Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, March 21, 2024

Date: Thursday, March 21, 2024
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 4h 59m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owl37CuCeOw
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 2026-11-01. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:37] this microphone. This March 21st 2024 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and the performance of the National Anthem by the Spring Hill Elementary School Orchestra under the direction of graduate class of 22 of his original song I matter for me in honor of neurodiversity affirmative at neurodiversity affirmation week.

[00:02:52] thank you how are you guys feeling good all right and let's give it up for spring

[00:04:33] hill elementary school for playing national anthem and this song that i wrote is i matter for me this is one of my favorites we hope you like it as much as we do it's what i matter i'm not boy with words locked the point with thoughts is something to be fixed i'm a limit to view

[00:05:07] not a boy with gifts as i say a secondary you see the past the ordinary where should i find my sanity joy is my role in my family i'm added for all of my humanity i'm added for all of my humanity Seas and fire, strengths and desires I have it all, but can you see?

[00:05:50] Seas and fire, strengths and desires It's all in me, it shouldn't matter to you Cause I matter to me That's my mode of soul Audism doesn't mean I'm off key And it's not all that matters about me

[00:06:30] I find my man here, my humanity The mirror on you is me, you see Truths and fires, strengths and desires All that's in you is in me too Truths and fires, strengths and desires I have it all, but can you see

[00:07:07] Truths and fires, strengths and desires It's all of you, and it's all of me I should marry to you, cause I marry to me I should marry, but you see it's why I also breathe

[00:07:47] I matter for all of my humanity I matter to me, I matter for me I matter for you Thank you for letting my mom play for you Thanks for Carrieri, let's do this again sometime

[00:08:19] Here one more time for our performers in order to comply with section 2.2 - 3 7 1 2 D 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 March 21st

[00:08:56] 2024 to the best of each board members knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as I were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered By the board during the closed meeting. Do I have a motion miss lady? Do I have a second miss st. John Cunning all those in favor?

[00:09:21] Miss lady missing John Cunning miss Sizemore Heiser miss Marin dr. Anderson miss Anderson miss Dixit mr. Moon Opposed abstain that's unanimous for those at the table. All right, madam clerk Should I be reading in the new members before we take these votes on closed? Actually, yes given that they were enclosed

[00:10:01] WE SHOULD HAVE THING. THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. MR. MACILVINE HAS SUBMITTED A WRITTEN REQUEST TO PARTICIPATE REMOTELY FOR A PERSONAL REASON THIS EVENING. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF ACCEPTING HIS REQUEST, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND. MS. SEISMORE HEISER, MS. LADY, MS. JOHN CUNNING, MS. MARIN, DR. ANDERSON, MS. ANDERSON, MS. DIXET, MR. MOON, THAT'S UNANIMOUS FOR EVERYBODY IN ATTENDANCE.

[00:10:24] MR. MACILVINE, WILL YOU CHECK YOUR MICROPHONE ONE MORE TIME? GOOD EVENING, MR. CHAIR. WONDERFUL. WE CAN HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR. WONDERFUL. mr mcdaniel has also submitted a written request to participate remotely this evening for a personal reason all those in favor of accepting his request to participate remotely please raise your hand miss sizemore hyzer miss lady miss st john cunning miss marron dr anderson miss anderson miss dixit and mr moon and mr mckelveen that is unanimous and myself that is unanimous for all in attendance

[00:10:59] uh mr mcdaniel will you test your microphone good to be here thank you all right we hear you loud and clear. At this time I'd like to recognize in our audience this evening we have Virginia delegate and former school board member Laura Jane Cohen. We're not going to let you leave if you stay. All right. I call on Miss St. John. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a

[00:11:33] motion. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who assaulted another student at a school and caused substantial disruption to the school environment and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. Is there a second. I second

[00:11:50] Second. All those in favor, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Ms. Anderson, and Mr. Moon, all those opposed, oh, sorry, and Mr. McDaniel and Mr. McElveen, all those opposed, and myself in favor, all those opposed, abstaining, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Ms. Dixit, are you voting? And Ms. Dixit. So, will the clerk read the vote?

[00:12:24] All right, I have nine yeses and three abstentions. - Thank you. - Motion passes. - Appreciate it. This is a reminder that according to a recent vote to amend the strategic governance manual, school board members will no longer make remarks about proclamations when it is presented for a board vote.

[00:12:44] They may choose to make remarks during their board matters. Agenda item 2.05, Music Theater and Arts Month Proclamation. I call on Mr. Moon for a proclamation. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. for tonight's proclamation is celebrating Music, Theater, and Arts Month.

[00:13:02] I know that there are several teachers from our Theater and Arts programs, along with Acting Theater Specialist Ms. Maeve Nash, and Arts Specialist Mr. Aaron Stratton, and we also have a Terrasana Elementary School course director and music teacher Carla Okuchi, and we have a couple of students upon my invitation.

[00:13:26] Claire Kim from Sennavale High School, also Meredith Youth from Langley High School with them. Mr. Chairman, March has been officially designated as Arch In Our Schools Month, encouraging communities across the nation to focus on dance, music, theater, and visual arts education.

[00:13:46] This month serves as a reminder that all students deserve access to an equity in the delivery of dance, music theater and visual arts education and well as Fairfax County Public Schools has a thriving fine and performing arts education program with an average of 650 music educators, over 25,000 students in instrumental and choral programs, nearly 400 art educators and about 25 students, 25,000 students in elective secondary art.

[00:14:22] FCPS hosts one of the largest theater education programs in the United States. FCPS Dance has programs at the elementary and high school levels. Dance, music, theater, and visual arts students at FCPS demonstrate the importance of qualifying and performing arts education programs to the lives of young people.

[00:14:47] and whereas FCPS art programs are known throughout the state and country as a model of excellence emphasizing conceptual learning, personal relevance, and innovation. In March and throughout the spring, FCPS school pyramids celebrate the arts where the pyramid art shows exhibiting the works of elementary middle and high schools in each community.

[00:15:13] Each year, middle and high school artists are recognized with regional and national awards through the Scholastic Art Awards as well as other art recognition programs. And whereas Fairfax County music ensembles performed at many conferences and have received several national accolades, notably the Southerner Flag of Honor, the Southerner Cup, Honor Band, Blue Ribbon School, Induction into the National Band Association, Midwest Clinic, and others.

[00:15:45] FCPS groups often receive superior ratings at the state assessment, local competitions, national competitions, and festivals throughout the United States and abroad, whereas FCPS Theatre and Dance Hall for a vast array of extracurricular art experiences, including dance showcases, plays, musicals, drama clubs, improv competitions, student-directed one-act festivals, the VHSC state one-act competition,

[00:16:19] CAPES. The CAPES, an international high school program that celebrates theater performance, journalism, and student ownership, originated in Fairfax County Public Schools. FCPS Theater students and teachers are recognized at this annual gala hosted at the acclaimed John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Now, therefore, be resolved, Fairfax County Public Schools recognizes march at dance in our schools music in our schools theater in our schools month and youth art month

[00:16:53] to celebrate and acknowledge every day the fine and performing arts education experiences and opportunities are an essential part of every student's well-rounded education i so move thank you mr moon is there a second i second miss anderson i will call for a vote all those in favor Ms. Seismarheiser, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. McIlveen, and Mr. McDaniel, and myself. That is unanimous.

[00:17:37] Agenda Item 2.06, Read Across America and Library Recognition Month Proclamation. I call on Ms. Marin for a proclamation. Whereas, Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading.

[00:17:55] And whereas parents and families, teachers, students, and members of our community all come together to celebrate the joys of reading and to encourage it to become a habit. And whereas public schools are places where every child is welcome and where students are encouraged to delve into different books from a variety of offers that will appeal to an increasingly diverse student population.

[00:18:16] Whereas, April 2024 has been designated the 39th annual National School Library Month, we recognize here that school librarians and library staff are entrusted to teach the skills of locating and using information through traditional resources and new technologies to provide literature appreciation activities and to guide and encourage content and recreational reading to every student.

[00:18:38] And whereas, school libraries serve as positive environments for all students to access and engage with a well-managed library that provides for free expression and access ideas and school libraries provide materials which reflect the ideas and beliefs of different religious social political historical and ethnic groups and their contributions to the American and world heritage and culture and whereas lifelong learning begins in and is systemically developed through the school library curriculum of elementary and secondary schools and the school library contributes to the individual growth and development of all students while fostering both excellence and equity in education whereas Fairfax

[00:19:14] Fairfax County Public Schools is firmly committed to promoting reading and literacy as the catalyst for our students' future academic success, their preparation for America's jobs of the future and their ability to compete in the global economy. And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools has provided significant leadership in the area of community involvement in the education of our youth, grounded in the principle that educational investment is key to the community's well-being and long-term quality of life.

[00:19:39] Now, therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board proclaims April 2024 as Library Appreciation Month in recognition, gratitude, and commendation of school librarians and Library Information Services employees the stellar contributions they provide to school communities and urges students to visit their school and local libraries.

[00:20:00] And therefore be it further resolved that the Fairfax America program calls on the Fairfax County community to celebrate the privilege of being able to read and recommits our community to engage in programs and activities to make our county and country's children the strongest readers they can be. Is there a second? Mr. Dunn. I will call for the vote. All those in favor, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Ms. Lady, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen,

[00:20:40] and myself. That is unanimous. Agenda Item 2.07, Neurodiversity Affirmation Week Proclamation.

[00:20:57] I call on Ms. Sizemore-Hyser for a proclamation. Thank you. Whereas, neurodivergence is a biological fact, and the neurodiversity movement is a civil rights movement that emerged from social justice efforts and social science research beginning in the 1990s, whereas every person on our planet is neurodiverse as we all think, behave, feel, perceive, and learn

[00:21:27] in different ways that are unique to each individual due to their identities and experiences, meaning there is not one better way or right way.

[00:21:43] Whereas within the neurodiversity perspective, there are neurodivergent ways of being in which an individual's cognitive functioning is different than society's perceived "functioning" and is associated with diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, PTSD, and more.

[00:22:09] Whereas since a strengths-based approach to ADHD, autism, and other related diagnoses is better than the medical deficit-based model that also recognizes that society's current norms, beliefs, and structures can create barriers to access and affirmation for neurodivergent students.

[00:22:34] Whereas, according to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated 15 to 20% of the world's population exhibit some form of neurodivergence, exhibited driven by both genetic and environmental factors, And many successful and famous people, such as Emma Watson, Travis Kelsey, Simone Biles, Richard Branson, Carl Sagan, Daryl Hannah, and Billie Eilish, are neurodivergent.

[00:22:58] Whereas, this neurodiversity equity work is about building mindsets that drive our language, address biases, promote spaces of belonging, and center human variability at the forefront of our decision-making processes and actions.

[00:23:19] Whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to ensuring equitable access to a quality education for all students by universally designing instruction and educational environments, employing a neurodiversity specialist in the audience, the first in the nation for K-12 school divisions, lifting up neurodiverse staff members, recognizing that there are different ways of being in our schools and communities, affirming the abilities and unique strengths of each and every student and staff member, presuming competence,

[00:23:58] promoting positive self-concepts and identities, and ensuring that spaces and school communities do not require students to mask their unique individual characteristics or assimilate to participate.

[00:24:16] - Thank you, Ms. Heismarheiser. - Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board renews its commitment to creating neurodivergent-affirming schools hereby proclaims march 18 to 24 2024 as neurodiversity affirmation week in recognition of the cognitive brilliance that every student brings to our system schools and communities thank you miss eismarheiser is there a second i second miss marron i'll call for the vote all

[00:24:52] those in favor miss eismarheiser miss lady miss st john cunning miss marron mr dunn dr anderson Miss Anderson, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, and myself. That is unanimous. I would like to invite all of those who support the Neurodiversity Affirmation Week Proclamation

[00:25:17] to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dais. I would like to invite all those in

[00:27:41] support of the Read Across America Library Recognition Month Proclamation, including Rachel Grover, Rocky Run Middle School, and 2023 Virginia School Librarian of the Year, Kimberly Adams, Shrevewood Elementary School, Jennifer Benton, Katherine Johnson Middle School, Cannon Cringro, Claremont Elementary School, Katherine Duggan, Washington Mill Elementary School, Stacey Gilbert, Hayfield Secondary, Mary Gokin, Woodburn Elementary School, Christy Hall, William Haley Elementary School, Tricia Hayer, Westlawn Elementary School, Carrie Kosh, Falls Church High School, John Landis, Annandale Terrace Elementary School,

[00:28:18] Alyssa Lingler, Mason Crest Elementary School, Allison Mockmer, Lorton Station Elementary School, Mara Madigan, North Springfield Elementary School, Lauren Mayrides, Providence Elementary School, Christine Millett, Rose Hill Elementary School, Carrie O'Malley Ames, Bucknell Elementary School, Terry Orvis, Dogwood Elementary School, Danielle Powers, Frost Middle School, Samantha Reynolds, Rolling Valley Elementary School, Chrissy Ronan, Marshall Middle School, Megan Saldino, Longfellow Middle School, Melissa Thorpe, Pine Springs Elementary School,

[00:28:54] Elizabeth Toledo, Marshall High School, Kim Siegel, Angela Kaus, Amy Talbott, Jim Woodall, Instructional Services Department, Terry Raul, Manager, Library Support Services, Natalie Lorenzi, Coordinator, Library Information Services, and all school librarians, Library Information and Support Service employees and staff present to please join the board for a

[00:29:16] photo at the front of the dais.

[00:29:46] I would like to invite all those in support of the Music, Theater, and Arts Month proclamation, including Meredith Yu, Langley High School, student winner of a 2024 Regents Scholastic Arts Award, Ms. Carla Okuchi, chorus director and music teacher at Terra Center Elementary School, Mr. Aaron Stratton, art specialist, Ms. Maeve Nash, theater specialist, and all music, theater, and arts teacher and staff

[00:30:17] president to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dais that's the plan yeah board

[00:32:42] members please take your seats agenda item 3.01 community participation the next order of business

[00:33:21] is community participation we welcome all community members who are here and those who have signed up to speak this evening additional information about signing up to provide comments at school board meetings school or regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board's website. During the sign-up process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room. We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's

[00:33:57] remarks. Audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats including when recording video or taking photos. We are grateful to those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not responding madam clerk please call the first speaker Bernie DeLeo good evening my name is Bernie DeLeo I'm the theater teacher at Marshall High School last year around this time in a meeting two things were announced by the school board first you approved generous raises

[00:34:35] for after-school stipends for which we we are very very grateful right good they they're cute. It was also announced by the school board there was an approval for a warehouse for scenery, props, and costumes for our shows. And while that was exciting news and a long time dream for us, there has been no movement that I know of for this. I'm here to lobby for that warehouse which would serve a number of needs. We spend thousands of dollars and hours making scenery, much of which gets tossed into dumpsters because we just do not have the room to store it after show

[00:35:12] closes. Case in point, many years ago, I had a professional set designer build me a 1950s style booth, diner booth. It was great. It was beautiful. After the show was over, it was a space killer in my set shop. I couldn't store it. I reached out to all my colleagues and said, who wants this? It's beautiful. Somebody take it or I will have to dismantle it. Nobody could take it. Nobody had the room. We tore it apart, threw it in the dumpster, and it broke my heart. Cut to this very month.

[00:35:43] Two teachers sent out an SOS email. Hey, does anyone have a 1950s style diner booth? Had we had that warehouse, we would have had that. Now someone's got to build that again twice and throw that out. And that's valuable resources. The same goes for, not only would it save us time and thousands of county dollars, but also too, it would help save the planet. It would help that we're not throwing so many set pieces and lumber and things into a landfill. I'm leaving the

[00:36:20] profession because I'm exhausted. Maybe if I didn't have to build so many things, I could borrow things. It would make my life easier and more of us would stay. Thank you. Cheryl Binkley.

[00:36:37] I'm going to turn this upside down and give you the least important first. First of all, though, I'm telling you why that every school in Fairfax County, in fact, the nation should have a theater arts full-time theater arts teacher K through 12 not just 9 through 12. Okay that's because theater arts kids who participate in drama are more likely to attend other classes and less likely to drop out. Theater arts can close the most persistent achievement gaps and I will send

[00:37:16] you all of the studies to show you these and they contribute to student resilience and social emotional well-being. Students who participate in drama performance score 65 to 100 points higher on the SAT verbal portion and usually score 35 points higher on the math portion. We have a limited number of electives in our schools and when you start adding in all of these things that are unproven we are losing our best proven solutions. Okay so the important part. The theater

[00:37:52] arts program is one of the most important elements of a school's repertoire of offerings because in the theater all are welcome and students learn to be accepting of the wide array of humanity in all its beauty it has always been and will remain a safe place for all of our unique commonplace variedly abled and divergent students to learn and be their authentic selves that is so important. So students, the other important parts are students learn to clean up after themselves.

[00:38:29] It's a cardinal rule of the theater, first thing we teach them. The other is they learn to memorize and to recall what they've learned and improvise if the memory fails. They also learn to ask themselves why did I do that that way? Christina McCormick. Good evening Chairperson Frisch,

[00:39:04] members of the board and Dr. Reed. My name is Chris McCormick. I'm the co-chair of FCPS Pride. I'm a board member of the Transgender Education Association and, most importantly, the parent of two FCPS students. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to speak tonight after celebrating our transgender community in a rally outside just moments ago. You may know that March 31st is Transgender Day of Visibility, which is important now more than ever in the face of attempts to eliminate critical protections and healthcare for transgender people.

[00:39:35] I'm also here tonight to celebrate and speak up for our fine arts and theater teachers during Art in Our Schools Month. I'm thrilled to be here with our amazing theater teachers. We know that LGBTQ students are frequently the victims of bullying and harassment and discrimination. They're often made to feel alone or scared or unsafe at school.

[00:39:54] We also know that affirming adults in spaces drastically reduces youth suicide rates. In In other words, theatre saves lives. I can personally attest to the role that's played in the lives of both of my students, and I'm forever grateful to the amazing staff that creates a space for my students to thrive as their authentic selves.

[00:40:16] Please keep our fine arts and libraries safe and welcoming spaces by ensuring representation in books, music, and theatre. All of our students deserve to see themselves reflected in books, to see the diversity of experiences to which they will be exposed, and to learn to think critically for themselves.

[00:40:32] I'd like to finish tonight by urging you to take action in support of our theater programs. Having that warehouse space would save money and greatly aid the continued success of our FCPS Performing Arts community. I've seen a lot of you at CAPI's awards, so you know how good we are.

[00:40:48] I believe that the warehouse has been approved, so I urge you to create it as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued, and I hope increased, support of both our theater staff and our LGBTQ+ community. Lastly, please see and stand with our transgender students, staff, and faculty.

[00:41:14] Willow Wokey. Dr. Reed, board members. My name is Willow Wokey, she/her/hers, president of the Transgender Education Association and board member of FCPS Pride. I live in the Drainsville district.

[00:41:31] I'm a parent of four Hernon High School grads and two grandkids. In the past couple of weeks, The Washington Post published an article about how bullying of LGBTQIA youth has increased overall and doubled in states with anti-trans legislation.

[00:41:47] National media covered the death of a bullied trans student in Oklahoma, and a crowd organized by outside organizations descended on LCPS school board events. The students who do this bullying learn from adults, the adults that they see.

[00:42:04] Trans kids are a safe target. Trans kids are being bullied by their state government, the school systems, and those bullies see their parents yelling at school board events. I'm grateful FCPS has stood up to the bullying by our state.

[00:42:20] Here in our safe little Fairfax, the Board of Supervisors made a proclamation about transgender visibility this week. The stats about suicide attempts are often cited when you hear speakers on trans, but those attempts don't happen because we are trans.

[00:42:36] Study after study shows that trans people are happier after transition, but the effects of losing loved ones, friends, jobs, and for kids, their homes and families can lead to despair. The people demonizing trans people keep working to ban books, force schools to tell parents if their kid might be trans before the kid knows their parents are ready, and wants to remove safe restroom access for trans people.

[00:43:05] Reading books informs us about other perspectives. It doesn't change who we are. Banning books is done by people who are afraid of those perspectives. I have never read a book with a trans character in it in school, and that didn't change who I was.

[00:43:22] Thank you. - Thank you. - Lauren Makahi, who is virtual. - Good evening, my name is Lauren Makahi and I am speaking tonight as Vice President of the Fairfax County Special Education PTA.

[00:43:41] SEPTA members include an array of students and their families representing a wide variety of neurotypes, talents, and disabilities. FCPS claims to support every student by name and by need, but for many neurodivergent students, this has been a hollow promise. Too often, mandated assessments are not provided in accessible forms to all students.

[00:44:02] Students with developmental and intellectual disabilities lack access to appropriately challenging curricula and to their general education peers, despite the research supporting inclusion and the need to presume competence. Gifted learners who need small class sizes are told they must choose between advanced classes without support or small self-to-advanced academics.

[00:44:26] Students who struggle with executive functioning are given failing grades because they can't find their assignments or figure out how each teacher uses Schoology differently. Those who struggle with organization or emotional regulation are told to give up one of their elective choices to take strategies for success or personal development, neither of which has a coherent, effective curriculum used across schools.

[00:44:48] Two weeks ago, SEPTA hosted an event with Dr. Reed and a number of FCPS staff to discuss the needs of twice exceptional or two e-learners, those who are gifted and have disabilities. The recording of this event can be found on SEPTA's YouTube channel, and it contains very exciting promises for the future.

