Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, August 28, 2025

Date: Thursday, August 28, 2025
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 3h 48m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu87YH2Roig
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 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:36] Board members, please take your seats.

[00:00:56] Time is 7:00 PM and this August 28th, 2025, regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the National Anthem by West Springfield High School student.

[00:01:14] - I pledge allegiance to the flag.

[00:01:50] - Say salt stripes and bright stars.

[00:03:50] - Give another round of applause for our fabulous student. Mr. Moon has submitted a written request attend tonight's meeting virtually due to personal reasons as he has a travel conflict.

[00:04:09] He is located in Seoul, South Korea. All those in favor of approving Mr. Moon's request, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Lady, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Ms. I'm sorry, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms.

[00:04:30] Seismar Heiser, and myself opposed. Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, can we please check your audio and visual? We see you. can you hear me okay yes we can thank you so much thank you miss Sizemore heiser has notified the chair and clerk of the board that she is using remote participation as she is caregiving for an individual with a disability thus miss Sizemore heiser will be counted as in person for the purpose of quorum tonight and does not need to be voted in by the board she is located in boston massachusetts miss Sizemore heiser please check your audio and visual hello good evening everybody

[00:05:09] good evening on behalf of the school board i would like to welcome welcome catherine reed mayor of of the City of Fairfax. If you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda, please see the back of the auditorium.

[00:05:29] To obtain copies of any of the items or supporting materials being presented tonight, please refer to the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu/boarddocs. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Channel 99 and live streamed on YouTube and our website at www.fcps.edu/livestream.

[00:05:52] Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on YouTube at youtube.com backslash at FCBS in Espanol. Before we begin, I wanted to extend a warm welcome to everyone for joining us for the first time in one of Fairfax County's outstanding public schools this evening.

[00:06:15] We are glad you're here. Fairfax County Public Schools is home to some of the best educators and students in the nation. Just recently, U.S. News and World Report ranked seven of our high schools among the top 10 in Virginia. That's one more than last year. This recognition is just one reflection of the incredible work happening across our school division. We are incredibly proud of our world-class educators. They continue to help our students lead the Commonwealth in virtually every metric

[00:06:51] of success, from AP exam taking and test scores, to SAT scores, to graduation rates, to reading, math, and science SOL scores. You name it, our students are leading the way. We hope tonight's meeting gives you a sense of the dedication that drives our schools and the shared commitment of this board and the community to the success of all of our students.

[00:07:14] The next, I'm sorry, section 3.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members that are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at the school board regular meeting, business meetings, and public hearings can be found at the school board's website at www.fcps.edu/schoolboard.

[00:07:41] During the signup process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the board's expectations for respect and 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.

[00:07:57] 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. Audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats, including when recording video or taking photos.

[00:08:13] are grateful to those who have come to speak to us today. Thank you for your cooperation. School board members will be listening but not responding. Madam Clerk please call the first speaker. Student number one. My trans sister is nine and she has been exactly who she is since the day she was born.

[00:08:47] I watched her grow up and gave her love and waited for her to find her path. What she did it was the most easiest and most natural shift. No one ever no one knew no one knew how I wasn't sad but I I still knew how cruel the world might be for her and how dangerous it might be.

[00:09:08] We don't care if she plays sports. As a brother, I just want her to be safe, happy, and loved. Trans kids aren't the people bullying others in bathrooms, but to be honest, I don't know, I don't think she'll be safe from bullying until we all agree that it is not okay to judge and ridicule people they disagree with or do not understand.

[00:09:29] My sister won't be safe, while there are politicians that will use the same judgment as a justification strip whatever little privacy and protections have been carved out of her and children like her. So how do we keep trans kids safe?

[00:09:44] We continue teaching respect and compassion in school. We don't silence the lessons of history. We live by example and show that same empathy to parents and children we disagree with who are also just trying to navigate a rapidly changing and divided world.

[00:10:04] We treat conflict in schools as conflict and not a crime, and we mediate and educate. where children with deep differences learn how to live with each other in a civil society

[00:10:16] because that is the only way anything gets better. Josie Gillespie. Miss Anderson, members of the

[00:10:56] board. Thank you for allowing me time to speak on a matter of great importance. My name is Joseph Gillespie and I am a history teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools. Recently the Trump administration launched an attack on our schools and their students. As a teacher in Fairfax County I wanted to first say thank you for standing up for trans students across the county.

[00:11:25] I have seen firsthand the effects these attacks have had on our LGBTQ students. The fear and anxiety they have caused have made the community feel less safe. These attacks by President Trump and Secretary Mech Mahone are baseless and unconstitutional.

[00:11:41] They claim our schools are going against Title IX. However, as Dr. Reed has pointed out in her letter to the community dated August 15th, 15th, this could not be further from the truth. In Grimm versus Gloucester County School Board, the courts ruled that trans students are protected under Title IX. So far, a higher court has not reversed this decision. Additionally, Virginia has passed Code 22.1-32.3, which required schools to adopt protections for trans students. This led to Fairfax County Schools adopting Regulation

[00:12:17] 2603.2 which further protects trans students. As a history teacher, I do feel it's important to teach people about our role in government and remind people that the executive branch does not interpret the law. Their job is to enforce it. Instead, the courts have the right to interpret the law. Complying with the demands of Trump would mean violating Title IX and placing our students at risk. All evidence shows trans people are more likely to be the victims of attacks and bullying rather than the culprit. On behalf of trans students in our schools, I implore you to stand

[00:12:55] strong against these attacks on our school. Thank you. Patty Karshner. I'm going to take a quick moment to suggest that we kind of let the speaker actually speak and then we'll give them all the

[00:13:27] kudos at the end. Okay. So hello. I'm speaking to you as the parent of a twice exceptional sixth grader this year. I appreciate that FCPS wants to provide a safe and inclusive school environment for everyone. I thought I would talk a little bit about our school environment and what might help. On the first day of school what can we do to make students feel safe and welcome? Is the entrance calm and accessible or is it full of noise and commotion? Is there a calm predictable alternative to the cafeteria where students can eat lunch? Are our

[00:14:05] Are playgrounds accessible to everyone? We need to be thoughtful about school events and procedures. Are they accessible? Are they sensory friendly? Are we providing advance warning of schedule changes to students?

[00:14:22] Are the needs of students being met during fire drills and other emergency procedures? Are students able to physically practice getting out of the building every time? We need to work on the learning environment as well.

[00:14:37] Let's focus on student strengths and abilities. Let's understand that being autistic doesn't mean being incapable. Let's understand that being nonverbal doesn't mean having nothing to communicate. Let's ask what barriers students are encountering.

[00:14:55] Let's ask how their needs can be met. Do they need advanced classwork? Do they need a different way to communicate? Are they experiencing sensory overwhelm? Finally, we need to spend time listening to and respecting the student voice.

[00:15:11] We need to listen to our students about their experiences. Even our youngest kids can often tell you what's not working for them. Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for choosing FCPS as a priority for making this a safe, supportive, and inclusive school environment.

[00:15:30] Thanks. Josh Israel. Good evening.

[00:15:49] My name is Josh Israel. I'm the proud father of an FCPS student. As members of the school board, you hear a lot of feedback from a lot of people. Sometimes it's ideas from parents, staff, and students about how to make FCPS even better.

[00:16:08] Sometimes it's from people with real concerns asking you to help solve challenges. Sometimes it's even from politicians from other parts of Virginia who want to score political points by telling you how to do your job. I am here this evening to give you a different kind of feedback that I suspect a lot of people in Fairfax County feel but are just too busy to share.

[00:16:30] I'm here to say thank you. Because you fight for excellent schools, as Madam Chair, you just pointed out, US News just ranked 11 FCPS schools in the top 25 for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. Because your team hires excellent teachers, administrators, and staff, my third grade child has had nothing but positive experiences at his elementary school and is receiving what he needs to thrive.

[00:16:57] Because of your LGBTQ inclusive policies, FCPS employees are free to inspire our kids without fear of discrimination, and my family and all families are made to feel welcome, valued and protected.

[00:17:12] Please keep doing what you're doing. It is appreciated. Eileen Scherzinger. Good evening.

[00:17:33] I'm Eileen Scherzinger. I'm a proud parent of a trans daughter, and I'm also a coordinator and facilitator for PFLAG group in Fairfax. So I do work with a lot of the families and the youth that are going through our school system. I want to thank the school board for your support of our kids who are a very vulnerable and needlessly targeted group. I realize there are a lot of people who don't understand things about transgender people or the facts. I only have two minutes to speak so I'm not

[00:18:09] going to cover that tonight but I just want to say on behalf of all the trans kids and their families we thank you for recognizing the need for a safe space and to create a positive learning environment so that they can thrive kids are more confident responsible and proactive when they are in an environment that supports them so we appreciate Fairfax County schools for providing that and explicitly allows LGBTQ+ teens to grow like any other teenager without these necessary protections these kids will not be in a

[00:18:43] safe space our kids only want to be acknowledged and recognized for being their authentic selves they truly want to go about their day and to be left alone including their ability to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identities our kids are not seeking extra attention they're not looking to flaunt their private parts and flash them around they just want to use a stall in private and move on and go on with their day so how can that be hurting other people's kids I speak for my child and the other parents of the trans kids that we love we stand up for and we will

[00:19:21] always protect so again thank you for your support and we will not be bullied and you guys are doing a great job so Matthew Irwin good evening my name is Matt Irwin I'm the dad of two FCPS students my younger daughter is a second

[00:20:00] grader at West Lawn and my older daughter is just completed her second week here at Luther Jackson I'm here tonight to thank you for standing with with our trans and gender expansive students. This is a simple issue. FCPS complies with Virginia law, and it complies with several federal court cases striking down anti-trans bathroom policies, including ones in Virginia.

[00:20:20] The DOE and the Trump administration, in full violation of these rulings, is now threatening over $160 million in funding unless you decide to violate these laws and attack these children. That's $58 million in free and reduced lunches taken away. It's more important to this administration to attack trans kids than it is to feed 66,000 vulnerable children. 51 million more in threatened federal dollars goes to special education and career programs. It's more important to this administration to attack trans children than it is to provide the best education possible for all of our students. Another 56 and a half million goes to programs like Title One and Title Three. It is more important to this administration to attack trans

[00:21:00] kids than to help our most vulnerable students and communities. Thank you. Thank you FCPS for refusing to play along with this false choice. We can respect our trans and gender expansive kids and protect our most vulnerable communities. My children, all children are not political pawns. I refuse to endorse the idea of hurting a group of children in order to prevent this government from hurting a larger group of children. I'm a proud FCPS parent. I remain proud to support FCPS's decision to protect every student. Thank you.

[00:21:31] Angie Trayrotola. Good evening members of the school board, Madam Chair and Dr. Reed and thank you to the clerk. That's the first time I've ever heard my name

[00:22:08] pronounced correctly. My name is Angie Travertola and I'm the proud parent of a child who attends Fairfax County Public Schools. I'm here tonight because I believe deeply in that our division has made a commitment to have our public school system reflect the community we exist in. We don't tolerate bullying and discrimination and we celebrate everyone in FCPS. As my child begins his K-12 journey through this county, I was impressed to hear the amazing programs you are implementing to raise responsible young humans that are well-rounded that I know are going to go on to accomplish great things.

[00:22:42] I'm proud that he goes to a school where he knows bullying is not tolerated and where every student trans or cis is treated with dignity. I know that as a school board, you're bound by laws that are beyond your control. And for that reason, I'm using this moment tonight to speak to those who claim allyship and aim their energy at the wrong audience.

[00:23:00] Parents and supporters of FCPS, this one is for you. please write your elected officials show up to their offices go ask the board of supervisors to find the money to fully fund dr reed and our school board's next budget request especially remind them that they need to one up the prince william county board of supervisors that gave prince william county schools more money than they asked for when we protect the weakest among us we all thrive so tell these legislators who have the power to fix this broken system to do what we elected them to do and give us the funding to educate every single child in this district here's

[00:23:37] my two cents we must show up every time because when we don't this country is no longer e pluribus unum out of many one but it becomes out of the few voices who bother to show up so let's fill every seat in every room where the future of our children hang in the balance tell your busy friends packed with schedules that their absent might as well be silence which then becomes compliance

[00:24:01] thank you for protecting our students vanessa hall stephen aden good evening madam chair members of

[00:24:40] the board i hope that a slight change of topic will be acceptable to the board i serve as general counsel americans united for life the nation's oldest national pro-life advocacy center we've been retained to represent mrs zanita perez the fairfax county esl teacher who's made extensive factual legation allegations to fairfax county officials and to public media that school personnel at Centerville High School are facilitating student abortions without parental knowledge and consent. Mrs. Perez, a highly rated ESL teacher in Virginia for nearly 20 years, was made

[00:25:17] aware in 2022 that a school social worker allegedly facilitated and financed an abortion for one of her Spanish-speaking immigrant students. The student states that she told the school social worker that she and her boyfriend had no money for an abortion, but she was handed a white envelope to give to the abortion center which is just just down the road here in falls church by the way and was told that everything will be taken care of later a second student also a latina and an immigrant told mrs perez that she had been pressured into an abortion by the same school social worker she resisted the coercive attempts and chose to continue the pregnancy mrs perez

[00:25:54] brought these allegations to the attention of the centerville high school principal at the time as well as other staff on seven occasions but each of mrs perez's attempts to bring the case delight were ignored. As a result of her perseverance on behalf of these girls, Mrs. Perez faced what she describes as a campaign of significant workplace retaliation and harassment. Governor Glenn Youngkin has now tasked the Virginia State Police to investigate the matter and Mrs. Perez has provided a statement and documentation to VSP agents. Virginia law requires that a minor child's parent or guardian be notified of her decision to seek an abortion. These allegations are detailed and alarming and they point to an apparent systematic

[00:26:34] program for enabling young girls especially vulnerable immigrants to unlawfully obtain abortions by evading their parents and their guardians. We call

[00:26:42] upon the school system. Molly Cronin. Good evening Chair Anderson, school board

[00:27:25] members, and Dr. Reed. I'm a special education teacher and FCPS speaking tonight as an individual. I want to address three important topics: our collective bargaining agreement, the budget shortfall, and supporting all students. First, I'm proud that FCPS is now just one of six school divisions across Virginia with a ratified collective bargaining agreement.

[00:27:46] Thanks to this contract effective July 1st, 2025, 28,297 instructional and operational employees now have stronger protections, better pay, and more rights. Special education teachers have secured extended day contracts, elementary teachers planning time is protected, including a cap of 60 minutes of required CLT per week, and operational employees are now paid during weather closures and additional holidays.

[00:28:13] you for your leadership and support and unanimously ratifying the first CBA and FCPS history. Second, we're starting the school year with fewer staff and rising class sizes, especially in elementary schools. Our special education case managers are stretched thin, many of us supporting multiple grades. This is directly tied to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors underfunding FCPS by 146 sorry all 149.6 million dollars in May later reduced to 121 million after we received additional state funds. The Board of Supervisors chose not to fully fund our contract and that decision has real consequences in our

[00:28:52] classrooms. The next budget cycle starts now and we must collectively hold the Fairfax Board of Supervisors and our state leaders accountable to fully fund public education. Finally I'm proud to work for a school division that supports all students, including our LGBTQIA+ students. Every child deserves to feel seen, heard, and safe in our public schools. Thank you for continuing to stand up for some of our most vulnerable students. Thank you for the work you do supporting all of our kids.

[00:29:22] Rosie Koska. Good evening. My name is Rosie. I'm a resident in Falls Church, a teacher in Cascades, and a high school Ultimate Frisbee coach in Vienna. The recent allegations that have stemmed from a Substack blog post regarding two young girls that were encouraged to have abortions by school officials at

[00:30:01] Centerville High School have spread distrust in public education in Virginia. The girls minors at 17 did not tell their parents and the school allegedly wanted to keep it this way. A Virginia state law says I cannot give my Fairfax County high school athletes Tylenol for a headache yet these girls were brought to surgery without their parents knowing. This is a nightmare for parents. Their children taken to operations in secret by school in whom they entrusted their kids to. As a teacher, I keep my parents in the loop. I would expect the same outreach not only from my child's teacher, but also from the school counselor dealing with something

[00:30:39] as big as a pregnancy. School does not exist to take guardianship of our children. One of these students was reportedly five months pregnant and wanted to back out of the abortion. Five months. Babies have survived at that age in the NICU. What the school social worker reportedly said the student had no choice maybe the counselor should become more aware of community resources available to those who are pregnant and needing help one great website is standing with you org you can search your location and find help nearby no matter where one stands on the issue of abortion or education the

[00:31:17] events in Fairfax County demand our attention and action the allegations are serious we insist on clarity and strive always to place the entrance of young

[00:31:25] students and families first thank you Leanne pond Leanne pond Kathleen

[00:32:05] Mallard thank you good evening I was on the wait list and in fact I did not plan to come but I said you know what if my name is called and these there are so many important topics I've spoken to you well I have maybe 50 times concerned

[00:32:38] about student safety which includes areas that have to do with drugs human trafficking by your own admission every school every high school in Fairfax County has had reports of human trafficking that is sex trafficking because please give me a few more seconds to recover also but in middle and elementary schools too there's been human trafficking we're also

[00:33:11] dealing with issues of student safety I mean I know we are compassionate we understand students are confused but you all by your own curriculum sixth grade let's show a film of a students having sex with 30 customers a day oral sex in seventh grade oral sex appears eight times eighth grade anal and oral sex appears 24 times there this is grooming and then you wonder why then a student gets

[00:33:47] pregnant and then we're gonna Carter off to the abortion facility ah we have spoken to you why don't you give them other resources the only solution is not to have an abortion there are other solutions I just hope and pray you I know you all have a lot on your plates I mean but please please think about what you're teaching fisting who knows what fisting is well when I saw that in the

[00:34:24] curriculum the family life education curriculum and bestiality having sex with animals you're teaching our students that it is not I'm gonna ask again please do not interrupt a speaker's time while they're speaking we

[00:35:03] can show support after or not Amanda Campbell good evening chair Anderson vice chair ladies school board members and dr. Reed my name is Amanda Campbell I'm speaking tonight as an individual. I want to take a moment to thank FCPS for standing up for all of our students and following the laws and precedents in Virginia and the Fourth Circuit

[00:35:39] Court that require our affirming transgender policies remain in place. The executive branch does not get to unilaterally change laws to enforce its will. Seeing such visible and vocal support of marginalized populations is incredibly important for our students, families, and staff. That support will be critical at the local, state, and federal level for all students as the disability community is incredibly concerned about how this administration's actions will negatively impact special education services supports and funding. I'm also here to uplift and echo the testimonies of Toby and Lindsay Latham from the July 17th school board meeting.

