Coraggio Consulting Loudoun County School Board, School Board Retreat, Tuesday, June 11, 2024 Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2024 Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV) Length: 6h 26m (video) Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/956485144?rel=0 BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting. Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-19. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:01:50] Good morning everyone. I call to order this June 11th, 2024 Loudoun County School Board retreat. At this time we will start with the disclosures and I will start after I put my glasses on. [00:02:13] As a member of the Loudoun County School Board I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in [00:02:49] the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands [00:03:24] of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected of which i am included i can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years thank you miss donahue thank you madam chair as a member of the loudon county school board i make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on today's agenda regarding employee salaries the budget and or health insurance and and any other discussion that may include or affect salary and benefits for LCPS employees. [00:04:01] Specifically, my spouse, my minor children, and I are enrolled in LCPS health insurance that may be affected by any potential changes to employee salaries, the budget, and or health insurance. Additionally, my sister-in-law is an LCPS employee who does not reside with me and is not dependent on me. These subjects include thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may be affected, of which my spouse, my sister-in-law, my minor children, and I and are included I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest this disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five [00:04:35] years thank you mrs. griffiths thank you madam chair as a member of the loudon county school board I make the following disclosure to the school board into the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:04:57] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. [00:05:12] I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. - Thank you. Vice Chair Streffi. - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on today's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:05:39] Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. [00:05:56] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. - Thank you. Ms. Chernoff? - Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosures to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on today's agenda regarding the budget and/or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. [00:06:21] Specifically, as a member of the school board, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included. I can and will participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. [00:06:39] This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. And now we will move on to board operations presented by myself. So I wanted to take the opportunity to do a little housekeeping today related to standing committees and administrative committees and appointing of chairs. [00:07:05] And, I mean, it's been six months, and we are starting to get into a little bit of a groove. And because we've been here for six months, there's been some things that have come up that we probably need to do a little housekeeping on. So the previous board had a norm that if the chair of the standing committee was absent, that another committee member, that they would appoint another committee member as chair so that the work could go on. [00:07:39] The reason why is because nobody wanted the meeting to be canceled if it met quorum. And we can all agree that since the majority of standing committees are only once a month, we need to make certain that they happen if more than two members can attend. [00:07:56] So similarly, if I had to miss a school board meeting, as long as the quorum is met, the meeting would still go on in my absence with Vice Chair Estreffi running. Or if he can't do it, there would be somebody else. Mr. Allen has since found that the understanding and the norm from the last board is not backed by policy. [00:08:17] So policy 2310 guides that appointing committee chairs and committee members for standing committees is under the sole purview of the board chair. So you have a couple of options. [00:08:33] The first option is that you could reschedule the meeting according to policy 2210 section F. However, if the meeting can't be rescheduled for various reasons and two standing committee members can still meet on that original date, Then I, as a school board chair, or whoever's school board chair at that point, will appoint one of the other two committee members as chair for that date, and the meeting will be held. [00:09:03] And I think for consistency, it's important to make sure that the chair comes from the original committee because they know the work and everything else. So the next item is for special permission for administrative appeals. [00:09:21] The last school board norm was that if a school board member had to miss a special permission administrative appeal, that that school board member would have to find a replacement. Again, Policy 2350, Appeal of Administrative Decisions, Section 2, again states that the chair of the school board shall appoint a committee of three members and appoint one of those members as chair. [00:09:48] So while it's helpful to have that other school board member, like, try and find a replacement, and it would be great if you could find that replacement, except for chair. I think chair, again, for consistency's sake, needs to come from the original special permissions committee that has been delineated that we have already, you know, monthly. [00:10:14] So then, so me as the board chair will appoint one of those selected initial members as committee chair. Does anybody have any questions or thoughts or, I mean, this is how it stands now, the current setup. [00:10:33] But if there's a consensus of you guys that want to clarify this in policy even further, we could do that. Anybody, any thoughts, any questions? Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. [00:10:48] Yeah, if we could clarify in policy, 2310 was a little vague, and now I see you're referring to 2350. If we had it all in one policy, that would be great if we can get more clarification. [00:11:08] So which part in the 2310 is vague? Do you have any of that wording? I don't have it up at the moment, but I have viewed it before. And what I gathered from it was that it didn't specifically say the chair. [00:11:27] It said, I want to say it said find a replacement. Oh, you're talking about special permissions. Sorry if I went backwards a little bit. No, okay. So special permissions, it did not say chair, although the actual 2350, which is another policy, appeal of administration administrative decision does say the division superintendent or designee shall notify the chair of the school board of the receipt of the appeal the chair of the school [00:12:05] board shall appoint a committee of three members to review the appeal and appoint one of those members as chair of the committee so which part would you like to look at i think i need to review them a little bit more i apologize okay that's fair anyone else no okay well then um we'll continue on this we'll move on to our next item if that's okay with you guys item 3.02 school board [00:12:40] retreat welcome and agenda overview presented by dr. Anna single supervisor of strategic planning and continuous improvement and jennifer miller supervisor of professional learning good morning everyone thank you so much for being here today we are excited to first of all share the agenda with you and open it up but i wanted to introduce my colleague jenny miller supervisor professional Learning, who will be co-facilitating some of the sessions today with me. [00:13:13] Let's take a look at what we have ahead of us today. So the first part of the day, we'll really be digging into Dr. Spence's post-entry plan that will frame the rest of our day. We'll have some discussion around the post-entry plan metrics and how those are aligned. [00:13:31] Before that, we are going to receive an overview of the strategic plan end-of-year update. And so hopefully throughout the day you'll see how one topic leads to another. And we will end the afternoon with an MTSS dialogue and a compensation philosophy dialogue as well. [00:13:50] And now Jenny will provide an overview of the afternoon. All right. So as Anna mentioned, we will pick up after lunch with a few new topics. Just to let you know, this is a long day and we recognize that. So there are some built-in breaks and opportunities for you to get up during that time. [00:14:07] You'll have a couple of breaks in the morning and a lunch break. And then in the afternoon, we'll have some guest facilitators talk about compensation philosophy. It was also requested that you have a little bit more time to talk about and have an MTSS follow-up discussion. So there'll be time in the afternoon for that. [00:14:23] We'll end with some closing and next steps and have a chance to look at the quarter three and quarter four forecast for next year, all right? So that's the plan for today. We're going to jump right in with our first topic and we're going to switch who's driving [00:14:37] in the slides here a little bit so give us a moment so madam chair with your permission we'll [00:15:17] move on to 303 i was assuming since she made that introduction that i didn't need to introduce you again but i'll be happy to introduce you the next item will be item 3.03 entry plan presented by dr aaron spence our superintendent yes ma'am thank you and good morning chair mansfield good morning vice chair straffy members of the school board and especially good morning to our loudon county public schools community i'm proud to share with you my post entry plan as a part of this retreat As you know, this past year has been quite a journey of listening and learning and laying the groundwork for what I know will be the continued success of Loudoun County Public Schools. [00:15:52] During this past year, I've been intentional about working to bring together our community, our families, our staff, and to learn about the work of the school division. And to do all of this, I implemented, as you know, the 1LCPS Forward Together Entry Plan when I arrived in September. This plan involved visiting with stakeholders from all over Loudoun County, engaging directly with students, family, staff, and community members, and ensuring that folks' voices were heard. [00:16:17] Through these interactions, I was able to gather valuable feedback, begin to assess the current state of our schools and departments, and I've been working to understand community and staff concerns. While I've had the opportunity to meet with members of this community in various settings, I especially enjoyed the listening sessions for our staff and for our community, which we hosted at each of our high schools. [00:16:35] These sessions provided invaluable insight into the hopes and dreams that we hold for our school system, as well as practical, actionable ideas and suggestions about how we might leverage our strengths to address opportunities for improvement. So what have I learned? Well, our community members and our staff share high aspirations for the division. [00:16:54] There is a great sense of hope that our students can grow and develop into productive, prepared, and problem-solving adults within safe and supportive environments that our schools provide. we also aspire to foster a supportive and equitable and collegial climate in a division culture that recognizes our educators for their expertise and for their hard work and that lays the foundation for a deep sense of belonging and achievement in our schools since arriving here i have to say i've been inspired by the passion and the commitment of our lcps community and i know that together with our school board we will continue to build an educational environment where our students thrive and our staff do feel valued and i hope that this post-entry plan will [00:17:31] serve as the next chapter of that journey together and as a foundation for the work that we had ahead of us. And as I've said during these listening sessions, this is just the beginning and I am excited about this work and so with that let's just dive into the entry plan itself. So as noted when I began here, I prioritized staff and community feedback to create an entry plan and I looked at data from parents, students, staff, community members, surveys, looked at documents and artifacts, analyzed all kinds of things and assessed student achievement data to develop my transition objectives, and those objectives guided the inquiry that we're talking about [00:18:07] today. Those objectives included to establish a culture of trust and transparency, to ensure unified governance by strengthening our relationship between the superintendent and the school board, to prioritize school safety and student wellness, to support a culture of innovation and academic excellence, provide an intentional focus on equitable programming, and to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency. So aligning my exploration and objectives with the division's strategic plan, which is called 1LCPS 2027 Strategic Plan for Excellence, that was a crucial part of this work, and each part of the entry plan therefore focused on one [00:18:43] of our strategic goals. So as we work to move forward together, I know we're going to need a compelling vision and direction. I think the 2027 Strategic Plan for Excellence, which we'll talk about later this morning and the one LCPS Forward Together Entry Plan gave us a holistic picture of LCPS and a sense of the vision for our future and this post-entry plan is intended to outline my findings as well as themes and the next steps that we'll want to take together to move us forward. [00:19:09] So we'll talk more about the themes later in the presentation but it is important to note that what I've heard over and over again and what I've had highlighted for me is the importance of coherence in our system to provide common direction and clarity which is something that our students, staff parents and community members say is essential. In other words, people want to not only see the vision, but they want to be able to understand their role and speak clearly about the direction in which we're headed. And that aligns with my beliefs. As an educator, I have always believed that we have to have focus and coherence in our work. What's really important is that we have consistency of expectation across all schools and at all levels so that everyone is clear on [00:19:49] what needs to be done. And that work needs to be purpose-driven and singularly focused on improving the experience that our staff, students, and families have in our schools every day. If we have a clear vision, if we align our work and our engagement efforts, our expectations for teaching and learning, and our capacity building around that clear vision, then I know our organization will thrive. [00:20:08] I think it's also important that we highlight and point out the connection between our existing strategic plan and the learning that's been done. So the figure on this slide is just an example of many of the graphics that are posted within the entry plan post entry plan itself that show points of intersection between the entry plan objectives the divisions for strategic plan goals and then the hopes of and dreams of our community and the recommended area for improvement for example as will be discussed in more detail in a bit throughout the school year three broad areas of shared hopes and dreams for lcps to merge and they include learning and opportunities climate and culture and career and development and as you [00:20:48] you can see here under learning and opportunities, each of the area of shared hopes and dreams from the community listen sessions related to learning and opportunities for students is also reflected within the entry plan objectives and the strategic plan goals. And the same can be said for each of the identified areas of improvement. All of that to say that there is a lot of overlap when we're analyzing the data and isn't to get into each of the intersecting dots and really talk about what they mean but it's really to just demonstrate that in different ways all of our hopes and dreams and [00:21:22] suggested areas of improvement align with LCPS's strategic goals which is really good news right because that means there are there are opportunities here to really build deep coherence opportunities to really create that alignment and that sense of vision and to make sure that we are on the right track to ensure excellence for all of our students and our staff and so we will we will lean into that. We will be diligent in trying to track our efforts. I know we will work to adjust our actions as needed and hold ourselves accountable for progress to make sure that we're moving in the right direction for Loudoun County Public Schools. I also think it's important to just point out that [00:22:00] the work identified through this post-entry plan is not all necessarily new work. I know sometimes people get nervous when you start talking about recommendations and are wondering are these all new things but the truth is the findings and recommendations here do align with the four goals of the division strategic plan and so we'll talk more about that as we as we frame the recommendations but taken together these again point to areas on which we can really focus and develop that deeper sense of understanding about what needs to be done. So as I noted the voices of LCPS community members and staff were a top priority for me as I was developing this plan and to this end I'm grateful to everyone with whom I had the opportunity to meet and who [00:22:40] also shared their thoughts via the community listening sessions a thought exchange and family and staff surveys. From October 2023 through April 2024, our team conducted a series of 19 listening sessions with the community and staff to better understand our hopes and dreams for staff and students, to better understand what LCPS is doing well, and to understand how LCPS might improve. The feedback provided has been documented and reviewed and analyzed, and it's a foundational component of this post-entry plan. In May, our team launched the thought exchange activity to all LCPS community members and staff to both validate what we heard in the listening sessions and to [00:23:15] provide the opportunity for additional feedback and to rate the feedback provided by others and in February of 2024 our team distributed electronic surveys to LCPS parents and staff to collect data about the perceptions of our families regarding some of the school climate factors that influence student achievement. Questions address topics such as to students to teacher interactions and relationships, rules and expectations, communication and school environment. Multiple parents and staff members responded respectively to these surveys providing yet another invaluable source of information for my post-entry plan. I also launched several initiatives during the post-entry plan [00:23:53] period including a blue ribbon panel on school safety and security which was outlined in my entry plan along with a communications audit and educators cabinet and the development of a committee to begin working on an instructional framework to name just a few and I continue to meet with various advisory groups throughout the year as well and then also as you know the VDOE conducted an audit of our special education program and so taken together all of these various sources of information provided opportunities for feedback and voice in numerous ways and it's all helped inform the recommendations within this report. So before jumping into those recommendations I want to summarize what I've learned and we're going to start [00:24:32] with what are LCPS's hopes and dreams. So as you all probably know for those of you especially who attended those listening sessions, start at each of those sessions by asking those present to consider our collective hopes and dreams for our staff and for our students. And then we asked participants to identify our strengths and then our opportunities for improvement. And these questions were intentional because as I stated then I think we have to understand where we want to go in order to assess our strengths and understand the gap between where we are today and where we want to be. And in my opinion it's in that space that we can understand the context for improvement. So our community hopes and dreams that our students can grow and develop into [00:25:09] productive, prepared, and problem-solving adults in safe and supportive environments provided by our schools. Overall, they believe that LCPS can serve as a safe and welcoming space for equitable growth and development with all parties focused on preparing the citizens of tomorrow. Our staff similarly aspire for a supportive and equitable and communal climate and a division culture that recognizes their expertise and hard work. And I note that attracting and retaining staff at LCPS is a key goal for our staff members alongside regionally competitive salaries and benefits. [00:25:40] A deeper analysis revealed three broad areas around the shared hopes and dreams in LCPS, which we've captured as learning and opportunities, climate and culture, and career and development. So these themes are interconnected, but we'll look at them individually as we think about how we move forward. [00:25:56] And it's important to also state these themes cut across comments by staff and those in the broader community. So with regard to learning and opportunities, our LCPS stakeholders want a few things. They want students to have opportunities and pathways which provide access to academic and post-academic success. [00:26:12] through different modes and methods that are not one size fits all. Additionally, they want students to be provided with time or opportunity to explore and understand these options. They want students to have a love of learning and curiosity that persists and thrives along a pursuit of high grades or more tangible desires for career and post-secondary attainment. [00:26:32] They want a tighter focus on students and learning. While the news of the day can divert our attention, many participants stress the importance of putting students' learning experiences and outcomes first. They want LCPS to ensure core academics and curriculum are strong, including reading and mathematics, and to explore different curricular approaches to teaching core academics. [00:26:51] They want students to experience engaged learning and enjoyment, creating instructional opportunities where students apply knowledge gained to concrete experiences and deepen their understanding and skills. And they want LCPS to expand its programs and offerings. They want LCPS to offer an array of academic, extracurricular, and other formal programs at our schools so that students have similar opportunities at all and not just some of our schools. [00:27:17] For example, some participants ask for more second language instruction and more support for fine arts and for career and technical education programs. And they also want equity and equal opportunities for staff and students, like meaning fair and impartial treatment and access to opportunities for all students and staff. [00:27:33] Feedback gathered from the Thought Exchange and the annual survey are in alignment with these areas. For example, you see a quote there from the Thought Exchange that said, opportunity is the crucial word here. Not everyone is equal in all things, but opportunity should be. And then as you can see, our community is responding positively to the idea that our children need additional layers of support. [00:27:55] With regard to climate and culture, our stakeholders desire the strong structure, supports, and culture that supports successful schools and organizations. Just a word on culture. These structures can be both visible, which formal and easy to spot, but sometimes also invisible, less formal and harder to see at first glance. [00:28:12] LCPS stakeholders want LCPS to model all aspects of positive climate and culture through its reactions to events and surroundings. Many participants shared comments that spoke to the overall quality and character of school life in broad terms. And more specifically, our stakeholders want the following. [00:28:28] They want all students and staff to have a sense of belonging and community that despite individual goals, they're also contributing to something greater than their own self. They want all students and staff to experience connectedness and collaboration with their peers. They want all students and staff to be responsible and accountable, that is, answerable for their own actions. [00:28:46] They want all students and staff to use their voice and to be empowered. This translates to having the ability to be heard and their concerns valued and to make decisions for themselves or others when appropriate. They want LCPS to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion within all of its administrative and school walls. [00:29:02] Many participants shared comments about DEI as both values and actions that promote representation and participation of different groups of individuals. They want LCPS to create a supportive environment that ensures physical, personal, and psychological well-being while preventing discrimination, intimidation, and bullying. [00:29:20] And all students and staff to have the necessary mental health support to ensure their psychosocial well-being and to prevent and or treat mental health conditions. And they want LCPS to ensure the emotional, physical, psychological, and social safety and well-being for all of our students and staff. Again, feedback gathered from the Thought Exchange and the annual survey in our alignment with these areas, as you can see on the slide here. [00:29:48] Our stakeholders also express a desire for students to grow and achieve success through school and beyond, however an individual might define that, amid a changing world. LCPS stakeholders want the following for students related to career and development. First, they would like students to have real-world experiences in application or practical instruction and co-curricular field experiences that enable students to see how they can apply their skills and knowledge. [00:30:14] They want LCPS to offer robust career and technical education programming that integrates core academic knowledge with professional and occupational skills that prepare them for life after high school. They want students to have the social, executive, emotional, technological, and other skills that prepare students for work in the 21st century. [00:30:32] And they want all students to be prepared and ready for what comes next in their journey, whether that's from elementary to middle school, or high school to post-secondary, or from post-secondary to career, along with other social, emotional, or character goals. They also want LCPS leadership, including the school board and the administration, to closely examine graduation and other success metrics to ensure the community is kept informed of how students are progressing towards graduation through markers such as retention rates and academic performance. [00:31:02] And they want students to express citizenship and civic engagement in behaviors, attitudes, and actions that reflect a concerned and active membership in the community. And again, feedback gathered from the Thought Exchange and the annual survey are in alignment with these areas, as you can see here on this slide. [00:31:21] So then we asked, what is LCPS doing well? And in addition to identifying those hopes and dreams, we really wanted to understand what our strengths are. Because approaching our work through a strengths-based lens and understanding where we are already succeeding as a school division helps us build on those strengths to take on our challenges. [00:31:42] So the LCPS community and staff underscored a positive overall outlook on the effectiveness and supportiveness of the school system, highlighting significant areas where the organization excels. In other words, as a school division, LCPS is doing a lot of things right. And I think that's good news for us. [00:31:58] For example, academic opportunities and programs are a positive for LCPS. Overall, I heard great perceptions around the academic opportunities and programs that we offer, highlighting the division's commitment to providing diverse and rigorous and inclusive educational experiences that prepare our students for future success. [00:32:16] Our community and staff appreciate the variety of extracurricular programs offered and the specialized programs that we offer through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, for example. Programs that foster 21st century skills are highly regarded. I mentioned earlier that the Virginia Department of Education conducted a review of special education in LCPS. [00:32:36] Multiple strengths were identified in that review. And we also heard as a strength, support and mentorship for school staff. Overall, the feedback that I collected reflects a strong appreciation for staff support and mentorship programs in place, highlighting their role in fostering the development, integration and retention of new teachers within the division. [00:32:59] We heard that administrators are approachable, responsive and interested in staff wellbeing. We heard that staff feel equipped with tools and resources they need to perform their job functions effectively. And we heard that new teachers often feel more confident and competent in their roles due to the support they receive through their mentorships. [00:33:17] Professional development for school staff was also mentioned as a strength. Overall, LSEPS professional development is perceived as robust, well-structured, and highly beneficial, contributing significantly to our staff's professional growth and instructional effectiveness. Professional development sessions are valued for their quality and relevance and they are diverse and address multiple pedagogical skills and innovative teaching practices. [00:33:42] We also got high marks for technology integration. The feedback collected reflects a strong positive sentiment regarding the integration of technology in the school division. Access devices to devices, support systems, professional development and innovative programs were cited as contributing significantly to a modern, effective and inclusive educational environment. [00:34:01] Technology support