Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 2nd Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 6h 46m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/825203282?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.

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[00:00:11] Good afternoon. I call to order this May 9th, 2023, second Tuesday, school board meeting of the Loudoun County School Board. We'll begin with item 102 on our agenda, remote participation. I've been notified that Denise Corbo would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting.

[00:00:30] Ms. Corbo, please state your location, whether you are alone or with anyone else, and whether this is a medical or personal matter. I'm home, I'm alone. Under policy 2420, I'm asking for electronic remote meeting participation due to an ongoing disability and medical condition.

[00:00:51] That was also recommended by HRTD under federal ADA disability law. At this time, I will entertain a motion that Ms. Corbo's request to participate remotely for a medical matter be granted.

[00:01:08] So moved. Is there a second? That motion will fail for lack of a second. With that, we'll move to item 2 on the agenda, disclosures, beginning with Ms. Sheridan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[00:01:26] 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. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPA LCPS employee these 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

[00:02:04] thank you mr. Mahedvi thank you chair as a member of the London County school board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to general public in connection with the items on tonight's agenda regarding employee salaries the budget and health insurance and any of the discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees 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 whose interests 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 public records the clerk of the school board for five years thank you as a member of the

[00:02:43] 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. 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. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. With that, we'll move to

[00:03:23] item three, the approval of the consent agenda. Is there a motion? Mr. Mahedby. Yes, chair. I move that the Lowndon County School Board approve the consent agenda posted in the board docs. Sir, seconded by Ms. Ogadegbe. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morse and Corbo absent for the vote. We'll now move to item four our work session and the first item within the work session is 401 from the department of student services

[00:04:01] fentanyl awareness and prevention. Good evening board and thank you Mr. Sorokin as we have Mr. Darren Madison, Supervisor of Student Assistance Services, and Ms. Jen Evans, Director of Student Mental Health Services. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to highlight our efforts to increase awareness about illicit fentanyl and our collective response to the fentanyl epidemic. As you may recall, LCPS provided the community a number of sessions on fentanyl

[00:04:39] awareness during the months of February and March, and we've established strong relationships with many of our community partners who are here with us this afternoon who are also committed to increasing awareness among students families and staff. LCPS because of these partnerships is prepared to respond to potential overdoses in our schools and will continue our prevention and intervention efforts. Later this evening the school board will have the opportunity to adopt a proclamation recognizing today May 9th 2023 as National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day.

[00:05:15] And with that, I will pass it over to Ms. Evans. Good evening, school board members. We appreciate the opportunity to provide this important update about fentanyl and share what we are doing as a community to address the issue. Next slide.

[00:05:31] First, I'd like to start off by defining what opioids are and what fentanyl is. Opioids are a class of drugs that include legal pain relievers available by prescription, Oxycontin, Vicodin, Codeine, Morphine, and others, and illegal drugs like heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

[00:05:53] Synthetic means that it is made in a lab and has no natural properties. For example, morphine is derived from opium, which is made from unripened poppy seed pods. Substances that are man-made can be altered to be stronger than those that have a natural foundation.

[00:06:10] Fentanyl, which was first created in 1960, but was not approved for use until 1968. In addition to treating cancer patients, it is used in surgeries as it is very fast acting and is good at controlling pain during surgery.

[00:06:25] Some doctors use it for pain relief in an epidural during childbirth or for treating chronic pain in the form of a patch. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl, or IMF, is available on the drug market in different forms, including liquid and powder.

[00:06:43] Powdered fentanyl looks like many other drugs. It's commonly mixed with drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, and made into pills that are made to resemble other prescription opioids. Many people are unaware that their drugs are laced with fentanyl. Next slide.

[00:07:00] In December of 22, six out of the ten fake pressed pills contained potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. It's important to note that if pills are being obtained on the street or on the internet, The chances are very high that the pills are fake, and the person who is taking them now has a greater than 50% chance of dying if they take just one of the pills.

[00:07:27] Pressed pills are made in a way that does not create uniform distribution through all of the pills. So some of the batches may have no fentanyl, while others have a great deal. No one is regulating these pills in production, and there's no standard recipe for testing them.

[00:07:42] Virginia and our community have been impacted by this epidemic, and fentanyl has been now found in 50 states. Next slide. This table shows you that the number of fentanyl deaths is leading over suicide, COVID-19 deaths, and car accidents.

[00:08:02] The number of deaths from 2019 to 2021 almost doubled after COVID. If the rate of fentanyl doubles again in two years, more than 132,000 people will die in 2023. Next slide.

[00:08:21] Criminal drug networks are mass-producing these fake pills and falsely marketing them as authentic prescription pills. As stated previously, fake pills are widely available on the Internet and look just like prescription pills. At this time, I want to turn it over to Darren Madison, who will discuss factors related to use, what parents can do, and what we are doing as a community.

[00:08:47] - Thank you, Ms. Evans. Good evening, board members. Next slide, please. This is an illustration taken from the National Institute of Drug Abuse from their Monitoring the Future survey. It's a survey that's done nationwide.

[00:09:03] It's been conducted since 1975. This illustration shows the correlation between the perceived risk in drug use. So seeing that when perceived risk of harm is low, Generally, drug use increases when perceived risk of harm is high during drug use decreases.

[00:09:23] This is important to note because this really emphasizes the importance of education and prevention in changing the perception of the perceived risk. Typically, if we look at research, young people are not using with the intent just to harm themselves, but they're using because of peer pressure to connect with others, to cope with mental health symptoms, performance management experimentation to relieve boredom or to show their independence. Next slide, please. So what can we do as parents? It's important for as parents

[00:10:01] that we have open and honest communication with our children, explain what fentanyl is and why it's so dangerous, stress not to take pills that were not prescribed to you from a doctor, no purchase pill on social media is safe. Make sure that they know how fentanyl has been found and most illegal drugs and create an exit plan for your child so they know what to do when they're pressured to take a pill or use drugs.

[00:10:29] Next slide, please. This year, LCPS prevention intervention efforts, we've trained 920 staff on naloxone training. In addition, we have 19 student assistant specialists throughout our county.

[00:10:51] These student assistant specialists are master levels mental health professionals. Majority of them are licensed clinical professionals and they provide consultation, education, and interventions in our middle and high schools. Student leaders from our sources of strength and our positive experiences in educational relationships have been raising awareness by taking action in school and on social media.

[00:11:16] We've learned, we've leaned on a longstanding and new partnerships to increase our awareness. So this collaboration includes mental health and substance abuse developmental services, Loudoun County Sheriff's Department, our Leesburg Police Department, Loudoun Medical Group, and the Williams Center for Wellness and Recovery.

[00:11:34] Through these partnerships, we offered six fentanyl awareness events throughout our county for parents and the community, and we will continue moving forward. Next slide, please. So how does naloxone work?

[00:11:51] Naloxone, known to many as Narcan, when a person takes an opioid, that opioid binds to that receptor. So it fills the receptor. When too many of those receptors are filled, that's what causes an overdose.

[00:12:09] When naloxone is administered, it binds to the opioid receptor in the body. It removes the opioid filling of the receptor and the naloxone fills the receptor instead. This will reverse the effects of the opioid drug. It is important to note that when someone is revived with Narcan, they should be monitored for several hours in case the locks and wears off and that person should receive medical attention.

[00:12:34] The Department of Student Services wanted to ensure that staff across all levels were prepared to respond to an overdose emergency. Therefore, every campus has at least one administrator, nurse and SSO trained in distributing NARCAM and doses are available in our clinics.

[00:12:49] Additionally, our school SROs carry NARCAM on their person. Long County Mental Health and Substance Abuse Developmental Services and Prevention and Intervention staff provided this one-hour training with hands-on practice provided by one of our nurses and student health services.

[00:13:07] At the secondary level, we also expanded our training to our athletic directors, our athletic trainers, directors of school counseling, student services, student assistant specialists, our SSO's administrators, and as indicated earlier, 920 staff for training across our division.

[00:13:26] In addition, Naloxone is in all of our school buildings. Next slide, please. Our student assistance services provide a number of prevention and intervention services.

[00:13:42] In regard to prevention, we provide student classroom presentations at the middle and high school level. We provide parent, staff, and community presentations where there's parent coffee meetings, PTSO.

[00:13:58] We provide staff training for drug training awareness and fentanyl awareness in our schools. In addition, our sources of strength and our peer group provided fentanyl awareness campaigns in some of their schools. In addition, we also support our restorative practice circles in our tier one and tier two level.

[00:14:20] In regard to intervention, when the substance and drug and alcohol policy is violated, we provide nicotine education for students. our substance use education class, our school-based groups, which include pre-recovery groups for students who are actively using or have high risk factors for use, our recovery groups for students who have gone through treatment and are trying to maintain sobriety.

[00:14:46] We provide support for those students as well. And also our students who may be dealing with a family member or a loved one who's battling with addiction, we provide support groups for those students as well. We also have individual counseling for students and we support formal restorative conferencing that would be for tier three situations, which are very formal conferences for incidents where harm occurs.

[00:15:16] Next slide, please. So here are just some few examples of student leaders becoming involved in our prevention efforts. Broadwoods Peer and our Riverside SOS posted awareness information about fentanyl last week.

[00:15:33] Independence Peer posted flyers and visited Brampton Middle School students to discuss positive friendships, navigating challenging situations to alcohol and other drugs, and identifying trusted adults. At this time, I will turn it back over to Ms. Evans.

[00:15:51] Thank you. As Mr. Madison shared, this spring, in collaboration with our community partners who are here, we offered six fentanyl awareness events, reaching over 300 community members and parents. Those were at Parkview High School, Loudoun County High School, Woodgrove High School, John Champ High School, Independence, and Broad Run.

[00:16:10] I would like to take a moment to recognize our partners who are here and ask that following questions, they come up because we will be doing a photo. Rod Williams, if you could stand, Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Carol Currier, the Medical Director with the Williams Center for Wellness and Recovery.

[00:16:33] Andy Burke, Director of Marketing, and Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who I do not think is here, but he's the chairman at Loudoun Medical Group. Lieutenant Mike Safford from Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. Lieutenant Tom Mangle.

[00:16:52] Sergeant Brian Wacker. Sergeant Kevin O'Brien. Sergeant John Mosello from Leesburg Police. SRO Josh Carter with Leesburg Police Department as well.

[00:17:09] And then from Loudoun County Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Developmental Services,

[00:17:13] I'd like to thank Mary Jo Blair the senior manager of clinical outreach services and Melanie Myers the prevention program manager and their team who helped us with our trainings so if we could give everyone a round of applause and at this time I do want to open it up for questions board members and board members any questions for the team regarding the presentation or anything regarding LCPS is preparation for fentanyl awareness miss okay thank you chair not a question but just a thanks to

[00:17:58] everybody who came here. I also had the, I appreciated going to one of the events and hearing directly from all of you and the work that you're doing to support our community and appreciate your coming here this evening. It's a great opportunity for those families or community members who weren't able to go to one of the events to now have this memorialized on a recording on the website so that the information is more readily available. So So thank you for all of the work that you're doing together to support our community.

[00:18:32] Additional questions? Mr. Mahadmi. Thank you, Ms. Evans. So I guess coming back, I guess on the NARCAN, how many have we, since the beginning of the year, beginning of the school year until now, how many have we applied or used so far in the schools?

[00:18:50] Can you share some data for that? I don't have that data. Our student health services would have that, but we have administered it this year when students have suspected to overdose. And when I say overdose, it's an overdose emergency, not a death. I think people mix the two up quite often.

[00:19:06] And when they have been administered Narcan, they have been sent to seek medical care. And then at that time, we don't necessarily know if it was fentanyl or what was in their system because that's with the medical professionals, and parents don't often share that information.

[00:19:22] So they're suspected overdoses. Additional questions? Okay. At this time, we'll do a picture with our partners that are here tonight.

[00:19:38] I also want to recognize Major Tricarico for being here with the sheriff's office as well. So at this time, we'll come down from the dais and take a picture.

[00:21:57] At this time, we'll move to item 402, the 1LCPS 2027, Strategic Plan for Excellence, Goal 2 Update. I will turn it over to Dr. Ellis and team. Thank you.

[00:22:15] I will turn it over directly to the Goal 2 team. And I believe that Dr. Michelle Luttrell, principal at Loudoun County High School, will be kicking us off this evening. Welcome back.

[00:22:37] Good afternoon, Chair Sorotkin and school board members. We are delighted to be back in front of you this afternoon to share our progress on goal two of one LCPS strategic plan for excellence.

[00:22:58] My name is Michelle Luttrell. I'm the proud principal at Loudoun County High School. I'm joined this afternoon by Ray Mitchell, Chief of Schools, Lisa Bolin, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Tina Howell, Director of Professional Learning. You will notice that our presentation this afternoon aims to bring to life one LCPS, the goals and aligned actions.

[00:23:16] Accompanying information for this presentation has been uploaded to BoardDocs. Next slide, please. The main tenet of goal two is that LCPS teachers, administrators, and staff are the most important factor in helping our students after their parents.

[00:23:34] Seeing that staff are esteemed, exemplary, supported, and accountable is vital to student success. Next slide, please. Goal two has three aligned actions, as you can see illustrated on this slide. On the next slides, we will provide accomplishments and next steps for each aligned action, starting with ongoing growth and development.

[00:23:54] I will now turn it over to Ms. Mitchell to guide us through that work. - Thank you, good evening, board members. Next slide, please. So, Align Action 2.1 focuses on offering high-quality professional learning, coaching, mentorship, and leadership development, including emphasis on core academic excellence, special education, and English language learners.

[00:24:20] The strategies accompanying Align Action 2.1 are highlighted on this slide. Next slide, please. So this slide shows our baseline data. We will have updated data for these metrics available later in the summer and late fall.

[00:24:39] And for the stakeholder survey, we included a question on what topics of professional learning teachers feel that they need we have also collected data from teachers at the superintendent's advisory committee next slide please so for our office of professional learning we have focused on supporting beginning teachers experienced teachers and their growth teacher leaders new leaders and experienced leaders and for more detailed information about that i will turn it over to tina howell who is our director of professional learning good afternoon so next

[00:25:18] Next slide, please. In the summer of 2022, we welcomed approximately 200 beginning teachers to the annual Beginning Teacher Institute, which is a two-day induction event. Over the two days, new teachers learn knowledge and skills to start the year strong and be successful in their first year of teaching.

[00:25:40] BTI, as it's known, will be on August 9th and 10th of this upcoming year at Independence High School. Next slide, please. We are excited to introduce a new way to support beginning teachers for the 2023-2024 school year.

[00:26:02] The mentoring and coaching office is launching a beginning teacher cohort program as an additional layer of support for first year teachers. New teachers will engage in monthly professional learning focused on foundational skills. Novice teachers will be grouped into cohorts by position.

[00:26:21] Next slide please. This year we also offered a principal induction program for first and second year principals. The principal induction program was designed to provide guidance and support to first and second year principals through the initial period of adjustment as a beginning administrator and set the foundation for a long and rewarding career as a school leader.

[00:26:44] This year we had eight first year principals and seven second year principals. Next slide please. We also had an inaugural launching Leadership Conference on the evening of March 16th where over 350 participants ranging from teachers, school-based leaders, and central office staff attended. The purpose of this conference was for participants to learn skills and knowledge about best practices in leadership and becoming either a school-based or central office leader. Next slide please. This year over 30 teachers K

[00:27:23] through 12 met in a year-long cohort called Profile to Practice. The goal of this cohort was to create a community of teacher leaders committed to the work of deeper learning instructional practices in LCPS. Goal two includes both coaching and collaboration.

[00:27:42] Cognitive coaching is the coaching model we use to build capacity within staff members. Adaptive schools is what we use to support teams and teachers in learning how to collaborate effectively. Over 350 staff members took either Adaptive Schools Foundation or Adaptive Schools Advanced or Cognitive Coaching Foundation, or Cognitive Coaching Advanced.

[00:28:05] And we will continue to offer these workshops next year. Next slide, please. We are developing and will offer two new leadership opportunities next year. First, we will offer an Aspiring Principals Cohort, which is a year-long cohort to support current assistant principals to develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies to ascend to the role of principal in LCPS.

[00:28:28] We will also offer an Aspiring Administrator Academy, which is a year-long academy for teachers interested in becoming an administrator in Loudoun County Public Schools. Participants will attend monthly professional learning after school focused on leadership development skills aligned to VDOE performance standards.

[00:28:47] Next slide please. In August of last year almost 650 administrators attended ALT. The annual Administrative Leadership Team Conference held at the beginning of August to kick off our school year with all our administrators.

[00:29:04] Our keynote speakers were our very own students talking about how LCPS has engaged enriched and empowered them. We had 89 distinct session proposals which translated to about 240 sessions with repetitions over the two days. This year Alt is August 1st and 2nd at Briar Woods High School. Next slide please. We are very excited to bring back our annual event to welcome our newest educators to LCPS. Formerly known as NEO and now known as Welcome One LCPS.

[00:29:42] We will welcome approximately 600 new educators to this event on the morning of August 11th at Independence High School. And that concludes our update on goal 2.1 and I will now turn it over to Dr. Luttrell who will give an update on goal 2.2.

[00:30:03] - Aligned Action 2.2 states that we will develop dedicated resources to connect and align staff across the division to ensure schools offer equitable opportunities for all students The strategies focus on highly effective collaborative teams, establishing standing operating procedures, and connecting and aligning school leaders to strengthen quality instruction across Lyman County Public Schools.

[00:30:26] For this afternoon, we will focus on the work of staff in the collaborative learning team structure. Next slide, please. We are holding firm on 2.2A and 2.2C as data will be available in August. We do, however, have baseline data for 2.2 , increasing the percentage of teachers who have CLT time built into their schedule.

[00:30:50] We have strong baseline percentages at each level: elementary and high school at 94% and middle school at 100% for their core teachers. It is important to note that providing common planning for all teachers for every class they teach is challenging due to the complexities of creating a master schedule, while balancing the number of preps a teacher is assigned yearly. For example, at the high school level, a teaching assignment for the school year could be three academic English 11 and two English 10 honors classes. That teacher would very likely serve on both collaborative learning teams for

[00:31:28] those two courses with their peers who teach the same content. However, there are teachers who are the sole instructor for certain courses, we call those singleton classes, and also colleagues who support our students receiving EL services and special education services.

[00:31:44] Those teachers possibly carry a diverse course load supporting multiple teachers over multiple disciplines of study. And please keep in mind that the high school level teachers carry a five course load and often have a duty block which leaves two blocks for their work on collaborative teams. So we're again trying to navigate the complexities of the schedule while also ensuring that they have the opportunity to to plan with their colleagues next slide please in 1965 bruce tuchman an educational psychologist created this model of group formation to capture the phases that

[00:32:23] groups need to go through to grow as a team they represent the necessary and inevitable changes stages from facing challenges tackling problems finding solutions and planning work to ultimately delivering results as a team it is important to realize that the work of clts can be complex It is not necessarily in a linear fashion as this model might suggest.

[00:32:47] Teams move in a fluid manner throughout the various stages of development as they work together to ensure that all students learn at high levels. Forming and maintaining highly effective CLTs takes time and the establishment of trust and collaboration, both of which we will monitor over time as part of 2.2A, increasing the percentage of positive responses to questions about staff collegiality on the annual stakeholder survey.

[00:33:13] Next slide, please. Before we play this video, just a few remarks. We believe it is important for you to hear from the teachers to learn about their experiences and involvement with the collaborative learning team structure. In partnership with the communications office, we have created a video showcasing the perspectives of teachers from Loudoun County High School regarding their work with their respective CLTs.

[00:33:35] These perspectives include educators with experience with special education, that of a first-year teacher, a career switcher, veteran teachers, core content area teachers, and elective course teachers. To tell their story, we ask them to speak to three things, what they like about the structure, what supports they might need to support their work in that structure, and what challenges they might experience in the CLT structure. This time, if you could, please play the video.

[00:34:37] The first one is really just open-mindedness, and that's not just like with the people you're working with, but also like it's for your students' goals and expectations. Coming in, everyone's going to have their own motives and goals they want to accomplish, but I think having an open mind, listening to others, being able to come together and find some good strategies and good things to implement with your students to be successful I think is really important. The second one I think is going to be a good understanding of you and the other people you work with, being able to know like what motivates them, what they want to see in their individual classes as well department as a whole. And I think the final thing is good administrative support, because that not

[00:35:12] only is going to reinforce what you're doing, but also what everyone in your CLT is doing and really make them feel good and confident about what they're doing. In order for a CLT to perform at a high level, I think they have to have structure. Starting with structure really helps know what are we trying to accomplish. And from there, we can build goals to know how are we going to help students? What are we driving towards? And so I think that structure is the first and a key

[00:35:41] component of a successful CLT. I think one of the benefits of the CLT is the old expression that many hands make light work. We are able to look at a problem or an assignment holistically and where we want to go to and how do we want to get that across to the students and each one of us can then take a piece of that to work on, develop, bring back together as a group, and then assemble

[00:36:14] the pieces to make one larger, more valuable assignment or lesson. I think that's a great aspect of the CLT. The thing that I would say the most is we have a high level of confidence in each other. I can trust my teammates to do what we're being tasked to do with a high degree of proficiency. Our team really invested an inordinate amount of time focusing on these new writing skills that we've had and the evidences that we have presented them uniformly and are

[00:36:50] assessing them in a standardized fashion, which is very complicated. And proof is in the pudding. We've got a lot of great results from our team. So there's a couple of challenges, but everything can be overcome when you're working in a CLT.

[00:37:12] One of the main things is that as a CTE department, again, you're teaching those singleton classes. I teach one class, and then the members of my CLT teach us completely different classes. So you have to be able to create a way to collect the data, review that data, to then in turn increase your student learning.

[00:37:32] So the beauty about that is you're coming together with your peers, and it's easily solved. In our department, we've been able to accomplish that by creating a common rubric that we are able to use with all of our students in the marketing department to review and provide feedback on student presentation abilities and skills.

[00:37:52] That then in turn increases their ability to communicate and their leadership skills long term once they leave us in high school. So while it may be a challenge initially, it's easily solved and something that's been really exciting to see progress throughout the year.

[00:38:09] One of the challenges is getting teachers to believe that if they do this, it'll be better. They don't always, aren't always convinced of that. In the end, it's been my experience.

[00:38:25] I'm much better now. And I've been teaching for a long time. I'm better now than I've ever been because of my CLT people. The folks I have in there, the ideas that they share, I think I've been around seeing everything all the time, but I'm always getting something new.

[00:38:45] I'm always tweaking what I'm doing and sharing ideas and getting ideas. But again, I've got to be willing to give up some of that power and control. We will continue to provide context and additional information about the CLT structure, along with evidence of our growth over time with that structure at all levels.

[00:39:10] I will now turn this over to Ms. Boland to guide us through Aligned Action 2.3. Good evening. Aligned Action 2.3 states that LCPS will serve as an employer of choice committed to recruiting, developing, supporting, and retaining top diverse talent while also offering competitive salaries and benefits to staff.

[00:39:36] The strategies focus on creating a sought-after organization where employees are excited to come to work, will refer their highly qualified friends to work, and are motivated to remain employed with LCPS increasing employee retention. Next slide. Aligned Action 2.3 has seven metrics associated with it. Data for four of those metrics centered on recruitment and retention are captured on this slide. As you can see, new data is not yet available. LCPS's hiring cycle runs from

[00:40:12] October 1st through September 30th. Therefore, updated data for these metrics will be available once the season ends early in the 23-24 school year. Next slide. As is in the previous slide, there are two data points, 2.3E and 2.3G, for which we will receive updated data early in the 23-24 school year. However, we have updated data for 2.3F teacher compensation and that is provided

[00:40:46] on this slide. It highlights our need to continue to focus on our experienced educators in their mid and tenured levels of their career. More work will need to be done to support this change and includes collaboration between HRTD and business and finance in the upcoming fiscal year 25 budget process. This is, however, a baseline year for all other positions found on the universal and auxiliary salary scales. In the next several slides, I will highlight some of the work we are currently doing to ensure that LCPS is the employer of choice and action we are taking to

[00:41:26] recruit, develop, support, and retain exemplary employees. Next slide. LCPS is committed to continuous improvement of processes and practices that will help make staffing seamless for recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates and ensure LSCPS is the employer of choice.

[00:41:51] Two such tools include marketing one-pagers targeted at various levels within a prospect's career cycle, entry level, mid-level, and tenured level, and electronic total compensation offer letters, which highlight potential compensation outside of salary alone. These tools aid principals, hiring managers, and recruiters with communicating LCPS benefits and compensation packages to prospective employees consistently, even in a grab-and-go recruitment fair type

[00:42:27] environment. They allow for an opportunity to quickly highlight what we can offer and could ultimately entice highly qualified candidates to choose to join our one LCPS team. Next slide. Over the past nine months, we have collaborated with various departments within the division and created many new resources to highlight the benefits of working for Loudoun County Public Schools. This includes capturing testimonials from current employees as to why they chose LCPS.

[00:43:02] This evening, I will share with you two short video clips highlighting two new teachers recruited from Longwood University and James Madison University. I would, however, encourage you to view all of the available videos when you have a few moments.

[00:43:19] These videos and other recruitment resources are available on the LCPS Careers page and can be shared with candidates throughout the hiring process. Please share the video. Hi, my name is Ashley Ferguson. I am a graduate from Longwood University and I am a first grade teacher here at Liberty Elementary School. I chose to work for Loudoun County Public Schools because I grew up in the county and I had nothing but positive experiences here growing up. My mom is also a first grade teacher here in Loudoun and it's just been really cool to see it come full

[00:43:55] circle. I honestly enjoy my school and my teammates the most. We are very collaborative. We're very supportive of one another. Our principal and administration team has helped us in more ways than I'm thankful for. So just being able to work at the school I'm at has been a blessing.

[00:44:14] What enticed me to work for Loudoun County Public Schools is all of the technology and different ways that students are able to enhance their learning. So all the students are given Chromebooks, and they're able to take them home with them each night and bring them to school with them each day. So it's really been given us a lot of opportunities, and the students lots of opportunities.

[00:44:31] Hansler Learning. We are one LCPS. Please go to the next slide and play that video. I am a graduate from Longwood. Hello, my name is Dante Harris. I'm a graduate from James Madison University.

[00:44:58] I teach health and physical education here at Parkview High School. And why I chose Loudoun County Public Schools is the diversity here. I'm able to interact with children of different cultures different backgrounds and I'm able to find out what is special about each person here at Parkview High School. What I enjoy the most about working for LCPS is the interaction with my co-workers with the students and with the administration here. I feel very valued here I feel like I have a role in this community and I feel like I can make my biggest impact here in Loudoun

[00:45:33] County Public Schools. We are one LCPS. My name is Dante Harris. Those are two of the many videos, so I would encourage you to take a few minutes to watch the others when you have time.

[00:45:54] In our efforts to implement intentional, logistical, and operational onboarding processes to ensure all new staff are set up for success, HRTD has hired a part-time onboarding assistant. We recognize that some candidates need more assistance in this process, while others may simply need reminders.

[00:46:16] So the part-time onboarding assistant is available to assist new hires both in person and virtually. The goal of this additional resource is to shorten the onboarding time from when a candidate accepts a job offer to their completion of the new hire paperwork and ultimately to when they start in the position, alleviating unnecessary stress for hiring managers.