[00:36:12] As another parent of an augmentative and alternative communication user in FCPS, our experience in getting our daughter access to appropriate education has been incredibly difficult. For those of you who don't know as well, my daughter's experience in FCPS began with us being denied a speech evaluation because preschool is, quote, "a language-rich environment," and she was only given access to four words total at the age of three.

[00:36:39] Despite the number of times I've been told by central office that this language is no longer used and that preschool access to speech has improved, I've connected with multiple families this summer who've been told the same statement and experienced the same barriers. When I asked for data from FCPS a few years ago, the data I was given indicated the average FCPS AAC user received three hours of speech services a month. FCPS knows the importance of immersion. Our dual language immersion program students get 15 hours of service a week. Our students are struggling to get 10% of that. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to attend an

[00:37:16] inclusive and immersive Camp Chatterbox in New Jersey. My daughter experienced skills she's not experienced in nine years within three days of returning to school here. We need to... Betsy Bella, who is virtual. Thank you for maintaining Fairfax County School District's commitment to supporting all students, including transgender students. My kids have a few years to

[00:37:54] go before they start at Fairfax County Schools, but there are other trans and non-binary students in my life who I care about. They face enough challenges without schools enacting policies that treat them as less than. As the first student speaker said, it's critical to continue teaching respect and compassion in school. Your continued commitment helps make this possible, instead of sending the opposite message. Not only is it critical to make sure transgender and gender expansive students can safely and comfortably attend school, but in giving into discriminatory and illegal demands of the federal administration, it would set a dangerous precedent. We have already

[00:38:32] seen that their intimidation and demands are unlikely to stop here. Thank you for standing alongside our students we are now moving on to video testimony please play the video testimony submitted by debbie kilpatrick hello i'm debbie kilpatrick and i serve as the fairfax county

[00:39:07] council pta president on behalf of our council board we want to welcome our school board members dr reed our students their families and our amazing fcps staff back to school and hope everyone enjoys a wonderful school year scc pta represents 174 ptas with 20 000 members and as a constituent of Virginia PTA and National PTA.

[00:39:32] Council board members also serve on FCPS and Fairfax County Advisory Committees to represent the voice of our PTAs. The PTA mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging in empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

[00:39:49] All children means all children, and we do not support any attempt to separate one group of children from another group. In fact, National PTA has specifically encouraged PTAs to support school policies that address sexual orientation and gender identification as they relate to creating a safe, inclusive, supportive, and accepting school environment.

[00:40:12] Free from violence, harassment, intimidation, and bullying. PTA supports public education funding with federal investments in our education system and has advocated for children to have access to quality public schools.

[00:40:28] We must continue to advocate for county, state, and federal funding of FCPS to ensure our students receive a high-quality education in a safe environment so that all of our students can reach their full potential. We encourage parents, teachers, and staff to join your local PTA.

[00:40:46] Our council supports our mission by offering Reflections Arts programs, Spelling Bee, Senior Scholarships, Council Awards, grants, training, and advocacy. You can learn more at FCCPTA.org. Have a great year.

[00:41:06] Please play the video testimony submitted by Robert Rigby Jr. Good evening. My name is Robert Rigby Jr. I'm a 27-year veteran teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools.

[00:41:23] When I began advocating in the year 1999, openly gay educators were rare. For years in media, I was known as the OG teacher. Now I really am the OG. Prefects County schools have become safer and more welcoming for all students, including transgender, disabled, immigrant, female, black, Asian, and all minority folks.

[00:41:47] I offer much thanks to the school board and Dr. Reed for rejecting the dehumanization and demonizing of transgender students. After trans and envy students, who would be next? You are doing what the voters elected you to do and what represents our county values.

[00:42:06] I've never seen such forces raid against inclusion. The Trump administration, along with Youngkin and Meijer, there are media enforcers who try to insult and destroy our voices. Nomani, Rosiak, Minak, and even a new guy in Ohio, Mr. Kurt.

[00:42:27] Linda Merle-Sills is coming to our school boards to campaign by dehumanizing our young people. How will she be able to govern well, even if she is elected, after campaigning only about how bad she thinks transgender people are?

[00:42:44] I'm offering a hand of friendship and a promise to work together to heal our community from this division. Let's begin that work today. The person with whom we disagree the most is our true neighbor, and thus the person that we must learn to love.

[00:43:03] Lieutenant Governor Earl Sears, please get in touch. We can arrange a meeting with parents, teachers, Fairfax, all of us. Thank you. Please play the video testimony submitted by Sheldie Arnaldi.

[00:43:29] Hi, my name is Sheldie Arnaldi and I've had children enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools since 2010 when my daughter started kindergarten. When I moved here, I believed that this was the best school system in the country. In 2020, when schools were closed, I had a rude awakening. When classrooms were closed and kids were stuck at home, the school board spent $2.4 million on social-emotional learning screening. At the same time, the school board wasted hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to rename schools with supposed racist names and sent surveys to parents asking our racial bias. It became clear that this board was more focused on political ideology than teaching

[00:44:05] children reading, writing, and math. In 2020, you justified the SEL screeners because schools were becoming de facto mental health providers. Five years later, our children's mental health is worse than ever. This year, you requested $400 million to hire behavioral health providers who are trained to treat kids with or without parental consent. Parents deserve to know everything that happens to our kids in school. We want our children to learn reading, math, civics, and history, not be treated as patients in a school-based medical system. Your mandates for masks, vaccines, and social distancing do way more harm than good. Your youth surveys ask inappropriate

[00:44:41] questions about sex, drugs, and suicide, only creating more confusion and fear. I've seen children as young as 10 years old drugged for depression, then later sent to mental hospitals as a result. Even the student rights and responsibilities handbook restricts free speech, threatens kids with culturally responsible interventions. This makes students afraid to speak honestly, even to simply describe someone's appearance. Students should be teaching kindness, grace, and forgiveness, not censorship. You've ignored parental rights and pushed harmful policies, and I urge you to stop SEL programs. Stop pushing medical interventions on healthy kids.

[00:45:18] stop confusing children about gender and sexuality and restore the focus on academics. Fairfax County parents expect schools to educate, not indoctrinate, or medicate our children. Thank you. Chair Anderson, that was our last public speaker. Agenda item 4.01, student representative matters. I call on

[00:45:53] Ms. McConaughey. Hello, welcome back to the school year after the summer break. It's great to see everyone here both in the board and on the audience. As we begin this school year, I would like to talk about the new security system. Students have experienced frustration with the weapons detecting system talking about unexcused tardies and delays in getting to class. I understand the system is still in its pilot stages but I would like to ask about the methods to improve the efficiency of the system as well if there's any solutions to the predicted increase in tardies. A separate note for the students understand the adjustment period. As tedious as it may be now, these methods are vital for our safety. Secondly, I would like to talk about the

[00:46:29] advisory committee applications. We had 181 students apply. To pick just 12 was extremely difficult. To read about the different experiences the applicants had in FCPS and how it shaped their worldview is such a privilege. I have full confidence that they will bring their wealth of experiences to their respective committees. They will be announced later in the meeting. Finally, I would like to reiterate my priorities. Among others, discipline disproportionality continues to be one of my top concerns. One thing I would like to touch on is the way FCPS calculates the risk ratio associated with discipline disproportionality. The formula given by the VDOE is what FCPS uses. This formula does not account for out of in-school suspensions. Currently, Fairfax

[00:47:08] County only calculates discipline disproportionality with out-of-school suspension data. However, this approach provides an incomplete picture of the disparities that exist within the school system by not including them. According to the FCPS out-of-school suspension data, the risk ratio for black and Hispanic students is alarmingly high at 2.74 and 2.33, indicating significant disproportionality in how disciplinary actions are applied. Even though this number is high, it still remains an incomplete picture. Out-of-school date out of school suspension data does not alone cap this out of school data alone does not capture the full extent of disciplinary practices that impact students well-being academic success and long-term outcomes with a broader

[00:47:46] school with a broader scope of discipline data FCPS policy decisions would be more informed helping drive more precise initiatives for bias training for both administration administrators and teachers I am I recommend that the school board direct the superintendent to use out of in school suspension data from schools to recalculate this discipline and disproportionality ratio.

[00:48:05] This would lead to a clear picture of all the infractions that exist within FCPS, which would help drive initiatives to reduce disproportionality. Thank you for your time. - Thank you, Ms. Maconan. Agenda item 5.01, action item, certification of closed meeting compliance.

[00:48:24] In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia, it's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on August 28th, 2025, the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such business public business matters as were identified in the closed motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do i have a motion mr mckelveen do i have a second miss lady all those in favor

[00:49:02] mr frisch mr mcdaniel miss marin mr mckelveen miss st john cunning miss lady myself miss dixit Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, and I believe we have two participants with their hands raised, which are most likely our colleagues. Yes, Mr. Moon and Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. That's unanimous. Action item 5.02, action item, confirmation of action taken in closed meeting. I call on Mr. Frisch for a motion.

[00:49:39] Thank you. I move that the school board authorize the actions recommended by legal counsel in closed

[00:49:45] session. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Lady. All those in favor Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Mr. Moon, and myself. That is unanimous. I call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a motion. I move that the school board approve the contract for employees and student immunizations and authorize the division superintendent or the director of

[00:50:20] office of procurement services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board mr is there a second mr mckelveen all those in favor mr frisch mr mcdaniel miss marron mr mckelveen miss st john cunning miss lady miss dixit mr dunn miss sizemore hyzer mr moon and myself all those opposed abstentions dr anderson point of order i believe that there was a

[00:50:59] of a word missing from the motion. - Two words. - Yes, two words missing from the motion. Without objection, I would like to add and then we can revote.

[00:51:25] - We're just clarifying, we're adding no cost before the word contract, correct? - Yes, I'm gonna call on Ms. St. John Cunning to reread your motion, please.

[00:51:50] - I move that the school board approve the contract for employee and student immunizations and authorize the division superintendent or the director of the Office of Procurement Services to execute, deliver, and administer the no cost contract on behalf of the school board. is there a second second mr mckelveen thank you for catching that all those in favor so we have mr mr mr fresh mr mcdaniel mr mr ms maren mr mckelveen miss st john cunning miss lady

[00:52:22] miss dixit mr dunn mr moon miss sizemore hyzer and myself all those opposed abstentions dr anderson thank you madam clerk would you like to read the vote the vote is 11-0-1 the motion carries. Okay. Moving on. Ms. Lady. I call on Ms. Lady for a motion. I move to excuse from attendance at school certain students identified in closed meeting pursuant to Virginia Code

[00:52:56] section 22.1-254B1. Is there a second? I second. Ms. St. John Cunning. All those in favor. Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Ms. Seismar-Hyser, Dr. Anderson. All those opposed. Abstentions. Mr. Fresh and Mr. Dunn. Will the clerk please read

[00:53:28] the vote. Ms. Anderson what's your vote? In favor. Then we are at 10-02. The motion carries. Thank you. Action item 5.03. New sole source contract. Career and Technical Education Consortium of States.

[00:53:46] Industry credential. Workplace readiness skills. I call on Ms. Lady for a motion. I move that the school board approve the contract for career technical education pretest post test and retake post test assessments for students in Fairfax County public schools and authorize the division superintendent or the director of the office of procurement services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there a second I second miss st.

[00:54:13] John Cunning miss lady would you like to speak to your motion just briefly um these career readiness pre and post tests and certifications for industry credentialing are I think a huge part of our CTE program. So as someone who worked in our school system for a long time these were game changers for a lot of our students in terms of workforce readiness and being able to be employed with credentials right out of high school. So I'm very supportive of this. Ms. St. John Cunningham would you like to speak to your second? Ditto to what my colleagues said and because I have a very strong academy in one of my districts I definitely

[00:54:51] support this and know the students that benefit from this. Thank you. Okay. Miss Sizemore Heiser. Thank you. And I appreciate the chance to speak to this and I am supportive, but I have several questions about this. So Dr. Reed, if you don't mind, before we take a vote, it says a new sole source contract. Can you help me understand why it's a new sole source contract? And can you just for the public's sake, explain a little bit more whether this workplace readiness skill test has been is new or is it just a new contract for it? Thank you Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Dr.

[00:55:29] Presidio is here and will speak to that. Yeah so this is a sole source contract because the vendor is the only vendor who actually provides this particular assessment which is the only assessment that the state allows to support the graduation requirements around work-based learning and CTE credentialing. I don't believe that this is I'm not positive and I don't know if there's anybody hear from procurement but I don't believe this is a new sole source contract I think it's a new contract term for the sole source contract with this

[00:56:03] particular vendor. Thank you and so so you're saying that this is to meet the new state CTE requirement is that correct and I hear you correctly or is this the same CTE requirement but just a new contract for it? So this is there's actually kind of two components to this the first is folks will remember we have a new state accountability and accreditation system that was created that has what's called a 3E requirement that students have to meet, and that's either employment, enlistment, or enrollment in higher education courses.

[00:56:40] So students who take this exam and pass this exam can meet that 3E requirement through employment, and that supports accreditation for the schools. but there's also for students that are starting high school in 2025 a graduation requirement where they're going to have to demonstrate basically their employability skills either through advanced coursework that they take completion of a CTE program or through passing a CTE credential and any of our students in any of our CTE classes are eligible to take this particular assessment which will satisfy that requirement there are other more

[00:57:17] subject specific career and technical education certifications that they can also earn and assessments they can take but this one is generalizable across all the different CTE programs to meet that requirement and this is the only assessment recognized by VDOE that allows that generalizability across all content areas in CTE well thank you for that explanation because that was my understanding is that is while they're having this exam has existed before the requirement from the state that is new I think I lost the video feed so can you

[00:57:51] guys still hear me okay yes okay so my understanding is that this exam may be there but the requirement is new the new accountability metrics what accommodations are provided for students with disabilities to be able to access this exam this is now going to be required for the class of 2025 for graduation yeah so students will have their accommodations that are documented in their IEP when they take this exam so that could be a number of different things for extended time different testing modifications and supports but whatever of those accommodations that are recorded in their

[00:58:27] IEP would be accessible when taking this exam so does the work keys no longer apply the work keys is a different assessment English assessment right but there was a CTE the work he's is not correct it's easy for interrupting but there was a CTE alternative that students used to be able to take that no longer allowed so there that's what I was speaking to when I said there's more subject specific CTE certification so there's some in computer science there's some in engineering there's you know some and a variety of different CTE program areas but this is the only CTE that's generalize excuse me this is the

[00:59:05] only assessment that's generalizable across all CTE program areas that would allow students to meet that requirement well what I'm getting at is so for other In other SOL exams, you have a locally awarded verified credit and a special permission locally awarded verified credit.

[00:59:23] There used to be a way, and maybe I'm misremembering this, to get the CT verification for students with disabilities who can't access knowledge on a standardized exam, and it sounds like that's going away. That's why I pulled this, because I wanted to understand better, what is the alternative for those who can't demonstrate their knowledge on this exam?

[00:59:39] Do they just not get to graduate high school? That's the first question. The second question is, I understand this is generalizable across all CT curriculum, but if you have a student who doesn't take a CTE class, is this taught somewhere? The specific curriculum needed for this exam, where is that taught?

[00:59:56] - Yeah, I think those are excellent questions. On your first question, I think I really need to make sure that I consult with our special services team to see if there's additional substitute exams that students with IEPs could take. I don't know that for certain, so I don't wanna go on record and answer that incorrectly.

[01:00:15] So I'd be happy to get back to you on that one. And then similarly on the second question, I do think there's, again, it depends on the courses that students have enrolled in. This is not the only way, this exam is not the only way to meet that additional graduation requirement.

[01:00:32] You can do it through advanced coursework, you can do it through work-based learning. So it really is kind of individualized in terms of how students are gonna best be situated to meet that graduation requirement. And this is just one of those ways that they can do it. - So help me understand, how do you do it through workplace learning?

[01:00:48] - How do you do work-based learning? - No, how do you meet this CTE exam requirement for the state to graduate through work-based learning? - Yeah, so it's not really a CTE requirement. It's associated with those three E's, enlistment, employability, and enrollment.

[01:01:06] So again, it's more of a post-secondary preparation demonstration, I guess I would say. And you can earn it through a CTE certification. You can meet it through advanced coursework like AP, IB, and some dual enrollment courses. And you can also meet it through work-based learning experiences.

[01:01:25] Can you give me an example of that workplace learning experience? Yeah, it could be a student who has an internship, an apprenticeship, outside of FCPS. It could even be a student that works in a school-based enterprise, you know, like a DECA program in a school, perhaps.

