Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, January 9, 2025

Date: Thursday, January 9, 2025
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 2h 49m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrjkkLhurQo
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.

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[00:03:18] Good evening everyone. The board apologizes for the delay. The meeting will begin at 7:15 p.m. Thank you.

[00:22:20] Board members please take your seats board members please take

[00:26:16] your seats. The January 9th 2025 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the National Anthem by Stone Middle School Jan's Ensemble under the direction of Tracy McGuire.

[00:26:52] I pledge allegiance to another round of applause for our virtual students captured at an earlier

[00:29:00] time not you know they're wearing shorts and t-shirts it's different different yeah all right agenda item 2.02 announcements Miss Lady has submitted a written request to attend tonight's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict she has a family conflict she's located in Nashville Tennessee all those in favor of approving Miss Lady's request Miss Marin Dr. Anderson Mr. McDaniel mr mckelveen miss anderson miss seismor hyzer mr moon miss st john cunning and myself all those

[00:29:33] opposed abstentions with mr dunaway from the table the motion carries miss lady will you uh test your mic test one test two thank you we can hear you thank you miss dixit has submitted a written request to attend tonight's meeting virtually due to a medical conflict and she's located in centerville virginia all those in favor of approving mystics its request mr mckelveen dr anderson mr mcdaniel miss anderson miss marron miss seismar heiser mr moon uh miss st john cunning

[00:30:08] and myself all those opposed abstentions mr dunn would you like to support okay that is unanimous for those at the table miss dixit can you test your microphone she's not on just she's still getting connected all right we'll test her when she when she's on today is the national day of morning due to the passing of jimmy carter 39th president of the united states the fairfax county school board honors and pays tribute to former president carter for his leadership humanitarianism

[00:30:46] legacy and lifetime of service to our country if you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda please see the back of the auditorium to obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight please reference the qr code on the agenda or visit fcps.edu board docs tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on youtube and our website at fcps.edu/livestream. Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on our YouTube at youtube.com/@fcpsespanol. Agenda item 2.03 has been postponed until the regular meeting on January

[00:31:25] 23. Agenda item 2.04 has been postponed until the January 3rd regular meeting. Community participation, agenda item 3.01. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who have signed up to speak this evening. Additionally, 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 at fcps.edu school board during the sign-up process community members acknowledged that they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments these expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room we ask the audience members to

[00:32:05] be 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 that uh to those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not responding madam clerk please call the first speaker emily vanderhoff good evening chair frisch dr reed and members of the board my name is emily vanderhoff

[00:32:43] i'm an fcps teacher and a proud member of my union fairfax county federation of teachers FCFT. I'm here to celebrate your vote tonight to ratify the FEU contract for operational and licensed employees. One of the first speeches I gave in this room was in support of Mr. Frisch's motion to amend your 2020 legislative program to strike language opposing collective bargaining an overlooked relic from boards past.

[00:33:05] It's been a long road but now nearly five years later I'm thrilled to be here to see the final step of bringing collective bargaining to FCPS staff as you vote to ratify our contract that we've negotiated. While limited in scope, this contract represents major wins for FCPS staff.

[00:33:20] It includes substantial wage increases and maintaining the special education contract that will help us retain our amazing staff. More consistent pay for transportation and food service employees who struggle to make ends meet over school breaks. An opportunity to have a voice over our health care. More protections over teacher and IA time. Protections from unfair discipline and termination with just cause language, the first of its kind of Virginia schools and an opportunity for employees to continually collaborate with the district on workplace concerns and safety issues to the LMC and Health and Safety Committee. This contract is a first step in improving the work lives of FCPS staff and your vote tonight to ratify the contract is a signal of your

[00:33:58] support for a stronger staff voice and a commitment to create a better school system for our students. I know that what follows will be a challenging budget fight to ensure this contract is fully funded. FCFT members have already begun our advocacy to the Board of Supervisors and the General Assembly pushing on the different levers each have to contribute to our own budget. We stand ready to partner with you to ensure our schools get the funding we require to fulfill our contract and raise FCPS up as a model district. Thank you.

[00:34:25] Molly Cronin. Good evening Chair Frisch, School Board members, and Dr. Reed. My name is Molly Cronin and I've worked in FCPS for the past seven years. I'm currently a learning disabilities teacher, previously an elementary school classroom teacher, SOAR ESOL resource teacher, and enhanced autism teacher during ESY. Today I'm speaking to you in support of ratifying the collective bargaining agreement. I was honored to play a small role in this historic

[00:35:02] process as a member of the FEA core bargaining team. Collective bargaining was banned in Virginia in 1977. It has taken us 48 years to get back here. A place where we work together to improve the working conditions for school staff so that we can improve the educational opportunities for our students. The collective bargaining agreement that you will have the opportunity to vote in supportive tonight will improve the educational opportunities for all FCPS students. An important piece of this agreement is protecting elementary teacher planning time. When you vote in favor of this, you support elementary school teachers having a minimum of 240 minutes of unencumbered planning time, a

[00:35:42] maximum of 60 minutes of CLT team meetings, and all of this planning time must be in 30 minute increments. There are currently teachers in FCPS elementary schools who are required to attend meetings three to four times a week during their designated planning time. Some schools and some administrators treat planning time as a luxury that they can rescind at any time. Planning time is essential for tasks like lesson preparation, communicating with families, supporting students with disabilities, and ensuring all students, including multi-language learners, receive the resources that they need. While there is

[00:36:18] more work to do, this agreement is a strong start. I urge you to vote in support of the first FCPS collective bargaining agreement in nearly 50 years and advocate for its full funding. Together we can continue to create better opportunities for our students and staff. Thank you. Kristen Gray. Good

[00:36:52] evening board members. My name is Kristen Gray and I'm a teacher trainee working as a fourth grade teacher at Willow Springs Elementary School. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you tonight. I'm here to urge your support for the 7% wage increase for FCPF staff and its benefits to my life as an older worker who is at the beginning of my teaching career.

[00:37:22] The 7% wage increase in the first year of the contract 2025-26 will be extremely beneficial for older workers who are starting their teaching careers. This increase will provide me with a more competitive starting salary which is crucial for maintaining financial responsibilities and planning for retirement.

[00:37:44] Additionally, by offering a higher starting salary, we make the teaching profession more attractive and financially viable for individuals transitioning from other careers. This helps attract and retain experienced and dedicated educators, which ultimately benefits our students and the entire school community.

[00:38:08] In conclusion, the wage increase represents a significant step in supporting FCPS staff and ensuring competitive compensation. Thank you for your attention and continued support tonight. Phyllis Payne.

[00:38:40] You have the opportunity to fulfill the dreams of parents, students, and teachers and staff. FCPS has struggled to meet the biologically driven scheduling needs of our children, and today you have several options, including two that start middle and high schools after 8:30 a.m. as recommended by the nation's pediatricians please align bell times with adolescent body clocks to help our teens thrive sleep is foundational to almost everything that we are doing as a school district as

[00:39:16] start school later's national conference this year Anne Arundel superintendent bragged about attendance rates increasing he noted when we have a system designed in the best interest of adults rather than rather adults first rather than doing what's right by children, we do a lot of harm." He added, "Two years of data has shown significant promise that this was a good move, both on federal and state-level accountability measures. Almost every single one of them is a net plus with their new start times."

[00:39:50] His biggest smile came as he shared that he'd won more state championship titles in the two years since the change than in all six years in his previous position. FCPS shifted high schools from 7 20 to 8 10. the evidence base now includes positive outcomes from our students including significant improvements in mood and safe driving more of our high schoolers eat breakfast we left middle schoolers behind with a promise of improvements which have been delayed long enough in the words of one

[00:40:25] of our students please do it next year I feel like a walking carcass the data bears her out a recent review article on the subject concluded all students improved in negative affect which included less fear, hostility, guilt, sadness. Also less depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and engagement.

[00:40:48] Eugenio Fischer: Thank you for pronouncing my name. I'm Eugenio Fischer-Sanchez, a resource teacher at Brighton High School in Fairfax County. I live in Fairfax

[00:41:24] County and I'm a father to a student in a Fairfax County Public School. I'm very proud of the county I live and work in. I want to congratulate the school board at FCPS for the FEU-FCPS Collective Bargaining Agreement of 2025. FEU and FCPS's collaboration this year was, as the kids say, epic. I'm very proud to have been a member of this collective bargaining team. I want to impress on this board and the Board of Supervisors the importance of this agreement. I felt a moral obligation to teach. While many others might have the same degree of commitment and passion, many more are also pragmatic about teaching as a profession. Namely, they should also be compensated with a just salary for doing some

[00:42:02] the most important work in our society please consider these three reasons for ratifying the contract one recognize our veteran educators who too often are deflated when they hear that budgets have not included the funding to keep up with inflation slash cost of living there's a lot of resentment when educators find out that our hopes for raises have not been realized to FCPS staff or a first-class set of professionals we deserve to be treated as such and we deserve to be rewarded for the work we do three if we were to continue to be considered a world-class system the crown jewel of the state of Virginia we also have to continue to attract the best the brightest staff the reality of the marketplace is that education cannot continue to be regarded as a quote noble profession or a compensation is the high regard of our

[00:42:41] non educator peers we also need financial reality to attract teachers and support staff I urge both the school board and board of supervisors to see this collective bargaining agreement a 7% increase in teacher pay and ensuing step percentage increases as being needed infrastructure investments to retain and attract the best teachers to this incredible district thank you Chair Fish that's our last public speaker thank you madam clerk agenda item 4.01 student representative matters this item is postponed until the next meeting agenda item 5.01 action

[00:43:17] item certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712d of the code of Virginia it's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on January 9th 2025 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 discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do i have a motion mr moon do i have a second miss sizemore heiser all those in favor miss marron mr mckelveen dr anderson mr mcdaniel

[00:43:53] miss anderson miss sizemore heiser mr dunn mr moon miss st john cunning uh miss dixit and i don't see miss lady on the screen miss lady will you verbalize your vote did you hear me no we did not

[00:44:14] I can now though. Are you in favor. Okay. Yes in favor. Thank you. And myself that is unanimous agenda 5.01 action item confirmation of action taken in closed meeting. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student possessed a schedule one slash two control substance with the intent to distribute and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. Is there a second. I second.

[00:44:45] If people participating virtually could mute their computers, that would be wonderful. Thank you. Ms. Marin is seconding. All those in favor? Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Ms. St. John Cunning, and I don't see anybody else.

[00:45:06] Ms. Lady. Ms. Lady and Ms. Dixit and myself. That is unanimous. Are we good? We're good. Okay. Thank you. Agenda item 5.01, action item, ratification of a tentative collective bargaining agreements between Fairfax County Public Schools and the Fairfax Education Unions, FEU, for the licensed instructional and operational bargaining units.

[00:45:35] I call on Mr. Frisch for a motion. I move that the school board ratify the tentative collective bargaining agreements between Fairfax County Public Schools and the Fairfax Education Unions for the licensed instructional and operational bargaining units with an effective date of July 1st, 2025. Is there a second?

