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Loudoun County School Board, Legislative, Audit and Policy Committee Meeting, Thursday, February 22, 2024

Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 39m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/915786062?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] afternoon this is april chandler calling to order the legislative audit and policy committee meeting for february 22nd 2024 now in this case we will wait to see if we have notification we'll come back to that um we will begin with public comment sign up to make in-person public comments occurred prior to the start of the committee meeting the meeting will be audio recorded and posted in board docs today we have two speakers signed up for public comment we will allow three minutes our

[00:00:39] first speaker is sandy sullivan the next speaker will be andrea weisskopf excuse me chair we do have i don't know if you want to stop to put miss donahue on or i just want to let you know she's here okay would you be comfortable if we start okay thank you i appreciate that um in that case i have been notified that and donahue would like to remotely participate in today's committee meeting Ms. Donahue, please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter.

[00:01:07] Thank you, Ms. Chandler. I am in my home. There is no one else, no people home with me, just a lot of animals. And this is, I'm requesting remote participation for a medical reason because I've been ill today. Thank you. Thank you. Therefore, I will entertain a motion that Ms.

[00:01:33] donahue's request to remote participant or to participate remotely be granted so moved seconded so um that motion was moved by ms schernoff and seconded by ms chandler um welcome to the meeting ms donahue thank you oh do we have to vote sorry all right in that case all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed um that motion passes uh two to zero uh welcome to the meeting

[00:02:08] Ms. Donahue. Thank you. Okay now we'll go back to public comment and our first speaker will be Sandy Sullivan. You have three minutes. Good afternoon I'm Sandy Sullivan an elementary school teacher who currently serves the members of the Loudon Education Association as their president. LEA looks forward to these committee meetings being held at a time so your educators and the general public who have regular work hours will be able to attend and participate.

[00:02:39] Regarding the Joint Committee on Collective Bargaining, LEA is eager to work collaboratively where the meetings will allow for dialogue and openness in order to pave the way for the best resolution for our students educators and the community the next speaker is andrea weiskopf you have three minutes today you are discussing collective bargaining i am a teacher i am a union member i support collective bargaining however my hours go until 3 30. in order to be here i had to

[00:03:17] take two hours of leave and I'm helped by the fact I live just down Claiborne. You are holding meetings when educators cannot attend even when what's being discussed pertains to them. I am fortunate that as a veteran educator I have leave but I still have to take two hours plus make plans for a substitute.

[00:03:48] thank you black lives matter thank you we are going to move to item number three approval of the January 25th 2024 draft minutes could I please have a motion to approve the January 25th 2024 meeting minutes I motion to have the minutes approved thank you mr. not a second thank you miss Donahue the motion has

[00:04:26] been made by mr. enough and seconded by miss Donahue all those in favor please raise your hand and say aye all those opposed please raise your hand and say May. The motion passes unanimously with all committee members present. We will move on to item number 4.1, Legislative Activities Timeline. Dr. Smith will be presenting. The floor is yours.

[00:04:50] Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Members of the committee, before you today is the Legislative Activities Timeline for 2024 to 2025. The March 21, 2024 meeting is the first one you see on this timeline, and this is where our work begins on the 2025 legislative items. During this March meeting, we'll consider any addition or changes that you would like to see to the Virginia School Boards Association to their statewide legislative positions. So that's just the first item on this timeline. This timeline will give you an overview of all of the activities that we are

[00:05:24] anticipating for the school year for the 2025 legislative items. The next meeting, during the April meeting, we anticipate that we will meet with our Loudon delegation. We'll invite them here and we'll debrief the 2024 General Assembly session. The Legislative Audit and Policy Committee will present any potential additions or changes to VSBA positions as an information item to the committee on May 14th at the May 14th school board meeting and then return to action at the May 28th full school board meeting. We'll continue to develop the legislative program during the June meeting and then the board has a recess during July. The work continues on August 22nd and September 26th

[00:06:04] when the LA&P committee meets. The committee will then present the proposed Loudoun County school board legislative program to the full board for information in October on October 8th and then is scheduled for action on October 22nd. This will allow us to finalize the program and have it ready for our annual legislative breakfast which will is tentatively scheduled for November 14th where we'll have the delegation of state and federal legislators at the legislative breakfast held annually at the academies of Loudoun. The VSBA annual convention is November 20th through 21st and the capitol conference meets in richmond january 27th and 28th and those both have been