[01:01:42] know students in our automotive programs could meet it probably through work-based learning in certain situations do we have some guidance for our teachers and our case managers in particular the case managers and our ets and etrs to make sure that they are aware that students who may not be taking the cte or advanced coursework or other things have that ability and do we have programming set up that's accessible for all students to access work-based learning opportunities since that is a now pathway for graduation yeah we've been working really hard actually this summer in this fall during fall in service when

[01:02:19] staff came back to make sure that staff were aware counselors were aware case managers were aware of the different ways that they can support students with IEPs through career and transition services so we ran a lot of professional development around that but to your point because this is a shift with the new accountability framework I think there's going to have to be continued support ongoing discussion in additional learning opportunities because it is still new but we have started to get that messaging out there to staff what about to parents and guardians and caregivers and students I bring this up because in my in my history my long time there is often an awareness of certain

[01:02:58] accommodations and a lack of awareness especially amongst parents families caregivers because we don't talk about it enough and then students get to graduation and all of a sudden they can't get a standard diploma because they didn't meet some requirements because they didn't know about this. So what are we doing to make sure all of our families are aware, not just special education families, but all of our families of these changing requirements? Because not everybody takes an AP or IB exam. So I just, that's my question, is what are we doing to ensure awareness of this since it's for the class of 2025?

[01:03:27] Yeah, no, that's an excellent question. Ms. Seizmerheiser, I'm just going to let you know that that was your time. So we're going to have Dr. Presidio answer and then I can put you on a go back thank you I couldn't hear the buzzer so thank you yeah I was just gonna say again we've tried to really enhance the career and transition services work that we're doing with students and families through the IEP process and obviously that requires us to start by training our staff appropriately but we're really trying to push down that post-secondary planning of what happens after high school actually down into the middle school grade levels so that students and families are thoughtful about the types of courses that they want to take the ways

[01:04:06] that they're going to meet these different graduation requirements even starting in middle school so we've tried to really extend the timeline the planning and the preparation for students and families uh dr anderson um thank you i think i had a very similar question regarding whether or not this was a brand new contract and what i believe i heard that it's not a brand new contract it's not a new provider it's just a new contract with the same provider that we've had in the past. Is that accurate, Dr. Presidio? I believe that is the case, but I'm going

[01:04:43] to defer to procurement on that for sure. I don't know if we have the historical record of which vendor we used on the prior contract term or not, but I know what I can tell you again is this is the only approved vendor that offers this particular product, assessment product, which is the only approved assessment that meets this requirement. So before now, we have not had an assessment in this area? No, we have had multiple assessments, as I was saying, because you can earn this generalizable certificate or you can earn the subject specific. So this is just for the generalizable one. Thank you. So maybe, Ms. Burden, can you share, was this vendor utilized

[01:05:23] before or was it another vendor? Now, this contract replaces an existing sole source contract with the same vendor, which expires November of 2025. I see. Thank you. I wonder if there's some space in our documents for you to identify whether it is a brand new contract versus meaning a brand new vendor we've started from scratch versus just a brand new contract with an existing vendor because I think that caused some confusion for me thank you that's all that

[01:05:53] I had thank you Dr. Anderson Ms. Sizemore Heiser for a go back thank you just a quick question Dr. Reed this one I'll just aim it towards you I appreciate this is new and the state changes accountability and made it implementable apply almost immediately but I think there's a lot of confusion in the community about what does count what doesn't count what the students need what the students don't need and it applies to this year's class so I would just really ask that you work with your community engagement folks to make sure this messaging is really getting out I understand Dr. Presidio wanting to make sure our staff know but I don't know if there's time to do

[01:06:32] a staggered approach to information I think it's really important that we educate our families as well, and whether we need to go out to different PTAs and SEPTA and all of the places. But when I talk to people in the community, they're very confused about this. So I think I would just ask that, Dr. Reid. Yes, ma'am. We'll address it. Thank you. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and call for the vote. I will call for a vote for the motion, which is going to be on the screen in two seconds. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen,

[01:07:12] Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Moon, Ms. Seizmerheiser, and myself. I believe that's unanimous. Each, I'm sorry, agenda item 6.01, performance review, global executive limitations, EL1, monitoring report. Each year, the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress towards

[01:07:44] achieving the 2023 strategic plan 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 corrective action is needed.

[01:08:09] I call on Dr. Reid for a monitoring report on executive limitation one goal global executive limitations is our microphone I think now we're on right okay thank you so good evening madam chair members of the board and the public tonight I will be presenting executive limitation one which as the chair noted discusses global expectations as we look at the description

[01:08:42] indeed it is a global expectation it's if you will the global umbrella upon which all other work sits so I want to clarify as it's our first meeting of the new year that at the time of this report to the best of my knowledge information and belief the information and evidence gathered is evidence and information that would support compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic the full report for those of you at home or those of you here that want to review that is posted on board docs for your reading pleasure so I want to share some of the highlights from our

[01:09:21] 2024-25 goal reports and the team actually put together an entire one page document that looked at every measurement for all goal reports in our strategic plan and I would we're very proud of the work that's been done in fact most metrics for initial priority areas showed overall improvement from the baseline or they met school year 23 24 targets and these metrics are they include but are not limited to multilingual learner growth chronic absenteeism third grade reading algebra one algebra one success by the end of

[01:09:59] eighth grade and on time graduation so it's an opportunity for us to really highlight progress even as we continue to plan work moving forward that will continue to improve these data points I want to point out that we are and again a big thank you to our elected school board this evening and your commitment to safety for our students staff and community Fairfax County Public Schools is proud to be the first school division in the Commonwealth of Virginia to be participating in the FBI wrap-back program and this is really an important

[01:10:36] program because it it actually enables all the real-time criminal background checking for all of our staff in the school division and this is actually very important many other states have committed to this program so that you have real-time data coming back to us all new employees will be enrolled as part of the hiring process moving forward and all existing employees are acknowledging an FBI privacy statement to be enrolled enrollment for wrap back

[01:11:09] is a requirement for continued employment additional highlights from the 24/25 school year we were proud to say that 99.4% of all necessary employee fingerprints have been completed I believe we've hit a hundred percent now mr. Solomon but last year we again had a hundred percent of our schools in compliance with required safety drills and that's honestly I know that sounds like a trite statement but when you tend to important preventive activities

[01:11:45] there's not a lot of cheering and often not a lot of notice when things go smoothly and I just want to share that it's the result of hard work and attention to detail as well as our strong partnership with our Fairfax County police and fire departments that enable us to make sure that we take care of drills and that we practice what we might do in emergency so we're very proud of that work and we're continuing our work in the Baldrige process our 25 page application was submitted in the spring and we plan to submit our full application in December. We'll be reporting more about that in coming meetings because

[01:12:24] that work is really designed to enable us to streamline and make our work more efficient. Our schools have additional highlights. Our schools have completed their, I would characterize it as a unique 10 list. I know we had several board members talk about the importance of our schools sharing what's really special at each of our school sites with 200 schools.

[01:12:51] We have a lot of special things going on both academically and activities and it's really exciting to see how we profile really unique data points. Last year we held 129 community meetings across a variety of topics to provide opportunities for ongoing engagement with our Fairfax County public school community.

[01:13:17] And in fact, the next couple of weeks will be kicking off our family vision group again, which includes two family members from each school in the county. And that's a great opportunity for input from our community to our division leadership, as well as our ability to share division priorities and initiatives with our community.

[01:13:39] And that's been a really strong partnership and a great space to problem solve. It's very excited to continue that work. And finally, this past May, the board approved our updated SRNR. And as part of this, all school-based administrators now participate in yearly training around discipline.

[01:13:59] As it's been made clear, we want to be a school system rather than a system of schools. and in particular, how we administer discipline and support safe and inclusive learning environments. I want to do a shout out to Dr. King and her department for supporting this required training and initiating our discipline consortium, which we'll hear more about in the coming weeks.

[01:14:26] But this is a body of work intended to make sure that all schools and all staff in all schools understand expectations at the division level. The training was held during July's leadership kickoff week and continues to focus on highlights with related to our student rights and responsibilities.

[01:14:43] So Madam Chair that concludes the presentation for executive limitation one global expectations and happy to take any questions at this time. Thank you Dr. Reed. I will now call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion.

[01:15:02] I move that the school board finds that the superintendent is in compliance with executive limitation number one global executive limitations I further move that the school board approve the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limitation number one global executive limitations as outlined in the strategic governance manual is there a second I second miss Marin missing John cunning would you like to speak to your motion so just briefly first of all I mean this is a huge executive limitation

[01:15:38] And I want to commend Dr. Reid for her efforts to bring about meaningful progress to achieving this goal and for all students to feel safe, supported, included, and empowered. Specifically, it's noted that our students are being more included.

[01:15:54] And that is also -- that also means that there's been a reduction in chronic absenteeism across the board, including among our multilingual learners. So sometimes when we talk about all included, we forget that all included means that they actually show up. So the fact that those numbers have dropped in terms of chronic absenteeism is huge.

[01:16:14] And also, you know, the fact that all our students and staff and family, our family are going to be a lot safer because we are the first in the state to participate in the FBI's Wrapped Back Program. And we know that this is going to be something that is going to benefit all of us and give us a little bit more peace of mind.

[01:16:34] So thank you. Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunningham. MARIN WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR SECOND? DR. REED, THANK YOU FOR THIS COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW, AND I KNOW WE'LL DIG DEEP INTO THESE IN THE YEAR AHEAD. I ALSO JUST WANT TO POINT OUT SOME OF THE INCREDIBLE DATA, NOT ONLY THE CHRONIC ABSENTEE AND REDUCTION, BUT EXPANDING ENROLLMENT IN ALGEBRA, THE STUDENTS OBTAINING ENGLISH PROFICIENCY, DATABASE STREAMLINING AND MAXIMIZED DOLLARS. I ALSO WANT TO MENTION THE EXTENDED TRAINING IMPLEMENTED FOR OUR ATHLETICS PROGRAMS AND OTHERS, THE TOP TEN LIST FOR EACH SCHOOL, OFFICE OF

[01:17:10] SAFETY, SECURITY AND CYBERSECURITY, I MEAN IT'S JUST SO COMPREHENSIVE AND I'M PARTICULARLY PLEASED TO SEE THE UPDATES ABOUT POLICIES AND REGULATIONS SO THANK YOU FOR ROLLING THAT IN AND THAT WILL CERTAINLY REINFORCE THAT WE KEEP ALL OF THAT UPDATED SO THANK YOU FOR THIS TREMENDOUS WORK TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM. THANK YOU, MR. DUNN. THANK YOU. YESTERDAY, - Chair Nation experienced another mass casualty event caused by random gun violence.

[01:17:40] Can you please speak to what FCPS is doing on a daily basis because we as school board members receive a lot of reports that aren't made public, but can you speak to some of the measures that are being put in place, especially new measures to protect students and staff from both internal and external threats?

[01:18:01] - Yes, Mr. Dunn, and before I answer that, I think that it goes without saying, but I'm going to say it, that, you know, our prayers are with those in Minneapolis, those families of the children and staff and all those impacted by the continued senseless violence directed, obviously, in the Minneapolis situation with our school shooting there.

[01:18:26] I'll be sending a note to staff this evening about that. To answer your question directly, we've really worked this year to continue the layered security approach. One of the things that's new in our middle and high schools this year, as you know, are the weapons screening program.

[01:18:49] And we believe that it's important. It's one layer. It won't on its own solve all issues around weapons that may be in the school environment. we know that it's one strategy and that's a commitment I know this board made as well as our office of safety and security recommended that anywhere where you have large gatherings of people it's just another preventive step.

[01:19:16] Not unlike the fact that we for this year last spring we reviewed plans also for our board meetings this year and determined that with the coming cycle we would also enhance layered security plans for large groups that gather to be present for board meetings.

[01:19:35] So the weapon screening is certainly new. We've added safety specialists that are supporting our elementary school because we have six regions and we want to make sure that as we're able we continue to add staff at the elementary.

[01:19:51] WE ALSO ARE LOOKING AT RAPTOR ACTIVE RESPONSE, NOT SURE IF IT'S CALLED ACTIVE RESPONSE, MR. LAMBERT, BUT IT'S A PROGRAM WHERE WE'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO HAVE AN ALERT THAT'S VERY QUICK. I'M GOING TO ACTUALLY PHONE A FRIEND TO BE A LITTLE CLEAR ABOUT THAT BECAUSE THAT'S COMING NEW THIS YEAR AS WELL.

[01:20:09] MR. LAMBERT, WOULD YOU PLEASE KIND OF BE A LITTLE MORE DESCRIPTIVE ON THAT FOR ME? MR. YES, MA'AM. raptor emergency response button is the program where we will install this in all of our school facilities each staff member will carry a badge with them along with their ID if they depress the appropriate number of buttons it bypasses the need for calling the front office or trying to figure out what's going on and immediately notifies the police department or first responder depending on what it is that something is ongoing and then it alerts everybody else in the school system through a variety of options including a chat option on their phone or

[01:20:49] their desktop so it will speed the first responders coming and save precious seconds we've also continued mr lambert's correct time is of the essence in a emergent situation we've also continued to add vestibules i've been at a number of schools obviously in the last week and a half And a number of them have brand new vestibules that have been put in place, particularly at the elementary, but also at our middle and high schools.

[01:21:18] I know Herndon Middle School was just finished and I was at an elementary school this week for a back to school night where the vestibule had just been completed as well. We're continuing to add cameras in the school setting. I also want to pivot for a moment and talk about our transportation system.

[01:21:35] I had an opportunity with Mr. Mewick and Paul Andrade and Tracy and from transportation to do a ride-along on one of our buses this week and have an opportunity to see our tablets in action and before the year is out, we think sometime around the middle of the year, our students who ride the buses will have an RFI card to actually cart on and off our buses.

[01:22:00] so we know who is on our buses and also our buses are routed so that we make sure our children get on the correct bus because the tablet will also indicate if a student perhaps has gotten on the wrong bus so they can be redirected to the correct bus.

[01:22:17] And that's important from a safety standpoint because we also wouldn't want someone to just get on a bus perhaps that maybe wasn't assigned to that bus. And it gives us another layer of safety and security, as well as turn by turn directions for substitute drivers who may not be familiar with the route.

[01:22:36] And lastly, it really if there is some type of an accident or a weather event, it allows our central transportation routers to reroute buses in real time. So we consider that another real strong safety and security measure. So we're going to continue to add layers of security and I'm glad you raised that question because it's a strong commitment for us.

[01:23:00] Thank you. Can you please speak to the implementation of the weapons detection technology? How is it going because early first couple days I'm sure was rough but can you talk about where it is now in terms of you know smoothness of entry into the school each day?

[01:23:16] Yes sir. Clearly, the first couple days at one of our more comprehensive high schools, it's a little rocky because we have a lot of students and we have staff learning the system and students learning what to be able to bring through the system versus not through the system.

[01:23:34] So we've seen some long lines early on, but we know that as the habits get set that those lines very much so shorten because they become more efficient. AND I'LL ASK IF MR. LAMBERT HAS SOMETHING TO ADD TO THAT BECAUSE MR. LAMBERT'S OFFICE IS OVERSEEING THAT IMPLEMENTATION. THANK YOU, DR. REED. YOU'RE CORRECT THAT THE BEGINNING IS OFTEN THE MOST DIFFICULT PERIOD AS STUDENTS ADJUST. WE DO FIND THAT THEY ADAPT VERY QUICKLY.

[01:24:03] TO YOUR POINT ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION, I BELIEVE WE HAVE JUST FOUR SCHOOLS REMAINING TO IMPLEMENT AND EVERY HIGH SCHOOL WILL BE UP AND RUNNING AND THAT WILL CONCLUDE IMPLEMENTATION BY THE end of next school week and then we're going to be I know I was at one of well several of our middle schools in the last couple weeks but we're going to be putting together a middle school sort of video instructionally with some of our middle school students and we'll be rolling out our weapons screening software in our middle schools in beginning late September early October are in practice our school administrators finding that it causes

[01:24:42] students to be late to class or has that been resolved I think that each school is because each school has a layout that's somewhat different as the systems are deployed I think each school is modifying and adjusting based on their footprint their foot traffic the number of buses versus number of walkers versus number of kiss and ride drop-offs so each school has I think a bit of a

[01:25:10] unique challenge. But I believe that obviously the expectation is we're going to smooth this particularly before it starts raining because we want to make sure that students aren't outside in inclement weather. So it's a right now we've been fortunate because the weather's been amazing. But we want to make sure we get it smooth before we see more inclement weather. Can you talk a little bit about the volunteer visit visitor program or registration system that's new which I think is intended as a safety measure Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I think that the volunteer management system has been upgraded this year.

[01:25:49] Also, we've really tried to mirror the county system because we really want to make the ability to have folks just apply to be a volunteer in one space instead of having to go to multiple schools if they have students at multiple schools. And then theoretically, the plan is the hope that we wouldn't have to re-enroll every year, right?

[01:26:10] It would be a one time enrollment and I want to apologize to our community this evening because I think it's been a rocky rollout for sure. And we have met with the PTA and we've made some adjustments. The team has gone back to make some definitions clear on the website and to make the process a bit smoother with the understanding.

[01:26:33] And I think as we talk it through everyone understands we want to do whatever we can to keep our our children and colleagues safe. So I think when I think the current adjustments have made things much smoother. And of course, our hope is to continue to be able to refine our process so that our community feels welcome because we value our volunteers.

[01:26:57] We want those partnerships. They're critical to the success of our children and we want to make sure that our children are safe. So we're in that constant tension. And of course, under the system, if someone's going to be unsupervised with a child, they'll undergo background checks so that parents can have confidence that anyone at any adults at the school have gone through the necessary, you know, measures to ensure student safety. Is that right?

