsible features including outdoor classroom spaces school facilities are a huge community asset valued at nearly 6.5 billion dollars we estimate millions of visits by students and community members as they attend classes camps and other programs run by fairfax county government agencies and fcps facilities as well as many many

[01:18:21] community events at our schools. So a huge thank you again to the members of the bonds committee that are here with us tonight and we'll look forward to having a photo with you. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Corbett Sanders would you like to speak to your second? Yes, thank you. I thought I'd spend a couple of minutes explaining our bond process because many people don't realize the importance of our bonds. Our bonds are a form of long term borrowing used by most local governments to finance public facilities and infrastructure. Bond financing makes it possible to build

[01:19:00] facilities and infrastructure based on future population estimates and needs and to spread the cost equitably over the useful life of the facilities. Although our facilities are currently on a 37-year renovation cycle, we'd like to shorten it. Fairfax County has a long history of being fiscally conservative when it comes to utilizing its bonding authority. Because of this history, the county has navigated turbulent times affecting our economy and maintained its triple A rating with the finance rating agencies. In fiscal year 21, it was noted that Fairfax County

[01:19:39] is one of only 13 states, 49 counties, and 33 cities across the United States to hold a AAA bond rating from all three rating agencies. For this reason, Fairfax County's bonds sell at a relatively low interest rate compared to the other tax-exempt bonds. This kind of financing allows the cost of a facility to be spread over a number of years so that each generation of taxpayers contributes a proportionate share for the use of these long-term investments.

[01:20:13] Bonds limits the use of property taxes to only paying debt service, and under the county bond program, the county's net long-term debt is not to exceed 3 percent of the total market value of taxable real and personal property in the county.

[01:20:31] It also provides that annual debt service, the cost of the principal and interest payments, kept below 10% of the annual combined general fund disbursements, and that bond sales shall not exceed an average principal amount of $300 million per year, or $1.5 billion over five years.

[01:20:51] This demonstrates the very intentional and professional management of our funding, both at the county level and at the school's level. And so I want to personally thank Lynn Forkus, Kathy Hosek, and the Mount Vernon and Springfield Chamber of Commerce for their timeless efforts in getting this year's bond passed.

[01:21:15] I especially appreciate that much of the bonding authority this year was not concentrated in the Mount Vernon region, but the Mount Vernon region stepped up and was very supportive of making this happen. So thank you very much.

[01:21:31] seeing no other board members who would like to speak i'll check one more time all right i will call for the vote all those in favor of the proclamation that is unanimous with everyone at the table with miss mcg with miss mclaughlin yes with miss mclaughlin and miss sizemore heiser away from the table madam clerk will you call for the vote that's uh nine zero and mr i don't have

[01:22:10] have Mr. Frisch's vote. I'm sorry, say that again. Mr. Frisch. Mr. Frisch. Yes. All right. I would like to invite those who are here in support of the 2023 Citizen Bond Committee and the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce Proclamation to join us at the dais for a photo. And then Ms. Setlow will call up the other groups after that photo is taken. Thank you. And thank you all for being here tonight.

[01:22:46] I would like to invite those here in support of the 70th anniversary of Cameron Elementary School Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[01:25:04] I'd like to invite those here in support of the 70th anniversary of Cameron Elementary School Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[01:25:56] I would like to invite those in support of the Robinson Secondary School Student Activities Office Naming Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[01:26:25] I would now like to invite those in support of the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[01:28:16] I would like to invite those here in support of the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[01:28:43] I would like to invite those here in support of the Celebrating Our Local Native American Tribes and Acknowledging Our Historic Origins Proclamation to please join the board for a photo.

[01:29:25] I would now like to invite those in support of the Inclusive Schools Week Proclamation to join the board for a photo.

[01:35:11] All right, on to Agenda Item 3.01, Community Participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening.

[01:35:29] 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.

[01:35:48] 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 school-based employee.

[01:36:11] Additionally, speakers should be respectful and observe proper decorum in their statements, avoiding profanity, inappropriate gestures, shouting, and comments that run counter to the spirit and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy, which protects students and staff from discrimination based on age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, marital status, or disability.

[01:36:41] 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.

[01:36:59] A speaker may not yield their time to another 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.

[01:37:16] 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. We are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today, and thank you for your cooperation.

[01:37:34] Madam Clerk, please call the first speaker. Samira Ali. Good evening. My name is Samira Ali, and I'm a student at Anadol High School.

[01:37:52] I want to first say that I appreciate the administrative staff at my school. They're extremely helpful with school events and spirit. However, since one of the policies that they have implemented has not seen any change, despite many of my classmates and teachers disagreeing with it, I found it necessary to come here and discuss it.

[01:38:09] Here at Annadale, our grading policy is that 90% of our grade will come from tests, while only 10% will come from classwork and quizzes. This policy was implemented last school year, and the outrage was big. People's grades started dropping 5, 10, sometimes 20 points because of failing one test, despite participating in class and getting 100s on all the classwork and quizzes.

[01:38:31] My friend recently told me about his experience in physics last year. He came in excited to learn and excelled in class before getting a 90 on his first test. While annoyed, he studied, retook the test, and improved. However, this happened again on the next test, and the next test.

[01:38:48] It became an endless cycle, and by the end of the year, he stopped caring about the class, only studying to minimize his potential grade drop. Therein lies the problem with our grading policy. If we're only graded on our tests, why do we need to try for the 10% that is our classwork?

[01:39:03] Why do we need to turn in our classwork? If we're trying to evolve a past standardized testing, why are our grades so dependent on it of course we've advocated for this change in the past year meetings with our principal assistant superintendent petitions and yet nothing it always has to do with statistics the percentage of f's in our school has gone down the average of grades has not changed but these statistics do not account for the nights my classmates and i have spent stressing over the grade we'll get that we will get on the next exam and until this grade policy changes we will not stop fighting for a more

[01:39:37] equitable grading policy. Thank you. Stuart Gibson. Good evening I'm Stuart Gibson and for 16 years I served the people of Fairfax County as a member of this board. At every meeting and public event I wore this button no hate to remind us to treat each other with respect. I come before you today to condemn the actions of Ms. Omeish as a member of this board for expressing Jew hatred and anti-semitism following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against innocent civilians in Israel on on October 7.

[01:40:16] She has posted anti-Semitic and anti-Israel memes on social media that basically brand thousands of our Jewish students, teachers, and families, as well as thousands of supporters of Israel and its right to exist as mass murderers akin to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Let's set the record straight.

[01:40:33] Hitler set out to murder all 9 million Jews in Europe by among other things building camps whose sole purpose was to gas Jews to death and then burn their bodies. He was able to murder 6 million Jews before the Allies defeated him in 1945.

[01:40:49] Israel is not Nazi Germany. It does not seek to kill all Palestinians. It is not committing genocide. To the contrary, Israel is defending its residents against a terrorist organization bent on finishing what Hitler started, killing the Jews. Comparing Israel to Hitler is anti-Semitism, pure Jew hatred.

[01:41:07] It is a direct threat to our safety and it has no place on this board. I'm not the only person who says this. In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance developed a working definition of anti-Semitism that has been adopted by 43 countries, including the US.

[01:41:23] Just this year, Virginia adopted it too. Ms. O'Mase, you should read it, because what you have posted is spelled out exactly in this law, comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. I call upon you to cease these Jew-hating attacks against members of our community and to apologize for your hateful anti-Semitic posts.

[01:41:42] And I'm going to give to the clerk a copy of the post so that the school board members who may not have seen it can see what's involved and what's so hateful to the members of this community. Thank you. Jennifer Gorski.

[01:42:00] Jennifer Gorski. To Jess Tessafei. Good evening.

[01:42:20] My name is Sigist Tessafei, a parent of a senior student at West Springfield High School. You all know that 13 years of abuse, my daughter and my family went through in Fairfax County, which I completely believe that you have been silenced, silenced and actually some pay an active role in it.

[01:42:37] This year, the abuse of power, which started in elementary, revived again with the assistant principal admin, the English department head at West Springfield High School, blocking me from communicating with my daughter, AP lead teacher and counselor, where they are not allowed to speak to me, return my call, and I'm not allowed to have a meeting with them without the presence of the administrators.

[01:43:01] When I asked the reason, it changed every time. This week, the reason was we had a question about the English curriculum. I have the right to ask about the curriculum. And second, this time I've said that I want to meet about my child and not the curriculum. However, we know the reason.

[01:43:18] Last year, the school removed an amazing AP language teacher who was also the English department director for many years with a humiliating manner. So we all know how this is all related. Now, what happens this year? They came up with a curriculum, not only that cuts at least half of the teaching, but also removed a textbook, all kinds of cumulative assessments, quarter exam, final exam, came up with a complete different grading system for epilet and hiding, giving us a letter grade and hiding the rose course from us, which I completely believe that the previous teacher who was removed from this school did

[01:43:56] not cooperate with this crazy proposed plots and plans. You have been quiet when my daughter was bullied out from many opportunities, from forming a girls' club, humiliating her at an interest meeting that she called, bullied out from a science fair that she tried to participate, fake national honor societies, not providing a letter of recommendation that supports her.

[01:44:26] Gerald Poggi. Good evening.

[01:44:47] My name is Jerry Poggi. On behalf of my faith community, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, I strongly support your findings and resolution on ending hunger and homelessness in our largely wealthy community.

[01:45:03] I also serve on the Affordable Housing Advisory Council. Your proclamation is cogent and compelling. Please work to ensure that every schoolchild, parent, guardian, teacher, administrators, staff understand and embrace its message.

[01:45:19] Help recruit our boards of supervisors into parallel collaborative action. this year's effort perennial for at-risk neighbors from birth to senior status until we achieve affordable accessible homes for all sadly more than 2300 FCPS children are homeless some lack parental and guardian support some have parents who themselves remain homeless some await

[01:45:47] Homelessness upon high school graduation, President Ann Kress of Northern Virginia Community College states that 15% of her 90,000 young college aspirants are homeless, and security expels them every night at 9 p.m. when they would rather sleep in their cars in the parking lot.

[01:46:11] In February, my faith community, partnering with four others and the nonprofit Facets, embarks upon our third decade of hosting week-long hypothermia sheltering, providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a warm sleeping space for unsheltered neighbors.

[01:46:31] Many more younger partners are needed to ensure permanent homes. AHAC is grateful for the inaugural leadership of at-large member Abrao Mesh for organizing your proclamation, and I hope that she will help us grow our capacity to bring young people.

[01:46:56] - Melissa Morrison, Rose Powhatan.

[01:47:19] - Winkapo, I just gave you greetings in Algonquin, which is the original language of Fairfax County's indigenous people. The dog, the toxinate, and the pamunkey.

[01:47:35] Although some people have written that we have been annihilated. You're not speaking to a ghost. The Toxnut and Doge were members of the powerful Powhatan Paramount Sea, which stretched all the way from the borders of today's North Carolina to today's Washington, DC.

[01:47:58] And I think it's very important that Fairfax County school children know their local indigenous people first before they learn about others who may be hundreds of miles away from them.

[01:48:18] I'm descended from people who quarried stone, used to build iconic buildings in our nation's capital, such as the monument and the U.S. Capitol building.

[01:48:35] Toxnit and Doge leaders attended caucus meetings on today's Capitol Hill. caucus meant a gathering of leaders, indigenous leaders at that time. And I just find it sad that people continue the practice of document genocide in writing us out of the history books and preferring to laud it over native people from other parts of the country instead of

[01:49:13] giving respect to those of us who are here at home so please let's start at home first Christopher Topolesky good evening I'm Chris Topolesky director of government relations for

[01:49:50] rest and strong we support the proclamation on housing and hunger I'd like to take a few minutes to give you a sense of who we are and the rest and strong is doing in our community rest and strong was formed in March of 2020 to make a difference when our worlds came to a screeching halt with COVID, our founding members came together to create an organization that would step up and fill a void.

[01:50:10] Reston Strong is a 100% volunteer-powered 501c3 nonprofit founded to celebrate community by creating avenues to inspire, advocate, and fundraise. We are a BIPOC-led organization with 50-plus volunteers and leadership roles. Our purpose is not to replicate services, but to support and fill gaps wherever possible.

[01:50:29] Our only limitation is our service area. We are truly local and operate solely within Reston, Virginia. Our diverse network of over 3,000 followers and volunteers includes senior leadership executives, business owners, federal employees, past and current neighbors in tents, and service industry workers.

[01:50:46] Just this year alone, Reston Strong has provided over 100,000 pounds of food through our food rescue and diversion efforts to our neighbors in tents, Embry Rucker Shelter, Cornerstone's Food Pantry, and others in the area. We also provided 160 low-income and unhoused families with fully cooked Thanksgiving meals through a partnership with our local elementary schools housing for all is not a luxury but a basic need as well while we are focused exclusively within reston homelessness is a county-wide issue as evidenced by this meeting tonight as stated earlier there are a number of children in our communities who are runaways or unhoused as a result of failures in our foster care system

[01:51:23] without diligent and rigorous outreach efforts there truly are unhoused and unseen youth when we leave today and go home into our heated cars walk into our safe and cozy homes sit at the table with our kids to help them check their homework, I urge you to remember the children sleeping in the shelters, on couches, in cars, and lastly in back alleys. Thank you for your time this evening.

