Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, September 10, 2026

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 4h 42m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJl87eDYAjY
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 2026-10-26. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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

[00:08:42] - Good evening everyone. Please note that we will be starting closer to 7:15.

[00:08:58] We apologize for the delay.

[00:21:52] - Board members, please take your seats.

[00:23:06] Time is 7:22 p.m. And the September 10, 2026 regular meeting of the Frederick's County School Board will now come to order. It's with a heavy heart that I talk about the FCPS family and how much we're hurting at the moment.

[00:23:25] We lost a beloved principal two weeks ago. we lost some students this week, we lost some parents this week. So as we stand for the pledge and we get to the moment of silence, I ask that you keep these families and friends of these people and our educators in your thoughts.

[00:23:42] And I'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. - I pledge allegiance to the flag,

[00:23:54] the United States of America.

[00:26:23] - As they exit, yes, I think we should give our parent orchestra another round of applause. That's fantastic. Thank you for being here tonight.

[00:26:43] Agenda item 3.02 announcements. If you'd like to review a copy of the meeting agenda, please see the back of the auditorium. To obtain copies of any items of supporting materials being presented tonight, please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu/boarddocs.

[00:26:58] Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Cox Channel 99, Verizon Fios Channel 11, and livestream on YouTube and our website at www.fcps.edu/livestream. Virtual participation for Newt Shostek.

[00:27:14] Mr. Shostek, our student representative, has submitted a request to attend this evening's meeting remotely due to a medical reason is located in alexandria virginia i performed initial review of mr shostick's request and have found him to be in compliance with the school board's remote participation resolution i've approved the request mr shostick please check your audio and video can you all hear me yes great thank you i now ask board members who are physically present to vote on the following all those in favor of confirming the approval of mr shostick's request in the

[00:27:51] script. Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, and myself. All opposed? Okay, thank you. I now call on, so I now call on Dr. Reed because we wanted to start a little bit of a precedent with last week with the wows of the new year. Do you have any exciting things that you want to share up front the tap the happenings of FCPS well thank you madam chair I will say

[00:28:31] that it has been it has been a challenging week for sure this week I will say though that even with the challenges our students are back in classes and there's a great deal of excitement about our initiative around third grade reading which I think our students we're gonna hear a lot more more about in the coming weeks. So as we continue to walk in the light of grace, we'll continue to appreciate what our students are doing and the magic that's created in our classroom. So

[00:29:06] definitely want to thank our educators, particularly in this past week, and look forward to the adventures coming in front of us. So thank you. Thank you. Agenda item 3.03, recognizing constitution i will say there was one extraordinarily positive move that happened today and i really want to thank our elected board a lot of times our elected board activity happens behind the scenes and isn't as often celebrated but each member on our board has worked hard with

[00:29:39] our state elected delegation to work to get a pause for our the temporary protection status for El Salvadorian employees we had 92 we have 92 staff members from El Salvador whose TPS status was set to expire yesterday which would have not allowed them to continue to be employed with FCPS the teachers field managers custodians our food service maintenance workers 92 staff many of whom had worked

[00:30:15] for us for over two decades and have contributed so much to our schools and this afternoon we were able to reinstate them because there's a pause on that status and this board and our county delegation to the state were really instrumental in that so i want to thank our board and our state delegation thank you and we want to celebrate with our el salvadorian staff that they're able to continue yes that's fantastic news i now call on mr mcdaniel for a proclamation Thank you.

[00:30:52] Whereas September 17th marks Constitution Day, National DEI Day, and Citizenship Day, commemorating the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787, recognizing those who have become citizens through coming of age or naturalization, and highlighting the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and whereas the commemoration of these three elements together provide an opportunity for students, educators, families, and communities to learn about the Constitution, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, the principles of democratic self-government and the strength that comes from people of different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and perspectives, learning and working together.

[00:31:26] And whereas the Constitution establishes a framework of government founded upon liberty, justice, equality under the law, and the protection of individual rights, while the nation's history reflects the ongoing work to expand that promise of those principles to all. And whereas National DEI Day's organizers intentionally observe the day alongside Constitution Day and Citizenship Day as an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between constitutional ideal skills, and the continuing pursuit of a more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming society.

[00:31:54] And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools serves a richly diverse community whose varied histories, cultures, identities, perspectives, and experiences contribute to the strength of our school division and our commonwealth, and whereas public education has a vital role in preparing young people to understand the Constitution, participate constructively in civic life, respect the rights and dignity of others, and fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship, whereas FCPS recognizes that students have the right to equitable access to learning and to school and classroom environments that are affirming, responsive, caring, and inclusive, whereas meaningful civic education invites students to examine the nation's founding principles, understand American history and its complexities, engage with diverse

[00:32:33] perspectives, and consider how constitutional principles shape our communities and responsibilities to one another, and whereas Constitution Day and Citizenship Day provide an opportunity to celebrate the rights secured by our constitutional system and the shared responsibility to participate in and strengthen our democratic institutions whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to educating students who are knowledgeable engaged respectful and prepared to contribute to their communities and the civic life of our nation now therefore be it resolved the Fairfax County School Board hereby recognizes September 17th of 2026 as Constitution Day National DEI Day and Citizenship Day in Fairfax County Public Schools and encourages students staff families and community members to

[00:33:12] learn about the Constitution and the responsibilities of citizenship celebrate the diversity of our school community engage respectfully across differences and reflect on the ongoing work of building schools and communities in which every person is treated with dignity has equitable opportunities to learn and participate and can contribute to our shared civic life is there a second second i will call on the vote all those in favor miss anderson mr frisch mr moon mr mclevee mr mcdaniel miss dixit mr dannon dr anderson miss st john cunning and myself that's

[00:33:47] a unanimous reward members present i would like to welcome all those here in support of recognizing Constitution Day, National DEI Day and Citizenship Day proclamation please join the board for a photo

[00:34:04] at the front of the dais. Agenda 4.01 community participation. The next order of business is

[00:36:22] community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at school board regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board's website at www.fcps.edu/schoolboard. During the sign-up process community members acknowledged they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments these expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room we ask attend audience members to be respectful of one another shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats

[00:37:00] including when recording video or taking photos we are grateful to those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not not responding. Madam Clerk, please call the first speaker. Josie Gillespie. Members of the board,

[00:37:37] I am here to speak on regulation 2603 and its impact on trans students. I am a teacher in FCPS and I am also a transgender woman. Currently, as teachers, we are being required to out a student to their parents if a student identifies as trans and wants accommodation through a student support plan. However, if both parents do not agree to this request, we are expected to dead name that student, misgender them, and force them to use a bathroom they do not identify with. In essence,

[00:38:14] we are being asked to cause mental harm and distress to a student. Since transgender people make up 1% of the population and our experience is not well known to the general public, allow me to explain what this policy will do. Every time we look into a mirror, we see something that we hate.

[00:38:32] but something we cannot change. Every time we hear our given name, we have a visceral reaction. Every time we are misgendered, it feels like we are being stabbed in the heart. There's a lot of pain, grief, depression, and hate we feel every day when we are not allowed to live our truth.

[00:38:53] Now imagine the people inflicting this pain on you are your parents and the adults you are supposed to look for, to love, and support. When we consider this, it is no wonder that 82% of trans youths have considered suicide and 40% have attempted. I was one of those youths when I attended FCPS. This policy that the board adopted is wrong and it puts trans students at risk.

[00:39:21] Rather than outing our students against their will, we need to make sure home is a safe place. We need to make sure that our schools are a safe place for students to think about who they are. we need to let our LGBTQ students come out on their own terms. Thank you. Michelle Dole. All means all. It means every student, every single student, deserves access

[00:40:00] to opportunity, support, and belonging. But does all means all really apply to students at our low enrollment high schools? Right now it doesn't. Students at smaller high schools do not have access to the same breadth of academic opportunities available to students at larger schools and this disparity is built into the staffing formula that drives our annual budget. Under our current formula enrollment determines not only how many teachers the school receives but effectively how many opportunities students have. Larger schools receive staffing beyond the minimum and that means more than additional sections of standard and required classes. It means

[00:40:37] more electives, more pathways, more choices and more opportunities. Fewer Fewer students mean fewer courses, fewer courses can make a school less attractive, and fewer students then mean even fewer courses that students pay the price. They didn't choose their enrollment numbers, they didn't create the formula, they simply deserve the same opportunity to discover what they can do.

[00:41:00] So I ask you, why should the size of a school determine the size of a student's future? And if we know educational opportunity affects outcomes well beyond high school, can we really say that's just what the formula produces. A formula is not a force of nature. You wrote it, you approve it, and you can change it. Imagine your own child attends a low enrollment school and a high school is told, we can't offer that course because there aren't enough students. Would that be good enough for your child? If not, it shouldn't be good enough for any child. I'm asking you to make all means all real in the budget. Build a staffing formula that gives every student

[00:41:40] a genuine opportunity for world-class excellence regardless of enrollment neighborhood or assigned school because all means all and the students are watching make some good trouble. Emily Tabularias.

[00:42:05] Thank you good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight my name is Emily Tabularias I'm a parent in the district tonight I want to talk about something that sounds technical but actually is not the role of technology in our classrooms and while there are endless concerns what i want to highlight tonight boils down to one thing agency specifically the agency of people charged with shaping and guiding our schools to put it bluntly educators and policy makers are no longer making decisions about technology in the classroom though they may feel like they are companies are making those decisions because digital technology has become

[00:42:43] invisible infrastructure that our schools now depend on this dependency allows the companies running these products to make what are ultimately policy decisions that supersede anything that you or educators might say. For example, earlier this summer, Google turned on Gemini for K-12 by default just as the school year got started, leaving schools little to no time to plan or react. Even more concerning, Google is making the biggest change to search in 25 years, changing the product that about 90% of global web search queries run through, from a search engine into

[00:43:19] an answer engine. And I mean that literally. Eventually, there will be no links. It will operate more like a chatbot. It is going from helping find information on the web and providing links to explore to handing you a prepackaged answer. Consider the implications of this for any learning environment. Now, Google is a company making decisions that are good for their company. Of course they are. However, because of the degree to which they have become embedded into the operational infrastructure of our schools, their corporate decisions are also policy decisions that directly affect our children. We do not need a crystal ball to see how this

[00:43:55] plays out. We are currently picking up the pieces from the last round of transformative technology. I recognize, of course, that this is complex and new terrain for everyone. What I ask of you all

[00:44:08] is this, please consider. Manasi Long. Good evening. Over the past six months, I've had

[00:44:42] the pleasure of meeting many of you who have been reading the mounting evidence and are concerned just as I am about the infiltration of big tech into our children's education. There is, however, a small but influential few amongst you who have expressed that you don't see this infiltration as a problem, but rather as an opportunity. I get it because, after all, big tech is a lot like big pharma. As a physician, when I learn about a new medication that could save my patients' lives, it's really exciting. Not too long ago, we were given a similar promise by opioid companies,

[00:45:19] and opioids flew off of the shelves just like iPhones at an Apple store. It was only after a very, very long honeymoon was over that we had to confront the truth that our haste to be early adopters, in that haste, over half a million people perished from opioid overdoses. Big tech innovations like AI promise to work faster, look sleeker, and above all else, remove friction.

[00:45:48] Friction can be annoying when you're trying to do mundane tasks like write an email or make a phone call, but friction is essential to learning something. Remove the friction and you remove the learning. Remove the learning and all you're left with is an artificial education. I'll leave you today with one final concern and plea. Members of this board at various different points have displayed a lack of basic understanding of technology that's offered in FCPS to our students

[00:46:22] and an inability to define basic tech terms like artificial intelligence. Like a wolf in a sheepskin, you can only appreciate the dangers up close. Why should, if you've never seen a wolf, why should we

[00:46:37] expect you to be able to protect our little sheep. Nagina Valentini. Good evening. Never skilling is a phenomenon that was mentioned in recent edition of Nature Medicine. It referred

[00:47:11] to medical students and residents becoming so dependent on AI throughout their education that they may simply lose clinical reasoning skills or just never develop them. That should make us all stop and think now bring that concern into our elementary schools as we increasingly integrate technology into the classroom are we creating the same problem for our children children need to take time to think struggle create move read deeply build friendships and learn without constant

[00:47:47] digital simulation we should also be asking serious questions about the potential consequences of excessive screen use on children's overall health. These are not trivial considerations when we are talking about children during their most formative years of their lives.

[00:48:05] We appreciate the decision not to implement technology in kindergarten. Now I urge our school system to take that same thoughtful approach throughout the elementary grades. Let's reconsider how much technology our youngest children truly need and whether every Every device, app, and program improves learning or replaces what children once learn by doing.

[00:48:30] Those resources would be better invested in the people and experiences that develop the whole child: teachers, classroom support, crossing guards, arts, music, hands-on learning, reliable bus drivers, and real-world interactions.

[00:48:50] Our goal should not be to raise children who are experts at navigating screens. Technology should serve our children, not the other way around. Thank you.

[00:49:12] Jason Baker. Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. My name is Jason Baker. I'm the proud parent of a second grader in FCPS and I have a preschooler who will be there soon. I also work as a policy director for an AI safety advocacy group.

[00:49:32] So I approach the topic of AI's impact not just as a parent, but as someone whose job makes me intimately familiar with both the great potential of this technology and the rapidly developing risks. As adults we gained a basic understanding of the world through our education and lived experiences before we encountered AI's capabilities. Our children haven't had that same opportunity. So before a student asks AI to explain an idea, write a paragraph, solve a problem, summarize something they've read, we should expect them to build some foundation and struggle on their own first that foundation is something for educators to determine informed by

[00:50:11] parents research and experts but i encourage the district to set clear age-appropriate expectations for the knowledge and skills students should learn practice and demonstrate on their own before ai is brought into these tasks i am well aware as i'm sure all of you are that ai will develop faster than the district can update its policies so rather than building a policy around today's tools, the district needs to scaffold a framework that builds what we want our children to be able to do and understand without AI, rather than assigning an arbitrary grade level for when it gets introduced. Looking ahead, I hope you'll focus not just on when students should use AI,

[00:50:51] but on what skills they should have before using it. If we establish that foundation first, we can teach students to use AI as a tool that extends their abilities,

[00:51:01] not as one that replaces learning thank you george becerra george becerra please play the

[00:51:38] video testimony submitted by debbie kilpatrick oh hold on one second hello i'm debbie kilpatrick president of fairfax county council pta representing 175 ptas with more than 25 000 members with the beginning of school year our council board wanted to share our advocacy priorities with you First, student safety. We will continue to advocate on student safety issues, including advocating that the Board of Supervisors restore high school crossing guards where they are needed

[00:52:16] to help keep students safe. Second, school infrastructure. We will advocate to support the 1% local sales tax referendum for school maintenance and construction, consistent with virginia pta support of this additional local investment in our schools third middle school after school programs we will work with the board of supervisors and school board to ensure this program remains funded so that all middle school students have access to a safe supportive

[00:52:50] environment during after school hours fourth anti-vaping efforts we will support continued efforts to prevent youth vaping and promote the health and well-being of our students. Finally, public education funding.

[00:53:06] We will advocate with our local, state, and federal elected officials for strong and sustainable funding for public education and policies that support high quality public schools with a focus on funding Fairfax County public schools. The PTA mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children. We encourage parents, teachers, and staff to support our local PTAs by becoming a member. Thank you for your service and support of

[00:53:44] our school communities. Mary Kay Popek-Snow. Dr. Reed, school board members and staff, my name is Mary Kay Popek-Snow. I'm a proud parent of two Lewis grads and two current Lewis students and I'm a graduate of Lewis/Lee high school.

[00:54:15] While attending the Family Focus kickoff last week I was sitting with four moms of elementary school students who all attend schools that feed into Lewis high school. They shared with me that they only have heard bad things about Lewis. Although I was saddened to hear this I'm not surprised.

[00:54:31] I have been fighting against these false perceptions for two decades now. These moms heard that Lewis students had bad behavior and the student teachers don't care. This could not be further from the truth. Lewis students are well behaved and academically driven. I have received talking points, phone calls and emails from teachers about the academic struggles my child is having or about my child, how she created a podcast sharing how she has grown since being at Lewis.

[00:54:56] Lewis teachers care a lot. My 45th high school reunion is being held in one week and I look forward to seeing my former Lancer classmates. With so many former classmates having left the Springfield area, I'm excited to share with them that our alma mater is still a fantastic school. I'm excited to tell them about the Lewis Leadership Program and how Lewis is still producing leaders, critical thinkers, and change makers.

[00:55:17] I'm excited to tell them about Lewis's strong special education department, who empowered three of my children who have IEPs to succeed academically and believe in themselves despite their learning challenges. I will share with them about Lewis's compassionate and inspiring coaches and share that one of these coaches elevated my son to a Dive State Championship in 2019 and 2021.

[00:55:38] And I will also share with them that Lewis has the lowest enrollment in the county while two neighboring high schools are over capacity. I will share that the school board has repeatedly changed boundaries to accommodate parents who have false preconceived notions of Lewis without fighting for Lewis. I will share that low enrollment affects athletics course offerings, extracurricular activities, and student morale.

[00:55:58] During graduation while sitting on John England Field 45 years ago, I never imagined I would be asking the school board to take action. So all Lewis. Cooper, Jessup.

[00:56:23] Good evening, board. Dr. Reid, I am here tonight to ask for your help. I am a robotics dad, a level three volunteer, and I've been working with the Woodson Robotics team for years.

[00:56:43] This year, my youngest started Frost Middle School, and I spoke to the principal about supporting the Frost Robotics team. He referred me to the after-school program specialist, and I contacted her and received a one-line email reply.

[00:56:59] We have decided not to do FTC again this year. FTC is the first tech challenge. the robotics competition for middle schoolers. I have emailed the principal and the after school program specialist.

[00:57:14] Neither has replied to my request for a meeting to discuss the decision. Frost had team FTC 23888. Frost has parts and a place to practice. I have an army of parents who want their students to have hands on STEM and will put in the elbow grease, snacks and financial support to have a team succeed.

[00:57:36] Please help me reverse this decision. Please help Frost have a robotics team. Please help the team meet a couple evenings a week and on weekends. Please help me and the other parents lead the Frost robotics team. Please help me make this decision quickly, though, because the FTC season starts Saturday.

[00:57:58] You all said a robotics team in every school. Let's put one back in Frost. Thank you. Please play the video testimony submitted by Karen Barnes.

[00:58:18] Good evening. My name is Karen Barnes, a parent in SPA 8922, part of the tiny Rolling Valley Elementary School split feeder. I continue to be incredibly disheartened by the school boundary process. I will be at our area meeting on Monday night, but wanted to take this opportunity to express these thoughts to the entire school board and superintendents team.

[00:58:39] I honestly feel like so much of the boundary process has been such a waste of time and resources for so little correction. left with many of the same problems we had when we started: capacity issues and weird boundary lines that haven't made sense for decades. I have attended and participated in every relevant boundary meeting. I've become the de facto advocate for our little pocket that is still being studied and discussed. While our SPA has every bit of logic and reason and follows the policies laid forth in 8130 behind our request to finally be fully integrated into the West Springfield High School pyramid, we continue to be shirked off. We are essentially told that our

[00:59:17] reasoning makes sense but it's solely because of West Springfield capacity that we can't even be considered. Then every single time an opportunity has arisen to help solve the capacity issues at West Springfield to fix split feeders, attendance islands, etc. Because people in those areas express they don't want that change, the superintendent's team and school board have backed down despite those proposed changes actually following the logical policies in 8130.

