Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Student Behavior and Accountability Committee Meeting, Monday, June 26, 2023

Date: Monday, June 26, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 59m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/839881836?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:02] - Good evening, I am calling to order the June 26th Student Behavior and Accountability Committee meeting. Joined with me today are Mr. Mejedevi and Ms. Polifko. Do we have any public comment?

[00:00:20] Item number three is the approval of the May 24th draft minutes. Do I have a motion? - So moved. - Is there a second? I'll second it. So with that we approve the May 24th draft minutes.

[00:00:42] Item number four is the discipline authority policy. You can walk us through that. Okay, sorry, go ahead. All those in favor of approving the minutes for May 24th, please raise your hand and say aye.

[00:01:01] Aye. Okay, so that motion will pass with 2-4 and Mr. Mehevee abstaining. Okay, that's right, you weren't here. Thank you. Item number 4.01, policy 8205, discipline authority.

[00:01:22] Thank you. 8205 basically describes the discipline authority that the school board has for students under their supervision. The major changes in red that are in there have come from division council.

[00:01:40] This is one policy that basically describes the school boards authorizing school administrators to develop rules and policies and communicate those into students' rights and responsibilities to all students. So division council felt that for the school board, it needed to be a clearer definition of what the school board is assigning school administrators to do and communicate those students' rights and responsibilities.

[00:02:09] This also ties in one of the things we've done is trying to provide that information and easier access. So at times we had a student code of conduct and a student rights and responsibilities that often had the same information in them. So we are combining most of the information in one easy document for parents to have access to and students to have access to with that information.

[00:02:32] That's not written in this policy, but the division council felt we had to have a clear definition as to whether the school board gets the authority to give school administration permission or the rights to develop the codes and student rights and responsibilities.

[00:02:47] - Can you just restate, what were you saying were the two documents that were being combined? There have been two documents that have existed for a while called the Student Code of Conduct and Student Rights and Responsibilities. Very similar information. One of the challenges is when there were changes, we had to constantly go back through and look and update those because of feedback that we had received about having easier access to the information, streamlining it, keeping it one area so the parents do have access to it.

[00:03:13] We've combined that information and it doesn't just include the Office of School Administration, also includes other departments, Department of Student Services, their information too. so that parents don't have to look at, our students don't have to look at multiple sources for that information.

[00:03:29] - And what's the combined document going to be called? And is that for this upcoming year? - It is for the upcoming year. It's a document actually in the Department of Student Services that Dr. Bowers is putting together. His, what escapes me right now is what the overall name of it is, and I'll look at that.

[00:03:47] But our section is the Student Rights and Responsibilities that is in there. have and we used to have a separate document called the code of conduct too and we just felt it was too difficult for people to look through both documents to figure out where they needed to do to find the information instead of having one source the other thing is i am not in favor of the name student rights and responsibilities because it also includes parent information so if anybody ever comes up with a better name i would be happy to consider it would that be

[00:04:25] something that would be stated in this policy and could then transfer to the document? Is that what you're stating? - It does not necessarily have to be stated in this policy, but it could be stated in this policy if the school board were to come up with a better name for that document.

[00:04:44] Because much of the information in there is not just students' rights and responsibilities, also has to do with parents' rights. - Yes, Mr. Mahadevi.

[00:05:00] - Thank you, Ms. Agadevi. So this, I mean, you could call it parents and students rights and responsibilities. I mean, I don't know, I'm not getting into that, but I'm just throwing it out there. But I guess my question is, is this the policy 8205 that directs the school administration to create a student's rights and responsibilities handbook?

[00:05:21] - Yeah, the division council felt that there was not a policy that did direct them, so they needed the language put in, so they requested they put it in this policy 8205, which is the only policy that did mention that the school board is directing school administration to create that student rights and responsibilities.

[00:05:37] - So, Ms. Okudekbe, I think this is probably a good place to change the name then to whatever. And I think I have some more comments about the student rights and responsibilities document itself. There's a handbook and there's a PDF. I would like it to be much more web.

[00:05:53] I mean, again, we talk about web pages, but searchable, easy to find, you know, having information there, or is it just a handbook and a PDF? It's very, very difficult to search through it find access to what the rights are, better categorization of that.

[00:06:08] I think if this is the way the policy directs, I think we could perhaps direct the staff to create a better presentation of the policy on the web as well. And the current name is Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook for Families and Student Code of Conduct.

[00:06:31] That's the current name, yes. And again, that doesn't just encompass this committee or our office.

