Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Human Resources and Talent Development (HRTD) Committee Meeting, Thursday, March 23, 2023

Date: Thursday, March 23, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 6m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/811071141?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 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:30] - Good evening. I am calling to order our Thursday, March 23rd, 2023, human resources and talent development committee meeting. Our first item this evening is public comment.

[00:02:47] We have one speaker this evening. If you can plan on giving us about three minutes of your time before we move on to the next item. Do I have a Patricia Caldwell Wilson? Thank you.

[00:03:13] - There's a little red button. - Thank you, all righty. Okay, I am Patricia Caldwell Wilson, a former mathematics specialist and classroom teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools and a Loudoun Education Association board member.

[00:03:32] I'm pleased to speak to you about an information item, Policy 7304, that has been sent back to this committee via the full school board. In reviewing this information, LEA looks forward to this committee addressing the removal of the process by which employees are reassigned.

[00:03:51] The revision of this policy deletes the process from the policy and moves it to the corresponding regulation. The regulation, the part of the governing documents that are rarely read or even understood or referred to by employees.

[00:04:08] LEA and I, as a member of LEA, urge you to keep this specific process for reassignment transparent and a part of the policy, not moved to a regulation where the school board may not be part of any revisions.

[00:04:24] That very important element of the policy would not be under your purview, but under the superintendent's purview. Anything that is so impactful on the lives of employees should have school board oversight.

[00:04:40] Thank you. - We are now on to item 3.0, the approval of the minutes from February 23rd.

[00:05:02] Do I have a motion? - So moved. - Is there a second? - Second. - All those in favor of approving the minutes from the 23rd of February, 2023, please raise your hand and say aye. That motion will pass unanimously with all committee members present.

[00:05:24] We will now move on to the information items and the first information item is policy 7304, licensed employee transfers and involuntary reassignment. This policy had previously come through the committee and at the, to the point where it was brought up to the full school board.

[00:05:47] And during the last school board meeting, there was a significant discussion and subsequently we sent it back to committee for further discussion. I had, let me just find which page I'm on here.

[00:06:08] okay so i had asked staff some questions about this and specifically asking about where that line between policy and regulation is and wanted to suggest that the policy incorporate the language instead of having in the regulation the eligibility section so in regulation 7304

[00:06:47] There is an eligibility section for each piece of this policy. So eligibility related to the transfer process, which is Section A, and it indicates it's titled Section C, which is procedures for principals to select employees.

[00:07:15] So again, it's which employees specifically are, how that decision is made, and the sequence in seniority and so forth, that those two sections specifically be incorporated into the policy, which would then govern who would be, how employees would be eligible for those types of actions, and then the actual procedural things would be within regulation.

[00:07:45] So I will pause there and ask if there's either comments from staff or from the other committee members, again, just with regard to where the line is between policy and regulation. And so it would not be in regulation. Those would be moved into policy, just to clarify what my suggestion was.

[00:08:04] Just for clarification, you said when you introduced it, you said moving paragraph A and paragraph C. But then you said that it wasn't going to be the entire thing or there were elements?

[00:08:21] Those entire sections moved them from regulation into policy. So the new regulation would just have two sections. it would section B would become A and section D would become B. Okay the I tend to agree that this is of the importance for our for our teachers that we should try to capture some of this in the policy

[00:08:56] I agree with that that precept what I'm worried about is getting the level of detail in this and I'm trying to determine if there's any likelihood of or reason this would need to be changed by the superintendent without having a fully fledged board info action and vote. And I can't really see that in those two paragraphs. And an option might be for us to address any changes to

[00:09:32] Regulation 7304 would be required to be briefed to the board for determination of, you know, if there are any changes desired in those sections. That might be easier because then we don't have to cut and paste this into a policy. So just a thought on an alternate way of us doing the same thing, which is trying to ensure that something doesn't get changed and the board is not made aware. Is there, are there other regulations that are required to come to the

[00:10:08] board for review before they're updated? I don't think specifically that that entire regulations are, but if they're captured within here, it would be a simple statement that any changes to the specific to this portion to the I mean because it's all written in here and it would be easy to say any changes to this via any regulation need to be notified the school board needs to be notified and I would simply point to line 8 the superintendent will inform the school board when involuntary reassignment process will be implemented so there are times when the superintendent is

[00:10:47] expected to report back to the board on execution of those so that that might be be another way of addressing it yes please go ahead so I think what I'm hearing is that there might be something put in the policy to where the board would be notified if there were changes to the regulation rather than the regulation being brought before the whole school board in a school board meeting or something of that nature is that what I'm understanding yes I think

[00:11:23] it would need to be flagged so that board members would go back for instance and the superintendent's weekly report to the school board if they were to say that sections of this 7304 regulation are being proposed for changes. And if you want more details or, you know, any more information, reach out. And then a committee could easily, if any board member had any concerns with the language that it was being proposed, they could bring that back into a committee meeting. So I think since the current process doesn't include board oversight for

[00:12:02] regulations I'm a little concerned that it would be not formal enough in terms of the involvement and I these are these are very impactful changes and my intention in saying let's move the eligibility criteria into the policy and then leave the procedural what happens after people are identified for being eligible for a voluntary transfer or being selected for an involuntary reassignment is that the criteria should be specific enough that it's in policy.

