Coraggio Consulting Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, May 9, 2024 Date: Thursday, May 9, 2024 Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia Length: 4h 59m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lEXSiyrhyM 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:03:05] This May 9th, 2024 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the Moment of Silence and a performance of the National Anthem by the Mount Vernon High School Varsity Singers under the direction of Chelsea Huber. I pledge allegiance. [00:04:13] Here another round of applause for our student performers. [00:05:34] Agenda Item 2.02 announcements. If you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight, That information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website fcps.edu slash school board slash board docs. [00:05:53] Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu slash tv slash ch99. This is a reminder that the school board members will not, will no longer make remarks about proclamations when it is presented for a board vote. [00:06:11] They may choose to make remarks about these proclamations during their board matters. Agenda Item 2.03, Children's Mental Health and Wellness Month Proclamation. I call on Miss Lady for the proclamation. Whereas mental health is health and is integral to every adult's and youth's overall health and well-being, and the health and wellness of our children are of paramount importance to the future vitality of our community and nation, mental health conditions are real and prevalent, but stigma and fear of discrimination keep many who would benefit from mental health services from seeking help. [00:06:42] And whereas, while everyone experiences times of difficulty and stress throughout their lives, one in five adults and one in five youth struggle to address a mental health illness slash condition in any given year. 50% of lifetime mental illnesses begin by age 14 and 75% by age 25. [00:07:01] Only half of youth with a mental health condition receive treatment. Early intervention and education are proven strategies that significantly contribute to the development of healthy children who are better equipped to handle the challenges of adolescence and adulthood. And whereas Children's Mental Health and Wellness Month, which is celebrated annually in May, highlights the importance of positive mental health in a child's healthy development, research also supports proactive, protective factors like trusted adults, both within educational settings and in the wider community. [00:07:30] Connecting with others, being physically active, and seeking professional help when needed play a critical role in supporting the mental health and emotional health of our youth. And whereas the collaboration between Fairfax County Public Schools and county agencies, along with partnerships with nonprofit organizations like Healthy Minds, Fairfax, is essential to increase awareness of signs of mental illness and to address barriers to assessing services through the coordination of prevention, early intervention, and treatment services. [00:07:57] And whereas Children's Mental Health and Wellness Month is an opportunity to celebrate the work of Fairfax County Public Schools to increase awareness of the connection between mental health and social, emotional, and psychological well-being. access to school counselors social workers and psychologists is crucial for addressing the mental health needs of students and the division has established no-cost mental health teletherapy sessions for all high school students that are private and confidential and our students highlight awareness through participation in wellness clubs and activities in their schools and the work of the Student Advisory Council and whereas every school business government agency healthcare provider organization and community member shares the burden [00:08:35] of untreated mental health conditions and benefits greatly from promoting wellness and supporting prevention efforts now therefore be it resolved that the fergus county school board proclaims may 2024 as children's mental health and wellness month to enhance public awareness of the importance of positive youth mental health and well-being thank you miss lady is there a second i second thank you miss anderson all those in favor of the proclamation miss sizemore hyzer mr mckelveen Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. [00:09:09] Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon and myself. That is unanimous. Congratulations. All right. Agenda item 2.04, teachers, paraprofessionals, after school professionals and related service providers appreciation proclamation. [00:09:31] I call on Mr. Dunn for a proclamation. Whereas the National Parent Teacher Association founded Teacher Appreciation Week to strengthen respect and support for educators in the teaching profession and whereas every community member knows a great teacher who made the difference in their life or in the life of a loved one. [00:09:57] And we thank those educators during Teacher Appreciation Week and always. And whereas quality education is essential to the well-being of our society and our community recognizes and supports its teachers in educating the children of our community. [00:10:14] And whereas, our teachers are the foundation of our educational system and the acknowledged instructional leader in the classrooms across our division. And whereas, teachers are trusted, respected professionals who must be empowered and supported to do their best work and to provide high-quality, innovative learning experiences that serve all students. [00:10:36] And whereas, Fairfax County Public Schools' real-life superheroes are our teachers, paraprofessionals, school professionals and related service providers who create rich environments for our students to learn, be creative, encouraged, and to feel supported, and whereas these educators instill in students the joy of learning, expand their horizons, encourage their talents, and foster healthy self-esteem, a sense of civic responsibility, inspiring exploration, and a desire to never stop learning, and whereas these educators' devotion to their work and learning reflects [00:11:12] a love of teaching and an understanding of the individual needs of students. And whereas over 15,000 teachers in Fairfax County Public Schools demonstrate their personal and professional dedication to providing an excellent education for the children in our community, and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools values the skills, creativity, and professionalism that characterize our educators, and the Fairfax County School Board applauds the accomplishments, skills, and dedication of its educators. Now, therefore, be it resolved [00:11:48] that the Fairfax County School Board proclaims May 6th through 10th, 2024 as Educator Appreciation Week in Fairfax County Public Schools and recognizes, honors, and extends its highest commendation to teachers, paraprofessionals, after-school professionals, and related service providers and therefore be it further resolved that the Fairfax County School Board calls on the Fairfax County community to take a moment to express their appreciation and celebrate our educators for their skill dedication and devotion to their work. Thank you Mr. Dunn. Is there a second? I second. Ms. [00:12:26] Marin. All those in favor of the proclamation please raise your hand Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Mr. McIlveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. That is unanimous. [00:12:44] I would like to invite those in support of the teachers, paraprofessionals, after-school professionals, and related service providers appreciation proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dais. [00:13:14] - For what? [00:14:14] - I would like to invite all those in support of the Children's Mental Health and Wellness Month proclamation to please join the board for a photo [00:14:21] at the front of the dais. [00:16:11] - All right, agenda item 3.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at school board regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board's website. During the sign-up process community members acknowledged 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 We ask audience members to be respectful of one another, shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. [00:16:49] Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's 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. [00:17:04] School board members will be listening, but not responding. This evening we have a request for accommodations for one of our speakers. SO WITHOUT OBJECTION WE WOULD LIKE TO GRANT THAT ACCOMMODATION. SEEING NO OBJECTION WE WILL MOVE ON. MADAM CLERK PLEASE CALL THE FIRST SPEAKER. [00:17:21] LEE AM WAID. MADAM CLERK CAN YOU RESET THE TIMER? [00:17:47] THANK YOU. GO AHEAD. I AM A SOPHOMORE AT WT WOODSON HIGH SCHOOL. I WOULD LIKE TO START BY THANKING ALL THE MEMBERS WHO TOOK THE TIME OUT OF THEIR DAY to visit our field, that is greatly appreciated. [00:18:03] I am here to talk about the Woodson Baseball Field and why you should renovate it and like change what's wrong with it. Let's first start off with the field itself. The field itself is terrible at draining. It takes multiple days to drain, which takes valuable practice time for us, which really hurts in our short season. [00:18:21] It then also just is not designed for playing baseball. Like the dimensions of the field are terrible. The center field is closer than the corners, which is not normal. The field is nationally ranked in the top 10 worst dimensions in the U.S., which is just honestly horrible. [00:18:42] And that's not taking into account the drainage, which has caused several injuries to players. Another issue is that our dugouts are the original dugouts for the field. They're too small. We had 23 people on our team last year, and we couldn't fit everyone in the dugouts. [00:18:57] had to add space to the side of the dugout like just a little rinky-dink thing to hold our stuff because we just couldn't fit in there and then it was just too tight for everyone and then while there have been like attempts to fix the drainage it has only made it worse in the end to where it just pools up in different areas and that isn't really helpful because you still can't use it but also finally this field cannot stand forever you will have to fix it eventually so you might as well fix it now while you can before it gets worse and worse to where it is just has to be scrapped thank [00:19:36] you for your time and i hope you consider our request 10 seconds elliot bell krasner good evening chairman frisch and fcps school board members my name is elliot bell krasner and for [00:20:15] the better part of the last 10 years i've had the privilege to be a holocaust educator at one of the largest k-12 jewish religious school programs in the country each year we educate between 80 to 110 students about the Holocaust and each year we host or take part in a Yom Ha Shoah program where we remember the more than six million Jews and more than five million others murdered from 1933 to 1945 and oftentimes we have the honor of hearing from a living Holocaust survivor it was nearly a year ago that I stood at this podium and stressed the importance of a need for a comprehensive Holocaust education here in Fairfax County because while the efforts of our religious school and others around the county certainly make an impactful [00:20:51] difference our reach simply isn't far enough we look to you the leaders of our public schools to be allies. After I spoke, I emailed every single member of the school board and said that I looked forward to more in-depth conversations about Holocaust education and to working with the board, Dr. Reed, and FCPS curriculum developers on a comprehensive four-week unit about the Holocaust. I received a total of no responses, not even a simple thank you for having spoken about what I would hope the board considers to be an important issue. In a way, the lack of a response underscores the lack of a consequential response to rising anti-semitism in our country, which has continued to surge in the past year. Much of it has been driven by the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel and [00:21:29] the subsequent Israel Hamas war. Why? Part of it is that far too many people equate being Jewish with unequivocally supporting the actions of the government of the state of Israel towards the Palestinian territories and many of those same people do not know anything about the Holocaust except that it happened including the fact that it didn't start with people being marched to gas chambers but with anti-semitic rhetoric. So tonight I am here again with the knowledge that several of you are new to the board with what I feel is a simpler proposal starting next year which will be the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps and killing centers FCPS should hold on hold an annual Yom HaShoah program at a central location in the county heavily promoted and strongly encourage students along with their parents and guardians to [00:22:08] attend well I still think that there for the 2005 26 academic year the county does need to have a Holocaust unit and a mandatory trip to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum a formal Yom HaShoah program for FCPS students and parents is is a significant and meaningful step in the right direction. [00:22:24] After the October 7th attack, a group of Holocaust survivors released a statement which read in part, "We write this letter to humanity in sorrow, but also in hope. We must be realistic about the dangers, but we must never despair. That would be a victory for those seeking to destroy us. That is why memory and education become more important with each passing year, and why we are proud of our contributions to fortify new generations to face the challenges that lie ahead. [00:22:47] I urge this board and FCPS to create a Yom HaShoah program more to teach about the Holocaust and the allies in the fight for and against anti-semitism so that when Jews today tell our grandchildren's stories they're the ones our grandparents told us and not the ones about the hate we experienced ourselves thank you for the opportunity to speak [00:23:05] tonight Dennis Allerton Cara Dukes good evening I am Cara Dukes I am a Fairfax County School [00:23:40] graduate I now have a ninth daughter in ninth grade um October 3rd 2023 my daughter was threatened by a student who told her she is lucky she doesn't beat her explicit. I was at the school the next morning October 4th to report the incident immediately. Not only is it one student it is two other girls as well. There have been several bullying incidents that I have reported to the school after the first incident was reported where my child was threatened then there was another incident where the three girls were walking around looking for her. I'm appalled that a group of [00:24:14] girls would be able to look for my child for any reason wouldn't you be if a group of children were walking around looking for your child i am appalled um excuse me my daughter does not feel safe at school my child's mental health is now being affected now she doesn't want to she doesn't want to attend school and it is causing her severe anxiety my child has the right to come to school and feel safe. She should be able to get an education without fear. We have been dealing [00:24:48] with bullying as a result of us repeatedly reporting it. It has felt like retaliation against us. There has been nothing done to stop this. You all are charged with protecting her. If you cannot, what do you plan to do? I have followed all of your processes and she is still experiencing threats of harm when she felt like she had no other options she did retaliate and was chastised by the system but i but it still continued now other students are coming up to my daughter saying the aggressor wants a rematch my daughter told me she talks [00:25:26] about everyone but everyone is scared of her i need this handled immediately the threats of harm bullying harassment intimidation to be stopped immediately i want my daughter to be able to come [00:25:37] to school melissa wyke my name is melissa wyke i'm an fcps bus driver part of the operational bargaining unit a year and a half ago i asked the board to hear me and my co-workers when we asked [00:26:16] for recognition as a bargaining unit for transportation you left it in the hands of the work group who wrote three units in the first place having no operations staff present the reconvening of the group in february of 2023 yielded no results the existing employee associations FCFT and FEA had majority say in that meeting, one of my problems with the representation in the first place. [00:26:42] We found out after one of their presidents told the other groups to ignore us as it was just a couple drivers and it didn't matter. Over 50% of transportation responded to that survey that I presented to those associations of bargaining units for separation. [00:27:02] And over 550 drivers and attendants wanted a separate unit. that's a drop in the bucket to the associations. That's how operations is viewed by these associations. After many public pleas, neither association reached out to organize us or find out how to make it right. We reached out to them to help them help us. After numerous meetings with FCFT, the only group who will speak to our organized employees, nothing changed. We continued to watch them address teachers at every turn. We never heard from them for follow-up meetings, and we never got the answers we were looking for. We took it upon ourselves to reach [00:27:40] out to another union, as our collective bargaining resolution allows. LIUNA became a certified employee organization recognized by FCPS and quickly gained support from hundreds of members of the operational bargaining unit. Despite our collective bargaining resolution allowing us to organize under any union of our choosing, the teachers' unions took it upon themselves to go beyond this [00:28:03] body to a higher body to get our union of choice thrown out george becerra as i'm learning this new board's collective thoughts and vision through your retreats and overall meetings i hear a lot about transparency which is nothing new but the newest part of this is a major emphasis on the [00:28:40] board's public image i have never heard this as much as i have in all my 15 years following this board with that said and something that's been on my mind since february is the board's forum forums meetings prior to the covet they were audio recorded during cover they were recorded virtually during this term there have been no recordings i'm glad to hear though after two day's work session that the audio recording will most likely be started again my question is why audio all four four meetings this year have been held in room 1600 at gatehouse right before work session in the same room after talking with your staff they had mentioned to me there would be no additional cost or no extra manpower needed for this video ask they're already in the room currently [00:29:17] when you have a forum meeting in addition if you're talking about transparency and or public image why not do the same for all your committees like the audit cbdc governance and pet committees I understand that video recording in room 1610 or 5427 may not be possible or cost-effective, but then why not do audio recordings for these meetings? All that is needed is audio equipment with microphones, which your staff said may cost around $500 out of more than three, close to $4 billion budget, and for the clerk staff or the subcommittee chair to hit the recording button. [00:29:45] Now let me connect the dots on how your public image may be lost or questioned here if changes are not made. Your first forum topic this year was on February 13th, and that covered updating your system-wide boundary policy as a board you directed the governance committee to handle this and for them to come back to you in may or june with the vote maybe in june or july since february 13th the governance committee has met three times in room 1610 to complete this task therefore there have been no audio or video recordings for the public to view or listen to all these four meetings concerning major policy in which will lead to boundary changes in the start of fall 2026. [00:30:16] in comparison the board of supervisors record all their committee meetings and have and have them in English and Spanish captions. Thank you for your time. Please play the video testimony of Kim Perks. Hi, good evening. My name is Kim Perks and I am a parent of an FCPS graduate and a current high school senior about to end their 13-year run with a county in June. [00:30:56] I'm extremely grateful for all FCPS has provided. We had extensive options of classes and clubs and sports and music and theater programs. Tonight though I want to talk about the Woodson Baseball facilities. Woodson baseball facilities have been the same since 1963. So other than the essential field maintenance that our booster rep has pushed so hard for, we haven't seen any attention since 1963 and I really think it's time. Our bleachers are outdated and you have seen videos of how they are precariously positioned atop a hill, making them a huge safety risk. Our dugouts also need a [00:31:35] major upgrade. They were made in 1963 for much smaller teams. Our roster this year is 20 and that's small by regional standards so a dugout should be able to accommodate 25 or more players. The press box is where our volunteers sit to operate the scoreboard, announce the game, and time the music. This is a place where every other school in the district has a press box that overlooks home plate. In our case it is a challenging at best view of the plate. There are times that volunteers on the ground have to call up to the press box to give them information or they miss it completely. Our players spend an inordinate amount of time with facilities [00:32:15] and upkeep. Let's let our players, our children, spend more time playing baseball and building community, and let's have the facilities provide for them an upgraded baseball home. It's time. Thank you for your consideration, and as always, you're considered your continued service. Thanks so much. Chair Frisch that was our last public speaker. Thank you. Agenda item 4.01 student representative matters. I call on Ms. Grimm. Thank you Mr. Frisch. Last week I attended a meeting of [00:32:51] the student equity ambassador leaders also known as SEALs at Herndon High School and this meeting brought together three to four representatives from each high school providing a platform to share and compare our experiences from our respective schools. Since it's the season for AP and IB exams our discussions naturally turn towards our classes and a student from Justice High School discussed her IB classes and another student from Chantilly High School spoke about his AP classes. The Chantilly student shared that he is currently in AP Calc BC and if he passes the exam he will earn [00:33:27] college credit in math which is crucial as he plans to pursue a degree in computer science. Conversely the student from Justice High School mentioned she She also wants to pursue computer science and was taking IB Math Analysis, which is the IB equivalent to AP Calculus BC, but noted that the IB test scores are released towards the end of senior year and don't transfer easily, making it challenging to secure college credits. [00:33:55] She expressed a preference for attending an AP school to enhance her chances of earning college credits. This conversation highlighted a way in which a zip code, a simple five-digit number, can and significantly impact educational opportunities and experiences. [00:34:11] In discussing educational opportunities, it's noteworthy that about 7,700 students are enrolled in academy courses for the upcoming academic year, with over 13,000 initially showing interest during the registration phase. And regrettably, more than half are now on a wait list in anticipation of openings in their preferred courses. [00:34:32] While it's excellent that these opportunities exist, there remains a significant barrier, such as geographic locations and even awareness about the programs. Moving on, I recently attended the AI Policy and Ethics Symposium attended by professors, researchers, and our CITO, Mr. Sethi. [00:34:52] The discussions were centered on the critical understanding of AI and its alignment with human needs, with a unanimous emphasis on its pivotal role in the future. The panelists were optimistic about AI, stressing that while it will infiltrate various job sectors, it will not replace humans entirely. Instead, individuals equipped with AI skills will likely advance beyond those who lack such expertise. FCPS possesses considerable resources, underscoring the need to shift our educational approach towards AI. Despite existing age restrictions on certain platforms, it is vital to educate our students about [00:35:29] interacting with AI, understanding its commands, appreciating the science behind it, and recognizing its potential to transform industries. Currently, our district lacks courses that directly address these aspects of AI. My personal experience with tools like ChatGPT have shown me the importance of knowing how to even interact with AI effectively. The skill, though straightforward, is very much crucial. Looking ahead, implementing courses focused on AI is imperative. Training students in AI development and application is not just beneficial, but necessary, as those who possess these skills would be better positioned in the future and as stakeholders in education our [00:36:08] primary goal should be to prepare our students thoroughly for the challenges and opportunities of the real world and speaking of expanding educational opportunities i'd like to highlight another valuable resource coursera in april of 2023 we launched the fcps dit coursera career academy in collaboration with coursera this initiative offers 1 000 high school students the chance to engage with courses provided by prestigious institutions and companies such as Stanford, Duke, Google, and IBM to earn real world certifications. [00:36:44] And despite our district having approximately 63,000 high school students, currently only 744 are enrolled in the program. However, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with students expressing gratitude for access to such a resourceful platform. [00:37:01] Coursera offers a broad spectrum of courses in fields like marketing and data science, helping students explore various digital jobs and career paths. However, it's crucial that we start promoting this platform more actively among teachers and parents. Many are still unaware of it, and I believe that leveraging such a fantastic resource can greatly benefit our students. [00:37:22] The current enrollment numbers don't reflect the quality of the resource, but rather indicate a need for us to improve how we share and promote this valuable educational tool. Discussing the topic of awareness, I'd like to bring attention to Hazel Health, which offers no-cost mental health therapy for all high school students. [00:37:40] Despite this valuable service, only 527 of the approximately 63,000 FCPS high school students have begun using it. Many students I've spoken to are not even aware it exists. And moreover, there's a significant barrier that I believe we need to address, which is the opt-in process. [00:37:59] Currently, our DIT and FCPS requires caregivers to complete an opt-in process through CIS ParentVUE before students can schedule services with Hazel Health. This process is unique to our district and involves sharing student and caregiver demographic information with Hazel Health. [00:38:15] However, opting in does not equate to consenting to services. A separate consent for services is necessary for students to access this teletherapy service. This opt-in requirement creates several obstacles. Firstly, it delays the connection to care. [00:38:33] Unlike other districts where caregivers can immediately refer their child through Hazel Health's website or app, FCPS's process takes 24 to 48 hours post-opt-in for the information to be processed and sent to Hazel. Only then, caregivers refer their child for services. [00:38:51] Additionally, about 7,782 high school FCPS families do not have access to ParentVUE and must submit a form which is cumbersome and delays care further. Many caregivers seek prompt support for their children and find the additional steps and delays frustrating. [00:39:08] If we aim to increase the utilization of Hazel's services, like considering the elimination of an opt-in requirement, we could provide more immediate access to this care. To truly support our students and families, simplifying access to essential services like Hazel Health should be a priority. [00:39:24] We need to make it easier for families to access the help they need without necessary delays or complications. I know I covered a lot tonight, but I hope you all are able to understand the significant gaps in awareness regarding available resources and the obstacles we face, such as restrictive zip codes, mandatory opt-in forms, and limited knowledge of the diverse resources we have. [00:39:45] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kareem. Agenda Item 5.01, Action Item, Certification of Closed Meeting Compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia, it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on May 9, 2024, to best of each board member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting. [00:40:21] Do I have a motion? Miss Lady, is there a second? Dr. Anderson. All those in favor, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed? Abstentions? Mr. McDaniel. Will the clerk read the vote? [00:40:45] That's 11-01. The motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item 5.02. Action item. Confirmation of action taken and closed. I call on Mr. McElveen for a motion. I move to excuse from attendance at school certain students identified and closed meeting pursuant to Virginia code section 22.1-254B1. [00:41:07] Thank you. Is there a second? I second. Ms. Anderson. All those in favor? Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. [00:41:25] Opposed? Abstentions? Mr. McDaniel, will the clerk read the vote? myself is in favor I apologize I think I said that yeah okay you okay that's 1101 the motion carries thank you agenda item 5.01 action item student rights and responsibilities regular regulation school year 2024-25 I call on Dr. Reed for a presentation on the student rights and [00:41:56] responsibilities regulation 2601.38p thank you chairman Frisch and good evening members of the board in public. I'm going to turn the presentation over to Dr. Nardis King, who's going to present from the gallery here. So Dr. King. Thank you, Dr. Reed, and good evening board members. I'd like to introduce members of my office and staff that are sitting right here in this third row who may be available for questions after my presentation. In accordance with the Virginia Model Guidance for Positive and Preventative Code of Student Conduct Policy and Alternatives to Suspension, FCPS, [00:42:35] reviews its conduct standards and the SRNR documents on an annual basis. As you may know, the Students' Rights and Responsibilities booklet, SRNR as we call it, is composed of two documents, A Guide for Families and Regulation 2601. [00:42:52] These two documents are designed not only to uphold a safe and respectful learning environment, but also to foster a culture of accountability and personal growth. The booklet addresses instances of behavior that violate regulation 2601, holding students responsible for their actions in a manner that is fair and just. [00:43:12] At the same time, the SRNR booklet is built on the belief that mistakes are opportunities for learning and personal development. It advocates for constructive interventions that guides our students towards understanding the impact of their actions and encouraging them to make a positive change. [00:43:30] Through a balanced approach that includes clear expectations, appropriate consequences, and supportive measures for rehabilitation, the SRNR booklet aids our schools in remaining environments where every student can succeed while learning the value of responsibility, empathy, and community. [00:43:49] As you may be aware, on Friday, April 19th, 2024, the federal government published updated regulations around Title IX. These updates will take effect on August 1st, 2024. Since the release, our staff has been working diligently to review the changes in the federal regulation and to understand the impact the changes may have on Regulation 2601. [00:44:15] The Title IX Office, in conjunction with Division Council, determined that some minor edits to Regulation 2601 would be necessary to bring us into compliance. In order to be able to adhere to our current timeline for transitioning, printing and training around regulation 2601 for the coming year. [00:44:35] We will be replacing language in 2601 around Title IX asking the reader to please refer to regulation 2118, sexual harassment by students. Regulation 2118 will also be revised prior to August 1 to reflect all the necessary changes and to ensure compliance. [00:44:56] Additionally, there will be a change in terminology where we remove the term sexual harassment from 2601 and 2602 and 2118 to sex discrimination. The Title IX changes can be found on several pages outlined in the red line version that were posted on board docs for this evening's meeting. [00:45:18] I would like to reiterate our strategy around the new Title IX Federation regulation while maintaining our tight timeline around the translation and publishing of 2601. title 9 information guidance and procedures can be found in regulation 2118 therefore we will be updating regulation 2601 to send the readers to 2118 for guidance this will allow us to proceed with the minimal disruption to the process around regulation 2601 please let me know if you have [00:45:52] any questions next slide this is what our agenda is tonight in our presentation we will review the process we will talk about proposed revisions recommended editorial changes recommended glossary additions and possible legislative changes the recommended next slide please the recommended revision for sy 2425 regulation 2601 are based on school board 2x2's stakeholder listening sessions [00:46:27] constituent comments as well as feedback from the march 19th and april 2nd school board work sessions the red line version of 2601 has been shared with you this evening in compilation of feedback and revisions received from our community next slide at the march 19th work session staff was directed to develop language that spoke to the difference in how our student body learns this language can be found on page 18 of the red line 18 excuse me of the red line version posted for this meeting and the definition can be found on page 72. you may note that the language found on [00:47:06] page 18 has changed slightly from the language presented at the April 2nd work session the change in the language is a result of ongoing collaboration with the FCPS neurodiversity specialists to ensure that we are using the most inclusive and accurate language that will assist our community with an understanding of the concept note that the definition of neurodiversity has not changed since the first presented since we first presented to the school board next slide during the March 19th work session the board discussed amending the language around self-defense by amending this language we will be coming into [00:47:46] alignment with the VDOE suggested self-defense guidelines as well as providing clarity to the school-based administrators on this topic admonition and counseling to add an admission and reflection I'm sorry next slide this proposed change came about via the next step process after the March 19th work session this change will clarify for parents and counselors that are not involved in disciplinary procedures we recommend changing the language on page 52 of the redline version from admonition and counseling [00:48:24] of a student to admonition and reflection with the student next slide please at the April 2nd work section the school board gave consensus on this proposed change this change will bring us into alignment with VDOE the VDOE recommends that schools have the possession of marijuana and THC oil start at a level three to five currently we start at a level two response please note that there are several areas in the document that had to be updated to reflect this change both in the SBAR chart as well as the narrative next slide [00:49:01] please as discussed in the March 19th and April 2nd school board work sessions each year minor changes are suggested to make SR&R aligned to changes and/or requests that may occur after the previous year's booklet has been printed. [00:49:16] Our current minor changes include changing parent/guardian. We will add guardian to all parent statements for inclusivity. The ombuds to align the SR&R documents with current language used in FCPS. We will change ombudsman and references to ombuds. Change of overseeing department. Another minor change is updating the name of the overseeing department in all areas. We will change the name of the overseeing departments to the from the Department of Special Services to the chief equity office and change of primary office in addition we [00:49:53] will change the name of primary office of intervention and prevention services to equity and student conduct next slide please in addition to minor changes mentioned previously this year a few editorial changes are recommended change the term threat assessment to risk assessment throughout the SR&R document to align with the name of Regulation 2111, Procedures for Conducting Risk Assessments. [00:50:22] This adjustment ensures consistency and clarity in terminology across the related policies and procedures. We're going to amend the reference from Office of School Supports to the Office of Out-of-School Supports to rectify an error. [00:50:38] This correction ensures accuracy and alignment with the intended terminology and organizational structure. Staff has also recommended a few changes be made to our glossary section of the SR&R. These changes, these proposed additions to the glossary section of the SR&R aim to address emerging issues and reflect existing understanding of student conduct and responsibility in a rapidly involving educational landscape. [00:51:09] We appreciate the support as we strive to uphold the highest standards of integrity and inclusivity within our school community. These glossary definitions include self-defense, neurodiversity, digital citizenship, generative artificial intelligence, and scholastic dishonesty. [00:51:27] Next slide, please. HB 536 is currently awaiting the governor's review and a possible signature. The bill has to do with the adjustment of the definition of student bullying. Highlighted phrase is the proposed change. [00:51:46] The governor amended this bill as shown below sent it back but the General Assembly rejected the amendment and sent it back to the governor in the original state the governor has until May 17th to sign or veto this bill we will update regulation 2601 accordingly after May 17th we will again next slide so this tonight we will vote on the proposed changes to the SR&R and that concludes my presentation and we are available for [00:52:22] QUESTIONS AND I'M GOING TO ASK THAT IF I CALL ON ONE OF MY STAFF MEMBERS THAT THEY STEP UP TO THE MIC IN THE GALLERY TO RESPOND THANK YOU THANK YOU DR. KING FOR FOLKS WHO MAY NOT KNOW WE'VE HAD TWO WORK SESSIONS ON THIS SUBJECT AND WE HAVE SEVERAL AMENDMENTS AND FOLLOW-ON MOTIONS THIS EVENING SO IT WILL NOT BE GERMAIN TO SPEAK TO THOSE UNTIL THOSE ARE BROUGHT BEFORE THE BOARD FOR CONSIDERATION WE'LL START WITH DR. ANDERSON FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE [00:52:55] WORK AND THANK YOU TO MR. FRISH FOR REITERATING THE NUMBER OF WORK SESSIONS THAT WE'VE HAD ON THIS. I APPRECIATE ALL OF THE WORK THAT YOU AND YOUR TEAM HAVE PUT FORWARD. I HAVE JUST ONE QUICK QUESTION BECAUSE I THINK MOST OF MY QUESTIONS WERE HANDLED DURING THOSE WORK SESSIONS. [00:53:12] ON PAGE 45 IN THE REDLINE VERSION WHERE IT SAYS DISTRIBUTION, FACILITATING THE DISTRIBUTION OF AND MANUFACTURING, ET CETERA, OF THC OIL, CAN YOU SPEAK A LITTLE BIT JUST TO CLARIFY, particularly I want to make sure that I have a full understanding of what that is and so that our public does too what is the piece that says facilitating the distribution of entail thank you for that question dr. Anderson the facilitation entails what you would call the middle person somebody that might not be selling drugs or providing drugs but facilitating the deal so if a [00:53:50] student participates let's say a student text a friend and says I know somebody that we can buy drugs from and they participate in the facilitation of that drug deal then they are subject to disciplinary action. So the children who may the students who may who may be making the connections correct or the introductions for that clarification that is very helpful and I hope that during the training and bring this forward to students and staff that we really hone in on that particular piece for students because they're not innocent bystanders by standards in this effect thank you yes ma'am thank you [00:54:26] thank you dr. Anderson mr. Dunn I provided a five-page memo on March 7th none of my edits were implemented so I'll start with that next I'll say this is not a useful document this is an 80 page document when you add the very chunky glossary on the front of it can you keep it to questions and then maybe Maybe hold your criticism for the product, for the motion that we'll be considering. [00:55:03] It does not address to a motion. We don't have a motion yet. The motion has to be made first. Right. Okay. What efforts have been made to provide victims of violence or bullying with an explanation in this document of what their recourse is, especially in the determination of any punishment and the appropriateness of that punishment? [00:55:34] - Mr. Dunn, can you clarify the question again? Are you asking what rights of the victim? - Does this document inform victims or provide victims with the ability to influence the punishment or otherwise participate in the deliberative process by principals or school administrators to determine to what extent bullying or acts of violence will result in specified penalties? [00:56:02] Mr. Dunn, when a student is accused or an accusation is made about inappropriate behavior, the school administration should conduct a thorough investigation to include statements from any victim. The victim does not have the right to determine what the discipline infraction is, but they do have a right to share their side of the story, share how they were impacted by the act as part of the investigation. [00:56:31] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. - All right, I will call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a motion. - I move that the school board adopt regulation 2601-38P student rights and responsibilities as detailed in the agenda item. [00:56:51] - Is there a second? - Second. - Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your motion? - No, I think we had a robust conversation during the work session and I think we will have some more later on. - Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. Ms. Lady, would you like to speak to your second? [00:57:06] - I too will pass as I look forward to the conversation the following motions coming up thank you all right seeing no hands I call on Dr. Anderson for an amendment I move to amend n1 n2 and n3 of chapter one on page 15 of regulation 2601.38 p to add the clause with the approval of the principal or their designee before the following sentence teachers may allow usage of cell phones for instructional activities where they are most appropriate where they are the most appropriate tool however one-to-one [00:57:45] FCPS devices shall meet most needs is there a second second Mr. McDaniel Dr. Anderson would you like to speak to your motion briefly I also feel like we've talked about this quite a bit during the work sessions we all know that there are opportunities at times for teachers to use up to use cell phones for instructional purposes whether it be a Kahoot whether it be some other app to show understanding of a content being taught but we also know there's been much wider use more than I think we would like of cell phones in the [00:58:21] classrooms as breaks or maybe not as intentionally utilized by substitutes and when you have other people in the classroom so this is an opportunity to have to streamline and to hone in on allowing teachers to have that opportunity to use it for the instructional periods but making sure that the person in the building who's responsible for everything they're in or the designee is aware of those activities to really reduce the more liberal uses that I know we've all heard about in the classrooms that really are not connected to the instructional program. [00:59:01] Thank you Dr. Anderson. Mr. McDaniel would you like to speak to your second. briefly I think the way that the rule was intended to be implemented in a best-case scenario there's perhaps a miscommunication and in a worst-case scenario I would clarify I would even go so far as to say that we've inadvertently created a loophole so what this amendment is really designed to do is to clarify expectations up and down the classroom so I'm happy to second and support thank you mr. McDaniel miss Sizemore heiser yeah just a quick [00:59:37] question um are you intending for this amendment that every time a teacher needs to use it like on a daily basis is it a weekly is it a monthly like how often are you anticipating every i'm just every incident so if they want to use a cahoot is it in advance is it in the moment what's the thought on how that implementation will look besides marheiser would you like to yield some time to yeah dr anderson would you like to answer sure i i don't think we want to be that prescriptive about it i think the um school principals will know the intent of this and they will determine what works best for their buildings they might want for example to institute something that's [01:00:13] a little bit more stringent for substitutes but maybe have another opportunity for classroom teachers I was not looking to prescribe this I think they understand they will understand the intent of this if this is passed and we'll be able to make an appropriate determination thank you I just raised this concern because one thing I hear about is consistency and I think if we're leaving up to the building principles on how to implement it whether it's a monthly pass or a daily check-in I think it's going to leave the door open to inconsistency so I just wanted to [01:00:46] get a sense of is there more guidance to the principals than or than we need to get and I don't want our teachers to be confused I don't want parents to come home and say this person has it in the class and this person doesn't or this for I just want to make sure that we were allowing for that consistency so I just raised that question thank you miss Sizemore heiser miss Marin the cell phone away for the day policy if I recall was put into place two years ago is that correct so from what I understand it's generally going okay we put that line in there about usage [01:01:25] I'm a little I'm not totally convinced and on the whole I'm uncomfortable with directing the superintendent to do things with the principles because that's getting way into the operational space and I would like to stay in the policy space but what I do wonder is especially as we think about things like outdoor learning and when we're trying to get kids to move around can the cell phone be a useful tool and i haven't heard data from the superintendent saying whether that's a need i i continue to think that we need to teach students how to use it responsibly and we do that through digital digital citizenry curriculum and such but it's a way in middle school it's a little bit more in high school i just don't think and i don't think anything should [01:02:05] be a building level decision i understand that there's inconsistency in the implementation now But even if we say it should not allow teachers, we know that there's inconsistency and things that are much clearer than that. So I'm inclined to abstain from this because I just think it's a little too in the details that I want to be at this time. [01:02:24] Thank you. Thank you, Miss Marin. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not going to be able to support this motion at this time because we all know that we have a couple of follow-up motions regarding cell phone use. [01:02:39] and I will most likely support both of them at this point in time. And they will give a direction to the superintendent, come back to the school board after engaging the stakeholders about different options of our cell phone use. [01:02:56] And then board will have further opportunity to discuss this and make our decisions with that in mind, unless it is the determination by this board, that there is a huge problem at hand and we must address those problems right now i don't see an urgent need to make changes at this point in time before we before we let superintendents [01:03:29] do a further work and come back to us so i am not supporting the motion at this time but once we get to discuss the follow-up motions and then both give further directions to superintendents come back to us with a recommendation. At that point I may be able to support the direction that Dr. [01:03:49] Anderson want us to go. Thank you Mr. Moon. Ms. Dixit. Thank you Mr. Chair. In this case I would just wanted to support our existing cell phone policy which we have and it is very effective in some schools not effective in some school. My son's school does a good job with that but I've heard other school high school have issues with that. The students taking their phones during the instruction I think it is enforcement you know such issue here is this the [01:04:23] consistency is not there on top of that if we just tell teachers to even you know you you can now allow with the you know students to use it or not use it it will cause even more inconsistencies I feel so instead of that we should just make sure we enforce our current policy to the effect that what we have for high schoolers and middle schoolers in place um which recently went in effect and i think that's what i would say thanks thank you miss dixit all right we will go ahead and take a vote on this amendment [01:04:59] which is on the screen all those in favor of the amendment please raise your hand mr mcdaniel mr mckelveen miss lady miss st john cunning mr dunn dr anderson miss anderson and myself all All opposed? Mr. Moon, abstentions? Ms. Seismarheiser, Ms. Marin, Ms. Dixit, will the clerk read the vote? [01:05:25] The vote is 813. The motion carries. Thank you. We will move on to the next amendment. I call on Dr. Anderson for an amendment. Sorry, I'm trying to find the location here. [01:05:47] Okay, I move to amend regulation 2601.38P as detailed in the second amendment on the agenda on board docs. and I don't see I don't see it listed up here yet maybe we could well the clerk pull it up a little bit please the language is not there it is on the screen that's here uh is there a second second [01:06:25] miss Sizemore heiser Dr. Anderson would you like to speak to your motion yes um this motion I I would really like the opportunity to just read it so that the public who's here can understand um I need to find it because that's too small for me to see okay thank you so much um this is is a motion to amend section three to say that a student who voluntarily is seeking support for substance abuse issues or whose parent or guardian is seeking support for the student shall not be subject to SRNR violations for [01:07:01] possession use or being under the influence of a drug on school property nor prevented from participating in school activities co-curricular or extracurricular activities if the student does not have a history of substance abuse or drug distribution related discipline and/or not associated in current investigations related to substance abuse or drug distribution. In the event that evidence is found that the student is I'm sorry indicating the student's involvement in drug and substance related violations to the SRNR after the initial request for support or that the student is involved in drug distribution disciplinary consequences as outlined in the SRNR [01:07:40] may be imposed. The reason why we wanted to bring this forward is because it's going to affect a very narrow slice of students. We have students who are voluntarily coming to the schools or with their parents asking for support and absent their voluntary reveal of what they are undergoing, the school would not have had any information regarding that. [01:08:06] So it is providing a little bit of safety net for those students to come forward. This is not for students who are going to come forward after they've been engaged in activity that are in violation of the SRNR. This is also not a free pass for students to engage in undesired behaviors in violation of the SRNR after they've come forward to make this request. [01:08:30] This is for a small slice of students who are just seeking help and have not endangered anyone else and I do think we do have a responsibility of providing some a safe place for them to do so. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Ms. Sizemore Heiser would you like to speak to your second. I think Dr. Anderson covered it very well so I'll just add just briefly that while this doesn't cover as she said students who are currently being investigated or in discipline or you know suspected of distribution but I've also heard from families whose student is struggling with the drug addiction and with the disease of drug addiction who wanna come to the school to get help [01:09:08] and then that coming forward voluntarily where the school would not have known unless the parent or student came forward, then the student gets caught up in discipline, gets moved away from their school and has some pretty negative consequences when they were just seeking help. So this gives a very narrow opportunity for a student who's not already caught up in discipline, who isn't suspected of distributing to come forward to get the help they need, to hopefully get them the support they need without that student getting further entangled in discipline. [01:09:38] So I really hope my colleagues can support the ability to give our students at Safe Harbor to come forward voluntarily to get support for drug addiction without it impeding the ability to discipline students who are already caught up in discipline or suspected of distributing or other violations of the SRNR. [01:09:57] Thank you, Ms. Sizemoreheiser. Ms. Marin? I absolutely support this, and thank you to the makers of the motion for bringing it forward so we can correct this. Thank you, Ms. Marin. I'll take a turn. Sometimes you get a motion from a colleague, and you think, how on earth have I been at this for four or five years and not seen this? [01:10:20] And when Dr. Anderson sent it around and Ms. Sizemoreheiser called me about it, that's exactly what I told her, is I can't believe I've looked at this document so many times have not seen this because, you know, the first step on the road to recovery is admitting that there's a problem and to have a policy in place that would penalize kids for taking that first step. Recovery works a lot better when the person who is seeking recovery actively wants to recover and we should not be doing anything to make that harder. Additionally, [01:10:57] as anybody who has been to one of our fentanyl town halls knows, this aligns with the policy that fcpd has for seeking help and so i think we should be in alignment with the fairfax county police department and finding the best ways to bring services to these kids and for a lot of families who don't have insurance that can cover treatment centers and all the other things that you know maybe they make after school special they're dating myself after school specials about getting support from our schools is how they get their kids the help that they need SO BRAVO, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR DOING THIS. [01:11:35] MR. CHAIR, MAY I BE RECOGNIZED ONE MORE TIME? AFTER MS. LADY. THANK YOU. I ALSO WAS IN THE SAME SITUATION AS MR. FRISH WHEN THIS WAS BROUGHT TO ME, IN THAT I HADN'T READ THE DOCUMENT CLOSELY AS AN EMPLOYEE EITHER. [01:11:50] I WANT TO MAKE SURE, BECAUSE I HAVE A DIFFERENT SCENARIO THAT HAPPENED WHILE I WORKED IN FAIRFORCE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS 20 TO 25 YEARS AGO, WHERE A YOUNG PERSON GOT CAUGHT up as a middleman in terms of drug dealing and was just, you know, making some money a little bit, they thought, and then they realized they ran over their head and got very, very scared. [01:12:10] The young man called me as his counselor, and I reached out to administration wanting to get help for this young man who was feeling trapped in his home at the moment. And with a few weeks, he was removed from my school and put in another school because of the discipline that was applied. So I just want to make sure that it's not just someone actively using in this situation, But anybody who finds himself in a difficult situation who wants help and out of it would also qualify under this amendment. [01:12:34] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Lady. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also put a motion, but let me ask Dr. Reed whether this is our widespread practice of penalizing someone who is voluntarily coming forward seeking help. [01:12:55] I hope not. It is not our practice. However, I think it's also a good idea, even because we do have our substance abuse professionals who do work with students and support students every day who come and ask for help, for sure. [01:13:16] But I think having it outlined this clearly in the SRNR will make it even more clear to students and families. So I think we can't communicate it enough. But I know our counselors, our social workers, school principals, our staff really want to encourage students to come and get that help and support. [01:13:36] I think this is a great way to signal that even louder. Okay, thank you. I support it. Thank you. Just wanted to make sure that it's not currently our wide practice or problems, but we just want to make sure that we make this it clearer to all our staff. [01:13:54] Yes, I think I just want to clarify that while we do support students who come to us, I don't know that it's as clear to students and staff. So this is a straightforward signal. So I appreciate and support that. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. [01:14:12] If this passes, this is also another another part of the SRNR that I'd like for us to really dig in and present to our kids. But Mr. Fresh, I'm in the same place that you were. this did not just become a light bulb over my head that we needed to have this. [01:14:29] Absent a parent whose child went through this and had these issues, she raised it to me at a meeting at Annandale High School where Ms. Sizemoreheiser and Mr. McElveen were present. And she also attended our first work session for SRNR. [01:14:48] And we were just putting our heads together in terms of how do we ensure that this does not happen again? Because while it may have been available, Dr. Reed, I think this parent's child did get caught up and did not necessarily have this be available to them. [01:15:04] So I can take no credit for this because this is really the doing of a very motivated mom who is really trying to prevent what occurred with her child from reoccurring. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Ms. Seizmoorheiser. [01:15:20] Yeah, just very briefly, and Dr. Reed kind of said this to me over here in the sidebar, But the idea is of a consistency and an awareness, right? We want students to, 'cause I don't think it's a widespread practice, but there are students I'm hearing from families who are getting caught up. And so, and students may be afraid to come forward being scared to get caught up. [01:15:38] So I think that's why it's important to codify it as well. And as Dr. Ennis said, make sure our students are aware that they can come forward in that safe harbor way. - Thank you, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Seeing no other comments, we will go ahead and take a vote with the amendment that is on the screen. [01:15:54] All those in favor, please raise your hand. Ms. Sizemore-Hyzer, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McIlveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. That is unanimous. The motion passes. All right. Moving right along, we are now back to the, wait a minute, sorry, just making sure. Yes, we are back to the main motion, which is now the amended regulation 2601.38P. Seeing no other comments, we will vote on the primary motion. [01:16:31] the amended regulation. All those in favor please raise your hand. Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed. Mr. Dunn, any abstentions? Will the clerk read the vote? The vote is 11-1. The motion carries. All right. We will move right along to our follow-on motions. The first follow-on motion. One second. I call on [01:17:06] Mr. McDaniel for a follow on motion thank you I moved that the school board direct the superintendent to develop and implement a strategic communications plan to inform stakeholders of the expectations contained in the SRNR with respect to cell phone usage in high schools further to aid consistent oh happened further to aid consistent implementation of the existing cell phone policies I moved that the school board direct the superintendent to develop a plan for consideration by the board for the 24/25 school year pilot program within each region for secure cell phone storage to include the [01:17:42] potential use of classroom cell phone lockers magnetic pouches or other similar devices and finally I move that the school board direct superintendent work directly with principals and school-based staff to reiterate the board's expectation that the SRNR cell phone policy be consistently enforced at all times is there a second I second miss Anderson mr. McDaniel would you like to speak to your motion briefly cell phone usage in our schools is rapidly becoming a critical issue. [01:18:11] We need options, and we need to know what those options are. We need to know what we're dealing with, what works, what doesn't. And the thrust of this motion is a pilot program to get at those answers. We will get invaluable data, and that can help inform future cell phone rules. A comment was made earlier by Ms. Sizemore-Hyser about consistency and awareness, and the communications aspect of this motion gets exactly at that, communication and awareness so we can have consistency of implementation we talk about fidelity of implementation and unfortunately with cell phones particularly at the high school level we don't have that and we have to address it as a board so that is the purpose of this motion [01:18:50] miss anderson would you like to speak to your second i would thank you um i've had more conversations about cell phone in the last cell phones in the last week than i thought was possible and as my colleagues can colleagues can attest i've had some pretty strong reactions to some of of the solutions proposed. Honestly, while my own response has taken me by surprise, it took me a little while to figure out why. My younger brother would have been 32 last week. We lost him in 2010. [01:19:23] He is forever frozen as a 19-year-old boy who made a horrible decision. And please note that I take the mental health of our kids more seriously than you could imagine. If I thought that the banning, the possession of the tiny computer that we all carry around with us would fix what's going on with our kids, I'd be all in in a heartbeat. But I believe that the radical decisions for the oldest kids in our schools turn our staff's attention to the wrong goal. We become more worried about taking things away than we can about what we can add to the conversation to prepare them for the [01:20:02] world that they live in. As parents, we all have words of wisdom that we force upon our children, and one of mine is to do dangerous things safely. Kids aren't always going to be able to navigate this dangerous stuff unless we help them. I'm voting for this motion because it might be the start as to how. So I support following our own experts' recommendations as we've been talking about all week. Right now we have a strong scaffolded policy that is being executed inconsistently for a plethora of reasons and we will never be able to do anything more restrictive unless we fix that first. [01:20:39] So that's why I'm supporting this. Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Ms. Dixit. Thank you, Ms. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, for bringing this motion. I'm very supportive of this. [01:20:54] Again, it goes back to use the technology. We're living in irresponsibly, and that's the work of the adults in the school to let these kids in a safe, trusted environment and be able to use the technology. [01:21:11] While I do not support them using their phone and going on social media and TikTok during the class when the instruction is going on, but sometimes they're researching papers and things like that. Parents are the most, like I've heard from many teachers, that parents are the ones who messages their kids the most in the school. [01:21:33] And some of these high school students are working, doing internship, looking at their schedules. We cannot take their phones away. We just have to teach them how to use it, And the teachers need to do the enforcement piece because I heard from the principals that when they were teachers, they told the student at the beginning of the year, your phones go there, the students will listen. [01:21:58] If there's nobody says anything to them, they think they'll do what they want. So, again, I'm supportive of this motion, and I believe the students should have their phones, but will use it responsibly. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. Ms. Marin? Well, I appreciate the quest for accountability and solutions that my colleagues are bringing forth tonight. [01:22:19] And this is one of those issues where we all feel very passionately about it. And what we want is what's best for kids and what's best for instruction and what's going to be least hampering for our teachers or hindering for our teachers. This follow on includes three things, a strategic communications plan, a pilot program for locking up phones and consistent implementation. [01:22:41] You know, again, this policy has been in place for two years. we don't have data that shows what the difference has been anecdotally I've heard it's been much better but it could be even more improved I also hear that it's different in different schools and different communities and it could range from parents and families trying to contact their students during the day and that's one issue to tackle to students who are you know zoning out in class and on their tic tac or it could be the student who is checking their assignments and and doing their work. [01:23:10] So I'm uncomfortable with, again, trying to get into the weeds on this. I'd like to see the board shift towards, when we talk about the executive limitations, directing the superintendent in those veins to do a lot of strategic communications on a lot of things and a lot of consistent implementation on a lot of things. [01:23:28] So, and you know, a pilot program, you know, it's fine. But again, I just think we're supposed to be teaching the students how to use it. But I also think so much of that is going have to happen outside the classrooms in our homes and our families and finding that you know where those two meet is really tough so um I'm going to abstain from this one as well and I hope that the board can continue to work with the superintendent and understand what's really happening in our schools and if there are different options for different situations and what could really be effective thank you thank you Miss Marin Mr Moon thank you Mr Chairman I have I have a point of [01:24:05] information from the maker of the motion the second part of the motion which deals with pilot program that the superintendents is being directed to develop a plan for consideration by the board for 24 25 school year pilot program within each region so are you direct are we directing if motion passes superintendent come back prior to the beginning of the school year for boards board's blessing or board discussion trying to understand a little more clearly [01:24:41] would you like to yield some time to mr mcdaniel to answer yes mr mcdaniel that was the intention would the superintendent would then come back to our board at a appropriate time when she has a plan in place to present that plan for us but the motion if it passes enables her to go and come back and then implement something so we would not have another vote to approve a plan she would simply come back to us with with what she's going to do because your motion states that a plan for consideration by the board I don't know what you meant by [01:25:19] conservation by the board or the boards will be then asked to bless discuss or again you you are the maker of the motion that was not my intention to have another vote I think the vote tonight makes it pretty clear that we want her to come back and and tell us what she's gonna do and then go do it so if we need to clarify that word or strike that word we can do that but I don't know if you have I mean that's your motion so I'm just asking your question that was all technically the motion is the board's [01:25:56] motion at this point are you finished Mr. Moon I'm done okay thank you Mr. Moon Dr. Anderson thank you and I'm glad that Miss Marin kind of went through to talk about the three different parts of the motion because I was going to do something similar but I wanted to hone in on the pilot a little bit do you envision anything specific regarding what that would look like outside of in each region so I imagine it would be in a high school in each region one classroom in each region I don't think I have [01:26:34] clarity of that piece I am not the subject matter expert I'm not a statistician I don't even try to pretend to be one so again what we're doing by this motion is enabling our expert staff to come and develop a plan based on this language and go forth and accomplish great things and Dr. Reed would like to speak to that sure sure in that case I think I'm apt to support the motion if the language stands that the superintendent will develop a plan for the board to consider I'd like to see that come back for us to chew on and to [01:27:09] give our blessing to it because I would imagine Dr. Reed you don't have a plan cooked up at this point no ma'am well yes because it says typically I'm so sorry the sidebar question is am I asking that the school board vote on the plan typically when something is for the board's consideration we do something with it we say yay or nay because I think this is broad enough to say that it could be a pilot in the entire high school could be a pilot for a ninth grade you know class [01:27:49] ninth grade classroom or the entire 11th grade class of a high school I think those specifics I'd like to see ironed out before I kind of say yay and I'd like to make sure that that's going to come back to us for consideration as is written because those details are not available to us at present I guess my advocacy is for us to not change the language here because that would allow us to have another opportunity to see what the plan is and to determine whether or not we're in agreement with it thank you dr. Anderson mr. Dunn what we know is that what we [01:28:29] have right now the current status quo is not working we have students in almost every classroom middle school and above on their phones all the time regardless of the subject regardless of the teacher I'm not a fan of the existing system existing policy because it puts all the onus on a teacher and teachers have a lot on their plate right now I personally would prefer to have a clear consistent policy system-wide so that then the teachers are relieved of that [01:29:06] burden at least one burden that we can relieve them of but I I do think it's absolutely essential to engage the public to to try to see if this policy can work if it is consistently enforced, properly enforced. [01:29:24] And I'm a big fan of the pilot. I'd like to see the parameters of the pilot. That pilot is being done in other school systems successfully. But then there are options, apparently, to buy workarounds on Amazon. [01:29:40] So we'd have to see. But we do need to make sure that we're reducing distractions, enhancing the fidelity the learning environment so students pay attention to the teacher and learn the content of their curriculum because at the end of the day many students are only learning the content of the tick-tock or YouTube curriculum which does not help us to achieve a world-class education for every child thank you mr. [01:30:10] Dunn miss lady so I actually took this motion and the other motion that's about to come and sent it to several administrators and principals today because I thought I didn't want to speak for them I will tell you that they all endorsed one or both um and i think that's very telling um again these are all at the high school level because the middle school already has in the regulation and it's and i think it's being uh successful is that that the phones are put away during class time um i think one concern and we haven't talked about this is the security of phones because they are expensive um and i [01:30:48] think that's another piece of what we need to do to look at this but i think it's very telling uh that and there are some schools that have things in place one of the schools that responded to me they already have in every single classroom a place where kids put their phones and they're there during instructional time another one they have something on their desk where they put it sort of in a case so it's in front of them which is helping a great deal so you know I we haven't gotten to the second follow-on motion but I just felt the need to share that I did reach out and actually speak with building leaders and they also all noticed that they would [01:31:25] probably volunteer for the pilot but I will tell you I didn't contact someone in every region so I see that as some enthusiasm for a follow-on motion regarding cell phones at a minimum to kept you know sort of away during instructional time and I hope we can get to some sort of a resolution of that I would support this motion. [01:31:48] But I also will likely support perhaps the next motion. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lady. Miss Sizemore Heiser. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify just briefly what our current policy is, because we keep talking about our current policy and right now our current policy, which we put in two years ago, so I'm really glad to see some of these follow on motions because two years into policy, it's good to get some data and plans on kind of how it's going, how we can make it more consistent. [01:32:15] So I really appreciate this one in particular to really look at the consistency of our current policy. But our current policy is a way for the day in elementary school and middle school. In high school, it is a way in the classrooms and students are allowed to use it in the hallways and lunch, recognizing again that many high school students, not in the bathroom, thank you, not in the bathroom. [01:32:34] High school students might work, they may have shift work, they may have responsibility for younger siblings. And as Ms. Anderson said, we do want to teach them how to be adults and manage their time. So that is the policy I believe at all levels. There is an exception that teachers can use them if absolutely needed for instructional activity. [01:32:51] And I think that's what this is aiming to get to to help support the teachers in the classroom. So I just wanted to make sure that it was clear for the listening public what our current policy is. Thank you, Miss Sizemore Heiser. I will take a turn. I appreciate the work that's been done by probably half of this board to reach consensus and maneuver between the different ideas about how to approach this issue. [01:33:15] I do want to maybe burst a little bit of a bubble. I don't think adults are any better with their cell phones than kids. And so we keep talking about, you know, I think we could all benefit from a little bit more disconnected time from our phones and more focused attention on each other and in our work and in our day-to-day lives. [01:33:38] And so I, when we put forward the changes to our cell phone policy, which is essentially a ban of usage for our younger kids and a ban from classroom usage and bathroom usage for our high school kids. I support that. [01:33:54] And the problem I have is that every educator that I talk to, they feel like enforcing it makes them the bad guy, the bad guy. You know, and I don't want anybody to be put in that position. So we do need to come up with a method for, you know, fidelity and execution of this policy. [01:34:14] I can, there are so many different ways that a high school student and reason, as I've had discussions in the past few days with colleagues, that a high school student might need to use their cell phone, but not in class, right? Whether they have a job, whether they're taking care of siblings, as some colleagues have mentioned, whether they are arranging transportation for something after school, whether their parents are trying to connect with them, all of these things, which can be done in passing periods or at lunch. [01:34:42] And so, so long as we can find a way to relieve the burden from the educator on the enforcement, and I like the idea of looking at technology, so I appreciate the makers of the motion looking at some of the media coverage that's been around this the last few months. [01:34:58] So I support the motion, and I'm not speaking to the next one, but I support the next one as well for similar reasons. So I appreciate everybody. We have a couple go-backs. We'll start with Ms. Anderson. Just really quickly, I was at a community conversation last week, I believe, with Dr. Reed, and she said that the fastest way that you kind of force kids into doing what they're not supposed to do is by prohibiting it. [01:35:28] And we're seeing some of that happen with AI and things like that. And I have had similar experience in my own teaching profession or in my own teaching career related to if we say something's off limits, it's the first thing that kids want to go to. And I agree with my colleague 100% that I'm not 100% sure that there's any adult in the building, including this one, that is better with their cell phone than some of these kids are. [01:35:55] So I do not want to place the discipline and the onus on making sure that things go well on the kid. I want it to be the adults in the room that are responsible for the behavior. And so I fully and completely understand that we need to do whatever we can to support our teachers in that quest. [01:36:17] I actually believe that consistency and clear expectations are the easiest way to ensure that type of compliance in a classroom from experience. And so I love the idea when Dr. King brought it to us about making sure that that's part of the reason that this motion came about was that it just an offhand comment in the work session that said well we'll come up with a plan on how we can make sure that next year people will better understand what they can do and what they can't do. That's what this motion is for is to make sure that our teachers are empowered to make those hard decisions in the [01:36:55] classroom to encourage their kids to put the phone away and deal with it when they don't. And so I fully support that concept of making sure that our teachers and honestly the future follow-on that we're about to talk about as well is the same type of issue with consistency we want to make sure that we show our administrators and our teachers where they can follow through and where they should follow through and this is just one other instance of that thank you miss Anderson miss lady yeah it's one thing I was remiss not stating was the fact that despite the fact that at a high school level it says you can may not [01:37:32] have your phones in the bathroom you walk in any high school bathroom and if if you don't have a phone in your hand you're really an oddball kid and so along with this first motion I mean I am fine with in between classes and at lunch but when they're put away in the classroom they need to stay away and not go with a child to the restroom and the other thing I heard from principals was that will help curb behaviors it will help curb the length of time people are out wandering halls or in a restroom but also just not having them on their person they can't have earbuds in with it on because it's sitting on their desk can they hide them well sometimes with hats and hair I mean and I'll just say [01:38:09] I'm you know I'm adult ADD and and I'll just say this to this board you know and I'm guilty of it too but sometimes when I'm looking at my phone and I miss the answer to a question and I turn around ask the same question it takes this board longer to get through a meeting and so you know I try very hard not to be on those things and try to exercise some responsibility around that and discipline. But I think that our kids crave boundaries. And it's been my experience throughout my life as an educator and as a parent. You create a boundary and the kid's going to put their toe on that line. But at the end of the day, there's respect developed, especially when you provide a [01:38:48] why and an understanding around what we're trying to do here. We have learning loss. We need kids focused. And some of the kids struggling most to recover from learning loss, sadly, have in some situations lack the discipline to stay off a device and we need to help to keep them focused. [01:39:08] So I just want to reiterate my support for no cell phones during instructional time or in bathrooms at all levels. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Lady. Ms. Dixit. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to reiterate that even though we are saying that we want students to have their phone, we are nobody saying, like most of us are saying, they should not have it during the instruction. That we all kind of agree as a board but what what we should not do is take the phone away like say you are not because there's a disconnect you're building a [01:39:45] distrust with the students and as a teachers or parents last thing we want is to have that disconnected because like like you said this generation has born with phones this generation has you know it has their phones when they were little and now they're in high school they will it's it's going to be a problem if you just say don't come on with phones in school there so there has to be a middle ground here where we can take them away during instruction they can have it back after the class because as a mother I [01:40:22] message my son like four or five times a day and he never responds back to me during the class it's always after the class during his lunch break and i don't know if i could ask this question cto that is there a way we could limit social media in school like there's some sites that kids can you know maybe not access during the school time like tick tock or you know any other ram you know [01:40:52] site they spend a lot of time on yes actually on fcps devices which works on the network we control Social media sites for students are blocked, as a lot of other sites. The cell phone challenges. [01:41:08] They use their own cellular signal to get data, and that is not control. And we can't block cellular signal for many reasons, including FCC regulations. Thank you, Miss Dixit. [01:41:26] Dr. Anderson, I taught eighth grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, second grade, and I did not teach in the time that where cell phones were an issue. There were plenty of things to keep me busy in my classroom in terms of student behavior. [01:41:43] This really cannot be the teacher's responsibility. There's way too much going on. And we've all talked about how much is on a teacher's plate. We and I know it's well intended and it's not meant to it. We want to empower the teachers, but I think it's kind of the opposite. [01:42:00] We just added one more thing. A teacher who has a curriculum to deliver X number of days to do it is going to be faced with that clock and wrestling with a child who is sticking their earbuds and hiding it with the hair as miss lady shared it's just a battle that they don't want to have they just don't want to engage because i could spend 10 minutes trying to get this kid to put it away or i could just start teaching and then this kid misses on all of the instruction i really worry about how much the onus is on our teachers and I know Dr. Reed a part of this con of [01:42:36] this motion is to discuss is to have a communication plan I would love for that communication plan to include feedback from the people who are doing the work what is it that they are wanting because every teacher that I know personally who are friends who are who I represent who are in the schools they don't want to deal with this they are readily saying to me ban it and be done with it because it cannot be one more thing that I do but clearly that is anecdotal I have not surveyed the 15,000 teachers of Fairfax County and I would like for that to be part of this conversation because the [01:43:15] they're the ones who have to make this happen and I think we have to realize that there's a difficulty for them in making this happen in light of all of the at the things that they have to do and they do have to be the bad guy in some way and YouTube is I know we could ban a lot of different sites but YouTube is the gateway to all of it because and also we use YouTube for instructional videos but we have one-to-one devices so kids can access them there I don't want us to forget the 30 odd million dollars that we have invested and making sure that all of our students are equipped with computers so that they can have [01:43:55] access to um the technology that they need in the classrooms so uh Dr. Reed um and whomever else needs to be responsible for this let's please include that teacher voice in this conversation if this passes. Thank you Dr. Anderson. [01:44:11] Mr. Dunn. Briefly um the United States is technology obsessed um if you go to other countries um healthcare systems do not rely on technology to the same degree which is why it's so much more expensive to get treated in the United States than anywhere else if you go into our schools we have completely in some cases removed children from the way children actually learn which is with pencils and paper engaging with [01:44:44] other students engaging with adults and as we look at the proliferation of AI and other technology my preference would be to focus on the human experience the way children actually learn that has worked for hundreds of years AI and other tools are valuable when taught at the appropriate age but for you know kids who are you know four years old and they have the latest iPhone I fear for their future because they're learning to not engage with their peers and we're [01:45:22] losing social skills coming out of the pandemic we have rampant misbehavior misconduct because people don't know how to relate to each other anymore and so we need to rebuild our sense of community and that's what our schools should focus on I disagree respectfully with those who say a ban shouldn't be considered I believe it's one of many options that should be studied and we should follow the data follow the evidence listening to our teachers listening to our parents and guardians listening to the community so that we provide our children with the best experience possible in a technology [01:45:59] obsessed world. Thank you Mr. Dunn. Ms. St. John Cunning. Thank you. I'm going to support this motion and I appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into it in terms of having pilot projects so that we can gather data. I will also support the other motion that is coming up this was as someone mentioned very passionate discussion amongst all of us and I too have spoken to administrators and teachers and they all have unequivocally said please help us we don't want them in our classroom and by this being something [01:46:37] that is an absolute it will help us fortuitously as it would happen last night at a community communication event, there was a parent that brought this up and just said, why don't you ban them? Just ban them. And there was a teacher that said, and this is elementary, and I'm coming from the elementary school where we have had to confiscate cell phones. So it's, I know we're thinking of middle and high school, but we see them in elementary schools. And there was an elementary school teacher that said, I try to build a relationship with my kids, but at the same [01:47:10] time sometimes if that that kid won't give me the phone it's a disrupting class and she said what do I do send them to the administrator then it becomes a mommy against daddy time and they're missing class and it becomes a whole issue that is disruptive not just to that student's learning to everybody's learning and it's frustrating for our teachers um I've also spoken to students high school students and they have said you know what we may not really like it but we think it's the [01:47:42] best thing for us. And I think that's really telling that they understand that it might not be fun, but they kind of think it's good for them. I think one of the saddest things I ever saw was when a mother was picking up her preschool child at our school and the child started to cry because they were upset. And the mother got her cell phone and put on a program and gave it to the kid to this child to soothe the child because the child had to speak to a teacher instead of [01:48:21] squatting down and talking to her child. So if that doesn't tell you what cell phone usage is doing to our kids I don't know what will and whereas that mother had the right to do that and could do it in her home I think our responsibility is to help our children when are in our schools and to help them by not providing that distraction so I will [01:48:57] support this motion wholeheartedly as well as the second one thank you miss St. John Cunning miss Anderson this is the last thing I'm gonna say tonight but I do want to to make sure that when we're including the list of people that we're gonna talk to you we're gonna talk to the kids we're not actually just gonna do one more thing to them we're actually gonna engage them in the conversation and explain why and why we're having the conversation this cannot solely be a staff centered decision this has to be a school centered decision as to all of the people in the building and so I am all for doing what we can to [01:49:35] enforce the existing policies that we have we have policies that say that kids in elementary school are away for the day we have policies that say that kids in middle school are away for the day we have the policy that says that they're away during instruction these are all things that we already have in place and and they're not being enforced. [01:49:53] And so we got to figure out how to fix that first. We can't make it more stringent in order to fix the problem. We got to start where we are. And as I said, I think that that will empower teachers to be able to make the decisions. [01:50:09] - Miss Marin. - With all this helpful conversation had, I'd like to call the question. - Question has been called which would end debate and move us to a vote on this follow on motion. It's not a debatable motion. [01:50:24] It requires two thirds to pass. All those in favor of moving on to vote on this motion, please raise your hand. Ms. Seizmerheiser, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself, that's unanimous. [01:50:44] All right, before, well, we'll take the vote. All those in favor of the follow-on motion, which is on the screen, please raise your hand. Ms. Seizmerheiser, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. [01:51:02] All those opposed, abstentions? Ms. Marin, will the clerk read the vote? - It's 11:01, the motion carries. - Thank you, the motion passes. Before we move on to the next follow-on motion, we gave quite broad breadth for topics of discussion during that follow-on motion, and because it is a similar subject matter in the next follow-on motion, I'm going to do a better job of making sure people are talking about the follow-on motion and not the peripheral uh policy considerations that are not up for consideration at the moment so if you want to ban phones if you don't want to [01:51:41] ban phones bring a motion to this table but the next motion up i will call on mr dunn for a motion i move that the school board direct the superintendent to develop alternatives to existing FCPS policies governing cell phones in public schools. Specifically, the superintendent shall develop multiple options to establish a consistent policy governing student access to and usage of cell phones in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The option set [01:52:17] shall include, but not be limited to, a prohibition on student usage of cell phones during the school day with appropriate exceptions for instructional activities and appropriate accommodations for students with IEPs, 504s, or medical conditions. The option set shall incorporate stakeholder input, best practices, and lessons learned from other school divisions. The superintendent shall solicit public input on the option set in advance of its presentation to the school board. The [01:52:52] superintendent shall present the option set to the school board by March 1st, 2025. None of the options shall be implemented by the superintendent unless approved by majority vote of the school board. Is there a second? Second. Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your motion? [01:53:12] Yes, briefly. I believe that we are facing the fierce urgency of now. We have received reports from the Surgeon General, from UNESCO, from doctors across the country, from experts that cell phones are destructive in multiple respects. [01:53:36] Certainly social media is part of that, but we have multi-billion companies like Google and Facebook, now Meta, that have devoted significant resources to studying the neurological effects of particular aspects of their apps of cell phone usage to make it addictive at a time when children are very vulnerable to addiction this is all contrary to the public health of our students of our communities and and so [01:54:11] you know strongly support the last motion strongly support this motion because they work in parallel the idea is that the next year we will have a set of options developed trying out the existing policy developing alternatives so that for the following school year 25 26 we can actually implement a policy that makes sense that protects our students that is sensible that works on a classroom and a school and a system basis and provides our teachers or school administrators with the resources and tools to actually manage the cell phone crisis [01:54:51] that is impacting our students to such a degree. So this is a compliment, not a replacement for the previous motion, and will provide the school board in a reasonable time frame at a time when the pilot will be substantially underway, if not completed, contingent on the to pretend to determining the time frame, a set of options that we can have further discussions before we take a vote next year on revisions to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Regulation and Handbook. [01:55:25] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your second? I think I've said what I needed to say on this topic, and Mr. Dunn really has captured what needs to happen. We have a problem, and we need to find some resolutions. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Mr. McDaniel. [01:55:42] briefly I just wanted to thank the maker of the motion for there was a lot of conversation back and forth over the last 48 hours and we we both work together a lot of members of the board work together to really bring these proposals to the table and I want to thank mr. Dunn in particular for working with me on on this miss Sizemore Heiser thank you and I just briefly wanted sort of to reiterate first I want to thank mr. Dunn for the hours of conversation that I think we had last night and this morning but especially last night and willingness to kind of listen to feedback and evolve the motion to to kind [01:56:20] of get to yes for everybody so I appreciate that the collaboration I just wanted to kind of reiterate in some parts of our conversations one of the topics that came of us how does this then interact with the previous motion right and the previous motion is looking at our current policies and how to make sure we're consistently implementing them and supporting our teachers and implementing them and supporting our students and understanding and this one is to look at and addition to doing that using the data from what we're doing around helping with consistent implementation is using the data around the pilot to be part of what as well as stakeholder input and the other things that are mentioned the motion to develop additional options for the board so we [01:56:58] have more other options to consider when we're looking at the SR&R so I'm actually very excited about the previous motion and really excited about the work that the board did to put those rules in place two years ago and to see how they're doing and how we can make them more consistent but I don't think there's a huge harm in having additional data driven stakeholder input options to consider so I appreciate that it's an option to consider motion and the work that and the distance you move to kind of get to that point so thank you thank you miss Sizemore Heiser miss Marin so my earlier comments were about trying to [01:57:35] be sure that the board was staying in our lane and my votes have reflected that but I'm realizing now that the language put forward to this idea is about directing the superintendent to come up with policy options and that's the board's purview so I know it might sound semantic but it actually to me is really important so one thing I'm wondering is if is this go to governance to work on because that is one of our policy avenues is to bring a policy to governance to work on another option is does this change because the SRNR is actually the regulation does should the wording in this change to [01:58:12] that the regulation needs to change so the superintendent can come back or is it just a directive to the superintendent to come back with options which we've done you know the CIP follow-on some other things and again I'm not trying to be semantic about it I think it does really matter so much that I staked my earlier votes on that so I put that forth for people's consideration and comments as it stands now I'm probably gonna continue to abstain I'll just [01:58:44] leave it at that for now and I welcome input. Thank you Miss Marin. Mr. Dunn. I appreciate my colleagues comments and I would like to amend the motion to replace policy with practices. Without objection there's a request. Okay. There's an objection. Mr. Dunn speak to your amendment. So [01:59:17] So in the course of the hours of conversations, I had the word policy, and then I was told very similarly to what Ms. Marina said, that I should use the word plan. [01:59:36] So I changed it to plan, but then I was told... I apologize. You're out of order because of my mistake. Is there a second for Mr. Dunn's amendment, Dr. Anderson? Mr. Dunn, would you like to continue speaking to your amendment? Sure. Rewind. So, during the hours of conversation, I first had policy, told that's, you know, superintendent doesn't develop policy, so I changed it to plan, and I was told, but that's operational, so we can't use plan. [02:00:06] So I changed it back to policy, and I don't know if anyone's going to be happy. I think we're all in the same word that the word policy here is used in the colloquial sense, not in the school board with a capital P policy, but I'm willing at the chairs, suggestion to change it to practices, but as long as we can get the NAMS support. [02:00:30] Otherwise, I'm just going to keep it as policy and maybe ask for a vote on that. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your second? Very quickly, because I was that person who said as we were working on it that we should not use the term policy because the superintendent cannot write policy for us, that we should be using the term plan. [02:00:49] And I know in some other conversations it got there. are just really trying to and I know we're being facetious here a little bit because we're in that in that mood it is just really to evaluate what is currently happening and if practices get us there and I which is a personal preference then I would like to see if we could make that happen and I don't think we're seeking unanimous support on this just majority support just for clarification excuse me we just need to be clear is Mr. Dunn asking to change everywhere the term policies [02:01:25] shows up in the follow-on motion that's not practices uh just the highlighted word policies thank you thank you Dr. Anderson Ms. Sizemore Heiser I don't think it matters that much but I just want to clarify something being the governance chair this year and being on the governance committee and having been chair when we passed a forum or vice chair we passed a forum topic to do do an equity policy which was then sent to the superintendent staff to do stakeholder engagement and bring back to the board a draft policy for us to then [02:02:01] review and vote on and very often when we have in governance either policy that needs to refresh reviewed the superintendent staff brings us a draft and we review it so we have regularly the whole time on the board asked a superintendent to bring us either a draft new policy based on board direction or potential draft revisions, suggested revisions to policy for us to then discuss in governance. [02:02:25] So the fact that the superintendent doesn't draft or she doesn't pass policy, that is an accurate statement. But unless we're going to change the entire way we do governance, I think we need to maybe have a part of norms conversation about being on the same page regarding policy, because that has not been my experience on this board, but because I've seen many times staffing us draft policies for the board to review on governance. [02:02:49] And sometimes there's no change, and sometimes we recommend the change is big or small. So I guess I'm confused as to when we say the superintendent doesn't do policy. She doesn't pass policy. Now, having said that, if we want to do practices, I'm just going to keep in mind that we should tie it to the SR&R because we don't currently vote on practices. [02:03:05] So that's going to be a change in how we proceed if we're going to have her bring practices back to vote on. So I would maybe say changes to the SR&R regulation instead of SCPS policies. but I just want to be clear we either have to look at how we do governance or we have to be careful the statement that the superintendent doesn't do draft policies. Thank you Ms. Sizemore Heiser. [02:03:26] Ms. Marin. I actually see it really clearly. This is actually a regulation so to say that we're directing the superintendent to do anything and this is actually an anomaly and we've had this discussion about we direct the superintendent to do all sorts of things like to hire teachers but we don't review every teacher's contract. This is very high level board governance stuff which I love But I get this might not be everyone's thing. [02:03:51] But the fact is, is that I actually have a follow on motion coming to ask that we review the policy that is the SRNR of which it's under, because it hasn't been reviewed since 2016. And that, to me, is an underlying problem. So I'm very sensitive about using policy. [02:04:07] So if it doesn't make much of a difference to some, then I'm going to fight hard on this one, that a policy is a policy. It's passed by the board. we direct the superintendent to help us create it. I would like to ask Dr. Reed, Dr. Reed, is this language clear to you and are you comfortable with this language? [02:04:28] - If the majority of the board is comfortable with it, I'll be comfortable with it. I'm in trying to graph out that this is the third, is this the third resolution or following? Second, okay. I'm just trying to make sure that I can see how they connect. [02:04:46] But it is true that I do work on regulations, but I also support policy work. So I'll do as the board wishes. - I also think the confusion around this whole process is evidence of why we have to be really straightforward about when we delve into policy and regulation and all these operational follow-ons. [02:05:05] So I will support the motion, which is, if I'm correct, if I understand, I move that the school board direct the superintendent to develop alternatives existing scps practices governing cell phones um i don't agree with having the second word policy in there i would say remove the word policy and just make it practices or i don't know what to say by now i don't want to make a mess at the dais but this did catch my attention because it was developed you know kind of in real time so i will continue to support the motion thank you miss marin miss [02:05:39] dixit thank you mr chair i wanted to say that because i am supporting the other motion and i want to wait to see what that you know the pilot study does and if we do what we have presently in place to do the proper enforcement I think we can solve sort of issues the sitting principles of FCPS have told me that taking phones away is not a great idea so the line here the prohibition on student usage of [02:06:16] cell phone during the school day especially for high school students that just strikes off this off for me otherwise I would have been supporting of that. Thank you Miss Dixit. Mr. Dunn. I'd like to call the question on the amendment. Question has been called and it is not debatable and it requires a two-thirds vote. All those in favor of calling the question. Miss Sizemore Heisner, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss [02:06:52] Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Miss Anderson, Mr. Moon and myself all opposed. abstentions miss Dixit will the clerk read the vote that's 11:01 the motion carries the debate is now closed we will go ahead and vote on the amendment which is on the screen although it's not reflecting the language change can you change the word policies that's highlighted to practices please thank [02:07:29] you all those in favor of the amendment which is on the screen please raise your hand mr. miss Sizemore heiser mr. McDaniel mr. McElveen miss lady miss St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, and Mr. Moon, and myself. Opposed? [02:07:46] Abstentions? Ms. Dixit, will the clerk read the vote? That's 11-01. The motion carries. All right. We are now back to the primary motion, which is the amended version as seen on the screen. If you have your light on from the previous conversation, please turn it off. [02:08:04] All right. Seeing no other speakers, we can go ahead and have a vote on the motion as listed on the screen. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Moon and myself, and Ms. Marin. [02:08:27] Opposed? Abstentions? Ms. Dixit, will the clerk read the vote? - That's 11:01, the motion carries. - All right, the motion carries. Moving on to our third follow-on motion. I call on Ms. Sizemore-Heiser for a follow-on motion. [02:08:47] - Thank you. I move that the school board direct the superintendent provide by November 1st 2024 data and analysis including demographic data on recidivism slash discipline issues and on-time graduation for students who have graduated starting with the school year 21 22 for current students and those who have graduated during this time frame who as a result of disciplinary actions last measures had been removed from their base school sent to alternative schools programs removed from current school due to an IEP team decision or or send to a different comprehensive school. [02:09:20] - Is there a second? - Second. - Dr. Anderson, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, would you like to speak to your motion? - Yes, just briefly, 'cause I know there's a lot of follow-ons going on today, but one of the things that I wanna, we often talk about is in discipline cases when students get removed, what happens? [02:09:37] We talk about having these great alternative programs that provide a lot of services, but I don't believe we have a lot of data to show are those services working? Are those programs doing what's intended? moving a student from one school to another for discipline reasons it protecting the school they're moved from is great and important but are we doing what needs to be done to support that student so they're not getting caught back in discipline because at the end of the day we want our schools to be safe and if kids are repeating offenses or repeatedly getting caught in discipline that that's not leading to the safety of our school and it's important to know for both how are those students doing are they graduating on [02:10:14] time one to make sure that our programs to provide interventions and support to the students, are helping them gain the skills to not get caught back in discipline, but also are they graduating? That way we can also look at what we are doing to support those students. Is it working? [02:10:29] And if it's not, how do we improve both alternative programs and our schools? So it's really a request for data to find out what is happening with our students who get caught up in discipline and are moved so we can -- it's sort of in the vein of continual improvement. [02:10:44] Thank you, Ms. Sizemoreheiser. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, very briefly. One of the things that I want to be sure that this amendment is not articulating is that we will not move students, because we know at the core of it, discipline is to teach. So we want to make sure that the teaching that we're trying to put forward in some of the measures that we utilize are still giving those students an opportunity for a second chance. [02:11:08] So this is just a request for information to determine what happens to these students, that's a frequent practice and we have not yet found the data to we have not analyzed that data because we have not yet collected it so I'm pretty eager to see what that yields because as much as and we should and we do want to ensure that students are not in schools where with the victims we also need to follow up on what has happened to these students as well because we have to find a way to take care of all of our students and in the school and our schools which is a very high bar because i know sometimes it comes across as conflicting interests [02:11:47] so thank you and i hope you all support it thank you dr anderson seeing no comments i will take a turn um i appreciate this effort to gather this information which it almost seems like a no-brainer that we would want uh this information considering what we deal with uh as a board and i appreciate the makers of the motion bringing it and i look forward to having it so thank you very much seeing no other speakers we'll go ahead and call for the vote all those in favor of the follow-on motion on the screen ms seismor heiser mr mckelveen miss lady miss st john cunning miss marron i'm speaking [02:12:22] slowly so that mr mcdaniel can find his way back to the dais mr dunn dr anderson miss anderson mystics it mr moon and myself opposed abstentions with mr mcdaniel away from the table that's unanimous thank you the motion passes all right moving on to our fourth and final follow-on motion I call on miss lady for a follow-on motion I moved the school board direct superintendent to prepare for the board an assessment of student disciplinary practices with an eye towards greater efficacy and [02:13:00] fidelity of implementation including a thoughtful evaluation of and recommended changes for shall and may directives this assessment shall include robust engagement from families school staff including classroom educators students and relevant stakeholders it should also include details about lessons learned from the fidelity training included in this year's srnr and suggestions for moving the next srnr toward greater clarity efficacy and fidelity finally this assessment will be completed and brought back to the board by number one 2024 for thoughtful consideration potential amendments and action is there a second [02:13:39] Ms. St. John-Cunning, Ms. Leidy, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, briefly. We've talked a lot on this board about the need for consistency across our schools when they are interpreting and applying the SRNR in regards to student discipline. [02:13:55] And we just feel like within the dialogue, we came across several shall and may directives and had some discussion about maybe some of those shalls should be actually may. But without enlisting the support or should I say the relevant stakeholders involved in the application of the SNR in terms of discipline, we didn't want to move on changing any of those at the moment. [02:14:24] So really what we're directing to have happen is to look more deeply into that and then bring that back to us. And again, the goal is consistency from school to school. As I think there are some situations where a shall means that they would never, you know, really escalate that pyramid of discipline, whereas other schools might be doing that. [02:14:45] So that's the hope is just more consistency over time. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lady. Ms. Sejan Cunning, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, I'd also like to speak to our work session where we were also instructed that there is more robust training going on for teachers and for administrators. [02:15:07] on how to administrate the SRNR and again, this goes to efficacy to see how that training is bearing out and how it's working. I think bringing back that information to us will help us as we look at the SRNR next year in conjunction with all the other motions that have been put, you know, on the table and amendments. [02:15:27] Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. Seeing no other comments, we will go ahead and vote with the motion language that's on the screen. All those in favor of the motion as listed on the screen. Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marron, Mr. Dunn, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. [02:15:52] All those opposed? Abstentions? Ms. Dixit with Ms. Sizemore-Hyser away from the table. Will the clerk read the vote? That's 10-0-1 with Ms. Sizemore-Hyser away from the table. The motion carries. [02:16:11] The motion passes. All right, moving on to our final follow-on motion. I call on Ms. Marron for a motion. I move that the board directs its governance committee to review policy 2601 rights and responsibilities of students beginning at a time to be scheduled by the board chair and governance committee chair. [02:16:31] Is there a second? Second. Mr. Dunn. Ms. Marin we'd like to speak to your motion. I believe I've referenced the importance of reviewing the policy and I hope that we can schedule it in an expeditious way knowing that we have a very ambitious policy review schedule. Thank you Ms. Marin. [02:16:46] Mr. Dunn would you like to speak to your motion? Yes I would. Every year we ask every student to sign a one-page acknowledgement form that they have read 200 pages of content that is phrased in legalese, bureaucratic ease, and jargon. It is one of the most unfriendly documents I've ever seen presented to children. I have worked in the federal government. I have sought to convert jargon to plain English because if you don't have plain English then neither the [02:17:21] staff nor the people you deal with in the public will understand what are the requirements for their obligations what are their recourses and remedies so I believe there is much work to be done to revise this document my five page memo with suggestions was not acted on at all this is an opportunity to ensure that this document which is at the very core of our student disciplinary process is is revised to meet the needs of our school system, of our students, of our staff, of our administrators. [02:17:58] And so I look forward to engaging with the governance committee to support that process. - Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I'd like to take a turn just for some clarification, perhaps from Ms. Marin. Ms. Marin, this motion concerns the policy governing the SRNR, is that correct? [02:18:16] - That is correct. So it's a very short policy. However, it definitely opens up that conversation to what was just mentioned by the motioner and how to direct the superintendent to make a regulation and communications and such in a digestible way, in an accessible way. [02:18:34] But it also can do more to capture the spirit and values of what this board holds to be important based on our community's values. So it really is both giving that overarching guidance to the superintendent, which could again include TO COMMUNICATE THAT IN PERHAPS LESS THAN A 200-PAGE DOCUMENT. THANK YOU, MR. MCDANIEL. [02:18:59] AS A MEMBER OF THE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'M SEEING THIS, CANDIDLY. I WAS -- WHEN WE NEW MEMBERS CAME ON BOARD, WE WERE TOLD 48 HOURS BEFORE THE MEETING. I CHECKED MY EMAILS. I HAD NOTHING IN EMAILS. SO I -- UNLESS THERE'S A COMPELLING REASON WHY WE HAVE TO VOTE ON THIS TONIGHT, I'M NOT INCLINED TO SUPPORT IT. THANK YOU, MR. MCDANIEL. [02:19:25] MISS ANDERSON, DR. ANDERSON, EXCUSE ME. I'M AFRAID THAT MR. DUNN IS, I'M SORRY, MR. MCDANIEL IS CORRECT. BUT HAVING SAID THAT, I WANT TO GET A LITTLE BIT MORE INFORMATION BECAUSE I'M JUST HEARING ABOUT THIS NOW AS WELL. WHEN WAS THE LAST, WHEN WAS THE POLICY LAST REVIEWED? I'M SORRY. WOULD YOU LIKE TO YIELD YOUR TIME TO MISS MARIN TO ANSWER? I WOULD LIKE FOR HER TO ANSWER BUT NOT YIELD MY TIME. THAT'S HOW IT WORKS, UNFORTUNATELY. [02:19:57] Ms. Marin. Go ahead. This last reviewed, as I said, in October 2016. I did actually email that information today to the board. I did email my follow-on to the deputy clerk in April. I also mentioned it at least once, if not twice, at a public meeting. I've also tried to mention it last year. I was going to bring this last year at the SRNR, but the follow-ons became too unwieldy, so I pulled it. This policy is almost 10 years overdue from review. [02:20:21] so that's definitely true haven't been revised last in 2016 and I guess when it goes to governance do we have some sort of parameters in terms of what we're looking for or is it just a general update the way that we update other policies in my vein of trying to keep us to our rule of reviewing policies every five years I brought this up and also want to clarify follow-ons do not need to be noticed 20 48 hours in advance only motions do okay that's new to me but having said that one of the things this is what I'm trying to avoid we have a lot of policies that are reviewed by governance and they come across as no [02:21:01] change are we looking for a change here so what could that change possibly be it's a two-paragraph policy about one of the most important practices in our school division I would hope that it's infused with more than just that I don't expect it to be a no change I know we're working on lots of other policies but THAT IS THE JOB OF THE BOARD TO REVIEW POLICY. [02:21:26] SO THAT IS WHY I REMOVED THE ORIGINAL TIMELINE WHICH ACTUALLY ASKED FOR WORK TO START THIS FALL, KNOWING THAT WE HAVE A LOT OF OTHER PRIORITIES. I BELIEVE IT SHOULD BE SCHEDULED. OKAY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, DR. [02:21:44] ANDERSON. OH, SORRY. MR. MCELVEEN. THANK YOU, MR. CHAIR. SO WE'VE PULLED UP THE POLICY OVER HERE. READING THROUGH IT, IT LOOKS VERY ANODYNE. I'M NOT QUITE SURE WHAT THE ENVISION CHANGES MIGHT BE. [02:21:59] COULD YOU SPEAK TO THAT? I'm happy to yield my time. - I apologize. Would you like to yield some time to Ms. Marin? Go ahead. - I'm surprised at the question. This policy is overdue, period. [02:22:15] We should be reviewing it. I'd love to, I have lots of ideas. I think there's lots of ideas here too. Should the policy say to the superintendent, you have to pilot certain practices? Should it talk about the format of how we do the kids signing? [02:22:30] Should it include some of the things that are in regulation ARE REALLY MISPLACED AND SHOULD BE IN A POLICY THAT GUIDES A SUPERINTENDENT. I THINK THIS REGULATION POLICY IS A REALLY MEETY THING THAT THIS BOARD COULD SPEND TIME ON TO FIGURE OUT HOW IT WANTS TO WORK ON POLICY. I DON'T WANT TO TAKE UP TOO MUCH TIME. I'M FRANKLY QUITE SURPRISED THAT THERE'S CONFUSION ABOUT IT. BUT IT'S LATE. WE SHOULD DO IT. OKAY. THANKS. [02:22:58] I'M REALLY AFRAID WE'RE WORKING OUR STAFF TO DEATH ON SRNR. I MEAN THE AMOUNT OF MEETINGS THEY'VE HAD TO GO THROUGH ON THIS. I WORRIED THAT SUBJECTING THEM TO THE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE IS GOING TO BE ANOTHER CHALLENGE. BUT I'D BE GRATEFUL TO HEAR FROM OUR GOVERNANCE CHAIR WHO'S UNFORTUNATELY NOT AT THE TABLE. THANK YOU, MR. MCELVEEN. JUST A SECOND. [02:23:24] MS. ANDERSON. THERE WAS A TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY WITH THE EMAIL ADDRESS THAT WAS USED TO SEND THIS OUT TO THE BOARD TODAY WHICH IS WHY WE DIDN'T ALL RECEIVE IT. SO IT HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO everyone later this afternoon or later this evening and so that is it was just a mistake in terms of of how it was disseminated just to make it clear to everybody that it was it was sent out this afternoon I just wanted to say that I support this because I do think that it's an important thing for us to look at the way we do SRNR I have had several conversations with different folks about how things are done in different divisions and I would like the [02:24:03] opportunity for governance to consider some of those um so i do think that