[00:06:47] That's multiple different offices that put together that information as part of that handbook. So I guess the question, and then that's through student support services is the department that's putting that together.

[00:07:13] And that committee meeting is on Wednesday. I mean, are there thoughts from the committee members? I'm thinking about, you know, is it in the same way that we changed the name of this committee, It seems as though what's outlined are rights, responsibilities, and expectations.

[00:07:37] You know, I don't know how to, if it's not just students, it's also parents, but it's not just parents, it's guardians. So do we just strike the word and have something like, I don't, I'm not quite sure.

[00:07:57] So any thoughts about naming? I mean, we could call it, I didn't think about a guardian, but I think you make a good point. It's not just, I guess, parents, but guardians, but it could be family.

[00:08:13] I mean, students and family rights and responsibilities. I don't know. I'm not, I know you came up with a good name called Student Behavior and Accountability Committee, so I'm looking for you guys to perhaps come with a good name. I'll be open. Any thoughts?

[00:08:33] Ms. Plipko? Thank you. I agree. I think we could, if we can somehow incorporate parents slash guardian, or if we want to say families into this student rights and responsibilities since it's not just about students. I'm open to, you know, I think it's a pretty simple fix. We would just want to include parent, guardian, parents slash guardians, however we want to phrase that. So what about recommending student and family rights and responsibilities as the document name? It can

[00:09:12] contain a chapter with the code of conduct. I don't think that that needs to be in the document title it gets very long and cumbersome so and it seems that student and family um rights and responsibilities is all encompassing and does do what you were hoping it would do so i would suggest then in terms of this policy that we would update this here and then if you could share that with dr bowers as well so on you know online i think it first shows up on line 14

[00:09:47] and then again on 22. Okay, could you say the exact same language that you just repeat? So student and family rights and responsibilities.

[00:10:07] Does that sound correct? Yeah, student and family. Or should they be plural students and families, rights and responsibilities, singular perhaps.

[00:10:28] Thoughts from staff? I do think it's supposed to be singular as student and families rights. - So student and family rights and responsibilities.

[00:10:46] Any other comments or questions from the committee? Yes, Mr. Mejedevi. - Thank you, Chair. So I think we should add a section D here in terms of how we wanna present it as well. I do like to, I mean, my challenge has been, I think we need to codify in the policy in terms of staff to build and update the web presence of it, not just a PDF copy and a print copy, But just build this searchable, easy to find.

[00:11:18] Easy to find is a very generic term. But I mean, this is an information item. We could come up with a better language in terms of how we want to have it presented. Okay, so you're talking about on line 44 and 45 that updated? Yeah, I think, but I just don't want it to be just posted.

[00:11:40] I want it to be posted, but in a different way. So I'll give you an example. So right now you can take the PDF and post it, and you're done with it. Right. where I was taking the entire manual and presenting as probably hundreds of pages, web pages.

[00:11:58] So I can have an index of all the content as HTML pages. I can have a search function within that handbook too, the search through that. And so it has its own glossary. So if I'm as a family looking into find specific thing, I can just go to that website, which is not, I mean, it's still a website, but do that particular handbook's website and find any relevant information I need to find there.

[00:12:30] I think so what I'm hearing you saying is rather than having the LCPS website update through a policy and regulations page via the Student and Family Rights and Responsibilities handbook link, what you're looking for is for essentially web pages to be developed to reflect the content so it's not just a static PDF.

[00:12:58] Is that accurate? I think it's over that's why I'm kind of having trouble because it's almost like a system itself but I don't want to call it systems you see what I mean like it's it's a self-contained um if I were to make a website out of the handbook just on this thing that's what that would be so I don't want to just call web pages it's taking the book and really building a mini website out of that so you search is it's constrained within those pages and so on so thank you madam chair so

[00:13:36] So, Mr. Mahedvi, are you looking for hyperlinks almost, like a hyperlink for each section so that a family could click on that link and it would take them directly to that section of the handbook? Is that where you're going with this so that someone wouldn't have to thumb through 100 pages to find page 101?

[00:13:58] Exactly. Okay. So you'll have a table of contents, will be HTML page itself. But not only that, I think this is where I want to add, just to kind of bring more. So when we search for it, right now you just search, it will go through LCPS search. But there should be, and you can build it, and that's why I'm calling it system, because then the search will be just contained within the handbook itself on the website.

