Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 4th Tuesday School Board Meeting, Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 5h 55m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/877592102?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 2026-10-19. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] County School Board. The first item on the agenda 102 is remote participation however I've been notified that Ms. Corbo is unable to attend the work session and will be requesting remote participation later this evening. That will bring us to item two disclosures and we will start with Mr. Morse. Thank you Mr. Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with item on tonight's agenda which may include employee salaries, the budget, and our health insurance, or any other discussion that may include or affect salary or benefits for LCPS employees.

[00:00:43] Specifically, my spouse is an LCPS employee who may be affected by potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and health insurance. These subjects may include thousands of employees, well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which my spouse and I are included.

[00:00:59] I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. As a member of the Lowndon 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 their 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, in excess of statutory three employees whose interests may be affected of which i'm included

[00:01:37] i can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you as a member of the louden county school board i make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the items 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

[00:02:14] 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. That will bring us to item three, the consent agenda. Is there a motion, Mr. Mahedby. Yes, Chair. I move to the Lowndes County School Board. Approve the consent agenda posted on the board docs. Sir, second. Second. Seconded by Mr. Morse. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, if the clerk would please open the voting board. And board members,

[00:02:53] please record your votes at this time. And please close and display the vote. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Sheridan and Corbo absent for the vote. We'll now move on to our work session starting with 401 on the 1LCPS 2027 strategic plan for excellence

[00:03:23] goals 2, 3, and 4 update. Good evening Chair Sorotkin and board members. This evening we

[00:04:19] are providing you with an update on goals 2, 3, and 4 of our 1LCPS 2027 strategic plan for excellence. This evening I'm joined by several goal co-chairs who will share data from the 22-23 school year and discuss strategies and actions we've planned for the upcoming year.

[00:04:40] I'd like to introduce our Goal 2 team, Dr. Michelle Luttrell, Principal of Loudoun County High School, Lisa Bolin, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Ray Mitchell, Chief of Schools. Our Goal 3 team, Robert Carter, Principal of Banneker Elementary School, Kevin Lewis, Chief Operations Officer, and Aaron Smith, Chief Technology Officer.

[00:05:03] And our Goal 4 team, Dr. Tenelle Priddy, Principal of the Academies of Loudoun, Natalie Allen, Chief Communications Officer, Joan Sahlgren, Director of Communications, and Dr. Letitia Ellis-Williams, Director of Equity.

[00:05:20] And just a note that in BoardDocs, you have the infographic for each goal, as well as the metrics and the targets. As with previous strategic plan updates, you will hear our core values embedded in the work and our shared vision and mission lifted up and woven throughout our work to ensure that each student reaches their full potential.

[00:05:44] As a reminder, on September 26th and October 10th, we shared an update with you on Goal 1. Because Goal 1 contains a significant amount of student achievement data, that discussion is lengthy and was broken up into two parts. This afternoon, we're focusing on sharing updates on the remaining Goals 2, 3, and 4.

[00:06:04] We plan to pause after each goal presentation to give you an opportunity to ask any questions. And I will now turn it over to the Goal 2 team. Good evening, Chair Sorokin and Board members.

[00:06:20] Goal 2 has three aligned actions, as you can see illustrated on this slide. On the next slides, we will discuss data and share our upcoming goals and strategies to move our work forward. Next slide. We observed a one percentage point increase on staff responses to questions about professional learning opportunities and experiences.

[00:06:45] Survey items that make up this metric are the school's administrators support the professional development of staff. Professional development provides ongoing opportunities for staff to work with colleagues to refine teaching work or practices.

[00:07:02] Professional development enhances staff members' abilities to better meet student needs. Please note that we previously had two metrics to capture staff experiences on professional learning. For clarity, we have merged those two metrics into one, which is 2.1A, which is measured by the Annual Staff Stakeholder Survey.

[00:07:24] For 2.1B and C, the data is not yet available. LCPS's hiring cycle runs from October 1st through September 30th. Therefore, updated data for these metrics will be available once the season ends early in November.

[00:07:41] Next slide. For our strategies and activities, we have multiple cohorts to support our building leaders, professional development for non-instructional staff, beginning teachers, and cross-collaboration with special education and EL to support student learning, foster acceptance, and understanding and differentiation.

[00:08:05] I will now turn it over to Dr. Luttrell for 2.2. Alliant Action 2.2 states that we will develop dedicated resources to improve professional collaboration across schools and the division. We saw a decrease in favorable responses with metrics 2.2a and 2.2c.

[00:08:26] This year is the first year we are tracking the percentage of teachers who have CLT time built into their schedule. Therefore, we do not have data from last year and as a result did not set a target for CLTs this year. We do have targets moving forward. Survey items for 2.2a include teachers and other adults at the school support one another to meet the needs of all students. Teachers and other adults at this school have taught me things that have helped me do my job better. Teachers engage in collaborative problem solving this school and teachers have time available to collaborate with colleagues. Survey items for 2.2c include teachers and other adults at this school want students to

[00:09:06] think about different ways to solve problems. Teachers and other adults at the school often connect what students are learning to life outside the classroom. I support students in taking what they learn in one lesson and using that learning in new situations. I support students in explaining their ideas in ways that are understood by others. I support students in working with and learning from other people to solve problems together. I target instruction to address specific student needs and learning goals. I give students opportunities to reflect on their learning and shape their learning journey. I feel supported to implement personalized learning in my classroom

[00:09:42] and lastly overall my school is a good place to work and learn. Metrics 2.2a and 2.2c embody the ideas and practices of trust collaboration and alignment. Building strong collaborative teams takes time as they navigate the stages of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

[00:10:02] Time that is needed for teams to develop maturity, ability, relationships, and communication styles that build trust and collaborative actions. Schools at all levels welcomed new teachers and staff to their buildings last year. We also implemented standing operating procedures for CLT work at all levels last year, which, depending on the school communities, would have been managed as either first- or second-order change.

[00:10:25] Additionally, as a system, we navigated the complexities of changes in leadership and organizational structures that impact daily operations at schools. The management of change at all levels and the introduction of new employees likely contributed to the decrease in these metrics. Next slide, please. As you can see, we continue to build structures and supports to build strong collaborative learning teams at all grade levels. This work is supported by expanding standard operating procedures to build consistency across teams within schools and within schools by level. Now I will turn it over

[00:11:03] to Ms. Bolin to give us an overview of 2.3. Thank you, Dr. Electro. Aligned Action 2.3 states that LCPS will serve as an employer of choice committed to recruiting, developing, and supporting top diverse talent.

[00:11:21] Because our hiring cycle ends on September 30th, updated data isn't yet available. Each year, a vast amount of data is pulled together, verified, and provided to the school board as part of our annual data report before the end of the calendar year.

[00:11:37] Last year's report included over 50 pages of information, including general hiring data, also drilled down by degree level, schools and universities, teacher cadet enrollment, and demographics, among other specifics. Once this data is available, we will update metrics 2.3a and 2.3b and be prepared to share that information with the school board. Metric 2.3 also identifies a goal to increase the net promoter score. This is a baseline year for this metric as it is the first year that we are collecting this data. On the next slide, I will define what the net promoter

[00:12:15] score is and circle back to goal 2.3c. Next slide. The net promoter score is used in the business world to both gauge a business's reputation and as a proxy for employee engagement. The net promoter score is calculated based on a single survey question, which is how likely are you to recommend something to a friend or colleague? The response options are a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being not at all likely and 10 being extremely likely. The response options are broken down into three

[00:12:51] categories. Individuals who select 9 or 10 are considered promoters. Promoters are enthusiastic about something and are likely to say positive things about it to others. People select 7 or 8 are considered passives. Passives are satisfied with something but are not happy enough to be considered promoters. And finally, those who select zero to six are considered detractors.

[00:13:19] Detractors are individuals who are unhappy with something and may say negative things about it to others. The net promoter score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This basically shows the relationship between those who are enthusiastic about something and those who are unhappy with it. For staff members, we collected the net promoter score data from the annual school-based staff member stakeholder survey,

[00:13:49] principal survey, and central office staff survey. Next slide. As you can see with 2.3C, the net promoter score data is collected from surveys conducted throughout the year. Data for the school staff net promoter score was collected from the annual school-based staff stakeholder survey. School staff were asked the MPS question about both their school and the division. The data for the principal and central office staff MPS was collected from the annual principal feedback

[00:14:26] survey and the annual central office survey respectively. Based on the information shared in the previous slide, an MPS greater than zero means that you have a higher percentage of promoters than detractors, and an MPS below zero means you have a higher percentage of detractors than promoters. The number shows the magnitude of that relationship. We have adopted the model that zero to 30 is good, 30 to 70 is great, and above 70 is excellent. In looking at the results on the slide,

[00:15:03] the division MPS for principals and central office staff is considered good. The school MPS for school-based staff would also fall into the good category. The school-based staff MPS for the division, which has a heavy influence on the overall MPS for the division, shows that there may be a larger percentage of school-based staff that have negative feelings about the division than those who have positive feelings about it. Next slide. Similar to metrics for 2.3a and 2.3b,

[00:15:38] data for 2.3d and 2.3e is not yet available. This too is due to the timing of our hiring cycle and the collection and preparation of the data which will be provided in our annual data report shared with the school board. Like with the first two metrics once the data is available we will update all metrics and be prepared to share that information with the school board. For metrics 2.3f we unfortunately were not able to maintain the ranking of total compensation compared to competitors for middle and max of the scale for masters. We also dropped to second in overall

[00:16:14] compensation. Next slide. We did, however, meet our target and increase from the previous year in the percentage of employees who utilize employee support programs. You will notice on this slide that there is also an additional metric added. As the employer of choice, LCPS is committed to recruiting top diverse talent and to demonstrate how important this commitment is, we have added a metric to highlight efforts to diversify staff. Our goal is to continue to increase the percentage of newly hired and current staff of color throughout the division. This data is collected

[00:16:53] as part of our hiring cycle provided in our annual data report and will be updated and provided to the board with all other hiring metrics. Next slide. On this slide, you will find a few highlights of the work we are currently doing to ensure LCPS is the employer of choice, and the actions we are taking to recruit, develop, support, and retain exemplary employees.

[00:17:19] I'm happy to share with you the development of a new employee appreciation and recognition program through Let's Talk. We are calling SHINE, Spotlighting Heroes in Education. This program will allow staff, students, and community members to recognize and appreciate employees throughout the division.

[00:17:39] Submissions will be recognized by LCPS and our partner, LEF, will select one submission per month for additional recognition and prizes. This will replace LEF's Year of the Educator random drawing. The SHINE program will be implemented over the next couple of months.

[00:17:58] In addition to daily recruiting and onboarding efforts, one-stop shop recruiting events provide targeted support for positions in departments throughout the division. One such area utilizing these events is the Division of Transportation with support for filling their bus driver and bus attendant positions.

[00:18:17] These one-stop shop events allow bus driver and attendant candidates to interview and complete the HRTD new hire documentation process, pre-employment physical and pre-employment TV screening all in one day at one location.

[00:18:33] Additionally, the Department of Human Resources and Talent Development announced the implementation of the 2023-24 Talent Development Growth Series Wednesday, September 13th. This program includes monthly sessions intended to provide growth and development opportunities for non-instructional employees. Each one-hour in-person session is a standalone session allowing employees to attend those of interest when their schedule allows without committing to a year-long program. We are also happy to announce the expansion of our JMU partnership for an additional Grow Your Own Teacher Residency Program cohort which will begin

[00:19:12] this summer. I will pause here for any goal two questions before I turn it over to the goal three team. Thank you, goal two team. Board members, any questions regarding the data for a goal two? Mr. Mejedevi and then Mr. Morse. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Latrell, Ms. Boland, Ms. Michelle. So my, I guess, the first question is, I think since the data, most of the data, as you pointed out, will be available either September, November, are you going to be coming

[00:19:43] back in december to share an update on this data i'm not sure we'll be providing an update in in this type of forum we will provide an update in our annual data report which we share every year with the school board and i'm happy to provide an update on these slides as well i'm curious like so what was a reason to present it tonight then i guess we since we don't have the date i mean again we'll have to wait till november to have most of the data to show or some i don't know maybe this

[00:20:19] is a bigger question but I'm not sure I can answer that question um I didn't make that determination I'll move on so the other question I have is in general now that when we set up these goals and set up these metrics we were doing it you know again it's a lot a lot of things that a lot of data that we're looking at now having your team sort of gone through this um because we had a lot of the questions on survey what are the what are some of the sub goals or what are some of the metrics that we're not tracking that will be nice to track. Again, I'm not sure you're prepared to sort of answer the question, but that's something I'll be really interested to see. These goals are

[00:20:57] good. These are some of the metrics great, but maybe we should be looking at some of the data or some of the metrics to track. And I will say from an HR perspective, I'm sure Dr. Lettrell and Ms. Mitchell feel the same way. There are a number of things in our department that we track in regards to metrics and goals and department level goals and hiring goals and recruitment goals that aren't necessarily expressed here in the strategic plan, but we still do them within our department.

[00:21:33] I can also add that schools have their own respective school improvement goals. So some of that data, which might be more granular, drilled down to the daily operations of schools and what's happening instructionally in classrooms, those school improvement plans are made available.

[00:21:49] So I'm not sure how we can get that to you, but we are, as Ms. Bolin suggested, collecting data on various fronts and progress monitoring that at the site-based level and here at the division level. So we can make a note of your request to see additional data points.

[00:22:06] Maybe Dr. Spence, I think this is something of a consolidating of all the data from all the schools. I mean, I don't want to do a one-off to one board member, but again, we have CLIC, not to kind of go back to my soapbox, but to bubble up the data and then analyze, you know, again, using the tools available, something we can look at.

[00:22:24] That's all. Thank you. Yeah, and I appreciate that suggestion. I think it's just a broader conversation with the board about how we share and present data, because this has come up now probably every time, at least since I've been here, that we share data, that there's wanting to see more and in different formats.

[00:22:41] And I think, I mean, candidly, my assessment would be we probably just need to do a work session on how we present data to the board in ways that are helpful for the board. Because, you know, these, I don't want these to be sessions that don't feel helpful.

[00:22:58] So, yeah, I mean, I think these are great questions and reasonable, and I think it would be just good for us to have a deeper conversation, not specific to this piece of data, but just broadly, what do you want to see when we're talking about data? So if I may, Dr. Spence, just to clarify, I think the data that the staff presented today is good.

[00:23:17] The question was now that the team has gone through this analysis and reporting on it, from their professional point of view, we developed these goals. I mean, working with the staff as a board, are these the right metrics we should be as a division should be tracking?

[00:23:36] And that's the question. It's a broader question, but, because we can't, I mean, we should be able to pivot, or we should learn from it and grow. That's what the essence of that was, like, what are the metrics we should be tracking? Not so much of the data that's presented today is, you know, has to be in a different format or something like that.

[00:23:52] So I just want to clarify my question, too. Mr. Morrison. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate all the data. I think that just capturing those metrics is a great start, and I know that we're only in year one, but I think it really sets the tone for transparency to the community of what we're looking for and what our expectations are.

[00:24:19] So I have two questions. The first is in 2.2. Were there any differences, and you may or may not have this off the top of your head, but were there differences between the elementary school numbers and the middle school or the secondary school numbers? I do not have that data with me presently.

[00:24:39] I'm not sure if there are other members of the team that have access to that data in the room at this time. Good evening. This is Dave Lakelock, the Research and Evaluation Supervisor. We've aggregated these data under those indices at the high level, the top level, but certainly we can disaggregate that down to see if there's differences between school levels on those particular survey responses.

[00:25:04] Thank you. And I think this goes to Mr. Mejedevi's comment about, you know, what don't we know that we should know? Because if there are significant differences between elementary and middle high school, that changes our perspective and perhaps resources and other things like that. So as you do look at those numbers, we would appreciate any obvious discrepancies between different groups, whether that be at the school level or some other aggregation.

[00:25:28] The second question I have is for factor 2.3, C, where you talk about NPS. Is there a standard, an educational environment standard NPS score? Is there something that would help us scope whether we're smack in the middle, whether we're doing great or whether we're really suffering.

[00:25:49] Do you have any data on that? I'm going to ask Dave if he has any data. Thank you for that question. We do have a report from K-12 Insight on the benchmarks that they have evaluated and developed based around that.

[00:26:06] I can give you the specific numbers as we go in a separate email. What I will say, though, is that we are in the neighborhood for each of those benchmarks, either exceeding them or below them. Okay. Yeah, I think that'd be great information as well. So it tells us how we're performing against other peer districts, because we do want to be the employee, employer of choice. So thank you. Additional questions? Ms. Polifko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also have two questions, and they are related to 2.3C as well. My first question is, I would like to know how we compare, given the fact

[00:26:46] that we are second in compensation, how we compare to other school districts who are actually compensated less than our teachers because I think one of the things that I want to know is is it really money that is responsible for the satisfaction of our teachers or is it all the other stuff that goes into play which is that you know they're the ones who are working with kids on a daily basis they're the ones in the classroom they're the ones who are working most closely with children and what is what concerns me about this data is that we're seeing administrative positions

[00:27:18] where the responses are favorable and we're seeing obviously a larger disparity in school staff which are dissatisfied. So, and this is one of the primary reasons that I actually did not vote for that extra 0.8% increase in salary at the last board meeting because, and I've said this time and time again, that teachers and people who work with children in the school system, they don't go into this profession because they think they're going to get rich. They certainly don't. They do it because they have a passion for working with children they want to do the best that they can for their students and that's what motivates them what motivates them is when their kids are

[00:27:57] successful and when their students are successful so you know is it training is it communication is it workload on our teachers is it overburdening them with things that are out of their wheelhouse so I would like definitely to know if you have done any comparisons among other school divisions that are paid less than our school staff?

[00:28:22] So I don't have that information. I can certainly work with the team to look at that. I'm not sure that they utilize this MPS-type scoring system, but I'm sure they track that somehow.

[00:28:40] So I'm sure we could get some information. Thank you. And my second question is just how would we compare, given this statistical information that you presented to us tonight, How does that compare to satisfaction in years past?

[00:28:56] So, I mean, whether you have that information or not, if that's just specific to this strategic plan that we have in place at this point, or if you have collected data, and I'm talking like, you know, five and 10 years back, I would like to see if there was any difference.

[00:29:12] I think we have data. We've done surveys for many, many years. I would caution, though, that we're in a very different time. So it may be very difficult to really compare the data. The teachers and employees in classrooms five, ten years ago are very different than the teachers and classrooms that we have today.

[00:29:36] So I know that we have it. I would just caution. I'm not sure what that would do for us. I have a question about it's on slide 13 in the employer of choice section where it's talking about increasing the percentage of different categories of staff, the percentage of staff of color.

[00:30:02] It's listed as a new metric that's being collected, but I've seen that data for five-plus years at least, so I'm questioning why that's listed as a new metric or that it's a baseline year. So it's not a baseline year.

[00:30:19] We just don't have this year's data because it's wrapped up into the hiring cycle. So we don't have 23-24s hiring data. So it's not a baseline year. We do have school year 21-22 and 22-23 data.

[00:30:37] We just don't have 23-24s. Okay, I think the note at the bottom might just be there in error because it says this is a new metric established during the FY24 school year. so the the new metric clause is that it's newly added to the strategic plan it's a new metric added to the strategic plan it is one of the metrics that we capture in hrtd just like i i said previously we capture a number of metrics so this is something that we have recorded data on and tracked and watched transport but this was not previously included in the presentation to the

[00:31:11] school board as a metric we were going to capture. So I think it was identifying that it is newly added to the strategic plan. Okay, thank you. That helps to clarify. Board members, any additional questions regarding goal two? Okay, I think we're ready for goal three. Good evening. Goal three focuses on ensuring that we have an enriched division through aligned culture, straightforward communication, and safe and productive learning environments. Aligned Action 3.1 has two metrics

[00:31:49] associated with it. With metrics 3.1A, our goal is to maintain the percentage of positive responses to questions about belonging on the annual family stakeholder survey. We saw a 1% decrease from last year to this year. Survey items associated with 1.3A include the following. I experience a welcoming environment in this school. This school respects diversity and welcomes all cultures. This school supports an inclusive environment. My child's teachers care about my child. My child feels

[00:32:29] respected by staff at this school, and my child has access to social, emotional support in this school. For 3.1b, an auditor general audit plan was developed. The goal is to conduct five audits each year moving forward. To help develop and align culture, LCPS is taking steps to ensure consistency of practice throughout the division. The audit universe has been developed using

[00:33:03] feedback from stakeholders within the division and the school board. The district is adding internal and external data dashboards. We are expanding the student opportunities portal with the goal of establishing a one-stop shop for all students looking for pathways and opportunities, and we continue to develop standard operating procedures to ensure consistency of practices. Aligned Action 3.2 states that we will standardize straightforward communication

[00:33:38] practices to improve data sharing and strengthen trust. For 3.2a, we maintained the percentage of positive responses on questions about communication on the annual family and staff stakeholder survey for staff but so i one percentage point decrease for family survey items included for for family are this the school effectively communicates important information to families i'm taken seriously by school staff when i have concerns teachers provide me feedback on my child's progress including suggestions for improvement this school provides a variety of ways for families to become involved my teacher my child's teachers clearly tell me what my child is expected

[00:34:17] to learn in elementary school. My children's teachers clearly communicate what my child is expected to learn in middle and high school as well. My children's school seeks feedback regarding school improvement, and I know how to access interpretation or translation services for my family when needed. Survey items associated with 3.2A for staff are teachers and other adults provide useful information to families to support their children's learning at home, and this school provides opportunities for families to communicate with the school.

[00:34:45] One item to note is the increase in parents accessing Schoology, which is our learning management system. Slight uptick there. Continuing on with 3.2B on the next slide. This slide shows many data points for the LCPS website, Remind, and ParentVue app.

[00:35:01] We still have strong usage of ParentVue with 99% of students having at least one parent active in the system. And I'd also like to highlight that time on page has doubled for our website, meaning visitors are staying engaged longer with our website and the content on our website. For 3.2 strategies and activities to support, we continue professional development at our ALT, Administrative Leadership Team Institute.

[00:35:29] We continue to provide and create standard operating procedures to share across the division. We continue to support communication and engagement tools to provide information to the school community and families and improve metrics and results. We created a superintendent and division communication calendars so staff would be aware of when communications would be coming.

[00:35:49] We improved division communications to principals by streamlining the principal update process. We launched a new LCPS brand and logo, which included design guides for schools so that we could have consistency of implementation throughout internally in the district. We continued to support division-wide adoption of Let's Talk customer relations management system with the implementation of inward-facing, so the outward-facing being part of goal four, the inward-facing staff and internal-to-the-division relationship management.

[00:36:17] These include launching ask-the-department feedback forms for each department across the district, expanded HRTD and teaching and learning feedback forms to division-level support, allowing staff to ask direct questions internal to teams to get support, implemented chatbots on the HRTD's website for interaction, and created new feedback forms for the listening tours for staff.

[00:36:40] I will now hand it over to Kevin. Evening, board members. Allowed Action 3.3 talks about our safe and productive learning environments. Our first goal was to increase the percentage of positive responses on our two questions related to our facilities so we're talking about our buildings and our classrooms and the health and safety on the annual family stakeholder survey so those were designed to to support high quality instruction you'll see on this slide that we met all of our goals on family and staff but did have a slight less than 1% reduction in elementary school

[00:37:17] and about the same at the secondary level as well so we'll be looking at ways to increase those in future years. On the next slide, 3.3b, our goal was to establish a rubric for our safe, productive learning environments, and that included our building systems, spaces, furniture, fixtures, those types of things, including technology.

[00:37:40] You see there a comparison of the 22 actual data, our targets, and then in the yellow, our current data. I will point out that at the bottom of the slide, you'll see there that we had a data date of June of 23. And it's to Mr. Mahavey's point that we also had a snapshot in time for this data was collected.

[00:37:58] And that's in the middle of our summer. We're doing a lot of projects. So some of our projects have since been completed. And we'll be updating those as well as we move forward. Currently, you'll see there in our critical building systems, we are maintaining our goal, our status from last year.

[00:38:15] It appears to be less than what our target was. But again, we have met that goal with the end of the summer projects. The same is true for schools with LED lighting and systems. Those have also met that goal, even though they indicate a lower. I did want to point out a couple of things.

[00:38:32] We have the technology within Lifecycle is slightly lower, and that's due to supply chain and vendor capacity. We have those projects underway, just that they're lagging behind because of some of those challenges were there. I'll also say that projects that you see on this sheet, data associated with these projects, are also contingent on the CIP.