[01:51:45] John Boylan. Good evening. I'm John Boylan from the Sully District. I'm a member of the Affordable Housing Advisory Council in Fairfax County. I'm also a past president of the Dulles Chamber of Commerce and served on the superintendent's strategic alignment team. It's my honor to speak tonight in support of the proclamation on hunger and homelessness. Journeys begin with a statement of intent a proclamation this is a good first start of the journey to prevent and hunger and

[01:52:22] homelessness the hard work and the hard decisions will follow this is not a journey for the school board alone it must be a community effort including the county government and businesses the first meeting of the alignment team it was review of scps data the results were wonderful programs for gifted students and it was quite evident unfortunately the cliff dropped off at the end and that was clear it was the uh children in foster care and homeless in fact tonight there are students looking for a fourth or fifth blanket to cover them in the back of mom's minivan they aren't worried about math or homework the foster child in their second or third home this year

[01:53:01] will not have someone to read to them or check their spelling homework i was reading a new book in fact just came out several weeks ago about solutions for homelessness when we walked by by by Kevin Adler. And it points out that 36% of the homeless children will experience homelessness as an adult.

[01:53:18] We need to address and fix the problems now with the children. No child should be hungry or homeless, and I stand tonight to let them know that there are adults who care. I'm proud of the work AHAC has done to support building more affordable housing. This proclamation will build awareness and support for children experiencing hunger and homelessness.

[01:53:36] Let's fix this problem together. Thank you. - Lynn Garvey-Hodge.

[01:53:57] - Good evening. This is one of the first times I've ever had a chance to speak to you. I am chair of the Fairfax County History Commission and was aware of the Native American Proclamation this evening. And I'm very happy to see that we're honoring really quite frankly all of our citizens.

[01:54:13] I want to speak in a couple of different ways. I have lived in this county for 38 years and it has been a pleasure and an honor to serve on the commission for 23 of those years. And one of the things I believe very strongly is our theme of one Fairfax in this county.

[01:54:35] And with that theme in mind for the last three years and now into year four, our annual history conferences have included for year one Native Americans and African American heritage. Our second conference included our Irish, our German, our Italian, our Jewish, and our Quaker heritage.

[01:54:53] This last year, our conference, which was just a few weeks ago, was our Muslim, Asian, and Latino heritage as citizens. We really, as a commission, try to embrace and care for all. I'd like to take a moment to sort of take off my hat as chair of the History Commission, and also share with you, I've been a member of Burke Presbyterian Church for as many years as I've been a citizen.

[01:55:16] We are a very inclusive family of faith, and one of our very favorite congregations that we have interfaith services is Congregation Adot Rayem. And as a treasured friend, former rabbi Bruce Aft is on my list of special people.

[01:55:32] This last year we celebrated, just a few weeks ago, an interfaith service of 11 faith communities. And I hope in this room that all the words that we say and the way that we look at each other and the way that we interpret each other can be taken with respect and dignity, even in the face of strong disagreement and hurt.

[01:55:55] Our country and this world is hurting right now. It's up to us to- - Madam Chair, that was our last public speaker.

[01:56:13] - Thank you, Madam Clerk. I now call on Dr. Reed to share academic matters.

[01:56:37] - Good evening, Madam Chair. And this evening, we thought we would take a few moments and share a very high level view of our Fairfax County Youth Survey 2223 results.

[01:56:54] So one of the things that we thought would be very helpful is to do just a quick review about what the youth survey is. Thank you.

[01:57:09] We want to remind our community that it is comprehensive, it is anonymous, and it's voluntary. And students each year in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 participate in the survey, which examines behaviors, experiences, and other factors that influence the health and well-being of our Fairfax County youth.

[01:57:29] The results, honestly, are taken into consideration as we do planning in a variety of areas as we work to foster healthy choices in our young people. The Fairfax County Youth Survey asks questions about risky behavior, mental and physical health, safety, and so forth.

[01:57:48] Students are also asked about positive aspects of their lives concerning health and safety. One of the reasons we administer this is because we know the results serve as a barometer of our effectiveness as a community in fostering healthy choices.

[01:58:04] It's important, in other words, that our community-based organizations and our county continue to look at these results, to look at trends, develop programs, look at our youth's needs and strengths, and measure county-wide outcomes that result from our collective policies and practices.

[01:58:22] Most importantly, the survey, we feel, give parents, youth, and community members a sense of our challenges and of our strengths and how to build upon those strengths. In thinking about our survey during the last academic school year, there were a total of 27,814 students in grades 8, 10, and 12 who participated, which represented 64.7% of all 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. Simultaneously, a total of 11,384 students in the sixth grade participated in the survey representing 84.9 percent of all sixth

[01:59:00] graders enrolled in the county so it was a grand total of 39 168 students who actually took the survey want to share that we have some good news honestly and really at this point coming out of our pandemic i think it's important to think about those good news moments again nearly all mental health indicators including levels of stress feelings of sadness or hopelessness for a long prolonged period of time and suicidal ideation as well as attempts have actually improved from 2021

[01:59:37] and this was across all grades all genders and racial ethnic groups nearly one-third of our eighth tenth and twelfth grade students reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row but it is a decrease from 38 percent in 2021 i know it goes without saying that we're not going to stop our work till that percentage is zero but it does appear that we're at least on the right track so i think i would also like to add that one in nine students in grades eight ten and twelve reported that they had considered attempting suicide in the past year

[02:00:16] whereas 4% of the students reported attempting within the past year. These rates are not only lower than the high levels reported in 2021, but are actually the lowest reported since 2015. So I think that the real focus on our youth mental health is garnering at least data points that are moving in the right directions.

[02:00:41] Female students, non-binary students, LGBTQ students and students from food insecure homes reported higher rates of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts compared to their peers. So I think that the proclamations this evening around inclusive schools, food insecurities, and homelessness certainly are pieces of our students' mental health.

[02:01:08] Also want to share that there is some good news around substance use within our county. The reported rates of alcohol and substance use among FCPS youth are in fact the lowest since 2015, which would be the lowest in eight years.

[02:01:25] And this is for all substances including alcohol, marijuana, synthetic marijuana, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, vaping, non-medical use of painkillers, and so forth. Also our Fairfax County youth reported lower rates of use than those reported nationally for most substances assessed on the survey.

[02:01:45] Rates of use for FCPS students were less than half the national rates for the past month use of alcohol, marijuana, vaping, inhalant use, and so forth. So I think that there again is some excellent news in terms of the general decline in substance use in the county.

[02:02:07] One of the things that we've talked about a little bit this evening with the proclamations is that we can say that nearly 7% of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students reported going hungry in the past month due to a lack of food in the home.

[02:02:22] This percentage varied by race and ethnicity, ranging from 3% of our white students to 12% of our Hispanic students. So one of the things that our Instructional Services Department has worked hard in our counseling and social workers are a strategy around three to succeed.

[02:02:43] And this is that we know that children and teens with three or more protective factors are more likely to manage stress well, make better choices, and develop healthier habits. So these assets refer to the supports, opportunities, and relationships that our youth need across all aspects of their lives.

[02:03:03] And in particular, those relationships with other students, that feeling of inclusion, And that feeling of teamwork and collaboration with adults and other students. So this graph I think really highlights the importance of these protective factors on youth mental health.

[02:03:22] And you can see that the more assets that young people have, the percent experiencing mental health concerns goes down significantly. So lastly, I just want to share that there are website resources for families and community members and staff who would like to see this youth survey website in more detail.

[02:03:45] And Madam Chair, that is Academic Matters for this evening. Thank you, Dr. Reed. All right, yeah. It's great news. So, I mean, you know, like we, anyhow, so I'm really proud of our staff and our students and our community partners and families.

[02:04:05] - Okay, board members, you have to excuse me. I was so enthralled with the good news. I did not keep you in order here. So I will start with Ms. Keyes-Gamara and work my way. - Thank you, Dr. Reed.

[02:04:22] I want to say, I guess I had a little bit of a cheat moment. I was at a seminar a few weeks ago on best practices for representing children. And there was a professional there who, much to my chagrin, announced.

[02:04:42] And for some reason, Fairfax County decided a few years ago to start doing these youth surveys, and he went off. The good news is an FCPS employee psychologist followed that and provided answers to his inquiring mind.

[02:05:01] So I'm having trouble here, Ms. Bacardi, stop. So perhaps you'd like to cover how we got here, why this is important, particularly parents' ability to allow this to happen.

[02:05:18] Do they have any input? And we can start there now. - Thank you, Ms. Keyes-Gamara. I think the Fairfax County Healthy Youth Survey is a survey, honestly, we gave a similar survey in Seattle. I think the survey is provided in many, many counties all across this country.

[02:05:35] And it's really to assess the trends around the health and well-being of our young people so that we can really be thoughtful about what resources, programs, plans are the most beneficial so that our young people are able to attend to teaching and learning because we know that feeling centered and mentally healthy is going to increase their ability to concentrate and focus on teaching and learning.

[02:05:59] So, I think it's also had significant time where we've provided the survey. Parents are able to opt out. We do provide notice of the survey each year. And if families choose to opt their student out, that's certainly a choice families have.

[02:06:18] She also our excellent employee, I have to say, I was very, very proud of her did also explain that we had been following some trends within our schools at the time and thought that it was important that we monitor these the the emotional well-being of our students to to basically not only help their emotional well-being but also to help them access education in a more meaningful way. Do you have any idea where the questions come from? I think I will phone a friend here for a moment. I know there's

[02:06:54] a national bank and it's generally our health department that provides those but Dr. Presidio Do you have more specifics unique to Fairfax County? Yeah, that's correct. It's a partnership between FCPS and the county, but the survey items are based on two national surveys, as Dr. Reed mentioned, that are widely given across the country.

[02:07:16] One developed by the CDC and the other developed by the National Institutes of Health. So they're evidence-based, research-based, widely used. And we've been giving the youth survey in Fairfax County since, I think, 2001. So it's been quite some time. Thank you.

[02:07:33] I do appreciate this and I think it's been very important to do this sort of thing. And I, you know, I wonder if, you know, of course people say things, but I wonder if perhaps we could do a better job of making parents aware, maybe on our website or something, perhaps take a look at how that information is conveyed so that they understand what their rights are, understand that their children, why we're doing it, etc.

[02:08:03] So that would be my only suggestion, but I'm glad to see the good news here. I do know and firmly believe that those that are emotionally well have a better opportunity to learn. And so this is really critical work in order to make sure all children can access education.

[02:08:23] So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin. Great. But, Dr. Reed, I just wanted to provide a few thoughts. First of all, as someone with a mental health specialty in this field, I'm thrilled that Fairfax County government does choose to participate in this national effort.

[02:08:50] We cannot know how our nation is doing, and we cannot know how our localities are doing if we don't have a universal survey, and that's why it's done in this manner. And to Ms. Kees-Gamara's question on, you know, so how are those survey questions done, it is in keeping with that national survey.

[02:09:11] And then we can customize, but anytime we do customize, then we pull away from being able to do an apples-to-apples comparison. So I appreciate that Fairfax County Public Schools continues to partner with our county government that is engaged in this work.

[02:09:28] So I do think, as Ms. Kees-Gamara said, helping our families all understand the why and why it's important is good. I also restate that we want to make sure that when we issue the survey in schools, that we ask our teachers and educators to really help students understand the value and the merit and the importance of this, to take it seriously and to try to answer as honestly as they can as maturity is a part of taking this survey and we want to make sure students know why it's valuable to hear their honest answers and then

[02:10:04] finally with the presentation my only request going forward slides and the slides aren't numbered on what got printed out I'm not sure why but I think starting with maybe slide five if we can get to five during my remarks it would be really helpful anytime we give percentages that we have the n number so when we're I know it's out of the 39,000 but 29% when the slide doesn't have you know nobody's doing the math but I think it'd be very impactful for people to still understand because we're such a large

[02:10:38] district 29% is good to see the decrease but it's still a lot of kids and so that's what I would hope to see going forward in that next slide six same thing where it's the 90% and 92% that's good but also keeping in mind that depending on the age level I don't want us to lose how many seniors we have how many juniors we have and and that sort of thing and so we just really sort of have a little bit better frame of reference on it but otherwise it's a very dense report and I

[02:11:16] appreciate that you chose to spotlight this and the slides that you did give us and you know the only other thing I'll say is it is encouraging news I'm not sure I'll go with good news in just the sense that I think we can all agree looking at slide 5 it's still quite concerning but anytime we can see why this is a national conversation and how Fairfax County is doing that helping everyone in the community understand that this isn't in isolation we know this is a a a community

[02:11:54] that prides itself on high achievement and um and that we also have a tale of two cities with the poverty and um trauma and so there's a there's a lot that's here and um the different factors so well done and thank you to your team all right thank you thank you dr anderson thank you i think - I think Ms. Kees-Gamara may have been looking at my notes.

[02:12:24] - We have a quorum. - Thank you for this. I had the-- - Quorum. - Sorry. Hold on once again. - Oh, I'm so sorry. - Thank you. Board members, can board members please return to the dais? We do not have quorum.

[02:12:41] - So I believe, according to Mr. Foster, we can continue without quorum since you are not taking a vote. - Okay, so we can continue with the discussion.

[02:12:57] - That is what I was just told. - Okay, Dr. Anderson. - Okay, just getting back to it. I wanted to share that Ms. McLaughlin and I had the opportunity to review the entirety of this report due to our participation in SCIPP and most of the inquiries that I have have been already addressed, but I wanted to raise one point.

[02:13:23] The food insecurity, as we were talking about homelessness this evening, food insecurity for our students, I wanted to raise that there is a section, and my printout doesn't have any numbers either where food insecurity really impacts the resiliency of our students and as we would note so that's one the other piece that I really wanted to speak to I know this is not our wheelhouse but I was hoping you would know this survey as we've determined is not FCPS written it is something that we bring we administer to our students and as

[02:14:00] As a parent, I know I receive many notices to ask for my children's participation from the beginning of the year to when the administration of the survey is about to occur. So there's a lot of opportunity for me to withdraw my students, my personal children, if that's my wish.

