Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Joint Board of Supervisors & School Board Committee, Monday, September 18, 2023

Date: Monday, September 18, 2023
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 1h 38m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7415
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7415

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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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

[00:03:42] Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, Joint Committee. I would like to call to order September 18th, 2023, Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee meeting. This room has a hearing loop. If you need hearing assistance, switch your hearing aids to telecoil mode.

[00:04:01] If you need a headset, we have those available as well. Please see the clerk to request one. And can we all please stand for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, which stands one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:04:35] First, I'd like to announce that after discussion with co-chaired Sorotkin, we have decided to cancel the December 11th, 2023 joint committee meeting. County and school staff will ensure that all public calendars are updated accordingly.

[00:04:53] next thing is public input tonight we have no advanced sign-up speakers for our public input portion of the meeting if there's anyone in the room that would like to address the committee and have not already signed up to speak please see the clerk to my left and if there is no one we can go back go on to co-chair reports on the Board of Supervisors and the school board activities and co-chairs

[00:05:28] Rock and if you don't mind if I went first and then you can okay thank you the Board of Supervisors is currently undergoing our zoning ordinance rewrite rewrite process this is a years-long process the county has undertaken to completely rewrite our zoning ordinance that covers land use as part of our zoning ordinance work session on September 11th the board made two straw poll amendments to the zoning ordinance that govern public school properties

[00:05:57] This change involved allowing up to 20% of school site areas that are within a floodplain to be used for trails, utilities, and other already permitted uses within the floodplain. This change came at the request of LCPS staff and was supported by county zoning staff and by the board.

[00:06:18] As we continue to work through our zoning ordinance rewrite, we encourage LCPS to come forward with any requests or comments for the board's considerations. The board's finance committee is also beginning the process of discussing uses for our end-of-year fiscal year 2023 fund balance and for the fiscal year 2025 capital improvement program.

[00:06:43] As part of fund balance, the board will consider funding the renovations of some athletic facilities at Potomac Falls, Dominion, and Heritage High Schools, in addition to making up any fund shortfall from the state. In May, the Board of Supervisors also received the results of our 2022 survey of residents.

[00:07:07] Overall, residents continue to rank Loudoun County highly and as a desirable place to live. The survey did show that residents consider schools to be the most important issue in the county, with 89% of respondents ranking schools as essential or very important.

[00:07:28] This is my report from the Board of Supervisors Activities. Thank you, and Co-Chair Sorotkin. Thank you, Co-Chair Glass. So it's been an exciting start to the 2023-24 school year. We have a new superintendent who we have welcomed, Dr. Aaron Spence, who's on the dais with us tonight. He has been extremely busy over the last few weeks, visiting I think over a dozen schools at this point, as well as working on his six-month entry plan, which he presented to the

[00:08:02] board at our school board meeting last week. Additionally, we have a number of new programs that have been implemented within Lowne County Public Schools this year. We have our first students taking pre-international baccalaureate programs at two high schools, at Lowne Valley High School and Heritage High School. And we have a elementary dual language immersion program, which has started at two elementary schools, both at Sanders Corner and Potomac Elementary Schools.

[00:08:32] We also have a middle school intramural sports pilot program at four middle schools underway at Harper Park, River Bend, Seneca Ridge, and Smarts Mill Middle Schools. We are monitoring the state FY23 budget changes for the never-ending FY23 budget cycle.

[00:08:56] We're expected to get some more information and recommendations from staff on that at our next school board meeting, and we'll keep the Board of Supervisors appraised if there's any recommended actions or changes there. Additionally, and I'm mentioning this because this was originally going going to be a joint committee topic for the year, but because our next meeting has ended up getting canceled, we had a meeting between myself, Vice Chair Mejedevi, Chair Randall, and Mr. Hemstreet to discuss what some future possibilities might be for changing the school board budget adoption

[00:09:33] timeline and potentially moving it later to be closer to where the majority of other school districts in our area adopt their budget in the march april or even may time frame so we talked about some possibilities regarding changing the the tax collection date on the county side and on the school board side using having the county administrator use the superintendent's superintendent's estimate of needs as the the basis of the lcps plug-in into the county budget rather than waiting until getting the school board adopted budget.

[00:10:11] So a number of things that are being considered. We're going to consider that second item when we talk about our FY25 budget adoption timeline as an action item during our next meeting, and then we'll take it from there, although I think most of the action will probably be for the next boards to discuss starting in 2024.

[00:10:34] And that concludes my report. Thank you, Co-Chair Sirotkin. This afternoon, or this evening, we have a couple of information items. The first one is striping LCPS tennis courts for pickleball usage 2011 and 2022 countywide.

[00:10:56] So if we could have staff to come up. Good afternoon, Co-Chair Glass, Co-Chair Sirotkin, and committee members.

[00:11:12] We really do not have a formal update to this information item, what you have before you, but I would like to say just that the program is going very well to date. Potomac Falls High School has been done, Parkview High School has been done, Tuscarora High School has been done, as well as Woodgrove High School, and the Dominion High School is currently in process. Nets have already been purchased, so as soon as that's done, it will be opened up for use. So at your direction, over the past two years, we've been able to add, when Dominion

[00:11:49] has done, 20 new pickleball courts for the community use, which really is a great achievement when you pair that with the program that we're doing in PRCS as well. So we are trying to meet the need. And Brian Stocks from Loudoun County Public Schools is here, and we'd be happy to discuss further or answer any questions that you all may have at this time thank you so much does anyone have any questions supervisor briskman did you say 20 or 22 there's four at each school

[00:12:23] so when the dominion is done that'll be the fifth school and as mr socks and i were we're discussing earlier because of the success we there is a plan to continue that through the school's CAP program. So anytime there's a renovation at a high school, two of the tennis courts will have four total pickleball courts added. So this will continue to grow throughout the community. Okay. That was my main question this evening because it wasn't apparent to me in the item that it's going to continue, but Dominion wasn't one of the original four schools. So that

[00:13:00] indicates to me that we're continuing the process. Correct. I don't want to speak for Mr. Stocks, but I believe that Dominion was just the next in the capital asset program, the replacement. And so as that continues down, you'll see this happening.

[00:13:17] Awesome. That's fantastic. And everything's going well as far as PRCS managing the signups, or are they just open? They're not signups. It's just open. It's drop-in play after school hours. Okay. That's phenomenal. And then there was some talk in the item about lighting.

[00:13:35] Are they just, is that because tennis, we're starting to light the tennis courts, so those will be automatically lit along the way? Correct. Adding lighting to the tennis courts is now the LCPS new school standard. So Light Ridge High School and Independence High School have lit tennis courts.

[00:13:53] And through the CIP, we will, in out years, we have planned to retrofit existing schools. But any new high school opened will have the lights as the LCPS standard. Fantastic. But Potomac Falls and Dominion won't be too far in the out years, hopefully, if we get our fund balance.

[00:14:12] Anyway, well, thank you so much. I mean, I can't even tell you how excited I am that this has worked out, because I think we brought it to committee, gosh, I don't know how long, maybe 21? We brought it to committee, and I really commend LCPS and PRCS working together on this, and I'm very, very excited about it.

[00:14:33] So thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, this is very exciting. I do have a couple of questions. At the two schools with lighting on the tennis courts, can the lights be programmed to shut off automatically at a certain time? The lights are similar to our stadium lighting, so they have to be manually programmed or turned on and turned off.

