Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Curriculum and Instruction Committee Meeting, Thursday, May 2, 2024

Date: Thursday, May 2, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 39m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/942172373?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] - Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call this May 2nd, 2024, Curriculum and Instruction Meeting to Order. My name is Lauren Chernoff, and I'm the chair of this committee. I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues, Dr. Deans and Dr. Rasheed, and we thank you for being here today. Normally, we would move to public comment, but we do not have any today, so we are going to jump right into our agenda.

[00:00:22] So our first part we need to do is approve our minutes from April 4th, 2024. everyone have a chance to review the minutes are there any corrections or additions no I move that we approve the minutes of the April 4th 2024 meeting do I have a second all in favor say aye aye with that we will approve the minutes from last meeting and we will move on to our agenda today we have three items we're going to start with 5.01 which is pathway to amplifying student

[00:00:58] achievement we are going to have ray mitchell who is the chief of schools introduced our guests thank you ray i'll pass it to you good morning thank you miss sherna i'm today to present on pathway to amplifying student achievement from trailside middle school we have their two assistant principals miss lindström rudolph and miss santos so i will turn it over to them for the presentation that they have regarding that topic thank you so much for allowing us to join you

[00:01:36] today i'm marlene santos i'm one of the assistant principals at trailside middle school and we are here to talk about a pilot of moving trailside middle school to an eight period day opposed to the block scheduling we have the rationale that has been shared is in early 2000 Loudoun County moved to the block schedule and since that time there there hasn't been research or data collected to show the impact that it has

[00:02:14] on student achievement yet there's been increased resources available to our staff and students over those 20 years a great deal of growth with knowledge of student learning and goodness we all know that technology has definitely grown exponentially in the past 20 years and we do feel that this is an ideal time with to try this opportunity and reflect on this with the new instructional framework and we'll be focusing on really tightening our

[00:02:48] instructional practices really focusing on student learning as opposed to the learning and activities within that 84 to 88 minute block so what I want to draw your attention to first is our current school calendar and I do want to share that I am so proud to be part of Loudoun County Public Schools in which their calendar is reflective and of our car diverse population and really

[00:03:23] risk culturally responsive but one of the impacts of that schedule are instructional gaps and you notice that when we go a little deeper right on the surface 180 day calendar with 90 a days and 90 b days looks pretty even and but as we go deeper you'll see there's 41 weeks of school 26 of those weeks are include five day weeks and then 15 of those days have of those weeks have

[00:04:00] partial weeks and that's what I'm really gonna focus on if we look at then the next slide it has it breaks down our calendar with how many interrupted those are I have taught in the county I know this is shocking just by looking at me but I definitely I've been in here for over 20 years so I have taught on both the eight period day and the block schedule and I'm gonna give you some scenarios based on math because definitely people are passionate about

[00:04:40] math and I've taught math on both schedules so if we think about a student let's call our friend Neil and Neil is a stellar a stellar math student he's in my math 6 class and we are teaching multiplying fractions on Thursday and Neil understands he picks up and understands how to simplify ahead of time and multiply those fractions top times top bottom times bottom simplify

[00:05:16] beautiful ready to go Neil is eager he goes home that night gets started on his homework revisits it over the weekend and even though this is a long weekend and we don't see him again in math class until Tuesday because in the block schedule. Math class would be, let's say it's an A day. Thursday's an A day. Friday's a B day, no math. And then we have Saturday and Sunday. Monday's a holiday. So our next time that I see

[00:05:48] him is Tuesday. Math, uh, Neil's fantastic. Got it. No worries. Then we have Lauren. And Lauren is a fantastic athlete she is on the travel soccer team her brother is a senior quarterback starting quarterback at stonebridge high school and we are starting this topic lauren gets it a little bit but she does get confused because she's strong with uh she's a solid understanding of fractions but she remembers and confuses multiplying fractions which is a common mistake

[00:06:27] with adding and subtracting. So she's focused on getting a common denominator. She's travel soccer player. So Thursday night she has practice and she can't practice. She can't review her math. Friday is senior night at Stonebridge. So she's not able to get focused on her math that night, but her mom knows math is not her jam, but she does need to focus. So on Saturday, she gets Lauren going and Lauren sits down. Oh, right. Fractions. I have to find that common denominator. So she's practicing, but she's practicing it wrong. And then we have Marlene.

[00:07:05] Marlene, not a fan of math, doesn't do well, and avoids it at all costs. So she didn't understand, she doesn't have a strong foundation in math to begin with, and then we go to multiplying, which is a little complicated. And she avoids it at all costs. Mom and dad are out on a business trip. So grandma's watching her. So she doesn't really get into the math until Monday night. Yikes, I have math. It's due. And she goes in and has no recollection of what it is. So those are some examples of our students. And what we do know about brain research is that for us to master a new

[00:07:44] skill, I do have to practice that skill. And those neural pathways are developed when I practice and interact with that skill. So Neil has it. He's got those neural pathways developing, and he's doing it right. Lauren's neural pathways are developing a little off because we weren't able to catch her ahead of time before she practiced it wrong. So the disrupted schedule, as fantastic and responsive as it is, there is that unintended, we have that gap in learning and our gap of

[00:08:21] instructional time. Lauren's going to go ahead and talk about our tier students and I've given you some examples of what that means. So I'll hand it off to my amazing colleague. So can you go to the next? Thank you. So as we all know as a division we've been working through the MTSS model and so we are trying to make sure that we are intervening with all tiers of students and their supports and so when we're looking at that we're looking at our tier one students and so our tier one students are all of our students in their grade level class receiving the curriculum

[00:09:00] that they require we look at tier 2 those are some students who might be you know still close to grade level but need some remediation and so then we look at tier 3 those are our students who are significantly below grade level and require some support and so we've used resource as kind of a model this year to help support our students in tier 2 and tier 3 with implementing the interventions however in secondary schools while there is a lot of time for resource we are limited in what we can provide during this resource time we do align students resource time with their interdisciplinary teams which means that

[00:09:36] they do have a science teacher a math teacher an English teacher and a social sciences teacher available in most cases we do have some students who are cross-teams and that's just kind of how it works sometimes and this year we've really utilized those teachers to help provide some supports in the tier two and tier 3 interventions however we know that not all of those teachers are trained in implementing and intervening in regards to what student needs are so even though there's a lot of time in that resource it's not effectively addressing all the needs of our students so what we would like to

[00:10:11] try and move to and if you can move to the next slide neil um is in developing this new schedule and having the yep perfect um having the flexibility to have this eight period day what we would include in the eight period day is a 30-minute block every single day two days a week that would be seo we call it compass would be advisory time and that would allow us for 30 minutes three days a week to implement tier three interventions we can still better target our tier two students through that resource and we can use those resources available

[00:10:50] for that smaller group, but for our students that require Tier 3 intervention, if we were able to run this schedule, it would give us about 90 minutes per week of explicit instruction and time to intervene with our most needy students. A lot of times these are our L students, these are our students with special education needs and IEPs, and then we're still building in that time of advisory and SEL for the emotional learning piece.

[00:11:16] So it would be the daily classes. they would be getting their tier one support there. Through resource, students would be getting their tier two supports that they require. And through that daily intervention piece of the MTSS, then we would be able to hit all of our tier three students as well.

[00:11:33] - Sure. - I just want to share, because if we think about our tiered students, if I have a tier three student who has significant gaps in learning, do we agree that they're also likely going to need that tier two intervention?

[00:11:52] because if they miss the foundation, they're going to probably need some support during resource for that daily instruction. So this opportunity would allow our students, our tier three students, to get the tier one instruction for all of students that they absolutely need and all students need and deserve, and their tier two interventions as needed, and then definitely that tier three with that specific targeted instruction with their area of need.

[00:12:27] - And so something that for us as a school and us as a division, we're looking to be a model PLC or a model professional learning community. And so something that we've worked on as a division and at Trailside as well is asking some questions about student learning.

[00:12:47] And so those questions are on the next page. And I think both of these slides tie in well together. But those questions that we are wanting to ask about student learning is what are the essentials that we want students to learn and how will we know, question two, how will we know when they get there?