[00:46:40] The onboarding assistant is located in the LCPS administration building on select days each week and is available to assist new hires in person, via phone, or video conference. The onboarding assistant also assists in the process by contacting candidates who are not completing the new hire checklist in a timely manner to offer assistance and support and confirm their continued interest in the position.

[00:47:05] Next slide, please. Our commitment to recruit and retain top talent requires a focus on the development of our own employees. The Talent and Development Office within HRTD provides for an opportunity to grow our exemplary employees into leaders, preparing them for the next level of their professional career with LCPS. The Support Services Leadership Academy, which had not been hosted for several years, kicked off its revival on April 25, 2023.

[00:47:39] This academy focuses on leadership, communication, the difference in being a manager versus a leader, decision-making, team-building, conflict resolution, giving feedback, and appreciation. This session's four-day training experience included custodians, bus drivers, and employees from facilities, construction, environmental health and safety, management and coordination, the distribution center, operations, planning and GIS services, and other support services positions.

[00:48:13] HRTD hopes to not only continue this program, but to expand it in the future. Next slide, please. To further highlight our commitment to grow our own, the division has partnered with the James Madison University School of Education for a Grow Your Own Teacher Residency Program.

[00:48:32] This program allows current LCPS teacher assistants with a bachelor's degree to apply to a program and, if accepted, to work their way to licensure, fulfilling the professional studies of the licensure requirements in three years, all while working as a paid classroom teacher. The Grow Your Own program provides pedagogy, mentoring, and coaching support from LCPS and JMU staff in both in-person and virtual settings. Most importantly, the program is fully

[00:49:06] funded by a grant secured by JMU for this partnership. LCPS was provided 40 slots for this program. Information sessions were held in late fall of 2022 and LCPS received 83 applications.

[00:49:24] All applicants were interviewed and selected candidates were notified in February. The program boot camp and student teaching will begin this summer and we are excited about this program and the opportunity to expand this partnership with JMU in the future. Next slide. This concludes our presentation this evening and we will gladly answer any questions you may have.

[00:49:53] - Thank you very much for the update. Board members, any questions regarding goal two? I have one on the cohorts, the different cohorts that were mentioned as part of 2.1.

[00:50:08] So I'd like to understand more about how those cohorts are put together or how staff members get involved in them. Some of them I think are self-explanatory, new principal cohort, I'm guessing that's all the new principals, but something like the deeper learning teacher community, how do teachers find out about that?

[00:50:25] How do they sign up for it? How does it work? Last spring, we advertised for that quite extensively. And teachers applied and were interviewed and were accepted into that. We worked with principals to get recommendations as well.

[00:50:43] It also required some time out of their buildings, so we got approval from principals with that as well. Thank you. Additional questions? Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I can't read the page. Page number eight, I think it talks about the beginning teacher cohort program.

[00:51:04] Again, this is great, I mean, I think to acknowledge and to build relationships with the new teachers that are coming in. So how many years, or is it one year program, or is it as long as a teacher needs to be there? You know, what's the length of the program?

[00:51:20] Because one feedback we hear, we have a program where the teachers come in, you provide support, mentorship, and then they kind of move to second year, and then there's not any more. So is this program, or some version of this program would be where the beginning teachers and new teachers coming into LCPS can have a support more than one year?

[00:51:42] So for right now, this beginning teacher cohort is just for first-year teachers. This will be our first year doing this. I have actually designed programs like this previously, and we eventually built a second-year program, and then we even built a program for experienced teachers new to Loudoun.

[00:52:00] So our hope is we can expand these programs in the future. All beginning teachers, though, do also get a mentor, and that mentor supports them for the first three years. So I think as we talk about, teacher credit program is very popular.

[00:52:24] I've actually, a couple of houses I went through recently, and they both were excited that the kids are going to come back. I think one from Longwood and one from James Madison. Believe it or not, I think you have in your videos. So I think it's very well liked. I think kids want to come back.

[00:52:40] And so has we seen the trend this year also increasing in terms of more students opting or looking to join the cadet program? I don't know if I have the answer to that question, but we can certainly get it for you.

[00:53:00] Additional questions? Ms. Okudekte. So I apologize if there's a little bit of disruption while I was whispering, but we do have one teacher cadet with us up here this week and at our last meeting. I have had the pleasure of speaking with Ashley Coffo, who's here with Heritage High School, and she's been a teacher cadet who will be attending JMU in the fall and just has a lot of enthusiasm for teaching, so one of the perks of getting to know the students that join us here, so I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation and full circle moment.

[00:53:35] I'm sitting next to somebody who could potentially be someone you're recruiting in a couple of years. So thank you. Ms. Caffo. I have my letter of intent signing ceremony on Friday, so I'm very excited.

[00:53:50] I am signing. So, yes, I do plan to come back to Loudoun to teach, so I'm very excited for that. That's awesome. Congratulations. Additional questions? Okay, thank you again for the update.

[00:54:07] Looking to see you back again in a couple months. We'll now move to 403 from the Department of Student Services, FY24,

[00:54:21] special education staffing update and then over to dr jones and miss willoughby good afternoon again and thank you for the opportunity for the team to provide an update on the fy24 special education staffing standard allocation and assignment of positions special education teacher

[00:55:01] teacher assistant related services and other positions that support special education are allocated based upon the adopted LCPS staffing standards and established procedures for assigning staff. The LCPS staffing standard for special education instructional positions are established to comply with the regulations governing special education programs for children with disabilities in Virginia. Each year, the business and financial services budget team works in conjunction with the Office for Special Education team to review the staffing standards and

[00:55:37] calculate the number of FTEs needed for the upcoming school year. This calculation is based upon student enrollment projections. So with us this afternoon is Mrs. Willoughby, Chief Financial Officer, also our Budget Director, Mr. Casey Jones, and Mrs. Richardson, the Director for Special Education. We will share information regarding the budget budget projection process the staffing standards and how the staffing standards are applied for allocations and so with that I will pass it on to mrs. Willoughby thank you so building on what

[00:56:16] dr. Jones said there's really two roles that I wanted to share with you and one is going to be what I call the calculator and then the allocator and so the budget team each year as part of the budget process works with all the departments regarding calculating what the staffing standards are going to be and what the resulting FTEs are. Then in terms of the allocator then the departments receive those FTEs and then they allocate those positions to the school. So specifically you know this past fall the budget worked in conjunction with the SPED team to review the staffing standard and calculated how many FTEs we thought were going to be needed based on enrollment projections

[00:56:56] and other information to arrive at the total number of positions for the upcoming school year next slide and one more so first though I want to start off by saying that I am positive that our enrollment projection is not going to be right it is a an estimate it's it's a informed guess but at the end of the day more than likely it's either going to be over or under and so I think that's a really important concept to remember as we go through this presentation I also

[00:57:33] I also wanted to highlight four items that you're going to hear me provide additional information as I go through the presentation. The first one is going to be going to provide information about how we re-leveled the special education enrollment projection to address where we had been consistently over projecting.

[00:57:50] The second item is going to share information regarding a distinct historical growth pattern that the special education enrollment experiences during the school year, as well as provide information on timing of the enrollment projection as it relates to the budget process and then specifically for the FY 24 budget how this school year's growth has increased to pre-COVID levels after the enrollment projection was complete for FY 24 next slide so starting with the enrollment re-leveling on this slide you will see where the enrollment has been re-leveled similar to what recur

[00:58:30] occurred for this school year with the division-wide enrollment the last two budget years the division-wide enrollment had been over projected as we kept expecting the students to return from COVID. After two years the division-wide enrollment was re-leveled for this school year FY23. The special education enrollment though was not adjusted as we waited for one more year data to try and see a pattern as well as realizing that COVID may impact the student group differently. Finally though for the upcoming 2024 school year the enrollment was re-leveled to 96-65 and so what this chart is displaying is in

[00:59:06] And the blue line on top is the actual projection or the budgeted number of students that we were expecting on the last day of school. And then the red line is the actual reported number to the state of the last day of school enrollment.

[00:59:21] And so you can see how there has historically been, we had been over projecting. And again, as I said, we're going to either be under or over. So we had been consistently over projecting. And so we were using this opportunity for FY24 to re-level, and that's why the enrollment was brought down to 96.65 for the upcoming school year.

[00:59:46] Next slide. Also supporting the re-leveling was COVID's impact. And so this is a line chart that is showing each fiscal year and the growth that occurs during the school year. So you have on the bottom the fall number all the way up to the last day of school number.

[01:00:07] then along the vertical axis you're going to see the fiscal years of 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. You can see how each fiscal year the special education enrollment is also progressively increasing year over year. But between 18 and 19 you see there's a jump. It goes up to 20 and then you can see COVID's impact because then 21 and 22 drops back down. So this was also other information that we were using to help inform our decision in terms of how to re-level the special education

[01:00:40] enrollment projection. So the second item that I said I was going to highlight is the actual growth pattern of the special education enrollment group. So this is a line chart that is showing the historic actual pattern from fall of 2013 through fall of this past fall, 2022. That's what's shown with the blue line the orange line towards the right is the projected fy 23 and 24 numbers

[01:01:13] and then the gray is the revised projection for fy 23 and 24 and so what this is showing is how you'll see how if you kind of look at the general trend it's almost like a roller coaster it climbs and then there's our dip there's a climb and then there's a dip there's a climb and there's is a dip that is what consistently is happening and that dip is what's so as part of that roller coaster the growth the climb is what's happening during the school year so from the first day of school through the end of school the last day of school the enrollment is growing and that's just the nature of

[01:01:50] the special education program they're identifying students students are being recommended for services are being identified so that enrollment grows then there is a dip that historically occurs from the last day of school to the following first day of school and that's where you have the kids that are graduating that are maybe moving out and then we start this process all over of re-identifying kids the following school year next slide so to really highlight this whereas that previous slide showed multiple years this is showing an

[01:02:27] example of that of that dip that occurs at the end of each school year to the beginning of the following school year and so what's being represented here is the bottom line in red is the last school year FY 22 so you can see where they started the school year with nine thousand and two students and these are actual numbers as reported to the state and they ended the last day of school last year with nine thousand three hundred and ninety nine students we then started school this fall with nine thousand one hundred and seventy three And that's what's shown with the red dotted line, how we dip below, and then we climb again.

[01:03:04] And what we have projected currently is a revised projection of ending this school year at 9912, 9,912 students. So again, this is just trying to highlight that there's growth, and then there's a dip, there's growth, and then there's a dip.

[01:03:20] And then that just repeats. Next slide. So the enrollment projection methodology that the budget team uses is analysis and projection on four data points.

[01:03:39] And so we use the data that's reported to the state on the student record count, or what we call the SRC. So the first one is going to be the fall SRC count, and that's the report as of September 30th. And I'm sure you're familiar, that's the big date that we also are waiting on for the division-wide enrollment.

[01:03:57] but that's a key factor then there's another report in December there's the December 1 SRC count and that is specific for special education then there's a March or the spring SRC and that's a count as of March 31st and then the fourth and final data point is the end of year SRC which is the count as of the last school day so those are our sources of information we have historical information going back to FY14 I believe is our span of data.

[01:04:32] So we do analysis based on the changes that occurred during the school year as well as year over year. And so during the school year we're looking at the change of how does the enrollment change from fall to December? How does it change December to March?

[01:04:48] How does it change March to end of year? We're looking at each segment's growth pattern as well as how that growth has occurred over the fiscal year. then we're also looking at year-over-year changes so we're looking out okay what does the last day of school this year look like last year's last day of school so you know we are we're flipping the data multiple ways analyzing it looking for trends and patterns to arrive at what the last day of school next year's projected enrollment would be and this is key because we use that enrollment number because that would be the highest enrollment number that we use and we use that because it is the highest

[01:05:25] enrollment number to staff for now what's important with this too and I'll mention this probably multiple times this is occurring in the fall whenever we start this projection process and preparing the budget and we are basically trying to estimate for a point in time two years out because we're looking at the it last day of school for next year and we're at the beginning of school this year so that just helps to hopefully explain some of the complexity I also want to share that there's what I would call there's a math piece and an art piece to the projection process the math is going to be from the calculations

[01:06:03] based on the historical data and the four data points as I described as well as eligibility trends the SPED team will also share data regarding eligibility information of students coming through the pipeline so we do calculations based on those data sets those data though in trends are then combined with what I would call the art piece which is going to be those influencing factors that is outside the data and examples of that could be there could be a policy or a practice change a perfect example would be kovat you know that's not something we could necessarily project for another piece of

[01:06:42] information that wasn't taken into effect but was shared recently during a meeting was in April there was information published that showed that the incidence of autism had increased nationwide that would be something that that we would want to take into consideration of the projections.

[01:07:02] Next slide. So the third piece that I said I wanted to highlight was also the timing. So on this slide, this shows the budget process as it relates to the enrollment projection and staffing standards. So as I had mentioned, we used the September 30 fall SRC count to kick off our enrollment projection process.

[01:07:25] So October through November, we are looking at the numbers. We're doing analysis on the historical growth patterns to again project that last day of school for the next school year. We'll then arrive at a growth factor from all this analysis that we apply to a current snapshot of special ed students by school and then we apply the staffing standards to calculate the number of FTEs.

[01:07:52] In conjunction to this, the special education office also provides a projected number of programs to the budget team to assist with determining how many FTEs to calculate to staff programs, because programs, as you'll see in an upcoming slide, are staffed differently.

[01:08:09] We then continue with the budget process, and then our second data point happens to come up right before we're trying to finalize the budget, which is the December 1 SRC count. And so we will look, we will take that opportunity to review the December 1 count to see if there's any substantial changes that we should adjust our enrollment projection and impact to staffing so we get one more chance of having an actual data point to to help influence our projection and then finally we wrap everything up in January when the superintendent is going would present the estimate of needs budget to

[01:08:44] the school board that would include any resulting of TEs slide the fourth enrollment projection highlight was discussing how the growth has increased this spring after the enrollment projections were complete and the budget was submitted and so originally the FY24 projections had showed growth slowing down between December and the end of the year and not that the growth was declining or going you know decreasing just that the pace of the

[01:09:22] growth was slowing down based on our original projections however after the projections were complete for FY24 we are seeing that the enrollment growth is increasing faster than expected after December. So on this line chart you see the historical percentage rate of growth from December through the end of the year for each fiscal year and then you see that for FY23 for this current fiscal year we had originally assumed a 4% growth between December and end of year and now based on updated data we have revised that growth pattern to be

[01:10:02] four point nine percent and again so what's important about this we're done with the budget we've presented in January in a truly from January to where we're at today that we have seen an increase in the number of students being identified next slide so now I want to share some information as relates to the special education staffing standard I'm going to look at two positions the teacher and then the the teacher assistant slash behave for your assistant. I'll also just share that the staffing standards are in the appendix of our budget

[01:10:38] book, which we have published online. Next slide. So the special education teacher staffing standard. The box on top is the standard, and there are four buckets that we are using to arrive at the total special education teacher count each school year. The first one is the cross-categorical students, where we're taking the enrollment projection and all the information i shared with you with the other slides we're projecting forward and then the calculation is one

[01:11:17] teacher per 10 students it's important to note that this is a division-wide average like a general education teacher ratios so for example for the middle school level we budget a ratio of 23.7 but we may have some classes that are over that some are under it's not presented to be a cap but more as a division-wide average programs as i mentioned earlier those are staffed at one teacher per program and then the number of students though can range depending on the type of program so some programs may only have six students and some should only have up to 12 like there's a

[01:11:56] range again depending on the type of program so we calculate those two factors and then we add on there's two additional special education teachers added on for parent resource and then there's four to support the academies and those are allocated one teacher per grade level so those four buckets arrive at our total number of teachers so for this school year that resulted in 1,008 teachers and we had used a projected enrollment of 10,033 students now you may recall on the previous slide so we had a revised

[01:12:33] projection where we have now revised that to 9912 in addition to what the staffing standard um calculates we had 16 teachers that were temporarily allocated out of covid relief funds that were above the staffing standard of those 16 six were to support virtual elementary and then on top of that as well we have 3.5 teachers allocated for the virtual secondary distance learning that is also above the staffing standard for next year's budget we had allocated

[01:13:11] or arrived at or calculated I should say a thousand of four teachers for the projected last day of school and at that time our projection for enrollment was ninety six sixty five and then on top of that we have three point five allocated for virtual secondary distance learning that is above the staffing standard what was removed were the temporary positions as it related to the COVID relief funding next slide similarly with the TA and BA we have three areas that total up

[01:13:51] to the total number of positions so we're looking at a ratio of one per 14 students for the cross categorical students programs are staffed at a ratio of one to three TAs or BAs and it depends on the type of program so one program may only need one TA but we can have other programs that require three be TAs and then similarly the students range from 6 to 10 depending on the program and then also at the academies there's one SPED TA per grade level so there are four supporting the academies this arrives out for this school year

[01:14:30] 1,018 SPED TABAs and then on top of that we had eight that were temporarily allocated out of COVID relief funds above the staffing standard for next year, the number actually increases to 1039. So even though we had an overall enrollment decrease, the number of programs and the type of the programs are increasing for FY24. So

[01:14:57] that's why the TABA number actually increases. Next slide. So if the increase that we are currently seeing that has happened this spring is a new pattern, then we have a plan to address any enrollment fluctuations. And so what this chart is showing, I'm sorry, what this slide is showing you'll see that the table on the left that we are looking solely at the cross categorical

[01:15:30] enrollment only so when we created the budget for this current year we were projecting 7319 cross cat students our revised projection is 7174 and then for next year our budget was 7010 crosscast students and that has been revised to 7 280. now it's important to again remember that this is an estimate for the last day of school next year we may below we may be below

[01:16:08] this number we may be above this number but one scenario would be that if with this revised projection for fy24 that would result in about 270 additional crosscast students and that would result in 27 additional teachers and 6.4 tas based on the staffing standard so strategies that we have identified to address if the actual enrollment exceeds the projection is going to be that the student services department does have 13 contingency ftes budgeted for fy24 you will you've also heard

[01:16:46] about and will hear from miss richardson about the temporary staffing we have budgeted for this year using the covet funds and how we held those positions harmless for fy 24 so that meaning that if those positions carry over into the next school year we recognize how difficult it would be to fill those positions so we only removed the vacant ones then if a position was to become vacant though in the upcoming school year we would review the situation to determine if the position should be restaffed based on the staffing standard and then if not then we would move that position

[01:17:22] into contingency to help address the potential that we may have under projected then the third area is that there's also contingency ftes in the department of instruction and then of course we can also always ask for supplemental ftes if warranted so i just want to highlight that it's not that we have a brick wall in front of us you know we have options moving forward and it's just a matter of trying to determine is if this spring increase is it a new trend are we really returning back to

[01:17:58] to a pre-covid growth or is it an anomaly and we just need more data to see but regardless we have a plan to address it if the the actual projection or actual enrollment does start coming in higher for next school year the last point that i want to highlight which is up in the right corner is is that we can't ignore the vacancies and the challenge that it has, not just for the school division, but also for the special education program.

[01:18:29] Hypothetically, we could add 100 positions, and it's not so much about the positions, it's about finding the teachers to fill the positions. And so you can see how, as of April 14th, that we had 34.3 vacant special education teachers.

[01:18:46] And that's, I mean, that's not a small number. So it really highlights how difficult it is to staff and that, again, there's two components. There's the position piece, but there's also our ability to fill those positions and maintain.

[01:19:02] And so with that, now I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Richardson to talk about the allocation. Thank you, Mrs. Willoughby. Over the course of the next several slides, I will share the experience of what it is like as the Office of Special Education to move through the staffing process for the upcoming school year.

[01:19:21] Next slide. To begin, I'd like to remind the board and the viewing audience of what cross-categorical services are. They are targeted services to serve students with higher incidence disabilities. Even within that population of students, students can receive a level 1 of service, which is anywhere from 1% to 49%, or level 2 services, which is 50% to 100% of specially designed instruction.

[01:19:51] Cross-categorical staffing in LCPS is one special education teacher to every 10 eligible students and one special education teacher assistant to every 14 eligible students. Next slide. Here's what the process feels like in the Office of Special Education.

[01:20:10] As Mrs. Willoughby has shared, in the fall of each year, we move through the budget process. We provide projected needs for our specialized programs for staffing enhancements and new initiatives. We also have the opportunity at the same time to be moving through our December 1st child counts.

[01:20:30] And as Mrs. Willoughby has referenced, that is a point of reference that informs the budgeting process. Once the adopted staffing standards are approved by the board, cross-categorical and specialized program allocations are then received by our office, and that's when we begin the work of reviewing the actual student data school by school. Once the allocation is done in real time, we begin to really, it's a daily effort to look at the growing numbers, as Mrs. Willoughby has

[01:21:06] referenced, and as is referenced in our data from past years. We have growth over the second semester, typically from January throughout the end of the school year. And so we work with each individual school to review their actual student count and make adjustments as necessary. Next slide. Here's a comparison of the current year, FY23, and how we moved in through the planning process for FY24. As previously shared, the projected child count for this year is 10,033

[01:21:45] students with 7,319 of those students being eligible for cross-categorical services that generated an allocation of 732 cross-cat positions with our additional COVID relief funding positions on top of that allocation. We also have been working moving through the school year with 593 TA positions the allocations come to us with a straight sort of you know it's your total of

[01:22:17] seven of 7,319 that's divided by 10 and so the allocations do come to us in decimal points by by by schools our office runs that information in relationship to the real numbers and if you're 0.0 to 0.4, we round down to the nearest whole number. 0.5 to 0.9, we round up to the nearest whole number. What is different for the current school year is that we did have additional COVID relief funds, which generated additional positions that were allocated to some of our schools.

[01:22:56] The factors that were included and reviewed by the Office of Special Education in planning for this current school year were certainly a review of specialized programs and what the impact of inclusive practices are across the schools to be able to support all of our learners.

[01:23:14] As we look forward to FY24, our projected child count is 9,665 students, of which 7,010 are eligible for cross-categorical services. That generates an overall allocation of 701 cross-categorical teaching positions and 564 teacher assistant positions. Again, we rounded down if your allocation was 0.0 to 0.4 and we rounded up to 0.5 and 0.9. The difference going

[01:23:51] into FY24 is that we no longer have access to COVID relief funds. Next slide. I draw your attention to our overview of FY24 SPED staffing. If you could look at the teacher for special education you will see that we have the 10 whole harmless positions and then through the re-leveling of the staffing standard we are looking at a minus 14 special education teachers. I then draw your attention to the TABA special education line. We had eight whole harmless positions but because

[01:24:29] we have added additional specialized programs to our schools. We are plus 13 positions in that category. Next slide. Here's an example of how the COVID relief funds in FY23 were able to impact our planning and support to schools versus how we have had to move through the process for FY24 without the access of COVID relief funds.

[01:24:59] You will see School A is an example. FY23, a child count of 41 students. The teacher allocation was five. Teacher assistant allocation was three. For FY24, the same school, should they not have experienced any growth, still sitting at 41 students would have an allocation of four teachers and three teacher assistants.

[01:25:22] School B in FY23, sitting at 45 students had a teacher allocation of five, thus we would round up since it's 45, it's five or higher, and then a teacher assistance allocation of three.

[01:25:39] For FY24, School B has experienced some growth sitting at 55 students. They would get a teacher allocation of six and a teacher assistant allocation of four. Next slide. Here's an overview of our staffing standards for specialized programs and related services our LCPS staffing standard for special education teacher caseloads is in cross-categorical services one to ten specialized programs The one to six ratio is for our intensive Programs for students with autism and emotional disabilities

[01:26:19] Our staffing ratio of one to eight is across our self-contained specialized programs And our staffing ratio of 1 to 12 is for early childhood special education resource programming. The Virginia Department of Education staffing standard for special education teacher caseloads is level 1, which is 24 points, which could be the equivalent of 24 students, or level 1 and level 2, which is a combined model for a total of 20 points.

[01:26:52] Speech-language pathology caseloads in LCPS are 1 to 55. The Virginia Department of Education has published through their speech-language pathology services in schools guidelines for best practice, a staffing standard of 1 to 68 for speech-language pathologists.

[01:27:12] In LCPS, for occupational therapy caseloads, staffing ratio is 1 to 40 students. The Virginia Department of Education does not have a staffing standard for occupational therapists. And for physical therapists, our LCPS staffing standard is 1 to 30.

[01:27:29] And again, the Virginia Department of Education does not have a staffing standard for physical therapies. But they do have a handbook for occupational and physical therapy in Virginia public schools, which references a model of caseload versus workload, but it does not prescribe a defined caseload. Next slide. Now we turn it over for questions. Thank you very much for the detailed dive into the special education budget and staffing standards. Board members,

[01:28:06] questions regarding the presentation? Ms. Reeser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much for the presentation. I saw some information about the hearing itinerant teacher, and as you're talking about the staffing standards could you speak to how you do the calculations when there's a blend of itinerant teachers that I believe have a different staffing standard now we approved that recently and teachers who are not itinerant if that's used in projections or if you are at what point if not

[01:28:57] we could take that down I believe there is a different staffing standard and so I would would rather pull that information and be able to provide you more sure thank you additional questions mr baby thank you chair come back to the last slide there's the whole sort of algorithm if you will sort of the how things get broken down is there a rubric for what makes up a caseload is that just one particular child or one student that needs support yes so our schools have flexibility

[01:29:31] to assign caseloads either by grade level or by content most do so by grade level and then that's how they move forward with creating their coverage of services and scheduling throughout the course of the school year okay and then a follow-up to that so what happens if one particular student requires a lot more attention from the teacher like what how do we balance that you know in terms of especially with the staffing standard that being the determinant of how many teachers we hire certainly our first course of action would be to come together as an individualized educational planning team for that particular student to reassess to make sure that we are meeting their needs through the current plan whether it's

[01:30:09] annual goals accommodations or a review of services and placement then after that meeting is held, that will sort of drive the next steps of whether we have to regroup and relook at assigned staffing for that school location. Okay, thank you. Ms. Polipko. Thank you. I have three separate sets of questions, so I'll break them down one by one. My first question is actually

[01:30:43] related to the speech pathologist positions. My understanding is that the itinerant ratio is 40 to one whereas the ratio that we use currently is 55 to one and I did not see anything in the slides that indicated that we're that we're looking at the staffing standards for itinerant speech pathologists however we do have numerous itinerant speech pathologists here in Loudoun County and my understanding also is that we currently have 3,735 students who need speech therapy who or who should be getting those services in Loudoun County.

[01:31:22] And if we're looking at a staffing standard of 40 to one, that's enough for 3,675 students. So when the speech pathologists come out and say that we're understaffed, I think that's where that strife is coming from on their part.

[01:31:41] So I'm wondering if you can speak to that or give me some kind of feedback on whether or not, or why we are not looking at itinerant staffing ratios for our speech pathologists?

[01:31:57] - Certainly, thank you for that question. We currently do not have an itinerant staffing standard for our related services providers. So currently as it is captured within our budget narratives and budget book for the staffing standard, which is in the appendix, it is one to 55 for our speech language pathologists.

