Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Governance Committee Meeting, Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 2h 13m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF6XB0zJM_E
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.

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[00:00:26] okay it's four o'clock let's uh get this governance meeting of march 17th uh begun i now call it to order uh four o'clock march 17th so we have our agenda posted lots of things to do today the first thing is the approval of the minutes oh excuse me the first thing is to um invite in our colleague Mr. Frisch, who is joining us virtually today.

[00:01:02] I know you sent me the notes, Ms. Brown. It seems that I do. I know you sent it, I saw it. Thank you, okay, thank you.

[00:01:33] Okay, Mr. Frisch has submitted a request to attend today's meeting remotely due to personal reasons as he has a work conflict and is located in Washington, D.C. I have performed an initial review of Mr. Frisch's request and having found it to be in compliance with the school board's remote participation resolution, I have approved the request.

[00:01:51] Mr. Frisch, please check your audio and video. - Hello. - Hello. We now ask board members who are physically present to vote on the following. All those in favor of confirming the chair's approval of Mr. Frisch's request. Myself and Miss Lady.

[00:02:07] All those opposed. Dr. Anderson. That vote passes 2-2-1. All right, now we will vote to approve the minutes of last meeting, February 17th. I move that the governance committee approve the minutes from the February 17th, 2026 meeting with leave for the clerk to make grammatical, technical and formatting edits so moved thank you mr. Frisch a second is that you dr. Anderson seconded any further comments mr. Frisch no I'll take that as a no and dr. Anderson no all those in favor of approving the minutes that is

[00:02:44] unanimous three in the room and one on screen all right we have agenda item 1. 0 3 the artificial intelligence policy discussion so I wanted to just regroup on where we ended last time on February 17th so on February 17th meeting we had reviewed the version that the superintendent provided the document name was version 7 we would review the version shared we talked about it at the last meeting we would further review it and per the minutes the committee members

[00:03:21] committed to discussing the policy with their fellow school board members and bringing back their feedback to a future governance committee meeting I also had asked if there were any additional thoughts about reviewing adjacent policies I haven't really heard that we're gonna talk about one today in the 6000 series but it seems that that's not a primary interest so with that I would like to go ahead and do what we committed to last time help facilitate that which was discussing the policy sharing what we heard from our fellow school board members and then share feedback so let's a lot you know a good

[00:03:58] chunk of time. I had planned till 4:50, 4:50 to give ourselves a good, you know, almost hour. So let's kick it off. Who would like to begin our discussion? Dr.

[00:04:17] Anderson. I will start. Thank you so much. I had the good fortune to attend many AI sessions during the COSBA conference that I attended Friday, Saturday and Sunday and it was nice to have kind of all that new learning and to be able to tie it to some of the work that we have here and I have to say much of what well not much a lot of the things that were raised in those sessions and I probably went to probably about five different AI sessions from different

[00:04:54] folks around the country I'm pleased to see that some of them are reflected in policy but I want to kind of step back a little bit one of the presenters that I thought was particularly impactful talked about what is it that you all want and before you step out into you know this world develop your philosophy around what this what this means and how is it already embedded in your work and your strategic goals so I thought that was a good way of really centering how I wanted to view this and some of the terms and I even went through our

[00:05:29] our proposal here to check off some of the things that were raised that I see reflected here, such as ensuring that it is a human-centered operation. People have to be at the center.

[00:05:44] It has to be monitored by people. It has to be driven by people. It has to be checked by people. So I see that that's embedded in our philosophy. Another point where that was raised, and I even have the quote from that speaker, was it is to enhance and not to replace.

[00:06:07] It is to make what we do, you know, better, faster, stronger, not to replace the teacher, not to replace the human element, not to replace traditional practices, which we know are, they work for kids.

[00:06:23] You know, we've sat here, we've talked about it, whether it be Montessori or elsewhere, tactile modes of learning work for our kids. Those should not be abandoned. Let's see, what else do I want to share?

[00:06:40] I'm going to share a little bit more of my learning a little bit later, but I did want to jump into some of the things here just to kind of get this conversation going instead of just me giving you a solid clue of what I have learned. And I appreciate the definitions that have been provided.

[00:07:00] I think one piece where I would like to see some greater clarity, as we talk about generative AI, there's not a definition of non-generative AI, because we do have tools that have non-generative AI applications.

[00:07:19] And so it would make sense for us to include that in these definitions, because our public also needs to be clear in terms of what those tools are and well what the term means and the tools in which they are located so I will pause here for now you said what the term means and where the tools are located in the tools in which they can be the applications in which they can be found if I recall properly and I don't think I am perhaps Dr. Reed you know a little bit better

[00:07:53] than I I thought that dr. Presidio had shared that ST math has non generative AI components to it is that accurate I'm going to try and guess on his behalf but I believe there are some tutoring support or question-answer support in there and the definition of non generative we can think through that yeah and that that's exactly why because it already exists in our system let's ensure that we're elevating it to offer full clarity. And I'll take a go back, please.

[00:08:28] Thank you. Mr. Fresh. First time doing virtual in a minute. So I appreciate it. Let me start by saying that I appreciated my conversation with Chair Marin about the draft policy. I agree with Dr. Anderson on including a definition for, and I don't necessarily think it's called non-generative AI, but whatever it is that is not generative AI, even if it's just articulating that in the definition of AI, just for clarity's sake, we can't assume that people will know what all of

[00:09:07] these things mean, even in abstract. One area of feedback I had was on the policy's philosophy. This is about 800 million times longer than any philosophy for any policy we've done to date, most of which have been one sentence.

[00:09:23] And I think we're trying to accomplish in the philosophy some of what would be tackled in other areas of the policy. So perhaps even before, but definitely where the underlining begins, AI shall be used, la, la, la, la, la, through the end of that paragraph.

[00:09:42] I feel like that is better placed. Obviously, it needs to be augmented either in purpose or embedded in the responsibilities, right? So I understand the intent of that section is to put meat on the bones of what the board's philosophy for this policy is, but I would rather put the meat on the bones as it relates to the responsibilities of executing that philosophy.

[00:10:07] So that's my first piece of feedback. My second piece of feedback is that I still think that even with this basis, like as a starting point, that we would benefit from having a technology policy that applies to all technology that we bring in the classroom, including AI. And this is certainly has a lot of the starting points that I think we would probably all expect for any of this, right?

[00:10:37] That, you know, just as AI, we don't want it replacing the human-centered nature of teaching. We don't want PowerPoints doing that either, that kind of thing. So that's my initial thinking. I think the definition section is good. I think the responsibility section is good. And I think think the policy is currently broad enough that it, that it can be one thing that I raised when I was talking to Ms. Marin was that the idea that we would revisit the policy every other year, I think it's fine. But, um, if the concern is that we want to do that because technology moves

[00:11:17] so quickly, um, uh, I think we need to, you know, leave some bandwidth for the superintendent to respond accordingly, uh, and staff to respond accordingly. So having a broad policy that puts like a stake in the ground around generally how we feel about AI and technology as a whole, I think does that, especially if it's coupled with an every other year review of this policy.

[00:11:45] That's my first line of thinking. I heard the buzzer. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Okay. Any other members in the room for our first turn?

[00:12:03] Yeah. Ms. Ledy, go ahead. You know, I like my colleague, Dr. Anderson, had an amazing experience at South by Southwest conference I mean I think that you know we've talked about this several times but you know I think the things we have to keep in mind are safety and privacy like protection student data or anything identifying we have to make sure equities at the center in terms of access for all students and staff integrity of our learning environments and what our students are doing so if they you know

[00:12:39] like I think we need some I think our students need some clarity around when they can use AI as part of an assignment and how to properly cite but that's part of our teaching I think the AI accountability is the human center you know we will never replace you know here's the thing right like you know the teachers are the magic the technologies are the tools that will never change can

[00:13:09] never teach with fidelity, integrity, without a human in front of the room who is teaching within guardrails we need to create. And then we need to understand the flexibility within AI, which is why I want this to be a technology policy and not an AI policy because of the pace, which with these things are moving and the changing tools.

[00:13:35] So if we get too narrow in the policy, that's why I want the policy, quite frankly, to be little more narrow than what's in regulation because like I think we can an ideal world you could say that the board would revisit this every year but it's time-consuming to do these things and I think that you know I think that staff needs to be in regulation certainly reviewing the regulation every year as these things evolve you know and then the other thing I'll say is you know it's interesting if you think back to sort of you know Plato's time when he

[00:14:11] said when we learn how to write it would ruin our memories you know and then when the computer came into play it was sort of like well we're gonna forget how to you know actually do penmanship or whatever I mean there's always fears I think that the fear of atrophy is real and I think that's what we need to make sure we understand is that whatever tools we're using to help students access learning to help enhance the learning that that we don't want that we don't want atrophy in terms of critical thinking skills problem solving you know physically writing um reading etc so um i mean you know that's i'll leave it at that for now i mean

[00:14:51] this is important policy i hope we can get to a place where we're all in agreement because i think we're all in more agreement than we're not um but i think it's going to come down to what we want in regulation versus policy i think when it comes to some of the details thank you Ms. Jean-Jean Cutting.

[00:15:11] I have my name for here, so I'll leave it mine. So I think, again, I really intentionally went to a lot of AI sessions when we were at South by Southwest and it was just wrong by what people are doing.

[00:15:29] And I think one of the things that, a couple of things bubbled up, and I think one of them is fear, which is justifiable, but we can't let fear paralyze us. I used this analogy last time when we were having this discussion, which was it's a tool like fire.

[00:15:50] And, you know, we fear fire, then we can't control it for all the good things that it can do and try to understand it. And we need to teach our – you know, the kids are going to be playing with matches. We need to teach them what's appropriate, what isn't. So we can't let fears prevent us from moving forward.

[00:16:07] I do think it should be an overall technology policy, which does guarantee the safety and privacy of our kids that, you know, we maintain all of those guardrails with fidelity. I think one of the quotes that I left with, and I believe my colleague was with me at South by Southwest, that one of the presenters said was that Mark Cuban had said, AI is going to be here.

[00:16:32] it's here to stay and it's a tool that for some will open their learning and make them learn so much and for some they won't learn anything because they're just going to use it to get the information and not learn and I think that's where the human-centered approach comes in that part of our job from time immemorial is to teach children to love learning and I just love that quote. I don't have it exactly, but that was just a huge aha moment for me. But I do like

[00:17:09] the idea of it being a technology policy because we don't even know what else is going to be coming down. There might be something else other than AI. But it is important and it's here and it's here to stay. It's how we manage it and how we ensure the safety of our children, ensure the privacy of our children, ensure that they know that it's a tool that is best used when they use it as critical thinkers.

[00:17:41] I believe the exact quote was that one group will use AI to learn as much as possible, and then there will be others who will use AI to learn nothing. Okay.

