Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, February 6, 2025

Date: Thursday, February 6, 2025
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 3h 28m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uKkmEEH_iw
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 2026-10-30. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:12] members please return to your seats this february 6 2025 regular meeting of the fairfax county

[00:02:10] school board will now come to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence for the devastating loss of life and last week's heartbreaking aviation tragedy at washington national airport including three fcps students and seven fcps parents our board joins the community in grieving and extends its deepest condolences to the families friends

[00:02:29] in school communities of those lost. I pledge allegiance. Can we hear another round of applause

[00:05:23] for the Wakefield Forest Elementary School the advanced sixth grade strings under the direction of Mary Lubinsky and a performance we will now have a performance of Lift Every Voice and Sing

[00:05:39] by Saria Manson from Woodson High School. Can we hear another round of applause for Saria and

[00:07:38] whoever that was playing the guitar with her and Principal Greta. Thank you all right the Fairfax county school board remains steadfast in our commitment to ensuring every child receives a world-class education in a safe welcoming and inclusive environment we will uphold our policy supporting educational equity and championing the success of all students including those receiving special education services immigrant students and their families students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds lgbtqia plus students and other historically marginalized communities

[00:08:14] our work is guided by the belief that every child deserves access to an exceptional education with with the resources and opportunities they need to thrive. We will continue to stand by our students, families and staff ensuring that Fairfax County Public Schools remains a place where all feel valued and supported and every learner is empowered to achieve their full potential.

[00:08:32] Before we begin tonight's meeting, I would like to recognize former at-large school board member Mark Emery, who joined us earlier this evening for the VHSL recognition and former Mason District School Board member Sandy Evans, who has joined us this evening as well. Agenda item 2.02 announcements.

[00:08:52] Mr. McDaniel has submitted a written request to attend tonight's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict as he has a work conflict. He is located in the DR. All those in favor of approving Mr. McDaniel's request, Ms. Marin, Ms. Dixit, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Seismar Heiser, Mr. Moon, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, and myself. That's unanimous for board members present. Mr. McDaniel, can you try your microphone and camera? We'll try him when he's back when he's on. If you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda please see the back

[00:09:29] 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 slash board docs. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on YouTube and our website fcps.edu slash live stream. Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on YouTube at youtube.com slash the at symbol FCPS and Espanol.

[00:09:58] Agenda Item 3.03, Black History Month Proclamation. I call on Ms. Seismar-Hyser for the proclamation. Whereas the month of February is the time that we, as a nation, recognize and celebrate the historic and continual efforts of black Americans in improving our society through Black History Month.

[00:10:15] This observance, originally commemorated as, quote, Negro History Week, was created by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a renowned scholar and journalist in 1926 and gradually expanded to a month-long observation and whereas the 2025 theme quote african americans and labor quote focuses on the various and profound ways that work of all kinds free and enslaved skilled and unskilled vocational and technical intersect with the collective experiences of black people and sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of

[00:10:52] of this work to the United States and across the globe; and whereas the first Africans arrived on the shores of Virginia 400 years ago, bringing skills, knowledge, and traditions that have created a lasting culture impacting our communities that continue to be reflected in daily life; and whereas the contributions of African Americans to the labor force include Richard Spikes, an inventor with more than a dozen patents, including the automatic gear shift, the automatic safety brake system, an automatic car washer and automatic directional signals, Alexander Miles who invented an elevator that was able to open and close its own doors

[00:11:31] and the elevator shaft doors, Dr. Charles Drew, a pioneer in blood transfusions and storage whose work transformed the field of medicine and saved the lives of many during World War II, Frederick Jones, an inventor who revolutionized the food industry with his invention of the the refrigerated truck, and Madam C.J. Walker, an inventor of hair care products who became the first female self-made millionaire in America, and whereas Black Americans resisted historic and ongoing oppression in all forms since the nation's earliest days and contributed

[00:12:06] to the founding and development of this nation and recognize the importance of teaching this rich, impactful history to all students to create an inclusive and equitable county for all. And whereas the labor of these African descent contributed to the development of the rich and vibrant culture of Virginia, including Gladys West, a mathematician who contributed to the development of the global positioning system, GPS, Maggie L. Walker, a businesswoman and teacher who was both the first African-American woman to charter a bank and the first African-American woman to serve as bank president, and Benjamin F.

[00:12:44] Hicks, an inventor who was the first to patent the gasoline-powered peanut picker. Therefore now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board officially recognizes and hereby proclaims February as Black History Month an appreciation for the contributions of great Americans who have worked tirelessly and often without recognition or compensation for the advancement of Fairfax County, Virginia, and the United States. We We encourage the celebration of the collective ingenuity, creativity, cultures, and traditions of black Americans, and encourage participation in educational events honoring the contribution of black Americans.

[00:13:23] Is there a second? I second. Ms. St. John Cunning. All those in favor? Ms. Marin, Ms. Dixit, Mr. McIlvain, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunning, Mr. Moon, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, myself, is Mr. McDaniel with us?

[00:13:40] Okay, we'll try him when he's back. is unanimous for board members present agenda item the motion passes agenda item 3.04 career and technical education disability employment and adult and community education appreciation month proclamation I call on Dr. Anderson for a proclamation whereas the celebration of career and technical education CTE disability employment and adult community education ACE appreciation month recognizes these exemplary Fairfax County public school programs and And whereas, FCPS offers a vast selection of CTE programs that give our students invaluable

[00:14:18] opportunities to explore and learn about a career they may wish to pursue in the future. During the school year 24-25, FCPS offered 170 CTE courses in Business Education and Information Technology, Family and Consumer Science, Health and Medical, JROTC, Marketing, technology and engineering education as well as trade and industry and these classes equipped

[00:14:53] over 65 000 students with the knowledge and skills needed to prepare for the workforce military continuing education and or success in a competitive global economy and whereas our division celebrates the many contributions of people with disabilities in america's workplaces and economy, and recognizes the value people with disabilities bring to the workplace as evidence in a recent study that showed that a disability-friendly organization are 25% more likely to outperform their organizational peers on productivity, and whereas the Davis

[00:15:31] and Pulley Career Centers and other FCPS programs help students with disabilities transition to life after high school through work experiences provided by the local by the local Northern Virginia business community and by providing workplace readiness and independent living training fostering self-advocacy and self-determination and increasing the soft skills needed to succeed in the workplace.

[00:15:58] And whereas the ACE program began with an action by the school board in 1955 and it's celebrating its 70th year as thousands of adults have learned essential skills. In addition, the Fairfax County Adult High School has given adults the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, certification of high school equivalency through the GED program, and the chance to enroll in individual courses and certificate programs, including adult ESOL, business, information technology, health and medical, trade and industrial, culinary arts, and world languages.

[00:16:39] FCPS's ACE programs complement the Virginia Apprenticeship Program by offering apprenticeship classes in electricity, HVAC, and plumbing, and provide career exploration in the trades or cross-training with related tasks.

[00:16:55] And whereas, FCPS honors the achievement of our students, staff, and programs, including Edison Academy's Electrical Engineering Program, honored with the VDOE CTE Creating Excellence Award for Program of the Year in Region 4.

[00:17:16] Kathleen Fugel, Sleepy Hollow Elementary, honored as the Virginia Department of Education Computer Science Educator of the Year.

[00:17:31] Kim Gadson, Twain Middle School, honored as the Middle School Teacher of the Year by the Virginia Technology and Engineering Association.

[00:17:48] Reggie Marone, recognized as the Administrator of the Year by the Virginia Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Association, and the Foundation for Applied Technical Education, FATE, honored with the VDOE CTE Creating Excellence Award for Business and Industry Partnerships for Region 4 and Virginia.

[00:18:17] Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims February 2025 as Career and Technical Education, Disability Employment, and Adult and Continuing Education Appreciation Month, and commend these programs' pivotal roles in providing our students, young and adult, the opportunities to acquire job skills, transition to new careers, have equitable access to societal resources and grow as responsible and ethical workers and citizens. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Moon. All those in favor, Ms. Marin, Ms.

[00:18:57] Dixon, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Mr. Moon, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, and myself. That's unanimous for board members present. The motion passes. Congratulations. Agenda item 3.05, Sleepy Hollow Elementary School's 17th anniversary proclamation. I call on Dr. Anderson for a proclamation. Hello again. Whereas Sleepy Hollow Elementary School first opened its doors on

[00:19:30] September 1st, 1954 on the former site of Fort Buffalo, one of several forts of the Seven Corners area used during the Civil War, the school was built at the cost of $391,063. We would love those.

[00:19:51] Those are good dollars. We could build nine schools in a week. At a time when the total number of students enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools was 28,700. And whereas Sleepy Hollow Elementary School students and families represent 15 countries and speak 17 different languages, with an additional eight languages spoken by the school staff, creating a cosmopolitan learning

[00:20:24] environment where multiculturalism is celebrated through various programs. Sleepy Hollow holds the distinction for being one of the first FCPS schools to host an annual family heritage celebration with its international night becoming a beloved tradition. And whereas Sleepy Hollow Elementary Elementary School has been one of two elementary schools in FCPS designated to pilot foreign language instruction in 1957, which continues to this day as the Foreign Language Elementary

[00:21:00] School or FLESS program, engaging students in developing proficiency. And whereas Sleepy Hollow provides a rigorous and engaging curriculum to meet the academic and social needs of all learners in addition to opportunities such as Math and Science Olympiad, an outdoor garden, a student ambassador program, and is designated as an AVID Elementary School, equipping students with tools for academic success such as organizational skills, goal-setting, and perseverance. And whereas Sleepy Hollow Elementary School is proud of its educators, boasting on its roster the 2024 Virginia Computer Science Educator of the Year, reflecting the school's dedication to

[00:21:37] excellence in teaching. And whereas Sleepy Hollow Elementary has built strong and enduring partnerships with parents, families, and caregivers in the broader community fostering a collaborative spirit that enhances the overall educational experience and fosters the nurturing and welcoming institution it is today. Now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board honors Sleepy Hollow Elementary School on the occasion of its 70th anniversary of providing educational excellence and enrichment opportunities to students and

[00:22:12] the community. Is there a second? Second. Mr. McElveen, all those in favor? Ms. Marin, Ms. Dixit, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Seismarheiser, Mr. Moon, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunningham, and myself. That is unanimous for board members present.

[00:22:28] Mr. McDaniel is now on line. Mr. McDaniel, how do you vote? I vote aye. Unanimous for all board members present. The motion carries.

[00:22:47] We will begin with photos, we'll say, of the Sleepy Hollow Elementary School 70th anniversary. Great. And the clerks will call the rest as we go.

[00:22:57] The board would like to invite those here present for the Career and Technical Education, Disability Employment, and Adult and Community Education Appreciation Month Proclamation to please join the board for a photo up front.

[00:26:32] The board would like to invite those here in honor of the Black History Month Proclamation to please join the board for a photo up front.

[00:29:02] All right. Agenda Item 4.01, Community Participation.

[00:29:39] The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at School Board regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the School Board website at fcps.edu/schoolboard.

[00:29:55] During the signup process, community members acknowledged they were informed of the School Board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room. We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks.

[00:30:16] audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats including when recording video or taking photos we are grateful to those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not responding madam clerk please call the first speaker Owen Powell good evening my name is Owen Powell I'm a seventh

[00:30:52] grader at Glasgow middle school I'm here to talk about healthy school start times because it directly impacts me as well as my friends and peers the American Academy of Pediatricians recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to align with teenagers natural sleep cycles. I know you already heard all of the benefits of doing this, so I want to take this time to tell you about my own experience. Glasgow Middle School is one of the three middle schools in Fairfax County that starts in sixth grade. I went

[00:31:30] to Belvedere Elementary School, so let me tell you it was quite a shock to my system from going to a 9:20 a.m. start time to a 7:30 a.m. start time. I would wake up at 5:50 a.m. to catch my bus at 6:30 a.m. The half mile walk wasn't too bad when it was light but when the time changed I was walking in the dark to my bus stop. I'm comfortable with the darkness now but when I was 11 I was a little nervous walking the pitch-black wooded area. You never know what could be hiding in there. When I finally get on the school bus everyone is tired and quiet. Some people even have their eyes closed and heads resting on the windows.

[00:32:10] I know it doesn't take a genius to realize that going from this state to your first class is not conducive to learning. I'm more than halfway through middle school but I think about my two little brothers and want them to get the benefits of extra sleep. I hope you look at me and my peers and believe that we deserve healthier school start times and will allow us to maximize our

[00:32:33] potential at school. Thank you for your time and consideration. Anjali Seuss. Good evening Chairman Frisch, school board members. My name is Anjali Seuss. I'm a parent, local family physician, and today representing the Pine Ridge Neighborhood Civic Association. Extraction of the Pine Ridge neighborhood

[00:33:10] from its current assignment to the Mantua-Cross-Woodson Triad would unravel a foundation fostered by the school board over years in lieu of alternatives which are in line with the published county boundary revision plan objectives.

[00:33:27] Examples of these alternative solutions including programming redistribution, such as creation of AAP core centers in neighborhood schools rather than busing students to Mantua, as well as placing students from new unassigned residential developments into existing under capacity schools.

[00:33:48] The Pine Ridge neighborhood school network is unique in that both in-school programs as well as after-school activities, i.e. swim team, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts are delivered jointly with the abutting neighborhood of Mantua, so the disruptive impact of a move would be magnified by significantly severing these valuable connective relationships.

[00:34:09] In conclusion, the Pine Ridge neighborhood residents appreciate your recognition of the overwhelming negative consequence of a reassignment and hope that your decisions support a platform which avoids dismantling a foundation built over years and very difficult to

[00:34:30] restore again. Karen Barajas-Pow. Good evening. I am here to request that you consider making healthy start times a priority for our middle schools. As a few other parents and students have already stated, the American Academy of Pediatrics published this position stating that teens greatly benefited from a school

[00:35:09] start time of no earlier than 8:30 a.m. They demonstrated increased academic performance, better attendance, and better mental health. All of these are goals which FCPS strives to attain for all students. I understand that the school board must balance numerous considerations and that it may seem more efficient to pair boundary changes with middle school start times. But this isn't just about work efficiency. These are boys and girls at our schools. Time does not stop for them while early middle school start times are in place. They They lose the benefits of the extra sleep in a critical time of their growth.

[00:35:48] The reality is that boundary work will take years to accomplish and in the meantime, our children are growing and moving through their school system. I have three sons, 13 years old, 10 and 5. My oldest son started middle school in 6th grade, at 11 years old waking up at 5:50 AM to get ready for school.

[00:36:08] The reality is that he will no longer benefit from the changing middle school start times. But I'm hoping that my middle son and others like him who started Glasgow this fall can have that benefit. I understand that there are many factors at play and cost is a huge one.

[00:36:25] Perhaps a pilot program for middle schools that started in 6th grade could be considered to begin with until the later start times can be applied to other middle schools. I just urge you to fully consider all options, to consider the recommendations from the consultant you hired, Consider the parents in the community advocating for healthier start times.

[00:36:46] But above all, consider the students currently at the middle schools. Thank you for your time. Sandy Evans. Good evening.

[00:37:04] I'm Sandy Evans, and I'm happy to be back with you again to continue my 20-year advocacy for later start times for middle school students and high school students. As co-founder of SLEEP in Fairfax, SLEEP appreciates the board leadership that has gotten us this far as far as toward the goal of healthy start times for middle school students, but we're now calling on you to take action and make a decision. In December, you received five options from your consultant, but there's been no public follow-up. We would like to see a public discussion

[00:37:39] of these options and get your opinion on them and ask you to pick an option and get the staff working on a transition so our young teens can get relief as soon as possible. As we know from past efforts this will not happen without board direction and determination and clear communication from the superintendent about the importance of this change the options are cost-effective options b and c meet pediatrician recommended start times after 8 30 a.m for teens while keeping

[00:38:17] elementary school start times reasonable option a comes close to recommended times you can probably eliminate option e the so-called slide this approach has been considered and rejected time and time again for about 20 years it is is geared to changing elementary school times to much much later and upsetting parents it's not well aligned with team or with young child biology so we ask you please consider the pros and cons of each of the options use a problem solving

[00:38:53] approach, look at issues as they arrive, solve those problems, get whatever feedback you need, and then make a decision. At the very least, the board and the superintendent should make Annalise D'Andre. Dr. Reed, members of the board, I'm a mom of two amazing kids in Fairfax County

[00:39:29] Public Schools, but the reason why I'm here today to talk to you about middle school start times is because I'm a pediatrician. I've worked in our community for over 20 years taking care of hospitalized children, and that's the point of view I'd really like to emphasize to you. Not Not only am I a pediatrician, I've been a member of the aforementioned American Academy of Pediatrics that has done all the hard work for you.