[01:32:18] Now we do note that we are currently serving 3,735 students that require either direct or indirect speech-language pathological services. We also have about 286 students that are in the initial evaluation process.

[01:32:33] And it's also to be noted that about 45% of our speech-language therapists across the school system are itinerant in nature, which means they are serving one or more schools. - Thank you for that. My second question is related to our autism programs in particular.

[01:32:53] I know you mentioned, I believe Ms. Willoughby, You mentioned that we have anywhere from one to three SPED TAs in those classrooms. And I'm wondering if we are, not in those classrooms in particular, but what are we doing in terms of our autism classrooms? Do we have them staffed at two TAs in the classroom?

[01:33:10] Is it one? If you could please expound on that. Thank you. Sure. For self-contained autism programming, it is one teacher and two teacher assistants. intensive programs for students serving autism. It is one teacher with four behavioral assistants. Thank you very much for that. My final question is related to the North Star School. I understand that we will be losing some staff there next year and there has been some concern over that. Dr. Jones I appreciate you providing me with the information related to FY 23 allocation and FY 24.

[01:33:43] I do understand that we are projected to lose some students due to graduation which sounds very similar to what you were reporting on when the end of the school year we may have less students because we're losing students. However, the concern I think with North Star and my concern in particular is that you will have students that are placed at North Star throughout the year that will undoubtedly be requiring special education services and we can't predict that right now, especially if those students are placed on disciplinary action.

[01:34:14] So what are we doing to address those concerns? Obviously, we have to treat the North Star differently because they're operating under different standards in our other schools. And if you could please explain how we're handling that, I would appreciate it. Thank you. As you mentioned, we are working very closely with the North Star School Administration, applying the staffing standard as is and watching the application process.

[01:34:38] They're currently reviewing applicants for next year. On that, we will certainly work to staff the school based on the staffing standard as the population increases. We also work very closely with the Office for School Administration, so if there is a student placement that occurs or student placements that occur throughout the year, and should that change the staffing standard or the ratio of applied staff, we would then work with our business financial services team to utilize our contingency positions if needed.

[01:35:11] - Thank you so much. And finally, I would like to just take a moment and recognize that May is American Speech Language Hearing Association Better Speech and Language Hearing Month. I want to take a moment to recognize all the speech language pathologists we have here in Loudoun County serving our students and working very hard to meet their individual needs each day.

[01:35:32] Thank you. - Thank you. Ms. Okadekbe. - Thank you, Chair Sirotkin. So I have a couple of questions. First, on slide 19, Does that reflect the original budget numbers or the new baseline?

[01:35:52] - Slide 19 reflects the actual adopted and approved budgeted positions for FY24. - Okay, and then that side reflects the 14.3 fewer positions, but we heard earlier in the presentation that there's a new projected number based on the analysis of growth since January.

[01:36:17] And so I wanted to understand, was a little unclear to me I heard that if that growth is realized then we would need to add potentially up to 27 additional teachers and I'd like some information about the timing of when we decide that that's realized and especially considering that the hiring lead time knowing it's hard to hire staff when do we make that decision and so on the one hand the original numbers say we need 14.3 fewer the new numbers say we actually need 27 more so when

[01:36:52] when do we make that call understanding hiring will take some time that's a great question and that really highlights the difficulty of this whole process I would say I think that's why the contingency is so important and why we have a contingency bank not only in student services but also in the Department of Instruction to account for the fact that enrollment projections is is if it's special education enrollment projection, the English learner enrollment projection, or even our division-wide enrollment projection,

[01:37:29] that again, we likely will not hit the target exactly. We're either gonna be, you know, under, which is a good problem to have in terms of staffing, but if we're over, that's exactly what that contingency is for. In terms of hiring decisions, I probably have to kick it back over to Ms. Richardson, 'cause I know that there is a sweet spot in terms of hiring and that is difficult.

[01:37:57] - There absolutely is a sweet spot and that would be now. We are in the throes of the hiring process now. Now is the high season for movement with people making different life choices and those that are graduating and looking forward to joining us in the upcoming school year.

[01:38:14] So I do believe that it's going to require additional collaboration between the Office of Special Education, the Department of Student Services and Business and Financial Services, as well as human resources and talent development to come together to assess where we are within the hiring process, to sit down and look at our current vacancies and see whether or not we need to access contingencies now or whether we can hold off a little bit longer.

[01:38:41] Again, we are collecting real-time student data from schools on a pretty much a daily basis. And so that will inform our steps moving forward. - Okay, I appreciate both of your answers. I think there's just been a lot of conversation around this topic, so I appreciate the information that you've brought forward.

[01:39:03] I think it will be important to be able to communicate clearly to the community. Yes, we've recognized that increase. We are moving ahead with our contingency plans and we are actually adding staff. Just to be clear about, you know, I'm not saying, I'm saying when that happens.

[01:39:22] I'm not saying that that has happened yet, about if and when that happens, being able to communicate that, and then certainly if you can keep us updated on that as well. Thank you. - Mr. Madhvi. - Thank you, Chair. Thank you again for coming and presenting this.

[01:39:41] So I kind of go back a couple of weeks ago, and I think the slide that you have on slide number, kind of read it, 12 and 13, where you actually have the sort of a staffing standard admissibility that you presented.

[01:39:56] That sort of helps and to the context of what my sort of perspective last time around was, that LCPS, overall, again, there's a lot of room for improvement. The thing we talked about, like Mr. Beatty talked about a scenario where there could be classes, there could be scenarios where some students might need some additional help, and so staffing centers doesn't really apply directly to that.

[01:40:21] And I think that goes back to Ms. Willoughby, your point, I think, we've taken us four years to come to an understanding. I mean, I shouldn't say that, let me rephrase it, because how it would be captured that the need for having hold harmless or contingency positions, 'cause this board, I think when we first came back in 2020, the debate was always about the contingency positions, so we kind of went back and forth, and I believe the board reduced quite a bit contingency positions, cut a number of them.

[01:40:54] And I think it kind of goes back and forth with my point. Again, it wasn't communicated as well to us as well in terms of what that contingency positions, how that could be leveraged. And this is a classic example of where contingency positions really make a difference.

[01:41:10] 'Cause then if you see a need in a school where the staffing ratios are again to the point where we are making it happen, but we need some additional support there. And I think that's where it becomes valuable. So again, I wholeheartedly support that.

[01:41:27] But going back to slide number 12 and 13, again, going back to the point that even though our ratio, staffing center ratio is 10, and going from FI 23 to FI 24, and I think you didn't do the ratio, you just gave us raw data as to how many SPED teachers we have to number of students, projected students.

[01:41:44] I did the rough math and I think it came down to FI 24. It becomes 9.62 for the SPED special education teachers and it comes to 9.3 for teacher assistant. So again, even our staffing center is 14, but based on the budget projections that the superintendent and the staff have projected, the teacher assistant ratio is 9.3.

[01:42:07] And I think that's where Mike goes back to the point about staff not communicating it clearly, that again, the point being that we are doing, we're trying to make adjustments and we're trying to improve that. And this is not by any means by saying, you know, this is chest pounding thing, but I think it's the way to communicate that we are trying to make the staffing as best as we can in regards to that.

[01:42:32] So that's overall my sort of observation point to that. Lastly, I think hiring and retaining of special education teachers is a concern, I think as you pointed out. And I'm hoping that I have some conversations with the superintendent and then the staff as well.

[01:42:51] And there has to be some creative options in terms of how we go forward in addressing that particular retention especially. I mean, hiring is one difficult challenge, but making sure that we can retain the existing teacher in the special ed scenario, especially in self-contained classes, et cetera.

[01:43:07] So thank you for coming and presenting that. Again, my only feedback is I think the slide 12 and 13 can be more clear. I think it's, you kind of start with the ratio and then you jump at the raw numbers. So they don't do a really good justice in terms of really presenting and articulating how you're making improvements from FY23 to FY24.

[01:43:25] Thank you. - Thank you, so my question is, comparing the actual enrollment counts for FY23, compared to what we were projecting or what we originally projected for FY24.

[01:43:41] And so for the fall student record collection in the current school year, FY23, we had 91.73 for actuals. And then as of, I think the numbers on the slide are slightly a week or two beyond my numbers, but we had over 9,800 identified at this point in the year.

[01:44:05] So next year, the estimate was that for the fall student record collection for FY24, we'd have more students than we had in fall FY23. So we'd go up to 92.80, but then we would end up with only 9.665.

[01:44:28] So my question was, if we were starting the year, if we were projecting that we were going to start the year with more students than we started with this year, how were we projecting that we were going to end the year with less than we have now?

[01:44:44] Was that based on when we put those projections together where we didn't know it was going to rise as much over the course of the current year or was something else going on? Yes. I think if I'm following your question, and I don't know if it's going to be helpful or not, one of the exercises that we go through with the projection process, so when we are projecting, like this past fall, when we projected for FY24, we take that opportunity to reproject FY23.

[01:45:16] So, really, each fiscal year, we're reprojecting every year to see where we're going to land at to help drive our end number. So, last year, so last fall, so like in fall of 2021, we were projecting for FY23.

[01:45:34] This year, fall of 2022, we reproject again for FY23, and then we reproject for FY24. So I think that might be if I again if I was following your question some of the discrepancy depending at what point in time Was it the original projection for FY 23 and and again?

[01:45:55] I don't know if this is helpful because when it's some of the set of numbers I have pulled to kind of maybe help illustrate in it. This would be related to slide 4 I believe Can't read the print but our original budget projection for the last day of school FY23 so for this school year our budget projection in the fall of 2021 was that we were going to end up at 10,033 students then when we created the budget

[01:46:29] for FY24 we looked at FY23 again because now we've got more actual data and we can refine so when we did that in the fall of 2022 and we projected where are we going to end up this school year to then help us inform where we're going end up for next school year we ended up at a number of 9812 so we had dropped as part of our re-leveling and the information since then though after the fall of 2022 and we submitted the budget we are experiencing higher than expected growth this spring so now we're we took this opportunity

[01:47:08] to reproject one more time and we also have one more actual data set of numbers which is the spring SRC so now we also have another data point and so that's where we arrive at the revised projection of 99-12 so these numbers are always kind of a snapshot in time as Mr. Richards said you know we're trying to you know use the best information we have to to make decisions and arrive at how many FTEs we need but we also have to do this within the confines of our budget calendar and presenting a budget and so that's always going to be a challenge we have because

[01:47:44] we're trying to predict what is going to happen in the future and staff accordingly but again that's why we we have that contingency because knowing it is an estimate it is an educated guess of where we're going to end up and so we have that contingency contingency to kind of help us fall back on if we have missed the mark um too much okay that makes i i i under i understand it may be a timing issue for when the numbers were put together but I would think at some point you have to look at it and say okay we're going to start next year with more students than we started with

[01:48:23] last year we should take a look at our projections and make sure that we're ending for the end of year numbers for our budget and numbers higher than we have now and it sounds like that's what's being done with the revised projections so I'm thankful for that I just wish perhaps we had taking a look at that a little sooner although maybe I'll leave it there board members any additional questions okay thank you again for the detailed update I appreciate you trying to

[01:48:57] demystify some of these numbers and and projections and thankful that that it has helped I appreciate it dr. Ellis do we have time to fit in the we do okay so we will move to 404 from the department of instruction title one update and i'll turn it over to dr ellis thank you we will be brief

[01:49:34] so this evening we have an update for you regarding our title one schools for the coming school year as you may recall we shared information with you back in january about how we're using cep data to determine title one eligibility and after that presentation we were waiting for the updated cep data to inform next steps. Mr. Meisensal is joining me this evening to share that information and our next steps moving forward. So I will turn it over to him. Good afternoon, Chair Srockin, Vice Chair Mahedvi, Dr. Smith, and all school board members. Thank you for the opportunity to

[01:50:08] share an update on the identification of Title I schools for the 23-24 school year. Next slide. As a reminder, the purpose of Title I is to provide all children significant opportunity to to receive fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps. Next slide. Title I funds are to be used to directly impact student achievement by providing additional services that increase the amount and quality of instructional time, providing students with an enriched and accelerated academic program, significantly elevating the quality of instruction,

[01:50:49] and affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of children. So based on the spring community eligibility provision poverty data that we have received and the 50% threshold that Loudoun County uses to identify Title I schools, four additional schools will be added as school-wide Title I schools for the 23-24 school year. Frederick Douglas Elementary, Cool Spring Elementary, Leesburg Elementary, and Seneca Ridge Middle.

[01:51:22] Section, you'll notice that Roby at the top has an asterisk and I want to address that. Section 113 of ESEA includes a skipping provision that permits a school system not to serve an eligible Title I school that has a high percentage of low-income students if the school meets comparability requirements and will receive the supplemental funds equal to the funds they would be provided with Title I.

[01:51:49] So to provide flexibility regarding the use of funds to address the changing needs of enrolled students and Title I staffing parameters, W.O. will be skipped in the identification as Title I for the 23-24 school year. This will allow the school to adjust the use of the funds as enrollment needs change throughout the year without having to submit amendments through the Title I application. And this decision will be re-evaluated when preparing for the 24-25 school year. Next slide. The amount allocated to individual schools is based

[01:52:26] on a per-pupil expenditure determined by the number of low-income students at the school. To determine the school allocations, schools are sorted by highest poverty percentage within grade spans of K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

[01:52:43] The PPE is multiplied by the number of low-income students at each school to determine the school's allocations. The allocations showed on this slide are preliminary, and they will be recalculated after the division receives actual allocations, which happens in September.

[01:52:59] So with going back to Robey, with Robey being skipped for the 23-24 school year, the $5,000 in allocations the school would have received through Title I will be provided to Robey through local funds.

[01:53:16] Next slide. We are actively preparing the four identified schools for the Title I status by communicating the implications of Title I with school administration, working with HRTD to ensure all licensed staff and paraprofessionals meet the Title I qualification requirements, Providing additional staff dedicated to Title I schools per staffing standards.

[01:53:40] Supporting schools with communication for staff and their school communities and developing their Title I school-wide plans. Next slide. So our next steps for our division will be to report the changes in Title I status to the Virginia Department of Education by May 19th.

[01:53:57] The consolidated application will be completed and submitted to the school board as an information item on June 13th and as an action or consent agenda item on June 27th. the deadline for us to submit this application to the video e is july 1st so that concludes our quick overview of the identification of title one schools for the 23 24 school year and we're happy to address any questions you may have thank you board members any questions regarding the title

[01:54:32] one update or presentations miss okay thank you chair surotkin so i this was answered in not so many words but just to clarify because i did get a question from a community member title one is federal funding that we receive through the state budget process but if you can just speak to that and I really appreciated the slide that had the you know the breakout of allocation by percentage of students in the school that was very clear but if you can just speak to the source of funding thank you absolutely so yes it is federal funds that is allocated to each state each

[01:55:09] SEA and the SEA allocates those to all the LEA's the local education agencies based on our census data that we have.

[01:55:25] So it's allocated to the state from the federal government and then that's distributed through allocations to each division. - And I'll just add that we are advised to, instructed to use level funding each year when filling out the application.

[01:55:41] And so each time a school is added, I like to think about it in terms of a pie or a birthday cake. There are more schools being added to our party, but the cake is the same size, so the slices change a little bit, which is why on slide five, we've shared the revised estimated allocations that's based on level funding from this past year.

[01:56:07] - Mr. Mahedmi. - Thank you, Chair. And so, Dr. Ellis, I'm not sure if you have the answer, but I think one of the questions I asked Ms. Willoughby in terms of our federal funds for operating, and the number she shared with me was for FY23, we had received $9,450,000.

[01:56:26] And going FY24, we're going to receive $2.9 million, some numbers. So something, can you share what was the number that we obligated to the Title I schools last year? I don't know if you have access to that. Or Ms. Willoughby, am I off on my question between what you shared with me from Federal Operating Fund, applying to Title I schools, or that just going somewhere else?

[01:56:50] If I recall correctly, I believe we have different title grants, and so they are talking about Title I, which is a much smaller number than the Title VIB grants, which supports special education, and I think those are the numbers that you are referencing, is the special education grant.

[01:57:10] Okay. So the Title I funds probably stayed flat or hasn't increased or decreased? It's stayed relatively flat for several years now. Thank you. Additional questions? - Ms. Okadugbe?

[01:57:27] - Just to follow up on this, I think it might be helpful. So on slide five, that has the breakout by school, just as a comparison to look at what was the allocation for the prior year. So we're understanding, you know, overall, the total amount is about the same, but what does that mean for each school that's eligible?

[01:57:50] - Yes, we can definitely provide that. And I appreciate you saying that. And I'll take this opportunity to mention that in the future, we're not recommending this conversation right now for FY 24 but in the future we are recommending that we come back and perhaps start the conversation in committee about whether or not that 50 percent cutoff is still appropriate for LCPS as you can see on slide four we have several schools right coming right up to that 50 percent mark and as you know because we just explained is the more schools we add the smaller and individual schools allocation is so just an important conversation I think we

[01:58:27] should have in the near future for the coming years additional questions mr. Madden thank you chair and I so I'm just gonna go back to this sharing of this because it's only one pool of dollars and I see the value in allocating to other schools too but then I go back to miss shared and I think last if I remember your shared a concern that you know again how do we allocate I understand the 50% threshold but how do we allocate the dollars to the schools that really need it versus just being a criteria of 50 percent so i do want to echo ms sheridan's concern last

[01:59:03] time around that we need to think through in terms of you know we really put the dollars where the impact is versus just looking at 50 52 etc because that wouldn't be fair to the schools that really need it so additional questions okay seeing none thank you again for the update and for the well for the for the new information and update about what might happen next year with that we're on On item 5, our closed meeting, is there a motion, Mr. Mahedby?

[01:59:37] Yes, Chair. I move to the Lowndes County School Board, recess this public meeting, and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2.37.12 of Code of Virginia for the following reason: Discussion and consideration of disciplinary matters for specific students that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the scholastic record for individual students and to receive legal advice regarding name as provided by Virginia Code 2.2 3711 A2N8.

[02:00:05] - Sir, a second. - Seconded by Ms. Sheridan, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand and say aye. - Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morse and Corbo absent for the vote. We're now in closed session and we'll be back

[02:00:21] at time certain 6:30 for our evening session.

[02:34:22] - All right, good evening. The board is 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 reconvene its public meeting, and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting.

[02:34:38] I move to the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting. Resolution 37-22/23. Whereas the Loudoun County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote in accordance with the provisions of Virginia Freedom of Information Act, and whereas section 2.2-3712-D of the Court of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law.

[02:35:08] Now, therefore, it resolved that Lowne County School Board hereby certifies that, 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, 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.

[02:35:33] - Second. - Seconded by Ms. Sheridan, is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. - Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morris, Corbo, and Okadek Bay absent for the vote.

[02:35:49] So we will kick off our evening session with the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Our pledge leader tonight is Sarah Proper. Welcome back, Ms. Proper. She is the LCPS New Secondary Teacher of the Year. She teaches grade eight English language arts at River Bend Middle School.

[02:36:08] She is a native of New York, was nominated by several colleagues, as well as an eighth grade student who said that Ms. Proper's class has become the class I'm most excited about this year. Regardless of how I'm feeling in the morning, whether I'm anxious, sad, frustrated, happy, or any other emotion. Ms. Proper finds a way to be kind and understanding. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, we're going to have the national anthem tonight, which will be sung by the Titan Singers at Dominion High School. It is their advanced chamber choir under the direction of Mi Van Nguyen. This group consists of students in grades 10 through 12 and represents a wide range

[02:36:48] of the student body. Titan Singers includes athletes, honor roll students, actors, dancers, and even this evening's student school board representative, Sage Hurtado. At this time, I will ask everyone to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the national anthem.

[02:37:09] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which it stands, one nation, is the goal.

[02:37:36] Oh, say can you...

[02:39:08] Thank you very much for being here tonight and for that performance. It was wonderful. So we're gonna now move to item nine on our agenda, our students and staff recognitions, of which we have many tonight. We're going to start off with 901 HRTD staff recognitions, and I will turn it over to Ms. Bowen.

[02:39:32] - Thank you so much, Chair Sorokin. This marks the third year of the Employee of the Year program, and I am honored to introduce HRTD Director Nicole Davis and HRTD Supervisor Katie Kutch to provide an overview of the program and announce the 2023 LCPS Employees of the Year. Good evening, Chair Sorotkin, school board members, Dr. Smith, cabinet members, staff, colleagues, and community members. In a combined effort with division

[02:40:08] leadership, HRTD piloted a new program recognition program in the 2021 school year for outstanding employees that support our division. The HRTD recognition program identified exemplary employees outside of the teacher of the year and principal of the year programs. We know that all of our employees excel in challenging times and we want to acknowledge their effort they make to move the division forward and put our students first. We are very excited to say that we are in the third

[02:40:43] year of this successful program. We were able to add expand eligibility categories and as a result, received over 280 nominations. The winners here tonight fall within one of the following categories.

[02:41:00] Driver, Attendant, Custodial, Maintenance, Food Service, Information Technology, and Safety. A committee made up of central office administrators, school-based administrators, and community members reviewed each nomination thoroughly.

[02:41:20] I would like to thank the panel members for their time and dedication to support of this program. In addition to our panel members, I would like to take a moment to thank my HRTD team who continues to make this program a great success. One of those members, Katie, Supervisor HRTD, is here tonight, and I would like to turn it over to her to present this year's winners.

[02:41:51] All right, we have two employees who were stuck in traffic, so I'm not sure if they were able to make it in time. Our first employee is Bosidi Ajila. She has been selected as driver of the year.

[02:42:14] She was nominated by a community member who went to great lengths to describe her attention to detail and commitment to keeping her students safe. Before opening the bus doors, she ensures that there are no dangers to her students and that all vehicles are stopped. In addition, she communicates with parents exceptionally well by ensuring they are aware of any delays or changes in school schedules.

[02:42:38] She was recognized by this community member for her impeccable door-side manner, which is characterized as being kind, positive, and inviting. They continue that she always seems happy and positive and never complains or says an unkind word.

[02:42:53] She has been employed with LCPS since December 2021. Our next employee is Sun Sunny Yee.

[02:43:10] She has been selected as Attendant of the Year. Sonny was nominated by a parent of one of the students on her bus. According to this parent, she lives up to her name, has an incredibly positive and cheerful demeanor and attitude, despite being on a bus of only kindergartners.

[02:43:35] This parent continued that Sonny makes sure that each student finds a seat and takes pride in matching kindergarten tag numbers with the parents, even when she knows the parents. The parent continues that she seems to make the nervous kids feel more comfortable quickly and that you could not have a better team for a bus full of five and six-year-olds.

[02:43:54] She has been employed with LCPS since July of 2022. Our next winner is Mr. Derek Summers. Derek has been selected as Custodial Employee of the Year.

[02:44:12] Derek is the head custodian at Luckett's Elementary School. He has received nominations from parents and colleagues. One of the nominations shared that Mr. Summers knows the school through and through.

[02:44:28] The parents know him, the kids know him, and he is a vital part of the school community. Derek is praised for ensuring the school is beautifully maintained from the waxed floors, cleaned balls, and fresh paint touch-ups to having outside fresh-cut grass, weed-whacked edges, and playgrounds, recess, and storage bins always ready for students.

[02:44:52] Derek has been with LCPS since June 2009.

[02:45:03] Jeffrey Myers has been selected as Maintenance Employee of the Year. Jeffrey is the school plant engineer at Briarwoods High School and was nominated by multiple colleagues who have had the opportunity to work with him.

[02:45:21] They described Jeffrey as productive, humble, efficient, and knowledgeable. Jeffrey was praised for his polite and kind professional demeanor, in addition to making tough jobs look easy. A colleague stated that as a building engineer, you have to be proficient in many different areas.

[02:45:39] Jeff has a great understanding of all areas, routinely maintaining and repairing plumbing, HVAC, electrical, carpentry, tile, and painting. Jeffrey has been with LCPS since April 2019. Alexandra Adams has been selected as Food Services Employee of the Year.

[02:46:04] Alexandra is the School Nutrition Manager at Horizon Elementary School and received several nominations from colleagues and parents, noting the staff and students look forward to seeing her smiling face.

[02:46:21] Alexandra is described as friendly, upbeat, always helpful, and knows the children's names and food preferences, which makes the kids feel welcome and seen. Alexandra goes above and beyond to ensure all students are fed quality food, and she encourages them to try new things.

[02:46:39] One nomination said, Alexandria is not only seen in the cafeteria, but she'll even get in the dunk tank for the fifth grade picnic. Alexander has been with LCPS since March 2013. Randy White has been selected as the Information Technology Employee of the Year.

[02:47:03] In his nomination by a colleague, Randy is described as being an excellent communicator and as someone who is always kind, thorough, and helpful to students and staff. Randy was also identified as someone who is supportive to the diverse population at Tuscarora High School.

[02:47:24] According to this colleague, Randy works with the special education students and gives them the chance to learn from the DES office as a part of their transition services opportunities. This colleague continued that Randy's professionalism is impeccable. He is always polite and calm, even when colleagues or students come to him distressed over their technology problems.

[02:47:47] Randy has helped train three new digital experience specialists and has always sought to provide training and support to these new employees. During those periods of time in which Randy was the only DES at the school, he used excellent judgment in determining priorities and maintaining the highest level of professionalism.

[02:48:05] Randy has been employed with LCPS since October 2021. And finally, Aaron Carter has been selected as Safety Employee of the Year.

[02:48:20] Aaron is a school security officer that received several nominations. One nomination shared that Aaron emphasizes following safety procedures and includes students and staff in these efforts.

[02:48:38] helping to foster a spirit of cooperation. Characteristics noted in the nomination state that Aaron leads by example, is fair, firm, and consistent in both his actions and his communication. Aaron is described as going above and beyond listening to staff members' concerns and following through, such as monitoring safety measures and protocol and advocating for additional safety measures. Multiple nominations noted Aaron's demeanor every morning, including ensuring everyone is safe. He is always cheerful with a smile and greets people by name.

[02:49:13] Aaron has been with LCPS since January 2020. Thank you again board members for the opportunity to share this year's and the wonderful accolades with you this evening. We would again like to give all of the winners a round of applause for their commitment to LCPS. At this point I would like to turn it over to Dr. Smith

[02:49:47] for further recognition items.

[02:50:54] Board members I'd like to take a moment to recognize three additional employees with exceptional service to LCPS. These individuals have 40 plus years of service and one with 56 years of service that I'd like to take a moment to recognize their exceptional dedication and support of LCPS. First Gina Shishar is celebrating 40 years of service with LCPS. Gina if you could come up here and join us. You may not have made it in yet

[02:51:34] But let me tell you, she began her career in 1983 as a fourth grade teacher at Sully Elementary and is currently the gifted and talented teacher at Mercer Middle. Mercer Middle School principal Nikki Deal had this to say about Ms. Chazar. Gina's teacher sparkle and unmatched professionalism is a model for all.

[02:51:51] She's a collaborative colleague that ensures that staff are consistently encouraged and supported. Additionally, Ms. Chazar exemplifies what it means to put students' needs first. She routinely put students' social-emotional learning on the map before it was a common theme. I congratulate Ms. Shizar on this milestone, and thank you for all your service to our students.