[00:17:56] I will go ahead and take a turn, and then, Mr. Fresh, you're back on. So the way I made sense of this was to eventually write everything down because I have learned, I've talked with many people, listened to people, principals, parents, students.

[00:18:11] I had a wonderful conversation with our student Ritha Karim, who is now at UVA studying data science and helped create the Brookings Report. So listening to her expertise, and I do want to get a hold of the work that launched her into that about peer-to-peer AI prompt mentoring.

[00:18:31] I've been reading books, podcasts, just kind of listening to anyone who wants to give me an opinion. So what I did is I put together and I sent it electronically to board members just now. And if you wouldn't mind helping me pass this out, please.

[00:18:47] And one to Mr. Sethi, if there's one. Thank you so much, Dr. Anderson. And this, well, okay, that's for that side. Okay, thank you. I'd just like to walk through the sections of the policy as it seems are needed by all of these different inputs, okay?

[00:19:04] So I also wanted to title it something innovative because I've heard about 80% caution, 20% excitement, but I know we want to be inspirational, aspirational. I want a conversation with Mr. Moon was, you know, be aspirational and like, I get it, but the things I hear people, parents especially telling me is concern.

[00:19:24] So, but that's, you got it, we good? So, right, so calling it something like innovation instructional technology so it's broader than AI the purpose you know I kept the one that the superintendent proposed the definitions I kept what was proposed but I did add more about AI literacy I also added about chat bot because when I was at a recent meeting mr. Sethi to find a chat bot and it was different than what I thought so surely there are other people who need to know what the definition of a chat bot is one-to-one device use that we're saying what this is

[00:20:01] presumed use that's come up a lot just presuming that kids will be on devices the philosophy section I kept intact from the previous version and then under responsibilities I really put the meat of things in here so again safety we've said this is a big priority I put together the list of all the policies I know it's not very exciting looking but these are the places where we're considering students safety so even if it's just for the purpose of this review in creation it's there presumed use I think the board having a statement on

[00:20:35] that is is necessary one-to-one device use do we want to say yes we approve this many people and parents and and teachers and staff have said you know we were never told how to use these one-to-one devices and there's great variation so having an intentional conversation again not saying whether it is or is not but putting in the policy that there is to be an intentional decision around one to one use and I will go a little bit longer since we have time and I want to finish this please identifying technology tools for instruction this is what parents want to know they want to know what technology their kids are on

[00:21:15] currently the thing to sign for digital resources is 700 applications listed how does a parent know which applications their kids are on so putting in here how are we going to identify those another component is evaluating the use of technology on instructional progress disseminating innovative and promising practices that's that innovative part like how are we making sure like I saw it's Saratoga Elementary we've got this amazing staff member how do we extract that learning and spread it protecting academic integrity planning time public

[00:21:53] reporting I'll stop here because I do want to delve deeper into the school boards governance matters but for that point that's really the gist of what I've heard from a wide swath of our community mr. Frisch and then dr. Anderson and and hold on a second I did not submit my policy for public posting because it's just mine so I don't know if that's it up there okay and yeah we'd love to see our colleague yeah thank you it looks kind of like mine to think okay mr.

[00:22:29] fish and then dr egerson well uh i was going to ask what the desired timeline was for the other version i don't have a lot to offer yet on your suggested edits because that's the first time some of it we've talked about um so i'm going to need time to digest that and probably not during a meeting um but i am curious about what you think the timeline is um generally speaking obviously not to hold you to it i'm sorry mr fish i was just clarifying that i just sent my version

[00:23:08] around this morning yeah and this afternoon um because i was i got that right i'm just saying like repeat what you said i apologize oh sure yeah no worries um generally speaking not to hold you to a timeline but when are you hoping that the committee will be sending something on to the full board well yeah the timeline has been you know to do it by our last governance meeting which is in may to send it forward to the regular meeting i have it written down somewhere but whatever our last governance committee meeting is gotcha all right i was just trying to map out in my head how much

[00:23:43] time i have to yeah right so we have one meeting in april and one meeting in may right um well i'll be interested in digging into what you've brought in more detail i see some good stuff in there um but i want to delve a little deeper um and see how like on first blush having only like read the first page while we were sitting here um i think it's good that we're framing i like the framing of innovation and instructional technology um and it's very ai centric currently

[00:24:23] um but i think that's because that's the topic at hand um i'd be interested in looking at it more closely to see how we can broaden it to be intentionally more inclusive of other technology so that's just an initial reaction having only read and skimmed today so um i'll be interested in having more conversations with you about it thank you mr frisch dr anderson thank you um i i want to just continue with my notes and i think some of it aligns with what i'm skimming right now

[00:24:59] as well um and i've said this before so not a surprise the regulation i believe does i'm sorry a policy does two things it conveys to the public what is it that we're intending to do and it gives direction to the superintendent i not everything should be in the policy but there has to be enough there to drive the regulation and i think there are some things here that have not yet made it into this policy and i see some of that on here but i i can't speak to this because i i don't feel like like i've looked at it sufficiently but two things um that will also lend to a broader

[00:25:39] policy which is our opt-out opportunities because i know every year and now that it's all digital thank you so much for that i'm sitting in front of the long list of things that i'm going to allow my kids to participate in that are available in fairfax county that has to be embedded in our policy that that is available and allowed because it will I think calm some

[00:26:07] folks who some parents we already have that label in our practice so I think it has to show up someplace in our policy the other piece that I'd be very curious to see embedded in our policy and I don't think I see it right now is that there's a continuum of appropriateness what would be available for a high schooler will not be what is available for a kindergartner and I think just

[00:26:46] noting that we are looking at age appropriateness and developmental appropriateness whether it lives in the philosophy or in some other place structurally I think just having that information would be helpful and I do want to kind of highlight what was said by Miss lady just a little while ago regarding the critical thinking I some of these things we have to name because if we don't name them people are thinking that they're not included so ensuring that we have very strong language that speaks to the fact that

[00:27:22] this tool is not going to we're not going to not have high expectations of critical thinking and other more traditional educational pedagogy I think would be really helpful because one it puts a stakes it's it puts a stake in the ground and it fills the vacuum because if it's not said people are wondering well where do you stand on this and it must be the most it could be the most unreasonable place but if we articulate it I think it just lowers the

[00:27:54] temperature over certain things thank you dr. Anderson any one for a second round I would take one but I would go last if others want to okay great I will go ahead and take a second round I was just looking up so I had asked everyone on the board to meet with me the first week of March and I was able to meet with some people and then the next week I had my community engagement summit which included about AI and that was on Tuesday the 10th and on Wednesday the

[00:28:30] 11th I started writing so you know I've gotten a mix of interest you know I'm thrilled that someone wants to see it ahead of time others I've heard nothing from so you know please treat this with some grace here I'm throwing something out as a discussion point and you know what anyone could do this I'm just trying to synthesize us so we could keep moving forward I'll go through the rest of this draft that I put together so you know regarding the money public reporting on budget and expenditures I believe that there needs to be something but like I don't know that we see the technology line items the way they need

[00:29:08] to be. Also, I am really, really, I feel very strongly that the board must review legal contractual agreements regarding use of technology for instruction. Technically, we review contracts when there is a cost exchange of half a million dollars or more. So we did not review the contracts that brought in OpenAI and PlayLab. However, we know that they are worth more than half a million dollars, and things were signed in our name that we never reviewed or received until very recently.

[00:29:39] That cannot happen. I've included in the draft policy for my colleague's perusal something that Google Gemini generated, which was for-profit risks, and it's three subsections of how to ensure that your district's foray into AI is both safe and successful.

[00:29:58] Here are vetting questions during board meetings to challenge proposals from for-profit vendors. And the next section is integration in this draft policy. It's from the original, from the superintendent, integration of AI into instruction.

[00:30:14] And I added some subsections. It's become very apparent to me that the only way this is going to move forward with equity and quality is through professional development. I have seen a wide range of how things are happening in the schools. Differences of expertise, of time, of ability.

[00:30:31] And I know with our commitment to equity, Dr. Reed, that you would want to ensure that all of our teachers know how to use the tools, even if it's just on the back end for their own operational work, and certainly if and when it comes time to use it straight up with children. So I've put in here some parameters on what that could look like, because professional development is the key to making this all work.

[00:30:52] We're already talking to parents about what's happening. We're not talking consistently to our staff. The AI literacy plan, again, it's just one sentence that says the superintendent will provide an AI literacy plan, or two sentences, okay?

[00:31:08] And it will be communicated. I don't think that that is so robust as to be limiting. I think that it sets up those guardrails we keep hearing about. I'll just finish up the last two. Segmented use of generative AI by grade levels. Another huge theme I'm hearing.

[00:31:23] The elementary school kids are different than the upper grades. How is it gonna be different? And then family and community engagement. And I actually looked at our boundary policy as a model for that. And again, put things in there that I know exist and parents are talking about. So I welcome further feedback on including some of these or adding more.

[00:31:55] Yeah, Ms. St. John Cunning. - I appreciate that you put this together. Like my other colleagues said, I mean, we're looking at this, we're producing it. I don't feel that I'm comfortable discussing some of these things right now because I just got this. And definitely see some things that resonate that are positive based on some of the sessions went to but definitely things that I have to dig into you know AI in schools for profit risks I mean I think that I understand I think where you're getting at this but every vendor we deal with is a for-profit vendor so are we gonna

[00:32:32] distinguish that for just technology versus other vendors I mean that that's just one of those things that I just find that wording a little bit awkward just for just immediately when I saw that that hit me it's like every vendor we deal with is for profit. I wish they weren't because we wouldn't have so many budget issues, but, but, um, I just think we have to be consistent with how we're going to vet all vendors and they're all for profit. That's just the reality. That's just something that jumped out at me

[00:33:06] immediately. That made me raise a question in my head. Okay. I see, uh, Mr. Fresh has his hand up and then Dr. Anderson, did you want to respond or did you? Okay. Okay. So, thanks. Yeah. Okay.