[00:06:42] events that have been a part of our legislative activities for the school board that concludes my overview of the legislative activities timelines and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you dr smith are there any questions from the committee seeing none we will move on to item number 4.2 the auditor general's activities timeline

[00:07:13] mr ahmad woods auditor general will be presenting mr ahmad mr woods good afternoon chair chandler members of the committee today i will share with you the proposed office of auditor general's timeline for activities for 2024 beginning with our next meeting on march 21st 2024 the oag is scheduled to present its quarterly update quarterly updates can summarize ongoing audits progress on the annual audit plan and an update on the department's condition the last

[00:07:52] quarterly update is scheduled for december 19th 2024 the annual audit report to be to be presented to the Legislative Audit and Policy Committee on August 22nd, 2024 as an information item. The purpose of the annual report is to provide a summary of OAG activities completed during the prior fiscal year.

[00:08:15] On September 26th, 2024, the annual audit report will be presented to the LANP as an action item prior to being presented to the board on October 8th, 2024. The annual report will only be presented to the full board as an information item with no following action.

[00:08:37] One of the most important things we do in the OAG is prepare our annual audit plan. On May 25, 2024, the OAG will present its draft FY25 annual audit plan as an information item for the committee to discuss and provide feedback.

[00:08:53] At LAMP's June 20th, 2024 meeting, the OAG will present the draft FY25 annual audit plan as an action item. Following committee approval, the draft will go to the full board on June 25th, 2024 as an information item.

[00:09:11] And on August 13th, 2024, as an action for approval. Once approved by the full school board, it will be the official FY25 audit plan. Thank you, Chair Chandler and members of the committee for the opportunity to share this timeline of activities for the OAG.

[00:09:30] I am welcome for any questions you may have regarding the timeline. Thank you, Mr. Woods. Are there any questions from the committee? Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item, 4.3.

[00:09:49] We have Ms. Natalie Allen, Chief of the Communications and Community Engagement, who will be representing a new policy. Policy 2620 is recognition of students and staff accomplishments. Thank you. Oh, go ahead. Thank you, Chair Chandler and members of the committee.

[00:10:07] Today, you have before you a new draft policy, 2620, as an information item. As recognized in our strategic plan, teachers, administrators, and staff are an important factor in student success and achievement. Likewise, valuing our empowered students, as stated in Goal 1 of the strategic plan, places them at the center of our work.

[00:10:27] In an effort to recognize the importance of acknowledging and celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of students and staff, this proposed policy would establish guidelines and procedures for school board recognition of outstanding achievements contributions and milestones in our educational community providing such recognition in a consistent manner across such a large division should encourage positive behaviors achievements and contributions that align with the values and goals of the school division this policy has no budget impact but would establish consistency and clear criteria creating a recognition process that is clear and that can be well communicated allowing students and staff to understand how they

[00:11:06] can be recognized and how the selection process works are there any questions or discussion I'm sure enough I have one question sure and this might be dr. Smith might be for you more I'm very grateful for this policy I think it's super important that we have this outline and the process and I think it gives teachers a lot of clarity around you know the sort of the boundaries and the cycle and things like that one of the things I was wondering if you could just differentiate for me and I know we touched on this a little bit earlier this week we do we do spotlights in our school board meeting and it's my

[00:11:43] understanding that that is not considered a recognition it's just spotlighting what's going on in the district do we as a committee want to give that a consideration that that should be would that be advised not advised I just speak to it a little and that'd be great dr. Smith if you want to so the spotlights are typically more of a holistic view of what's going on in a classroom or a particular program whereas the recognitions are for specific achievements and so for me the the spotlights are kind of more of a long form insight into what's going on in any particular school and you know anything

[00:12:19] innovative happening in our schools which there are so many of whereas the recognition would be for for example like a all-state chorus award or something like that so a little bit more informal and just to give the community insight into what's going on in our schools every day any other questions I do actually have one on line 39 could you give us perhaps some