it's it would serve two purposes it would be able to give us an opportunity to have that conversation and it would also give us the opportunity to ensure that this policy was up to date thank you miss anderson i'll take a turn um i think that our board should spend less time on the srnr and one way to do that is to have a clearer policy that directs how the srnr is created and implemented just like we do [02:24:40] for every other part of our school system we devise policies that guide regulation with the srnr for some reason we do it differently we tinker with every facet of the document i mean what other regulation do we have in fcps where the board has two work sessions untold numbers of meetings with staff conversations with each other to pick apart a regulation we don't and so having a clearer look at the policy on whatever timeline works for the governance committee this doesn't dictate that and and the agenda for the governance committee is up to the discretion [02:25:19] of the chair um uh i think it's a good thing and it might be able to keep us from uh having these these operational conversations that we could be better directing the superintendent to do so miss Sizemore heiser thank you and i apologize i had to take a call related to a family issue so um so i apologize i didn't hear the conversation so this may have been asked but i guess i'm as the current governance chair i didn't know this was coming so i know it was mentioned i think in the work session but i hadn't seen any language and maybe i missed it but i hadn't seen anything [02:25:58] until today so I was a little surprised but I'm not opposed to looking at this at all of course I think it's important it hasn't been reviewed I think there's many policies that need to be reviewed that are very important we've talked about several of them in governance we're currently in the process of reviewing the boundary policy we've talked about grading so I guess my question is that I also know we have a task force going on to look at a policy review process so we can have a better process and how we determine which policies are up in the queue next so I'm not sure how this one kind of is [02:26:33] elevated to be at the top when we have a process when we have I think two people working on you know coming up with that process so I think I'd be more comfortable if we finish the work on coming up with the process that the board has directed two people to do and then see if this is the next one on the queue or where that process takes us so you know there's no date of course we can and set the agenda however we want on the committees. [02:26:59] So it's not a big deal. I'm just, I'm like to keep things consistent. And if we have a group working on developing a process to look at our policies in a consistent systematic way, I think we should let that play out and then see what rises through that. [02:27:16] - Thank you, Ms. Sizemore Heiser. Ms. St. John Cunning. - So being someone that's new on the board and just seeing what we've been discussing today, I kind of feel that the reason that this may have been put on today is because we are talking about the SRNR and if it's something that could help our staff have more responsibility with regulation and direct up and we as policymakers can direct them in a more concise way as Mr. as my colleague said [02:27:52] as the chair said then I think I could support this. - Thank you Miss St. John Cunning. Seeing no other comments we will go ahead and have a vote for the motion that is listed on the screen. [02:28:05] All those in sorry all those in favor of the motion please raise your hand Miss Lady Miss St. John Cunning Miss Marin Mr. Dunn Miss Anderson Mr. Moon and myself all those opposed Mr. McDaniel and Dr. Anderson and Mr. McElveen and Miss Sizemore Heiser will the clerk read the vote or abstentions will the clerk read the vote the vote is eight for the motion carries all right Mr. Chairman so one missing so seven four sorry seven four then with mystics that away [02:28:47] the table thank you one second to get back to the script agenda item 5.04 action item award of contracts synthetic turf field removal and replacement at west potomac high school i call on miss st john cunning for a motion i move that the school board awards contracts for the synthetic turf field replacement at west potomac high school to hellas construction inc in the total amount of seven hundred ninety six thousand five hundred dollars and authorizes the division superintendent or the chief facility services and capital programs [02:29:27] or its authorized representative to act on its behalf and to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there a second second miss lady miss st. John Cunningham would you like to speak to your motion although I'm not really aware of the details of this contract I do want to say that I was part of a community involvement that helped get synthetic turf fields at West Potomac even despite the fact that I didn't have high school students but the students came and petitioned and the football players were very adamant when [02:30:03] they said we don't have turf fields and everybody else does and when we're in the huddle the other teams call us West poor and I just thought that that was such an inequity and there was a great movement and we finally got turf fields not only at west potomac but at bryant and at mount vernon high school so i just wanted to mention that thank you miss st john cunning miss lady would you like to speak to your second no no thank you all right mr dunn thank you uh i am a huge fan of west potomac um all three of my [02:30:40] children have attended west potomac and received an excellent education under the prior leadership of principal tangy millard and currently under principal jessica stats and it's clear that the turf field needs to be replaced. My concern is that we are a very large school system the 10th or so largest in the United States. We have massive massive buying power and yet we do not exercise that buying power to achieve economies of scale where we could award contracts for multiple [02:31:18] fields over multiple years we could receive discounts of up to 25 percent i've personally confirmed that with vendors that is millions of dollars that could be saved and when i talk about millions of dollars that could be saved that's millions of dollars that could go to other projects to accelerate our renovation queue which currently stands at 42 years between when school buildings get renovated um i i asked for additional information i took this off the consent agenda and I was told well the FCPS doesn't have historically an approach to renovate [02:31:57] athletic fields because very often it's funded by boosters. Well I have schools like Mount Ferdinand High School which does not have the same wealth of boosters as some schools on the western side of the county and so there is massive inequity and if we care about the one Fairfax equity policy, then we need to invest to make sure that schools like Woodson with their baseball fields, West Potomac with people being mocked for being poor, have world-class [02:32:33] athletic facilities, stadiums, bathrooms at their stadiums rather than porta-potties. I recognize we have limited tools in our toolbox, we're relying on regressive property taxes, But there's more we can do using modern procurement methodologies, leveraging our buying power and doing procurement in a strategic way. [02:32:53] And I applaud the excellence of Dr. Reed and Ms. Szymanski, but I do demand that we begin to shift to a strategic economies of scale approach so we actually achieve maximum return on investment. Every penny counts. Every penny counts. And our students deserve it. [02:33:12] They deserve it, and I just won't stand for money being wasted when every day there are students like the Woodson baseball players who are playing on inadequate facilities in one of the wealthiest places on earth. Thank you. [02:33:28] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Dr. Anderson? Thank you very much. Thank you to Mr. Dunn for pulling this off because it gives us the opportunity to have this discussion. Last summer, Dr. Reid, if I remember correctly, we replaced the turf fields at Woodson, Chantilly, and Falls Church, correct? [02:33:52] I know it was Falls Church, but I don't know that the other two were. There were three, it could have been four, but there were at least three fields that were together on one contract because I remember the conversation being that we weren't sure if Falls Church's fields were going to be done in time because the contractor had done Woodson and probably Chantilly. [02:34:13] first, but I know it was a collection, and maybe Ms. Szymanski remembers this better. So is that correct, three or four? There were three fields that were done last summer, and Falls Church was one of them. Chantilly was not one of them. [02:34:30] Then was Woodson and? It could have been Woodson and Oakden. I can get you the data more specifically. No, the school is actually immaterial. I guess I just wanted to kind of make a point. How much did that cost us to do those three at the same time? I would have to get those numbers and report that back to you. [02:34:50] Because I wonder if there were some opportunity for savings because we clustered those three, if we could apply it here. Because I wanted to couple this with the cue that I know that we, Ms. Sabinski, that you shared with me not too long ago regarding how the turf fields were going to be, well, I guess the upgrades were going to be made. [02:35:10] County supports the practice fields we do the the main fields can we not find a way to couple this with the other projects in the queue in order to get that discount I don't think we have I mean we can look at that but in meeting with the vendors and I met with the vendors actually last summer as well prior to the Falls Church field being selected and then the others were added to that certainly three fields would be somewhat less but there's still there's [02:35:50] a core amount of money required every time you add a field like they're not doing a two-for-one or a you know if you pay for two you get three there's still a significant amount of money in the millions to redo these fields so I think there could be a benefit to scale we also have to look at how many projects we can have contracted at the same time so we're happy to take a look at that to see how many fields would give the most discount at any one time I think at this summer we're actually looking at several it's not just West Potomac Annandale [02:36:26] High School also I don't know if that's on tonight's meeting or a different night's meeting but there are several fields being done this summer and we bid to multiple contractors, so I'm happy to come back with more data if that would be helpful. Is Annandale's field, as you've determined, and I'm glad to hear that as well, is that a different vendor than the one that is identified here for West Potomac? I don't think so. I think they're, I don't know, actually. I don't think so. Sure, I'm happy to provide some clarification. We're actually writing the AEPA contract, so that's already been competitively bid with negotiated rates and this year we had anticipated doing three more fields like we did three last year [02:37:06] those were annandale edison and mount vernon we got those quotes and it turned out they were low enough that we were able to slip in a fourth field and that's the reason we see west potomac broken out separately the three that i mentioned before were approved in a prior board meeting last month so this one just got added because we were able to perhaps have some savings with the other three fields that you've just named so this is not a one-off this is just a later addition because of the savings that were accrued from the other three that you've mentioned correct yes that's correct [02:37:42] you know we had awarded the three prior to make sure we had enough time they are very big projects and we want to make sure we can get them done over the summer then we were able to get in this quote and we feel like it's in advance enough to get this one done over the summer as well got it thank you that's very very helpful can you also share what the cost was for those three other fields and also the cost for the fields last summer just for comparison's sake if that's somewhat handy uh it's not i can follow up with you on that one because they vary slightly depending on the size okay right it's the size and also annandale has a structure with that light [02:38:18] pole that we're still discussing and some cement runners around the side and a request to center THE FIELD SO EACH FIELD HAS A LITTLE DIFFERENT CONTEXTUAL CONCERN OKAY AND THAT'S ALSO VERY HELPFUL BECAUSE IT'S NOT JUST THE FIELD BUT IT'S THE STRUCTURE AROUND IT I'M JUST WONDERING AND IT SEEMS AS IF YOU HAVE DONE THIS BUT JUST KIND OF MOVING FORWARD SO THAT WE DON'T END UP IN THIS POSITION IF WE COULD HAVE A BETTER CLUSTERING SO THAT WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO IDENTIFY THE SAVINGS that we would incur when we have three or four fields together [02:38:56] and that they're not necessarily single activities and projects, which we know can be much, you know, costly. That's why we all go to Costco. Well, some of us. Thank you. This was very helpful. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Mr. McDaniel, not to belabor the point. [02:39:16] Had the opportunity recently to tour Chantilly High School and look at their turf field, which is in which is in disrepair and it needs replacement, too. So yesterday I did my homework, I emailed Mrs. Manske, and we discussed this issue. We do need an athletic cue, and we've had discussions around that. [02:39:34] And I'm glad Mrs. Manske gave some comments here, because it says in the item, awarded per the competitively procured AEP 24A Athletic Surface Natural and Synthetic Field Surfaces for Sports Fields, Tracks, Courts, Playgrounds, Landscape, Application Contract Number, yada, yada, yada. [02:39:51] The fact of the matter is this is off of a term contract, it's a rider. I mean, I know I'm the youngest member of this board, but I remember when the county was putting these in and we were putting these in the early 2010s and they were well north of a million dollars to put these things in. So, you know, looking at this, I have no issues from a financial and a fiduciary perspective moving forward. [02:40:11] Could these be bundled together more? Maybe? I don't know. But they've been bundled together. They're off of a term contract, and I'm comfortable moving forward with this. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to be supporting the motion but having said that if, you know, sometime in the future, if the staff could provide us with the information regarding a remaining field for the perhaps next five to ten years, the staff thinks that should be replaced. [02:40:50] I'm talking about synthetic turf field. And as to a point that Mr. Dunn was trying to raise regarding equity, I want to point out something to my colleagues that probably Mr. McDaniel remembers this because he mentioned 2010 timeframe at the time. [02:41:17] He said that it was costing more than a million dollars. my my recollection is slightly different slightly less than that but very close to eight hundred thousand dollars but if the cost is still eight thousand dollars it has not really gone up or or we really did a good job in negotiating but initially when the synthetic turf began coming in we did rely on community to raise the money to replace the turf field you know place the turf [02:41:49] field and and and then that became an equity issue because there was communities which were unable to raise equal amount of money to place synthetic fields that's when a school system began putting in old money to place the tarp field so that in that way our school system was trying to be equitable countywide in fact those communities which had to raise money to do it they felt there was a [02:42:23] there was inequitable because they had to want raise money to do it and then the later other schools schools didn't pay for it just piece of information for my colleagues to have thank you mr moon seeing no other comments we will go ahead and vote for the motion that is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand ms seismorheiser mr mcdaniel mr mckelveen miss lady miss marron mr dunn dr anderson miss anderson miss dixit mr moon and myself [02:42:56] opposed abstentions will the clerk read the vote it's 11-0 with uh miss st john cunning away from the table the motion carries thank you all right um i do have a request from uh mr mcdaniel without objection uh mr mcdaniel would like to have his vote from when he was away at the away from the DAIS, COUNTED IN FAVOR OF THE FOLLOW-ON MOTION REGARDING DISCIPLINE INFORMATION GATHERING. [02:43:36] NO OBJECTION SEEN. MR. MCDANIEL'S VOTE IS COUNTED IN FAVOR OF THAT MOTION. ALL RIGHT. BEFORE PEOPLE START THINKING WE NEED A BREAK, WE DO NEED A BREAK. BUT THERE'S A BREAK BAKED INTO THIS NEXT ITEM. SO AGENDA ITEM 6.01 PERFORMANCE REVIEW HUMAN RESOURCES EL4 MONITORING REPORT. I CALL ON DR. REED FOR A MONITORING REPORT ON EXECUTIVE LIMITATION FOR HUMAN [02:44:01] resources so good evening chairman frisch members of the board and the public and at this time i'd like to present the second of uh i'd like to present the executive limitation number four [02:44:36] human resources and this is a um executive limitation that staff has spent quite a little bit of time on you also have a little bit of data in front of you there were two pages of data in in response to a school board member's question. [02:44:54] So I will go ahead and walk through a PowerPoint which summarizes the monitoring report that is presented this evening. Essentially, executive limitation four talks about the superintendent not failing to recruit, select, train, and appropriately compensate, a qualified and diverse workforce that enables FCPS to deliver world-class education to every student in an environment characterized high staff morale at this point there are a lot of aspects to this EL and I would certify this evening that at the time of this report to the best of my [02:45:33] knowledge information and belief I have gathered and staff have information that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic so there are five areas of executive limitation for and at this slide talks a little bit about the first two and then the remaining items in EL4 are shown on the next slide so five major points that I'll be speaking to and it does before I begin kind of speaking to those five I think it's important to note that the responsibility for supporting our staff [02:46:12] falls across many offices many departments and our schools so let's see how this all comes together number one around the valuing talent and expertise their variety of programs and where we honor and recognize our staff we've had several of those recently in our HR department in particular has done a fabulous job of coordinating organizing and implementing events and activities that have recognized staff I think in a very thoughtful way we also have employee [02:46:50] recognition programs where staff are nominated on behalf of FCPS for different teachers of the year either for the Commonwealth or in this case we have a fourth grade teacher at Colin Powell Elementary School that's been named the 2024 Washington Post teacher of the year so just we have a lot of our educators who go above and beyond and being that it is our educator teacher and support staff appreciation week I think it's timely to talk about our HR [02:47:23] executive limitation another item around characteristic one here is establishing an atmosphere of openness of civility and responsiveness that's conducive to teaching and learning and that's really important as we know and I think the The student rights and responsibilities actually done well and implemented well can support that environment. [02:47:47] The office of human resources has also developed an infrastructure that will be introducing collective bargaining to the division and that's going to be another practice that we believe done well will support again an atmosphere of responsiveness in how we work with our staff. [02:48:06] Continuing through item one, I want to remind the board, the staff and community about the Office of the Ombuds. And this is again an office that can help in resolving issues that affect student learning or the school work environment. [02:48:22] And the HR team has also launched UConnect or StaffConnect, which is a system in which applicants, employees and retirees are able to access support from our human resources department. Moving to number two of five, again, making sure we have established clear personnel rules, procedures, and accommodation requests, that regulations are posted in a thoughtful way, and that we communicate well with our Office of Employee Relations, which has reorganized their materials on the webpage and employee hub site. [02:49:00] Continuing on number two, our Employee Wellness Program is kind of an exciting program, which is an opportunity to maintain, again, favorable working conditions, and when accessed effectively, we believe could also promote staff morale. [02:49:20] Continuing on number two, the importance around protecting against discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or other mistreatment. Very important if we're going to have a culture of effective human relations practices. Again, our office of employee relations has continued to do investigations and support staff in this important area. And it's another key piece of our HR executive limitation. [02:49:50] It's important then to close out number two to indicate that we do adhere to all state and federal code and other legal requirements and align to industry best practices. Since September of 2023, HR has been working to improve the employee experience by mapping and optimizing key processes. [02:50:11] And that's really resulted, I think, in some streamlining. Today we met with several principal groups who have been very positive about their HR -- oh dear, what are they called, Mr. Smith, their HR specialists who are helping with hiring and how much smoother processes are this year than they were even a year ago. [02:50:33] So we're very excited about that. We also know that this past March, which seems like a long time ago, it was a month ago, kicked off the multi-year implementation plan of our human capital management system. There's a lot of excitement, and I think it's going to be a challenge sometimes to manage expectations because it won't cure everything, but it will certainly support our division in a much more I think efficient and thoughtful way as we move to item three this focuses on recruiting developing and retaining a highly qualified and diverse workforce salary services [02:51:10] has worked to speed up contract distribution for new hires we're really trying to close that time between applying and actually having a contract that you can sign and that we feel like that's continued to improve. We've hosted four large job fairs already this year with approximately 500 registrants for each event and we all told have participated in 62 recruitment events from August 1 to April 30th and 25 job fairs have been at historically black colleges and universities. The reapply to FCPS [02:51:48] initiative was launched to reach out to past applicants. We thought that would be good group to consider and encourage them to consider to reapply and this initiative has reached over 12,000 instructional candidates who had previously applied and we're seeing I think some benefit from that so I really appreciate the creative and resilient practices of our HR department moving to item 4 it's really important to think about how we evaluate all employees and all employee performance with evaluation processes that are fair, consistent, regular and aligned with state expectations. [02:52:27] One of the things that's important about the assessment and evaluation process is that it provides all employees with increased opportunities for professional growth and development. Process as you know is based on a supervisory cycle of reflection, observation and discussion that we believe lead each of us to improvement. [02:52:47] So employees are assessed from the beginning of service and the results are regularly reported in the evaluation. So at this point, one of the things that this talks about our office of professional learning and sort of some of the new developments that we're providing to support our new hires. [02:53:08] And at this point, Mr. Chairman, this concludes the summary for the monitoring report for executive limitation for human resources and I'm happy to take any questions thank you Dr. Reed we'll start with Dr. Anderson thank you thank you very much for this very helpful report I want to start with some things that I thought were really great highlights I know that the division does a great job of recognizing and honoring employees there are many things that go on to increase morale so I think that was a very good thing that you highlighted here and also [02:53:47] I'm glad that you raised the collective bargaining resources that are available because I know with the former board that was a point of contention because we wanted for folks to have an opportunity to be informed about the process because it is so very new to Virginia and we don't want people to get lost in the sauce so to speak. So I'm glad to see that that continues to be built out and it's available on the website. Also I can't speak enough regarding the full-time site-based substitute position that has been a game changer. [02:54:20] But I do wonder, I think the document says that there are 200 and I don't know, whatever number of 104 schools, not every school has one. That would be correct. Is it because they don't need it? Maybe not. [02:54:36] Oh, OK. So what we did is we and I again, I'm really proud of our HR team and it's it's a practice that is familiar in other states AND OTHER COUNTIES AND I WAS THRILLED WHEN WE AGREED TO MOVE IN THAT DIRECTION. [02:54:52] I THINK THAT WHAT WE WANTED TO INITIALLY DO IS LOOK AT THE SCHOOLS THAT HAD THE HIGHEST ABSENTEE FOR STAFF RATES OR HAD THE HIGHEST NUMBER AFTER THE SCHOOL YEAR STARTED PERHAPS OF EXTENDED LEAVE OR SUBSTITUTES THAT IN OTHER WORDS WE LOOKED AT THE DATA. [02:55:09] I THINK ONE OF THE KEYS OF OUR WORK MOVING FORWARD AND I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH BUT IT'S ABOUT EQUITABLE ISN'T EQUAL AND WHAT WE REALLY WANT TO DO IS MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE PROVIDING THAT STABILITY AND RESOURCE BECAUSE IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE. AFTER 10 DAYS THEY DO EARN MORE THAN A TRADITIONAL SUBSTITUTE BUT WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THE SCHOOLS THAT HAD THE HIGHEST TURN OVER NEED OUR TITLE I SCHOOLS IN PARTICULAR HAD ACCESS TO THESE SITE-BASED SUBS. I THINK AT SOME POINT PERHAPS WE'RE ABLE TO PROVIDE THEM EVERYWHERE WHERE THEY'RE NEEDED BUT WHAT WE wanted to do is provide them in the areas they're most needed right now and [02:55:47] you know that's not out just to clarify that is not my advocacy I was just wondering if the goal was to ensure that the schools that needed them have them completely satisfied because sometimes we don't need to put braces on everyone the other thing that I really wanted to highlight that I thought was a plus where the title one recruitment efforts because we know how hard it is to staff those schools and having an intentional and targeted effort to staff those schools is helpful. Having said that what I am missing from the document is the impact of these wonderful things that are happening. You went to HBCUs and had and had a job fair. How many people [02:56:26] were interviewed? How many people were hired? How does that compare with last year? You had all of these other opportunities for recruitment. I think one here says 500 registrants came. How many of those were hired how what's we need to kind of see the impact into the system and I'd like to see that included in this because that gives me some greater confidence that this thing is working it is worthwhile without the impact it's really difficult to make that connection yes ma'am we do have numbers I believe [02:57:04] we've hired already committed contracts to over 1200 which is ahead of last year mr. Smith I know you were sharing that data today do you have yes so we have me offers to 1100 1112 individuals since January and we've been providing board regular the board regular updates with our hiring practices and so we can certainly put some of that information in some of those data points into share and see how we put this into the EL4. [02:57:37] Thank you. I appreciate that. I just think it needs to kind of live here because we want to see the impact. Yes, ma'am. And having that year-over-year perspective is, again, very helpful, especially if you have the data. Can you speak a little bit to the CERCA? [02:57:53] I think there was some information here regarding how it reaches out for recruitment purposes. How does that work exactly? Is that, like, kind of, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but please. [02:58:08] So, if I may, and first of all, I would like to say that my entire team is here this evening, our directors in human resources. They sat through the SR&R discussions and are here, and they certainly do appreciate the words of the board. [02:58:27] So, CERCA is a job platform that we've identified as a way to push those job notifications out. many of us are on LinkedIn and are on other job platforms, and Circa, as part of our efforts to hire a more diverse workforce, they're able to take those job notifications and push them out to targeted groups. [02:58:49] And so you saw the breakouts for the percentages toward women, toward different racial and ethnic groups. It's a great tool for us to be able to do that in a very easy way versus having to identify one-offs and send out those job notifications or those job postings, it's a little less labor-intensive. [02:59:12] And that was kind of my assumption, that it was a format to intentionally pull people in rather than do what we typically do, which is, here's the job postings. We hope everybody comes. But this seems a little bit more intentional, so very much appreciate that. [02:59:27] The other thing that I wanted to speak to is kind of the diversity. I know this has been a point where in years past, there's been great lament on the part of the former board because we've had schools that have had zero diverse teachers or just singles. Where are we with that? And can we again see that data? [02:59:43] Have we moved the needle so or