[00:59:45] But when we speak up and our request does follow the policies, we continue to be shut down and passed over. And no one has yet dared to touch West Springfield capacity issues. Being down to one of the few pockets left for further study, the only person that has ever taken me up on my continued invitations to come walk our little neighborhoods with me to truly understand our geography and community connectedness is Mr. Moon.

[01:00:10] For that, I am very grateful. there is still time to truly help solve some very obvious issues, and I urge you to please do so. Thank you. Madam Chair, that was our last speaker. Thank you. Jen, I'm 5.01, Student Representative Matters. I call on Mr. Shostek for Student Representative Matters. Thank you, Chair Lady.

[01:00:40] So I'm sorry I cannot be with you all in person today. I'm unfortunately feeling a bit under the weather, so I'm going to keep it a bit brief. The big thing I want to stress tonight is the fact that i'm hosting a few student rep town halls i've arranged with mr mcdaniel's staff to have this hopefully done around november before thanksgiving so if you are a parent or if you're a student watching just stay tuned for that i think that'll be on mcdaniel's newsletter when we get the dates for that out so that's going to be a really good opportunity for students who want to make their voices heard i'm currently compiling a list of topics that we can ask some questions and talk about with each other, so I'm really looking forward to that.

[01:01:21] A couple other things, I was able to meet with Mr. Dannon recently, who's chair of the Public Engagement Committee, so we were able to speak about, you know, ways to strengthen the student representation in our, you know, school board's government and really, you know, focus on trying to get potentially a second student rep or expanding the Student Advisory Council, so that was a great opportunity, and I'm really grateful for that.

[01:01:47] And I was also able to meet just recently with Mr. Moon and Miss Lady, and we exchanged a lot of, you know, really insightful words about technology, about security policies and student representation. So I'm really looking forward to continuing to work with you all on strengthening our representation and getting students what they deserve.

[01:02:07] With that, I'm going to let the meeting continue to go on, and I appreciate you all letting me attend virtually tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Jen, I'm 6.01 Academic Matters. I now call on Dr. Reed for Academic Matters.

[01:02:39] - All right, Madam Chair, this evening, I'm pleased to highlight our Summer Literacy Symposium. And it doesn't feel like we've been done with summer yet. So I think we're hopefully gonna keep the summer spirit alive a little longer.

[01:02:56] Tonight, I wanna share that this symposium provided learning opportunities for our teachers across the division, which are focused on student literacy. And that's a topic we're gonna be talking a lot about as the year rolls on. I'm excited to report that over 1,000 of our teachers attended these summer sessions to strengthen their capacity for providing literacy instruction using high quality curriculum and evidence-based intervention programs.

[01:03:25] And I think that that's really worth repeating for our community that's watching. 1,000 of our teachers took time this summer to participate in learning new skills to support, in this case, many of our youngest learners in their literacy work.

[01:03:42] So thank you to all those educators who took part and all those educators who designed and developed and implemented that. And I believe Dr. Riley is here, representing our Instructional Services Department, our Assistant Superintendent, and maybe Diane Leipzig.

[01:03:59] There we go, our Principal in Residence, who is all things literacy. So really excited to have them both here this evening. The Summer Symposium offered actually three targeted areas, and it's on the screen in front of you. The core sessions, of course, focused on helping teachers use the materials.

[01:04:19] And second, the more part of this were the reading interventions that were focused on evidence-based strategies. And then third, the ECRI, or the Enhanced Core Reading Instruction, provided specialized training for grades one and two teachers in particularly our schools who receive title one support and schools identified for additional support and you can see the participant numbers there I will say particularly the enhanced core reading instruction if you've had a chance as a board to go out and observe that going

[01:04:53] on in classrooms it's a really a great opportunity and I know one of the things I said last spring is I wanted to try to visit classrooms with each of you where can have a chance to look at this and I'm really hopeful we can do that this fall semester. The program also the enhanced core reading instruction is showing tremendous data promise where it's being used. So in our next slide really the three strands of this literacy symposium fit within our division multi-tiered systems of support and the next slide will

[01:05:29] provide more detail on each of these strands so over 450 teachers looked at our core symposium work and there were two central priorities to this topic in the morning our educators worked on instructional equity or how these materials provide all students access to rigorous learning on the afternoon the focus shifted to scaffolding for independence particularly for our multilingual learners and our students with disabilities. Again the goal was not to reduce the rigor of the curriculum but rather provide the right access points

[01:06:08] and the high level of support. Essentially we want to make sure that we maintain high expectations for all students and provide the high support necessary for students to reach those goals. So let's take a look at a video of this core symposium and as we watch this I invite you to focus on teachers describing the relationship between rigorous content, intentional scaffolding, and student independence. So Madam Clerk, if you would play the video, that would be great. I believe every teacher is a teacher of

[01:06:43] literacy. Thank you again for taking the time to be here and to learn a little bit more about literacy and strategies that you'll bring to your classrooms. One thing we were learning about today is complex text and how to help multilingual learners. We don't want to always give them easier text because then we might be holding them back, but instead we want to scaffold the complex text. So we might want to give them the vocabulary words ahead of time. We might want to break it down into pieces. We might want to put images up that go with the text. For example, let's say I

[01:07:23] want to teach them how to write a complete sentence. I might start it with, what can you tell me about black bears and then I might have the scaffold black bears can blank but later I'm going to say what can black bears do how could we start that sentence you tell me oh okay black bears can start your sentence that way but maybe this time I won't write it on the board and then later have them generate it themselves we need to start paying attention to how our brain processes information

[01:07:59] and being able to explicitly teach that to kids so that when they're taking in new information and learning information, they can apply it independently to their day-to-day learning. And the thing that I really keyed in on today was the learn-to-learn moves that we can use with students so that they're learning how to process the information that we're teaching them.

[01:08:22] So scaffolds are great. We want to support students' learning. We want to make sure every kid has access to rigorous curriculum but sometimes teachers are doing too much of the lift and that thinking comes with productive struggle. Emphasis on the word productive that when kids are wrestling in their brains to learn something that itself is meaningful and is a good sign.

[01:08:43] So thinking about is this scaffold appropriate for the learning that I want to happen or is it actually preventing some of the productive struggle when we over scaffold for kids when we give some groups of students so many supports that they often don't need we're actually blocking them from doing the heavy lifting and so that some students in the room are getting more rigorous instruction than others which is inherently inequitable we can be more equitable making sure that every kid regardless of whether they have a disability regardless of whether they're a

[01:09:19] a multilingual learner, is autonomous, independent, and doing the messiness of learning. All right. That looked like a lot of hard thinking, and I sure appreciate all of our staff that engaged.

[01:09:36] The Moore Symposium, which is the reading interventions, was attended by 600 teachers, and the focus here was on implementing evidence-based intervention programs with fidelity while incorporating appropriate language supports for our multilingual learners and our students with disabilities. Again, participants received training across several division literacy programs and the support again was to shrink the number of students who are what we call at risk for reading challenges and make sure that we get our students on track as soon as possible.

[01:10:15] The ECRI symposium, the enhanced core reading instruction, provided training for over 260 grade 1 teachers and grade 2 teachers from over 260 grade 1 and 2 teachers from 46 of our schools that receive title 1 funds and other federally identified schools these ECRI sessions focused on explicit routines and the emphasis on grades 1 and 2 is intentional as we work to develop Fairfax County Public Schools goal of every third grader being a reader we

[01:10:52] need to have explicit instruction as a Tier 2 intervention for our first and second grade so this training all support also supports the division's broader reading by grade 3 initiative finally the next steps for professional learning we know that not everybody was able to take advantage of the summer opportunities so the content and the resources from these programs are are available to teachers and school leaders throughout the school year as well schools can elect to host central office facilitated sessions of this any part of this symposium or have a

[01:11:29] school-based literacy leader trained to deliver job embedded professional development and finally the intervention program trainings will be available all year and the ECRI continues to make up training or the makeup training for this will be offered this fall for eligible school staff so we're trying to provide the training in as many ways and spaces as possible and the fact that this was offered in the summer really also supports our goals of having our classroom teachers in classrooms during the school year and requires fewer substitute time

[01:12:06] or fewer substitute hours during the school year because our staff are taking advantage of our summer calendar so madam chair that is academic matters this evening thank you dr reed at this time i now invite board members to ask any clarifying questions or provide comments as a reminder to my colleagues per board member agreement we will be using a timing system of two minutes for initial remarks and a one minute for go backs for all presentations that do not require a vote miss dixit thank you dr reed for the presentation and it does look a lot of intervention and uh

[01:12:41] happened during the summer for you know training my question was about this the outcome so how are you going to measure the student outcome by these interventions at different tiers so I'm going to ask our literacy expert here our principal in residence Diane Leipzig to come on up but we've got some great data right now particularly around the ECRI work and I'm going to have you come on up Diane and share some of that data in fact we started again I want to remind our board one of the things that's important to me is that we have a system

[01:13:18] for scaling up initiatives that work so we piloted this with two schools initially then I think went to ten and then once the two schools showed great promise we went to ten schools and by the time ten schools were using this program we had all kinds of schools saying we want to have access to this because the data was so amazing and compelling so Diane you want to talk a minute about that please absolutely so with ECRI first we'll start there really we're looking at the VALS data we're looking for two things we're looking for more students to be on grade level growing the green but we're also looking

[01:13:54] to shrink that red and so when we use ECRI we are enhancing core instruction so it's actually explicitly teaching phonics instruction to the entire class which has we have found had impact on both of those projects and so we are really eager to see those kinds of gains happening in every single elementary school that is receiving ECRI we're excited that we are we've invited a few additional schools that do not receive federal funding but who are showing some need for this work in our second grade and we have every expectation that these

[01:14:32] cohorts of students will also be far more successful in third grade reading SOL. But to address the other two symposia and how we are using data to determine the impact, I will start by saying that we began with implementation data. These sessions were explicitly planned because of 8,000 walkthroughs that were conducted by our principals and and our school staff to understand the nature of core instruction as delivered and so what we are finding is it is a developmental

[01:15:08] process to get comfortable using new high quality instructional materials with maximum impact and so those walkthroughs really showed us some of those themes that like we have to dig into rigor we have to learn how to appropriately scaffold we have to meet students with appropriate and fading opportunities for them to grow their own independence in these skills and then what we'll do is look at the impact of the core on our growing of the green so we do expect to see higher pass

[01:15:44] rates in sols we did invite k through nine teachers and we also invited k through nine teachers to the interventions so what we're looking for the intervention symposia is really a reduction of reading risk. That is measured by a couple of different assessments. We use iReady in middle school, we use MAP in high school, but we're also looking at our SOL pass rates and our students who receive reading plan services. We want to see those numbers decline and we want to see those students

[01:16:19] meet their goals. Thank you for the answer and very detailed. So I don't think I have a lot of follow-ups now the the only thing lastly I will say the scaffolding part and I understand that is required and I heard the you know presentation that too less of scaffolding or having too too much of scaffolding what how do the teacher decide what is the right balance and where do you stop that I think you know there's an art and science right of instruction but I'm gonna have Diane come

[01:16:54] up and just give a brief response having said that I think that sometimes we think we I think as several of the folks in the video shared that idea of a productive struggle it's harder sometimes to be a part of that experience for a student but we know how powerfully important it is generally our most important learning can at times be the most challenging but Diane if we could give a brief response or the scaffolding session actually explicitly gave teachers a scaffolding process that they practiced using with their core

[01:17:30] curricular materials the key is sort of the Goldilocks scaffold not too much not too little just right and that just right changes as students acquire independent skills so like training wheels you have to know and see students are starting to wobble but we feel like maybe it's time for just mom's hand and removing the training wheels if you leave the training wheels on too long the student doesn't learn the balance that's required so it is really a about knowing the students needs knowing we are keeping the

[01:18:04] rigor and the learning outcome and the grade level text and the grade level skill always in mind because we want our students to be able to fly without those training wheels. Thank you. So I look forward to visiting some schools in my district talk with you Dr. Reed and just seeing this in action. I can't wait. Thank you. Mr. Dunn. Dr. Reed. This is great news to continue the implementation of the science of reading implementation as someone

[01:18:40] who's not a teacher how long does it take for a teacher to become proficient in this new approach to literacy instruction because I assume the older way was taught through teacher training college or perhaps through career switcher courses but when we're training them is is two days or three days is that enough to understand the new approach to switch over how you've taught literacy if you've been teaching it the old way for 10 years or 20 years or does it take a certain amount of time similar to learning a new language so that's a great question mr dunn and i was just thinking to

[01:19:17] myself if you've been in education long enough you've taught it the old way the new way the old way it all comes back right i think about uh a lot of times and if you've taught in other states or other divisions so I really think that just the experience of teachers in the classroom the more experience generally the more tools and the more instructional moves you have having said that I think that the science of reading is very scaffolded and our team has done a really thoughtful job of providing really explicit guidance and feedback so a more experienced teacher is going to be able

[01:19:56] to make that shift more easily. A less experienced teacher if that's the only if science of reading is the only explicit instruction they've been provided of course I think they will pick it up very quickly as well. So I think that I think that that's a great question it probably depends it's probably some something unique to each educator but we believe that with the right materials and the right supports all of our educators will be able to present the new curricular materials in a way that's helpful and i think when you're out in classrooms when i'm out in

[01:20:30] classrooms now and i've already been this year and many of you have people are much more familiar with the materials the second and third year and are able to move through those materials a little more efficiently to allow like more independent reading time or other um you know other strategies ECRI is another strategy that we've added in. So I think that with this particular explicit instruction it's not like learning a new language. I think it's more intuitive than that.

[01:21:06] Is there a certain amount of introductory training for someone who hasn't been exposed to the science of reading before and then refresher training or more advanced coursework that would be required for people who may have gotten the introductory training at a previous training session and and now they want to learn more or go more detail or or test out what they've been using in the classroom so the science of reading is actually not new you know it's been around for a long time and so i think that um sometimes it's the specific materials that may take some adjustment um but i think that um as with any curriculum materials the more

[01:21:45] um and i scripted sometimes gets a bad reputation if a curriculum is scripted But in a way, it's helpful to be scripted for those teachers maybe new to Fairfax or new to teaching. It gives some, I think, really concrete direction.

[01:22:00] The other thing, I know Mr. McElveen and I noticed we had been in a couple classrooms. I think it was kind of fun to walk into different schools even at the same grade level and see that really the reading story or the reading activity was very similar. I know I talked or I looked in, forget which grade it was, but the wolf going to the dance or was it a coyote going to a dance?

[01:22:22] It was folktales. Anyhow, it was interesting how different classrooms approached that unit, but they were all dealing with the unit, but it wasn't, you know, the same exact directions weren't in each room because our teachers are amazing, right? They're going to tailor their conversation to the children in front of them.

[01:22:41] But it is nice to know that across the county, there's much more, there's an equivalent experience in a third grade reading class, for example. I guess my question is, does FCPS scaffold the training? So if an FCPS teacher gets trained once, do you need to train them a second time, perhaps at a more advanced level, or is it one and done?

[01:23:05] Like, you've attended a two-day training, you never have to attend another science of reading training. Well, so I very little that's effective is one and done. Right. So we do because we have our I want to say great beginnings. It's not new beginnings.

[01:23:20] It's great beginnings, great beginnings for our brand new staff. And we have mentors for brand new staff for teachers new to the profession. We also have at times staff that want to reach out or principals or the CLT's, their collaborative learning teams or maybe they're not seeing the data gains that they want to see, or maybe the students that they're working with are not making the progress they had hoped, they're often going to reach out and say, we'd really like to have someone come out and support, take a look at our strategies, take a look at our data, is there something we can do differently?

[01:23:56] Like, and I think that's really healthy, right? If things are not working out in the way we hope, we can ask for help and make some shifts. Thank you. Thank you. So just to follow up on that I just wanted to ask the question if you know for some teachers it is new and if our instructional coaches are well versed in this to be the supports that are there and as you mentioned in CLTs is that like the way that this is being operationalized.

[01:24:28] It's one of the ways right some schools have instructional coaches some not the region offices also provide support and our region offices. in conjunction with our instructional services I know collaborate as well as our multilingual office and with that collaboration we're really able to support what goes on in classrooms and schools I don't know miss Roman do you want to comment at all on some of the support that the region offices are providing I know that we are last year in this year it had collaborations around

[01:25:07] literacy walkthroughs classroom-based walkthroughs looking at those trends and that really was a joint effort with ISD and with regions and our principals to ensure we're providing timely and relevant feedback to our teachers and then I guess since it has been implemented in some schools and you're looking at some of the ones that have been more successful than others are we looking at best practices that then we can replicate in other schools well I think ECRI is an example of that right we started with two schools moved to 10 and now we've added it to 46 schools who receive Title I funding because it

[01:25:44] really showed and demonstrated such success so we're definitely looking at best practices and then how to bring those to scale and I think as Diane shared we also have schools that are not receiving those funds who really are also have children who would benefit from those strategies who are I don't if we're calling it equity light but they're utilizing strategies that are similar to support their students who may be experiencing some challenges in their reading and then I would be remiss if I didn't ask this question are some of these strategies strategies that can be provided to parents or like

[01:26:23] parenting courses and classes that you know in terms of what our family liaisons the work that they are doing and I know this is kind of a new place But have we moved on to the next step where we can engage our parents to help support the students using some of those strategies?

[01:26:39] So we've really talked about that. And with fact this summer I met with several parents who came in and said they really wanted to be more a part of that support and I think you know right now in the benchmark curriculum that Oh, the tactile text, the little workbook doesn't go home till the end of the unit.

[01:27:00] And so I know the team's been exploring ways that parents could have more engagement throughout the unit and some type of a parent academy. And Dr. Riley, I don't know if you have any update on that, but I know that's something we've been talking about. We haven't gotten much further when we talked a few weeks ago about it, but yeah, we'll be putting it together.

[01:27:22] So more to come. Stay tuned. It could be an upcoming, it could be foreshadowing, an upcoming academic matters. I have found, like from my experience, that parents are hungry for that and they just need those tools. And a lot of our multilingual families, you know, are hungry for that as well.

[01:27:41] So I understand and respect that this is new, but if we can start at least providing some strategies, particularly for our younger learners, which this is geared toward, And our younger learners are a lot of times a lot more responsive to their parents helping them versus our older learners.

[01:27:59] So let's take advantage of that. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Madam Chair. A lot of questions have been already asked, so I'm going to just limit my question to numbers. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[01:28:18] I think I heard about 1,000 teachers participating all together. Yes, sir. So there must have been teachers who have taken advantage of having more than one learning opportunities, right? Three different programs.

[01:28:34] Right, there was a morning and afternoon session and multiple programs. Okay, all right. Is there a capacity limit as to the number of spots that we can offer? We did have a capacity limit for ECRI because it required, there was a fee attached to that.