[01:27:22] Yes, sir. That's correct. Can you speak a little bit to the second requirement in EL1, the requirement for a data informed system focused on continuous improvement and how you have sought to implement that, especially if you can talk about any measures that have been taken or actions under your leadership, things that didn't exist before and how you've changed the system for the better. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I think there are a number of things we've done with data. We've created a number of data dashboards, including, I think, the data bytes, which our leadership team

[01:27:59] here is nodding their heads because our senior leadership team every Monday morning at 630 gets A DATA BYTE ON KEY DATA INDICATORS ACROSS THE SCHOOL DIVISION AND I THINK THAT'S REALLY ENABLED US TO MAKE DRAMATIC MOVES BOTH IN REDUCING ATTENDANCE AS YOU'RE GOING TO HEAR LATER THIS EVENING INCREASING THE NUMBER OF OUR STUDENTS THAT ARE ABLE TO TAKE ADVANCED MATH AND IN PARTICULAR ALGEBRA BY EIGHTH GRADE.

[01:28:23] OUR IMMUNIZATIONS HAVE JUST HUGE GAINS AROUND THE NUMBER OF OUR CHILDREN THAT ARE SAFELY immunized. I think that we're looking at just a variety of HR topic areas. We are at the lowest vacancy rate in years for educators as well as drivers. So I think that as each department looks at what we call KPIs, key performance indicators, it's really important that we're able to see those

[01:28:56] on a regular basis to actually act on them and move those data points measuring making sure all our staff are taking required trainings right that just things that we need to make sure we monitor it's kind of like a car dashboard right as long as all the instruments are healthy we're going to run really well so I think we've implemented a number of data sets and And principals also have a data set that goes to their desktops at the same, I think it's still 6:30 Monday morning, Mr. Sethi, is that correct, our principal pulse, data pulses?

[01:29:31] Yeah, it's called school pulse, yes, it's delivered to the principals every morning. We have data that goes to our principals, data that goes to senior leadership, so we are, and it's not, it's data that's actionable, right, like we're looking at it in real time. I think often school divisions, maybe companies, I don't know, look at data, maybe quarterly look at data maybe at the end of the year and think oh dear that was that didn't work right and our theory of action is that we want to look at it every week and if there's something we can do now we're going to do it and our attendance that was a huge piece you know when we began

[01:30:08] looking at it we started intervening immediately we didn't wait till the end of the year which is why we were able to improve our attendance so dramatically and finally can you provide an update on hayfield because there's been a lot of concern about the testing and whether the cleaning is completed or just where that stands if you could provide an update yes sir in fact we reviewed it today we were reviewing the air quality data and our plan is to have that posted on the website next week the in reviewing it today i have asked for a summary report from our external air quality

[01:30:46] evaluators we have several two different companies that are coming in and doing both swab testing and error testing and we're certainly going to post the raw data but we also felt like it's important for some kind of summary from these people you know for people that are able to look at that but the data continues to look good we also have addressed the uh uh b issue that was at the end of last week which is seasonal of course but we will be you know continuing to keep the community updated and our commitment is that we're going to continue the air quality testing through

[01:31:26] our fall quarter we want to make sure that we're monitoring our efforts but so far so good Mr. Gordon you want to I think you could comment in general about the most recent results that we've had a chance to look at yes ma'am thank you for the question so and continue that we are also looking at areas like the robotic lab and so we've remediated that with servpro third-party entity and we repainted it replaced ceiling towels we expect that space to be turned over early next week as well and as as dr reed said we are waiting for the third-party vendors to give us their

[01:32:04] executive summary of the testing results to go side by side with the test and i hope to have that back initially by wednesday or so opposed to being compliant with uh doctor's guidance thank you yes sir thank you mr dunn um moving on to dr anderson thank you it would be no surprise to hear that i was very excited by this part of this el um as you know i've been asking for this one pager for a couple of years now and this will have been helpful because if you remember the data dump that I added to your evaluation was pretty much a compilation of all of the data sets

[01:32:43] of the goal reports. So first of all, thank you. This is very much appreciated. Can you speak to how you came to decide which data set you would include in this piece? Because I see that there, I just want to better understand.

[01:33:02] So these are the summary of the goal reports and I'm going to turn to the team that put chart together Ms. Neal so Dr. Anderson this was pulling out the data points connected to those initial priorities that we set as a focus so within the goal reports that we gave last year those targeted areas such as reading by third grade algebra one by eighth grade the advanced course taking patterns those were the areas that we selected for this one pager okay that's very helpful because when I saw some of the SOL data I was wondering how come we didn't have the SOL data for eighth grade etc so thank you for that and just kind of diving into it a couple of the

[01:33:39] data pieces were I'm not sure of how to read them for example the suspect the disproportionality the number of students with more than one suspensions for Asian students and I also believe for multi-racial students those went up and I know we're trying to decrease them from the baseline and yet it is still blue if you could help me understand how to understand how to read this better yes ma'am so Miss Neal and then Dr. King I know is leading this work so Miss Neal yep so Dr. Anderson anything in light

[01:34:15] blue or sorry in dark blue meant means that it meant the target last year so when we were doing the reporting and we shared those targets for last year it means that that data point was within that target threshold anything in light blue means that it made progress from the baseline but did not meet the target last year and then anything in yellow did not progress beyond the baseline we do have two data points that are on there that you see are in all white if you recall that was the presentation on our able work so that was baseline data we didn't have a reference point to set a target against so that was the first year of reporting that data and information from our student survey that

[01:34:53] we didn't have information to again have a baseline against I'm not sure if I was clear in my question because I do think I understand the different colors but let me be a little bit more specific for example for Asian students in that era it was 0.74 but the actual was 0.77 so it went up which is not what we wanted but it is still blue yeah we would have coded anything that still met the target so we may have had some student groups that were below we can go back and check that specific data point you're asking about I'll make sure and confirm it's correct because the target for that group as you had outlined it was supposed

[01:35:30] to be 0.74 was supposed to stay steady and I see a similar discrepancy with the multiracial students in that area and I think there was a third but I can't find it right now similarly I think I had a the same question with the on-time graduation because we have few groups that they decreased and yet they still remained in the dark blue range and so if you could check on that I would appreciate some feedback there and I did have that question regarding the rigorous coursework the that is all in white it's the first set of white boxes

[01:36:09] that's the 2324 baseline data can you speak as to when new data will be received because I don't think that was particular and that was included in the GOAL FOR REPORT. AND SO I'M TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHY THIS ONE SECTION THAT ONLY HAS BASELINE WAS HIGHLIGHTED. YES, MA'AM. THAT'S OUR ABLE DATA. SO WE DO NOT HAVE A REFERENCE POINT. WE HAD ONE CLASS WORTH OF DATA THAT WE SHARED. AND SO THAT WILL BE PART OF OUR UPDATED GOAL FOR REPORT THAT WILL COME TO THE BOARD. I BELIEVE IT'S SCHEDULED FOR THE SPRING. OKAY. THANK YOU. UM, ANOTHER COMPONENT THAT I

[01:36:46] WANTED TO SPEAK TO A LITTLE BIT OUTSIDE OF THIS DATA. I MEAN, THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS HERE. UM, I appreciate the ongoing evidence and all of the things that Mr. Dunn just talked about that's very much appreciated but a component that I wanted to speak to when it comes to this global executive limitation is a component about the endangering of the division's public image and is that my time should I I can go go ahead and finish your question and then I can put you on a go back just go ahead and put me on a go back thank you Dr.

[01:37:20] Anderson. Moving on to Mr. McDaniel. Thank you. Pulling up the chart that Dr. Anderson held up, there was something that jumped out at me on the left. It said the percentage of grads who took rigorous coursework. What are we defining as rigorous coursework, and what are we defining as taking? I mean, not to split hairs, but if they took the class and then drop it, do they count, or do they have to complete it, or what's rigorous, what's not rigorous?

[01:37:57] There was no footnote, no definition in there. So that just kind of, that's my first question. Yes, sir. Again, I believe this connects to our ABLE work. So, Ms. Neal, do you have a, I think we've had a definition. We probably need to add it here, and we can do that for our Friday letter upcoming.

[01:38:14] But, Ms. Neal, how are we defining that? Yeah, so, Mr. McDaniel, this is based on the research around the course-taking patterns students need to be ready for post-secondary so this is the work that we've done with Abel based on their research on courses taken in English math science social studies world language and CTE and so they have a process where they evaluate the entirety of the students high school course taking patterns to determine whether or not they've taken sufficient years and courses that indicate they are ready for post-secondary which includes employment and college opportunities so that's what is sitting behind that okay

[01:38:54] perfect thank you in the last question I mean generically we've always talked about you know reading by third grade algebra eighth grade those two benchmarks are the goal for many reasons but if we look at this chart the least improved line I won't call it the worst but the least improved line is the third graders passing the reading SOL and I'm specifically calling out or drawing attention to black students and multi-language students what's the plan

[01:39:30] here so great question I think the board actually had tremendous foresight even before the state shifted to the science of reading but this board I believe took literacy on as a really honestly a huge equity project right to make sure that every child is able to read to access content we did implement a brand new literacy curriculum last year but that's the first year so we believe that as our kindergartners become first graders and first second and second third that with

[01:40:06] several years of a really high quality intensive literacy initiative that we're going to see very different scores in the next couple years I think with one year and with our staff working valiantly like our staff worked so hard last year on learning a new curriculum implementing a new curriculum the fact that we didn't decline you know you often think about something called an implementation dip when you try when you begin a new curriculum that's huge that we even though they were modest gains we've continued

[01:40:42] to make modest gains now having said that the expectation as I've been out in schools and I know each of you have been out in schools I know our teachers our educators our principals many of them are thrilled that they have students coming who understand the routines from the year before because of the literacy work the year before so I we're really expecting this year to see more significant gains across the board and I think after this becomes just our you know educational program and literacy I think we're going to see more significant gains thank you

[01:41:21] Mr. McDaniel. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Reed, hopefully you can hear me. Yes, sir. Thanks for the presentation. And I like the data on that one pager, which is a part, which is page three of the report. Just a couple of questions. When I see this is a 2023-2024 data, 59 percent as the percent is for eighth graders successfully completing algebra one i understand

[01:41:59] that you have some other data as part of your presentation for academic matters later this evening but would you be able to share with us how this 59 is different from maybe may not be different from enrollment data in algebra one yes sir i i know miss neil put this together and tabulated so i'm going to ask her to explain that please i'm trying to see whether everyone enrolled

[01:42:36] in algebra one is satisfactorily completing the course yes sir and we'll i will be addressing that in the academic matters but for the purposes of this chart miss neil do you want to clarify Yeah. So, Mr. Moon, you've pointed out the difference. One is looking at this evening, we're going to take a look at the students who registered in eighth grade to take a math course, algebra one or higher for the school year. This particular data point that we report in our strategic goal is looking at the students who both passed the course successfully and passed

[01:43:12] the SOL. So it's slightly different. Okay. So should I wait until we do academic matters to see the difference between a enrollment versus completing we're looking at slightly different years so this is looking at um 2324 data dr reed's going to talk about our data for this year but certainly we could go back if you would like and include some information on 2324 enrollment versus completion yes i'll be interested in that okay thank you thank you

[01:43:51] Thank you, Mr. Moon, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. - Thank you, and I appreciate this report. First, just some kudos, Dr. Reid, to you and to your HR team for the amount of work it took for all of these background checks. I know we've been talking about the Wrap Back Program for quite a while now, our board has, and to see us as a first division is participating in that to help ensure background checks for all of our employees.

[01:44:16] I'm really thrilled to see some of this work. So just thank you to you and to your team for all the work. I mean, 99.4% of net fingerprints completed, the disclosures for background checks, and even seeing on page five, the conversations around 100% compliant with safety drills and complete successfully the audit from the Department of Criminal Justice around our safety.

[01:44:38] It shows that we really do take safety and security of our students to heart. So thank you for that. I did wanna just mention a couple things. One on that chart. First, thank you for putting this chart together, Ms. Neal and Dr. Reed.

[01:44:53] This is really helpful to kind of see this from a global perspective as to where we are on many of our strategic plan initiatives. But I wanted to point out, go back to that one that my colleague was talking about regarding the advanced CTE courses, because this ties into my earlier conversation about the very rapid change in state requirements and the requirement now for a student to demonstrate either passing on a CTE completion, know that part of that three c's or that dr prasidi was talking about if you look at the percentage of grads who took advanced cte courses unless i'm misreading this if you look at

[01:45:30] multilingual students and students with disabilities that's just a little over half so unless you're really targeting the workplace of you know work-based opportunities that dr prasidi was talking about those students are significantly at risk of not meeting that requirement which is why i asked about what where specifically the skills needed for that one you know global exam are taught because if those students aren't taking a cte class because i know you need a cte or a fine arts class to graduate so you might take a fine arts or class instead of the cte that number

[01:46:07] concerns me right here so you know and if you add economic disadvantages there's 25 right look at hispanic it's 73 you know 27 are not taking these classes so what's the plan to ensure those students don't get accidentally left behind with the rapid changes from the state yes ma'am i i think that one of the plans is as we try to have fewer self-contained courses and i also say it but fewer courses that might substitute for elective time then it's going to make space in student

[01:46:44] schedules to be able to take some of these more advanced career and technical education courses or advanced fine arts courses. So I know that that's one strategy we're working very hard on. I want to commend our instructional team for working hard to, for example, create the strategies for success option within an advisory so that it's not that children have a choice, right? And families have a choice. It doesn't have to be an elective course, which then, you know, doesn't leave space for some of these advanced CTE courses. I know Dr. Presidio, this is a

[01:47:23] priority and wondered if there are other plans afoot or if we want to check in with Dr. Edmunds Heard and perhaps follow up as well in a Friday letter. It's also our multilingual students, Dr. Reed. Yes. And we're also, as we look at more GLAD strategies and less sheltered out of self-contained strategies I think again that makes space within course within a course schedule but Dr. Presidio both multilingual and advanced CTE for our students with disabilities yeah I mean again I appreciate the question because we pointed out you know an area that we need to be focused on I think with a

[01:48:02] really significant equity concern I think the first thing I would say is we have four years to work with these students to make sure that they can meet these requirements so we're quite confident you know confident that we're going to be able to do that I think it starts with course planning like I was talking about earlier and trying to backwards map that course planning to meet these requirements into middle school I think is going to help us and then as dr. Reed was talking about all the work that we're doing with UDL and inclusion to make sure that the courses that students access through the electives or through the general content areas whether you're a student with an IEP you're a multilingual learner really set up to provide the

[01:48:39] supports and accommodations to make sure that students can be successful in those classes and we've done a significant amount of professional development with UDL over the last year we're continuing to focus on that with planned activities for the next three years so you know I mean those are just some of the things that we're gonna do but we've got four years to make sure that every student can meet these requirements and a lot of it comes down to that careful monitoring and coaching and supporting and working with students and families every year to make sure that they're on track I'm sorry if I misunderstood I - I thought you said these requirements would be required for graduates of the class of 2025.

[01:49:16] Are they entering freshmen for the class of 2025? - For entering freshmen in 2025. - Okay, thank you. I misunderstood you earlier when you said it was required for the class of 2025. I still think this is a concern because I don't know if these, again, the advanced coursework, when you combine that with the third grade reading SOL passages for economic disadvantage, multilingual students, black and Hispanic students, like there's a trajectory that I worry about with these changes.

[01:49:42] understand you have four years but four years goes by very fast so i would love dr reed when you present us the goal reports in some of these areas to really hear some more concrete plans like udl cannot be the the panacea for everything right especially since it is brand new i would love to see some concrete plans to make sure our multilingual students are able to complete algebra i also am concerned when i see the percentage of graduates do rigorous coursework and 12 of our multilingual students took rigorous coursework you know language access should not be a barrier to being able to take rigorous coursework if a student is able to be successful in that coursework so I would just love to see some concrete plans

[01:50:20] Dr. Reed on how we're gonna help bridge these gaps or some of our students these long-standing gaps yes ma'am we will have concrete plans that will be executed thank you so besides my eyes that was your time mr. McElveen first First of all, I want to congratulate you and the team for, really, the longest list I've ever seen of new initiatives.

[01:50:45] I mean, we're doing something in every area, and I would say that probably Mr. Lambert and Miss Youngblood Hall probably had the biggest lift with things, but I'm grateful to all their work. That being said, we've had a few hiccups, as has been mentioned.

[01:51:03] So I think first just on the volunteer management system with which Mr. Dunn spoke about. I have received countless messages questions concerns people don't understand what's going on the communication centrally at the school level has just been as clear as mud and you know I think it's also it points to inequities in the system because I think I've been to some schools where they haven't had any issues and that's

[01:51:40] because they don't have parent volunteers right and so anyway in my community in particular this has been a real sore point unfortunately so a couple questions on this front you know mr. Dunn asked this but I guess I'll in a different way. Do we have a sense of the success rate of fingerprinting from the start of the process to the conclusion of the process? Have people been able to make it through the system and get fingerprinted? We're talking about the volunteers? Yes. So let me, Mr. Solomon, I know that part of the

[01:52:15] process runs through human resources. And what is your assessment of that? That's correct, Dr. Reed. So for all of our level three volunteers who have unrestricted or more access to students, I think our mentors, our field trip chaperones, et cetera, they're the ones who are coming in for those comprehensive background checks and getting fingerprinted.