will we move the needle with the hires to come? So the 2023 percentages around administrators and teachers you have in front of you and we are moving the needle. What you're asking for is school-by-school data, which we did not prepare for this report, but we certainly can. [03:00:04] And we also, so I don't know if you, I think what would be an ETA for us to be able to provide an update to that? And to your point, Dr. Anderson, we probably should include that next year as part of that annual report. We can pull that together in the next couple of weeks. I know that the same team who would be doing that, they're heavily involved in the hiring process right now. [03:00:24] And so but we can see what the turnaround time would be and provide that to the board. One of the what I'll share with you is this evening I got an email that we hit our 100th signed contracted participate learning teacher ambassador for the coming year, which is a real celebration. [03:00:42] And what we know is and these are our out of country teachers that are coming as teacher ambassadors really to continue a focus on that global presence within the classroom. And my hope would be once our staffing reaches the level which we would expect it to in the next, I think, two to three years, then we'd even be able to do exchanges with staff, with our staff in other countries as well. [03:01:08] But what I will say is we've committed to our Participate Learning teacher ambassadors to have not ever put just one within a school, but to put several teachers in a school in terms of support. I'll also say we're very excited about the progress of that program. [03:01:25] Annually, we have over 14,000 teacher ambassador candidates that interview for 750 spots nationally. So we're really thrilled that we're able to partner. But I think the idea of not having just single candidates or single educators is really helpful to have several in a building at a time. [03:01:48] So as they learn the U.S. education system as well, we never want folks to be alone. It's good to build some community around it. Now, you mentioned the teacher ambassadors were now at 100 last summer. We were 31 or 32, so that's 31. [03:02:04] And this coming year will be at 131. So that is fantastic. Again, would love to see that because that shows the growth. What I'm looking for, as we talked about last Tuesday, is the trajectory. Are we going? What is the change? and it's hard to see that when it's it doesn't have that kind of information um one of the things that i wanted to speak to which was also exciting to see on page 11 which was the um department of education award that allowed for more mental health support at the schools how many did that yield in terms of personnel um let's see because that allowed us to pay bonuses for hiring and retention [03:02:41] bonuses dr presidio you kind of oversee that project do you have an idea of how many folks THAT'S BEEN ABLE TO HIRE SUPPORT WELL LUCKILY MY COLLEAGUE HAS THE NOTES UP RIGHT IN FRONT OF US SO IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAD 126 SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH STAFF MEMBERS THAT RECEIVED THE HIRING BONUS SO THAT'S REALLY GOOD AND 38 SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WHO RECEIVED A RETENTION STIPEND AND THEN WE HAD 21 INTERNS SO WE PRIMARILY USE IT FOR HIRING BONUS DID WE I'M FOR I'M SORRY [03:03:15] HIRING BONUS? THE GRANT STIPULATED THAT THOSE FUNDS WERE TO BE ALLOCATED FOR HIRING BONUSES AND RETENTION BONUSES. OKAY. THANK YOU. AND HOW ABOUT THE LICENSIAL RENEWALS? WERE WE ABLE TO DO THAT WITH THIS GROUP AND DO WE HAVE ANY OTHER -- BECAUSE I KNOW THAT COULD BE COSTLY AND SO I WONDER HOW CAN WE -- CAN WE SPREAD THAT AROUND WITH OTHER GROUPS? SO THAT PARTICULAR GRANT, STAFF WROTE that grant for the particular purpose of bonuses for recruitment and retention I don't believe it was written to do licensure and it couldn't be shared outside those employee groups okay I think I hear a signal but I'd like to go [03:03:55] back please thank you Dr. Anderson Mr. Moon thank you Mr. Chairman Dr. Reese I thank you very much for providing additional information regarding a diversity data and when i was reviewing the report and not seeing the data i was i was somewhat disappointed and hopefully going forward that you will routinely include the diversity data because obviously one of the goals that i see within your executive limitation number four is not fail to [03:04:32] recruit develop and retain highly qualified and diverse diverse workforce by making progress towards employing a workforce that reflects the diversity of the FCPS students and families. I know we've been making progress, but that's what I've been hearing, what I've heard over the last three decades. [03:04:54] That progress has been, for this one board member, very painfully slow. decades now the data shows seven percent of our teachers are Asians when almost 20 percent of our student populations with Asian background so we got a long way to go yes I don't know whether I have to wait another 50 years I don't know I'm not gonna be around most likely 50 years from now or or it could [03:05:28] go on for a decade but I am certainly hoping to see a faster pace but then And also, another question that I had as I was reviewing all the good data information that you have provided, I'm glad that we have made a lot of efforts for job fairs at HBCU, like a 25 job fairs number that I see is I'm wondering, especially for a certain underrepresented [03:06:04] groups such as asians and hispanic communities whether we are making equally simple equal efforts to go to their community to make to recruit teachers and other employees so i know that we sent out job notices to in general student college student associations at colleges but i think we have more work to do uh to recruit our asian staff and hispanic staff [03:06:39] i mean i want to have a you know conversation with you sometime how we can do more we can do a better job even within just fairfax county that's engaging even not just college students but their parents because a lot you know a lot of times encouragement need to come from their parents for their children going to education. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Mr. Dunn. [03:07:11] I am very impressed with your HR team. I think the work that they're doing on the HCM software is really great and it's a best practice and it's comprehensive and it's really that team is really well run. So I'd just like to compliment you because that's great. That being said, during our school board orientation sessions, we were told that they're massively under-resourced. [03:07:39] I'd like to, I don't think you probably have the data here, but we were told by Dr. Agnew Scott that, you know, the standard is one percent, although when we pushed back, it seems surrounding school jurisdictions, you know, have maybe twice as many or three times as many HR employees as we HAVE. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THAT COMPARISON AND WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE AND ANY POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO REMEDY THAT. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT IN THE FEDERAL SPACE WHEN YOU HAVE A LACK OF STAFF, [03:08:15] YOU GO OUT AND YOU GET A CONTRACTOR WHO WILL PROVIDE YOU AS MUCH AS YOU NEED KIND OF ON A you know, eat as much as you want, you know, kind of services, and so that's a potential option to meet the, you know, insufficient number of HR employees who are outperforming given their limited numbers, but as we move into a unionized environment, I think the demands of complexity will increase, so we'll need to remedy that, and I just ask you to explore that. I think [03:08:53] it's great that you're going out to HBCUs but what about maternity and paternity leave that's a major issue and the teachers have spoken to say you know they have to navigate multiple you know programs there's not really just one program in place to help employees especially since many of our teachers are at the age where they're having kids and it can be a major benefit if we provide workplace conducive to raising families. So thank you, Mr. Dunn. We are working on improving our maternity leave as we recognize that we have surrounding divisions that have a better [03:09:31] maternity leave. And I'll ask Ms. Burden to comment on that in a moment. I will also mention that I just this week had a conference with staff from the Shady Grove Fertility Clinic because we had a number of we have 236 Fairfax staff involved in IVF treatment and right now they're in negotiations with Cigna to make sure that we're able to continue to keep them in network for our staff so we sent letters our benefits department miss burden and then I met personally with four senior members of the leadership team for Shady Grove as well as sending a letter of expectation [03:10:10] to Cigna so I think we're really working hard on making sure that our staff that are starting families or continuing families here in Fairfax County feel supported miss Burton do you want to comment on our proposed adjustments to maternity leave and yes staff is working on putting together some policies and procedures for maternity leave and we hope to make that effective as of July 1 we're looking at eight weeks of paid maternity leave for employees and that is comparable to what the county provides as well as surrounding [03:10:47] jurisdictions and will that include paternity leave as well as maternity leave yes of course great I also wanted to mention you know we're doing a lot of hiring from Houston and other places where they're very diverse populations so we shouldn't just go to HBCUs we should also recruit teachers from those jurisdictions but the biggest obstacle I believe is affordable housing and the lack of it because if you look at who has the highest amounts of student loan debts relative to income it's often minority citizens in our country and so they may have the greatest financial barriers to accepting an offer of [03:11:23] employment to live in a high cost place such as Fairfax County so is FCPS looking at potentially working with the county to use county owned or FCPS owned land to establish affordable housing for FCPS employees or county employees? So it's another good question. I I don't I don't know of a formal partnership on that topic. [03:11:46] I would hope I know the county has some housing set aside for their entry level public service staff but we would certainly like to have more affordable housing for our educators in a variety of roles. So I think that's something we could certainly collaborate with the county on. [03:12:06] Okay. I'll bring some examples of local jurisdictions, national jurisdictions, offline. I also wanted to just mention Tudor.com. That's an, you know, that's, no, actually I won't because it's outside the scope. [03:12:23] Sorry, Mr. Fresh. I want to go back. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Mr. McElveen. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I agree with the vast majority of comments my colleagues have made. First and foremost, the job fairs that you have done have been fantastic. [03:12:42] It's been very impressive to see you, Frances Ivey, when she was still here, literally at the table interviewing candidates. Very, very impressive. So thanks for all your work on that. I'm so glad Mr. Moon brought up the perennial issue of diversity. [03:13:01] You know, this has been something that's been raised for years, and it's essentially a flat line. when you particularly when you look at Asian educators and so I think to his point we need to do a much better job of being creative of going out not only as as Mr. Dunn mentioned the HBCUs but also to Asian and Hispanic majority institutions whether it means going to California or wherever they may be that that needs to be a focus we can't just focus on HBCUs the data is very [03:13:36] impressive I'm glad it was provided to us but I do think we need to strive to mirror our population that's been the goal in the past and we we need to mirror our student population in terms of our workforce diversity on the morale piece I think it's it's not a surprise to anyone that morale is it probably a historic low there are a lot of causes to that I think Cigna has been an unmitigated a disaster. I'm so glad to hear that you've been working on the fertility clinic issue, [03:14:13] which is such a personal issue to many members in our community, and it's really a pointed issue that I'm hearing a lot about. So I'm glad that movement is there. I'm also hearing some issues about our wellness program being forced to use Cigna provided services, which I think is a problem given that they may not be the highest quality out there. [03:14:41] So anyway, I think the Cigna situation is something we're going to continue to have to deal with. And unfortunately, it's probably where it hits our employees at the most personal level. IN TERMS OF HIRING, OUR PROCESS AND CLASSIFICATION ISSUES ARE STILL CHALLENGING. [03:15:02] THEY'VE BEEN CHALLENGING FOR THIS BOARD, YOU KNOW, AS ONE EXAMPLE. BUT HOPEFULLY WE'LL BE ABLE TO MAKE PROGRESS AS WELL THERE. SO THANK YOU FOR THE REPORT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. MCELVEEN. MISS SIZEMORE HEISER. [03:15:21] JUST BRIEFLY. I APPRECIATE THE REPORT AND THE DETAIL THAT GOES INTO THIS AND I WANT TO ECHO -- I ECHO MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES BUT I DON'T WANT TO REPEAT THEIR STATEMENTS ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE hours so I'll just ask I do agree when I look at the the data around diversity of our teachers both Asian and Hispanic especially what would been great and I know this is put together very quickly but would be great to kind of have a chart of showing the diversity of our students right because the idea is we want to see our students reflected in their leaders the other thing that would be helpful to have and again it's a great report but helpful to have is what [03:15:53] are our mentoring and sort of leadership growth development opportunities and how are we ensuring that those that we have diverse candidates in those internally because I see this chart is broken up into teachers and educational administrators so just something to think about of how are we mentoring our you know future leaders and how are we being intentional about that mentoring and I agree I'm glad to see a couple of AAPI universities on here and other opportunities I had one question about Circa jobs. I think Mr. Smith you mentioned partnering with Circa jobs and I saw on this report card it talks about some jobs into community [03:16:32] organizations. It would be great to sort of break out a little more which organizations or have some follow-up at some point. It talks about people of color but it doesn't talk about which organizations within that. I love this sending out to to a variety of groups so this is very helpful just having a little more information would be great and I agree I think we'll keep you know So Cigna, we've all heard a lot of the issues with Cigna, and I remind, just want to remind ourselves that we have a lot of power as a large organization contracting with an insurance company, right? [03:17:07] They want us as a customer, so we should flex that power when we can to try to address some of the issues that we're seeing, and I'm glad to see that you're doing that with some of these issues, and I would encourage you to keep doing that, because they want to keep us, hopefully, so let's make them, you know, address some of the issues we're hearing. [03:17:24] yes thank you and i think there's sometimes misinformation out there about and when you actually when i spoke with shady grove they hadn't increased their rates in 18 years right like and they're not in a negotiation cycle so this really kind of caught them by surprise so just wanting to make sure that things are done with integrity because our staff are important and their personal health and decisions are important thank you miss sizemore heiser miss lady thank you great work [03:17:58] um i will just say that uh i read the the report in great detail um and i'm very pleased with a lot of things that are in place um for our employees uh one thing i might suggest is because the onboarding is so laborious and it's mostly online for teachers and probably others um i noticed something referencing in-person orientations but some people based on learning style might prefer to be in a room which is first when I got hired years ago you went into room because there was no online but you could have people that [03:18:33] answer your questions as you were going through also I just want to echo the Asian Pacific Islander institutions and the Hispanic serving institutions there's no HSIs listed here and that's an area where we have a high Hispanic population as as with our Asian population I also want to I don't think this has been mentioned anywhere but I want to say share one bit of news that I think is very good and that is House Bill 731 which eliminates the requirement for teachers to pass the Virginia communication and literacy assessment for licensure passed so you don't have to pass that anymore effective July 1 I [03:19:10] share that just because I see on Facebook postings from teachers that they're still anxious about that and we had received emails as school board members about some anxiety around that, so I just wonder if HR can push that out, and my hopes is that I understand that our new HR software will capture perhaps that information, but we don't know right now who those people are, so if we can get some communication out and then make sure that whatever form or new form for licensure is created where that piece is eliminated is readily available so people can pause who haven't passed that and wait [03:19:46] TO REAPPLY AFTER JULY 1. AND THEN THE OTHER THOUGHT WAS, MY CONCERN ABOUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING, MY WIFE'S DAUGHTER IS A SECOND-YEAR TEACHER, AND THEY LOOKED INTO SOME OF THE OPTIONS THROUGH EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, AND THEY LITERALLY ARE RIGHT ABOVE THE THRESHOLD FOR FAIRFAX COUNTY. SO I THINK THE CONCERN IS MAYBE FAIRFAX CAN DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND CREATE SOMETHING AND PART OF ONBOARDING THAT IF YOU ARE RELOCATING OR ARE YOU LOOKING for potential roommates that maybe we could facilitate some of that dialogue and communication. [03:20:22] That's just a thought. Sometimes that happens organically if someone goes to a Great Beginnings class and they haven't found a space yet, but maybe that's something we can do since we have so many new teachers every year. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. That's a good idea. I know HR was looking at that possibility, kind of a housing board. [03:20:41] And also I would just like to move, given the hour, that the school board finds the superintendent has made adequate progress towards compliance with executive limitation number four, human resources. Is there a second, Ms. Dixit? [03:20:57] Ms. Lady, would you like to continue speaking to your motion? I think I have already, thank you. Ms. Dixit, you have plenty of time. I didn't speak about this, so I'm just going to take that moment. I agree with a lot of my colleagues about the diversity aspect of it, and especially in the educational administrators, the percentage is when it drops down lower. [03:21:22] FOR THE ASIANS AND HISPANIC ADMINISTRATORS AND I THINK A LITTLE BIT OF INTENTION IS REQUIRED THERE. SO IF YOU WORK WITH INTENTION I'M SURE THE NUMBERS CAN GO UP IF THE ENTIRE SYSTEM WORKS THAT WAY AND I'M HAPPY WITH THE PROGRESS THAT'S MADE IN EVERY OTHER AREA BUT THIS IS ONE THING I WANTED TO ADDRESS. [03:21:49] YES MA'AM. THANK YOU MS. St. John Cunning. So thank you. And again, great job. I just did want to also acknowledge and thank both you and Dr. Ponsa for working with the Hispanic Educators Association as well as with the Asian American Association Asian Leadership Alliance. And I know that both of those organizations are our Fairfax County employees that are helping to support getting more people on board on our staff that support our Asian and [03:22:26] Hispanic students and to have our staff to reflect our population and I know behind the scenes you guys are doing that work and I just want to put that out there because there's a lot of work going on that we don't know about this is just something that I happen to know about that I'd like to let the board know that there is movement and sometimes we don't see it all. Thank you. Thank you Miss St. John Cunning. [03:22:48] Miss Marin. Well can we just celebrate maternity and paternity leave. That's incredible. Can we like take a moment because that is amazing. Like is there a press release going out about that? Incredible. Thank you. I think knowing literally the day you came in and what you walked into amidst one of the biggest misalignments of internal state and federal security breaches and where we are now with a new content management system for our HR. [03:23:20] it's it's like night and day so I absolutely support that you have met this goal I do want to offer that as far as retention strategies I have three things I'd like to share one is frequently asked about part-time positions especially in a central office position HR particular so I do wonder about that opportunity to offer some H some part-time positions another one well I think you actually this is in the in the plus column that you [03:23:47] you reversed or changed that regulation about a teacher who had left, you know, if they leave at the start of the school year, then they're not allowed to come back within like three years. And a lot of teachers, not a lot, but some teachers did leave, you know, during COVID to take care of families and whatnot. And a teacher contacted me and you remedied that because you saw that we had some experienced teachers who had to depart during COVID for a number of reasons. And then they came back. And I know one of them is like doing great and loves it. I do want to raise, though, an issue that this is actually something Dr. Anderson and I were talking about months ago. [03:24:16] For unfortunate situations where an employee is accused of a crime, and there isn't a clear process on how that employee is to be treated with some of the things that you listed under your ELs, such as the dignity and respect, civility, responsiveness, provides for a timely and effective handling of complaints, clear personnel rules, promoting high morale. [03:24:42] I had a situation where a teacher was accused of something wasn't told what it was wasn't allowed to talk to their colleagues wasn't allowed to talk to their students was trying to do lessons then was cut off and then the students had no lessons from their teacher at the end was found not guilty and was asked to report back to duty 24 hours later after being out months and suffering a lot of duress and I'm not sure he actually came back because he was so gutted by this so of course we need to be safe with our students and when there's instances to you know allow law enforcement to carry on but what is a [03:25:17] humane way to support our employees as well as our students because that student the students instruction got really interrupted because that teacher could not even talk to his colleagues so I really would like to see more about how do we fix that you know what are your operational procedures to do that [03:25:36] And the final thing I'll say is licensure and the state's role and I think that's something that the board and the superintendent could partner more on because I just got another email from a woman who was an outstanding educator, was trained years and years ago, stayed at home to help her kids, came back as an IA and just could not get through the hurdles of the professional licensure, making her go through and do all these. [03:25:59] She left. She's gone. She's leaving us. And like, what can we do? What are the specific things we need to do to advocate in the General Assembly? What specific laws do we need to have addressed so we can inform our legislators to remove these barriers? So that, I think, is a task for the months ahead. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Miss Marin. [03:26:20] I'll take a turn. I think Miss one of our my colleagues mentioned using the power of the organization, and I couldn't agree more. You know, case in point, Ms. McLaughlin and I brought a follow-on motion two years ago to finally give our LGBTQ employees the same family planning benefits that their colleagues have. [03:26:49] And in most of the country, that's not the case from an employer because of the way the insurance works. And where it is possible, it's because laws have been changed at the state level or because the company had enough sway with the insurance company to make that change. [03:27:06] And so we did not have to wait for the Commonwealth of Virginia to change that law. As far as I know, we may be the only school system in Virginia that ensures that our LGBTQ employees literally have all of these same rights and responsibilities as their other colleagues. [03:27:24] And they do get family planning benefits. And that's an example of the work that you and staff did to use the power of the school division with Cigna to make that happen. And so kudos to you. I know some employees who have already made use of those benefits. Another area a colleague mentioned was the crushing weight of student loans. [03:27:45] Completely agree. This is one of those things where sometimes it's not the money, it's the quality of life and the things that people worry about situation that keeps people from either staying in the job or pursuing it. And it's gratifying to know that our human resources department is actively working to help our employees sign up for public service loan forgiveness from the Department of Education. And if there's anybody watching at home still who's interested in being an educator, you can have those loans paid off, you know, in 10 years of service to FCPS if you come and teach with us as long as it's a federal loan. And people need to know that and our system will help you [03:28:24] sign up for that program. It's not the easiest thing in the world to get signed up for, but it is making a big difference for people. And then finally, while I support the effort around affordable housing, I far more prefer paying people enough to live in Fairfax County. I don't think we can build housing enough to make a dent. And I think it would be far easier for us to pay people appropriately so that they can live here and so I I encourage that kind [03:28:58] of advocacy on that on the maternity and paternity issue I agree get that press release out there that's fantastic news and one of the first things that I remember getting advocacy on as a school board member was a couple who had used up all of their leave time they both taught in FCPS and so this is a this is big deal and it's going to have a real big quality of life impact on those educators and finally i want to give kudos to our staff because my human resources advisory committee appointee [03:29:32] who is no slouch when it comes to criticizing our school division over the years has nothing but positive things to say about our team and the wonderful commitment to what she calls customer service that that she's seeing and so thank you yeah thank you mr person i also would be remiss if i didn't mention because i think we didn't put it in the report but the leave sharing and the early um provision of leave is new this year as well and i really want to thank lee burden and marty and the hr team for making sure that happens because you know all the employee [03:30:12] conversations we've had the interactions you as a board have really provide us an opportunity to TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS. AND I KNOW THAT OUR STAFF APPRECIATE IT. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP IN THAT REGARD. THANK YOU, DR. REED. IF YOU'RE NOT WAITING ON A GO BACK, GO AHEAD AND TURN YOUR LIGHT OFF. I DO HAVE A LIST. [03:30:30] I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I HAVE EVERYBODY ON IT WHO WANTS TO BE ON IT. ALL RIGHT. DR. ANDERSON. I'M ACTUALLY VERY GLAD TO HEAR ABOUT THE LEAF SHARING BECAUSE I WAS REVIEWING THAT FOLLOW-UP MOTION THAT MS. KEYS GOMARA AND I BROUGHT REGARDING THE DONATION BANK AND LEAF SHARING. GLAD TO KNOW THAT THAT'S AVAILABLE because it is available in surrounding jurisdictions. [03:30:54] I want to focus my next round of questions a little bit to the training and evaluation pieces. One of the things that we hear quite a bit when communities or staff are asked to provide feedback to the climate survey or that principal survey, how is that utilized? [03:31:13] And how is that communicated to the community and to staff in terms of the utilization of that tool? so i know that it's um i'm going to defer to mr smith on that because i know that's been a long term long time practice mr smith so with our engagement survey results we compile those results and provide those to our principles into our regions and have professional development provided to those individuals so that they can turn those results around to their buildings and then work to improve whatever areas around engagement that need to be improved and so it's a [03:31:53] concerted effort by our employee services team where they do work with our vendor they work closely with schools to provide those reports with regard to the administrator surveys we also provide that information to our region teams and they use that as part of their evaluations and follow-up feedback for their principals okay so that is part of the principles evaluation um performance evaluation yes okay so it makes me wonder because we have something in place for our principals yet i don't know what we have in place for our leadership team and razes because [03:32:31] i know that it's become best practice of a lot of companies even forbes has shared that 85 percent of you know the top 500 companies in the country are using 360 reviews do you see a space for us to consider that as a factor where we get that comprehensive um feedback regarding um performance i i mean i think anything's possible i don't know if the principal or the current one is a 360. [03:32:59] it's more of a i think a staff and a parent am i correct yeah yeah you're correct it so it's not a 360. We've had experience with 360 reviews with the leadership team in the past and I know that we've had some conversations about leadership moving forward so that is possibly something. [03:33:18] I'll be very interested to hearing more from those conversations because I think that would be a very helpful tool. The other thing that I want to raise is I noticed on the last page of of the document, there were lots of notes regarding training for staff, and Miss Lady touched upon some of that, and I'm glad to hear that there's been a little bit of a streamlining because I know our teachers have felt that there's been a lot throughout in the beginning of the year. [03:33:49] So two questions: One, how do we capture those who are coming in a little bit later because many of these are at the beginning of the year and two how do we ensure that we are discussing training for non-teachers drivers maintenance cafeteria because I have heard from um FSEAC that group they've been concerned about their level of training and if those are available I think we should capture it here as well yes ma'am I what I do know is that our office of professional learning spent a lot of time last summer really retooling the [03:34:26] training modules to make them much less onerous for staff and I know they've had some really positive feedback about that one of the things we've done for our food and nutrition as well as our drivers I want to overstate this here is provided them laptops to do training the modules without needing to provide their own mr. Sethi do you want to comment about that or mr. muick maybe I can certainly and it's also going to be an el we have used a new way of refurbishing and bringing the laptops back [03:35:01] and under dr. Reed supervision we're working towards every employee connected program which is essentially being able to provide them devices so they don't have to wait on a library computer or a shared device to finish their training but they can do it independently it also supports THEY'RE LEARNING. TECHNOLOGY IS A CRITICAL TOOL IN TODAY'S DAY AND AGE. ONE OF THE THINGS WE HAD DISCOVERED HONESTLY IS THAT WE HAD A LARGE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES THAT HAD NO ACCESS TO EMAIL. [03:35:29] IN FACT, WE HAD OUR INTERPRETERS HAD TO HAVE THEIR OWN LAPTOPS. I MEAN, WE JUST, I THINK AS WE LISTENED TO EMPLOYEES, WE REALIZED WE JUST NEEDED TO PROVIDE MUCH BETTER SUPPORT. YOU KNOW, I THINK OFTEN WHEN YOU COUPLE HIGH EXPECTATIONS, YOU HAVE TO COUPLE IT WITH HIGH support and i think mr sethe mr muick have really worked hard to make sure our employees that haven't traditionally had that access now do so we're still in the process of that but and we used refurbished laptops as we've changing them out for students as well and that's just a mission [03:36:06] critical initiative well i think that's a fantastic way of utilizing you know leftover technology because the concern from that group has been they don't know when the trainings are happening because they're relying on a manager to post something in the break room maybe because they don't have that direct access. So I'm very excited to hear that this is something that has changed. [03:36:27] One of the things that I know you've also listed here that I'm also looking to see the year over year is the rate of evaluation completion. You've shared that this is an area of concern. Where were we and where are we now? Again looking for the change. So yes ma'am we've got a A DASHBOARD FOR THAT OPPORTUNITY AS WELL AS WE HAVE A DASHBOARD FOR REQUIRED PD THAT'S COMPLETED AND I BELIEVE WE'RE AT WELL OVER 90 PERCENT THIS YEAR IN OUR COMPLETION FOR REQUIRED PD WHETHER YOU START AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR OR LAST WEEK WE'RE TRACKING THAT. [03:37:05] THE EVALUATION DETAIL WE WILL GET TO YOU BUT WE'VE REALLY TRIED TO MAKE SURE THAT GOAL-SETTING OCCURS THAT THE EVALUATION CYCLE IS DONE AND MONITORING THAT BY DEPARTMENT, SCHOOL, REGION BECAUSE I THINK WE HAVEN'T ALWAYS BEEN AS CONSISTENT AS WE COULD BE. [03:37:27] AND THAT'S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO GET CREDIT FOR THAT BECAUSE I KNOW IT'S BEEN AN ERA OF CONCERN. ENLIST THAT, PLEASE. YES, MA'AM. THANK YOU, DR. ANDERSON. OKAY. MR. DONN. CAN WE GET A COPY OF THAT MATERNITY LEAVE POLICY THAT MS. [03:37:43] REFERRED TO AS BEING READY FOR JULY 1? WHEN IT'S READY, WE WILL RELEASE IT. RIGHT. WE'RE STILL FINE-TUNING IT, BUT IT'S LAUNCHED -- JULY 1 IS OUR NEW YEAR FOR EMPLOYEES, SO THAT WOULD COME OUT AT THE TIME JULY 1 NEW CONTRACTS BEGIN, I THINK IS WHY WE'RE MAKING JULY 1 THE DATE. BUT AS SOON AS WE HAVE IT, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU DO. THANK YOU. YES, SIR. [03:38:07] WHAT DO WE DO FOR STUDENT LOANS FOR OUR POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES? BECAUSE THAT'S A MAJOR ISSUE FOR young people today? So Mr. Frisch I think really actually brought to all of our attention the support we could provide from HR to help fill out the forms for the federal loan forgiveness program and also working in Title I schools also provides a certain amount of loan benefit. Those would be THE ONLY TWO AREAS THAT I BELIEVE WE'RE FOCUSED ON AT THIS TIME. [03:38:41] OKAY. I MENTIONED EARLIER THAT I HAD BEEN TOLD THAT HR IS UNDERSTAFFED. IS THAT YOUR BELIEF AS WELL? ONE OF THE THINGS WE'VE HAD SOMEBODY COME IN AND WORK WITH OUR TEAM LAST YEAR AND THAT WAS NOT HIS PERSPECTIVE, MR. COCHRAN. [03:38:56] WE DO HAVE A NEW CHIEF HR OFFICER COMING IN SO I KNOW THAT WHEN MR. SOLOMON ARRIVES WE'RE GOING TO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW THE CURRENT ORG STRUCTURE. Mr. Smith is currently overseeing HR and we want to make sure that we're certainly staffed to do the work and I don't know that I have a direct answer at this moment. [03:39:17] I know there have been times and this may have been what Dr. Agnew Scott was referring to where even if we had the budgeted positions we weren't able to hire people and I think the hiring has improved so that our departments I know benefits was such a department in the business area. [03:39:34] We were down some folks and just making sure we could get people applicants that were qualified to hire was a challenge So I don't know that it's a budgeted position Dilemma as much as it is a qualified applicant dilemma, but I can get back to you on that Are there any surveys done with administrators to identify Problem areas with HR so that you know obviously you have a lot of great councils Which I applaud you for having but are there any periodic surveys where you know HR or someone on your team goes out and has conversations kind of one by one or maybe the [03:40:10] RASs go out and say you know what HR issues are you having so that we I get an idea of kind of the systemic problems that might exist that might not be immediately apparent. So one of the things there's an HR committee that includes representatives from principals on it for example and I know we meet with the principals associations monthly and we certainly hear when there are concerns around whatever department it is but hr i think they've provided a lot of feedback to hr i know our stack our teacher association there are a variety of hr committees um i don't know that [03:40:47] there's been a formal survey but there are certainly a number of committees i don't know mr smith you want to comment so there are many opportunities and touch points uh that principals have with senior leadership and with hr directly along with benefits all of our departments have those touch points with our administrators to get feedback about our performance and we're also able to share information during those meetings as well. [03:41:14] To what extent is FCPS seeking to go beyond the Wavy study to use data readily available commercial data sources from Indeed.com or similar service providers to tell you what the pay range should be in the DC market for, you know, special education teachers or algebra teachers like if I just read the NEA study for the states that pay their teachers the best and those that don't right and what goes into those [03:41:49] calculations or what states are most in terms of pay as you're commenting and I I think the so we look at certainly a variety of those topic areas in this region I know the HR professionals have an association they gather in you know know from all the divisions around us and compare notes so often we're looking at salary schedules that are provided so when for example for budget purposes as we were looking at different salary skills from the surrounding regions those come from more of a not indeed but more of a informal sharing among the HR [03:42:28] professionals in the region thank you besides more hyzer I'll be very quick I had one thing I forgot to mention in my first round one of the things I love the maternity and paternity leave I love the leave sharing I really like how we're trying to expand what we're doing to make this a really caring culture in a place that employees want to work and have you know variety of benefits but the one thing I'd be remiss to not mention is bereavement leave and our bereavement leave policy I've heard from some employees especially those who've had unfortunately pregnancy loss or lost infants that there's real challenges [03:43:04] around the bereavement leave and even some inconsistencies on enforcement in some ways it's left up to the principles in terms of extending leave or working I don't know the details but I've had and I think I've maybe talked to you about it in one of our check-ins amongst my 20 items I usually have in our check-ins but I think it might be good to really take another look at our bereavement leave policies and see how they are in line with our jurisdictions or best practices or just how we can maybe look at them again from the eye of creating [03:43:34] caring culture for our teachers. Yes ma'am. We'll make that a priority. Thank you Miss Sizemore Heiser. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Just one last thing. As we've talked about before I think I've been very interested in the market compensation studies that staff has taken on. So to recalibrate I see that you have the five year cyclical plan which is fantastic. But one criticism that I wanted to raise because I've gotten this feedback is in the table [03:44:10] audits I think you call them. There's been some concern that the people who are completing the jobs are not part of that survey. They're not able to contribute to the job description and the actual duties rather only the managers have been invited. So I have no idea if this is correct or not but I wanted to raise it because it's been shared with me a few times with different folks who when I've raised this as oh this is a good thing they say well nobody's asking us. So I I WANTED TO BE SURE THAT THAT WAS ON YOUR RADAR. [03:44:42] THANK YOU. AND WE HAVEN'T STARTED THE FIVE-YEAR CYCLE YET, SO IT'S COMING UP. SO THAT'S PROBABLY WHY NO ONE'S BEEN ASKED. BUT I TAKE TO YOUR POINT, A DESK AUDIT WOULD INVOLVE LOOKING AT WHAT THE PERSON IS DOING AND GETTING THEIR FEEDBACK AS WELL AS THE MANAGER'S FEEDBACK FOR SURE. [03:44:59] I THOUGHT ONE WAS DONE RECENTLY. I WANT TO SAY, WAS IT A FINANCE TECH? WHAT WAS THE FINANCE TECH? YES. THEY'RE THE ONES WHO ARE SAYING THEY WERE NOT CONSULTED. Rather principals were asked who may not have I don't know whether this is true or not. I'm putting it in your lap because we're talking about H.R. Right. And the I think that one we're still we're beginning the five year cycle this fall. [03:45:20] But you're correct. The finance tech did happen a year ago. I think last fall. Yeah. If we could just make sure they're part of the conversation. And the last thing that I wanted to ask was I noticed quite a number of things here regarding support and training for staff. [03:45:40] whether it be principals, whether it be special education teachers who I see here. There's some really fantastic things happening. I just wanted to throw this out for consideration, particularly because it was part of my experience as a baby principal, where my very first job-- and I was very excited that this was my very first job-- as a brand new principal in a new system, we were provided with a coach. [03:46:05] Not a mentor, per se, which is another principal in the division, and also not the support you would get from your supervisor, but just a coach that would just kind of really help you navigate. I wonder, with all of the folks that we have retiring, if there's some space for that to be considered, because we do want to keep our principals here, and it's a tough job. [03:46:27] Yes, ma'am, and I come from a division where we did provide a coach for every principal, so I think it is important, and I think you have less turnover. And we do have a number of folks that would like to come back and do that as well as teachers would like to come back. So thank you Dr. [03:46:43] Anderson's Mr. Dunn. All right. The size bar. Okay. Thank you Dr. Reid. We will now take a vote. The motion is on the screen. All those in favor of the motion on the screen. [03:47:00] Miss Sizemore Heiser. Mr. McIlvain Miss Lady Miss St. John Cunning Miss Marin Mr. Dunn Dr. Anderson Miss Anderson Miss Dixit Mr. Moon and myself that is unanimous for those present at the table yes Mr. McDaniels away from the table thank you all right we are for those who are reading ahead we are about to take a 10 minute recess folks can fill out the optional form or [03:47:32] submit the form online later to the clerk we will take a we will recess for 10 minutes board members [04:01:49] please return to your seats board members please return to your seats all right we are back agenda [04:02:43] item 7.01 policy review human resources EL4 the next order of business is the policy route review for executive limitation for human resources EL4 following the board's vote in September 23 and our vote at our February 8th 2024 regular meeting each year the board will review to determine if any revisions are needed before moving forward the board may also review any of the executive limitations at any time a change is needed at any time board members may provide comments on EL4 human resources to determine if any revisions are [04:03:22] needed. As a reminder, you can do this at any time, so treat it like a regular approach, talk to colleagues, etc. At this time, I now invite board members who would like to suggest revisions to EL4 to make comments. All right, seeing none, I call on Ms. Tixit for a motion. [04:03:46] I move that the school board maintains executive limitation for human resources as is currently detailed in the strategic governance governance manual. Is there a second? A second. Ms. Anderson. Ms. Dixon would you like to speak to your motion? [04:04:04] No thanks. Ms. Anderson would you like to speak to your second? Nope. Seeing no other comments we will go ahead and vote for the motion on the screen. All those in favor of the motion on the screen please raise your hand. Mr. McElvain, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn. [04:04:22] Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon and myself. Will the clerk read the vote? It's 9-0 with Ms. Leidy, Mr. McDaniel and Ms. Sizemore-Heiser away from the table. The motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item 8.01, Academic Matters. I call on Dr. Reed for Academic Matters. [04:04:43] So I am so excited to present Academic Matters this evening. So thank you, Chairman Frisch and hello, board and community. If we can tee up the academic matters this evening, we're going to have an opportunity to, given that goal four is coming up around innovative programming and enrichment and opportunities to apply core learning, we thought we'd take an opportunity this evening to share [04:05:19] a little and how this is creating a pathway to leadership development during and after high school. So we're really excited to provide this update and recognize that Lewis High School has nearly 1,700 students and this program really came about as a result of community advocacy as well as strong school board support. [04:05:42] So I'm excited to have an opportunity to share a little about this tonight. The goal for the Leadership Academy and again being this close to Washington DC, the opportunity to think about what does leadership look like and that responsibility is really exciting. [04:05:59] The program is known for its inclusivity and really its individualized nature as well as how intentional it is. And I think having attended several events there and visited with students and staff, it's really a program that's held in high regard at Lewis High School and I know one that's drawn students to the campus. [04:06:22] The impact in general when students build real-world skills and collect their learning to people in places beyond classroom walls I think is really amazing. You can see some data on the chart up here and I think they've had just a number of different trips including some of the examples of their 59 field trips include trips to the US Capitol, the Mathematical Association of America, and who wouldn't wanna spend a week there? [04:06:55] The NASA Langley Research Center, museums and universities, as well as a five-day civil rights trip to places connected to Congressman Lewis's life in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Students have had an opportunity to hear from 73 speakers who include leaders from the United Nations, CEOs of local businesses, astronauts, policymakers, poets, authors, artists, farmers, community leaders. [04:07:23] And this year alone, more than 100 students are going to earn credit for high-quality work-based learning experience. To earn this credit, students can complete an internship or service-learning project. And one of these examples is the Changemakers Project, or a collaboration that addresses hunger by building a community farm. [04:07:43] And there is a video that shows these student leaders action and I don't know if you have that accessible you do all right let's take a moment it's five minutes what you are seeing today is the culmination of what it looks like when a number of different parties come together to create a shared win and so the students have been at the forefront of that as change makers and leaders in their community they have set out a goal to build a hundred beds and each of these are half beds and by the end of the week we should have about [04:08:23] a hundred of them. And these beds are being built so that people in the community will be able to have a place where they can sow and reap and cultivate food for their families and food that makes sense within their culture. Usually students have to go outside of the school day to have these kinds of experiences. They've got an internship or volunteer somewhere. We're trying to make these experience is part of the school day. So all week our ESOL classes, our English classes, our leadership classes are coming out to this tent and working together to create positive change. I really love to see the 9th grade, 10th [04:09:00] grade, M12 grade students who wouldn't normally be in the same space, students who speak different languages working together to create the change they want to see in the world. Personally I feel that this project is very important because zero hunger or food insecurity is a huge global problem and issue around the world. Many people or their families have experienced this and we just want to contribute towards the lessening of this food insecurity and we want to make food available for everyone at EATS. [04:09:31] This is the longest I have ever seen any of these students not reach for a phone. [04:09:48] It's a way for teachers to really see what engagement looks like and how that can happen. How do you like it? Things that you are doing, the efforts that you have already made are going to make a difference in the lives of people in this community. [04:10:25] So I want to say thank you for what you have done, and I want to say thank you for what you're going to be doing here today. I am really proud of doing this, and it was such hard work. It makes me feel like super happy because there's going to be a lot of people who are going to have food, and yeah, that makes me happy, just seeing people happy because they have food. [04:10:49] There's no way our staff could have done it, like, build a whole community part alone. We needed community partnerships, and so that's what this is, and I think it's crazy and awesome. [04:11:04] And so I know it's 11 o'clock, but I just really appreciate the energy that this program brings, and it's often the activities outside the classroom that are the classroom. [04:11:36] So it's my pleasure to introduce Dr. Debra March, who is the leader of this academy and have her finish up Academic Matters, although I will return to the very end. So Dr. March. Thank you so much, Dr. Reed. And I'll get to these talking points in just a moment, but I am a little emotional just watching my students on this screen. [04:11:57] That was my classroom that we in the wonderful Lewis High School library that we moved the furniture out of to build those garden beds. And it really means a lot that you all are here learning about this program and continuing to support this program. So the next slide talks a little bit about teacher voice and student voice. [04:12:14] You know teacher and student voice are really at the center of the Lewis leadership program. program. We have several structures that are really inspired by Congressman Lewis commitment to democracy and to human dignity. We really believe that people should shape the systems that impact them. So we have a student advisory board in English and a student advisory board in Spanish, as well as a teacher advisory board, a teacher team and a community working group. And so these structures really ensure that we shape this program around the needs and the hopes and the realities of the students and the community of Lewis High School. [04:12:53] You'll see this long quote. It's from an amazing teacher leader. And you see this photo of Corey Ellis, who's been teaching at Lewis High School for 25 years. And one teacher explains that we are seeing that student voice has been elevated. Student belonging has increased and positive outcomes have resulted when we invest in students power to shape their own lives and to create positive change in their school, their community and their world. [04:13:19] When we invest in meaningful experiences for students, we also positively impact the culture of Lewis High School. And so, you'll see in this student quote, and this is Delia, shout out to Delia, she says that, you know, you start to believe that adults want us to succeed and want us to have opportunities to make change and that we're valued and that we're appreciated. [04:13:42] The students of Lewis in just the second year of this Lewis leadership program, understand that people in our community, people in our nation, and even John Lewis's family are invested in them as individuals, as human beings, and as change makers. And it's making a difference in their daily experience of school. [04:13:59] On the next slide, we just want to link up to the strategic plan because we know that we're talking about one high school, but we're also talking about our whole school division. High school in particular stagnates when it comes to innovation. And it does so for many reasons, right? and many reasons that make sense to us because students have to graduate on time and go on to college but we want to spur innovation in high school because that's where engagement decreases the most when you look at student self-report for engagement in school so to advance the street excuse me to advance the strategic plans goal of expanding access to meaningful learning opportunities that foster success during and after high school schools [04:14:37] and educators need to learn from one another and that's what we're doing at Lewis we're We're not just keeping it at Lewis High School, but we're learning from one another about how to foster teacher agency, teacher creativity, student voice, student belonging. The Lewis Leadership Program supports division-wide innovation connected to student voice, portrait of graduate attributes, work-based learning, and deeper learning experiences for all students. [04:15:01] And the role of student voice and teacher agency in the program's development also serves as a model for other leaders seeking to innovate and transform schools. And I'm proud to say that my students, including newcomer students who have just arrived to this country this month, have presented, have shared their experiences and their advice to school leaders across our division in order to foster innovation shaped by their realities and their needs. [04:15:26] After a field trip to the birthplace of Congressman Lewis that we took last April, one student wrote, and this is a Project Zero thinking routine, I don't know if you all love Project Zero, it's the I used to think, but now I think. student wrote that I used to think only adults could impact the world but now I think that kids can change the world too. Imagine the world that might result from every student at Lewis High School and indeed every student in our division believing that they have the power to change the world. Thank you for your continued support of the Lewis Leadership Program. It means so much to all of us at [04:16:00] Lewis High School. Well well and that is academic matters. I wish I could bottle that enthusiasm and passion right thank you so much Dr. March a serious inspiration so that's academic matters we'll take any questions that you have and if they're hard I'll ask Dr. March to come back up thank you Dr. March and Dr. Reed we will begin with miss Dixit so it was very inspiring Dr. Reed and thank you so much for coming and giving this presentation I am totally [04:16:38] impressed and I wanted to say that the work their students are doing I want every high school the students should be doing the similar work. This is how we get them engaged and then take them away from their phones, which has been a topic of discussion all evening, and them doing engineering and other things with their hands and getting involved in projects like this. I can take hundreds of these. I don't know if they're taking orders. But this is a good business plan by the way everybody's asking for these raised beds these days um yeah other thing [04:17:15] was um i uh wanted to see if similar projects can be introduced uh with other models of leadership which can be some other arts based or science based but this is again a really great achievement thank you thank you miss dixon and a big shout out to principal alfonso smith as well for his SUPPORT AND DR. PRESIDIO AND HIS TEAM. SO IT'S A TEAM EFFORT, BUT DEFINITELY APPRECIATE THE KIND COMMENTS. THANK YOU, MS. DIXIT. MS. ST. JOHN CUNNING. SO I COULD TALK FOREVER ABOUT THIS [04:17:53] PROGRAM BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING. AND I SAW ON THE VIDEO CHANEL GREEN FROM THE WISH CENTER WHO I HAD WORKED WITH BEFORE AND ONE PABLO FROM ORCADIO FARMS, BIG COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS. BUT I'M NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT ALL OF THIS. I'VE MET A LOT OF THE KIDS ON THE LEADERSHIP TEAM. THEY'RE amazing but what I what I really want to do right now and use my time to is give the names of everyone that supports this because this would not happen without the teachers and the adults from principal Alfonso Smith and the two principals that I personally know and have worked with is assistant principal Eric Giblin and assistant principal Matt [04:18:28] Johnson obviously Deborah March, Carl Jones, Kelly May, Corey Ellis, Jessica Dvorak, Aggie Kowalski, Skylar Verloop, Lauren Hill, Nicholas Wood, Chelsea Leighton, Mimi Marquette, Kelly Burke-Saldana, and Mirelia Torres. [04:18:46] These are specifically the teachers that work with this, but I know the entire leadership, education team, librarians, office staff help support this. And I just really want to say kudos, particularly during Teacher Appreciation Week. [04:19:03] This would not happen without your leadership and enthusiasm, and you know that I'm your BIGGEST CHEERLEADER THANK YOU MS ST. JOHN CUNNING DR. ANDERSON THANK YOU I DO WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT TO SAY THANK YOU TO I THINK THE FORMER BOARD MEMBER WHO KIND OF BIRTH THIS WHOLE THING MS KEYS GAMARA WORKED SO HARD TO BRING THIS FORWARD INTO THE DIVISION AND I HOPE YOU CAN PACKAGE THIS UP AND SHARE THIS WITH HER BUT I THINK SHE WOULD BE VERY EXCITED BY WHERE THIS HAS BECOME BECAUSE I REMEMBERED THE WORK SESSION WHEN SHE BROUGHT IN FOLKS ALL THE conversation she's had with Dr. Presidio in order to make this a reality because [04:19:43] she really wanted to instill something special at Lewis High School so that the students can have pride in their school that they may not see in other places so there is a space for that little niche to be carved out because you're trying to to uplift and to uplift that community in some ways and one of the things that you said earlier really struck me where you said it's attracting students. Can you quantify that? Are we seeing students coming to the school for the [04:20:11] academy? I know it's just the second year so it's still new but I was part of the goal when this was first introduced. Right so I know that's one of the possibilities because students given that it's an academy course can choose to select in. We're in the middle of registration right now so I don't know if we have the numbers uh for this year for next um do we dr presidio i certainly don't know those off the top of my head but that's something we could get to the board i would be very much um [04:20:49] interested in having that and how many students are there this year in the academy dr marsh in the school board's wisdom and the community's wisdom the program is actually multifaceted so all of lewis high school's 1700 students are in the lewis leadership program and there are are different levels of involvement so for example all students receive a concept-based curriculum focused on leadership justice service and advocacy in their core and elective classes that's why we have the teacher team because instead of imposing some curriculum from outside or on high the teachers are trying to figure out what does this mean for world it's opt-in to [04:21:29] one-off experiences and those are those field trips guest speakers mentorship events and then students who want a deeper level of engagement are free to join us for internships externship service learning experiences like the one that you saw but also like the one that was pictured of the National Labor Relations Board for example sponsored eight of our students to become student ambassadors to learn about workplace justice workplace rights and to understand from the employers perspective the employees perspective what does justice look like in the workplace just two examples and eventually original courses will come connected to leadership justice service in advocacy and in that case that was speaking to that question about students [04:22:08] transferring in if the you