[00:14:20] So if I'm looking for anything specific thing, it'll be searchable. And so that will require some more effort versus just making a web page out of it. So if a PDF is constructed in a more robust manner, you can have hyperlinks on a table of contents and a search within a PDF as well.

[00:14:44] It's still cumbersome to download it and search it. Plus, this is also, it'll get indexed by Google as well. And so if it just parent just types it LCPS, student regulations or something on the lines of that, they can find it.

[00:15:01] So I guess the question is, what's the most effective way to ask for that? Is it to put it in policy or to make a request through the other committee? because it requires web development. Yeah, I would definitely, I mean, I'm going to ask for, to be part of the policy, to be very explicit in that, to be giving directions, and to happen that.

[00:15:24] Anyway, that's my lessons learned. There are hyperlinks that are coming out in the current document we have before, so you can find a topic or subject area by section. So what I think you were asking for is even more specific, drilling down to certain...

[00:15:40] So maybe, like I said, maybe we'll work it offline. I can go back, look at it, provide some examples to you and to staff to see what I'm thinking about. And I'm not trying to make it in a complicated language, but somewhere we can direct in the policy that something needs to be created. So you guys have some teeth to go to DDI and say, hey, you guys need to create this for the policy.

[00:16:01] That's all. And again, anything that we would do, because this includes multiple committees and departments, we would need to get their approval to do so. although our document is often a large part of this and we put a lot of material from other areas there's a lot of departments that have in offices that have added to what our document we've just tried to centralize most of the information so we're addressing all areas of student behavior and including counseling support and everything else that would come along in that process to ease access and i appreciate this because one of the challenges we've had is having multiple

[00:16:38] documents out there especially when we try to keep them live because our regulations do change And VDOE does change the SBAR. It is a challenge remembering to keep all the links live, make sure everything's accurate, make sure everybody else's information is up to date, too. I mean, I would just add, similarly, finding policies is sometimes difficult if you don't know exactly where it is, so the first thing you have to do is know which section to go to, and if you don't know which section it's in, it takes a bit of time, so.

[00:17:11] We did have to put that in a PDF, and that was a challenge because our documents do change.

[00:18:25] and they're living documents so the table of contents as it exists right now are not hyperlinked even though they look like they would be I'll show you my little experience so I just kind of give you an example recently we helped a client they had all their policy documents handbooks and manuals they're

[00:19:04] all in PDF so we actually created a content management system so they put they converted all the PDF documents into essentially web pages and it's much much more easy to find, but more importantly, it's searchable. And that was the biggest value that's added to it.

[00:19:20] So it's a very self-contained site. I mean, I don't know if it's live, it's an internal site. I gotta see if they ever Drupal, so content management anyway. So that's what it just, so anyway. - So with this document, were you looking at gonna create some different language you wanted to add for this in policy, or maybe look at putting it in a different policy that we would keep it updated?

[00:19:46] - So since this is the only policy that directs student rights and responsibilities, That's why I think this would be appropriate to do that. So I think in Section C, I don't know that it needs to be a separate section, so I would recommend that, you know, the link to the handbook could also be available, but we should add a sentence that says maybe starting with, rather than the link, maybe starting with

[00:20:19] updated policies regulations and rules are posted on the LCPS website and through the policy and regulations page via the student and family rights responsibilities handbook link so the first thing would be on the website and I don't know I don't know how much detail we get into in policy in terms of

[00:20:54] what that looks like but the intent there is that we have a searchable interactive web presence that families can, and also to Mr. Mehedevi's point, it would then get picked up by Google. So if somebody was looking for a specific part of our regulations, they would just be much more easily accessible and easier to find. And if we put it in this policy, and we would have to be able to do it, though, before we can get that policy approved, correct? So what

[00:21:32] we're really talking about is having a living document. The expectation, though, that it would still go through an annual review process so it would just like the handbook is updated annually the website would be as well so the content on the website would be one for one with the handbook so what i do here is we have to write in policy that we're looking to create a living document with updated web page link to information not a static pdf document yeah it's not i think i think

[00:22:07] so good big things summarize it well it's not a living document it's just a it's a it's a version of the pdf in an html format that's searchable indexable okay put it that way so just to then online 44 where it says on the lcps website and then in parentheses and then in a searchable and

[00:22:41] indexable format is that accurate in HTML format yeah in a searchable and HTML format is that correct just so I want to get this correct can you say it exactly so I would have that I think we said searchable indexable in HTML format

[00:23:09] searchable and index indexable and HTML okay anything else okay if I do add that would it be alright for them me to move this through committees for review that Do you need to review the discipline authority?