[00:45:05] We look forward to a time when the full range of neurodiversity has a place within FCPS, with differentiated offerings and appropriate settings available to the students who need them. We greatly appreciate the work done so far by both Kristin Haenor, the Neurodiversity Specialist, and Dr. Nonio Oladameggi, the TUI Specialist, and the statements made by the School Board in its Neurodiversity Affirmation Week proclamation tonight.

[00:45:27] We look forward to ongoing actions to improve the educational experience for all neurodiverse students. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Reed and school board members.

[00:45:55] As this school board is beginning to settle in, it sounds like two early things will define it. First, it's updating a 40-year-old school boundary policy with an expected vote in May of this year. The staff will recommend potential boundary changes to the board with a vote by June of next year and the implementation that fall. As a member of the board of supervisors' recent redistricting advisory committee, I would suggest having a community task force on this made up of no more than 20 people.

[00:46:17] The second is implementation of the strategic plan where the school board understands that everything is not the number one priority, but real accountability metrics are needed throughout the plan. Next, I would like to add one general item and one personal item. The general item is whatever happened to the superintendent's collective bargaining update at these meetings?

[00:46:34] The collective bargaining resolution was passed last March 9th. A new district plan can be created in less than nine months, then why can't we have a new year first agreement by now? There's nothing to report from SCPS that should be stated. At the same time, the association should state updates on their end as they are frequent speakers up here, covering where they are now to their timeline of sitting at the table with the district.

[00:46:53] The system that's paid for positions in HR, they're just sitting there and waiting for next steps from the associations. We're probably around or over 200,000 salaries can be utilized somewhere else during these tough budget times. Next, the personal items from my daughter that I've already related to Dr. Reed and Dr. Ponce and Dr. King can relay my comments tonight to Dr. Ponce.

[00:47:11] Why do nearly all high schools, high schools never have girls and boys varsity basketball games played back to back in the same location? The way this inequity stands is that nearly all varsity girls and nearly all at all SPS high schools will never play at home in front of their full school and county community because most people choose to attend boys games on that one night.

[00:47:29] My daughter would love to see at least rival varsity high school teams play each other at the same location, two sets of games on two different nights out of a three-month season. I've heard school officials say, where will we put the lockers and money lost at the gate? For over 20 years, the district and regional championships have occurred back-to-back boys and girls at the same location.

[00:47:48] Do we need more? This is occurring in Andir High School. Do we need more Mr. DeRose, or is the real hurdle the athletic directors at our schools? Daniel Bradley. Good evening. My name is Daniel Bradley, and two weeks ago you heard from my amazing daughter Olivia, who was a few rows behind me in the pink dress.

[00:48:19] She was very excited to be invited back for the proclamation on neurodiversity, but was disappointed that she would not be able to read her speech due to procedural rules. Don't worry, though. She did record her speech last night, and we'll be sending you all the link later on.

[00:48:35] I would like to impress upon the board that the rule preventing students from speaking at consecutive meetings could be changed in instances where no other students have signed up to speak. If we are here to help make life better for the students of FCPS, why not give them every opportunity to do so, to share how they could be helped.

[00:48:55] With that in mind, I am a neurotypical person with a neurodivergent daughter, and I learn more every single day that the way our minds work is very, very different, but mostly I've been learning just how exceptional she truly is it's an amazing feeling of pride and joy every single day but there's also a deep-seated sadness that comes with this experience at 38 years of age I'm only now learning basic things about one-fifth of the population 20% of people learn in a different way than I do neurodivergent learning is not a disability it is a difference

[00:49:33] ability in the same way that some people can throw a ball further than others and some can play an instrument far better than I can which is always true. With this in mind I would ask each of you on the board to continue moving forward on the request my exceptional daughter made just two weeks ago to enhance learning opportunities for those that are neurodivergent and to create a day of learning for all students to learn about their fellow classmates that are neurodivergent. I didn't have it as a child and I am way off I am way worse off for that experience. Let's continue to grow our understanding of each other in every way possible. And as my shirt says, ADHD is awesome. Thank you.

[00:50:14] Larissa Kotz, who is also virtual. So I'm here on behalf of Olivia, a young lady who asked me to read her speech to you this evening. I'm back. I'm Olivia Bradley, and I'm a second grader at WSES.

[00:50:33] I have ADHD. Last time I told you about myself and my idea and asked you to create a day in all schools to teach about differences. I think this should be taught not only at FCPS, but all schools across the world. There are a lot of famous people who are neurodiverse, like Greta Thunberg, Daniel Ratcliffe, and my favorite in the whole world, Emma Watson. One-fifth of the whole world is neurodiverse. If you don't teach about differences, kids will still be mean, and I know that because kids are still being mean at my school. As the school board, can we please work together to make a day of learning about differences happen. Some ideas I have are that schools could create

[00:51:12] stations where kids learn by doing different activities or an assembly like my school's going to do. Or if you could get Emma Watson to come speak, that would be even better. Sunday, I had a coffee date with Ms. Larissa, the CEO of Millwood and her son, Simon. We both had yummy croissants and she thinks my idea is really important and wants to help.

[00:51:32] We're working together to figure out how to get funding for my idea to be done in every school in virginia as the school board can we please talk and work on making my idea happen words have power but actions speak louder than words and everyone has feelings and emotions and i want to make it better for everyone if this happens we can all live happily ever after and i can change the world now i'm going to switch for a second from olivia to larissa my son simon has similar concerns to olivia's he has been avoiding using necessary accommodations at school because he's worried about appearing different and being made fun of. We need to familiarize students and

[00:52:10] faculty early in the education process, meaning from kindergarten on and at the beginning of every school year at a minimum. I hope that Olivia and Simon can help change the world and that you and I can help them do it. Thank you. Please play the video testimony of Dominic Ewald. Hi, my name is Dominic Ewald. I'm part of the Woodson Varsity Baseball program and I've been in this program

[00:52:47] for three years now. I'm a junior in high school. I just want to talk about the flooding equipment and facility issues we have here in Woodson. On a pretty much weekly basis we're taking care of our dugouts and draining them whenever it rains and they get destroyed and it takes time out of our practice and game preparation. I've lived here my whole life and I've been playing baseball for about 13 years in this area and I've never seen any problems like this before. I have a lot of friends in the area in Fairfax County and in our baseball district that

[00:53:24] They've never had a drain dugout, so I don't even know what that is because they've never had to deal with it. And we have one of the worst fields and facilities in our district. Also, there's standing water in our storage rooms, which hold electrical equipment that could be hazardous and dangerous.

[00:53:43] We also share a wall with the concession stands in the storage room. And, yeah, it's just a whole mess. So thank you, Tate, for taking time out of your day to listen to this. Now, please play the video testimony from Nathaniel Moore.

[00:54:10] Hello, my name is Nate Moore. I'm a senior at Woodson. I've been a part of the varsity team for about three years now. In that time, me and my teammates have spent countless hours before and after practice working on the field and facilities to make sure they are presentable and playable to our fans and opposing teams, whether it be vacuuming water out of our dugouts or sweeping water off the walkways so that fans can safely enjoy our games.

[00:54:41] We do a lot of work that I don't think we should have to and that other teams in the area don't have to. We also still have the original dugouts from when Woodson was founded. It's very old and the benches, you can tell. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, other schools have had theirs redone in recent years.

[00:55:03] They're also really small and they aren't big enough to have 20 to 30 people in them. We can't even have, like, our own bags in the dugout during games. Like, we have to put them on hooks outside of the dugout. And it's a really big inconvenience having to go out of the dugout to get something on my bag.

[00:55:22] You know, when we play at other schools, this is not something we have to do. We have plenty of space to put our bags down. Thank you for taking your time out of your day to watch this. Finally, please play the video testimony of Dan Fitzgerald.

[00:55:43] Hello, I'm Dan Fitzgerald. I've been teaching high school in Fairfax County for 23 years. I'm here on behalf of the transgender and nonbinary students and staff of SCPS in honor of the Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31st.

[00:56:01] Trans and nonbinary people exist in every school and neighborhood in the county. There's an ongoing nationwide attack on trans people being waged in the media and in legislative bodies across the country, including the state of Virginia. This vicious campaign of bullying and intimidation recently claimed the life of a teenager named Nex Benedict in Oklahoma.

[00:56:21] I have seen firsthand the effects of anti-trans hate on trans students who often face discrimination and harassment at home, in the community, and in our schools. In these troubled times, we must stand against the forces of prejudice and ignorance and stand up for our students' rights to exist as themselves without fear in our schools.

[00:56:42] I say to my trans and non-binary colleagues and students, "I see you, I value you, and I'm ready to fight for you." I urge the Fairfax County School Board to say the same, both in word and in deed. I urge them to fight against those who would seek to erase us.

[00:56:59] I urge them to recognize, value, and protect transgender and non-binary students, just as they recognize, value, and protect every student who walks into an FCPS classroom. Trans kids need our help. If we don't stand up for them, who will? Thank you for your time.

[00:57:18] Chair Fish, that was our last public speaker. Thank you. Agenda Item 4.01, Student Representative Matters. Ms. Karim is unable to join us this evening. Her statement can be found on board docs.

[00:57:35] Agenda item 5.01, action item, financial year 2024, third quarter budget review. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. - I move that the school board approve the FY24 third quarter budget review detailed in the agenda item.

[00:57:53] - Is there a second, Mr. McDaniel? Dr. Anderson, would you like- - I'll second that. - Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? - Yes, briefly. As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, the revenue adjustments of the third quarter budget are primarily from a $3.2 million that were recommended to be put towards safety and security measures and enhance summer school reserves, which is also from a set-aside of $3.3 million as a one-time reserve to support greater and more robust summer school programs.

[00:58:32] There is an adjustment for construction funds for a little bit over $143 million and some other smaller funds. And I hope that we will be able to support this adjustment because these are, I believe, good expenditures.

[00:58:49] Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to your second? No. Thank you. Seeing no other speakers, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Stixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, and myself, and Ms. Lady.

[00:59:17] All those opposed? Abstentions? Mr. Dunn. Will the clerk read the vote? It's 11 yeses, 0 noes, 1 abstention. The motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item 5.02, action item ERFC proposed plan design changes.

[00:59:36] I call on Ms. Lady for a motion. I move that the school board approve the RFC proposed plan design changes detailed in the agenda item. Is there a second? Ms. St. John Cunning. Ms. Lady, would you like to speak to your motion?

[00:59:52] Yes, I would briefly. As a former employee and someone who stays in touch with a lot of veteran employees, the DROP program is an excellent idea and a must-do, in my opinion, because we are losing too many of our veteran teachers.

[01:00:12] I don't know that it's detailed in the budget, but I believe that among the people we could lose if we don't approve the DROP program. We don't know they're all going to participate in DROP, but those eligible, if they did, include several principals, something like, you know, 19 math teachers, several science teachers, several special education teachers.

[01:00:30] So a lot of our veteran folks we don't lose. So I'm very happy that this is in the budget. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Lady. Ms. St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, I would just like to echo that we talk a lot about recruiting teachers, but retention of our qualified personnel is just as important, and I fully support this.

[01:00:54] Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. Mr. McDaniel. Some questions for staff. So if this motion passes tonight, specifically referring to item one, the drop item, not the leave or the work after retirement.

[01:01:12] If this motion passes tonight, what ability does this board have to modify the DROP program, if any? So, thank you, Mr. McDaniel. At this point, the vote this evening with reference to that part of the DROP program you refer to is simply approving the possibility of the DROP program applying as it's been described in the agenda item.

[01:01:42] it doesn't fund it that vote would happen later in May in terms of the flexibility to determine who of the legacy employees that drop could apply to it's my understanding that cannot be amended later that that's all of the legacy employees of which currently 85% of the active members in this plan ERFC legacy plan our teachers okay next question budget presentation that this

[01:02:21] would cost six point five million dollars per year and it's a five-year program however in a presentation given to the ERFC board the figure came out to a little bit over seven million dollars based on some back-to-neck calculation so on the one hand we're being told six point five the ERFC was told higher than that could someone please speak to what the actual cost estimate is for this program yes sir I think that I'm gonna ask miss burden to come on comment on that in just a moment I also want to reiterate that what we've

[01:02:56] picked as a projection of a budget number that would be the absolute most that would be a year one expenditure if every single person in the legacy program eligible chose to participate it's not likely that every single person would but it is possible we want to make sure we give you the most accurate number so Miss Burden would you please explain the difference I believe mr. McDaniels asking from the presentation the ERF sees board and the presentation to our

[01:03:28] board and yes there are there were two numbers a 7 million number and a 6.5 million you probably are not aware that we issued an rfp and we changed actuaries last summer and the first actuary came up with a cost of 6.5 million and then when we got new actuaries they did a costing and it was 7 million but at the time that the board of trustees approved this was January 26th which was about 12 days before the superintendent's proposed

[01:04:05] budget we had already used the six point five million dollar and again as you indicated it is an estimate it is a projection we will not know the act going to participate miss burden would it be accurate to say that the seven point whatever that number two seven point two million would be the outside that that would be the most the high estimate it just represents the difference in the actuaries assumptions having two different actuary groups do

[01:04:41] the same analysis they may have used different methodologies they may have made different assumptions I don't know what the difference actually could be attributed to we could have maybe had we had more people when the first actuary did it and those people retired last summer and so now that number is going to be lower we would have to do some research to be able to figure out what the difference is but it generally was the difference in two actuarial firms calculations of the projected cost in the first year thank you and to be clear

[01:05:17] after the vote tonight assuming this passes we could not as a board determine as the budget process continues that say school-based versus non-school based employees there's a delineation there you know he's above or below a certain salary threshold could or could not qualify for the program is that so mr.

[01:05:40] McDaniel and that is correct given that all members of the legacy program that would be eligible for drop have been putting a similar percentage into the program all members of the legacy drop program would be treated similarly it would not be it's not our understanding that you could differentiate later I will not be supporting this motion I've made my opinions on this program very clear we have conflicting numbers on costs we were given the lower number not

[01:06:20] the higher number and that lower number was used to justify our request and what supervisors were $254 million we cannot delineate between who qualifies for this program but the biggest reason why i'm not supporting it this is a budget item and we don't even have a budget uh a firm budget number uh in the works yet uh we haven't we're nowhere near approval of budget the board of supervisors are nowhere near finalize their budget numbers the vote tonight is the timing is off on this i would prefer to see this taken later i think we're 80 percent of the way there on this program but forcing my hand tonight i cannot support this

[01:06:57] program that has nothing to do with uh whether or not i think it's a good program i think it's a great program to miss ladies points um again i think we're 80 percent the way there but tonight if i'm being asked to up or down vote this and set it in stone uh my answer is no that's all thank you mr mcdaniel dr anderson um thank you i i think mr mcdaniel asked a lot of my questions but i have only one um i think that's still remaining being that we're still in the budget

[01:07:31] process why do we have to have this approval right now is there a time sensitive urgent reason because as mr. McDaniel shared we've not completed the budget process so again I want to clarify that this evening's vote is not about approving budget dollars for the ER FC board adjustment to the drop program. It's simply approving the ERFC board's recommendation, their action to

[01:08:07] adjust the drop program. You could vote this evening to support this and in May not vote to fund it. Could we could we also subsequently vote to approve their recommendation in May in conjunction with the voting of the budget? I will defer to Ms. Burden on the timing necessary for the paperwork because there are several options here that the ERFC adjusted both with leave calculations and so forth. So, Ms. Burden, is there a time sensitivity to this evening's vote? Yes, in the sense that the vote tonight is for the plan design

[01:08:43] changes because in order for us to make this happen by July 1, we have to communicate to those 500 of the 2,700 employees that would be eligible. I don't know if you know that deciding to do anything that has to do with pensions or retirement is a very emotional decision people do not make those decisions lightly they are going to need time to figure out what their options are and we wanted to give them at least three months to be able to decide if they wanted to participate in the program and so that requires development of

[01:09:20] communication documents the critical shortage areas I mean all three of these planned design changes will take some time to be able to get ready to implement. So that's why the planned design changes are coming to you all as a recommendation from the Board of Trustees of ERFC this evening is so that we have ample time to implement or to develop the program for our employees ready for this summer.

[01:09:46] Sure. And I think on its face what you're sharing makes a lot of sense. If I could just give a little bit of a recommendation, if we have budget items in which it requires that kind of lead time as we are engaging in the work sessions, that be part of the discussions as well.

[01:10:08] Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Ms. Anderson. Very much like my colleagues, I am concerned about the fact that if we vote this into place and ensure that our members that are in this category understand what's coming, and then we don't -- we aren't able to actually vote to fund it, that that sends a very inappropriate message to them that we are not -- that we are not supportive of ensuring that they stay with us.

[01:10:38] And so I am extremely concerned about voting for this today just because we aren't 100% sure what our budget forecast looks like at this moment because there are lots of factors that we don't have yet. So I have a lot of pause related to this that I'm concerned about as we move forward.

[01:10:57] Well and if we're able to move forward we will then know within a couple of months exactly how many people have chosen to participate which will likely reduce that placeholder estimate that we have prior to your budget adoption I understand my concern is is that if we ask or if we let I mean this is this is widely known so people understand what's coming my concern is is that if we ask them if they want to participate and then we aren't able to fund it that we can guarantee that we will lose them within

[01:11:33] our system and so that is my concern is that this actually will force hands in a way that I don't that I'm that I'm concerned about until we have a better number that we have related to the budget. Thank you Ms. Anderson. Mr. Dunn. Dr. Reed how many counties and the DMV area have a program like the ERFC? I believe we're the only one. Is this drop program required because we have an ERFC? The

[01:12:11] drop program is not required. But is it required to solve a problem created by the fact that we do have an erfc i don't know that it's required but it does address a challenge that the erfc timing has created for those employees that are in this legacy plan and again i'm going to double check that i'm getting some nods here so i think it does address a timing

[01:12:46] challenge which is several years between the vrs retirement and the erfc timelines i'll take that as a yes it's a problem created by having an erfc how much uh of the average salary according to the wavy study does the erfc deduct from the average teacher's salary miss burton so that we're accurate would you provide that please three percent is the employee contribution i saw in the wavy study based on the compensation breakdown that it was six percent is that wrong it is 6.5 percent is

[01:13:20] the employer contribution three percent is the employee contribution okay so the 6.5 percent if we didn't have an erfc could provide be provided to the teacher as a as part of their salary is that correct well it's not really that simple in the sense that um if you wanted to give employees the value of the employer contribution as a salary instead then you know we have nine salary

[01:13:55] schedules we'd have 18 salary schedules because some would be with the rfc and some would be without erfc but the base result of not having the rfc would be to increase employee compensation regardless of their pay schedules correct that's something that we would have to research and develop a plan on okay so my concern oh a couple more questions how many employees who are hired

[01:14:29] each year to uh to fcps have cited erfc as a major factor in their decision to accept employment with fcps as opposed to other jurisdictions generally um very few because 22 i mean if you if we're stealing someone from another jurisdiction that is absolutely the reason that they're coming to FCPS but if it's a 22 23 year old just out of college it is all about the money it is not about pension it is not about you

[01:15:07] know healthcare it's not about any of the benefits it is all about the salary of course you know if we can get them to stay five years until they vest then we have a good chance of them not leaving us because of the RFC so it's actually a better retention strategy than it is a recruitment strategy assuming that the those that we're recruiting are newly graduated from college. Do you have data showing how many employees leave within five years of starting with FCPS? I do not but one of my colleagues from HR might. I do not have that data at hand

[01:15:46] but I can get that for you. And what is the rough ballpark number of people hired who are at the younger age 22 23 as you mentioned versus stolen Adam later age in time from other poached from other school systems again that's HR and they would probably have to research that I'm not sure that we have historically done a lot of research on the age of people coming in to FCPS would it be fair to say that it's much larger that people being hired at a younger age than

[01:16:26] and people being poached from other school systems? - At this point, I think what I would say, Mr. Dunn, is that I think traditionally that was true. I think right now with the shortage of graduates coming out of education programs, I think that pendulum is shifting again.

[01:16:42] We have a lot of career switchers and educators transitioning maybe from other parts of the country or other parts of the world to Fairfax. So I think what we traditionally saw were new teachers who were coming right out of university programs, and we're now moving, I think, more to early or mid-career transfers.

[01:17:06] And do you have the numbers on that? We can get those. Okay. So my concern is we have a program that deprives people of base salary when if they leave before five years, they get taxed, and they don't get to keep that money.

[01:17:24] we don't get to put in a 401k or the things that's portable and so we're not sure if ERFC is actually achieving the original purpose of causing people to come here and stay here. We don't have that data and yet we're seeking to solve a problem created by the ERFC and without having clear data showing how much this is going to cause a long-term impact.

[01:17:45] Mr. Dunn, your time is up. I would just urge you to have a go back. Oh, okay. I'll take a go back. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Other board members have already indicated that I have a concern regarding the timing of making this decision tonight that, you know, it sounds as if once the board decides to pass this in a motion tonight, the affected employees will see that as an indication that

[01:18:20] they can sort of rely on it, planning their retirement or continue to work with us. if at the actual budget decision time which doesn't happen until second in second meeting in may if the board has to make a decision on budgetary adjustments as far as these items are concerned we'll have already made the decisions on these items this is how we have to assume moving

[01:18:51] forward and so with that in mind my question to you is for any plan change I understand we need to have a plan and implement it is today the absolute the latest time we have to make a decision this if you want to do this this to start from July 1. So I think thank you Mr. Moon when you

[01:19:24] say absolute latest date, I think Ms. Burden has shared that as we look at best practice to communicate to staff, enable staff to make reasoned decisions, and to roll out this possibility, we really looked at three months, and that would be April, May, and June, because July one would come at the end of those three months.