[00:38:53] The board is getting ready to take on the CIP discussion in the next couple of months. And so the goals that were plugged into this were a function of the projects that were approved in last year's CIP. 3.3C, we're focusing here on the increase of energy efficiency.

[00:39:11] And we've done a tremendous amount of work with the board's support on many projects over the last few years. And you'll see at the top of the slide there, one of the goals to or tools to evaluate that is our EUI, which is the energy use indicator.

[00:39:27] And so our 22 data was 56. Our 23 goal was 49. The lower, the better, how many BTUs per square foot you use. I will say that when we pulled the data in June of 2023, it was 56, but we have now met that 49 data for the current standards.

[00:39:47] Same is true with the eligible schools with solar arrays. Our goal was 14. At the day-to-day, we had 10, but since school is open, we now have 14 schools that are functioning with solar systems. Moving on to item 3.3D, our goal is to maintain the percentage of safe schools based on the safe schools walk-through rubric.

[00:40:08] And so at the bottom of the chart, you'll see there, we had second-generation camera systems, intrusion detection, secure vestibule. I won't read all of them across there. We did meet all of those goals with the exception of the second-generation cameras, and that is a replacement of our cameras in our schools.

[00:40:25] And there are hundreds of those in each of the schools, and we are challenged with some supply chain issues there, but those are on their way, and we'll feel comfortable we'll meet that goal in the coming months. the next slide we talk about our ensure our on-time transportation performance goals in the a.m. and that is there is a difference between a.m. and p.m. and so in the morning we are that is the the on-time percentage of when we arrived at school with students in the afternoon the p.m. time is when we actually leave the school and so there are a lot of things that challenge us from pulling out of the school students not running late for getting on the bus and so

[00:41:03] that's one of the challenges you'll see that we met that data or that that target of staying at 99% in the a.m. but fell short of gaining on to 91 we improved from 88 to 90 but didn't quite make the 2023 target of 91 and those are things that we're working our lead drivers are out working with principals and staff helping to find ways to get the students on the bus sooner so we can get them to depart sooner and so that will help us with that that goal in the last slide for 3.3 were just several examples of things we're continuing to do that you know specifically we're continuing to do rubberized sports floors and our

[00:41:40] elementary school gyms replacing artificial turf put it we've put in four new inclusive playgrounds we have a restroom technology project going on in several of our schools that the board's aware of and then we're continuing to support technology throughout with implementation of single sign on proactive technology replacement and content filter monitoring and a number of other things, digital maps, standardized drill and emergency announcements. And then we continue to work on our energy efficiency through the CIP with the capital renewal and alterations program

[00:42:14] with solar installations, LED lighting, and those types of things. So that is the overall summary of section 3.3. And we'll pause here for any questions you may have before we turn it to the Goal 4 team. Thank you for the overview from the Goal 3 team. And board members, do you have any questions regarding goal three. Mr. Morse. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two questions. First for 3.2b. I think you're a victim of your own success when you're using 99% of a measurement with parent view. I

[00:42:54] think that maybe we need to look at a different metric because we may be, it may be a one-time visit for a parent who needs to get information placed in there. So I don't know that that 99% metric is really measuring from the community's perspective how useful ParentVue is. I do, however, find that doubling the viewing time is a significant metric that implies that they are finding great value in the ParentVue website. So I do appreciate that. But I would like to look at

[00:43:31] how we're, as opposed to just one time logging in on ParentVue, if that is the criteria to meet that we're showing with 99%, maybe we want to reevaluate that. So just a thought on that. The second comment was on 3.3b.

[00:43:49] As we continue to capture more data, I think we need to move away, and this is probably Dr. Spence's comment, I think we need to move away from the circles and towards bar charts. Some of your data was in bar charts. It's a lot more understandable, a lot more digestible. So especially after the second year, when we get to three-year data, I would really like to steer clear of the circles because we're going to start seeing stars.

[00:44:13] Thank you. Additional questions? Okay, seeing none, I think we are ready for goal four. Good evening. Goal four focuses on an engaged community and has three aligned actions, as you can see illustrated on this slide.

[00:44:33] Tonight, to present updates on goal 4.1 and 4.2 and 4.3, I'm joined by Natalie Allen and Joan Sahlgren, who will cover aligned action 4.1, and Leticia Ellis Williams, who will cover Aligned Action 4.3. On the next slides, we will provide data updates and will share strategies and ongoing work for each Aligned Action, starting with family engagement.

[00:44:57] Thank you, Dr. Priddy. Thank you, Board, for having us here this evening to present Goal 4.1. States that we are to deepen family engagement by offering inclusive opportunities for conversation across the division. Here you see on the slide the data and targets for goal 4.1A, which shows positive responses to the annual family stakeholder survey questions about family satisfaction with engagement in schools.

[00:45:24] The questions asked to inform this data are, the administration is responsive to families and children. This school provides multiple opportunities for family engagement in school activities. I have been respected by the staff at my child's school when I have interacted with them, and I have a trusted staff member at my child's school that I can reach out to whenever I have a concern, question, or need.

[00:45:49] You can see here that the data is essentially flat from 22 to 23, though slightly under our ambitious target goal. For both 4.1B and 4.1C, as reported in June, annual goals were exceeded by large percentages.

[00:46:05] Streamlined and strategic communications and planning helped drive use of translation services as well as attendance at division family engagement events. As a result, the division is working on ways to better capture reporting on the school and program community events participation to quantify activity and results for you.

[00:46:24] Once we have another year's data, family and community engagement targets may be adjusted to account for these expanded collection and reporting methods. I'm joined by Natalie Allen, our LCPS Chief of Communications and Community Engagement, who will now report on family engagement strategies underway.

[00:46:47] Good evening, board members. The 4.1 goal teamwork on community engagement includes supports from EL Family and Community Engagement, the MTSS Team, Outreach Services, the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Team, the School Improvement Office, and the Communications and Community Engagement Office. These offices actively collaborate to support students and communities where perspectives differ. Throughout strategic plan implementation, the Family Engagement Working Group has worked across departments to identify best practices, develop rubrics of measurement and implementation, and socialize this information across schools and

[00:47:24] the division. Working group members began sharing the resources and rubric with principals last spring and have since shared with division-level instructional facilitators, equity leads, IFTs in the building, and continue ongoing outreach. The information is part of the School Improvement Office's goals for schools and was shared with ALT prior to the start of schools.

[00:47:46] In addition to rolling out these resources, part of this process has been to identify the broad spectrum of engagement activities beyond EL face events and practices. As you can see on the slide, resources and events designed for less engaged audiences are expanding strategically, especially for EL families and families new to LCPS.

[00:48:07] The Family Engagement Working Group is holding professional learning to build capacity for school-based administrators and staff. This intentional expansion focuses on how administrators can better help student achievement by engaging family support as school and families learn and support students' hopes and dreams.

[00:48:27] Next slide. Aligned Action 4.2A focuses on the number of businesses and community partnerships that have active relationships with LCPS schools. Using the baseline number of 390 school business partnership that had been reported from the Office of Community Connections, we hope to maintain that number in our first year of work.

[00:48:52] Very early in the school year, the Goal 4.2 team began to understand that there were reporting gaps in the data and that we needed a better, more efficient tool to help us accurately capture partnerships. Our efforts to gather the data helped us to discover that we actually had 833 school business partnerships for SY2223, which far exceeded the 390 previously reported.

[00:49:24] With the launch of School Links, we now have a tool in place that will be more efficient and accurate for multiple stakeholders to use. Based on this data, we have reset our yearly targets moving forward from 833.

[00:49:40] As you can see, those yearly targets are reflected in the targets document. Our work launching school links across the division and training users to utilize the tool will continue to be a priority in this work.

[00:49:56] There are two components to the data reporting for Aligned Action 4.2 . The first component of the data is for required work-based learning enrollments in career and technical education classes. For the first year, we hope to maintain the level from SY2122, which was 21%, or 45,070 enrollments in CTE classes.

[00:50:23] These CTE courses have a required work-based learning element that is embedded in the curriculum. The actual data for SY2223 was 51%. This is calculated by taking 23,295 CTE enrollments divided by the number of students enrolled in grades 6 through 12.

[00:50:49] This increase is attributed to a significant number of required work-based learning changes from the Virginia Department of Education that were implemented in many of our CTE courses. It is a one-time jump, and we do not expect this level of increase in the coming years.

[00:51:09] So the yearly targets have been reset based on the 2023 data point. The second component of the data for Aligned Action 4.2b is to gather and report data for optional extended learning opportunities for content areas outside of CTE. We have never captured this data before, so this was our baseline year. We had 362 job shadowing experiences, 315 internship experiences, 14 apprenticeship experiences, 30 official mentorships,

[00:51:48] And the yearly targets have now been set based on the progress of this first year. Next slide. In our work to expand, recognize, and promote business and community partnerships, we will feature experiential learning opportunities within and outside the classroom in monthly newsletters.

[00:52:11] We are planning to express gratitude to our business partners through monthly Thankful Thursday social media posts. We are planning to host special events such as Engineering Week at the Academies of Loudoun and computer science education week across all lcps we will attend industry events conferences and community gatherings to meet potential business and community partners in order to maximize the function of advisory committees we will recruit small business agricultural and skills trades hosts for the job for a day career shadowing program the computer science

[00:52:49] advisory board will convene quarterly to develop strategies for attracting additional business partners who can contribute to the computer science curriculum and offer experiential learning opportunities for LCPS students. In our ongoing efforts to enhance the process and tools to streamline communication and tracking of school business partnership data, we will use SchoolLinks as a platform to track all school and office partnership data and for business partners to participate in career enhancement programming.

[00:53:23] Next slide. Thank you, Dr. Prudy. All of the metrics associated with 4.3a were in the baseline year during the 2022-23 school year. Therefore, previous data and targets do not exist as we are working to capture this data.

[00:53:42] The net promoter score for this metric was collected from families on an annual family stakeholder survey. Similar to the school-based staff, families were asked the NPS questions for both the school and the division. As you can see in 4.3b, the net promoter score at the school level was 29 and the division level was 19, both of which fall into the good category.

[00:54:07] For 4.3b, the ombuds had 207 visitor contacts last school year. Please note that this was the first year LCPS has had an ombuds, and this number of visitors is comparable to the data from other first-year ombuds offices.

[00:54:25] For 4.3C, the average number of days to close a dialogue in Let's Talk was four and a half days. Last year was our first year of use of Let's Talk. The industry standard response time is between three to five days.

[00:54:41] We're working toward decreasing our response time. Next slide. Dr. Spence, supported by central office staff, is conducting 18 community listening sessions to gather input and feedback from constituents as he implements his Forward Together Entry Plan. The post-entry plan will be presented to the school board in the spring. The Office of the Ombuds continues outreach by engaging the LCPS stakeholders and focusing efforts on connecting with EL families, those LCPS offices who support EL families, and community

[00:55:14] agency partners. Additional departments use Let's Talk for internal and external communication. This year, analytic reports will be run incrementally to determine which departments may need additional support to reduce dialogue closure time.

[00:55:31] All LCPS departments, superintendent and chief of staff, have Let's Talk forms available for community feedback on the LCPS website, including directly on the homepage. A listening tour feedback form is available for community feedback during community listening sessions and on a community listening session website.

[00:55:54] Thank you. Thank you. Board members, opening up for questions for Goal 4 and the Goal 4 team. Ms. Polipko. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[00:56:10] Related specifically to 4.2a, business and community partnerships, I would love to get some more information on what we're doing to enhance the diversity of partnerships that we have available for our special education students. specifically students who are in need of those daily living skills and preparation for job skills as they're entering middle school and high school.

[00:56:33] My understanding is that we have very little relationship when it comes to any local and federal government entities and that we have an abundance of relationships with retail outlets, which really doesn't provide our students with the breadth of opportunities that they deserve.

[00:56:51] So I would love to get some more information on that. Thank you. Happy to get that for you and agree we can look into that. Additional questions? Mr. Morse. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Looking at the ombuds, I think that's great news.

[00:57:07] I'm excited to see that folks are starting to understand the opportunity that LCPS is providing through the ombuds position. And I think that's going to continue to grow. So I was really pleased to see the first year numbers there. Also, 4.3C, when you talk about Let's Talk, probably the best thing that's going to happen to the outstanding, the 4.5 days to closing each average message is when I leave the board.

[00:57:33] I'm sorry. I struggle with that app, and I know I have a lot of open dialogues that would really help you out. So I hope that my relief is able to handle the Let's Talk app a little bit better than I am. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you on behalf of the M-Buds.

[00:57:49] any additional questions seeing none board members where it looks like we're out of time for our work session so item 402 is going to get bumped from the work session again but we'll move that that to the top of the information item so we'll be able to disposition that once we get there so we are going to take a recess at this time and we will be back for our evening session at 6 30 time

[00:58:14] certain the board is now in recess good evening the board is coming out of recess and we'll begin

[01:30:19] our evening session with item seven which is the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem our pledge tonight is going to be one moment our pledge tonight is going to be led by a group from hillside elementary school the hillside morning show anchors and tech crew share important

[01:30:54] information daily events and celebrate student and staff successes throughout the year the assigned anchors for the week help update scripts, rehearse, and present live broadcasts for the entire school. Behind the camera, our tech crew is in charge of the lighting, camera work, and operating the broadcast program. This particular broadcast program involves managing layers, images, video clips, and transitions. The Hillside community is continually impressed with the effort our students put into each and every show. The pledge leaders from the morning show are Mia, Zoe, and Luke as

[01:31:30] the anchors, and Shrada and Michael for the tech crew. Immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance, we're going to have the national anthem sung by a group from Discovery Elementary School, a select group from the Discovery Singing Trailblazers, a fourth and fifth grade chorus.

[01:31:51] The choir normally has over 100 singers, but today you see a select group of fifth grade students. The Singing Trailblazers perform at a Veterans Day concert, share music at school-based concerts, and enjoy singing at a local retirement home in Ashburn during the holiday season.

[01:32:08] So at this time, I will ask everyone to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the national anthem immediately afterwards. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America And to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[01:33:36] Thank you very much to our pledge leaders and the choir from Discovery Elementary for that performance.

[01:34:07] Board members, at this time we are going to return to item 102 on the agenda. As I've been notified that Ms. Corbo would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Ms. Corbo, could you please state your location, whether you're alone or with anyone else, and whether this is a medical or personal matter?

[01:34:30] I'm home, I'm alone, and I'm asking for remote participation due to an ongoing medical condition and disability. This time I will entertain a motion that Ms. Corbo's request to participate remotely for an ongoing medical matter be granted.

[01:34:47] So moved. Moved by Ms. Polipko. Is there a second? Seeing none, that motion will fail for lack of a second. Ms. Corvo, are there any other requests related to remote participation that you'd like to make tonight? No, thank you.

[01:35:04] Okay. With that, we will move to item eight on the agenda, which is our student school board representative comments. And we're going to start with Krupskaya Gomez from Parkview High School.

[01:35:21] Krupskaya is the student council president at Parkview High School and is honored to be here to represent the Parkview student body. She has served the students at Parkview for three years as historian, vice president, and currently president. She is involved and dedicated to her school and community.

[01:35:38] She participates in various clubs, sports, and volunteer activities, demonstrating her commitment to personal growth and community service. She has also represented Parkview on the athletic fields throughout her high school career. Krupskaya has been involved in the AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination Program, for six years, which helps students prepare for college.

[01:36:02] She will be a first-generation college student next fall, hoping to attend VCU. Good evening, school board members, school administrators, teachers, parents, and fellow community members. Buenas noches, miembros de la Consejo Escolar, administradores, escolares, maestros, y padres, y otros miembros de la comunidad.

[01:36:24] I would like to start by thanking my advisors, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Primus, the staff, and my principal, Dr. Jefferson, for granting me this opportunity to speak on behalf of Parkview High School. I would also like to thank my fellow peers and my parents for being here to support me. My name is Krupskaya Arguello.

[01:36:41] Today, I will be highlighting the achievements of Parkview High School extracurricular activities, discussing new academic opportunities for our students, addressing the new Parkview building and programs we would like to have, and spreading awareness about the increase of drug use in Loudoun County public schools.

[01:36:57] First and foremost, our Red Cross Club recently hosted our annual FABLO Drive, received enough donations to save 75 lives. We are also beginning to organize our vaccinated a village fundraiser to raise money and provide measles and rubella vaccinations to underserved communities locally and worldwide.

[01:37:17] Furthermore, it's worth noting that we were one of the national capital area leaders collecting 974 torts vaccinations as of last year. This year's goal is $1,000. Moving on to the athletics, the number of athletes on all our teams are continuing to grow.

[01:37:35] Our football team currently has a record of 3-4, it's best mark at this point in the season since 2012. The Sterling community's engagement has more than doubled this year, which has been a great support for athletics and our fine arts department. Our field hockey team stands out as the most improved team in both Dulles and Kataknick districts this season, with multiple 1-2 goal wins and losses that really have given our athletes confidence this year.

[01:38:03] The Battle of Route 7 trophy for football is going to be played at Parkview versus Dominion on Friday, November 3rd. As for our marching band, we earned overall superior ratings at our assessments performance and won first place in every category at our competition hosted by Woodgrove High School.

[01:38:21] On November 10th, we will be performing the national anthem at the Washington Wizards at their arena in Washington, D.C. Parkview's National Art Honor Society participated in the Sterling Park Parade on October 7th with colorful aprons, matching barrettes, carried giant crayons, and handed out candy.

[01:38:42] They also held a fundraiser at the Hillary Burden Book Tour event on October 14th. They gave away buttons with our student artwork on them and collected over $200 in donations, which will help fund supplies for future NHS activities and fundraisers, and will be planning the toy drive for the Breakfast with Santa community event.

[01:39:01] Last year, they gift wrapped over 400 donated toys that were handed out to children of the community during the event and did face painting. For Hispanic Heritage Month, members of the UNO TOTO to Parkview's National Honor Society created posters and daily announcement slides featuring the Hispanic heritage heroes, past and present, and prominent writers for Latin America or of Latin America descendants.

[01:39:25] They completed new tutor training for Patriot Writing Centers and are open for transcripts and peer tutoring seasons for students seeking support with writing assignments in all subjects and grade levels. They have started supporting some EL teachers in the classroom and planning is underway for four evening music and poetry coffee houses throughout the year to take place in our library.

[01:39:49] Our new Parkview building will be selected and open in 2027. We're grateful to have a new building for our younger generations to come. Students in Parkview High School have opportunity to have academies of Loudoun, but there's a limited number of spots.

[01:40:08] Our vision for the new building includes incorporating an auto repair program and junior ROTC to benefit the students of Parkview. Our school has many honorable achievements, but today I would also like to discuss the awareness of drug abuse. Drug abuse, particularly phenatal, is not only a Parkview High School issue, but is an issue across Loudoun County, the state of Virginia, and nationwide.

[01:40:32] We need to raise awareness of both students and staff to signs of drug use, as well as looking for any signs of students having any mental health and anxiety issues that may cause them to learn to lean on drugs and other substance. Early intervention is the key. We need to educate teachers and more on why it's such a big issue. Thank you again for letting me have this opportunity to represent Parkview High School.

[01:40:54] Thank you. Thank you. And our second student school board representative tonight is Caroline Tulungan from Heritage High School, where she is a senior. She is involved in many activities around her school. She is the historian of the Student Council Association, vice president of the National Honor Society, and is a part of the Pride Productions Leadership Council. Caroline is also heavily involved in the theater department, most recently being in the school's 2023 spring

[01:41:31] production of Into the Woods. Hello everyone and good evening. My name is Caroline Tolongan and I'm a senior at Heritage High School. I want to start off by giving thanks to my principal, Mr. Adam, as well as the rest of the Heritage's administration, including Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Powell, and Ms. Turner, for giving me this unique opportunity.

[01:41:51] I cannot express how honored I am to be here in front of you, representing this school that I love. But Heritage is not just a school, it's a community. Ever since my first days as a freshman, I could feel the positive culture around me, drawing me in. A lot of that is credited to our school's student council, sponsored by the amazing Ms. Dobbs and Mr. York, who have voluntarily put in their time and effort into making Heritage a place where students want to be.

[01:42:17] A few weeks ago, the SCA hosted the school's homecoming week, themed Pride in the Wild West, which included a variety of events, such as a spirit week, hallway decorating, powder puff, a football game against the Minion, which we won, and a dance for approximately 1,000 students.

[01:42:33] I am honored to have been a part of creating my fourth and final homecoming with a team of such hardworking and motivated individuals. Another recent event was this past Friday, where SCA hosted our Bus Driver Appreciation Day, where students made goodie bags, cards, and signs in order to show our love and value of the outstanding LCPS bus drivers.

[01:42:54] Without these people, the school would not be able to function, so they deserve to know how appreciated they are. With the theme of raising awareness, Heritage's Sources of Strength and Peer Clubs joined forces for Unity Week, which began last Monday. Each day of the week included a spirit day and an educational advisory lesson that recognized an overlooked issue that people face every day.

[01:43:16] This included bullying, mental health, domestic violence, and breast cancer. Also last week was PSAT day and the senior bowling trip. And to make the day a little more enjoyable for the underclassmen, a field day was hosted on our football field by our varsity club. This included tournaments of various sports, Lowney County Parks and Rec-sponsored activities, and Brewster's ice cream.

[01:43:37] On the topic of athletics, I want to give a few shout-outs to some of our impressive athletes. First of all, both our golf and cheer teams have won district championships this fall season. Also, senior Joe Johnson is a state golf champion, and freshman Sidney New competed in the girls' golf state tournament today.

[01:43:56] Congratulations to them all, and I thank them for representing our school sports so well. Before I close, I briefly want to mention our theater department, who is working on a student-written modern adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. The shows will be on November 9th through 11th and 17th through 19th.

[01:44:13] I encourage you all to come out and see how much hard work these students have put in. It's really an amazing show. Thank you to all of you who are here today for listening to what I had to say and to my mom and friends for supporting me. And most of all, thank you for the school board for having me today. I hope you have a wonderful evening. Thank you.

[01:44:36] We'll now move to item nine on the agenda, which is the superintendent's report. Dr. Spence. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the school board. It's my pleasure to begin my report this evening by sharing some good news from around the school division, starting with our second grade students at Francis Hazel Reed Elementary School, who had a very special computer science lesson recently. Using 3D design software, these students created Braille keychains that will later be printed 3D at the Amazon Web Services Think Big Space at Simpson Middle. In addition to using innovative modeling software, these students learned an even

[01:45:12] important lesson which is about making sure everyone feels included. Let's take just a moment to watch this brief video. I've been working with the second grade team over at Francis Hazel. This Braille keychain that they're going to 3D print introduces them to the concept of 3D design, creating that model, but then also having that keepsake that will last a really long time. So to begin the projects we created accounts in Tinkercad and then we work on some of those 3D design skills where we added a piece of text which was their name and then the last part of the process is the Braille you know we talk about what

[01:45:52] if there was a student in our class that did have some visual impairments you know the students realize like this is going to make them feel included if they happen to encounter someone who has difficulties with their sight that they'll be able to share their name so it really makes they really kind of get that okay we can make everybody feel included next I want to recognize that that October is National Principals Month. This month is set aside to celebrate the incredibly important role that our principals play in our schools and in our communities. We know their

[01:46:28] hard work supports our students and staff and helps ensure the success of their schools. During this Principals Month and every day, we want to say thank you to our outstanding principals for their service and their commitment to our schools, to our students, and to the educators who work in those schools. And speaking of principals, the Northern Virginia Magazine recently highlighted one of our amazing leaders. The October edition of the magazine, which ranked Freedom High School as the number four high school in the region, also spotlighted Neelam Chaldry, Principal of Freedom, who credited the school's community's focus on excellence and its embrace and celebration of

[01:47:06] its diversity as the reasons for its success. So congratulations to her and to Freedom High School for that recognition. I'm also very pleased to share that Niche has ranked Waxpool Elementary school is Virginia's best elementary school. This places Waxpool first amongst Virginia's 1,124 elementary schools. As you all know, Waxpool opened in 2019 and Michael Pellegrino is the school's inaugural principal. Big kudos to him and his team on earning this honor.

[01:47:36] Also worth noting on this same list, Goshen Post Elementary was ranked the third best elementary school in Virginia. Of course, Brian Klippel is the second principal of Goshen Post, which opened in 2018. In addition to these two schools, 12 other LCPS elementary schools made the top 100 list, so we congratulate all of those schools recognized in this ranking. Last Wednesday, I was pleased to attend the Academy of Sciences White Coat Ceremony, and Dr. Ellis attended Thursday's White Coat Ceremony for students who are part of the Health Sciences Program, both of these at the Academies of Loudoun. At these two events, 358 students received their white coats, signifying

[01:48:16] their commitment to the study of the sciences. And I want to wish these young scholars all the best as they begin their educational journey in the study both of the sciences and healthcare services. During the upcoming student holidays, two very important student conferences are taking place. The Wild Student Leadership Conference and the Peer Conference. Both of these conferences bring together student leaders to help them cultivate their skills. The Peer Conference will be held right here in the admin building on October 31st.