[01:52:38] I'll make sure that the data is pulled and included in tomorrow's Friday letter in terms of how many people have completed that process, started and completed. Thank you. And so you refer to level three. So what was the purpose of changing the requirements from level two to level three

[01:52:54] Once the process started. So I think we took a second look at it because it felt like we went from zero to 60 right immediately. And what we looked at both with the division council and HR and our community engagement was if we could better define our volunteers as we begin this process if someone's coming in.

[01:53:21] Well, I'm going to turn and let Mr. Solomon explain this, but we began to, we felt like a better gradation would make our process smoother because some volunteers will never have unsupervised access to students. And we felt like that it was feeling like an undue hardship for volunteers who were never going to have unsupervised access to go through a full check, but they would be only the visitor checks white.

[01:53:48] But, Mr. Solomon, are you able to explain kind of how we transition to this, I think, model that's more clear? Absolutely. So the goal, of course, for our division is to balance safety with accessibility in the process. And the overwhelming majority of our volunteers really are classified as level one and level two.

[01:54:08] So those people who come in less frequently, those people who come in on a less regular basis. But then for our volunteers who have more access to students think when you are chaperoning a field trip And you're at a museum and you're in various parts of the museum We really wanted to make sure that as we were balancing that safety with that access that for those people who had more Access to students or unrestricted access to students that has a division. We were taking every step necessary to keep students safe Okay That's helpful. I don't think really necessarily answers the question of why

[01:54:44] You know week into the process we switched it, but so another question that's popped up today is in the FAQs There's something about parents and volunteers no longer being able to take photos in the schools Can someone speak to that? I know a lot of your books rely on photos from parents and things interesting so Miss Hall yes parents and Volunteers will be able to take photos depending on the permissions they receive.

[01:55:18] Unfortunately, we don't have an opportunity to let any parent take photos if they don't have permission to take photos of another, you know, of another family's child. So we are trying to protect the identity of the students.

[01:55:34] We don't, they won't know naturally if a child's family has opted them out of having photographs taken. So that is something we're working with the schools on, but we really need to be able to protect the students identity. Great You know, I think with this that's helpful And I think what all this points to is that we really need a new communication to go out with all these questions answered To families as soon as possible because people are pretty unhappy So and on a different matter

[01:56:08] the safety screening process and I really appreciated faith bringing this up earlier and also mr. Dunn We have seen the the tardiness issue bubble up and I'm getting a lot of messages from students About the fact that they well while they aren't being punished for being tardy They are being tardy and obviously our mission as a school system is not to keep people and security lines for a long time But to get them into class and then a related issue and I'll end on this this Anderson is that

[01:56:44] You know one of the things we need to consider if we're going to continue with this process is adjusting our bus Schedules back so that we can get our students there early enough to go through the The process. Thanks. We'll take a look at that. Mr. McElveen I know that we have a common interest in safe schools and kids in class on time SO DEFINITELY WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAKE THAT WORK.

[01:57:08] THANK YOU, MR. MAKELBEAN, MISS DIXIT. DR. REED, THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION. AND REALLY GOOD NUMBERS TO SEE THE STUDENTS ARE DOING REALLY WELL. AND DOING MATH AND ALGEBRA AND EIGHTH GRADE NUMBERS ARE VERY PROMISING.

[01:57:24] I JUST WANTED TO SAY WHAT MY COLLEAGUE JUST MENTIONED. I'VE BEEN A VOLUNTEER FOR FCPS BEFORE I JOINED THE BOARD FOR MORE THAN 15 YEARS. and the school felt like home right going there was like a second home for me I would go obviously with my Lime ID and chaos can and start working as a room parent or classroom volunteer and PTA a lot of events I feel like this measures are going to deter some of the parent volunteers because going through fingerprinting background check and obviously other other criminal

[01:58:01] background checks just seems excessive for level 1 and level 2 I would I would say level 2 I'm still saying there is no criminal background check but then level 3 it does need that I used to run a chess club all parents used to have 10 parents or 12 parents coaches and run a hundred person a hundred students chess club every week in school there was no teacher there so in this case if we run any parent not me run a chess club they will have to go through fingerprinting

[01:58:37] background check and other checks they're not chapering the school and still in the school building I feel that is excessive for because if there's no principal teacher there and then all the parents together just running a chess club they have to be subject to all this stringent press process so I that's my take on it. We are already having lack of PTA members, PTA numbers have dropped. Members and volunteers numbers have dropped in school. This could cause more of that issue. That's my day. But I do want to keep our school safe for sure. But maybe there's some other creative solutioning to

[01:59:17] that. Thank you. We'll continue to try to find that sweet spot of not feeling onerous but keeping our children safe because even one incident is something that you know I think is we would all want to prevent.

[01:59:33] So but we will look at what is possible because we absolutely want to continue to encourage our PTA and our volunteers. They're an important part of our success. Thank you. And my second part was also about the GAN student community.

[01:59:51] I've been with my colleague, Mr. McDaniel at Westfield High School this week. And the lines went incredibly long but they're getting better like everybody said and second third day of the week of school and only concern we had was if what it was raining or was it for snowing and if it's a way to expedite.

[02:00:13] I know some schools have really become creative by using like a belt system or having the kids getting the stuff ready outside. I've also heard in Central High School, the students are lining up to the sidewalks and they're deciding to stay with their friends.

[02:00:31] I understand that, but it's still a really long process to get in the school. So I would love to get some better things to hear because I know we are doing a good thing here, but it should not be an expense of our students waiting in the line.

[02:00:48] Thank you. Yes, ma'am. And we will continue to work on that. I had to express a concern that you're talking about snow already. because we're hoping for a really warm winter with no snow and ice so but absolutely we're working on that and we I know mr. Lambert is working with dr.

[02:01:09] Ponce and our principals so we expect this to get better before inclement weather comes thank you yes ma'am thank you miss Dixit miss lady thank you I'll echo my colleague mr. McElveen in regards to the new initiatives I wish I worked in the system under you because a lot of this data was things that were top of mind especially for those of us who work in the counseling field and we see all the layers of what's going on with kids and where there might be deficiencies so the data dashboards are phenomenal and there's evidence in them working which I'm very grateful for in regards to I have a question because

[02:01:48] maybe I zoned out for a second but when we're talking about what's new for freshmen entering the class of 2025 what are we talking about dr presidio are we remember talking academically yeah so that was the conversation we were having about the cte um contract and exam so there's new graduation requirements as part of the updated school um accountability framework the 3e requirements that schools have to meet employment enlistments okay yeah thank you thank you i wasn't

[02:02:23] and connecting those dots. So one of my questions in relation to my desire always to allow students more access to electives in the high school years is that I'm fairly certain that Arlington County and Prince William both offer World History 1 and Earth Science to their eighth graders along with them coming in with perhaps two math credits. I just wonder if our system would ever consider that because that would open up more pathways in terms of what's required of a standard or an advanced studies diploma if they were and again by choice eligible to come in with those I'm not not saying civics isn't of ultimate importance I'm not sure how

[02:03:00] those get moved around in life science and if we're really prepared for biology I'm not a scientist or a social scientist in terms of history so just a question or a thought for us to evaluate so that was yeah that was my main thing but most of all yeah oh fingerprinting I just know that as an official I'm amazed at some of the things that some people will say to me in emails and many of them perhaps are some of our actual parents it doesn't mean that they're not going to pass a background check but I'm I am III want

[02:03:40] the utmost safety for our children I do understand the tier system my question is whether or not we could do sort of satellite finger printing could we do a regional hey we're gonna be at you know this particular high school or central locations I don't know people have to sign up if they want to do volunteer work because getting to gatehouse getting here nine to five mode be prohibitive for many of our people who would like to volunteer in our schools just a thought as to whether or not there's a way to do fingerprinting in a way that we bring it to more to our volunteers than them having to come to

[02:04:17] us but again I do support it and even with the metals the weapon detection systems you know that's a challenge i don't know if we could ever get to a randomization like they do at tsa in terms of you know certain searches um obviously safety is of utmost concern um you know in our high schools and you know i think that with with time kids will get into a rhythm about how to how to do this i'm holding up my computer um and and get through those lines more quickly but um you know i think with anything that's new it takes some time so just really appreciate the work that that staff is doing in all the areas of yellow one thank you yes ma'am

[02:04:56] i'm going to take a quick turn and then we'll go to the few people that i haven't go backs i fear that i am one of the people who brought to you the concern that we were not background checking our volunteers because i and i will take complete ownership of it i think it's an it's an extraordinarily important thing that we're doing and so i understand that this is a system that is going to take some time to get used to and I do not want it to diminish the impact of our volunteers at our school as someone who came up through the system in addition to going to FCPS but it came up through the system as a parent on that side of

[02:05:32] things I know how important our the work is being done and I also want to make sure that we have the utmost security for our students. Miss Lady took my suggestion completely I fully and completely think that having kind of set times but maybe we could do satellite fingerprinting would would alleviate some of the frustration both for the parking related to gatehouse and actually getting up there during the day so i do think that that's something that if we could if we could make that work it would definitely help um the thing i wanted to ask you about more than anything could just because it was something that struck me from the the presentation we had 129 events last year

[02:06:11] and how many of them were you in attendance at 129 yes so i just want to call attention um you have a lot of support from from the board and the work that you do within our division and i want to call attention to the reason why is because you are working on new initiatives that put you out in the schools all the time and so we want we appreciate i appreciate the work that you do to to ensure that you are present in our buildings.

[02:06:39] And I fully and completely understand the sacrifice of time, which is our only non-renewable resource for real, that you give every day to make sure that you are out there in the schools as much as humanly possible.

[02:06:55] So I appreciate the effort that you make to make sure that you can get to all of those events. So for go backs, let's go to Dr. Anderson. - Thank you. As I was sharing, one of the tenants of the CEL is the public image of the division.

[02:07:13] And we all know that our division's taken some hits since we last gave a review of this EL with you last August. So that will be part of my calculus and assessments because I know that you have put in place some mitigating factors.

[02:07:29] And I'm really speaking to the athletic issues that have occurred in Fairfax County. But I also think that there was a space to stop the bleed a little bit. And so I think that is that is falling to your responsibility.

[02:07:44] But I wanted to raise that as an area that I see for growth, even though I do know some things are in the works. Another area that I would love for you to consider moving forward is the revision of regulations.

[02:08:01] Miss Marin mentioned this earlier this week. And when I took a deeper dive because having regulations that lead to the practices of the schools is really important and they have to keep pace with the policies that the board is changing. Just this last year, we updated 16 policies, 11 of those have regulations attached to them and those were not revised after.

[02:08:26] So that's something that I'd like for you to just kind of consider and keep greater track of. Thirdly, the data dashboards that we are speaking about, I think they're great when you have demonstrated them to us at various points this is a good place to demonstrate some of those data dashboards when we're having these EL conversations for the things for the ones that are appropriate or even with academic matters I think it just opens up the curtain a little bit to the community to really hone in on how is it that we're really trying to move our school division because the strategic plan it's only five years away then it's done and

[02:09:05] And everybody is supposed to be at 100 percent. So the urgency is really upon us. So just showing that plan I think can be very very helpful. And I had one more thing that I did not. Dr. Anderson that was your time.

[02:09:20] Can I ask just one last question about the grading policy when I was speaking about regulation. We have several. Just so that just so that we can have when will that be ready. Just the regulation on the grading policy. I know you sent us a draft.

[02:09:35] Right. I believe the draft is written and I provided to you to get any kind of feedback from the board absent that I believe we're ready to go with that. So Dr. Presidio I don't think there's anything else to revise it. It was really just any feedback from you as a board because you spent quite a bit of time on the policy.

[02:09:55] That's correct. Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you Dr. Anderson. I made a mistake. Hello. As a student, I know nobody's favorite part is getting TSA searched in the morning. So is there a system that could possibly be put in for people who are late because of the searches?

[02:10:15] Like if they're pulled for a second check or if they're in the line before the bell and they would have been in school, if they would have been in class on time if not the system? Absolutely. And hopefully, or not hopefully, but we expect that moving forward that students won't be late right the secondary checks I can't account for all of those because sometimes things are found that require a longer conversation but if all things being equal we definitely as long as students are there on time in line they should not be there shouldn't be consequences for being late and we expect you not to be late moving forward I think we're going to

[02:10:55] take a look at bus arrivals and that type of thing but it's a great question thank you you bet Thank you Mr. Dunn. Thank you um I appreciate my colleague bringing up the data dashboards um we've seen those uh infrequently um and they always look great and I appreciate the principals have them probably other people have them I'd love to have a data dashboard myself as a school board member um of some kind static or or otherwise if maybe some thought can be given to what might be able to be shared with me I don't need to drill down into things but just

[02:11:33] for my schools for my district right it would I think be useful and if it could be shared with the public through a newsletter otherwise I think there's a lot of great progress being made if we can make that visible it can and manifest the daily excellence of our schools to our constituents I think that's valuable the second element of this EL talks about the data informed continuous improvement there have been some reports like the 2020 AAP program review the the 2021 AIR special education program review.

[02:12:07] And I don't really see that in this report, but those were costly and very deep dive exercises. So I mean, I've asked this a year or so ago, but are we tracking all the milestones recommendations from those reports specifically and whether they've been implemented or not?

[02:12:27] - Yes, sir. Those are actually tracked within the goal reports And this is the EL1 right about global expectations but you'll see in particular the AIR report the special education plan within one of the goal reports the other AAP report I don't know I think any of those recommendations have been charted and whatever relevant goal they connect to that's where you'll see the progress sort of illuminated I guess for lack of a better term.

[02:12:59] Are you able to provide in the Friday letter which of the goal reports those will be embedded in? Yes, sir, we can do that. Yeah, that'd be great. And when we eventually get the Baldrige report, whenever that comes in, it would be great for that to be embedded in a relevant goal report as well, just so we can track for the public when they look to these reports to hold us accountable, that we can say, yay, verily, we've implemented 100% over time, and here's the written proof, right?

[02:13:28] and that we were tracking it over time not just ask a question and then oh gosh let's figure out if we are or aren't um thank you thank you mr dunn miss eisenhower heiser yeah just briefly because many of my colleagues already touched on the changes in our volunteer system and while i do understand in this day and age especially the importance of making sure our volunteers are vetted so our students can be safe when they're left alone with volunteers um doctor i would just encourage you to take a look at the change management aspect of some of these things

[02:14:05] a volunteer i'm hearing from scouts and the difference in charges for the use of the space there's just a um you know when we're doing something even if it's for the right reasons of ensuring student safety even the roll out of the open gate um just preparing our community a little bit more i know there's so many initiatives you're doing and the amount you're out in schools it is difficult and so many of the things that you've done are handled so well and rolled out so well but I do think this piece on the volunteer and a few others it would have been a little more helpful to start last year working with our PTAs and preparing them and maybe proactively having

[02:14:42] satellite locations to do some of that background you know the fingerprinting and things would have been would have been helpful so just something to think about going forward it's hard it's hard because we all want our students to be safe and we also don't want PTAs that are losing volunteers to kind of have to scramble right so just i just wanted to add that piece to it yes ma'am and i i agree with you so we're we're definitely going to work on that so thank you for the feedback thank you and thank you again for all the hard work this is an excellent report thank you miss seismorheiser miss marron well i'll first start with the critique which is none of you dr reed it's appalling that funds for safety are born out of our operational funds that are needed for

[02:15:21] instruction for law enforcement related matters like fingerprinting employees and the fbi wrap back program you know those need to be the responsibilities for other government agencies that manage law enforcement and public safety same thing with safe routes to schools I'm thrilled that the volunteer management system is here I agree that it could be better you know communicated and I'm confident that will happen but I remember when you arrived and Dr. Lisa and Lisa Youngblood Hall arrived and it was one of the first conversations I had with her at the end of my first term and saying look when I go to schools I'm seeing different things happening and it's really not okay we need to have consistent programs

[02:15:58] and consistent system so on that note no I do want to be sure that sign-in protocols are consistent because sometimes it's a computer sometimes it's a piece of paper like I wonder how that dovetails with the volunteer management but look I've been to over a dozen back-to-school events and the concerns are complaints I'm hearing about the system are about confusion or the new process being burdensome change to change but all have said they agree with all have said they agree with improving safety protocols including PTA presidents of large elementary schools so I recall

[02:16:34] when you instituted issuing the updated badges also something that hadn't been done until you got here the fingerprinting opportunities were I believe on site at some schools and so again you have a model for doing that you know with the weapons detection I mean I have a high schooler now in a middle schooler the change from the first day to second day I've heard you know the decrease in time was a lot like 30 minutes I heard that from staff not my my high schooler but it would be good to have that data of what's been happening of all of varieties I've also heard input from a trusted constituent volunteer talking about the impact on students you know did they feel that

[02:17:12] they're not being trustworthy you know if we're doing this sort of you know school is this trusted environment so what's that impact but um I just will say when Dr. Mizell arrived at Langston Hughes Middle School he set a very short window for students to go class to class and people thought it wouldn't happen well those students do it and you know the expectations drive the behavior so I'm confident that it'll get worked out thank you thank you Ms. Marin I believe we're going to take a vote now I will call for the vote on the motion which is on the screen

[02:17:47] Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. McConaughey, do you see the system of approving a possible system of improving tardies for students who are in line before the bell or just for students who are pulled aside before the for weapons detection for a secondary one, not a secondary one, but pulled aside for detection.

[02:18:07] So I think that what I'm going to do is take that question to Dr. Ponce and Mr. Lambert to work with our high school principals because if a student arrives to school on time, I don't think they should be marked tardy, right? And however we define that, I'm going to defer to our high school principals and soon middle school principals with our security and chief of school's office.

