Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board AAP Annandale Public Hearing, Monday, December 1, 2025

Date: Monday, December 1, 2025
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 23m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuLON8kFYyM
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 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:01:59] testing. Oh, Ms. Setlow, are we ready? Yes, we're ready to begin. All righty. Thank you. The time is 7:31 p.m.

[00:02:17] And this December 1st, 2025, the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center public hearing of the Fairfax County School Board is now called to order. Mr. Frisch has submitted a written request to attend this meeting this evening's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict as he has a work commitment and is attending tonight's meeting from his home in the Providence District.

[00:02:45] All those in favor of Mr. Frisch's request. OK, that is unanimous with all of the board members present. Ms. Sutler, do you need a name of roll call of the names or we're good? So we have Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Miss St. John Cunningham, Miss Lady, Dr.

[00:03:05] Anderson, Miss Seismore Heiser, Mr. Moon and Miss Anderson are all yeses, correct? Yes. Everybody said yes. It's unanimous. can you please check your audio and video good evening Dr. Anderson and everyone. Hello Mr. Frisch. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the Proposed Annandale Advanced Academic for Public Hearing. Tonight's hearing will be is being broadcast on Channel 99 and live streamed on YouTube and on our website at www.fcps.edu/livestream. If you are not able to attend tonight's public hearing but are

[00:03:43] interested in providing comments on the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center, you may contact the board by sending your comments to communityparticipation@fcps.edu. We have seven pre-registered speakers who will address the board at this public hearing. If you have not registered to speak but you would like to address the board, please see the clerk or deputy clerk to sign up for one of the five reserved slot walk-in speaker slots. Please note that these individual please note that those individuals will

[00:04:19] speak after all pre-registered speakers. Speakers are allotted two minutes and we ask that you stay within that time limit. The timer will start when you begin to speak and the timer will sound after two minutes. Please ensure that your remarks are limited to the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center and that your remarks adhere to the school board's expectations for community participation.

[00:04:45] Included in these expectations are that only one person is allowed to is allowed at the podium after I'm sorry is allowed at the podium when speaking neither adults nor children may accompany a speaker to the podium copies of all expectations are available at the back of the auditorium when your name is called the clerk will call your name three times before moving on to the next individual on the list you may find copies of the speaker order in the back of the room or on board docs. If you have a hard copy of your testimony please give

[00:05:21] it to the clerk before you head to the podium. If you have electronic copies of your testimony and would like to share with the board please email it to communityparticipation@fcps.edu. Madam Clerk please call our first speaker. Thomas Zienert. Good evening. My name is Thomas Zienert and I am the parent of a fourth grader at Canterbury Woods Elementary. I'm here tonight to express

[00:05:58] my deep concerns about this proposal. First, this proposal rests on a false premise that students from future schools like North Springfield only attend Canterbury Woods for sixth grade. The vast majority, including my son, start there as early as third grade. The proposal, as is, would force my son to leave Canterbury before sixth grade, depriving him of the opportunity to graduate with his cohort. Second, the parents of students otherwise headed to Frost have been blindsided. Supposedly, this conversation is going on for more than five years, yet many of the parents here only learned of the proposal only a few weeks ago through the media. North Springfield's PTA was never engaged, nor

[00:06:36] was Canterbury's, and the community meetings provided us with no substantive information about your plans for POE's AEP program. You cannot in good conscience say that FCPS has afforded the parents due process. This feels like a rushed job with no clear explanation for such an aggressive timeline. Last, we're troubled by unanswered questions. By 2028 POE is projected to be over a capacity at 109%.

[00:06:59] percent where homes sits at 84 percent so why choose poe over homes fcps flatly denied to us that this move is an effort to bolster post scores but in a vacuum of information it's the only clear rationale for this remove maneuver on this aggressive timeline so i respectfully offer three recommendations first delay the decision use your timeline to properly engage impacted families collect feedback and align this proposal with the overarching plan for universal middle school aap centers to consider a phased approach start with glasgow to relieve overcrowding and pilot

[00:07:36] the program while continuing to study the impacts and three allow case-by-case exceptions give students like mine the option to remain at canterbury and transition of frost with their peers thank you for reconsider paula abate good evening i'm speaking on behalf of many braddock district families whose children attend the full-time center at canterbury woods we're deeply concerned about this proposal our first and foremost concern is that this proposal

