Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Specialized Programs & Centers Committee Meeting, Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Date: Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 34m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/866365148?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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:07] 6 o'clock. All right. Good evening. Today is Tuesday, September 19th, 2023. I'm calling to order the Specialized Programs and Centers Committee meeting. Present are Sheridan and Morse, and perhaps Mr. Beatty will join us momentarily. Is there any public comment this evening? I didn't see anybody sign up. Move to item three, approval of the draft minutes for August 15th, 2023 meeting. Is there a motion? So moved. I will second it. Any changes in

[00:00:40] discussion. All in favor? Aye. That will carry 2-0-1 with Beatty absent for the vote. We'll move to item 401, update on special programs, high school 14 and Parkview High School. Mr. Sullivan. Thank you, Ms. Sheridan. We appreciate some time tonight to give you an update on our planning around special programs and conversations that we've been having with the Parkview High School community in regards to their upcoming redesign and rebuild of their campus. As a reminder, our special programs are directly aligned to our strategic plan specifically action 1.1 rigorous providing

[00:01:19] rigorous and culturally responsive instruction to ensure deeper learning and action 1.2 developing specialized accessible programming for students in lcps this is our special program status chart that shows the status of current and future programs for lcps during this presentation we will be focused on programs under consideration specifically for parkview high school based on the feedback from the community as we mentioned last meeting during the initial construction

[00:01:54] renovation or rebuild cycle of a building there is an opportunity to consider special programs in the design process with the rebuild of parkview high school we have the ability to consider specific special programs or instructional pathways that we might be able to offer particularly those that would require or would benefit from physical space considerations in the design we have reviewed the special programs and academy's interest survey that was conducted in march of 2022 we have reviewed the high school current high school student interest in existing lcps pathways and have listened and compiled feedback and input from the parkview community

[00:02:32] through community listening sessions at the community listening session that was held on wednesday september 6 we heard from the parkview community including parents students and teachers these are an example of some of the themes that we took away from that meeting there was an interest There was an acknowledgement of the existing strong geospatial program, their culinary program needing additional kitchen space, and there was interest in a JROTC in our consideration.

[00:03:09] There was an interest in Parkview becoming a hosting center for CTE programs, being a CTE program hub for that part of the county. School counseling perspective was shared that students are interested in CTE programs. However, there are limited opportunities because some students need to work or access adult ed offerings.

[00:03:31] We heard loud and clear from a number of participants in the community listening session that they want Parkview High School to attract students. They want Parkview High School to be a student that others want to come to attend through this rebuild process. And then finally, there was a theme of partnerships with local businesses to support career pathways and offering training for students while in high school.

[00:03:59] So tonight we want to share some potential future instructional or special programs that we are considering initially in the redesign of Parkview High School and to continue the community conversation about what is possible with that space. With the rebuild, we could possibly build in expanded hospitality and culinary learning spaces.

[00:04:21] We know that this is a course pathway that already has high interest locally at Parkview High School, and there are opportunities that we could pursue to expand what is possible for the students at Parkview High School through hospitality and culinary pathways.

[00:04:37] We also have an opportunity to possibly expand access to or relocate existing programs from ACL, specifically MATA. We have already had discussions in the Special Programs Committee about the CIED program or the Computer Integrated Engineering Design program at ACL.

[00:04:57] We could potentially move that course to Parkview High School when it opens in the fall of 2027 with the consideration of expanding access to that program when we open High School 14 in the following school year in 2028.

[00:05:13] And then finally, we have heard There was student in the student interest survey and health and medical science pathways for students at Parkview High School. And so we are considering the possibility of expanding access to health and medical science pathways from the Academies of Loudoun to Parkview High School through some sort of regional hub model where some of the programming that's offered at the Academies of Loudoun could have a regional or satellite hub at Parkview High School on the campus that students in that part of the county could access.

[00:05:46] One of the pieces of feedback from the community was that they wanted to see Parkview High School as a school that attracts students that students want to attend.