[01:28:53] And so there was a capacity limit in terms of what our budget could budget, which is why we focused our initial work on our schools receiving Title I funding. So that's why the 46 schools, those first and second grade teachers were all...

[01:29:12] That's for the ECRI. What about the other two programs? I don't think there was a cap for those. So there was no way list? Anyone who wanted to... Is there a way list? No. just just for the equity okay uh do we provide other than learning opportunities i mean those themselves are great incentives do we also provide any other incentives to teachers who may want to

[01:29:40] sign up for these opportunities they were paid may i ask how much is their stipend payment understood thank you thank you dr anderson thank you and i appreciate some of the questions that

[01:30:14] I have already been asked so your expectations essentially would be for the let me backtrack on this is every teacher who delivers these these interventions required to be required to participate in this professional development no ma'am I think that you have to have the professional development to engage in the ECRI strategies but outside of that there's no other requirement. So of the three things that were highlighted here, we have CORE, MORE, and ECRI.

[01:30:52] Which ones require that teachers be trained prior to delivering the instruction? ECRI for sure, and clearly several of the intervention programs. So the Mores and the ECRI, those require the training? Correct. Okay, so we have the CORE, which is pretty much at will if teachers elect to participate right because it's the core curriculum I think you have to get on the mic for yeah let's be captured very brief all teachers are required to have curricular training in the

[01:31:30] core curriculum the more content was delivering it with additional intentionality and so that that more is I mean the intervention program training is required we do offer them all year long obviously we want to make sure that they are using those programs with fidelity thank you can we put up that second slide because I got a little bit confused there so poor not required of everyone more nope that's it more is required of everyone in the middle and that creates require I mean is required for those to deliver it and core and equity is required okay so the only

[01:32:10] place where we could have some discrepancy in terms of professional development is the core. Do you find that there is a difference in terms of student achievement when the professional development has been attended by teachers or? I would have to get back to you on that. I don't know that we have that level of detail but we do know is that those students that are experiencing the ECRI in particular are showing demonstrable gains and that training is required so you could link training to the intervention to progress on the

[01:32:44] part of students. Sure. The other areas I think we require a little more study. Sure and I think that's kind of where I'm heading given that there is a significant financial investment into each of these and I think you're following the more and the ECRI a little bit more closely in terms of student achievement at the wonder that I have is what metrics can you put in place to evaluate the impact of the professional development on teachers who are participating in the first grouping because again great question if we're spending money we want to know that it's having impact I couldn't agree more

[01:33:20] especially current days right so I will let you sit with that and get back to me when you have a chance yes ma'am thank you mr. Dannon good evening really great to see this and I really appreciate all the mention of rigor and productive struggle and I'll just share a brief anecdote when I was in college I was an AmeriCorps volunteer and I got to go around and deliver food to community centers and so forth and I worked with high school students typically seniors are about to graduate and I would distinctly remember realizing then one of

[01:33:58] the kids I worked with was not able to read and this is a kid is about to graduate and so I really appreciate the work that you all put into this. I spoke with a reading specialist last night two nights ago and I know they've you know they're always concerns about adopting benchmark and so forth but as time has gone on they've seen the benefits of it and so I appreciate that and just so starting with registration I also appreciate that you gave priority to teachers the title one schools and basically kids who likely need it the most. Did registration meet expectations or did you did you have a certain target that you want to get as far as number of teachers to for the

[01:34:34] program? Yes, absolutely. And I don't know that we had targets for the other programs. So I know my colleague, Dr. Anderson asked about a higher level of training evaluation. Was there even like a level one survey done for people who participated to see how they felt about the training and ways to improve it? Well, in general, we have some type of survey. So we I would assume we did. And I'm getting the nod that we did so be happy to share those results sounds good how does FCPS determine what subjects get to be the focus of this type of summer symposium training well this in particular was a literacy symposium in

[01:35:13] part because we were seeing such tremendous results with our equity program we needed an opportunity and it's intensive training to offer that training to a broader audience and what we really want to stay committed to and And I know Dr. Riley, Dr. Presidio, Ms. Leipzig, everybody is focused on trying to make sure we keep teachers in classrooms during instructional time.

[01:35:39] So if we can provide professional development outside, like during the summer, then students are able to maintain their classroom teacher throughout the school year, although there's still professional development opportunities throughout the school year. And I would be remiss if I did not share that I noticed my own daughter's teacher in one of the photos in the presentation so I know she's benefiting it from from this enhanced training and so forth so thank you all for the work that you do thank you miss Marin yes I see I appreciate the opportunity to hear more about this we've heard about it many times and I always love to talk about science of

[01:36:15] reading on slide 2 it mentions that all the 6 through 9 English teachers in middle and high and then as well as literacy teachers in middle and high school so I'm just curious you're thinking about the public comments we heard tonight in school such as Lewis High School where the membership is lower are the teachers available to go to this training given the lower amount is it harder to get subs how does that work for a school that's under enrolled like Lewis so this data was from the summer so the enrollment wouldn't have had any impact you know because anybody could attend it only in the first two

[01:36:52] columns because the equity is only for first and second grade teachers but I would guess the enrollment of Lewis wouldn't have had any impact on their. Okay well it just got me thinking because you know I do support Lewis having a student membership size comparable to any other FCPS high school and I just do want to take this opportunity to say that the board and superintendent have perpetuated this inequity and it's despicable and it may be an unpopular decision but it's a very clear decision and the adults at this day are sacrificing the high school years of students

[01:37:25] at Lewis and the trajectories of their future to avoid making an unpopular decision. Thank you And this sticks it for a go back. Dr. Reed, I just have one additional question.

[01:37:42] I believe the question is about the resources and the teachers. Because of our new blocking, digital resources are being blocked, some of them. I think it's hard for teachers to use some of the resources they have used in the past.

[01:38:01] Are we providing enough resources for teachers to effectively implement these strategies without the lack of those resources so great question I think in particular and again I keep going back to ECHRI because that's really it's generated such excitement among our first and second grade teachers who are using it and there is no digital piece to ECHRI it's a other than the projecting of the words that the students and teachers are working on but it's all interactive

[01:38:35] human it's a call and let's see call and return are there different ways but the call and response instruction so teachers and students are interacting throughout that CRE it's not that students aren't on any kind of a screen for that the other reading interventions I don't think they went to training over this was all for strategies with real tactile text it's a great question though Thank you. I don't see any more. Oh, Dr. Anderson, I'm sorry. I should just turn her light on.

[01:39:13] My light is so far away. I'm using Ms. St. John Cunningham for some reason. That's what I turned on multiple times. So my apologies for the confusion. I'm just kind of building on that a little bit. ECRI is only grades one and two? Yes, ma'am. There's not an older or younger component? At this time, it's first and second grade.

[01:39:32] Is it because we have elected to use it at that level or the program just does not exist? you know I was gonna say I think it's really so does it go younger than first grade you have to be if there is a kindergarten version it is being sort of revised with the curriculum that we use and so we're piloting in very small just that a couple of research study schools are using kindergarten this year for us to study thank you I think I'm kind of encouraged to hear that because one of

[01:40:12] the conversations that we've had particularly the last session was having intervention materials for students that were not Lexia that were screen-based. If we're seeing such great success with grades one and two, perhaps that's an opportunity for us to bring this to kindergarten and remove the need to have the Lexia-based intervention. You're shaking your head. This is a thing that could potentially be considered? It's in, I mean, they're still highlighting it. It's not a, I wouldn't say it's a package that's ready for prime time at this time. Kind of like the piloting of the ECRI last year or was that? It was two

[01:40:51] years ago we did two schools and I think you know it's a very limited group that's beginning to pilot it because it's not I wouldn't even say that the ECRI people would say it's ready for prime time at this time for us so yeah but it could be something down the road. It's good to have another option because I know that was a conversation at the work session because we really don't want to have to rely for our kindergartners to be on screen to receive their intervention so I'm glad to hear there's some other things that we could be exploring maybe I mean well of course there are many other things we

[01:41:26] can be exploring right the reading plan mandate came in in 1997 I believe so you know we didn't have Lexia for many years so I think there are options video II however has also provided their best practice list and I'm I would bet ECRI is not yet there because it's not necessarily a Virginia program at this point yet thank you okay thanks that's it madam chair thank you okay 7.01 action item certificate of a closed meeting

[01:42:05] compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712d of the code of Virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on September 10 2026 to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting if a board member believes that there was a departure from the requirements of the code of virginia section please describe generally the nature of the type of procedural violation you allege without disclosing the confidential substantive content of the closed

[01:42:44] session discussion before the board takes a vote on the motion to certified closed meeting compliance all those in favor um we need to move on a second or misleading i'm sorry okay do i have a motion to certify closed meeting compliance miss anderson do i second mr frisch all those in favor

[01:43:17] miss anderson mr frisch mr mcdaniel miss dixit mr dunn miss st john cunning and myself and myself all those i'm sorry mr dannon not mr dunn do the clerks have that thank you all those opposed uh dr anderson and miss marron um dr anderson please state the substance well that's everyone at the dais so there's no abstentions uh dr anderson please state the substance of the departure

[01:43:52] before i ask this may i ask um what is the basis for this um i'm asking mr foster can you share with me why this part is required yes virginia code section 2.2 dash 2712 subparagraph d requires that when a member votes know that they should generally state the substance as the chair just indicated may i ask you to read that paragraph for me sure stand by please paragraph paragraph d

[01:44:26] of section 2.2-2712 of the virginia code i'm going to read the relevant portion because it's somewhat of a long long paragraph any member of the public body who believes that there was a departure from the requirements of clauses one and two that's the part that is above shall so state prior to the vote indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment has taken place the statement shall be recorded in the minutes of the public body okay thank you um i'm trying to thread the line here with what you've just shared and what miss lady shared but

[01:45:04] my objection is that i believe we had some conversations that would have been appropriate for the public and were not necessarily in compliance with the closed meeting motion. Is that sufficient?

[01:45:19] - Thank you, yes, thank you, Mr. Foster. Ms. Marin, please state the substance of the departure. - The board received an educational presentation about an instructional approach and materials to be purchased from a guest outside of FCPS. I also wanna say this is now the second time this calendar year where I'm registering a minority vote regarding confirmation of a FOIA-related motion, and I find it troubling that new interpretations continue emerging unexpectedly, particularly when it's me who is using my vote in the minority.

[01:45:50] - Thank you. 7.02 action item. Confirmation of action taken at a closed meeting. Closed motion number one. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion.

[01:46:16] - Geez. Okay, I have it, it just took me a minute. I move to excuse from attendance at school. Certain students identified in the closed meeting pursuant to Virginia code section 22.1-254B1.

[01:46:34] - Is there a second? - I second. - All those in favor, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Marin, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, myself, all those opposed.

[01:46:49] Abstentions, Mr. Frisch and Mr. McDaniel. Will the clerk read the vote? - So that's 7-0-2-3 with Mr. Moon, Mr. McElveen, and Mr. Dunn away from the table.

[01:47:15] Closed motion number two, I call Ms. Anderson for a motion. I move that the Fairfax County School Board uphold the finding of hearing Officer Ross Holden deny the step four grievance appeal of the employees discussed in closed session and direct the superintendent to take the steps discussed in closed session.

[01:47:36] Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Dunn, Ms. St. John Cunningham, and myself. All those opposed? Gosh, Mr. Dannen.

[01:47:53] I'm sorry, it's Mr. Dannen, not Mr. Dunn. who set up the seating arrangement I think it was me okay do we need to do that again or do you have the okay thank you all those opposed Dr. Anderson abstentions Ms. Marin the clerk and Ms. Dixit will the clerk read the vote 7122 with Mr. Moon and Mr. Dunn away from the table thank you 7.03

[01:48:30] approval of policy 1360 visitors to schools policy 1501 public access to information policy 5105 authority to enter into contractual agreements and policy 5501 preparation of annual budget I apologize Miss Lady that should also include a policy 5017 and policy 1405 in policy 1405 this is an omnibus main motion I call on Miss Anderson for a motion I move that the school board adopt the following

[01:49:10] policies is revised and detailed in the agenda item on board docs would leave for the clerk to make technical grammatical or formatting changes policy 1360 visitors to schools policy 1405 accountability for school board or for division efficiency and effectiveness policy 1501 public access to information policy 15 i'm sorry 5017 school procurement system policy 5105 authority to enter into contractual agreements and policy 5501 preparation of annual budget is there a second second thank you miss anderson would you

[01:49:48] like to speak to your motion? I would. The Governance Committee got off to a great start, as I reported the last meeting. On July 27th, I sent 13 policies, and they were posted to board docs for the early meetings later in August after we first got back.

[01:50:08] There were 11 more posted in that folder on August 10th. This was a slight departure from way that we had done it previously to make it a little easier to keep organized for the community because we were we were i have heard the pleas from my colleagues about the fact that we had 105 policies that were out of date at the time um at the end of the last session and so i have the re part of the reason that i stepped forward to serve on um the governance committee this year is because i have a fair amount of experience 15 years of experience and i'm going

[01:50:43] TO CALL THESE LESSON PLANS AT SOME POINT, I PROMISE, BUT 15 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE MANAGING THIS TYPE OF WORK WHERE YOU TAKE INPUT FROM A LOT OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE AND WORKING THE PROCESS OF TAKING SOMETHING THAT IS IN A DRAFT FORM THROUGH A COMMITTEE WHERE YOU HAVE LOTS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE THAT HAVE DIFFERENT INPUT.

[01:51:01] AND SO ON OUR FIRST GOVERNANCE MEETING, WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO THROUGH EVERYTHING that was pulled forward and we took 17 of those and moved them to consent and unanimously so it was a it was a great meeting we were able to move through quite a bit and we like i said we have big auspicious goals that we are going to get through as many of the 105 as we possibly can this year these six policies were part of that group of 17. i didn't receive any specific comments as to what the concerns were as to why these specific ones were pulled off but i'm interested to have the

[01:51:37] the conversation. Thank you. Mr. Dannem, would you like to speak to your second? Yeah, just briefly, I appreciate my Springfield district colleagues' work to get these to us several months ago. And as a policy wonk, I was very excited to get to serve on the governance committee, and I was only maybe a little bit disappointed that some of these policies were so short and so forth, and a lot of work had already been done. But that said, I also appreciate, and it doesn't apply to most of these, But for the ones that had been raised, you know, I and my staff looked at these and had a number of concerns and discussed it with Ms. Anderson and making for the changes and clarifications and so forth.

[01:52:17] And I also appreciate my governor's committee colleagues working through these as well. I know it's a lot of policies that are out of date, a lot of work to be done, and I'm looking forward to more good things to come. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Marin, followed by Mr. Frisch. Well, I love reviewing policy.

[01:52:33] It's one of my favorite things to do, and I think it's one of the most important things that our school board can do. I happen to have a master's in public policy, so it's always been my jam. And last year, our governance committee that I chaired was really productive. I took it upon myself to make sure all my colleagues were informed.

[01:52:50] And it was only at the end of the governance session in late June where the now chair sent over a dozen policies, redlined, and asked me to, quote, put them on new business on July 9th and consent on July 16th. One, the committee was already done, so I find it interesting that now it's time to talk to people and have lots of different input, lots of different people with different input, because then what's happened is 24 policies got put on the agenda before we even reconvened from recess, and the first governance meeting was the second day before school, and I was at six schools that day getting ready for back to school,

[01:53:28] and due to the way it was improperly loaded onto board docs, I didn't see that there were documents there, and it turns out that some of those policies were things that I've actually had my eye on for quite some time, but because the chair didn't notify us that all of these policies were coming through, I didn't realize that.

[01:53:44] So, visitors to schools, public access information, authority to enter into contractual agreements, and preparation of annual budget, indeed, as one just said, it's disappointing that some of them are short, and it's troubling that the governance committee unanimously pass these, while one member just said it's disappointing that they're short.

[01:54:02] This is where we're supposed to do that policy work. I also found that two policies were directly related to the audit committee work that I just began. So all in all, these policies that started being discussed August 20th are now due to be moved today, September 10th.

[01:54:17] That's a lot of policies. And so I asked for these to be pulled because I wanted to ask my colleagues to have them not pass, but I think that is a unrealistic ask. So I'm sure the policies will pass. I did think that our audit chair was going to request that two of the policies go to audit, but I'm not sure if that's what's happened.

[01:54:38] But I did just want to register that the board works best when we all communicate what we're doing, give each other time, and especially when it comes to policy, really make sure that we're codifying what is best and thoughtful. Thank you, Mr. Frisch.

[01:54:56] Thank you. Excuse me. I think one of the reasons that governance was able to move these forward to consent unanimously is because board members came to the meeting prepared to have the conversation. Many of us had revisions that we wanted, and we talked them through to consensus and agreement and adopted those changes, and then voted to move them on to the full board.

[01:55:25] That doesn't mean we got through everything. I think there's 10 more or 12 more that we have at our next meeting-- excuse me-- where we still had a lot of-- I wouldn't necessarily say disagreement but want a deeper conversation and so we'll be tackling those I think next week.

[01:55:43] But we've had the same opportunity to engage with each other and will at Governance Committee as well. Thank you. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. As one Governance Board member that had a number of edits, I do want to say I did appreciate the way that we were able to gather the input and come to consensus but the thing that really stuck out with me because i had a couple of policies i believe it's 57 10 and i don't remember the other number i wrote it down here somewhere but now i can't find it oh yes here it is um 50 17

[01:56:19] and 50 10 and my advocacy in the meeting had been to combine the two um but i did not have language that had that already done and so the question that was asked of me is could we approve them with the edits that we've all you know provided but come back later for the combination so that was a suggestion that I readily accepted and so I do expect for that to happen even though now they are now on time having said that the reason why I brought this as an example is I believe this

[01:56:54] will also apply for these policies that have been pulled since we still clearly have some more thoughts around it, I don't think it will impede us to be able to bring these back in the near term. We don't have to wait five years. So I think each of every one of us has a space where we can make some further revisions. I actually caught my own error, even on my sheets. I was navigating a lot.

[01:57:19] I had a subsection that I had provided, but I did not bring to the table because I misnumbered it. So that would be something that I bring to a policy that I've already approved, because I just missed that component. I wanna take away the sense of finality around all of these, 'cause I don't think we have that.

[01:57:37] We have a backlog, but we will still have the opportunity to make these tweaks and to shop them around the way that we do with other things as part of the governance manual. So I just wanna make sure that I put that in the room, so just because these are being passed doesn't necessarily mean it's the end, and we don't have to wait five years for that.

[01:57:55] We all have that opportunity, and I will be taking advantage of that for the one that I missed, which I didn't even notice until today. Thank you. Ms. St. John Cunningham. Thank you. I also want to appreciate the time that we had to work on these and do a deep dive and how we were able to move quickly through the ones that we had in agreement.

[01:58:15] We all made comments ahead of time. Everybody came prepared. For the ones that we had questions, those were pulled aside. And because there is such a backlog, I just want to say that we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good and that these are living documents that we can come back to and look at at the discretion of any board member, but each committee is the committee that is dealing with that specific issue.

[01:58:43] I also am on audit, and I know that there are a lot of audit topics that I have to dig deep into, whereas I'm not digging deep into some other committee because I'm trusting my other board members to be digging deep into that, and if I have questions, I go to them or they come to me.