[00:45:51] I second. Mr Fresh would you like to speak to your motion thank you almost exactly five years ago this school board voted unanimously diverse to reverse its decades-long opposition to collective bargaining rights for teachers and other staff enshrining support for this critical right in our official legislative program what we lobby on in Richmond and Washington a few weeks later the General Assembly and Governor Ralph Northam came through giving localities including school boards like ours the ability to grant collective bargaining rights to public employees we moved quickly initiating a process following an interest-based model to draft a collective bargaining resolution

[00:46:26] each of the school division 17 certified employee associations was invited to participate in the resolutions development working with division council staff and experts for more than a year to reach a consensus and eventual passage by our school board then last year teachers and support staff voted overwhelmingly to elect the fairfax education unions as their exclusive bargaining representatives which brings us to this evening tonight is a historic moment that will echo through the halls of our schools strengthen the foundations of our education system and honor the tireless efforts of the people who dedicate their lives to fairfax county children the ratification

[00:47:04] of fairfax county public schools first collective bargaining contract ever a contract that represents the most significant expansion of public sector union representation in 25 years this contract is not just a document it is a commitment to fairness respect and the enduring value of collaboration it reflects many hours of interest-based negotiation advocacy and determination from our educators support staff union leaders and the school division superintendent and bargaining team together they worked through complexities and challenges to reach an agreement that ensures progress for all at the heart of this three-year contract is about ensuring that

[00:47:40] our schools can recruit and retain the best educators and staff it is about giving our teachers the respect and compensation they deserve providing our bus drivers custodians and other support staff with fair wages and ensuring that everyone who enriches the lives of our students feels valued. Fairfax County's educators have long gone above and beyond for our students often with fewer resources than they deserve they have shown true resilience this contract is an acknowledgement of their sacrifices and a step forward for more equitable future but this contract is not just about fairness for our staff it is about outcomes for our students. Research tells us that students thrive in schools where

[00:48:18] educators are supported, respected, and empowered. Tonight's vote sends a clear message. Fairfax County is committed to fostering an environment where both staff and students excel because teachers working conditions are students learning conditions. Of course as we celebrate this milestone we look to the future. The contract represents financial challenges for the county and our Commonwealth and we will need to work together to ensure that funding is available to sustain these commitments. As our legislators and the governor prepare to get to work in Richmond, they can help pave the way by fulfilling the nonpartisan JLARC's recommendations to bring state investments in public education on par with the national average, a move that would

[00:48:57] bring $567.8 million additionally in funding each year to FCPS. Collective bargaining is not a finish line but a beginning. It establishes a framework for collaboration and continuous improvement. To my colleagues on the school board, I urge you to vote yes tonight. Let us stand And together, on the right side of history, supporting the thousands of educators and staff who shape the future of Fairfax County every single day.

[00:49:21] To our educators and staff, thank you for your patience, for your advocacy, and most importantly, your dedication to our students. This contract is a victory for all of us, and it is only possible because of your continued commitment. Tonight we are doing more than ratifying a contract.

[00:49:37] We are setting a precedent for what it means to value public education in Virginia. we are taking a giant leap forward and I thank you. Ms. Marin, would you like to speak to your second?

[00:49:57] This is exciting. We commit to respecting and supporting public education, our educators and staff. We commit to public education. Approving these agreements and endorsing collaborative work to provide public education is so important. We as community leaders and elected leaders must endorse the ability to work in civic structures and democratic structures.

[00:50:19] Some of the topics in these agreements, like elementary school teacher planning time, special education instructors, bereavement leave, salaries, have been issues that, as I've been on the board, we've grappled with for years, and to see them culminated together in a collaborative agreement that you all desire and want is really remarkable, and it's such a relief that your needs are being heard and that I can help support this into action I'm also very excited for us to be united in our quest for funding for your salaries and your hard work

[00:50:56] from the county and the state so I see the work you've done over many years and I'm happy for you your families your colleagues and ultimately for our students because indeed educators working conditions are students learning conditions Ms. Sizemore Heiser thank you and I will not repeat what my colleagues have said but i wholeheartedly agree with their sentiments i want to start by thanking our educators for your patience and your hard work and your willingness to engage in interest-based collaboration and bargaining so we can make sure that you have a voice at the table

[00:51:35] and your interests are met but this and the interests of our students and our schools are met as well in a way that we can all have better working conditions and a better education for our students so thank you thank you to our staff who participated as well in the hard work it took i am so thrilled and so honored to be able to support this collective bargaining agreement tonight i um this is a long process for those of us who started in 2020 as soon as we had the ability to kick off this process to vote in favor i was honored to be the chair of the school board when we voted on the resolution that allowed the bargaining to take place and that was a thrilling

[00:52:11] moment from me we are in a moment in history where public education itself is under attack where there is concerted effort to demonize our schools which is so sad to me because public education is the great equalizer it's where any child can walk in the door and we can say we will educate you and we'll set you on your path to success and that is what public education did for me and that is what public education does for our students but we cannot do that without teachers who are compensated well without teachers who have good working environments and most

[00:52:50] importantly without teachers who have a seat at the table in making the decisions and pushing for the things that are going to make you do your job in a way that best supports our students because our excellent teachers is how we have excellent schools and that is how every single child who walks in the door can foster their strengths and find their path to success so I was honored to kick off this process as chair I'm honored to support this and I can tell you as a proud union member myself and my other job being part of that union has made my job my working conditions better

[00:53:25] my salary better and it has made me be a better teacher for my students so I'm thrilled for this I'm thrilled for what it means for public education I'm thrilled that it means that we can have a stronger a better school system because you all who are the ones doing the work have a voice in our school system passing this agreement tonight is how we protect preserve and strengthen public education so the children who are there now and the children who are there in the future can have what i had which is a teacher who showed me what i love to do so i'm thrilled to do this i

[00:54:05] want to make it personal because i didn't want to repeat what my colleague said but thank you for your patience and hard work thank you to my colleagues on the board and our staff for doing this I hope as we move forward together in this interest-based bargaining we will continue to work together as we have with the kids at the center and teachers who feel heard and supported teaching those kids Dr. Anderson I am very glad to be able to say a few words regarding this

[00:54:42] motion this evening I still recall that day when we were on that conference call with the board of of supervisors, and I believe Kimberly Adams at this time, this was during COVID when the conversations were being had regarding collective bargaining and what could it look like in Fairfax County.

[00:55:00] And honestly, I thought the momentous occasion was two years ago when the board actually passed the resolution to get us to start the process. But clearly tonight is also an opportunity to celebrate because now we are crossing essentially the finish line with that work that started so long ago step by step as I've never said before as a former teacher and principal who was part of a collective bargaining unit I know exactly what it feels like to be able to voice you know your preferences your um your priorities you've moved

[00:55:36] from advocacy to actual input and action and that's an important distinction because we all know that the resources are limited but having an opportunity to say it should go here instead of there is tremendous because it also have it also allows you to buy into the system a little bit more rather than just being told from the outside well this is why so I am very very happy that we have reached this point congratulations Mr. Dunn well I I know that I moved here with my wife 20

[00:56:15] years ago so our children could attend the best public schools in the country and all three of my children attended from first grade onwards and graduated in the past few years and I know that for each of my children the reason that these are the best public schools in the country is as the teachers is the support staff is the people who feed them transport them educate them care for them every day inside and outside the classroom and I am so grateful and my wife is grateful every day for the education they received the love and

[00:56:52] care and support that they received and knowing the impact that that will have on them not just in terms of being knowledgeable about particular subjects but also the the good sportsmanship the life lessons the the citizenship that they learned inside and outside the classroom and I think for almost every person in Fairfax County we know that the quality of life is inextricably intertwined with the quality of our public schools and the quality of our public schools is inextricably intertwined with the quality of the teachers and staff and for too long you know FCPS has been governed in a top

[00:57:31] down way not valuing the essential contributions of our teachers and staff and I celebrate this moment because going forward we will be governing this system in partnership in collaboration from the bottom up right and that's how it should have been from the beginning and and while we can't undo the past we can work vigorously to ensure that we pay our teachers and staff appropriately that we provide them the correct working conditions that we established an environment in which the best and brightest want to come and work here and want to stay here for

[00:58:08] their entire career and all of the positive externalities that will flow from that. I know that I would not be here today but for the teachers and support staff who made a positive difference in my life and I can name them off the top of my head. We can all name those people in schools who you look to as mentors as as leaders as role models for how you want to live your life as as an adult and opened up your eyes to new career pathways or new interests and helped you realize

[00:58:41] your potential and i think that this collective bargaining agreement will do so much so much to honor the contributions the daily excellence that all of our employees bring to the classroom and help to support those in the classroom and so I celebrate this moment also for all the hard work that's been done by the by the unions to make sure that they bring the right number of signatures the right number of votes the right number of ideas and representing our employees voices to make sure that they are heard and I also celebrate the superintendent and the school board who have done so much work not just this board but previous boards to get to this point it's it's truly been

[00:59:21] a partnership and I look forward to many more years working together to ensure that every child regardless of you know what school they attend, where they live, their family background, what language they speak at home receives a world-class education. Thank you. Ms. St. John Cunning. So for 26 years I've worked in the schools and have been down in the trenches. I've worked with teachers, counselors, social workers, administrators. I know what you do each and every day. I know that

[00:59:58] sometimes it's minute by minute i know that there are fabulous days and i know that there are horrendous days but you show up and you love our students i wish we could pay you your weight in gold because you more than deserve it not too long ago i was on that side advocating for family liaisons to get benefits because we were hourly part-time and had no health care or retirement benefits. So I know how much work and time has been put into this. So I congratulate you and

[01:00:36] everyone that has worked to make this possible. Again, don't want to repeat what everybody said, but ditto. And for me, as the cousin of a legendary civil rights activist and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union, Dolores Huerta, who had a significant impact on all kinds of union activities i can do my small part in this community and be very honored to vote for this because you more than deserve it you have earned it our county is better for it but most importantly

[01:01:13] our children are better for it thank you miss dixit hi everyone uh and i'm very excited to be here today uh virtually but i am in spirits there and i want to thank everybody who was involved in this process and because truly it's a lot of hard work and and I everybody speaks of their journey and and I wanted to share a bit about how I've got

[01:01:49] introduced to the wonderful staff of FCPS 17 years ago as an immigrant where we try to connect with the place in the country when we come in for me it was FCPS. It was the teachers in the school and the staff in the office who made me feel welcomed, and that's where my journey and my relationship started. So if it was not the teachers and the staff and the administration of FCPS, I wouldn't be here today. So I owe it to all of you, every

[01:02:25] single employee of FCPS to support the parents the community and I know this is just the beginning we have a lot of work ahead of us we remain committed to an ongoing dialogue and collaboration with all the employees to meet the need of our community and I would encourage our community members also to support our educators and staff it's very very important to make sure all the needs are met and we get the funding we deserve from our uh you know from all the parties involved

[01:03:01] so thank you again for this uh achievement and uh and we look forward to working with the entire community thank you so much mr moon thank you madam i share mr chairman i'll be supporting your motion and to the members of the unions who are standing and looking at us a couple of points that I want to make is this without repeating what has been already said that a the fact one of the facts

[01:03:33] that it was critical to me is how the collective bargaining agreements treated every members of those unions equally whether it was teachers or operational employees including the least paid employees custodial staffs and thank you for that and 98 percent of the membership members supporting the agreement that says a lot and returning the favor to you I bet you hundred percent of the school board members

[01:04:13] will be support of this congratulations miss lady thank you it is certainly a night to celebrate as someone who was a lifetime educator and committed 27 years of my life to ferris county public schools um i'm actually more at a loss for words than define the words to say what tonight means um to our faculty staff from operations to custodians to bus drivers

[01:04:47] we see you we honor you and and to echo some of what my colleagues said um public school is under attack right now and we need to do our part um and part of our issue is that we claim to value the work of public education for those who certainly are invested in it and believe in it but we have yet to ever pay people what they're worth people who we entrust our children to every day um and in local parentis and the responsibility that as educators each of you take on or as staff

[01:05:22] and support that you take on every day because you're passionate about children and you believe in the potential of every individual student who walks into one of our schools and i just like it It is a night to celebrate and again, I'm a little at a loss for words 'cause I'm emotional about this, but I'm so excited for my colleagues, for those of you that are new in the profession, for those of you that are teacher trainers, for those of you who are veterans, for the folks out there that are retired and you come back and you are again reinvigorated and you're still passionate and you're still giving back to our students on a daily basis.