ensures students and staff can use these digital tools that are available effectively and parents appreciated the increased community communication and transparency fostered by technology tools and noted that we're continually looking for ways to improve integration and stay current with advancement and best practices. They also highlighted communication engagement as a strength. Overall, I heard a strong positive response to the division's efforts in communication engagement. The emphasis on transparency, inclusivity, and responsiveness enhances trust and collaboration amongst our [00:34:36] stakeholders, which contributes to a supportive and informed community. Of note, communication from the Central Office and School Administration was seen to have improved, with LCPS making a concerted effort to communicate and celebrate achievements, and community engagement through listening sessions and open feedback forums was appreciated. We have many people who are passionate about family engagement in our school division, many of whom belong to the Family Engagement Work Group. [00:35:00] This cross-functional team put together a welcoming all-families handbook through a cross-departmental collaboration which was well received and then lastly as was shared recently our communications audit revealed that we've got a highly experienced communications team who's working hard to rebuild trust in the community and as was also noted in that audit the community seems energized by new leadership including a new superintendent new school board and sees that as an opportunity for positive change and then finally there were positives noted around school improvement specifically our school and central office leaders being committed to the continuous school improvement process, and with the support of the school improvement office, each of our [00:35:37] schools does develop a detailed school improvement plan focused on closing achievement gaps and improving instruction for all students. A few other things that were noted as positive, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Overall, LCPS stakeholders perceive a strong commitment to DEIA. The various initiatives, programs, and practices have been positively received, and there's an acknowledgement of the continuous efforts to create a more inclusive and equitable environment regardless of student background. [00:36:06] LCPS has implemented DEIA initiatives such as equity leads in schools and makes continuous efforts to identify and address areas where this can be improved and prioritize engaging with parents in the community on DEIA issues. We were also lauded for safety and well-being. The LCPS stakeholder input that I collected reflects a high level of satisfaction with the division's efforts to promote safety and well-being. [00:36:27] Comprehensive measures and proactive communication strategies contribute to a secure, to a healthy and supportive environment for our students and staff. The presence of school resource officers in our secondary schools and other security personnel is appreciated and helps maintain a safe environment. Schools provide healthy meal options and prioritize physical activity as part of the daily schedule. [00:36:47] Parents and staff appreciate clear updates and information on safety-related matters, and access to mental health resources is highlighted as a strength. In fact, mental health resources and LCPS have extended to better provide service to our school students and staff through multiple actions. And the Blue Ribbon Panel overwhelmingly recognized the positive, forward-leaning, and strategic approach to security that's made LCPS one of the nationally recognized gold standards in K-12 security. [00:37:12] The panel's assessment of our safety and security was positive overall and determined that LCPS is a leader in K-12 safety and security not only at the state level but also nationally. Also recognized the Division of Safety and Security's organizational structure, enterprise-wide communication, standardization of security expectations, and strategic approach to security and training. [00:37:32] And the panel also recognized the proactive and robust approaches taken by the Department of Digital Innovation and Cybersecurity and the Department of Student Services and Student Mental Health Support. We also heard high regard for the quality of LCPS staff. [00:37:47] The combination of professional expertise, dedication, innovation, and a supportive attitude contributes significantly to the positive educational experience and outcomes for our students. Everywhere we went, we heard about our staff and how well they are appreciated and a recognition that LCPS emphasizes hiring high-quality teachers and administrative staff who are committed to student success. [00:38:09] Staff strive for strong and positive relationships with their students. School and division leaders are supportive and visionary, and staff exhibit a high level of professional expertise seeking to improve their skills through professional development. Regarding staff compensation, the fiscal year 25 budget included an average 6.5% pay increase and while health and premiums will increase in fiscal year 25, the benefits package LCPS offers continues to be highly competitive. [00:38:35] Overall, I also heard feedback that reflects a strong and positive sense of community within LCPS. The emphasis on inclusivity, open communication, and supportive relationships creates a welcoming and collaborative environment where students, staff, and parents feel valued and connected, and strong partnerships with parents in the community enhance our academic programs. [00:38:54] We also noted efforts to create an inclusive and welcoming environment are recognized and appreciated. Schools engage parents and community members in various ways, and schools work together with local organizations, businesses, and stakeholders to support educational initiatives and student success. [00:39:11] Our facilities were also noted as a strength. The LCPS community and its staff are overall satisfied with the division's facilities and resources. The division's emphasis on maintaining modern, well-equipped, and safe environments contributes significantly to the quality of education and overall experience for students and staff. [00:39:28] School buildings were often described as modern, clean, and well-maintained, providing a pleasant learning environment, recognized that the technology infrastructure is robust, ensuring reliable internet access and the smooth operation of our tools and devices, and facilities are equipped with modern safety and security features. [00:39:45] It's also noted that LCPS has been proactive in planning for future growth, and efforts to secure funding and allocate resources effectively are noted and valued. And student success and support was also seen as a strength with a strong commitment to ensuring student success within LCPS. [00:40:02] A combination of things we've talked about like high quality teaching, comprehensive support services, innovative programs, and a positive school culture is seen to contribute to the academic and personal achievements of our students. Students achieve above average test scores and perform well in assessments and teachers are dedicated to student success often going above and beyond to support their academic and personal growth. [00:40:23] Initiatives aimed at closing achievement gaps and providing support to underserved populations are valued. And students have access to various pathways that equip them with skills and knowledge needed for higher education in the workforce. School board governance was also recognized as a strength. [00:40:41] When nine new board members were elected in November, we were able to take time to provide a comprehensive orientation and onboarding process that spanned over multiple weeks. And board members were able to begin developing relationships and work together. Once in office, we held the first and now second board retreat in many years, which have allowed the board to engage in work, to establish norms and working agreements, and to continue to think about the work of the school division. Also, budget development and collective bargaining were discussed in these listening sessions and in other ways, and noted that schools have adequate non-staffing resources, that the county fully funded the fiscal year 25 school board adopted [00:41:19] budget. The last time that was done was in fiscal year 16, and also noted that we developed additional flexibility in staffing and staffing supports for schools the legislative audit and policy work continues towards the adoption of a resolution for collective bargaining something which the previous school board voted to move forward and for which the lea advocates and so as you can see those are a lot of strengths so we have a lot to be proud of and a lot to leverage as we start to think about where we might be able to improve and so while we have a lot to celebrate it is fair to say that staff and community members rightly set high expectations for the school [00:41:57] division and are not afraid of calling attention to areas needing improvement. The LCPS community frequently commented on increasing students' access to opportunities such as academic programs and extracurriculars and modifications of division policies and priorities such as budget, special education support, grading and assessment, and discipline. The LCPS staff centered their areas improvement on competitive pay that would attract and retain qualified professionals, on English learner support, as well as changes to division schedules and start times, grading and assessment policies, and needs for additional access to professional development, and division consistency and continuity. [00:42:37] So as we dove a little deeper into those, analysis revealed three broad areas of shared areas of improvement for LCPS, which we've captured as division resources and policies, student, staff, support and growth, and climate and culture. Although these themes, again, are interconnected, we'll look at them individually as we think about how we move forward. [00:42:58] So LCPS stakeholders would like to see improvements in the way LCPS allocates and manages resources and how LCPS develops, applies, and evaluates policies to support our learning objectives and treat individuals equitably. So here are some of the things that our LCPS stakeholders want. [00:43:13] They want increased clarity and consideration of fairness as budget and resources, including staff and positions, are allocated throughout the division. While identifying resource gaps was common, a common specific concern was how staffing ratios were often blunt instruments that did not consider varying levels of student need. [00:43:32] Of note, we will revisit the budget process later today and talk about budget priorities. On the other hand, while it was often noted that LCPS has abundant resources for teachers, staff also noted that it would be helpful to streamline access to these resources. LCPS stakeholders also want reduced class sizes and more individual attention for students. [00:43:51] A number of participants also spoke to concerns about overcrowding on some of our campuses. They want bright, modern, and updated learning environments and spaces, including classrooms and outside environments that support more flexible or hybrid learning models. While staff in our community appreciated our facilities, some participants identified challenges at older buildings, such as accommodating newer technologies, smaller classrooms, or concerns with HVAC. [00:44:18] Our stakeholders want increased staff retention and recruitment to ensure that students benefit from experience and that mid-year disruptions are avoided. We want the division to be able to attract and retain staff talent and not depart to neighboring schools with better payer benefits. Of course, later today we'll continue to explore key topics, including compensation philosophy. [00:44:38] Our stakeholders want improved discipline and behavior systems. Many participants believe that students felt there were no consequences to their actions because of lax or inconsistent policies, and there was significant concern about increases in behavioral issues, particularly at the lower grades, and staff expressed the need for more support in this area. [00:44:57] Our stakeholders want clarity on division policy and governance generally. While many participants expressed a desire for flexibility, they also understood that system-wide courses of action or principles should guide staff and student activities. Grades and assessment policies, our community wants them to set expectations which are clear because they told us the expectations are sometimes unclear, with many participants concerned about retake and exam policies. [00:45:21] During community listening sessions, I heard parents and staff share observations based on their experiences with grading and assessment, particularly around the 50% floor, around formative assessments and retakes. My staff is right now gathering feedback from our staff and our students to learn more specifically about their concerns regarding these three issues within the policy. [00:45:40] Of note, there was a significant conversation not just about grading, but also about the number of assessments with which our staff and students are expected to engage, with hopes that we can streamline these expectations to increase instructional time and use assessments that matter most to our teachers and our families. [00:45:58] Our stakeholders also want realignment of the administration or school administrators' roles, policies, and actions to support teachers and students. We've already started this work with central office staff working to reimagine the school improvement process and make it a more collaborative process among school leadership and central office staff. [00:46:14] Our stakeholders also want schedules and time management that allow for more collaboration, planning, and increased flexibility. Participants cited concerns about start times and challenges with making up days missed for weather. Others did not care for block scheduling and conversations at the elementary level centered on recent changes to the schedule that made their job more difficult. [00:46:36] Feedback gathered from the Thought Exchange and the annual survey are also in alignment with these areas as you can see on the slide here. With regards to improved opportunities for staff and student support and growth, LCPS stakeholders would also like to see more opportunity here. The figure on the slide here shows eight of the more frequently provided themes in this area and specifically our LCPS stakeholders want to better ensure that equity and equal opportunities are provided for students and staff with many participants noting a lack of options or quality experiences at certain campuses compared to others. They want different [00:47:13] opportunities and pathways for student academic and post-academic success. Many participants spoke to concerns about students and families not knowing about existing opportunities or how to best leverage them. They want robust academic, extracurricular, or other formal programs and offerings across all campuses. Families and staff often express the need for pathways for students to explore their passion across schools. While existing programs are appreciated, there was a sense that more are needed. They want our teachers to be better positioned to offer alternative ways for students to learn and complete tasks based on students' abilities and interests, broadly defined [00:47:48] as differentiation or individualized learning. And teachers express the desire to be trusted as professionals in this regard and asked for flexibility within the curriculum to meet student needs. They want better English language learner support, whether that's through tutoring or direct instruction. They want support that ensures students who are learning English can master the language quickly and therefore access quality instruction across subject areas. They want more integrated special education that promotes staff collaboration and meaningful plans for students with disabilities. [00:48:18] Specifically, participants want to ensure that accommodations are provided for individual differences, but especially that students with disabilities are engaged in classroom instruction with their peers. They want improved or expanded mental health and support resources to ensure the psychosocial well-being and to prevent or treat mental health conditions for staff members, students, and family awareness. And they want professional development and learning opportunities for staff members that are efficient, targeted to specific roles, and relevant to ensure up-to-date knowledge and help staff advance to fill critical roles. During the community listening sessions, staff sometimes shared with me how we're fortunate to have resources to support students and staff, [00:48:57] but that we need to continue to be responsive to staff needs from a professional learning lens, and staff would like to know exactly how their learning needs met with division support. And again, feedback gathered from the thought exchange and the annual survey are also in alignment with these areas, as can be seen here. Like the hopes and dreams section of our listening session, our stakeholders also called attention to the ways in which our structures, supports, and cultures that support successful schools and organizations need improvement. [00:49:27] They offered comments that spoke to the need to create a strong climate and culture, including overall quality and character of school life in broad terms. So here are some of the things they desire. They want greater transparency and openness and communication between LCPS administration with all stakeholders, especially regarding being aligned, consistent, and honest in the actions taken about specific challenges or issues. [00:49:48] They want improved communication skills from administrators, staff, teachers, and students who support individuals in working with each other to create transparency, trust, and openness. And teachers and other staff want to be treated as professionals and know what's expected of them. They want increased consistency and continuity. [00:50:05] Many participants noted that LCPS does not suffer from a lack of initiatives, but it was often difficult to see how they were connected or applied broadly for all students and staff. They want high and consistently applied expectations and standards for staff, administration, and students that support a culture of continuous improvement and they want a development of a culture of responsibility and accountability that supports those high expectations. This was particularly true for staff and parents around students with a desire for policy and direction that holds students accountable for their decisions and accountable for learning. They want leadership and empowerment so that increased trust is created and authority is given to individuals who have [00:50:45] responsibility to make decisions and take action on behalf of themselves or others. For example, teachers often express the desire to be trusted and make more decisions about student learning. They want compensation and recognition for staff that reflect the value they provide to our students in our community and reward staff for making a difference. Of note, again, we'll be working with the board on a comprehensive salary and benefits analysis to help inform the direction of the LCPS compensation package. And additionally, it's likely that LCPS will delve into these issues as the collective bargaining process unfolds. They want increased balance in the level of effort expected of staff, students, and others to promote well-being. [00:51:23] Many participants identified concerns with the pressure they felt to achieve certain outcomes at the expense of time for family and other pursuits. And they want increased or improved physical, personal, or psychological aids to staff, students, and family members to ensure a supportive environment. And again, feedback gathered from the Thought Exchange and the annual survey are in alignment with these areas, as you can see on this slide, on the next slide, on that slide, that slide right there. [00:51:49] So in this next section, my aim is to provide you with what actions we might want to consider first that will move us forward. As I said, I've learned a lot about LCPS. These learnings have provided a substantial basis for the formation of these next-level recommendations. [00:52:08] And I also want to note as we go through this, this is not everything I could have recommended. As you heard, we gathered a lot of information. We heard a lot of things. But I think it's important not to recommend a long laundry list of next-level opportunities. As we begin to talk about metrics later today, we'll talk about the importance of zeroing in on a few key metrics to make progress. And if we try to accomplish too much at once, that can lead to confusion and lack of progress, and it runs counter to that concept I talked about earlier of coherence. It's also important to recognize that the larger categories described earlier in my post-entry plan, like division resources and policies and climate and culture, these represent [00:52:47] learnings across multiple data sources, and they're not mutually exclusive. As you heard, sometimes they're seen as a strength, sometimes they're seen as a challenge, and sometimes there's overlap between those areas. And so to offer clarity, what I want to do is return to the strategic plan's goals to frame the recommendations. So all of them are going to be framed within each of the four goals of the strategic plan. So we'll start with goal number one, empowered students, and I'll note that there are five recommendations centered around empowered students. [00:53:20] First, students and their families need to be supported to navigate and explore the multiple pathways and unique opportunities that we do and will provide at LCPS campuses now and in the future. As students advance through their academic careers, our teachers and counselors should work with them and their parents to explain options, to understand what the prerequisites are for those options, and to understand how those options will help them both graduate and attain post-secondary success. We should gradually release more control so that as students progress in school, they're at the center of making informed choices. And we should continue to refine our college and career readiness platform to track each student's goals and progress and allow us [00:54:00] to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn about and explore the different pathways available to them. We should revisit our curriculum and our instructional practices to ensure we're consistently teaching using evidence-based approaches such as for foundational math and literacy skills. We should be providing students with rigorous and appropriately challenging materials and exposing them to content views and perspectives that balance time-tested foundational texts and culturally relevant and current voices. We should realign assignments and assessments for students in our evaluation practices for teachers to reinforce our desire to instill a love of learning and problem-solving and critical thinking skills to prepare students for the [00:54:39] paths they choose. So it seems clear to me that what we really want is academic excellence and we want students to demonstrate mastery, and we want them to be able to talk about how they're progressing and what they need to do to be successful. And we also want them to be accountable for doing their work. So what models allow all of these things to be true? Well, that is the question we're exploring as we continue to develop the instructional framework and its accompanying resources. This framework should help us answer these questions and should help us identify the research-driven instructional practices that have to be present in our classrooms. This conversation also needs to help us address questions about which assessments matter the most, which assessments [00:55:19] help us understand student progress in real time to make appropriate adjustments in instructional decisions, and which assessments help us communicate in robust and meaningful ways about student progress. I think if we accomplish this, the picture of what learning should look like in LCPS will become clear in our practice. We should also be re-examining our alternative pathways, career and technical education, and other valued and unique programs like HAMSci with the health Medical Sciences Academy and the Academies of Loudoun to determine whether these programs have suitable space to meet current and anticipated demand from students and families, as well as [00:55:53] whether they are geographically distributed evenly across our communities. When certain models appear successful or oversubscribed, we should find ways to expand them or replicate them on additional campuses. We should also engage in a robust conversation with our community partners, our employers, and higher education to identify the most needed workforce development opportunities and pursue those with vigor. [00:56:15] So you've probably heard me talk about the need for a big tent when it comes to workforce development. We should invite everyone interested in this conversation into the room, identify the opportunities in front of us, and create explicit agreements about the experiences that our students will have, all with an eye to expanding these opportunities across our schools and providing pathways for our students to highly skilled, well-paid industries with a high demand for labor. [00:56:39] Our students also need to be educated on digital citizenship and held accountable when they make mistakes. We need to set clear policies on personal device use, including cell phones during the school day, which I know we're working on. We need to also be talking about the appropriate use of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence when completing assignments. [00:56:58] And I'll note the division has a work group right now considering the appropriate use of artificial intelligence. These policies should not force us to decide between an outright ban or complete permission around these tools, but should allow students to know when they can use technology and when they cannot. [00:57:14] We also know there will be times when individuals in schools and classrooms will need to make different determinations that might vary based on time of day or the activities, such as instruction or project work or recessed or lunch, but also areas like art that may find value in having students be able to take pictures of their work. [00:57:34] But all of these need to be guided by a consistent school board policy so there is more clarity. Also with one-to-one computing now in LCPS post-pandemic, we need to ensure appropriate instructional uses of technology and support for our staffs. We are several years past the implementation of one-to-one and it's time to step back and continue to identify the best uses for technology in our classrooms and ensure that our practices mirror the best practices in the broader world. And we need to strike the right balance around engaging learning both with and without these tools. As we chart a path towards more individualized and differentiated learning, we also need to find ways to break down silos that can exist between classroom instruction and [00:58:14] specialized support for students, particularly students with disabilities and our English language learners and newcomers. We should deepen our engagement with our multi-tiered systems of support frameworks, which we'll talk about later today, and we should explore the increased use of best practice co-teaching models and flexible academic schedules to maximize a student's time in the classroom and opportunity to engage with their peers. We need to further support all teachers in providing strong instructional delivery and reduce the burdens of administrative tasks so they have more time for collaboration and differentiation. I'm also going to be recommending a comprehensive special education audit to look beyond the findings of the VDOE [00:58:52] and identify additional opportunities for our staff, families, and students. And then finally, as a part of all of this, special education staffing and hiring should be a priority in the next budget. Recommendations centered on goal two exemplary staff include the following. We know that teachers and staff need balance between their professional and personal lives. They also need balance within the school day. So we need to have an honest conversation about schedules, and we need to identify ways we can support our educators as they work to achieve a balance between teaching and supporting students and having the time needed to plan for instruction and accomplish other tasks. [00:59:29] We should also explore how online platforms and new AI tools can reduce the burden on our teachers. And while we don't want to move away from a value of prioritizing mastery over completion, we should also revisit grading and assessment policies to reflect the burden that these expectations may place on our teachers and recognize that policies need to provide clear and consistent direction around grading practices and should be centered on the conversation about the purpose of grading and the purpose of giving assessments. We should consider setting guidelines that allow for some teacher discretion and standardize the way in which teachers communicate grading and assessment expectations to our students, especially in middle and high school at the beginning of each course. [01:00:08] And then finally, we need to pay closer attention to the issue of student behavior. This is driven in part around the consistent application of discipline policies across schools. However, the most significant concerns revolve around the need for placement of our most challenging students in alternative settings and the need to address the most significant behaviors in our elementary grades. [01:00:30] For the former, we're already taking steps based on funding in the fiscal year 25 budget to evaluate and open an alternative setting for secondary students. We need to dive more deeply, however, into elementary behaviors. We need to build on what we already know works, but we also need to be identifying best practices to support teachers, staff, and students with these challenging behaviors. [01:00:51] There may be budget implications for this work. For example, I would recommend that we consider the addition of more behavior analysts in our schools and that we look at research-based programs like BIST, and we need to carefully consider these moving forward. [01:01:10] We should also continue