[01:59:01] So I really appreciate that all of this work was done, that we had the time to do it, and that we can always revisit them. So I really thank every member in the audit committee for all the input that they put in because it was very thoughtful -- I mean, not the audit, I'm sorry, also the audit committee who has done very thoughtful work, but also the governance committee.

[01:59:26] Thank you. Yeah, well I appreciate an attitude of having a constant flow and an evolution of work. We would be lucky to review our policies within five years as required by law, let alone review some twice in that time period. Our current homework policy was last reviewed in 2009. That's policy 3205. So and in the last two years of governance we had conversations about whether when we review policy should we try to make them as current as possible or just do a cursory review. Look I'm thrilled that we're passing so many policies in one way but it has to be

[02:00:03] done with some thought and it's not just so we can say we reviewed them their opportunities to you know say things of important how we want to do things so I will do my best to review the upcoming policies on the Tuesday September 15th Governance Committee meeting and hope that we can have more collaboration and input from the whole board before things get agendized okay I will call for the

[02:00:38] vote um and the motions should be on the screen thank you very much all those in favor ms anderson mr frisch mr moon mr mckelveen mr mcdaniel mr dunn mr dann and dr anderson miss st john cunning and myself and miss dixit i think that's unanimous i'm sorry all those opposed ms marron will the clerk read the vote 11-1 the motion carries thank you 7.04 award a contract hvac prepares to support

[02:01:14] 2026 ENERGY STAR certification at nine school sites. I call on Mr. Dunn for a motion. That the school board award the contract for HVAC repairs to support 2026 ENERGY STAR certification at nine school sites to CMTA Inc. in the total amount of $392,137.95 and authorize the division superintendent or the chief operating officer to execute, deliver, and administer the contract on behalf of the school board. Is there a second? Second. Thank Thank you. Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your motion?

[02:01:48] Well, I'd like to ask a couple of questions. Mr. Gordon, can you tell me more about the nature of this contract and why we're, in general, when we do a school renovation, we upgrade the HVAC to the latest technology. But the way this contract is set up, it's to achieve 2026 Energy Star certification, which having worked at the Department of Energy in the part that focuses on Energy Star, I'm very familiar with that program.

[02:02:16] And generally, while it has the beneficial impact of, you know, reducing carbon emissions, being more energy efficient, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's more effective as a system in achieving heating and cooling of our schools or avoiding development of mold.

[02:02:35] And so I'm trying to understand just the cost is described as achieving ENGY STAR certification, which I haven't seen in my three years on the school board a contract for that purpose.

[02:02:47] So yesterday so the proposal work directly supports SPS priorities for healthy indoor environments more prevention and reliable HVAC performance so it's more about energy stars certification. It's also about doing repair work for nine schools. So nine schools including this project have documented HVAC deficiencies include in filled outdoor air dampers constant a constant condensed and refrigerant issues failed heat exchangers.

[02:03:21] and molders so it's not just to achieve energy star certification it's about repairing existing problems to prevent more about the prevention of mold and other indoor air quality concerns is there a part of the contract that is explicitly for the certification as opposed to just repairs or is it just by doing these repairs we get the certification for free I don't think there's a part that deals with its primary focus on the certification. For us, it's about

[02:03:58] achieving the certification by doing this work. And in the end, if we're looking at supporting ESPCs down the road, it will help us achieve those requirements as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second?

[02:04:16] Nothing to add. Not seeing any other lights on. Ms. Dixit. So I just have a quick question, and it is about generally HVAC. And is it I understand it's for efficiency and for the Energy Star, but how much of our schools right now are struggling with this situation?

[02:04:42] So how do you decide which schools should get this Energy Star certification? So overall, the process is not about who has Energy Star certification, but to ask your question, we have 29 million square feet of leased and owned real property space.

[02:05:04] And so I think probably the average age of our facility, you know, the bulk of our facilities, about 60% of them were built in the 1950s or 60 years earlier or around that time frame. So we do have an aging HVAC system across the footprint. So this particular contract will help us make repairs until we can get to the process or have funding in place to do full arm replacements.

[02:05:27] So the facility condition assessment that we're currently doing will lead to that process. This time next year, we'll be looking at a prioritized list of projects. So that will help us determine where do we go next with the next round of replacements and work. I will call for the vote on the motion, which is on the screen.

[02:05:47] All those in favor, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Mr. Moon, Mr. McElvee, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Dixon, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, and myself, all opposed. Ms. Marin with Mr. Dannet away from the table.

[02:06:04] Will the clerk read the vote? 10-1-0-1, the motion carries. point of order please this was the energy star contract correct yes without objection may I please change my vote to yes yes thank you 11-0 with Mr. Dan away from the desk 7.05 award a contract synthetic turf field replacements at South County Middle School I call on Mr. Dunn for a motion I move to postpone action item 7.05 award of contracts synthetic turf field replacements at South County Middle School to the next regular school board meeting on September 24th 2026

[02:06:42] is there a second? I second. Mr. Dunn would like to speak to your motion. Yes please. Dr. Reed has acted to protect the health and safety of our student athletes by banning the use of crumb rubber for artificial turf fields on FCPS maintained athletic fields. She directed the use of organic infill last year for turf fields at Hayfield Secondary School, Chantilly High School, Justice High School, and South County High School. Unfortunately the Parks Authority has the ability under our memorandum of agreement to second-guess our judgment and use crumb rubber infill on the fields they are responsible for

[02:07:22] maintaining. I believe we as a school district need to take a stand to protect the health and safety of our student-athletes by requiring organic infill rather than crumb rubber. We cannot have different health and safety standards for our fields based on who is paying the bill.

[02:07:38] There are numerous studies finding that known carcinogens, heavy metals, and PFAS, known as forever chemicals are present in crumb rubber. Children are especially vulnerable to these exposures because of their developing organs and faster breathing rates. Crumb rubber is also associated with higher field temperatures and is an environmental hazard with microplastics shedding into waterways. The Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center noted that crumb rubber fields can exceed 160 degrees on hot days and a 2024 systematic review of more than 5,600 studies found that crumb rubber infill and turf fibers contain heavy metals and rubber additives at

[02:08:18] concentrations that exceeded acceptable cancer thresholds with children facing the highest risk. Montgomery County Public Schools has banned crumb rubber on turf for more than 10 years. This difference in policy between two similar sized and neighboring districts made national news in 2015. Neighboring jurisdictions are also moving away from crumb rubber when replacing turfs. We should not be an outlier in the region when it comes to protecting the health of our students, and that is why I applaud the efforts of our superintendent to protect the safety of our children. I recognize that organic infill can be cost competitive with crumb rubber,

[02:08:57] but we simply can't jeopardize the health and safety of our student-athletes by simply defaulting to crumb rubber, which is more conventionally known and can sometimes, depending on bids, be the lowest cost material. The choice of infill and turf replacement should be a collaborative decision among FCPS, the Board of Supervisors, and FCPA. And fundamentally, this comes down to a choice about student safety and student health. And that is an issue that I know we are united on supporting. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Anderson, would you like to speak your second?

[02:09:30] Just quickly, I'd like to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. This is actually a field that my children play on often. And despite the fact that they will tell you that they hate the cork infill because it is not as soft as the chrome rubber. I appreciate the fact that I don't have chrome rubber all over my house because it comes in on everything. So I am wholeheartedly in support of this. I do think that this is possibly just a communication issue between the two groups that we just need to make sure that we're in alignment with the park authority. The agreement that we have with the park authority is the way we've received so many turf fields and it is a

[02:10:06] beneficial relationship for both of us to have as these are not a cheap endeavor for us to create more opportunities to play in many places where we don't have heavy usage available just because of space limitations. And so I appreciate the fact that we're going to take a pause here just to have an opportunity to go back and double check with the park authority about whether or not we can, even if we, I understand that our agreement is for a certain, but if the cost is competitive with each other then it would be worth it on our side to go ahead and stand with what we said that

[02:10:40] we were going to do. Thank you. Ms. Marin. Yes. So FCPS and the park authority are not in alignment about how about the kind of turf that should be used on our fields. FCPS wants to move away from crumb rubber and the park surface does not. It's a disagreement that needs to be resolved and one party is not going to be happy. This is why I have recommended to the Fairfax County Athletic council that I'm the liaison on for the second year to invite a neutral facilitator for the three involved agencies, the agencies that are involved with public facilities assets. That's we the schools, the county, and the park service, which are three distinct entities. Until those

[02:11:18] three entities come together and make decisions, some of which some will not be happy with, we will remain in this place of just a quagmire. You know, the inability to agree on basic facility assets and business processes and responsibilities has stalled all sorts of projects and services from taking place over years and even decades. This includes replacing athletic fields all the way to the largest joint initiative, which is to upgrade a public school. That's Centerville High School. So I think a good place to start practicing how to work together across the three agencies can be on this matter of turf, where we figure out how to agree as adults and

[02:11:57] make decisions and move on. So I I agree with the motion which was to postpone this and I appreciate it being pulled and I think this is an opportunity to really figure it out. It might take longer than the next business meeting. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I appreciate the conversation around this and for Mr. Dunn for pulling it so that we can engage. My question is for Dr. Reed.

[02:12:27] We postpone it. We have some conversations with the county. What expectations do we have on this? Is it an ask to match the material that we use on our playing field? Just walk me through what we can expect.

[02:12:46] Well, I'm not entirely sure what we can expect. I do know that we are drafting a communication to the Athletic Council, just sharing the concerns, I believe, that Mr. Dunn previously shared. There is a bit of a cost differential.

[02:13:02] However, the technologies on the new fields and the new turfs, the costs are getting closer and closer together for organic infill versus the crumb rubber. And in some cases, in particular, the new West Springfield field, our competitive playing field has no infill at all.

[02:13:23] It's called a pivot product. And we want to make sure, and I know the Athletic Council shares a concern, to make sure we have safe facilities. And as those costs get closer and closer together, it seems there are other reasons to consider either no infill or an organic infill.

[02:13:45] It's less heat in the summer, the crumb rubber. For those of you who have young student athletes, when we have the really hot summers and they're getting hotter and hotter, That crumb rubber heats up and there are times that we're not able to use the fields because they're so hot.

[02:14:03] They require water and the non-infilled turf fields don't require water. And the non-infilled turf fields also have a longer lifetime, right? And so it may require a little more capital in the outlay for the beginning or the early replacement, but they're actually projected to last longer.

[02:14:25] So I think that there are benefits that are, you know, that we can see from a different type of infill. So I will be providing a correspondence and certainly can get back to the board as soon as, you know, I have a response.

[02:14:44] No, I would appreciate that. And thank you for the information. It appears, at least from what I heard from you, that for a nominal increase that we have these significant benefits. I don't know. I think we all have probably a different definition of nominal, but I do think that what I can say is the cost differential has been narrowing between the artificial turf and the crumb rubber turf, and I think that the benefits when you add up the upkeep, the heat, the times we're not able to use the field because of the heat, and then now the opportunity with newer

[02:15:21] technologies to have a no-infill turf field that we don't have to water and has a longer lifespan, I think we're going to start to see some economies of scale that we didn't have before, which may make these alternatives more palatable. And so it's safe to say that as of current, all of our practice fields are similarly situated with the less safe material.

[02:15:49] I think that where there's a question about safety, I think, rather than less safe. I think where you're talking about where there have been concerns raised, I think we have choices to go with products where there are not those concerns being raised.

[02:16:08] But it is fair to say that the park authority fields, those practice fields, are all currently crumb rubber fields. Thank you. So final question, Falls Church High School, which just engaged in renovation, I know we had this conversation with Mr. Frisch during some of the value engineering discussions in terms of the quality of the field.

[02:16:28] Is Falls Church similarly situated with its practice fields? I know the game field was one of the very first organic infield fields we put in. The practice fields, I don't know if we've concluded those yet.

[02:16:45] Mr. Gordon? Yes, ma'am. The practice field is up and running, and I do not believe it's chrome rubber, but I'll take a quick check on that as well. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I'll take a quick turn. I'm very glad my colleague pulled this and we can have this conversation, especially when you look and read the research about chrome rubber.

[02:17:08] I was a varsity goalkeeper at Madison for four years and on the ground all the time. So when you're not in contact that way, it's different. But when you're in contact with the ground that often, it's exponentially worse. And so I certainly, you know, I think we need to think about that.

[02:17:28] You know, I think the research says, you know, if you're not laying in it all day long, perhaps it's not as statistically significant. But if you're in certain types of positions, I think it's a great danger. And to the point of what's happening or what we put in at West Springfield, it's a greater cost up front, but it's realized down the road.

[02:17:48] so hopefully uh with the letter that staff will draft um we can continue this conversation um and hopefully get to a good result so seeing no more lights i'll call for the vote all those in favor miss anderson mr frisch miss marron mr moon mr mckelveen mr mcdaniel miss dixit mr dunn mr dannon dr anderson miss a john cunning and myself that's unanimous for board members present right okay agenda item 7.06 motion to amend something previously adopted

[02:18:23] updates to the housing projections request. I call Mr. Dunn for a motion. I move to amend the previously adopted follow-on motion number one to agenda item 7.04 Skyview High School and Western Pyramids Boundary Study that was approved on July 16, 2026, as follows. Inserting the word division before the word superintendent, striking the word quarterly and inserting the word semi-annual in its place, striking the word western, striking the phrase for five years on a rolling

[02:18:59] basis and striking the phrase public presentation as scheduled in early 2027 and inserting the phrase and the second report delivered each September in its place. Is there a second? I second. Thank you. Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your motion? Briefly. First of all, I'd like to thank my colleagues who brought the original motion, Ms. Marin and others who supported that motion.

[02:19:27] the original motion was intended to ensure that for five years coming out of the Skyview boundary study there was a regular report on new housing developments that could potentially influence the shape of our boundaries so that the school board would understand the potential impacts and boundaries could be adjusted accordingly. Having seen that motion and seeing and supporting its passage and knowing within our respective magisterial districts that's that's not just a concern for the western half of the county or the five high school pyramids that compose the

[02:20:05] sky view boundary study but it's an issue that affects the entire county especially as there's more infill development townhomes being built we want to make sure that on a permanent basis not just for five years but on a permanent basis and as part of our CIP our comprehensive plan that's developed every year on infrastructure student enrollment and so forth that we get a report that enables the school board members to understand in their parts of the county and on a county-wide basis potential changes to housing stock and availability and perhaps housing trends in terms

[02:20:44] of like how many children are living in different types of housing we've definitely seen a change in number of children for example living in condos compared to historically so this will enable us to have that information so as we move forward with our five-year periodic comprehensive boundary reviews we will have that information to inform those five-year boundary reviews as well AS WELL AS ANY SPECIFIC SCHOOL SPECIFIC BOUNDARY REVIEWS THAT ARE REQUIRED WHEN NEW HOUSING MAY ARISE AND REQUIRE AN INTERIM BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT.

[02:21:22] THANK YOU. MS. ST. JOHN CUNNING WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR SECOND. YES, BRIEFLY. AND THIS AMENDMENT ACTUALLY BUILDS ON THE WORK OF WHAT THE HUNTER MILL REPRESENTATIVE BROUGHT. WE'VE SEEN THROUGH OUR RECENT BOUNDARY WORK THAT THERE IS MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED INCLUDING SCHOOL ENROLLMENT LEVELS AND HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS.

[02:21:41] THE APT INSIGHT THAT HOUSING PROJECTIONS MUST BE CONSIDERED AS PART OF THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN APPLIES TO THE ENTIRE COUNTY. WE HAVE THEREFORE BROADENED THE MOTION BEYOND ITS ORIGINAL LIMITATION OF THE WESTERN AREAS OF THE COUNTY. I KNOW JUST TRAVELING THROUGHOUT MY DISTRICT I'LL ALL OF A SUDDEN TURN AROUND AND SEE LIKE THERE'S A NEW DEVELOPMENT COMING UP AND WE'RE NOT AWARE OF IT.

[02:22:00] AND IN LIGHT OF ALSO WHAT WE'VE BEEN DISCUSSING IN TERMS OF PEDESTRIAN SAFETY, I THINK THAT WHEN WE'RE LOOKING AT THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT projections and we're looking at housing developments, that we should have a voice with our board of supervisor partners about if this is coming up, what are sidewalks going to look like, what are crossing areas going to look like.

[02:22:17] So I think there's a lot of implications by making this broader to include the whole county. And I will say that I don't have the opportunity to get to the western part of the county very often, so I really don't know what's going on there. And as one of my colleagues once said, they felt they were traveling to the other part of the world when they were coming to my side of the county.

[02:22:35] They have no idea what's coming on in my side of the county. So this is a comprehensive way for all of us to have the information when we need it and to be able to make decisions, not just with boundary work, but with safety for pedestrians and for traffic. Thank you, Mr.

[02:22:53] Frisch. Thank you. First, I want to say I appreciate the collaboration that and the ability to provide feedback to Mr. Dunn and Miss St. John Cunning so how we spent the beginning of our summer recess in chatting about these things I supported the previous iteration of the motion in July and during my comments I indicated that you know when I look at Providence District whether it's the Tyson's periphery whether it's Western Falls

[02:23:31] Church on the county side even parts of Oakton and of course in county side Vienna there's all kinds of development happening and you know I said at the time that in the same way that the Skyview and Western High School analysis would be helpful for better understanding the impacts on that side of the county it would be helpful for at least in Providence District to have a better understanding of this information for our part of the county as well but i wasn't ready with

[02:24:08] language to offer at that time and so i do appreciate mr dunn and miss st john cunning for working together on this and taking input from uh from me i'm sure from others as well to bring to this point and i think it'll be um it'll provide a a great conversation starter for us with the CIP and the additional report that we'll receive throughout the year so I appreciate the work thank you thank you Ms. Marin yes I'm happy to support this when I brought the initial motion regarding Skyview you know it was clear that obviously we could have the data for the

[02:24:46] whole district I just wanted to understand the timeline because this is related to boundaries and so I'm aware that there was just a I think a meeting on September 3rd at Bryn Mawr Park elementary school and then the broader community is september 23rd is that um when is the board going to be voting on potential boundary changes can someone please remind me i can answer that the current hot spots on the boundary review are intended to be brought to the board in january

[02:25:25] of 2027 for a vote thank you dr reed so and i was eager to share my input about lewis forgetting that we were going to talk about this uh so that was a little premature they are still the same message so there's going to be no difference for the students at Lewis until at least the fall of next year I just don't understand how the board can perpetuate a high school with under enrollment I I guess I don't know what to say I don't understand how we did the comprehensive boundary and didn't make this change and now we're going to give the kids a whole another year so that vote

[02:26:01] that we make in January will be effective for the fall is that correct Dr. Reed yes ma'am that's the intent. Is there, and I don't know if I'm able to attend that upcoming meeting, but is there an intention that the proposed changes would result in a right sizing of Lewis High School? I don't believe there's a current hotspot study that was named or approved by the board last January that would address Lewis's enrollment at this time. So is it correct then there is no solution on the table to better adjust the enrollment at Lewis High School? There is not a boundary solution

[02:26:38] currently being reviewed that has a direct impact on Lewis High School that's correct well I'm interested in looking at what in the boundary policy could allow us to open that back up I believe there's a stipulation that says something about program changes I'm not sure but I do urge the board to join me in that effort because these students are suffering the staff are suffering there's no reason that one of our high schools should be under enrolled because it's a hard decision to make so I will be looking at how to do that and certainly join others to help me thank

[02:27:09] Thank you. Mr. Frisch, did you want to go back? All right. Seeing no other lights on, I'll call for the vote for the motions on the screen. All those in favor? Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, and myself. That's unanimous.