[00:39:51] This is a no-brainer, as my son would say, and evidence is crystal clear. Schools should not start for adolescents before 8:30 a.m. Crystal Claire. I'm not going to rehash all of that with you.

[00:40:07] What I am going to tell you is that we voted for you. We entrusted you to take the best interest of our children in hand when you make these decisions. one decision that takes their best interest into hand and that is not starting school time before 8:30 for adolescent children. I've, as I said, worked for hospitalized children for almost 20 years in our community. In the last 10 years I have not worked a single shift without taking care of a child or multiple children who have tried to harm themselves. Not a

[00:40:45] single shift here in the last 10 years. I really want to drive that home to you because we know that sleep is foundational for mental health foundational when you hospitalize a kid whether it's an intensive outpatient program a partial hospitalization program a residential program you name it the first thing we do is address their sleep it is so important and for you too it's so important I implore you to consider this mental health crisis in our

[00:41:20] community when you make this decision for our children it's not about dollars it's about our children's lives. Leah Richardson. Good evening. My name is Leah Richardson. I'm a Fairfax County parent and I'm the president of the Sleepy Hollow Elementary School PTA and I ask you tonight board members to please move forward as planned to implement a later start time no earlier than

[00:41:55] 8 30 in the morning for our middle school students in the fall of 2025. I ask that you keep the middle school start time change separate from the comprehensive boundary study. To couple these two things would add years to something we have already waited ten years to see.

[00:42:11] Please do not let perfection be the enemy of the good. The arguments about childcare and multiple disruptions to students are not compelling enough reasons to continue to sacrifice the health of a significant population of students. Our middle school students matter. Further, change is the norm in K through 12 education. Our children are always facing a change every single year.

[00:42:33] Parents will always have to deal with childcare and schedule changes regardless. I strongly encourage the Board to not let the edge cases and anecdotes that are not supported by the data distract you from the decades of science and demands from students, parents, and community organizations for healthy start times.

[00:42:50] Our students' health and well-being is the priority, and to delay further would be shameful for what it says about the will and the ability of the adults in power to take our students' health seriously. The consultants that the taxpayers have paid for have given you a range of options.

[00:43:08] where there's certainly one that will work for all students the community has done their job by participating and now I'm asking you to find the moral courage to finish the job even if it's hard and I know it is you have the power and the support to take action now and this is a win to do something that will have a material and positive impact but to not act will only increase the apathy and cynicism among the community that they have about our FCPS leaders the people who elected you to these seats want you to act if this change is delayed it will further erode the trust that the citizens of Fairfax County have in their elected leaders. Doing nothing on this issue is frankly not an option. Thank

[00:43:44] you. Julie Hendricks. Hi good evening my name is Julie Hendricks and I am the parent of two children at Sleepy Hollow Elementary including a rising sixth grader. I'm here to urge urge the board to move forward with moving the middle school start times to support student physical health, social and emotional well-being and academic success. We all know the recommendations we've heard them tonight that middle school should not start before 8 30. Fairfax County made

[00:44:22] the right choice for high school in 2015 proving it can be done successfully and quickly changed to a norm I want to thank our Mason District Supervisor Dr. Riccardi Anderson for being so communicative during this process giving regular updates about the status of the contracted evaluation that yes we taxpayers paid for and also the community input that's come through this process we have seen the many feasible options and i appreciate that changing school start times will be temporarily disruptive for families but child care is a challenge no matter what time your kids go to school and i along with the many other families in our community who have been engaged

[00:45:01] in the process for years feel it's worth the growing pains in the initial year to make a move we know will increase our students health please do not let the comprehensive boundary review prevent you from acting we all know it has potential to continue to get delayed and delayed the district has been researching middle school start times for years we have a well thought out and well researched plan to use to move forward i moved here from out of state from a district in california and i am so grateful every day for the emphasis that fairfax county places on social and emotional well-being you do not get that everywhere this could majorly improve

[00:45:39] that for our adolescents. Your community elected you as our school representatives and you all state that you will always do what is best for our students and I ask you to please approve

[00:45:51] changing these start times to do just that. Thank you. Robert Rigby. Good evening. I'm here to talk about adverse childhood experiences especially with respect to immigrant, black, disabled, and

[00:46:29] transgender students. I'm speaking to all FCPS employees, including senior and central staff and student-facing workers. I grew up in Northwest Florida. My high school years were pockmarked by a large-scale public assault by the Ku Klux Klan and the vile campaign in Florida by Anita Bryant in the late 70s that demonized gay people. It was a set of adverse childhood experiences that took me decades to shed but our kids are going through now is worse black students to the code words of CRT immigrant students whose families are being ripped

[00:47:07] away trans students whose existence is being denied and disabled students who are losing services employees must be clear and how much they welcome and respect all students be explicit say the words needed now that black and immigrant and disabled and transgender students are welcome and empowered in your classroom or cafeteria in your gym or on your bus you can interrupt the

[00:47:41] trusting you can interrupt the trauma with welcoming and empowering words and kids will be less heard it fulfills our mission by giving the kids a better chance as learners if you can't welcome and empower try to and keep these children's sake for humanity's sake for God's sake at least do no harm in my neighborhood today near school I saw a yard sign with gross exclusions and slurs about equity immigrants transgender and other LGBTQ people

[00:48:19] community let's just not let that happen Joseph Miller buddy my name is Joe miller i'm a homeowner in the fair lakes area and my kids attend greenbriar east elementary school which is a split feeder they did attend that was the base elementary school and what happens is that it splits off part of some of the kids go to rocky run some of the kids go to katherine johnson

[00:48:58] katherine johnson's a great school the only problem is it's three miles away and we're going three miles away even though the closest middle school rocky run is under capacity AND OUR BASE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IS IN THE CHANTILLY HIGH SCHOOL PYRAMID WHEN WE PURCHASED OUR HOME WE ANTICIPATED THAT ROCKY RUN WAS GOING UNDER RENOVATIONS AND SINCE GREENBRIER EAST WAS IN THE CHANTILLY HIGH SCHOOL PYRAMID ONCE THOSE RENOVATIONS WERE COMPLETED THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD WOULD OPEN THAT SCHOOL UP TO KIDS WHO WERE OSTENSIBLY GOING TO GOING TO CATHERINE JOHNSON

[00:49:37] ostensibly because rocky run was over capacity before the renovation so I just want to encourage the school board to look at these issues in light of the equal protection clause we are similarly situated in all material respect with the subdivision that's adjacent to ours Greenbrier right down to the census block level but for some reason even after rocky run is undergone $50 million renovation it's still sitting there under capacity it's projected to be around I don't know 71% or something like that and Katherine

[00:50:17] Johnson is projected to be at 83% or something along those lines so there's a difference between changing the boundaries and there's a difference between just having current boundaries compliant and even though the revised 8130 doesn't account for correcting discrimination in current school boundaries that doesn't mean that FCPS doesn't have to comply thank you

[00:50:40] Kathleen Mallard Colleen Bucher good evening dr. Reed and FCPS school board members my name is Colleen Bucher and I'm the mother of three Fairfax County public school students a graduating senior at TJ a freshman of justice and 11 year old sixth grader at Glasgow middle school my two older students also attended Glasgow middle school from 6th through 8th grades we've been in the

[00:51:18] school system so long that our new Glasgow principal Lisa Barrow was the principal at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School when my now graduating senior was a kindergartner. Our family has had a kid at Glasgow for six and a half years. The school board was presented last February 2024 with a very detailed timeline for a plan that would help our students get a healthier amount of sleep. In 2015, high school start times changed to eight o'clock or later, a school board goal. With high school change, middle schools moved to a 730 state. The superintendent at the time stated they would push back middle school start times at a later date. Now it's 2025.

[00:51:50] The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schoolers start no earlier than 8.30 a.m. to align with adolescents' natural sleep cycles. The timing for this is now. Tonight, this week, this month. A fall of 2025 implementation is possible if we make a decision, choose a path, and move forward.

[00:52:10] Parents of middle schoolers have waited long enough for this change. In our Mason District community, approximately 3,500 students in our middle schools are subjected to a 7.10 a.m. start time for three years. instead of two years compared to middle schools and other parts of the county. The science is clear.

[00:52:26] Not enough sleep leads to a wide variety of unhealthy outcomes, including poor attention span and ability to learn. Parents of middle schoolers have waited long enough for the change. Fairfax County Public Schools needs to do what it says it's going to do. Thank you.

[00:52:45] - Please play the video testimony by Jenna White. - I last spoke on the urgency of implementing healthy middle school start times at the December 16th meeting.

[00:53:02] Since then, I've conducted media outreach, community outreach, and launched a popular petition. People ask me why I'm doing all this since my students are older and won't benefit. As a longtime follower, supporter, and campaigner for school board members, I'm disappointed in how this has been handled.

[00:53:18] We haven't heard any valid reasons why you suddenly want to pair the boundary work with the start times. What little we've heard are excuses like, it's too late, and we don't want people to change twice. First, it isn't too late to get this back on schedule. If it is too late, it's only because you made it so.

[00:53:35] Your constituents keep telling you we don't want to wait for the boundary work. The boundary work is complicated, and it can be difficult to stick to your proposed timeline. You have also said it might be done in phases, so how does it make sense to pair phased work that hasn't determined the who, the when, and the how yet with middle school start times?

[00:53:54] There's much to be determined about boundaries and too much risk of further and further delay with middle school start times, so don't pair the two. Changing schools will happen for many families by the time the boundary work starts to be implemented. due to their age or changing for programs and services or any other reasons.

[00:54:11] So that excuse also doesn't hold up. And for others, they'll want to change twice because of the benefits. So I'm left thinking you just don't want to do it. Despite your constituents pleading with you to do so, people ask me all the time, what's happening with the school board? I voted in the primaries.

[00:54:28] I campaigned for all of you. When people ask me why start times have been delayed, it looks like my only answer will have to be If they don't want to tackle an issue, they won't do it, despite what the constituents who elected you are saying.

[00:54:44] As the community awareness continues to grow, I think you will find the constituents' disappointment and the consequences that go with that disappointment to be deep and lasting. Chair Fish, that was our last public speaker.

[00:55:01] Thank you. Agenda Item 5.01, Student Representative Matters. I call on Student Representative Ms. Sawant. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are so many things to celebrate tonight and many, many things to honor. First, a huge congrats to our Virginia High School League athletic and academic teams recognized earlier tonight, as well as our orchestras, bands, and middle school sports.

[00:55:24] February is a month filled with so many meaningful recognitions, starting with Black History Month. Across our schools, students and staff are celebrating in many different ways, whether it's morning announcements, painting the school rock, weekly features, or the kickoff celebration at Woodson last night, and many more.

[00:55:40] These initiatives highlight the incredible contributions of Black Americans and allow students to engage in learning this month that both inspires and honors. What with it also being CTE, Disability Employment, and Adult Community Education Month, I also want to touch on how important these groups are along with our general high school experience. One of the things that makes FCPS truly special is not just our rigorous academics but also the hands-on career learning opportunities that students have through our Academy programs. From CTE courses, as mentioned tonight, from Technology Education, Health and Medical Sciences, Junior ROTC, and more, these are the skills that students will need in

[00:56:16] the real world. And so along with that I also just wanted to mention that it is competition season for all of our CTSOs, TSA, DECA, FBLA, HOSA, SkillsUSA, so I'm wishing all of these students the best of luck. But behind every CTSO is also a dedicated CTE advisor, not just guiding students in the classroom or preparing them for competition, but also mentoring them and being a key role with them during those competition weekends. As we continue discussions around the budget, I want to highlight the importance of sustaining and expanding financial support and stipends for CTE advisors and courses, as some of my other board members have expressed in their budget priorities survey. And finally,

[00:56:55] happy National School Counseling Week. Our counselors are superheroes from always being there for students, advising us through course selection, which is going on right now, and just being a figure that we can always look up to. I relied on my counselors so much and I don't know where I would be without her. So to all of our counselors, thank you so much for your dedication, patience and the care that you show every single day. Your work changes lives and we are so grateful for everything you do. Onto updates. Last week I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. King, Ms. Shin and the equity team to discuss the SRNR proposals for the new school year. Through our conversations we realized that it's not only it's important that we don't just see the SRNR as a rule

[00:57:34] book but also something that defines students rights and policies that shape our school experience. I really appreciated the opportunity as well as students to provide feedback through the SR&R survey that went through student emails in January and February. I look forward to continuing to share student perspective on the new SR&R proposal as we discuss them into March. In January I also had the honor of attending the FCPS DIT mid-year conference where I participated in a panel alongside Mr. Sethi, Dr. Reed, Dr. King and FCPS the students that discuss the role of AI in education. One of the key takeaways from our discussion was how AI can be leveraged to support strategic learning

[00:58:13] plans, making education more personalized, but we also must ensure ethical and responsible use, understanding what the limitations of AI may be. Another thing that we talked about is AI literacy for our students. The same way during the pandemic all students and staff learned how to get onto Zoom and use the computer, it's going to be so important, especially for our elementary schoolers and middle schoolers where AI is a huge part of their lives right now to know how to use it correctly and responsibly. A huge thank you to Mr. Sethi, Mr. Simmons, and the entire DIT team for organizing such an amazing event. Briefly, I'd also like to share the questions that our

[00:58:47] Superintendent's Advisory Council is focusing on across the five focus groups on the strategic plan goals with the help of our subject matter experts at our last meeting in January. So I am just going to read the questions from the different goals. For goal one, students are focusing on how we improve literacy rates in elementary schools as well as how we improve the ESOL testing system and experience for those in the program. For goal two, students are focusing on how we improve chronic absenteeism and what some of those markers might mean as well as reducing the rates of disproportionate discipline throughout FCPS. Goal three is focusing on how FCPS can

[00:59:23] support elementary and middle school courses as well as high school course selection as well as how we can support multilingual learners in accessing coursework similar to their general education peers and understanding the differences that might exist throughout different types of courses. Goal four is also focusing on something very similar which is how we support disadvantaged students in extracurricular activities and what kind of statistics can help us with our solutions.

[00:59:47] And finally goal five is focusing on how we effectively communicate resources and information from the college and career center effectively across all high schools. Thank you Dr. Reed for meeting with us at our January meeting and taking the time to answer our questions about these proposals I'm very excited about the direction students will take to present our final proposals in March. Lastly I wanted to present another student opportunity. The FCPS Family Summit is being held on Saturday, March 15th at South County High School where students are invited to showcase their projects and advocacy efforts around inclusivity in schools. So this could be a club that you're part of or a project that you're doing in the community where students can

[01:00:25] earn service hours and share their work with peers and have conversations about about fostering inclusivity in our school communities, which is a central goal of Strategic Plan Goal 2. There is a Google form that you can fill out by February 17th if you or your student club is interested in attending, as well as contact information for more information, which can be found on the Family Summit webpage and in my minutes after this meeting.

[01:00:50] These first couple months of the year are always so busy, but it is so exciting to see the work that our students are doing and where they will be going. Thank you. - Thank you, Ms. Sawant. Before I continue, I would like to acknowledge that we have a couple of our students from the School Board Student Leadership Development Program here with us tonight, including Meera Karnick from Providence District.

[01:01:14] Please stand. There she is. Aria Lee from Sully and Sergio Eskilar from Mason. Mr. Mr. Chair, we also have our student from Hunter Mill, Ms. Wallah over there from Madison High School.

[01:01:45] You'll be seeing more of them around our various meetings. Some of them were at our work session earlier in the week. Thank you for being here, everybody. Agenda item 6.01 action item certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712 D of the code of Virginia.