[00:12:54] specific circumstances perhaps an example to illustrate the unique circumstances including heroic acts related to the school situation yeah absolutely so for example if a teacher or lunch attendant gave a student the Heimlich maneuver something that goes above and beyond what is expected every day and it was a life-saving measure another one I can think of is one of our teachers is a firefighter who was impacted over the weekend honoring him would be an above and beyond you know what he's done in the school division

[00:13:32] but something where a heroic act is warranted you know to to be recognized at the school board meeting well thank you for that clarification yeah I do have another question on line 46 is this necessary I think there might be actually two instances in the policy so I'll maybe open up my question to make it a little bit broader do we need to specify that the school board meetings start times may vary defer to you dr. Smith on that one they don't really vary as much anymore but it might be okay to keep it and you tell me what you think yeah I think we talked about that some I know that our organizational meeting

[00:14:10] does specify that the board meetings will start at 4:30 but it also gives the chair discretion to make those changes based on the agenda or other things that may going on and so when we looked at this policy we we left it in that things may vary just because you know every time the chair makes a change we didn't want to you know be against our policy as we want to give that flexibility and really defer to what's in our organizational resolution all right thank you for that clarification on that note miss Donahue do you have any questions not to put you on the spot but I just want to make sure you have the

[00:14:40] opportunity oh you might be on mute miss donnie who i'm so sorry to interrupt we're not able to hear you in the meeting room you'll hold tight with us for just a minute we're gonna see if we

[00:15:09] can resolve our technical difficulties just okay sounds so much better can you hear us

[00:18:24] we can hear you oh wow just now it's loud and clear um did you want to go back to your question Sure. I apologize for the computer difficulties. I was wondering what was the motivation for developing this particular policy since this is a new policy and not a revision of a pre-existing policy.

[00:19:01] sure happy to talk about that so ultimately in talking with the previous board members that there was a lot more of an informal process when recognitions were happening and so folks who knew how to navigate that process would get recognized whereas maybe some other students or schools who didn't know or understand the process would not and so we wanted to formalize the process to ensure that um we have a nomination form and all of our principals and activities directors and

[00:19:34] folks know um what is eligible to be recognized and how to uh submit for recognition if that makes sense it does um i i do have a i have i had a couple of other um other thoughts if you could

[00:19:58] bear with me just momentarily. I'll find my notes. I apologize for being bad disorganized today.

[00:20:26] I believe you addressed this already, but Ms. Chernoff, I think, asked if the spotlights that we do during school board meetings are at present not included in this proposed policy.

[00:20:43] That's correct. They're not. They're more of a kind of holistic insight into certain programs or classrooms in our school buildings versus this being more of a formalized recognition for something like a state competition or a national competition. So what are, and again, I apologize if you did address this already, but so this says recognition by the school board.

[00:21:10] So what form has that taken previously, these recognitions of accomplishments by the school board? Dr. Smith, you want to answer that one? So in the past, we have had a number of recognitions based on what was shared with staff and the school board.

[00:21:30] And so we've normally placed those during staff, student and staff recognitions on the board agendas, working with the board chair. And as Ms. Allen had shared, it just depends on who was able to navigate that system, if we were able to find out about them.

[00:21:46] we didn't have a nomination form which this policy creates and allows us to disseminate that form so in the past it was not as structured and and I think this policy will allow us to have some of that consistency that we're looking for in terms of should we recognize should we have a recognition what what form should that should that have we think that would be really helpful to have that consistency and we can be clear with our community our staff and

[00:22:13] public about how we go about doing those recognitions thank you are there any other questions thank you um i i'm sorry miss i do still have a couple more um so who who is allowed to nominate students or staff and who decides who selects on which nominations are approved so the nomination

[00:22:48] form will be sent out to all of our schools and we're asking folks in the school to nominate based on the criteria that you see in online 32. And any person who meets that criteria would be recognized at some point during the school year. We would just have to, you know, if there's an overwhelming number one month, we might, you know, bump them to another month. But if the criteria

[00:23:17] is meant they'll be recognized okay um are there so i i'm not opposed to the idea of having uh guidelines for um for acknowledgement of students and staff i will say i guess i have a little bit of uh i had a little bit of a question in my mind of um should there be a catch-all category for um

[00:23:57] I see that most of the categories here are specifically focused on sports, LCPS-recognized clubs, or other academic achievements for students.

