Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, FY24 Operating Budget Work Session* (Student Services & Support Services) and a Closed Session, Thursday, January 19, 2023

Date: Thursday, January 19, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 2h 45m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/790922710?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

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 2026-10-20. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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

[00:00:00] We'll begin with item 2.01, remote participation. I've been notified that Denise Corbo would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Ms. Corbo, please state your location, whether this is a medical or personal matter, and if anyone is present with you at your location.

[00:00:19] - Thank you, I am home, I'm alone, and under policy 2024, I'm asking for electronic remote meeting participation due to an ongoing disability medical condition as recommended by HRTD under federal ADA disability law I will entertain a motion that Ms. Corbo's request to participate remotely be granted for medical or health reasons so moved is there a second that motion will fail for lack of a second Ms. Corbo do you want to request remote participation for personal matters tonight no since we are not voting on

[00:00:58] anything I can ask my questions through email thank you okay thank you we'll move to item 3.01 disclosure starting with miss Sheridan thank you mr. chair as a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees excuse me specifically as a school board member I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee these

[00:01:36] benefits however affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may also be affected of which I am included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you mr. Mars as a member of Laudan County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and the general public in connection with item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries benefits budget and or health insurance and any other discussion that may include or affect salaries or and benefits for LCPS employees specifically my spouse is an LCPS employee who may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries

[00:02:15] the budget and or health insurance these subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interest may be affected of which my spouse is included I will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the in the public records of the school board for five years.

[00:02:33] - Thank you, Mr. Mahedby. - Thank you, Chair. As a member of the Lowndes County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries, the budget, and our health insurance, and any of the discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:02:51] Specifically, I'm enrolled in LCPS health insurance and may be affected by any potential changes to health insurance. These subjects include thousands of employees, well in excess of statutory three employees interest may be affected of which i'm included i can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you as a member of the loudon county school board i make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries the budget and or health insurance and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for lcps employees

[00:03:30] Specifically, I am enrolled in LCPS health insurance and may be affected by any potential changes to health insurance. These subjects include thousands of employees, well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest.

[00:03:48] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. With that, we'll move on to our work session, beginning with 4.01 responses to budget questions. Dr. Smith. Thank you, Chair. So tonight we do have the first budget question packet for you. It is located in board docs. 13 questions are there with responses. The other questions remain in progress, and we will have another board packet for you ready on Tuesday. I was also going to note that Ms. Willoughby could not be here with us tonight, but we do have Casey Jones, our budget director, that is joining

[00:04:25] us, and we're also happy to answer any questions that you might have and add to our list if there's questions about the budget questions process or document that we put together tonight thank you are there any board member questions regarding the any answers received to date on the questions to the budget seeing none we will move on to 4.02 the presentation from the department of support

[00:04:54] services dr jones correction mr lewis thank you mr soraka and i am getting the presentation up on the screen hopefully.

[00:05:13] Well thank you all very much for the opportunity to present tonight the support services budget for FY24 and we'll take just a quick minute I think as Dr. Smith did the other night just to ground us for a minute in our vision and mission to make sure we we keep the the right thing the right thing and that know that the students are the reason for all of our work and

[00:05:50] that you know sometimes it may be not obvious how support services participates in that but um you know we we connect with the with the uh the vision and the mission quite often in different ways and mostly we provide build and construct and maintain the learning teaching and learning environment so we are proud to be a part of that team and we'll hopefully share with you tonight

[00:06:14] what um how we do that and i just haven't having technical difficulties sorry it's not advancing

[00:06:34] let me try that again i should have accepted the help i was was offered several times i'm not sure

[00:07:08] why it's not not advancing i can't really explain that but it's working so i'll move on so okay so tonight i wanted to start with talking a little bit about the the the department itself and the

[00:07:47] personnel and you'll see that we have four major functions of the support services family and that has changed over the years a couple of a couple of different times and so i'll talk a little bit more about that but essentially we are comprised of transportation management coordination facilities and planning and gis services and so as i mentioned before we have a few things over time that have changed we'll go through those in more and in more detail starting with the division of management and coordination managed by mr stocks and this team touches all the support

[00:08:23] services functions and as well as most all the divisions and departments across the entire county and they perform so many different functions for community organizations they manage all the facility use in our schools which goes anywhere from pta meetings to office of elections in coordination with our election our polling places but the distribution center they also manage all the the the mail changes all the furniture and equipment that goes through and through and to each of our schools and you know as you know we have over 100 facilities schools and ancillary facilities. So those folks are out there every day providing services to each of the schools and all

[00:09:03] the staff across the division. They also manage the leases of all of our ancillary. Any of the facilities that we don't own that we have leases for, they manage those as well. Moving now to facilities, and this is one of the things that has changed over time. And over the last couple years, we consolidated the facilities and the construction efforts because they are a team working together to build and maintain all of our facilities we created an executive director position managed with mr. trainer who oversees both of those and what I wanted to point out this year is this is the first time you'll see that they are combined in the budget book so in the past they've been separate

[00:09:42] pages in the budget book facilities and construction but this year they are combined they also include environmental health and safety which is another division that's largely overlooked and all the things that they do with all the compliance for all the environmental workplace safety indoor air quality things and so that division is housed in there as well as a consolidated facilities financial area you can imagine we spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year and we had two separate and disparate financial functions within each of those divisions and we've combined those now into one group so that we can be able to cross-train those and be much more

[00:10:22] efficient and have some controls and oversight into each of those areas so it's been very successful and we're very happy with how it's going and all the leadership that's there both in construction with Mr. Pasquarelli and Mr. Woehead and Mr. Treanor together and has created a really nice team that we believe has made a lot of improvements in our efficiencies and effectiveness in our projects. The next we have is planning and GIS services and board members know Mrs. Tate really well and all the things that they do with the enrollment projections and the boundary changes but you know that's also just a

[00:11:00] part of what they do they have a one of the things we did in the last probably just in the last year is change the name of that to include the GIS services as part of the division name because that's such a vital function if you're not familiar with that the geographic information systems is is the things that produces all those beautiful maps that you get during the boundary process and also informs our systems of where our students live so that we know exactly how many students we have and where they are and that helps us with many different things in addition to creating our boundaries and our enrollment projections but also our coordination with county staff and in their

[00:11:37] projections in the work with the the demographers over there and you're probably aware that I serve on the fiscal impact committee for the county and much of that information is provided there so planning also provides a great deal of leadership with all of our construction projects they are the architect of the CIP manuals and so where it may look like they have seasonal work but they are very very very busy year-round and one of the things and we'll talk more about an additional staff member in that department a little bit later and one thing I did forget is they also manage all their permissions to build our schools so each time we build a school

[00:12:14] we have to have possibly a legislator or ministerial approvals for commission permits special exceptions and sometimes just a site plan but they go through all that process with our engineering firm so lots of work going on in planning department the last of our four cogs is our transportation department and as you know they deliver 50 some thousand students twice a day to and from school they do a lot of other things with the facilities themselves and the satellite facility in Percival the main garages on Sicklin Road in town where they do service of all of our 600 school buses plus all the light fleet which includes

[00:12:54] safety and security vehicles SUVs those types of things that the garage or the garage the refuge fleet some some of you made new members may not be aware we we run our own trash service or we take refuge trucks around to all of our campuses and all the county buildings we provide that for them with not only the the garbage that comes out of the buildings but also the recycling so we run that recycling program out of the facilities department and the transportation folks to take care of those vehicles for us we also have transportation and pedestrian operations folks that work with the

[00:13:31] schools on school campus logistics one of the biggest challenges we have every year is how do we manage a thousand kids and 500 cars and 60 buses on every campus every morning and so those folks go out and work and you may have seen the congestion must go program and so that's transitioning from planning into transportation where they will be helping each of the campuses with their campus logistics to try to make sure that that's safe every day for kids coming to and from school so I did mention a little bit earlier and I probably covered a lot of what I what's on this slide again is the the

[00:14:09] consolidation of the facilities team and it's something I just wanted to make sure that we were we're clear and that has been combined and so you'll see some changes in there all that history is has been combined in the budget book but they are together as facilities and construction and as I mentioned earlier the environmental health and safety team is there as well as the financial group and I will say the mr. Srockin you had asked a question about the staffing standard for the plant physical plant maintenance technicians and we put that answer in the Q&A document but also I just wanted to expand on that a little

[00:14:48] bit where what we're showing this year I think what caused that our started that question was we have asked to add two titles to that list so there's a number of folks that are in that list carpenters electricians plumbers those types of things and we've asked to add project managers and senior project managers to that list so it will not add any staff so this is a no-cost change we're just asking to change the makeup of that and it's I think important to note that we don't do I think your question was specific to how does it effect or give examples of projects so the staffing is not done based on specific projects but it is based on square footage and the types of

[00:15:25] buildings that we have so each year we bring on a new school we may be bring on an elementary school or a high school or middle school or an ancillary facility the makeup of those buildings the systems are different and sometimes our teams are different for each of those so what the staff does in facilities mr.