[01:19:49] If we need to delay that decision to approve the framework of the plan until maybe the first meeting in April, I think that each time -- the longer we delay, the less time we have to communicate to staff and the less time staff have to make a decision.

[01:20:10] If the program -- obviously the program funding decision will happen in May, but even the possibility of the plan and it's possible funding I think we need to give staff some lead time both to communicate and to make a decision but miss burden what would be I believe you want to know the absolute latest date well as I said March is ideal but you know if we could do April we could do May I mean it'll just our notification to our employees will be delayed as a

[01:20:48] a result and if I may the other piece that I might add and good evening everyone is that we try to give our employees enough lead time so that when they do choose to retire from Fairfax County Public Schools and provide that notice to ERFC that there is enough time to process that so that there is an uninterrupted payment for those individuals when they leave so that they are able to be paid continuously and the further that we go into the school year and they announce their retirement, they may then encounter an interruption to that normal pay schedule for compensation.

[01:21:26] So we try to get them to at least provide that 60-day notice to ERFC so that ERFC staff can work to ensure that they are paid without that gap in compensation. with uncertainty on how I will be actually voting on the final budget for tonight, I will not be able to support this motion.

[01:21:54] - Thank you, Mr. Moon, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. - Thank you. I have some similar conversations. I understand in some ways this is a bit of a catch-22 because if there are folks who with this program would want to stay longer, we want them to know before they make other plans, right?

[01:22:15] So, however, I also don't want folks to make other plans then us not be able to fund it right or make plans based on thinking this is coming and then us not being able to fund it because as others have mentioned there's still quite a large gap between what our funding ask is and what the board of supervisors so far has recommended giving to the to us and um we don't know what the state budget is going to be yet i don't i understand the importance of communicating early however i don't want folks to think something's coming when we don't know if we're going to fund be able to fund it whether we want to or not we're going to have

[01:22:52] to make some tough decisions i imagine if we don't get all the funding we want um so i i'm just wondering if there's a way to find a bit of a happy medium where perhaps we defer this a little bit longer and as we talk about different things in our budget we talk about the fact that this is one of the things we're considering in our budget and one of the things we're considering here and given the uncertain times we're hopeful we'll have the funding for it and people have to figure out whether they want to take that risk or not but i don't want i don't want people to think

[01:23:28] they're going to be able to stay here and use this program if we then get to may and say oops sorry can't fund it i just feel uncomfortable doing that i don't know what tough decisions we're going to have to make i don't know where we may have to find other funding for it um so it would be helpful i think to have some of the numbers that mr dunn was talking about in terms of the career switchers and who's coming here for this right and how much we're able to recruit from other jurisdictions because of this i think at least some surveys or some sort of information that we could say we have a survey that shows 60 of teachers come here because of this program or

[01:24:06] whatever it may be i don't know but some data to look at but in that meantime i feel like if we vote for this here we may be giving some false hope to folks that we just don't know what we we can do because we're 89 million dollars short in our budget ask at this point my understanding so I guess the only question I would have is that is it possible to say this is a consideration of the budget and maybe defer this it'd be helpful enough from staff when we can defer by we can't vote we don't vote to our budget till May I believe the Board of Supervisors votes in early May so I'm wondering if we can at least defer this till after their vote so then we have a better understanding what their budget would be maybe we'll have

[01:24:45] some better understanding from the state would that be possible to kind of give a hint that this might be coming and then do the paperwork piece of it after May or how much of a burden would that be I guess is the question I mean I think anything's possible it's whatever you decide to as a body to make possible I guess the question is how much of a burden would that be in terms of making sure folks know in time to make their decisions and you all can do the paperwork on the back end that's needed I think mr. Smith indicated that 60 days has been the I think the norm for notifying ERFC to do paperwork around

[01:25:25] retirement 60 to 90 years 60 to 90 days so we were taking a conservative approach with three months which is why we're bringing it this evening I think you know I I don't think we've done it in less time than that before but obviously we'll be responsive to whatever you determine to do this evening thank you thank you Ms. Sizemoreheiser Ms. Dixit thank you Mr. Chair I'd like to make a

[01:25:58] MOTION THAT WE MAKE A VOTE ON THIS ON APRIL 25th MEETING BECAUSE BY THEN THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ALREADY MADE THEIR DECISION ON THEIR BUDGET. SECOND. THAT'S NOT IN ORDER, MR. PARALIMENTARIAN.

[01:26:16] YEAH, THE MOTION TO -- THAT WOULD BE THE NATURE OF A MOTION TO POSTPONE TO A CERTAIN TIME AND THOSE CAN'T GO BEYOND THE NEXT REGULAR MEETING BUT YOU COULD MOVE TO POSTPONE TO THE NEXT MEETING AND AT THAT You could continue postponing, but that's just the timing issue every meeting until until April 25th So maybe hold on that for well, I mean it is possible to move though to postpone until the next board meeting itself That's all right, and that would have to happen every board meeting until after the funding is known about

[01:26:58] All right, would you like to speak to your motion? I think we all share that we need time to review different aspects of it. My concern is also about the six months of the separation from the schools and then they will be rehired back. I want to understand it is a little bit more the requirement for that. It was one of the points and the working after time in point three. Dr. Anderson would you like to speak to your second? Yes and my haste to talk about the item number one I forgot to

[01:27:36] mentioned the other two items so I'd like to ask since this primary motion had three parts is there any way to decouple these three parts are they all following the same time frame because the sick leave credit is a very exciting component that I'm very excited that we're bringing to FCPS it has existed everywhere else where I've worked and I've worked in multiple school systems so I think this is a bonus to begin to structure this and the cost to implement the system is very reasonable I am wondering if we are pushing forward this

[01:28:16] motion until next meeting and then subsequently until we get the information that we need should we consider or could is it possible to decouple number one from two and three so that we can begin to act on those other two issues but if they're tightly wound and intertwined and cannot be undone I'd like to know that as well I can speak to that yes it's possible I can tell you it's possible through parliamentary procedure I think I was asking more from an operations perspective do these have to be

[01:28:49] together I think there are budget implications right for all three which I think we've stated this evening or I think I've heard there's a concern about not having clear budget information right but if I'm reading this correctly dr. Reed it says the program is expected to slightly increase the employer contribution and future in the rates in the future the plan administration cost is approximately 20,000 that's for the sick leave bank and the third item which

[01:29:28] is the working after retirement the implementation cost of the administration of course is 10 K are there other costs therein that have not been identified with these other two plans the party yeah the increase in the employer contribution I don't think we've defined that yet on the second item and how about number three miss burden I don't again I don't know that we calculated out the numbers I don't know if you have that this evening no and again these these are just the approval of the plan design changes the

[01:30:05] timeline for the other two items is is not as tight as for the drop program because the the war program you know there's a six month waiting period with that so I mean you could decouple these three items but it's probably not necessary to do that you can just wait until the drop is decided and approve all three at the same time thank you um given what Dr. Reed just shared regarding not having defined the employer contribution when this comes back may I ask that we have some sort of estimate

[01:30:42] of that as well for the board's consideration yes ma'am and lastly um I am very sensitive to what Miss Burden shared earlier which is we need to have some sort of communication with staff about their intentions um again as a former school leader every january february we've got that intent and we know it's not binding but at least it gives you some sense what would would we be prevented from informally surveying people who would potentially fall into this category just

[01:31:13] to get a sense without any board vote so we will i'm sorry was that a yes yeah i mean we um we have rick tierney who is the new executive director of erfc with us here tonight he's he's been on board for a little less than two weeks now and he and i were just discussing that that if it wasn't approved tonight we're going to do a survey of the 500 people that are eligible and determine who is interested and who is not interested that'll also give us some assistance on what the actual

[01:31:49] cost will be instead of just a projection so yeah we're i believe when i asked earlier why we needed to engage in this activity this evening it was so we could get that information but hearing that there's a way to gather that information without necessarily committing to the budgetary impact because as Ms. Sizemoreheiser said we are in a challenging space budget-wise currently and I would like to get for one get a better picture of that landscape before really kind of cementing even unwittingly certain items so I'm glad we can still do that survey. Thank you Dr.

[01:32:28] Anderson I will take a turn on the question of the motion I really do not want to have to deal with this every meeting until after the budget is done there is a better way to proceed and we have other colleagues who have other motions that I think they are planning that would keep us from having to do that but what the board is committing to with this motion is having this

[01:32:58] conversation at this dais at every meeting in april and likely in may there's another way of doing this so i think the sentiment of the dais is very clear so i invite my colleagues hang on a second i it may not be unanimous but there seems to be a very clear voice being presented here there is a different way of doing this than committing to doing this every meeting until the end and that is without actually we don't have to have the question of whether we're

[01:33:34] you know we're ultimately voting for or against it yet but delaying it now would end the debate entirely and we'd be committing to having this debate every meeting until the end of may so i invite my colleagues to oppose this motion so that we can continue the conversation and there are other opportunities in this conversation to do what the folks pushing this amendment or advancing this amendment would like to do i have several lights on i do not know if they are to speak on

[01:34:09] this amendment or if or excuse me on on this motion or if they are to speak where they were typically in the lineup already. Miss Sizemore Heiser. Thank you I appreciate this is specifically on the motion I wanted to talk about bifurcating the concept bifurcated I really think all of these have budgetary impacts that I want to get a better understanding about and I think in some ways they they're these three items are in conjunction with each other so I would be uncomfortable bifurcating this I think we should postpone all of it or not postpone all of it until we can get some more information for all the pieces I think doing one without the other causes me a little heartburn as far as

[01:34:48] postponing and having to revote on this had this reconversation every meeting I'm not sure I fully understand that if we have it in our mind that we want to postpone till April 25th but we procedurally can't do that then I don't why this wouldn't just be a this motions up we vote to postpone motion second vote move on i don't think it's as complicated we i mean obviously we can talk about it every meeting if people choose to i don't think we have to so just my two cents that i think we we're the drivers of how long this would take every meeting to do if there's other solutions that's great but i'm not sure i understand

[01:35:28] that thank you miss marron thank you i object to the motion because i don't think this is a decision that should be delayed. I think that we need to make look I'm in favor of options and I trust the superintendent's knowledge of the market of educators and staff and her assessment of HR trends and in retaining educators. I also know what I've observed and experienced and it's that teachers want to see support by the school division now. So delaying our decision today is not in line with what I've seen. Teachers are leaving for many reasons and I'd like to see the board consider

[01:36:04] are all possible options at every step of the way a decision was made a long time ago to set up the RFC in a certain way and now we are dealing with the results of that and it's not what we would like but we are at this point in time teachers are making decisions right now today if they are going to stay or if they're going to go and if we keep pushing this off we are going to lose teachers this is a retention strategy and it's one of the The best ones we have at the table in addition to a budget that is focused on compensation.

[01:36:37] Thank you. I don't know whose light is on because they wanted to speak on the motion or whose light is on. I do have everybody who was on before the motion was made on my list.

[01:36:52] So if you are wanting to speak on the motion at hand, please leave your light on. Mr. Moon. I would support the motion, but however, Mr. Chairman, I didn't quite understand parliamentary is you know interpretation of Robert true about postponing a motion to a day certain that's not permissible go ahead Mr. Morgan it's from Robert's Rules of Order newly revised section 14 6 which just says that a question may not be postponed wait can be postponed

[01:37:26] until but not beyond the next regular business session if the board does want to postpone beyond that, like all the way until April or May, you can do so under a suspension of the rules. But without a suspension of rules, you can only go to the next business session.

[01:37:44] - I mean, obviously you are a parliamentarian. I do not have a rule book with me to argue against that. But you know, over 20 years, we had prior, prior boards had always been able to postpone to a day certain.

[01:38:00] And I thought that earlier, my colleague, Ms. Dixit was trying to do exactly that, but there was a rule down. I'm going to have to, you know, go back to my Robert's rules and then come back to you with the questions.

[01:38:16] But for now, since the motion on the table is postponed to your next school board meeting, which is on the 8th, I'm sorry, 11th, April 11th, I will support that motion.

[01:38:33] Thank you, Mr. Moon. Ms. St. John Cunning. so i'm going to object to this motion i understand the concerns everybody has about funding however we said our priority was taking care of teachers compensation and retention we owe it to retain the teachers that we already have here teachers are already putting in their commitments i know teachers that already are putting in commitments to other counties. If we don't show them that

[01:39:12] we're going to support them, and when it comes to the hard time of cutting the budget, we don't focus on keeping this in, then that's on us. We're saying we don't know if the money's going to be there. There's other places we're going to have to trim. I'm not going to trim on this. I'm going to retain the teachers that have dedicated their time, their energy, and their years. These teachers Teachers are not the teachers that are going to retire.

[01:39:37] If they're going to retire, they're going to retire. This is to keep the teachers that are going to be able to go to another county and get another paycheck and get their retirement. So as far as I'm concerned, my commitment is to retain the hardworking teachers that have already invested time and energy and provided for our students in our communities.

[01:40:01] They deserve the commitment that when we need to trim the budget, we're not going to we're not going to put it on their backs. I cannot support this amendment. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunningham. Mr. Dunn. I appreciate the arguments are advanced by Miss Marin.

[01:40:18] What's surprising to me is that they echo most verbatim the arguments that were made by Dr. Anderson and myself to argue for including in the advertised budget $24 million so that we could send a signal to our special education teachers, one-third of whom are long-term subs or provisionally licensed that we care about them and they are our priority and instead of adopting that including in the advertised budget instead we said well we'll gamble that there is year-end funding available and so if we care about retaining these 500 people I wonder what

[01:40:57] message it sends that we care about them but we don't care about the special education teachers especially at a time when we're eating our seed corn and we don't even have a game plan for fixing that crisis that is already in the making. Five years from now, will we care more about what happened with the DRAW program or will we care more that we did nothing to resolve the crisis and our special education teacher staffing issue?

[01:41:22] So I ask if we're going to speak of a commitment to keeping talented and dedicated educators, we speak consistently rather than inconsistently. All right, I'm going to ask that people speak to the motion at hand And if they want to make a broader argument about the merits of the proposal, the main motion in front of us, that they wait until after the conclusion of the motion to push this to the next meeting.

[01:41:52] So if you would like to speak to the topic of the main motion, wait until we get back to that. If you would like to speak to the topic of the motion for Ms. Dixit, keep your light on.

[01:42:08] Ms. Anderson. that mr mcdaniel's hand has been up far longer than mine i'm aware okay i just wanted to make sure um i will actually not speak right now yep all right thank you very much miss st john cunning sorry everybody turn off your light everyone don't worry keep your light on if you're speaking to the

[01:42:41] motion and please remember to turn your light off when you've finished speaking mr mcdaniel well miss dixit kind of beat me to the punch on a motion to defer her i would agree with what mr moon said um i i you know on the other board on the other side of the county referring to a date certain is a relatively routine procedure so i'm not sure what the parliamentary nuances need to be but i would support deferring this it needs to align with budget um no one else no other employee

[01:43:18] group no one is getting an out of pension adjustment pay raise so why this is coming outside of the budget cycle i don't know i think we'll probably get there but we need to get there with the budget cycle so i would support the motion or whatever language we need to have to defer this to align with with the budget adoption thank you miss lady i oppose this motion um i'm going to be pretty frank with my colleagues we've been debating this for a long time we've had a lot

[01:43:54] of intel on what it is exactly so i'm surprised by some of the questions i also don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the original motion came from two former fergus county employees i'm going to tell you something we got a billion dollar budget this is five to six million and puts employees first our most loyal seasons employees first you want to put your money where your mouth is we need to make sure we retain these people we're only talking about legacy these are folks who started with us prior to 2001. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 is a different mathematical equation, okay? This is gonna run its course. The timing to hire,

[01:44:31] you're gonna have, you're not gonna have strong applicants. If we push this off and people don't resign until, because it's gonna anger them, because I've lived this in the trench, and they're gonna just hold off on their papers. And then we're gonna be stuck trying to race and get teachers at the last minute when they've all been, they've all been taken up. Trying to hire in July is too late. I'm I'm also going to share because of how against this motion I am, I just visited Osborne High School because I had a constituent asked me to come visit him who used to work for Fairfax County and left because of DROP. He's collecting his Fairfax County retirement and still working

[01:45:07] and getting paid more at a different high school. There are four counselors at Osborne High School that were in Fairfax County. Two of them were former directors of student services and they're making more money there and collecting their ERFC. They have a college counselor. They don't have have career center specialists. They pay their college counselor as a counselor. He, too, was a director of student services, and they have an assistant principal that worked with me. I didn't go through their entire faculty, but I'm just telling you, these are veteran folks that I wish were still in our school system. And to the SPED teacher comment from my colleague, we have crisis in several areas. We have crisis in hiring psychologists. We have crisis in hiring math

[01:45:43] teachers. We have crisis in lots of areas, and yes, we have a crisis in SPED teachers, but that funding will be there at year end. I'll bet my salary and all my retirement payment pensions. We are going to have that money for our SPED teachers. And I'm just really frustrated because if you study the entire legacy program, you should know the answer to a lot of the questions that you're posing tonight. Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. So biggest reason I'm very torn about this right now is because I don't want to give a promise to teachers that we can't then fund. But I also very

[01:46:22] much hear what you're saying about people are making decisions. July is too late to hire. I've also talk to colleagues at different school systems and they I wish we had more data but they do have a lot of our veteran staff have gone there for this exact reason I what you were saying is correct also okay not is that better thank you so I guess the question is if we if we do this tonight and then we get to the budget and don't have budget funds for this when you mentioned year end is there a year-end funding for this and how that impact going forward if we didn't fund this in our budget this year so thank you miss Sizemore Heiser

[01:47:00] actually it's it's interesting you mentioned that because miss burden and I have actually already taken a look at that possibility we also know that the highest cost year is going to be year one because the costs will go down each subsequent year and at the end of the three-year drop program there will be no more costs so we know that really in some ways the year-end funds make it a more reasonable that may be where it is best situated we believe we could cover this at year-end and miss burden I don't know if you want to add to that but I

[01:47:38] believe it might actually be the best place to locate these funds yes I mean we always include in our budget and everything that we think we need but this particular item is one-time funds and so very suitable to use your in for that and by the time we do your in it comes to you all mid-july because your end doesn't actually happen till June 30th so we can't get it before then and then you all go on hiatus and so it didn't come back to you all for approval until September but I'm confident that we will definitely know then what the

[01:48:18] cost is and then we would roll it into our year-end item if this did come out of year-end or if we defer this to year-end would that impact the ability to do the special education teacher contracts at year-end no it would not and it's just it's a three-year program you're anticipating the highest cost this year you're pretty confident you can do it out of year-end so that may be a solution to what I think I'm hearing from my colleagues in terms of we don't want to promise something we can't deliver we're gonna have a tough budget year one

[01:48:58] have all the options on the table when we're gonna have a tough I mean it's just reality right like if you know we need to we need to wait for the county to figure out their budget and right now we're short from what our ask is so we want to be able to have options on the table we don't want this to take an option away however we want to give staff time to be able to make their chance so maybe that's a solution is to defer this to year-end instead of part THE BUDGET OR THAT MAYBE THAT'S AN OPTION WHEN WE GET TO OUR BUDGET AND IF WE MAY NOT HAVE FUNDING FOR THIS SO I JUST SHARE THAT MY COLLEAGUES INSTEAD OF THIS MOTION MAYBE WE PASS THIS

[01:49:36] WITH A FOLLOW-ON THAT SAYS WE NEED A PLAN FOR THIS FUNDING TO COME OUT OF YEAR-END I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU MS SEIZEMORE HEISER I'D LIKE TO GO BACK TO MS BURDEN JUST TO CONFIRM MY COMMENT AROUND THIS BEING THE HIGHEST YEAR YEAR ONE AND I THINK THE DROP PROGRAM IS ONLY A THREE YEAR it's five years excuse me a five-year program but I know when we talked about it at one point the slope was a downward it's not going up after year one so if you could explain that please yeah the contribution rates are determined which is the employer share the employee share 3% is is always 3% but the employer

[01:50:15] rate contribution rate changes every two years the actuaries recalculate it and so the six point five million was the absolute highest that we thought it would cost in this first year but from there on it will just be factored into the contribution rate which is expected to go down in fiscal 26 thank you thank you besides more hyzer miss Anderson okay I'm ready now my colleague actually said

[01:50:53] exactly what I was gonna say over here is we had an aha that on the side of the dias that it made more sense for this to come out of year-end. I want in no way shape or form for anyone to believe that I don't want to retain our highest our highest achieving staff. Obviously I would want to keep them with us. My concern is is that if we end up with the budget numbers that I fear that we're going to end up we're going to have to make hard decisions and we potentially if we commit to things that we can't fund we are going to actually lose more staff in the long run that will become our our most loved long long-term staff and so

[01:51:31] that is my fear overall but I would love love to be able to have this committed out of your own funds and that way we absolutely could move forward with it tonight thank you miss Anderson mr. Dunn thank you I'd like to understand why the FCPS proposed drop program differs so significantly from the existing county drop program what do you mean differs three years versus five years I can go on if you want me to itemize well the five years is

[01:52:09] because the disconnect is of ERFC full unreduced retirement and 30 years VRS full and reduced retirement so that our employees that are in the legacy plan when they reach the minimum required the minimum requirement of age 55 and 25 years they start looking at other entities that use VRS usually other school divisions around us because they can then collect five years of their erfc pension while still building their VRS years because they're going to need

[01:52:47] 30 of those the county doesn't have that issue with its retirement plan and I believe that their drop program is you know for succession planning and so it's We're trying to address a different issue with ours.