to evaluate and improve our hiring practices to ensure we're attracting candidates that reflect the students we serve and critical positions at our campuses do not go unfilled. We know how challenging this is. We have seen vacancies in key areas this year, and we have to continue to examine the ways in which we go about hiring. [01:01:30] We should also examine the support we provide to our recent hires and explore ways to make sure that those recent hires are connected to their principals and supervisors, but also to master teachers and grade or subject matter teams and also to their newly hired peers. We should set a clear goal to meet or beat national averages on staff retention for teachers, counselors, nurses, translators, our paraprofessionals, and other staff. [01:01:54] And we have to understand that retention is not just about pay. It is also about culture and climate. We have a dynamic team of educators. It's remarkable to see the difference that they make in our students' lives every day. And so I think our job is to understand what they need, get them what they need, remove the barriers in their way, and then watch them thrive. [01:02:12] I think educators who are empowered to work this way, centered and collaborative and supported learning cultures are more likely to stay in the profession. We should also ensure that all staff have access and choice and professional development that's relevant to their position and experience. When possible, we should move mandated and/or compliance-related training to asynchronous learning platforms to make them easily available. [01:02:33] And I'll note that by and large, we've been able to accomplish that. We also should ensure that our in-service days are dedicated to deeper learning and collaboration between building teams and content areas. Professional learning structures should be designed so that every employee knows exactly where to go to have these learning needs met, and so that every employee sees opportunities to grow and lead in ways that are meaningful to them. [01:02:54] And I also think it's critically important to find opportunities for educators who want to stay in the classroom to still grow in their careers, for example, by becoming a lead or master teacher. And then finally, although compensation is not the only key to retention, there's no doubt that it's important. [01:03:10] So as funding and policies allow, we need to examine our compensation packages to ensure that all staff can afford to live in our community and are rewarded fairly for their work and for professional advancement. As noted earlier, a compensation study will guide the school board's discussion on this as we move forward. [01:03:27] We should also be exploring our benefits to make sure they enable more of our employees to find housing near campuses, such as working with local government agencies and developers to build housing for teachers. Recommendations centered on having an enriched school division for goal three include the following. [01:03:45] We do need to scrutinize our budget through the lens of equity and equal opportunities, making sure every school is equipped with the funding and resources needed to address the students that are attending those schools. Beyond enrollment counts, allocation of positions and funding to schools needs to consider the varying levels of student needs, including variation in the need among students with disabilities, for example, as well as English learners, newcomers, and other communities of interest. [01:04:07] Each school allocation should be designed to staff schools with a sufficient level of classroom teachers, special educators, counselors, interventionists, specialists, teaching aides, and more, while also allowing for a degree of autonomy for school leaders who want to explore flexible staffing arrangements. [01:04:22] While we know budgets will never be infinite, increased transparency in how those funds are allocated will position our school board to advocate for more resources from the state or to propose new local measures when funds fall short of the needed levels of support that reflect the community's goals for our school division. [01:04:40] To reinforce our desire for positive school climates and cultures, we should be providing opportunities in the school year and school days for our students and other members of each campus community to connect and to build relationships with each other. We should also be seeing if that's working by administering research-validated surveys of students, parents, and staff to gauge their sense of belonging, whether they feel they have agency and voice in the decision-making processes at their schools. [01:05:06] And we should empower principals and teacher leaders and students to demonstrate leadership in addressing areas of concern and coming up with proactive solutions. We should also be providing clear and understandable practices, platforms to capture that work, such as the work we've done with various advisory groups and thought exchange or by using platforms like MyVoice, which allows us to understand how teachers are feeling empowered. [01:05:29] We should provide individuals with role-alike professional learning communities that meet regularly to collaborate and embark on shared learning and provide a safe space for vulnerable conversations within a supportive community and environment. To continue to uplift safety and security as a top priority, we do want to work with the school board and our schools to implement many of the recommendations from the work of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Safety and Security, which was commissioned at the beginning of the year. [01:05:54] I'd like to just go through those recommendations briefly and highlight our responses. The first recommendation was to prioritize school-level participation in safety and security and threat assessment training, and know that we plan to set clear expectations for training of school staff and be specific about who from the schools must attend. [01:06:11] The next recommendation was to ensure that school resource officers and United Mental Health Team representatives participate in every threat assessment. While that did raise some concerns, we note that that is required by Virginia law, and so we will be complying with that recommendation. [01:06:28] There was a recommendation to add a digital analysis to all serious and very serious threat assessments. This is becoming more common, and we want to work to identify a platform with expertise in K-12 security to support that effort using only publicly available information for any assessment. [01:06:44] It was recommended to ensure Wi-Fi coverage is available throughout the school buildings. We will assess that and will implement any needed changes, although I do know we do have robust Wi-Fi systems within our school division. It was recommended to expand the Security Operations Center square footage and create a full-time supervisory position dedicated to managing it. [01:07:02] We are currently exploring space issues for the SOC, but I'm not recommending a new position at this time. It was recommended to add security personnel coverage to elementary schools. I'd like us to consider revisiting the concept of regional school security officers to cover elementary schools within each planning district. [01:07:19] I understand that was something discussed with the previous school board. We may also be bringing forward recommendations around hiring allied security officers or assistant security officers in all elementary schools. Those have budget implications for the school board. I think because of that, an assessment of our visitor management protocols should be conducted first. [01:07:39] And we're not recommending the addition of school resource officers to every elementary school. at this time. We also, it was recommended to create a formal alternative education site to allow for enhanced security measures for high-risk students. As just noted, we're working to open an alternative education site for secondary students through our budget process in the next school year. It was recommended to create a basic cybersecurity and social media best practices list for folks and to mandate completion for key stakeholders within LCPS. We plan to implement that recommendation. It's also recommended to assess public safety radio coverage within schools [01:08:16] and address any gaps. That is an assessment that would need to be conducted by the county and we've engaged in initial conversations with them and will support that. It's also recommended to increase security coverage, personnel coverage for after school events and so we will explore flexible scheduling for school security officer coverage noting that large events are already covered by security personnel. And then finally recommended to have the school board label the division of safety and security as a law enforcement unit while we understand the recommendation we're not recommending this at this time and then finally around goal four recommendations centered on an engaged community include the following we should renew our focus [01:08:56] on family engagement strategies begin by identifying the common touch points for families with school staff and identifying promising models in our schools and across the division for resolving concerns whether that's more formal or informal meeting opportunities with principals and teachers leveraging our school-based parent liaison positions, or continuing to ensure that the division ombuds office is well understood as a resource for our community staff and families. [01:09:18] We should examine and ensure there's a forum at each campus by which parents can participate in decision-making processes and continue to support those same opportunities at the division level. We should provide support from the division to assist principals in communicating important information about their school and the division. And additionally, we should consider trainings, materials, and guides that can be provided to parents to help them coach their students on successfully navigating academic and social challenges. [01:09:46] Importantly, we also need to centralize our family engagement efforts. As noted earlier, a family engagement workgroup currently exists as a touchpoint for the various efforts across schools and departments, and with existing resources, it's my intention to create an office of family and community engagement that can bring many of these functions together to make it easier for families and community partners to access the resources they need to engage with LCPS. [01:10:13] Just as we set high expectations for students, we also need to set high expectations for ourselves and so we should be tracking and reporting our progress towards goals representing multiple and robust measures of success. As we've talked about already, we do intend to work with the school board to identify the priorities for progress monitoring and at a minimum, I hope we'll think about how to report whether all students have access to the opportunities we provide. [01:10:36] We also need to seek to better understand how well our graduates are faring academically, financially, and socially, and see if they persist in post-secondary programs or careers related to specialized tracts. We should be collating and curating information from the state and our own data sources to present performance information by school and specialized program. [01:10:55] The best approach to that, I believe, is in an interactive dashboard that's easily accessible to the public. In general, an understandable and accessible monitoring system needs to be in place, and The data we analyze at the division level should be shared as a through line with the school board and we should expect our principals to be looking at this data as well and in more targeted ways. [01:11:16] Leveraging a reimagined school improvement process data will be a driver for instructional decision making and resource allocation at the school level to ensure each student has what they need to succeed in LCPS. The board might also consider seeding a performance monitoring committee to create clearer communication and expectations between administration and the board about what data is monitored and what actions should be taken as a result of that learning. [01:11:43] To reinforce our values of creating a culture of trust, openness, accountability, LCPS administration and the school board should continue to use our meetings to thoughtfully address our biggest challenges and concerns. To address concerns around governance, we need to not shy away from difficult topics and work together on strategies to structure conversations around these issues in ways that remain productive. [01:12:04] We will examine how we provide information in the school board agendas and meeting packets to continue to ensure that information is accessible by parents and members of the community and also that they understand when they have other less formal opportunities to help craft policies, provide feedback, and any other procedures through the ongoing deliberative processes. [01:12:24] So as we conclude in this stage of listening and learning, I just want to say again that I am very moved by the collective aspirations shared by our community and staff for the future of our school division. Our hopes and our dreams reflect a deep commitment to creating an environment where every student can thrive, and it's clear we share a vision of LCPS as a place of dynamic learning, robust support, and equitable opportunities for all. Together, I know we envision a school system where students are prepared for their next steps in the academic journey and where they're equipped with the skills and values necessary to become the productive and compassionate and [01:13:02] innovative leaders for all. I'm confident that as we work together, we will realize our collective hopes and dreams. We will create a brighter future for every student in Loudoun County Public Schools, and I want to thank you, School Board, for your partnership in this journey. I look forward to the great work that we will do with our community. [01:13:23] Madam Chair, with that, open for questions. Thank you, Dr. Spence. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and thoroughness in taking all of the multiple data points that you collected over the nine months to come up with these recommendations and suggestions and thoughts. I think this baseline was needed to help us know what's going well and where the community feels we need work and how we can endeavor to move forward and I appreciate that you took your time and didn't really rush the process I look forward to having working with and having many more conversations with you staff and the community to bring forward [01:13:58] a collective vision starting today and making positive changes for the benefit of all and one thing that i really thought was really great was the um the uh what was it the performance monitoring uh committee and i want um i would appreciate if the school board members would think about that because if if we could it would be really great if we could start this in september but we have to vote on this before we can get that started so um think about either putting it maybe on new [01:14:32] business today, or we could, Vice Chair Estreffi can look forward to it in June, the last one in June, maybe voting at it in August to get started in September. Thoughts? And we'll have about five minutes for questions, and then let's take about a five-minute break. [01:14:58] Ms. Chernoff. I'm all in on that committee. I think it was Mr. Estreffi at our last retreat who brought up the idea of a student achievement committee, so I want to give some credit where credit is due. And I think that that the data piece has kind of been, you know, really not missing, but I think we can do better in terms of transparency in data supporting the division and that really driving the conversation. [01:15:22] And we've talked about those shifts. I want to echo what Ms. Chair Mansfield said. This is an incredible amount of work that you've put into this and the listening and all of that. And I've, you know, praised you for that in the past, and I'll continue to do that. I have it here. [01:15:39] so many things starred in terms of like yes this this is exactly what it really aligns with the things that I too am hearing from my teachers and constituents and so I just I'm very grateful I know that it's a heavy lift and we have big work in front of us but probably the word plan is my favorite word in the English language and so I'm really excited to partner with you and with our board and and do this work so I just wanted to say just have some two overarching questions but I've learned two really big things so far on this job. The first is that people really just want to be heard. They really want to be heard, and they want to know that their concerns are valid and [01:16:18] that they're being explored and addressed. And even if the answer is no or not right now, they just want to know that someone took that somewhere and someone heard it. And the second biggest thing that I've learned is that there is a process for everything, and it's very involved. I've worked for this county for seven years as an educator and been a member of this community for 17 years and this I thought I had it down pat I thought I knew what this division was and how it operated and it turns out that it really is so much larger than I ever could have imagined and that there is [01:16:54] a governance process and while we can be strategic within that process and we've tried to be and we will continue to be committed to that I know I am there are many paths to follow that are guided specifically by policy and regulation. And so I really have two questions sort of surrounding those two big things that I've learned and as it relates to your post-entry plan. My first is how does this work and dialogue continue and how do you plan to do that? I know you've had a big commitment to your different advisory groups and you've done all these listening sessions. I don't know that it's feasible to continue to do listening sessions month after month, but how do you plan [01:17:32] on continuing this dialogue and also helping people learn to navigate the chain of command, if you will, and the process of reporting concerns or hopes and dreams or whatever that might be. So that's my first question. Do you want my second question or do you want to answer that first? [01:17:49] Actually, Lauren, I mean, Ms. Chernoff, could we just do one question now and then come back? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so I think there's two parts to that. One is how do we continue to make sure that there are opportunities for people to be heard and we certainly will continue to do that through our advisory groups but also as as was recommended in the communications audit and as we've talked about we'll find other ways during the next school year and moving forward to also hear from members of our community and to have the kind of conversations that we had during those listening sessions again recognizing with the commitment from staff that that's we're not going to be able [01:18:23] to do 19 of them every year but we will find a forum and a structure for that in addition to that think the other part of that that I heard is making sure that people know how and where to go to to be heard and so in addition to you know creating a forum to be heard and just kind of come in for a one-night event and be heard I think it is important that we continue to provide great clarity about the communications channels that exist how we respond to to those communications and talk about that and also kind of like work through our policies with the school board about how concerns get addressed so that there's clarity there as well right because you guys get questions [01:18:59] And we want to make sure that we both have answers to the questions that you get, but also that you're able to help your constituents understand the best entry points into the system. So I think we can do that. Thank you, Dr. Spence. [01:19:17] I would like to get a thumbs up for the board if they would like to put together a new standing committee as a part of policy 2310. And I can ask Daniel how that might work if we brought it to the full board and circumvented the committee LNP process. [01:19:37] Dr. Smith. Thank you, Chair Mansfield. Yes, so with board direction, if you would like us to work with you, Chair Mansfield, or other board members to propose some language, we'd be happy to bring it back to the June 25th meeting as an information item, if you would like. [01:19:53] That would be outside of our committee process, but we've done that in the past with board direction. So if that's the will of the board, we'd be happy to do that. Board members, do you want a minute to think about it, or do you want to go ahead and give a thumbs up now? Anyone? Okay. [01:20:14] We have two that are not in agreement. Okay. So I guess we will have to look at going through that, through the committee process. Is that what you would like to do, Ms. Donahue or Dr. Deems? Yes, I think going through a process for it rather than just jumping to a committee would be more useful to us. [01:20:38] even in terms of understanding the achievement data. Madam Chair, I would just at least like some time to consider rather than immediately write the second saying yes or no. [01:20:55] I guess I just felt like we've been talking about this for about three or four months now at the beginning since Chair Struffy started it. But I think that's fine. I'm happy to do that. It will just take, what, three, four months to get that in place then? So our normal policy process does go to committee for information then it goes to committee for action which is two months and then to the full board so it usually does take three to four months um i'll defer to division council in terms of process um in terms of how this needs to go and so you need unanimous support or majority support [01:21:29] but i'd like to ask division council if you don't mind chair mansfield of course thank you dr smith i think it likely be a smoother approach if this were coming out on a vote potentially um rather than kind of a thumbs up or thumb down in terms of the creation of a standing committee I think it'd be just a cleaner approach there oh that wasn't what I meant I meant just language with a thumbs up or a thumbs down and then there would be a vote during the school board meeting that's [01:22:04] what I meant I see so is the thought to put this on as an consent agenda item at a school board meeting for an official vote no the thought was to go ahead and vote on it in the school board meeting like as an information item bring it to an information item it's in june and then um and then we would vote on it in as an action potentially in um august but this we did not get a unanimous vote here to do that thank you for that clarification madam chair uh nothing as i see it in policy uh [01:22:44] the agenda for future board meetings at the board chair's discretion as to whether they want to place an item on the information item so nothing would preclude you from doing so um at the june 25th meeting placing it on the agenda as an information item thank you for that clarification okay um let's go ahead and take our break right now and then for five minutes and come back um [01:23:11] yeah that's it thanks the board is in uh what a break okay the board and everybody is back from [01:33:06] our break slash recess um is dr spence back not yet oh dr spence moved so um dr spence i i know we didn't give enough time for questions everybody and i'm sorry about that and this will be something that comes back many many times and we'll have multiple conversations on this it is overwhelming because it is a lot dr spence will you take just one minute to talk about the next steps in this process and then we'll move to the next item yes thank you madam chair i appreciate the time limit [01:33:40] I am yes ma'am so as a reminder first that this will be an information item tonight as well so there will be additional time for questions tonight and our next step is a cabinet will be taking this back and we will take the we will take the recommendations and we will project map them and that will include looking at ownership so some of these are board owned recommendations so for example around the policy committee discussion that you just had or the performance monitoring committee discussion work that's happening already in CNI around grading practices work that's happening around the cell phone [01:34:19] policy so there's a lot of things that are already underway and we'll highlight that and then there are things that we need to dive into and we'll kind of project map those there are some that are budget conversations and we'll map those out to the budget dialogue that we have with the board both in terms of priorities later today but also then as we head into the fall and then we will report back on the board about what all of that looks like at a future meeting thank you dr spence okay let's move on to item 3.04 end of year one lcps 2027 strategic plan for excellence update [01:34:58] presented by dr smith our chief of staff and dr ellis our chief academic officer although i see two other people here to do present presentations as well good morning madam chair i will kick us off and yes we do have several presenters for this item. So the goal of this portion of the retreat is to provide an update on our strategic plan. We'll present an overview of accomplishments and highlights of the data. I do want to draw your attention to multiple additional documents available to you in board docs and I believe you also have printed copies of some of those. The target documents for each goal shows the historical data as well as targets for each year. Please note that [01:35:37] not all of the data is available yet and we did indicate the date that the data would be available in most instances the data is presented to the board in a few different presentations throughout the year and that's I know what we'll talk about when we begin to talk about metrics in our next topic I also want we also want to point out that previously on the annual stakeholder surveys we calculated agreement percentages without the quote-unquote don't know responses included in the calculations. However, we've began identifying how we can use those don't know percentages to [01:36:13] inform our practices, and so you will see that we've begun to include those in our calculations. The data one-pagers show our three-year data, so you can take a look at the trends. The addendum documents provide detailed information on our accomplishments for each aligned action, as well as next steps. And I also want to take a minute to recognize all of the goal co-chairs, aligned action leads, the RASI team, Dr. Blake Locke and Dr. Tyler, who are joining us today, and a special shout out to our principal representatives on the team. We have Mr. Lenny Compton, Dr. Michelle [01:36:51] Luttrell, Mr. Robert Carter, and Dr. Tenelle Priddy, who have taken time out of their busy schedules at their schools to participate in meetings and presentations. Our shared vision, mission, and core values guide all of this work as we continue to play students at the center of our work, helping them pursue and reach their full potential and empower them to make meaningful contributions to the world. Our actions are guided on the next slide by four strategic plan goals that you are quite familiar with. And we will now take a look at each of the goals and each goal [01:37:29] chair or representative will provide updates on each goal. So I will turn it over to Ms. Richardson to kick us off with goal one. Good morning. Thank you, Dr. Ellis. Goal one has four aligned actions. as you can see illustrated on this slide. [01:37:46] Now, we will take a few moments to highlight data, accomplishments, and next steps. As a reminder, all of the detailed data and accomplishments documents are attached in BoardDocs. Some of our data highlights for goal one can be seen on the next slide, thank you. [01:38:05] Map data, a student who demonstrated growth equivalent to that of similar students, that is equal to the student growth norms, will have a conditional growth percentile of 50. Growth greater than the norm would result in a percentile rank higher than the 50th percentile, and growth less than the norm would result in a percentile rank lower than the 50th percentile. [01:38:29] Our reading CGP for Tier 1 is 44, Tier 2, 53, Tier 3, 49. Our math conditional growth percentile is Tier 1, 52, Tier 2, 54, and Tier 3, 56. [01:38:48] Now let's celebrate attendance. Last year, school divisions across the Commonwealth grappled with attendance issues. We are happy to report that chronic absenteeism in LCPS has decreased by 5.2% this school year. [01:39:05] Numerous supports, including adding a student support advisor to each high school, attendance officers, and revisions to the LCPS Policy 8140, most likely attributed to this decrease. [01:39:22] Student behavior and accountability. Overall, the office discipline referrals in and out of school suspensions have also decreased. Student voice, we continue to have a large student involvement and participation in student activities. [01:39:39] In addition to celebrating the reduction of chronic absenteeism and student performance on the MAP assessment, we want to share additional accomplishments for goal one. As you heard at the last school board meeting, we are working on an instructional framework. [01:39:59] Our intention is for the instructional framework to drive our coherent vision for high-quality instruction. For this current school year, CAST expanded their participation at new business locations to include the Administrative Services Building for LCPS with the CAST Cruising Cafe Cart, which is open on the fourth floor daily from 10.