[00:15:44] rowhead mr. trainer together they go through and look at the staff we have we have this many plumbers and this many electricians this type of building will add these types of features so that's why we bring on certain particular functions over time we have transitioned some of our work into contract work and because this group is responsible for delivering projects they also project would deliver projects from you know contractor services as well which is why we're asking to provide the project managers and the senior project managers because the load of those projects has increased over time and they are producing and managing the same types

[00:16:22] of project, which is why we're adding that to that. So I hope that answered that question that you had and how we go about doing that. So it is a inventory base rather than a particular project base decision. So all of that about our team and I'll start with the summary slide to go over the actual budget proposed for this year. You'll see here that we have increases in each of the areas of personnel operations and maintenance as well as capital outlay. On the personnel side, our

[00:16:56] increase is for 15 staff members and we're going to go through each of those. A good portion of that is in the transportation department for drivers. As far as operation and maintenance, the biggest influence on what our budget is and the increase for this year is inflation.

[00:17:13] The inflation we're experiencing in all the things we do from maintenance and construction materials has just skyrocketed this year, so you'll see that. I have another slide that talks more specifically about what that is included, but you'll see that that is, you know, a 19.9% increase mostly related to inflation.

[00:17:34] Capital outlay is the same, and so we'll talk a little bit more about that in detail. I know that there was a question the other night about a slide to compare the FY23 revised. So we just have that same slide and we've added that column for the FY23 numbers as well.

[00:17:52] So you have those as a reference to the FY23 adopted, FY24 adopted, but then also the 23 revised. I know that was a particular interest to a couple of board members. We want to make sure you had that information as well. Specifically talking about the inflation, you saw a slide very similar to this in Dr. Smith's presentation, the first presentation we did on the overall budget, and we've taken that slide and just pared out what is for the support services.

[00:18:26] And you'll see there that our inflation due for repairs, maintenance materials, and supplies resulted in $4.3 million of increase. 4.5 was in utilities alone, 30% increase in electrical service costs.

[00:18:44] And I will say that came to us, and that's not as much as an estimate as it is. We actually hear perceived notice from our electrical suppliers that these rates are going to go up. So we know that that's happening. And you contrast that a little bit with the fuel prices, which are just all over the place right now.

[00:18:59] You know, diesel fuel has been from $5 a gallon to $3.50 back to $5, and now it's back down again. And so this 2.6 increase in fuel is our best estimate with the number of miles we drive and what we think that our costs are going to be.

[00:19:16] So we're hopeful over time that it may go down, but right now we just, this is our best estimate for that. And you'll see that it's a fairly significant number, but we do believe that's the best we can do and still be safe with being able to have enough funding to do that.

[00:19:33] I'll also say we're watching that over the years, we have taken advantage of the ability to be able to buy fuel in strips where you buy it in gallon and 40,000 gallon quantities. The trick to that is you're required to spend that and you're required to, you know, even if the price drops and you stay there.

[00:19:51] So we have a regular meeting once a week, communications with the county of Loudoun, who also uses fuel out of the fuel bays that we do. And at this point, we have chosen not to do that because it's just been, you know, when we had the opportunity to first to lock into that, we would be spending probably $1.50 more a gallon than we are right now to do that.

[00:20:13] So we think it's been a wise decision not to do that. We'll continue to watch that, and we'll report back to the board if it gets to the point where the volatility goes away enough that we can be comfortable to recommend to the board that we do that. So we also wanted to compare our budget in terms of the strategic plan.

[00:20:39] And so we'll start with the goal one with the empowered students.

[00:20:57] I really can't explain this.

[00:21:37] Seem to have a few blank pages in there that are not showing up. Got help? Disappeared.

[00:22:04] Oh, he's helping me with that. I'm just gonna talk about the buses.

[00:22:25] So we're proposing that we add three additional drivers in the transportation department for trip drivers or special run drivers, which will help us support all the field trips and the after school activities athletic programs and I know that we've had some challenges with that with scheduling and different things so we're adding three more drivers to that group to be able to help support those additionally we are asking for ten more drivers that would support the International Baccalaureate program that it will be held at two schools that will be brought in transportation across the county with a number like it just

[00:23:03] like a number of programs like the TJ program the Academy's program the ROTC program so that is our estimate for adding 10 drivers in that I would say that you know over time in this past year we've had I think great success and getting improving our efficiencies with the changes to the tiered start times at the schools we're able to reduce hundreds of second loads and one of the other things we've done is this year we're estimating that the number of routes will need for FY 24 for the special education program is will require

[00:23:40] five fewer routes than we had estimated for this year. So keep in mind I think the last report I gave the board was we were 30 drivers short and 14 or 15 attendance short so this will be and I'm not sure the five reduction is five attendants not not drivers so I apologize if I said that wrong but one of the things we've done is been able to reduce that estimate for the need for attendance next year we still have vacancies we're still recruiting every day we still need new drivers and more attendance but we are estimating that we'll need five fewer of those and from a budget perspective we're able to

[00:24:13] reduce those FTEs for the for the attendance in the budget moving to goal three the enriched division we are have requested a GIS analyst and I talked a little bit about that a few minutes ago in regard to the Planning Department and all the support that they provide that one of the things that the Planning Department has done over the last year in conjunction with all the divisions and support services is developed a facility inventory database that has all the information about all of our campuses the size of the buildings the square

[00:24:52] footage of the buildings all the equipment cameras doors windows everything you can possibly imagine that's in the inventory of a building is in that database and that's being managed through that's what that this person will be managing that and would be able to help us with all the different feeding information into with our friends from DDI to make sure that folks in Dr. Jones's department needed to know how many classrooms we had or how many special education classrooms we had that information would be in that that database and be able to be accessible to everyone so the trick to that is to making sure we can keep that up to date it also plays into our goal

[00:25:30] three for the strategic plan to make sure that and we're going to present on that next week to talk about the inventory, making sure we're keeping all of our inventory up to date in its life cycle, so that document will do that. So this person will be assigned primarily to do that, but then also to support all the other functions in the planning division. We also have a single position for a support position to be located at the historic Douglas High School. As you know, the Child Find, the Welcome Center, and Head Start programs are moving to that building, and they will all have offices in the back of the building.

[00:26:10] And then we will be supporting that position with one position out front of there to take care of all the visitor management, the reception type duties and just switch to the PowerPoint. And so we'll continue to have that building is scheduled to open here this spring.

[00:26:31] We're planning the grand opening for that and this position will be helpful to all three of those divisions and be a part of Mr. Stocks' department in management and coordination. We've also listed a lead routing position to help the transportation division support programs like the IB program.

[00:26:50] There's a number of things that, as you can imagine, complicate the different things across the county. And so as we become more and more sophisticated and be able to be more efficient with our routes and reduce those routes, it's very important to have the adequate routing staff on board.

[00:27:07] So that's what they'll be doing for that. And then we're asking for one more environmental health and safety position to support those existing programs. And, you know, just a quick snapshot of those. The amount of things that we have to do from the regulatory perspective in that department are pretty significant.

[00:27:25] In addition to responding to every day we have calls for schools that have concerns about indoor air quality. But we have, you know, a lead safe program, lead and copper rules for water quality. We have new facilities that have come on board.

[00:27:41] We have new regulations and requirements for the BDOE. Many, many things we have to do to fill out all the necessary documentation. There are new requirements for Legionella management and disposal requirements for aerosols.