[02:14:19] As we're taking a look at this number, the 39,000 that participated, those are only FCPS students, correct? NOT INCLUDE PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS, HOME SCHOOL STUDENTS, ET CETERA, AS FAR AS YOU UNDERSTAND. YES, MA'AM.

[02:14:34] THAT'S CORRECT. I JUST -- THANK YOU FOR THAT. THE ONLY OTHER PIECE THAT I WANTED TO ASK, PARTICULARLY BECAUSE WE DO SO MUCH WORK IN THIS AREA, SOME OF THE GOOD NEWS THAT YOU SHARED REGARDING SOME OF THE RISKY BEHAVIORS DECREASING THE MENTAL HEALTH IMPACTS, FEELING HOPELESS, STRESSED OUT, ET CETERA.

[02:14:55] CAN YOU SPEAK A LITTLE BIT MORE IN GREATER DETAIL TO SOME OF THE ACTIVITIES THAT FCPS engages in that could have impacted this data? Well, I think that, again, this is from 2021, which I think was coming right out of the pandemic.

[02:15:14] So I'm thinking part of this is just time elapsing since the more extreme isolation that occurred for many young people during the 20 and 21 school years. Excuse me. I do know we've also made a concerted effort TO ADD STAFFING IN AREAS THAT WOULD SUPPORT STUDENTS' MENTAL HEALTH.

[02:15:36] WE'VE ADDED THE TELEMENTAL HEALTH SINCE 2021, WHICH WAS A LAST YEAR, I THINK, ENDEAVOR, WHICH WE ALSO KNOW HAD TRANSLATABILITY, SO STUDENTS WERE ABLE TO ACCESS MENTAL HEALTH, AT LEAST OUR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, IN WAYS THEY WEREN'T PREVIOUSLY ABLE TO ACCESS.

[02:15:57] I don't know, Dr. Presidio, would you add any other program interventions? I mean, I think those are the major ones. I mean, I would say to Dr. Reed's comment about coming out of the pandemic, we knew that, you know, there was a great need for social emotional support and behavior support for our students.

[02:16:14] And that was a very intentional focus in all of our schools. And teachers and administrators worked really, really hard at this. And, you know, we developed lessons and supports for students. And, you know, I think we're seeing some positive trends and results from that work as well as the other programs that Dr. Reid mentioned.

[02:16:32] Thank you for that. One of the things that you mentioned during your presentation is that this is the best data since 2015. And I'm very curious to see, did we unpeel the onion on this to determine what occurred from 2016, 17, 18, 19, I get it for 20, that resulted in the data just going in the wrong direction for our students here in FCPS?

[02:16:59] I don't know. Dr. Presidio, you've been here throughout that time. I have been here. I mean, I think, you know, one of the things that we tried to mention in the report is that, you know, both the county and FCPS look at the results and then we try to respond accordingly.

[02:17:15] You know, so during that period of time, for example, we saw rising issues around vaping with students. and that was something that you know we partnered with the county to develop anti-vaping programs for our students and really talked about that in our schools and talked about that in the communities with families and as a result we've seen that you know trend come down a little bit but you know again i mean i think obviously as dr reed mentioned as the data shows there's still a lot of work to do but that's how the county staff and that's how fcps staff really respond to the results is really thinking about what are those issues of greatest need and how can we be more supportive of students and families in those areas.

[02:17:51] No, I appreciate that. I didn't want to put you on the spot, but I'm very curious as to what some of the impacts, the causes may have been. Thank you both. Yeah. I also think when we talk to students, just to amplify that response, we made a lot of, we made cuts, I think, in the 2007-8 realm to programs, activities, after school clubs.

[02:18:20] i think bringing back ways for young people to connect and re-establishing those opportunities is really important for student mental health and that feeling of connectedness which i think is critical i will say you also mentioned food insecurity early on in your comments and there's more data emerging around absenteeism and food insecurity and that students who experience food insecurity are more likely to be absent from school and as we look at our burgeoning absentee

[02:18:58] rates in the commonwealth i think it's also a call to action around food insecurity topics and what we can do as a commonwealth to provide food for our children thank you Ms. Corver-Sanders.

[02:19:13] Ms. Corver-Sanders. Yes, thank you. And thank you very much, Dr. Reed, for presenting this tonight. I am one of those people that actually read the whole report as soon as it comes out every year because of the importance for all of our children.

[02:19:33] The activities around this survey really exemplify the one Fairfax model of working together to identify what the issues are and then working together to solve the issues. And so I appreciated Dr. Anderson's question about what Fairfax County Public Schools are doing, but I would say that what we're doing is actually working very closely with the county, with the CSB, with the various health providers and not-for-profits in Northern Virginia and in Fairfax County to together solve these issues.

[02:20:12] So I want to thank everybody who's part of that team that makes that happen. I also was glad that my colleagues really focused on the national norms and the genesis of this survey.

[02:20:29] Because we actually look at national norms in academic areas, but this is an area where we're actually looking at national norms for behavioral health, and I think that what would be very helpful in the future is if we could more succinctly profile that this is really about national norms and looking at where Fairfax County is positioned within them and how we are responding.

[02:21:00] We're not perfect, we're not, you know, we have a ways to go, but putting it in context I think is going to be really important. And I was particularly interested in the data really changing since 2015.

[02:21:15] And I think some of the areas that were not mentioned tonight were getting the cell phones out of our schools because we knew that that was adding stress points for our kids. We also know that we've been more intentional in teaching about social media and cybersecurity And giving our students the tools to be able to reflect and to be able to address some of the tension and the anxiety that they're dealing with.

[02:21:48] And so I think that when we look at this, we have to look at it as there was no one silver bullet, but the combination of all these different pieces. And early on, the school system focused on the three to succeed. And it's kind of buried in this report now.

[02:22:07] But I do think that when we talk about One Fairfax, we need to talk about Three to Succeed. Because the Three to Succeed is having a caring adult in the classroom and in the community and at home. And so to do that, we have to have a One Fairfax approach with a very intentional message that says that all of us have a role in ensuring the success of our children.

[02:22:38] And that doesn't mean children that live in our own home, any child who is in Fairfax County and in our schools. And so tonight's presentation of this, I think, is quite timely because when you take it in the context of some of the proclamations we did.

[02:22:58] And so I very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mesh. Yeah, thank you. And thank you for this presentation, Dr. Reed, and spotlighting a really important issue. I'm happy to follow Dr. Anderson's comments, actually.

[02:23:14] I was really on a similar vein in multiple areas, no surprise there. I was going to ask, just extending the conversation on the telehealth piece, since you mentioned it, what data we've observed, if we have any of that preliminarily on, you know, success rates or even participation rates or where we are with that.

[02:23:33] And I know we even had the conversation about expanding to middle school, so I don't know if we've gone that far yet, but would love an update. So, we have not expanded to middle schools. We're still only at high school. I don't know that we have success rate data, but we would have participation rate data.

[02:23:48] Dr. Presidio, do you have a ballpark on participation? If not, I can present that in the upcoming Friday letter. We can have that for you. I don't have it off the top of my head, the participation, but it was certainly being utilized last spring, and I know it's continued to be this fall, but we can get you that in the Friday letter this week.

[02:24:09] - Okay, I appreciate that. And then building off of the other bucket of discussion was really just kind of the explanatory, like our takeaways from this, right? So I approached the data with a little bit of skepticism, not so much with what it presents as numbers, but in questioning like the reason for the decreases.

[02:24:30] I mean, for one, obviously in a system of, you know, nearly 180, 170, whatever, give and take thousand kids. 181 571 that's up Monday. Sorry, yeah, 181, what you said?

[02:24:45] 181 571. All right, love that you know it to the student. It's my name and my needs, so that is the commitment. Absolutely. So, you know, 39 some doesn't capture the entirety. So I'm just curious how many have students participated in past surveys?

[02:25:03] Do we know? Do we have that data? We probably do. I don't have that off the top of my head, Dr. Presidio. Are we in the ballpark? I think the participation rate has been pretty steady over the years, but yeah, we'd have to pull up the specific participation rates if you were interested in that historical data.

[02:25:22] Yeah. I mean, I'm mindful that it's certain grades, so it's naturally going to be a subset, but I am curious about how that's changed over time. And what else explains, you know, I mean, these are stark decreases, right? And in the aftermath of COVID, I'm even more skeptical, because it's like, you know, we know qualitatively at least kids are still struggling mental health challenges tripled at the time of covid i don't expect them to be better than it was before at this rate so do we have any ideas or explanations as to what led us here and it could be successes on our part but it also must be other things especially given how large these percentages are it doesn't seem normal

[02:26:02] well i mean i think that we can make a lot of conjectures i don't know that i can give you a for sure reason, but I think some of the things we've mentioned this evening, more services, more opportunities to develop those authentic connections. I think, you know, time will tell whether we're able to sustain that level of progress because I agree with Ms. McLaughlin, even though it's certainly moving in the right direction, it's not, you know, we're not exactly where we want to be until, you know, every student feels centered and able to

[02:26:41] learn so I don't know that I could come up with a list exactly but we can only conjecture at this point I don't know is there any particular event I think we've kind of covered a number of them so I think that's kind of where I'd leave that at this point yeah I guess in thinking of next steps from a presentation like this or even data you know from the youth survey I'm mindful it's anonymous so one I'm concerned about the kids reporting these things and what we're doing to support them

[02:27:14] and connect them with resources um so I don't know what our follow-up and response can look like uh in a way that's you know meaningful and impactful for the students who are suffering and then the second piece is um regarding uh sorry one second oh yeah deriving it's late deriving explanations right so this data is only as useful as what we do with it and what we come up with from it so to me i'm like okay how what does this mean and therefore how is informing what we do moving forward and if we don't even know why it's what it is then we can't you know

[02:27:54] make decisions about how to move forward so i think and this is a general challenge i think with how we do data and and our work in general maybe working with orsi to come up with some you know ideas of what this is about so we can actually take those next steps and slide seven is particularly poignant I do hear it's my time but it's timely and I hope that we can be responsive to that too in our next steps thank you and I I will say that schools look at their data as a school so where there are anomalies I think they're able the action of the data is more

[02:28:28] actionable at the specific site and then we're looking really this evening at a very high level macro division data points okay thank you thank you Dr. Reed can our technical folks double check Mr. Frisch seems to have lost his zoom feed okay let's move on to our next agenda item

[02:29:02] the strategic plan I do want to just remind board members that we have a double agenda since we did not have a meeting on November 20th so we still have a long way to go So if there are some questions that you might have that could be asked during your time, your weekly time with Dr. Reed or in the Friday letter, maybe just keep that in mind.

[02:29:32] Dr. Reed, we understand you have an update on the strategic plan. I do. Thank you, Madam Chair. Kevin, are you able to work with us or Christina? We lost Internet.

[02:29:49] Yes, so we've lost Wi-Fi, and Mr. Frisch just let me know that we are not available on Zoom, and because we've just lost Wi-Fi, we're having trouble presenting right now. Okay, so are you recommending that we take a short break while that is repaired?

[02:30:07] Yes, please. Okay, thank you. We will do that. Okay.

[02:30:17] So, Madam Clerk, are we able to start?

[02:40:18] Madam Chair, my understanding is that the Internet has been restored, so we can proceed. OK, board members, please take your seats.

[02:40:35] Hey, Dr.

[02:41:05] Reid. Thank you, Madam Chair. Superintendent matters. I mean, a strategic plan. I'm trying to skip a few. That's all right. Well, thank you for the opportunity to share our update this evening.

[02:41:21] We're going to highlight or profile goal three, which is around academic growth and excellence. I want to remind I'm on the goal three slot.

[02:41:36] Oh dear. So it's on our goal three academic growth and excellence. And this evening we're going to share some of the division. Excellent. Thank you. Some of our division wide work do it that we're doing to align our school improvement and innovation plans across the division.

[02:41:59] This is a critical step because we are choosing to move together as a school system rather than a system of schools. And this evening's presentation is going to highlight the work of Drainsville Elementary School and our Department of School Improvement and Supports.

[02:42:15] And I want to recognize that our Drainsville Elementary Principal, Jamie Gadley, is here spending her birthday with us this evening. So perhaps we could wish our Principal Gadley a very happy birthday. Happy birthday.

[02:42:32] we will spare you our singing yeah and because this work is so important principal gadley and profiling the work done at drainsville elementary i'm thrilled to be able to highlight that work this evening i want to remind the board and the community that for this current academic year each of our school plans are focused on goal three measures from the strategic plan and those are highlighted on the screen for you and then we're looking at ways that we're going to be sharing our report on that as i will later this evening so a reminder that the work to ensure

[02:43:12] this division-wide alignment actually began last spring and we know that prior planning prevents poor performance so we definitely want to begin each spring for the coming year our series of summer workshops we had 199 schools and 950 participants working on school plans school and innovation plans this is exciting work that we were also able to create a data tool so that all schools could analyze the same data points during the summer workshop schools went through a

[02:43:46] consistent needs assessment process where they analyzed their data chose areas for improvement determined contributing factors set measurable outcomes and then selected from a set of high leveraged strategies that were consistent across the division and crafted action plans to achieve those outcomes. So the following video shows the impact of this work that's been taking place during the last several months and again features the work of Drainsville Elementary School.

[02:44:14] Madam Clerk, if you would please play the video. So what's exciting about the school improvement planning for this year is that we're directly aligned to the strategic plan.

[02:44:35] With that, we know that every school may look different. Every group of students within a school may look different. Teachers may use unique and different ideas within their classrooms about the way they're helping students meet those goals and the school meet their goals, but that we know that what we're focused on are research-based best practices for students and that with this focus, all students in Fairfax County will be successful.