[01:48:48] PEER, which stands for Positive Experiences in Relationships, is a specialized LCPS high school class designed to develop students' mentoring skills and help teach them how to assist their classmates emotionally, socially, and academically. At this year's PEER conference, students will learn about and discuss the importance of things like friendship, self-care, and healthy dating relationships.

[01:49:13] LCPS school social workers and staff from Laws, which is a Loudoun County-based nonprofit organization, will be there to facilitate the conference. Approximately 150 students are expected to attend. The Wild Conference, which will be held on Tuesday, November the 7th at Dominion High School, will provide student leaders the opportunity to learn leadership tips and strategies from each other, as well as hear about key topics affecting our community from local nonprofit organizations. 375 students from all LCPS schools are expected to attend WILD, which is supported by the Office of Athletics

[01:49:51] and Extracurricular Activities. So shifting gears a little bit, after almost two months on the job, I can confidently say that LCPS is really a terrific school system with wonderful students, parents, staff, and community members. I have spent some time here building relationships and getting to know the amazing people that make up LCPS. So as you'll see in this evening's entry plan update. Many of the action items that are in progress are around getting to know not only our students, staff, and the community, but also about building important relationships with our community partners, board of supervisors, local law enforcement, our county administrator, and all of the wonderful

[01:50:30] organizations that support our schools here in Loudoun County. So as we talked about when I first introduced the entry plan, my personal values are the lens through which I lead, but also the lens through which I am examining the core functions of our school division. As I have been visiting schools and classrooms and spoken with staff and community members, I've been asking myself three questions around those personal values. To what extent do our students have a sense of belonging? How might we continue to foster trust through listening? And what structures, practices, and opportunities exist for collaboration? And how might that contribute to high expectations?

[01:51:08] so i want to just mention briefly one of the structures that we have in place here in louden county that i think is wonderful are the advisory councils the board as you know has a number of those and so does the superintendent so i have student advisory council teacher advisory council and i have had the opportunity recently to meet with both of those groups and really i think the work with those groups captures these core values as i've been able to talk with them about the critical sense of the end-user experience it's something that guides me as i think about the decisions that we make and i want to have an understanding of how those

[01:51:46] decisions impact our teachers in the classroom and the lived experience of our students in our schools and i also intend for us to understand how their experience can lend voice to the direction of our school division and so that's something that we will remain focused on and that will drive some of this work as we move forward as a reminder the entry plan itself has six objectives each of these are important guide posts as we think about how we're structuring the work during this time and i have been thinking as i am out and listening and reviewing things to what extent

[01:52:25] will what we are hearing learning and thinking about lead to these outcomes and so as we also talked about the entry plan has four focus areas which are the four one lcps strategic plan goals it was important that i show clear alignment between my entry plan and the great work that's already happening in lcps and to help frame how those intended outcomes are necessarily an extension of the division's strategic direction so on the next set of slides i'm going to take

[01:52:58] some time to discuss just briefly each of these areas of focus and provide a summary of the action items to date so on the next slide goal one is centered around students and ensuring that they thrive in a rigorous learning environment while being provided with opportunities to prepare students for life beyond high school this slide as you can see shows the status of each action under goal one so the way that this will show up is actions in green indicate completed actions Blue indicates the action is in progress or ongoing, and red indicates that an action has not yet been initiated.

[01:53:37] In my almost two months now with LCPS, I've been able to meet with students, staff administrators, and I've been able to begin reviewing and initiating some key activities, including beginning to commission a special education audit, looking at our current school improvement process and instructional initiatives, and really conducting a review of the findings of the mental health task force. As you can see, these activities are also ongoing as this learning process is unfolding, and so the actions under phase two and then, of course, phase three will continue to happen as a result of what I'm learning

[01:54:15] in these first months. As of today, I've also been able to visit 15 of our school facilities. I've had four community listening sessions, and I've participated in four superintendent advisory committee meetings with principals teachers and students i've also started reviewing the status of collective bargaining i've been thinking about and working with our team to assess critical human resource functions and i want you to know that my goal is to embark on most of the actions under phase two in the next few weeks i i do want to at least say here as i think about those listening

[01:54:53] sessions first because this is a goal focused on exemplary staff it's important that I do acknowledge that in each of those listening sessions and we've hosted listening sessions with our staff but also hosting listening sessions with our community in each of those community listening sessions in particular the consistent so we ask three questions what are your hopes and dreams for our for our students and for our staff and then with that frame we ask where are we hitting it out of the park where are we really doing a great job and then where are we

[01:55:29] falling short and one of the things that I can say with clarity after the first four sessions and and I'd be surprised if it didn't continue throughout the remainder of those listing sessions is when we ask where are we hitting it out of the park the resounding continual theme is we've got wonderful teachers and staff here in LCPS who really care about our students and really care about their schools in our community and and so I want to affirm for our staff that our community views them as exemplary and so I also want to affirm that as we're conducting these

[01:56:06] staff listening sessions and working with our advisory groups that it will continue to be important to hear from them about where we can continue to improve together and so just as just as i mentioned a moment ago for this goal my goal will be to embark on most of the other actions under phase two in the next few weeks and then with phase three as we begin to learn from our teachers in our community about where we where we have room to to continue to improve the actions under the enriched division area focus have either been completed or are already in progress

[01:56:43] as you can see under phase one and phase two this area is focused primarily on learning and assessing our existing governance structures and looking at efficiencies. I suspect these conversations will be ongoing throughout the year as we begin to welcome a new board in January in particular.

[01:57:04] Those conversations will continue to be important. And then moving on to the last area of focus, which is about engaged community. As I shared in the introductory slides for the plan, I have been meeting with various stakeholders not just in these listening sessions but really in a variety of settings and have been working hard to begin building those relationships which i think are the foundation of a strong partnership so i do intend to continue to engage in dialogue with our community i do really intend to analyze our engagement structures to ensure that all of our families feel welcome and engaged

[01:57:40] in our schools and i will say one thing that's been absolutely clear again during these sessions is how much from a communications perspective our community wants us to tell the story about who we really are in Loudoun County. I think our community recognizes that oftentimes people's understanding of Loudoun is is fairly narrow because of some of the stories that have been told and although there are there are truths and hard lessons to learn in that that there's much more to Loudoun County Public Schools and I think what we hear continually from our community is that people want others to

[01:58:16] know those stories they want to know the incredibly positive stories that happen every day throughout the school division things like you heard our our board our student board members talk about tonight and I think that this goal and the actions there reflect our work to strengthen those communications and family engagement structures and then to assess that through communications audit and as we do all that i think that will move us in the right direction and then i would just note that the actions under phase three in this focus area again will largely happen after the first two phases

[01:58:54] are complete so the reason we're having this conversation as i shared with you when i introduced the entry plan on september 12th that you would be receiving frequent updates on the progress of the entry plan so it is a six-month entry plan but i have to tell you just based on the time of things that it will go beyond the six-month period as we prepare for a post-entry plan discussion with the board and with our community the goal of all of this will be to continue to share progress with you and with our community i'm setting a goal to share progress during the

[01:59:27] fourth tuesday meetings in november february april and may and i also want to note that when we bring these updates forward that the entry plan website will also be updated to reflect the status of each of those action items and so I will look forward to providing you with our next update on November the 28th and I appreciate your attention this evening Mr. Chairman that concludes my report thank you Dr. Spence that will bring us to item 10 on the agenda which is public comment

[02:00:06] I want to thank the community 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.

[02:00:25] Based on the number of speakers tonight and the agenda this evening, all speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment. Please be advised that speakers who missed 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.

[02:00:45] 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, 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,

[02:01:24] criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. 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. 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

[02:01:58] 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. Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the board room prior to the start of the meeting. Please provide 12 copies of the materials. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais. And the public is reminded that access to school

[02:02:35] board meetings is available through lcps tv on comcast channel 18 and verizon fios channel 43 and the live stream of the meeting may also be viewed on the lcps website so for the fourth tuesday school board meeting we will begin with our virtual speakers and the first speaker is matt mallet go for it my name is my name is matt i'm going to i go to ron's channel is it started

[02:03:10] I'm in third grade. I came here because I have to wake up too early to catch the bus. I don't know what to say. I have bad days at school because I don't have enough sleep.

[02:03:46] my friend my friend school starts at eight oh can you need the rest that's what you wanted to say my friend school starts at eight why does but once you can start so early you don't want to talk about some of these okay thank you thank you thank you happy time

[02:04:22] thank you jenny the next speaker is jenny cho So Loudoun District Elementary School.

[02:04:39] Virtual Loudoun Elementary provided cost savings and an equitable education environment for children of Loudoun County. The children in Virtual Loudoun Elementary were engaged and learned together every day with their teachers. They were able to hold discussions and partner with other students. They learned in a fun environment and were challenged.

[02:05:07] They were also receiving full 504 and IEP ELL services. Last year, as a result of the virtual Loudoun Elementary being discontinued, the elementary students were not given equitable education options.

[02:05:26] Many families were forced to choose education options that were not equivalent to virtual Loudoun Elementary. I'm requesting the school board to please reconsider bringing back the Virtual Loudoun Elementary to help kids get the quality education they most deserve.

[02:05:44] Thank you. Thank you. Tim McClintock. Bringing back the Virtual Loudoun Elementary program. Last time I talked about the issues with the cost last year, which were due to hiring staff to accommodate the same amount of students as the year before and then not properly getting the word out that Virtual Loudoun Elementary was an option again.

[02:06:10] This led to having excess staff already contracted for the year. This is a simple mistake to avoid, and unfortunately skewed the board's perception of the real cost, which could have been less than a fifth of what was spent. In years previous, the per-student cost of this option was significantly less than the in-person learning, and would have been last year as well had mistakes not been made.

[02:06:33] And setting aside the real student need for this program, bringing up this program would have some benefits for Loudoun County Schools in general. This is a school which did not have bullying issues, poor attendance, or drug issues, just to name a few. It would help to bring in more students who have left because the in-person learning is not working for them.

[02:06:54] In the years the school was available, the test scores on average were higher than the overall average Loudoun County. This program was used as an example to several other counties who decided to create and continue their programs. Reinstating this program would provide one more reason Loudoun County is a great place to live and raise a family.

[02:07:14] Please consider bringing back Virtual Loudoun Elementary Program. It benefits more than just the students who attend. Thank you. Thank you. Mary McClintock. Along to three Loudoun County School of Age students, I have seen the different paths to educational success.

[02:07:40] My high school sophomore is in person, loves learning and is in honors. Our seventh grade is in honors in Virtual Loudoun Secondary and also loves learning. My third grader is unable to attend in the building due to health reasons. I have seen all sides of land county schools for different needs. And the need for medically complicated children, there is a severe lack in providing a safe educational environment for these children.

[02:08:02] Some of these young children will grow and learn to handle their medical situations better. But at such an early age, it is critical to embrace the technology that keeps them safe. Medically complex children have the right to attend a school that is safe. A virtual lab in elementary is no longer an option. What is the option? Parents and students this year can invite you virtual Virginia Valdez Academy, and even private pay-for-options are not equitable alternatives.

[02:08:25] If providing services and ABA accommodations in the building is not an option for these children, what is the option for mentally complex children? Thank you. Heather Hughes?

[02:08:40] I'm benefited from this wonderful synchronous program. A lot of families were placed back into the building or into another virtual school that is not equitable to the virtual Loudoun Elementary.

[02:08:57] The virtual Loudoun Elementary was part of the LCPS, and now so many families are no longer with the Loudoun County school system. They were to find other means for an education. Virtual is not for everyone, but it needs to be an option. Please consider bringing back virtual Loudoun Elementary.

[02:09:13] Thank you. Thank you. And Sundas Ahmad. We don't have a caller by that name. Okay, and that was our final virtual speaker who was signed up, so we will start with our in-person speakers.

[02:09:35] The first in-person speaker is Brenda Bengston, to be followed by Sandy Sullivan. Politics out of schools.

[02:09:54] Politicians made appointments before we elected school boards. It's always been political. Appointed members were chosen solely to stop FLE. The education secretary denigrated public education in the 80s.

[02:10:12] In the 90s, LaRouche libertarians railed about the evils of rock and roll and books. foreshadowing. A former board member used Facebook to destroy a candidate for LGBTQ support. Hotel rooms were reserved for religious groups from southern Virginia who used the June 22, 2021 meeting for political spectacle. This room was used for campaign launches, buzzwords, bullying, and sensationalism stoked in media.

[02:10:48] Boy Scouts served as pawns for stunts, and a church was involved in recall petitions. Healthy dialogue disappeared. Threats of violence became commonplace. It's always been political.

[02:11:05] Last week at a forum, I heard, just stick to reading, writing, and math. What's erased? Sciences, social sciences, music, visual and performing arts, languages, health and P.E., vocational and technical programs, therapies for special education.

[02:11:25] Loudoun students, teachers, and parents want safe, inclusive schools, not to dance a Tennessee waltz, a Texas two-step, Florida breaks, or the Virginia reel with a governor who seeks to out-marginalize students and deny real history, since that's political.

[02:11:53] Thank you. Sandy Sullivan to be followed by Tammy Cummins. Good evening. I'm Sandy Sullivan, an elementary school teacher who currently serves the members of the Loudoun Education Association as their president.

[02:12:10] Collaboration with school board members, all levels of staff, and our superintendent. That is what LEA seeks. Educators look forward to Dr. Spence joining LEA's rep meeting tomorrow. We will hear from him and he will hear from his educators. One area of concern for educators is building access for the Loudoun Education Association and worksites.

[02:12:30] an opportunity for members to connect with their union and the union to connect with educators. LEA continues to seek the ability to meet with educators during the workday when they are available. This has been the past practice for decades. Let's collaborate, let's share experience, let's develop knowledge, and make the best decisions for our students and educators.

[02:12:51] LEA looks forward to the draft collective bargaining resolution of the Legislative and Policy Committee being in public session early next month. Ongoing discussions throughout this process would have allowed a better understanding of what LCPS and LEA believes will serve our school system best, as well as allow transparency to the public. As the resolution moves through committee to the full school board, I remind you that the Loudoun Education Association looks forward to engaging with you in meaningful collective bargaining, which includes educator working conditions, students' learning conditions. Thank you. Tammy Cummins to be followed by Lee

[02:13:29] Landers. Good evening. In September, the Attorney General's office shamed the justice system by its performance at the trial of former school superintendent Scott Ziegler. The prosecution's obstruction of testimony, rants of speculation, and false claims about the accomplishments of their witness was a lesson in concealing truth rather than unveiling it. Although the jury rendered a guilty verdict for the firing of Ms. Erin Brooks for reporting sexual assault,

[02:14:09] This verdict is under appeal, and for very good reasons. For those of us observing the courtroom, the following facts survived. One, Ms. Brooks' identified sex assailant is a severely mentally disabled, nonverbal, prepubescent 10-year-old child.

[02:14:27] Two. Ms. Cummins, I'm going to remind you not to reveal details of individual students during public comment. Oh, okay. And to express those to school staff if you have a concern about an individual student. okay do you want me to stop okay you can continue with your comments but i just want to warn you about that all right during the alleged period of miss brooks sexual assaults none of her multiple classroom observers reported such behavior by the child during the alleged period of sexual assaults multiple classroom observers reported mix brooks for her neglect and or mistreatment

[02:15:03] of the child following the child's removal from miss brooks classroom all accusations of sexual assault ceased. Based on these facts, a crime was revealed during Dr. Ziegler's trial. However, the perpetrator is Ms. Brooks. The victim is a sincerely disabled child who she mistreated, then publicly libeled as a sex offender after her abuses were revealed. Fortunately, the school system did their job and fired Ms. Brooks, providing protection for future generations.

[02:15:34] I believe the court system will eventually come to the same conclusion in spite of the attorney General's interference. So many thanks to the school board for doing your job. Thank you. Lee Landers to be followed by Amy Riccardi. Amy Riccardi to be followed by Megan Lockwood. Megan

[02:16:06] Lockwood to be followed by Corey Brunet. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Spence.

[02:16:23] My name is Megan Lockwood and I am both an LCPS parent and an employee. I'm here today to do something not many people do, which is thank you. Well, more specifically to thank human resources and the Department of Professional Learning.

[02:16:40] I received seizure training as part of my yearly new school year training, but I never expected to use it so soon and so personally. Last Thursday, I was woken by my husband running into our room with our unresponsive six-year-old in his arms.

[02:16:56] I will spare you details as it was extremely distressing, but seizure immediately popped into my head, despite her not having any history of it or any recent illness. I recognized from my training that she was breathing and no longer convulsing, so she was likely out of immediate danger. This kept me calm so I could effectively communicate with 911 dispatch, the paramedics, and later her doctors in the emergency room. When we started hearing words like postictal, I was able to help reassure my very worried husband by explaining what I learned about seizure, first aid, and recovery. I'm very thankful to have

[02:17:33] had this training again so recently, so the details were fresh in my mind. We are just at the beginning of our epilepsy journey, but I feel confident working with her school to implement her seizure action plan from her doctors. Proper preparation and training saves lives. With this in mind, I would like to ask that you consider expanding training to all student-facing employees on recognizing drug use and overdose symptoms, as well as training on the use of Narcan. Thank you to Ms. Gomez for mentioning that. We should also consider a stronger push for parent education and training so that we can work in partnership. The drug epidemic, particularly opioids, is a danger

[02:18:12] that is fast outpacing our preventative efforts with programs like DARE. So let's do some good and save some lives with education. Thank you. Thank you. Corey Brunet to be followed by Elizabeth Boyko. Good evening. My name is Corey Brunet and I'm an English learner teacher at Broad Run High school. Since 1957, LEA has visited LCPS work sites during work hours. In my school, like in all other schools in the county, the LEA president would set up a table in a common area like a

[02:18:51] workroom and stay for a few hours for any employee to stop by with questions, concerns, or just to chat. He or she would visit all schools in the county, no matter how far away, because there are members at all schools. This has always been a vital way for LEA to more easily reach its members.

[02:19:10] This practice was part of the culture of LCPS, and during COVID, many members missed it and felt distant from their union. In December of 2022, just eight months after starting his job with LCPS, Dr. Smith decided to ban LEA from all work sites during work hours. He knew nothing about the over 60-year precedent against which he was going. He knew nothing about these visits and how supportive they were to members. And his timing. His timing. Was it just a coincidence that LEA was banned at the high point of LEA's collective bargaining efforts? He had no conversations with LEA staff

[02:19:50] at any point. He never once expressed concern about the visits or requested to meet to discuss issues that had been brought to his attention. He did not treat us as colleagues, but he doesn't see us as colleagues. LEA was disrespected and made to feel less than. You school board members hired Dr. Spence who has stated that he wants to restore transparency and trust. Start by restoring LEA's access to all work sites during work hours. This is an easy fix and does not require years to

[02:20:20] put into policy. LCPS will never outperform its educators. Never. Thank you. Elizabeth Boyko to be followed by Abby Platt. This past May, the Honorable Judge Fisher stated in court that many of this school board's closed meetings violated the Freedom of Information Act. That seems to have fallen on deaf ears as there are closed meetings every two weeks without fail, and at last week's committee meeting, Mr. Mahadavi stated he wants to have a closed meeting to discuss the

[02:20:57] wording of Governor Youngkin's model policies. That, Mr. Mahadavi, would be another FOIA violation. Discussing the wording of a policy is not grounds for a closed meeting, and you are not permitted to just go and talk behind closed doors anytime you wish to escape scrutiny. You work for us and represent us. You should be absolutely embarrassed running for re-election after the past four years.

[02:21:17] I urge all Ashburn residents to vote for Dina Griffiths in two weeks. Speaking of the model policies, if you do not adopt these policies, you are setting yourselves up for lawsuits. You are making this a partisan political game by claiming you had no choice but to pass 80-40 in order to comply with the law when it fit your agenda. I'm here to remind you that these do comply with federal law. If you insist otherwise, the onus is on you to show exactly how they don't.

[02:21:40] The safety and fair treatment of all students should include the right of girls to use restrooms and locker rooms without the intrusion of males. Males do not belong in females' private spaces. Single-use facilities are available to any student who needs them. By not adopting the updated model policies, you're opening yourselves up to lawsuits and you're assuming legal responsibility for noncompliance. Thank you. Abby Platt to be followed by Suzanne Satterfield. Suzanne Satterfield to be followed by Andrea Weiskopf.

[02:22:17] Apologize for the delay. Teacher unions are not good for teachers, admins, students, parents, or taxpayers.

[02:22:40] Administrative costs will rise, but not necessarily the salaries of teachers and others. If collective bargaining contract is approved, all employees will be beholden to the terms of the agreement even if they don't join the union. Teachers are ill-served with a union-enforced pay structure that treats them like assembly line workers rather than professionals.

[02:23:00] There is no escaping from the salary guides designed to benefit older, career teachers, the core constituency of any teachers union. As a result, pay increases are back and loaded so younger teachers never see the big raises that other professionals their age earn.

[02:23:18] Virginia's open meeting could make bargaining sessions open to the public. Other issues such as teacher grievance procedures, dismal and local school boards having final approval over employment and personnel supervision may impact bargaining subjects.

[02:23:35] Additionally, school boards likely can't approve contracts beyond the funding period, which may limit the length of contracts. When teachers' unions call for a sick out, they walk out on kids. The kids are left behind. Nowhere to learn. No way to hold the grown-ups accountable.

[02:23:52] Remember, the school board has the power to work with teachers without collective bargaining. It was the school board that gave them medical benefits and pension that is unmatched in the corporate world. Do the right thing and do not accept a collective bargaining contract.

[02:24:10] It is tough being a kid and students need to know that they should not have to claim an identity for approval or acceptance among classmates or staff. Just be yourself. Don't be afraid to speak up. If you're uncomfortable, don't feel safe, not being treated with dignity and respect as LCPS promises.

[02:24:29] You matter. Let your voices be heard. Thank you. And Andrea Weiskopf is our final speaker tonight. It isn't baseball. It isn't apple pie. It isn't Halloween.

[02:24:56] It is the plastic recorder. It is public school. That is what unites us as Americans. 91% of Americans attend public school. It isn't enough that each and every child in Loudoun County may attend public school.

[02:25:19] No, each and every child must feel that they belong in Loudoun County public schools. Public schools are under attack. This board and this superintendent should be the greatest advocates for public schools and for each and every child in them.

[02:25:43] You should fight for each and every child, even if you have to fight alone. Fight for our students. You must denounce the harmful and hateful practices and policies of this Commonwealth's governor and his clan of sycophants and grifters who seek to destroy our public schools and erase our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students.

[02:26:17] Each and every child deserves to play a plastic recorder in a school that values and affirms them. Black Lives Matter. Thank you.

[02:26:33] That was our final speaker, so that will conclude public comment for this evening. And we will get started on our action items, starting with 1101 from the Department of Business and Finance, FY23 County Fund balance request.

[02:26:50] So, Ms. Willoughby, I understand there's a change in the staff recommendation from when this was an information item two weeks ago. So, could I ask you to give an update on the changes or the requests in general? Yes, thank you. So, the original request for the county year-end fund balance that I presented at the last school board meeting originally totaled $5.6 million.

[02:27:14] The request has been revised to $6.6 million, and it's a result of two changes. One, and in board docs, you'll see the strikeouts related to the changes. So the first is we have removed the $500,000 request related to the hourly employee electronic time card system.

[02:27:34] And in its place, we have added $1.5 million for an initial consultant to begin the ERP replacement project. So we currently use the Oracle system and recent conversations with the county staff have led us to this request.

[02:27:55] The county has begun the multi-year process to move to another enterprise resource planning system and then to also separate the county and LCPS operations that currently exist under one umbrella. The county will, though, continue to provide support to LCPS's existing ERP systems until we are able to select another system and fully transition.

[02:28:19] And this will be a multi-year project. This project will be presented to the school board as part of the CIP budget process as well as the FY25 operating budget presentation as the cost for this multi-year project will be partially in the operating fund as well as partially in the CIP.

[02:28:38] So, again, phase one is totaling $1.5 million and, again, is for a consultant so that we can begin this project. And finally, I will just share that we have also collaborated with the county. They are aware of this change. They are aware of the $1.5 million addition as well as the $500,000 reduction.