[02:27:35] Agenda item 7.07, motion regarding increasing programmatic options at high schools. I call Ms. St. John Cunningham for a motion. I move to direct the division superintendent to recommend programmatic options to increase enrollment at traditional high schools with program capacity utilization of less than 85 percent, excluding modulars and trailers, prioritizing high schools with enrollment of fewer than 1,800 students no later than January 31st, 2027.

[02:28:04] Future reviews of new qualifying schools shall be part of the annual capital improvement program recommendations should appropriately account for adjacent high school pyramid programming with some adjustments occurring at select schools in the 2027-2028 school year.

[02:28:19] Is there a second? I second. Thank you. Ms. St. John Cunningham, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, I would. So across the county, our schools provide rich and inspiring course offerings for all students. This motion reflects our dedication to ensure that every high school boasts thriving enrollment that unlocks the full potential of our academic, elective, and extracurricular offerings.

[02:28:43] This motion embraces a proactive vision. It empowers staff to elevate programming strategies, broaden access to high-quality opportunities, and optimize the capacity of our facilities. The motion also complements our boundary review work by providing the safety net of focused support and enrichment for smaller high schools and those with available capacity, such as those that I represent or have students from my district in, such as Lewis and Mount Vernon.

[02:29:11] Looking beyond any single high school, this motion establishes a thoughtful and strategic division-wide process to uplift and support the distinct needs of each one of our high schools. Through my 26 years in FCPS schools, I have seen firsthand how vibrant, expanding program offerings inspire, attract, and retain students.

[02:29:30] Strong programs bring local families together and energize our neighborhood schools. By fine-tuning our programming to the unique strengths and aspirations of each of our communities, we continue to position every student to thrive, ensuring equitable distribution of specialized options, ensures broader access to enriching learning experiences across the division.

[02:29:51] high schools with available space provide us with an exciting opportunity to introduce and build upon innovative sought-after programs programs such as sequential dual enrollment help open career doors helping students accelerate their academic and professional journeys expanding our CTE programs in alignment with modern workforce demand what modern workforce demands provides our students with highly rewarding high demand career pathways I am confident that by prioritizing dynamic program at programmatic adjustments we can more holistically support full and thriving student communities and build sustainable

[02:30:26] enrollment over time at schools like lewis and mount vernon i look forward to our continued work together and encourage as much community participation throughout this process as possible thank you miss dixit would like to speak to your second yes i would um one of the primary guiding slogan for fcps is excellence equity and opportunity and we want to make sure it is across all our schools in our in our county and this motion is going to obviously help with the the inequities we have right now in place we have some overcrowded school we

[02:31:01] have some under enrolled schools and I would appreciate I appreciate my colleague to bring this motion happy to support this because we need to be thoughtful when we have traditional high schools operating with below 85% utilization particularly schools with less than 1800 student I believe we WE SHOULD LOOK MORE CAREFULLY AT WHETHER STRONG PROGRAMMATIC OPTIONS CAN HELP INCREASE ENROLLMENT AND STRENGTHEN THOSE SCHOOL COMMUNITIES.

[02:31:31] FROM THE BUDGET AND CAPITAL PLANNING PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT. BEFORE WE CONTINUE INVESTING SIGNIFICANT DOLLARS IN ADDITIONAL CAPACITY, WE SHOULD MAKE SURE WE ARE MAKING THE BEST POSSIBLE USE OF THE FACILITIES THE FACILITIES TAXPAYERS ARE ALREADY FUNDED. I APPRECIATE THIS ALSO BECAUSE IT BECOMES A PART OF OUR ANNUAL CIP PROCESS BECAUSE enrollment and capacity numbers changes over time this gives the board a regular opportunity to look at where program programming enrollment and facility utilization may need to be better aligned so thank you for bringing this Ms. St. John Cunning and I'm happy to support it thanks

[02:32:09] thank you Mr. Frisch thank you so at our last meeting before the end of the school year there There were a few motions that were very similar. I think Ms. St. John Cunningham, Ms. Dixit had one, Mr. Dunn had one.

[02:32:24] And so I appreciate seeing a revised version here before the board that takes good elements from both motions and kind of melds them together. Specifically, I think having an accounting for percentage and population is good, as is additional details about modulars and trailers I like the adjustment to include this as part of the annual capital improvement program so that we're picking up schools that may fall

[02:32:56] into this category and in terms of programming one of the things for Mr. Dunn's motion that was pulled before the end of the meeting before the last meeting was ensuring that we're We're not essentially putting programs at schools that are nearby that might cannibalize off of one another.

[02:33:18] And so being thoughtful about the programs that are placed so that you're not, you know, what is the phrase? Robbing Mary to pay Paul. I might have used the wrong names in that idiom. So that you're growing a school community, not necessarily at the expense of another similar program.

[02:33:38] So I'm happy to support this. I appreciate the conversations I had over break with Mr. Dunn, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Tixit about this, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you, Mr. Dunn, followed by Ms. Marron. So I...

[02:33:54] Sorry, Mr. Dunn, followed by Ms. Marron. Oh, Mr. Dunn, followed by me. Thank you. This isn't an abstract policy issue, although the motion is phrased a little bit broadly, and that's because I represent constituents at Lewis High School and Mount Vernon High School, which are the two schools that will be affected by this motion.

[02:34:14] This isn't just a data point on a spreadsheet. This is about the daily reality of the kids who attend these high schools and the programs they have access to, the advanced academic classes they have access to, the sports where they're able to form sports teams, the extracurriculars from marching band to theater, where they're able to have a vibrant community formed as a result of the number of students who are enrolled at that high school.

[02:34:41] I want to acknowledge and commend the many members of the Lewis High School community, including those who are in attendance this evening, who have come to this podium over the last several months, including tonight, to talk about the effects of the declining enrollment and the impacts on their school community. You've been very patient, you've been persistent, and you deserve to see the board act. This motion directs the superintendent to come back to us with real actionable programmatic options for Lewis and for Mount Vernon to ensure that they have new programming put in place. Either programming created from scratch, programming that's

[02:35:16] expanded and bolstered such as the amazing Lewis Leadership Development Program or program that gets relocated from other schools. All of those are options and all of them are on the table because we have to, if we believe in the One Fairfax equity vision, we have to talk about the impacts on underutilization of schools for many many years without a corresponding plan of action. In many places in Virginia, 1400-1500 students might seem like a large high school, but here in Fairfax County that's far below neighboring high schools including

[02:35:51] West Springfield which is almost 2800, almost twice the size of Lewis. And at this size high schools start to lose the critical mass to sustain a full range of electives, advanced academics, arts, and CTE programs. Schools this size also are affected by relegation to lower academic leagues where their postseason play might be far distant from neighboring schools in Fairfax County.

[02:36:17] So this motion asks FCPS staff to do the hard creative work of identifying programs when boundaries can't be an option or a solution. Then we need to look at magnet offerings, academies, partnerships, specialized pathways that could make these schools a stronger draw for families who currently have other options at the end what we want to make sure is that we believe and practice Lewis Strong Mount Vernon Strong and provide an equitable opportunity for every student in this in this county regardless of the school they attend to have equal and fair access to advanced academics classes athletics extracurriculars and so forth because

[02:36:56] we all believe on the school board in a world-class education for every child and we have to make that real. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Marin. Thank you. So I agree with this but today is September 10th. Why do we need until January 31st? It seems to make sense that if the superintendent can prioritize the information in this for Lewis and other schools with similar membership and thinking about Herndon and provide that info by say the end of the first quarter then the board can review and make a program decision which once the board approves a program change this triggers the expedited adjustment section of policy

[02:37:36] 8130 section B4 off cycle boundary adjustment which says the superintendent is authorized to recommend expedited adjustment to school attendance areas after consultation with the school board publicly noticed meetings if the following instances occur and the fourth item is program changes so again if we asked the superintendent to conduct this review that we're voting on now but prioritize Lewis, I also think Herndon, whoever else is in that data set, come back to us in four to five weeks, we can vote on that program change. And then that means the superintendent

[02:38:11] can take two months, generally the same timeline with the Skyview review, to run the boundary policy, a boundary process for Lewis, and then by January 31, when we vote for this, when we present the CIP, that presentation can happen. I don't see why we would wait. So that's my recommendation, and I welcome input I don't need to make a change to the motion right now I would prefer to give colleagues time but basically what I'm saying is something to the effect of we're going to direct the superintendent to prioritize the program change work so that the options are clear for

[02:38:48] Lewis and other similar schools with the membership issue the board votes on the program change which means the boundary process gets triggered for an expedited boundary and by the end of January when the CIP or whenever the CIP is produced, we can ultimately vote on a new boundary for those schools. I will propose a motion doing that, but I first welcome other people to share their thoughts. Thank you. Mr. McElveen. So I will first start by agreeing with others who have said that it was really a tragedy that we did not address Lewis in the boundary study, and we do have to

[02:39:27] fix that. I will also say that over the past year, we have had an opportunity, which is rare in these budgetary times to talk about innovative new programming and that's great but even as we add those new innovative programs they are not spread equitably throughout the county. As we heard from testimony tonight there is interest in the community in us looking at our staffing formula and I plan to bring a forum topic with Mr. Dunn to that effect that does revisit our

[02:40:03] staffing formula to ensure that all schools can offer similar programming even if they are slightly under enrolled as some of our schools find themselves to be. So I will be ending by just saying that what I tell everyone in the community all the time which is that all of our schools are great in Fairfax County there are just unequal opportunities at our schools and that's within our power to fix and I think this motion sets us down that road so I want to thank all the folks that have worked on this. Thank you. Mr. Dan. Thank you and I also extend my

[02:40:40] appreciation to my colleagues for bringing this up. I also want to say too that I only have a handful of students at Lewis but I've been there multiple times. I've spoken with teachers there. I appreciate that it's a very beloved school and at the bottom line it just needs more kids. So I recognize that programmatic options are one way of doing it but you know certainly considering other options as well to make sure that um the school gets the equitable number of students um that said too i also want to just go off script a little bit and say that um i really try and keep at arm's length when it comes to the voluntary processes right the board set a policy the boards

[02:41:16] need to stick to the policy um the minute that an elected official like myself gets involved it will automatically become politicized and so i'm trying to trust the staff i know the staff worked very hard to try and get us numbers and information um i'm happy to raise continue to raise questions and And I know Dr. Reed, we spoke about Lewis multiple times.

[02:41:34] And I do have a couple of questions either for Dr. Reed or for my colleagues who brought this. When deciding programmatic options, what is the role for community input into establishing those? So in general, there is a standard course offering that comes out of instructional services that the board reviews each year.

[02:41:57] And that's offered at all of our high schools, all of our comprehensive high schools. Then, there are other courses that are approved by the board, but due to often registration at all of our high schools, different ones of those are selected.

[02:42:15] In other words, those might be put on a selection registration form that students fill out. And honestly, regardless of the size of the high school, there are some courses that simply don't get enough of a sign-up from students that they're able to be offered.

[02:42:33] And sometimes that's because of the master schedule. We used to call it a conflict matrix. I don't know what they call it in Virginia. Is that what they call it here too? But sometimes like if you have a singleton course, perhaps, what am I thinking here? Maybe AP Mandarin Chinese, and there may only be one section of that in the whole day because there aren't necessarily going to be more students in one section, but because maybe there's a particular jazz band the same exact time and half of the kids really are in both then there's only one that likely will

[02:43:09] prevail does that make sense so that conflict matrix often creates a circumstance where some singleton electives are not able to be offered and so the master schedule work our dss's do is really both magical and challenging and so the while every school has the standard all schools that have those registrations are not going to have the same student choice and sign up.

[02:43:37] Therefore, you are going to have different courses that end up being not so much offered but actually enacted because we have budget constraints as well. And then you have situations we do have international baccalaureate programs in some of our high schools and then more predominant advanced placement programs in other high schools.

[02:44:01] and those have different and variable staffing formulas and then you have special programming so we have the global stem academy at edison we have the leadership academy at lewis just trying to keep it within that area and those programs sometimes are staffed differently for example the leadership program at lewis has a certain certain extra staffing allocation to support that. And so other programs, the Global STEM Academy at Edison may also. So there's just a lot of variables that go into what's offered at each of our high schools. I appreciate it.

[02:44:40] Can you speak a little bit to what, if any, recent reviews FCPS has done around transfer options? Because I hear a lot about students transferring in and out and so forth. There's been a significant amount of work on student transfers over the last couple of years, and I know that primarily that's been driven, but related to athletics and activities, making sure that the transfer rules are followed, and there are also VHSL has shifted a lot of their rules and regulations around residency and transfers, so that has had an impact on

[02:45:18] our transfer work we're also trying to offer more courses at neighboring schools if it's at all possible but I if you want a more in-depth I know miss Roman is here and can maybe speak to some of the transfer work that's been done student transfer work I know we are working to look at both the student transfer options that exist within our student transfer office as well as some of the limited number of regional administrative transfers to make sure that that process is standardized and equitable across all schools and all regions in

[02:45:58] our division so there are currently two programmatic transfers in the student transfer office as an option and the other one is the regional ones as well appreciate it the last question I have is just around residency requirements because this inevitably comes up at meetings and people have questions about it can you and I know the state is providing I think some kind of direction or has provided some kind of direction on on this can you talk to what is is currently done at FCPS to ensure families are meeting residency requirements within not within the county but within school's catchment area. Sure. Ms. Hall do you want to address the residency

[02:46:35] requirement practices that are currently in place? Thank you. We have a student residency officer can you oh I'm sorry can you hear me now I'm sorry we have a student residency officer who investigates concerns that are shared by community members, by the schools, and even might be submitted to the school board through the tip line. There's an investigation that goes on that takes some time. It can't be done over the summer because it requires the residency officer to not

[02:47:10] only check records through SIS, et cetera, but to also check the residency, the physical residency where the person has shown their CIS address, CIS being a student information system.

[02:47:27] And when they discover whether or not it seems they live in the pyramid or in the boundary, that information is shared with the schools and with other leadership, and a decision is made as to what should be done with the student.

[02:47:44] If they don't live in the boundary, then they are usually unenrolled. Can you speak to even a ballpark of how many types of similar how many types of actions like that have been taken maybe over the past year or so? So we're happy to have our answer that.

[02:48:01] I also want to make sure that we talk about the address certification that we do. The mailings, please. Thank you. At the beginning of the year or before December, the schools mail something to each and every one of the households in the system.

[02:48:18] then we look for the returns and from there we take that the student residency officer takes that information and they start an investigation to understand why the the mail was returned sometimes the family may have moved within the boundary or they may have just moved out of the state and they're they're gone and and sometimes there's a cost for investigation appreciate it and that was done this summer in the areas that are being described here that was done countywide that was done countywide last year not during the summer

[02:48:53] and they have started back up again okay okay and then yeah give a ballpark a precise number of how many enforcement actions were taken from what you're i can look that up for you appreciate it we do have the number for your for yours which is 20 you said you said 20 20 okay yes that's the of investigations got it okay thank you appreciate it thank you um mr moon well thank you madam chair i'm going to support this motion and mr dunn thanks for bringing this but i have a couple

[02:49:32] of questions for you a a looking at the language of emotion 85 figure and 1800 students those two numbers looking at those two numbers could you share with us other than two schools which other

[02:49:52] school might potentially fall under this. Are you yielding your time for an answer? Yes, Mr. Dunn or Ms. St. John Cunning. I actually don't have my notes, but when we were formulating this, there were five schools that qualified, but the two schools that had the most under-enrolled were both Mount Vernon. So there were five schools that fell within this. One of them is Herndon. One of them is Annandale. I think, yeah, so there were five, but of all those

[02:50:28] five the ones that had the least enrollment that were eighteen hundred and under were Mount Vernon High School and Lewis High School and so that's why we we went to that because of what the impact is in terms of as a student student the staffing ratios the capacity we also looked not just at we also looked at capacity and program capacity and so because they're the thing that these I'm I'm so sorry. I'm using up your time.

[02:51:01] That's a quick answer. I'm generous with my time, so do I have time left? Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I understand that Ms. Merron may have an amendment to this motion to ask a staff to bring the report to the board earlier than the date designated in your motion, which I also plan to support.

[02:51:29] And at that time, I might want to explore expanding the scope of a number of the schools that could also potentially benefit by being looked into all the similar efforts. Thank you.

[02:51:49] Mr. McDaniel. My first time speaking all night. So I appreciate, you know, as an at-large member, it's always boundaries are kind of, and programs are kind of awkward because I tend to defer to the magisterials and allow them to take the lead, and I stay hands-off for the most part.

[02:52:10] But I appreciate the representatives who represent these schools working together to come up with this language, but we want to crystallize what this does. It sets up a process whereby in perpetuity going forward, any high school that happens to fall below 85% for any reason will be caught in this review, and that was very intentionally done because we have a process of a five-year review for the physical boundaries, but we don't have a process for the flip side of the enrollment capacity coin, which is programming review.

[02:52:48] And even though the boundary policy speaks somewhat to programs with an off-cycle emergent clause, there was really nothing in place that provided for a program review in the event that capacity that the enrollment at a high school dropped below the threshold and the 85% number our our CIP and our facility staff have noted on multiple occasions that the ideal enrollment of the high school is 85 to 105% so that was the logic behind the 85% number so I again want to thank

[02:53:23] the makers of the motion for working together on this and I think it's a great way to solve the problem of the second part of the enrollment concerns we fixed the first problem which is the physical boundaries and i think this motion takes a very large step forward in fixing the second half of the problem which is program distribution so thank you thank you miss anderson sorry um can you turn your light on if you don't want to go back light off i mean

[02:54:01] Thank you. I'm going to go to Mr. Dunn followed by Ms. Marin. Thank you. I wanted to address the optimal range is 85 to 94 percent because that provides you some flex in rooms for specials, for counseling, for other things. But a key part that my colleague Mr.

[02:54:21] Frisch mentioned that I brought to this motion and that needs to be emphasized is what I call the two Chick-fil-A rule which is if you have a particular program at one high school you should not have the same program at an adjacent high school just as in the private sector Chick-fil-A you'll never find two adjacent Chick-fil-A's because they cannibalize each other's market share although we all well not everyone loves Chick-fil-A but made McDonald's right or other restaurants I should have used instead but it's a very simple concept and unfortunately we have

[02:54:57] violated this repeatedly throughout the history of FCPS, the best example being the IB program that was established at Mount Vernon. When it was first established, it was fantastically successful. Teachers, students moved from TJ to Mount Vernon, but then we established it at Edison and Lewis and lots of other places across the county, and, you know, those compete for the same pools of students. So in the same way, I do support keeping the focus and scope of this motion narrow, to focus on the high schools that have the greatest impact caused by under-enrollment.