[01:02:01] It is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on February 6 2025 to the best of each board members knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements and only such business public business matters. as we're identified in the motion convening the clothes were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting.

[01:02:20] Do I have a motion Mr. McElveen second Dr. Anderson all those in favor. Miss Dixit Mr. McElveen Dr. Anderson Miss Anderson Miss Sizemore Heiser Mr. Dunn Mr. Moon Miss Lady Miss St. John Cunning Mr. McDaniel and myself all those opposed abstentions Miss Marin.

[01:02:41] Motion passes agenda item 6.01 action item confirmation of action taken in closed meeting. There were no actions enclosed tonight. Agenda item 6.03 action item proposed financial year 2026 2030 capital improvement program I call on Miss Marin for a motion.

[01:02:58] I move that the school board approve the proposed fiscal year 2026 2030 capital improvement program. Is there a second second. Thank you Miss Marin would you like to speak to your motion. So this is an annual action that the school board takes but it is the one with the most resources attached to it.

[01:03:18] We are approving the five-year program for the maintenance and planning of $8.7 billion in public facility assets. This work is compiled through a lot of data that includes projections of which our office staff have been on target 100% to 105% of the time.

[01:03:42] It is in the CIP that school boundaries fall under. the plans for renovations updating maintenance backlogs potential new schools and how that is all funded or not is in this program it is essential for the board to approve this program because what happens next is that it goes to the county board of supervisors they determine how much funding this program will get it has been 230 million dollars a year and this is one of the reasons why we have a 45-year cycle to renovate our schools. The process is not working. However, we need to

[01:04:21] maintain our buildings because that is where our students learn and our staff work. The discussions about things, including middle school start times, all land in our facilities. Overcrowding, undercrowding, how many students were shepherding from one school to another, what programs are where.

[01:04:39] It's all related to facilities. So the issue here is how are we going to get money to fund our facilities and it starts with this document. I'm eager for the board to work among each other and with the board of supervisors to come up with real solutions because what we're doing cannot continue if we want things like nice new buildings and net zero schools and you know quiet rooms and calm rooms and smaller classrooms and state-of-the-art and you know machines and activities.

[01:05:11] This to me is the most important thing that our board can work on right now because it impacts every single person who is in our school division. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Marin. Mr. McElveen, would you like to speak to your second? I will defer comments to later in the conversation. Thank you.

[01:05:29] Mr. Dunn. I care deeply about the Capital Improvement Program and I view it as one of the most fundamental obligations of the school board because to provide safe and modern classrooms and schools with updated facilities, especially in a county as wealthy as ours, as highly educated as ours is, is fundamental however I will be voting against the capital improvement plan this evening because I view the current plan as irresponsible in light of the presentation we received from

[01:06:08] facilities a couple weeks ago which reflected enormous needs and meager resources and we are operating in accordance with a construction queue, a renovation queue that was established in 2009. We're a very different school system than we were in 2009. At this point we should be looking at available resources and taking a strategic reassessment of how we are spending money so that we can align our spending with what we anticipate from the school boundary review, the priorities that exist within our system, and making sure that we are doing

[01:06:47] our utmost from a system perspective to provide modern, updated classrooms, schools, facilities for every child at every school, no matter where you live and what school you attend. Thank you, Mr. Dunn.

[01:07:04] Ms. Anderson? I just wanted to take a quick second. I would first like to thank staff for the immense amount of work that this takes in order to create this document for us every year and to outline and come up with a plan with the resources we do have available to us. So I think that it's extremely important.

[01:07:21] i am absolutely in support of the work that staff has done i also want to speak to the fact that we have schools that are at the end of the renovation queue that have been there for 27 years and those schools have been waiting just the same amount of time that all the other schools are waiting as well so i absolutely believe that we need to follow through with our commitment to those schools i was part of a school environment that was in the middle of a renovation and i watched what happened in our building where where deferred maintenance was pushed off because the renovation was coming and I know that's likely to be occurring in the 12 schools that are at the end of the list so I absolutely am

[01:08:00] in support of us continuing the work to finalize many of those schools are in my district many of them are in my colleagues from the Sully district and we share a lot of those schools together and it is essential that we continue to make sure that those students also have the opportunity and the privilege of working in the same type of schools that have already been renovated.

[01:08:19] Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Ms. Dixit. I would concur with my colleague, Ms. Anderson, that, you know, we can't be selfish. We have some schools already been designed and built and renovated, and the western side of the county has really old schools still now, and I'll just quote some of them.

[01:08:45] Virginia Run, which is on the queue now, Poplar Tree, Apples Mill, Center Ridge Elementary School, Union Mill, Cub Run, Franklin Middle School, Centerville High School. Most of these schools are old. They're 1980 and before are mostly 1980s.

[01:09:06] Some of the schools are over capacity. Some have a lot of modulars as well. Centerville High School has 22. And I feel it is irresponsible for anyone to make a comment that we should not consider these schools in the queue waiting for so long to get renovated and just start a new queue all over.

[01:09:28] We are respecting the work has been done so far and I would like to continue with this queue till we finish all these schools. Most of them are in a Sully district, so I'm looking out for my students and my constituents. Thank you.

[01:09:45] - Thank you, Ms. Dixit. Ms. Seizmoorheiser. - I just wanted to speak briefly. First, I really want to thank staff, Ms. Saminsky and her staff for all the hard work. And I'm just going to say the hundreds of pages that you've submitted this last year and answers to many of the board follow-on motions as well in addition to the CIP work.

[01:10:06] So just thank you for all the thoughtful answers and exploring many of the different areas we've tried to explore as we've looked for ways and will continue to look for ways to reduce the time for renovation, the cost for renovation and being creative in funding our renovations because we really cannot continue with a 42-year renovation cycle and I know we'll continue to work together.

[01:10:26] So thank you to your staff for all the hard work you've done. I wanted to mention, I also, you know, we've been talking about having to redo a renovation queue or start a new renovation queue for a couple of years now knowing this moment is coming as our previous renovation queue is ending and now starting the work of determining the criteria and how to determine the prioritization in a new queue.

[01:10:47] But that doesn't mean you don't finish the previous queue. Those schools have been waiting for a long time for the renovation, and it's not fair to skip them just because they're at the end. I think we had a queue that was thoughtful and thought out at the time. I think it was around 2008 when we developed it.

[01:11:04] And so we finished through those schools, and then we start anew with our new criteria and the new process. One of the ones that is on towards the end of the queue, which was something that the previous board had actually voted on, it was championed by my former school board vice chair, we served together as chair and vice chair, and my former colleague, Tammy Daronak-Koufax, is the conversion of the Pimmitt Hill Center on the Route 1 corridor for early childhood. And the school board has talked significantly about the importance of early childhood and the data and the research that shows that students who have access to preschool just have better outcomes in reading, in literacy, in graduation rates, and actually probably saves money

[01:11:43] from not having to do as much higher intensity interventions if you can have better access to preschool. So I was very proud to support that motion that we passed to have that already bonded repurposed for early childhood. So I think we need to finish the queue to make sure the schools that have been waiting for many years for renovations get their renovations and we do what we can to push some of these priorities that we know are backed by evidence-based research.

[01:12:07] So thank you again to staff. I'm happy to support this. Thank you, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. Ms. Marin? Yes, I just also wanted to be sure that we're providing context, you know, to the credit again of the staff. Until now, the immensity of the need had not been identified and quantified to the extent that has been presented to the board in just the last few months.

[01:12:31] In the past few months, the board has been educated about essential components that we, the board, must continue to understand in public and discuss and provide directives for. That includes alternative sources of revenue, things like could we have a specific bond just to get through the maintenance, or maybe we want a green bond, or maybe we want a bond for the early child education.

[01:12:51] That has not been discussed. We want to look at public-private partnerships, which is a growing strategy. Alternative ways to conduct renovation. I wasn't aware of swing spaces until that came to the dais where students and staff might only be out of their constructed school for a year instead of what we've been doing and stretching it out numbers of years.

[01:13:11] So a lot of information has come to light that is really exciting, but it's not going to be quick. It's going to take us years to figure out what the new plan is. How are we going to get away from this 45-year cycle to something much less, not to mention the economy, the availability of materials?

[01:13:30] So I really, you know, I really urge my colleagues for us to spend dedicated time this year, the next year, and the next one, three more years ahead altogether, and figure out what the plan is. What do we want to do? Where do we want to explore? Where do we want to be in three years so that we don't keep approving plans that we know will take literally a generation to build a new school and renovate it?

[01:13:55] - Thank you, Ms. Marin. Dr. Anderson? - Thank you. I do want to take a moment to thank staff because it has been a lot of work. So Ms. Sabinski and your team, it is each and every year just very significant.

[01:14:10] And we have also received some very scholarly work from your shop. All of the reports that we've discussed in CPDC that we can't wait to dig into. That takes a lot of hours, and I'm very appreciative of that. My concern with the CIP, it's not with the schools that are in the queue, because we know what that conversation has been.

[01:14:32] When communities are waiting for certain things to happen and it doesn't happen, there is a deep disappointment. So I definitely understand what has been shared with the schools that are in that queue. But I also am having a hard time reconciling when we pivot away when something is no longer needed.

[01:14:55] For example, if the queue, if whatever we place in our CIP is sacrosanct, then I do have to raise my concern over the fact that just last year's CIP, we removed Glasgow Elementary from the Table 4. So it is clearly a living, breathing document to be responsive to the needs of the community as they change.

[01:15:18] I even remember asking Dr. Reed this question in a work session, I can't remember when, it wasn't this year's, it was last year's work session, which is if we were to apply the objective criteria that we think we're heading towards in our needs of this day, Would all of the schools in that queue continue to, will they withstand that evaluation, that assessment?

[01:15:47] And she was very honest to say, no, they would not. I do want us to withhold, to uphold our commitment to our communities, but we have to do this in every facet. We also heard quite a bit from my community who was really, who really turned out here this evening regarding the middle school start times that's not included in that in the plan i'm glad to see that the park lawn concerns are raised in that plan but it's not in a consistent way which i've raised at the work session um i'm not going to be able to support this plan this

[01:16:27] evening because i think we can do more thank you dr anderson mr moon uh thank you mr chairman uh I'll be supporting the motion. I'll be supporting the CIP and I'm gonna and I'm gonna say why why I do even though Just like most of my colleagues that I am not happy with a 42 year cycle for the renovations on this man's key Could you

[01:17:00] For the benefit of public and tell us why we are adopting CIP at this time of the year Certainly. The reason we are adopting it at this time of the year is because it needs to be incorporated and adopted as part of the county CIP.

[01:17:18] So there will be public hearings in April, and the county CIP will be adopted in May. So as part of building that, we need to provide our cash flow and our approved portion of it to the county soon after the adoption comes from the school board.

[01:17:35] Okay, so is there a deadline from the county side that we need to submit this over? There is. They need it in the next two weeks. Next two weeks. To be incorporated into their book. Okay, that was something that I want you to have public hear from you directly.

[01:17:53] You know, we are only given because we don't have a taxing authority. We don't have a means of, by school board itself, we cannot determine our own cash flow, the money that we can use to renovate, you know, build new schools, et cetera.

[01:18:12] We are pretty much at the mercy of the governing body of a county board of supervisors, and we get about $230 million per year. Is that correct? Correct. Starting in FY25 and beyond, we are getting $230 million annually.

[01:18:29] Correct. So that is why we are limited by an amount of cash flow. There's only so much we can do in terms of wanting to reduce the 42-year cycle to what we desire, which according to our policy is about 25 years.

[01:18:47] But CIP is one of those things along with the budget. We have no choice at the end of the day to adopt. If we don't adopt, we're not going to build. It's not that we are able to reduce that 42-year cycle.

[01:19:08] We cannot build if we don't adopt. Just like a budget. If we don't adopt a budget, we cannot pay our staff. They cannot run our programs. So even with all of the unhappiness on most of us, if not all of us, with the cash flow, limited amount of cash flow we have, we are given no other choice.

[01:19:35] but to adopt because no matter what we need to continue renovating and building our schools that is why with all the regrets all the unhappiness even on my part i am i have no other choice but to support the cip thank you mr moon miss st john cunning first of all i would like to take the staff thank the staff because this is amazing work um work that i wasn't aware of when i was in a school building and realizing like i was just thinking about my school building and

[01:20:11] my issues in terms of heating or cooling and you guys have to take the whole comprehensive look and you have to do a triage of this one needs it more than this one because it's an emergency to each and every one of us in our own individual schools so i really appreciate that and i recognize how hard of a job this is and i really appreciate a lot of the different points of consideration that you've brought up to us uh as my colleague mr mr moon said i'm going to support this because we have no choice.

[01:20:41] That doesn't mean that we can't as we move forward start thinking differently, start thinking about how we can improve funding sources, how we can improve how we do the queue. That doesn't mean that that's going to fall by the wayside because we approve it for this year.

[01:21:00] This needs to be approved because our schools need to be taken care of. There are teachers, there are students in buildings that are counting on things to be fixed. not even talking about major renovations I'm just talking about an elevator working or the heating and cooling working and that makes a difference in your daily work work or your daily class time as a kid.

[01:21:25] And so I look forward to supporting the CIP and I also look forward to working with my colleagues to see work creatively and maybe with more intentionality on how we move forward to improve the process.

[01:21:43] Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunningham. Mr. McDaniel. Thank you. I will be supporting the motion. First and foremost, I want to thank staff, Janice, and Dr. Reed for all your work on this. I know it takes a lot to produce a document like this, so thank you for that. At the end of the day, we're being asked to cast a vote up or down on the CIP program. Let's be very clear about this. I agree that we could amend this. It is a living, breathing document, but that's not the vote on the table.

[01:22:18] the vote is up or down on these expenditures. So I'm going to vote for this. I have my gripes. I have my complaints. But I'm 90% confident in this document. I question whether or not voting this down would impact our AAA bond rating. And fundamentally, voting this down would halt billions of dollars of renovations and construction. And I'm not willing to put our community through that turmoil and that chaos so while I could complain about some specifics as we all could I'm gonna be supporting this document and

[01:22:57] I'm looking forward to its passage thank you thank you mr. McDonough miss lady I too would like to thank staff I know this is a volume of work and it takes hours to put together and it's not easy work so I just do really appreciate the work of staff I also appreciate the comments of my colleagues at the dais and especially the way my colleague Mr. McDaniel just shared you know you know the situation with this is that when you read something that's comprehensive you

[01:23:31] might bump into things that are not a hundred percent what you would want but I do feel like you know the work has to get done but I but I just I'm probably in a position where I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater so while While I'm still going to listen to my colleagues, I'm not sure if I can vote for this.

[01:23:54] My guess is I'm probably going to abstain just because I have some cognitive dissonance around some of the items that are in there. But I do want staff to know how much I appreciate their hard work. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lady.

[01:24:10] Mr. Dunn? So I appreciate the comments of my colleagues, but in reality, those are strawman fallacies that when you set up a false argument and then say that's what's actually being advocated, been no advocacy by me or anyone else to cancel particular projects but there is an obligation to reassess the projects that we are spending money on we have a 42 year 42 year renovation queue getting worse we have 530 million dollar deferred maintenance backlog 379 million dollar infrastructure backlog and 14 billion dollars it would cost according to facilities to get back

[01:24:45] to a 20 to 25 year renovation cycle those are staggering numbers when we only have 230 million dollars a year um to uh dr rita said we should be governed as a school system not as a system of schools to advocate for renovations of particular schools is to argue for a system of schools rather than a school system we should be acting as a school board in a unified way to address the systemic needs as we are in school boundaries as we are in other challenges uh it continuing the current path will only make the situation worse worse to the point where we'll be off the cliff if it'll be too late and we just will not be able to address the fundamental needs of our school

[01:25:25] system. We are at a point where we've been presented information by a superintendent by Ms. Szymanski and I do appreciate all the work that's gone into this. We have a fantastic superstar facilities team, a superstar superintendent. Now is the time to change. Now is the time to reassess and make sure we're spending our dollars wisely as our constituents elected us to do to make the hard choices not to wait 10 years as we have done with middle school start times and make choices now because these are long-term investments and we need to think long-term. Thank you. Thank

[01:26:02] you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. Dixit? Ms. Szymanski, I wanted to just have a quick question on page on the slide 8 of the capital improvement program funding summary. When you, it's on the graph it says we need 1.4 billion dollars and only 384 million are funded we get 230 million dollars in bond funding that's 1.1 billion dollars in five years how that translate that in us in the slide

[01:26:37] that's correct right now we have as the funded portion all the bond referendum funding we've received to date and through this fiscal year, we get to that over one point, or that $1 billion number over the course of the five years with the anticipated approval of that $230 million annually.