[02:45:03] - Polly does not mean a size necessarily. - It means a quantity. That means how much of something. - Here at Drainsville, 33% of our student population are English learners. - If y'all are good with this draft pacing. - So when we developed our school improvement and innovation plan, we had a selection of, I think it was 12 strategies for reading and 10 for math.

[02:45:27] So what we did here at Drainsville, we visited with every grade level team and we looked at all of our data. - Our controlled vowels are another syllable type can recognize. We were looking at unlocking English learners potential. We wanted to create more opportunities for students to engage in discussions because we know that has benefits for academic growth. And that's one of our strategies that we're using to achieve that.

[02:45:54] And it's really cool to see the impact that's now having on students. It was really powerful to hear the alignment between our teachers goals and our divisions goals. We're all working to towards the same direction.

[02:46:09] - It takes at least four to seven years for ELS to develop an academic English and an academic language. - So looking at ways to scaffold our instruction, to be explicit about teaching vocabulary, and to really elevate opportunities for students to engage in discourse is specific to our Drainsville community.

[02:46:30] Not only supporting our English learners, but all of our students, regardless of where they are in the continuum of learning. And it may look slightly different at another school. - By having all schools focusing on the same goals, it creates several new opportunities for us.

[02:46:49] One, we can look at the strategies that different schools are using and identify which ones work best for maybe which schools, which students with different needs, and then be able to adapt over time to make sure that we are meeting the needs of each and every student.

[02:47:05] And so we know that this is just our first year in trying to implement these changes in our school improvement plans and also implementing our strategic plan. And that over time, we will get better and better.

[02:47:28] - So thank you again to Principal Gadley, her team of educators, our students and families that support our young learners at Drainesville Elementary. Do you wanna remind our board and community this school improvement work is an ongoing process throughout the year schools receive feedback throughout the year from region leaders and those of you on the board who have region presentations as well i really actually appreciate the engagement of our elected board of directors that are very very well versed in the work that's going on at the school level the feedback is calibrated

[02:48:04] their quarterly reflection cycles and we're engaging in school and central office leader discussions about how these plans are working and division leadership will continue to analyze the data along with other division data points to make sure we know how we're doing as a division.

[02:48:21] So for those who want to stay informed about our strategic plan work, a reminder that December 12th our work session will be on goal one which is a strong start PK through 12 and we're really thrilled to have the opportunity to review goal one. This evening as you know we're going to be taking a high-level look review of our goal 3 report that was done at a recent work session but the alignment right now is very tight we're getting those arrows moving in the same direction and with that level of alignment i know we're going to see some focused outcomes that show

[02:48:57] dramatic improvement in the next several years so thank you madam chair thank you dr reed dr anderson thank you thank you for this and i very much appreciate the alignment i i think having it be in the strategic plan be part of the sip will only provide a focus on the work so to that end my question is is there an expectation that that thread will continue from the strategic plan to the sip plan to the principal evaluation and to the teacher evaluation

[02:49:33] so um i think that the it's very clear that it will go from superintendent evaluation to the evaluation of the strategic plan, which is the school plan. I do not believe we've had conversations around connecting evaluations for principals and teachers necessarily to the strategic plan outcomes. But I do know that as teacher teams and principals at each school select their high leverage strategies to attack their contextual data points that they're going

[02:50:07] to work on that the alignment is an expectation that the alignment from the classroom up to the boardroom is going to stay tight. Okay and another thing that I wanted to raise was I'm very excited that next week I'll have the opportunity to dive into my data conversation with my two regions and I know the SIP plans were just completed probably early November and it was reviewed I I know there's a lot of opportunity, a lot of work from the region office.

[02:50:36] To that end, it seems as if we have lost quite a bit of the first quarter and part of the second quarter in order to actually begin to work on those items. And I'm sure there's some peripheral work that is going on, but in terms of using all of the data that you've compiled with all the dashboards, I wonder if you are thinking about maybe changing the timeline.

[02:50:57] If all the data is available by the end of July, Would there be any possibility for SIP plans to be concluded by the end of July or early August so that we have more time to work on them? I think that for sure the timeline will be moved back.

[02:51:15] I don't want to get out ahead of the team making the plans, but I am more familiar with a system that sets those goals in the spring because that's how we then choose professional development options for summer so we come back ready to go. As you know, we didn't have our strategic plan approved until the end of June.

[02:51:32] So I think everything sort of backed up to that. But this year, there's no question coming around the corner to the coming year, those will be in place much sooner. Because you're right. I mean, it feels a little bit like we keep planning to plan, even though there is significant work occurring right now.

[02:51:48] Because of the summer conversations I highlighted on the slides, our schools really spent quite a bit of time this past summer. But you're right, the final evaluation and review of SIP plans was last month. Right, and I think there's some opportunity, as you like to say, to do that a little bit better.

[02:52:08] And the other very minor thing that I would want to present, as I have the opportunity to review some of the SIP plan goals, there seems to be some inconsistency in terms of how they're presented. And again, as a parent who may have children in multiple schools, I think there might be some, it might be helpful to have some uniformity in presentation.

[02:52:26] I'm not saying the goals have to be the same, just how they're presented. You know, these kids will do these things by this date, and they will move from this number to this other number. Right now, it tends to be a little bit all over the place, and there's some discrepancies with percentage increases versus point increases or percentage points increase.

[02:52:46] So I just wanted to toss that out for your consideration, but thank you. Yeah, thank you. And I think this is our first year with a new plan, and I think as we share and share best practices across the division, I think we're going to see more alignment in how that's presented. So it's a fair point.

[02:53:10] Herbert Sanders. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Reed. Thank you. All right. 3.04, Student Representative Matters.

[02:53:26] Thank you. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend our first annual food show, the Food and Nutrition Department. They brought together over 30 vendors and 200 students from 24 different schools, giving them the chance to taste, test breakfast and lunch recipes.

[02:53:43] The response was overwhelming with more than 2,500 responses on the feedback form. And this valuable data will be crucial for the department in deciding what food services to offer in school lunches and breakfasts come spring 2024. It was fantastic to see the support from Ms. Marin, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Reed, Dr. Ponce and Ms. Tolan at the event.

[02:54:03] Students have been advocating for more nutritious and fulfilling food meals, so I know I can speak on behalf of many students when I say this is promising and exciting. I'd like to link this experience with the recent Virginia School Board Association conference I attended. There, I connected with student representatives, superintendents, board members, and various vendors across Virginia, contributing to our public education system.

[02:54:27] What truly caught my attention were organizations focused on school infrastructure. These groups revamped schools from the last century, introducing flexible seating, better lighting, and other elements that attract students. The renovations have shown tangible results with improved attendance rates, something our strategic plan focuses on in a more welcoming school environment.

[02:54:50] I'm actively reaching out to these organizations to explore the possibility of learning more about their innovative ideas and sharing it with Fairfax County, something students would likely find intriguing and beneficial. As for community participation, Samir, a senior at Annandale High School, also our SAC president, has highlighted a critical concern regarding the school's grading policy, which heavily prioritizes tests over classworks, resulting in a split of 90% summative and 10% formative.

[02:55:20] This approach has caused widespread frustration among students and has negatively impacted their educational experiences. To uphold our commitment to fostering growth and performance, as outlined in the Strategic Plan Section 3A, it's imperative to take students' feedback seriously and reassess the grading policy, not just at Annandale, but across all schools.

[02:55:42] These policies take a toll on students' mental health, and it's imperative that we prioritize that. This issue isn't just confined to Annandale High School alone. Edison High School is also operating with a grading split of 95% summative and 5% formative.

[02:55:58] notably in IB schools where the curriculum is already demanding. This problem extends beyond these specific schools to encompass others, including those with AP programs. But with good news looking forward, I'm eager to collaborate with Dr. Presidio, students, and the grading committee from Instructural Services.

[02:56:18] Our commitment is to eliminate any inequitable grading practices and develop strategies to ensure fairness and equity in grading across all our schools. Lastly, today, December 4th, marks the start of Computer Science Education Week, a time to emphasize the importance of computer science in education.

[02:56:34] Recently, the Department of Defense Education activity granted $2 million to FCPS. This funding aims to introduce STEAM and computer science to 13 FCPS schools in Regions 3 and 4 over the next five years. Additionally, it will expand work-based learning, integrating mathematics, and advancing STEAM in computer science education.

[02:56:54] This strategic move prepares students for the evolving job market where many roles will revolve around CS, AI, and STEM in general. I'm enthusiastic about this direction as it equips our students for the future considering that many jobs of today might become obsolete in the upcoming years due to technological advancements.

[02:57:13] CS Education Week serves as an annual initiative to inspire K-12 students to explore CS, achieve equity, and acknowledge the contributions of students, teachers, and partners in this field. In the upcoming days, on board docs, resources will be posted for parents, teachers, and students to utilize.

[02:57:31] It's promising to witness the alignment of our curriculum with the demands and opportunities of the future. What is also fulfilling is the initiatives our students here in FCPS are taking. TYE, a nonprofit founded by the SEALs, is focused on expanding STEM and CS education in elementary and middle schools.

[02:57:47] Their contributions to our schools is profound, as they have established eight teams of over 10 volunteers throughout the county and have reached over 500 kids. Thank you. Dr. Reed, 3.05, Superintendent Matters.

[02:58:09] Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to defer this evening due to the length of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. So we are on to agenda item 3.06, the Strategic Plan Goal 3 Report Presentation.

[02:58:33] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:58:54] This evening, I'll be presenting the baseline Goal 3 Report Summary Presentation. So this is an abridged version of the work session PowerPoint. And for those watching from home, the full goal three report is actually attached to the board agenda.

[02:59:14] So this is a high level look. It is also the first of five goal report presentations that I'll be making this academic year. So just a reminder that we have five goals and four pillars this evening.

[02:59:32] And goal three is the report, which is academic growth and excellence, which I've previously shared is what each of our school plans, school improvement and innovation plans have been responsive to. Again, our strategic plan year one priorities, we've selected those measures.

[02:59:53] We know that we can't address every measure every year, but we can develop, implement and monitor in gradations. So the three we're going to look at this evening at a high level are reading by third grade, algebra one by eighth grade, and advanced coursework in high school.

[03:00:10] These are then the year one priorities. As we think about charting our course to 2030, which is our strategic plan seven year journey, I want to remind the board this is a journey of many steps. This isn't an overnight event.

[03:00:29] The planning and preparation is critical and as you can see, we've kind of tried to create a graphic that describes the development of strategies, implementation of those strategies and then the monitoring of those strategies.

[03:00:44] So it's really important to know that we can't develop everything in the same year nor can we implement all things in the same year because we only have limited resources either financially or time-wise to be quite honest. So this phased approach allows us to focus intentionally on key strategies. So the baseline reporting approach we're going to be using cumulative averages to identify the starting point for this work and wherever possible we have three years worth of data. The report also establishes the final targets which is what we would plan to

[03:01:20] achieve no later than 2030. For our student goals the final target is to have all students and all student groups at or above 90 percent on each of the metrics discussed. So we'll take a look at the highlights and share baseline data starting with third grade reading, the first priority.

[03:01:43] So the importance of third grade literacy really is a key milestone for student success. We know that this represents a transition where students move from learning to read to reading to learn. We also know that students who are not on grade level by third grade have difficulty comprehending the content that will be taught in subsequent grades and can fall quickly behind not just in their language arts but in other content areas as well.

[03:02:11] In fact, there is research to indicate that third graders who lack proficiency in reading are indeed four times more likely to become high school dropouts. So we know that's connected. We also know that third graders who are reading at standard graduate and attend college at higher rates than their peers who are not.

[03:02:31] These key accountability metrics then are clarified under pass rates for the grade three SOL reading exam and the percent of schools that increase the percentage of students reading on grade level. It's important to note that the vast majority of our students are taking the SOL, but we We also have a small percentage of our students take an alternative assessment in lieu of the third grade reading SOL, known as the VAP, which is the Virginia Alternative Assessment Program.

[03:03:02] Both of these assessments are not equivalent, and the data is presented separately in the full report to show student achievement on the VAP as well. While we do still have significant reading gaps among student subgroups, there is data to show that we are making progress.

[03:03:19] For example, last year's iReady data showed a 12% increase in students making grade-level reading growth, and our Lexia data showed the percentage of third-graders performing significantly below grade-level decreased to only 18%.

[03:03:37] So we are starting to make some data, and I apologize, my page turning, some of these have the second page of notes from that slide. So if we can stay on this slide for a minute, nope, one more, thanks. And then I'm on the people slide, Kevin.

[03:03:54] So it would be slide 12. I'm trying to move through this fairly quickly. Yeah. So third grade reading, see, that's your 12, but it looks different than my 12.

[03:04:10] So we go to the slide back one. There. Perfect. We stay there. Thanks, Kevin. This slide shows the current performance of FCPS and then also all of the subgroups. And we've also taken a look at intersectionality data, which is something the board has asked for.

[03:04:30] So, we can go to the next slide. Thank you, Kevin. This is our intersectionality data. And many of us have looked in particular at the economically disadvantaged data and how that connects across all subgroups. So, we're looking at the state pass rates as well as the disaggregated data.

[03:04:52] And our current data shows that 69% of all FCPS students who took the reading SOL in third grade received a passing score, which is above the state, but not as far above as we would like to be. Next slide, please, Kevin.

[03:05:12] As a board, you have some data that is available to you that isn't necessarily on the slide deck that, again, shows the intersectionality. So some of the examples of division-wide work to improve the reading performance again is about the alignment and the ongoing equitable access to literacy plan that our ISD is developing.