[02:52:14] The next individual was not able to be here with us this evening either, but I'd like to go ahead and recognize her. Deborah St. Clair is celebrating 40 years with LCPS. Since starting her career with LCPS, Ms. St. Clair has been a dedicated bus driver for the county.

[02:52:39] Her supervisor, Sue Carlson, had this to say about her. Debbie is a dedicated employee, willing to do anything to get the job done. She is a calm and friendly driver with students and their families. As a 40-year bus driver, we know she possesses not only the dedication, but also patience.

[02:52:56] As the first face of LCPS for students over the years, we thank her for her serving our student and parent community so well over the years. Congratulations. And finally tonight, I'd like to recognize an incredible employee, Tommy Fields, dedicated more than 56 years with LCPS.

[02:53:19] Mr. Fields began his career as a supply clerk in the Department of Support Services and served as a facilities wastewater works and wastewater technician. Don Traynor, Chief of Facilities, had this to say, Mr. Fields was one of the true superheroes and legends within Department of Support Services.

[02:53:36] For over a half a century, he served quietly and professionally behind the scenes and facilities to ensure the safety and seamless operations for our schools. from general maintenance and custodial supply warehousing to water and wastewater treatment operations, Mr. Fields was a firm foundation, mentor, and friend for generations of maintenance technicians.

[02:53:59] We're deeply saddened to hear that Mr. Fields recently passed away, and we want to offer sincere condolences to his family. Mr. Fields, we remembered as a true legend in LCPS, and we want to acknowledge his 50 years of service to LCPS, and I know his sons are gonna come up and accept the award.

[02:54:14] Congratulations to Mr. Fields and his family.

[02:54:58] ahead and move on to the next we'll do a VHSL champions or did you want to for the VHSL ready for that one yeah so we're going to move to 902 which is also recognitions from the department of school leadership for VHSL recognitions for our state championship teams thank you chair Sorotkin and board members tonight we also want to take a few moments to recognize our state championships teams these teams have gone above and beyond and I think you're going to be inceptually proud of the teams that have won the state championship. Derek Ferry, our assistant director for athletics

[02:55:32] is joining us tonight in the presentation. As we call you up front to our teams, if you would come around and we'll let you start over here and then we'll work our way across and then we'll do a picture at the end. First, I'd like to recognize the Independence Golf Team capturing their second state VHSL class five state golf championship earlier this year and their third championship in the four-year history. So this was their third championship in the school's short four-year history this year's championship was played at heritage oaks golf course in harrisonburg virginia

[02:56:11] at the end of october and the team shot a score of 287 to win the tournament by one stroke congratulations to the independence golf team for this amazing win i'd like now like to recognize the rockridge high school performing arts dual enrollment theater class with 27 students who performed oliver lansy's the trench at this year's vhsl theater competition please come up and join us

[02:57:02] The Trench is a mythical story about one man's journey through a collapsed trench during World War II. Placing first with perfect scores at districts, the production moved on to regionals, where it also placed first, receiving an invitation to states. On December 5th, the cast and crew of The Trench competed at the VHSL States for Theater at Monticello High School, where it also took first place.

[02:57:24] Additionally, The Trench placed first at this year's Virginia Thespian Festival at Shenandoah High School, making it the first theater program in Loudoun County to receive two state championships in one year. The Trench Company will represent the state of Virginia at the International Thesbian Festival in June.

[02:57:41] Congratulations on this accomplishment. I know you will make LCPS proud at the International Festival next month. Congratulations. We would now like to recognize the Light Ridge Scholastic Bowl team.

[02:58:05] The Light Ridge Scholastic Bowl team competed and completed an undefeated season in capturing back-to-back VHSL Class 4 state championships.

[02:58:23] The state championships were held at Jamestown High School. I wish the Boat academic team the best of luck as they compete in nationals over Memorial Day weekend. Congratulations, state champions. And our last team state champion that we are going to recognize tonight is our Dominion High School debate team state champions.

[02:58:50] After winning the 4C, the regional 4C competition, and placing second at the VHSL Super Region, I am proud to announce that Dominion High School captured its first VHSL Class 4 State Debate Championship competition on April 21st and 22nd at JMU.

[02:59:23] Congratulations to our state championship titans. All right, I think at this time we're going to try to do a couple pictures and try to capture each one of our teams real quick with our board, and then we'll do that.

[02:59:42] So proud of you guys. Congratulations.

[03:03:22] And we'll now move to 903 for our one LCPS spotlight on Riverside High School.

[03:04:05] Good evening, everyone. Good evening, everyone. My name is Doug Anderson. I'm the principal of Riverside High School. So I have the pleasure of introducing this crew tonight.

[03:04:24] When I was a young, fiery-eyed teacher, I asked my mentor what it takes to be a successful principal. He says, real easy. You need to hire the right people and let them do the job you hired them for. and you need to take care of the kids. So when Mr. Slevin asked me to come and talk about a strategic goal number one, empowered students, particularly action item 1.3, care for students, I knew it was in our wheelhouse.

[03:04:51] So I'm gonna let everybody come up and present what you'll see on the screen, and I'll let you guys be the judge about how I have done. So without further ado, come on up, guys. - Next slide, and then he did that too, so next slide.

[03:05:12] Next slide, if you guys don't mind. - Thank you, excellent. Hi, my name is Tracy Wood. I am a school counselor at Riverside High School. I wanted to thank you for inviting us to come and talk about students and especially the mental health of students. I want to introduce the people from Riverside that I have with me.

[03:05:30] Our school psychologist, Dr. Noelia Garcia-Getman, one of our school counselors, Ms. Cassandra Asacano. We have some student leaders with us as well. Maddie, Brulock, and Sabrina Liu, and Joey Blunt, and Bobby Cisneros.

[03:05:48] So they are student leaders from our Sources of Strength organization and our peer organization. First, I just wanted to say we appreciate the support of the board for our mental health initiatives, things such as reducing the counselor-to-student ratio, as well as putting additional mental health supports in our schools so that our school psychologists and our social workers are only servicing one high school now instead of having to go throughout the cluster.

[03:06:14] That's been very important and very helpful for us. Focusing on student mental health does align with the one LCPS core values and the goals. Next slide, please. It follows the core value of holistic support.

[03:06:31] Every student should have the support to feel safe, happy, and cared for in schools. And goal one, which is empowered students, specifically the care for students, which is action item 1.3, Ensuring a safe and affirming learning environment for all students by implementing a system of supports to address their academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs.

[03:06:53] Our Riverside Unified Mental Health team addresses those needs in a variety of ways, and our school psychologist, Dr. Garcia-Gutman, is going to share a few of those with you. Next slide, please. Hello. So I'm going to just go over how we work with our team.

[03:07:13] So our UMHT collaboratively works with Riverside staff, students, and families to support students' needs emotionally, behaviorally, and socially so that they're ready to learn. Our UMHT was designed to flexibly provide varying degrees of support depending on the individual needs of the student at that particular time, and it can fluctuate.

[03:07:34] So the majority of students, the majority of the time, will be accessing those supports through that tier one level of classroom lessons, advisory lessons, or responsive services. We all have bad days. Sometimes a student comes in and, you know, we can relate. We have a hard time focusing because something's on our mind.

[03:07:50] They can pop in, we can work with them, problem solve, work through something, and then get them back into class ready to learn. And for a lot of students, they're going to be working with us at that level. Now, some students will need a higher level of support. So that might be being in a group for a couple of weeks, providing learning some coping strategies or things they can do for study skills after school so there's a variety of supports at that level as well and then finally at the tier 3 level we're looking at more of that individualized or intensive supports that might be needed if a student expresses self-harm if we're working with students that have been out of the building for some reason out of school for a couple of days or a couple weeks

[03:08:29] what can we do as a team to support them reintegrating back into the the community of Riverside and then individual counseling and I think what's really most important to when I think about the UMHT and the supports we provide is that we work together we meet regularly and that it's a very fluid and dynamic situation based on the individual needs of that student next slide so Riverside really does well is this school-wide approach to mental health so we really have focused on kind of a community aspect of mental health which includes really taking care of our staff as well.

[03:09:08] Some of the big things that we wanted to point out that we do at Riverside is Mr. Frew, one of our assistant principals, has what's called kudos every week. We collect kudos, so that means acknowledging what our staff members are doing, that we're seeing that we're doing.

[03:09:24] We're thanking them for the things that we're doing, and it's sent out every Sunday. So we have something either Sunday on the weekend to open or positive on Monday to open to see what other staff members have done through the week that have helped the other staff. The other big thing that we really pushed with UMHT is called Tagout.

[03:09:41] It's something that we created at Riverside with UMHT. It allows for our teachers, if they need a bathroom break or just a minute to go get a drink of water or something, they can email the UMHT and say Tagout, and we will relieve them for about five minutes to go do that. It's not utilized very often but it's there for the staff to feel just appreciated and what that really does is create that positive relationship with our colleagues that really helps our students the teachers the staff those are the ones that see our students there are eyes and ears for the UMHT they see them

[03:10:19] every other day so they're the ones that are letting us know when a student is concerned so really taking care of and building that community from the holistic point is has been really helpful and it also helps our students feel connected when our staff feels positive and and they're helping feel our students feel positive it really helps so we brought our some of our student leaders to talk to about what our students are doing as well next slide please so one of the reasons that we do focus on relationships so much is because of the

[03:10:56] importance of school connectedness school connectedness is a protective factor for students which means students are less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as using substances or experiencing suicidal thoughts and if they're connected to their school they are more likely to succeed academically and graduate on time which is obviously the very important thing that we would like all of our students to do I'm in fact studies have shown that students who are lonely and don't feel connected as well as adults actually it's more detrimental to their overall health than other risk factors such as smoking or

[03:11:33] heart disease it actually affects their overall physical health more to not be connected or to have that feeling of loneliness so we feel like school connectedness is one of the most important things that we can do for our students in fact there was a recent study that it was the world's longest study on happiness and it started in the 1930s and they followed men from Boston in various different neighborhoods for decades and throughout these decades they checked in with them about how they were feeling mentally, what they were doing, their career paths and different things like that and what they found was you would think that if they had a great career and they were

[03:12:09] doing all these wonderful things that they would be happy but what they found in this extremely long study that's been backed up by several studies after that is the one main indicator of happiness and overall health is relationships so one of the best ways that we focus on relationships and building a connection to school is through our sources of strength organization and our peer organization at riverside next slide please hi i'm maddie and i'm a sophomore hello my name is

[03:12:46] sabrina and i'm a freshman we've been in sources of strength since middle school sources of strength is a nationwide program that focuses on suicide prevention bullying and substance abuse prevention as well as mental health. Though that's our formal definition of the club as someone who's been in the club since the seventh grade I would say one of the most important things sorry next slide please one of the most important things about Source of Strength is that it stresses the importance of connections and that it gives students a wonderful opportunity to connect with their peers and especially get involved in the Riverside community. Another big part of Sources is that

[03:13:23] we do offer leadership positions for students as well and it's a wonderful way to get involved with with their sort of school environment. Not only that, but at the beginning of the year, we allowed teacher recommendations for the club, allowing students to really be acknowledged for the work that they put in at school.

[03:13:40] - One of our campaigns that we did last October was the 9-8-8 campaign. This campaign brought awareness to the new suicide prevention hotline. We asked students and staff to write reasons to stay, as well as things that made them happy, and we were able to collect 988 reasons that people made.

[03:13:57] - Another one of the campaigns that we ran this year was painting positive messages and positive artwork onto the bathroom stalls at our high school. Not only that, but we also painted them onto the middle school bathrooms as well. It really gave students a way to give these sort of positive affirmations throughout the day.

[03:14:14] Not only that, but at the middle school level, it allowed the middle schoolers to have sort of a mentorship opportunity by discussing with high schoolers sort of the stresses and fears that they might have about going into high school. Not only that, but sources of strength would not be the, Next slide, please. Sorry.

[03:14:31] Sources of Strength would not be the same club it is without some of our smaller campaigns, whether that includes our advisory lessons or giving cards to the cafeteria workers or making cards for counselors or making a poster for our principal. Sources really could not be the same without our smaller level campaigns that allow us to diversify the amount of people that we are engaging with as a club.

[03:14:51] Another one of our campaigns that we did this year was a students versus staff basketball game in the spring. We had students nominate their teachers and were able to choose some teachers to represent the staff team. This game brought attention to the source of a strength wheel as well as especially the strengths of mentors, physical and mental health, and healthy activities.

[03:15:12] We were also not able to do this without the support of the student council and peer, so thank you very much. Could you go to the next slide, please? - Thank you. - Hi, I'm Joey, I'm a senior at Riverside.

[03:15:28] - I'm Bobby, and I'm a senior at Riverside. - So we're both in peer, so what does peer stand for? PEER stands for Positive Experience in Educational Relationships. So this program is in every LCPS high school. And what we do, really, I consider PEER as like mini guidance counselors-ish.

[03:15:47] So we like connecting with Belmont kids, Seldon's Landing, just middle school, elementary schoolers, just to get that one-on-one experience with them. We like to assist them with emotionally, socially, and academically as well.

[03:16:03] What the program is really nice and what I like about it is that we have that one-on-one, like I said, and it's good. When we talk to little kids and stuff, we, sorry, I'm so sorry, we do talk to little kids.

[03:16:20] It's good because they tend to listen to people that are closer to them in age than adult figures-ish, right, if I'm saying that right. And Bobby will give us, like, examples of what we did this year. Next slide, please. So a couple examples, making friends or issues at home.

[03:16:39] We've also done, on Valentine's Day, we hung up hearts around our high school that had positive messages and also in our middle school. We frequently go down to our middle school to give presentations and stop by the lunches to talk to the middle schools.

[03:16:57] Our presentation this past year was about how to be a Riverside Ram, just giving them a heads up on what it's like at Riverside High School. We also host new student luncheons, which is where new students to the county or just to Riverside come down to our classroom during our lunch block.

[03:17:17] And we get to talk to them about a bunch of things, how their experience is going, how their transition is, and hopefully try to guide them as best as we can. We've also done a couple campaigns with PEER and SCA. This can be anything from an advisory lesson or a school-wide campaign.

[03:17:36] And, yeah, we also provide one-on-one counseling sessions with students if they request us. Thank you. Thank you for allowing us to share what we do at Riverside to take care of our students, both from the staff perspective and the student perspective.

[03:18:03] Thank you very much for the overview from the entire team of everything that's going on at Riverside. Board members, any questions for the team? Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. I know you guys are seniors, and next month you'll be out. But anyway, thank you, Mr. Anderson and Ms. Foote and Dr. Gettleman and Ms. Asghohana.

[03:18:26] Thank you for coming and presenting that. And thank you, student leaders. I guess my question would be, you have an opportunity here, especially seniors, and again, sophomores and freshmen as well, all leaders up here. From based on your experience, if you were to make a suggestion back, what would you like to add back to the program?

[03:18:47] Just continue the getting close with the group first. Like, we focused on the beginning of the year, getting close. Like, we had circle groups. So I'd say making that connection first allowed us to make a really tight-knit group, and that helped us connect with other students.

[03:19:07] Because we shared a lot of our experiences with each other. So that helped maybe make our connections with, say, our elementary schoolers a lot easier or our middle schoolers a lot smoother. And our Sources of Strength leaders, any thoughts, suggestions?

[03:19:27] For Sources of Strength, the way we advertise our club at school is definitely a little more formal than it could be. And that by addressing or more advertising the club as something a little bit more casual, I think that you're able to reach a lot more of the student body. And that reminding students that the clubs, or not the clubs, but the campaigns that we run, though they always are mental health oriented, the ideas don't always have to be as grand.

[03:19:52] And so I know for a lot of other Source of Strength programs, like outside of Riverside, it can be a struggle to decide whether they should do larger campaigns all of the time. And I think that going back, if we started again at the beginning of the year, I would definitely focus a little bit more on smaller run campaigns.

[03:20:08] because it definitely creates more of like a more intimate relationship with the students that you're engaging with. Awesome feedback. I know I'm taking notes. I'm sure the staff is also taking notes. But thank you for coming here. I know the tag out, I think it's Riverside. I know board members could also use it if the Unified Mental Health team is up here.

[03:20:29] We could also call tag out and maybe take a break sometimes. But thank you for coming here. I appreciate that. Thank you. Ms. Reeser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to thank you for sharing the presentation with us today. It's obvious that you're doing a lot of good work for your peers, but I'm sure I speak for my colleagues when I say you've left us all feeling really good and empowered, and sometimes that's going to give us gas to get through some difficult things tonight and make some hard choices, and I want to thank you for that.

[03:20:59] I also am not going to put you on the spot unless you have a thought, but if you go back home and think about something that the board could do to help you, please email us if you have something that you want to share now. I would love to hear it. But we're in a place where we can amplify what you're doing, so just let us know.

[03:21:16] Thank you. Any additional questions? Thank you again. Thank you for being here tonight and for giving us a great overview. We'll now move to item 10, which is our student school board representative comments.

[03:21:37] We have three tonight. We're going to be starting with 1001, which is Ashley Caffo from Heritage High School. Ashley is a senior there. She is vice president of the Student Council Association, captain of the varsity volleyball team, and president of the National Honor Society and FCCLA.

[03:21:57] Heritage has a unique community that is very inclusive and diverse. Ashley feels that their voices deserve to be heard, and she loves representing the students of Heritage. Ashley wants her fellow students to feel that they are in a safe place, a safe space to share their opinions freely without being judged. Ashley was chosen as a student school board representative in the spring of 2022 and has been looking forward to representing her school in meetings since.

[03:22:21] Ashley says, a unique aspect that I have is that I'm in the teacher cadet program. I don't just look at things from my school from a student perspective. I look at it from a future teaching perspective. Good evening, everyone. My name is Ashley Caffo, and I am vice president of SCA as well as co-president of the National Honor Society.

[03:22:40] I would like to start out by thanking my administration, Mr. Adam, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Powell, and Ms. Turner, for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of Heritage tonight. Secondly, I would like to thank my SCA sponsors, Ms. Dobbs and Mr. York, for being the best. They support our student council and all the activities that make Heritage a home to over 1,500 students.

[03:23:02] While Heritage is a place where everyone can express themselves, it is also a place where we love to compete. Competition with other schools brings a sense of pride to the student body that is enhanced when we come together and cheer on our teams. I would like to highlight some of the accomplishments that our sports teams have received in this year's 2022-2023 sports season.

[03:23:21] One member of our golf team, Joe Johnson, made it to the state competition, placing seventh overall. Our girls basketball team made it to the regional championship, coming up short of Tuscarora by just two points. Our amazing wrestling team had three members, Ryan Smith, Noor Suki, and Yusuf Salama, all placing sixth in their weight class at the regional competition in the winter.

[03:23:41] Our returning district championship baseball team is now gearing up for another championship win, hopefully coming soon. And lastly, for our track team, the girls 4x8 team made an amazing showing at the state competition this last winter. And with high school sports coming to an end for the 2022-2023 school year, this also means that our seniors at Heritage are getting ready to graduate.

[03:24:03] Graduation comes with saying goodbye to high school, but also celebrating the hard work the senior class has shown these past four years. The class of 2023 has been through a lot, from having their first year of high school cut short due to COVID to almost their entire sophomore year virtual learning. We want to congratulate and recognize what they have gone through to get them where they are today to celebrate our seniors Class officers have planned a Hershey Park trip for the whole class on May 26 As well as an idly pool party on May 30th and something I find very nostalgic and memorable is the elementary school walks that our school has organized for our seniors

[03:24:38] This is where all the seniors can walk through their primary schools where their education started and say goodbye to their teachers with the people they went to elementary school with. In closing, Heritage has been our home away from home. We are the Heritage Pride and we have pride in our heritage. We are each unique and diverse and is our collective diversity that makes us strong. As a member of the senior class, I would like to thank Heritage for giving me and my classmates numerous opportunities to be ourselves and will

[03:25:02] forever be grateful to be a member of the Pride. And for one last time, roar pride! Second, we have Sage Hurtado from Dominion High School. Sage is a junior there and is very excited to be Dominion school board representative. Sage is a very determined individual and is in the SCA, choir, and theater. She is head of communication and prop master in the theater. Hi, I'm Sage Hurtado.

[03:25:39] I would first like to start off with some issues we have at Dominion. Students and staff members are complaining about the time we leave for school. Some students have to go to work right after school, but we are late to our shifts due to traffic and the late hour of us leaving.

[03:25:56] I'm aware that the time change for the end of school has changed a lot over the last just 10 years, but it's also not preparing us for what's going to happen to us after high school. Not all students go to college right after high school.

[03:26:14] When school begins at 9.30, our bodies get accustomed to waking up later, so when we leave for high school, we struggle to fix our morning schedules. Now, on to the positives, Dominion this year had two national merit scholarships, Mia Livingston and Luke Abram.

[03:26:33] They have worked so hard to get where they are now. Our school's debate team was here tonight, and they were recognized for the VHSL winning for their state championship competition. Our dance team has placed second place two years in a row.

[03:26:53] We are so proud of our debate and dance team of their accomplishments. This year, we have also hosted foreign exchange students from all over the world. We've also had students travel to France, Singapore, Cambodia, South Africa, and many other countries.

[03:27:10] In our fine arts department, our marching and concert band got all superior levels along with our choirs. Titan Singers, which came and sang the national anthem, and Titan Treble, also got full superiors. Our theater department this year was nominated for four Cappies Awards, Cass Sanzo for Rising Critic, Mia Livingston for Graduating Critic, Ashley Momo for Female Vocalist, Katie Price as Comic Actress, and our entire Dominion High School Critic Team was nominated for the Best Critic Team.

[03:27:46] Finally, I would like to mention that Mr. Hicks got awarded the Loudoun County Teacher of the Year Award. All in all, this year was a great year to be a Titan, and I think this is the only time that I'm allowed to say this, but go Titans!

[03:28:07] And finally tonight, we have Elizabeth Brubaker from Woodgrove High School. Elizabeth is a junior there. Her achievement has been marked by the receipt of a number of academic awards, including the English Department Award and Academic Letters.

[03:28:25] She is a member of the choir and Woodgrove Track and Field. Elizabeth is a member of multiple honor societies, including Tri-M, Rho-Kappa, Mu-Alpha-Theta, and the National Honor Society. Elizabeth's passion for music has led her to take online summer courses to fit in two music electives.

[03:28:44] She is a member of both choir and orchestra, and is now a member of the highest ensembles in both. Elizabeth's work as a cellist has earned her superior ratings at the Solo Ensemble Festival two years in a row for exceptional performances of various pieces.

[03:29:00] Outside of school, Elizabeth volunteers as a musician at church and learns and plays or sings new pieces at home just for fun and the joy of music. In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys reading and knitting. Good evening. My name is Lizzie Brubaker, and I'm a junior at Woodgrove High School.

[03:29:19] I am Woodgrove Student Council Association, or SCA, president, and I have been fortunate to witness some wonderful things at my school this past year. I have seen resilience, honesty, hard work, and drive across all facets of my school. First, our fine arts department has done exceptionally well, earning the title of Blue Ribbon School for the second year in a row.

[03:29:41] As a student involved with both the choir and orchestra, I understand the hard work that is required to achieve this honor. Additionally, the debate team has achieved remarkable success with three students qualifying for nationals for Congress and policy debate. In our athletics department, two students in April competed at the state indoor track meet.

[03:29:59] One of them placed first in the triple jump and qualified for nationals. Our junior class council hosted prom two weeks ago, and we set a record for the number of students who purchased tickets and came to the dance. These are just some highlights of Woodgrove High School's accomplishments this year. Not only is our school excelling in extracurricular activities, we're also doing great in academics.

[03:30:19] As a second-generation American, my family has always emphasized the importance of a good education. My grandparents immigrated to the United States partly because of the promise of opportunity they knew that their children and grandchildren would have in U.S. schools to reach their full potential and succeed.

[03:30:35] My grandparents' dream for us has been partly fulfilled in my experience at Woodgrove High School. I've been blessed to take the advanced classes from teachers who not only know their subject well, but care enough to give extra time so that every student has what they need to succeed. My DE physics teacher, Dr. Bada, for example, arrives at school early almost every day to answer questions and help students with homework.

[03:30:56] I find myself going to him often and asking many, many questions, to which I always get a patient and thorough answer. Though this may seem like a small thing, it has had such a big impact on my learning, and I know that it is not something required of my teacher in any way. Gestures like these from teachers may be uncommon in other places, but certainly not at Woodgrove.

[03:31:16] Out of all the things I've witnessed, though, the strength of the Woodgrove community has been perhaps the most evident of all. As some here know, Woodgrove experienced the tragic loss of our very loved senior Colette Bain this past August to epilepsy. This loss hit the Woodgrove community very hard, as you can certainly imagine.

[03:31:35] Though I did not have the privilege of knowing her personally, I was able to see what a great impact she had on so many people. I saw it in the way teachers talked about her, students wept, and in the stories that were shared. I saw it in the way nearly every student, teacher, and staff member banded together in order to get through such an incredibly difficult time.

[03:31:55] Through extensive fundraising, an organization led largely by a senior, George Hughes, in collaboration with the SCA, Woodgrove Athletics, Anyone Can Serve, and many other organizations, Woodgrove raised $8,000 to help the family and the Epilepsy Foundation of America.

[03:32:13] To me, this response encapsulates what Woodgrove is, not simply a high school, but a family, one that is full of support, encouragement, and strength, a family of which I feel so grateful to be a part. Thank you. Okay, and now we're going to go to item 11 on our agenda, which is the acting superintendent's report. Dr. Smith.

[03:32:41] Good evening, board members. I'm pleased to be here with you this evening to share some good news through the acting superintendent's report. This week, we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, and I want to thank our thousands of teachers and others who have served students in the classroom and in their school community each and every day.

[03:33:01] Please take a moment to thank a teacher and help honor their service to our students. It's true now more than ever that teachers do the important work of making all of their professions possible. Thank you, LCPS teachers, for all that you do, and we have a short video of thanks we'd like to share.

[03:33:19] We are proud that Loudoun County was recently ranked as the best county to live in Virginia. Loudoun County Public Schools is also ranked as one of the top school divisions in our state and nation. This work and distinction could not be possible without you.

[03:33:36] Your voice and support matter. Every day we are amazed at the dedication you offer our more than 83,000 students. You are all incredible educators and individuals, and you deserve the very best LCPS can offer. LCPS needs leaders like you.

[03:33:51] You are role models for our kids. The lessons they learn each day will help to shape their continued leadership and our collective future. Working together, we can achieve the best possible future for ourselves, our students, our colleagues, and our community.

[03:34:11] Education is the foundation and backbone of our county, state, and nation. The passion that you bring to our work each day matters. I sincerely appreciate the excellence that you bring to LCPS. Loudoun County is an incredible place to learn, live, work, and play because of you.

[03:34:29] Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you, teachers. thank you for all that you do. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. So it is Teacher Appreciation Week, and we look forward to continuing to celebrate and recognizing the exceptional teachers that we have across LCPS now and into the future.