[01:05:59] I just think this is an outstanding night and it's to be celebrated and I commend my colleagues who started this process in 2020 when I was still employed by the school system. Today is a really special day. So today we celebrate all of you, and we just hope that the other politicians who have the ability to see and honor the work you do, that they will support what's happening this evening.

[01:06:25] We will get our fair share of money from Richmond eventually, but today we do celebrate everyone in Fairfax County, and it's just a special night, so thank you. - Mr. McDaniel.

[01:06:41] - So tonight's vote was, I think it's fair to say, it was made possible by tireless advocacy and work from a lot of people, and I wanna thank a few of them. I wanna thank Dr. Reed and her staff for guiding the board through this process. I wanna thank the leadership and the volunteers in the teachers associations.

[01:06:59] I wanna thank the countless allies across every school in this county that have been there every step of the way. tonight this votes for you, you take a win. But I wanna say that we should all be proud to be sitting here in this room because of the folks that have come before us and the work that they put in as well.

[01:07:18] Tonight the work begins and I'm looking forward to working with county leadership in the coming months to ensure that we have the funds that we need to make this a reality. I know our board of supervisors is a strong ally of our public school system and of our teachers and I'm confident that we'll find a way to work together to get this done.

[01:07:36] And I don't know about you, but I'm ready to spend the next few years bragging about how great our schools are. In a year where we'll experience some really strong pushback against public education, tonight we've delivered on a promise, and it's a promise that we made to our community, and this will help us build an even stronger division in the years ahead.

[01:07:55] With everyone working at the table, we can and will deliver the best education to our young people in this community, and this contract finally puts thousands of teachers at that table. So thank everybody and congratulations.

[01:08:14] - I'm gonna take a quick turn. I'm not gonna repeat everything that my colleagues have said, but for those of you who know a little bit about my story, I taught at the college level for about 14 years English. And I had to step away because of what I was making.

[01:08:30] And so I understand having to make the decision based on finances related to how you're compensated for the work that you're doing. And so I'm so proud to be on this side of the table now to be able to do this tonight.

[01:08:47] I said something at the board at the meeting that we had earlier this month or I guess as last year in 2024 about a month ago with the Board of Supervisors is that we have the opportunity to stand together to support public education.

[01:09:03] And this is in my opinion a huge moment for us to stand together to look forward to what we can do both at the federal level and at the state level to ensure that our children still have the support that they need to move forward with their education.

[01:09:21] So I thank you for all of your hard work, all of your patience, all of the staff that made this happen. You guys came together in record time to work together and in an amicable circumstance, and I cannot say how proud I am to be part of it.

[01:09:38] So thank you so much for all your work. Seeing no other lights on, I would like to call for the vote on the motion which is on the screen. All those in favor, we have Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Seismar Heiser, I know he's gonna mess it up, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon and Ms. St. John Cunning.

[01:10:14] And I believe Ms. Lady. Ms. Lady. Yes. And Ms. Dixit and myself. that is unanimous for everyone here, thank you.

[01:10:48] - All right, congratulations everyone, but the meeting continues. Agenda item 6.01, Performance Review, Facilities and Transportation EL11 Monitoring Report. Each year, the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress toward achieving the 2023 to 2030 strategic plans, goals, and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on pages 14 through 31 of the Strategic Governance Manual.

[01:11:20] The superintendent provides annual monitoring reports to the board for each executive limitation. The board then votes on whether the provided report is in compliance or if corrective action is needed. I call on Dr. Reed for a monitoring report on executive limitation 11, facilities and transportation.

[01:11:37] - Thank you, Chairman Frisch. It's an honor to have an opportunity to present this tonight on this epic and historical night. I know not everyone's probably wanting to stay to listen to this. So anyhow, thank you for coming out tonight.

[01:11:53] And so executive limitation 11 facilities and transportation tonight, this annual monitoring report is obviously timely, given our current facilities and transportation challenges this week.

[01:12:12] So I wanna remind the board in this executive limitation at the time of this report to the best of my knowledge information and belief I've gathered information and evidence that supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic this is obviously these are two of our very important support functions and I want to remind the board there are seven areas of EL 11 this is part one I think we got excited because we only wanted seven topics but then we created a lot of items within each topic so this is item one and the seven

[01:12:50] aspects of that on the next slide we have item two which has multiple parts as well and then we have on our final slide items three through seven I'm only going to be sharing selected indicators this evening which highlights certain parts of this but for those watching at home and those here want to remind folks that the entire monitoring report is attached to the board agenda. So it is great reading and I encourage you to take a few minutes and review this. So in

[01:13:24] looking at number one or the first aspect of EL11, I want to mention that we continue to work on our outdoor learning spaces. I know there are several board members that have expressed considerable interest in this project and we are working still on permitting but currently we do have 37 outdoor classrooms under construction and these 37 are scheduled for completion at the end of the summer we're on track to complete the installation of bathrooms at 14 of our stadiums by the 25 26 school year and we've completed in-person inspections

[01:14:03] and surveys for all of our outdoor athletic assets for each high school and we're using this data to develop improvement cues for our athletic facilities this is the first time for this body of work here in the county and we're really excited about the opportunity to develop a cue for these assets finally we're upgrading our 12 school-age playgrounds each year because it's really important particularly to provide access to our playgrounds for

[01:14:36] all students. And we're also constructing 10 new early childhood education playgrounds as we develop new programs in different schools across the county. These early childhood playgrounds, by the way, are again a further commitment to our inclusive preschool work. As we add preschool courses or preschool classes at different sites, we want to make sure that all of the preschool learners have an opportunity to also play together in age-appropriate playground construction top or I guess what are they called construction models

[01:15:13] or large toys I guess anyhow I want to remind the board in our community that we remain committed to sustainability we've installed solar panels at nine of our elementary schools which actually is a miracle in some ways with little or no upfront costs to FCPS. We've really tried to be fiduciarily responsible and we are projecting a savings of over 4.7 million in power costs as a result of our solar panel work at nine of these

[01:15:49] schools. Building on the success of this pilot program, our initiative is planned to expand our commitment to renewable energy and thoughtful environmental stewardship. Furthering our sustainability efforts we've also planted over 800 trees at no additional cost to FCPS and are working towards a 90 percent waste diversion goal in collaboration with the Fairfax County government so a lot of work in this area finally want to share that we're in the final implementation

[01:16:22] phase of our stop arm violator camera program on 50 school buses these cameras have been installed and we're working on the final agreements with the um court and police department to make sure that we'll begin issuing citations to drivers who illegally pass these stop buses starting in the next several months we're also piloting high visibility led stop arms on 10 of our buses and continuing to expand our electric bus fleet with 85 new electric buses these efforts have

[01:16:58] earned FCPS Virginia Visionary Award for leadership in electric fleet conversion, which demonstrates our commitment to student safety and sustainability. I want to also mention that our FCPS team, under the direction of Janice Szymanski, has successfully managed all major construction projects within the adopted budget despite our national inflation and increased costs, and that's quite an achievement.

[01:17:27] ahead we've secured land for a future elementary school near the silver line and finally we continue to keep the board informed of key projects through quarterly updates and you'll receive your winter quarterly update tomorrow evening in your Friday letter it's substantial we continue to address the aging infrastructure by modernizing elevators across the division which continue to be these continue to be a little problematic honestly I know Mr.

[01:18:01] Dunn I'll try to jump in there but we've even some of our newer elevators we've struggled and so we've got six standalone modernizations that were completed in 2024 and these really continue to be a bit of a challenge for us, but we're committed to making sure these are workable consistently and predictably.

[01:18:27] In addition to facility improvements, we're prioritizing safety by developing standard protocols for workers that work alone, and this is important to make sure that if someone needs assistance, they're able to gain that assistance quickly.

[01:18:44] We're also piloting a program with mobile data tablets. And this is work under Mr. Muick's area with Paul Dejandre as well with the transportation team.

[01:18:59] And our mobile data tablets will help us improve bus routing efficiency, provide real-time data for drivers, parents, and schools, we'll be able to update information to parents on school bus tracking more efficiently and aims to optimize resource allocation minimize delays and enhance the overall reliability of our transportation system we're also encouraging healthy environmentally friendly commuting through our safe routes to school programs and events like walk and roll to school the school day one of the things I want to remind

[01:19:36] our community about is that our facilities are valuable community resources they generate over six million in revenue last year while they supported 91 long-term partnerships with local organizations. So our communities in many cases are the heartbeat or our schools are the heartbeat of our community.

[01:19:56] We want to make sure we provide some of this data, but the use and care of our facilities is really integral to our mission-driven work. I know our upcoming work session on our capital improvement plan, it was really timed with this executive limitation and I know that we're going to have some robust conversations about the totality of our capital resources and what it takes to keep those up-to-date renovated and the world-class learning spaces we need them to be for our students in our next slide I want to share again I think all of us

[01:20:34] in the community know that we are undertaking our first comprehensive school boundary review in nearly 40 years it's going to require a significant amount of community engagement and I thank the board members for attending as many events as you already have we're going to continue to provide website feedback information and both in person and virtual engagement in terms of improving our transportation services we've done a significant amount of work to streamline the hiring process for bus drivers and attendants and have established dedicated helplines for parents and staff these are all new I

[01:21:10] I want to thank Mr. Solomon and Mr. Muick for working together to create a much more one-stop hiring process with the types of testing and credentialing our transportation staff require. And to that end, it's enabling us to keep up with our hiring and transportation in a much more expeditious manner.

[01:21:29] So big props to staff in supporting that work. I want to share that FCPS, just on our food and nutrition program, we're very proud of the progress here. we've served over 20 million meals last year in 2023-24 that's a lot of meals folks over 20 million it's 1.5 million more meals than we served in the prior school year i think that's a significant data point and i would also argue that our meals are more nutritious year over year

[01:22:05] as well you can see on the data the change in percentage on the average breakfast served is over 20 percent that's not an insignificant number so with an increase of over four percent for lunch but just want to say big thanks to our food and nutrition services staff sean sacco melissa d'angelo and andy muick's team there's just been a lot of work and one topic that hasn't gotten a lot of attention this week is that we've also been preparing providing and distributing meals this

[01:22:40] week even though we haven't been in school and so just very proud of our staff to take the initiative to do the right thing um this year uh fcps launched over 20 new scratch made menu items and these are items that kids our students and our staff are really enjoying plant-based plant forward options are available daily and we're continuing to offer salad bars at all elementary middle and high schools with unlimited servings of fresh fruits and vegetables i will say the hard-boiled eggs are no longer on the salad bar we did experience some concerns around the ability

[01:23:19] to keep them cold and fresh and so forth so i think those were replaced by beans my understanding mr muick and legumes yes ma'am all right thank you i knew that was it because i did do some exploration and in some cases the salad bar looks different but we still have abundant uh fruit and vegetables and the ability to go back for seconds if students so desire is that correct correct okay mr chairman that concludes my presentation for executive limitation 11 facilities and

[01:23:51] transportation thank you pardon me we'll get started with miss marron well i first want to thank our facilities team for the tremendous work they've been doing over the last few days clearing out our 200 facilities parking lots making things safe i just i mean i could barely shovel a few shovels with my own back so really thank you yes to the team and all those those operational staff um you know weather events like this show us how important it is to rally around