[00:12:40] So you have to meet, you know, so in other words, yes, go ahead. Oh, please finish. So that, that is a very, there are very specific criteria that have to be met.

[00:12:57] So, for example, to be eligible for the license transfer process, you have to have a certain kind of contract, you have to be half-time or more, you have to have completed your mid-year support, you have to be in good standing from a performance management standpoint.

[00:13:14] So, all of those things, I think, are specific enough. It's not really a procedural or mechanical thing. It is, this is the criteria, and I think that that should be set forth in policy, which is why I'm suggesting sections A and C be moved in total into the policy and the regulation therefore covers more of the process and procedure side of it, which is what the feedback I've received from staff around where that line typically is between policy and regulation.

[00:13:48] That is correct. And so I would say from a staff perspective, if it is, if there's a section that the board fields they would like oversight and involvement in from from a staff perspective I'd prefer it be in policy I think we start to blur the line when we put it in regulation and we informally talk about updating the board well what happens if the board wants a change and then we've blurred the line of oversight

[00:14:18] and regulation I'm convinced thank you any further discussion yes thank you one One question I have is, specifically Section A in the regulations and Section C, is the whole, so I guess from a big picture, regulations come from policy, so is the whole regulation in here really just that clause on line 28 of the regular policy that the process for licensed employees to be involuntarily reassigned to set forward in this policy as a company regulation?

[00:14:55] That's the clause that blossoms this whole regulation? I'm sorry. Where are you? - I'm looking at the unread line version, line 28 and 29, so in paragraph B.

[00:15:13] And really it just says that there will be a company regulation that has all the procedures. And so that's what guides all the regulations. Yeah, so I'd prefer them to be in policy, I think. There's concern that we need some school board oversight.

[00:15:29] - Okay, and so the suggestion to move sections A and C from regulation back over to policy is, there's agreement on that? Okay, so if staff can make those updates, I know this is an information item today, but so what's the, what's giving me some help logistically here?

[00:15:51] So it would be staff's hope that because it's already gone to the school board, do you want to go, that since it's already gone to the school board and since there was consensus in regards to the change, we've already discussed it, we're prepared to upload it into board that we could move this to an information item at Tuesday's board meeting.

[00:16:19] - I think that this was the only issue that was brought up when we addressed it in front of the full board. I think that your solution addresses that issue. So if it's the consensus of the committee, then we could push it, suspend the rules, vote on it with that adjustment forward to the board.

[00:16:45] For information to the board, We would suspend the rules and vote on it as an action item tonight with the stipulation that that's inserted. It would go to the information on the next board meeting.

[00:17:01] - Would you like to make a motion? - I move to suspend the rules. - Okay, is there a second? - Second. - Those in favor of suspending the rules and moving this forward as an information item? - Aye. - Raise your hand and say aye. All those, that was unanimous with all committee members present.

[00:17:19] so staff can make the updates as discussed. Was there a question, go ahead. - More of a comment in anticipation of the request. I suggest that letter C be retitled to match kind of the language of letter A and making letter C as a title of selection criteria for principles for involuntary reassignment rather than the word procedures so the procedures stay in the regulation.

[00:17:52] - I'm comfortable with that, any objection? - Okay, yes, I appreciate that, thank you. - Okay. - Okay, item 4.02, policy 7530 duty to report.

[00:18:13] I'm sorry, go ahead. - Just a point of order. So we voted to suspend the rules, but I think technically we have to also vote to send it to the school board. - My apologies. Is there a motion?

[00:18:29] - I move forward to the school board information agenda, the modified version of the policy 7304. - Second. - All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

[00:18:45] That passes with all committee members present. Thank you, and thank you. Next item is 4.02 policy 7530, duty to report child or student abuse and neglect.

[00:19:01] This item was also at the school board meeting and was sent back for staff input and discussion around the inclusion of mental health abuse in this policy. So I will refer this back to staff for an update on the research that you've done in preparation for this discussion.