[00:23:44] The policy, or do you want me to bring that back before DDI to make sure that we can do that? No, I don't think, I mean, sorry. No, I don't know if you, I mean, this is our policy. I mean, this is this committee.

[00:24:00] I mean, and we're asking that this be, this make it happen. It's going to go to the full board, and the full board can input on it, but, I mean, that's at least my intent. I think you should let them know that that's what the ask is. But I don't, it is possible, so it's not, an impossible ask it's certainly effort that if there's a timing consideration that the board would need to consider when this comes forward to the full board we're recessed after tomorrow anyway so um it won't be coming up for action for for the board until at least august perhaps

[00:24:37] september at this point anyway okay yes mr mehedavi i was going to say if then if i can get approval to go through and it works, would I be able then to bring it to SEAC and MSAC and other committees in August early on to get them to review it?

[00:25:00] So it's an information item today, so I don't know that we're asking to suspend the rules. I think what would the normal flow would be? We would approve it before it would go out for... Yeah, you would approve it before we would go to committee as it is or with any changes that we had agreed upon in the board and that you approved as a committee so when would you normally then bring it to the for feedback right after you've approved it as it is unless there are major changes or things that you wanted us to go back and look at so this could be considered a change that you want us to go back and look at to see if we get approval beforehand so then if we went so

[00:25:39] then if we got the feedback in august then we could bring it back to committee for action in september is that what you're saying okay i'm i'm comfortable with that others yes mr maher Haravi, you had something else? Thank you. So I think this goes back to the item I had in the communications committee.

[00:26:02] It was the Let's Talk app, and I went back and forth with the committee. That's why my hesitation about just taking your DDI for approval. I mean, you can do it as an FII. I'm happy to do that, but I'm not looking for any approval from that committee.

[00:26:21] You're being played between the committees. Somehow they say, well, we can't do it, and then we've got to make a decision. At least my hope is this committee can still decide and say, no, Harris, you know, it's a three-member committee, and they decide, no, Harris, we don't agree. I can live with that, but I don't want to be between committee and committee saying, and I've crossed this bridge a couple times before.

[00:26:45] Thank you. Okay, so as discussed, then, if you can make those updates, you can solicit community feedback, and we'll come back to this in September, likely. Okay, moving on to item 4.02, additional policies for review.

[00:27:07] Yeah, we did have a list of policies that we shared last time that are coming up. The policies that Ms. Gettleman has put up there that are currently 8273 and 8550, both which were, have been renumbered, were not part of originally for OSA, but we did take them on because they had, were past due.

[00:27:36] Both of those are now before cabinet. They've already gone to vision council, but I have not received them back from cabinet yet. And I would hope to have those in August. And those are also good examples why our document and our information needs to be flexible, because if there's changes in student rights and responsibilities or student speech, we have to adopt that, make that change in the student rights and responsibilities, our new document.

[00:28:01] So those should be there in August. And then we talked about if there's any one of the other three document or two documents discipline disciplinary consequences procedures for students with disabilities and students discipline appeals and hearings if any of those are ones that you wanted us to move up next we would look at moving those up next otherwise when we reviewed it we are

[00:28:27] caught up on our policies mr. mehedовy thank you chair so i think the only one i see which it looks like it's way past due, is the one 861?

[00:28:48] Yeah, 861 and 857, those two have been changed, 8273 and 8550, those are both in cabinet right now. Yeah, so those were sent. The only major change or changes in any of those documents were just based on change of state or federal law that caused any changes in those.

[00:29:10] So those have been sent to cabinet. And 821, is that the one that's being sunsetted? yeah that's the one that services yes okay student services is reviewing that so i would just suggest you know what you're alluding to is once those two get through cabinet that they come to this committee and then we move forward in order of due date even though they're not due

[00:29:44] until next year to just move through and and work on those i don't think we need to wait for the due date. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Item number five for new business, I wanted to bring forward. So last time when we met, we had a presentation on discipline

[00:30:17] data, and I'm not sure if Mr. Mejedevi, if you'd had a chance to look at it. What I was hoping to do was to have a conversation to talk about when this comes back for an update, because we're waiting for the full year data to be available to be able to update this, bring it to the committee, and then that would be an update for the full board in terms of the types of data that we're looking for.

[00:30:47] So I'm not sure if the full committee is ready to have that conversation to provide input as to other segmentation or other data points that weren't in there. Mr. Mejedevi.