[00:14:56] So I can't speak exactly to the technology, and if there's an ability to set an automatic shutoff for those two sites, I could come back with that information. but they are managed and configured to be turned on, activated, and turned off just as our stadium lights are, which is a manual, and an individual has to do such.

[00:15:20] Okay. Are any of the lights motion-centered? Not the stadium lights or the tennis court lighting, no. Okay. And you said the ones that you've done so far are, it's kind of loud, Tuscarora, Woodburn?

[00:15:44] The striping has been done at Tuscarora, Woodgrove, Potomac Falls, Parkview. It's ongoing right now. We had some additional repair work at Dominion that delayed that project. But when that repair work is done, the striping and the striping is placed, then the pickleball courts will be in place.

[00:16:05] Okay. Okay. Thank you. If there are no other questions, we can move on to the second one. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Our second action item, information item is the student activity fees.

[00:16:31] Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Sharon Willoughby, Chief Financial Officer with Loudoun County Public Schools. And I have just a short update related to student activity fees, or student fees, actually.

[00:16:50] In board docs, I had to send over a few slides. There's only about three slides that just kind of help outline the information that I will go over with you. As I said, just a short update, but to start with, when we think of our fees, we group them into two categories.

[00:17:05] We have our district-wide fees, and then we also have what we call our school-based fees. Some examples of district-wide fees are fees that are assessed at the same level or amount across the school district. So an example would be driver's ed behind the wheel.

[00:17:23] So if a student, regardless of what school that they are at, wanted to take the behind-the-wheel course, the fee assessed would be $225. There's also copies of educational records, virtual allowed in, are a few other examples.

[00:17:39] We also have consumables, and these are the materials such as a workbook or another item related to a class. And we are currently reviewing consumables related to classes right now to determine if this is something that LCPS could cover related to required classes, as an example.

[00:18:01] And for this current FY24 budget, we had included funding, for example, for middle school fine arts, that their instructional music book is covered by the district versus assessing that fee to the students. So as I mentioned, we are reviewing the cost to see what that would look like if we were expanding this for all the consumables.

[00:18:24] You'll also see a progression on this slide, thank you very much, regarding where we are at with other fees that we have eliminated over the years. So for example, athletic fees was a progression where it used to be $150 for the athletic fee, then it was reduced down to $75, and then for this fiscal year it was eliminated entirely.

[00:18:46] Another example would be the parking fee that was eliminated in fiscal 23. And then the third example, not a true elimination, but at least an elimination for the first four tests. And that's where for, let me see, back in fiscal 22 is where we started uncovering the cost of AP tests for the first four for a student.

[00:19:10] So we also have some really good information with the AP testing fees. You know, one of our philosophies regarding looking at student fees has been to remove, you know, barriers to participation. And AP testing fees, while I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, information was shared with me last week that really showed that from back from fiscal 22, 23, to this current year, 24, that there's a dramatic increase in the number of students taking or signing up for AP classes and tests.

[00:19:43] Next slide, please. School-based fees. So the students at each school really drive the clubs and the extracurricular activities that their school has. And with 100 schools across this very large county, the interest can definitely vary from school to school.

[00:20:00] So it's a lot more difficult to have uniformity with our schools, knowing that each school does have their own unique features and characteristics. So for example, some schools may have a very robust robotics club, and maybe another school there's no robotics club because there's maybe the students just aren't driving that interest again we have focused the philosophy of removing participation barriers and also that each school have a base level of programming support so some schools may still fundraise or elevate their program above this base level but we would like to ensure that if the student body would like a

[00:20:39] new club that lcps is able to support this without the students and families bearing the financial burden. Simply put, we're really trying to focus on not having to pay to play or pay to participate. So again, the examples here are just the overall clubs and extracurricular activities of which there are just, I would venture to say probably hundreds across our division. As we continue our evaluation, we do expect that if there are any additional requests that could not be absorbed

[00:21:14] within the existing budget or reallocation for FY25 that it may be in the superintendent's assessment of needs for FY25. Finally, a common question that also comes up is related to general student activity fee. Each time this question comes up, we double check and make sure that our schools are not assessing a general student activity fee as that is not something that LCPS supports. Next slide. Because the student fees is such a large undertaking, there have been two

[00:21:49] initial areas that we have phased in. The first is related to athletic ticket sales. And so the fees that are assessed at the gate, not only for families, but also our parents, but also students. Last year, we implemented a athletic ticket sales revenue sharing model, where it looks at the gate receipts of all the high schools. And based on the gate receipts of each school, along with the number of student-athletes at that school and a few other variables.

[00:22:23] We distribute the revenue across all the high schools. We also moved some costs that high schools were paying for out of those gate receipts into the school division budget.

[00:22:39] Last year was a very successful year in implementing the revenue-sharing model, But with anything new, we are taking this year to now really fine tune and look at the model to see is there other opportunities that we can include in this revenue sharing model.

[00:22:57] One item, for example, would be whether or not we can make the recommendation to not charge students. That if with their student ID that they can attend an athletic event without being charged. Also, as part of phase two for this current year, we've been looking at the fine arts program.

[00:23:17] The fine arts program has drama clubs associated with them. They also have booster clubs that are associated with them. And while we don't have direct oversight of a booster club, we can try to provide structure and guidance with the drama clubs.

[00:23:33] So we are reviewing them to look at what fees that they are assessing students. We're looking at the cash flow, the theater program, the ticket sales, the costs, all of that in making our final recommendation. Again, this is ongoing right now, and so any financial impact, again, would likely be included in the FY25 budget.

[00:23:56] So overall, I just want to emphasize, again, that we continue to work on this. It is a large undertaking, and so we've tried to chunk it out in a methodical way, and I am available for any questions that you may have. Thank you for this information.

[00:24:16] Supervisor Breskman, do you have any questions? I do. Thank you so much. And I'm really, really glad that we're creating a culture of reducing barriers for all students for activities that they want to participate in.

[00:24:33] I'm really excited to hear about the AP testing fees and that more people are enrolling. That's really great. I'd love to see the stats on that. Also, will you be following up with like an increase in, if we see an increase in athletic participation because the athletic fees have been removed, I'd love to see that.

[00:24:56] Many people know this was actually a personal thing for me as a single head of household. It was really hard to pay for two kids sometimes to be participating in sports at the high school level. So I'm very, very excited about this. Can we get a list of fees? Did you guys actually do the study and can we see the study? Or is there an actual list of fees that you've been considering? Because I heard at one point all of them were going to be studied. So when we began reviewing, that's when we quickly learned how vast the list is regarding the clubs. So the ones that come to me are the ones that, quite frankly, I recall from

[00:25:35] my school days, like the old school chess club and the robotics. And there are clubs today, that are just vastly different. So it was that initial list. I could dig that up just to show the type of clubs that we have across the organization, which helped us identify, okay, we can't review all.

[00:26:00] Like, let's try to focus on some big areas. And then we are looking at a way currently to perhaps, again, provide, Is there a way to provide a funding model to the schools? And then it's kind of like a cafeteria model or an a la carte model.

[00:26:18] Maybe it's a site, you know, maybe it's an allocation to a school perhaps. And then they can use that and then they determine what clubs they have out of that allocation. It's just one very high level example that we're looking at. Okay. And will you be looking at, so for example, what I hear a lot about now, like when I start talking about the athletic fees is marching band.