[00:19:23] - Thank you, Ms. Ogadegbe. So I did have an opportunity to meet with Mr. Falcone, review code, talk about possible language changes that hopefully will also address the concern of how do we define mental abuse in such a manner that we are holding people accountable when in fact they should be held accountable.

[00:19:48] And so after speaking with Mr. Falcone, if it is the board's or if it's the committee's will to add language to identify the responsibility of staff to also report allegations of any employee inflicting mental abuse, I do have a suggestion if that is the desire of the committee, but recognizing that even if it isn't in policy, there is specificity in code along with other areas that are not spelled out in policy

[00:20:27] in which we are still required to report. So I'm happy to provide the language or wait for conversation. I would appreciate hearing the language, and again, I think it's, so I heard part of what you said said something about somebody, like if a staff member was mentally abusive, but again, this is suspected abuse that might be occurring anywhere.

[00:21:00] It could be happening at home, and as mandatory reporters, they have an obligation, so if you can share with us the language, that would be helpful. So the language that Mr. Falcone gave me actually is specific to, based on code, is specific to section B, which is example of employee behavior to report.

[00:21:27] And the language would be essentially to eliminate the and after two, or after number two, to add a three, and that states allegations of an employee inflicting mental abuse or neglect as defined in the Virginia Administrative Code on a student or making a threat of mental abuse or neglect to a student and.

[00:21:58] This would also require that we add a cross-reference to the types of abuse and neglect code within the bottom of policy. Thank you.

[00:22:15] So how does that address section A. 1, which is related to a teacher or other school employee who has reason to suspect abuse and making sure that this is inclusive of mental abuse?

[00:22:36] And so based on Mr. Falcone's recommendation, the understanding is that there are several other similar examples in that code section that we don't cite.

[00:22:52] And it's not necessarily helpful to cite them all. But because the code is referenced, all, including mental injury, are already covered. Do you have information about all of the ones that are cited in code, just so that we can hear again what those are?

[00:23:16] And I think there's a lot of focus on mental health, and I think that sometimes being explicit about what is included is helpful so that it's not missed. And again, from a usability standpoint, expecting staff to go and read the code to understand what types of abuse are covered by code is perhaps not realistic.

[00:23:44] So I do not have the list. What I have is essentially the standard for what constitutes an abused or neglect child is stated in Virginia Code 63. 2-100, which provides that an abused or neglected child is one whose parents or other person responsible for his care creates or inflicts, threatens to create or inflict, or allows to be created or inflicted upon such child a physical or mental injury by other than

[00:24:20] accidental means. So that is kind of what is in code. I don't have the list specifically in front of me. Is it, I know it's not, isn't normally standard to include that. Okay, and I guess just one thought might be that's a very brief and succinct statement that says it all and is it

[00:24:49] possible to just include that sentence in the or you know in the header for the policy as a like a definition yes let me take a look Sharon do you have anything to add well like I can I can read to you it's not necessarily a list but I I do think this would be a bit much for policy and I like that idea of including a succinct definition so directly from code types of abuse neglect mental abuse or neglect occurs when a caretaker creates or inflicts threatens to create or inflict

[00:25:24] or allow to be created or inflicted upon a child a mental injury by other than accidental means or creates a substantial risk of impairment of mental functions mental abuse or neglect neglect includes acts of omission by the caretaker resulting in harm to a child's psychological, or emotional health or development.

[00:25:44] Documentation supporting a nexus between the actions or inactions of the caretaker and the mental dysfunction or threat of dysfunction demonstrated by the child is required in order to make a founded disposition. Mental abuse or neglect may include failure to thrive.

[00:26:02] Failure to thrive occurs as a syndrome of infancy and early childhood that is characterized by growth, failure, signs of severe malnutrition, and variable degrees of developmental retardation. Failure to thrive can only be diagnosed by a physician and is caused by non-organic factors.

[00:26:22] - I mean, I think, and I'll also ask my fellow committee members here, I think that that first definition that you shared would be appropriate to include in the header of the policy to explain what's covered. - So instead of the header, we thought it may be, and maybe I can look back at the header, but we thought it may be appropriate to place it under section A, number three.

[00:26:57] Currently, this number three ends at, regardless of student's intellectual ability, and then we could include that first sentence. The standard for what constitutes an abuse or neglect child is stated in, which provides that sentence that we read.

[00:27:20] - I have one more comment, and then I will open it up for more discussion from the committee members. I feel like the definition for what type of abuse is covered by the policy should be further up in the policy. So this is the definition of the policy that we have reporting requirements about.

[00:27:42] So I really think either it's number one under reporting requirements to define what it is that we're reporting or it's in the policy header to describe that. And I will ask if there's other comments from my fellow committee members.