[00:31:03] Thank you, Chair. No, I'm not prepared tonight to provide that particular feedback. So I would like to suggest then that in August we plan as a committee to provide feedback on the data points to be included in the presentation.

[00:31:29] And so that would mean before then taking a look at the presentation that's in board docs from May and then just thinking through what are the other data points. so I'll just I'll throw out there a couple of the things so I know that this focuses on in school and out of school suspension data but there is one slide that has kind of a break at the breakdown well there's two slides one

[00:32:02] with breakdown by ethnicity and another by gender but it's not clear if this is suspensions overall is this is in school or out of school and i'm also interested in getting information about referrals which don't appear in this slide deck um i know there are some other things as well so i'd just like to have that as an agenda item in august so that we can have a more extensive conversation about what type of information we're hoping to bring forward to be able to share with the community is and you would like the referrals broken down by the same

[00:32:40] demographics ethnicity gender yes mr. Mahadevi I have a different item on a new business thank you so one of the things I guess I met with few teachers in the last month or so and one of the discussion one of the points that they brought back is our discipline policy and as a board member for the last four years because it many people provide a lot of feedback to board members

[00:33:17] Some we are responsible, some we are not responsible for. But we are responsible for policies. So I do take that as something that I was part of in making the policies. So even though this data that we're going through is good to get the data that we need, but I'm not sure, maybe this is a committee, I'm not sure, but I want to bring this up to fellow board members in the committee.

[00:33:43] You know, have we collected feedback from the teachers on, again, from a policy perspective, discipline policy, what's working, what's not working, and what corrective actions we can take?

[00:34:00] Again, we swung from the policy existed, let's say, in a state A, and we did a knee-jerk reaction to some extent. I'm not sure if that's the right way to put it, where we shifted the policy.

[00:34:17] We're not realizing what the consequences, but I think now we have at least the policy has been there for the last two years. So maybe it's working. Maybe it's just a few people providing feedback. But what can we do to get better feedback that some of the student discipline policies that we applied are working or what creative actions we can take going forward, too?

[00:34:39] So we can have some little more data to work with versus feeling that this is working. So that's kind of where I want to bring it up. You don't have to raise that. I didn't want to interrupt you. I think that's a good point, and I have also heard that.

[00:34:56] I think the question comes down to how is classroom management going and just in general student behavior? We can look at the stats, and the stats look good.

[00:35:14] The suspensions are going down, but what does that mean around just behavior in the building? anecdotally what I'm also hearing from teachers is that it's been harder and I'm hearing I'm hearing that in other states - I have friends who are teachers in other states who have said it's just last couple of years it's just been harder and I don't think that this data reflects that and I'm wondering what how can we understand more just more more broadly around student behavior and the

[00:35:54] ability to address that and have clear expectations and have students respond and are there things in policy to to mr. Mahedovey's point that we should be thinking about or looking at to help support teachers and their ability to manage classrooms and and buildings i have a lot of opinions and have a lot of experience and i also get to work with principals from all over the country too uh you know sometimes um the great line from jamie volmer we have anesthesia we're

[00:36:32] nostalgic about the past but we have the amnesia about the reality of what it was really like for instance when we looked at vaping violations you'll see in 2019 before the pandemic we had a huge jump tremendous jump um at one time i think we had 12 tobacco violations in the school division it just wasn't something did and you know there's not a vaping problem in our school there's a vaping problem in our communities you can drive down route seven and count the number of vape shops that sell and that's just the vape shops that sell doesn't matter the uh the other convenience stores and others and how you can get them online and the access to them and how they become you know and that is a challenge i don't know if greater dispositions um or greater consequences

[00:37:10] improve that behavior i do think coming back out of a pandemic we did have to adjust how we were approaching things um when i i know teachers have been at times frustrated with I know administrators have sometimes been frustrated with teachers and it was a change in what we, coming back and what that response is.

[00:37:34] I don't, it, I would say in the many years I've been doing this, one of the constant conflicts is that at times teachers wanted us, some teachers really wanted us to severely discipline kids and we're always concerned when they came back to administrator's office and they worked out a different solution 'cause part of our solution is we have to figure out what we're gonna do to educate 'em 'cause they're all our kids, no matter what that behavior is.

[00:37:59] And that is a challenge. So I don't diminish the fact that it is a challenge and students have come back after a pandemic, come back from in a different setting, have come back and have forgot how to play school for two years, for lack of a better word, and now adjusted back into that situation.