[00:33:22] i just couldn't tell okay all right um well the reason i asked about timeline was because i wanted to know how long i have basically to ponder things before our next conversation you know if if the goal was to get something out of committee today that'd be a different conversation than whether we want to be in a position to um you know make more progress next meeting so i appreciated the a conversation that we had uh that led to some of this um and uh i will come ready at the next meeting to engage and maybe have some other ideas about things that could be included or removed or

[00:34:02] replaced or refined um based on this and and the other version as well um i'm not you know my feedback about broadening things a bit to being more inclusive of other technologies was not feedback to Ms. Marin to go redraft her version, uh, because I want X included or Y included. It's, it's like a note to myself that that's something I'm interested in pursuing. So, um, my intention is to have, uh, notes, uh, around to colleagues, um, roughly a week before our next governance

[00:34:38] meeting so that people can digest it and we can have a conversation, um, about that kind of stuff. and we'll see where we are at the end of that meeting too okay miss lady and then dr anderson yeah i'm just curious um to know from mr sethe or dr reed uh this particular page related to the risks i mean i know the data privacy and legal compliance that it's i've been told and i trust that the vendor is not using student data or prompts to gain their global ai as my colleague

[00:35:14] I can just mention all vendors are for profit and then in terms of the educational efficacy piece of this you know obviously it wasn't in the conversations that led to the relationships with open AI and play lab but can you speak to this particular page I guess that's I'm just seeing for the first time I'm not sure which page you're referring to I'm on the very last page of what what Miss Marin has handed out today I just received it as well so I'm not I don't know that I can comment on this at the moment but what I can say is that all contracts are reviewed by division council so I would probably

[00:35:53] expect that division council would want to review that page as well but data privacy agreements as you know are sacrosanct here they're critical and division council reviews those for all vendors not just you know tech vendors but all vendors that do business with the school division I believe that's an integral part of the procurement process. Thank you for that. Mr. Sethi, do you have anything to add to that? No, Dr. Reid mentioned we have DPA agreements which are standard and are signed by vendors. The other clauses in these would certainly be also FERPA and COPPA, right? Those are also pretty

[00:36:32] standard clauses which is already baked into our procurement policies. I believe we used, Mr. Sethi, with regard to OpenAI, we used the Virginia Commonwealth VPA agreement so we use the state Commonwealth agreement for VPA thank you for that you know and I will say you know just my ADD and my reading disability or having make this is a struggle for me but I do I see a lot of great things potentially within what's it within this draft so I do appreciate

[00:37:08] the time that was put into this I guess the one thing is and I just don't know and i because i just need more time to sit with it and ask more questions i just don't know i mean i think about you know professional development and you know we sat here and we debated schoology during grading policy and staff development for grading policy right so i mean for schoology so we came back this year and there were edicts that were sent out that you know and there was a lot of time at the beginning of this year for teachers to be held accountable to a higher standard of the use of schoology and that was a result of our work in our conversations

[00:37:43] but it left little room for some other things so while i 100 agree professional development is incredibly important i mean it's the only way that we learn especially with something where there's our early adopters who dive in and and know all the llms and the you know notebook lms and the chat all the definitions just without even having to use a you know reference um i just you know i and i the one thing i did learn also at south by southwest which i'm proud to say we're doing in in Fairfax was just you start small with pilots.

[00:38:15] I heard that in every session, like you, especially with a system of our size, that you start small with pilots as opposed to rolling everything out to everybody because then you're pulling it back and redoing it. And so I 100% agree.

[00:38:30] I just don't know the timing of this. Are we ready? You know, I assume that when we pass a policy that we will get a playbook, if you will, rollout you know plan of action dr. Reed like once we pass a policy that gives you a framework we would get then like a like a scaffolded rollout of how this would be rolled out over time with fidelity including training yes and no right we currently are limited by our budget as well so I think it's important that we have a policy for sure and I appreciate the board's attention to that

[00:39:08] because we want to have a measured disciplined approach to this topic as we do with all topics right but what we'll actually roll out after getting the policy I think it gives us a direction clear direction from the board on what would be within our you know our guardrails I think is how we framed it but whether or not we actually have a budget to roll anything out is a very different conversation at this point and that as you know and as we discussed several times that's a large part of our partnership with open AI was the

[00:39:44] ability to provide professional development for our staff at no cost to us because we don't have a budget to provide the tools or honestly at this point the time so we've we have provided professional development for all of our school-based technology specialists and our I'm not sure what T spec stands for Gotham I wanted to be a technology specialists in the schools and it's one of the first times that we've brought both those groups of employees together to actually have a conversation about how they can work together in addressing the

[00:40:23] learning for staff on this important tool so I think rolling something out equitably requires often cost and I just don't know where we're gonna land this year but it could certainly be a blueprint for future years if budgets improve in coming years yeah cuz the last thing I'll say is I mean you read through this it's it's I find it to be very aspirational and maybe my fear is and its budgetary fears is is it needs to be narrowed so it's actually doable thanks thank you one of the things that I should have said this at the

[00:41:00] beginning I remember when we had the boundary policy that was being done and I was not on the committee but I attended the meetings and I remembered Ms. Seismalheiser had literally her own draft for us to review but she did take some time to go through that a little bit because it I again it was just handed to me in the room but I don't know I wasn't on the committee so I guess what I'm asking for is a little bit of orientation from you not with the purpose the definitions and the philosophy I think those are a little bit easier so I would love if you could take a few minutes to kind of dissect and

[00:41:39] discuss the responsibilities section a little bit more if you wouldn't mind because that seems to be at least I know where I want to go in terms of being specific about certain things particularly around community engagement opting out and again I'm just looking at these quickly in between people speaking so would you mind giving an orientation for that section a little bit more detailed than you did before sure you said which sections again please right so I added in there things that I have heard being expressed as priorities

[00:42:19] and tried very hard not to make them in the weeds so that's you know we've talked about on our committee having the same format of policies and indeed it's continues to be something that snags our work so on that note I will be asking us to put forward the style guide to the full board to approve so there is absolutely no question that this is the format that we want because for months now our deputy clerk has been using her time to create edits to things that we

[00:42:50] discussed a million times so again I put it in responsibilities I have other questions I mean you know I I will just say every board member has a different style when it comes to trying to obtain their time and attention on anything so I did my best and I'm rather surprised at the amount of input about you know that I brought something and how I delivered it was not you know the way to go so I just I would like to pivot to something this was your question I was answering so I will ask my own questions but that's the best I can do for now so

[00:43:29] that's very helpful one of the things that I know we've said here quite a bit and I heard that reiterated over and over again and my notes from the conference is the AI literacy piece we must be able to teach our teachers how to use these tools so that they can better bring them into their classrooms and when and if we get to that place where students are using them that has to come with professional development I'm I cannot imagine a world in which budgets aside where we are going to say here's a tool and we're not going to

[00:44:05] teach you how to do this so go forth and conquer so the pro and I raise this because the professional development expectation is not unreasonable because we will never say here go get loose if we're going to provide something they're going to be coupled together it's an accompaniment so I that makes me comfortable to bring in the professional development component because it has to happen you know by hook or by crook it's going to happen you know think about the language arts um dot the language arts adoption state says you have to provide professional development by hook

[00:44:38] or by crook that happened so i i'm not as hesitant to include it here as a component of expectation because again this document these policies are the board's expectations of the division and communication to the public i i really look forward to having an opportunity to kind of make my own notes on some of these components just to see how they could be you know better worded but a lot of these things are resonating quite a bit with many of the notes that i had on the side here which is how do we bring in the parents into this conversation of all things technology

[00:45:18] not just ai but especially ai because i i haven't received all these letters around one-on-one computers or st math as i am regarding ai so we have to make sure that we're meeting the moment and being responsive to our community to that end so i'm really looking forward to trying to merge these two documents but not in this moment sure well i have some questions i want wanted to ask Dr. Reed but first I just want to point out pilots are great but we did roll out chat GPT to all staff I mean like which line are we gonna tow are

[00:45:55] we gonna do professional development are we gonna do pilots because we just rolled out a brand new tool and I could tell you from the conversations I've heard it's being used in a lot of different ways and I know one teacher who said that in her school she was told to use a different platform so I don't want to base the policy on anecdotes I want to base it on directives and the directive is that the superintendent has to provide a roadmap and we have to fund that so I do have some questions for dr. Reed so dr. Reed I've heard you know phrases like we are behind like FCPS is behind I can't recall if you

[00:46:32] said that or others but can you talk about who is leading this work who would be a model that we could look to as a school division not a state but a school division I don't believe I've said we're behind so I'm not sure I would have a school division of mine I think generally I look a little more globally in terms of the state policies because I think that our size and our position nationally gives us a little different level of gravitas and I think that's why looking at state policies for me and I think got them as well was really where

[00:47:08] we were headed by public school enrollment were larger than 11 states so So we really wanted to try to scale our thinking around sort of that larger model. But I don't believe I've said we're behind. I'm not sure others may have, but I have not.

[00:47:25] Thank you for clarifying. You know, I did appreciate the roundup of state policies, but I started reading them and I realized while we might be bigger than many states, we are not a state and we do not have the authorities that states have. And while I'm all for influencing state policy, I found it more helpful to look up districts.

[00:47:41] So my staffer looked up school divisions, which I shared with everyone, because those are our peers. It's not a state-level thing. Dr. Reed, how will you include this policy into the strategic plan? Will there be a goal or a measure, or how does it crosswalk?

[00:47:58] What report would this be a report out on when it comes to the impact of technology on instruction? I would have to review that and get back to you to be thoughtful with an answer. I think that the strategic plan talks about innovation, so I think it would likely be in that area, but I'd wanna be thoughtful about a response for you.

[00:48:22] - Thank you. Dr. Reed, I was wondering if there was, there any lessons learned about your work with the Northern Virginia Technology Council? You know, speakers we should hear, or ideas you recommend that we look to in considering this policy?

[00:48:38] - So I am on the board of the Northern Virginia Tech Council. One of the key drivers for that group is to have Fairfax County be the center for technology in the nation, and to be able to recruit businesses, have a workforce prepared to take jobs in the tech field.