[00:27:58] - I concur, I had written the same thing. I think that it's because it's such an important part of the overall policy as a definition it should be captured early on. I do agree with the wording and the location of your modification for the mental health. And I think that those combined address the concerns for the mental health.

[00:28:17] So I think that would be an appropriate place. However, I do not agree with adding a lot of the verbiage that was captured trying to flush that out. I think that would be too much to add. - I think the first one that Ms. Boland shared would be appropriate to incorporate.

[00:28:47] - Ma'am, is there interest in moving this forward as well as an information item because of the similarity in the changes? - Yes, is there, I believe we would need a motion to suspend the rules. - I move to suspend the rules. - Second. - All those in favor of suspending the rules, please raise your hand and say aye.

[00:29:05] - Aye. - That motion will pass unanimously. Is there another motion? - I move forward to the board information agenda, the modified version of policy 7530. - Second.

[00:29:20] - All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. - Aye. - That motion passes unanimously as well. Any points of clarification needed from staff about what the modifications will be?

[00:29:36] - I don't think so. - Okay, great, thank you so much. Our next item is for discussion items. We have an update from HRTD on the license vacancy update.

[00:30:00] - Perfect, thank you so much. I'm actually, I believe this was requested by a school board member. And so it was based off of feedback and I believe the SEAC report from the last school board meeting. And so I have asked HRTD director that oversees recruitment and staffing, school-based staffing, Bob Phillips, to pull together some information and bring it before the committee this evening.

[00:30:35] - Is the chart gonna be shown up on the screen or do we have the ability to do that or just look in the packet? - We have hard copy. - You have the copies? Okay.

[00:30:50] - Yeah, but if you click on the item, I believe there's an attachment there. Whoever's got the... - Thanks, Sean.

[00:31:14] That's okay. We'll just go with the packet. So the first page is number two, a percentage of the fill rate. And this is a percentage of our licensed staff members across the district for the entire year, starting with the first pull of that data in August all the way until last week.

[00:31:37] And you can see the bottom or the lowest percentage was 98.4% of our licensed staff. And then as of last week, we were approaching 99% fully staffed for our licensed staff. The N is roughly about 7,000 licensed staff members.

[00:32:03] The next page, page three, is a raw number of total vacancies of licensed and special ed vacancies. Please note that the licensed vacancy, which is your green line on top, is inclusive of the special ed vacancies, not in addition to the total.

[00:32:26] So the green is encompassing also the blue. So, for example, on 824, there are roughly 112 licensed vacancies, of which 33 of 35 of those were special education, not in addition.

[00:32:43] And then on the next page, which is page four, is your total vacancies by school type. Sorry, can I ask you, just because it's hard with the not having lines here, can you give us the N's for where we sit with the vacancies for overall and special education today?

[00:33:06] I'd have to get the Daria Kearney, who's our statistics person, to give me the exact N. but I would say it's roughly under 30. I think it'd be safe to say that.

[00:33:22] Do you have it?

[00:33:36] Right now we have 11 licensed vacancies and four of those 11 are special education.

[00:33:57] So this looks like the green line is above 70 right now. This may be FTEs that we hold and not vacancies.

[00:34:16] So posted vacancies, posted vacancies to be filled currently is 11 and four of those are special education. Could that be backwards? Could you be saying that the vacancies are the high number, but the number of currently filled positions is the lower number or is it just? No, there may be FTEs outstanding that are not currently posted.

[00:34:48] So there are open billets. Correct. And that's your high number. And then your vacancies is those number of billets that we have not found someone is that someone always a certified person yes to fill in all of those positions yes so if we only have four then we have 26 certified special ed teachers filling the out of those 30 because we only have four that are unfilled or that are

[00:35:16] vacant any position that has any licensed teaching position has a certified that's filled has a certified licensed teacher in it is that what you're asking yes so so all the substitutes if you want to call them that all the all the temporary measures that we are applying to to address a shortage of FTE or billeted positions those are all being filled by certified people

[00:35:51] Yes. And so if I look currently today in the information that was given as part of what is provided to the school board at the elementary level, we have two vacancies in ELL, one in reading, two in special education.

[00:36:23] At the middle school level, we have one in ELL, and then at the high school level, we have one in art, one in social science, and two in special education.

[00:36:47] So I'm not following the discrepancy between this chart of total vacancies, where it looks like, if I were to draw a line, that we have approximately 70 licensed in total vacancies, but we have 11 plus 4, 15 total vacancies posted to be filled.