[01:24:27] the safety of our children and our community members and how it is in any one institution or sector's role to take care of one another and i think our public schools have done what's possible but just like matters of gun violence prevention or poverty our schools can't meet the challenge alone so um you know what does it look like to put children first even at the inconvenience of adults if in the short and even long term it benefits kids and i think that's really relevant when we talk about these facilities um so just incredible volumes of work um you know i've been been on the board five years and before that I was reading documents I mean first of all the quarterly update with what's happening in facilities is an

[01:25:04] incredible catalog the conditions assessment that leading to the athletics queue you know we've had our facilities queue but we have never had a queue for athletics just being able to have an index of where everything is at and how we can keep that going to get it updated providing robust responses to the board's motions and our directives for alternatives so that we can make more informed decisions and be more improvement with with public dollars and our time the installation of outdoor classrooms and stadium bathrooms what took so long to get there now it's going at rapid pace I mean with 30 almost all of the 36 outdoor classrooms are in progress I mean that's every so those middle schools and high schools thousands of students are gonna have that access

[01:25:44] better tasting and appealing food even making the process to select the food more inclusive by having the students come and give us their feedback and you know I don't hear concerns from my constituents about transportation about late buses and missed buses so really I just it's been a very different experience you know since I guess the last report or just even in this term of mine on the board Dr. Reed I did want to follow up on a few things or if you could please follow up one of them was regarding facilities the middle school start time aspect and if you could just remind us when we're going to hear about the follow-up

[01:26:21] had had a presentation on that and if you could remind us yes ma'am we had received the next steps document information from the board and the board directed us to look at the timing in particular of what's possible with middle school start times in terms of being done at the same time as boundary work preemptive or post boundary work right like so sort of that alignment in particular with boundary work and I believe mr. Mewick's team has been doing some background work on that do you have comment on where we are and when we're

[01:27:00] planning to bring that back mr. Mewick no we're still kind of working it through the staff I haven't had a chance to let Janice's team take a look at it yet but we're getting close I think the timeline on the next steps was by the February 6th February 6th so we should have that done within the next couple weeks for you to take a look at a draft anyhow for a Friday letter draft and then a February 6th conversation great thank you I was just reminded as our speaker was here tonight and that's certainly something I support looking into also I do want to point out dr. Reed you know we've talked about the value of our facilities and that amount of nine billion dollars that our assets are

[01:27:39] worth so half 0.5 of that 0.5 half a billion is our transit but 8.5 is our facilities and I really don't think we talk about that enough we hear a lot about our four billion dollar operating budget but we as a school division are responsible for nine billion dollars of public assets and it takes a lot of people to manage that and it takes a lot of money to manage and be innovative so I'm really eager for Tuesday's work session about our capital improvement program that is all about facilities it's totally relevant it's the heart of the boundary review process so this is I'm eager for our board to look at these

[01:28:16] facility matters as a regular cadence it's just as if not more important than our operating budget and dr. Reed I guess just lastly I'd appreciate if you could please put more in context how our school divisions work either fits in the context with the county or dovetails it or runs parallel to it around things like meeting our energy goals our sustainability goals when it talks about when overlaps with law enforcement things like the cameras you know how how are our goals and our progress how is that measured by the county are there

[01:28:52] different accountability systems just kind of more of when are we linked in wonder we like we know what the budget right at the county it's like the 4 billion or so to the schools but I don't hear that about when it comes to sustainability or facilities well yes ma'am I I would say that our work in sustainability and our work in facilities clearly overlap because we have MOUs that go back and forth for example for the SAC program are the SAC

[01:29:27] program also the 91 community groups that use our facilities our facility use agreements with athletic council programming so there's a huge amount of overlap and interaction that it's outside both our capital bonding as well as our general fund budget and so I think at some point it might be really instructive to create a grid of all those partnership opportunities a grid of the leases and MOU agreements and then perhaps the bonding funding as

[01:30:04] well as our general fund transfers because you're right the 9 billion in assets are significant and as we continue to look at cost escalation as the time lengthens between our ability in the renovation queue which we'll talk about more in the work session but we're really uh challenged i think to maintain learning spaces in a way we've been accustomed to i think in the past thank you miss marron i saw some quizzical looks in the audience when the next steps came up uh that's something we do at work sessions

[01:30:41] and specifically it says that the superintendent will provide the board with an assessment in advance of the 2 6th february 6th meeting of how the various options for middle school start times could be operationalized and how they could be implemented in parallel or sequentially to the boundary work as well as a suggested path forward and anything else the board should consider as we proceed so that's what we're looking for in advance of the february meeting all right uh mr dunn uh

[01:31:14] thank you i have uh multiple questions um i wanted to ask first about the stadium bathrooms um uh so it this project has been going on for i believe four or five years is that correct uh to mr Mr. Dunn, the project predated my arrival or the discussion or decision to engage in stadium bathrooms.

[01:31:38] It has been an ongoing project, yes, multi-year. And what have been the major causes of the delay? I would say, I think we've had some permitting challenges, Ms. Szymanski. Do you want to elaborate? I know we've certainly stayed on top of this, but Ms. Szymanski?

[01:31:58] Certainly and this does predate my time as well but it's my understanding we chose to go down a prefabricated unit model and I do think there were some lessons learned and hurdles trying to get an architect to stamp something actually done by a manufacturer so not only did we have to have some back and forth with the permitting but then we had to bring on an architect later in the game and go through the procurement process of that but we are now back on track we had the architect on board they finalized the design it's all approved with the county and we're under construction in fact we just set the first one yesterday at Woodson and I'll be giving you a list

[01:32:35] they're all on track still to be completed all 15 by mid-August in time for the school year so we're really excited about that do you know if the stadium bathroom at Mount Vernon High School will be completed in time for the high school graduation that will be held at the stadium that is correct thank you for the solar panels I see I it's wonderful that they're on a small number of schools is there an objective to achieve a higher number or a certain percentage of the schools over the longer term yes sir we do have a plan this was a pilot program not all our roofs

[01:33:13] are designed to support the types of panels but Ms. Szymanski do you have a sense of where we are on our future planning sure we did one pilot at our sideburn support center and that was one where we purchased it outright so we could pilot it not just going through the design process but getting a better idea for permitting getting our actual maintenance teams out there as part of the installation process and so then we went from there to do the nine that you saw referenced in the report and those are under contracted in design those are power purchase agreements so they're at no upfront cost one of the challenges we've had is the new interconnection

[01:33:53] fees uh implemented by dominion it prohibits the size from getting too large without incurring very large fees so one of our goals right now is to focus more on elementary schools where we have smaller roofs and we can be under that threshold because we're going to get more advantageous rates from the power purchase vendor so right now we have the nine in design and our goal is by the end of fy25 to have another 25 under contract and again we're looking at ones where to dr reed's point we have new roofs because you're going to get more interest from the solar vendors and going

[01:34:29] to get a better rate because you don't have to do many improvements the roof is in good shape these are 25 year leased terms on these panels so you want to make sure your roof is in good shape thank you um another question i had was about security vestibules because in this era of random gun violence we want to make sure that we are hardening our schools to prevent bad guys with guns from getting inside do we have a sense of when we'll have a hundred percent of our schools with security vestibules fully constructed i know that we have a number of them under planning in fact luther

[01:35:03] jackson was just completed um mr lambert still relatively new do you or miss samansky do you have the vestibule plan sort of outline i know we've we're doing them in three major phases is my last recollection sure they're identified in five major groups so group one and that includes Luther Jackson is under construction all of those and I believe it's somewhere in the low 20s those are slated to be substantially complete by the end of January so in the next couple weeks and we're making good progress we feel comfortable about hitting that date the next round is in design we actually

[01:35:39] submitted it for county permit last month in mid-December and so we plan to go out to construction bid this spring for taking advantage of the summer to do the majority of the construction. The third group is actually in early design, I'd say. We're just kicking off on that.

[01:35:57] And then groups four and five, we are working out how we can fund those. So I don't have an ETA to provide on those. But that's generally where we are, and I'm happy to provide more details separately. Thank you. I was just wondering, when do we expect to have, or is there a goal to have 100% of buses with the stop arms and the video cameras to see when drivers are driving irresponsibly and endangering the safety of our children.

[01:36:22] Well, we made a commitment to start with 50 because there was an agreement with the police department at the county to make sure we could manage the number of citations that might be coming from the project. So one of the things we want to do is as we start with 50, we're going to calculate what is the number that are required for processing and what staffing might need to be hired.

[01:36:45] And then I believe we're moving into another 250. As you know, we have over 1,600 buses. So what we're doing is trying to take those buses that have had perhaps the highest incident areas and making sure they have the stop arms first. But I do know there's a plan to increase the number of those depending on how effective those turn out to be.

[01:37:05] So is it a self-funding project? Essentially revenue raised by the stop arm will fund additional stop arm cameras? we essentially want to run it as a cost neutral project for both the county and the school division even though the paramount focus is obviously safety so i think that what we have to be able to do though is manage the project and we haven't had that project in the county before it'll be new so we're starting with 50. okay i wanted to ask about the western high school has there been any analysis of whether a western high school is needed given that there have been been previous reports saying that the overall number of students is steady or

[01:37:44] declining or is expected to decline in the coming years? So I think that there have been a variety of analysis analyses on the topic of a western high school. Many of those, if not all of those, predate my being here in the division or Miss Szymanski being in the division. I do know that our western high schools tend to be our most crowded high schools, so I don't think there's been another current or newer assessment around that topic in the last several years. Do you know when the most recent one was? Ms. Szymanski? I don't have that

[01:38:21] answer. I do know, I'll just add that right now Western High School is in the very out years of the CIP, so it hasn't been an area where we've done the analysis. I would expect that to occur as we get closer to the start as it's currently slated in the CIP. And sorry, what year in the CIP is it currently scheduled for it? I'll have to get back to you on that. Okay, and do you know what the ballpark estimate is to acquire the land and to build a high school of that size compared to our annual budget for construction renovation? I think it depends on the exact program and exactly where

[01:39:01] you're trying to build. I've seen estimates ranging from one to three million dollars an acre for the land. Again, if you're trying to buy something with an existing building on it, that could change it wildly. I do know our generally our costs per square foot have been in the low 400s for new construction so I think I could get you guys some better answers once we have a more defined set of parameters that we're looking at. Thank you. I also just want to mention the cost benefit analysis for the electric school buses that was provided in a Friday letter. It was 561 words and it didn't

[01:39:39] have a whole lot of numbers in it. So I was wondering if that could be elaborated into a full actual cost-benefit analysis, because I think there's a lot more that could be done to accelerate the transition of our bus fleet to more fully electric. And we've made great progress to date, and there's a lot to celebrate by the great FCPS transportation team. But having a fuller report with all the costs and benefits analyzed thoroughly would allow the school board to actually consider what measures might be undertaken at the school board level to provide the support and direction to the superintendent.

[01:40:17] Yes sir. I also want to ask, playgrounds, it was mentioned that we're currently at a tempo of renovating 12 per year, do we intend to maintain that tempo until 100% of playgrounds across the county have been fully renovated? That's the current plan, yes sir.

[01:40:35] About the bus tracking arrival technology, is there and I know that there have been some reports based on prior conversations where some bus drivers were not flipping a switch to enable tracking of their bus.

[01:40:50] Is that fully automated at this point and can like any parent of a child who is outside in the cold, the wintry weather waiting for their bus, is there an app where they can see when that bus will actually arrive at that particular stop? Yes, sir, there is an app, and I think our student board member is nodding her head because, Megan, you probably use the app.