[02:29:00] Thank you. At this time, I'll move that the Loudoun County School Board request $6,600,000 in supplemental funding from the Board of Supervisors, from the county's FY23 fund balance to fund staff's recommended items.

[02:29:15] Seconded by Ms. Okudegbe. I don't have anything to add to Ms. Willoughby's excellent introduction to this item. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, board members or clerk, please open the voting board.

[02:29:34] And board members, please record your vote at this time. And please close and display the vote. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Ms. Sheridan and Ms. Corbo absent for the vote.

[02:29:53] We'll now move to 1102 from the Legislative and Policy Committee adoption of the FY24, excuse me, adoption of the 2024 legislative program. Ms. Reeser. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[02:30:09] I'd just like to reintroduce the board and the public to Mr. Charlie Jackson, who is here from Jackson West Consulting, and Ms. Tanya James, who is his colleague. They helped us work on and develop our legislative program this year and to thank my colleagues on the committee, Mr. Beatty and Mr. Sorokin.

[02:30:31] Each year, the staff works with our committee to develop a set of legislative items and positions to present to you all and then after approval to present to the delegation, the Loudoun delegation of the Virginia General Assembly in an effort to both improve public education for Loudoun County and across the Commonwealth.

[02:30:51] As in previous years, we start by reviewing the last year's legislative program and discussing what items remain that were not adopted or resolved, and then we work through them systematically to decide which items to keep and which to not include again, and then take suggestions from the board as well as staff for potential new items and then vote upon them one at a time.

[02:31:19] You'll remember that there was a slideshow presentation last time, so I don't think that we'll be seeing that again. But everyone I introduced, along with Dr. Smith, is here, as well as myself, to answer any questions you have. And I will turn it over to Dr. Smith to add to my comments.

[02:31:35] Thank you, Ms. Reeser. Board members, as Ms. Reeser said, this was presented as information last meeting. We have two changes based on your feedback last time. And on the red line version, I'll start with line number 59 to free school meals for all students. We were asked to make this a little more actionable, and so we did take a look at this.

[02:31:54] And so we do have new language there that says, in FY23, Loudoun County Public Schools students accumulated more than $130,000 in school meal debt. The Loudoun County School Board believes that no student should go hungry and supports legislation to ensure school meals are provided for free for all students.

[02:32:11] During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal waivers provided free school meals to every K-12 student, regardless of their family's income level. the school board supports federal and or the commonwealth action to provide funding so that all students have access to free school meals. The other change comes under dual enrollment and so it is under section four of the state policy positions category, specifically on line 224.

[02:32:37] Under dual enrollment we've added two specific actions that we're asking in terms of dual enrollment and that includes greater flexibility in assigning staff to teach dual enrollment courses at the local high school level and dedicated funding from the state to community college system to allow those colleges to provide dual enrollment at no cost to the student or the school division. So those are all the these are the proposed changes from last time and we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[02:33:02] And Mr. Chair if it's all right with you I'll go ahead and make a motion before we open it up for discussion. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the 2024 legislative program as recommended and amended as recommended by the legislative and policy committee and amended this evening. Well, I suppose we don't have to make the amendments since the motion is just being made with Mr. with Dr. Smith's additions. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Ogadegbe.

[02:33:30] Ms. Reeser, would you like to speak further to your motion? No, I think I've covered it all already. Thank you. Okay. Board members, any discussion or questions on the motion? Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I just want to say, Dr. Smith, thank you for making the changes on on the section 1c in the line 60 to 65 i think that's much more actionable i know this is something it's in our uh request for every year and hopefully um we do continue emphasizing that with working with our federal um uh with the federal uh representatives in making sure that

[02:34:06] this is gets implemented so thank you for doing that any additional questions or discussion mr Beatty. Thank you, Chair. Specifically concerning the electric buses, I know I ask this question all the time, but I think the public would be interested in this. Do we have data on how effective the electric buses are and how they're being used in the school system, or are we still kind of unsure of their salience for our division? Thanks for the question, Mr. Beatty. I know Mr.

[02:34:40] Lewis is not here with us this evening, but I can, Chair, I know we're still in the pilot phase with several of our electric buses and looking at that and evaluating that program to see if that's something we want to continue. There continues to be grants available, but it's my understanding we don't have quite enough data yet and from that pilot to be able to report out on it.

[02:35:01] Okay, thank you. So I'd like to make a motion to strike, I guess, letter I from the draft because we don't have enough data for this, and I just think we need to get our existing infrastructure up to date and test how it works before we ask for more funding for buses that we're not really sure are going to affect us.

[02:35:23] And again, I say this as an electric car, I'm driving myself. So I realize there are limitations, and I think we need to get more data for this before we start switching our whole fleet to electric buses. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Polifco, is that you?

[02:35:39] Seconded by Ms. Polifco. Mr. Beatty, do you want to speak to your motion? Just the same thing. I always ask for information on this. I'm a full supporter of electric cars. I think it's an interesting thing. But I think before we go down this path of trying to replace our entire infrastructure, you know, buses are different.

[02:35:56] They have a mass of batteries, a different kind of charging infrastructure. And I really think we need to make sure we're in the right spot before we start switching everything to electric. And I think that's just, you know, a game of patience at this point. Dr. Spence, I know you had your mic on earlier.

[02:36:12] Did you want to comment on this? I think my comments would be two. One, I actually think it's maybe not a bad idea to do that at this point. I mean, I fully support the expansion of electric buses as we know more about them.

[02:36:32] But to your point, I'm not sure we know enough about them. I know that there are some significant issues with their batteries and maintenance. It's starting to become something that we're getting more familiar with, and I'm not confident we can give you the data that you're looking for relative to their functionality. That said, I would say the area that we probably do want to focus on is infrastructure because one of the challenges that we have with these is the infrastructure is not there.

[02:36:59] And so even if we're not saying that we support funding for the buses themselves, it's kind of the buses themselves is a cart before the horse conversation. You need to have the infrastructure in place before you ask for funding for the buses. And so I don't know, and I guess if we had to vote on it tonight, maybe it's best to take it out, but I do think there's a good conversation to be had at the legislative level relative to getting the infrastructure right so that if the vision is for LCPS or for the state of Virginia to go, you know, to move towards an electric fleet, that we're prepared to do that.

[02:37:36] Ms. Reeser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the time to have brought that up was during committee or when it was an information item, if more data. But I was sick that day. Excuse me. Ms. Reeser has the floor.

[02:37:52] Thank you. This has been before the committee multiple times, and it's been before the school board as an information item. And if data was what was requested from either staff or the consultants, it would have been provided. This isn't the time to be asking for data.

[02:38:10] It was also part of our program last year, and if data was requested between last year and this year, I'm certain that both the folks sitting at the table across from me as well as anybody at the state level would have been happy to put it together.

[02:38:29] We discussed both during committee and last year when this item came before the board that the items would remain together, although infrastructure was just added last year is something that would make it possible for buses to do field trips and do longer trips such as our students that we send to Thomas Jefferson.

[02:38:51] So I think at this point, trying to make changes from the day as to a program that we've been working on for two years and an item that we've carried for two years is just improperly timed. Thank you. Mr. Beatty.

[02:39:06] If I may, I believe every time this comes up, I ask for information about the buses, and I get the same answer that they're still trying to figure it out. They're still experimenting. So it's the same thing over and over again. So, yes, it would be great to have information. It would be great to know this, and this is why we have buses.

[02:39:22] We're trying to figure out how they work. But I just think it's important to get this out of there because we still have to figure this out, and we're going to ask for more money for this. I think that's where the patience comes from. Additional comments or discussion?

[02:39:38] Mr. Morse. Mr. Lewis, can you talk to the number of different – now, Mr. Lewis isn't here. He's my go-to guy, and he didn't show. Okay, then let me talk to what I know, and staff, correct me if I'm mistaken on this.

[02:39:54] But my understanding is at this point, we have two different service models for the infrastructure for school buses and LCPS. Is that correct? So twice we have evaluated and received funding from the state, I believe, that helped us buy buses and some infrastructure.

[02:40:10] But at this point, LCPS hasn't even picked the infrastructure that we're going to move forward with. So I understand that this has been long in the making, but I tend to agree with the idea that if we could settle on a standard infrastructure before we move forward with a statewide request to support this.

[02:40:29] I think that would pay us great benefits, so I will support the amendment. Additional discussion? Seeing none, we'll place the amendment to a vote, which is to remove the Section I on electric buses and infrastructure.

[02:40:45] So if we could open the voting board. And board members, please record your vote at this time. Please close and display the vote. That amendment will, that's going to be a tie vote, 3-3 with, 3-3-1-2 with Ogadegbe, Sorotkin, and Reeser opposed, Mehedvi abstaining, and Sheridan and Corbo absent for the vote.

[02:41:22] So as it stands right now, this amendment at least is going to have to be brought back at the next meeting for a re-vote. I believe we can continue on with additional amendments to disposition those, but we'll have to bring this amendment and the overall vote back next meeting.

[02:41:40] So we're back to the base motion now with essentially tabling that amendment. Are there any additional discussion or additional amendments to offer? Ms. Polipko. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[02:41:55] Just discussion based on the section regarding mental health. I just want to take a moment to discuss the fact that mental health is absolutely an issue that we are facing, that we're seeing among our students, probably in greater quantity than we have in the past.

[02:42:14] I will not deny that, and I also will not deny the fact that every child has to have their basic needs met before they can be ready to learn. However, mental health problems can also be born out of the fact that individuals struggle to achieve mastery in core academic subjects, such as reading.

[02:42:29] We see students struggle to master reading in their early childhood years, and oftentimes, rather than address the issue immediately, they're put on a wait-to-fail track. By the time that they have failed, mental and behavioral issues have already set in. I would argue that that is probably one of the greatest issues that we're seeing in education today.

[02:42:51] How much of what we implore legislators to fund is going to be accomplished through that funding versus what individual families can do for their children? Why aren't legislators asking for the evidence to support the continued funding of mental health supports?

[02:43:09] This is not a new issue. Both Republican and Democratic legislators tend to join in bipartisan funding of mental health support because who could be against it? However, what I think they're not doing is asking the hard questions. They're not asking what is the actual return on investment of funding these mental health initiatives.

[02:43:29] It is, in many cases, a classic case of it sounds good, but is it working? And in some cases, it is not working. So if it is working, why are we seeing across the country decreases in student performance? We're seeing decreases on SOL scores, and we're seeing widening gaps in the very populations that these measures are seeking to target for improved behavioral and mental health.

[02:43:54] So if the initiatives are working, why are they not working? Again, I return to the fact that in so many cases we see children struggle to learn, struggle to learn how to read, and if we're not addressing it immediately and we're waiting for those children to fail into third and fourth grade, of course they're going to have mental health issues.

[02:44:18] Of course they're going to have potential behavioral issues. So I think that our focus is in the wrong area when it comes to mental health. And for those reasons, I will not be supporting this agenda. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:44:37] Is there any additional discussion? Mr. Morse. Yes, I am going to make the motion. I'm looking at the draft copy with red line copy, so just to make sure that we have the correct lines. I move to strike the word all, or correction, I move to add after the word all in line 158 the phrase at-risk students.

[02:45:07] In addition, I move to add the words at-risk students following pre-kindergarten to at-risk students on line 160. And you're talking about the red line version, so you're in the pre-K for all section?

[02:45:24] I'm in the pre-K for all. So let me go through that again. It would say 158 would be section D, pre-K for all at-risk students. LCPS supports the Commonwealth, providing funding for school divisions offering all-day pre-kindergarten to at-risk students and for the Virginia Board of Education to adopt regulations for implementation.

[02:45:46] Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Beatty. Mr. Morse, would you like to speak to your amendment? Yes, and I spoke to this also at the information session, and I spoke to it, I believe, last year as well, with the discussions that the implementation of pre-kindergarten across the state would increase the state education budget potentially 10 to 15 percent would be a guess and that is because the staffing standards would require probably a teacher and an assistant in each classroom. Not only that but it also creates a huge burden on the infrastructure throughout the

[02:46:22] state. I'm worried that a lot of counties would move towards that model for pre-kindergarten for all of their students and that LCPS as one of the major contributors to the state budget would would reap the benefits of significant increase in taxes required for the state to support this it's quite expensive we don't have the space but I certainly support and always will pre-k for the at-risk students there's models that prove the effectiveness of that program but there There's nothing that will prove the effectiveness of pre-K for all of the students.

[02:47:02] Thank you. Is there any additional discussion on this motion or on the amendment? Ms. Reeser? Yeah, I'll just add to that that I think in discussions around this, we recognize both as a committee and the committee that was formerly comprised of different school board members that it would have to happen in iterations.

[02:47:26] And what you're suggesting is certainly a reasonable step in the direction, even if the goal was to have pre-K for all one day. It's certainly not something that could be bitten off in a large chunk. And we didn't work on it too much with this composure of this committee.

[02:47:47] But the previous committee, I think the person who brought the item forward wanted it to remain this way. And I think we left it that way at the time, realizing it's something that would be worked on over time. So all of that is to say I'm supportive of the direction in which this would need to begin.

[02:48:05] Although I think with a large turnover in the new legislature, it's probably unlikely that this item would be taken up. And I think that that's why largely the committee did not flush it out more.

[02:48:21] But I would invite the folks at the table across from me to let me know if you disagree and you think it's possible that we would be looking at something for this item. Mr. Chairman, Ms. Reeser, and again, Charlie Jackson, and I appreciate y'all letting us continue to represent you.

[02:48:42] You know, like you said, Ms. Reeser, with 25 to 30 new state house members and a quarter of the legislature turning over, priorities will change, and it's hard to say what that new legislature will prioritize. I think the broad brush approach here makes some sense, and we may end up with a half a loaf at some point and start with at-risk and to your point, Ms. Reeser.

[02:49:05] So I think both approaches can work, and I think this item can work the way it is. So just to summarize, I don't think we felt that this would be an item anyone picked up as it is, but it was more just hoping to arrive at what you're suggesting.

[02:49:23] Mr. Morris. Thank you. Interesting, though, if we think about this, because if we ask for everything and we get nothing, then the at-risk students will not get pre-kindergarten. If we ask for something we think is achievable, then the possibility is there that we could actually do that.

[02:49:40] And I think this entire board agrees that pre-K for at-risk children would be a good program. So I will stick with the amendment and hope the school board members will consider. Thank you. Thank you. Additional discussion? I'm not going to support this amendment. I think if pre-K for all is our long-term goal, and it certainly is mine, then I think that's what we should stand behind.

[02:50:03] And if the legislature wants to back off of that or do it in steps, then that's up to them. Certainly something is better than nothing, but I think we should articulate what our overall strategic goal is. I think there is copious research that shows what happens and the effectiveness of a school district or even an entire state funding pre-K universally.

[02:50:30] Some of the most compelling research is from Oklahoma, of all places, which implemented it statewide practically by accident, but they're very glad they did in retrospect. So I'm not going to support the amendment to water this one down.

[02:50:46] Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, Mr. Morris, I will not be able to support that either. Somebody who I believe, I think, has been sort of championing, I know because of the space, that's been a challenging part where we could not. But I think as far as making a legislative priority, you know, again, pre-K for all is something that I've been championing and that's something I'll continue to support.

[02:51:10] Additional discussion? Seeing none, we'll place the amendment to a vote. Good. Please, the voting board is open. Please record your vote at this time. Are you good?

[02:51:28] The motion is to add the words at risk into two different places in the pre-K for all section. Clerk, please close and display the vote.

[02:51:48] That motion will fail 3-4-2 with Okadegbe, Sorotkin, Mehedevi, and Reeser opposed. So we are back to the base motion. Are there any additional amendments or discussion? Ms. Reeser.

[02:52:07] Just as part of the final word, I wanted to, since this is going to be the last legislative program that I get to work on, thank the three of you. I've had the pleasure of chairing the LMP committee for the last four years, and I've learned so much from all of you. You helped me build really good, strong relationships with so many people, both in the legislature and adjacent to it, like in the Virginia Department of Education.

[02:52:32] I have enjoyed learning about what other school divisions are doing and just being able to advocate for what our students need, not only here in Loudoun, but across the Commonwealth. And I'm really grateful for the experience and will miss working with you in this capacity.

[02:52:47] Thank you. So we will hold here, and next meeting we will bring this back. We will re-vote on the amendment for removal of the electric bus item that ended in a tie vote, and after that we will vote on the base motion to adopt the legislative agenda.

[02:53:05] Mr. Mahedby? Chair, is there an option for me to request a re-vote on this particular topic? So you would have to make a motion to reconsider, and you have to be on the prevailing side of the vote in order to do that.

[02:53:24] So I'm going to defer, because you abstained on the vote, I'm going to ask Mr. Allen whether that counts as being on the prevailing side. Thank you, Chair. My understanding of the Roberts Rules of Order is in the case of a tie that it would be the party that voted negatively.

[02:53:42] That would be the prevailing party. So an abstention would not be qualified as a negative. So it wouldn't qualify. So I couldn't hear all of that. Did you say that an abstention does not count as being on the prevailing side? That's my understanding.

[02:53:59] Okay, thank you. So unfortunately, Mr. Mehedовie, you wouldn't be able to make a motion to reconsider? Okay, Ms. Reeser? I just wanted to clarify in case anybody has any other questions that our consultants won't be returning again. So if there are any questions on any other items or if there's anything someone thinks they may request when the entire program comes back, now's the time to ask.

[02:54:24] Board members, are there any additional questions for our legislative consultants while we have them here today? Okay. Seeing none, thank you again for being here tonight and for your expert advice, and we'll bring this back next time.

[02:54:43] We'll now move to 1103, also from the Legislative and Policy Committee, Revision of Policy 2010, Legal Status, Authority, Powers, and Duties. Ms. Reeser. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the revisions of Policy 2010, Legal Status, Authority, Powers, and Duties, as amended by the LNP Committee.

[02:55:21] Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Mahedvi. Ms. Reeser, would you like to speak to your motion? So I believe this was supposed to be on the consent agenda, and Ms. Corbo had asked for it to be pulled. So since she is not present for the meeting, I will defer to Dr. Smith if he wants to add anything, but I think the rest of us, we're ready to put it on the consent agenda, so I have nothing further to add.

[02:55:47] Is there any additional discussion? Ms. Polivko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make an amendment, a motion to amend line 86 after the word matter to add teacher assistance and behavioral assistance to the list of positions. Is there a second? Yes,

[02:56:21] we'll stand at ease for one moment. Is this on the red line version? I believe it's on the red line version. Yes. Mr. Chair, could I ask for a reread on the amendment, please? Sure. Ms. Polifko, would you mind reading your amendment again? Certainly. My motion is to on line 86 after the word matter add teacher assistance and behavioral assistance to the list of those positions

[02:56:58] so miss polifko i have the word matter on line 87 of the red line is that i'm assuming that's what you're referring to but i just wanted to yes mr chair thank you thank you so i'll i'll ask again if the motion has a second seeing none that motion will miss elgadeg bay go ahead can i can i ask a question of staff to speak to if that if there are concerns about that amendment? I before we open it up to debate the motion has to have a second. I'll second it for the matter of debate.

[02:57:34] Thank you Mr. Beatty thank you the motion has a second. Ms. Polifko would you like to speak to your motion? Yes thank you Mr. Chair this was feedback from SEAC. Their concern in this portion of the policy is that they agree that it's important to track critical shortages of staff. However, they also felt that teacher assistant positions should also be tracked. Thank you. And Ms. Ogedegbe, I believe you had a question. Yes, thank you for that. Just a question for staff if there are concerns about that or if

[02:58:12] somebody could speak to that suggested amendment. Thank you, Ms. Ogedegbe. I'm happy to weigh in and then ask Mr. Allen to add anything I might miss in terms of this. This is the reason for this policy change is there was a change in the code of Virginia in terms of this.

[02:58:27] And it specifically, the language that's included now was the language from the code. And so we don't have a mechanism by which to report any other positions other than what's specified in the code. So for an example here, teacher assistance and behavior assistance, we don't have a mechanism to report those to the superintendent of public instruction and to the Virginia retirement system.

[02:58:48] And so because of that, I did reach out and speak with the SEAC chair about this and about this item and how the Department of Education has defined specialized student support positions. There is a guidance document the Department of Ed puts out on it in terms of defining those.

[02:59:05] So that would be the concern that we have. Mr. Allen, anything I may have missed? Thank you. As Dr. Smith indicated, we track the language of code and that's fairly specific.

[02:59:22] There's video guidance that discusses specialized student support position it clarifies that they're non classroom educators who provide school-based physical social emotional and mental health prevention intervention and follow-up services and and for that reason we're fairly constrained to track the language specifically because these two this policy in the next policy we'll be looking at really talk about the statutory roles of the board or superintendent that's not to say the school board could elect to identify or track shortages of other positions but I my view is

[03:00:02] that it wouldn't be appropriate in this policy additional discussion on the amendment Ms. Polipko thank you Mr. Chair so Mr. Allen if I may return to your statement just now so is this an impossibility for for Loudoun County public schools to be able to track these positions especially given the fact that teacher assistance and behavioral assistance are so critical to the work that we do every single day specifically with our special education students

[03:00:37] thank you miss polifico uh it's it's not i'm i i'm uncertain about the the word impossibility but in terms of incorporating it into these policies it wouldn't be advisable but as i indicated earlier school boards couldn't elect to track that but but not in tandem with this policy if that makes sense.

[03:01:00] Dr. Spence and then Ms. Okedekbe. Right. Just to reiterate that, so it's not impossible to track the position shortages. What we're concerned about and what the language of this policy requires is reporting to the state superintendent of public instruction. The mechanisms for those reportings are through a very standardized process.

[03:01:19] There's a form we fill out. It's an online form. We submit it that goes through an approvals process and a review process at the state, and so we can't just add to the form. So we can track it internally, and if we didn't have the language of reporting there, that wouldn't be an issue.

[03:01:36] But we certainly, I mean, we know how many TAs we have and where our shortages are. And, for example, we can tell you if we have special education shortages and those sorts of things. The problem is it's the and report such critical shortages piece of that policy that creates an issue for us, if that helps.

[03:01:57] Ms. Okedekbe, and then back to Ms. Polipko. Ms. Polipko. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Dr. Spence, for your clarification. Is it then not possible for us to add language to this policy, very simple language that would just state that Loudoun County Public Schools will track teacher assistant and behavioral assistants, but not necessarily be reporting them out to VDOE?

[03:02:25] I mean, if this is something that we value, could we simply not incorporate this language in the policy so that we as a school system are doing it, but that we're not specifically binding ourselves to reporting that to the state. Dr. Spence, and then Ms. Reeser.

[03:02:43] And what I would recommend in that scenario would be to be a little bit more generic about Loudoun County Public Schools also tracks other shortage areas because beyond teacher assistance, we have lots of other areas that we would not report necessarily to the state, but that it would be worth the board and the administration continuing to track because that then drives budget conversations and recruitment and retention conversations.

[03:03:07] So I think if we could think of a way to, you know, just some generic language that says LCPS continues to track other shortage areas as well, and we'll continue to report those to the school board during an annual. I mean, I assume we have, actually this is an I don't know, I assume we have an annual staffing update.

[03:03:26] I know we have ongoing staffing updates, but I assume we have an annual kind of like staffing overview where we talk about our, Lisa, you can probably weigh in here, but where we talk about kind of what our efforts are on what we're doing around recruitment intention and what those numbers look like? Is that a fair assessment?

[03:03:44] I would say that's a fair assessment. Yeah, and so, I mean, we could maybe just say on an annual basis we'll report on those shortages and just keep it broad. Ms. Reeser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I think what I heard Mr. Allen allude to is what I was going to suggest, which is he said it could be tracked.

[03:04:03] It doesn't necessarily have to be part of this policy. So I would like to make a motion that we refer that to the HRTD committee to come up with language and the proper placement in the appropriate policy, wherever that is. I want to make sure I understand your motion. It's not to refer this policy to HRTD. It's just to refer that idea to the HRTD committee. Yes, exactly. Okay. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Mahedvi. Do you want to speak to your motion, Ms. Reeser? Sure. I think in listening to the

[03:04:38] conversation, it seems like we could potentially gather this information and provide it for SEAC and for anybody else who wants it. But I think HRTD would probably be the best place to decide where in the policies language like that could be inserted and how it should be worded.

[03:04:55] And I think that'll give an opportunity for all our other stakeholders to participate as it goes through that committee. Do I have any additional discussion on the motion to refer? Ms. Polivko. Thank you, Ms. Reeser. Yeah, that's fine with me.