[00:27:59] Just a ton of things that continually add to that division in addition to the workplace safety functions. So those will be coming on as part of this budget as well. Sorry about that.

[00:28:23] So, and I say just in time, because this slide is one I really wanted to be able to describe to board members. We've made an investment over the past several years in our energy and environment, our sustainability, and in particular, our solar plants in some of the buildings.

[00:28:42] We have 10 buildings right now where solar arrays on them. We have four more under construction. And this graph on the slide just shows you, and this is just limited to the ones we have in place right now in between the years 2021 and 2023 the blue line indicates we spent approximately 11 million dollars to install those systems if you recall when we came to the board and talked about that contract it was a guaranteed return on investment guaranteed payback of that and this is a simple payback calculation but you'll see the red line indicates the savings over time the

[00:29:16] cumulative savings over time and between 2021 and 2038 you'll see where those two lines cross is where they pay for themselves and that is within the 20-year life, actually the 20-year warranty of the building, of the panels and you know that all manufacturers will warrant something for less time than what they think it will actually live and so we believe the panels will last 25, maybe 30 years and so any savings we have over and above that will be what's represented above that blue line in the chart and it will just continue to increase as will our additional savings as we continue to install systems across the county so

[00:29:56] we're doing those in conjunction with our critical renewal systems that's contained in the cip and then so as we make some of our buildings more efficient and then add the renewable energy we will continue to see savings over time which will combat these increase in rates that we have over time as well so regarding goal four of the engaged community i did want to share some of the efforts that we've made and these are things that we continue to do with the same resources that we have so this is this is not something we're asking for anything I just wanted some awareness of the board and you see there are a

[00:30:32] number of things that illustrate efforts by different divisions in support services to to listen and to get feedback and to make sure we're out in the public we started this year with a new system that we hadn't done before but going to the community with several community built meetings we started with parkview and then we went to each of the plane sections to go through and i know some board members uh visited and shared that time with us as well and we we appreciate that we're getting some really good information from that we also had we have plans moving forward you know in particular for parkview and banneker we have major projects coming up on that that have existing

[00:31:12] staff so we're developing ways to meet with those staffs and community members to get input on those projects as we move forward in a design and then you know we'll continue to work on the historic preservation of Douglas and Banneker and make sure that we get the information the amount of meetings that planning in particular has had with the community with the historic preservation of Douglas and you know the committee that the board assigned for the the commemoration committee has been astronomical but it's just been a very enlightening and a great terrific experience for everyone I think and it's going to result in a great building we could not have done that without that community input in the information we

[00:31:50] received so we will continue to expand that program as I said we have plans to do for many others we've already I think we've scheduled the first one for this coming year in February to make sure we get those started and schedule and we'll let board members know when that's been secured and we'll continue that year round last I just wanted to you know take a minute to just recap the information we've talked about inflation has been a key driver we have of, you know, $11.5 million worth of inflation in our budget.

[00:32:22] And so that's a large part of what you see is our increase. We've added a number of FTEs for, in particular, with the transportation division to improve our level of service with all of our programs with particular interest in the IB program and the field trips.

[00:32:43] You know, we're, you know, quantified, you see there we've projected as that slide showed a minute ago, over $13 million in solar savings in the next 20 years, and again, that's just from the solar generation of the renewable energy and not what's included in the lessening of use of energy through our critical systems renewals.

[00:33:03] And then lastly, you know, we're very proud and will continue to do more community outreach to continue to get information and feedback from our community as we move forward with not only just our capital project but everything, you know. We're in the middle of doing renaming meetings and naming committees and lots of things that happen over time in the year's time to get feedback from the community on a variety of topics and subjects so and that does conclude my presentation and I'm happy to take any questions thank you board members

[00:33:39] questions for mr. Lewis regarding the support services budget miss okay thank you chair I'm just a couple of questions thank you for including the information about the FY 23 revised being new to the school board I don't have the history on when the revision took place so if you don't mind starting with that one was the revised budget budget adopted so I'm gonna ask mr.

[00:34:09] Jones to help me with when that takes place and maybe include what's included in that the revised budget is ongoing throughout the year it's not an actual single action by the school board the one that we're working on is as of mid january okay thank you for that clarification so just overall with the compared to the revised budget it looks like because there's actually reductions in the asks for operations and maintenance and capital outlay that the overall budget ask is actually less compared to the

[00:34:44] revised budget so i might also need some help from mr jones on that but one of the things to remember is some of the things that are included in that number are carried over from year to year And so we have, like, if we had a year-end project where a year-end money was funded, then that shows up in that revised thing as well as an actual cost.

[00:35:04] And so it may not be an apples-to-apples comparison, if that makes sense. Okay, that is helpful. And then finally, my question is, my last question, I promise, is related to personnel. So looking at the dollar amount for the FYI proposed, And I'm counting 21 FTE in the presentation, so I'm wondering if there are other FTE that are proposed for increase because the dollar amount just seems high.

[00:35:33] So I think our net is 15 additional staff members, and because the 21 I think is right, we had one reassigned, I think, during that revised period, and so it shows up as an additional thing.

[00:35:49] and then we had we're adding the 21 but subtracting five of the the bus attendance sorry and so that's the net of the 15 and as far as the dollars are concerned I think that is all related to salaries and benefits and I might need mr. Jones to help with that mr. Lewis is right a lot of that is distribution of salary actions that are usually held in non-departmental but we'd be happy to provide more information okay I would appreciate that thank you Additional questions? Mr. Baby.

[00:36:27] Thank you. Going to page 17 on the slides, that graph, I don't I'm just a clarification on this graph itself. The way I would interpret the colors and the boxes and stuff in terms of the area, it seems like this whole project doesn't make any, it's never going to break even because there's a greater blue area. Is that how we should interpret this?

[00:36:48] Or is that really that top blue line should probably go back down to zero? Is that more accurate? So maybe the best way to have done that was showing a single point at the top of that rather than, but yeah, so there's not a continuation of expenditures on there.

[00:37:07] We will be expending that, but this chart is just specific to what we've already installed. So there is not a continuation of expenditures over those years. It's just flat line, so over that, and we extended it so we could show where the lines cross, and then maybe that was confusing, so I apologize for that.

[00:37:23] Sure, okay. Right. So there are no additional recurring costs with running the solar panels? That's correct. I mean, there is some minor maintenance to that, but like I said, this is a simple payback thing, so it's just cost in and cost out. Have any of these panels failed?

[00:37:41] I don't think so. We may have had one or two. I know we had a storm and some of them got damaged, but we are finding them to be pretty reliable, and they are warrantied. so if they if they were to fail then they can be replaced so we are seeing them as you may know that if you've been watching for a while we've had conversations about solar panels for 15 years and it took us a while to get to the point we felt like they were reliable enough to recommend to the board and it looks like this and it's definitely going to pay for itself and I should have the number off top of my head but I've forgotten that you know we've already you know the the project we did at Simpson Middle School has already been in place in service for a year and we saved over a hundred and

[00:38:18] 15 or 20 million, $115,000. I keep doing that million, $120,000 in the first year in energy costs for that project. Thank you. Mr. Mars. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On slide 14, where we talk about transportation, we talk about adding the new buses for IB. Did you look at the opportunity to perhaps use the Academies of Loudoun buses to provide the same type of routing, or was that just not feasible so I can't give you the specifics but I know that they looked at the entire county and all the different programs and tried to make sure that we

[00:38:55] were able to accommodate everyone and as you can imagine the challenge of getting everyone to the school on time and from their home school or from their hub site and so it was a collective evaluation over the entire county and resulted in attend buses but when we can share we certainly will the second question is when we talk about the 11 million dollars for the energy for the solar arrays. It's my recollection that we had some grant money or some funds that were provided to assist us to offset. Was that just for the electric buses or did we have that for the solar

[00:39:33] arrays as well? So we had a grant program that helped us with replacing some of the HVAC systems. You remember, especially when COVID first came, we had six buildings that didn't have any fresh air and we had some grant opportunities for that, but I think we actually ended up spending either cap or funding for that but these are just specific to the solar panels and I'll just look over my shoulder real quick and just make sure we didn't have any grant money for that no so there's no grant money and the last comment was on the final page let's see page 20 where we talk about the key