[01:41:11] What I want to mention is that we are transitioning the technology that powers the tablets on the buses and the apps that students and their families will use. And as we move into the fall of 25, into the winter of 26, students and families and staff will see a different technology.

[01:41:32] I THINK THAT WILL BE MORE NIMBLE AND MORE ROBUST, BUT EVEN TODAY IN THE MOMENT THERE IS AN APP THAT IS AVAILABLE FOR THAT USE. THANK YOU, MR. DUNN, THAT WAS YOUR TIME. MR. MCDAN -- SORRY, DR. ANDERSON.

[01:41:48] THANK YOU. I DO WANT TO START TO NOTE SOME OF THE THINGS THAT I'M REALLY, REALLY PLEASED TO SEE HAPPENING. AND I THINK MS. MARIN DID MENTION A FEW OF THEM, BUT STILL I WANT TO GO DOWN MY LIST. the high visibility LED stop arms the grants the EPA grants that have allowed the procurement of 43 buses and I think 42 buses and I think there was a secondary grant for 43 buses those are great even though it's still a drop in the bucket and our fleet of 1600 it is still a step in the right direction because I remember the years where we were getting one or five buses so those

[01:42:26] are good things the stadium bathrooms having had the first one installed at Justice High School. I had a chance to visit it and just to see that it's been a huge difference maker. The community is very pleased about that. And I'm also very excited about the athletic facilities fields because I find that very often, and I've said this before, when it comes to CIP work, it's which communities can be the loudest because we don't have a plan that is objective and equitable in order to address the issues around this division and having an assessment

[01:43:01] of the athletic fields and the associated facilities I think it's a good way to achieving a very objective criteria and therefore creating a cue that is appropriate. I am also very excited to hear about the plans to support the standalone workers because we do know that when we have someone on the roof and they're by themselves it is not safe.

[01:43:25] although I did see in the language it says when possible what does that mean can you speak to that a little bit so I think the when when possible means generally we want to do provide those supports when possible which will be more often than not and I think there are some technologies that support communication when there isn't a second person available but Miss Szymanski was that yours? Or I'm not sure which chief worked on that one. It's mine, but I think I would need to

[01:44:01] go back and get a little bit more clarification. Yeah, if you could take a look, that'd be great. Also, some of the questions that I have regarding the stop arm camera program. Initially, I think now we have 50 again out of 1600. We're not quite there yet. How was it decided which routes these would be placed on so I believe they looked at or connected with drivers and it was sort of drivers that shared that they had the most concerns around when they put their stop arms out people not paying attention to it so mr. muick I'm

[01:44:40] assuming that's correct yes ma'am it is it was a driver input and just the historical data showing where we've had the most incidence rates of the bus driver's giving us the feedback that they're getting passed with the camera I mean with the arm out okay wonderful that's what I was really hoping to hear now that we're growing the fleet of e-buses I know initially that there were some limitations in terms of where those could be deployed because of the charging locations etc has that changed because I don't think we have wide geographic representation of the e-buses throughout Fairfax County I think they're located

[01:45:17] at particular locations I think currently they're tethered if you will for lack of a better term to the charging stations and we don't necessarily have charging stations for buses in all parts of the county so that infrastructure has to be part of the conversation around adding buses But I think, you know, we do know the electric buses have a lower level of, what do I say, they're not, they don't have the distance capabilities that a diesel bus does.

[01:45:54] I think they're working in the cold, but we're going to find out tomorrow morning in the really cold. But I know around the country there have been some challenges, but Mr. Mewick, do you want to comment further on that? You pretty much nailed it there, Dr. Reed, but, you know, we do have the charging stations are limited to a couple big locations Lorton stonecroft where we keep the electric fleet and we have a great relationship with Dominion there you know a great partner in getting the charging stations installed other places but it is kind of a slow move I mean we're you know we're getting the grants and we're getting the buses as fast as we can but we're getting there are the

[01:46:34] grants supportive of charging station installation which also would require space what's what's the long-term plan how are we developing some sort of action to increase that because without some sort of plan to have some more charging stations throughout the division we'll continue to have what we have right now which is those two locations so I think right now we're we have the two locations and we're just the plan currently is adding more EV buses and placing them at the locations we already have power to and at this point that's the plan I think we're gonna have to have a conversation about

[01:47:11] resource allocation to add more stations and some other you know major bus depots at this point across other parts of the county and what could be the collaboration with the county regarding that mr. muick I know does meet with the county we have a lot of vehicles not just buses obviously we collaborate I know with the maintenance and we are parking buses in a lot of places around around the county that aren't depots right at schools and other locations, but I think collaboration always, you know, the team when you do things as a team, you tend to make more progress more quickly and efficiently.

[01:47:50] So I know the county is open to that and we'll look forward to planning that and providing updates as that work continues. Not to put you on the spot, Mr. Muir, but what would be a reasonable number of charging stations throughout the division so that everyone students in all sectors of Fairfax County would have access.

[01:48:08] these electric buses as they grow what are we looking at growing from 2 to 10 to 30 it's you know it's a tough question to answer because we have 1600 buses right and we have really three large areas that have buses stonecroft has 200 westox has about 150 newington has about 150 then you know so we're a little less than 600 the other thousand are all over the county in small pockets three here six here ten here and you may have some high schools

[01:48:40] like Westfield that have 17 and so I I can't give you a definitive time answer on that it's working with Dominion all the time they're very like I said they're very good a partner we've we've also installed some over at I think the Sprague Center so when I first said Stonecroft and Lorton those are the two biggest we have a couple that are getting put in at other locations okay

[01:49:04] Thank you on page four of the report you talked about the potential the potential was that my I can put you down for a go back okay thank you thank you all right keep that bookmark keep that bookmark you said on page blank Mr. McDaniel thank you on page 10 of the report there was comments about the HVAC systems and you know improving those HVAC systems do we have any indication if those are going to also lead to improved indoor air quality

[01:49:38] I know it's something I hear about from teachers a good amount right well obviously if the HVAC systems are more efficient new or more effective they are connected to air quality so I would see a shift in air quality I'm assuming our current air quality is solid and where it's not and it's reported I know teams go out to attend to that and look at the possible causes for that and do we know how many schools that these are going into the updated HVAC systems yeah Ms. Szymanski?

[01:50:11] I believe that number is somewhere in the 50s, but I'll put an asterisk. It's not a full replacement. When I say 50, it might be a building automation system upgrade or a single unit upgrade, but we're doing a wide variety of projects when it comes to HVAC work right now.

[01:50:26] A lot of that's coming from our capital sinking funds. Gotcha. Thank you. And then kind of going back to the topic of buses, there was discussion on the tire technologies program with the tablets and the RFID scanners to increase information on bus routes does this program have anything in it that kind of relates to recording of incidents on buses so we looked into that question and the answer to that is no currently we but we do have cameras on buses and I believe buses have three sets of cameras and in

[01:51:00] some cases four to monitor behavior and activity on the school bus gotcha and when we have incidents on school buses sometimes in the past they have been somewhat high profile can we talk a little bit about the training that our drivers go through to mitigate these incidents so that's really important and i know we've been working on training and professional development for all staff honestly around major behavioral topics in the last several years i know our transportation drivers have received training around student conduct bullying narcan to make

[01:51:39] sure they are trained to administer that as well and those are on buses mr. muick do you want to add anything about training to address student safety and conduct yes ma'am the the transportation department is broken down into four big areas and each one of those areas is broken down into separate smaller teams and those teams are getting directed by Paul and whenever we see fit or every couple of months we're doing that kind of training if we see that there's a rash of incidents coming up we and or maybe drivers haven't dealt with it

[01:52:16] properly we give them refresher training we spend time in the summer kickoff after our leadership kickoff refreshing everybody on it before the year starts and then just continuing throughout thank you community use of fcps schools i have a question for you yes sir it was mentioned that we collect about 6.1 million dollars or excuse me receive 6.1 million dollars in revenue is that the total amount of revenue that the community use generates or is that just what we receive under the mous i do not believe that's the total amount generated i believe that's simply what we receipt uh here in fairfax county

[01:52:54] public schools but mr muick um any update from the community use office uh yes ma'am we that 6.1 that we received last year that's what we received from everybody about 4 million of that is from the county's neighborhood community services team and then the other 2 million or so is coming direct from to us from profit entities that are using our facilities so i miss burden might be able to clarify miss burton do you recall the percent split

[01:53:26] on in general uh community use facility agreements with the county and if not that's okay i thought we had a percentage that we discussed at one point no when but i think maybe what you're thinking of is that when someone pays we the school retains 25 and 75 supports the school operating fund to offset our costs of wear and tear maintenance that kind of thing so i will have to get back to you on that mr mcdaniel okay and that was going to be second part but that was my understanding the

[01:54:01] 75 25 split but that's after a split correct so i'm asking for the top split the first split the first split right right right and if you give me five more minutes i'll keep talking about splits um last question a topic i like to talk about when i have the opportunity the breakfast number that 20 that's remarkable do we know why i think part i'm going to say that there are probably several reasons why. One, I think breakfast is healthier, right? We don't do just muffin tops

[01:54:34] any longer that are 28 grams of sugar. But I also think we've really worked hard. I know this seems tangential, but we've worked very hard to make sure buses are arriving on time so that students have time to get breakfast. But Mr. Muick, do you have other input as to how we've increased breakfast by over 20%? Because we've gotten, I think, pretty creative with scheduling.

[01:54:59] yes ma'am um and just for everybody's uh just a reminder uh sean sacco and melissa d'angelo took over in the summer of 2023 and the first thing they noticed was a dire need for focus on breakfast so since they got here that summer they have focused hard on breakfast kiosks so if you go into a lot of schools you'll see kiosks at entry points with grab and go breakfast hot and cold for kids to grab as they're going in that don't necessarily have time to go sit in the cafeteria they're also using kiosks in a lot of schools for second chance breakfast as well so that now if

[01:55:38] you miss the first one after first period and you're going to second period there's a longer break so that they can swing by and get another breakfast there so it's those kind of innovations and they also really attack the quality of the menu in terms of getting savory breakfasts heavier on protein getting maybe rid of some of the high sugar things cinnamon buns stuff like that and just really focusing on things that are more attractive than hot sandwiches waffles different things like that so i just think it's making it more accessible

[01:56:15] and making it more enticing thank you that was all thank you mr mcdaniel mr moon Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I ask some questions related to electric vehicles, let me recognize Claire Kim from Santa Fe High School.

[01:56:33] She is my student leader, participating in a student leadership program. Welcome. With that said, Dr. Reed, I have a whole bunch of questions, but I'll probably not be able to ask out of those electric vehicles.

[01:56:51] Let me first start with a life cycle of electric vehicles versus diesel fuel vehicles. could you tell me whether there's a difference between those two vehicles and if so what the difference is yes sir there is a difference and mr. muick i know has looked up some of the answers to these questions ahead of time mr. muick yes ma'am mr. moon the life cycle for war is the same it's 15 years for both for the electric bus or the diesel okay using the 15 year as a number that

[01:57:28] For my own rough calculation, it sounds like the difference between the cost difference between electric vehicle and diesel fuel vehicle could be about $350,000. Yes, sir.

[01:57:43] You divide it by 15, each year it is about $20,000, more than $20,000. And we need to find somehow recoup that $20,000 each year along the way to stay even.

[01:58:02] As far as finance is concerned, I mean, one of the numbers that I saw from Friday letter, they came to the board members three weeks ago, which I didn't get to see until this morning, by the way. I'm so sorry about that. But there was a $9,000 per year of a maintenance cost.