[00:13:04] Question three is what do we do when they don't understand? And question four is what do they do if they understand it and they need the next step? So this model would really support us in making sure that we're answering all of those questions and helping students at all levels to achieve wherever it is that they're at.

[00:13:23] And so what we would like to do through our guiding coalition, which is our group of teacher leaders as well as administration in the PLC model, we would be looking at a variety of data points, including the monthly academic data, attendance data, discipline data.

[00:13:38] There would be monthly progress monitoring through that Tier 3 intervention that's happening during that MTSS block of time, as well as the perceptual data that we're getting from everybody in regards to all of our stakeholders. If you could go to the next slide.

[00:13:55] what we're looking at in regards to answering these four questions is as we have talked about you know all of our students are getting those tier one supports through their classes we're trying to make sure each student gets the supports that they need and so if we were able to do really kind of this MTSS block while our students are receiving tier three interventions really that targeted instruction for their areas of need our other students who don't require those interventions would be able to flex to other places and so that's really helping us to answer question number four what do we do when they already know it so we can be targeting our students who have not learned the material and

[00:14:32] providing them with an intensive intervention but then also circling back and making sure that we're supporting our students who already know it and how can we assure that we're helping them to expand their thinking that we're helping them to extend on their thinking so that they also have the opportunity to be challenged and to be pushed if they've already gotten the material that that is occurring in class. Thank you so much. Wow, that was exciting. I will pass it to my

[00:15:05] colleagues for comments and questions. Have any? I am very much impressed with that in that I am currently tutoring an eighth grader in math down in another school district. And that every other day interferes with her continuity of learning and so I'm the person to fill in that gap of that day

[00:15:40] that she doesn't go to math and she and her parents have realized that that is the missing piece. So I am very supportive of it. I think sometimes the pendulum in education swings so far to one direction that we forget what worked way back when and I'm way back when. So I am very supportive of the idea and the implementation of the idea. I guess I didn't have a question, but I wanted to

[00:16:17] say that. And then yesterday I met with a group of 20 students from England who are here in Loughton County exchanging with one of our middle schools and they talked about that 30 minutes per day that they get free time and that free time is to go and get that tier 3 help or that tier 2 help and/or do nothing so they were saying the relaxation of that helps them to get through the remaining part of the day so I'm very supportive I I really like the presentation I like what

[00:16:57] it's about I think this will be really helpful for our students I have a sixth grader and an eighth grader and I understand the gap like like what Dr. Dean said and I think this again I'm thinking out loud here but I I feel like this would be helpful for our special needs kids because that you always need to practice what what you're learning because that gap will cause I mean you know all the students you know that time frame where they start forgetting what they learned and you know I like the examples you gave for math but yeah I

[00:17:30] think this is great thank you I too am very impressed and excited about this innovative idea although I know that this was something that was done in past and in other districts but I echo the sentiments of my colleagues and I really appreciate you bringing this perspective I think sometimes the calendar can be a little bit of a sensitive topic because while I echo what you said I celebrate the diversity and the culturally responsiveness of our calendar and that we've moved in that direction there has been an impact on learning and I feel very strongly about that and that the gaps that we're seeing

[00:18:09] are because of consistency and continuity and all the things that the research says about practicing we're about to have a literacy presentation next and if we've talked about neural logical pathways and that superhighway back and forth for reading it applies across all areas and so I I do have concerns that when you're not traveling on the highway you're not building those pathways I really appreciate you humanizing it for us I think that's the value of having our school-based staff come and present to us because you're living it you know these are real students that do go to senior night and do have grandma watching them or have different levels of support and all of

[00:18:47] that collides in our classrooms so I love that you're being innovative and thinking outside of the box change is hard I think that there is probably there'll be people that love it and people that don't but I'm like Dr. Deans I'm very supportive of trying this I think it's something that could really move the needle for kids additionally we've done a lot of great work in providing those mandated times for power up an MTSS instruction for tier two and tier three in elementary which we know is important it's foundational but there have been a lot of concerns about the logistics of making sure that we're protecting

[00:19:24] that instructional time for tier two and tier three in middle and in high school and so i think that this seeing that you're protecting those times and giving those minutes i think is is really crucial as we're still dealing with some of the gaps and learning loss from not only covid but also from you know just best practices in literacy and you know diverse learners that we have additionally dr rasheed mentioned about special education students and i know our english language learners again it's the practice it's the continuity and I do have a couple of questions

[00:19:59] one is as it stands now my understanding is the resource time is sort of built for kids to be autonomous and independent in seeking that help I know my daughter uses that time for math to go and see that teacher almost daily which is awesome it's like built-in tutoring but there are students that may not self-advocate or may not have those executive functioning skills to own up and go do that and be told so I think is that kind of a shift that you're looking at it would be more that it's built in for the students and

[00:20:35] less that it's reliant on whether or not they can self-advocate yes certainly in resource for our students that that's where we I think would be targeting most our tier two students or any of our tier one or tier three that are seeking teacher support so yes I think that's where we could still be working to intervene during that resource time with some of our students whereas our tier three students would be more kind of toward that MTSS with the intensive intervention that's happening 30 minutes but one of the pieces that we wanted to consider with resources that resource is a time to try and get work done and so that was one of the challenges that we had this year a lot of times teachers will seek students out but working on trying to build those self-advocacy

[00:21:14] skills but also building in some time for them to purposefully check in with teachers yeah so I think we're trying to balance all of those pieces and resource because you know there are a lot of things students can be doing in resource so I think trying to make it as meaningful as possible and then also just to piggyback on that as we mentioned as we are embracing becoming a professional learning community and our collaborative learning teams meet together to discuss the data and look at it even if we're teaching or on the same team and we're

[00:21:48] both teaching math. I might not be off when Lauren's student needs some help, and they're not going to self-advocate, right? But in our meeting, we'll say, during the next resource class that you have, please pull Beth so that she can come, and this is what she was struggling with. So we're going to be supporting those students that do self-advocate, but also in our CLTs or collaborative learning teams were looking at that data talking about and finding a student that might have missed and understood that topic and pull them in love it what I'll piggyback off of that what is how is teacher

[00:22:28] planning impacted by this what's the shift there I'll speak first and then the Santos if you have anything to share so we're looking at having teacher planning two out of those eight blocks per day so very similar to the block schedule they have about the same amount of time it would just be in two separate plannings and then we are still looking at kind of the traditional in just a one in one day in eight blocks there would be one planning for collaborative learning team and then one personal planning and then on the opposite day whether it be a or b day there would be one block for the interdisciplinary planning and then one block for the personal planning again

[00:23:03] kind of with the conversations happening in the in the CLT about looking at data pulling students and in the in the interdisciplinary team talking about students who might require that time you know and resource with a little additional support that's great to hear I know that that's one of the real strengths of our middle schools is that they meet in those cross curricular teams and they also meet with their content I think that that's really powerful so I'm happy to hear that that would still be protected my last question is about homework so homework is a loaded topic I some people you know it can be polarizing I guess but it's interesting to me because I also have a

[00:23:43] middle schooler and sometimes like you said Thursday she has math but then she has homework for math that's due maybe Tuesday if there's a holiday and again by the time we get to the homework Monday night we're those people it's like panic mode right because it's like what did I do where are the notes what were the slides where's the stuff you know looking through the binders and it creates stress but if they had those things more often I do wonder about homework and sustainability if that would be every night still I mean I'm sure maybe you don't have the answers to these questions but I'm wondering if we should do some thinking around homework in terms of because these kids do have

[00:24:22] activities they do have other things that go on and they you know want to make sure that they're practicing those skills they had them more often would there be a huge need to reinforce those skills at home I guess is my question I'll speak first and then Mrs. Santos if you would like to jump in I mean I can really only speak to trail side and truly we don't assign a lot of homework And so we're really our focus is that we understand that students are coming from multiple places with different backgrounds and different supports at home.

[00:24:49] And so, you know, our belief is that it's not always equitable to assign homework to everybody and understand that they'll be able to go home and complete it accurately and be able to present the knowledge that they had learned in class at home after having any kind of gap.

[00:25:04] So our practice now is that we do have some things that we assign for homework, like for math, you know, that we have Alex topics, but they're due over the course of a week, and that extends over into the weekend. So for us, I don't know if it's something that we'll need to be rethinking too deeply, but I do think that if, you know, if this were something that the secondary level were to move to, I think that that would definitely be a deeper conversation about what does homework look like.