[01:53:08] So can you address that? Why is succession planning not a feature of the proposed FCPS job program? If you look at the federal government retired annuity program, which is very similar, or the county job program, if these are the best employees, as one of my colleagues said, then shouldn't a feature of the program be training the next generation or mentoring at least?

[01:53:29] Yeah, and that was something that was discussed and as part of the budget work session that we had on the 20th, February 20th, and we talked that is one of the components of our drop plan is that it does enable us to know five years ahead of time that, you know, we're going to lose 19 math teachers, for example.

[01:53:52] And so, no, succession planning has always been part of why we wanted to do the drop program as well as that disconnect between 25 years service with ERFC legacy versus 30 years with VRS. And the county does not allow drop program participants to continue to earn pension benefits from VRS after entering drop.

[01:54:16] So why is FCPS taking a different approach? The county doesn't have the VRS plan. They have the FCERS plan, which is a county plan, and I don't know the components of that plan. Okay. Thank you.

[01:54:34] All right. Before we continue, I've been very gracious in allowing everybody to speak to the efficacy of the DROP program when the question before this board is whether we are going to delay a decision on this item. If anybody else would like to speak on that question, I will allow it.

[01:54:51] If you use it as a vehicle to address the efficacy of the DROP program, I will call you out of order. ask that you refocus your comments back to the question of the main motion this is not targeted to anyone specifically because most people have done this would anybody else like to speak to the prime the motion that is before us not the main motion the motion from mystics it ms Sizemore hyzer I think I changed my mind and I'd like to have more conversations about year-end in the drop program so poses right now we can always bring it back after that

[01:55:24] conversation I'll talk more closely into the mic thank you what I was saying I think i've changed my mind and i oppose the motion for right now because i would like to have more conversations about the efficacy of using year-end funds for the program we can always bring it back after that conversation if we need to in this meeting thank you all right there are no more mr mcdaniel uh i i will also oppose the motion for the reasons that sizemore heiser mentioned and after that conversation um i do have some language for a motion to potentially move this to

[01:56:04] may if we need to i didn't catch that could you repeat yourself did you just sorry i said and i will also oppose the motion for the reasons that miss sizemore heiser mentioned thank you mr mcdaniel all right uh seeing no other lights or hands i'm going to take a turn um and strongly encourage the board before we commit to having this conversation every other week for the next two months that somebody make a motion to suspend the rules to continue this conversation to a date

[01:56:42] certain. As the parliamentarian indicated, a two-thirds vote of the board would allow us to have a conversation at a later date instead of at the next board meeting. Would somebody like to make that motion? Mr. Moon. Upon Mr. Chairman's recommendation, I move to suspend the rules. Is there a second? Ms. St. John Cunning. Would you like to speak to your motion, Mr. Moon? Sorry. I would they would prefer the motion to be postponed

[01:57:22] until second meeting April, rather than next meeting. So I'm asking the suspension of rules. - Mr. Morgan. - Mr. Chair, for whether to suspend the rules that requires a two thirds and it's undebatable, if it passes then you would consider whether to postpone until that's a certain date, thank you.

[01:57:46] - So we would have the conversation after the vote? - Yes, after the vote on whether to suspend the rules. All right. So there's a motion and a second on the table to suspend the rules, which means it goes directly to a vote, and then a discussion. Point of order, please.

[01:58:02] Yes. Can you please clarify exactly what the process is? There was a motion to oppose? Yes, I can clarify. Thank you, Chair. The motion on the table prior to Mr. Moon was a motion to push this to the next meeting.

[01:58:20] And because you cannot delay to a date beyond the next meeting, if we want to delay this until after the budget numbers are available in May, that would require us to do the same thing at every meeting from now until then.

[01:58:35] The motion for Mr. Moon to suspend the rules would allow us to then set a date certain for that discussion so that we're not repeating this discussion in every meeting until then. Can I have a point of order? Can I withdraw my second? I was confused.

[01:58:58] Without objection, Ms. St. John Cunning would like to withdraw her second. All right. We are back to the conversation about the motion from Ms. Dixon. May I second Mr. Moon's motion? We have a second.

[01:59:14] All right. Would you like to speak to your second? Oh, wait, we're not doing that. I apologize. Back and forth. All right. All those in favor of suspending the— I'm new to this point of order. So if we vote to suspend, we're still going to take the other vote on the motion?

[01:59:31] No. The other motion would require us to discuss this every two weeks until we have budget numbers. Unless we all vote no. Well, unless we all vote no. That's kind of my point.

[01:59:50] All right. We have a motion and a second. There has to be a vote for that. So all those in favor of suspending the rules until a date is certain.

[02:00:06] Whether or not people understand or whether you perceive people to understand is irrelevant. Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. All those opposed. Oh, sorry. Mr. McDaniel and Mr. McElveen.

[02:00:24] All those, they did have their hands up. All those opposed. Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Ms. Lady, Ms. A. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Ms. Anderson, and Ms. Dixit. The motion fails. We are back to discussing Ms. Dixit's motion.

[02:00:42] Do you want us to withdraw her motion? Ms. Dixit would like to withdraw her motion without abstention. That is correct. Without objection, excuse me. You're welcome to abstain if you'd like. Without objection. That's correct. All right.

[02:00:59] So now we are at the primary motion that we began with. Mr. McDaniel? Let's see. So I think that based on what I've seen, there is enough concern about the vote tonight that it be deferred.

[02:01:26] So the language that I believe we need to do is a motion to suspend the rules, to defer this to a date certain. My preference of that date would be to align with the budget adoption in May after the Board of Supervisors approves their budget.

[02:01:43] So with that being said, I would make that motion as I just stated. Mr. Morgan, are we allowed to do the motion that we just voted down? There really hasn't been any intervening business that would make it appropriate to bring it back up again at this point, in my opinion.

[02:02:03] So we are back to the primary motion, unless Mr. McDaniel would like to continue. No, my previous comments stand. We need to take this up in May, align it with the budget. So, again, if I'm asked for an up or down vote tonight, my answer.

[02:02:20] Mr. Moon. I'm Mr. Chairman. I must note my surprise and my rather unhappiness as to how Dr. Reid and budget staff has answered the question about whether we can do this in the year end.

[02:02:43] If this, we were able to this year end, just like a special education teacher's case, we should have put this in the year end from the beginning rather than putting in the main budget for the next year and present to the Board of Supervisors.

[02:03:02] Now, what would the Board of Supervisors think? They put it in the main budget and we passed that, made our advertised version and made a request to a board of supervisors saying that this is not a one-time funding.

[02:03:19] This is basically recording cost and made a request. And now we are saying that we are walking back. I cannot support the motion. - Thank you, Mr. Moon.

[02:03:34] Ms. Anderson. - So this is the first time we've done this in this way and we're learning and which is awesome 'cause we're a school system so we should like that. I guess my question is how can we move forward or is it possible to move forward identifying year-end funds?

[02:03:58] What would be the mechanism that we could actually make that happen? -The mechanism. -Well, I'm specifically asking, and this may just be a point of order or a question about how to move forward.

[02:04:13] Is this a motion that we need to put forward that we could approve this based on utilizing year-end funds? -Again, I want to reiterate that this evening's ask, in terms of the vote, was not a vote to fund.

[02:04:31] this this evening it's really a vote to approve the framework um of the erfc board program changes and i completely and totally understand that um my concern or in in that case my concern is the same as it was previously is that i don't want us to move forward not having an identifiable source that we can actually fund this moving forward and so i don't know the mechanism at this point to make that happen can i offer you some absolute possibilities there are motions to amend

[02:05:10] so you could take something out or add something to the rules again asking that this be brought back up at the time of uh year-end funds you could um restate miss dixit's motion i mean we could allow this to finish to the conversation and have a vote on it okay thank you miss anderson Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Well I was actually going to say I'm wondering if if we vote let's say we

[02:05:49] vote in the affirmative on this today I am wondering if we can pass a follow-on motion that would then dedicate I'm just waiting for slide barring I was trying to answer your question Ms. Anderson which is why I was waiting for so I'm wondering if a way to do this is to say that we could get past the follow-on motion to this to say that this funding can become can come out of year-end funding if we need to because we don't know what our budget is going to be

[02:06:27] right so i don't want to say yes this will be year-end funding or not to mr moon's point i i totally hear what you're saying i do think at least in my experience it has happened in the past where we have items that we're considering for our budget then we end up having to put to put to year end for various reasons so i'm not sure if that's that unusual you have more experience on the board than i do but i don't think that's that unusual to say there are things that we our advertised budget is our ask for our needs based budget we are we have no control over whether we actually get the funding that we consider as our needs based budget so we have year-end funding that we can use for various items the challenge of course of the year-end funding is that it's a

[02:07:06] one-time source of funding it's not recurring but it can be used it's in some ways what we've done with our special teacher contracts um so we're using one-time funding for that so it's not ideal but this is not an ideal budget year from how everything's shaking out so I would wonder maybe mr. parliamentarian you may have an answer to this whether it would be appropriate for us to pass the follow-on motion to this saying that this funding will come out a year-end funding if there if our budget ask is not fully funded I can't speak to the substance of a follow-on but it's long been the practice of this body to allow for related follow-on motions to action

[02:07:45] items that have been passed so I know you mentioned other ways to do this but I I think that may be a follow-on motion to do to say that this funding will come out of year-end funding in the event that we feel we do not have sufficient funds.

[02:08:03] Dr. Reid? I do think that the last part of that statement is really critically important. We're still holding out hope that we can be fully funded, in which case these dollars that we plan to dedicate-- and again, they are dollars planned to be dedicated to this project-- would expect to come out of the budget the general budget i think what we are saying though is that this is an important enough project an important enough retention strategy because we've heard from many of our experienced educators that this is something that matters to them that we would

[02:08:41] be willing to say that this is something we would prioritize at year end if our budget wasn't fully funded but I do think it's a if our budget isn't fully funded otherwise it really we would prefer to take it from there besides more heiser yeah that was what I was looking for is a follow-on that this will be prioritized near end if our budget isn't fully funded I do want to say that I do very much think that retaining our experienced teachers is vitally important and I think many of my colleagues feel the same way so I'm speaking for myself we hear all the time of the amount of new teachers we have and the value of our experienced teachers in helping mentor our new teachers and just in teaching our students so if we

[02:09:21] can do something that is fiscally sound to allow to retain our new teachers I think it's important to do that and I think what I'm seeing is what we're voting on here is a step to allow us to do that and if we can identify a source of sort of a default funding if we can't get in a fully funded that might address some of the issues so I would be willing to bring a follow-on motion if this motion passes to say that that if our budget is not fully funded that this BE PRIORTIZED IN YEAR-END FUNDING. THANK YOU, MS. SEISMARHEISER. ALL RIGHT.

[02:09:53] SEEING NO OTHER LIGHTS AFTER MS. SEISMARHEISER TURNS HERS OFF, I'M GOING TO TAKE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO THE THRUST OF THE ISSUE HERE. TWO THINGS. ONE, I SUPPORT THE DROP PROGRAM. TWO, I SUPPORT ERFC. ERFC IS DEFERRED COMPENSATION FOR A WORLD THAT HAS WALKED AWAY FROM providing employees with suitable retirements where they can grow old with dignity where they

[02:10:29] live. It is a huge boon for our workforce that we continue to offer a pension that provides that dignity at a time when many places have turned their backs on their workers, making it harder for them to continue living in retirement. My father retired like 30 years ago as a law enforcement officer with a pension after nearly 35 years on the job, and he and my late mother were able to live a reasonably comfortable life with their pension because his service was

[02:11:08] recognized with that deferred compensation. You may not get a 22-year-old who understands the value of a pension at 22, but when they start approaching 30, those conversations start happening in earnest. And by the way, and perhaps we could get a memo from HR about the different options that we have for our employees, we do have 403Bs for employees who want to invest more in their own retirement in other ways. We do have various levels of the ERFC that have become less and less generous over generations. So I can't speak for everybody, but I can only speak for

[02:11:46] myself. I will not turn my back on ERFC. It is a boon to our system. It is something that if anything, we should be looking for ways to explain to our youngest employees what a great asset this is in our system. And we should be looking for ways to make it stronger and more powerful in the retirements of the people who have served our system for decades. That's it. All right. Seeing

[02:12:13] no other speakers, we can go to a vote. Please put the main motion on the screen. I just want everybody to be clear all of the other stuff was withdrawn or defeated we are back to the main motion that is on the screen all those in favor Ms. Sizemore Heiser Ms. Lady Ms. St. John Cunning

[02:12:44] Ms. Marin Ms. Anderson and myself all those opposed Mr. Moon Dr. Anderson Mr. Dunn I can't see the our folks joining us virtually maybe they could verbalize McDaniel opposes McOveen in favor all right can the clerk read the vote I have eight yeses four no's the motion

[02:13:17] carries the motion carries I call on Miss St. Miss Sizemore Heiser I would like to propose a follow-on motion that if our advertised budget is not fully funded that these funds you prioritize Miss lady would you like to speak to your motion I think we've had plenty speaking on I just want to say I also fully understand the better job around it as well as our HR but I understand the

[02:13:55] value it brings to our teachers or your ERC program and our drop program and I think as we entered into tight budget times we need to figure how to keep our best and brightest here because without good teachers and our experienced teachers we don't have good schools so I'm hoping that this will be a good compromise what the budget me just read it but the pro prioritize the funds at year-end the funds sorry funds for the drop program at year-end all right so

[02:14:33] let me try that again but if the funds for this program do not remain in the budget after our do not remain in the budget the board will prioritize the funds for the drop program at year-end I'm wondering since the ERFC motion was three parts whether we need to specify if the funds for the drop program do not remain in the budget because the other two parts were separate of this the

[02:15:11] motion was one motion no I know but I'm saying there's three different buckets spending in that one motion we passed so that's fine we'll just leave it as it is all right miss lady would you like to speak to your second i think i already passionately spoke to my second thank you mr moon just in principle i don't want to make a decision on the year end today and i don't want to make a decision on our final budget today either that is why earlier i already

[02:15:45] know if this motion passes what happens its effect is telling board of supervisors you can you can cut out that 6.1 million dollars from our request because we're gonna fund it at the year end i don't want to i don't want to send i don't want our board to send a message to the board of supervisors because whether they fully fund us or not we're gonna we're gonna continue pushing them for the maximum amount of transfer. I don't want to say today that we have what we are

[02:16:23] expecting enough year end so that we don't have you don't have to fully fund us. Thank you Mr. Moon. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I just wanted to offer some clarity at least on my position that my opposition to the previous motion was not because it is a referendum on ERFC. It is not at all. It is certainly as a former teacher myself a referendum on wanting to keep our new our experienced teachers because I think that's important my concern was the timing that we are dealing with in terms of the messaging

[02:17:01] and I think Miss Anderson did a really great job of articulating this I would not want to add that in the main budget and then we are still faced with a deficit and I'm not as optimistic as you are Dr. Reed but I would not want to dangle this and then not be able to support it I will support this follow-on motion because I do believe we can prioritize this at year-end this is something that we can do so I will be supporting this motion but the timing of the previous it just gave me a lot

[02:17:38] of pause given where we are if our budget climate situation landscape was a little tighter for me this may not have been a conversation it's just we are pretty far apart and we may have to make some we may have to have some really difficult and challenging discussions and I would not want to dangle this possibility without knowing firmly that we would be able to accomplish that without jeopardizing some of the other things that we have said are very high priority so I will be supporting this motion and prioritizing this in our year-end. Thank you Dr.

[02:18:17] Anderson. If you've already spoken and you are not wanting to have a go back please turn your lights off. Mr. Dunn. I also want to clarify I'm not opposed to the ERFC. What I'm opposed to is making decisions in a vacuum based on incomplete and insufficient data. I think at this critical inflection point in our history when our teachers are underpaid our staff are underpaid by great amounts and varying amounts compared to market we need to be looking at the money we have available and then making decisions with a blank slate

[02:18:53] saying how can we help each teacher each staffer to earn a living wage so that they can live in dignity not in 35 years but today so they can provide for their family today so we can provide them maximum autonomy for how they want spend their money today whether that's to save for the future to participate in a pension etc that is something that I believe we have to in order to be responsible and accountable to our educators and our staff for the reason we have a great school system we need to be thoughtful in

[02:19:29] our decisions and not commit the school system to large expenditures that may be small in the near term, but maybe large in the long term without thoughtfully considering in a holistic way all of the potential impacts and all of the ways that we could use the pot of money available to us to achieve our objective of paying people at or above market, making sure that they are fully compensated for all the work they do, and providing them the opportunity to live in dignity.

[02:20:01] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. Yeah, just briefly, I just wanted to lift up. um i really appreciate what um my colleague mentioned about the board of supervisors and you know cutting our funding but i actually think and this is what i mentioned about communications i actually think the message is almost the opposite for me i think the message is we so value our experienced teachers and we so want to retain them that and we i mean reality right now we're 89 million dollars apart we need this in our budget we absolutely need this in our budget but even if we don't get it because we can't get we cannot control our funding we're still going to

[02:20:39] prioritize this at year end to me it's a similar message that we send to our special education teachers that we're prioritizing the contracts at year end it's sending a message to our teachers that we recognize we need our experienced teachers and our teachers in those areas as miss lady mentioned that have um higher vacancy rates or higher needs and that's what our whole budget is, is prioritizing compensation for our educators, and I think that could be also another message to be sent. I think this is work that maybe staff need to work on, but yes, ma'am.

[02:21:13] Thank you, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Seeing no other hands or lights, we will move to a vote for the follow-on motion on the screen, if we could center that, please. Thank you. All those in favor of the follow-on motion on the screen, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, and myself.

[02:21:44] All those opposed? Mr. Dunn, abstaining? Mr. Moon, will the clerk read the vote? I have 10 yeses, one no, one abstention. The motion carries. Thank you.

[02:22:03] All right. We're going to take a 10-minute recess. Thank you.

[02:33:16] Board members, please return to your seats.

[02:43:04] All right. Let me dust off my agenda. Agenda item 5.03, action item, revised Glasgow Middle School Boundary Study Scope. I call on Dr. Reed.

[02:43:19] - Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that we were asked to do at the last meeting is take a look at the scope that we had presented for the Glasgow Middle School Boundary and do a downsizing of that and in light of the larger, more holistic policy development division-wide.

[02:43:42] So at this time, we are presenting a scaled-down scope, which will not include the -- if we could go to slide 11, please, Madam Clerk.

[02:44:01] Okay. So essentially, the -- what's under consideration in this, if you will, revised scope is that the revision will still include Glasgow Middle School, Holmes Middle School, and Poe Middle School in the boundary adjustment.

[02:44:18] will consider the implications to high school attendance based on the outcome of the middle school possible adjustments and we'll continue to explore multiple strategies to reduce Glasgow Middle School to a membership of close to 1,350 students or less with the density and geography of the area in the Glasgow Middle School boundary. What we removed from the scope and from consideration was the analysis around academic advanced or at AAP programs local level four center boundaries at multiple schools including Canterbury

[02:44:58] Woods Belvedere Frost and so forth we felt like that was a larger scope that would be challenging in light of the more holistic boundary work so this is the um scaled back uh version of the scope that i would be recommending this evening so i'm happy

[02:45:19] to take questions thank you dr reed miss anderson so do we need the motion first no um i did a lot of info or digging on this because one of the schools that is significantly or not significantly but is over a hundred percent is one of the schools that i have kiddos that go to and when When I dug in, because I understand that part of the reason this was brought to the attention

[02:45:56] of the board before I came on the board, so I kind of did some digging and pulled together some information based on past conversations and things. So we have eight other schools that are middle schools that have, I kind of, the same question that I asked last time about the fact that this is six through eight instead of seven through eight.

[02:46:19] So if you extrapolate how many kids you need to have per grade, we have eight other middle schools that have a higher grade, have a higher average per grade than Glasgow does, including three that are also over the 1350.

[02:46:37] And this is exactly the reason why I am excited about the work that the board is doing in order to look at boundaries overall so that we don't have to do these one-off conversations anymore where we're privileging one group of kids over others.

[02:46:54] And so I think it's really important. We also have 12 schools, middle schools that were designed to be over 1350. So we have work to do in terms of both fixing, maybe looking at the ed specs to ensure that they are appropriate for the school buildings that we have.

[02:47:14] And also I am fully in support of the boundary work that we are continuing to move forward with as a board so I won't be able to support this tonight but I did want to make sure that everybody knows that I am eager to make sure that we fix these problems and I think we can do that holistically across the county. Thank you Miss Anderson seeing no lights or hands I will take a turn or Miss Marin will take a turn. Thank you chair. I want to commend the representative who brought this forward because I know the dedication that it took and months and months of community input.

[02:47:51] And I always try to support when I can. But for a reason similarly stated, I do want to let the decision of the board to move forward on holistic boundary policies, a policy review, further give the advantage to the community and this particular community that's been identified.