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. [01:40:27] That began the third quarter of this school year. Also, CAST expanded their participation in three certification areas at the Academies of Loudoun with custodial services, information technology through support at the Genius Bar, and nutrition services. [01:40:49] We look forward to expanding access to the Academies to several CAST locations within the coming school year. The annual student survey yielded results with 86% of elementary school students that took the survey indicating satisfaction with LCPS. [01:41:08] This remains consistent with the prior year's survey information at the elementary level. For secondary, LCPS increased by one percentage point from 84% to 85% of satisfaction for the 23-24 school year. [01:41:28] It's important to note that middle and high school students alternate their participation in the survey each school year. For this year, middle school students took the survey for LCPS, and high school students participated in the annual survey provided by the state. [01:41:45] In terms of next steps, our teams are currently working hard to ensure our teachers have the supports that they need with the Virginia Literacy Act and the new ELA and math standards. We are also working on ensuring our students and families have clarity on opportunities available to them. [01:42:06] And as you know, we are expanding middle school intramural sports program to all middle schools. Now, I will turn it over to Dr. Luttrell for Goal 2. Good morning. Thank you, Ms. Richardson. Goal 2 has three aligned actions, ongoing growth and development, employer of choice, and professional collaboration. [01:42:28] We are excited that we have seen the percentage of positive responses to questions about staff collegiality on the annual stakeholder survey go from 85% to 89%. Note that although we did not meet our target for CLT time built into teacher schedules, we've remained consistent when compared to last year. [01:42:48] Data for most HRTD metrics will not be available until November. You will receive a presentation on this from the HRTD team once the data is available to be shared. Collaborative learning time continues to be a priority at all levels. Ensuring teachers have collaborative time built into their schedules and ensuring they have the necessary supports continues to be a focus of administrative teams at all levels. [01:43:14] And with this, I'm turning things over to Mr. Smith for an overview of Goal 3. Good morning. Goal 3 includes, Enriched Division includes three aligned actions, aligned culture, straightforward communication, and safe and productive learning environments. [01:43:38] Our data highlights for our Enriched Division for Goal 3.1, we have a recalculation of our baseline of 84% positive responses on our annual family stakeholder survey. For goal 3.2, straightforward communication, again, a recalculation of our baseline is 80% of our families responded positively in responses. [01:43:55] And again, reminder that we have our communications audit that will be hopefully positively impacting some of those perceptions. And 93% of staff responses positive. LCBS also continues to have high engagement with our tools, including 99% of our families having at least, 99% of our students having at least one active parent in our parent view system. [01:44:16] And for goal 3.3, safe and productive learning environments, we have an increase in our positive responses by staff and students in our annual stakeholder survey, 91% for staff, 92% for students, 88% for parents. And keep in mind that most of our facility and security and IT projects will be completed this summer as Mr. Lewis and my team begin our heavy work next week as students leave on Friday. [01:44:42] For our goal 3, accomplishments and next steps, the accomplishments, the Auditor General has completed five audits, The blue ribbon panel on security has been completed, and you heard the recommendations presented today. And the multi-factor authentication has been implemented for Microsoft, Oracle, and Phoenix. [01:45:00] It's actually also been implemented for Google. It's listed under a next step, but the team completed that earlier this week. So it is complete by June 30th. We are installing second-generation camera systems by the fall of 2024. We have our security vegetable projects that will be complete this summer, again, with a lot of those construction projects happening over the school, over the summer. [01:45:20] And community and school board engagement regarding bell schedules will be occurring. Now for goal four, I will hand it over to Dr. Priddy. Good morning. [01:45:39] As you can see, goal four has three aligned actions. We're happy to report that opportunities for families to participate in family and community engagement events nearly doubled. We exceeded the yearly target for business partners, and we also observed a growth in the net promoter score within the first year. [01:45:59] Your net promoter score is measured with a single question survey and reported with a number ranging from negative 100 to positive 100, where a higher score is desirable. Respondents gave a rating between 0, not at all likely, and 10, extremely likely, and depending on their response, customers fall into one of three categories to establish an NPS score. [01:46:27] Promoters respond with a score of 9 or 10 and are typically loyal and enthusiastic customers. Passives respond with a score of 7 or 8. They are satisfied with your service but not happy enough to be considered promoters. [01:46:45] Detractors respond with a score of 0 to 6. They are unhappy customers who are unlikely to buy from you again and may even discourage others from buying from you. So how do you calculate the net promoter score? It's simple to calculate the final NPS score. [01:47:03] Just subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. For example, if 10% of respondents are detractors, 20% are passives, and 70% are promoters, your NPS score would be 70 minus 10, which is 60. [01:47:25] Some of the goal for accomplishments can be seen on this slide. We created and implemented the Welcoming Families Guide, hosted the School Business Partnership Breakfasts. We will focus on expanding an intentional focus to present the Welcoming Families Guide to school-based personnel, and we'll focus our efforts on expanding business partnerships across all career clusters. [01:47:52] The presentation that follows is focused on streamlining metrics. in this presentation we wanted to give you an overview of our current status with the current metrics we're happy to answer any questions you may have are you asking us to ask questions now that concludes our presentation back to you chair mansfield okay board members do you have any thank you very much for that presentation board members do you have any comments or questions [01:48:27] i'm seeing miss shernoff that's a yes sorry that was a lot all at once so just getting my thoughts organized um i appreciate this conversation mostly because it feels like this is the first day and first step that the strategic plan truly becomes part of our generation of school board and that we get to kind of take some ownership through the subsequent activities and i'm especially looking forward to the dialogue on prioritizing metrics because i agree with you dr spence i think [01:49:02] that we need to be focused on um a couple of things to that end when this was put on the board retreat, I had asked staff to compile some data for the group, and I appreciate the work on that, the fast turnaround. And for me, if we're going to talk about metrics, we got to have data to understand where we are, where we've been, and what the priorities are. And I've said this before, and I'm going to keep saying it, and if there's one takeaway from today that I really want people to hear from me is that I there are some metrics and there's some data that I am very concerned [01:49:41] about especially as it relates to our subgroups our English language learners our special education students and as well as our especially our economically disadvantaged some of those numbers are alarming and I have said that from the beginning it's my background and I've I've done a deep dive on all of this data and I look forward to kind of digesting some of that but one of the things a couple of the trends that I noticed just looking and I also asked for so I asked for map data and I asked for the VALS data and it is on board docs if people want to go through [01:50:14] and look at it but what I really want people to understand is I hear a lot in LCPS like overall we're it we're good and those percentages overall sometimes do look pretty good but when you dig down deep and you start to really look at the trends and especially in light of thinking about our budget and our priorities and what metrics we want to look at I just want to be very mindful that we are putting the supports in place and that we are making sure that we're looking at not only just the district as a whole but individual buildings that may have needs that [01:50:50] are larger than others and I'll save some of this discussion for the MTSS discussion because a lot of it has to do with intervention and tiers and the achievement gaps that exist but just overall there are some concerning factors in terms of growth and the MAP growth so I when we turn our discussion to metrics I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty now but I am concerned with a what I see as decreasing growth for MAP and just for the public like when you look at conditional growth percentage you're really looking at that 50% we allowed in like to say 60 because we want to make sure people are growing but 50% would be one year's growth and so while some schools or [01:51:30] some individuals may be above that that there are some trends where we're seeing those percentages decrease and so when we're looking at the metrics I would ask that we really think about not just overall numbers but that we really as a board for me a priority is to really dig below just the overall where are we with reading and where are we with math I think we really need we owe it to our communities and our schools to really look at specific groups and where they're struggling and how that will play into that overall percentage as we go forward thank you miss sherna for that [01:52:05] um i would have to agree and i would also um for me especially when it comes to for vows um as a conversation for later i mean i think we should separate at kindergarten first second and third and pretty soon we're going to have fourth and fifth i think um we'll be taking vows i think what 20 25 26 i think that's true um and i would like to see i mean part of vows is to make sure that we're doing our intervention correctly, our early intervention correctly, and/or that it's effective. [01:52:36] So I'd like to see the progression going from, okay, here's your baseline, and what kind of growth you had, or if we're identifying more or less at the end, like fall, spring. And I don't know if you guys are doing the intermediate growth in the middle or not. [01:52:57] And I would say the same for MAP. I mean, I do like the average reading percentile, and then I think, again, I would like to see that Tier 2 is moving up or Tier 3 is moving up to Tier 1. [01:53:13] I mean, I think I'd like to know some of those numbers because when I heard that I think our Tier 1 for reading overall, and that's kind of something, you know, it's large. [01:53:30] But when it's overall Tier 144 didn't make growth, that's a little concerning. Great that Tier 2 made 53. But that's only a year or a little bit. And then Tier 3 was doing that. So what that kind of tells me is that we need something better than just our core. [01:53:50] And we are making changes, and the core is going to be different, so we might see different numbers. So that's all I agree with Ms. Chernoff as far as digging down deep into this. Because for me, if the historically underserved populations, EL, low-income, special education people are making the gains, then other people are going to be, the general population is going to be making gains. [01:54:19] So, all right. Yes, Vice Chair Struffy. I agree with all of the comments made so far. I think if I would add anything to the discussion, I think just want to tie in. One of the things that you mentioned, Dr. Spence, around reimagining the school improvement process or the school improvement planning process and just making that collaboration between central admin and each individual school stronger and just refreshing that process. [01:54:47] Because I think that, and we've discussed this as well, is whatever we imagine in terms of being able to move the needle on some of these things, really a lot of that happens at the school level, as we've talked about. And so even tying back into the budget as we scrutinize our budget and think about how we prioritize some of these things, I think we just need to address the varying needs across each individual school and the varying needs of all the students that we have, whether that's students with disabilities or English language learners and other maybe communities. [01:55:26] But I just wanted to tie that in. think there's a lot that we can look at at the individual school level in the school improvement planning process. Yes, Ms. Chernoff. And I'm going to put a shameless plug in for that committee again because this would really be where I would foresee that this work could happen. I think that we have a lot gets to the full board or even in committee it's sort of at a high level and I know a lot of us are sort of data geeks up here and really would appreciate that. So just for my fellow board members who are considering that I would just I would put a plug for this this could be that kind of work too where we could have updates about how that school improvement process is evolving and [01:56:05] how different schools we could even have schools come and present where they've had success I just really see that as an opportunity and I want to just put a plug there because this is some really important work and this is the work that I really think is valuable to moving that needle like vice chair Streffy said thanks board members any other questions oh yes yes ma'am Dr. Deans Paula, I have to agree with that. [01:56:33] I do see movement, and I think the movement is very small, and the movement is incremental. But I think that we have to consider that we're coming out of the pandemic with the improvement. I think once we get the instructional framework in place, and once we get some of the things that we've identified this year, this academic year in place, that those numbers will continue to go up and will go up more than one or two points, as we're saying now. [01:57:07] I just see that we need to give it time. I appreciate that, Dr. Deans, and having done this work for a long time with the dyslexia population, I think that core instruction will be a big, huge way to get this moving forward. [01:57:30] So I can appreciate that. But I would also say that some of these scores were going down before COVID. Any other questions? We have until like 11.15 to ask questions. [01:57:51] Any other questions about Dr. Spence's plan then? Yes. Mrs. Griffiths. I just wanted to mention, while I appreciate the presentation, and I'm going to echo my colleagues here on metrics, hopes and dreams doesn't work for anyone. [01:58:16] we need all that information in the presentation when you have when you're focusing on one idea or in one area we would like to know or I would like to know I don't speak for my colleagues about how it's going to help in achievement how it's going to raise scores that'll be a constant ask of myself I don't know if anybody else will ask that question but you can't run a business on hope and dreams. Thank you. I appreciate that feedback. The intention in describing our [01:58:53] community's hopes and dreams was not to say that we are hopeful we will improve. The intention in describing our community's hopes and dreams was to indicate that that is where our community would like us to be, and then thinking about where our strengths are, and then understanding the gap between our strengths and where our community would like us to be, and that gap is where we need to spend our time working in terms of improvement, right? So we talked also in there about the improvements that our community said we needed to engage in, and that's really what drove those recommendations. [01:59:22] And I do believe if we lean into those recommendations, and certainly we can talk more about them individually, some of them will not have a tangible metric, but many of them would, and I think if we lean into those recommendations, I do believe we will be able to see significant improvement. [01:59:41] Thank you, Dr. Spence. Yes, Vice Chair Struffy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just going off of your presentation, Dr. Spence, I appreciate all the detail that was in there and so many things to glean. If there was one thing that I would just ask is from the recommendations that were given, and you mentioned some of this in your report, but what are some of the changes that you anticipate having to make, whether that's at the central admin level or the structural level to really just set ourselves up for success on some of these items? [02:00:17] You had mentioned a few. One of them was family engagement and potentially restructuring that. Or what are some of the things that you anticipate in terms of changes that we might see across the division just to organize ourselves better towards some of these recommendations? [02:00:33] Thank you. Yeah, I think you mentioned the key one that I did specifically state in the recommendation and intention to centralize the family and community engagement effort because that is touchstones across a number of different departments and areas in the division. [02:00:50] We also have, as the board has seen, we've made some recommended changes to the professional development structure so that there's a talent development side of that that lives in HRTD and then a professional development and school support side of that that lives in the Department of Teaching and Learning, differentiated so that folks know precisely where they need to go to get the professional development to support their work, which is something that we heard a lot from our staff in particular, saying we need to know exactly where to go and exactly what's expected. [02:01:20] And so creating that structure, I think, will help there. Any other specific organizational changes, I haven't identified them. It's something that is, as I mentioned earlier, cabinet will go back. We'll develop a project map for each of the recommendations. And if something pops out of that conversation, then I think we would bring that forward to you. [02:01:40] And then, of course, the other structural change would be the discussion around a committee of the board, which, again, I think has the potential for some powerful impact, particularly as it relates to the conversation that Ms. Chernoff and Ms. Mansfield just talked about, which I agree with, which is that we need to get very granular in looking at our data so that we can figure out how we want to report that and how we're leveraging our resources to move the needle in that regard. Dr. Spence, so when you were talking about like access to opportunity, we were talking, what I heard was a lot of IB, ham side, dual enrollment, dual language, [02:02:20] those kinds of things. I'm wondering, are there any thoughts about what our special education kids can do, like our transition, those kinds of things, CTE, those opportunities that maybe not necessarily on the college track, but there's certainly opportunities that they should have access to as well that I don't know that we are doing at this point the best we could be doing for that population do you have any thoughts or ideas about how we could increase access to our [02:02:54] student to that particular population i do and um to be clear i think i think what so this is a big report right and there's a lot of information captured and what what we heard was that we like our unique programs like the ib program and the ham side program and the academies of latin but that we need to do more um where popular programs are oversubscribed we need to find opportunities for students to engage in those in other school settings but then just beyond all of that we really need to engage in a conversation about what are the programs that provide clear pathways for students to be successful when they leave us and that would include and we you know specifically [02:03:32] reference career and technical education as an area that we need to think about expanding but I think even beyond that I think there are there are other programs that that that need expanding and could be put into place across our schools and so I would say that would apply for all students including our special education students including our English language learners so opportunities for students in every school to know what courses are available to them what those pathways lead to in terms of career opportunities either right out of school or going into college or post-secondary learning to continue to pursue that so I've always talked about the kind of for [02:04:11] me it's like a branching tree at the end of graduation for students it should be a branching century where when I get there I have not just one opportunity but multiple opportunities to do something that I want to do so that maybe that's going right to work or that's going to a community college to get an associate's degree or going on to a post-secondary training to get a different certification or going on to a four-year university or going into the military whatever it is that I feel like I want to do I am well prepared to do that and I have had the opportunity starting in in the elementary years to really start to identify what are the things I'm most interested in through like the interest inventories that we do and the career explorations that we do and then [02:04:47] see the courses I should be taking while I'm in school that will lead me towards that path. For our special education students in particular, you know, we've talked a lot about transition services and I think that's a key part of the conversation. So we now have in the budget, as you know, a transition coordinator whose key responsibility in part is going to be identifying the types of opportunities that you're talking about for students to transition to work, for example, and then identify the skills that we may need to be working on developing while they're still in our school so that they're prepared for that. [02:05:21] I think there was also space to start that kind of work in elementary school, like you were saying. But I know that we don't have transition specialists in elementary schools. I think perhaps the middle or high school people come down to talk about that or not. [02:05:38] I don't know. Maybe Ms. Richardson might have some perspective. Absolutely. Thank you, Chair Mansfield, for that question. Just to piggyback off of what Dr. Spence has shared. So, yes, to answer your question, our transition staff are able to matriculate down to middle school and even elementary. [02:05:57] While we haven't expanded the model to elementary, that is a fantastic idea and one that we can consider to build out that model. but we do work very closely with middle school since the effective transition age is 14 years and older. In addition to our existing career technical education pathways for all students, we have established a work group in conjunction with our special education advisory committee that will be looking at building our own transition center from the ground up. [02:06:30] And so that first kickoff meeting will be later this month, and we're excited to start those conversations. We do know that we need to be thoughtful about, certainly we're going to dream as big as we want, right, but what is practical, what is doable, and sort of building that out in a phased approach. [02:06:49] But certainly we have the knowledge, the know-how, and the desire to make sure that we have the best transition outcomes for our students with disabilities here in LCPS. So we're excited to get that work started. [02:07:04] - Ms. Richardson, do you see a space for, so we asked our legislative partners for recovery school to help us with recovery school. Is there a space for asking, for talking to legislative partners about something like a transition school? [02:07:21] - That would be a wonderful priority for us to consider. It piggybacks and dovetails well with the conversation and the meeting that we participated in earlier this semester with Chair Randall from the Board of Supervisors looking at adult services for persons with disabilities. [02:07:42] That would be a wonderful sort of transition model, sort of that in-between that could really benefit the greater Loudoun County community for sure. So I don't know if you were listening to our joint committee last night with Board of Supervisors. [02:07:58] But we did move up special education transition to November. So maybe that would be a good time to discuss that, even though we have to discuss with legislative partners before that. [02:08:14] But maybe the stars will align. Absolutely, and I'd be happy to work on drafting a legislative position to share with Dr. Smith for his consideration. Thank you. Board members, anybody else? - Yes, Vice Chair Strafi. [02:08:31] - Thank you Madam Chair, just one more topic I want to reintroduce because you mentioned it, Dr. Spence, in your presentation, I think for consideration with all the board members, I think the ongoing topic around the conversation of schedules and how we can further support educators and teachers and staff at the school levels when it comes to that balance between teaching and supporting students and having the time for planning And just this, it's something I imagine that all the school divisions struggle with and it's an ongoing conversation, but something that I appreciate that you highlighted and something that we think about, I imagine, [02:09:10] you know, every day is that there are teachers that may be feeling suffocated or, and I think that conversation changes between the different schools that we might have, whether that's a Title I school with different student populations or needs versus another school in the division. [02:09:31] And so just wondering how we're thinking about this and how that conversation is going to be carried forward. Yeah, I think in multiple ways, quite frankly. So I know we are interested and want to engage with the board in the start times conversation. [02:09:47] That's part of it. That's not necessarily the balance part of it, but I think for our families and communities, there's some balance issues there. And so thinking about who goes first and when does school start and how long are our kids in school. And then within the, once we have, you know, that piece of the conversation, and not necessarily that they have to be non-concurrent, but that's a piece of the conversation. [02:10:09] The other piece of the conversation is then what does the master schedule look like within the school day for students and for staff? Because the master schedule drives a lot of things, right? The master schedule drives planning time. The master schedule drives transition opportunities for students. [02:10:25] The master schedule drives course opportunities for students in the secondary schools in particular. so I think really revisiting the master schedule I know we've begun to do some of that already with the elementary schools and that I mean largely those are administrative conversations but certainly things where we can provide updates to the school board about where we see challenges and where we're trying to provide additional flexibility the other the other part of what drives the master schedule of course are the requirements right so the requirements that the school board established are the requirements that are established by the state in terms of the amount of time that students spend on task and learning in content areas and so I think trying [02:11:03] to take a deep dive into all of that and identify both what we do within the existing parameter schedule and calendar and then begin to think about are there other things that other school divisions across the country may be doing that are providing more of that balance and more time for staff that LCPS is not yet thinking about. [02:11:25] So it's a longer, bigger conversation. I know we want to engage first in the start times conversation. And I also know that, and I think maybe Mr. Slevin, if you're curious, could speak a little bit to some of the initial conversations around putting some more flexibility back into the elementary school day. [02:11:47] Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. Getting away from that, I apologize, Mr. Streffy. I got the impression on SROs that they're out of the question. Can you please elaborate on that? So just to be clear, my recommendation was not to put SROs into every elementary school at this time. [02:12:08] The Blue Ribbon Panel specifically suggested additional security personnel in elementary schools, and they named three different types of security personnel for consideration. So because the school board doesn't fund SROs, that's a board of supervisors conversation, And because I don't have enough information to make a recommendation to you that school resource officers would be valuable in our elementary schools at this time, my recommendation was to first take a look at the visitor management protocols and then explore who could support us there. [02:12:40] So we currently have allied security in a number of our elementary schools. We get positive feedback around them from the visitor management side. They do a little bit of other things like perimeter checking and making sure that our doors are secured and those sorts of things. And then I've had conversation with our safety and security team, Director Clark in particular, around the potential for school security officers in the elementary schools or assistant school security officers in the elementary schools who could provide an additional layer of support for our principals and their safety efforts. [02:13:13] Thank you, Dr. Spence. And, oh, yes, Dr. Deans, this will be the last one because we have, I want to keep us on time, 11.15, please. Okay, concerning the flexible schedules, the master schedules, I think one middle school came and presented to us, indicating that they were experimenting with or sharing that they were changing their master schedule. [02:13:40] I think that this can become a part of the school improvement plans and that each individual school would decide or entertain the idea of a flexible schedule to accommodate the needs. We're talking about different needs for Title I schools versus other schools. [02:13:57] I think that could be a part of the school improvement plan. And as a result, that's not something that we would just go from the top down and tell them to do. But each school will have flexibility. Thank you, Dr. Deans. [02:14:15] I think that's because the building principal is the instructional leader for that school. Is that what you're coming from? Any other questions, thoughts? Okay. Well, then, why don't we go into our break for now. [02:14:41] for lunch and let's see it's 11 14 oh no let's just go for a break 11 15 to 11 25 and then we come back to one one lcps metrics evaluation the board is on break [02:14:54] all right the it is 11 27 i'm sorry for being a couple minutes late [02:28:31] And if we could go ahead and start back up with item, let's see, 3.05, which is the one LCPS strategic plan for excellence metrics. [02:28:48] And I think Dr. Spence would like to introduce the item. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, and appreciate the opportunity to engage with the school board in this conversation. This is something that we have been talking about again since the last board retreat, the need to really understand the metrics that matter to the school board the need to understand the reporting mechanisms for that how we engage with each other in these conversations and how we look at our data and so the goal for this conversation will be talking about how we shift from potentially if you all agree with us the the number of targets that we currently have to the [02:29:26] smaller number of metrics that make the most sense and and guide the decisions that we make together as an administration and school board, particularly when it comes to allocation of resources and instructional priorities. And of course, as we think about this conversation, one of the things I'm going to ask the board to keep in mind during this conversation is what are the metrics that push us towards continuous improvement, right? So what are the things that are not lagging metrics, but metrics that allow us to just continually seek improvement in our work? [02:29:57] So I think really good examples earlier around diving more deeply into some of our growth data and understanding where we're seeing growth and where we're not seeing growth and then how that drives decisions around, like, instructional priorities. So the support systems that may be needed for certain groups of students and then also the allocation of resources. [02:30:15] So I would suspect, and she didn't name them, that she's looking at specific schools, Ms. Chernoff, right? When you're looking at that data and you're able to say, look, in this school we saw some really good things happening and over in this school we didn't. and how might that drive our understanding of best practice, and then how might that also drive our need for different resource allocation within this building. So that's the mindset that we're hoping the board engages in in this conversation is one of continuous improvement and narrowing it down to the most important metrics so we can make those decisions together. [02:30:43] And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. All right, next slide, please. So as we mentioned earlier, it was important to, we have a strategic plan implementation steering committee, we call them spice, and it was really important for this group as we looked at to ensure we have consistency and alignment with Dr. Spence's entry plan. Our current strategic plan was adopted by the previous board, as you know, and we're really excited today for you to take a look at our current metrics, proposed metrics, and then really metrics to really that you have ideas around and focus, whereas you want us to focus so you can make the strategic [02:31:19] plan your own. Providing direction around the metrics is really your opportunity to make this strategic plan yours, set your priorities, and give direct staff direction on what we should focus on. Our current strategic plan was approved just about two years ago, June 30th, 2022, and over the last two years, I can tell you we have learned a lot about what works and how we should be measuring our progress along the way. As you can see, our agenda today for this item will allow us to focus on discussing the improvement mindsets to frame our work. Then we'll take a look at our [02:31:55] current metrics as well as staff recommended metrics that we've really worked on. We're really excited about you having time and space today to share your priorities and focus areas as you help to direct staff and help us to make 1LCPS your strategic plan. We do intend to capture your thinking and we'll come back to you in August with an update about what we've learned and what you've shared with us today. Our outcomes are to review the two sets of metrics, again the current metrics and staff metrics, and then have some dialogue around what you feel like should be our most important priorities and metrics. The purpose of today is not to necessarily have consensus but [02:32:32] really around dialogue and we'll be guided by the three questions that you see here on this slide. So I take just a minute to talk about improvement mindset. As Dr. Spence discussed and shared in our opening, our goal is always to get better and I just wanted this this quote really resonated with me as one of, we think about our staff recommendations around metrics is to shift away from necessarily the yearly targets and move forward towards fewer metrics with a goal of getting better each and every year. We have learned from the two-year implementation of [02:33:11] the strategic plan and from experience that when you try to implement and measure many things at once, you really aren't able to do anything well. And so you'll see that we are proposing a much streamlined set of metrics that we appreciate your feedback on. The current strategic plan has 55 metrics and we are when we have looked at these metrics and see how we can really prioritize and focus these staff has come up with 25 and so we wanted to use that as a baseline to share that with you today in terms of our thoughts but really again this is your opportunity to identify what what your priorities are what you feel like our focus areas should be so that we can make this [02:33:48] strategic plan your own so we'll take you through a protocol in just a little bit where you'll be able to share with us those priorities, and you'll have an opportunity to actually write in your own metrics. And with that, I'll turn things over to Dr. Ellis. Thank you, Dr. Smith. So before we engage in our protocol, we wanted to take a couple minutes to first look at our current metrics. [02:34:09] As Dr. Smith mentioned, we have 55 total metrics. This slide shows you how many metrics there are for each goal and also for each aligned action. So you can see, for example, that aligned action 1.1 has five metrics, Aligned Action 2.3 has eight metrics, and so on. In the previous presentation, you were given the targets document. We are only engaging in a conversation on the actual metric itself. We won't focus on targets this afternoon or this morning. We've compiled all the metrics [02:34:45] into one consolidated document for you. The metrics in your packet are broken up by two separate documents. One is the current set of metrics, and one is the staff recommended metrics. The asterisk next to a metric means that the metric is also on the staff recommended list, so we are recommending keeping some of them. Before we move on to take a look at the staff recommended metrics, I wanted to give you an overview of the thought process of the strategic plan implementation steering committee. There are quite a few metrics that were removed because we're presenting them somewhere [02:35:20] else to you during over the course of a year. So it's not that we will that we will no longer continue to measure or monitor. It's just that we are streamlining our reporting for the purposes of the strategic plan and that data is captured and presented to you elsewhere. We need top level data points that drive where we're going and how we're going as and how we're doing as Dr. Spence and Dr. Smith both mentioned. On the previous slide you saw five metrics for 1.1 and we are recommending three as an example. As you can see on this slide, our intent here is to align with [02:35:56] where the state is going in terms of measuring mastery and growth, so we've also taken things like that into consideration. Please know that with all our metrics, we disaggregate data by subgroups and monitor, and we will, as a school division, commit to continuing to do that, and I also know that's a priority of the board. We were very intentional with alignment with a post-entry plan wherever we could be. So please know that as well. And with that background, we will pass it over to Dr. Single and Ms. Miller, who will take us through a protocol to prioritize metrics. And also, I just want to add that you will have an opportunity to add your own metrics that you're [02:36:35] thinking about as well. So while we've recommended some, there is space for you to discuss your own ideas. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Single. Thank you, Dr. Ellis. So as Dr. Ellis mentioned, we are going to spend some time digging into the current metrics that we have and what staff is proposing. But we do want to give you some think time because it is a lot of metrics to process. And you're going to be comparing two sets of metrics. To make it a little bit easier on you, we did put an asterisk next to metrics that are on both documents in terms of what's currently there and what we are also proposing. So we are [02:37:11] going to individually spend about 10 minutes taking a look at those documents and we're going to ask you to review current metrics, the proposed metrics as a note, again, reminder, the asterisk, the notes, a current metric that is also on the recommended metric list. [02:37:28] If you notice that there is a metric that you think we as a school division should be measuring, paying attention to, you're more than welcome to write that on the sticky notes that were provided in your packets. What you are going to do later with the sticky notes is actually take them with you and make sure that you put them in on a poster for each of the aligned goals. [02:37:50] We will give you those directions in a little bit. Right now it's individual processing time. So let's take about 10 minutes to look at current metrics, proposed metrics. I'm going to set a timer for 10 minutes and then we'll check in and see if you need additional time. [02:38:08] Do you have any questions about this part right now? Questions that we can answer? All right. Back in a few minutes to check in. [02:47:21] Okay. And that was 10 minutes. [02:48:23] I see that some of you are still writing and processing. So if you could show me with your fingers how many more minutes you need. So one, two, or three more minutes if you need additional time. If not, maybe good. Okay. So I'm seeing a lot of threes. So let's take three more minutes. [02:51:43] All right. So that was the additional three minutes. So in order for us to prioritize metrics, we will engage in a protocol called forced choice stickers. So at your tables, I placed 20 stickers that we will use to prioritize the metrics. [02:52:02] This will visually show us where some of our priorities lie so that when we engage in dialogue later, we can visually see where most school board members might prioritize a metric over another. So before I ask you to stand up and join a partner, I'm first going to ask you to take your sticky notes that you wrote, your recommended metrics, and place them where the posters are. [02:52:32] So over here we have goal one, and we have a poster with handwritten notes that says write in metrics. So that will be where you will place your recommended metrics for goal one. In this corner over here, we have goal two. So any metrics that you feel like we need to consider for goal two, you will place them or stick them to the goal two poster. [02:52:54] In this corner that I'm pointing to will be goal three, and then goal four will be in the corner over here. So just a note that when you're sticking your stickers to metrics that you feel we need to consider, if there is an asterisk next to it, you do not need to place a sticker next to that metric because it's also on the recommended metric. [02:53:16] So that's the double metric. You don't want to waste two stickies for that metric. Any questions before we give the next set of directions? [02:53:32] The color does not matter, does not matter at all. So we do ask that we have our goal co-chairs stand next to their goal posters in case there are any questions that you need clarifications on, or if you want to ask why a certain metric was prioritized over another, now would be the time to engage with the goal co-chairs in that conversation. [02:53:55] And it would be good if we have two school board members at each poster at any one time. So you'll have an opportunity to rotate. This will be a natural rotation. I'm not going to time you. But know that when you have finished prioritizing for goal one, you can move on for goal two to goal three to goal four. [02:54:14] Some of you will start at goal three. So if you're starting at goal three, you will go to goal four next, so on and so forth. Jenny, did I miss anything with the directions here? We are here to help facilitate. We're going to circle the room. So at this time, I do want to answer any questions that you have, and then we'll dig into the prioritizing. [02:54:34] I feel like there might be a question. Okay. You can tell. The look on my face. Okay, so we're going to put our stickies up first and then circulate. Correct. And then we should put stickers next to either ones that are already on the chart, not the ones with the asterisk, and then ones that we agree with with our colleagues to add. [02:54:50] Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for asking that question. Excellent point. So if you notice that your colleague has recommended a metric that you feel we need to prioritize, that metric will get your sticker. Wonderful, I'm sorry? Yes, yes, yes, yes. [02:55:07] So first, we're sticking the sticky notes that you write in, and then you're going to join a partner and go around the room to take a look at the metrics and put your little sticky, the color stickers. All right, so Gold Cochairs, [02:55:28] if you could stand at your poster. [03:12:25] All right, at this point, [03:19:44] It looks like board members have visited each poster. If you have finished visiting all four, please return to your seat. Gold Chairs, if you will assist Anna in bringing those easels up to the front so we can see them together, please. [03:20:39] Okay, it has been... We're going to continue on, everybody. If you could please take your seats, and then we will continue on with our program so that we can have lunch by 12.40. All right, thank you for engaging in that protocol. [03:21:06] The forced choice stickers gives an opportunity to just see some of the initial thinking in the room around the metric conversation. And now you will have an opportunity to just think about the future with this work. What are some metrics that will support growth and continuous improvement with impact across LCPS? [03:21:25] What are some metrics that are standing out to you and why? And this is also an opportunity, school board members, for you to speak to any metrics that you might have added to a poster that could use additional clarification or ask some clarifying questions yourself. So I know it's hard to see that up here in that we'll talk about next steps about compiling this information so it's easier for you to read but this is the time for you to ask clarifying questions or to speak for a metric that you would like to call out for the group. Thank you. I think that for me one thing that we don't measure is [03:22:00] literacy for high school and or literacy for pre-k and pre-k now has vowels pre-k as well as vk or p so i think that um i would like to do i would like to what we always hear is that our kids are coming out and having problems reading or spelling or writing and i want to make sure that that's accurate or not accurate um the other thing was growth versus i would really like that beginning metric, that percentile, before growth. Because if you're in the 20th percentile and you [03:22:39] have less than a year's growth, you're not going to go anywhere. So I think that that's important to keep those two things in mind. So those are my two big ones. Anyone else? Yes. Ms. Chernoff. I'll piggyback off of that. And I know you kind of mentioned this, Chair Mansfield, but for me, a big piece of this, and again, we're going to talk about MTSS later, But I think seeing that tier movement, not just the tiers from beginning to the end where you see the percentages shift, but if you started in tier one, did you slide to tier two? [03:23:13] If you're in tier three, did you go to tier one? So looking at not just the tiers themselves and those percentages, but looking at the movement I think is going to be key. Another thing I added, we get a lot of, we get the daily updates every day. [03:23:29] And just in terms of a safe, supportive environment, I would like to see some continuous improvement around how we're addressing hate speech and racial slurs. I think we've seen an increase. I think that's correct, right? We've seen an increase this year, and I want to make sure that we're addressing that so that our students aren't facing that. [03:23:48] And I know that there's work being done around that, but I think that that's a metric that we could really look at to gauge that. And then another one I had was in terms of retention, just thinking about how many teachers are leaving LCPS and whether that's leaving LCPS, leaving the profession. [03:24:08] And then I think that there is an exit question on a survey when you leave or terminate or separate. And I know it's optional, but if we have those responses, I think it would be interesting to know why teachers leave. And then just the last one I wanted to highlight is for goal three, I don't know why discipline referrals fell off. [03:24:31] And I'm thinking about having that as a metric as we're addressing student behavior. I mean, I heard that loud and clear in the post-entry report. So making sure that we're aligned with that, I think we should have a metric to see how we're addressing it. Anyone else? [03:24:48] Yes. Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. So first and foremost, I guess I'm going to acknowledge that I think I did this whole thing wrong. But over the course of the experience, I think I've come to better understand the goals in terms of what we are trying to work towards in streamlining and having overarching ideas instead of laying out in this particular plan the process by which we measure every item. [03:25:19] And to that extent, I do appreciate the work, and I would like to see it continue, but I'll be very honest. Since this strategic plan came into play, I felt a little resistant to it. [03:25:36] And I think it's one of those things where I deeply am committed to the work of making LCPS a nationally recognized, top-tier division. This is something that I want for us. And I guess I question and would like to understand better how and if this is a meaningful way to invest our time and our resources and if that is tangibly going to lead us in that direction. [03:26:04] Maybe it is. I don't know. I am open to that conversation. But when it comes down to specific items, one of the things that I had the opportunity to speak to at each area or each goal station was the idea that I personally also feel resistant to using the surveys to measure everything, right? [03:26:30] I think you're assuming that the people who will take the time to participate represent the ideas of the whole community. And I don't know exactly what path we can take to get some more meaningful targets. But I will say I'm completely in agreement with Ms. Chernoff. [03:26:48] I would like to see more tangible metrics. And one, especially in the safe care for students category and safe environment, is decreasing those instances of conflict around hate speech. [03:27:06] But perhaps we could do some tracking with discipline issues. So thank you. Yes, Mrs. Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to follow up on Ms. Chandler's comments. [03:27:25] I was making a similar thought in that I noticed that some of the proposed metrics for every goal was increased positive feedback from stakeholder surveys. Not that I don't think we should have that as a goal, but I, A, would like to see more participation in those surveys. [03:27:47] I think we're doing a good job so far, but we still have a significant portion of the community who are not responding to the surveys and not participating. And I think that that, frankly, is a more important goal than just increasing the positive response if we don't increase the number of people that we are getting input from. [03:28:08] So that was my thought when I was going around the room. And then thinking as to your point, Ms. Chandler, which is a good one, that there are the people who are going to proactively decide to participate in a survey is definitely, we're never going to get the whole community. So we need to be proactive ourselves in thinking of what are some other ways. [03:28:28] And I think the listening sessions were a really good step in that direction. But as has already been commented, it's probably not sustainable to keep doing 20 a year. So we need to think of some other ways that we can reach out to different segments of the community and get that feedback from them. [03:28:45] Thank you. Vice Chair Struffy. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also echo some of the initial kind of knee-jerk reaction to seeing kind of the proportion of the metrics coming from surveys. And I understand that that is there. [03:29:02] And I think as this activity kind of progressed, I understood that I started to understand better the level at which these metrics need to be or should be. And thinking about some of the best practices around these metrics that will help make this more effective. [03:29:20] And so over the course of the activity, I got more comfortable with the idea of a lot of those metrics coming from surveys. And I do agree with the comments already mentioned that increasing the participation should be one of those goals. Just some other random thoughts. [03:29:37] I think that I also agree that really focusing on the growth indicators for targeted groups and subgroups, I think, is something that I would just like to make sure we see. There's something that if just seeing the overall scores on the metrics, you know, isn't really useful in telling us, you know, any story beyond the fact that the, broadly speaking, we are doing better. [03:30:08] And we know that some of our students are getting stuck. So it doesn't really help us to think about the potential problems. And so that level of detail I think we should keep. The other thing that I would mention is I was speaking with Mr. Slevin as well around just this conversation of equity and access to kind of rigorous opportunities for varying student populations. [03:30:36] And so we were discussing it in terms of the conversation around CTE. And so there's this idea of having maybe an annual CTE survey and then looking at the demand data for the seats in different types of special programs. [03:30:53] That could be so just thinking about the demand for the different types of programs or opportunities that we offer and thinking about, well, what do we do next? Right. What are the opportunities that might be missing? We don't have enough space for XYZ program where or some students may not have the same access to that program because it could be on the other side of the county. [03:31:19] And just instead of just having us to pontificate around what programs seem interesting for us, how do we begin to look at that in terms of metrics? Like this is the demand. These are the surveys that we're getting maybe from CTE as we look to increase those opportunities. [03:31:39] And then family engagement, I think there was a lot in the post-entry report around some of the challenges that might exist for families and students to understand all of the opportunities that are available. [03:31:56] And we are, you know, day by day, year by year, we're increasing those opportunities. We're not putting those on hold, right? There will be more opportunities for various types of students. So how do we gauge whether there is a disconnect with what those opportunities are and if there are resulting access issues, like students not being able to access those opportunities? [03:32:22] That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Rashid. I echo all my colleagues that have said all the things that they would like to have and what, you know, the things they would like to pursue. I looked at all the sheets and I couldn't find, and I saw graduation rate and I couldn't find course completion rates. [03:32:43] I think it would be helpful, especially when dealing with languages, to see why students pursue the language they would like to pursue when they're taking the course and why they decide to expunge it. And I want to know, it would be great to know the amount of students that decide to expunge it or drop the course. [03:33:02] And this would give us some information about what are the teaching methods, where did LCPS go wrong, where did the student go wrong. And that's just something I'd like to bring about. And I couldn't find it here aside from graduation rate, but I know that doesn't apply to that. [03:33:19] So I thought having a course completion rate would be quite helpful. Thank you. Dr. Rashid, that's an interesting point. I have one more sticky because I know that a lot of the dyslexic population gives up on foreign language. [03:33:38] And it's actually in our law that ENCODE that they have to take one year and actually fail before they're able to take a computer course in their IEP. So I think that that's a good point. [03:33:54] And what can we do to keep those kids in there? because there might be some accommodations that we're not providing or something. So thank you for that. Dr. Deans. I, too, am supporting what someone else said about positive responses to questions. [03:34:16] That doesn't tell me much. It tells me about the small number of parents who actually participated, that their responses were positive. But so I think maybe some of the metrics might have, like, the numbers versus the positive responses. [03:34:40] And one that I particularly, we were laughing at, was increase in the number of employees who utilize those resources offered to them. [03:35:01] For an example, we know that there's a correlation between discipline referrals and frustration of teachers just before winter break, just before spring break, and of course at the end of the year. So we need to somehow encourage those teachers to participate in the resources, EAP and those things related to them, before they write that referral or have that as a consideration. [03:35:36] The other piece is professional learning opportunities, the number of people who participate in professional learning opportunities. Can we let the metric show the correlation between those who do participate and those who don't and their referrals of student discipline? [03:35:58] I think it comes back to being impactful on the student, either positive or negative. And so the metrics need to tell us that so that we'll stop having the negative impact on the student. So are you thinking something like a program evaluation or some sort? [03:36:17] If we start, like, another program of some sort for PBIS and then have training for that, or let's take the MANT, for instance, that MANT training, how that impacts the students later, like, look at it more as program kind of evaluation for that training? [03:36:35] I don't know if it's program evaluation or individual counseling that's needed to encourage employees to go to assistance programs. I don't know how to get to get that employee to go, but I know that if he or she doesn't go, it does a negative impact on students. [03:36:58] Thank you, Dr. Deans. Anyone else? Yes, Ms. Chernoff. I really appreciate this conversation. I actually also agree about the surveys, and so I'm really glad that you brought that up, Ms. Chandler, and I don't know that I put any of my stickies by that, and I also agree that we need to increase engagement. [03:37:15] And it got me thinking about a conversation I had with Ms. Allen over at goal number whatever that one was over there. Three, maybe? Four? Sure. I'm spatial awareness. I was thinking, we have talked a lot through the, we talked about this with the communications audit about going out into the community and figuring out how we can engage our different community groups in our platforms. [03:37:40] So ParentVue, Schoology, Lightspeed, School Links, there's a whole bunch. and really trying to increase that engagement. And so I'm wondering, too, if that should include how we use surveys or how surveys can be engaged. [03:37:55] And maybe we could increase participation in a two-fold effort as we try to embark on increasing participation across the board. Just a thought. Any other questions? No? [03:38:11] Okay. All right. I'm going to give Dr. Smith a moment to speak to next steps with streamlining the metrics. So I just want to say thank you for this time. Thank you for your engagement in this process. I think I appreciate the comments about how helpful it was to you, but I think we also saw value in being able to hear you think through some of these ideas to give us feedback on the metrics. [03:38:30] So, again, so this strategic plan can become your strategic plan that can really help us to move forward. And so in terms of next steps, we are going to take all of your input and feedback and be able to compile that together, and then we will look forward to bringing that back to you here at one of our upcoming meetings or perhaps if we start a new committee if you decide to start a new committee on performance monitoring that might be a good process or a good committee to bring it to and so we do look forward to bringing we'll work with the chair and vice chair to bring this information back to you here in the next couple of meetings next couple of months so thank you for engaging with us in that [03:39:05] process and i'll turn it back over to chair mansfield thank you all for providing us this opportunity to finally kind of dig in a little bit i know this is the beginning of many more conversations, but I do appreciate it. And so we will continue with item four and have a recess [03:39:24] for lunch until 1 25. Thank you. The board's in recess. [04:26:47] All right. The board is coming out of recess from lunch. Maybe if we have quorum, we do. The first item is item 5.01 compensation philosophy, presented by Ms. Lisa Boland, our Chief Human Resources Officer. [04:27:16] Thank you, Chair Mansfield. Good afternoon. I am pleased to introduce our facilitators for our next agenda item on compensation philosophy. With your recent approval to support a division-wide classification and compensation review, we are fortunate to have three esteemed members from Siegel, a consulting firm specializing in classification and compensation to begin discussions on that important work. [04:27:44] Here with us today to guide our conversations around creating a robust compensation philosophy are Luis Gonzalez, Dale Moyer, and Colin Grant. Siegel is a national HR and benefits consulting firm with offices across the country, including Washington, D.C. [04:28:03] Today's team has extensive experience working with public K-12 school divisions and will assist in the development of a compensation philosophy. This philosophy will underpin our comprehensive compensation review and support fiscal year 26 budget recommendations. [04:28:21] Their work is crucial for the recruitment and retention of our staff. With that, I will turn it over to Dale to get the conversation started. Good afternoon. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Board Chair Mansfield. Thank you. So red is go. All right. [04:28:45] Thank you. I'll start again. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us. Thank you, Lisa, for the warm introduction. Chairperson Mansfield, Vice Chair Arben, and board members. We have spent the last couple of weeks having some very good conversations with all of you. We want to give you a heartfelt thanks for making time for us to answer our questions, to get to know us a little bit, and for us to importantly hear some of the issues as you are seeing them. [04:29:04] So we're looking forward to working with you and using our session here today to sharing with you what our vision is, collaborating with you on developing a compensation philosophy and some of the important work streams that will be emerging from that work together. In terms of goals for today, I will kick it off with is, and as we've probably had in these conversations together, we are going to define and align on a common understanding for the compensation philosophy. [04:29:31] Today is really just a ground-setting conversation to be sure that we are all on a similar page in terms of what that means. As we talked in our conversations, sometimes the definition of a compensation philosophy can be slightly different from place to place, but we look forward to harmonizing that with you here today and on a go-forward basis. [04:29:55] The second is to discuss and develop our process for ways that we propose to support you through this. So as we had shared in our meetings, it begins with conversation. It starts with us listening carefully to your needs, your concerns, and what you see as potentially for areas for improvement. And we'll be building on that foundation as we gather information, gather data, make comparisons, and draw in ideas and best practices that we have seen and have implemented at other areas, school districts, and divisions. [04:30:26] Today is really about collective idea generation. So we want to continue to pivot and continue to launch off of some of the ideas that you all have shared with us. There are some common themes and trends that we learned in our conversations over the past couple of weeks. And then at a very high level is just to describe for you how we intend to work together with you. [04:30:45] As you may know, we do not develop our ideas in a vacuum or in a back room, but rather it's a collaborative process of keeping you informed and being able to answer your questions and issues as we move together through this process. So I'll just start with the importance around having a compensation philosophy as it is a very good beginning ground for further work that we'll be doing together. [04:31:15] So importantly, when we get to the definition of it, it is coming up with a way of aligning and supporting organization strategy with people and process. So we want to make sure that as we help develop a compensation philosophy with you, that it harmonizes with where you see the district is going and needs to go, and importantly, where there may be some opportunities for some improvements. [04:31:38] We've heard an array of issues and suggestions so far, and we're going to continue to work in that direction. It also creates a framework for consistency. One of the things that can serve as a distraction for employees and organizations is that people may be treated differently or may be classified or categorized differently. [04:32:00] So, we don't seek to put everybody in a same situation, but we want to be consistent. We want people to understand how they're compensated, how they're classified, and that helps to remove distraction, helps to make clarity, it helps to place individuals who are doing similar levels of work in a similar level within the organization. [04:32:21] And with that comes clarity and expectations, both for leaders and employees. Okay? If there's any questions as we go through this, please don't hesitate to jump in. We just have a couple of these intro slides, and then we want to get to the meat of the discussion with some questions that we have for you all for today's discussion. [04:32:38] Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be here. I'm Luis Gonzalez, one of the consultants on the team. And as we talk about a compensation philosophy, we really got to keep in mind that it's really a foundational step in enhancing or developing an organization's compensation strategy, compensation program. [04:32:57] Before we can embark on any of our other important work, such as a market assessment, a classification study, we really need to talk about this foundational step. With the compensation study or competitive assessment, we're really thinking about what is the organization's labor market? [04:33:14] Who do you compete with for talent? Who do you lose talent to? But before we can even embark on that phase of the work, it's really important for us to have that foundational step and think about who the competitors are for the organization, who's your peer group. So that's actually one step that we want to talk about today, and it's one component of a compensation philosophy. [04:33:35] Another important one is a classification analysis or job architecture, and that's really defining and providing clarity around roles and trying to figure out how jobs are defined internally, what's the internal value of roles within an organization, And how do you reconcile internal equity with external competitiveness? [04:33:55] So that's something we also discussed during the job classification study. And it is another component that's part of the compensation philosophy. So that's, again, why a compensation philosophy is really a foundational step. And then if an organization ever needs to conduct a pay equity analysis, which isn't part of this scope of study, but is sometimes a study that organizations do, Having a compensation philosophy already lays that groundwork for being able to do that. [04:34:24] I think it gets to the point of answering why we would do this or why we would advocate for comp philosophy. And you all as a school district have already determined that this is a valued step forward. [04:34:41] Is that really it establishes these core principles and values around which we align the compensation practices. So I think this is a unique opportunity and the timing is really a good one for right now. You all are six months in or so in terms of your board assignments. [04:34:59] It is now probably when you are hearing, learning, and digesting a lot of the issues that you've been hearing and probably coming up with some ideas as you've shared some summary ideas with us in terms of what you feel, A, needs to be preserved, B, what might need to be improved or enhanced. [04:35:17] And so this, we feel, is a very good opportunity that you now have a few months under your belt to have taken in and heard and listened to a lot of the issues. And so, as we move forward, I think incorporating these principles and values, these observations and insights is what becomes critical to having a successful program. [04:35:36] You know, it also aligns with not just how positions are classified, but really what our thesis or idea is around base salaries, to what degree you want to be a paid leader or pay comparable or not amongst similar roles or similar institutions, and that may also transcend into other areas like bonuses, benefits, and incentives, all with the expectation that our work together is going to help you to attract high-caliber employees, those individuals who are committed to your mission and your values, [04:36:14] and one in which your compensation plan will work in concert with those ideals. As we talk about the compensation philosophy today, we do want to keep in mind that we want to try and ensure that there's linkage between the compensation philosophy and the organization's or school division's five-year strategic plan. [04:36:36] As you probably already know, the strategic plan that's in place goes through 2027. There are four goals in that strategic plan, and one of those actually ties directly to a compensation philosophy in that it's the strategies involve ensuring that there are competitive salaries and benefits in place. [04:36:57] Again, that's one of the strategies for goal number two, and also recruiting, developing, and retaining top diverse talent. So as we develop this compensation philosophy and discuss it today, just keep in mind we want to try and ensure that there is linkage between that strategic plan and that specific goal and the different components of a compensation philosophy. [04:37:18] We don't believe that there is a one-size-fits-all compensation philosophy, but rather that it should have some common tenets or factors to it that's comparable to other school districts. [04:37:37] There may be other, you know, similar school districts that are facing similar issues and are looking to solve similar issues, but we will use a process of going through and evaluating various elements of the comp philosophy, and I think this becomes a beginning point. [04:37:53] We can use some of our time here today to hear any further opinions you may have in terms of where you would like the focus to be, and so as you'll see here in this slide, you know, one focus could be we wouldn't want to be way on one side or the other, but to be striking a balance between divergent things such as internal equity, the degree to which we pay similar roles, relatively similar levels of compensation or similar compensation opportunity versus pay competitiveness in which we'd be looking to pay, to be at a certain pay rank against our peers in the outside labor market. [04:38:27] Another example could be where the focus should be in terms of starting pay, you know, do our compensation plans and strategies, are they geared towards attracting high caliber new teachers, new staff, new administration, new to career, or should the focus be on balanced with or more heavily weighted on mid to later career pay? [04:38:52] As an example, we know that you are aware that there has been some attention in recent months or more in terms of the SAG. Some of you have spoken of that. So teachers who have primarily who have 10 or more years of service who may not be being paid as competitively as we would like against other school districts. [04:39:11] So those are all things that we have been taking in, and we look to validate with data and to be keeping you abreast of that. [04:39:27] So this is another discussion topic for today, and just talking about how does the compensation philosophy really support some of those strategic initiatives that are outlined in the plan, again, being able to retain top talent, attract that talent into the school division. [04:39:45] So, again, we want to be able to just link the two, the compensation philosophy as well as the strategic plan. Again, this is really going to serve as a foundation for everything else that we embark on in the next year or so. I'd like to open it up at this point. [04:40:05] We're eager to continue to hear your ideas. And again, we've allotted some time here to have a little bit of a dialogue further on what you all see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for Loudoun County Public Schools. As Luis had said, our comp philosophy that we develop with you should be in place to help support and advance your strategic initiatives. [04:40:31] And as you all begin to continue to develop your strategic initiatives, whether that's the adherence of the current strategic plan or you introduce new elements, we would want to be sure as your partner that we are being mindful of our ideas that we're putting into your compensation philosophy. [04:40:52] I'll jump start it as we see that some of the challenges that we have heard so far is that there is a pretty strong need to evaluate roles that have similar titles but are doing different levels of work and the vice versa that roles that have different titles that are doing similar levels of work and that that has created some challenges in some areas. It's a problem that we see is often found in school districts so you're not unusual in that respect. We also see on the flip side on opportunities is that your school district is very well regarded. [04:41:32] The families, the community strive to want to be a part of this school district and they are proud to send their kids to your school district. So these are examples of some challenges and opportunities. The latter, obviously, we want to help preserve and work on the former. [04:41:51] If anyone's willing to share anything that has come from our meetings together over the past couple weeks that you would like to share as what you feel is a chief challenge and or an opportunity for us to keep front and center in our work together. Board members, do you have any questions? [04:42:13] I think I see one to your left. Yes, Dr. Deans. I think we see Loudoun County as the richest county in the nation. I think it's a challenge for us to be the richest county in the nation and not be to pay our educational staff at or above surrounding districts so to me that's a challenge and well [04:42:47] stated too thank you dr deans that that is a message that is an observation that we heard over and over again in our conversations uh recently with with all of you is that there is this challenge that uh again probably coupled with the tremendous amount of growth lcps has had um is that uh you You know, you're at a point now where you're having to strongly evaluate the competitiveness of pay levels and pay structures and all that goes with that in light of the large size you have attained and the prominence that you have as a school district here in the state and in the nation. [04:43:25] And if I may, along with that, seeing good talent, excellent talent, top tier talent, leave us and go next door. [04:43:44] Yeah. Again, I think one of the hallmarks we're seeing at a lot of educational institutions is that keeping good, superior, performing classroom teachers and related staff and administration cannot rely only on the fact that this is a mission-driven career and profession and industry. [04:44:12] There are other things that employees are seeking, and some of that is competitive pay, a knowledge of knowing that they are paid competitively and fairly within their organization, as well as when compared to other similar organizations. [04:44:29] So that has become a stark reality and an important one, and I think you've put your finger right on that issue there, Dr. Deans. something that has been at the forefront of my mind is the intensity of the job and if you're just looking at staffing standards or if you're looking here in the state or in the commonwealth you're going to see similar kinds of things because we have us you know we have staffing standards that come to us from videoe and um maybe as far as intensity of students someone [04:45:07] maybe should be paid more, but I don't know that you're going to find that if you just compare around. Do you have any strategies to think about that kind of problem? I'll add, and then I'll invite Luis to add as needed. I think what you're describing is one in which we want to take a very careful look at what we consider to be your fancy word, your compensable factors. What are all those attributes of the roles that we should be considering as we look at these roles, evaluate them in the marketplace. [04:45:42] So some of that has to do with the areas and specializations, certifications. In some way, the way you're describing it, which I like a lot, is the intensity. Naturally, other attributes like size of district and geography and some of those traditional measures as well. [04:45:59] So we expect to bring not only sort of our tried and true methodology in terms of how to evaluate these jobs using that criteria, but also keeping an open mind to other characteristics that you feel may be making Loudoun unique or at a unique place in its time that we have to be considering as well. [04:46:20] Sure enough. Thank you so much for being here and for the conversation. I found it fascinating. I told you that on the phone. I think that this is an interesting topic. Like I, I struggle a little bit with compensation and actually when we talked about this being in the end of year funds and kind of working through the prioritization of this, I was a little suspect at first. [04:46:39] Like I was kind of like, I don't know, like let's just pay our teachers. Like that makes sense to me. But I, the reason I think I struggle is because teaching is sort of, it's a very unique profession. I'm a teacher, so I've been there, but I, it's a hard line for me to always determine whether or not it's whether a teacher is happy or they stay or there's so many factors and I think the thing that's hardest for me to kind of work out is yes paying our teachers is really important but it's also not the only thing I know that you know we've talked about it's sort of like you get that it's like a high that you have for a couple of months and if you get a raise like [04:47:16] that lasts for a little bit but then it's really the culture and how you're supported in the work that ultimately drives that. So my question to you would be, how do you tackle that differentiation and how do you make those determinations in terms of, is it really the compensation that's driving people to come here, to stay, or is it more holistic and which other aspects can we beef up in that respect? [04:47:44] I think with that question, sometimes what we do with other clients is we conduct an employee opinion service as well to get that pulse from employees. That's the question. What is it that brings you to the school division? What is it that drives you away? And really trying to establish that employee value proposition because it's not just compensation, like you say. [04:48:04] It's career affiliation. There are other market factors that are outside just compensation. So really trying to assess what that is exactly and then being able to communicate that with employees. So will that be part of your work when you speak with employees and do that through your study, kind of narrowing in on what role compensation plays and then other factors or just the compensation piece? It's really just focused on the compensation piece. [04:48:32] Fair. And then if I may, one more. Just also thinking about, do you also look at bonuses? I mean, we've talked a lot about, there's a lot of recruitment strategies and different things we've added to our budget to entice people to come here for special education and Title I, some of our more challenging positions to fill. We've added an incentive there of a bonus, and we're looking into doing recruitment bonuses, so bonuses for people who not only sign their contract, but actually stay and start that job in the fall, and really starting to incentivize that way. So would that be included as part of this as well, or are you just looking at base salaries and benefits? [04:49:11] We can look at bonuses as well and see what others are doing in the area, seeing what the best practices, trying to find innovative strategies to address that. Yeah, I'd be really interested to see if that holds additional weight or really does boost those numbers as an effective practice to not only get people here but to have them stay. [04:49:32] Ms. Chernoff, I kind of agree with that because we were, if you're looking at the JLARC study of licensed teachers who are not currently teaching and leaving for personal reasons or because they were unhappy being a teacher, According to J.J. Lark, 75% said that there was inadequate support, 70% said workload was too high, 64% said school leadership was unaffected, and 55% said there was inadequate salary. [04:50:01] So I think there is some room there to look into other ways to compensate. Any other questions? Yes, Vice Chair Struffy. Thinking about how to phrase this question, but just to introduce a piece of our discussion last week, I think, to me, looking at the scope of this study and thinking about benchmarking, I am really tied to how our compensation philosophy aligns with the broader value statements that [04:50:36] we want to express as a division when it comes to our staff, exemplary staff, and how that all integrates into that value proposition for someone to join or stay with a division, And what are we actually wanting to say? [04:50:53] Are we wanting to say that, you know, we want to be more competitive than any other division when it comes to base pay and then across what scales? And then what are we saying with that? Are we saying that we want our teachers or educators or staff to be able to live and work in this community, right? [04:51:16] Or what is that value statement that we are trying to say? then how are we saying it beyond just the compensation? And so, and I do agree with my colleagues around some of the more specialized roles and thinking about what that value statement would be to attract for those positions. [04:51:33] And the benchmarking piece to me is pretty important as well because we're trying to figure out those theses, right? What are those assumptions that we're gonna use to drive some of these decisions in the future? [04:51:49] Um, and I think the data itself is important, you know, um, so just, just wanted to state that, but curious to hear your thoughts around how you've seen that alignment, you know, we, we can talk about the different pay scales and step increases sag, um, but how difficult or, you know, how do we begin to tackle this issue of alignment, uh, of our philosophy and some of the value statements? [04:52:12] Yeah. Um, I, I think there's two, two things, uh, for reaction to what you, you just asked. One is we are completely aligned that how we describe together the language that is used, the word choice in your compensation philosophy will become something that is accessible. [04:52:31] It is read by your employees. So we need to be thoughtful together in terms of what is said and that it's in concert with other values that you have described perhaps elsewhere or in other ways in the school district so that we want to be consistent. [04:52:48] That's very important. And the other is, I think, together is aligning on where you all, and we will help you with this next part, but where you all want to see yourselves. We do have some leaders of organizations who say, we want to be the number one payer for newly starting teachers, as an example. [04:53:10] I'm just throwing that out for an example. And with the data, we can absolutely align to what it would take to do that. But there are others that take a more moderated approach that says we want to make sure that we are paying within or that we are in the top three, the top four, the top five of our comparator's peer set. [04:53:33] So I don't think there's a one way of doing it. I think there's multiple. But I think with the data, we can together help you align on what you all have both an economic and a cultural appetite to achieve through compensation for your employees. [04:53:51] and then plot out the next steps forward. Yes, Dr. Rashida, and then we'll let them continue with their... I would like to see a little bit of a comparison with teachers' pay in other areas that are not expensive to live in, where there are areas where they are living in where they are expensive, if that makes sense. [04:54:17] I know that living here is quite pricey, so I know no matter what you make, it's still a big chunk of your salary, So I just wanted to see how it was in other areas of the country where it's not so expensive. And that's all. Thank you. Thank you. [04:54:39] And I think that we can provide you with some insights on that, you know, either from relative compensation levels relative to the overall housing or expense for some areas that might be of, I think we'd probably target then comparable city size, comparable district size. So I think that's something that we can provide some insights to. [04:54:56] All right, now that we have a better just understanding of the important aspects of a compensation philosophy, we thought we'd just bring up these three topics and these questions to kind of get the discussion going on what are your priorities, how we're going to move forward. [04:55:20] So we'd really love to hear your thoughts on what are the priorities that you see emerging in terms of people, processes? How do you see school division evolving over the next couple years? And how does that kind of look in relation to your strategic plan? [04:55:35] And then what are the, what do you think is a successful outcome for this project at the end of it? - Yes, Dr. Deans. - I think along those lines, We would not focus solely on teacher salaries, but we would also focus on student outcomes. [04:56:05] One of the questions that you asked earlier, in which ways would the compensation philosophy support and help LCPS achieve its employee-focused strategic initiatives? But we also, we want to help and support the student-focused initiatives as well. [04:56:25] So I think that one of the things that we might incorporate in the big picture is student outcomes as well as dollars and cents. Yeah, and on the issue of student outcomes, I mean, I think being mindful and aware and essentially worldly in terms of how we craft compensation philosophies, so it doesn't get interpreted as being, and this may sound the wrong way, but solely for [04:57:01] employees. It's something that's going to benefit employees very well. It's going to position the school district in a way that helps their reputation. It is a way of working towards a set of outcomes that helps make the district even better and stronger than it is today. So I think that I would look at it as a lot of this work will extend to the benefit of the students and to the community that are, you know, so vital and are at the center of everything that you do. So along those lines, I think some of the questions that you might [04:57:40] have for employees is their philosophies on student outcomes versus simply their philosophy on their salaries. Okay. That's a good point. Yes, Ms. Chernoff. I appreciate the question. [04:58:00] something I'm very interested in comparables I think a lot of us are in the many facets of the comparables of living in this district and particularly having a couple of other really similar large districts around us I think that that's going to be key to the conversation and not just I think just we always say teachers but I think support staff is something that's really important to look at and then also looking at central office staff you know those comparables like it's brought up a lot here. Um, so I think that that, you know, looking at those comparables are important, but something I'm specifically looking for as an outcome is, and something that [04:58:37] I've learned is that in our budget, the smallest, slightest change and increase in step in salary or in a boost or step increase or a bonus is, it has big implications. It's the majority of our budget and those things, you can't do all of them at once. And so what I would like to see is sort of what what those priorities are or what those different lanes if you will if you guys could kind of roadmap that for us and then we as a district and as a school board through our budget and through other you know working with other with hrtd and different other departments could start to really think about a long-term plan of how to roll that out that doesn't cripple the district [04:59:17] because you can't do it all and we want to make sure that we're making you know good systematic change for our salaries and for our educators and all of our employees, but we can't do it all. And I, you know, when I got in here, I was sort of like, we got to do it all now. And you can't, and the budget only can do what it can do. And it will have other impacts if we do that. So I think a roadmap to sort of what the different paths could be at different times and so that we can understand really, we can make those decisions then about what is most important and what that [04:59:51] impact would be. I think going through this, what we advocate for and really in line with your strong suggestions is that we want to be thoughtful in acknowledging the economics of Loudoun County Public Schools. As we go through and we do the benchmarking, we're doing classification, we're keeping a close eye on what the estimated cost impact is of any proposed changes. Not just in current year, but in future years, you know, because we had to rely on some estimates [05:00:24] in terms of size of employee base, projected, you know, growth or reduction in staff sizes and things like that. So we have a couple of parameters that we plug in. But we certainly are coming back to you all with our cost estimates because those have to be carefully considered. [05:00:45] I mean, in a perfect world, of course, you know, we could wave the magic wand and print our money, right? But we have to be mindful of and shepherd those resources carefully. And so we think of that situation or we think of the modeling around that the way you would be thinking of it on your side of the desk. [05:01:04] Any more questions? Seeing none. Any other thoughts on any of the other questions up here, how we might expect the LCPS to evolve in the coming years? And these may not be things that you readily have answers for today, but we see this as a bit of an organic process, right? I mean, organizations evolve and change over time. [05:01:37] You know, as we said earlier, and probably the one truism that everyone would agree on is that you've grown incredibly fast. You know, so will that pace of growth continue? What's the anticipated pace of growth? Where do you see things expanding? Where do you might see things contracting, potentially? And how there might be some logical tie-ins with compensation planning. [05:01:59] If anything comes to mind today, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, but we also expect that we'll be in our period here of discovery and looking at your data and looking at the comparables to the broader market and coming back with our observations. [05:02:16] I think you can expect more special education, low income, and also EL learners, which can be a more intense population because there is more work sometimes to be done. [05:02:33] So and I think that we have seen that our demographics change, which is a big increase in our budget and trying