[01:58:23] Is that $9,000 per year of a maintenance and fuel cost of difference between electric and fuel? And now I am trying to address where could we find the other $11,000, $12,000, $13,000 per year to recoup the additional investment we need to make to convert our diesel fuel to our electric vehicles.

[01:58:49] Is a grant fund enough to cover all those? I doubt it. I mean, we are aggressive, our team and Ms. Burton's team, in finding those grants. But my concern is that you know a lot of those grants they want to look for other deserving areas And there's only so many that we're going to be able to to get So I just don't think that the grants is going to be the only way that's going to get us there. Okay a You know from this follow motion, you know, there were three follow motions You know one of which has to do with electric vehicles

[01:59:28] I was really what I was really looking for was as part of cost-benefit analysis is if one of the biggest policy reason behind having these jet goals is to protect the environment I just wanted to see how much we are putting investing to protect the investment protect the environment so when I didn't see in your analysis about how we can recoup the additional investment you are making

[02:00:03] whether it's cost savings from maintenance or fuel or we get we get you know government a grant then the difference could be attributed to our desire to save the environment and I want to be able to have that number so that when I engage a public to support our JEC goals I could have a reasonable conversation with the members of public with actual number you know numbers on my hand and with that so something that I didn't see it if it was hidden

[02:00:38] somewhere please educate me but I didn't see that that's your time mr. moon then no sir I think that goes back to mr. Dunn's point of you know doing a little bit more work on that BCA to make it a little bit more apparent and that should help address your comments as well okay thank you and thank you dr. Reed for this EL report and for staff for the hard work on the EL report I wanted to

[02:01:11] just mention a couple things first given the fact that we are on a 42 year renovation cycle there are always going to be facilities issues that are going to be a struggle in terms of being able to finance and fund I know that our funding does not our bond funding does not cover all of our major maintenance is that correct Dr. Reed yes ma'am so having said that I really appreciate the new focus on fixing or replacing elevators is it just fixing or replacing elevators outside of renovations which i think has been traditionally just done during our renovations it's actually been

[02:01:48] both okay some can't be fixed any longer because they we can't get parts any longer because they're uh i think historical relics i wanted to bring that up because i hear a lot from the community about broken elevators right right i hear a lot from students who have you know need elevators to access different levels of the floor whether it's from a temporary breaking a leg i've heard from athletes who have you know who are injured who need the elevators I've heard from people with disabilities who rely on them every day there's just a lot I hear about elevators and so when we mention the public about being on a 42

[02:02:25] year renovation cycle these are some of the trickle-down effects is that there are certain things that we traditionally would replace right but because we're on such an elongated renovation cycle given where our funding is and that's what it supports we end up having parts of our facilities like elevators that become relics where we can't get parts to fix them so I think that's I think it's great that we're starting to replace them separately I think it'd be interesting to see going forward what other things do we need to do outside of the renovation queue right that impact our schools to the extent that the elevators do so I'm glad to see us moving towards that direction I yes ma'am and I will say that on and during our work session conversation you're

[02:03:05] going to have an opportunity to see Miss Szymanski has done I think an incredible job of sort of quantifying the topic you're addressing and in fact noting I know when she and I met it's not just our current situation and historically what's led us to today in terms of our backlog of projects like elevators but we did a projection out to 2035 which Ms. Szymanski will talk to you about but we're losing ground by eight percent every year i believe ms samansky if you want to just give them a kind of a teaser for not a spoiler

[02:03:41] alert for next week but just the teaser well we looked at the progression of backlog over the past 10 years and we found that that was at about an eight percent rate what we're finding now is that rate is actually increasing as every year the renovation cycles get longer and whatnot so and the cost of construction goes up right so you're not able to do as much with your money so we're now actually projecting out a rate of 10 percent over the next 10 years so we know our current backlog so we're going to be able to share with you what we think the future looks like in the

[02:04:13] next decade if our resource doesn't change thank you and i think that's a really important segue you know again there's always room for improvement facilities and i think some of the work that this board has focused on this last year about the tracking infrastructure and about looking at an infrastructure policy because we're going to have to figure out how to deal with some of these backlogs in a consistent way and I think looking at our policy and our renovation queue development work as well is important a couple things I wanted to lift up as representing the Braddock district I'm super excited about the stadium bathrooms that I know folks at Lake Braddock and Woodson and

[02:04:51] Robinson have been asking for for a long time and Annandale as well which is not located physically in the back district but has quite a few our students so I'm really excited to see this will those bathrooms be done in time for the fall sports season? Are there any going to be done in time for spring? I'm just kind of curious about the timeline for Woodson, Robinson, and Lake Braddock. Yeah, we did note that Mount Vernon's will be done for their graduation, but I believe the other three are slated to be completed, but I'll let Ms. Szymanski provide that news. Sure. As I mentioned before, they're actually prefabricated units, which is really exciting, but we need to have them in fabrication,

[02:05:24] so we make them in batches. So you're going to be seeing the 14 restrooms happen from literally last night through uh the middle of august so we're developing a rank a queue in an order it's actually recommended by our vendor based on geography so they're going to make their way around the county but at the end of the day they're all going to be complete for the start of fall sports for the start of school next school year that would be great and i think it's important to i don't know how this happened when you have three of the schools in one district that didn't

[02:05:57] have stadium bathroom seems a little inequitable perhaps as well as I will say two of the schools being double schools serving both middle and high schools and secondary schools so hopefully the geography will help get some of those because we're actually looking at five schools if you consider middle and high school as separate schools in three buildings I will work with staff on the stadium bathroom geographic queue thank you I appreciate that it's you know you you could knock off two schools in one stone so you know so I just want to put that out there I want to say I love love the work that our food nutrition staff are doing and I want to lift that up not just from being out there during these

[02:06:37] snow days to have meal kits available for students who are food insecure so they have it's not just lunch it's a fine breakfast lunch dinner and a snack it's wonderful and the salad bars like I remember going there and I missed mr. P And the big costume at the salad bar opening here it you remember that right.

[02:06:54] But just the enthusiasm of our students on discovering fresh food and the salad bars and the scratch kitchens like it's it's there is such science between behind nutrition and academic success. I just wanted to mention that is something that was in here that I think is important.

[02:07:11] Was that my time. I'm sorry I apologize. I'll stop talking. Thank you Miss St. John Cunning. Thank you. First of all I want to commend you for all this work facilities. I know you guys have done an amazing job this week.

[02:07:30] As one of my colleagues mentioned, we a lot of the heart of our communities were ready, but we have to rely on our partners to clear those arteries to get our students to to that heart. And there's been a lot going on and it's been difficult. But I really know there was a lot of hard work going on clearing the sidewalks to the schools in the parking lot.

[02:07:51] So I really want to thank you for that and thank the staff that was out there doing that because it was cold. I also just want to commend our food and nutrition services sometimes we look at charts and we look at you know statistics and food insecurity is increasing in our county and two days ago I was talking to a student and asking the student what they had for dinner and he said I never have dinner I just have breakfast and lunch that I get at school and so I just wanted to share that with you because

[02:08:29] we see numbers but there's real faces and so the fact that we are serving our students and that we're really concentrating on having more nutritious food is an incalculable value to our community.

[02:08:48] So I just wanted to highlight that because that conversation was two days ago. Thank you. Thank you Ms. St. John Cunningham. Mr. McElveen. Thank you and like Mr. Moon I want to recognize that my student leader is here as well. CAROLINE LEFTON FROM LANGLEY. CAROLINE, THANKS FOR BEING HERE. CAN WE CLAP FOR HER AS WELL?

[02:09:11] OK, GREAT. TO QUOTE JULIE ANDREWS, THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS. I DO THINK THAT YOU AND THE TEAM HAVE JUST MADE SO MUCH PROGRESS IN THE PAST YEAR. IT'S REALLY INCREDIBLE. SO, CONGRATULATIONS ON THAT. YOU KNOW, WHEN I GOT ON THIS BOARD, I SAW A LOT OF THINGS languishing whether it was the solar panels whether it was the outdoor classrooms food nutrition services or you know buses electric buses but really the progress in all of these things has been phenomenal and I think in many ways

[02:09:48] you're even downplaying the work that's been done in food and nutrition services it's really truly unimaginable change but there are some things that have continued to stall one of the things I want to ask about is our safe routes to schools program um would you or someone on the team be able to provide us uh an update on where things stand we yes i could probably best in a friday letter update we're in the middle of a staffing transition in that department as well um but yes we'll definitely uh be able to provide an update probably within the next two weeks okay great yes sir um and i think you know the salad

[02:10:26] Salad bars are fantastic, it took us 12 years to get there. One of the things that I think you've noticed and I have noticed is unfortunately we went to the trouble to procure the actual salad bars and we've migrated away from using those and they're just back on the regular line.

[02:10:44] So, in many ways I think that's an unfortunate thing just because having the visual of the actual salad bar was really powerful. And I think the egg news is disappointing to me. That was a nice source of protein on those salad bars.

[02:11:03] But we know many kids were, you know, there's no limit to what they could take on the salad bars and the eggs were piling up. And we all know the cost of eggs. So that's an unfortunate development, but understandable. Middle school start times, grateful to Phyllis for being here tonight.

[02:11:21] point it's not a question but it's just a point um and the board has heard me say this before but I just hope we do not continue to allow our work on county-wide boundary study and changes to to handicap us in other areas including um middle school start times I know this board is committed to to getting to that goal um but I do think we have to put our money where our mouth is and and really make the statement that we're committed to doing this and be clear about whether it's 2025 or or later thank you yes thank you Mr McElveen I'm looking forward to the board having some clarity

[02:12:00] on the path forward for middle school start times and making a decision on how to proceed and when to proceed in the near future so hopefully the information we get in February will help open that door for us I do want to take a moment to talk about electric buses I do want to thank I think Mr. Muick and Mr. D'Andrade for all of their work on securing electric buses over the last few years.

[02:12:28] We've gone from zero to nearly 100. And that money is about to dry up. There will be no more federal grants in about 10 days for electric buses. So we have to begin asking ourselves, what are we going to do to reach the JET goal?

[02:12:44] We're going to have to get creative just to answer some questions that have been thrown Do the buses perform less optimally in cold weather? Yes, they do. But diesel buses also perform less optimally in cold weather.

[02:13:02] Electric buses are cheaper to maintain but more expensive to purchase initially. One of the things, the creative solutions that many school divisions across the country have done to kind of get around the cost curve is lease the buses and then pay the company they're leasing from a mileage fee rather than buying them outright, which ends up equating to roughly what they would have spent on a diesel bus.

[02:13:23] So they never own them outright, but at the end of 15 years, they get rid of it. They don't have that asset anymore. So that's something that we could look at pursuing if we wanted to commit to a full-scale transition, like the JET goal requires us to, the JET recommendation, as it were, which was formalized as a directive from the board to the superintendent.

[02:13:45] And so I hope that next year, as we continue to have these conversations, and as the grant money likely dries up, that we'll begin looking at more creative ways to expedite this process. I'm under no illusion that the goals we set for different years, 2030, 2035, are ostentatious, but they were designed to be that way.

[02:14:06] I'm hopeful that we will get some clear guidance on the best path forward to getting to that goal as opposed to the very great work that's already been done to achieve to to get that grant money who knows maybe we'll be looking at uh state grant money uh in the year or two ahead uh you know coming from richmond fingers crossed there other than that i do want to echo mr mckelveen and other colleagues about the lunch program uh and breakfast program and the different uh work that's been done to improve the menus i remember when secretary vilsack came mr mckelveen was there, other school board members were there. Secretary Vilsack from the Department of Agriculture

[02:14:44] came and we tried some of the food with him and it was delicious. So I'm very grateful for the incredible work that's gone into that transition as it continues and I will be voting in compliance for the incredible work that's being done with an eye towards the future and doing even more in the year ahead. All right, we have some go back. Actually, Ms.