[03:34:53] This, next slide. Okay, there we go. This week, actually tomorrow, we will also celebrate National School Nurse Day. Since 1972, this day has been set aside to recognize school nurses. The day was established to foster a better understanding of the role of school nurses in the educational setting and has observed each year during National Nurses Week. We know now more than ever the importance of our school nurses and I ask that you help to honor them this week by thanking them tomorrow and throughout the time we have left. Congratulations to Michelle Robles, a special education teacher at Forest Grove Elementary School. Ms. Robles was selected as the April

[03:35:32] Year of the Educator winner. Year of the Educator is a joint initiative with the Loudon Education Foundation to randomly thank selective staff for their commitment to LCPS and award them a prize valued at $500 or more. April's prize, as coordinated by LEF, was a down-by-the-boardwalk weekend getaway to Ocean City, Maryland, complete with a one-night stay at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Ocean City and a gift certificate to Coastal Salt and Ocean City Restaurant. Special thanks to the Loudon Education Foundation for making this ongoing recognition initiative possible this

[03:36:05] school year. On April 27th, the Loudoun Chamber honored 118 of our community's real-life heroes for their courageous, often life-saving actions at the 38th Annual Loudoun County Valor Awards. Honorees included some of our own LCPS team members. Heritage staff members Doreen Cook, Ashley Kolblis, Michael Kripevnich, Candy Oden, Karen Slothaber, Allison Steffen, and Michelle Tibbs were honored for coming to the aid of a co-worker when she experienced a medical emergency while at work. Honorees also include Loudoun County community members and LCPF staff, Dr. David

[03:36:44] Johnson, Dr. Kimberly Kolb, and Ed Renahan. These individuals assisted a spectator who was experiencing a medical emergency while attending a Riverside varsity basketball game. The heroic actions of all these individuals helped to save two lives, and we applaud their quick thinking and their care for those around them. On Friday, May 5th, LCPS honored school nutrition professionals for their commitment to providing healthy meals to students. Between preparing delicious food, adhering to strict nutrition standards, navigating student food allergies, rolling out a new point of sale software this school year, and doing all of this with a smile. LCPS nutrition professionals

[03:37:23] have a lot on their plate daily. And to give you an idea of the scope of school nutrition professionals tasks, consider the numbers shown here. LCPS school nutrition professionals from the beginning of the year until April 21st served more than 1.2 million breakfasts and more than 4.4 million lunches. For many children, school lunch is the most important and most nutrient-rich meal of their day. On behalf of half of LCPS, it's my pleasure to say thank you and job well done.

[03:37:53] The Support Services Leadership Academy is a unique opportunity that allows employees interested in professional development and growth to be part of a cohort of leaders in similar support positions throughout the division. More than 30 employees took part in the academy this year, which returned for the first time since the fall of 2019. This commitment developing future leaders helps LCPS recruit and retain top talent and it helps our employees grow their professional skills thanks to all our employees who participated. As you may have heard we are happy to report that LCPS is

[03:38:27] ranked number five best public school district out of 131 in Virginia according to niche.com a web-based ranking and review service. Niche ranks school districts based on a variety of criteria including academic performance, teacher salaries, diversity, parent-student surveys, and more to determine which communities have the best public schools. With 83,000 students and a workforce of more than 12,000 employees, LCPS is the largest Virginia school system to make the top five. LCPS received an A for an overall niche grade, ranks 2 out of 121 for the best school district for athletes in Virginia, and ranks number 22 out of 132 as a best place to teach in Virginia. LCPS ranked higher

[03:39:07] than Fairfax County at 6 and similarly sized Virginia Beach at 7. Congratulations to the entire LCPS staff for their tremendous dedication of excellence to our students. LCPS has been honored with the best communities for music education designation from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education for the 16th year in a row. LCPS offers music education to more than 35,000 K-5 students and 21,000 6-12 students enrolled in band, chorus, guitar, or orchestra. In addition, LCPS's programs have received numerous

[03:39:44] honors and recognitions for excellence throughout the region, state, and nation. The Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement and efforts to provide music access and education to all students. Congratulations to all the educators who helped bring music to our students. 24 Academies of Loudoun students recently participated in the skills usa virginia state leadership conference and skills championships the mission of skills usa and its competitions is to build a skilled workforce and to highlight those students engaging in trainings and courses of study that prepared them for the workforce

[03:40:22] the students competed in 13 contests with eight of the contests placing in the top three additionally students brought home 15 individual medals congratulations to these skilled students Congrats also go out to Loudoun County High School's Navy JROTC cadets for winning the national championship in two drill categories over the weekend at National High School Drill Competition in Daytona Beach, Florida. Loudoun County High School's NJROTC unit was established in 2009 and is the only JROTC unit in Loudoun County. The mission of the NJROTC program is to

[03:40:58] instill in the students the ideals of leadership, character, honor, and service. Congratulations to these cadets and their success. Loudoun County's School Business Partnership Executive Council, in partnership with the Loudoun Education Foundation, honored community partners and Loudoun County students at their annual awards celebration on April 24th. Held at the National Conference Center, the partnership recognized organizations that align with LCPS strategic plan framework and are instrumental in supporting the core beliefs, strategic goals, and mission of

[03:41:34] empowering students to make meaningful contributions to the world. Here you can see just a few pictures from the event, which also highlighted the important work of our community career host for Job for a Day program. In 2022, 46 companies, municipalities, and organizations hosted 362 LCPS students to experience Job for a Day. Mark your calendars now to support the November 6, 2023 Job for a Day program. I also want to take a moment here to congratulate all the award winners For the Bringing Community Together Award, Asha Yothi, in partnership with Waxpool Elementary.

[03:42:10] Winner of the Make a Difference Award, Riverside Church, in partnership with Sugar Land Elementary. For the Partners for Progress Award, the PBS NewsHour, Student Reporting Labs, in partnership with Dominion High and Loudoun Valley High. There were two winners of the Student Innovator Award, MinVest Finance, Academies of Loudoun, and Gustavo Torres of the North Star School, and Loudoun County Mental Health Youth Prevention Alliance of Loudoun.

[03:42:34] The Legacy Award went to retired Chief Gregory Brown and School Resource Officer Unit of the Leesburg Police Department. And finally, the J. Hamilton Lambert Exemplary Leadership in Education and Community Service Award went to Jim Person, a retired LCPS administrator.

[03:42:51] I want to congratulate all these businesses and the student award winners and thank the business community for their unwavering dedication to creating an opportunity for LCPS students to learn and grow. Approximately 35 leaders from the health and medical industry took part in the Building Health and Medical Science Careers Roundtable discussion on April 28.

[03:43:11] The event, hosted by the Loudon Education Foundation and LCPS, spurred a meaningful conversation about how to best connect student interests to the workforce needs of the region's health care and medical providers. Educators with LCPS saw the roundtable as a part of an ongoing discussion with key partners to help to create a future health and medical sciences academy.

[03:43:31] The vision is for a health sciences program for 9 through 12 that creates classroom to career pathways. Among those represented at the event were Inova Loudoun Hospital, Stone Spring Hospital, HHMI Janelia Research Center, Kaiser Permanente, Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Northern Virginia Community College, and Shenandoah University.

[03:43:52] That's a lot of great things going on in LCPS. Now I'd like to share a few operational updates. We've had a lot of great submissions for our design challenge, which closed at the end of April. During May, the design challenge panel review the submitted artwork and notified selected challenge designers by early June.

[03:44:10] Later in June, these students will be recognized at a school board meeting, so stay tuned for more exciting news. One of my priorities as acting superintendents to identify and act on areas where we can improve our efficiency and effectiveness. As a result, I, with members of our LCPS leadership, have made important organizational changes within LCPS administration.

[03:44:30] These changes focus on continuous improvement, promote and clear alignment and necessary supports, and allow LCPS to elevate our focus on providing high-quality instruction for each and every student across our division. These changes are being made based on feedback we've heard over the past several months about alignment of student services and instruction, alignment of program and studies in the content offices, and more direct connection between schools and the superintendent, along with improved communications.

[03:44:56] On May 1st, a few changes went into effect. Ray Mitchell, who is chief of schools, supervises and supports all of our level offices in schools, will now report directly to the superintendent. Dr. Asia Jones, assistant superintendent of student services, will now report to the deputy superintendent.

[03:45:13] Joan Sahlgren, director of communications and community engagement, will report to the chief of staff. Beginning on July 1, Neil Slevin, our current acting chief of staff, will go back to the department of instruction as the assistant superintendent of instruction. The Division of Professional Learning, the Division of English Learner Programs, and the Office of Adult Education will report to the Assistant Superintendent of Instructing.

[03:45:33] The reporting structure over the rest of the teaching and learning to the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction will not change. Dr. Ashley Ellis, Deputy Superintendent, will shift from the Department of Instruction to the Superintendent's Office. The Division of Equity and the Division of Research, Assessment, and School Improvement will continue to report directly to the Deputy Superintendent and will also be included in the Superintendent's Office.

[03:45:53] I look forward to working with these individuals mentioned above and the entire LCPS team to continue to further our mission and vision. The Division of Teaching and Learning in collaboration with the Office of Elementary Education has gone through a collaborative process to revise the elementary master schedule for the 23-24 school year.

[03:46:12] Based on feedback from schools over the past several years, the schedules have been revised to identify a minimum number of minutes for each of the four content areas as well as intervention time. The new master schedule will also have 50-minute blocks for specials such as art, music, PE, library, and counseling. The new elementary schedule also allows 50 minutes of common planning daily for grade-level teachers.

[03:46:33] Dr. Ashley Cramp and Elaine Lehman have worked with teachers, principals, and content supervisors on this change and published a video to all school-based staff outlining the process. They're also in the process of supporting schools and the master scheduling for next year. Feedback from schools has been overall quite positive, and we're looking forward to this new schedule next year.

[03:46:53] LCPS is announcing its partnership with School Links, a college and career readiness platform to prepare students for what comes after graduation. School Links will launch on May 22nd with communication going out to middle and high school students and their families and staff. Communications with elementary students will occur at the start of next school year.

[03:47:12] LCPS principals and counselors have already received information about this new platform, which is taking the place of Naviance, and that will sunset on June 30th. Students and families should find that the School Links platform is user-friendly and engages with students in a very compelling manner to help them explore academic and career pathways and help them to develop their post-graduation goals and plans.

[03:47:35] Once students log on, they'll be encouraged to explore the platform and take School Links' online career interest inventory. We will first communicate the transition information to our rising seniors this spring. Counselors and Career Center assistants will support students as they join and use the new platform.

[03:47:51] The class of 2024, next year's seniors, can look forward to accessing additional features in August when the college application portal opens. While the school counseling services as the host and the project manager of the implementation of School Links, this dynamic and comprehensive program is supported along with several departments in LCPS to include the Department of Digital Innovation, Department of Instruction, Career and Technical Education, and the Office of Communications.

[03:48:18] We plan to see an immediate increase in the student and family engagement as a result. School Links will align one platform for all students and families, no matter what age. It will also act as a repository for elementary and secondary student artifacts and portfolios, which will transfer with them through graduation and beyond.

[03:48:36] This will also help to support counselors and academic advising practices, as well as support parent engagement. School Links has endless data and reports to easily access student engagement, outstanding tasks and assignments, post-secondary plans, scholarship monies awarded, and much more. This platform will streamline student support for multiple LCPS departments and aligns common access and goals. We are very excited about the transition of School Links this spring and into next year. We've had some great connection and engagement at the listening sessions thus far.

[03:49:07] Approximately 40 to 50 students, I mean 30 to 50 parents, staff, and students have attended each session. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to respond to questions and concerns and work with our communities to find solutions. I also appreciate the support of all school board members and LCPS staff who's attended these events as well. I know we cannot solve problems in just a couple hours, but having the opportunity for visibility, clear communication is a first step in the process. Three sessions remain, and I invite you to attend one of these if you've not been able to do so. That now concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Smith. We'll now move on

[03:49:44] to item 12, which is public comment. Thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from Loudoun County residents and community members and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system. Speakers must limit comments to the time allotted based on the number of speakers tonight, which is 25, and the agenda this evening. All speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time. All audience members shall maintain civility, decorum, and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times.

[03:50:22] Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium, or during a break. Violations of civility, decorum, and respect include shouting, heckling, jeering, applause, or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting. Obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa.

[03:50:40] Interrupting speakers, attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair. And approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees. Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, profanity, or other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment.

[03:51:03] Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. Additionally, complaints regarding division employees should be directed to the school principal or an appropriate school division official. Speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board.

[03:51:20] Per LCPS policy, members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in, on the decision of the chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or the public comment period ending for the evening.

[03:51:56] Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom prior to the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of materials. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais. The public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through LCPS-TV on Comcast Channel 18 and Verizon Fios Channel 43.

[03:52:17] The live stream of the meeting may also be viewed on the LCPS website. Tonight we're going to begin with our in-person speakers. The first speaker is Sandy Sullivan, to be followed by Brenda Bengston. Good evening, I'm Sandy Sullivan, an elementary school teacher who currently serves the members of the Loudoun Education Association as their president.

[03:52:49] Change is hard, and we all know this. This isn't a new concept. One thing that makes change more challenging, though, is when it happens to us. We were not involved in the decision-making and implementation of those changes. This often happens to educators, changes put on us.

[03:53:05] Before spring break, I heard from a member, and then after that, several others who were concerned about what they were hearing about changes to the elementary school specialist schedules. We now know that those changes will happen next year, but are relieved that those LEA members have now had the opportunity to ask questions, share experiences, and concerns about this coming change with Dr. Ellis and her staff.

[03:53:26] That conversation was productive. I will share part of what I emailed the LEA members after our meeting. Your experience inputting questions are so valuable and should have been sought out and considered long before decisions were made and guidance was developed.

[03:53:42] While it's clear that this change is moving forward, I am pleased that staff is aware that this will require a lot of adjustments and may need to be tweaked along the way. It will be incumbent on all of us and your colleagues to continue to give input and ask questions before next school year and after these new schedules are being lived. One other thing I'd like to share about this change is contained in the email I sent to the Department of Instruction after our meeting. Hearing that the plan changes will not equate to increased encumbered planning time with CLTs or other dedicated meetings is excellent news as we regularly hear from teachers whose planning time continues to be filled with tasks and

[03:54:21] meetings which makes it challenging for them to complete the crucial work required in order to be best prepared for their students. We look forward to continued work with the Department of Instruction in order to provide the best for our students and educators. Also, our union looks forward to continue work with you, the school board, in order to provide the best for our students and educators. Thank you. Brenda Bengston to be followed by Fran Dudley. Last meeting

[03:54:56] showed clearly what the talking points will be: the politics of bathrooms. Since As an outrage host was fired recently, I'm curious where everyone will send their selfie audition videos. Just imagine what the political fliers may look like.

[03:55:13] We heard dozens of vivid descriptions about the perils of single-use bathrooms and the deceit that all existing bathrooms would be demolished. My first question: whose responsibility is it to teach good bathroom habits?

[03:55:30] training, proper aim, disposal of hygiene products, flushing and washing. Do families have segregated bathrooms at home? We are reminded, teach your children well. Are parents who are unnervingly fixated on other people's children's bathroom practices, asking to serve as bathroom monitors? That's a terrible idea. It gives a new meaning to Virginia Creeper.

[03:55:59] So isn't it ironic to see this response to an editorial? Why would adults creepily focus on kids in bathrooms while treating real people in real need with contempt? The real people with real need are our students.

[03:56:19] Banning anyone from bathrooms is contemptible. The political fodder contradicts what Glenn Youngkin said at CNN's town hall in March about extra bathrooms in schools. We need gender-neutral bathrooms, and so people can use the bathroom that they, in fact, are comfortable with.

[03:56:40] Is this just talking out of both sides of one mouth? The politics of bathrooms. Oh, joy. Thank you. Fran Dudley to be followed by Jonathan Dudley.

[03:57:06] Good evening. I've been a resident of Loudoun County. For over 10 years, I work for Loudoun County Public Schools, but most importantly, I'm a mother to three children, the most amazing people in the world.

[03:57:28] In other words, I am you. But that's not why I'm here tonight. I'm here for reasons. The first reason is my daughter, Rachel, my forever 21-year-old daughter, the oldest of my three children, the first person to ever call me the most cherished, beautiful, and treasured word in the dictionary.

[03:57:50] mom rachel was taken home called taken from us and called home on july 13 2021 the day that my life my world forever changed a paradigm shift that rocks the foundation of our lives i don't have enough time to tell you how much i loved love rachel how special rachel was is how completely lost i am without her that i'm a mom of three kids not two but thankfully rachel lives on in all the

[03:58:28] better parts of me rachel is my strength and she's guiding my heart my words and all that i am which brings me to the second reason i'm here i don't want another parent to experience my unbearable pain and loss rachel died of fentanyl poisoning she took what she thought was a percocet we later learned that pill was laced with four times the lethal dose of fentanyl. It's taken me over a year to deal with my daughter being gone. I can't even say dead but it's time to deal with how fentanyl

[03:59:04] is in Loudoun County. Rachel is not the only victim. Please remember me, remember my children and remember my daughter and tell your children that fentanyl is here and don't take a pill. Thank you. Jonathan Dudley, to be followed by Daniel Brubaker.

[03:59:35] I wanted to say that a serial killer is among us. He kills 70,000 people a year, yet no news station will broadcast his name. He kills 200 people a day, but no schooler warns their students.

[03:59:54] Contrary, mass shootings kill 700 people a year, which equals out to two people a day. Last year, I was a senior in high school, and I was taught more about the dangers of mass shootings than the dangers of fentanyl. So, I ask myself, what exactly is fentanyl?

[04:00:13] Fentanyl is a type of opioid. Opioids are not bad. They've been around for 2,000 years, rooting back into ancient Mesopotamia. What makes fentanyl so dangerous is the science behind it. To keep the science short, our brains have an extensive border control along the blood vessels.

[04:00:32] It's why a common cold or bacterial infection can't get into our brains. What fentanyl does is it bypasses the security system, taking mere seconds to get into the brain. Morphine takes minutes. I will go on and on, wherever I'm here to say this.

[04:00:50] The best way to prevent fentanyl is to teach about it. Show them what fentanyl does to the brain, but more so families. Like my mother, my 20-year-old sister was taken away from me. Yet, throughout the whole my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college, I never was once told about the dangers of it.

[04:01:09] It's Fentanyl National Day, National Awareness Day, today. Yet Loudoun County did not post a single thing about it. The best way to prevent fentanyl deaths in Loudoun County and more so in a whole nation is to educate people about it and I know Loudoun County has been shot has been taking shots at a lot these past couple years but we can lead the nation in national prevention of fentanyl thank you thank you Daniel Brubaker to be followed by

[04:01:39] Abby Platt no it's a serious problem thank you for those comments and thank you for taking care of my daughter Elizabeth today and welcoming her up there school board Elizabeth several Christmases ago gave me a coffee mug reminding me that she is my favorite child, and she is my favorite child, just like the other two. Well, like many in this room, I paid our personal property

[04:02:14] taxes last week. They were unreasonably high. More than 60% of our property taxes go to pay for our schools. I do not mind paying for schools, but I do mind waste and malfeasance. I especially do not like it when our tax dollars are used to make schools more dangerous. I regularly hear stories and once again just even the other day of big-hearted LCPS teachers and staff of modest income even helping kids from their personal financial resources. Meanwhile some majority among you have been busy adding layers of high paying and highly politicized administrators who

[04:02:53] increase the burden and stress not only on the taxpayers but also upon teachers and staff. Then you approved collective bargaining which will siphon millions more of our dollars away from classrooms and into the coffers of the Loudoun Education Association for the service of denying teachers the freedom to speak on their own behalf.

[04:03:13] Then you plan to spend over $11 million to redesign bathrooms in LCPS to be individually locking all sex, creating all kinds of new safety risks, even though merely having a few optional individual bathrooms for those who want or need them would adequately address the need that you purport to care about.

[04:03:31] I ask that you rethink your priorities, pay teachers better, and stop wasting our money on your pet projects and personal friends. This school district is not just for serving your own interests. LCP exists to serve the taxpayers, the citizens, and most of all, the children.

[04:03:48] Thank you. Thank you. Abby Platt, to be followed by Carrie LaBelle. I loved hearing staff being recognized for their contributions to the community and for the ways that they have uniquely met the needs of children in Loudoun County.

[04:04:12] Those who safely drive buses and feed kids healthy meals, what a great gift. Call me a cynic, but I couldn't help but think that it was a cheap distraction from the 14 special education teachers that are being cut from the budget and a way to publicly distract from the reality that yet another high-paying admin position is being created for employee recognition.

[04:04:36] That position will be paid $205,000. dollars. At the last meeting, Mr. Mahedemi complained that many were mad and that you're not getting enough credit for the good that you're doing. Let me help you understand why. Just one reason why. The grand jury unequivocally told this board that there should be greater transparency and yet nearly a third of the meetings that are held by this school board this year were either in part or their entirety closed. This includes school board meetings and committee meetings. The last two legislative and policy meetings were closed to the public.

[04:05:17] Why? Why would a legislative meeting be closed to the public? There is such a complete disconnect between what you think is happening and what is really happening. There is so much smoke and mirrors. There's a disconnect between how the public feels and what's happening. Money is being wasted our children are languishing money is being blown on things that do not need attention i do not want to take away from the good that's being done in our community they need to be recognized but sitting there and patting yourselves on the back and distracting from the work that

[04:05:55] needs to be done the budget needs to be rectified we need real change and we need it right now Thank you. Carrie LaBelle, to be followed by Anne Donahue.

[04:06:19] Back in 1974, I was privileged to become part of a group of teachers who would write Public Law 94-142. As part of that group, I am very familiar with all of its tenets and requirements.

[04:06:39] That law today is known as IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act. And its most important part is the inclusion of parents as part of the team that develops the educational program for their child.

[04:07:00] So, as an advocate, I have been one in my long service to special education, I know that when parents ask me why Loudoun County feels they can cut and refuse and reduce services to their child without their consent, because you see, IDEA requires the parent consent before any plan is put into place. I know that when they ask me this, I ask, have you

[04:07:33] gone and tried everything? Have you tried mediation? If the answer is no, I tell them then you have every right to sue this school board. It is not only a violation of federal law, it is just plain wrong.

[04:07:54] And I am Carrie LaBelle, and I am running for school board to make things right for our students, teachers, and parents. Thank you. And Donahue, to be followed by Liz Bergstrom. Good evening, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, and members of the school board.

[04:08:18] Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you and for your service to our community. I'd like to, I'm a Loudoun County resident and a proud mom of two LCPS elementary school students. And tonight I'd like to tell you why the Pride Proclamation is important to me. LGBTQ youth make up only about 8 to 10% of the youth population overall, but they make up 40% of the population of homeless youth.

[04:08:46] 84% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth and 74% of trans youth report being harassed regularly by their peers. More troublingly, nearly half of all LGBTQ youth have seriously considered suicide, and LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers.

[04:09:12] These statistics are horrifying to me, and I hope they are horrifying to you as well. But statistics do indicate that LGBTQ youth are significantly less likely to consider or attempt suicide if they feel supported by their families, their communities, and their schools.

[04:09:31] That's why this proclamation is so important, because it signals to the LGBTQ youth of Loudoun County that they are seen, accepted, and welcome in LCPS as they should be. pretending that LGBTQ youth don't exist or in any way are less than their straight peers causes irreparable harm to those kids.

[04:10:00] And I ask you, what is the harm of a proclamation, even to people that don't agree with it? I urge you to adopt the proclamation, but also to follow up on it because the words alone are hollow without action behind them. Thank you. Thank you.

[04:10:15] Liz Bergstrom to be followed by Peg Klein. I am happy and proud to be a speech language pathologist. Speech language pathologists in Loudoun County Public Schools and frankly in most of the state do not have equity in our position. The outdated staffing standard of 55 to 1 is not being applied to SLPs because I haven't had less than 55 students in more than three years and I am not alone. However other therapists and diagnosticians within Loudoun County have

[04:10:49] workloads of 40 to 1 and less. How is this equitable when only we are required to be case managers, diagnosticians, therapists, and maintain a caseload which is a revolving door of student groups and paperwork throughout our day every day? 40 to 1 should be mandated for itinerant and single school speech language pathologists due to our workload when compared with other professionals within LCPS. Set a new staffing standard LCPS, one that is equitable. If you can see the need for 25 new counselor positions, I believe you

[04:11:26] will also be able to see the need for additional speech-language pathologists with lower workloads. Finally, the American Speech Language and Hearing Association recognizes May as Better Speech Language and Hearing Month. We would all appreciate your recognition of the role of speech language pathologists in education during a May board meeting. Though small in number compared to teachers, we believe our contribution to excellence in education for every student is significant.

[04:11:56] Thank you so much. Thank you. Peg Klein to be followed by Mark Winn. I like to say at the outset that my comments are not directed to the team at our daughter's school, but at LCPS administration and the board. In 2019, my husband and I traveled to China and brought our then five-and-a-half-year-old daughter home. She had spent all five-and-a-half years in an orphanage of 500 children. She didn't

[04:12:30] know us. She didn't know English. We were lucky enough to find a loving, private kindergarten place for her. She began to thrive. She learned English. She learned the alphabet. She learned to count, and she loves school. When she was in the first grade, it was the 2020 to 2021 school year.

[04:12:53] That year was a total waste for her. We had to hire an attorney to get her an IEP. We finally got one in the spring of 2021. She's had four IEPs since then, and she's only mastered one goal for PE. She still reads at a kindergarten to first grade level. We make our request for additional services so that she can learn how to read, but they are continually denied.

[04:13:25] At our last IEP meeting, a special ed supervisor told me that reading, writing, and math are not necessary life skills for her. Let me repeat that. A LCPS special ed supervisor thinks that reading, writing, and math are not necessary skills for a special needs child. Well, let me say this directly back to LCPS. Reading, writing, and math are not only necessary skills for every child, they are basic human rights. Every child has the right to know how to read, write, and do math.

[04:14:04] Stop spending millions on special pilot programs and instead properly prioritize funding for special ed services. Thank you. Thank you. Mark Wynn to be followed by John Chiment. I'm going to give a little history lesson here. I lived in San Francisco Bay Area in 78 through 81. What a

[04:14:35] beautiful place. Safe, clean, thriving, economically sound. Sound familiar? During the time out there, they put policies forward that you guys are duplicating. History will repeat itself. If you look at San Francisco now, it's accessible. I know I don't see one of y'all that's old enough to have been out there at that time.

[04:15:10] But, well, you can read it in the books. Oh, that's right. You don't have it in the books. You all need to promote ethical, moral standards that are proven through time to do the right thing.

[04:15:33] Once again, but if any one of you caused one of these little ones who believe in him to sin, it would be better for him or her to have a millstone hung around their neck and they be thrown into the depths of the sea.

[04:15:56] Matthew 18, 6. These words are eternal. And it's only, they're talking to the leaders. They're not talking to them. Jesus wasn't talking to them. They were talking to the leaders. Normally, you'd say you've been served.

[04:16:13] This time, you've been put on notice. Even if you don't believe, you will one day. Thank you for your time. Thank you. John Chiment, to be followed by Ryan Hoover.

[04:16:30] Good evening, my name is John Chiment. I'm a resident of Purcellville and a parent of an elementary school student.

[04:16:48] On April 27th, I submitted a selection of comments, concerns, and a proposed course of action via the superintendent portal. I am still waiting for a response from that. I believe it was suggested to be five business days. I followed that up with an email to a member of district staff who confirmed that my request was in the portal and could be seen.