[02:48:10] Because I think that the goal with the boundary policy update is to make it as good as it can be to get the resources that all of our students need THE PLACES THEY NEED TO BE SO I WON'T BE ABLE TO SUPPORT THIS TONIGHT BUT I'M VERY HOPEFUL FOR WHAT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE HOLISTIC BOUNDARY WORK THANK YOU MS MARIN DR. ANDERSON THANK YOU I WILL STILL BE MAKING THIS MOTION THIS EVENING BUT I ALSO WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT I SHARED A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN ON THE BOARD YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WORKING AT THIS HAD IT BEEN ABSENT A STAFF ERROR THIS WOULD HAVE ALREADY HAVE BEEN

[02:48:48] approved and done last year with Kent Gardens. But there was that error and so it created this delay. So that's why we are ended up here. The other thing that I really want to make sure that I highlight is what we discussed at CIP regarding honoring the past work of the CIP. Tonight is not the conversation to approve the boundary. That's not what this is. This is just to approve the scope. It's the scope that the superintendent supports. It's a scope that is in keeping with the with the CIP work we had an extended conversation regarding the renovation

[02:49:27] queue we all know that there's work to be done there even the superintendent herself has said in that meeting and many of us also agreed that once we have our renovation queue in place some of the schools that are in that renovation queue may not even remain on that men would will likely not remain on that queue but to honor the work that was done we're going to forward and go through that queue I expected the same consideration for Glasgow Middle School and it really tickled

[02:49:59] me as when I just never heard that we've been privileged before but thank you and so I was looking for that work to be honored and and speaking with Dr. Reed about this multiple times the the presentation that came to us before the recommendation I was not in support of that recommendation. It was wildly larger than I think anyone had wanted it to be or what the community was expecting it to be. This is a task, a conversation that's been almost now two years

[02:50:35] in the making in order to right-size that school with the other middle schools with which it can only be right-sized. We have to keep in mind these three schools that are in this presentation are the only three middle schools with six, seven, eight.

[02:50:51] So you can only do something within those schools. And luckily, there is space to do that. Glasgow currently has 1,722 kids. Holmes has 883 kids fewer. Poe has 832 fewer kids.

[02:51:09] It's twice the size of those other schools within a three-mile jurisdiction area. This is not a new conversation. this is not going to usurp or upset or be out of alignment with any pending future work.

[02:51:26] We've had this conversation just earlier. Dr. Reed, would you mind to confirm what we've talked about? - Yes, ma'am. We, Dr. Anderson and I this afternoon talked about would the modified downsized scope of Glasgow conflict with the more holistic boundary work.

[02:51:53] And my assessment of that at this point is that as long as we identify those factors by July that we plan to include as the, if you will, business rules for the more holistic boundary work, and those become the same factors, if you will, or parameters for the Glasgow work, think we can keep the modified scope in alignment and not um controvert the more holistic um boundary work thank you i appreciate that again this decision tonight it's not to adjust the boundaries

[02:52:28] that's not what this is this is just to approve the scope which means just looking at these three schools so that this staff can go back to the community and say this is what we're looking at that is the only ask for tonight that conversation in terms of what it would look like the boundary the business rules that Dr. Reed just talked about we will have a space to see that come together as the work furthers I would not want for tonight to be when this ends for this community thank you Dr. Anderson I will take a turn the presentation says consider the implications

[02:53:06] to high school can somebody explain what that means yes sir the implications I think where that sits is we discuss the possibility, for example, if 100 students that are currently assigned to Glasgow became assigned to Poe, for example, and Poe feeds Falls Church in Annandale, would we then make those 100 students go back to Justice and create a split feeder at Poe?

[02:53:39] So the bullet that says consider the implications to high schools might be would we consider If those students then became Poe middle school students, would we shift them to Annandale or Falls Church?

[02:53:54] They would matriculate to high school with their middle school classmates. So we would consider that implication. Right now, we know that our facilities department has indicated that Falls Church, Annandale, and Justice, once we open the new addition, will all be similarly occupied.

[02:54:15] In other words, the percentage occupancy be very similar so the we wanted to leave open the possibility that students would not become a if you will a three-way split feeder so it's leaving that possibility open as to the the work of the previous board and honoring that the work of the previous board was passing a follow-on motion that THAT REQUESTED STAFF TO DEVELOP A SCOPE STUDY THAT'S BEEN DONE.

[02:54:48] SO THE MOTION, THE WORK OF THE PREVIOUS BOARD HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. WHETHER THIS BOARD DECIDES TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE REST OF THIS PROCESS IS NEW WORK. I'M CURIOUS MAKING IT WORK VERSUS WHETHER THIS WOULD -- SO STAFF OFTEN IS TOLD WHAT TO DO BY THIS BOARD VERSUS WHAT IT CAN RECOMMEND TO THIS BOARD, RIGHT, AND TWO PERFECTLY VIABLE WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS.

[02:55:22] THIS BOARD TOLD STAFF TO COME FORWARD WITH THIS STUDY SCOPE. IS IT YOUR RECOMMENDATION THAT WE WOULD MOVE THIS FORWARD IN A VACUUM HAD THE BOARD NOT DIRECTED THIS WORK TO BE DONE, WOULD YOU BE RECOMMENDING THAT WE MOVE THIS FORWARD BEFORE WE FINISH THE WORK THAT'S BEING DONE ON THE HOLISTIC BOUNDARY?

[02:55:44] I think -- so I'm going to answer that in two ways. One way, I think I want to be very transparent to say that Dr. Anderson is correct in her comment about the timing of this work, which is to say that we did have an interim person that was leading our facilities work that did provide the advice that we could hold on not putting Glasgow in the queue at the time that I think Dr. Anderson otherwise would have.

[02:56:22] So under the engagement rules at that time, Dr. Anderson's correct this evening that we perhaps would be done with this already. So I want to say that that is factually, I mean, that's accurate.

[02:56:40] If you're asking today, do I think that this work is, it's in our best interest to move this work forward in light of the holistic work staff would not I would not recommend doing that I think it would be better subsumed under a more holistic work I do believe that the scale down version is something that I can support and I have said to Dr. Anderson I could support the scale down scope but it's also true that staff did not come forward with the recommendation at this time.

[02:57:16] Thank you. Ms. Sizemoreheiser. Dr. Reed, out of curiosity, there are many things that this board has directed facility staff to do, an infrastructure policy review, an infrastructure policy, the tracked and untracked, and with all due respect to your very wonderful facility staff and to you, the board directed a performing arts warehouse over a year ago that hasn't happened.

[02:57:47] So my question is, if this is something staff didn't bring forward, what would the impact moving forward with this B on the performing arts warehouse and the other work directed by staff by the board for staff to do well I think we do there are a number of follow-on motions to the CIP and there were also a number of next steps I know miss Szymanski has been working Diligently to move through the list. I think any body of work that we undertake Has an impact on other work that we're undertaking. So Are you asking if we do the scope will we not be able to do the warehouse or I'm asking I

[02:58:27] To be perfectly honest. I'm pretty frustrated about the warehouse because you know I've asked several times in the last year plus about the status for the warehouses, so I'm Concerned because it seems to continue to be an issue an issue That we're adding more work to staff when they haven't completed work from January of 2023 it's a fair assessment and

[02:58:51] That was directed by the board I should say. Yes ma'am and any new task obviously impacts our ability to complete work that's been previously directed that would be correct. Well then I would recommend before we add new work to the staff that staff aren't bringing forward that we complete the work the board has directed. Thank you. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I appreciate what's been said but here. The warehouse is an important thing. We've heard people talk about it. We need some place to store sets but this is kids in a

[02:59:31] school. For me, that would always take priority. Every single time over storage of sets. This school, this principal, these individuals have done so much just in order for kids to get through the hallways. And it still is insufficient. Dismissal is a crazed process with almost, no, over 40 buses trying to leave at the same time. And I'm not saying other

[03:00:07] schools don't have that issue. That is not my argument, but I am not responsible for those other schools. I am responsible for the Mason District Schools, and I have followed this process to the T. This is our process. Board members raise things. For those of you who've been on the board with me since we got on together, that was my main concern. My first CIP meeting with Jeff Plattenberg, I said, why is this up to board members to bring things up? Are you kidding me?

[03:00:39] how is this a thing but it is a thing that's how Glen Forest came to be that's how Kent McLean Langley came to be that's how Kent Gardens came to be that's how Park Lawn came to be in this conversation that's how Coates came to be in the conversation even though staff wanted to raise this they had to come through us to raise it because that is our current process this is the process that we have right now and I could not disagree anymore in terms of the scope that the board the I'm sorry the motion that the board had agreed upon is not yet done this is the scope

[03:01:16] there's been nothing but a community conversation saying hey we're thinking about doing this what do you all think this is actually doing the scope will accomplish the directives by the former board. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Ms. St. John Cunning. So at the very beginning of sitting here we considered two other schools and I sat here and I said we have collectively as a board said

[03:01:56] that we need to do boundary changes for the entire county. All of our districts have issues but we said we've got to take a holistic approach and be fair and be equitable. At that meeting I said this is the last time I will vote for a one-off because I made a commitment to all the board members here, when we had that discussion, that we have to look at this holistically.

[03:02:26] I know teachers at Glasgow. I know people at Glasgow. I understand the situation. I have situations like that in my district. But we have to look at this holistically if we're going to tackle this problem and be equitable and be fair and be considerate and look at the entire county, not just one district.

[03:02:55] so I understand that every single magisterial district has one issue like this or two or three I am I can't support this because I made a commitment on this dais that I would not do any more one-offs until we did the holistic approach and I'm going to stick to that.

[03:03:13] Thank you Miss St. John Cunning. Mr. Dunn. I think there is potential merit to the survey given if if I'm understanding correctly that these three middle schools or the only ones with six through eight that does seem to put them in a different bucket and might require additional considerations or data gathering that does not apply to other schools but um but that being said i do have to agree with my colleagues that many of us said i know i said this was the last one that we would approve uh previously and though

[03:03:52] it breaks my heart for the community given that they've gone through such efforts and my colleague Dr. Anderson, I do hope that since we're putting all our eggs in the holistic bucket that that will be a fair, equitable, and inclusive process that will actually be operationalized in a fair, equitable, and inclusive way that involves a lot of community input because otherwise we're going to be saying no to this and potentially have bad outcomes on the holistic process. So the expectations for holistic process are going to be higher if if we vote no on

[03:04:28] this thank you mr. Dunn besides more heiser thank you I just wanted to clarify can you hear me I know you couldn't thank you so what I clarify what I was saying earlier it isn't one thing or another thing it is if we're gonna do if we're gonna hopefully to mr. Dunn's point fairly and equity inclusively fix the issues that we all have in all of our districts I'll say in In Lake Braddock, the 6th and 7th graders are in a 4,300 student school system.

[03:05:01] And I can't move in those hallways either. I know we all have situations like that in our districts. And I think if you take the 6th and 7th and 8th graders, I think there's 1,400, maybe a little more, but maybe close to 1,500 7th and 8th graders at Lake Braddock.

[03:05:17] So I just lift that up to say, I think we all have issues in our system, in our districts that are outside of best practices overcrowding or other issues and I'm really issue the whole county the point I was trying to make and the warehouse was an example as opposed to if an and is we staff have finite resources in time and if we want them I've said from the beginning if we're gonna do holistic boundary policy work we have to do it well and we have to do it right and that means we have to be inclusive we have to

[03:05:53] have robust community engagement and we have to give staff and us the time and thought to be able to do it in a thoughtful way and if we overload staff with too many different things I worry we will not have the bandwidth to do that so that was an example of that I it's it calls from making hard decisions and sometimes in my experience when you stop to do the big-picture work it does put the individual things on hold and it sucks at that moment and it's terrible at that moment I know one of the reasons I think this was is being at a different PTA meeting for different school there was there was concern about

[03:06:32] issues for that school and that and access to certain programming and I think all of those can be better addressed by holistic process and I'm hoping that this board is really committed to alongside staff doing in a thoughtful inclusive way to fix issues across the county. Thank you Ms. Sizemore Heiser I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. I move that the school board authorize the Glasgow middle school boundary study scope to include Glasgow Middle School, Holmes Middle School, and Poe Middle School as shown in the attachment.

[03:07:05] Is there a second? Second. Mr. McDaniel. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? I have not too much more to say except for the fact that one, the superintendent supports this work and two, she does not see it to be outside of a pending holistic boundary review.

[03:07:26] So I do not see any reason why we should stand in the way of this community. The only community with three grade levels, which is going to be a different boundary CONVERSATION BECAUSE IF THESE THREE SCHOOLS ARE GOING TO BE PART OF A BOUNDARY CONVERSATION WITH OTHER SCHOOLS THAT MEANS EITHER THOSE OTHER SCHOOLS ARE GOING TO BECOME SIX THREE SIX I'M SORRY SIX SEVEN EIGHT OR WILL BE REVERTING TO SOMETHING ELSE I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS PART OF THE BOUNDARY CONVERSATION BUT RIGHT NOW IT ISN'T AND SO I I WOULD LIKE FOR THIS TO BE SUPPORTED BECAUSE I IT JUST NEEDS TO BE IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING THANK YOU DR.

[03:08:00] mr mcdaniel would you like to speak to your second uh the only comment i i i will not support the motion that i'm seconding and they might that might seem counterintuitive uh i i do believe that uh members of this board are not entitled to but uh is a matter of collegiality uh should be um you know have votes up and down i think that we started this process and we owe it to vote up and down as to whether or not to continue this process so i'm voting i'm

[03:08:30] I'm seconding for discussion purposes only, but for the reasons previously stated by Ms. Anderson, by Ms. St. John Cunning, I made a commitment to not do any more of these one-offs, and I'm going to stick to that. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel.

[03:08:47] Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our support to motion, I'll be honoring, I am honoring the work of a new initiative initiated by this board or one board member, you know, starting from January 1 of this new board. And also, when you consider uniqueness of these three schools, six through eight, there is no other school in the county, I can possibly fathom to be

[03:09:23] able to convert to become one to six through eight uh i will support the motion thank you mr moon mr mckelveen thank you mr chair i joined mr moon uh and uh issuing my support for the motion um i appreciate the work that dr anderson has done with staff to to bring this into line with the community's uh wishes mr dunn referred to putting all our eggs in a county-wide boundary study basket as one board member i will tell you i have zero eggs in a county-wide boundary study

[03:10:02] basket i don't believe we should put things like this on hold that are very important to our community just in in support of a long-term political folly so i will support this motion thank you mr mckelveen miss marron i want to again commend the advocacy of the school board member who is bringing this forth and I too have lamented that boundary decisions in the school division have been made upon school board member advocacy which is precisely why this board voted

[03:10:39] by consensus to a process that was transparent and equitable I think it's egregious that we have schools that are overcrowded that's the result of not doing a holistic boundary work in decades and the policy that should be reviewed every five years is over 10 years overdue that's putting work on hold so if we can get into the best practices habit of reviewing our policies which we know is difficult or reviewing our boundaries it will get better and i want it to get better for the students and the staff and the communities in these schools i also from my

[03:11:19] understanding of what has been most recently presented is it impacts a lot more schools and a lot of magisterial districts and that just really opens it up and in the time that this was first brought until now a lot has changed we're doing the policy work we have a new director of facilities so I am hopeful that it's going to work out for the better and I have the utmost urgency to get this work done so we can relieve some of this pressure and give every student what they deserve thank you miss marin seeing no other lights we'll take a vote all those in favor of

[03:11:54] the motion dr anderson mr moon mr mckelveen all those opposed miss dixit miss anderson miss marin miss st john cunning uh miss sizemarheiser abstaining mr dunn and miss lady can i have the mcdaniel oh sorry mcdaniel's also that's all right opposed opposed mr mcdaniel

[03:12:32] opposed can the clerk read the vote i have three yeses seven noes to abstention the motion fails thank you all right uh the objection to items 5.04 5.05 5.06 and 5.07 have been removed these items will go back to the consent agenda action uh agenda item 5.08 action item consultant contract amendment center for creative leadership i call on miss anderson for a motion i move that the school

[03:13:07] School Board, one, approve the amendment to renew the contract with Center for Creative Leadership for one year to replace the assessment certification workshop with the assessment certification course, and two, authorize the division superintendent or the director of Office of Procurement Services to execute, deliver, and administer the contract on behalf of the School Board.

[03:13:30] Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Lady. Ms. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? This was pulled off of the consent agenda this afternoon, so I am eager to understand more about why.

[03:13:46] However, I do support fully creating opportunities for professional development within our staff, and I understand as someone who creates professional development what a significant task that is, and so I understand that we need to be able to have robust opportunities for our staff to improve and so I will am in full support of this thank you Miss Anderson Miss lady would you like to speak to your second yes it you know making an analogy to if we were a company of this size but certainly as a school system of

[03:14:25] this size we have some amazing expertise but the reason that we are forward-thinking and we are as innovative and where we are as a system is because we seek that professional development from other people who are out in front of the industry, and as someone who worked in the system for several years who had to fund my own professional development that was not provided for me by Fairfax County Public Schools, while we try to do a really good job, there are areas that we definitely do not have expertise, and I fully support when we can allow our employees to be trained or have trainers come in with those expertise.

[03:15:04] Thank you, Ms. Lady. Mr. Dunn. Dr. Reed, who are the beneficiaries of this contract? I mean, ultimately, the students in the school division would benefit from the contract, but it is generally principal professional development modules.

[03:15:23] And I do want to, I've gotten a little bit of information, a little bit more here. While the contract number is above 300,000 that's on the consent agenda, For background, the spend since June of 2019 has been $185,820, which averages to just under $40,000 a year.

[03:15:49] So it enables access for our leadership development cohort, which are generally our new principals, to take a number of courses. And they're called leadership compass courses for mostly new principals, principal induction.

[03:16:08] Thank you. I would just ask, when we have consent agenda items, to the extent that there's that type of information that's available, I think we can all speak to the value of professional development, but $385,000 is not going to provide professional development for 24,000 employees.

[03:16:28] So understanding the target audience is helpful. So that's certainly something I think we can all support. But if it's going to, you know, different audiences for that amount of money, which is fairly modest for a large workforce, that would just be helpful so that we can keep it on the consent agenda.

[03:16:45] Thank you. Yes, sir. I'll do a better job of making sure we've got that detail. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. Dixit. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've been speaking to some principals, and one other thing, a principal of 12 years, And he brought to my attention that when he was a new principal, FCPS had this great leadership program, which helped him to be the principal he is in all these years.

[03:17:16] And now there is a program in place for the first two years, I believe. And then after the second year to, like, say, fifth year, fourth year, we're still, like, they're, I guess, newer. And there has to be consistent support for those principles.

[03:17:37] And what from work, they need that support from the leadership. And just to get the overall leadership development, I should say, not the support, but they need to have more leadership development courses.

[03:17:57] And I would even suggest, if it's not in place, to have a mentorship program till year seven. And then they can be a team of principals supporting the newer ones or the bouncing ideas.

[03:18:16] And so that was something I feel is very important to develop the leadership and, I mean, the principals development. And then it should go to, obviously, other staff members in different places in leadership. but this one, this is definitely something I will support.

[03:18:34] Thank you. - Thank you, Ms. Dixit. Seeing no other speakers, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor, Ms. Seismar-Heiser, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John-Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. McIveen, Mr. McDaniel and myself.

[03:18:53] Will the clerk read the vote? - That's 12-0 and the motion passes. - All right, thank you. Agenda item 6.01, strategic plan update. I call on Dr. Reed.

[03:19:17] Good afternoon Mr. Chair, it's my pleasure this evening to share our strategic planning update and it's been a little while since we've had a chance to do that. This evening I'm going to share a little bit about our early implementation stages on future initiatives that we're really excited about and right now I want to share a little bit of the work that we've been doing on attendance.

[03:19:42] As you know this has become a new video accreditation data point and it's very important that we address attendance because we know that students who are in school tend to learn more effectively. So today or this evening I'm going to talk a little bit about what our schools are doing to support regular attendance.

[03:20:01] I want to remind our community that's watching the importance of attendance and again our staff doesn't need a reminder because we know that it's our children when they're in front of us obviously are able to learn better. Our students who show up for school regularly develop fundamental reading and math skills.

[03:20:20] They improve their chances that they're going to read on grade level. And one of the things that I thought was really an interesting data point was that the missing 10 percent or more school days a year is honestly a primary cause of lower academic achievement.

[03:20:36] And in particular, it really doesn't matter whether the absences are excused or not excused. they're not there it's really difficult to learn and again then the flip side of that's true students who attend 90% or more of the school year are more likely to graduate high school on time so all of these data points are really linked when we think about the chronic absenteeism which is really the more danger point this has really been an increased focus nationally and I think we've seen it in a number of our local publications as well as regional chronic

[03:21:13] absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason so that's out of any 100 days missing 10 days or two weeks our attendance campaign has been non-stop and honestly for those of you who are parents and watching you know that you've received a lot more communication about the importance of attendance for many of our families who were first-time parents of school-aged children during COVID the messaging might actually seem a little

[03:21:47] contradictory it's often we talked about if any sign of illness during our COVID times we were asked to keep students and also staff staying home and the guidance has gradually changed the importance of school attendance this This year we launched a campaign across the division and developed a toolkit.

[03:22:12] We also want to make sure we provide timely and important messaging around attendance. Another possibility that we've been looking at recently, we have a team and honestly our principals have been looking at the flexible programming options and this allows an adjustment of up to 15 recovery days.

[03:22:32] And this is important because we have, as we monitor our school's attendance and notice some schools maybe where we have students who have missed more days than other schools, we're able to provide programming where students earn days back, which the state refers to as recovery days.

[03:22:50] And we're excited to make sure that we work within those boundaries. I want to share the exciting news and shout a big thank you to our principals and all of our school-based staff and those in the central office supporting this initiative because 190 of our schools have showed improvement and that's that's huge honestly the number of schools with at least a five percentage point improvement is 93 of our schools that's almost 50% of our schools and 20 of our 19 of our schools I've had at least the 10 percentage point improvement so we're just thrilled with that work and it does show that when we

[03:23:30] focus on data points we can move mountains so because it's a strategic planning report there is a short video highlighting our Fairfax County Public School students so madam clerk let's roll tape as a part of goal two of our strategic plan one of our areas of focus this year is reducing chronic

[03:24:05] absenteeism addressing this is a partnership between our schools families and the community. Throughout our division, schools are making significant progress in this area through a variety of approaches, strategies and partnerships. The core of our beliefs is that we know that our families want their kids in school and so our assumption is if that's not happening that there's some challenges there that we might be able to support.