[00:40:09] takeaways it says additional bus drivers meet the needs eight FTE that should be 10 is that right is that just a type yes sir and I noticed that when I saw that too I apologize for that thank thank you. Additional questions? Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I guess I'll stay with the same slide. So you have total 13 FTEs on that slide, not 10. And then you have five that you are, I guess you're netting five fewer bus attendants. So is that the subtraction from 13 to five? And

[00:40:45] that's why you have eight on the page 20 versus number 10? Yes, sir. So we're adding three for the field trips and athletic and then adding 10 more which is the 13 but we're reducing by five FTE for the things so that's the net of the eight but this is clearly not it's confusing so I apologize for that so it is a net of that just for that but then we have other positions in the department that we're asking for to be a total of 15 you know the GIS analyst the lead router there's a couple others and then there was also on I mean I'll just stay since you're on the topic so when we add the four positions there's also it says plus four

[00:41:23] custodians earned through staffing center so does it makes it total now we have eight bus drivers four positions plus four additional custodians yesterday I'll say we went through this in the office the other day so we do have the end of the four additional custodians are for we have two lease spaces and then also have the pre-staffing for ES 32 and MS 14 so those those custodians will come on as we are

[00:41:58] constructing those buildings so you'll see there that that's a total of of eight plus the 13 is 21 less the five is 16 and then we have one in the revised that was reassigned and I can't remember the detail of that do you remember that Casey we have one reassigned no sir that's oh yes that's right we had one position we had a position that was moved from support services to the superintendent's office during the year and they're doing that

[00:42:33] revised thing got it just to you know again the one that was talked about the chart and I think you have in the key takeaways also where it says 30 million dollars solar savings every 20 years I mean how should we read that so that specific example was for the panels we have installed to date and that they will be saving us that 13 million dollars over the 20 year guarantee of that and we just picked the 20 years because that's how long the panels are guaranteed for so we can tell the board that they're guaranteed the savings are

[00:43:12] guaranteed after that the panels will are expected to live beyond that and will provide additional savings we will also be achieving savings in other ways with our critical system replacements we're going into all the schools and putting in LED lights replacing those changing out switch gear transformers those types so we'll have other projects along the way that are either in the capital renewal and alteration program or in the capital asset preservation program so there will be continued savings on that and additionally we have other we have I think there are 80 some of our schools that are suitable for panels and we'll continue to put them on as funding allows so that number will

[00:43:51] grow as we are able to accumulate the other projects thank you and this is on On page 11 and 12, so I think you described the inflation, I mean, additional cost from inflation, I think that slide talks about 11.4, but then I think on page number 11, it says operation maintenance.

[00:44:16] I guess that's a combined increase of $11.6 million there, so that's somewhere. Yes, sir. So besides inflation, there's something else that's been added in operation maintenance? Well, we do have additional things we have to purchase for the year, yes, and so I don't have a listing of those but there are some things but we were just identifying what is related to inflation okay so um would that would it be safe to say that out of 11.6 11.4 is additional because of inflation or just i believe so but i think i'd rather take a quick look at that we'll take that

[00:44:52] down as a question and make sure that we do a comparison and uh if i need to get clarification i'll ask that in my last question for tonight so um more but i guess i'll actually two questions forgive me so the database manager why why can't that be part of a ddi versus in your so this is specific to our our gis program and we have gis where the ddi does not have gs function in in their office and this is specific to our facilities and making sure that we working with and you know each

[00:45:28] year we send out a survey to all the principals to see how they're using their facility this year we went out and visited every single classroom in the building in the system and measured the space we know exactly how big the spaces are and we're managing that so that we know that um all the details of the building so this is specific to the buildings and certainly we are going to be working very closely with with ddi on the management of that data but it is a function of of support services so it's more of a building and gis function than it would be for them so again i'm i mean everything you described that this person would be doing this this role is i mean this these

[00:46:07] activities are still being performed today so who's doing the activities today actually they're not being performed today and that's why we're asking for it so the database that we have done is we've been building that over the last couple of years we've been collecting data we've been meeting and we hired a contractor to actually build that we're talking with ddi about incorporating that into their systems so that they can read that through their their click app so they can pull data from that to share with all the departments but the the the actual database itself is is still being constructed it includes all the details of specific to the building itself and it's being contributed

[00:46:44] by all the folks in planning construction facilities operations and so it's not ready to roll out yet but once it gets here we know we need to maintain it and so that's what we're talking about here and this person will be assigned specifically to do that make sure we have current data and my last question on the lead route routing specialists so I think last year we added two positions for that I believe so if I look at page 286 do we have 10 already lead routing specialists that view I think you you're able to convert

[00:47:24] some bus driver position last year and so is that the right number 10 plus 111 I believe so but I have to tell you that mr. Davies got called if you may recall that he is a captain in a naval reserve and he got called to duty this afternoon is not able to be here to answer that so he had one emergency was hoping to be here but I do believe that is correct but we'll take it as a question and provide a written answer for you great thank you so I want to start with a question about the custodian ads for pre staffing ES 32 and

[00:48:00] MS 14 so I know we ran into a couple of years ago when we had the pre staffing of custodians for elaine thompson where we realized that the school construction wasn't going to be complete until more than midway through the fiscal year and so the custodians weren't going to be needed until that time so i wanted to check to see when the construction for those two buildings was anticipated to be complete and whether we needed the custodians at the start of the fiscal year so they will both buildings will open in the fall of 2024 and so bringing

[00:48:37] them on board one of the things we do is have them come into the building and get familiar with the building and so that that time is spent getting familiar with the building before it opens helping the principal open the building and also getting trained and getting up to speed so this is our normal timeline for that for for opening buildings but when will the construction for those buildings be complete do you have a construction estimate yes they are scheduled to be finished early summer of 2024 okay can i get more detail about in uh in writing about what the activities that they do

[00:49:12] for the year before construction is complete absolutely yes okay thank you uh so this is the first time i can remember seeing an ask for more bus drivers instead of uh trying to be more efficient with our routing and and taking away some of the uh bus driver staffing standards or in the name of efficiency to try to be more efficient with the routing.

[00:49:39] And I appreciate that 'cause I think we've drawn as much blood from that stone as we possibly can. And I'm glad to see us adding bus drivers for additional services for the specialized programs that the school board has been passionate about adding over the last few years.

[00:49:57] And it's important to recognize that there are costs that come along with providing transportation for the services, which again, school board has been emphatic that transportation should be provided for those programs whenever possible so I'm very glad to see that and then finally I just wanted to express my appreciation for the all the community meetings that support services has had over the last year as you pointed out I know that was something new or something that hadn't been done consistently in the past but I know they were very well received and I think really vital in collecting feedback from the community and just, if nothing else, making sure that the community isn't

[00:50:37] surprised by the changes that are coming in in future years. So I think that was a good add. I know it's very time intensive for you and your team to pull those together and to support all of them, but I think it's really vital to maintain good relationship with the community that we do that. So I wanted to express my appreciation for that. Additional questions? Mr. Morse.

[00:51:01] Thank you. On page 271 of the book, it talks about operations and maintenance, and it says, of the $7.2 million increase in O&M, 7.13 is due to inflation. Our slide 12 talks about 9, 10, about $11 million in inflation. So could you take that back and take a look and find out if there were some efficiencies or why those two numbers are different, if there is an explanation for that?

[00:51:29] Well, first I'll just say that this is on page 271 is only facilities, and so we have other divisions that would have, could be contributing to that, management and coordination for furniture and equipment type of cost as well, but we can certainly get that list of what's contributing to that for you.

[00:51:44] Okay, because the three categories are repairs, maintenance, utilities, and fuel, and it identifies that, and when we're looking at the only other possibilities are personnel and capital outlay, So, because everything within O&M is captured within that $7 million on the budget exhibit on page 268.

[00:52:05] So, just take a look and see if we can figure out what the disconnect is. Sure. Last question is, you talk about $70,000 in contractual services due to an increased operating cost for permit compliance with new Luckett's wastewater treatment. $70,000, I mean, we've completed the construction of the wastewater treatment, and now there's a $70,000 tab on top of that for compliance.