[00:48:59] There have been a variety of speakers. I could certainly share a list of those folks. but you know i think that partnering with our community uh workforce development ideas i think is important but we have to i think at this point we're going to we want to make sure we are in alignment with the policy the board puts in place and make sure that we operate within the guidelines the board puts forward as we move forward on this work did any of the members of that council have do they have policies that would be helpful for us to review I'm sure they

[00:49:38] have policies a the AI and education policies that we again looked at from the state we felt were more relevant but I'm happy to see if there are policies that the Tech Council would have that govern business which might be different than education but we can certainly ask for copies if the committee would like to look at those I'm just looking for some more guidance about what you think should be looking at um because again i'm just trying to read and look at whatever i can get my hands on but you know having a more guided tour so to speak um i also just have to say i just get confused when you say that you'll do what the board will do in policy because you're already

[00:50:17] doing stuff so you know chat gpt is out there trainings are happening no money you know we've been committed knowing also that chat gpt is going to start charging in june of 27 so i just that's a hard thing for me to reconcile i'll leave it at that for now but um we're already out there so i i want to circle back to some of my colleagues had some really neat ideas and i'm wondering how we put it in a policy okay so like safety privacy giving students clarity of how they can use ai as part of their assignment so how do we put that into a policy is it crosswalk to the srnr like

[00:50:51] what could we put in policy that says that hey we want to make sure students use ai and i'm asking my colleagues, and I'm happy to have a dialogue here, but, like, yeah, and Robin, you had raised this good point. Yeah, and I don't think, to be honest, I don't think you can put it in policy because it's ever-evolving, right? Like, I think, I think that policy might state that teachers need within their syllabus or within an assignment to have some clarity around the use of AI and, you know, and, and, and, or we can say that in, within certain POSs that, and within syllabi, that they

[00:51:28] to articulate when you know ai is you know appropriate to be used like i i think they're doing that now but i don't know that again i think that that requires when we talk about training i mean i don't mistake my comments earlier i 100 believe in professional development it's the only way we learn the problem is time and money is as has been mentioned um but you know again i think that i know that my friends who are instructors in the system have run into some major issues with integrity and ai and being supported around when they believe that that the student has

[00:52:06] not has sort of like not been um honest in terms of their academic integrity around assignments and being able to consequence that so i don't i don't know what it looks like i'm just like what i listed earlier is kind of like guidelines to ai you know and i don't necessarily know that every one of them lives in policy rigidly but philosophically and then regulation could tease it out more um you know that's that's my thinking on that that's helpful yeah dr errs i guess i'm a little confused because i don't know i'm confused so let me try to unconfuse myself right now by

[00:52:44] asking these questions as simply as i can what are teachers able to do regarding ai as it relates to students like today and if you can couch it with pilot teachers and non-pilot teachers yeah i may request a clarification when you think related to students as in using ai tools with students or teachers using ai tools with students our teachers right now i i know they have access

[00:53:18] to a couple of tools i've asked that before and i know that dr presidio has said many times kids are not utilizing those tools per se in classrooms it's teachers learning how to potentially in the future so right now if a teacher is pilot or no pilot are they able to say hey student a go use ai to complete this assignment like what are teachers able to do that would enable students themselves to use the tool so i can speak to the tools that we provide

[00:53:52] centrally there are a couple of pilots and i'm not sure if i see sloan or anybody from the isd team that can speak to the pilots for the central tools which is both google and openai chat gpt those tools are restricted for staff use only and students that don't have access to those tools so nothing in the guidance should ask students to use those tools but then there are those tools such as I think Adobe Express has an image generation opportunity or you can think of Canva these are tools that are used for image generation and multiple other things in terms of classroom use so potentially a teacher in a school

[00:54:31] could say hey use Canva for working on an assignment and generate an image and I'm guessing this I do not have that data or facts to share sure because I'm trying to figure out what's you know which is first here has is the horse is the cart before the horse because if we're supposed to outline things in the policy and which will be detailed that in the regulation but but if these things are already happening then are we behind on the regulation I'm sorry on the policy itself that's not question to you I'm sorry I'm just still looking at you

[00:55:07] and again I just want to be responsive to what are teachers able to do or not able to do right now I'm not hearing that teachers are able to have outside of Canva and Adobe Express which are not genitive AI tools also this is if you go semantics right they're generating an image but it's not writing text for the student right it's not writing their essay or writing the assignment it's generated image and based on some so the academic integrity component is not as present with these tools as it would be with my intuition would say that but I would defer to the ISD team to be the absolute sort of judge of that yeah I

[00:55:45] think I would just want to still wrap my mind around like who's leading what you said dr. Reed that the policy will lead what we're doing but I think I'm correct in saying right now the policy does not rather practice does not have any real student facing activities that we will still be in a good place to articulate these in the policy which will then be reiterated in a more detailed way in regulation to come so I think we currently have instructional technology

[00:56:21] policies which govern the use of technology in classrooms right and that's what any kind of current pilot would have been done under those auspices we also have responsibility use agreements so I think you know to Gotham's point I think that there are you know the Canva I think in the Adobe might be tools but I would want to I think when Dr. Presidio was here he shared I think he shared an answer to that without getting into specifics so if you want

[00:56:58] specifics I can have a list of maybe what teachers are are not able to do with that but currently anything that's done with technology and students in the classroom would be governed by educational technology in class we're talking about the Lexia those kinds of things that's why I think he did raise that we have little bots right like be bots in kindergarten that the kids practice coding vbots in STEAM classrooms you could argue is that yeah I know I don't know probably not right like but it's so but it is technology in

[00:57:36] the classroom so I think that that's again under the more general umbrella of instructional technology under in the classroom okay and I see this lady has her placard I just want to do a time check we're a little over from an estimated time but where do we want to be at the end of this conversation right what do we want to come back with?

[00:57:59] It's fine if we want to go a little longer. I do want us to have time to go to calendar policy. Ironically, the 5,000s include the procurement policies, but can we shift a little bit towards what do we want to do between now and next time? And that's what I was trying to do with these questions was say, is this what we want or not?

[00:58:19] So Robin, I'll turn it over to you next. And then Ms. St. John Cunning and then Mr. Frisch. - Well, that question kind of shifts where I was going, but if I can just take the liberty for a second, and I'm not necessarily endorsing, but I'm just sharing, 'cause I think we have two things going on here.

[00:58:35] We have what are teachers using the tools for, and then how are students being invited to be part of the tool usage, if you will, or how are the kids using it? So I think we just got an answer on the one, but I just wanted to share with folks that like, so Magic School, 7.5 million teachers using the product, the free version, 170 countries, It's the number one AI platform for teachers, okay?

[00:58:59] And I'll say this about Magic School. The goal was to be resourceful to help, right? It's designed around how schools work and not how tech wishes they worked. And I think we need to understand that. There are tech companies out there. The vendor halls at these places are like vast and it's about making, it's for profit.

[00:59:18] And a lot of the people creating tools in tech don't know how schools work. So that's a huge plus. But I think the main thing is education is a profession that of course feeds all others. And the use of AI correctly is thought partnership and resource creation. And I'll just give one example because they talked about the editing tool for essays that once submitted that the students got pretty immediate feedback.

[00:59:40] And there was a study done of this teacher in Colorado or other places, it's been replicated, where they handed in essays this way three times. And this is not on the free tool, but I'm just giving you an example of what can happen. is the 28% increase in writing scores for the kids who utilize that tool three times in one year.

[01:00:01] Because what they're getting is feedback on their writing that's timely. That's the biggest problem when you're an English teacher or a history teacher and the time it takes you to grade a paper and give written feedback, but this guy was using the AI, but then also editing and writing his own notes. Like he would create a PDF and he'd hand it back with his own handwritten notes for kids, and it grew their, so I'll say that.

[01:00:21] In terms of where we need to be, I think that, I mean, I need, you know, I think this is, you know, this is a tremendous amount of work, Ms. Marin. And I think, you know, I need time to read it and think about it. But I also think we need to take this and partner with staff because there are certain things that, you know, we don't know that there's a deeper understanding.

[01:00:43] So it's gotta be a partnership, you know, sort of a, you know, we're kind of collaborating on a policy that can work for staff, can work with us in terms of what our priorities are so I don't know what that means between now and the next meeting but I just I'm very anxious to get have staff have time to like sit with this and then share with us with how they would edit this as a next step I just could just clarify my understanding so you're suggesting that the version I put out there be reviewed and like

[01:01:19] responded to by staff yeah I mean like I said I think it's very aspirational but I also need the people who do the work to provide input and I think we've been very clear about guardrails and student data protection and human-centered I think there's certain things that are keep recurring themes but there's a lot in here and I would I just want to see learn from staff their perspective on what's been created okay no thank you for articulating a specific action so it would be great if other people agree if that should be one of our next action

[01:01:56] steps okay did I say Miss St. John Cunning or mr. person okay mr. honey then mr. fresh so I do agree with what Miss lady has said that I think staff I mean we need to rely on our subject matter experts here because they this is what they've studied this is what they've done and I I think we've articulated the guardrails going back to magic school and the presentation we were both at they are collaborating with a school in Texas where they actually have started a train a training program with the school exactly what we're talking about so I agree that you know in order for we need to train our teachers in order that they can train the students but the piece I wanted to get to that might help

[01:02:36] unconfuse you when you were saying about what we were talking about when this lady mentioned that you know the integrity of students fact is that students are using this outside of school like we got applications for our student meters and I could tell and I don't know if you could tell when you were reading them, the ones that were written by AI versus the ones that weren't. So the students weren't using AI in the school, they were using it outside of the school. So that's where the integrity piece comes in, and that's where we have to teach them. So they're using this anyway.

[01:03:08] Our job is to teach them, again, like the fire, our job is to teach them how to use it responsibly. So I just, I, I, because I know when, when she said that, and you were talking about the integrity piece, I go, I think that's where maybe some of the confusion might, it may not have been, but that's what's happening right now I do think that it's important if money is an issue that we do have to train students we can train teachers and these pilots and early adopters and I would love for us to I know that we have great early adopters in our system that are doing this really well I think it would help all of us to have a to see and watch what they're doing for us to understand

[01:03:47] it better at least that's the way I learn to see how a teacher is using this to see how it's helping her to see how it's working um i would be open for that kind of presentation because i think that would be very helpful to see how they're using it and how it's helping them and i do know some personally i know some people that are doing this work with great success not with students but within and how it's helping them to help the students thank you mr fresh in terms of where we go from here um for me i need to take this and the other

[01:04:26] changes and think about them and have that informed questions that i have for colleagues but also for staff um so you know my my guess is that i'd like to be at a point by the next meeting where my my thinking is fully formed on or more close to fully formed on where we want to end up um and then that will result in some like conversation like depending on where the draft is in that meeting and it may not look all that different from where it looks right now but maybe the due

[01:05:06] out of the may meeting or excuse me of the april meeting is a desire to see x y and z incorporated by staff in a draft based on our conversations and the feedback that we get from staff about drafted policy so um on my end i need to review it more closely uh while not in the meeting um and then in a week or a week and a half um consider what my questions are or what i'm a hundred percent uh committed to versus things that i need more convincing on or just need to kind of kick the

[01:05:42] tires on with somebody to let me know why they're thinking x so that's kind of where i am right now in terms of next steps i don't think we need to have a uh the you know the governance committee direct staff to do x coming out of this meeting because um i'd like to see where my thinking actually lands on what what's been provided so mr frisch just so i clarify so you're you want to absorb and think and um and then you also want this to reflect on what the staff give us or do you want to do those like in an order or it's okay if they have at the same time i think they can

[01:06:18] happen at the same time um look we i think we all where we all agree i hope is that we want a good policy when this is all over. Right. And so I'm malleable on what it takes to get there. But I think the two important parts are the free flow of information and ideas from staff and board members. So, you know, I'm sure I'll have questions for staff. I'm sure I'll have questions for you based on your draft. So, yeah, that's kind of where I am right now. Okay. So just to review, it sounds like there's agreement that we would like the superintendent and her team's input on the draft that I provided, as well as anyone else's other questions.

