Coraggio Consulting Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, October 9, 2025 Date: Thursday, October 9, 2025 Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia Length: 3h 28m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjfnfqrj3ss 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:56] The time is 7 p.m. and this October 9th, 2025 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the National Anthem by West Potomac High School Guitar Ensemble under the direction of Skylar Keeley. [00:01:17] I pledge allegiance. [00:02:22] Can we have one more round of applause for our amazing students? [00:03:07] Agenda Item 4.02 announcements. Ms. Sizemore Heiser has notified the chair and the clerk of the board that she is using patient as she is caregiving for an individual with a disability. [00:03:22] Thus, Ms. Sizemore Heiser will be counted as in person for the purposes of quorum tonight and does not need to be voted in by the board. She is located in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Sizemore Heiser, we can see you. Can we hear you? - Hello, welcome, thank you. - Thank you. On behalf of the school board, I would like to welcome Carolyn Pitches, chair of the Fairfax City Board. [00:03:49] If you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda, Please see the back of the auditorium to obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight. Please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu backslash board docs. [00:04:06] Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on YouTube and on our website at www.fcps.edu backslash live stream. Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on YouTube at youtube.com backslash at FCPS en Español. [00:04:28] Agenda item 4.03, Indigenous People's Day and Native American Heritage Month proclamation. I call on Miss Lady for a proclamation. Whereas Indigenous People's Day is recognized on the second Monday of October, and Native American Heritage Month is recognized throughout the month of November across the United States and in Fairfax County Public Schools to honor and celebrate the history, accomplishments, and contributions of the first peoples of this land. [00:04:58] And whereas in 1990, Congress passed and President George H.W. Bush signed into law a joint resolution designating the month of November as the first National American Indian Heritage Month, in 2021, President Joe Biden was the first U.S. President to formally commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day as a national holiday with a presidential proclamation. [00:05:18] And whereas Indigenous people have made invaluable contributions in the sciences, arts, public service, military service, and many other fields that are integral to the advancement of our nation and society. And whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia is home to 11 officially recognized tribes whose presence and leadership honors and strengthens our shared history and future. [00:05:37] And whereas Fairfax County sits on the land originally stewarded by the Doge, Manahoic, and Pomonkey tribes and other indigenous peoples whose stories, traditions, and cultures continue to enrich our country and commonwealth. And whereas FCPS serves a diverse student population with many who embrace and celebrate their indigenous family heritage. [00:05:58] Whereas Indigenous Peoples Day and Native American Heritage Month are wonderful opportunities for our Fairfax County Public Schools community to honor our nation's original inhabitants and their descendants. These commemorations further call us to honor the beautiful and rich indigenous communities, traditions, cultures, and lives across our county, commonwealth, and all around the world. [00:06:18] Now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board does hereby proclaim October 13, 2025 as Indigenous Peoples Day and November 2025 as Native American Heritage Month in recognition and celebration of the many contributions of our nation's indigenous people to our school system, community, and country. [00:06:38] Is there a second? Second. Mr. McDaniel. I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Mood, Dr. Anderson, and myself, and Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. That's unanimous for all board members. Congratulations. We can clap. [00:07:11] Agenda item 4.04 LGBTQIA plus history month. I call on Mr. Frisch for a proclamation. Thank you. Whereas LGBTQIA history month has been recognized across the United States since 1994 and Fairfax County Public Schools since 2017 to acknowledge the often overlooked contributions of LGBTQIA people, communities and movements in our history. [00:07:36] And whereas the arc of LGBTQIA history is one of both struggle and triumph. Despite increased understanding and protections, LGBTQIA+ people still face many challenges, including the threats of violence and their legal rights being revoked. [00:07:52] And whereas LGBTQIA+ organizations across Virginia and Fairfax County have shaped our Commonwealth's history, Equality Virginia founded in 1989 and now the leading statewide advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, Fairfax County's Transgender Education Association launched in 1982 and now led by Reverend Emma Chatton to provide education support and advocacy for transgender and gender expensive people and their families. Fairfax Lesbian and Gay Citizens Association established in 1989 by Bart Forbes which sponsored Gay Fairfax a cable television [00:08:25] program chronicling local LGBTQIA+ life in Fairfax County. Equality Fairfax started in 2001 by parents Paula Prettyman and Kelly Schlagerter to build local visibility and community FCPS for Pride formed in 2015 by educator Robert Rigby as an employee and family advocacy group and Pride Liberation Project organized in 2021 by then FCPS student Aryan Rawal in response to attacks on LGBTQIA+ books and students. These and other groups collective legacy has been transformative [00:08:59] in the lives of lgbtqia plus virginia's virginians and whereas despite earnest attempts fcps was regrettably slow to formally protect lgbtqia plus students and staff in 1992 the school board extended modest verbal bullying protections to gay lesbian and bisexual students in 2000 the school division removed administrative barriers that kept students from forming and joining gay straight alliance clubs in 2002 the school board postponed voting on a measure to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy when the state attorney general declared it did not have the authority 12 years later these legal hurdles were removed and the school board finally added [00:09:39] protections for sexual orientation in 2014 and gender identity in 2015. progress has continued 2016 and 2021 saw major inclusivity focused updates to student rights and responsibilities 2018 and 2021 saw significant inclusive updates to family life education 2020 saw the school division's first recognition of june as pride month and the implementation of regulation 2603 among the nation's strongest protections for transgender and gender expansive students in 2022 saw fcps become one of the first public school systems to provide family planning benefit [00:10:14] parity for lgbtqia plus employees and whereas the fairfax county school board stands with its diverse community of lgbtqia plus students families and staff recognizing the urgency of its charge to foster a responsive caring and inclusive culture where lgbtqia plus students are affirmed and see their identities reflected in school programs instructional curricula and library offerings now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school board hereby proclaims october as lgbtqia plus history month in fairfax county public schools urging all to learn more about the many historical contributions of the lgbtqia plus community not only during october but throughout [00:10:54] the entire year as well. Is there a second? A second. Ms. Marin, I'll call for the vote, Mr. Frisch, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Seismar Heiser, and myself. [00:11:14] That is unanimous for all board members. I would like to welcome those who are here to support the LGBTQIA+ History Month Proclamation [00:11:25] to please join the board for a photo in the front of the dais. [00:11:57] I would like to welcome all those here in support of the Indigenous People's Day and Native American Heritage Month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dais. [00:13:42] Agenda item 5.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who have signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at the school board regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board's website at www.fcps.edu backslash school board. [00:14:05] During the sign-up process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the school board's expectation 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. 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 the speaker's remarks audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain in their seats including when recording video or taking photos we are grateful to all of those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not [00:14:45] responding madam clerk please call the first speaker. Nathan Hurley. Good evening Dr. Reed and school board members. My name is Nathan Hurley and I've been an FCPS student for 13 years, a member of the Fairfax football team for four, and a captain of that team for two. Me, my teammates, and the community are all extremely surprised and disappointed about the unjust decision made by the VHSL regarding our playoffs [00:15:24] and are asking the school board to stand with Dr. A in appealing the punishment for several reasons. First of all, me and my teammates have been tirelessly working nonstop, not only for the past 11 months for this specific season, but for the past four plus years of work that ideally should culminate with the last shot at the playoffs. [00:15:44] Second is the seniors. Personally, I don't have plans to continue playing this game in college, meaning that I only have three hours and 12 minutes left on the field to show for the past five years of my life the 80 pounds I've gained, the continuous injuries, and the unbelievable time sacrificed I made to be at practice and workouts every day for the entire year. [00:16:04] Lastly is the facts about the punishment. Evidence has been revealed that an assistant coach had a conversation with a JV player last year. Regardless of all that, that coach, and for some reason Coach Taylor, had been put on leave, meaning that any additional punishment that we, the students, and the players receive does not affect the adult which caused the problem who allegedly broke the [00:16:26] rules any more pain. The last time me and my fellow seniors will ever put pads on has been spoiled and I know that allowing us to be eligible for the playoffs doesn't mean that we will get in but at least we know that our destiny is in our hands and if we keep trying and we keep playing then we can keep having more games. We've seen you guys contribute to the team banned by the VHSL to get back in the playoffs last year and now there's another chance for you guys to do it for the right reason. Thank you for your time. Ryan Hartle. Good evening Dr. Reed and members of the [00:17:18] Fairfax County School Board. My name is Ryan Hartle and I'm a senior and four year member of the Fairfax High School football team. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of my teammates, our coaches, and the entire Fairfax community. We're here to respectfully ask for your support and advocacy to the Virginia High School League to to lift the postseason ban placed on our football program. The situation that led to this penalty involved one player and one coach who was who was with the team for only a single season. Not one current player and no other coach had any involvement in that incident yet the consequence has have fallen on all of us players students and families who had [00:17:56] no part in what occurred our team has been working toward this our team has been working toward this season since last december countless hours in the weight room on the field and in the classroom have gone into preparing for the chance to compete and represent fairfax with pride we've done everything the right way living the values of discipline team make teamwork and respect but this decision doesn't just impact the football team it affects everyone who makes friday nights in Fairfax so special: the band, the cheerleaders, the dance team, and the hundreds of students and families who fill the stands in blue and white. [00:18:30] We understand the importance of accountability, but the punishment reaches too far. It hurts the various students who have done nothing wrong and who continue to uphold the standards of Fairfax County Public Schools. All we are asking for is fairness, the opportunity to finish what we have worked so hard for and to compete for something we've earned. [00:18:47] We hope you'll stand with us and advocate to VSHL on behalf of our school and community so the Fairfax Lions can probably continue our season. Thank you for your time and for your continued support for our Fairfax ceremony. [00:19:04] - Adam Chavez. - Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Adam Chavez. [00:19:20] I'm a junior at Fairfax High School. I've been a member of the Fairfax High School football team for two years. I'm very grateful to be given this opportunity to speak on me and my teammates' behalf. I wanted to get respectfully straight to the point. I believe that the punishment that has been given to us is unjust and unfair. [00:19:36] I understand that the coaches broke the rules, but I believe the circumstances are much different us compared to Hayfield. Hayfield had a whole team and a whole staff but for us it was one player and one coach. The coach has already been put on administrative leave and isn't being affected by this punishment and for the player he doesn't attend Fairfax anymore and when he was there he played junior varsity meaning he didn't really contribute to varsity. This punishment has really affected me because I feel like a part of my life's work has been taken away from me. I have worked countless hours weeks and months for one goal of being able to compete at a high level for the ultimate goal to play alongside my brothers and win a state championship. It also makes me mourn for the seniors who have shown me the ropes and really showed me what it [00:20:13] meant to be a part of this program just for their potential future with football to be at a possible loss. For many seniors the postseason especially the state or regional playoffs is the highest level of competition they will face. College recruiters often use these high-stakes games to evaluate an athlete's performance under pressure. A ban eliminates this crucial chance to showcase their talent in front of coaches. I understand the importance of accountability but in this case the punishment just doesn't fit. It penalizes the wrong people the student-athletes who have done everything right all we're asking is for fairness the chance to compete and to finish what we work so hard for and to make our school proud we hope you'll stand with [00:20:50] us to advocate to VHSL to lift this band so that every Fairfax student who wears blue and white can be part of something positive something we've all earned together thank you for your time and for your continued support of the Fairfax High School family Angie Bradford it is my understanding that public schools in Virginia do not receive federal funding for sex education courses so they can include anything they want in their sex ed curricula. I want to share with [00:21:29] parents the ideology I found in the FCPS eighth grade family life education curriculum for this school year. This course content is available to parents in Schoology. In lesson two, individual identity, I found the following. Individual identity includes components of gender identity and sexual orientation. Gender identity describes a person's internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female. [00:21:54] Remember, gender identity may be the same as sex assigned at birth or may differ. The term "transgender" is used to describe an individual whose gender identity is different from the individual's sex assigned at birth. A little later in the lesson, I found this. Individual identity also includes sexual orientation. [00:22:12] We will discuss the categories heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and bisexual, although there are additional sexual orientations. Let me repeat those last six words: Although there are additional sexual orientations, I'm wondering where a kid's mind might wander trying to think of all of the additional sexual orientations they could choose from. [00:22:33] Sounds like the options are limitless. The ideologies of additional sexual orientations in transgender are not universally accepted and should not be included in public school curricula. What about opting your kids out? You can do that, but the teachers at our school say there is stigma associated with opting kids out of selected lessons. [00:22:53] They recommend opting kids out of a whole day or the entire two-day course. Your kids don't get fact-based sex education if you don't genuflect to the ideologies that have been worked into the curriculum. This isn't right. Thank you. [00:23:13] Elnora Bedaly. Good evening everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Elnora and I'm a parent from Canterbury Woods Elementary School. I'm here tonight to talk about the time change, proposed time change. [00:23:32] will push our school to 9:50 a.m. The 9:50 a.m. start time poses such a huge challenge to working families, to the before and after school care, after school activities. And speaking of Canterbury Woods Elementary is a center for the deaf and hard of hearing. Some of these kids they travel one hour each way right now. Under the proposed plan or the time change, the option two, these kids will be getting home close to 6 p.m. in wintertime it's really dark it's a safety issue there is no time for these kids to spend time with family they will be [00:24:09] coming home tired and overstimulated also this impact is this going to be impacting teachers and staff I think a lot of teachers going to be leaving FCPS if all of this going to go into effect so it's not going to just affecting families it's not affecting families of the students but families of the teachers. Also we absolutely support that the goal your goal is to change the time for the middle school and find that healthy start times. However it's going to be a ripple effect on all of these elementary schools because there are currently 24 schools that are starting right now at 920 in [00:24:47] FCPS and these schools will be starting at 950 under option two. And I understand that this is a um budget neutral for FCPS however it's not a budget neutral for us families whose kids are going to the schools so I really hope that you guys will take all of this into consideration when you guys are making um decisions on time change and just remember please elementary school runs for seven years and middle school runs only for two so thank you so much for your attention [00:25:19] tonight Bree Fram good evening my name is Bree Fram I'm a Space Force Colonel who is currently being dismissed based on this administration's transgender policies. I speak today in my personal capacity and as the parent of two FCPS kids who thrive because of your inclusive environment. [00:25:53] In the military, every time we opened the aperture of who was allowed to serve, we grew stronger. As a nation, every time we expanded who could fully participate in our democracy, we became better the next day than we were the day before. The same is true here. [00:26:10] when everyone can learn and live without fear and shame for who they are we all benefit some now question whether openness inclusion are creating more queer and trans kids as though we are something new but lgbtq people have always been here for most of history we simply couldn't be open out of fear for our safety or for our freedom hiding who we are diminished our potential and drained the energy we could give to our work our studies or our communities there's a lesson from history in the late 19th century the number of left-handed kids people anyone suddenly plummeted [00:26:47] not because they disappeared but because schools slapped hands with rulers and punished left-handedness as wrong kids worked hard to hide something innate out of fear when that stopped the numbers rebounded to normal the people hadn't changed the environment had so today when we create safe inclusive spaces we're not making more LGBTQ+ kids we're letting them exist as themselves and giving them the chance to flourish so I wanted to thank you for your continued commitment to ensuring that every student can bring their full self to school because when our children no longer have to hide who they [00:27:27] are or who they love our entire community grows stronger and it's why we have chosen to make Fairfax County our home. Thank you. Kathleen Mallard. Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. My main topic pertains [00:28:06] to student safety. There are many dangers they face. As you all have admitted, human trafficking is occurring in every high school in Fairfax County, in some elementary, some middle schools. Drugs, gang activity, etc. One of the things which we definitely can control though is keeping boys out of girls bathrooms and locker rooms biological males are different than biological females while your first i know responsibility [00:28:46] is academic and training you also must keep our students safe you have gone back and forth with lawsuits against the department of education because you do not want to follow the bathroom policies gender identity violate students constitutional rights you say FCPS has filed appeals and back and forth but just recently last week Wednesday October 1st a final judgment has come down I don't know how much money you all have spent on these lawsuits but federal judge [00:29:22] Diaz once again denied Fairfax County public schools appeal and dismissed the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education. Now the Virginia Board of Health is advancing gender-based regulations and Governor Glenn Youngkin has issued an executive order calling on the Virginia Board of Health to create regulations to prevent biological males from taking part in female only sports. I'm sure the football team wouldn't want to have a bunch of girls on it and I'm by the way I pray [00:29:55] that you will be condoned. Anyway let's keep girls sports. Isaac Christofferson. [00:30:13] Good evening my name is Isaac Christofferson and for the past 15 years I have entrusted the education of my two children to Fairfax County Public Schools. Tonight I wish to share my thoughts on a matter of significant concern. On September 26th parents coaches and student athletes were informed of a postseason ban against Fairfax High School. The individuals and carpetbagging family responsible violations have long since moved on leaving the current student athletes to unfairly bear the [00:30:51] consequences the situation raises important questions about fairness accountability and advocacy the 2025 season of fairfax football friday night lights is now expected to end sooner after the september 26 meeting parents and concerned community members rally together to determine how best to support fairfax high school many parents meticulously reviewed the roughly 250 page VHSL handbook to understand the situation more clearly in doing so we learned that an arbitration process does exist that violations are supposed to be referred to a committee for adjudicating the appropriate punishment and that the principal of Fairfax had a very narrow window to submit an appeal I commend [00:31:30] these members it for their dedication and strength of character and tackling this challenge and trying to find a positive path forward also grateful for Dr. I and Ms. Melnick's continued advocacy on behalf of the students and and hopeful for a positive outcome. And I encourage the board to familiarize themselves with the marriage of this appeal. [00:31:48] However, I'm deeply concerned that FCPS Office of Student Activities and Athletics does not possess a more in-depth knowledge of the VHSS rules. By now, the office should be well-practiced and intimately familiar with the appeal process, and it should not have taken a group of dedicated parents to compel the office into advocacy. [00:32:04] We need better leadership that is willing to advocate for our students, athletes, and coaches without prodding from the community. We need to better educate our student athletes their parents and the rules governing them so that they can proactively so they can be proactive identifying reporting and avoiding potential conflicts and mostly we need to stop turning our student athletes and coaches into collateral damage because of the misguided and selfish actions [00:32:25] of adults molly sullivan my name is molly sullivan i teach in the springfield district i live in the sully district i stand before you tonight with a healthy respect for freedom of speech um there was locally a group of activists that came to our high school pyramid protest protesting reproductive health rates they go to all of our Fairfax County high schools whether in the fall or spring or both my concern is there was a gentleman there who was [00:33:04] recording all of the students and our dismissal procedures there's a copy of a picture coming around that I gave to the clerk and I will email you a higher deaf one as well and we don't know who that man was we don't know if he's actually affiliated with that group or not this poses a serious security risk to our students our family and our community I'm here tonight to urge the board and the superintendent to draft language and regulation to protect our students and our dismissal arrival practices to include but not limited to the recording of said procedures while our students are while our schools are public our procedures and practices to ensure safety should remain just that safe and private our worst nightmares to have a massive or tragic mass incident [00:33:41] one of our schools and sadly in today's day and age we need to think about the what-ifs knowing our students faces our dismissal procedures along with the timeline from for them from potentially every high school across Fairfax county district in some random person or group's hands has been gravely concerning to me as a parent as well as a teacher. Please protect our schools by enacting policy which prohibits recording our grounds procedures without specifically granted permission from FCPS. [00:34:06] Thank you. Robert Rigby Jr. Good evening. I'm speaking tonight as a member of FCPS Pride. I've been addressing this board since these whiskers were red in 2001. Saturday is national coming out [00:34:45] and as you've seen it's so much riskier than it's been before. It's risky also for allies. Trifix County Public Schools, senior staff, the superintendent, and this school board have shown support for all of the students and families in FCPS, especially for those under duress in these times, such as black, disabled, immigrant, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities. Why are there such great efforts to radicalize Virginians against vulnerable groups. Here's my thinking. [00:35:20] Besides the election, the radicalizing is to create chaos and dismantle public education in Fairfax County. Hoping for the failure of Fairfax County public schools seems to be the assigned task of folks such as Luke Rosiak, Oswin Omani, and Laura Ingraham. Also for such mysteriously funded outside groups as the independent women's network moms for liberty parents defending education on and on i'm not certain why folks like nova campaigns and that new guy in ohio walter kurtz the younger are doing [00:35:59] this maybe because of monetization perhaps for the sheer heck of it but thank you for maintaining public education for everyone in the face of this onslaught have a good evening Angie Trerotola. Good evening, my name is Angie Trerotola. In honor of this month being LGBTQIA History Month, I'd like to share the contributions of a World War II Patriot, the first American-born Chinese woman physician and comic book hero, Dr. Margaret Mom Chung. Despite immense discrimination [00:36:37] due to her gender, ethnicity, and the laws of the 20th century barring her from living authentically as a lesbian, Chung harnessed the power of the connections she made to others and the community she built to help America win the war against fascism. Chung applied to serve as a surgeon in in the Ceno-Japanese War in the 1930s, but was denied due to rumors about her sexuality. [00:36:54] Soon after, a young ensign, Bancroft, reached out to Chung because he thought she could convince the Chinese government to let him join their military to fight the Japanese overseas. Chung, a U.S. citizen instead, invited him and his friends to dinner, and they quickly became what we now call chosen family. One night, the pilots joke she was so understanding, she was like their mom, and the nickname stuck. [00:37:14] Chung's family quickly grew to over 1,500 members as she gave each of her fair-haired foster sons a number and a little Buddha trinket. The pilots recruited others to join them for her famous weekly dinners in San Francisco. [00:37:30] As word of her hospitality spread, submariners, politicians, top military leaders, and movie stars like John Wayne and Ronald Reagan were welcomed into her family. In 1941, the U.S. government secretly asked Chung to help her recruit a group of pilots who would become the legendary Flying Tigers, one of the most famous squadrons in all of history. [00:37:46] In 1942, she tried to join the Navy, but was denied because of her gender. So she called up some of her sons in D.C. and worked with others to lobby Congress to pass Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services Act, or WAVES. WAVES allowed over 80,000 women to serve in new and crucial roles, such as aeronautical engineers, parachute riggers, and cryptographers. [00:38:04] Chung ultimately was denied entry into WAVES because of her ethnicity and age. Stories like Dr. Chung show students that even when odds are stacked against you, not only can you find people who accept you for who you are, and you can even find ways to become a hero, not just in your own story, but even in your country's history. This is why history months like this one are so important to celebrate. Thank you. Vanessa Hall. Hi, thank you. My name is [00:38:39] Vanessa Hall. I'm an active FCPS parent and co-leader of FCPS Pride. Thank you for recognizing LGBTQIA History Month because our families need to be seen in the classroom, curriculum, and library, especially in these hard times and when 20% of our students identify as LGBTQIA. During last year's proclamation, I felt hopeful for the future, but this year even I'm occasionally hesitant to wear rainbows in public. In fact, I've been bullied by Project 2025 operatives for daring to wear a rainbow heart t-shirt and attend a school board meeting. It seems crazy because freedom of speech [00:39:18] and assembly are pretty basic First Amendment rights, right? They've threatened and harassed me, called me a groomer because I dare to exist as an ally, so I can only imagine how our LGBTQIA community feels every day. Some have told me they're trying to blend in, keep their heads down, and do their work, hoping that anti-queer hate or discrimination won't find them, but that's no way to live, much less thrive in this world. And for our students and staff, that does not lead to happy people much less academic excellence because this is fcps it's painful painfully obvious that we [00:39:54] need you all more than ever to stand firm and protect our students staff and families from hate and hateful speech including in this room keep combating the u.s education department america first lawsuits and our attorney general at the same time we need more allies to stand strong against anyone trying to bully or exclude people based on their identity sexuality race religion income or immigration status because american history teaches us that marcia p johnson didn't spark a revolution at stonewall only for us to go back in the closet as queer or queer [00:40:30] allies in 2025. alan turing didn't defeat the nazis so that we would give in to reduce civil liberties and creeping authoritarianism in the 21st century thank you for keeping air queen also signed up to have a video played tonight but we never received the video thus there is no video testimony tonight chair anderson community participation is complete thank you madam chair or madam clerk um agenda item 6.01 student representative matters i call on miss maconan [00:41:04] hello everyone it is so nice to be joining you virtually um um over the past several months one of the common concerns i've heard from students across fcps is they feel disconnected with the decisions that shape their education with many students wanting to understand the policies that affect them whether it's grading practices attendance expectations technology use or discipline procedures but they often like feel they often feel confused on where to start while this information technically exists on board docs it's not exactly student friendly these policies are lengthy filled with legal languages and scattered across multiple sections for most students this makes engaging with the school board policy nearly impossible even when [00:41:43] those decisions directly affect their day-to-day experiences in our classrooms that's why i'm proposing a student accessible policy database and website that translates for docs policies into clear concise explanations written for students by students this is a project i will be taking on with sac and this is a brief overview of how it would work um i plan a partner with sac which already includes student representatives for each high school we're going to divide the policies into topic areas such as academics students right discipline attendance and wellness and summarize each one into simple accessible language each policy entry on the website would include a short explanation of what the policy says in plain student understandable terms a section on how it [00:42:20] would directly impact students separated on grade level policies and the links to the original board docs version for full transparency to ensure that students would actually use and see this resource we're also launched launching a social media page connected to the site which would post short explanations about recent or upcoming policy changes as they see discussions and opportunities for student feedback this would help make students feel more connected to the real every this would help the school board decisions to feel more connected to the everyday lives of students ultimately this goal this project is for the goal of transparency and empowerment when students [00:42:57] understand why policy exists and how they work it builds trust and encourages meaningful engagement it also helps ensure that student voice and policy decisions are informed thoughtful and grounded in the actual language of board decisions this would not only make board docs more accessible but it would also create a sustainable framework that future student representatives and sec members would be able to update each year building a lasting bridge between students and the board i'm currently drafting a structure for the site and i'm going to begin with sec subcommittees that could contribute to different sections i would love to explore potential collaborations with the communications office or the department of i.t to ensure that the site aligns with fcps standards for accessibility design as well as any board members who'd like to offer their [00:43:35] perspective i know i've already talked to miss marron about it in short this initiative is about making the governance of our schools more understandable to the people it affects the most our students because when we know that what policies say they can better advocate participate and contribute to improving them thank you for your time and your continued support of the student voices of FCPS agenda 7 or agenda item 7 point 0 1 certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2 - 3 7 1 2 D of the code of Virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed [00:44:14] meeting on October 9th 2025 to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such business matter public business matters that were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do I have a motion mr. Frisch is there a second mr. [00:44:38] McElveen all those in favor mr. Frisch mr. McDaniel miss Marin mr. McElveen miss st. John Cunning miss Dixit mr. moon dr. Anderson miss Sizemore heiser and myself with miss lady away from the table um and opposed abstentions mr dunn agenda item 7.02 action items um confirmation of action taken in closed meeting i call on mr mcdaniel for [00:45:14] a motion i moved to excuse from attendance at certain school at school certain students identified in a closed meeting pursuant to virginia code section 22.1-254 b1 is there a second Ms. Marin. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin. That was not Mr. Frisch, just so you know. We're going to start this over again. All those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Ms. Sizemore Heiser, [00:45:53] Dr. Anderson, and myself. Those opposed. Abstentions. Mr. Frisch and Mr. Dunn with Miss Lady away from the table. I call on Mr. Frisch for a motion. I move that the school board authorize legal counsel to settle the matter discussed in closed session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein. Is there a second? Second. Mr. McDaniel. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, [00:46:27] Dr. Anderson, Ms. Sizemore-Hyzer, and myself. Abstentions? Mr. Dunn with Miss Lady away from the table. I call on Mr. McDaniel for a motion. I move that the school board authorize legal counsel to settle the matter discussed in closed session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein. Is there a second? [00:46:49] Ms. St. John Cunning. All those in favor. Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marron, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Ms. Seismar-Heiser, and myself. Those opposed? Dr. Anderson. Abstentions. Mr. Dunn with Ms. Lady away from the table agenda item 8.01 performance review financial planning EL5 monitoring report each year the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of school the school divisions reasonable progress towards [00:47:28] achieving the 2023 to 2030 strategic plan goals and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on pages 14 through 31 of the board 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. I call on Dr. Reed for a monitoring report on executive limitation five, financial planning. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board and the public. [00:48:02] Tonight, as Madam Chair shared, I'll be presenting executive limitation five, which addresses financial planning. So recall that each of these executive limitations requires evidence to be provided, and I would encourage those watching to note that the full monitoring report is attached to board docs for your review. [00:48:26] This evening, I'll just be highlighting several of the points from the report. Again, at the time of the report, to the best of my knowledge, information, and belief, we've gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic. A reminder that there are four major areas of EL5. Item one, focused on developing an annual budget, is on the screen for slide three and we'll take a look at the next couple slides. The remaining items in EL5 are shown here. Before sharing new [00:49:04] evidence related to this executive limitation I want to start by noting that within this executive limitation there really are not significant changes this year very financial planning it continues to be very similar in that this is a matter of course for the division and we continue to use several best practices or industry standards the newly added evidence builds on last year's board approval of EL5 and incorporates board feedback from that presentation as we begin this monitoring report I want to highlight the planned FY 2027 budget timeline and remind our board and public that the [00:49:43] first work session on the FY 2027 budget is scheduled for November because of this tonight's presentation will be focused mostly on FY 26 updates to include any new work updates or items newly added since last presented in October of 2024 again a reminder the full report is online as part of our FY 26 budget process the timeline for projected enrollment was successfully accelerated to inform the FY 26 fiscal forecast which minimized changes between the fiscal forecast and the proposed budget [00:50:20] that was one of the adjustments the board asked for a year ago and we were able to provide that the budget services office worked collaboratively collaboratively with the school board budget Committee to improve the timeliness of budget question responses last year. In December, the Budget Office held a training for school board member staff aides on the overall budget process, and the process included an education and communication strategy to inform school community members and the general public about our FCPS budget. [00:50:51] So for new or newly added information, one of the major milestones with the FY26 budget was the implementation of Fairfax County Public Schools first collective bargaining agreement. Our FY 2026 budget cycle also presented significant challenges. A $121 million shortfall added pressure to a budget already strained by years of long-standing inequities in state funding. [00:51:18] As a result, FCPS faced a number of difficult decisions and those are enumerated on the slide. Finally, I'd like to end with a bit of a celebration in September of this year, last month, we were recognized with the Baldrige Pioneer Award at The Ohio State University, given to leaders who embody Baldrige leadership values and principles. [00:51:38] One of the several year initiatives the board has asked us to work on is looking at our budget to streamline for efficiencies. As part of last year's cuts, we did make 3% cuts across the board, central office departments, as an already lean central office, and likely will be making further cuts this year to come in as a budget in terms of the budget we intend. [00:52:03] This Baldrige work is helping us to identify efficiencies, even during these difficult budget times. So at this time, Madam Chair, this concludes the summary of the monitoring report for executive limitation number five, Financial planning. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you, Dr. Reed. I now call on Mr. McElveen for a motion. Thank you So I move that the school board finds that the superintendent is in compliance with executive limitation number five financial planning [00:52:37] I further move that the school board approve the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limited Limitation number five financial planning as outlined in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second second miss lady? [00:52:54] Mr. McIlveen, would you like to speak to your motion? No, not at this time. Thanks. Thank you. Ms. Lady, would you like to speak to your second? No. No thank you. Okay. Mr. Frisch. Thank you. I think sometimes people probably wonder, well, this doesn't seem very specific. Financial administration is another EL that we'll be tackling later in the year. [00:53:15] But I do think that it's important to note that EL5, executive limitation 5, sets a high bar for financial planning, and it's a bar that we consistently meet. And I want to thank our team for doing that and for, you know, I don't know how many years in a row they've received top honors for the various awards that are given out for financial planning and public education, but it's well-deserved. [00:53:41] And regardless of how complicated the situation gets or how much the board asks, there is always a yes-we-can mentality. Case in point, we have more budget questions than ever before, and yet we get to them all. [00:53:56] And the budget team worked with staff to develop a process that now enables the Board of Supervisors and this board to get their budget questions answered in a more expeditious manner. So I commend the team for that incredible work, and that helps us do our jobs as school board members. [00:54:16] I also want to note that, you know, even with the $121 million budget shortfall, you know, we face persistent, significant, inexcusable inequities in state funding. [00:54:33] And despite all that, the division maintained its commitment to ensuring that we center employee compensation and classroom support this past year. So I appreciate that. some questions particularly around the forecasting accuracy one of the things that was changed as a result of the you know collaborative work with the Board of Supervisors it became clear that it was difficult it was more difficult for the Board of Supervisors in the previous way because we were having to occasionally reconfigure the numbers based on actual attendance you know of when we were doing our forecasting so we sped up the forecasting to help inform [00:55:12] their process it was something that they'd asked of us what kind of an impact has that had on our own planning so I think we're again as we as you change any process it takes a bit of time to to slip into that practice in a more seamless way but I think that the sooner we're be able to provide that forecast the sooner we're going to have particularly as budgets are tighter the sooner we're going to be able to make determinations about whether we're going to be able to initiate any type of new programming or initiate any type of new initiative initiate [00:55:48] initiatives okay or begin any new initiatives and at this time the sooner we have that information I think the more likely it is we're going to be able to be thoughtful about processing those decisions are there any plans to expand this kind of earlier data-driven forecasting in other areas that would impact our finances? So I think that's part of the Baldrige work in that we there is a cycle that is unique to the budget but there's also a cycle that's unique to sort of operational work within [00:56:22] the school division so forecasting fuel costs or energy costs for example as we synchronize some of the cycles that we're able to HR costs for example or openings transportation costs we're hoping that some of the boundary work that we're doing right now will create some efficiencies and again the sooner we have that information the more likely it is we can you know integrate that into the metrics of the budget that we're working on so I think any time we can follow the rules of prior planning preventing poor performance right the earlier we have information I think the [00:57:01] the more thoughtful we can be about the conversation one of the you know things that may confuse people, you know, we say things in passing here that we all understand here, but maybe they don't at home. You mentioned the Baldrige process and Mr. McDaniel and I turned to each other and say, did she say we got the award? [00:57:20] Mr. Smith was quick to say phase two, right? Okay. Can you tell people at home what the Baldrige process is specifically and why we embarked on it? Yes, sir. The Baldrige process. And I'm going to turn to Mr. Smith in a minute because he's really been heading up this work to offer some comments essentially it's an industry standard process that not just school divisions but other businesses around the country work through to really make sure that their ROI or their return on investment is the maximum [00:57:54] possible given the resources we have so it's a way to streamline and focus and align our resources with our mission and we have a very clear strategic plan the goals are clear and we need to make sure that all of our resources are aligned and focused on the achievement of those goals so I'll let mr. Smith explain the second year award we've received and we are my understanding is the team is a high achieving team if we're moving through this process very thoughtfully so mr. Smith sure certainly good evening so the second award that [00:58:30] we received is the pioneer award it's the second award for our 25 page application and the 25 page application is the draft for the 50 page application that we will submit in November we have multiple teams working on that 50 page application once it is submitted it will be reviewed and we'll have examiners come on site they'll be asking questions of selected individuals they will select members of the board the leadership team they will go out into schools and departments and they will ask questions about our application so that's the next round of the process we would then be eligible for what we feel [00:59:09] we're going to receive the gold award and we've been told that as an organization there are group of examiners are quite impressed with our work and have yet to see an organization on its first application get to the gold on its first application but they feel that we will get there we've used this process to look at many processes to streamline we've streamlined some of our staffing guidelines we've looked at consolidating some of our data teams that we've gotten from feedback from our initial reviews and we've also looked at [00:59:47] restructuring our non-traditional programs based on some of that feedback so we're going for the gold when we get the gold we will then be eligible to submit for the national Baldrige award I do want to clarify too that we had examiners on site last year last spring who did engage for this level so independently interviewing staff and reviewing program records so we're well into this process they provided that informal feedback for the 25 page application to help us prepare for the 50 page well and to that end you know you mentioned return on investment and I think that's the crux of the situation [01:00:25] here right like anybody can cut right but this is about ensuring that we are incentivizing what works and which has what has results and then letting go of things that don't produce results yes sir I think we're in the type of business that is really mission driven in the sense that we're supporting the arc of the future lives of our community our children our country in public education. And I think we while we have to be very efficient with our resources we still [01:01:00] must continue to get the results that we're getting right. So it's a it's a powerful responsibility and the team's taking it very seriously. Yeah I think our taxpayers want nothing less. Thank you. Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Fresh. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I think I'll pick up from from there. I appreciate and I'm glad that these awards are being won. But is there a way where WHERE THERE COULD BE A LITTLE BIT MORE VISIBILITY FROM THE BOARD IN TERMS OF HOW THIS APPLICATION IS ALLOWING THOSE EFFICIENCIES TO HAPPEN BECAUSE I'LL BE HONEST IT'S STILL PRETTY NEBULOUS TO ME AND I'D LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SPEAK A LITTLE BIT MORE INFORMED ABOUT IT. [01:01:40] YES MA'AM I KNOW WE'VE INCLUDED THE APPLICATION AND THE RESPONSE IN OUR BOARD LETTERS BUT MR. SMITH ANY THOUGHTS ON HOW PERHAPS WE COULD MAKE THAT CONNECTION MORE THOUGHTFUL. Just to put a finer point on that, Mr. Smith, I know that based on the meeting that we just had this week, a board member is raising an issue where we're providing some evaluation of programs and determining are those the best expenditures. Does the budget work support that? [01:02:09] so the voltage board work doesn't support that per se they are not going to provide input on our programs to give us feedback on what we should cut or what we should continue but what it does do is that it helps us think about our processes and the work that our individual we have seven teams that are working to within departments and in schools to look at some of those processes as we then investigate those processes we can take a deeper and closer look at again the staffing guidelines that we use to for certain [01:02:48] processes we didn't think about ways that we can streamline those processes which at the end of the day create savings in many programs we are very people heavy and when we can streamline processes it helps us get people in the right places for work, which then creates cost savings. And the feedback that they will give us will be mostly on our processes and not necessarily on the content of our programs. We then take that feedback to analyze what we're doing to then make some of those difficult decisions around cuts and adjustments. So then how do we get some visibility into that piece? Because I think that [01:03:27] was kind of what the follow-on motion from last year was trying to get to. How do we kind of see the homework that you all are engaging in and one of the pieces of the of the EL I'm trying to figure out which one it is here and of course I will not find it but the one that speaks okay there it is one I includes program evaluation and budgetary planning discussions I can't say I have much insight into that I would say that that is separate from the Baldrige work but we can certainly [01:04:02] provide some input to what our program evaluation teams are doing to show how that provides input to our processes one of the most recent documents that our program evaluation team pulled together was the our look at future schools and future curriculums for schools we added to one of our Western high school conversations that's the kind of work that in addition to our program evaluation that our office for program evaluation provides to the system and we can provide some insight into how those decisions and how those reports drive [01:04:41] the work that we're doing then maybe I'm I misunderstood because I thought the Baldrige work kind of informed the staffing discussions around expenditures again it's the the work that we do based on the Baldrige work we're not getting guidance from Baldrige on what to do but it's the work that we engage in based on the bald rich processes as part of our journey that we then put into play that drive some of the decisions that we make around budgets around uh reductions as we looked at the three percent cuts last year we didn't do that willy-nilly we looked at some of our processes to see what [01:05:21] we could reduce and a lot of that thinking was driven by some of the the bald rich questions that we've been trying to answer okay i don't want to take up the rest of my time on this one But I would definitely love a little bit more visibility because I still feel as if I'm unclear as to how that is benefiting us in a clear way for me to evaluate on my own. [01:05:44] In our next update, we can provide an update on the kinds of questions that we have to answer for the Baldrige work. I appreciate that. Thank you. And typically, I know this work is just a lot with the planning. And I think in years past, I've been very supportive of where we've been with the planning. [01:06:01] But given the evaluation from last year to this year, I do have some areas that have raised some concern for me. That's area 1B, which speaks to the development of a budget based on realistic assumptions, and most importantly, ongoing assessment of local and state and federal funding sources. [01:06:21] And to explain that, I think typically we've been in a good position where the Board of Supervisors has provided us with one forecast or rather whatever the executive steps out with. [01:06:37] And I think over the last few years, it's always been increased by the time they come to their final decision. This year was not the same, but I felt like we weren't ready for it to not be status quo. We assumed it was going to increase because it always has, but we had very little time to be planful. [01:06:57] We had hundreds of people here talk about ARTs because in a very short period we had to make some determinations. I would have liked a little bit more planning in terms of being prepared even if it's a quiet conversation with the board because we also don't want to be putting out cut lists because that causes unnecessary angst in the community. [01:07:20] But I think we did not have those conversations as early enough as I would have liked to feel really prepared and good. It seemed to be very rushed in terms of being responsive to that. And I'll take a go back, please. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Ms. Marin. [01:07:40] I think this is a rudimentary report. We may have received the info provided, but the outcome from last year was devastating to FCPS. And so what I see missing here is the analysis of the budgetary situation and what was assessed as the landscape change as my colleague just said about what was assessed and how to inform us about what was coming at us. I can agree with number four which is to take all reasonable prudent anticipatory and proactive actions in securing financial resources for the division from relevant [01:08:14] funding revenue sources. You know my experience is that we are not a team of 13. We're not working together for action steps to change the fate of the FY 27 budget and as that work now begins I'm not aware of anything happening differently we are now living the results of the reduced 121 million and I'm hearing from constituents about de-staffing and increased class sizes 30 kindergartners in a class I don't experience any urgency among our team of 13 about approaching this year differently not in this report and not at our board meetings and while it's up to the board [01:08:53] to set the board's agenda the superintendent as the leader needs to help us plan for better results with the FY 27 budget you know my observation has been that the superintendent and staff develop precise calculations sometimes the least worst decisions are being made but that is not financial planning okay we are not meeting to determine you know aligning our work across the team of 13 with a plan of action for a local county funding work and state funding work. The legislative work just talked in its silo and the budget development work in another, but budget development is not financial planning. And I've mentioned that in past remarks and I tried to find them. I thought [01:09:33] it was earlier this year re-envisioning how we do our financial work of monitoring this multi-billion dollar entity more regularly and more strategically. So my specific questions regarding this are what What lessons from the last budget development cycle are being applied to the FY27 budget development work? [01:09:51] And what's the plan to engage the board in this work so we can be the fullest advocates possible over the months ahead? So I think those are great questions. I think that we have a budget meeting coming up next month, actually, and I think it's going to be a great conversation in the work session. [01:10:08] I think that whatever I think that we as you know we are in year two of a collective bargaining agreement this year so it's a much it gives us a longer on-ramp for planning. In October of last year we hadn't settled the collective bargaining agreement even at the time of the October financial planning executive limitation. [01:10:33] So we know that year two is a three percent and step increase for salary. We're not planning at this time any new initiatives or programs, only mandated additions which might be fuel costs and other insurance related costs. [01:10:52] So I think the on-ramp for financial planning this year is a much longer, smoother on-ramp because we have more known variables earlier, which goes to Mr. Frisch's comment. And when we know things sooner, we're able to be, I think, more thoughtful about that. [01:11:08] Last year, we finished collective bargaining at about the time I had to begin drafting a budget, which leads me to lessons learned, as you shared. And I've recently been meeting with our Board of Supervisors individually to really work on how do we work together on this budget situation, as well as with our state delegates and senators. [01:11:30] And I think what's important for our Fairfax County to know is that all of our electeds and all of our staff have the same goal in mind we want what's best for our children right we want world-class education in northern Virginia and you know Virginia writ large and we need resources to deliver on the power and promise of public education one of the things that I think is unique right now and we're going to have to wrestle with in some way is that our collective bargaining timelines and processes because I think it's so new don't really line up with our budget timelines [01:12:06] and processes and that's a conversation we've been having moving forward we're not bargaining actively with our largest unions this year but it's going to be important to think about how we can better align those collective bargaining timelines with our budgeting timelines so and I think there's some general agreement around that so I feel like we've got some topics to work on um and um believe that um it's still going to be a difficult budget year for a variety of reasons well thank you and we're very fortunate to have you as an expert you know experience with collective [01:12:42] bargaining i don't think that that was what got us stuck it was that we have all of these elective leaders who do want the best and want to be financially responsible and we don't meet together and so i know i've talked about that and um you know i'm not clear what the actual action plan is because we've already heard public remarks about our budgeting not being based in reality already there are remarks looking to do away with the four million dollars for after-school programming it's not looking very promising right now and i feel like i'm sitting here trying to [01:13:19] you know a tuesday we talked about western high i might need 50 million dollars in renovations well where's that going to come from so there's just all this we I don't have a clear sense of what the path is and what this board is supposed to do well the good news is we have choices right and I think that we are all in our roles at such a time as this to make our very best choices for the future of this county and this country and our children need us working together and I know that's my commitment I know that's your commitment I know that's the commitment of all [01:13:58] other electeds right now and for us to make the best and wisest use of diminishing resources we're going to have to work together. Thank you Miss Maron. Mr. Dunn. Dr. Reed I've said many times I think you're you know the right leader for our school system at this challenging moment in history but I will be voting non-compliant on this executive limitation. I spoke with a board member recently who served for over a decade and she said in 10 years we were never fully [01:14:37] funded so that's not a realistic expectation and yet for the past couple years we have asked for very large increases in budgets and understanding that that's the determination that you've made a superintendent that that's what's needed but that amount is is not realistic anymore in the current environment where in the federal government is slashing support for state programs like Medicaid and when the county is facing a financial crisis with the collapse of the commercial office space market. In prior years superintendents [01:15:15] like Karen Garza at the beginning of the budget season would identify potential budget cuts and some people describe them as the Washington Monument List but But it did lead to months of conversation within the community and with elected officials that enabled informed decisions to be made by the school board. [01:15:36] I found the discussion last year to