[03:05:37] We also have new kindergarten through sixth grade curriculum guides and the phonics scores with a lot of the new training we've been able to provide have risen 14% with even greater gains for student subgroups. We also want to make sure that our community knows that we have not adopted a core basal resource for elementary language arts in over 20 years.

[03:06:00] This has led to some inconsistent practices across the division, but we're very excited that after 20 years, we're going to be adopting a new basal resource to serve as our tier one curriculum for all kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms across the division.

[03:06:17] This resource will be chosen from the VDOE approved core materials aligned to the science based reading research. The intent is to have high quality instructional materials and students receive evidence based literacy instruction.

[03:06:33] So we're very excited about all of that work going on. We're also providing letters training for staff. This year approximately 1500 teachers have engaged in letters training which is language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling and Orton-Gillingham Training.

[03:06:52] We've had approximately 2,000 teachers that have been trained in Orton-Gillingham in that approach. So that's our highlight for reading by third grade. The second year one focus in goal three is successful completion of algebra by eighth grade, algebra one.

[03:07:09] We know that's another key milestone for student success. We know that student enrollment in advanced math in 9th grade increased by 30 percentage points and increased in 11th grade by 16 percentage points. It's a significant gatekeeper course and a data point that the Office of Civil Rights monitors.

[03:07:30] The key accountability metrics for Algebra 1, Kevin, Ron, thank you. The key accountability metrics, we want to make sure the board knows that we have two accountability metrics.

[03:07:47] First is the percent of students who receive a verified credit in Algebra 1 by 8th grade, and the second is the percent of schools making expected progress toward increased student enrollment in Algebra 1 by 8th grade. Our current data shows that 51 percent of our students are successfully completing Algebra 1 by 8th grade, and this is currently above the national average of 24 percent reported by the Department of Education.

[03:08:13] While we're ahead of national data, there is still much work to do. So as we look at our performance measures by demographic, we're now in the multiple -- yeah, thank you, Kevin.

[03:08:29] Similar to the third-grade reading measure, the slide shows overall as well as student performance by intersectionality data. As you can see, the 51 percent, you have a varied, very varied, honestly, access and opportunity for students by demographic for Algebra 1.

[03:08:51] And I'd like to continue thinking about the work we're doing to improve Algebra 1 by 8th grade. And again, the Algebra Access Network Improvement Community. You might recall that on October 26th, we discussed the work of this Algebra Access Network.

[03:09:10] and had our math lead for the division here. It's a group of about 15 middle schools that are partnering with our central office to increase student enrollment and success in Algebra 1 by 8th grade. We know that focusing on academic advising is a subset that's occurring in these middle schools and that the division's overall enrollment in Algebra 1 or higher by 8th grade increased to 64% this school year.

[03:09:37] So we're up from 51% year over year. and that is headed in the correct direction. So we have open enrollment PD, professional development, and are looking at ways to improve student and family advising practices, as well as professional development sessions with elementary and middle school staff to share best practices.

[03:09:59] So we're very excited about that work. The third data point I wanna share with you this evening is advanced coursework, and the successful completion of advanced coursework is one of the measurements for goal three. We know this is important from national research, that students who have experience with college level or advanced coursework while in high school are more likely to roll in, persist, and complete college, and be better prepared for technical reading, writing, and mathematics skills if they're moving right into the job market.

[03:10:32] The top three factors in college admissions, as research will share, are the grades in college prep courses, total high school GPA, and the strength of the high school curriculum. The quality of the task and the robust rigor in the course is critical for future success.

[03:10:51] Research also points to numerous additional benefits of taking advanced coursework, which often is improving self-esteem, higher engagement, fewer absences and suspensions, and post-secondary cost savings. So let's also take a look at advanced or CTE coursework in high school, which is the next slide.

[03:11:13] Thank you, Kevin. So we know that there's some data points here that are fairly critical, and the two accountability metrics that we're using to measure this particular goal are the percent of students in the senior cohort who earned a C-minus or higher in at least one APIB or dual enrollment or other 1.0 weighted course and/or CTE finisher status before graduating and the percent of schools that increase the percentage of students succeeding in advanced or CTE coursework by graduation by five percentage points.

[03:11:50] So those data points, our baseline data at this time shows that 85% of our students in the senior cohort, in fact, met the first criteria of a C minus or higher. So while we're starting out, I think pretty solid in some aspects, we certainly have work to do.

[03:12:10] Kevin, we're at the -- thank you. So this slide shows the current performance, and we are thrilled to share that many of our student groups are already very near or at the 90 percent, but we do need to say that when we look at our intersectionality data, again, we struggle a little bit with percentages.

[03:12:28] Our English learners are at 39%, which is not where we want them to be when so many of our other students are at or above the 90% range. So, the examples of division-wide work to improve performance and advanced coursework.

[03:12:49] We've talked a lot about AVID and its success. It was a prior academic matters. It's currently in 28 middle and high schools. As we want to reach the metrics we've talked about, we're going to need to increase the number of schools that are participating in AVID. We also know the AVID research says that 85% of free and reduced lunch students participating in AVID are successful in these dual enrollment and college-level courses.

[03:13:17] Expanding AVID into all of our Title I schools will support more students enrolling and being successful in these courses. And I'm really pleased with Dr. Presidio's team, we've added quite a number of schools to our AVID plan this year with our Title I dollars.

[03:13:33] So a lot of excitement about that. We also know that our middle and high schools implement advisory or learning seminar, many of them, actually all of them, as part of their school schedules, which allows a focus on academic and career planning. And we're going to be utilizing that time and model to make sure that we have a focus on this topic.

[03:13:52] Finally, we have a focus on elementary access to STEAM and computer science, which continues to expand. In fact, I saw a survey that went out today in the action gram, surveying STEAM and computer science at elementary.

[03:14:09] So our conclusions. At this point, I want to make sure we conclude with some important resources for our community and the implications for the work moving forward. First of all, tonight's presentation provides just a high-level snapshot of the conversation we had at the work session earlier this fall, and the full report with additional details is available in board docs.

[03:14:33] Within tonight's presentation, we've also provided links to the full Goal 3 report. So one of the things that's important to remember is Fairfax County has a long tradition of success and we want to build on that, and while we do, like many divisions across the country have patterns of inequities that exist even as students begin kindergarten and I would argue as they do or do not participate in pre-k which I think the board and the county recognizes critical we do have work to do to make sure that we don't have barriers for some children

[03:15:13] to achieve the results that we are hoping for each and every student this work will continue to take place over several years and will require us to do much of the work in an aligned strategic and focused fashion finally as a division we have to continue to assess our resources and direct them towards the most effective strategies for meeting our goals and while tonight's presentation is a starting point and not a complete and comprehensive plan i do look forward to continuing to provide updates to the board and the community on this work and i want to thank the board and

[03:15:48] community have supported the development of the plan and said our North Star that will support each and every student receiving that mountaintop experience. So that is the overview this evening relatively quickly. Thank you Dr. Reed for that report. I do want to remind the public that we did have a work session on this a couple of weeks ago and so that would be another opportunity to get even more in-depth information would be to watch that work session. So I do have a couple

[03:16:23] of board members with comments or questions, so we'll move forward with that. Ms. McLaughlin. Hi, Dr. E. Just briefly, I know you referenced the intersectional data, but the chart that was up there above didn't show the intersectional data, it just still, intersectional data just showed still the subgroups. So is that something staff is going to provide the board, the intersectional data yes i believed that we did but it's hidden in the presentation so is it somewhere in board

[03:16:57] docs where they can dr reed the full intersectionality data is in the report that's posted on board docs this evening okay it is posted this evening it's just not highlighted um so i can hand it to you it's uh so i i'll just be a broken record for this and one last board meeting before I depart the system. Every time we show our data in singular subgroups, we do a disservice, particularly to our communities of color, because that population is particularly

[03:17:34] disproportionately grappling with poverty. And so when we disaggregate the data or show the intersectionality between our communities of color and those who are also struggling with poverty versus those who are not in our communities of color.

[03:17:53] We will see very different performance rates. And it's so important to number one, I think be reflective of our students of color who are achieving extremely well in this school division. And we should be celebrating that and inspiring all students about that.

[03:18:09] And for our students who might be grappling with poverty but want to see themselves, they will see that as we do better in our partnership with families and our county government services, where it takes a village to raise a child.

[03:18:25] All students can hopefully feel hopeful, but I can't understate how harmful it is when we keep doing the same thing year after year after year, showing singular subgroups. I really hope we'll stop doing that. And I wasn't even -- I mean, I was just giving one example, but we have intersectional in terms of poverty, race, and also ELL and special education, I mean, all of that's there.

[03:18:53] And I think we talk about closing gaps, we need to help both the board, the division and the community understand where kind of like the inverse of three to succeed when students have a multitude of different challenges, then we can understand why the gap efforts are going to be complex and we need complex solutions for that.

[03:19:19] So I do appreciate everything you and your team are doing from a leadership standpoint on that and I know how committed you are to this incredibly important work. So not to take away from the substance and truly appreciate everything you're continuing to do using these key metrics which I also believe passionately the research has shown.

[03:19:45] WE FOCUS IN THESE AREAS AND WE WILL MOVE THE NEEDLE. SO THAT WAS MY GLOW AND MY GROW. OKAY. THANK YOU. AND THE ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED TABLE IS ON IT'S TABLE 43 ON PAGE 90 OF THE REPORT FOR THOSE FOLLOWING ALONG AT HOME ON THE LARGER REPORT.

[03:20:10] THANK YOU. MS. SIZEMERHEISER. HI. JUST ONE QUICK QUESTION. WHEN YOU TALKED ABOUT ADVANCED COURSEWORK, YOU MENTIONED ADVANCED COURSEWORK AND CTE. I just wanted to confirm that advanced coursework includes advanced arts. Like, is it academic coursework? It does.

[03:20:26] Absolutely. I just wanted to, yeah. Yes. That was my only question. Fine and performing arts. Yes, correct. And completers for CTE. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I think I'm zipping through this so quickly that, but yes, good catch. I just want to make sure we're recognizing all the ways our students are showing advancement.

[03:20:43] 100%. That's all. Thank you. Ms. Amesh. Thank you, and thank you for the presentation, Dr. Reed. I just wanted to ask, since we did have a robust work session around a lot of this, if anything was adjusted or if there were, you know, takeaways.

[03:21:06] I know we had 17 next steps from that work session. Well, I don't know that they got seven board members. Like, I'm not sure that that's gotten back to me on that.

[03:21:24] I THINK THERE WERE A COUPLE ITEMS THAT HAD -- THERE WERE TWO ITEMS I THINK IN SPECIFIC THAT DID. AND I'M GOING TO DEFER TO INTERIM ASSISTANCE SUPERINTENDENT MARCI NEAL. DO YOU WANT TO RESPOND TO THOSE ADJUSTMENTS? NO, THAT'S RIGHT. THERE WERE TWO THAT GOT SEVEN. RIGHT. BUT ANYWAYS, YEAH, IF YOU CAN GO AHEAD.

[03:21:40] SURE. SO, MS. IMECH, THERE WERE TWO NEXT STEPS THAT THE BOARD OFFICE SENT TO US. THE FIRST ONE WAS SEPARATING OUT THE VAP DATA AND THE SOL DATA, WHICH IS IN THE UPDATED REPORT. and the second one was directing us to look at different ways as we're comparing schools moving forward in this work to look at different sort of intersections of how schools are performing on these different measures so looking at our title one schools for example our schools with different populations different types of service programs to see how schools are performing against one another with these different metrics yeah i mean i guess maybe

[03:22:18] that leads to a broader question to me of obviously every one of us at the work session shared what what it would take if you will for us to feel like we can get behind this and um yeah there's definitely the next steps process which some of us disagree with but whatever ends up with only the majority items come to you um but i think some of us lent voice to other pieces i know you know for one there was conversation around avid and how to leverage potentially what are are the next steps from here? Like, what are we doing differently with this data in mind?

[03:22:53] And then I know I, for one, mentioned individualized learning plans, considering that. What would the costing be around something like that? Not to mention, of course, intersectional data. Even things like, you know, for EL, for English learners, we know that the data is particularly bad. But then the question is, well, they're being tested in a language that's not their language. So, or in a language they're still learning. So how are we assessing them, why are we not developing an internal way of measuring their success that's there but is masked by state requirements to test them in English?

[03:23:28] And on and on and on of things that came up. But I mean, I guess I'm a bit of a loss here where I'm like, okay, we talked, we had a robust conversation in the work session. I'm asking what has changed, I guess, or what has been responsive to that to bring us to a place where we can come around consensus here today.

[03:23:46] the two items that received the next steps vote process that we were notified from the board office we addressed and that's my understanding of the process okay so then what I guess what are the next steps from here in terms of what you envisioned to be the action items I know that was something I was asking about to individualized learning plans was a possibility in my mind but these gaps have existed they continue to exist they will continue to exist if we continue doing the same thing so correct well I think we each Each school has picked high leverage strategies unique to their context.

[03:24:23] As you saw in the video earlier from Drainsville Elementary, the data, every school has to focus on goal three, and each school in elementary has to focus on the reading by third grade. But each school, contextually, we have 141 elementary schools that each have different student groups that are performing in different ways, so they're choosing from high leverage strategies that may look different school to school, region to region across the division.

[03:24:52] So there are action plans that have developed, but as a global macro goal three report, we were responsive to the two items that had a majority of votes by the board to adjust, and that's what we did.

[03:25:07] So all the other dialogue, I think, is part of a context that this work works within, But there was not enough consensus to force a change in direction because we didn't have the seven votes on anything other than those two items.