[01:26:58] So this is unfunded. $1 billion basically is the future money we will be getting, which is $230 million a year. That's correct. So that does not show any deficiency at this particular moment if are already funded for the current projects correct and that's why we're on a 42 year cycle we had to build out the priorities and build out the cash flow with the anticipated funding that we get that 230 million dollars annually we are planning to change some of our contracting processes for

[01:27:33] building i believe that is correct we've been working on revisions to school board policy 8240 which allow for different contracting methods for construction do you think that would bring in some savings for this following projects we are doing? I don't know if that's going to be the easy button that brings us up like hundreds of millions of dollars. I think we'll gain some efficiencies and I think we'll gain some efficiencies more in the process and the product by having a builder on earlier in the process. I can't with certainty say though this is going to solve the financial

[01:28:11] issue. The costs still are rising you know ever since COVID especially and with the adoption of PREVAILING WAGE IN THE PAST COUPLE YEARS, I THINK THAT YOU'RE GOING TO STILL SEE THOSE HIGHER PRICES. THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GO BACK DOWN FROM THE PRE-PANDEMIC RATES. AND MS. SIMINSKI, I REALLY WANT TO APPRECIATE THE SLIDE YOU HAVE, WHICH SHOWS OUR FUNDING AS PER SQUARE FEET AS COMPARED TO ALL THE OTHER SCHOOL DIVISION IN THEIR NEIGHBORING COUNTIES. WE GET THE LOWEST OF THE FUNDING FOR OUR CONSTRUCTION OR RENOVATION. AM I CORRECT? YES, THAT IS CORRECT.

[01:28:48] So we get the least fundings, we have the most students, we have the most buildings. So, I mean, it is what it is. I mean, we have to work with the funds we have, but definitely there is a need of more funding from the bonds, and we have to collaborate with the Board of Supervisors.

[01:29:09] I also wanted to point one more thing about the infrastructure replacement requirements. We have a backlog on that, but that does not come out of the bond money, right? That is correct right now. The bond is funding what you see on page 43 our cash flow of major capital projects Infrastructure and maintenance is coming out of various operating funds miss Penske. I have not said this before that other ways of building maintenance like contracting

[01:29:46] O&M contracts which federal government uses quite a bit and We should look in other resources and other options of doing this. Is it a good thing to do it ourselves or outsource some of this work? Because this is what I've seen in the federal side in most of the federal buildings.

[01:30:06] So this is something I would like to get more information on. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. Thank you. Mr. McIlvain. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. I, too, want to thank staff. I believe this year's CIP presentation was the most illuminating that I've seen on my time on the Board, and that's in part because of Ms. Szymanski's work to really bring out those staggering figures that Mr. Dunn just referred to, $14.5, not just $14 billion.

[01:30:40] We have certainly a lot of work to make up that funding. So I have a few questions. So first, some news was released this week that the Board of Supervisors is pursuing a bond for early childhood education facilities.

[01:30:58] How does that interplay with our facilities and is that county specific? Is that school specific? Does anyone know? I would say Dr. Presidio is not here this evening, so I didn't know if that's something that the skipped committee has been briefed on.

[01:31:17] Szymanski are you familiar with the bond content for the early childhood on the county side I would need to go back and get more information I have been made aware and the county has reached out to us saying that they're going to be conducting a feasibility study within their facilities as part of this work and you know it put us on that awareness thank you for that I find it shocking that we don't know more about that and that the blame does not fall in this room it falls falls elsewhere so I would be grateful to hear from our Board of Supervisors colleagues if they're planning

[01:31:53] to do something like that, especially if it implicates our facilities. Secondly, I have a site-specific question, and this follows on some of the comments from Ms. Sizemore-Heiser about our early childhood facilities.

[01:32:08] So Ms. Sizemore-Heiser mentioned the Piment Hills facility. The one I want to focus on, though, is the Pinewood Lakes facility. So that is, as we can see, an update to the CIP. It says it's slated for planning in 2032, I believe.

[01:32:27] And just going back, in 2023, a follow-on to the CIP, a follow-on motion was made by Ms. Darinak Koufax that dedicated $0.5 million to the design and planning for this facility.

[01:32:45] So I'm not quite clear why we are still seven years out on planning for that. And Ms. Szymanski, I realize that's before your time. So I don't know if you have an answer tonight. I would have to get back to you on that one.

[01:33:01] Thank you. Okay. Dr. Reed. Well, I don't have an answer either. I'm guessing I don't know what the original when the follow on motion, I know there was a plan to study that, but I don't know if where that sat in the queue at that time.

[01:33:21] So I would have to go back and speak with Ms. Szymanski. I know it was definitely a priority conversation that Mr. Nat Kilfax brought forward. Well, I bring this up just to say that I hope that our Board of Supervisors are contemplating these facilities that are already in the pipeline when they're looking at this bond funding.

[01:33:39] My third question is on the Dunloring facility. So I'm interested to get staff's opinions on a letter that was sent to us by the McLean Citizens Association as well as the Fairfax County Historical Society there what these letters have indicated is that there's excess capacity in the region where we're looking to put this facility with 10 surrounding schools you know all having extra capacity with Shrevewood

[01:34:15] Stenwood Freedom Hill all having significant extra capacity so just any thoughts? staff could provide on that sure I just as the meeting was started received an email with some data so I didn't have a chance to print it but Miss Szymanski forwarded it perhaps you could relay some of the I think there were some topics around trailers and classrooms for special programs perhaps so if you could illuminate that to be responsive I'd appreciate it sure so while there

[01:34:50] is excess capacity in nearby elementary schools and again Dunloring's been in the works for quite some time to address that more long-term growth in need and another thing I wanted to point out and sent to Dr. Reed that's not so much pure capacity but just really looking at the recent rise and additional programs in this area so right now Dunloring's in the Marshall Pyramid but falls church and other adjacent pyramids have seen a rise in the need for additional classrooms

[01:35:24] specific to special education we did some research and found that those pyramids also had a lot of temporary classroom trailers so there's other things that we would want to consider when thinking about planning and that need for dunloring that goes just beyond what you see in the current membership utilization okay thank you i mean that this is something that i'm as one board member going to be paying a lot of attention to thank you thank you mr mckelveen all right uh as a note to the public on may 6th we're going to have a work session as a school board some of the topics that

[01:36:02] we'll be receiving from the cpdc committee and uh miss barron has encouraged us along with some of our cip follow-on motions that need further discussion and some of the other research that's been done around those issues so mace okay may 6th we will have a work session on that so stay tuned miss st john gunning for a go back apologies for ringing in right now i just did want to bring some light for the early childhood the skip team has made a very conscientious um an intentional

[01:36:36] effort to get the entire skip team this year to work on early childhood education um and i know that that is a focus that is going to be year long and looking at everything and we haven't discussed the bond yet but i know that that is a very intentional that is very intentional work that's going on right now thank you miss st john cunning all right see no others will go to a vote the motion is on the screen all those in favor miss marron miss dixit miss anderson miss sizemarheiser

[01:37:09] mr moon miss st john cunning mr mcdaniel and myself those opposed mr mckelveen excuse me mr McElveen Dr. Anderson Mr. Dunn abstentions Miss Lady will the clerk read the vote 831 the motion carries thank you all right I call on Mr. Dunn for a follow-on motion thank you I move to direct the superintendent to engage with the county executive to explore the issuance of additional

[01:37:45] or standalone bonds to augment the funding available for school construction infrastructure maintenance and renovation to include a potential green bond and to deliver a report to the school board with options and recommendations by may 8th 2025 is there a second second mr mckelveen mr dunn would you like to speak to your motion yes please all right um i'm sorry i've been discussed a little bit um there is a shocking disconnect between uh the standalone bond that has been discussed in the news media, which is the first time I learned about it, for early childhood

[01:38:24] education, which I think all of us strongly support because it's the key to closing the achievement gap. But with our school boundary review, one of our major issues under discussion is the possibility of moving sixth graders to middle school. And one of the stated purposes of that is to make room for pre-kindergarten, early childhood education. So we will have ample space, and we likely have ample space in our schools as is right now, to accommodate as much early childhood education as the federal government, the state government, local government wishes to fund.

[01:38:58] At a time when, as we have stated, we have $14.5 billion that we require to get back to a 20-25 year renovation cycle, which is the industry standard, to address the very significant infrastructure backlog, a very significant half billion dollar maintenance backlog. We really need as much funding as possible to address the needs of our facilities, of our schools, of our students, of our staff, of our communities in order to make sure that the school board has all the information

[01:39:34] it requires on the types of bonds, the types of financial instruments that are available to us, the impacts of those bonds on our credit rating, and the possibility of issuing standalone bonds, whether as a green bond, whether as a dedicated bond for early child education, or another educational purpose, such as school construction and renovation.

[01:39:57] It's absolutely vital that the superintendent and the county executive together, who are responsible for operations, who have the greatest expertise and resources to fully explore the full range of options, have a very thorough conversation and dialogue that they can then come back to the school board and the board of supervisors to present strategic high-level options.

[01:40:21] That is the fundamental nature of our board's job as part-time officials with day jobs in many cases. Our job is to make high-level strategic decisions, and this motion is intended to gather information that then can be brought back to us so we can address perhaps the most serious crisis from a long-term perspective that our county has faced in many, many years.

[01:40:48] As one of my colleagues said, the scope of this crisis has only recently become clear. That's because of the excellent work by the superintendent and Ms. Szymanski and her facilities team and it is time for us to address this crisis. We cannot put this off for years and years and years because the crisis is growing worse And so to understand our fiscal options is absolutely essential, and that is what this motion is intended to do.

[01:41:14] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Mr. McIlvain, would you like to speak to your second? So I've long believed that Fairfax County has been far too conservative in its bond funding. I think that the county does meet regularly with the credit rating agencies, but compared to other jurisdictions of our size, the amount of bond funding we have seems to be low.

[01:41:42] And the county is now at a point where, as illustrated earlier, it's in the bond market for new bonds that we weren't aware of. So I don't see any issue with bringing another option to the table, as outlined by Mr. Dunn.

[01:42:01] I think everyone on this board agrees that green construction is the way of the future. This system is heavily invested in that from our roofs to our solar panels to our lighting to just about everything our facilities.

[01:42:19] So it's long past time for the county to look at this option. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McElveen. Ms. Marin? I think it's essential that we talk about the bond. I said that previously. It's just not a one-and-done thing, and it's not a one-man show to put this forward.

[01:42:35] This needs to start with a discussion with the board. It's not up to one school board member to direct the superintendent to go ahead and talk with the county executive. It's actually a bond program that's run by the county board, our funders and our counterparts, so the logical thing is to start with them.

[01:42:52] It is very unfortunate, as another colleague said, that the county board has taken a step that could be super positive, but not with us. know I aspire for this board and the county board to work much more thoughtfully and strategically together especially since our facilities hosted half a million events last year some of which were actually run by Fairfax County so we're inextricably linked and this is only gonna work when all of us on this board and the people on the Board of Supervisors get together and make some

[01:43:25] really bold decisions other counties do this other counties Henrico County they use their meals tax they have over I think it was 400 different facilities improvements I'm aware of where the superintendent came from last in Washington billion dollar bond Texas they do billion dollar bonds there are things that are best practices and common in other places that this county doesn't do and it really rests with the Board of Supervisors because they're the ones to put the bonds out there it's not the only solution for capital funding but it's the one we've got in place now and we should figure out how to expand it. So I will not be supporting this motion because we as a board need to

[01:44:03] publicly discuss it before directing the superintendent to do anything about it. Thank you. Thank you Miss Marin. Miss Anderson. I agree with my colleague that I think that the board needs to spend some time talking about what our funding streams are but if nothing has become clear to me over the last month is that we have several crises going on in education right now and for me as much as I would love to ensure that our infrastructure is as solid as humanly possible. The crisis that I am the most concerned about is our teachers and our staff. So I can't support this because any cent that the county could give us extra, I want it to make sure that

[01:44:41] we fund that contract. And so I would, I just can't fathomably put this forward to the county right now. I think it's an essential conversation for us to have with them in a partnership where it's not necessarily board directed, it's one board to another. I think we need to start off by getting all of us together and actually discussing this in a way that we can work together. I've said that many times. And so I can't support this tonight. But I look forward to those conversations with my colleagues in the future. Thank you, Miss Anderson. Excuse me. I

[01:45:16] will take a turn. I know Sloan is not here with us tonight. But I do want to note that I know that the early childhood office and Mr. Presidio have attended meetings with the county about the early childhood bond um i think the press coverage probably caught people by surprise um and if he were here tonight he would speak to it and i'll work with the superintendent to ensure that he could report back to the board on the work there i think they've been okay um thank you uh i think

[01:45:50] they can um uh report back to us on the conversations that they've been having um and the outreach was early. So we can go from there. I have Mr. McDaniel. Thank you. I will not be supporting the motion. You know, I think this is a classic example of the need for a better communication.

[01:46:18] I was aware of this as, you know, echo off the chairman's comments, that this was coming down the pipeline. So I'm kind of taken aback a little bit by some sentiment that, well, this was blindsided I don't think it was but that's just this one board member's view at the end of the day I don't want to put the county and when I say the county I mean the two boards it's because fundamentally 22 people govern this county our board and the board of supervisors I don't want to put any of us in the position of sniping back and forth on bond capacity

[01:46:52] I question how that would impact our AAA bond rating which is a hallmark of what we have done for good governance in this county since the late 70s, to my recollection. We're one of the few counties, one of the few municipal governments in the country to have this AAA bond rating.

[01:47:11] So continuing to go back and forth on this in this type of fashion, it's just not a good way to do business. Had this motion been to reestablish the Joint Infrastructure Financing Working Group between the two boards, I would support it. But I'm not going to support us just firing off a letter saying give us more bond money especially because well we didn't know maybe that this pre this early childhood education bomb was coming down the pipes so unfortunately I can't support this motion I think there's a path forward to have this conversation this motion is not the path

[01:47:46] thank you thank you Mr. McDaniel Ms. Sizemoreheiser thank you I also will not be supporting this motion at this time I don't want to repeat what my colleagues have said but I'm hoping Dr. Reed and Mr. Mansky at that May 5th or 6th I can't exact that you said work session that we're having with the additional follow-on motion the CIP an additional discussion one of the points of conversation could perhaps be what are some ways that we can collaborate with the county on issues around bond funding around as my colleague mentioned preschool and jointly working on

[01:48:22] preschool and perhaps there could be time for conversations that we could our chair can have with the chair the board of supervisors or you can have on ideas that we can then discuss as a board at a work session I know a couple years ago we had a joint CIP workgroup that ended up in raising the bond funding that's an option that we could discuss with county counterparts and see if they're looking to do something like that but I think that May 5th work session perhaps if you all can come with some ideas of ways to collaborate or we can have that conversation together might be a good thing as a good point to

[01:48:57] have a thoughtful discussion but how do we best collaborate in a way that sets both our boards and more importantly the schools in the county up for success. So that's just a thought I had. Thank you Ms. Sizemore Heiser. Mr. Moon. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Dunn for bringing this motion even though I am not going to be able to support this motion today but I do certainly understand why you brought this one up if I'm not mistaken that we

[01:49:31] the school system needs additional additional a capital funding from somewhere and at this point in time it's a county side county governing body it is gonna have to make some decisions in their regard even though it may be difficult for the superintendent to engage county executive to make for two exactly make those decisions because ultimately it's going to come down to a county uh a board of supervisors to make a decision i'm hoping that mr chairman you can engage a county chair

[01:50:09] to let them know of our desire to have this conversation maybe sometime after we have the may work session then we can schedule a joint board meeting uh to at least have the discussion or the county side agrees to give us additional funding or not i think we deserve an opportunity to present our case and hopefully uh dr reed uh for the may works at the may work session if if he could bring to the board some helpful information i say helpful because

[01:50:46] i need to present i mean i would like to be able to use the information when i have a conversation with supervisors that why 25 year cycle is much better than 42 year cycle why so for our students and for our teachers and why even for 25 year cycle makes more financial sense if that cuts down a lot of maintenance costs i'm hoping that we can somehow find a way to quantify that so that we can

[01:51:20] showed that it actually in the long run saves us money by going to 25 year cycle then 42 year cycle once we have those information we can at the joint meeting with the county supervisors present those for their consideration but thank you mr. Don for you know bringing this to us I'm hoping that this will instigate This will motivate our board to more actively convey our message to the county board of supervisors having, you know, joint conversation.