[04:17:09] She suggested that she would flag it for action. I followed this up on the 5th of May with a further request for a response. I have not yet received a response, and while I understand that answers are not provided to members of the public at this time, I would greatly appreciate a response to those comments that appear to be visible inside the system.

[04:17:29] Since I still have another minute of time remaining, from what I learned earlier tonight, listening into the Pride Proclamation and other parents' concerns about respect to students inside LCPS. I don't know much of the Pride Proclamation other than what was said earlier today. It sounds like an excellent idea and I believe would benefit members of the LGBTQIA community within LCPS. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ryan Hoover to be followed by Elizabeth Boyko.

[04:18:06] Elizabeth Boyko to be followed by Tina Ganchalar. I just wanted to share today what our good friend Natasha Grover wrote on social media to share her news that she wrote, I won my FOIA lawsuit against the Loudoun County School Board. They have to give me the security footage I requested in 2021 and they have to pay my attorney's fees. If you recall, then Superintendent Ziegler decided he wanted me banned from school board meetings for nearly a year. His yes men on

[04:18:42] the board, Brenda Sheridan, Ian Sorokin, and Atusa Reeser decided to uphold his insane ban that was based on false information, but don't let them fool you. I gave them the correct information during the appeals process. They just decided to trust the man they knew to be a liar over a parent whose voice they were happy to silence for 10 months. All three of them voted to support Ziegler. Ziegler, John Clark, and Mark Smith worked to ban me, sending what I consider to be a libelous no-trespass letter to the sheriff's office. Then they fought for 18 months to prevent me from having the video footage that would have exonerated me, but Judge Fleming ordered LCPS to give me the video and to pay over $18,000 in attorney's fees. He did not agree with the school

[04:19:21] board's argument that every parent is a potential attacker who could use security footage from outside the board meeting room to launch attacks against board members. Justice was served. Thank you. Tina Ganchilar to be followed by Renee Crawford. Good evening. I'm a speech-language pathologist servicing students in the Sterling Park vicinity. However, my current focus today is not to discuss any special education budgetary constraints at this time unfortunately. Recently

[04:19:57] a student and I had a conversation and when I asked her about her weekend she had mentioned to me I went to the park near the school with my mom and there was a guy with a gun in his hand but luckily we both got away. Her mom is deaf representing the deaf culture. Of course the news shocked me to my core. With the terrifying nationwide gun violence epidemic in this country I just don't understand why we can't take the $11 million in the budget and fund every school the way we are funding the admin building, the way it is set up to be Fort Knox as we know it.

[04:20:29] We owe it to our students and our staff members to set up every single school building in Loudoun County with built-in extra safety precautionary security measures against gun violence, the way the admin building is set up with our metal detectors and airport-like security measures at the very least.

[04:20:45] We educators are not police officers, so we should not have to go through any professional developments training us to be one, as we did not go to college and grad school for this. If appropriate funding and much-needed support for our teachers and special education providers is not available at this time, our focus should also be on preventing future lives from being killed and not on bathrooms.

[04:21:08] It's so sad that we need to go to this extreme in our schools for security purposes. However, our communities deserve better, and we cannot afford to lose any more lives in this nation. Schools should be a safe and peaceful environment for all. Please also continue to support all SLP positions and their increased staffing needs at this time.

[04:21:29] Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Thank you. Renee Crawford to be followed by Alicia Brand. Good evening. The local papers are praising LCPS for being the fifth best school in Virginia, according to Niche.

[04:21:49] But if you look further into the study, you will notice that teachers rated Loudoun County the 22nd best school system in Virginia to work for. I wonder why that is. Maybe it's because veteran teachers are paid considerably less than surrounding counties. My paltry $320 raise this year was insulting.

[04:22:06] And if I had spent my career in Prince William County, I would be making $35,000 more a year than I am making right now. That is an unacceptable difference. Maybe it's because we have the longest school year and longest school day of any jurisdiction in Virginia. The county sent out proposed future calendars to be reviewed, and none of them addressed this inequity, a fact that many teachers in Loudoun are upset about.

[04:22:28] Maybe it's because of the farce of the staff satisfaction survey that LCPS sent out this year. We were asked to rate our experiences in LCPS, not for issues at the county level, no, for issues at our school level. I love my school. I'm happy with my school. I'm unhappy with district policies.

[04:22:43] But there was no place on that survey for me to register complaints with the county. You're simply uninterested in our opinion. Maybe it's because of the ridiculous grading policy, which ties teachers' hands and severely dumps down the educational experience of the students, and the fact that this week the county announced that it would be auditing teachers' grade books for compliance with the policy.

[04:23:04] Maybe it's the increase in disciplinary issues since the pandemic. And no, LCPS, I do not need, and I quote, monthly professional learning focused on strategies to provoke positive behavior in the classroom. Discipline in my classroom is fine. It's in the schools as a whole that it's a problem.

[04:23:20] This is because of disciplinary policies that the school board revised. Students know that there are zero consequences and problematic behaviors such as skipping and tardies, destroying bathrooms, and cursing and mocking adults in the hallways has exponentially increased as a result. There are many reasons why we rank 22nd.

[04:23:37] My hope is that the school board will try to rectify at least some of these. Thank you. Alicia Brand to be followed by Brian Davison. Every day brings a new story of tragedy, trauma, and terror to Loudoun County Public Schools.

[04:23:58] Teachers who are supposed to be role models and protectors of our children have been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct. Guns have been found on school premises. Last Friday, a teacher committed suicide on the way to school, followed by a suicide attempt by another teacher at school.

[04:24:18] And now, we are facing the threat of domestic terrorism from a group known, ironically, as the Loudoun Love Warriors, who are targeting parents with violence for the purpose of destroying lives.

[04:24:34] I recently received a death threat from this group, which involved curb stomping, a brutal and deadly action reminiscent of Nazi violence. As a Jewish American, this threat is especially chilling and traumatizing.

[04:24:53] Ian, Brenda, Atusa, Erica, and at-large school board candidate Anne Donahue are connected to this group who spoke using guns to permanently end a life. This is why Parents United after March 2021 to recall the school board when you stood by like cowards when they first made their hit list and announced their plans. Your silence gave permission to them to continue their intimidation tactics at Leesburg Elementary School against Tanner Cross and form the Loud and Love Warriors

[04:25:31] At 6 p.m. tonight on ABC7, the first story exposing your involvement broke. You may want to pause your meeting at 11 p.m. tonight to tune into part two of this story. You are not only guilty of failing and protecting students, teachers, and parents, you are participating in the violence.

[04:25:51] I call for your immediate resignation. And Ian, don't you smile at me. Please yield the mic to the next speaker. Thank you. brian davison to be followed by victoria hunyadi good evening i always come up here with comments to talk about and then i hear the other comments from the speakers and i i just can't let it go by so i had the the teacher who came up here and claimed they teach more than any other district in virginia when you passed the school calendar with 170 days 170 atusa can you count that's

[04:26:31] less than 180 so um but the teachers out there please you know review your math also had a speaker who came up here, and I want to quote him right, they said, denying anybody access to a bathroom is reprehensible. And however you feel is the bathroom you should be let into. So that was by a loud and Democrat activist. So we literally have Democrats saying that pedophiles should be allowed in to access their prey. Is that right, Atusa? I mean, I guess that's what y'all did back in May of 2021. And that's your official position. Now, I know Atusa and Brenda and all the rest of y'all like to claim you have death threats, right?

[04:27:11] It's all nonsense because none of them were prosecuted. But what Alicia talks about is real. When we call the sheriff because we have people writing maps to our homes and putting real death threats, it's real. But we don't whine about it at TUSA. We don't try to be a victim.

[04:27:28] Now, it's great that Natasha Grover won her lawsuit. We'll talk more about Falcone's lies. But Irby's not over in that court anymore, Ian. So we'll see how your court cases go from here on out. The comment I came to talk about was Title I funding. Ellis and Willoughby lie to you every year.

[04:27:47] So Mehedaby asks about how the funds can be distributed. The only requirement for a Title I school is Ellis wants to give the money to the Title I school so she doesn't have to do paperwork. That money can go anywhere. If it goes to a Title I school, she has less paperwork to do.

[04:28:02] You can add to it with your funds and make it equal. You can get everybody a proportional amount, but they sit here and lie to you, and you just take it, Harris. why? Thank you. Victoria Hunyadi to be followed by Carrie Michonne. Good evening. My name is Victoria Hunyadi. I'm a parent, a former substitute teacher, and a current candidate for Loudoun County School Board. Striving for excellence is the number one priority in education for the

[04:28:40] superintendent and for school board to achieve. They must allocate tax dollars and create school policies in order to achieve this goal. Sadly, in the past few years, many decisions were based on politics and ideologies rather than in the best interest of students, families, and teachers.

[04:28:59] The community's confidence in Loudoun County K-12 education eroded due to lack of transparency, failed policies, and wasted tax dollars. Students are not meeting grade level requirements. They are not safe in our schools. Teachers are not supported in their job, and parents are shut out of the education of their children. Change must come to restore excellence in our schools in order to do that. We need a new strong leadership with true community engagement. Thank you. Thank you.

[04:29:31] Carrie Michonne to be followed by Suzanne Satterfield. I came dashing here. First of all, you can't hear back there. Did you guys purposely turn the sound down? Because you can't hear. And I'm a grandma. I can't hear, but I can't hear back there. I came dashing from a tennis tournament, a tennis match, the last one in my parental career in high school of 36 years consecutively.

[04:30:08] having a child in K through 12 and I first of all want to say thank you for a few things because the sports programs the DECA programs the theater programs and everything else that has to go with all those extracurriculars are so vitally important to our students at the middle school and high school level and so thank you for the opportunity that my children have had to participate in that. 27 years have been here in Loudoun County. Secondly, our youngest of six is finishing

[04:30:45] up the academies, having had two years there. What an amazing, I mean amazing school. If we are going to spend, and I thank you for his opportunity because it has been mind-blowing fabulous, it is a shame that such a small number of kids get to go and be there.

[04:31:06] for 270 million dollars you can build a second academies instead of bathrooms bathrooms that are in the high school he's in half of which are locked all day long yes see ashley says yes at all the schools why are we spending money on bathrooms please it's mind-blowing that anybody would even insinuate you have bathrooms give the support to the admin for the discipline issues, which are why the bathrooms are closed. Yes, I know you students know I'm right. And use

[04:31:43] it for the kids, for the special ed that you're going to cut, and your speech therapist, and build another academy. It's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Suzanne Satterfield, to be followed by Tumei Harding. Rules for thee, but not for me. A majority of you that sit on the dais live by this. I had entirely different speech written until I turned on the news this evening. I learned of yet another

[04:32:15] Facebook group that several of you were in. Violent threats from wanting to shoot and curb stomp individuals that have spoken out at these very meetings. It has me shaken to the core and it should you. It's ironic that this Loud and Love Warriors Facebook group is the same group that started the Start Hate Speech petition. Brenda, you of all people have talked about leaving Loudoun

[04:32:48] because of violent threats you have received, and you continue to place yourself among these people that are known in these groups to make threats towards others for having opposing views. You Atusa, Brenda, and Corbo are still in another private Facebook group, Loudoun Ladies Uncensored, where almost a year and a half ago, my name and picture and address was posted because of a

[04:33:24] Christmas ornament that I made. I had a car casing my neighborhood that night. A police report was filed. Your names are all there. I've never wished nor condoned anyone for making threats over public officials or speakers whether i agree with them or not ian brenda atusa erica you two should all step down immediately and harris we're still waiting for good news children are not born in the wrong body love them as they are to all the students not represented by a flag or a pin

[04:34:03] i see you you are loved your feelings matter thank you to may harding is our final in-person speaker tonight. I came here tonight to speak out against the $11 million social experiment in our children's bathrooms. But Mick Minoc on Channel 7 has just shared breaking news that members of this board, along with several other Democrat officials, have been part of a secret Facebook group featuring members repeatedly advocating horrific violence, targeting parents

[04:34:38] speaking out at these meetings. This is unacceptable and abhorrent. I call for anyone associated with these groups to disavow the violence, disavow the targeting of parents, to disavow the radicals they've chosen to associate with. Elected officials must be held to a higher standard.

[04:35:01] As we learn more, I suspect resignations may be in order. Loudoun County deserves better. Thank you. We will now go to our virtual speakers. The first virtual speaker is Sarah Freeman. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Yes, go ahead.

[04:35:34] Yes. I am a parent of a medically complex child in the VDLE school. As of today, May 9th, the VDLE school was informed Virtual Virginia is being explored as a virtual option solely for medically fragile children if they participate in a medical screening by LCPS. If our children are subjected to a medical screening for admittance, please have it performed by an appropriate physician who understands these conditions. VDLE served many other protected disabilities along with the bullied children please consider revising the accepted list to be more inclusive. I am also

[04:36:09] here to discuss accountability. The LCPS school board voted to remove our amazing equitable VDLE school that served children protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act when counties like Prince William obtained grants through the ESSER fund to continue their virtual programs.

[04:36:26] For many months VDLE parents informed the school board of the equitable nature of VDLE school compared to in-person schooling. We detailed the inequities of the virtual Virginia program over our validated concerns that this non-accredited program would be unable to meet the needs of our specific student body. On April 13th, the LCPS administration emailed me, which included Superintendent Dr. Smith stating virtual Virginia is not an option for equitable support for the VDLE's children. This email was sent to every LCPS student school board member.

[04:37:00] It is discrimination to knowingly provide an inequitable education to these medically fragile children and violates their ADA rights. Our children are as equally entitled to a robust education as the healthy children. My child is missing a part of his immune system, but he as a person is whole and worthy.

[04:37:18] As a parent, I need to know how and when the LCPS school board plans to resolve this. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next virtual speaker is Jani Cho. Court processing disorder is an ability which affects children with learning information.

[04:37:39] Their ability to understand speech. Symptoms include difficulties understanding speech in noisy environments, following directions, and distinguish between familiar sounds. Limiting classroom distractions and noises and clear instructions help these children to learn better.

[04:38:00] The VLE program allows the children to control anointed classroom distractions and focus better. The VLE teachers are able to take the child into the breakout room to provide clear instructions and specific instructions to the child to increase the educational success without disrupting other classroom peers.

[04:38:23] I would like the LCPS to help accommodate to provide equity, FAPE, and ADA for all children of Loudoun County. Support virtual Loudoun Elementary. Their local Prince William County virtual programs have funded their program through the ESSER grant.

[04:38:43] I request the school board to review this funding option. Please continue VLE program. Thank you. Thank you. And Kristen Washington. The measure of success as a school system is not measured by the success of your most motivated and driven students, the ones who win awards and recognition, but by the success of your most vulnerable.

[04:39:09] In that regard, you fail. Dr. Smith claims special education funds weren't cut to renovate unnecessary bathrooms. But why don't you cut that wasteful spending and apply it to special education? we were all affronted by mr marshall's opinion that some students children shouldn't be educated but your actions of cutting special education funding and speech language pathologists show you feel the same thank you that was our final speaker tonight board members at this time we're

[04:39:43] going to take a brief recess please be back ready to go at 8 50.

[04:51:33] welcome back the board is coming out of recess we are going to pick up with our action items starting with 1301 closed session motion for superintendent search interviews i move that the loudon county school board convene closed meetings within the next 15 days for the purpose of interviewing candidates for the position of division superintendent the chief administrative officer of loudon county public schools seconded by mr mehedovie is there any discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor please raise

[04:52:12] your raise your hand say aye aye that motion will pass unanimously of board members present with corvo and morse absent for the vote that will take us to 1302 from the communications and outreach committee revisions to policy 3070 safety and emergency related communications miss polifko yes thank you we did review this policy at the last meeting and again this is revisions to policy 3070 from recommendation number one in the grand jury report to increase

[04:52:48] transparency and foster better communication lcps should include as much information as reasonably possible when inform when informing parents staff students and the community about significant events occurring on school property on a school bus or at a school sponsored event again critical information was omitted from the may 28th 2021 email from stonebridge high related to the sexual salt and i will briefly go back and share some information that was updated under sections c and d related to factors determining inter information distribution and limits on information distribution

[04:53:23] so in the redlined copy we had a brief update c in section c instead of should we struck that and put in shall to the extent permitted by law lcps shall provide as much relevant information as permissible to community members regarding safety and security incidents that take place on lcps property or lcps school-sponsored activities or events and the other change to this policy under section d once again striking the word should and inputting the word shall on line 120

[04:53:58] to read division council shall be consulted to ensure that confidential or otherwise private information is withheld in accordance with applicable law thank you do you have a motion Ms. Polipka? Yes, that would probably help move things along here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[04:54:17] I move that the Loudoun County School Board vote to include the amended changes for policy, I'm looking at the wrong thing, 3070. Thank you. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Ogadegbe.

[04:54:35] Ms. Polipka, would you like to speak any further to your motion? No, I think we're good. Thank you. Any additional comments or discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion to adopt the revisions to policy 3070 safety and emergency related communications. Please raise your head and say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morse and Corbo absent for the vote. That will take us to 1303 HRTD 2024-25 and 2025-26 student school calendar

[04:55:13] options. Ms. Bolin any additional information to provide or anything you'd wish to update the board on before a board member makes a motion i do have a presentation with the feedback from the survey

[04:55:26] yep go ahead okay i think we're good to go um so good evening as mentioned previously hrtd's goal

[04:56:35] for staff and families has been to develop and present for your approval multi-year school calendars and tonight it is my hope that we are able to fulfill that goal next slide lcps is committed to centering the work around helping every student pursue and reach their full potential and empowering them to make meaningful contributions to the world. The creation and adoption of the student school calendar is the foundational step for fulfilling this mission. Tonight we bring before the school board future school calendar options for two additional school years

[04:57:14] 24/25 and 25/26 in the hopes of the board adopting calendars tonight. As we commit to centering our work around students we recognize that teachers are a critical factor in helping our students meet their educational goals as such it is crucial that we provide educators with the time needed to prepare for a successful school year the student school calendar lays the foundation for the creation of an effective teacher work calendar and it is this pair of calendars the student calendar and the teacher calendar that

[04:57:52] then creates the standard by which all staff calendars are developed. Next. As a reminder, HRTD presented five calendar options for the 24-25 school year and four calendar options for the 25-26 school year.

[04:58:10] All proposed student calendar options offered a total of 180 student school days, and all presented teacher calendar options included 194 scheduled working days with three unscheduled working days for a standard 197 day teacher calendar this afforded teachers non-student working days for professional development unencumbered planning online annual training completion and other work-related activities highlights of each calendar option are provided

[04:58:45] on in the charts on this slide if you recall due to the days of the week on which christmas eve and christmas day fall there was not an option for the 25-26 school year that mirrors the 24-25 calendar option with less than a two-week winter break after our presentation of the draft calendar options at the march 28 2023 school board meeting hrtd sent a follow-up survey to families and staff asking for them to rank the draft calendar options based on their preferences we also included a

[04:59:23] question on veteran status as was requested by the school board. I know I say this often. Next slide please. I know I say this often but as you can imagine it is quite difficult and complex to build a school calendar that meets the needs of more than 80,000 students and their families and follows LCPS policy, Virginia code and recognizes that it will also set the foundation for more than 30 working calendars impacting over 12 000 employees all while staying true to our core values

[05:00:01] and our 2027 strategic plan for excellence next slide in order to develop future school calendars hrtd has gathered feedback in a variety of formats from various stakeholders and utilized this feedback to draft the options being printed presented to you tonight as this information was presented to you at the march 28th school board meeting i won't go through it in detail But if there are any questions, I'm happy to provide further information.

[05:00:33] Next slide. After presenting the 24-25 and 25-26 school year calendar options, HRTD worked collaboratively with the research office to create and distribute the LCPS school calendar options follow-up survey to staff and families.

[05:00:53] The survey asked respondents to rank the future school year calendar options in order, from most preferred to least preferred, one being most, five being least. Additionally, the survey asked respondents their veteran status in an effort to determine if there was a correlation between responses and the calendar options that identified Veterans Day as a school holiday. The survey also provided an option for respondents to provide feedback on the future calendar options. In reviewing the feedback, the most common theme was in relation to snow days and how snow days impact

[05:01:30] the student school calendar. Other comments mainly focused on holidays and breaks. The feedback received was consistent with feedback we have received from previous surveys. This survey was sent electronically to 111,000 individuals. Of those that were delivered successfully, 103,000 engaged with this survey in some fashion. That's a total of 70 percent. Next slide. Based on the results of the LCPS school calendar option survey, this slide highlights the top two preferred

[05:02:10] options for the 2024-25 school year. Option three was the top preferred choice for the 24-25 school year, representing approximately 25 percent of the total respondent selections. As a reminder, some highlights specific to student calendar option three. The first day for students is Thursday, August 22nd, which is consistent with our current practice. This calendar offers consistent quarters, provides students with two less days off for winter break, and does not

[05:02:47] have Veterans Day recognized as a holiday. The last day for students in option three would be Friday, June 13th. The corresponding option three for teachers would have staff return on Wednesday, august 14th six days prior to the first day of school teachers would be provided the friday before the monday labor day holiday off but this calendar does not have veterans day as school holiday provides less days off for winter break and has teachers ending their year on tuesday june

[05:03:19] 17th next slide please for school year 25 26 the preferred option was option two representing approximately 28 percent of the total respondent selections specific to student calendar option two first day for students is thursday august 21st this calendar offers consistent quarters does not have veterans day off but does provide for a full two-week winter break with the last day for students of tuesday june 16th the corresponding teacher calendar has a return to work date of

[05:03:55] August 13th, six days prior to the first day of school, provides Friday before the Monday Labor Day holiday off, does not have Veterans Day as a holiday, but does offer two full weeks for winter break, with a school year ending on Thursday, June 18th. Next slide, please. Each year during the calendar development process, HRTD receives questions regarding the calculation and inclusion of snow days. The past two years, Loudoun County has experienced a mild winter with few to no

[05:04:29] inclement weather days off. This has increased the volume of inquiries regarding snow days. In response, the HRTD team has done an extensive review of available school calendars back to the 1990-91 school year, along with school board policy dating back to March 27, 1990. The division has a long-standing history, over 30 years of having a fixed calendar, which has greatly benefited families and staff by being able to plan for school days work days and breaks over the last

[05:05:04] 30 years in education many school divisions create calendars to meet a minimum requirement which leads to the need to remove plan days off or extend the school year when inclement weather or other emergencies occur requiring school closures instead of continuing with this type of make-up day system, prior division leaders chose the path of a fixed calendar, which has remained to this day. In January 2014, a Loudon Times Mirror article made reference to our fixed calendar, highlighting that unlike other local school divisions, LCPS is not faced with school

[05:05:42] closure challenges due to our calendar approach. Based on this review, it is clear that LCPS has always put students and instructional learning at the forefront of school calendar development. Leaders have put a great focus on the 180-day requirement in code, utilizing the additional hours that students attend school as a backup support to support the fixed calendar concept.

[05:06:10] LCPS exceeded 180 days from 1990-91 through 2008-2009 and only shifted to a 180-school day calendar in 2009-2010.

[05:06:28] With the approval of the 23-24 school calendar, LCPS is returning to that 180-day school days. School Board Policy 7040 school calendar since its inception in March 1990 has included a statement referring to a banked time concept to provide for a fixed school calendar.

[05:06:49] The current version of this policy included the following. At the discretion of the division, superintendent schools may be closed because of severe weather conditions or other emergencies. The school board will utilize the banked time concept, hours exceeding 990 hours required for instructional time to provide for a fixed school calendar.

[05:07:12] If we were to elect to reduce the length of the school day to align with the minimum requirements of 180 days or 990 hours, a review of teacher contracts would also need to occur. School board policy 70-30 staff time schedule identifies the standard teacher workday as 7.5 hours, inclusive of a duty-free lunch.

[05:07:35] And currently, the standard teacher contract is 197 days, of which 194 are scheduled and 3 are unscheduled. If the division also elected to reduce the teacher contract length, this decision could include implications to compensation.

[05:07:56] Next slide, please. So what's next? We are hoping that tonight you will adopt a student school calendar for both the 24-25 and 25-26 school year. We recognize that these options will not please everyone, but have made great efforts to listen and respond appropriately to support staff and students and set them up for success.

[05:08:19] Once adopted, HRTD will work collaboratively with the Department of Instruction on the allotment of non-student working days to meet educator needs and will provide clear definitions of identified days and communication regarding flexibility and the availability of remote work on some of those days.

[05:08:40] HRTD will also begin the work with respective departments to draft the extended school calendars with the goal of having all staff calendars published by no later than July. That's all I have for you this evening, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[05:09:02] Thank you, Ms. Bowen. Board members, any questions for Ms. Bowen? General questions. Mr. Madby. Thank you, Chair. So, Ms. Bowen, I think I've seen between option three and option two for 24-25, Does staff any, do you have any recommendation or for which calendar between option three and option two for 24, 25?

[05:09:29] Thank you for that question. So we actually took a hard look at all four or five of these options. And from a staff perspective, we would recommend option two for both the 24, 25 and 25, 26 school year.

[05:09:46] These options provide continuity between the school year treating holidays and breaks similarly. Additionally, this option was the top-ranked preference by respondents. More specifically, option two was respondents' first choice for 24-25 school year and the second choice for 25-26. So we feel it does align in that matter as well. And it supports the identified preferences from previous surveys, which have identified a start date one week prior to Labor Day, the Thursday start, and a longer winter break of two

[05:10:24] full weeks, a longer spring break of one full week. Any other questions? Is there a motion? Aye. Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I move to the Lowen County School Board to adopt the student calendar option two for 24-25 school year and option two for 25-26 school year. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Okedekbe. Mr. Mahedby, would you like to speak to your motion? I think I think Ms. Boland has already kind of given us a good detailed view about the options.

[05:10:59] I mean, I think what I like to say is that, you know, I want to acknowledge the work, the thing we left off last year and your and your staff efforts to kind of put together both a multi-year calendar plan. And I know it's, as you said, it's a plan that now it's not going to make everybody happy.

[05:11:16] But I think it was the number one choice for, I believe, the staff based on the feedback and a second choice from the parents as well. So I think this is like a good compromise or best we can move forward with it. And I think the option two for 25-26 was unanimous among the parents and the staff.

[05:11:36] So I think the numbers speak and the community feedback speaks volume for that. And if you'd like to add further, I think I don't have anything else to add. Additional discussion, Ms. Polifco and then Ms. Okanegbe. Thank you. I did reach some consensus here with a constituent who had some concerns about the proposed holidays in the last week of October in option number two of 2025, 2020.

[05:12:03] I'm sorry, not 2025. It's 2024, 2025, last week of October. On October 30th and 31st, our student holidays, Friday, November 1st, and then we jump to Monday, November 4th as a school day, and then Tuesday is another holiday. So I'm wondering if as a board we could work to adopt a proposed change in this calendar wherein Wednesday, October 30th would be a school day, the 31st of October would be a holiday, Friday the 1st would be a holiday, Monday would be a

[05:12:39] student holiday, which is November 4th, Tuesday, November 5th is the student holiday, and then Wednesday, November 6th, is a school day. And the reason for that request is because we're most likely going to incur more student absences if kids are only coming to school for that one day.

