Coraggio Consulting Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, August 29, 2024 Date: Thursday, August 29, 2024 Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia Length: 4h 34m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwT4bhv6MOc 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 2026-10-31. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:29] hello mine's working hey andrew the board members mics are struggling on the front [00:02:07] hello hello test board members please take your seats this august 29th 2024 regular meeting of [00:04:05] the fairfax county school board will now come to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by hughes middle school student. I pledge allegiance. [00:04:40] Say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight? O'er the [00:05:06] As far as we were so gallantly streaming, and the rockets wriggled. [00:05:37] We hear another round of applause for our student. [00:06:15] Nicely done. Agenda item 2.02 announcements. Mr. Moon has submitted a written request to attend this evening's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict and is attending tonight's meeting from South Korea. All those in favor of approving Mr. Moon's request. [00:06:30] Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Ms. St. John Cunning, and myself, and Ms. Lady and Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion passes. [00:06:49] Mr. Moon, will you check your microphone, please? Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Can you hear me okay? Loud and clear. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Ms. Dixit has submitted a written request to attend this evening's meeting virtually due to a medical conflict and is attending tonight's meeting from Sully District. [00:07:07] All those in favor of approving Ms. Dixit's request, Ms. Marin, Mr. McIlvain, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Lady, and myself. All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion passes. Has Ms. Dixit joined us yet? [00:07:31] All right, we'll test her microphone when she is online. In accordance with the changes to Virginia code section 2.2-3708.3b, which occurred on July 1st, 2024, members of a public body who have a disability or are care giving for someone with a disability now count toward the quorum as if the individual was physically present. In this case, Ms. Lady and Ms. Sizemore-Heiser have both notified the chair and clerk of the board that they are using remote participation as they are [00:08:05] caregiving for an individual with a disability. Thus, they will be counted as in person for the person requirement for quorum tonight and do not need to be voted in by the board. If you would like to review a copy of the agenda, please see the back of the auditorium. [00:08:23] To obtain copies of any items being presented tonight, please reference the QR code on the agenda or on the website fcps.edu slash school board slash board docs. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on the website fcps.edu/tv/ch99. [00:08:43] Agenda Item 3.01: Community Participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here with us 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. [00:09:01] During the signup process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments these expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room we ask audience members to be respectful respectful of one another shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated 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 school board members will be listening but not [00:09:37] responding madam clerk please call the first speaker student speaker number one thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to you today i'm a senior at west springfield high school i'm required to put away all my devices to give my full attention to my teachers i respectfully ask that you give me the same courtesy tonight i want to express my thanks to all the teachers and administrations at west springfield high school i am grateful for all they have done for me and my education i think they are the reason i feel west springfield high school is the best high school to attend i play sports at west springfield and i have two younger brothers who are also part [00:10:16] of this community i bring them international night club events and sporting events the five-year boundary redraw and policy 8 130. sorry can we pause the speaker's time for a moment while we [00:10:30] figure out that issue i apologize apologies we're having an issue with the video one minute we may [00:11:13] We can add a few seconds to the speaker's time. Go ahead, sir. Okay. The five-year boundary redraw in policy 8-130 could force me and my brothers to graduate from three different high schools because of our age differences. My parents bought our house specifically because we wanted me and my brothers to graduate from West Springfield. [00:11:30] This would be extremely traumatic to our family and our community if we all cannot. For my younger brothers in my community, I want to, it all is a school board needed for externities from families and students from policy 8.1.30 pending boundary adjustments and perceived future capacity concerns. [00:12:02] Restricting this should be the last option for the board to use. In school, I'm talking about the power of the people, democracy, and the vote. Many voting parents and concerned students have contacted the board with disapproval with policy 8.1.30 pending boundary review. I will be able to vote in the next elections and the actions this board takes will greatly impact my future votes as well as the votes in families and my community. [00:12:27] Thank you. Kena McAvoy, Craig Bowman. [00:12:50] Thank you very much. First of all, isn't it great to see youth coming up here and giving their voices to important topics? So my hat's off to you. Extremely well done. So my name is Craig Bowman. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. [00:13:05] I've been a proud resident of Great Falls for about 14 years and also a youth group leader for about 30 years at Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church right off of Trap Road. So today I stand before you representing not just my own family, but many families that, as the previous speaker just said, are concerned about redistricting. [00:13:26] And I know the questions on your mind must be, if not this board, if now, then when? Because this has been talked about for a very long time. And I'm not here to talk about property values. I know that arguments been given and quite frankly it's a weak argument. [00:13:42] What is not a weak argument is that the students that are going to be affected by this are not just like the students that were here seven or eight years ago when we probably should have done the redistricting. What's different about the kids now is that they're COVID kids. And this is very different because the effect that COVID had on the generation of kids that are going to be affected by this redistricting already had a massive impact to their learning and to their emotional state, right? [00:14:08] The statistics from the CDC, from NIH, say that attempted suicides of this age group shot up over 50%. And then if you look at the research about moving kids from school districts, guess what? The stats about COVID are amplified when you move kids to new school districts. [00:14:28] So the board is here to protect our kids. And I know it's difficult. I know it's difficult to look at the redistricting and say, you know, let's just rip the Band-Aid off. Let's get it done because if it's not this board, who will it be but that's the wrong attitude for us to be having and if any of those conversations are happening behind closed doors then you're not doing it for the right reason so Callie Ottinger [00:15:00] January 17 2018 Fairfax County included an unredacted internal document with a FERPA responsive provided to me within the document title hot topics Fairfax County admitted concerns with confidentiality of student records failure to identify students with dyslexia and cited over 400 violations of non-compliance. January 29, 2018, Scott Brabrand advised then-Congresswoman Barbara Comstack [00:15:39] that my concerns about FERPA violations had been addressed. The FERPA and special education non-compliance continued. November 7, 2018, I met Superintendent Brabrand in person and advised him that as of that date, Fairfax County had violated my kids' privacy and that of over 30 students and staff, and I provided more examples of special education non-compliance. Brabrand replied, I don't know about that and then said his team had advised him it was more like two. I told Bray Brand he'd been provided false information and handed him a copy of the Hot Topics document record for his keeping. Around the same time I spoke with Megan McLaughlin after a school board [00:16:16] meeting and she said she'd been told there were only two violations too. I advised her this wasn't correct but she chose to believe whomever advised her. Seven times between June and October 2019 South County High School violated the privacy of my child. On one of the last times the principal included a pile of papers on his desk with a FERPA response provided to another parent. [00:16:37] That parent, not the school, made me aware of the breach. In addition to South County High School providing her 12 pages on my child, it provided her resumes for staff, issues related to other students, disciplinary actions, etc. I filed numerous complaints. VDOE found Fairfax in non-compliance, but it all continued. Karen Corbett Sanders got emails from her. Braebrand, more emails from her a lot of things back and forth that everybody keeps saying it was handled but you know what's the same thing that continues to happen we got John Foster we got Don Schaefer we got a lot of people who had [00:17:12] been here before Michelle Reed you need to look at what the comment thank you ma'am madam clerk please call the next speaker other people need to use their time too thank you Regina Dorsey Regina Dorsey Vanessa Hall first of all [00:17:47] Welcome to a new school year. I'm Vanessa Hall and I'm a founding member of 4 Public Education. Yesterday we rode trip to Richmond to ask the Virginia Board of Education to reject their disastrous accountability plans. Rather than be accountable to Virginians, they voted to upend student and educator success with arbitrary half-baked standards. Thank goodness accountability is more than a word with you as you finally updated policy the boundary policy 8130 this summer. [00:18:16] However, the devil's in the details. Boundary policy guidelines developed over the upcoming year are critical because they'll guide decision-making over the next decade or more. As such, people are desperate to be part of the conversation. Some are multi-generational FCPS families like my own, who've seen good, bad, and really ugly changes, and others just need to be heard. [00:18:39] Respectfully, I ask that you include the families who are often ignored, like those in Title one and community schools in addition to lower-income immigrant and other families who are typically underrepresented in decision-making. Insofar as I've seen in decades of education discussions those who are heard most are the wealthy connected who already have access to news media bullhorns to advance their narrowed agenda. Unfortunately these loud voices typically spend more time fear-mongering with a not-in-my-backyard mindset than focusing on community our student needs but personally I think there's enough chaos [00:19:15] and uncertainty in this world without more fear-mongering and the NIMBY mindset ignores our interconnected community of Fairfax families instead we all need to learn listen and understand the facts to make the best decisions for our community of students families and school personnel while being accountable to each other and thank you guys very much. Amir Moshkor. Good evening members of the school board, parents and community members. [00:19:55] My name is Amir Mashkur. I'm an FCPS parent. My parents are FCPS parents. And I would like to remain as such in the next few years. We moved out of Prince William County back to Fairfax County so that my kids can go to the same schools that my siblings unfortunately didn't have the chance to go to these schools and enjoy the rich education experience that my daughter currently has in West Springfield High School as well as my neighbors so I stand here I [00:20:30] understand the challenges that our school system faces I do that we have a real problem with with overcrowding of in our schools but I firmly believe that the redistricting and boundary changes that were proposed should be the last result should not be the first choice to address a very important issue these are short-term fixes solutions to to a problem without addressing the underlying issues here why are we here why are why we have been discussing the [00:21:05] redistricting for months and months me and my my other community members mr. Dunn enlightened us a month ago I was watching the recordings from the July 18th meeting and he pointed out that we have an underfunding issue from Virginia by about half a billion dollars. [00:21:27] So this is preventing us from building new schools and from expanding current schools, existing schools. So it looks like the fix or the burden got thrown into the parents with the redistricting solution, which is not always bad. [00:21:45] I don't agree with redistricting is always bad. I mean, we have a good example with glass. - Cole Mallard, Cole Mallard. [00:22:06] shelly arnoldi shelly arnoldi george becerra good evening chairman fresh school board members and dr reed i'm here unfortunately to talk about your last meeting in july where mrs mary and mrs st john cunning stated the children are watching concerning the members of one specific group that were in the audience dr reed you may also say this correlates to what you said this past tuesday [00:22:44] hayfield high school concerning the civility of our times as you recall in july a group that stated for two weeks in a row during your meetings that they were for children when dealing with the boundary policy where was that sentiment when a child spoke in a video testimony you had a different opinion from them and their student speakers and then and then they booed that child this was the first time in 15 years that i've attended or listened to these meetings that a child was booed way to make a mark what if these adults experienced the same treatment from adults when they were at their age just learning to become civically minded and wanting to make a difference in their community and country how proud these people's living or deceased parents or grandparents must have been at that moment whatever day that they worshipped on that weekend on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, [00:23:22] how proud their religious family must have been of them. To that group, which stated that they had a board of directors, that there must be some type of structured norms of measure membership and behavior. I know when groups come into this auditorium, they are still accountable for their members and supporters. Where is that with this so-called board of directors? [00:23:40] To this group, let me welcome you to Falls Church and tell you that there is more here than just Mosaic and Fairfax Hospital. Sorry, the whole county cannot be like your one area that you're from. Now for everyone else, let's get back reality and tackle where SPS needs to improve but at the same time praise the things that Dr. Reed has done in the last two years. In this praise let us let this board has promised publicly post a summary of the superintendent's evaluation from July. Thank you Dr. Reed for stating multiple times you don't mind pushing your summary evaluation. Thank you and happy school new year. Please play [00:24:17] the video testimony submitted by Stephanie Lundquist Aurora. Good evening. I have a question who is in charge our elected school board members or Superintendent Michelle Reed from Seattle. It seems to me that Michelle Reed is in charge because during the July 18th meeting, when many of you were deciding on whether or not to vote for Bacardi-Anderson's grandfather clause amendment to keep our children in their same schools, you looked to Dr. Reed for how you should vote, which seemed really backwards to me. [00:24:52] So she definitely seemed like the boss on July 18th. And when I went to go review that meeting, I thought it was so strange that you had taken it off of the FCPS YouTube channel. It didn't seem very transparent. That seemed really sketchy to me, so I was also wondering who was responsible for taking that video down, and a lot of information about policy 8130 has been removed as well. [00:25:15] I'm also wondering if the school board members have access to the same information that Superintendent Michelle Reed has access to. Did you know that six high schools in Fairfax County are basically imminently going to, or it seems that they're on the path to lose their accreditation, especially since the state changed its standards? [00:25:35] And nobody mentioned that to us, the Fairfax County residents, voters, parents, when you were discussing redistricting. And I just wanted to say, to your credit, school board members, you actually did the right thing and listen to your constituents by not including the combined sex classes starting in fifth grade for family life education. [00:25:59] So I thought it was really weird that Superintendent Reed went through the back door anyways, and I was wondering if you knew about that. She implemented that pilot program for 14 schools, even though it's very anti-democratic and not transparent. [00:26:14] So anyways, your constituents are beginning to understand that Dr. Reed is the one running the show before she sails off into the Seattle sunset. Please play the video testimony submitted by Christina Nadenova. [00:26:31] Hello members of the school board, thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is Christina, I am a senior at Langley High School, and today I want to address the critical issue that is the censorship and the removal of literature in FCPS classrooms, as well as the lack of diversity. [00:26:50] In my 10th and 11th grade reading class curriculums, I read a total of zero books by female authors, two books by African American authors, and zero books by authors representing minority groups such as Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and members of the LGBTQ community. [00:27:08] These limitations are not just about the books that are available or absent, but about the broader impact on our students' emotional and intellectual development. When we censor literature or create an environment with a lack of diversity in literature, we We inadvertently contribute to a climate of polarization and division among students. [00:27:26] A curriculum enriched with diverse literature promotes critical thinking and empathy, encouraging students to explore and grapple with complex issues in an environment where differing viewpoints can be discussed openly and respectfully. By embracing a broader spectrum of voices, we help students to develop into well-rounded individuals who are prepared to navigate and contribute positively to a diverse world. [00:27:48] I urge the board to reconsider the current restrictions on literature and to support curriculum that values diversity and minimizes censorship of books in doing so we can create a more inclusive and understanding school environment where every student has the opportunity to grow and engage with the richness of our collective human experience because literature is a fantastic reflection of what each person of what each community goes through and unfortunately right now in many fcps classrooms we are simply not getting this experience with the books that are in the reading curriculum or the books that are absent from the reading curriculum thank you for [00:28:21] your time and consideration chair fish that was our last public speaker thank you agenda item 4.01 student representative matters thank you mr chair and good evening everyone happy end of the second week of school it's been a busy august and i'm so grateful to the teachers staff and administrators that have helped set up for such a wonderful school year i also want to express my gratitude to the school board members and curriculum leaders that i've had the pleasure of meeting with and discussing my ideas and i look forward to continuing these conversations into september I've also been able to attend the Great Beginnings and Multilingual Learners Summit, which were [00:29:01] amazing experiences learning more about how the strategic plan is being implemented in several ways. Today I wanted to share some takeaways from the conversations that I've been able to have, and I wanted to start with meeting with some of the students across FCPS about some of the issues that they're passionate about and changes they would like to see, specifically through the Citizen Advisory Committee application and interview process for student representatives. [00:29:23] I'm pleased to say that 15 students have been nominated across 7 advisory committees and I look forward to the work that they'll build this year and the legacy they'll leave for students who come in future years. There is still an open spot for a current 9th grader in FCPS to the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee and the application link can be found in BoardDocs and it's rolling. [00:29:45] A recurring theme in my discussions with students, no matter what committee they were applying for, was the need for greater awareness and support around mental health. For example, a student from Fairfax High School expressed desire for more programming on mental health education, self-care, and stress management, not just at the beginning of the year, but as the year progresses and we get more into midterms and the middle of the year. [00:30:06] Another student emphasized the importance of personal interaction, especially during the mental health screenings that are mandated by the county, rather than just answering questions they want more follow-up after and more talk with their counselors. Yet another student wasn't even aware about who the school psychologist was at her high school and the ways to reach them. The issue here is the disconnect between the resources we have and the paths in which they reach the students. For example, while it's clear that Hazel Health is a valuable resource for teletherapy, it's not the only one. I hope to focus on promoting these full range of resources, programs, and training available because FCPS has a wealth of resources. We just need to let students know that they're supported and how to find that [00:30:45] information when they need it. In August, I was able to attend and speak at the Multilingual Learners Summit held where several students reflected on their journey of success in FCPS as well as the resources that helped them in their multilingual learning experience. I was honored to sit with these students and hear a little bit about the passionate meaningful stories they had which I know will resonate with others. Two students on the panel shared how impactful AVID which is the Advancement Via Individual Determination program has been for them in terms of discussions about post-secondary plans and organizing themselves for success. They specifically emphasized the connections that they were able to make with their AVID teachers that motivated them throughout [00:31:23] the process. It wasn't just about getting organized or preparing for post-secondary success but also about building connections with teachers who supported you throughout it. Another student who wasn't at this event who spoke to me in her third year of the AVID program said that it helped her get her organized for class and thinking about college and even starting to think about essay ideas. This program is incredibly valuable and I strongly believe that it should be expanded to the high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools that it's not even at right now. Another student on the panel reflected on his experiences as an ESOL student and the support he received throughout his language learning journey. One thing which he shared which I thought was specifically meaningful was that while he struggled with English he [00:32:02] didn't face the same challenges in math. This highlights the importance of recognizing that students have different strengths across subjects and they should be able to advocate for themselves and talk to their planning committee about you know where they struggle and where they don't struggle and placing them in the classes that best fit their needs. [00:32:19] This year, I'll also be working with the amazing curriculum integration and management team in central office to further expand the portrait of a graduate skills-based learning and career application in high school classrooms. The implementation of portrait of a graduate and strategic plan can vary differently from building to building, influenced by the specific AB, IB, or leadership classes that are offered, like AP seminar. [00:32:42] The Lewis Leadership Program at Lewis High School and the Madison Wings program at Madison are two examples that aim to build leaders through volunteering, meeting with local leaders, and experiences outside of the classroom. But I'm working on creating a secondary voice committee, another committee for Portrait of a Graduate, kind of as a centralized data collection tool to evaluate the need for any new skills that may be needed to be added to Portrait of a Graduate. [00:33:06] As we move past COVID-19 and we see new things that are happening like the development of AI and that use in school, There are skills that students need to know about that didn't exist when Portrait of a Graduate was made years ago. I also want to look more into like the insights on enrichment incentives for doing Portrait of a Graduate, as well as feedback on more implicit or explicit lessons that students would like to see implemented when they see Portrait of a Graduate in the classroom. [00:33:32] I do have more details on this initiative coming soon, but if you have any ideas or concerns, please feel free to reach out and I'd love to hear from you. Lastly, I would like to touch on the recent matters with Virginia about the misrepresentation of Fairfax County student performance data. As Dr. Reed mentioned in her letter earlier this month and the topic of academic matters tonight, FCPS has been using both SOLs and Virginia alternate assessment programs to test students on the skills that they've been learning throughout the year. [00:33:59] A student that I recently talked to was excited about being able, having access to these alternate assessment programs and being able to show her mastery in science and writing in a different way than just the standardized test. and she appreciated that her English teacher didn't have to spend a month teaching to the test. [00:34:16] However, she felt disappointed when she realized that these results weren't fully recognized when Virginia presented the FCPS stats across standardized testing, which leaves her hard work and her teacher's efforts unacknowledged. Incorporating the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program paints a more accurate picture of public education in FCPS and is better aligned with our strategic plan of demonstrating mastery in subjects through different methods. [00:34:39] continuing to seek feedback on the new policy of having cell phones in school as well as the new grading policies in high school and I'd love to hear your feedback from that as I look through that in the next couple months and see what we can improve there. I also wanted to drop one leadership opportunity. The school board is now accepting applications to the student leadership development program which is for high school sophomores and juniors who are in good academic standing when you can get more familiar with what the school board does if you're interested in government so i strongly recommend to students to apply for that program and you will see that on social media later there are do are more things that i want to touch on in the coming weeks and i've always got links and resources that are linked on board docs for the fleecac application [00:35:19] as well as the school board and i just look forward to sharing more updates throughout the school year thank you for your attention thank you very much agenda item 5.01 action item certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712d of the the code of virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the fairfax county school board convened a closed meeting on august 29th 2024 to the best of each board member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard [00:35:58] discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do i have a motion sir dr anderson is there a second mr mckelvie all those in favor mr mckelveen dr anderson mr mcdaniel miss anderson mr dunn miss st john