be very hasty, very last minute. We were deciding things within 24-hour time periods. And when we voted to approve certain cuts, it was, you know, made with very little information on what would be the impact. [01:15:52] And then we had the large community reaction. this year and doing school site visits I'm seeing in practice what those budget cuts are and the one that I opposed most strongly was the increase in class sizes which I have said many times historically we've only done in emergency situations like the great recession it's not something in a typical budget year that we've engaged in and what I'm seeing on the ground is just drastic impacts to our schools and I'm concerned because last year we got a significant increase even though we didn't get every dollar we asked for. So can I ask are you planning to put [01:16:29] on the table early in January and February time frame you know potential budget reductions efficiencies whatever terminology you want to use so that we can have a conversation early rather than at the last minute about what's on the table in terms of reductions and programs and staff in particular positions or or central office for example sure I you know I think one of the things that we have to recognize is that our wages for our educators our staff [01:17:05] here in Fairfax County Public Schools have not kept up with surrounding regions surrounding states and I do think that's a serious concern and I appreciate the board support and understanding that's a serious concern. And I do believe that the progress we're making on providing a working wage for our educators and our staff in the school division to support their ability to live within our county is really important. And so I appreciate the support in making [01:17:41] that progress and I'm committed to making good on our collective bargaining agreement and continuing to improve the salaries for our educators in terms of programs or possibilities that we may need to cut or may need to in some way amend for whatever reasons. [01:18:02] I think that conversation this year will be starting in November. It's going to be starting next month because we're not as I mentioned earlier in responding to Miss Marin we're not bargaining right now. We were last year. were still bargaining until November so right now we know what our target is and we're going to be able to put those items all the topic areas where we're over SOQ you know in terms of how we allocate funds and we can begin having those conversations in November. One of the things that we talked about last year was a three percent reduction in the central office and at the time during one of the [01:18:39] work sessions we talked about you know potentially increasing that three percent to six percent and And what would the impact be? And it was somewhat unknown. But as it was later described during that same budget season, the 3% was described as being able to be achieved without de-staffing, without reducing anyone from-- or eliminating any positions, right? [01:19:00] Postponing textbooks, or reducing purchases of paper and pens, and maybe postponing software licenses or reducing them. I would love to see, in this conversation starting next month what different levels of reductions in central office expenses can be achieved and what those impacts would be because having a transparent conversation about those levels and and the impacts on the operations of our schools I think would be very valuable both for the school board and for the public yes sir and actually we were modeling that now we began modeling that [01:19:37] LAST SUMMER SO IT'S I THINK THAT WE ALREADY HAVE A MUCH SMALLER CENTRAL OFFICE THAN BY RATIO THAN OUR SURROUNDING JURISDICTIONS AS WE'VE SHARED BUT ABSOLUTELY WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO LOOK AT MODELING FOR WHAT HAPPENS IF WE YOU KNOW FILL IN THE BLANK X Y Z ACROSS DEPARTMENTS AND ACROSS PROGRAMMING. THANK YOU. I'D LIKE TO GO BACK. ABSOLUTELY. [01:20:05] mr moon thank you madam chair i i don't know if you what a couple of my colleagues have already stated about having to make having had to make you know last minute budget cuts of 120 million dollars that was not something that i want to see happening again uh i mean i understand you know why that happened that way but we also remember how critical portable supervisors was on us [01:20:40] when they gave us fi 27 budget guidance and and I was I was reading the statement again that you know they do really want to work with us at the same time they want us to use realistic revenue assumptions you know they are asking pleading with us to use when you develop our budget a the estimates revenue estimates we all get i know it's an early number november number [01:21:14] as opposed to just come with a number which is maybe just a whisper thinking on our part from their perspective so with that in mind how would you reconcile your statutory obligations to present these based budget and that 1.2 Dr. Anderson mentioned which is in your present in in your report about our budget needing to be based upon realistic revenue assumptions. [01:21:51] How do you reconcile those two? Yes sir. So I would reconcile those by indicating that the statutory requirement is to provide a needs-based budget. what I believe as the superintendent of the schools we need to perform at the world class level our community expects us to perform at and in this case as I've shared earlier one of the absolute foundational needs right now is to meet the terms of our collective bargaining agreement that are that we celebrated right with a unanimous affirmation and so that is a foundational need [01:22:30] for the development of this budget. Furthermore, I think it's important to look at what are those other required need increases around health insurance, which is a national conversation right now, as well as fuel costs, utilities, those types of basic things. So when I think of need, I'm thinking bones need, right? Like meeting our collective bargaining agreement and required adjustments to the budget. We're not anticipating moving forward with new initiatives or new programs, but just simply to keep the commitments we've already made to our community. [01:23:05] In the report I saw, because you are required to provide us with multi-year budget projections, budget forecast, for FI27, another close to $200 million you would be requesting from somewhere, additional request, if that has to come from, that has to come from the County Board of Supervisors, that's a 7.1% transport request. [01:23:35] Do you think that's realistic in this economic climate? - We haven't determined a final number yet, but I have to provide a needs-based budget. The budget has to be realistic. We have state dollars, local dollars, and federal dollars. [01:23:53] So we look at what is traditionally the money the split and we have to do we have to present a budget that both satisfies the commitments we've made as well as minimizes the impact on available resources. You know Dr. Reed you know I've been hearing from other supervisors that next year is going to be even tougher than this just past year for the budget and I hope that we all keep that in mind as we deliberate and also develop our [01:24:30] budget for the next year so that again as I say that at the get-go that we don't repeat what he did last year I was not happy having to make a last minute adjustments for something like that for all to do much more work had to be done earlier on and I hope that even with you know fully a honoring collective bargaining if we have to you have to pick an adjustment as to the bottom number. But then we have to look at every programs we provide I think we can begin that 30 percent cut you talked about 30 percent cut perhaps that should [01:25:09] have been done not at the last minute but much earlier. Well the 3 percent cut was for this year to bring the question. Even the last of that should have been done should be looked at much earlier and unfortunately we have to look at the same thing again. Thank you Mr. Moon. Miss Dixit. Thank you Dr. Reed for this presentation I find you in compliance with the executive limitation number five financial planning as you mentioned and we have seen that FCPS does have a very you know a good budget in as [01:25:48] and we spend less than the other counties and cities and you know states around us but and our school education is world-class so we're doing something right here the budget not getting money from any sources. It's because FCPS does not have his own money. So we have to, you know, we always count on other people to give us funds. In that situation, when we have to cut, you know, any programs, it's not on us. It is not our fault. It because we want to provide the best education to [01:26:25] students. So we don't want to cut any programs. But yeah, I understand that the times are tough. and I agree with a lot of my colleagues that getting that information timely earlier on this process would really help especially like the after school programs I know community really really wants to know what what what goes on with that and and I think we are doing something right here and that's why we got the Baldridge award and hopefully get more awards for doing such high [01:26:59] level financial work. So I appreciate you and the entire finance team for doing this this work and and we'll keep working to get more money. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Dean John Cunning. Thank you for the presentation and thank you for the team for putting all of this together. I really appreciate hearing that you're meeting with our board of supervisors individually and making those connections because I know that that's extremely valuable. We do it and as a leader I really appreciate that you're taking that step um one of the questions that i was you know thinking of [01:27:36] because i have worked in the schools is like at what time do our principals get involved in terms of the budgeting process other than the staffing because we know that comes you know at a time when they know what their enrollment is and then it comes to staffing but do we have a process and it may exist and i just may be ignorant of it because i think sometimes the people are actually down the ground doing the work can give us some really good suggestions about you know if you're going to cut something this is what we'd like to see cut because this is what we really need [01:28:08] not just our administrators and principals but also our teachers i the processes that may have been in place over time shift when we move into collective bargaining so right now our principals are actually collectively bargaining they're in a separate union and so our principals and and directors and so forth are currently bargaining. [01:28:35] So they are not part of bargaining with our FEU colleagues, right? Our operational and instructional FEU union. So and that's part of I'm trying to be thoughtful this evening about answering some of the questions. [01:28:53] It's part of the challenge last year because we shifted into a different a different process in terms of collectively bargaining. the a significant part of our budget since we are you know 85% plus staff so the costs associated with collective bargaining become a very large cost and as you know we don't go back and reopen a bargaining agreement unless as the resolution says that we don't [01:29:27] receive full funding so at the moment we are noticed that we're not receiving full funding That's the moment that we can go back and have those conversations. Am I making sense? So there's a timing that creates a certain level of last-minute-ness to that process. [01:29:50] So what I would say this year is that principals in their group, as you mentioned, they have not completed bargaining yet. So whatever their asks are going to be will then need to be brought to you as well for, you know, affirmation as that process continues. [01:30:10] And that will need to be considered as part of the budget as well as what we do with the year two of the FEU contract. So I think there is a certain amount of discussion about what can be cut, but it also has to be at some point discussed with the union leadership as well. [01:30:30] So we're just developing different paths for those communications and conversations. It's not a better or worse. It's just a different protocol, and that's what we're working through as part of our budgeting process because we're very new in this. [01:30:47] Okay, thank you. The other thing that I want to, I'll just bring this up and talk about what we do cover and what is threatened. special education we cover about approximately 7.2 of our kids receive those services 20.8 reserve receive multilingual learning services we have 37.0 percent that receive that are enrolled in free and reduced lunch the reason I mentioned this is we understand it's going to be a tough year we all [01:31:26] understand that we all understand we don't get the money but we also understand that you fund what you value and you make sacrifices for what you value and I think that that's something that we have to push hard to all our funders education is critical and we're going to keep hearing that refrain it's crazy it's crazy it's too much it's we can't do this but we have to say do you value this because that's really the crux of what we're talking about and that's where I think all of us have a responsibility to bring that up. [01:32:04] That's all I want to say is that I think we fund what we value. Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunningham. Ms. Lady. Thank you. I obviously will find you in compliance. I'm amazed at the ability to create a budget and then keep a balanced budget. [01:32:24] I commend you and our CFO and the entire team for that work, especially in light of the fact that you're doing it with less. And I also want to lift up the changes that have been amazing that have impact learning, impact self-esteem, impact physical fitness of our kids from different benchmarking, math curriculum, high expectations of all learners, expanding after-school programming for middle schools, funding buses four days a week. [01:33:02] And I'm saying all this because these weren't, you know, at least the after-school portion, which my colleagues have referenced were not in place right so you know we do fund what we value but in terms of our funders our funders are our taxpayers and they're tired and and justifiably so because as a state we're underfunded um and i think that we can't we cannot keep we can't talk about it enough because i'm always shocked at how many people i talked in the community who don't [01:33:39] know this they do not know it they get angry about real estate tax they don't even talk about their income tax which we can't tax but the fact that we just got refunds and i believe i don't even remember the the quote that was on my little you know stub for my my check of the billions nine billion maybe that will return to virginia taxpayers when we're grossly underfunding public schools here in the commonwealth um i just want to put that out there i also in in terms of what has to happen moving forward yeah we need to talk about cuts um and my question is hypothetically [01:34:18] if we're shorted this amount of money i would think there would be a proposal of these potential pain points if we're shorted this amount of money it's lengthier and it includes these pain points i'm not asking necessarily because we as a board would need to prioritize those it's sort of like i hate to say it but a buffet of here's you know hypothetically what what we could potentially try to live without it's not going to be easy and then we're going to have to sort of bang that around [01:34:52] and try to figure it out but uh is that the plan is to sort of eventually say here's here's some things if we're shorted 100 million if we're shorted 200 million i i think that we're going to discuss the plan further in november but uh miss burden we've already met multiple times obviously i've met with the budget team this is a high priority and i pay a great deal of attention to this but we've already begun looking at the list which is the same list we provided honestly [01:35:24] early last spring around all the beyond soq funded topics if you will and those obviously will be where we would start first right because the about 70 percent of our budget is zero based every year I know that's been a question a topic of conversation but we do build out staffing from the ground up I want to say Matthew about 70 percent yeah Matthew Norton who is all things amazing when it comes to building staffing and budgets but every year about 70 percent of the [01:36:01] the budget's zero based and then we have to build up to say okay once we've gotten there there's so many things that the SOQ doesn't address right that we think are important and schools across the Commonwealth do not just in Northern Virginia but we're going to provide a list of those again and I think it's a great conversation for our board to engage in if we have to prioritize and perspective take where does the board situate on that And I think the Budget Committee this year is going to be very interested and obviously [01:36:36] will be providing some type of activity for the board to value vote those topic areas. And I look forward to that conversation. Yeah. I do as well. I mean, obviously, I believe in transparency. [01:36:51] I think the earlier that we can, you know, communicate to our community what could possibly be happening um the better um and you know i think that we have to if i just finish real quick i won't need to go back you know i i encourage my colleagues on the board um that we're gonna have to lean into this and then and then listen to one another and listen to other people and really try to fully understand what this means in practice for teaching and learning because that's the number one priority of what we're doing is this is the teaching and learning [01:37:30] as opposed to getting emotional around people who might be in certain positions versus versus continuing to make sure teaching and learning are number one priority thanks yes ma'am mr mcdaniel thank you um the el is financial planning not financial outcomes that might sound silly but there's a big difference because the conversation this evening has kind of been all over the board on planning and outcomes um there are factors that are just outside of our control [01:38:07] taxing at the state and local level the federal government as we are seeing right now in the headlines property values uh virginia is one of about 10 states that does not allow school divisions to have any type of independent taxing authority um we can't control our state funding level all of those factors drive the four billion dollar budget that this system depends upon and those are all outside of our control they're outside the superintendent's control but even with that reality the budget planning process still ticks off every year to amazing accuracy [01:38:46] doing more with less meeting more needs of kids with higher needs kids with more complex needs and ever evolving k-12 public education environment and we do that year after year to an amazing degree of accuracy i don't know how that hasn't met the expectations of this el I remember the Garza years. I was working for the Board of Supervisors. I don't want to go back to the Garza years. There was a reason she was the shortest tenured superintendent since the early [01:39:21] 80s. And I hate to put it that bluntly, but those are the facts. Because I remember how rough those budgets were because people's emotions got played on when cuts were dangled out there in the headlines. And we got a little bit of a taste of that last year when the middle school after school program was dangled out there and if you think that was bad boy let me tell you we start dangling cuts out there it's going to be 10 times worse. I don't want to go back to those years. I want a respectful budget conversation and you've done that. You've struck the balance between meeting [01:39:59] the needs and meeting the reality of the moment. So I'm happy to vote in favor of this. Thank you Mr. McDaniel. I am going to take a quick turn. So we're a big shift to turn and we are in the middle of a perfect storm of all the different churn that's going on out there and I'm reading a book right now that's talking a lot about paradox and about how two things can be true at the same [01:40:29] time and yeah and so early notice is awesome but we also have to acknowledge that it's going to create panic and so we have to figure out both of those things are true it's important for us to plan and we don't want to create panic where it's unnecessary to do so so we are we need to be partners with our community we need to hear what they want and the problem is is with a system as large as ours is we're always going to have something that is important to someone and we [01:41:05] see that all the time with different things that are going on is it doesn't it doesn't matter the other thing is we need more in our county very well may not be able to provide it to us That doesn't mean that they don't want to. Again, I agree with you that we all want the same thing. [01:41:24] And so I just, I think that what we're doing is we need to make sure that we level set expectations from the beginning, that this is going to be a hard year. I think that's what the county's