[05:12:56] So I would welcome any discussion around that topic. Additional discussion? Ms. Okedegbe. Thank you. I was trying to look at a future calendar.

[05:13:11] My comments are related to the two option, two calendars, just looking at them and then also just looking at consistency, having a similar winter break between those two calendars makes sense.

[05:13:27] I also took a look at the numbers, and if we looked at the top, so for 24-25, looking at the combination of scores for the first two choices, so if we combine scores for first and second choices, the second calendar option for 24, 25 does have more support than option three.

[05:14:06] And so, again, I just think that consistency with the holiday break makes sense. Thank you. Ms. Bowen? Can I respond to Ms. Polifco? So we received, I'm not sure if it's the same constituent maybe, but we did receive a similar question in regards to that.

[05:14:28] And although we do agree that there is concern about absences, there are also additional concerns if we go the recommended route. One of which is the fact that it splits the conference days. Those days are utilized by elementary schools mainly at the end of the first quarter for conferences with parents, for planning, grading, and that such, and so it would split those two days.

[05:14:59] I'm not sure we know enough about the impact that would have on elementary teachers, the elementary school, for splitting when the quarter would start. It would also change the quarters a little bit. It would increase first quarter, so it would make them a little more uneven.

[05:15:17] But the biggest concern is about splitting those conference days, and I just don't know what impact that would have. Additional discussion? Ms. Reeser. Can you just remind us, the holiday on November 1st, because that says H, so it's not a student holiday, right?

[05:15:43] It's a holiday, and I'm just wondering if you could remind us. Yeah, it would be a school holiday. Hold on one second. Do you know what it was for?

[05:16:19] I don't know. The team is looking. I started wondering if the two conference days could be Thursday and Friday. I'm sorry, it's Diwali. Okay, thank you. Mr. Mahedmi.

[05:16:39] I believe it's Diwali. Anything further, Ms. Reeser? I wasn't sure. No, I mean, I'm generally supportive of having the holidays in a row, and I understand the concern about splitting the conference days and wanting feedback on that.

[05:17:03] Any additional discussion? Mr. Mahedmi. Thank you, Chair. So, Ms. Bolin, on the November 5th, there's a student holiday. So that's what you're bringing up to Ms. Polifco was mentioning about from October 30th to 1, that's off.

[05:17:28] But then they only come back for the 4th, and then 5th is a holiday. So what's a 5th? I believe that's elections. We did work very hard within the holidays that we give, and then, of course, the need for professional development.

[05:17:54] Additional discussion? Ms. Polifko. Thank you. I think it's probably best for me to retract my proposed amendment, just because if we don't have any sort of knowledge on hand about how that would impact the conferences and other such activities that are planned, I understand it from a logistical standpoint, and I would also be in favor of combining these holidays instead of having one day of school.

[05:18:34] But when you have Election Day, you've got Diwali, you've got conferences, there are so many moving parts here. So I'll just go ahead and retract that. Thank you. Additional discussion? Ms. Reiser.

[05:18:50] Just a follow-up question. What are teachers doing on Election Day? So, election day is a professional development day. Okay. In working with the Department of Instruction, the Office of Professional Learning, and receiving feedback from teachers about when throughout the course of the year, that was identified as a potential day for professional learning.

[05:19:24] I guess what I'm trying to get at is whether that is in person. Are they in schools that day since we're having elections that day, or is that professional development that's not required to be in the building? I believe it's a countywide professional learning day, but I'm not 100% sure.

[05:19:45] I can find out, but I do recall that that day was actually one of the days determined in the teacher advisory group as a could we not return and do a PD that day rather than adding to the end of the school year.

[05:20:01] for the beginning of the school year. I was just trying to get at whether there was some thought given or whether you all looked at doing, I guess we wouldn't do conferences on that day because it's election day and the congestion at the schools that that would create.

[05:20:19] Is that what the thinking had been? Yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Any additional discussion? I just have a logistics question for going forward. So given that we're adopting calendars that go out to FY26 tonight, Does that mean next year you would ask the board to adopt the FY27 calendar, or would we take, no pun intended, take a little holiday from doing calendars and then come back in three years and do three years all at once?

[05:20:46] No, there would be no reprieve. Every year we would hope to do three years out. Okay. So next year we do the FY27 calendar, the next year FY28, and just continue that gains? Okay. Additional discussion? Mr. Mahedby.

[05:21:02] Thank you, Chair. So, Ms. Bull, this is a question probably you're expecting. So, I think we discussed a little bit about this based on the survey and the feedback from the last survey. And regarding, you know, I think I got more feedback from some of the teachers as well for the year-round school.

[05:21:17] So, I don't know. I mean, we're not making decisions here, but it will be interesting. I know some of the board members would be interested to get some more data points as we collect. I mean, what the pros and cons are and what the mood is for that too. So it'll be nice to get some more hard data about that as well.

[05:21:35] Thank you. Yes, the team has already started researching on alternative types of calendars for the 27-28 school year. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, we'll place the motion to a vote, which, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Mahedvi, is to adopt option two for the calendar, both for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

[05:21:59] Sure. Okay. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand and say aye. Those opposed? Nay. That motion will pass 6-1-2 with Saratkin opposed and Morse and Corbo absent for the vote.

[05:22:19] And thank you, Ms. Boland and the HRTD team for your hard work on this and getting us to a place where we have a couple of years of stability in the calendar. That will move to 1304 from the Joint Committee request for changes during the review of the SRO MOU.

[05:22:40] So these two recommendations, as I mentioned last week, or last meeting, came unanimously from the joint committee to remove the terms wherever feasible under the required training on page two of the MOU regarding trauma-informed policing tactics and interview techniques for SROs,

[05:23:04] and to also direct staff to review language that's seen on page six of the MOU regarding the SRO's ability to stop, question, interview, and take law enforcement action without prior authorization of the school administrator or contacting parents and legal guardians and to replace it with language that, well, not to replace it with specific language, but just to direct staff to look into that and discuss with the law enforcement to clarify that language.

[05:23:37] So I will move that the school board direct LCPS staff to work with Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and Leesburg Police Department in revising the SRO MOU as requested by the Joint Committee. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Ogadegbe.

[05:23:54] I don't know of anything further on this. Any discussion on the motion? Ms. Polivko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. While I recognize that these proposed changes are the only two that came forward, I also think it's important to note that we receive feedback from multiple committees.

[05:24:19] As the liaison for the SEAC committee, I received feedback from their organization, and they have some very valid concerns. One of the concerns that I heard the other night when I was at the committee meeting is the fear of a parent of a child with a disability having that child questioned and potentially that child has some sort of expressive language disorder or is not in a place where they're able to effectively answer questions that are asked.

[05:24:51] And I understand that concern. I think that's a very valid concern. On the other hand, I think it's important for us to understand that with an MOU, both parties need to agree to the terms. And if we are going to include all of this feedback from all these committees, we're putting ourselves in a potential situation where we're just going to go back to the table with the Leesburg PD and the sheriff's office, and we'll be back at square one.

[05:25:20] I don't think that we should be telling the Leesburg PD or the sheriff's office how they should do their job. They don't tell us how to do our job. We are partners, but at the same time, they're going to follow the law. So I do not support these changes.

[05:25:37] According to my understanding, Leesburg PD and the sheriff's office are both in support of the MOU as it stands currently. And they have been able to work through the MOU just fine.

[05:25:53] I understand that they've met with, or at least I know Sheriff Chapman has met with Dr. Smith multiple times now. And ultimately, they're going to follow the law. So I do not support the proposed changes to the MOU. thank you. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Those opposed? That motion will pass 5-2-2 with Beatty

[05:26:24] and Polifco opposed and Morrison and Corbo absent for the vote. We'll now move to 1305 from the Student Services Committee, Revision of Policy 8640, Disclosure of Student Personally Identifiable information and other educational records. Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. I moved to the school board approves and accepts revised policy 8640, disclosure of student PII and other educational records. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Sheridan. Mr. Mahedvi, would you like to

[05:27:01] speak to your motion? Yeah, I think a little bit, and I think I'll pass it on to Mr. Smith. So I think this policy, we brought it back as an information item. I think it was originally move from the committee 3-0. Again, let me open the copy.

[05:27:18] Sorry, forgive me. I think, Mrs. Smith, I'll pass it on to you. How is that better? Thank you for the opportunity to bring policy 8640, disclosure of student personally identifiable information and other educational records as an action item this evening.

[05:27:39] The policy establishes guidelines for protecting the PII of students' personally identifiable information and the conditions that constitute legal disclosure for access to educational records. The policy was reviewed and approved by the board in September of 2022. However, there were recommended changes stemming from the special grand jury report.

[05:27:56] DDI also received updated feedback from MSAC and SEAC. And thanks for this feedback, specifically SEAC's feedback, we were able to update the policy for improved clarity and consistency. I can walk through all of the policy changes if you would like.

[05:28:16] I think we walked through it last time, if you remember. So I think unless we have board members have any specific questions. Happy to take questions. Further board members, any discussion regarding the policy changes? Ms. Polivka.

[05:28:33] Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the concerns from SEAC is related to the inability for parents to opt out of the disclosure of directory information release without consent within 14 days.

[05:28:49] so this is what it currently states and the concern is that it's limited and that parents should really have the opportunity to opt out at any time throughout the year so i would like to propose an amendment on if you look at section b which is line 439 of the red line policy i'm proposing that we add a section c that states there thereafter any parent of eligible student may notify the school in writing that all or any part of the DI of the student shall not be released

[05:29:27] without prior consent, allowing for a 30 calendar day time frame to implement this request. So that would allow parents to opt out at any time throughout the year. Can I clarify just where, what line number you're on? Yes, it's on line 439. Oh, 439. Yes, I'm sorry. That's why I couldn't find it.

[05:29:49] 239. Yes. So my proposal is to add a section C. So right under B would be section C with that proposed amendment. Would you mind reading that one more time?

[05:30:04] Thereafter, any parent of eligible student may notify the school in writing that all or any part of the DI of the student shall not be released without prior consent, allowing for a 30 calendar day time frame to implement this request.

[05:30:22] is there a second I'll second seconded by Mr. Beatty Ms. Polifko would you like to speak to your to speak to your amendment thank you I think I did this just would allow for parents to have the option to opt out at any time thank you thank you uh further discussion or discussion on the amendment Mr. Mahedvy thank you chair the staff I mean I don't know if Mr. Falcone or Mrs. Smith have any thoughts on this uh sure thanks Mr. Mahedvy I'm I'm happy to weigh in I don't have

[05:30:58] any concerns with that approach. I think it's arguably implied. It's just expressing what's just making that explicit. So I have no issue with that. That was the question I was going to ask is if parents have this right anyway or whether it needed. I don't have any objection to it if it helps clarify, but with or without language, wouldn't parents have the ability to contact the school and say they want to or contact LCPS and say they want to opt out? Or is this adding something they don't have now? No, they always have the right to affirmatively opt out. It's part of the rights and responsibilities, there's an opt-out form as part of the student rights

[05:31:37] and responsibilities that they're supposed to, that they can return, and so that's sort of the, that's the typical place where you would opt out of the directory information, but it's absolutely true that you can always affirmatively opt out if you wish to do so. So the policy, so including that in the policy is legally permissible, and I think it's an accurate statement of what is already allowed.

[05:32:00] Ms. Reeser? And I think it's probably a good idea to have it in both places, even though it already exists. People may be looking for it here with other information. And I think I'll just go ahead and say now I think we have a I have a policy that I'm presenting later that's just memorializing something in writing that already is a right.

[05:32:19] But we do that sometimes to make it easier for the public to understand. Further discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morse and Corbo absent for the vote.

[05:32:38] So we're now back to the base motion as amended. Is there a further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor that the school board approves and accepts revised policy 8040 as amended tonight, disclosure of student personally identifiable information and other educational records.

[05:33:01] Please raise your hands and say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morrison Corvo absent for the vote. We'll go to our final action item, 1306, requested by Ms. Okadegbe, National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day proclamation.

[05:33:22] Ms. Okadegbe. Thank you, Chair Srotkin. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopts the proclamation recognizing today, May 9, 2023, as National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day. I will second.

[05:33:39] Oh, would you like to, could you please read the proclamation, Ms. Ogedegbe? Thank you. All are planning gone to naught. I know. Whereas May 9th is the second annual National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day, a day of action to raise public awareness about an urgent problem facing people, especially young people who are dying at alarming rates due to illegally made fentanyl.

[05:34:05] And whereas fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, which comes in two types, medical and illicitly manufactured. And whereas illicitly manufactured fentanyl is driving the recent increase in U.S. drug overdoses as dealers are mixing illicitly manufactured fentanyl with and disguising it as other common prescription drugs to increase profits. And whereas among teenagers, overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids like fentanyl tripled in the past two years. And in Virginia, the leading cause

[05:34:43] of unnatural death is drug overdoses and has been since 2013. And whereas the Loudoun County Public Schools community has come together to increase awareness about this public health crisis and equip parents and other community members with knowledge and strategies to protect youth and whereas the Loudoun County Public Schools is committed to facilitating substance use prevention and early intervention services to students at the secondary schools and providing parent community and staff education presentations and whereas the Loudoun County community has come

[05:35:22] together to increase awareness about this public health crisis and equip parents and other community members with knowledge and strategies to protect youth, and whereas Loudoun County Public Schools and numerous community partners will continue to work together to face the current challenges and identify strategies to support our community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board does hereby proclaim the ninth day of May 2023 as National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day. We, the undersigned, proclaim that now is the time to take action as leaders in

[05:35:58] our community to create safety for children, youth, faculty, staff, and families in Loudoun County Public Schools. We must work together to inform all members of our communities about the dangers of fentanyl and other substances, continue prevention and early intervention efforts within our schools, and assist youth and families struggling with the disease of addiction in accessing available treatment resources in our community.

[05:36:25] And I will second again. Ms. Ogadugbe, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you. Earlier this evening, we heard from a family member who lost their daughter and sister.

[05:36:46] And that brings home today, you know, any day, just that loss is inconceivable for those who haven't experienced it. but i am bringing this forward not as a you know proclamations themselves aren't making the difference but it's important to continue to raise awareness earlier this evening staff did bring forward an abbreviated version of the fentanyl awareness presentation that was held in the

[05:37:21] community at six i believe it was six different locations earlier this spring to again raise awareness and have it more readily accessible for those who weren't able to come to the high schools when those events were held to make sure that we are continuing to share information so that parents are aware of the dangers and working in concert with the community to address this

[05:37:51] issue. Attending the fentanyl awareness event that evening earlier this spring, it was also striking and we had earlier today we had members from law enforcement and from mental and mental health services and LCPS staff were recognized for the work that they are doing together as a in a collaboration to address this issue from many different directions for our

[05:38:27] community thank you further discussion miss okay i just wanted to thank you for bringing this before the board and um just we know we know we know it's a huge problem we've been having community outreach on this but just hearing from the family members tonight who are who have been impacted by this and just knowing how many more are out there that have also lost family members to this epidemic i'm glad we're taking it seriously and and bringing all the awareness that we can to it and working with the Williams Center

[05:39:06] and our other community partners to try and address this. Additional discussion? Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I was not going to say anything. I completely agree with what you said. But I think this is, I mean, I've seen the opioid and, again, even this one.

[05:39:23] Again, we can talk about drug traffic or et cetera, but most of these are created by greed. I mean, the opioid crisis in America is created by greed. You know, again, I've seen folks being asked to take for pain medication, opiate type medication, when they refused, they were still being asked to take it.

[05:39:49] It's a huge issue. I think it's just, you know, I'll just leave it there. The greed is what drove this problem. It's completely, you know, human and, again, corporate greed created a problem. That's all. Thank you. Additional discussion?

[05:40:08] Seeing none. All those in favor of adopting the proclamation, recognizing May 9th, 2023, as National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Morse and Corbo absent for the vote.

[05:40:27] We will move right on to our information items, starting with 1401 from Department of Business and Financial Services, FY23, third quarter financial review and COVID funds update.

[05:40:50] Thank you. Yes so I am here to provide the third quarter financial review and COVID funds update. This review will encompass the actual financial activity from July 1 through March 31st and then a projection for the remaining three months of the fiscal year.

[05:41:17] Next slide please. So as I've done before I've just selected a few highlights regarding our three funds. The full report is available on board docs as well as this presentation.

[05:41:32] So for the school operating fund, we are continuing to see the tightening of the budget as it relates to this fund for FY23. The projected year-end revenue totals remain uncertain as the skinny budget did not -- the skinny budget that was passed by the state did not provide a guaranteed replacement for funding loss due to the VDOE calculation tool error.

[05:41:55] And then we're also seeing that the sales tax revenues are continuing to soften as we move through the fiscal year. On the expense side, we are seeing elevated prices from steady inflation on goods and services throughout the year and that we're also continuing to see increased personnel costs specific to substitutes.

[05:42:18] Specifically with the state revenues, we are under budget by about $350,000. The second quarter we had not taken into account the $3 million VDOE calculation tool error. that the general assembly has taken action with the skinny budget and we have not received any additional funding we are recognizing that in our projections and then as I mentioned also we are seeing the declines and the growth of the sales tax at the state level and have incorporated that in our projections for the remainder of the year with the personnel some additional information as it relates to subs we are seeing that the sub usage continues

[05:42:56] to be high and we are exceeding the budget for this fiscal year we have identified a number of reasons why we are exceeding the budget some examples are that we underestimated the popularity of the new family leave program we are also seeing an eight percent increase in the net in employees who are having children we are also seeing increases and other qualifying uses of leave we are also seeing increases in the loyalty and the high volume day premium pay that we associated with the sub program that

[05:43:32] those are also contributing factors finally we are also looking at the site based subs to make sure that they are being utilized as expected at the schools and so that as we head in FY24 this is something we that we will continue to watch because if we remain on the same trajectory we would be exceeding next year's budget in the substitute area as well for the operations as I mentioned inflation is a factor one thing that we're seeing when when we look at our expenses is that we are still experiencing some supply chain delays.

[05:44:09] So for example with some technology equipment the timing of our orders are critical and then we are just experiencing inflation across the board. So that leaves us that in terms of the year end balance after we deduct the 12 million dollars for carryover into the FY 24 budget that leaves 4 million dollars of the appropriated funds to be returned to the county of this 4 million 3.3 is to be reappropriated to LCPS for collective bargaining which leaves 0.7 million as the remaining fund balance that

[05:44:48] would be returning to the county so again we have extremely spent down the budget this year and it's really driven from you know the combination of those three items the sales tax the sub usage and inflation moving on to our school nutrition fund we are seeing an increase in the fund balance here I mean it's from from good news our meal participation rates are continuing to increase which is great as we have established that in relation to the strategic plan we are also seeing that our a la carte sales are rebounding you may recall from the second quarter

[05:45:28] projection that we were taking a hit in our a la carte sales because we were unable to obtain certain items that were popular for sale in the cafeteria we have been able to obtain those items so we're seeing the sales pick up in those areas moving on to our self-insurance funds the claims have picked up since the second quarter i think during the second quarter we were seeing some some information that made us think that the claims would have leveled off but they

[05:46:02] have since picked back up and so we are projecting accordingly to see increased claims cost and this is where you also see a relationship to the subs since we are self-insured for health as well as our short-term disability that same factor of seeing an eight percent increase if of employees having children is also impacting the self-insurance funds here as well next slide moving on to our covid funds update the last update that i did for the second quarter we had 24 total awards totaling

[05:46:41] 84 million and had fully spent 11. since that time we have received one more award and that is related to the school nutrition program and we have also closed out one award we remain on track to have the rest fully spent by the end of the fiscal year we have at least one exception with the cip fund related to the hvac systems and we continue to monitor our covet funds but we hopefully will have these fully spent by june 30th these next three slides we can just kind of click through this again is just the information that we continue to post on our website so that the

[05:47:17] community is aware of what awards we have received so on slides four five and six those are the ones that have been fully spent and then on slides seven eight and nine are the ones that we continue to have active purchases and financial activity attributed to so with that this is an information only item and I'd be happy to take any questions thank you miss well if you any questions board members regarding the report seeing none

[05:47:53] I think we can go directly into the next item which is the update on the FY 24 but so as we wait for the slides to be loaded I'll say it's just sure that I another update on this very protracted budget process next slide please so I want to start off with the slide that has been included and I think at least two other presentations because I don't think we can just advertise it enough that July 1 all of our eligible employees will receive a step increase

[05:48:30] based on the current FY 23 salary scale because it was that current FY 23 salary scale that the school board approved as a temporary scale for FY 24 at the last school board meeting so and on average that's about a two and a half percent step increase and employees who are on the tops up at the scale would receive a one-time 1% payment what continues to be determined is that we are still waiting on the state budget so once the state finalizes its budget and if no further reductions are necessary then we would proceed with making market adjustments to the salary scale for school board approval based on the timing I don't

[05:49:10] expect this to happen until August or September and so any further pay increases would not be paid out until that time but that we would calculate those retroactive to July 1 next slide please so the green check mark obviously marks what the school board took action on at the last school board meeting which again was securing those FY 24 step increases you know we wanted to make sure employees were receiving some level of a pay increase effective July 1 what we also did was we placed on hold or the school board placed on hold

[05:49:50] the additional scale adjustments so that we could have time to see what happens at the state level since then we have had conversations with the county and actually this evening the county Finance Committee met on the staffs the county staffs recommended action for the county to provide an additional 13 million dollars to LCPS I'm happy to report that the team that was monitoring that meeting happening this evening that the County Finance Committee did vote unanimously to recommend to the full County Board of Supervisors to provide

[05:50:28] LCPS the additional 13 million dollars so it's looking very favorable that we will receive this additional 13 million and this is to address the state funding shortfall as a result of the calculation tool error in the information we have presented whenever we met with the County Board of Supervisors I will also share so that the so this is being recommended for the Board of Supervisors to take action and that would occur next week on May 16th so as soon as we see what happens on that meeting we'll be sure to let the school board know what information related to this is that as it relates to

[05:51:07] the 13 million the funding source is to be determined meaning they want to see what happens at the state level if there was to be an action at the state that filled the gap and provided 13 million then they would just appropriate that 13 million but if there is no further action then they would actually appropriate 13 billion out of the county's year-end projected fund balance next slide so if we make the assumption that the County Board of Supervisors next week does approve this action this is what our current budget situation

[05:51:45] would look like so we were starting with a 13.1 million reconciliation amount with the count with the county providing an additional 13 million dollars that brings the amount that we need to reconcile down to 3.1 so this is a much more favorable position obviously and I'll just share that I've really in my communications with my counterparts at the county really expressed their support since this has been a county staff recommendation of them supporting LCPS budget but you also notice and read the big question marks because we still have

[05:52:21] outstanding what is to happen at the state noting that we don't expect the state to do anything until the very last week of June if anything we need to still reconcile a budget so next slide please so the plan is that on June 13th at the June 13th school board meeting staff will bring a recommendation to reconcile 3.1 million dollars and to continue to place the COLA and the strategic scale adjustments in reserve pending the final state budget adoption this would be the recommended action for June 27th so at the June 27th school

[05:53:01] board meeting we would be asking the school board to take action on the staffs recommended reconciliation assuming that the state does not finalize until the last week of June then the staff would also bring additional action at the August 8th school board meeting at the earliest staff will continue to would assess any final state budget impacts to the LCPS budget we would be reviewing any resulting revenue in expenditure mandates from the state to determine if any further reconciliation action is

[05:53:37] required if there is then staff will bring forward recommend recommendation along with revised FY 24 salary scales that would include a cola or strategic scale adjustment with the percentage to be determined based on available funding and retroactive to July 1 however depending on the complexity of what may happen at the state budget level we may bring an info item to the school board on August 8th with action to occur at the next school board meeting since there's only one school board meeting in August that next meeting would not

[05:54:12] occur until September 12th so that's why I had mentioned earlier that we don't anticipate any action in providing that second phase of pay increases to employees until August or September next slide so put together just a few scenarios that we could be facing with the state budget so if the state let me just read this slide so if one action would be that staff would submit an action for the school board to request request a supplemental budget

[05:54:50] appropriation from the county if the state allocated more than 13 million dollars of revenue with no additional mandated expenditures for LCPS so let's hypothetically if the state was to just provide 15 million dollars with no strings attached for expenditures then we would ask for the difference of 2 million because the state or because the county has already so far signal that they would appropriate the 13 and we would just ask for the appropriation for the additional 2 million of state revenue another scenario could be that the state allocates revenue but there's also mandated expenditures for LCPS that

[05:55:28] could also require matching funds and that is in that instance we would either request the matching funds amount or the amount of the funding gap that would be created based on the final analysis of the state budget so this is this scenario these scenarios have also been communicated with county staff in terms of just taking it incrementally so the county is looking at addressing the 13 million and then the door has been left open under these other scenarios once the state is complete with their budget that we could come back and ask for

[05:56:03] additional appropriation depending on what we're facing. So I'm happy to report that we are in a much better position and take any questions you may have. Board members, any questions regarding the FY24 budget situation? Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. So again, could you remind them, because I don't think in this, maybe I missed it, Ms. Willoughby, in the slide deck, we talked

[05:56:38] about 13 million, but there was no mention about our need of 16 million. Here's the math on the current FI 24 budget situation says we still need to reconcile 3.1 even though the gap that we were looking at before the county finalized their budget was a gap of about 16 million that so that's where that figure is coming in but the county has finalized their budget and when they finalized their budget it left a funding gap of 13.1 because they didn't fully fund what we were asking

[05:57:15] for so that's now our new baseline and then we're working from that amount and so that's if the state doesn't come back with the 13 million dollars and if the state comes back with 13 million would the county still give us the 3 million or we haven't had the discussion they have already acted on the additional 3 million that we asked for and they were not supporting that additional questions

[05:57:45] okay thank you again for the update and we will see what happens next week and beyond we'll now move to item 1403 from the curriculum and instructions committee policy 5065 kindergarten so the curriculum and instruction committee unanimously recommended the red line changes to the policy 6065 just based on a regular five-year review cycle of this policy there are not any

[05:58:24] significant or substantive changes to the policy. It's really just grammatical and technical updates. But I am happy to report the curriculum and instruction committee continuing its strong and unambiguous support for the kindergarten program within LCPS. And I'm happy to answer any questions any board members may have regarding policy 5065. Seeing none, interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting. Okay, we will place this on consent. We'll now move to

[05:59:04] 1404 from the Legislative and Policy Committee, VSBA Legislative Additions and or Changes Proposals. Ms. Reiser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The VSBA annually puts out legislative positions and the staff liaison to the board sent all of the board members these positions with the opportunity to request any additions or make any changes and there were none received from the board members but staff did recommend making an amendment to the existing position that was within

[05:59:41] this program as it relates to attendance and we had a small discussion on this at the not on the visible position but on the attendance requirements as they're related to accreditation previously

[05:59:56] So if you take a look at the document that's in board docs, the language that staff is recommending we lobby VSBA to include would allow for an automatic withdrawal of a student whose family decides to take an extended absence intentionally so that that's not disproportionately or inaccurately reflecting upon the school division.