cunning mr moon miss sizemore hyzer miss lady mystics and myself that is [00:36:31] unanimous oh sorry absent uh opposed abstentions miss marron will the clerk read the vote that's 1101 the motion carries thank you agenda item 5.02 action item confirmation of action taken in closed meeting i call on dr anderson for a motion i move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who physically assaulted another student causing injury and to confirm the disciplinary [00:37:09] decision of the division superintendent is there a second i second miss st john cunning all those in favor mr mckelveen dr anderson miss anderson mr dunn miss st john cunning miss dixit mr moon [00:37:26] Miss Sizemore Heiser Miss Lady and myself all those opposed abstentions Miss Marin and Mr McDaniel will the clerk read the vote that's 10-0-2 the motion carries thank you I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion I move that the school board approve the following resolution participation in the proposed settlement of opioid related claims against Kroger and its related corporate entities and directing counsel to execute the documents necessary to effectuate participation in the [00:38:03] settlement. Whereas the opioid epidemic that has cost thousands of human lives across the country also impacts the Commonwealth of Virginia and its political subdivisions by adversely impacting amongst other things the delivery of emergency medical law enforcement, criminal justice, mental health and substance abuse services and other services. And whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia and its political subdivisions have been required and will continue to be required to allocate substantial taxpayer dollars, resources, staff energy, and time to address the damage the opioid epidemic has caused [00:38:42] and continues to cause the citizens of Virginia. And whereas a settlement proposal that has been negotiated that will cause Kroger to pay over a billion dollars nationwide to resolve opioid-related claims against it. [00:38:58] Now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board this 29th day of August 2024 approves participation in the proposed settlement of opioid-related claims against Kroger and its related corporate entities and directs counsel to execute the documents necessary to effectuate participation in the settlement including the required release of claims against Kroger. [00:39:22] is there a second mr mckelveen all those in favor miss marron mr mckelveen dr anderson mr mcdaniel miss anderson mr dunn miss st john cunning miss dixit mr moon miss sizemore hyzer miss lady and myself that is unanimous agenda item 5.03 action item financial year 2024 year-end budget review i call on mr mcdaniel for a motion i move that the school board approve the revenue and expenditure adjustments as detailed in the agenda item. Is there a second? Ms. Sizemore-Hyzer. Mr. McDaniel, [00:39:59] would you like to speak to your motion? I will be brief. Budgets fundamentally are an exercise in balancing competing priorities, and they are one of the few situations in life where they are literally a zero-sum game. Spending money on item A inherently means that you are taking away money from item B. I support this package. I think it's responsible. So back to the napkin math, It represents about a 2% spending variation, if my numbers are correct, which is remarkable, considering that it's about a $3.6 billion budget. [00:40:34] We fulfill the commitment that we made to fund the special education extended day contracts. We've kept money in reserve for staffing 140 teaching positions. We're dedicating $9 million to heavy maintenance to include $2 million for security vestibules. [00:40:51] Mr. McDaniel, can you pause for a moment? We're having a technical issue with the microphones for those joining us virtually. Madam Clerk, should we take a five-minute recess? I was about to say, can we recess for five minutes so we can resolve this? [00:41:09] Thank you. We'll take a five-minute recess. [00:44:10] Tess, Ms. Lady and Ms. Seismar-Hyser and Mr. Moon, can you hear me or are you hearing the interpreter? [00:45:37] We can hear you without the interpreter. Thank you. Board members, please return to your seats. [00:48:41] Mr. McDaniel, would you like to pick up where you left off? Sure. We're good to go? Okay. What I said, the last point I was going to make is I think there's always an assumption that end-of-year packages that have these big surpluses or just turn into piggy banks that we can just spend on pet projects. [00:49:04] And that's not, in fact, the case, at least not in Fairfax County and not in my experience. That's certainly not the case in this package. The last item in this package I think it's important to speak to is the $28 million that we are setting aside for the beginning balance of FY26. And what that means is, in planning for the next budget that we have to put together, we are recognizing that there is likely going to be some shortfall. [00:49:28] There is always a shortfall between what we need and what we have. So in planning for that shortfall, we are allocating $28.1 million to that. This is a responsible package. As I said, I want to say thank you to Lee and Alice and all of your staff and the superintendent for putting this together. And I'm happy to move this forward and support it. [00:49:49] Ms. Seizmarheiser, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, thank you. I have a lot to add to what Mr. McDaniel shared, but again, I think this is a very responsible year-end, knowing that, as we've heard from our colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, it's going to be some tough budget years, not just this year, but coming forward, so we want to make sure we plan for that, and we plan for what we need right now. [00:50:12] there's some really big priorities that the board has indicated in terms of the the drop program we heard our students loud and clear so we've made sure we have funding for boys volleyball and girls wrestling we kept the special education extended day contract in recognition of the hard work that our special education teachers do and the extra burden from the paperwork that they have as well and then um so you know we're looking at middle school late buses and um we're making sure we plan for the early release Mondays and many other things and so it is important to make sure not only that we plan for priorities now but we have reserved for the future for next year because [00:50:50] we don't know what the budget's going to hold for next year so I'm happy to second this year-end budget I look forward to the good work we'll do moving forward thank you thank you Ms. Sizemore Heiser Mr. Dunn I move to amend the main motion as follows the school board eliminate eight million dollars from the FY 2026 beginning balance set aside and allocate 8 million dollars in year-end funding in addition to previously allocated funding for one a comprehensive facilities condition assessment of all buildings facilities to include athletic facilities and fields [00:51:27] and infrastructure to include tracked and untracked to inform the development of new repair and renovation queues and to enable different tiers of renovations to be established. Two, to develop criteria for a new renovation queue, and three, to establish new renovation queues. [00:51:47] Is there a second? Second. Mr. McElveen. Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. On May 23rd, I brought an identical motion to allocate $6.4 million in the regular budget for FY 2024 or to allocate money from year-end funding. [00:52:10] And so here I am bringing this motion again. While this may seem in the weeds, let me draw it back to the 20,000 foot level. We have over 225 buildings that we own and operate, 199 of those we operate as school buildings. [00:52:29] I have spent the summer visiting almost every school in my district. And what I've seen is that there's a wide variation in the condition of our schools. it's not based on the age of the schools. You might think, oh, the schools that are highest priority for renovation are those that haven't been renovated in 30 or 40 years, but that's not the case. When I visited a school in South County that had only been recently constructed, its HVAC system is displaying the kind of malfunction you would expect from an HVAC system that had been installed 40 years ago. Schools that had not been renovated in 30 years [00:53:07] looked almost brand new. So it's not, age alone is not a predictor of the condition of school buildings. We're now coming to the end of our current renovation queue, and our renovation queue has grown from around 25 years to almost 42 years. And that means in my lifetime, a school will have only been renovated once. That's crazy. And we need to make sure that we are continuing to provide world-class educational facilities, as well as world-class athletic facilities and infrastructure from playgrounds to sporting fields to support our children in every aspect [00:53:43] of their educational journey, not just in the classroom, but all the extracurricular activities. We must do more and plan responsibly, and so far we're not doing that. We have almost 250 million dollars we spend every year on school renovations, construction, infrastructure, and we don't have good data on the condition of all of our buildings our infrastructure our sporting fields our facilities we need to gather that data because if we don't know the condition then how can we make [00:54:16] any rational decision prioritizing one building over another how can we make any rational decisions also with respect to school boundaries because if if we're going to be saying more children should go to this school but it's not in the condition to receive them then that may not be a well-founded decision. So for me, this is a strategic and necessary move to guide billions of dollars in funding. Eight million dollars is on top of two million dollars that was allocated at the end of FY23 in year-end funding. At that time, our facilities staff had estimated that it would cost [00:54:55] 8.4 million. So this provides that full amount of money, as well as a little extra, because FCPS has since expanded the scope of work. So we need to make sure we're getting good data to guide our renovations, our construction, and we have consulted the Facilities Planning Advisory Committee, which advises the board on these issues, and they have affirmed that this is the right amount of money. [00:55:18] So I think now is the right time to do it, because as we enter years of budget constraints going forward, now is the time. Now is the time to start planning so that we can make good decisions in the future. The clerk's timer is gone. Thank you. Mr. McElwain, would you like to speak to your second? [00:55:34] Nothing further, thanks. All right. If you have your light on but are in the queue for the regular motion, can you turn it off? I've made a note of where you stand so that we can have people line up for this motion. All right, Ms. Marin. I appreciate Mr. Dunn bringing this motion. [00:55:53] Look, we talk a lot about our operating budget, which comes mostly from our taxpayer homeowners in Fairfax County. But we don't talk a lot about how we fund our facilities. And that is done through the bond on public vote every other year, every other year. So one year it goes to the schools, and the next year it goes to Fairfax County to do upgrades on other public services, such as libraries, public health services, or emergency services. [00:56:18] Everything is a priority. However, if we have 200 buildings, and a lot of them need extra care, and a lot of them might need new things because technology is changing or we need different types of accessibility, we really need to examine what we're doing. [00:56:35] So I was glad to support the vote back in May to place $2 million into the reserve then. And I'm aware that there's a lot of planning happening to figure out how much we can get for that $2 million in terms of a facilities study. [00:56:53] During that time, I have learned a lot about athletics facilities and just how much our athletics facilities need to be repaired and upgraded. We've certainly heard from students here, but that's like a whole other area. I look at what's on the paper here, the budget sheet. [00:57:14] There's three line items dealing with construction. So just so we're all clear, we are funding capital projects through our operating budget. And I'd like to know if that's a best practice. Is it a preferred practice? I think we need to have that conversation. [00:57:30] I'd like to know what the costs are for specific upgrades. What's the menu to sustain safe and quality facilities? And we need to have the Board of Supervisors in lockstep with us. They transfer the funds to FCPS, and they are the ones who manage the bond that drive our timeline of reviewing what we're going to need in terms of facilities and ask for that. [00:57:50] But I really would like if we could have a work session on this to really dig deep into the status of our facilities and actually have updates far more regularly, like we have this quarterly budget update. I'd like an update on our facilities and what's happening, how we're staying on top of the needs. Despite my matched passion for facilities as Mr. Dunn's, I am not ready to commit an additional $8 million at this time to this work. [00:58:14] I'd like to see what's been done with the $2 million already allocated, and I certainly am open-minded in the future, but I do think understanding how much we're spending from our operating budget on facilities, construction, and capital projects is something that really needs to happen before I'm comfortable committing more funds to do so. Thank you. [00:58:33] Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I appreciate the comments that both Mr. Dunn and Ms. Marin have just shared. I hate the fact that very often we just respond to the squeaky wheel. We have parents and students, they come to these meetings, they email us, and they want to wave the flag to alert us of what is happening in their facilities. [00:58:58] That should not be how we handle business. We really need to have a comprehensive review of the state of each of our buildings and to really make a plan to that. I love the idea that Ms. Marin raised regarding having a regular review because typically we speak about our buildings once a year and all of the things that she's highlighted in the year-end fund here that are going to construction need to be part of the regular discussion. [00:59:23] I think this is a good idea. I think this is a good way to evaluate our buildings. I think this is a good expenditure. We have these year-end funds that I think you are asking for to be removed from the beginning balance to be moved over. [00:59:43] I'm willing to create that, to make that sacrifice in order to get that information because we just have such need and we just continue to not really know clearly what that plan could be. [00:59:58] Now, I would anticipate, Ms. Zemenski, if you could share, if you do not need $8 million, it can just go back to where it was. But if you need it, at least it's set aside in order to do this comprehensive review. Is that an accurate description? [01:00:17] Certainly, we wouldn't want to spend more than what is necessary. Does that answer your question? It does. But at least if it's needed, it is there and available for your office to use. Thank you. [01:00:32] Ms. St. John Cunningham. So having worked in many of these buildings as well as visited them, I understand the need for this and I appreciate the theory behind this. [01:00:49] However, I still don't feel comfortable in terms of knowing, having more information, I'm open to the idea later on when we maybe do have a work session because I think that there are a lot of variables when we consider this. [01:01:07] And I know that there is a need, absolutely, because I have worked in buildings where you know that if you're going to be in this classroom you have to bring a sweater or if you're going to be in this classroom in the middle of the winter you've got to make sure you're dressed for the summer because of how it all works out so I know the reality of it I just am a little hesitant about doing it at this particular time so I appreciate the theory I'm just not comfortable with doing it right now I would be open to work session and learning a little bit more and seeing how we could move forward with this and also [01:01:44] the idea of I don't want to set a precedent of us doing capital improvements out of our year end budget all the time because then we're going to start setting a precedent and I don't know that that's something that we want to do. Thank you Ms. St. John Cunning. Mr. McDaniel. I have some questions for staff. For staff if this item passes and the overall end of your item passes as well what effect would this eight million dollar transfer out of the beginning balance have on the beginning balance in FY26? [01:02:22] So, Ms. Burden, I think essentially we would be required to ask for another $8 million transfer from the county. So effectively this would be deficit spending or increasing the gap in FY26. That would be my understanding, Ms. Burden, is that correct? [01:02:38] Yes. So we're spending money we don't have. For staff as well, can you just give us a very brief overview of where we are in this facilities assessment process? so thank you mr mcdaniel and my understanding is we sent out an rfi for information from a number of vendors and we received the results monday and it's going to take a bit of time for the team to analyze to read through review it's quite a significant amount of documentation and so the team's going to take likely several weeks to review all of the documentation there's a lot of really [01:03:14] good feedback honestly about facilities just in those documents. So I know the team is going to take some time and make sure they're thoughtful in their review. Okay so is it safe to say that if this amendment does not pass that we're still going down the route of doing a facilities assessment? That's correct. Okay that's all. Thank you Mr. McDaniel. Miss Anderson. So on face value i agree with uh my colleague um i definitely understand that we're coming to the end of the [01:03:53] renovation queue and that we need good information moving forward i would like to renew the same concern that i had when this was brought up in may is that i do not think that every that we need to fund every single one of our schools to be looked at in terms of a renovation queue that when we know that they are not going to be added to that renovation queue so i would like to look at this after staff has an opportunity to look through the RFIs and gain what information that we're actually going to need moving forward, I would like us to make sure that we look at it as an iterative process where we can plan out over time. I 100% agree that we need full understanding of [01:04:30] what status our buildings are in. I also am wondering, and this is a question for staff, is are we maintaining any records at all on our own that considers our current assessment of buildings? Yes, we do maintain a significant amount of our number of records. I do understand the need to have one coherent queue and continuum in terms of facilities planning. And I know the team also understands the importance of that, which is why this RFI is very important. So taking [01:05:05] a look at all the possibilities within the two million I know that has been allocated already is certainly a stronger start than we've made in a while on if you will centering this work we also have a number of systems right in our buildings I know HVAC today I want to apologize for students and staff today our HVAC systems in a number of places were really challenged and we have old old major systems that we're continuing to work on but yes we do have a lot of documentation and we look [01:05:41] forward to integrating that into information that we've received as per the RFI. And the other thing that I wanted to mention is that my colleague and I were actually at an FPAC retreat earlier this year that had someone come down from another county nearby that was able to talk through some of what they're doing in their county that were their intermediate renovations, so their more systems renovations, that wouldn't necessarily have us focusing so significantly on the full renovation queue, that I think that would be a better path for us to at least consider moving forward so that we don't have to rely on these you know [01:06:15] whole building renovations as the only standard of the way we we kind of make upgrades so i can't vote on this tonight but i do appreciate the sentiment and would like us to keep moving forward to figure out what the answer is to get the a solid list thank you miss anderson mr moon well thank you mr chairman i i am going to support this motion i think uh even back in may i i was supporting this motion at the time uh this is money we're spent uh as mr don stated that we are talking about currently 42 years renovation cycle uh you know over 32 year period which i [01:06:55] will probably would have spent uh a amount exceeding 10 billion dollars uh in order to make sure that we are efficiently and effectively spending that kind of money on school renovation and repair 10 million dollars maximum at this point we're not even saying that we will be spending over 10 million dollars he was setting aside 10 million dollars which is 0.1 percent of what we'll [01:07:30] be spending less than 0.1 percent of what we'll be spending over next 40 years thank you Mr. Tom for being tenacious and bringing this notion to the board's attention thank you Mr. Moon I will take a turn so this agenda item about the year-end has been with this board since July we've had access to this document and certainly the problem is described is dire if you've been to our schools [01:08:06] you know that many of them are in need of serious work and so I think an issue as dire as that is deserving of the the preparation and care it takes to get the um the result desired achieved and so i can't support this um at this time and i also don't think it needs to be voted on at this time because we're talking about funding that is being a that is being put aside for the year ahead we're not talking about clawing back money from the year end we're talking about money for next [01:08:45] year so that could literally be decided next month or the months after and so you know and it would provide an opportunity for the things that did not happen with this motion no advance notice we got the motion 15 minutes before closed session started no phone calls to solicit our opinions or advice no meaningful conversations before the board took this up at the dais all of those things can lead to success on something that is extremely important without those things it gets very hard and so like I said it does not necessarily have to happen tonight if those questions can be answered [01:09:22] and we can have a fulsome discussion perhaps this could pass at another time but on its face I worry about encumbering the school division with an eight million dollar outlay next year when we are likely to have a difficult budget year and be looking to raise pay for teachers or staff or other things that might be included in the budget during our first union contract negotiation. [01:09:52] We should be setting ourselves up for success in that realm. I think we can do both, but it requires a lot more conversation and thoughtfulness than we've had in the preparation for this motion tonight. [01:10:08] Mystic Sit. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to kind of agree with a lot of my colleagues here that it is -- it happened very sudden. got the email and we all got the notice pretty quickly right before the board meeting. I did not have a chance to digest all the information. We discussed this $2 million RFI earlier. I've come from the contracting world as well and I wanted to say that we do not set aside money for something [01:10:40] with RFIs out. We have to wait till the responses come in. These proposals or any RFI responses come in and come up with a budget that time. I do not believe it is that time, this is the time to do this and make, set aside money from our starting year funds, because that could be a very risky business. And fiscally, as a board member, I will not do that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. [01:11:10] Mr. Dunn. I appreciate all the comments of my colleagues. I'm going to look past the somewhat snarky comments about bringing a motion late because the people who make those comments have brought motions late without any notice at all including in July. So beyond that this motion was thoroughly discussed in April and May and June. I have been a squeaky wheel about facilities condition assessments. I've provided memos to the board from the facilities planning advisory committee. I [01:11:48] I have had extensive discussions one-on-one, in groups, in work sessions, and on this dais enclosed session. So this is certainly not anything new, and if so, maybe they had a great time with tequila on the beach. [01:12:06] By comparison, right, City of Fairfax just spent $73,000 per building for five buildings. With $2 million, which was allocated in FY23, we would be spending just under $9,000 per building. [01:12:23] If you go to a consulting firm and you say, "Tell me the condition of this building for $9,000 when a high school is tens of thousands of square feet," you're going to get very bad data, if anything. Certainly nothing to base billions of dollars in capital improvement spending on. [01:12:41] With the $8 million that would be allocated, we would be closer to the industry average of 30 to 45 cents per square foot. Right now with $2 million, we're at 7 cents per square foot. It's inadequate by every measure. [01:12:57] We already know that. We don't need to wait for RFI responses because we know the content of those RFI responses. We've already had expert input from FPAC, the Facilities Planning Advisory Committee. really at a point where are we going to continue to kick this can down the road and wait until the budget gets in such a dire situation where that will be the new justification there's never a perfect information there's never a perfect time it's like having a baby you just it's just you know the time you choose and right now when we're redistricting when we're developing a new [01:13:34] renovation queue now is the time because we need sufficient time to plan for the future and and so again now is a time when we have money we have money to set aside if we don't need all the money it can come back and be used for other purposes but at least we need to set aside the requisite minimum to do a good job so we have good data and can make good decisions and make apples to apples comparison for buildings throughout the county thank you thank you mr. Dunn dr. [01:14:04] Thank you. I fully agree with you, Mr. Frisch, that these discussions and these decisions are best made when there has been advanced notice, when there has been deep conversations, when there has been opportunity to interact and ask questions of each other. [01:14:24] but I won't sit here and pretend as if we are consistent in that application because we haven't been because we sat here in July and I saw a motion in the script so not even an email so I want to be sure that we have that expectation of every single one of us not just of some of us so I could not I could not let that go I just wanted to make sure that I countered that point my other question is for staff if this is not passed this evening and we find [01:14:59] that more funds are needed to actualize this work what's a potential path to to find the funds well there's always the school board flexibility reserve and that's the an appropriate use of that and that's budgeted annually at eight million dollars and the school board of course could direct staff to access those funds to pay for any gap between the facility improvement RFI results versus you know the 2 million that we already have funded would that be the only funds [01:15:39] that would be available to do anything in this effort yes all of the funds in our budget are allocated to specific purposes so we would have the school board flex reserve which is of 8 million which we essentially wipe it this would wipe it out okay thank you thank you dr. Anderson mr. Dunn I wanted to ask miss burden about the sinking fund because that's been raised by a school board member as if if that would be an appropriate source of funding for the [01:16:16] facilities condition assessment I don't believe so that sinking fund is for a different purpose it's for infrastructure improvements and enhancements not maintenance or consulting type costs that's what it's been used for historically and that's the language that the county uses as what the purpose is when it's allocated to us so we probably would need to have a conversation with them to be able to do that but that sinking fund also is something that we've been getting for a few years now and I believe that you know [01:16:52] we already have plans for what those funds will be used at used for and of course those plans would have to be delayed if that decision was made. Are there any other county allocated funds or joint funds between the county and FCPS that might be appropriate or available to dedicate to this effort? Not that I'm aware of. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I actually have a question of you. If the motion doesn't pass and, you know, so [01:17:28] far to assume to be a number of board members who are wanting to have a more extensive conversation on this issue. Will you be able to schedule a work session on this particular issue sometime soon? [01:17:45] I will have to look at the calendar, but I would presume so if it's a priority for the board. Another question is, what is our mid-year budget review? Can you repeat that? [01:18:01] When is our mid-year budget review? i don't have that information in front of me december uh december all right thank you thanks for the information i i still support the motion but in case the motion doesn't pass i'm hoping that we can schedule a work session to discuss about this and and address this in the mid-year was it review thank you mr moon seeing no others we will go to the vote for the amendment that's on the screen all those in favor mr mckelveen dr anderson mr dunn miss lady and mr moon all those [01:18:38] opposed Ms. Marin, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Ms. Dixit and myself. Will the clerk read the vote? Five to seven. The motion fails. Thank you. We are now back to the main motion. So Ms. Dixit, Ms. Dixit, did you want to speak? Your hand is up. No, I've just, I was the watching. I'll bring it down. Thank you. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Just quickly speaking to the main motion. I just can't wait to share this, but I'm [01:19:42] very excited in order to support this part D that's in the adjustment here, which speaks to girls wrestling and boys volleyball that started this week. And the excitement around volleyball has been tremendous. So I wanted to just really highlight that as a point. The other question that I had is regarding the staffing reserve. I know we're just two weeks in. Are we feeling comfortable with this number is it just right or do we need a little bit more how what are we thinking here with the 140 positions yeah thank you Dr. Anderson [01:20:20] I last year's attendance and enrollment actually was more robust than we had anticipated and which created a more rapid and long-term depletion of our RESERVE, BUT I'M GOING TO ASK MR. SOLOMON TO RESPOND IF WE THINK THAT'S SUFFICIENT. [01:20:40] MS. BURDEN, IF YOU COULD ALSO SUPPORT THE RESPONSE JUST HISTORICALLY WHERE WE'RE AT. SO MR. SOLOMON AND MS. BURDEN, PLEASE. YES, WE'VE BEEN MEETING WITH OUR REGIONAL ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENTS AND OUR PRINCIPALS QUITE REGULARLY THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER AND OF COURSE LEADING UP TO THE START OF SCHOOL AND NOW. AT THIS TIME, I AM CONFIDENT THAT THE STAFF in reserve is sufficient okay that's good to hear and my only other comment is regarding the closing the achievement gap um allocations i know we have three million in this one in the year end and we had some additional funds from the main budget i'm really hoping dr reed that we can have a clear [01:21:18] accounting of how you plan on um achieving um our goals of closing the achievement gaps using these funds do you have any idea as to when that could become available to the board. [01:21:34] I believe that as we move forward with our goal reports it's going to be very apparent how those funds are utilized. One example is the purchasing of Spanish language algebra texts. We have more and more students in algebra at the eighth grade level and even those at ninth grade level that we want to make sure are able to meet those math standards. [01:21:58] And I'm really pleased that our numbers continue to increase and Dr. Presidio also provided data recently that our performance continues to improve. And we want to make sure that our multilingual students don't get behind in content as they learn, take time to learn our language, the English language, in terms of the assessment needs. [01:22:18] So actually the amount of money we've set aside is a very small amount in terms of the funds we're going to need to really be significant in closing strategies, which I mean at the end of the day we are an education institution and that is our core mission so I'll be excited to share an inventory of those funds. Oh that would be fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Mr. Dunn. Thank you. I'd like to just applaud the fact that this [01:22:50] budget includes 24.2 million dollars for special education extended day. We've heard from numerous special education teachers, the importance of providing them an additional 30 minutes each day. And I'm pleased to see that we are supporting this. It was one of my highest priorities. [01:23:12] And I'm also pleased to see the expansion and, well, establishment and expansion of boys volleyball and girls wrestling. Expanding not just academic, but also extracurricular opportunities for our children is absolutely essential to enabling them to achieve success both inside and outside the classroom so they can then apply those lessons learned on the sports field and in the classroom to success throughout their lives thank you thank you mr. Dunn seeing no others will vote for the motion as on the screen all those in favor miss Marin mr. McIlvain dr. Anderson mr. McDaniel [01:23:51] miss Anderson mr. Dunn miss st. John Cunning miss lady miss Sizemore hyzer Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. That is unanimous. The motion passes. Agenda item 5.04, action item Hayfield Athletics. I call on Mr. Dunn for a motion. I move that the school board preserve the integrity of our athletic programs and provide a level playing field for FCPS athletes by directing the superintendent to retain an outside law firm to conduct a comprehensive and independent [01:24:26] an investigation of all allegations arising out of or relating to the recruitment and transfer of football players to the Hayfield High School football team from high schools outside of Fairfax County to include involuntary reassignments of FCPS personnel, improper fundraising, improper expenditure of funds, cyberbullying, and social media policy violations, and residency and eligibility of players. [01:24:55] Is there a second? Second. Mr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you. We -- I'd like to commend Dr. Reed for causing FCPS to conduct a very comprehensive investigation using internal resources, using 420 hours of staff time. [01:25:23] An outside law firm was only retained for the limited review of the alleged involuntary reassignment of an FCPS employee and to subsequently review the notes, the notes gathered by FCPS employees. As an attorney who has worked for law firms in the private sector and led and conducted countless internal investigations for multi-billion dollar companies and other organizations, I can tell you that an internal investigation is not credible. There is simply [01:25:59] no capacity, there is no competency, there is no experience and expertise within FCPS to conduct a complex and multifaceted investigation of this type. So while I appreciate the best efforts and the good faith intentions, what I have heard since the community meeting at Hayfield on Tuesday, which was announced at the last minute and still not having received any reports from anyone as a school board member to review the actual written results from anyone, internal or external, [01:26:40] I must call on the school board to direct the superintendent to bring in an outside law firm or other organization to conduct an independent and thorough comprehensive investigation of all these allegations because we're at a point where we're eroding public trust in our high school athletics program and undermining the level playing field that has existed heretofore. [01:27:04] There are two facts that I cannot reconcile in my brain. One is 15 players, 15 players came from outside of our county to Hayfield. The second is that there's nothing wrong with that, which is what the superintendent's investigation found. [01:27:20] I cannot reconcile those two facts because somewhere, somehow, there must be a policy, regulation or something that was violated through those actions. Not to even mention the raft of other allegations that have arisen. We must have a transparent, independent review so that we can say what was done, was it done correctly, and if there were any issues, we must resolve them. [01:27:44] Because what I won't support is the de facto creation of a free agent market in high school sports because if we're going to allow 15 players to come in one year it's going to happen again and again and again and i won't sanction that i won't support that that's not what we want so again we must put our draw a line in the sand here make sure that these allegations are thoroughly reviewed so that the unintended consequences are not realized thank you thank you mr dunn dr anderson [01:28:19] Thank you and thank you to Mr. Dunn for what he's just shared. I fully agree. None of us want to have this kind of system where we feel as if there's going to be individuals trying to game game the system. I don't think any of us wants that. I also want to say I think staff have put forward valiant efforts in doing this investigation. But because I've been part of other investigations that Dr. Reed has, I think, very wisely brought forward to external individuals that are completely [01:28:55] independent of Fairfax County, that has given the community a high level of assurance and it deepened the trust that they have in us. And I think there's a little bit of space here where this may not be present in the Hayfield community, which is not my community. I just know what it's like in order for for parents and students and everyone involved to know this was truly independent and outside of the organization. [01:29:24] So that is why I've offered to second this this motion. Thank you Dr. Anderson Miss St. John Cunning. Well this is my community and frankly I'm a little surprised that this was introduced at 747 without anyone discussing this with me. [01:29:49] Dr. Reid, how many of the players that were alleged or that have been confirmed that have residency here, is it 15 players that have confirmed residency here? - I believe that it's 14 or 15. The number, as I mentioned Tuesday evening when I met with the community, recall that I said the number is fluid because the division investigation really looked residency for the primary purpose of attending school which is really our core mission that we still the eligibility list Tuesday evening what's [01:30:28] called the M.E.L. that master eligibility list needed to be done in conjunction with VHSL who often particularly in transfer situations actually attests they have a protocol if you will and a procedure that's required in certain types of transfers for vhsl approval so i believe it was 14 or 15 students you're correct in that and i i believe i've gotten several messages even today not all of those are deemed eligible at this [01:31:02] time we haven't put all of them on an eligibility list until that vhsl process is concluded thank you um having worked in the system for the many years that i have and having worked particularly with residency requirements for many reasons I understand how that process works and I understand how you have to verify residency and I can wrap my head around 15 people being here because we [01:31:36] cannot control if a family makes the choice to move from one area to another area that is something that is beyond our control and there are some families that believe that the only chance that their kids have to get to college is by playing a sport do I like that it happens no but can I control a family and tell them you cannot move to this area and follow this coach I can't we have no control over that it's not our jurisdiction as long as they are living there there is nothing we [01:32:10] can do about it so even if an external investigation proves that they're there there's nothing we can do about it. I have every confidence in the work that our internal investigation did. I know how that's done because I've worked in the system. I also understand that some of these issues are personnel and they're confidential and it's also confidential for the children. I have every confidence in the work that was done by this system. I also have every confidence in the review that was done by an attorney that was an attorney general of this state. Should we keep our eye on [01:32:46] it absolutely does it look bad that these families moved here it does look bad it doesn't look like if it's fair but we have no control over that I will not support this amendment at all and I would not I don't want to have more expenditure going to something that has already been has already shown no findings. Thank you Ms. St. John Cunning. Ms. Anderson. I agree with my colleague that I think that we've spent enough time on this particular issue. I am significantly concerned [01:33:22] with the fact that we're calling out that 15 children would have moved into a school that is heavily impacted by Fort Belvoir's community. So being that there are a significant number of military families that move into the area all the time in Hayfield specifically, I don't think that it's okay for us to be calling that particular aspect of this into question so I would very much like us to move forward from here I have talked to Dr. [01:33:52] Reed myself about the fact that I hope that there are all every ounce of sportsmanship is appropriate as we move forward in this season but I agree with my colleague that we cannot control where people live within Fairfax County so we need to and I'm Dr. Reed I would like to confirm one more time that the residency of all these children and we're talking about children all these children has been confirmed I believe they're the residency of any student that's currently enrolled in our high schools has been confirmed there's a [01:34:29] paper usually a lease or some type of paperwork that was provided and then our registration department in the case of this particular situation also added residents checks to make sure that students were coming and going from those homes again know that the residency threshold for enrollment in school is different than the threshold for eligibility to be able to participate in the sport and that is something that still has not been cleared for all the [01:35:05] students perhaps who might wish it to be cleared and that again is being in many CASES PROCESS THROUGH A VHSL PROCESS, WHICH WE'RE FULLY COOPERATING WITH. I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU TO STAFF TIME FOR THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY THAT WE'VE PUT INTO THIS TO ENSURE WITH THE COMMUNITY THAT WE'VE DONE EVERYTHING THAT WE CAN TO ENSURE THAT IT IS APPROPRIATE AND BE GOOD STEWARDS OF THE MONEY RELATED TO ALL OF THESE EXPENDITURES. [01:35:32] THANK YOU, MS. ANDERSON. MS. MARIN. I'M AWARE THAT A LOT OF STAFF TIME HAS BEEN DEDICATED TO THIS AND I'M GLAD FOR THAT. I THINK AS A BOARD WE NEED TO ALWAYS BE AWARE OF HOW MUCH MONEY WE'RE SPENDING ON EXTERNAL LEGAL COSTS. IT'S, YOU KNOW, AT TIMES WE'RE CRITICIZED FOR IT, AT TIMES WE'RE ALLOWED FOR IT. [01:35:52] I WOULD LIKE TO NOT SPEND MORE MONEY ON OUTSIDE LEGAL COSTS AND IF ANYTHING YOU KNOW THE STAFF SEEM TO HAVE DONE A VERY THOROUGH JOB AND I WOULD LIKE THE BOARD TO CONTINUE TO MONITOR OUR LEGAL COSTS AND SOMETIMES IT IS JUST NECESSARY FOR A LOT OF REASONS IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM THAT AND THE EDUCATION WE ULTIMATELY DELIVER TO STUDENTS. [01:36:09] Thank you, Ms. Marin. Ms. Lady. Thank you. I appreciate the comments shared thus far. I just want our community and our public to understand that people move for academics and people move for athletics. [01:36:27] And it's been my experience in my time in the system that people move more often for academics than for athletics. We heard community participation tonight talk about I move specifically in West Springfield. I move specifically into Langley's district for the academics. So I just want to say that I do know that we have the capability internally to do a thorough investigation. [01:36:49] As someone who was a director of student services, who had to question sometimes a, you know, six foot seven person coming in to transfer from a school just across my boundary. I knew to pick up the phone and call the DSS from that school and say, hey, are you about to lose a basketball player? [01:37:10] But the bottom line I'm trying to communicate here is people do poach in Fairfax County for this particular situation. There's a fine line between what's legal and what's ethical. We all believe in good sportsmanship as someone who is a three-sport athlete in Madison High School. [01:37:29] I think that what we teach our children about being ethical and being good sports is of utmost importance. And I think that we do background checks for a reason. I would hope that moving forward when we're going to hire in any position, we're going to pay attention to perhaps situations like these that may have happened prior to the enrollment at one of our schools. [01:37:54] And so I also want to share that I can go back to my time at Marshall High School, which is early in my career. I mean, I watched one of our biggest rivals win the state championship and four kids who actually lived in Marshall's district were members of that team because they managed to get addresses that worked. [01:38:15] So my point is, I believe legally these people have done everything that they need to do. And I also understand that some parents will move their kids for academic reasons and some will move them for athletic reasons. Because if you're on a losing team, quite frankly, and you're not going to get the looks from college coaches you might get if you're on a winning team, that could be a life-changing event for a young person who's an athlete. [01:38:40] So I don't believe we need to spend any money. I think we've spent enough on legal things that come our way that are actually, you know, very disheartening. and if the public knew all the layers of what comes towards us I think they would stand in protest but we have to deal with what comes to us but I don't want to spend any anyone outside council I trust our internal investigation I just want to say there's a system I would hope that all the people who work for burgers county who coach who are instructional assistants who are [01:39:14] teachers or principals would always pay attention to being the most ethical they can be all their endeavors thank you miss lady mr moon thank you mr chairman i i do not know whether i'll have enough time uh to indicate my support or not support of this motion because i have to leave for another meeting very soon uh but you know mr don thank you for bringing again even though this came in the last minute this motion for a board's discussion i am not going to support this motion [01:39:51] right now but what i'm going to support is a bold having a discussion sometime going sometime in the future that how we as a school system how we as policy makers or educators a find a better way to be fair with everyone when i say everyone is uh what i understand is uh you know due to the high number of athletes leaving a particular score they used to be at that school's [01:40:29] football program has been decimated and whether any of our personnel or our policy regulations may be a contributing factor to that and i would like to have that discussion sometime if that has to be elevated to VHSL level or state level, then I think we owe it to all the students and all the schools in the Commonwealth to have that opportunity. Mr. Don, thank you for bringing up, but I'm not going to be able to support today. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Mr. McDaniel. A couple questions for staff. [01:41:06] How many total investigative entities have looked into this particular situation? I know there was an outside firm I believe our independent auditor our auditor general did and I believe HR did is that correct yes sir and we also would add our central registration attendance residence checker department so four separate offices have looked into this is that reasonable to say because we had the outside right we had the and we had the HR and our residency departments those are [01:41:46] two internal departments, the board's Auditor General, which reports directly to the board, looked at the finance concerns, and then Ms. Cynthia Hudson, who is an external attorney and a former deputy attorney general for the Commonwealth, reviewed all of the notes and reviewed the investigation to provide a recommendation based on her review. [01:42:15] Is VHSL looking into this? Where does VHSL stand on this? I did speak with the executive director for VHSL, Dr. Billy Hahn, and they are -- we're still working through the process. Not all the students have gone through the full VHSL process for eligibility yet. [01:42:35] We have only posted, I think, a fairly small number of the students who are involved in this transfer to the eligibility list. So at this time, VHSL will go through the process for each of the students who initiate that process. [01:42:52] And then they may also conduct their own investigation into the eligibility of these student athletes. I'm satisfied with the results of this. I'm just not willing to spend more taxpayer dollars on this. And a point of note, our Auditor General is an independent auditor that's employed directly by this board. [01:43:13] I'm old enough to remember when that position did not exist many, many years ago. And I'm old enough to remember how it got created. And it was created specifically for instances where we needed a non-internal investigative function to look at. [01:43:28] We have citizens that sit on that board. The Auditor General is a direct hire of this board. So I don't think it's quite accurate to say that this investigation was solely internal because it ignores the fact that the Auditor General reports directly to this board and provides that firewall of independence and accountability. [01:43:49] So while I appreciate that we want to take this seriously and we want to look into it, I'm satisfied with what's been done so far. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Mr. Dunn. Thank you. Ultimately, this is about the integrity of our athletic programs. [01:44:05] And there has been lots of comments by my colleagues, and I appreciate them. but frankly, they're intended to distract from the truth. [01:44:21] To say that the Office of Auditor General reviewed this, that would be false. FOIA, the OAG report, they didn't review 90% of the allegations. Those that they reviewed, they reviewed only in part to say, we don't have the authority to review. [01:44:39] They reviewed maybe one piece, which is maybe 5% of the total raft of allegations. So they didn't really review it, did not investigate it. So their independence is pretty irrelevant. To say that the 420 hours were spent, that is a very small amount of time. [01:44:57] If you think about 40 hours in a week times, let's say, 10 people across four different units, that doesn't add up to a lot of time given the seriousness of these allegations and the implications long-term for the creation inadvertent of a free agent market within our county, within the DMV. [01:45:17] There is no evidence on the record, no evidence on the record that any of these families are military connected. So that was just total falsehood. To release that information would probably be a violation of FERPA and other things. [01:45:32] But until they step forward to say we're a military family, I'm not going to accept that at all. Proper protocol was not even followed by FCPS in its internal investigation. At the community meeting on Tuesday, and I wish more people had attended, The superintendent spoke that on the Sunday before, two days before, the regional assistant superintendent had gone to seven homes on 15 minutes to one hour notice to see if the students actually lived there. [01:46:03] Does anyone here think that that's actually the way things are normally done in residency investigations? The answer is no. We don't involve someone who is a couple levels below the superintendent on Sunday mornings. That's your time, Mr. Dunn. Ms. St. John Cunningham. [01:46:27] I think the thing that I really want to say right now is that as a board, it is also our responsibility to not get caught up in suppositions and gossip, which was something that was swirling around this entire situation. [01:46:46] As I said earlier, this is my community. Every time I went out shopping, every time I went to go get coffee, every time I was out in public, I was approached by members of my community. Students, parents, and the many teachers that I do know that work at Hayfield. [01:47:07] There was a lot of misinformation out there that was published for maybe eyes on their papers and their readership because there was a lot of fallacies that were out there. [01:47:22] Are there two sides? Yes, I got it from both ends, and I got both kinds of responses from people. But the majority of the people I spoke to are happy to be at Hayfield, they like what's going on in the school, they're happy with the principal, and believe it or not, I had families say, because we heard about this, we weren't going to have our kids play football. [01:47:47] But we went to scrimmages, we sat there and we watched it, and we saw that that is the best place for my freshman to be because those kids respect the coach. this is not anything about an investigation this is about what's happening down in the ground this is about my community this is about my school and this is about not getting caught up in the gossip went around this and we when we talk about integrity that's something that we have to as board members be responsible to thank you Miss St. John Cunning seeing who others will go to a vote [01:48:24] can we put the motion on the screen please thank you all those in favor of the motion is listed on screen Dr. Anderson, Mr. McIlvain, Mr. Dunn, all those opposed, Ms. Marin, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Seismarheiser, Ms. Dixit and myself, will the clerk read the vote? [01:48:50] So we're at 3801 and since Mr. Moon is not present the motion fails. Thank you. All right agenda item 6.01 performance review asset protection EL7 corrective action memo. [01:49:11] I call on Dr. Reed for a report on the executive limitation seven asset protection corrective action memo the chairman Frisch um let me grab the notes here so this evening um and thank you Kevin okay thanks Kevin um this evening I'm bringing back to you um the corrective action [01:49:45] memo for executive limitation seven asset protection which uh I presented um during the last board calendar year so just a reminder about what executive limitation 7 addresses and with the corrective action memo this evening I'll be providing to the best of my knowledge information and belief information that is and does support compliance at this time associated with this EL originally this executive limitation was presented on June 13th of this year and at [01:50:20] At that time, the board directed me to develop a corrective action memo to address the items shown here. I think we skipped a slide, Kevin. There we go. Thank you. These were the four that I needed to come back and provide evidence that these items have been addressed and the steps that the division will take to ensure continued compliance with this executive limitation. [01:50:48] Now we can go to the next one. Thank you, Kevin. The regulation and policy shown here outline ways that we manage intellectual property, and these are listed but not limited to these particular regulations which have been reviewed since June, and this regulation also speaks to the protection, if you will, of intellectual property. [01:51:14] want to touch on the records management which is around this is designed to ensure student and staff privacy and as you know we've had some challenges with that however what we've done in the last several months is to set some clear guidelines for records retention and destruction that align with state local and federal requirements this includes a records management manual identifying WHICH OFFICE IS NOW REQUIRED AND RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING THE RECORD, HOW LONG IT'S KEPT, AND ANY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS. [01:51:50] ADDITIONALLY, THE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT OFFICE WORKS WITH DEPARTMENTS AND OFFICES TO IDENTIFY RECORDS CREATED BY THOSE OFFICES AND THEN ESTABLISHES AND MAINTAINS THE DISPOSITION, INSTRUCTIONS TO ALIGN WITH STATE AND FEDERAL LAW. INACTIVE STUDENT RECORDS ARE TRANSFERRED ANNUALLY TO THE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT OFFICE WHERE THEY'RE SECURELY STORED FOR LONG-TERM RETENTION. [01:52:13] beyond the