[00:38:16] But I also wanna emphasize there's a lot of teachers and students that do an incredible job and did an incredible job coming back into the classroom. and that behavior, and if you were to talk to staff members, it's mainly a few students that cause a majority of their problems, and if you were to talk to administrators, it's often a few teachers that have a majority of the referrals, so I don't want to diminish that, but I also know this is a problem that started when my first year of school, working in schools in 1985, and I know this is something that we've constantly look at.

[00:38:55] So that's the balance. In 2012, you know, the state said we have to really look at discipline and how we're providing it and the disproportionality in discipline. And our African-American and Hispanic males are being suspended at a much higher rate or discipline than others for defiance and other issues that really shouldn't rise to that level.

[00:39:16] So we did look at addressing those pieces and how we respond to those. and we do talk about different measures to approach those. The other fear we all have is that with our students, if we put them out of school, especially ones that have not committed acts that are violent in nature, when they're out of school, they're not connected to us, and we don't have that supervision or that oversight or anything, and they often come back as a greater challenge, and that's one of the reasons why we've talked about looking at alternative settings and different measures for students to address some of those student behaviors

[00:39:53] that we do feel at times where students need a chance. You know, whether it's repeated vaping violations or 82-40 violations, or it's some other things with a couple of fights that the students had where we need a spot to just get them just kind of redirect and corrected, but still in a structured school setting, not sitting at home.

[00:40:14] So there's a lot of layers and grounds we look at, but I think part of this is, I don't know what it's gonna be like in two years because I don't know if this is a response to what we are doing in that frustration or if it's something bigger than that.

[00:40:31] But I do hear it every, schools that are suspending kids for vaping still have a 300 to 400% increase in vaping. It's not stopping the students from vaping. They're still doing it.

[00:40:46] That's a deeper community issue that we have to look at. But the pieces that we have in place from our other student services offices of how we're addressing students, those multi-tiered system support, those we're addressing, I think those are valuable pieces that we can put in to address the behavior, while also working on some of the things that we have to do in improving classroom management and providing tools for staff members to do so, providing opportunities for staff members at times when a student needs to be maybe in a different environment for a short period of time because of the disruption that they may have caused, that we have opportunities to place a student

[00:41:26] in that type of environment and give them some intensive support and provide some measures that as they come back, we built the skills so we're not just taking them away and then throwing them back in. I appreciate that. And just, I think that I don't want you to misconstrue the, at least on my part, the comments, to be asking for more stringent and severe responses in terms of discipline.

[00:41:51] But again, just understanding how we can continue to support teachers in their endeavors to, you know, help create a positive learning environment and figure out when students aren't, you know, aren't meeting the expectations for behavior, how, you know, what's getting to the root of what's going on so that we can support the students ultimately as well. I do appreciate the support you're providing. One of the things we talked about is that we have to do it as a collective. We don't operate with discipline over here, mental health over here student services over here we're trying to eliminate the silos because

[00:42:28] often when we're dealing with a student that's creating some conflict or disruption in the school we're dealing with multiple issues it's just not one behavior that we're dealing with and the ability to build some of our supports in our transition plans and other things in place so that we're bringing all the parties to the table and a collective approach to the student because I still think most of our students do a really good job and are really good kids and make really good decisions.

[00:42:55] Sometimes they make a bad decision every once in a while, but most of them make really good decisions. It's the ones that we really want to be able to address and put a little bit more intensive support in place for those students to address that behavior. Ms. Polifko? Thank you.

[00:43:14] I appreciate, Dr. Fulton, what you're saying, and I think in many cases you're accurate. I think that, I mean, it has been my experience personally that sometimes the most difficult behaviors that you have, they are coming from one student.

[00:43:37] I can remember having to evacuate my classroom because of issues that would happen from time to time with specific students.

[00:43:47] And it doesn't, it certainly doesn't, I mean, it doesn't make, it doesn't make things easier, but I do think it does help to put into perspective that it's not, it's likely not an issue where we have a disproportionate amount of students who are having trouble with behavior, but that we have maybe an expansive array of behaviors with a small number of students, if that makes, if what I'm saying makes sense.

[00:44:18] But I did receive anonymously a hard copy of the superintendent's advisory committee feedback from teachers. I don't know who gave it to me, but someone was looking for help. And there was a lot of feedback in that report related to teachers' frustration with behavior.