[02:55:32] And the important thing to understand is that under-enrollment was not an accident of history. It was by deliberate design that there were neighborhoods that were moved out by previous superintendents, not Dr. Reed, in 2004 and 2013, which caused the loss of about 500 students from Lewis. Similarly, in Mount Vernon, there was a deliberate decision made in the 1980s to move out entire neighborhoods from the Mount Vernon pyramid to benefit neighboring schools. And if you look at West Potomac in 2018 to 2021, we did a big addition to add a thousand seats nearly when those kids

[02:56:12] could have been redistricted to Mount Vernon to solve the under enrollment. So there are decisions that have harmed Louis and Mount Vernon, and through this motion, I think adding program will help to remedy the problems that were caused by previous boards, by previous superintendents.

[02:56:28] Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I'm sorry. Mr. Shostak would like to speak. Thank you. Yeah, so I just want to start this off by saying that I'm fully in support of this motion.

[02:56:46] I had the pleasure of visiting Louis last year. I was doing a collaboration with, I'm president of the Hayfield Young Dems, and we were doing a collaboration with the Lewis Young Dems at Lewis, and we ended up outnumbering the students at Hayfield at Lewis because we were visiting their school, and we had a great time, but I'm just glad to see that now, to see Lewis and Mount Vernon getting the love they deserve with this motion.

[02:57:13] I do have a couple questions. My first being is part of this, if I heard correctly, that if if boundary changes are not, you know, are possible or or I guess likely is the idea that there will be further programming to attract students from like and families from other schools to attend Lewis and Mount Vernon.

[02:57:37] So things like academy classes like being added. Is that on the table? I can jump in and answer that. I believe that that is the conversation, Mr. Shostick, because as Mr. Dunn alluded, there is a STEM program at Edison at the moment where some kids can student transfer from Lewis to attend Edison for that program.

[02:58:06] And so this ask is to evaluate programming that would enhance the desirability of some other students to choose lewis and mount vernon in lieu of their base school because of programming okay yeah okay thank you that's that that was one of my big things the other and i guess going um into that one of the things that i i've noticed um because i was looking at academy classes going into the school year is that there's a lot of academy classes that are only offered in like basically across the county so i mean i i go to hayfield and they're like for example i was looking at

[02:58:43] Political science, philosophy, those are classes that are solely offered in like Langley and McLean. And there are no schools in Franconia or even in just even like in West Poe or Mason or anywhere that have these as academy offerings even.

[02:59:00] And so one of the things I was wondering with this is part of this potentially to introduce classes like those in Lewis so that students can have the opportunity, even if they still attend Hayfield or Edison, but can use that as an academy sort of tool to go there during the day and then come back if those classes could be then offered at Lewis.

[02:59:23] I'll take a stab at this answer just because people seem to be waiting for me to answer as a former director of student services. So I believe, Newt, that both philosophy and political science are on the optional course offerings list. They're not standard course offerings.

[02:59:39] And so Lewis or Mount Vernon or Hayfield could choose in the coming academic season to add this to their menu. I see. there's a whole set of optional courses and some programs are thriving in some places because a teacher was passionate about it and managed to get kids recruited in an activity, I mean an electives fair to try that course. So I think that's the short answer to that question. Okay so this is essentially more about trying to offer programming to make students transfer fully over

[03:00:17] and to lewis from surrounding schools just to clarify then that's my understanding okay thank you um miss marron for go back i'd like to make an amendment to the motion i move to amend the motion by striking the phrase january 31st 2027 and inserting the phrase october 22 2026 in its place is there a second second mr moon miss mayor would you like to speak to your amendment

[03:00:47] So again, the timeline for this could be if we amend this tonight and the superintendent presents to us for October 22 adoption, so that could either be perhaps she presents it a month from almost tonight, October 8th, or October 22nd, very similar to what happened with the Skyview vote.

[03:01:07] So we ask for the proposal October 22. We vote October 22. That kicks in the expedited boundary process. That gives November and December to do the boundary engagement process, which is indeed expedited, then the comprehensive boundary process, again, as was Skyview. Then, and that's per section four under public notice and engagement, then through January into February, as the CIP is being proposed, the proposal is presented with the CIP, and we can also codify the need for ongoing review. But ultimately, by the time we get that CIP, we have the recommendation

[03:01:44] for the updated Lewis boundary, which can go into effect, and things can start to change for the fall. So, you know, as far as the programs that can happen, I mean, you know, I've heard that quantum computing is very enticing, you know, that's a very enticing field in the workforce. So perhaps a program could be established at Lewis for that. But I'll leave it to the superintendent to come back with a report. Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? I don't know about the boundary change, but what I'm looking at is programming

[03:02:18] options for the board's consideration to be brought by superintendent. And if the goal is have these options available at those schools from next August, August of 2027, we need to We need to start this conversation discussion earlier than January 31, 2027.

[03:02:42] Because, you know, in my estimation, it may require, you know, more than one opportunity for us to, you know, for us to discuss and also engage the community and get some feedback from the community as well. And make decisions and give enough time for students, students to be able to register for these, you know, for these classes for the next school year.

[03:03:05] Thank you. Ms. St. John Cunning. Dr. Reed, I know that Mr. Dunn and I spent a lot at NMISTICS and spent a lot of time crafting this. Would you be able to come back with something within that time frame? So I was just trying to do some quick figuring because I didn't anticipate this.

[03:03:25] If we're going to vote on the 22nd, as described, we'd have to have it on new business on the 8th, which means I'd have to post it for you on the 1st of October, no later than the 1st, which gives us about two and a half weeks to review all possible programming options to bring back.

[03:03:45] I think it would be a pretty limited effort, to be honest, in two weeks to do that. But, you know, we certainly could see what's possible to put together in two or two and a half weeks, possibly, to get it posted for new business by October 1 because we would need to then look at new business on the 8th and vote on it on the 22nd.

[03:04:10] would do would you have some program options available that you can propose in two and a half weeks i'm certain we could i could ask staff what they would think of proposing in two and a half weeks i don't be a pretty limited community engagement so um i appreciate um the effort that miss marron is bringing forth i know that there has been a lot of thought and effort that

[03:04:45] has been put in a lot of collaboration during the summer between mr dunn miss dixit um actually with the help of Mr. Frisch and Mr. McDaniel on this and I think that you know looking at this in a holistic way that's thoughtful and that we can engage the community. I know the community members do definitely have some ideas about what they want to see and what is possible. I do appreciate the expedited timeline but I want to get this right. I actually did not have my light on to DISCUSS THIS BECAUSE I DIDN'T EXPECT THE MOTION TO COME ON ON BEFORE I WAS ABLE TO SPEAK BUT AS

[03:05:23] I WAS WANTING TO RESPOND TO WHAT NEWT BROUGHT UP TALKING ABOUT WHAT WE WANTED TO DO AND I THINK THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT WE HAVE TO CONSIDER PROGRAMMING THAT FITS THE SCHOOL THAT'S THERE THAT THE STUDENTS THAT ARE THERE PRIMARILY ARE GETTING THE BEST PROGRAMMING THAT THEY POSSIBLY CAN GET REGARDLESS OF ENROLLMENT HAVING INCREASED ENROLLMENT OBVIOUSLY IS GOING TO Help in terms of the different options that are available, but every school should have that equitable Programming available for the students that are there

[03:05:57] And that's what I've been working really hard since I've been on this board to ensure that what the students are receiving there that are now They are getting the highest quality of whatever is possible regardless of enrollment We worked on this to make sure to increase the enrollment So, this would increase the capacity of things that could happen there.

[03:06:16] Having the right programs there for the students that are currently there, that are currently in that community, they deserve the best first, regardless of enrollment. If they're getting the best, nobody wants to leave that school. If they're getting the best, if the right program is there, people want to come to that community.

[03:06:34] And that's what I've been working on since I've been on this board, and I've been working at that school diligently to make sure that that's what happens. I got to take care of the kids that are there now and that's what this discussions that we've had is what we've been talking about the same thing for Mount Vernon High School they deserve the best that they can have there now for those students that will encourage other people to want to come there and they deserve the best programming I don't know that we have enough time to look at that kind of programming and I do want to have community engagement because the needs at Mount

[03:07:11] Vernon High School the needs at Herndon the needs at Lewis are different we do have great parents here that already have proposed some great ideas and I would like to see that happen thank you Dr. Anderson thank you I didn't speak much on this but when I raised my light it was to kind of offer something to the conversation that was going on regarding courses that were offered I remember oh Oh, my goodness, Mr. I do not remember the gentleman's name who came to speak to us during a work study.

[03:07:46] And one of the things that he raised, which continues to stick in my mind and makes sense, I think, in this discussion is the fact that we offer a lot of different courses, which waters down the opportunity for them to be full and be fully presented. So another conversation that I think should continue to be had is do we need to pare that down?

[03:08:05] That was his recommendation, and I don't know what position staff has taken on that or the board members have taken on that. There was commentary, but that is a way to conserve certain courses to ensure that there are students to enroll in them.

[03:08:21] When we have such a broad number of courses offered, it makes it really hard to populate them. So I just wanted to raise that here. Thank you. I'm going to take a turn since I haven't had one. So here's my thoughts on this.

[03:08:39] There are two different conversations. Well, we've got to speak to this amendment, so I can't really take a turn. My thoughts on this amendment is this. I think it's too quick of a turnaround because what I would like to see is the students at Lewis surveyed, expose them to what's in the optional course selection sheet and compare to what's on their sheet and see what there's an appetite for.

[03:09:01] That's just one aspect of maybe they're not putting on the sheet things that would thrive and would be of great interest in addition to that i do want to do this with fidelity i don't want to rush the program conversation of a program that's not currently there embedded like the leadership program so i see an appetite for for doing something like that but i don't think that we're going to get the product we want to benefit lewis um in the way we would want it to in that quick of a turnaround i'm not trying to so that's my point if we're going to do this

[03:09:37] well um i got two thoughts what are the students interested in and then also programmatic ideas i i just don't think that it's we're going to have the best of the best if we do it in that time frame so i'm not i'm not going to be able to support the amendment um next up is mr mcdaniel i think that speaking to the amendment i mean fundamentally the decision to be made is do we want it done or do we want it done right and i have no confidence based on an accelerated timeline and after hearing the feedback from the superintendent that it will be done right

[03:10:14] you know what was the date dr reed you would have to come back to the board with something of substance it would appear that i would need to be posting it by october 1 for new business on october 8 for a vote on october 22nd yeah that's i there's no way that's going to happen so i can't support the amendment um i believe mr mckelbein is next yeah i mean i i don't want us to get uh Too lost in the sauce here, because I don't think what we're asking staff to do is reinventing the wheel.

[03:10:53] We went through this exercise less than a year ago with Skyview and determining the different models of what could be done there, magnet school, school within a school, different curricular opportunities. So there are things on the shelf that already exist.

[03:11:10] October 1st, yes, that's an early timeline. Maybe we could push it back a little bit. But I don't think we need to wait until January to get something. So I don't know if there's a happy medium here. I would support that. Thank you. Mr. Moon. You know, to my colleagues, I did not interpret the amendment the way Ms. Maron was interpreting.

[03:11:34] It was just a change in the date of January 31, 2027 with October 22nd of 2026. The language states that a superintendent to recommend programmatic, programmatic options.

[03:11:52] It does not dictate us to vote on those programmatic options on that day. It's just bringing to us with options. In my past experience, superintendents brings recommendations, boards have a present, you know, boards get a presentation and then sends it over to work session.

[03:12:16] Meanwhile, to our community engagement and at the work session, have an in-depth discussion. And then depending upon the outcome of the work session, whether further a community engagement may be needed or further refinement is needed. And then when the board feels ready, then we vote at a regular meeting.

[03:12:36] That's how things used to get done. I certainly do not expect superintendent to be able to bring something on October 1 for us to be able to vote on October 22nd. And that is not how I interpreted this amendment along with the language of the original motion.

[03:12:56] - Thank you, Ms. Marin. - Well, there's good news. Like Mr. McElveen said, a lot of this work's already done. I've asked the clerks to pull up onto the screen the presentation from October 7th, where we talked about the Western high school possibilities as well as CTE offerings.

[03:13:12] And what sticks out to me is, looks like we can have health and medical fit really nicely at Lewis. And I'm hard pressed to think that in a market where the jobs are so needed that it wouldn't make sense to put that in Lewis. I think there's a philosophical difference of some of us on this board that well if the kids don't want it let's not give it to them. Well since when do kids always know what they want? We know the job market needs medical professionals. Three of our regions don't even have programs. We should be putting them in all of them. So from here and there's more information in this slide

[03:13:48] that says all the different types of models again this was done for a brand new school why can't this be done for the kids at Lewis are we saying that we respect them so much and care about them so much that we can accelerate the work to provide solutions sooner and we want things done right we have made decisions of less import or greater import far faster you know I'm ready to get this this problem solve. It's a problem and our students need solutions. So if folks, if the Magisterial District member wants to hold this up, while there are solutions

[03:14:27] right here, I think that's a travesty and I think we've got to make a decision, fix this thing, it should have been done in the very expensive boundary review that we did, and move on. We don't necessarily need community engagement. We have the data right here. The superintendent gave it to us. Health academies all the way. There could be minimal community engagement but, and I do, though, I have to say to my colleague, to my side here, I do intend to get the board to act on this in a timely manner, whether that's October 22nd or the next meeting after that. We can't wait anymore for these kids. It's not right. We're not doing our job. So I do hope that people will vote

[03:15:05] to support the amendment and we can have the superintendent review what she's already presented and we can make a decision and bring new opportunities to kids that will change the trajectories of their life for the better. Okay, I'm going to take a turn here, and I'm trying to incorporate Mr. Moon and Ms. Mayor and suggest that would it be amenable to amend the amendment to we have a hold for work session on October 20, that the superintendent bring us a presentation to a work session on October 20, versus having to meet the timeline to get to, without objection,

[03:15:44] my offer friendly amendment that we change the terminology to be the superintendent bring back recommendations to the work session in the evening on October 20. I do have an objection. State your objection. I'm fine with the coming to the work session but I want to put in this motion the date that the board will take action so it could be it we could know that if we if it's what the next meeting is after October 22nd if I could just look that

[03:16:18] up real quickly it was officially I was we were getting closer to Thanksgiving and I know how that goes the next board meeting is November 12th so I was trying to you know move us now we have in the past we have voted on things that were just delivered two days before we have set that precedent so so I do I do object to that change I my motion needs to say that the superintendent will present it so that we take action on it. So you've objected to the amendment altogether? Well I'm

[03:16:58] objecting to your suggestion that without objection it would be a work session. Look we got to work back I mean we got to work backwards. It's just like Skyview and I had to bird dog it until the very end what the timeline was going to be. So if she presents it to us to vote on October 22nd she could post it as new business on October 8th. We get the presentation on October 20th and we vote on October 22nd.

[03:17:28] Okay. My script's not going to work right now. Mr. Dunn and I were conferring and we were in agreement that we would do it at the November 12th, like kind of split the baby and do the November 12th meeting. We could do the work session.

[03:17:45] We could do the, you know, and we could put the date. So that, I mean, like -- So if the date was that we would get the presentation 10/20 at the evening work session and we will vote on November 12th. And I just want to make one thing very clear. There is a difference between starting a new school and doing programming in a new school and bringing programming to an existing school. I don't want to conflate the two because there are two different things and there are two different considerations that have to be taken care of. And I will say that the community has discussed bringing medical CTs to Lewis because of what's going to happen.

[03:18:24] We need to stick to the current language. So if the amended language on the board. so we just need clarification for the amendment do you want it do you want the motion to read just the end date of november 12th or do you want us to include the indication that it will also be at the work session on in october it's the former of what you just said that the end date instead of october 22nd be november 12th correct okay with the understanding that that works for me if the superintendent's ready earlier we could do it at the work session on october 6 perhaps so

[03:19:02] that we can make that change with unanimous consent otherwise we would need to do a secondary a formal moving of a secondary amendment so changing the date from january 31st october no to november 12th it's changing the amendment to read from october 22nd so it would be i moved to amend the motion amend the motion by striking the phrase january yes that's the current amendment on the on the Board, without objection, are we in agreement with this amendment?

[03:19:36] Could you change that 26th to 27th, January 31st, 27th? Oh, yeah, that already happened. Okay, without objection. Okay.

[03:19:57] So I'm objecting. Can I state my objection? The reason only I'm objecting is because we have rushed through this very fast. I wanted to get community the time to say what they want for this.

[03:20:13] I apologize, Ms. Dixit. but when we object to something that is offered for consent, that's it. It means that it's no longer available for consent, and so we need to move on to something else. I apologize. Okay, so the amendment fails. No, we vote on it.

[03:20:29] So we would need to do the formal secondary amendment process. What we were trying to do it was with unanimous consent, so we did not have to ask for a mover and seconder. Because of the way we are doing it now, we would need to go and do it with a mover and seconder.

[03:20:46] And Miss Lady, if you give us just a moment, we can get you that language. May I move to amend the amendment? Yes. I move to amend the amendment to change the date from October 22nd, 2026 to November 12th, 2026.

[03:21:06] Second. Do I have a second? Okay. Miss Marin, do you want to speak to your amendment? No. Would you like to speak to your second?

[03:21:23] No. Can I please call for the vote? All those in favor of the language on the screen. Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunning, and myself, all those opposed, abstentions.

[03:21:46] Ms. Anderson, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel. Can the clerk read the vote? Ms. Dixit, I'm sorry. Clerk, read the vote. Please change the language to November 12th of what we were just voting on.

[03:22:04] We have it. We're just trying to show it with the red line. So, sorry. It's just taking us just a second to get it all up.

[03:22:41] So I'm going to ask everyone to turn the lights off because that passed. Now we have to go back to the original motion. That's what I mean, the first amendment. Point of order.

[03:23:00] To clarify, we've amended the amendment. Now we must approve the amendment, and then we must approve the motion. Thank you. Okay. Is the language correct?

[03:23:29] So now we have the amended amendment that is ready for a vote, and it should be on the screen.

[03:23:52] We just need to scroll one second. Right. Keep going, please. So we will now vote on the amended amendment. All those in favor?

[03:24:09] Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunning, and myself. All those opposed? Abstentions? Ms. Anderson and Ms. Dixit.

[03:24:25] Let the clerk read the vote. - 10-2, the amended amendment, sorry, 10-0-2. The amended amendment passes. - Thank you, so now we're back to the original motion.

[03:24:42] And if you'd like to speak, please turn your light off. Seeing no lights, I'm going to call for the vote on your motion as it appears on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, and myself.

[03:25:06] That's unanimous for board members present. I call on Dr. Anderson for a follow-on motion. Thank you.

[03:25:21] That was a marathon. I move that the school board direct the superintendent to include in the annual FCPS Capital Improvement program a report on FCPS student transfers to include the number of student transfers the grade levels of transferring students the originating and receiving schools the rationales for transfers and analysis of compliance to regulation 2230. Additionally the superintendent shall provide transfer data number of transfers grade levels schools transferring to and from and rationale for the transfers to the school board for the past five years by October 15 2026.