[00:06:05] Another possible expansion of our special program opportunities that has already been a part of the discussion with the board is the future expansion of the International Baccalaureate Program, specifically for Parkview High School with the inclusion of the career-related programs.

[00:06:24] This would be coupled with the local expansion of CTE offerings that would support the career-related program. The IB career-related program is an educational framework designed to combine academic rigor with particular skills and real-world experiences.

[00:06:43] There are multiple components to the career-related program. There's the career components where students would take sequential courses their junior and senior year in a chosen career-related field of study with the opportunity to earn industrial and industry-recognized certification.

[00:07:00] An example of CTE sequential course offerings may include marketing, business and information technology, or culinary arts, as we've discussed. There also is an expectation that students would take two IB courses, that, of course, if the school was to be authorized for IB, would be available to the students.

[00:07:17] There's a personal and professional skills course, language development, a reflective project, and a component of service learning. Again, we see the possibility of the expansion of IB as a response to the community asking for a program that would attract students to Parkview High School.

[00:07:38] We've also heard from the community that there is an interest in cosmetology and automotive pathways. While this feedback has come from the community, we are still evaluating whether or not that really matches the interest of Parkview High School students based on the interest survey and what they're currently showing interest in.

[00:07:59] So at this time, while we are not recommending those two pathways, we realize that we still have a number of steps to take when it comes to community input, and so we'll continue to engage with the community about possibilities when it comes to those two specific pathways. The Department of Teaching and Learning plans to continue to be engaged with the Department of Support Services in the community listening sessions that they're holding regarding the redesign of Parkview High School.

[00:08:33] we are anticipating the next session to be in the next couple months and staff from the department of teaching and learning will be there to talk through some of these proposals and to get additional feedback on the possibility of including those in the redesign of parkview high school so we look forward to the continued collaboration with the community this time we're open for discussion or questions that the committee might have thanks mr sloven um first i just want to to thank you and your department again for having being at the community feedback at the park at Parkview because it was two weeks ago now and and really

[00:09:11] taking into consideration the things the community is asking for and and looking and seeing what really fits the community and the student interest so I think it's really important that we're doing that there was one thing at that night that and I'm glad you had the counselors comment up there that a a counselor said about comments about scheduling and difficulty students some of the students with difficulty with scheduling around jobs and all of that and I'm curious and maybe it's a future topic for this committee about Robie and

[00:09:49] how Robie it can fit in when we particularly when we hear a counselor talking about students and scheduling and then we look at Parkview's attendance rate and graduation rate, and that is a school that was put into place to help with those. So I'm curious, how are we making sure that is activated upon? Because Robey's not full. Robey has an unlimited capacity, quite frankly, because we didn't put a capacity on it. And just curious how that is intermixing to make sure as we look at Parkview's attendance rate and graduation rate, and we have this alternative program available, when I hear a counselor say something about

[00:10:26] scheduling and jobs and all of that so i'd like to dive a little deeper into into that and make sure that we are communicating roby as an alternative solution um because it's it's the miss it's been the missing piece all along so i want to make sure we're utilizing it as well as we can absolutely we appreciate that feedback and we can bring that bring that back for further discussion i think that'd be great if we could see that at the next meeting or november perhaps Any other questions, Mr. Morse?

[00:10:57] - Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the LCPS staff reaching out to the community. I think we have to get this right. I'm a little overwhelmed. I think that there's a lot of good ideas and a lot of people want a lot of things and expect a lot of things from this school.

[00:11:15] So I think what we need to do is step back and really look at the needs of the community and those specific students. we may have to take a subset of those great ideas. I'm a little concerned when you talk about pulling something out of the academies of Loudoun and relocating it, that we're gonna lose what Dr. Pretty used to call intentional collisions, right?

[00:11:38] Where the students from different dynamics, different courses, you know, some of the academies of science students were going to work with some of the botany, you know, and agriculture side. They were gonna work on projects together.