[00:26:38] I've heard from several constituents that marching band can cost $250 a year, which I think is exorbitant. I'm glad that we're going to be looking at eliminating the instrument rentals. But I'm thinking of things like marching band, cheer, DECA.

[00:26:57] And I know that maybe not all schools have DECA, but if we could start thinking about the bigger ones that maybe all the schools have. I love the fine arts idea, and there was one of their dance team, you know, those sorts of things that almost every school has.

[00:27:16] But I can see that, for example, Rockridge would probably have a lot more in the fine arts that they might want to put money towards. So I'm out of time, but thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes, Supervisor Umstead. Thank you, Madam Chair. issues like robotics club, and a robotics club might not be in a particular school because the students were not that interested.

[00:27:42] Is there a way to encourage more interest among students for technology clubs? Because I could see a fairness issue coming out of this.

[00:28:00] What do we do to try to make sure that all schools offer the kind of training that prepares kids for the job market when they get out? I can definitely take that information back with me.

[00:28:20] What I learned and my team has learned when we first started this was because we started with thinking, okay, if we had that each school does offer a robotics program, One of the first things that I learned very quickly was what I was sharing, that the school population drives the interest of what the clubs and activities.

[00:28:42] So what I can do, as I mentioned, is take back the information that you're sharing for our Department of Teaching and Learning and school leadership as we look at the model and what ways we can implement more equity across the school divisions of keeping what you've described perhaps in the conversation as well.

[00:29:03] That would be great. And the other question is related to something Supervisor Briskman said. When it comes to looking at AP sign-ups going up, are we seeing those increased sign-ups across all demographics?

[00:29:26] I can find that out. That would be great. Thank you very much. School Board Member Reeser. Thank you, Co-Chair Glass. Thank you, Ms. Willoughby, for the presentation. So I think what I'm understanding is while it is a comprehensive, it's not an all-inclusive review, which makes sense.

[00:29:48] Could we get a list of what organizations are division-wide or nearly division-wide at our secondary schools? Because I think that's where most of the fees are occurring would be at the secondary level. And also, what is the timeline for Phase 2, and are there other phases?

[00:30:10] There definitely are other phases. So our focus has really been on the two that I shared with the athletics and the fine arts. I would say probably the third phase, which is also a little bit ongoing right now, would be the clubs across just the schools in general.

[00:30:30] I will share one of the challenges that I think is going to, that we know we're facing is the schools that have booster clubs. And so, again, we have oversight of what LCPS can charge and assess and do, but a booster club is a separate organization.

[00:30:50] And so we want to make sure that we're not just taking it away from LCPS assessing a charge and then the booster club assessing the charge instead. And so that's going to be, I think, lots of discussions and conversations with the booster clubs, with the PTAs.

[00:31:07] And I think that's also why it's been a little bit of a slower, excuse me, slower process with this rollout because it's not just the analytical review. It's also those discussions and partnerships that we're trying to build. Okay, so just to close the loop on my request, and then I have a question about the booster clubs.

[00:31:22] If we could get a list of the countywide programs, what the phases and the overall timeline look for the entire review process. And then as far as the booster clubs go, are you telling me that LCPS doesn't have the authority to legislate the booster club's ability to charge students for membership within the booster club?

[00:31:46] Or are you telling me that LCPS doesn't have the authority, or the school board, not the school division, to legislate whether a booster club can require membership for a sport? I think we could require the latter because it is an activity that LCPS is running.

[00:32:08] so like a football team so whereas and i'm just going to make up an example if the football club was assessing a fee to participate on the team um that is still the lcps team and so if that was something that we what we removed at the district level but then it was you know perhaps tried to be shifted to a booster level i think that would be something we could have oversight over i just have seen as we have gone through this process there's lots of gray um especially with the fine arts program as we have rolled that out and so again i just want to just kind of throw that caveat out

[00:32:48] there that um on paper it you know it absolutely is a great idea but the implementation of it and making sure we we really think of everything and roll it out properly is um definitely will take some time i know i appreciate that you're taking a look at making sure we don't create inadvertent other problems or loopholes that then the school division or the school board couldn't fix.

[00:33:13] So if you think this needs to go up through a particular committee so that we can continue to discuss how we implement this and make sure that we get it right, I think in addition to marching band, that Supervisor Bristman offered some comments on, there are also other fine arts and theater productions musical productions that i think although we were able to invest very successfully i think maybe the first school division in the comma to make that kind of an investment in fine arts stipends that's on the compensation side for the adults that are doing

[00:33:51] the program i think there are still some barriers to entry for students who may want to participate thank you um co-chair good thank you madam chair uh just going back to the ap exam fees for a a moment. I think the most interesting piece of data related to that is the two years prior to eliminating the AP exam fees. Just putting enrollment aside, just for the students who were enrolled in an AP course, only 71 to 72 percent of them chose to take the AP exam at the

[00:34:28] end of the course. So these are students who studied for the entire year in an AP course and just didn't take the test at the end. And in the first year after cover, uh, waiving the AP exam fees, that number jumped to 82%. So it's just, it was as, as the sponsor of that, that amendment that was particularly gratifying to see. Uh, but even I wasn't expecting that much of a dramatic increase just in the first year. So I think it's a great example of how, uh, even investing a relatively small amount of money in that has, has made a huge difference from our students and

[00:35:02] hopefully saved families money, too, and one or more less college courses that they don't have to take or pay for. So I just wanted to mention that data. Thank you. So for the first four AP testing fees that are eliminated, is that per LCPS student during the time with the LCPS,

[00:35:25] or is that for per school year? How does that work? I believe it's per school year, but I will...

[00:35:46] It's four total. Four total. It's for the first four they take during their time with LCPS, so regardless of which year it takes place in. Okay, thank you. And thank you again. And I think we can move on to our action item, which is the safe pedestrian passages to schools.

[00:36:09] Good evening, everyone.

[00:36:38] Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I'll just go through some quick introductions here. I'm Lou Moserak, Assistant Director at Loudoun County Transportation and Capital Infrastructure. And here with me at the table, I have Laura Ghosh, Senior Traffic Engineer. Bev Tate, the Director of Planning and GIS for LCPS.

[00:36:58] Aloysia Thuring is our Traffic Engineering Program Manager at DTCI. And Scott Davies is the Director of Transportation for LCPS. And with that, I'll turn it over to Aloysia and Laura for the presentation today.

[00:37:14] Thank you. Thank you, Lou. - Good evening, members of the Joint Board Committee. For the record, my name is Eloisa Thring with the Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure. With me tonight is the team, LCPS and DTCI team that worked behind the scenes to put this PowerPoint presentation together and also reviewed the directives of this committee.

[00:37:41] The item is safe pedestrian passage to schools. And for context, it was added to the Joint Board committee work plan in the summer of 2022. Its purpose is to initiate discussions between LCPS and Loudoun County regarding safe travel to and from county school properties, which includes elementary, middle, and high schools, with intent to solicit input from our partners, the Virginia Department of Transportation and Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. The committee also recommended

[00:38:17] to identify potential solutions to further enhance safe travel to and from schools by addressing missing sidewalk and trail segments within the walk zones, including providing safe crossings at roadway intersections.