items that i've highlighted there are several other ways in which we protect student and staff privacy regulations 2701 and policy 2730 focus on the handling of these records our systems the cis system and the c stars and cis would be our student information system c stars is used for um individual educational planning or ieps we have house student information that's is secured or stored securely. [01:52:46] Access to these systems is either determined by staff role and work location or appropriate approvals which have been reviewed. Regulation 4220 establishes procedures governing the content of employee files which are located in the Department of Human Resources and at times local work sites. [01:53:05] Access to these systems are also restricted to authorized users that have certain role responsibilities. Finally, in this section we have implemented several changes in the 23-24 school year to increase the protection of student records. [01:53:21] This has been obviously a key area of focus and I appreciate the scrutiny and the second look at this. We have changed the FERPA response including direct oversight, the way in which we review and the way we index and label files that are available for inspection. [01:53:40] Final FERPA and incident response training has been required for school based administrators and in particular staff in the special education department, department of special services staff and our leadership. A reorganization has been done to place public records FOIA FERPA team under the office of division council as well as oversight of the department of special services video E and OCR complete processes. [01:54:07] And this is important to note because previously, our FOIA and FERPA team resided within our communications department, and we feel this provides some more safeguards. The next topic I'll discuss was our cybersecurity policies, regulations, and controls. [01:54:25] And again, EL12 and 13 highlight many of these efforts. Our cyber teams actively monitor digital incursions and implement proactive security measures, conduct routine risk assessments, and respond to incidents while providing ongoing training. [01:54:43] In fact, I believe this is the first year we have required cyber training as one of our modules for professional development. Oh, there you have it. Starting in school year 23-24, the mandatory training has been occurring to recognize and mitigate cyber threats. [01:55:01] Even some of our faux phishing drills, well, not popular with staff, have been a key strategy that our cyber team has utilized to help prevent cyber threats. Our email actually is one of our more vulnerable spaces. [01:55:17] So it's really important that we continue to work on that. Risk based authorization and monitoring for third party vendors and in-house applications has also created a cyber checklist which is both designed for our security. And also has been a challenge, I think, for many departments as we try to order material, software, and complete contracts. [01:55:41] So we know that sometimes there's a price to pay for security. The additional measures taken to ensure protection from legal liability, again, the Office of Division Counsel serves as in-house legal for the school division and does consult with staff as well as the board on a variety of matters. [01:56:02] The Office of Division Counsel also reviews documents and provides trainings to ensure legal compliance while keeping abreast of changes in the laws. And some other topics along this line we discussed in closed session this evening. The next section talks about knowledge management systems and structures in place. And there are a number of types of knowledge of our types of knowledge management which are critical. We have explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, declarative knowledge, and procedural knowledge, and these [01:56:38] are all examples of knowledge management for which we have had to find really clear targets and strategies. On the screen, there are several examples of management systems and platforms and structures where some of this knowledge management occurs, but we know that if we have an absence of a robust knowledge management strategy that can lead to the inadvertent loss of valuable information which is important to move on that is not position dependent but rather [01:57:12] structure and system dependent otherwise everything becomes person driven and when the person leaves so too the knowledge leaves. So we need to be really thoughtful stewards of knowledge management and these sets of practices that help us improve the use and sharing of data and information and decision making I think we'll continue to sustain the division well into the future. [01:57:35] One of the processes that we're utilizing in terms of these types of manuals are examples of staying on top of this. I also appreciate the direction of the board to look at the Baldrige model and this is something that's enabling us to answer questions about our division and capture portfolio of information again around knowledge management so we're really pleased to be updating those documents another aspect of knowledge management is how we use newsletters and infograms and [01:58:09] action grams and all manner of information also on our employee hub as well as on our newly redone website again websites we have electronic knowledge management as well as documented manuals which are I think very important both to keep our staff updated, but our community as well. [01:58:32] And the final aspect of existing knowledge management practice will be all of those pertaining to providing training and mentorship. I appreciate those of you who were able to attend our leadership kickoff as well as our new beginnings. Great beginnings, not new beginnings, great beginnings and our we've had a CSS site Institute for the first time this summer and our MTSS Institute so our summits and it's just a great time I think to bring staff from around the regions and different pyramids together across this division and make sure that we have some core understandings and [01:59:12] gotten a lot of positive feedback from that work so finally I want to talk a little bit about ensuring assets are reviewed and utilized in accordance with strategic plan goals and in particular this is around leasing agreements which was connected to a budget follow-on motion from last year so the property management team currently is responsible for all aspects of leases these terms are reviewed quarterly by the property management team and at this point I know know we're looking at a number of those because I have to get back to you here in the next [01:59:50] two months with all of the leases we currently have and what, if any, we can sunset to be more efficient. And so the property management team continues to estimate costs to leasing property, including rent, rent escalations, maintenance and operations, and so forth. [02:00:08] As directed by the board, the Office of Facility Planning is creating a lease consolidation plan that you all asked to have presented this coming year the 24-25 school year it's hard to say that actually it is the 24-25 school year but anyhow it's part of executive limitation 11 so that lease consolidation plan needs to be provided when that EL is provided and that's going to support a review of all the leases some that are deemed necessary those cost analysis and any that we can sunset. [02:00:42] Next I want to review our contract process again this is the office of procurement services which is ensuring compliance of these procurement practices. Regulations 5012 and 5011 provide guidance for acquisition of goods and services as well as outlining who has authority to enter into these contracts. [02:01:04] Contract request management system must be used when submitting quotes and contractual agreements to procurement for review, and their mandatory terms and removal of prohibited terms are complete with compliance in this area. [02:01:22] Under contracts, again, the Division Council provides internal guidance with the Office of Procurements and Contracts. There's a continuous review of contracts that occurs in several ways that you can see on the screen. At the time of purchase, the approval workflow and focus requires multiple levels of improvement, approval by procurement to ensure compliance, and in addition, approval review ensures fund and commodity codes are used appropriately. [02:01:50] The focus workflow utilizes approval thresholds to ensure a multilevel approval process with clear separation of duties. Moving on, I'd like to highlight our current practices for memorandums of understanding, and there are a variety of these in the division and typically initiated at the department level. [02:02:11] The Office of Division Counsel has created template MOUs for several departments and attorneys typically review and provide feedback during the drafting and negotiation process. These MOUs are currently maintained within departments or schools, although one piece of knowledge management around this topic is we are collecting those to have one dashboard within our Office of Legal Counsel moving forward. [02:02:38] We also have a number of MOUs with our county partners, which we continue to work to update on a scheduled basis. So in order to be in compliance with the Executive Limitation 7, the division will take additional steps to ensure that the MOUs are reviewed annually and aligned with our strategic goals. [02:02:59] Again, that's part of our Baldrige work. So here I've outlined the division plan and these steps will help us build a clear and consistent plan for MOUs and you can see these and these are MOUs that are anything from our SAC program for example to utilization of a variety of services and community partnerships and we have quite a number of these so continuing our plan for knowledge management practices including onboarding off-boarding and standard operating procedure practices will continue to be [02:03:37] IMPLEMENTED CONSISTENTLY THROUGH THE VISION AND YOU CAN SEE THE STEPS IN THE PLAN WHICH AGAIN WILL ADDRESS THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND SO I MR. CHAIR ARE WITH THIS CORRECTIVE ACTION MEMO AGAIN COMPLETED AND I'D BE HAPPY TO TAKE QUESTIONS FROM THE BOARD. THANK YOU DR. ANDERSON OR [02:04:02] thank you dr reed i'm so used to calling you first i know um mr dunn uh thank you dr reed um i have lots of questions um so for procurement um what systems have been established since our discussions last year about the pickett street warehouse which in my opinion is an egregious [02:04:36] example of waste to prevent imprudent spending so the pickett street warehouse uh was leased early on i think um to store food right it includes freezer space uh particularly during covid when it was difficult to get the supply chain wasn't predictable for food so one of the things that MS. AND MR. FOSTER AND I HAVE TALKED ABOUT, THERE IS A CHART OF ALL OF OUR LEASES THAT WE'RE [02:05:08] REVIEWING, BOTH THEIR BEGINNING DATE, THEIR SUNSET DATE, AND WE HAVE PAUSED ONE PROCEDURES, WE HAVE PAUSED ANY ADD ON FOR SUBSEQUENT YEARS WITHOUT MY DIRECT APPROVAL IN THAT CONVERSATION. BUT I'M NOT SURE WHO COULD SPEAK TO THE PICKET STREET WAREHOUSE CURRENT STATUS. [02:05:29] Is that what you're requesting, Mr. Dunn? No, I'm sorry. I was just using it as an example. So, you know, we've talked about previous contracts over the course of -- since January when this board was put in place about the need to review contracts that previously were just kind of automatically renewed. [02:05:48] And so I was wondering, have you put in place any systems to -- besides requiring yourself to approve every contract, Have you put in place any systems or mechanisms so that every contract, every lease, not just every lease, but every contract is reviewed to say, is this something we should do or would this be wasteful? [02:06:09] So I apologize for my lack of clarity. I'm not personally approving every single contract or lease. What we put into place was any lease that was coming up for reconsideration, we're bringing to that team to look at. [02:06:25] BECAUSE WE HAVE COLLECTED IN ONE PLACE ALL THE LEASES, SO WE DID PUT THAT INTO PLACE. FOR ALL CONTRACTS, WE DO HAVE A CONTRACT REVIEW OFFICE, OUR OFFICE OF PROCUREMENT. WE HAVEN'T ADDED NEW PROCEDURES TO CONTRACTING OTHER THAN THE THRESHOLDS THE BOARD HAS ALREADY APPROVED AND WE ARE MEETING THOSE THRESHOLDS, WORKING WITHIN THOSE THRESHOLDS. [02:06:48] Can I ask, why is the Office of Procurement, it appears that some procurement is under Ms. Burden, other is under Mr. Muick, what is the dividing line there? The dividing line is the capital dollars versus general fund dollars. [02:07:06] In other words, Mr. Muick is the procurement for those things in facilities as a checks and balance, because you wouldn't want procurement within the same departments we have. Mr. Mewick is responsible for capital or facilities funding. [02:07:24] Ms. Pratt in procurement under Ms. Burden in the Budget Office is all things general fund. And Ms. Burden, do you want to add anything to that? I think that's essentially the short answer to it. That's correct. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Burden. With respect to cybersecurity, I don't see any mention of ransomware, which seems to be one of the greatest threats almost existential to FCPS because there have been school systems in cities within the United States that have been held hostage by foreign hackers. [02:07:54] What are we doing to prepare for that eventuality or prevent it from happening besides the random phishing test emails that get sent? Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I know there are a variety of strategies. No one strategy is going to eliminate cyber threat. [02:08:11] In fact, I would guess there's no strategy that's foolproof for that because there are so many vulnerabilities within a system. I'm going to ask Mr. Sethi to comment on our strategies currently. Please, Mr. Sethi. [02:08:27] Yes, absolutely. I think things that I mentioned in the current report where we intentionally DIT established the Office of Cybersecurity, which was to say, instead of having cybersecurity being part of individual offices, we're going to streamline it and bring it together in one place, which allows us to ensure that consistent practices and policies are applied throughout the system. [02:08:50] We have already done measures which are public, so I can speak off, and certain things we can certainly debrief you in a closed session, because you wouldn't want to talk about our practices and procedures, but just tightening up protocols around user access. One of the recent moves was moving everyone to a more secure MFA system. [02:09:09] What that implied was all of our staff members now have to use an application to use MFA, which is initially burdensome to staff, but that protects us from measures such as SMS-based phishing, which is becoming really prevalent, where you would get an SMS message, and SMS is not secure. [02:09:27] It's technology circa 1998, which hasn't been updated. So there are individual practices that we're putting together. Ultimately, all of these come together in what we would call defense in depth, where we have multiple strategies protecting assets which need to be more secured and restricting access to those assets along the way. [02:09:48] Have we had any independent audits or red team analysis of our cybersecurity to validate that our defenses are where they should be and that we're budgeting sufficient amounts of money to protect our now entirely digital population? [02:10:07] So we certainly have individual internal controls and we have internal audits too. We also run audits with our external entities in terms of pen testing. And those are informing strategies which will then reinvest. And this is a continuous process, right? [02:10:23] Technology is evolving fast. Security practices are evolving faster. And then we think about funding strategies, just like CIP as we build towards stronger and stronger systems that requires more and more investment in technology but it's a balancing act when we look at those strategies and say where should be prioritizing the investments where risk lie and that is becomes the focus of the division and the and the projects and the funding strategies associated with it thank you dr. Reed how how can we or what systems have you put in place to and to combat the rise of anti-semitism within our schools I've heard some constituents [02:11:02] express concern that with the one-year anniversary coming up on October 7th that there will be walkouts or marches on that day which would goes to the disrespectful element of this EL can you talk more about that's one of the words used that you're preventing disrespectful things unsafe imprudent ET CETERA. IN EL7? I'M SORRY. I'M ON EL1. I APOLOGIZE. [02:11:32] I'LL WITHDRAW THAT QUESTION. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. DUNN. DR. ANDERSON? THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR A LOT OF THIS INFORMATION. THERE'S A LOT HERE, BUT I THINK I WAS HAVING A LITTLE BIT OF A HARD TIME SPRESSING OUT WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE NEW SINCE THE JUNE 13TH MEETING. [02:11:58] In some of the areas, I've been able to call that, but it's been a little bit of a challenge for me to identify it in all of the four areas under discussion. For example, for the first section, you talked about regulations reviewed since June. [02:12:14] What does that mean? Have they been updated, reviewed, just reinforced? I just want to build a little bit better understanding. I think some of the purpose of doing a corrective action memo is to become clear about what we actually are doing in the division, and I think perhaps in my original report I was not as clear as I could have been, so going back to looking at the four bulleted items that you called out as a board that you wanted more information about, that doesn't necessarily mean we're changing, adding, or deleting a practice, but we're providing more information about what we're actually doing. [02:12:52] But we did go back and review the regulations that I note in the corrective action memo. We didn't write new regulations since June, but we went back to review them, to share them this evening. And I think that's why I'm struggling a little bit, because I was under the impression that these regulations already existed. [02:13:10] So all of the practices already existed, but it still led to some of the concerns that identified this EL as noncompliant. So I'm struggling to see what will now be different moving forward in some of these areas. [02:13:28] Not in all, but in some of the areas, I'm not seeing how we will have a different result. So perhaps you could name the area that you're not seeing and that would help me because I think one of the things that came out of the last review is really a lack of speaking thoughtfully about knowledge management, for example. [02:13:46] So I went back to make sure that we did some research on what best practices around knowledge management were to make sure that we could codify what that actually looks like here and what we need to work on. So let's just take the first one, protection of intellectual property to address the management of student records, not the legal liability component, because I know we've already had that discussion. [02:14:11] But what is going to result in a different, what's going to create a different result based on what you have done since June? Well, it's what we are making clear since June. I know, for example, this morning one of the things we reviewed was what are those checklists of priorities that we need to make sure we get out to particularly school principals at elementary, middle, and high. [02:14:42] And I emailed a team this morning about saying we have certain topics that we just every year, they in some way trip us up as a division. And we have new principles, right? So we need to make sure that we get clear guidance out on, in particular, some of these topics, acceptable use of copyrighted materials, for example. [02:15:05] That's not a new regulation, but how do we communicate it so that everybody out in the field understands the importance of that and understands how we need to take care of that. So a lot of this is not so much creating a new body of work, but it's how do we communicate, how do we remind, how do we have systems to check back that it's done in the way we expect to be done and those are those feedback loops not unlike later in the corrective action memo we talk about onboarding and just making sure that we're clear every year that not that it was a focus last [02:15:44] year and it isn't this year because it's all some of these things are focused every single year and it's building those systems to make sure we're communicating with program directors and school principals just reminders about this and then checking back did it get done okay thank you um on the last page of the document under knowledge management you talked about some of the new activities these i think to me are all fairly new that the chief of staff will engage in which is the um the operations using the ballridge framework can you speak a little bit in greater [02:16:18] detail in terms of what does that mean how will that be manifested in our processes so the bald The Baldrige Framework, again, this is really around knowledge management, and Mr. Smith in his office is leading the review for this Baldrige Framework, and that will identify areas of improvement in knowledge management practices. [02:16:43] It's a lot about portfolio management, and when we think about portfolio management, we think about all the different departments that have to participate together to bring an initiative off the ground it's really our senior leadership team took time this summer really to look at how do departments work together and we utilize several case studies out there were perhaps that hasn't worked well for other businesses or organizations because it's critical that our departments work together so part of this work will be [02:17:18] Making sure that the portfolio man management across different departments and regions work because as I said Both of the leadership kickoff and we've talked at the you've talked at the dais It's critical that we become a school system and not continue in many areas as a system of schools. Okay, thank you Speak a little bit more to the MOUs [02:17:49] What I see here are there's going to be just better structures in terms of gathering the MOUs, ensuring that there is a place where they are all are organized. Is there going to be any change to their structure? [02:18:08] I don't know that there's necessarily a change in the structure other than we want to make sure they align with the strategic plan. And so wherever possible, we want to make sure that there is a tie in. If we're doing MOUs, for example, on crossing guards, how does that connect to what we would expect for safe students, right? [02:18:30] MOUs on safe routes to schools, get to green activities. Just making sure that we integrate language around our 2023-2030 strategic plan would be the template piece that we would want to make sure is division-wide and coherent. [02:18:47] I also want to make sure that any MOUs that bind us as a division have our Office of Division Counsel reviewing it because there at times has been maybe for expediency or whatever that were MOUs are signed out in the field and haven't always had a review from our Office of Legal Counsel. [02:19:08] So that's more of a system or structural expectation at this time. Thank you. AND GIVEN SOME OF THE INFORMATION THAT WAS SHARED TONIGHT DURING THE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION COMPONENT OF THE MEETING, WE COULD NOT UNDERSCORE ENOUGH SOME OF THE DETAILS THAT WERE HIGHLIGHTED ON PAGE THREE OF THE FULL REPORT REGARDING THE FERPA AND FOIA RESPONSES. [02:19:28] SO I WILL INVITE YOU TO PLEASE HIGHLIGHT THAT AGAIN SO OUR COMMUNITY'S ASSURANCES ARE INCREASED REGARDING OUR PROTECTION OF THEIR STUDENT RECORDS. Yes, ma'am. We're working hard again. I think page three here. I'm sorry We've moved our FOIA and FERPA office From our communications team to our legal counsel team We've also worked on the labeling the tagging and framing and really working with digitized student records and This will continue to be a high priority [02:20:06] Thank you. And training we've provided as well. Require training for staff. Are you finished. Thank you. All right. Miss Marin. Yes. Thank you for preparing this. This was our first exercise in not approving an EL and doing this correction action process. So I'm a fan of it. I continue to advise that the memos be more thematic in what's changing. So my my biggest concern or one [02:20:46] my biggest concerns that led me to vote against the memo was the handling of student information and i understand you you said you moved foia to legal and you've got these systems but i don't i don't have a sense of the progress on some of these things um and not just that but other systems as well so you've captured a really great snapshot of what's in place but that growth and that change I'm unaware of you know maybe we can't know in some cases like we can't know if maybe there would be a FERPA leak if it didn't happen but I just I'm not clear [02:21:22] on what exactly has changed because as we know we have lots of regulations and lots of rules and you know sometimes they you know in any in life right like sometimes I follow them sometimes they're not but like so how are you ensuring that these things are being followed where's the perhaps change in I don't know if it's personnel, like, you know, job performance or something. [02:21:45] Well, obviously, the personnel changes wouldn't be part of a public meeting conversation, right? So what I would say is I think that one of the case studies we looked at, interestingly, this summer, talked about the culture of celebrating sort of the saving the day events, right? [02:22:10] We solve a crime or we solve a big mystery or we, like there's some big event and what we almost never celebrate is things running smoothly, right? Or those staff who day in and day out prevent a headline from happening because we don't even know all the headlines that could happen. [02:22:31] So I think that's perhaps a long way of saying we're working harder to celebrate the non-events. And so my expectation is that with the changes over time that we're making, that we'll have fewer, if you will, events that draw negative attention and, you know, harm people. [02:22:54] Okay. And by personnel, I meant, you know, are there, is there a factor in an annual review that includes, you know, the staff members shall do this, this, and this, and that you can measure. So not a specific person is what I was asking about. But even if we take something like computers and asset management of computers, just like you give us dashboards on your teacher hiring. [02:23:15] I mean, all year from January, we saw that you got down to almost zero. You filled those gaps. Well, I'd want to know, like, so each year, how many of our laptops get damaged? How many get stolen? How many are, you know, to that, I would like suggestions on, you know, what's feasible, but like what is important for us to know. [02:23:33] And but especially with that student information, how are we really ensuring like can we say how many, you know, forms we've digitized with encrypted software or how many, you know, we could do that like some like data. Yeah, like the data about how these systems you have in place are actually producing the safety that we're seeking. [02:23:56] It's a great idea. We'll take a look at that and think about what data we can present. And it's not unlike Mr. Dunn asking about the leases, that's coming back to you in EL11, the lease management profile. I think that looking at data on different types of assets, I'm more than happy to look at that. [02:24:18] And now's the time to do it, right? Start of the year. And I also wonder if perhaps when I, now that we've had this conversation, going back to the policy for EL7 might be adjusted to better reflect the conversation of the board and the impetus for having the corrective action. SO I THINK WE COULD DO THAT AT ANY TIME, SO PERHAPS WE CAN ALL THINK OF THAT. [02:24:37] AND TO BE CLEAR, I'M NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT ASSETS, LIKE THINGS, IT'S LIKE REALLY ALL THE STUFF. OKAY, THANK YOU. APPRECIATE IT, YEP, THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MS. MAYOR, MS. SEISMORE-HEISER. THANK YOU, I APPRECIATE IT. AND I WILL JUST SAY, CAN YOU GUYS HEAR ME OKAY? [02:24:54] I STILL SEE THE PRESENTATION, BUT I CAN'T. YES, YOU'RE GOOD. PERFECT, PERFECT, THANK YOU. I WILL SAY, AS THE MAKER OF THIS MOTION, BACK WHEN WE VOTED TO HOLD YOU IN NONCOMPLIANCE, [02:25:07] that you brought back to this board and I want to say, as I said at that point, I know I and my colleagues take our responsibility very seriously to ensure that the information you provide meets our expectations so we can have enough information to know whether you are or are not in compliance, right, with this EL or