[00:25:27] And just to piggyback on that, you had mentioned the value in our interdisciplinary teams. And I think that's also a point that our teachers have and meet. Our interdisciplinary teams in the middle school, they're the core group of teachers that share the same students.

[00:25:47] And so they can have that conversation with each other to discuss and monitor and make sure that we're not all assigning a ton of homework, right? and that we're being more balanced and that the homework is essential.

[00:26:03] Just practice, absolutely nothing new or that sort of thing. - Any other questions? - Yeah. - I'm assuming the answer is no, but we're already having some issues from what I've heard from constituents about meeting for music class or art class.

[00:26:24] Would this affect that at all? Okay, I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't 'cause we're already having some issues with that. - I do, I wanna speak to that 'cause that is something that 100% has been on my heart and mind because the best of intentions.

[00:26:41] I'm gonna tell you, I was a math teacher and nothing is more important than math, right? So Lauren didn't get it in class, so I need to keep her back and she's gonna miss a little bit of PE. No, that's not okay, why?

[00:26:57] What is that going to do to Lauren's social-emotional well-being? She's an athlete. That's where she feels success. And why am I going to take that opportunity away from her, for her to feel that success, to do something that she really doesn't enjoy?

[00:27:13] So, yeah, no, this schedule does not take away the elective. Anything else? I want to thank you so much for being here. I know you have important work waiting for you at Trailside, but we really appreciate hearing directly from you.

[00:27:29] I don't know, Mr. Slevin, is there anything in terms of next steps that we need to do as a board in terms of directing this forward? There's no board action at this time. I'll ask if school leadership has any future steps in terms of communication and outreach to the community, but there's no additional board action needed.

[00:27:54] So, can you hear me? Okay. There's no action needed. This was informational. Ray Mitchell did bring this to the cabinet level, and other departments endorsed trying it at Trailside. So we plan to do that and move forward and gather data and see how ultimately this time, which is magic, impacts student achievement.

[00:28:23] I know we'll look forward to hearing about how it goes, and that's exciting, and see where the path takes us. So thank you for your work. All right, with that, we will move to 5.02, Access to Literacy for All update.

[00:28:39] Today, I'll let those friends join us. I'll give them a minute. Mr. Slevin is going to introduce our presenter, who is Ms. Catherine Neal. Like I said, I'll give her a sec to get settled.

[00:29:08] So as Catherine takes a seat, and I'll introduce her, even though she's presented to this committee a few times, We appreciate the opportunity to provide another update on our very important work happening around literacy in LCPS. I'm sure at some point in the presentation they're going to acknowledge the many team members in the audience.

[00:29:27] And I can't miss an opportunity to say thank you to the extended team since the very beginning of our work around some of the changes we knew were coming and needed to come through the Virginia Literacy Act. This has been a cross-departmental effort, and I just appreciate the leadership of everyone on that team, shown by their presence here this morning.

[00:29:49] So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Neal to talk through our presentation this morning. - Good morning. So thank you for the opportunity to share our updates regarding the Access to Literacy for All project.

[00:30:05] We have many updates to share about literacy instruction this morning. Each of our updates will be addressed as we review the division literacy plan. As part of the Virginia Literacy Act, school divisions are required to create and submit a division literacy plan the plans are highly structured the mandated template has gone through various revisions and was required to be approved by the Virginia Board of Education before being shared with local divisions following the approval of the

[00:30:40] plan template the video we provided a VLA playbook for all literacy leaders that provided examples and directions for completing the plan this plan is comprised of six sections and we'll take some time to review each section so as mr. Slevin was saying we all know that literacy cannot live in a silo and high quality literacy instruction can only be successful for students when there is alignment and collaboration that is supportive to teachers and leaders the core literacy team has worked collaboratively to create the plan we

[00:31:17] are about to share with you I am proud of the work we have done as an interdisciplinary team to support our division with literacy our literacy work consistently involves the elementary education office research assessment and school improvement office special education office the elementary English learner office MTSS office and ongoing collaboration with principals and other division leadership all of our team members have collaborated on this plan and we are excited to share our work with you and like mr. Slevin said they here today so it's great to have them here with us to provide some context to

[00:31:56] the division literacy plan this slide outlines some specifics from the Virginia Literacy Act as mentioned the VLA requires all school divisions to have a division literacy plan for next school year 2024 2025 the plan will apply to kindergarten through fifth grade only in 25 26 the plan will be updated to include 6th 7th and 8th grades after the update in 2526 the plan will be reviewed and updated on a biennial basis for our first plan a draft must be submitted to the video e by july 1st

[00:32:36] the video we will then review all plans and provide feedback to divisions since the intervention and supplemental material guides were just approved at the end of april many school divisions have expressed concerns that they will need to wait for the start of next school year in order to purchase those materials because of this the video e has provided all divisions with flexibility to make adjustments to their division literacy plans through december section one addresses planning

[00:33:11] for comprehensive communication this section of the plan outlines our vision for literacy our vision statement was created by the core literacy team in collaboration with principal and teacher focus groups in addition to our vision we have added our values and beliefs with literacy instruction for our division you can find that on page one of the plan on page two you will see a breakdown of the various stakeholder stakeholders across the LCPS community who are involved in literacy this plan requires a timeline and plan for communication in LCPS we

[00:33:50] have structures for engaging with our stakeholders that have been in place prior to the creation of this division literacy plan in the timeline column what you will see is the meeting cadence established to engage with each of those groups we do not have a timeline per se because we see this work with our stakeholders is ongoing and with no set termination date it never ends and that's a good thing the plan column provides what and how we are engaging with various stakeholders across our division section two focuses on the

[00:34:28] instructional materials that will be used in classrooms the VLA mandates all school divisions implement approved high-quality instructional materials for core instruction supplemental instruction and intervention support we have recently concluded our adoption process for our core instructional resources all elementary schools will implement HMH into reading as the core instructional resource for literacy as mentioned previously the Virginia Board of Education recently approved the supplemental and intervention materials list that may be

[00:35:03] utilized. LCPS has already implemented some of these resources, such as UFLY Foundations and Hegarty, and plan to continue implementing these resources in some capacities. Some areas still indicate TBD until our team has an opportunity to review the approved materials.

[00:35:26] Those components will be added in the coming weeks. This portion of the plan may continue to evolve as we learn more about the literacy needs of our students in LCPS the video e has provided very specific definitions for supplemental and intervention materials supplemental instruction is defined as being additional evidence-based literacy instruction that is used to enhance the core instructional program in essence this means that programs currently being implemented in LCPS

[00:36:00] such as ufly foundations and hegerty will need to be used in addition to the into reading not in place of for intervention instruction those materials are highly structured and explicit to support students who persistently struggle to master reading skills section 3 outlines the professional learning requirements that are part of the virginia literacy act when we think about the professional learning this um for this part of the vla there are two main buckets

[00:36:38] the first is the required training from the state regarding evidence-based reading research training the second is our professional learning learning needed to support the implementation of the rollout of our core instructional program the slide you see here outlines the required training from the virginia literacy act all teachers will be required to complete one of the three training options that have been approved by the videoe approved trainings are video week the video created canvas course letters volume one or orton gillingham as we shared with the

[00:37:17] full board during the work session on april in april we have over 980 teachers that have already completed volume one of letters we have an additional 280 teachers set to complete volume one by the end of june and we have 200 that are registered to begin volume one over the summer this slide highlights the different groups that will need to be will need to participate in the the required training as part of the VLA as you can see principals reading specialists and teachers will all have required training and in addition to the

[00:37:54] required training from the VLA our LCPS team will be working alongside our HMH partners to roll out the training for into reading our foundational trainings will be based on learning how to navigate and implement the resource and we'll draw on our collective knowledge and expertise around the science of reading to ensure we are providing high quality evidence-based literacy instruction in all k-5 classrooms our professional learning has launched this spring with kickoff sessions for all teachers in August teachers will receive more specific learning on how to plan and implement the core resources and

[00:38:31] throughout the year teachers and principals will receive bite-sized professional learning that will link to instructional walkthroughs supported by the elementary education office as well as the elementary reading and writing office the L office and special education offices section 4 the division literacy plan focuses on student assessments and progress monitoring we have listed the required assessments from the state and division perspectives next year vows will be extended to include our third grade students guidance from the Virginia literacy partnership office the developer and

[00:39:10] management of vows shared that the following guidance shared guidance for who should participate in the vows testing all kindergarten first and second grade students will be required to participate in the assessment during the fall and spring testing windows mid-year assessments will be optional based on student need for third grade only students new to Virginia or who were identified as high risk during the spring window of second grade will be required to complete the fall VALS assessment the SOLs are considered the

[00:39:47] spring assessment for third grade we will also continue with map assessments and will introduce HMH module assessments to monitor student progress between testing windows.