[01:51:59] Thank you, Mr. Moon. Ms. St. John Cunning. So I, too, cannot support this amendment. I think what's really important for us to discuss here is the importance of the relationships that we build with our counterparts.

[01:52:22] on the board of supervisors and a lot of us have one-on-one relationships with the board the board of supervisor that represents our district I have monthly meetings with mine I know what's going on he knows what's going on I encourage everyone to do that because I think the way we move this ball forward is not just through our relationship board to board but these personal relationships I have relationships with other board of supervisors where we'll sit around and discuss things And I know we're a very data-driven society, which is very important, but I also think that those relationships are crucial.

[01:52:58] I know that the Board of Supervisors want the same thing that we want, but I also understand that right now we're going to be facing a huge reduction in our tax base because of what's happening with our corporate tax funding where there's not money there.

[01:53:20] The Board of Supervisors has less of the pie, and we're going to have to be creative for how we try to solve this. I encourage us to work together as a board, have a discussion as a board, work with the Board of Supervisors.

[01:53:35] But I also encourage us to have those, build those relationships so that we can creatively figure out how we're going to do this. I just think that the way that this motion is presented is not the best way to build a relationship.

[01:53:54] We can't be adversarial. I also know that our state partners, our state delegates and senators are also trying to work to support us. But we're facing a funding shortage, and we've got to be realistic. And my father, who always gives us pearls of wisdom, and I've said this to many of you, it's like everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

[01:54:16] you know so we all want the best but nobody wants to pay taxes so now we have to figure out what we're going to do um i think we start strengthening those relationships thank you miss st john cunning dr anderson thank you we have a joint meeting coming up with the board of supervisors on the 25th um is it potentially is it possible for this to be a conversation on the agenda you might if i respond it's the question is to you i know i'm just being formal uh yes i'm happy to talk to

[01:54:54] Chairman McKay I think that will be a good idea even whether this passes or does not pass I think that's something we need to to establish and I also don't see any harm and having our executive speak to their executive because they have conversations all the time we're just honing in on what possibilities could be in this area because you have regular meetings set up with Brian Hill correct yes ma'am how would be hard how would those meetings be impacted if you were to raise this as an exploration it's just to to see what they're

[01:55:31] thinking we talk about a wide range of topics so I certainly could ask the question yeah and I think that would be a good start we have to start somewhere because we sit here and we know what we need to have happen for our schools we see our need it's very clear to us and we just need to continuously convey this to the other side because we cannot generate any revenue we are at the mercy and so the more we can engage in these discussions the more we could be planful I don't think we lose from doing that my last question is to miss

[01:56:09] Zemenski not to put you on the spot at all but I'm curious in the districts where you've worked and the divisions where you've worked before have you had had simultaneous bonds going on for different projects or different types of um yeah different types of projects. Yeah where I came from in District of Columbia it's sort of a unique situation where the mayor could go out and get bonds uh without voter referendums so I don't know if I'm the right precedent case but I guess to answer your question yes we did so we would

[01:56:42] have bonds sold to do major capital projects um major infrastructure and asset projects all kind of concurrent and based on what the needs were and that five-year pipeline the amounts would vary from year to year depending on what the priorities were thank you thank you dr anderson mr dunn yeah i just wanted to clarify a couple things for those many thousands of people watching on youtube First of all, teacher salaries are not paid from bonds.

[01:57:18] They're paid from the operating budget, two completely different pots of money. So teacher salaries is not even part of the equation. Secondly, we're not talking about issuing a bond. The language is very clear. Explore the issuance of additional or standalone bonds.

[01:57:34] They're already talking about issuing standalone bonds. I've been an education advocate for 10 years in this county, and I've heard multiple boards talk about how they really wish they could issue additional bonds because even 10 years ago the school infrastructure construction renovation maintenance needs were great and but we were always under understanding previous school boards were under the understanding that the only bonds that the county could issue to preserve the AAA credit rating were the school bonds every two years that's not true right there's some financial instruments that count against that credit rating can impact it, and other financial instruments that don't.

[01:58:13] And so I think if we, the 22 people who govern this county, get together in a room, I don't know what the conversation would be. I know everyone's background here. None of us are financial instrument bond market experts.

[01:58:31] Neither are any of the folks on the board of supervisors. The experts reside under the county executive and then with our superintendent and CFO's office. those are the financial experts. They can come together. They can develop information and then present it to the board. And that's the information gathering. And then you raise it up to the decision maker level. That's how it works in any large organization, as I've been a COO for a $2 billion federal agency. I understand how these things work. I regret that this motion won't pass tonight, but I hope formally or informally, we will actually go out, gather

[01:59:09] the information so we can actually pursue this because this isn't a one school member initiative this is actually a board initiative thank you mr dunn mr mcdaniel and just just to clarify how the bond process works in this county because i do have some experience in doing that i won't claim to be an expert but i do kind of know a thing or two the 10 principles of sound financial management that the county adopted decades ago the resolution that led to us having a triple a bond rating, the resolution that led to us actually being able to build out the county to the

[01:59:49] mecca that it is today, the thing that I am advocating so hard for us to protect and be sensitive about, that document outlines very clearly how we fund bonds and the bond capacity of the county. We have to maintain a certain percentage of bonded out debt versus the total book value of real estate assets.

[02:00:11] We also have to ensure that the percentage of our operating budget dedicated to debt service is below a certain threshold. So this isn't simply a question of just issue more bonds or not. It is a closed loop system. The question is not give more bonds to the schools or not. The question is give more bonds to the schools and that will mean taking away from other projects within the county. So this is not a simple conversation of just well let's issue a standalone bond and call today we have to be partners at the table and that's why i'm so passionately advocating for

[02:00:46] this motion to not pass again had this motion been to have that joint conversation i would be on board with it but that's not what this motion says thank you thank you mr mcdaniel seeing no miss marin yeah i think too i mean like colleagues you know i'm thinking about what is the point of having a motion like this i mean we are here to direct the superintendent i don't know that we need motions necessarily to direct ourselves and you know how do we set up our agenda for discussions well we have this one coming up on May 6th but to Mr McDaniel's point I asked at the first joint

[02:01:23] meeting when we met with the Board of Supervisors what does that AAA bond rating actually get us if we have school buildings that are well past their useful life we can say we have a AAA bond rating and how is that benefiting us right now also we could stay just focused on the current bond program which has us getting bond money every other year on the ballot well how is it that the schools get funds on the ballot this year will be on the ballot it's an even year an odd year it'll be on the November ballot so schools are slated to be on the ballot yet we have four times the amount of square footage than the county plus our buildings are used seven days a week including

[02:01:59] county programs so that is a key conversation could we adjust the schedule and maybe have a a few years of school bond funding and get rid of the backlog of maintenance these are all discussions i've poured over the county's bond program and i have many questions um i and referring to what was you know set up in the past i'm i can't recall um the document mr mcdaniel's talking about but let's let's review what we've been through we've been through covid we've been through a recession who knows what's going to happen to our workforce right here locally so you know it's time to review

[02:02:35] these things and i just see a pattern in this county of waiting too long to review things 40 years for a boundary view 15 years for star times 40 something years for operating systems to be reviewed if we are world class we need to update our business operations and our funding mechanisms and it's hard work and we're going to have to do it together and certainly our executives are going to have to do it together but if we can all get on the same page and talk together it's got to start with us before we direct executives to do it thank you thank you Ms. Marin all right seeing

[02:03:07] no others can we have the motion please on the screen all right I will call for a vote for the motion on the screen all those in favor Mr. McElveen Dr. Anderson Mr. Dunn all those opposed Ms. Marin Ms. Anderson Ms. Sizemoreheiser Mr. Moon Ms. Lady Ms. St. John Cunning Mr. McDaniel and myself the motion does not pass uh agenda item 7.01 performance review safety and security

[02:03:39] EL13 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 board's strategic governance manual. 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 a corrective action is needed i call on dr reed for a modern report

[02:04:14] on executive limitation 13 safety and security good evening chairman frisch members of the board and the public uh tonight as mr mr frisch mentioned i'll be presenting executive limitation 13 which discusses safety and security so let's go ahead thank you i want to share that at the time of this report to the best of my knowledge information and belief we have gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic and would like to share

[02:04:50] some of the highlights this evening want to do a reminder that there are seven areas of executive limitation 13 and this outlines all the parts of item number one these are the remaining items so looks like item one I'm sorry Kevin yeah thank you these are the remaining items and although I'm only going to be sharing selected indicators this evening I want to remind the board and the public that the entire monitoring report is publicly available and attached on board docs so tonight I'm going to start with some updates about how

[02:05:30] we develop procedures how we develop procedures that ensure the safety of students and staff and the security of our schools offices transportation services and grounds first of all want to share that our office of safety and security trains with the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office on the responses to critical incidents and supplied our road deputies with keys to the buildings This adds upwards of 25 law enforcement personnel that are able to rapidly respond to incidents that may take place at one of our schools.

[02:06:10] We've also purchased new public safety radios for each school, which are set to be deployed next month. These Wi-Fi radios eliminate potential dead zones, ensuring communication is always available. The new radios have actually already been issued to Office of Safety and Security Uniformed Officers, which allows them to communicate more effectively while working in schools during all hours.

[02:06:38] FCPS is also contracting with the Critical Response Group, or CRG, to create digital maps for all our FCPS school buildings. This ensures that all emergency response teams are working from the same platform essentially and really prevents gaps in our responses.

[02:07:04] Next, I want to share that our security vestibule updates are underway with the first group of 19 schools set to be completed by the end of this month, and they're actually about 95% complete at this time. last month the plan was shared for a pilot to implement the school board's recommendation for a comprehensive annual school traffic and pedestrian safety assessment which will begin in the spring of 2025 so in the next couple months also last month the Office of Safety and Security amended and updated guidance for extreme cold and wind chills very timely to provide more

[02:07:44] structure and consistency across the division for protection of our children during inclement weather we were very grateful this morning that the ice we were a couple degrees away from not just uh crystal trees but roads as well so big thanks and shout out to our facilities team and our grounds team for checking for broken limbs uh trees down and other hazards on our campuses around our campuses and also just want to take a moment and thank all our security folks our safety and security team our specialists our sros that partner under the leadership of brian

[02:08:22] lambert and ryan morgan it's a great team and they work really hard 24 7 to keep our students staff and community members in our school safe so big shout out to close out indicator one of this executive limitation like to focus on the safety tip line fcps does have an anonymous safety tip line to report school safety issues and this is regularly used to investigate threats unsafe or dangerous circumstances and a variety of other criminal behaviors or concerns about student wellness tips can be submitted

[02:08:58] by phone text email or web and their signs up throughout our schools that give the ways in which to do this and this evening this would be our number of tips received through different avenues in the last school year 2324 so looking at indicator two i want to highlight how we implement procedures to ensure the safety of students and staff when they participate in off-site school-sponsored activities such as field trips and other events we have many processes and procedures in place related to this field trip safety which include

[02:09:37] commercial bus carriers that have been reviewed by risk management so they match up with our virginia department of transportation safety measures also our copies of emergency care forms for students are sent on each trip and emergency contacts are made sure to be accurate for that adult in charge and the recommended ratio in fairfax county is one chaperone to every 10 students OSS proactively ask school administrators to reschedule or avoid trips located near high-profile events that might have safety concerns so we

[02:10:13] really work hard to make sure our students when they leave our campuses are also safe looking at indicator 3 it talks about how we provide the appropriate training for staff and students on FCPS safety and security procedures as well as crisis prevention and management and new this school year we had mandatory safety and security training which was called school-based safety and security orientation which ensured that all school staff are trained beyond just the crisis management team and that was the team that typically attends tabletop activities. Based on the feedback from

[02:10:53] last year's EL-13 all school board members have also been invited to attend tabletop exercises and have an opportunity to participate in that process so looking at indicator 5 talks a little bit about how we implement routine staff background checks and procedures for timely communication with law enforcement regarding employees which again ensure a safe learning environment for all students during our EL4 presentation earlier this year I stated that FCPS has been fingerprinting employees hired prior to 2006 in order

[02:11:32] to store all employee fingerprints digitally and conduct routine background checks. As of the end of January 2025, almost, well, about 91% of all of these necessary fingerprints have been completed and we're in the process of ensuring that the rest of these fingerprints are captured.

[02:11:52] In January 2025, the Office of Safety and Security sent notices to the heads of all law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth reminding them of the need to report school employee arrests and also clarifying that mr. Lambert is the designee to receive those notices the office also recently hosted the bomb threat assessment for decision-making course from the federal emergency management agencies office of bombing prevention this course provided foundational knowledge on the assessment and evaluation of bomb threats and

[02:12:27] related responses, while also looking at how to distinguish between low-moderate and high-risk bomb threats using techniques and best practices from FEMA. And as you know, in the past year or so, we've had a bit of an uptick in threats, and so we really felt like this was a training match for our staff.

[02:12:48] Indicator 6 talks about providing age-appropriate safety and security curriculum for students to support their safety and well-being. So we have a new grade level appropriate lockdown video which is now available for students in grades K through 5. And that's been a concern raised by a number of community members that we don't use the same video K-12.

[02:13:10] So we've created a new elementary developmentally appropriate lockdown video which is differentiated from secondary. And also the alcohol, tobacco and other drugs unit was revised last year and implemented beginning this past fall.

[02:13:27] So lots of really work on this on that topic. Indicator 7 focuses on establishing a comprehensive cybersecurity plan to safeguard student staff and the division from cyber threats.

[02:13:45] This year FCPS began the rollout of the NIST Risk Management Framework and that's the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework and the Center for Internet Security. SO THESE DIFFERENT GROUPS I GUESS HELP US IMPLEMENT CONTROLS AND MEASURE PROGRESS WHILE PROVIDING A FRAMEWORK FOR RISK-BASED ASSESSMENTS AND AUTHORIZATIONS.

[02:14:13] SO MR. CHAIRMAN, THIS CONCLUDES THE PRESENTATION FOR EXECUTIVE LIMITATION 13, SAFETY AND SECURITY. THANK YOU, DR. REED. WE'LL GET STARTED WITH BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS WITH MS. SEIZEMER-HEISER.

[02:14:29] THANK YOU, DR. REED. Mr. Lambert and Mr. Vaccarello before that, with all the great work that you've done around safety and security. Did I get your name wrong? Good. Just look at his face like that's not me. So anyway, thank you for all your hard work.

[02:14:45] I really appreciate it. A couple of questions I had on the vestibules. I noticed that group four is not funded. Does that mean there's a certain number of schools whose vestibules were we're not going to be able to fund or what's the plan? Oh, five.