[00:37:14] So I'm not sure then what this chart is reflecting versus what's posted to be filled. I don't have the chart that you're reading, Ms. Boland, for that.

[00:37:29] No, I'm talking about the one that you're, the current numbers. So I'm not worried, which current numbers? Are you looking at Wednesday's report from Mr. Akbar? Yes. okay so that was 3 22 correct that was yesterday yes yeah yesterday 3 22 so i think that's that this chart was made last week so i'm thinking in the meantime between the end of last week or 3 15 to the 3 22 those positions were filled is that correct is that possible that we hired and

[00:38:07] onboarded 50 people in the last week but onboarding doesn't could not onboarding they could have they could have been they could have completed their onboarding between then between last week and the 22nd so we'll have to double check that not onboarded i misspoke but i guess what i'm saying is did we really hire 50 plus people in the last week we'll have to go double check that but to

[00:38:35] answer your question miss ogadegby the the number for special ed on 3 15 was 24 according to our chart from our ERP team. I was able to find that in my email. So then within one week between 315 and 322, we hired 20 special education teachers? I'm not sure on that. I'll have to double check

[00:39:08] that and look at that chart from yesterday. I think we need a reset because I think we're talking about numbers and we're not quite aligning what the board is hearing and these numbers just don't seem to be connecting. So what I would propose is that we're looking for a few things.

[00:39:28] The first thing, at the highest level, I'd like to know how many positions we have in special ed that are not filled by a certified person. That's the first question. So we have classrooms, we have people potentially in them, but they're not fully certified. So how many of the special education positions, certified positions, are either there's nobody there, or the person there does not meet the minimum criteria to be there. So that would be the first. The second would be the number of job vacancies that are unfilled. In other words, if you take out the experts,

[00:40:04] the dean who is filling that position, and you remove them from the equation, how many billets, how many vacant positions are there in the special ed community? And just to clarify, I had asked for an overall vacancy report as well, so that's maybe some disconnect and my expectation was to get both but I I think I agree with you in terms of some of the more specificity around the special education positions as well thank you and as I look at it the reason why I'm focused in on the special

[00:40:40] needs is because out of all of our 7,000 certified employees licensed employees approximately 70 or we have a total of about 70 of which almost half of those those are special needs now I know that our special needs positions are less than half of our overall positions so what that means is that they have a significant higher vacancy rate in the special needs community that's that's what the data is telling me based on the fact that we have you know 70 total and of those we have 24 that are special needs I don't know what the total

[00:41:18] number of special needs licensed teachers we have what that total number is but I feel confident that it's less than 50 percent so there's a mismatch between the number of there's a greater vacancy rate in the special needs community licensed positions than there is in our general population so that's that's why I'd like to try to get those numbers of those gaps so I would add to that I think that having like having the total positions and then what's filled what's vacant right would be would be helpful in understanding this you know I just I just have a

[00:41:57] follow-up on the other numbers from 322 I think uh Ms. Bolin that if I remember correctly reading Mr. Akbar's email that they were positions for next year that were posted now that we're looking towards next year not what's current this year because we were done hiring for end of year as of tomorrow so i to answer your question i don't think the 20 were hired for those roles those were the ones that were posted for next year because we're already starting to

[00:42:32] look at positions posted for next year i'm sorry yes mr thank you so i guess a follow-up to that question would that mean that we have only 20 vacancies and less than one percent going of a fill rate going into next year based on those numbers or is there more context missing at the time of the pull which was friday before probably because we didn't start posting positions for next

[00:43:03] year till thursday of last week and it was roughly 20 some vacancies that were posted but subsequently every day this week we have more vacancies being posted as like teachers say they're not coming back or something like that attrition yep resignation or retirements okay um going back the total vacancies you've got the raw numbers on slide three but you've got a percentage on slide two i would like to going back to what mr morris is saying i would like to see a percentage for that fill rate i think that would help um shed light on exactly what mr morris was looking at

[00:43:39] that would be key to me because um just just the raw numbers again doesn't give the full context and then kind of from my personal education could you explain like the the vacancy life cycles and sort of the context for this because um you mrs ogadagby had mentioned about hiring and sort of the onboarding process so the vacancy is a job posting that we're looking for someone and then at some point someone could fill that role that isn't necessarily the full-time employee for that like mr morris mentioned a dean filling in or a substitute teacher is that part of that or is it

[00:44:14] just it's a job vacancy we need someone to fill it and eventually someone will come in so i can just level set us maybe a second I think and I will answer your question I promise I think I'd like to take down all the information you want to get you more of a detailed specific report one because I think we're starting to confuse numbers and so I want to make sure that we're all on the same page so my one question with that is do you want me to send that in in sort of a board inquiry update for

[00:44:51] the entire board or do you want us to bring it back to the HRTD committee which isn't until April I'd appreciate an update to the board I think that this is salient now and especially after the SEAC comments to the board last week I think it's on everybody's mind and again I in addition to the special education there also are ongoing concerns around vacancies for teachers and and information about people who've resigned.