[01:06:57] Yeah, well, and the conversation, right. So there's agreement on that. Ms. St. John Cunning mentioned seeing it in, you know, working. I mean, we could ask to be taken on a visit. It's just that we have to make ourselves available to go.

[01:07:12] Like, I went all the way to Springfield and visited a classroom because I knew it was happening there. Like, I'm just making it happen. And, you know, do we want to go on a field trip somewhere have someone come in and show us or have the superintendent put up on a screen and maybe we need an extra meeting um i i also would think that we'd have to have the staff's input definitely within two weeks um and it's been a challenge to get things you know in a timely manner but if we want to do this i mean people were not pleased that i gave it to them today we're not getting

[01:07:47] things much earlier than that generally so you know i think people have been far more polite about the timeliness of documents provided in this setting than they have in other settings well i will just say i spend a decent amount of time trying to understand when documents are going to get to the clerks with red lines and edits so um i would like a commitment i'm sorry what i said we all spend significant time working to prepare ourselves for the meetings and well i do it for the whole committee mr frisch i'm talking about the whole committee yeah i just need a point of clarification i feel like staff has gotten us redlined copies of all the policies that were in

[01:08:26] this book in a timely fashion. Did I miss something? Yes. What? That, you know what, I'm happy to talk with you offline. I really want to say on agenda topic. I think that's fair, but I just need to understand because I... Sure. I think the last time I spoke with our deputy clerk was at Wednesday when we were here for a work session. Was it the day before on the 3rd? And she was expecting the red lines any day now. And those came to us a full week later. But I don't know. So, So, you know, again, I'm trying to do my best.

[01:09:01] And I have a member at this table who I've reached out to who haven't spoken with. So I could pick it apart, too. No, I don't want to. I'd like to reclaim my time. May I just say this? This part is not adopted. We're all doing our best. If you want to go to calendar, can I ask a question about this? Let's let Mr. Fresh finish. I thought he was done.

[01:09:17] I think the point is that we are all doing our best and that grace should be provided to everybody. Oh, I agree. Very much so. Great. Are you finished, Mr. Fresh? Yes, I am. Thanks. Wonderful. so it sounds like well would anyone like to propose the timeline then by which we would expect the superintendent to provide before our next meeting which is april 14th someone please go ahead ms lady well i i guess i felt what i heard from mr frisch and i am altering what i initially thought is some time to sit with this some time to talk with colleagues and then some

[01:09:55] questions for staff so versus just giving this to staff and asking them to give feedback is that correct mr frish did i hear you correctly i have a feeling that doing both would probably save us time so have staff review while we're also sitting with it and then see what we with and then come together they may come up they may have things that we thought of ourselves or vice versa to inform thinking so so then to that end i would propose that perhaps two weeks from today that we will have done our i mean again we're not doing our part as a group we're doing it as an individual

[01:10:32] but is that a fair ask for staff Mr. Sethi and Dr. Reed to look at this particular policy that Ms. Marin has provided as a draft and get staff to redline it in I don't think that is reasonable spring break is fair and I also this combines I mean again I haven't had a long time to look at it but it combines a lot of other policies which is going to take time I mean I think it would be more helpful for me to give clear direction to staff what specific questions do you as a board have about this rather than us going in

[01:11:09] and redlining it I don't know that that's productive for staff to go and reread line miss Marin's draft I mean I if there are questions about the draft yeah I guess my I mean everybody else please take a turn but my thinking is is this viable is it too aspirational in places is it too tight or too loose in places um you know this is a first go around of this and it can be revisited as miss marron has

[01:11:40] shared so um i just my ask would be you know those questions if those are fair but that's my question is this too narrow too broad too aspirational is there clarity is it like for example when we talk about the all the different technologies you sign off on like i don't know if it's viable that all 70 or whatever 700 of them can be teased out i'm not sure what miss marron's asking for so like that's a question i would have about whether that's viable um but again i i need to sit with them myself to better understand it so i almost wonder if there needs to be another cycle of board

[01:12:20] review before the staff takes it on again because i'm comfortable with that staffer i mean i think that way we have a better understanding of what you as a board have in mind and then we could take a you know a look at it if there were still questions but I don't know Janet did you catch the questions miss lady asked okay then we can certainly come back and answer those questions I just don't know that it's fruitful for us to red line or blue line or whatever color line this draft at this point I think staff did provide the original version version 7 and I think there was a

[01:12:58] version 5 or 6 that included procedural language so I think that's more so what staff you know have already provided but we're happy to review it I just I wonder if another round of board conversation would be helpful first we will do whatever you decide but just a wonder your goodness lady dr. Anderson and then mr. Frisch yes being that spring break is coming up very shortly I would propose that we do go and sit with this and come back at the next meeting and perhaps add an additional meeting if we need to to wrap this up we've done

[01:13:38] that every single time I've been on governance that has happened every single time without any doubt but I I do wonder a little bit I don't want us to kind of go off on a path that is not going to be reasonable I kind of want my cake and to eat it too if that makes sense because we could go forth and you know think and have all of these great ideas only to be met with well these are the roadblocks so I wonder how can we keep the conversation going without necessarily

[01:14:13] adding a whole lot of more work to staff but for us to not go down a path which may not even be feasible does that make sense I feel does that make sense I feel like staff provided their input on the policy and not on the new draft but I think we would be taking what we provided and try to fit it into the new draft is more likely what staff will do I know that Janet captured Miss Lady's questions and if there are other questions I'm happy to have provide answers to that but I think if we're redlining and you all are redlining I

[01:14:49] don't know that that's a productive well this I let me just kind of let you know how I was thinking of taking this I was going to take the draft that staff provided and embedding some of the things from Melanie's draft into it because I think this is similarly what we what ended up happening with the boundary policy and i know mr frisch remembers it's the trust policy that was done eons ago because so many of the pieces are already there and are not new so i'm going to take this opportunity for janet to capture my thinking the purpose and definitions i think we are fairly

[01:15:27] satisfied with that philosophy just seems to be structural rather than content the piece for me that is a greater component is the responsibilities component is a responsibility section what I didn't see and that I raised earlier I want to make sure that I bring back for your notes is developmental appropriateness is the parental component that has to show up in some way and I do think at first glance here I am very interested in having some language regarding where

[01:16:06] is it I didn't see it but regarding budgetary and legal components just making sure that it's highlighted again it might be stating the obvious in some ways but that will communicate to our public that we didn't forget that piece so I'm going to take this and embed it into version 7 for myself just so it make sense but I I don't know if I could land into that place where I kind of hear your thinking before I veer down a road which may be a dead end so given

[01:16:43] the timetable I think we should just go ahead and plan on coming back at next meeting and maybe take the same approach of having conversations with other colleagues with both of these things in front of us and so by the time we come back we'll all be in a better place because I myself want to take a look at some of the things that we talked about here. And if we need to, we'll just add another meeting to make this happen. All right. So that is on the table. Mr. Frisch. Yeah, I had raised my hand to say a piece of what Dr. Anderson said. I think it would probably behoove us after this meeting for the clerks to work with everybody to schedule an extra April and an extra May meeting. And then we

[01:17:23] can cancel what we don't need, right? Like let's get it scheduled just in case and then cancel what if we don't need it um because i do think you know as i'm where the conversation kind of just went about like well in what cadence does this happen and how long do we have to do x y or z was all trying to fit it into the arbitrary deadline of the end of this committee's work at the end of the school year right i don't think good policy happens that way if we're if we're not um but we have the luxury of being able to add meetings to make that possible right so let's do

[01:17:57] that. And then I agree that we take the next, uh, the time between now and the next meeting, uh, the, the first meeting in April to prepare that work individually. Um, we can get input from other colleagues. We can talk to staff, et cetera. Um, and then we can see where we end up at the end of that meeting. But I would advocate for adding an extra two meetings that we can cancel if they're not needed. Okay. So just to regroup, it sounds like, uh, number one, we want to provide a full month until the next meeting for the superintendent to return with

[01:18:34] feedback and at the same time board members will do the work and gather their feedback right i just want to um both do feedback gathering um miss maron yes clarify what type of feedback it's the response to the miss lady's questions that janet has captured is that correct like we're not going to redline this because I heard Dr. Anderson say she's integrating things like I don't want all of us working on different documents I think that's going to be problematic so I'm assuming the feedback is the response to the questions that have been raised but I want to make sure we hit the target I'm

[01:19:13] sorry that's probably cleaner okay for you if we were to provide those very specific questions sure which is why I reiterated mine and Janet probably caught them I just okay so can we do this how about we've done this other times I will work to gather anyone else's extra questions I'll work with the clerk and then we will send a specific list of what feedback would be helpful what's today Tuesday by the end of well definitely by the end of the week if not within the next well it's a regular meeting week maybe somebody else could

[01:19:50] lead that effort on our committee of gathering the making sure the questions and everything is in the right order for the superintendent um yeah okay that would be helpful um you know it is sort of arbitrary that that date is may 19th but honestly i feel like very pressured to get something out there because as i said before it's already happening in our classrooms we've already rolled out it's only every teacher i'm sorry what i apologize i was saying it's only arbitrary if we didn't have the ability to add more time but i feel strained And because usually what happens, has happened with the boundary policy, was we got to get

[01:20:28] it done early enough in the spring so the superintendent can operationalize it. So I'm all for adding extra meetings, but, you know, there comes a point where it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for it to go into effect. And especially since it's already happening.

[01:20:43] So I'm happy to have more meetings. You know, this has been the established timeline, I'm thrilled we're going to have more conversations. So there will be the feedback gathering, Dr. Anderson's going to gather questions, working with the clerks to identify two other dates, and then those were the -- that's what I heard.

[01:21:10] So the board members doing their feedback, getting our questions to staff, to the superintendent, working with the clerks. And I also want to add, instructional services department must be represented at these meetings. - There was prior, I actually, in the version I put forward, it is an instructional services.

[01:21:29] We were talking about instruction. So absolutely someone has to be here. - Ms. Marin, it would just be helpful for us to know in terms of scheduling, we usually avoid spring break. Are we avoiding spring break? Yes or no? - Yes, we're avoiding spring break. - Okay, that's helpful, thank you.

[01:21:45] - Yeah, Dr. Reed. - What is the date by which you want this, the questions answered by? I need to have that. - In order to post it for the April 14th meeting. - So what date do you want them? - Five business days before that would be the absolute limit. - Business days, okay.

[01:22:00] - Would be the absolute max. And I don't know that we're necessarily posting them, but that is the standard deadline by which we can receive materials to, so let's see, super, so is that April 7th?