[03:24:30] We're about to start morning meeting. Our teachers are doing so much they're using talking points, they're making phone calls, emails to communicate with families. We had a lot of families who just really did not understand the impact that attendance had on their child's academic progress, and so we started having those conversations one by one, family by family. How can we help you? Another thing that we put in place is our mentoring program this year. We have identified kids who need a mentor. Some is based on attendance, some not, but kids look forward to spending time with an adult for 30 minutes a week. I think the most

[03:25:07] vital thing has really been that we've ensured that everyone is on the same page. Our attendance team meets every other week. It's our social worker, school counselor, administrator, our office assistant who does the attendance, our family liaison, and so when that team gets together and it's systematically going through, it's about what's going on with this family. Sometimes it's about education, families not understanding that it is really important. Sometimes it is something more complex and we need to make sure that we're we're helping to connect families to their childcare, sometimes medical services.

[03:25:41] Sometimes it's as simple as helping to connect them with transportation services. I want them to feel like that we have a shared goal in their child's success. - Our primary families who had only ever experienced the pandemic, they had heard, if your child has a sniffle or a sore throat, stay home.

[03:26:01] And Anthony and his team did a great job communicating with families to re-educate them about when they should keep their child home and when they should come to school. Nothing replaces the voice-to-voice, face-to-face phone call, parent conference, whether it was virtual, whether we were able to speak in the morning, afternoon, evening, just being able to communicate with families, the importance of having their children here, and making the time to have that true connection.

[03:26:27] And our teachers were absolutely on board and on top of it to emphasize those great news phone calls, being sure that families knew. We are so excited to have your student here, and kudos to you. else can we continue to do to support your success so it's important for those of you watching to stay informed we're gonna continue to deliver reports to the board and the public about our progress towards this goal and the next strategic

[03:27:05] plan base right baseline report for goal 2 will be shared at the April 2nd work session so we're excited to continue to share information and I also want to I do want to acknowledge as I close this strategic plan report that we have heard some feedback about how this messaging may at times be a challenge for students who have legitimate medical reasons or conditions or circumstances that create

[03:27:41] absences for students and so what we want to do is we're being trying to be very thoughtful about while we're putting a full press on the importance of attendance also being thoughtful and sensitive when we're working with students and families for which absences are necessity so not to create anxiety around that we want to make attendance at school be something we're excited DRAWN TO, INSPIRED BY AND NOT A SOURCE OF FURTHER ANXIETY.

[03:28:10] SO ANYHOW, MR. FRISH, THAT WOULD BE OUR STRATEGIC PLAN REPORT THIS EVENING. THANK YOU, DR. REID. MS. SEISMOUR-HEISER. THANK YOU. AND I COULDN'T HELP BUT ASK THIS QUESTION TODAY.

[03:28:26] I LOVE THE WORK WE'RE DOING. I APPLAUD OUR SCHOOLS. THE NUMBERS THAT YOU SHOWED IN THAT ABOUT THE DECREASE IN CHRONIC ABSENTEE ISM IS MIRACULOUS. I know it's due to in for a lot of hard work by our schools and our teams and so I'm really I just want to say I'm really grateful to the hard work that your staff has put in and especially our principals and counselors and everyone else in the buildings have put in to do this so it's great I just wanted to mention given that it's music and arts in our schools month and given some of the testimony we heard earlier and some of the articles that I've sent around about data that links addressing trauma through using arts data linking

[03:29:05] reduction in chronic absenteeism in the arts i'm wondering as we build out a long-term plan if there can be some intentional use of arts curriculum to address chronic because there is data that shows right it's a place where kids have their social emotional needs met find those connections i would say sports and athletics provide a similar i think there's similar benefits to the physical activity but how do we get an understanding in building intentional programming of ways that kids want to come to school one of my concerns I will say is

[03:29:39] that I wonder the intense work we're doing now how long-term sustainable that is on our staff time right I mean the intensity we need to do now I think is great but trying to get our staff to do this level long term may not be sustainable so what other things that we can we do to help supplement the work they're doing yeah I think those are great questions and I think at the end of the day the more activities that students connect to that have another adult to connect with and that feeling of connectedness right and

[03:30:16] inclusion the more likely it is students want to be at school and so whether it's the fine and performing arts athletics career and technical classes academics that they're drawn to I do think it's critically important for students to feel like somebody will notice if they're not showing up so um i mean i think that's part of our conversation around middle school sports creating that activity the addition of our boys volleyball girls wrestling those types of things making sure we have some activity or team or connection

[03:30:56] that matches an interest for each and every one of our students would be a goal um i agree and I think as we're entering and maybe continue to be in tough budget times I think showing those connections to chronic absenteeism showing those connections to some of these programs that we're doing to getting our kids mental health right I think it's really important to intentionally build out the programs and show the connections there's data out there I would also encourage you mentioned something about having another adult to connect you through these programs but I remember when we looked at the data on the core planning team for the strategic plan and what was

[03:31:34] really interesting in that data it actually showed a much higher rate this is the student survey data showed the students felt much more and I remember that data it was it jumped out and we talked about in the core planning team and so these authentic places for connection isn't just to an adult which I know is very important but it may be positive peer-to-peer connections which also provide and relying on each other right if you're on a team whether it's putting on a show or a concert or athletics or there's I mean people join

[03:32:08] gym there's a there's a level of peer-to-peer connection and hey where have you been that I think we're maybe not touching upon as much and I so I think as you build it is long-term plans how do we create structures that don't require such intensity from staff that get to the same results and I would just encourage you and your staff to think innovatively around that around this issue and then figure out how to lift it up to our funding partners so everybody understands the importance of what people may think of traditionally as electives yes ma'am i think what you're talking about is preventive versus um reactive programming so thank you

[03:32:47] and i do think team play i mean such as anyhow oakland that was a basketball reference it might have been all right dr anderson um thank you can you speak a little regarding the flexible scheduling opportunities it's listed here that video e has provided opportunities for flexibility have we already started any of this I am so glad you asked that question because we have a team that has created spring sprouts and our spring sprouts are going

[03:33:23] to be a number of our students that are going to be attending school during spring break and that flexible scheduling is going to enable them to recover days in their attendance plan and many of our leadership staff that are here with us this evening are going to be part of our spring sprouts program including your superintendent and we're going to have an opportunity to be with our students next week as they work on their early literacy and numeracy as well as other skills so that flexible scheduling also we're looking at its secondary in virtual spaces which I think we could speak a little more to

[03:34:03] the virtual possibilities that our secondary students have as well as outside of the school day um flexible um i think the really between 6 12 the three hours will equal one day present of our students will be able to learn earn back quite a few days next week thank you which are the five elementary schools in which spring sprouts will be taking place oh dear um anyone have the spring sprouts locations and is it just for would they be

[03:34:38] only for students from that school or we're just collecting students from throughout the area dear i'll have to get back to you on that it seems like we were hubbing schools we were bringing students together um to i think they're doing some looking while i'm answering um but we were bringing students from some of the schools together um at a particular school so it's not just you know a few it's not just five schools but i can get you that data specifically yes thank you

[03:35:09] One of the things that I do want to share, I think this is a great opportunity to have this flexibility and I think our students who are chronically absent, getting them for two hours or three hours is better than no hours, but it could be of a double-edged sword.

[03:35:25] I wouldn't want for parts of our community to rely on this as being the substitute for school, because being at schools, you know, at a school day for seven hours, it's a very different experience than being in this program for two. Again, better than none, but that is not the goal.

[03:35:43] So I want to make sure that's that still continues to be part of the conversation. Yes, ma'am. And I would also say our Twilight program, which we expanded to 14 schools, also will be part of this recovery program for our high school students because credit recovery is a part of this initiative.

[03:36:02] I'm actually glad you raised this because I believe I raised it during the work session last Tuesday, but I don't believe I received an answer. what is the typical day look like for a student participating in the twilight program is it can they just come in for the afternoon part is it an extended day or choice of student I mean I think it kind of depends but the the idea is that the students who are typically accessing the twilight program need some additional support to make sure that they're ready to graduate on time so they

[03:36:39] would be attending a full day and getting some additional support in those twilight you know late afternoon early evening hours however if a student had been experiencing some chronic absenteeism and needed you know to get back and you know just access the Twilight program before they were able to make a full return to school for some reason they could do that but that would be atypical the norm would be a student would attend full day and also access the Twilight program I see I think I was working on the impression THAT IT GAVE FLEXIBILITY TO STUDENTS WHO MAY HAVE HAD TO WORK SO THEY WOULD HAVE HAD THE CHANCE TO SHIFT

[03:37:15] HOURS NEVERTHELESS THAT'S THANK YOU FOR THAT ANSWER TRANSPORTATION IS THAT PART OF SPRING SPROUTS YES MA'AM AND I DO BELIEVE WE HAVE THE NAMES OF THE FIVE SCHOOLS MISS NEAL WE DO THE FIVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS THAT ARE HOSTING SPRING SPROUTS ARE HYBILA VALLEY LONDON TOWN MOUNT VERNON WOODS washington mill and woodlawn thank you um and my final question was regarding um group settings what are we looking at even with the sprouts or the others are we looking at group size not settings

[03:37:54] are we looking at smaller groups or regular class sizes what's the cohort for the spring sprouts program and just kind of your your thinking going beyond that sure i can speak a little bit to the spring sprouts program with um miss lemon who's not here tonight who's coordinating the program but it's 30 students per site um for the program that they're going to be offering so is that 30 students per teacher per site right so are we talking small group there will be five teachers and six kids in each of these groups it's two teachers and including and one special education

[03:38:33] teacher is needed thank you yeah this is really a pilot program with the thought that it once we WORK OUT KIND OF THE THE BUGS THIS SPRING THAT PUN INTENDED BUT ONCE WE WORK THINGS OUT THIS SPRING THE SPROUTS WILL GROW FURTHER THANK YOU THEY WILL CONTINUE TO FLOURISH THEY WILL THANK YOU THEY WILL REACH THE SKIES ONE MORE QUESTION THIS IS SLIDE 7 THE CHRONIC ABSENTEE

[03:39:11] ISM IMPROVEMENTS THAT YOU'VE TALKED ABOUT 93 OF THE SCHOOLS HAVE MADE AT LEAST 5% POINT IMPROVEMENTS AND 19, AT LEAST 10, HOW ABOUT THE SCHOOLS WHO ARE NOT MAKING THAT IMPROVEMENT? WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADDITIONAL SUPPORTS THAT ARE GOING TO BE PROVIDED BETWEEN NOW SO THAT TO HELP THEM ACHIEVE THAT 5% THAT I KNOW IS THE GOAL FOR MOST OF THEM?

[03:39:38] SO I KNOW THAT WE HAVE A CENTRAL OFFICE TEAM SUPPORTING SCHOOLS. I THINK WHAT WE'RE GOING TO BE working on um is also creating flexible scheduling outside of the sprouts because spring break will have uh come and gone but doing some after school work um some outside of the school day work because for every two hours of in-person flexible time they're able to um if you will buy back a day um but we also you know continue to hope that our students um well not hope but continue to staff continue to work with parents our family liaison social workers counselors

[03:40:19] administrative staff teachers everyone is working at all of the schools to try to make sure that we have the resources to support students and families being connected to school in a more regular basis thank you thank you dr anderson miss dixit thank you mr chair uh dr reed thank you for the the presentation and the video a nice video there again I wanted to so see which of the schools have shown the most improvement is it like elementary

[03:40:53] school middle school or high schools in that any numbers on that I would say that the video shared a couple of our elementary schools that have made the most significant gains and I would I would have to defer to my memory which WHICH DOESN'T SERVE ME PERFECTLY RIGHT NOW, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE MORE OF OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS HAVE MADE DRAMATIC GAINS IN ATTENDANCE.

[03:41:18] IS THAT CORRECT OR DO WE HAVE A -- WE'RE HAPPY TO PROVIDE THAT ANALYSIS. WE'LL PROVIDE THAT PERHAPS THIS FRIDAY LETTER WITH SORT OF A PERCENTAGE. WE HAVE A DASHBOARD FOR THIS SO THAT WE HAVE SCHOOLS IN RED ORANGE AND GREEN.

[03:41:34] SO THAT'S REALLY GOOD TO HEAR AT LEAST THAT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS ARE MAKING THE MAXIMUM impact because we need these younger learners in school, and that's what they learn the most. One idea when I'm taking that from Ms. Eithmoheiser earlier, she said about continuation of this activity, like how to make this a continuation of-- like, we don't have this issue anymore.

[03:42:01] Where do we reach that stage where there is no chronic absenteeism in FCPS? And what do we do to achieve that? and then moving forward, because I think a lot of resources are going in right now. We are kind of a situation where going from 20% to, I mean, glad to see 13, 10% now.

[03:42:22] One of the things theater arts was mentioned and arts, and when little ones come to school, they go to the classroom, they do the morning exercise or activity, But then they go to middle school and high school.

[03:42:40] There's no physical activity. You know, they go to classroom after classroom and then they have afternoon sports. It just becomes some, like, when I was in school, I remember we used to have, like, when we had lunch break, we used to play as well, right, a little bit.

[03:42:58] And playing time with friends or coming in the school and hanging out with them, like gym time. think that really bonds them with each other to be able to come they want to come to school right I mean I mean there's so many distractions now anyways so it's harder for the teachers and the schools to get them there and the other thing and one of the principal mentioned is like parents are just so used to that COVID lifestyle lifestyle that they are taking vacation whenever

[03:43:31] whenever and going to disney and like during the school year so maybe for giving them ideas when they can take their disney vacations or like giving them some pointers like if you really need to go like you know this may be the right time or uh something like that so i know a lot of creativity is going into that but we just have to kind of go there to a level that we never have to FACE THIS AGAIN. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. AND I KNOW OUR PRINCIPALS WOULD -- AND I BELIEVE WE HAVE SECONDARY SCHOOLS, MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS THAT HAVE ALSO MADE TREMENDOUS ATTENDANCE PROGRESS.

[03:44:09] SO I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THEM OUT. AND I WOULD ALSO SAY OUR PRINCIPALS WOULD WANT OUR COMMUNITY TO KNOW THAT THE EXCUSED ABSENCES ALSO ARE COUNTING AS ABSENCES, RIGHT? SO WE'RE HAVING TO MAKE THOSE UP. SO TO YOUR POINT, I THINK MORE AND MORE OF THE ADULTS IN THE COMMUNITY CAN WORK REMOTELY from other places so we just are hoping that happens more on the weekend or right at vacation times because it's really helpful to have our students in school during academic learning time

[03:44:39] thank you miss dixit mr moon thank you mr chairman as a couple others that i'm glad to see that video is providing us with this recovery days as an option for us to in a pursuit and and you know having two hours or three days is better than having no hours but at

[03:45:08] the same time we don't want this to be an incentive we're still rely on this because we wanna reduce basically the absenteeism so i don't know when the next time you'll be providing us with absenteeism data but when you do that when you do that i'm hoping that you will provide us both sets with the three days is one data another data is without counting those so uh so i can see

[03:45:47] whether there has been true uh improved absenteeism that's what i want to see and also i'll be very curious to find out you know including spring sprout which will start next week you know basically when I think this was on page 6 of your slide says that you know those days will be focused on content missed or content where a student needs support how a whoever the instructor or teachers might be whether they are from the same

[03:46:24] school or outside or even LT members who may not know these student share or or may not even be a licensed teacher be able to tell whether a particular or needs additional support in certain areas because we don't want this to be a playing time that's not the intent that this should be a way to help there is provide additional instructional support.

[03:46:56] Yes, sir. And it's clear that we do have to have a licensed teacher but to your point it has to be someone THAT KNOWS THE SPROUT SO THAT WE CAN MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE STRATEGIC AND INTENTIONAL. SO AND THE NEXT TIME WE'LL BE PRESENTING DATA WILL BE APRIL 2ND AND TO YOUR POINT WE'LL PROVIDE DATA THAT'S UNFLEXED AND THEN DATA THAT'S FLEXED I THINK IS WHAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR.

[03:47:23] YES DR. REED. OKAY. THANK YOU MR. MOON. ALL RIGHT. AGENDA ITEM 6.02 ACADEMIC MATTERS. I CALL ON DR. REED. THANK YOU MR. opportunity to learn a little bit about what our young Fairfax County students are up to and this evening and academic matters I want to talk a little bit about my favorite topic which is mathematics and even though we've had a lot of conversation on early literacy I don't want our community to think that we are not having fun with numeracy particularly in our primary grades so

[03:47:59] So one of the things, in fact, last week, one of our most profound holidays, I know many of you on the board and many in our community celebrated Pi Day. I had an opportunity to be at Crestwood Elementary School with our young Crestwood Elementary School students, and I think they were the Bobcats, and we had an evening of math-filled games.

[03:48:23] Challenge 24 was a new game I had never played. And actually our senior leadership is going to have an opportunity to play challenge 24 because it's a fabulous metaphor for many right answers and many ways to solve problems.

[03:48:39] So I think we'll all benefit from more time with that. What is numeracy? One of the things we need to think about when we think about literacy and numeracy is that numeracy is the ability to, you know, mathematics is a language and it's the ability to utilize that language, understanding, and those core concepts to become fabulous little problem solvers.

[03:49:03] And why is numeracy so important? It really is, I mean, when you look at students who have strong numeracy skills, the confidence with which they attack mathematic problems is just contagious. And that level of contagion can just be overwhelming sometimes in classrooms full of strong numeracy skills.

[03:49:24] The ability to critically think, work together as a team, set students up for Algebra I and further math and math-based sciences is just, it's exhilarating. So you might ask, how are we improving numeracy since it's such a core confidence builder?

[03:49:44] One of the things we do is we want to make sure we invest in professional development. And one of those areas that we've been professionally developing in since 2020, I believe, is advantage Math Recovery or AVMR. So a number of our primary mathematics teachers are using this scripted intervention curriculum also called Ready, Set, Math, which is an opportunity to support teachers in providing research-based numeracy instruction, which we want to make sure everything we present in Fairfax County Public Schools is research-based and best practice.

[03:50:22] So one of the things when we think about AVMR-trained teachers, this focus again began in 2020 with the goal of maximizing the number of AVMR-trained teachers in each of our elementary schools. These teachers are highly skilled at providing research-based mathematics instruction as a result of this, which helps our young students, particularly in primary grades, build a strong foundation in numeracy.

[03:50:51] And more importantly, it actually really enables a positive impact on our students. The confidence, as I mentioned earlier, is contagious. AVMR-trained teachers are able to assist our youngest mathematicians eventually to become strong mathletes in Math Olympiad and other math-related opportunities.

[03:51:17] So let's look at the impact of our AVMR work. And this is a chart that basically says that we've trained over 2,500 of our elementary teachers since 2020, and 100 percent of our elementary schools today have at least one trained AVMR teacher, while 91 percent of our first grade teachers will be trained by the end of June this school year.

[03:51:43] There's evidence to suggest this training is having a real impact, and teachers are continuing to report that the training has been some of the most impactful PD they've had for mathematics. Our pre and post AVMR training results confirm that teachers report higher confidence in their teaching and higher confidence in the mathematics their students can master.

[03:52:04] This is really important because a number of our primary teachers have tremendous strengths in literacy and expanding these numeracy strengths really supports our, again, our young mathletes in their zeal to become confident mathematicians and problem solvers.

[03:52:23] So what's new this year is we have some very explicit direct instruction around scripted numerous lessons, and some reading, and I forget the new -- Noelle, can you help me?

[03:52:38] It's not called science of reading anymore. Evidence-based literacy instruction, E-B-L-I. E-B-L-I, thank you. So our evidence-based literacy instruction talks about direct explicit instruction, right? That that's very important for those core foundational literacy skills.

[03:52:55] So too scripted numeracy lessons that are direct and explicit instruction are really a positive in terms of providing confident mathematicians in very young ages. In 2023, as I mentioned earlier, we did purchase Ready, Set, Math for all elementary schools which provided supports for mathematics and numeracy instruction.

[03:53:17] This can be used to support and supplement classroom instruction, both for primary, intermediate, and middle school classrooms. And it does support all educators regardless of their experience level. So let's see some of this incredible small group differentiated mathematics in action.

[03:53:37] Let's count and check. How many? How many? Seven. Can everybody? Let's tap seven.

[03:54:00] four five six seven how many why do you think this is called a 100 square johan tell me why

[03:54:45] you think this might be called a hundred square the one fabiola why do you think this is called it has 100 dots so I'm going to pass to give each of you one a 100 square and I want you to look at it carefully and tell me what you're noticing about the 100 square okay can you put it down so your friends can see what Usman was

[03:55:22] noticing he's noticing that there's four squares so this square right here and he says it's 25 and the second square and then there's a third square and a both squares. And he said 25, 50, 75, 100. Oh, I loved it. Let's see. What if I added three 100

[03:55:44] squares under this screen? 4, 300 plus 3 and 30 equals 700. So you were thinking about some things you know about the number 3 and the number 4 and you put them together. That strategy helped you

[03:56:09] know that 300 plus 400 will equal 700. Wow, I like all that thinking. Well, if that doesn't look like a group of young, confident mathletes, anyhow, pretty exciting. As you can see from the video, our students are benefiting from the professional development and the curriculum we're providing. And these 2,500 students, or excuse me, these 2,500 staff, I've got to get the math question right here.