[00:08:16] creates multiple unnecessary transition for the Braddock district students currently our students transition to the center school and continue with the cohort through eighth grade at Frost under the new proposal our children will transition to the center school leave elementary school a year early and then enter Poe with an entirely new cohort and as currently proposed only the fifth and sixth grade students will be grandfathered in we understand the challenges that the Mason district here at the Mason district students face due to Glasgow feeding multiple schools and pyramids but this proposal doesn't solve the instability within the pyramid and merely shifts it from the Mason district

[00:08:52] students on to the Braddock district families additionally we would like clarity about post academic readiness we have received vague assurances during the meetings and to that end we would like the school board to address several things. What is Poe's current accreditation status? Is Poe still a Project Momentum school? If so, what tier? Have any other SCPS school successfully managed the dual distinctions of both Project Momentum and a full-time AAP center? And will SCPS commit to hiring experienced full-time AAP teachers for Poe? Creating a cohort at Poe will immediately have an impact on

[00:09:29] the standardized testing, but I would remind you all that you have a duty to meet the academic needs of all children not just reposition students to artificially bolster performance metrics we given that we would like to request that all Braddock district students at the full-time center be grandfathered through Frost Middle School until such time as an elementary school is established in the Annandale portion of the pyramid and you are the FCPS is better able to articulate a credible and detailed academic plan for

[00:10:04] Poe. Thank you. Joanna Eddy. My name is Joanna Eady. I am a Poe district resident and a parent of a sixth grader at Poe and a third grader at Columbia. One of the criticisms I've heard tonight and at a meeting a month ago is that this process feels rushed. Everyone on the board knows that that

[00:10:40] critique is laughable. In fact, this process has been slow as molasses. In 2019, I sat in my living room with a group of concerned columbia parents to discuss why we need an aap center at poe i won't use my time tonight to explain the reasons you've heard them before the reasons haven't changed decade has i've turned a new page on my monthly calendar 74 times since that meeting if this vote were a library book it would have been marked lost by now if this vote were bread

[00:11:18] dough it would have gotten moldy in a cold oven just waiting for the school board to turn it on and if this vote were a child a kindergartner at the time of that meeting like my son he would now be a sixth grader like my son it's too late for him to benefit from an aap center in our neighborhood but it's not too late for hundreds of kids in region six who deserve the same opportunities close to home that middle schoolers in every other region enjoy we're not asking for special

[00:11:54] treatment we are not asking for you to take anything away from any other student we're simply asking that you finally correct the glaring and long-standing denial of equal access to educational programming for the children of region six this vote is about fairness this vote is a no-brainer

[00:12:19] and this vote is long overdue karen bradford karen bradford jackie mosley hello my name is Jackie Chevalier Mosley. I am a parent in the Annandale pyramid. I'm also the parent rep one

[00:12:53] of the parent representatives for the Annandale pyramid on the boundary review advisory committee and neighbor just stated this really is a matter of equity. Region six is the only region without a middle school AAP center. I have been not surprised but saddened through my participation on the boundary review committee anytime there is a discussion of a change in boundary where kids are getting added to region six people are upset about it um and that's sad because relatively speaking fairfax county has great schools including in region six and this is um just a small step

[00:13:33] toward toward remedying that lewis is great annandale is great poe is great hayfield is great i just as a parent of two little kids and an active and engaged community member i strongly urge a yes vote it's it's past time thank you Adriana Ariza sorry my name is

[00:14:12] Adriana Ariza and I have a son in fourth grade currently in IAP at Canterbury Woods Elementary School first I want to state that we parents with kids in IAP program were informed directly about this proposal and there was no opportunity to participate in a formal survey but only after the first meeting on October 22nd this lack of communication and transparency is concerning especially given the significant impact this decision will have in our students education I also do not understand the rush to start the

[00:14:48] AAP program at POE Middle School the priority should be strengthening the existing academic program first once POE demonstrates a strong and consistent results with his regular classes, then it would make sense to consider adding an AAP program.

[00:15:10] If Bowen Middle School has not yet demonstrated the strong results with its existing program, I do not feel confident in Israel to support an AAP program. I am concerned that our children will be treated as test cases for a program that may or may not work.