[00:38:36] Following the summer of 2022, the joint board discussions in the summer of 2022, per the request of the committee, staff provided an overview to the committee in the fall of that year on topics related to crossing guards and its recruitment process, sidewalk and trail improvement projects initiated by both LCPS and Loudoun County, and the capital funding sources applied to these initiatives, including grant funds from Safe Routes to School program. We also provided an overview of the county sidewalk and trail program,

[00:39:15] a program that was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in the fiscal year 2019 budget. And this program systematically addressed missing sidewalk and trail segments along roadways classified as collector and arterial in the countywide transportation plan to facilitate efficient delivery of sidewalk and trail projects.

[00:39:38] And lastly, at the November Joint Board Committee meeting, We also, for the request of the committee, staff provided information related to moving and relocating marked crosswalks in the public right-of-way and the mechanism to move forward should a request is received.

[00:39:59] Early this year, in February, staff provided information to the Joint Board Committee on two items, additional information related to crossing guards and whether Safe Routes to School Program funds could be applied to its operating cost. We also resumed our discussion related to ongoing maintenance of existing pedestrian tunnels and underpasses within the LCPS walk zones and the various parties' response before its upkeep.

[00:40:29] In these joint board discussions, the committee identified 14 locations for potential marked crosswalk installation. They are listed in your packet as labeled as attachment one. These intersections were identified by community members in your district, locations that were deemed difficult to traverse on foot and bicycle and needing marked crosswalks and other safety enhancements. Staff was directed to evaluate and prioritize the locations to advance for

[00:41:06] planning and implementation, which brings us to tonight's presentation. In the next slides, Ms. Ghosh will briefly go over the criteria and thought process that were applied in prioritizing the 14 locations. She will also briefly highlight the next steps for the committee's consideration.

[00:41:28] Following her presentation, I will wrap it up with final remarks. So with that, Laura, it's all yours. Thank you, Alyssa. Okay, so after reviewing past board and school board discussions regarding crosswalks, and leveraging the knowledge and expertise of the study team, we settled on four main factors influencing school crosswalk priorities. So first, we looked at how much a MREC crosswalk at the specified location would be used by school students. A greater priority corresponded to crosswalks more likely to have a greater number of students crossing at that

[00:42:04] location. And this means that crosswalks along LCPS designated walking routes and closer to the school would receive a higher priority than crosswalks further out. Second, we looked at a variety of safety factors influencing the need for a marked crosswalk at a specified location.

[00:42:21] A greater priority corresponded to crosswalks where there's a greater risk for pedestrian crossings. So locations where the crossed roadway is a high-speed, high-volume roadway and the approach is uncontrolled would receive a higher priority than other roadways. Third, we incorporated equity factors using the CDC's overall social vulnerability index, which is based on 2020 census data. So that overall SVI score is comprised of four themes that are equally weighted, including socioeconomic status, household characteristics, racial and ethnic minority

[00:42:57] status, and housing type and transportation. Crosswalks were weighted based on census tract vulnerability within a quarter mile radius of that location. And the last factor that we considered is the ease of implementing improvements. So crosswalk locations only needing pavement markings received a higher priority while locations needing pavement markings as well as new signal heads or other longer lead time items were prioritized lower. So these four factors were equally weighted in our prioritization effort and resulted in the following order. So in this list

[00:43:37] The rightmost column is the rank order of the crosswalks, and throughout the rest of the discussion, I'll be referring to the crosswalks by their rank order. And some scores, some crosswalks receive the same score.

[00:43:52] So they receive the same rank order number, and then we indicated that they were ranked the same as another crosswalk using an asterisk. So in this table, there are several shaded rows, and these are locations where pedestrian improvements have currently been addressed or are currently being addressed.

[00:44:09] and I'm told the shading is a little bit difficult to see depending on what monitor you're looking at so I'll go quickly through them. So ranking two star is both of the Briarwoods High School crosswalks and so those were part of the Belmont Ridge Road corridor study at the July 18, 2023 county board business meeting. London County Board of Supervisors endorsed 801 with supervisor seems absent the crosswalk improvements at these two locations the ranking three crosswalk at freedom high school and liberty elementary school that one has been addressed and lcps installed

[00:44:49] pavement markings across the school entrance earlier this year the ranking six crosswalk request at lowes island elementary school was received improved safety because the existing marked crosswalk is now within the expanded 25 mile per hour school zone and so vehicles are moving at slower speeds during travel to school times. The ranking nine crosswalk is legacy well it's associated with legacy elementary school and it's across Belmont Ridge Road which was

[00:45:26] an improvement that was resulting from the Belmont Ridge Road corridor study so again the county's BOS, or Board of Supervisors, sorry, endorsed that improvement at the July 18th, 2023 board business meeting. And then the ranking 10 crosswalk at John Champ High School across North Star Boulevard at Sacred Mountain Street and Stonecutter Street is currently being designed as part of the North Star Boulevard Tall Cedars Parkway to Braddock Road CIP project. And so we're working on that actively. So that leaves eight of the locations. So those include rank one,

[00:46:05] Farmwell Station Middle School across Gloucester Parkway. Rank 1 at Horizon Elementary School across Broadmoor Drive. Rank 4 at Trailside Middle School across Portsmouth Boulevard. Rank 5 at Horizon Elementary School across Potomac View Road.

[00:46:22] Rank 7 at Mercer Middle School across Mineral Spring Circle. Rank 8 at Mill Run Elementary School across Stone Hollow Drive. rank 11, Stonebridge High School across Middlefield Drive, and rank 12, Buffalo Trail Elementary School across Seven Hills Drive.

[00:46:39] So all of those remaining eight crosswalks or crosswalk requests require further study and VDOT concurrence regarding crosswalk markings and configurations. So the following slides corresponds to maps at the intersections organized by rank, and we're going to skip over these.

[00:46:57] if we want to talk about a particular location during the question period we'll happily go back to them pull them up so we can have a visual of the location but at this point well we're now on the next step slides and staff identified three considerations for the next steps of this effort so as discussed eight of the it crosswalks require further study to determine the appropriate crosswalk improvement and gain vdoc concurrence additionally we'd want we want to note that Marked crosswalks alone may not result in a crossing that meets Loudoun County Public Schools' safe crossing standards.

[00:47:34] So, for example, LCPS does not expect elementary students to use a crosswalk to cross a four-lane, median, divided roadway. Our crosswalk study that might be done might be implementing pavement markings and corresponding things to allow for safer pedestrian crossing of a four-lane, median, divided roadway.

[00:47:54] it wouldn't result in expanding of a walk zone or something like that. If we did want students to use the marked crosswalk, we would need to consider a road diet or alternative intersection control, and those things may need to be evaluated as part of the study.

[00:48:11] So finally, conducting the crosswalk studies takes approximately 9 to 12 months as data collection windows are limited by VDOT, the Virginia Department of Transportation. So receiving ad hoc crosswalk study requests... does make it difficult to conduct the crosswalk studies in a timely manner, and may result in adding several months of delay just to complete the study.

[00:48:35] And so with those considerations, staff has prepared several recommendations, and at this point I'll hand it back to Aloysa. - Thank you, Laura. To briefly summarize the content that's being presented tonight for the joint board committee's consideration, staff proposed three recommendations as shown on the screen.