[00:11:53] So we were kind of looking for those types of engagements. And I'm worried that if you start pulling pieces out of MADA and putting it at different locations, you're going to lose those intentional collisions. So I can't point at any one of the great ideas up here and say, let's save that for a different school or a different location.

[00:12:14] But I can say I'm against the idea of trying to be all things to all people. And so really, if we can bring the focus in a little bit more on exactly what the community needs to be most successful to get the graduation rates up, to get the attendance rates up, to get the, you know, all those opportunities that come with the expectations of being allowed in school, I think we'll do much better there.

[00:12:38] I appreciate that perspective. And one of the considerations when we talk about the programs that the academy has allowed in is the demand meeting the supply. And so there are certain programs that it wouldn't make sense to have this conversation in terms of expanding or relocating.

[00:12:58] But when it comes to health and medical science pathways, just for your consideration, the demand from our student population as well as feedback from our community is that we need more students going through those pathways. recognizing that the next presentation is going to be about our health and medical science pathways that will be distinct from some of the opportunities that the academy has allowed.

[00:13:19] I think that's grand, and I think we're expanding a program and not relocating a program. So I think that if the demand is there, certainly another hub would make sense. The IB programs, additional hubs, that makes sense. If the demand is there and we can focus that, let's try that.

[00:13:36] But, you know, this is the grand experiment, right, to try to redefine a school based on the needs of the community. Mr. Beatty. Thank you, Chair. So on one of the slides, it mentions adding JROTC. Can you remind me that is a program that we need permission from the Department of Defense?

[00:13:57] But do we need to provide the space beforehand for that to get approved, or does it require approval and then we find the space for it? So it's actually sort of a parallel process. We do have to -- we engage with the national ROTC organization.

[00:14:17] They ask us to identify space. We actually have gone through this process at Dominion High School. We had a site visit. They came out, and Dr. Smith helped navigate that. They came out and looked at the space, and then we got approval to be on essentially a waiting list until more programs open.

[00:14:38] My understanding is that we are still on that waiting list. And if programs were to come to Virginia, that they would pull from the waiting list, make sure our application is still up to date, and go from there. Okay. So what's the space of Dominion being used for now while we're waiting?

[00:14:57] Is the city empty? Robey High School. Okay. So it would make sense then that Parkview would definitely consider adding the JROTC because I think it's in the same geographic area. But again, so I'm in favor of having that as one of the focuses for any redesigns.

[00:15:17] And then I do agree with Mr. Morse about the challenge of moving programs around. What would we get by moving a program out of the academies allowed? And is there more, again, like there's demand, so would that just be taken up by some existing program? Will we start something new? So we have spoken previously to the committee in prior years, and Dr. Ellis can give a little bit more background on this.

[00:15:40] But the idea would be we would move some of the existing program to expand additional seats for other existing pathways, such as AET or within AOS, or possibly add additional new course pathways. But I think the original conversation was about expanding seats for some of the existing programs.

[00:15:57] Do you want to? Exactly. Specifically for AOS and AET, the number of students who apply and are qualified under the current admissions process far exceeds the number of seats we have available. Okay.

[00:16:13] Thank you. so i have two more follow-up questions so and i know capacity isn't your thing but the programs we offer can affect capacity so i know there was a question at the community meeting and i've asked the question too about the planned capacity for the new parkview building which i believe is 1800 is what's planned are any of the things that we're talking about going potentially could require a higher capacity in a bigger building because we need to determine that now as we make decisions moving forward and it was brought up then to our do we really need a higher capacity so i'm curious from a program perspective and you might not have the answer tonight and that's fine

[00:16:53] but i'm curious about from a program capacity could we need a larger building because we need to make that happen while we're still talking to the architects so the the timing of this conversation is super early for the fall of 2027 and that's because we're tying this to the design process and so part of why we're trying to get ahead and have the have the conversation with the community is that we could be in sync with the design process that's going on right now and so the intention is to take some of these early recommendations in the early iteration for the