[00:52:29] Can you talk to that? I'm going to do my best, and I may ask Mr. Traynor for help. But what we did at that plant was we retired the old plant and built a new plant and then coordinated with the county of Loudoun and Loudoun Water to manage the plant.

[00:52:49] So we're talking about fees to Loudoun Water to manage and operate the plant. So those are much more sophisticated things. It just takes more to operate that. The plant also serves the local fire station and community center, correct?

[00:53:07] So it's just the operation. It's a totally different type of facility to manage and operate than what we used to have. Are we sharing that cost with the county? I think philosophically, yes, by getting the money from them to do this.

[00:53:23] But we are paying the bill because we are the owner of the property and we are the owner of the plant. And is that $70,000, an annual contractual services contract? It is annual, but I'm not sure if $70,000. The total number, sir, is closer to 170. The previous plant cost us roughly $100,000 a year to operate.

[00:53:42] The $70,000 is the increased cost because the new plant being automated, being a lot more complex, requires a lot more time of the licensed technician on site. And we pay Loud and Water their exact cost.

[00:53:59] They invoice us each month for what their cost is to operate the plant, the people side of it. and we reimburse them for that operations. And I'll remind the board, too, that the board of supervisors last year asked for an extension of the time that the volunteer fire station could be attached to the plant so that they could do a study.

[00:54:22] We are hoping that through the study with Loudon Water and the board of supervisors that they will find that that plant should be converted into a community plant, Transferred to loud and water and then we would just be paying for our Water treatment instead of the full bill for the plant, but that's an ongoing study that we're still a year plus out from results That's helpful. So it's a 170,000 annual operating expense. That's an estimate. Yes, sir. Thank you Mr.. Madby. Thank you chair. So mr.. Lewis one more question the we have a new position for the historic Douglas high school

[00:55:02] education development campus operation support so besides this resource how many LCPS I mean I know we've had started other programs but since it's not a you know high school or middle school they don't really have what what is the administrative staff at that building is it this is the individual who will be doing the administration I mean some or besides this are there other staff that's going to be in the building so I think generally speaking each of the three LCPS offices that are moving their head start welcome center and Child Find all had other locations where they were able to receive the folks coming into their

[00:55:42] space and they they managed that their visitors in their own space. In this particular building all of the LCPS offices are in the back of the building and the front the main hall the historic hall is being used as the reception area so there's no one there to do that and then so we also anticipate there may be people that come in and just want to see the building and we needed to have someone there to manage the door manage the visitor type of thing without pulling resources away from those folks that are in the in the rear of the building doing their operations so we do believe it is something that is is necessary to support the operations of that facility and to support those folks

[00:56:20] and so they will have reception duties visitor management duties those types of things miss a good question so as a follow-up to the response to mrs. mr.

[00:56:37] Morse's question about operation of the water treatment plant if the county were to assume operation of this is it just the operation of it or is there are they would it be a purchase of the facility so those these details haven't been completely confirmed what mr. trainer was talking about they're they're studying that and so one of the options would be that we may do a boundary line adjustment indeed that portion of the property over to Loudon water it becomes there's it may be a lease it may be an easement we don't know we would work through the attorneys to figure that out but the the goal would be for them to

[00:57:14] take ownership of that and as mr. trainer said then we would just pay our per gallon rate like we do at the other facilities and not have the responsibility of ownership and maintenance of the facility and it was it was this was a capital project three years ago I think it was and it was one that was required by the DEQ that came and said you this facility is aging out it needs to be replaced it's not going to comply and be able to maintain the levels of water quality that they need to have so we didn't have a choice to do that and we're trying to work with folks to get that in the hands of folks that have that expertise any additional questions for support services seeing

[00:57:53] none thank you again thank you and we will move to 4.03 department oh I'm sorry mr. Beatty under the wire just going back to the buses and stuff has there many discussions with the county about having some kind of busing program I was reading that there it's a consideration to get rid of the buses that are going downtown because of the upcoming Metro but with the upcoming Metro there's a need for some kind of transportation network in the county and given the fact that we've got an IB program at two different locations and then the academies allowed and you know have we had discussions with them about some kind of busing program that would be available to the public and to

[00:58:31] students to you know not because ten drivers is a lot when we have kind of a shortage and if there's some way where we could share that those drivers with the community have we had in those discussions or would that be something that we would need board direction we haven't specifically had them and I think I'm not sure this is going to be the whole answer so we might need to get back to you on that but when you when you try to orchestrate knowing where that we have x number of students that have to get to two schools in disparate locations of the county

[00:59:08] and some of those kids are coming from every location in the school the logistics of trying to make sure that there are routes available to get them there on time is something that we feel like we have the responsibility to make sure we do that and so I don't well I'm sure that the county bus fleet doesn't go to all areas of the county and so we can certainly look into that but I think one of the, our main focuses is to make sure we can guarantee those kids there, and the way to do that is to provide it through our system.

[00:59:38] Thank you. Additional questions? Seeing none, I'll move to 4.03, Department of Student Services, Dr. Jones. Good evening, and thank you, Mr. Sorotkin.

[00:59:56] Actually, Mr. Lewis was going to drive my presentation because I'm not connected to the WebEx. Is that something that we can get some assistance with, please?

[01:01:20] Okay, as Mr.

[01:02:04] Lewis is pulling that up, I just sent it to your team to ensure that you have the right copy. Again, I'd like to say good evening, Chair Sorotkin and Vice Chair Mejedevi and members of the school board. It is my pleasure to present to you the Department of Student Services portion of the FY24 Superintendent's Estimate of Needs.

[01:02:25] I must say that I am very appreciative of the board's continued financial support and advocacy for all students attending Loudoun County Public Schools, but particularly for the students that we focus our efforts on in the Department of Student Services.

[01:02:43] Those are our special education programs, students with disabilities. You've provided lots of support over the years through our enhanced staffing standards, our student mental health and wellness initiatives for all students in LCPS, our outreach services for our most needy students who receive McKinney-Vento services and connecting with our families through parent resource services and our family liaisons, as well as promoting and supporting the multi-tiered systems of support for the MTSS framework through the strategic plan.

[01:03:20] And for that, I do express our deep appreciation and gratitude. The budget priorities tonight are few, but they are indeed priorities that are based upon maintaining our existing services that are offered through student services and meeting the increased demand and continuing the phased approach and steady momentum of prioritizing student mental health and wellness initiatives.

[01:03:52] The LCPS mission and vision is embedded at the center of our collective effort. The student services budget requests were developed to support the goals of the aligned actions that comprise the one LCPS 2027 strategic plan for excellence. I trust that you've heard me many times in my presentations as well as others in my department say that the work of student services is centered around the whole child approach to support the academic, behavioral, social-emotional

[01:04:25] and mental health needs of all students. While the bulk of the student services budget requests focus primarily on strategic goal one, empowered students, I will also present budget items related to strategic goal two, exemplary staff, as well as strategic goal four, engaged community. This slide highlights the aligned strategic actions for goals one and two as approved by the school board,

[01:05:02] And you may recall from the recent Goal 1 and Goal 2 progress updates from staff, including self, work is well underway and additional resources will enable staff to maintain existing programs and supports as well as improve upon our current practices and programming.

[01:05:22] The focus of Strategic Goal 4 is to engage our community through inclusive and meaningful relationships. The related student services budget request includes funding that is needed to engage our non-English-speaking families and parents by removing language barriers that may exist.

[01:05:46] The student services department is comprised of four offices or divisions. The student services section starts on page 225 of your budget book. And on this slide and a few subsequent slides, you will notice the page icon that is located on the top right-hand corner of each slide.

[01:06:09] That icon is a quick, ready reference indicating the detailed information about the Student Services Division that can be found. The budget book provides a brief description of the Student Services Division, the proud achievements that we've accomplished with the help of those in the field that support our students, and initiatives underway as it relates to the LCPS strategic plan.

[01:06:36] Our team works collaboratively with the Department of Instruction to improve educational outcomes for all students and coordinates with other departments to provide support to students and their families, as well as our teachers and other staff members. I do want to take this opportunity to recognize and applaud the efforts of my talented leadership team of directors who are here with me this evening.