[02:15:00] sorry group five four and five are not funded so what's the plan to make sure all the schools have these vestibules i believe that all the vestibules will be funded it's likely that the design has already been funded but i'm going to defer to miss zemansky at this point sure group just to give a high level recap of everything group one is substantially complete we're wrapping up things over the next couple weeks group two is actually out to bid for construction right now it's on new business tonight group three is in design in that earlier stage of design so we hope to carry that through and submit for permit this summer and yes groups four and five have not started contingent

[02:15:40] on funding so when you say contingent on funding does that mean it's not that we need to have more funding or we're going to have to take funding out of the bond or out of operation funds like is there a plan for that funding or we're just saying we're not going to do that until we figure out that fund well i think we haven't identified and encumbered funds whereas once we start design they are identified and encumbered I just I asked that because I want to make sure that this is a really important and a long-term plan and a major factor for safety in our school so I just wanted to make sure that we are working towards a plan for funding those last few groups thank you and then the other question I had a couple of the questions first is I want to thank you for the Narcan

[02:16:17] training that is so important so vital for our students so just thank you for that I want to start with the emergency procedures that are in place I saw on page 4 of the report that there's still the working group looking at both the shelter-in-place and the physical evacuation for students with disabilities I know this is a working group that's been there for I think at least a year I know I talked to you about this probably a year or so ago so do we know where that group is in looking at actual physical of that evacuation for people with disabilities as opposed to a shelter-in-place where there were students with disabilities are left behind in the building while

[02:16:55] everybody else is safely evacuated outside of the building which can be traumatic in and of itself so do you know where that the process of that group is yes ma'am well I I mr. Vecchiarolo my and I and several members of SEPTA actually met with the fire marshal a year ago to identify the possibilities and in fact we did begin at that point ordering different equipment that would enable us to evacuate students on an IEP at the same time that other students evacuated again that was a school by school design given different schools have different layouts and different maps but I know mr. Lambert is fairly new

[02:17:35] still and I don't know if you have something to add to that if not I'll make sure we have a more thorough response in a Friday letter mr. Lambert yes ma'am I'm aware of that topic I know that the group that dr. Reed met with shared some concerns we're also tracking the general assembly has a bill that's still going through right now that may require that individual IEPs have to agree with the school's plan so that's something we're watching very closely there are some concerns with the fire marshal we've dedicated rooms that are fire safe but ensuring that we have enough staff if that were to be

[02:18:14] something that happened because there could be collateral concerns that make it more dangerous to evacuate students than to shelter in place the fire department has given us great assurances that their first priority is to respond to those rooms but once a staff member were to evacuate somebody and we lose the ability to use elevators for example those staff members cannot go back into the school so those are all things that we're going to be working with and I do know that the governing body septa is very engaged in this topic yeah I would If maybe at some point have a longer update on where we stand.

[02:18:52] And I am very well aware of the General Assembly Bill, I just spoke to my former school board colleague, Laura Jane Cohen, who's carrying that bill. And I think my understanding is that it's trying to get documented on the IEP plot page or the similar pages, what the plan would be for that student.

[02:19:07] So I think it would be helpful before that bill goes through to have some sort of things that our IEP teams could offer as this is what options are. And of course, it's still individualized for each student. But knowing what options are would be helpful if that bill does go through and IEP teams need to start documenting on the plot page what the plan would be.

[02:19:26] So, you know, I wouldn't. And one last question I had, I don't know if my time is up yet or not, but on the cybersecurity, on the NIST, I'm familiar with NIST framework. Is it, I don't know if it's customized for different types of organizations or industries, like, you know, in terms of cybersecurity risk, that's particularly the public governments or public agencies or in this case where we have a lot of students who are accessing the internet or accessing Wi-Fi are there unique risks to students that you know helping them understand what not to click on and all these other things so I don't know if that's framework is particular to schools or if there is a subset that is particular or not so just let's have more understanding about that so I'm

[02:20:05] gonna ask mr. Lambert to comment on that thank you both myself and mr. Sethi's shop collaborate on on those topics it's a general framework a series of controls that are put in place it's adaptive depending on the situation so it's not not so rigid as it's one size fits all but it's a general framework and gotham if you had anything mr sethe yeah primarily these frameworks focus on the systems in the back end to make sure we can protect and secure the data and the networks there's not a lot in terms of front end and user behavior things like mfa show

[02:20:42] up but those don't apply to students so this is more focused inwards towards the infrastructure and the strategies we use to secure those that's very helpful that was not aware that it wasn't a front-end strategy as well as when we're back in so do we have training for students around cybersecurity risk around phishing I know there's a lot of controls in terms of what goes in their emails but whether it's our email systems or our internet systems or when they leave here I think it's important training for when they leave here so I'm just curious what kind of training we have around safety security for training our students the the place we touch those are digital citizenship courses right now there's not a specific carve out of time to kind of spend time on

[02:21:21] cyber security but it's it's certainly a growing need right when we talk to our student leaders they talk about how students need to be aware of those things so it's an opportunity that lays ahead of us but I believe right now they're focusing on digital citizenship I encourage you to look at that as our as our digital security or a digital citizenship and digital literacy curriculum and see how when it needs to be updated as this changes pretty rapidly.

[02:21:44] I think that was my time. I keep hearing the bell. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Ms. Seismar-Hyser. Ms. Marin. Yes, I really enjoyed reading this. It's really outstanding work. It answers a lot of questions that I receive from my community.

[02:22:01] And so I do urge you, Dr. Reed, to use this as a resource document, especially about security cameras. families are always asking me about security cameras what's the status I've had people ask can I pay for a security can like they themselves pay for a security camera and have it installed so it's really a big one for our elementary schools I am curious about the vestibules and how is I'm curious about how the timing has gone for the installation and there was like a little bit of a delay and then initially and I want to make sure everything's cool with like the zoning and that was I think a hold up at one point so permitting yeah the permitting like have we got that figured out so it

[02:22:39] can be as fast as possible I believe that we certainly have done upfront work and that's part of why we're doing the vestibules in groupings because we're permitting them as a group but miss Szymanski anything you want to add on that no except that you know we found that time decreased for approvals in that second phase so I do think we're making better on our schedules and it's going in the right direction great yeah and well speaking of schedule just want mentioned as you say on page 6 that we are a year ahead of schedule with that security camera project installation so again I think that would be really great news for the public to hear entry protocols and exit protocols I see on

[02:23:17] page 7 you know there's a note about shared visitor protocol I mean my experiences is that it has not been consistent but I haven't like methodically checked at each time but I do really hope that there is a way to really check that it is the same at every single school not sign in at one scan the machine at another show your badge and also exit I just um that's been a concern of mine so I hope you can design you know a way to really make sure it's it's consistent e-notify this actually uh connects with the work I've advocated for around knowing which communication vehicles

[02:23:53] are used for what so I actually was kind of surprised on page seven to see at the bottom that the emergency messaging system at the notify to um and it's focused on critical operational issues And I kind of feel like I've heard things through eNotify that are not critical operations.

[02:24:08] It might be like, hey, I just, you know, see your email for this important, you know, announcement from the principal or something else. And this just goes back to, like, please be clear on which vehicles are used for which because that also will help families to say, like, oh, if I get an eNotify, like, I really need to use that and not, you know, just go on to the next thing in their inbox.

[02:24:26] The on page 12 reducing the time to do the verifications of people's employment from three to five business days to less than an hour that is fabulous and it's those kinds of efficiencies that I hope the public knows about and that we just need to see more of that.

[02:24:46] I also wanted to ask about on page 13 about requiring law enforcement agencies upon arresting a person to identify the superintendent we know that that went awry years ago when an email was sent to a non-working address I'd since heard that legislation at one point was proposed to have it faxed to school board off to school offices like is is there consistent practice on how law enforcement agencies inform school divisions and if not I think that's something I know I'd like to take up as a board that needs to be changed by the state

[02:25:21] code. Last thing I just on the back on page 14 I know that the curriculum gun safety is not or gun violence prevention is not in this this rubric here on the back but it is you did compile a list of it but like I think as well as a digital citizenship like having all here that cross nexus of curriculum and safety and how it integrates here. Thank you. Thank you Miss Marion.

[02:25:43] So I'll respond to the law enforcement notice there is a standard expectation that's email with a read receipt however what we've realized over the last year first and foremost our Fairfax County Public or our Fairfax County Police Department Sheriff's Department are fabulous they're right on it they have a direct connection with our security staff and you know there's just no gap in information what we have found though is for outside our county notification it It has been mixed and out of state notification, it's occasional, right?

[02:26:22] So that's really why we've been, I think, insistent that the wrap back program or something that's an automatic ping would be important. But I'll ask Mr. Lambert if you want to comment because that was part of the reason I pointed out that we sent these letters out because we gave very clear direction.

[02:26:40] But Mr. Lambert. you're correct dr reed law enforcement officers among many other responsibilities are supposed to make notification on certain things dr reed sent out a notice when she first arrived in the school district and we decided to follow up on it after we had an incident happen in the last few months that we didn't get notice as dr reed pointed out the wrap back program would eliminate the need for us to continue to send these notices out because every time somebody was fingerprinted and processed and because they were enrolled and i know the hr team is is well engaged on that and

[02:27:15] we're well prepared it would immediately notify us and avoid that gap so what dr reed did with the memo is you know covering all of our bases making sure we're reminding folks and reinforcing it but we're really optimistic about wrap back thank you very much mr dunn uh thank you uh i was wondering uh dr reed if you could introduce to the community mr lambert and his impressive background because I think it's important for the community to know we have world-class expertise leading our safety and security office.

[02:27:47] Mr. Lambert is our new chief safety and security officer, and he comes from a long history in public service at the national level. Mr. Lambert, do you want to elaborate to the degree? Sure. Thank you.

[02:28:03] I appreciate it. I did join in November, so three months complete after a 25-year career with the Secret Service where I had the blessing to lead all of our field operations across the U.S. Before that, I was a police officer in Chesterfield, Virginia, but hail from the great college of William & Mary.

[02:28:24] Please. I apologize for that, Mr. Dunn. I was wondering, last year there was a lot of discussion about crossing guards. I was wondering if you could provide an update on the funding and making sure we have enough crossing guards at all our crosswalks during school hours.

[02:28:43] So that's a great question. I know there was a lot of discussion, particularly last spring in different parts of the county about crossing guards, which for many of our children is really a critical safety issue because some of the roads that our children are asked to cross are quite busy and some of our adults don't show up as their best selves when they're behind the wheel in the morning.

[02:29:05] so mr. Lambert do we have an update on crossing guards I believe there have been some there's been some work on that but also some commitments to that so mr. Lambert sure the responsibility at present for providing the crossing guards is through the Fairfax County Police Department and like like many places I think it's a area that's challenged to find folks to work just to give some context on when we hear requests for new crossing guards we will generally send somebody out from our safety section and observe the area both in the morning and the afternoon sometimes on several days if we agree that we think

[02:29:45] there should be we pass that over to the police department who sends their traffic unit out to do their their own assessment and then based on their resources and availability they try to accomplish that but you are correct it can be a challenging issue as it's a resource issue often I will say this my my deputy just retired from the Fairfax County Police Department one of their standing orders is that crossing assignments get filled so routine patrol officers are often filling crossing guard roles so the police

[02:30:23] department takes that seriously enough that it is a sacrosanct thing that that gets filled if a crossing guard calls out i will also say um chief davis we work very closely together i know mr lambert does and he and i uh the chief and i connect immediately when there's any kind of a concern around safety and security that is appropriately elevated and he had he and i also spoke last spring about crossing guards and his commitment to those um safety high safety NEEDS. I KNOW THERE'S A DEEP COMMITMENT FROM HIS DESK AS WELL ON THIS TOPIC.

[02:30:59] AND I'M GRATEFUL FOR EVERY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER AND THE CHIEF FOR EVERYTHING THEY DO TO PROTECT OUR PUBLIC SAFETY. BUT IT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING THE COUNTY WAS TRYING TO FIND A NEW FUNDING SOURCE, POTENTIALLY FCPS, TO PAY FOR THOSE CROSSING GUARDS LONG TERM. IS THAT STILL HAPPENING OR DO I MISUNDERSTAND? NO, SIR. I THINK WHAT THE MY UNDERSTANDING of what was occurring last spring was not so much the moving of funding but rather the oversight the recruitment in other words would it be possible to contract maybe um with somebody

[02:31:35] maybe you know there are many private type security agencies and would the school division want to take that role and i was i was clear that i didn't think that was our area of expertise i I really felt like we thought the police were doing a great job with that and were connected to also traffic violations, which, you know, it seems like a natural no-gap service.

[02:32:02] So they left it or they kept it with the police department, but I know that was a discussion last spring. And so that's not an ongoing discussion that's been resolved at this point? To my knowledge, it's not an ongoing discussion. Is there any discussion about centralizing our security staff in our schools under Mr. Lambert, or is that still being maintained at the principal level with perhaps a dotted line to Mr. Lambert?

[02:32:28] Currently, the supervision is at the principal level with a dotted line to Mr. Lambert. Is that under consideration for being changed at all? We've certainly discussed that, and I think that anything is fair game.

[02:32:44] But yes, we certainly have discussed it. Can I ask if there's been any assessment or any plans or discussions to assess the security staffing in our schools to provide more security assistance to better meet the nationally recommended ratio of students and staff to security personnel?

[02:33:02] So I know Tom Vaccarello was part of that work prior to his retirement, and he and Mr. Solomon were looking at those ratios and also the duties, you know, of our administrative staff and our deans and staff within the school.

[02:33:20] So I think they're working on some type of a schematic that may create different roles or responsibilities for security specialists or staff.

[02:33:32] I've also said though given our budget circumstances and some of the federal uncertainties and the need to fully fund our collective bargaining agreement we're really going to have to think about not adding more staff but rather redeploying the current staff we have so we would have to think about if we're going to add staff for a particular program what are we not going to do then to provide staff to do that program does that make sense?

[02:34:00] because we're not in a space where we can layer on programs with more staff. We're going to have to think about what we would stop doing to start doing something else or to do something differently. So that's a conversation certainly that's ongoing. This is a very impressive report and you have a very impressive record, but we face the pernicious social media next door and other sources that create a false perception of the safety of our students on a daily basis.

[02:34:30] What more could be done or what is under consideration to ensure that we are, you know, making sure parents in our communities have accurate information about the safety of our students, the safety of our schools? So I think our chairman, McKay, here in Fairfax County, often says we're the safest county in the country, right?

[02:34:51] Our data continues to show that. And I would argue that our schools are some of the safest schools in the country. We have fabulous security staff within our schools our SROs are in all secondary schools And we have security staff by region assigned to elementary and our staff are well trained And we generally speaking I feel like our meeting staffing ratio, so I would encourage members of the public You know to connect with their students teacher or principal they have concerns

[02:35:29] I know Brian Mr. Lambert certainly would also be able to answer concerns We have a lot of ways to get information, but our discipline data if you recall even recently we looked at it the types of discipline incidents are remarkably minimal for serious discipline Events I can see mr. Want nodding. It's we our schools are are very safe And I I've recently shared with families. They're the safest place for our children to be during the day So to your point, I think perhaps we have to think of more ways to communicate that

[02:36:06] So I I'll charge staff with thinking about how we can better tell that story. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yes, sir Thank you, mr. Dunn mr. Moon Oh, Dr. Reed, I think you just answered my question because, you know, bottom line of that, you know, for me, out of, you know, year 13 years, keeping our students and our employees safe and secure.

[02:36:32] And, you know, you have provided a lot of information, but what more is needed from my point, vantage point, is data, show the data to show that our kids, our students and employees are indeed in safe and secure learning and working environments and that has to be and also the resources that we put in how they are making if our learning and working environments

[02:37:06] even safer and more secure and if you could provide a data I would never go a long way yes sir thank you yes sir thank you Mr. Moon Ms. Dixit Dr. Reed this is an excellent presentation and a very good report. I have only a couple of questions. One is about our CCTVs. On one of the pages of the report, page 6 says currently 44 elementary school need funding for CCTV. And it would be once fully funded, it would be completed within three years, possibly sooner.