[00:48:57] First, we recommend endorsing the prioritized list, as Ms. Ghosh alluded and presented in attachment one in your packet. Second, we recommend directing staff to further analyze the eight remaining intersections that she went over for potential mark crosswalks, conducting a deep dive on each location, applying the VDOT guidance on the review, and soliciting stakeholders' concurrence on viable, cost-effective solutions. And third recommendation is recognizing requests for the installation of marked crosswalks.

[00:49:30] They are typically handled on an ad hoc basis, in some cases as a reaction to a specific issue raised by community members, as we heard in a joint board discussions. For the committee's consideration, we recommend directing staff to conduct a comprehensive review of intersections along state-maintained roadways that need marked crosswalks.

[00:49:52] Given the frequency and the number of requests for its installation, including the random nature of the request, the systematic proactive approach proposed tonight would involve a holistic review of intersections that would involve developing a methodology to establish the identification of locations needing marked crosswalks that is data-driven, developing a methodology for prioritizing its insulation that Ms. Ghosh alluded in her presentation, developing a funding strategy to move forward with these initiatives that would ultimately

[00:50:32] align with the county's annual budget process or federal and state grant opportunities or profit conditions or a combination of these funding mechanisms. The proposed comprehensive review would be a coordinated effort between LCPS and Loudoun County with the intent to solicit input from our stakeholders, such as VDOT and Lowne County Sheriff's Office. We believe a programmatic approach, as described tonight, would enhance delivery of MARC crosswalk installation on state-maintained roadways and potentially enhance

[00:51:11] expectations of its users and stakeholders. Thank you for your attention. That concludes our presentation thank you so much for your presentation today do we have any questions school member Reeser thank you I just have a brief question and then I'll defer to my colleagues and maybe ask for a second opportunity so with regard to the last recommendation where would the opportunity for the citizen stakeholder remain to bring up an issue that may not have existed when a

[00:51:48] a comprehensive review was done at a particular location? It would come after we have prioritized the locations and identified the critical intersections that need marked crosswalks, because obviously we would be looking at the entire countywide review, and we would identify the locations within the school block zones and identify

[00:52:26] the critical locations during that review so I would not be supportive of a methodology that doesn't allow for parents and families to bring to our attention something that needs help on an ad hoc basis I think the reason we wound up here was exactly because of that and it's because there's no way we could be aware of the shifting issues that happen from school year to school year as the transportation patterns change.

[00:52:58] I mean, they've changed a number of times since 2012 as the previous school board enlarged walk zones multiple times and changed bus driver benefits, which have actually led to a situation, LCPS, where more parents are driving to school because they had to as they lost that bus service back in 2012.

[00:53:24] And now we have an issue where there are cars backing up and creating traffic hazards, and kids are having to cross in places where they didn't have to cross before. And the children do choose to cross where it's most convenient, not where a path that LCPS chooses.

[00:53:40] And because of that changing nature from year to year, depending who the children are, how many children live in a particular walk zone, If we're including stakeholders such as LCPS, LCSO, I think you named someone else that I'm forgetting now, I don't see an opportunity for families or parents who are walking their children along these roads to have an input.

[00:54:05] So I would want that to remain. Supervisor Briskman. Thank you, and thank you so much. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite meetings in my entire term. Can you go back to the recommendations?

[00:54:24] So, wouldn't number three address school board member research concern about input from the community? Wouldn't that be part of the request process, or are you relying on school board members and supervisors to do it?

[00:54:44] I don't think we have all the specifics of the program laid out at this point, but I would say that working with LCPS as a stakeholder, I'm confident we can find a way to solicit community input. to give us just those locations that are of concern it would go into the process and and there's methodology but just getting that feedback from the community certainly would be part of the public process okay okay great and then we're we will I'm all under like I like these recommendations first of all and I'm

[00:55:20] happy to endorse them given feedback from my colleagues on the committee so So this would eliminate the need, for example, for a supervisor to bring a BMI or something like that on a crosswalk. Or would we still need to bring BMIs on these sorts of things?

[00:55:39] Or should we just go through this process in the future? So I think this process would help standardize things and have us look at things kind of systematically like we do on traffic calming or sidewalk and trails or intersection improvement program like that to have a methodology similar to that.

[00:55:57] obviously there's some differences because of the nature of what we're looking at but okay and then um i'm so glad that that the horizon crosswalks are on there i can't even tell you like i i hear about the folks crossing from the townhouses over to horizon on a regular basis and i was just driving there the other day and i saw you know a lady with a baby in her arm and walking her kid across right there going to horizon from those townhouses and i'm like ah i'm so glad to see that on there as one of the priorities that's fantastic um my other question is does this

[00:56:31] conflict or not conflict with our um i mean it sounds like it's a another program kind of like the missing links program which i mean you guys are great like you analyze things that of course none of us would think about because you're like engineers but um does it conflict or not conflict with this sidewalk missing links program um i don't know if the missing links program was looking into crosswalks at all?

[00:56:57] And then lastly, if we were to get to the point that it's okay to do the Broadmoor crossing at Horizon, would it not make sense just to do the Parkside Circle one at the same time if they're both approved? So those are my two questions. Thank you.

[00:57:15] So I think for the second question first, I think if both are approved and, again, there's an order of things, but there's also economies of scale when you're doing work in the same proximity. certainly there's the possibility they can be coordinated for sure. The sidewalk and trails program really focuses on the sidewalk and trails component.

[00:57:36] And I'll defer to Laura here on that some more. But there are crosswalks involved in that sometimes, but not all the time. Yeah, so when we look at a particular missing link, we look at the crosswalks that are associated with that link. But if there's not missing sidewalk and trail links where a potential crosswalk is requested, then we wouldn't look at the crosswalk.

[00:57:58] right so yeah all right i got it thank you i just don't want to duplicate efforts but i'm sure you guys have that all in your mind thank you coach your sorotkin thank you madam chair could you briefly describe what the status of the project is at uh on north star boulevard outside of john champ high school i think it was number 10 on the list could you describe what uh what's been completed to date if anything and then what's remaining if anything this is the um go ahead

[00:58:32] are you so that the roadway is being widened right so it's it's currently uh two lanes in like one lane in each direction and it's being widened to two lanes in each direction so we call that a four-lane cross-section it's going to be median divided it's currently under design and we have more information on that in our quarterly report as to the stage of the design and how the project is going it is still a few years away from being implemented admittedly and that i think

[00:59:09] there was there was either going to be a bridge tunnel or crosswalk in addition to the the road being widened there was going to be there's an underpass that's new passageway created yes there's an underpass that's proposed from the neighborhood across the street and then up into the school property okay thank you i was surprised to see that ranked so low on the list but it's that's the one I visited in person so I can't say I disagree with it because I haven't visited the other intersections and viewed those but that's definitely the one where I've seen students take their lives into their own hands crossing in the middle of the street where a crosswalk used to be

[00:59:44] so I would I would I hesitate to say that that should be higher on the list because I haven't seen the other ones so it could be that the other ones are more dire but that's the only one that I'm personally familiar with right and I think in terms of progressing that will just progress as part of the CIP project. Having it progress faster is very challenging. Ms. Reeser, we can go with the second round if anyone has any other questions, but Ms. Reeser. Thank you. So I just want to clarify, Supervisor Brissman and I are getting a different understanding of what number

[01:00:19] three is. I understood number three to be that instead of an ad hoc process where someone can bring an issue to their representative and it gets addressed, there's going to be a comprehensive of review done and you named some stakeholders which did not include constituents. Did I get that part right? I think we can take your feedback tonight and use it to create a process that includes a resident and parent feedback. Sure. And I'm sure that it would be helpful.