[00:40:04] Section four and section five seem slightly similar based on their titles. The main difference is that section four is specific to assessing and monitoring student progress, while section five focuses on monitoring and assessing division level progress.

[00:40:21] Here, the core literacy team has outlined the various systems and structures we have available to continue monitoring division progress. Goal 1.1 of our strategic plan specifically addresses early literacy. As part of that goal, quarterly updates are provided to the school board and community.

[00:40:39] We also have identified using monitoring comments from school improvement plans in conjunction with classroom walkthroughs and feedback. All elementary schools engage in collaborative learning teams, which meet on a regular basis. Principals, division leadership, and support staff will participate in CLTs to engage in conversation monitor student progress towards our literacy goals finally progress on our students most in need will be monitored through the state required student reading plans section 6 is the final piece of the division literacy plan this

[00:41:16] section is separated into two sections section 1 outlines the engagement for parents and caregivers in the creation of the student reading plans as a division team we are working with school leadership teams to determine how parents will be involved in the creation of the plan rather than just acknowledging the plan has been created in addition to the plan LCPS will provide consistent updates to parents on student reading progress with the student reading plan but who requires but who requires a student reading plan according to the Virginia literacy office the VLP office students are

[00:41:54] identified as high risk on the vowels assessment will need a student reading plan the plans address specific learning gaps with literacy as well as which intervention students will receive and the frequency of the prescribed intervention student reading plans are required to be in place until a student tests out of that high band risk part two of section six shares how LCPS will engage with the larger community around literacy we are fortunate here in LCPS to have a wealth of resources that already support community engagement on

[00:42:31] the screen you can see a few of the specific resources and offices available support parents and caregivers as they engage with literacy instruction for their child specifically our L face office has held multiple literacy related sessions parent resource services has supports on literacy as well as our individual office web pages that outline who to contact with questions all members of our core literacy team have participated in various PTO or PTA fairs across the division to support literacy nights at our elementary schools and this will continue as we move forward with the implementation of the VLA

[00:43:08] finally our team continues to establish partnerships with our community to strengthen the relationship between the division and the community around supporting literacy instruction part of this community engagement is ensuring the community is aware of the division literacy plan the plan requires that divisions post the plan publicly and update as needed the reading specialist job description and contact information must also be publicly posted for access so what are our next steps first we would like to seek feedback from the

[00:43:47] board this is a comprehensive plan with many moving parts after reviewing the draft what is represented well within the plan what might we need to add or clarify and second we are working with the community connections office on posting and publishing the division literacy plan we are excited to share that that work is well underway community a communication plan has been developed an LCPS website has been published once the plan is approved from the video II it will be added to the site for the community to to view we continue to work through the various professional learning requirements for

[00:44:24] teachers this is an ongoing conversation with a variety of offices as we work to ensure support is available for teachers and leaders to complete all of the required training finally we are working as a team to determine the best method to post and maintain reading specialists and dyslexia specialist contact information so thank you for the opportunity to share our work so far we are proud of the collaboration that got us to this point and so we're available for any questions that you might have thank you so much colleagues you have any questions go ahead dr. she thank you for this awesome presentation it looks

[00:45:04] pretty promising really helpful for the for the students as a college professor I love how you had mentioned the canvas course training because I mean canvas is something that as college professors that we use that all the time so it's nice to see that incorporated into it I believe on slide 4 I'm just not clear I'm sure you mentioned it on slide 4 you had mentioned that that the plan will be from K to 5 in 24/25 does that serve as a pilot such that by the time 25 26 comes around it'll be updated is that why that it more grades are incorporated

[00:45:41] later on? That's correct. It's my understanding that the Virginia Board of Education is still developing guidance for middle school grades for 6th, 7th, and 8th. And so because of that, it would have been difficult for them to complete their section of the plan that would address those grade levels because we're still waiting on quite a bit of information from the state about that.

[00:46:06] You know, to add on to that, we're still waiting on information for kindergarten through fifth grade too you know we know that more so we are so but we have enough right now that they felt like we could go ahead and get a plan in place but it would just be for the one year and then the next year it'll address k through eight and then every two years we'll take a relook at the plan and make updates to it thank you for that and um if for the professional learning part that you had mentioned um is i'm assuming this is all in person like this is all in person okay there there are a few

[00:46:40] the small places for the implementation training for HMH Interreading, there is one 90-minute virtual course that, it's not a course, it's more of like a getting started training, like the first 20-day training. Every school has that 90 minutes, and they can schedule it when they would like to have it, and it will be a virtual. But everything else that you see listed there is in person.

[00:47:06] So it just seems like a lot for the teachers. I mean, I know for us college professors, we get stomach aches when we look at when we look at that. So it just seems like a lot. Is there a timeline for them to complete that or is it is it spread out?

[00:47:25] Such that maybe it decreases the huge burden, the challenging burden of putting all that professional learning all at once, perhaps? So, Catherine could get into some details about the timeline, but this is one of the issues we're trying to raise publicly, the impact this is going to have on our teachers.

[00:47:45] Across the region, school divisions are really struggling with the expectations put on our teachers directly from the VDOE. This is coupled with not only do we have the VLA training, the new materials that we were required to adopt by the VLA.

[00:48:01] we have new standards that are rolled out like when those standards change and teachers need to retool all of their lessons because of the new standards not only in the ELA but also in math and this is k-12 and so we are worried about our teachers and so we are working with chair Mansfield and talking about some possible options for supporting our teachers that being said it is rolled out over the year but it's going to be a long year with a lot of a lot of expectations on teachers so Katherine can you talk a little bit about how some

[00:48:36] things are spread out and some are time-bound so earlier in the presentation we talked about there being two buckets of professional learning right so there's the bucket that is the required training from the state and then there's the implementation science of research science of reading research training that we're doing and also training on the new revised standards so

[00:49:03] In thinking about the HMH training and on the new standards, we've had a lot of conversations with elementary principals during their principal meetings about what they would like to see as far as training for next year. And so what you see in the plan is kind of what we had laid out for principals on how we can help to support them.

[00:49:26] And one of the things that they had asked is that the training for the implementation happened towards the beginning of the year, so that teachers would be prepared with all the new resources that they have and have somewhat of an understanding. It's going to take time, but an understanding of how to implement those resources in their classroom.

[00:49:44] But then on an ongoing basis, we would kind of address and kind of help to support, whether it's in the school with our facilitator support whether it's you know bringing some schools together and doing some some trainings there but just trying to be responsive to the needs as teachers are getting into it and having questions and things like that trying to respond the other bucket with the the required training from the state that's where you know there it is a canvas course that's one of the options we do have a number of teachers that have gone through letters I do have some numbers here that might actually be a little bit

[00:50:23] they're the most they're hot off the press they're the most updated numbers we have so for like letters volume one we have if we look at year school year 22 23 23 24 and as of today who has completed for 24 25 we have 1,482 teachers that have completed letters volume one for og training I was just talking with Ms. Osbury and we have 1,037 teachers that have been trained in OG and those are current employees so that they're still here with us in LCPS so we do have teachers that have completed

[00:51:02] that required training from the states not everybody but it is some that have completed that will have met that requirement Dr. Deans and of those who teachers who have already completed their training. So they'll sort of have the step forward, the get started part. For those who are getting their training this summer and in the fall when they return, if you thought about how that's

[00:51:41] going to impact student learning, old training, new training, gaps in training. So I can say that with that, the implementation training, when we talk about like implementing HMH into reading and we talk about um the science of reading research like all teachers will receive that and so we've been looking at like our county-wide PD days we've been looking at our August days like before school begins to see how we might capture that time so that it doesn't equate to teachers being pulled

[00:52:18] from the classroom for that training which would have an impact on students so we're looking um you know part of the letters professional learning does have um you know some time where teachers do need to leave the classroom and have subs but it's one per quarter so it's not you know they're they're not being gone for multiple days at a time we try to spread that out but there is some learning from that perspective that has to you know take place to meet that requirement and when you give those numbers 1482 1037 that's compared to how many total teachers who would need it

[00:52:57] How many total teachers do we have? That's probably a bad question, but I'm just saying, what, what, what? How many more? Yeah. So we have approximately 1,500 to 1,600 elementary teachers, about 500 ballpark EL, I'm sorry, 300, 1,200 special education teachers.