[01:22:17] It's business days is our thing. So it's April 20th, what was it? April 7th to the board. And it doesn't have to be published, but it will come to the committee so we can review it in advance. April 7th just we're gonna have to have a team work over spring break got them to do that this is the school division closed on spring break many of the staff take spring break as a vacation as we balance workload and then okay well I just wasn't aware that it was a total central office you know closure I don't

[01:22:53] know everyone lots of anecdotal stuff I don't know what to tell you I mean sure sure so we will come back to that can we move on to the calendar policy it seems like we'll be able to discuss that and then if we could just leave like five minutes for mr. Frisch to go through the governance manual updates he has provided which are very just surface-level copy edit so are you good mr.

[01:23:30] Frisch up there okay so the calendar policy this policy is being considered because of the tremendous amount of input we've received from families about the current calendar, let me just put this up, you know, the loss of children's instructional momentum and routine.

[01:23:58] So this policy that was posted is a culmination of, again, input from board members, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Moon, Ms. Lady, and trying to work together the many different calendar policies into one and being clear about who has authority.

[01:24:20] So this has been posted in advance. Not yet, I think, until we need to, please, so we can see our colleague. Okay. So, if there are specific questions that we have, you know, on this version, we'd love to capture them, see if we can get them answered, if not now, then in the future.

[01:24:44] So why don't we go ahead with Dr. Anderson to start, and then Mr. Frisch. Oh, Mr. Frisch's input, too. Okay. Thank you. you know i provided some feedback and such but i think the lines work of this background pages were done by others and i do appreciate that tremendously a couple of things i know we've been in a space where not wanting for the calendar to be what it had been in the past which is for lack of better words essentially a bloodbath when it came to the review the voting of the policy

[01:25:19] i do think that the data show that we are an outlier in terms of not being one of the boards that um approves a calendar but i also think that bloodbath was because there were there were unclear um structures there were unclear directions so it came across as more arbitrary and capricious than just something that is routine because it's meeting what the policy says it should meet so i i think if we have a very robust and clear policy the vote is not going to

[01:25:55] be what it's been in the past i would like to return to that practice because we are an outlier in that so having said that looking at the policy that we have in front of us i see that that has been included my other really big stake in the ground when it comes to the calendar policy is we must, and I've said this at the dais back in December, we must have a component in which we get community feedback.

[01:26:24] And I'm pretty particular about who that community is. It's not every single person who lives in Fairfax County. It is my, it's primarily our parents of students who are impacted and our staff.

[01:26:41] That feedback must be included because we have not collected that in a number of years. I do appreciate the fact that we have calendars that are two to three years out because that's not something we've had before. We don't need to have parents who are asking in January, well, what is it going to look like in the fall?

[01:27:01] That is tight and that is not the best opportunity for planning, but we must build in a way to take feedback and have that inform the next set of calendars so I think I'm going to stop here but by far and no I'm not gonna stop here I'm just gonna finish the rest of my little time by far by far and large the data shows that our calendar really reflects what our parents and teachers have shared which is our school year has swum to be

[01:27:37] much wider we have now 39 days as opposed to 22 days just 20 years ago of of days off for students the length of the school day has now gone from 286 days to 303 days I see lots of opportunity for us to tighten that up to be more reflective of some of the concerns that have been raised to us so I'll pause here thank you Mr. Frisch yeah so when we last voted on a calendar I opposed it because while I supported certain elements I wanted more

[01:28:17] five-day instructional weeks and the calendar was adopted and i was happy even though i wasn't entirely thrilled with uh the version i don't remember what color it was to be honest but whatever color was adopted was not what i had voted for although i was excited about the prospect of a three-year um calendar cycle um and um so i'm supportive of of efforts to have a policy that says that that is one of our goals um i do not support the board voting on a calendar and i think that uh it is something that we should designate to the superintendent as we did with our past

[01:28:53] guidance um and that we can judge whether the calendar policy wherever it ends up um is um in alignment with whatever executive limitation um we have for it once the policy is put in place um i support asking uh for feedback i will say i went back and looked at a lot of the survey data that we've been presented with in the past and i think the difficulty is and i don't know how and this is something that maybe peck can kick around or something um frequently the feed we

[01:29:30] feedback we get from families conflicts with the feedback from the same families so they want you know the longer summer break they want the two-week winter break they want the full week for spring break and our board wants tons of different things that require professional development and so we can't be everything to all people i don't know how we can articulate that in a survey right and i think part of what happens if you end up on like a rolling cycle of surveying the

[01:30:10] community is an expectation that something's going to change if they talk about it every single year. Some things just aren't possible, right? So this is like a wondering I have about when we seek input from the community, how are we level setting expectations around what's possible in the scheme of things? Because I've heard some advocate that, you know, summer break has gotten so short for many staff. What are the things that we compromise to bring it back to how it was years ago. Are those things we're willing to give up? And if they're not the things, what else could we

[01:30:45] do? So I'm interested in, you know, the beginning of this conversation or the beginnings of this conversation. You know, I've received a smattering of communications from families every time there's a snow day or, you know, at the beginning of the school year about this subject. Certainly not more than other subjects, but certainly enough to think about it. So I'm interested in hearing where other board members are. My advocacy would be that we judge the calendar based on the executive limitations of the superintendent and delegate that responsibility, just like we do many of the

[01:31:23] responsibilities in the school division. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. Ms. Marcia St. John Cunningham. Yeah, so my wondering is actually two statements that were made by two different colleagues, one which I, you know, receiving a tremendous amount of feedback and what that's based on versus we haven't done a survey for parents, we have to have family engagement.

[01:31:50] So I'm a little bit confused about, you know, I know that personally in my office, I mean, I have had some letters and some concerns, but not anything that's, I would say, is outstanding as opposed to other issues. So that's one of my wonderings.

[01:32:08] Getting the right voices in the surveys is critical and I think that sometimes we miss the point on that with our surveys and who answers But I do think surveying families is important. I do agree with mr. Frisch that Parents want everything. They want the two-week winter break. They want the one week one week spring break and they want the long summer and then we want the professional development days and we also want to recognize I know some People that have advocated for years like 20 years to have certain certain religious holidays recognized and Are we going to take those away and we heard a board member at the diocese?

[01:32:48] I don't want this taken away because this is the only holiday for my community So I think it does pose a lot of Challenges I agree with mr. Frisch. I think this is strictly operational and that's where it should stay I think the data we should look at is and if we can collect the data of how many kids are absent on those religious days I think that's the data that will be more informative to us than what someone says like someone says oh this is very important but is it that important did you send your kids to

[01:33:26] school that day or not and I know from working in the schools there were certain days that we had a large amount of absences because kids weren't in school that day because it was being observed and some weren't so I think that's the kind of data we should look at you know and that's the data I think that would give us more accurate information of how we should look at this actually I was just at a school visit this morning and you know we talked about this day off and you know that they were telling me because of the weather yesterday they had thirty thirteen percent absenteeism because parents kept their kids home because they were scared of the storm you know so that's the kind of data we've

[01:34:04] got to look at you know so so yay that was a good decision that was and then early release also that you know and it ended up being 20% of the student population was gone by either kids staying at home or being released earlier than the early release because of parents concerned that was one school I would be interested to see how that played out throughout the division and those are the kind of that's the kind of data I'd like to see when we're looking at the calendar and what days we say are important or aren't important because that's where the rubber meets the road okay I think that leaves me as a turn

[01:34:37] Oh Robin sorry my bad miss lady I could answer miss st. John Cunning Marty was just mentioning the data we had before that got us to where we are here with the guidance the board in 2023 provided me in terms of holidays and school starts and that type of thing we have no new data because we once we implemented the calendar with the holidays we don't have absence data so we can resurface the data that got us to the direction from the board in the fall of 23 but it would we'd have to actually have school on those days to collect new attendance data on those days, does that make sense?

[01:35:16] So I think we have the data and would be happy to share it with you. - Okay, Ms. Leidy. - Thank you, and thank you for the work on this. I think the memo that was generated earlier and then this draft policy was great.

[01:35:33] I have comments, maybe more than directives, but I think when we talk about input, I think a rank ordering would be effective, a priority rank ordering, because they end up with competing interest. Like, what is the most important one for you? And then it could be a rank ordering like they do in some elections.

[01:35:52] I also think when it comes to school planning, I know that because of the CBA, things are a lot more rigid and tight because a faculty meeting can't run over. The percentage of time that's for school and elsewhere, I also know that I can't stand now, nor could I stand them when I worked in the system.

[01:36:13] Work days after the end of the school year, I am cooked, put a fork in me, I'm gonna hand my stuff in, and I need to go. And the fact that we've got two days at the end of this year, to me, nothing productive will happen. And I wanna front load 'em.

[01:36:28] I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, I might say take 'em away. I want teachers to come back, sorry teachers, but you're still gonna get your two days, I just want you coming back on a Thursday, but not on a Monday. And I think that Thursday, it can be that back to school day, all the things with the PTSA breakfast and the faculty meetings, and then the next day you can work in your classroom.

[01:36:51] Like, that's what they need more of. And then the next week, Monday through Thursday, it's, we probably own you a lot of that time because of staff development, PD, whatever. But then that Friday, you can work in your classroom. So you get two full days to work in your classroom. Because right now, that Friday's a self-directed day and they're supposed to be doing all their My PDE.

[01:37:09] And I don't know the percentage of them that do all their My PDE on that day, but I think it's very low. I think they see it as a day that they don't have to return yet, and they figure they'll get to their My PDE things. So that's one thought. Also, when I'm looking, we build in two, 10 snow days each year?

[01:37:26] - Yes, ma'am. - 'Cause when I was looking at the actual VDOE policy, it's kind of a fascinating thing. It's somewhere in my records here. But the bottom line is that if the state, if we get to a point where we've missed five days, we have to make up five, and then every other, as we get to seven, we make up one.

[01:37:45] as we get to nine, we make up one. So I find it fascinating we build in 10 when the state's gonna give us a little bit of leeway if we have a difficult winter. I'd rather only do five, 'cause it would shorten us again, if we only build in five instead of 10.

[01:38:00] And then in terms of the early, like today you were talking about yesterday, yes, my wife reported the same thing. A lot of people stayed home, a lot of people checked out early, and then the buses were actually gone. are very comfortable with that early release that but when you talk about the number of kids that before we had all the holidays off the number of kids who actually stayed home I think it has to be looked at by level because I can tell you a chantilly on those observance days those kids came to school and you know but I think at elementary a lot more of them stayed home so I think it's

[01:38:36] that differs by level and then I'll take a go back thanks you know I think my overall thoughts are we need to just be way more clear there's so much ambiguity ambiguity over who makes the decisions the superintendent of the board or no one I think sure the cultural observance days present a challenge sometimes but the bulk of what's happening the the annoyance I hear from parents are the early release days especially as they fall after already scheduled days it's the days in the fall when people are trying to get to the instructional momentum and then they're off for Veterans Day which our policy

[01:39:15] says we're supposed to be in for. Indigenous People's Day, you know, that's one that we could change. You know, we are not using the right wording, guidelines, regulation, policy. This is as operational as it gets.