[03:25:58] Thank you. Is there a second? I second. Thank you. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, I'm hoping to be brief because I believe this is a perfect companion to the original motion that we talked about just a while ago. And most of the comments shared by Ms. St. John Cunning and Ms. Dixit also apply here. This is additional information for us to be able to make good decisions. The transfer discussion has really come up during the Lewis issue, but I don't think as a board we've ever had a chance to shine a light on it and this

[03:26:35] will allow us to do that and the hopes are if we have students that are leaving one school to go to another school for a language program over the course of year in year out that school is losing students particularly if that school becomes under enrolled then that's information for us to perhaps consider moving a program to the school at which they are leaving I had an opportunity to speak to Dr. Reid about this we worked on the date so I don't imagine this is gonna be a heavy lift because she said most of this information is already out there and so this date that was up here for October 15th for the first tranche

[03:27:13] of information again she was amenable to and actually came up with in order to make this happen without it being a huge burden to staff but I think the most important component if this will be a regular conversation during the CIP BECAUSE I DON'T THINK WE'VE TAKEN FULL ADVANTAGE OF THAT OPPORTUNITY WHERE, ON A YEARLY BASIS, WE'RE LOOKING AT THESE HUGE THINGS, WHETHER IT BE PROGRAM, TRANSFERS, BOUNDARIES, THEY ARE ALL INTERTWINED.

[03:27:41] THANK YOU. MS. STATE JOHN CUNNING WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR SECOND. JUST BRIEFLY, I KNOW THAT WE HAVE SPOKEN AS A BOARD ABOUT THIS, DISCUSSING BOUNDARIES AND SAYING THAT WE CAN DO AS MUCH AS WE CAN FOR BOUNDARIES, BUT IF WE DON'T LOOK AT THE TRANSFER SITUATION, WE'RE STILL GOING TO HAVE SOME ISSUES.

[03:28:00] Looking at that with fidelity, how it can impact programmatic decisions and ensuring that once the transfer is made for a particular reason that the student is following those courses by fidelity is another thing that I know one of one of the members on our board has expressed that they have seen that happen through their work experience.

[03:28:22] So I think that this is an important thing for us to look at and important data points. And I did have one concern that I discussed with Dr. Anderson about this and with Dr. Reed, that there are very specific and unique situations where there is, you know, we just have the big buckets because we do want to protect student privacy for certain situations in terms of reasons for transfers.

[03:28:46] And I was assured that that could be done. Thank you. Ms. Anderson. So I'm a little concerned about the fact that we are dumping a whole lot of information on the exact same staff that is also trying to deal with the hot spot for the boundaries that we have created that we already had agreed to I guess my question is we have a team of people that are working on the CIP can the chair please provide the tentative date that we were planning on having the first work session related to the

[03:29:18] CIP this year typically that happens in November if I'm correct or is it January it's scheduled for January. Let me bring up the exact. I think it's January. If I'm reading this correct, I think it's January 14th. Okay. That's the first time I see CIP under new business on the 14th. But we typically have a work session on the CIP ahead of time. And so I guess my question is because what we could do is just flip the timelines here so that we now, because as I shared with my colleague

[03:29:57] earlier today the student transfer information I believe that the granularity that we can actually have available to us because a lot of the information related to student transfers is first is protected for individual privacy reasons for different transfer issues all of that information is publicly available now it's all available on the website in granularity for each school in terms of which types of changes in and out and so I I understand the desire to have that information included within the CIP, and I think the team

[03:30:31] needs enough time to make that change, but I would offer that maybe looking at it this year as a focus of this year's CIP to look at the five-year stretch so that we have a better understanding of where those things are happening and why would make a lot of sense, but I am cognizant of the amount of work that we're putting on the exact same small office within our division and I just want to make sure that we're not overloading this particular team that is working really hard to make sure that we are doing an amazing job on the boundary work that we have already committed to for the rest of this year so I am concerned miss Anderson due to

[03:31:09] timing of the holidays and such we have it on new business earlier in January because it has to go and so it's on new business at the January 14th regular meeting because we have to have it on new business before we have the public hearing the public hearing is scheduled for January 21st it is not on the work session schedule until February 2nd okay so I think that in that case then the January 31st 2027 timeline works so I'd like to make an amendment to this so that the second portion that recommends the October 15th date would be changed

[03:31:48] to January 31st, 2027, so we're basically just flipping the timelines for the two pieces of information, because most of this information is already available to us by school online. So, within the... I'll second. Okay.

[03:32:07] Would you like to speak to your amendment? Mr. First, would you like to speak to your second? In addition to the work that we just put on facilities plate, it is not like they had nothing on their plate when we did that. And so I want to make sure that the boundary work that's currently happening right now in the first slate of hotspot communities is completed with due diligence and that they have proper focus on getting that across the finish line as well.

[03:32:37] And the, you know, the original proposed versions of these would have had the previous motion timed for January and this one timed for October. I think swapping that makes sense so that we're providing a little bit more time for the work and so that stuff can get moved off the plate.

[03:33:00] Thank you. Is there anyone who wants to speak to this amendment? Mr. Dunn. Okay, I want to speak to the amendment because the student transfer office, which is run by Lori Hershey, is not in facilities at all. She's the one who does all of this, and even the administrative transfers, which I'm most interested in, because there's like 400 of them a year that are outside of the student transfer process in terms of eligibility.

[03:33:24] So I don't think this is a heavy lift for Lloyd-Hirsey's office, but can I ask staff if they agree that this is – is it in that office and not in facilities, and is this something that could be done? I think that we have added a number of tasks for the next six to eight weeks that need to be done by the people – by staff.

[03:33:48] So we're going to be juggling a lot while we're in the middle of the hotspot work that we're trying to do as we're trying to focus on our academic initiatives, correct? So I'm going to obviously be pulling Dr. Presidio and our region to work on programs at high schools.

[03:34:09] The hotspot work is gearing up. Our community meetings start next week in earnest, and we're to hear feedback. so people are just going to work longer hours so I mean that's how it works so I you know I don't know what else to say we're going to meet the deadlines and we're going to hit the targets the board sets but there will be longer hours because there's more to be done thank you I appreciate the answer and I will support the amendment Ms. Mayor I thought your light was on Dr. Anderson

[03:34:46] thank you thank you and thank you Ms. Lady for raising the point as to who conducts this I just want to be clear when I had this conversation with Dr. Reed that this is what I was going to bring forward it was what is a reasonable timeframe she shared one thing and I'm like okay I think this works I'm not vetted to I'm not married to it I just want to say have enough time to work through it if it's done through a transfer office those are not the facilities folks but outside of that I tried to be mindful of

[03:35:24] what is on the plate by asking the question this date was not pull out of thin air having said that it was outside of the conversation that we just had today so i i realized that if we are going to have this conversation for on um january 14th whatever that date is it needs to be inclusive of the 26 27 year transfers to date that's why it was separated the first tranche by october is just looking past in terms of what the trend have been over the the

[03:35:59] trend has been over the last five years and in January it was going to be encompassing this school year so if we're moving the whole thing to January then we're really looking at six years I just want to make sure we have clarity on that yes ma'am and you're also clear that we picked the date of October 15th but that was pre I'm trying to integrate all of the conversation we just had which I didn't know about I didn't know that so I do want to say we were in sync on that

[03:36:28] So yes ma'am that's true. Mr. McDaniel. Okay so an observation not an amendment an observation the language unlike the previous amendment that fixed the date certain this says by so it can be before. So recognizing that I'm comfortable to support the amendment with the understanding that

[03:37:02] if things do in fact get fleshed out as soon as they are available they should come back to the board. And I would presume, Dr. Reed, that you would be in agreement that as soon as this is fleshed out and prepared, it will come back to the board, even if that is perhaps October, November, December. Whenever it's done, it'll come back to the board. But we're not fixing the date as the end of January. We're simply saying that no later than January 31st.

[03:37:31] Yes, sir. I understand. Okay. So I see space for this coming back prior to January 31st. And I think it does respect the additional workload that we just added. Okay, seeing no more lights, we're going to vote on the amendment. All those in favor, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannon, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, myself, unanimous for board members. So we'll go back to the motion. Mr. Dunn.

[03:38:11] Thank you. I was happy to work with Dr. Anderson to craft this motion. I think this issue is especially pertinent to Lewis High School and Mount Vernon High School which have the highest number of student transfers in the county and that acts to the detriment both of the schools the communities and the opportunities available to students for the reasons I enumerated previously I think having this transparency is important because while some of this information is available as my colleague pointed out getting the historical data and then getting the regularity of it compiled in one place rather than having us go to to multiple school websites and kind of having our staff put together spreadsheets,

[03:38:49] which may or may not be accurate, having one authoritative source that then can be documented going forward in the CIP on an annual basis is essential because we need to look at programming, we need to look at enrollment, we need to look at student transfers because it's all part of the same problem, which is there aren't enough students at certain schools to ensure that those students have the same equal and equitable opportunities as students at other high schools especially those that may have benefited from historical boundary adjustments.

[03:39:22] I believe this will be important for providing that transparency and for informing discussions among the board and among FCPS staff as to the best location of our different programs that we have throughout the county because the way it's set up today is not the way you would set up if you were starting from scratch. There's a lot of geographic history, you know, board member advocating for this program here and there, and as a result, there is huge geographic inequities. So fixing those going forward informed by student transfer data and other information by the previous motion will help us to ensure that there is a fulfillment of the one Fairfax

[03:40:02] equity vision going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing other lights, I'm going to call for the vote. All those in favor of the motion that's on the screen. Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. Moon, Mr. McElveen, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannen, Dr. Anderson, Ms. St. John Cunningham, myself. That's unanimous. 7.08, we will get to a break. I'm going to get to this last one. Amendment of sole source contract. College board, PSAT, MSSQT, SAT school day, and AP exams. I call Mr. Moon for a motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the school

[03:40:38] Board approve the amendment with a college board contract 440012622 and authorize the division superintendent while the director of Office of Procurement Services to execute, deliver, and administer the contract on behalf of the school board.

[03:40:56] Second. Mr. May, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. Yes, Mother Chair. I want you to have this item pulled out of consent agenda to ask a couple of questions to superintendent and also make a point that I raised at the last work session for public my colleagues have had already heard what I said at the work session but I think it's worth repeating it for public but maybe this question could go to Dr. Presidio if he choose to if he's here he's

[03:41:36] not or Dr. Reed this particular contract the information they were provided with contract does not end until June 30th, 2029, correct? It was a five-year contract initially with a three, a one-year renewal, and it looks as if that even during the first five-year term, price of the test, test fee could be adjusted. Is that fair interpretation of the information

[03:42:14] provided? So I'll have Ms. Burden respond as she oversees the contracts directly. Ms. Burden? yes you are correct the contract goes until 6 30 of 29 and the changes in the contract well the amount of the contract is an estimate because we pay a fixed price but of course the number of participants changes from year to year so this contract amendment does not change the dollar amount because we're expecting that the in fact the actual fixed costs of the

[03:42:52] tests is going down is being decreased but we're anticipating greater participation so that there's no dollar change with this amendment it is just adding a digital accessibility requirement language it updates the College Board agreement and reduces the prices for the PSAT the SAT exams okay Thank you. I just want to make sure that I understood you correctly, but the per test fee could change.

[03:43:25] It can change. It can change, because that's what I see about the decrease in a test fee. That's on the second page of the information provided. With that in mind, the request I want to make to superintendents is this. College board is a not-for-profit organization.

[03:43:42] I do not have 2025 numbers because they are not publicly available, but 2024 number filed by College Board with IRS shows that the College Board had made a lot of profits plus earned a lot of income from their more than $2 billion of investments. Their altogether profit plus their investment income exceeds $220 billion. I think we should seek more adjustment

[03:44:17] on test fee, maybe not upcoming year, because that's probably too late for that. But years, you know, even before our five-year term expires, because that goes on to 2029, next year, I'm hoping that the college world, as a monopoly, as a monopoly in education, should see the need to return the money back to our students and schools and families. Would you like to speak to your

[03:44:51] second? No. Ms. Marin. So I've been trying to keep tabs on what contracts are coming to the board when when we're getting noticed and this was partially I think related to the policies that I think I asked to pull but you know I'm actually still confused but what I'm trying to figure out is this college board contract is for tests. The proctoring happens by our staff or I think we pay some people or maybe they're volunteers too so but this was sent through to the board under the

[03:45:25] provision in policy 5011 that says professional services and or consultant services contract and I think that this doesn't fit that and I've been noticing that there's a lot of contracts coming through the Friday letter which is not public and those are considered notices so they're not going to new business they're going immediately to consent because that's what the policy says but if if that kind of flexibility is going to be there I think it needs to be much more strict because this is not a professional service or a consultant services contract.

[03:46:01] And I tried to look at other comparable ones, and there were ones for Weiler Services and Athletics Coaching Services and Teacher Recruitment Services that are all being defined as professional services. So I am glad that this contract was pulled because I've been trying to figure it out, and it shouldn't be this hard for me to figure it out.

[03:46:20] And I do hope that the board takes this more seriously, that we are supposed to be reviewing these contracts very closely. this is how problems arise when we don't know what's getting passed and we're seeing things in email and publicly and it's hard to reconcile our dollars when that happens thank you seeing no other lights on a call for the vote all those in favor of the amendment the contract um miss anderson mr frisch miss marron mr moon mr mcdaniel miss dixon mr dunn mr dann and dr anderson

[03:46:58] and Ms. St. John Cunningham and myself. It passes.

[03:47:02] Okay, we are going to take a 10-minute recess.

[03:57:13] Board members, please return to your seats.

[03:59:48] Board members, please return to your seats.

[04:00:54] Action item 8.01, performance review, superintendent's relationship with the board, EL-8 monitoring report. Each year, the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress toward achieving the 2023-30 strategic plans, goals, and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations FOUND ON PAGES 16 TO 33 OF THE BOARD STRATEGIC GOVERNANCE MANUAL.

[04:01:25] THE SUPERINTENDENT PROVIDES ANNUAL MONITORING REPORTS TO THE BOARD FOR EACH EXECUTIVE LIMITATION. THE BOARD THEN VOTES ON WHETHER THE PROVIDED REPORT IS IN COMPLIANCE OR IF CORRECTIVE ACTION IS NEEDED. I CALL ON DR. REED FOR A MONITORING REPORT ON EXECUTIVE LIMITATION 8.

[04:01:40] ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. GOOD EVENING, MADAM CHAIR, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD AND THE PUBLIC. Tonight, I'm presenting Executive Limitation 8, which, as the chair indicated, is the superintendent's relationship with the board. I have several talking points in the slide above.

[04:01:57] Just a reminder that this is EL 8 on the slide. And at the time of this report, to the best of my knowledge, information, and belief, we have gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic.

[04:02:15] And I will share some of the highlights this evening, although most of the report is pretty similar year over year. The full report for those watching online is posted on board docs. So there are eight areas of executive limitation aid on the current slide are areas one, two, and three.

[04:02:38] And indicators four and five are shown on the next slide. And the remaining indicators can be seen here. So the last indicators are six through ten. The newly added, new or newly added information, last year there were two in specific that the board asked us to take a look at.

[04:03:03] And I want to note that other than several of these clear new shifts, again, most of the evidence continues year over year. The Office of Community Relations has established a coordinated process to support school board members with interpretation and written translation services this process provides clear procedures recommended timelines and service parameters to promote consistency proactive planning and effective coordination which reflects the division's commitment to multilingual

[04:03:36] communication with the FCPS community and excuse me for the 26 27 school year we've created a school board mailbox so that invitations to FCPS events that are sent to more than one school board member will be sent to a shared mailbox appreciate the clerk's office and their collaboration with staff in the superintendent's office and this mailbox will be maintained by the school board office to ensure all board members are informed of these events so that we can

[04:04:10] avoid having any of those invitations not get to their designated source so at AT THIS TIME, MADAM CHAIR, THIS REALLY CONCLUDES MY SUMMARY ON THE MONITORING FOR EXECUTIVE LIMITATION AID AS IN GENERAL THE YEAR-OVER-YEAR DATA IS SIMILAR.

[04:04:29] THANK YOU. I CALL ON MR. MCDANIEL FOR A MOTION. I MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD FIND THE SUPERINTENDENT IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH EXECUTIVE LIMITATION NUMBER 8, SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BOARD. I FURTHER MOVE THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD APPROVED THE MONITORING REPORT BASED ON THE SUPERINTENDENT'S REASONABLE INTERPRETATION OF EXECUTIVE LIMITATION NUMBER 8, SUPERINTENDENT'S relationship with the board as outlined in the strategic governance manual.

[04:04:52] Thank you, Mr. Second. Second. Mr. McTanner, would you like to speak to your motion? I will. I want to commend the superintendent on this report. EL8 exists to test whether the superintendent is building a genuine partnership with this board, and the evidence here shows that she's doing that. Across all 10 indicators, the report shows that the superintendent who takes direction from the board as a body brings us well-informed options grounded in best practice and does with the kind of professionalism and integrity that builds real trust.

[04:05:21] Now, the new items in this cycle aren't just compliance checkboxes. They're signs of a superintendent who's anticipating needs before you have to ask. And I think her track record of flagging noncompliance early, with clear explanations and remediation plans already attached, tells me she runs a division where problems surface -- where problems that surface get resolved.

[04:05:38] That kind of transparency and initiative is a credit to her, the leadership team she's assembled, and to the culture she's building at FCPS. So happy to move and support the motion. - Thank you. Mr. McClendon, would you like to speak to your second? - Yes, thank you so much. So when I think about this EL, I think about what we have faced over the past year and the past several years.

[04:06:06] You have come forward with some fixes to current issues and we're yet to see how that goes. I will say we're getting some really weird emails through the invitation mailbox.

[04:06:23] So we'll see how that evolves over time. It's very strange right now. But ultimately, the invitation issue has been a major issue throughout this entire term. Particularly over this past year, there have been system-wide events that we had no idea were even happening.

[04:06:48] I think of artifacts, the inaugural new art awards ceremony is the most prominent but there have been many throughout the year that we just have not been aware of and particularly what's particularly concerning to me is the high-profile things that we aren't aware of there are a lot of times where I you know I read your ball put together weekly letter to the community and there are a lot of things that are just going on that we have no idea about and I think it'd be helpful if we could get I know in your

[04:07:25] Friday letter you you share your speaking engagements for the coming week and there's often not nothing really listed there but there's you're doing a lot there's still a lot going on so I don't know if there's a way we can bolster that Friday letter mechanism so we can anticipate more what is happening and the last thing I'll mention is just something I've mentioned every year which is that I think we're all very grateful to have an opportunity over the first couple days of school to travel with you into our schools but I

[04:08:03] think if we can have more of those opportunities throughout the year to learn alongside you what's going on thank you thank you dr. Anderson thank you I think I'm going to start with my new organization here and as I shared with you I I now have this new habit of putting this in my newsletter and getting some feedback and it's really interesting to see the feedback that I get back but I am going to kind of share my my glows first and then my questions and then my grows I do want to say and highlight the new practice of the

[04:08:40] contract during recess I think that's a huge boon that cannot be overly stated because we are well aware of what is happening before we leave for recess and I know that took a huge shift just to move things either earlier or after so I I want to honor that the other thing I want to highlight is the regular meetings that you have with school board members I know that's a time that I always have a very long running list it's just a matter of stopping and then picking up from next time so that is very helpful knowing how much

[04:09:13] there is on your plate and I am very happy that we are we start on time and we end on time another thing that I'll speak to are the goal reports, because I think, to me, that is a huge component of really keeping track of what's happening in the division and the Comprehensive Friday Letters. Sometimes there are a lot, but there's a lot of data there to digest, so I want to make sure that I offer those as points of strength. One of the things that I'd like to ask about in

[04:09:48] terms of my questions I think you have in this document the 2025 report this is last year's that you talked about the IT developing platforms to support onboarding for for new staff can you talk about it can you give an update to that please in the 2025 EL on last year's EL one of the things that you talked about as a something that would be happening is that I'm trying to find it here

[04:10:20] It was a third bullet. The Department of IT is exploring learning management platforms to support onboarding of new and prospective school board community advisory members. Mr. Sethi, do we have an update on that?