[02:15:06] want thank you so I see a lot of exciting things on here the buses having solar panels at so many different elementary schools and definitely the stop arms I think that there's a lot of people in the morning who pass buses so I hope that this will raise more awareness around student safety and the students that are walking to those buses the one question that I had on the mobile data tablets that we'll be piloting in the spring is eventually do we plan on having like the data from that replace the Here Comes the Bus app or like add on additional information to the app what's like the long-term goal of starting with the scanners and the additional information that

[02:15:43] comes from that? So the long-term goal is to have a more dynamic tablet that allows for real turn by turn signal or turn by turn directions on each and every bus that can be pushed out centrally in the case of emergency or in the case of substitute drivers to have that real-time turn-by-turn support or accidents that occur that we have to reroute buses that those new tablets also have other options in terms of making sure we know who's on the bus and who gets off the bus and who's eligible to receive students off the bus so it's really going to add a level of safety and

[02:16:20] security support as well and the app there is an app that will go with those tablets I don't know if it'll be called here comes the bus but maybe a snappier title but there will be an app that connects and we believe an app that we hope will be more real-time support as well right I know I've heard several student concerns like you know if the app isn't working that day for that specific bus you're not able to track that you know the app isn't helpful in that case so just to clarify the goal long term is to just replace the here comes the bus app with whatever data we get from the scanners that's more That's correct. Thank you.

[02:16:58] Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Really fast that I just I just wanted to point out I know that we have put our board specifically has focused a ton on the two offices that are that are primarily working on on this particular EL and I just wanted to say thank you for all the work that you've done and answering all of our crazy questions and all of our bright new ideas.

[02:17:24] I wholeheartedly support the JET goals and have talked significantly about that. Being someone that worked with engineering students, I oftentimes had an understanding of what was going on, and my information is dated now, but I understand a core part of a lot of the technologies that are in play.

[02:17:44] I would advocate strongly as a solution to some of our charging issues and locations for charging is those thousand buses that are scattered across the county at different locations it makes the most sense to me to be able to charge those buses where they park and if that's the case i would love to see us continue to pursue any solar options on on buildings related to where those buses are parked because then we are generating the electricity that is necessary generating the energy that is necessary to charge our buses so i would like to say that i hope that dominion also

[02:18:22] it continues to be a great partner um for that endeavor as well as we work to to include solar and more of our renovations and more of our our upgrades to our buildings so thank you thank you miss anderson we have some go backs mr dunn uh well i wanted to thank my colleague for great comments about the 42-year construction cycle because we do have to think outside the box and and do things a little bit differently.

[02:18:47] So there was a great report, 158-page report by Ms. Zemanski, who I think we all know is a superstar. So thank you, Ms. Zemanski, for being here and providing such great leadership to your facilities team. So I just wanted to highlight that the wonderful report shows-- and maybe get your confirmation-- that it shows that we could construct schools using public-prior partnerships for roughly the same amount of money cheaper and in half the time. Is that your understanding as well Dr. Reed? Mr. Dunn I think one of the things there are a number of strategies that were outlined by Ms. Szymanski as a response

[02:19:26] to the follow-on motions and I think it is certainly a strategy that could decrease time and time is money in construction right the longer the delay the higher the cost escalation so it's always to our benefit to tighten up those timelines.

[02:19:46] Ms. Zemanski has also, I think, done a nice job of outlining starting projects simultaneously so that we, if we're doing them in parallel rather than serial, the likelihood of cost escalation is lower. So absolutely, I think the analysis is solid.

[02:20:04] Okay, that's great. So I think I look forward to working with my colleagues to maybe hold a work session in the future to explore that report in greater detail and the potential, you know, pros and cons of that approach. I know Prince George's County built six schools in two years using that approach and the only way to bend that curve of 42 years that's growing further into the future is to start maybe instead of FCPS owning 100% of the risk and the burden, sharing that with the private sector partners who might have experience with large scale construction projects.

[02:20:40] I wanted to ask about the bus driver shortage because there's so much great work being done with the buses but my understanding is 20% of the slots for bus drivers are unoccupied and so it means all the supervisors have to act as bus drivers and I appreciate their sacrifice but that does I think take away from the efficiency of that operation and so it sounds like from the report that some interesting things are being done to attract more bus drivers but is there an effort to develop like kind of a comprehensive plan so we can reduce that shortage from 20 percent to closer to zero yes sir the i don't believe we're at 20

[02:21:16] percent i believe we're at 114 drivers and we have 1600 routes so i don't believe we're quite at 20 percent in terms of bus driver slots um i i'll ask mr muick to respond to that but i know that we were about 110 hundred we seem to fluctuate between 105 to 114 openings and one of the responses i shared in the report is that mr solomon mr muick hr and transportation are working to have a much more efficient hiring process as you know it requires a cdl license

[02:21:53] and so we're looking at ways to support the acquisition of the cdl license as well as the types of testing and having those done sort of in a one-stop job fair as we do recruitment so they're making a lot of progress on that but I don't believe we're at 20% unless I'm misunderstanding that mr. muick we have a little over 1,100 bus drivers now and we have about 115 okay vacancies so it's pretty close okay and you know to just to elaborate on what dr. Reed was saying about the innovation so you know one of the long poles in the tent is getting a physical

[02:22:31] right so you get some people who want to be drivers they come into the we have two or three job fairs a month that we host at Stonecroft and Lorton and then you send them away to get their physical their blood tests and all that and the HR transportation group worked with Inova and this month Inova is going to start attending and providing the physical and that blood draw stuff on site so when we capture a driver a candidate now we can do a little bit just like dr. Reed said that one-stop shop and we help them with their resume will help them with the application now we can help them get the physical part done on site you know because anytime they leave that's when you run the risk

[02:23:11] of them you know falling through the cracks not getting back the other thing mr. you can I talked about very recently is it seems like we've stayed at about 110 ish for several years so we must tolerate that so one of the things I've said is we need to take that number down because we will have the openings we tolerate so that's I think all of these moves to make the one-stop-shop the efficiency the new union contract that you ratified this evening all those things I think will benefit cutting those positions down and

[02:23:46] do you expect the school boundary review to reduce the number of routes or make their routes more efficient so that the shortage will be less I think that's certainly one of the intended outcomes is to minimize or if make our routing more efficient for sure all right thank you yes sir thank you Mr. Dunn Dr. Anderson thank you just running through my questions here on page four you talked about the use of potential office building conversions can you give a little bit more information about that on page four of the report okay let me just jump to that really

[02:24:24] quickly um and this would be oh under the proposed western high school um i i don't know what it's under i believe that's the um under the proposed western high school uh staff are also continuing to engage to evaluate potential office building conversion one of the things we're really looking at is what do um secondary schools or schools in general look like um as we think about the 22nd century right in our learning options and I'm not convinced that another comprehensive high school

[02:25:04] is the best path forward as we're looking at options for teaching and learning experiences for our high school students so one of the things as you know we've been exploring is the aviation high school model and that doesn't necessarily require the building of an entire comprehensive high school but may in fact enable us to look at a different kind of intact building already and I know Miss Szymanski they're scouting some of those possibilities right now we've also looked at we have a high interest in a twice exceptional student instructional location

[02:25:42] that would be a smaller albeit comprehensive high school model but it would be a smaller type of a setting. We've talked about the possibility of an arts performing arts or other type of high school experience that wouldn't necessarily generate an entire comprehensive high school campus but rather it could be utilized in some other type of space not unlike what we've done with Bailey's upper and lower. We have those models within the school division and I think given the office space perhaps that's available currently in the

[02:26:17] county it may be a more cost-efficient way and something our students might really be interested in as a possibility also looking at that as a possibility we have some areas of the county that don't have access to Academy courses right and so it's not likely we're going to add to some of the space at our schools because we have so much challenge with parking but if we could look at some office building sites in different parts of the county where we could actually cite Academy courses that would be accessible to high school students within that geographic area I think it would really enhance options

[02:26:56] for our students without thinking of how do we eat up more spots on an already crowded school site in many cases well I think this is a model that has really worked well in the Mason district and I'll throw out there because for years not just school staff but also community have talked about why isn't the Sears building that is on um leesburg not being utilized as uh as a site to maybe do academy classes and to do some things that the justice site just can't contain particularly since we're butted up against arlington and there's really nowhere else to go in that area um in the documents you talk about

[02:27:34] composting is that dependent on school volunteers or is it school staff that's administering those programs so composting is a it can be both a school site specific process with in some cases it's student club run in some cases it's staff managed or in some cases it's contracted out PTAs are also active depending on the school currently we also have our get to green school based staff that the board has

[02:28:06] staff stipends for and so we're really our county composting bins I guess we have bins and strategies but we're not we're not at a hundred percent across all schools yet but it's certainly a goal that we're looking at for this year okay thank you and the playground upgrades how much reliance have there been on PTOs and PTAs to raise part of those funds if any I believe historically it's almost been exclusively PTA funded and I think we need to move away from that because

[02:28:43] one of our key drivers is also accessibility for all children to be able to utilize the playgrounds I fully agree we need to move away from that the question is have we moved away from that with the playgrounds that have been articulated in this report I believe we have yes ma'am that's why we've picked off we can't do more than that each year but I believe that's what we've picked off yes that's correct the school age based replacements and the ada upgrades that's now all coming out of our central budget so it's not school or pta funded and then i want to point out in addition to that we did receive a 2.4 million dollar grant to install the early childhood

[02:29:23] education playground so as part of the friday letter i'm going to be sharing the distinction between the two in which schools we are either recently completed or have projects in the books right now okay thank you another area that you talked about was custodial cleaning ensuring that there's sufficient staffing when does that come on board for example just as high school had the addition open in august did they get increased custodial support in august yes they actually get the final increase in square footage in the first year of construction so they actually get it ahead

[02:30:02] of time so say falls church where we're continuously every year giving a little bit more a little bit more we know things flex and change so we try to be conservative and give that final amount in the first year is that new because typically it followed a cycle that seemed to be a little bit delayed i'm not recalling when we made that switch but i do know that's the current practice okay thank you elevators it has to be on my list because the new elevator at justice is broken down the elevator Annandale High School just is out not just often but for very long periods of time

[02:30:40] you talked a little bit here in terms of the code of regarding elevators what does it say regarding elevator availability like what's a stretch before it becomes out of compliance when an elevator is not available when breaks occur that we can still consider the building compliant the code does allow for that and we work with schools to try to make accommodations the best we can. I can add in addition to what's in the report, we do recognize that elevators are a problem. It's honestly a national problem right now trying to find this particular

[02:31:17] trade and skill. It's very difficult to find vendor availability. One of the things that we're doing in addition to that modernization program that Dr. Reed talked about is we're trying to expand our pool right now. We actually have in procurement writing a national contract to bring in another national vendor to support the two vendors that we currently have that we're riding with the county so we're really excited about sharing the load getting more resources we're also in the process of putting out an rfp so that we could even potentially attract local elevator vendors we really need to have more tools in our tool belt and i think we're making great steps towards that

[02:31:53] the other thing is as dr reed mentioned the modernization program it's basically replacing a majority of the parts because we're really tight up against a very short summer window so we can't replace it all together but we do the vast majority of the parts and pieces so it's got a lot much longer life to it and we work to maximize those precious six weeks to the best we can it replacing as many components as we can we did six this past year and we pushed hard you know every night and weekend to get those six done we're gonna try a stretch goal to do eight this year so we're

[02:32:31] excited to keep the program going and actually do more and potentially if we get more vendors on i could see that number increasing in the future do i hear a possibility of an elevator um academy absolutely repair you would just i i it just seems to like we have to grow our own and there's a need and if we could fill that niche that would be great um on page 14 you talked a lot about the the work orders that are completed, but I am a little unsure on how to utilize this.