[01:39:32] And for the board to have done this, I think is an example of just how bad it gets when you don't review a policy for 12 years. This is 2014. And one of the other ones is 2013. So just like grading and boundaries, it is hard.

[01:39:50] And I'm hesitant to rely on what happened six years ago and the data from six years ago 'cause the whole world has changed. You know, what works now? What are the other school divisions doing? We have that data. It's in the briefing memo. We can share that publicly as well.

[01:40:06] I just re-sent it around to everyone. It's been shared several times. But we see that by and large, I mean, looking at other school divisions, we have 39 days off for cultural and federal holidays.

[01:40:25] At a low, I see, what is it, 39 days off, I see 29 for Virginia Beach, for Prince George's, you know, 28 over in Roanoke.

[01:40:41] We need to be clear to the superintendent that the superintendent needs to make these hard decisions. And for me, the first priority in rank order choice is five-day school weeks. So if that means we don't go to school on Indigenous Peoples Day and Veterans Day to keep that fall as a strong start, you know, we need to direct that, fine.

[01:41:00] But when we have kids that haven't been in school for two and a half days on a five-day week, something is very wrong. So I'm eager to hear other questions. I know there were some questions about elections. I mean, we really got put through it this year with elections.

[01:41:18] How we vote on this. Having a three-year calendar was wonderful. I remember when Dr. Reed started that, but now it's gotten away from us where we never look at it. So let's find like a happy balance. What does it mean? If we approve a three-year calendar, does that mean the next year we're approving the third out year, the new out year, or maybe tweaking the other two?

[01:41:35] I would love to say, and I wanna bring a motion soon that says we're gonna have school this coming Veterans Day on November 11th, 2026. And I would also love to ask for us to do it on Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12th, 2026, but that's a little bit soon.

[01:41:51] still six months people might have plans but we can tweak next year's calendar a little bit and provide some relief and then really re-examine two years out so all right i'll leave it at that um who is uh next uh dr anderson and then mr fresh the elections are definitely not under our control um we are just asked to shut down schools and we had this conversation just left what's that okay yes we are told to shut schools down and we had this conversation not too long ago what is a

[01:42:27] reasonable path forward to reduce that reliance onto our schools and perhaps shift them into some other public spaces i mean i remembered when schools used to be ha schools used to be open on election days i know i was a principal just next door in london county schools happened while elections occurred but there was a very clear mark in our society where it was not safe in order to continue with those elections and having school happen at

[01:43:03] the same time do I think all the elections are fall into that category no but I I do know that some did because I was in that group of principals that were begging our leadership please we cannot just put up signs that says you can't bring a gun in here and still have a thousand kids in this school and go as business as usual so I know that that those safety concerns exist but who do we need to engage in order to shift some of those responsibilities to more

[01:43:36] libraries to more community centers to other spaces and I don't know who to ask so I guess I'm asking you well I think at this point it's the elections board I i know i spoke with mr spicer i think eric spicer about the um recent elections um actually on march 3rd because we had a weather morning and i initially called the county but was told it wasn't a county um activity it was the elections board so i think if uh there's an opportunity to meet with the elections board or the board wants to send a letter or maybe all boards in the region

[01:44:16] want to send a letter i think that it's i think the days of being able to secure campuses and secure children and staff during an election when we have no way of determining who can and can't be on campus and while electioneering is going on and make it difficult right so i think we'd have to talk to the board of elections but maybe there's um i think it would be a great topic to collaborate with other school boards on because I think it's a shared concern I know I've connected with other superintendents that are having to make a decision about

[01:44:55] April 21 as well sure let's sign me up for writing the letters and trying to find a different path because I also think that when we also have smaller elections not the general elections in which every precinct is involved it also is hard for our community to understand that yes all the way in sully we're gonna shut down school because we have elections in the mason district but again we're one system but there has to be a different way for that to be addressed rather than a lost day of instruction and this is on top of what we have going on here this is in addition to what we have predicted will be happening on the

[01:45:35] calendar so it gets that it gets to be that much harder for us to guarantee that consistent instruction for students again when I was a teacher I didn't write lesson plans for two days I wrote five-day lesson plan because one that's how the book came but two that is but that that was a plan you were expected to be in school five days and i know our teachers because i've heard this quite a lot from our teachers they're struggling with not being able to get through all of the content which are now even more than ever before with students so if we're going to do a letter i guess is that's a state activity i don't

[01:46:12] know let's uh just put it on hold for a sec thank you uh mr frisch yeah um or at least where i live our libraries and community senators our centers are already polling places um i think the reason that they're in our schools frankly are because they are public facilities that um are all over the place frankly right uh you know i think it's 160 or 170 of our schools are used as polling

[01:46:44] places, helping to power our local democracy. So I think one of my notes about the draft here was that we need a section in here that maybe clearly identifies what our practice will be so that there's not questions from the election board about what we're doing or what we have planned.

[01:47:02] And I don't know what the right answer to that necessarily is, whether we say only when it's 100% of the county is involved in the election or whether it's when more than half the county is involved in the election or what the answer is necessarily. I don't know if there's a question about how to provide security to schools when there's a limited, like Dr.

[01:47:23] Anderson just mentioned, a special election where there's only 20 or 30 schools that are impacted. What's the question about security? I do know that one of the issues they run into regardless of the election, obviously it's a bigger issue when there's more turnout, is that they have to provide certain parking for voters. And that is very difficult for some schools that have limited parking when we have teachers in the building or staff in the building on an election day. So maybe this is something that doesn't go in the policy yet, but it's something that we have to revisit. It could be a letter. It could be something else. I honestly, I'm not sure I know

[01:48:03] what the solution is. Where I grew up in California, it wasn't just public buildings that facilitated voting people did it in their garages as well um that's probably against state code in virginia but you know my first election i voted in a garage so um uh you know as far as uh veterans day and indigenous people's day i know the superintendent has indicated those would be two easy fixes uh potentially for next year's calendar obviously the sooner that can be announced the better for the purposes of expanding the number of five-day weeks. I'm not even sure if

[01:48:40] a motion is necessary for the superintendent to do that. If she believes that it's possible, I do think it would probably have to be done sooner rather than later. So I'm not going to put the superintendent on the spot about it right now to get her thinking, because I didn't tell her I was going to ask her about it, and I want her to be able to be thoughtful about it. But it's certainly something that I think would be open as a possibility, whether or not the board weighs in.

[01:49:05] And that, I think, would be a way to bide the board time to have thoughtful consideration of this policy. Because one thing I was thinking about as we talked a little bit more about what it means to gather community input, is what does that input actually result in? While it's informative to get a survey result back that tells me 6,000 families said the following, it is not instructive of anything. It's simply informative. It doesn't tell me what percentage of families feel a certain way or what demographic groups of certain families feel a different way or what types of school levels feel a certain way. It only shows me what the people who responded

[01:49:45] to that survey within those groups feel. And the highly motivated people who are inclined to vote in those or participate in those surveys are not necessarily scientifically representative. So whatever we do in terms of surveying people, it needs to be, you know, have some scientific weight to it or else it's almost pointless.

[01:50:05] Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Jean-Jean Cunning. Yeah, I just wanted to weigh in on the election question. Like Mr. Frisch, I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that in the day and time that we're living in, I certainly don't want to be in a position where I'm eliminating sites where people can have access to voting.

[01:50:31] And I think one of the reasons that we do use schools is because they are within our neighborhoods and they are accessible to a lot of people. There are not as many libraries as there are schools or rec centers. And I know, like, in my area, we do use some rec centers and we do use some libraries.

[01:50:47] But it's also the place where people feel safe. It's a community space that people feel safe. And barring, you know, Virginia Code changing to where we can use garages or places of worship up or something like that I certainly do not want to do anything at least during this day and age to do anything that's going to hinder or prevent people from or prevent people or create barriers from voting okay I believe I haven't had a turn yet and we are getting closer to the end so did you have a turn I'm sorry

[01:51:23] did I go ahead Miss lady you had a turn no I just want to reemphasize the fact that I think that at the end of the day what's a priority is five day weeks and maintaining the momentum of instruction I think that's absolutely we have to do that I'm fine with eliminating with attending school on Veterans Day and Indigenous Peoples Day I think there's a lot of consternation about the three hour and two hour delays I think that they need to be consistent I think it's hard on elementary parents that they don't know when's a two when's a three

[01:51:56] I would need teacher input to understand better what's happening on those early releases at the end of the quarter because they are all followed if I recollect the calendar by a teacher workday so I don't know if they think if they're actually using that because I know it middle schools especially at the end of the second quarter because they're doing flipping their master to semester classes that it's a hard that that takes time so maybe we can just have the end-of-quarter semester day and eliminate first and third quarter as early releases I don't know that's teacher input and then the other thing is in terms of the early releases for for elementary I mean that's a planning

[01:52:35] issue I don't know how much it's related to the CBA but I absolutely want them moved to Friday because Wednesday is disruptive and I want them done in advance and not on a day when on a week when we have another early release or we have a day off I think we can be more strategic when we look at the calendar to tease that out but yeah I mean absolutely five day weeks is a dream okay let me share a final thought and then let's figure out our next step for

[01:53:12] this policy so look the policy can make it clear that the superintendent is to find the options that create the most momentum for instruction and a stable routine for children and their families the superintendent has brought back many versions of operational things, how to create later middle school start times, boundary changes, middle school AAP centers. This is not out of the capabilities of our superintendent and it's not lost on me that this is incredibly operational and yet we're we're not going to solve about why is it on us to ask about the use of our buildings with other local agencies. I've

[01:53:48] been raising this with the facilities committee, with the county, that is an operate that is a county executive to superintendent thing it is what why there are so many things here that we don't need to be in the weeds on regarding the surveys we've never evaluated how it's going with early release the superintendent sent us a memo on Friday from the early release review committee that I thought was really helpful and understanding what teachers are looking for but again I'm not their boss directly right I'm not the director of instruction the superintendent is over that so what does she think should we have early release days should we make end of quarter a full day you know I

[01:54:27] don't know but what I do know is the roadmap is in the policy considering the impact of the collective bargaining so I guess for me how do we want to proceed with this there are some questions that need to be answered some of them are in here some of them were raised again I'm gonna personally bring a motion to see about the fall days in 26 I mean dr. Reed and I spoke just before this meeting it seems like Veterans Day could be a go for a school day, Indigenous People's Day maybe not. I said okay is this an operational thing you want to do

[01:55:05] and the answer was no bring it as a motion. So I'm bringing it as a motion again operational but that's what I'm gonna have to do and I hope you all support me. I don't know yet about Indigenous People's Day. I don't want to ruin people's vacations but we you know anyway. So I guess for next steps do we want to do what we did with the AI policy which is gather up remaining questions and send them back so that we can have a continued discussion in a month and see how much closer we can get so i see mr frisch's hand and then dr anderson yeah i was gonna i forgot to