[03:05:11] I think that makes sense. I don't have a problem with retracting my original motion. If we're just going to move forward with... There's no need for that. If the motion to refer passes, then it'll accomplish that effect. Okay. And that's fine. I just would like for us to ensure that we're going to move this down the path so that there is accountability with our tracking of shortages with those positions. So not just teacher assistants, but also speech language pathologists. And again, that can be discussed in that committee. That's

[03:05:44] fine. And I will, I'll support the motion to refer as well. My, my, uh, my issue with the original amendment is just like on the first line of the policy and the purpose of the policy. It says this policy delineates the foundational status authorities and powers of the Loudoun County School Board as they derive from Virginia law. So if we're, if we're expanding that to all of the other things that we want the school system to track or, or, or do, there's a place for that.

[03:06:13] I just don't think it's here in this policy. So I think that referring this to committee is a good compromise in figuring out where the right place for this is to go. Is there any additional discussion on the motion to refer? Seeing none, we'll open it to a vote.

[03:06:30] If we can open the voting board. And board members, please record your vote at this time. And please close and display the vote. That motion will pass unanimously with Ms. Sheridan and Ms. Corbo absent for the vote.

[03:06:50] So that will take us back to the base motion to approve the revisions to policy 2010. Is there any additional discussion? Ms. Polivko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to bring up one more concern that came out of SEAC on line 96 of the redline version, where it states other licensed health and behavioral positions, if everyone's able to see that.

[03:07:23] I think that's correct on the redline version. Those positions are also currently facing shortages, and they are hard to fill positions. And the recommendation is that we define, and I'll just go ahead and make a motion, that we define or list other health and behavioral positions, including all related service providers, after those positions.

[03:07:46] And I'm happy to discuss this further if anyone has questions about that. Is there a second? That motion will fail for lack of a second. Is there any additional discussion on the base motion?

[03:08:02] Seeing none, we will place the base motion to a vote to approve the changes to policy 2010. You can open the voting board and record your votes at this time. And please close and display the vote.

[03:08:23] That motion will pass 6-1-2 with Polifco opposed and Sheridan and Corvo absent for the vote. And we'll now move to item 1104, also from the Legislative and Policy Committee, Revision of Policy 3120, Powers and Duties of the Division Superintendent.

[03:08:48] Ms. Reeser. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the revisions of Policy 3120, Powers and Duties of the Division Superintendent, as amended by the LNP Committee.

[03:09:04] Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Mahedvi. Ms. Reeser, would you like to speak to your motion? Sure. This motion came by way of staff in order for the policy to be brought into compliance with Virginia State Code.

[03:09:20] It came to the LNP committee at our September 11th meeting and went out for community feedback and came back to us at the October 2nd meeting. It was supposed to also be on the consent agenda as the last item, but Ms. Corbo asked to have it pulled.

[03:09:39] I don't have any further comments. Is there any discussion regarding this motion? Ms. Polivko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Once again, in this policy, if you refer to Line 73, it states specialized, starting actually on Line 71, specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions.

[03:10:14] My motion is to add on Line 73 speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and vision specialists because they are not included. And these licensed professions are also currently facing shortages due to their positions being difficult to fill.

[03:10:32] Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Morse. Ms. Polivko, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, this is feedback from SEAC, and their position on this is that, as I stated, these are positions that are very difficult to fill right now, but they're also critical for our students' well-being and for many of our students accessing a free, appropriate public education.

[03:10:56] And by including them in this policy, we are simply providing more clarity and further defining what we need when it comes to our related service providers. Thank you. Ms. Okedekle. Thank you, Chair.

[03:11:11] I have a question for staff because I'm wondering if this is similar to the last policy where, again, we're adhering to specific reporting requirements from the state. And I'm assuming that perhaps there is a drop down for other licensed health and behavioral positions and they aren't listed out separately.

[03:11:29] But that those positions are included in the other licensed health and behavioral positions, if you can address that. Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Ogadagbe. - Anyway, in terms of this on line 69 of this policy, it does, this is the exact same code change from the last policy.

[03:11:49] It does talk about specialized student support positions that we annual identify these positions and we report them to the superintendent of instruction, the school board and the Virginia retirement system. And so in that line down there on 73, it does just further define how the code of Virginia define specialized support positions, so it's the exact same code change as the previous policy.

[03:12:16] And just a follow-up clarifying question. The positions which Ms. Polifco mentioned are included in the other licensed health and behavioral positions. Can you confirm that? I don't know that I can confirm that other than the way it reads here. I'll defer to Mr. Allen to see if he's aware or Ms. Richardson. So just my question then is, are speech pathologists, occupational therapists and yes mr spence thank you so much so i i think uh the answer is yes

[03:12:54] sorta i mean the answer is yes because the the state's guidance on this provides a list of people but says it's includes but not limited to so when you look at the list it's psychologists clinical psychologists clinical social workers professional counselors psychiatric clinical nurse specialists licensed marriage and family therapists uh licensed registered nurse licensed practical nurse licensed mental health professionals and but it says here's kind of how they clarified additional licensed personnel that may be employed or contracted based on the unique needs of the

[03:13:29] school division could include but are not limited to so i think it's up for interpretation and so i'd say yes sort of but i mean to me certainly those are positions that we know we have and that are licensed health support positions so I would I would imagine we would include them although I guess the question is do we encode that in the language right so and I guess that that would be the question so when we've done this reporting have we included those positions because they are licensed positions in that reporting to the state under the other bucket in which case I think

[03:14:05] we have this covered that that we absolutely would have to get back to you on other on I don't have the sheet. I don't know, Lisa, if you know top of mind, if those are on the reporting sheet.

[03:14:24] I don't know top of mind, but I do know in HRTD, we collect most of what it is you're asking in regards to vacancies and shortages as we have conversations around recruiting and hard to fill positions. So it's not impossible, but I don't have the list in front of me now.

[03:14:49] Additional questions or discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, we'll place the amendment to a vote. Please open the voting board, and board members, please vote at this time.

[03:15:08] Please close and display the vote. That motion will fail 3-4-2 with Ogadeg Bay, Sorotkin, Mehedivi, and Reeser opposed, and Ms. Sheridan and Ms. Corbo absent for the vote.

[03:15:24] So we're now back to the base motion for approval of the changes to policy 31-20. Are there any additional discussion? Seeing none, we'll place the matter to a vote. Please open the voting board, and board members, please vote at this time.

[03:15:46] And please close and display the vote. That motion will pass 6-1-2, with Polifco opposed, and Sheridan and Corbo absent for the vote. We'll now move to 11-0-5 from the Finance and Operations Committee, Revision of Policy 6220, Student Safety and Discipline on Buses.

[03:16:13] Mr. Morse. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the staff, student behavior, and accountability committee and finance and operations committee recommended revisions to policy 6220, student safety and discipline on buses. Seconded by Mr. Beatty, was that you?

[03:16:30] Oh, Mr. Mahedvy, thank you. Mr. Morse, would you like to speak to your motion? No, I think that we spoke to this at the information session. I think that the one additional concern we had was that the report needed to be made in a timely manner, in which case we put the 48-hour limitation two days, an initial report was due within two days, and that the principle was to take timely action.

[03:16:54] So I think we captured the intent of the committee with that and recommend we support it. Are there any additional discussion? Ms. Polipko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also just wanted to briefly touch on the fact that we spoke about bus driver discipline at the last meeting when we were going over this information item and wanted to clarify that that language has been cleaned up and it was incorporated into, I think it's lines 31 and 59 through 60 regarding the driver's role in student management.

[03:17:28] So, sorry, I'm just looking at 31. Yes. So in the red line version, line 31, the bus driver is responsible for the management of students on the bus. I know this was a concern that SEAC had brought up, that it is not the bus driver's authority to discipline. That is left up to administration. It is the bus driver's authority to manage students while on the bus. Again, on line 59, drivers are authorized to

[03:18:03] manage students while on their bus, including assigning seats. Drivers are not authorized to discipline students. So I just wanted to clarify that we did get that language cleaned up and it has been updated in the policy. Thank you. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, we will place the matter to a vote. And so this is just the base motion to approve the committee recommended revisions and the change that was made subsequent to that based on SEAC feedback to policy 6220,

[03:18:35] student safety and discipline on buses. And the voting board is open. And can we please close and display the votes. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Ms.

[03:18:52] Sheridan and Ms. Corbo absent for the vote. And we're now on our last action item from the Department of Student Services, School Psychologists Week Proclamation. Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. I move to the Loudoun County School Board, adapts the proclamation recognizing November 6 to November 10, 2023 as a School Psychologist Week. I'll read the proclamation. Whereas all children and youth learn best when they are healthy, supported, safe, and receive an education that enables them to thrive academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally.

[03:19:29] And whereas school can more effectively ensure that all students are able to learn when they meet the needs of the whole child and provide culturally responsive, multi-tiered supports. And whereas children's mental health is directly linked to their learning and development, and the learning environment provides an optimal context to promote good mental health through connectedness within the school and community.

[03:19:56] And whereas sound psychological principles are integral to instruction and learning, social and emotional development, prevention, early intervention and school safety, and support of racially and ethnically minoritized student population.

[03:20:13] and whereas school psychologists are specially trained to provide access to a continuum of mental health services and academic supports that lower barriers to teaching and learning and whereas school psychologists help children to thrive by nurturing their individual strengths across both personal and academic endeavors and whereas school psychologists are trained to assess student and system-based barriers to learning as well as individual strengths, utilize data-based decision-making, implement research-driven prevention and intervention strategies, and evaluate outcomes and improve accountability.

[03:20:51] And whereas citizens of Loudoun County should recognize the vital role the school psychologists play in the mental health, social, emotional, behavioral, and academic development of all children, not therefore be resolved, the Loudoun County School Board hereby proclaims 6 to November 10, 2023 as School Psychologist Week in Loudoun County to highlight the positive contributions that the school psychologists make to the school division. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Mahedvi, would you like to speak any further to your motion? No, Chair. I think the proclamation speaks for itself. Thank you. Any additional discussion on the motion? Seeing none,

[03:21:31] we'll open up the voting board for the vote. Mr. Beatty. And can we please close the votes and display. That motion will pass unanimously. Board members present with Miss Sheridan and Miss Corbo absent for the vote. So that will conclude our action items at this time. Board members, let's take a short break. We have a lot of information items to get through,

[03:22:07] so let's try and be back at... So, Mr. Chair, before we recess, I will either now or following the recess make the motion to reconsider the vote i believe that we would that i would be have been on the prevailing side even though there was a tie vote is that the legal interpretation yes mr morse if you voted no in the tie vote you'd be on the prevailing side that's correct so how would you prefer would you if if board members have no objections we can do that now so we can close out our action items before taking a break okay so i move to reconsider the uh amendment vote on action

[03:22:46] item 11.02. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Mahedvy. Mr. Morris, would you like to speak to the question? Yes, I'll turn it over to Mr. Mahedvy because he was interested in readdressing that vote. Thank you. Mr. Mahedvy. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mr. Morris. I think thinking about I think where the challenge for me from I do support the concept of electric buses and obviously the infrastructure, but I think this is also a legislative item. We still have an option as a school board to work through how how we go about doing it but I think it's something that the legislation needs to take take it into take it into account to help build infrastructure for

[03:23:25] all those all the all the buses so I think it's it's I like to support that just to kind of keep the ball rolling on that so uh Mr. Chair uh point of order at the request to reconsider I think we have to vote on that yes so the first motion is going to be a motion to reconsider which means and it's to reconsider the mr baity's motion to remove the language regarding electric buses from the legislative agenda so if you vote yes it's yes i want to reconsider that vote and then there

[03:24:01] would be a follow-on vote to re-vote on that item and if you vote no then it's no you don't want to reconsider and the vote would stand. But Ms. Reiser, I think you wanted to weigh in. I have a point of order or a question, really. I think there's a different term for that, which I've forgotten now. But is there discussion on the motion to reconsider?

[03:24:20] There is discussion on the motion to reconsider. Then I'll just go ahead and take this time to say I am going to support the motion to reconsider because I would like to talk further about how we can address Mr. Beatty's concerns because they're they're very valid concerns but we are also on a timeline here if we don't approve the program it will we will not be able to present it at our legislative breakfast because that occurs before our next board meeting okay is there any additional discussion on the motion to reconsider seeing none we'll open that up for a vote and can we please close the board

[03:24:59] and display the vote that motion will pass that's 6-1-2 with Beatty opposed and Ms. Sheridan and Miss Corbo absent for the vote. So now what's back on the table now is the amendment to remove the language regarding electric buses from the legislative agenda. Is there additional discussion on that amendment? Miss Reeser? My suggestion would be that we take it up at the breakfast and to express those concerns so that if there is a legislator who's interested in championing the

[03:25:36] they understand where you're coming from and can take that into consideration and and my only points about the timing of it being off were because of the breakfast not because of whatever your reason was for for absence and um if this is something you've been asking for from staff it absolutely should have been brought to you and um and i should have kept track of it uh as chair of the committee but it was just a lack of recognition i didn't understand that you had asked for something that you hadn't gotten and you know without us all being together at the last committee meeting it was voted upon so I think the concerns are legitimate although I do regarding whether we

[03:26:14] should expand the fleet I do think that we do have an existing fleet that needs infrastructure and we can't use it fully without the infrastructure so perhaps the better thing to have done in committee would have been to tease out the item at that point but I think we can still accomplish that at the breakfast there mr baby thank you i appreciate your comments i appreciate having more discussion for this again keep asking about it i don't get any answers so um there's nothing to tease when they don't have anything so but i appreciate that suggestion that we bring up the legislators that we consider what further infrastructure we can add but again like we

[03:26:54] kind of need to figure out what's working now so we can make a suggestion otherwise we're going to have three or four different standards because everything changes quickly so that's just you You know, I'm coming down from an engineering perspective as someone who drives an electric car, who sees how difficult it is to just operate one single vehicle.

[03:27:10] And now we're trying to place a whole fleet. So that's kind of, that's my take on this. And so, you know, now that it's come to a head, that's sort of what we can, what I'm going to push on. Thank you. Additional discussion? Seeing none, we will open the voting board.

[03:27:26] And once again, we are back on 1102, and this is the amendment to remove lines 192 through 196 regarding electric buses and infrastructure. And can we please close and display the vote?

[03:27:46] That motion will fail 342 with Ogadegbe, Sorotkin, Mehedivi, and Reeser opposed, and Sheridan and Corbeau absent for the vote. So we are now back to the base motion on 11.02 to adopt the 2024 legislative program.

[03:28:09] Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none, we will place that to a vote. We can open the voting board.

[03:28:26] And if we can please close and display the vote. That motion will pass 5-2-2 with Polifco and Beatty opposed and Sheridan and Corpo absent for the vote. so that will now truly complete all of our action items and we will take a short break board members please be back in your seats at 8 40 and just as a reminder we're going to start with item 402 that was left over from the work session and then we'll start on information items with 1201 and beyond

[03:29:02] we are now in recess board members please return to the dais we're going to pick up with item 402

[03:40:13] which was left over from our work session from the office of the superintendent review of standing committees and policy 2310 dr. smith good evening board members um this as chair surat can share this was scheduled for the work session and and the intent of this uh this discussion this evening is to to talk through the standing committees of the board as guided by policy 2310 committees of the board. So the purpose is really to review the current structure of the board standing and select committees to identify any changes or revisions. I'll provide a brief overview of the current board

[03:40:50] committee structure and then share three staff recommended changes for board discussion. It's important to note the staff would not propose any changes in the committee structure take place until January 1, 2024. So this work and discussion aligns with Dr. Spence's entry plan specifically around objective number two to ensure a unified governance in LCPS by creating a transparent and collaborative working relationship with the Loudoun County School Board. Specific actions found in

[03:41:22] this entry plan are included on this slide. Currently there are 10 standing committees which includes three board members each. In addition there are two select or ad hoc committees each with three board members assigned to each committee. Policy 2310 committees of the board also addresses school board advisory committees however the focus of tonight's discussion is on the standing and select committees of the board. Here you can see each of the 10 standing committees of the board.

[03:41:56] Most standing committees meet once monthly, with the exception of F&O, which meets twice a month, and the joint committee, which meets quarterly. While each meeting frequency is not addressed in policy, additional meetings may be scheduled by the committee chair as needed. Each standing committee has an appointed staff liaison, and the school board chair is the co-chair for the joint committee. Most meetings are scheduled for one hour in length. Per policy 2310, select or ad hoc committees may be appointed by the school board chair or created by school board action.

[03:42:29] Select committees are formed by the school board for a designated purpose and can include school board members, LCPS staff, and or members of the public. Currently, the board has two select or ad hoc committees. The audit committee was established in February of 2023. The equity committee was established in February of 2019 with several revisions to the charter since that time.

[03:42:51] While there may be several other considerations for changes in the committee composition and staff are recommending a few initial changes to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The audit committee charter states that the select audit committee shall be discharged on December 31st, 2023, unless other action is taken by the school board. Before the committee is discharged, the school board shall consider whether the audit committee should become a standing committee, have its portfolio added to another standing committee, or remain as a select committee for a longer period of time. Staff is recommending that the responsibilities of the audit committee be merged with the work of the Legislative and Policy Committee.

[03:43:31] The Communications and Outreach Committee has been identified as a committee that can be merged into existing standing committees. The CNO Committee met eight times during FY23 and revised one policy. For comparison purposes, an FY23 Curriculum and Instruction Committee met 11 times and revised 14 policies.

[03:43:50] STACF recommends that the work of this committee be divided among the existing standing committees based on topic. For example, in a recent CNO meeting, there was a presentation on how communication has supported the HRTD recruiting. This presentation would also be appropriate for the HRTD committee.

[03:44:08] The third staff recommendation is to merge the Technology Steering Committee with the existing standing committees. The Technology Steering Committee began as a select committee and shifted into the standing committee based on board action. In FY23, the Technology Steering Committee met four times and revised one policy.

[03:44:26] For comparison purposes, the FY23 Student Services Committee met 10 times and revised 10 policies. The staff recommendation would be divide the responsibilities of the technology steering committee among the existing standing committees based on topics. For example, instructional technology items would likely go to the curriculum and instruction committee, and items on infrastructure could go to facilities and operations.

[03:44:50] Again, the purpose of today's work session is to discuss and review the current school board committee structure to identify any areas of efficiency and effectiveness. As board members, you have in-depth knowledge about how this structure has worked and ways that you can set the next board up for success. It's important to note that staff would recommend that should you decide to take action, it would not take place until November or December with implementation January 1, 2024 for the organizational meeting.

[03:45:15] While we've presented three staff recommended changes, it's important to note there may be additional changes that will allow the board to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Based on fourth board feedback, staff is prepared to revise policy 2310 committees of the board and bring it back to review at the next board meeting.

[03:45:30] We look forward to tonight's discussion and happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for the overview. Board members, do you have any questions or discussion regarding the presentation? Ms. Okedegbe. Thank you, Chair.

[03:45:46] I would be interested for discussion purposes in discussion around some other potential streamlining of committees. Specifically, I think sometimes committee meetings are very short.

[03:46:04] And if we did some further combining of different committees, we would have fewer overall committees. We could perhaps not necessarily always stick to an hour, but with fewer committee assignments and some overlap between some of the topics, I'd like some feedback or some discussion around the potential of combining student services and the Student Behavior and Accountability Committee and then potentially also looking at combining curriculum and instruction with the Special Programs Committee.

[03:46:44] So those are two suggestions that I had I would be interested in discussion on. Additional discussion? So I think there's a pendulum here because it used to be, for example, the last discussion item you mentioned about the specialized programs being merged back into cni that's the way it used to be before this term or early on in this term and cni meetings used to be three to four hours long so uh and it was it was and even then there were often agenda items that wouldn't make it and would have to be

[03:47:23] pushed from meeting to meeting so i agree i i agree that we have too many committees right now um compared to most other school districts have i don't know five to seven committees perhaps and we have almost double that uh but at least for for cni specifically i'd be cautious about adding too much there given how uh how big that agenda already is you mentioned that there's there's a cutoff of an hour for committees that's that for cni there's not and that's really up to each committee chair to decide whether they want it to be an hour or to allow for additional time

[03:47:58] So I brought up the hour just as an example, because typically they do end within an hour and sometimes they're scheduled that way because board members have multiple committee assignments and they are scheduled back to back to make the best use of our time in the building so that we can have multiple committee meetings on one night.

[03:48:22] and so that also sometimes limits the time for a specific committee to one hour because of scheduling constraints so i realize that there isn't a hard and fast rule but it's become that way for some of our committees where they're scheduled back to back yep that's very true absolutely uh additional discussion mr baity thank you um as the chair of the technology steering committee i think i totally agree with the staff recommendation on this i think it's something we could definitely mold into it i i mean you mentioned curriculum instructions a lot going on. But I think a lot of it is curriculum instruction related because it tends to be half

[03:48:57] the people that are on the staff side to present. So I think that's a committee that we could split up. Um, and I agree with the staff recommendations on that. And my only, my, my only concern there is the reason why we put that the technology committee in place is to make sure that we had school board direct oversight over DDI. And so if we're going to split it up among the portfolio, among other committees. I think that's potentially okay. I just want to make sure that in the revised policy, it's clear, you know, where different aspects of technology or of DDI are

[03:49:33] going. Because without that, then it may have a tendency to get a little lost. Mr. Mahadvi. Thank you, Chair. Since, I don't know, Dr. Smith, I mean, we also have the discussion brought up the specialized programs and centers committee. Could that be the place where we could add the technology merge them together because sometimes i see that's also agenda is not as as big as some other committees so if you want to bring it back some sort of a equity in the committees i don't know if that's even something you can talk about but i don't know if you have thoughts about like

[03:50:11] merging technology into change specialized programs and technology i don't know committee i think that's certainly an option um for the but that you know that's where we're here tonight to get some of that feedback and so i think that's an option that you could put some of the items from technology steering a committee.

[03:50:29] I think what we've seen is there are some things that are very instructional and so that might be appropriate for curriculum instructions. Other things that might be infrastructure related like a wireless upgrade or we're talking about some other items that might be there. But I'll turn to Mr. Smith, Mr. Aaron Smith and see if he has any feedback in terms of that for placement of the committee.

[03:50:50] No, I think that from my purview that makes complete sense where we have two sides of that house and that's one of the reasons that Mr. Slevin and I are both liaisons of that committee is we have an instructional focus and an infrastructure focus. So some of those items could go to finance and operations depending on how we want to divide that up.

[03:51:09] Mr. Beatty. I agree with Mr. Smith. I was about to say finance and operations would be the perfect spot for DDI oversight and then curriculum instruction. Mr. Madby. I don't think you've been in the finance and operations committee.

[03:51:27] You've been. I mean, they have like tons of agenda most of the time, And I think, so I'm not so sure. I do see the value, I think, in it. The technology cannot be, you know, as being a technologist, it cannot be on silo. It has to be under some business area.

[03:51:44] So I think I see that value, too. But I thought, you know, based on Mr. Sirotkin's comment, I mean, I think we did bring it out because we felt that there was no direct oversight. But maybe things have changed since when the intentions, what was happening in the past. So, anyway.

[03:52:01] Additional discussion? Thank you, Chair. So I'll reiterate what Mr. Mehedevi just said. Technology in an organization is there to enable the business and provide capabilities so that we have, you know, modern and adequate infrastructure to do our work.

[03:52:25] And so when technology is a conversation just by itself, we lose out on the ability to get that feedback from the people who are actually going to be using it. And so I think for that reason as well, it does make sense to kind of spread the wealth around the conversation around technology and really focus on what we're using it for, what the benefits are, and think where there are investments that are needed, having that broader lens of things.

[03:52:53] Not that we can't have that now with a solo committee, but it just lends itself more to that broader conversation if we spread the topic out where the technology is supporting the work. Additional discussion?

[03:53:11] Ms. Reeser. I think just circling back around to what Ms. Ogadegbe was suggesting, thinking back on the committees that I've served on, there's really only one that ever finishes in an hour. And I think especially with the discipline hearings, which are not part of the regular, because I did serve on that committee before the name was changed and it was the discipline committee,

[03:53:36] There was also additional work for that, and I think that you also want to be able to allow all of the board members to have an opportunity to serve on committees, and if there are less committees, then there are too few committees, then the power becomes a little bit centralized, so I think those are also considerations.

[03:54:00] Additional discussion? So, Dr. Samantha, is the next step to bring this back to the board as an information item and that like the actual for changes to the policy and then an action item after that, is that the plan?

[03:54:16] Yes, sir. So based on board direction, we can bring it back for information in terms of changes to 2310. I would just like to clarify what that direction is there before we leave tonight, if we could. Okay. Is there, are there specific points where you're looking for clarity on?