[00:15:29] My son has already been a solid group of friends at Canterbury Woods, and he enjoys his school community. transition to Frost is something he has been preparing for and looking forward to, especially because his older sister attended both Canterbury Woods and Frost and had an excellent experience.

[00:15:50] For our kids, attending an established AAP center is something they have earned through their hard work and academic ability. They have put in support to qualify the program, and we parents have supported them with the understanding that they will attend a strong

[00:16:09] experienced AP school like Frost. Greg Martin. Good evening friends. I am Greg Martin a parent of two middle schoolers at Holmes Middle School. I appear today to express my enthusiastic support for this proposal to establish an AAP Center at Poe Middle School. This proposal long needed is a material step towards

[00:16:49] equitable treatment of Mason District students and Region 6 students. Earlier you heard from my friend Joanna Eady. I'd like to thank her for hosting that conversation in her living room those years ago. I'd like to thank Dr. Anderson for her dogged advocacy of Mason District students and families. At the time of that conversation, I was starting off what would become four years of the presidency of the Columbia Elementary PTA. Across those four years, I heard a consistent theme, a theme of frustration with the inequitable treatment of Mason kids. A A particularly frequent chord within that theme regarded access to AAP services.

[00:17:29] Families told me stories, stories that you don't want to hear as a president and you don't want to hear as a parent advocating for your community. They told me stories of sixth graders standing at a cold, dark bus stop before 6 a.m., their students' only option for transportation to Glasgow.

[00:17:46] Cold and tired kids seeking a challenging curriculum. Think about that. We can do better. Families are frustrated at sending their kids outside of their pyramid, away from their friends, away from their neighborhood to simply access the AAP services that they deserve.

[00:18:04] By approving this proposal, the school board can materially better the lives of many students and families, keeping them closer to home, in their neighborhoods, and with their community. I firmly believe that each of you sought service on the school board for a simple and challenging reason, to improve students' lives.

[00:18:21] with this proposal you have that opportunity you have the opportunity to help the kids in many families I urge you to approve this proposal thank you Jennifer Wideman hello my name is Jennifer Wiedemann I am the parent of a third grader at Canterbury woods I agree that there does need to be an AAP

[00:18:58] center in our pyramid but I am here to address my concerns for the children that are already enrolled in their current AAP program. My daughter goes to Canterbury and I feel like she's already made a really hard choice to leave her friends and to start new with Canterbury Woods and to get a whole new social aspect.

[00:19:27] But beyond that, I've looked over the S.O.L. scores and I've looked at Holmes versus Frost versus Poe and I just don't see how in three years Poe will be able to provide the same academic level that Frost is currently providing through the SOL performance scores. So I also see that in three years Poe is going to exceed its current maximum occupancy so when my daughter arrives it'll already be overcrowded so

[00:20:04] I'm not saying that this should be sorry I'm not saying that we shouldn't have an AAP I do believe that we need to change the proposal to allow the children that have already made that decision to follow the path that they chose if they want to go to frost if they want to go to Glasgow they should be able to remain there or make that choice themselves and not be forced to make to go to a different path that they've already made that decision. Thank you. Karen Mast.

[00:20:43] Hello I am a parent of a fifth grader at North Springfield a third grader at Canterbury Woods and a kindergartner at Braddock Elementary in an autism class.

[00:21:02] You can imagine it was a tough decision for us and for our third grader to go to Canterbury woods to leave his friends and to have three elementary students in different schools but it was important to us because we saw the benefit of the AAP Center school at Canterbury it's already been a little over one quarter but my son has been absolutely thriving there he has a lot of friends more than

[00:21:39] had before I'm worried about him and his the other student who made that difficult choice to move and now it's being proposed that they leave after fifth grade so they don't get their last year at Canterbury with their friends they also move to a middle school where they don't know anybody so this isn't them going to their local middle school like Holmes it's going to a completely

[00:22:14] different place so they're starting over twice and I just think it is not in their best interest I think it would be best if they had a choice and could continue at Canterbury and go on to Frost if possible thank you Dr. Anderson that was our last speaker thank you thank you all for coming this evening the public hearing on the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center adjourns at

[00:22:52] 7:52, good night all.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com