[00:53:31] So maybe we're about a third. Okay. This isn't a math presentation, but. Okay. Okay. And I do think it's important to highlight there, too, that we're the division literacy plans focused specifically on K through five, but we are taking lots of proactive steps for six through eight.

[00:53:47] And the training does extend to our ELA teachers in the middle school grades, six through eight, and also our math, science and social studies teachers in the middle school grades. So next year we are going through, we presented on this before, a resource adoption for middle school as well.

[00:54:03] And middle school teachers are also wrestling with the implementation of new interventions like Lexia Power Up. So our elementary teachers have been kind of dealing with or talking about the Virginia Literacy Plan for many years. And this is also going to have a bigger impact on our middle school teachers than they may have previously felt with some of these changes coming and some of the required trainings.

[00:54:24] I just wanted to put that secondary lens on there as well because they will be impacted through this. Also, will there be some way to compare the data pre-implementation and post-implementation, especially that division data that outsiders look at us for?

[00:54:50] So currently, looking at SOLs, looking at MAP, looking at VALs are part of the strategic plan. I know that the board will be revisiting and discussing metrics at the upcoming retreat, But I can't imagine that monitoring literacy achievement will be something that the board does not prioritize.

[00:55:11] So, yes, that will be something that we will be – it's a core metric for us as the Department of Teaching and Learning, as Latin County Public Schools. So I don't expect that not to be centered. And can you speak to the parental involvement piece?

[00:55:27] It seems that they were sort of like in stage six or whatever. Is there already some parental involvement in terms of how we move forward? So we have partnered consistently with MSAC and SEAC and LEAF throughout this process.

[00:55:46] We want to continue to keep those lines of communication open between those groups. A big part of the work around this is notification of families and those reading plans. So the public documentation of reading specialists, job descriptions, for example, All those things are driving us to make sure that family engagement is a big part of our plan related to literacy.

[00:56:16] All right. I have a little bit of interest in this. In one sense, I feel like we've reached a finish line, like just to get to this point of rollout. But really, this is just the beginning of the work. And I thank you for all the work that you've done and, you know, to get to this point.

[00:56:33] And I have sort of like three buckets of questions, I guess. I'm going to try and be as concise as possible to, you know, mind the time. But my first question, I think there will definitely be interest, I'm going to, like, look at my colleagues here, about continuing to talk about the professional development plan.

[00:56:52] I know I've spoken with Chair Mansfield and Dr. Spence already, and I appreciate, you know, his assertiveness in calling out the VDOE and, you know, kind of the pressure that they're putting on our teachers. And, you know, in the meeting I said, we won't let you down in terms of we're going to try to do our best to make this manageable.

[00:57:11] And I know that's all on our minds. We don't like to use the word worried, but I think, you know, I hear you saying that and I'm worried. You know, we're really worried about the morale of our teachers and all the things that they have to do. So I kind of want to set that aside for maybe another time that we can continue to address that here.

[00:57:30] And the piece I really want to focus on is the piece that is within our scope of control, which is the rollout for HMH into reading in our new program. I would like some clarification on what that looks like. I know there has been some shifting in terms of our facilitator roles.

[00:57:49] And they're going to be doing training, I believe, for ELA facilitators. We've had a shift with our district and school-based facilitators. they're going the diffs are going one to one but not all schools are getting one so kind of where's that gap going to be filled in terms of supportive teachers and then what is the reading specialist role I'm glad they're gonna say that that job description is going to be posted I think for me something I would like to see is clearly defined roles of these different professionals that have the literacy knowledge and where they're going to interact because I have some

[00:58:25] concerns that we're taking people with the highest level of science of reading knowledge and professional learning being the ELA facilitators and our reading specialists and maybe moving them away from the classroom teachers and I just want to clarify what that is because I also see in the division literacy plan you'll be responsive to schools but it is my understanding that they won't support schools anymore so if you could just kind of summarize what those different roles are and something that I would like to see in the division literacy plan is more defined roles for those people that are interacting with this curriculum. So I'll start and then I'll let

[00:59:02] Catherine get into a little bit more details about the ELA facilitators and the reading specialists. The division instructional facilitators in an elementary there are 16 of those positions currently. Those positions have been assigned to schools specifically based on needs determined through the continuous school improvement process. The number one factor was literacy data in growth in terms of student achievement and placement, but we also considered math achievement and math growth, growth of EL and special education students, and we

[00:59:38] also looked at science scores for placing those facilitators in schools. This was based on really primarily two things. One, feedback from principals about the number of facilitators coming into their buildings and trying to manage the different well-intentioned supports that are coming, and two, recognizing that we need to have some changes to our school improvement process.

[01:00:03] We need to be school-centric in how we make decisions about how resources are placed at schools. So those facilitators may be working on reading and supporting literacy in collaboration with the central office.

[01:00:18] They may be working on math. They may be working on CLT structures, data analysis, formative assessment. There's all kinds of things that fit in the puzzle a school that these facilitators can support it in addition we do have the ELA facilitators and we recognize just the amount of centralized support that's going to happen next year like next year is gonna be a very unique year when it comes to literacy I don't know if the next year is going to be any better but next year is definitely going to be significant and so we have we have big picture supports and we have seven of those ELA facilitators and we have 60

[01:00:55] schools that that need that need that level of support and so Catherine could talk a little bit more details about how that is going to be rolled out but just recognizing the scale of the need in the way we could deploy those those particular positions so many more schools and more teachers have access to them and then I'll let Catherine talk a little bit more about the reading specialist role so what would you add the the only thing that I would add is that there is intentional planning that will take place to help because of the

[01:01:32] other supports like the diff and the spiffs that are in the schools to be able to have some collaboration between our team the ELA facilitator team and the diffs and the spiffs because one thing that we heard from principals is that they want one consistent message that's coming around literacy from our office and and with this training with the implementation of HMH they really want to have everyone hearing the same thing and like they are responding to those expectations the same in the same way one of the examples that in our principal focus group that they gave was you know sometimes we get students from

[01:02:09] another school within Loudon and they come like you know if a third grade students going from one school to another school their their literacy instruction was completely different at the one school than at this school and if there is some consistency we heard that very loud and clear and so really being able to pull in our ELA facilitators to be able to help give kind of that that implementation training that's going to really help share that consistent message and then also working collaboratively with diffs and spiffs for those schools that have them to be able to help support in that way too so

[01:02:45] will ELA facilitators be directly training teachers on implementation or is it a turnaround training to dips and spiffs I think some of that is a TBD like it where we have to look at to see the ELA facilitators in the very beginning of the year will be providing training to all schools it doesn't mean that they'll be able to be at one specific like they're not going to be able to make it out to all 60 schools in August so there is going to be some clustering of schools maybe having some regional sites we've already done some kind of initial planning around that and coordinating with principals about when

[01:03:22] the best time to have that is for their staff so there's gonna be some of that where that begins our message but then we are going to need to lean into our distance best to be able to help to support that work in the school and that's where that collaboration comes in yeah I guess my concern is just I mean I know it's based on needs so the higher need schools will have that and I understand that but when you're talking about that support of the coaching and the in the classroom instruction and you have schools that don't have those people I worry that that's you know an equity issue that that's you know where everybody every school has needs I mean that's so I do just having been here for a long time in the implementation of you know all the

[01:04:02] things for many years I know one of the things that we struggled with was that follow-up is like the coaching piece the being in the in the building and I'm excited about them being school-based one-to-one I think it's going to be a really powerful thing but not all of them have them in this very crucial year so just kind of noodling on that and you know if it's TBD then I guess we'll go we'll we'll go with that and even if those seven positions were assigned to a school one-to-one we wouldn't have still have half our schools not receiving a support and so we're trying to be we're trying to balance the resources that we have with putting them in the schools that

[01:04:40] are demonstrating the most needs we do have schools through additional staffing the board is provided through flexible staffing and differentiated staffing choosing to have a school-based facilitators and we're going to have a really tight relationship with those people in this those positions this upcoming school year with some of the restructuring we've done in our professional learning office we also have recognized that and we've said this to principals out the gate that they wouldn't all have a facilitator like we have teams of people that are available to support that aren't maybe embedded in the school i'm looking at the The school improvement team here today, the special ed team, the EL team, they are chopping

[01:05:15] at the bit to be in schools and helping principals through that school improvement process. So we understand the moment we're in, and we're trying our best to find a way to align. And maybe in the future, if we see an impact, I would predict that schools are going to say, I want one of those facilitators.