any of the ELs that we vote on and at that time, you know, I felt, I think I said it then, that you were not in compliance because we didn't have sufficient information. [02:25:36] And so we couldn't make the determination regarding compliance without more information, especially around things like knowledge management and risk mitigation and legal liability and some of the other things that you've discussed. So I really appreciate all the information you've brought back to us. [02:25:53] And, you know, I have to say I appreciate my colleagues and I really taking our job seriously in ensuring that we have sufficient information to make that determination and not just rubber stamping. but I do have to say it was you who brought us this process as a public and transparent process to use and so I'm glad to use it. As the board member who wanted to work on revising asset management, I think this is incredibly important and it goes to the, you know, in some ways the core of protecting our system, right? Intellectual property, risk management, contracts, knowledge [02:26:30] management as you know you and i have talked it can make us so much more efficient effective and deliver excellent education while saving taxpayer money so um there's always more that you can share but i appreciate you taking seriously the board's desire to get more information bringing this back having said that um i was just curious what you think the baldridge process will add in terms of the information you bring or what you think it might help bring to your attention in these areas that you think you could work on so i think one of the real benefits of the baldridge [02:27:05] work is our ability to benchmark with other divisions and other um i don't want to say companies corporations but it's not just schools that baldridge works with so other organizations and benchmarking best practices for scaffolding um and knowledge management right and efficiencies because that's one of the things you were very clear about with budget are we appreciating all of the efficiencies that are possible as we look at our return on investment for the funds that our taxpayers are holding us accountable for so i i'm really looking forward to the [02:27:42] in particular the ability to benchmark how our different operations managed and other organizations that are defined as highly effective and where we can learn things and improve we will And we may be one of those highly effective organizations in other areas. [02:27:58] We know, certainly academically, we've done great work over the years here in Fairfax County. So it's really a continual improvement, right? To say, all right, what are we doing well? And how does that compare to other effective and highly effective organizations so we can find where we can improve as an independent-- Yeah, I think that's really wonderful. [02:28:20] And again, I appreciate you giving us a chance to get the full information that we need to have to be able to know whether you are in compliance with this executive limitation or not. One thing I wanted to mention in terms of the cybersecurity and the ransomware attacks, we've been through that in Fairfax County. [02:28:38] I will say I was on the board. And so it will be interesting to see what continual improvement the Bulger shows around cybersecurity work. And I also would love to know a little bit more about your standard operating procedures and specifically how they are improving our knowledge management. [02:28:58] Do you find that they're being utilized at a good rate, or do you find that there's room for improvement in terms of the utilization of SOPs? And I heard that was my time. I think the standard operating procedures, I think just committing to those in actual, like in the hub and in places where departments utilize them really helps us be more efficient. [02:29:22] An example is I was just, I'm really proud, and I know the board is proud of our transportation department. We run the largest school bus fleet in the country, and by day four of our first week of school, only 2% of our routes were running late. I think that's a testament to efficiency and really very strategic planning. [02:29:45] And there were many drivers, actually, that were out running their, driving their routes prior to the school year to make sure they had the right routing. And that's a little extra care. I COULDN'T BE MORE GRATEFUL FOR OUR STAFF HERE IN FAIRFAX COUNTY. I THINK WE CARE JUST A LITTLE MORE, AND IT SHOWS IN THE RESULTS. [02:30:03] SO I WANT TO MAKE SURE WE HAVE THE BEST SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO SUPPORT OUR TEAM. THANK YOU, MS. HEISEMORE. I APPRECIATE YOU BRINGING US MORE INFORMATION SO WE CAN DETERMINE COMPLIANCE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MS. HEISEMORE-HEISER. MS. ST. JOHN CUNNING. THANK YOU. [02:30:19] FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR BRINGING US THIS DETAILED WORK BACK. I think that's what a lot of us were looking for, the responsiveness and all the information. I know this is a huge system. I know there are things that it was the Fairfax way and trying to make it a school system rather than a system of schools. [02:30:37] It's a large ship to turn without hitting that iceberg. My question is about MOUs and as you're working this, I don't know, do you have a list of MOUs And do you have a list of when the renewal dates are? [02:30:59] Just because of past experience with certain situations, I know that there are maybe some MOUs that have not been renewed. This is just a personal situation that I'm aware of. And I don't know how broadly that exists or doesn't exist. [02:31:18] So aside from just making sure that the language is correct, making sure that whatever that renewal date is, that we're keeping track of that and being on top of that. So I appreciate that, and I know our staff, we have some MOUs that just keep rolling and probably, not probably, but very much so, we wish could be finalized. [02:31:43] I think, I won't go into detail this evening about which ones those are, but some, we absolutely, there's language that they just roll, right, while we work on negotiating them, But some of them, we have sort of our higher priority to negotiate MOUs. [02:32:00] So I really understand your point and appreciate the question. Because there are some that I think worked maybe 10 years ago and are less effective now. And we're still operating within those while we continue to work on negotiating new MOUs. And I'm mostly talking about MOUs with our county partners. [02:32:21] Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. I now call on Ms. Sizemore-Hyser for a motion. [02:32:35] Sorry, I was having some technical difficulties with my mic. So my apologies. I move that the school board finds that the superintendent has made adequate compliance towards executive limitation seven asset protection. [02:32:58] I further move that the school board approve the monitoring report with a corrective action plan based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limitation number seven asset protection as outlined in the strategic governance. Is there a second? Ms. Dixit? [02:33:13] Second. Thank you. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, would you like to speak to your motion? I think I already did. Just, again, appreciate Dr. Reed coming back with more information to help us determine compliance. Ms. Dixit, would you like to speak to your second? [02:33:30] Yes, I'm pretty impressed with Dr. Reed's presentation and how we are going to move forward with the new grants and the benchmarks. So, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. Seeing no others, we will have a vote for the motion on the screen. [02:33:47] All those in favor of the motion on the screen. Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Ms. Dixit, and myself. All those opposed? Ms. Marin, Dr. Anderson. Abstentions? Will the clerk read the vote? [02:34:18] Eight yeses, two noes, and then two not presents. The motion passes. Thank you. All right. Agenda item 6.02, Global Executive Limitations EL1 Monitoring Report. [02:34:44] I call on Dr. Reid for the presentation thank you chairman Frisch this is the global expectations which really is sort of the most it's kind of the preeminent executive limitation in the group of 13 so I want to start obviously by noting that at the time of this report to the best of my knowledge information and belief that I've gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with this board executive limitation associated with this topic. [02:35:17] Again, for those watching at home, the full report is posted on BoardDocs. So to begin with, I think we can go to the next one, Kevin. Thank you. To begin with, we will look at ways that, in this case, I will not cause, allow or fail to take reasonable actions and so forth. [02:35:37] I think as you can read it, Regulation 4116 relates to employee background checks, refers to criminal background checks for employees, new hires, and volunteers. And we continue to work on this as a high priority, as a safety of our students and staff. [02:35:57] I want to be able to report that as of May 21st of last year, 100% of our required background checks were completed. submitted thirty thousand six hundred and sixty three employees for criminal record background check and an additional nine thousand five hundred nine background checks for new hire candidates including employees and volunteers we expect to process again this year anywhere between six and nine thousand background checks for new hires and we're working to enroll Fairfax County Public Schools and the FBI Wrapped Back Program, which will actually be available [02:36:37] to us for the first time in the Commonwealth in July of 2025. And this will allow us to have real-time information for any staff member that perhaps has an arrest somewhere else in the country other than in the Commonwealth or even elsewhere in the Commonwealth where we might not otherwise have previously for sure been notified. [02:36:58] So just as an aside I would really encourage our leadership at the Commonwealth level to fund this for all school divisions and honestly all occupations that deal with vulnerable adults or children. [02:37:16] I think that a commitment to the health and safety of all of our children and vulnerable adults in the Commonwealth necessitates that type of investment and other states have made that investment. I'm hopeful that that will happen here. Further, some additional items on this topic include the mandatory annual training and professional development for staff. We've recently put into place a dashboard, which I've shared with you, so we are monitoring required professional development and following up to make sure this is occurring. We're definitely looking at our risk [02:37:54] management, looking at in-house claims and handling claims and recovering funds, as well as working on making sure that our FOIA and FERPA teams handle requests in compliance with relevant laws and regulations. Next, we'll talk a little bit about taking reasonable measures to prevent practices, activities, or organizational conditions that endanger our public image or credibility we again have guidance around social media our office of safety [02:38:32] and security monitors social media for threats and over the course of the last several years particularly last year any type of online threat and we had several of those were immediately worked on researched and strong cooperation with our county police department I want to thank chief Davis and his team and our county executive Brian Hill who provides support in these areas. [02:38:58] During the 23-24 school year we did hold 62 community meetings that were organized by the office of community relations and these were 62 community meetings that I personally attended on a variety of topics and I think our website that's been relaunched will continue to also provide positive communications and transparent approach to work we're doing in the school division. [02:39:25] We do maintain emergency management plans, and our Office of Safety and Security works hard to respond to emergency situations. Most recently, we also last year began new protocols on air quality with smoke, which hasn't been a mid-atlantic tradition before but we had to adjust and learn some new things about air quality obviously our heat alerts have taken on a whole new life of their own in the last [02:39:56] year or so as well as our snow and ice and just any management emergency management operations and just really have felt so grateful for our staff in that area and our county partnership. [02:40:12] We also participate in annual mandatory safety and security programs. For the school year 23-24, we were 100% compliant with these drills. And in July of this year, we completed and certified the required 23-24 Department of Criminal Justice annual safety audit. [02:40:32] Turn in their uniform crisis plans and those are reviewed at the division level and safety and security training and tabletop exercises at each site are scheduled to begin August 26th which was this week. So policies and regulations addressing conflict of interest are also managed and the conflict of interest and statement of economic interest forms for school members and the superintendent are identified under policy 1801. [02:41:05] There are other policies and regulations that talk about that for other employees and non-school employment is also something that's addressed. We have specific guidelines for employees who tutor or provide private instruction and so forth. Our last two areas cover data informed systems focusing on continuous improvement and how we monitor our efforts towards achieving the goals in the strategic plan. [02:41:30] again. I'm going to call out the Baldrige work because this is work that really has tentacles that run throughout a lot of our executive limitations. We've developed and are continuing to develop data dashboards for monitoring key division metrics. The senior leadership gets those Monday morning at 6:30, and we've also developed data bytes for our principals that will be that get data relevant to their grade band level of school and we're going to be adding departments within the next month that will be getting data bites. [02:42:04] So data will be reviewed and is continuing to be reviewed at the beginning of every senior leadership meeting so that we can stay focused on our core work of education. The family vision groups we have scheduled for this year. [02:42:22] We had I think over 360 family members at the kickoff at Fairfax high school and appreciate the attendance as well as the Fairfax high school staff for hosting us. On the final slide we're looking at ways we implement and monitor efforts towards achieving our goals and priorities particularly with the board's educational equity policy. [02:42:45] We have policies and regulations that work on creating the safe welcoming and identity affirming spaces this equity policy was adopted in june of 2023 and continues to align with our vision values and commitment to academic excellence regulation 2603 establishes procedures and guidelines for ensuring that all our students including gender expansive and transgender students experience a safe supportive and inclusive school environment and we have systems processes designed to ensure excellence equity and opportunity for all students by [02:43:24] centering this experience and the needs of our diverse student populations so our enhancement plan for students with disabilities our focus on universal design for learning this year our training for all school-based administrators Dr. King and her team have done a great job with the THE TRAINING AROUND SRNR, HEARINGS OFFICE PROCEDURES AND TITLE IX AS WELL AS CURRENTLY WITH OUR CELL PHONE, PILOT AND POLICY. [02:43:54] SO THIS TIME, MR. CHAIRMAN, THIS CONCLUDES THE SUMMARY OF THE MONITORING REPORT FOR EXECUTIVE LIMITATION NUMBER ONE, GLOBAL EXPECTATIONS. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, DR. REED. [02:44:10] MR. DUNN. I THINK I KNOW THE QUESTION. So in terms of ensuring that the schools are providing a safe environment for our children, what measures or systems have been put in place to ensure that there are UV lights or similar mechanical systems to catch and kill COVID impacts or other viruses, diseases that are passing through our air ducts? UV lights within our schools? Is that what you're asking? Yes. [02:44:48] I mean, we just had a pandemic, right? Now we have MPOX coming out. We'll have more and more viruses, I'm sure, come in the future years. There are systems like UV lights and similar features on HVAC systems that can be installed in homes and certainly in commercial and school buildings. [02:45:08] Has FCPS implemented such systems in 100% of its school buildings? So I don't know, Mr. Dunn, that I can speak to 100% of our buildings having UV light systems for that purpose. I know that I assume I should say assume I believe that Fairfax County Public Schools like many school divisions across the country worked on interior air quality as an outgrowth of the pandemic. [02:45:35] Right. Because it was so critical to have. I know we ran our filters through much more quickly, our air filters, Filtering percentages of outside air versus inside air which created higher energy costs I think for many of us, but I think if they're healthier, it's certainly critical. I'm going to ask Miss Zemanski if we have any UV actually I'm seeing a shaking head here So I I don't know that we have a UV lighting Plan per se, but I can take that back to the team and take a look at that. I know our HVAC systems [02:46:14] AND OUR AIR QUALITY IS A PRIORITY. I ALSO KNOW THAT WE'RE BEHIND IN OUR HVAC SYSTEM UPGRADES TOO. SO, BUT WE BELIEVE THAT WE'RE WORKING ON THE AIR QUALITY. DO YOU WANT TO ADD ANYTHING TO THAT, MS. SEMANSKI? [02:46:30] NO, NOT AT THIS TIME. I CAN ACTUALLY GO BACK TO THE TEAM AND GET MORE INFORMATION. I WOULD APPRECIATE SOME KIND OF INVENTORY TO SEE WHAT MEASURES ARE IN PLACE AND WHERE THEY'RE NOT IN PLACE SO THAT WE CAN ADDRESS THAT. CAN I JUST TO CLARIFY, IT'S ALL MEASURES TO ADDRESS THAT TOPIC. [02:46:45] Yeah, not just UV lights. That's an example, but not the only method to kill viruses, diseases that are in the air. Well, we do, I know our building custodial teams are using, you know, cleaning tools, cleaning measures and so forth. And I must say, big props to our custodial crew because our buildings here are taken care of, I think, better than almost anywhere in the country. [02:47:09] So there's a lot of effort that's going into that as well. So I just wanted to make sure I give them a shout out tonight. I would second that. I've been thoroughly impressed with every building manager and custodial employee who I've met. There's a consistent theme across the schools I've visited in my district that HVAC is not working well, no matter how recently it was installed, including at South County Middle School, where that school was only recently built within the last 10, 15 years. [02:47:41] There's an issue there with three or four classrooms are above the HVAC system and have the potential for students to experience hearing damage because of the high frequency vibrations caused by the HVAC, which is right underneath. And so I'll just ask you to maybe work with Ms. Szymanski to look into that to avoid both damage to our students' ears and potential liability. [02:48:06] But there's also, not just at that school, but at every school I visited, almost constant reports of breakdowns hot and cold areas in the school and that can be very troubling especially with the rise in the number of excessive heat so what what is being done to expedite the replacement of hvac systems especially those that are generating high numbers of work orders right that's a good metric for you know whether an hvac system is working efficiently or not yes sir i [02:48:39] Ms. Szymanski, do you want to comment on our HVAC systems, and I will share that that is a priority, and we had, yeah. Yeah, we are addressing those when we do renovate projects as part of our renovation cycle, but we also know that the average age and useful life of an HVAC system is not 42-plus years like our renovation cycle, so we are focusing some of our infrastructure money on HVAC specifically. [02:49:06] And it's interesting, the sinking fund came up. We were actually just today going over the FY25 sinking fund spend plan and putting it majority to HVAC system replacements because we know this is a very critical need in our division. And is Ms. Szymanski aware of the hearing issue, the hearing damage potential? [02:49:29] Yeah. I'm going to follow up on that for you. What is being done to ensure that all of our athletic equipment is is modern and up-to-date I've I've had reports of football helmets at some schools not being fully compliant with concussion protocols and students having to basically switch out the new modern helmets with older helmets when you go on the field so the health and safety of our student-athletes is a priority so if [02:50:03] I would want to know where that is occurring and I would ask Mr. Horn our recently named executive director for student athletics and activities to look into that. We absolutely want to make sure football helmets or pads for any sport or for baseball right like the helmets batting helmets catcher gear any of our sports we want to make sure our equipment is safe. [02:50:32] So where there's a concern, I'd be happy to pass that on to Mr. Horn and make sure that's addressed. That might just be the squeaky wheel, though. Is there any proactive effort to conduct an inventory across FCPS to see, not just for people who raise concerns, but proactively to go out and look at this equipment to make sure it is compliant and keeping our students and athletes safe? [02:50:55] My understanding is that's one of the roles of our athletic administrators. We actually, as you know, in the budget, maintain the assistant athletic administrators as well at each of the comprehensive high schools. I will reiterate that and ask Mr. Horn for an inventory, but my understanding is that that's checked annually. [02:51:15] Thank you. In terms of potential, you know, there's a growing atmosphere of anti-Semitism in our schools and across our country and um you know to to protect our students um especially on the one-year anniversary of october 7th um what is being done to to combat the rise of anti-semitism within our schools so as you know we partner with the jcrc on in work on professional development with our staff as well as making sure that when we do have acts of anti-semitism we communicate [02:51:50] clearly and definitively about those with our school community where in which that occurs we want to make sure also our office of safety and security i mentioned earlier in our corrective action to el7 that we monitor social media and monitor threats so those are monitored so it's really important that each and every student feels safe seen included when they go TO SCHOOL SO WE'LL CONTINUE TO MONITOR EVENTS AND ALSO WORK TO CREATE INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENTS [02:52:23] ON OUR CAMPUSES. THANK YOU MR. DUNN. DR. ANDERSON. THANK YOU. JUST KIND OF PIVOTING A LITTLE BIT I'VE BEEN VERY CURIOUS TO SEE WHAT THE YEAR TWO REPORTS COULD POTENTIALLY LOOK LIKE AND THIS IS OUR FIRST REAL SUBSTANTIAL ONE THE SUCCESSION PLAN IS PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD And I also know that the intent of these reports is to also add to your annual evaluation, so I'm really looking for it to be as useful as possible. When I take a look at what we had last [02:52:56] year, last year's report and this year's report, there's a lot of the same information. I've highlighted many, many areas where the information is exactly the same, but that's okay. It exists. it's the same and there's some areas where it is expanded a little bit for me as a board member and perhaps for the public who's also looking for this information in a digestible way I please implore you to kind of reevaluate the format of this document there's a lot of great information that is just background information some of the things that are happening yearly I'll give you an [02:53:36] example you talked about here regarding the emergency operations the business continuity the pandemic influenza that's the same thing as last year that has not changed I think that could live in a section where this is just the background information but in terms of the accountability piece the assessment piece that we are evaluating I need to be able to see the year-over-year growth progress innovation whatever are the new processes I'll give you as also another example and last year's report you talked about the you talked about the [02:54:13] background checks it was in beginning stages this year you have a hundred percent of the background checks being done for employees and you have some really great data that speaks to how many have been happening thus far 9500 that's new I would like to see that pre and post because that's how I can evaluate the growth and perhaps the compliance in many areas as it's provided it really reduces the utility for me as a school board member to see where are we making changes where are the innovations happening so I just wanted to offer that for your consideration and I appreciate the feedback I would say [02:54:52] that one of the key purposes of executive limitations is really to make sure it's like taking your car in for a 50,000 mile checkup right it at some point these should just be routine and the data probably isn't going to change much because the systems are in place and we just check on them every year there may not be innovation around background checks it may just be that we're double-checking every year in a public transparent way that we are doing our background checks right like so I think that they're going to be some executive [02:55:28] limitations that aren't going to necessarily be very different year over year but it's a check-in to say this is the time we're gonna double down check with the department check with staff are we still on course because where we should see our growth is in our five goal areas right because the executive limitations are the way in which we do the work but the work that's critical is meeting the goals of that strategic plan so it's these are the means to that end [02:55:58] which are the goals. So I for sure will try to find more ways of doing comparative data. And it's also important just to be able to publicly review that every year just so that our, you know, the community wants to know, are we doing tabletop safety exercises? Absolutely. Have we gotten those background checks done? Absolutely. Are we going to look forward to wrap back? For sure. Right. So, I mean, I think there's always going to be a little bit of balance there I guess is what I wanted to say. Sure and I think with just some a little bit more [02:56:33] strategic formatting we can just identify these are the continuing efforts kind of the annual check-ins and these are the things that we're really honing in on because I'll tell you one of the areas that I find that is new this time are the data dashboards where you've begun to talk about that that was not in last year's presentation. Clearly we've always been data rich but I think right now we're more data focused and figuring out what to do with that information, which you've begun to articulate here. And I would just like to see this set up in a way that it's easily [02:57:08] accessible, that we can see we are making tremendous growth. The impact, I think Ms. Marin mentioned it earlier in her comments with the other EL, we are always looking for the impact of whatever it is that we are doing. So we've established and spent lots of time, I know both YOU AND MR. SETHI HAVE BEEN TOGETHER PUTTING TOGETHER THESE DATA DASHBOARDS. [02:57:31] NOW I'M CURIOUS IN TERMS OF THE SO WHAT. WE HAVE THEM, WHAT ARE THEY DOING? AND I'D LIKE TO FIND SOME WAY FOR US TO ARTICULATE THAT IN THESE REPORTS BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR ME. WAS THAT THE TIMER? I NEVER KNOW. THANK YOU, DR. [02:57:48] ANDERSON. MS. DR. REED FOR THE PRESENTATION. I ACTUALLY HAVE A COUPLE OF COMMENTS. is the the fbi wrap back program i know we discussed that and you had uh you had mentioned it before too it's absolutely important for us to have that and get that access because we are seeing increased uh you know criminal activities in our and arrest and uh other things which will prevent some of that and also people who have criminal background other states and moving to [02:58:25] Virginia that's going to support so and I would try to you know do anything in my power and I guess all my all the board members that we want that to be in play put in place and so thank you for mentioning that the second thing I know Dr. Anderson was talking about data dashboard this is one of being my interest too I've I wanted that data dashboard it is very viable tool but I wanted I wanted to ask you how much of it is available for public knowledge? [02:58:58] So, yeah, no, that's a great question. I think we're looking at which of those as we -- which of those are going to be maybe public facing and maybe creating some that are. Some of these are very operational. [02:59:13] But I do think that we've separated now out our principals and then we'll be separating out directors, program directors, and then senior leadership and we pretty much look at all of them. But I think that's a good question. Maybe that's a growth point for next year. Yeah, and the reason I say it is that we do so much good work in FCPS and with students and teachers and the staff working very hard. [02:59:37] And sometimes there is a lot of misinformation goes out and it's a narrative which is hard to then kind of do later. It's better to have the information out in public. It's our scores, it's our attendance and those kind of things if we can be more kind of transparent upfront to share those that would be showing how we're improving that is why I was saying that thank you and my last comment is about what mr. done said earlier I have researched a little bit about those lights and other products which can be used safely in our schools [03:00:15] so that the students can have more health they have less health issues and And especially when the flu season is going on and viral outbreaks, and we've seen that this causes pan-academic, you know, there is a delay. [03:00:32] They miss schools and also the, you know, teachers also getting sick. So I think there should be some, like, plan put in place to research this because ultimately we talk about safety for students and education, and this covers both of them. [03:00:50] SO I'M NOT SURE ABOUT ULTRAWIDE LIGHTS BUT I KNOW THERE ARE OTHER PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET WHICH CAN BE USED WITH THE HVAC SYSTEM. THANK YOU. WE'LL LOOK INTO THAT. YES, MA'AM. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. [03:01:08] THANK YOU, DR. REED FOR THE PRESENTATION. SO I'LL JUST START OFF BY SAYING THAT I AGREE WITH MY COLLEAGUE DR. ANDERSON AWAY FROM THE TABLE THAT IT WOULD BE HELPFUL IF WE CAN PULL OUT THE NEW THINGS You've done that a little bit here, but just better emphasize them on each page as opposed to what we've seen before. [03:01:31] I don't want any of us to be in the position where we're hearing the same presentation every year. I know that's not the intent, but when I reflect back to ancient times when we had the OEs, those were actually very informative every time we heard them because they were really updated with with new statistics every year they showed us what was going well what what what wasn't and it was really an opportunity for the board to have a significant discussion on operational areas at least once a year so anyway that's that's my reflection on that I also want [03:02:07] to echo things that Mr. Dunn has said on HVAC and I think that you know as we as climate change changes upon us, I think it would be helpful to know what we're doing differently with HVAC because obviously we're going to need stronger capacity. We know that air conditioning is here to stay and needs to be even more powerful going forward. So it would be helpful to get a sense of what we're doing there. And the kind of issue that goes in tandem with that is something I'm [03:02:41] very excited about and I think you are too, which is our tree canopy. And I know Ms. Szymanski has been looking into that so i'd be eager i don't know if you're prepared tonight but just give us a sense of the the work we're doing there i know over the past year past couple of years we've been partnering with um casey trees and do you have any thoughts on some high level thoughts you know you're right we've been working with casey trees and typically what we've seen is that schools that are interested might reach out and get trees planted at no cost to the division but we want to make sure that we're maximizing what's available to us [03:03:18] so we connected casey trees with our grounds team so we can identify really good potential sites and that all the trees that we're able to get to get from grant funding we can maximize so we're making some good headway with the team identifying the sites and working with them direct yeah that's fantastic yeah i hope to provide some data on the increased uh canopy uh real estate i guess for lack of a better term Right right I know that's that's great so look forward to hearing more on that and then just finally I would support Mr. Dunn's request for an inventory on disease prevention efforts whether [03:03:54] it's UV lighting or other things I think we can't lose sight of these things just because the pandemic is in the rearview mirror and as I've discussed with you Dr. Reed I do hope to bring a forum topic this year on just kind of taking this issue to a higher level on pandemic prevention going forward and lessons learned and what we can do better next time. [03:04:18] So anyway, look forward to further discussing that. Thanks. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. McElveen. Mr. Dunn. Thank you. Can you please speak more about what is being done to prevent hazing in our athletic programs because I've received multiple reports of athletes being hazed in the recent past. [03:04:44] And again, this is an area where we can be reactive or proactive and make sure that students are being protected from unethical practices. So I think any form of hazing, whether it's student-athletes or students, period, is unacceptable. [03:05:04] So I would encourage those reports to be made to the principal of the school and obviously the coach of the program if it's an athletic program. and if there's not a satisfaction satisfactory response from the coach of the program the athletic director and the principal also should help with that i'll speak to mr horn but i do believe that's part of parent nights for new sport seasons and that type of thing but hazing in student athletics or in schools has no place in fairfax county um can you also speak [03:05:39] ABOUT WHAT IS BEING DONE TO EDUCATE STUDENTS ABOUT THE SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY AND THE POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF CYBER BULLYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA. WE'VE LOST TOO MANY STUDENTS ACROSS THIS COUNTRY TO SUICIDE BECAUSE OF CYBER BULLYING AND WE HAVE TO BE VERY PROACTIVE AND HELPING STUDENTS TO NOT BE SUBJECT TO SUCH ABUSE. SO I KNOW THAT WE HAVE SOME REQUIRED TRAINING RSRNR that you as a board approve addresses cyberbullying and the excessive use of social [03:06:17] media. I think the cell phone policy that the board has had in place for several years addresses perhaps the cell phone connection to those causality or those causes. So I think there's the digital citizenship work that's being done I know and promoted and supported through instructional services. So there's I think a significant amount of work on those fronts and there seems to be a need for continuing to increase that level of work. So sorry for the digital citizenship is that training that every student takes as part of their normal coursework? [03:06:57] I believe there's digital citizenship that's occurring at each grade level but Dr. Presidio do you want to speak to the digital citizenship curriculum yeah there is required training that students complete each year we also have a lot of resources that parents can use with students at home to talk about some of the issues like the you know pros and cons and dangers of social media and the like a number of our schools have kind of gone above and beyond even the division requirements and have done additional work to earn national kind of certification under common sense media is with respect to their digital [03:07:32] citizenship work so there's quite a bit of work that's being done um and i reviewed a report and i found uh references to conflict of interest policies but um beyond policies um what proactive measures are taken to identify conflicts of interest or is it or is it simply waiting for reports that someone may have had a conflict of interest there's a requirement that um there's a required conflict of interest training for all staff i have to take it i think the board actually has to as well and we're all required to understand conflict of interest rules and regulations. [03:08:09] There's a form for staff, particularly in leadership positions, that has to be filed with you that has my signature on it as well to ascertain whether or not there is a conflict of interest that's duly noted and has to have approval, right, if somebody's going to be doing work outside the division. [03:08:29] So I think that's proactive in terms of checking whether somebody is conflicting their interests. I don't know that there's a scan that's done for that. But there is a proactive training required, forms that are required to be filed. [03:08:47] And where there's a question, obviously, HR, Human Resources would investigate that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I'll take a quick turn on the subject of conflicts of interest. BOARD UPDATED THE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST POLICY AFTER MANY, MANY YEARS, AND I THINK WE SPENT ABOUT A YEAR WORKING ON IT. CERTAINLY FAR MORE ROBUST THAN IT WAS PREVIOUSLY. [03:09:10] THE SUPERINTENDENT IS CORRECT THAT IT REQUIRES CERTAIN PAPERWORK TO BE FILLED OUT WHEN A EMPLOYEE WANTS TO DO WORK OUTSIDE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. PEOPLE AT HOME MIGHT BE WONDERING, WELL, WHAT ON EARTH COULD SOMEBODY WANT TO DO OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM? IT INCLUDES ALL SORTS of things like having a small business with your spouse or wanting to lecture in the summer at a university because you have some experience that people find useful. [03:09:33] So that has to happen. But we also have the fraud, waste, and abuse hotline. So when people do find examples that might need investigating, they can report it there as well. And obviously that is very much looked into. I also think on the question of cyberbullying which I think is always worth discussing two things I would note one last year the school division or the school board approved our participation in a lawsuit against the major social media companies taking them to court [03:10:07] for the impacts they're having on our school system and two I believe and perhaps somebody CAN RESPOND TO THIS, OUR HEALTH CURRICULUM AT VARYING POINTS THROUGHOUT A STUDENT'S EDUCATION ALSO BRINGS UP THESE ISSUES NOT ONLY FROM A CYBER BULLYING PERSPECTIVE BUT FROM AN INTIMATE PARTNER PERSPECTIVE AS WELL. DR. PRESIDIO, WOULD YOU SPEAK TO THAT, PLEASE? YES, NO, CHAIRMAN FRISH, THAT'S CORRECT. THERE ARE LESSONS RELATED TO DANGERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE HEALTH CURRICULUM AS WELL. [03:10:37] THANK YOU. MS. SAWANT. YEAH, I WAS JUST GOING TO VOICE THAT OPINION. IN SRNR, WHEN WE WATCH THOSE videos before we take those exams there is a lot about cyber bullying and digital citizenship and then in the advisory lessons we have at the beginning of the year and the social and emotional learning it does come up very frequently so we do get that programming oh validation thank you very much trenches good to hear dr anderson hi mr frisch german fresh i did have my hand up also i'm sorry i missed you um your first turn i apologize no worries thank you i appreciate it sorry dr anderson if you want to go ahead i don't mind waiting until you have your second turn [03:11:17] no please go ahead all right thank you um i won't a lot of the questions i have have been asked by my colleagues i won't repeat them but i did want to sort of mention as you're looking at some of these facility upgrades and i completely agree um we may even need to look at sort of our schedule given um climate change and how much hotter things are um i think we did definitely look at hvac looking for diseases um i think it would be good also to get sort of an accounting of how our facilities funding is and how it relates to the these improvements you want to make right we often [03:11:53] talk about being on a 42 year renovation cycle and best practices being 25 and having to spend money out of our operating funds for maintenance and so i think as we look at what we're spending now and what what our bonding and other funding gets us now and what we really need to be doing some of of these things we really do need to be looking at our HVAC systems and are they able to keep up with the changing in climate what do we need to make sure our athletes are safe our facilities are excellent and we've talked about sensory rooms all of these things that really take us to be sort of the best or top it would be good to get a sense of what we can afford as well [03:12:29] right because I think our public needs to know that they have high expectations in Fairfax which they should we love our schools and we're proud of our schools but we've got to be realistic too about what we can and can't do funding-wise so it would be good to kind of have both of this is what we need to do here's what we're funded for here's that delta yes ma'am i will i think we're not funded to do everything we want to do that would be a probably an understatement yeah i mean i know for example um i've had a lot of constituents reach out about athletic field conditions and you know some were surprised to find out that you know it's not included in some of the [03:13:09] bond funding so i think we just need to sort of get that information out there as well because we want to make sure we can meet our community's expectations and maximize our taxpayer dollars yes ma'am thank you thank you miss sizemarheiser dr anderson yes just a couple more things that i wanted to emphasize on page five of the report you talked about beginning in the 24 25 school year data will be presented annually i am very much looking forward to that as you know i've been asking since last year because some of the goal reports did include year-end data goals for the [03:13:47] 23-24 school year, and I'm very much waiting to hear how close did we get to those goals. And I know we also talked about this last year during multiple goal reports in terms of the seven-year arc that exists to actualize all of the goals that we have for the division. Will that be part of what we see this year. You will see the measurements for each goal this year like whatever the measurements are for each goal that data will be provided. Last year was more of a baseline this [03:14:21] year you'll actually you'll see year over year growth. Right I guess what I'm asking is I know that the recommendation from ORSI was for five percentage points increase but across seven years which is the lifespan of the strategic goal how are we are we going to ramp that up and is that information going to make be made available during this year's go reports information so presentations the goal data will be obviously presented I I'm not sure I'd have to go back and look at Orsi's recommendations [03:14:56] but the goals that well and we're going to report on all five this year so the data that applies to each measurement will be provided. Right. I guess I want to make sure that I'm clear because I want to be sure that this is part of your calculus when these are being presented. [03:15:14] When we talked about this last year, some of the goals were incremental and were so incremental that we could never actualize them by the end of the strategic plan. One of the things that you said at that time is that across the seven years, obviously some years you're going to have larger goals more aggressive goals and others and that we would have the full span of that arc so I guess I'm looking for that to be in this year's goal reports so that we can get to that hundred percent where all students are actualizing the impact of the strategic goal that's what [03:15:49] I was referring to the last thing that I want to mention because I saw I also see this as an opportunity for you to show the growth and last year's report you talked about how the team was going to be writing the regulation that is to accompany the equity policy. It was written in May so that would be a great thing to add in here just to also show the progress. Yes ma'am. Thank you Dr. [03:16:16] Anderson. Miss Sizemore Heiser did you want to go back. No my apologies I'll lower my hand. No worries. It's what I get for missing you the first time. All right I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move that the school board FINDS THAT THE SUPERINTENDENT IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH EXECUTIVE LIMITATION NUMBER ONE GLOBAL EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS I FURTHER MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD APPROVE THE MONITORING REPORT BASED ON THE SUPERINTENDENT'S REASONABLE INTERPRETATION OF EXECUTIVE LIMITATION NUMBER ONE GLOBAL EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS AS OUTLINED IN THE STRATEGIC GOVERNANCE MANUAL IS THERE A SECOND MS. [03:16:56] LADY MS. ST. JOHN CUNNING WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR MOTION NO THANK YOU MS. LADY WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR SECOND NO ALL RIGHT SEEING no other hands we will go ahead and have a vote for the motion that is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand Miss Marin Mr. McElveen Mr. McDaniel Miss Anderson Mr. Dunn Miss St. John Cunning Miss Lady Miss Sizemore Heiser Miss Dixit and myself all those opposed abstentions [03:17:26] Dr. Anderson will the clerk read the vote it's 10-0-1-1 we have Mr. Moon away from the table the motion carries. Thank you. At this time the board will take a few moments to document their individual feedback on the monitoring report. School board members may complete the hard copy found at the dais or the online linked version in the script. If you have any issues accessing the [03:17:54] online form please contact the clerks. Given the hour I'd like to not take an extended recess because it'll take us forever to get back to the dais. We'll give everybody one more minute. Obviously you can return your forms at your leisure agenda item 7.01 policy review global [03:18:31] executive limitation EL1 the next order of business is the policy review for executive limitation 1 global executive limitations EL1 annually the board will review each of the 13 executive limitations at the time the monitoring report is provided to determine if any revisions are needed moving forward the board may also review any of the executive limitations at any time a a change is needed at that time board members may provide comments on executive limitation one global executive limitations to determine if any revisions are needed at this time i invite board members to make suggested revisions or they can reach out to colleagues in advance of a future [03:19:11] meeting and we can put it on the agenda all right seeing no others i will call on miss marron for a motion i move that the school board maintains executive limitation one global executive limitations as it is currently detailed in the strategic governance manual is there a second second dr anderson miss marron would you like to speak to your motion just to say that i like this practice of looking at the policy as earlier this evening we saw that we might have an opportunity to do it in another thank you dr anderson would you like to speak to your second all right thank [03:19:45] you seeing no other hands we will go ahead and vote for the motion on the screen if we could put the motion on the screen all those in favor miss is ms sesmarheiser voting or did she have a oh i'm sorry miss sesmarheiser voting just voting thank you uh all right all those in favor miss marron [03:20:20] mr mckelveen dr anderson mr mcdaniel miss anderson mr dunn miss st john cunning miss sesmarheiser miss lady miss dixit and myself that is unanimous agenda item 8.01 academic matters i call on the superintendent for academic matters thank you chairman frisch this is an exciting night to talk about our annual pass rates for our SOL and VAP tests and so this evening I appreciate the team putting this together this is quite a bit earlier than we normally would report this data I think Dr. Presidio [03:20:59] indicated traditionally I have two years of tradition but traditionally this is is data released at the end of September so we're about six weeks early ish and so I just appreciate the team working hard to pull this together for tonight. I want to share the data up here and it again shows that we continue to improve modestly in math and science and hold steady in reading and we continue to outperform the commonwealth in all subjects reading math and science I will say that we are looking forward to seeing our reading [03:21:37] improve with our new basal this year I know sometimes there's something called an implementation dip or when you work with new materials we might not see a jump right away which may affect that arc that dr. Anderson was talking about it's sort of like it takes a little bit to gear up and then once we get geared up I think we can really move so we're excited about those opportunities and we want to make sure that we thank our students for their hard work as our staff for their hard work as well and our families for supporting this and our many community partners across the division who provide tutoring and safe [03:22:17] spaces for our students to engage in schoolwork so I also want to note that on the far right Dr. Presidio was able to provide us some data points which we're excited about which we saw a 6.8 percent increase in fifth graders taking advanced math across the division and a 9.5 percent increase last year in the number of eighth graders taking algebra one or higher and those are really specific measurements and targets and we're really excited to see that progress i was at several back to school nights last evening and [03:22:54] over the last several days and I just really am so so proud of our teachers as they talk about some of the strategies they're utilizing in reading math and science and I just I'm thrilled for the second week of school there's a lot of excitement around our teaching and learning in the classroom this slide I know has gotten a bit of attention and this is that a nod relate to what is our real performance here in Fairfax County Public Schools in the areas of writing and the social sciences history and I want to say that the Commonwealth [03:23:34] provides video he provides approved assessments that we chose to use and our writing has maintained a 96% pass rate with an end of over 18,000 close to 19 15,000 students and our social studies with over 24,000 students actually improved 3% year-over-year And you know, I think that the excitement for our students is the ability to take these Commonwealth approved assessments And we just want the hard work of our students staff and families to be recognized [03:24:11] I also want to say in a footnote below and we're gonna have more information It's a teaser, a little bit of a spoiler alert around AP and high expectations, but we did want the community to know that, in fact, the number of AP tests given last year went up by over 6,000 across the division, and that is significant. [03:24:32] And I will also say, not only did the number of AP exams go up by over 6,000, our scores, the percent of passing tests went up as well. So when you think about that, that's more access, more opportunity, and a demonstration of excellence. [03:24:50] So I'm going to move on to the next slide. This slide's a little more complex, and really what it talks about here is returning to these pass rates. This slide allows us to view FCPS outcomes for different student groups, And it definitely indicates the amount of work that we need to do and simply must continue working on. [03:25:18] I will say that our, we looked at, it looks like the scores are low in the chart. And I know it's hard to read, but for our Hispanic students, it looks like they are performing under the state average. [03:25:33] And one of the things our team, our multilingual team, looked at was when we look at our Hispanic students who are not in the multilingual learner category, they're actually performing higher than the statewide averages. [03:25:50] In other words, 84% for reading, which is five percentage points above the statewide rate, and 78% in math and 75% in science. So I think it's very important when we think about looking at students in different demographics that our students are performing actually extraordinarily well and as we work on refining our strategies to meet the needs of our multilingual learners, we're going to continue to see improvements. [03:26:20] I know we've got some structures and strategies with our multilingual learners this year, as well as our focus on universal design for learning. so we're looking to see some great progress there i think the next slide also covers this and i think this is one of those things dr rich polio talked about last year but this is another key point that our students who have exited multilingual language service actually surpass the average pass rates for all fairfax county public school students so that we know that one of the ways that we close gaps is by making sure that students have acquisition [03:27:00] of English to be able to successfully take these SOL and VAP exams. And our next one, students with disabilities pass rates on SOL and VAP tests, we were very careful to pull out our VAP tests only, SOL only, and then our combined scores in both reading, math, and science. [03:27:26] And one of the things that we were a key point here is on the far right that the SOLs represent over 96% of the state tests taken by students with disabilities. So that the combined annual pass rate really is primarily reflective of SOL results. [03:27:46] And then again just a reminder that our special education enhancement plan is focusing resources to strengthen these outcomes and will continue to work on this. It's really division efforts in this area will continue. [03:28:05] I also want to draw your attention to our very last slide. We've had a lot of discussion around the national merit topic here in Fairfax County. And I really want to point out that when we look at semifinalists, last year in 2024 was the highest number of national merit semifinalists even going back to 2016, and we're very proud of that. [03:28:33] Reminder that our nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, including the highest scoring entrants in each state. SO I WANT TO SHARE THAT EVEN WHEN OUR ENROLLMENT WAS HIGHER PRE-PANDEMIC, WE STILL CURRENTLY POST-PANDEMIC HAVE A HIGHER NUMBER OF NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFONNELS. [03:28:59] SO THAT IS ACADEMIC MATTERS, MR. CHAIR, AND I'M HAPPY TO TAKE ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE BOARD. THANK YOU, DR. REED. WE'RE GOING TO START WITH MS. SAWANT BECAUSE SHE CAN'T STAY WITH US ALL NIGHT, SO MS. SAWANT, GO AHEAD. HI, DR. REED. THANK YOU FOR THIS. [03:29:14] slide three that was showing the students who took all of the different types of approved assessments as compared to the ones that took SOLs. And if you can disclose this information, at least for the writing and social science when you look like there were only 110 students who took the writing exam, the pass rate is low and it was the same for social science where it was only like 400 students. [03:29:33] So I'm wondering if you guys have any explanations or reasonings for like maybe like a group of students or the setting that the students took that exam in or any like way to address that specifically just because it's such a small number? Right. And I think what you can see, Miss Swant, is that over time, it's been a little bit larger number. [03:29:52] In fact, what we don't show in 21-22 for writing, it was actually 2,500 students. Then it went to 500 and then 110. We're really students are choosing these alternative assessments, the BDOE approved alternate assessments. [03:30:09] IN SOME CASES, SOME STUDENTS HAVE TO SIT FOR THE SOL TO TAKE AN ADAPTED ASSESSMENT. SO WE HAVE PULLED THE PROFILES FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE TAKEN THOSE AND THEY ARE OFTEN IN UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCES AND THAT'S REALLY ALL I WANT TO SAY ABOUT THAT AT THIS POINT. [03:30:29] BUT IT IS A VERY SMALL NUMBER. THANK YOU. DR. ANDERSON. THANK YOU. I JUST HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS. [03:30:45] I'M JUST GOING TO GO THROUGH SOME OF MY SLIDES HERE. The first one that shows that we've increased the point over in mathematics and science. And on the side, you talked about the increase of fifth grade students and sixth and eighth grade students taking algebra one and advanced math. [03:31:03] Can you speak to some of the efforts that have resulted in these increases? Absolutely. And I really am proud of the work that's being led out of our instructional services department. Amy Hunter. Dr. Amy Hunter spoke to you last year about some of our curriculum. [03:31:21] I don't know if we want to call it compression, but some of our, I think that's the best term. Dr. Presidio, do you want to take a run at that? Because there have been a variety of strategies, not the least of which is our data dashboard around registration. I would say I think the first