[02:18:32] But we can get back to you with that. But if you arrive to school on time, you shouldn't be marked hardy. And how long do you think it would take to see like any movement on that? Because I know you guys have a lot to deal with. I don't think it should take that long. And it may be it may be and we don't need to probably tonight I but if we knew I think some schools are maybe more challenged than others with that so it may not be that we need to work with every school but we may need to work with a couple schools maybe because of the dynamic of their campus or the map or bus times or something so perhaps if I

[02:19:11] will ask Mr. Lambert to connect with you this evening to make sure we know which school you're referring to or schools that you may be in terms of students contacting you but I think right now hopefully or we would expect that it would not be at very many schools at this point because we've the schools last spring were able to resolve this and I think it's the schools new up this fall perhaps that are struggling a little so it shouldn't take that long thank you you bet sorry and I also missed Mr. McElveen thank you so uh one one other question I had for you is

[02:19:49] on the family vision group can you tell us a little bit more about how that is structured and what the outcomes are and how we might be able to see outcomes from that so the structure is two family members from every school in the division and roughly we have 200 schools times two family members is about 400 people and we divide that group we meet as one whole group at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year and then during the year every other month i meet with two of the quads which is to say we took the division and divided it into four so that we only have

[02:20:24] 100 in any one group and so then we meet every other month and at our first meeting coming up I'll do a little debrief of what's new this year what data from last year that we're looking at and then we break off and the whole group by quad shares sticky notes and topics that they want to discuss right I'm going to talk about some things that I think are important from my desk that I want to talk about and they're going to provide topics that they would like

[02:20:59] to talk about so then when we meet out in the schools that's what we talk about we bring members of our leadership team at different times our chief finance officer miss burdens come out when we were talking about budget Mr. Lambert around safety miss Clemenco around the new literacy curriculum it just it's really tailored to that quads interest and at the end of the year we talk about things we've accomplished as a result of that and I will tell you one of the well there are a couple areas that came out of last year which I'll be talking about when we meet is the desire to have more conversation around budget earlier

[02:21:36] which I know the boards also committed to we talked a little bit about the enhanced security need and honestly there were also concerns around security and volunteers because we had a as you recall in a situation last winter also it was very interesting to talk about homework for example and how important just the exercise of engaging in homework taking something home doing something coming back about practice right and so some of those

[02:22:13] THOSE THINGS HAVE BECOME SORT OF HOW WE'RE DOING BUSINESS THIS YEAR AS A RESULT OF THOSE CONVERSATIONS. SO WE ALSO HAD SOME IT CONVERSATIONS, JUST A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT TOPICS. DR. PONSE CAME OUT AND TALKED ABOUT SOME TOPICS AT DIFFERENT TIMES.

[02:22:30] SO IT'S A CHANCE FOR OUR COMMUNITY TO CONNECT WITH SENIOR LEADERS ON TOPICS OF REALLY HIGH INTEREST. THAT SEEMS FABULOUS. And it would be great if the board could have some sort of, not participation, but formal way of hearing the feedback through you from that group.

[02:22:50] Because what you just told us is very helpful and interesting. And then last topic, just going back to buses. So I heard several reports during the first week of school about buses that were kind of maxed out.

[02:23:07] And they would get to stops, and they'd just tell the families that they were full. They would either have to double back or the families would have to make it to school another way. And I heard a number of families just went on for the whole first week.

[02:23:22] And that's something I haven't heard as much in the past. And I know we actually had a better percentage of driver positions filled this year. So I don't know if Mr. Mewick could share just how those situations were resolved and how we could prepare for the future.

[02:23:37] Absolutely. Yes, sir. Mr. McElveen, I do know anecdotally as well that we I've been at several elementary schools where people are saying there are a lot of late enrollments. In other words, folks coming in like several people a day.

[02:23:53] I think I was at Spring Hill Elementary very recently. And the numbers like every day they're getting more students. at 13 the day i was there and so i i think that what was planned i think at some points maybe we with those late enrollments but mr muick would you address the concerns you know that mr mckelveen's raising please yes ma'am yeah mr mckelveen they the first two or three weeks of school is is tough for a lot of reasons right transportation is one of those uh and as dr reed said some of it is from late enrollments some is just from families that aren't um opting in for

[02:24:31] the transportation right so we do our best to based on what numbers we have some estimates to have buses lined up and we have a shadow bus in a lot of the areas too driving around just for those situations but there were some where bus drivers and our team we probably could handle a little bit better but they were doing the best they could and i would say most of that's going to settle out and a lot of the problems that got raised to us last week we've already addressed THEM LIKE WITHIN USUALLY TWO DAYS OR THREE DAYS TO ADJUST ROUTE SHIFT BUSES SO WE'RE SORRY

[02:25:02] THAT IT WAS A BAD EXPERIENCE FOR SOME BUT WE'RE GETTING ON TOP OF IT OKAY THANK YOU SEEING NO OTHERS FOR REAL THIS TIME I WILL CALL FOR A VOTE ON THE MOTION WHICH IS ON THE SCREEN ALL THOSE IN FAVOR MR FRESH MR MCDANIEL MS MARIN MR MCCLEVEEN MS ST JOHN CUNNING MS LADY MS DIXET MR DUNN Mr. Moon, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, and myself. All those opposed. Dr. Anderson, and I believe, can the clerk read the vote?

[02:25:40] The vote's 11-1. The motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item 7.01, policy review, global executive limitations, EL1. The next order of business is the policy review for executive limitation 1, global executive limitations.

[02:25:59] 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 the final amendment language to the board and the clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at which it's to be considered.

[02:26:19] At this time, no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting, but board members may provide comments on executive limitation one, global executive limitations before we vote on maintaining the current language for the year. I call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a motion. I move that the school board maintains executive limitation number one, global executive limitations, as it currently is detailed in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second? I second. Thank you, Ms. Marin. Ms. St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your motion? No, I think we had a very robust conversation about it.

[02:26:56] Ms. Marron, would you like to speak to your second? - No, thank you. - Excellent. Seeing no interest in speaking any further, I will call for a vote on this motion which is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marron, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Ms. Seismar Heiser, and myself, that's unanimous for all board members at the table.

[02:27:23] We're gonna go ahead and take a quick five-minute recess,

[02:27:27] real five minutes board members please take your seats board members please take your seats okay

[02:36:55] agenda item 8.01 academic matters i call on dr reed for academic matters thank you madam chair i am thrilled tonight to talk about a new program that fairfax county public schools engaged in this summer and i have to say i had a lot of fun uh visiting this program and i joined um i believe is Adam Erbrecht at Liberty Middle School this summer and Dr. Amy Hunter I don't know if Dr.

[02:37:34] Hunter was working with staff and what could be more fun honestly than doing algebra in the summer. So one of the goals of the summer program I have provided each of you at the dais Thank you, Mr. Frisch, studying up already on his algebra readiness, but Algebra Power-Up is a summer program designed to help improve access to and success for students who will be taking Algebra I as eighth graders. And I want to remind our board that as this is a key data point we're

[02:38:10] looking at, it's important that when we have high expectations for our children that we also provide high support and this is an avid connected program and when you look through the workbook it's important to see the thinking strategies critical problem-solving are all mapped to the work so really excited the algebra power up program supports goal 3c in the division strategic plan which we're making great progress on as we look at the data I want to just stop for a moment

[02:38:45] and really share how thrilled I am with our staff who have taken this on and continue to work so hard to provide these opportunities for our students in particular our eighth graders so I want to share the data here that right now we have 74.5% actually I think the new data dashboard has us at 75% of our eighth graders are enrolled in algebra one for this year or higher and I want to just

[02:39:19] do a shout out to Holmes middle school Holmes middle school I was at visiting yesterday and our principal at Holmes knowing that I was going to ask about our data had it right in her hand and for the first time in our Holmes history there are two sections of geometry for our eighth graders and they have sixth graders also taking algebra and a large number of seventh graders as well so we believe that within two years we'll have students in algebra trig at homes as well as an algebra trig across the entire county in eighth grade as an

[02:39:59] option I think what I really want you as a board to have an opportunity to look at is not only are we enrolling more eighth graders in algebra one or higher the percentage of students passing the high school algebra math SOL continues to increase and that's an important data point because even though we're adding more and more students we're also passing at a higher and higher rate so I think that's a positive I also want to share that 74 percent of eighth graders represents nearly 10,000 of our eighth graders across this county that

[02:40:38] are now taking algebra one. And one of our esteemed senior leaders, Mr. Smith, our chief of staff, really wanted me to note that I know at the Commonwealth level, we're talking about some excitement around more students taking more advanced courses, and I dare say that since Fairfax County public schools represents 14% of the students educated in the Commonwealth that increasing our students and in particular these 10,000 8th graders at least 10,000 in Algebra 1 is really going a long way to support increased

[02:41:15] high expectations for our Commonwealth writ large. So the access that's being expanded to Algebra 1 in sixth grade I had a chance to see one of our sixth grade classrooms in action at Glasgow middle school principal Lisa Barrow we walked in and I was able to meet with their math department chair they're actually creating a sixth grade advisory intervention support for our incoming sixth graders who are in algebra so that there are no missed standards for some of our students there so just a lot of excitement so that we know when our

[02:41:52] students here in Fairfax succeed, so too the Commonwealth succeeds. So I want to go into what exactly is Algebra Power-Up. It was a three-week program and I only got to spend one morning. It would have been great to have spent more time with our students. But this three-week program was really intended to support our seventh grade students who had mastered seventh grade content and help accelerate them to Algebra 1 and 8th grade.

[02:42:22] It allowed our staff to work with students to support them in strengthening fundamental math and algebraic concepts and, again, provide a solid base from which to vault into amazing algebra opportunities for the coming year.

[02:42:39] We also worked really hard to recruit students from schools who had fewer than 60% of their grade eight students in algebra the year before. So we were very intentional about the recruitment for this program and to several of your points around using data dashboards.

[02:42:57] We could be very intentional because we knew exactly where each school was in their enrollment. So what makes algebra power up unique? One of the things I think that makes it so unique was the interaction with AVID.

[02:43:13] And currently, I just want to remind the board, AVID is offered at 16 middle schools this year, which is up from several years ago. And again, it's good instruction. It's good executive functioning framework. It's good for all students.

[02:43:29] These WICR strategies, they're in writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading. Also the incorporating of focused note taking. I don't know how many of you -- I used to watch some of the kids take notes and what What they did is just took everything that was on the text and rewrote them on to index cards.

[02:43:49] Well, that is not focused note taking. That's just rewriting text. So I think that these skills, frankly, even I would probably benefit from a refresher on. But again, the avid connection is really what made this incredibly unique.

[02:44:06] So preliminary results suggest that algebra power up was a success. We're on to the next slide team, please. And typically students don't show a lot of growth and actually experience what's called summer slide.

[02:44:25] However, preliminary data shows no slope effects, come on now, no slope effects as a result of taking the algebra, I'm trying here. So we will continue to measure these students' growth. They're flagged as we move across the year, but let's take a look at Algebra Power-Up in action.

[02:44:44] The AVID Algebra Power-Up program is an opportunity for rising 8th graders who took Math 7th and 7th grade to receive the foundational skills necessary to be successful in the Algebra 1 course that they're going to take in 8th grade, as well as with the associated Algebra 1 SOL.

[02:45:06] And we do this through a curriculum that's designed by AVID, a summer bridge enrichment program to provide them with those skills through the avid curriculum framework with engaging collaborative activities while also supporting their relational capacity and opportunity knowledge growing but we have that hands on the ground support that they need to be successful in algebra one we have students from all walks of life here in this program and we have the resources to support them so we have multilingual learners level one through four here at this site and we have a multilingual learner resource teacher supporting those students as they're engaging in this complex work. We also have students with disabilities, students with IEPs, and we have a special education resource teacher that is supporting with those students as well. And we

[02:45:45] have several instructional assistants that are also pushing into the classrooms and providing that individualized and small group support that is so important when taking on a complicated math subject like Algebra 1. Our main focus is that students are putting pencil to paper and really engaging in that hard work with math and they're doing this on paper and pencil in their interactive notebooks like I said they'll be able to take those notebooks back to their classes and so it's a real tangible benefit it's the tangible it's the manipulatives is the hands-on it's the not staring at a

[02:46:21] computer screen it's the using colors it's the using the whiteboard I just think there's so much to the gross motor skills and to the retain the retainment of the information I like paper better because because like what I write down it helps me like memorize it I like writing in the books the activity books because I felt like it helped me a lot with like the material that we're learning so here you can see a lot of the anchor charts and a lot of the anchor work and so this is an opportunity for students to see visibly what they're learning on a day-to-day basis so for example we can go here they're learning about how to take a mixed number and then convert it into an improper

[02:47:01] fraction and so they've learned this already they've reviewed it but now it's here on the board so that they can when they if they need a refresher or if they're going over a problem and they don't remember how to do it they can just reference this example here this definition and it helps them process through it and the students as you when you're walking around you can see them constantly referencing back and so these anchor charts are really here to support students and this is a part of that instructional work that we're doing here in the algebra power-up program going to from math 7 to algebra 1 the The program teaches you new skills to help you be successful in class for next year.

[02:47:39] To me, that's what the program is about with student agency. It's not just about learning math, but overcoming something you didn't necessarily think you can do or do as well. And I've just been inspired by the students' work and the teachers' ability to make this summer program such an engaging and fun experience for them.

[02:47:55] I saw these kids go from the first week to the third week. that wouldn't even speak went from the academic discourse in the room the talking about math with each other to having the confidence to raise their hand and ask questions that they think you know maybe their peers do know but they didn't care because they were invested in their own learning I feel like this program has helped me a lot because even when even last year and when I came in here like I didn't know that much about math and like my teachers like they helped me and like like I'm more confident now well I mean again my

[02:48:35] heart just expands as I watch young people love mathematics so madam chair that is academic matters this evening thank you dr. Reed dr. Anderson's gonna kick us off thank you this is very exciting but I think I'm getting myself confused the power up it is just for students who are transitioning from math 7 to algebra not necessarily the because because I know Glasgow and Holmes and Poe as well they've had an algebra boot camp for students who are coming in

[02:49:11] from pre-algebra so this is different yes ma'am this is power-up which is avid related for those students coming out of math 7 okay thank you so much for that and this is from you about this yes ma'am okay thank you can you speak a a little bit as to how I can utilize this like how what how do you want me to do with this like well we wanted you to be able to kind of have the opportunity to look at the workbook that our students were looking at and I think what is interesting about that is it's not math and it's not avid but it's the

[02:49:48] integration of those executive functioning critical thinking note-taking skills that are made very transparent in the workbook and when you hear the students talk about how much how helpful it was to use tactile text that's I just want you have a chance to take a look at it you may not keep it oh because of our budget we do need to collect them and reuse them for students but it is something I just wanted you to have a chance to look at it it's also as I

[02:50:22] understand Dr. Presidio from Dr. Hunter is these workbooks were created for us it was the first time that they've been used and the first time this project so we've been part of the AVID algebra power-up if you will beta class and frankly that's where Fairfax County Public Schools should be right leading the curve in this work so we're very excited about the collaborative partnership with our math team and our AVID team to create something that's really we believe going to make a difference for students.

[02:50:54] And I know I was asked what are concrete plans. You saw a video with some very concrete plans around making sure our learners can be successful. We can't just talk about it. We've got to, you know, do the work. I agree. And thank you for letting me know we can't keep those.

[02:51:11] I almost wrote my name in it as we are offering more and more advanced math options again, which is great. this is a good problem to have one of the things that we discussed this earlier this morning is we want to ensure that our students who are taking advantage of those advanced math courses at the middle school level are not unnecessarily penalized when they go to high school as happened with annandale high school student very advanced math student was told that he couldn't take a particular course until the 11th grade and would even would either have an option of no math in the the ninth grade as a freshman or something that is online but a

[02:51:49] synchronous again these are not good solutions to and it feels like we're penalizing students who are achieving at a high level so I really want to make sure that we are codifying and regulation what is to happen with those students rather than rather than having it be relegated to the schools to make a decision which may be inconsistent with another school so if you could speak about that a little bit I appreciate it yes ma'am and I really want to give a shout out to principal Shonda Rose and his team and his recognition of the situation when the student brought that to his attention because we did notice

[02:52:28] a really a gap in our scheduling in terms of not taking into account that we would have students that would be at a more advanced level and isn't it amazing that a young person who is proficient at math was feeling comfortable to advocate I know Dr. Ponce you were part of the solution could you share briefly the direction you've given principals regarding making sure our advanced math students are in the correct advanced math classes ninth graders yes and thank you and agree we have been working with all principals and everybody who is

[02:53:08] coming to night grade they're going to receive math advanced math and as superintendent Reed said we are looking that they will have a four years mad 9 10 11 and 12 it's not that they will have a gap and then going to 11 no as we are our goal is that they get the highest math that they can get thank you and I appreciate that again looking for that practice to be codified in a regulation so that there is no misunderstanding if the email is not passed around the next year or with the new principal that comes to that school because we shouldn't have our students be

[02:53:45] in that position. And just kind of to take the challenge of what you raised earlier what else could we do in the summer besides algebra. I could think of lots of things but it is still very exciting to see this work. I am very encouraged by what it means for our students. So thank you for sharing this. Thank you.

[02:54:02] Thank you Dr. Anderson. Mr. Frisch. Thank you. Earlier tonight, Chair Anderson, in opening the meeting, welcomed people to our schools, perhaps for the first time, letting them know that we lead the Commonwealth on just about every metric of success that you could imagine.

[02:54:20] And so I was extremely excited about academic matters tonight, given the subject matter. And while you made a joke about, you know, slope, I was going to make a joke about solving for X, but I just couldn't come up with a good one.