[03:25:25] So then I guess where does the discussion from the work session go? Because next steps are one piece, right, where that's an actionable follow-up. But, you know, obviously there's more discussion. Right. Well, I think it's part of the broader discussion. It's part of the discussion that begins to complement what happens at the senior leadership table what happens at your meetings with your regional or magisterial regional assistant superintendents so there are a lot of conversations as we continue to monitor the strategies that schools have embarked on it's really early it's early december to think about impact of what

[03:26:02] schools have already you know committed to begin working on in terms of the avid we've already i I think we shared at the work session that we are increasing the number of schools, in particular Title I schools, that will have access to AVID. In terms of developing tests in other languages, I don't know that that work is work we've started yet.

[03:26:24] And again, that would require an allocation of time and resources to do that. I would want a little more conversation with the board in terms of the commitment of that type of resource when we didn't necessarily see that as part of the next step.

[03:26:41] Yeah, I mean, I guess costing is a starting point for that to even have a sense, but I mean, I'm getting the feeling here that this is actually somewhat of a dysfunctional process. I think the stated intention originally with how we were going to do some of this was that you, the superintendent would be aware of and responsive to all the board concern unless she saw something to be, you know, in contradiction, and then she would be accountable for what the majority came around.

[03:27:07] But I think Ms. Keith Gamara and Dr. Anderson early on were the ones especially pointing out this frustration that then what is this, tyranny of the majority? Or does it end up being like if someone raises something and some people don't do their homework and put in their votes for the next steps or whatever it is, that it's not something to be responded to?

[03:27:24] Because I certainly feel as a board member, a blocker where I articulated, I don't know that I can get behind this unless there's more clarity around certain things. They're not here. And so it's the same presentation to me, right? Like what has changed? nothing and why did I spend hours at the work session informing that work right and I'm not calling you out as much as I am naming the problem here that seems to be a little bit of an insult to my intelligence at least but so I mean I don't know that I can support this one I already said that I wouldn't without certain changes but I am grateful that and I recognize that you have to be responsive to those pieces from the majority but maybe the clerk's office I think in the future

[03:28:03] it would be useful to share what did achieve the seven perhaps and the rest of what was asked for So that dr. Reed can have that for consideration whether she chooses to move forward with it or not it could trigger ideas for you But I think the board office Senate didn't they Marcy or did they just send the two?

[03:28:18] I think the board office sent everything to our office That's not but my understanding was I'm only going to be responsive to those things that received Seven votes or more was my understanding of the next steps process, okay? I think as a board we might want to be more clear since that was what was promised I think to the dissenters of this process, but anyway, I appreciate that you bet Ms. Corby Sanders.

[03:28:42] Thank you. I had not intended to speak to this, but I wanted to address the question that just came up. Prior boards actually did the next step process at the day of the work session, and so there was a discussion.

[03:28:58] People while they were at the table put in their next steps and people were able to vote. I would urge that this next board coming on in their retreat process revisits that approach because the current process, as Ms. Umesh mentioned, people go in early or they go in late, but they don't necessarily go in multiple times to find out if there have been new items added.

[03:29:25] And so that's how things get left behind. Secondly, you mentioned the issue of being able to give tests in multiple languages, especially in the math area.

[03:29:40] We're going to hear from Mr. Malloy soon. And it's my understanding that in reading the legislative plan that we have included that as a priority in our legislative plan. So I do think that issue was addressed, even though it did not get nine votes in the -- and it -- let's be clear, these are not votes.

[03:30:03] We do not take votes via electronic means, but it's a consensus-building tool, And I would just suggest there are other ways that the board can more effectively reach those consensus.

[03:30:19] So, maybe taking a look at how things worked in the past, that's how we can inform the future. Thank you. - Thank you, Dr. Reid. Okay, we'll move on to the next item.

[03:30:37] 3.07, fiscal year 2024, mid-year budget presentations. Dr. Reid, do you want to do an introduction to the budget presentation?

[03:30:58] So, thank you Madam Chair. This is an important budget presentation and our Chief Finance Officer, Lee Burden, is going to present the mid-year presentation that we have reviewed. So, Ms. Burden.

[03:31:16] Good evening, Chairman Toland, School Board members, and Dr. Reed. The mid-year review offers an opportunity to revise the fiscal 24 budget based on revenue that's been received or expenditures that ended up slightly different than expected since the year-end budget review that was approved in late August.

[03:31:39] On page one for the school operating fund, there are a couple of changes. Beginning balance changes due to increased actual receipts for sales tax that were identified after fiscal 23 year-end in August. The remaining change are grant adjustments.

[03:31:56] It's increased IDEA funds. IDEA grant supports the school operating fund. So the total revenue changes are $6.1 million. Also on page one section two are the recommended expenditure changes which align with the revenue changes. Revenue is going up $6.1 million and recommended expenditures are also at $6.1 million leaving no additional funds available. The grant expenditure changes on the expenditure side align with the revenue changes of 1.1 million. Again, this is just an increase in the IDEA grant

[03:32:32] funds that we were notified about after the year-end was completed. On page two are other recommended adjustments. The first one is the elementary school security cameras at 0.8 million for nine elementary schools. And you should know that prioritization is determined by the building age the number of existing cameras the number of incidents at a school location as well as access to uninterrupted power the item c is background checks 0.4 million is being set aside to expedite

[03:33:08] background checks for current employees so this work is completed sooner originally we were going to do half of this work in fiscal 24 and fiscal 25 but we'd like to complete that this year item d is the client communications platform replacement 0.3 million is being earmarked to replace the current current client communication platform with another that provides much greater functionality item e is the woodson high school renaming 0.1 million is proposed as a placeholder to be

[03:33:42] allocated for costs of renaming the woodson high school historically renaming costs have typically been about $300,000, but many items at Woodson just say Woodson, so those items will not have to be replaced. Item F is funding for restorative justice, and they have asked for $88,000 to provide training, coaching, and training materials for restorative justice interventions. And then the final item in the school operating fund is the facility's testing room enhancement. $0.1 million

[03:34:19] is recommended for testing room enhancements at four schools, Chantilly, South County, T.J., and West Potomac, because they need power source upgrades to their testing rooms to successfully administer AP digital testing this spring. So that the expenditure adjustments total $3 million, including the grants. And the last item on page three recommends that the remaining funds of $3.1 million be allocated to the fiscal 25 beginning balance so that is level with the fiscal 24

[03:34:54] beginning balance also at 28.1 million. The remaining pages detail changes to the other funds and other supplemental information. The other funds are not typically reviewed at mid-year because they all represent multi-year programs whose funds flow from year to year with fund balances stabilization reserves as required. The changes to these funds also reflect audit adjustments to reconcile estimated accruals to actuals and recognize new funding. Some examples,

[03:35:28] of course, are grant increases, allocation of bond funds, acknowledging investment revenue, those kinds of items. Year in fund statements for each fund are displayed in the appendix. They're the financial statements that reflect revenue, expenditures, transfers in, transfers out, changes in fund balance for each of the nine school board funds that I've basically just gone over with you as far as the school operating goes.

[03:35:53] Also in the appendix on page 17 is a grants development summary which provides an update on current year or FY24 grants as well as a final update for fiscal 23. action for the midyear is scheduled for the regular school board meeting on December 14th.

[03:36:14] That's it. Thank you. I have a few board members that have clarifying questions. Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Seismerheiser, Ms. McLaughlin. Yes, actually I do.

[03:36:38] Dr. Reed, I have a couple questions that either you or Ms. Burden could answer. First of all, I noticed that there is some carryover funds that would go into, I think you said fiscal year 25 budget to carry over?

[03:36:53] Yeah, the beginning balance. We generally like to try to keep the beginning balance around the same level as it is in the previous year, because otherwise, if it's less than that, then that just increases the local request to the county. So, we'd like to try to keep that level.

[03:37:10] And so, typically at mid-year is when we allocate additional funds, if we got any, to be able to bring that beginning balance up to the same level as the current year. Yeah. So, Dr. Reid, I know that you and the board have listened through public speakers as well as through countless emails for even preceding you a number of years now that, and I'm only going to speak for the schools I've been hearing from, but in particular Woodson High School.

[03:37:38] And Ms. Szymanski, who oversees facilities, is well aware of this also. When we're talking about several hundred thousand dollars in facilities, maintenance repairs that our school communities have brought forward year after year after year, and our school division tells them that it's finally going to happen and that it doesn't happen, I'm struggling that perhaps before we vote on this, on the 14th, that perhaps Ms. Szymanski

[03:38:13] and her team can confer with you on how we can look to address some of these backlog maintenance issues. They're one-time funds, and Ms. Burden, certainly as the CFO, you would be an important part of this conversation.

[03:38:31] But we just keep telling our communities, in particular our athletic boosters, that work hard tirelessly year after year to bring money to the table and then to get told, "We're sorry we promised you that repair project, but there's no money dedicated to it."

[03:38:48] And at a $3.5 billion budget, as you can appreciate $70,000 here or there, it's a very tiny drop. But I think we're losing faith and support and confidence from our families when we make promises and then we don't deliver.

[03:39:05] So that one in particular I think is going to be something, and my colleagues, I know it's super late, so we can talk later on it. But I really felt the need to spotlight that, Dr. Reed, because when we just automatically just presume nothing that's on your radar just goes into the end of the year pot, we're not necessarily addressing all the needs that each of your departments need.

[03:39:30] The second question I have is how are we doing on the Food and Nutritional Services Grant Fund? Because I know that again the question was that they were carrying a surplus and even though that's not our operating fund, it is still a grant fund that I think the board should be knowledgeable about.

[03:39:51] And Dr. Reed, I know I had asked the question on how much it cost for us to do that special event at the, I guess it was the Westfield Marriott, where we brought 200 students out for food tastings.

[03:40:06] But the question was raised, why did we do it at a hotel? Why did we have to transport kids all the way out there? How much did that event cost? Because every dollar that doesn't go into buying quality food or paying for competitive living wages for our food service workers matters.

[03:40:28] And optically that didn't sit well with some people in my community who couldn't understand what we did. So I know we had that, that we're, you know, looking at how we're doing with that fund. So is there just a quick update on that fund and do we know how much that event cost?

[03:40:46] I do not know how much that event cost. The fund balance in food services, according to the state and the feds, is supposed to equal about three months operating. We are in excess of that currently, and they -- typically what happens is VDOE next year will ask us for a spin-down plan on that.

[03:41:11] We have been, you know, using some of those funds to replace aging equipment in our cafeterias. Also the move towards other food opportunities like halal food, different kinds of food.

[03:41:26] And food from, you know, from scratch cooking require different equipment than we have currently in our cafeterias. And so a lot of that fund balance will be spent in pursuit of those initiatives.

[03:41:40] I appreciate that Ms. Burden and Dr. Reed I'll just put a fine point on it then I know this outgoing board has been extraordinarily dedicated to improving the quality of food we serve our students and recognizing again that we had done the $10 million lend of our operating funds and I know you worked out a possible solution for that and that I do understand also Ms. Burden that like other school divisions we do still need to be be carrying a reserve, and so to your point, we have that three-month reserve which is good,

[03:42:18] but you know, Dr. Reed, I think that's going to continue to be an interest of the incoming board as well, so I think updates on that are good, and I certainly have been impressed with the new director, but the hotel event has -- I think we need a little more PR and

[03:42:39] understanding what that was. So, and the cost would be helpful. So, Ms. Burden, is that something that he would just provide the board directly or is that? Yes. Okay. I mean, we'll, we'll help if needed, but yeah. Okay. All right. Mr. Sacco could provide that. Great. Thank you very much. Ms. Cohen. I was just going to respond that I think the, the need, I can appreciate the concern. I think getting 200 students to any location during the day that would enable, I don't, there were quite a large number of

[03:43:14] vendors that were providing that needed electrical to provide cooking to support the idea of checking food options. Most of our -- well, all of our schools were in session that day, so the ability to set that up at a school was limited, but I will get you the cost for that, and we'll make sure that -- I'll make sure that I communicate more effectively on that in the future.

[03:43:40] So thank you. And my question about the facilities maintenance and, you know, our, especially our school fields and the backlog there, how might we look into that? Well, I will meet with staff between now and the 14th.

[03:43:56] Great. Thank you so much. And I'm very happy to help answer any questions that staff have on those, that backlog. Thank you. Thank you again so much always for the great detail that you go into for us.

[03:44:17] I just wanted to ask with reference to what Ms. McLaughlin spoke about some of the backlog of the maintenance at some of our schools. I know like the Woodson Press Box and has been an issue for a long time. When we did the joint CIP committee, the county committed that they would give us a portion of their end of the year capital sinking fund.

[03:44:43] And I wondered what had happened with that specifically, and if maybe there were -- and I know that's a more of a long-term project for Ms. Zemansky, but, you know, like a rated projects list that I know we can't count on that money, but that we have kind of, okay, hey, here's our list, which you may well already do.

[03:45:05] And so I just wondered where we were with that. Yeah, they gave us the funds that they said they would. was 9.9 million it's included in the construction fund in the mid-year that you see tonight and that was a 25 percent of what they had available but their uh year-end falls after our year-end their final approval so we couldn't include it in our year-end which is why we have it in mid-year but yeah it was 9.9 million so i don't i don't know what the plans for those funds are yet but miss semansky yeah so i'll thank you uh miss burton i'll meet with staff and make sure that we have an update for the Friday letter

[03:45:43] and then a conversation with anyone on my one-on-one conversations, any feedback you'd like. I think what we likely have is a list of projects, but not necessarily a rank order of those projects. So that's the question I'm going to sit down and ask staff about, right?

[03:45:59] There must be some -- at some point, we probably ought to have a rank order list that's always available when any kind of funds happen to pop loose, because I certainly know the interest is high for sure. Thank you. Awesome. Well, I'm glad that worked out.