[01:07:01] Words cannot effectively express my gratitude for their expertise, their boots on the ground approach to supporting all schools, families, and of course the one LCPS team. It is my continued honor to give them a shout out and recognize the positive impact of support of students as evidenced by the many achievements we've noted in the budget book.

[01:07:29] I'm also grateful for the dedication and commitments of all of our teachers in the field, all of our student services team members who give back to our students each and every day. And while there are other projects and committees and directives and things that our directors and their staffs lead, the next four slides will provide a brief overview of the broad areas within each office or division's responsibility.

[01:08:01] First up is the Office of Special Education, which is the largest of the four student services divisions. Given the vast area of responsibilities and needs of our students with disabilities as outlined under IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the division is led by two directors, Mrs. Donna Smith and Mrs. Tedra Richardson, who work collaboratively to provide leadership for specialized instruction and procedural support.

[01:08:36] Listed on this slide is a broad representation of major areas of responsibility that support our students and staff. Also included within this division is the Parent Resource Services, which serves as a resource for all LCPS families.

[01:08:54] The Parent Resource Services provides dozens of parent educational seminars throughout the year. It presents at every SEAC, that's the Special Education Committee of Parents that supports our efforts.

[01:09:10] They present at all of the SEAC meetings and also promote the Annual Student Services Mental Health and Wellness Conference, which I will shamelessly add a plug and ask if you have not yet registered to attend. It is January 28th at Lightridge High School.

[01:09:29] We're very excited about our annual conference, and we're looking forward to a good one this year, as in previous years. Additional information regarding the Office of Special Education begins on page 241 of the budget book. Established this school year is the Student Mental Health Services Division, and Mrs.

[01:09:53] Jennifer Evans provides leadership as the director and team that promotes student leadership and student voice through prevention programs such as peer, positive experiences in educational relationships, as well as sources of strength. The Student Mental Health Services Division provides leadership for all unified mental health teams, and these teams include all school-based mental health professionals. As listed on this slide, the school-based teams include school counselors, school social workers, psychologists, and student assistance specialists.

[01:10:34] LCPS has implemented a phased approach to establishing these teams, beginning at the high school level, followed by the middle school level, and ensuring that all secondary schools have a full-time unified mental health team based on the established staffing standards.

[01:10:55] One of our priorities in this budget request is to continue to address the staffing standard for Unified Mental Health team members at the elementary school level, ultimately establishing a similar secondary school staffing model also at the elementary school.

[01:11:15] All Unified Mental Health team members have unique training and skills to provide crisis response and intervention, consultation with families and agencies, as well as implementing restorative practices to continue to promote a culture of inclusive, affirming, and welcoming environments for all children.

[01:11:38] Additional information for the Student Mental Health Services Division begins on page 247 of the budget book. The Student Services Division is led by Dr. Clark Bowers, and it provides a comprehensive range of outreach and supportive services that are listed on this slide.

[01:12:00] In accordance with the Virginia School's health regulations, The phenomenal student health services team in all school health offices, as well as contracted nursing services, support our students every day, providing highly skilled levels of daily care for our unique student health care needs.

[01:12:23] The student services team provides leadership for all things related to student registration processes in collaboration with the Department of Digital Innovation and also supports thousands of special permission requests annually through collaboration with our friends in the Department of Instruction as well as the Office for Special Education.

[01:12:47] Additionally, our team of family liaisons are integral to the division's outreach efforts to families and particularly our students that are in need of specialized services, which will also include McKinney-Vento services.

[01:13:06] Additional information regarding the student services division begins on page 255 of the budget book.

[01:13:12] The Diagnostic and Prevention Services Division is under the direction of Mr. John Lodi, provides division leadership to include the broad areas listed on this slide, and embedded within goal one of the strategic plan is the multi-tiered system of supports framework, which is also critical, an integrated system of academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports for all students.

[01:13:48] The MTSS framework provides the foundation for division-wide programming that is tailored to support the unique needs of students. The focus of the Diagnostic and Prevention Services Division also centers around the implementation of IDEA, again, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504, for the identification, evaluation, and placement processes for students who may need and qualify for such supports.

[01:14:21] This division also leads the management and coordination of the threat assessment policy and regulation implementation. Additional information for the Diagnostic and Prevention Services Division begins on page 233 of the budget book.

[01:14:40] This slide concludes the overview of the Student Services Department and serves as a segue into the FY24 budget summary. The budget item requested are embedded within the MTSS framework and it's supporting all students as well as providing supports and outreach for families.

[01:15:04] And now on to the budget summary. So one of the benefits of going, I don't know, is this the fourth person in line of the cabinet, is to listen to some of the questions and anticipate those. So I've included this slide, which is the revised FY23, which is the current budget, to the FY24 proposed expenditure changes.

[01:15:31] You will notice that the Student Services FY24 proposed budget reflects a 2.4 percent total increase from the revised current FY23 budget. As noted on page 227, 98.2 percent of the Department of Student Services budget is personnel cost and 1.8% is operations and maintenance. This slide reflects the FY23 adopted budget.

[01:16:10] It's the FY23 adopted budget to the FY24 proposed expenditure changes. When compared the FY23 adopted budget to the FY23 revised budget, it reflects an increase in personnel as well as operations and maintenance categories. The personnel cost increase between the FY23 adopted and revised budget reflects 57.4 FTE related to the existing staffing standards

[01:16:45] and school needs. All of the 57.4 FTE with the exception of two are school-based employees. Additionally, there is slightly over half of the O&M increase from the FY23 adopted to the FY23 proposed is due to contracted nursing services that are used to support our schools that have existing school nurse vacancies.

[01:17:15] This slide may look familiar, as you may recall Dr. Smith's presentation of the school division's percentage of all school-based and non-school-based employees.

[01:17:34] Student services is the second largest division within Loudoun County Public Schools. The FY24 budget represents a total of 3,087 total employees and 97. 2% of the proposed budget personnel cost represents 3,001 school-based employees, which include but are not limited to our special education teachers, our teacher assistants, our behavioral assistants, our nurses and health clinic specialists, related service providers,

[01:18:15] as well as our Unified Mental Health Team members. The remaining 2.8% of non-school-based employees is a small team of administrators, program assistants, administrative assistants, and other support staff who work collaboratively to lead and support division-wide instructional initiatives, prevention and intervention programming, engage our community partners and parents as outlined in our 1-LCPS-2027 Strategic Plan for Excellence.

[01:18:53] The following budget items are related to Strategic Goal 1, Empowered Students. The budget requests are twofold. One is to continue funding for existing staffing standards based upon growth and the provision of Hold Harmless, and two, to prioritize the mental health and wellness of our children.

[01:19:30] This budget request is not an enhancement. This request reflects cost associated with maintaining the level of staffing required by the currently adopted staffing standards. That's 29.2 FTE.

[01:19:48] As Mrs. Willoughby shared last week during the staffing standard budget presentation, staffing standards provide a base level of staffing and support across schools. Based on currently adopted staffing standards, An additional 29.2 FTE, or full-time equivalent positions, are required for FY24.

[01:20:13] These positions are primarily special education teachers and teacher assistants. It also includes other special education positions, which are related service providers, such as occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists, and one special education supervisor position through the provision of hold harmless.

[01:20:42] prioritizing elementary student mental health. As I mentioned earlier, our goal is to establish ultimately full-time unified mental health teams at the elementary level, a similar model that is currently exists in our secondary schools. This budget request reflected here is indeed an enhancement to the existing elementary school counselor staffing standard. The enhancement of

[01:21:14] an additional 25.2 full-time equivalents, resulting in $2.8 million, eliminates the challenges and limitations in our elementary schools when they currently face the itinerant staffing model at the elementary school level. Itinerant school counselors serve at least two schools and must split their time between schools during the work week. We know the pandemic has disrupted many of

[01:21:48] our lives and our children in many ways. Our elementary school leaders and staff continue to echo the need for additional mental health supports for our youngest learners. We know their developmental needs simply cannot be placed on hold to be addressed on the day the itinerant counselor is scheduled to return to their school. Of course, our elementary school teachers, administrators, and staff work diligently every day to support and care for our students.

[01:22:22] However, it is very difficult to support children experiencing mental health challenges when the school must share their counselor with other schools or another school. School counselors must spend an average of 80% of their time working with students directly.