[00:24:19] There's also what I would, I guess, call the catch-all, would be including her acts related to a school situation, individual students for meritorious achievement beyond the scope of regular academics, activities, or job performance? Yes, I did see that, but I was wondering if there is a student who is doing significant work in the community that is not specifically focused on school, you know, would that student be, you know, be eligible for

[00:24:54] consideration under this policy if it's not through an lcps club or related to a school situation it could change that to school or um you know community or i don't know i'm i'm i have some concerns that this wording is is possibly a little bit too narrow i will say as i i understand what you mean so for example if there's a student who leads some kind of volunteer scenario um that enriches the community I would still consider that something that falls under

[00:25:34] this scope of regular academics activities or job performance one of the things we were specific about related to competitions for teams ensembles and student publications etc is because you have a lot of club teams and those kinds of things in athletics and so it could be that we're recognizing an extreme number of those if we don't pare that down to something that's LCPS sanctioned

[00:26:01] or related. Thank you. Of course. I guess as a follow-up to Ms. Donahue's question, the example that came to mind for me personally was the SEAC awards. Could you see a clear category where something like that would be well aligned? I still think it probably, so, because SEAC awards are, I would need to see the award criteria for them, but staff and student, correct? I would think

[00:26:39] because it's meritorious and goes above and beyond that it could fit there. Yeah, I would agree. most of the SEAC awards are staff there might be a few that are students I think there are a few that are students but most of them are staff and I think the staff ones clearly would be under could be under outstanding performance recognized except exceptional contribution to the educational mission of the division and then the students as Miss Allen said thank you for that clarification are there any other questions or just in points of discussion seeing none we'll move on to the last item on our agenda which is the

[00:27:18] action item to follow up on the establishment of the joint committee on collective bargaining at our last meeting on january 25th 2024 the committee voted unanimously to establish a joint committee to consider the eight items lea raised in its december 7th 2023 communication to the board wherein such joint committee would be composed of two designated school board members representatives from lcps hrtd and lcps department of business and financial services and representatives from LEA. At this time, I moved to appoint the specific members of the

[00:27:55] Joint Committee on Collective Bargaining to consider the items raised by LEA in its letter to the board. Appointments by Dr. Spence include from Business and Financial Services, Sharon Willoughby, from Human Resources and Talent Development, Lisa Boland, Principal of Freedom High School, Neelam Chondry, teacher from Mill Run Elementary School, Holly Jerman. Appointments from Ms. Sullivan include board member Sandy Sullivan, our LEA President, board member Corey

[00:28:32] Brunet, the LEA Vice President and English Language Teacher at Broad Run High School, and Charles Hansen, LEA Representative, Civics and Economics Teacher at Willard Middle School. This committee will also include two board members appointed by the LAMP Chair. They are Ms. Ann Donohue and Dr.

[00:28:51] Sumera Rashid. It is also my understanding that, per our direction, Division Council and the Chief of Staff have identified a third-party facilitator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services who has agreed to serve in this role. These services will be provided free of charge, provided that the Joint Committee is in agreement. I will ask Ms. Donahue to serve as the Board Liaison and to work with staff to schedule the meetings of the Joint Committee. Is there a second?

[00:29:28] um do you have a question okay i second thank you ms shirnoff any discussion um ms shirnoff um can you give me a little bit more insight on to how the third party was selected um and what kind of other work that they do and why they in particular are being brought in for this so i can i can speak to some of it our division council wasn't able to here to be here with us today but i do know that mr allen did talk with other school districts surrounding school districts in terms of who they've used um we did find that this um this service has been used by other school districts

[00:30:08] in the region and they were free of charge they're able to do it they've done it successfully and so that's that's how we arrived at this one and i'm happy to have mr allen follow up if there's anything i'm missing on that that was sufficient thank you oh i miss chandler may i ask a question please please miss donahue uh thank you as a follow-up to that dr smith when you say um these mediators have been used successfully. How are you defining success? What are your

[00:30:45] successful examples? I don't have, I was not involved in that level of detail with Mr. Allen, so I'll have to get back with you on that. I do know when I say successfully, I'm referring to they were able to successfully mediate a process with different groups of folks to come to a resolution moving forward. So that's how I was defining success and how I've heard about how they've worked with other groups. But I don't have those specifics and specific examples with me today, but happy to follow up with you on that. Thank you. I guess I was most concerned with

[00:31:19] whether other divisions that have used a model like this were able to successfully establish a resolution and or agree on collective bargaining terms or contracts. Again, I don't have those specifics here with me today, but happy to have Mr. Allen or myself a follow-up with some specifics on their work. Okay, thank you. If I could ask another question, Ms. Chandler. Go ahead, Ms. Donahue.