to attract those teachers and keep them and keep them happy. Mr. Steffi. [05:02:51] Just to add to what Chair Mansfield said as well, I think the adventure to say that a lot of the CTE, career and technical education opportunities and alternative pathways, and just seeing the diversity of those types of courses and opportunities, dual enrollment, the focus on credentialing in middle and high school levels, and just seeing how that landscape is changing, I don't see the complexity of those kind of positions decreasing. [05:03:20] I see the complexity of being able to hire folks with different types of credentials in more emerging types of vocations or careers and being able to teach that content. I think that's going to get more complicated as we expand those opportunities for our students, just thinking about how those positions would evolve. [05:03:41] I think something we also hear around the Commonwealth and in our own population is an increase in behaviors and how does that affect our compensation as well. Anybody else? I think it's important to also keep in mind that once we develop this compensation philosophy for the school division, it is going to become a living document for the school division. [05:04:11] It's not something that stays set in stone. It does need to be reviewed and revised every so often because organizations, like Dale said, do evolve. They do change over time. So it's important to look at that document every couple years so it aligns, again, with your strategic plan in place. [05:04:29] So this next slide just outlines some of the, or summarizes some of the key activities that we've already accomplished in our work together. [05:05:13] We did conduct, as you know, interviews with the cabinet members and with you all, almost the entire group of board members, just to get your insights, your viewpoints. We are going to summarize that information, make sure it's captured, and make sure it's used as we develop this conversation philosophy. [05:05:31] One of the other important items that we also took care of already was actually doing a little bit of research on what other school divisions are doing in the area in terms of a compensation philosophy. So what are the key themes that we found? What are the components that they do document that relate to a compensation philosophy? [05:05:50] And then also we've begun preparing for collecting the data because the data is going to be a very important piece. We don't have any data today, but we are going to embark on that phase of the project pretty soon so we can collect that data and then begin our analysis. [05:06:06] And this is something that's going to be taking place in the next couple months. It does take time for us to collect the data, aggregate it, validate it, make sure it's a good, robust data set that we can present to you all, make sure we can dig through the important insights of that data set and present those to you all. [05:06:28] No, just add on the data set, I mean, one of the things we want to, one of the questions I think was asked of us several times, I think even today, is, you know, to the degree that this is a comprehensive study, and it is, it's going to be not just school-based roles, but non-school-based roles as well. [05:06:47] And for a lot of those roles in which your school district is competing for talent against other industries, we're using industry data that's outside of the education industry. And this is important for roles that exist in many different industries, hospitals, banking, school districts. [05:07:07] So some examples would be IT as an example in related fields like that. So we'll be using sources from different ones like that. Any questions related to our activities or what's coming up next in terms of the timeline, major work streams? [05:07:36] We're closing again. Okay. Okay. Historically, Loudoun County Public Schools has had four other school divisions that it collects data for a competitive assessment. [05:07:53] You can see those four school divisions in the slide. Fairfax, Prince William, Arlington, Alexander, all school divisions are approximate to Loudoun. And, of course, based on our conversations today, we do want to look outside the area, outside this historical peer group, see what other school divisions are doing as well. [05:08:15] But, again, we did do a little bit of research on compensation philosophies, and we did put together just some major themes that we identified in looking at other compensation philosophies. And I'm going to let our colleague, Colin, just go through those real quick. [05:08:32] Colin? Hi, everyone. I'm Colin, so I'm just going to talk a little bit about one of the first steps we did in this project, which was just gathering some information on comp philosophies of peer groups in the area, just to get a sense of what things the peers include and what would be a typical framework for a compensation philosophy in this area. [05:08:56] And we've gathered those on the four peers listed, as well as a few others. Should we go to the next slide? So, yeah, some of the recurring themes are defining a peer group, retaining and recruiting talent or the intent of the comp philosophy and how it will affect retaining and recruiting talent, broadly defining market competitiveness as well as guidelines for general decision making and administrative decisions. [05:09:33] It's almost a comp philosophy would be almost the destination in terms of the compensation decisions, what are the outcomes that you would want to get from those specific salary decisions? When we look at market competitiveness, I think defining that is very important as part of a compensation philosophy. [05:09:56] As Dale mentioned earlier, there are different perspectives to look at when we're looking at market competitiveness. Are we looking at market competitiveness in terms of a ranking system? How does Loudoun County Public Schools rank in terms of salaries compared to other regions? So we're looking at a market average, is it between 95% and 105% of the market, for example. [05:10:16] That's a very common market competitive corridor that we look at when looking at other K-12 public school divisions for non-teacher roles. So just trying to define that, I think it's going to be very important as part of our work and thinking through that as well, because that is one of the important components of a compensation philosophy. [05:10:37] And then in this next slide, you can actually see the eight different components that we have in our compensation philosophy framework. So these are the essential components that we want to think about and we want to include in a compensation philosophy. [05:10:52] We mentioned some of these already. A comparison market. So which are the other school divisions that you compete with for talent? Is that going to vary based on employee group? When looking at teachers, are we going to have one? When looking at non-teachers, is it a different one? So what does that comparison market look like, and how do you want to position yourselves in relation to that comparison market? [05:11:15] Again, do you want to be a top payer in the region? Do you want to, like Dale said, be in the top three? Just different perspectives to look at. And then I mentioned this early on. How do you want to reconcile internal equity with the market data? [05:11:31] Because there are going to be times that the two are not going to reconcile. There are going to be differences between the two. IT jobs are always a great example. In the market, those jobs are paid very, very highly outside of a public sector. But they might not be valued the same way internally. [05:11:47] So how do you reconcile the difference between a highly valued non-teacher role and the way it's valued internally? That's something for us to think about and try to establish some guiding principles around that area. And the other important one here, I think, is also looking at other market factors. [05:12:06] We talked about this quite a bit. It's looking at areas outside of compensation. What's the volume of work? What's the intensity of work? What are the working conditions for certain jobs? And we're going to be looking at that as part of our work in the job classification piece. [05:12:23] So how do we value jobs internally when looking at those different factors? Again, working conditions, autonomy of work, management supervision, responsibilities. There's just a long set of factors that we typically look at. And also, like we mentioned, and you all mentioned, affordability. [05:12:40] affordability is a very important one and make sure we're you know mindful of the cost of implementing some of these changes is going to be happening immediately what are going to be the priorities so we're going to prioritize certain groups how's that going to happen over the course of a of a couple years because it normally can never happen that you know in one fiscal year of communication that's a huge one I think just think about the communications piece of it how is it going to be communicated to employees what's the level of transparency that you all want in terms of this compensation philosophy? [05:13:14] What are the right vehicles to communicate this information? Is it going to be via a town hall? Is it going to be via newsletter, a video? Thinking about that as well. And how often is this communicated? Is it communicated to all employee groups, managers, supervisors? [05:13:32] Thinking about that as well. And then thinking about who are going to be the departments or the areas that are responsible for guiding decisions around the compensation philosophy as well. Any questions around those components? [05:13:50] Dale, anything to add? No, just other than what Luis had said, we'll make sure that we're hitting all eight areas of these so that you've got some, so you have some specificity for Loudon as it compares to this framework. [05:14:13] That's everything we had. We had an appendix in this slide deck as well. That's really more for future reference, kind of just giving you... some analogies on how to think about building a successful compensation philosophy and how it can be tied in, why it's so important, just giving you some analogies there. [05:14:33] I think we've covered most of it here in our conversation here today. As we move towards wrapping up, not our last, but hopefully this is our first conversation, any final thoughts, reactions, aspirations, inspirations? [05:14:57] Yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. In case I missed it, I'm sorry. I came in a little late. Is today's compensation presentation part of the 580,000 compensation study included in the year-end fund balance? [05:15:14] Yes, our work is comprehensive of everything that was in the board report for compensation philosophy, benchmarking, classification, analysis. So if I can clarify, Mrs. Griffiths, they probably wouldn't know the answer to your question. [05:15:36] Today's presentation, when we embarked upon this arrangement with Siegel, the school board hadn't yet approved the use of year-end funds for the comprehensive compensation review. [05:15:54] So this initial philosophy conversation was part of a separate request. We actually had to work with them twice. The initial request was to establish the philosophy, the compensation philosophy discussion at today's work session. [05:16:11] And then the year-end funds work will begin after July 1. Thank you, Ms. Bowen. Any other questions? Yes, Ms. Chernoff. I guess my only question is what's next? [05:16:28] What can we expect? What are the next steps? I'm especially curious about the sort of like common threads across our interviews. I mentioned to you we can't always have open dialogue in big groups, so I found, like I said, I found the interview to be very interesting, and some of the questions were unexpected, and it took me in a different thought process about compensation, so definitely curious about hearing that sort of summary, and if there's any common threads, and just knowing how this will look in a timeline sense. [05:16:58] Thank you. I'll start with the answer to that, and I'll have Luis jump in. So our next steps are to create a summary of our discussions up to date, including today's meeting, and again, for the express purpose of sharing back with you all high-level trends of observations that we've learned in our discussions with you all, as well as helping to align on some of the priorities that we see together in the months ahead that we'll inform on our next work streams. [05:17:32] And then we will begin with doing the classification analysis. So some of that gets to really taking a strong look at titling, how jobs are classified, which ones are shared on similar pay scales, where we have already gotten some feedback that we've heard from a number of you that there may be some discordance, maybe some that we'll definitely have to take a sharp eye at looking at to see if they really should be classified together. [05:18:01] Other work streams will include benchmarking, as we had said earlier, so gaining a lot of understanding on the outside market, which is fresh and current, doing some deep dive comparisons with Loudoun, and to show you where you are aligned and where you are not aligned with the market in which you compete for talent. [05:18:21] So those work streams will be coming up in the months that follow the production of the summary and the compensation philosophy. Thank you so much. Dr. Spence, do you have anything you want to add or your thoughts? I mean, this was something that you felt strongly about, so I wanted to hear your perspective. [05:18:41] I do feel strongly about it because, as has been said a couple of times, the compensation philosophy is the basis by which we can really dive into compensation and understand. Again, compensation is 85% of your budget, right? [05:18:58] And so if, as we're making budget decisions and we're having conversations about that, if we want to be, you know, in that dialogue, if we want to be thinking about, okay, where do we, if there's new revenue or if there's a drop in revenue, where do we want to, you know, put our investments? [05:19:16] It's easier to do that if we know what you all want. So we'll just go back to kind of the simple example. If you say we want to be best in region in terms of benefits and pay at every level of the pay scale, What was mentioned earlier is that then that gives, in a compensation study, that gives them the opportunity to say, well, in order to get there, this is what that would look like and this is what that will cost. [05:19:39] And then we can come back as a part of the budget discussion and say, okay, so we can do that one of two ways. We can either ask for it or within new revenues, we can phase it, right, like as an example of a way to move forward. But without knowing where you want to go and then allowing that to drive a compensation study, it's going to be more difficult for us to engage with you in a budget conversation around what's a reasonable way to approach compensation that meets the needs of our employees. [05:20:03] Does that make sense? I think it does. I think it brings a little bit more clarity for me. Any other questions from anyone? Yes. [05:20:19] Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. My biggest issue is retention. So with this philosophy framework, is there a higher guarantee? There's going to be a higher retention value using this compensation study? [05:20:38] Do you have data on that in case I missed it? Yeah, no, I'd never go so far as to make guarantees, but what we can help do is position using data to help you understand what is within the realms of competitiveness for various roles, not just starting pay but mid-career, later pay. [05:20:59] We can look at that from a perspective of just raw comparisons of year-over-year of service. We can also look at that in terms of career earnings. So there's different ways that we can look at that. What I will say is being armed with that information will help to inform on the activities that are in place, the way the compensation is communicated that has been shown to help create more retention for employees. [05:21:26] Some of it is informing them in terms of what they have, what the value proposition is of making a career at the given organization. So we know that these are contributing factors that certainly do help and give you a leg up. Thank you. [05:21:45] Any others? Yes, Ms. Chandler. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to thank you for your time today. I'm definitely looking forward to engaging in this conversation and learning more about what you're able to find in both stages of the process. [05:22:02] I think we're uniquely positioned at this time, Having come through a period where we've had a lot of turnover and leadership transition and with a new superintendent and a new school board, I think having this structure in place and having this framing will be very helpful. [05:22:21] So thank you. Thank you, Board Member Chandler. We're equally excited. Any other questions? I'll have to echo Ms. Chandler's comments. I think it's a nice level set for us to get to know and to move forward. [05:22:39] So I'm looking forward to that. Do you have any more things you would like to add? I would just say that, you know, as I just said, we're excited to work with you. The level of engagement is very high that we have witnessed over the past couple of weeks. [05:22:56] All of you came with your ideas. I think of a very healthy and balanced level of energy and insight. I didn't feel like any of the conversations were overly idealistic or overly pessimistic. I think they were grounded in reality. And those are the kinds of environments that we are very excited to work in with you because we believe that's the fertile environment for some very thoughtful and intentional ideas that then begin to take shape and gain traction for the betterment and strength of your school district. [05:23:30] Thank you so much. It's Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Grayson, and is it Mr. Moyer? That's correct, yeah. Mr. Moyer. Thank you so much for coming here and for presenting and for your thoughtful conversations, and we're looking forward to more. [05:23:47] Thank you, Board Chair Mansfield. We appreciate the invitation. All right, and with that, we could, let's see, we could take a break until like 2.30, and then we will come back with our MTSS follow-up to the board's now in recess. [05:35:53] Okay, the board is going to be coming back from recess at this time, And our last item on to Jay's agenda for our retreat, in quotes, is item 5.02, MTSS, follow-up, presented by Mr. John Lodi, Director of Diagnostic and Prevention Services. [05:36:16] Thank you, Chair. Thanks, members of the board and Dr. Spence. We're very excited to return to our school board and have an opportunity to present and refresh some of the material from our March meeting. [05:36:38] We also have our friends from the Department of Teaching and Learning. In the event, we have content-related questions, and oftentimes discussing MTSS gets us to places related to our content areas. [05:36:55] So just a few highlight points that I'd like to present on to remind you from March is MTSS is indeed grounded in our strategic plan. It is a key strategy that we use to fulfill our mission to ensure every student will reach their full potential and ensure students are supported in their academic behavior and social-emotional areas. [05:37:26] I would also offer that MTSS is an approach or a mechanism of action that helps us in fulfilling our core values related to holistic support, continuous improvement, individualized success, and equity and opportunity. [05:37:47] We have worked very hard joining the Department of Teaching and Learning in building interconnectedness between MTSS and the new LCPS instructional framework. Our intent was to build coherence and alignment between what is effective instruction, assessment, and intervention. [05:38:12] I'm going to turn it over to Dr. LaPaula for the next slide. Thank you. This slide probably looks familiar to you. We are going to do a little bit of a rinse and repeat from our time with you before and wanted to just highlight the elements of MTSS that you would see evidence of practice in our schools. Those four components would be screening, tiered levels of support, progress monitoring, and database decision making. So to start off, our schools have regular intervals of universal screening happening at predictable times of the [05:38:47] year, fall, winter, and spring. And that's when you're going to see the assessments such as VALS or MAP that are administered to our students. And then following students' performance on that, oftentimes there will also be some diagnostic assessments that are completed. And that's typically FAST, FASTBridge. And that helps to identify any learning gaps that might be in existence that we would want to provide intervention for. After that, our teams get together oftentimes in day-to-day. They'll look at all the data for the students and they'll identify which students might be in need of intervention, what that looks like, who's going [05:39:25] to provide it, and they will create intervention plans that have targeted goals that address the identified learning gaps, they match the evidence-based intervention, and they identify at the regular intervals when students are going to be progress monitored. And that will depend on the intervention and also the tiered level of support. Throughout this process, our schools are engaged in cycles of inquiry where they're looking at how are students responding to the interventions. [05:39:51] Are they demonstrating high response, limited response? Do we need to intensify? Do we need to fade? Or can we discontinue the intervention altogether? All right, next slide. While we've been doing MTSS for around 15 years, we are in year two of the implementation of the MTSS module which is our way in which to document intervention support for our students in a singular system. So what we have seen from year one to year two in our implementation is a dramatic [05:40:29] increase in documented intervention of our students. Last year we piloted in half of our schools and now we are in all of our schools and we've moved from 5,000 documented interventions to to almost 14,000 intervention plans for our students. [05:40:50] That accounts for about 16.7% of our total student population. If you look at the first two bar graphs, this will result, if you try to do the math and duplicate accounts, because we do have fluid movement between tiers. [05:41:08] Students may start in Tier 2, move to Tier 3, move back to Tier 2 and maybe to Tier 1. But we're trying to capture kids who have existed in one of the tiers over time. Tier 2 makes up about 11.7% of our student body, and Tier 3 makes up about 7.5% of our students. [05:41:31] Again, this accounts for kids who are tiered up or tiered down, depending on their response to intervention. It's worth noting, Virginia Literacy Act requires for students who are of high risk to receive a student reading plan all year, so they will always be captured in Tier 3 and remain there until the end of the year when they can theoretically test out through the spring vols. [05:42:00] If you look at our intervention support across our areas, you'll see undoubtedly that literacy is the highest utilization across our areas of concern or need math second followed by social emotional then behavioral areas if you do a little bit of digging you'll find that about a third of our students who have received intervention support have plans that account for multiple areas so these are kids who may have a literacy and a math plan could have a behavior and a [05:42:39] social-emotional area identified in one of their plans as well. If you go behind the data, you will also see varying degrees of documented plans across their schools. It's worth noting about half of our schools had 20% or more of their students with an intervention plan. That gives you some context of the number of students in our division who require or receive advanced tier support. We also had 12 schools, to be quite honest, that had 40% or more of their students [05:43:17] who received intervention support. Of course, these are decisions by teams based on screening and diagnostic data that informs that supplemental support, intervention support. I also wanted to point out in our data, if you look at the pie graphs, pie charts, there are high levels of intervention support that have been provided to English learners and students with disabilities. [05:43:48] And I want to point out that the intervention plans provided to English learners and students with disabilities is in addition to their services they receive in EL or through an IEP. So if a student with a disability has an IEP as another in health impaired student for ADHD, but they have a reading concern, they can receive a intervention plan that addresses that general education need as well. I just want to also point out this is an example of how MTSS contributes to a continuum [05:44:27] of engagement and coherence across instruction and specialized support areas as well. So MTSS reaches all students regardless of where they are in their programming. All right, so if we move to the next slide, you saw some examples of this in our March presentation. We work with the content offices to determine learning gaps and evidence-based interventions that teams would use to support our students. Like every year since we've started the implementation [05:45:05] of the MTS module, we need to make adjustments for this coming year. Our top three learning gaps by area of need are identified in each of these boxes in the first column. Just for reference, the first row is behavior, second literacy, third math. The fourth is social emotional support. I wanted to point out specifically that general reading is available as a learning gap for secondary students generally who have broad deficits in reading, [05:45:41] But the interventions that usually make up support for students with general reading difficulties are Lexia power-up and small group instruction that includes word study, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary supports in that area. [05:46:01] Also but not necessarily associated with each of the learning gaps are our top three utilized interventions used across the areas of concern. This is another area that we'll get some adjustment going into next year. [05:46:18] I just wanted to call out maybe one area, mathematics in particular. We're able to see in the MTSS module high utilization of the intervention of bridges and hands-on standards to address number and number sense as well as computation and estimation. [05:46:38] So this is our ability now to see what we're using to solve problems of practice related to student risk. Moving to the next two slides, I'll give it back to Dr. LaPaula. [05:46:55] Thanks. So on this slide, it was an opportunity for us to highlight some of the successes that we've seen after having one year under our belts. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the things that I would highlight as successes for this process throughout the year, but this absolutely captures feedback that we've received from schools, directly from them, whether that was meeting with them, through emails, through surveys, and walkthroughs that we've done, and also a focus group that I held last month with MTSS module school-based users. [05:47:31] So a big win for this year was that we now do have a singular system for documenting interventions. Prior to this year, interventions had been documented in a host of different locations and in different ways. Now we have an opportunity for us to have a common set of expectations for how this work gets done, which lends itself to changes. [05:47:55] So if a student, for example, transfers schools, their intervention plan carries with them because it's part of their documentation within the student information system, and so that gives us a higher probability that we're not going to have an interruption to their intervention services, which is great. [05:48:11] We also, as John mentioned, have the ability to look analytically at our intervention data in a way that we haven't been able to before, so we're able to identify with time which interventions are going to give us our greatest likelihood for success, which will help us identify where to continue to push professional learning efforts, how to directly support our schools. The third bullet point is actually highlighting an ask that came from our schools about mid-year, and it was their ask to have a way to create some more efficiencies around [05:48:47] documenting progress monitoring data within the module. And so we worked collaboratively with our colleagues in DDI, and we were able to create a way to have an automated data sync for FastBridge, which does the progress monitoring to directly feed into the MTSS module and populate the chart. [05:49:06] What that meant was that if I'm an interventionist who's administering FastBridge, I did not have to then go back into the module and hand enter those scores. They were carried over automatically. We've also seen some improved teaming structures around intervention conversations, and also some common language that historically has been sort of mixed or intermingled. [05:49:31] So we're now having some more definitive understandings and use of terms like remediation, differentiation, extension, enrichment, and then how are those things different from intervention. And so there's a greater understanding of the work. And our schools have indicated to us that they are very appreciative of the high levels of direct support that they are provided for implementation, whether that's people sitting shoulder to shoulder with our schools and helping them create these plans, just fielding questions as they come in, or developing resources to support implementation. [05:50:08] The bottom of the slide is just three quotes that were shared during the focus group directly from our MTSS module school-based users, so you can see what they are saying in terms of their favorability of the module and its implementation at the school. Additionally, this year has provided us with an opportunity to identify some areas that we want to continue to grow in. As John mentioned, we have been able to see that there are schools that have higher [05:50:43] needs, and it has highlighted for us some staffing challenges that exist to meet the needs of our learners. And so that's something that we want to continue to look at and look into. As I mentioned, the data sync for the literacy plans with FastBridge was a huge win. And so we are also now looking into, might we be able to replicate that process for some of our math progress monitoring to, again, ease the lift of some of the entry of progress monitoring data. [05:51:14] So we are right now in the process of collecting some feedback from our schools. And then we will work again with DDI on any next steps. Because the landscape of literacy is ever evolving, we continue to try to understand the implications and expectations of the Virginia Literacy Act as well as VAL's implementation. And we are adjusting our practices and we'll continue to do so to make sure that we have all the components, for example, within the literacy plans and that our decision trees and whatnot are reflective of that work. [05:51:49] We also want to emphasize an improvement in family communication of intervention. Because this system was new this year, there has been some learning curve in terms of how to share the plans with families. So not only initially sharing the plans after they've been created, but also providing those progress monitoring updates. [05:52:09] We're going to continue to emphasize that into this next year. And then for the last bullet point, we do understand that there are differences across our levels. For example, elementary school right now has dedicated intervention times. [05:52:24] They have their collaborative learning teams that get together and they can look at the data. What we are working now in exploring is what does that look like at the secondary level in terms of teaming when people can come together and where might those dedicated times be to provide intervention to students. [05:52:42] All right. That was just a quick overview of some takeaways from the last presentation and additional information, the kind of setup questions that you may have that we hope to answer. And if it's content related, we might ask our friends and partners in the Department of Teaching and Learning to assist. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation and for continuing it since we asked you how many months ago i guess what was it two or three months ago maybe things are going really [05:53:19] fast right now um so i do have a question on your slide five what kinds of targeted multi-sensory phonics are you talking about and is this going to change as things change because we have to have evidence-based instruction according to vdoe's list yeah the targeted multi-sensory phonics was a way to create some additional intervention in the literacy area to really address tier two based upon the recipe for reading. Anything that you see on this list that is not part of the supplemental or intervention list that we now have received from the state will not be interventions [05:53:57] that we are using moving forward. So all of these are going to be adjusted for the fall so that they're reflective of what is in the division literacy plan. Are you going to be doing the same for learning gaps in general reading? Are we going to have more thoughts about for secondary, what area they are in? [05:54:17] I hear that they can be multiple areas, but that can be the same for elementary school as well. We actually started that conversation in the Department of Teaching and Learning and what some of those might look like. So I'm going to let Dr. Picard and Catherine Neal, Dr. Picard, our supervisor of secondary English and reading, and Catherine Neal, our supervisor of reading and writing, to share some of those thoughts around what those interventions might look like moving [05:54:46] forward. [05:55:07] Hi, thank you for the question. So I think Dr. LaPaula said it best when she said that the world of English language arts or at least the guidance from the state is ever changing. So for the secondary level, we have not received at this time the approved list of interventions and supplemental materials, although we are working very hard to keep our teachers on the cutting edge, although the state did not require it. [05:55:31] We put every single one of the secondary reading specialists went through an Aspire Science of Reading course this past year, and we've done other things. The reason it says general reading at this time is we're waiting for those lists. We did introduce Lexia Power Up, which we do believe will be on the list, and that actually has been incredibly well received. [05:55:54] We've seen a lot of gains, particularly at the middle school and to some degree at the high school. The reason it's been general reading is because usually when, well, all of the components of reading develop together, right? Like when you drive a car, you don't practice steering and then practice braking, right? [05:56:13] They're all connected, and that's true at elementary school to some degree as well. But by the time they get to 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, they're usually behind in more than one category of reading and more than one of the skills. So every lesson is generally a four-part lesson. [05:56:31] There's the decoding and encoding, reading and writing, reading and spelling, the fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. But we will be updating as we get additional guidance. um again we're waiting for the lists of approved supplemental and intervention that um the state would like to see us use thank you for that i would also say that even in elementary school we still have all of those especially for our dyslexic populations they are multiple areas that [05:57:01] need to be worked on too um so okay thank you anybody else katherine you want to i would just add that we reviewed the division literacy plan and used the approved supplemental and intervention list to update that plan and so as we know more from the state we'll continue to update what we have available for our kindergarten through fifth grade when it comes to interventions what's on there [05:57:35] currently is using Lexia core 5 for next year looking at an intervention program for our literacy tutors that would be more explicit and systematic that's also on that approved list. [05:57:50] And then looking at some of the resources from the 95% group for vocabulary and comprehension. And we also currently have Bridge the Gap, which is a Hegarty intervention resource that's on the approved list. Is this going to be the same for PALS tutors? [05:58:06] So one of my asks of Dr. Ellis at one point was, can we have the PALS tutors, and I don't know if we're going to change it to Val's tutors, but the PALS tutors as well as teaching assistants and those people to help to take the Virginia modules as well so that they would have that understanding to help tutor or to help fill in that gap as well. [05:58:37] And so are we going to have something that they can use for PALS tutoring? So I know from an intervention perspective, we are looking at programs that are on the approved list that are very explicit that would help. [05:58:54] I think we're changing the names to literacy tutors just for maybe more simplicity's sake. But for our literacy tutors so that they would have something that, yes, would need some training and some support and we can definitely do that through my office but that they would have something that they could pick up and use and materials that would help them with those daily interventions thank you so much any other questions Ms. Scherner I want to give other people a chance um I really appreciate you guys coming back and I especially appreciate the [05:59:32] personal follow-up that we had um Chair Mansfield and I had asked just to kind of have some more information around mtss and just the work and i especially grateful that the your colleagues are here from teaching and learning and it is a collaborative effort and it has to be because it's not only assessment it's teaching it's all those things um if we could pull up the pyramid from slide two i just want to give a little context to sort of my like overall thinking and a little bit of the concern that i have in terms of just how we're addressing intervention [06:00:08] And I have heard really actually positive things as well about the modules, you know, just having that consistency of documentation. And it was a heavy lift, and I think there was a lot of anxiety about getting that done and getting it reported. But I do think that now we have a year under our belt, and you know better, and then you can, you know, it's not as scary. [06:00:26] So I'm glad for that. But just for an understanding, when I look at this, and I think of Tier 3 being 5% of a, you know, I look at it really in terms of schools, not so much the division. In terms of thinking each individual school, tier three, you would ideally, you know, ideally you'd want zero, but 5% is a healthy, you can support that, right? [06:00:48] And then 15% tier two, and then that means the majority is getting it through core, differentiated core, of course, always getting our small group work in. But I have concerns when a majority of our schools, when I look at the data, especially right now for reading, I mean, it's, and I know we have shifts coming, and I know there's a new curriculum, and I know there's all these things. [06:01:09] But when you take a snapshot of where we are now, the majority, especially in elementary, because it's less implemented in middle and high, fall outside of that ideal pyramid. And I think if you take each school and look at those different pyramids, you start to really see that that healthy picture of what intervention should be in a school just isn't our reality right now. [06:01:34] Whether that's post-pandemic related or a shift in literacy related, I think it's a lot of things coming together. I want to know what we're doing as a district to compensate for that. [06:01:50] I think it's an equity issue, honestly. I mean, a lot of these schools that have these almost inverted pyramids, it has implications. It has implications for logistics. It has implications for kids being out of class because they need the interventions. It also has logistics for professional development, which is something that we've been literally harping on for the last few months with all the new professional development. [06:02:13] But when you have, let's say, 47% of your school population in Tier 3 instead of 5%, those are highly specialized intervention programs that require training. And you don't necessarily have enough boots on the ground that have those certifications. [06:02:31] So there's just, I understand that we report the numbers, but to me, it's really important as a school board member that we rally around how we can support this. And I think tonight at the school board meeting, we're going to be sharing our budget priorities. You're going to hear a lot of flexible staffing, looking at our differentiated staffing formulas. [06:02:50] I'm wondering if we need an MTSS formula, quite honestly, to help support this level of intervention, to help get our kids caught up so they can access grade level core. Because if we're going to strengthen core, but kids are so far below that core right now, that gap is still going to exist. [06:03:10] So that's like kind of my overall thinking about it and why I wanted to have a bigger conversation. And Dr. Spence, I did see your commitment to looking at this in your post-entry plan and being aligned with MTSS. but just what is our response when we see so many particularly of our lower level our elementary schools not fitting into this ideal pyramid and how are we going to support that we were just sidebarring about how to address your question just to make sure we got it thoroughly the one [06:03:48] thing I do want to just qualify is the numbers that were shared that is like the normative right what we would hope to see in any given school knowing that there's fluctuations that can occur based upon a host of variables the numbers that were shared today are cumulative which represent at any point in the year this is how many students received intervention so what that doesn't allow for is the fluidity of movement between the tiers that is saying at any given time this is realistically what we think organizationally can be supported within a school so i just wanted to [06:04:23] capture that because those numbers are just the numbers so what we're we want to do is work with schools for sure on looking at their school-specific pyramids of support to see how their numbers are shaking out as students move in and out of intervention. [06:04:39] To support the schools, we do with the staff that we have. We partner with our colleagues in teaching and learning. We try to push into meetings with our math content areas, our reading specialists to help share this information. We work directly with the schools in not only creating the plans when we get to that part, but looking at the data to make sure that we're placing students in the correct path, whether that's an instructional approach, more of tier one, or if it is an advanced tier intervention need. So I think from a support perspective in terms of what my team and my [06:05:16] colleagues' teams are able to provide, that is what we are doing right now to help support our schools in making sense of the data and then implementation. I appreciate that. I would just challenge us as a board to be mindful of these numbers and to be, I think we've done a good job capturing that this morning with the metrics and hopefully we continue to monitor. I have one logistical question. Is UFLY going to be a tier two intervention for MTSS? Have we made a decision [06:05:45] on that? I know who's going to answer it. So UFLY is on the approved supplemental list for the state. So the way that the state is identifying supplemental is that it can be used in addition to your core instructional program. [06:06:06] So our guidance to schools so far is that in addition to the HMH structured literacy, they can use the UFLY lessons. And there is the scope and sequences do align fairly well. They can use UFLY for that additional support for students who need it. [06:06:25] In that vein, for high school, I'm wondering, we have MAP that's screening 6 to 8. Why are we using iReady for 9th through 12th? [06:06:41] And also, are we just using 9th through 12th for the people who need a little intervention who have been identified by MAP in 8th grade? Are we moving that on to 9th grade? I'm going to turn that iReady question over to Dr. Picard. [06:06:59] Sure. so several years ago we didn't have anything at high school and then we started using MAP as you said two through eight which is great some of the schools were using iReady but it was sort of like Swiss cheese sort of we use it with these kids and those kids but not a consistent implementation so after COVID we recognized that there were pervasive gaps particularly in decoding but also in comprehension and understanding so it was implemented as a universal screener in the fall. It is no longer a universal screener in the spring. We'd be happy [06:07:35] to look at MAP. That's been a conversation that's been coming up. I will tell you that prior to my tenure here, Heritage High School piloted MAP and the teachers met with the leadership at that time and they did not move forward. I'm not privy to all the reasons why, but they did not move forward. [06:07:56] I will tell you that MAP does not address all the foundational skills that are addressed in the VALS. I-READY goes down lower, lower, lower, and then, of course, there are secondary and tertiary assessments. That's why we've been using the I-READY. [06:08:15] Your question about who gets intervention, we absolutely say that anyone that's two or more grade levels below should be engaged in an intervention. Now, interventions look a little bit different at the high school, I would argue, and the middle school. [06:08:31] I would argue that while there isn't an intervention block, there are certainly opportunities. For example, we have reading strategies, 9 through, well, 6 through 12. It's just that we don't have the same person power. So every elementary teacher has some background in literacy. [06:08:50] That's not the case at the high school. So does that effectively answer your question? That could go on a long time. Yes. So are we using iReady as a screener 9 through 12 in the fall for all grades? [06:09:09] The discussion for next year is to use it for 9, 10, and 11. There's been a lot of feedback. We recently went to every single high school and met with every single English department as well as middle school. And there's a lot of desire to release the AP students, students in advanced placement courses, and students in dual enrolled English. [06:09:30] And then, of course, we also have caveats for newcomers. If you haven't been in the country a certain number of months, they don't take it. And special education, of course, the IEP decides. But the thinking right now, and it hasn't been published, so I'm welcoming your feedback, is to have all 9, 10, and 11th grade kids take it with those caveats that I just mentioned. [06:09:54] So for a screener, it's supposed to be short and all the rest of that, not necessarily a diagnostic. And so I'm wondering if there would be room to just continue the map so that we could get that continuity in 9, 10, and 11. [06:10:12] And then there would be, if you saw something, then there would be a diagnostic of some sort to find out. That's something, it's ironic or serendipitous, you choose. We met with MAP this morning, or this afternoon. We're more than willing to look at that, but we don't make decisions unilaterally. [06:10:31] And given the lateness of the, it's June, school ends on Friday. So what I said to the MAP folks and to EL, we were all in a meeting together. We're happy to look at an alternative screening at that level, and we certainly can consider MAP, but we won't be able to do it in time for the fall. [06:10:50] Okay. And then also the, and then intervention. I know that LLI was used, and we're not using that anymore. So we'll be looking at other interventions as well. You said Lexia? [06:11:06] Yes, but let me clarify. We never used LLI as it is written because we are very up-to-date on the research. The benefit to LLI is there are thousands of titles of well-written fiction and nonfiction with deep, deep comprehension, vocabulary, very, very rich. [06:11:26] So when we invested in LLI K-12 from the very get-go, we said, may not use the phonics in this program, you must use Orton-Gillingham word study, something that is explicit and sequential. You may use, and then of course comprehension when you're teaching summary, when you're teaching captions, when you're teaching text, you would use the books. Obviously, or maybe it's not obvious, at the pre-K to 2, pre-K to 3, there needs [06:12:00] to be decodable text. LLI does not provide that, so we did not use it in that way. But as you've noted, it will very likely not make the list. And so at the elementary level, the direction has been to eliminate the manuals. And again, it was never used as an intervention, but the books will basically become part of the libraries. And we are, as you suggested, as I noted, we have adopted Lexia for the next several years power up at the upper grades and core five at [06:12:33] the lower thank you any other questions yes Miss Chandler thank you madam chair thank you guys for being here today and for giving us an update on how things have continued to progress I am pleased to highlight some of our to hear of some of the successes that have been achieved through the implementation over the course of the year I'm happy that more students are receiving the support that they need and that the providers are also finding more of a common language in sort of thinking through this new process and reflecting back on our last [06:13:12] session I believe at the time some teachers certainly not all or some providers had expressed some hesitancy about the transition to this new program and I was just curious if that if our use of the system has normalized in a way and that sort of calmed down. [06:13:32] Yeah, I would definitely say that it hasn't been without Growing Pains for a bunch of different reasons with them all kind of colliding together this year with different expectations, with learning a new system, with some people dabbling in this space for the first time in their role. [06:13:51] What we have tried to do is to take the feedback and when we can make changes to the system to make it easier for people, like enabling the ability to create group plans instead of just individual plans or automating a data sync for progress monitoring or cutting back on things that people would have to enter. [06:14:12] We've been trying to do that throughout the year and working with DDI has been really amazing because they change things pretty immediately for us and when we can't move things on our own, we've been in contact with the vendor and so they're about to get a list of requested enhancements on June 30th for things that we are looking to also change moving forward based upon feedback. So has it normalized? I think after a year, I would say, yes, people feel more comfortable with it. I still think that there's work to do in terms of not just education of how to use the, it hasn't just been how to enter things. It's been more of a conceptual sort of [06:14:52] journey for a lot of people on what is intervention, when do you do it, why do you do it, how do you do it and that has sort of all come together this year through the use of this product thank you for that context that's really helpful it's interesting I also would say I appreciate that you put the targeted staffing as a growth opportunity but I feel like that's a success because we did need to know that we could serve our students better and this is a way that we could do that so I'm glad that data was captured for my last question I would just like to to hear a little bit about what your plan is in terms of improving family communication as you move forward. [06:15:31] It's going to be a collaborative effort with my colleagues, not only in teaching and learning, but also just across our Department of Student Services in this space. We are going to highlight that early on as parts of our early training. It is now understood better how to directly email the plans to families. [06:15:54] in communication to try to see if we can automate some of those systems, but I have to learn more from the vendor on that. We've also created some scripts for schools to use that have been translated into our top languages so that we can try to increase the transparency of what families are receiving so that they can understand it better, and also trying to support our teachers in being able to communicate with families about interventions. So we've created some handouts for them on what is an intervention what should I expect from my school so that they can also help [06:16:29] in asking for these things and asking questions about these about the intervention plans moving forward that's great thank you so much I'd also add to that that this is another area where the VLA can help shift some of our practices around that as well and the involvement of parents and the development of student reading plans Catherine do you want to talk a little bit about how parents will be involved in that process? [06:16:53] Sure. So the VDOE did release some supports for parent engagement and helping with the development of the student reading plan in the form of like some templates that school divisions can use and some different processes that way. [06:17:13] So we're kind of going through some of those tools to see what would be useful so that we can really have communication at the start like even before an intervention begins so that a parent really understands like why their students are receiving an intervention and like what the goals are and how they can be supportive at home. Thank you so much. Yes, Vice Chair Strafi. Thank you very much for the presentation. Would also echo some of the concerns of some of the board members as well around this being an equity issue right and something that we're focusing on. I think from my [06:17:52] perspective i'm still for myself i'm trying to get up to speed on how this all all these as we ramp up right and we get through this first year how this rolls up to the building level and perhaps to our school improvement plans and knowing that each school's interventions and circumstances might be vastly different right um and frankly you know more problematic in some of our schools or more concerning rather um just thinking about not having been in our buildings as some of the other board members, just thinking about how that rolls up [06:18:30] to the school leadership and school improvement plans and really how that's being driven in the building. Thank you, Vice Chair Estreffi. Any other questions? I'm so sorry, Chair. [06:18:49] Did I interrupt you? No, that's okay. It was just a question. I'm sorry. It's okay. Would y'all like to answer Mr. Estreffi's question? How does it roll up? Is that what you... yeah yeah sure um so i i if i'm understanding the intent of your question what i would say is that this this whole process kind of moves in both directions you know we we share information with our leaders and the opportunities and talk about things through the continuous plans for school improvement like where are our gaps what might we do what would those strategies and action steps [06:19:25] look like that are aligned to your goals at the same time that we're doing that we're working directly with those who are going to be providing intervention, our reading specialists, our math resource teachers, et cetera, to come to head with when we're sitting together in these intervention team meetings and talking about students of concern, looking at our data, trying to create some cohesion in terms of people's understanding of how all of this comes together. I would say the school improvement plan is obviously a driver for us because we want the actions and efforts in our schools to mirror the needs of our schools. And oftentimes this, this intervention, um, the [06:20:01] acknowledgement of a need for intervention or gap groups is a driver for making sure that we're putting supports in place for all of our learners. Thank you. I think that's kind of what I wanted to focus on is the process itself and how it gets to the building and, um, how each school looks at some of these, uh, data points and takes action. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk again and your thoughtfulness about all of this and [06:20:40] we will guess move on to our next I think that's it really I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you guys on this I guess is that all we have for today looking oh we still have our closing and our next step all right we're going to put up a couple little closing activities here in a moment. And to give you some context around that, as we wrap up our topics for today, you'll [06:21:15] have an opportunity to reflect on some future topics. So thinking about the forecast for the board topics that are coming up in third and fourth quarter, and then also some feedback around your experience from today. So before we get into that, do you want to give a little context to the forecast? Happy to do that. Thank you, Ms. Miller. So just as we wrap up this part of the retreat today, it has been a fantastic day. I appreciate the positive comments that we've received from you already about the opportunity to really dig into some big topics. Sometimes we don't have enough time to really have substantive conversations, so we've had some great conversations today. So we're going to give you a few moments to reflect in just a minute, but as you do [06:21:54] that, we want to think about, we've got our forecast coming up. I will be sharing the third quarter forecast this evening, but we want to think about what topics are coming up for you in terms of third and fourth quarter forecasts, and so we want to make sure that what we're doing in our work sessions are valuable topics for you and things that you'd like to hear about and so we are going to give you an opportunity to write those on a sticky note we do have the forecast board up here for you to place that up there and and I'll be taking those to to be able to use those to see if we can't build out the forecast for the third and fourth quarter and what those will look like moving forward and be happy to share those with you [06:22:29] once we have those put together and then Miss Miller I think is going to take the feedback and reflection piece. Awesome. So up there on the screen for just reference is the quarters that when you refer to third quarter, you're thinking about topics for August, September, and then beyond that would be October, November, December. You don't have to distinguish between. It's just what are some ideas, one idea per sticky note that you are thinking about forecasting for those months. [06:22:53] So you do not have to be as specific as I'd like to do this in November or I'd like to do this in October, general topics that are coming up for you. So as Dr. Smith mentioned, there's a forecast sheet up there, and right next to it is an opportunity to simultaneously provide some feedback on today. So for the last step, you're thinking about, go on, keep going, thinking back on today, what are some things that you're holding on to? And instead of doing a turn and talk, since we've had lots of opportunities to do that this afternoon, you're going to also jot that down on a sticky note please let me know if you need any more spaces to write if you've used all your [06:23:31] of your pack and whenever you are ready as we close out today you'll just add those to the sheets up there i'll move them a bit closer what questions might you have before we wrap up did you steal my sticky notes i don't think so but i have lots can i have some more please i'll walk around all right so give you a few minutes to process before i turn it back to you for just closure sure hey miss miller i'll just add just for a second so anything i think in terms of your feedback on today um in addition to what you're going to put up around the forecast anything you liked about today uh things you wish you we could hear more about as we think about retreats in the future we'll take any of the feedback that you have or any additional follow-ups that you would [06:24:10] like to hear from us i'm happy to receive that from you in terms of your feedback on how today is gone and how we can continue to work together thank you dr smith i'm wondering if our brains are a little fried right now and we have to and we process a little bit if it's okay if we continue to like maybe email you at the same time and absolutely okay thank you i'm also wondering [06:24:46] should i just leave time for this or should i just go ahead and adjourn and let everybody go and then we can yeah okay so right now the um as you guys can continue to work on this and put your sticky note on but everybody else can go take a break if you want the june 11 2024 lcps school board retreat is now adjourned, and thank you all for your work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com