[04:10:38] Trying to do a memory recall. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe this was connected to our ability to provide online learning opportunities for school board committee members. and that was a platform we had acquired but requires content to be created and that content creation was an activity that was going to be shared with some of our school board committee member leads to help build so it's still in process well yeah in theory that the tool is there but content creation takes time so that would be the activity that can happen next okay so that's still being developed okay thank you one of the things that I've shared with you as a concern again this

[04:11:18] falls under communication with the board is the timeline. We received the notice for contract notification on the 28th newsletter. I'm sorry Friday letter and it came to us on the 28th and the board had two days to give feedback as per the policy but the contract was effective on the 23rd which is five full days before it came to us. I would love for you to speak to how we can avoid that in the future. Ms. Burden I think you had an explanation for that contract that we had

[04:11:57] in the contract notification in the last prior or in the prior Friday letter. Yeah that's a we that was a cooperative contract that we were doing using with William and Mary and William and Mary had not finalized their renewal yet and so we had to wait on them. That rarely happens but you're correct the timing did not work for us as nicely as we normally like it to and we will you know try to improve and anticipate that sort of thing happening so in the future so that it doesn't end up as it did this time okay I'd like to raise one of my community questions at this point

[04:12:33] it's regarding the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten rollback in technology if I could just finished this and I'll ask for a go back the general question was about the challenges not being raised by you prior to the board making its decisions if you could speak to that and I think it's also a great opportunity for you to highlight some of the conversations that we had during that work session in terms of what are the next steps on this front this is regarding the kindergarten Lexia so I think the ETRC has taken that up that topic and my

[04:13:13] understanding is that they've come back with a recommendation that I've been reviewing and I amended it somewhat and then we're going to come back to the board on that topic for approval so that's yet to come in the meantime no devices are being issued to pre-k or k students unless they're connected to an addendum which is an addendum to a an IEP or a 504 plan I'll like to go back

[04:13:43] please thank you mr. Dannon yeah I appreciate as over the last six months trying to get a sense of the cadence and so forth and I think one of the areas that I'd love to work with you on going forward is just how to distill the volume of information and I promise I do read through the Friday letter and all information there um but uh it is a lot and and you know i over the summer i had the chance to travel to a training for other school board members and there's a speaker there who works with school boards and superintendents across the country and um he stated very clearly that the the

[04:14:23] most important relationship in the entire division is between the superintendent and the school board and um the other thing that he shared that he said in his words was the most important takeaway from the whole morning was that um when there's drama in the boardroom there's chaos in the classroom and so i do appreciate your your candor and professionalism and respect as we try and navigate the contentiousness and so forth um you know and like i said i'd love to find ways to kind of still some of the uh the amount of information type of information to make sure that the main thing stays the main thing and i always try not to major in the minors um i know sometimes i'll

[04:15:01] asking nuanced questions here and there but um I appreciate the efforts that you've made to try and convey the information make sure that we stay up to date on everything and I will do my part to make sure I read through all of it so thank you yes sir thank you Mr Frisch so this year I had an opportunity to mentor a school board member a newly elected school board member from another state I'm not going to say what state because you know sometimes hearing about another's experience is a great way of finding gratitude in your own right and so I will just say having a

[04:15:40] superintendent with integrity to spare is a real gift to this community the compassion that you bring to this job the thoughtfulness that you bring to this job makes it a lot easier to be a school board member I'll give you an example yesterday I was I went I left home to go to back

[04:16:08] to school nights and we lost a student yesterday and first of all the focus and attention that you and your team placed on our community to ensure that all of the students and that everybody was cared for and that we were kept in the loop that goes really far with me in my estimation of your

[04:16:39] character and when I got home last night after going to a series of back to school nights people were still at the scene doing their jobs and I think I spoke to you we moved my evening call or my afternoon call to the late evening so that we could connect at the end of the day and it was still going on and you were still working so when I first got elected to the school board one of the

[04:17:14] things that really perplexed me is that I got an email every time somebody called 911 in FCPS and so I get these emails and I'm I thought to myself why do we get these and I thought maybe some school board member once didn't know about a 911 call and they said I need to know about every 911 call and now it's an email that every board member gets for every school in the entire county and they're helpful information to have but we get a host of similar types of emails and one of the things that's very helpful to me is that these emergent issues that we receive breaking updates

[04:17:48] on are uniform in the way that they're written so that I can find the facts immediately that is extremely helpful um and uh the other thing that i'll mention uh that has taken up a big piece of my life this year on the board has been the hot spot boundary reviews um the use of different leadership team members to provide uh additional support in these conversations has been extremely helpful um one of my biggest grows from the previous boundary process was our ability to zero win i'm just going to finish the thought and i'll be done uh on the communities most impacted and

[04:18:29] we're not done yet with this year being at a community meeting that was conducted in spanish with english translation was great and it was very helpful for the community as we continue these difficult conversations so i'll be voting compliance and i appreciate all that you do for our kids thank you thank you seeing no lights i'll take a quick turn okay i will pause um Ms. Marin yeah so thank you Dr. Reed for all the time you spend I know you work every day I hope

[04:19:06] you take one of the days off sometimes today you'll recall I said you know even though we can have our sometimes misalignments I always respect your urgency and wanting to get things done I do find that too often though I'm surprised at the turn of events especially involving board votes and I do feel that it reduces or eliminates the ability of the board to make decisions because there's already been action. I also would love to see you know more following up with the board in a way that tracks the work and accountability. I don't think yet it's been figured out when stuff

[04:19:42] is in the Friday email does it come to us for public discussion like the traffic and pedestrian safety report that we had. I'm glad that our chair was able to schedule that but it was really unknown and just ultimately you know the these Friday letters I first loved them but now I just feel like it's a big catch-all um and i did you know bring to you last summer and said you know what's what's your purpose with these what's your vision for them and i don't have an answer they're not curated and i just find that i'm digging through dozens of attachments so you know i think um i think there's more to do i know you've talked about bringing in like a future

[04:20:19] visionist or taking us with you on trips i'm yet to experience any of that i'm always happy to but but I'm going to not be able to support this EL tonight. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[04:20:41] I know EL has to do with the superintendent's relationship with the board as opposed to the board members, but we're not going to be able to talk about relationship with the board without getting into relationship with each individual school member as well.

[04:21:01] So with that in mind, I have worked with a number of different superintendents, And they have been all great, but your work ethics tops everybody else's.

[04:21:18] Sometimes I am worried about how you can continue maintaining that sort of work schedule. That puts a lot of pressure upon many of your folks, many of your own staff members to keep up with you.

[04:21:35] And both members as well, this is a compliment, by the way. So with that said, I think I sent you an email earlier today, giving you a heads up as to what I'm going to focus on. It was, number one, take direction from the board as a body.

[04:21:56] Absolutely, you take a direction from the board as a body. You do not take a direction from 12 individual school board members. So with that said, we have this one-on-one conversation. I thank you for allowing me to have that opportunity on a weekly basis because I really appreciate really that 30 minutes, a lot of time is going beyond that 30 minutes, a lot of time, having that conversation, and that's been very helpful.

[04:22:30] How do you take, if you are supposed to take direction from the board as a body, as opposed to 12 individual board members, How do you take individual input from each one of those meetings?

[04:22:48] Yeah, and I appreciate the heads up this afternoon. I did see it, the email before the meeting. So I think that, you know, each board member, there are 12 of you, and you are uniquely, I believe, uniquely committed to this work, right, to a person.

[04:23:13] 12 of you are committed to the success of our our children our system in the community nine of you represent magisterial areas and so often i will hear feedback that is more specific from magisterial board members and then we have three at large board members who have feedback often about many different parts of the school division so i think the first filter i would share is that sometimes the feedback is more specific about magisterial issues and I work with our chief of schools and region office and other staff often if there's something

[04:23:49] that you know we need to think about or reflect about I think that you put a think if I recall a distinction between feedback and direction and so I think feedback is something that we think about as we contemplate new ideas different topics sort of I you know bodies of work if you will and so I think that it's important to think about that it builds context for decision-making and conversations I have with our staff and but I do think it's important always

[04:24:28] I at the end of a week I reflect on what I heard from all 12 of you and sometimes it's a phone call sometimes somebody misses a call or a conference but I also look for patterns among the 12 of you and often they are similar patterns and trying to think about the things we can move more together on and the things we're struggling to come together on so don't know that it's the same on every topic or every issue but it is important to hear the feedback what

[04:25:05] about what about what about in terms of making decisions on your part based upon feedback because we don't give a direction individual board members are not supposed to give directions right because only body school board as a body can do it right so would you agree then then you wouldn't be you shouldn't be making decisions that should be made by the board based upon individual feedback from board members yes sir that would be correct okay because I feel that on

[04:25:39] important issues even when you try to get you know individual feedback from individual board members board members also need to hear from each other ah that board member has that views on this issue that could affect my views on how things should be done right so I mean that's so that was something that I I wanted to give you as a words of caution going forward that that on important issues that as much

[04:26:13] as possible rather than seeking individual board members feedback get feedback from entire board. Right and I think for this particular board it's more challenging because there are 12 of us right or 12 of you and one of me and 13 and to have a larger broader conversation for more than two of you at a time. It really has to be a meeting. Thank you. Miss Dixon. I'll be quick and short,

[04:26:51] but I always believe the leader sets the tone in the division. And we are 13 leaders. We are a team of 13. And your relationship with us as a body or individually just kind of changes, gives a direction to the entire FCPS. I find our relationship very cordial. You're very responsive.

[04:27:12] And also, you know, you give us some time, things and ideas where, like, I'm like, oh, I didn't think of that. And, you know, this is a good alternative to my suggestion. So I appreciate the wisdom you bring with all your experience and especially, like, your love for math, which we both share.

[04:27:31] And I enjoy talking to you about all the cool stuff and things we can do for our division. Lastly, I just say that I also find the right little bit challenging to navigate some time and I don't know any solution and I know should not save the problem if you don't have a solution.

[04:27:49] So I don't know. It's between the you and DIT team if there could be some internal portal like where we could go and check the information, regular updates from the superintendent's office. and it's like an intranet kind of a thing just for the board members.

[04:28:08] So I don't know if that is possible. That's an idea I would like to give. Yeah, thank you. I think BoardDocs is currently our repository. I don't know if it ends up getting posted there or not, but it could be posted there as well in a library, and that would function in that way.

[04:28:27] Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Dr. Harrison for Goback. Yes, thank you. I just want to raise some of the areas in which I've had some concerns and area two leadership and guidance I think we could have used a little bit more of your leadership and guidance in the work regarding the AI policy work a lot of things kind of trickled through as we were developing the policy and it was really hard at times to understand your position and the objectives and how everything aligned with each other there were individual activities that have been taking place but I think that was

[04:29:05] a space where we could have used a little bit more of your leadership another piece I want to speak to is 6A ensuring that there's information to school board members this is not a point that is new I've talked to you about this many times and I've asked ad nauseum both informally here and formally through budget questions I've been asking about Title I funds and the closing the achievement gap especially that for the past couple of years without having any resolution

[04:29:36] By my back of the envelope math, based on the things that I'm kind of hearing here or there, we have, you know, closing the achievement gap should have anywhere from 15 to 17 million dollars in it because that's something we replenish every year because there was not a lot of there were not a lot of big expenditures during the first couple of years.

[04:29:55] But needing to ask over and over again for this information as well as the Title II, it does not really support me as a board member or really be in support of the transparent work that I know we want to do. I want to share something.

[04:30:14] This is number nine. You talked about the invitations that you work with the school board office with. That doesn't really work for me. I want to state that because I don't want to receive notices of things that I'm not invited to. and I received two of those this week. So I'm not sure who's responsible to do this, whether it's you or the board office.

[04:30:34] I only raised it because it was in your documents here. And the last thing that I wanna say, if I may finish, is I know the culture that you wanna build here with staff. I really intentionally feel that you want it to be good for everyone here.

[04:30:50] I wonder how you can have a little bit of check-in with your folks in terms of ensuring that that culture is where you are some of the terms that are used with me when I'm when I ask questions about different things there seems to be a a huge hesitation to share information and some of the terms that have been used I think that's not where you want it to be so I offer that for your reflection when people are saying well I can't say anything because people around here disappear I don't think that's where we want to land so I just offer that as your

[04:31:25] reflection for your reflection to ensure that what you are intending to create is actually happening and people are feeling that thank you thank you mr dunn uh thank you i don't want to duplicate the remarks of my colleagues but i do think with the departure of marty there is an opportunity to fulfill you know a vision that you and i had discussed to form an executive secretariat which i think is direly needed because we have such wonderful leaders but i don't think there's

[04:32:04] enough project management professionals within fcps and we definitely have a lot of big projects that we're managing a lot of change management to take it from how you found it to the vision in the strategic plan for 2030 and we see that sometimes with you know some of the boundary processes and other things, although I like the boundary hotspots that are going on, the champions are generally doing a good job. Dr. King in particular, I'm a big fan of, but Mr. Solomon and Ms. Neal as well. So I do think there could be more work done in

[04:32:41] that respect, because building on my colleague's comments, you know, Executive Secretary would structure that Friday email in a certain way that, you know, highlighted the important information didn't have a hundred attachments but maybe would make them available if necessary and and could also serve to make sure that you are able to focus on the strategic issues rather than the run-the-mill daily issues that sometimes occur and when you're taken away from those for that strategic level then that's to the detriment of the school board and and the entire school division is what I meant so so that's just something I would advocate for

[04:33:19] for going forward because that will help with planning, implementation, execution, and fidelity of compliance with policies, regulations, et cetera, and also allow you to execute the superintendent role even more effectively than you already are.

[04:33:36] Thank you. Mr. Dunn. Thank you. I'll take a quick turn. In terms of the Friday letter that is on the agenda for our retreat is to determine whether or not we want that changed or the formatting or whatever.

[04:33:53] So it is one of those logistical things we're going to talk about. Again, I don't want to repeat the things that my colleagues have shared. I certainly never expected to have a one-on-one opportunity on a weekly basis in terms of relationship building, talking issues, you know, think partnering.

[04:34:15] I mean, I think it's a pretty awesome experience to be able to do that. And I just want to reiterate how highly I believe in your ethics and how you approach the work and the compassion and care you bring to the work.

[04:34:33] You know, similar to what Mr. Frisch had shared when we spoke yesterday, it's obvious. And all of us, I mean, we were so impacted by the news, not just yesterday, but other news throughout, you know, other years.

[04:34:49] But, you know, the care with which you take when something tragic happens, your attention to detail, the entire staff, and how faculties come together and crisis teams is just amazing. So in terms of, you know, my perspective of the relationship with the board, you know, I'm excited to talk about the Friday letter because I feel like I miss things sometimes because of how it connects with me.

[04:35:16] But overall, I think in terms of, you know, this entire report, it's rich with lots of things that are fantastic. So I'm happy to support that tonight. So seeing no other lights, I will call for the vote.

[04:35:33] All those in favor of EL8, Ms. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, Mr. Moon, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Ms. St. John Cunningham, myself. All those opposed? Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson. Any abstentions? Mr. Dunn. Could the clerk please read the vote?

[04:36:07] 831. The motion carries. Annually, the board will review each executive limitation at the time the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed. Board members may offer amendments to executive limitations at any regular meeting, provided they send final amendment language to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting, at which it is to be considered at this time as no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting executive limitation eight superintendent relationship with the board was placed on the consent agenda for approval later in tonight's meeting to maintain the current language for

[04:36:45] the year ahead without objection we're not going to take a break and we will move into consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting this consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving the

[04:37:21] consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved uh new business the following are new business agenda items there will be there will not be a vote on these items this EVENING BUT ACTUALLY SCHEDULED A FUTURE MEETING AGENDA ITEM 11 BOARD COMMITTEE REPORTS I CALL ON MR DANN FOR REPORT OF THE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE YES THANK YOU VERY MUCH WE HAD OUR FIRST PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING A FEW WEEKS AGO AND APPRECIATE MY COLLEAGUES MAKING TIME TO JOIN

[04:37:56] WE START OFF BRAINSTORMING A NUMBER OF ITEMS THAT HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED AND SUBMITTED OVER THE summertime um one of which i'll flag for our november meeting we'll be talking about student representation and how to um opportunities for for that and so i appreciate mr shostak's thoughts and inputs on that we also talked about ways that we can better serve in our roles as liaisons and so forth with our advisory committees and that was a hot topic as well so more good stuff to come and we will look forward to seeing everybody at our november

[04:38:29] meeting thank you i call mr frisch for report of the admin committee thank you very much chairlady lady two updates from admin committee first we are rolling out the new annual review process for specific school board and school board office staff so keep an eye out for that in october we had our first meeting of the new school year and at that meeting

[04:39:02] we approved 11 new standard operating procedures for the school board office and at tonight's meeting we approved updates to the governance manual that kind of enshrines the process for updating those standard operating procedures so we have a lot more clarity there I want to thank the clerk team for their due diligence in coordinating all of these products and helping to have productive conversations as a as a committee i know that on top of the other work that they do to prepare work being done by other members of staff admin committee probably feels like a bit

[04:39:40] of a chore because they're doing the work product for the committee uh as well so very much appreciate the hard work that went into making that meeting a success and the hard work paid off we moved forward 11 sops so those will be on an upcoming uh agenda for approval thank you i call on dr Anderson for report of the legislative committee thank you the legislative committee had its first work session of the committee as a whole last Tuesday and I think the board for their support of our new approach I am really looking forward to digging in and so please stay by your phones and emails for your part

[04:40:20] of the work thank you in accordance with the board consensus to the late hour we will skip superintendent matters and board matters this evening may I chair lady may I share one thing I apologize I did have this and my board matters but I did want to take a chance to offer my deepest condolences to the Woodburn community upon the passing of principal liar I had the opportunity to visit with the school and the pain is just really palpable she had in a very short time made such a difference in that community and the region office has been

[04:40:58] wonderful in terms of providing them with support but they are looking for just some more ways to honor principal Iyer which is a wonderful tribute we've had people who've come to that school to work with her our students miss her and it's just been really hard for the Woodburn community and I wanted to make sure that i raised their voices and offered my condolences thank you um and i failed to mention this at the beginning uh before the moment of silence but i just want to recognize that tomorrow is the anniversary of 9-11 um and to keep the those families still in our thoughts so

[04:41:38] the meeting is now adjourned at 11 40. have a good night everyone

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