[00:31:56] Thank you. Would the third-party mediator be a member of this joint committee, or, and if so, a voting member? Would their presence be required at all meetings? What would their level of involvement be? Would it be something that is predetermined or something that is assessed and

[00:32:26] possibly redetermined as the committee work moves forward? I would ultimately like to refer that question to Mr. Allen, but I would be happy to share a very high-level view on some of the conversations that we've had um i don't believe that the third party mediator would be a voting member of the committee um they would not necessarily attend every meeting in fact we could go ahead and set a meeting to determine um the schedule and other practical matters

[00:33:00] um the and and mr allen would be able to speak to when the mediator is um available um but the voting members of the committee would be the members that have been um submitted in the motion Is there anyone else in the room who would like to offer any clarification around those points?

[00:33:28] I'm happy to share. That's my understanding as well. They would be a non-voting member. I do know that, yeah, so you would be able to meet without them if needed. And so I believe their availability was starting at the beginning of April.

[00:33:43] So we do have some potential dates that Mr. Allen has worked with them the beginning of April to begin to schedule those meetings. Are there any further questions? Ms. Chernoff? I have a follow-up on that.

[00:34:00] i'm just wondering um about also the protocols for the joint committee are the is the third party going to help establish the norms and the schedule and all of those kinds of things or is that handled on the lcps side or we we're completely handing this off to them can you give some clarification on that it's my understanding that this committee was created by the board and so it is a a a joint committee of the board and so that um you know it would operate in a similar fashion and so i think that as Miss Chandler said the the committee could go ahead and start to meet and start to establish protocols working agreements those types of things

[00:34:39] and how they're going to work together if they we wanted to meet before April however if they need the services of the mediator to support that work they are available to start in early April to establish a time frame to do that so I don't think there's been a lot of framing put around this that it has to fit this certain mold um except for that it is um it is a joint committee of the board created by the board so it does meet the requirements um of those committees of the board and um aside from the members laid out by ms chandler and what was approved last time in terms of the motion in terms

[00:35:15] of the scope of the work to the eight items limited from the um limited to the lea letter that was sent to the board thank you very much any further discussion or questions um yes please Ms. Chandler. Thank you. Could you please go over again the list of members of the joint committee and their positions? Yes, I'd be happy to. These appointments were made by Dr. Spence, from Business and Financial Services, Sharon Willoughby, from Human Resources and Talent

[00:35:54] Development, Lisa Boland, the Principal of Freedom High School, Neelam Chondry, teacher from Mill Run Elementary School, Holly Jerman. Appointments from Ms. Sullivan include Ms. Sullivan, the LEA president, Corey Brunet, the LEA vice president and an English language teacher at Broad Run High School, Charles Hansen, LEA representative civics and economics teacher at Willard Middle School, Ms. Anne Donahue to serve as the board liaison, and Dr. Samara Rashid.

[00:36:31] Thank you. And if I could ask a follow-up to that, do the educators, do the names of the educators on the committee represent members of LEA? And also, are there any non-LEA members in the group of names?

[00:36:59] Dr. Smith, could you speak to that? I may be able to speak to that. I believe so. I will say that we have not cross-referenced our list with LEA's list of membership. but i believe that it represents lea and non-leba members thank you any further discussion or questions seeing none the motion has been made by myself ms chandler and seconded by ms chernoff

[00:37:33] all those in favor please raise your hand and say aye aye aye all those opposed please raise your hand and say nay with that item oh actually the motion passes unanimously and with that item we will move on to new business is there any new business okay seeing no new business uh we are adjourned. Thank you.

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