[01:22:45] They work diligently with all students and with classroom lessons as well as provide responsive services when there is a need. As you may recall, the American School Counselor Association, or what we call ASCA, recommends one school counselor for every 250 students.

[01:23:06] And this enhancement is a phased approach to building the unified mental health team model in elementary schools and is also recommended, was recommended as a way to phase additional support to our elementary schools by the superintendent's task force for student mental health and also feedback that our current superintendent has received as well as me and staff from our school principals.

[01:23:35] Earlier, I did receive the question regarding this particular budget request, and my staff is currently working to provide the data responsive to that request, and we certainly will work to provide that information through the budget question process.

[01:23:56] You may recall this slide from Mrs. Willoughby's presentation of the staffing standards. This slide reflects the current LCPS staffing standard as well as the state staffing standard. The budget team, whom I'm very appreciative of assisting us with these presentations, the budget team has calculated this enhancement based upon the enrollment projection for elementary schools.

[01:24:22] And it is reported a net increase of this enhancement is estimated at 25.2 FTE, approximately $2.8 million. And as explained on this slide, the enhanced staffing ensures a minimum of one counselor per elementary school and removes splitting counselors between schools.

[01:24:47] Based upon the enrollment projection calculation, 25.2 additional FTEs for elementary schools is requested. You may recall this slide from Dr. Smith's mention of this information as he presented in his slide.

[01:25:10] These positions reflect the FY23 temporary plan to provide additional special education staffing, as listed above in the chart. the additional staffing that was provided beyond the existing staffing standard.

[01:25:29] The 36 FTEs shown on this slide are funded through temporary Title 6B ARP funds, also known as COVID funds. The COVID funding ends this year and will not be available into FY24.

[01:25:46] Over the past number of years, when calculating staffing allotments, the business and financial services team conducts a trend analysis using previous enrollment projections for special education. And similar to the division-wide enrollment projections, the special education enrollment projection is being re-leveled for FY24. This means that the projection is adjusted to reflect the actual growth patterns post-pandemic versus pre-pandemic.

[01:26:18] The December 1, 2022 official count of our students with disabilities was 9,445, and the proposed budget is calculated based on a re-leveled projection of 9,665 students with disabilities.

[01:26:39] After applying the staffing standard calculation for FY24 and also applying the hold harmless provisions for hard-to-fill positions that are currently filled, A net reduction of 8.3 special education positions will occur for FY24.

[01:27:01] And to avoid a reduction in force or a RIF, vacant positions will be used coupled with the long-term strategy of reducing through attrition to return the staffing numbers to those generated by the staffing standard.

[01:27:25] prioritizing or the provision of specialized medical services for our students with disabilities. The final budget item associated with Strategic Goal 1, Empowered Students, is the continued provision of specialized medical services for our students with disabilities based upon their individual need for support to access our educational services and programming.

[01:27:53] LCPS has experienced an increased cost in services needed to care for our students with multiple disabilities and those students with critical medical conditions that require full-time access to skilled nursing while in the educational setting.

[01:28:12] These services are outside of the skilled services that our school nurses or trained health clinic specialists provide to our students at their assigned school every day. This request does not add FTEs or positions to the budget, but it provides funds to maintain contracted services and to address the increased cost to continue the level of care for our current students.

[01:28:42] This funding will also provide funds to meet the needs of any new children, new students to LCPS who may require skilled nursing services. Now on to Goal 2 for Exemplary Staff. The following budget item is requested to maintain the Office of Special Education's cohort model to address the critical shortage areas of licensed special education teachers.

[01:29:13] We continue to partner, the Office of Special Education continues to partner with our university partner, George Mason, to sponsor cohorts where our current employees can earn a special education teacher license.

[01:29:38] Special education teacher assistants are typically the participants in these cohorts. And after successfully completing the introduction to special education foundational courses, these participants are eligible for a provisional licensure and also eligible for hire into special education teaching positions.

[01:30:03] Participants are then able to complete additional coursework towards full licensure in the cohort program to earn a special education general curriculum licensure. We are proud to report that since January 2020, 66 of 83 participants in the cohort model have been hired as provisionally licensed special educators with LCPS.

[01:30:30] And some of these cohort participants are still employed as TAs. We don't want anyone to rush into the classroom until they are confident and ready to teach to assume those responsibilities. These TAs continue to complete their coursework and gain valuable experiences while working with a special educator in the classroom.

[01:30:53] Over the years, cohort participants have also switched to coursework so that they too can become general educators and have an LCPS. So this funding request is needed to continue this highly successful cohort, to continue to build the pipeline for our own educators.

[01:31:15] Goal 4, Engaged Community. The next slide is the final budget request that supports Goal 4 of the 1LCPS strategic plan engaging parents, families, and our community to support all of our students.

[01:31:33] This budget item is not an enhancement, but an increase in funding to address the growing needs around interpreter and translation services to engage our non-English speaking families.

[01:31:52] And this is a support for the entire division, not just the Department of Student Services, but this is one of our areas of responsibility under Dr. Bauer's leadership. The Student Services team works collaboratively with all departments and schools when there is a need for document translation or an interpreter services for parent or guardian meetings and even workshops.

[01:32:19] The budget amount requested will provide additional funds needed to fund the increased demand for interpreter services. These services are offered on demand through vendors, through the language line, and our own part-time interpreter employees.

[01:32:39] The top five languages requested in order of demand are Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese, and Urdu. Last year, the Student Services Team received 1,225 written translation requests, and based upon requests received to date, 1,043, we anticipate we will exceed last year's numbers of requests.

[01:33:08] And although we do not have comparison data for past years, we are collecting the spoken interpreter request and have received almost 2,000 requests for spoken translation since the start of the year.

[01:33:25] We believe the requested funds will enable the outreach team to continue to support the opportunity for LCPS to maintain and improve upon our existing efforts to remove barriers to engage our parents and guardians who require this translation support and with that that is the end of my presentation and i welcome any questions you may have thank you board members questions for student services mr morris thank you mr chair outstanding presentation i i think

[01:34:04] that uh a lot of it uh is there are no real surprises i think that we've had discussions on a lot of those points throughout the year and it makes it much easier for school board members to digest the information that we've already seen, so I appreciate that. I specifically appreciate you using metrics to identify the needs, such as your translator services. I think that helps the public visually see and understand exactly what kind of services and how much of the services we're providing.

[01:34:33] So those types, that type of information is very valuable. I wondered if there's any commitment after licensure for the for the folks that are going through the special education training that we are providing. Is there any kind of commitment that we seek? Yes, we do seek commitments. And over the years, we have had a very high retention rate of the individuals who participate in the cohort program. And why is that? Because they know what it's like to be a member of a supportive team in our schools, to receive coaching and boots on the ground support

[01:35:13] from our consulting teachers and other individuals but also they want to remain a part of the lcps family so many of our teacher assistants who are already in special education programs are familiar with a network of special educators and they take the classes with others to expand their their network and they stay with us so we have very good retention data on that another good investment I am a little concerned about some of the losses due to COVID, due to the excess funding that we were provided, and especially in the areas of the occupational therapist and the speech language

[01:35:51] pathologist. Do you feel confident that with the loss, the reduction of the numbers that we now have, that we're going to be able to provide full services to those students? I appreciate that question, and that was one of the motivators for us using the COVID funds for this year, because those are very challenging positions to recruit and to maintain.

[01:36:16] And since the funds were there, we wanted to continue to monitor the level of need based on students' IEPs. The special education team is monitoring that very carefully, and we're working collaboratively with human resources and talent development regarding that.

[01:36:33] Should we come to a point at the end of the year when we look at leveling up again for staffing and there is a need for those specialized positions, we certainly will put that on the radar for Dr. Smith as well as the human resource and budget team so that we can budget accordingly.

[01:36:51] And it does look like it appears that we are able to maintain an increased level of services based on from where the COVID numbers were added. We didn't eliminate all of those COVID adjustments. We've maintained them. So I think you addressed that.

[01:37:06] And I think that's valuable. So that puts us ahead of where we are, but I still worry, you know, what we went through and whether the services are sufficient. But your team will be able to tell us that, I'm sure. I agree. I would also add that through the hold harmless provision, we're able to maintain one of our special educators who is a supervisor for the program.