[00:45:25] So I think a more comprehensive view of, you know, vacancies, you know, resignation rates, kind of looking retrospectively of where we were at the beginning of the year. I think you hear examples of things, and it's hard to know without understanding at a higher level with all of the numbers in front of you.

[00:45:46] this because somebody had five friends who this you know knew of this versus it's a broader larger issues so I think a more comprehensive view with numbers and percentages would be helpful yes within the superintendent's weekly report you provide us resignation and retirement numbers unfortunately those numbers are only a snapshot we don't see year-to-year any changes so because it's cyclical because you expect to see a lot of retirements at the end of June

[00:46:22] having the year-over-year changes will tell us and it should be percentages because you know as the workforce grows then the numbers are going to grow and we don't want that to obscure the fact that you know the percentages are changing so I think if it's percentages and I think if we can see the year-over-year year data. And I would only go back two years because unfortunately with COVID, all of our numbers are going to be off the charts. We're not going to have a good feel for that. But in addition,

[00:46:54] and this was brought to me by two different folks and constituents, I'd like to see if we could also focus in on the ECSE classrooms. So I'd like to know how many classrooms we have, Whether they're fully staffed with certified people, the number of students, and I understand that there's a way to calculate the students.

[00:47:21] You have the full-time students and then you have resource or itinerant students. I'd like to know what the current staffing level is for all the ECSE classrooms. And I'd also like to find out more about the waiver process.

[00:47:37] I understand that LCPS has submitted a waiver, and I don't know that the school board knows anything about a waiver which was needed because we don't have enough ECSE classrooms, I believe. So I think that's something important for the board to understand. So can I just interrupt one second?

[00:47:54] Yes, yes. So, and Mr. Beatty, I haven't forgotten you. I promise I'll come back. Okay, so my plan initially was to have the information in regards to staffing and a more specificity around the ask for next week's update to the board, by next week.

[00:48:17] The ECSE classrooms, some of this information that you're asking for, the waiver process, that would require collaboration outside of HRTD, so that might take a little longer. That's okay. Let's take that as a, in fact, it'd probably be easier just to separate that from the push for data because we do want the data to get to the board The ECSE could be identified under new business, and we'll bring it as an information item if it's okay with the committee chair.

[00:48:44] That we could have that discussion at our next HRTD in April. Okay, and then I could ask Dr. Jones or a representative to come as well. And then I can, there's some additional information that I can provide so that we can fill out the information item on the agenda.

[00:49:00] That's great, thank you. Can I answer Mr. Beatty's question? Absolutely. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so as far as vacancies are concerned, there's something we like to refer to as time to fill. So a vacancy really goes through a number of things before it is completely filled.

[00:49:18] So there is a posting, there is an interview process, there's the offer process, there's the onboarding, and then there's an actual in-the-seat doing the work. So essentially, a vacancy is an open position as long as it is currently listed as open within either Oracle, that FTE has not yet been filled, or it's posted live on the website.

[00:49:48] Thank you. That helps. Just one comment. Looking at the hiring for next year, that really convolutes the numbers. I think what we need to do is commit to just looking at vacancies this year in the classroom right now, not including what we anticipate is going to happen in July 1st.

[00:50:10] Otherwise, you know, we're going to throw in, as Bob said, we're going to throw in another 20 jobs, and then our numbers are going to be off the charts. So I think it's helpful for us to understand, snap the chalk line at a date, and then provide that information relative to the state of LCPS at that time.

[00:50:28] Agreed. Yep. - Can I just ask one question, follow up? I know Mr. Morris used the first question, or the first data was the special education license position filled by certified people.

[00:50:43] And what was the, the second one was percentage rate of special ed of the total vacancy rate, correct? Was there? - Yes. So instead of just having the total number, it's a percentage. - Right. - So that would-- - Was there anything else in there though in terms of the data that you were looking for besides the ECSE, but just for the other ones were just those two items.

[00:51:03] For the other one, it was the number of positions that are not staffed by certified employees at this time or whatever date. Special education. Special education. Right. Okay. I got that one. The number of those that are not.

[00:51:20] And then the number of vacancies, which is those positions that include when we're able to bring somebody else in from the outside to staff that position who's not supposed to be there, such as a dean or another temporary, you know, you have position vacancies, which are the ones that are jobs listed in the system.