been trying to do with us. They're trying to give us the high sign. I still will say that if they had $9 billion to return to taxpayers, then they didn't have a surplus. [01:41:43] They just underfunded their budget. and so if JLARC is $3 billion a year that's where the money is and so we I so it's absolutely at the state level that we need to be paying attention to those things but some of the actions that have been taken at the state level mean that there's not going to be a surplus this year and so we have this again that's part of the perfect storm. So I did also want to just say one thing about the Baldrige because I've worked with kiddos that were actually doing this at Kansas State when I was there. And the coolest part about Baldrige is it asks you questions that cause you to think about [01:42:19] the process. And so many of us are so eager to make sure that our processes are strong that this process, the whole system allows you to have sunlight on the process that you wouldn't normally have because you're actually getting into the nitty-gritty of why we do things. And so I am thrilled that we're doing as much work with Baldrige. The fact that our examiners came out and said that we're doing a great job i expect nothing less from our team um and so i am very excited to see what we're doing in that arena um and i know that we're going to be strong at the [01:42:53] end of it so i just i am absolutely in compliance here um i definitely think that you are doing everything that you possibly can to create the best possible outcome related to our financial planning and an extremely difficult moment so we have some go backs so we're going to start off Dr. Anderson thank you very much again looking at the EL these are the areas that have raised concern for me I shared about 1B earlier 1D which is to present all materials and budgetary assumptions [01:43:28] 1I and 2A as well as for as Miss as another colleague had mentioned it's not that we are in control of all of what happens we are not it's just how do we plan so that we have a thoughtful measured approach we did what we could in a very short time period but i don't think that's the ideal way of doing this work so those are those are my challenges here and we also know that 90 percent of our budget is in our people it is and as one board member i i continue to struggle with [01:44:03] how do we do our job of fiscal oversight because the budget is our work we're supposed to take what you provide we wrestle with it and we we bring out something that is reflective what the public is finding to be of value that is our work and I'm feeling more and more as if that work is happening outside of us that we are approving what's done because we either don't have an opportunity for input or it's just so quick that we just have to make do so I will not be voting and compliance today and that's not a knock on to the efforts of of the finance team because [01:44:41] I see them as the blender we put in all the ingredients and they make it happen they made it happen but this was not the right way of making it happen and I really don't want us to be in that position again Mr. Dunn I appreciate that this EL focuses on planning and I think part of planning is transparency, and I think part of transparency is, you know, providing for the public an understanding of what's at risk, right, because we don't want to have that be a surprise to anyone. [01:45:18] There ought to be very clear decisions because if those decisions are not apparent to the public, they won't be apparent to our state lawmakers, to our county board of supervisors, etc. One of the things I also want to mention is I think there's a lot of money out there, right, But historically, because we've gotten, you know, a lot of money from the county, from the state, from the federal government, we haven't had to go look to the private sector. [01:45:41] And I think that's something that needs to be done. I only learned yesterday that Jay Garant's replacement in the office, the one-man office of public-private partnership, has left. And so that's an empty seat. And that's a one deep office. [01:45:56] If you're a college, if you're a private school, you're going to have multiple people whose only job is to go out there, form partnerships with the private sector, and get money from them, get donations, get grants, etc. I know we have multiple people applying for grants. Maybe those people could be reallocated to support establishing partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, or others, not just for AI, but also working with unions for skilled trades and our CTE programs. [01:46:22] there's money out there and we just don't seem to be pursuing it based on all the conversations I'm having with staff. But I also want to raise public-private partnerships for construction renovation. That's something there are guidelines that were prepared. We need to enact those. We need to put them into place and then see, you know, developers have conversations and see what we can do to activate that as a strategy for bringing in new dollars. These are things that many school districts including Prince George's County has done very successfully. [01:46:57] We don't need to just rely exclusively on other higher sovereign governments in order to get funded. There are partnerships. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Miss Marin. So again, I have to underscore we don't have a plan for how to do this work. I don't yet see the superintendent implementing the robust approach to financial planning to change our future reality and advising us on how to do this i see the superintendent is working within the bounds that we have when it comes to finances but i don't want to operate in these confines anymore and some [01:47:33] others have said we can't change everything but i don't see the change in our approach right now and although this el focuses on the last budget year it's now october so it includes what has happened post that budget to now and you know we have the same setup of our board committee of our budget and we have the same approach we cannot you know the saying is you can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome so to me financial planning includes a blended approach of budget forecasting and development work targeted legislative advocacy at the state level and the community engagement when are we going to do a full-on community engagement for budget like [01:48:13] we've done for boundaries like we've done for you know the superintendents other conversations. And like, what is the board's work? I would propose that at each of our work sessions, we have time to work on financial planning, that we as a board determine our goals for this budget process and the ongoing financial planning and management. And then we get really specific. Look, a lot of us have other jobs. I know that you're successful in all your planning. [01:48:41] Can we treat this as that goal? You know, we need a plan. We can't just say we're going to meet about it one month and hear about it another. What's the plan? For me, I definitely don't want to go backwards. I do not want more money coming out. The work on the joint facility committee that's coming up that I've been preparing for, I've learned more and more about the services and the investments that the county has. And it's raised questions for me about the traditions of how programs are implemented, whether that's school-age child care or community use or capital funding. The guiding documents for those work are out of dates. I've read documents that are still [01:49:17] being used now, if I could switch my sentence, I've read documents that are still being used now to guide county and FCPS partnerships that go back to 2015, 2011, 2004, and 1987 that we are still using to determine how taxpayer dollars are creating a good way of life in Fairfax. We need a plan to work with the county to figure this out. Thank you, Ms. Barron. I will call for a vote [01:49:43] On the motion, which is on the screen, all those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seismar-Hyzer, and myself. [01:50:14] All those opposed, Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson. Will the clerk please read the vote? The vote is 8-4. The motion carries. Thank you. At this time, the board will take agenda item 9.01, policy review, financial planning, EL5. [01:50:43] The next order of business is the policy review for executive limitation five, financial planning. Annually, the board will review each executive limitation at the time of the monitoring report is presented to determine if revisions are needed. Board members may offer amendments to executive limitation at any regular meeting, regular meeting provided they send the final amendment language to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at which it's to be considered. At this time, no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting, but board members may provide comments on Executive Limitation 5 financial planning. Before we vote on maintaining the current language for the year ahead, I call on Mr. McElveen for a motion. [01:51:34] So I move that the school board maintains Executive Limitation 5 financial planning as it is currently detailed in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Lady. Mr. McElveen, would you like to speak to your motion? Not at this time. Miss Lady, would you like to speak to your second? No, thanks. I will call for a vote on the motion, which is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, and myself. All those [01:52:12] opposed, all those abstaining. Mr. Dunn, we are going to take a five quick minutes recess and we [01:52:25] will be right back. Board members, please take your seats. Board members, please take your seats. [02:01:33] Okay, we're going to get going again. Dr. Reed, agenda item 10.01, academic matters. I call on Dr. Reed for academic matters. Thank you, Madam Chair. Tonight for our academic matters, this is actually probably one of the academic matters I have in some ways most looked forward to we this evening are gonna unveil our first iteration or if you will our beta future ready index for Fairfax County Public Schools and why [02:02:12] this is so important right now is as the state is redefining in their own way their framework for accountability and as the state continues to look at they have created more rigorous assessments in the last couple years and now they're working to raise the cut scores to make it more difficult to pass courses or the SOL exams I think that it's really important that we take back our narrative as a public school division and that we here in Fairfax County [02:02:49] public schools define excellence in a way in which we believe it ought to come off the page. And so our team has been working really all for over a year on putting this together because we want to make sure we're defining our work so that it's something that's a stable metric that we can look at year after year after year and that someone outside of our system isn't able to come in and manipulate. [02:03:19] So we are we've worked with community members as well to put this together and so this evening I want to begin by hearing our student voice because this is really I want to center our work back where it ought to be which is our young people and the arc of their future which each of you and our entire community really is responsible for so as we begin to think about how we're going to measure our success moving forward, Madam Clerk, let's go ahead [02:03:52] and play the video and let's kind of center ourselves in our student voice. Some futures are written by circumstances, not ours. In our schools, our futures are written in the moments between the bells, they're written in the classroom, in the lab, in the code, on the stage, and on the field. [02:04:29] is a story of excellence. Of belonging. And it's the story of what's next. We don't just prepare for the future. We are building it. There will always be numbers, but they don't tell the whole story. We will. We are proud of our success. We celebrate our achievements, and we are ready for the future. We are Fairfax County Public Schools. So what our young people have to tell us and our [02:05:08] staff is that there are a lot of numbers out there that are used to define education to define outcomes and I think to our peril define our children and so this evening I want to share with you an opportunity to think about our success differently and to think about how we measure that differently so when we think about what measure what measuring why that's important and what matters for future we did take a look at five domains and as we began to work on this project last year we want to make sure we're providing with our families and our [02:05:45] community a transparent and a consistent predictable way that if we want to change that's on us to make those decisions but someone else isn't going to tell our story or be part of our narrative it's really an opportunity to center Fairfax County Public Schools in the tradition of excellence that we've long come to expect. [02:06:09] This work is grounded in the education to workforce framework, which is a national evidence base that connects what happens in schools to long-term student success from early learning through career readiness. The index measures both outcomes and the conditions that make those outcomes possible. [02:06:29] And when we think about the budget conversation we just had, that's really one of the primary tasks of financial planning is to make sure that the conditions in our learning spaces and the conditions our learners experience each and every day enable them to achieve the outcomes we expect each and every day. [02:06:50] This is a living framework for continuous improvement, and it's designed to help us learn, grow and celebrate our progress across five domains of readiness. We're defining success in a way that reflects our community values, not someone else's. [02:07:09] As we look at the next domains of readiness, I want to note that the very first domain of excellence we know is important here in Fairfax County Public Schools is academic excellence. This measures rigorous learning and foundational skills in literacy, math and critical thinking. [02:07:26] includes key predictors of future opportunity and long-term success and focuses on preparing every student to thrive in an increasingly complex world the second domain is safety and belonging we know that students learn best when they feel safe supported and connected we learned that again and again and again and it was spoken about this evening we know that belonging drives engagement attendance and academic success and that this domain reflects an inclusive caring school culture where every student feels valued and can show up as [02:08:02] their authentic self the third domain is a future ready experience and this domain looks at hands-on real-world learning that builds creativity and problem-solving including CTE pathways interdisciplinary projects and applied innovation this particular domain really is an opportunity to look at not just how students adapt to the future but how do students shape their future and ours by extension the fourth domain is great teachers and support we know strong educators are the foundation of student success and that's why we've [02:08:39] invested in our educators which by the way you're going to hear more when we have our HR EL because we've again cut back the loss of our or we've increased our staying by another one percent I believe so we're continuing on the right path um retaining our educators we look at teacher quality retention professional learning and we know that investing in our workforce strengthens every other outcome our final domain is community community investment which recognizes that success depends on the system surrounding [02:09:16] each and every student when the community invests together every student's path to the future opportunity gets stronger so let's take a look at this at this point this slide shows our current Future Ready Index ratings as the team has rated them. [02:09:33] So you can see the five ratings and we've picked stars. And we believe and we'll show you how the team came to this conclusion. Overall these results show that FCPS is performing strongly across most areas. [02:09:50] At the same time, the index reminds us that our work is ongoing. We see opportunities, in particular, to expand future-ready experiences or those kinds of hands-on, real-world learning experiences that prepare our students to lead and innovate in the future. [02:10:07] And quite honestly, many of our students are leading and innovating in the present. The takeaway is balance. We are on the right track, and we have clear momentum and a shared commitment to continuous growth. Let's take a closer look at those subcategories, and I know this is fine print, but I want to share that the team has worked very hard to look at five measures within each of these domains, which are really the measures that you might think about in a future ready division. [02:10:37] When I think about 22nd century skills, the 22nd century is right around the corner. Children born today, as we learned at our work session, will be graduating from university in 2042. That's only 54 years of a career before they're in the 22nd century. [02:10:55] The future is fast approaching. For each measure, we identified data points as well as state or national averages against which we can compare ourselves. A star is awarded if our level is better than the comparison. [02:11:10] When we cannot find reference points, we used a threshold of 80 percent, consistent with the cutoff score used in the new state standards or framework for on-track, meaning that meeting the state's expectations for achievement growth readiness and graduation are consistent with where we are at the state. [02:11:29] This index is intended to be a living document that will be updated with measures and data as new data and information become available. Examples here we have several examples of what we would characterize as aspirational data points again in a future division that we might or a future version of this particular measure or index. These examples show where we might be headed next, the kinds of measures that might capture what it truly means to be future ready. They move beyond traditional metrics to focus on innovation, creativity, and applied learning. Things like exposure [02:12:09] to design and computational thinking, AI fluency, interdisciplinary projects, sustainability, or entrepreneurship experiences. That doesn't mean that we aren't doing those things currently in the division. Those activities are happening. [02:12:25] What we want to talk about is how do those activities happen at scale and how are those accessible to children all across the county. We're looking at how educators collaborate and innovate because we know our teaching practices drive student opportunity. So these are I think aspirational data points and others that you as a board are going to be thinking about providing and as we continue to work with our community to shape our future We are going to continue to keep a nimble index. [02:12:55] The key is we own it. It's our work, it's our community, it's our narrative, and it's our aspirations that will drive this work. So this evening, Madam Chair, this concludes our Academic Matters on the Future Ready Index. Thank you, Dr. Reed. [02:13:11] We're going to kick things off with Ms. Dixit. Thank you, Dr. Reed. This is such an interesting topic in our Future Ready generation, and we have a lot of students were already future ready so but we know that technology changes have happened so fast in the last 20, 30 years that definitely more is needed. [02:13:35] When you mentioned about the few things happening in some parts of the school system, I remember walking into a class and in real school and they were doing Shark Tank type competition where students were actually working on their business idea and frustrating it with their colleagues I mean classmates and then presenting it so and I thought of that as like you know why are we not doing this maybe division-wide and then just do a shark tank type of competition at the division level I think it's we need to generate those future leaders business owners [02:14:13] entrepreneurs thinkers innovators and and it has to be done division-wide so that's just my point in this. And other than that, I think we're heading in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dixon. I was thinking maybe of a kinder, gentler term than shark tank. [02:14:32] We might have halibut tank or something that might be a little less dangerous. But I do think that it would be interesting to have an FCPS event like that. I think we would be, we'd continue to be so impressed with our young people. Thank you so much, Dr. Reed. Moving on to agenda item 10.02, strategic plan update. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am really excited this evening to share our strategic plan update for October. Each month, we share an update on our work around the strategic [02:15:11] plan as we highlight our goals and pillars. This evening, I am very pleased to have Holly McKinley, the manager for design and construction projects who is going to be my phone a friend Holly you want to give a wave here from our design and construction team so I am thrilled to remind the board that we do have five goals and four pillars and this evening I'll be showcasing how our design and construction services create innovative culturally responsive learning environments for all of our students using ed specs educational specifications developed in collaboration with a variety of departments in the school division. I want [02:15:50] to remind our board and community that our FCPS design and construction teams are fundamental to ensuring our students have safe modern and effective learning environments. The team serves as our liaison with Fairfax County on all facility related matters ensuring collaboration on everything from zoning and permitting to occupancy. They're responsible for the entire life cycle of our building projects, from initial design to final construction, creating high-quality, state-of-the-art facilities for our students and staff. [02:16:25] Educational specifications provide the fundamental criteria for designing school spaces that support our school board-approved instructional program. They guide the design of all new and renovated schools and are a critical component of our facility planning, ensuring that we have adequate physical space for students, staff, and programs during renovations and the introduction of new programs and capacity concerns. [02:16:50] Most importantly, they continually adapt to meet current practices and state guidelines to guarantee each school is designed to the most up-to-date standards. Currently our ed specs continue to be living documents that guide the design of our learning environment. [02:17:07] They allow us to increase natural daylight, improve technology integration, and design for better student and staff circulation and movement. We've installed improved mechanical systems and controls and continue to work on that. And we've created more efficient vehicular traffic flow and increased flexibility within learning spaces. [02:17:27] FCPS continues to emphasize energy conservation and reduce lifecycle costs in our design criteria. Let's take a moment to see this work in action and look at some recent projects from design and construction. Madam Clerk, if you would please play the video. [02:17:59] is always evolving. The challenge is ensuring that our schools can keep up with the changing needs of our students and curriculum. The FCPS Educational Specifications, also known as EdSpecs, detail how types of spaces are built and specify size, amenities, and location within a facility. [02:18:17] Over time, the use of the building changes with each unique program, having different accommodations and spatial requirements. One of the great things about being a large school division in a dynamic county is that we have access to experts who understand the needs of our students, families, and communities. Our process is deeply collaborative. While our ed specs guide the vision, the construction team ensures that the vision becomes reality. During construction, our team coordinates with architects, contractors, and engineers to ensure specs are implemented accurately. Then, we monitor how materials, finishes, and layouts support instructional goals [02:18:54] and long-term functionality. Our ad specs provide the framework, but we remain collaborative because once construction begins, then things evolve. Our job is to stay true to the intent while navigating the realities of the site. Once a new or renovated space is open, the work isn't over. In fact, the most important phase begins. Real learning and real environment. The people who use these spaces every day, students, teachers, and school staff, are evaluating the learning space. FCPS uses feedback to update and refine the aspects, so future designs continue to evolve. [02:19:28] Great learning spaces don't just meet expectations, they grow from lived experience. The brand new design of our library has made the library space even larger than it used to be. The original size of our library made things feel really cramped and kind of tight. [02:19:45] We had our smaller windows, our brand new library space. Everything is on wheels. can rearrange this space so that it meets the needs of classrooms that are using it whether an entire grade level needs to use it in the library whether we're having a community event out here having all of this amazing huge almost floor to ceiling windows in here the natural light that this brings in it makes the space look lighter feel lighter it's always just it's a happy place for so many of our students design and construction came in and they have made everything way more efficient historically we only had one entrance where buses were coming through as well as kiss [02:20:22] and ride cars so it got really congested now that we have two entrances there's separate entrance for cars there's a separate entrance for buses and it makes things way less congested it makes it more efficient it's much more safe for the families much more safe for the kids especially designing learning spaces for all is more than a construction project it is the fcps strategic plan in action Recreate intentional learning spaces for all students that permit a positive school climate, empower staff, and support student success. Each learning space is a step toward a future where each and every student reaches their greatest potential. [02:20:59] Equity and Opportunity! So, Madam Chair, I think one of the, other than the incredible opportunities this provides for our children, I think one of the incredible takeaways is how committed every one of our staff members on team FCPSR to the success of our students whether it's a managing design and construction or as a math resource teacher writer principal librarians everyone is so proud of what we're able to create for our young people and I can only say [02:21:35] recently I was at Falls Church High School and touring their new spaces their science rooms their library it's just remarkable what we're able to design and it makes a difference it matters to our young people so i'm very proud of our design and construction team and really pleased with the report and want to continue to report on our design and construction as we move forward and remind the board that goal one is coming up for october 23rd for our strategic plan and then [02:22:11] And goal five, leading for tomorrow's innovation, will be December 2nd at the work session. So lots of exciting strategic work coming ahead. Thank you, Dr. Reed. Mr. Frisch, will you kick us off? Yes, thank you. Especially when it's such a great video of so many Providence District schools up there. [02:22:31] Or Providence adjacent, as the Falls Church case may be. You know, the first, soon after I was elected in 2020, after being sworn in, I visited Mosaic as a school board member for the first time. And Dr. Asty, who is not only one of our best principals, but is also one of the school division's best salespeople, took me on a tour. [02:22:56] And at the end of the hall, she walked me into the pullout room, which any normal person would have called the closet at the end of the hall. And she was making a point in this tour that they were using literally every nook and cranny in the building for the educational advancement of the students and so to see where it is today based on the work of these great staff members is incredible and you know it's interesting because if you go to a school that was renovated in the 90s the you know the aughts the tens [02:23:32] and recently they're all a little different in terms of what things may have been the focus of the ed specs of the time. So and I've been talking oddly enough about ed specs with Dr. Anderson of late and sure I'm sure she will bring up some topics here but I'm interested how when big changes happen over time how do we ensure the schools that were remodeled before those changes are seeing the benefits of those advancements. So I think that right now our renovation [02:24:11] queue is lengthening right so the opportunity to get back to a school perhaps to enhance part of the ed specs that maybe weren't part of the specs at that time are fairly limited currently but I'm gonna phone a friend miss McKinley do you want to come on up here and we'll miss McKinley's gonna help here with a little bit of that and if you have a thought on I don't it's since I've been here we haven't gone back to previously renovated schools to do any [02:24:42] upgrades but I don't know if that's been our pattern or not. That's correct. If it's in a renovation queue once it's renovated it would refer to the current ed spec. However if a school would submit a DC four seven or a work order request then that team would refer to the current ed spec and design it to this. So in some cases if a school requests a change and that change is accepted it might be upgraded to the current ed spec depending on the project. Okay. [02:25:16] It's helpful information and you know I think it speaks to if you've been through a remodel or renovation rather and I wish we had a better word for renovation because it's so much more than new paint and wallpaper or whatever the word renovation implies right it's a complete reimagining of the educational space to see not only our principals transformed into like HGTV hosts without the cameras as they reimagine the use of every conceivable space inside of the building. [02:25:46] with the expertise of our staff and then see what the result is. We're seeing giant chunks of Falls Church High School coming online and and being reopened to the student population. As we look now to the athletic complex, it's really something special that's happening in these schools that are being renovated. [02:26:05] And I just wish that we could do it more quickly for everybody. We were on that trajectory of shortening the window down to 20, you know, to get closer to the 25 year mark. But now it's just been blown out by more than a decade from when I started on the board. Right. That's correct. Thank you. [02:26:22] Thank you Mr. Fresh Dr. Anderson. Thank you. This is again kind of timely in terms of the conversations I've been having as of late. But I'd like to understand better the development of the ed specs. Those are local decisions. What is utilized to inform that are there industry standards. Are you just thumbing through architecture magazines. What goes into developing these aspects Like what's the process. [02:26:48] Oh thank you. So Dr. Anderson I'm going to have Miss McKinley talk a little bit about that because I think you could probably do it in your sleep. So as the video mentioned it's deeply collaborative. We work with several different departments throughout FCPS for example ISD particularly in regards to program requirements for the different spaces within the schools and that helps us understand what the space is requiring the square footage that's required adjacencies things like that equipment that goes into the spec. [02:27:22] We also work with food and nutritional services. OSS transportation. It DSS several different departments and we get their input to help influence these specs and when we develop them. [02:27:39] Thank you. That's very helpful. Are there codes and I'm not speaking about building codes and permits that kind of thing that we know must happen in order to ensure safety. But are there Virginia codes are there regulations that determine that our schools must have these kinds of things in them because it sounds as if we have lots and lots of latitude from what you've described. [02:28:02] What are the boundaries what where who are who else is informing the decisions that are happening with you know food and nutrition services and ISD. The video he has guidelines for school designs the Virginia Department of Education has guidelines for school designs. [02:28:24] And we've referenced those guidelines while we're working on that specs and those are guidelines they are mandatory activities to which you must adhere. Correct. Can you give an example of a guideline that video he has that we pay more attention to than others hate to put you on the spot. [02:28:44] I think it would be best if we can get you get back to you with a specific. No thank you. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Anderson mistakes it. Thank you Dr. Reed. I not know what this word Ed Spex was interesting for me to learn something new. [02:29:06] I wanted to ask about the existing school. We have a lot of schools where we still have locker bays and they're not being used at all. And so very hardly, I think, few students use them. So in a lot of schools I've seen, they have taken them out and used them space as a collaborative learning space, know, like a free period and students working on project together and I think budget is a constant. [02:29:32] Every principal I think is working with their budget or they're on the maintenance queue. Can we do this as a division-wide change where we can implement this as a in our schools where they're not using the locker base anymore? [02:29:50] So good question. I've been in schools where they use them and in schools where they don't. So and some schools took lockers out to widen the halls to allow more kind of less congestion in the halls, whereas other schools have left them in because their students are using them. [02:30:07] So right now, it's a bit hit or miss, depending also on the construction years of the building, right? Because some remodels or renovations are not including lockers and some are. And again, we're talking middle and high or secondary schools. [02:30:24] So I think it's a great conversation. It's also not cheap to take them out or put them in. So I think it's one of those conversations that is a school by school right now. Yeah, I had two boys went to FCPS, you know, from middle to high school and none of them, both of them did not use it like ever. [02:30:47] But I know some students probably still like that, put their bag in one place. So yeah, that's something I'd like to know because I know a lot of principal did mention that to me. They would like to get rid of them and just kind of use it in a more open space like hallways or other other things, other classrooms maybe. [02:31:04] Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Miss Marin. You know, I'm not really sure I've ever seen like where the ed specs live. Where do they live? It's like the secret place or not? Well, they live in design and construction, the department. [02:31:24] But I think there is a bit of them in the CIP, I believe. But we could certainly-- I can provide those to you in a Friday letter. We can provide an attachment. Well, I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for. I mean, I don't fancy myself an architect or designer engineer. [02:31:41] I think, but there's questions, like the one about the locker is a good question. Or I know when we were working on the outdoor classrooms, new ed specs were drawn. And as I, again, work on prepping for this joint facility committee you know there's things with like permitting and I know with the ed specs you know if we added a concrete outsourced classroom then it was like oh we need to add more bathrooms because it's expanding coverage but it's really not so I just think it's curious we talk about so many other aspects of facilities and this is one that like we never visit and it seems like something that should be visited not to get all technical but to say huh you know it [02:32:15] would be interesting like even a plan for more you know energy efficiency which again I'm sure our staff are experts on but um you know how is that in the ed specs how does that stuff from policy get in there yeah so I don't quite know how it's how it works so I think that the ed specs are part of the design and construction process which come into play when there's when we're gonna build a new building which we haven't done in a long time or when we move into the renovation the design for a renovation and I think what I understand even a [02:32:55] little better this evening and as a result of doing this report because we haven't talked about ed specs much but that it is a collaborative effort that's also based on the strengths of the site that we're renovating so I'd be happy to gather more information for you on that for the board and in particular for you that for that joint committee I think it'd be very helpful well I think this is one of those key areas that if you know we could talk as a board about this very regularly the 8.7 billion dollars in facilities that this is one of those topics every month we're having a work session about it and how we're maintaining [02:33:33] it you know I'm also learning about it's not just getting the funding to build these things it's the maintenance especially when we look at our athletic fields they're in and there's a perception that okay they're good like for a long time but there's maintenance and there's even just the cost to run utilities so all of this stuff is again it's it's twice the amount of our annual budget and we really don't talk about facilities enough so yeah I'd love to learn more in a reasonable way I don't want every ed spec please don't send every ed spec to us I just want to know more about it intersects with these decisions we have to make and I think that's why we selected ed specs tonight [02:34:10] as part of our strategic plan update was because we felt like this 8 billion dollar investment is something we want to talk about so I think we're trying to the team's trying to be responsive and I think it's a it's a good topic and even having ed specs does not mean that every site is similar you know it's an aspirational spec almost I think because some sites have more fields some have less it's you know again the size of the acreage the geographic location sometimes [02:34:45] so but I'm happy to ask the team to provide a primer that might be a little more of a summary document on this topic if that would be helpful and then link to the details for those who might want to look at more details Mr Dunn I love this topic here's here's my question we have for doors and windows and it's on the you can just google FCPS ed specs and you find it for doors and windows [02:35:17] only. There's 139 pages of specifications. 139 pages just for doors and windows. I could not begin to think what we could possibly say for doors and windows that requires that amount of specification. For concrete, for masonry, for all these things, these are all governed. There's an international building code. And I guess my question is, why don't we just use the code that I use for my home that every commercial building operator uses to build [02:35:54] buildings or renovate buildings why do we need our own code in essence building on the supplements what the county already has established or that the state has already established I think those are great questions Mr. Dunn I asked the question I think yesterday about why we need to get a permit to run our new school as a school because it's been a school but we do we have to file a permit with the county to have our new western high school permitted as a school and before we [02:36:31] can do any kind of renovation we have to have this permit in place so I think I'm going to turn to Mr. Gordon to provide a little bit of insight as to why we would have Fairfax County Public school ed specs I will say even in my prior division we had division level ed specs because there were certain things that our community by virtue of our community facilities committee expected in any school construction and we were building schools new schools multiple new schools and new buildings and there [02:37:11] were certain ed specs that were critically important to that school division that meant that every school would need that feature so mr. Gordon your thoughts on that here in Virginia yes ma'am hey sir I would say you know for us to ed specs help bridge you know education vision and design a facility design and it helps us helps with consistency and bring in standards and benchmark so specifically ask your question why would we have such a detail on doors and windows I would look at it from an operational maintenance perspective so you we have a construction budget but the requirement [02:37:51] to maintain facilities is much larger and so if you have a standard facility design standard window design I think it helps our down trace facilities teams to fix and repair and replace windows at a more equitable economic or more economic type of uh process so i i guess you know if you add up all the pages it's over a thousand pages which you know you could build a space shuttle with that amount of pages um have you considered doing a baldridge efficiency like process to cut back on our ed specs because [02:38:31] the more customization we have from what's out there just in law or in requirements by the county the more it costs to build for us, and the harder it is for people to come in and just give us estimates that are cost-effective. [02:38:49] So that drives up our cost by having more customization, more specifications. And if we could just be more efficient and cut it back to the door has to be X number of inches wide so wheelchairs can get in or gurneys or whatever, right? [02:39:06] That, you know, just what is absolutely necessary versus nice to have, right? The must have we can keep, but that should be just a core and the rest is extraneous. That might be worth doing because if we have limited dollars and great needs, we need to spend more efficiently. [02:39:24] And I really love what you're saying about the Baldrige, maximum return on investment. We need to apply that here and cut back on the customization that maybe is onerous and dissuades people from bidding in the first place. Yes, sir. I'll take a look at that and we'll see what we can do and come back to you with a report on that. [02:39:43] Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. St. Dunn-Cunning. So thank you for this report. It's really interesting. Having lived through several renovations at several schools, I feel I have, like, a little bit of experience, not anything as expansive as reading all those pages. [02:40:07] Having said that, just because the doors issues was brought up, I do want to say there are several kinds of doors within a school, and there are several kinds of requirements for some of those doors. And building codes for a house are different from building codes for a building that houses children and how we're going to protect children. [02:40:28] So there have to be safety measures within those doors so those children don't get hurt. Again, not an expert, just saying that I've lived through several renovations. It seems like every time a renovation I lived through was done and the building was new, I moved to another school where there was another renovation that was just starting. [02:40:47] But having said that when we look at ensuring long term value and energy conservation and reducing the life cycle costs as we move forward and we do look at the renovation queue being longer. I think it's important for us to consider a way to support some autonomy in our schools. [02:41:07] And again that down on the ground experience where the building supervisors will know that there are certain parts in their schools that maybe need more ventilation or more air conditioning at certain times. than at other schools because I know right now it's centrally it's centrally controlled and having that ability to monitor that individually depending on the school because they are so different geographically by size is something that I'd like to see being considered because I think that also speaks to the life cycle costs because we save energy but then we might [02:41:44] create another problem that is less that costs more to fix than what the energy costs would be. Yes, ma'am. I will take that under advisement. Thank you. Just make two cents. Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunningham. Mr. McElvee. So I agree that this is an exciting presentation, but my overarching question is where does the board fit in this process, right? [02:42:08] I've been on this board for many years, and I don't think we've ever had a discussion about ed specs in any sort of detail, which is fascinating because it's such an intrinsic part of our construction. So I it's a great question Mr. McElveen I think what I would before tonight would have thought is that maybe the CPDC or F PAC process had some input into ed specs but maybe not right I'm not entirely sure so I think it opens up a conversation what role would the [02:42:44] board like to have in ed specs I think minimally as we think about the executive limitation around facilities maybe there's some oversight of whatever the current ed specs are that would have an annual review for example like if we're adjusting them or what are the ed specs for the projects and that prior year like I can think of some topics but those would be of course potentially after the fact and if you wanted input into ed specs before a project and that's a another conversation so I think let's I'll have the team all that [02:43:21] over and provide some maybe some options in a friday letter and maybe that's a conversation we can have hey dr reed can i just add one thing oh sorry what did that voice come so there is school board policy 8120 that oh there you are my friend phoned in um so policy 8120 talks about board involvement in ed specs 8120 is that specs that's me well we will review 8120 right because i mean mean just reflecting you know on board conversations we talk about wanting stronger roofs to hold solar panels we talk about wanting more natural light in [02:43:58] the classroom we talk about eating elevators that don't break down so I just it would be nice to see kind of a flowchart on how these things trickle down right and I fully agree with Miss Marin and others who have said and you have reinforced that we need a board conversation and it seems like it would be appropriate for a retreat, right, to lay things out, really just do visioning work about where we think we're doing well in terms of our facilities and where we need to work on. [02:44:32] And so, anyway, that is my takeaway. Thank you. Yes, sir. And it connects a bit to Mr. Dunn's comment about sort of, I don't want to say baldriging, but utilizing some of the framework questions and some of the framework strategies to kind of think about how does the process of setting these happen from setting them to implementing them. [02:44:56] So I look forward to the conversation and the team will come back with some ideas. - I'm gonna take a tiny, tiny turn. I love a good gerund, by the way, so bulging I think is great. But I also will tell you that we get a lot of feedback, or I get a lot of feedback from some folks in my district that talk about things that we could be doing within a school that might make it more conducive for different kinds of kids to learn. [02:45:23] And so I do think that there's some opportunity that we just need some place to maybe share that information so that we see traction that can happen if we have either a large enough group of people or if we adopt something as a division. [02:45:38] So I think coming up with some sort of pathway we can make sure because you know some of our community members are going to have the perfect idea that we need to adopt and so i think that coming up with a methodology for that would be hard that would be helpful yes ma'am and i think it it uh it exists to have input because i know we've discussed for example having a more sensory um safe lunch area to eat and that's one of the topic areas we've been inserting into ed specs we just haven't renovated many buildings since [02:46:14] we inserted that but it's important that we have a space for our children and young students and students to have a quieter area to eat lunch for example so we know that there's some very important ed specs that we want to include moving forward exactly mr dunfer go back is it possible to amend the ed specs to uh to emphasize beauty um our schools by and large are painted concrete block and have a feeling of prisons um then contrast that with the western [02:46:52] high school we just purchased which is award-winning not a single concrete block in sight i think that so i'm just having to think for a minute about that question i i think we're back TO THE BUDGET CONVERSATION, I THINK BEAUTY IS IMPORTANT, AND I ALSO, IF I THINK ABOUT, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT THE FACILITIES ARE EFFICIENT, FINANCIALLY, FRUGALLY DESIGNED AND BUILT AT THIS TIME, SO AS LONG AS WE CAN DO BEAUTY AND FRUGALITY SYNONYMOUSLY, [02:47:31] I'M ALL IN RIGHT NOW. Dr. V, can I add something? Yes, Mr. Gordon. So I think, sir, Mr. Dunn, if we get to a point where you're doing design build versus design bid build, I think that aesthetic creative component to that would come out through a design build process. [02:47:53] You would allow for that because you can have that in the scope of the work, and you can then have kind of outside the box thinking that a design build collaborative team would provide us in that kind of meeting to the what you're getting at there so I think design build would help alleviate your concerns do the ed specs require concrete block construction just is that is that in the ed specs and mandatory I'll take that as a do out or I'll phone a friend so our master specifications are where [02:48:33] you refine what materials are used to be within the design of the building so there's concrete there's steel there's every option available for a building our ed specs are laid out to describe the square footage and the finishes and the adjacencies and the equipment that aren't required within the space but but we don't necessarily have to have con you know painted concrete block walls in all the schools okay it would it be possible to develop a standard design for elementary middle and high school so instead of having a different design for [02:49:12] every school you have a standard anything is possible mr. done I what I would say coming from divisions that have used standard and the divisions that have not one of the things that's critical to having a standard design is a fairly similar geographic square footage and/or what do I want to call terrain right because to have a standard design I was in a division we used a standard design three times because we were building elementary schools and so there were three elementary schools that looked very similar but then there was another site that just didn't provide because of the terrain the topography of [02:49:51] that particular lot and the size we weren't able to put that standard design on that lot so I think yes and we would want to make sure that the lots would support that and in this case a standard design because we're so infrequently building often time moves on and then we have new things we may want to include but in divisions where we're moving more quickly or building more quickly I may think even around us like a loud and for example it's very plausible that a standard design would work because you're building maybe multiple schools [02:50:30] within the same decade. It's been several decades since we've started from scratch here. Is there a reason, is it mandated by the ed specs that we build horizontally? Because when you build horizontally, especially our high schools, they become mazes, and that requires miles and miles of cables of HVAC ductwork, of pipes, whereas if you built, and the concrete footing, which is often the most expensive part of construction that's a lot more concrete than if you had a smaller footing and built vertical you know three or four stories uh maybe three because i don't know four [02:51:09] would be allowed by regulation but is there a reason that we build horizontally according to the to the ed specs well i'll need to get back to you on that one thank you mr dunn mr fresh two things really quick one and folks can correct me if i'm wrong but we have many schools that at one point started as replicas of each other in Fairfax County but over successive renovations where needs were different they've kind of developed their own personalities I think that's one reason at a certain point that was possible because the envelopes were small or large enough that they housed [02:51:48] schools that were the same and we saved money because of that but things change over time the second thing I would say is that I think the work that the team does is magnificent and i've been fortunate to have a few renovated schools open in providence district over the last six years um and they're gorgeous uh mosaic is not that far from here it's almost done it's it was in the video it's beautiful oakton high school featured prominently in the video gorgeous um so um i appreciate the sentiment uh i think beauty is in the eye of the beholder [02:52:23] although i will say brutalism is pretty brutal um and washington's full of it but it has its own character too um you know i think the schools of the 90s look strange uh compared to what we think of as like contemporary architecture today with the beauty of it and what people expect and you know there were schools built in the early 90s that didn't have many windows because people thought differently about what the goal was there so i i think what i would like to see and i I appreciate Mr. McElveen's comment about what's the board's role here. [02:52:55] I love the idea of a retreat on something, this being baked into it as part of a broader conversation. How do we remain flexible so that we're not stuck with a choice made 30 years earlier that is so rigid that it, I think of Chantilly High School, for example, you know, wonderfully high-achieving school, not a window to find anywhere. [02:53:18] And so that'll get fixed at some point, but that's, you know, something that probably should have been addressed when it was first built and so I think of like what's the flexibility factor because one generation's beauty is another generation's oh my gosh we thought that was beautiful so I appreciate the hard work that everybody puts into this I know it's not easy and I also know that the community plays a role right every renovation includes a community committee that's there to help consult on the design of the school and I've had members of of the community stand up and say, I don't like the way that those renderings look. [02:53:54] And then other people in the room say, I quite like that. It's a big improvement on what we have. So we're not going to please everybody, but the least we can do is try and use our tax dollars to the best of our ability. And I think Mr. Dunn is on the right approach when we talk about partnering with private institutions to try and bring in extra money to help defray that cost. [02:54:12] Maybe that helps us be a little bit more free in what we choose to do. Maybe it just helps us decide to move on to another project that much sooner. i really appreciate the work that everybody's put into this thank you mr fresh and i i have not yet noticed any avocado fixtures so as i've made my way around the division you haven't seen the six different shades of green tile that they've discovered as they've successfully moved through falls church high school oh dear and mauve there was a mauve year apparently as well okay mauve i've seen but uh you know thank you mr fresh um mr mcdaniel for an initial turn thank you um i always [02:54:50] know when my wife is interested in a topic that we're talking about because she will send me a text and because she's a civil engineer i have 50 texts now that i have to read on this topic when i get home tonight uh literally 50 text messages from her on this topic great topic speaking of for our october 30th cpdc agenda so i'll add agenda item for an ad spec primer and we'll have a conversation in cpdc and tee that up for a board work session if that's what the committee wants thank you Dr. Anderson. Thank you. You know one of the things that some of the comments remind me of [02:55:28] is open classrooms. One of my first teaching jobs was an open space and then people realized we wanted walls. So walls went up. It changes based on whatever is current at the time. One of the things that I also wanted to respond a little bit to what Mr. Dunn shared regarding do we have a set standard that's exactly what happens in loudon county i know i had the opportunity to be the opening principal at one of the brand new schools it is the same plan except the color is different you get the blue model the red model or the green model that's what they've used but they also are [02:56:06] not building or renovating in place when you have students in the schools we're a little bit more limited and we see that being manifested right now in our beautiful renovations but the second story that's just been added is taller than the first story you have these weird little steps because they couldn't just blow it all up to start from scratch so unless we can get into the conversation of swing spaces where we are moving everybody out and really starting from scratch and you know topography and all of those things come secondarily because we don't have anywhere for those kids to [02:56:44] go for us to reuse the same plans which would be a lot cheaper because we won't have to customize each and every one of those buildings the way that we do now and the other question that I had is regarding the ed specs regarding height or rather stories Bailey's is four stories it's more than three I don't know if it's four or five so it's definitely more than three so I didn't I THINK THERE WAS A LIMITATION THERE REGARDING HOW FAR WE CAN GO UP IF SOMEBODY FROM MR. GORDON CAN CONFIRM. [02:57:21] YEAH, WE CAN GET BACK TO YOU ON THAT. I THINK DIFFERENT -- I THINK THAT WAS ALSO A BUILDING, WASN'T IT? IT WAS AN OFFICE BUILDING. RIGHT. SO THAT, YOU KNOW, MY GUESS IS WHEN WE PURCHASED IT, WE PURCHASED IT AS A BUILDING. AND WE DIDN'T -- I WASN'T HERE, BUT I'M GUESSING WE DIDN'T TAKE OFF A FLOOR AND WE DIDN'T ADD A FLOOR. [02:57:38] I'M THINKING WE JUST REMODELLED THE FLOORS WE BOUGHT. so that's would be different maybe than construction from the ground up but we can get back to you on that sure thank you and if mr. moon were here one of the things that I know he would say is it was the fastest renovation ever because the building went from being purchased to being available for students enter within eight months and that's also a another option that I don't see us exercising as much and this was a huge conversation during the pandemic where the board of supervisors would sit around and lament about how many open [02:58:16] spaces that they have available throughout the county because of the commercial side being down and I've never we've never had sufficient conversation to figure out how can we maximize those spaces that are still sitting empty with the need that we have on the school side so I began with the joint facilities discussion that I believe miss Marin and mr. McDaniel on on this would be something important to raise with the county folks. [02:58:44] Thank you Dr. Anderson Miss Marin. Yeah I'm glad to hear all this conversation. I certainly again advocate for more time for the board to spend learning about this. You know I as I've been at meetings and less than I was at two PTA meetings. [02:59:01] I mentioned that there are traditions we have in Fairfax that other areas don't like if you're in Loudoun you could put your address into the school locator and a window pops that says this assignment for your school is only good for one year because they review boundaries every year with a huge one you know over a school division one in five years or the funding of facilities and I do wish you know this is a gorgeous video and there's no question that our staff and our contractors deliver beautiful work however it makes it look like this is the frequency of which the buildings are you know I was thinking how many schools have I had open or renovate in 100 mil and i don't feel like it's quite that frequent some had been you know i guess [02:59:40] before i got on but you know this little chart here that we included in the cip which i'm very fond of sharing which drew audible gasps last night at the pta meeting i was at because it shows that we get eight dollars and 54 cents per square foot to renovate and take care of our buildings whereas Prince William gets $43.57 and this is why we can't do beautiful things more often because it takes basically my entire lifetime you know of 45 years to do that so I like the when we elevate the successes but especially with this one we can't just make it look like it's all rosy swim [03:00:20] safety education Maryland does that community use of buildings you know that's something that our spaces are used seven days a week Prince William doesn't do that right so there's all these things happening and again I don't know what we are doing to advance these solutions to these situations the Joint Committee is great and that's one thing but until the board really understands more about well how often are ed specs being you know updated and are we going to approve the policies and there's just so much that has to be done but I'm I'm hoping that everyone who's watching will go vote for the bond that's on the ballot that will [03:00:58] pay for some of this. Thank you, Ms. Marin. Thank you, Dr. Reed. Thank you. Agenda item 11, the consent agenda are adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board in a single motion. [03:01:17] 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 objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item 12 new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote on any of these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting agenda item 13 superintendent matters i call on dr reed for superintendent matters [03:01:54] thank you madam chair um this evening i want to begin by wishing a happy national principals month to each and every one of our amazing talented incredible hard-working dedicated principals at every level elementary middle and high in our secondary schools i continue to just see incredible work and the commitment of our principals is second to none so we have a fabulous all-american principal team just want to wish them a happy national principals month also want to give a shout out to our community relations team led by director angie aldave [03:02:34] angie and the intercultural engagement manager gracie mendez proudly accepted celebrate fairfax's event of the year award for their outstanding work on putting together our summer extravaganza recently and just as a brief little teaser to a future report i want to say how proud i am of our students and our educators for the 40 percent increase in sat national merit semi-finalists year over year we continue to outperform the commonwealth of virginia the national [03:03:10] and global standards in sat scores and we had 262 national merit semi-finalists Even, I just couldn't be more proud of our students, and then we have 65.7% of our students who take the SAT, and the Commonwealth has just over 50%. [03:03:33] So even with 17% or 16% more of our students taking the test we're still outperforming the Commonwealth. So definitely very proud of our students and our educators. had a chance to visit a number of schools over the last couple of weeks and saw a number of you as well. [03:03:53] And in particular, I wanna give a shout out to Marshall High School's auto technology, auto instructor, Rebecca Fenton, as she received a $50,000 prize for Marshall High School's automotive department. [03:04:10] And she was one of only 25 high school educators to receive the award out of more than a thousand. So we're very proud of Ms. Fenton and of course I've had a chance to be in a number of our schools and just continue to be impressed by the work that happens every day. [03:04:26] So thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Dr. Reed. Agenda item 14 board matters. Next on the agenda is board matters. I will call on each board member to speak in the order that's in the script. We're going to start things off with Ms. Tixit. Good evening everyone. [03:04:42] It is a wonderful time to reflect on the power of community and giving. This past month, we were glad to donate much needed school supply to the schools in the Sully district. The resources will help ensure students and families have a support they need as the school year continues. [03:05:00] Congratulations to all the students who have been named semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in 2025. There are 50 Sully district students among them. to Oakton High School student Jovina Arulandu, a Sully student and her friend Victoria Yu on publishing their first book, Hear That, Squiggle Squiggle. Congratulations to Katie Han of Navy Elementary for her incredible achievement in the School of Sons of American Revolution poster contest. She was a state winner and won second prize at the national level. The Chantilly [03:05:38] charges are charged up for homecoming tomorrow, October 10th, as they face the Centerville Wildcats. While I won't be able to attend in person, I want to wish the entire Shandy community a fun, spirited and safe celebration. And last but not the least, I wish Happy Diwali to those who celebrate. It's a festival of lights and a victory of good over evil and just spread the light all around you and have a great night. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Tixit. Ms. St. John Cunningham. [03:06:10] Thank you. Buenas noches. I was blown away at the Impact Awards last night. I'd like to congratulate all of the recipients. It's amazing the work our staffs are doing, and I'm particularly proud of those who represented our Franconia schools that were recipients. [03:06:28] I'd also like to say Happy Principals Month to the fantastic and fabulous Franconia Principals. As we gather this October, it is with a deep sense of respect and gratitude that we recognize two important observances tonight: Indigenous Peoples Month and LGBTQIA+ History Month. [03:06:49] These commemorations give us the opportunity to honor the rich cultural histories and contributions of communities whose stories have too often been marginalized or erased. We especially acknowledge and uplift the voices of indigenous peoples, whose stewardship of this land predates our institutions and affirm our commitment to learning from the resilience, wisdom, and living traditions. It is also vital that we recognize the role of two-spirited people within many indigenous nations, individuals who embody both masculine and feminine spirits, [03:07:24] and who have held sacred roles in their communities for generations. Their histories and identities remind us of the diversity and depth of gender and sexuality long before colonial understandings were imposed. As we celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month, we recognize the courage of those who have fought for justice, visibility, and the right to live authentically. [03:07:49] From Stonewall to today, the movement for LGBTQIA+ rights has been strengthened by people of all backgrounds, including black, brown, indigenous, and two-spirit activists. Our schools are not only places of learning, but of belonging. [03:08:07] We reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that every student, staff member, and family, regardless of their identity, feel seen, valued, and supported. Let us continue to learn, to listen, and to lead with love and respect. [03:08:25] Thank you. Well, going back almost to the last meeting, we had an opportunity to visit Hayfield to see their robotics competition underway. [03:08:44] And Dr. Reed led Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Anderson, and I on a mold inspection tour. And things looked quite good. So thank you, Eric, and Dr. Reed, and everyone who has been working so hard on that situation. [03:09:02] I'm looking forward to participating in several parades this weekend. Tomorrow I will be driving Mr. Moon in a golf cart at the Lake Braddock Parade. I understand I'm going to be marching with Mr. McDaniel and Miss Lady on Saturday, and Miss Lady will be wearing a shamrock costume. [03:09:25] So looking forward to seeing that. So happy homecoming to Lake Braddock, Herndon, and so many others. - Ms. Marin. - Yeah, I also was very pleased to have us recognize Indigenous Peoples Month. [03:09:43] That was one of the first things I helped to change in the school board, it was the summer of 2020. And after a lot of work with local constituents and education, we were able to change that. So I was very proud to lead that effort and certainly want to continue teaching our students about indigenous people's history and present day in our social studies and other curricula. [03:10:07] weekend is a double whammy for homecoming in the Hunter Mill area. We've got Southlake's homecoming tomorrow night and Herndon's homecoming on Saturday, so that is going to be a fun time. I also am looking forward to our first governance meeting of the year for our school board. We're really getting in there to get through a lot of policies, get things really organized, so that is exciting. I'm going to the first girls flag football game that I've ever been to this Tuesday at luckily it's the same place where there's a community boundary meeting so I get to stop by for some flag football and then talk about boundary or listen to it and then I'm headed [03:10:45] next Friday to the Fairfax Arts Fairfax awards luncheon which is honoring Southlake's high school art teacher Marco Rando who is one of the leaders of the amazing STEAM team that brings sculptures and art to rest in and really changes students lives to go into art and architecture and engineering and then other than that the big news in my family this week is that my teenager has her permit to drive. So that's new for me, and I guess I'll be driving with her this weekend in the future. Thank you. Mr. McDaniel. It's been a very interesting few weeks, and it's going to [03:11:23] continue to be interesting few weeks. The Impact Awards, as Ms. St. John Cumming mentioned last night, were a really good opportunity for us to showcase some of the best and brightest teams and individuals that we have in the division. Herndon Homecoming tomorrow, Chantilly, excuse me, Herndon homecoming on Saturday, Chantilly homecoming tomorrow. But the most fun thing I did was yesterday in Gatehouse, I got to eat a lot of chili and judge the Gatehouse chili cook-off. [03:11:51] And congratulations to the winners of that. But the most impactful thing I did in the last couple of weeks was observe a lockdown drill at one of our schools. And it happened to be my daughter's school and as I was walking with the principal as they were in lockdown it just happened geographically that my daughter's classroom was the first classroom that was checked and as a parent knowing that my daughter was five feet away behind the door shut with the flap down and the [03:12:24] door locked and the lights off hit really close to home and I don't think that the public knows that we go through these exercises because we have to and because unfortunately we need to And it really reinforced the reason I ran for this office was to try and make sure that we don't have to do that going forward. [03:12:44] So with that, good night. Mr. Frisch. Thank you. During the proclamation tonight, I talked a little bit about the arc of LGBTQIA history being one of struggle and triumph. And I was reflecting on what's happened historically in the LGBTQ movement in my lifetime. [03:13:05] the year I was born in 19 there was a ballot measure in my home state proposition 6 that would have made it illegal for someone like me a gay person to teach and for my colleagues on this board who are supportive of people like me to teach thankfully that ballot measure failed thanks to bipartisan outrage over the very concept it didn't fail by much but it failed nonetheless [03:13:38] The next year in my life, 1979, Harvey Milk was assassinated, one of the first openly LGBTQ elected officials, and he led the fight against that ballot measure. When I was in elementary school, the AIDS crisis came about, and in our schools, regularly were conversations about whether children or people who have children who are HIV positive should be allowed to have a free and appropriate public education. [03:14:08] In fact, we have a policy in FCPS because of those conversations back then. When I got to high school, Matthew Shepard was the victim of a hate crime murder in Laramie, Wyoming. And, you know, eventually it took 10 years, but they passed the hate crimes law. [03:14:29] Also in high school, there was don't ask, don't tell, keeping open military service from being allowed. And thankfully, that was eventually repealed. And through it all, there has been this constant effort by the LGBTQIA community to constantly push and push and push to get what is rightfully theirs, which is just to live with peace and simple human dignity. [03:14:56] And so through difficulty comes purpose, and I'm, you know, convicted to the idea that even though things are very difficult today, there will be a better day as long as we keep pushing towards that more perfect union. [03:15:17] And so, you know, I'm heartened by the young students that I meet in our GSAs and elsewhere who are not willing to settle for second-class citizenship. so since our last meeting and I know I'm almost out of time but I just want to say I think my colleagues for joining me at a night at the game these the series of events I've been doing across high schools attended by Providence district students we've now been to Marshall High School had a great turnout there and Robin lady and mr. McDaniel were able to join me at McLean for one of them as [03:15:54] well it was a lot of fun we hung out with principal Jones and we have another coming up so go to our newsletter to find out more thank you Mr. Krish Dr. Anderson thank you I do want to make sure that I say national happy national schools principals month so the principals of mason district you are doing incredible work and as a former principal I my hat is off to you I do not think I could take on what you all are handling in this day and age it has gotten exponentially harder. I also want to extend thank you to the community at [03:16:32] Falls Church High School because so many of you turned out on Monday for the renovation meeting and I was very encouraged and I shared this with Dr. Reid that the approach that staff took to make the school whole is exactly what I'd hope to hear because we'll have a community that will not have use of its feels for the entirety of the spring season and every single spring sport will be impacted and I am grateful to hear from Mr. Horn and Dr. Reed and others who were presenting that every action will be taken in order to ensure [03:17:08] that those students do not feel the deep burden of not having the chance to play on their home fields so I'm looking forward to seeing more of that come to light in the near term and i do invite everyone to please provide if you have not done so your feedback to the information that was shared on the capital improvement plan website for false church high school and i'll also be providing more information in a newsletter to come very very soon i wanted to highlight two school visits that i had in the past couple of [03:17:46] weeks at Mantua and Camelot Elementary Schools. Principal Shannon and Principal Flaherty and I was just so encouraged by those conversations. We spent probably 90 minutes talking about school data and that's kind of my bag that's what I'm interested in and I walked away just feeling so inspired as how those leaders were honing in on what students needed and how they were going to move and make a reality the growth that they're looking for for their schools so thank you for your work it will exponentially impact our students in such a positive way just a last reminder to the [03:18:25] community regarding the boundary review meetings that are coming up that impact the mason district pyramid schools the false church the false church high school pyramids and marshall will be meeting at Falls Church and then in the new building on October 16th at 6:30 in the Annandale High School and Justice Pyramids will be meeting on October 21st at 6:30 at Annandale. [03:18:55] So please be sure that you are at those places to have your voice be heard in the boundary conversation. And also want to remind the Annandale Pyramid of the Poe Middle School AAP Center Community meetings happening on October 22nd and the 28th at 630 at Poe Middle School and lastly just happy homecoming to all of our schools. I know Justice is this and Falls Church I believe are this weekend [03:19:26] so happy homecoming to all. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Mr. Dunn. Well it follows off to a great start. I wanted to start by saying that we have three community meetings that we will be holding in the Mount Vernon District. [03:19:44] On Wednesday, October 22nd, we will be holding a meeting at Hayfield High School Cafeteria for Hayfield High School and South County High School Pyramids. On Friday, October 24th from 6:30 to 8:00, we'll hold a meeting at the Lewis High School cafeteria for the Lewis High School and Edison High School pyramids and on Saturday October 25th from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. we'll be holding a meeting at the Sandburg Middle School cafeteria for the Mount Vernon High School and West Potomac High School pyramids. Please come out. It's both a in-person and [03:20:22] virtual participation is enabled. You can register online or just show up. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out to my office. I recently had the pleasure of participating in AVID Family Night at Gunston Elementary and I visited Laurel Hill Elementary and Island Creek Elementary. A big thank you to Principal Urzinski, Principal Dalton, and Principal Fallard for welcoming me. We had great conversations about academic achievements, student outcomes, and took a tour of the buildings to understand their facility needs. Congratulations to West Potomac and Mount Vernon on their successful homecoming celebrations last weekend which was [03:20:59] very happy to attend and I'm excited to join South County High School for their game and celebration tomorrow evening. The search is on for new principals at Lewis High School and Hayfield High School. We urge you to participate in the community conversations for Lewis High School. The community conversation will be Monday October 13th at 6 p.m. That's a zoom meeting so you can participate online and for Hayfield High School it will be a community conversation on Tuesday October 14th at 6 p.m. again participate by zoom so thank you to everyone for all you do and thank you to our school administrators and educators for helping to make such a big difference [03:21:38] in the lives of our children. Thank you Mr. Dunn. Miss Lady. Thank you uh like some of my colleagues I thoroughly enjoyed attending the robotics competition at Hayfield High School and seeing our amazing students in action. I also loved attending the marching band Battle of the Bands at herndon high school later that same day and i'm so excited about women's flag football a huge thank you to the washington commanders and the divas but for the commanders for supporting this new sport designing and funding all the uniforms and organizing two media events where [03:22:14] these universe uniforms were revealed and our athletes could participate participate in professional media activities it was super exciting to be at westfield high school for that reveal i was not able to be at i believe annandale the following night but uh boy was it exciting and the kids are really pumped up um as my colleagues have indicated uh scenario four uh for boundary work should be coming out tomorrow please access the explorer tool dates of uh the pyramid event meetings are listed on that on the boundary page so [03:22:50] if you're interested in attending one of those please see those for the dates and also if you have feedback please use the tools on the webpage and or reach out to your BRAC committee members representatives those emails are also on the webpage or feel free to email me your concerns and possible solutions please don't just complain but bring a solution and as we've also talked about October is full of appreciation days and weeks we give our support to all of our staff but as indicated it is principals month in October and you know I haven't [03:23:27] formally been a director of student services I know how hard our principals work the hours they put in and we are very very blessed not just in Drainsville but in our entire school system to have amazing leadership so kudos to those folks thank you I hope you feel appreciated custodians we celebrated your day on October 2nd National Coaches Day was October 6th let's talk about coaches and the mentorship they provide to our young people for many of us there were athletes it's those moments those people who actually were huge influences on our lives and for some of us trajectory of what we chose to do with [03:24:04] with our own professions school lunch teams thank them October 13th to 17th National School Lunch Week and our bus drivers October 20 to 24 is a national Bus Safety Week. As has been referenced, yes, Herndon's homecoming is this weekend. The parade is on Saturday. I was sort of sharing with Mr. McElveen I might wear a shamrock outfit, but then I did Google Enchanted Forest, and I'm not sure if that's going to work. But nonetheless, I will be in the parade, and I am excited to walk with Dr. Reed, Dr. Ponce, and my other colleagues on [03:24:43] board Mr. Rackleveen and Mr. McDaniel and that was my time next weekend is McLean's homecoming so if you're available to get to that that'd be great thank you thank you Miss Lady I'm gonna take a very quick turn it's been a busy couple of weeks in the Springfield district I attended but I went did some school visits to Cherry Run Elementary with Mr. McElveen or Mr. I'm sorry Mr. [03:25:12] McDaniel it's late and a West Springfield High School with Miss St. John Cunning. It was great to see the impactful work of our new principals, Maura Edwards and Dr. Jim Patrick. I also had the pleasure of meeting with school parent leaders for my first roundtable of the year. It was wonderful to meet the new leaders and connect with them about their questions and concerns around boundaries, start times, the new volunteer system, and general challenges they are experiencing in their schools and roles. On September 27th, like many of my colleagues, I was able to attend the Chesapeake robotics icebreaker challenge. [03:25:45] I was fascinated by everything going on and asked a lot of questions. And now I need to figure out how to get my youngest interested in robotics more than he already is. I also learned and enjoyed the Fairfax County Council's PTA kickoff this week and was able to answer a few questions while I was there. [03:26:06] It was always it's always great to see what they're doing to support our schools and students and staff. And lastly, I want to recognize the Springfield District students from the seven different schools who have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. [03:26:22] Congratulations to my finalists from Centerville, Chantilly, Fairfax, Oakton, Thomas Jefferson and West Springfield High Schools, as well as those from Lake Braddock. So they will be receiving letters from me shortly. And we have a quick thing that we have to go back to. [03:26:42] going back to item number 13 board committee reports i call on mr frischer to provide a report for the admin committee meeting this week we had an admin committee meeting we talked about many various things including the evaluation process and we'll be bringing something to the full board at a later date thank you and um miss st john cunning will is going to give us a quick skipped update so we had our first skip meeting of the year and we're going to focus on workforce workforce readiness this year and we also have the report that came [03:27:20] out from last year from preschool readiness as well which I'll share with the board and at 10:26 p.m. we adjourned ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com