[01:05:35] And when we ask principals for feedback in the budget, we may be having those conversations in future budget years I appreciate that my next question is about assessments so I know we've had this conversation here before another piece of the puzzle I think in terms of teacher load is how many assessments we're giving so I heard you mention two things some modules through HMH and then as is that one is that progress monitoring module is that another assessment that we're requiring to be given are we still giving fast to support MTSS and then

[01:06:13] are the student reading plans are you referencing the module plans through MTSS are you talking about additional reading plans that will have to be created because of the new curriculum you might have to remind me on some of those questions if I don't if I don't hit them all so with the module assessments for HMH the way that HMH is structured every grade level it has a certain amount of modules to it so for example I believe it's most most grade levels have nine modules that will last them through the year and so they have module assessments that we are currently looking at our new standards to see how

[01:06:53] well those module assessments like so it's kind of like a summative assessment at the end of the module to see how well those questions are aligned to our new revised standards something we've heard from teachers is sometimes they have trouble at report card for report cards to be able to kind of report out on how well students are mastering those standards so we're trying to do some alignment there with those module assessments I I envision it being something that is offered to schools as a way to assess the student achievement

[01:07:28] within the classroom with that with the core instruction and that that's kind of where we're at at this point with what we know we're still learning a lot about HMH ourselves with that the other question the reading plan so the what we've been working with the MTSS office to look at the reading plan I will be honest the the guidance that we've had from the state on student reading plans is very limited so we have the template and that's what we are we know that the template has been approved at the state level but there are some questions about

[01:08:07] what certain parts of that template mean and so we're working with the MTSS office to see how we can align those two so that teachers aren't being asked to fill out a student reading plan and a module plan that it would be one in the same I'll stop there um any other questions go ahead new teachers are going to be onboarded and that's a data dump and with the new with this new

[01:08:46] implementation that's another data down where do we go or the new teachers going to be brought in earlier is there any adjustment to schedules in order to have this data to be received and used properly as they move forward so that's a great point that you're raising dr. Dean thinking about our newest teachers I'm also thinking about our newest special education teachers, like coming into the system and learning special education, for example.

[01:09:23] I always had a place in my heart for those teachers when I was a principal in the building. And so we are definitely thinking about partnering with our mentoring and coaching office. New teachers do start a few days early, and so good point of feedback.

[01:09:41] If we haven't already, we need to think about how we can connect with the mentoring and coaching office. But we do have a mindset, and we're having discussions internally about how we can clear the deck, so to speak. We have received significant feedback about the amount of required training, not just for new staff, but veteran staff.

[01:09:58] And so part of this, and we're also looking at alternative schedules. And so that's part of the conversations that we're having, and I think Ms. Chernoff is alluding to future conversations. So how do we clear the deck a little bit, find some time for people, because that's really what, when I talk to teachers, that's what they want more of.

[01:10:16] and how can we align some of our supports that already exist to make sure this is the focus. So, would you add anything? Yeah, I think you're hearing loud and clear from us the concern about those many levels.

[01:10:31] So, we appreciate the ongoing conversation and look forward to more updates in the future. And thank you so much. With that, we will move to 5.03, our fine arts review. I'll let our friends get settled and then we will begin.

[01:10:47] I will pass it to Mr. Slevin to introduce our colleagues that we'll be presenting today.

[01:11:13] - Thank you, Mr. Chernoff. I am really pleased to be spotlighting our fine arts program today. We have an amazing fine arts team within the Department of Teaching and Learning, but really our schools are just amazing showcases of talent for our students and a source of great stories consistently across our website.

[01:11:33] And you see notices that superintendent reports, a lot of it comes from the mighty team here today led by Mike Pearson so he'll introduce his team but we want to get right into the presentation looking at the time so I'm gonna turn it over to I'll drive just tell me next slide okay okay thank you I'd like to first thank you for the opportunity to present about our program that we're very proud of and we're very proud to serve the community of Loudoun the entire school division and support this opportunity for all of the students in Loudoun County Public Schools.

[01:12:05] We have with me our team from my office. On the left is Julie Galvin, our art specialist, Elaine Stanford, who is our music specialist, and Jonathan Mark Rogers, our theater specialist. They're great folks to work with and very knowledgeable, great sources of support.

[01:12:21] I'd like to, basically, in today's presentation, talk about a few of our highlights and successes, accomplishments. I'd like to talk about our program structure and the types of supports we provide, And we're going to look at a snapshot of enrollment, and then look at a vision for the future.

[01:12:37] What supports do we need to keep this program successful as we go forward? So on the first couple of slides, I'll highlight just a few, just a very few of our successes, student and programs. We have art displays, student artwork throughout the community and county.

[01:12:57] We have just numerous opportunities for our students and countless examples of programs receiving regional, state, and national recognitions. So as we move on to our next slide, we'll do the structure.

[01:13:15] As you just met our specialist, we have three curricular programs, art, music, and theater. But we also have two other programs you may or may not be aware of that are under the Fine Arts Office, and that's the Summer in Arts program and the Bavon program. In the next few slides, we'll talk a little bit more about those.

[01:13:32] I do want to highlight three main things that we're very proud of in the last few years we've collaborated with help from the school board and with HRTD and business and finance, and that was the implementation of the stipends, and we're still working on refining that program, but it's been an amazing thing for our programs.

[01:13:51] We have really started before COVID, and covet interrupted the process have been working with the support services on alleviating some of the the storage programs we have and again i'll go into just in a little bit more detail later in this presentation uh and again with the help of the school board we've continued to reduce student fees in certain areas and i've highlighted a couple of those recent examples here on this slide so uh in each of the programs art music and theater sometimes get lumped together and i think of academics we think of academics but under that there's different areas so so under fine arts we

[01:14:28] have each of these areas requires unique supports now there are some supports that are common across those so the first four things listed here you'll see on each of these slides we have instructional allotments but those are differentiated for each area as well we provide professional development support for conference and workshop attendance and of course in the nature of our work curriculum resources specialized things you might see for the in support for the art program would be clay clay slab rollers pug mills light panels art tables printing presses cameras and a whole assortment of other things specific to the type of media that the class needs we also have kilns

[01:15:08] in every school those get up to what 1400 degrees or so 1800 okay and they require a lot of safety and maintenance with the electrical work so we're often coordinating for facilities that we have regular maintenance contracts for those we have service for our digital film cameras for the high school film program of course coordinating the art displays that I've referenced earlier and for our digital art classes that requires that coordination with DDI especially when certain things change either in the software the environment all of a sudden we don't have access to it or won't work on a computer so those are all the types of things we do for art in music

[01:15:47] the first four things you recognize from the last slide but in this case our Our specialized equipment might be things like the instruments we provide for schools, tubas, bassoons, oboes, et cetera. But also the music stands and chairs, the choral risers you see folks using, mobile storage racks for stands and chairs.

[01:16:07] And when we talk about storage later, that is part of our temporary solution we've used right now to try to alleviate floor space. And it's been very helpful in that, but it doesn't do everything we need. We have actual instrument repair contracts with vendors for maintaining our school-owned instruments as well as all of the school-owned pianos across the county.