[00:51:40] And then you have a lot of those are being covered by our employees being pulled from other positions. So that's what I'm looking for. I want to know how many are we not currently do not have a certified staff member in that certified position.

[00:51:56] And then how many vacancies do we have, which captures all of the temporary assignments and all of the deans and all the other folks that are sitting in those positions? They are certified, but that is not their job.

[00:52:13] Does that make sense? In special education? In special education. Okay. All right. And that second part may take a little bit more time in collaboration with the people services office to see who they put in there, because that might not be listed in Oracle because that's not their primary assignment.

[00:52:34] So that might take a little bit more time, that second part, just as an FYI. Because we have we have staffing standards. So, you know, that's that's the net sum of all the positions we should be filling. Right. And then we have certified employees that are listed in our employee database as filling one of those staffing standard positions.

[00:52:53] And then there are others. And that's what I'm trying to drill down to is what are the others? What comprises them? I know we're filling jobs, but what's happening is we're taking away people from their other job to fill a position that is not their primary billet. And so we need to know that because we need to push them back into their job, and we need to hire that person for that vacancy.

[00:53:14] So that's, I hope that's kind of helpful. Yeah, I got it. But then to clarify, though, we are asking for overall vacancy and trends, and to Mr. Morse's point about retirements and resignations, some year-over-year data as well.

[00:53:35] Okay, thank you. I think we can move on to item 5.02, HRTD continuous improvement updates. - Okay, so it looks like maybe we don't have presentation capability, so the slides for the information are within your packet towards the back.

[00:54:00] Mr. Beatty and Mr. Morris, you may recall in the beginning of this school year, we, HRTD, brought forward kind of a year in review presentation in regards to the things that we were we had done previously and I apologize Miss Okadegbe it just clicked in my mind I was supposed to send that to you and I did not so I will make sure I do that but we provided an update and then we throughout some of the meetings brought forth what we called continuous updates to give you insight into some of the things HRTD was doing to enhance the school division.

[00:54:39] And so tonight we are bringing forward two additional items that we would like to provide information on, the first of which is, I don't know which way this goes, I think the first item is in regards to our Critical Needs Licensed Educator Fair.

[00:55:02] And so I will hand it over to Mr. Phillips to walk you through that information. So without reading the entire slide, the critical needs fair was our second of our four hosted fairs here in Loudoun County Public Schools.

[00:55:18] The first one was our diversity educator experience. The next one, which will be coming up at the end of April is an all content area of fields. And then the next one in end of May going into June is a second critical needs for those positions that are still posted and available.

[00:55:36] So, basically, after COVID, we've pivoted to an all-virtual experience for our candidates so they can interview with us at the comfort of their home or in their classroom at their most convenient opportunity. Our new applicant tracking system allows them to choose a time for interviews, which is great, and it allows them to connect with at least three hiring managers in Loudoun County during first-round and second-round interviews.

[00:56:05] So as a result of this educator fair, we made 24 offers to work with us next year for Loudoun County.

[00:56:21] Overall, in terms of recruiting, it has been a much more fruitful year because of the return to in-person events, especially those in college, which hampered our recruiting events last year when we were doing virtual. So we are very excited. We have already just now surpassed our total number of LOIs, which is our letters of intent for candidates to work with us in Loudoun, both given out and accepted than we did all of last year, the whole entire recruiting season, which goes until May 1st. In addition to that, we're

[00:56:55] already surpassed a number of potential employees who have made contact with us at job fairs on the road and here in Loudoun through the virtual format. Again, more so now than all of last year going up into May 1st. So the pool is getting filled and deeper for our hiring managers to make contact with candidates. And hopefully that will continue to reap rewards for them getting placed in positions here in Loudoun. That's really great news. I'm curious. So you mentioned

[00:57:30] virtual but also a return to in-person so is there some aspect of this that's in person and then there's but then there's virtual interviews or if you can explain that I should have clarified that that's more of when we're going on the road to colleges and universities their fairs are now back 95% of them are now back in person there's still a handful of smaller colleges that will do because they don't have the numbers that will do virtual ones via handshake or CareerEcho. Those are some of the recruiting platforms that our colleges and universities use, but most of them, especially the larger universities, have returned to in-person,

[00:58:09] and it's there that we can set up our booth and pull people in and try to attract them to some of the key components, our one-pager for benefits, our starting salaries, those types of things to get them to sign up, at least fill out an application with us in Loudoun. We have a very short college career check-in that is about two minutes at our table and that also gets them seen by all of our hiring managers through our applicant tracking system even those that are aren't on the

[00:58:40] road with us in wherever college we're going to visit that's great thank you okay and we do have one more additional item to share with you this evening something i'm extremely excited about we HRTD, as part of our name, it's Human Resources and Talent Development, and we were able to return Matt Dickerscheid to HRTD's office.