[03:46:15] Thanks, Ms. Burton. Okay. I have a question. First of all, I just wanted to thank you. And I'm very excited about the money in this document related to elementary school cameras.

[03:46:33] And so, and I know that at this point in time, I think we've had three different ways that we're trying to fund, you know, that safety and security equipment. So one question that I had was if there was any way we could get any kind of transparency as to how we rank the schools or choose which schools that we'll be funding.

[03:46:57] Yeah. My understanding is, you know, we recently got the VDOE Stronger Connections Grant and VDOE Security Equipment Grant, which funded security cameras or will fund security cameras at eight elementary schools. And the criteria for the grant usually prioritizes based on building age, the number of existing cameras that are already there, the number of incidents at a school location where a camera might have been helpful, as well as access to uninterrupted power.

[03:47:26] But we do have Mr. Vaccarello on virtually if you wanted more information than that. Tom, did you want to add anything? Tom Vaccarello: I'd be glad to. Good evening, everybody. Can you hear me okay?

[03:47:41] Yes, we can. So, in addition to what Ms. Burden just commented on, there are categories like free and reduced lunch, demographics that are similar, and the eight or nine schools that are added to this list were also schools that were prioritized as part of the COPS federal grant that we were denied this year.

[03:48:05] But all of those categories rank those schools on on those particular subsets And in addition to those eight being ranked to submit to the COPS grant We also distributed those equally with the video we grants per region as well if that makes sense That does. Thank you. Thank you for the information. Thank you. It's burden. I'll look forward to Talking about this at our next meeting. Thank you - Okay, before we move on to the next action item,

[03:48:42] I just want to note that the strategic plan, goal three, academic growth and excellence, has been moved to action item 5.04. So when we get to that, we'll deal with that one.

[03:48:57] And the correction will be made on board docs after the meeting. Okay, with that, we're at action item 5.01. - All right, I call on Ms. Tolan for a motion.

[03:49:16] I move to adopt the FCPS recommendation of scenario B as presented to the community and posted in the attachment. Scenario B adjusts the boundaries of Chesterbrook, Churchill Road, Franklin Sherman, Haycock, and Kent Gardens Elementary Schools, and the Churchill Road and Haycock AAP centers. The adjustment will not change the middle and high school boundaries.

[03:49:40] In addition, the following phasing plan will implement the boundary change. Rising kindergarten and first grade students will be reassigned to attend the newly assigned school for the 2024-25 school year. Rising second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students have the option to attend the newly assigned school or remain at their prior assigned school for the 2024-25 school year and until they matriculate to middle school. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Toland would you like

[03:50:19] to speak to your motion and thank you Ms. Kees-Gamara for seconding that. Yes thank you. I want to extend a huge thank you to our McLean Elementary School principals and PTA leaders. The PTAs have been involved with this process from the beginning feeding us questions from the community and answering lots and lots of parent inquiries. Our principals have put up maps in their buildings and fielded and passed along many questions over the past months. We have had a large team of experts working on this project since over one year ago. Facilities and planning, communications, world languages, and transportation all put their heads together to implement our community input

[03:50:59] process and to come up with a solution to a long-standing and complex problem in a school with French Immersion and Local Level 4. My Region 2 colleagues have been involved from the beginning. We worked with facilities and planning to brainstorm scenarios that would have less impact on franklin sherman but the realities of the geography prevented us from moving off of scenario b after the public hearing we worked to think about ways to alleviate most of the concerns raised by families region 2 stands ready to work with our principals to make sure our children are

[03:51:33] managing this transition and making new friends our principals are already jointly planning open houses for january 25th to receive any new students and families with open arms information on continuing efforts will be on our web page. Given community input and continued analysis by facilities planning and FCPS transportation, even through conversations last Friday post-public hearing, we are still left with Scenario B making the most sense overall. As mentioned, the impact of this scenario is significant to Franklin Sherman Elementary School. With the location

[03:52:13] of Kent Gardens to the east of its attendance area, it was hard to move students from the eastern side of the attendance area to Chesterbrook since most of those students are walkers. Transportation specifically requested we not move any walkers due to the shortage of bus drivers.

[03:52:28] In order to be sure we did not overload Franklin Sherman as we moved students from the northwestern side of the Kent Gardens attendance area, we needed to move Franklin Sherman students to Chesterbrook Elementary School. In addition, this scenario cleans up a split feeder at Franklin Sherman that many families are excited about. Those students will move to Churchill Road Elementary school the recommended phasing is the same phasing that was used for the Glen Forest area boundary adjustments done last year this works well in this situation too since the French immersion program begins at first grade and those

[03:53:04] students will not be moved most of the comments we have received about this entire process were questions around the treatment of siblings our world languages staff have worked with facilities staff and region 2 to answer most of the questions posed by families with older siblings and French immersion. That information is on the web page designed for this project. And our Region 2 staff, I have had many conversations with them, are standing ready to work with any families with extenuating circumstances as we move through this phasing process. I ask my colleagues to support

[03:53:40] the recommended solution of Scenario B and the phasing plan as suggested by our facility staff. Thank you, Ms. Toland. Ms. Keyes-Gamara, would you like to speak to your second? yes i um first of all would like to commend my colleague for working so diligently over for an extended period of time more than a year ago i started attending many meetings with you to discuss this with parents with staff members within our schools with staff members within

[03:54:13] our central office i know that you held a number of meetings i attended some of them and i know that you also sought guidance from the comprehensive planning and development committee which was an opportunity to come together with other board members with community members who who participated in our FPAC committee, et cetera.

[03:54:39] And as a result of those conversations, you helped us to develop a process by which we tried to bring fidelity to the communication process. So I am supporting you today because I know how much work you have done and I know how hard you have worked to try to get the community and bring about a consensus to the best of your ability.

[03:55:06] And we all know that that is very difficult with this type of topic. So congratulations that we have reached this point. I think with a solid process that I commend you for.

[03:55:23] And I hope that I heard from some of your community members who also recognize that. I understand that there are those who have a different opinion, but even in our public hearing, there was no one opinion.

[03:55:40] And so we oftentimes have to balance and we have to communicate, and you have done that. And so for that reason, I believe that you have done everything you can to reach a fair solution for your community. And you have provided excellent work, not just to your community, but on behalf of this board.

[03:56:00] Thank you. Ms. O'Mes. Yeah, thank you. I echo Ms. Kees-Gamara's remarks. Thank you, Ms. Toland, for being diligent. I know you do your best in these situations, and it obviously shows.

[03:56:19] The only thing I wanted to add was to just address. I know that we heard some remarks from the community. And so to offer a little bit of context, you know, this whole conversation started when We were even talking about the renovation queue and how we're gonna address overcrowding and a previous CIP process.

[03:56:36] And Ms. Tolan, you were right to courageously identify Kent Gardens as an area where a potential boundary adjustment is needed, which is never easy to do and lead in the community. And it was an obvious one. And I tend to be a critic of the, you know, moving things out of line and whatnot when it comes to the queue.

[03:56:57] but this one was one that made sense. And so I was grateful to second that at the time and now finding ourselves where all this work has been done to arrive at a potential solution. And so to those voices who did come out for that public hearing, I hope that you see the ways that your concerns were absorbed and taken in to be a little creative and find ways to problem solve to make sure that the various concerns are heard and particularly those who were interested in grandfathering, wanting to make sure siblings aren't separated.

[03:57:31] Grandfathering wasn't even a practice of prior boundary changes. That's an adjustment made to be accommodating and to make sure families are minimally disrupted. So I wanted to highlight that. I also wanted to touch on, of course, Kent Gardens has the French Immersion Program, which is a unique complication to a boundary process, but that there will still be a prioritization of folks who have siblings.

[03:57:55] So rising first graders who have siblings in the school and want to partake in that immersion program to be able to operate as though they were in boundary so that they have the same shake that they would have had they stayed in Kent Gardens. And that's an additional accommodation and really just a responsive measure to be sensitive to the needs of the community.

[03:58:18] And finally, for those who may still be concerned about rising kindergarteners, that's yet to be determined. So there's not a decision on that either way, because there are so, so many complex considerations, actually, you would be surprised to realize just how much intentionality goes into planning for that cohort and making sure that everyone is considered who would like to be a part of the program.

[03:58:39] So that's just to be fully honest and transparent with the community, but I'm just grateful that really, you know, I know coming from a place of, you know, in a board, it's easy in the shuffle of things and such busy schedules to move forward and decide on a plan and roll with it.

[03:58:57] But I think there was sincerity in trying to be responsive to the community, and I'm grateful that Miss Toland took the time and effort to do that and hope that the community will be sure to look for those people place and application and lottery application opportunities that are yet to come.

[03:59:15] And I know Miss Clemenco will be leading that very carefully. So thank you for your work. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I do want to express my thanks to Miss Toland because we know these are never easy.

[03:59:31] There's never going to be that perfect solution that creates happiness with all parts of the community. But I think as shared by both Miss Kees-Gamara and Miss Omeish that you have done certainly your part to ensure that everybody is heard.

[03:59:46] It's very thoughtful of you the way that you go through this process. It seems as if we keep following each other in this process because we will have the Glasgow conversation coming up. I hope sooner rather than later, because we do know that community has been waiting for quite a while.

[04:00:03] And I'm hoping, Dr. Reid, that's something we can continue to expedite because that community is waiting for some sort of feedback from staff in order to move forward. I think I was not I think I am a little bit dismayed by the timetable that Miss Szymanski did share, because that brings us right back to where we started, therefore negating the work that I did earlier this year to add this into the process so that we didn't lose that year.

[04:00:33] I think the current process that she's outlined has this board voting next fall, which creates an issue. But I wanted to raise that. However, I know this is the Kent Gardens boundary and I wanted to make sure that I recognize all of the work that Miss Toland put forth.

[04:00:52] But more importantly, I really am hoping that we can move away from the practice of these boundary adjustments being school board member led. It is an undue burden to folks who are not subject matter experts. We have got to find a way to move the practice to one that is prioritized by the experts that we have on your staff in a very neutral, objective criteria so that we can prioritize our work at this point.

[04:01:21] The continuing efforts by all of us, we want to be cordial to each other, but we are still elbowing for a seat at the table of action when it comes to this work, and it should not be that way. And I would love to hear your thoughts in terms of how can we be moved? How quickly can we move forward into a different process?

[04:01:42] I I think that we certainly can look at a different process. I think we we already have a rank order list of schools by over capacity percentages, and those schools, I think we could take a look at by most over populated percentage wise to least.

[04:02:10] I think there's also a question about. So I think that's a process we could engage in, which would separate what we might say are large schools versus overcrowded schools, right? Those are not necessarily the same definition, but I'm happy to put together several scenarios that we could utilize moving forward.

[04:02:32] And also want to clarify that Ms. Zemenski is simply utilizing a process that's been here for a period of time with regard to the Glasgow situation, and we initially, when that vote happened last year, we did indicate that at such time we would do as much prelim work as we could, but at such time when Kent Gardens was completed, then we wouldn't require further board action we would just move right into the Glasgow process, but I don't know that that can happen any quicker than it's laid out, but I'm happy to take a look at that and I know you and I have talked about that and make sure that I get back to you with

[04:03:12] the timeline that we believe is realistic, thoughtful, and comprehensive. I would definitely appreciate a second look. I just think we have an opportunity in front of us as we will move into a different constitution of this board that we don't begin on the way that this board this current board started which is jockeying at the CIP table I would love to see a process in place so that we just do this work a little bit better and more thoughtful because at this point absent advocacy of school board members we don't get things that we don't get action

[04:03:46] bubbling up to to to the top and I just don't think that's necessarily the most important work It's just where can we get the support for it? We just need some neutrality and some objectivity around that process.

[04:04:02] Yes, ma'am. Miss Seismar Heiser with that late hour. I'll be very, very quick. I just wanted to say I appreciate all the hard work that you've done, Miss Toland, for the last year, having been involved as an at-large member.

[04:04:18] I've seen the work and I've had several families from Franklin Sherman reach out in addition to the comments given. And I appreciate our staff being willing to work with extraordinary circumstances and extenuating circumstances for our families. I know it's a difficult challenge for the Franklin-Terman families.

[04:04:36] And I know you spend many, many times staring at those maps, trying to figure out other solutions, as well as our staff has spent. So I just wanted to reassure the families. I know there's a large turnover happening on the board. I know that you'll be in close contact with this lady who's in the Janesville seat as you come in.

[04:04:54] But I'm also happy as one of the ones staying on the board to help make sure that, you know, the families are taken care of. And I know our staff will be that. But even I'm happy to, you know, to help with that as you step off the board. So I just want to say I appreciate the hard work that you've done.

[04:05:09] And I'm looking forward to helping bring Robin up to speed and having her take over from you. I know she'll do a good job with that. And I would just want to say really quickly, I do think to Dr. Anderson's point that there's a lot of space with a lot of new facility staff to look at how we do capacity work and program work.

[04:05:30] I know Ms. Tolan and I started a program review a couple years ago to start some of those conversations, so I think there is space to do it so it isn't as board member-led, with, of course, a lot of board member involvement. Thank you for your hard work. I appreciate it. Ms. McLaughlin.

[04:05:49] So, Dr. Reed, I don't know if you and your team can answer what the cost is for each grade level that we end up grandfathering in. So typically we don't grandfather all the way down to rising second graders.