[03:56:43] If each AVMR-trained teacher has approximately 25 students, then our impact is a minimum of 64,000 students impacted thus far. So that's really an exciting data point, and we look forward to more strong numeracy skills from our primary students.

[03:57:02] And that is academic matters this evening, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dr. Reed. No lights. I'm going to take a turn. Oh, we got a light. Mr. Dunn. On the AVMR, you mentioned that there's evidence showing that it's effective, but that's not reflected in the slides.

[03:57:22] Could you share a little bit more about that? Because there's the survey saying teachers feel, but I'd love to know that it actually works. You bet. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. And Dr. Presidio, you have a couple data points, please. I don't know I have data points as much right off the top of my head, but I think it's an excellent question.

[03:57:42] So thank you. The Institute for Education Sciences is funded by the federal government to really look at best practice research to support programs that have an evidence base, a scientific evidence base.

[03:57:59] And a number of independent third-party evaluations have been completed on Advantage Math Recovery. And it has a really high rating from the Institute for Education Science. They've done randomized control studies, which is pretty uncommon, actually, in social science research.

[03:58:17] at least in education research so there's a pretty strong evidence base that that's about the best thing i've ever heard um uh and and that should be in our presentations i mean having randomized controlled studies that's the gold standard for for scientific studies and and so i just say that's something we need to publicize right that um this ready set math uh is are there similar randomized controlled studies on that i mean we're all in obviously um on ready set math but

[03:58:49] is it sure a little bit more yeah and that's your first question is a great question we can create a slide with the information dr presidio presented and add that to our presentation that we'll post online so that there um sort of a similar backstop on the ready set map it's the it's the same company um those materials are newer than the professional development studies have been done on that but we can check on that and include that in an updated presentation slide as dr reed said

[03:59:28] thank you i appreciate it and that was a very exciting thing to see visits thank you mr dunn ms seismor hyzer i just had to share something personal when you mentioned challenge 24 but 24 competitions in her elementary school and she made it to the regional round or whatever it was and what really struck me when i walked in the room to watch do one girl for every four boys so i'm hoping if we bring back challenge 24 competitions that

[04:00:08] maybe that um i love the videos i was actually at fairview watching some of our mathletes do math and i loved walking to one of the classrooms and having them explain the three different strategies that they had learned for how to add two-digit numbers and i loved it because if one strategy didn't work for a student a second one probably did and they even explained to me why which one was their favorite strategy and why so it was very cool to see some of this in action but just I had to mention a challenge 24 and maybe I'll bring her back and see if she wants to challenge you to a game oh just kidding but no thank you for this

[04:00:47] work this is exciting yeah yes ma'am and I think Noelle's got a light in her eye there I think we're gonna likely be talking more about challenge 24. Thank you miss Sizemore Heiser. Miss Dixit. Thank you Mr. Chair, Dr. Reed. I'm definitely impressed with the what the kids are doing in the elementary school but I'm very far far away from where we would should be in math in general in public schools and this is going to be an issue when we are raising these kids to learn you know later on you know go to higher math and then AI and other

[04:01:25] stuff we are competing and we're in you know in China and India and other other countries who have really strong math skills. It's just hard for me to see the kids in second grade not doing double-digit additions and not going into that level where they can start the concept of multiplication, which we thought is a really easy thing to do when we were young.

[04:01:58] So I don't know that -- I know you want to increase the standard of math in FCPS, but there is a long way to go from where we are right now. So I appreciate that and our second graders are doing double-digit addition and I would say we want to build that solid foundation and vault from that because you're right.

[04:02:24] We have some opportunities in mathematics. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Moon. Since Mr. Miss Dixon mentioned about India and China, I'm gonna mention Korea when I was growing up when I was growing up a calculus was a graduation requirement and our school Juniors all juniors finished calculus by the end of junior year not senior year end of junior year. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Moon. We'll get to go back a little bit

[04:03:03] Miss lady. I'll just be brief. I just am delighted and commend you so much for coming here and and making within and with the help of your team putting in a strategic plan that all kids should finish algebra one in eighth grade um and i think we have to keep keep track of that we didn't have this type of um aspiration um for all every student in fairfax county public schools some of us come to school uh having been to preschool and having been read to and having been around vocabulary words that grew us and and we were are the youngest as i was and

[04:03:43] certainly mastered my times tables as a younger child. But I just I just want to lift that up because we are I mean nothing excites me more than what's in our strategic plan and then scaffolding the steps to get us there. So I just I delight in what you shared tonight closer and closer that goal year by year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lady. I will take a turn before we hit some go backs picking up where miss lady left off i had an opportunity to

[04:04:21] visit an eighth grade algebra team taught class at thoreau and very much enjoyed the collaborative spirit that was going on in the classroom as students worked on i think they were doing polynomials and other things and here's here's the question connect that work here because one of the things that i've heard from some educators is that because we're just now beginning this eighth grade algebra effort that it is harder to get the students to make the leap right and so this is kind of backfilling right to help that if you could elucidate on that perhaps sure thank you

[04:05:00] mr frisch i think one of the things that we've talked about is the strategic plan is not a one and done plan right it's a plan that we this is our first year of implementation and by 2030 we We expect to realize these data points for real.

[04:05:16] And so when we look at that line of our graph from 2023 to 2030, we want to make sure we're making progress in a linear fashion over the next seven years. And if our second-grade mathletes, seven years from now, will have finished eighth grade and will be in ninth grade, our first-grade mathletes will be in eighth grade.

[04:05:38] So what we want to make sure is that we're building this solid mathematical numeracy foundation so that when our students have that confidence, they're going to be able to move through content and be ready by eighth grade for algebra. Now, there are going to be many other students that are ready for algebra in seventh grade or ready for algebra in sixth grade, and some may be in fifth grade.

[04:06:00] And so what we want to do is make sure that the numeracy is solid and then, you know, our kids can just take off. And for many of our students, math is their Friday night lights. Can you speak to whether this approach helps identify students who might otherwise be overlooked in terms of really focusing on their abilities and seeing a talent that's latent that needs to be sparked?

[04:06:24] Sure. I think, honestly, we've kind of chuckled a little about Challenge 24, but often it's games like that, and there's a lot of research around gamifying mathematics, quite honestly. But when you are in a room with students that are able to have, for example, there are students that have that spatial thinking, and if you go back to some of our youth, the ability to look at flat, how do I say, flat rectangles and triangles and so forth, and then being able to see what that would create coming together, 2D to 3D.

[04:07:03] Those are really special, I think, gifts that aren't always apparent unless you're doing work that really focuses on that or the ability to see patterns that move forward or the ability to solve problems in different ways that are not maybe the textbook way or the modeled way.

[04:07:22] It's just, I think, there's so many, I mean, mathematical opportunities, but when we think about core numeracy skills it does allow I think all students to begin to rise in ways that we haven't previously been able to see. So with our literacy work we're seeing signs of promising development in IREADY scores for example and we'll see it hopefully eventually in the SOL data are we measuring in any way that we might be able to see in the in the short years the short term how this work is having an impact before it shows up in the SOL.

[04:07:59] Yes, sir. I know that, and particularly in K2, as you know, we don't have SOL, so we have to have alternative ways that we're assessing our students, just as we do in literacy. Dr. Presidio, do you have some thoughts? I think we do some iReady math screening, but there may be others.

[04:08:15] We do. iReady is the primary assessment and progress monitoring tool that we use for math as well as literacy. Great. I'll look forward to seeing how this impacts those numbers and ultimately the SOL data. Yeah, so we'll take some go backs. Ms. Dixit.

[04:08:33] Oh, your light is off. I should have looked before I said. Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. Just briefly, I think what I'm kind of hearing a little bit at the dais is a recognition that we need to lift up and identify all students in math and make, to your point, gamifying.

[04:08:53] I can say my daughter went on to, is in a tech career now, and I think Challenge 24 was an early spark because it was a fun, no pun intended, challenge. so I think that's what I think this great work is doing is making math fun and I done and igniting that spark and students who may not have had that spark ignited and and this is I think something I said at the work session we also need to make sure we're innovating in challenging students right to sort of

[04:09:26] get to higher math or more complicated math as your potential allows and rise potential would lead them to. And I think that's where Ms. Dixon, Mr. Moon, I don't mean to speak for my colleagues, but I think there's a space for that as well. I know when my daughter got to high school, she took AP Computer Science as a sophomore, and at that point there was no other.

[04:09:48] Right. Right? And this was not that, it was a few years ago, but not that long ago, she graduated in 2017. So I think there's a space to say, and this is in our strategic plan, right, how are we making sure we have every single person, you know, every single student reaching algebra by eighth grade which has so many data points right to post-secondary success and providing that acceleration for students to be able to do more as you said algebra seventh or sixth grade how do we do both and I think that's the the piece we need to celebrate what we're doing to get students by algebra by eighth grade because that is amazing right and tied to success and how do we

[04:10:27] provide the the innovative work that leads us to AI innovation for our students and the careers that don't exist yet. Yeah well stay tuned because we've got some plans cooking in the development stage so we're hoping to we want to make sure every student reaches their mountaintop experience right their potential and it's going to enable us to offer courses perhaps what we haven't within our division because who doesn't love mathematics right I mean it's a tremendous opportunity mathematics isn't everything it's patterns it's music

[04:11:06] it's it's an amazing language one might argue as tech becomes more a part of our world mathematics is a core skill that's expanding as you know as a need so I'll just leave it at that and says it as someone whose mom had a PhD in math in the 1960s it's been part of my family for a long time yeah thank you currently the data is math limiting math limits 84% of our career choices and that's I I think a data point we have to turn so you know that I work for an amazing

[04:11:42] organization that look that is the spark for fifth graders often because they've figured out that that's kind of a sweet spot that if we can get them interested in stem fields or steam fields around that time then it was that happened when I first came on with that organization is that we had worked to disconnect our math from the rest of the curriculum which when you're dealing with stem fields is often easy to embed math and we've successfully done that by creating meaningful opportunities in the lessons that we've created for for our program

[04:12:18] however I was wondering how we as a organization or as a division can actually embed math in more areas so that kids can see the connection and it's not as much standalone because I do think that that's part of the gamification it's part of the idea behind it and I'm wondering if if if we're taking those opportunities to really in in science lessons and things like that to call out the math and reinforce those those concepts at the elementary and steam labs when I visited some of the drone work right and plotting coordinates or

[04:12:56] some of the the B bots and planning the coding work and the mathematics involved in that I don't know if we've done other miss Clemenco any other intentional math integration into particularly elementary science yeah I think you will see a lot of connection especially around data data analysis all throughout our science you'll see a lot of that I know you're talking about embedding math into other things but one of the things and I think we brought it up a couple weeks ago in academic matters as we roll out the new standards for

[04:13:33] mathematics which hit in the fall we are embedding computational thinking at every grade level starting in kindergarten which isn't coding its patterns it's you know it's the thinking it's the thinking that is needed around that so I think it's it's integrating you know where things make sense and we see that in within math and we see it within science I don't think we see we haven't done a lot in integrating into other subject areas but I think there's probably endless possibilities absolutely the other thing that I wanted to mention is as I was learning more about the strategic plan and all the work that's

[04:14:10] involved, one of the first things I said to you was the fact that in order to make sure that those kids can hit algebra by 8th grade, we need to be more robust in our instruction at the lower grade. So I'm very happy to see the work that we're doing. Are we going to be looking for more opportunities of varied instruction in a particular classroom?

[04:14:32] So if you have a kiddo that is excelling in a certain way that maybe isn't identified as a level three or, you know, that isn't identified on the AAP scale at all, that it's going to be able to receive those extra services and a little bit more challenge. Well, I think, you know, with the new math standards, which, you know, I don't know how different they're going to be from the old math standards.

[04:14:55] Actually, Ms. Clemenco is leaning in, so she's ready to answer that question, so I'm going to let her go. So we've been just building out, like really building out the scope and sequences for next year as these new standards were just approved and just kind of accelerated.

[04:15:12] And it is our full intention that when a third grade teacher goes into their scope and sequence and planning pacing guide, the advanced standards will be right there aligned. So same topic. So it's a very easy, it's much easier than it currently is for a teacher to be able to see the students in their class and really meet that learner need.

[04:15:33] Because everything will be there including the materials for them to differentiate. So we're very excited about that Excellent. That's the best news I've heard all night. So thank you. Well, we we aim to please we've got a strong team Working to develop our math leads. Thank you, Miss Anderson. Dr. Anderson. Thank you I'm just gonna pick up on that a little bit because I know so much of the work relies on our teachers to create We have school after school sitting in CLT meetings essentially recreating the same work.

[04:16:06] And not only does that add to their load, but it also creates inconsistencies because in places where you have experienced staff, you have a better product than in places where you have long-term substitutes or brand new teachers. They just haven't had that experience yet. So I'm glad to hear that these materials will be ready made by centrally for teachers to use.

[04:16:25] BUT I ALSO URGE YOU ALONG THOSE LINES TO CHECK IN WITH TEACHERS TO ENSURE THAT WHAT YOU ARE DESIRING AND YOUR RESULTS IN CREATING THESE DOCUMENTS IS HAVING THE IMPACT BECAUSE I WON'T SAY OFTEN AT TIMES IT HAS BEEN RAISED THAT THEY ARE NOT AS HELPFUL TO PEOPLE ON THE GROUND AS THE PEOPLE IN GATEHOUSE OR WILLOW OAKS BELIEVE THEM TO BE.

[04:16:47] SO I WOULD JUST LIKE FOR THAT LOOP BACK GOING BACK TO SOME OF THE INFORMATION THAT YOU SHARED THE SLIDE OF IMPACT THAT TALKED ABOUT THE NUMBER OF SCHOOLS THAT HAVE HAD TEACHERS TRAINED WHICH IS 100% AND 91% OF FIRST GRADE TEACHERS WILL BE TRAINED BY JUNE 2024 WHICH IS GREAT WHAT IS THE PLAN AND THE EXPECTATION FOR SECOND GRADE FOR THIRD GRADE WHAT'S THE PLAN TO CAPTURE OUR SCHOOLS that do not have regular teachers or have high levels of turnover so that that

[04:17:23] first grade teacher that's been trained this year is gone and how will we capture that individual or those individuals so I'd like to kind of understand the long-term plan for staff development a little bit so my expectation would be that that would be part of great beginnings for teachers that are new to the division we also on any given year we'll have a number of teachers moving grade levels right so maybe I did first grade last year and I'm doing second grade this year I would presume that AVMR strategies probably are

[04:18:00] transferable whether I'm teaching first or second grade or perhaps kindergarten the content might look different but the strategies would look similar I would also say that one of the things we talked about last week or two weeks ago in academic matters where the GLAD strategies right that we're using from multilingual students which are good for all students so we want to make sure we're integrating those strategies into the AVMR strategies Dr. Presidio do you have thoughts on how we're going to ensure that our second grade teachers

[04:18:34] have the same percentage of training and perhaps also you know I think to Dr. Anderson's point year-over-year sometimes initiatives drop off right as people move on and if we don't attend to that so I'm sure you all have thought of that yeah I think you know again just to reframe tonight's presentation we were really focused on the primary grades and what we're doing to build that strong numeracy foundation and all of our students and we had that one slide that showed kind of the growth in terms of the number of teachers that have been trained we've got a commitment to continue to do that work to make sure that our teachers through second grade are trained and again you know that that

[04:19:14] is going to be a multi-year initiative for many of the reasons that you mentioned but we have a commitment to do that because we want to make sure that all of our teachers are supporting our students and building that strong foundation because at third grade that's when students formally can get access to the advanced math and we've got to make sure that everybody's got equal opportunities and equal access to that so the professional development is targeting k2 teachers that's where we're really focused with the with the PD right now and so since the majority of first grade teachers seem to have been captured already is your goal for the kindergarten and second grade teachers

[04:19:49] to be completed by n of 25 or n of 26 what's the general thinking right now I don't want to necessarily lock you in yeah no else we gotta we have to be a little careful on that because time is an issue budgets always an issue but But yes, over the next several years, the goal would be to get that gap closed.

[04:20:09] All right. Staying vague. Okay. My last question, Dr. Reed, and this is not going to be a surprise because we've talked about this continuously, as we want to continue to encourage students to love math because you just said math is everywhere.

[04:20:26] My husband's going to be very excited for that because this is what he tells our children on a constant basis. What is the plan to ensure that those additional opportunities as miss Dixit had talked about? Exists in all of our schools such as math olympiads because as we've discussed There are schools that are able to establish robust teams to field them with parents to fund them with PTOs And they are able able to have students participate and schools and some schools just don't can you speak to any efforts to bridge that gap?

[04:20:59] Yes, ma'am our title one dollars we actually set aside money this year to make sure that all title one schools elementary schools have a science and math olympiad and right now we have for next year i believe we plan to have 50 elementary schools that are title one and the intent is to make sure we have registered math olympiad science olympiad at all of those schools as well as the other 91 elementary schools so it won't matter whether it's a pta or not because To your point, we want to make sure that our athletes have access regardless of the elementary school they're at.

[04:21:39] And I don't see our Title I folks here tonight, but do you either Ms. Clamenco or Dr. Presidio, I don't know if you've had a check in with Ms. Miller or Ms. White or Dr. White. Our Title I schools, we are, as Dr. Reid said, we've set aside central funding to ensure that Science Olympiad and Math Olympiad are in every Title I school next year.

[04:22:03] many of our schools had it this year or started to to dabble in that but we kind of started late with them so we're looking forward to being able to start the year because those competitions actually come pretty early they don't come at the end of the year so we have to be on top of it but we want to just really level that playing field and make sure that those experiences are in those schools so the goal for next year is for every single title one schools to have math and science Olympiad that's right because funds have been set aside yes AND WE WILL MAKE SURE THAT THOSE FUNDS ARE NOT JUST ONLY SET ASIDE BUT ACCESSED.

[04:22:39] WE ACTUALLY HAVE A CHART THAT LISTS ALL THE SCHOOLS AND THEN THERE'S A COLUMN NEXT TO IT FOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD THAT NEEDS A CHECK IN IT AND WHO THEY'RE -- AND THEN MATH OLYMPIAD WITH A CHECK IN WHO THEY'RE WORKING WITH. AND THOSE FUNDS I WOULD IMAGINE ALSO TO BE UTILIZED FOR FUNDING THE PROGRAM AND STIPENDING A TEACHER?

[04:22:59] yes for stifending a teacher there are also materials that require purchase we're entering into a partnership um uh mr sharma who works with one of our hindu congregations in the county has a large number of engineers that are interested in volunteering their time to support math and science olympiad in our elementary schools as well so we're very excited and we're meeting with him, if not next week, I think the following week after spring break.

[04:23:30] Is he the PTO president here? He might be. At Luther Jackson, I believe that is him. Okay, and then kind of a similar question regarding STEAM classes, STEM classes. Some schools have a dedicated teacher.

[04:23:45] It becomes part of the electives. Some schools do not. is this going to be for the foreseeable future a school endeavor or will you have expectations and support around that? So we did provide data I believe last week in the board brief on the number of schools who have a current STEAM lab. I think that's a little more complicated because it's not just staffing it may also be space. So we have some schools that are utilizing every SQUARE FOOT OF SPACE FOR CLASSROOM WITHOUT A STEAM LAB AND OTHER SCHOOLS THAT HAVE

[04:24:20] SPACE FOR THOSE AND SOME SCHOOLS THAT HAVE MADE DECISIONS ABOUT STEAM STAFF HAVEN'T GOTTEN AS CLEAR ABOUT THAT AS WE HAVE ABOUT SCIENCE AND MATH OLYMPIA. SO MORE TO COME. THANK YOU.

[04:24:37] THANK YOU, DR. ANDERSON. MR. DUNFER, GO BACK. MENTIONED MAKING MATH FUN AND THAT GAVE ME A BODY SHIVER AND I DON'T KNOW IF YOU HAVE the same reaction but I I think there's there's a problem in American education when we try to make everything fun or gamify it because usually it's only had you only have to make it fun because you've divorced it from reality right I mean people used to from the time of the pyramids you know use math in a very practical applied way and we I visited the Edison Academy for construction and

[04:25:12] And they're learning math for running a business, for calculating estimates, for putting together plumbing and home construction. And the same could be said for children of all ages. If you just take it out of an ivory tower context and show the practical usage, people are going to definitely be interested.

[04:25:33] You don't have to make it fun. It's just important because otherwise you can't live your life. So I would just encourage, building on Ms. Anderson's comments, which I thought were wonderful, to really embed it more in the practical reality, like, this is why it's useful, and use that practical reality.

[04:25:50] I've read many accounts of, you know, in the 1700s, 1800s, you know, you would go outside, you'd say, how tall is that tree? And you'd have to, you know, figure out the isosceles, and what do you need to bring the tree down, and what do you need to cut the tree into planks? And it's not so much like a tool question, it's a math question, right?

[04:26:08] So having practical uses for math, which you can find anywhere in the building, is something that I think should be encouraged as part of our overall math curriculum. Ms. Anderson?

[04:26:25] All right. Thank you, Superintendent Reed. Thank you. I'll give you a few seconds to get to your seat. All right.

[04:26:41] Agenda item 6.03, Superintendent Matters. I call on Dr. Reed. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Just really want to share that I appreciated tonight's proclamations and also want to say a big thank you to our Superintendent Advisory Committee students.

[04:27:02] Our students really presented some incredible projects with research-based background and I honestly, they really have me thinking about some of the work we're doing in the division. So a big shout-out and thank you to our strategic plan core planning team folks.