know if there is interest in thinking about this as a traditional Academy that would involve exploring original courses and thank you for that reminder I did forget that this was embedded throughout the school it's not typical of the Academy programs so much appreciated any other kudos that I want to bring forward is what I hear from my community that had a name change with his you know Justice High School they see the renaming of Lewis of Lewis High School and the Academy and the involvement of his family has really embedded a deeper level of learning than we could have ever had that I think [04:22:47] we've ever had with other renamings of high schools it's really part and fabric of the school and not just a name change so great work and please share this with Ms. Keys Gamara Dr. Anderson Mr. Dunn can you share what were the models for this program within a school or school within a program so I joined in my position in 2022 and there was some community exploration that happened before me and so we looked at local and national benchmarks that involved you [04:23:21] know school-wide enrichment model like in DC public schools we looked at the Edison's global STEM program, for example, as a very recent model of what this could look like in FCPS. But truly, what resulted was the honest result of community engagement. There was a multi-phase student, staff, and family engagement process that involved lots of ideation that ended up yielding not a finished program, but instead a multi-year process for creating a program with the community voice at the center. [04:24:00] It sounds like such an amazing opportunity to be creative both for students and for staff and administrators. What is, is there a cost associated with this? And is this money coming from additional appropriations from FCPS or is it coming from outside organizations? [04:24:25] So I'm looking at Dr. Presidio to correct anything that I misspeak on, but our original budget, I believe, was $400,000 and change, and most of that was focused on funding. So we have my position, which sits in central office, in order to spur innovation, instructional innovation, and connections with division-wide priorities. [04:24:45] We also have an assistant principal, Eric Giblin, who's an indispensable partner in the work, and so he guides school-wide implementation, and connects the program to school-wide priorities. And we have the amazing Maria Salania Torres, who is our work-based learning resource teacher. [04:25:04] So when you saw more than 100 students are getting work-based learning credit for their service learning projects, we're gonna make that 1,700. All of Lewis High School students are going to earn high-quality work-based learning experience through their world history and health and PE courses over the next three years. [04:25:22] so that as students are learning the content, they are also making a positive change in their school and community. So in addition to those three positions, we also have 20 staffing sections. That makes it possible for me to collaborate every other day during block two with teachers so that the curriculum is developed on the ground from the professionals who are doing the actual work, and those teachers become instructional leaders in their departments to spread the concept-based curriculum that we're developing in ways that are relevant and job embedded and actually meet the needs of the students that we're serving. [04:25:59] - All the field trips, it seems like that would cost something extra 'cause that's a huge number of field trips. - Yeah, so in addition to the staffing, which is the majority of our budget, we do have, and I don't have those numbers off the top of my head, but we have, I don't want to misspeak, money for curriculum development, so hourly curriculum development and student experiences. [04:26:22] But, you know, for example, that Changemakers project, it cost us less than $700. Our community partnerships, they provided the truck, the ISEC, the carpenters, and, you know, architects provided the materials and the supervisors on the site. We paid for two school buses, three chaperones, you know, it was minimal. [04:26:42] And so a lot of these experiences really are the work of those of us who have these staffing positions. We're making those connections because there are amazing things in our community, amazing people who want to support our students, and it just takes that on-the-ground work of connecting those opportunities to the students who want and need them. [04:27:00] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Thank you, Dr. Reed. Thank you, Dr. March. All right. Thank you. All right. [04:27:15] Agenda item 8.03, Superintendent Matters. I call on Dr. Reed, unless you'd like to skip. I think in light of the hour, I'd be happy to pass on superintendent matters agenda. [04:27:35] By agenda my item agenda item 8.03 fiscal year 2025 approved budget, Dr. Reid. So good evening board members, Chairman Frisch and members of the FCPS community tonight. [04:27:57] I'm going to be sharing the FY25 approved budget and for Fairfax County Public Schools. I know that there is yet a process to go, but this evening I want to share the update for the approved budget. [04:28:15] So the next slide, I want to share that the FY25 advertised budget included a transfer request of two point uh two thousand let's see here um anyhow included a transfer request or an increase of 254 million however on may 7th which was last week the board of supervisors adopted their final budget uh with a transfer that actually ended up being 89 million less than our request additionally the virginia general assembly adjourned the 2024 regular session [04:28:52] without adopting a state biennial budget for FY 25 26 which has required us to take a bit of a speculative however conservative and prudent approach to anticipated state revenue we do understand i think this evening we saw a news note that perhaps they have reached a decision in the general assembly that we might be made aware of by saturday so we're hopeful we'll see the state revenue but the result is a 16.3 million reduction compared to our advertised budget [04:29:25] one of the early indications again suggests that the state budget could actually be in by saturday on a more positive note we've been able to recognize an additional 1.5 million in available funding due to actual revenue received related to tuition payments for thomas jefferson high school for science and technology unfortunately however the revenue adjustments have required 103.9 million of expenditure reductions given the transfer from the county as well as our very conservative sort of forecast for [04:30:02] what may or may not be coming from the state so to balance that I'm recommending at this time a reduction in the proposed compensation adjustment from 6% to 3% percent which will save us the 85.4 million and we'll do this in part also by shifting the 6.5 million in funding for the erfc deferred retirement option to year end for fy 2024 and finally we have a reduction placeholder of approximately 12 million pending the state [04:30:34] budget action so we will i believe have more information about that and have a focus of THE NEXT SLIDE PLEASE. THANK YOU. A FOCUS OF OUR BUDGET PROPOSAL HAD BEEN TO CATAPULT BEGINNING TEACHER SALARIES AND AGAIN THE BEGINNING MASTERS TEACHER SALARIES TO NUMBER ONE IN OUR REGION. [04:31:04] HOWEVER, AS A RESULT OF THE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER THAN REQUESTED FUNDING LEVELS, OUR IMPROVEMENT IN BEGINNING SALARIES WILL BE A BIT MORE MEASURED, MOVING FROM SEVENTH PLACE OUT OF EIGHT TO SIXTH place out of eight one of the key reasons why I've made the determination at this point pending our information around what the state may or may not provide in a in terms of an increase is this state language we want to maximize the funds that we're able to receive from the state [04:31:41] for the three percent pay increase for soq instructional and support positions when the state budget includes funding for these pay increases they typically stipulate language requiring divisions to take an equivalent action to be eligible for this funding therefore we've provided you with a very specific language that's included in the general assembly assembly conference committee budget and this is something that we have to certify to the department of education with our annual school report that in fact we have followed this expectation so in thinking about this I just want to remind us about how we got [04:32:21] here and essentially we got here based on some assumptions and when I put out our proposed budget one of the things that the assumption we made was a traditional or historic fifty two point six percent transfer from county from the county based on revenue that would have resulted in close to 60 million dollars difference which at about 30 million for each percent of salary increase for all educators in the division represents about two percent of salary increases the general assembly conference budget also which [04:33:00] was not approved by the governor at the time or as of this evening would have resulted in fcps receiving 43 million more than our current assumptions again another percent so what that represents is the three percent gap that we're not able to make that we did forecast was possible when i proposed the six percent increase what i can say is that if additional funding comes in from the state in excess of the 12 million needed to close the gap and if that money or moneys should become available i'll likely be recommending the restoration of as much of the [04:33:38] originally planned salary increase as possible i want to remind those watching because i know the board does not need a reminder about the jlark opportunities if we could go to the next slide please thank you again the general assembly is largely and again we may be i'm hopeful will be really pleasantly surprised this weekend as we learn more about the state budget but in general at least to this point the general assembly has really largely delayed action on this topic recall that earlier this fiscal year the joint legislative audit and review commission which is [04:34:17] what jlark stands for released a report showing that virginia school divisions receive less per student funding than the 50 state average, the regional average, and three of Virginia's five bordering states. Per JLARC calculated estimates, adoption of all near and long-term recommendations would actually total 568.7 million for FCPS. That would enable us to do a lot of amazing work and make sure that our educators benefited from a salary that would enable them to continue to live [04:34:53] or afford the cost of living here in Fairfax County unfortunately the General Assembly has essentially delayed action on these recommendations by continuing to request further study again we hope that that further study has led to positive outcomes hoping to be announced this weekend so the preliminary year-end recommendations I just want to remind the board community and staff who may be watching that we have made preliminary commitments outside of the fiscal year [04:35:27] 25 budget process but still very important to know that we will be presenting the fy 24 year end as a scheduled new business item on july 11th this summer and this will include the 30 additional minutes for extended day contracts for special education teachers funding discussed a few slides ago as we're sliding the erfc drop option program and our startup for the high school athletic expansion so lastly i just want to remind everyone that there is a budget development calendar which [04:36:05] has gotten a lot smaller as we near the end of this process but this evening you're essentially hearing my approved budget on may 14th there will be public hearings on the budget and then the board AS YOU KNOW, ON MAY 21ST, WE'LL BE HOLDING A WORK SESSION TO DISCUSS ALL ASPECTS OF THE BUDGET AND HOPEFULLY BY THEN WE'LL ALSO HAVE THE STATE DOLLARS. [04:36:31] AND THEN ON MAY 23RD, THE SCHOOL BOARD IS SCHEDULED TO ADOPT THE APPROVED BUDGET AND WE BEGIN OUR FISCAL YEAR 2025 ON JULY 1. SO CHAIRMAN FRISH, THAT IS MY APPROVED BUDGET PRESENTATION. [04:36:47] THANK YOU VERY MUCH, DR. REED. BUDGET CHAIR DR. ANDERSON TO GET US STARTED. THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR THIS PRESENTATION. AS YOU ALL RECEIVED THIS PRESENTATION AND MULTIPLE OTHER DOCUMENTS YESTERDAY. WE DO KNOW THAT THERE'S A LOT OF INTEREST IN THE BUDGET. IT'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS THAT THIS BOARD UNDERTAKES. BUT WE ALSO REALIZE, I HOPE WE ALL REALIZE, AS INDICATED YESTERDAY, THAT WE HAVE A WORK SESSION THAT IS SCHEDULED FOR THE 21ST. I THINK WE ARE HOPEFULLY WELL positioned at that time to have received final state numbers which may impact this landscape [04:37:25] so i do ask my colleagues to hold your questions until that point if you must make comments please keep them super high level and brief but the comments i'm sorry the questions we're hoping to really dig into it during the work session which will be in a couple of weeks i as you all know i have lots of questions but i will be holding them all done thank you um i appreciate that you used the 568.7 million dollars. Thank you. That means a lot to our students and schools that need every penny of the underfunding from the [04:38:04] state. You talked a lot about what what was not provided but the county provided a hundred and sixty five million dollars in additional funding this year and it's my understanding that's the largest increase in at least 10 years. Is that your understanding as well? I would defer to Ms. Burden since since I haven't been here the last 10 years? [04:38:29] - Yes. - Okay, so it's the biggest increase we've seen in a decade. I know I started my education advocacy working my tail off to get $88 million added to the budget to save high school sports, performing arts, language immersion from elimination, and Ms. Marin was deeply involved in that. [04:38:48] My calculations from the data I have shows that every teacher in IA could receive least at least a 7% raise if you just focused on on that group who tends to be the most underpaid relative to market and obviously at the center of our of our educational mission you could also provide differentiated pay for school based employees and provide at least at least a 4% raise for all school based employees and potentially more this budget doesn't propose differentiated pay [04:39:24] even though the following motion directed differentiated pay options to be provided so could you provide a little background on on why you decided to go instead of providing options for the school board to be able to make determinations as to which groups to include or not include and to kind of focus the pay on the areas where we have the greatest need which is teachers because we have a national local teacher shortage we're eating the seed corn of our special education teachers i'm just trying to understand the three percent across the board [04:39:58] it doesn't solve the problem right what i would say at this point is i think that the contributions of each and every one of our staff members in this division in the role whatever unique role it is whether they're a teacher an ia a family liaison a grounds worker a driver a food and nutrition worker an office worker a finance tech everyone's giving it their all when they come to work. And when I look at the slide four on the state language for the salary increase the language [04:40:32] is clear and I have to certify the VDOE that we have equivalently provided a share of a three percent salary increase to all SOQ funded instructional and support positions. If we if how do i say this so for my chair i feel like the three percent i can certify that i hope and dr anderson mentioned it as well i hope that the state comes through with more than we think they will should that occur i think that's going to provide ample opportunity for a conversation at [04:41:07] the work session for the board to make decisions or observations or thoughts about what to do above that three percent threshold but i don't want to lose any of the opportunity to receive the 3% from the state. I appreciate you sharing this language because I've been told this language is the obstacle to paying more than 3%. I want to be really clear to my colleagues. That is an incredibly bad legal advice that you've received if that is the legal advice that you've been provided. What this says is up to 3%. That's what they're going to give you. They'll give you 3% [04:41:43] and no more. Just like for my thrift savings account in the federal government, they'll pay me up to five percent matching but they won't pay more than that but I can contribute more just like in this case this language does not pose any legal obstacle to paying teachers and structural positions SOQ positions more than three percent it just says they won't match beyond three percent so I just asked greater consultation with other lawyers who might provide better legal advice because that is not an obstacle and we do have to address the real problem which is the teacher shortage and and and making sure that we [04:42:20] have world-class teachers but I also support increasing pay for all school based positions the cafeteria workers the school bus drivers everyone who cares for our kids transports our kids make sure our kids are safe and educates them should receive a substantial increase I don't believe the same for administrative positions and so I look forward to having that conversation [04:42:40] Thank you Mr. Thank you Mr. Don. Mr. Moon. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the presentation but I feel so sad that we are in this situation having to deal with a close to more than a hundred million dollars potentially of a gap we have to meet within the next two weeks that you know we are very hopeful the beginning of this budget deliberation that we would be able to raise our teachers compensation to a really [04:43:19] reasonable level but based upon the budget reality that will not be the case and that makes me really really again sad you know having said that i need to ask a a few more questions along the line of what mr don has already asked about the 30 percent that's being mandated by the state we need because we need to be matching states a giving us three percent uh you know asking us by By giving us a 3% increase funding from the state for the SOQ positions, we have to certify [04:43:58] that we are giving our instructional and simple employees 3%. My question is whether they mandate, mandating us 3% increase in every single SOQ positions or is that the aggregate number has to be a 3% above the last year's number? [04:44:19] Could somebody answer that question? I THINK SOMEBODY COULD ANSWER THAT QUESTION, MS. BURDEN, I KNOW, HAS ANSWERED THAT SEVERAL TIMES. YES. YOU CAN -- IT'S AN AVERAGE, SO IT HAS TO BE 3% SYSTEM-WIDE. SYSTEM-WIDE. [04:44:35] IT'S NOT JUST EVERY POSITION HAS TO GO UP BY 3%. OKAY, THAT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING. I JUST WANT TO HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT WAS BEING PRESENTED TO US ON PAGE NUMBER so so 43 million dollar number that i see if the a general assembly by saturday with the governor [04:45:06] reach an agreement to you know fund us at the level of conference committee's agreement then should we be expecting another 43 million dollars so that we can get the delta of 103 million dollars to about 60 million dollar level is that fair that's correct I think that's a fair assessment okay Miss Burden I'm sorry I didn't understand the question I think well do you want to repeat [04:45:41] the question my question is the 43 million dollars if we get the conference committee's level of funding from General Assembly this Saturday with the governor's agreement consent it then does that mean that our belt of 130 million dollars will be reduced to 60 million dollars yes that's correct okay and that placeholder of 11 million [04:46:16] dollars that I see that I saw on page page 2 at the bottom reduction place order pending state budget action of that I guess close to 12 million dollars that's going to be part of the 43 is that correct I guess my question is [04:46:51] whether we are expecting we are hoping that additional funding from General Assembly is that 43 million dollars plus another 12 million dollars or it is 43 million dollars and max well I guess at minimum we would hope that we at least get the 12 million so that we don't have to cut an additional 12 million from our budget but in in the best of possible worlds we would get the 43 million okay 43 is the best [04:47:23] scenario but we are hoping to get at least 12 uh we're not we're not hoping for 55. well we'd take 55 too i'm sure we'll take uh as much as we can but we're not realistically expecting 55. all right thank you thank you mr moon mr mckelveen thank you uh so i agree that this is so very disheartening for our staff. Just one anecdote. I was driving home from work yesterday listening to NPR and their lead story was about the budget adoption by the county. And they said that the county [04:48:03] had approved a three cent tax rate in order to fully fund the schools. And so I don't know whose talking points they're reading, but we need to make sure that the message out there that they are not indeed fully funding the schools I've been too busy today to reach out to them but I want an on-air retraction of that story and I hope that other outlets have not picked it up because it's fundamentally false as we all know I'll just make one other point and not ask questions for guidance of the budget chair this is the second academic chairs matter in a row that we [04:48:41] have had that has featured a member of the Board of Supervisors and I would I WOULD REQUEST THAT WE HAVE NO MORE OF THESE PRESENTATIONS FEATURING THEM UNTIL THEY FULLY FUND US. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. MCELVEEN. MS. JOHN CUNNING. THANK YOU, MR. MCELVEEN, FOR BRINGING THAT UP. [04:49:01] I HEARD THAT SAME NEWS REPORT AND MY JAW DROPPED. SO WE DO NEED TO CORRECT THE RECORD. I ALSO WON'T ASK QUESTIONS. I WILL SAY THAT I'M EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. AND FROM WORKING ON DOWN IN THE TRENCHES, AS I WOULD SAY, I KNOW THIS IS SO BAREBONES. [04:49:20] I know we have this is not just a need I mean we said the absolute needs but we have so many more needs and it's very frustrating for me because I thought I would have more power to not have have the situation but the correction of the story is super important to me. [04:49:42] Yes ma'am and yes sir I will have communications on that. I have not heard the story but that would not be accurate. Yeah, communications already alerted us and they're on it. And apparently NPR has agreed to do a update correction. [04:49:58] Thank you, Miss Burton. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunningham. I'll take a quick turn because I just want to correct the correct, correct the record if possible. Has anybody given you legal advice that we can't give more money if we have more money than the three percent? No, no. [04:50:16] And as part of your presentation, did you indicate that if there is more money to go over the three percent, that um other considerations could be made absolutely and i think you could even make some other considerations with this i'm just not i'm proposing a budget that is three percent i provided and staff have provided a number of answers to budget questions that give a variety of ways that could be differentiated if the board chooses to have that conversation or go down that path the budget i'm proposing doesn't do that and so to access the full match from the state to [04:50:53] REACH THAT 3% THIS DOCUMENT LAYS OUT HOW MUCH WE WOULD HAVE TO COMMIT FOR THAT GOBBLES UP A HECK OF A LOT OF THE MONEY THAT WE'RE EXPECTING THAT'S CORRECT ALL RIGHT SEEING NO OTHERS MISS MARIN THIS IS THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW NOW A CHRONIC PATTERN OF GOVERNOR YOUNGKIN NOT BEING ABLE TO DELIVER A BUDGET TO FUND PUBLIC SERVICES AND PUBLIC EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA IT'S NOW A PATTERN AND THE GOVERNOR CONTINUES TO HOLD SCHOOL BOARDS LIKE OURS ACCOUNTABLE FOR PROVIDING [04:51:29] excellent services, and yet does not allow us the time to actually plan as best as we can. When I advocated for that $88 million years ago, I never imagined I would be sitting here with an even bigger gap. And that was the year when we knew the schools asked for more, and the county provided more, but it still wasn't enough. I'd like to know what our county partners are doing to actually help us resolve this this issue i've heard lots of of desire to have the state act but without knowing what the state should be doing we can't help lead that [04:52:08] charge i look forward to the work session and thank you for presenting us with what could be possible dr reed thank you miss marin mr dunn i appreciate my uh the chair's uh questions uh how HOW MANY SOQ INSTRUCTIONAL AND SUPPORT POSITIONS ARE THERE IN DEVA LIST? [04:52:31] WHAT I UNDERSTAND IS SOQ POSITIONS ARE ALL POSITIONS IN THE DIVISION. HOWEVER THE STATE DOESN'T FUND THE NUMBER OF POSITIONS REQUIRED. SO MS. BURDEN DO WE HAVE A NUMBER? WE ARE WORKING ON IT. [04:52:47] MR. MCDANIEL PUT FORTH A BUDGET QUESTION ASKING THAT AND IT IS IN DEVELOPMENT. WE JUST GOT IT A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO AS FAR AS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOQ AND WHAT'S required by SOQ and what we actually have. So my understanding Mr. Don just in the back of the napkin is that they might fund a certain class size level number of elementary teachers for example but Fairfax County traditionally has a lower class size so we had more elementary school teachers than what is SOQ funded by the state so if we were to decide I don't know that we're able [04:53:24] to differentiate to say well if we have if we add i'm making this up if we add a hundred more elementary teachers to keep class sizes down because that's a value fairfax county has had we don't name which 100 of those people they are and it would be kind of random as to who they were that wouldn't get a pay increase or would like i don't know how to i don't think we differentiate them in the budget we don't but we prob i know not probably i've been told almost every division in the commonwealth as more positions than the soq funds that's where local funding comes in to [04:54:02] meet that gap so do i understand correctly that soq instructional support positions are a subset of the 15 000 teachers in fcps i'm going to guess that's a statement but they encompass every category of employee but not the true number in every category is how i would would describe it. Yeah, it's every category from superintendent, assistant superintendents, chiefs, instructional aides, teachers, tech people. It's everybody. It's just not the number of everybody, right? Like the state says, if you have this many students, this is how many people [04:54:41] you should have. But what I'm told is every division usually adds more than those people FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS, AND THEN THOSE ARE NOT SOQ-FUNDED, SO LOCALLY WE'RE PAYING A LOT TO MAKE UP THAT GAP, LIKE MORE COUNSELORS, FOR EXAMPLE, THAN ARE SOQ-FUNDED. [04:55:00] SO YOU NEED TO DETERMINE THE BASE MINIMUM, THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE WE GET MATCHED FOR, AND BEYOND THAT, WE HAVE DISCRETION. IT'S LOCAL MATCH. OKAY. THANK YOU. YES, SIR. [04:55:17] THANK YOU, DR. THANK YOU, DR. REED. ALL RIGHT. AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 9, CONSENT AGENDA. Robert's Rules provides for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion. [04:55:32] Many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda is on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? [04:55:50] Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. Agenda item 10, new business. The following are new business agenda items. THERE WILL NOT BE A VOTE ON THESE ITEMS THIS EVENING BUT ACTION IS SCHEDULED AT A FUTURE MEETING AGENDA ITEM 11 BOARD COMMITTEE REPORTS I WILL CALL ON THE FOLLOWING STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRS TO SPEAK IF THEY HAVE ANYTHING TO REPORT AUDIT COMMITTEE MR. MCELVEEN DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO REPORT GIVEN THE LATE HOUR NOTHING TONIGHT THANK YOU BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIR DR. ANDERSON ANYTHING TO REPORT WORK SESSION ON THE 21ST BRING YOUR QUESTIONS AT THAT POINT [04:56:25] THANK YOU CPDC CHAIR MR. DUNN ANYTHING TO REPORT YES WE HAD A VERY EXCITED Exciting presentation from John Keegan of Gilbane on public-private partnerships, and I will be seeking to establish a forum topic and work session for the fall to discuss the opportunities to leverage public-private partnerships for a variety of functions, including school renovation and construction. [04:56:51] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Public Engagement Committee, Ms. Anderson, do you have a report? Not at this time. Skipped team dr. Anderson or miss st. John Cunning. Do you have a report? Yes briefly I don't want to miss the opportunity to raise this the skip committee had a meeting on April 17th, and I'm going to be brief because I just want to focus on one part given the hour and staff Presented on the chronic absenteeism Component and what the division is working on there were two things that really stood out that I think is important to raise here [04:57:26] One, there was a high level of enthusiasm in terms of how to leverage county services to help support some of the strategies that were outlined from community, existing community services. And similarly, as we've talked about, Ms. Marin, utilizing existing transportation options. [04:57:46] So that was very helpful. But another key takeaway was from the family network director who was really concerned that we weren't sufficiently engaging with the families in order to determine the root causes and the appropriate strategies to help change the chronic absenteeism issue that we're facing. [04:58:09] I think the words that she utilized, which really stuck with me was, let's make sure we are centering the families and we were not able to discuss the communications that we've had with families regarding the obstacles that present, you know, keeping students home for whatever the issues. [04:58:27] So I'm looking forward to see how this plays out. But I wanted to share this with the group. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. It has been requested that we skip board matters this evening without objection. Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned at 11:58. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com