[01:37:28] And we are watching that through attrition. Should we have any vacancies in our special education supervisor team we will lose subsequently lose a position and that that is troublesome to the special education team that if there is an opportunity where we would be able to maintain although I did not include that in our budget process that is I agree and I appreciate you raising that concern that is one that we share as well because those are valuable positions that are very well needed.

[01:37:57] Okay, and the last comment is the teacher, the transition teacher for special education. We hear year after year that special education SEAC comes to us, and that is one of their focus areas. I wondered if there's any possibility that we're able to maintain, even though it's a vacant position, I would love to see us fill that vacant position because there's a need for it, not just eliminate it.

[01:38:21] I understand when you're looking to eliminate positions, you eliminate those without people in them. that's that makes the most sense but I would I would strongly support us trying to fill that position and not eliminate it because again this is one of the priorities that we hear often from SIAC thank you additional questions mr.

[01:38:43] Mahedby thank thank you chair so again I'll just echo mr. Morse's comment I mean about the presentation but I guess you know the counselor I think we spoke on when I mean dr. Smith sort of presented the budget earlier so it's I'm pretty excited to see that we are addressing the counselors ratios at the elementary level.

[01:39:08] So I was doing a quick math because I think in the new staffing standards, we don't really have a number as far as how many elementary because we're doing it different ways of approaching it because we're not just basing it on number of students, how many students should be at each elementary school, but we're making them whole so that there is no fraction in there.

[01:39:31] but if I did the math right now between the number what the counselors we have proposed and the students so looks like we across the board will have about 240 to 1 I mean number of students divided by counselors that we have in the proposed budget is that I mean again I'm not saying you do the math correctly but if that's the case then it's it's really a thing is it goes a lot of credit to staff and I'm going to take some credit for the board too to kind of continue working towards and

[01:40:05] enabling that that part of there as well so just a quick comment on that um on the slide that you have for um page number 20 I think I can barely read uh where we have those uh positions that you have 36 FTEs that were funded through the COVID funds and it and again I'm going back to page 242 in your budget um it talks about the math i mean that 27.7 positions are but it says related to

[01:40:42] staffing standards growth can you speak to that because i mean from when are we having any growth as from a student population i think in the budget book it's zero percent growth in there so can you speak to what that means because again i like to have a i mean it was good to have code funds we we obligated this, but at the same time, you know, we talk about metrics, as Mr. Morse talked about, the data, you know, what the impact has been and why we need to continue versus just continuing with it.

[01:41:18] So that's kind of my broader question on these resources that we are looking to maintain or hold harmless probably, but, you know, what staffing standard growth are we talking about when we talk about 27.7?

[01:41:34] Thank you. Sure, and I'm not quite sure, Mr. Mejedevi, I can answer. I believe I can answer the question, but I'm not quite sure which page you had referenced in the book. 242 in the budget.

[01:41:50] And was there a particular slide? No, it's just a personnel. It just talks about FI24, 27.7 positions are, you know, this describes those 27.7 positions that you're proposing that those positions be converted or from the previous year was refunded from COVID and added as enhancements?

[01:42:12] Yes, so each year and as we speak, students are referred to the referral review team to identify if they have an identified disability. So they are going through the special education eligibility process.

[01:42:33] And we know over the number of students year over year who are referred and go through the eligibility process to see if they qualify for IEPs under IDEA, students qualify, and that number grows. The budget team has done a year-over-year analysis and used a procedure, which Mr. Jones can speak more to, to re-level the anticipated enrollment for special education, which we know will increase. Every year, the special education department creates a December,

[01:43:13] we extract with DDI's help, a December 1 count, and that number is reported. That is currently 9,445 students currently who are enrolled with disabilities, and through the projection, Business and Financial Services believes that will increase to a total of 9,665, which is what we will be staffed upon, which equates to the need for additional FTEs to address that growth.

[01:43:46] So thank you, Dr. Jones. So I see the 9,500 number, but what page is the additional growth that's being projected? Did you mention 9,600? I will defer to my budget team, but I will say that I have spent countless hours with my business financial team who have been awesome. I call out jessica over there she's great as our senior analyst and i just happen to have those numbers i know what our december one counts how many children we're serving and what we're being

[01:44:22] staffed on for next year i will go i will go back to your original question regarding the school counselor count i will say that we are getting closer to that 250 number it might actually be there for some schools as that equation is being calculated through business financial services but I would not say that every elementary school will be at a 250 1 to 250 ratio by far yeah I don't mean to say 250 across like elementary I just meant like as a division across the board because obviously we are

[01:44:59] adding the schools which are less than 100 200 students they're getting a full counselor so that that helps too but across the board but so I guess in the case to I guess questions budget questions so first you know perhaps you or somebody can come back with what the numbers are addition to 90 90 9500 that we're talking about and second in relates to can I get a breakdown of counselors by elementary middle high schools that would be helpful also thank

[01:45:32] you additional questions so the $300,000 O&M increase for the special education teacher licensure cohort program is that what what is the 300 000 additional actually for is that for an expansion of the program is it to deal with increased cost in maintaining the program what what is that bucket of money actually going to so that money provides a reimbursement there are eight classes that the participants will take toward teacher licensure

[01:46:10] And LCPS reimburses for four of those classes. So that's what that money is used for. And as we've worked with business and financial services to be able to find year-over-year monies for those cohorts, there are different buckets of money that we've been able to use.

[01:46:30] And this year I'm coming with a greater request to be able to accommodate and maintain the same level of service for a cohort that would start twice during the year. semester to reimburse those classes. So you're anticipating larger cohorts and so it requires additional funds or is the cost of the classes going up? That's what I'm trying to get at.

[01:46:57] Every year GMU does do a, they conduct a review of what their classes will cost. I know that our participants receive a reduced rate because we typically have about 20 to 24 participants in a cohort. But with the dollar amount, I can take that as a budget question. We were using a different source of funds on previous years that we no longer have readily available. So that is why the increase is resulting in our operations and maintenance. Okay, thank you. The other question

[01:47:35] i have the fy23 budget started what was presented to be a multi-year initiative to restore licensed nurses to all elementary schools is that initiative continuing in the fy24 budget that is continuing as i as i know that that's that's the goal of the division i the revised cost has also been used to support contracted services because we've experienced some challenges with recruiting

[01:48:10] school nurses for our vacancies but yes overall that is a goal of the department to continue to as through attrition to restore school nurses to the elementary level thank you additional questions seeing none thank you again for the overview dr. jones appreciate it thank you so that will conclude our work session for today the next work session will be

[01:48:43] during the 4:00 p.m. session of our school board meeting on Tuesday and with that we will go into our closed session is there a motion mr. Madby yes sure I move to the Lowne County School Board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to 2.2 - 3712 of the Code of Virginia for the following discussion of the award of public contract involving the expenditure of public funds including discussion of the terms or scope of such contract related to the superintendent search where discussion in open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the school

[01:49:22] board as authorized by section 2.2 - 3711 829 of the Court of Virginia thank you is there a second second seconded by mr. Morse any discussion seeing none all in in favor of the motion to enter closed session, please raise your hand and say aye.

[01:49:41] Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Ms. Corbo, Ms. Corbo, and Ms. Reeser, and Ms. Polifko absent for the vote. That was the one I was missing. We are now in closed session

[01:49:56] and I do expect a motion coming out of closed session.

[02:43:19] Members, we are coming out of closed session. Is there a motion, Mr. Mahedvi? - Yes, Chair. I move that the closed meeting be adjourned that the Loudoun County School Board Reconvenience public meeting and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting I moved that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting Resolution 20-22/23 Whereas the Lowndes County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded board and in accordance with the provisions of Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas

[02:43:53] Section 2.2-3712D of Court of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now, therefore, be it resolved that Loudoun County School Board hereby certifies to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies.

[02:44:16] And only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the Loudoun County School Board. - Is there a second? - Second. - Seconded by Mr. Morris, any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, please raise your hand and say aye.

[02:44:33] - Aye, that motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Ms. Corbo, Ms. Reeser and Ms. Polifko absent for the vote. We have no motion coming out of closed and we have no further business, so we are adjourned. - Thank you.

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