[00:44:40] i i'm hearing what my colleagues are saying and and i do i do think that while some of it is probably related to the pandemic i think these are also issues that have probably been mounting for years prior to the pandemic as well we it's it's not i don't think it's fair to say that this is a problem and it's not a problem that's happening in schools because the com it is it doesn't the problems don't start in school the problems start at home the problems start in the community and they're brought into the school i mean because you we can't we can't make teachers and administrators responsible for all of these behavior problems because that just simply isn't

[00:45:20] the case but we do have to know how to deal with it so i know i advocated last time um for teachers and support staff to be getting the training that they need in order to better manage behaviors behaviors are always going to be there they're always going to be something that teachers have to deal with and if we don't and if they don't have the proper training and they don't have the proper support i think that's probably one of the reasons that teachers will leave the field that's probably one of the top reasons if they have that level of frustration that they're not able to give their students what they want to give them and they're not able to teach effectively because

[00:45:57] they're always trying to put out fires that level the effort the economy of effort is just not going to it's not going to work for them so i advocate for the for the appropriate training i think our funding should be especially when it comes to professional development we have to prioritize providing our teachers with really good strong behavioral management training because they don't get it in their teacher training programs it's they don't get it to the degree that they need

[00:46:30] to so i think that has to be an ongoing professional development priority of ours thank you thank you so I guess my my objective was not to change anything but just to hear I'm not sure if this is the the committee but since we're having the discussion about discipline or behavior student behavior and I think since we I'm going blank sorry I'm sorry Dr. Tyler is here it's just to

[00:47:09] collect them in and and Ms. Polifka also talked about the feedback loop to just kind of collect the feedback from the teachers in how things are and that's the only intention what actions you take whether it's policy whether you have more professional development i think will just give us better the staff better understanding on what did what to take next steps i don't want to just hear from the teachers and looks like there is a consensus where we're getting the feedback and we say well but now at least we want to have a hopefully the staff can have a process to collect

[00:47:47] the feedback, especially around this thing, and then have a plan on how to address it, whether it's policies, whether it's professional development, or whatever it might be. And that's the only intent behind that. - I appreciate that. I also agree with Ms. Polivko from what I've heard from several principals across the country and in Loudoun County is the behavior went from zero to 100, sometimes with student behavior, with certain students, where there was no gradual progression or anything else, it just seemed to hit there.

[00:48:18] and there has been a request from administrators to have some alternative settings. We put together a plan that would create alternative settings for students using multiple offices on what that looked like, but the same kind of idea, 'cause there are times I believe students are better served in a smaller or different environment for a period of time to work on some of those skills.

[00:48:39] Teachers, the other thing, I think we have to empower teachers. Been my experience in there. I became a mental health first aid instructor and I trained all our teachers on how to address some of those problems, but we had instant contact information because teachers are accessible 24/7 sometimes by students because of online resources that they have an access that they, who do they go to and who that contact is when dealing with that situation.

[00:49:04] And then they're part of the solution too. Part of what we talked about is how do we address the behavior where it's a group approach and it takes the teacher off the island and dealing with that student behavior. So it becomes more of a group approach and how you're addressing that behavior and working on it.

[00:49:20] All those things I think are valuable. And I do appreciate the support we have from other offices now that we're working with them because our students do go from zero to 100 with some of their behavior, having access to multiple sources as to what should be our next measures and what resources we can provide to the teachers and the administrators in that building when that student does return.

[00:49:44] What are those things that need to be put in place for that student and support? So student support advisors that were put in at the high school and the stipend positions of the middle school are gonna be helpful addressing those behaviors that are the most challenging within those schools. And we hope that would be a support for the staff members too.

[00:50:02] Along I do agree with greater training on dealing with some of the more complex issues that may come up with staff. - Good evening. I would also like to remind the board, our student staff and family stakeholder surveys are administered this spring.

[00:50:21] We're going to be publishing division and school level reports on the website in a couple of weeks. And one of the topics of greatest concern for teachers was exactly student behaviors. And while still the majority of teachers feel the practices are in place, that's one of the lowest areas with a significant population of teachers feeling that there's differences in how expectations are set and differences in the consistency of students understanding student behavior expectations.

[00:50:48] And differences in how, in the teacher's words, adults actually manage student behaviors within a building. So we will be publishing that to the website. The schools have been analyzing that data. So we have another feedback loop, and we have open-ended comments in those surveys.

[00:51:08] So we're actually able to look at patterns along with what Ms. Polifco has referenced from the advisory committee, for the teachers' advisory committee to the superintendent. So the public, you and the public will see it in a couple of weeks when it goes on the website where teachers across the board, the vast majority, have strong positive opinions about what it's like to work in the division, working with their colleagues.