[03:54:33] Yeah, so I've heard a couple of things tonight. So I think the original, we started with audit going into LNP. I don't know if there's been any conversation around that, but that being one of the changes, we have had discussion on the Technology Steering Committee. And so if that's the direction to divide that amongst the other committees, but then also have a kind of a default committee, I think, or a place where that resides.

[03:54:57] CNO, similarly to communications and outreach, similarly to Technology Steering Committee. And then I heard there's also been some recommendations around student services and student behavior accountability and CNI and special programs. So just want to make sure we have clarity on what the board is asking us to bring back.

[03:55:16] Okay, Mr. Mahatma. Thank you, Chair. So I think from my point of view, I think moving audit committee into LNP, I support that. And I think based on the discussion that we had, I think the staff recommendation for both the communication and technology, I would support that as well.

[03:55:34] I don't think we don't have enough right discussion maybe, I don't know, today, tonight to move the behavioral accountability into some other committee. I think from what I've seen, there's a lot of policies that fall underneath that.

[03:55:50] And so I think if we were to move that under student services, I think then that'll become a lot, I mean, that'll go on a long time. I mean, so I'm not sure we are, we have the data, but I'll be open to listening, see if there's a point for that. But I'm not sure I'm there yet.

[03:56:09] Additional thoughts? Uh, we, okay. Okay. Thanks. Ms. uh, political. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. And I, CNO completely agree. I think that committee needs to be absorbed into other standing committees. There's, I just don't think there's a reason why we couldn't do that. It cuts, it would cut down on board members time. I don't see the purpose. Um, and it's just not really respectful to the board members to have them travel out to a committee meeting that's lasting less than an hour, you know, on a consistent basis. So it makes perfect sense to absorb that into other subcommittees. Any additional thoughts?

[03:56:48] So I think there seems to be consensus or support around the three main recommendations that staff brought. And then I think if there are any additional actions or things that the board wants to consider, we could do that when we have it as an information item and an action item. All right. Thank you, Dr. Smith. So now we are back to our regularly scheduled information items, starting with 1201 the annual report from the office of the ombuds the first annual report

[03:57:21] i believe yes good evening chair sorokan and members of the board i'm excited to present to you this evening the first annual report from the office of the ombuds as the office was established this past year it was important to create a vision and mission that aligns with the culture and values of lcps in alignment with the lcps mission of empowering all students to make meaningful

[03:57:56] contributions to the world the office of the ombuds is committed to empowering students and fostering an enriched division and engaged community the ombuds strives to provide regular opportunities to support student voice to build a culture of continuous improvement and cultivate an engaged community by deepening relationships and empowering all students families employees and community members to advocate for a positive educational experience and a thriving school and and work environment the office of the ombuds supports the core values of holistic support equity and opportunity trust through listening and continuous improvement when a constituent

[03:58:35] contacts the office of the ombuds each conversation begins with a review of the four core values that have been established by the international ombuds association they include confidentiality independence impartiality and informality the core values of the ombuds office naturally and seamlessly align with LCPS's core values and strategic goals.

[03:59:01] While the work of the Ombuds can and does support all of the core values, trust through listening and continuous improvement are foundational to this role in how the Ombuds supports constituents and the division. Similarly, the work of the Ombuds supports all four strategic goals, but with each interaction the Ombuds provides greater opportunity and access for constituents to be engaged, an engaged part of the lcps community and the ombuds case data is a metric that is directly linked to two strategic goal 4.3 the data that will be shared today represents the ombuds interactions

[03:59:39] with constituents between august 23rd 2022 and june 30th 2023 in total 207 contacts were made during the 2022-23 school year of the 207 contacts 184 are categorized as complete cases while 23 are categorized as quick inquiries.

[04:00:03] Quick inquiries are comprised of questions that were answered or resources provided without a dialogue with the ombuds, anonymous contacts, and carbon copies on concerns that were addressed to appropriate offices. Of the 207 contacts, 101 were from parents or families regarding student concerns, 100 were from employees, 5 from community members, and 1 from students.

[04:00:26] In total, 232 constituents were supported by the ombuds last year, as several cases had multiple visitors pertaining to one concern. Of the 207 total contacts, 180 were tied to families or employees in a correlating voting district.

[04:00:47] 27 cases were either attributed to multiple locations, central support employees who provide division-wide support, or the information was not shared with the ombuds. 189 cases were tied to a specific school level, 82 at the elementary level, 46 at the middle school level, and 61 at the high school level.

[04:01:10] Of the 107 non-employee cases, 95 were complete cases, 77 cases were categorized as general concerns, and 18 were categorized as special education or 504 concerns. The cases were further categorized in a general reporting category as shown here.

[04:01:28] The top concerns, in addition to special education-related topics, included safety and environment, discrimination and harassment, behavior and discipline, and start times. Of the 100 employee cases, 89 were complete cases that were assigned a concern category. 85 of the employee cases were tied to school-based staff, while 15 cases were tied to central office or central support staff.

[04:01:54] The top concern categories for employees were peer and colleague relationships, compensation and benefits, evaluative relationships, and services and administrative issues. The most common action taken by the ombuds include providing information and or referring the visitor to the appropriate office, listening to the issue or concern and discussing possible options, and on 24 occasions, the ombuds raise the concern to the appropriate staff member on behalf of the visitor or anonymously.

[04:02:27] Most cases are closed out in one to five business days depending on the complexity of the case and the need for follow-up meetings. An example of an outcome from a follow-up meeting regarding a trend that I noticed in my data early last year was the need for additional resources to support the new parental leave policy. I had heard from a few employees who were not clear about the process how it was different from FMLA and short-term disability and how to navigate the process, especially if they had had children prior to this policy and were used to the previous benefits offered. I was able to connect with our Director of Employee Benefits in HRTD to discuss the confusion that I was hearing about, and they were able to clarify and support those questions in their online

[04:03:07] resources and FAQs. When reflecting upon the data surrounding the 207 cases supported by the ombuds during year one, three overarching themes stood out. Observation one is communication breakdowns. Often when constituents reached out to the ombuds, it was because they did not feel heard by those closest to the situation. And from their perspective, it was there was a disruption in expected or anticipated communication. Whether the requests for a meeting were not fulfilled, they did not receive prompt responses to repeated inquiries, or the outcome of previous meetings or

[04:03:45] correspondence was not satisfactory, they contacted the ombuds to share their concerns and discuss alternative options. Observation two is the perception of potential retaliation. Both employees and families alike voiced appreciation for the establishment of the ombuds role, which provides them with an impartial and confidential space to share their concerns. With many constituents, there's a real perception of potential retaliation for articulating their concerns to leadership.

[04:04:13] They worry about how pursuing resolution might impact their work environment or their child's school experience. And observation three is that families desire partnership. Families frequently voice concerns about school and/or central office officials not treating them as partners in their child's education.

[04:04:32] While they understand that educators and leaders have expertise in the field of education, families feel that they are the experts regarding their children. They would like greater value to be placed on their input as part of their child's educational team. Here is a glimpse of what constituents are saying about the office of the ombuds.

[04:04:53] Constituents are able to provide feedback to the ombuds at any time. The feedback form is linked in my email signature as well as through Let's Talk for cases that are closed out through our client management system. While only 7% of visitors last year completed the form, the submissions provided valuable feedback and supports continuous improvement as we enter the 23-24 school year.

[04:05:18] And speaking about continuous improvement, here are three areas of focus for the Office of the Ombuds for this school year. Focus area one is outreach. The Office of the Ombuds is still in its infancy, and I will continue to communicate the purpose and availability of the Ombuds to constituents across LCPS.

[04:05:34] I plan to re-engage with the more than 18 groups that I met with last school year, as well as continue to seek out new opportunities with a focus on English learner families, the offices that directly support EL families, and community agencies. Focus area number two is informal mediation.

[04:05:52] The Ombuds is the designated resource within LCPS who provides informal mediation services to support staff-related conflict, ensuring that leadership knows about these services and how to refer staff members to the office is a critical component of increasing the usage of these services.

[04:06:10] And focus area three is professional development. I will provide workshops and training sessions at division-level professional development opportunities and at the request of division leadership. Thank you for the opportunity to share this information with you this evening, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have at this time.

[04:06:30] Thank you, Ms. Williams. Very exciting to hear about the first year of progress and getting the office stood up within LCPS. So thank you very much for everything that you've done so far. Thank you. Board members, what questions do you have? Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair.

[04:06:46] Thank you, Ms. William. I think it's a pretty detailed sort of a report about the types of questions, the type of parents or staff members are reaching out. What sort of struck me, I think even the slide where you have Ombuds observations kind of broken down, where you have three observations kind of bubbling up.

[04:07:09] I guess my question is, what's the steps beyond that? So these are the observations that you're seeing where we have a perceived communications breakdown or perception of potential retaliation or families desiring of partnership.

[04:07:27] So what are the next steps? What's your office? How is communicating back so that this whole idea is to have continuous improvement? So I'd just like to hear, what are the next steps from the observation? Absolutely. So, as I was waiting to report this out to the board, I have been meeting with cabinet, sharing this information with them, as well as with senior leadership, senior staff, and they've asked, you know, what are some recommendations or what are my perceptions and how they might be able to improve practices to encourage growth in those areas.

[04:08:02] So, we've already started having those conversations. I've been asked to come into special education supervisor meetings so we can dig into some of the special education details a bit more. And really my role is to shed light on these topics and then to expand upon those conversations.

[04:08:18] So I engage with Dr. Smith and Dr. Spence around what I'm observing and I don't wait to elevate trends or themes that I might see around specific items. If I start to see trends bubbling up, like with the FMLA and the parental leave, I saw some trends around our work around trauma-informed practices and looking at what type of training is available.

[04:08:43] So, I do elevate concerns around specifics throughout the year as I start to notice those trends. But those are really the overarching themes that when I try to categorize and I think about what main buckets the concerns fit into, that's where I landed and we've been having conversations at that level and working towards how can we improve upon that moving forward. Additional discussion? Ms. Okedekbe. Thank you Chair. Ms. Williams, I just wanted to thank you again and just express that it's been very helpful for me as a board member to have you as a resource for the few situations that have come up where

[04:09:21] that neutral navigation was really needed to help some folks through some issues. So I wanted to thank you for the work that you're doing and And it's great to also hear the information about what you've been able to do this last year, what you're looking forward to for the year ahead.

[04:09:43] So thank you for the report. Thank you. And I took note on circles versus bar graphs. So when I have comparative data, I will move in that direction. Mr. Morrison. Thank you. And I wasn't even going to comment on that, but I appreciate that.

[04:09:58] Can you talk a little bit? I remember in your circle chart that you had employees, you had families, and you had community. Can you speak to the community without compromising any confidentiality? No, I've just had a couple of concerns come in.

[04:10:14] Sometimes it's around traffic patterns. It might be around where new schools are being located, noise, you know, just kind of they don't have children within the school division, but there is a concern that is impacting them, or they might just want to share their thoughts. I just get a very strong feeling once word gets out that you're going to be very, very busy office.

[04:10:35] It has increased exponentially. I will share that, you know, last year I was really just marketing the office at this point in time and getting the word out there and explaining what the term Ombuds even is. But as of today, I've already worked with 85 cases. And at this time last year, it might have been 16.

[04:10:53] So heading in the right direction. So I just have, when I see the word mediation, my spider sense starts going off a little bit, even if the word informal is in front of it. So I think it's, I don't have any objection to providing that service.

[04:11:10] I think it's a natural extension or a natural service that the office of the ombud should provide. But I do think that, I don't know if guardrails is the right word, but something should be put into the ombud's policy regarding what that could, the scope of that is and what it could entail, what it shouldn't entail, whether it's legally binding or not. I'm assuming not, but I would just want that type of information to be in the Ombuds Policy just so that we have something to reference if we talk about what the scope of that should be. So I would ask, if that's going to be a service that's expanded or looked into, I would

[04:11:45] ask for recommendations for the Ombuds Policy to go through LMP or the appropriate committee for of you. Thank you. Any additional questions for discussions? Thank you again, and looking forward to continuing to hear about the work the office is doing. Absolutely. Thank you very much. We'll now move to 1202 from the Department of Academics, the All-In Virginia Plan, and Dr. Ellis.

[04:12:27] Good evening again. Tonight, we would like to share some additional information regarding the All-In Virginia Plan that was put in place across the Commonwealth as part of Governor Youngkin's signing of House Bill 6001 and Senate Bill 6001. So I'll start with an overview of the

[04:13:06] All in Virginia plan that was presented across the Commonwealth in early September. There are three focus areas that you see here on the screen. The first is attendance. The state has launched a chronic absenteeism task force and LCPS began addressing this issue locally in earnest at the end of last school year as we saw our chronic absenteeism rate increasing and Tedra Richardson will share a little bit about that in a minute the second area of focus is around literacy the state is focusing on accelerating the expansion of the Virginia Literacy Act through grade 8 we also have a plan that we've

[04:13:46] shared with you regularly over the past several months around literacy and how we will meet the guidelines of the Virginia Literacy Act and then the third component of the all in Virginia plan is around learning focused on intensive statewide tutoring to support school divisions and accelerating student learning to pre pandemic levels miss Willoughby talked a little bit about this last time we spoke the governor's signed bill came with one-time funding for each school division to use toward addressing these areas of focus video we

[04:14:22] provided a division allocation as well as recommended targeted target distribution of funds. School divisions are not required to follow this distribution and are encouraged to use to distribute the funds to best meet the needs of the students in these areas. LCPS will follow that guidance and distribute the funds to best meet the needs of our students. When action is brought for your approval we will also include information related to the supplement the budget supplement. So this next slide shows a bit of the brief

[04:15:00] history of the All in Virginia plan and our plans for implementing it in LCPS. As you can see, school divisions and the public were notified of the All in Virginia plan when the governor signed the bill on September 14th. At that time guidance documents were provided a few days later. The guidance documents originally were presented in such a way that they were perceived by divisions as strict requirements. Since that time, the VDOE has really significantly shifted that to be recommendations and best practices rather than strict

[04:15:38] requirements for implementation. So guidance now is that this information should be considered at the local level when implementing to best meet the needs of our own students. LCPS staff participated in some Q&A sessions and regional meetings with representatives from VDOE to learn as much as we could about the all-in Virginia plan over the past several weeks. Recognizing the tutoring component would be the most complex to address, we also created an LCPS all-in tutoring workgroup. I'll pause here and thank the 25

[04:16:17] elementary and middle school principals and additional central office staff across the Department of Academics and HRTD who raised their hands to participate and volunteered to participate in this workgroup. We'll talk a little bit about more we'll talk more about what they did in in a few minutes so given the many steps we need to take in the coming weeks you can you can see on this timeline that we've established January as our deadline for schools to implement high dosage tutoring and I hope that you'll see as we share more information exactly why we think it will take that long to implement the

[04:16:54] tutoring plan of that the tutoring aspect of the plan so first I will ask ask Ms. Richardson and Mr. Slevin to share information about how we'll be using these funds for specifically attendance and literacy, and then we'll go back to the tutoring piece.

[04:17:14] Thank you, Dr. Ellis. The current slide represents our current LCPS resources. We have a LCPS stakeholder group. That is a work group that, to date, we have developed training for administrators and attendance team members. We've developed a CLIC application to monitor student engagement at the student level, and we have added student support advisor positions to schools. We also have a county-wide task force that is comprised of the following community stakeholders.

[04:17:50] Juvenile Court Services, the Department of Family Services, Loudon Mental Health Substance Abuse, developmental services, of course, Loudoun County Public Schools, Loudoun Parks and Recreation, and the Loudoun Public Library Group. This task force works collaboratively to address chronic absenteeism. The focus of the team is to identify and create strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism through collaborative Loudoun County agency partnerships. Next, enhance parent and guardian engagement around attendance.

[04:18:29] LCPS teams from Student Assistance, FACE, and PEP work collaboratively to create and share information with parents and guardians on the importance of daily attendance for students.

[04:18:45] These LCPS teams have also created multiple parent presentations in targeted communities focused on attendance, navigating the LCPS website and school and community resources.

[04:19:01] The attendance and chronic absenteeism awareness and information campaign, each school has received materials to display in their schools with targeted messaging for each school level. The attendance landing page for LCPS is live and accessible to schools, families, and community members.

[04:19:24] next slide with the all-in virginia plan funding targeted towards attendance lcps would like to invest in the following actions to enhance our support of and outreach to families and schools we would like to amplify our collaboration with face and pep to provide ongoing opportunities for families and community members with child care and meals being provided to assist families in participating in activities without limitations we would

[04:20:03] like to partner with family one mentoring with our level 3 schools with home visits and outreach assistance mentoring for identified students referred by school teams, and this mentoring can happen with an in-school model of support.

[04:20:22] We would also like to focus on adding a mentoring element to our in-school restriction classroom support and resources, and we would also like to expand our program participation for students in arts and music. The Loudoun County Chronic Absenteeism Task Force would like to identify ways to increase visibility on other agencies, students specifically, and parents and guardians.

[04:20:54] The task force will work to identify other means of supporting students and families with a collaborative agency approach with access to all-in Virginia plan funds. We would also like to focus on a mental health portal. LCPS has identified a mental health care coordination service. Students families, and staff have increased mental health needs that are not being met currently in our community. Providers often have wait lists. They do not accept insurance or are out of the network.

[04:21:32] The mental health portal will assist students, families, and staff in finding qualified providers for individual, group, residential, and crisis, as well as inpatient services. For students and families, staff may provide a warm handoff to the portal team or parents and guardians can access through the dashboard. By linking students and families to these needed resources, we are eliminating barriers to attendance. We would also like to expand our before and after school

[04:22:09] activity options through partnerships with CASA tutoring and or mentoring. LCPS stakeholders will review the aspects needed for expansion possibly of middle school sports, arts, and clubs. We would like to increase our collaboration with Loudoun County Parks and Recreation, and we also need to focus on the role of transportation services in supporting the additional before and after school opportunities. Lastly, we would like to focus on incentives. We will be collaborating with our

[04:22:46] positive behavior intervention support team to provide incentives and awards to students who demonstrate improved attendance. We will also collaborate with LEF for possible donations and funding for support. Thank you. This time I would like to share a little bit around what we're doing to respond to Category 2, preparation for an implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act.

[04:23:22] While we have had the opportunity multiple times to share with the board over the past few years the work that's happening in elementary school, we have also been making strides in moving towards alignment with the Virginia Literacy Act in grade 6-8. We are providing training to our reading specialists and teacher leaders.

[04:23:40] We have piloted interventions. We are moving towards more systemic intervention guidance and refining our assessment practices. We have some additional steps to take, which this additional funding will support us with. With a portion of the available funding, we will be able to expand access to training for specialized populations, such as adding up to four additional cohorts of QTEL training in support of our English learners, as well as scheduling additional training opportunities for Oregon and Gillingham. Both of these trainings are in demand, and our principals have been asking for additional opportunities for their staff to take part in that. Another portion of the funding will

[04:24:18] support the purchase of approved supplemental and intervention materials. We are waiting for the BDOE to release their approved list of supplemental materials. We are anticipating those to be released in winter of 2024. Following the adoption, following our K-2 adoption and our 3-5 adoption, we will be looking at that list for making decisions about supplemental intervention materials.

[04:24:43] Finally, we have also identified a portion of the funds to offset the cost of new high-quality core instructional materials in grades 6 through 8 that align to evidence-based practices. Knowing the change that is coming in our elementary schools, we have scheduled that funding to be spent in FY25.

[04:25:07] So while we were well underway with planning to address chronic absenteeism and the Virginia Literacy Act, the specific concept of high dosage tutoring was new to divisions in September.

[04:25:30] And I'd like to take a little bit of time to walk you through what we've learned over the past several weeks and our plans moving forward. So for the first time, BDOE has defined three proficiency levels to determine which students in grades three through eight would be eligible for the all-in tutoring program.

[04:25:54] This is different from the not-proficient and proficient categories and cutoffs that we are all familiar with and that have historically been and continue to be used for accountability purposes. So these new criteria are specifically for and are only being used for identifying students for tutoring.

[04:26:14] So until September, VDOE has not talked about the concept of low proficiency like this before. As you see here across the Commonwealth, 62% of students are in the not-proficient or low-proficient category in reading and 66% in math.

[04:26:32] If we apply these categories at the local level, the distribution looks like what you see on this slide, on slide 12. We had already shared the pass rates with you in our student achievement data presentation, and here's the look at the proficiency categories specifically for tutoring.

[04:26:50] To give you an idea of the magnitude of the numbers using these criteria, using these categories, approximately 19,673 students would receive high-dosage tutoring in these categories.

[04:27:07] At the end of September, BDOE also published a high-intensity academic tutoring playbook for school divisions to use to develop their own tutoring programs. As I mentioned earlier, and I think it's important to say again, the initial guidance in this playbook made it seem as though the playbook was a mandate, and it reads as though it is a step-by-step guide for implementation without considering the other information that we've gathered over the past several weeks, including the FAQs that have been updated at least once a week over the past three weeks, information in Q&A sessions, et cetera.

[04:27:47] So after we've gathered all of this information, it has become clear across the division, not just locally, that this mandate has developed into guidance or recommendation to do the best you can to provide tutoring services in your own local context.

[04:28:08] So we're in a much different place in our thinking and our planning than we were when we first received this information on September 14th. the table on this slide gives you an idea of what I just described it shows the original guidance and why our first reaction was was a little bit of shock as to how we were going to implement if you look at the number of required weeks just to give you an idea 36 weeks is an entire year of school of tutoring three

[04:28:44] to five hours a week some students would require double that if they were in one of those categories for both reading and for math. This next table summarizes locally how many students in LCPS fall into the not proficient or low proficient category in reading and math and then the total number of students who fall into one or both of those categories.

[04:29:12] Looking at these numbers and the funding that we would be provided and also considering how many tutors we would need, so again if we were using that as very strict mandate rather than guidance, we would need approximately 2,000 tutors to meet the needs of every single student. So gathering all that information, we took a step back, we met with the committee of principals and central office staff, and we began to think through realistic approaches to ensure we're meeting every student's need. And I want to emphasize that the spirit of high dosage tutoring

[04:29:47] and the plan is 100% aligned to our mission of ensuring that every student can reach their full potential and has the resources they need to do that. We are fortunate in LCPS to have the resources already available. We've spent several years focusing on the multi-tiered system of support or MTSS model. As a quick reminder, the MTSS model starts with Tier 1 for all students. Tier 1 includes high-quality core instruction and strategies to address literacy, math, behavior, social-emotional learning, and mental health, again delivered to all

[04:30:24] students. So using decision trees, universal screening data, along with other data points, we use this framework to inform instructional and intervention decisions for students who are in need of additional support. Tier 2 and Tier 3 are more targeted. Again, we're fortunate enough to already have this structure in place, and we need this structure to make sure we are meeting the needs of every student, especially as we look toward providing tutoring. We also have a specific module in Phoenix that we use for documenting and tracking these interventions.

[04:31:01] The Phoenix MTSS module was piloted with 14 schools during the 21-22 school year. Last year, the 22-23 school year, we had approximately 50% of schools onboarded. And then, excuse me, beginning in the fall of this year, all schools will be documenting interventions in the MTSS module.

[04:31:23] So there will be one system for tracking all of these interventions across LCPS. Again, we are very fortunate to be in this position, particularly when we start adding on high-dosage tutoring. Intervention plans are documented in the module, they can be created in the areas of math and literacy and other areas of focus, and we will rely heavily on this moving forward.

[04:31:51] So because all of the data is integrated into our student information system, the research and assessment team was able to pull the data and provide a spreadsheet to every principal that included their assessment data, whether or not they already had an MTSS plan in place, so it provides a student history.

[04:32:13] Additionally, the MTSS module complies with the Virginia Literacy Act and LCPS Policy 5350, requiring schools to notify families of intervention plans that are developed for their child.

[04:32:28] Thank you. A lot of words. Got a lot of words tonight. Sorry. This puts us in a really good position to be able to look at our data, make sure we are looking at every single student by their name and by their needs.

[04:32:48] And we will use this plan, we will use this system moving forward to provide tutoring. So going back to the work group, the work group again included elementary and middle school representatives as well as central office staff.