[01:16:30] We are moving to digital pianos gradually. So we have right now a – those don't require tuning, and they've actually – we've been using them for about the last 10 years in some of the schools as we roll this out. They've been very maintenance-free so far.

[01:16:46] I hope I didn't jinx that. So transportation, we provide the VJSL, athletics and music, the VMEA program supports, is our structure that we participate in. Because we value that, we support the local bus transportation for those events.

[01:17:04] We're our own district. We're one of the only places in the state. We're District 16 where other places might have six, eight, or ten counties or school divisions in their district. So we're District 16. We support all of that in our all-county to make sure that students and schools aren't burdened with those transportation costs.

[01:17:23] Let's see. We provide the operating costs for those events as well. Just to highlight real quickly, we have four programs under music, band, chorus, guitar, and orchestra, and we provide, through the stipend program that was implemented two years ago, choral accompanist, professional music clinicians, and marching band staff for these programs.

[01:17:41] in the theater program uh again the first four you recognize we have discretionary funding for school specific projects as needed what we found in theater is that every space is different every school has had different designs in the auditorium and stage but also there's been modifications to those in one way or another whether locally in the school community or some other method but So as we've identified areas of need, we've used the funds that we have access to meet these needs.

[01:18:12] An example, as mentioned here, the cyclorama, which is the background curtain that you see illuminated during a presentation, the white curtain. And we've put those in schools, and we still have a few to install or have installed. And we provide a digital resource for our theater programs that's been very well received.

[01:18:32] So we also cover the CAPE's Blue Ridge fees for every school that participates. And I want to mention here, not really a support, but we are supporting a program that, in addition to the enrollment during the curricular part of this, has another 2,700 students we estimate participating in productions after school.

[01:18:55] We also support, through our stipends, three productions. That's the VHSL one-act play, full-length play, and a musical. The selection approval productions is regulated through policy and regulation 8310, which you are now familiar with after the last few meetings.

[01:19:17] The Summer Arts program averages around 480 students or so every year. It runs for two weeks. I will say that we are looking for a site for next year because Heritage High School, Jeff Adams, the principal there, has been great in hosting us, giving up his building. So we are currently looking for a location for next year, but we'll find one I'm sure the provide program that is the On the next slide is one of 16 regional governor schools established by the state of Virginia in 1982 and it provided a grant of $32,000 on the next slide there for good

[01:19:52] Approximately $32,000 in 1982 for each of those that grant amount has not changed since 1982 I find that very interesting so we currently have four participating school divisions and we are the fiscal agents So this resides within my office meaning the grant money and everything passes through LCPS And we monitor the expenditures the two-week program has offerings for art theater choral and guitar music All right at this time just like to give you a quick snapshot of our current enrollment we have

[01:20:29] We serve all the students in K-5 for art and music. At the secondary level, we have roughly 33,000 students in grades 6 through 12 in art, music, and theater. As you see the actual numbers there from the current CLIC data for the total of just over 68,000 students who receive art, music, and theater.

[01:20:51] I broke down the music one because of the separate components there in case you were interested in that. So just highlight that there. On the next slide, we will look at the vision for the future. So we recognize that our programs are an essential part of our student experience, that we have high support, we have high-quality staff and great support from our community.

[01:21:13] We want to support that. The result is that our programs are widely recognized. But we recognize there are things that need reviewed and looked at as we move forward. So in the next slides, I'd like to highlight those. There are two categories. One of those is support for schools and teachers. And we'll go into just a little bit more detail. Instructural allotments, stipends, and non-teaching responsibilities. I've heard references to concerns about teacher workload earlier, and this speaks to that. Also, partnering, working with other divisions. Divine Arts crosses all of the divisions frequently just because we're using all kinds of unique spaces, transportation, lots of stuff happening after school.

[01:21:52] And so partnering with other areas on a couple areas that I've highlighted here. So on the next slide, I'll talk about allotments. Basically, they've remained virtually unchanged in the last 20 years. There's a number of reasons for that.

[01:22:08] But we've certainly stretched them out. And with inflation, everybody recognizes the impact on that, that the anecdotal feedback we have from teachers is that they're under a lot of pressure with those. Just the cost of clay itself. I didn't think about this. goes up but the shipping itself it's very heavy it's really putting a burden on schools we want to look at all of our allotments i've highlighted some details of what those might be used for in a classroom typically and we want to provide better support for those i do want to highlight that we typically think of allotments as per pupil enrollment or per pupil enrolled in a program

[01:22:47] but historically i don't know when this started in loud in the theater and music allotments have been at the secondary level program allotment so regardless of the size of your program or school you get x amount of money and we we recognize that there's a need we need to review that and make sure that we're providing something that meets the needs of our smallest programs but also allows some adjustments for programs that are very very large in terms of stipends which we've already referenced a couple times here we are actually currently active actively working with hrtd and

[01:23:22] business and finance the budget office to review our current stipend structures this is ongoing and current we recognize we've had feedback from our elementary teachers about the amount of time that they're they have to commit outside the regular school day that's uncompensated as they watch their peers get stipends and and compensation for that so we want to give attention to that and each year we started this with the implementation we provide fine arts guidance and currently working with hrtd and business finance to make sure to update that on lessons learned and to make sure that we're providing the guidance schools need and the users teachers to ensure

[01:24:01] clarity and accountability accuracy in the process so as we go to the next slide uh talked about supporting teachers and this is where the workload came in hand we we hear this a lot especially at the high school level where the programs require a lot of support so we we want to give attention to that as we go forward and provide that make sure we're supporting schools and teachers properly we're cognizant of teacher burnout and the stress it puts on them so next slide uh we'll continue to collaborate with support services i want to mention on this fine arts storage so since i've came here i've watched the average size of our programs more than double and in that process i

[01:24:41] watched our orchestra program grow from 22 students to currently around 4 300 with no space for that in most of our schools up through 2012 so uh we've had a couple high schools get additions for that but you have the introduction of a new program as it grew and just larger programs so our spaces definitely need some attention on that and i'm glad that that is ongoing but we want to make sure that our eyes remain on that and it remains a priority and finally in uh in regard to transportation i talked earlier in program supports about what we provide uh currently like in the

[01:25:18] music program there is an area in the music program that still gets hit hard they end up fundraising and selling candy bars it's a burden on them our marching band programs the there's they typically do four to five competitions during the season but you see the the trucks they have that they're usually renting those and the total cost of all this really puts a burden on the programs we took care of the stipends this this is one of the largest remaining burdens based on the feedback I get from our directors we do have funding I mean, theater's a little unique in that if it's a VHSL one-act play, if a bus busing is needed, that's covered through the VHSL budget.

[01:25:58] A lot of the trips locally are parent transportation, but if there is a bus needed, if we get a request for one, we can provide that discretionary help with that. And so we just try to keep things in parameters so we can be equitable across the board. With that, I'm ready to take your questions.

[01:26:17] Thank you so much. I, first of all, just want to thank staff for being open to this conversation. When I think sort of the stars, you know, aligned with this when I brought this to Mr. Slevin and Dr. Ellis about just my interest in kind of exploring where we are with the arts and I appreciate you being willing to put this together.

[01:26:39] I know it's a lot of work and it's clearly a massive operation and I would like to, I've sort of in calling this I made it up but it feels like a comprehensive arts review is sort of where this is maybe headed or something that I'd like to explore with my colleagues the arts are near and dear to my heart and I do have some questions around certain things but I'm going to defer to them first but I just would like to ask that we think about how we might as a school board a new school board consider the arts and consider where we are and consider some of these things in terms of you know moving forward and while we have a top

[01:27:17] notch program we can make it even more top-notch and equitable across our different buildings so do you all have questions no okay I do so I will I will say this is sort of this is I've been a long dream of mine to have this conversation in Loudoun County Public Schools just in terms of we're Loudoun County we have so many resources and again honoring the great things that we're doing but also always knowing that there's room for growth and I do have a couple of things that you know I I see in your presentation that I just want to

[01:27:52] highlight and and build upon of course the the stipends a couple years ago that were implemented we've just heard from so many about the difference that that has made and you know there was a lot of advocacy from our arts community to get the ball rolling get the board on board at that time and I I want to be sort of proactive now on the side of elementary I just really I have a background in elementary but we are hearing and as you mentioned in your presentation the the elementary supports and when I brought this to mr. Slevin I was really quite

[01:28:30] shocked to hear that it's been 20 years since you know allotments and stipends have been reviewed so i think we're long overdue um and especially in terms of elementary level making sure that people are getting paid for the work that they're doing and the good work that they're doing and being rewarded for their creativity and innovation i know there's you know people that are putting on fifth grade musicals now at the elementary level and while that's their choice it may not be mandated um i want to provide a space for that for them

[01:29:01] And my question really is, how do we balance this bigger conversation about allotments versus stipends? And what is sort of your thinking about the purpose of each? And if you could kind of define what each one is. And I just wanted to note that my colleagues are okay with staying for 10 extra minutes, if you are.