[02:37:45] What kind of how much is the funding to get this completed? Do you have any estimate on that? so great question we've done a lot of that work through grants so that we don't go into the general fund for those dollars and we don't have a separate bond for those projects um miss burden do we have any kind of a financial guess or mr lambert on what that would the cctv project funding might be yes ma'am if we were to install external cameras at the 44 sites that would be approximately 5.3

[02:38:21] million dollars uh with an annual recurring ninety thousand dollars for licensing and forty thousand dollars for a break and repair and then i have the information if you were interested about interior as well but i think our priority would first get the get the exteriors thank you so much for the information uh this is something uh is a priority for some of us and i guess many of my colleagues too that our elementary schools um sometimes uh can be the target of bad elements and and i also

[02:38:57] you know worst nightmare for any parent is all the shootings happened um and we have uh armed officers at middle school or school in high school but we don't have in elementary school so while we we may not be able to have armed officers in every school can we prioritize use of the you know weapon detection system in elementary schools first or is that a consideration i think we're still open to using the weapons detection i think the plan that we're going to unveil over

[02:39:34] the next couple months will give a lot of flexibility for us to do that i would add that last year dr reed did give us and brian gibson who works here with us six officers that we dedicated just to the elementary schools what i want to be clear about is these aren't folks that just drive around and you know maybe a cruiser pulls in front when they stop at a school they go inside for upwards of an hour to touch base with the school administration talk them through what they're doing and we're unveiling just in the next couple months that we're going to incorporate them into the fire drills we want them to be present every time that they're bringing the students

[02:40:11] outside so we have a group that's a monday to friday dedicated just to our 141 elementary schools and not the middle and high schools that that sounds good but our county is so wide uh it's you know area wise that sometime getting the resource to the right place and right time it's so that's why something in in the location itself i think that's what would be wonderful to see. So thank you for all the work and this is again like my colleague said excellent report.

[02:40:43] Thank you. Thank you Miss Dixit I will take a turn. So this is going to be a little kind of out of left field or out of pocket as the kids say incorrectly. So the intersection of student rights and responsibilities and cyber security and the devices that we provide our students.

[02:41:09] You know, we obviously talked to our students about bullying and etiquette online, but I recall several years ago during a board meeting when the notion that students could access things like Netflix on their laptops was scoffed at.

[02:41:25] Surely kids can't do that because we've said you can't go to Netflix on your browser, and certainly the kids couldn't figure that out. And, of course, like as soon as we put up a roadblock, they've found a way around the roadblock, shared it with all their friends. we put up a new roadblock a little while later. So I'm not worried so much about Netflix, but I am worried about students who are using devices in ways that are not appropriate and that are against our rules, but they're not being used, you know, for the typical ways that people think about, like cheating or, you know, streaming media or whatever. We certainly know when students have

[02:42:03] compromised our information security, what are we doing to ensure that students who may do that are held accountable? It's not something that we really talk about in an SRNR conversation, but it does happen. So students that wander from the approved use of their laptop to YouTube channels? No, I'm not worried about YouTube or Netflix. I mean, I'm more worried about students who are using it for hacking or for accessing school servers or things like that.

[02:42:40] More sophisticated things, right? Maybe these are the kids that find out how to get to Netflix and then tell their friends while they're doing other things. I'm more interested in more sophisticated uses of the technology that are inappropriate. Certainly we, I'm speculating, we have very bright students here.

[02:42:58] So I'm curious what are we doing to ensure that in addition to protecting our kids from cyber bullying and all these other things that we are ensuring that our devices are not being used in such a way that is inappropriate yes sir I understand that better so we do have light speed which is a bit of a type of a I don't want it it's a monitoring software so that teachers can tell where students are going on their laptop and parents now also have a portal that they can see that but I'm gonna turn to mr. Sethi and then dr. King to kind of talk

[02:43:34] about that intersectionality thank you dr. Reed the SRNR calls for a latitude for principals depending on how the pending on what offense they break when it comes to our acceptable use policy right so there's progressive discipline if it's something very minor it's a minor infraction it could be a counseling but if they're hacking into our system that can they can be referred to the hearings office as well my office in Gotham's office has been collaborating around this because at some of dr. Reed's parent meetings we're

[02:44:12] hearing parents concerns about spaces that their students are visiting our websites and what are we going to do about it so we're constantly retraining our principals about progressive discipline in that area yeah and again I'm more concerned about the sophisticated misuse of our our devices And those things would probably only be found by folks with a sophisticated approach to looking for those things, probably not on light speed necessarily.

[02:44:41] Maybe it does show up on light speed, but I'm not a computer genius, so I can't even really articulate. But I sense that Mr. Sethi maybe has something to say. Yeah, we have very bright kids. You're absolutely right.

[02:44:57] So when we encounter some of these students kind of going to the far reaches of the internet where they shouldn't be there's always a conversation that is to be had at the school level recently in collaboration is not also saying when our cyber security team finds out and how egregious it is we've started reporting it to the principal so they can get a series of incident report which tells them exactly what they did and hopefully not do it again there is that discipline aspect that we want to bring along I will also mention that sometimes we find the students are just curious and we try to recruit them actually to See, hey, why didn't you tell us what could we be doing differently?

[02:45:33] We have a couple of students who actually help us on the back end. Middle school students, so bright. So there's a little bit of balance of you could be doing this for the right reasons, a.k.a. white hat, versus don't go down these alleys, otherwise your families and your parents are going to be informed about it, so don't end up becoming that black hat that we don't want anyone to be.

[02:45:54] It is a balancing act, and it is going to be a bit of we try to keep up. They get a little ahead, we catch up, they get ahead, we catch up, and we are trying to keep it all under control. It is not as expansive as it may sound, but clearly we don't want any student to kind of, we are too far or venture too out.

[02:46:12] I do want to clarify that we do not encourage our students to engage in that behavior to gain the attention of our IT department for recruitment. So this is something we don't want our students participating in.

[02:46:28] and what i'll do is let me go back and work with mr sethe and dr king and look at data about what you're talking about and see what we have from the beginning of the year and how that's been dealt with and we'll provide that in a friday i appreciate that and i won't say which of my colleagues wrote a note to me saying we should hire them um but uh i appreciate the sentiment uh and i truly had in reading the report had to dig a little deep to find things that i was curious about because so much is addressed in the report on the issue of vestibules and I appreciate my colleagues following up on future projects we are sitting in a school right now that has a shiny new

[02:47:07] vestibule thanks to the hard work of this board and the school divisions team for getting that done so very much appreciated I also appreciate the update on the cameras and the you know the backlog that we've eliminated in the last year and the other work that's being done to particularly around the tabletop exercises and the new videos this has been a subject I believe in our last EL report we were not quite there yet it's great that we've made it there and I think that's a tremendous accomplishment so this is you know there's nothing more important to us than the safety of all of our students especially now all right Ms. Sawant thank you Dr. Reed and Mr. Lambert

[02:47:45] for this report you know just in light of recent incidences and what we see about threats lately I've been talking a lot about safety and security so I really appreciate the security vestibules on the update like we have 19 schools then and we're now on to the next phase and that's amazing. One thing that I did want to talk about was on page nine of the report it talks about a communication plan to inform like staff students and families of procedures and what to do when potential threats arise and I see that there's trainings for new principles about media crisis response but I was wondering if and I've mentioned this in one of my minutes before I was wondering if there was anything that the office of communications could do with students

[02:48:22] about how to respond to these threats when they arise how to deal with this threats because even though none of these threats have ever like manifested into something that actually happened to the school it does create that anxiety around it and then even after that incident goes away it plagues that school when it happened at TJ in May it was something that no one showed up to school and then the week after it was kind of like it never happened but it did shake our school community so I was wondering if there was like any proactive education that we could do for students even if that's a video similar to how we talk about know your security terms lockdown video if there was anything we could do for students about how to deal with those incidents

[02:48:59] so mr. one I think that's a great idea and I very recently just did a video with two Woodson students who are working at the national level on gun safety storage right in fact we've edited that video and likely we'll be putting that out very shortly and they talked about the anxiety that the even lockdown videos right anytime there's a threat there's just this feeling of anxiety so I wonder we certainly can look into it and I wonder if that could be an SAC group that you all come together and we could maybe do a script and have it come from students too so maybe let's talk a little more about

[02:49:38] that yeah for sure I would love that I have actually watched that video by the two Woodson students and I really appreciate that but I was just thinking a little bit more about like how do students respond to that threat how should feel about that threat who can I go to and talk to the principals have been amazing with managing it at the school level but I just think more resources for students and families in that case that's a great idea and then I had one more question and I was wondering if we track these threats that occur at schools year by year or like what we do after a threat at that school happens and it goes away the next week do we keep track of those events yes we do

[02:50:11] thank you thank you Ms. Sawant and Mr. Dunn to finish this up just a question since mr lambert knew the cost of interior video cameras and you mentioned 5.1 for external what is the internal cost if you don't mind if we were to add five interior cameras in every elementary school which would be 700 cameras it would be 1.7 million more and does that assume that our current number of video cameras in middle school and high schools is adequate since you only

[02:50:48] mentioned elementary school that that would be first bringing the elementary schools up to some level inside I know that there is some interest in having cameras that face bathrooms because sometimes nefarious activity goes on in bathrooms if we were to add a camera outside every bathroom at every elementary middle and high school that would be about two million so just summing up those figures five point three two and one point seven um fill the boat so to speak on

[02:51:27] cameras that's nine million dollars um out of a four and a billion dollar budget or four billion wherever we are now um so can you talk about staffing like the eyes on 700 video cameras um i don't think you have 700 people watching each camera right so how who watches those cameras and are you using ai at all sure that's a great question um that is obviously a lot of camera lenses to be watching each of the schools has the ability certain staff to go look at them one thing that we haven't really brought up here that i'd like to bring the front is of all the

[02:52:02] school systems in this area we are the only one with a 24-hour response and group that is watching those cameras around the around the clock so often that is used when an alarm goes off at school that enables us to respond in real time it's also able something that we are sharing with the police department so we are in final phases right now of working with the real-time crime center so that the police department will be able to see our camera feeds and so you can see how valuable that would be god forbid we were ever in some sort of crisis situation that they can cut out a

[02:52:41] middleman and see what's going on in our schools the cameras are great deterrence that that is a factor that it does but we are also looking at ai overlays on the camera feeds there are some products out there that can detect weapons that are displayed but there's also technology that can detect spills in hallways and so those are all things that we think if we get the camera system outfitted that the future is going to let us put software on top of those things that will help us

[02:53:15] with security elements uh thank you thank you mr dunn mr moon to close us out oh thank you mr chairman just just one quick question a a internal cameras you know we don't place the internal cameras in indoor cameras in the classrooms do we we do not because we want to protect the privacy students and also teachers as well that's correct correct so one question that I had that mr. Lambert your predecessor was not quite able to get

[02:53:48] back to me before you retired so this is your task is whether gymnasium is considered a teaching space during teaching hours I will get back to you with that answer mr. moon and if I may while you have there was one closeout that you brought up about data that I'd love to share what we didn't put in this report and what I think is the most telling is the last two climate surveys

[02:54:21] and that asked students how they feel about their safety and so it's 28,000 students and 25,000 students respectively who answered this Fairfax students rated their safety above the state average both at the middle school and at the high school level exceeding the state and local numbers so I did I didn't want to leave tonight without that data point thank you appreciate that if you could put that into writing it would be even better mr. moon I want to respond the gymnasium question we did answer and it's likely not I don't think mr. Lambert was aware but during class when the gymnasiums used the cameras

[02:55:00] would not be on but during evening activities lunch intramurals times of UNSTRUCTURED TIME OR AFTER SCHOOL EVENTS THEY WOULD BE OKAY THANK YOU YES SIR THANK YOU MR. MOON ALL RIGHT SEEING NO OTHERS I CALL MS.

[02:55:19] ST. JOHN CUNNING FOR A MOTION I MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD FINDS THAT THE SUPERINTENDENT IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE EXECUTIVE LIMITATION NUMBER 13 SAFETY AND SECURITY I FURTHER MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD APPROVE THE MONITORING REPORT BASED ON THE SUPERINTENDENT'S REASONABLE INTERPRETATION OF EXECUTIVE of limitation number 13 safety and security as outlined in the strategic governance manual.

[02:55:45] - Is there a second? - A second. - Ms. Marin, Ms. St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your motion? - No. - Ms. Marin, would you like to speak to your second? - I would only add that as much as the school division is doing, we can only keep our kids so safe and our staff so safe.

[02:56:01] We need the community's help to keep our community safe. So we're gonna do all we can, but it's up to all of us. So thank you. you miss Marin call for a vote for the motion that is on the screen all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr. McIlvain Miss Anderson Miss Sizemore Heiser Mr. Dunn Mr. Moon Miss Lady Miss St. John Cunning Mr. McDaniel and myself with Dr. Anderson away from the table that's unanimous for board members present all right uh oh we don't have Mr. we're not seeing Mr. McDaniel what did I see

[02:56:38] i'm hallucinating all right um so that is with mr mcdaniel and and dr anderson away from the table the uh still unanimous all right agenda item 8.01 policy review safety and security el 13.

[02:56:55] the next order of business is the policy review of el 13 safety and security 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 to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at which it is to be considered at this time no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting but board members may provide comments on executive limitation 13 safety and security before we vote on maintaining the current language for the year

[02:57:29] ahead seeing no comments or discussions i call on miss st john cunning for a motion i move that the the school board maintains executive limitation 13 safety and security as it is currently detailed in the strategic governance manual.

[02:57:46] Is there a second. I second Miss Marin missing Tony would you like to speak to your motion. No Miss Marin you'd like to speak to your second. No thank you. All right I will call for a vote for the motion which is on the screen. All those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr. McElveen Miss Anderson Miss Sizemore Heiser Mr.

[02:58:03] Dunn Mr. Moon Miss Lady Miss St. John Cunningham myself with Mr. McDaniel and Dr. Anderson away from the table that is unanimous agenda item 9.01 academic matters I call on Dr. Reed for academic matters thank you chairman Frisch and members of the board and public I want to this evening we feel like it's timely to talk a little bit about the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP as it's discussed and it's NAEP in grades 4 and 8 reading and mathematics and recently I'm going to turn the page

[02:58:40] so recently these results were released and they really again showed that as a nation we have work to do in the areas of mathematics and reading I want to provide context however because I think that we need to be very careful before we draw conclusions about our local schools and so I want to be very clear with our Fairfax County Public School community just exactly how many of our students were part of this NAEP national work and I want to be clear that this

[02:59:17] assessment was given last year and limited only to 8 elementary and 13 middle schools with a total of 466 children in Fairfax County Public schools that actually participated in the NAEP testing.

[02:59:35] That's less than 2% of our 4th and 8th graders and represents just a 0.25, not even half a percent, of all enrolled FCPS students in K-12. So we really want to make sure that our community understands not only is that a tiny percentage, it's not even 8% of our students that participated, We actually also do not receive student, school or division results.

[03:00:06] These are state and national results. And I think we have to be very careful as we draw any kind of local conclusions around this work. The NAEP assessment also measures different things that reflect different purposes than our SOL information.

[03:00:26] So I want to make sure the context in the chart on the right of the slide is very clear about when NAEP is actually the window for testing versus our SOLs, our standards of learning. I also want to share that the NAEP test, it's interestingly not computer adaptive.

[03:00:45] And I think that's important because the SOL is computer adaptive. And for people who are asking, so why is that a big deal? It is a big deal, because if you have students that actually can answer higher level questions, computer can adapt to that and provide really an opportunity for many of our students some of whom mr sethe was recruiting earlier but many of our students who are middle school students and elementary students are not able then in a non-adaptive assessment environment to really

[03:01:17] demonstrate their ability so the content also in nape has been minimally revised since 1990 and I have to tell you I know that year because it might be an important year it's 35 years ago that the content's been revised and the SOL contents revised every seven years so I just I really want to be clear about what the how do I say the conclusions we draw about the power of

[03:01:52] of Public Education and all of the hardworking educators across this country that are giving it their all. And we're really looking at an antiquated assessment that's not provided in an adaptive format that's assessed in January and February.

[03:02:10] And I just really think that it's not representative of the work that's happening in our classrooms across this country and certainly not in classrooms here in Fairfax County. So let's look at the next page again this is a kind of a little different way of showing the same data point and this is the entire Virginia SOL sort of comparison here.

[03:02:38] In our area in NAEP we had 466 students tested but we had 26,000 tested in our SOLs and I I think you can see that Fairfax County continues to outperform Virginia and outperform NAEP nationally by any measure.

[03:02:59] So we continue to be proud of the work our students in Fairfax County do on a daily basis and proud of the work our educators and all those who support our educators do on a daily basis. When we look at interpreting the NAEP data, a NAEP proficient does not represent grade level proficiency as determined by state assessments and I think what's most interesting is all of our states really have somewhat different standards so when you're thinking about a fourth grader in Wyoming or South Dakota or Ohio Pennsylvania Virginia Mississippi California they're different curricula

[03:03:39] that are being used and when you have one non-adaptive assessment you're going a struggle with a lack of alignment between the written, taught, and tested curriculum. And that's, I think, one of the other outcomes of our NAEP exam. And I suppose you could argue that the longer we continue to use the same test after 35 years, perhaps the less reliable the conclusions we're able to draw.