[04:33:05] It became very clear in that initial work group that a one-size-fits-all approach was not going to work for our schools. For every principal who said I can fit this in my power-up time or my resource time, there was another principal said there's absolutely no way I can ask my teachers to do one more thing during the school day. It's going to have to be after school. And for every every principal who said my families would love after-school opportunities, there was another one who said I am not going to be able to get my families to bring their students after school or on the weekends so recognizing that we want to make sure

[04:33:44] that we create a plan for every school that works for every school so they put all ideas on the table and they thought through a few options that rose to the top we then brought those first those options that rose to the top to this month's principals meeting last week we reviewed the draft plans we made sure they were all aware of the video e guidance and then RASI provided a spreadsheet with multiple data sources including those mtss plans that are already in place

[04:34:15] for schools to look at every single student additionally hrtd is helping us work through the development of a stipend for tutor coordinators in case schools need to rely on that resource it also became clear that we would have to rely on a third-party tutoring agency to help us find tutors most of these tutors will likely be part-time tutors

[04:34:50] And we're exploring the possibility of site-based tutors similar to how we currently have site-based subs. Additionally, VDOE announced earlier this month that school divisions would have access to digital content to support tutoring and serve as the curriculum for the tutoring.

[04:35:08] Just this past Friday, October 19th, VDOE sent out a survey for school divisions to complete to indicate their interest in using the digital content. So we continue to get new information as we plan. So we have completed that survey and are awaiting further information regarding the rostering of students and access to the content, things like that.

[04:35:31] We're fortunate to have existing locally funded digital content, including ZERN, which is the math content available from the state, that we are already using for instruction and remediation and will continue to use those resources as well as the new IGNITE program.

[04:35:47] So since we are fortunate to be receiving funding from the state for this endeavor, money is not the biggest hurdle. The two biggest challenges are time and talent.

[04:36:03] This table illustrates the options that principals are going to work from at their school. And as I mentioned before, they're each taking a little bit different approach, considering the number of students in need of tutoring, students who already have an MTSS plan in place, those who need perhaps additional or new support.

[04:36:23] So you'll see, for example, some of the benefits and challenges that the principals talked about. And hiring tutors is kind of a challenge across the board, and time is a challenge across the board as well. I'll also, just a side note, BDOE has allowed for school divisions to carry over the funding for up to two years.

[04:36:44] So we do plan to look at summer school and ESY for this summer. That's in addition to what the principals are working on, and we'll come back with more information about that at a later date. So if time is the first hurdle, our biggest hurdle is likely going to be finding the talent.

[04:37:06] In addition to our current hiring challenges, we are now, with the other 132 divisions in the state of Virginia, going to need additional people to provide tutoring services. We're all going to be looking for tutors at the same time.

[04:37:24] So we are going to seek a third-party tutoring agency, and while we are going to greatly appreciate their support, we do have to go through the proper procurement channels to start working with an agency. Again, mostly it will be part-time hourly tutors before, during, or after school, and some site-assigned tutors.

[04:37:48] Additionally, we already have some schools that have very strong relationships with their high school and their cluster. They have already active high school volunteers, National Honor Society students, teacher cadets who all need service hours and are already in their schools.

[04:38:09] Original guidance from the state required highly trained tutors, I don't remember the exact language, and that also has shifted over the course of the last several weeks. So as you can see, this is definitely an all-hands-on-deck approach, and we are going to support each school in meeting the needs of their school community.

[04:38:38] So our principals are in the process of reviewing their school-level data and working with their leadership teams to determine their approach at the school level. When Ms. Willoughby and I bring this back on November 10th, we will be bringing the all-in Virginia application that LCPS and other school divisions are asked to submit to VDOE for their approval.

[04:39:02] Side note, the school division plans when they are approved by VDOE are posted on the VDOE website. Last I checked, there were about 20 plans posted. So many, many school divisions are still working. School divisions are required to break out the funding into the categories listed on this screen.

[04:39:24] And again, in those three buckets. So we're giving you a preview of what the application will look like. The first area, again, is the 70% funding that will go toward tutoring and address learning loss. And those costs are currently TBD. We need the principles to help us identify these costs, and we'll bring that back to you on the 10th.

[04:39:45] The other two categories that Ms. Richardson and Mr. Slevin addressed are fleshed out here on the next two slides. So this slide is the 20% related to the Virginia Literacy Act, and then the third is the remaining 10% to address chronic absenteeism.

[04:40:08] This final slide, 26, shows our next steps and the status of the next steps that we will track. And so we plan to bring this back to you with our complete draft application for your approval before we submit to VDOE on November 10th.

[04:40:29] And with that, Mr. Suratkin, I'll happily answer any questions. Thank you very much for the overview. I have one question before I open it up. I'm wondering if you've considered Tudor.com and being able to leverage that.

[04:40:50] We had it, we liked it, it was expensive, there were a relatively small number of students who were using it, but they got, they loved it, those students who were using it loved it, so I'm wondering if that's been discussed as a possibility to meet some of the requirements or guidance around tutoring services, given that they're providing money for it.

[04:41:11] So that, Tutor.com did come up in the work group as a possibility. A couple of principals asked about online tutoring. Other principals were concerned about online tutoring and wanted to make sure that it was in person.

[04:41:29] So even then, that's an example of one principal said their community would be all about having their students sit down after school and engage with an online tutor every day. and another said that that just wouldn't work specifically tutor.com we have not talked about that and that's certainly something that that we could consider I think that the best option would be in-person tutoring and recognizing that that may not be possible if we don't identify enough tutors we would have to rely on an online option. Okay board members any questions Mr. Morse

[04:42:09] Seeing as we're looking for highly qualified tutors, I think that one place we could look is at our retired employees. I think that they are, you know, a lot of them would be very interested in reengaging and helping out the children.

[04:42:27] I think that's something that we should look at somehow cultivating that opportunity. That definitely came up in HRTD. Actually, that was one of their suggestions in the work group, definitely. Additional questions? Mr. Beatty?

[04:42:43] Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I had a back and forth with a constituent that was not a fan of tutor.com, but he also had his own program that he was trying to go. But he said there's a list of tutors available at websites on the LCPS website. Is that already true?

[04:43:00] Yes, that's correct. And would that, I mean, I assume that's going to be the starting point, but would that be enough or as we anticipated, that's far too few? That's not nearly enough. Mr. Mahed. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Mahed.

[04:43:15] Just a follow-up. How do we recruit people to that list? Like, what's the process right now? Is that a volunteer operation, or are staff working to actively get people on that list? Yes, so certainly that list is maintained through our parent resource services, so there is some community outreach, and then we also do hear from people that are willing to volunteer and be added to that list.

[04:43:41] We have updated that tutor list so that families can go in and customize their level elementary middle high and then choose tutors based on reading math science social studies and those highly specialized areas within the sciences and maths. Thank you. Mr. Mahedmi. Thank you chair.

[04:44:04] Besides the retired staff I think the students seems to be I think we have amazing students in our division who today provide do a lot of volunteer tutoring but I think this could be a much more interesting incentive for for them as well. I know it's still it's still sort of you know you guys are still working through it but looking at the slide 15 when you sort of talk about the number of students that are I guess the the total number are 19,673 I know and it's an

[04:44:42] overlap I mean some students who may need reading and math so it could be you know but I guess if I to break it down have you guys looked at how many potential hours like you know so this is just a number of students that need help but what kind of help is it two hours a week four hours a week because then that's that could also come back to how many resources you need also I don't know I mean ultimately we look at number of hours support and based on that you can do person hours I mean How many eventually tutors, et cetera, do you need for that?

[04:45:21] So the research team did run the numbers a couple of different ways. Every way they ran it, it was, and this, I want to make sure I'm clear on this. This was before we looked at every student and whether or not they already had some type of remediation or intervention plan in place, right?

[04:45:41] So this is the total number. And the numbers were, I don't even know the adjective, astronomical, right? And we did a math problem just for fun, and it averaged about $5 an hour of tutoring if we were to provide the maximum number given the funds that we were allotted, which obviously that is completely unrealistic.

[04:46:10] You know, I could go down the road and tutor for $70 an hour. So, yes, we did do that, and it seemed a little futile at the time. So that's why we're looking at each student at the school level.

[04:46:27] So I guess just a follow-up question. So what – I know this is, again, a lot of number crunching, but do you see that understanding what that number looks like, you know, in the next few weeks or months?

[04:46:44] So thank you for that question. We will definitely have a much better idea when we come to you on the 10th. Ms. Ogadecki. Thank you, Chair. So I wanted to know if in the discussion there had been any recognition of potential impact on students specifically in secondary school, so middle but probably more so high school, and the impact for before and after school activities that are related to their participation in either athletics or student groups.

[04:47:21] Recognizing that the participation in those types of activities, whether it's athletics or clubs, is a critical part of maintaining high levels of student engagement. And there are lots of positives. So have there been discussions about trying to leverage study hall resource and other things that would not encroach on their ability to continue to get the positive outcomes of participation in extracurriculars?

[04:47:53] Yes, thank you for that question. So the topic of athletics did not come up because we're really just talking about grades three through eight. But the topic of after school activities did come up. And at the elementary school, making sure that we not only protect core instructional time, but specials and lunch and recess, all of those things are important.

[04:48:20] And we can't pull students out of that. then we're creating other problems like you mentioned. So, um, and principals did talk about, um, students engaged in afterschool activities. Um, those were the principals who said after school programs would be really challenging and they, they challenged themselves and their teams to figure out a way to do it, um, during the school day or provide both. So families had options. Any additional questions? Ms. Polivka. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, I want to, uh, quickly

[04:48:57] revisit slide number 15 again with the percentage of our students grades four to eight that are low proficient and non-proficient so we've got 53 percent in reading grades four to eight and we have 49 percent grades four to eight in math and I know you referenced Dr. Ellis earlier in your presentation remediation or intervention plans for some of these students and I think what I would like to make sure of is that we're not going to fall back on those remediation or intervention plans as a substitute for the tutoring. I recognize we have large numbers of students

[04:49:35] who need assistance, but it is our duty to make sure that we are prioritizing the students who truly need that additional instruction. And that is why we have this grant fund to begin with. So I want to ensure and I and I want the entire board to to hear that my concern is while we may have those remediation or intervention plans in place for students and they should be in place they are not a substitute for the additional tutoring that they have access to thank you Mr. Morris a quick

[04:50:13] question if we look at MTSS model level two is that the equivalent of the 19,000 students do we anticipate that because they are not succeeding, that they are going to be considered level two and will receive a level two. I'm trying to draw the equivalent to the tutoring program to our existing and how we're classifying those students. I appreciate that question, Mr. Morse, and I don't think that that is necessarily true because we're looking at one data point, right, one assessment

[04:50:51] that either puts you in the low-proficient or not-proficient category, and schools look at multiple data points when they're creating an MTSS plan. So I don't think that we could make that correlation.

[04:51:07] And Ms. Richardson, I don't know if you have anything else to add to that. And so what would, without this program right now as we look at our student enrollment, what is the number of students that are Tier 2 MTSS? We can get that for you.

[04:51:27] Okay, thank you. Any additional questions? So this is coming back for action on November 10th, right? Okay, and I know there's going to be a bunch of additional information provided then, so we'll place that on as action for the next agenda. Okay, so that will take us to 1203 from the Department of Business and Financial Services, FY24 first quarter financial review and COVID funds update.

[04:51:55] Ms. Willoughby. So I'm here to present the first quarter financial review for FY24.

[04:52:24] the full report is loaded into board docs as i begin i'll just state that for the first quarter the information presented will include actual activity as recorded for the first quarter which would represent july 1 through september 30th and then a projection for the remaining three quarters of the fiscal year the slides that i will go through will be a high level highlight of the information that is provided in board docs so starting with our school operating fund and specifically with revenues state revenue is forecasted to

[04:53:04] miss our budget and be short by about four million dollars and this is related to enrollment and that we are approximately I think a little over 900 students less than what we had budgeted for so with less students we're not going to receive as much state funding, and we've forecasted that amount to be about $4 million. All other revenue accounts, recognizing that it's only the first quarter, are relatively

[04:53:36] projected to hit budget at this point. Moving on to expenses, our personnel costs are expected to be under budget by 2.2 percent, or roughly a surplus of about $32.6 million. This is It's driven by high vacancy rates as we've discussed or had other discussions on other topics earlier this evening.

[04:54:03] We are experiencing shortages across the division for a variety of positions. And so, those high vacancy rates are driving up a higher surplus than what we've typically seen. So, for example, if I looked at the first quarter from the last fiscal year, the surplus rate there was approximately 1%.

[04:54:25] And again, we are projecting at this point 2.2 percent. We're also projecting a surplus of approximately $9.4 million in our operations and maintenance accounts. And this is going to be based on prior year trends and then some early projections related to some projects that have already been completed in the first quarter being under forecast.

[04:54:50] However, again, recognizing that we only have three months of data, this is still a conservative approach when you look at the expenditures of what we have projected. That leaves us at a projected fund balance of $38.1 million, but then we deduct an assumed amount of $12 million to carry over into the FY25 budget, which would then leave us with a fund balance of $26.1 million, and that would represent 1.5% of the budget.

[04:55:27] Not included is the recent school board action to increase the state revenue budget and the personnel budget by $12 million. We expect the county board of supervisors to take action on November 9th. And once we have the final action and appropriation from the county, you will see that reflected in the second quarter financial report.

[04:55:49] Moving on to the school nutrition fund. Cafeteria sales at this point are forecasted to increase $3. 1 million when compared to last year's actual. However, we are projecting a shortfall related to what we had budgeted for cafeteria sales.

[04:56:12] Our early projections are showing that the shortfall is related, again, back to that reduced enrollment. Not having 900 additional students purchasing meals is having an impact on our revenue streams, as well as we're also seeing lower a la carte sales.

[04:56:31] On the expense side, this is an area that also is having high vacancy impact, So there are savings resulting from that, as well as O&M costs tolling about $3.3 million in a surplus.

[04:56:47] Again, this is a conservative projection with limited activity in the first quarter. You know, in terms of serving school meals, that began when school began in August. So we have even a shorter period of time to base our projections on. The ending fund balance for the school nutrition fund is projected to be at three months of expenses.

[04:57:09] And we anticipate finishing down our spend-down plan, and again, where we had excess funds from prior years. So we expect that to be concluded at the end of this fiscal year. Moving on to our self-insurance funds, again, the common theme here is also with vacancies.

[04:57:28] So there's an impact with the revenues for the health self-insurance funds. Again, not having positions filled means that we're not also having employees participate in our health plan. and so we're not receiving premiums being paid into the health fund.

[04:57:49] Related to that would also be that we're also not then experiencing claims, but typically new employees generate more revenue than the claims that they incur. So that is having an impact on this fund. The fund balance here is projected to be at $26.1 million, which would be 10.4% of our expenditures.

[04:58:15] Our target is to have 17%, so we are dropping below that with this projection, but that is also why whenever I presented the FY25 preliminary fall forecast, the recommendation there was having an 8% increase to premiums, and this is why, because we were seeing what was happening with the fund, and we were wanting to make sure that we were adequately covered.

[04:58:39] Our remaining three self-insurance funds, I'll go through quickly. So first would be workers' comp. The claims there have been reducing, so that has had a positive impact on the fund. Our short-term disability fund, the claims are consistent in matching budgeted expectations.

[04:58:57] And then our VLDP, or Virginia Local Disability Plan, which is our short-term disability for our employees who are on the VRS hybrid plan. This is an area, though, where we are seeing claims trending above budget. So we continue to watch all our self-insurance funds closely, especially as we are working on the budget for the upcoming, for FY25, and we'll make recommendations appropriately.

[04:59:28] Moving on to our COVID funds, we will continue to include a COVID funds update until we are completely expended. So again, out of our 25 awards that we received, we have spent 21 of them completely, and we are down to four active awards.

[04:59:50] I will just kind of click through these following slides, but this slide presentation is included in Board Docs. These are the ones that have been completed, and then I'll just focus on the four open active funds that we have.

[05:00:10] The first one is going to be our ARP McKinney-Vento Award. This expires September 30th of '24. It was an initial award of about $200,000, and there was a very specific plan to spend this down, and it will be fully spent by September 30th of '24.

[05:00:30] The next one, the ARP Homeless 2, is similar, a very specific plan to spend down the $500,000 that we received. We expect it to be fully expended by September 30th.

[05:00:46] The ARPA Ventilation Improvement, this is in the CIP Fund to renovate HVAC systems. And this one expires December 31st of next year.

[05:01:01] And we expect to fully expend that and meet that requirement. And then our last one is the ARP ESSER III Unfinished Learning Grant. And that award of 1.1 will expire September 30th of 24.

[05:01:20] And again, we are on track and expect to have that fully spent by that date. We will also post this updated information on our website as we continue to provide information on our COVID awards.

[05:01:36] And with that, I am open for any questions. Board members, any questions regarding the first quarter financial report? Mr. Beatty. Thank you, Chair. So with the surplus of $9.4 million from the O&M accounts, is that all based on, if I recall, there was kind of the expectation that inflation was going to keep everything much more expensive.

[05:02:01] Do you know why we have that surplus in there? Is that because we, I don't know if I say padded, but just had it for a lot of excess room or have things become cheaper or just were a lot cheaper than we thought? I believe when we built the budget, we estimated a higher inflation rate based on what we were actually experiencing at that time.

[05:02:22] The inflation rate has dropped since then. So I think now that we are actually projecting based on more actual and better information, that's what we're seeing with some of the surpluses there. Thank you. Any additional questions? Seeing none, thank you for the update.

[05:02:42] All right. Where should we go next? How about 1204 from the Office of Chief of Staff, VSBA Legislative Positions? Dr. Smith. Thank you, Chair Sorotkin.

[05:03:00] Board members, tonight we do have before you as an information item the VSBA Legislative Proposals. These normally do go through LNP before coming to the full board. However, there was a delay with VSBA, and so we just got them recently.

[05:03:16] And so in order to get them before you to be considered for information and action and also allow our school board delegate, Ms. Reeser, to vote on the VSBA legislative positions at the VSBA delegate assembly.

[05:03:32] It needed to come to the full board this evening. So it is for information for you this evening. You'll see in the attachment and board docs, there are four legislative proposals from VSBA. All four of these items have some small changes to existing proposals that have been adopted by this board and are in previous VSBA positions.

[05:03:56] The first legislative proposal is around school facility construction funds and financing. And you'll note that there is one addition there, that there is a change to that position that allows the inclusion of specific incentives for safety and security upgrades to better protect students and staff.

[05:04:16] The second legislative proposal addition is around employee criminal background checks. And there is a proposed amendment to that existing position that just states that it also states that we will support the state fully funding local participation in Virginia's implementation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's next generation identification non-criminal justice wrap-back service regarding reporting and notification of public school employee misconduct.

[05:04:48] So that is the additional piece there. The third legislative proposal has one addition around school zone safety standards and just adds that the VSBA supports additional local authority and flexibility in setting safety standards in school zones. And the last legislative proposal is around judicial enforcement of truancy.

[05:05:10] That VSBA strongly encourages judicial proceedings to follow a standard timeline with automatic actions taken at each step of the truancy timeline. the courts have established outcomes prescribed by the code of virginia and the virginia legal statutes that allow for specific action in relation to truancy matters for both the student and the parent guardian their quest is that there is a fair firm and timely implementation of those outcomes be standardized and practiced in each courtroom in the commonwealth of virginia so those are the those are the changes again this is for action happy to have any feedback and would like to bring this back for action at our next meeting thank you dr smith board members

[05:05:48] any questions regarding the vsba legislative position your interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting okay all right we'll place this on consent for the november 10th board meeting thank you thank you uh yeah just a reminder the board members this is only this isn't for our legislative positions these are for vsba's legislative positions so the only action we have is deciding whether we're going to support or not support those four positions uh if for some reason anyone wants to debate those or have a different position, then you can ask for that to

[05:06:24] be removed from consent prior to the next meeting. Okay, the next item is 1205 from the Curriculum and Instruction Committee, Revisions to Policy 5060, Textbooks Furnished Free. This was a regular five-year review of this policy. Changes were relatively minor. The one sentence that the committee voted to add in is found on lines 18 and 19 of the red line which states students will not be charged for consumable resources which are used as or associated with the primary

[05:07:01] instructional resource of the class so we we identified an issue during last year's budget with music workbooks or not students being charged for those are having to go off and buy their own And while it was a nominal fee, we felt that it didn't make sense if it's the de facto textbook for the class.

[05:07:22] So there was a small line item in last year's budget, the FY24 budget, to cover that. And this, we recommended being added to the policy to prevent a situation like that from happening again. We did discuss whether there was any anticipated budget impact to including that language.

[05:07:40] and staff advised that there was not and they couldn't identify any other than the music workbook loophole that we already closed last year. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions regarding the policy changes. Ms. Okedekbe. Thank you, Chair. I just also wanted to call out item C, which was added, and I know there was some discussion in the committee about this as well, just to make sure that it's clear that there are mechanisms through which families can get a reduction or a waiver for costs for things that are not instructional materials. And that's

[05:08:17] called out in policy and specifies the policy where that's covered. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions or discussion? Interest in placing this on consent for next board meeting? Okay. We'll place this on consent. All right. Next is 1206 from Finance and Operations Committee, Appropriation of Sterling Meadow Cash Proffers. Mr. Morse. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a supplemental proffer that's coming in for the Sterling area, and specifically four schools

[05:08:53] have been identified for facilities that we are requesting a supplemental into the 2024 CIP to cover the funds that are triggered from the proffer of the Sterling Meadow developer.

[05:09:10] So if you look at the list of projects that are proposed, County Side Elementary School to improve the outdoor recreation facility, Sugarland Elementary to improve the facilities, River Bend Middle School, and also Potomac Falls High School. And those four combined equal to $1.732 million that is being proposed as a Sterling Meadow proffer. The Board of Supervisors has already taken a look at this. Mr. Lewis, do we have feedback from the Board of Supervisors on these projects?

[05:09:45] - So the proffers were sent directly to LCPS and they were specifically identified and you see in the area right above the summary of the item, you see their Countryside Elementary School in quotations to improve outdoor recreation facilities. That's how it was actually listed in the proffer.

[05:10:02] So then our team, Mrs. Tate and her team reached out to the principals to identify projects that fall into that category and that's how they were identified. So the values were actually predetermined by the proffer as well. No action is needed by the supervisors.

[05:10:17] Thank you. Thank you, board members. Any questions? I'm just curious where that proffer language came from. Like, I don't have any objection to it. I'm just curious whose opinion was it that those are the things that needed to be enhanced at those schools? So during the application process with the board of supervisors, a developer will propose proffers, and in many cases they identify them themselves.

[05:10:42] We believe in most of these cases they were going through our CIP and looking for things that were showing up in the CAP or other things, and that's where they identified them, and then those are negotiated through the county and then identified and then just given a check to us. Just out of curiosity, do they ask us for feedback or input in that process?

[05:11:03] Generally not, no. Okay. One would think, but any additional questions? It's because we're not voting on the land use. That's why. If we were making the decision as to whether they could increase densities, perhaps they would be talking to us, but instead they'd talk to the Board of Supervisors and uh those those agreements are made at that level so no i understand but you would think you know it's basic i'm not going to get into it now okay uh yeah is any interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting all right looks like we have consensus to put that on consent

[05:11:42] all right next item uh from 1207 from hrtd committee revisions to policy 7040 student school calendar and staff calendars. Ms. Ogadegbe. Thank you, Chair. Policy 7040 student school calendar and staff calendars was last updated in 2021. It's come back through committee and was an information item at the August 31st HRTD committee meeting. The policy was made available for public

[05:12:15] feedback through the website and that policy feedback has been reviewed and where possible updates have been made. This then came through as an action item on September 28th in HRTD and is an information item was not addressed at the last school board meeting due to time constraints for the meeting. So I wanted to call out that this policy essentially outlines the

[05:12:48] process through which both student and staff calendars are created. There was some conversation about the language which it is important to note came from Virginia code so specifically around the number of days in line and the red line copy for example on line 43 it talks about the contract for teachers shall include up to 200 days including up to 20 days for activities such as teaching participating in professional development, etc. So this is not a signal that contracts are changing,

[05:13:27] but again the language was taken from code. So I will ask Ms. Boland if you have any additional comments on this one. I think you summarized quite nicely. What I will say is the intent of this policy has not changed. Overall, the language added was to simplify, reorganize, and really clearly distinguish the development of both the student school calendar as well as staff calendars

[05:14:00] and to mirror language outlined in code as well as to align with current practices and clarify the responsibilities of the school board and the superintendent. So what was the initial impetus for the review because it was it looks like it was updated about two years ago so it wasn't the normal five-year cycle so I was just curious what was it just staff recommendation or so Mr. Sorokin thank you for that question so some of the impetus was the change in in the lack

[05:14:34] of consistency in regards to a process in in how we brought calendars forward in how we reviewed calendars and really just wanting to make sure it was outlined in policy as we moved forward Okay, thank you. Board members, any questions regarding these policy changes? Interest in placing this on consent? All right, on to consent it goes.