[01:55:38] mention this at the end of my comments so i apologize i was going to suggest that um yes but i also think there's probably a do out that we want to add to this when we do move it forward which is yes everybody should come ready for the next meeting with thoughts ideas amendments etc etc talk to colleagues whatever when we send it to the board maybe this is one of those things where we ask that they schedule a work session with it and here's why I say that if certain

[01:56:12] accommodations can be made for next year's calendar the this is not on the same kind of like a tight trajectory as the previous policy we were discussing so I think that we could be more methodical with our board colleagues in terms of, you know, maybe even having a full work session that either results in a policy coming to the full board or gives us food for thought for the committee to do one more thing on the draft before sending it to the full board. It doesn't have to be, you know, we've had numerous policies that have had a work session in between governance

[01:56:49] considerations that have resulted in better work. So, you know, we're not there yet. We'll see where we are when people are comfortable with passing it out of, out of governance, but that would be my advocacy. So I would use the time between now and then to get ready for, um, whatever final changes we want to make to the draft. Okay. So Mr. Frisch, just to confirm my understanding, you're suggesting that we, the committee members review it and then consider seeking it to go onto a work session. Is that right? Yeah. When we, when we come back at the meeting next month,

[01:57:22] like my my advocacy depending on on where we end up but my advocacy would be that when we finish if we're sending it on to the board at the end of that meeting that we would do so with a with the request that the chair and vice chair consider finding space for a work session that may not be possible in this school year which would mean that next fall we're kicking off with something on that or something like that but i that would be my my preference yeah no i okay so that's up consideration i just want to be sure that the superintendent then comes with you know again responses to this like is it feasible or can we get to agreement i mean i don't want to bring a

[01:58:02] policy to the board that's going to fail right we got to figure out what people yeah well and i i don't think i'm the only one but i use part of my my weekly time with the superintendent to talk about this kind of stuff so i'm hopeful to get her feedback in in those conversations too and And obviously, it's not the same as sending stuff over for like formal consideration of staff or whatever.

[01:58:24] But if we have this committee meeting on it, and there's a work session, and there's more committee time, potentially, we are far more likely to end up with a better end product. Okay, so just to confirm, though, when we are going to come back to this next, okay, as much as I want to go as fast as possible, I recognize we also send forward the AI policy, and that's a lot for staff as well.

[01:58:49] So maybe we could look to have the calendar input after the March, the April 19th governance committee, or maybe we could just get back to the superintendent. But I guess what I'm trying to say is to not overburden staff over the spring break, the priority be the AI policy, and then we can work out with the superintendent when the follow-up to the calendar would be.

[01:59:14] I think that makes sense. Trying to be reasonable here. so okay so clerk team do you have that written down so we'll have to come back to the superintendent and figure out when to next have the discussion so it might not be at the next governance meeting it might be at the to be scheduled one later in April or early May right I see lots of confused faces Dr. Anderson I do agree I don't think we need to add anything else else right now because we want them to focus on the AI policy so I think we should take

[01:59:50] that as a pause if the superintendent feels that it is more expedient to have a motion around those two dates I don't think that ruins the work let's just go ahead and have that motion be made so at least they have the direction to move into for next year's calendar and the last thing next the last thing I did share with you all the data that Marty had Mr. Smith provided us many years ago that showed all of the things that you are asking for please discount the first set I for some reason I had one PDF document you need the Excel document

[02:00:28] that has all of the tabs with all of the different disaggregated data and I had a question because I saw it on the policy before and of course it continued with the new draft there was a clear demarcation of semesters can someone help me better understand that is that because of the half year because we've had this conversation regarding semesters and what they mean here I don't know if that's a you question mr. Smith or dr. Reed there may have been a demarcation of semesters but it doesn't affect the length of the calendar or the

[02:01:07] five-day weeks I mean it's unrelated to that okay because it showed up in the policy just made me wonder was there something we were missing in terms of of when semesters needed to end. - Are you talking about the draft policy from 2023? - It wasn't the original two, I believe.

[02:01:24] - Okay. - I just thought maybe I didn't know. - There's a draft policy for the calendar, I believe it was posted and still is, available publicly under the Governance Committee from the fall of 2023, November. And I don't know if the semester showed up in that, or if it was pre that, Marty, or?

[02:01:42] - Because that one from Governance from 2023, 'cause I do have that here, too. - It had it too? - That never went anywhere. - No, it was posted and it ended up being direction because it was tabled, it didn't get moved forward as policy, it was tabled with the direction. - And I do wanna say, I'm still questioning that direction because our direction is as a body and I don't recall a vote on that to give that direction and I know we had that conversation, but I-- - We did and Division Council answered that, that it was indeed done.

[02:02:11] - In the previous discussion, and good afternoon everyone, excuse me, - With the semester discussion, at some point, there was a discussion around trimesters and other ways to delineate the year. And so, many boards ago, there was a discussion around maintaining a semester approach versus a trimester or other way of, again, breaking up the school year.

[02:02:33] - But that explains the fact that it was kind of up in center, front and center. - Yeah, I don't think that would affect the length or the days, but it's true. There are some divisions around the country split the year by three or so i think it's a great question okay um it's six o'clock um mr frisch what do you think about sharing i i can get this done with you guys in seven minutes seven okay i mean i'm okay for it it would be a big thing to do if we could do it it's okay it's not go for it all

[02:03:07] right can we pull up the the google doc please my goal here is to walk you through as i've talked to chair marin i think we all agree that there are things that are are incorrect in the governance manual either because we've already voted to change it or because it's just from a previous era where we don't call the strategic plan something anymore then there are things that we all do in practice or think that should be adjusted in the strategic in the governance manual and then there are things that are probably highly debatable between board members or whatever this is the first thing this is just like a fact check of the strategic governance manual so that

[02:03:46] what we're using currently reflects reflects board direction and they're all linked as well as removes things like the old ignite strategic plan and things like that that we no longer refer to anymore so i'm going to go page by page and show you all the work on the first page you'll notice that the board gave direction to address the edits to the strategic plan in december of 2025 those are not yet in the current version online so they need to be added we don't have to worry about that the board's already voted to do that so it just needs to be updated if you scroll keep

[02:04:21] scrolling until you get to the table of contents again there's an item here adding the admin committee the board did that quite a while ago it just hasn't been added into the governance manual so you'll see the link there the board action that resulted in that same thing with the conversation about fpac there in the table of contents same thing about these additions around cpdc in the appendices these so thus far everything that i've noted are things that the board has already voted to do they're just not there yet we're about to enter into a section where there are things that

[02:04:57] are updated based on an accuracy so when we get to page 10 it has strategic plan overview and here you'll notice that it used to talk about the ignite strategic plan and it listed what the the goals of the Knight Strategic Plan are. This now uses language from our strategic plan website to talk about the current strategic plan and the pillars, the goals, and the equity commitments.

[02:05:27] So that language is all from that site, just repurposed into the governance manual. So that is the first factual correction to the governance manual that I'm putting forward here. Again, all language from the strategic plan. It's quoting verbatim the goals, the equity commitments etc continuing on in on page 12 this just changes it to correct it from three goals to five goals which is the current strategic plan continuing on uh to page just a

[02:06:02] moment and the reason this doesn't look like the normal um strategic governance manual is because i removed all the formatting if you go to page 35 you'll see that there's a correction to remove the reference to ignite which is no longer the name of our strategic plan and then a fixed typo there

[02:06:35] as well and then you continue scrolling on page 43 again a correction for a typo related to the strategic plan having five goals on page 44 these are more uh pointing out that we've already made these changes and they just are not currently reflected in the strategic governance manual so i've linked the board's action that that made these changes it also updates the name of our

[02:07:13] foundation so again i'm just pointing out that these are either things that we've already done or things that are just incorrect scrolling again to page 46 it pick it fixes a few typos and at the bottom of the page it adds the admin committee again just like we did previously to reflect the board's vote to do to create the committee um the next page 47 is the addition of the admin committee which again was approved by the board previously it's just not in the governance

[02:07:47] manual yet even though we voted to do so so that's the language that was approved by the board previously on the next page 48 this is the language around cpdc that was approved by the board a couple months ago it's just not reflected in the current governance manual yet even though though we've already approved the language. Scrolling on to, there's a typo at the bottom of page 49 that is fixed, and two typos on page 50, and another set of typos on 51 and 52.

[02:08:25] And then on page 53, again, there's a couple typos, but also the striking of FPAC per the boards, votes, um, and the renumbering of some Roman numerals and on page 55, uh, uh, more, uh, a few more typos fixed small, like one character typos. We keep scrolling on page 58. Um, there's a correction for the current strategic plan instead of ignite. And then I think we're near

[02:09:00] the end. Oh, another typo at the bottom of page 65. And then on 70 on page 70, there's a couple typos and uh the fixing of a url at the bottom of page 70. um this is a reflection of the board's uh past vote on uh that we just had on the timing of of public comment mr frisch is that email

[02:09:35] address correct citizen participation at fcps.edu i believe so okay um you keep scrolling oh it's not what is it community participation ah good catch thank you it's just right at my eye level in like 55 so i saw it all right let me just um fix that all right mr fresh you're doing great

[02:10:01] but you're at like seven minutes so all right that might be uh that very well might be there on page 91 the state has a new rubric that we used in our last evaluation we just need to insert that here it's almost identical they just added a new section and i didn't want to copy and paste

[02:10:36] the whole thing and then on page 93 this is reflective of the board's conscious on the the appointments. And then page 93, 94, again, this is related to the CPDC FPAC changes that were approved by the board. A revision to the Roman numerals at the bottom of page 95.

[02:11:05] And we are now in the appendices. And I believe at the very bottom on the last page, we add 70 and 71 to reflect the most recent changes to the governance manual. And that's it. So none of these are things that the board hasn't either already approved um and they're just not reflected yet or that are just factually inaccurate because we call it something else now or we do something else now and then mr i realize that sorry yeah would there be a 72 that captures all these changes then

[02:11:39] after the board votes on it okay all right are there any questions or can i make a motion um can i make a motion let's share no does someone want to move that the governance committee send the edits to the governance manual as reviewed mr frisch is moving that the government mr st john cunning is seconding that the governance committee send the edits to the governance manual as reviewed to the full board for consideration any further comment on the consent agenda please if for for concession on the consent agenda yeah and i can send the clerk my written motion language okay

[02:12:17] any further comment from the motion makers no this is tremendous work okay all those in favor of sending it to the full board for consideration on the consent agenda that is unanimous well done thanks all and at 6 12 this governance committee meeting is adjourned thank you mr frisch bye

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