[03:04:08] I also want to share that the last evaluation in terms of achievement levels was in 2016, And that actually concluded that further evidence was needed to determine if the levels were in fact reasonable, valid, and informative.

[03:04:23] So I think that how does FCPS compare on other national measures? Again, when you look at SAT, the class of 2024 SAT and ACT reading and math outcomes, we continue to outperform Virginia, the United States, and the global student community.

[03:04:45] and both in reading and mathematics. So we're very proud of, again, the work of our students and our educators. I will also say that, and I shared this in an earlier report this year, Fairfax County, and I don't know, Bettris, if you have this off the top of your head, but we are way, I think I want to say, above 70% of our students taking the SAT, and Virginia is still down at the right around 50 percent of students in virginia so we have way much higher percentage

[03:05:20] of our students here in fairfax county that are taking the sat and we're still um ahead of the averages for our state and nation betris do you want to elaborate that on but you may not have the numbers either but i know they were significant i'm pulling that up right now um yes while betris is pulling that up and you can just raise your hand when you have it but while she's pulling that up the reason that's an important data point is that provides the access and

[03:05:56] opportunity for students and that's a commitment the board made in terms of funding this assessment so that really a high percentage of our students are taking this assessment and you could argue that the more students taking it the lower the average outcome would be but that's not what's happening we have a high percentage taking the assessment and a high percentage performing on the assessment dr reed remembered right spot on we're just at 70 percent in fairfax versus just over 50 percent in the state of virginia so definitely that high participation rate and

[03:06:36] despite that to your point uh reflecting higher outcomes right thank you betras i was just double checking so i think that's significant and that illustrates the core uh mission driven work that uh we're standing by and talked about at the beginning of the meeting rooted in equity excellence and opportunity for all kids and the excellence is on the board there so anyhow mr chairman that is academic matters this evening thank you so much seeing nobody on the board i'm happy to move on to agenda item 9.02 strategic plan update dr reed thank you chairman frisch and

[03:07:14] members of the board what could be more exciting this evening than a strategic planning update and having a jane knockoff and michelle liss in the audience and they are here as representatives from our professional learning and teacher leadership and instructional coaching offices so we're very excited to focus on pillar c this evening which is again in this evening strategic plan i'll be talking about our novice teacher instructional coaches this is a program that supports our very

[03:07:48] newest teachers and we're deeply committed here in fairfax county to supporting our newest teachers this novice teacher instructional coach position focuses on essential areas like planning instruction classroom management data analysis and differentiation and really intended to facilitate student success i also want to say that um mr solomon has reported that we've had the highest teacher retention rate over the last four years last year we believe that's because we're providing higher levels of support for our teachers and i do want to report also

[03:08:27] mr jones is here this evening for mr solomon and i believe we have had 70 of our intent to return forms returned 40 in the first four hours with a 96 rate of our staff saying they want to come back next year is that correct mr jones yes ma'am that is correct all right so again i think that's That's a big to all of our staff and to programs like this that support our educators.

[03:08:58] So the importance of novice teacher support on the next slide talks about that nearly half of all new teachers leave within the first five years. That's the data across the country, 44% leave within their first five years. So we know that it's critical to provide high levels of support in those novice years.

[03:09:18] We also know that data says it takes new teachers an average of three to seven years to master the complexities of teaching and learning that art and science. So some of us hopefully have mastered some of this by now but it's just it's hard right like you think you have a certain toolkit and yeah it's just a lot of opportunity there.

[03:09:42] So research shows that these types of programs increase teacher retention and efficacy and also lead to greater student outcomes which is really why we're all here so the novice teacher instructional coach program which was launched this school year has 436 teachers supported since August so lots of excitement about that one of the key strengths of this program is agility which is unlike previous approaches where coaches were assigned to a single school for the year these These coaches work across multiple school sites, which allows us to, they're kind of

[03:10:20] mobilized as a team, so we're able to reassess needs and redeploy resources over the course of the year. They're not static, so we're maintaining a high level of adaptability. Based on feedback from principals and coaches in the second quarter, we did adjust assignments to include 20 more elementaries, three more middles, and one more high school, and initially focused on you know the highest concentration of novice teachers but we continue to I think be just a really nimble and thoughtful program. So the feedback on the slide that you've seen I think

[03:10:57] is amazing and this is after first quarter so we really looked at the positive data and are working to continue and expand that program. At this time we want to take a look at one of our new teachers working with her novice teacher instructional coach at Centerville Elementary School.

[03:11:16] Madam Clerk, please play the video. The novice teacher instructional coach program in Fairfax County is designed to support new teachers as they transition into the classroom. Coaches work closely with teachers daily, planning lessons, observing, providing real-time feedback, co-teaching, and modeling effective strategies. At Centerville Elementary School, Sarah Phillips,

[03:11:52] a novice teacher instructional coach, supports Emma Petain, a first-year teacher. Emma Petain: From the very beginning days of the school year, even before the school year started, she helped me set up my classroom and joined me on our welcome walk where we get to meet all of our new students. And then throughout the fall, she's helped me plan small group time. Small group time is something that gave me a little bit of anxiety and made me feel a little overwhelmed because I didn't see it that much in student teaching. So I really wanted to use that time effectively and efficiently because i know it's a great time to really tailor the instruction to what the students need so sarah and i sat down on multiple occasions and would

[03:12:32] plan out weeks at a time of different ideas that i can use in math and language arts as well and also the schedule too so that i could stay on top of it and make sure that i'm seeing all of the kids and meeting all of their needs a cornerstone of the novice teacher instructional coach program is that coaches spend 90 percent of their time in classrooms engaging directly with teachers.

[03:12:54] The program emphasizes a collaborative, data-driven approach where teachers identify focus areas based on student needs. Together with their coach, they analyze student data, develop tailored strategies, and continuously refine practices through ongoing coaching cycles, all with student success at the center. Coaching in Fairfax is asset-based and so it's really important for us to really look at it as building on people's strengths. They have a partner that they can trust who is non-evaluative and is really someone that they can lean on and be themselves

[03:13:30] without judgment. It allows us to collaborate openly and freely to look at data and think about what would be best for students. When students get best practices student learning increases and because our novice teachers are learning these best practices in a small intimate setting they're They're able to go and do the lesson, reflect upon the lesson, and then increase that strategy the next time they do it.

[03:13:53] How can we describe 24 hours or one day? The novice instructional coach position has had a positive ripple effect. If you look at a whole school, the instructional coach reinvigorates teachers that have already been here. With the new teachers, we have seen an increase in confidence, a decrease in stress, and then student outcomes increasing.

[03:14:14] And this also helps with the school culture and creates a positive school culture where everyone feels valued and supported as they move forward through the years. Students are growing because they are getting solid instruction, best practices, and welcoming learning environments.

[03:14:30] Being the first-year teacher, there's so many ups and downs, you know, it's a roller coaster of an experience trying to learn the curriculum and classroom management and all of those things. So, my experience with Sarah has been nothing but incredible. So that is the strategic plan update.

[03:14:59] Thank you. It never gets old hearing the children say that. It does not. Ms. Seizmarheiser. Thank you. And I think this is a wonderful tool. I know a lot of times when I talk to new teachers, one of the things they talk about is just how difficult and isolating and lonely that first year is and having, you know,

[03:15:17] Having somebody who's a mentor to talk to so good kudos to you all as well for the work you've done on the program. Thank you very much. It's incredible. And to hear that our retention rates are the highest in four years is also incredible. So kudos to to your staff as well for all the work that you've done and for Mr. Solomon and a couple questions remind me of these these positions are the new positions like the funding streams for them or are they positions that we're taking some of our previous coaches and kind of repurposing them for for this use? They're not new positions. Come on up, Jay. I just want to make it clear to the public

[03:15:54] that we're not adding layers, but we're really being really efficient and effective and thoughtful how we're using our coaching. We are always fiscally responsible and thoughtful. The team gets tired of me saying that, right? Not at all. Good answer, Jay. Are you phoning a friend? Is that what we're doing here? We are. Mr. Nautico is here. What I would say is we took a different approach to positions that we had traditionally utilized in one way, and we made a decision, a conscious decision, to choose to use them in a different way, and I'll ask Jay to talk a little about that.

[03:16:28] Dr. Reed, yes, that's exactly right. So we've had centrally funded coaches in the county for a while now, but in the past, we've used those coaching positions to be positioned at one school because that's what we needed at the time. Over the past few years, as we know, the landscape of education has changed and the pathways into the classroom has also changed so we're seeing more and more novice teachers coming in with various degrees of experience and so by reallocating those existing resources and saying this worked at the time but now we need to do something different that's exactly what dr. Reed and leadership team

[03:17:05] challenged us to do so that's what birth this program I love that and that's what I thought but I wanted to make sure public was aware that we didn't add a bunch of new positions because what the other thing that I love about what we did is that we're being really nimble and agile looking at how things are changing the needs of our teachers are changing what existing resources do we have and how can we deploy them the best way and I really love that thinking and I think that's a great thing to bring to a lot of our programs and a lot of our the things that we're doing so I love this I really I did wonder how old she looked like she was 12 the new teacher so that just might be more my age than the teacher's age but I think it's a great program and I'm glad that we're

[03:17:45] repurposing staff in a way that's really effective for teacher retention because we recognize if we keep our teachers they get much more effective in the classroom and therefore there's much more effective teaching and learning happening but one other question I had is when you talk about our retention rate being the highest in four years have we surveyed our teachers or done some way to figure out like what did they feel has been the most effective thing to help them be successful their job like why are they staying like what's the difference that we're doing is it the teacher coaches it it sounds like it would be right but it'd be interesting to know for their perspective what is working and what is not sure and i i think

[03:18:23] there's some we certainly have some survey data and can collect more i will also say um dr ponce and the school support teams uh which would be uh miss lemon and some of our school improvement group uh miss neil uh mr knocko all that whole team came together because my bottom line was no new resources no new positions right but come up with a plan and so i i want to make sure that the board and the public understand this was the team that came and said we think if we do this

[03:19:03] we can actually be more effective even um so i really want to credit them with uh thinking because we can't keep doing what we've always done and get different results right like we know that so I think that's critical just to remember in that sense and we'll check in on data about you know why more folks are staying I do think it's certainly a heavy lift this year if you're an elementary teacher with a new literacy curriculum so I think the other the board has been very supportive of our teachers with allowing those seven early release days to enable that planning

[03:19:41] but to and also to be supportive around these positions being able to support teachers as they take on the heavy lift and i'll also say the board making sure we have the resources to purchase these materials for new staff there that's what many new staff need is something that's very tight very scripted right many of our more veteran staff don't require that level of scripting but for our new staff or staff new to this field it's an imperative so i just feel like that's important too so well i just wanted to say i really i love this program i love the creativity of thinking of

[03:20:17] what we really need as our staff are changing and i'd love to see more of that of let's take a look at what we're doing is it really meeting our needs now and if not how can we change or adapt TO REALLY MEET THE NEEDS TO AND SO THAT WAS PHENOMENAL GREAT JOB THANK YOU VERY MUCH THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK I APPRECIATE IT SO THANK YOU THANK YOU MISS LADY YEAH I'LL BE BRIEF AGAIN FANTASTIC WORK I JUST WANT TO REITERATE ONE OF THE THINGS THAT YOU HAD ON ONE OF YOUR SLIDES WHICH IS RELATED TO THE FACT THAT IT TAKES THREE TO SEVEN YEARS TO MASTER COMPLEX DEMANDS OF TEACHING

[03:20:51] AND LEARNING AND I JUST WANT TO REITERATE THIS BECAUSE BEING BEING A NEW TEACHER ESPECIALLY IN in these times is really, really challenging. And I think that we are doing amazing work to support those folks. But this is more of a plea to our community and to our parents just to have a deeper understanding and maybe some grace related to the fact that for some of these folks, they're teacher trainees and they didn't do their undergraduate or their work in teaching, some of them did.

[03:21:22] And like she said in the video, the small group session, she didn't get a lot in her student teaching. know I can tell you that when I interned and then when I actually got a job as a school counselor it was not very much like what I did as an intern it's just a different reality and the pace is so fast so that's all I'm asking is just people understand it takes three to seven years and let's hope for with the novice teacher programs like this that it's going to take closer to that three side but just just to give our teachers some grace and I just want to uplift all those who work with our kids every day because you do amazing work and we

[03:21:53] couldn't do without you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Lady. Ms. Dixit. Thank you for the presentation, Dr. Reed. I actually like this idea very much, and it's a kudos to the team. On the slide of number five, it says breaks down how many teachers in elementary 25, and these are the coaches, I guess, and in high school three, in middle school and high school, they're more subject specific, you know, the, so are there like the

[03:22:27] coaches are like one of them is like a science coach or then they work with the science teacher. How does it work in that level? So I'm going to bring up Michelle Liss who's actually in charge of the whole program and she's the one who actually manages and selects. Yeah so they're not content specific necessarily. They're really looking at good instruction, classroom management, student engagement, looking at assessments, analyzing it and then helping teachers pick strategies that match the content so that kids are successful so it's not

[03:23:04] necessary the the content is being discussed it's more of the how to you know do the instruction and management of the class that's right so it's through the content that the kids are successful by the strategies that coaches are helping the teachers with so some of the time we have parents whenever the new teacher comes to the class they always feel like oh we got a new teacher she has no experience, are the parents being told that this is the new program we're doing and this is a coach working with the teacher?

[03:23:42] We're very transparent in the fact that we believe everyone needs a coach. Doesn't matter if you've been teaching for 20 years, 30 years, everybody could use somebody to support them so that we're constantly thinking differently. And I think that in Fairfax County, we've developed and we are still developing a culture of continuous improvement with that idea that everybody is constantly improving.

[03:24:05] So we don't necessarily put it out to parents right away, hey, you have a new teacher and a new coach that's gonna come in, but we certainly do not hide anything. We wanna be transparent that support is needed by everyone.

[03:24:20] - Yeah, I think some parents are just too vocal about that if they get a new teacher in the classroom, and they make that point made. But definitely a great program please keep it up and keep going and I think it's going to be very successful.

[03:24:38] Thank you. Thank you everyone. I will say secondary teachers generally have departments so whereas elementary don't have departments for that content knowledge. And many states also require a content major rather than an elementary education major.

[03:24:55] So we generally I think feel pretty confident that the content knowledge is going to be solid but it's those strategies for I can know the content but if I don't have the instructional strategies I'm not going to be effective and those generally cut across content so thank you everyone thank you agenda item 10 consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all

[03:25:33] board members in the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of a 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 11 new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting agenda item 12 board committee reports. I call on Ms. Sizemore Heiser for a report from the budget committee the budget committee met

[03:26:09] this last Tuesday afternoon to discuss the budget and some of the various board priorities in the budget and some of the constraints we have around our budget as Dr. Reid presented we have constraints on JLARC funding we have constraints we really are trying to focus on our collective bargaining agreement and seven percent pay raise for our staff and I look forward to further conversations.

[03:26:31] Thank you, Ms. Sizemore Heiser. Agenda item 13, superintendent matters. I call on Dr. Reed. Thank you, Chairman Frisch. It's been a great couple days. It's hard to remember that we were up very early this morning. Was it two hours late today because of the ice? But anyhow, we're just thrilled that we were able to get school going two hours late and just appreciate that. We've also been very busy visiting schools and attending different athletic events and

[03:27:09] just really proud of the strong start for second semester and I'm hopeful that the forecast for weather next week does not come to pass because it looks like we're expecting more snow so I'm gonna be out doing a lot of Sun dancing and I'm gonna be charging the team with coming up with some Sun dancing because we do not want more snow days. So anyhow, just that takes care of superintendent matters. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Reed. I think you've just enticed up thousands of children to do snow dancing. So all right. Agenda item 14 board matters. I ask for

[03:27:48] unanimous consent to skip board matters this evening. Hearing no objection at 10:27 p.m. This meeting is adjourned.

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