[05:14:59] Next item is 1208 from the Joint Committee, County Safe Pedestrian Passage to Schools Prioritized Crosswalk Studies. So these are a list of county pedestrian crosswalk and intersection enhancements that the Joint Committee provided ranked recommendations for based on staff recommendations.

[05:15:31] And I don't recall the committee making any changes to the staff recommendations. But beyond that, I would defer to Mr. Lewis and Ms. Tate if there's any additional information to provide. Thank you, Mr. Sorok. And I'll only add that the items that you see in bold are ones that are either included in a countywide transportation study or a corridor transportation study or they've already been completed.

[05:15:54] So the ones that are bold have been addressed or are being addressed. and then the ones that are going to be sent for more study by the county staff, and their processes are the ones that are in regular font. Board members, any questions regarding the prioritized recommendations for the crosswalk studies?

[05:16:14] Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I think, Mr. Lewis, the John Champ and the North Star Boulevard, I know the PT has been pretty quite active about that. Is it the same street that they've been advocating for? Yes, sir.

[05:16:30] This is at the intersection of Sacred Mountain Road or Lane, whatever it's called, in North Star Boulevard. So, yeah, that's one that the county will be studying. They are going to be widened that road to a four-lane divided highway, and the county staff is actually considering an underpass, if that's possible, because everyone still agrees that when that road becomes even wider and more traffic, that we shouldn't have children crossing that street.

[05:16:57] That's great news. Thank you. Any additional questions? Interest in placing this on consent for next meeting? Okay, we're good for consent. All right, so the next four info items are all from the Student Services Committee, and we'll start with 1209, Revised Policy 5035, Expunging Middle School Student Grades.

[05:17:23] Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. The Policy 5035 is a part of the normal five-year review process. The proposed changes to the policy were considered, I guess, by the staff after looking at the Region 4 policies and making sure that they're aligned with the graduation requirements and the practices that LCPS have currently in regards to expungement.

[05:17:55] The policy went through the Student Services Committee. First was September 21, and then recently we just updated on October 19th, passed it as 2-0 to send to the full board from the committee.

[05:18:11] One of the major changes in the policy is, again, the policy is changing to provide students with more exposure to rigorous and multiple pathways and allowing for opportunities for improvement and advancement.

[05:18:31] So you'll see the changes, I guess, in essence. I mean, I think it's just clarifying and making it much more simpler. But I think one of the key changes in the red line version is that the expunge time frame is also changing from August 15 to the end of the first quarter for the freshman year.

[05:18:51] So, I don't know, if you'd like to add any, Ms. Federer, anything else to the policy? Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Mejedevi. You did a great job. You captured Section A, lines 6 through 18.

[05:19:07] Section B, lines 20 through 33, we've defined the purpose of the process. Again, we've extended the deadline. We've also enhanced the parent notification process.

[05:19:22] For Section C, lines 46 through 70, we have provided some clarity with expungements are final and irreversible. Item 2, the high school credited course and grade expunged will be removed from the student's high school transcript, but it will remain on the middle school transcript.

[05:19:44] The grade will not be used to compute a student's high school grade point average. Item 3 further clarifies students are not required to repeat the high school credited course that has been expunged unless it is needed to fulfill a graduation requirement or is a prerequisite to a course that a student desires to enroll.

[05:20:15] Item 4, the SOL scores associated with the high school credited courses will not be expunged. The verified credit associated with the SOL course that is expunged will not be applied towards graduation requirements.

[05:20:31] Students will need to retake the course and earn a passing grade to receive the verified credit. Those are the highlights of the notable changes. - Board members, any questions regarding the changes here to this policy?

[05:20:47] Ms. Okedegbe. - Thank you, Chair. Not really questions about the changes. I think those were straightforward and through committee we'd approved bringing those forward. One of the things that we had talked about I just wanted to touch base on was the concept of sharing some of the data with the board as we brought this policy forward.

[05:21:07] So, I know that you had put together some very helpful information that was shared in committee, and there was another data point related to the distribution of grades for which individuals were requesting that the grades be expunged, again, and so I don't know that it makes sense to hold this up.

[05:21:30] I think the policy is very straightforward, but that data would be helpful, I believe, for the board. So I don't know if there are thoughts on that from the other committee member, Mr. Mejedevi. I don't know if you have thoughts on that.

[05:21:47] - Mr. Mejedevi, go ahead. - Thank you, Chair. I think the data is good. Maybe those could be provided to the school board member as part of the regular, I mean, board updates. I think that the data is, not necessarily goes with the policy, but I think it's Ms. Ogadek Bay talked about is how many students that took a course and how many expunged the course.

[05:22:09] And so it kind of gives you some data. I think it's also broken down by schools as well and by grades, so I think that was just a good kind of see where that is. I think we did ask for some additional data was a percentage of the students taking those courses and how many were expunging.

[05:22:26] So I think that would be good information to share with the board, I guess. additional questions so am i re am i reading this right in the expungement process section where it's it's more permissive as far as the timeline than it used to be where the old language said okay you have to get it done by august 15th before you start high school and now you have up until the end of the first quarter of your freshman year to submit the expungement request Is that accurate?

[05:23:01] Yes, that is. Okay, follow-up question. Why is there a deadline at all? Like, what's the rationale behind? I understand we probably don't want this happening, like, the day before graduation. Correct. But why are we having this cut off as early as we do? Well, if a student chooses to expunge a course and then they want to retake it, we want to make sure that we're giving them enough time throughout the school year to participate in that content.

[05:23:28] That is part of the discussion that we had in committee with regards to the data request on what are the specific grades that are being expunged. As it stands now, the policy is not restrictive to what we would consider grades that are not meeting expectations.

[05:23:46] So students can expunge grades of like an A minus or a B plus, and we are still working to gather that data. So certainly it is to, we have to give a timeline, it impacts transcriptions, and then we would want to make sure that students have enough time over the course of their high school years to complete the necessary coursework.

[05:24:12] Okay, thank you. That makes sense. Any additional questions? Interest in placing policy 5035 on consent for next meeting. Okay. We have consensus for that, so that'll go on consent.

[05:24:29] Next is 1210, revised policy 5170, substance use education. Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. I'll just do a quick introduction and pass it to Mr. Richardson. So 5170, again, I think this one is also coming up with a five-year review cycle.

[05:24:48] The policy was presented. I think this is the one that we punted from last time. So it did pass up on September 21 and was supposed to be presented at the last school board meeting. The proposed changes to policy, I believe, are to align with the VSBA model policy and the Virginia's VAC 2031 health education program and Virginia Code 22. 1206 to update, which talks about updating the instruction concerning gambling and other addictive potentials for that.

[05:25:24] I think this one went through the normal process, and I guess Ms. Richardson, I'll let you speak to any content of that you'd like to highlight. Certainly. Thank you. We did discuss this twice in our committee.

[05:25:42] We did make notable changes. Instead of the use of the word abuse, the recommendation from community feedback was to use the word misuse, so that has been changed. Again, there was a recommendation from the committee to expand the language to specify more classes of substances.

[05:26:02] So we did add prescription, synthetic, and hallucinogenic drug use and the addictive potential thereof. We also expanded in lines 18 through 20. The code was just referencing tobacco products.

[05:26:20] The recommendation of the committee was to add nicotine vapor products and alternative nicotine products, gambling, and the addictive potential thereof. Those are the notable changes. Board members, any questions about these policy changes?

[05:26:41] Mr. Mahedvy. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Chitzen. I think where we left off, I think the recommendation change was to change from abuse to misuse. I don't know, I guess any board members have any perspective, because I think it is, you know, again, I'm not sure how you misuse a drug versus you abuse a drug.

[05:27:01] So I think that's where we had some discussion on the committee for that. I don't know if any thoughts on that versus keeping the language the way it is in the policy. Ms. Ogedekbe. Thank you. I think in the discussion it was to remove basically putting people off by a stigma that might be associated with abuse.

[05:27:27] And so to really take this from an educational standpoint rather than what could come across as feeling as shaming. And I don't know, Ms. Richardson, if you have any additional thoughts on that.

[05:27:44] That is correct. It came from a community member. They did speak of the negative stigma that can sometimes be associated with the word abuse.

[05:28:00] The recommendation was misuse. Again, it was discussed in committee, but staff will take the recommendation of the board. Mr. Beatty. If I may ask legal counsel, is there a difference between abuse and misuse from a legal perspective?

[05:28:25] Thank you, Mr. Beatty. I'm unaware of any legal distinction. What I can say is that the code section, an analogous, Virginia administrative code section, says abuse.

[05:28:45] So if you want to track that language, that's at the... the board's discussion. So I'd be more in favor of being consistent with code and changing it to abuse. Additional discussion? I said additional discussion, but everyone's nodding. Is that for concurrence with Mr. Beatty's statement? Yes. Okay. I would agree with that as well. So, okay. I think we have concurrence to make that change. Board members' interest in placing this on consent with

[05:29:24] that change made? Okay, we can do that. We will place this on consent with the misuse term change to abuse. And that'll take us to 2011, revised policy 815, individuals who may be admitted free.

[05:29:45] Mr. Medvede. Thank you, Chair. So again, this is also coming back as a five-year review, last updated back in 2018. This one was brought as an information item to September 21, and the committee voted back on October 19 to send to the full board. There are, I think, two big sort of changes in there. Line 9 to 11 clarifies who are eligible, and then line 54 to 71 clarifies from an alternative adult education who are eligible for that. I don't know, Ms. Richardson,

[05:30:22] I think those are the big changes in the policy, I believe. That is correct. It clarifies that you must be a resident it is coming up as a five-year review you must be 18 years of age or older prior to August 1st and transferring in to Loudoun County with less than 12 credits you can be 18 years of age prior to August 1st with coursework from another country but you have not yet obtained what that country would consider a graduation currently enrolled English language learners 21

[05:30:59] years old prior to August 1st will be placed in alternative adult education programs and there was conversation in committee about making sure that we specified adult education program so I think mr. Richardson I think where I was reading form was from our students our sort of committee copy but I think on the board docs there's no red line copy there so there's on board docs there's a file that says it's redlined but i don't think it actually is it looks like there's one word online 195 that was

[05:31:38] struck in but if there were any additional changes made to the policy it's not called out in the red line thank you we will get that clarified okay thank you so i'm gonna um i'm gonna ask that this be placed for action. And then if you could email the board members a red line version of the policy with all the red lines, and then we can reevaluate whether board members want this to go on consent

[05:32:05] or action. I did want to ask one question. I've gotten a handful of teachers over the years who have emailed lobbying for their students to be able to be admitted with free tuition if they're students of current LCPS staff, even if they live outside of Loudoun County or outside of Virginia.

[05:32:37] So I imagine that might be very costly, but I wanted to see whether that's something that had been evaluated either recently or at any point. Ms. Okedegbe?

[05:32:53] I would just say that this is something that's been brought up through conversation, and staff has, in response to some questions over the last year, I know I raised this a couple of times, so as something that we could potentially, you know, consider, but again, costs need to be evaluated.

[05:33:13] Right, and I would imagine probably during the budget process is the right time to make that kind of large, big-ticket change. But given the fact that this is the policy that's in front of me, I just wanted to ask whether it had been taken a look at or there had been any discussion on it. Okay, so we're going to place this on action for now and get a corrected red line, and then we can reevaluate where this one goes for next time.

[05:33:36] And then the last policy from Student Services 1212, revised policy 8250, Bullying Prevention in Education. Mr. Mahedvi. Thank you, Chair. So policy 8250 per SB 1072 and the House Bill 1592, every school principal and their administrative designee is to notify the parent guardian of any student who is involved in any alleged bullying.

[05:34:09] incident of any alleged incident within 24 hours of learning of such allegation. So this includes students who may have been harmed, caused harm, or witnessed the situation. So that's I mean predominantly that's the biggest change in the policy. On line 65 the 24 hours added that the notification to the parents been added. This policy was brought again as information on 21st of September and then passed on October 19th and to send to the full board.

[05:34:42] I don't know, Ms. Richardson, if you'd like to add. Yes, that is the only notable change. The Senate Bill 1072 and House Bill 1592 requires us to make changes. Our previous policy was five school days upon learning of a bullying incident, and now the law supports within 24 hours of learning.

[05:35:05] So we only made a change to line 65. Board members, any questions regarding these changes? Ms. Okadekbe. Thank you, Chair. So one of the things that we had discussed in committee is that based on the fact that this was a change in law, that we were complying with that change in notification timeline ahead of the policy change.

[05:35:27] So just for those who are listening and curious about that, that protocol has changed, and we are now making notification within 24 hours of learning of such allegation.

[05:35:44] believe is the language. Thank you. Any additional questions or discussion? Seeing none. Interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting? We have consensus, so this will go on consent. All right. Next, we have item 1213 from the Department of Academics, measures of academic progress, proficiency data, which is a follow-up to the map data that we were provided last meeting

[05:36:12] requested by board members back alright so as mr. Sorokin mentioned tonight we have some additional information to share with you as a follow-up to our annual student achievement data presentation based on feedback and requests from some board members so I will share some information on where to locate publicly available student achievement data and then specifically

[05:36:50] dr. Tyler will share some information on the measures of academic progress or the map achievement percentile data. I'll also point out that there, in addition to the presentation, there is a separate handout with an explanation of the achievement percentile and conditional growth percentile with links to that data as well. And I'll also just mention referring back to Dr.

[05:37:17] Spence's entry plan that he shared an update with with you all earlier this evening analyzing current student achievement data and our methods for presenting that data is a part of his entry plan and we appreciate being a part of that conversation so we shared this slide last time we spoke and I wanted to bring this back up because it does have publicly available information if you're following along in the slide deck both of those links are live the video e school profiles show information about demographics student

[05:37:54] achievement, college and career readiness, program completion, school safety, and teacher quality. It's all sortable by divisions, individual schools, and subgroups within those categories. The next link is a link to the LCPS school profiles that show additional local data on enrollment, accountability, assessment, attendance, and graduation.

[05:38:19] SOL data is provided on the BDOE school profiles, so there aren't two separate sources of information. assessment data currently includes SAT and ACT data just this past week we have with the support of DDI and the RASI team we have added a dashboard with the map achievement percentile data based on your feedback so thank you for that here is the direct link to the video e school quality profiles and a

[05:38:54] screenshot of what that looks like and how you can sort it the next is a is a screenshot of our existing LCPS dashboards where you can access up-to-date information regarding those categories, and we are excited to share this evening the new dashboard available at the link on the screen. If you're following along live on your computer, you'll see that link takes you to a dashboard landing page where you can now access the new map achievement

[05:39:31] percentiles dashboard so as I mentioned when we when I first started as part of dr. Spence's entry plan he and our team have been looking at assessment data and also having conversations about how we make sure that the data is publicly available and usable by the public so this is an example of one immediate improvement and we will continue this conversation moving forward and before I turn it over to Dr. Tyler to do a deep dive on the map achievement percentiles

[05:40:08] I'll share just a couple of more resources this next link is a link to the school climate survey reports that are available on the research page on the LCPS website you'll see the survey results for different stakeholder groups for the surveys that we conduct including students staff and family surveys the reports are broken down into themes such as academic excellence support for teachers learning environment and family engagement part of the conversation that we continue to have is how we take all of this data and put it into one usable dashboard so this

[05:40:45] is an example of an ongoing conversation and then finally one last resource also available on the research page is a table with links to other reports and board presentations that the racy team has developed over the years and again in the spirit of continuous improvement we will continue to have conversations about how we might improve the way we make this data available, not just available, but digestible and understandable for those looking at it. And so with that, I will turn

[05:41:21] it over to Dr. Tyler to talk specifically about the MAP achievement data. Good evening. As Dr. Ellison mentioned, during our previous presentation, we discussed MAP growth, looking at the growth between two points in time. And Mr. Morrison mentioned in the past, we had talked about achievement looking at a snapshot so on the next slide remembering that the measures of academic progress assessment is typically referred to and thought of as a growth assessment it also has the ability to give us a snapshot as far as

[05:41:58] what they refer to as readiness or achievement and what we'll do over the next couple slides is explain the difference in those concepts you see there in this particular slide the growth over time of a particular student and you're familiar with the concept of conditional growth percentile between two points.

[05:42:15] The next slide actually introduces the concept of achievement. So achievement percentile is similar to growth in the idea that you have a peer group, a group of students in the same grade, the same point in their school year, referenced as the weeks of instruction.

[05:42:32] But in this particular case, it's one point. And how is that particular student relative to other students as far as a readiness level, one point in time. So in the example, a student at the 72nd percentile is performing at or above a level of readiness relative to 72% of other students. Same grade, same content area, same time of their school year. So the next slide actually shows you a nice kind of relationship between growth and achievement. If a student starts at a score, risk score of 225 at the 67th

[05:43:08] achievement percentile. If they make the maximum amount of growth you see in the upper right-hand corner of that screen, their achievement percentile will increase to the 91st percentile, but if they make the least amount of growth, the first conditional percentile, their achievement percentile also drops. So the relationship between the achievement percentile as a snapshot is directly influenced by how that student may grow from one point in time to another. So if we go to the next slide. So you remember it might have been the fall of 2018 fall of 2019 we were looking at

[05:43:46] achievement leading into the school year and I think mr. Morrison and miss Sheridan may remember that and the idea of if you start at the 61st achievement percentile and you grow at the conditional growth percentile of 50 the theory is at the end of that year you got the same achievement percentile but what you see here and what we've tried to highlight in different points is that that if you start at different points in achievement, overall at the 61st percentile for math, but if a particular group like English learners or students with disabilities of the 32nd or 39th percentile is a starting point, you see why there's a need to accelerate

[05:44:25] certain student groups more than others, because the starting points are different. And for reference, where we're at the 61st achievement percentile for the fall of this year, In the fall of 2018, we're at the 61st achievement percentile, and the fall of 2019, the 62nd.

[05:44:43] So we're at the same level of achievement as we were pre-pandemic, but with the different levels of growth. There are certain cohorts of kids we may have to accelerate more. So the next slide, you see the same metric here for reading. The 62nd achievement percentile this fall, and in 2018, it was the 63rd, and 2019, the 63rd achievement percentile.

[05:45:06] So whereas we're now starting to mirror the achievement percentiles pre-pandemic, the individual cohorts of students didn't have the same level of growth. And you see here again, we have student groups that are at different starting points. Again, English learners, students of disabilities, and other groups.

[05:45:25] And this really highlights the need for greater growth. And I believe this is the final slide before we wrap up here. And you see the relationship there is the achievement percentile as a starting point this fall different from the actual map growth.

[05:45:45] But you see how there's a relationship there. If it's the same group of students getting greater growth in math last year, fall to spring, with the same group of students would have them accelerating and be at a higher level of achievement.

[05:46:01] But we do know that there's a lot of movement within LCPS within any particular year. We may have a 10% or 15% shift in students during the year. But this gives you an update to the request from last time. There's a live click app where you're actually able to go in and look at that fall achievement percentile.

[05:46:21] You can select a school compared to the division average, a cluster, a group of schools. You can even filter by certain student groups, and you always have that division comparison point. Thank you.

[05:46:37] Thank you for providing the additional information. That definitely adds some really interesting context. Board members, do you have any questions regarding the additional data? Mr. Morse. Just briefly, still a work in progress, correct?

[05:46:55] Because there are certain factors. I mean, when I look at some of the displays, it only provides two factors, sub factors, lacking some of the others. So we're still building that, is that correct? So are you speaking to the Click app that was launched as far as building the ability to conduct the analysis when you say we're still building?

[05:47:18] Yes. Yes. Also, opening, I see it takes me down to Google Drive, and I picked a school and tried to open up several of the reports, and it says can't download the file. So I don't know if that might be a localized problem, but I appreciate the work that's gone into it.

[05:47:37] I think it's a lot further down in the direction that we were looking for. I noticed that a lot of the reports were coming out as PDFs in one of the formats. So I don't know. If you were to look at the data sheet, which has all of the fields that are captured, I think that the ability to sort on those data fields is primarily what the public and what the board is interested in being able to do.

[05:48:08] So what I would ask, and obviously if there are specific fields that are sensitive or confidential, we leave those off. But would you be able to just provide the list of fields that are associated with the data collection so that we are aware of what's being collected and that might make it a little easier for us to understand the totality of what we're collecting?

[05:48:35] So I'm looking at the link. I'm wondering if we may need to reset the link because the link should have taken you to an interactive click platform with the achievement data that Dr. Ellis showed on the screen. So we may have to reset the link, but it should have taken you to a live site. We'll reset that and fix the link.

[05:48:54] And I'll reach out at a different time to get the tutorial on this. But I do appreciate the effort that's gone into sharing that data because I do think that that's important for people to understand, especially the two scores for the map.

[05:49:10] So that's very helpful. So I'm looking at the, if you go into the link, you actually have to scroll past the district school profile to go to the fall map achievement dashboard. And that should take you to the actual view that we're referring to.

[05:49:26] So which slide link or which slide are you on? So it's in slide five. Slide five, okay. And it should take you to the LCPS page. And instead of the district and school profiles, if you scroll down to the fall map achievement dashboard, you should see a live link.

[05:49:44] Okay, so I click on that. And that should take you to the actual. Correct. And what that shows me is school level, school, grade, EL, and IEP. Right. So it doesn't show a lot of the subgroups that we're looking for. So is that something that we are working on to provide the rest of the...

[05:50:03] So if you click school level, and it allows you to select, say, elementary schools as a group, and if you hit the checkbox, it actually populates the data underneath for any of these selections that you have there. So you can go school level, you can even under school, you can select one particular school, for example, Algonquian, and you can see Algonquian's data compared to the division average.

[05:50:29] So would I be able to provide a free and reduced population or an evaluation of the free and reduced population? We've not added that population yet. So we are continuing to work on that. That's fine. Now, when I do, that provides just a visual display and the chart, it comes out in the chart.

[05:50:50] I think that's probably sufficient for our discussion tonight. It's late, and I really don't want to drag you down any rat holes with this. So I'll contact you, and we can certainly go over the data. But, again, thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

[05:51:06] Mr. Madby. Thank you, Chair. So I'll get just a quick feedback, because we also have the dashboard page still available, dashboard.lcps, and the map achievement doesn't show up on that as a link. So we currently only have the two original dashboards up there.

[05:51:25] So I don't know if we want to add one more, the same thing, a link to that, to the map achievement dashboard as well. I think that will be, because it will be one place then. Yes, thank you for that. So as I mentioned earlier, this is, we're iterating, right?

[05:51:40] We're continually iterating. And the next step would be to take this dashboard and embed it with the other LCPS dashboards. Yes. So as Mr. Morris mentioned, I think you guys are still working through it. So this is a snapshot of a particular year, I guess.

[05:52:01] So would you be adding additional years so we can see some trend data as well? So the separate page has multiple years of achievement data as reports that you can view. And I guess the thought is once it's integrated into the actual LCPS profile, we'll have to figure out how to fold in multiple years and show trends, as you said.

[05:52:25] Right now, I think Dr. Spencer suggested that when we get this fully developed, it will be integrated into a site where you can actually look at a school and see climate data and see map data, achievement, and see growth data and SOL data. But it's building that over time. But I just want to say thank you.

[05:52:43] It's a progress. I know this is something we've talked about, so I'll give you kudos for at least we're starting, and I think it's live, and now we just have to work through it. So thank you. Any additional questions or discussion? Seeing none, thank you again.

[05:53:01] That will bring us to our final information item for tonight, 12-14, which had been requested by Ms. Okadegbe, Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month Proclamation. Ms. Okadegbe. Thank you, Chair. I'd actually like to make a motion to suspend the rules to bring this item forward as an action item this evening, given that October is Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month, and this is the last meeting in the month of October.

[05:53:29] Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. The motion is not debatable, and so we will proceed to a vote to suspend the rules for the purpose of voting on this proclamation. We're down to five board members on the quorum.

[05:53:47] It requires a two-thirds majority to pass, which is going to be four out of the five would be a passing vote. Board members, once the voting board opens, please vote at this time. And please close and display the vote.

[05:54:20] That motion is going to fail for lack of a two-thirds majority. But if you'd like to, as an information item, if you'd like to speak to the proclamation and then bring it back next meeting, you can still do that.

[05:54:37] Okay, I will do that. I won't read the proclamation itself, but just suffice it to say that the proclamation does recognize October as Domestic and Dating Violence Awareness Month. and i will bring this forward next meeting as an action item thank you thank you so that will bring us uh given the lateness of the hour without objection we're gonna skip over item 13 board member comments and committee reports and that'll bring us to item 14 new business is there any new

[05:55:14] business tonight seeing none we are adjourned thank you

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