[01:00:55] The difficulty is with the current proposed process or sometimes the way things are done, There is opportunity for residents of Loudoun to give feedback after decisions have been made. But it's much easier to come up with a solution that incorporates those suggestions if they're made from the beginning instead of after all the stakeholders have come up with a plan.

[01:01:20] So I just want to ensure that that exists because ultimately those are the people walking in these neighborhoods and they understand what actually happens there all day, every day, better than any of us who might just go visit once. We certainly hear you, and we will take that feedback, but certainly what we do is a public process, and it's our intent to include public feedback, particularly from those who use the facilities on a regular basis.

[01:01:49] Thank you, and I have attended where VDOT and where there have been community meetings that is usually after a study is done, and it's to give information that the study gathered and explain it, and again, it's sometimes, I just want to make sure, especially because we're talking about parents that are actually walking their kids to school that it's not after decisions are made so I really appreciate everyone being so responsive and I think just to reiterate we will work with LCPS to make sure there's an orderly way to to get that feedback but but certainly we can we can do that thank you and and my message is to LCPS as well

[01:02:24] I realize y'all are a team so and I know Miss Tate's right there thank you so then do we have to include that in the motion to include stakeholders such as parents, residents of the community? Or are we saying that we don't have to go that far in the motion? Because I would like to make a motion today. So I will attempt to answer that question since staff appears to be

[01:03:00] stumped. So I think the motion, to the extent that the committee has been discussing it around part three of the motion is directing the staff to come back with a proposed process for evaluation.

[01:03:16] So I think the motion would cover, I mean, if you wanted to, you could add a statement that says includes any of the guidance that the committee has provided today if you wanted to do that. But I think the motion covers that. And I think what staff did indicate is that they would take back the commentary from the committee around directly inserting a constituent input process as part of the proposed process that we have to design and come back with.

[01:03:48] So I don't think you need to change your motion, but if you wanted to, then you could add after, I could draft something for you, but basically with a proposed process for evaluation implementation that takes into consideration the committee's guidance today of future Mark Rossau requests that would align with the county's capital improvement budget process.

[01:04:10] Okay, I'm going to take your word that we don't have to change it and that staff understands what we're looking to do. I will ensure Mr. Moserak and Ms. Thuring follow through. We understand your direction, and that will be included in the work product that comes back when we report back.

[01:04:31] Thank you. So then I would like to make a motion. I move that the Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors and School Board endorse the prioritization of potential marked crosswalks as presented in Attachment 1.

[01:04:51] I further move that the Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors direct county staff to identify funding sources to conduct further analysis of the remaining eight potential marked crosswalks as identified in Attachment 1 and report back to the Board of Supervisors at a future business meeting.

[01:05:12] I further move that the Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors direct county staff to return to the board with a proposed process for evaluation and implementation of future marked crosswalk requests that would align with the county's capital improvement program budget process.

[01:05:33] Thank you. So we have a second by Supervisor Biskman. Well, I just want to thank staff from both DTCI and LCPS for all of the work that you've done. I know this item has been sitting for almost a year.

[01:05:50] And implementing the crosswalk improvements on the prioritization list will be appreciated by the community. I also want to say that I think the process to evaluate and construct crosswalks moving forward will be very beneficial. That's one of the top concerns that I hear from our constituents regarding crosswalks in the areas of their community.

[01:06:15] So if anyone has any other comments, all in favor, say aye. Any opposed? All ayes have it. So again, thank you all for your great work. This is really, really important, I feel.

[01:06:31] Thank you. okay we have the next one is the recommendations from the douglas high school commemorative

[01:06:48] committee's reconciliation subcommittee good evening good evening co-chairs glass and suratkin

[01:07:24] and members of the joint committee before we get to the presentation that's been prepared i would like to introduce mr charles avery he will be a familiar face to many of you as one of the co-chairs of the Douglas High School Commemorative Committee.

[01:07:40] Mr. Avery, do you have any remarks? Good afternoon, Joint Board. The Joint Board, first time I've been to this meeting. But I want to thank each of you from the Loudoun County Public Schools and the Board of Supervisors for the support that you have given to the commemorative committee over this last year.

[01:08:02] So I was encouraged by the conversation earlier about community members making recommendations, the commemorative committee was a diverse group of, or is a diverse group of, and a cross-section of Loudoun County residents and businesses, public and private, who have contributed to the work that we've done over the last year, and also the diverse group who were in the subcommittee to come up with these recommendations.

[01:08:40] It's been an exciting time for us, and I'm hopeful that you guys are still very much excited about the work that's being done with the Douglas High School. I'll just take a minute to mention in the last 30 days, we've had some folks as far way as Louisiana to come and a delegation of 60 students from Louisiana who came to visit the Douglas High School and and certainly very excited about what we're doing here in in Loudoun County so again I want to thank you for the

[01:09:17] opportunity just to make present these recommendations and and also to thank this diverse group who who are either in the audience or online who have contributed to these recommendations I take I'm gonna take the opportunity to call out their names the co-chair Erica Bush who was not able to be here with us today Dwight Brooks Tammy Carter Gertrude Evans Jim Roberts Larry Rader and Larry Sims all these folks contributed to these these recommendations and this whole business of reconciliation which is what this subcommittee these

[01:09:55] recommendations are coming from it's not an easy topic to tackle I'm sure you know. I think we have, after much deliberation, come up with some very strong recommendations that will show not only the county, but folks across this country what we're doing here in Loudoun County. So with that said, Shalom. Thank you, Mr. Avery. So in addition to the individuals who were named who volunteered for the subcommittee.

[01:10:32] We were fortunate to have had Walter Hogan of Symbiosis as our facilitator for meetings for the past year. And it was my privilege to work as the liaison from county staff with this very thoughtful, engaged, and devoted group.

[01:10:49] They've put an enormous amount of time and effort into coming up with the recommendations that you're about to hear. And with that, I'll begin the presentation. If you have had a chance to look at the item, there is a very lengthy summary of the path that this item has taken through both boards and joint committee and Douglas High School commemorative committee.

[01:11:15] But the sort of important two meetings that I mentioned as part of the background were the initiating item coming from the Board of Supervisors back in 2021, so two years ago. and that directed the joint committee to review and discuss the for sale by the then countywide league that conveyed land purchased for four thousand dollars to loudon county for one dollar and to return to a future board business meeting with recommendations to address that injustice

[01:11:47] the other meeting that i would mention was gave us a more targeted path to get to where we are today. And that was in 2022, the board approved the joint committee's recommendation that the Douglas High School Commemorative Committee make recommendations for the forced sale by appointing a subcommittee that would report regularly to the joint committee on their progress. So we proceeded with that direction. We had eight members who you heard named earlier, began meeting twice a month

[01:12:21] in August 2022 with our facilitator. And we used as our guiding question, how should Loudoun County reconcile the impacts of the forest sale of DHS to the alumni, the faculty, the staff, their descendants, and the community? As part of that, we reviewed the historical background of the forest sale and discussed those impacts. And we identified generally three types of impacts,

[01:12:56] and those were taken into considerations as the committee formed their recommendations. So first of all, educational impacts. There are documented disparities among the graduation rates and college attendance rates, historically among black and white students. There were social impacts. These were sacrifices that parents made to send their children to school at Douglas, working multiple jobs, holding bake sales to pay for the textbooks, furniture, resources, and transportation.