[04:27:25] We had probably 30 people again at our quarterly review meeting, and I want to thank Dustin Wright and Marcy Neal for helping to set that up. Again, that was an opportunity to share our strategic plan progress.

[04:27:43] Our family vision group meetings, we did two of those this week and had an opportunity meet with a significant number of family members and appreciate hearing their really poignant story as well as two of our Centerville students related to the passing of Kate and their son to fentanyl. We had a large turnout and want to thank the team that presented information on that. International Heritage Festival night at Wayanoke that was held at Holmes Middle School was an incredible evening and just really a lot of excitement by many students and a

[04:28:22] packed gym full of parents and also had an opera Northern Virginia football hall of fame awards banquet and the banquet really celebrated a number of our elementary middle and high school football students coaches and graduates into the hall of fame so we also had a chance to attend the edgy tutor VA event and the Northern Virginia Science Center Foundation launch we have more conversation

[04:29:01] about and finally some of our school visits I really enjoyed our Madison high school visit around instructional practices and grading practices principal Liz Calvert and her team are to be commended with the passion they brought to that and also Fort Belvoir primary and upper visits were fabulous as we begin pivoting to April and the month of the military child had to see some composting at marshall road and we have some of our young students really leading the way as well as our pine spring elementary school student visit and of course i mean who wouldn't

[04:29:38] be excited by the science fair event that we had last sunday that was held at robinson so that's uh superintendent manners this evening thank you mr frisch thank you dr reed agenda item seven consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request

[04:30:13] of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda is on the screen hearing no and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item number eight new business the following our new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting agenda item nine board committee reports i will now call on the following standing committee chairs to offer an update on their committee's work comprehensive

[04:30:48] plan development committee chair mr dunn uh thank you uh chair frisch um so cpdc uh met uh recently TO CONSIDER OR RECEIVED TWO MEMORANDUM FROM THE FACILITIES PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

[04:31:10] ONE THAT RECOMMENDED A FACILITIES PLANNING FRAMEWORK COMPUTERED BRINGING TOGETHER DISPARATE ELEMENTS THAT CURRENTLY EXIST WITHIN FCPS BUT TO UNITED IN A HOLISTIC FRAMEWORK FOR STRATEGIC consideration and planning, including the renovation queue, the CIP infrastructure replacement and investments, and so forth.

[04:31:35] In addition, FPAC provided a memorandum regarding construction procurement and recommended a shift away from design bid build, which is the current somewhat outdated methodology used by FCPS for major projects, recommended limiting it to small one-trade projects, for example involving only an electrician, such as a security vestibule, and instead adopting a design build as the preferred approach to construction procurement going forward, which

[04:32:14] is seen as providing advantages both in time and cost reduction. And I understand that Ms. Zemanski is already moving to provide training to her staff in that regard. But with this, hopefully, we'll provide encouragement and momentum to -- and whatever additional training funding is required to ensure that this objective is achieved, which will have positive ramifications for FCPS and its construction and renovation and infrastructure activities.

[04:32:45] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR MISS SIZEMORE HEISER, DO YOU HAVE AN UPDATE? YES. THE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE MET THIS MONTH AND WE CONTINUED OUR WORK ON POLICY 8130, THE BOUNDARY POLICY WORK. I THINK WE HAD A PRODUCTIVE MEETING WHERE WE HAD MANY ROUNDS OF CONVERSATIONS GOING THROUGH SECTION BY SECTION OF THE POLICY.

[04:33:06] WE DID NOT FINISH GETTING THROUGH ALL THE SECTIONS BUT WE GOT THROUGH QUITE A BIT. I APPRECIATE MY COLLEAGUES ON THE BOARD AND THE COMMITTEE BRING THEIR GREAT IDEAS. We are now making phone calls to our colleagues who are not on the committee to get their feedback on the status of the policy and our hope is to create a working draft at our next meeting in April to then take back to the board so and we're still on I think our timeline to get this to the board in a final draft in May to go to a work session and go from there.

[04:33:39] Thank you, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Peck Committee Chair, Ms. Anderson, do you have a report? Yes, we also had a successful meeting shortly after the governance meeting where we discussed some of the implications of the boundary work that could possibly be related to our public engagement and we also discussed finalization of the advisory handbook or the community citizen advisory handbook operating manual and we will have that up for vote very shortly.

[04:34:11] Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Agenda item 10, board matters. Next on the agenda is board matters. I would call on each school board member to speak. Miss St. John Cunning. Thank you. I'll try to get through this quickly. I was really impressed by the student science projects last week.

[04:34:29] I'm not going to read everything, but I do want to say that one of the nine grand prize winning teams is from Hayfield Secondary School. And I want to congratulate Isabel Ayesa Lastra and Daniel Said for their project on environmental engineering, Roby and Novel Autonomous Pollinator.

[04:34:46] I also had the privilege to share the love of reading with our littlest learners earlier this month when I joined All Ages Read Together. The enthusiasm of our littlest readers was priceless. I had the opportunity to present outstanding leadership and outstanding operational employee awards in Region 3 and Region 6.

[04:35:09] Mark Twain Middle School presented an outstanding leader award to Mr. Andrew Ornstein. THEIR ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, MOUNT VERNON WOODS ELEMENTARY, PRESENTED OUTSTANDING OPERATIONAL EMPLOYEE TO MISS ABBOTT, WHOM I'VE WORKED WITH AND KNOWN FOR MANY YEARS, SO THAT WAS A REALLY SPECIAL OCCASION.

[04:35:31] LYNNBROOK ELEMENTARY PRESENTED THE FAMILY LIAISON, THE REGION SIX OUTSTANDING OPERATIONAL EMPLOYEE, AND FORESTDALE ELEMENTARY PRESENTED MISS LADONNA TATE, THE PRINCIPAL, THE REGION SIX OUTSTANDING LEADER. GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF THEM. I also want to invite all of you to attend the Franconia budget town hall meeting tomorrow night at 6:00 PM.

[04:35:52] I'm joining Franconia Supervisor Lusk to discuss our budget, Lee Burden will also be there to help out. So if you guys can come, it will be on TuneIn on Channel 16 and Facebook Live.

[04:36:09] Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. Ms. Lady. Yes, today is National Down Syndrome Awareness Day. Y is 3, March 21, 3-21, the date of March 21 holds special significance as it symbolizes the triplication of the 21st chromosome individuals with Down syndrome have.

[04:36:28] Forestville Elementary School celebrated today by wearing colorful mismatched socks to celebrate, wearing mismatched slander of the beauty found in adversity. Down syndrome, like other genetic variations, contributes to the rich tapestry of human existence.

[04:36:46] Embracing mismatched socks allows us to celebrate the uniqueness of each individual regardless the differences. I also have enjoyed visiting schools, watching high school sports and meeting with our community in celebration of our students over the past few weeks, and also holding advertised budget meetings. Thank you to Supervisor Bierman, his staff, the Herndon High School custodians and staff, and all those who attended the March 18 Drainsville Budget Town Hall. And also thank you to our CFO, Lee Burden, for being present and presenting. We had a good discussion and answered to multiple questions. If you'd like to share your thoughts on FCPS FY25 advertised budget, please email me or sign up to speak at the May 14 budget public hearing.

[04:37:26] I also enjoyed attending the 2020 Student Peace Awards recognition ceremony, and congratulations to the following Drainsville recipients: Herndon High School Susie Reyes, Langland High School Lina Lakekos, Marshall High School Amar Ahmed, McLean High School Kaia Williams, Mountain View High School, The Mountain View Mirror School newspaper, Thomas Jefferson, Namaste Club and Westfield High School Westfield Student Ambassadors.

[04:37:50] Also, the 69th Annual Fifcus County Regional Science and Engineering Fair showcased 400 student science projects from over 300 different high schools. Congratulations to all, but I specifically want to give a shout out to Shumvobi Mitra from Langley High School, who won one of the nine grand prize awards, and Shriya Jadu, Langley High School, who was a grand prize alternate. I also want to congratulate Langley high school's ice hockey team that won their third in a row northern virginia scholastic

[04:38:20] hockey league championship and had their second undefeated season um new state scholastic chess tournament k-12 championships tj won the state championship langley was third marshall was sixth in k-8 championship spring hill elementary school won fourth k-5 kent gardens won the state championship churchill road was fifth k-5 under 1 000 students lemon road was fourth and k-3 under 600 students lemon road elementary school one third place very proud of these aspiring chess

[04:38:56] players um and also want to give uh everyone uh friends and well-rested the spring break thank you thank you miss lady miss st john or excuse me miss sizemore heiser thank you um i appreciate i know it's the late hour so i appreciate my colleagues to holding board matters i had many things to talk about about school visits and awards and music and arts um that i wanted to share with you but this is the first meeting that we don't speak to proclamations and this is also

[04:39:32] the first time ever that fairfax county has had a neurodiversity at africa let this moment go by without talking about what that means to me personally and i'm going to channel my former colleague laura jane cohen and probably get a little teary um i started this journey many years ago with my own son when he was diagnosed and we were told not to believe he could ever do anything and he he's the one who taught me that just because people think and behave differently it doesn't mean that they're any less than and he's the one who taught me that there are so

[04:40:11] many different types of strengths out there and you saw one of his tonight his music and his song but the other one you may not know about is his big heart and how he reaches out to people and cares for people um during the pandemic he wrote hundreds of letters to his friends and the letters all said I'm sending you sunshine and smiles and I know I'm talking very personally about this because what I want to lift up is that 10 years ago when I started any idea what I was talking about and all of the research was in

[04:40:51] England there was nothing here no one understood that diversity of thinking is true diversity and we are all different and we are all valuable there was this patronizing charitable oh look at us for being so good to take care of those people instead of looking what value everybody brings to this world and I'm really hopeful so when I ran for this office in 2019 for the first time I would my campaign slogan was strengths-based education and no one knew what that meant and I kept having to explain it focus on a student strengths first focus on a student strengths look for what they can do not what they can't

[04:41:27] do well that says talk about students strengths and here we are with a strategic plan that says focus on students strengths and it's just to me seems so basic and it's because it's what my son taught me because every year in school when he was told no you can't take music class because you you're autistic and therefore you have to be in this room and in this setting he said well fine I'll just go figure it out on my own and he watched YouTube videos and

[04:42:01] taught himself how to play guitar and when he was told you can't be in the orchestra concert unless a parent sits next to you because we don't trust what might happen because you're autistic when you're in front of a crowd he said fine I'll just go play on the National Mall in front of 5,000 people and go audition on Broadway so I'm hoping and I'll indulge my colleagues to have a few extra seconds I'm really hoping what we did tonight and I'm so thankful for your support will send a message to thousands and thousands of students and families

[04:42:35] that we value every student and we see every student for their strength and we'll no longer talk about them as if being different and behaving and thinking is bad automatically and maybe somebody else someday will get on that stage and perform a song that he was told over and over again he would never be able to do so thank you for lifting up student strengths thank you miss Sizemore heiser mr. moon thank you mr. chairman since our superintendent loves

[04:43:14] math you know when I was in elementary school some of the numbers game that math games that we played with each other you know increase something like this five times five 25 15 times 15 225 25 times 25 6 25 35 times 35 12 25 55 times a 45 times 45 20 25 55 times 55

[04:43:47] 30 25 65 times 65 40 to 25 75 times 75 86 25 so forth fun to learn your math doing that with that said we have a spring break coming up next week and our kids gonna students gonna have break for 11 days in a row to have them every hour of the day for the 15 11 days and good luck to them

[04:44:21] Thank you Mr. Moon. Ms. Dixon. Ms. Anderson. So it has been a busy couple of weeks and I've cut this down a little bit but so I've had several school visits including the Burke School and Silverbrook and Sangster Elementary Schools. I also stopped by Robinson Secondary with my colleague Ms. Seismar Heiser and we were able to present the symphonic band their certificate for being recognized in the Virginia Music Educators Association because they could

[04:45:00] be here the other night so we were really excited and they sounded amazing so we got to see it we got to hear and play which was really awesome um i helped the league of women voters um register voters that or register brand new voters at oakton high school during their model congress event and met a bunch of students who were really enthusiastic about voting which was pretty awesome i've attended a bunch of community events including the arc of northern virginia's benefit breakfast yesterday morning, Fairfax County NAACP's advocacy agenda rollout, the Chantilly High School Tech Fair, and the Fairfax County Student Peace Awards ceremony, where students were

[04:45:40] recognized for their work as peacemakers. I would like to congratulate Springfield District student Eden Acklog from South County High School as well as other different groups in my particular district. I also spent time at the in awe of what our students could do at the science and engineering fair and I have a list of people and that were from the Springfield district that I'm not going to read just because we're short on time.

[04:46:11] Miss Sizemore Heiser and I also had the opportunity to go to the FCPS parent orchestra who also sounded amazing at Annandale High School who is directed by our amazing Grammy winning orchestra director Annie Ray, and I got to play the cello. I will not probably be playing the cello again, but it was pretty awesome. And I got to experience that with my kiddo, who has also worked with a couple of the teachers that were a part of that program. And last, I wanted to shout out to a special friend of mine, Connor. Today is World's Down Syndrome Day, and my family will be walking

[04:46:51] are 3.21 miles in his honor along with the rest of the lucky few this weekend so we do that every year for him so he's particularly awesome in our house and i would like to wish everyone a fantastic spring break thank you miss anderson dr anderson um thank you last week i was pleased to be in attendance to surprise the performing arts teachers at holmes middle school as they were honored with with the Region 6 Cares of the Month Award, and Ms. Seismelheiser was also in attendance.

[04:47:24] So congratulations to Ms. Bongard, Ms. Edinger, Ms. Murphy, and Mr. Perez. It is a very well-deserved honor. Just a few reminders for the Mason community. The Middle School Start Time community forums are scheduled for April and May, so please join the Prismatic Services with their presentation from, I'm glad to share, will be held in the Mason District at Glasgow Middle School April 29th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

[04:48:00] There will be three additional opportunities available and listed on the website. Language interpretation and child care will be provided. I know this is of particular interest to the Mason community because we have the longest tenure in middle schools.

[04:48:18] So it's not just two years of waking up at 6:00 a.m. and being out at the bus stop at 6:00 a.m. It's three years of being at the bus stop at 6:00 a.m. So my community is really looking forward to some positive changes there that will allow more sleep for our students and some greater safety for them as well.

[04:48:40] Just want to remind folks that the VIP summer camp registration is open. Holmes Middle School students-- it will be at Holmes Middle School students to serve rising sixth and seventh and eighth grade students from Glasgow, Holmes, and Poe, and rising seventh and eighth students from Luther Jackson, Kilmer, and Thoreau.

[04:48:58] The cost is $100 for five weeks. It is a fantastic program. My own children participated in that for many years. And scholarships are available as well as transportation. So please do not miss out. It's a great opportunity, especially for those rising sixth graders.

[04:49:15] really makes the transition into middle school so much easier. Tomorrow is the deadline for participation in the family engagement survey. It is also the deadline to apply for the position of student representative to the school board for next year. I do want to say thank you to the Justice High School community and their robust participation both in person and writing. They've taken every opportunity to communicate with us regarding their concerns and their criteria and their wishes for the selection of the next Justice High School principal.

[04:49:55] And thank you, Mr. Moon. I am going to enjoy every single one of those 11 days, day in, hour in, hour out with my children. And so I do want to wish everyone a happy spring break. Thank you, Dr. Anderson.

[04:50:11] Mr. Dunn. Well, it's a pleasure to be here tonight, and it's been a busy few weeks. I participated in a budget town hall with Supervisor Dan Stork on March 13th. I've met with multiple committees and groups, participated in multiple principal selection community meetings, and on March 19th, I had the pleasure to visit in person with the Washington Mill Elementary School PTA.

[04:50:37] A lot of my information is provided in the newsletter that I send out on a bi-weekly basis, so I encourage everyone to sign up. But I wanted to mention that we have 76 students from the Mount Vernon District and schools who received awards at the 2024 Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair.

[04:50:57] I look forward to recognizing them and celebrating their accomplishment in my newsletter. But special shout out to our grand prize winning team from Hayfield High School, Mount Vernon District resident Daniel Said and Franconia resident Isabelle Issa Lastra. They won a grand prize award for environmental engineering for their project Robey, a novel autonomous pollinator.

[04:51:16] I'd also like to give a shout out to the 76 scientists. In addition to the 76 scientists, we also have 26 students who won regional scholastic art awards.

[04:51:32] I'd also like to give a shout out to the Mount Vernon High School Winter Guard who placed first out of 11 guards in their division at their first competition of the season at Forest Park High School celebrating four band students who participated in the 2024 VBODA All District 10 Band. Congratulations to Mayor Hammond. I also wanted to note that we have some fantastic teachers who have achieved national board certification. That includes Catherine DeVille at Woodley School

[04:52:09] and Rosaline Siffer at Laurel Hill Elementary School. Thanks very much. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. Marin. Well in the past 24 hours it started by attending a budget meeting hosted by the 100 mill supervisor in the town of Vienna where the most hot topic was the proposal. We got there to remove nine crossing guards from the town of Vienna impacting four of our elementary schools and one of our middle schools so there was quite an uproar about that and I'm so pleased that town officials and the community turned out to say that this is absolutely not acceptable so that remains

[04:52:48] to be seen, but I was, you know, feeling really disheartened that things like crossing guards for our children could be put on a chopping block, and then we had the devastating news about a Westfield high school student being killed by gunshots yesterday, and that story continues to emerge, and of course when something so horrendous happens, it really changes, you know, what you think, but ultimately it's the same theme about how much can we do for our children to protect them problems are not going to get solved in schools only and it just renews my call for our community to continue to stand up and

[04:53:25] work together to really find solutions and not just talk about things it's just really devastating but I'm very hopeful there's a lot of good stuff like tonight the math instruction I want to attend those math and science Olympiad events I too attended the Oakton High School Model Congress amazing to see a hundred hundreds of students talking about politics and having fun with it there are some very creative proposals to be elected to be the leadership of the different chambers. I went to the Crossfield Elementary Multicultural Festival which was incredible. I had such generosity of the community and

[04:53:59] providing food and performances and I had lovely conversations. We also honored a recently retired principal Tom Lundy at the Cedar Lane School. He got his name on a huge plaque in front of the gym and that was something this board approved, so thank you to the colleagues who worked on that last year, celebrated one year of composting at Marshall Road Elementary, and these kids, they got it down. It's where it's at. They have done tremendous work also with the help of the support of the Get to Green team, an amazing parent volunteer, Ms. Monica, and PTA funding, so we got to make

[04:54:34] that happen in more schools and not just dependent on PTA funding. Also, Art Youth Month, South Lake's Pyramid. They had an art show. I went there to see my own kiddos art in there too. Crosstown Hoops, Thoreau vs. Kilmer, Hughes vs. Carson. I went to that one. And I too visited Miss Annie Ray at the Crescendo. Actually, we went to the Crescendo Orchestra first period on Wednesday morning. Phenomenal. I mean, just her energy, the students who have intellectual disabilities, they are musicians. And it's just amazing. Today I was at Terrace elementary volunteering in my own kiddos class and miss the activities tonight in south lakes the

[04:55:10] terracet basketball challenge and the college fair hosted by our avid students at lynx and hughes so tremendous stuff just want to wish a continued ramadan mubarak to those who observe and a happy easter season for those honoring the holy days that are forthcoming and have a great spring break let's all take a rest thank you miss marin i'd like to start by thanking all of the brave students some parents who joined us in and outside of this school board meeting tonight to lift their voices in support of safe and inclusive schools for every student.

[04:55:45] It has been a busy couple of weeks since our last board meeting. Gosh, the day after our board meeting, I was reading to pre-K kids at the Graham Road Community Building with the All Ages Read Together program. We read The Circles All Around Us by Brad Montague.

[04:56:02] It was a lot of fun drawing circles on the ground with those kids. That weekend, I started off by volunteering with Food for Neighbors here at Luther Jackson with Principal Jones. And my responsibility was very important. I sorted cereal, oatmeal, and pancake mix.

[04:56:20] And they collected thousands of pounds of food for pantries. They are a really great organization. That same weekend, I had also attended the Fairfax NAACP advocacy agenda rollout and the Fairfax County Peace Awards with several of my colleagues in Congressman Connolly.

[04:56:40] And then the week after, as I noted earlier, I went to an eighth grade algebra class at Thoreau Middle School. And the next day after that, I joined Mr. Moon and Miss Marin at Oakton High School. We got to kick off the morning observing the model Congress there and watching the legal women voters registering voters.

[04:56:59] They told me they'd registered a few thousand students already this year, which is fantastic. Last Thursday, I attended the GLSEN Rise Up Gala with Delegate Laura Jane Cohen. It's an organization committed to making sure that schools are welcoming places for LGBTQ students.

[04:57:19] And then last Friday, I had an opportunity to read for fourth graders, right around International women's day at mosaic elementary school we read the tree lady which is a really fun book and on Monday I attended the community conversation at Lake Braddock on fentanyl and other opioids and then later in the week I was on hand at Oakton elementary school as we celebrated the announcement of GU Kastner as this region one outstanding school-based operational employee which was exciting. And then finally, yesterday I was on hand for the Arc of Northern Virginia's

[04:57:58] breakfast, which is always a great event, supporting families and making sure that we continue to grow opportunities for transitional services for our young people. And last night I was talking to the Miller Heights Homeowners Association about our budget and about our strategic plan, which they were very interested in. And I'm very much looking forward to spring break i know everybody else is as well it is not yet midnight and this meeting is adjourned

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