[00:59:11] He was snatched away by DOI for a short time, but we were able to work back a instructional versus non-instructional professional learning talent development program, and I am really excited and passionate about growing that program to support our non-instructional staff and leaders the way that our professional learning team supports our instructional leaders.

[00:59:43] And something that we had done that had kind of slipped away was what we refer to as the Support Services Leadership Academy. And one of Matt's first projects was to update and re-implement this program.

[01:00:03] And so I wanted to bring it this evening to give you some insight and introduce you to Mr. Dickershide. Thank you, Ms. Bolin. And board members, I'm thrilled to share this small piece of what our town development looks like.

[01:00:21] Support Service Leadership Academy is one of my favorite opportunities we provide our non-instructional leaders. It was hard to keep it to three bullets, to be honest with you. It's a unique opportunity. It's a cohort. It's a four-day event where attendees come and they learn and they get to grow and work with each other.

[01:00:43] Attendees have the opportunity to meet with division leaders and network and then learn about their other departments. We focus on leadership, communication, management versus leadership, decision-making, conflict resolution, feedback, to name a few.

[01:00:59] And then it's really just to give you an idea who this would be for, it's targeting our frontline service providers. So custodians, lead bus drivers, anyone from the facilities, office construction, all the different departments there I sort of teased it out anyone there who we see leadership potential in or they expressed interest in leadership we bring this them to this four-day academy in-house it's half day nine to twelve we're gonna we're actually going to start here in April so it's already up and running and we are thrilled about reuniting this opportunity we had to put it on the shelf because these were the folks that made the world run during the last

[01:01:39] few trying years and now they have a little more capacity to to step into this opportunity so we are thrilled to welcome them back and as you can see I'm a little passionate about serving these folks but I'm just grateful that Ms. Bolin was able to bring me back to HRTD to provide this opportunity for our non-instructional leaders. And if I can just add something as you know when When I started with LCPS, I was a coordinator and a supervisor overseeing support services.

[01:02:12] And so I was intimately involved in the initial development of these programs and to watch bus drivers and school nutrition workers come in at the beginning and shy away from speaking and feeling nervous and scared to be themselves.

[01:02:34] and by the end being so vocal and standing up and really being integrated in the work and what is happening and walk out of there feeling like they want more. It's something that if you have the opportunity, you should really come and experience.

[01:02:52] It's really moving. I was actually going to ask if you're extending invitations because it would be great to stop by, not spend four days, but if there's an opportunity to come in for part of that, I'd love that. So I'm curious, so is this something that you would do on an annual basis or each semester?

[01:03:15] And then I'm curious how many people are signed up so far, knowing you've got a little bit of time before the event happens. You're looking at an office of one. I would love to do this every two weeks we we hope to grow this opportunity this this is honestly why I left my principalship a legacy to support our non-instructional leaders you know they turn the lights on they turn on the HVAC they drive our kids to our schools they feed them so I benefited from that as a teacher and

[01:03:48] educator a leader for 20 plus years and so dedicating this time to them is really important We also have a support service leadership academy for admin we previously did, so that would be your lead custodians, your head lead bus drivers, anyone who's leading people for the first time, that was that cohort.

[01:04:09] So we have a whole vision to build this out and provide support to these folks that are not used to this typical progression of growth, and this is sort of, like I said, the tip of the iceberg to support these folks. - I was gonna go one up on Ms. Ogadigbe and say, if you, well, first of all, I think the school board has been frontline workers and I'd love for you to give us training.

[01:04:40] But lacking that, I would offer up, I would be thrilled to come in and talk or speak to them or engage with them or network with them. I think board members would really like that and I think it'd be very, very beneficial because for the last two years, Our interactions with staff have been negligible.

[01:05:01] I mean, we don't get to ride buses anymore. Those things are starting to come back now, and I think that would be a great opportunity. So if you're so inclined and there are a couple empty seats, I would suggest you put out an invitation to the board. You would just have to take turns.

[01:05:19] You'd have to have a different day, because I'm pretty sure I can only have two at a time. Well, you've got your first two right here. So we get dibs on which day. Great. Thank you so much. This is a wonderful update, and just good to hear, and I would love to, as I said, come and be a part of it.

[01:05:41] Thank you. And any new business? I think we spoke about the EC. - ECSE. - ECSE would be a new item for next month.

[01:05:59] Any additional items? Okay, with that, we are adjourned. Thank you.

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