[01:13:30] This was many of the stories and anecdotes that were discussed at this meeting and shared. And these resources were all provided for free to white children using taxpayer funding from both black and white families.

[01:13:50] Finally, not to be forgotten, would be the financial impacts. There really is not any way to calculate the total amounts of money that were spent by these families for the resources that were provided for free to white children.

[01:14:08] And again, textbooks, furniture, learning resources, uniforms, transportation, the kinds of things we were talking about in our earlier item, item number two, the fees and things along those lines. One of the calculations we did make that we thought was meaningful, we took a look at the 2023 fair market value for the current Douglas High School land,

[01:14:34] and that fair market value is $5,501,600. So in taking all of those different considerations and keeping those in mind.

[01:14:53] We have two types of recommendations that we want to bring forward to the joint committee and eventually to the Board of Supervisors. The first is really ensuring the legacy of Douglas's students and staff and families through an ongoing line of support from the Board of Supervisors.

[01:15:12] It would include an annual commemorative event to reaffirm how our communities recognize their past, but also how it creates a bright future for all. And second, telling the story of Douglas High School, its students, its families, its faculty and staff that would reach audiences both within Loudoun County and beyond through a comprehensive documentary film project. You'll note that in both of these recommendations, the theme that

[01:15:48] underlies both is really telling the story and it was something that came up I think in a lot of the discussions that we had with the committee people want to tell their stories they want to tell the work that has been done and they want they want to tell it while they're still around and and able to hear folks are able to hear and see what has been done in that community so in terms of implementation if the joint committee recommends and the board approves county staff has discussed

[01:16:26] and has created a plan to take steps for implementing these recommendations so the commemoration coordination piece parks and recreation staff who are working at the douglas community center would assist the consortium the douglas high school consortium of organizations with their collections care educational program development and administration they would help the consortium partners to coordinate planning and organizing of an annual commemorative event they would work with outside contractors for marketing and event planning and graphic design

[01:17:05] needs that are related to these commemorative initiatives and on an annual basis they would would coordinate the budget, any type of sustainability, funding, and planning for these annual commemorative elements. The second piece, the documentary, our public affairs and communications staff here at the county would manage and oversee the timeline and scope of work for the proposed documentary and the contract with a production company. They would also work

[01:17:39] with uh what is currently our reconciliation subcommittee uh which we would transition into the douglas high school documentary task force for those who wish to stay with us on that undertaking and those individuals would advise the filmmakers as they go through that process the fiscal impact for the first piece the commemoration coordination

[01:18:08] We estimate $50,000 annually, and that would be allocated through Parks and Recreation in our fiscal year 25 budget process, which is coming up quickly. The second piece is the documentary, and based on estimates from industry experts and talking to several producers, we believe that all-inclusive, a million dollars, would be a one-time cost, and that could be included in the use of FY23 fund balance item to come to our board in November.

[01:18:48] So I have a brief summary of the motions that are being recommended coming from this item. These are spelled out in more depth than the item, of course, but we're recommending that the joint committee recommend board approval of the recommendations that are presented in the attachment and that the joint committee recommend the board direct staff to assist with management of the commemoration coordination and documentary project.

[01:19:17] And we're also asking that the joint committee recommend that the board direct funding for the first recommendation to the FY25 budget process and for the second recommendation to the FY23 fund balance process.

[01:19:34] And with that, I leave you with a view of the beautifully restored Douglas High School and encourage any of you who have not had a chance to go and visit to please do so. And there are some particularly wonderful tour guides there who can take you through the building.

[01:19:49] It's an absolutely beautiful and inspirational place to be. So I'll take any questions. Supervisor Briskman. Thank you. And thank you so much for this work.

[01:20:05] I really, really appreciate it. So the recommendation is a $50,000 annual budget for the celebration. and then the one-time $1 million out of fund balance for the documentary, which I fully support.

[01:20:25] Is there an opportunity for the committee to come back if they don't think that the $1 million is enough? Would they come back to our committee, or would they come back to the board, the full board? I believe they would need to come back to the full board since this recommendation would go to the board.

[01:20:46] okay i believe that that's how that would work okay um and uh are we starting this fairly soon the documentary and because you know the last graduating class i believe was in 1968 and i know that we already have some archival footage and a lot of stuff written down um but we're going to start pretty soon right as soon as we can get through the procurement process okay okay great. And the only other thing is, I just wanted to say, and I'd like this to be, and I'm sure this

[01:21:25] will probably happen, but I want to make sure that in this process, in the documentary, maybe at Douglas somewhere, it's very striking to go back and look at the history of the actual votes that allowed Loudoun County to participate basically in massive resistance. And, you know, I know the forced sale of the land was well before that, but it's very, it's chilling actually to go back and look at the actual votes taken by this board and by the school board.

[01:22:01] And so I just, I'm sure it will happen, but I just wanted to put on the record that I really want to make sure that that is in any documentary or anything that is displayed at times referring to this time in our history. Because it's hard to look at, but if we don't acknowledge and look at these things that happened in the past, it makes it much more difficult, in my opinion, to have a healing future.

[01:22:32] So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Umstead? Thank you, Madam Chair. So we, I know staff is always a little nervous about encouraging board members to ask for different uses of fund balance, but I think this is a very worthy cause.

[01:22:57] I'm working on an email now to Tim, Aaron, and Megan to make sure that this is included in the list that we should consider. We've received, I think, $750,000 worth of requests from Supervisor Turner at this point.

[01:23:15] Supervisor Glass has also submitted a couple of requests. Other board members, I don't think I've seen their requests, but I would imagine Supervisors Glass and Brisklin would support this being added into the discussion for fund balance.

[01:23:32] So I really appreciate the modesty of these requests. It is unbelievably humble. And I had expected something far more expensive.

[01:23:51] So I thank you for the way you handled this and the way you emphasized the importance of keeping this history alive and keeping this history something that is discussed and celebrated every year.

[01:24:14] I think that's an incredibly gracious way to go about this. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this presentation. This is just fantastic. I'm really excited to see this.

[01:24:33] I feel like it is going to happen. I do have a question. And so for the recommendations, was there any discussion regarding scholarships? I'm sure there are a number of families that are still here in the community, you know, generations of African-American families that are, you know, that are here and told their story.

[01:24:58] And I'm sure they have children, grandchildren. That was certainly one of that was a part of the discussion that we had. The Loudon-Douglas Alumni Association, which Mr. Avery is leading, is one of the organizations that does currently provide scholarships.

[01:25:23] And I believe there are several others potentially as well. But this kind of culminated the main ideas that came from the committee in terms of telling this story. Do you want to? Yeah, I would like to say the Loudoun Douglas Alumni Association certainly is at the forefront of providing scholarships every year.

[01:25:44] And we will definitely be a part of the annual presentation celebration of the legacy of Douglas High School. And those scholarships activity will be folded into that celebration. That's wonderful to hear. Thank you.