[06:00:24] And I will pause there and see if Mr. Slebbin wants to add or correct anything that I might have gotten wrong. Thank you, Ms. Reeser. I would also like to thank the leadership of the Department of Student Services and Dr. Jones for making this suggestion for the legislative policy agenda.

[06:00:43] I could speak a little bit about the recommendation if you'd like, or you covered it pretty well. Sure, and I think your microphone's not actually picking up your voice so well. Okay. Here you go. Thank you, Ms. Reeser, for the opportunity to speak on this. I'd also like to acknowledge the leadership of the Department of Student Services.

[06:01:02] Mr. Slevin is still not picking up, sorry. We're not hearing you up here. Okay. You get to thank Dr. Jones three times tonight. Thank you, Dr. Jones.

[06:01:18] Would you like me to speak a little more about the recommendation? Yes, please, thank you. You did a nice job. Currently, when a student has a planned absence of 15 days or more, the absences accrue until the school is able to withdraw the student at the 15th day.

[06:01:34] This has a negative impact on the school's chronic absenteeism indicator. And while we strongly encourage consistent attendance and want to support our families at the same time, we are asking that the General Assembly adds a withdrawal code that can be used for the circumstance when a school has been notified of a planned absence ahead of time that will ultimately end up with a withdrawal.

[06:01:58] So that is the basic overview of the position. I'd ask if Dr. Jones would have anything to add. No, Mr. Slevin, you covered that well. Thank you. And I'll just add that this came from the committee with a recommendation for the board to adopt it with a 3-0 vote.

[06:02:19] Board members, any discussion or questions regarding the VSBA legislative positions or the recommended change coming out of committee? Seeing none, interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting.

[06:02:37] I see all thumbs up, so we'll place this on consent for our next May board meeting. We'll now move to 1405, also from the LNP Committee, Revision of Policy 3120, Powers and Duties of the Division Superintendent.

[06:02:54] Ms. Reaser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This policy, the revised policy 3120, was presented to the LNP Committee in April and then again in May. Staff revised the policy to incorporate some changes that the VSBA model policy had, and we also made some committee changes.

[06:03:13] we added the words of the division superintendent to the title of the policy to make it clear whose powers and duties we were referencing in this policy and then if you scroll down to the red line version line numbers 141 through 148 there is administration action in policy absence so this deals with a case where there may be an exigent circumstance or an emergency situation in which the school division needs to take immediate action and there's no guidelines or policy in existence.

[06:03:51] It gives the division superintendent, it's memorializing a power that the division superintendent already has been exercising in situations like this. But the committee did add some language to ask that the superintendent make an attempt to convene an emergency meeting first of the school board before taking any such action if it was reasonable to do so and that the superintendent have his or her decisions then subject to review by the school board at its next regularly scheduled meeting and to also inform the

[06:04:26] school board if such action was taken and if there was a need for policy that became illuminated as a result of such a circumstance that required the use of this provision and I would like to ask if Mr. Slebin or Mr. Falcone or Dr. Jones would like to add anything. Thank you, Ms. Reeser.

[06:04:48] I would just add that this is a recommended VSBA policy and this is in the summary, but instead of recommending a new policy, we staff recommended to include it in the existing powers and duties policy with the addition of the name powers and duties of the division superintendent.

[06:05:10] Board members, any questions or discussion regarding the policy changes? Seeing none, interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting? Okay, we'll place this on consent.

[06:05:28] And that will bring us to our third policy coming out of the LMP committee, revision of policy 2520, participation by the public. Ms. Reeser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the legislative and policy committee, we've always had a limited amount of time for public comment, which is published as part of the agenda. Public comment is actually not required during committees, but the school

[06:06:03] board has always had that available. Given that that particular committee meets typically for an hour or less and is followed by a subsequent committee, I had advice from Mr. Falcone that it would behoove us to just put in writing what is the authority of the committee already to limit the amount of time or to have no public comment but because we do I always publish 10 minutes I asked him recently what would happen if I had 20 people come and there's 10 minutes allotted and you know 30 seconds isn't really a very useful amount of public comment or what if

[06:06:42] we had 50 people and he advised me that we could limit the number of people so that the committee could do its work and we agreed that it would be best to bring forward that existing power in writing so people were aware of the fact that that that ability already exists so the policy is memorializing an authority that committee chairs already have but like the earlier policy we were discussing it's best to put everyone in on notice so that it's transparent because each

[06:07:17] committee may do this differently depending on their chair. Did I summarize that correctly? That's yes correct. Thank you. So the language that is I'm sorry I don't have the red line copy open give me one second. This is policy 2520. So the language that was added is at line 75 to 77 saying that the committee chair reserves the right to limit the number of speakers at the committee meetings if they estimate that the time for public comment is likely to exceed

[06:07:57] the time allotted in the agenda. And that's making reference to the time that I was referencing at the beginning. Like the agendas already reference how much time is allotted for public comment. But if there were 100 people that came for the 10 minutes, it would be impossible to accommodate that.

[06:08:15] We just didn't want anyone to be surprised. Anything further, Ms. Reeser? Board members, any discussion?

[06:08:31] Ms. Ogadugbe. Thank you, Chair. I think it's also just important to recognize that committee meetings are more time-bound than school board meetings and we often have them scheduled one after the other in the same room and so when a committee meeting goes over time it directly impacts another scheduled meeting often with different people different participants and so I support this change I think it makes sense and will as you mentioned allow the committee

[06:09:05] to continue to to do its work additional discussion miss polifco and then mr madby thank you um i did receive feedback from seac regarding this policy and i would like to request that on line 85 after the word assistance we add in quotations or reasonable accommodation that's possible for us to so that's on line 80 83 basically um speakers requiring translation slash interpretation

[06:09:44] assistance or reasonable accommodation when requested it says line 85 here and i think on the red line it is line 85 just let me we're in the right place yes 84 to 85 yep um i would like to request that and additionally i would like to request line 85 to read the speaking time will be doubled for speakers requiring translation or interpretation assistance or reasonable

[06:10:17] accommodation when requested i think that's the same i think that's the same thing twice because we were already it was already that same sentence on lines 82 83 84 i just wanted to make sure you were paying attention okay uh this is just an information item tonight but board members any objection to adding that in for next time i think it's already memorializing current practice

[06:10:54] it seems like yeah uh Mr. Mahedby thank you chair so Ms. Reeser I know this has summed up in the past but I think your mic's on because you're asking me a question yeah okay I think we have we don't have a online version okay never mind so I guess my question is regarding to session B1 regular school board meetings um actually let me go back I move my lines around a little bit give me one

[06:11:27] - One second, I'm in the right section. - Are you looking at the red line version? - Yeah, I'm looking at the red line version. - B1 is at line 43.

[06:11:42] - So it was regarding in terms of, this is just a registration requirement, but in terms of how other divisions are doing for general public comments, did you guys as a committee discuss or were you able to find out how other divisions are doing when it comes to public comments, et cetera?

[06:12:03] - So at this meeting, we were simply addressing the committee structure because like I said, and I wanted to make sure I clarified this for Ms. Ogadegbe because you said you would support the change, and I think you mean the change to the language, but I just wanted to clarify, this is not a change in practice.

[06:12:22] The amount of time for public comment is already time limited in that committee. So this is just putting in writing that if there were too many public speakers for the previously allotted amount of time that we would have to make an adjustment.

[06:12:41] So we only discuss what's happening in committee. We did not make any recommendations or re-discuss because you might remember that this, with regard to the full board, it was before the board not that long ago. But Mr. Slevin does have information.

[06:12:59] We did discuss what other boards do many times in this committee and he does have information If you want to direct any questions to him on that. Just to follow up on that, at board member direction, I know staff has done that research multiple times over the last couple of years, including recently.

[06:13:19] So if you're looking for a comparison of what we allow for public comment at general board meetings compared to surrounding school districts, I know that they have that information available. Any additional discussion? Is there interest in placing this on consent with the change that Ms. Polifko proposed?

[06:13:44] Okay, we'll place that on consent for our next board meeting. We'll now move to 1407 from the Student Behavior and Accountability Committee, Policy 8255, Protective Orders.

[06:14:01] Ms. Ogadekbe. Thank you, Chair Sorotkin. This is a new policy to policy 8255 LCPS guidelines for protective orders. This was reviewed by cabinet and legal on February 6th and the Student Behavior and Accountability Committee provided the policy for public feedback between March 2nd and 16th.

[06:14:28] After a review during the March meeting, the committee asked for some clarifying information and then the committee approved moving forward policy 8255 for the school board as an information item during our April 24th meeting.

[06:14:47] One of the things that was a big point of discussion as we were reviewing this policy was that protective orders are, that people who are a party to a protective order are not required by law to provide a copy of said protective order to the schools.

[06:15:11] So some of the suggested updates couldn't really be added because we don't have a way of enforcing that because they are not required to provide that to us. A lot of the information about the protective orders is not enforcement of the protective orders but supportive measures to abide by the terms of the protective order.

[06:15:41] So, it was a complicated issue. There was a lot of conversation. There was a good deal of feedback, which was reviewed and incorporated where possible. And I would just ask if staff had any additional updates or thoughts that you wanted to share that maybe I missed.

[06:16:19] - Thank you, Ms. Ogadugby. Protective orders, as Ms. Ogadugby said, the petitioner is the one that does provide the information to protective order. It's not required by the courts or law enforcement to provide us information about a protective order. In 2019, Virginia did pass a state code and that state code basically required principals once they are aware of a protective order to provide safety and supportive measures to the petitioner and to the respondent or be aware of the respondent because this protective order addresses students and students can be in two areas of protective order as a petitioner or as a respondent.

[06:16:56] So this policy just provides, and we worked closely with Pam Stewart and Patty Spurlock, you know, our student records and senior register offices, how this information would be presented to principals so that they can build what we are now calling a comprehensive student support plan that would be put in place and part of the student records that will document those safety and supportive measures for the students that are involved with that.

[06:17:19] And that would be part of that student records. So if a student were to move from one school to another in protective order was still intact, that record would be able to be accessible by the school as soon as they have access to those student records.

[06:17:35] - Ms. Okonekbe. - So just as a continuation, and I would actually recommend not putting this on consent because I think this is an important one for, if all board members have read this and were comfortable, then that's fine. But if people haven't had a chance to read it in detail, I think it is an important one for people to understand.

[06:17:55] A lot of the conversation that we had was also just having clarity within the policy about what the records transfer process was so that we ensure that if students transfer from one school to another that we have assurance that the receiving school for that student has all of the appropriate records available.

[06:18:21] Thank you. - Thank you. And I was actually going to make the same recommendation to just given it's a new policy and it's lengthy and has potential implications if we get something about it wrong to just keep it on action for next time to get public eyes on it any additional discussion okay seeing none will place this on action for our next board meeting that will bring us to 1408 from Department of Support Services abbreviated elementary school attendance zone change process for Tuscarora

[06:18:58] Crossing mr. Lewis thank you mr. Rockin members of the board so tonight we're bringing forth to you a proposed abbreviated attendance zone boundary change for elementary schools for cool spring and and john w tolbert policy 6530 does allow for this to take place when in this particular case there's a new residential development where there's no

[06:19:33] current folks living there and so we're proposing to to move that the the folks from the tuscarora crossing which is a 250 acre mixed-use development that is situated somewhat between cool spring and and Tolbert to bring those students from the Cool Spring attendance zone.

[06:19:52] And you see in the item there, we have a little chart that it shows you that that's nearing the 100% mark where Tolbert has plenty of space, and so we're proposing to move those folks. The board's in agreement with this. We have tonight, we're talking about information item, the abbreviated attendance zone process allows for an information item and then a public hearing in action.

[06:20:14] So we would propose that to be on May 23rd for the public hearing in action. And I have Mrs. Tate here with me who is our subject matter expert if you have any questions. - Board members, any questions regarding the abbreviated attendance zone change process?

[06:20:33] Ms. Ogedekbe. - Thank you, Chair Sorokin. And it's not really a question, just a comment that I just wanted to appreciate and acknowledge staff feedback. I had asked some questions. And again, this is not impacting people who are in schools yet.

[06:20:49] This is a new development. And this is smart and the right thing to do to look at where we have the most capacity and it is adjacent to the boundary zone. So thank you for your work on this and bringing it forward. Any additional discussion?

[06:21:09] Seeing none, interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting? No, okay. I believe we need a public hearing on this per policy. Oh, we do? Yes, sir. Okay, but we do that the same night as it's an action item? Yes, sir. Okay, so we'll place this on action for our next board meeting.

[06:21:28] We'll now move to 1409 from the Equity Committee, requested referral of policy 1045, commitment to equity back to the Equity Committee. Ms. Sheridan. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll just remind the board that previously, this policy came to the school board prior to the adoption of the strategic plan.

[06:21:50] And at that time, the school board tabled the policy until the strategic plan could be adopted. So since then, the Equity Committee has requested that the school board remove this item previously tabled and refer it back to the equity committee.

[06:22:05] So at this time, do I need to make a motion to remove it from the table first? - No, it was already on the agenda. - Okay, so I move to refer policy 1045 back to the equity committee. - As long as it's on the agenda, you can always make a motion to refer that item to committee.

[06:22:25] I'll second, given that it's by committee request. Ms. Sheridan, do you wanna speak to your motion? No, I'll just, well, I guess yes, and I would just say that the Equity Committee did ask for this to be sent back to them so that this new committee for this year could take a look at it and update it based on the strategic plan.

[06:22:45] Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of referring Policy 1045, Commitment to Equity, back to the Equity Committee for further review. Please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously. We'll now move to item 1410, requested by Ms. Polifko regarding SROs in elementary schools. Ms. Polifko.

[06:23:12] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am bringing this up this evening because a constituent reached out to me with concerns, not only as a employee of Loudoun County, but also with children in the school system. questioning why it is that we do not currently have SROs at all of our elementary schools and how important it may be for us or not maybe but how important it is for us to consider that factor we do have I know itinerant SROs that travel back and forth from middle and high to our elementary schools but I think it's also important for us to consider not only school you know we have got a lot of schools that are in close proximity to each other in certain

[06:23:51] areas of the county middle schools and elementary schools but we also have schools in the western part of our county that are not close to each other and and in the event that there is an emergency it would be extremely difficult for an SRO in some cases to get to our elementary schools so I'm bringing this up as an information item I think I believe the board has looked looked into this in the past night and I think probably voted on it in the past right now as I as I said earlier we do not have SROs at all of our elementary schools considering safety needs and concerns of our students I know that we're working to to harden our elementary schools right now but I also

[06:24:29] think that it's important to consider placing SROs at our schools not just itinerant but at our elementary schools and I would welcome a conversation with my fellow board members on that topic I think that when we talk about student safety this is one of the most simple things that we can do to provide comfort for our parents, for our family members who are saying goodbye to their children every single day when they get on the school bus or when they drop them off to school to know that there is an extra level or layer of safety at their children's school.

[06:25:06] I know I feel that way as a parent. Thank you. Board members, additional discussion regarding this information item? Mr. Beatty. Thank you. My understanding is that there aren't yet enough SROs for the elementary schools, and I think that was one of the challenges.

[06:25:24] And I know, I recall, We have been working on putting the school's security officers and making them more available to elementary schools, but it's my recollection, and I guess we could throw it back to staff and see if they have a question or the answer to that. Mr. Brady, can you clarify that question again, just so I'm clear?

[06:25:45] I think there aren't enough SROs to have one at every elementary school, and I think we tried to fill in the gaps by having more school security officers, which are LCPS employees. I could address that question. At this time, all SROs assigned to middle and high schools serve as liaisons to specific elementary schools.

[06:26:08] And so while an SRO may not be assigned directly to a school, if an elementary school is in need of assistance, they're able to call upon an SRO within their cluster. In terms of the number of positions, I'm not prepared to speak to that, as that would be in the Sheriff's Office budget.

[06:26:28] Additional discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to 1411 from the Department of Student Services, the LGBTQ Plus Pride Month proclamation.

[06:26:45] Dr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Sorokin. This is our annual proclamation coming to you tonight as an information item. To acknowledge June is LGBTQ Plus Pride Month in LCPS. LCPS educators and leaders commit to embracing the diversity of all of our students as assets that add value to a learning by affirming qualities that make each student unique.

[06:27:11] Board members, any questions regarding the Pride Month proclamation? Seeing none, we'll place this on action for our next board meeting.

[06:27:29] Okay, board members, that takes us to item 15, and we are doing it. board member comments and committee reports. We'll start with Ms. Polifko. - Thank you, Chair. I would like to bring it to everyone's attention that this Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m.

[06:27:48] I will be joined by Dr. Smith at Broad Run High School for our listening session. I am looking forward to hearing from members of the community and being able to hopefully provide them with some dialogue that they don't often have an opportunity to engage in.

[06:28:05] Again, that will be happening at 6:00 PM this Thursday, May 11th at Broad Run High School. And I'd also like to just take a moment to apologize to the constituents in Broad Run, because it has come to my attention recently that my appointment to the equity committee was done so that I therefore would not have an opportunity to appoint someone in my district to serve on that committee.

[06:28:34] So apparently, the chairman of this board is so disgusted that I won this election in broad run, that he made it his mission to silence the constituents that I represent. And so I'm sorry to those individuals. I was duly elected for this position. And really, it's not me that I'm just the vehicle here. It's not me that he's after. It's everyone who thinks like I do.

[06:29:09] It's everyone who doesn't bend the knee to woke ideology, and I think it's important for me to be able to have this time to discuss that this evening. They're not after me. They're really after everyone who thinks like I do and who does not fit the narrative, and that's not very inclusive.

[06:29:27] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Polifko. Ms. Okadekbe. Thank you. So I somehow didn't realize we would be ending this early, so I'll just say briefly a couple of things. And on Monday, actually, if you check your email, there is a newsletter in your email from Loudoun County Public Schools that is for me from going to the Leesburg families.

[06:29:57] So I provided some more specifics coming out of the committees that I'm working on. But as a reminder, I'm chairing both the Student Behavior and Accountability Committee, the Human Resources and Talent Development Committee, and then serve on the Curriculum and Instruction Committee, the Audit Committee, and the Student Services Committee.

[06:30:15] I'm also the liaison to the Loudoun Education Alliance for Families. It's been a good opportunity to just learn more about various aspects of the school system, and specifically with LEAF, have had some good conversations with them.

[06:30:35] Last time, unfortunately, they didn't make quorum, But I stuck around and had some good conversations with the parents who stayed and have some thoughts about how we can, as a board, more effectively try to figure out a mechanism through which we can give feedback to the various groups that give the feedback on policy.

[06:30:59] I think a great example occurred during the recent CNI committee meeting where staff brought back a very detailed summary of the feedback that came back related to the policies around instructional materials it was really helpful to see kind of the different groups that provided feedback what the feedback was and the disposition on the feedback this was incorporated or this wasn't incorporated and if it wasn't incorporated why I realized that that's depending upon the amount of

[06:31:36] feedback that does add some effort but just thinking about for especially the the parent groups and other advisory committees who take the time to put together the feedback and they're feeling like they're not necessarily getting the feedback from their feedback what was the final outcome of that as the liaison to leave I'm not privy to every single thing that happens in each committee so so just some thinking for the future very quickly because I don't know how many minutes I have there's no clock here I have had the pleasure of

[06:32:16] visiting a number of Leesburg schools this spring with more visits planned it's been great to hear from school-based administrators teachers and other staff about their work supporting our students it's been a great opportunity also as we approach this final stages of the superintendent search although it was great to get all of that feedback through the surveys and the focus groups just being able to ask you know more questions from them about their thoughts on that process I think that our selection for the next superintendent is one of the most important things before us at this time

[06:32:55] So, it's been helpful to continue to get feedback on that from the community. I'm also looking forward to joining several PTA, PTO, PTSA meetings in the coming weeks to learn more about what they're doing to support their respective schools and get feedback from them.

[06:33:14] Unfortunately, because they're on a monthly cadence and committee meetings are also on a monthly cadence, I have a lot of conflicts. I'm hoping that in the fall schedules could adjust or I can find other ways to get to those groups to meet with them. And then finally, to put a plug out there for the Leesburg Community Listening Session, which will be on May 22nd, which is in two weeks on a Monday at Loudoun County High School.

[06:33:43] Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I'll begin with a couple meetings that we have upcoming on May 17th. The MSAC will be, I guess, it'll be a normal MSAC meeting, but at the same time, it's a, they'll be presenting awards and scholarship to students and staff.

[06:34:06] So if you're available on May 17th evening, please join us here in this building. May 18th, again, we will be having a student services committee as well. So, you know, all of you and the folks are welcome up there. We met back in April 20th, and tonight we passed the 8640 policy, and again, we also got presented with the chronic absenteeism that evening, and then the full board also got a view about that as well.

[06:34:38] I'm also excited, which I didn't get a chance to present it in the past, as chairing the audit committee, it's been, you know, again, I appreciate being able to chair the audit committee so since then we have met twice as a committee on March 20 March 27th and April 24th first we started with just a process what a process for an audit would look like and mr. Ahmad shared with with us there were two policy two sort of two he was already auditing two two items already he started with

[06:35:16] the process and just to kind of get things warmed up in that sense and then on April 24th he presented with us two items and we should be coming back to the full board a audit committee policy and then also a audit universe so the universe is the collection of all the different items that perhaps the audit daughter to general's office can conduct in the in the next let's say fiscal year and so I think it's a collection of all the different items that came from staff and and school and and I think there would be also some from the board members too so I think the whole objective is I think the

[06:35:56] committee to as we meet in the in as we meet in the month of May we will be reviewing the reviewing reviewing the the universe and making some recommendations and hopefully this the entire school board sitting up here they can also get a chance to look at the audit universe and provide their inputs and feedback into the process as well and so that should be coming up and lastly I think I also got a chance to visit this time store dweller their advisors their counselors to an advisory council and it was and that's where I

[06:36:33] all this all the advisory council of elementary are great places to learn and about many of the challenges or recommendations that coming up of a student counselor. So that's all I have, thank you.

[06:36:49] - Thank you. Mr. Beatty. - Thank you, Chair. So programming notes for the Technology Steering Committee, there is going to be a Western Loudoun, Western Loudoun Area Committee, community information meeting on future school facility projects at the same time.

[06:37:08] And I think it would be important to be there for myself. So we're going to push the Technology Steering Committee back to June at its normally scheduled date. But before that, you can find also at Heritage on May 17th, the community listening session with Dr. Smith, and I'm looking forward to getting an opportunity to talk to people about what's going on in the schools.

[06:37:40] And I will hopefully see you all at one of those two community information sessions. Thank you. Ms. Sheridan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just announced that the Specialized Programs and Centers Committee will meet next Tuesday, the 16th at 6 p.m.

[06:37:59] And I wanted to give an update from the Equity Committee that met on May 4th. We were given a demonstration of a restorative practices circle, and I would encourage board members, parents, and members of the public to watch the recording of the meeting.

[06:38:17] It was our hope that some of the misconceptions surrounding restorative practices circles would be alleviated by watching what actually occurs during these sessions with students, and it could be students and staff, and hoping that if people start to watch them that the fear will be alleviated and that more students will participate because the success rate of students who participate in these restorative circles is phenomenal.

[06:38:48] And it's all about getting students to participate and that's where the numbers are low is the participation. The success is high, but the participation is low. So please take time to go back and watch the equity committee meeting from May 4th.

[06:39:03] Thank you. - Thank you, Ms. Reeser. - Thank you, Mr. Chair. So since the last time that we had board member comments, I had the opportunity to attend the VHSL State Forensics Awards. I had the listening session with this acting superintendent in my district, and I just wanted to thank you, Dr. Smith, for taking that on and for getting right out there and doing it, even though you're just in the acting superintendent's role.

[06:39:32] It was very timely, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I had the opportunity to have lunch with the principals and some community leaders in the Algonquian district and to attend the Battle of the Books at the library for one of my elementary schools.

[06:39:50] The LMP committee will be having two meetings in June. One is our regular meeting and then another one, which will include a closed session. And the reason we're having closed sessions is because we are working on the collective bargaining topic.

[06:40:06] And that's just something that for the benefit of the division has to happen in closed session. So I know some people were wondering what those are about. I hope that helps alleviate any concerns. Also, I do serve as the liaison for the Head Start program. And you might remember that a few meetings ago, they presented information to us on potentially having full-day kindergarten as opposed to half-day.

[06:40:34] It's not kindergarten, sorry, preschool. Yeah, I heard myself. I think we were talking about that kindergarten policy earlier, and I got myself confused. And so I got to hear what parents who are participating in the program think about some of those things and the other things they're working on.

[06:40:50] it. It's actually a setting that's very similar to some of our advisory committees. And for those of you that have interest in Head Start, I'd be happy to talk with you about it or invite you to attend. It's a really great group and our staff is phenomenal. Thanks very much. Thank you.

[06:41:10] For the curriculum and instruction committee, our last meeting was on May 1st. We passed the kindergarten policy out of committee which we voted on earlier tonight we heard five policy information items the whole the policy 5045 which got split in four into four policies plus a another information item on our class size policy we also heard an update on the elementary school master scheduling it was really good to get the details around what's what's being planned for next year

[06:41:45] on that. And our next C&I meeting is scheduled for June 5th. Aside from that, I also had the opportunity to do my listening session with Dr. Smith at Willard Middle School on April 20th. I appreciate Dr. Smith extending the invitation for me to join him at his listening session.

[06:42:05] I also had the honor of representing the school board along with all other county leaders in attendance at the School Business Partnership Executive Council Awards on April 24th, and I joined Mr. Mejedevi in representing the school board at the Health and Medical Science Academy community panel that was held here at the admin building with LCPS staff as well as local medical industry leaders on April 28th. And that in particular, it was great to see the

[06:42:39] community engagement and the excitement from our community partners around the potential for a health and medical science academy and I'm looking forward to seeing the next steps on that. Aside from that, graduation season is upon us so looking forward to board members participating in graduation ceremonies across the county. I would also ask board members if you haven't had a chance to attend the graduation ceremonies at the county-wide schools, Academies of Loudoun or Robey or North Star School.

[06:43:11] I highly recommend that at least once during your term on the board, you attend each of those unique and really moving graduation ceremonies that I've had a chance to over the last couple of years. And that will conclude my report. That will bring us to item 16, new business.

[06:43:29] Is there any new business tonight? Ms. Okedegbe. Thank you, Chair Serotkin. I had a very long-winded new business, but I'll save it for next time. Just briefly, I wanted to say that at the next board meeting, I will bring forward an information item for a proposed proclamation, recognizing the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

[06:44:00] Just briefly, just for some history on this, This past January marked 10 years since Hedayah Pendleton was tragically shot and killed at the age of 15, just one week after she had performed with her high school at President Obama's second inauguration.

[06:44:22] In response to that, her community and her friends have mobilized, and there has been an annual recognition on her birthday which was which will be june 2nd and so i have a proclamation i'd like to bring forward recognizing that day i'll also next time also just provide some more context around some additional things that the school system has done to raise awareness around firearms safety and storage and the fact that loudon county offers free storage and

[06:45:01] for both medications and firearms and explain how we've updated some materials to make sure that there's more information for the public on that important issue. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any additional new business tonight? Seeing none, we are adjourned.

[06:45:18] Thank you, everyone.

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