thing is just having the strategic plan goals targeted around these areas of increasing the enrollment in our advanced courses and being able to communicate that that's a priority for you know every one of our schools so working with our principals being able to communicate that with all of our teachers we've been able to really be focused on this particular issue so we've done curriculum work which is really important [03:32:00] but I think what's more important is some of the work that we've done around the professional development the coaching in schools the work with our counselors to really look at students that could be challenged at a higher LEVEL AND TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE ENROLLING IN SOME OF THESE MORE ADVANCED COURSES AT AN EARLIER AGE. [03:32:18] I THINK THE OTHER THING WE LOOKED AT IS WE HAVE THE ALGEBRA DATA BY REGION AND PYRAMID. SO ONE OF THE THINGS WE'VE LOOKED AT, THOSE PYRAMIDS THAT HAVE REALLY PULLED TOGETHER AND MADE THAT A CONVERSATION, IF YOU WILL, K-12, HAVE LIKELY SHOWN THE MOST GAINS. [03:32:36] SO WE'RE REALLY TAKING A LOOK AT THAT, LIKE I SAID, BY REGION, BY PYRAMID, WHICH SHOULD Speak to you. And that's where. Right there. That's where I think, you know, because you don't just drop into algebra in eighth grade if you haven't had a strong K-7 experience. So I think the alignment that's occurring is, you know, when we can get those arrows moving in one direction, we're going to make the progress. We can move mountains. [03:33:03] And that's a good setup for my next question. And if you don't know the details, because I am really looking for some specificity, I'm happy to get that information offline. How are we and our investments in young scholars? How is that speaking to these efforts? Because sometimes I don't see the through line. Dr. Presidio. Yeah, I don't have the data off the top of my head. It's an excellent question. We'd be happy to get that for you. I mean, we do track enrollment patterns for students that are young scholars. They're flagged in our student information system so that schools will be able to see those students when they transition from school year to school year that's part of [03:33:43] what the work that we do with our advanced academic resource teachers to advocate for those students with counselors to look at that profile look at the courses that they're selecting so we can get you the more precise numbers I would be very much interested in that and of course I'm interested in the data by pyramid and by school because that speaks to the growth that I need to see in my area is that already available we haven't no we haven't run it by region and pyramid just yet but like we've done in the past we'll be doing that again this year in partnership with the chief of schools office and then the region assistant superintendents will be available [03:34:21] to go through those data reports with each of the board members do you anticipate an additional presentation later on when you have more robust data that you can disaggregate as we have done Because I think last year was September 12th, or will this be it for this year? [03:34:37] I, you know, I think what we're trying to do is match data with the goal reports, because the goal report that will identify this data will be very much so more detailed because we have a whole work session. And that's goal four? No, this would be goal three, I believe. [03:34:53] And I would have to go to the calendar to look at where goal three is. And if we needed to do it sooner, I think we could pull something together. Probably the soonest will be those conversations you have with your regional assistant superintendent for your region. [03:35:09] But we can look at when the goal three report will be. That would be very interesting to have. Thank you. My next questions are regarding the history and writing. One of the things that you said, which is a little bit unclear for me, is that students are choosing a state assessment versus the SOL. [03:35:26] thought it was a school division decision. Has that changed? Dr. Presidio, perhaps you can better articulate that. Yeah, no, I mean, as you can see, it's a really small number of students that are taking the SOLs. And as Dr. Reid pointed out, that's come down over time because more and more of our schools are choosing to use those alternative exams. But again, there are some students, as Dr. Reid pointed out, that special accommodations might be made available through the SOL. So they might access that test. So for example, you might think of even a student who transfers into our school system and didn't have the opportunity [03:36:01] to sign up for an AP course or an IB course and they're in a standard level course might default into taking that particular SOL or a student who needs special accommodations that might be provided in that format so again it's a small number of students the numbers come down over time because you know we're really getting to a point now where these alternative exams are the standard for us to be able to offer to students because they're more aligned to what's being taught in the course and in most instances they're much more rigorous when you think about AP and IB exams for example so these assessments are represented by high school students are we no longer doing the eighth grade [03:36:39] writing is that an option for those students it's an option but again that all of this is represented this is including all of the eighth grade in high school and of course exams in this life I see yeah thank you I'm not gonna dig too much into slide four because there's a lot to be said there because we know there's a lot of work to be done for with some of our populations but i do want to speak about the last slide the national merit semi-finalists thank you for sharing that and i want to confirm that everyone [03:37:15] has been honored in some way certificates have been sent home for all of these students and will CONTINUE TO BE TO HAPPEN. SO DR. ANDERSON THAT'S ONE OF THE ITEMS ON OUR CHECKLIST FOR HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS BUT REMEMBER NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS GET NOTIFIED BECAUSE THEY THEN PROGRESS TOWARDS FINALIST CONSIDERATION. WE'RE STILL IN THE PROCESS OF RECEIVING INFORMATION ABOUT OUR COMMENDED STUDENTS WHO WILL ABSOLUTELY BE RECEIVING THEIR COMMENDED CERTIFICATE IN DUE TIME IN ALIGNMENT [03:37:49] with our recent regulation update thank you i'm really looking forward into forward to the goal report where we can dig into this um and a lot more specificity thank you thank you dr anderson and i'm pleased to report that conversation will happen at a work session on february 4th so all right mr dunn uh i bought a refrigerator a year and a half ago and uh the ice maker broke within the first week and I had to have it have preparemen come out six or seven times until they [03:38:28] finally just gave up and they gave me a new refrigerator and and so the fifth time he came to my house I said you know I had a refrigerator with an ice maker in 1981 which was 40 years ago you would think 40 years later they would have figured out how to make ice right um but he explained well that was mechanical this is semiconductor so different but my point is that's a you know there should be a scientific approach to making ice just as there should be a scientific approach to raising the test scores of [03:39:05] these black students Hispanic students students with disabilities economically disadvantaged and talking with principals it seems often there's more art than science to it but the the the principles who have really impressed me the most really dig into the data and really have a deep understanding as as I've consistently found in my conversations with you Dr. Reed a very deep understanding of what works what doesn't work and for the students who aren't succeeding for the groups that aren't succeeding how to how to you know [03:39:38] bring them up to be at least at the level of all students right so I was wondering is there any systematic collection of best practices lessons learned you know identifying the leaders at the school level or within the schools who are really pioneering the best approach or maybe importing best practices lesson learned from other school divisions as you've been at other school divisions because to to have so much autonomy is good in one way but to [03:40:15] leave so many people to kind of figure it out on their own through trial and error seems inefficient. It seems we should have, you know, principal academies or more ways of providing a scientific management approach to ensuring student success and better student outcomes. [03:40:33] Yes, I can appreciate that sentiment. And there are best practices and context matters, right? Because I mean, as children are not ice cubes, right? [03:40:49] in the sense that science is replicable once we have the right formula and the right temperature. I think that we know that universal design for learning for example as a framework is a best practice to enable that accessibility and opportunity for each and every one of our students. [03:41:10] We know that SIOP and GLAD strategies for multilingual learners are critically important And we're working to make sure that that professional development is out there. We know providing effective feedback enables the bottom 80% of our students to perform as the top 20%. [03:41:30] So we know what best practice looks like. And at the end of the day, it comes down to an effective educator in every classroom with effective leaders in every school. And all of us on team FCPS supporting that instructional core in the classroom. [03:41:45] It's that relationship between a student, teacher, and the content being taught that's critical, whether it's the arts, CTE languages, reading, math, science, or writing. So I think as we drill down on that and get very clear about that with the support of our families and community, we're going to continue to see the data move in the right direction. [03:42:06] You speak about a school system rather than a system of schools, right? So shouldn't there be an effort to develop an FCPS approach to student success? That's correct, there should, and we actually, that's what the strategic plan sets the target, right? [03:42:22] And then it's our responsibility to make sure that every school and department is aligned to that target. We do have an instructional model, although there's still a bit of debate about that, but Dr. Presidio, do you want to elaborate short, briefly, on our instructional model? [03:42:38] I mean, just briefly, I would say we have what we refer to as the FCPS learning model. It's got four, you know, main domains. We look at the type of classroom environment and experience, making sure that it's inclusive and culturally responsive, that we've got good relationships in every classroom with students and with families. [03:42:56] We look at the types of instructional strategies that are evidence-based instructional strategies like direct instruction, like UDL, removing barriers for students. We look at content, again, that is concept-based, so we're really focusing on those big ideas and skills that students need to transfer from one subject and from one grade level to another. [03:43:15] and we look at varied types of assessments. So we look at the type of assessment information that really targets the skills that students have and the skills that students need to develop, but we also look at more performance-based and holistic-based assessment where students are producing work, writing samples, projects, things that can really point to how they transfer that information into learning beyond, you know, what we might see in a standardized test that they take in, you know, one day in a school year. [03:43:41] So those are the major areas that we're working on, And again, as Dr. Reed said, it's about making sure that every teacher has the support and the skills that they need to be effective. So teachers need planning time, they need professional development, and they need as much support as we can give them. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. Marin. [03:44:01] Thank you for this. Sometimes I'm asked about rigor and, you know, why are we teaching social-emotional? Why are we teaching skills and not just like more hardcore math, science? we're looking today at a lot of very the core perform core academics mostly on tests I'm wondering Dr. Reed if you can speak to the other data points that are indicators of student success that perhaps might not be measured by tests but which we teach for and measure on so great question and also just note that [03:44:39] healthy kids do better on academic achievement data points like we're looking at this evening I know Mr. McElveen has spent a great deal of time for example on healthy food and that makes a difference our food is healthier today as a division than it was a year ago today and that matters to children who are developing I think that attendance matters and as we talked last year 188 of our schools improved their attendance many of them significantly year-over-year when students are in school they're going to [03:45:15] learn when students aren't hungry and they've had healthy food they're going to learn so i think there are other we can look at discipline data that will be on one of our goal reports dr king's been working on that i think the cell phone policy enforcement this year will we've got a number of pilots going on to determine whether students with cell phone enforcement actually do better academically that's part of our you know control and active pilot group so [03:45:51] I think there are a number of data points we'll be able to look at not just sols vap tests and videoe approved assessments I think we look at graduation rates right the um the employability and academic success after graduating from Fairfax County Public Schools the level of academic intensity of high school coursework uh they're just a number of data points i think that over time will become clearer their connection to just you know the educational experience students have with us i think that's really important to state those factors as we also [03:46:30] talk about the straight-up academic achievement especially when we're talking about standardized tests as you all know governor yunkin's board of education at the state law yesterday passed a number of state standards that now will reduce learning down to high-stakes standardized testing so I think we need to keep talking about that that is not all that children are and that there's other aspects that school does to provide them you know the best learning environment relatedly how are students assessed in non-core academic programs such as the arts music world language [03:47:04] well world language often it could be ap or ib right um i think the arts are probably the truest performance-based assessment possible because most assessments are performances right the in the fine and performing arts um the cte i think often are credentialing you know possibilities um but you know i think and sometimes it's just sign up and enrollment right like [03:47:37] Students often vote with their feet if they're going to if there's a high interest in certain content areas. We're going to see enrollment rise in certain content areas. I also think it's important to track the number of our students involved in co-curricular and extracurriculars right FBLA FCCLA DECA forensics. [03:47:59] There are all types of activities I think that are part of a well rounded education experience. And I know in my community where I represent people know that our schools are not just test scores and they're not just demographics and I've seen a transition over the last few years when I'm on a social media group people like hey I'm moving to the area what are the best schools and people are pushing back saying well you can't just go by what great schools dot com says like there's all sorts of factors and I see my community defending their schools because they know that there's more than the straight up academic performance even though at the same time they want the best and the most rigorous [03:48:35] and the most access. So I do think that we need to you know to fight back against this reduction mindset of all we do is teach kids to take a test which is again what the state is now going to be pushing forth on us so we must educate our community that we know that that's not just what's best for kids. Finally I just want to ask about slide 5 which shows our multilingual learners and you know my understanding is if you're a multilingual learner and you're in the you know not passing yet place then you're in that subgroup but let's say then you become proficient and you move to the [03:49:13] proficient group if you're not measuring that transition you're always going to have students in that group that are never going to be passing can you speak to that and how that's currently measured and how the changes at the state just put through are gonna influence that or impact that that's a great observation right because of all you ever measure students who haven't Made it beyond which we worked very hard to get them So they're able to exit those intensive services the state I Will ask dr. Presidio to comment what I do believe is that the state is planning to take the 11 semester [03:49:51] Rule and move it to three semesters and I think Miss st. John Cunning had a great question during our work session which is you know would the board of education members be able to take an exam in a second language unfamiliar to them after three semesters of that language right it's it seems like a high threshold but dr presidio do you want to respond to miss marron's analysis yeah i mean i think the point that you were just making about the changes that are going to be forthcoming for [03:50:27] next year to go into effect in fall of 2025 at the state level to reduce the amount of semesters for multilingual learner students from 11 to 3 for accountability purposes is incredibly troublesome but what we're looking at here are the raw testing results for our students that are multilingual learners and even this slide is very frustrating for us because we have advocated on this point year after year after year that the state should include the students who have exited services for multilingual services have exited are still being monitored by the school system to make sure that they're making [03:51:06] progress but have been able to demonstrate that they're proficient in English those students should be included in the multilingual learner subgroup when reporting for accountability purposes because as Dr. Reid mentioned if you're only including the students that are still becoming proficient you're really disadvantaging students and not recognizing the performance and growth that they've made so we're really frustrated that the state doesn't include the former multilingual learner students in this subgroup because they do allow it in some categories like graduation rate and it's something that we've advocated again and again and again and we'll continue to do so but again we're skeptical that we'll see any policy [03:51:45] changes on that anytime soon thank you from what I've heard from community members and staff they are troubled by the forthcoming changes they want to know more they want to advocate they only came through yesterday I think there's a few more coming through in September so you know we're relying on you dr. Reed to help inform us so we can assure our families that we have excellent schools we're always going to try and be better but I feel like I'm having flashbacks because this whole question about growth was no child left behind early 2000s it is the same discussion and Governor Yunkin is now [03:52:20] regressing us back to these models that we know don't work so I'm glad to see THAT YOUR DATA ARE SHOWING THAT OUR CHILDREN ARE IMPROVING AND WE'VE GOT TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO KEEP DOING THE EXCELLENT WORK OUR TEACHERS ARE DOING OUR STAFF ARE DOING AND WE CANNOT LET THEM GET DEMORALIZED BY THIS ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THEIR WORK. YES MA'AM. AGREED. [03:52:38] THANK YOU MS. MARIN. MS. SEIZEMORE-HEISER. THANK YOU AND I APPRECIATE THE CHANCE. MANY OF MY QUESTIONS WERE ASKED. I DO WANT TO RE-REATE WHAT MY COLLEAGUE MS. MARIN JUST SAID THAT WHILE SOL SCORES AND STANDARDS TEST SCORES ARE AN IMPORTANT DATA POINT THERE ARE ONLY ONE DATA point and at the end of the day i really think that our school's purpose is to graduate students who are who have the education knowledge and skills to be successful on their paths and sol standardized test scores only show a piece of what that education is so i think we continue on our [03:53:13] path of really looking to assess all the skills our children are gaining um while of course making sure that their test scores reflect the knowledge that they're gaining as well i wanted to mention just dr reed i wanted to thank you this is the main reason i was speaking is just because i know how much i have um sort of stated over and over again i would really like to see the sol and vap scores and sol only scores and vap scores separated out so we could really get a full sense of how what difference it may be making right in our report so thank you for slide six and for doing [03:53:49] that um i've only been asking for five years and so i'm really glad to see that it really does not not make much of a difference it's a one percentage point difference and look it's reported but I will say that you know it is interesting with the 50% pass rates for students with disabilities that I wonder what happens to their diplomas for the students who aren't passing it that's a great question right and I wouldn't expect you to have the answer now but I think it's something you need to look at right are they taking advantage of some of the alternate assessments or what's happening with their diplomas because if we know if they don't pass those SOLs they're not getting a diploma at least not a standard diploma. So if they're on the SOL track and not passing, which it looks [03:54:26] like it's about 50%, right? They're taking SOLs. They're not less than 50%. What's going on with their diplomas? And what are we doing to help make sure that they have ultimate ways of assessing or getting the supports they need? So just something to put out there to think about. I do think with our multilingual learners, Ms. Mara makes a great point. And I don't know if VDOE in their sort of race backwards to No Child Left Behind are willing to look at seeing whether multilingual services are working in that as our students are graduating out of our intensive services, [03:55:04] they're passing SOLs and from our data looks like they're passing in higher rates. And it would be great to have that reflected that students who are coming here, you know, speaking a language that is not English, giving them time to actually gain the skills they need to go take the test in English. [03:55:22] they pass at higher rates and i wish that that was reflected in how vba um gathers that data so the more we can advocate on that to our delegation i think the important it is and then finally i just want to say on slide three with the writing and social history social science there are alternate assessments for students for whom they do not best demonstrate their knowledge on standardized tests but unfortunately a lot of those students have to take the standardized test first even though they best demonstrate their knowledge in other ways so that may explain some of those numbers and i'll kind of leave it at that so again i really appreciate that slide i just have to say it um because i know i've i've asked for two years and you've been you've moved the [03:56:01] needle significantly more than i've seen before so thank you yeah you're welcome and i'll thank staff for that they they've worked hard on that thank you miss sizemoreheiser miss dixit okay dr reed for the presentation um it really um makes me very happy to see the the the results actually And especially the students picking up higher grade math, advanced math courses. [03:56:28] And I was wondering if FCPS has a math path for every student. I know we do discuss that in middle school, high school level, but do we do that for like schools starting in elementary? And maybe that can enroll more students in the early math courses, like advanced courses. [03:56:50] So I don't know that we have individualized math paths. But I know I was at an elementary school back to school night last night where they were talking about the ability to provide that more advanced level mathematics earlier. [03:57:09] And I know every elementary school is supposed to be providing opportunities for advanced mathematics as well. just I don't think it's student by student in terms of an actual plan Dr. Presidio we have more of a school-wide or pyramid plan I think but not an individual student plan well I I'd have to get more information on that I mean again when we're working with students and families on their placements we're doing that an individualized student level but we could try to get some more information for Ms. Dixit. Oh with two students of mine personally in FCPS I was [03:57:49] never discussed my students children's math or any other elective courses or any course levels they went and did it themselves they came home brought the sheet we discussed just me and my kids and they went back to school with their selection seat I don't think parents are getting involved in that Mr. Presidio um maybe i i it was a unique case for me but i'm just speaking from my experience but um i don't think parents are getting involved in what what courses and our our in in the i know you mentioned back to school night but they're like uh pete the teacher parent uh conferences it's an opportunity [03:58:29] to also discuss with the the parents that you know this is the opportunity and you know this available courses for at school that your child can take and especially with the multilingual learners or their parents because they may not know what is out what what is available to their children and the school is approaching them directly speaking with them so that's my input and and I definitely see that improvements happening but it's a long way to go for some of us yes ma'am I think I hear you, so we'll work on that. [03:59:07] I think there are more children ready to do more advanced math than we are ready to suggest. Yes, you're absolutely right. That's what I wanted to kind of get there. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. I'll take a turn. [03:59:24] I want to provide a little context for part of the reason we're having this conversation tonight. Last week, the governor held a press conference about SOL data before the information was shared with school divisions. On its face, there's no problem with that, right, if the information is presented in a fair way, and it was not. [03:59:49] To be charitable, somebody looking at the SOL data from Fairfax County would see that we still outperform the Commonwealth on the three required by state code subjects for SOLs. [04:00:05] And then they would see this big drop in writing and social studies. Now, a person who's actually looking out for public education, their first thought would not be, how do I put this into a slide in a press conference before I even tell the school division about these numbers? [04:00:22] Their first thought would be, well, that's an outlier. I wonder why that is. And then they'd dig, and they'd see the tiny number of students who take the SOL exams in those subjects in Fairbax County. And then they'd wonder, well, where is everybody else? [04:00:38] What are they taking? And they'd see that, oh, they're taking the approved alternative assessments that are approved by my very own Department of Education. That's some of the context that might appear in a press conference if there's actually a care to partner with school divisions to see students improve. [04:00:57] And that would be the charitable way of describing it. But their slide actually acknowledged the small number of people taking these exams, and yet they persisted anyways. And then, when they were called on it by media, this is a day after they got what they wanted. [04:01:13] What they wanted was not accuracy, they wanted their headlines. And they got their headlines about Fairfax County Public Schools. Misleading and confusing a lot of people, disrespecting our hardworking educators and the students that they teach. And when they were called on it, when the story was corrected and they were called on it, they said, well, this is the information we have to report to the federal government. [04:01:36] First of all, that wasn't the point of their press conference. One thing that we teach kids to do in our schools is admit when they were wrong. It is the very least we can expect from the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia. [04:01:54] So here's a question for you. This exam that they were raking us over the coals on for not taking or for having a lower test score, what standards does the writing SOL exam fix to? [04:02:10] What year were those standards created and how long has it been since they were updated? It's my understanding they're still testing the 2010 writing standards, and they are not current. We have current writing standards that are more current than 2010? [04:02:29] I believe. I'd have to triple check. I believe for that when they're testing 2017, but we'd have to triple check. Am I correct that the alternative assessments that are approved by the Commonwealth that we administer, some of those are AP exams and IB exams, correct? [04:02:47] Yes, sir. Those are college level exams. So we're being penalized by the governor for allowing our students to take a college level exam instead of an outdated SOL exam. Wonderful. It's good to know who's side he's on. Thank you, Superintendent Reed. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. You're up next again. I know. I'll just stay here so I don't sprint. You're welcome. Okay. Thank you. Up next on the agenda is agenda item 8.02, Superintendent Matters. I will be quick, Chairman Frisch. [04:03:25] I just want to say this is absolutely one of my favorite times of the year what could be better than going back to school seeing all our friends our staff our families and back to school nights there is such an excitement so on the first day of school it was thrilling to bound out of bed at 3 15 to be at school starting at 4 45 and I did have a chance on the first and second days of school to visit 17 schools welcoming students families in our incredible staff including our transportation team who's up early every day in our custodial and maintenance teams grounds did [04:04:04] a great job preparing and our design and construction folks managed an incredible number of facilities to be ready so just loved it and i hope those watching have gotten out to see a number of open houses and back to school nights there are amazing things happening in our schools also excited to have attended a couple boys volleyball practices and looking forward to them playing and last i guess tonight's thursday tuesday night i had a chance to watch some volleyball at hayfield our girls volleyball team was playing lewis high school so lots of [04:04:40] excitement. I understand I was monitoring athletic events tonight and we did have some of our athletic events canceled this evening which will be rescheduled for tomorrow due to the thunder and lightning. I want to thank all of our staff members who attended training this summer. We had over 6,000 staff members attend various training. I want to mention that yesterday I had an opportunity with Mr. Dunn to attend the Fort Belvoir community leaders luncheon and met with Fort Belvoir leadership and talked a little bit about our theme of being back to school also attended and our voices our future multilingual [04:05:19] learner summit which is our first summit here in Fairfax County sponsored and led originally by dr. Ponce and brought in a guest speaker and it's really a powerful evening with a student panel as well and finally just want a reminder THAT PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS, GUARDIANS AND FAMILY MEMBERS, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR STUDENTS IMMUNIZATION RECORDS. IT'S CRITICALLY IMPORTANT WITH FLU SEASON AROUND THE CORNER THAT WE GET IMMUNIZATIONS UPDATED. MONDAY, MAY THIRD, OR MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH IS A REALLY [04:05:55] IMPORTANT DAY TO MAKE SURE IMMUNIZATIONS ARE DONE AND WELCOME AGAIN TO THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR. THANK YOU, CHAIRMAN FRISH. THANK YOU, DR. REED. AGENDA ITEM NINE, CONSENT agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board by a single motion 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 [04:06:29] agenda. Seeing and hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. Agenda item number 10, new business. The following are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but future action will take place. Agenda item 12, board matters. Next on the agenda is board matters. I will call on each board member to speak. Miss Lady, I know she was having some technical difficulties. [04:07:03] There she is. Thank you. I'll be brief. I just want to welcome back everyone as we end our second week of school and prepare to celebrate the Labor Day weekend. And give thanks to all the FCPS administrators, teachers, staff, families, and students for your hard work leading to our successful start of the school year. [04:07:22] I have touched base with lots of my schools and have heard from most of my principals that they have had an amazingly smooth transition to this new school year. We as a community need to remember school is back in session and make sure we are extra diligent when traveling during student arrival and dismissal times. We need to remind our students as drivers, bus drivers, and pedestrians to be safe and take their time. [04:07:44] Drivers need to follow the rules of the road around our stop school buses and to stop for pedestrians and mark crosswalks. We also encourage parents to make sure their students cross streets in crosswalks. A huge thank you to our FCPS transportation staff and bus drivers for their hard work getting our students back and forth from school and to echo Dr. Reed's comments earlier this evening we are running at 98 percent accuracy and on time with transportation in the largest school bus fleet in the nation so kudos to the transportation team i'm very excited to visit my drainsville schools this fall and especially interested in seeing how the new cell phone [04:08:21] pilots and policies are helping students stay focused on learning both westfield and mclean high schools are part of a formal pilots your phones during instructional time while other schools are addressing the requirement for phones to be put away through a variety of strategies You can learn more about the current cell phone policy on the fcps.edu cell phone policy webpage. [04:08:41] As many of you know, the governor has issued an Executive Order Number 33 to bring a cell phone education to Virginia. On the doe.virginia.gov, you can read the draft's self-free proposal guidance and resources. And submit your feedback on the VDOE draft Executive Order Number 33 guidance through September 15 by submitting remarks on the VDOE website. [04:09:05] Please make sure your students, as Dr. Reed just shared, are up to date on their mandatory shots required by Virginia. Starting Monday, September 30th, students who have not provided proof of immunization will not be allowed to attend school. We do not want this to happen. So please work with local health departments and or with your school to find out ways where you can get those vaccinations that are required for school. [04:09:28] And then finally, congratulations to the marching band members and fall athletes. Can't wait to check out school sporting events this fall, including those new boys volleyball league and starting their second season soon middle school cross country with meets on september 28th october 5th and october 19th hope you have a fun and restful labor day break that's it thanks thank you miss lady miss Sizemore-heiser thank you very much and i'm also very excited to welcome everybody back to the new school year i've loved all the energy incitement of back school and i can't wait to continue on my batik [04:10:06] district school visits. So welcome back, everybody. So much incredibly great things happened over the recess, but one of the really, really awesome ones was a well-deserved national recognition for one of our own talented students, Woodson High School student and Braddock District President Hemant Bekele, excuse me, has been named Time Magazine's Kid of the Year. That is amazing for his work to help develop cancer-fighting soap, which is just an incredible thought to think that you could have soap that would help fight skin cancer. He's really drew national [04:10:41] recognition for his continuing passion for science and helping people. I had the pleasure of speaking with his parent recently, and they are so proud of him, and I can't wait for the world to see the amazing things he's going to do. So if you have a chance, grab a copy of the Time Magazine. It's going fast. It's about to become a collector's item. [04:11:00] And speaking of recognition, I'm really proud of the Robinson Secondary School Symphonic Band. Under the direction of director Andrew Loft, the band has been chosen to perform at the December 2024 Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference held annually in Chicago. This is the second time Robinson has achieved this high honor as they were chosen 30 years ago in 1994. So this remarkable accomplishment really shows the excellent music programs that we have here in Fairfax County. They were also invited to perform at prestigious music for all national concert band festival in indianapolis and are currently [04:11:36] fundraising for this trip so while you're at it please check out your school's emails and websites and if you do not have children in the schools take a look at our fine arts calendar there are some amazing musical and theater performances check out the athletics and activities calendars and emails for all the athletic and sporting events there's a lot of fun stuff to do in the community and i know the kids love it when folks come out to support all of their hard work we have have some incredibly talented students on our sports teams and in our musical and theater productions, as well as in our DECA and other great ways to get involved in our schools. [04:12:14] And lastly, I've been busy holding roundtables with the Braddock District's PTA, PTO, PTSA, and PTSO presidents. We're going to be doing these every month, and the energy and passion of these incredible volunteer leaders is infectious, and I'm looking forward to supporting their good work and i encourage you all to get involved with your local schools pta pto ptsa or ptso they do great work to support our school communities and just ask how you can help every little bit helps our schools be excellent and inviting for everybody so with that thank you [04:12:48] very much and good night thank you miss sizemore heiser miss dixit thank you mr chair i'm thrilled to welcome you all the new 2024-25 school year i hope everyone had the first good two first two week two weeks of school and we are ready to go forward it was wonderful for me to attend the 30th anniversary celebration at central elementary school last weekend with my colleagues miss anderson and mr mcgillian thank you uh to principal doubt and the incredible staff and volunteer who [04:13:23] put together this joyful community event with lots of activities and inspiring speakers go eagles a very big shout out to our own uh fcp student him and bakeli and uh um rational just mentioned that so i will say congratulations to this incredible student i'm looking forward to attending the installation of a captain planet foundation project learning garden at center ridge elementary school on september 5th this was donated by a community partner cost communication to help educate children on the benefit of consuming more fruits and vegetables and i'm [04:14:02] also looking forward to attending 5k run and walk with our community partner asha jyoti along with superintendent reed and student and staff from many of our fcps schools this is on september 15. please register to support our school it is a fun family event with music delicious food and a friendly course by an Asha Jyoti donates 100% of registration money coming from e-school back to the school for its STEM needs. This is my board matters. Have a very fun and relaxing [04:14:35] Labor Day weekend holiday. Good night. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. Ms. St. John Cunning. Thank you. I'd also like to welcome everyone back. This is my first year that I have not been in a school welcoming everyone back so it was kind of a little bit of a shock for me but I did manage to get out to some schools. I was warmly welcomed by principal Christine Prahl and assistant principals Dixon and Kubiak at Lane Elementary's back-to-school night. It was great meeting parents and students and I was pleasantly surprised to see an FCS alum bring her son to his first year as a [04:15:14] kindergartner. There was a long line of families waiting for the doors to open at Cameron for their open house. And when students walked in, they were hugging teachers and staff and saying how happy they were to be back in school. And I even saw two preschool little girls dressed in their finest dresses walking hand in hand. [04:15:33] They had just met and they said they were best friends. The PTA held a picnic afterwards with games and the requisite summer hot dogs. I was fortunate to visit a couple of our schools with Region 3 Assistant Superintendent Ray Lanette at Franconia Elementary School. [04:15:52] I saw the great work that their general music teacher, Jen Lucias, is doing, as well as the work that Valerie Babis is doing with special education students. It was really inspiring to see what they are doing there. [04:16:08] At Groveton, I was able to see a Spanish immersion class with Maritza Lugo. The teacher there had some wonderful things going on. And I met one of our new ambassador teachers from Belize, who is already starting to have a pen pal program going on with her fifth grade students with the kids in Belize. [04:16:28] And I think that's going to be a great experience for those kids. At Claremont, I was also able to see Madeline Devaney, who is their art teacher, who was already teaching kids some really exciting artwork. I think I need to take her class so I can learn how to draw things. [04:16:46] At 5, what was it, 5.40 in the morning, I was able to join the Rose Hill Elementary School administrative team, including Principal Edwards, with their backpack program. [04:17:03] It was broadcast on NBC, and they had the annual supply drive. It was sponsored by Apple Federal Credit Union, along with Omega Psi Phi fraternity. There was a lot of people driving up, dropping off backpacks that early in the morning. That was really inspiring. [04:17:19] Kudos to a gold medal winner at Twain. Eighth grader Ethan Dole is a talented fencer. Earlier this month, he represented the United States at the Youth Veteran Pan American Championship in Costa Rica and brought home the gold medal in the men's pre-cadet Boyle. [04:17:38] Congratulations, Ethan, for representing us so well. And finally, Edison receives the Green Flag Award. It's the EcoSchools U.S. awarded Edison -- I'm sorry. They awarded this Green Flag Award their highest distinction. [04:17:56] It honors Edison's student-led programs and community engagement. They are one of the only two high schools who got this award and one of 22 out of all FCPS schools. Edison is also the first USDA People's Garden in FCPS. [04:18:11] This year they will organize more sustainably stewardship projects. So as you can see, there's a great beginning to the school year and I'm excited to see what more our students are gonna do. And kudos to all the teachers, staff, and leadership team that helped make this kickoff a great way to start the year. [04:18:30] - Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. Mr. Dunn. - I had the pleasure to visit more than a dozen schools this summer and meet with the principals and many of their staff, and to a person, they were all excited, enthusiastic about the mission, about providing a world-class education to our children, and they were all busy preparing their schools, their classrooms, their outdoor areas, their athletic fields for the new school year. [04:19:08] I think the most important thing any resident of Fairfax County, whether you have kids in the school or not, is to know that every single school provides a world-class education to every student. The school system meets them where they are, provides them all the resources that they need to succeed, provides an inclusive and supportive atmosphere, and where they fall short there are there are remedies there's recourse to to the principal and and to others and you know for myself I welcome the opportunity to assist any [04:19:46] students and the families encountering any difficulties but I am heartened by the excellence the everyday excellence brought by our by our staff from Dr. read on down. I was also heartened by the beauty of our schools. It's not just the concrete and the paint and the bricks. It's the incredible decoration that teachers work unpaid hours and administrators work unpaid hours. The murals that students paint on our walls that bring a sense of [04:20:22] home, a sense of community to our buildings and greater beauty to their daily lives in our hallways. I'd like to celebrate the fact that we have so many people who give so much of themselves, sometimes beyond their working hours, to ensure that our children are able to realize their potential, explore their interests, and envision different career pathways or futures for themselves that they can continue to pursue both inside and outside of the classroom. [04:20:58] You know, I've dealt with every matter large and small this summer and will continue to do so going forward, but please don't hesitate to reach out to me and my office to provide you with whatever assistance that you need in order to ensure that your experience with FCPS is a positive one and that we continue to meet and hopefully exceed your expectations. Thank you. [04:21:24] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Mr. McDaniel. I dropped in, I did one of those things that you're probably not supposed to do, but I was at a school, so I just dropped in and needed a visit. That was Herndon High School this morning, and Dr. Noto was very gracious and gave me a really quick tour, and I asked her about cell phones. [04:21:50] And even though Herndon High School is not in one of our pilot programs, the feedback was that because of the awareness that's been raised, about cell phones, the kids are actually paying attention and they're putting their phones up. [04:22:06] Social interaction has increased, talking to each other in the halls has increased, not only between students, but between students and the staff. I've received nothing, in addition to that, I've received nothing but overwhelmingly positive support for our efforts to address cell phones in schools. [04:22:24] So I want to say thank you to our staff and this board for putting that program forward. And welcome back and looking forward to a productive year. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I also want to say thank you to all of the staff for all of the opening of school activities. [04:22:43] I know how much it takes to ensure that that building is ready, that teachers are prepared to receive students. Also want to give a big shout out to our teachers and principals and administrators for their back-to-school night efforts, because it's often very taxing to be at the school until 8, 8.30, only to have to turn around and be there just 12 short hours later. So thank you for those efforts. [04:23:12] I also want to say congratulations to the Boys Volleyball. Justice High School, the Boys Volleyball team won their first game in straight sets. That was very exciting. So go Justice Wolves. And the fall stretch Jaguars also won their first game of the season. [04:23:29] I want to remind the Mason District that the first superintendent community conversation of the school year is going to be scheduled for September 9th at Holmes Middle School from 6:30 to 7:30. So please mark your calendars because it is your opportunity to ask questions and to share your thoughts with the superintendent. [04:23:50] Language interpretation is available. So while registration is not required, it is definitely appreciated. Just want to highlight, because I've been receiving a lot of questions to this end, the Governance Committee will be beginning its work, I guess, very soon. [04:24:07] Miss Lady, as the chair, will tell us exactly when regarding the grading policy. This is a hot topic for our community, and I expect to have an update for you very, very shortly. Lastly, on Saturday, September 14th, just a reminder that the Bailey's Community Center will be renamed and dedicated for Minnie H, it will be renamed the Minnie H Patent Community Center at Bailey's. [04:24:34] Minnie Patent was a long-term resident of Springdale, a historically black community and Bailey's Crossroads that originated as a home to freedmen after the Civil War. i'm very excited to be able to participate in that renaming on on september 24th again thank you all for all of your efforts and ensuring that our students have had a wonderful couple of weeks of school and as i shared earlier with the superintendent i think first day everybody made it home good night all thank you dr anderson mr mckelveen so welcome back everyone just one [04:25:12] quick thing to share is that everyone's favorite acronym is back the sbs ldp the school board student leadership development program so we're all very excited that this program is coming back after a brief uh pandemic hiatus um it the deadline for applying for as we heard from our student rep earlier today for our our freshmen sophomores and juniors who are interested in and learning more about policymaking at the very very most very local level with us and our colleagues in the school system is September 30th. [04:25:48] You have to apply to your principals and then they will choose five students to push forward in the process on October 15th very much looking forward to this program restarting hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. [04:26:03] Thank you. Mr. McElveen. Miss Marin. yes i just want to acknowledge that during our consent agenda tonight we welcomed our new deputy clerk janet brown so welcome and thank you for joining our team uh i guess you're back in your home setting though because you used to work right here at luther jackson so here you are not much has changed right um i also want to say thank you to the fairfax county police department who helped the resting community stay safe during a very horrific violent crime between two people And I spent a lot of time talking with Dr. [04:26:36] Reed and other people. And I do think we did the best for kids and staff. And it was just one of those horrible things. But I really appreciate our police department working with our schools and doing everything, no stops. I mean, just pulling out the stops to keep us safe. [04:26:53] I feel like I've been in a lot of schools. I think yesterday I was in four. The final one was me in a PTA hat on for my own child's school. and overwhelmingly i've heard positive comments from parents and staff and even students we've got some new principals and students are pretty jazzed about that and you know i've just been pretty consumed with what the state's been doing to undermine our public schools so doesn't look like that's going to go away anytime soon so i guess i need to figure out how to keep making time for that in my agenda as i continue to work with my colleagues to get the money i didn't say that tonight yet so i had to slip that in okay thank you very much and uh hope everyone has a [04:27:30] a nice four-day weekend. Thank you Miss Marin and our Vice Chair Miss Anderson. So it was a busy month over our recess. I was personally able to welcome staff back at our annual leadership kickoff in July and attended the Great Beginning Summer Institute for New Teachers. I was also able to attend the Multilingual Learners Summit in early August. I joined Dr. Reed and my colleagues at Centerville Elementary School's 30th anniversary celebration where we had a principal come back all the way from Cambodia to come talk, which was really awesome. [04:28:04] Today, I was able to attend Greenbrier East Elementary School's house pep assembly, where all of the kiddos that were new got separated into their houses, which is a really cool thing that they're doing this year to kind of create school community across all the different grade levels. [04:28:22] I'm looking forward to hosting my Springfield District PTO, PTA, PTA, PTSA, PTSO, Presidents. We really need a better acronym for that. Presidents in an in-person school year kickoff with my colleague Kyle McDaniel very soon. [04:28:39] I'm excited about the new school year and welcome all of our students and families back. Last night I was one of those new parents or I was one of those parents navigating high school back to school night for the first time. I was both so impressed with the enthusiasm of our staff and I'm also in awe of our students' ability to navigate our hallways. [04:28:58] I'm also, and I'm really excited to attend my first volleyball game. And PS, please don't forget to complete your child's digital consent form, which I heard about in every class from everyone. So yes, we definitely need those in, so please make sure you complete those forms. [04:29:16] - Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Before I jump in on some local stuff, was talking to Dr. Anderson before the board meeting and I was like you know what we should have a video that shows parents how to set the settings on their their child's cell phone it's just well you know I'm putting screen grabs in my next newsletter and I said well I am going to steal that from my own newsletter so be on the lookout for that in my newsletter and I will give Dr. Anderson credit for it. Additionally my partner and I got the COVID and flu vaccine this week. They have the new ones out, so go out and get your shot and join the rest of us in this herd [04:29:51] as we seek immunity. Over the summer, Supervisor Palczyk and I teamed up for the Summer Smiles campaign to help the Dunloring Center's MAP Clinic build a robust supply of children's dental products so that every child leaves the clinic with the basic supplies they need to practice good dental health. You can see more about that in our newsletters. I also had an opportunity to visit Marshall High School on the first day of school with Miss Lady and the superintendent at approximately 5.50 in the morning. And I had not yet had my coffee, but the presence of our [04:30:31] football team and our cheerleaders and our band really, you know, got the juices flowing that early in the morning. It was great seeing students talking to local media and really cheering in the first day of school this past weekend I attended the fourth annual Oakton Day at the Oakton Community Park and got to talk to many of our constituents in Providence District about 800 people attended and I also this summer was able to attend and welcome more than a thousand new educators at the Great Beginnings Conference again this year some upcoming events that are happening in Providence District I am co-hosting with Providence [04:31:09] District Supervisor Dalia Palchuk the Providence Day and back to school celebration on Saturday, October 5th from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Marshall High School. You can come celebrate our vibrant, diverse, and welcoming Providence District community and enjoy food trucks, giveaways and prizes, activities, and entertainment for all ages, including an up-close look at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue and police vehicles and a visit from one of FCPS's electric school buses. [04:31:39] will be shuttle services that run from the Jim Scott Community Center on Vaden and the James Lee Community Center on Annandale Road so be sure to check that out also coming up the food for others 11th annual Tyson's 5k and fun run I'll be doing the fun run is a family friendly friendly event that I encourage everybody to attend Saturday September 28th 8 a.m. at Tyson's Corner Center plaza and they are a great organization that I've volunteered with many times including right here at Luther Jackson Middle School. They really help address food insecurity in our community. And then [04:32:18] finally some upcoming events there will be a historical marker installation ceremony at Gunnells Chapel. This stems from the joint effort of the school board and the board of supervisors to develop an experiential learning opportunity for our students to investigate the experiences of black residents of Fairfax County historically and bring those to the surface and find opportunities to install historical markers. So we're very much looking forward to this, the second installation of a marker that was sparked by that contest among our students. And then finally, [04:32:57] the false church jaguar theater boosters are hosting a patrons evening in false church high school's new black box theater wednesday september 4th 6 30 to 8 p.m that new black spot black box theater is thanks to the taxpayers of fairfax county as bits and pieces of fairfax false church high school are slowly turned back over to the school community as part of the massive renovation of the school which is coming along very very well so to that i want to say thank you to all my colleagues for being here at our first meeting of the school year together and with that we are adjourned thank you everyone ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com