[01:29:20] Would that be all right? Okay. So I'm not sure what you mean by balance. I have to separate them out. The stipends are a compensation-type structure for employee compensation, whereas the allotments we're talking about here in terms of instructional allotments are for classroom and program use and not for compensation.

[01:29:42] But in terms of to inform the stipends, we gathered log data from schools on estimated from a lot of staff members, some of them solicited, some unsolicited, over 10 or 12 years. We looked at this and reviewed it with some of our staff.

[01:30:00] What is realistic and pragmatic? What is the actual workload in a standard program? That gave us some baseline parameters to look at for looking at the stipend compensations. On the instructional allotment side, you're asking about balance. I guess I'm thinking, if I'm not answering your question, please let me know.

[01:30:17] In talking to the budget office, we need to look at our baseline expenditures. Where are we now? Where are schools coming up short? Is there money? Are we hearing that we're coming up short, but there's money left on the table, and why is that? We need to work through our baseline. what the data tells us about this, but I'm confident that there's pressure on these programs, especially our larger programs in that.

[01:30:41] So in terms of balance, do you mean priority between the two, or did I? Yeah, I think that that kind of answers it where the allotments are more curricular for what's required, and then stipends would be for additional, and I'm wondering, when I say balance, I'm wondering, or maybe that's not the right word, but I'm wondering if we need, you know, some sort of set standards across like what is required i know for theater like for example in high school they have three things that the district supports right like the three performances like are those standards in place for elementary and are we appropriately giving those opportunities for our elementary kids consistently across all schools all different backgrounds and then how

[01:31:20] would the stipends play into that in terms of enhancing those programs and i think mr sloven So I view stipends as a tool that the division or the board can use to set support for consistency across schools, meaning, you know, if you just pick yearbook, for example.

[01:31:38] The yearbook has become part of school's culture. We kind of expect schools to have them, so we have embedded yearbook stipends. Actually, we added one for elementary in the $2.1 million. So really, it's a matter of do we want this consistently applied across schools? Because I could tell you there are some schools based on a teacher, an elementary school, that may be pushing and going above and beyond, which happens in many different subject areas.

[01:32:02] On the flip side with allotments, I look at allotments two ways. One is you just give schools money to have discretion to purchase coloring books, not coloring books, crayons, colored paper, whatever they need. That's really basic. Julie's probably judging me right now.

[01:32:19] Speaking of my kindergarten heart, I'm resonating. Okay, okay. Or you could have targeted allotments, meaning we're going to give you $4,000 to pay the licensing fees for every play. You don't have discretion, but we're paying for this, so you don't need to worry about it. And so those are the allotments that we see in our fine arts programs where I think we have opportunities based on teacher feedback.

[01:32:40] This is all coming from what we're hearing from our programs to evaluate those in future budget years. Thank you. I want that to happen. So I'm kind of trying to think about, you know, as we're entering, we're already into the next budget cycle, really.

[01:32:59] I mean, we're having those conversations. And, you know, I really feel like in terms of an equity issue and just all that we've heard about teacher morale, and particularly elementary, you know, it's higher turnover right now with elementary. We don't want to burn our people out. And so I think this is something that is doable and is worth reviewing.

[01:33:17] And I'm wondering if my colleagues would agree with that, that kind of going down this review process if maybe we could have you all kind of go down those paths that you talked about and then come back to us with what that might look like and how that process might go or maybe even some actual numbers in terms of what that would cost us so that as we think about the budget going forward if there is an interest that we could you know at least have that information is that something that you so you're asking if there's um like so you're imagining us coming forward in the

[01:33:52] with some more details about what some of the proposals might look like? Yes, if my colleagues are amenable to that. To them coming back with us with some ideas of what could be possible.

[01:34:09] Could be. Could be, not deciding. But not immediate. Right. Yes. Yeah, awesome. And then my last little thing is sort of just in getting some feedback as I've been out in the community and talking to some of our music and arts teachers, It's just sort of understanding this idea of staffing, and I do believe there was a shift at one point where staffing was sort of managed at the supervisor level here at admin, and now it's site-based, and hearing some concerns of people that are split between different schools.

[01:34:42] I know itinerant is a constant, you know, struggle. Nobody really wants to drive all over the county to do their job. That creates a thing. But if you could just sort of speak to that, and I don't know if it's more of a philosophical thing in my mind where I'm thinking, like, if you build it, they will come, rather than responding to enrollment as the staffing, you know, that's like two different things, right?

[01:35:04] You have the enrollment, and you respond to that, and you, like, get as, you know, as many people as you need to do that, but that can sometimes create, I think there's people that aren't even full-time that are, like, split between two schools. is that I think that's true and then the other piece is should we just establish that these are things that we value it takes time and staff to build programs and believe that if you build it they'll come and we will we honor it that way I that could be a bigger conversation but it is staffing is something that I am a little bit interested to hear about is your question about secondary yes okay I think that is a conversation and feedback we're hearing from schools but it's

[01:35:44] not limited to fine arts I think that is applicable across fine arts I think it touches on the world language conversations we've been having and and definitely touches in on our CTE programs and so one of the things that we're thinking about is how to approach staffing in a way that what do we want to see in our schools and how are we supporting that growth like not to belabor my experience as a principal but you know you knew you had a teacher that could grow a German program and you wanted to find a way to keep that person in your building so that the next year the momentum would grow like how are we supporting principals and finding pathways to do that we don't have like

[01:36:21] detailed plans but I know when we're talking to principals that's the kind of feedback they want like we're staffing now as students coming in buckets of 23.6 that doesn't always translate to supporting programs I think that's what you're getting at yeah and I just I want to be a county that says we believe in the arts like we believe in these things I know we do but sometimes it's like a chicken or the egg conversation right and it's like if we were to establish some staffing standards that allowed for the growth of those programs rather than just let's look at the numbers and see how we can meet

[01:36:55] the lowest common denominator I think that that sends a message to people you know by default that maybe it isn't a priority and I know there is a bigger conversation going on with the different pathways and the electives that we're seeing some drop off in terms of interest and different shifts that are happening across but I just wanted to put that on the table as something else that I think could be part of this review and thinking about how are we really sending the message that this is something we value for our students I mean in terms of the research and mental health and all the benefits of the arts and it can't be the only thing right we have lots of different things

[01:37:29] so I know that that's a lot and I'm just noodling on many many things but I do think that there is some significant room for growth and better practices in terms of really supporting our educators and the opportunity for our students. So do you need anything else from us? You have good direction? We have adequate direction. Awesome. All right, to get ready to adjourn our meeting after new business. Is there any new business? Did you want to speak, Mr. Slevin, to our new established time for the fall for our curriculum instruction meetings? Yes, thank you. We have had conversations

[01:38:07] with each of the committee members and we are moving beginning in August to the first Wednesdays from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. originally Dr. Deans I believe there was a conflict with MSAC and so we have arranged it so that the meetings would be concurrently so you're not maybe a little longer but they'll be a hard stop at 6 o'clock for those and so those are on your calendar and will be on the school board calendar and that will be the time going forward for the fall so So we'll finish this year in June at this time and we'll transition to that next fall.

[01:38:43] And then we'll be here to jump over to SEAC. Be in the same building. So it's SEAC. It must be SEAC. It's SEAC. Yeah. Thank you. With that, this meeting is adjourned.

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