[00:17:29] architect in terms of here's the space that we would need we'd have a design team meeting dr smith members of the cte office for example would be at the table to talk about okay what would we need in a kitchen space what would the square footage be you know many of our computer lab programs are a typical build for a computer lab it's just a matter of electricity and HVAC so that's why we're going through this process we need some ideas to put on the table look at it in terms of the design and then we'll have a better idea of what we need okay my second question can you go back to the I think was the last slide where you talked about cosmetology and

[00:18:05] automotive pathways did you say that that wasn't recommended in the survey and that wasn't interest and where was it coming from why those were on the list so those were mentioned in the community feedback okay there's some level of student interest there's some level of staff input saying these are things that we should consider so these are on the the outskirts of where we're i would describe it as the outskirts of what we're considering we realize this is there may be an interest there it may not be the first thing we go to in our first iteration but we want We wanna continue talking to the school.

[00:18:44] We wanna continue to engage with the CTE office to see if there's some possibilities going forward. More likely with cosmetology, we do see a number of students interested in the cosmetology programs at Parkview for the academies.

[00:19:02] It's more of just to say that we've heard you. We know that this is of interest, but when it comes to like Mr. Morse mentioned, we have to focus in on a few initial recommendations. That's not where our first initial recommendations are. - So thank you for the clarification.

[00:19:17] I'm glad that we are actually looking at community interest and student interest because after reading some, there's no nice way to say it, nasty comments about the Parkview community and the student body at Parkview in the local newspapers, I'm glad we aren't stereotyping and just going cosmetology and automotive because that could be traditional to some of the students at Parkview.

[00:19:40] So I'm really glad that we're taking the time to look interests look at where students are actually headed and and offer pathways um outside of what might be stereotypically determined predetermined for our community so thank you for that you you said it great but one of what i've tried to say to the community at the community interest night was we want programs that have multiple options for our students we know we have students that will go to the workforce go on to additional training but also on the four-year four-year path and all those students exist to parkview so we want to make sure we have have a full slate of options for our students at parkview and i really appreciate it i will fully acknowledge the chip i

[00:20:18] have on my shoulder as a former parkview parent and community member and so i took great offense to the comments in the newspaper and i'm very glad that we are not going down a path just because that seems to be what always fits so thank you for expanding the offerings and opportunities i think that's that's the best path to take so thank you for that any other questions all right we'll move

[00:20:44] to 402 Health and Medical Sciences Academy update. Mr. Slevin. So for this presentation I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Clark and Dr. Smith to give you all an update on the planning for our Health and Medical Science Academy. Good evening. Thanks for allowing us time to give you an update on our progress with our Health and Medical Sciences Academy. As Mr. Slevin already mentioned our

[00:21:21] special programs are directly aligned with our strategic plan specifically 1.1 and 1.2. Again here is our status chart for this presentation. We will be focusing on the planning phase and specifically tonight our health and medical sciences or better known as HAMSci. And now I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith for some updates. Thank you so much. So we are thrilled to welcome our inaugural health and medical sciences coordinator, Ms. Vandana Sharma. This is her

[00:21:58] 14th year with LCPS, and she's delighted to serve as the first coordinator of the Health and Medical Sciences Academy. Before this position, Ms. Sharma served for four years as an assistant principal at Mercer Middle School and Brambleton Middle School, where she has the opportunity to supervise special education, science, fine arts, and integrate equity in instruction. She also supported PBIS, mechanics, development, and planning, and master schedule.

[00:22:31] Of all the work accomplished as an assistant principal, Ms. Sharma is proud of developing positive and supporting relationships with teachers and working to minimize barriers to effective instruction. Ms. Sharma is very excited with the opportunity to be part of the HamSci Academy, and she's looking forward to continuing her work serving our students and community and providing them with multiple pathways to success.