[02:54:36] but i did want to bring attention to a few numbers here the profound change and and what the numbers mean because to hear us talk about it we're just saying oh we're increasing the numbers of these kids who are achieving and we are increasing the sol pass rates in algebra both of which are great accomplishments to be had i mean if you look at this uh slide three the commonwealth has increased the number of the pass rate of algebra by two points in the last three school years and we've

[02:55:12] done that three times over. That's incredible. We've increased the number of students taking algebra or higher in by eighth grade by almost 16 or by over 16 points in just a handful of school years. Can you speak to when we talk about when we first started talking about this we talked about algebra in eighth grade being a civil rights indicator can you talk about the change that this work it's not the numbers it's what comes after this that

[02:55:50] matters can you talk about that yes sir I the office of civil rights tracks the number of students in algebra who complete algebra in eighth grade because they're twice as likely to attend and complete post-secondary education algebra one is often called a gatekeeper course and I think that it's really important to understand that the ability to access algebra one by eighth grade opens up doors in the high school curriculum not just the mathematics but also in science and as you know I'm going to be recommending to the board this year that we add a graduation requirement

[02:56:28] of passing algebra trig we know that over 40 other states have that requirement and Virginia it is not and I don't think we need to wait for our commonwealth to institute that that should be something that we here in Fairfax County Public Schools expect as a matter of course because we know that algebra trig is baseline for alignments apprentice exam underwater welding exams it's it's a core academic course that all our students should leave Fairfax county public schools able to be successful with regardless of whether they go into the skilled

[02:57:05] trades go on to college the military or go into you know their own startups it's just a it's an important course so this is a civil rights issue and it's one that we're making huge progress and strides in and so the impact of this work is going to be felt for many many years to come It's interesting to me on the same slide that we have our data for the percent of 8th graders enrolled in Algebra 1 or higher, but we don't have the number for the Commonwealth.

[02:57:37] Did they not track it? I don't know if they track it, Mr. Frisch, but we could certainly find out. I have a suspicion that they don't. Yeah. Well, if they do, it's not clear here. And I think the other thing I want to say about the increase in this data is this has been a team effort.

[02:57:58] one of the things we discovered as you look at an on-ramp for any initiative particularly one that changes the trajectory of a child's life honestly is how many staff are credentialed to teach the course and one of the things that gets set up with for us is we really had to work with HR our HR department to ensure that we and our commitment was that we would provide and pay for for training and the exam for folks to become algebra certified.

[02:58:30] So we actually recently, I met with several people on the first few days of school who have moved their students back to Fairfax County Public Schools from private school in that eighth grade year because they don't offer algebra at that particular private school.

[02:58:47] And they understand how important that is. And it's likely a credentialing issue at that school. SO IT'S A TEAM EFFORT AND I'M REALLY PROUD OF OUR COMMUNITY AND OUR STAFF. AND WHERE THERE'S A WILL, WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN, RIGHT?

[02:59:04] I MEAN, I REMEMBER VISITING EARLY ON IN THIS WORK ALGEBRA CLASSROOMS IN EIGHTH GRADE AND THE WAY THAT IT WAS APPROACHED THEN IS DIFFERENT THAN HOW IT'S APPROACHED NOW BECAUSE WE'VE BEEN WILLING TO ADAPT TO MAKE IT WORK. CAN YOU SPEAK TO THE ADAPTABILITY THAT WE'VE KIND OF EXPERIENCED OVER THIS TRAJECTORY that's really driving the success here. Yes sir. I really want to call out Dr. Amy Hunter.

[02:59:29] She has done phenomenal work in looking at in particular our fifth sixth seventh grade curriculum and looking at ways that where there are overlaps to make sure that we minimize the overlaps and really tighten our curriculum to the term I think is compacted to make sure that the standards are appropriate at grade level instructional levels but that by eighth grade every student really other than students who are more advanced in the sense of being ready for algebra maybe at sixth

[03:00:05] or seventh grade but surely every eighth grader given our core general curriculum should be ready for algebra we think we're going to hit our 100 percent target within two years for eighth graders and really then the goal is to make sure we have algebra trig available at every middle school which means algebra one has to be available um for sixth graders at every school so that's the work that's going to happen and to hit those marks for our strategic plan um we're right on track we're a little ahead of track actually and i imagine that we're already seeing some of that play out with more students taking out uh algebra two and geometry and other more advanced math in

[03:00:44] in uh middle school yes sir that's correct so i'd be interested in seeing that data too because i I think it's equally impressive when you, you know, raise the expectations for everybody. It includes raising the expectations for kids who are already achieving at high levels.

[03:01:01] Absolutely. And that's the intent, right? We want to make sure we come alongside students where they are and support their journey to continue to improve. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Miss Dixit.

[03:01:17] Thank you, Dr. Reed, for this excellent presentation. And I think this is one of your favorite things you like to do is math. And it's really impressive to see the success of this program over the years.

[03:01:34] 74% is no less. It's a very high number coming from starting in 58%, which was in 2022, 23 year. I actually wanted to ask how many students enroll in this bridge program this summer?

[03:01:51] So the summer enrollment, I know we had three, I believe three hub sites across the division and so they came from multiple middle schools. Dr. Presidio, do you recall the exact number? Yeah, it was approximately 700. Okay, that's a lot of students.

[03:02:10] And I actually wanted to know in terms of equity, and it would be, I think Dr. King's question, What do you think about how this program was equitable and brought a lot of students from different groups to be participating in this program?

[03:02:31] Dr. King. Thank you. Dr. King. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. To be part of what program? Power up. Algebra power up. What are you talking about? Well, I think that when we include students from all demographics, and I'm not sure how they were selected.

[03:02:48] Sloan, can you help me with that? Because I'm not sure how they were selected. Yeah, no, I apologize. I started to jump in. We jumped in at the same time. I was just going to say to Dr. King's point, we were very intentional that this program had to be open and available to all students and accessible to all students, but we wanted to recruit so that we had diverse demographics and any student would be able to be successful in this program.

[03:03:10] And I think you saw in the video some of the really intentional things that we did to make sure that we had support teachers, resource teachers there for our multilingual learners, our students with disabilities, and to make sure that as part of the program, we did different types of team-building activities and things that you saw in the video to make sure that we were really building a community within that space.

[03:03:30] And one of our teachers, I think, did a great job kind of talking about how she really saw, you know, students coming out of their shelves, working together, collaborating. And that was because of all that intentionality to really create a community of diverse learners where everybody was welcomed, challenged, and able to succeed.

[03:03:46] Thank you for that answer. The reason I said that, Dr. King, is you had mentioned that there should be equity in every program we do. And I saw this, and I thought of that statement that saying that when I see the students and the video, I see the access of, like, there's students from each background.

[03:04:06] And there might be some students who may not be able to do algebra one if it was not this program offer for them. So that's like a huge, you know, when we talk about equity and excellence, that's pretty much what FCPS has done. And I'm really, really proud to see that.

[03:04:23] I did have one just one more comment that when somebody said about schools, Dr. Anderson, you said that FCPS is really good about meeting the students where they are at. It's not just one happened. I've heard it from many parents that if their student is higher like the achieving student and they are given the grade or given the coursework they can take at that point. There are students who are taking calculus in ninth grade so it's definitely offered and in offering all our schools where the course is available so and I feel

[03:05:03] like that is the differentiation we have. It's in public schools is remarkable because a lot of public schools don't offer that. So I would just say that this is something impressive and hopefully we'll see 100 percent in a few years. That's what we expect. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[03:05:21] Dr. Reed, can I just share one thing when she mentioned the comment about equity and the conversation that we had before. I remember what you were talking about and true equity means that we meet our students where they are right so that our students that need greater higher more rigor that we meet them by offering them those opportunities and programs like this offer students the opportunity to have access um to coursework at a greater level so thank you for remembering that conversation okay miss lady to win you must finish and tell your teacher

[03:05:55] the secret phrase we are ready for algebra oof i like page seven i had a little fun with the book um i am beyond over the moon with the work that's been done with equity and access and the reality that for so many years a school system that was supposed to be among the best in the country was failing a lot of our children um i am extremely proud of the fact that that's not the case that we are indeed bringing programs to all children we believe in high expectations for for all children regardless of background, socioeconomic, culture, it doesn't matter.

[03:06:33] I'm also delighted, as it was mentioned earlier, about the fact that with the benchmarking that there wasn't sort of an implementation lull, but instead we actually saw increases. But I'm also reflecting on the fact that going back to last year, we had a lot of our elementary teachers concerned our kids couldn't do it.

[03:06:56] And then about a month in, they were all having these epiphanies about what our kids could do. I am a little concerned about some of our math teachers, who are naysayers at the moment, around access to algebra in younger years. I hope that within a month, we will also be hearing the same thing, which is, oh my gosh, look at what these children are capable of.

[03:07:18] So back to this point around this particular program, 700 kids is an amazing number. Transformative in a child's life. I think the number one indicator of whether kids attend college is the first age at which they understand and believe what it is and that they can go.

[03:07:37] But the second one is if you can do math and chemistry, you're college bound. And I'm going to tie the two together. I didn't do chem well. I think it was one of my C-minuses in high school, but I think I did get through college and I think I'm doing life okay.

[03:07:54] But I also love with the AVID the integration of the executive functioning, the critical thinking, and the math. I would love to see something like this become standard in advisory. Probably don't even wait till ninth grade. We've got to start teaching executive functioning at even younger years, and then do a refresher of it as we scaffold kids to higher levels of learning.

[03:08:16] So kudos to the team, kudos to your vision. This is phenomenal work, and I can't wait to see how our data is at the end of this year as we continue to, as my colleague indicated, triple the increases that the rest of the state is, should I say, is not experiencing but we are because we strive higher and we're doing better.

[03:08:39] Thank you. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Reed, thanks for the presentation. Hopefully you can hear me still. Yes, sir. Okay.

[03:08:55] I am just excited to see these numbers, slide number three. Kudos to all those who have worked hard to make this happen. But let me ask you, for 700 students for the three-week summer program, what was the budget we allocated, what you allocated?

[03:09:16] Yes, sir. The budget we allocated for the three-week summer program, Dr. Presidio or Dr. Ponce, I know this was something that we really wanted to make sure happened. Yeah, unfortunately, I don't have that number off the top of my head, but I'd be happy to get that for the board.

[03:09:33] Yeah, because we provided transportation, staffing, and the materials, so I will get you the budget numbers. Okay, so thank you. Thank you. 700 students, that's a remarkable number, but however, whether there was any student on the waiting list who wanted to be able to participate but not able because we could only offer so many?

[03:09:59] I don't believe we left anyone on a waiting list, Mr. Moon, and I want to give you the budget source was the Achievement Gap Closing budget, the superintendent's budget, to launch initiatives that are very directly and explicitly directed to equity access and opportunity.

[03:10:19] So I will get you the exact budget number, but nobody was left on a waiting list. Okay, thank you. Thank you. For my own better understanding of different terminology that different slides seem to be using, going back to EL1, on page number three of the monitoring report, we talked about successfully completing algebra one for eighth graders.

[03:10:53] I think that's the terminology we are using, and then I think successfully completion, I remember what I remember hearing was successful completion means passing the course and passing SOL, is that correct?

[03:11:11] Yes, that's correct. Okay, and on slide number three of this particular presentation, on the right-hand side, we used the terminology of passing a high school math SOL. Is that same as successfully completion, or is that something different?

[03:11:32] Ms. Neal? Yes, so, Mr. Boone, that is data that we're able to see that provides a state comparison of the percentage of students who pass any high school math SOL in eighth grade. So that's going to be inclusive of students who pass a geometry SOL, an algebra one SOL, and that gives us that direct state comparison.

[03:11:53] So that is different from what I see on the page number three of the monitoring reports for EL1. - That is correct. So the data on slide three is just looking at that SOL test, not necessarily factoring in students' performance in the class.

[03:12:13] - Oh, let me repeat my question again. So on slide number three of the presentation for academic matters, when you say passing high school math SOL, that is different from what I see on page three of the monitoring report of EL1.

[03:12:37] - That is correct. Those are not the same data sets. - Okay. And on slide number three of this report for the academic matters on the left-hand side, so we use algebra one or higher for the enrollment data.

[03:12:57] So enrolled in algebra one or higher, that is pretty much similar to what's on the right-hand side. Even though one's on the right-hand side for the passing numbers on the left-hand side is enrollment data.

[03:13:17] - Yes, Ms. Mroon, so those data points are slightly different. One is looking at students who have signed up to take the course. So you're gonna have some potential differences between what's on the left-hand side of this and the EL, I think is probably the best comparison, where on the left-hand side here, you're gonna see students who were signed up to take the class.

[03:13:40] the EL you're looking at students who successfully completed the course with the SOL and passing the course some of the variants you're gonna that this is gonna account for things like students who potentially don't earn the verified credit or not successful in the class or leave and transfer right don't complete the year with us I know when we provided the goal report last year that looked at this topic we did do some analysis on pass rates of SOLs as well as passing in the class and our students who are enrolled in the class are very successful.

[03:14:13] So we can provide some of that additional analysis in the Friday letter as well. - Okay, let me ask you one last question. I'll drop that. I'll wait for your Friday memo. Thank you.

[03:14:28] - Thank you, Mr. Moon. Ms. Seizmerheiser. - All right, thank you. I appreciate some of the questions have already been asked. I'm gonna try not to repeat any of those. I just wanted to first say, Dr. Reed, I really appreciate the work you've done here.

[03:14:46] I know there were several people who were concerned about whether our students could access this advanced math. And I know that I'm glad to see what I think a lot of us believe that our students are very capable of algebras in my eighth grade as a floor, right?

[03:15:03] Not a ceiling. And the importance of access to advanced math and advanced learning for all of our students. So there's high expectations for all of our students. I love this program. one thing i wanted to say when you mentioned the funding came from your superintendents was that the gap closing achievement fund um you have so many different initiatives you're doing and so many great things you're doing that are that are paying off in showing this access to algebra one um and i'm assuming you have the data from last year and continue on showing success in algebra one both grades and sol passage rates right because that was the data point from the um

[03:15:38] the strategic plan was successfully completing algebra one by eighth grade i think it'd be great to share that a little more explicitly maybe during the budget conversation then we can talk about this more my role as budget chair tying some of these initiatives to that fund because last year during budget time some questions came up about what is this fund used for what's the purpose and i know sometimes you may not know because as you're developing initiatives or finding different issues your staff is developing initiatives you're like well this would be a great use for this fund but it'd be helpful i think in our conversations and for the public to know this is the great work we do because we have that fun that allows us to be nimble and agile and being

[03:16:17] creative so i just should pause and hear your thoughts about that well yes ma'am i think it's important i know anytime you have a budget line item that's somewhat um well i don't think it's nebulous because i think it's got a very clear uh purpose uh but it really evolves as a result of the data dashboard so that in real time you're able to make decisions about what programs you need in real time based on uh data and then actually have funds to enable you to do it so i i think 100 it would be it would benefit from being able to have more clarity i think so and i think even just pointing backwards and saying look this is the reason we have this fund here's the type of

[03:16:56] things we can do and talking about that agility right of basing it on data-driven decision making um it's really best practices in any organization right to be able to be agile based on what the data shows the other so i think as we go forward budget conversations having that look back right to sort of frame this line item might be helpful the other thing i did want to mention um i think one of my colleagues sort of mentioned about the executive functioning skills that seem to be embedded in this program that you did and you have had many conversations in talking to colleges and industry about the growing importance of that teamwork and collaboration and note-taking and

[03:17:36] then workplace readiness skills and the learning readiness skills and it shows just how important those skills are to students being able to um you know achieve at their highest potential so i would ask you know what's the plan sort of to systematically embed some of these things and refresh some of these things you know the note taking jumped out at me when you mentioned that um starting at a young age so i know a lot of our staff already do this but just ensure that consistency across schools and regions and programs so yes ma'am i think that's a um we're adding avid at a number

[03:18:13] of our elementary schools and middle schools so i think we should see more of that this i think was far more intentional right because it's actually integrated into the curriculum materials so i think that's something that we're going to um obviously explore um and kind of see where we land with that but obviously those skills are critical and we definitely want to include them and integrate them i think and i think it's great that we're expanding avid i would just really encourage you when i talk to industry it isn't just students it's all students right this is a

[03:18:48] real need across um our industry so i think if we can ensure that we embed it just in our general education curriculum right throughout different grades as touch points maybe as that begin the school year where we're really focused on those learn to learn skills along with some refreshing in the academics so i'll leave that we can chat more about it later but i think this is a piece set especially as we have a growing technological innovation and technology driven world this is what sets us apart so I'll stop there but great work this is really exciting program I'm hoping we can expand things like this so more students can really achieve at their highest potential thank

[03:19:24] you miss Sizemore hauser thank you thank you agenda item 9 consent agenda are 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 have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing no objections, the consent agenda is

[03:19:59] approved. Agenda item 10, new business. The following are new business items. There will not not be a vote on the items this evening, but action is scheduled at a future meeting. Agenda item 12, Superintendent Matters.

[03:20:22] I call on Dr. Reed for Superintendent Matters. - Thank you, Madam Chair. Wow, it's been a great start to the school year, and we had a number of kickoff events for many of our programs and departments, and it was fabulous to get a chance attend a number of those as well as our first day of school events and second day and back to school nights I won't enumerate every school I think we've I note those in my weekly memo to staff I will say that we're thrilled to see that all Fairfax County Public School high schools are

[03:21:01] going to be piloting girls flag football this fall excuse me and this is really exciting we're working with our partners the Washington Commanders and I've had a chance to get out on the field with with some of our flag football athletes and there's a lot of excitement.