[04:06:07] I mean, that is really, I mean, I think Ms. Tolan, to add to the praise, I know you've worked tirelessly on this and that's like a whole different added conversation to what dr anderson said i don't think that board members should be drawn into that level of operations but you were heroic and i appreciate that very much but dr reed i do worry about precedent we are a very large school division and every time we do grandfathering in a way that just

[04:06:41] keeps going further and further and further down um that just comes at an operational impact not just cost but our bus drivers and our buses and so I just wondered if your team when this proposal was brought forward did they do that cost estimate that for each year that we grandfather one more grade lower than usual because I mean rising second graders is highly unique for my 12 years on the board and having personally experienced a boundary school change when I was

[04:07:19] a rising fifth grader and there was no generosity here I mean I it was it was very difficult so I'm not making light of these things but we always have to find you know the cut mark of when we are going to grandfather and where we don't so do we know and if I've asked a question people don't know then don't worry but I think then it's for future operations we need to know those numbers So I think there are a variety of ways to do that phase in.

[04:07:53] I've been in divisions where the phase in provided their own transportation, so it wasn't an operational cost. So it was an option for families to make that choice to continue or not. And then in divisions where only the school to school transition is supported financially.

[04:08:16] So again, we could look at several scenarios that way and with the recognition that it's an option, but it's not an option necessarily that all parents might choose either, right? So I'm happy to get you something by Friday. I don't believe we would have costed that at this time, but I'm happy to get that cost out for you.

[04:08:37] And again, take a second look at did we say phasing with transportation or phasing not, right? because some of those students I know were walkers. So there may not be an inherent operational cost, but I'm happy to take a look at that secondarily.

[04:08:54] - Yeah, at the, I will just say this again, having gone through these, the last thing I wanna do for any families watching this right now who are going into panic mode, I am not suggesting, I mean, we vote on this, then whatever we put in language, it is what it is.

[04:09:13] and I support Ms. Tolan at this late hour, and she, again, has done great outreach. I think, if anything else, Dr. Reed, as you continue to learn the division and you have new members coming on your team with you, I urge you and your team to have a very consistent and specific plan on these things going forward, because I think we have to be extraordinarily intentional on what our plan, you know, we gave six scenarios.

[04:09:44] And I would have hoped that as a result of those scenarios, we would have costed them out, and before we offer them out to the public and for the board's consideration, we should know what those are. And again, I don't put this at Ms. Toland's feet at all.

[04:10:02] I know the bell is telling me my time is up. So we can talk some more offline, Dr. Reed, because I do think there are some ways. And Dr. Anderson just said I may just do a follow on motion again just for guidance from the board on expectations going forward.

[04:10:19] Yes, ma'am. And I think that adding those operational costs is something that I certainly can provide and appreciate that that can be part of our calculus moving forward.

[04:10:34] And to lower the the blood pressure on my colleagues, I'm not doing a follow on motion at this late hour either. I'm just going to vote yes. Okay. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Corbett Sanders. Yes. Thank you.

[04:11:02] I just wanted to make a point of clarification. It is my understanding that we generally provide transportation during phasing. so i think the calculations will need to include the transportation costs yes ma'am i'm happy to do that we'll pull that the number of students and where the directions are headed absolutely seeing no other board members um i will just say boundary changes are never easy but this one was necessary and i think there was a lot of due diligence and a lot of community input so

[04:11:36] miss tollen i will be supporting this all right now it is time for the vote um i will call for uh vote on the motion which is on the screen in front of us uh colleagues all those in favor sorry mr frisch has his hand up oh i'm so sorry thank you no i'm voting okay just making sure okay all right all those in favor that vote is unanimous with all members at the table and mr

[04:12:06] Frisch remote with Mr. Frisch remote and Miss Marin has left. All right and Miss Cohen I call on you for a motion. I move that the school board I move that the school board adopt the 2024 Fairfax

[04:12:41] County School Board state and federal legislative program. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Miss LaMesh. Miss Cohen would you like to speak to your motion? Yeah just to say I think We've all had a good amount of input on this.

[04:13:06] I appreciate very much our legislative lobbyist, Mr. Malloy, who takes good care of us in Richmond, working for the last few months with all of us to get these priorities in good shape.

[04:13:21] And I think it's not an accident that we have pretty good alignment with the county this time. And really the primary emphasis, while we have a lot of other meat in there, the biggest is really looking at the JLARC study and pulling pieces out of that.

[04:13:40] And I know in speaking with Mr. Malloy, there is a plan going forward in Richmond to have bills that address each of those pieces. And I know there's a few people on this dais who will be extra excited to be a part of that. So, without further ado, I'm excited to go ahead and pass this and to get closer to ending the night.

[04:14:08] Ms. Amesh, would you like to speak to your second? Yeah, so I guess I just wanted to highlight a couple of the federal priorities we have. I want to speak to the state piece, that's Ms. Cohen's role, but I would just reiterate the conversation earlier in emphasizing the importance of ensuring assessments for English learners are available and for courses that are not language-based in a language that's not English.

[04:14:34] It just doesn't make sense that we consider them failing on things that they can't understand to even take. But on the federal side, there are a number of really important funding packages that our schools rely on that are on the chopping block in Congress.

[04:14:49] The most significant of those is the Title I money, which of course is the largest federal package that goes to schools based on numbers of low-income students. Specifically, we're normally scheduled to receive 38.5 million in Title I funding.

[04:15:09] The projected cuts could lead to cuts within the 267 positions we rely on, which include early childhood teachers, resource teachers, counselors, social workers, intervention teachers, the homeless liaisons we celebrated earlier today, instructional coaches, and on and on and on of the critical supports we provide to kids who struggle with math, language arts, and other subjects.

[04:15:31] And that's not even starting the list of supplemental resources and afterschool programs and family engagement specialists and family liaisons, in addition to information sessions and parent coffees and events that students benefit from, including field trips.

[04:15:47] You stop that right there. No, but really seriously important things are on the chopping block and so it's just critical for us to make sure those of you who are listening if anyone is at this hour to contact our congress folks to not only vote in the right way on this but to be vocal and highlight just what's at stake and that's of course in addition to idea which is the individual disabilities education act which continues to be largely unfunded and then the final one i'll highlight is the federal meals reimbursement which we all know you know with covid we received a lot of wonderful support to provide meals to kids who deeply depend

[04:16:26] on it we saw that just in the presentation and academic matters today the racial disparity significant racial disparity within who experiences hunger and as well as what we talked about earlier with the proclamation so this is something that's exacerbated the problem and we need the support to be able to continue supporting our kids the rest of it is posted on board docs I know my colleagues are antsy and they're making it very clear so I'll stop there but join us on Wednesday 8 a.m. at the gatehouse cafe if you're interested in learning more you can observe we're going to be speaking to our legislators about what we hope they'll be advocates

[04:17:04] on thank you we did have a work session on this so I have no board members wishing to speak at this point in time so I will call for the vote on the motion the motion is on the screen all those in favor? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. McLaughlin, are you going to vote on this? Ms.

[04:17:38] McLaughlin, Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Erna Koufax, Ms. Keyes-Gamara, Ms. O'Meish, Ms. Cohen, and Ms. Roger Sizer-Heiser, and Mr. Frisch, with Ms. Marin away from the table. Okay, that motion passes.

[04:17:57] all right we're down up to action item 5.03 reports on employee separation i call on dr anderson for a motion i move to direct i move to direct the superintendent to revise a monthly report on employee separation in the associated attachment to present disaggregated data and context to include subgroup percentages additionally on a quarterly basis the superintendent will provide operational impacts impacts by fcps schools and regions trends analyses and potential

[04:18:31] strategies to address findings if applicable is there a second yes thank you miss tollen dr anderson would you like to speak to your motion i think i spoke to it when i brought this up in september and in my conversations with you over the last couple of weeks and in the email that i sent we just want this to be more useful thank you dr anderson miss tollen would you like to to speak to your second.

[04:18:58] - Thank you, I don't want to add a lot. We are just really trying to have a report that shows up regularly at board meetings to be something that is useful. But, you know, Dr. Anderson has requested a number of different types of data here, and we're really looking for those on a quarterly basis, not on a monthly basis.

[04:19:21] So, looking for staff to take a look at that. - Thank you, other board members, Ms. Omish. just a quick thank you this is one of those things that long agendas long meetings easy to miss and Dr. Anderson was the sole advocate several meetings to make sure we we brought it forward it's an important piece that was caught and I'm grateful for that all right seeing no other board members who would like to speak I will call for the vote on the motion which is on the screen in

[04:19:55] front of us all those in favor that is unanimous with Mr. Fritt at everyone from the table Ms. Marin, absent, and Mr. Frisch, virtually.

[04:20:11] Thank you. Thank you. 5.04, Strategic Plan Goal 3 Report, Academic Growth and Excellence. I call Ms. Keyes-Gamara for a motion. I move that the school board approve the Goal 3 Baseline Report as the division's baseline data that will serve as a starting point for the work toward achieving the goals in our strategic plan 2023 through 2030.

[04:20:40] Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Dernick-Koufax. Ms. Keyes-Gamara, would you like to speak to your motion? Ms. In a very limited fashion. We have had a work session on this. This is a starting point.

[04:20:57] This is how we will measure our progress, and we certainly need those baselines, so I am in full support. Ms. Dernick-Koufax, would you like to speak to your second? Ms. Just what Ms. Keyes-Gamara said.

[04:21:13] This is our proving baseline data toward achieving the goals, which we talked about tonight in goal three, reading by third grade, algebra one by eighth grade, and advanced coursework in high school. So we have had lots of discussion on this, and I look forward to having my colleagues approve this.

[04:21:33] - Thank you. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak? - Just a quick point of clarification. This was posted under performance review. Will that vote not be happening? I just want to get clarity in terms of, are we just voting to accept the report, or is it part of the performance review?

[04:21:51] Correct. We are voting to accept this as our baseline goal three report. Okay. So, we'll need to make adjustments to BoardDocs? Yeah. Thank you. Okay. With that, Ms. Seiser-Heiser?

[04:22:07] I know it's late, so I won't belabor the point, but I'm a little confused why we're accepting this as baseline data, when there's a lot of data into this, not just baseline data. So it just seems a little odd to just call it baseline data because the report has data that does have some growth showing in there as well.

[04:22:28] So growth data is not the same as baseline data, and there is growth data in the report. So I'm a little uncomfortable calling this baseline data because I don't think it's reflective of everything that's in the report. So I'm kind of curious. When we vote on goal reports in my four years on the board, I don't think we ever called it baseline data.

[04:22:49] I know this is a new strategic plan, so that might be why. the report itself doesn't have just baseline data in it, so I'm not sure it's an accurate reflection of the report. And we didn't, I guess, during the work sessions, it was never brought up that this was just baseline data. So I'm a little confused.

[04:23:05] So I understand what you're saying. I think the title of the report was the baseline goal three report. So even though it does show some growth with the 5%, I think we're just talking about the title of the report.

[04:23:21] I guess, to me, this is a baseline of going forward, but it's not just baseline data, right? And there's, to me, a difference between baseline data, and this is our starting point going forward. We're already seeing some growth, so we're already seeing, even in this year, some movement towards this, right?

[04:23:38] Because it's been, you know, six months almost since our strategic plan, so we are showing some growth from the time we passed it, but this is our baseline for where we're starting going forward for report to report. So I'm not going to belabor the point, it's late. just think we need to be careful with the words we use. Thank you. Are there any other board members that would like to speak? Okay, I would like to call for the vote on the motion. The motion is on

[04:24:08] the screen. All those in favor. Ms. Corbett Sanders, Dr. Anderson, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Wilkarski, Ms. Toland, Mr. Anna Koufax, Ms. Guimara, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Seismarheiser, Mr. Frisch. All those opposed. All those abstaining. Ms. Meech are you opposed or abstaining? I mean I'll oppose it. Opposed

[04:24:38] and with Ms. Marin away from the table that motion passes. Okay we are on to the consent agenda.

[04:24:54] 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. Many items listed have gone through board review and the documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving the

[04:25:26] consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved item number seven new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting the new business items are on the screen

[04:25:53] number eight board committee reports i call on miss keys gemara for a report of the cpdc committee i'll try to do this as quickly as i can um we had a work session discussing the process of working on the community the communications process related to the cip and facilities processes i the purpose of that was to establish con consistency in communication and engagement

[04:26:29] for all capital projects, improve communication and outreach, encourage public participation in the process, and building community understanding and awareness of the capital improvement process. The form that has been developed by staff is on the slide behind us.

[04:26:46] Dr. Reid, I think I would just like to close out this discussion by making sure that the community will have access. I understand that this is a work in progress and that this is a living document. But I am concerned about those who are participating in the facilities process, excuse me, process, having access to as much understanding as possible as to how staff will be handling the process.

[04:27:14] So I don't I didn't get to ask this question of staff. I'm sorry. I was trying to figure out a way to summarize this. But I would just like to make sure that this information will be made available to the community until such time as additional revisions are made.

[04:27:33] So just so I'm clear, you want the current engagement process transparently available, for example, on the website? Yeah. However, you know, you can make that decision. But at this point, I know I have worked with a number of board members TO TRY TO HELP THEM TO NAVIGATE AND TO GIVE THEM ACCESS TO THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE THROUGH THE COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE. I THINK THAT WHEN PEOPLE ARE NOTIFIED THAT THEY'RE UP NEXT, THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACCESS WHAT THAT PROCESS WILL LOOK LIKE.

[04:28:08] YES, MA'AM. THAT MAKES SENSE. THANK YOU. AND I'M DONE. THANK YOU, EVERYBODY. THANK YOU, MS. KEES-GAMARA, AND THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK ON THAT PLAN. APPRECIATE IT. As agreed upon prior to the meeting, we will be skipping board matters tonight given our lengthy agenda.

[04:28:26] Thank you to all of you for joining us. This meeting is adjourned.

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