[00:23:02] This table shows which schools will be feeding which host site. We are planning to provide transportation similar to what we are doing with the Loudoun County Public Schools pre-IB program pending the budget approval for FY25.

[00:23:18] Here you see two potential HamSci course pathways and what a student would take each year they are in the program. You can see the students would have work-based learning experiences in grades 9 to 11 and more clinical experiences in grade 12.

[00:23:38] Additionally, we are working through integrating HAMSci curriculum into additional content areas such as English language arts, health and PE, and science. We're also working on a portfolio so when students graduate, they can present this to an employer and or admissions committee for a school.

[00:23:57] This will include student work, artifacts, case studies, work-based learning experiences, and certain credentials. We are working to gain feedback from our industry partners on industry-relevant certifications. We are preparing HEMSci students to sit for industry-relevant certifications that might require them to be 18 or over.

[00:24:18] This is a reminder of what the cohorts will look like at two high schools. Keep in mind, these are estimates, and they may change due to multiple factors, such as building capacity, student enrollment, projections.

[00:24:36] As you can see, when it is fully implemented, it will be at two schools, 300 students each, for a total of 600 students. And this is our estimated instructional budget for the HamSci Academy.

[00:24:52] The budget projection includes the total instructional cost of implementation over the next four years. Please note that these costs are estimates, and we are anticipating providing transportation pending the FY25 budget process.

[00:25:11] So here are some potential ham-sized student outcomes. We want them to marry the five Cs and have the essential qualities of the profile of a graduate. So upon matriculation, our students will be able to think critically and creatively around patient-centered care and justification around medical-based reasoning. We want them to also collaborate and communicate with others for an empathetic, team-driven patient experience.

[00:25:44] And finally, we want them to contribute to the community in the field of medicine as adaptive long learners. So this robust curriculum will make students ready for industry credentials, licensed exams, so for an example, phlebotomy. We want them to be ready for direct entry into the workforce or successful continuation into a two- or a four-year institution of higher ed.

[00:26:10] We are excited to host our first inaugural special program secondary fair on September 28th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Heritage High School. Students and parents can meet, network, and learn from the coordinators of the LCPS high school programs and academies, including Academies of Loudoun, Health and Medical Sciences Academy, LCPS Pre-IB, Navy JROTC, and Thomas Jefferson High School.

[00:26:42] We have scheduled middle school visits to every middle school between October and November and will be sharing information with current 8th grade students regarding the opportunities available to them as they enter high school. We will be scheduling HAMSci information nights at both Briarwoods and Tuscarora High Schools in November.

[00:27:04] Our HAMSci website is now live for the community to access information about the program. Students will be able to show interest in this program starting on December 1st through January 31st through Student Opportunities located in LCPS Go.

[00:27:21] At this time, we do not anticipate any additional board action beyond the standard budget approval process. That concludes our update for this evening, and we would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

[00:27:37] - Thanks for the update. I think the most exciting part for me is at the end we're at 600 students, which is amazing that we could bring this for that many students. Any other comments? Mr. Morse. - Just a question. Somewhere in the planning cycle, we talk about textbooks and materials.

[00:27:52] How far ahead do we have to start planning that? And was that captured in the funding slide? I didn't recall. - So I'll start and then I'll ask Dr. Smith to join in. So we are working with our textbook specialist and the office that supports us in the textbook adoption process, and that informed this particular budget ask.

[00:28:17] So we are considering technology, equipment, and consumables. And the advantage of doing one cohort at a time, 9th, 10th, 11th, we could take it in smaller chunks. So Dr. Smith, I don't know if you'd add. Absolutely, Mr. Slevin.

[00:28:33] So we're also looking to see what instructional resources such as textbooks might be available as we start to look and take a deep dive into the curriculum now. Mr. Beatty. Thank you, Chair. Going back with what Ms. Sheridan said about the 600 students, will students be able to join throughout their time in high school or if you enter the cohort as a freshman, or I'm sorry, if you don't enter the cohort as a freshman, there's no opportunity to join the program later throughout your high school career?