[03:21:20] So the college scholarship money for young women in flag football is up and coming and it'll be an Olympic sport in 2028. So I hope to see some of our Fairfax County Public School flag footballers in the Olympics someday and really lots of excitement about that.

[03:21:39] I also wanna call out our first military family welcome barbecue that was hosted at Mount Vernon High School we had a huge turnout and this was something that was planned by our military family advisory council as well as our military youth advisory council and we are so excited also shout out to educate Fairfax for sponsoring the event and principal Carrie Demick for helping to host it as well as all of our majors who showed up and helped support a really great event. So at this point, I think I'll end with that. Just wish everybody

[03:22:17] a great holiday weekend for Labor Day and look forward to week three coming up. So get to bed early on Monday night. Thanks. Thank you, Dr. Reid. Agenda item 13, board matters. Next on the agenda is board matters. And I will call on each board member that wishes to speak.

[03:22:35] We are going to start with Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Sorry, I wasn't prepared to go first. I didn't realize that, but I'm happy to speak first. First, I just want to say welcome back to everybody coming back to school. It was a really exciting and energy-filled time. I'm grateful to our teachers and staff and admin for such a strong opening to our schools with 97% of our buses running on time, our vacancy rate the lowest it's been in many years, so kudos to everybody for that and especially to our teachers in the buildings and our educators in the building, our paraprofessionals

[03:23:08] and our building staff for welcoming our students and um on a different note i will say that having been on this board since 2020 i've seen a lot with the way public education and especially our students are um used as pawns in political games and it makes me very sad you know i've visited schools on the first day of the first day of school the first week and the kids were just excited the teachers were excited there was incredible innovative lessons happening even on day one and meanwhile we are seeing from the federal government efforts to strip away funding from

[03:23:47] students who most need it special education students who receive free and reduced price meals and efforts to pit students against each other and that's just wrong so i'm glad that we have a board and a superintendent and a leadership team and teachers and principals who are recognizing that we are one of the best school systems precisely because we are welcoming and inclusive and believe that everybody deserves an excellent education so with that welcome back to school everybody thank you miss seizmerheiser dr anderson um thank you i do want to say welcome back to

[03:24:26] everyone it has been a very very exciting start of the year and we've had some of the best weather in order to do that in these past couple of weeks dr reid kind of stole my thunder regarding girls flag football so i won't talk about that too much but i do want to say a special thank you to mr Mewick I know I've sent you some communication from community regarding double back buses not only have you been super prompt in responding but very clear that we are no longer in that practice at least not in the schools that I raised to you and that's very much appreciated because parents are

[03:25:02] worried about all of the things that come with a double back the only other thing that I want to talk about is the proposal that staff shared with the board and then I believe Dr. Presidio shared another revised draft with some of the affected board members potentially but I'm really excited about the potential for an AAP Center to be established in the Annandale pyramid which is part of the only region without any elementary or middle school AAP centers and we know

[03:25:38] that this is good for kids because right now it's uniquely positioned in which we have those students who are in k-5 schools having to move multiple times to access full-time programming they are at one school for k-5 they go to another school for one year then they go to another school for middle school and I don't think that's a position that we need to put our families in in addition to making the decision of do I keep you with your community or in the pursuit of advanced programming, do you move elsewhere? So I'm very excited that this will be coming to the board for us to make a decision on exploring the plan that's been laid out later on, well not this

[03:26:16] month, but next month in September because there are exponential benefits very much tied to the boundary policy that we've been talking about for the past year and a half. Access to programming, reduce transportation costs, it's win-win all the way around. I know our families have been yearning for this for a very long time it's one of my very first meetings with the community back in 2019 so I'm hoping this will come to fruition and that this can be in place in the next school year with the new boundary for the 26-27 school year there will be more details

[03:26:51] and an upcoming newsletter that I will be sending but I know our families will have a lot of questions um just look for that so you could have some more information um very impressed by all of the principals with the back to school night events it's been very exciting to participate as a parent and also a school board member in many of these and welcome back to a great school year i'm looking forward to great things from our schools mr dunn i'd like to welcome everyone back to school it's an exciting start to the school year i was very proud to co-sponsor the third annual back to

[03:27:28] school community day with supervisor Dan Stork where we provided nearly 1400 students with backpacks full of school supplies. I'm very proud of the work by my staff aides Nelda Brown and Sarah Goodell to continue this partnership with local dedicated volunteer groups like the South County High School PTSO and the Alfred Street Baptist Church to deliver additional supplies to 14 schools in the Mount Vernon district. A huge thank you to everyone who donated and helped to make this possible for our students. As we welcome our students and staff back to school, I also want to extend a special welcome to Mrs. Eileen Delaney, who is just named

[03:28:06] Principal of Fort Belvoir Primary School. Last Friday I was thrilled to join the students, staff, and families at the official opening of the new playground at Fort Hunt Elementary School. This was a really wonderful reminder of the importance of these spaces for play, exercise, and building friendships. I'd I'd like to recognize and thank Principal Jean Consola and her staff for taking the entire first week of school to ensure that every student was taught and reminded of important safety rules.

[03:28:34] What the data shows is that within two months of the installation of a new playground is when most injuries occur. So it's always important for all students to receive appropriate education, not just on, hey, you can access the playground, but how to play and play properly and play safely.

[03:28:52] So finally, I want to wish all of our families, I hope you enjoy the last weekend of summer. Get out to the pool, get outside, go for a hike. I thank our staff for all of their hard work throughout the summer to prepare for this new school year and wish everyone a safe and restful Labor Day holiday.

[03:29:10] Ms. Dixit. Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Hello, everyone. It has been an exciting start of the new school year and we are grateful to our incredible school staff, dedicated teachers, hardworking administrators, whose effort behind the scenes have made the opening of schools such a success.

[03:29:35] From preparing classroom to welcoming families, your commitment shines through in every detail. A special shout out to our marching bands and fall athletes. Your energy, teamwork and talent brings pride and spirit to our entire community. We look forward to cheering you on throughout the season and celebrating your accomplishment.

[03:29:55] On the other note, I do want to say that we are, as a school board, as a one member of the school board, I stay committed to safeguarding the interest of all our students, and I will continue to fight for each and every student in Fairfax County and their rights.

[03:30:14] And I would like to say that somebody coming and oppressing our school or the community will not be successful because we are FCPS strong. Thank you very much. Have a happy Labor Day weekend and good night.

[03:30:30] - Thank you, Ms. Tixit. Ms. St. John Cunning. - Buenas noches. I begin tonight by pointing out the historical significance of this day. August 28th of this day in America. August 28th, 70 years ago, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy, a middle schooler, was kidnapped and killed for no other reason than he was black in America.

[03:30:58] The eyes of the world and the nation were opened. and a civil rights movement was galvanized. Eight years later, in 1963, August 28th was chosen for the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech, which brought about hope, unity, inclusiveness, and progress.

[03:31:20] It inspired me and my 26-year career in our schools to work with and help our most vulnerable students and families. On the ground, I did it on a one-to-one basis. On this board, I have the opportunity to have a greater impact and to be the voice for all of our traditionally undervalued students and communities, be they immigrants, socio-economically disadvantaged, LGBTQIA+, twice exceptional, or those in need of special education services.

[03:31:54] Unfortunately, our society continues to face rhetoric that is full of hate, divisiveness, fear-mongering where many individuals live in fear simply for being black, brown, trans, or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in America. We must stand together in the continued fight for human rights. On this August 28th, we find ourselves at a crossroads where FCPS is one of a few divisions that is being threatened by the federal government to remove funding that supports all of our

[03:32:29] students if we do not comply with an executive order that violates current state and federal law. Funding that goes to after-school programs, support for multilingual students, special education students, and money to feed socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Think about that. We are being asked to set aside the human rights of one group of marginalized students to support another group of marginalized students. It is an immoral ask. It doesn't have to be this way.

[03:33:04] It shouldn't be this way. On this August 28th, let us stand in solidarity with all our students. To paraphrase the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, I have a dream that all of our children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, their sexual orientation or gender identity, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity identification, or any other visible or invisible characteristic, but by the content of their character.

[03:33:42] I believe this dream can be our reality. Si, se puede. - Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunning. Mr. McElveen. - Well, I had a delightful first couple of days of school going around with Dr. Reed to many of our sites.

[03:34:01] Some of the highlights were walking into classrooms in different schools and seeing the same lesson taught. We saw my class as a family book being read in multiple classrooms as well as, what was it, the rat and the bat or something like that.

[03:34:18] But anyway, it was great to see that our benchmark curriculum being implemented with fidelity throughout. It was also great to visit the classrooms of our new teachers and our outstanding teacher award winners from last year and just see the impact they were making even on their first days of school and we also got to see some leaky ceilings some broken elevators and some other things but otherwise it was a very delightful opening to school and I think it set the standard for the year so best wishes to everyone

[03:34:56] on a wonderful school year. Ms. Marin. Yeah I've enjoyed many back to school visits I'm over a a dozen at this point but it's really energizing because that's where the community is and you know there's so much vitriol that we hear but I was reflecting on what I hear and see and I have not heard a single parent or guardian say a negative comment about a principal a staff member the biggest complaints were about class size going up due to funding cuts and as always security

[03:35:30] is always a concern but people love their schools and they love Fairfax County schools so it's just so important to see it firsthand and know what's really happening. Tonight I am happy to be here but sad to miss two awesome events. South Lakes High School had their block party followed by the first football game of the season and the stadium bathrooms were open. After three years and it was actually my first campaign promise to Mr. Aaron Diamond in 2019 who was the booster president at the time he said Melanie you got to get these stadium bathrooms done so six years later Aaron had his bathrooms tonight and also the

[03:36:10] Madison High School County Fair and the students were all over the pyramid this morning recruiting students to attend so really disappointed to miss those great events I want to congratulate a student at McNair Upper who is the AAA like you you know, the car insurance, the patroller of the year, the safety patroller of the year, Sanvi Vanga Pali at McNair Upper Elementary.

[03:36:33] So that is huge. Also wanna get back to congratulating Madison crew. They finished great in the state championships this season, the women's freshmen four, the men's second varsity eight. So we love expanding those sports opportunities. I'm very excited that the Beyond the Bell after school program pilot is gonna be happening in four schools in Hunter Mill.

[03:36:54] Wolf Trap, where I personally had my child, my children on the wait list for many years for SAC, Flint Hill, Vienna, and Lake Anne. So there are some meetings that are being hosted to get information. So check those out. And September 9th, the 15th day of school will not be a day of school for our students. For their safety, our schools will be closed for instruction and work to serve as polling places for the special election. And it's just such a great reminder about how our schools serve everyone in the community with 100 schools over 100 schools serving as precincts it is definitely not just the responsibility of our public school funds

[03:37:31] to keep our buildings renovated and open and accessible so i think the best thing that i could think of at the end of this day which had a lot of different topics and different types of input in our public comment session i think the best thing that i can do is to make sure that i do my my work as best as I can on the board. Proving that public education works and being a witness and sharing that is the best way to fight hate. So I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend

[03:38:00] and a great back to school season. Thank you, Ms. Barron. Mr. McDaniel. Thank you. And yes, welcome back everyone. But I want to talk about football. Here we are in a new fall season. I love the fall because it means I get to walk around and talk smack about how my Washington team is going to the Super Bowl and how my Hokies are going to the Commonwealth Cup and they're going to keep it. But there's another football that I don't love about the fall and that's our schools

[03:38:34] being used as a political football because here we are yet again in another election season and politicians across the river in Washington and unfortunately some down 95 in Richmond just have to treat our schools like a game of backyard football. We see this year after year after year and I want to be clear what they're really playing with because these are not abstract policy debates. It's reality. They're children who fill our hallways every day with energy and with hope. We have 40,000 dedicated employees who show up every single day united by an unwavering passion to build our future child by child and there are hundreds of thousands of

[03:39:11] parents and family members who've chosen to make Fairfax County their home precisely because of the exceptional education our schools provide every day. And I want to say unequivocally what my role on this board means to me. I'm here to champion our Fairfax County values within our public school system.

[03:39:30] My top priority remains creating a safe and welcoming learning environment for every one of our kids, of which my daughter is one this year. And that absolutely, unequivocally, without exception, includes our transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive students.

[03:39:46] Every child, and I mean that, every child, deserves a safe and joyful childhood especially in our schools this is a fundamental promise that we make to our community and it's my responsibility to ensure the promise is not just made but it's fulfilled every single day so with that welcome back go Hokies and have a great school year to everyone Mr. Frisch uh welcome back everyone this summer while students enjoyed their well-deserved summer break Washington was hard at work making their lives more difficult especially for those

[03:40:25] living in poverty, learning English, or needing additional supports. They cut billions of dollars in critical funding for programs that feed poor kids, keep them healthy, put roofs over their heads, and make their neighborhoods safer. And sadly they aren't done. Now Washington is talking about eliminating Title III, which helps multilingual students achieve English proficiency and high academic achievement. They're also considering dramatic cuts to the McKinney Vento federal grant program, which helps students who are experiencing homelessness in our schools.

[03:41:01] And Washington isn't just waging a war on children, they're also targeting young adults. This summer, they made it harder for young people and career switchers to pay for college, dramatically curbing income-based student loan repayment programs and public service loan forgiveness, a program which helps Fairfax County teachers pay for their student loans and pursue advanced degrees that enrich the academic experiences of our students.

[03:41:27] Washington also canceled grants for scientific research at universities across the country and here in Virginia, eliminating opportunities for our young people, future computer and data scientists, engineers and technologists, biologists and immunologists, astrophysicists and mathematicians.

[03:41:45] In doing so, they have significantly hindered America's ability to compete in the future global economy. Washington is not cutting waste. They're wasting the talent and potential of an entire generation of children and young adults.

[03:42:02] And they are asking us to pit one group of students against another. But here in Fairfax County, we remain laser-focused on creating safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environments for all students, with world-class, well-paid teachers, rigorous, future-focused academics, and access to the arts, athletics, and other enrichment opportunities.

[03:42:25] As a school board member, I will not stand by While adults who should know better make life so much harder for children, we can and must meet the needs of all students without undermining the dignity or rights of any of them.

[03:42:43] That includes ensuring every student, including those who are transgender and gender nonconforming, have full and equal access to the incredible opportunities we offer in Fairfax County Public Schools. uphold our shared values of equity, dignity, and respect for all students and their families.

[03:43:01] We owe them nothing less. Good night. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. Ms. Lady. Thank you. Per the comments of several of my colleagues on the board, I want to personally thank each parent, guardian, and caretaker of our 181,000 plus students for entrusting Fairfax County Public Schools with the education of your children. Thank you for entrusting that we will provide them with a world-class education a safe supportive inclusive environment it's a huge important to us as we start a new year you do have choice and thank you for

[03:43:39] choosing us as you heard earlier this evening we are and have and will continue to make amazing strides and the high expectations of all students and our success with each of your students I also just want to say happy new year welcome back to certainly all schools but especially my Draynesville schools schools. I've enjoyed greeting parents and students, speaking with teachers and administrators who have all reported an amazing start to the school year. I enjoy visiting McLean High School, Herndon Middle School, and Coates, Drainisville, Clearview, Spring Hill, Herndon,

[03:44:16] and Hutchinson Elementary Schools thus far and look forward to all my future visits. Just a reminder to mostly our middle and high school students around cell phones. They need to be put away if you're a middle schooler, bell to bell. And if you're a high school student you may only use them during your lunch period but not passing time also a reminder for those who visit our schools to please bring your driver's license or state IDs to enter because we have Lobby Guard I think is what it's called for you to check in through and I'm also thrilled that many Drain's

[03:44:53] full schools have added security vesting rules over the summer I want to encourage parents guardians caretakers also to join your students PTA PTO or PTSA it's a wonderful way to support your school in many ways also thank everyone who currently is serving on an executive board for one of these organizations and and the impact you're making in your school community and per conversations earlier this evening we always want need and appreciate volunteers the more trusted adults we have in the lives of our children the

[03:45:29] better we all are as a you know just a school but a greater community to help support and raise our students so please look for opportunities and get involved in as many ways as possible and then finally you will hear about some multiple upcoming community meetings on boundary work and school start times this fall I'll share updates in my newsletter once meeting dates are set so happy Labor Day weekend enjoy the four-day weekend and again welcome to a new year I know I'm the one who stands in the way of us being done but I would like to welcome everybody back to school. It's already shaping up to be an amazing year. I want

[03:46:09] to begin by thanking our staff for all of your hard work. I've heard from so many that this was the smoothest start in years, and that is directly because of you. You made it happen for our students and families, and I am deeply grateful and impressed. Like many of my colleagues noted, I will say that it's been a difficult summer. In case you didn't know, there is a governor's race going on in Virginia. And as we all know, all eyes are on us across the country. No one sitting on the on this dais misses the importance of the that race for the work that we do. However, it is more important than ever for people to

[03:46:46] remember that public education is not a political weapon. Our schools are not here to host partisan battles. We are here to teach, to nurture, and to open doors of opportunity for every child in our classrooms. And the truth is Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest division in Virginia and the ninth largest in the nation, is doing extraordinary work. Our teachers are sparking curiosity, our counselors are supporting students, and our staff are creating safe spaces. Many of our families have settled in this county because they know strong schools build strong communities. When political fights

[03:47:23] overshadow this good work, we risk diminishing the dedication of both those who put students first every day and our students themselves. Public education cannot continue to be consumed by politics and survive in the way it's needed for our country. We must keep our focus on what matters, ensuring that every child has the chance to thrive and supporting the people who make it possible. So with that we are adjourned at 10:47.

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