[01:26:01] And I'm sorry, school board member, sir. That's OK. Thank you, co-chair Glass. Thank you very much for the presentation and the continued work that you have done in your service to our board and now the joint committee.

[01:26:17] I just have a couple of questions, the first one being regarding the commemorative event. I did see that it was recommended that the Board of Supervisors hold the annual commemorative event, and I wanted to know if there was discussion in the committee surrounding including the school division in that commemoration annually.

[01:26:40] So the consortium there at Douglas High School includes LCPS and Parks and Recreation, Loudoun Douglas Alumni Association, NAACP, Edwin Washington Society, and so I think the group will work together collectively.

[01:27:01] It's just that the funding stream and staff time will be coming through. i was referring to i guess the the motion specifically named having the board of supervisors have an annual commemorative event and then there were other parts of the presentation that addressed the funding so since there were multiple portions to the motion i didn't know if you wanted to include the school board or the school division specifically to ensure that they are part of the

[01:27:38] the commemorative event annually. If you're telling me that because of their membership in the consortium, that's not necessary and that's already intended to happen, then I'm comfortable with that response. I just wanted to pose the question. That's how we wrote it, was to include consortium members as part of the planning group. Thank you. I really appreciate your clarifying that. And also just building on the questions about the, since I'm not familiar with your year-end balance, and I know we talked about several of the schools in Supervisor Briskman

[01:28:13] and I's district are supposed to have about $7.5 million of funding come from that. At this point, are there going to have to be some variety of priorities amongst the supervisors that are not funded? There are. So I think for that reason, and also because I'm not sure that it's proper for the school board to be recommending to the board of supervisors what it does with its funding i'm considering abstaining from this motion only because there are portions of this

[01:28:47] that deal with telling the supervisors how to spend that funding although i fully support the project and would like to echo what all of the supervisors have said in support of the importance of memorializing this history in a time that we see history actively being erased and rewritten mm-hmm okay um supervisor briskman may i ask one question before and make one comment before i do the motion sure okay um first of all i we're an advisory body to the board of supervisors so i

[01:29:25] don't think you need to abstain from the vote i we're a committee that's supposed to advise both bodies so i'm good with that um my other question was will will the committee continue to get updates every once in a while on the progress of the two projects or will that be through prcs coming to us. I believe that that would probably come through Parks and Recreation, any reporting that they might do. And I don't think there's a formal pathway set up yet to report back to the board, but we can look into that. Okay. All right. Great. And maybe back to the school board.

[01:30:03] Okay. I'm ready to make a motion if you're... Okay. And like we said, it is a recommendation. So, I mean, that's what our committee does. So, okay, go ahead, Supervisor Riskman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Joint Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve the recommendations of the Douglas High School Commemorative Committee Reconciliation Subcommittee as presented in Attachment 1 of the September 18, 2023 Joint Committee Action Item.

[01:30:33] I further move that the Joint Committee recommend that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to assist with the management of the commemoration, coordination, and documentary project as detailed in the September 18, 2023 Joint Committee action item.

[01:30:48] I further move that the Joint Committee recommend the Board of Supervisors direct the county administrator to include the funding for Recommendation 1, Commemoration Coordination, in the FY25 proposed budget, and forward the funding for Recommendation 2, the documentary, to the FY2023 fund balance process.

[01:31:09] Second. Okay, the motion was made by Supervisor Bristman and seconded by Co-Chairis Rodkin. All those in favor, say aye. May I have an opening, Madam? chair oh i'm sorry yes go ahead thank you um so i wasn't sure i was going to get through that motion without like losing it but um i really want to thank staff i want to thank the subcommittee and and the folks that worked on this i i'm really really proud that we went to the community and got these recommendations instead of just making a recommendation from the dais on something

[01:31:48] like this when we're looking at reconciliation for these wrongs. This did start as an initiative that I brought to the subcommittee about studying the illegal operation of segregated schools in Loudoun County for 14 years after the Supreme Court deemed it illegal.

[01:32:09] Chair Randall added this piece to that, so she deserves all kinds of credit for adding this specific piece to that initiative because I know the for sale of the land had really bothered her for years and years. And so I'm just really proud that we got this done. Very happy with the result. If there's anyone questioning that this should be done, they should be directed to the item on page four, where it talks about the educational, the social, and the financial impacts

[01:32:44] that this had on our on this community and in the end it impacted the entire community because we were a community not at peace we were not at peace and and in many ways we won't be at peace until a lot of these things are um reconciled and we tell the full truth of what happened in this county um and again i'm just i'm so proud of this effort and the combination of folks that

[01:33:17] came together for it. I agree with Mr. Avery that this truth-telling and reconciliation can be a model for other communities and for our state and even for our nation about how to talk about massive resistance, how to talk about systemic racism in our society, how to talk about what happens when you attempt to erase history, and then also be a beacon that's showing how we're

[01:33:54] coming together and we are talking about it and we're doing displays on it and commemorations and we're going to do a documentary film and we will be shedding light and hopefully healing during the process so i thank the subcommittee i would love to come thank the subcommittee in person at some point if you're still meeting on these um on this issue and i really really look forward to the work moving forward. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, go ahead, Ms. Reiser. Thank you,

[01:34:29] Supervisor Glass. Since this is our last meeting, and it is really, I guess it's apropos that we have come to a place where some things came full circle. I just, again, want to thank the committee and the rest of this committee for helping some meaningful, important work get done. I'm looking forward to being able to see how all of this unfolds, and to being at the first annual commemoration with you. Thank you so much for your work. Thank you, Ms. Weiser. I think Supervisor Briskman just about said it all, and I'm just so, so happy to be part of this committee to do

[01:35:07] something that's so significant for our history in Loudoun County. I know most of you all know that I work for LCPS. And I worked with a teacher who would tell his story, Mr. B. He would go out and talk to the students every year about him growing up in Loudoun County and the difficulties

[01:35:37] that he had. And I think that's a way to show people that, you know, it's not going to hurt anyone telling your story. You're telling the story of what happened in your community, and so I think this is a wonderful thing. You know, the children learned the history of Loudoun, and they learned it from someone that they knew and they trusted. So, you know, I hope this is an opportunity for us to continue with this, you know, telling the stories of, you know, our constituents, and this

[01:36:17] is a good opportunity for us to understand one another, show empathy, and grow as a community. Thank you. All in favor, say aye, please. Aye. All right. Ayes have it. And so I think we are done for the day. Oh, I do have one more thing to say. Madam Chair, are we going to talk about perhaps adding to the next work plan?

[01:36:52] I guess we can. I thought it was on the agenda. I lost my paperwork to five. So, Madam Chair. Thank you. Madam Chair. Yes. So, our understanding from staff's perspective is this is the last meeting of this committee for this term. So, the new committee, whoever it is, would take up the existing work plan and any additions or modifications to it. Yes. Yes. Okay.

[01:37:20] All right. But before before adjourning, I would like to mention that the December, again, the December joint committee meeting will be canceled, making this the last joint committee meeting for the 2020 through 2023 term for both boards. I want to recognize and thank our school board member colleagues and supervisors who have participated in this committee over the past four years. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you, especially as co-chair for the last two years. I look forward to seeing the continued work of this committee and the collaboration between the school board and the

[01:37:56] board of supervisors. The gavel and we are adjourned.

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