[00:29:07] So thank you so much, Mr. Beatty. That's a good question. So the commitment is a four-year commitment. So it requires students to fully immerse in the program for four years. So they'll express interest now as an eighth grader, and then they'll continue on into the program as a ninth, tenth, eleventh, and then a twelfth grader.

[00:29:27] Do we have other programs that have that same little four-level commitment? And do we have sort of a thing like science, the DK function, but like the number of people that would decide the program's not right for them and pick something else? So I can answer the first part of your question, and I may ask you to repeat the second part.

[00:29:52] The Academies of Loudoun AOS program and AET program are both four-year commitments. There is an option. There is an advanced AET program that allows students to apply for their 11th and 12th grade year. The MATA programs are all two-year or one-year pathways in 11th or 12th grade.

[00:30:13] And I didn't catch the second part of your question. Thank you. Yes, so of those four-year programs, what percentage of students end up dropping out of the program and picking something else? I don't have the exact numbers in front of me. I'll tell you anecdotally, a high percentage continue through all four years, a very high percentage, and we can get those numbers for you.

[00:30:33] No, anecdotally, it's fine. Thank you. Part of this process is to receive feedback. So what I'm hearing your question communicating is, are there considerations for what's going to happen if there are seats available?

[00:30:49] Are there other opportunities to look at? So that's definitely something the team can continue to look at. But this is where the planning is right now. Sure. No, I can appreciate that. Thank you. All right. We'll move to thank you, both, all of you, both.

[00:31:06] There's four of you sitting over there. Thank you all. Thank you, both pairs of you, for the update. We really appreciate it. We'll move to item five, which is new business. And I just have one item for the October meeting. I am not going to be, I will be on travel.

[00:31:23] So I'm asking if we can either reschedule it or Mr. Morrison, Mr. Beatty can do it without me. I would throw out October 12th, the 26th or the 30th, the 26th being my preference. And I wasn't sure if you want to check your calendars now and then we can let staff figure out which one will work.

[00:31:45] So we wouldn't want to do that. Which day? The 12th is a community. Oh, you're right. It's mine too. I should already have that on my calendar. Let's take the 12th. The 26th is what?

[00:32:00] This is also, just so you're aware, Mr. Beatty, I will let you know on Thursday that I'm not going to be in town on the Thursday of that week either, so it's going to affect technology as well. I'm just letting you know. Maybe we can stack them.

[00:32:17] I didn't know how early people were available. Could we do this one at 4.30 or is that too early? On the 26th, if staff can figure that out, then we can do technology after HRTD when we get to that later in the week.

[00:32:33] Does that work or the 26 the 26 at 4:30? It is a community listening session for Tuscarora high school But we can we could we could have staff here. Are you sure? Okay, so we'll do 4:30 on the 26 Thank you for accommodating that appreciate it Can you update the invite so that we can all change our calendars to that would be whoever does that?

[00:32:59] Thank you. Dr. Ellis could you also clarify for us your request about Robie high school and the information you hope to see right I guess in hearing that the counselor say that some students have issues with Schedule and then we're also hearing about attendance rate and graduation rates How we're like maybe can we just get a refresh on how students are being put Recommended however, they're getting recommended to Robie and how it may be now that it's been open a couple of years. How is it impacting and Even just allowing Robie to tell us their success rate publicly. I think that might be nice to hear

[00:33:38] um but also just the the process for how students are getting into roby because hearing a counselor say that some students are having trouble scheduling i was like i wanted to stand up and go what about roby like it seemed like that the student she was you know it could have been a hypothetical student it sounded like it was a real student what it might have benefited from roby and so what's the knowledge base out there how are we making sure people are aware of it we have this really great program and are we taking full advantage of it for students to get their high school diploma. That's helpful. Thank you. Does that make sense? Okay. Any other, anything else?

[00:34:14] All right. Seeing none. Thank you all very much. We're adjourned.

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