[00:51:32] The area where it's lowest is really looking at students knowing the consequences of behaviors and rules being consistently enforced and students knowing how the school defines it. So the short of it is that the principals, the school leaders, central office staff have been looking at that data and the reports are being prepared for the larger public to see.

[00:51:57] And as part of our school improvement efforts, looking at the connections between, as Dr. Fulton said, climate and expectations, support that teachers are receiving and how the classroom environment that supports high academic outcomes must also have consistency and expectations and how students are supporting.

[00:52:17] it in classrooms. Dr. Tyler, can you share how students evaluated themselves in knowing the rules? As you also see, because it's students, staff, and families, there's differences in how students feel that they are responding to expectations and teachers' perceptions of whether students understand, meaning students have a stronger opinion of their understanding of student behaviors, but teachers are not necessarily seeing it in the students' actions. So we're obviously not surprised that adults and students are not always on the same page, but that's

[00:52:56] what we're looking at in analysis. So you will see that when we publish them to the website in a couple of weeks, as we traditionally do in July. So we are seeing that, as Ms. Polifco has said, in the advisory committee and in our staff stakeholder surveys on those those few topics we've been discussing thank you for that is there a noticeable pattern in terms of is this an issue at one specific level are there schools that stand out where

[00:53:29] teachers had that lower score and then when would we expect to hear information you know you mentioned the continuous improvement but when would we expect to hear more information back in terms of plans to address and support?

[00:53:47] So we do see differences by level where in some cases it's most challenging at the middle school level as far as the relationships. The greatest challenges between student behaviors has actually been student to student. Students, a larger, a higher percentage of students feel they're treated with respect by adults, but it's a lower percentage of students treating each other with respect.

[00:54:09] So yes, there's differences by level. You'll see it because we provide division reports and then each school will get a school-level report comparing themselves to their same level. And what you'll see in the school improvement plans that are being worked on that you will see published in the fall is more relationships between high academic expectations and the environment in the classroom that facilitates it.

[00:54:35] But a lot of them will be individual school-level focus, and you'll see it on the school webpages where they'll summarize the school improvement plans. and you'll see more of the strategic plan connections between how the division is supporting it so you'll see school level reports in a couple of weeks and you'll see more action plans in the school improvement plans and the strategic plan reports will be providing to the board later this fall and just looking ahead because it sounds like this is something I probably missed coming in in November last year either that or it was a blur because November was a bit of a blur but

[00:55:13] would those action plans for the schools, is there a plan to also have them all centralized or do you have to go to each individual school's website to find that information? So with the school improvement process, the schools go through what are called reflection sessions and they completed this spring. So they have all met in teams to look at various data points. Schools though, based upon their individual school setting may have a focus on improving climate along with say a math concern in supporting their English learners so there will be some differentiation

[00:55:51] so we don't have necessarily a consolidated school plan but we look at patterns across the schools for division supports so schools are more customized to their needs but there's patterns across the schools we're all looking at climate we're all looking at supporting students of IEPs multiple areas but it will be differentiated by school our division if you will consolidating it will be more in our strategic plan approach and supporting our schools when we see these patterns

[00:56:22] okay thank you any additional questions mr mehedovie thank you so dr tyler i guess um the report i mean you mentioned will be available in public so is this typically come as a pdf copy of what the report is so what the public will see and you can actually see it on the website last year's version you will see a division level report and you will see division students staff and family results by school now understanding that our secondary schools take the state survey

[00:56:59] in rotating years so they will in this particular case I think you'll have the high the middle schools may have the actual state survey results because we try not to have our schools taking two different surveys so you'll see pdfs you'll see division level summary in each school will have its own staff student and family survey results and then some will have the state survey results okay um i think we'll have to have discussions about maybe when it does go public at least maybe have an email go out to the board members that it's public i think last thing to i mean

[00:57:36] maybe we all missed it in the last november uh i know it's there but i know many things are going on as far as what we think about i mean the students think about their behavior i think we can apply the board as well how we think we're doing versus what the public thing are we doing the same thing probably applies in that too but um anyway i'm still waiting for my click click reports dr tyler i think we only have two reports for the last four years i know it's not on your shoulders but we have only two reports published on the website from click and we haven't

[00:58:13] added a single report in the last four years, and that's just been the status go. Any additional items? Okay.

[00:58:28] With that, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.

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