[02:33:01] And I appreciate the four different categories. Are we looking to decrease these work orders? What are we looking for? Or is it the number of work orders that have been submitted versus completed? It just seems to be like I need a little bit more context.

[02:33:16] So I think we were trying to give you a summary. One of the things that has been requested is more data, right, over time. I think the data point that we're most interested in is the time to fill, right? Like, are we completing work orders?

[02:33:31] Because there was such a large backlog, and I think Ms. Szymanski's team has really worked hard to clean up, clean through, and address a significant number of topics, and to give you as a board sort of an idea within those buckets where's most of our time being spent work order-wise.

[02:33:53] but Ms. Szymanski, do you want to add anything to that? - Sure, the about 100,000 number is the number that we've completed. And I think it just shows good context that we produce a high volume of work every day. So we thought that data point was very important.

[02:34:10] I do agree with your point and Dr. Reed's point, we need to dig into that time to completion. I do think it's important to keep in mind those four distinct buckets, because as the backlog grows, you'll find that that preventative maintenance backlog grows and grows at a higher rate than, say, the emergency or the very serious categories as we have to divert resources to fixing emergent needs.

[02:34:35] No, absolutely. So can you say that out of the 99,000 work orders that are submitted? I'm sorry, that are completed. How many have been submitted? I DON'T HAVE THAT NUMBER AND I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE IT AGAIN WITH THE CAVEAT I WOULD LIKE TO BREAK IT DOWN BY THE CATEGORY BECAUSE WE ARE DEFINITELY WORKING ON KEEPING THAT NUMBER OF DAYS AS TIGHT AS POSSIBLE IN THAT SERIOUS CATEGORY AND EMERGENCY CATEGORY.

[02:34:59] SURE. THANK YOU. YOU KNOW TYPICALLY I'M NOT THIS TORN IN TERMS OF HOW TO EVALUATE THESE ASSESSMENTS BUT I AM ON THIS ONE.

[02:35:06] Oh, that was my time. Yes, thank you very much. If I could have a go back, please. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one quick question related to community use. I don't know whether this goes to you or Mr. Muick, but you probably will remember that a number of months ago, there was a meeting with a couple of county supervisors, representatives from community organizations where concerns and questions came up related to our cancellation of affairs and

[02:35:44] gymnasium and facilities without adequate advanced notices how is that being handled or I mean I didn't believe there was the case but could you could you tell us where we sure and we could also provide significant data mr. moon I think that the actual data on the number of cancellations was very small and the timing I know that we've put in some systems excuse me mr. muick yes ma'am

[02:36:19] mr. Boone we at the beginning of the school year we implemented a policy where any cancellation by the school on an already reserved community use time within 15 days of that scheduled event required acknowledgement and approval by a regional assistant superintendent or an executive principal and that has significantly addressed the situation of those last-minute cancellations because they're able to figure out workarounds how to share the space better how to maybe adjust the school meeting I mean there still are some things that come

[02:36:57] through at the last minute that a school couldn't foresee you know orchestra recital and the teacher gets sick and they have to reschedule that a couple days later there's certain things that we all know we can't avoid but that 15 day policy has really had a positive impact has that information be provided community organizations and county supervisors we well we provide it to the neighborhood NCS the county our county partner who works for them but where they share it within their organization I'm not sure okay could you just find out whether that's been that has gone out all the way to the community

[02:37:37] organizations because yes sir you know we've been you know this lady and I've I've been getting some emails because we are the ones who were invited to this meeting previously that they were trying to schedule follow-up meeting but due to the conflict and schedule we have not been able to have this meeting but at least you know if we can provide the additional information the follow-up meeting might not be necessary.

[02:38:03] Well and I'll make sure we provide the information in the upcoming Friday letter as well so you have that and we'll I'll make sure Mr. Hill has it. Okay thank you. You bet.

[02:38:14] Thank you, Mr. Moon. Miss Marin. Yeah, just for a moment, getting back to the JET goals and directives. And again, this area of the county and school partnership, I just do think, again, it's really important. You know, the JET is the joint sustainability goals. And so, you know, does the county claim our success and sustainability or also our yet to be achieved progress? I just, you know, this siloed bifurcated effort to achieve sustainability in the same soil and air you know we should be way better connected so I would love for us as a

[02:38:52] board to figure out how to do that and as executives for our superintendent and county executive to really work at being more intertwined to my colleagues I just want to share a few things so regarding Dominion and the solar panel issues I know that we are not alone in these challenges and there are other school boards and school divisions in our northeastern region who are facing these and this is certainly something that we could do more of to advocate to make sure that we're getting the best service from dominion i also think uh colleagues you know we can do more to be the ambassadors about our facilities and what we need you know the communications as part of

[02:39:29] you know what we talk about also part of whatever handouts you know i'm thinking i see a lot of things about our services and our people and our programming but like what about where we're all doing this i also you know colleagues just as a reminder we have a plethora of policies that were identified and last year's CIP that are all interconnected and some of them are ripe for review and so that's something that we really need to look at if we want to mitigate some of these problems including you know how playgrounds are funded because I could tell you I have PTAs who have fundraised 50 grand for playgrounds and I'm always pleased when we approve one here at the board table but no one can tell me well why did one PTA have

[02:40:08] to raise that money so I know it's being worked on but like these kinds of things won't languish in the future if we codify stuff in policy and finally I think you know if we want to make a difference in the status of our learning and athletics facilities our sustainability goals and our transportation modes we have to dedicate more time as a board to these topics so really I ask that we consider having regular sessions dedicated to all of these these topics again this is double the amount of our operating budget and we really only talk about it you know once a year so again eager for Tuesday's work session I know our chair vice chair and superintendent are working already on a follow-up but like let's think of the whole year you know in our

[02:40:48] annual calendar for because this will be a legacy if we can really improve this that's your time thank you Ms. Marin so we have a request for a second go back which would require unanimous consent to suspend the normal order per Roberts rules so do we have unanimous consent any objections to another go back Dr. Anderson and I'll try to be as fast as possible I was just sharing kind of some of the concerns that that I had that I did not yet get to because I wanted to make sure

[02:41:27] that I receive all the information the traveling to and fro to and from school and having the safety I think my colleague talked about the middle school time having that language does not help particularly because I represent the three middle schools where there's a longer relationship so it very much sits in the mason district and also we talked about how there's 27 double back buses in the division and of two of my middle schools each of them has about four or five that's 10 in the mason district that's kind of a lot and can you speak to that a little bit mr um muick in terms of

[02:42:05] why we have right glasgow has a number of double back buses and so does homes and i know those have been major issues because what is happening is those kids are not getting the access to the breakfast because they're not there on time and if we have two schools with such high numbers that's pretty much disproportionate you know i looked into it when you had mentioned it a couple weeks ago and i just don't have my notes handy i can get an answer for that for a friday letter thank you and the last thing that i want to share is the salad bar you know i pulled the picture that i shared with you not too long ago it has tomatoes lettuce carrots cucumbers that's it those

[02:42:43] are not the salad bars that we visited when peas and carrots were at Wayanoke and I'm seeing this regarding you know throughout all the schools is this something that is dependent on where you are that you have more I'd like to think it isn't but that's the reality that I'm seeing in my schools so those are concerns and I'm still continuing to hear from our local um our local organizations regarding the cancellations I compared last year's report to this year's report I'm not seeing that the number has changed the percentage is the same but that still represents thousands and thousands

[02:43:20] of cancellations which has been quite an issue in our community and I do bring the mason district lens into all of this work and if I'm also looking at facilities you know park lawn is exploding with Trailers it makes it really hard for me to to vote this and compliance even though I see a lot of things that are good and that are happening But I also see a lot of things that are very much pressing and not the forefront of my community Thank You dr. Anderson call mr. McDaniel for a motion I move that the school board finds the superintendent is in compliance executive limitation 11 facilities and transportation

[02:43:57] I further move the school board approve the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limitation 11 facilities and transportation is outlined in the strategic governance manual is there a second second miss Sizemore Heiser mr. McDaniel would you like to speak to your motion briefly I when I was working on my masters I took a course in local government I remember that the professor an interesting take on how local government works he said when you wake up in the morning and turn on your water faucet and water comes out for the thousandth time you don't really notice anything different but as our friends in Richmond, unfortunately, you're figuring out that one time you wake up and turn your faucet on and

[02:44:36] nothing comes out, you get really ticked off and you run to your local government. I kind of view this limitation in that way. When the bus shows up on time, it's just a matter of normal course. When the meals are nutritious, it's just a matter of normal course of what we do. When we manage 28 million square feet with $8 per square foot, it's just what the public expects us to do. So this limitation isn't, you know, in my view going to result in the public running and giving us great reviews. It's what we have come to expect of the school system.

[02:45:09] And it is remarkable how we deliver consistently efficient operations, managing eight and a half billion dollars of real estate assets on a glorified shoestring of a budget. So I'm happy to move this forward and support this motion.

[02:45:25] Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Ms. Sizemore, how would you like to speak to your second? I agree with what my colleague said. Just briefly wanted to add that I think what you've been able to do and what your staff has been able to do with the funding that we have for facilities and some of the innovations that you've been able to put in place, you know, room for improvement, absolutely, elevators, putting that in the air, but in general, I'm very impressed with where we started and where we've come with facilities and um i look forward to more good work so i'm happy to support thank

[02:45:59] you miss sizemore hyzer i will call for a vote for the motion on the screen all those in favor miss marron mr mckelveen mr mcdaniel miss anderson miss sizemore hyzer mr dunn mr moon miss st john cunning miss dixit and i don't see miss lady on the screen miss lady would you like to verbalize your vote you might be away from and myself all those opposed dr anderson abstentions

[02:46:32] with miss lady away from the table will the clerk read the vote 10-1 the motion carries thank you we will skip this short recess and dive right into agenda item 7.01 policy review facilities and transportation el 11. the next order of business is the policy review of el 11 facilities and transportation annually the board will review each executive limitation at the time of the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed board members may offer amendments to executive limitations at any regular meeting provided they send final amendment language the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at which it is to be

[02:47:12] considered at this time no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting but board members may provide comments on el 11 facilities and transportations the policy before we go on to a vote seeing no comments i call on mr mcdaniel for a motion i move that the school board maintains executive limitation 11 facilities and transportation as it is currently detailed in the strategic governance manual is there a second second besides more hyzer all those in favor miss marron mr mckelbein dr anderson mr mcdaniel miss anderson miss st john cunning mr dunn mr moon miss st john

[02:47:48] cunning miss dixit and myself what did i say we have two st john cunning's believe it or not miss sizemarheiser is in the affirmative as well uh any opposed abstentions with miss lady away from the table that is unanimous did you also mention miss dixit i didn't i did thank you i'm sorry you didn't hear me it's mislady i'm an affirmative okay so that is unanimous thank you agenda excuse me agenda item 8.01 academic matters this has been postponed until

[02:48:26] the next regular meeting agenda item 9 consent agenda are adopted rules of parliamentary procedure roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda is on the screen is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item 10 new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but

[02:49:03] action is scheduled for a future meeting agenda item 11 superintendent matters this item has been postponed until the next regular meeting agenda item 12 board matters without objection i move that we postpone board matters until the next regular meeting and with that at 9 48 p.m this meeting is adjourned please get home safely everyone

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